Good Gift / Bad Gift - Volume 1

I'm full on into my holiday shopping at this point and I've come across quite a few sports gifts in various magazines, websites, television commercials, etc. So, I've decided to do a little series from now until the holidays entitled Good Gift / Bad Gift. Its pretty simple. First, I will present a good gift to give a sports fan and explain why its cool. Next, I will show a stupid gift and make fun of it. Its pretty simple, I think you'll all be able to keep up. So without further ado, here's Volume 1 (The Golf Edition).

Good Gift - An Actual Golden Tee Machine. Ok, I kind of cheated on this one. At $4,250, its not exactly the kind of gift that anyone can give. My advice for those who are not as wealthy as me, go buy a Wii and play Tiger Woods '07.


Bad Gift - Purple Buzzard Golf Head Cover. Giving a golf head cover is pretty lame to begin with unless its made of something really cool like Season 1 and 2 of Lost on DVD, though I'm really not sure how that would work. Anyway, the head covers on BestSportsGifts.com (GREAT NAME!) don't cut it. The only one that isn't terrible is the Baby Harp Seal, because sticking a club into a baby Harp Seal is always fun.

For the sports fan who has everything

Just when I thought everything had been officially licensed, I was searching on the internet and found MLB officially licensed door knockers. I know nothing makes me think of baseball like knocking on someone’s doors. Who is actually going to reap the benefits from something like this? Door to door salesmen? Jehovah’s witnesses? It says it is the perfect gift for groomsmen but I have not figured out why yet. If you get this gift for the sports fan in your life and they tell you they already have it, then you know they officially have everything!

Dallas Clark next to get hit by Madden curse

For a long time, it was thought that there was a cover jinx if a player was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Then it was thought that there was a cover jinx if a player was on the cover of the popular Madden video games, something we talked about on November 14th. Now, the curse with Madden may have gone a bit further. There is a commercial (seen below)for Madden 2007 that features Dallas Clark, tight end from the Indianapolis Colts, getting “JACKED UP” by Brian Dawkins and Darren Howard of the Philadelphia Eagles. Clark was not too happy about the way he was portrayed in the commercial, but then again it was just a commercial. Then last Sunday rolls around and Clark’s Colts hosted the Eagles. Same teams, same venue as the commercial, and it ended up being the same result. Clark left the field with a knee injury. Hopefully for his sake this injury was not a season ending injury, but if it was, Dallas Clark will have alot of time to sit around. Maybe he will spend some of that time playing Madden!

Tide Turning to Spurrier?

Last week after finishing 6-6 in the regular season, Alabama fired their head coach, Mike Shula, and is now looking for a new coach. This is one of the higher profile jobs in the country and arguably the highest profile job available (I know fans in Miami will beg to differ). Because of Alabama being such a high profile school, it is inevitable that big names will be linked to this job. The two biggest names linked to the job so far are South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier and Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban. Both coaches say they are staying put, but we all know you can’t take a coach by his word. According to the people at Motivational Buck, they think that Spurrier is going to be the choice. I tend to agree with them, and despite what he has said previously, I think there is a good chance that Spurrier will end up "Rolling with the Tide.” If he does, the fans will be waiting with open arms.

World’s Fastest Man Ready to change sports?

Justin Gatlin, the Gold medal winner in the 100 meter dash at the 2004 Summer Olympics, tried out yesterday for the Houston Texans. Gatlin attended Tennessee but never played football there. He is currently serving an 8 year ban from track and field. Gatlin would not be the first to jump from track and field to the NFL. One other track and field star who made the leap to the NFL is University of Maryland Graduate Renaldo Nehemiah, who played for the 49ers for 3 years and was part of their 1984 Super Bowl winning team. Nehemiah also happens to be Justin Gatlin’s agent.

Portable DirecTV?

I've seen quite a few tailgate setups with DirecTV satellites and TVs hanging out the back of an SUV, but I've always thought that that was way too much of a pain to actually setup. However, engadget.com has posted that "it looks like DirecTV is getting ready to unveil a rather clunky looking 70s-brown-and-beige-fabulous portable receiver called the SAT-GO". I'm curious to see what these things will cost and how well they'll work.

Australian guys surfing 50 states

25 year old Jonathon W. Durrant of Melbourne and 19 year old Stefan Hunt of Manly are currently travelling the country in an ice cream truck "surfing" every state. The definition of surfing has been loosened out of necessity. Obviously, the land locked states don't exactly have the best waves to ride. They're most recent escapade apparently involved surfing a minnow pond in Arkansas.

Ben Wallace unhappy in Chicago

Ben Wallace left Detroit in the off-season to sign a huge free agent deal in Chicago. He thought he was going to be the piece that could lead the Bulls into title contention, but so far, it has been a rocky start. He has seems to continually butt heads with management and coach Scott Skiles, and now he is getting in trouble for wearing a headband. The team policy is that no player is allowed to wear one, even though the team is using a picture for promotions (shown below) where he is wearing one. He said the reason he wore one even though he knew the rule against it was because he just felt like it. This problem could get worse before it gets better.

