December 28, 2009
As the Indianapolis Colts ran back onto the field at Lucas Oil Stadium for the second half of their game against the New York Jets yesterday, they found themselves 90 minutes from history. Leading the Jets 9-3, all that stood between the 14-0 Colts and an undefeated regular season was 30 minutes against a Jets team with an erratic rookie quarterback, and next week’s game in Buffalo against a hapless Bills team.
But Jim Caldwell had other plans. Instead of going for glory, instead of going for a place in history that few teams have ever attained before, Caldwell chose instead to pull Peyton Manning out of the game halfway through the third quarter, inserting Curtis Painter and guaranteeing Indianapolis would finish the day with a record of 14-1.
The Colts’ fans booed their team off the field following the Jets’ 29-15 win, and they had every right to do so. Caldwell’s decision to give away the game, and a perfect season, with the end so clearly in sight was a cowardly and gutless one.
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11 Comments | 
NFL | Tagged: Bill Polian, Chicago Bears, Curtis Painter, Indianapolis Colts, Jim Caldwell, Mark Sanchez, New England Patriots, New York Giants, New York Jets, Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, Tom Brady | 
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Posted by tbontemps1
December 23, 2009
Melky Cabrera is a solid guy to have on a professional baseball team. On one of the top teams in the league, he should be a fourth outfielder. He’s a very average hitter who runs slightly above-average, plays above-average defense and has an above-average arm.
But if you would listen to Yankees fans in the wake of trading away Cabrera and two prospects to the Atlanta Braves for Javier Vazquez – a pitcher who finished fourth in last month’s National League Cy Young voting – you would think the Yankees have traded away the second-coming of Reggie Jackson.
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1 Comment | MLB | Tagged: Atlanta Braves, Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, Javier Vazquez, Melky Cabrera, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Reggie Jackson, Ryan Church | Permalink
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December 22, 2009
Brett Favre has long been one of the most popular players in the National Football League. That, combined with the fact that Favre played virtually his entire career in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with a population of 100,000, made the future Hall of Fame quarterback begin to think that he was actually in charge of the Packers franchise.
That changed in early 2008, when Packers general manager Ted Thompson demanded a decision from Favre on whether or not he was going to officially return to the team for the upcoming season so the organization could know if it was going to move forward with Favre’s hand-picked successor, Aaron Rodgers, or with Favre himself.
Favre said he was, in fact, retired. When he attempted to come back to the organization in August, Thompson said Rodgers was the team’s quarterback, and chose instead to deal Favre to the New York Jets for draft picks. Thompson earned plenty of grief for his decision at the time (my uncle, a life-long Packers fan, considers Thompson to be among the worst human beings on the planet for trading away No. 4), but Thompson knew at the time what Vikings coach Brad Childress has learned the hard way in the past 24 hours:
Brett Favre has the mentality of a spoiled child. If he is getting to do what he wants, and how he wants to do it, he’s happy to listen to you. But if you try to get him to do something he doesn’t want to do, all hell breaks loose.
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Leave a Comment » | NFL | Tagged: Aaron Rodgers, Brad Childress, Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets, Rex Ryan, Sage Rosenfels, Tarvaris Jackson, Ted Thompson | Permalink
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December 19, 2009
In the wake of the Twitter phenomenon exploding onto the sports scene last year, with players like Charlie Villanueva and Shaquille O’Neal tweeting during games, I understand what David Stern was doing in banning the use of Twitter during “game time”, which the NBA has determined to be between 45 minutes before and after the game.
But that still doesn’t justify the ridiculous $7,500 fine the league handed down to rookie sensation Brandon Jennings in the wake of a tweet he posted after a game last week against Portland.
