NFL Quiz: Back to Pitt and Dan Marino, or rather the 1983 NFL draft. Yes, for some of you this is easy but it should be required of all schoolchildren to know who the five quarterbacks were that were drafted ahead of Marino in ’83 in the first round. So name ‘em. Answer below.
College Football
No. 4 (BCS) Baylor at No. 10 Oklahoma State is the big one this weekend.
No. 5 Oregon at Arizona (6-4, 3-4) is critical for the Ducks and No. 8 Missouri at No. 24 Mississippi is as well for the Tigers if they are to stay in both the SEC and BCS game race.
No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Florida State play Chattanooga and Idaho, respectively, and I can guarantee the Seminoles beat Idaho by 63-0.
No. 16 Northern Illinois has a toughie at Toledo (7-3, 5-1) on Wednesday night. Here’s the deal with the Huskies and their struggle to get an at-large BCS bowl berth.
Fresno State, No. 15 overall in the BCS, is 16 and 14 in the two human polls that make up part of the BCS calculation, while Northern Illinois is just 21 and 18 in these same rankings, but 12 in the computer equation (Fresno State ranks 16).
Fresno State has games against New Mexico and San Jose State remaining, before a likely Western Conference championship contest against Boise State, which the Bulldogs defeated 41-40 back in September.
Northern Illinois is on its way to the MAC championship against Buffalo or Bowling Green, neither of which it has played this year.
The Huskies continue to be hurt by their poor performance in the Orange Bowl last year, 31-10 losers to Florida State, with the idea being among many ‘human’ voters that the team doesn’t deserve another berth this season, even if they are probably better than Fresno State.
Meanwhile, back to the top, we’re all just biding our time until Alabama-Auburn, Nov. 30. That, the SEC title game, and a Big Ten title matchup of Ohio State-Michigan State should be the highlights until bowl season.
FCS (Div. I-AA) Coaches Poll
1. North Dakota State 10-0
2. Eastern Illinois 10-1
3. Eastern Washington 9-2
4. Maine 10-1
5. Towson 9-2
6. Montana 9-2
7. Coastal Carolina 10-1
8. McNeese State 9-2
9. Sam Houston State 8-3
10. Southeastern Louisiana 9-2
11. Fordham 10-1
15. Lehigh 8-2
19. Princeton 8-1…at least moved up five slots
One more week of regular season before playoffs start.
–I had gone to bed by the fourth quarter of the Patriots-Panthers game but saw the game-ending highlights. Tom Brady tried to find Rob Gronkowski in the end zone on the final play, New England down 24-20, the ball was intercepted by Carolina’s Robert Lester, but a flag was thrown. Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly had Gronkowski in a bear huge so it was obvious pass interference. Not even a question.
But after conferring, the officials picked the flag up. Game over.
Referee Clete Blakeman said after the game, “There were two officials that came in. One was the umpire and the other one was our side judge and there was a discussion at that point as to the, in essence, the catchability of the ball due to its location.
“So it was determined at that point in time that when the primary contact occurred on the tight end that the ball, in essence, was coming in underthrown and, in essence, it was immediately at that point intercepted at the front end of the end zone. So there was a determination that, in essence, uncatchability, that the ball was intercepted at or about the same time the primary contact against the receiver occurred.”
Ah, Mr. Blakeman? You are, in essence, wrong. Terrible call. It wasn’t catchable because Gronkowski was being mauled and couldn’t run a route. The officials were assuming way too much.
Rule 8, Section 5, Article 1 of the NFL’s playing rules says: “It is pass interference by either team when any act by a player more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage significantly hinders the progress of an eligible receiver’s opportunity to catch the ball.”
Prohibited acts include “Contact by a player who is not playing the ball that restricts the opponent’s opportunity to make the catch.” The contact is deemed permissible only if “the pass is clearly uncatchable by the involved players.” [Tom Pelissero / USA TODAY]
As in clearly out of the field of play and Brady’s pass was definitely in the field of play.
–Ah, it’s fun being in the media capital of the world. It’s the one place where if your team sucks, or in the case of the Jets, incredibly inconsistent, it can still provide lots of entertainment.
