NFL Quiz: Name the following Hall of Famers, all players
whose careers were largely between 1960 and 1980…you get the
initials. H.A., B.B. (name all three), L.D., L.K., W.L., L.L.
Answer below.
Appalachian State, part deux
But first…the new College Football / AP Top Ten
1. USC
2. LSU
3. West Virginia
4. Florida
t-5. Oklahoma
t-5. Wisconsin
7. Texas
8. Louisville
9. Va. Tech
10. California
15. Rutgers
Michigan dropped out of the top 25 altogether after losing to
App. State. In the annals of polling, never before had a team
entering a season that high taken a single week to disappear
from either the AP or USA Today rankings. [In the AP poll,
Michigan comes in at 32.] And since 2000, twelve teams from
the nation’s six marquee conferences – the ACC, Big East, Big
Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC – lost to a Div. I-AA school and
none went on to a bowl! [Steve Wieberg / USA Today]
I was remiss in forgetting to add last time that our contributor,
and fellow Wake alum, Phil W., had told me days before the
Appalachian State – Michigan contest that he was taking his
daughter and current ASU student to the game in Ann Arbor. I
talked to Phil about an hour after the contest and as he pointed
out, forget the historic significance, it was just an incredible
football game to be a spectator at.
John Feinstein of the Washington Post
“Because of the absolute glut of media outlets now in existence,
especially in the realm of sports, there is a tendency to get carried
away (to put it mildly) by what is happening in the here-and-
now.
“Tiger Woods must be the greatest golfer of all time. Roger
Federer must be the greatest tennis player of all time. Bill
Belichick must be the greatest NFL coach of all time. Charlie
Weis must be the greatest college football coach of all time. [Oh
wait, that’s just Weis’s opinion.]
“And, of course, Appalachian State over Michigan must be the
greatest upset in the history of college football.
“With apologies to Woods, Federer and Belichick, all of whom
may someday go down as the absolute best at what they do,
Saturday’s game in Ann Arbor is, in fact, the greatest upset in the
history of college football….
“Why? Because there are few things in the world more
imbalanced than today’s college football….
“There’s only one bad thing about Appalachian State’s victory: It
will now give powerhouse schools an excuse to continue
scheduling I-AA teams. In truth, these games shouldn’t be
allowed because the kids from the I-AA schools really don’t
have more than a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win the game or
even compete in them. What’s even worse is that the two
football polls won’t allow I-AA teams to receive votes in their
polls. If they’re allowed to compete against I-A teams, why in
the world can’t they be ranked if they’re deserving?….
“Duke, which last beat a Division I-A team in 2004 (seriously)
can receive a vote in the preseason coaches poll from Steve
Spurrier, but Appalachian State, which would beat Duke by at
least 40, can’t receive a vote? Let’s see how many voters in
either poll continue to give Michigan a vote this week. You can
bet there will be some who will do so, which is utterly ridiculous.
[Ed. Feinstein wrote this column on Monday, prior to the release
of the polls.]
“Really though, none of that matters. Saturday’s game was one
that will be brought up 50, 60, 70 years from now when
extraordinary upsets occur. A little school from the mountains of
North Carolina, located in a town with a population that is
96,000 people fewer than the capacity of Michigan Stadium,
walked into one of college football’s most hallowed venues and
won….
“Lloyd Carr, who is an outstanding coach by any definition, is
officially a dead man walking….
“Chaminade over Virginia comes to mind on the list of all-time
upsets, but at least that game was at Chaminade. The U.S.
hockey team over the Soviets at Lake Placid also comes to mind
but what would the score of that game have been if the game had
been played in Moscow? Frances Ouimet over Walter Hagan at
The Country Club in 1913?….
“No, this might very well be the all-timer….(It) was as mind-
bending an upset as any of us will ever see in our lifetimes.
Unless you were a Michigan player, coach or fan, it was just pure
fun to see a little guy knock off a true giant.
“Appalachian State didn’t have a rock. Just a lot of huge hearts.
That was enough to create a memory likely to last just about as
long as the story about the little guy, the giant and the rock.”
Stuff
–As I go to print, the search is still on for the great aviation
adventurer Steve Fossett. I last wrote of him in my “Week in
Review” column of 2/18/06:
“Congratulations to Steve Fossett for his latest exploit…the
longest solo flight without refueling…23,389 miles over 3 ½
days. This guy is a true American hero.”
And so he remains….we hope for the best.
–This just in from Phil W. Wake Forest has sold the naming
rights to the soon to be revamped Groves Stadium to BB&T for
ten years at an undisclosed amount. [At least $1 million a year, it
should be assumed.] As an alum, I don’t have a problem with
this, but what’s surprising is that according to the Winston-Salem
Journal, just four of the other 119 Division I football programs
have sold the naming rights; Maryland, Syracuse, Texas Tech
and Troy (Movie Gallery Stadium). The name Groves, by the
way, goes back to 1940 and a family of ardent Demon Deacon
supporters. Wake’s athletic director said the Groves family
understands. My guess is they’re too old to figure it all out.
