Heisman Trophy Quiz: [The first was awarded in 1935.] 1) Name the three Heisman winners from Univ. of Michigan. [Hint: old and modern era] 2) Name the two from Univ. of Wisconsin [Hint: old and modern era] Answers below.
Nothing But Stuff-ing
—College Football
OK, sports fans…Friday, not Saturday this week, is the big day.
Noon, ET…West Virginia at Pitt…most likely for the Big East crown and the BCS berth, WVU being 3-2 in Big East play, Pitt 4-1.
2:30 p.m. …No. 2 Auburn at No. 11 Alabama… “Dear Lord, please inspire ‘Bama to bring their ‘A’ game so we can have Boise State or TCU playing for the BCS title. I’ll be extra good the balance of 2010 if you’ll allow me this one pleasure.”
7:00 p.m. …No. 21 Arizona at No. 1 Oregon…actually, I don’t expect this to be much of a contest. [Unless weather is a factor]
10:15 p.m. …No. 4 Boise State at No. 19 Nevada…Broncos fans should be worried. A 20-point win, though, should move Boise over TCU in the BCS rankings.
As for Saturday, No. 13 Oklahoma at No. 9 Oklahoma State could be fun as the Cowboys are suddenly the team to beat in the Big 12.
–Penn State’s Joe Paterno said he is coming back for another season, what will be his 46th, even as he turns 84 next month. This is absurd. Yes, they are young and a respectable 7-4 as they wrap up the regular season hosting Michigan State this Saturday, but still…time to move on! It was time five years ago, for crissakes.
–2-9 Wake Forest vs. 2-9 Vanderbilt…be there! Boy, I was looking at this week’s Sagarin rankings, which has a top five of Oregon, Stanford, TCU, Boise State, and Auburn, and, interestingly, 5-5 Oregon State is No. 20, and understand Sagarin ranks all I-A and I-AA teams together, so, for example, Appalachian State is No. 82, ahead of No. 90 Virginia and No. 91 Rutgers.
Wake Forest? No. 118, behind No. 116 South Dakota State and No. 117 North Dakota State, and just ahead of No. 119 Rice and No. 120 Elon! Goodness gracious. Not exactly the kind of information you pull out for recruits.
But speaking of Appalachian State, they have the No. 1 seed in the upcoming I-AA playoffs, now a 20-team format that doesn’t end until the Jan. 7 championship game in Frisco, Texas (a suburb of Dallas, which I had to look up). William & Mary is No. 2, Delaware No. 3 and Montana State No. 4. Great job by App State coach Jerry Moore to come back so strong in the first year of the post-Armanti Edwards era.
Lastly, as if Notre Dame doesn’t already have enough problems with the death of the student videographer, now the local prosecutor is reviewing a report from Notre Dame security on the death of a 19-year-old woman of an apparent suicide nine days after telling university police that she had been sexually assaulted by a football player in a dorm. The victim, Elizabeth Seeberg, was a freshman at nearby St. Mary’s College who had battled depression, according to the Chicago-Tribune and USA TODAY. The ND player has not been identified and continues to play.
–Last weekend I had all kinds of notes to myself to catch at least a few laps of the last NASCAR race and then forgot to do so (a common occurrence as I age rapidly), let alone write about the Sprint Cup champion, now five-time winner Jimmie Johnson. That about sums up the sport in general. Former big-time fans like myself have faded away quicker than the Wicked Witch of the West. Fox Sports, which broadcasts a number of races each year, said the key 18-to-34 demographic was down 29%…in one year! Staggering.
And it obviously doesn’t help when a guy wins five in a row like Johnson has. Here you had the closest finish heading into a final race yet and Johnson took second at Homestead to Carl Edwards, while the leader heading into the finale, Denny Hamlin, finished a miserable 14th to lose the Cup. Team owner Rick Hendrick, by the way, got his 10th championship, having had four others with Jeff Gordon and one with Terry Labonte. No owner has more.