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Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: AC Milan, Adolph Rupp, Alabama, Bob Knight, Brandon Jennings, Carlo Ancelotti, Carlos Dunlap, Charlie Villanueva, Cincinnati, David Beckham, David Stern, Florida, Indiana, Inter Milan, John Calipari, Jose Mourinho, Kentucky, Manchester United, Massachusetts, Memphis, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers, Roman Abramovich, Shaquille O'Neal, Urban Meyer | Permalink
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December 16, 2009
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been two-and-a-half weeks since we first learned of the bizarre accident outside of Tiger Woods’ massive mansion in Windemere, Fla. Since then, we’ve watched in awe and wonderment as the carefully-crafted image of one of the world’s most famous, popular and marketable athletes shatter into millions of pieces.
Across those same two-and-a-half weeks, a lot of things have been said, a lot of judgments have been made and a lot of opinions have changed about Tiger Woods. But to me, the one thing that defines the insanity that has been these past 18 days of “Tiger Watch” is something my grandmother said in the first days after this all began to spill out into public view.
“I didn’t think he was like that.”
In a nutshell, that’s what has caused this whole uproar from the beginning; not because Tiger is black, not because his wife is white, but because he has so carefully and so perfectly created this image of being the model citizen and blank slate and unbelievable competitor, everyone thought he could do no wrong.
Now we know that is far from the truth.
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2 Comments | Golf, Society | Tagged: Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods | Permalink
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December 7, 2009
It’s funny how quickly things can change.
Early last week, I was thinking about writing a column about how the fortunes of two former high draft picks, Vince Young and Greg Oden, had changed seemingly overnight. After both had become afterthoughts on their respective teams, and had dealt with bouts of depression partially as a result of it, Young and Oden had burst back onto the scene again this year. As each game went by, they began to win more and more skeptics over to their side, caused more people to buy into the fact that they were becoming the players people thought they could be when they were drafted.
While Young had led the Tennessee Titans to several wins in a row before yesterday’s loss to the undefeated Indianapolis Colts, Oden, who doesn’t turn 22 until late January, was beginning to become the center people thought he could be when he was taken by Portland with the top pick in the 2007 draft. He had at least three blocks in five of his last eight games (and two in another), and has scored in double figures in all but one of them. After missing his rookie season after undergoing microfracture surgery in his right knee, it looked like Oden had turned the corner.
But it took less than a week for his fortunes to come crashing back to Earth in the harshest of ways, when he crumpled to the floor in the first quarter of Saturday night’s game against the Houston Rockets and clutched his left knee in agony. For the second time in three seasons, Oden’s season had ended, this time with a fractured left patella.
And, just like that, it was like things had never changed at all.
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Leave a Comment » | NBA | Tagged: Bill Walton, Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, Houston Rockets, Kevin Durant, Michael Jordan, Mike Conley, Ohio State, Portland Trail Blazers, Sam Bowie, Tennessee Titans, Vince Young | Permalink
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December 5, 2009
As Charlize Theron and whoever was alongside her began to draw the names for each of the eight groups for next summer’s World Cup, I was convinced that the United States would find itself drawn into this year’s version of the “Group of Death.” But, much to my surprise, the United States found itself as a favorite to advance from its group, which includes England, Algeria and Slovenia – as favorable a draw as they could have asked for.
But as the happiness faded, and once Theron unfortunately faded from view, the stark truth of the situation the U.S. found itself in was unavoidable. Without question, the first three games of next summer’s World Cup will be the most important 270 minutes of soccer in this country’s history.
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1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Algeria, Brazil, Charlize Theron, Confederations Cup, England, Italy, Ivory Coast, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Netherlands, New England Patriots, New York Yankees, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, World Cup | Permalink
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December 3, 2009
Derek Jeter has had a great career. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer who has become a Yankee legend during his time in the Bronx, in which he has amassed five World Series rings.
With that being said, there is no way that Jeter deserved the honor bestowed on him Monday, when Sports Illustrated named the Yankees’ shortstop its Sportsman of the Year.
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3 Comments | Society | Tagged: Alex Rodriguez, Alexander Ovechkin, Carmelo Anthony, Derek Jeter, Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Manny Pacquiao, Mariano Rivera, Marx Teixeira, Myron Rolle, Roger Federer, Sidney Crosby, Sports Illustrated, Tom Watson, Tyler Hansbrough, Usain Bolt, Y.E. Yang | Permalink
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