The Unrestricted Free Agent

Ivan Drago: Justice Enforcer

2007-01-06T03:37:00.000-05:00

This could quiet possibly be the greatest thing ever put on the internet. Its one of those old school fighting games like TMNT, Double Dragon, The Simpsons, etc. The catch? The main character is Ivan Drago and he's come from Russia to kick some modern day American ass! Play it. Seriously, play this game. Link (via Kotaku)

From the game...
"America has lost itself to madness and anarchy. Only one person can restore order... IVAN DRAGO! As the most powerful boxer in the universe, you must guide Drago through the tough city streets and beyond to find out the source of all this chaos. Let no one stand in your way!"

NFL Playoff time

2007-01-05T14:30:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow the NFL playoffs begin, and we should be in for 4 intriguing matchups this weekend. The biggest storyline of this year’s playoffs may be to see whether Peyton can get over the hump and finally lead his Colts to the Super Bowl. If he doesn’t, he will always be thought of as the next Dan Marino. In the clip below, from the CBS post game show after the Colts got eliminated last year, Boomer Esiason talks about how Peyton may be the next Dan Marino, while Dan Marino sat on the set with him. Esiason fails to mention that he too lost a Super Bowl to the Joe Montana led 49ers like Marino did. Overall, Dan handles the situation well, unless you want to read more into the stare down he gives Boomer at the end.

Beckham in "Chia" form

2007-01-05T00:15:00.000-05:00

So in Japan, they're selling desktop busts of David Beckham that allow you to grow grass out the top of his head. I'm not exactly sure if David Beckham or pictures of him were even consulted when making this product. I doubt I would even have been able to recognize this as David Beckham if I wasn't told. Link (GadgetInsight.com) This is my own personal artistic rendition of what a Beck's Grass Head SHOULD look like.

St. Pierre and Serra both out for UFC 67

2007-01-04T02:30:00.000-05:00

Georges St. Pierre, the current UFC Welterweight Champion has withdrawn from his first title defense due to a knee injury. Now, rumor has it that Matt Serra has also withdrawn himself from the 67 card, opting to hangon to his title shot until at least UFC 69. I'm dissappointed mostly because I was looking forward to seeing Serra get knocked out. Though St. Pierre vs. Serra was supposed to be the headlining bout, I'm more intrigued by the matchups on the undercard. 67 will feature two former Pride Fighters making their UFC debuts, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. Jackson is probably on the fast track to fight Liddell for the Light Heavyweight title. Afterall, he is Chuck's only unavenged loss in his MMA career. Cro Cop is also likely to earn a title shot in the not too distant future. He's a tad small for a Heavyweight, but he is used to fighting bigger guys in his Pride career.

I'm thinking Cro Cop is about to unleash a serious hurting on UFC.

Athletic criminals

2006-12-29T14:14:00.000-05:00

As the end of the year is upon us, many websites are coming up with their “top” lists of “best of” lists for the year 2006. ESPN is no different, as today Patrick Hruby put out his police blotter power rankings list, with the top 25 crimes committed by athletes in 2006. Unfortunately he finished the list too early, so he was unable to fit Mike Tyson in there. Oh well, there’s always next year!

The ultimate road trip

2006-12-26T15:18:00.000-05:00

Miguel Rodriguez is attempting to see a home game at all 337 D1 basketball arenas this season. The only problem is that he has 107 days to do it (not to mention a full time job and a pregnant wife). His rules include the fact that he counts a game if he makes it through one media timeout. It is going to be a tough road, but I am sure he will give it a valiant attempt. You can chronicle Miguel’s travels here.

Models choose the best looking athletes

2006-12-20T17:08:00.000-05:00

On SI.com today, there was an article which featured the hottest athletes in sports, as chosen by SI Swimsuit models. While I believe that these girls are definitely qualified to tell us who’s hot and who’s not, I was puzzled by one of their answers. At #7 for hottest male athlete, they had Jesse Palmer. Palmer is a former backup for the Giants and briefly for the 49ers, but mainstream America knows him as the guy who was on “The Bachelor”. Now, Palmer is broadcasting games along with Ron Pitts, for FOX. I had heard that he was broadcasting, and not doing badly from the reviews I have heard about, but it took a little research for me to find out that Palmer is in fact still playing. He was the 4th string quarterback for the Montreal Alouettes last season. Technically I guess he can be included in this list of athletes, but it seems like his future and his present may be off the field, not on it.

