AmericanSportsHog

My First Season In Fantasyland (Part 4)

2012-01-31T15:04:00.000-08:00

After finishing the regular season 1-2 in the league rankings, the Knights and the Coleman Isms received first-round byes for the playoffs.

The first-round games featured the fifth-seeded Walking Dead taking on the fourth seeded Wildcats, while the sixth-seeded Fox Hounds battled the third-seeded Washington Praetorians. The Dead got great performances by QB Matt Ryan (43.80 points) and RB Ray Rice (21.90) and clobbered the Cats by more than 50 points. Meanwhile, the Hounds used monster performances by QB Tony Romo (43.84) and WR Ted Ginn (20.70) and upset the Praetorians by about 20 points. With no re-seeding in our league, the semi-finals were set: Dead vs. Knights and Hounds vs. Isms. I liked my matchup!

I made no tweaks to my roster during weeks 14-15. I figured if everyone plays the way they're supposed to play, I should win. While the Chargers, after another frantic late season charge, were being eliminated from the playoff race in Detroit, I kept tabs on my other team. Tom Brady and the NYJ Defense once again pitched in big, with 35 and 29 points, respectively, and the Isms showed the Hounds the playoff door with a win by 11 points. On the other side of the bracket, the Knights got only 12 points from QB Josh Freeman, but WR Calvin Johnson destroyed the Chargers defense with 214 receiving yards and a couple of touchdowns. He had a sick week, with 40.40 points, and RB LeSean McCoy was not far behind, scoring 3 TDs and amassing 28.70 points. The Knights rose up when it counted easily eliminating the Dead by 35 points.

Thus, the championship game would be as it should have been: the two top seeds, mano-a-mano, with the title at stake. The Isms would have their shot at revenge for our loss to the Knights in the regular season. Again, I liked my chances. I had won the semi-final despite scoring only 106 points. I figured my guys were due. Similarly, the Knights still had Freeman at QB, and Johnson and McCoy couldn't possibly duplicate their mammoth performances of week 15, right? One thing, though: The Knights had beaten the dead despite getting only 5 points from uber-TE Rob Gronkowski. As before, the key to my winning it all was simple: I needed for Brady to pass for 400 yards and 5 TDS, with none of them going to Gronkowski!

I knew needed help at TE, as Anthony Fasano, Jake Ballard, and Dallas Clark were all injured. I waived Clark and Ballard and added Anthony Fasano and Joel Dressen. Dressen became my starting TE for the Big Game. I also did something symbolic, waiving Terrell Owens and re-claiming Fred Jackson, the Buffalo Bills RB who had helped me win so many games before getting hurt. He would be an Ism for posterity!

I must say, the game was a bit anti-climatic, probably just because the Isms didn't win. The game was close enough. Tom Brady again worked his magic with 33.86 points, and even Larry Fitzgerald got some bonus points (19.5). And, Gronk only got 7.80 points, but it wasn't enough to overcome an unexpected great week from the Knights' utility player, Josh Cribbs (28.50). I lost the championship by 11 points!

Still, looking back on the whole season, it was very interesting and engaging and a lot of fun. I have to say that I will probably play one fantasy team each year, from now on. Commissioner Ryan has already let me know that our league will be back, so I'm ready to do it again. But, next season will be remembered as the Year of the Ism!

My First Season In Fantasyland (Part 3)

2012-01-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

With my entire starting lineup back in place for Week 9, I was hopeful the Isms would turn things around and get back to their winning ways. I also did something a little unusual. This was around the time that Terrell Owens, who had not been signed by anyone and who hadn't played all year, held a public workout and generated speculation that he might be picked up by an NFL team. Needing a better option at WR opposite Larry Fitzgerald, and no longer needing a backup defense, I took a chance and dropped the Tennessee Titans "D," adding Owens to the Isms roster. It turned out to be a non-earth-shaking move, as T.O. couldn't get anyone to take a chance on him. Thus ended the NFL career of a sure-fire Hall of Famer. As for the game, the Isms beat the Gangiasinophonicons by about 40 points, so it looked like I was back.

For the first time all season, I made no roster moves during Week 10. As it turned out, I didn't need to, as my team was playing the Dakota Storm, the only team in the league not to have won a game. We won handily, by 33 points, led by banner weeks from Tom Brady (37.36 points) and Larry Fitzgerald, who finally played like Larry Fitzgerald (29.60). As for the Storm, they came close on more than one occasion, but they never did win a game during the season (bummer). After the win, Redskins QB Rex Grossman became available and Matt Cassell officially became Matt Cassualty!

Week 11 brought the Isms' showdown with the league's other powerhouse team, the Knights, who were sitting pretty with a 9-1 record, while we were at 8-2. The Knights had been upset in Week 10 by the Gangliasinophonicons, the same team I'd beaten easily the previous week, so I figured I had a chance. With a win, and already leading the Knights in overall points scored, I would reclaim the top ranking in the league, but a win would not be easy. Their ranking stud player was none other than Rob Gronkowski, the best TE in the NFL, this year. The Isms were still in first place in Division 1, but only by a game over the Walking Dead, who'd run off a five-game winning streak since starting the year 2-3.

My blueprint for a victory over the Knights was simple: With my top RB, Fred Jackson having been slowed by injury, I needed Tom Brady to go out and throw about five touchdown passes, but none of them to Gronkowski! It didn't happen. Brady scored only 21 points (he was out-scored by the Knights' QB, Josh Freeman!) , I got just 8 points from Jackson and Beanie Wells, combined, and the Isms got shown up, losing the game by nearly 50 points. Combine that result with the Walking Dead blasting Bolt Man by more than 100 points (ug-lee!) and we were now tied for first place in Division 1 with 8-3 record. The Isms still led in overall fantasy points, but the Dead had now won six straight! With seven teams vying for only six playoff spots, I was sweating it, because if I lost my last two regular season games, I could still finish out of the championship tournament!

Prior to Week 12, the Buffalo Bills decided they'd seen enough, placing Fred Jackson on injured reserve. I was suddenly without my best back! I dropped Jackson, replacing him with Chris Ogbonnaya, and moved Kendall Hunter into my starting lineup. Not to worry, though, as Brady and Wells had monster weeks, and my opponent, Sweet P, barely put up a fight, scoring only 51 points. The Isms won by more than 70 points! The Walking Dead won too, their seventh in a row, to stay right with me, just edging the Wildcats (112-109) in a showdown of playoff contenders.

With one week to go, the Isms(9-3), Dead (9-3), Knights (10-2), and Wildcats (8-4) were joined by the NW Boltz (8-4), Fox Hounds (8-4), and Washington Praetorians (8-4) as the playoff hopefuls. The Knights had been upset in Week 12 by the Boltz, so the Isms still had a shot at grabbing the #1 overall seed for the tournament. On the other hand, if I lost the final game and the Dead walked to their eight victory in a row, I would finish in second place, although my total fantasy points pretty much assured that I would not miss the playoffs.

I had to make still another roster move, as the Vikings put Michael Jenkins on I.R. I welcomed Damian Williams to the Isms. During Week 13 I found out what Fantasy Football is really all about. With my beloved Chargers having routed the Jaguars in a Thursday night matchup, all I could think of was how my fantasy stars were doing in their games. My final opponent was the NW Boltz, who'd just upset the Knights and badly needed a win. Our matchup went back-and-forth, and so did the projection of the winning team. It was very, very nerve-wracking, especially since the Boltz QB, Philip Rivers, had scored nearly 34 points. Tom Brady missed a 300-yard passing game, and the bonus points that milestone would have garnered, by 11 yards, winding up more than 10 points behind Rivers. I got decent contributions from Beanie Wells, Santonio Holmes, Devin Hester, and Nick Novak. Somehow, some way, the Isms managed to squeak out a win by exactly two points (101.86-99.86)! If there was a closer winning score in the league all year, I didn't notice it...

As for the rest of the league, the good news was that the Knights lost to the Black & Gold by 22 points. The bad news was that they'd still scored 135 points in the defeat, so even though both teams finished with 10-3 records, the Knights grabbed the top playoff seed over the Isms by less than 19 points! The other good news was that the Walking Dead finally had their long win streak ended in a loss to the Gangliasinophonicons. The Praetorians and Wildcats were easy winners, but the Fox Hounds came up flat in a loss to Team Ram Rod. The division winners were the Isms, Wildcats, Knights, and Praetorians. The wild card playoff spots went to the Dead and the Hounds, who finished about 40 points ahead of the Boltz. (The Boltz became the top seed in our league's consolation playoff tourney.)

I'll finish this review next week, with a look at what happened in the playoffs.

My First Season In Fantasyland (Part Two)

2012-01-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

I watched the Coleman Isms (or Isms, as I sometimes refer to them) go out and have a good first week, whipping the OmegaPsiPhi Dogs by nearly 70 points! Hey, this might not be so bad! My initial starters were Tom Brady, Beanie Wells, Fred Jackson, Larry Fitzgerald, Davone Bess, Dallas Clark, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Nick Folk, and the Jets Defense. Brady racked up a 53-point game, what with 517 yards passing! Everybody else on my team did pretty well, except for Dallas (no Peyton Manning) Clark and Fitz, who had a mild 62 yards receiving and no touchdowns!

Having failed to acquire any Chargers via trade, I went to the list of available players (otherwise known as the waiver wire) and set out to "improve" my team. First of all, Ryan offered me Tashard Choice for Ronnie Brown. Done. I then waived Choice, Deji Karim, and Jason Snelling, adding my first Charger, Jacob Hester, and two Arizona Cardinals (my eight-year old son's favorite team), Early Doucet and LaRod Stephens-Howling.

My newly-configured team then went out and dismantled the Walking Dead. Brady came back after his big debut week with a 41-point effort (against the Chargers, dang!), Fitz played like Fitz and got 25 more, the Jets defense checked in with 33 points. Even Dallas Clark got me 9 points! But, my eyes lit up as Fred Jackson had his second straight impressive game, this time with 30 points. I had offered Jackson up as trade bait in part of my effort to get a Charger or two, but I had to rethink that strategy, as after two weeks, Jackson (and not Peterson, Foster, Jones-Drew, etc.) was the #1 fantasy running back in the league! Even though the Dead scored 50 more points than the Dogs had the previous week, the Isms still beat them by almost 30 points. In fact, the 184 points my team racked up in Week 2 was the best by any team in the league, all year!

I had noticed that this was a very quiet league. No one was using the chatter box. So, I called out all of the other owners, declaring that I obviously had the best team and could not be stopped. I even invited all of them to just put my name on the championship trophy, right there and then! Amazingly, I only got a couple of responses to my rant! This would have to be the quietest fantasy football league on record, I guessed...

One of my fellow players (Jon of the Black & Gold) soon offered me a package of players (but no Chargers) for Fred Jackson, but I turned him down. It was at that point that a light bulb came on in my head and I realized that I would need to have players ready to replace my starters whose NFL teams were having their bye week in upcoming weeks. I made a flurry of roster moves to ensure that I would have backups at every position, at the ready. Hester, Stephens-Howling, Doucet, and Braylon Edwards had to go. In their places came Jeff King, Denarius Moore, Preston Parker, and my replacement token Charger, Nick Novak. I figured no one would have picked Novak up that early in the season. He turned out to be a very good pickup.

The Isms struck again in Week 3, beating Team RamRod by about 22 points. I would have scored more, but my schedule got busy and I missed the fact the Beanie Wells was made inactive for that week by the Cardinals. I wouldn't make that mistake, again! Brady got 37 more points, as he was absolutely on fire early in the season, and Jackson showed I'd made the right move by getting me 22 more points. Denarius Moore had 13 points in his first week as a starter, about a point more than Fitz!

Jon and I finally made a trade. He sent me three players (Santonio Holmes, Devin Hester, and Ryan Grant) for BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Holmes would be my new starting receiver and Hester, my new utility player. To make the deal work, though, I had to drop Denarius Moore and Marcell Reece, whom I'd just picked up after waiving Preston Parker. The Isms juggernaut rolled on, as I flattened Commisioner Ryan's H-Bombers by almost 90 points! Brady had an ordinary week, with only 226 yard and two TDs, for just under 20 points, but Beanie Wells went off for almost 35 points, Devin Hester sprinted to 20 points, and the Jets defense did everything and pulled down 42 points! I was looking awesome!

More roster moves preceded Week 5, as I looked for a running back who could spell both of my starters. I dropped Ryan Grant for Stefan Logan, then dropped Logan for Cadillac Williams. It was hard to stop the Coleman Isms, though, as they scored almost twice as many points as did Bolt Man in our matchup. Brady was again under 20 points (I guess he was human, after all...), but Fred Jackson continued to astound, bagging 28 points, while the Jets defense added 26.

The first byes to affect the Isms were in Week 6. Cadillac Williams would start for Beanie Wells, and Davone Bess would start for Larry Fitzgerald. It was more of the same in that week's game, however, as I beat the Highlanders by almost 70 points! Tom Brady was just an ordinary QB, again, with about 18 points, but Fred Jackson nabbed 28 more, the Jet defense had 36, and Devin Hester put up 35 big ones! Even Santonio got 12 points that week, but he would soon be a major source of frustration. The Isms were now 6-0!

Week 7 marked the midway point of the 13-game fantasy regular season. (It is wise for fantasy commisioners to avoid the NFL's Week 17!) Little did I know it, but my six weeks of euphoria was about to come to end. I welcomed back Wells and Fitz, but this was the week that Tom Brady and Fred Jackson had their byes! I promoted Nick Novak to starting kicker over Nick Folk (a good move), but then the bomb dropped. Jason Campbell, who had played very well for Oakland for most of six weeks, was announced as out for the season! I had to scramble for a new QB, first adding the Raiders' backup, Kyle Boller, then replacing him at the last minute with the Chiefs's starter, Matt Cassell. I also replaced Cadillac Williams, who'd sustained an injury, with Tim Hightower and swapped out TE Jeff King for Jake Ballard.

None of it mattered! I'd been averaging 150 points per game, but this time I came in at just 56.44 points, losing to the Wildcats by nearly 35 points! The only double-figure points came from the NYJ defense. Devin Hester had 8 points, as did Hightower in his starting debut, but Dallas Clark got a big, fat zero! Fitz had 7, Wells had 4, Santonio had 2.4. But, that still beat the putrid output of Matt Cassell, who passed for 161 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions (and still beat the Raiders, 28-0!). Add in a loss of two yards rushing, and Cassell came in with a whopping 2.24 points! That was 2.24 points more than a dead man!! I vowed that afternoon that, as soon as I could do it without hurting my team any further, Matt Cassell would become Matt Cassualty!

