The Chiefs hope to avoid their second consecutive winless preseason under head coach Todd Haley when they host the Green Bay Packers tonight at the new Arrowhead Stadium at 7 p.m.

Two things I’ll be looking for tonight. The first is the return of quarterback Brodie Croyle who missed a considerable amount of time with an arm injury. Croyle was 8 of 15 for 63 yards in the preseason opener against Atlanta.

The second thing being, the offense needs to show some life. The Packers defense has been vulnerable to giving up points and Haley has stressed getting off to fast starts, yet in two of the first three games, the Chiefs have fumbled on their opening possession.

Tonight is also the final audition for players on the bubble. After tonight’s game, the Chiefs must cut their roster down to 53 players by Saturday.

The Rams are looking to build off of their lone preseason win this past week at New England as the Rams will look to trim rosters after this game down to 53 players by Saturday.

Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo said he plans to give the starters about 15 plays before the battle begins for those final roster spots tonight against the Baltimore Ravens. It will be a big game tonight for former Mizzou Tiger Danario Alexander. With wide receiver Donnie Avery lost for the year, Alexander, who was signed just over a week ago, is on the bubble as he fights for one of maybe six wide receiver spots.

It would appear that three of the spots are locked down by Laurent Robinson, fifth round pick Mardy Gilyard, and second year player Danny Amendola. Alexander will be fighting with third year player Keenan Burton, Brandon Gibson and Jordan Kent. The Rams could keep six receivers and if so, one of those four on the bubble will be without a job.

We should also see quite a bit from former Rams quarterback Marc Bulger, now a backup with the Ravens.

In an effort to better preserve its football history and recognize past contributors to the program’s success, Missouri State University has announced that four former grid greats will have their jerseys retired during halftime ceremonies in the Bears’ season opener Thursday at Plaster Field.

The list of honorees covers four distinct eras of Bears’ football, including the program’s all-time winningest coach Arthur Briggs (1912-33); a powerful running back who led MSU to two league titles Ray Haley (1947-51); an All-America tackle who returned to coach his alma mater for 10 seasons Rich Johanningmeier (1960-63, 1976-85); and an All-America quarterback and conference player of the decade who guided the Bears to back-to-back NCAA playoff appearances DeAndre Smith (1987-90).

The halftime recognition ceremony on Sept. 2 will feature the unveiling of stadium banners and presentation of plaques to the two individuals expected to be in attendance, Haley and Johanningmeier. Smith will appear via video message from Champaign, Ill., where he is current an assistant coach at Illinois.

The retired jersey recipients were selected by a panel of program historians and media representatives. The jersey retirement ceremony is not intended to be a number retirement, and the uniform numbers previously worn by the honorees will not be taken out of circulation for future teams.

Arthur W. Briggs was one of the pioneers of Missouri State intercollegiate athletics and a man who looked past the obstacles to the formation of the program at a young institution to establish a balanced and competitive program in all areas. He was the first man to serve the University as its athletic director and held that position from 1912 until 1938. He set the tone for years to come with his belief that the athletic program should be a first-class, quality endeavor. It was under his leadership that MSU came into the reorganized Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1924 and won MIAA all-sports honors six times in the next decade. Mr. Briggs was also the head of the Physical Education Department from 1913 until his death on December 20, 1949. At one time during his career, he coached every sport the school had. He guided the football Bears for more years and won more games than any other grid coach in school history, compiling a 76-58-11 record from 1912 to 1933. The Bears’ only MIAA title in Coach Briggs’ tenure was in 1928 but the Bears were second in the league in 1925, 1929, 1931, and 1932. Coach Briggs had unbeaten seasons in football in 1914 and 1922. He also coached the basketball Bears from 1913-1923 and had a baseball program for four years shortly after his arrival on campus. He also coached track and swimming. The school’s football facility was renamed Briggs Stadium in his honor by the Board of Regents in 1970 and kept that name until it was remodeled in 1991.

