The New Orleans Saints cut former Terre Haute North punter Steve Weatherford on Sunday after the team’s 30-7 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Weatherford averaged 35.4 yard gross and 30.2 yards net against Carolina.
New Orleans signed former New York Jets punter Ben Graham, who accompanied the team to London for this week’s game with the San Diego Chargers.
According to the Biloxi Sun-Herald, Saints coach Sean Payton said that the reason he decided to tell Weatherford of the move right after the game was so that he wouldn’t have to make the flight to England.
“It’s always difficult to cut a player that you’ve had for a while and to release a player like Steve,” he said during a Monday press conference in London.
“He came here as a rookie in [2006] with us, but I just think that in the end it became a challenge with consistency. We just felt like it hadn’t gotten any better and it had actually dropped off
“Hopefully he’s able to land somewhere, but it was something that we did discuss prior to the game. From a timing standpoint, that’s always the biggest challenge. Again, we felt like we didn’t have the consistency that we wanted yesterday, but it wasn’t just one game. The evaluation was more than just one game.”
“One of the challenges of playing here during a normal work week — which this is — is any type of roster move,” the former Eastern Illinois quarterback added. “Any type of transaction involves the potential player flying in with a passport.
“Things that you would normally do at home maybe on a Tuesday or a Wednesday at the spur of the moment becomes a little more planned here. I just felt it was the right thing to do rather than fly Steve over here and then turn around and send him back.”
Local Interest
North grad Weatherford cut by Saints
Punter released before team heads to London
- Local Interest
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METRO ROUNDUP: ISU track athlete selected as MVC scholar-athlete of week
Indiana State senior Ernest Rollins has been selected the Prairie Farms/Missouri Valley Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Week it was announced Friday.
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Union season more fun with Talpas around
The Union boys basketball team has had its share of fun moments in the past, arguably the most fun being its Class A state runner-up in 2000.
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Injury bug follows girls into postseason
Who’s healthy is the question at least three of the four teams will be asking tonight when Class 4A girls high school basketball sectional play begins at Terre Haute North.
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A day later, Giants basking in win
A little more than nine hours after the New York Giants registered their second Super Bowl triumph in four years, coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning met with the media covering Super Bowl XLVI one last time Monday morning.
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METRO ROUNDUP: Evans, West receive track accolades
Two Rose-Hulman track and field athletes received weekly honors from the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference on Monday.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Books open our eyes to that which we will never see
I got a letter last week from a friend, Sister Margaret Quinlan, who lives amidst the beauty of the St. Mary-of-the-Woods campus. Besides the email space and the time she invests in describing the flowers and trees and birds that she shares with her roomies out there, as well as her accounts of teaching and traveling, Margaret most often writes about books. She loves them, and she knows I do, too.
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METRO ROUNDUP: North boys, girls bowling team in Jasper Regional
Terre Haute North’s boys and girls bowling teams will be competing in today’s Indiana High School Bowling regional at Jasper.
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Indiana Senate approves right-to-work bill
Indiana’s Senate has passed right-to-work legislation, placing the state on the verge of becoming the Rust Belt’s first to enact the contentious labor law.
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Back home again in Indiana
Former Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell has landed a job as quarterbacks coach for the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens announced Caldwell’s hiring Monday.
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Sink or swim: South boys chose the latter
Terre Haute South’s boys swimming and diving team is currently enjoying it’s lofty No. 21 ranking in the state of Indiana.
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It’s on: Sycamores, Bulldogs to play at Hinkle on Feb. 18
How badly did Indiana State want to get Butler as its BracketBusters opponent?
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METRO ROUNDUP: Four from Rose receive weekly honors
Four Rose-Hulman athletes earned Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference weekly honors, the HCAC announced Monday.
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PREP ROUNDUP: Warriors rally, but fall short
Newton built a big lead and held on to defeat Casey 72-69 in Illinois high school boys basketball Monday night.