–Andy B. passed along an item that Appalachian State shirts are
much in demand around the Big Ten, as in more than a few will
be worn when Michigan lines up against its conference foes the
rest of the way. Ha!!! [I’ll make a prediction. When the new
season of “The Simpsons” airs, Homer will wear an App. St.
jersey at some point.]
–Help!!!!!!! From the AP and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
(dumbest name for a newspaper in the country, by the way):
“A Port Orchard man riding a mountain bike was injured Sunday
when he was attacked by a black bear in a Kitsap County park.
“The 51-year-old man was with his two dogs in Banner Forest
Heritage Park around noon when they encountered the bear….
The man’s dogs were in front of him on the trail when he heard
them barking. He came around a blind corner and was face to
face with the bear…
“The bear charged, and the man picked up his bike to protect
himself. But the bear reached through the bike and ripped at the
man’s arm, face, back, neck and ear before backing off….
“The man was able to get on his bike and ride out of the area. He
encountered two other bikers, who called 911.”
The unidentified victim was in serious condition “but expected to
recover.”
No word on what happened to the dogs, which is kind of
disturbing; though I’m wondering if they didn’t like their owner
(could have been a Michael Vick type) and set him up.
–This is depressing. The BBC reports that rebels in the Congo
have taken control of a large part of Virunga National Park,
home to the largest remaining population of the mountain gorilla.
Half of the 700 or so left are in Virunga and the rebels (on all
sides of this complicated conflict) have long been responsible for
many of the gorillas’ deaths.
–I can’t say I was watching “The View” the other day when
Whoopi Goldberg made her debut as the replacement for Rosie
O’Donnell, but the New York Daily News’ Mike Lupica reports
that Whoopi weighed in on the Michael Vick case.
“ ‘There are certain things that are indicative to certain parts of
the country,’ Goldberg said of dogfighting.
“Then she said that where Vick comes from in the South –
suddenly making Newport News, Va., sound like the setting for
‘Deliverance’ – dogfighting isn’t that unusual. Of course it’s
not. That’s why we’re constantly being bombarded by stories
about people raised where Vick was raised doing what he did,
taking the kind of fall he just took, occasionally even blowing
$100 million deals in the process.
“Who knows. Maybe Goldberg is under the impression that
before Vick gave the sport such a bad name by drowning and
electrocuting underperforming dogs, we might have been on our
way to professional dogfighting leagues, fantasy dogfighting,
maybe even some kind of dogfighting Super Bowl!”
–Correction: When writing of Ichiro and his 7th straight 200-hit
season, I noted this matched the mark held by Wade Boggs.
That’s the AL mark. The overall record is 8 set by Wee Willie
Keeler (1894-01). But back to Boggs, as Johnny Mac noted it
was amazing he also averaged over 100 walks a season over his
7-year stretch.
–Not for nothing, but with Phil Mickelson’s 32nd career triumph
on Monday, only 12 golfers in PGA Tour history have more.
You saw again just how much golf needs a healthy Mickelson to
pose a true challenge to Tiger.
But Phil, like Tiger, isn’t happy with the set-up for the FedEx
Cup playoffs and four straight weeks of action late in the year.
The top players simply aren’t used to that and have crammed in
other gigs, including Phil, who had a corporate outing in
Chicago on Tuesday; ironic since this weekend’s BMW
Championship is taking place outside the Windy City, but Phil
claimed he needed to spend more time with his family and so
opted to bow out of the tournament.
No doubt, the FedEx Cup format will be tweaked next year, but
no matter how it is, I see an increasing number of top players
blowing off the first or second round.
–Tiki Barber really is an amazing jerk. Now he’s written a
book, “Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond,” in which he rips
his old Giants coach Tom Coughlin, claiming “[Coughlin]
robbed me of what had been one of the most important things I
had in my life, which was the joy I felt playing football,” Barber
writes. “I had lost that. He had taken it away.”
Give me a break. But as noted by New York Daily News
reporter Jonathan Lemire, “[Barber] says he came to resent the
way he was being treated by the end of last season that he
decided to quit even though his love for football never waned.”
This is what’s so screwed up about Tiki. He had a great last
season, and football fans appreciate how in terms of his own
ability that he went out on top. But then he writes in his book,
“The fans normally only see me suited up on Sunday. They
never witness the agony of Monday morning, or all the muscle-
straining workouts, the practices, the blood, the sweat, and tears
it takes to walk out onto the field.”