Call to the Hall

Yesterday, the Baseball Hall of Fame ballots for the Class of 2007 were announced. The ballot includes players that have been on there many times, such as Rich “Goose” Gossage and Bert Blyleven. It also includes two names that will probably have no problem making the Hall on their first try: Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn. The most interesting name on the ballot by far is Mark McGwire. McGwire hit 583 home runs in his career, good for 7th all time. In 1998, McGwire captivated the nation when he broke Roger Maris’s single season home run record and ended up hitting 70 home runs. The problem for McGwire was that he was at the center of the steroids scandal which could end up costing him. According to this survey conducted by ESPN.com, it does not look like McGwire will make it this year.

Bowling ball flash drive

Some guy who was tired of the trend towards smaller and smaller electronic components decided to permanently embed a USB flash drive into his bowling ball. If you overlook the obvious user problems that this design creates, its a great idea. I've lost a few thumb drives in my day.

Baseball Cuffs - Lame design by snooty designer

Elsewares.com has "Baseball Cuffs" made from genuine leather baseballs. The opening line in the product description is "At long last we've managed to find some real fashion for sports fans." Sounds like the emo loving, cooler-than-you people who run the site don't respect the fashion statements made by such great athletes as Clinton Portis. But anyway, as for these cuffs, what's the point? A. They're ugly and B. They serve no discernable function. Are they for warmth? Sweat absorption? Suicide prevention?

NFL is bastardizing interpretation of a reception

Two weeks in a row I found myself screaming at my television during pivotal plays of NFL games. You're probably assuming that my favorite team botched a play or one of my fantasy players dropped a pass. Neither. In fact, the reason had nothing to do with personal interests and everything to do with watching how the NFL has completely ruined the idea of a reception. Last week, I watched as Plaxico Burress had a deep reception overturned on a challenge. This week, it was Reche Caldwell's 2nd half, first-down reception that was overturned. In both cases, the replay official determined that because that the ball moved slightly in the receiver's hands as it hit the ground, that the pass was incomplete. On both plays the receiver had complete control of the ball before they came down and at no time did the ball break contact with the player's hands.

As I had previously understood the rule for receptions, the ground is not supposed to aid the player in maintaining possession of the football. However, NFL officials now rule any situation where the ball moves at all when it hits the ground as being incomplete, even when a player clearly has possession. This is a complete bastardization of the spirit of a catch and does a huge disservice to players who make legitimate catches on big plays only to have them overturned by a nitpicky, lawyer-like replay official. In my book, if a player has complete possession in the air, hits the ground, and then comes up with the ball cleanly without it leaving his hands, that's a catch. I don't give a crap if the ball moved two inches from the ring finger to the middle finger of the left hand. The worst part of this whole trend though is that announcers and fans are buying into this and no one seems to be complaining. In both the Giants and Patriots games, the announcers were predicting that the completions would be overturned and seemed to agree with the calls.

Drunk fans

It seems like every time you go to a sporting event, you manage to see at least one fan who is belligerently drunk. This seems to happen more often at college games. This reporter took matters into his own hands in this video when he encountered a drunken student outside the Michigan-Ohio State game. I think my favorite part of the clip is the fact that the news anchor knew exactly where this clip was going to eventually end up.

Ohio State Michigan ticket stubs find aftermarket

The ticket leftovers of last saturday's #1 vs. #2 matchup are selling on Ebay for up to $39. I can understand keeping a ticket stub if you actually went to the game, but what exactly is the point of charishing someone else's life memories? Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to rifle through my closet for movie ticket stubs, class photos, and report cards to go sell on Ebay.

Thanksgiving NFL game feeds

Radiotime.com has live audio feeds for tomorrow's NFL games. Just in case you don't own a television. If you happen to run out to the store during the games, make sure you signup for EZ Scores, so you can get play by play updates on tomorrow's NFL action right from your phone.

Wii Sports reviewed

Its been a few days since the Nintendo Wii was launched with the included title, Wii Sports. The general consensus seems to be that the graphics won't blow you away, but the game play shows a lot of promise. The scorecards for the major game sites are as follows:

IGN: 7.5 out of 10 (link)
Gamespot: 7.8 out of 10 (link)
GameSpy: 4 out of 5 (link)

Hopefully as developers learn to fully take advantage of Wii's controls, sports titles will get even better.

Everything’s bigger in Texas

The title of this blog entry could mean this is about a lot of things, but this time I am talking about the feud going on at North Texas University. After firing Coach Darrell Dickey, things have spun out of control at the Denton, TX university campus. First coach Dickey snuck black uniforms on to the team for their last game without the athletic department’s permission. Then during halftime the team’s offensive coordinator got in a fight with the wide receivers coach over which players to play. The craziest part of this story is the fact that Jim McIngvale, a North Texas booster threatened to withhold a $1 million dollar donation to the school unless the school renamed the practice facility after fired coach Dickey. So next year, the team will practice at the Dickey practice facility even though the coach will be long gone. Sounds like a Texas sized problem to me.

Little T learns to share, but what has big T learned?

On Sunday afternoon, the Eagles Super Bowl chances suffered a crushing blow when Donovan McNabb was lost for the season with a torn ACL. Despite all the friction between Donovan and former teammate Terrell Owens, there was a thought that TO may actually reach out and try and get in touch with him after this. When TO was asked if he would contact Donovan, his answer was “absolutely not.” You would think that maybe TO do the right thing in this situation, especially after his children’s book, Little T learns to share came out recently. I guess maybe TO needs to read that book he wrote a little more carefully next time.

