A It's not easy living in New England if you aren't a Patriots fan. I like the Red Sox, and I like the Celtics, but I just cant bring myself around to like the Patriots. Never have jumped on that bandwagon, and I never will. You see, I grew up a Giants fan in the Eighties. Remember when Bill Parcells was still a relevant coach and the was a Simms who actually could play the quarterback position? Those were the days. I cut my teeth every Sunday as a kid watching defensive greats like Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson. Watching Morris and McKonkey score off of wondrous fluke like runs and catches, and who could forget Bavarro? The Sylvester Stallone of the NFL. I remember Mark Bavarro running 15 yards into the end zone with four defenders draped over his back trying to pull him down. It was the defense that did it though. As gruesome as it was, I was glued to the television when Lawrence Taylor put Thiesman out of football. Or every concussion they gave Montana over the years. I was forever changed into a defensive fan.  I spent the next decade regrettably not paying too much attention to pro sports, but in the late 1990s I started to awaken from my self induced sports coma. I could feel the ground shake, I felt rumbling and crushing hits as I awoke. One smashing blow after another they called to me, Sapp! Brooks! Rice! Barber! Lynch!  I was awakened by a defensive squad that was led by the likes of no other. The king of defense, Monte Kiffin! And apon my return to the annals of sports legions, in a tribute to my Giants of old, I became a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan. The Bucs had a great beginning to this decade and after a coaching change even won the franchise's first Super Bowl. It was an exciting time to be a Bucs fan. Unfortunately, we spent he last 5 years in extreme mediocrity. Poor records, first round of the play-offs elimination, and a revolving door of quarter backs and players. But, somewhere deep down I feel that monster awakening again. Roaring as it screams down the tunnel and out into Raymond James stadium. Brooks! Barber! Adams!  Ruud! Here we are going into week eight and have yet to allow a rushing touchdown. We are the number one ranked red zone defense in the league, and our offense is actually scoring points. It feels good. Even if I have to suffer through the cold weather and constant attacks from Patriots fans, I have hope. As a Buccaneer fan, that is all I can ask for.

Continue reading "A Connecticut Buccaneer in King Brady's Court"

  

As America (and London) prepare for the NFL’s week eight schedule tomorrow, these are bleak times. I know that this isn’t a political or social venue, but I just wanted to fire off some quick words of appreciation for our beloved sport.

 

Never in my lifetime has there ever been a need for Americans to have something to believe in so badly as now. The economy has tanked down to full recession level with no sign of improvement in sight. Smart money says that we will reach a depression before anything improves. We are at the tail end of an administration in Washington that has given us eight years of the worst leadership and direction in our nation’s history. Lastly, an election looms that is giving us a choice of two men who are just as much part of the system that has failed us as the outgoing administration. We need heroes more than ever right now, we need a cause to rally behind, and this season the NFL has definitely given us some of the most exciting causes ever.

Continue reading "Why Americans need Football"

In the wake of Reggie Bush’s injury I started thinking about Alma Mater, the academic spirit of team and the transition from college superstar to the NFL. Its funny how no matter how great a college player is, you never know how that talent is going to translate to the NFL. Such is the case with LenDale White.

 

 Put yourself back into the 2004-2006 USC Trojan National Championship run. USC was all but unstoppable. Matt Lienart at QB, Steve Smith receiving, a backfield made up of Reggie Bush and LenDale White, Lofa Tatupu leading the defense and a very capable Pete Carroll orchestrating the whole offensive. The team was named team of the decade by ESPN until they ran into a Texas Longhorn team lead by Vince Young, but that is another story. Let’s continue.

Continue reading "It's the White Time"

It’s been a weird year, especially for sports. The Boston Celtics finally picked themselves up from the bootstraps to win a championship. Neither the Red Sox nor the Yankees amounted to anything more than a bunch of overpaid whiners. They are even tearing down Yankee Stadium.

 

Fast food workers everywhere finally realized that pro-wrestling is fake. The Summer Olympics in Beijing brought more small teenagers out of their houses than any previous Olympics, and the U.S is at war with pretty much everybody.

 

A temporary band aid on the gash of foreign dissent, the U.S showed that we can be tolerant, we can be educated, and we can move forward by electing the first President of Color Barack Obama.

 

These are all very significant world events in this year of our lord 2008, but not one of them matches up to the complete carnival weirdness that is the NFL.

