Red Card Range Rover

Happy Thanksgiving Sausages,

I hope you're all having nice buildup to Turkey Day. Our blog tends to take a look at the lighter side of sports and this story continues that trend. We have all seen athletes have altercations with coaches (looking at you Latrell) and less often with officials/umpires. But I stumbled upon a story across the pond where an amateur footballer was so incensed by the mere threat of a red card that he stormed off the pitch, hopped into his Ranger Rover (a big boy) and tried to run down the ref in his ride. This is so bizarre I had to do a double-take to make sure it was true. Imagine if an MLB player with a volatile temper got called out on strikes due to a questionable strike zone. Would he hop in his H3 and try to kill the umpire? or even pull a Robert DeNiro in The Fan?

Have a look at the complete story here: Footballer goes Mental

24 weeks in prison is a good deal of time in the Iron Bar Hotel but that referee's peace of mind is gone like LeBron from Cleveland (too soon?). Anywho, thats about it for today. I hope you all have a very Sausage Thanksgiving.

Cheers,

- KA

The Worst 100!

First, I'd like to say that we at TSR dropped the ball by not thinking of this first. Deadspin has released a list of the worst 100 players in NFL history. Numerous D'Skae Lobases are featured including Boston College great/Cleveland Browns bust William Green. In his defense, William might have done better if he didn't get stabbed by his wife and have to miss a full season. Part 1: http://deadspin.com/5690535/

Part 2: http://deadspin.com/5690560/

Coming to a Stadium near you

This weekend, Illinois and Northwestern will be hitting the gridiron in the annual Battle for Illinois but this clash won’t be taking place in Champaign or Evanston. The friendly confines of Wrigley Field will be playing host to the game. Let’s hope a receiver on a go route doesn’t run into the ivy/brick wall. Hell, that would be the first play made on the warning track at Wrigley since Soriano starting “playing” left. We’ve been seeing a lot of this recently; venues typically suited for one sport have been dramatically altered to host a one-time sporting event not originally meant for the venue. I think that it’s great for stadiums to be converted into a venue for another sport. It gives us as fans a unique opportunity (heck, even once in a lifetime) to see a sport in a completely different element. Some might say that it is a marketing promotion or media relations ploy but I believe it’s all for the good of the sport. Sports are entertainment and keeping the fans wanting more is their objective. Fans have certainly responded by selling out every venue these events have taken place in and quite frankly they have kept demanding more. I took the liberty of summarizing some notable games that have taken or will take place at somewhat unorthodox venues.

Baseball:
Red Sox vs. Dodgers (LA Memorial Coliseum) – with that short porch, even Jason Tyner could get the ball out of the yard…after the picked it up and hit it again.

Football:
Bush-League Bowl Games at Chase Field, AT&T Park, etc. (I mean who cares about the Tang-Rayovec-Parker Bros Bowl for the Good presented by Sears and Bounty)

Hockey:
Heritage Classics – Oilers/Canadiens. Please bring back the retro Gretzky-era uniforms!

Winter Classics – novelty in comparison to the Heritage Classic. Canada does it better.

Frozen Four at Ford Field – numerous “complaints” regarding ice quality. Sounds like a bias against the Motor City.

Cold War I – Michigan vs. Michigan State

The Big Chill at the Big House – Michigan State vs. Michigan. 100,000 + tickets already sold for 12/11/2010 matchup.

Basketball:
Suns at Tennis Court – I only hoped when the scores were at 0, 15, 40 that they announced them like tennis scores. Even better would be when someone was shooting a free throw. “Nash, first serve. Nash, second serve.”

Final Fours at Ford Field/Indy – have to do it big for the Final Four.

Michigan State vs. North Carolina on an aircraft carrier – this is supposed to be confirmed soon for Veteran’s Day next year. What a gesture for our troops serving at home or abroad. I love how they always show the troops watching a big game overseas so it will be awesome to bring the game to them. Should be a heck of a game too.

Soccer:
Fenway Park – GGGGOOOOLLLLAAAAZZZZOOOO

The next step would be playing a baseball game inside of an arena. That would be complete chaos. And we thought playing in Tropicana Field was a nightmare.

- KA

*Update: Only the West Endzone will be used for the Illinois/Northwestern game.

La Flama Blanca

I know that many readers of TSR are fans of the HBO show Eastbound and Down. While trolling the internet the other day, I stumbled upon the wikipedia article of the show's main character Kenny Powers. The article has fictional statistics! How great is that! Also somehow his stats from 2006 are "unknown," like someone could play in the bigs and not have their stats recorded. Any speculation on how this could happen?