So with the five, Johnson is now just two behind both Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, though Johnson is the only one to win four in a row, let alone five. Yet despite all his success, the New Yorker (yes, he and his wife now spend most of the offseason in the Big Apple) can go out for dinner here and get hardly recognized.
“This is not what Brett Favre expected. He could really use a hug. Give, give, give, all he does is give, and what does he get in return? Not what he expected. Oh, the suffering, the repeated blows to his dignity, to be paid $16 million for one more season of perpetual, unending, exasperating boyhood.
“ ‘I would never have expected to be in this situation,’ Favre said after the Minnesota Vikings fell to 3-7 on Sunday. He didn’t expect what? To age? To be exposed as a juvenile Peter Pan narcissist, on and off the field? He didn’t expect his offseason lassitude to result in losses, allegedly sending inappropriate messages and images to Jenn Sterger as an attempt at seduction? Mainly, it seems Favre didn’t expect to be denied the abject hero worship and Super Bowl he believes is his perennial due.
“Here’s Favre, throwing his 17th interception Sunday, and yet he has the nerve to argue with and wave off offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell on the sideline. Here’s Favre, dragging a whole franchise into this retirement psychodrama for the past two summers, and helping to cost Brad Childress his job as coach. Yet he has the effrontery to suggest it’s a personal sacrifice for him to play out this losing season, as if 20 years in the league should have entitled him to some sort of get-out-of-adversity-free card.
“If there is a theme in the NFL this week, it’s the heavy, heavy toll a team pays when a quarterback’s ego runs amok. By the time last Sunday was over, after watching the histrionics of Favre and Vince Young, I half-enjoyed seeing Richard Seymour drop Ben Roethlisberger with one punch….
“Favre’s season has become embarrassing to watch, not because of his age or physical failings, but because of his naked self-pity. It’s not that Favre’s body has broken down; his character has….There is a needy undertone, a begging for adulation, as each week after another loss, Favre publicly weeps for himself.
“ ‘If the arm comes off, it comes off,’ he told ESPN. ‘If I can’t throw anymore, I can’t throw anymore. I’ve got nothing to save myself for now.’…
“Favre has six games to go before he walks away for good, and his retirement doesn’t have to be this ugly. There can be enormous dignity in great athletes who reach the end of their abilities. There’s nothing wrong with playing until they’re past it; it’s the price for Hall of Fame longevity, and often they reward us with epic third acts.
“But Favre has moved into a fourth act, and behind it seems a reluctance to grow up and accept life after football, to surrender his specialness and to slip into the more ordinary world. Pretty much all of Favre’s statements can be boiled down to this: I don’t know what to do without fame and football.
“Why must humanity delight in Brett Favre’s misery so? Are we fundamentally a cruel people, who like nothing better than to claw at the purple jersey of a beloved icon, or is there something about the Wrangler-panted Pharaoh that rightly offends? There are so many happy stories out there in the NFL – the Refuse to Lose (also Refuse to Play Well Most of the Game) Jets; the surprise Buccaneers; the lucky fans who caught free QB shoulder pads at a Titans game – why does America prefer to gleefully bask in a warm tub of SchadenFavre?
“On Monday, the Meltdown in Minnesota got meltdownier as the 3-7 Vikings finally mercy-canned their head coach, Brad Childress. Mr. Childress, a maligned tactician who always looked like he would be happier leading a junior-high-school canoe trip, had repeatedly feuded with Mr. Favre, even last year, when the Vikings came within a bad interception of the Super Bowl. After the Vikings were whomped 31-3 at home Sunday by the rival Green Bay Packers, the team was forced to decide between benching a ragged 41-year-old quarterback who plans to retire (for realsies!) at the end of this year, or sacking a head coach who had multiple seasons left on his contract.
