Tainted
Yeah winning a lot of games is nice but one has to wonder if the combined cost of the O.J. Mayo and Reggie Bush scandals is worth it for USC?
Labels: sports
|
Blog
Well, hockey season is over for me. I'd rather not talk about it. It could be worse, I could be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan I guess. Could Mikka Kiprusoff be this generation's Pete Peeters? The Blue Jays released Frank Thomas before his anger could be too much of a disruption in the club house. Despite hitting some home runs, Thomas' bat speed had slowed and was hitting .167 which most of the Blue Jays pitching staff could hit if pressed into service so I am not sure why he is so surprised. I imagine Tampa Bay will pick him up for 30 games or so but other than that, I think his career is done. While I wasn't a big fan of his signing in Toronto, I liked him in Chicago and Oakland. Too bad he had lost so much bat speed by the time he had gotten to Toronto. Even he didn't bring much offense to Toronto, he did leave them with a pretty good promotional commercial. It's funny, despite my hometown hosting the Olympics in 1988, I am not that big fan of the Olympics. I don't see the Olympic ideal any different than any other professional sport so I don't feel that much affinity with it. Dan Wetzel puts it. As the news pours out of China about the latest round of murdered monks and slaughtered nuns, as crowds around the world protest the Olympic torch, the prevailing wisdom now is that the Beijing Olympics are looking like, if we're lucky, merely a redo of the 1936 Berlin Games. And that's only in the unlikely event the bloodshed ends. And so the International Olympic Committee's apologists are claiming the ridiculous decision to award this summer's games to China in the first place was a worthwhile gamble to modernize the host country even though it appears to be a bet that they will lose. But this was no gamble. No person with even a modicum of sense could have believed the Olympics would cause China to reverse course on human rights, democracy, freedom and the environment. To believe it overnight would turn into Switzerland is not gambling, it's insanity. Nor would anyone think that freedom seekers in Tibet, their cries mostly ignored for the last 50 years, would decide to just stand down as world attention finally turns to them just because they didn't want to embarrass the very government they believe persecutes them. No, this was a straight sellout, not a gamble. The IOC willingly purchased the unholy bill of goods China was peddling so its sponsoring corporations could, in turn, sell stuff to the Chinese people. Maybe they offered up a prayer that it would work or maybe they just cashed the checks. Either way it's a decision that gets more shameful each day and, as we go past the point of turning back, the ultimate example of how the reality of the Olympics is at the polar extreme of its supposed "spirit." And it's the people in charge's fault. Macleans tries to answer the age old question, why do the Toronto Maple Leafs stink so badly? God hates the blue and white — it's that belief which binds together all those who call themselves citizens of Leafs Nation. On talk radio, in chat rooms, and in sports bars across the country (but mainly in southern Ontario) they share the misery of loving a team that does not give back. Not ever. Their bond is galvanized by the common struggle against forces beyond their control, and by the knowledge that they are hated (vehemently) by fans in Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver and beyond. It's that sense of grievance and isolation that, in the absence of anything real to celebrate, holds them all together. The only problem with all this talk of curses is that there are perfectly logical reasons for the Leafs' legacy of failure. The fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs are a bad hockey club is the inevitable by-product of the laws of economics. Their mediocrity is a design flaw, and it comes down to this: for any business to thrive, it must be obsessively focused on victory. Success must yield powerful benefits and failure must unleash harsh consequences. In the world's greatest market for pro hockey, that cost/benefit equation doesn't exist. A gusher of wealth, regardless of performance, has begat 40 years of infighting, a culture of laxity, and a refusal to admit the problem. The Leafs are a monopoly business that has been corrupted by its own market power. I was stunned to see the NBA home attendance numbers. The Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Hornets are drawing under 13,000 people a game according to ESPN. A third of the league seems to have a problem drawing fans. Of course this wouldn't be a problem if television numbers were not going down as well. For me the big surprise isn't New Orleans drawing under 13,000 but Indiana drawing so poorly. Now the NHL has some problems of its own but they are