I couldn't put Brady and Jackson back in my starting lineup fast enough! Jake Ballard was also promoted to starting TE over Dallas Clark. Frustrated, I finally cut the unproductive Davone Bess and added Michael Jenkins. And, wouldn't you know it, Tim Hightower sustained a season-ending injury during Week 7, so I cut him and added Kendall Hunter, who at least gave me stability at backup RB the rest of the season. For Week 8, I would have to do without Devin Hester and the New York Jets defense, as they had their bye week. I started the Tennessee Titans "D," and they brought in almost 23 points, which is not bad. I still lost to the Fox Hounds by 12.5 points, though, because Tom Brady (about 17 points) had turned into an average QB, Michael Jenkins got only 3 points in his start for Santonio Holmes, and Kendall Hunter got even less than that (2.6) in Hester's spot! After 8 games my once-awesome 6-0 record had fallen to 6-2. Things were definitely heading in the wrong direction.

I wondered if maybe, just maybe, I had boasted too soon!

My First Season In Fantasyland (Part One)

2012-01-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

During the past pro football season, I played Fantasy Football for the first time. An old friend, Ryan, whom I've known since seventh grade, invited me to join the league for which he serves as commissioner, FootballFever! I am always so busy, but it sounded like fun and I thought it might spice up the season, a bit, so I accepted the invitation and joined.

I'm not like some people, who operate a dozen or more fantasy teams at a time. I mean, I'm a sports fanatic, but I'm not crazy! I went with just one team. For a team name, I chose Coleman Isms, which is a reference to sports broadcaster (and former New York Yankee second baseman) Jerry Coleman... no relation to me! You see, the junior high school where I met Ryan is in San Diego. Jerry Coleman, the longtime voice of the San Diego Padres, has a tendency to form memorable malaprops... slips of the tongue while he's trying to inform his audience. Some of his quotes ("Winfield hits his head against the wall!... It's rolling towards second base!!!") have become legendary, and are known to San Diegans as Colemanisms. I first used the name Coleman Isms for a tabletop baseball league (Pursue the Pennant) that I was in many years ago. I even created a logo and had it transferred onto a button, back then. So, I dug out the button, scanned it, and I had a pretty credible-looking logo for my new venture!

The first step was to rate the players at each position. The computer program for NFL Fantasy Football would then use these ratings, along with the draft order determined by the commissioner, to draft a roster of 15 players (or defenses) for each team in the league. I would play with 15 other guys and gals. The league was arranged into four divisions. My team was in Division 1. Each team owner would play a game in a given NFL week against another team, choosing 9 "players" (1 QB, 2 RBs, 2WRs, 1 TE, 1 Utility player (WR or RB), 1 K, and 1 Team Defense) as starters for that week.

I was pretty much satisfied with my initial roster, except for one very big thing: There were no San Diego Chargers on it! FootballFever, as you might have gathered, is a San Diego-based league, where Chargers are valued above all. (Chargers QB Philip Rivers was the #1 overall pick in the draft. Need I say more?) Each round in the draft was reversed, so while I picked 14th in Round 1 of the draft, I picked third in Round 2. It alternated like that for the rest of the draft.

With Rivers, as much as I love him, being over-valued in our league, I got stuck with the fifth QB selected, overall, as my top pick. With Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and Michael Vick already taken, that fella named Tom Brady fell to me! Brady was the last QB taken in the first round. He was the player I rated first overall, and that really saved me. I know you're curious, so I'll tell you, the 11 other first-round choices were Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, Arian Foster, Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, Matt Forte, LeSean McCoy, Rashard Mendenhall, Mike Wallace, Darren McFadden, and Maurice Jones-Drew. (Perennial first-round pick Peyton Manning was already known to be injured and likely out for the year.)

With my second-rounder (# 19, overall), I got WR Larry Fitzgerald, so I wound up with the top quarterback and top receiver on my board, both of whom are "undroppable" players - players whose value is so high that for them to be released might upset the balance of the league. Not bad, so far! The third pick, TE Dallas Clark, would normally have been fine, except he would be without his star QB on the Colts, Peyton Manning. As it turned out, Clark would be of little use, having by far the worst year of his career!

The next three spots were all taken by running backs. There were no premium backs left by then, so I wound up with Beanie Wells, Fred Jackson, and BenJarvus Green-Ellis. I figured I would have running back-by-committee, and hoped for the best. The seventh-rounder, WR Braylon Edwards, did not impress me at all. He was moving to a new team and I just had a sense he would not be good for much. (I was right.) Choice # 8, though, turned out to be the steal of the draft, as I got the opportunistic New York Jets defense, which turned out to be the top defense in the league. My kicker came next, Nick Folk, also of the Jets. I would have much preferred the Chargers' Nate Kaeding, but the Jets have a good offense and I figured Folk would have his opportunities. (As it turned out, Kaeding was injured on the season's opening kickoff and was lost for the year, so it was good I didn't get him.)

Numbers 10-13 didn't do much for me: RB Ronnie Brown, WR Davone Bess (I hoped he might be my other starting WR, over Braylon Edwards), RB Jason Snelling, and RB Deji Karim. The last two picks were my backup QB and Team Defense, Jason Campbell and the Tennessee Titans, respectively. I thought both of these selections might pay off for me.

As I mentioned, overall I was happy with my team, but I just had to find a way to get some Chargers onto it! Since I thought my running backs were just okay, and I also needed a good receiver, I proposed trades for Ryan Mathews, Mike Tolbert, Vincent Jackson, and Malcom Floyd. There were absolutely no takers! Like I said, this was a San Diego-based league. My biggest trading play, though, showed my absolute loyalty to the Chargers. (I had previouisly spent 14 years of my life cheering them on from season tickets at San Diego Stadium.) I offered a guy Tom Brady and Dallas Clark for Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates! This was a steal for the guy I proposed it to, or so I thought. No one knew Clark was going to be as bad (and injured) as he was, but Gates was hobbling around on one foot, too. Brady certainly outperformed Rivers during the year, but no one knew it would be by that much, as Rivers had by far his worst statistical year as a starter. If the other guy had made the trade, he might have won our league!

As it was, the season kicked off. It would be a very interesting and very entertaining year...

This Time, The BCS Went Too Far

2011-12-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

Chris Petersen, the head coach of Boise State University's football team, finally came out and said it. Forget all the niceties and being polite. Forget being politically correct and being careful not to burn one's bridges. After having just explained to his football team how it shouldn't be disappointed to have come within a field goal of another undefeated football season, only to be burned by the Powers that Be and banished to the Las Vegas Bowl (again), Coach Petersen just came right out and said it: Everybody is sick and tired of the BCS.

The BCS - the Bowl Championship Series - keeps telling the fans that it's a fair system that shouldn't have to defend itself against antitrust violations. It must be fair, they tell us, since all 11 conferences in college football are on board. What they don't tell us is that the six power conferences put a virtual gun to the heads of the other five conferences: "Sign this agreement or lose for your league champion any chance of getting to one of our filthy rich bowls!" It must be fair, they tell us, since schools from the WAC and the MWC have gone to a BCS bowl for seven years running, prior to this year. What they don't tell us is that none of those undefeated schools has played in the BCS championship game.

This year, they said, would be different. Boise State began the year high in the polls. If the Broncos had a great year, they could really get there, to the BCS Promised Land. What Boise State got was the shaft, pure and simple. Even by BCS standards, this was a low blow, but the national media does nothing and says nothing, after shamelessly rooting for - and getting - a rematch of LSU and Alabama for the mythical national title.

The BCS is an inequitable and unfair system, and if you look at this year's final BCS standings, there is rampant unfairness and inequity. When an unbeaten team like Houston, which rolled through the regular season and scored points like it was going out of style, loses a game, it gets dropped like a piece of red hot coal. Before losing its conference championship game to Southern Mississippi, the Cougars were poised to possibly finish in the BCS top six and claim a spot in a lucrative bowl. After that loss, Houston was dropped to 19th in the BCS standings. Compare that to Alabama, which lost its regular-season matchup with LSU, dropped only a couple of spots in the BCS rankings, and was quickly elevated back to the very top. Arkansas of the SEC was riding high at third in the BCS, with its only loss to Alabama, before being ambushed by LSU in its regular-season finale. The Razorbacks conveniently dropped only to number six.

This was convenient to the BCS because Boise State, with its only loss by 1 point to a fine TCU squad that also finished in the BCS top 20, couldn't be allowed to make it into the top six, where it would have to be included. Thus, Arkansas and Oregon, each with two losses, both finished ahead of Boise State. Even so, with five BCS bowls needing 10 slots filled, even with the champions of the Big Six conferences and allowing for Alabama, that still meant three slots remained for the Powers that Be to find a place at the table for Boise State.

SEC champ LSU and its chief SEC West division rival, Alabama, were chosen for the BCS Championship Game. The Big 10 and Pac-12 champs, Wisconsin and Oregon, are Rose Bowl bound. The titlists of the ACC and the Big East, Clemson and West Virginia, were placed in the Orange Bowl against each other. Big 12 champion Oklahoma State was matched with Stanford, a worthy at-large selection, in the Fiesta Bowl. That left the Sugar Bowl to select both teams in its matchup from the remaining at-large squads. Arkansas (BCS #6) could not be chosen because there were already two SEC schools in the BCS, which is the limit. This rule also eliminated South Carolina (BCS #9) from consideration.

The right thing for the Sugar Bowl to do would have been to match BCS #7 Boise State with BCS #8 Kansas State. These schools had played by the BCS rules and posted excellent seasons. To finish ranked that high amongst the 120 teams that play major college football is a great achievement. A fair and equitable system would have rewarded these two outstanding football programs.

But, the Bowl Championship Series is neither fair nor equitable. The Sugar Bowl was allowed to look past Boise State, Kansas State, and Baylor (BCS #12), reaching instead for BCS #11 Virginia Tech and BCS #13 Michigan. Virginia Tech had just been beaten by Clemson for the second time this season. Michigan had lost to Michigan State and Iowa during the regular season. These schools were picked because they have fan bases that travel well and spend a lot of money. When you get right down to it, money is the bottom line that this is all about. This bypass of its own system by the BCS, a deal that smacks of back-slapping cronyism, is nothing short of shameless.

The message sent by the BCS to the Boise States of the world is, "Sure, you made BCS bowl appearances in the past. But, you are not one of us, and we can screw you any year we please." You can bet the Boise got the message: Today, it joined the Big East Conference, along with Houston, SMU, San Diego State, and Central Florida. These schools finally figured out that, when it comes to the BCS, you can't beat 'em, so you'd better just join 'em.

Our Ace In The Hole

2011-11-13T23:28:00.000-08:00

The business of running Sportside Books slowed to a crawl during my mother's recent illness. This web log is a tribute to my mom, Theresa A. (Coleman) Armstrong, who passed away on the morning of Novemer 10.

My mother, the former Theresa Ann Conaway (born April 28, 1933 in New York City), was an independent thinker and she was strong, even to the point of being headstrong. This might have explained why she married my father, born Joseph Tracy Coleman, Sr., but known to many by the oh-so-appropriate nickname of Joe Slick. He and my mom grew up in the same building, a tenement apartment house on Elsmere Place in Bronx, New York. My father was five years older than my mom. When he came of age, he joined the U.S. Army, where, because of the times and other factors, he was able to advance only to the rank of sergeant in 20 years. Five years after enlisting, he came around the old neighborhood, finding that Terry Conaway was now 18 years old.

That my father showed up when he did was quite convenient for my mom. She'd been raised in a Catholic household by a strict disciplinarian of a father, Garrett W. Conaway, Sr., and his wife, the former Doris Gillman. Though she loved my grandfather dearly, my mother had come of age in the big city, and she no longer wanted to be held down or back. Young, headstrong, thinking she had all of the answers, she hooked up with my father, which was like jumping from a frying pan right into the fire. They were married in January of 1952.

My oldest brother, Joseph Tracy Coleman, Jr., was born a premie in August of that year, and my other brother, Michael Anthony Coleman, was born in March of 1954. Both were born in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Sometime in the next two years, my father was stationed in Frankfurt, West Germany, to aid in the ongoing reconstruction of the city following World War II. My sister, Mara Theresa Coleman, was born there at the end of 1956. After returning to the States in 1958, my father was sent back to Deutschland for a second tour. I (David Wayne Coleman) was born in Frankfurt in March of 1960.

Mother's marriage to my father was a rocky one, to say the least. I was the end result of one of their final attempts at reconciliation. Sometime soon after returning Stateside in late 1962, they split up for the last time. Their divorce was final in 1966. By then, my father had been stationed in Korea, where he became involved with a woman from a fishing village. My younger sister, Linda Coleman, was born to them in the interim. They later had my younger brother, James (J.J.) Coleman.

To support her four children, my mom worked as a surgical nurse (one of the best in her trade) at various New York City hospitals. Left with the bills from her first marriage, she worked two jobs until she had paid off her creditors, then she went right on working and saving her money. These years, 1966 to 1970, were rough ones if you were living in the ghetto in The Bronx. Drugs were everywhere, and my older brothers fell under their influence. Mother finally had enough money to move us away from New York during the summer of 1970. After four days of riding west on the Pennsylvania, Union Pacific, and Southern Pacific railroads, we arrived in California.

That first year in California, we lived in Oakland. Mother then moved us south to San Diego, where she would spend most of the next 33 years. In 1974, she met and married a U.S. Marine named Melvin D. Armstrong. Mother moved with him, and her youngest two children, to Northern Virginia, where they spend the next couple of years. Soon after Mel was stationed back in Southern California, he and my mom split up.

Back in San Diego and back on her own, Mother finished raising Mara and me. She never really dated again. Kids came and went, but her youngest son stayed an uncommonly long time. In fact, we bought a condo together in 1988. I finally moved out at age 37, after marrying my first wife in September of 1997. It was not a long marriage, at all. By the end of March, 1998, I'd moved back in with my mom, along with her first grandchild, Reina Coleman. I finally moved out for good after remarrying in 2002. Mother's second grandchild, David Coleman, Jr., was born in July of 2003. Her third and final grandchild, Amber Coleman, came along in March of 2006.

During 2005, Mother sold the condo during the height of the California real estate boom. We made a tidy profit, enough to purchase homes in Arizona. Mother moved to Mohave Valley; south of Bullhead City and across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada. A haven for retirees, Mohave Valley was not a happening enough place for my mom, so she sold the house and bought a newer one in North Las Vegas. She lived there until almost the end. During her final six months, she had rented a home in Las Vegas, proper. Although 78 years old, Mother was still sharp as a tack, but she'd been a lifelong smoker. A heart ailment led to her death.

Through all she went through, from failed marriages to sky-high debt, whether helping her kids get off drugs, or picking one of us up whenever we'd fall, Mother always let us know how much she loved us, and that she was on our side. These were not mere words. Mother supported us, assisted us, encouraged us, forgave us, and sustained us for nearly sixty years, since she first became a mother. She was right there, in our respective corners, backing us up constantly and bailing us out, including financially, whenever she had to.