“Here in New York, we watch Minnesota’s unraveling with morbid curiosity. Mr. Favre played one season as a Jet, of course, and Rex Ryan’s men drove a shiny coffin nail into the 2010 Vikings with a 29-20 victory in October. Meanwhile, the NFL is still sorting out that awkward caper involving phone messages Mr. Favre allegedly sent during his semester abroad in the Meadowlands….
“As his failed retirements have proved, (Favre’s) a hopeless feast of contradictions, a guy who can seem ready for season-ending surgery one day and declare himself as fresh as a 21-year-old the next. Emotionally, he’s all shirtsleeves, and as a player, he was more brilliant than maddening. He is more than just Number Four. He is the original Four Loko.
“Everyone watches Mr. Favre stumble through these embarrassments and assumes he must feel regretful about coming back one last time. But recently we were listening to our radio sensei, WFAN’s Boomer Esiason, and he said something very sharp, which, to paraphrase, was: Mr. Favre probably doesn’t feel bad when he goes to the bank. He will reportedly be paid at least $16 million this season. Most of us would endure far worse catering for that sum.
“Mr. Favre understood that coming back was a risk, but this is a country built on risks. Before the most famous football player of his generation set his creaky ankle into this season, he knew the rules: If at first you don’t succeed, try again.
“But if you try again and still don’t succeed, everyone feels entitled to a little SchadenFavre.”
Note: Last week I said the surprise of the week could be that Favre retires early. In light of Esiason’s comment, I plead guilty to suffering a severe brain cramp.
–And then there is Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young, a solid “Jerk of the Year” contender who had a serious confrontation with coach Jeff Fisher following the Titans’ overtime loss to Washington last Sunday.
During the contest, Young injured his thumb and threw his shoulder pads into the stands. Young returned to the sidelines with his thumb taped, wanting to play, but Fisher stuck with replacement Rusty Smith, a rookie. ESPN.com picks up the story.
“When the team gathered in the locker room following the loss, Young began muttering and cursing under his breath as Fisher addressed the team, the Tennessean reported Sunday night.
“After Fisher asked Young to be quiet, the paper said, the quarterback finished dressing and prepared to leave the room. Fisher told Young to stop and not to ‘run out on your teammates,’ sources told The Tennessean. Young told Fisher, ‘I’m not running out on my teammates, I’m running out on you,’ the paper said.”
Not a smart move, Mr. Young. Add “Idiot of the Year” to the pile of potential hardware come year end.
—College Basketball
Some interesting early season contests. On Monday, Michigan State struggled to defeat Div.-II Chaminade in Hawaii, 82-74, Chaminade being the school that every college basketball fan knows defeated then-No. 1-ranked Virginia with Ralph Sampson way back in 1982. So perhaps this served as an omen, with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo saying after the game that his boys would have to play better the next night against UConn.
And sure enough, the Huskies rode the hot play of guard Kemba Walker to a 70-67 upset of the No. 2 Spartans. No. 1 Duke, meanwhile, passed a major test in defeating No. 4 Kansas State. These two, plus Michigan State, will undoubtedly fill many a fan’s Final Four bracket come March.
Meanwhile, I received my San Diego State Aztecwear in the mail and boy is it good looking. I’m pumped to get out there end of February, and talk about great marketing, my shirt was wrapped in The Daily Aztec paper covering SDSU’s big win over Gonzaga. You rock, Aztec Store employees!
And your AP Poll…out prior to the Michigan State loss and Duke-Kansas State contest.
1. Duke
2. Michigan State…won’t drop far
3. Ohio State
4. Kansas State…ditto
5. Pitt
6. Kansas
7. Villanova
8. Kentucky
9. Syracuse
10. Purdue
18. San Diego State! The train has left the station…toot toot!…toot!
23. BYU…two big games against SDSU later on
25. UNC
–The Derek Jeter contract situation is getting messier by the day.
“Jeter has made more than $205 million from the Yankees. He likes it here. The Yankees like him. The sides have had 10 years to think about their next agreement. Did it really have to get nasty?