at least drawing over 80% capacity and they have some horrible hockey markets they are trying to break into (Nashville, Florida, Phoenix, Los Angeles) The game wasn't that great to watch. The Huskies jumped to a 10 point first quarter lead and then extended it to 25 by the fourth when the reserves were subbed in on mass. Alberta began to play physically in the second half but the Huskies were making their free throws and it just created a lot of easy baskets. Two weeks from now the plan is to head back to the PAC watch the Huskies host the University of Calgary Dinosaurs for the season finale. Depending on how the cookie crumbles, we may be able to take in a playoff game or two. More photos can be found on Flickr here. You can view it as a slideshow here. Labels: basketball, Mark Cooper, photography, Saskatoon, sports, Wendy Cooper Rick Bennett has a list of his ten favorite NFL players. I know such a list is subjective but he has it all wrong. How can one not cheer for the greatest backup of all time, Steve DeBerg? You can check out his list but I'll post the correct list below of favorite players of all time. 10. Ottis "OJ" Anderson :: MVP of XXV and the cornerstone of perhaps the most boring Super Bowl winning offense ever. In 1989, Anderson become the top running back for Bill Parcells' ball control offense and was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year. He scored a career high 14 rushing touchdowns, and rushed for 1,023 yards on 325 carries. He was also the top running back for the Giants the following year, when they won Super Bowl XXV, and was named Super Bowl MVP for his 102 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. As a testament to the Giants' ball control strategy, their time of possession was double that of the Buffalo Bills, their opponents, in the first Super Bowl without a turnover. 9. Steve DeBerg :: DeBerg passed for over 34,000 career yards, and ranks in the top 20 all-time for attempts, completions, and yards passing. DeBerg's best years were with the Chiefs, during which he led the team to two playoff berths and had his best year in 1990 with a 101.2 quarterback rating, passing for 3,444 yards, 23 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. Chronologically, most of his career was spent in a back-up role, and he never spent more than 64 games with any one team. He also did really well at those stupid NFL QB Skills competitions that gave us NFL-oholics a quick fix during the spring. 8. Don Majkowski :: 10th round pick starts his rookie year and later goes on to throw for 4,000+ yards proving that NFL talent evaluators don't know a lot more than you or I. 7. Rodney Peete :: 16 years in the league but I grew up watching Detroit cable and who else was I going to root for. Andre Ware, Scott Mitchell, Erik Kramer. 6. Damon Allen :: He was 43 this year and still playing professional football. He is a grandfather. He has approximately 20,000 more passing yards than second-place Danny McManus. In addition, he stands fifteenth on the all time professional rushing list (third on the all time CFL list behind Mike Pringle and George Reed) and he stood only 464 yards behind his brother Marcus. Damon is widely considered the best football player to never play in the NFL I have seen his play a couple of times live and the amazing thing is that he never looks that dangerous or that effective but 70,554 passing yards, a couple of championships, and a lot of wins. Apparently he is that good. 5. Roger Craig :: He didn't need a dance, he just high stepped into the end zone again and again. The funny thing is that when Tom Rathman and him were in San Francisco, the 49ers were known as a finesse team but the truth is that the 49ers could run over any team any time they needed to. Of course he would have rated higher but he decided to play for the Raiders. 4. Bo Jackson :: The hit on the Boz on MNF just about sums it up. Oh yeah he ran a 40 in 4.12 seconds which is just sick. 3. Warren Moon :: Five Grey Cup wins in Edmonton. Growing up in Calgary, we didn't even cheer for the Stampeders, we cheered for the Warren Moon lead Eskimos. After he went south and played in Houston, I remember watching him lead his Oilers against the old Cleveland Browns while growing up. The Dawg Pound, Bernie Kosar, Jerry Glanville, and a stupid looking muff around his waist. Moon held the record for most passing yardage in professional football until surpassed by Damon Allen, held the record for most passing touchdowns in professional football until surpassed by Brett Favre, and held the record for most pass completions in professional football until surpassed by Brett Favre. He still holds the record for most pass attempts in professional football history with 9,205 2. Steve Atwater :: He was one of the most violent hitters I have ever seen. Many thought he should have been the MVP of Superbowl XXII. Here is his resume. Eight Pro Bowls, six All-Pro team selections (2 unanimous), two Vince Lombardi Trophies, 1301 tackles over a 10 year Bronco career, selection to the NFL's All-Decade team for the 1990s, a Denver Broncos Ring of Fame inductee with only 5 missed games over his Bronco career, Atwater's reputation as a fierce hitter, his leadership role as Captain of the Broncos defense, as well as his contributions during Super Bowls XXIV, XXXII, and XXXIII. 