My mother gave her life to her children, and later to her grandchildren. All of the things a mother should be, she was. All the things a mother should do, she did. We could always depend on her, and we did. Since she has left us, however, I have felt her spirit more strongly than ever. Considering how close Mother and I always were, that is truly saying something. I had the greatest mother I could imagine anyone having, and I still have her. She is still inside of me, giving me strength, fortifying my resolve, and reassuring and comforting me. And, I know she is doing the same things for my siblings and for my children.

For the seven of us, Mother was a true and lifelong blessing, and the best friend we could hope to have. Her love will live on in all of us. Her struggle to improve her life, and the strength she showed in overcoming whatever difficulties, will always inspire us. Her devotion to us will warm our hearts for as long as we live. And, her legacy will live on through my children and through the further generations of her progeny. My siblings and I may have gotten the Joker in the deck, so to speak, when it came to our father, but in our mother, Theresa A. Armstrong, we were dealt an Ace of Spades. Her love trumped all of our troubles. She was our Ace in the Hole!

Conference Musical Chairs Redux

2011-10-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

Another round of Musical Chairs has begun in NCAA college football's conference playground. I recently tweeted about the fact that the Western Athletic Conference, with 16 teams for a few seasons, was the first Super Conference. Things definitely seem to be moving in that direction. For right now, the race seems to be on to see which of the Football Bowl Subdivision conferences can successfully make it to 12 or 14 teams. The Big Boys at major college football's training table (that's the SEC, the ACC, and the PAC-12) are taking theirs, leaving the other conferences to fight amongst each other for the scraps and try to survive. Here's what's happened, lately:

The Southeastern Conference has taken Texas A&M from the Big 12. The Aggie community had tired of the "One Big Cowboy, nine Little Indians" mentality of the Big 12, where everything favors the University of Texas. So, they took their football and left. The Aggies are a good fit in the SEC, but the moves leaves the SEC with an unwieldy 13 members. Seeing this situation as its opportunity, Missouri has given its chancellor the authority to find a new home for its athletics. The Tigers are expected to apply for SEC membership within days.

The Big 12 had hoped to solve its membership problem by hijacking Texas Christian University. TCU had already made the move from the Mountain West Conference to the Big East, with play to start next season. But, the Big 12, down to nine schools after the departure of Texas A&M, snapped its fingers and the Horned Frogs jumped at the chance to rejoin Texas, Texas Tech, and Baylor for conference play. If Missouri leaves for the SEC, the Big 12 will once again be down to nine teams. It might need to go back to 12 teams, just for the sake of survival. The question is whether the top schools the Big 12 might target will still be available.

The Big 12 could get back to actually having 12 members if it added Houston, SMU, and BYU or Boise State, but those same schools are also on the radar of the Big East Conference. The Big East was recently raided (again) for two of its remaining crown jewels, with Pittsburgh and Syracuse bolting for the Atlantic Coast Conference, bringing ACC membership up to 14 teams. That left the Big East with only six football-playing members and there is plenty of gnashing of teeth going on. It's no secret that Connecticut also wants to join the ACC and is dismayed at being left behind. In fact, its women's basketball coach, Geno Auriemma, came right out and blamed Notre Dame for the Big East's woes, stating that if the Fighting Irish had joined the conference for football, Boston College, Virginia Tech, and the University of Miami would never have left!

The Big East is expected to soon add Central Florida and has an application in its hip pocket from East Carolina. After that, it's fair game, with Houston, SMU, Boise State, Army, Navy, and Air Force all being considered for membership. The Big East would also accept Notre Dame for football in a heartbeat. Notre Dame is a Big East member in all other sports.

Many of the schools being talked about as candidates to change conference, now reside in either the Mountain West or in Conference USA. After losing Utah to the PAC-12 and BYU to independence this year, the Mountain West had to add Boise State just to get back to eight members. The departure of Boise State would be another major blow to the conference's hopes of earning an automatic bid for its champion in football's Bowl Championship Series. Comparing its plight with that of C-USA, which has already lost Cincinnati, Louisville, and South Florida to the Big East (and TCU to the MWC), the Mountain West went into discussions with C-USA about a championship game between the two conferences. What they agreed on is a football-only alliance, including inter-league play.

While it is hoped that the MWC/C-USA champion might be extended a BCS bowl berth, the real reason for this mini-merger is survival. If Boise State and Air Force join the Big East, the MWC would be down to six schools. If Houston, SMU, Central Florida, and East Carolina also went to the Big East, that would restore the BEC to 12 members, but C-USA would only have eight schools left. If that were to take place, Conference USA and the Mountain West might just as well go ahead with a full merger and stand as one 14-team conference. Even if this new league lost a couple of other schools, there would still be 12 remaining members, which would be enough to stage a championship game in football.

This game of conference musical chairs might not stop until the Big Six conferences all have 16 members. That would make a total of 96 schools being big winners, with a chance to play for a national championship in football. Everybody else outside of that group, would be out of luck.

Opening The Door For Bias

2011-10-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

You saw the play late in the fourth quarter of last week's NFL game between the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals. Giants QB Eli Manning threw a short completion to WR Victor Cruz in the left flat. Cruz stumbled, put his hand on the ground to steady his balance, then headed upfield to gain yardage.

But, Cruz again lost his footage. In the attempt to advance the ball and move the chains, he slipped and went to the ground. Not touched, Cruz let go of the ball, whereupon the Cardinals defense promptly scooped the ball up, which should have resulted in a victory for the Cardinals.

But, wait... The officials in the game ruled that Cruz had given himself up when he went to the ground, the play was dead at that point, and, with the ruling being a judgment call on the part of the officials, that ruling could not be challenged by Cardinals Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt.

This was a bad application of a bad rule. I understand that, desiring to keep the league's quarterbacks in serviceable condition, the NFL instituted the "slide rule" so that passers who take off running can give themselves up, without being landed on by a 350-pound defensive lineman. I get that. Also, any player has the right to give himself up. The usual ways this is done are by taking a knee, by calling for a fair catch, or covering a loose ball and not making any attempt to rise.

None of those situations applied to Victor Cruz. If he'd been giving himself up, he could have slid to the ground and covered up when he first stumbled, but he did not give up. He used his hand to re-balance himself. He was fighting to stay upright so that he could gain yardage. When he slipped and went to the ground, he should have covered the football and stayed still until he was touched by a defender or the whistle blew, ending the play. Instead, Cruz immediately rose, letting go of the pigskin. That should have made it the Cardinals' ball. If the officials were blowing their whistles as Cruz was rising, they shouldn't have been. He did not fall because he was giving himself up. He fell because he slipped trying to gain yardage. He may have made the decision to give himself up once he was on the ground, but that was not his intention in going to the ground.

Besides, a smart football player would never have taken a chance like that, jumping up and letting go of the ball without being touched, with the game on the line. You can bet that Cruz heard about his decision to not cover the football from Giants Head Coach Tom Coughlin.

Again, I understand the NFL's desire to protect players and prevent injuries, but what happened in this game, really, was silly. Cruz needed to be touched by a defender, for the play to be considered over. He didn't have to be crushed by the defense. That's what unnecessary roughness penalties are for.

The most troubling aspect of of the whole play, to me, is the knowledge that if the situation were entirely reversed and it was a Cardinals player who let the ball go under the same circumstances, the Giants would have been awarded the football. The referee on the field that day would made an announcement that the Cardinals player had been trying to advance the ball in falling to the turf, hadn't been touched, and the ball was still live and recoverable by the Giants.

There really is an East Coast bias in the world of sports and in its coverage by the national media. Can you just imagine the furor that would have arose if the Giants had lost the football on the same type of call? Can you imagine the number of complaints the NFL's league office would have been flooded with? The sports bloggers in the Big Apple would have made out the NFL to be a laughing stock! You would have heard a mid-week announcement this week, that the officials had erred. The rule book would be changed after the season.

The NFL is on a very slippery slope, here. Leaving game-changing calls to the whims of the officials' collective judgment, opens the door for bias to make its presence felt. Ask yourself honestly if there is any way a call like this would have gone against the Giants or the New England Patriots, with a team like the Cardinals or the Jacksonville Jaguars getting the benefit of the doubt. In the NFL, that just doesn't happen.

The bottom line is that the Arizona Cardinals got jobbed in this game. Ken Whisenhunt may have taken the high road and said it shouldn't have come down to that play, but his team should have had the chance to run at least three more plays, run the clock down, and perhaps get a first down and win the game without the New York Giants seeing the ball again. As it was, the Giants wound up winning the football game. They should have had to earn it.

WAC Was First Super-Conference

2011-09-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

The year 2011 may go down in history as the year that set in motion the dawn of the Age of the Super-Conference in NCAA athletics. Texas A&M is leaving the mighty Big 12 Conference for residency in the Southeastern Conference, which will now number 13 schools, with 14 or 16 on the horizon. The Atlantic Coast Conference has just raided the Big East, taking away two of its gems, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, and moving to 14 institutions. Last year, the PAC-10 Conference tried to become the PAC-16 by adding teams from the Big 12, which had just lost Nebraska to the expanding Big 10. Failing, it added only Colorado from the Big 12, then took on Utah from the Mountain West Conference, becoming the PAC-12. This year, those same teams that shunned the PAC-10 a year ago, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State, came begging the PAC-12 for a new home. The move would have blown up the Big 12 in the same way the old South West Conference was blown up in 1996. The PAC-12 politely declined.

The Big East has already added Texas Christian from the Mountain West for next season. This prompted the MWC, which also lost BYU to independence and the aforementioned Utah, to raid the Western Athletic Conference, taking away Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State, and Hawaii (football only). The football conference has actually grown from nine teams to ten, even with the recent losses.

People are now wondering where this game of conference musical chairs will stop. The SEC may be on the verge of taking Missouri from the Big 12. The Big 12's major players (read: Texas and Oklahoma) have now vowed to keep the conference together. Their best chance of doing that might be to move back to 12 teams (the Big 12 is playing this year with 10 members, while the Big 10 is playing with 12 members). The Big 12 is said to be considering adding everyone from Boise State to BYU to Houston to Notre Dame. You heard correctly: Notre Dame! The Big East has an official application for membership from East Carolina, and may add service academies Army, Navy, and even Air Force. The depleted WAC is bringing up reinforcements like Northern Colorado and Texas-Arlington from the Football Championship Sub-division (the old Division 1-AA), just to stay afloat.

There seems to be a race to see which of the major conferences will be the first to expand all the way to 16 teams. Articles are being written, speculating on what the college football landscape might look like with five or six super-leagues of 16 teams, each. All of this is very interesting. But, the fact is, there has already been a super-conference. The idea was definitely ahead of its time - and it only lasted for three seasons - but it was the Western Athletic Conference that first made this bold move after the demise of the South West Conference in 1996.

The schools in the South West Conference had been playing football together for around 70 years, in one form or another, when the league expanded to nine teams in 1975 by adding the University of Houston. That was a move that made the SWC even stronger than it had been before, especially in basketball, where Houston has a top-tier program. The first blow, however, in the destruction of the conference came directly from the east. The SEC decided to add to a good thing in 1992, expanding from 10 to 12 schools by bringing in former ACC member South Carolina and taking Arkansas back from the SWC.

The old Big Eight Conference, seeing what the SEC had done (and noticing the mounds of cash that were being made in that league's nifty, new championship game), was not going to just sit idly by and be upstaged, and certainly not for long. Secret talks between university presidents were undertaken. Then, on February 25, 1994, came the blockbuster announcement: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor would join with the schools of the Big Eight, becoming a new league, the Big 12, commencing with the 1996-97 academic and athletic school year.

While the new league and its new rivalries certainly excited the world of College Football as a whole, little consideration was given to the former SWC institutions that were left for dead: Houston, Rice, Texas Christian, and Southern Methodist. (SMU's football program receiving the NCAA's "death penalty" in 1987 for major recruiting violations, was another major blow to the conference.) It is quite ironic that Baylor University has made such a fuss, recently, about suing Texas A&M for its impending departure from the Big 12. Baylor is the same institution that turned its back on its former SWC brethren without so much as a damn in 1996, gladly accepting doormat status in the Big 12's southern division in exchange for the huge annual payouts that are earned by the league's Big Boys. The threatened dissolution of the Big 12 would have left Baylor face-to-face with membership in the Mountain West and its smaller distribution checks, and it was laughable to see the Bears, for a few tense weeks, sweating and whining like Pigs.

Looking back, it's really hard to understand why the Big Eight and SWC didn't just merge into a 16-team conference at that time. I guess they just didn't want to split the profits 16 ways. Oklahoma was not approving the move unless Texas was included, and Texas wasn't going anywhere without Texas A&M and Texas Tech as in-state rivals. Baylor only got an invite because the number of teams moving had to be an even number. Houston, coming from a major television market and being more competitive than Baylor in football and basketball, must have really ticked someone off (Texas), to be excluded from the mix. As it was, the previously-mentioned former SWC schools were left out in the cold. That was where the WAC came in.

The Western Athletic Conference was born in 1962 from a merger between former schools of the old Border and Skyline conferences. The six charter members were Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Colorado State and Texas-El Paso (UTEP)were added in 1968. In 1978, the old PAC-8 Conference invited Arizona and Arizona State to join, thus becoming the PAC-10. That same year, San Diego State joined the WAC, followed in short order by Air Force (1979), and Hawaii (1980). The addition of Fresno State in 1992 brought the membership up to 10 schools.

With four schools now available that had been considered by the press and public to be "major" programs, and with the conference also wanting to also be considered Big League, the WAC made a bold move, indeed, inviting all four of the Big Eight castoffs to join the league in 1996. Houston declined, forming the new Conference USA with Tulane, Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Southern Mississippi. The WAC's invitation was accepted by Rice, TCU, and SMU, with Houston's spot going to a formerly independent program, Tulsa. Also moving up, from the old Big West Conference, were San Jose State and Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV).

The WAC's move to 16 teams was unpopular, mostly due to the long distances the schools had to conquer in order to play each other. The league footprint of the Super-WAC covered Honolulu to Houston and San Diego to Laramie, Wyoming. It was considered to be just too big and too awkward to be a success, and no one was really happy with it. The idea still might have worked, however, if the 16 athletic programs had at least all made it to "major" status. That just did not happen. Without Texas, Oklahoma, et al., the new WAC members who had been in the SWC were considered just additions to the also-rans. (Houston also did not escape, running into the same "small-time" status problem in its new league.) Early in 1999, eight of the stronger WAC institutions (seven of which had been in the nine-team WAC after 1980) seceded from the league, establishing the new Mountain West Conference.

UNLV was the only "new" member invited to join the Mountain West. Rice, Tulsa, UTEP, TCU, and SMU all eventually wound up in Conference USA, although TCU ultimately won MWC membership in 2005. The WAC, with Hawaii, Fresno State and San Jose State as anchor tenants, carried on, surviving by adding Nevada (2000); Boise State and Louisiana Tech (2001); and Utah State, New Mexico State, and Idaho (2005). With the upcoming departures of Hawaii and Fresno State, San Jose State will be left as the only school remaining of the eight schools that made up the WAC after the Mountain West split.