(#27) Ray “Wrecker” Haley was a vital part of two MIAA championship teams in 1948 and 1951. The Springfield Senior High product was selected to the all-conference second team at fullback in 1947 and 1951. In 1948, he was named to the MIAA first team and earned the league’s most valuable back award after rushing for 716 yards on 111 carries (6.5). He scored eight touchdowns and was a mainstay on Coach Tommy O’Boyle’s powerful 9-2 delegation which outscored its opposition 233-75 that season. The Bears would go on to Mo-Kan Bowl game against Emporia State, a contest in which Haley scored two touchdowns. The popular gridder signed a conference ban on pro baseball players but he returned in 1951 when the ban was lifted. With just a week of preparation before his first action, he teamed with John Batten to help the Bears to an uphill battle for a league title in the 1951 season. He finished the year with five touchdowns and two extra points and was the club’s top rusher in the season against Missouri Valley. He went on to a legendary high school coaching run in Elgin, Ill., where he currently enjoys retirement.

(#71) Rich Johanningmeier had a highly-successful athletic career as both a player and coach, gaining All-American honors as a football lineman in his playing days (1960-63) and winding up with the second highest victory total on record in his years as the Bears’ grid coach (1976-85). He was a three-year starter for the Bears at both offensive and defensive tackle, gaining MIAA all-conference recognition as a junior and senior. The St. Louis native was a first team Little All-American selection as a senior and was given the Virgil Cheek Athletic Achievement Award when he graduated in 1964. Playing for coach Orville Pottenger, Johanningmeier was a standout on the 1963 Bears who went through the regular season at 9-0 to capture the MIAA title and go on to the Mineral Water Bowl game. Johanningmeier briefly played professional football after he graduated.

He returned to take over as the Bears’ head coach in 1976, and, in a 10-year career, posted a mark of 58-44-5 to trail only Arthur Briggs in all-time victories among Missouri State head coaches. Johanningmeier’s Bears had seven winning seasons in his 10-year tenure, including the time during which the the program was making the transition from Division II competition to the NCAA Division I-AA level. During that transition, the Bears slipped below .500 only twice and returned with winning seasons his final two years. Including a 1978 team which was 8-3 overall and went undefeated to what was the last MIAA grid title. Under Johanningmeier, the Bears had the best overall record in the MIAA from 1976-81. His 1978 and 1979 teams were two of the most potent offensive machines in Bears grid history, and his team led the nation’s I-AA schools in team rushing in his final year of 1985. Johanningmeier is currently the director of enforcement at the NCAA in Indianapolis.

(#1) DeAndre Smith was the triggerman of a very potent triple-option offense for the best two Missouri State football teams of the Bears’ I-AA era. Smith guided the Missouri Valley Conference champion and NCAA Division I-AA playoff teams of 1989 and 1990 under coach Jesse Branch. Smith, from St. Louis, led the Bears to a a 10-3 record his junior year that saw the Bears advance to the second round of the NCAA Division I playoffs. The Bears won the league crown outright, turned back Maine in the first round and lost at Stephen F. Austin in the quarterfinals. In 1990, the Bears finished 9-3 and lost to Idaho in the opening round of the NCAA playoffs. Smith was a two-time all-league first team quarterback, was named MVFC Offensive Player of the Year as both a junior and senior, and claimed league Offensive Player of the Decade for the league’s first 10 years of existence, 1985-95. Smith was a consensus All-America as a senior, passed for 4,080 career yards and 18 touchdowns. He rushed for 40 more touchdowns from 1987-90 and set school career records for plays (1,106), total offense (6,356), points (242), touchdowns (40), completion percentage (.570) and consecutive games scoring a TD (10). He is currently running backs coach at the University of Illinois.

Thursday’s game against Eastern Kentucky at Plaster Field will kick off at 6 p.m.

Story courtesy of Missouri State Athletics.

Dallas area recruit, Tony Mitchell, one of Mike Anderson’s highly touted recruits for the 2010-2011 season, will not be with the team this fall semester as his academic issues are held up being reviewed by the NCAA Eligibility Center.

Mitchell committed to Mizzou back in November and rivals.com has his listed as a five star recruit and ranked 6th in the nation. The 6’8 forward transferred from Pinkston High in Dallas to the Center of Life Academy in Miami.

Back in June, a television station out of Dallas reported that some of Mitchell’s credits did not transfer from Dallas to Miami and they were deemed untransferable and some credits were taken away because of disputed testing.

Royals veteran catcher Jason Kendall, just the fifth player in major league history to catch over 2,000 games is having surgery on Friday to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder. His recovery time is 8-10 months.

