Cam Newton Beats Reggie Bush

Why should college athletes play it straight? It seems in the world of college sports if you are crooked you can get a big pay check, doesn't seem to matter that they cheated to win.

I know I rant about this sort of thing alot and have gone off on Cam Newton a few times. I recognize his football talent but have no respect for the player or the man.

Is it just me or did some of you think Newton was laughing all the way through last season on his way to the Heisman and the National Title Game? I was left with the impression he was taunting the public laughing at all of his as he saw rules changed or ignored to protect his eligibility status. What little I read of his Heisman speech made me sick. To me he comes across as arrogant and with the opinion I am Cam the rules don't apply to me.

Personally I think Stanford's Andrew Luck should have won that award, not Scam Newton.

You look at Reggie Bush, he did similar to Newton and got a nice endorsement deal with Addidas and was paid a million a year to be the face of their products. Bush became and instant millionaire for cheating, he did suffer giving back his unearned Heisman. To me, so what, that doesn't give the guy that should have won the thrill of having his family and friends see him have his day in the sun.

What Bush did was become instantly rich and left others to pay the bill and the USC Trojans of today are the ones picking up the tab. Pete Carroll is safe in the pros with the Seattle Sea Hawks while the men from Troy lose scholarships and can't play in an bowl games.

So far Newtons's career seems to be following that of Reggie Bush, he has signed a deal with Under Armour that is said to surpass the amount received by Reggie Bush.

I guess all that's left is to see if Auburn will get punished as hard as USC and if Heisman people will more quickly ask for the trophy back than they did with Bush. Right now Newton, well he is laughing all the way to the bank while when its all said and done will leave others to pick up the tab for his act.

Bill Murray Did What Jack Lemmon Couldn't

We all know that Bill Murray and Jack Lemon have left large footprints in the entertainment industry. Both actors have enjoyed huge commercial success in comedy movies and playing serious roles.

Both men were serious golfers with a deep love for the game. Each of them loved playing the tournament at Pebble Beach. Some might recall it when the tournament was called the Crosby after Bing Crosby. Seems when the contract expired Mrs Crosby thought Bing's name would pay her more than the tournament was willing. But that's another story.

Over the years Lemmon had what many would consider great success at Pebble Beach and finished high in the Pro Am rankings as the amateur. However he was always close but no cigar. Lemmon made it a life time goal to be on the winning team just once in his life. he did not make it.

Bill Murray has succeeded where Lemmon didn't. Murray and pro golfer D. A. Points won the AT&T Pro Am at Pebble Beach this last weekend. It was Murray's and Points a tour veteran, first PGA win. I think this has to be one of the top Cinderella sports stories of 2011.

I dont know about you but I do love the Cinderella stories. Congrats to Bill Murray and D.A. Points.

Tiger Woods: In the Woodshed Again

Once again Tiger Woods has gotten himself taken to the woodshed. Not for his poor golf or for playing with the "babes". This time Tiger is in trouble for his on course etiquette.

No he was not caught cussing off camera or throwing one of his now infamous hissy fits over a poor shot. According to TV reporter Ewen Murray what Tiger did was "Disgusting". Murray went on to say, "there are some parts of him that are just arrogant and petulant". What Tiger did that so upset Murray was spit on the green. Yes indeedy Tiger has found new ways to upset some of the folks. Granted this is just poor judgment, he spit on the green. Yes this heinous crime was spitting.

Seems Tiger just cant do anything right these days. His game is in the gutter, his public image is shot and now he spits in a golf course. I would think Mr Murray has better things to focus on but apparently not. Any how Tiger has apologized and is paying a fine to the PGA.

Regardless of his personal life Tiger has been for golf in his generation what Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were for theirs.

Whats Wrong With The Univeristy of Indiana?

Talk about rejection, the University of Indiana is sure getting their fair share and more. They hired a new football coach and like any coach he started scouring the country for coaches he thought would be a good fit for his program and help turn Indiana football around.

He raided the Boise State Broncos coaching staff and came away with the receivers coach, Brent Pease. However 2 weeks after Pease accepted the OC job at Indiana the Texas Longhorns came to the Broncos courting OC Bryan Harsin and managed to take him back to Texas with them.

Pease had been up front with Indiana and told them his real desire was to be the OC at Boise State and saw it as a launching pad into becoming a head coach. When he accepted the Indiana position he had no prior knowledge that Harsin would be offered and accept the Texas Longhorn position. Once Harsin moved on the job was offered to Pease, Indiana showed tremendous class and let Pease out of the contract with no penalties.