Why Sports are Great

Good Afternoon Sausages,

I only worked a half day today so I have some time to catch up on the happenings with TSR. Here is a video of the final play of a high school football game which saw Encino Crepsi (Cal) take on Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (Cal). The plot thickened because this game was a do-or-die situation for both teams striving for the playoffs. With the score tied and barely seconds remaining on the clock, Crepsi took the snap and with a herculean effort from the QB to stay on his feet, he threw the ball to the diminutive playmaker near the sidelines who scooted across the field only to pitch it into the open arms of a waiting teammate to rumble the rest of the way in the endzone.



We've been seeing this recently with amateur sports. There was a middle school who ran a trick play right up the gap to score a touchdown against a dumbfounded defense and countless others come to mind with varying degrees of trickery and ingenuity. But his one is all heart. I love seeing how much those kids wanted to win and how much it would mean for them to make it to the playoffs. I also love seeing the smallest kid in the stadium playing an integral role in the deciding touchdown. You can tell Crepsi wanted it more. Look at #72 on Notre Dame just flat give up on the play. Come on, man!

With all of the distractions that professional and college athletes are having on and off the field, its nice to have a change of pace where a couple high schools are playing for the love of the game and a simple win can mean so much to them.

Well done, kids.

- KA

Whoa! Writer's stepping out on a limb!

This is the first, and probably last post about women's basketball on the blog. I was on ESPN.com clicking on a few of the women's college basketball prediction articles (mainly because Xavier is supposed to be a top 10 team this year. I wanted to see if XU was getting some publicity). I stumbled upon this article showing all of the 'experts' picks for the big 6 conferences in the upcoming season. Talk about parody! One writer dared to dream and put Iowa to win the Big Ten. The other 23 picks are the exact same! And people wonder why no one respects women's b-ball (well besides the lack of dunking, general athleticism and slow pace of play). Every year 5 maybe 6 teams have a shot at winning the ship with the #1 seeds pretty much always cruising to the final four. It's just not that interesting when at the beginning of the season all the fans know either Uconn, Tennessee, Baylor, Duke or Stanford will win it all.

Not Dave Meggett!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5789655

This is absurd! Dave Meggett sentenced 30 yrs for a sex crime? The only crimes I can envision Mr. Meggett committing are against opposing special teams units stupid enough to kick to him. On the bright side, Dave Meggett was always a favorite for the D'Skae D-Lobas and this will probably just make him a more popular option for said Lobas.

On a serious note: TSR wishes a happy 235th Birthday to the United States Marine Corps and a happy Veterans Day tomorrow for all our vets. God Bless.

Andy Reid at 13

Sausages,

I stumbled across this video during the Colts/Eagles game this past Sunday. It appears if coaching wiz and moustache aficionado Andy Reid or Ried as the video labels him is the world's largest 13 year old to ever participate in a Punt, Pass and Kick competition. There are so many things funny about this video, I don't know where to begin. Well, that's what this list is for.



1. The sheer mass of Reid. Come on, the kid behind him, hell all of the kids barely reach Andy's butt.

2. The moustache: Did someone take the Brawny man and shove him into kid's pads in order to compete?

3. Did Andy know that he was going to be throwing a football and not working on pass protection/pancake drills?

4. His legs probably weigh more than some of the kids...combined.

5. #22 is probably thinking how come his Dad didn't get asked to participate.

6. Is that Jared Lorenzen's dad?

7. How did one of the LA Rams get in this contest?

This is the first known siting of a man-child. Today, we salute you Andy Ried (Reid)...aka the Hefty Righty.

Stay Classy,

- KA

Dan Hawkins Canned at Colorado

This post is to commemorate Dan Hawkins coaching career at Colorado. He was fired on Tuesday and although he only went 19-39 over five seasons and decided to start his own kid for most of that run. He did provide us with a memorable off season 'post game' rant featured in the video above.

Hawkins won't need to worry about days off anymore, he gets every day off now.

Oregon Does It Again

Apparently Oregon unveiled their new basketball court recently. Now in addition to the best football uniforms, they easily have the best court. I really can't express how much ass this kicks. Aaron Brooks would be proud. (Rockets Aaron Brooks, a former Duck. Not to be confused with the former Saints QB Aaron Brooks, who blew.) Shout out to Oregon native and TSR favorite Thetans.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Oregon-s-new-arena-features-a-memorable-basketba?urn=ncaab-283060

EPL Preview

Sausages,

Sorry I didn't do this yesterday but here is a quick preview of the EPL games this weekend.

Last Week: 4-6
Season: 18-22

Saturday:

Bolton v. Tottenham
Pick: Tottenham

Birmingham v. West Ham
Pick: Birmingham

Blackburn v. Wigan
Pick: Draw

Blackpool v. Everton
Pick: Everton

Fulham v. Aston Villa
Pick: Fulham

Man Utd v. Wolves
Pick: Man Utd

Sunderland v. Stoke City
Pick: Draw

Sunday:

Arsenal v. Newcastle
Pick: Arsenal

WBA v. Man City
Pick: Draw

Liverpool v. Chelsea (Match of the Week)
Pick: Chelsea

TSR'S College Picks

Sorry sausages, I had a busy week. Here's a quick post of my picks for today. Would've gone perfect last week if the Vols hadn't lost to the gas pumpers.