Yoh, Tiki, I think any good football fan understands that it’s a
tough sport. We’ve seen more than a few examples from Jim
Otto to Al Toon and Wayne Chrebet. I have yet to see anyone
blame you for walking away. What we couldn’t stand, though,
was how it was clearly all about you.
In his book, Tiki bitches that he was underpaid, and that the team
didn’t win more because they had poor coaching…blah blah
blah. Geezuz, just shut up.
Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“Here’s the thing Tiki Barber has yet to understand during his
exciting new life as the all-seeing, all-knowing man behind the
microphone at NBC: Eventually you have to answer for the
things you say, the things you write and the observations you
make….
“[Last year] he had talked emotionally about walking onto the
field at Philadelphia in week two, how he was missing his fire,
how he hinted to his teammates he was done. So the question
that needs to be asked now is this:
“Was he lying to us then, or is he lying to us now?
“At some point, it really would behoove Barber to get over
himself and get past the idea the Giants organization is somehow
still mourning his absence….
“[He] really has to stop obsessing about the Giants. He has to
understand there isn’t one Giants fan in creation who will shed
one teardrop over his ridiculous notion that Barber cost himself
$10 million in salary playing for the team, nor will even one
Giants fan feel guilty for not understanding the pain and sacrifice
players endure to suit up every Sunday, as he purportedly writes
in his book.”
–So you say you’re thinking of taking a train ride in the Congo?
From Will Connors of the International Herald Tribune:
“In large swaths of Congo, a vast country the size of Western
Europe, roads are impassable or nonexistent, large riverboats no
longer ply the waterways and air travel is prohibitively
expensive, leaving many people to rely on an increasingly
dangerous railway system long past its prime.”
Congo is trying to emerge from civil war and it’s having trouble
getting its trains running again.
“On Aug. 1, a freight train derailed, killing more than 100 people
who had been sitting on top, between and inside the cargo holds.
And as the trains fall into further disrepair, such accidents
become more common….
“During an eight-day, 530-mile train journey across southeastern
Congo, there were two derailments, several dozen delays, one
electricity failure and an ever increasing number of people and
goods packed into crammed, stinking hallways, compartments
and bathrooms.
“The problems are legion. Of 80 locomotives, only 15 are
operational….Some tracks are 80 years old, so warped and bent
that the trains literally bounce along, losing and loosening parts
that must be fixed or remade at each stop.
“The inside is no better. The bathrooms in first class become
filthy soon after a trip begins. In second and third class, the
bathrooms are used for storage. In one car, five large bags of
charcoal were stuffed into a bathroom, and people relieved
themselves in buckets or out windows.”
Goodness gracious. You can’t go to the bathroom on the trains
in Congo, and you certainly can’t use the ones in Minneapolis
Airport. I mean regarding the latter, I’d be afraid to use a hand
dryer and have undercover types misconstrue the motion.
Anyway, yours truly has lopped off a Congo train trip from my
list of “Things I Want to Do Before I Die.”
–I just found this interesting. I was reading a Newsweek piece
by Andrew Nagorski concerning his new book titled “The
Greatest Battle,” about the fight for Moscow during World War
II (Sept. 30, 1941, to April 20, 1942). What I didn’t realize is
that the losses here were more than twice those of Stalingrad.
During the battle for Moscow, 2.5 million were killed, missing,
taken prisoner or severely wounded, with 1.9 million of those
losses on the Soviet side. But Russian history has downplayed
the battle because of all the mistakes that were made by Stalin
that allowed German troops to approach the outskirts of the city
in the first place, with hundreds of thousands surrendering.
Doesn’t make Mother Russia look that good, you know.
–Jeff B. and I have concluded “For Worse…” now ranks right
up there with “Family Circus” as one of the worst strips in the
history of mankind. It also makes us wonder how the rest of the
century will go.
Top 3 songs for the week of 9/8/79: #1 “My Sharona” (The
Knack) #2 “Good Times” (Chic) #3 “After The Love Has Gone”
(Earth, Wind & Fire)…and…#4 “Don’t Bring Me Down”
(Electric Light Orchestra) #5 “The Devil Went Down To
Georgia” (The Charlie Daniels Band) #6 “Lead Me On”
(Maxine Nightingale) #7 “Sad Eyes” (Robert John) #8 “The
Main Event/Fight” (Barbra Streisand) #9 “I’ll Never Love This
Way Again” (Dionne Warwick) #10 “Lonesome Loser” (Little
River Band)
[Yes, last Bar Chat I just totally forgot about the tunes.]
NFL Hall of Fame Quiz Answer: Herb Adderley (CB), Bobby
Bell (LB), Buck Buchanan (DT), Bob Brown (T), Len Dawson
(QB), Leroy Kelly (RB), Willie Lanier (LB), Larry Little (G).
Next Bar Chat, Monday p.m. ….the 1,000th edition.