Since then things have gone from bad to worse for Indiana. Since Brent Pease was hired and left three other new hires have followed suite. Jerry Montgomery of Michigan and Corey Raymond of Nebraska were recent hires that moved on shortly after accepting their positions with Indiana. The most recent defection was running backs coach Jemal Singleton. Hired just last week he has already accepted new position with the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

I don't know what is wrong with Indiana but somethings amiss. I don't know how they can truly field a team if they cant even fill their coaching jobs. Indiana Coach Kevin Wilson seems to be the most snake bitten coach in all of college football.

Whois Johnny McEntee? Why Should I Care?

Yep time for another of those who is this person and why should I care. So first lets find out who is Johnny McEntee. He is the third string back yo quarterback for the UConn Huskies. Now I'm sure that has you all giddy with excitement.

Currently McEntee's claim to fame as a UConn quarterback goes back to the 2009 season when he got into the game for a few plays in a blow out against Rhode Island. Since then he has seen little action and certainly wont grab the attention of any Heisman voters. I doubt any of them have heard of this kid.

So why does this kid stand out and garner attention. He would be the Paul Newman or Tom Cruise from The Hustler movie of quarterbacks. Were he in the Dr. Pepper half time show, he walks away with all the gold. If there was a football answer to basket ball's Harlem Globetrotters, bar none UConn's Johnny McEntee is the football rebuttal.

Rather that go on and on about his throwing skills I will have the video below do all the talking.


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Charles Woodson: Is He Leaving The Packers?

The Super Bowl is barely in the books and sports analysts are already speculating as to the future of Charles Woodson as a Green Bay Packer. Guess that is the ugly side of the business of pro football.

Woodson has had a remarkably injury free career as a cornerback and his broken collar bone will not cause him to lose a step but age will. Woodson who is currently 34 would turn 35 during the 2011 season. In cornerback years he is close to social security age.

What will Woodson decide what will the Packers decide? He still has good legs and his speed yet the front office does have to look to the future.

I hope that both parties can come to some form of an agreement that would keep Woodson at Green Bay. He has certainly established himself as a team leader. In my opinion the Pack would be smart to keep him as long as they can. Not only as a team leader but as a mentor. Who better than Woodson to train his eventual successor. Your comments are invited.

Boise State Broncos Lose a Budding Football Star

Today Boise State announced the forced retirement of a future running back sensation, Matt Kaiserman. Matt first came to the attention of Boise State fans during the 2009 season in a game against Hawaii. It is the game I will most remember him for and his performance that sticks out over all others in that game.

Kaiserman got in to replace an injured Bronco. He was a red shirt freshman if my memory is correct. He looked pretty good, he was gaining some yards up the middle, making some guys miss and other guys pay for tackling him. He was playing hard nosed in your face football.

There was one drive that stole the show. The Broncos started around their 20 yard line and gave the ball to Kiaserman, he plowed ahead for some good yardage. They just kept giving him the ball and he kept getting first downs. Finally it became apparent, every snap was going to Kiaserman, this was his drive. All the fans knew it Hawaii knew it and the challenge was clear, Kaiserman is coming through the center of the line until you can stop him. The drive ran 10 or 11 plays ending with the K Man getting his first touchdown as a Bronco. It was apparent, this kid has a great future at Boise State.

Later in the season he was injured so we did not get to see him as much as we had hoped. Last season he was sustaining more injuries and saw little action. Today he paid the price, forced retirement. Kaiserman was such a head down go through you type of guy he suffered head concussions. The most recent ended his career, he still suffering from lingering side effects from this concussion.

I hate to lose this kid, he was a special type of running back, yet better the team lose him or he lose his life. How far we have come in the world of football. Ten years ago maybe even less, he would have been expected to report to spring ball. Today teams players and team doctors are more aware of the risks and taking better care of the players, as it should be.

Concussions are no joke and should not be treated that way. Athletes love to compete and are driven to play with injury but not with concussions. Helmet makers are getting into the action. Schutte and other football helmet manufacturers are working hard to develop better and safer helmets. Rules are being made to make the game safer and coaches and doctors are more educated. I hate to see a kid like Kaiserman end his career do to concussions but better his career than his life. Good luck to you Matt in what ever you do. I am one fan that will always remember your special drive against Hawaii and for your sake that has to be enough.

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DeSean Jackson is "The Man"

In season fraught with more scandals from players in all the sports, Brett Favre of the NFL. The spoiled brat antics of Randy Moss its nice to see some one from the pro ranks step be the man and knock one out of the park.

This week in a show called The View, they teamed up with Philadelphia Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson and hit the big grand slam.

Earlier this week they had a segment about school yard bullies. The featured guest was a 13 year old boy, Nadin Khoury. Khoury came to the national spot light when videos of the boy being bullied by 7 or so older boys became public. It appears the bullies had plenty of ego and no brains, Of course if they had brains they would not be bullies, these airheads in an effort to promote themselves as legends, posted their cowardly acts on YouTube.