Conference USA is another league that changed, all the way to 12 teams, and at one time housed all of the former SWC schools that did not join the Big 12. Ironically, a new response by the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA to all of this change is the consideration of a football-only merger between them, with the champions of the leagues meeting for an overall championship and a hoped-for spot in college football's Bowl Championship Series.

Last-Minute NFL Predictions

2011-09-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

Another National Football League season is upon us. We've all endured an off-season like no other, wondering if the players and owners would be able to come to a new collective bargaining agreement, or if a player strike/owner lockout would cancel the season and eradicate pro football's bedrock of fan loyalty. In the end, a deal was struck and a new CBA agreed to. Still, the effect of the lockout was pervasive, with players out of shape because of the cancellation of organized team workouts, and with a shortened free agency period that was a real free-for-all. Changes abound on the field and on the sidelines, but someone has to win the NFL's eight divisions. Here are my choices, with teams listed in predicted order of finish:

AFC EAST The New England Patriots should be the choice to win the division, until someone actually beats them. Some of the parts seem interchangeable, but the team still has head coach Bill Belichick devising the game plans and driving the troops. QB Tom Brady can win any football game, anywhere at any time, and he still has devastating weapons like WRs Wes Welker and Chad Ochocinco. The defense has been reloaded and is rapidly improving. I think they'll win every division game and cruise to another division title. The New York Jets beat the Patriots in the playoffs and made it to the AFC title game last year, in head coach Rex Ryan's breakthrough season. QB Mark Sanchez will be a year wiser and will also have elite targets in WRs Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burress. RB LaDainian Tomlinson is back for a final year of inspiration, and Ryan always runs a great defense, with Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie forming one of the league's top cornerback tandems. The Jets will sneak up on no one this year, however, and least of all the Pats. The Miami Dolphins have improved under head coach Tony Sparano, but are nowhere near the level of the division's leaders. Nor is QB Chad Henne even approaching the level of play that Brady and Sanchez have achieved. The Buffalo Bills have been stuck in a rut in this division since its inception, with no end in sight. QB Ryan Fitzpatrick is slowly improving, but having the worst quarterback play in the division is no way to escape this abyss. The Bills have nowhere to go, and that includes, "up"!

AFC North This will be another war between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. Both teams play grind-it-out, smash-it-up, old-school football. Ben Roethlisberger versus Joe Flacco will again be the top intra-division quarterback matchup. But it's the defenses, led by linebackers James Harrison and Ray Lewis, that really drive this rivalry. The Steelers usually win this division because they always have such a big home-field advantage, but both teams should make the playoffs. The Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals will again fight it out for third place. I have to give the Browns the edge, because Cincinnati is going to have to get used to life without both QB Carson Palmer and WR Chad Ochocinco.

AFC South With the Indianapolis Colts playing without Peyton Manning, the Tennessee Titans starting over without head coach Jeff Fisher and QB Vince Young, and the Jacksonville Jaguars having just released starting QB David Garrard in favor of Luke McCown, I can only pick the Houston Texans to win their first division title. Houston is loaded on offense, with QB Matt Schaub, WR Andre Johnson, and RB Arian Foster (if he's healthy). Indy brought in previously retired QB Kerry Collins to fill in for Manning, but there is something very unequal about that tradeoff! Jacksonville will be playing for head coach Jack Del Rio's job. They should be hungry enough to grab third place. Tennessee will have stud RB Chris Johnson back, but who is the quarterback?

AFC West Even with suffering through the worst special teams play in the history of the NFL last season, the San Diego Chargers still would have won this division if they'd beaten the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 1. (They crushed the Chiefs 31-0 in the Week 14 rematch.) QB Philip Rivers led the NFL in passing yards, despite needing a scorecard to tell who his receivers were. This year, TE Antonio Gates looks good after being injured and WR Vincent Jackson looked great in pre-season after holding out in 2010. SS Bob Sanders, newly signed from the Colts, brings attitude after missing time in recent years with injuries. Watch out! The Chiefs have a rapidly improving young defense and should be good enough to hang on for second place. The Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos will both have new head coaches in Hue Jackson and John Fox, respectively. Jackson inherits a team that went 6-0 in the division last year and still missed the playoffs! The Raiders are improving and could pass the Chiefs. Sacrificing a 3rd-round draft choice to pick up QB Terrelle Pryor in the supplemental draft could be the best move this team has made in years. After the Josh McDaniel debacle, Denver needed an experienced hand at head coach. However, I wonder if Fox can still relate to today's NFL players?

NFC East Locking up QB Michael Vick with a long-term contract, trading former starting QB Kevin Kolb to Arizona for CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and more, and signing the top free agent available in CB Nnamdi Asomugha, shows that the Philadelphia Eagles are serious about staying on top, today and tomorrow. Nnamdi and Dominique form a scary, sick cornerback combo, and another great corner, Asante Samuel is still on the roster! The Eagles will be the Beast of the East. I give the Dallas Cowboys the edge over the New York Giants for second place. Jason Garrett is a good, young head coach who will lead his players to a better overall performance and a playoff spot in 2011. On the other hand, New York's head coach, Tom Coughlin, can be so abrasive that he may lose the locker room, if things start to go badly. As for the Washington Redskins, they keep trying to make the right moves. They simply do not match up with the other teams in this tough division, making last place their destiny.

NFC North The Green Bay Packers were lucky to even make the playoffs last year, but they peaked at just the right time and won the Super Bowl. Led by QB Aaron Rodgers, the Pack will have that winning swagger. This year, they will take the division. The Detroit Lions have done all the right things since their infamous 0-16 season. The offense, led by QB Matthew Stafford, is fast improving and the defense, spearheaded by DT Ndamukong Suh, is a lurking monster that will soon be one of the best in the NFL - maybe even this year. Detroit's long-suffering fans deserve a winner, but the competition for the final playoff spot in the NFC will be stiff and the Lions will miss out, for now. The Minnesota Vikings have one of the game's top running backs in Adrian Peterson, but new starting QB Donovan McNabb has shown his age in recent years. He'll be an improvement over the poor showing Brett Favre put up in his final season, but the Vikes will do well to finish 8-8. As for the Chicago Bears, I believe they are going to sink with error-prone Jay Cutler at quarterback, all the way to last place. If this does happen, it will probably cost head coach Lovie Smith his job.

NFC South This is the toughest division to win in the NFL. Since its inception in 2002, the NFC South has seen no team repeat as its division champion. That's not good news for last year's winners, the Atlanta Falcons. With an offense spearheaded by QB Matt Ryan, RB Michael Turner, and WR Roddy White, and with an improving defense, the Falcons will likely break that trend, this year. I see the New Orleans Saints, led by QB Drew Brees, repeating as an NFC wild card team, despite the questions brought on by their poor defensive showing in last year's playoffs loss to Seattle. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be an improved team overall, but I call for them to plateau this year, as QB Josh Freeman hits a bit of a wall against opposing defenses. Like the Lions, the Bucs are a likely breakthrough team in 2012. The Carolina Panthers have hired the right man in new head coach Ron Rivera. Rivera was the defensive coordinator of the NFL's top-ranked defense last year in San Diego. He will bring intensity and toughness to the Panthers, but this is a hard division in which to try and make progress. Even with QB Cam Newton, the Heisman Trophy winner, taking over the offense, Carolina has a long way to go to make it back to the top.

NFC West I had been thinking that the Arizona Cardinals were doomed for another last-place finish due to quarterback woes, but shortly after the lockout ended, they traded for Philadelphia's erstwhile starter, Kevin Kolb. Kolb looked good in the Cards' pre-season games. He and All-World WR Larry Fitzgerald already seem to have a healthy chemistry between them, and both are locked up with multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts. RB Beanie Wells looks ready to shine, now that he will no longer share the football with the traded Tim Hightower. And, let's face it, the competition is weak in the worst division in pro football. Arizona gets my vote for first place. The St. Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks will both be improved, but both may wind up with worse records than they had in 2011. The defending division champion Seahawks will have improved morale after the upset playoff win, but it remains to be seen if QB Tarvaris Jackson can step in and be the team's on-field leader. I think the Rams, led by QB Sam Bradford and RB Steven Jackson will slip by the Hawks for second place. Bringing up the rear will be the San Francisco 49ers, who have a top-notch running back in Frank Gore, but who are again going to start Alex Smith at quarterback. The Niners are said to be considering adding QB David Garrard, recently released by the Jaguars and who'd probably be an upgrade over Smith.

My wild card teams are the Cowboys and Saints in the NFC and the Jets and Ravens in the AFC. In the NFC playoffs, I see the Eagles and Packers meeting in the championship game, with Michael Vick leading the Eagles to a surprising win on the frozen tundra at Lambeau Field. In the AFC, I think finishing out of the playoffs in 2010 will be good for San Diego. I see the Chargers bowling over the Patriots in the AFC title game in San Diego, and finally hoisting the Lombardi Trophy for the first time with a convincing Super Bowl win over the Eagles in Indianapolis, a place where they always seem to play well!

The Fight For Recognition

2011-08-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

There is a famous and very old saying, that Rome wasn't built in a day. That is so true!

My first e-book, a biography on the early part of the boxing career of Muhammad Ali called "The Cassius Clay Story," was published on June 1. There has been a whole crazy-quilt of activity surrounding the project since my last update in mid-July. There were no other sales in July, but four copies of the book have sold, so far, in August, which is very encouraging. The marketing of "The Cassius Clay Story" is still just in its infancy. Barely anyone knows who I am or about the existence of my book.

A big step in the right direction was the publishing of the Clay Story on Smashwords.com. In order to do this, I had to re-format my manuscript, add hyperlinks, and perform a complete proofreading of the original copy. This took some time, but it was a labor of love. It took about three weeks to finish all of the changes I had to make, but the good news is that the revised version was accepted into the Premium Catalog at Smashwords, making it easier for the millions of people in the world with smart phones and tablet and palm computers to find and access the book.

My Twitter account had five followers on my previous blog update. I am now up to 13 followers, which makes it easier for me to spread the word. Anyone who follows me, I follow them right back! My most recent tweet, earlier today, announced that I am translating my book into Spanish. This is important for increasing the number of potential buyers. While the many Latino/Hispanic peoples around the world have certainly heard of Muhammad Ali, I doubt that a book of this type is available in Spanish. I am hoping to fill a niche.

Sportside Books has its own Facebook Page (http://on.fb.me/nKZ0B0). Facebook is an amazing creation. In addition to helping me to promote my book, it has enabled me to re-connect with old friends and even with family members I haven't spoken to for a while. It is a powerful way to spread news and information. And, practically every day, someone sends me a new friend message, or I hear from a new person I've sent a friend message to. My friend base at Facebook will continue to grow. The sky is really the limit on it. That's also good for my book.

I recently got the book listed on a Web site called Kindle Mojo. This was a victory, in that it was the first time "The Cassius Clay Story" was promoted in the lead position on such a site. Kindle Mojo has more than 7,000 Twitter followers, so that's gained me some visibility. I also joined a couple of author services called Goodreads and Wattpad. On these Web sites, independent authors go to have their books listed, and avid readers frequent these sites to find new, independent material to read. This is a good matchup of needs. While I'm busy converting the manuscript into Spanish, I am also formulating a plan to maximize my marketing clout using sites such as these.

My hope is that by the time it's been out for a year, thousands of people will have heard of "The Cassius Clay Story," whether in its English or Spanish incarnation. This will not be easy. It will be a long, hard fight to be recognized as a good author and to have my book recognized as a superior product. However, I stand behind my work and I am more than willing to push, for as long as it takes, to get that work into the spotlight. Rome, after all, wasn't built in a day.

It would be nice to make some money with this endeavor. For right now, I would settle for the satisfaction of knowing that someone took a gamble, dropped ten bucks to buy the book, read it, liked it, and thought it was good enough to post a positive review. How good would that feel?

An Open Letter To Tiger Woods

2011-08-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

How are you? How are your kids? I was glad to hear that you are doing a lot better, physically.

I was sorry to see you struggling so badly in the heat at last week's PGA Championship golf tournament. I know that you are not accustomed to missing the cut in a tournament, but this was your first time back after rehabbing your injuries. Give yourself time.

I'm concerned about you, Tiger. People have been saying things about you, lately, that you may have heard and that may be upsetting you. I've heard or read people saying that you're no longer the player you once were; that you're finished as a major player in golf; that you'll never be able to win the four major golf tournaments that would let you pass Jack Nicklaus, whose 18 major wins is the all-time record. They talk as if breaking that record would be the ultimate measuring stick for your career, as if they'd consider you some kind of a failure if you do not break it. I know you can not say this, Tiger, so I will say it for you: You don't need that record!

Even if you never win another tournament in your career, you've done enough to this point that you are probably already the greatest golfer who ever lived. Golf used to be considered a sport for the elite class. A system was in place to prevent people of color from being allowed to compete. You bucked the system easily because you started golfing at such a young age, and you were so good, that the Powers that Be in golf had to let you compete. Your game was too strong. Coming out of high school, you were already one of the very best amateur golfers in the world. Stanford University could either offer you a scholarship, or they could watch you accept one from some other elite educational institution.

You continued to wreak havoc on the world of amateur golf, so doors that are usually shut to Black golfers had to be opened for you. There would have been a fierce competition among golf's major sponsors to help you turn professional, except that Nike knocked the ball so far out of the park with their offer, you could only accept. Then you went out and tore up The Masters the first time you played Augusta National as a pro. Just like that, a star was born, and game of golf will never be the same.

So, you changed golf for the better, Tiger. That unfair system may still be in place, but never again will anyone be able to say that a person of color can't be the very best golfer in the world. Your dominance of pro golf for more than a decade was so thorough that it was practically intimidating to your peers on tour. You set the bar for golfing excellence so high that young players, such as Kory McIlroy, had to adjust their goals and set their sights higher than ever before. And, they are playing great golf.

In recent years, though, you have gone through some personal problems that unfortunately went public. The destruction of your marriage has rattled you and the resultant negative publicity has embarrassed you. Those who seem to take such joy in poking holes in a star's reputation were just ready to pounce. You have been belittled. You have been ridiculed. You have been cast as a punchline in their classless jokes. Don't despair, Tiger. Remember that most of those people doing the laughing, haven't done in their given field even a tenth of what you've done in yours. And, how many of them would still be around if their dirty laundry had been aired so publicly?

Watching your current struggles on the links, Tiger, sometimes you seem very much alone. It seems like you are putting pressure on yourself to win; to prove them all wrong. It must be tempting to feel that way, since you know how fickle the press and the public are. Let you score a big tournament win; the kind you used to enjoy during your heyday; the kind where it's Sunday and you lead by 11 strokes on the front nine and can just cruise into the clubhouse, and all of your detractors will come running back, just as they did with Kobe Bryant. Your personal and professional redemption must seem tantalizingly close, like it's just one win away.