Continue reading "All Good Soldiers"

I found this past week 8 in the NFL to be relatively uninspiring. There were a few highlights like the Tennessee Titans going to 7-0, the Patriots starting to look good again, and the Giants win. Yet all in all it was rather blah if you ask me, it felt kind of scripted like the teams that were suppose to lose lost and the teams that were expected to win, won. Maybe I’m just bitter because my Buccaneers handed the game to the swollen and blue Cowboys. It stunk, I dunno. One highlight I can truly say was watching Mike Singletary take over as coach of the San Francisco 49ers. It did my heart good to see an old school Gridiron great out there coaching the old school way. Say what you will, I loved it.

 

I’ve talked before about my love for defense and the NFL defenses of old. You cannot deny Mike Singletary and the Chicago Bears of the 1980s. Oh man, I’m chuckling right now; it’s been a long time since I thought about Jim McMahon, The Fridge and the rest of the gang. Wow, now that was entertainment. Yet in the middle of it all was Mike Ditka and his hardnosed coaching approach and methods. Singletary led that defense, and as a disciple of Ditka, he is ready to lead the 49ers.

Continue reading "More Coaches Should be Like Mike"

There are a lot of conflicting opinions on the crisis of climate change. The phenomenon of global warming is a very touchy subject with special interest groups and public interest groups alike. There is one special party that I see benefiting greatly from climate change and his name is Chad Pennington.

 

Pennington carried the hopes and dreams of the other New York football team until he no longer delivered the goods. He was quickly disregarded as trash when the golden icon Brett Favre donned the green and white.

Understandable?

Yes.

Good for the Jets?

Yes.

Surprise,

Also good for Pennington and the Dolphins.

 

The Big Tuna from his corner office feverishly chased down Pennington and sealed the deal to bring the golden haired Marshall Alum to Miami. It has been relatively sunny ever since.

Continue reading "A Case for Global Warming"

I keep waking up with only one sock on, despite the fact that I go to bed with two. It isn’t until later in the day when I remember that I had a dream, or better yet a nightmare. It’s a relatively common dream in that I am being chased by something. As the dream becomes clearer I remember that he is indeed a someone, not a something that chases my dormant body out of it's socks.

His brown eyes stare me down, I cannot escape them. He is barking commands; he is sliding back and forth in front of me. No matter what direction I go he is there, those eyes still staring deep into my soul. They seem to say “Don’t bother running; I will get you no matter what!” He is large, he is intense, he is awesome, he is football, he is Ray Lewis.

The ultimate All-Star linebacker of the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Lewis is all things awesome about professional football. He is a cunning and talented field general with winning in his blood.

Continue reading "The General"

Holy crap, the Oakland Raiders suck! How do you take a once proud franchise and systematically drain it down the toilet? John Madden, put down the turkey leg and race your Winnebago straight to Oakland and do something about this please!

The NFL’s #1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell has been reduced to goo in the soul sucking California sun. Sunday Russell was 6-19, 31 yards, and interception and four sacks. Wait a minute, wasn’t (isn’t) Tom Cable an Offensive line coach?

When I watched JaMarcus Russell at LSU I was in awe. The man was a mountain of amazing football ability. I thought he would do much like Vince Young and really be successful in the NFL. No such luck. He landed in the giant pile of crap in Oakland .

They might as well start Al Davis at quarterback, first they would save money, and secondly he would probably produce as well as Russell surrounded by that cast of jokers .I don’t mean to be cruel but I can’t stand watching stupidity. There are worse teams (record wise) in the NFL right now like Kansas City and Detroit , but at least their trying to get better! These other teams are making acquisitions and moves to improve their status, not just wallowing in a gene pool of their own uselessness.

Continue reading "The Blackest of Holes"

Texas Tech is better than U. The Red Raiders pulled the upset of the year beating the No. 1 ranked Texas Longhorns Saturday night in a bar fight of a football game that any fan of college football surely enjoyed. The Red Raider’s victory was secured with a final second touchdown that had all of Texas and the rest of the nation on the edge of their seats.The win catapulted Texas Tech to No.2 in the BCS standings.The upset threw the entire BCS standings into uproar. Benefiting a few, and sending others tumbling down the steps. The number one beneficiary of this historic Saturday was the Alabama Crimson Tide.Alabama, who routed Arkansas State 35-0, have not held the top spot in the nation since 1992 when the Tide won the school’s last championship under coach Gene Stallings.

Continue reading "Red Raiders raiding BCS"

  

I love Alabama Crimson Tide Football. I love everything about the program, the proud heritage and the lifestyle. The stone fisted blows struck by Paul “Bear” Bryant still echo through every acre of Tuscaloosa to this day. You would be hard pressed to find a school, a town, or a culture that loves their team more than the University of Alabama.