Young Mr. Khoury agreed to appear with Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters and the rest of the ladies in The View to promote more awareness to the problem of school yard bullies.

The show did its homework and found out Nadin is a Philadelphia Eagles fan and that his favorite player is DeSean Jackson. The show obviously contacted Mr. Jackson and told him about his big fan and the courage this kid had to come on national television and stand up to the kids and bullies in general. I do believe the Nadin Khoury earned the respect of many and gleaned a few fans of his own, including DeSean Jackson and two of his teammates.

Jackson sat next to Nadin and literally took the jersey off of his back and gave it to the kid then signed if for him. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house and certainly not in my house. DeSean Jackson is the man and proves once again the old adage, never does a man stand so tall as when he bends down to help another.

Is The Running Game The Packers Achilles Heel?

Sorry Green Bay fans for the most part the picture depicts the Packer running attack. Long gone are the days of the Green Bay Packers simply running over people.


Gone are the days of power backs like Hall of Famers Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor (the first running back in NFL history to gain over 1,000 for five consecutive seasons)would run through and over defenders challenging the defense to stop them.

Missing are the offensive linemen like Jerry Kramer leading the way for great running backs like Elijah Pitts. Pitts scored two touchdowns in the first Super Bowl.

What Green Bay does have is late season God send running back James straks and fireplug of a fullback in John Kuhn. However this does not give the Pack a running game that scares anybody, especially the Pittsburgh Steelers.

What the Packers face in the Steelers is the NFL's best run defense, one that has crushed better running attacks than the Packers will be able to throw at the steel Curtain. Green Bay doesn't need to establish a running game that the Steelers fear just on that forces the respect from Pittsburgh.

What the Pack must do to take full advantage of the talent Rodgers and the receivers bring to the game is establish a running attack that will force the Steeler defense to play honest. If the can get some first downs and develop short and second or third downs via the run, the Steelers will have to respect the run and keep from becoming a one dimensional offense. Anything short of that and Green Bay is in for a long day.

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Do the Pittsburgh Steelers Have An Achilles Heel?

As we get closer to game day, we seem to be overloaded with Super Bowl History and trivia. Like who are the most disliked players in the NFL. For those of you that don't know it appears Big Ben has displaced Michael Vick as the most disliked player and hanging in there is Patriots Tom Brady.

However I did read one article that I thought was interesting and relevant to the up coming super bowl. It asks the question, do the Steelers have a weakness an Achilles heel? According to Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports, yes they do.

Cole suggests the weakness is none other than vaunted Steel Curtain itself. His research reveals the way to get over on the Steelers is through the air. Others in the league have told him pass on Pittsburgh, attack them with a relentless aerial assault. Don't get me wrong, if it were that easy every team would have done it and someone other that Pittsburgh would be representing the AFC. In order to make the blitz-happy scheme, run by Hall of Famer Dick LeBeau, look downright average you need more than just to airing it out, you need the right personnel groups to make it happen.

Speed is the key. One NFC coordinator suggests the Green Bay's quarterback and receivers have to react faster than the Steel Curtain or the Pack will get killed. Making the case for that argument, is over the last five years and eight games, quarterbacks who have taken their teams to the Super Bowl have fared well against Pittsburgh. In fact quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Kurt Warner and yes Aaron Rodgers have done well, they averaged a 105.7 passing average accumulating 28.5 points per game with 20 touchdowns passes versus two picks and the Steelers did lose five out of eight of those games.

One AFC coach volunteered the Steelers prefer to hit people and are not a patient lot and are very uncomfortable sitting back in coverage. In fact is the Packers can find ways to avoid corner back Ike Taylor and safety Troy Polamula then they will be facing a less than average secondary.

What all this suggests is to run four and five receiver sets at Pittsburgh. These receivers cannot give up on a play and have to run crisp sharp routes. How the receivers line up will also be key to the Pack success. One coach opined they are best lining up three receivers to one side and just before the snap of the ball sending one in motion to limit the defensive scheme that Pittsburgh can use.

With Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, James Nelson and Jordy Nelson in the line up, Green Bay has the receiving corp to make the strategy work. In the plays offs this stable of receivers combined for 47 catches 620 yards and three touchdowns. Each of these receivers understands the success of the passing game depends on each of them doing their job, helping each other out, getting all them open so Rodgers can get rid of the ball quickly.

Does Pittsburgh have an Achilles heel certainly but knowing and exploiting it is two different things. Can Green Bay puncture the Steel Curtain? We'll see come Super Sunday.

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Feds seize sports websites before Super Bowl

By JENNIFER MARTINEZ | 2/2/11
The federal government has seized the Web addresses of 10 websites that allegedly live stream sporting and pay-per-view events online, shutting them down just days before one of the biggest televised sporting events of the year: the Super Bowl.