But, it's not that simple, Tiger. There is no easy road back from where you've been. Professional redemption, for you, will not come until you have accepted personal forgiveness. And, that forgiveness will not be forthcoming from the public or the press without the accompanying wins, so it will have to come from another source. The one who must forgive you, Tiger, is you.

Give yourself a break, Tiger. Your troubles proved that you are human, after all. You are not the first famous person to fall into one of the many traps that are out there, and you won't be the last. However, you are still one of the very best golfers on the planet. Take the weight off of your shoulders, Tiger. Let go completely of any pressure you feel inside to prove yourself, all over again. Simply play your game, and let your natural abilities rise to the top and take you where they may.

It may not immediately be the way it was. You may have to be satisfied with what others would call insignificant victories. But, you don't owe your critics anything, nor the press, nor the fans. The only important things you owe, you owe to yourself, and those are self-forgiveness and self-acceptance. Give yourself those things and truly turn your back on anyone else's expectations, and you will win again, Tiger. It might not be at Augusta National. It might not be at the U.S. Open. But with self-love and self-respect back in place, the small victories you will gain just might be the greatest wins of your entire career.

That's all the advice I have for you, Tiger. I hope you'll consider it to be constructive and in good spirits. I wish you the best of health, physically and mentally. Please give your children a big hug, for me.

One last thing, Tiger: When you do make it back to the winner's circle, remember the ones who stuck with you when you were down.

Respectfully,

David W. Coleman

The Rites of Autumn

2011-08-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

It is with fond reverance that I recall the days of my young adulthood, when the coming of the fall meant that I would be watching football all weekend long! It started on Friday nights, when my high school team would play its home games at a nearby community college. There was something about watching these kid footballers playing this game in a place where grown men also played. It made the players seem bigger and it made the whole prep school football scene seem more mature. The cheerleaders were young and oh-so-enthusiastic. The popcorn at the concession stand was fresh. The Associated Student Body or the Parent-Teacher Association would be selling authentic school souvenirs. And, oh yes, the team, the Kearny High Komets, was usually pretty good on the field.

Saturday nights were reserved for watching the Aztecs play at San Diego Stadium. (I still can't call it any other name!) During these years, San Diego's pro team, the Chargers, had fallen on hard times. It seemed that everyone who was anyone had "stepped on up" to watch the winning major college program. Don Coryell had long since departed to coach the NFL's Cardinals, but Claude Gilbert's troops were still winning 9-10 games each year. Some people still think that firing Gilbert was the biggest mistake the Aztecs ever made, although switching the games soon after that to daytimes, and changing the home uniforms from black to scarlet did not help.

Eventually the games played on Sundays became more enjoyable, as the Chargers began to stockpile talented young players. In 1975, they drafted 3/4 of a defensive line, in the persons of Gary Johnson, Louie Kelcher, and Fred Dean. Five years later, all three of them were starters for the AFC in that year's Pro Bowl. In the same draft, the Chargers added a starting cornerback (Mike Williams), a starting safety (Mike Fuller), a starting offensive tackle (Billy Shields), and a starting running back (Rickey Young) who led the team in rushing three straight years before being dealt to Minnesota for an all-pro level starting guard (Ed White).

I was all of 15 that year. By the time I was grown and could afford to buy season tickets, this talent nucleus had coalesced around a maturing quarterback named Dan Fouts. Awesome targets for Fouts came when Charlie Joiner arrived in a trade with Cincinnati in 1976, and John Jefferson (Arizona State) and Kellen Winslow (Missouri) were drafted in 1978 and 1979, respectively. Don Coryell returned to San Diego to coach the Chargers offense during the 1978 season, but was promoted to head coach after Tommy Prothro was fired four games into the seaon. There were a few mis-steps, but the team caught fire at the end of the year, scoring big wins in its last three games over Chicago (40-7), Seattle (37-10), and playoff-bound Houston (45-24) to finish at 9-7.

Those Chargers made the playoffs the next four seasons, twice advancing to the AFC championship game. I was at the playoff win following the 1980 season over the Buffalo Bills. The Chargers were trailing late in the fourth quarter. As Fouts released a long pass in the direction of a streaking Ron Smith, I saw Bills safety Bill Simpson start to fall to the turf and Smith move into the clear. I jumped out of my seat and held my hands high over my head, screaming "TOUCHDOWN!" while the ball was still in the air. As the stadium went crazy, the ball settled softly into Smith's grasp. We all watched ecstaticly as he ran the last 30 yards to the end zone! Too bad the Chargers lost to the Raiders in the AFC title game the next week!

Who could ever forget the playoff win the following year, in Miami? Winslow made 11 catches in that game, scoring a touchdown and blocking a field goal to save the game at the end of regulation. The Chargers won on a Rolf Benirschke field goal in overtime. But, again, they lost in the AFC title game, this time to the Bengals in Cincinnati. As the good times for the team again began to fade, I was able to move up the waiting list for season tickets, finally buying them in my own name in 1986. (The previous three years, I'd bought some else's season seats.)

I relinquished my prized season tickets in 1997, after learning I would soon become a father for the first time. The daughter I had that year will soon be 14 years old! I later had a son and then another daughter.

My son shares my name. Last year he turned seven years old. One of my presents to him was to buy season tickets for us to watch Arizona State University football. I am fortunate enough to be able to share the Rites of Autumn with David, Jr., as I never could with my own father, growing up.

Our football days are all-day affairs. We get up around 10 a.m. We have a quick, small breakfast, then drive from the west side of the Phoenix Valley to an area just southeast of downtown, where we park the car and ride the light rail system the rest of the way to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. We get there early, so we can be sure to be on time for the Devil Walk, where the players arrive at the stadium and walk through a long lane lined with the blaring band, the shrieking cheerleaders, and the fired up fans!

Next, it's time for the tailgate party, which is held at the nearby basketball arena because it's too hot in Phoenix for anyone to be outside for a couple of hours. David always feasts on a sandwich from Chick-fil-A (saving room for a brownie for desert is a big priority for him). I usually opt for a barbecue plate. We sit in the arena stands and watch big-time college football games being broadcast on big-screen televisions by the major networks. We give each other high-fives for great touchdowns we see, and we root for the underdogs!

With about 20 minutes until game time, we make the long walk into the stadium, where our seats are on the upper level. Last year, our seats were on about the 10-yard line. This year, we are moving to about mid-field. We watch the player introductions. David is really into the Sparky character, and loves to watch the poor guy do all of those push-ups after touchdowns, especially if it's a high-scoring game!

We wanted to go to Los Angeles last year for the game at USC, but we had to settle for going to Tucson to see the annual Territorial Cup showdown with the University of Arizona. It was the last game of the year, and David really got into it. I think he really got a sense of "us-versus-them," being in a foreign stadium and seeing 70,000 Wildcats fans rooting against the 10,000 Sun Devils fans who were brave enough to go. I think he was proud to be there and represent the team he'd been rooting for all year. The fact that the Sun Devils blocked an extra point kick that would have won the game for the Wildcats at the end of regulation, then won the game by blocking another point-after-touchdown in overtime, was that much more gratifying. David actually willed the Sun Devils to victory. Right after I told him that extra points aren't blocked very often in big-time college football, he told me that they could do it. And then, the team went out and did it - twice!

So, this year, we will have better seats and one extra home game to root for our Devils. The Wildcats will be coming to our stadium, so David will get to see the rivalry from the other side. And, this year, we're going to make it to Los Angeles, though it will be at the Rose Bowl against UCLA. The USC Trojans come to visit Tempe, this year.

When the game is over, we ride the light rail (we actually call it a trolley) back to the car. I drive us home. The actual games begin at 7 p.m. or 7:30, so it is approaching midnight by the time we are on the freeway heading west. David is asleep by the time we get to the west side of town. We have been together all day.

These are the Rites of Autumn. We root for our team, win or lose. We talk, man-to-man and sometimes son-to-son. We pick our favorite players and watch their exploits on the field. We count the number of total push-ups Sparky had to do today. We have fun, plain and simple. If it's time-consuming and if it's costly, it's worth every second and every penny. These are the days and these are the times that I so anticipated, when I could only dream of being a father.

And if it's a Saturday night and anyone wants to know where I've been all day, tell them I've gone to the stadium to watch a ballgame with my son!

The Agreement That Had To Be

2011-07-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Maybe Roger Goodell was inspired by the legendary tenures of his predecessors as Commissioner of the NFL, Paul Tagliabue and Pete Rozelle. Perhaps DeMaurice Smith was channeling the spirits of the recently late former NFLPA presidents, Eugene Upshaw and John Mackey. Whatever it was, the stewards of the opposing sides in the National Football League's labor war finally made up their minds to forge a ten-year agreement. This was the kind of solution where neither side got all it wanted, but where both sides won. This agreement had to be. There was far too much at stake for it not to happen.

Pro football has supplanted baseball as America's Number One sport. It is ingrained in our society. It has almost become America's newest Sunday religion. We fans of the game are riveted by it. We watch it. We bet on it. We play fantasy football. We enter office pools. We decorate our cars and desks and we even dress in our team's official colors and logos. We go to saloons and sports bars devoted to our teams.

When our team wins, we have a great day. We scream. We shout. We Dance. We exult. When they lose, we are down. We question strategies. We question effort. We hurl questions and insults and epithets at our wide-screen TVs, as if the players and coaches can hear and heed us. We angrily call the local all-sports radio station to voice our frustration.

But mostly, we attend. Those of us who live near the team and are lucky enough to be able to afford it, can buy season tickets and support the team in person. And season ticket holders do, literally, support their teams. And so do television viewers. The advertising money brought in by high TV ratings for the NFL is staggering. Put it all together, and there are nine billion reasons each year for the NFL to keep playing the game we all love.

So, the agreement had to be made. I don't know the exact moment it happened. I don't know the exact words that were said, but in one of their private meetings, one or both of Goodell and Smith said to the other, "You know what? This isn't going to work as long as our two sides are fighting one another. We are about to blow the sweetest deal ever granted a sport. And the only way we can stop that from happening is by working together!"

Americans are living with an economic quandary of almost impossible proportions. I think it's safe to say that many of us have less disposable income than we've ever had. And yet, like pizza, football never seems to grow unpopular, no matter the overall economic forecast. Forget the Golden Goose. Pro football has been like a Giant Golden Cash Cow that showers its participants with untold millions of dollars. Take that away from the fans - the consumers whose dollars make this gigantic money-making machine go - for a year, and you run the risk of those consumers realizing how much their NFL habits are costing them, each year. You run the risk of those fans sinking their money into something else; something entirely more necessary. If this year's NFL season had been wiped out by a strike, some of those fans might never have come back. After using the unspent money to buy a new home or save the one they already live in, some of those fans might not have been able to come back.

So congrats are in order for Goodell and Smith and all of the players and owners. Instead of trying to break the other side in this dispute, they all realized that their Giant Golden Cash Cow was suddenly in danger of becoming extinct. And they worked together; listened to each other; helped one another. The agreement that resulted is historic, and its length means that the fans won't have to be bothered with labor negotiations for a long, long time. Management and players in pro basketball's labor dispute should look at what pro football did, and take heed.

College Football's New World Order

2011-07-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

The sports equivalent of Jack Kirby's Great Disaster hit major college football earlier this year. The unprecedented events nearly swallowed up the mighty Big XII Conference. The fallout and the reverberations are still being felt months later, as another football season is upon us. You really can't tell the conferences without a scorecard, anymore. So, just in case you missed it:

The Big 10 Conference got the ball rolling by inviting mighty Nebraska to come over from the Big XII. The Cornhuskers, who took maybe a minute to think about it before saying, "Yes," thus moved into the coveted spot in the Big 10 that had been being held, ostensibly, for Notre Dame. If the Big 10 couldn't get the Fighting Irish (And it couldn't. Notre Dame's contract with NBC is just too lucrative.), it got the Next Best Thing with Nebraska. The Big Red bring a ton of tradition to a truly super conference, which also contains football powers Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State, plus not-too-shabby Wisconsin and Iowa.

The initial thought was that the Big XII might make a play for the Fighting Irish, but Notre Dame remained independent in football. The Irish are joined in independence this year by Brigham Young, the usually-detested-by-all former Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference member, which strives to be the "Notre Dame of the West." (Right. Good luck with that, Cougars.)

The other shoe dropped on the Big XII, however, when the PAC-10, looking to increase its national relevance, decided to expand by inviting Colorado, with its massive following in the Denver metropolitan area. There was once again a rapid courtship. That two schools of the stature of Nebraska and Colorado would leave such a powerful league with barely two blinks of an eye, says something about the state of the Big XII and the status of those institutions. The Cornhuskers and the Buffaloes were tired of playing second fiddle, in the eyes of the national media, to Texas and Oklahoma. So, the Huskers turned their backs on their longtime rivals, the Oklahoma Sooners, and bolted east. With Nebraska gone, the biggest thing holding Colorado in place was also gone. It was just so easy for the Buffs to move, as the westernmost member of the league, with its next-closest rival at least two states away.

To achieve its goal of gaining a conference championship game, however, the PAC needed to invite another school. It set its eyes on mighty Texas, with its iconic status in the Lone Star state and throughout the nation. Amazingly, there was a courtship. Stunningly, the PAC responded to some misgivings by Texas of losing its traditional rivalries, by inviting Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech to join. Astoundingly, there was some real discussion about blowing up the Big XII, with Texas A&M moving on to the Big East Conference and Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State, and Baylor being left to fend for themselves (other than the Mountain West Conference, which was oh-so-eager to extend an invitation to the Big XII leftovers).

After a couple of weeks of serious consideration (and after some major league genuflecting to Texas by the others in the conference) it was decided to keep what was left of the Big XII intact. There had first been talk about inviting former Southwest Conference members Houston and Texas Christian aboard, to keep the league's membership at 12. Ultimately, this idea was scrapped, and a way was devised to keep the Longhorns' pockets lined with cash, even with the sacrifice of the league's championship game. Texas will now have its own television network, which will do major business deep in the heart of Texas and nationwide. The advantages Texas owns over most of its league brethren will only grow bigger under this new arrangement.

And to think, all of this was done to cater to a football program that disappointed the nation last season. The Longhorns finished with a 5-7 record in all games, including a league mark of 2-6, good for dead last in the Big XII's South Division. It sounds like a slippery slope to me, but even if Texas again underachieves, and even if the Longhorn Network is somehow a failure, the Big XII can always add two more members and re-institute its lost title game, somewhere down the line.

