January 23th update

Giants and Patriots to meet again in Super Bowl

• The New York Giants are back in the Super Bowl after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in OT, the second time in 3 years that the NFC championship game has been won on a FG in OT. Vernon Davis caught two long TD passes for the Niners but a fumbled punt in OT put the Giants in prime field position and they used the very short field to allow kicker Lawrence Tynes to make the game clincher quite easily.
• Eli Manning was beaten up all day by the 49ers tough defense, getting sacked 6 times and knocked down 12 times, but he kept popping back up and will now go to his second Super Bowl, this one in Indianapolis, the hometown of his brother Peyton no less (who has only played in one).
• Eli's Giants will go against Peyton's longtime rival, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. It's a rematch of the Super Bowl from 4 years ago when the Patriots entered the game 18-0 needing only one more win to become the first team in NFL history to finish a season 19-0. Instead the Giants upset them, keeping the Patriots from even winning the Super Bowl in a season where they may have been the best team in NFL history.
• The Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 after Ravens WR Lee Evans dropped a game winning touchdown that he had in his hands but was then knocked out by a Patriots defender, and then kicker Billy Cundiff missed a short FG that would have sent the game to OT.
• It was rough day for the Harbaugh family, as brother John and Jim are the head coaches of the two losing teams, the 49ers and the Ravens.


Paterno Dies of Cancer

• Legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno died on Sunday from complications from lung cancer. Paterno, the winningest coach in NCAA football history, passed away less than 2 months after his condition was initially divulged to the public.
• Paterno was fired from his position at PSU earlier this year due to allegations that he covered up child abuse reports involving his former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. Whether or not you believe that Paterno should have been fired, or he was unjustly villified, he did plenty of good in his life and we will take some tine to review a bit of that life.
• Paterno and his wife were a fixture in the central Pennsylvania town of College Park. The library on campus, and other buildings on and around campus are named for the family. Patrons of many charities, Paterno and his wife have given countless hours and millions to different charitable organizations.
• Paterno will be remembered as a fantastic football coach and a beloved mentor. The number of lives he changed by giving an opportunity to play football, the number of coaches who have come from his coaching “tree” and the numerous charitable and philanthropic organizations he supported will be the bulk of the footprint Paterno leaves on this earth, to say nothing of the staggering numbers he put up in terms of wins, players drafted into the NFL and bowl game records, the likes of which will very likely never be seen again in the history of football.


USA Soccer has Big Month

• The Olympic qualifying tournament (Jan 20th-Jan 29th) for soccer is underway and the U.S. will try to first of all make the tournament, and then progress further than they have in the past. While the U.S. is not considered a favorite to win, they have been improving and will hope to make some noise. Argentina has won each of the past 2 Olympic tournaments, both in 2004 and 2008.
• The team defeated Venezuela 1-0 Saturday night for their first victory over a South American team since 2007. Much maligned US player Ricardo Clark headed in a corner kick in the 94th minute (extra time) to give the US the victory. It was Clark’s first goal since 2009, and a chance to help forget a blunder in the 2010 World Cup that cost the US team against Ghana.
• Meanwhile, earlier this month across the pond, US superstar Clint Dempsey became the first American to score a hat trick (3 goals) in the English Premier League. Dempsey and fellow US star Landon Donovan helped Everton advance in the FA Cup, a major knockout tournament of English soccer teams.

November 20th update

BCS rocked by upsets

• Take what you thought about the BCS title picture after last week and throw it out the window because everything has changed now.
• #2 Oklahoma State only had a gimmie game against unranked Iowa State and a tough game against Oklahoma remaining before they made it to the national championship game (There's not a Big 12 championship game anymore because you're required to have 12 teams to host a conference title game and there are only 11 in the poorly named Big 12 now. Nebraska left for the Big 10, which now has 12. College football is great, isn't it?) But OK State lost the gimmie 37-31 in 2OT to Iowa State after giving up a 17 point lead and dropped to #4 in the polls. Yet another example of why playing games is a better way of determining which teams are better than simply letting sportswriters vote because nobody but the mothers of Iowa State players would have voted for the Cyclones to defeat Oklahoma State.
• The tough opponent that Oklahoma State was to play next week also lost as Oklahoma went down to Baylor and dynamic QB Robert Griffin III (who threw the game winning touchdown with just seconds remaining).
• Additionally, a week after beating undefeated Stanford, Oregon lost on a relatively short missed field goal as time expired (just as Boise State did last week) and Clemson got obliterated by N.C. State. If you can't keep track of all the carnage, here's what's left after all the dust has settled: Three of the six teams in the SEC West are now ranked #1, #2 and #3 as Arkansas jumped up to #3 behind LSU and Alabama. Arkansas sadly has to deal with the extremely sudden and mysterious death of freshman TE Garrett Uekman who passed away in his dorm Sunday. Arkansas will certainly be thinking of him next week as they take on #1 LSU for a possible shot in the title game. But we say possible because no one really knows what will happen. It all depends on the voters and the computer algorithms which is why we believe that the NCAA football system needs a major overhaul.


NFL week 11 recap

• The NFC North continued its impressive run as the Lions, Packers and Bears all beat solid teams on Sunday. The Bears beat perennial power (but currently struggling) San Diego Chargers 31-20 to go to 7-3 but they may have lost QB Jay Cutler for the year due to a broken thumb on his throwing hand. The Lions were down 24-7 to the Carolina Newtons... err Panthers, but Matthew Stafford caught fire and led the Lions to a 49-35 win. The Green Bay Packers were in a dogfight with the Tampa Bay Bucs but Aaron Rodgers and the mind-boggling Packers offense again proved to be too much and the Packers won 35-26 to go to 10-0.
• The only other NFL team with less than 3 losses is the 9-1 San Francisco 49ers who won easily over the Arizona Cardinals Sunday. They play against the Ravens this Thursday in a matchup of Harbaughs (rookie coach Jim coaches the Niners, brother John coaches the Ravens) and can actually clinch the division next week if they win and Seattle loses.
• Those same Ravens won a big game against the Bengals to take first place in the AFC North and go to 7-3 and the New England Patriots will look to do the same in the AFC East on Monday night against the injured but gritty Kansas City Chiefs.


Stewart wins NASCAR sprint for the Chase

• In one of the most tightly contested NASCAR finales ever, Tony Stewart won at Homestead in pouring rain and with a hole in his vehicle's grill to edge Carl Edwards for his third title and officially end Jimmie Johnson's run of 5 in a row. Stewart actually finished tied in points with Edwards, who finished second and led the most laps but the tiebreaker is total wins in a season, which Stewart dominated, 5 to 1.
• Edwards was disappointed but held his head high after the race, saying "This night is about Tony Stewart. Those guys rose to the occasion and they beat us fair and square. That is all I had. We came here and sat on the pole, led the most laps and Tony still managed. That’s it.