1. John Elway :: Unless you are a Cleveland Browns fan who is still bitter after Elway ruined your reason for breathing with The Drive, you recognize that Elway is the greatest QB ever. He also set the trend for bad QB's in Baltimore before it was even cool. He refused to play for the Colts and got a trade to Denver after being drafted first overall. Elway also holds the record for most game-winning or game-tying scoring drives in the fourth quarter, with 47. Elway holds the rather undesirable record for most times being sacked (516) and most career Super Bowl interceptions, with eight picks in the five title games he played. He also ended his career with 148 victories, good for second place behind Brett Favre for most wins by a starting quarterback. He finished his career with 774 rushing attempts, one shy of NFL record-holder Randall Cunningham (775) for rushes by a quarterback. Elway's 3,417 rushing yards ranks sixth all-time among NFL QB's behind Cunningham, Steve Young, Michael Vick, Fran Tarkenton, and Steve McNair. Elway threw for 1,128 yards in his five Super Bowls, second only to Joe Montana's record of 1,142 yards. His 76 Super Bowl pass completions rank him third behind Montana and Jim Kelly. Kent Austin bailed out on Saskatchewan again and is leaving the Roughriders to be the offensive coordinator at Ole Miss. I can't be too angry at Austin as he did lead Saskatchewan to a Grey Cup and Eric Tillman is still the General Manager (In Eric We Trust) and the opportunity to be an offensive coordinator at a SEC school is a great opportunity but... there is a lot of anxiety right now in Riderville. Why would he leave Regina for Ole Miss, well Austin played quarterback at the University of Mississippi from 1981 to 1985 and grew up in nearby Nashville. He is Ole Miss's second all-time passer and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame. It is pretty hard to compete with that. Still, it is like a kick to the groin for the faithful today. Of course if he ever comes back, it appears that he has a future in politics. Labels: football, Saskatchewan, sports It pains me to say this but congratulations to the San Diego Chargers for beating the Indianapolis Colts. Oh yeah, they did it without Philip Rivers or LaDamian Tomlinson for most of the game. Apparently Norv Turner can coach. In the end it was the offensive line completely dominating the front seven of the Indianapolis Colts who couldn't rush Billy Volek or stop the run. Expect much gloating on Mike DeVries blog this week. Wow, I never thought I would see this. You know how teams sometimes file protests after some official mistake or other hurts them in a game? It's a cute little formality. Until today. The League has agreed with the protesting team, and as a result, the Miami Heat will get a do-over of the last minute or so of a game they lost to the Atlanta Hawks. Shaquille O'Neal fouled out of that game with 51.9 seconds left, but as it turns out, he in fact only had five fouls. So the next time those two teams play, they will first finish their last game. It'll be the shortest basketball game in history, I suppose. Hope those coaches have some good plays ready. Labels: basketball, sports Labels: basketball, sports The book is the story of Michael Oher, a kid from the ghettos of Memphis who somehow ends up at a private Christian school and is taken under the wings of a wealthy family and almost accidentally discovers football (his passion is basketball) and whose combination of strength, size, agility, and speed makes him the kind of left tackle that colleges and the NFL fantasize about. As a confessed NFL-aholic, I have to admit that I loved the X and O's in the book but in many ways the book is a story of living out the faith. A big part of the story is about the Tuohy's. Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy were wealthy white evangelical Christians from the south. They were Republicans and had a daughter in a prestigious private Christian school not known for having a lot of blacks. After Sean initially made sure Michael's lunches were paid for (lunch isn't free at private schools), the got more and more involved until on Lee Anne's initiative they took a 16 year old kid who would not speak, had no social skills and in many ways had no hope into their home. There are a couple of memorable lines from this transition. The next day in the afternoon, Leigh Anne left her business — she had her own interior-decorating firm — turned up at Briarcrest, picked up Michael and took off with him. A few hours later, Sean’s cellphone