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Showing posts from January, 2011

Championship Roundup

I know that it has been over a day since the two Championship games in the NFL, but there is stil a large need to recap them. Whereas the previous two weekends of NFL playoff matchups have featured a few exciting games, and the other games being boring blowouts, this weekend finally broke the 2010 mold. My dad frequently says that Championship Weekend usually has a better game than the Super Bowl, but this weekend, that was certainly not true.   Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers showed why they are the most underrated quarterbacks in the league, once again, and their respective defenses methodically picked apart depressing Bears and Jets offenses. Needless to say, although both games were decided with 7 points or less, neither was as close as that. The Packers, despite being underdogs in terms of seeding, lived up to the hype that made them favorites over the two-seed Bears. On the other side, the Steelers finally quieted the loud Jets and their pompous coach Rex Ryan, giving Bi

Who Would You Save?

As I mentioned earlier this week, in a post about the Lakers' thrashing of the Cavaliers, TV has finally aired a show ridiculing sports analysis, the Onion Sportsdome. For those of you who still have not seen it, you can view some of the clips here . One of my personal favorites from the pilot episode was a clip entitled "Who Would You Kill?" In the segment, 'analysts' took turns explaining which pro-athletes they would kill and how. Although it was very humorous, I am not 'evil' enough to attempt to recreate it. Instead, I hope to offer my own segment, an optomistic flip of the Onion's clip, self-entitled "Who Would You Save?". In my hopefully weekly post of this sort, I will offer up a player accross sports, who I believe should deserve either more credit, or a change of scenery. Tonight, we will start off with "rookie" sensation Blake Griffin ("rookie" because he spent his first season on the injured reserve list

Divisional Roundup

Once again, another weekend of playoff football has come and passed, and once again there were highlights and lowlights. The AFC featured two exciting matchups, and more than enough pre-game hype in one of the games, for the whole year. On the other hand, although there was an upset in the NFC neither game was ever close, so let's start there. Yesterday afternoon, the Falcons matched up with the Packers, in a game that was expected to stay close. However, what unfolded on the field was far from expected. The six seed Packers, and their highly touted offense and defense, were large underdogs, as the one seed Falcons, playing at home, hoped to receive an easy entrance to the Conference Championships. Yet a strong outing by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers defense, resulted in a 48-21 rout of the 13-3 Falcons, in Atlanta. So, one game into the games this weekend an upset had already been recorded, but would the Seahawks be able to continue their 'cinderella story' and win aga

Delay

So, I realize that it has been a couple of days since I have posted anything, but tomorrow, as the second round of the playoffs will come to a close, I will post my second edition of wrapup, and expect an interesting story sometime in the coming week.

The Lakers...nothing more to say....

"The Heatles" So last night, Comedy Central's latest edition to its prestigious Tuesday night lineup, Onion Sportsdome, aired for the first time. I'm not sure if any of you actually watched it attentively, or watched it at all (for those of you who didn't, it's basically fake sports stories), yet amidst the National Meth League updates, and sarcastic soccer analysis, there was one "story" that caught my attention. It featured the Big 3, or the self-labeled Heatles; yes I am talking about Dwyane Wade , Chris Bosh and Lebron James . Although there is a large story in their under-the-radar climb to the top of the NBA's Eastern Conference as of late, the focus of tonight's piece actually relates more prevalently to last night's Onion Sportsdome episode. During a hilarious, though fake, story about the Big 3, proposing changes to the rules of basketball, including a zip line to the hoop and a light show throughout the game, a rule was

DeSean Jackson: Innovator

What's the difference between these two people? Well, besides the fact that the girl, let's call her Jane, can ride a bike and Ray Lewis probably can't, and that the Jane's idea of a good time is a tea party, whereas Lewis' looks more like this: The NFL seems to think that's where the differences stop. Of course that's not true, as the NFL employs people that are for the most part very well educated. And no, this article is not about the 'cracking down' on big hits this season, but they do at least seem to think that the two people above are sensitive to the same things. Yet I don't believe that a broken toy would effect Mr. Lewis in the same way it does Jane, as I can't imagine a man of Ray's stature crying in any situation. Nonetheless, showboating or, as the officials call it, excessive celebration, has been a huge issue this year in the NFL (but before we continue, let me assure you, I do not agree with the NFL). And that is wher

WAAAAR EAGLE!

Thank you Arizona! For the first time this year, I can say this (my condolences over the recent shootings), because no matter how controversial of a statement it is, I am so relieved to finally have a good bowl game, yet a great bowl game. Well now it's all over, as we finally have a National Champion. After over a month of layover, the Auburn Tigers and Oregon Ducks met in a matchup for the ages. I realize I said I would highlight Cam Newton and his remarkable comeback this year, from community college to Heisman Award Winner, but tonight is not just his night, this is a night for the Auburn community (as Newton wasn't even named MVP). As I watch the postgame show, I will describe the game, highlighting key players, and explain the usual outcome the college football community saw tonight, as two high powered offenses combined for barely 40 points. As is the case with many match ups that occur after a break of over a month, the game tonight was very defensively dominant in

