“We live in a time where 6-year-old kids on Madden design more complicated offenses and defenses than Papa Halas ever dreamed about.”
Category Archives: Sports
Quarterbacks with 2 or More Super Bowl Rings
Bradshaw 4 for 4
Montana 4 for 4
Aikman 3 for 3
Brady 3 for 5
Plunkett 2 for 2
Starr 2 for 2
Eli Manning 2 for 2
Bob Griese 2 for 3
Roethlisberger 2 for 3
Staubach 2 for 4
Elway 2 for 5
Jim Kelly of the Bills and Fran Tarkenton of the Vikings were 0-4 and 0-3 respectively in Super Bowls.
Hi-larious
Be sure to read captions.
Sunday
Last week and this are the best football weeks of the year.
The Ravens are 7-point underdogs to the Patriots. I’m taking the 7 and Ed Reed.
The 49ers are 2½ point favorites and my favorite NFC team since I lived in Oakland. (You can guess which team is my AFC and most favorite.) I’m taking the 49ers and giving the 2½.
Yes, I realize that means an all-Harbaugh Super Bowl.
Biblical reference line of the day
“I don’t know if this means anything, but, long about half-past 35-7 the other night in Foxboro, I could’ve sworn I saw a couple of New England Patriots rolling dice for Tim Tebow’s jersey.”
You’ve heard of anti-matter?
This announcer is the anti-Joe Buck.
Every Year
The most dramatic, exciting sports events every year are the NFL divisional playoffs and conference championships.
October is by far the best sports month, but these two weekends in January are the most fun.
All This Talk About Tebow
After all he has always been a winner. Two-time BCS national champion. Two-time first team All American. Heisman Trophy winner. Two-time Maxwell Award winner.
But there is this, via Wikipedia citing several sources:
“In the 2009 BCS Championship Game, he wore John 3:16 on his eye black and the verse became the highest-ranked Google search term over the next 24 hours, generating over 90 million searches.”
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Yesterday Tim Tebow threw for 316 yards, 31.6 yards per completion.
Take Denver and the 13½ against the Pats.
Best BCS line of the day
“West Virginia’s 49 points at halftime were the most in bowl history. Not Orange Bowl history: bowl history, as in every… single… bowl… ever played. The history of bowl games, from the Rose to the Beef ‘O’ Brady. Ever, ever, ever. Likewise, West Virginia’s 70 points at the end of regulation was a bowl record – ever.”
Best BCS line of the day
“The onus to sell tickets needs to be on the bowl games, which are getting one of the greatest deals in sports by having college football outsource its most profitable product (its postseason).”
Dan Wetzel in an excellent column on the BCS and a, dare I say it, yes I dare, “playoff.”
Old, I Feel So Old
Trey Griffey selected for Under Armour All-American Game
That’s Ken Griffey’s grandson, Junior’s son.
Too many headers ‘can damage the brain’
Frequently heading a football can lead to brain injury, warn doctors who say they have found proof on brain scans.
Imaging of 32 keen amateur players revealed patterns of damage similar to that seen in patients with concussion.
There appears to be a safe cut off level of 1,000 or fewer headers a year below which no harm will be done, but the US investigators say more work is needed to confirm this.
Heading is believed to have killed the English footballer Jeff Astle.
After Last Night
But before today’s games.
LSU is undefeated.
Alabama lost only to LSU 9-6 in OT.
Oregon lost only to LSU 40-27 in first game of season.
Arkansas lost only to #3 Alabama 38-14.
Stanford lost only to #4 Oregon 53-30.
Virginia Tech lost only to #7 Clemson.
Clemson, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Boise State all lost to an unranked team.
Houston is undefeated.
Everybody else has lost at least twice.
How would you seed the playoffs?
Letter to a Coach
Coach Saban,
First off, let me say you have a fine, fine football team. The running game and the defense are just fantastic. I’ll make this quick because you’re busy. Tuscaloosa probably has a part of town where Latinos are concentrated. If not Tuscaloosa, then certainly Birmingham. In that part of town there will be a makeshift soccer field, or maybe even a real soccer field. On this field you will find children of all ages for whom kicking a ball is easy, second nature, and who haven’t lived lives steeped in American collegiate football lore and therefore wouldn’t be super-duper nervous if asked to kick a weird-shaped ball through uprights that to them would seem a gaping target. After you’ve chosen your boy, explain that he will receive a college education at one of the top 100 state universities in the nation if a few dozen times a year he kicks the weird ball through the uprights for you. There may be a moment of confusion when the boy thinks he has to actually hit one of the uprights with the ball, and then when he realizes he merely has to kick it anywhere between the uprights, both of you will laugh, and laughter knows no borders.
The Thrilla in Manila
Recommended reading. Mark Kram’s classic piece from Sports Illustrated in 1975 — Lawdy, Lawdy, He’s Great.
Sportswriting at its very best; indeed, writing at its very best.
And a tribute to Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.
The Real Tragedy
The real tragedy stemming from the Penn State case is that when they play Nebraska this Saturday I will have to root for Nebraska.
[I believe the story at The Pennsylvania State University is a tragic one — please don't think I forget that if I rant about the football coach or joke. This blog is about wisdom, whimsy and wit.]
The All-22 Football Footage the League Won’t Show You
Every play during an NFL game is filmed from multiple angles in high definition. There are cameras hovering over the field, cameras lashed to the goalposts and cameras pointed at the coaches, who have to cover their mouths to call plays.
But for all the footage available, and despite the $4 billion or so the NFL makes every year by selling its broadcast rights, there’s some footage the league keeps hidden.
…
Without the expanded frame, fans often have no idea why many plays turn out the way they do, or if the TV analysts are giving them correct information.
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The Wall Street Journal has the story.
50 Greatest
Chuck Klosterman writes about the 50 greatest college basketball players ever.
Pujols and Respect
A classic piece from Joe Posnanski. Don’t pass this by.
Best Line of the Day
“Perhaps the only certainty is that Arizona wants a coach with a more stoic, less demonstrative manner – the anti-Stoops, in short.”
Pre-Snap Read in surveying the likely prospects.