rang. His wife was on the other end. “Do you know how big a 58-long jacket is?” she asked. “How big?” “Not big enough.” After the Tuohy's decided that Michael would be moving in with them, there was one big problem where do you put a guy who a fifty-eight long is too small for. As she organized his clothing, Leigh Anne stewed on where to put this huge human being. The sofa clearly would not do--"it was ruining my ten-thousand-dollar couch"--but she was worried that no ordinary bed would hold him, or, if it did, it might collapse during the middle of the night and he and it would come hurtling through the ceiling. Sean had mentioned that he recalled some of the larger football players at Ole Miss sleeping on futons. That day Leigh Anne went out and bought a futon and a dresser. The day the futon arrived,s he showed it to Michael and said, "That's your bed." And he said, "That's my bed?" And she said, "That's your bed." And he just stared at it a bit and said, "This is the first time I ever had my own bed." This line kind of blew me away. From the moment Michael moved in with them, Sean began to stew on his future. ("Because I figured I was going to have to pay for it.") Michael was approaching the end of his junior year in high school, and while they hadn't seen his transcripts, they knew his grades were poor. Since Myrtle Beach he'd been good enough of the basketball team that Sean thought he might be able to play at a small college. "And if I figured if he wasn't, I could make him good enough," said Sean. Of course the next year he discovered football and became dominant but his marks were too poor to get into college. That didn't stop Sean or Lee Anne. To get into the N.F.L., Michael Oher needed to first get into college. And to get into college, he needed to meet the academic standards prescribed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The N.C.A.A. had a sliding scale of ACT scores and grade-point averages; the higher the ACT, the lower the required G.P.A. Given Michael’s best ACT score, to play college football he would need a 2.65 overall G.P.A. He had finished his sophomore year with a 0.9. A better performance at the back end of his junior year, when he moved into the Tuohy home, raised his cumulative average to 1.564. That’s when Leigh Anne took over more completely. Before Michael’s senior year, she called all his teachers at Briarcrest and asked them to tell her exactly what Michael had to do to earn at least a B in their classes. She didn’t expect them to just hand Michael a grade — though she wouldn’t have complained if they did. But to her way of thinking, a B was the fair minimum to give any normal person willing to take the simple steps. She would hound Michael until he took those steps. Just give me the list of things he needs to do, she told the teachers, and he will do them. Two days into his senior year, he came home, dropped his massive backpack onto the kitchen table and said, “I can’t do this.” Leigh Anne thought he was about to cry. The next morning, she told him to suck it up and pushed him right back out the door. But that’s when Leigh Anne brought in Sue Mitchell, whom she met at a sorority function. As a tool for overhauling the grade-point average of Michael Oher, as well as for broadening his experience of white people, Sue Mitchell had a number of things to recommend her. In her 35-year career she taught at several Memphis-area public schools. At Bartlett High School, just outside Memphis, she took over the cheerleading squad and whipped it into five-time national champions. She applied to work at the Briarcrest Christian School, but Briarcrest rejected her out of hand because though Mitchell said she believed in God, she had trouble proving it. (“The application did not have one question about education,” Mitchell says. “It was all about religion and what I thought about homosexuality and drinking and smoking.”) She wasn’t born again, and she didn’t often go to church. She also advertised herself as a liberal. When Sean heard that, he hooted at her, “We had a black son before we had a Democrat friend!” Still, in spite of these presumed defects, Mitchell was relentless and effusive — the sort of woman who wants everything to be just great between her and the rest of the world but, if it isn’t, can adjust and go to war. And that’s what she did. She worked five nights a week, four hours each night, free, to help get Michael Oher into Ole Miss, her alma mater. The Tuohy family looked on with interest. “There were days when he was just overwhelmed,” says Collins, who saw the academic drama unfold both at school and at home. “He’d just close his book and say, ‘I’m done.”’ When he did this, Mitchell opened the book for him. She didn’t care much about football, but she fairly quickly became attached to Michael. There was just something about him that made you want to help him. He tried so hard and for so little return. “One night it wasn’t going so well, and I got frustrated,” Mitchell says, “and he said to me, ‘Miss Sue, you have to remember I’ve only been going to school for two years.”’ His senior year he made all A’s and B’s. It nearly killed him, but he did it. The Briarcrest academic marathon, in which Michael started out a distant last and had instantly fallen farther behind, came to a surprising end: in a class of 157 students, he finished 154th. He had caught up to and passed three of his classmates. When Sean saw the final report card, he turned to Michael with a straight face and said, “You didn’t lose; you just ran out of time.” A lot of people would have given up at that point. Now it was Sean’s turn to intervene. From a friend, Sean learned about the Internet courses offered by Brigham Young University. The B.Y.U. courses had magical properties: a grade took a mere 10 days to obtain and could be used to replace a grade from an entire semester on a high-school transcript. Pick the courses shrewdly and work quickly, and the most tawdry academic record could be renovated in a single summer. Sean scanned the B.Y.U. catalog and found a promising series. It was called “Character Education.” All you had to do in such a “character course” was to read a few brief passages from famous works — a speech by Lou Gehrig here, a letter by Abraham Lincoln there — and then answer five questions about it. How hard could it be? The A’s earned from character courses could be used to replace F’s earned in high-school English classes. And Michael never needed to leave the house! The book is about football but it is also a story on what the Christian faith looks like in practice. I think many people would look at a Michael Oher when he was 16 and think twice about talking to him let alone adopting him. As Lewis writes the story, it isn't just his salvation that Tuohy's were interested in, it was about helping a person for the sake of doing the right thing (something they had a history of doing according to book). A combination of work, the holiday season, and the book has had me thinking about how to tackle bigger societal problems. I understand what Sojourners is trying to do and I am a liberal and believe that the government has a role in the solution (and helps create problems as well) but I am under no illusions that by fixing the system, one can solve societal problems. I grew up going to good schools and while there were many idiots there, everyone knew how to read and write. They had learned to learn over the years and while some chose not to, it was their choice. Working at the shelter, I found myself amongst many people who are not in the rat race but are simply struggling to eat and stay warm. That's it. The system keeps them going one day more at a time and for many that is it for their entire life. Poverty has become a life sentence. Maybe it was caused by fetal alcohol syndrome, untreated mental health issues, abuse, or generations of indifferent parenting but it is going to take a long term effort to work itself out. For FAS victims alone, they many experience secondary disabilities on top of the FAS. All of these make it extremely function within society which is combined with a relatively low income earning potential. So whose responsibility are those that can not function well in society? Canadians tend to default to the government (our social safety nets) but that only helps a certain percentage. Social workers tend to be overwhelmed since the budget cuts in social services in the mid-90s. Several churches I know have really tried to make a difference but many efforts are programs where the end result is the distribution of goods on a limited scale which can be a good thing but as David Fitch argues effectively in his book, The Great Giveaway it isn't justice we are performing. We aren't changing lives (although it is important to help a person continue on until help can be had). The solution isn't to not help but rather go further and get more involved and work towards something better in community. Of course that sounds a lot easier than what it is to do which explains why it doesn't happen more. The church does get bashed unfairly at times because in many ways the inner city ministries and churches that are the most closely situated to the problem often have the fewest resources for dealing with this. Those that have the resources are often a long way removed intellectually and world view from those that have the need. That may make what happened in the book all the more remarkable, someone moved out of their comfort zone and at risk to their family and themselves and became intimately involved in that person's life. Churches are often hindered by a classroom/lecture style of discipleship (the sermon and class) that is ineffective with people who have never been taught that style of learning (Saskatoon has around 1500 truant school kids according to several reports and when they grow up, I would imagine they would be very similar