Hornung not leaving the record books without a fight

2006-12-18T21:57:00.000-05:00

In case you don’t know, Ladanian Tomlinson is good. In last night’s 20-9 win over the Chiefs, Tomlinson scored 2 more Touchdowns to bring his season tally to an eye popping 31. With his 31 TD’s, Tomlinson has now scored 186 points this season, breaking the single season mark of 176 held by Paul Hornung. Now Hornung is questioning whether Tomlinson deserves to be in the record book ahead of him. Hornung, who played Running Back and Kicker in his record breaking season, is contending that he had the record breaking season because he scored his points in 12 games. He also said that he would accept the record if someone had a better point per game average than him. Hornung’s average in 1960 was 14.6 while Tomlinson’s average this year is 13.28. It seemed like Paul Hornung had a lot to say, but he did not say the one thing he reslly should of, which is congratulations.

Inflatable Defender

2006-12-14T11:21:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been shooting hoops by yourself and thought to yourself that this is too easy, I need a defender? Thanks to PlayAir Systems, your problem is solved with the Inflatable Defender. The Inflatable defender is a life-size, seven foot inflatable model of Ben Wallace, complete with afro and a “fear the fro” headband. This actually is not a terrible idea, it just seemed funny to me that many of the people in the video on the website were little kids, and I am not expecting them to be playing in games against 7 foot opponents any time soon. Either way, there are drills that come with the Inflatable Defender to improve your game. The Inflatable Defender is fairly lifelike, except for the fact that it stays in one position unless someone is there to move it around for you. Since it does not move, maybe they should have come out with an inflatable Michael Olowokandi instead.

Sports title results for Spike's 2006 VGA's

2006-12-14T00:12:00.000-05:00

There were 2 sports categories from tonight's Video Game Awards, one for "Best Individual Sports Game" and one for "Best Team Sports Game". I was personally pulling for Rockstar's Table Tennis in the individual category, not because I've played it or anything, but because as I've stated before, I love me some ping pong. In fact, I was crushed when I first found out that Table Tennis would only be available for XBOX 360, which I do not own. I had thought it would be available for PS2. Well, it turns that Tony Hawk 8 took the individual award. I now officially feel old because I think I was in college when Tony Hawk 1 came out.

In the team sports game category, I was definitely pulling for NBA 2K7 from 2K Sports, another game I've never played. My reasoning was that the other 4 titles in the category were all from EA Sports. I'm definitely not a fan of the monopolization that EA has over NFL games, so I'm willing to back 2K, who seems like the only competitor out there in the sports category. Oh by the way, NBA 2K7 did win, so I can now go to bed happy knowing that at least one of my two took home the cake.

Get a Detroit Pistons faux-shuffle mp3 player

2006-12-14T00:05:00.000-05:00

The Pistons are selling mp3 players for $25 that are complete knockoffs of iPod Shuffles. They are donating the proceeds to the Detroit Medical Center to benefit Breast Cancer Prevention however.

Joey Porter back in the news

2006-12-13T12:25:00.000-05:00

Joey Porter has a knack for making his presence felt before, during and after a game. This was evidenced by the verbal war he got into with Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevens before last year’s Super Bowl. Porter got the best of Stevens on and off the field in that case. Now he got into another verbal war, this time with Kellen Winslow before last week’s game, calling him a derogatory term. Yesterday, Porter apologized, sort of. He came out and said he did not mean to offend anyone by his comments except for Winslow. I am sure Porter rubs people the wrong way, but most of the time, I find Porter’s antics amusing. My favorite Joey Porter moment was his introduction of the Pittsburgh defense during their Monday night game earlier this season against Jacksonville, seen below. As funny as Porter is in that clip, I think I like Mike Tirico's explanation to the fans of what Joey is referring to just as much.

Pneumatic batting bot

2006-12-13T00:12:00.000-05:00

A German guy has been building robots out of junk parts and scrap metal. The one below has been designed to hit. I'm impressed by its motion, which looks like a person hitting infield grounders. The website for the robot's maker explains that they "are controlled manually via a system of switches."

David Stern bouncing from ball to ball

2006-12-12T12:39:00.000-05:00

After many complaints by players, the NBA will switch back to their old leather ball on January 1st. Since the beginning of the season, the league had been using a new synthetic ball (shown below) that players said was slippery when wet and was cutting up their hands. NBA commissioner David Stern evidently got tired of all the complaints and decided to make the switch. I was surprised when they made the switch in the first place because I did not see the need to switch, but I am even more surprised that they decided to switch back, especially in the middle of a season like this. Hopefully now everyone will be happy, but I bet at least a few players complain about the new ball when it returns too.