7 foot 6 blocked by 5 foot 9

In case you have not seen it, Here is the footage from last night’s Rockets-Knicks game where Houston center Yao Ming gets his shot blocked by New York guard Nate Robinson (last year’s NBA slam dunk champion). This was the classic battle of height vs. heart, and in this case heart won out.

Next time they win, maybe they’ll be more careful

On Sunday, the B.C. Lions won the CFL’s Grey Cup with a 25-14 victory over the Montreal Alouettes. In the celebration, the team got a little too excited and actually broke the Grey Cup trophy. Luckily, a welder named Ben Klumper was able to put the broken trophy back together. He was very aware of the importance of this job when he said "This is not just some restaurant's soup pot we're dealing with." Your right about that, Ben.

O.J. back in the news

O.J. Simpson has been in the news recently for his new book and upcoming TV Special, titled “If I did it”. Today, the book and the special were cancelled. I am glad that NewsCorp chairman came to his senses and did not allow the special to air to the public. The relatives of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were up in arms about these projects, as well they should be. In my mind, there was no way he should have been able to do something like this, and now he won’t get the chance to.

JP Flaim the boxer

JP from the local radio show the Junkies will be making his professional boxing debut on December 9th at the Patriot Center as part of an undercard leading up to the Jimmy Lange fight. Jimmy Lange was a contestant on the first season on the ESPN show the contender. JP will be fighting Jay Watts in a 4 round fight. Watts has a professional record of 1-8, but the one win was by knockout. Jay Watts is a 10-1 favorite according to Cakes from the Junkies, but then again, Cakes is not always the best prognosticator.

Live Ohio Stadium webcam

ColumbusAlive.com is running a live video feed of Ohio Stadium that shows the field. I'm actually shocked that ABC legal hasn't shut this operation down. In fact, there will probably be a lawsuit following the game.

The end of the Sports Machine

Yesterday it was announced that George Michael will be stepping down from his position as the sports director at NBC 4 in Washington D.C. and ceasing production of his show, the Sports Machine, in March. For all those readers outside of Washington D.C., this is not the same George Michael who was part of Wham and was caught doing things in a bathroom that were “naughty, naughty”. This George Michael has been a mainstay in D.C. and for kids like me who grew up in this area, it is hard to imagine an NBC newscast without George Michael involved (especially since he began at NBC in 1980, the same year I was born). The Sports Machine was basically Sportscenter, before Sportscenter was on the air. It will be interesting to see who gets the new job as sports director at NBC.

As if the game could get any bigger

Bo Schembechler, the coach of the Michigan Wolverines from 1969 to 1989, passed away today on the eve of the monumental clash between #2 Michigan and #1 Ohio State in Columbus tomorrow. Earlier this week I had read in ESPN’s Forde Yard Dash about a punk rock band that dressed up like former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes and played songs that were largely anti-Michigan. The band’s name: Dead Schembechlers. Kind of a poor name to have on a day like today, but Bo did know about them. They also did the right thing on their website, by putting a message up about the death of Schembechler, right below the flyer for the hate Michigan rally that they are holding tonight. Should be quite a game tomorrow at 3:30 pm, and now Michigan will be playing the game with heavy hearts.

UPDATE-At last check, the Dead Schembechler's website was down and had this message: "Due to an increase in visitor traffic, the Web page you requested is temporarily unavailable. It has exceeded its monthly traffic allottment". You can find the message about Bo at their Myspace page.

Build muscle without lifting a finger?

No, this isn't like that informercial where they hooked those electrodes up to people's stomachs to build better abs. Scientists at Dartmouth have identified a gene that enhances muscle performance. According to researcher Lee Witters, "We now wonder if it's possible to achieve elements of muscular fitness without having to exercise, which in turn, raises many questions about possible modes of exercise performance enhancement, including the development of drugs that could do the same thing as we have done genetically. This also might raise to some the specter of 'gene doping,' something seriously being talked about in the future of high-performance athletes."

Watch entire baseball games in minutes

Someone finally figured out a way to make prerecorded baseball games watchable. The following writeup from the NY Times pretty much sums up what you need to know.

MagicSports 3 from CyberLink analyzes the action of a baseball game that has been recorded on a Windows-based PC with a TV tuner card, removing the commercials, the lineup changes and the foul balls. The interesting bits are arranged at the bottom of the screen as a series of thumbnails, labeled according to their excitement level. A strikeout gets one star, while a home run earns three. You can burn clips onto a DVD highlights reel.

Zach Randolph the role model

Recently in his column, Bill Simmons put up a link to a video featuring Zach Randolph of the Portland Trailblazers coming to visit the home of one of his biggest fans. The kid was awestruck when he got to meet his idol and shoot hoops with him, but you wonder if his parents knew about some of his indiscretions, including the woman suing him for $2 million dollars right now. True Hoop also posted an article about this incident with some quotes from the legal document. My favorite quote by far has to be when Randolph allegedly says I’m a gangster not a Blazer. Some role model huh.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no wait it’s a Jet

Leon Washington has had a good season as a rookie running back for the New York Jets, but right now he is in the news for a different reason. It has recently come out that his Topps football card features a picture of him where it looks like he is flipping the camera off. This brings back memories of the Billy Ripken baseball card that was so valuable when I was younger. Washington said that he was making the letter “E” with his fingers in reference to the East side of Jacksonville where he grew up. The picture of the card is below so you can decide for yourself. Become of this possible mishap, the card is already going for over $100 dollars on eBay.