to Michael Oher and very hard to teach). I don't know in the end what to make that part of the book. It is an issue I wrestle with and wonder what I need to be doing to make a bigger difference in more lives. I see an awful lot of pain and suffering and my prayer every morning is that I make some positive difference in the lives I cross at the shelter and at home. Labels: book reviews, books, Christianity, church, discipleship, football, sports As Michael Ventre points out, there has been some integrity issues in Neuheisel's past and for many coaches, those never, ever go away. I know the CIAU athletics is something completely different than the NCAA and isn't even in the same league (now that I think about it, that pun is intended) but I am proud to be a University of Saskatchewan Huskie football fan. Part of that is because of the integrity that Brian Towris has run the program over the last 22 years. Yeah they win a lot but they win by the rules. For all of the winning, they have won within the rules. So have coaches like Joe Paterno. I hope Neuheisel can prove me wrong for the four or five diehard UCLA fans that aren't cheering for USC but I fear that Ventre is correct. The sad thing is that I have watched this bowl game on more than one occasion. The original recipe for bowl disappointment, though, comes from Shreveport, La.: The Independence Bowl, better known to you and me as the former Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl. The GMAC, the Motor City, the Meineke Car Care Bowl ... they all owe a debt of gratitude to the Independence Bowl, which came along in 1976 and innovated the bowl scene by removing the requirement of being "a destination city" from the criteria. Teams used to go somewhere for their bowl games; Shreveport proved that football fans were so desperate for games they were willing to ditch the requirement of a holiday destination to watch games between .500 teams playing for payouts barely covering their expenses (if they're lucky). It isn't fun making the transition to Division I, NCAA basketball. Another way is to look at Presbyterian, which is one of about 24 colleges in the last decade to move up to Division I, the top National Collegiate Athletic Association level, in the hope of gaining exposure, money and a little bit of glory to help put their programs and universities on the map. One day, Coach Gregg Nibert said, he hopes the Blue Hose will be able to go punch for punch on the court, at least with teams in the smaller Division I conferences like the Big South, which Presbyterian will join next year. But for now, he is content to barnstorm, collecting $25,000 to $60,000 per appearance at Madison Square Garden-sized college arenas. After a season of predictable poundings, he will come home with about $650,000 for Presbyterian’s coffers. Labels: basketball, sports From the Guardian Before we begin today, let me ask a quick question: are there any readers of this column who believe that Gary Bettman is doing a good job? If not, then do any readers of this column know anyone who believes that Bettman is doing a good job? No? OK, then do you know of anyone who believes Bettman is doing a good job? Can you even imagine anyone who believes he's doing a good job? Funny, me neither. Here's what my years trying to follow a puck on TV or from increasingly expensive seats in NHL arenas have taught me: the more hardcore the hockey fan, the more hardcore the hatred for Gary Bettman. In case you don't know, Bettman is the commissioner of the National Hockey League, a position he's held for almost 16 years. Before this, he was employed by the NBA, during a period that even then appeared to be a golden age. The NHL's board of governors saw the bling and bounce of basketball and assumed its magic and money could be replicated on ice. They not only headhunted Bettman, they also gave him a brand new title. Commissioner. With that went a mandate - sell the game. Forget Saskatchewan, go forth to the Sun Belt. As an English fan of the NHL, it took me a long time to recognise that in the United States hockey is not cool. So amazed was I to learn this fact that I still can't believe it's true, especially when compared to basketball. I like basketball well enough, I've seen the Clippers play, the Lakers, the Knicks, the Celtics. I'm not meaning to sound either ignorant or unduly partisan, but the idea that the epitome of cool is a game where men bounce a ball mystifies me. Hockey, meanwhile, is fast, noisy, dangerous and potentially violent - how can America not like it? Not because that's what America itself is like but ... alright, because that's what America itself is like. But if basketball is all limited-edition Nikes and hip-hop beats, hockey is about gap-toothed farm boys clutching tickets to Nickelback concerts. Folks, word from the focus groups is in: hockey is for hicks. Ouch... oh by the way. Do you know why so many people play soccer? It's so they don't have