The U. S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, working in conjunction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seized the Web addresses Tuesday. The seizure affidavit was unsealed Wednesday.

The websites, which include channelsurfing.net and Spain-based rojadirecta.org, were said to illegally provide access to content from the major professional sports organizations, namely the National Football League, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. The sites do not host the pirated sporting content themselves, but instead provide links to other websites where people can access it illegally.

Government officials argue that the sites are not only distributing pirated content illegally, but in the process, are also denting the revenues of the professional sports leagues and broadcasters as well as negatively impacting viewers.

“The illegal streaming of professional sporting events over the Internet deals a financial body blow to the leagues and broadcasters, who are forced to pass their losses off to fans by raising prices for tickets and pay-per-view events,” said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney in Manhattan. “With the Super Bowl just days away, the seizures of these infringing websites reaffirm our commitment to working with our law enforcement partners to protect copyrighted material and put the people who steal it out of business.”

Fans have increasingly abandoned watching sports games on their television sets, opting instead to watch them on their computers via the Web instead. The shift has jolted professional sports organizations, which are grappling with how to control the growing problem of the illegal streaming of sports games online in real time. The organizations copyright the content of their sports games — from the audio, video, text and images — and restrict others from distributing it without prior written approval.

But the government’s action didn’t provide a permanent solution to the problem. One of the sites that was shut down on Wednesday, ATDHE.net, has already reappeared at a new Web address, ATDHE.me.

The federal government launched a similar campaign last November that shut down 82 websites offering counterfeit goods and digital music and movie content. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and ICE Director John Morton had warned that the two agencies were committed to going after more websites that offer copyrighted content illegally.

Morton repeated that message during Wednesday’s operation.

“This swift action by our Homeland Security Investigations New York special agents and analysts sends a clear message to website operators who mistakenly believe it’s worth the risk to take copyrighted programming and portray it as their own,” Morton said. “We will continue to aggressively investigate this type of crime with our law enforcement partners.”

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Boise States Legendary Coach Tony Knap

It is kind of ironic that yesterdays post was about the Boise State Broncos, UNLV Runnin Rebels, Jim Criner, Tony Knap and the new stadium proposed for the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

In today's Idaho Statesman they had a feature story about Coach Knap. In that story I was once again shown how flawed my memory has become. I stand corrected when I said the 1976 meeting between Boise State and the UNLV Runnin Rebels was the last time they played. They did play in Bronco Stadium in 1977 and Boise won handily 45-7. It was the last time Tony Knapp ever prowled the sidelines at Bronco Stadium.

Coach Knap is 96 now and the Statesman reports he moved to a retirement home,Bishop's Place in Pullman, Washington. Sadly the report included Knap suffers from Alzheimer's disease. His wife Mickey, age 90 is with the venerable old coach. In fact the good Lord willing, The Knap's, their children, grand children and great grand children will help Tony and Mickey on April 5th of this year, celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. Wow isn't that something, 70 years of marriage. That is more years married than most of worlds current population has been alive.

Tony Knap took the reigns of Bronco football in 1968, the first year Boise State became a 4 year school and played 4 year football, it was called Boise College back then.

When Knapp took over the Broncos many fans were worried if he could continue the winning ways of Lyle Smith. Knap did and exceeded all expectations. During his time the Broncos never had a losing season and Knapp took them to their first 10 game winning season. He finished his career at Boise State 71-19-1.

When Knap moved onto UNLV he took his winning ways with him. He coached the Runnin Rebels from 1976 through 1981 retiring at age 66. In UNLV's 40 some years as a football team, Tony Knapp still leads the pack of coaches that preceded him and have followed him with 47 wins.

Knap was known as the Silver Fox because of his silver mane of hair and his offensive genius. While at UNLV he established the four best offensive seasons in school history. The Rebels averaged a record 491.3 yards per game in 1981, 472.1 in 1979, 453.7 in 1977 and 446.2 in 1980. UNLV has averaged 400 yards only four times in the 29 years since Knap retired.

One of Knap's greatest honors came after his stellar coaching career was over. A former player of Knaps from Utah State, Merlin Olsen asked his old coach to induct him into Cooperstown and the Football Hall of fame.


Tony Knap helped make Boise State and UNLV football power houses during his time at each school. Sadly many of today's fans have never heard of the old coach and have no idea what they are missing. It was nothing for a Knap team to throw the ball 40 times per game.

In closing Boise State owes much of its success to Tony Knap and he believed in the Broncos and said something once that left an audience speechless and kind of prophetic when considering most of this last season Boise State was in the chase for the national title game.

One day in Boise, Coach Knap got up before stunned Bronco boosters and media and proclaimed that “ Boise State will one day be a major football power, not just at Division II but in all of college football.”

How did he know that?

That…..is the story of a legend.

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