Dancing with the star

Tonight is the finale of Dancing with the Stars on ABC, where they will announce the winner of this season’s contest. The two competitors are Mario Lopez (known to many as AC Slater) and former Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith. Emmitt is the second former NFL star to do the show, after Jerry Rice competed last year. From what I heard Emmitt did pretty well last night and he has a legit shot to win the contest tonight by getting the most votes. Last time Emmitt was involved with dancing and a star was the 2000 game between San Francisco and Dallas when T.O posed and danced on the star at midfield and then Emmitt scored and ran the ball out to midfield to “reclaim his territory”. Hard to believe TO is a Cowboy now after an incident like that.

A new Thanksgiving tradition

Every year on Thanksgiving while families are enjoying their holiday meal, there are 2 NFL games being played. Every year they are in Detroit and Dallas, and it seems that many families choose what time they are going to eat around the football schedule. This year, the NFL will have 3 games on Thanksgiving Thursday, the third of which being the Broncos and the Chiefs, airing on the NFL Network. This will be the beginning of an 8 game schedule of live games on the network. This got the attention of congress, however, because many cable companies such as Time Warner have balked at paying the high fee the league charges to carry the NFL Network. My cable company does carry the NFL Network so I will be able to watch the game without worry, but after hearing about this story, all I could think of was doesn’t congress have bigger things to worry about than this?

Another Lego stadium

We previously covered a company that builds realistic replicas of stadiums. Now, in time for the upcoming OSU Michigan game, we bring you this reproduction of Ohio Stadium (scroll down).

Sprint NFL Tour - seeking sportscasters

Sprint, the official mobile content partner of the NFL, is travelling the country on a promotional tour to market their NFL service. Fans can get in the running for tickets to Super Bowl XLI by sitting in front of a camera and voicing 30 seconds of play-by-play. Click on "View Winners" from the previous link to check out the early "winners". I don't think anyone at SportsCenter has to look over their shoulders quite yet.

Knight moves

Last night, during Texas Tech’s game vs. Gardner Webb, Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight slapped sophomore forward Michael Prince on the face while trying to get his attention. Normally, something like this would go unnoticed, but when Bobby Knight is involved, the story becomes major news. Knight has had his problems in the past but this time he feels he did nothing wrong. For the most part I tend to believe him. I just wish that the man who is less than 10 wins away from Dean Smith’s all time wins record would make headlines for something other than this.

Recovering from the cover jinx

Shaun Alexander has been medically cleared to practice this week, meaning that he may return to game action for the first time since week 3. This is good news to fantasy football owners like me who have Alexander on their team. Alexander has been itching to get back, but one thing he won’t be able to do is reverse the curse of the Madden cover boy. Even if Alexander rushes for 100 yards and 3 touchdowns a game for the rest of the season, there is no denying that the curse lives on for another year. This is not the first season that people believed that the player on the cover of the Madden video game was cursed, as evidenced by this 2003 CNN article. Curse or not, I just hope Alexander can play well when he returns.

Buffer vs. Buffer: Half Brothers, Total Vengeance

I was watching UFC tonight and really couldn't help but get annoyed by ring announcer Bruce Buffer. He looked down at his cue card every third word and his voice just isn't anything special. Bruce simply doesn't hold a candle to his half brother Michael, who's voice is synonymous with ring announcing. Basically, I just wanted to complain that baby Buffer is probably getting paid good coin to announce UFC fights and he really has no discernable skills, other than having the Buffer name. However, then I caught this article on KnucklePit.com that further explains their relationship and business together.

Bruce and Michael Buffer were long-lost half-brothers when they first met 15 years ago. At the time, Michael had already been announcing for eight years. Three years after their first meeting, Bruce took over as Michael’s manager and he noticed there was no solid protection for the merchandising of Michael’s "Let’s Get Ready To Rumble®" trademark.

Today, Buffer Enterprises Inc. has grossed retail sales of over $400,000,000 through licensing of the "Let’s Get Ready To Rumble®" trademark. Some of the company’s many successful ventures include the "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing" video game franchise by Midway, Rumble Robots by Trendmasters, "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Ring" by Manly Toy Quest, WCW Wrestling toys by ToyBiz and the "Ready to Rumble" movie by Warner Bros.

Motion controlled sports video games

The Nintendo Wii is set to launch November 19th. I caught this video from Engadget of two people trying out Wii Sports (Bowling, Tennis, Baseball, Boxing, Golf). The people in the video are trying the games out for the first time, so its hard to gauge how effective the motion controlled gameplay will be on the Wii. This isn't the first time that companies, including Nintendo, have tried these types of sports games before. Even the original NES had the Power Glove and the Power Pad. A couple years ago, a company called Xavix launched a line of motion controlled products that was made up mostly of sports titles. I demoed their line of games at CES 2005 and it wasn't very good at all. Hopefully, the Wii will be an improvement upon past attempts.

