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Humility is running on fumes in a league that always asks “what have you done for me lately.”
Billick guided the Ravens to the franchise’s first Super Bowl in 2001, which was led by a Ray Lewis-fueled defense and Trent Dilfer on offense. But from 2006 to 2007, the Ravens had the worst win-loss differential, according to ESPN.com, dropping eight more games than they did in the previous year. In 2006, the Ravens went 13-3 and in 2007 they managed 5 wins and 11 losses.
The bottom line is, losing hurts the bottom line and Super Bowl resume coaches can get the axe just as easy as Joe Schmoe and Cam Cameron (I’m just counting the days).
There’s no stopping the endless chatter on the New England Patriots and it is ever deserving. This is truly an accomplishment I didn’t want to see happen, through and through to the final two minutes and a failed onside kick.
I guess you can call me a hater, because now east coast bias is going to drip into my ears for all of 2008 with the Pats, Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics playing as well as they are. I think I’m just going to bury my head in the sand until March.
“UFC 79: Nemesis” sure lived up to the hype. I was able to catch the final two fights, the big ones. First came Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, two brawlers with no regard for their own physical well-being. They came out a little cautious, feeling each other out, but eventually stood with each other and traded shots. As far as action and blood, you couldn’t ask for more out of a fight; it was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.
Chuck got the better shots in, added a few unexpected take downs, and won an obvious unanimous decision. Following a crazy second round, Silva’s face looked like a grenade had gone off near it until his corner was able to clean him up. I’ll give him a ton of credit for not getting knocked out though, and even Liddell gave him credit for having a good chin afterward.
Then came the main event, a third fight between Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes for the interim welterweight championship. This one was dominated from beginning to end by St. Pierre, who is a physical and athletic freak and looks like he was created for a video game. Again surprising to me, St. Pierre repeatedly took Hughes down and had the superior ground game, something Hughes is known for. He won with an arm bar.
St. Pierre looks absolutely unstoppable to me and I fully expect him to beat Matt Serra in the rematch. He even said after the fight that the championship belt is not truly his until he beats Serra. And I can’t wait until that happens. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite fighters, and UFC continues to deliver the best fights. Find a friend who taped it, cause words don’t do justice.
I’ve railed and railed against steroids this year, both in this blog and in my column for The Union. Should it be any surprise that some of my top posts and just overall better work here is on the very same issue? Not at all.
For me, 2007 will be remembered for the cheating bums who tried to take away the integrity and humility of sports. Tim Donaghy, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. And then defending some who didn’t deserve the crap they were getting (Michael Vick and O.J. Simpson).
The bad always outweighs the good. But there were smaller incidents, which brought some life lessons to me, like when Bill Walsh died. It kind of put reporting into perspective.
Without further ado, here are my top posts with a quick summary of what they each contain, organized by month:
A letter to Barry Bonds — Jan. 11 You ever wonder why I go at Barry Bonds so hard, this is it. It’s a lot more personal than you thought it was.
Killing McGwire softly — Jan. 9 When Mark McGwire was denied entrance to the Hall of Fame, it gave reason to believe that he would be the precursor for the steroids era.
Tim Donaghy tributes start pouring in — July 23 A great video that shows the horrible officiating led by Tim Donaghy’s crew in the Western Conference Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns.
Ugh … this draft sucked — July 3 Nothing but disappointment for the Warriors after shipping Jason Richardson to Charlotte and picking up Brandon Wright.
My O.J. dilemma — Sept. 18 I went across the grain by thinking logically here, all the while giving some fair disclosures. My detailed opinion on how the Juice isn’t getting a fair shake.
I gotta say I was surprised by this news, but apparently former NBA forward/center Keon Clark is an alcoholic. According to this story from the News-Gazette, he’s never played a sober game in the league. That guy’s a good drunk!
Unfortunately, you have to pay for the full story so I don’t have all the details. But I don’t think alcoholics get enough credit. It’s not easy to wake up hungover and go right back to drinking. It takes commitment and perseverance. And more importantly, where are the endorsements for Keon? Couldn’t he be the spokesman for Seagram’s Gin?
“I won’t drink anything but Seagram’s before a game. I played for years in the NBA and made millions of dollars, and you could too, with the help of Seagram’s Gin!”
They could at least have some funny commercials of him airballing a dunk, or passing out on the bench, or fouling out of a game in 20, 30 seconds.
I’ve also heard rumors that former center Vlade Divac smoked a pack a day. Why not have him represent your cig brand?
The most dominant conference this decade is getting played worse than a banjo song in a hip-hop club.
