College Football begins tonight.
The post today could say nothing except that and it get my point across, but that wouldn't be to informative.
That being said, a few more thoughts on the season and the first week.
Starting this evening with LSU and Mississippi State. I love this game for LSU. It's an early season tune up and a conference game. They quickly get to go to 1-0 in the SEC barring the end of the world. They get a chance to put their new offensive stars on the field and see how they play against a team that has a little more talent than whoever Florida opens with. This was a great call by their schedulers. Also, look for Mississippi State to move the chains for the first time in the second half. Also, don't count on them scoring either.
Look for Florida State to win in the 4th quarter on Monday against Clemson. All the rage in college football this year is about the revamping of FSU's coaching staff. I think this year you will see FSU throw some more points up on the board but it is Coach Bowden's first game with his new crowd. Just like it takes players time to settle in, the same goes for coaches. After a nervous first half and a quiet third quarter, look for FSU to make a run in the 4th and go home 1-0.
I would like to congratulate Big 10 patrons. You guys are so important that you have your own TV network. Have fun finding a place to watch it while the ACC, SEC and Big 12 are occupying the prime network spots.
Notre Dame opens this season at Georgia Tech. No one outside of Buckhead really cares about Georgia Tech now that Calvin Johnson is a pro and now that Joey Hamilton isn't on any one's radar. They should. Tech's defense is stacked and should provide a lot of issues for the new Domer signal caller. Without Reggie Ball, Tech should score enough points to win. With Reggie Ball, he would find ways to throw incomplete passes. I would venture a guess of saying ND puts up 10 points max.
I've been talking way too much about defense. USC, the team ESPN tried to label "America's Team" has three injured running backs including freshman Joe McKnight. That leaves them with four guys with the chance of starting on Saturday. I'm pretty sure I could start for the Trojans against Idaho.
Finally, regardless of who your team is, you should be excited about tonight. Life begins again tonight. College football is the greatest sport in America. It never gets old. Neither does Matt Flynn. LSU will roll tonight.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The Magic of New York in Late August
Amidst the former Virginia Tech quarterback's legal issues, the Little League World Series, and The World Series of Poker MAIN EVENT, there is another little event going on in the sporting world. It's called...The US Open.
Many say that the US Open is the greatest championship in tennis. It's second in my opinion behind Wimbledon, but it is most certainly the biggest thing going on in sports until tomorrow when LSU kicks off the football season. That leaves us with: today.
The cool thing about the US Open is that they play at night under the lights. This is great because we still get to watch after work, after dinner, etc. Sadly for me, when I flipped through the channels yesterday and saw Andy Roddick playing, I chose to watch Snakes on a Plane on HBO instead. That should tell you something about my opinion of Roddick.
Roddick has gotten a little better in my book. He went through a ridiculous cocky stage for a while and now he's still really cocky, but not quite as bad. My problem with this? Roddick has won one major in his career (2003 US Open). He is called the only contender the US has in tennis and on his native soil, he brings the support of an entire nation (of tennis fans) with him. Roddick has been in the top 5 in rankings for how long? Say since '03. He's won one major. You know what we call people who win one big event in their careers and never do it again? A fluke.
At least Roddick brought home a big one. That's one more than Michelle Kwan. What's up Rich Beem?
Unfortunately for me, Snakes on a Plane ended last night. After being mesmerized by a movie of such utter sophistication, brilliant acting, and the greatest plot known to man, I scrolled the channels again to find Roddick on Match Point. I said fine, I'll watch this.
Roddick broke Justin Gimelstob to win the match. When I first heard he was playing Gimelstob I thought to myself, "This guy has to be French or from one of those crazy former Soviet countries that always has random players qualifying for tennis events and nothing else. I think everyone from the Balkans plays tennis." I then found out he was an American. I think this is where I turned on Snakes.
After the match, we the fans heard from Gimelstob. It was his last US Open as he will retire later this year. Did anyone know that he played in a first US Open? We then had to listen to this joker talk for about 15 minutes and then interview Roddick, then have Roddick interview him. Finally they both shut up and left. But Gimelstob, who I think has made it to a couple of Rounds of 16 had his moment for a lifetime. After he got thrown around by Roddick, so the score says. I was watching Sam Jackson throw snakes around a plane.
I remember watching Andre Agassi play his final match at the US Open. It was a big deal. Agassi, who won multiple majors making him not a fluke, was a great American tennis player for a long time. It seemed that the celebration of Gimelstob's humor went on just as long as Agassi's.
So congratulations on the end of your career to Justin Gimelstob. Thanks so much for entertaining us for one night of our lives. Sadly, though you are most certainly cooler than Andy Roddick, it's sad that you never won a major title.
But hey, at least Gimelstob will never be a fluke.
Many say that the US Open is the greatest championship in tennis. It's second in my opinion behind Wimbledon, but it is most certainly the biggest thing going on in sports until tomorrow when LSU kicks off the football season. That leaves us with: today.
The cool thing about the US Open is that they play at night under the lights. This is great because we still get to watch after work, after dinner, etc. Sadly for me, when I flipped through the channels yesterday and saw Andy Roddick playing, I chose to watch Snakes on a Plane on HBO instead. That should tell you something about my opinion of Roddick.
Roddick has gotten a little better in my book. He went through a ridiculous cocky stage for a while and now he's still really cocky, but not quite as bad. My problem with this? Roddick has won one major in his career (2003 US Open). He is called the only contender the US has in tennis and on his native soil, he brings the support of an entire nation (of tennis fans) with him. Roddick has been in the top 5 in rankings for how long? Say since '03. He's won one major. You know what we call people who win one big event in their careers and never do it again? A fluke.
At least Roddick brought home a big one. That's one more than Michelle Kwan. What's up Rich Beem?
Unfortunately for me, Snakes on a Plane ended last night. After being mesmerized by a movie of such utter sophistication, brilliant acting, and the greatest plot known to man, I scrolled the channels again to find Roddick on Match Point. I said fine, I'll watch this.
Roddick broke Justin Gimelstob to win the match. When I first heard he was playing Gimelstob I thought to myself, "This guy has to be French or from one of those crazy former Soviet countries that always has random players qualifying for tennis events and nothing else. I think everyone from the Balkans plays tennis." I then found out he was an American. I think this is where I turned on Snakes.
After the match, we the fans heard from Gimelstob. It was his last US Open as he will retire later this year. Did anyone know that he played in a first US Open? We then had to listen to this joker talk for about 15 minutes and then interview Roddick, then have Roddick interview him. Finally they both shut up and left. But Gimelstob, who I think has made it to a couple of Rounds of 16 had his moment for a lifetime. After he got thrown around by Roddick, so the score says. I was watching Sam Jackson throw snakes around a plane.
I remember watching Andre Agassi play his final match at the US Open. It was a big deal. Agassi, who won multiple majors making him not a fluke, was a great American tennis player for a long time. It seemed that the celebration of Gimelstob's humor went on just as long as Agassi's.
So congratulations on the end of your career to Justin Gimelstob. Thanks so much for entertaining us for one night of our lives. Sadly, though you are most certainly cooler than Andy Roddick, it's sad that you never won a major title.
But hey, at least Gimelstob will never be a fluke.
Monday, August 27, 2007
ESPN
Aside from the fact that yes, I enjoyed watching the race on Saturday, ESPN really bothered me this weekend.
I don't care about the Little League World Series. Apparently a lot of people do, so they air it. That's fine I suppose. Luckily there was a cheap Steven Segal movie on during the day yesterday. But there is no possible way that a kid hitting a walk off homer in the 8th inning of a Little League World Series game should be the leading story on Sportscenter.
Recall, ESPN is owned by Disney. So apparently, they were trying to let a few kids' dreams come true. I mean I guess that's their business model given the whole Magic Kingdom concept. But if that's what they were going for, how do they explain the bent over sobbing clips of the Japanese pitcher who gave up the blast? How is that kid going to feel when he sees himself on TV crying? Keep in mind, ESPN has to be shown in Japan even when he gets home. Hideki Matsui exists. Not to mention a game between two division leaders in the bigs with serious playoff implications is much more important than the LLWS. Also, had the Australian Open, a major championship in tennis, been yesterday, it would have taken at least a seat until the second commercial. Thankfully, the LLWS is a bigger deal than the former VT QB.
Next issue. As you know, I was in attendance for the UT/Cal game last year in Knoxville. I won't be in attendance this year at Berkley. Yes, this is sad. I will be in Pasadena next year for the UT/UCLA game. Troubadour beware. But as you can imagine, I haven't been sleeping well for a week in anticipation not only for the UT/Cal game, but for college football in general. I have spoken of last year's thumping. As I was reading today, ESPN messed up some airtime in last year's coverage. Most of America missed Cal's first play from scrimmage. This was a 31-yard pass completion. I wish everyone in America saw that simply to see how UT bounced back from one play to dominate two and a half quarters before putting in the second team. Not to mention, this was the only bright spot for Cal all game...since I think about 200 Cal fans traveled to UT, a lot of people missed it.
Finally, who holds their "experts" accountable? Not only have they been stealing ideas from No Owens (see their Big 10 analysis on their College Football Pre-Season show) but in most professions, people are held accountable for being wrong and out of line. With that being said, why does Sean Salsbury still have a job? What made him an "expert" in the first place? Salsbury just yells and gets angry about things after people do them. As if they effect him in some way. He's terrible. Also, Lou Holtz picked Notre Dame to win 10 games this year. He picked this on the air. That's not an expert's pick. That's the pick of an old man who couldn't get it done in the SEC.
ESPN, like Starbucks, has us cornered. We can't do anything besides watch it. But it's getting out of control. I watch less sports these days simply because I can't stand the majority of how it's aired. I watched the first minute of Sportscenter last night. I watch sporting events. Most of the time, I am tailgating during College Gameday, and I get the feeling that this year that's even going to be too much to handle. Maybe I'm getting old and don't appreciate this "entertainment" that they provide. But there are a lot of people like me who remember Patrick/Olberman. We miss them greatly.
I don't care about the Little League World Series. Apparently a lot of people do, so they air it. That's fine I suppose. Luckily there was a cheap Steven Segal movie on during the day yesterday. But there is no possible way that a kid hitting a walk off homer in the 8th inning of a Little League World Series game should be the leading story on Sportscenter.
Recall, ESPN is owned by Disney. So apparently, they were trying to let a few kids' dreams come true. I mean I guess that's their business model given the whole Magic Kingdom concept. But if that's what they were going for, how do they explain the bent over sobbing clips of the Japanese pitcher who gave up the blast? How is that kid going to feel when he sees himself on TV crying? Keep in mind, ESPN has to be shown in Japan even when he gets home. Hideki Matsui exists. Not to mention a game between two division leaders in the bigs with serious playoff implications is much more important than the LLWS. Also, had the Australian Open, a major championship in tennis, been yesterday, it would have taken at least a seat until the second commercial. Thankfully, the LLWS is a bigger deal than the former VT QB.