Christ the King James

When Lebron James was coming out of high school, there was a major battle between the shoe companies over which one would be able to sign Lebron. Nike finally won the right, and Lebron signed a $90 million dollar endorsement deal with them. Since signing with them, Lebron has started an ad campaign featuring the Lebrons, with one of the commercials featured below. One thing I never expected was the impact that Lebron would have on high schools. Christ the King High School in New York has produced NBA talent such as Lamar Odom and Speedy Claxton. They are also a Nike LeBron James sponsored Basketball program. As part of their sponsorship, Nike and Christ The King have created the Zoom LeBron IV "Christ The Kings" in the school’s trademark gold and maroon colors. These shoes are only available to Christ the King basketball players. I did not play basketball in high school, but I don’t remember the kids at my high school having Nike shoes designed for them! Then again, Lebron is no stranger to elaborate gifts for high school students either.

At least he has baseball smarts

Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling was a guest last week on Celebrity Jeopardy, but he did not come out with as much money as he might have expected. Actually, he did not come out with any money, finishing final jeopardy with a dollar value of $0. He still was able to raise $25,000 for his charities, ALS and the Shade Foundation, but he froze a couple times under pressure and missed easy questions after ringing in such as what is known as the San Francisco Treat (Answer: Rice-A-Roni). Like Schilling said in the article, going back to pitch in Yankee Stadium after this embarrassment will be the real treat.

Alabama sues artist for copyright infringement

The University of Alabama is suing artist Daniel Moore, claiming that his paintings of famous Alabama football moments are a violation of the school's copyright protection.

Mr. Moore’s paintings, reproduced in prints and on merchandise, violated the university’s trademark rights, the suit said. It asked a federal judge to forbid him to, among other things, use the university’s “famous crimson and white color scheme.”

At his gallery in Birmingham, surrounded by prints and paintings reflecting his more than 25 years as a sports artist, Mr. Moore said he remained a loyal Alabama alumnus. He graduated from the university with an art degree in 1976; two of his daughters go there now, and a third is a recent graduate.

Pen fishing rod

In case anyone reading is not aware, fishing is considered a sport these days. As such, I feel its within our scope to report on the latest fishing gear. ExpertVerdict.com is selling a "Pen Fishing Rod", an 8" fully-functional fishing rod that looks just like a regular fountain pen. I doubt we'll see this piece of equipment on the pro Bass tour anytime soon though.

The NFL gets flexible

For the first time this season, the NFL is making their schedule flexible and choosing the Sunday night games a few weeks before they are actually played to ensure better games. This week will the first game on the flex schedule, as the NFL chose the Bears-Giants game to be the Sunday night game. They have already chosen next week’s game to be the Broncos-Chargers games. Both of these games look very good on paper, but that does not necessarily ensure that all the games will look so good. Bill Syken on CNNSI has broken the season down and made some predictions for what games will be chosen the rest of the season. I agree with some of his choices but not all of them. Hopefully no matter what game NBC chooses, the game will be competitive and not as boring as this past week’s Monday night game.

When real life imitates a Hollywood script

The team plane carrying the Marshall Thundering Herd to their game at East Carolina was evacuated today when smoke was reported in an engine. This incident comes just 4 days before the 36th anniversary of the plane crash that killed 75 people and has inspired an upcoming movie called “We are Marshall”, starring Matthew McConaughey and Lost’s Matthew Fox. The eerie part of the two incidents: The plane 36 years ago was returning home from a game at East Carolina. Thankfully no one was injured in today’s incident and the team should be able to make it to their game without any more problems.

Undefeated is overrated

After watching Rutgers squeak out a come from behind win at home against Louisville, I'm already starting to get upset about the upcoming, inevitable talks about Rutgers deserving a shot at the national title. I understand the argument, if a team can make it out of a major conference without a loss, they should have a shot at playing for the championship. This all makes some sense, but there's just NO WAY that Rutgers is one of the two best teams in college football. Which brings me to my main point, that being undefeated is overrated. Quality wins, of which Rutgers now has one, are important in determining if a team should be in or considered for the championship. The worst part of all of this though is that everyone, including Rutgers, is participating in a fundamentally flawed system. In a fair system, Rutgers would have a shot at the title. However, as the system is now, I can't see talking about them as a potential title contender.

The Santa Clara 49ers?

By now, most of us have heard the rumblings that the 49ers aren't getting along with their host city and might be moving somewhere else in California. Without doing any research, I would imagine that the 49ers could potentially become the most accomplished sports franchise to relocate. The 49ers are supposed to go with San Francisco. The following is a list of 9 NFL franchises that simply should NOT be allowed to move cities, regardless of any disputes over tax benefits, stadium financing, etc.

The Green Bay Packers
The Chicago Bears
The San Francisco 49ers
The Pittsburgh Steelers
The Dallas Cowboys
The Philadelphia Eagles
The New York Giants
The Detroit Lions
The Minnesota Vikings

The following 4 teams have borderline non-movable status.

The Washington Redskins
The New York Jets
The New England Patriots
The Denver Broncos

The remaining 19 teams are free to move as they see fit.