Wild Card Roundup

Needless to say, this weekend brought the first round of the NFL playoffs, and as with many other years, the first four games had their exciting outcomes, and their boring blowouts (or in this case were closer than they looked). Though many may say that there were three exciting games (Colts-Jets, Seahawks-Saints, and Eagles-Packers), and one blowout (Chiefs-Ravens), I believe that the Eagles-Packers game was just about as upsetting and overhyped as any in recent history. Vick (left), and Jackson Therefore, I'd like to begin with that game and the other blowout, and end with the two exciting 'upsets' (I say 'upsets' because of the ridiculous seeding that occurred this year). Though the Eagles were considered by most to be a large Super Bowl contender this year, due to the shockingly impressive play of former convict Michael Vick , and his showboating accomplice DeSean Jackson , who has blessed the league this year, despite anyone who thinks its unnecessary, wit

Grandma's Request: The Coaching Carousel

Last week, when I launched this blog, I sent the link to my family, mainly to see if I could get some followers. As I began to receive responses, my easy favorite was a comment from my grandmother: " I enjoyed your blog even though I didn't know what you were talking about. Also, I know there is some personnel changes going on with the '49ers and the Raiders . I have no advice to give or any comments." This wildly descriptive message will serve as the theme for tonight's post, as I attempt to answer her request. I will focus on the Bay Area, because everywhere else, interim coaches are being re-signed (Jason Garrett and Leslie Frazier) and suspected fired coaches are being kept on for another try (Tony Sparano and Marvin Lewis). As well, the only real vacancy is in Carolina, where John Fox managed to deteriorate a recent Super Bowl participant to a 2-14 record in 2010. But things are looking up for Fox, who is a leading candidate for the Denver Broncos head co

Michael Jordan's legacy

In my last post, I said I would post two baskeball posts tonight, and true to my word here goes number two. Not only will this contribute to a balance of football and basketball in my posts, but I wanted to do this post before the rest of the sports world got to it. And again, the title comes with deception. Although it may appear that I will focus on Michael Jordan (and he will be featured, as he's hard to ignore), this post will actually be truly regarding a new section of his legacy, in the form of one of the few undefeated college basketball teams still left this year. Along with the likes of Duke , Ohio St. , and Kansas , the UCF , or University of Central Florida (for those unexperienced fans) Knights, have posted a more than impressive 13-0 record through nine weeks, to land the #19 spot in the AP top 25. But before I fully analyze the Knights, let's watch an example of Mr. Jordan's success (enjoy): Marcus Jordan So, back to the story, where does Michael J

UConn's unpredictable success

As promised this post will not discuss football, and instead I will delve into the world of college basketball. Furthermore, I will be posting two basketball posts tonight, in an attempt to balance the variety of my posts. Judging by the title of this post it may seem as if I will be writing a post about women's basketball, but for anyone who thought I would write about women's sports, you are sadly mistaken. My only women's sports comment would be this: Congratulations to the Stanford women's basketball team for beating Connecticut, and suspending the flow of horrendously all-to-frequent women's basketball comments on ESPN. And now no more comments of that nature for tonight. Switching over to the men's side of Connecticut basketball, they deserve praise for their very successful season thus far. After starting the season unranked, and with no votes in the USA Today polls , the Huskies leaped to an outstanding No. 9 in the very same poll in week 4. So what

Last One, I promise.....for this week. And it has controversy

I realize that this will be my third straight football post, but who can ignore the plethera of quality football on the college and professional level recently. I promise tomorow's post will not be football related. For now, though, I'd like to discuss college football. Althought the current bowl season has failed to impress to the level of years past (mainly the parody of this year's Fiesta Bowl ), last night's Sugar Bowl was exciting to say the least. The bowl featured two top ten teams, Ohio St. and Arkansas , as is expected given its BCS stature, and was action-packed from beginning to end, evident in the combined 57 points scored. Though it may seem as if this score was achieved by means of defensive failures, offensive struggles were the story of the night, as the Buckeyes won by a score of 31 to 26. NFL-bound quarterback Ryan Mallett threw for 277 yards and two touchdowns, stats, which although may appear impressive, do not rightfully reflect the NFL cali

Just Another Day

As I am not able to post original, creative stories every day, I hope to post one large story per week, as well as daily mini-posts during the rest of the week. For now that will entail player bios or exceptional plays, although I am open to suggestion. For now, there's this: By now, any loyal sports fan has seen this play. However, how many people know much more about senior quarterback Tyrod Taylor than his elusive running skills and surprisingly exceptional arm. Well until last night, I was one of those in-the-dark people, until Wikipedia (my go to website for any information, despite controversy over the validity of the facts) was able to lend a helping hand. I now know, as is to be expected, that Taylor was, like many 'dual-threat' college quarterbacks, a successful runner, as well as a safety in high school. And a tidbit most people will be interested to hear is this exceptional man was also on the honor roll during his entire high school career. Tyrod Taylor

Brett Favre's Illustrious Career and 'The Viking Situation'

Seeing as this is my first post, I would like to ask for a pass in advance for any typos, or errors in my facts in any of my posts. As his career comes to an end, (hopefully) I would like to take this time to examine Brett Favre 's career and my self-entitled 'Viking Situation' , and relate it to Any Given Sunday , which seemingly hasn't been done (other than this and this , both of which fail to fully relate 'The Viking Situation'), which I believe is odd. As well, as a disclaimer, I realize that the movie does not model the current situation, given the time difference, and merely wish to offer an odd amount of similarities. Brett Favre Dennis Quaid First, and most prevalently, credit must be given where credit is due. Brett Favre is arguably one of the best quarterbacks of all time, and seemingly the toughest. His record for yards (71,838) and touchdowns (508) are hard to argue with, although he also holds the records for most times sacked and most