“To recap, from various news media forums: (Hal) Steinbrenner emphasized that he was running a business, and warned that talks could get ugly. (Casey) Close, Jeter’s agent, responded by saying his client’s value to the franchise ‘cannot be overstated.’ The Yankees emphasized that they would value Jeter as a player, not a brand.
“Close, normally quite reticent, then called the Yankees’ tactics baffling. The Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman, fired back by saying he was concerned about Jeter’s age and declining performance.
“Is it so hard for the Yankees to recognize that Jeter’s impact goes far beyond statistics? Is it that much of a blow to Jeter’s pride to admit that tying for the major league lead in outs, while playing a young man’s position at age 36, is a legitimate cause for concern?”
Casey Close is looking for a marketing deal similar to what the Yankees gave Alex Rodriguez, a $30 million bonus package tied to his pursuit of the career home run record. Close wants it for Jeter’s “untainted pursuit of 3,000 hits,” as Kepner notes. “Jeter has never embarrassed the franchise the way Rodriguez has – even before the steroids admission – and holds widespread, uncomplicated appeal. Jeter is the captain, unfailingly respectful to fans and reporters and opponents. That has to count for something extra, especially for such a high-profile team.
“But the Yankees have a point, too: by offering three years and $45 million, they are already paying a premium. One of the comparisons they have cited is Chase Utley, the Phillies’ second baseman, who – conveniently – will make $45 million over the next three seasons. Utley is a more productive hitter who is four and a half years younger than Jeter.”
As for GM Brian Cashman, he said, “There is nothing baffling about our position. We have been very honest and direct with them, not through the press. We feel our offer is appropriate and fair. We appreciate the contributions Derek has made to our organization and we have made it clear to them. Our primary focus is his on-the-field performance the last couple of years in conjunction with his age, and we have some concerns in that area that need to be addressed in a multi-year deal going forward.”
Jeter reportedly wants in excess of $20 million per season, which is totally absurd. And what I found fascinating was watching a report by local NBC sportscaster Bruce Beck on Monday night where Beck himself was shocked at the public’s reaction to the contract dispute; as in he interviewed three women, clearly knowledgeable baseball fans and heretofore Jeter’s biggest supporters, who all said Jeter was in the wrong not to accept $15 million a season. Actually, the economy being what it is, all three had zero patience for the way Jeter is reacting.
It’s not that Jeter is supposed to give in. I’m assuming he could get the Yankees up to $17 million per plus an option for a fourth season, but he and his agent are misreading a very surly public. Imagine if Jeter signs and then doesn’t get off to a good start. Let’s say he is hitting a soft .250 after April. He will be shocked by the level of animosity he receives.
Be humble, Derek. Keep your statements to a minimum. Appreciate what you have, take the team’s offer, and work like hell to prove everyone wrong. The added endorsement money you’d then receive would more than make up for any perceived salary shortfall.
–Meanwhile, the other team in New York, my Mets, hired Terry Collins to be their next manager, though gave him only a two-year contract, which tells you everything. New GM Sandy Alderson is rolling the dice that the high strung Collins can light a fire under a team that has played listless baseball for two years, and before that choked with historic proportions down the stretch of the prior two seasons.
Collins managed the Astros and Angels, with modest success, but this was over ten years ago and he has a reputation of wearing out his welcome in the locker room. Has he learned from his mistakes?
“Hey, maybe he will surprise us all. But it feels like even the Mets are hedging their bets. Collins received just a two-year contract and Wally Backman – a more popular, younger Type-A – is likely to be stashed in the minors for another day.
“Thus Collins does not have a long fuse to show that he has changed his short fuse; that he can find the delicate distinction between passion and being out of control; between inspiring with fire and setting his clubhouse ablaze with mutiny.”