Louisville: the All-American football town

Last weekend, Churchill Downs was the site for the Breeder’s Cup, the single richest day in sports, as it was worth $18 million in prize money this year. Churchill Downs hosts the Kentucky Derby every year so they are no stranger to big horse races. The Breeder’s Cup would have been all the talk in Louisville last week except for one thing: the Louisville football team was undefeated and hosting undefeated West Virginia. Suddenly, Louisville, which had always been known as a horse and hoops town, was becoming a football town. Louisville plays another undefeated team, Rutgers, tonight. If they win this game on the road, they could be on the fast track to the National Championship game in Glendale, Arizona on January 8th. Just imagine how into football Louisville would be if their hometown Cardinals played in that game.

Say it ain't so, Joe

For the first time since 1977, Penn State will play a football game without Joe Paterno on the sidelines on Saturday. In case you missed it, last Saturday, Paterno got run into on the sidelines and ended up breaking his shinbone and tearing two knee ligaments in his left leg. You can see video of the incident below. Despite all that, the 80 year old Paterno was still trying to coach this weekend before his doctor ordered him not to. That, my friends, is one tough guy.

KSU tops early basketball recruiting rankings

It didn't take Bob Huggins long to pull some blue chip recruits to his new home, Kansas State. According to Scout.com, his 2007 class tops the early national top 25 list.

Play golf via satellite

GmapGolf.com is attempting to create a Google Maps mashup that will allow users to play golf via online satellite maps. The site is still in alpha mode, meaning that you can't actually play anything yet. However, some users (myself included) have begun to map out golf courses by outlining course features like tees, sand traps, greens, etc. The picture below is of me editing the first hole at Ocean View in Bermuda, which I recently played. I'm very interested to see if this project can get off the ground. Its the first augmented reality gaming done on a global scale that I know of.

Sign right here

Today is signing day for college basketball, which used to mean the day that the top players picked what college they were going to if they did not jump straight to the NBA. Now that the NBA changed the eligibility rule before the 2006 draft, a player must wait until one year after their high school class has graduated before they are eligible for the draft. Greg Oden, the top freshman player in college basketball and a likely top 3 pick last year had the rule not been changed, is happy to be playing college basketball for Ohio State. Oden says he wants to stay in school and experience college life, but something tells me he will be happy with the experience he gains during this year in Columbus, and he will end up being a top 3 pick in next year’s draft.

Coming soon to a school near you

When I was younger, it seemed like every year we would have an assembly where they would have someone come into school and talk to us, telling us to stay in school and not to use drugs. They were not always famous, but they all hoped to motivate us and get their message across. In September, MLB.com ran an auction where a lucky school in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut got to bid to have a former New York Met come to their school to give a speech. That player that was up for auction: Daryl Strawberry! I guess Dwight Gooden was busy. Daryl Strawberry giving a speech on life lessons and staying away from drugs is worth the price of admission right there. The way the auction went, he was much cheaper than some of the other athletes available for motivational speeches.

What happened to Slamball?

A few years ago, TNN aired the first season of Slamball, an overdue combination of basketball and trampolining. From time to time, I find myself checking in on their website to see if its ever going to come back. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be making a revival anytime soon. I'm left to get my fix of basketball and trampolines by searching for "basketball and trampolines" on YouTube (see below).


How did a perfect made for TV sport fail? TNN did make the switch to SpikeTV, but Slamball would still have been a good match for their core demographic. It certainly fits in better with their current lineup than The Three Stooges and Star Trek. The production costs couldn't have been the downfall. Player salaries were probably next to nothing, I'm assuming most of those guys still worked at Kenny's Shoes or Safeway for their day jobs. That's it, I can't think of any reasons why Slamball failed, which leads me to the conclusion that Slamball needs to come back. I will continue to check in to see if that ever happens.

Election Day: Could a win in NC hurt the Redskins?

UPDATE: Lynn Swann has lost his bid to become the next governor or Pennsylvania. Link

Today is Election Day, and there are many intriguing political races going on across the country. A few of these races involve former athletes, the most famous of which being 4 time Super Bowl Champion Wide Receiver Lynn Swann, who is running for Governor of Pennsylvania. When I look at the list of former athletes running, the name that jumps out at me is former Washington Redskins QB Heath Shuler. He was less than stellar during his playing days, but a win today would mean that he would be returning to Washington. I personally would not have a problem if he came back to DC despite his struggles during his time here, and since he is running in North Carolina, there is very little I could do about it anyways. One group of Redskins fans is doing what they can to keep him out by coming up with the Stop Shuler website, an amusing look on how the return of Heath Shuler could be bad for the Redskins. We will have to wait until tonight or possibly tomorrow to see if their efforts pay off or not.

Champagne cognac improves basketball performance

I noticed the above banner ad running on ESPN.com today. It depicts a bottle of Remy Martin (a champagne cognac) along with a basketball and the words "Step Up Your Game". I understand why beer and liquor companies advertise to sports fans, its a great demographic. I however, don't understand why companies force their message so often. Isn't it enough to run a Remy Martin ad on ESPN.com basketball pages to get the point across? Instead the ad creator tries to take that extra step to drive the point home and the ad just becomes weird. Are they trying to say that drinking Remy Martin will help me play better basketball? Does it work for football and luge too? This reminds me of the billboards off the highway outside of Philly. Half of them have pictures of Ben Franklin or the Liberty Bell along with an ad for a Wawa Hogie or something else completely non-specific to Philly. What message is the ad creator trying to convey? That you the traveller are so excited to be driving through Philadelphia that you'll pull over and buy our sandwich because we put a picture of a city icon next to it?