Where is Iverson headed?

2006-12-11T14:04:00.000-05:00

On Friday it was announced that Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson had asked for a trade. Iverson is one of the top players in the NBA, but could potentially be one of the riskiest players for a team to trade for because of his attitude. Even still, many teams have inquired about Iverson. Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Stephen A. Smith (yes, the same Stephen A. Smith from ESPN) wrote a column today with many possible trade scenarios for Iverson. Thanks to ESPN, fans can try and come up with their own scenarios on the trade machine.

A game headed straight to NBA Classic

2006-12-08T12:18:00.000-05:00

Last night in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Phoenix Suns beat the New Jersey Nets 161-157 in double overtime. This was by far the highest scoring game in the NBA this season. In fact, the previous season high for points by one team was 140 by the Denver Nuggets. As you might imagine, there were a few stats in this game that stood out, but 2 really caught my attention. There were 58 minutes players and 318 points scored, yet the two teams combined for just 29 turnovers. Second, with such a long game, you would think everyone on the team would get major minutes. That was not the case for Phoenix, as only 9 of their players got in, with Jalen Rose, Jumaine Jones, and Pat Burke all getting the dreaded DNP-Coaches Decision.

Good Gift / Bad Gift - Volume 2

2006-12-08T11:51:00.000-05:00

This time I'm bringing you commentary on beer gifts, a relevant choice because of its popularity at pretty much any sporting event. Its also great Christmas morning to help drown out the kids.

Good Gift - The Wunderbar Home Beer Dispenser. Looking at the picture below, you should be able to tell that this is a sweet thing to have around the house. It can be stocked with 4, 5, or 6-liter keg in your choice of 300 brands of draft beer and it ranges in price from $105 to $238. The low end model will keep beer cold with batteries. The high end model will cool beer using the same technology they put into Sub-Zero fridges. The only catch, its not actually for sale in the US. So actually, that makes this a horrible gift idea for THIS year.

Bad Gift - The Sports Nut Beer Basket. This one had me pissed off right away, because its actually the kind of crap that someone will end up buying/receiving as a present. All it is is 4 bottles of beer and a few snack foods you could pick up standing in line at 7-11 with a bow on top. And why is it labeled the "Sports Nut" variety of beer gift basketness? Is it the yellow koozie? Nope, its because everyone knows that athletes eat sunflower seeds. By the way, the baseball, golf balls, tees, and fishing lure in the picture? Nope, not included. They couldn't fit that into the $49.95 price range they were working with.

Arizona marching band plays Radiohead

2006-12-08T11:33:00.000-05:00

Here are a few tracks from OK Computer as interpreted by the band folks at U of A. It starts off a little sloppy, but definitely gets good a couple of minutes in. Beats the crap out of the half-time shows I see at most college football games I've gone to.

PUMA table tennis tournament in NYC

2006-12-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

This saturday, sneaker and apparel giant PUMA will be holding a ping pong tournament in New York City. Its not going to be a huge event, only 16 teams (48 total players) will be allowed to enter. I'm all about anything that draws more attention and coolness to table tennis. Easily my favorite participation sport, but it doesn't get alot of attention or respect in America. Then again, neither does foosball or skeeball, probably with good reason.

Link to PUMA.com event site.

Shoes from Starbury

2006-12-07T14:59:00.000-05:00

Back in November, we told the story on this blog about how Nike was making custom sneakers for high school teams, including Christ the King high school in New York. Today came the news of another basketball shoe story from New York. Knicks guard Stephon Marbury is giving away 3,000 pairs of his shoe, the Starbury One. He is giving away a pair for every high school varsity basketball player in New York City. The total value of this comes to around $45,000. Marbury got publicity with these shoes in the summer, when he announced that they would be sold for just $14.95 a pair. I commend Marbury for coming up with a cheap shoe that is made the same as a regular basketball shoe but costs like 10 times less. It’s nice to see a player like Marbury has not forgotten where he came from, and is able to give back.

TO in LaLa Land

2006-12-07T12:29:00.000-05:00

Monday was Terrell Owens 33rd birthday and he celebrated in style by throwing a birthday party for himself in Los Angeles. The birthday party was star studded as you might imagine, as Hollywood stars such as Justin Timberlake and Chris Rock joined NFL stars Javon Walker, Edgerrin James and Shawne Merriman at the party. Of course TO was there too, but it seems like Owens wanted to get the party started a little early, since he was not even listening to Dallas Coach Bill Parcells during his speech to the team Monday. Owens quote about what Parcells said in the speech was “I can't remember. I had my mind on the party…… I was already in L.A.” At least this time during the Cowboy’s meeting, TO was thinking of going to the actual La La land (Los Angeles) and not the one he usually goes to during meetings.

