NFL Quiz: Name the seven with 100 career touchdown receptions. [All modern era] Answer below.
NFL Review
–What a year it’s been for Giants and Jets fans. When one is good, the other is. When one sucks, the other sucks. And boy did both teams suck on Sunday. The Giants fell to the Redskins, 23-10, while the Eagles destroyed the Jets, 45-19, with both New York teams suffering big blows to their hopes for making the playoffs.
Then again, they’re both still in it, with each controlling their own destiny with two games to go.
But what’s funny is now this coming Saturday’s Christmas Eve contest pitting the two against each other is basically sudden death. The Giants are in if they beat the Jets and then Dallas on the final weekend, while the Jets are in for a wildcard spot if they beat the Giants and then the Dolphins.
But if you are a New York fan and were watching both games on Sunday, it was really incredible how the two respective star receivers, the Giants’ Hakeem Nicks and the Jets’ Santonio Holmes, both had critical early errors that could have resulted in entirely different outcomes for their teams; Nicks dropping a sure touchdown pass, while a Holmes fumble was scooped up for a touchdown. It was downhill for both teams afterwards and neither recovered.
Holmes, who later caught a meaningless touchdown pass that at the time made it 28-10, proceeded to showboat in the endzone and pick up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, while Nicks overcelebrated after getting a first down with his team trailing 23-3. Most NFL players have the brain of a gnat and while we all love the sport, these are some of the least likable people on the planet.
The Jets, incidentally, ran their all-time record against the Eagles to 0-9.
Elsewhere, in the battle of Tom Brady vs. Tim Tebow, the Pats prevailed over the Broncos, 41-23, while the Lions picked up a big win at Oakland, 28-27, to take a huge step in locking up a wildcard slot.
Drew Brees moved to within 304 yards of Dan Marino’s single-season record of 5,084 yards as the Saints QB threw for 412 yards and five touchdowns in a 42-20 win over Minnesota.
Reggie Bush ran for a career best 203 yards in Miami’s 30-23 win over Buffalo. The Bills were once 4-1, the Dolphins 0-7. Both are now 5-9.
And in a stunner in Kansas City, the Chiefs, under interim coach Romeo Crennel, ruined Green Bay’s perfect season, 19-14, as Aaron Rodgers was highly mediocre.
Lastly, the Indianapolis Colts won their first game, 27-13, over Tennessee, dealing the Titans a huge blow in their hunt for a wildcard spot.
But the Colts, at 1-13, better stop it right there because the Vikings and Rams are both 2-12. Indy should want to make sure it secures the first pick in the draft so look for the team to announce it will forfeit its final two contests.
–Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd was arrested Wednesday night outside a Chicago steakhouse, after allegedly telling an undercover agent he was interested in buying five to 10 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana per week to distribute all over the Windy City. The Bears then released him as the attorney for Hurd vowed to fight the federal charges that could put him in jail for 40 years. The attorney, Brett Greenfield, added that Hurd had never sold drugs to other NFL players.
“Sam has asked me to address one point, with respect to the rumors that Sam has been supplying drugs to other members of the NFL, out of respect to the NFL, out of respect to teammates and out of respect to other players, he 100 percent denies that allegation. It is patently and totally false. It just didn’t happen.”
But authorities apparently have a list of NFL players tied to Hurd. As reported by the AP:
“Hurd told the agent a ‘co-conspirator is in charge of doing the majority of the deals’ while he focused on ‘higher-end deals,’ the complaint said. He agreed to pay $25,000 for each kilogram of cocaine and $450 a pound for the marijuana, according to the charges, and then said he could pay for a kilo of cocaine – about 2.2 pounds – after ‘he gets out of practice.’ He walked out of the restaurant with the package and was arrested.”
[The figures mean Hurd would have been willing to pay as much as $700,000 a week for the drugs.]