Next issue. As you know, I was in attendance for the UT/Cal game last year in Knoxville. I won't be in attendance this year at Berkley. Yes, this is sad. I will be in Pasadena next year for the UT/UCLA game. Troubadour beware. But as you can imagine, I haven't been sleeping well for a week in anticipation not only for the UT/Cal game, but for college football in general. I have spoken of last year's thumping. As I was reading today, ESPN messed up some airtime in last year's coverage. Most of America missed Cal's first play from scrimmage. This was a 31-yard pass completion. I wish everyone in America saw that simply to see how UT bounced back from one play to dominate two and a half quarters before putting in the second team. Not to mention, this was the only bright spot for Cal all game...since I think about 200 Cal fans traveled to UT, a lot of people missed it.
Finally, who holds their "experts" accountable? Not only have they been stealing ideas from No Owens (see their Big 10 analysis on their College Football Pre-Season show) but in most professions, people are held accountable for being wrong and out of line. With that being said, why does Sean Salsbury still have a job? What made him an "expert" in the first place? Salsbury just yells and gets angry about things after people do them. As if they effect him in some way. He's terrible. Also, Lou Holtz picked Notre Dame to win 10 games this year. He picked this on the air. That's not an expert's pick. That's the pick of an old man who couldn't get it done in the SEC.
ESPN, like Starbucks, has us cornered. We can't do anything besides watch it. But it's getting out of control. I watch less sports these days simply because I can't stand the majority of how it's aired. I watched the first minute of Sportscenter last night. I watch sporting events. Most of the time, I am tailgating during College Gameday, and I get the feeling that this year that's even going to be too much to handle. Maybe I'm getting old and don't appreciate this "entertainment" that they provide. But there are a lot of people like me who remember Patrick/Olberman. We miss them greatly.
Friday, August 24, 2007
How Good is Tiger Woods for Golf?
We all know that Tiger Woods is arguably the most dominant player in any form of athletic competion today. Obviously, golf isn't as physically demanding of a sport as tennis (Roger Federer) or football (LaDanian Tomlinson, aka TheDanian Tomlinson) but Woods' successes cannot be over looked.
More so is what he has done for the game of golf. More kids are playing golf than ever before. He has made stars out of his competitors. The sponsorships are greater and more lucrative.
Some would say that more people are watching golf than ever before as well. That might be, but ponder this.
The FedEx cup is this weekend; a playoff style championship of the top 144 players based on a point system accumulated this year. Each week during this playoff players amass point totals from not only their points from the week's play but with a fraction of the total they collected before the season, with a number of people getting cut out each week. So, if say, Tiger Woods has more points than anyone else going into the event, he can't win the Cup without playing in any of the events if four no namers win out.
The point system is in a word - confusing. But it's not really that tough to understand and it also isn't much different than "The Chase" in Nascar. If Nascar fans get it...come on golfers. Then again, Nascar fans don't do anything besides watch the SPEED Channel. Whatever.
I think this is a great opportunity for golf. The PGA Championship is the last major of the year and golf really dies down after it. Golf is really based around the majors and once they're over, so too is the season in the eyes of the fans. But with another big event coming on board, it should keep the season going up to The Player's Championship.
How, one might ask, can this fail? Simple. Tiger Woods isn't playing this weekend. Because of what Tiger has done to the sport, if he doesn't play it becomes a giant disappointment. People don't come. A source close to the FedEx Cup has told No Owens Sports that they expect to lose about 30,000 tickets over the four day event this weekend that would have been sold if Tiger decided to play this week. Tiger, however, claims that he's tired and major championships are a very grueling and exhausting experience. Something tells me Tiger is in better shape than current leader Rory Sabbatini.
Tiger Woods' job is to play golf. Unfortunately he has become so big, so rich, and to be honest so, good, that he has developed the luxury of playing at his leisure. Tiger does do a lot in his off time: aside from the commercials and golf course designing, he spends millions of dollars and hours of his time working with charitable organizations such as St. Jude Children's Hospital.
Thirty years ago, Jack Nicklaus would be grinding his teeth waiting for this opportunity to get in a new style of winning. Because Tiger "only wants to win majors" he doesn't care really about the FedEx Cup. He should care about what he is doing to golf. If Tiger doesn't play, the media doesn't care. If the media doesn't care, the people don't care. If the people don't care, the game of golf doesn't do as well as it could.
Golf has become so centered around one person that it is controlled by his actions. I mean, Tiger will probably somehow win this FedEx cup without even playing in the first event and then the Cup will be an even greater downer because a guy who didn't play in all the tournaments won. But you can't punish him. Who's going to tell Tiger no? Who's going to tell Tiger he has to do something? The only person who can tell Tiger what to do is Phil Knight, and when he's giving $100 Million to the Oregon Ducks, Knight is just thinking about how great of an investment he's made in Woods.
So where does this leave us? Right in the middle. As much as Tiger does for golf, his absence kills a week of it. Think about 12-15 years ago. Who was the biggest name in golf? Greg Norman? Fred Couples? Tom Watson? Davis Love? Pending injuries, most likely Freddy's back, they always played and there was never one guy who was the biggest. It was always fun. But Tiger has too much power in the game. Overall he's great for the game. He's brought a fan base that would still be watching soccer to golf. Some weeks, his prestige hurts golf by his absence. And his absence has the potential of killing the FedEx Cup. Not if my source has anything to say about it.
More so is what he has done for the game of golf. More kids are playing golf than ever before. He has made stars out of his competitors. The sponsorships are greater and more lucrative.
Some would say that more people are watching golf than ever before as well. That might be, but ponder this.
The FedEx cup is this weekend; a playoff style championship of the top 144 players based on a point system accumulated this year. Each week during this playoff players amass point totals from not only their points from the week's play but with a fraction of the total they collected before the season, with a number of people getting cut out each week. So, if say, Tiger Woods has more points than anyone else going into the event, he can't win the Cup without playing in any of the events if four no namers win out.
The point system is in a word - confusing. But it's not really that tough to understand and it also isn't much different than "The Chase" in Nascar. If Nascar fans get it...come on golfers. Then again, Nascar fans don't do anything besides watch the SPEED Channel. Whatever.
I think this is a great opportunity for golf. The PGA Championship is the last major of the year and golf really dies down after it. Golf is really based around the majors and once they're over, so too is the season in the eyes of the fans. But with another big event coming on board, it should keep the season going up to The Player's Championship.
How, one might ask, can this fail? Simple. Tiger Woods isn't playing this weekend. Because of what Tiger has done to the sport, if he doesn't play it becomes a giant disappointment. People don't come. A source close to the FedEx Cup has told No Owens Sports that they expect to lose about 30,000 tickets over the four day event this weekend that would have been sold if Tiger decided to play this week. Tiger, however, claims that he's tired and major championships are a very grueling and exhausting experience. Something tells me Tiger is in better shape than current leader Rory Sabbatini.
Tiger Woods' job is to play golf. Unfortunately he has become so big, so rich, and to be honest so, good, that he has developed the luxury of playing at his leisure. Tiger does do a lot in his off time: aside from the commercials and golf course designing, he spends millions of dollars and hours of his time working with charitable organizations such as St. Jude Children's Hospital.
Thirty years ago, Jack Nicklaus would be grinding his teeth waiting for this opportunity to get in a new style of winning. Because Tiger "only wants to win majors" he doesn't care really about the FedEx Cup. He should care about what he is doing to golf. If Tiger doesn't play, the media doesn't care. If the media doesn't care, the people don't care. If the people don't care, the game of golf doesn't do as well as it could.
Golf has become so centered around one person that it is controlled by his actions. I mean, Tiger will probably somehow win this FedEx cup without even playing in the first event and then the Cup will be an even greater downer because a guy who didn't play in all the tournaments won. But you can't punish him. Who's going to tell Tiger no? Who's going to tell Tiger he has to do something? The only person who can tell Tiger what to do is Phil Knight, and when he's giving $100 Million to the Oregon Ducks, Knight is just thinking about how great of an investment he's made in Woods.
So where does this leave us? Right in the middle. As much as Tiger does for golf, his absence kills a week of it. Think about 12-15 years ago. Who was the biggest name in golf? Greg Norman? Fred Couples? Tom Watson? Davis Love? Pending injuries, most likely Freddy's back, they always played and there was never one guy who was the biggest. It was always fun. But Tiger has too much power in the game. Overall he's great for the game. He's brought a fan base that would still be watching soccer to golf. Some weeks, his prestige hurts golf by his absence. And his absence has the potential of killing the FedEx Cup. Not if my source has anything to say about it.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
What Provokes a Team to Score 30 Runs?
In case you missed it, the Rangers won yesterday. Yes, you are correct in thinking that such an event is a surprise in itself.
30-3. That is a score that you would assume represents an SEC team beating down on a Big Ten team in college football. Possibly the score of a first round women's high school basketball tournament game.
Yesterday, it was the score of a baseball game. The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles by such a wide margin it raises questions as if someone was playing a video game and stacked the Rangers with a new lineup to think they were cool. I've got news for you, this isn't MLB '98.
There are two issues in the box score from this slaughterhouse fest that I want to make mention of. First, the earned runs. When you see big numbers on the scoreboard, you would assume that there some mistakes involved, yes? Want to know how many runs were un-earned? Zero. All 30 runs scored came as the result of mistakes made by the pitching staff , not ones in the field. Bad pitching, or a collective team was that zoned in that it didn't matter what was being thrown at them. Though they weren't facing Roy Halladay, Johan Santana, or Bartolo Colon, this is still Major League Baseball - they're all professionals out there, except for Cory Patterson. That team was zoned in and the accomplishment last night was amazing.
Second...can you name someone in the Ranger lineup besides Michael Young? No, Mark Texiera is gone. Hank Blalock is hurt, so I'm not allowing that either. Two Rangers went 4-6 with 7 RBI yesterday: Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ramon Vazquez. David Murphy scored 5 runs and Marlon Byrd scored 4 and drove in another Favre. The first three players I mentioned conveniently hit 7-8-9 in the Ranger lineup. Remember Michael Young? He was 2-5 with a run scored. That's it.
A thirty spot was put up by a bunch of no namers. It's not like it was the Yankees throwing up a Terrell Davis on someone with their payroll that's larger than the gross national product of France. But also, it shows how contagious hitting is.
A coach once told our team that, "In 90% of all games, the winning teams scores more runs in one inning than the losing team scores in the entire game." The coach wasn't the best, but he sure was pretty accurate on that one. Think about that stat for the next week when you are watching Baseball Tonight. I mean, the Rangers did have 5-9-10-6 run innings, but it still works.