Dynamic info displayed on player jerseys

2006-12-07T00:42:00.000-05:00

Researchers at the University of Sydney are working to develop a great concept, displaying dynamic statistical info right on player's jerseys. After reading the first line of this article from newscientisttech.com, I was totally psyched about the possibilities.

Basketball vests (singlets) with electroluminescent displays that show a player's score, and number of fouls, are being trialled in Australia.

Sounds great right? Sounds like some sort of high tech fabric that can display LCD like images. I'm thinking of a jersey where instead of the player's number on the back, there's his point total. Here's the deal, what I had in my head upon reading the first bit of the article is not exactly what has been developed. The picture below shows a vest that looks like something straight out of Tron. Apparently, information is displayed through lightup crossing guard style stripes. Eh, the idea is cool and I'm sure eventually someone will develop some really nice intelligent textiles for sports uniforms.

ESPN continues to branch out

2006-12-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

ESPN has announced today that they are teaming with the Tribeca Film Festival to launch a film festival featuring independent sports films. This festival will take place during next year’s Tribeca Film Festival. This has the ability to be interesting, and I hope that some of these films will be available eventually on YouTube. If I were going to make a short film, I might make it similar to the video below, which focuses on the greatest basketball game ever played.

The Hot Stove League heats up for Maier

2006-12-06T12:13:00.000-05:00

The Major League Baseball winter meetings are in full swing and the rumors of where players will land are flying everywhere. On person that’s down there trying to catch on with a team in the front office is Jeff Maier. If you don’t remember, Maier was the 12 year old Yankees fan who took a catch away from Tony Tarasco of the Baltimore Orioles in the 1996 AL Championship series. According to a Yahoo Sports article, some people from the Orioles still can’t seem to forgive him. I was an Orioles fan at the time of the incident in 1996, but I have nothing against him now. If he were to find work in Major League Baseball and screw one of my favorite teams over again, then I would be pissed.

"Pre-hydrate" with Pickle Juice

2006-12-05T23:16:00.000-05:00

Golden Beverages, Inc. has created a drink with the intended purpose of pre-hydrating you. And oh, it tastes like pickles... tasty, tasty pickles. So, I'm guessing by the ingredients that water, salt, vinegar, and corn syrup leads to this pre-hydration they speak of. But the best part of this urine-imitating beverage is the endorsement from All-Pro tight end Jason Witten. Now I'm curious if he actually drinks this stuff before games.

Link to Bevnet.com review. They gave it a 1/2 star out of 5.

Where are they now: NBA version

2006-12-05T15:45:00.000-05:00

On the front page of ESPN.com today they had a feature story by Chris Sheridan on the whereabouts of many former NBA players that are no longer in the league. Some of the players featured like Penny Hardaway were household names while others like Zoran Planninic you may not recognize unless you were a hardcore NBA fan. Of course, the story was an insider story, which I do not have access to, but after some research (thanks Google) I was able to find the article in its entirety on a different website. I found it interesting to see how many are playing overseas, how many are trying to get back in the league, and how many just want to spend time with their family. My personal favorite was Shandon Anderson, formerly of the Heat, who they said was presumably busy at home counting $100 bills until a warm weather team calls. Oh the tough life of an NBA player!

Sly adds a touch of pretty to MNF

2006-12-04T23:14:00.000-05:00

For those who missed it, Stallone showed up to Philly to promote Rocky 6 and luckily for us, his face brought its A game. This thing is great. Its gotten all puffy and cartoonish. Unfortunately, the pictures don't do it justice because you can't get the complete sense of how it contorts and moves when he talks. You can however see from the picture above, the perfectly waxed eyebrows that form such nice arcs (from the facelift). I'm also pretty sure that he's getting collagen injections to his lips and possibly using servo motors to control the bottom left part of his mouth.

Another battle between Michigan and Florida

2006-12-04T14:18:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Bears beat the Minnesota Vikings yesterday to improve to 10-2 and clinch the NFC North Division. That was the good news. The bad news was the fact that Rex Grossman, the Bears starting QB, had another pitiful game. Now the talk has begun that maybe they should pull Grossman in favor of backup QB Brian Griese. I find it funny that this QB battle takes place with a QB who went to Florida (Grossman) and one who went to Michigan (Griese) on the same weekend that the BCS Bowls were announced. Just like the BCS results, I think Florida will top Michigan in this battle and Grossman will be the starting QB when the Bears take on the Rams next Monday night.