Spurned by the Big XII members, the PAC scrapped its proposed 16-team model and went back to its initial plan of expanding its membership to 12. Utah, one of the high-profile members of the Mountain West Conference, was quickly added to what is now the PAC-12. After that, it was like a big game of dominoes, with one school falling right after the school before it. The Big East Conference, left at the altar by Texas A&M, also raided the Mountain West, picking up another of that league's crown jewels, Texas Christian. Before you could say "cutthroat," the MWC grabbed all of the top programs from the WAC, first luring Bowl Championship Series-busting Boise State, then Nevada and Fresno State, and finally Hawaii. Utah State, which for some reason declined its invitation to join the Mountain West this year, is still a possibility, along with Houston, for further MWC expansion to 12 schools in the future. The WAC, meanwhile, has tried to stay afloat by adding some schools from the next division down (Texas State, Texas-Arlington, Texas-San Antonio, Denver, and Seattle), which was its only option.

Most of this dizzying array of changes will take place for the coming football season, but some of the above won't happen until the 2012 campaign. It will be interesting to see how all of this movement shakes out on the national level. The biggest question within this fascinating scenario has to be: Can Texas regain its stranglehold on the pinnacle of prominence in the Big XII? Any way you slice it, there is now a New World Order in major college football. Let's face it: Any time the Big 10 Conference has 12 members and the Big 12 Conference has ten members, something wild and crazy must be going on!

World Cup Final Impressions

2011-07-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some random thoughts after viewing the final game of the Women's World Cup between the U.S.A. and Japan in Frankfurt, Germany:

The U.S.A. outplayed Japan throughout regulation time, extra time, and overtime. Japan never led in the actual match, which ends officially as a 2-2 tie, won by Japan on penalty kicks. It seemed to me that the U.S. squad relaxed just a little bit after scoring its goals. Perhaps, on some subliminal level, the U.S. women, having beaten Japan twice earlier this year, expected the ladies from the Land of the Rising Sun to give in. This may have let Japan back into the match.

Certainly, the U.S. can look to its own missed scoring opportunities from the first half. Convert a couple of those and the match would have been over in regulation time. There seemed to be quite a bit of anxiousness in the American attack. The aggression our women showed in keeping play in the Japanese end no doubt led to their twice taking the lead, but a bit more controlled aggression might have put the game out of reach.

Holding a 1-0 lead with time running down in the second half, the U.S.A defense let down in an inexcusable fashion. Know where your goalkeep is and let her do her job. The ball was struck in panic by the first defender just as Hope Solo was about to grab the ball. The second defender, not expecting the ball to come her way, only managed to get a foot on it, keeping the ball in play for Japan. The rest was history.

Both U.S. goals and the second goal by Japan were things of beauty. Women's World Cup competition has become every bit the equal of the men's sport, in terms of overall play. The U.S. was the aggressor and possibly deserved to win in regulation, but Japan must be commended for not showing any sign of panic, twice scoring when desperation might have undermined the effort of a lesser team. In particular, Japan's second goal was drawn up beautifully and played to perfection. Solo had no chance. It was not so much a poor defense by the Americans as it was a great play by the Nipponese. To execute a set play so accurately, with the game literally on the line, is a credit to the Japan squad.

Finally, our women just seemed depleted during the penalty kick phase. After having dug so deep to pull out wins repeatedly in the tournament, there just wasn't enough left in the tank. The U.S.A. took the first shot, which is a great advantage if you can make it. Missing it, the air just seemed to go out of the Americans' balloon. Both sides deserved to win this World Cup, but Japan was more prepared mentally, at the very end, to succeed in the penalty phase's pressure cooker.

Still, it was a great run by an American team which was the last to qualify for World Cup play and which scored the latest goal in World Cup history to save a game against Brazil. Congrats to our women for the grit and the fight and the moxie they showed throughout the tournament. And further kudos to Japan's women for never giving up and showing the kind of resolve it takes to bring home a world championship.

Back On The Block

2011-07-13T00:22:00.001-07:00

I always enjoyed having a place where I could spout off about any subject I'd like to. Since the subject matter with me always seemed to be about sports, I called my blog, AmericanSportsHog. I set this blog aside in the fall of 2009 because I was at a crucial part of my life: I had just been graduated from the University of Phoenix with a degree in business. I wanted to use what I'd learned and start a business of my own that would be both satisfying to myself and profitable. I had to figure out how to do that. The one thing I knew was that writing for free in my blog wouldn't make me a rich man!

Throughout the 11 courses I took online to complete my education, one thing was very clear: My ability as a writer contributed greatly to my being able to finish each class, and also to my achieving a grade point average which I was proud of. I had always advised other to try to make money at something they enjoyed and that they would do for free. Thinking about it, I realized that I had been writing for free for a long time. I've posted nearly 100 music reviews at Amazon.com. I've been a correspondent on one of those Web sites where the fans become the reporter and write game stories and commentaries on various sports and teams. And, I've had this blog.

I realized I needed to follow my own advice. I needed to take all of the free writing I'd been doing and think of a way to write for myself, yet still have a chance at making a profit. When I heard about the Kindle and other electronic reading devices, I knew I'd found my target area. Kindles are the best-selling item on the entire Amazon.com Web site. The publishing and sale of electronic books (e-books) are exploding, yet are still in their infancy. E-books can be read with many different devices, including e-readers, smart phones, Android-type devices, palm computers, tablets, and more.

Thus, I determined to write e-material for consumer who are hungry for quality reading for their e-device. My first thought was to write short articles on a variety of subjects. However, after hashing it out for a long time, I realized that I would feel more comfortable writing as an expert in a field I know; sports. And, I wanted to write books; books in which sports fans and just plain avid readers could immerse themselves.

I named my publishing company, Sportside Books. I devoted most of the year 2010 learning how the publishing program for Amazon Kindle works, and posting a few public domain works to get the hang of it. I started work on my first e-book in August. I decided to write about the most popular sports subject I could think of: Muhammad Ali. While I was still writing the book's introduction, I realized that if I wanted the book to be finished sometime in 2011, I'd need to somehow shorten it. "Muhammad Ali" is a subject both vast and complex. I settled on limiting my focus to the beginning of Ali's boxing career, when he was still known as Cassius Clay.

I'm proud to say that I published The Cassius Clay Story for the Kindle this year on June 1 (amzn.to/jDEX9v). The Barnes and Noble Nook edition was published about three weeks later (bit.ly/p2evgA). Since then, I've established accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Bitly, and Smashwords. Now, I've created a new e-mail account devoted to the business, and I have re-activated AmericanSportsHog. A Web site devoted to Sportside books is still to come. It is all part of a process of getting my name exposed and promoting my company and my book. I have about 50 Facebook friends in less than three weeks, and already five followers on Twitter, none of whom I had ever heard of before!

The first fruit of my labor came this week! Someone bought a copy of The Cassius Clay Story over this past weekend, purchasing it on Amazon.com's UK Web site. My plan is to publish the book in English in as many formats as is possible, then to do the same with a translation of the book into Spanish. It's a long process, and I am learning more every day. So, in addition to popping off about any sports subject of my choosing, I will also give updates on how the process of selling books and becoming a well-known sports writer is going. If you would like to come along, you are welcome to follow me on Twitter: @sportsidebooks.

Klitschkos All-Time Greats?

2011-07-11T01:04:00.000-07:00

Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko have jointly ruled the heavyweight division in pro boxing for many years. With their combinations of size, power, and formidable jabs, they have been able to overcome the rigid, robot-like mobilities they displayed in their early years, and today stand dominant. The time has come to discuss how they would have fared against some of the division's recent all-time greats. Muhammad Ali, I feel, would have outpointed either of the brothers rather easily, due to his speed, quickness, mobility, and solid chin. George Foreman would have out-slugged either Klitschko within three rounds, the difference being that Foreman had the edge in raw power and a better chin than either brother. Lennox Lewis and Larry Holmes both had the natural ability to come out on top against the Klitschkos, but either Lewis or Holmes also could be kayo victims if they were to get nailed. Joe Frazier, on the other hand, wouldn't have been able to get past the jab and get inside on Wladimir or Vitali. His lack of an outstanding chin would have gotten him kayoed within five rounds against either Klitschko brother. Mike Tyson? That could have gone either way. Tyson in his early days certainly could have intimidated either Klitschko, especially early in their careers. He would have had all kinds of trouble against a more mature Wladimir or Vitali. As for Evander Holyfield, I think he was simply to small to stand up to the brothers. He would have been battered and stopped late in a fight against either one. Who would win between the brothers? I hope we never find out. Vitali and Wladimir should continue to honor their mother's request that they never fight. Besides, brothers should be brothers! The Klitschko brother belong where they are, right now: on top of the world and in each other's corner. (For more on Muhammad Ali, please read the free sample of my e-book!) amzn.to/jDEX9v (Kindle) or bit.ly/p2evgA (Nook) (Please copy and paste either link to your browser's address window if no hyper-link appears.)

Last-Minute NFL Predictions!

2009-09-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

Maybe I’m wrong, but I decided to classify these predictions as "last minute," because I doubt you’ll find any predictions being posted later than this, for the upcoming National Football League season.

For the NFL, the year 2009 will feature several prominent returns:

Tom Brady returns to the New England Patriots, after missing nearly all of 2008 with a season-ending knee injury he suffered in the first game. Although they got stellar quarterback play from Brady’s backup, Matt Cassell (now with Kansas City), the Patriots, three-time Super Bowl champions and perennial playoff contenders, missed the post-season in 2008. Getting Brady, the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2007, back likely means a return to the top of the AFC East for the Patriots.

Brett Favre returns to the NFL (again) after his second "retirement," this time to the Minnesota Vikings, his longtime NFC Central/North rivals from his days of quarterbacking the Green Bay Packers. Last year, Favre had a pretty nice first 2/3 of his lone season with the New York Jets. The last third of the season, however, was dismal, with an injured Favre being very ineffective down the stretch, the Jets free-falling right out of playoff contention, and Favre stating emphatically after the last game that he was through. The Vikings shelved a planned competition between incumbent starter Tarvaris Jackson and newcomer Sage Rosenfels, and went to great lengths to sign Favre. Reportedly, the Viking locker room is splintered over who the starting quarterback should be. If the Favre signing does not work out, heads are going to roll. Stay tuned.

Michael Vick returns to the NFL after missing two years due to his criminal and legal issues. Once he was released from prison, it really did not take Vick long to land a backup QB job with the Philadelphia Eagles. He will be eligible to play in the season’s third week, after serving a two-game suspension for conduct unbecoming. By all accounts, Vick has quickly gotten back into the swing of NFL life. It remains to be seen, if Vick gets the chance to play and how well he does.

Shawne Merriman returns to the San Diego Chargers after missing virtually all of the 2008 season. Merriman’s knee injury was actually sustained in the previous year’s playoff victory over Tennessee. With Merriman that year, the San Diego defense was dominating, leading the league in take-aways and placing high in sacks. Last year, the San Diego defense was victimized and exposed repeatedly, resulting in the team having a 4-8 record after 12 games. Somehow, the Chargers rallied to win the AFC West and also to defeat Indianapolis in the playoffs. With Merriman back (once he is at full strength), the Charger defense has a chance to propel the team to Super Bowl contention.

In revealing my predictions for 2009, I have to say that I think it will be a year of extremes, in terms of the haves and the have-nots. I expect there to be several teams with outstanding records of 11-5 or better in each conference. Not all of these teams will be able to make the playoffs. Especially in the AFC, I expect competition for the six playoff berths to be torrid. My feeling is that fine teams like the Tennessee Titans, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Arizona Cardinals (can you say, Super Bowl runner-up Jinx?) will miss the Super Bowl tournament.
When it’s all said and done, I look for the San Diego Chargers to go on the road and avenge past playoff losses at New England and Pittsburgh. My forecast calls for lightning to prevail in a Chargers-Saints match-up at the Super Bowl in Miami.

Here’s a look at each divisional race:

AFC East: The Patriots have been bolstered by the addition of four players picked in the second round of this year’s NFL draft, greatly improving the depth of an already great team. I expect them to basically run roughshod over everyone else in their division and finish 14-2, losing only to New Orleans and Indy (both on the road). They should get extreme pleasure from sweeping the Dolphins, who won the division last year. I think the Bills, Dolphins, and Jets will all finish at 5-11.

AFC North: The Steelers traditionally field the toughest defense in the NFL. It should be know different in 2009. Pittsburgh won it all in 2008 because that defense manages to be both highly aggressive and highly disciplined, the offense has a knack for making big plays, and they have, arguably, the best head coach in the NFL in Mike Tomlin. I also see the Steelers finishing at 14-2, losing only at Cincinnati and at Baltimore. I expect the Bengals and Ravens to both finish 12-4 and be the Wild Card playoff teams, which is not good news for the aforementioned Jaguars and Titans. I see a rough year ahead for the Browns, who might only win a couple of games.

AFC South: Indianapolis remains the team to beat. The Colts have a new head coach, but will have the same expectations. Jim Caldwell was not a winning head coach in the college ranks. He will need to win here, right away. He will not get too much of a honeymoon. The Tennessee Titans actually unseated the Colts as the champions of the division. They are well-coached by the dean of NFL coaches, Jeff Fisher, but the loss of their best player, Albert Haynesworth (in free agency, to Washington), will hurt their defense. I expect them to drop to third place in the division, behind a Jacksonville squad that will be improved, but not enough to make the playoffs in the strong AFC. The Jaguars could be out of the running, despite an
11-5 record! Once again, Houston will be improved, but in such a tough division, that improvement will not equate to a winning record.

AFC West: The Chargers will win this division, in a waltz. I call for them to finish 13-3, losing on the road to Pittsburgh, Dallas, and the Giants. Really, 15-1 is possible for this team. Besides getting Merriman back to help the defense, this team is scary on offense. QB Philip Rivers led the NFL in passer rating, last year. He has top-shelf playmaking ability at every position, including Antonio Gates, who is again healthy and is the best tight end in the game of football. And, don’t forget: LaDainian Tomlinson was the NFL’s rushing champion in both 2006 and 2007. He was hurt last year, but he is back, with a chip on his shoulder. LT could be right back on top of the world, if he is truly recovered from his injuries. As for the Broncos, Raiders, and Chiefs: It’s rock bottom time. All three could finish 3-13!

NFC East: The Giants are a good team that is certainly capable of returning to the Super Bowl. I think they will finish with a record of 13-3, putting them right back in the Elite Teams category. Quarterback Eli Manning has to prove that he can lead a very good team and make it a great one. When they won the Super Bowl after 2007, the team carried the quarterback. Now, the tables have turned. I don’t think the Giants get back to the Big Dance, unless the quarterback can now carry the team. The goal of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been to get the Cowboys ready for Prime Time when their new stadium opens. I think the ‘Boys and the Eagles will make the NFC tournament at 11-5. As for the Redskins, yes they got Haynesworth to improve their defense, but the division is far too strong to allow them to move up. They’ll finish with a losing record, and I think that will cost Head Coach Jim Zorn his job.