You know how Brandon Webb's scoreless inning stretch ended last night? Look for the Rangers not to score for the rest of the season.
30-3. That is a score that you would assume represents an SEC team beating down on a Big Ten team in college football. Possibly the score of a first round women's high school basketball tournament game.
Yesterday, it was the score of a baseball game. The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles by such a wide margin it raises questions as if someone was playing a video game and stacked the Rangers with a new lineup to think they were cool. I've got news for you, this isn't MLB '98.
There are two issues in the box score from this slaughterhouse fest that I want to make mention of. First, the earned runs. When you see big numbers on the scoreboard, you would assume that there some mistakes involved, yes? Want to know how many runs were un-earned? Zero. All 30 runs scored came as the result of mistakes made by the pitching staff , not ones in the field. Bad pitching, or a collective team was that zoned in that it didn't matter what was being thrown at them. Though they weren't facing Roy Halladay, Johan Santana, or Bartolo Colon, this is still Major League Baseball - they're all professionals out there, except for Cory Patterson. That team was zoned in and the accomplishment last night was amazing.
Second...can you name someone in the Ranger lineup besides Michael Young? No, Mark Texiera is gone. Hank Blalock is hurt, so I'm not allowing that either. Two Rangers went 4-6 with 7 RBI yesterday: Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ramon Vazquez. David Murphy scored 5 runs and Marlon Byrd scored 4 and drove in another Favre. The first three players I mentioned conveniently hit 7-8-9 in the Ranger lineup. Remember Michael Young? He was 2-5 with a run scored. That's it.
A thirty spot was put up by a bunch of no namers. It's not like it was the Yankees throwing up a Terrell Davis on someone with their payroll that's larger than the gross national product of France. But also, it shows how contagious hitting is.
A coach once told our team that, "In 90% of all games, the winning teams scores more runs in one inning than the losing team scores in the entire game." The coach wasn't the best, but he sure was pretty accurate on that one. Think about that stat for the next week when you are watching Baseball Tonight. I mean, the Rangers did have 5-9-10-6 run innings, but it still works.
You know how Brandon Webb's scoreless inning stretch ended last night? Look for the Rangers not to score for the rest of the season.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Pat Kelley's Worst Nightmare
Let me tell you a story that most of you are probably familiar with in some way. If you didn't play high school football, you probably paid close attention to it. You knew who the studs were on your team. You would always talk about them as being, "Dude, I don't care man what they say 'so and so' is all-state, man."
At my high school we had a few. Mike Mangan however was all-state. This guy was two years older than me and had the best highlight tape I have ever seen. Yes, I've seen Reggie Bush's...Mangan's was better. He ended up going to Eastern Illinois, blowing his knee in the first week of practice his freshman year, walked on at Iowa and one carry later he's no longer playing football.
Let me tell you about another guy. Rob Anderson and I grew up together. We were never really close friends, but friends from about 1st grade on. We would play football together after school, stuff like that. Rob was always the first kid picked. Growing up he was the fastest, had the best hands - you had this kid too. When we got to high school we both played quarterback...Rob moving faster up the depth chart than me and rightfully so. As good as Rob was on the offensive side of the ball, he was amazing on defense. He was the kind of guy who just got to the ball. He had better instincts than anyone I ever saw play in high school and though he got slower as he got bigger he was still amazingly quick and had great "football speed." I saw Rob at a bar the Thanksgiving after I graduated from college and talked to him for a little bit. He went to play at Princeton but I don't think he was in the program for four years as he was still in school; he was looking to go work on The Street in investment banking when he was done. Rob was a smart kid too.
One of our biggest rivals in high school was Downers Grove North. If any of you watched "High School Hoops - Chicago" and remember them doing a thing about Eddy Curry, and then some other white kid you'd never heard of - that was Kyle Kleckner from DGN. The kid who shoved him in the intro? I won't name names. Kleckner had a knack for getting in the press. He was a great athlete, don't get me wrong as he played quarterback, 2 guard and center field. He was good, but not good enough to generate the "player of the month" awards he received.
They had another kid. Big kid, fullback/middle linebacker who was good but also got enormous amounts of press. I remember Pat Kelley (formerly of the University of Florida mini-camp and kid who ran the fastest form of a shuttle in the country. This shuttle was invented by his dad in his basement and was videotaped along with him hitting bags in his basement and sent to major universities as part of his recruiting package. Legend.) sticking this kid once and Dave Jenks unknowingly running full speed with his head down straight into the full back and running him over.
Today, neither Pat Kelley nor Dave Jenks are still playing football. But that fullback is. Yesterday, the Green Bay Packers signed un drafted rookie Erryn Cobb to the squad. The Packers, after letting go of William Henderson (the best blocking fullback ever) are short at fullback and needed to add another body. Cobb, who went to Northwestern (no one knows why) was the answer and signed to the Packers.
I know a lot of people reading this have no idea who the people I'm talking about are. But I am sure that somewhere along the lines you have come across the same scenario. Brian Grzelakowski was one of the best athletes I have ever seen. If someone told me after watching the two play against each other that Erryn Cobb would be in the NFL, or at least playing major college football for four years before Grez would be, I would have laughed in your face. Cobb is laughing now.
It really makes you wonder. I know different people peak at different times. A lot of what good recruiting revolves around is the evaluation of talent, not just what you see on a tape. But seeing guys who knowingly have more talent than others and those with less make it...who else is really out there? Who never got a chance? What if Don Majikowski never got hurt? We wouldn't know who Brett Favre is, would we? What if Drew Bledsoe wouldn't have gotten hurt? The Patriots wouldn't have lost to the Colts last year and Tom Brady wouldn't have been voted the best dressed man in the world. Who are the freaks in practice who may miss assignments on some plays but turn around and make unbelievable plays after their mistakes? The same guys who because they mess up a couple of times, they don't get the same amount of attention from coaches to work and be better but have all the tools.
Most of the guys I played with didn't have any chance of playing football out of high school. But they were certainly better than some of those who did. Who else is out there? Who don't we know about? To Erryn Cobb, it simply doesn't matter. Then, today and tomorrow, he apparently has always been good enough.
At my high school we had a few. Mike Mangan however was all-state. This guy was two years older than me and had the best highlight tape I have ever seen. Yes, I've seen Reggie Bush's...Mangan's was better. He ended up going to Eastern Illinois, blowing his knee in the first week of practice his freshman year, walked on at Iowa and one carry later he's no longer playing football.
Let me tell you about another guy. Rob Anderson and I grew up together. We were never really close friends, but friends from about 1st grade on. We would play football together after school, stuff like that. Rob was always the first kid picked. Growing up he was the fastest, had the best hands - you had this kid too. When we got to high school we both played quarterback...Rob moving faster up the depth chart than me and rightfully so. As good as Rob was on the offensive side of the ball, he was amazing on defense. He was the kind of guy who just got to the ball. He had better instincts than anyone I ever saw play in high school and though he got slower as he got bigger he was still amazingly quick and had great "football speed." I saw Rob at a bar the Thanksgiving after I graduated from college and talked to him for a little bit. He went to play at Princeton but I don't think he was in the program for four years as he was still in school; he was looking to go work on The Street in investment banking when he was done. Rob was a smart kid too.
One of our biggest rivals in high school was Downers Grove North. If any of you watched "High School Hoops - Chicago" and remember them doing a thing about Eddy Curry, and then some other white kid you'd never heard of - that was Kyle Kleckner from DGN. The kid who shoved him in the intro? I won't name names. Kleckner had a knack for getting in the press. He was a great athlete, don't get me wrong as he played quarterback, 2 guard and center field. He was good, but not good enough to generate the "player of the month" awards he received.
They had another kid. Big kid, fullback/middle linebacker who was good but also got enormous amounts of press. I remember Pat Kelley (formerly of the University of Florida mini-camp and kid who ran the fastest form of a shuttle in the country. This shuttle was invented by his dad in his basement and was videotaped along with him hitting bags in his basement and sent to major universities as part of his recruiting package. Legend.) sticking this kid once and Dave Jenks unknowingly running full speed with his head down straight into the full back and running him over.
Today, neither Pat Kelley nor Dave Jenks are still playing football. But that fullback is. Yesterday, the Green Bay Packers signed un drafted rookie Erryn Cobb to the squad. The Packers, after letting go of William Henderson (the best blocking fullback ever) are short at fullback and needed to add another body. Cobb, who went to Northwestern (no one knows why) was the answer and signed to the Packers.
I know a lot of people reading this have no idea who the people I'm talking about are. But I am sure that somewhere along the lines you have come across the same scenario. Brian Grzelakowski was one of the best athletes I have ever seen. If someone told me after watching the two play against each other that Erryn Cobb would be in the NFL, or at least playing major college football for four years before Grez would be, I would have laughed in your face. Cobb is laughing now.
It really makes you wonder. I know different people peak at different times. A lot of what good recruiting revolves around is the evaluation of talent, not just what you see on a tape. But seeing guys who knowingly have more talent than others and those with less make it...who else is really out there? Who never got a chance? What if Don Majikowski never got hurt? We wouldn't know who Brett Favre is, would we? What if Drew Bledsoe wouldn't have gotten hurt? The Patriots wouldn't have lost to the Colts last year and Tom Brady wouldn't have been voted the best dressed man in the world. Who are the freaks in practice who may miss assignments on some plays but turn around and make unbelievable plays after their mistakes? The same guys who because they mess up a couple of times, they don't get the same amount of attention from coaches to work and be better but have all the tools.
Most of the guys I played with didn't have any chance of playing football out of high school. But they were certainly better than some of those who did. Who else is out there? Who don't we know about? To Erryn Cobb, it simply doesn't matter. Then, today and tomorrow, he apparently has always been good enough.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me Introduce to You: Jimmy Clausen
Remember in college when you were too young to buy alcohol? Remember when you said, "Hey man, if I drive you to the beer store, will you pick me up a case?" Those were the days.
Right now Jimmy Clausen is living those days in South Bend, Indiana. Very dangerously however.
Clausen, the third of the Clausen brothers, is the only one not to yet attend the University of Tennessee. His oldest brother, Casey "The Ice Man", was a blue chip recruit out of California who signed with the Vols after the departure of Peyton Manning and Tee Martin. After a promising freshman year, Casey couldn't seem to get his high hoped career together. Injuries to both himself and key players around him (Michael Munoz, Kelley Washington) put a damper on what he could do as an immobile quarterback who was a great manager of the game. His own injuries didn't help his cause either...or a lack of arm strength.
