Sports Crumbs - 11/16/06

-- So there's a pretty big foosball game this weekend. North Carolina vs. North Carolina State? No, it's not basketball season yet. Florida vs. Florida State? No, that's next weekend and it's not 1995. Central Michigan vs. Northern Illinois? That is this weekend, and although battles between directional schools always prove interesting, there is another Michigan school with a much bigger challenge on their hands. Ohio State vs. Michigan at 2:30 PM CT this weekend is the match up of the season. Or at least that's what ESPN would have you believe. They've had a countdown clock running on this match up for at least 3 weeks now, so I'm happy the game is almost here because unless you live in Ohio or Michigan (which means by the way that you only have one full set of teeth combined in your family) you don't really care about all of this hoopla leading up to the game. We get it, #1 vs. #2 in one of the biggest rivalries in college football. I'm a huge college football fan, so I'd watch this game regardless of their rankings. I just don't need it shoved down my throat for the entire month leading up to this game because I don't even think this one will live up to the Rutgers v. Louisville game from last week. If Ohio State plays half as well as they played against Texas earlier this year, I don't see Michigan staying within ten points of the Buckeyes. With Troy Smith getting ready to have his name engraved on the Heisman, Ted Ginn Jr. still running rampant through secondaries and Jim Tressel simply owning Lloyd Carr since he arrived in Columbus (4-1 record), I just don't see the Buckeyes being stopped in their march to Glendale, AZ and the Fiesta Bowl.

-- In baseball news, the Manager's of the Year were announced and Joe Girardi - formerly of the Florida Marlins - and Jim Leyland of the World Series-choking Detroit Tigers were the winners. Kind of interesting how Girardi has already been fired and the #3 vote getter in the AL (Ken Macha from Oakland) has also been fired. Maybe if the Marlins payroll wasn't the lowest in the league by a full $20 mil, they could be more competitive but I don't see how firing the coach here helps at all. And people wonder why no one goes to Marlins games and they are talking about moving them to Vegas. The guy in the giant Marlin costume could do a better job with this team, and he probably doesn't know a thing about baseball unless it relates to riding a scooter around the stadium and shooting a T-shirt cannon.

-- And lastly, I'm sure you've probably heard about this, but I just wanted to weigh in on it too. O.J. Simpson will be doing a TV interview on FOX titled "O.J. Simpson: If I did it, Here's how it happened" that will air on November 27th & 29th. This is simply unreal to me. This guy gets away with murdering 2 people 12 years ago and just won't go away. He got his "get out of jail" free card but just keeps coming back. And why would FOX agree to actually paying him for this? Well, that's an easy one, FOX will show anything - I seem to recall a Man vs. Animal show and watching Screech box on Celebrity Boxing deserves it's own column. Anyway, the Juice just needs to take this act and get the hell out of here. He should go to some Caribbean island where they show re-runs of Naked Gun and Dragnet and film new Hertz commercials. Or maybe Isotoner is looking for a new spokesperson.

Sports Quickies

I know I haven't written about sports in what seems like months, so I decided I needed to weigh in on a couple interesting issues in the sports world today.

-- Let's start with Monday night's worst coaching decision. The Dallas Cowboys made a horrible mistake last night by benching starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe in favor of fan-favorite yet terribly inexperienced Tony Romo. I understand that Drew was having an awful game, but in a game where the Cowboys trailed by less than a touchdown (12-7) and Bledsoe had been sacked 4 times due to an ineffective offensive line, putting in a quarterback who had thrown a total of 2 passes in the NFL in his 4 years in the league was not the best option. Yes, Romo is a lot more mobile in the pocket than the statuesque Bledsoe, but so is my grandmother. Experience has to count for something in this league, and Romo's first pass / first interception was a testament to that. I don't know if head coach Bill Parcells really thought that a pseudo-rookie quarterback could do a better job than a 14 year veteran or if he just caved in to the pressure of the owner and the fans. Parcells was never susceptible to that pressure before. Maybe in his old age he's gotten a little soft, or maybe he's just quit trying. He's let Jerry "Too-Tight" Jones push him around all season on the Terrell Owens issue (do you really think that he would have let one of his players dress up like Lance Armstrong for a preseason workout 10 years ago? I think not) and now it seems like he's letting Jones and the fans push him around regarding his starting quarterback. Whatever the reason, "America's Team" looks like it's on a runaway train toward an 8-8 record no matter who starts at quarterback. At least this will give the Oakland Raiders plenty of time to start printing up their Drew Bledsoe jerseys. They won't be able to use their first pick on both a quarterback and Adrian Peterson.

-- Secondly, Kenny Rogers is a damn cheater. I don't care what he said in his news conference about having "dirt" on his hand, but it was clearly pine tar. He knows it, Jim Leyland knows it, Tony LaRussa knows it, all of America knows it (Thank you Joe Buck), and my dog knows it. Interesting how a guy with a postseason ERA of 8.83 in his 10 previous postseason starts and an 0-3 record could all of a sudden have a 23 inning scoreless streak. I would have been more likely to believe him if he had told us that he hadn't wiped his ass well enough before the game or had eaten a handful of Tootsie Rolls before the game. Last time I checked, dirt doesn't stick to your hand like syrup and Kenny, you are a giant douche bag.

-- And lastly, as far as college football goes, Ohio State and Michigan are in a class by themselves this year. USC hasn't played anyone,and I doubt they get by a rejuvenated Cal team. West Virginia looks good, but still hasn't played anyone; however, they have a chance to prove themselves against fellow unbeatens Louisville and Rutgers later this season. Everyone else has one loss already, save Boise State, but you seriously don't think they could make it to the championship game do you? Actually, just thinking about that made my head explode. Anyway, my point is that who ever loses in the Michigan - Ohio State game will probably drop too far down the poll to play in the title game. I'm not a huge Big Ten fan, but I can't wait until those two bitter rivals wage war later this year and getting a repeat performance of the battle would simply be fantastic. But instead, we'll have our 5 BCS games with about 5 decent teams and 3 guaranteed blowouts. One of these days, college football will wise up and move to a playoff system. Until then the system is flawed and always will be.


HC