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Eli slowly emerging from Peyton’s shadow
Eli Manning has lived in the shadow of older brother Peyton all of his life. Whatever successes Eli has had on the football field, they often paled in comparison to what his more illustrious sibling had already accomplished.
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Heftier home schedule awaits Rex fans
Terre Haute Rex fans will get to see their favorite baseball team play two additional home games this year — and it will be a championship team they’re watching.
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PREP ROUNDUP: Marshall plays Casey in LIC semifinals tonight
Semifinal games of the Little Illini Conference basketball tournaments will be played tonight.
At Red Hill, Flora (20-2) meets Hutsonville-Palelstine (16-5) in the first boys game at 6 p.m. CST with Casey (10-5) facing Marshall (14-5) in the second contest.
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METRO ROUNDUP: Honey Creek 8th sweeps in Vigo tourney
Host Honey Creek swept a pair of games over Otter Creek and Sarah Scott and Woodrow Wilson came up with a split at Chauncey Rose on Monday as Vigo County eighth-grade basketball tournaments began.
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TH native made the right call
The Indiana High School Athletic Association is always seeking licensed high school officials in its 20 sanctioned sports, a selling point being “participation in high school athletics doesn’t have to end with high school graduation.”
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PREP ROUNDUP: Smith leads Class 2A No. 8-ranked Arrows to victory
Rhagen Smith had a double-double and host Sullivan took a 21-point lead into the fourth quarter of an eventual 52-40 win over North Knox in girls high school basketball Monday night.
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METRO ROUNDUP: Kovach earns AP All-America honors
Rose-Hulman’s Kyle Kovach has become the first Engineer football player since 1958 to earn Associated Press All-America honors, it was announced Monday.
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Coaches with credentials: As a unit, Terre Haute North’s staff 2nd to none
Surrounding yourself with excellence.
Some high school basketball head coaches might be intimidated or insecure having talented assistants on their staff. That is certainly not the case for Terre Haute North’s Todd Woelfle.
Woelfle has the vast resources of four — count ‘em — former NCAA Division I college players on his staff this season.
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Yeargin, Odum fight ailment as a pair
Often overlooked, athletic trainers are as much a part of the fabric of a team as the players and coaches are.
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Evansville will test ISU’s toughness
Indiana State’s fall-from-ahead 69-63 loss to Missouri State on Saturday exposed several problems on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, but the root cause can be traced back to the lack of a important quality.
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PREP ROUNDUP: West Vigo girls break 5-game losing streak with 38-32 win
West Vigo’s girls basketball team broke a five-game losing streak as it defeated Cloverdale 38-32 on Monday.
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Right up their alley: Bustling bowling league isn’t just for novices
The competition is fierce, yet friendly at the same time.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The biggest & baddest of a holiday classic
There are more things to love about the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic than could fit in this newspaper, but one of this year’s best things was that for an hour or so on Wednesday, it was Justin Paddock’s world and we were just living in it.
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Thomas ISU’s mainstay
When Indiana State’s women’s basketball opponents gameplan for the Sycamores, the defensive scheme begins with 6-foot-4 senior Shannon Thomas.
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METRO/PREP ROUNDUP: Pomeroys finish fourth at Taylor
St. Mary-of-the-Woods ran into a pair of strong NAIA teams and finished fourth in the Taylor Tournament in women’s college basketball last weekend.
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Colts give the boot to Polian duo
It didn’t take long for Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay to start making moves with his team.
One day after Irsay’s Colts dropped a 19-13 road decision to Jacksonville, giving Indianapolis a 2-14 record and the No. 1 pick in the 2012 National Football League draft, longtime Colts executive Bill Polian and his son, vice-president/general manager Chris Polian, were both fired.
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Ring the bell: Which ISU player has the greatest Classic legacy?
The Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic begins today at Terre Haute North. One would be hard-pressed to find a local event that is more beloved by a wider cross-section of sports fans and non-sports fans alike.
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