Rick "Viper" Clausen originally committed to LSU. Since LSU was deep in quarterbacks and UT was obviously not, Rick transferred to UT and quickly became a third stringer behind true freshmen Brent Schaeffer and Erik Ainge. After injuries to both freshman, Rick was thrown into the Notre Dame game his junior year but rookie season with the Vols and looked like the quarterback who hadn't taken a snap since high school that he was. A month later he led the Vols to a 38-7 victory in the Cotton Bowl. Though he had even less skills than his brother Casey, Rick was one of the best field managers I have ever seen. He knew his offense, he knew how to get the ball to his receivers, and despite having no arm, he was a relentless leader as was shown on Monday Night Football in Baton Rouge down 21 points with the whole world rooting against UT. We all remember Riggs jumping into the endzone in OT.
Enter Jimmy, the golden boy. He doesn't have a sweet Top Gun nickname yet, but it should have something to do with Sun Down. June 23rd, Jimmy picked up citation #1 for transporting alcohol as a minor. Clausen has entered a pretrial diversion program after receiving his misdemeanor citation. I don't know why I didn't know about this, but I'm guessing you didn't either.
To my knowledge, reports of this started coming out on August 17th. Clausen, who had a 23 year old go in and buy his booze for him picked up a handle of Smifnoff, 200 mL's of Jack Daniel's and a case of The Natural Light.
Clausen sure knows how to get after it. Clausen has to be getting some cash to go to ND. If this is the case, he needs to stop buying the Natural first of all. Secondly, especially as a freshman who could potentially start for one of the most prestigious programs in the country, he needs to learn how to keep himself out of trouble.
The best example of a freshman coming into school that I have ever heard about was Chris Leak. As I am sure you know, Leak broke many if not most national high school passing records before signing with Florida. Leak came in and was committed to winning and didn't mess around with anything besides football. That's how you gain veteran's respect. Not having them buy you booze getting the both of you citations.
So "The Chosen One's" career is off to a thriving start at Notre Dame. He's expected to break many records. Good thing he already has one.
Right now Jimmy Clausen is living those days in South Bend, Indiana. Very dangerously however.
Clausen, the third of the Clausen brothers, is the only one not to yet attend the University of Tennessee. His oldest brother, Casey "The Ice Man", was a blue chip recruit out of California who signed with the Vols after the departure of Peyton Manning and Tee Martin. After a promising freshman year, Casey couldn't seem to get his high hoped career together. Injuries to both himself and key players around him (Michael Munoz, Kelley Washington) put a damper on what he could do as an immobile quarterback who was a great manager of the game. His own injuries didn't help his cause either...or a lack of arm strength.
Rick "Viper" Clausen originally committed to LSU. Since LSU was deep in quarterbacks and UT was obviously not, Rick transferred to UT and quickly became a third stringer behind true freshmen Brent Schaeffer and Erik Ainge. After injuries to both freshman, Rick was thrown into the Notre Dame game his junior year but rookie season with the Vols and looked like the quarterback who hadn't taken a snap since high school that he was. A month later he led the Vols to a 38-7 victory in the Cotton Bowl. Though he had even less skills than his brother Casey, Rick was one of the best field managers I have ever seen. He knew his offense, he knew how to get the ball to his receivers, and despite having no arm, he was a relentless leader as was shown on Monday Night Football in Baton Rouge down 21 points with the whole world rooting against UT. We all remember Riggs jumping into the endzone in OT.
Enter Jimmy, the golden boy. He doesn't have a sweet Top Gun nickname yet, but it should have something to do with Sun Down. June 23rd, Jimmy picked up citation #1 for transporting alcohol as a minor. Clausen has entered a pretrial diversion program after receiving his misdemeanor citation. I don't know why I didn't know about this, but I'm guessing you didn't either.
To my knowledge, reports of this started coming out on August 17th. Clausen, who had a 23 year old go in and buy his booze for him picked up a handle of Smifnoff, 200 mL's of Jack Daniel's and a case of The Natural Light.
Clausen sure knows how to get after it. Clausen has to be getting some cash to go to ND. If this is the case, he needs to stop buying the Natural first of all. Secondly, especially as a freshman who could potentially start for one of the most prestigious programs in the country, he needs to learn how to keep himself out of trouble.
The best example of a freshman coming into school that I have ever heard about was Chris Leak. As I am sure you know, Leak broke many if not most national high school passing records before signing with Florida. Leak came in and was committed to winning and didn't mess around with anything besides football. That's how you gain veteran's respect. Not having them buy you booze getting the both of you citations.
So "The Chosen One's" career is off to a thriving start at Notre Dame. He's expected to break many records. Good thing he already has one.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Overrated, Underrated, What to Look For
College football is closing in. The Vols play at Cal a week from tomorrow. The Vols play at home 2 weeks from tomorrow. If you haven't been training for football season, you should start. I'm not talking about the weight room.
This year is bound to be a very interesting year in the world's greatest sport. There are many developing stories, and many that are over-hyped. Where to start?
Everyone wants to talk about Michigan in the Big Ten. Everyone wants to talk about Ohio State for no apparent reason. First I would like to say they their "two best programs" got shelled in their bowl games last year by teams who were absolutely superior. However, neither was the superior team in the Big Ten at the end of the season. Not that they would have put up a fight against USC and Florida, but Wisconsin is the team to fear in the Big Ten. Their only problem - their schedule. Wisconsin not only has to play OSU (@Columbus) and Michigan (@home) but home games against Iowa and Michigan State can always cause a stir but the biggest game on their schedule? Traveling to Penn State. The two best teams in the Big Ten, in my opinion, are Penn State and Wisconsin. However the four mentioned big teams all have to play each other. Not saying that the Big Ten is the toughest conference, but they all have about the toughest conference schedules in the country outside the SEC. No one is going undefeated in the Big Ten and if they do, they will undoubtedly play for a National Championship, and maybe rightfully so. Watch out for upstart teams...Iowa doesn't have UM or OSU on the books this year. Oh, and Ron Zook can only recruit, he can't coach.
I don't see USC running the table. Their team is much like it was last year. Very good, but where is the marquis name? John David Booty isn't it. They have all the talent in the world, but losing in that conference last year was inexcusable. If they did it once, they can do it again. Expect them to be the best coached team in America, but unless Joe McKnight transforms into a marquis player, not just a marquis name, look for them to get upset again within their conference.
The second best coached team in America might really scare some people this year. Oklahoma is quietly a top ten team. If they can put their team together, watch out. They have their three biggest games of the season about one month apart from each other: 9/8 home against Miami, 10/6 Texas, and 11/3 home against A&M. That gives adequate time to prepare for each game. All of the focus in the Big 12 is on Texas and Colt McCoy. The winner of the Red River Shootout has a serious shot at taking on the Big East champ for the national title. Today, I'd take OU. Ask me again on 10/5 to see what the update is.
It's exciting to see so many great out of conference match ups. Nebraska vs. USC. UT vs. Cal. Miami vs. OU. Miami vs. A&M. These are just a few of the non-regulars that are on the schedule. Seeing teams challenge themselves out of conference is a joy to watch. It also gives fans the chance to experience other campuses. At 10AM last year before the UT/Cal game, some "dudes" came running through fraternity park looking for the ATO house. Running for exercise. We laughed as we had been drinking since 8. It was a late afternoon game. Pac-10 Amateurs.
I really don't like Florida making a run at a 4th straight major championship. Why? Schedule is too tough and I don't think Tebow is ready. Next year, the UF/UT game could be the biggest game of the year. This year? Even if UF has a huge season, I think by season's end FSU's offense will have all its kinks ironed out. The UF/FSU game is always my favorite game to watch. There is more talent on display there than in any other athletic competition in the world. Also, more criminals. Regardless; throw everything out the door on that game. If the Gators are making another run, the Noles will end it.
Arkansas is a scary team as I've said before. If he doesn't get hurt, the only way Darren McFadden can't win the Heisman is if ESPN doesn't let him. I don't see that happening. But the team is a big problem for all other SEC teams. No one matches up well against the Razorbacks. If there is a team that has a shot at running the table in the SEC, it's Arkansas.
This year is bound to be a very interesting year in the world's greatest sport. There are many developing stories, and many that are over-hyped. Where to start?
Everyone wants to talk about Michigan in the Big Ten. Everyone wants to talk about Ohio State for no apparent reason. First I would like to say they their "two best programs" got shelled in their bowl games last year by teams who were absolutely superior. However, neither was the superior team in the Big Ten at the end of the season. Not that they would have put up a fight against USC and Florida, but Wisconsin is the team to fear in the Big Ten. Their only problem - their schedule. Wisconsin not only has to play OSU (@Columbus) and Michigan (@home) but home games against Iowa and Michigan State can always cause a stir but the biggest game on their schedule? Traveling to Penn State. The two best teams in the Big Ten, in my opinion, are Penn State and Wisconsin. However the four mentioned big teams all have to play each other. Not saying that the Big Ten is the toughest conference, but they all have about the toughest conference schedules in the country outside the SEC. No one is going undefeated in the Big Ten and if they do, they will undoubtedly play for a National Championship, and maybe rightfully so. Watch out for upstart teams...Iowa doesn't have UM or OSU on the books this year. Oh, and Ron Zook can only recruit, he can't coach.
I don't see USC running the table. Their team is much like it was last year. Very good, but where is the marquis name? John David Booty isn't it. They have all the talent in the world, but losing in that conference last year was inexcusable. If they did it once, they can do it again. Expect them to be the best coached team in America, but unless Joe McKnight transforms into a marquis player, not just a marquis name, look for them to get upset again within their conference.
The second best coached team in America might really scare some people this year. Oklahoma is quietly a top ten team. If they can put their team together, watch out. They have their three biggest games of the season about one month apart from each other: 9/8 home against Miami, 10/6 Texas, and 11/3 home against A&M. That gives adequate time to prepare for each game. All of the focus in the Big 12 is on Texas and Colt McCoy. The winner of the Red River Shootout has a serious shot at taking on the Big East champ for the national title. Today, I'd take OU. Ask me again on 10/5 to see what the update is.
It's exciting to see so many great out of conference match ups. Nebraska vs. USC. UT vs. Cal. Miami vs. OU. Miami vs. A&M. These are just a few of the non-regulars that are on the schedule. Seeing teams challenge themselves out of conference is a joy to watch. It also gives fans the chance to experience other campuses. At 10AM last year before the UT/Cal game, some "dudes" came running through fraternity park looking for the ATO house. Running for exercise. We laughed as we had been drinking since 8. It was a late afternoon game. Pac-10 Amateurs.
I really don't like Florida making a run at a 4th straight major championship. Why? Schedule is too tough and I don't think Tebow is ready. Next year, the UF/UT game could be the biggest game of the year. This year? Even if UF has a huge season, I think by season's end FSU's offense will have all its kinks ironed out. The UF/FSU game is always my favorite game to watch. There is more talent on display there than in any other athletic competition in the world. Also, more criminals. Regardless; throw everything out the door on that game. If the Gators are making another run, the Noles will end it.