Bears players and officials said they were stunned. GM Jerry Angelo said, “We do our homework. We do our due diligence. We did everything you could possibly do given the information that we can allocate.”
Hurd had played five seasons with Dallas before signing with Chicago in July. He reportedly received a $1.35 million signing bonus as part of a three-year, $5.15 million package.
Federal authorities earlier seized over $88,000 in cash from a car Hurd owned in the Dallas area. Hurd volunteered that the money was his and that he had given the car to his acquaintance, who was doing maintenance and detail work on it.
–Two Long Island high school students were suspended for one day for Tebowing, this after they organized tributes to the quarterback in the hallway, with officials saying the resulting blockages caused students to be late.
Tebow himself, when questioned by the media, said the kids should listen to authorities.
“But I think it does show courage from the kids, standing out and doing that, and some boldness,” he added.
–According to a piece by Kyle Smith of the New York Post, “Only 4 people out of 100 did not watch a single NFL game last season.” Of course it helps that 111 million caught the Steelers-Packers Super Bowl, the highest-rated TV program of all time.
–So the Los Angeles Clippers picked up Chris Paul from New Orleans for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, former Deac Al-Farouq Aminu and Minnesota’s #1 2012 draft pick, which should be a high one, possibly a lottery selection.
Before the Paul trade, the Clippers had picked up former All-Star guard Chauncey Billups after the Knicks waived him. Billups at first said he would retire rather than play for the Clippers, but now he’s had second thoughts and L.A. said they would make Billups their starting shooting guard as Paul mans the point. This makes total sense. Fellow All-Star Mo Williams will back up Paul, but you have three who can play point guard at a high level.
As for the Hornets, they picked up some real talent, especially if Aminu develops the way he is capable of and the 2012 pick from the T’Wolves is a good one. Also, Eric Gordon, who is about to turn 23, averaged over 22 points a game last year, while the 29-year-old Kaman is a solid center.
The first deal that Commissioner David Stern and his basketball people turned down for Paul was the three-way trade with the Lakers and the Rockets that would have sent the Hornets Lamar Odom (32), Luis Scola (31) and Kevin Martin (28), all proven talents but older. Plus the Hornets would have received a backup guard, Goran Dragic, and a first-round pick from the Lakers (actually the Knicks’ 2012 first-rounder), which would have been a low one. The criticism at the time was the first trade might have kept the Hornets in playoff contention, but the long-term outlook wasn’t nearly as good as the Clippers’ deal. So Stern buys some breathing space after first taking a ton of heat, according to many.
I would agree the second deal is more exciting for Hornets fans, but the NBA should not have vetoed the first one even if they do control the Hornets (technically all 29 other team owners do) following the collapse of New Orleans’ ownership in 2010 when George Shinn couldn’t find a buyer. The league is now looking to sell the team.
Well, you can imagine the Lakers are rather upset, as in General Manager Mitch Kupchak is fuming. Adding insult to injury, Paul is now playing in L.A. for the other tenant of the Lakers’ arena. Plus the Lakers don’t look like they are about to get Dwight Howard, their other big target.
It’s the Clippers, not the Lakers, who are now the talk of the town. Paul and high-wire act Blake Griffin vs. aging Kobe. Yes, no longer would you expect to hear late-night comics say things such as Conan O’Brien did in his debut as host of “The Tonight Show.”
Even from my perch in New Jersey, it will be kind of interesting to watch the two teams’ fortunes; though don’t expect me ever to be a fan of Paul’s. You should know me too well by now.
–Boy, talk about lucky. Boston Celtics forward Jeff Green will miss the entire season for an aortic aneurysm for which he is undergoing surgery on Monday. Were it not for the end of the lockout, and his training camp physical where the aneurysm was detected, Green’s life could have ended the way another Celtics player’s did, Reggie Lewis, who collapsed and died on a practice court of a heart condition in 1993.