Last week: 9-1. Season: 36-14 (Home team in CAPS)

MICHIGAN over Illinois

CLEMSON over #25 NC State

#21 Baylor over OKLAHOMA STATE

#24 FLORIDA STATE over North Carolina

PENN STATE over Northwestern

#6 Alabama over #10 LSU

#18 Arkansas over #19 SOUTH CAROLINA

#13 STANFORD over #15 Arizona

#12 MIZZOU over Texas Tech

Game of the week:

#3 Tcu over #5 UTAH

Greatest Commercial EVER

I simply can't describe how this commercial dramatically altered the course of my day, hell, even my life. Sausages, just take a look and begin laughing hysterically.



- KA

Smartest Athletes

Sports fans love to compare themselves to pro athletes. Are these comparisons legitimate? No, of course not. But we do it anyways and we justify this practice with some pretty strange theories. When we are young one can simply say "well those guys are way older than me, they have had more time to develop physically. Once I get big and strong I will be in the league and then I will show them what's up."

Now that I'm 23 I can't justify my rants with the peer comparison anymore (apparently being a decent DII club baseball pitcher doesn't get you a shot at the bigs?). What's next? Criticizing bad athletes shields the youth from playing poorly? They might try to emulate a player like Rex Grossman! How about "Well at least I'm way smarter than those big oafs in professional sports. Most of them couldn't pass college without the massive academic support systems that universities provide!"

Well sporting news has foiled me on that one as well. Check out the list they put together of the smartest guys in pro sports. At least some of them are no good at their respective sport!

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/feed/2010-09/smart-athletes

Review of Xavier vs NKU scrimmage

The Xavier scrimmage was not on TV last night so I figured I would post some thoughts for the XU faithful who read TSR. NKU wasn't bad, they have a couple DI transfers. They spread the floor and bombed up 3's. I'll post in the same format I used for muskie madness, "who looked good, who looked average and who looked bad"

Who looked good - Kenny Frease, Jamel McLean, Jay Canty. Frease's offseason conditioning is evident as he put up 17 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks. He is leaner and quicker on defense and is able to move around enough to get some offensive boards. Granted NKU was a small team but Frease dominated the paint like a 7 footer should against a smaller opponent. McLean finished in the paint twice for 'and 1" opportunities, he will be solid all year long and will probably increase his production slightly from last year. With Redford and Martin out Canty will need to step in. He looked capable last night especially in the rebounding category grabbing nine boards. He made two three pointers. His shot doesn't look pretty but if he can knock em down at ~35% that will be enough to make opponents respect him, creating space in the paint for Kenny, Jamel and Lyons.  

Who looked average - Mark Lyons, Tu Holloway, Dante Jackson, Jeff Robinson, WBWOS. Lyons dropped 13 but on 6-14 shooting with 4 TOs. He takes it to the rack strong but sometimes he doesn't set himself up to make a pass out of his dribble drives. It is either score or throw up some shot that only Jordan Crawford can make consistently. Holloway looked like last year, good ball handler decent shooter. He didn't try to do too much, but he will be called on to save us some games this year. Dante Jackson is Dante Jackson. he made a few threes but his offensive game is limited. Hopefully he can step it up and play awesome defense. Jeff Robinson still doesn't know how to use his size and athleticism but shows flashes of decency. Hopefully he can mature as McLean's backup. WBWOS (white boy walk on squad) was solid in their timeout handshakes. I swear Feeney shakes every players hand every time there is a break in the action.

Who looked bad - Andy Taylor, Jordan Latham, Griffin McKenzie. A Tay either had four fouls or fouled out. He had some open mid range looks but only took one of them which didn't fall. If his offensive game is limited to lay ups and his only defense if hacking than I would rather see Robinson in their to get some experience. Jordan Latham still needs some time to catch up to the college game but he seems to have good size and strength for a frosh. Ditto for McKenzie, he didn't get in much and often looked confused.

Outlook -Right now I see Xavier going with an 8 man rotation, Holloway, Lyons, Jackson, Canty, Frease, McLean, Robinson/Taylor. They could be really good on defense/rebounding especially the starters Holloway, Lyons, Jackson, McLean and Frease. I'm a bit concerned with the scoring though. No dead eye three point shooters, Lyons taking it to the rack and sometimes making bad decisions might be Xavier's best offensive option. Anyways I'll do another write up after the next scrimmage on Saturday vs Bellarmine.

TSR Favorite Brian Wilson

Yes, Brian please rage...RIGHT NOW.



- KA

Poster - Ized

This video is legit. Top 50 NCAA dunks of all time!