Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick had a few choice words for his teammates following the firing of head coach Andy Reid. Vick, who missed a number of games this season because of a concussion and rib injuries, lambasted the players for their lack of effort and said that it’s frustrating to play with a bunch of guys who don’t try to improve themselves week after week.

The comments come at a particularly raw time for the Eagles; Reid was let go on New Year’s Eve after 14 years with the team, the longest tenured coach in the league at the time, and the Eagles as a team are coming off yet another disappointing season in which a three game losing streak brought an end to their 4-12 season.

More changes could be coming to the team and Vick’s latest comments give more reason to believe that he will be playing elsewhere next season.

ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays have reached an agreement with American League Cy Young Award winner David Price on a one-year deal, thereby avoiding arbitration. The club has not officially announced the agreement, but a source close to the negotiations said the deal is worth just north of $10 million.

Price, 27, made $4.35 million in 2012 and was arbitration-eligible for a second time due to his “Super Two” classification.

Players who have at least three years, but fewer than six, of Major League service time, are eligible to file for arbitration. But players in the top 17 percent, based on service time, with at least two but fewer than three years of service are eligible for arbitration under “Super Two” status.

The rule states that a player must have at least 86 days of service in the immediately preceding season to qualify for this status. Price, who went 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA in 2012 , is eligible for free agency after the 2015 season.

Now that the 2012 NFL season is over for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they will look forward to trying to fix what’s broken with the team that was once at 6-4 before dropping 5 straight games. The Bucs on Sunday will travel to Atlanta to face the Falcons, who have already locked up their appearance in the playoffs. With the best record in the NFC, the Falcons will get home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

The Bucs will get no sympathy from the Falcons as they will try to close out their regular season on a positive note and set the tone for the playoffs. As far as the Bucs are concerned, first-year head coach, Greg Schiano, will sit down with the Glazers and try to find out what went wrong.

Quarterback Josh Freeman, tossed 8 interceptions in his last two starts, and a promising ground game came to a halt. The Buccaneer rookies performed well, but the veterans took a step back from the progress they had shown earlier in the season.

This is a time for evaluation as far as the Bucs are concerned, and this game will give the franchise a chance to see who wants to be there next year, and who will be sent packing.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers see Eric Wright’s return to the team after a four-game suspension.

Too little, too late. That’s the best way to describe Eric Wright’s return to the team. Like Aqib Talib, Wright was suspended four games for violating the league’s performance enhancing drugs policy. Wright claimed he took Adderall for medical purposes, but that he didn’t get a waiver from the league.

Carson Palmer was ruled out of the season finale against the San Diego Chargers with cracked ribs and a punctured lung Monday.

A day after coach Dennis Allen said Terrelle Pryor wasn’t ready to be the backup quarterback, there’s at least a possibility he could be the starter. Allen said backup Matt Leinart and Pryor would both get first-team reps and a decision would be made as to the starter late in the week. There are no plans to bring in a third quarterback.

Support has mounted from a fan base that’s never seen b at practice, and Allen was blunt following a 17-6 loss to Carolina about why Leinart subbed for Palmer.

“Matt’s our backup quarterback,” Allen said Sunday. “Terrelle’s done a nice job. He’s working extremely hard. We don’t feel like he’s ready to be the backup quarterback yet.”

Hopes that an MRI would prove negative were dashed Monday night with a report that San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Mario Manningham is lost for the rest of the season and playoffs with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Manningham suffered the injury in the third quarter of Sunday’s 42-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He was tackled low by Seattle linebacker Leroy Hill and fumbled. Manningham left the team’s locker room after the game limping and using crutches.

Manningham had 42 catches for 449 yards and one touchdown for San Francisco (10-4-1), which is already assured at least a berth in the NFC playoffs.

The Ravens moved linebacker Ray Lewis from short-term injured reserve to their 53-man roster on Wednesday, reports the NFL’s Gregg Rosenthal.

Lewis tore his triceps in Week 6 against the Cowboys; he began practicing three weeks ago.

Fear not, Steelers fans. Coach Mike Tomlin dismissed Ben Roethlisberger’s post-game comments about Todd Haley’s play-calling and game plan as frustration, but said he met with the Steelers quarterback anyway to make sure “he’s on board with what it is we’re doing.”

A lot of attention has been heaped on Roethlisberger’s comment that Haley’s original play-call on the touchdown pass to Heath Miller at the end of the first half was “not a good call” because of the type of defense the Cowboys showed when Roethlisberger went to the line of scrimmage.

But having a play-call not fit a certain defensive look happens all the time, Tomlin said. Quarterbacks routinely change a play when that happens by calling an audible at the line of scrimmage.

New York Giants wide receiver, Victor Cruz, wrote messages on his cleats and gloves to honor 6-year-old Jack Pinto, one of the 20 young victims gunned down at Sandy Hook elementary last Friday.

Pinto’s family said that the young Giants fan idolized Cruz so much, that they decided to bury his body in Cruz’s No. 80 jersey. When word spread on Twitter that Cruz was one of Pinto’s favorite football stars, the NFL player immediately reached out to the boy’s family on the phone to offer his condolences and to do something special for the fallen fan.

“I was in the hotel and as I was talking to [his family], I was fighting back tears. You could hear everybody in the background crying as well. It was tough to listen to,” Cruz told the New York Daily News.