Arkansas is a scary team as I've said before. If he doesn't get hurt, the only way Darren McFadden can't win the Heisman is if ESPN doesn't let him. I don't see that happening. But the team is a big problem for all other SEC teams. No one matches up well against the Razorbacks. If there is a team that has a shot at running the table in the SEC, it's Arkansas.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Raiders - Awful
JaMarcus Russell is still not in camp. Apparently it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Why is this a problem? Normally I point my finger at the players. Initially, Brady Quinn was flat out wanting too much money for a 20's pick. However, Russell has the precedent of wanting the same caliber of pick that Mario Williams received for his first pick status. The Raiders don't want to pay it.
Here in lies the problem. The Raiders were so bad on offense last year. They showed no signs of improving whatsoever. As a team, they made the right choice to pick a franchise type quarterback with the first pick in the draft. Now, they won't pay him what a first pick has received in recent years.
The Raiders made the commitment of taking the first pick in the draft. With that comes responsibilities. They chose, by simply looking at the draft list, the "best player" according to no one being selected before him. Now, you have to pay your investment.
It's not like the Raiders couldn't have moved that pick. There were plenty of teams interested in Calvin Johnson like the Bucs who could have traded up to get him once the Johnson #2 to the Lions rumors started becoming more and more real. They could have packaged the pick with Randy Moss and come away with a number of solid players and saved cap space. They didn't.
They committed to the future of their franchise and selected their quarterback of the future. Now they have to honor that pick, and in turn, Russell. Russell came out of college knowing he was going to be one of if not the first pick taken. But it doesn't matter who is sitting in the shoes right now. If it was Johnson, Quinn, Peterson, or even Joe Johnson, the Raiders still would have signed them because they still don't want to put up the money.
If I was a Raiders fan, I would be so mad at Al Davis that I wouldn't be able to contain myself. When you make a commitment to something, do your research first. If he didn't want to pay the money, he could have drafted down, taken Peterson, and their offense would still be dramatically improved. Is owning an NFL team really this simple?
Cool colors and the legacy of Fred Biletnikoff isn't going to get the Raiders any further along than they need to be. Al Davis is an NFL legend. But he's not creating a further legacy for his team. I've got news for Al, Snake isn't coming out of retirement any time soon. Pay up. The Texans did with Williams...at least Davis wasn't a complete fool by taken his guy.
Why is this a problem? Normally I point my finger at the players. Initially, Brady Quinn was flat out wanting too much money for a 20's pick. However, Russell has the precedent of wanting the same caliber of pick that Mario Williams received for his first pick status. The Raiders don't want to pay it.
Here in lies the problem. The Raiders were so bad on offense last year. They showed no signs of improving whatsoever. As a team, they made the right choice to pick a franchise type quarterback with the first pick in the draft. Now, they won't pay him what a first pick has received in recent years.
The Raiders made the commitment of taking the first pick in the draft. With that comes responsibilities. They chose, by simply looking at the draft list, the "best player" according to no one being selected before him. Now, you have to pay your investment.
It's not like the Raiders couldn't have moved that pick. There were plenty of teams interested in Calvin Johnson like the Bucs who could have traded up to get him once the Johnson #2 to the Lions rumors started becoming more and more real. They could have packaged the pick with Randy Moss and come away with a number of solid players and saved cap space. They didn't.
They committed to the future of their franchise and selected their quarterback of the future. Now they have to honor that pick, and in turn, Russell. Russell came out of college knowing he was going to be one of if not the first pick taken. But it doesn't matter who is sitting in the shoes right now. If it was Johnson, Quinn, Peterson, or even Joe Johnson, the Raiders still would have signed them because they still don't want to put up the money.
If I was a Raiders fan, I would be so mad at Al Davis that I wouldn't be able to contain myself. When you make a commitment to something, do your research first. If he didn't want to pay the money, he could have drafted down, taken Peterson, and their offense would still be dramatically improved. Is owning an NFL team really this simple?
Cool colors and the legacy of Fred Biletnikoff isn't going to get the Raiders any further along than they need to be. Al Davis is an NFL legend. But he's not creating a further legacy for his team. I've got news for Al, Snake isn't coming out of retirement any time soon. Pay up. The Texans did with Williams...at least Davis wasn't a complete fool by taken his guy.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Our New Best Friend is Going to Offer Much Entertainment
I think if someone asked Phil Mickelson what the best thing that ever happened to him was, he would probably say something like this:
"Well Jim, that's really an interesting question. I have been blessed with so much in my life that I just really am thankful for. I'd really like to thank my daughters and my wife, Amy, for standing by me throughout everything. You know, Jim, even that my wrist really has been bothering me more than I really lead on, I'm just really trying to go out there and have a good weekend. "
His answer should have simply been, "Besides getting married and the births of my children? Winning the Masters."
I disagree. The best thing that ever happened to Phil Mickelson is that I have really gotten a hold of Brady Quinn. As you know, I've never been a fan. He's not doing much to help his cause.
Quinn has become a media darling as much of America became intrigued by his fall in the draft, but with his cocky swagger still holding true. Yesterday, Brady Quinn posted at Browns camp. As you can imagine, the media was all over his grand entrance.
First, Joe McKnight, arguably the #1 recruit in the country showed up for his first day at USC practice the other day. USC has a team policy that freshman can't talk to the press for their first week in practice. Pete Carroll - Amazing. Maybe they should do the same thing with NFL rookies.
Which quote do we start with from his press conference? Let's start with this:
"Believe me, I don't deserve anything."
Really? If Quinn doesn't deserve anything, why exactly did he hold himself out of training camp for eleven days? Granted, he's referring to respect from his teammates and coaches, but the best way to get that respect is on the field. Quinn's missed eleven chances to do such already. Business, as usual, has gotten in the way of Quinn's development. Just like business did on draft day...business of there being better players available than him. In terms of the business side of the game, Quinn had this to say:
"It's awful. You grow up loving the game that you've played and all of a sudden you're told you can't come in unless you sign a contract. To sit out from playing the game that you love for that long is horrible. "
Wondering how he's going to love the off-season? For a guy who makes such an emphasis on "loving the game" he sure loves money more. How much did he love the game when he was staring at LaRon Landry in the Sugar Bowl? Something tells me Landry enjoyed himself noticeably more than Quinn. Because of the outcome? Maybe. However, Landry, the better football player, was drafted higher than Quinn, noticeably higher, and was in training camp noticeably sooner than Quinn. Landry - 3 Quinn - 0.
This one really gets me:
"We're very fortunate to have this opportunity. Don't get me wrong, I'm from the Columbus area, I know about Cleveland, I'm an Ohio kid, so I understand what this town's about. "
Here's a question for you to ponder. Do people in LA really know what San Fransisco is all about? Does being from California make you understand what a city is all about? What about Philly and Pittsburgh? I hate this guy. Cleveland is 143 miles from Columbus. Dayton is 70 miles from Columbus. I know, Dayton doesn't have a football team. Well Cincinnati does and it's only 106 miles from Columbus. I'm sick of hearing how he knows Cleveland. He's probably a Raider fan. Maybe he should go sign with the Columbus Destroyers of the Arena Football League.
Finally, recently Quinn was charging fans $75 for his autograph at a memorabilia show. Great way to get on the good side of the fans. Remember that Joe McKnight reference? He got called out at practice for shaking hands with a little kid watching. Since Brady Quinn has been out of camp, all he has to do now is win over the fans. It's not tough, he's the quarterback of the future. I can just see Quinn taking $75 from some little kid and putting it in his pocket. Champion.
We will continue to cover Brady Quinn as his story develops. I don't really care if he becomes the next Joe Montana, don't expect anything good to be written about him. The only thing that may save his graces is his agent, Tom Condon. Condon also represents one of my other buddies Matt Leinart. Condon sure can pick 'um.
"Well Jim, that's really an interesting question. I have been blessed with so much in my life that I just really am thankful for. I'd really like to thank my daughters and my wife, Amy, for standing by me throughout everything. You know, Jim, even that my wrist really has been bothering me more than I really lead on, I'm just really trying to go out there and have a good weekend. "
His answer should have simply been, "Besides getting married and the births of my children? Winning the Masters."
I disagree. The best thing that ever happened to Phil Mickelson is that I have really gotten a hold of Brady Quinn. As you know, I've never been a fan. He's not doing much to help his cause.
Quinn has become a media darling as much of America became intrigued by his fall in the draft, but with his cocky swagger still holding true. Yesterday, Brady Quinn posted at Browns camp. As you can imagine, the media was all over his grand entrance.
First, Joe McKnight, arguably the #1 recruit in the country showed up for his first day at USC practice the other day. USC has a team policy that freshman can't talk to the press for their first week in practice. Pete Carroll - Amazing. Maybe they should do the same thing with NFL rookies.
Which quote do we start with from his press conference? Let's start with this:
"Believe me, I don't deserve anything."
Really? If Quinn doesn't deserve anything, why exactly did he hold himself out of training camp for eleven days? Granted, he's referring to respect from his teammates and coaches, but the best way to get that respect is on the field. Quinn's missed eleven chances to do such already. Business, as usual, has gotten in the way of Quinn's development. Just like business did on draft day...business of there being better players available than him. In terms of the business side of the game, Quinn had this to say:
"It's awful. You grow up loving the game that you've played and all of a sudden you're told you can't come in unless you sign a contract. To sit out from playing the game that you love for that long is horrible. "
Wondering how he's going to love the off-season? For a guy who makes such an emphasis on "loving the game" he sure loves money more. How much did he love the game when he was staring at LaRon Landry in the Sugar Bowl? Something tells me Landry enjoyed himself noticeably more than Quinn. Because of the outcome? Maybe. However, Landry, the better football player, was drafted higher than Quinn, noticeably higher, and was in training camp noticeably sooner than Quinn. Landry - 3 Quinn - 0.
This one really gets me:
"We're very fortunate to have this opportunity. Don't get me wrong, I'm from the Columbus area, I know about Cleveland, I'm an Ohio kid, so I understand what this town's about. "
Here's a question for you to ponder. Do people in LA really know what San Fransisco is all about? Does being from California make you understand what a city is all about? What about Philly and Pittsburgh? I hate this guy. Cleveland is 143 miles from Columbus. Dayton is 70 miles from Columbus. I know, Dayton doesn't have a football team. Well Cincinnati does and it's only 106 miles from Columbus. I'm sick of hearing how he knows Cleveland. He's probably a Raider fan. Maybe he should go sign with the Columbus Destroyers of the Arena Football League.
Finally, recently Quinn was charging fans $75 for his autograph at a memorabilia show. Great way to get on the good side of the fans. Remember that Joe McKnight reference? He got called out at practice for shaking hands with a little kid watching. Since Brady Quinn has been out of camp, all he has to do now is win over the fans. It's not tough, he's the quarterback of the future. I can just see Quinn taking $75 from some little kid and putting it in his pocket. Champion.