So the big story this week is what to do with quarterback Geno Smith. The rookie has thrown 16 interceptions in his first ten games, with just eight TD passes. In his last five he has one TD and 8 picks, plus a lost fumble. Those 9 turnovers were converted into 38 points. Overall, Geno has four fumbles lost or 20 TOs total. In Mark Sanchez’ rookie year, he also had 16 INTs in his first ten games with 3 fumbles lost.
But Geno has truly been brutal the last five and heading into a critical game down in Baltimore, coach Rex Ryan is standing behind him, sort of. I say Geno gets just the entire first half to turn it around or he’s yanked, assuming the Jets are down at that point owing to his lousy play. Of course his backup is untested Matt Simms, which is why good NFL backups are at a premium. As in you can name them all on one hand.
–How good has Nick Foles of the Eagles been? Michael Salfino of the Wall Street Journal has a story that Foles’ 128.0 passer rating on his 162 attempts is the fourth-best start since at least 1991, according to Stats, LLC.
QB Rating after 162 attempts:
Peyton Manning, DEN 2013…17 TD – 0 INT…139.6 rating
Kurt Warner, STL 1999…18-3…131.5
Daunte Culpepper, MIN 2004…15-2…129.1
Nick Foles, PHI 2013…16-0…128.0
Tom Brady, NE 2007…16-2…127.0
Aaron Rodgers, GB 2011…12-2…121.0
–Former linebacker Thomas Howard, who spent 8 years in the NFL, his first five with Oakland before being released by Atlanta last week, died in a high-speed car crash on a freeway in Oakland early Monday morning. Sadly, his BMW “hit a big rig, flipped over the center divider and went head-on into a Honda traveling on the other side around 1 a.m.,” as reported by the AP, killing the other driver.
Witnesses say the car was traveling at speeds of 100 to 110 mph. Sympathies to the other victim’s family.
College Basketball
—AP Hoops Poll (Nov. 18)…no won-loss records until January from moi.
1. Michigan State
2. Kansas
3. Louisville
4. Kentucky
5. Arizona
6. Duke
7. Oklahoma State…fun school to go to, what with football program in solid shape as well…and I didn’t feel like studying anyway…
8. Ohio State
9. Syracuse
10. VCU…ding ding ding! Pollsters already recognizing what your editor does. VCU all the way, sports fans!
21. Iowa State…see, ‘upset’ over Michigan not much of one.
–I missed Grinnell College’s Jack Taylor and his 109-point effort on Sunday against Crossroads College in a 173-123 win. It was Taylor who set an NCAA record last year with a 138-point performance.
This time Taylor was 35-of-70 from the field, including 24-of-48 from three-point range. He also made 15-of-17 from the foul line.
Prior to last year, Clarence “Bevo” Francis had the old mark of 113 set way back in 1954.
–On Monday, Johnny Mac’s St. Francis (Brooklyn) Terriers were leading Syracuse at the Carrier Dome 50-46 with about four minutes to play but went scoreless the rest of the way and lost 56-50. Earlier, St. Francis defeated Miami in overtime. Hmmm…a potential Cinderella come March? [Like a 2 vs. 15 upset? Of course they’ll have to win their conference tournament first to get in.]
—Wake Forest fans are ticked off after learning that 7-2, 275-pound center Isaac Haas (no relation to Bill or Jay) out of Piedmont, Ala., has spurned the Deacon basketball team for Purdue, this after Haas committed to Wake in early September! Cue Jeff Spicoli. The Deacons’ staff was shocked.
Haas (no relation to Isaac Hayes), said “almost every big-time center who has played at Purdue has gone to the NBA and I think that’s because of exposure and development.”
So we have us a new enemy…and it is…Purdue and Isaac Haas (no relation to former state department official and renowned foreign policy strategist Richard Haass, who spells his name differently, anyway, lest there was some confusion).
NBA Fever…or indigestion…
–Yikes, the Knicks and Nets are close to pushing the panic button as both start out 3-7. Even your editor, who selected the Nets to go all the way (though he’s a Knicks fan) is beginning to wonder if some of the older players, see Kevin Garnett, have anything left in the tank.