A person can exhibit no signs of an aneurysm, but if it ruptures it’s almost always fatal unless you get optimum treatment immediately.
Major kudos to the Celtics’ medical staff for picking this up. There is also every reason to believe that Green will be able to resume his career next season. I hope the doctors over time state publicly just what test picked it up. [I’ve done the Life Line Screening test regimen myself, which I think helps some in this area.]
–By the way, the Miami Heat are a prohibitive 2-to-1 favorite to win the NBA title this season.
–Lastly, do you detect your editor is perhaps a bit more interested in the upcoming NBA season than he has previously pretended to be?
Yeah, I am. It’s good background noise at home, especially if my Knicks are competitive. It’s not as if I have a lot to root for on the college basketball front.
Bonds Gets Another Free Pass
It would be a bit disingenuous to get all bent out of shape concerning the slap on the wrist Barry Bonds received for providing evasive testimony to a grand jury eight years ago. Bonds was sentenced to just 30 days of house arrest, 2 years of probation, 250 hours of community service with youth groups and a $4,000 fine, with his lawyers appealing the guilty verdict and Judge Susan Illston agreeing to stay the sentence through the appeal process.
After all, the prosecution, which had requested a prison sentence of 15 months, screwed up the original case. Bonds should have been nailed.
On Friday, assistant U.S. attorney Matthew A. Parrella took issue with Illston’s sentence, as Illston said Bonds’ obstruction of justice was a departure from an “otherwise law-abiding lifestyle,” to which Parrella said Bonds was “well versed in misleading people” and cited the illegal use of drugs and “mistresses through two marriages.”
“He wasn’t convicted for any of those,” Illston responded.
And that’s it in a nutshell. Us Bonds haters can bitch and moan all we want but the law is the law and the first jury let him off on three far more serious counts of perjury.
Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News, though, has a different take.
“There is this idea that the government failed with the Barry Bonds case because Bonds in the end did no jail time.
“And there is the idea that the government wasted money, because that is always such a big concern in the sports section.
“But the reason that Bonds only took a fall on one felony – obstruction of justice – is because of the guy who knew everything about what Bonds took and when he took it and how much of it he took refused – to the end – to testify.
“That would be Bonds’ trainer Greg Anderson, who didn’t act out of some noble ideal of friendship, but because he thought the government reneged on its original deal with him.
“So Anderson, the trainer, did the time, and not Bonds, the user.
“Anderson decided he would rather sit in a jail cell rather than tell what he knew, testimony that would have likely put Bonds in a jail cell, too.
“Maybe you think that Bonds won something on Friday when he got probation and home confinement and 250 hours of community service.
“But I don’t, whether the prosecution covered itself in glory or not.
“Bonds goes through his after-baseball life, pending appeal, as a convicted felon.
“Put it another way, if you really think this was some kind of triumph for him:
“Would you rather be him, or the great Henry Aaron, whose home run record Bonds broke? With help from a needle.”
“While Barry Bonds can smile outside the courtroom on Friday…admission to the Hall of Fame is another subject.
“I understand the argument for putting Barry Bonds into the Hall of Fame, that he was an all-time great well before his desire for Mark McGwire-like adulation led him to do steroids and turn himself into baseball’s version of the incredible Hulk.
“And I understand there are cheaters and louts and even racists in Cooperstown already – that baseball isn’t supposed to be church.
“But in saying here that I won’t vote for Bonds when he becomes Hall-eligible next year, let me respond to the other side of the debate with a question: Should the Hall of Fame merely be a museum of sorts that reflects the history of baseball, for better or for worse?
“In that case, there’s no question that Bonds belongs. I just think the Hall should stand for more than that.
“It should be an honor and a privilege to be voted into a place that represents and symbolizes baseball’s very best, and if you think of it in that context, how can you vote for someone who so blatantly and arrogantly cheated the game?