We will continue to cover Brady Quinn as his story develops. I don't really care if he becomes the next Joe Montana, don't expect anything good to be written about him. The only thing that may save his graces is his agent, Tom Condon. Condon also represents one of my other buddies Matt Leinart. Condon sure can pick 'um.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Hitting Balls Far
Congratulations to Barry Bonds on his historic achievement last night. Unfortunately, I went to sleep but saw him hit for half the cycle before I cashed in. Most remarkably was his double in the second. That ball would have gone out in just about any other park in the country besides Central...pending the starting location.
However, you know what? I can easily hit a ball out into McCovey cove given the right equipment. Even off a tee? Think Barry Bonds can? Maybe. I'm talking about a nice smooth 8 iron though.
In case you failed to notice, the PGA Championship begins tomorrow. Yes, the last word of the previous sentence does say "tomorrow." With all of the Bonds stuff, you may have missed it. Or maybe you saw A-Rod telling Josh Towers how much money he makes yesterday. Then Clemens telling the same thing to Alex Rios. Oh, Brady Quinn is also no longer living in debt. I still hate him.
Anyway, this year we have an interesting PGA scenario. Tiger hasn't won a Major this year and lest we forget, "I just want to win Majors." What Tiger did do last week was blow away the competition at some tournament that I don't remember the name of. Have you noticed how that happens? He wins a lot of majors, and goes up against the best. But he also seemingly runs away with tournaments where the unflappable Rory Sabbatini is a few miles behind in his rear view mirror, hanging out with a bunch of other guys you've never heard of. Charles Howell III is a big deal at these gigs.
He's now "hitting the ball well." I've always failed to understand when he isn't "hitting the ball well." Is he going to win this week? Probably. Did you see my boy's press conference yesterday?
Mickelson was talking about how "great Tiger is for golf" and how so many people "in this room have made a lot of money thanks to him." He also talked about how Tiger drives endorsements. Last I looked, Tiger has cost Phil a lot of money. Remember those tournaments that Phil didn't win because Tiger beat him? Those $5, $6, $7, $8 Million dollar purses? That's a few hundred K per tournament that he didn't invest into mutual funds, or a new life.
I'm not picking anyone to win. I haven't been too successful on that one this year. At least I wasn't talking like Andy North and saying how much of a chance Steve Elkington had to win the Open Championship. It's going to be in the 100's this week in Tulsa. This is actually where golf can get a little dangerous. Watch out for passed out caddies on the 15th fairway.
However, you know what? I can easily hit a ball out into McCovey cove given the right equipment. Even off a tee? Think Barry Bonds can? Maybe. I'm talking about a nice smooth 8 iron though.
In case you failed to notice, the PGA Championship begins tomorrow. Yes, the last word of the previous sentence does say "tomorrow." With all of the Bonds stuff, you may have missed it. Or maybe you saw A-Rod telling Josh Towers how much money he makes yesterday. Then Clemens telling the same thing to Alex Rios. Oh, Brady Quinn is also no longer living in debt. I still hate him.
Anyway, this year we have an interesting PGA scenario. Tiger hasn't won a Major this year and lest we forget, "I just want to win Majors." What Tiger did do last week was blow away the competition at some tournament that I don't remember the name of. Have you noticed how that happens? He wins a lot of majors, and goes up against the best. But he also seemingly runs away with tournaments where the unflappable Rory Sabbatini is a few miles behind in his rear view mirror, hanging out with a bunch of other guys you've never heard of. Charles Howell III is a big deal at these gigs.
He's now "hitting the ball well." I've always failed to understand when he isn't "hitting the ball well." Is he going to win this week? Probably. Did you see my boy's press conference yesterday?
Mickelson was talking about how "great Tiger is for golf" and how so many people "in this room have made a lot of money thanks to him." He also talked about how Tiger drives endorsements. Last I looked, Tiger has cost Phil a lot of money. Remember those tournaments that Phil didn't win because Tiger beat him? Those $5, $6, $7, $8 Million dollar purses? That's a few hundred K per tournament that he didn't invest into mutual funds, or a new life.
I'm not picking anyone to win. I haven't been too successful on that one this year. At least I wasn't talking like Andy North and saying how much of a chance Steve Elkington had to win the Open Championship. It's going to be in the 100's this week in Tulsa. This is actually where golf can get a little dangerous. Watch out for passed out caddies on the 15th fairway.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
South Carolina Isn't Ready to be an SEC Contender
First. I have said it once and I will say it again...USC is in California. Never refer to it as anywhere else.
Reports are that two of Steve Spurrier's latest recruits were denied admission to the University of South Carolina by the admissions department. As the team reported for practice last Friday, they were without two of their newcomers.
As you can imagine, Spurrier wasn't the happiest about this.
"Hopefully, I truly believe this is the last year this is going to happen, because I can't operate like that," Spurrier said. "I can't operate misleading young men."
Apparently, Spurrier doesn't have the same power of authority as he did at Florida. I'm not going to make any direct statements concerning specific players, but UF is a very difficult school to get into, especially out of state. Much harder than South Carolina in fact. Do you think there was, and today is, any problem with getting recruits past admissions? Did you listen to UF's post game interviews last year?
In order to compete in the SEC, or for a national title for that matter, not only your team but the entire university operation has to make the commitment to football excellence. You see it at Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia; places where football players are above all taken care of. At UT, we all experienced these factors first hand. A great story was one of a girl with a broken finger who had been waiting at the clinic for an hour. An over-hyped once blue chip outside linebacker with a single digit number came in, sat next to her, smelled really bad, and was immediately called back. They've gotten around the car issue. But hundred dollar handshakes still exist, as well as all the other standard operating procedures.
Major college athletes get the breaks around campus and in the classroom. It doesn't matter if they are in fact not intelligent, but the fact that they know they can get away with not studying because they are part of the program and the university is going to take care of them allows them not to participate in standard roles of academia.
You can say this is either right or wrong. Again, it doesn't really matter what you think because these are what brings millions of dollars to the university year in and year out. And major universities are accepting that as a business plan.
South Carolina is not yet one of them. Until they accept that they are going to have to do what is necessary to win conference championships playing football in the South Eastern Conference, they simply won't have the resources to do so.
Finally, regarding the quote from Spurrier. Do you really think he cares about misleading young men? Ask Patrick Ramsey about that.
Reports are that two of Steve Spurrier's latest recruits were denied admission to the University of South Carolina by the admissions department. As the team reported for practice last Friday, they were without two of their newcomers.
As you can imagine, Spurrier wasn't the happiest about this.
"Hopefully, I truly believe this is the last year this is going to happen, because I can't operate like that," Spurrier said. "I can't operate misleading young men."
Apparently, Spurrier doesn't have the same power of authority as he did at Florida. I'm not going to make any direct statements concerning specific players, but UF is a very difficult school to get into, especially out of state. Much harder than South Carolina in fact. Do you think there was, and today is, any problem with getting recruits past admissions? Did you listen to UF's post game interviews last year?
In order to compete in the SEC, or for a national title for that matter, not only your team but the entire university operation has to make the commitment to football excellence. You see it at Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia; places where football players are above all taken care of. At UT, we all experienced these factors first hand. A great story was one of a girl with a broken finger who had been waiting at the clinic for an hour. An over-hyped once blue chip outside linebacker with a single digit number came in, sat next to her, smelled really bad, and was immediately called back. They've gotten around the car issue. But hundred dollar handshakes still exist, as well as all the other standard operating procedures.
Major college athletes get the breaks around campus and in the classroom. It doesn't matter if they are in fact not intelligent, but the fact that they know they can get away with not studying because they are part of the program and the university is going to take care of them allows them not to participate in standard roles of academia.
You can say this is either right or wrong. Again, it doesn't really matter what you think because these are what brings millions of dollars to the university year in and year out. And major universities are accepting that as a business plan.
South Carolina is not yet one of them. Until they accept that they are going to have to do what is necessary to win conference championships playing football in the South Eastern Conference, they simply won't have the resources to do so.
Finally, regarding the quote from Spurrier. Do you really think he cares about misleading young men? Ask Patrick Ramsey about that.
Monday, August 6, 2007
People Who Work the Gates at Airports are Not Smarter than You
On one note, Tom Glavine won his 300th game last night. This is a much bigger deal than most people think it is. We may never have another 300 game winner again. I could go into this in great detail. But I really don't want to right now. Another note...he beat the Cubs. This year, the Cubs distributed not only Glavine's 300th win, but Sosa's 600th along with a mutli-homer game to Bonds. Where was Wil Ohman when A-Rod needed him?
That's it for sports. Today, we get to talk about my festivities last night. I was in Chicago coming back to Nashville after a fine weekend. Picked up my birthday present from my parents on Friday, had a great dinner, saw a buddy's apartment, then Saturday went to a great wedding and Sunday went to the Country House. Wonderful.
Sunday evening we got to O'Hare. We got our boarding passes...which were distributed by the machine with no problem and it already said our flight was delayed. I didn't mind too much as the Cubs were on and I enjoy drinking beer. After TSA went through my girlfriend's bag and took most of everything, we were delayed again and at Chili's.
First, I am going to go into the TSA surge. Friday morning before we left, I asked my girlfriend if she was putting all of her stuff into the little plastic bags. She said no, she'd never had to before and her cosmetics, creams, female beauty stuff in general (which she doesn't need anyway) always got through in her cosmetics bag...no questions asked. Friday, much to my surprise, her theory was correct leaving Nashville as she got through unscathed from the TSA monitors. I said, alright, whatever...I'm picking up the new Rolling Stone with the original Guns N' Roses on the cover as it's the 20th anniversary of Appetite for Destruction.
But yesterday, under the precedent of Friday, she packed the same way. This time, she got stopped, and just about everything she had got taken up. My issue isn't that it gotten taken up, but the fact that it should have on Friday. Where is the consistency with this "Homeland Security" movement? As a ridiculously conservative person who recognizes that our safety is the most important thing to our country, it really chaps my backside that at some places you can get away with things and others you can't. If we are going to clamp down on searches, be consistent. Either completely regulate all operations the same way and force people to just not what to not fly commercial, or make sure the FBI, CIA, NSA, whatever, does their homework so the rest of us don't have to be bothered. Personally, I have been in some airports that make you take the plastic bag out, others that don't. If we aren't consistent, what's the point?
Moving back to Chili's, our 8:15 flight got pushed back to 9:45. We had another round. Then 10:30. At about 10 we made our way over to the gate area getting ready to board. We finally saw the people getting off the inbound flight which was a great sign as we might actually make our now 10:45 departure time.
As we start boarding I finally got to the front of the line to get my ticket scanned by the gate agent. Handing her my ticket, I knew I was in an exit row so it was going to beep an extra time to alert the agent that I had enough years on me to operate. The scanner beeped and instead of asking anything about the exit row she said, "Please step aside and see an agent."
