December 7th update

Don't like it? Well Suh me!

• Ndamukong Suh (pronounced 'sue' in case the cheesy header to this piece didn't make it clear) is an animal. Some people use this term to denote a player who is fierce competitor, improving his team through incredible plays made by that player's unique set of skills. Other use it to mean someone who a questionable human being, unable to act as a decent human being, instead choosing to act otherwise (or animalistic). I use this word because I submit that Suh fits both descriptions.
• Suh, a dominant Defensive Tackle who is extremely athletic for someone his size, probably should have won the Heisman Trophy award, which is supposed to go to the nation's best player, after the 2009 season (It might as well be called the QB or RB award because only 3 non-quarterbacks/running backs have won it since 1970) but lost to Mark Ingram and had to settle for being taken #2 in the NFL draft the following year by the Detroit Lions where he was expected to lead a resurgence for the team's awful defense.
• However, while he has put up incredible stats and the team has improved on the field, he's also come under fire for being a dirty player. In a preseason game his rookie year, he nearly ripped the head off of QB Jake Delhomme and he has been fined multiple times for his over-the-top hits.
• Then in the past couple weeks he was in a wreck and may have told women in the car with him to lie about their injuries and also repeatedly rammed an opponent's head into the turf and then stomped on the player's arm with his spikes (on Thanksgiving no less). He was suspended for two games for the stomp despite an explanation that seemed like something you'd see from a five year old who had been caught stealing cookies from the kitchen. If Suh can focus his anger and play aggressively while not behaving unacceptably, he stands a chance at becoming one of the greatest Defensive Tackles in NFL history. However, to this point, The Detroit Lion seems to think that wearing a helmet with an animal on it gives him the right to act like one.


Miami Marlins on spending spree

• The Baseball winter meetings kicked off in Dallas this week. This annual event generally signals the beginning off the offseason players moves, both in free agency and with trades. This year’s free agent class is headed by two of baseball's best players, Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes.
• The team who seems to be making the biggest splash so far is the newly minted Miami Marlins (formerly titled the Florida Marlins). The Marlins made the first free agent move of the offseason signing closer Heath Bell on a 3-year $27 million deal. They quickly trumped this deal by signing the aforementioned, Jose Reyes, a shortstop formerly of the New York Mets. Reyes, one of the jewels of the free agent market, signed a 6-year $106 million deal. The Reyes signing is interesting for the Marlins as their best player currently is Hanley Ramirez, who also plays shortstop
• Albert Pujols has also been made a long term offer by the Marlins. The 31-year old who has put up career numbers that put him in league with names such as Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Ted Williams has been looking for a 10-year deal from his current team (The St Louis Cardinals) but they are reticent to give it to him. Such a deal would be risky as even a player of Pujols's caliber would be likely to deteriorate greatly from his current production by the time he reaches 41 years old (and even before then). However, the Marlins are rumored to have made a 10-year offer for Pujols and are expecting a response from him sometime soon.


Rookie Quarterbacks Leading the NFL

• This year’s crop of rookie quarterbacks has been remarkable in leading their teams to strong seasons, which is unusual because apart from Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco a couple years ago, rookie quarterbacks have almost categorically struggled in the NFL over the past handful of seasons.
• The Carolina Panthers' signal-caller Cam Newton has been a dual threat throwing for 13 touchdowns and running for a baker’s dozen as well. Through 12 games, the Panthers have already doubled their win total from last year, and are looking like they are on the upswing. This past weekend, Newton rushed for 3 touchdowns to break the NFL record for quarterbacks in a single season, and he’s' only played 75% of the season. Newton is on pace to shatter many other rookie quarterback records, but he may need to be more judicious with what he does with the footballs afterwards.
• Andy Dalton, the second round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals, is Newton’s biggest competition for Offensive Rookie of the Year. The Bengals are 7-5 and have a chance at making the playoffs under the leadership of Dalton. Dalton's statistics are not quite as impressive as Newton, but his team has won more and has a chance at the playoffs.
• The rest of the Rookie quarterbacks have simply enough, shown growing pains. Christian Ponder of the Minnesota Vikings has shown a lot of promise with the young Vikings but the team has only won two games. Blaine Gabbert, of the Jacksonville Jaguars has been very spotty and Jake Locker seems to be a bigger hit on YouTube (this is really funny if you have a couple minutes) than he is with the Titans.

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.

