Cleared, by Casey Mitchell

This is Casey Mitchell guest blogging for ST today. We all know the toughness of Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, but there was some question as to weather or not he would play this Sunday. The Gronk was able to practice limited Friday morning. Bill Belichick said that he thought Gronkowski had a good practice, and didn't suffer any setbacks. It is still not for sure if we will play this week or not, but he is moving in the right direction. Unless there is something they are not telling us, I just can't see Rob Gronkowski sitting on the sidelines of Super Bowl XLVI. I expect him to play and I expect him to be effective this Sunday against the Giants. Gronk isn't the only player this week to get good news on their injury. Peyton Manning has been medically cleared by two doctors to play and resume his career, even if it isn't in Indianapolis. Even though he has been cleared, Jim Irsay's tweet said otherwise. Irsay tweeted that manning did not pass the physical required to play for the Indianapolis Colts. You can just get the feeling that the Colts aren't going to bring Manning back for another year. I think the smart thing for them to do would do something similar as to what the Packers did with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. But maybe they are thinking that Andrew Luck is already NFL ready, and doesn't need to be molded like Rodgers was. I'm not sure if he will be wearing a horseshoe again, but I'm pretty sure Peyton Manning isn't done playing football.

After a tough loss to the Beavers a few days ago, the Ducks hoops team was able to pick it up again and take care of the Utes 79-68 and improve to 16-6 overall and 7-3 in the conference. They are now only one game out of first place in the Pac-12 conference. Senior guard, Devoe Joseph was able to pick up the slack on Thursday and drop 20 in a winning effort. There is still a lot of basketball to be played for the Ducks this season.