NFC North: There is no outstanding team here. I give the edge to the Packers, only because they are so hard to beat at Lambeau Field. I don’t see them losing any division games at home, this year, but still I only see them finishing at 9-7. Brett Favre will not make much difference in the Vikings. In fact, I think they finish 7-9 and miss the playoffs. As for the Bears, they managed to land the QB they coveted when they traded with the Broncos for Jay Cutler. However, Cutler won’t have the kind of receivers he used to have in Denver. I say the Bears will slide to 5-11, costing Lovie Smith his head coaching position. The Lions will be improved, but after an 0-16 finish in 2008, that’s not saying much. I think they will tie Tampa Bay’s all-time record of 26 straight losses, before finally winning in week 11, when Cleveland comes to town.

NFC South: This will be the year that the Saints finally go marching in to a championship game. The defense may not be exactly top-notch, but QB Drew Brees and the offense will be virtually unstoppable. There is tremendous balance in this division, which I think will lead to the Falcons and Panthers disappointing their fans and finishing 8-8. The Buccaneers have a new head coach and will be going through a transition year. I look for them to finish at 6-10 in Ragheim Morris’s first season.

NFC West: Last year, the Cardinals had no competition, going 6-0 in divisional games and making the playoff despite a 9-7 finish. They got hot at the right time and beat the Falcons, Panthers, and Eagles to make it to the Super Bowl, where they nearly beat the Steelers to win the NFL championship. This year, I expect the Cards to be good, but the much-improved Seahawks will catch them in the standings, with both teams finishing at 10-6. Just who goes to the playoffs will likely depend on who wins the game between the two teams in Seattle during Week 6. The 49ers and Rams will both be improved over 2008, but I don’t think either team will win more than 5 games.

A Gentleman and a Champion

2009-08-16T12:48:00.001-07:00

In recent years, I have lost some personal heroes. These were people who meant a great deal to me; who inspired me and promoted my sense of self-esteem, just by being who they were. These men shared with me, being Black Americans. In my youth, I was drawn to them because they were themselves, they were in control of their own business, and they were dominant; even unstoppable. I am talking about men such as Wilt Chamberlain, Ray Charles, James Brown, and, most recently, Michael Jackson.

I find it significant that Alexis Arguello, the Hall of Fame three-division boxing champion, who in 1999 was voted the greatest junior lightweight of the 20th century, and who died last month, has been added to my list of lost heroes. He was neither Black nor American, but he was one of the first athletes from another country (Nicaragua) to set up permanent residence in the heart of this sports fan. Arguello’s physical ability and competitive fire were quite impressive, but it was his demeanor and his manner that set him apart from other athletes.

I first noticed Arguello’s name as a 13-year old youth in 1973, after Alexis entered the ranking of the top ten featherweights in the world, according to Ring Magazine, following knockout wins over contenders Kid Pascualito, Octavio Gomez, and former featherweight champion Jose Legra (in one round). On the strength of these victories, Arguello received a title shot at the WBA Featherweight Champion, Ernesto Marcel. Although Arguello lost this bout, he fared better than expected, losing a close but unanimous decision in Marcel’s home country of Panama. In fact, Marcel retired after the bout.

Arguello remained a ranked fighter, and his reputation was quickly enhanced in a bout with Art Hafey, a Canadian fighter from Nova Scotia, who had been on an impressive winning streak while fighting out of the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California. Irish Art had won 18 consecutive bouts in just over a year’s time from late 1972 to early 1974, including knockout wins over the aforementioned Octavio Gomez and of the legendary former world featherweight champion from Mexico, Ruben Olivares, in a bout held in Mexico. Hafey’s brawling, no-holds-barred style made him a favorite of the Mexican-American crowds who attended the semi-monthly cards then held at the Forum.

Olivares, known to his fans as Senor Nacaut (Mr. Knockout), was also a fan favorite at the Forum, having won major fights in that arena since 1968. This made the rematch between Hafey and Olivares, held in Inglewood on March 4 of 1974, a major affair. Hafey lost a split decision that night, but lost none of his status as a very dangerous opponent, who could win a slug-out with anyone.

Hafey traveled to Nicaragua for his bout with Arguello. Unfortunately for Hafey, his come-forward style brought him right into the range of Arguello’s deadly-accurate blows, even increasing their effect. Alexis scored a knockout in the fifth round that definitely raised eyebrows and his world ranking.

Soon after Arguello’s victory over Hafey, Olivares claimed the title that was vacated by Marcel, with a knockout over Zensuke Utagawa in Inglewood. This led to the match up the fans wanted, Olivares vs. Arguello; a bout that simply had to be at the Forum. The fight took place in Inglewood on November 23 of 1974. By all accounts, this was a war of attrition, with both fighters dishing out and receiving a lot of punishment. By round 13, Olivares was slightly ahead on the scorecards. At the end of one exchange in that round, Arguello and Olivares landed left hooks simultaneously. While the punch from Olivares stunned Arguello, Olivares was floored by that from Arguello. In what was then a stunning upset, Alexis Arguello became the featherweight champion of the world.

Over the next two years, Arguello defended his title with knockouts of Leonel Hernandez, Rigoberto Riasco, Royal Kobayashi, and, in a return to the Forum in Inglewood, a third-round knockout of Salvador Torres. However, Arguello was having increasing difficulty making the featherweight limit of 126 pounds. He relinquished his featherweight title and soon began campaigning at 130 pounds, commonly referred to as the junior lightweight or super featherweight division.

Alexis Arguello went undefeated in seven bouts during 1977, including knockouts of top contenders like Alberto Herrera, Cocoa Sanchez, Jose Fernandez, and Jerome Artis. The Fernandez bout was telecast in the United States on CBS Sports Spectacular. I had caught the Arguello-Olivares bout on a broadcast in Spanish out of Mexico, so I knew how Arguello looked and the counter-punching style with which he fought. But this was Arguello’s first real exposure to Americans, who had to admire what they saw. Arguello entered the ring after Fernandez did. He walked over to Fernandez’s corner, smiled and greeted Fernandez’s cornermen, then greeted Fernandez, took his opponent’s face between his gloved hands, and proceeded to thank Fernandez for the opportunity and wished him well. Still smiling, Arguello then returned to his corner. When the bell rang, Arguello was all business and the bout was soon over. Afterwards, Arguello returned to Fernandez, asking the fighter and his cornermen if Fernandez was okay and not simply turning away, but staying for a minute or two and confirming that Fernandez was going to be alright, before leaving the ring.

This display of sportsmanship was nothing short of phenomenal! During Arguello’s rise, another fighter who catapulted to fame was Roberto Duran, whose bouts were often featured on ABC. Duran was as rough a customer as they came. He may well have been the greatest lightweight champion of all time, but Roberto Duran was known to spit on other fighters during pre-fight publicity and call their wives whores, use head butts and thumbs in the ring, and to taunt his victims during and after his title defenses. (After his hard-fought 14th-round TKO victory over American Ray Lampkin in March of 1975, Duran boasted that if he’d only been in shape, they’d have taken Lampkin to the morgue and not the hospital!)

This was in stark contrast to Arguello, who had his sights firmly set on the WBC’s super featherweight champion, Alfredo Escalera. Escalera was a good, but not great, champion, who was known to enter the ring with a snake wrapped around his body. He had won his title with a second-round knockout of Kuniaki Shibata in Japan, and had made 10 successful defenses. His defense against Arguello was held on January 28 of 1978 in Escalera’s native Puerto Rico. Their bout became known as the Bloody Battle of Bayamon. It was televised on CBS.

Once again, Arguello, who entered the ring first, greeted his opponent. Escalera returned Arguello’s words and gestures of encouragement. The two then prepared for warfare. Arguello, who never lost a bout at 130 pounds, was razor-sharp with his punches. During action which surged and ebbed like the tide, with first one fighter dominating and then the other, Arguello opened cuts on Escalera’s mouth, nose, and around his eyes. Still, Escalera was giving just as well as he was taking. Though he was behind on the judges’ scorecards, he had performed well in the 11th and 12th rounds. Early in the 13th round, however, Arguello landed a shot to the head that caused blood to fly in all directions. Referee Arthur Mercante interrupted the action and, on the advice of the ringside physician, stopped the fight. Arguello had won his second world title.

In retrospect, Arguello’s dominance at 130 pounds was astounding. These were his prime years, age 26 to 29, during which he cleaned out the division. Among his eight title victims were Escalera, in their rematch in Italy; another good fight, which ended in round 13. In his following defense, Alexis scored an 11th-round TKO of future champion Rafael "Bazooka" Limon. Next, Arguello defended against Bobby Chacon, who had been a sensation on the West Coast (at the Forum and at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles), for several years. Outboxed in the early rounds by the quicker Chacon, Arguello opened a cut over his opponent’s eye in round 6 and scored a knockdown in round 7. The match was stopped in Chacon’s corner after the 7th round. In his next defense, Arguello was the first to defeat four-time title challenger Ruben Castillo, who came into their bout 46-0. In Castillo’s hometown of Tucson, Arizona, Arguello walked away after a TKO in round 11. His final defense at 130 came against Filipino Rolando Navarrete, a 5th-round TKO that took place in Puerto Rico.

In his first bout as a lightweight (non-title), Arguello battered and stopped Cornelius Boza-Edwards, the former Olympic star from Uganda, in eight one-sided rounds. Like Limon, Chacon, and Navarrete, Edwards went on to win the WBC super featherweight championship that Arguello left behind. (Limon won the vacant title by stopping Idelfonso Bethelmy. Limon lost the title to Boza-Edwards, who lost it to Navarrete, who lost it back to Limon, who lost it to Chacon.) These were all quality fighters, though they all had flaws. They were able to pass the title amongst each other, but none was able to beat a prime Alexis Arguello.

The one misstep that Arguello suffered during these championship years was in a non-title fight on July 26 of 1978. He moved up to lightweight (135 pounds) to face Vilomar Fernandez, a slick boxer from the Dominican Republic, who had previously lost in 13 rounds to Duran in a title shot. Fernandez was quicker than Arguello at the heavier weight. He used constant movement, side-to-side and in-and-out, and struck first with light, non-damaging punches. In a fight that was not particularly pleasing (least of all to the execs at CBS, which again televised an Arguello fight), Fernandez escaped with a majority decision win after 10 rounds.

Alexis certainly did improve as a lightweight. After defeating Boza-Edwards, Arguello, in his next bout, got off the deck to earn a split decision over Jose Luis Ramirez, who would go on to become a champion. Arguello would soon be matched with Scotland’s Jim Watt, who had won the WBC lightweight title vacated by Duran, and had made four successful defenses. Arguello pitched a near-shutout in dominating the bout, which took place on June 20 of 1981 in London, England. It would prove to be Watt’s last fight.

In his first lightweight title defense, Arguello took on a rough customer: the previously unbeaten Ray Mancini, the son of a fighter from Youngstown, Ohio. Mancini had had a few of his fights televised and was already somewhat of a media idol. But he had the determination and the ability it takes to succeed. In his previous fight, Mancini had faced the same Jose Luis Ramirez who had knocked Arguello down and given Arguello all that he could handle. Ramirez was rugged, by any standard. He came into the Mancini fight with a record of 71-3. Though he had been stopped by Olivares some years before, Ramirez had never been off his feet. Fighting before an enthusiastic crowd in Warren, Ohio, Mancini pinned Ramirez to the ropes and unloaded with both hands, round after round. This is the type of fight in which Ramirez usually excelled, but Mancini ignored any blows Ramirez did land and hit Ramirez harder and with greater frequency in each passing round. By the 10th round, the lion had turned into a lamb: Ramirez retreated to the ropes and feebly held up his gloves, meekly accepting his punishment. Though he failed to score a knockdown, Mancini won the NABF lightweight title in a dominant, shutout 12-round decision.

So, this was Arguello’s challenger: Mancini was 20-0 as a professional and was both young and hungry. The bout took place at Bally’s Park Place in Atlantic City, New Jersey on October 3 of 1981. Mancini had youth on his side and was a naturally strong lightweight, where Arguello had moved up in weight. Arguello was just as durable as Mancini, however, and had edges in punching power and in experience. It was another national television appearance for Arguello. Once again, he visited the challenger’s corner after entering the ring second. He greeted Mancini and his cornermen, and kind words and well wishes were exchanged. The sportsmanship and class Arguello always showed, was again on display for the world to see.

The fight was another war. Mancini acquitted himself well, but he trailed on all three scorecards going into the 14th round. In that round, Arguello landed some shots that got Mancini into trouble. Always a fantastic finisher, Arguello flaunted his killer instinct and pounced on Mancini, landing a pulverizing four-punch combination and ending the fight. Afterwards, there was Aguello, again visiting the vanquished fighter’s corner, showing great concern, and giving Mancini words of encouragement, mentioning that he, too, had lost in his first title challenge.

Mancini would go on to win the WBA’s lightweight title the following year. He made four successful title defenses. One of those defenses was against Chacon. After Mancini pinned Chacon to the ropes in round 3 and fired punches until the referee was forced to call a stoppage, Mancini was asked by a member of the press about his relentlessness. Mancini responded that, while he and Arguello respected each other in the ring, Arguello had shown no mercy once Mancini was hurt. Mancini could also show no mercy to Chacon.

Arguello followed up the Mancini fight with KO defenses over Roberto Elizondo (23-1 entering the fight), James "Bubba" Busceme (27-3), Andy Ganigan (34-3), and Kevin Rooney (19-1). These were quality lightweights with impressive resumes. But, Alexis Arguello was, by now, a craftsman at work while he was in the ring. He could withstand a challenger’s best blows and return fire with even harder blows. Arguello would land shots throughout a bout, but was known to put extra emphasis on blows in a bout’s later stages. In this way, Arguello lured fighters in, making them believe they could endure his power shots, when they actually could not.

In 1982, at the age of 30, with a pro record of 79-5 in a career that began in 1968, Alexis Arguello moved up in weight to 140 pounds, to meet his ultimate challenge: Aaron Pryor, the undefeated junior welterweight (super lightweight) champion. Pryor had won the title by ending the second title reign of the legendary Antonio Cervantes, overwhelming the Colombian in four one-sided rounds in Pryor’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio in August of 1980. Pryor was known for his defensive lapses, often getting up off the canvas to win his fights in dominant fashion. He would be making his sixth title defense versus Arguello.

The fight was held on November 12 of 1982 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. Pryor and Arguello staged a legendary, brutal war, with both fighters offering no quarter and seeking none. They traded incredible shots, but Pryor seemed nearly impervious to Arguello’s bombs. Pryor was like an offensive machine in the ring; always able to land power shots from unorthodox angles. His shots were affecting Arguello and wearing the challenger down, slowly. Pryor, on the other hand, was at times stunned throughout the bout, but was never hurt.

After 13 rounds, two of the judges had Pryor ahead in the fight, while the other favored Arguello. I can still rememeber, between rounds, hearing the voice of Pryor’s trainer, Panama Lewis, asking another cornerman to give him "that bottle… the one I mixed." Fighters are allowed to be given only pure water during a fight. Pryor came out for round 14 seemingly rejuvenated after 13 draining rounds. He was able to stun Arguello, then opened fire with both hands. Arguello tried to duck and dodge, but he had too little left. Pryor landed a couple of dozen punches during this barrage, but Arguello refused to fall. The last ten shots all landed flush, leaving referee Richard Steele no choice but to jump between the fighters, ending the bout.