A few hours, and a few drinks later, you can imagine I was a bit confused. Both my girlfriend and I were told to talk to her and she told me something like this, "We are having some issues with the weight of the plane. We need to have enough fuel to circle Nashville's airport a few times as they are having issues there. We have to get the calculations of the Valet bags before we can let you on. You were among the last three to make a reservation for this flight, so you might get bumped."
I'm sorry? Do we not need to reserve a seat anymore? Are the last three reservations on a flight not as valuable?
But let's analyze this. Unless everyone on the plane, who supposedly booked their tickets ahead of us is a complete idiot, how exactly would we have gotten exit row seats on an American Eagle commuter jet? These are the most coveted seats on the plane. They get sold first. Not to mention that though Nashville is growing and it's a great place to be a young professional in the business world, it's not the thriving metropolis that requires extra air space at midnight.
Our plane is now scheduled to depart at 10:50.
I've sat on runways for four hours on Thanksgiving Eve. I've been on the runway ready to take off and had to go back to the gate to kick off standby passengers because a connecting flight got in late. But this, telling ticketed passengers they might get bumped might be the worst. This is a complete lie but the stupid woman sitting behind the counter. At least tell us the truth...that you gave seats to people on the earlier canceled flight. Then, the one who gave us this information grabbed her fake Louis Vuitton purse and left, leaving Molly Ringwald and Cindy Lauper behind the counter wondering what color they should paint their toenails and what their boyfriends were going to get the for their birthdays. They obviously didn't see irate me ready to explode (not the best choice of language in the airport) upon them. When you've been waiting this long, you hope the professionals at least continue to act professional.
Finally, we are told that we can get on, but only one valet bag is allowed. I immediately declare mine and she checks the priority list and I'm on top. Boo-Yah. However, I asked, "I'll go, but is my girlfrend next on the list?" The dumbfounded gate agent was like with a really nice 'yo girlfriend' kind of charm, "Do you want to check this bag?!" And I said, "Yes, but if she's not getting on this plane neither am I. I'm not checking her, I'm checking my bag, and she's sitting in her seat that she was assigned two months ago right next to me. Check the list and make sure she's getting on this flight." The title for the Garbage hit "Stupid Girl" was still dumbfounded. Megan stepped on the jet bridge. We went down. When we got to the plane, there was no way I was gate checking my bag. The door of the little thing was shut. The flight attendant said she had no more room and my bag wouldn't fit. As Stupid Girl burned the calories of her three Cinnabon's that she obviously eats every hour on the hour got down to the plane, I was wondering what she was going to do with my bag after assuring me that calculations had come in for one more gate checked bag...the pilot finally came out saw it was a hangup and opened the closet for me. Pilots are smarter than gate agents.
So finally we are on the plane, obviously there are people who moved into our seats because they with they would have booked seats in the exit row, but must have not seen them available since we were the last ones to book our seats. They moved, reluctantly. I hate them. Then, a woman gets on the plane after us with 12B wanting me to get up from my seat and said the agent said to sit in her assigned seat. I fastened my seatbelt, showed her my ticket and said that I was willing to show as many forms of identification as possible. This got a stir out of the crowd who all was now talking about taking a run to Tootsie's once we got in. I clearly started that movement. When we pushed back from the gate, the now rowdy crowd of passengers cheered and clapped.
Moral of the story is this:
The most tragic event of American history happened via the airport. Today, we still have great issues in the airports. If there was a situation, do you think the lying gate agents at G1A could stop anything from happening? I promise you they couldn't recognize it. At least be honest and consistent with the issues that are facing your customers. People have to fly and the airlines have us by the you-know-whats. But honesty, consistency, and integrity go a long way in the world of customer service.
Consistency...Is it hypocritical that I'm supporting Mitt Romney for President in '08?
That's it for sports. Today, we get to talk about my festivities last night. I was in Chicago coming back to Nashville after a fine weekend. Picked up my birthday present from my parents on Friday, had a great dinner, saw a buddy's apartment, then Saturday went to a great wedding and Sunday went to the Country House. Wonderful.
Sunday evening we got to O'Hare. We got our boarding passes...which were distributed by the machine with no problem and it already said our flight was delayed. I didn't mind too much as the Cubs were on and I enjoy drinking beer. After TSA went through my girlfriend's bag and took most of everything, we were delayed again and at Chili's.
First, I am going to go into the TSA surge. Friday morning before we left, I asked my girlfriend if she was putting all of her stuff into the little plastic bags. She said no, she'd never had to before and her cosmetics, creams, female beauty stuff in general (which she doesn't need anyway) always got through in her cosmetics bag...no questions asked. Friday, much to my surprise, her theory was correct leaving Nashville as she got through unscathed from the TSA monitors. I said, alright, whatever...I'm picking up the new Rolling Stone with the original Guns N' Roses on the cover as it's the 20th anniversary of Appetite for Destruction.
But yesterday, under the precedent of Friday, she packed the same way. This time, she got stopped, and just about everything she had got taken up. My issue isn't that it gotten taken up, but the fact that it should have on Friday. Where is the consistency with this "Homeland Security" movement? As a ridiculously conservative person who recognizes that our safety is the most important thing to our country, it really chaps my backside that at some places you can get away with things and others you can't. If we are going to clamp down on searches, be consistent. Either completely regulate all operations the same way and force people to just not what to not fly commercial, or make sure the FBI, CIA, NSA, whatever, does their homework so the rest of us don't have to be bothered. Personally, I have been in some airports that make you take the plastic bag out, others that don't. If we aren't consistent, what's the point?
Moving back to Chili's, our 8:15 flight got pushed back to 9:45. We had another round. Then 10:30. At about 10 we made our way over to the gate area getting ready to board. We finally saw the people getting off the inbound flight which was a great sign as we might actually make our now 10:45 departure time.
As we start boarding I finally got to the front of the line to get my ticket scanned by the gate agent. Handing her my ticket, I knew I was in an exit row so it was going to beep an extra time to alert the agent that I had enough years on me to operate. The scanner beeped and instead of asking anything about the exit row she said, "Please step aside and see an agent."
A few hours, and a few drinks later, you can imagine I was a bit confused. Both my girlfriend and I were told to talk to her and she told me something like this, "We are having some issues with the weight of the plane. We need to have enough fuel to circle Nashville's airport a few times as they are having issues there. We have to get the calculations of the Valet bags before we can let you on. You were among the last three to make a reservation for this flight, so you might get bumped."
I'm sorry? Do we not need to reserve a seat anymore? Are the last three reservations on a flight not as valuable?
But let's analyze this. Unless everyone on the plane, who supposedly booked their tickets ahead of us is a complete idiot, how exactly would we have gotten exit row seats on an American Eagle commuter jet? These are the most coveted seats on the plane. They get sold first. Not to mention that though Nashville is growing and it's a great place to be a young professional in the business world, it's not the thriving metropolis that requires extra air space at midnight.
Our plane is now scheduled to depart at 10:50.
I've sat on runways for four hours on Thanksgiving Eve. I've been on the runway ready to take off and had to go back to the gate to kick off standby passengers because a connecting flight got in late. But this, telling ticketed passengers they might get bumped might be the worst. This is a complete lie but the stupid woman sitting behind the counter. At least tell us the truth...that you gave seats to people on the earlier canceled flight. Then, the one who gave us this information grabbed her fake Louis Vuitton purse and left, leaving Molly Ringwald and Cindy Lauper behind the counter wondering what color they should paint their toenails and what their boyfriends were going to get the for their birthdays. They obviously didn't see irate me ready to explode (not the best choice of language in the airport) upon them. When you've been waiting this long, you hope the professionals at least continue to act professional.
Finally, we are told that we can get on, but only one valet bag is allowed. I immediately declare mine and she checks the priority list and I'm on top. Boo-Yah. However, I asked, "I'll go, but is my girlfrend next on the list?" The dumbfounded gate agent was like with a really nice 'yo girlfriend' kind of charm, "Do you want to check this bag?!" And I said, "Yes, but if she's not getting on this plane neither am I. I'm not checking her, I'm checking my bag, and she's sitting in her seat that she was assigned two months ago right next to me. Check the list and make sure she's getting on this flight." The title for the Garbage hit "Stupid Girl" was still dumbfounded. Megan stepped on the jet bridge. We went down. When we got to the plane, there was no way I was gate checking my bag. The door of the little thing was shut. The flight attendant said she had no more room and my bag wouldn't fit. As Stupid Girl burned the calories of her three Cinnabon's that she obviously eats every hour on the hour got down to the plane, I was wondering what she was going to do with my bag after assuring me that calculations had come in for one more gate checked bag...the pilot finally came out saw it was a hangup and opened the closet for me. Pilots are smarter than gate agents.
So finally we are on the plane, obviously there are people who moved into our seats because they with they would have booked seats in the exit row, but must have not seen them available since we were the last ones to book our seats. They moved, reluctantly. I hate them. Then, a woman gets on the plane after us with 12B wanting me to get up from my seat and said the agent said to sit in her assigned seat. I fastened my seatbelt, showed her my ticket and said that I was willing to show as many forms of identification as possible. This got a stir out of the crowd who all was now talking about taking a run to Tootsie's once we got in. I clearly started that movement. When we pushed back from the gate, the now rowdy crowd of passengers cheered and clapped.
Moral of the story is this:
The most tragic event of American history happened via the airport. Today, we still have great issues in the airports. If there was a situation, do you think the lying gate agents at G1A could stop anything from happening? I promise you they couldn't recognize it. At least be honest and consistent with the issues that are facing your customers. People have to fly and the airlines have us by the you-know-whats. But honesty, consistency, and integrity go a long way in the world of customer service.
Consistency...Is it hypocritical that I'm supporting Mitt Romney for President in '08?
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Breaking Down the Heisman Trophy
29 Days and 8 Hours from the start of this post, life will officially begin again. We will have college football.
Polls will soon be coming out and the talk shows continue to get more and more play. Today, we are going to examine the Heisman Trophy: what it stands for, what type of player most deserves it, and who the favorites are this year in New York.
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award is the most prestigious "best player of the year" honor a college football player can be awarded. Now, if we take this verbatim, a player at any single position can win this honor. Therefore, if this year USC Senior left tackle Sam Baker is the best player in the country and absolutely dominates his competition, he should win the award - by definition. If in 1997, a defensive back from Michigan not only dominates his side of the ball by shutting down opposing receivers, as well as returning punts for touchdowns and catching passes, he should win the award - by definition.
We all know this isn't how it usually works. The trophy is a statuette of a ball carrier and only once in the 72 times the award has been handed out has it gone to a defensive star. A great deal of weight these days, especially recently, has been put on a candidate's team success...like last year. Although this is an important factor, it is more of a factor which can describe the candidate's value to his team.