 

Nick Saban, much like Pete Carroll was born to coach College football. The disappointing experiments they faced in the pros were nothing more than just that, experiments. College is in their blood and Nick Saban is bleeding crimson.

 

Saban’s turnaround of the Alabama Crimson Tide football program is nothing short of monumental. The No.1 ranked Tide are scheduled to play in the S.E.C Conference championship game on December 6th verses the Florida Gators, pending victory, a shot at the National Championship.

Continue reading "RIP Tide?"

 

There is a war being waged as we speak.

 

It is a war that is dividing the South once again. This war knows no mercy, and this war does not care who is in its way, it is tearing through our institutions of higher learning and leaving no survivors. It is a proud war, fought for noble causes and in the end; the victory would be the sweetest of all.

 

This war is The Texas Tech Red Raiders verses everybody else.

 

Texas Tech led by the brilliant Mike Leach and quarterback Graham Harrell have been marching their way straight through the Big 12 South. They have made victims of highly ranked opponents like Texas and Oklahoma St. and some not so high ranked teams like Massachusetts and Southern Methodist on their way to 10-0.

 

There are only two enemies left. The fiercest of them comes tonight in the form of the Oklahoma Sooners. The 9-1 Sooners have the home field in what is one of the rowdiest stadiums in sports. They are also on a mission to make a statement, “Texas Tech stops here! They will not make it out of Norman!”

Continue reading "Harrell's March to the Sea"

I am Jack’s hemorrhaging Larynx.

 

I spent most of last evening screaming at the television until the late hours. I woke up this morning and continued to scream at the television. I am pretty sure that I screamed in my sleep as well.

 

I have never seen a complete dismemberment of a highly ranked football squad like last night’s decapitation of the Texas Tech Red Raiders by the Oklahoma Sooners, and for the benefit of my impending ulcers, I hope I never do again.  

 

No.5 Oklahoma destroyed the No. 2 ranked Red Raiders in almost every category, completely deflating the blow up Cinderella that Tech has been courting.

 

Perhaps my faithful football readers, you have been reading my words of encouragement that I have been spouting forth in favor of Texas Tech. I was apparently wrong. The Red Raiders were man handled like a couple of drunk girls at a frat party.

Continue reading "O.K Computer"

Building a Cassel

By Dayne A. Duranti

  

There is a big ugly bandwagon speeding through New England right now.

 

It is a rotten old cart of a wagon, filled with bulbous faced drunks and scoundrels. They slug down their swill and they sing

 

“The only thing we love more than a hero is a fallen one!”

 

They smell of waste and desperation. They are unclean, loud and unapologetic.

 

They are the notorious New England bandwagon riders. And they have come for Matt Cassel.

 

The NFL world is a blaze with talk of Matt Cassel. He has silenced all critics with back to back 400 plus yard games. He has emerged as a leader and has given the Patriots a legitimate chance of making the post season in a year that seemed that all hope was gone.

Continue reading "Building a Cassel"

The last image I had in my mind when I went to bed last night was Sam Bradford’s smug face placating my television screen. His careless and UN-Interested demeanor just added to my frustration over Oklahoma’s 61-41 victory Saturday night.

The victory will most likely propel either Texas or Oklahoma to the Big 12 Championship next Saturday against Missouri. What about Texas Tech?

After all there is a three-way tie for first place in the Big 12 South. Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma are all 11-1. Lets make it interesting now, Texas beat Oklahoma, Oklahoma beat Texas Tech, and Texas Tech beat Texas so which team goes to the ‘ship?

We will find out later today and there will be two disappointed teams, all three teams believe they deserve it, and no doubt, all three do. If there were a play-off the teams would be able to face head to head again and the best team would win.

Continue reading "Big 12 South proves that the BCS is flawed"

(The Plaxico Burress Story.)

 The New York Football Giants went 11-1 today in a convincing win against the Washington Redskins. The Giants won the division showdown without star receiver Plaxico Burress as he was home recovering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the thigh.

Burress is no stranger to drama; the tortured receiver has given the World champs more than their share of headaches.

Earlier this season Burress was fined $117,500 for missing a team meeting/practice and not calling out sick. He was also fined $45,000 for a verbal altercation with a referee that involved throwing a ball into the crowd.

Buress who caught the super bowl winning catch was a hold out before mini-camp and blamed it on an ankle injury. He has earned a reputation for being a distraction and having a bad attitude on and off the field.

Continue reading "Anatomy of a Disappointment"