“Bonds may always be the ultimate proof that steroids can have a dramatic impact on performance. In adding freakish size and strength to his already-extraordinary ability as a hitter, Bonds hit the ball harder and farther in his late 30s than he did in the prime of his career, and in doing so made a mockery of baseball’s home run record.”
Harper then discusses the money Bonds earned during the last six years of his career, $105 million, and the $100 million+ contract etension Ryan Braun earned by apparently using steroids in his case.
“With (these two in mind), shouldn’t the Hall of Fame be the sacred ground that acts as the ultimate steroids deterrent?
“If it means keeping the likes of Bonds and Roger Clemens out of the Hall, so be it. What’s the difference, really, between keeping them out and keeping Pete Rose out?”
12 of 21 eligible Hall voters, including John Harper, said they would still vote ‘no’ on Bonds next year, in a survey by the Daily News. 7 said they planned to vote for Bonds. 2 were undecided.
Mark McGwire has never received more than 23.7% of the vote in five years on the ballot, but of course McGwire was nowhere near the player Bonds was. It’s going to be interesting. If I had to guess today, Bonds gets at least 40% first go ‘round and could slowly build from there over the succeeding maximum 14 years he’d be on the ballot.
College Football
–Earlier, I said I was half-interested in Temple-Wyoming and San Diego State-La. Lafayette and, indeed, I watched the first half of each contest; Temple running away from Wyoming, 37-15, in the HaveIGotADeal Bowl, while La.Lafayette held off SDSU, 32-30, in the TakeMeI’mYours affair. In the latter, I wish the game had started earlier because the finish proved to be as good as you’ll see all year, though I also have to admit I was watching “Saturday Night Live” and forgot to turn back to the game before I went to bed!
[If you missed it, go look up the takeoff on Michael Buble’s Christmas album on SNL. Very funny. He does a great job himself.]
–Talk about an a-hole, how about Pittsburgh head football coach Todd Graham? Make that ex-Pitt coach Graham. The guy left after just one year for Arizona State, succeeding Dennis Erickson. Graham was 6-6 in guiding what most would agree was an underachieving team (I didn’t see Pitt enough to know if they just didn’t have the talent), but the players, and the school, are pissed at Graham’s lack of loyalty. Heck, I’m pissed. The guy’s a [cue Jeff Spicoli].
Pitt’s executive vice chancellor and general counsel Jerry Cochran issued a statement:
“Obviously this is not the way we would have expected Mr. Graham to handle any possible departure. Beyond normal expectations with respect to professional conduct, he has failed to comply with the terms of his contract.”
[Of course with Pitt bolting the Big East for the ACC, talk of professional conduct and contracts is a little disingenuous, but still…]
“Graham says that it was personal, not professional reasons for the change. He went the Randy Edsall route and called Arizona State his ‘dream job’ and talked about having family in the area on Wednesday.
“Though there are also reports that Graham sent ‘feelers’ out to both Kansas and Texas A&M about their job openings recently as well. Whether Graham has many different dreams or just has family all over the country, I don’t know. All we really know is that he’ll now be starting his fourth head coaching job since 2006 when he took the job at Rice and left for Tulsa after a season.
–Johnny Mac and I are possibly the only people east of Wisconsin with Wisconsin Whitewater Warhawkswear and we at least pulled it out of the drawer on Saturday in honor of the Warhawks’ third consecutive Division III title, again over perennial power Mount Union. Get this; it was the seventh consecutive title game between the schools. [Wisc.-Whitewater leads 4-3; Mount Union has a record ten titles overall in 16 years. Heck, Mount Union coach Larry Kehres saw his record drop to 317-24-3 over his 26 seasons.]
I’d say J. Mac has it right when he notes there really is no better rivalry in sports these days than these two hooking up.
–It’s going to be Sam Houston State vs. North Dakota State for the Division I-AA championship, Jan. 7.