Parity in the NFL continues at the QB position

2006-12-04T12:06:00.000-05:00

Parity in the NFL continues at the QB position

Yesterday while watching the Redskins-Falcons game, I found myself watching Michael Vick and thinking that he has his moments as an NFL quarterback, but I would not call him a Pro Bowl Quarterback. Then it occurred to me: who is a Pro Bowl QB in the NFC? I found this article that wondered the same thing. It seems there are way too many mediocre QB’s starting, which could be the reason for so many mediocre teams. Just look at the list below of the starting QB’s in the NFC yesterday and today. Not exactly a great list to choose from when you need 3 to make a Pro Bowl roster. My personal picks as of today would be Drew Brees, Tony Romo, and Marc Bulger. That would give you a guy who the Chargers did not want anymore (Brees), a guy who has only started half of his team’s games (Romo) and a guy who has led his team to a 5-7 record (Bulger).

Dallas-Tony Romo
New York Giants-Eli Manning
Washington-Jason Campbell
Philadelphia-Jeff Garcia
Detroit-Jon Kitna
Chicago-Rex Grossman
Minnesota-Brad Johnson
Green Bay-Brett Favre
Atlanta-Michael Vick
Tampa Bay-Bruce Gradkowski
Carolina-Jake Delhomme
New Orleans-Drew Brees
Seattle-Matt Hasselbeck
St. Louis-Marc Bulger
Arizona-Matt Leinart
San Francisco-Alex Smith

Free, live NFL video feeds

2006-12-03T10:50:00.000-05:00

If you know your way around the internet, then you know there's a way to get pretty much any kind of media for free, whether its music, movies, video games or porn. Well now its been getting some attention around the net that sites (like this one) are setting up peer-to-peer systems that allow people to watch live NFL broadcasts.

What were the parents thinking?

2006-12-03T10:44:00.000-05:00

Lucious Pusey - Junior LB, Eastern Illinois (player profile)

The new/old Pacmobile

2006-12-01T16:04:00.000-05:00

Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones won a $77,000 car for $48,500 yesterday. This would make most people pretty happy. There was just one problem: The 2004 Cadillac XLR Roadster Convertible was already his car. It had been seized after the cocaine related arrest of Daryl Moore, a rapper and friend of Jones. Need more evidence that the car was actually his, look at the picture of the car below with the words “Pac-Man” stitched into the seat. Pac Man had another problem when trying to get his car back though: the bidding ended yesterday during the middle of Titans practice. No worry though, as he had one of his “associates” bid on the car which they eventually won. The $48,500 goes to the drug task force, the car goes back to Pac Man and everyone lives happily ever after.

Athletic feat of the week

2006-12-01T11:03:00.000-05:00

A 94 year old woman in Washington state bowled a 244 the other day. As if that feat was not impressive enough, how about the fact that she is legally blind! Her 86 year old husband has to tell her which pins are remaining. I would have been impressed had she bowled her age, but she almost tripled that! It usually takes me 2-3 games of bowling to knock over 244 pins, and last time I checked I had 20-20 vision!

Good Gift / Bad Gift - Volume 1

2006-11-30T16:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-30T11:27:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-29T16:42:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-29T13:29:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-29T11:30:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-29T11:11:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-28T15:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-28T13:10:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-28T00:33:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-28T00:14:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-27T23:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-27T16:21:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-22T17:21:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-22T15:55:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-22T12:17:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-21T17:38:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-21T14:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-20T18:02:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-20T14:24:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-18T11:03:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-17T00:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-17T00:07:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-16T16:33:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-16T12:58:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-15T18:35:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-15T11:52:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-15T01:38:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-15T01:28:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-14T18:23:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-14T13:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-14T01:18:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-13T17:49:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-13T17:22:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-13T12:52:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-13T10:35:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-11T02:09:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-10T16:57:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-10T13:26:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-10T02:17:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-10T01:59:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-09T17:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-09T17:11:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-09T02:51:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-09T01:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-08T17:32:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-08T13:06:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-07T23:57:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-07T16:22:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-07T16:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-07T12:53:00.000-05:00

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"

2006-11-07T02:25:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-07T02:05:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-06T18:08:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-06T12:59:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T17:03:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T16:52:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T15:58:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T13:17:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-02T23:40:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-11-02T23:15:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-02T15:00:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-02T12:39:00.000-05:00

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.