Dec 28th 2007ericjhoroNothing in Particular
This seems like as good a time as any to take a few days off from the blogosphere, but I should be back by Wednesday and better than ever. In the meantime, enjoy this photograph of John Madden.
Dec 27th 2007ericjhoroCollege Football
Apparently Jon Stocco wants to be just like Stephon Marbury. Sort of. The former Wisconsin quarterback has agreed to join the Milan Rhinos of NFL Italy—a league also known as the Lega Nazionale Football Americano Italiano. (Personally, I prefer the latter name—it makes the league sound less like a shitty, shitty version of the NFL.) Stocco doesn’t know how the Rhinos found him, but one day team called his father in Minnesota to ask about signing him.
The best part of this whole situation is how the team is touting its new quarterback.
The Rhinos released a statement about how excited they were to have Stocco, lauding his credentials that include a 29-7 record as a three-year starter for the Badgers and back-to-back Capital One Bowl victories, including MVP honors in his final game nearly 12 months ago. The Rhinos called Stocco the 19th best quarterback in this year’s NFL draft class.
The 19th best quarterback!! Two Capital One Bowl Victories!!! Sweet!! Forget about A.C. Milan getting Ronaldo from Real Madrid—The Milan Rhinos just got Jon Stocco!!!
Considering the level of play has been described as similar to the “best high schools in the U.S. or Division III colleges,” it will be very interesting to see how Stocco performs. Whatever happens, it should be a better gig than his last job.
Dec 27th 2007ericjhoroCollege Football
Probably the most underrated aspect of bowl season is the activities and team-building exercises that teams do in their new cities. Take Maryland for example. The Terps are in San Francisco for the Emerald Bowl and coach Fridge thought “What better to do than take my team to see Alcatraz.” And so that’s where they went.
While on the island the team learned that contrary to popular belief, Alcatraz wasn’t built for the movie “The Rock,” but rather to house very bad people. Overall, it was a fabulous trip, and it had the added bonus of reminding players where they might end up if they don’t play their butts and impress NFL scouts. Now that’s what I call motivation. Oregon State better watch out tomorrow.
Dec 26th 2007ericjhoroNBA & NHL
—Penguins winger Colby Armstrong nearly suffered a serious injury after taking a big hit…from a Christmas tree.
“I was setting it up, and it was a little crooked, so I reached in to just give the thing a little shake in the stand,” he said. “I gave it a shake, and one of the branches flickered and hit my [right] eye. “All night long, while I was laying in bed, my eye was just killing me,” he said. “I tried contact solution, everything.”
Eventually Armstrong did find some eye drops that helped and he has made a full recovery.
—Read this Ivan Carter story about how the Wizards’ happy-go-lucky team surprised new point guard Mike Wilks. If the NBA Championship was decided by locker room awesomeness, the Wizards would have the title wrapped up.
—Morris Almond is absolutely tearing up the D-League. In case you don’t remember, there were three shooting guards picked in the first round who people believed might have immediate impacts on their teams—Nick Young, Rodney Stuckey, and Morris Almond. Injuries have pressed Young into the Wizards regular rotation (where he is showing his enormous potential), but Stuckey and Almond haven’t been able to play their way onto the NBA court. The good news for Almond is that he has managed to find his way onto the D-League court, and his 32 ppg lead the league.
—”Cowgirls win by 71 points.” I saw this headline the other day and it just got me thinking of what it would have been like to sit there for two hours and watch the Oklahoma State women’s basketball team beat Arkansas State by 71 points. How many people were there? Were they all drunk? Was the Arkansas State team considering leaving at half time so they could get home early? Read the story and take joy in the fact that you didn’t have to be there.
—Don Cherry (a.k.a “The Bearded Suited One“) “understands” why Chris Simon tried to slice Jarkko Rutuu’s ankle in half with his skate blade. Cherry didn’t really elaborate, most likely because his foot was already to far down his throat.