For example, the 2005 runner up; who someone who writes here everyday said should have won the Heisman from about week 7, and then proved that he was in fact better than the entire team of not only the '05 and '04 Heisman winners in the BCS Title Game. Vince Young's Texas team was undefeated going into it's match up against Heisman Winners Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart. The difference? Texas would not have been in that game without Young. Without Bush, LenDale White would have rolled through the Pac-10 on his own into the BCS Title game. This creates the value behind Young and his team's record...unlike Troy Smith who while he played big against Michigan, was one of the least impressive Heisman winners of recent history in my eyes during the regular season, and most certainly was pitiful in the post season.
I'm a big fan of the highlight tape. I think it is much more important than stats when looking at Heisman candidates. Stats can be inflated, especially when you look at jokers like Brady Quinn. Though Quinn did play well in a few big games at Notre Dame, his touchdown 5 touchdown games came against the likes of ND opponents that go to school with a focus on defending our country, not their own endzone. Thankfully much to his mother's dismay, Quinn didn't win the award.
Peter Warrick would have won the Heisman in '99 had the Dillard's incident not happened. Why? Not because of his stats...but because he had one of the most exciting highlight tapes in recent history. After Warrick's fallout with voters, Ron Dayne, the new all-time rushing leader from Wisconsin won the award...with no attention to the highlight tape whatsoever. The race for the '99 award was over barring something happening to Warrick, before the season began. It did, and once Dayne broke the record, it was over as no one wanted to give the award for the first time to a freshman quarterback from upstart Virginia Tech. Today, we finally all see why.
Just because quarterbacks, for the most part, don't have open field runs, sick moves, and shots of them running people over on tape, doesn't mean they don't have a highlight tape worthy to compete with receivers and backs. Chris Weinke had some amazing throws...the one I most vividly remember was a 99 yard touchdown pass to Snoop Minnis after giving a fake in his own endzone and completely turning his back to the defense with the greatest ball fake I have ever seen. Peyton Manning's highlight tape of throws between two defenders is also quite impressive. And Troy Smith did have that one throw last year.
So what have we concluded here? The Heisman Trophy winner needs to be the main contributor to his team and put them in contention for championships and he must have the great plays to back it up. Stats will follow those key aspects but Most Valuable means the player can't be lived with out. Not the leader of the best team...the most irreplaceable player on a competing team. But, though I believe these are the most important traits, how much do they matter?
When high schoolers pick a college, many of them have to decide from a number of factors as how they want their career to go. If you want to play in the pros, Miami, Florida State and Tennessee are the three schools with the most players in the NFL Today. If you want the best competition, go to the SEC, but if you want to win a Heisman...why go anywhere but USC, Michigan or Ohio State.
Why you ask? ESPN of course. The media loves these three schools. They get more attention than any other schools in the country. In turn, their greatest players get more attention. Since 1995, six Heisman Winners have come from these schools. Grant, they had good teams and the players were good, but seriously.
I've asked many people, Ohio State fans, Big Ten fans, anyone really who knows about college football to explain to me why Eddie George won the Heisman in '95. No one can give me a straight answer. I will argue with and against anyone that Tommie Frazier was the best college football player that year, and that I've probably ever seen. I credit the media for that award going to Ohio State and not Nebraska. We all know about Woodson, who in deed was probably the nation's best player in '97...but got plenty of help from ESPN and Chris Fowler's hatred of Tennessee fans and the "trailer trash" comment. Lest we forget, if the Colts played the Florida Gators tomorrow, I'd take the Gators just as long as Manning was their opposing QB.
Carson Palmer's win was semi-legit. But how Willis McGahee didn't win is beyond me as he clearly was the most dominant player in the country that year. Leinart was simply the quarterback of the #1 team and Bush was a solid choice and I understand why he got the winning votes. Even though everyone who voted for him was wrong, and finally Troy Smith, like Leinart was the quarterback of the #1 team. It's amazing how a network can put the correct games on television and say enough of the right things to get votes. Not to mention, have enough people on the payroll who are in fact voting themselves.
This year is going to be very interesting in the Heisman race, barring injury or heavily discounted goods at department stores. The two top pre-season choices, in my opinion are West Virginia's Steve Slaton and Arkansas' Darren McFadden. Both of these guys are EXPLOSIVE running backs capable of going the distance with a flash of daylight in front of them. What's the catch? These guys, right now are the two best players in the country, no questions asked. How can they lose their Heisman hopes? Talks of Michigan's formidable back Mike Hart and USC's quarterback John David Booty are running around as Heisman hopefuls as well. Do you think anyone at Walt Disney wants someone from Arkansas or West Virginia to win it? That's Slaton and McFadden's biggest obstacle...not anyone on their schedules.
It's going to be an interesting year in the Heisman watch. There are a lot of good players out there and who knows who is going to come out of the wood works. An SEC quarterback? A Big 12 runner? Who knows...and who knows how it will shape up at the end. Stay tuned for updates, especially if Sam Baker dominates the way he should. From LA, we will certianly hear a lot about it.
Polls will soon be coming out and the talk shows continue to get more and more play. Today, we are going to examine the Heisman Trophy: what it stands for, what type of player most deserves it, and who the favorites are this year in New York.
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award is the most prestigious "best player of the year" honor a college football player can be awarded. Now, if we take this verbatim, a player at any single position can win this honor. Therefore, if this year USC Senior left tackle Sam Baker is the best player in the country and absolutely dominates his competition, he should win the award - by definition. If in 1997, a defensive back from Michigan not only dominates his side of the ball by shutting down opposing receivers, as well as returning punts for touchdowns and catching passes, he should win the award - by definition.
We all know this isn't how it usually works. The trophy is a statuette of a ball carrier and only once in the 72 times the award has been handed out has it gone to a defensive star. A great deal of weight these days, especially recently, has been put on a candidate's team success...like last year. Although this is an important factor, it is more of a factor which can describe the candidate's value to his team.
For example, the 2005 runner up; who someone who writes here everyday said should have won the Heisman from about week 7, and then proved that he was in fact better than the entire team of not only the '05 and '04 Heisman winners in the BCS Title Game. Vince Young's Texas team was undefeated going into it's match up against Heisman Winners Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart. The difference? Texas would not have been in that game without Young. Without Bush, LenDale White would have rolled through the Pac-10 on his own into the BCS Title game. This creates the value behind Young and his team's record...unlike Troy Smith who while he played big against Michigan, was one of the least impressive Heisman winners of recent history in my eyes during the regular season, and most certainly was pitiful in the post season.
I'm a big fan of the highlight tape. I think it is much more important than stats when looking at Heisman candidates. Stats can be inflated, especially when you look at jokers like Brady Quinn. Though Quinn did play well in a few big games at Notre Dame, his touchdown 5 touchdown games came against the likes of ND opponents that go to school with a focus on defending our country, not their own endzone. Thankfully much to his mother's dismay, Quinn didn't win the award.
Peter Warrick would have won the Heisman in '99 had the Dillard's incident not happened. Why? Not because of his stats...but because he had one of the most exciting highlight tapes in recent history. After Warrick's fallout with voters, Ron Dayne, the new all-time rushing leader from Wisconsin won the award...with no attention to the highlight tape whatsoever. The race for the '99 award was over barring something happening to Warrick, before the season began. It did, and once Dayne broke the record, it was over as no one wanted to give the award for the first time to a freshman quarterback from upstart Virginia Tech. Today, we finally all see why.
Just because quarterbacks, for the most part, don't have open field runs, sick moves, and shots of them running people over on tape, doesn't mean they don't have a highlight tape worthy to compete with receivers and backs. Chris Weinke had some amazing throws...the one I most vividly remember was a 99 yard touchdown pass to Snoop Minnis after giving a fake in his own endzone and completely turning his back to the defense with the greatest ball fake I have ever seen. Peyton Manning's highlight tape of throws between two defenders is also quite impressive. And Troy Smith did have that one throw last year.
So what have we concluded here? The Heisman Trophy winner needs to be the main contributor to his team and put them in contention for championships and he must have the great plays to back it up. Stats will follow those key aspects but Most Valuable means the player can't be lived with out. Not the leader of the best team...the most irreplaceable player on a competing team. But, though I believe these are the most important traits, how much do they matter?
When high schoolers pick a college, many of them have to decide from a number of factors as how they want their career to go. If you want to play in the pros, Miami, Florida State and Tennessee are the three schools with the most players in the NFL Today. If you want the best competition, go to the SEC, but if you want to win a Heisman...why go anywhere but USC, Michigan or Ohio State.
Why you ask? ESPN of course. The media loves these three schools. They get more attention than any other schools in the country. In turn, their greatest players get more attention. Since 1995, six Heisman Winners have come from these schools. Grant, they had good teams and the players were good, but seriously.
I've asked many people, Ohio State fans, Big Ten fans, anyone really who knows about college football to explain to me why Eddie George won the Heisman in '95. No one can give me a straight answer. I will argue with and against anyone that Tommie Frazier was the best college football player that year, and that I've probably ever seen. I credit the media for that award going to Ohio State and not Nebraska. We all know about Woodson, who in deed was probably the nation's best player in '97...but got plenty of help from ESPN and Chris Fowler's hatred of Tennessee fans and the "trailer trash" comment. Lest we forget, if the Colts played the Florida Gators tomorrow, I'd take the Gators just as long as Manning was their opposing QB.
Carson Palmer's win was semi-legit. But how Willis McGahee didn't win is beyond me as he clearly was the most dominant player in the country that year. Leinart was simply the quarterback of the #1 team and Bush was a solid choice and I understand why he got the winning votes. Even though everyone who voted for him was wrong, and finally Troy Smith, like Leinart was the quarterback of the #1 team. It's amazing how a network can put the correct games on television and say enough of the right things to get votes. Not to mention, have enough people on the payroll who are in fact voting themselves.
This year is going to be very interesting in the Heisman race, barring injury or heavily discounted goods at department stores. The two top pre-season choices, in my opinion are West Virginia's Steve Slaton and Arkansas' Darren McFadden. Both of these guys are EXPLOSIVE running backs capable of going the distance with a flash of daylight in front of them. What's the catch? These guys, right now are the two best players in the country, no questions asked. How can they lose their Heisman hopes? Talks of Michigan's formidable back Mike Hart and USC's quarterback John David Booty are running around as Heisman hopefuls as well. Do you think anyone at Walt Disney wants someone from Arkansas or West Virginia to win it? That's Slaton and McFadden's biggest obstacle...not anyone on their schedules.
It's going to be an interesting year in the Heisman watch. There are a lot of good players out there and who knows who is going to come out of the wood works. An SEC quarterback? A Big 12 runner? Who knows...and who knows how it will shape up at the end. Stay tuned for updates, especially if Sam Baker dominates the way he should. From LA, we will certianly hear a lot about it.
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