to watch it on television. From the New York Times Magazine Field-goal kickers are still defined by the tiniest sliver of their professional career. "I made a lot of big kicks, but all anyone wants to talk about is that one," Dempsey said. And, finally, there is still some faint resistance to the notion that a kicker could ever really do anything great. Brett Favre can throw 10 more game-ending interceptions and fans will still cherish his moments of glory. Reggie Bush may fumble away a championship and still end up being known for the best things he ever does. Even offensive linemen whose names no one remembers are permitted to end their days basking in the reflected glory of having been on the field. Kickers alone are required to make their own cases. Labels: Canada, football, Saskatchewan, sports I have always enjoyed the Cleveland Browns, maybe because they can never beat the Denver Broncos when it counts but I enjoy the Dawg Pound and the rabid Cleveland fans. As I flipped to watch the Browns play today, I was wondering why they stenciled their numbers with Sharpies on their helmets. A quick look around the Internet told me that they are supposed to look this bad. Apparently they are wearing "throwback" uniforms which makes little sense to me because what makes the Browns uniform work is that it is basically a throwback uniform. The uniforms aren't that much different but the bad numbers on the helmets not only look but seem to be applied inconsistently, especially Derek Anderson's. This came from Joe Manafo but if Saskatchewan wins today, we pass Sarnia on the all time Grey Cup championship list. The Toronto Argonauts lead the way with 15, with the Edmonton Eskimos next in line at 13. Look wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay down and you will find four teams beside the No. "2'' -- Saskatchewan Roughriders, Sarnia Imperials (ouch), Balmy Beach (gulp) and Ottawa Senators (who says they can't win the big one?). Remarkably, Saskatchewan -- the home of a beloved franchise with a history dating back to 1910 -- is still mired behind the University of Toronto (four) and Queen's University (three) on the all-time list. And the mighty Imperials, who captured the Cup in 1934 and 1936, have yet to be surpassed by the Riders. Labels: football, Saskatchewan, sports Labels: football, Saskatchewan, sports The Notre Dame looked as slow as they have all season and when you have really slow defenders, it doesn't matter what kind of defense you run when the other team runs right past them and a better offensive team than Duke would have scored at will against Notre Dame. Offensively much has been said about Charlie Weiss statement where he said that Notre Dame would have a "decided schematic advantage" every game and they might but the offensive line can't block and the running backs can't run. That is a lot for Jimmy Clausen to overcome. The end result is that it was an ugly game to watch, even when Notre Dame wins. It reminded me of when the Saskatoon Blades were having a bad year in hockey. I would wait until another really bad team would come to town until I got tickets, that way the game would be competitive. It is just sad that Notre Dame football has fallen to the level of thinking that beating Duke is a big game. Whose fault is it? Well some really bad recruiting classes by Tyrone Willingham explains some of the lack of talent that Weiss had to work with but part of college football is teaching. Teaching Tom Brady is one thing but as Weiss is learning (hopefully), teaching a bunch of 18 and 19 year old kids is another. Time will tell if Weiss can turn his vaunted recruiting classes into National Championships or will be known as Dave Wannstedt II but he will need more than a schematic advantage if it is going to happen. It was a bad week for Notre Dame fans but at least I am not cheering for the Cornhuskers (dumbest nickname in college sports). How does Bill Callahan keep his job after a loss like this? It makes you a little misty eyed for the Frank Solich era. Although whatever you say about Callahan in Nebraska, at least he didn't allow Lawrence Phillips play in Nebraska. Just just to Torre but also to Yankees fans everywhere who seem to understand that a) getting to the post-season is a big deal. b) The Yankees were a flawed team. c) When your pitching or hitting (or both) don't show up in the post-season, there isn't a lot a manager can do. Torre at least went out with a sense of humor. His family stood and watched from the side of the ballroom. His voice trembled at times. When he saw several hundred media assembled, he was taken aback. "You got to be kidding," he said when he walked into the room. Since the end of the season, his house had been staked out, O.J. style. Reporters were on the edge of his lawn, cameras everywhere. "The worst part about the helicopters is they showed I had a bald spot," he said. Labels: baseball, |
I moved to Saskatchewan in 1984 and the 