–Cincinnati’s Joey Votto won the N.L. MVP Award in surprising fashion, taking all but one first-place vote as he blew away Albert Pujols, who was going for his third consecutive MVP. For Votto, who hit .324 with 37 home runs and 113 RBI, it was a helluva comeback from the year before when he sat out a lengthy spell in order to deal with depression and anxiety stemming from the death of his father. Votto became the third Canadian to achieve the feat, the others being Larry Walker of Colorado in 1997 and Justin Morneau of the Twins in 2006.
And Texas’ Josh Hamilton took the A.L. MVP trophy. Hamilton won 22 of 28 first-place votes, easily beating Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera and New York’s Robinson Cano. Hamilton won the batting title with a .359 average while clubbing 32 homers and driving in 100, despite missing the final month of the season with fractured ribs, but then he helped lead the Rangers to the World Series by hitting four home runs in the ALCS.
–We note the passing of former pitcher Danny McDevitt, 78. McDevitt won the Brooklyn Dodgers’ final game at Ebbets Field in 1957, a 2-0 shutout, striking out nine Pittsburgh Pirates. The date was Sept. 24, 1957, and only 6,702 fans showed up as owner Walter O’Malley wouldn’t announce the move to Los Angeles until two weeks later. Brooklyn finished up with three games in Philadelphia. McDevitt was 7-4 for Brooklyn in ’57 and then went 10-8 for L.A. in 1959. For his career he finished 21-27.
–Entering Wednesday’s contest against Orlando, the Miami Heat, who were supposed to win 70 or more, are a whopping 8-6. The other day, Dwyane Wade had his worst shooting performance ever, 1-13 from the field and 1-5 from the line. We cannot get enough of this around here.
And now it appears forward Udonis Haslem will miss the rest of the regular season after surgery on his left foot. Haslem was a critical cog in the Heat’s plans for total domination because he seemed to be the only one who wanted to rebound. LeBron (5.4) and Chris Bosh (7.2) are on pace for career-lows in this category. Heck, in 1993-94, 5’3” Muggsy Bogues averaged 4.1 rebounds a game for Charlotte! [I looked it up…in March 1994, he had a career high 10 rebounds in one game.]
–21-year-old budding superstar golfer Rory McIlroy is making news again. The other day he said he wouldn’t play more than 11 or so tournaments on the PGA Tour next year, focusing instead on the European Tour. Now he says he may skip The Players Championship, the fifth major, because he doesn’t like Pete Dye courses. He’s missed the cut in both his attempts there. The lad needs to slow down a little. Don’t draw too much attention to yourself on topics like this, Rory.
–I wrote last time of the 875-pound bear killed in the Poconos and how one guy had fed it, but in a follow-up that Johnny Mac passed along, the tame bruin, “Bozo,” was killed legally, by bow and arrow, though the locals are very upset as Bozo had become a favorite in the Bushkill area.
What I forgot was that 3,500 bear a year are killed in Pennsylvania (309,000 deer).
Ah, but neighboring New Jersey is reintroducing a bear hunt, for six days starting Dec. 6. Run for your lives, my bruin friends…run for your lives!
—Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
First one was Nov. 27, 1924, also known then as the Macy’s Christmas Parade, and the early ones consisted of 300 Macy’s employees marching with two dozen animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo, including camels and elephants. But as the New York Post reports, “The live beasts frightened children and after three years they were replaced by balloon animals.” Plus I’m assuming the animals made a break for it, running over the kids in the process, and after three years there weren’t any animals left.
The Post notes, “In the parade’s early years, the balloons were released into the air at the parade’s conclusion. Each had a return address stitched into it, and the idea was, the balloon would float off, slowly deflate, then drop to earth, where someone would find it and return it to Macy’s for a $50 or $100 reward.
“In 1931, aviator Clarence Chamberlain had just left Bennett Field when he spotted Felix the Cat hovering over Jamaica Bay. In a feat of mid-air heroics, he snagged the balloon with the wing and returned it safely to the field.”
In 1962, Donald Duck’s rain filled brim caused the balloon to tip and dump 50 gallons of water on chilly spectators.