Dec 25th 2007ericjhoroCollege Football
Since everybody else in the country is taking a day off, I figure I will too. In the tradition of self-promotion, if you’re looking for some holiday reading here’s a little bowl preview I cooked up. It’s undoubtedly one of the 500 best bowl previews written this year.
Dec 24th 2007ericjhoroTPS Report & NFL
I Now Direct Your Microscope to Terrell Owens’ Ankle
The true status of Owens’ injured left ankle is about to become the most fiercely guarded secret in football. The Cowboys will do whatever it takes to convince future opponents that Owens’ is still capable of being a dangerous offensive weapon. That might entail hiring Nate Newton to guard the medical reports, or leaking stories about the healing powers of a new magical oxygen chamber. However serious Owens’ ankle injury is, the Cowboys will never let anybody know.
So far, the team has only said is that Owens will not play this week, and I suspect “questionable” will be soon be the word most commonly used to describe his status. When all is said and done, I bet Owens will do whatever it takes to come back, but he won’t be at full strength and he’ll end up a complete non-factor in a Cowboys loss. Then he’ll criticize Donovan McNabb’s leadership skills.
Herm Edwards: Master of Motivation
The Chiefs’ great second half arose from a very unconventional halftime. When players came into locker room at the end of the 2nd quarter Herm Edwards eschewed motivational speeches or discussions of strategy and sent them back out onto the field. “I told them maybe we shouldn’t go in at halftime, that maybe we should stay out on the field,” Edwards said. “So it was just like high school. We came in, went to the bathroom and went right back out.” You can’t argue with results. Edwards should continue trying to coach as little as possible.
Don’t Miss This Stuff…
—Nick Barnett still doesn’t know why he was strangled by an official.
—Warren Sapp can no longer say he’s never picked up three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on a single play.
—Titans tackle Tony Brown showed off a new move when he began rolling around in the grass after a sack. “The defense was on fire, so when you are on fire you have to put the fire out with the stop, drop and roll,” Brown said with a smile. “It was something I thought of right then and went with it.” I could definitely see this catching on. I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
—The Bears noticed Green Bay punter John Ryan looked shaky and they decided to go after him like he was a fat kid in dodgeball.
—Roddy White is over 1,000 yards on the season. So I guess Michael Vick did suck after all.
—Mike Rucker may have played his final home game as a Carolina Panther.
—Joe Mauer was an honorary horn-blower for the Vikings. The team could have used him at quarterback.
The Worst Spike in the History of Football
And guess what? It was executed by the Dolphins. What a shock. With 1:25 left in the first half Cleo Lemon completed a pass to David Martin that gave the Dolphins (still with one timeout) a first down at the Patriots 9-yard line. Lemon got his team lined up with 1:13 on the clock, but then he inexplicably spiked the ball. It made no sense. The Dolphins had a max of four more plays. Lemon could have called a running play and handed the ball off with 1:05 left on the clock, run it again with :40 seconds on the clock, run it yet again with :15 seconds on the clock, and then called timeout and thrown it on 4th down. Without that spike the ball the Dolphins still had time for four plays and up to three of them could have been runs. But instead of calmly calling a play, Lemon decided to spike the ball and waste a precious a down. A down he could have used when his 4th down pass fell incomplete.
Why the Common Opponents Tie-Breaker is Good
Next week the “record vs. common opponents” tie-breaker could lift the Titans into the playoffs and send the Browns home. For the longest time I hated this tie-breaker—it just seemed dumb and arbitrary. But lately I’ve come around to the belief that it’s a good thing—mostly because it’s one of the few places in sports were teams are graded on the same degree of difficulty. The Browns and Titans have five common opponents (
Just When I thought Joe Gibbs Couldn’t Get Any Dumber, He Go and Does Something Like This…and Totally Redeems Himself
Before we get to Joe Gibbs’ redemption, can somebody explain why the Vikings system for green-lighting a replay challenge is to have their coach stare at the JumboTron. Shouldn’t there be a guy upstairs and some sort of electronic communication involved?