October 3rd update

Incredible comebacks top Week 4 of NFL storylines

Generally speaking, if you're down by 20 or more in the NFL in the second half, you're likely to be going home with your tail between your legs. But this season has shown that no lead is safe (and we're not just talking about football) and no game should be phoned in until the clock reads o.oo.
• 2 weeks after the Cowboys lost a game where they had a 14 point lead in the 4th quarter for the first time in team history, they managed to lose to the still undefeated Lions despite the fact that they led 27-3 in the 3rd quarter, assisted by 3 second half interceptions by Tony Romo.
• The Eagles, who many thought would be far and away the best team in the NFC this season, led the 49ers 23-3 but found a way to lose despite a phenomenal game from a banged-up Michael Vick, who snapped at reporters afterwards. The Eagles are now 1-3 while the 49ers are 3-1.
• The Giants trailed the Arizona Cardinals by 10 with less than 4 minutes but took advantage of a controversial call that negated what looked to be an obvious fumble by WR Victor Cruz. On the very next play, Eli Manning threw a TD pass to pass catching machine Hakeem Nicks and the Giants would hold on to win.
• The undefeated Buffalo Bills diverted from their winning strategy of the past 2 weeks, opting not to fall behind by 18+ points and then come back to win as they had in each of those 2 games. Instead, they led the Cincinnati Bengals for most of the game but lost on a late FG 23-20.
• It's only appropriate that the last game to be played this week is Indianapolis at Tampa Bay on Monday Night because the last time these teams played in Tampa (OK, let's see if you've been paying attention to theme of the week so far) the Colts made one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history, scoring 21 points in the final 4 minutes to send the game into overtime where they won, 38-35.
• In non comeback-related news, Aaron Rodgers had a "6-Pack" of TDs (4 throwing and 2 rushing) in an offensive explosion for the defending Super Bowl Champions who destroyed the Broncos and the Ravens forced 4 fumbles from Mark Sanchez and scored 3 defensive Touchdowns (which surprisingly, they've never done before) against an overmatched Jets offense. The 34-17 score looked closer than it was simply because the Jets had 2 return touchdowns of their own, one on a kickoff and one on an interception. It was the first game in NFL history with more than 4 return touchdowns.


Big games don't live up to hype in NCAA

• There were a number of big games in the NCAA in week 5, but many of them were blowouts that left TV audiences disinterested. There were 3 matchups that involved 2 top-13 teams and none of them ended closer than 20 points.
• In those 3 games, the Alabama Crimson Tide destroyed Florida 38-10, Clemson continued their terrific run by beating Virginia Tech 23-3 and establishing themselves as a potential title contender and Wisconsin made Nebraska look like they don't belong in the Big 10 (Or the "Legends and Leaders" as they now want the conference to be called) by demolishing the Cornhuskers 48-17.
• Other Big 12 teams had a rough day as Texas A&M lost another big lead, this time to Arkansas in a 42-38 loss, #15 Baylor lost a late lead, losing a heartbreaker to Kansas State 36-35 and Oklahoma dropped from #2 to #3 in the AP poll despite a 56 point trouncing of Ball State because the voters were more impressed by the opposition that Alabama faced.

September 26th update

NFL's Week 3 Produces Surprise Contenders

• Two of the worst teams in the NFL the past decade improved to 3-0 on the season after overcoming major deficits. These two teams proved they belonged in the discussion of the best teams in the league.
• The Buffalo Bills (who were 58-102 in the past 10 years) defeated the New England Patriots for the first time in 15 tries. They were down 21-0 in the second quarter but their offense, led by former Harvard Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, hit their stride in the second half; while their defense also locked down a very high flying Pats offense, intercepting Tom Brady 4 times (for reference, Brady was only intercepted 4 times for the entire 2010 season). The Bills scored 34 points in the second half, only allowing 10 more, to win 34-31.
• The Detroit Lions (who were 33-127 in the past 10 years) defeated the Minnesota Vikings in overtime. Down 20-0 at halftime, the Lions stormed back with a very big second half to actually take the lead before the Vikings tied the game at 23 with just over a minute to go in the game. In overtime the Lions took the opening kick-off and drove almost 60 yards to put themselves in a position to allow Jason Hanson, who has been with the team for 20 years, to win the game with a field goal. The Lions won in Minnesota for the first time since 1997. They play there every year. They also started 3-0 for the first time since 1980. And yes, they also play at least 3 games every year.
• The only two undefeated teams other than those 2 are the Redskins, who will try to go 3-0 on Monday Night Football against the Cowboys, and the defending Super Bowl champion Packers.
• For the rest of the results from Week 3 click here.

LSU new #1 after Oklahoma struggles

• The LSU Tigers overtook the #1 spot in the AP poll after handily beating West Virginia, 47-21. Oklahoma on the other hand, trailed for most of the game against unranked Missouri resulting in the somewhat rare win that moves a team out of the #1 spot.
• #8 Texas A&M used a raucous home crowd to get off to a scintillating start against #7 Oklahoma State but star WR Justin Blackmon came back and started the second half on a 23-0 run to win 30-29. It was fitting justice for some Big 12 fans as Texas A&M was officially accepted into the SEC over the weekend as well.

• In other action, Alabama easily dispatched a highly ranked Arkansas team that never seems to live up to expectations, Clemson continued their hot start, sending #11 Florida State to a second straight loss, 35-31 and LaMichael James continued to set records by rushing for an Oregon record 288 yards. He already owns nearly every Oregon career record for RBs and after Saturday's effort, he moved into the top 10 in all-time rushing yards in the Pac-12 conference (formerly Pac-10).