The new Mike Ditka

Mike Ditka has done a lot of things in his life: been a Hall of Fame Tight End, won a Super Bowl as a head coach, and been an actor in movies such as Kicking and Screaming. Now Mike Ditka is on to a new venture, one that may surprise many people: he is selling wine with his name on it. When I think of wine and Mike Ditka, I think of his role in the video below, not something you can drink. Ditka is not the only athlete with his name on a wine, as Greg Norman and Joe Montana both entered this business, but in my mind he is the most surprising. I find myself wondering one thing, what would Bill Swerski’s Super Fans think of if they heard this news?

Best movie since "Man Getting Hit By Football"

CollegeHumor.com has awarded this video hall of fame status. Its not the most painful of online videos I've ever seen, but its humor is straightforward and uncompromising. The man getting hit by football video is below so that you can make the choice for yourself which video is actually best (Don't let Homer's reaction influence you).

The youthful innocence of youth sports

A Northern Virginia 12-14 year old boy's football team will miss the remainder of its season after its coached was fired by the league commissioner. The coach was fired because he decided to move the commissioner's son from defensive end to offensive guard for the last game of the season. The following quote by commissioner Dan Hinkle sums up the man's thinking about the situation.

"Scott does not sit out on defense -- ever," the commissioner, Dan Hinkle, had warned the head coach, James Owens, in an e-mail sent before the season began about how he should play Hinkle's son, 12. On defense, the father said, "he goes in and stays in. That includes all practices, scrimmages and games. This entire league exists so he can play defense on the best team in his weight class. . . . He is my son, I own the league, and he plays every snap on defense."

The next step in life

Two days after Saturday’s Breeders Cup, the runner up in the race, Bernardini, retired to the good life and was sent to stud. Bernardini was the even money favorite going into the race at Churchill Downs, but finished second to Invasor. Bernardini is the favorite for horse of the year, but may not have even been in the running had it not been for the injury to Barbaro in the Preakness. Barbaro is still recovering, but took a major step forward towards recovery this weekend (no pun intended).

Will the Reign Man Reign again?

Back when I was in high school, I worked for the Washington Wizards. My favorite player, however, was Shawn Kemp who played for the Seattle Sonics. Some people may remember him for different reasons, but I really was a fan of his above the rim game. Now, Kemp has announced that he wants to return to the NBA. I would like to see if he has anything left, because back in the day he was one of the top players in the NBA. I don't expect him to come back and be the player he once was, but he could probably still help a team.

Maxim botches World's Crappiest Sports rankings

In its November issue, Maxim has come up with a list of the World's Crappiest Sports, from 1 to 13. The list is completely wrong. Obviously, they're just trying to be witty and gang up on sports that aren't popular in the US. Curling topped the list, which is a complete travesty. I've curled and its damn fun. So, here's my adjusted list of the crappiest sports, from 10 to 1.

10. Bullriding - I went to a bullride in Wyoming once. It smelled horrible. I don't know how going to these events is enjoyable.

9. Figure Skating - I can't get behind any sports that have an "artistic impression" element. Its also creepy to see 12 year olds that good at something.

8. Biathlon - I just don't understand the connection between cross-country skiing and shooting. Impossible to follow on TV too.

7. Kabaddi - As far as I can tell, this is the World's most homoerotic sport. The teams take turns sending a "raider" across to the opposite team's half, where the goal is to tag or wrestle members of the opposite team before returning to the home half. By the way, the players only wear underwear.

6. Rhythmic Gymnastics - I think this is for girls who weren't coordinated enough or who's chests were too big to do real gymnastics, not that I'm a huge fan of that sport either.

5. Inline Skating - In the early to mid-nineties, rollerblading was cool. Now, its lame.

4. Synchronized Swimming - Sucks for the same reason as figure skating, but makes it higher on the list because the women are creepier and wear more makeup.

3. Pigeon Racing - Easily the dumbest of the non-human sports.

2. Aeromodeling - According to Wikipedia, its a sport. And anything on Wikipedia can't be wrong. Its the "sport" of putting model airplanes together.

1. Dancing - In any form, and there are many, this is lame. Dancing is ok when you're drunk or trying to socialize, but not in competitive form.

A Rose in the desert

Earlier this week, Jalen Rose was bought out of his contract by the New York Knicks, which allowed him the opportunity to choose which NBA team he would be playing for this season. He decided to choose the Phoenix Suns, and he revealed this choice today, on his blog. Personally, the only blog I usually read is the Unrestricted Free Agent Blog, but I still decided to check out Jalen’s blog anyways. The one problem with the whole thing is that the Suns say they have not yet heard from Rose or his agent. It appears he will end up in Phoenix, but for now, we will have to wait and see.