Every time you turn around, East Coast bias is in the air, and only half of it is deserving. If I read one more NBA story on the Three Celtic-eers, I’m gonna gouge out my eyes. Not really, but I’m just pissed I have to watch them on Sportscenter every night when I don’t give a crap about the Celtics, who have sucked for the last 10 years. Currently, at 24-3, they’re the top team in the NBA and that is giving the national media enough reasoning to shove them down our collective throats.
There’s so many stars in the NBA, and yet I only get glimpses of all the talent in the south (Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor) and up north (Luol Deng and Michael Redd). But don’t get me started with how my Warriors are getting shafted with the daily coverage or how the resurgent Lakers are all of an afterthought some days. And can somebody please explain to me how the Celtics are the best team when they’ve yet to face the defending champion San Antonio Spurs or take a crack at the Dallas Mavericks?
The truth is, these guys are getting more play then they should just because they’re in the middle of one of the biggest media markets that tends to influence the producers at ESPN (Errr… duh!). Now if only they could get a producer who is based on the west coast to give a little fair time at the world wide leader, I might stop crying like a guy who is missing the Dream Team because some network exec decides ice skating is more popular (thanks a lot, NBC).
Every day, the continuing savior from east coast bias is my 10 ‘o’ clock news. I can’t help but wonder when the “world wide leader” is going to start acting like newspapers and get local sports shows like Comcast. (Maybe they’ll hire me.) Whatever the case, there needs to be some incentive to spread out the coverage. Wouldn’t you say diverse coverage is good for league with 30 teams? I’d be happy with it, especially if they’re still going to pretend to be the WWL.
If you didn’t know by now, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants will be simulcast on NBC and CBS instead of going on in the dead of night at the NFL network Saturday.
Now you can catch the Patriots stomp their way to perfection. Even better, the Giants are looking more and more like they’re going to play their starters so it won’t be a guaranteed ass whooping.
In fact, some of the Giants players are getting pissed that their fans have been selling their tickets to Pats fans because they want to witness history, the long awaited perfect season that will upend the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
Said Brandon Jacobs in the New York Daily News:
“That’s probably one of the reasons why we are better on the road than we are at home. If it is that way and they got more fans, then so be it. It could work out to our advantage.”
No love lost, right?
Either way, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve been up to the gazoo in Patriots talk since they beat the Dallas Cowboys in week 6. Ever since, the perfect season gab has been non stop, headed by the talking heads at ESPN and New York media.
I don’t live in Boston, but I’m sure it must be pretty nice for their fans right now. But for everyone outside the New England bubble, they’ve gotta feel like me up until this week: I just didn’t give a crap. There’s more east coast bias flowing out of ESPN and the national sports media than I care to point out anymore. It’s non-stop, New York Knicks daily drama, Patriots daily updates and Chad Pennington diary entries. The big boys pushing out these stories are always too quick in assessment and always quick to dismiss what’s happening on the other side of the country.
Case in point: My boy Patrick Willis is leading the NFL in tackles with 162 — 29 more than Bay Area native and Denver Bronco D.J. Williams in second place. Willis is doing this as a rookie. Does he ever get any minutes or PT on Sportscenter? Nope. I don’t expect him to either will all the records about to be shattered this week, Randy Moss going after Jerry Rice’s hallowed 22 touchdowns (which he did in 13 weeks I might add) and Tom Brady is one touchdown away from Peyton Manning’s 49-touchdown record. It’s a field day for the national media.
But will it end? Not anytime soon.
As big as this is going to be Saturday including all of the historical ramifications, how am I supposed to justify watching and reading the national media when all they do is concern themselves with one coast year long? At best, the perfect season talk shouldn’t have started until after week 13.
You know, I can’t. Which is why I’m going to just turn on the 10 ‘o’ clock news from now on for my Warriors highlights and watch the 49ers and Giants myself. I wouldn’t be able to find them on Sportscenter anyways.
Man I love this guy. I just love to see a high-profile job go to somebody who can’t do it. It’s like nobody gave Bryant Gumbel a sample game to see if he could do it. As awful as he is on NFL Network, I look forward to his games because I know I’ll get at least one good laugh.
Gumbel repeatedly called the Cowboys the Packers when the two teams met earlier in the year. He’s done this in at least one other game. ESPN radio’s Doug Gottlieb said that Gumbel has said he was waiting for the “three minute warning” and my favorite, “The kick is up, it’s good! No it’s not my bad.”
Here’s a good one:
The uh, Carls’ Jr. uh, Subway, mmm Wendy’s no, Captain Crunch Depot postgame show! And who is Rick? I love this guy!
“We here at CBS welcome you now to the New York Generals against the Boston Patriots, who are led by reigning MVP candidate Peter Brady. The Patriots need to win this game to qualify for the AFL West playoffs. Our game is brought to you by peanut butter, delicious peanut butter.”