On the other hand, what made Joe Gibbs think it was a good idea to go for two while winning 22-0 in the FIRST HALF? With the league success rate around 42%, Gibbs decision to go for it was worth -.15 points. Way to go Joe.
Advances in Halfback Passes
At some point in the last few years halfback pass enthusiasts on NFL coaching staffs have had an epiphany. That epiphany is something along the lines of “You know what? Running backs lack accuracy when they have to throw 50-yard passes on the run. Maybe it would be best if we only used only used half-back passes in the red zone.” Clinton Portis’ touchdown pass last night was the 23rd straight running back throw from inside the 30-yard line (that stat may be fabricated).
Onside Kick Defense Complaint O’ the Week
After the Vikings recovered a “surprise” onside kick in the 3rd quarter Al Michaels said that the tactic has worked about three quarters of the time this season. That’s an insanely high success rate. But for some reason teams still send a front line of five guys and position them at the 45-yard line. Why not send up a 6th guy? Why not move them forward to the 40-yard line? Why do teams find it so hard to break from the traditional but idiotic way of doing things? (And yes, I’ve mentioned this before—it’s in here somewhere)
Stat O’ the Week
15. The number of offensive plays it took Jacksonville to score their first 21 points.
European Football Goal O’ the Week
Some nifty footwork and passing ends with Mamadou Niang giving Marseille their only goal in a 1-0 win.
Also See…
Dec 21st 2007ericjhoroWeekly Shakedown & NBA & Futbol
(Every week there are a number of stories that slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)
–Chris Webber is reportedly considering making a comeback with the Pistons and could return as soon as January. Awesome. If Webber returns he could team with Antonio McDyess to form an unstoppable one-two punch of aging big men with no cartilage left in their knees.
–Tickemaster and the NFL have signed a deal to join forces in creating a website where people can re-sell NFL tickets. The goal is get back ticket revenues the league is losing to other resale website such as StubHub. With so many crappy teams nobody wants to see, that’s a lot of revenue.
–The Penguins and Flyers are considering playing an outdoor game on the campus of Penn State. Flyers G.M. Paul Holmgren thinks the game could draw as many as 100,000 people, at least 80,000 of which should make it to the end of the game without being kicked out for drunken fighting.
–The Orioles are quietly raising ticket prices again. The hike may sound unnecessary, but carefully crafted PR statements that distance the team from steroids don’t grow on trees.
Have you ever wondered exactly how much each game affects your team’s playoffs chances? Check out this site which shows how each NFL game affects the Browns postseason prospects. It’s fun for the whole family. In case you were wondering, last night’s Steelers victory decreased the Browns chances by 1.5% and lowered their expected playoff seed by .45.
Trying to beat a 12-2 team can be overwhelming for an opponent. But screw game-planning, screw strategy, screw playcalling. Tony Romo was an abysmal 14-29 with 142 yards and 2 int, for a 45.5 passer rating, when then gf Carrie Underwood attended one of Romo’s games last season. And of course we know what happened this year with Simpson….Anyways, a little website called Ruin Romo has taken advantage of this distinct weakness Romo possesses. Oppossing fans can now go the site and download Jessica Simpson masks and wear them to the game. If Romo throws up a 22.2 qb rating with 1 Jessica Simpson in attendance, can you imagine how bad things will get if there are 30,000 in attendance?
Laveraneous Coles has been nursing a sore ankle for most of the season. Despite the pain, he expected to play last Sunday against the Patriots. Unfortunately, the day before the game Coles re-aggravated the injury when—get this—a training table collapsed on his ankle.
“I had a setback (Saturday) at the hotel,” Coles said. “Getting treatment, one of the tables was kind of loose and I ended up falling off the table. Table was loose and it came down on my leg. That set me back a whole lot.
Only the New York Jets could have a player get injured while he’s getting treatment for an injury. Only the Jets.
The table actually ended up causing enough damage that Coles had to leave the game in the first quarter and couldn’t return. Now it’s possible he’ll be put on injured reserve. If Jerricho Cotchery is smart he’ll seek medical treatment on his injured finger from an independent third party.