Adidas opens ridiculously high-tech store in France

Adidas has opened the Mi Innovation Center on the Champs-Elysées. The store is intended to be a wonderland of innovation where consumers can custom fit Adidas clothes and shoes to their exact measurements. The flagship technological wonder is a 3D virtual mirror that allows consumers to see their custom shoe on their foot before they buy it. These custom shoes will run between $40 and $65 more than regular versions. This type of store will probably appeal mostly to the kinds of people you see at the gym who think they're elite athletes in training, but are there just to be seen and look at themselves in the mirror. View Slide Show

Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle

The Saginaw Spirit, a junior hockey team in Saginaw, Michigan, recently named their team mascot Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle after Steven Colbert, host of the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Colbert pleaded with the team on his show to name the mascot after him and in September they obliged! For the record, sales are up 25% from this point last year and their website is so jammed that they had to put a message on there apologizing for the high volume of traffic. Better yet, the team is in first place right now. Maybe they are on to something here.

Google Video now hosting all NHL games

Google has struck a deal with the NHL to offer all of their games online through Google Video. This should be a win win for both parties, given that the NHL struggles to get TV coverage and Google/YouTube need some high profile examples of videos that they actually have the copyright license to rebroadcast.

Its not midgets fighting a lion...

Slate.com has a photo essay of Cambodian kickboxers training and fighting in a form known as Khmer. I enjoyed the photos because they reminded me of old boxing photos from the 50's and 60's that had a smokey, dirty quality to them. They're the kind of photos that you just can't capture at an American sporting event anymore.

A story with a nice ring to it

On Tuesday night, the Miami Heat received their 2006 NBA Championships rings before their season opener against the Chicago Bulls. As you can see, the ring is bigger than most people’s fist. Unfortunately for the Heat fans, their team was downright scary on Halloween, losing to the Bulls by 42 after receiving their rings. The fans were also able to get in on the fun of owning a Miami Heat Championship ring, as they were selling replica rings in the team store during Tuesday’s game. I just hope the players and the fans will be more responsible with their rings then Lawrence Phillips was with his Big Eight Championship ring a few years ago.

Brady Quinn goes Hollywood

Reports are coming out that famed Hollywood producer Roger Corman plans to release a remake of the movie "Win One for the Gipper" next year. In the previous film, Notre Dame Quarterback George Gipp was played by future president Ronald Reagan. So what Hollywood hunk does Corman have his eye on to play the lead role in this film? Actually, none, as he is going after current Notre Dame Quarterback Brady Quinn. Well, at least the movie would give Brady something to look forward to when he is playing QB for Oakland or Buffalo next season.

World's biggest skateboard ramp

Pro skater Bob Burnquist has built the world's largest skateboard ramp in his backyard at his farm near San Diego. This panoramic shot pretty much shows you everything you need to know. Here are the key specs:

Height: 75 feet
Length: 360 feet
Top Speed: 55 mph
Cost: $280,000

What Lee Corso does when it’s not Gameday

Last night on HBO, Real Sports ran a piece on the College Gameday crew. They talked about Chris Fowler’s rise through the ESPN broadcasting ranks and how Kirk Herbstreit is living the life of the all American kid (College QB, married a cheerleader, beautiful home and family). Then they got to Lee Corso. They discussed some things about Lee Corso that I knew, such as the fact that he played football at Florida State and roomed there with Burt Reynolds. I did not realize that Corso is still tied for third on Florida State’s interception list with none other than Deion Sanders. The part I found out that was most interesting to me is the fact that Corso has another day job. If you thought that Corso was just a retired coach who did College Gameday on weekends, Corso would say “not so fast my friend.” The 70 year old Corso is Director of Business Development for Dixon Ticonderoga, the company that creates #2 pencils. His claim to fame at that job was helping create a crayon made of soybeans in 2001. This article from 2005 tells you more about Corso’s other job and now next time you watch College Gameday you will have a better understanding for why Corso is always waving that pencil around when he talks.

Head Bangers... BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

I was flipping through the channels last night and came across this commercial masterpiece for Head Bangers Big Kick Football from Funrise Toys. I now have the song completely stuck in my head after watching it no less than 10 times in order to comment on the finer points of the piece. Obviously, the overall acting and character development are great. You can really feel the rivalry between the blonde kid and the old guy who showed up in full pads to play with him. My favorite part though is easily when about 45% through the commercial, the kid does a Chad Johnson-esque little dance after a kick. As a sidenote, FamilyFun.com (who I blogged about earlier), has awarded this the 2006 Toy of the Year. I'm not saying its a terrible toy, I personally love flicking paper footballs through goalposts, but I can't imagine that this was the best toy that anyone put out this year.

ESPN too sensitive?

Yesterday, it was announced that Harold Reynolds would be suing ESPN for $5 million, claiming breach of contract and wrongful termination. Back in July when Harold was fired, there was never any explanation given, but a story came out about giving “a brief innocuous hug” to a "female intern." Does not exactly sound like grounds for dismissal to me. ESPN also had to deal yesterday with banning commentator Brian Kinchen from one game after his questionable use of the word gay. Kinchen’s future with the network is also under review. This is another instance that probably deserves punishment, but not suspension from the network. It just makes you wonder if ESPN is getting a little too sensitive in their old age.