There was Arguello, bent over, out on his feet, but unwilling to fall. It was a scene eerily reminiscent of the one at Chicago Stadium 36 years before it, when Tony Zale, having received more than 30 unanswered blows in round 6 of his second fight for the middleweight title with Rocky Graziano, got knocked out but refused to go down.

Both Zale and Arguello took the kind of sustained punishment that fighters, even champions, never fully recover from. While Zale was able to overcome the odds and take the title back in the rubber match with Graziano, Arguello was a shell of himself in the rematch with Pryor, held on September 9 of 1983 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Pounded from the first round on, with no chance to win, Arguello found himself on the canvas in round 10 and simply sat there, letting himself be counted out. It was the end of an era. (At that point, Arguello’s pro record was 79-7. He went on to make two ill-advised comebacks and finished with an overall record of 82-8.)

Such are my memories of a hero. Known for his punching power as "El Flaco Explosivo," Alexis Arguello was also the embodiment of class in a boxing ring. As savage as he could be inside the ropes, he was even more of a gentleman outside of them. His competitive fire was eclipsed only by his humanity and his humility. He was an inspiration to me and to countless others, the world over. Popular in all countries after his boxing days, Arguello remained a hero to his fellow Nicaraguans and was the mayor of Managua at the time of his death. This is a major loss to Nicaraguans, to boxing fans, and to humanity. Alexis Arguello, a great fighter and a great man, has gone to his rest.

Definitely Not an Oscar Winning Performance

2008-12-12T22:15:00.000-08:00

HBO is going to be showing the recent "Dream Match" boxing event, featuring Oscar DeLaHoya, in support of its coverage of the heavyweight title fight between champion Wladimir Klitschko and former champ Hasim Rahman. I won't be watching it.

You see, the DeLaHoya bout also features Manny Pacquiao, one of the top fighters in the sport, pound-for-pound, for the last decade or so. What the bout features is Pacquiao doing the pounding... and pounding... like a butcher pounds a cut of beef into a cubed steak. I did not watch the fight. I wasn't going to dish out my hard-earned money to see a fight that figured to be a mismatch. It was a mismatch, alright, and I figured the naturally bigger man, DeLaHoya, would be dictating the action and imposing his will. I was not the only one who thought this way. All of the experts were picking DeLaHoya.

But, "Pac Man" had other ideas about who would be taking the punishment. The fight was so one-sided in Pacquiao's favor that Oscar won only one round on one judge's scorecard. The other two judges had Pacquiao pitching a shutout, including a 10-8 round in round 7. For a round featuring no knockdowns to be scored 10-8, someone must have really gotten the crap beaten out of them. That someone was Oscar DeLaHoya.

In retrospect, the signs that DeLaHoya's skills had eroded and career path had declined were there. Coming into the Pacquiao fight, the "Golden Boy" had gone just 3-3 in his previous six bouts, fighting only 3 times in the previoius four years, since losing a challenge for Bernard Hopkins' world middleweight title in September of 2004. During that same time period, Pacquaio had fought 10 times, going 9-1 against strong competition that included three bouts with Erik Morales (one of them a loss that he avenged twice). For DeLaHoya to fight so infrequently in his mid-thirties is, in itself, a danger sign. Moreso, the declining quality of Oscar's results and his performances have been ignored because he remains the biggest money maker in the sport. If a big-name boxer wants to make the most money he can for a fight, he aims for Oscar DeLaHoya.

Honestly, I just don't get it with Oscar. I mean, he's handsome, smart, ambitious, wealthy, and still young, if you measure his 35 years against a lifetime. In boxing years, however, Oscar is at an advanced age. He is no longer fighting three or four times a year and is no longer keeping himself in prime boxing shape year-around. With his Golden Boy Productions being an unqualified success, DeLaHoya is calling the shots for most of the top fighters in the world. By promoting a few top boxing show per year, Oscar can make more money than most other fighters can inside the ring, with no risk to his health. Why did he need to even risk undertaking the grind of getting his body back in boxing shape, including getting down to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds? By all accounts, DeLaHoya has more money than he could ever spend. Did he really need another $22 million in the bank?

If you look back over boxing's history, there is a lesson to be learned that is surely universal to the sport (and to all sports): Know when to walk away. Don't be O.J. Simpson, no longer able to accelerate for the 49ers. Don't be Willie Mays, no longer able to adequately man center field for the Mets. Don't be Joe Louis versus Rocky Marciano. Don't be Roberto Duran versus Thomas Hearns. Don't be Sugar Ray Leonard versus Terry Norris (or, later, versus Hector Camacho). Don't be Muhammad Ali versus Larry Holmes and don't be Holmes versus Mike Tyson and don't be Tyson versus Lennox Lewis. It is a very difficult lesson for boxers to comprehend and assimilate. Marciano got it. Lewis got it. George Foreman, eventually, got it. I thought that Oscar DeLaHoya was smart enough to also get it. Instead, he got into the ring with a skilled, primed, and hungry champion in Pacquaio, who has always been something of an offensive boxing machine. And on that night, DeLaHoya got it, alright. He got taken into the woodshed and he got pounded!

He also got $22 million. But, he lost a lot more reputation-wise, if not health-wise. We can only hope we have seen the last of Oscar DeLaHoya, the prize fighter, in the ring. Because this was definitely not an Oscar winning performance. And, there is no glory in imitating a cubed steak.

For Poinsettia Bowl, Everything Came Up Roses

2008-12-11T23:08:00.000-08:00

Let's play a quick game: Glance over the pairings in college football's upcoming bowl season. There are 34 bowls this year, meaning a record 68 teams get to extend their season for one more contest. Obviously, the best of these matchups are those that feature two teams that finished the regular season ranked in the top 25 of the final BCS poll. This year, 10 of the bowls feature a matchup of two such teams.

So, in our game, let's look at those 10 bowls and combine the rankings of the participating schools. The game with the lower total is the better bowl matchup. Naturally, the BCS Championship, matching #1 (Oklahoma) + #2 (Florida) for a grand total of 3 points, is the top matchup (and will be as long as the current system is in place). Of the other top tier bowls, there are some great pairings: The Sugar Bowl matches #4 (Alabama) + #6 (Utah) for 10 points. The Fiesta Bowl (Texas vs. Ohio State) and Rose Bowl (USC vs. Penn State) pairings both add up to 13 points. Those are the top 4 bowls for this year. As for the fifth-best matchup, that must surely belong to a prestigious bowl like the Orange or the Cotton, right?

How about the Poinsettia Bowl? This bowl, entering its fifth edition, is a little-sister bowl to the Holiday Bowl, which is played at the same venue, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. This is very similar to the Insight and Fiesta bowls in Arizona, though they don't share the same site. Well, for this year at least, little sister has grown up. The Poinsettia will present undefeated and ninth-ranked Boise State against TCU, which lost only to Oklahoma and Utah and finished #11 in the BCS. That's 20 points in our game, easily besting the totals for the big-sister Holiday Bowl (Oklahoma State vs. Oregon; 30 points), as well as the Orange (Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech; 31 points), Cotton (Texas Tech vs. Mississippi; 32 points), Capital One (Georgia vs. Michigan State; 33 points), and Alamo (Missouri vs. Northwestern; 44 points) bowls.

How did it happen? How did the Poinsettia Bowl upstage the older-sister Holiday Bowl, as well as outflank the 28 other bowls to wind up with this great matchup; a real beaut of a game? I mean, the Poinsettia usually matches the #7 selection from the PAC 10 with the # 3 choice from the WAC. If you got Stanford vs. Fresno State for a matchup, you wouldn't be surprised. But, #9 vs. #11, including one of only three unbeaten teams in the nation? You're kidding, right?

The problem this year is that only five PAC 10 teams qualified for a bowl, leaving the Poinsettia with an open spot. There had been some scuttlebutt before last weekend's championship games, that the Humanitarian Bowl would invite undefeated Ball State, the presumed MAC champion, to play Boise State on the Broncos' home field. Ball State shot down the notion, reasoning that the Cardinals deserved better than for their bowl game to be on the road against a powerful, unbeaten squad. However, that reasoning surely sent the wrong message to the team, which went out and was upset by Buffalo in the MAC title game. The dream matchup was lost. [Ball State (12-1) will play in the GMAC Bowl against Tulsa (10-3), which was upset on its home field by East Carolina in the C-USA title game.]

So, Boise State was left looking for the best matchup it could get. With the Mountain West Conference being so strong at the top this year (in addition to 12-0 Utah, BYU finished 10-2 and is Las Vegas Bowl-bound), TCU "fell" all the way to the San Diego. When Poinsettia Bowl officials approached Boise State about taking on the Horned Frogs, the Broncos jumped at the chance. And an incredible matchup was born.

Seeding a National Football Playoffs

2008-12-10T21:57:00.000-08:00

In my previous blog, I proposed setting up a playoffs to decide the national college football champion, using the champions of the 11 individual conferences, plus the top five at-large teams. Since then, the conference championship games have been played. We now know the identities of the 11 conference champions:

Florida outlasted Alabama to win the SEC. The Gators are 12-1.

Oklahoma had the highest BCS ranking of the three teams tied for first place in the Big 12's North Division. The Sooners throttled Missouri in the Big 12 title game and also finished 12-1.

Oregon State, which had the inside track to the Rose Bowl after beating USC earlier in the season, got a good whipping from Oregon in the Civil War. USC followed up by dusting off UCLA and the Trojans won the PAC 10 with an overall record of 11-1.

Virginia Tech capped a great comeback from four regular season losses, battering Boston College for their ninth victory and winning the ACC.

Penn State finished 11-1 and won the Big 10.

Cincinnati won the Big East. They came from behind to beat Hawaii and finished the regular season 11-2.

Utah polished off BYU to finish undefeated at 12-0 and win the Mountain West.

Boise State also had an unbeaten campaign at 12-0. The Broncos again won the WAC.

East Carolina upset Tulsa in Tulsa to claim the Conference USA crown.

Buffalo shocked previously undefeated Ball State and won the MAC title.

Troy came out on top in the Sun Belt Conference.

Going back to my previous blog and substituting, the five at-large entries would be Texas (11-1), Texas Tech (11-1), Alabama (12-1), Ohio State (10-2), and TCU (10-2). Seed these 16 teams according to their BCS standing (or Sagarin rating) and you get the following matchups for a national playoff (probable winners are assumed after the first round):

(First Round)

Oklahoma vs. Troy

Florida vs. Buffalo

Texas vs. East Carolina

Alabama vs. Virginia Tech

USC vs. Cincinnati

Utah vs. TCU

Texas Tech vs. Ohio State

Penn State vs. Boise State

(National Quarterfinals)

Oklahoma vs. Penn State

Florida vs. Ohio State

Texas vs. Utah

Alabama vs. USC

(National Semi-Finals)

Oklahoma vs. USC

Florida vs. Texas

(National Championship)

Florida vs. USC

Now, who couldn't get fired up over that?

A Fair and Simple Playoff Solution

2008-11-30T22:21:00.000-08:00

It's ironic.

I thought, when the whole BCS mess started all of those years ago, that the idea was to take the decision of who should be named the national champion in college football out of the hands of those who vote in the polls. They said they were making a formula that would determine, mathematically, the top two teams in the nation, and let those two teams play each other to decide the national title on the field. Do you remember? They had the polls (AP and USA Today) as one component, the average computer ranking as another. They had strength of schedule. They had margin of victory. They had the number of losses on the field.

It might have been fine if they had just been able to stick with one formula. But, as always, greed got in the way-- greed and gnashing of teeth from TV network honchos who paid big money for televising rights, but were being forced to present national championship matchups that the average viewer did not perceive as being between the two best teams.

So, they tweaked. Penalizing teams for actual losses made it too easy for undefeated non-BCS schools to crash the party, so out that component went. Margin of victory? That never should have been in there in the first place, so it was easy to throw that component out. Strength of schedule? See ya! (Well, it's sorf of still there...)

And we're right back to a system where the main factor in determining the participants in the Bowl Championship Series is the polls. A couple of years ago, the prestigious Associated Press poll disassociated itself from the BCS, so we now have the USA Today poll and the Harris Interactive Poll, whatever that is. I mean, who really uses that; who refers to it, even in passing? Yet, this poll is one-third of the system that determines the BCS championship game matchup.

Only this year, they got it all wrong. And, no one in the BCS is showing any shame. But, they never have been the types to admit that they are wrong about something, now have they? Texas defeated Oklahoma on the field. If you eliminate Texas Tech from consideration because of their lopsided defeat at the hands of Oklahoma-- I'm not saying you should, but if you do-- and if you narrow the choice down to just the Sooner and just the Longhorns, then you must do the right thing and reward the team that won the head-to-head matchup. I'd hate to be Mack Brown, right now. How do you tell your kids that the team they beat earlier in the season has a chance to play for the national title, and they (the Longhorns) do not?

The only thing that can spare us from enduring this tragedy would be if Missouri can, somehow, upset Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game. That would open the door for Texas (or USC) to meet the SEC champion in the BCS title game. Still, that would not be enough. Travesties like this one are happening almost every college football season. It's time to institute a national playoff, put all of the posturing, gesturing, politicking, lobbying, and spin doctoring aside and let the best teams in the nation square off and settle things on the field.

The current system is unfair. It is unfair because the student-athletes from all of the schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision do not have equal access to the Bowl Championship Series. If the presidents of the non-BCS schools had any gumption, at all, they would have sued the BCS and its member schools, instead of accepting the crumbs the BCS wound up offering. It's a case that would have easily been won, if Title IX is any indication, which really makes you wonder just how much money the BCS pushed under the table to squelch talk about a lawsuit, just when the outcry for fairness started to get loud...

It wouldn't be hard to devise a fair playoff system. I am actually, like Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, a proponent of a 64-team national playoff. (But, that is an argument for another day.) I would still be quite happy, however, with 16 teams going to football's Big Dance. My formula? Take the champions of the 11 Division 1-A conferences and invite the five best at-large teams. Notre Dame and the other independents could automatically qualify if it finished the regular season ranked in the Top 12.

This year, that would mean Virginia Tech or Boston College (ACC), Cincinnati (Big East), Alabama or Florida (SEC), Penn St. (Big 10), Texas (Big 12), and (likely) USC (PAC 10) would advance from the six "major" conferences. Joining them in the playoff would be champions Utah (MWC), Boise St. (WAC), Tulsa or East Carolina (C-USA), Ball St. or Buffalo (MAC), and Troy (SBC). The five at-large teams could be Oklahoma, the Alabama-Florida loser, Texas Tech, Ohio St., and TCU.