–American teenage sensation Lexi Thompson, all of 16, made history this weekend as she became the youngest winner on both the LPGA and Ladies European Tours in taking the Dubai Ladies Masters by four strokes. In September, she became the youngest winner on the LPGA tour by winning an event in Alabama.
Thompson qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 12 in 2007. Yes, she had turned professional before winning last fall so she’s not just being comped in pro shop merchandise.
–The Phillies reached agreement with shortstop Jimmy Rollins on a three-year, $33 million deal, which, if he could recover his health, is a contract that makes sense in this era of stupid ones.
–The Mets’ newly acquired center fielder, Andres Torres, is being featured in a new documentary film about overcoming attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Oh brother. As if we didn’t already have enough problems, my fellow Mets fans.
“It’s a routine fly to Torres…Pelfrey should get out of the jam…and…Torres is looking into the center field bleachers! The ball drops 20 feet from the guy! Here comes Rollins…right behind is Victorino…and the Phillies take the lead!”
–The problems at Penn State continue. Starting quarterback Matt McGloin got into a serious fight in the locker room with backup receiver Curtis Drake, so serious it sent McGloin to the hospital. The incident occurred after practice and McGloin, according to his father, suffered a seizure and possible concussion. Penn State is playing Houston on Jan. 2 in the AnythingForABuck Bowl.
—No. 8 Xavier, playing without three key players who comprise 40% of their offense as a result of the brawl against Cincinnati, lost to Oral Roberts, 64-42, on Sunday. Too bad, Musketeers. Hopefully, the jerks on your team learned a lesson.
–Big blow for the 15th-ranked Pitt Panthers on the hardwood as freshman center Khem Birch left the program, this after the highly-touted player had started the last six games.
–T’Wolves fever…catch it! Ricky Rubio’s NBA debut was a great one for Minnesota as the point guard had six points, seven assists and six rebounds in 23 minutes in the team’s first exhibition game. This bodes well for the long-suffering franchise. [Six straight hideous seasons, to be exact.]
–IndyCar’s official inquiry into the death of Dan Wheldon, the two-time Indy 500 winner who died in a crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Oct., concluded he was killed when his head hit a post in the fencing, creating a “non-survivable injury.” Wheldon’s car hurtled 325 feet into the catchfence.
—Craig James, the ESPN football analyst, is thinking of running for Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison’s senate seat as she retires. Professional handicappers in Texas, though, say should James decide to go for it, he’s too late, especially considering the Republican primary is April 3! Recall that James and his son, Adam, played a key role in the firing of Mike Leach as head coach at Texas Tech two years ago. Leach is suing James and ESPN for defamation.
—Daniel Ruettiger, who overcame long odds to earn a walk-on role on Notre Dame’s football team as well as the source of the 1993 movie “Rudy,” settled with the SEC for his role in a pump-and-dump stock scheme that generated more than $11 million in illicit profits for a now-defunct soft drink company, Rudy Nutrition. Ruettiger and 12 others participated in the scheme wherein false and misleading statements about the company were issued in an effort to pump up the shares so that they could exit at high prices.
–TV alert: HBO’s “Real Sports,” Tues., Dec. 20…Auburn football players describe how they were paid cash by people connected to the university (I’m guessing the school is [blankin’] bricks over this one)…first post-prison interview with Plaxico Burress (I’m picturing he comes off very well)…and the big business of bowl games and how they exploit the tax code (uh oh).
–The local high school basketball season tipped off on Friday and I see that Westfield defeated “Barack Obama Charter,” 63-26. Republicans should not get too cocky and think this is a harbinger of things to come next November.
–So you can imagine that bear hunting season in New Jersey is quite profitable for local taxidermists, who as one told the Wall Street Journal’s Maya Pope-Chappell, normally get most of their business via roadkill. Dave Clark said, “Bears are far more profitable for a taxidermist than any other animal. For every bear that comes in here, we average $1,500 in sales. Ka-ching!” 469 were killed in the six-day hunt this year. Last year’s took out 592, which gives you a good sense of just how many bruins we have.