Kendall started 118 of 132 games for the Royals and was hitting .256 with 18 doubles and 37 RBIs. A MRI on Monday revealed more damage than expected to his shoulder.  My biggest question is what does this do for the 36 year old’s career? 10 months pretty much takes him out of most of next year, so he’s looking at starting fresh in 2012…will there be a need for a 38 year old catcher?

The Texas Rangers took seven out of the nine in the season series against the Royals winning the finale of their latest three game series with a 4-3 win Wednesday night. The Royals literally came up short in the game.

In the ninth inning, Rangers’ closer Neftali Perez gave up two long fly ball outs that were caught at the wall. Wilson Betimit and Billy Butler each sent booming shots to right field that were caught by Nelson Cruz. Everyone said had this game been played in Texas, the Royals would have won…but they didn’t.

Yuniesky Bentancourt did hit a homer, his 15th of the year, and went 2 for 4 driving in two runs, but it wasn’t enough for starter Bryan Bullington. The Rangers scored two in the first and ex-Royal Andres Blanco, who was 6-for-12 in the series, doubled home the Rangers’ third run in the fourth and Mitch Moreland belted a solo homer off Bullington in the sixth.

The Northwest Missouri State Bearcats, Division II football’s National Champion from a year ago will begin their title defense Thursday at Bearcat Stadium in Maryville against Texas A & M-Kingsville at 6pm.

Mel Tjeerdsma on the Pressbox Podcast

A half hour prior to the game, the team and head coach Mel Tjeerdsma will be honored. The Coach of the Year Award will be presented to Tjeerdsma by the award’s title sponsor and members of the 2009 senior class will return to the field to present the 2009 national championship trophy. The seniors will then escort the trophy to the Loch-O’Rourke Family Center where it will join the 1998 and 1999 championship trophies on display.

Members of Northwest’s 2010 UCA national championship cheerleading squad will present their trophy prior to Thursday’s game. The squad, led by head coach Jason Sack, won the program’s first title back in January.

After the presentations, the top-ranked Bearcat football team will host the 14th-ranked Javelinas in the season opener for both programs. Northwest has won 30 of its last 31 home games but has dropped its last three season openers. Texas A&M-Kingsville finished 9-3 last season and was one of 24 NCAA playoff participants.

The Cardinals are in some kind of funk. They completed a 2-8 road trip by losing to the Astros 5-2 Wednesday afternoon in Houston.

Tony LaRussa said the Cardinals stunk today

The Cardinals actually outhit Houston 7-6, but didn’t take advantages of a couple of opportunities where they loaded the bases with two outs, but couldn’t muster any runs. The Cardinals only runs came after Matt Holliday hit his 24th homer of the year, a two run shot in the top of the first off Nelson Figeroa, who pitched five innings for the win.

Jeff Suppan made his first start since returning from the DL and was pitching well until he ran into trouble in the fifth. Suppan walked former Cardinal prospect Brett Wallace and then gave up a double to catcher Jason Castro. After a fielder’s choice and sac fly cut the lead to 2-1, Suppan walked Jeff Keppinger with two outs, then hung a curveball to Hunter Pence who sent it into the Crawford boxes to make the score 4-2. Houston added insurance in the seventh.

Derrick Washington has been permanently suspended from the University of Missouri football program. Nothing about this decision will affect his existing athletic scholarship as long as he remains enrolled at Mizzou.

Washington turned himself in on Monday to charges of sexual assault from an alleged incident back in mid June.  His arraignment is set for September 23rd.

The University would have no other comments at this time.

The biggest question surrounding the Missouri Tigers on Saturday is how good will their offense be in the season opener against Illinois? The Tigers are without their top running back from the last two season in Derrick Washington and their top receiver Jerrell Jackson was doubtful for this game when he first suffered his broken wrist.

However, after having a pin inserted in his wrist and with the use of a cast, Jackson will be on the field this Saturday. Jackson will line up on the outside, a position he was used to playing in high school down in Houston, Texas, but in his time at Mizzou, has been the slot receiver or what they call the “H” receiver. Jackson will line up wide in the “X” position opposite Wed Kemp, the “Z” receiver.

Here’s my one on one interview with Jackson and I asked him point blank, how can he catch with a cast on his one hand?

Jerrell Jackson interview with Bill Pollock (2:30 mp3)