In 1997, winds blew the Cat in the Hat into a light-post, a piece of which broke off and almost killed a girl, who was in a coma for a month.
But concerning a different Thanksgiving tradition, the pardoning of a turkey by the president, as reported by the Post’s Candice M. Giove, Harry Truman supposedly spared the first turkey in 1947, but the Truman Library has never been able to verify this. Days before he was assassinated in 1963, JFK unofficially spared a gobbler. “He looked at the turkey and said maybe we should let this one grow a little more,” said turkey-pardon historian Ira Brill.
But it was really George H.W. Bush who was the first to establish the precedent of an official pardon in 1989.
Dwight Eisenhower liked to carve the White House bird himself. During World War II, Ike made sure turkeys were served to the troops on Thanksgiving.
William Howard Taft, all 450 or so pounds of him, gobbled up a turkey weighing in at 50 lbs., or so legend has it.
And Benjamin Franklin wanted the “respectable” turkey to become the national bird instead of the bald eagle. He derided the eagle’s “bad moral character.”
—Oprah was at it again…this time instead of mac and cheese, she handed out 275 new 2012 Volkswagen Beetles. That’s right…2012.
The car hasn’t been unveiled yet, anywhere! So like the folks don’t get them for at least a year! ‘Sup wit dat? I mean VW isn’t formally unveiling it until second quarter. No way these people get the car. For once Oprah did what I argued last time she should be doing all along…jerk the audience around.
–Victoria’s Secret supermodel Selita Ebanks is a Jets fan. Just sayin’. The New York Post reported she was at last Sunday’s contest, wearing green nail polish and noshing on two hot dogs and a canolli. We’re very happy to have her aboard the Jets Express.
–So I watched “Dancing With the Stars” Mon. and Tues., which is two shows more than I’ve ever watched before, but if you think I’d ever watch “Skating With the Stars,” you’re nuts.
But what other shows could ABC roll out? How about “Drinking With the Stars”? Charlie Sheen could be a special guest. David Hasselhoff, too. They could be shown working with the contestants, behind the scenes, paramedics on hand.
But back to DWTS, I thought all these dancers lost weight over the course of the show, not gain it like Bristol appears to have done. ‘Everyone just hates me! I need to stuff my face!’
—Miley Cyrus turned 18…or as the Daily News put it… “She’s legal!”
–GQ describes Jamey Johnson’s “The Guitar Song” as “easily the year’s best country album.”
–I caught PBS’ “American Masters” profile of John Lennon. Worth checking out. Depressing, of course, and his latter music wasn’t very good, but some nice moments, including concerning the Nixon administration’s obsession with deporting him and various comments from Elton John. I forgot how close those two were. What also shines through is Lennon’s love of New York and how he was largely left alone…until that fateful night.
Top 3 songs for the week 11/27/76: #1 “Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright)” (Rod Stewart) #2 “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” (Gordon Lightfoot…with 24 wild boars, they ripped up the moors, as the skies of November turned gloomy….something like that) #3 “Love So Right” (Bee Gees)…and…#4 “Muskrat Love” (Captain & Tennille…muskrats are nasty and overrated) #5 “The Rubberband Man” (Spinners) #6 “Disco Duck (Part 1)” (Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots…good gawd, music sucked in this my freshman year of school) #7 “Just To Be Close To You” (Commodores…then again, this is one of their better ones) #8 “Beth” (Kiss…Beth who? You can’t just throw out a name and not tell us who you’re referring to…) #9 “More Than A Feeling” (Boston…I just had a ‘Nam-like flashback because one of my buddies in the dorm played this album incessantly) #10 “Nadia’s Theme (The Young and the Restless)” (Barry DeVorzon & Perry Botkin, Jr.)
Heisman Trophy Quiz Answers: 1) Three winners from Michigan: Tom Harmon, 1940; Desmond Howard, 1991; Charles Woodson, 1997. 2) Two from Wisconsin: Alan Ameche, 1954; Ron Dayne, 1999.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