So after the dead bear arrives at the taxidermist, the hunter is asked a key question: open mouth or closed mouth. It was Teddy Roosevelt who had a simple answer, according to John Janelli, historian of the National Taxidermists Association. “Herbivores such as deer should be mounted with their mouths closed, whereas carnivores – a group that includes bears, wolves and mountain lions – should be preserved with mouths open.”
The aforementioned Dave Clark has 84 bears to take care of right now. Yes, he does have help.
–The New York Post’s Page Six reported on the activities of Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez.
“(Sanchez) made the most of his timeouts by romancing not one, but two women within a few hours at the Moderne Hotel on West 55th Street, sources say.
“The handsome quarterback, who led his team to a 37-10 rout of the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday (Dec. 11), was spotted with a beautiful brunette checking into the hotel at about 3 a.m. Tuesday.
“A witness reports Sanchez’s companion was ‘a Spanish-looking brunette.’ She was seen leaving the Moderne at 8:30 a.m., when a chivalrous Sanchez walked her downstairs.
“Our source told us, ‘He was dead-sober and very polite, said goodbye, and went right upstairs.’
“But just two hours later, after Sanchez ordered room service for himself, a pretty blonde came to the Moderne to join him at about 10:45 a.m. and went up to his room. But the tryst didn’t last long – Sanchez and the woman left the hotel 45 minutes later.”
I’m assuming Mark and his first woman watched the four-hour+ “Cleopatra,” while the QB and the second woman caught an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Other than this, I don’t see what they would have had any spare time for.
–After reading a piece in the current Economist magazine, I think it’s time I treated Stella Artois with more respect. I don’t know why I always paid this premium brew short shrift, but it was probably because I didn’t like the taste when I first tried it. Lately, however, I’ve been ordering more Stella when out and, after all, it traces its roots to the Den Hoorn brewery, founded in Leuven in 1366. Sebastian Artois attached his name to it in 1717. Of course it was in “A Streetcar Named Desire” that the character played by Marlon Brando goes, “Stel-la!” in ordering his third beer of the evening.
Top 3 songs for the week 12/21/85: #1 “Say You, Say Me” (Lionel Richie…whatever) #2 “Broken Wings” (Mr. Mister…eh…I mean this shows you just how awful this era was when this one gets to #1, as it did the prior two weeks) #3 “Party All The Time” (Eddie Murphy…guy peaked in SNL years…and geezuz, this song blows)…and…#4 “Alive & Kicking” (Simple Minds…interminable) #5 “Separate Lives” (Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin…Mary Martin was better as Peter Pan) #6 Election Day” (Arcadia…Duran Duran spin-off…this one makes you want to blow your brains out before you even get to the polls) #7 “I Miss You” (Klymaxx…I guess if you were 18 and at a party and had a girl to slow dance with, you would have liked this drivel…but when you’re 53 and this comes on the car radio, you’re apt to plow into a highway divider) #8 “That’s What Friends Are For” (Dionne & Friends…she was ten times better 20 years earlier, as her friends then rightly told her in ‘85) #9 “Small Town” (John Cougar Mellencamp…my brother is a huge fan, I’m not) #10 “Sleeping Bag” (ZZ Top…now I like these guys, but you really have to be s—faced to think this one is good)
NFL Quiz Answer: Seven with 100 touchdown receptions.
Jerry Rice 197
Randy Moss 153
Terrell Owens 153
Cris Carter 130
Marvin Harrison 128
Tim Brown 100
Steve Largent 100
Don Hutson, 1935-45, 99 in just 116 games…compared to Rice’s 197 in 303, Moss’ 153 in 202, and Owens’ 153 in 219. I’ve written of Hutson before, but in any discussion of the NFL’s best, he has to be in the top 20. Would have been just as good today, and without the endzone histrionics.