–But regarding Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, the Washington Post’s Norman Chad calls him the “second most interesting man in the world,” after the Dos Equis guy, of course. Prokhorov, after all, “ran as an independent candidate in the 2012 Russian presidential election, finishing third with 7.9 percent of the vote. Which makes Prokhorov a 21st-century version of George Wallace, John B. Anderson and Ross Perot.”….
“Armed with a personal fortune and the largesse of the community, Prokhorov decided to literally gather a lineup of all-stars. The Nets’ starting five this season of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson, Deron Williams and Brook Lopez has a combined 35 all-star game appearances, with 10-time all-star Jason Kidd the team’s first-year coach.
“At the moment, all that star power has led to a 3-6 record [ed. now 3-7], which proves the old adage that you can lead a stable of stud horses to water but you can’t make ‘em hit an open jump shot.
“Naturally, the price of assembling a super team – albeit, a flawed one – is NBA-astronomical. The Nets easily have the league’s top player payroll this season at $101 million.
“(The highest paid Net is Johnson, at $21.5 million. Yes, $21.5 million. I’ll be honest with you – even if Johnson juggled a baby, a bowling ball and a steak knife at halftime and singlehandedly stopped global warming, he’s not putting one additional fan into the stands.)”
–The Pistons’ Andre Drummond is 3 of 17 from the free throw line thus far. That’s not real good, boys and girls.
Ball Bits
–Mets fans are miffed that reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who while 40 years of age (soon 41) had a super year out of the pen and wanted to remain a Met, signed with Colorado for one year, $2.5 million. I’m guessing the Mets offered $1.5 mil and LaTroy said ‘See ya.’ Big blow. And he was a super influence in the clubhouse.
World Cup Qualifying
The field of 32 is basically set. Cristiano Ronaldo had a hat trick to give Portugal a 3-2 victory over Sweden to move on to Brazil.
Iceland failed to become the smallest qualifier when it lost to Croatia 2-0 in Zagreb.
Ghana defeated Egypt and U.S. coach Bob Bradley.
In a huge development, France, which lost the first leg of its two-match qualifier to Ukraine 2-0, roared back to win the second leg, 3-0.
So France joins fellow European countries Portugal, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Spain, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium and Switzerland.
Others: Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Ghana, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, the United States, Costa Rica and Honduras.
Mexico and Uruguay have big leads heading into their final matches Wednesday against New Zealand and Jordan.
World Cup play begins June 12. Gonna be fun, as long as the Brazilian government can hold down the violence in and around the matches. [The Brazilian fans will be vicious against the U.S., owing to fallout from the Snowden/NSA documents…just a guess on my part. We’ll be an easy scapegoat.]
–Time for the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament…the four top seeds are UCLA, Washington, Notre Dame and California. Wake Forest is a No. 14 seed and plays the winner of VCU-Navy. Should the Deacs win that one, they would likely play No. 3 Notre Dame.
Hey, J. Mac. Your St. Francis (Brooklyn) Terriers, continuing their sports resurgence, have a first-round game against Penn State. Ruff Ruff.
Indiana, the 2012 national champ, finished just 8-11-2 but made this year’s tourney because it won the Big Ten tournament and faces perennial power Akron (16-3-1) in a big first-round matchup.
In the women’s tournament, the first four seeds all come from the ACC: Virginia, Virginia Tech, Florida State and North Carolina.
–I’ve written of Ray Halbritter on more than one occasion as it pertains to the Washington Redskins nickname debate, and most recently passed on information that he was not even a member of the Oneida Indian Nation. That last bit I don’t know for sure.
But over the weekend, Theresa Vargas and Annys Shin of the Washington Post had a piece raising questions about Halbritter’s behavior, some saying he’s a billionaire who amassed his fortune as an opportunist, specifically through his ownership of the Turning Stone Resort Casino, 30 miles east of Syracuse. The Oneida Nation owns the resort, but Halbritter is the chief executive of an operation that takes in $200 million to $400 million a year, though it does not publicly share its financials.
The 900 members of the tribe also largely don’t share in the largesse, according to many of them who told the Post they only receive stipends of $16,000 a year, if Halbritter approves them.
Halbritter said he’s never stripped an Oneida of his or her membership, and that the tribe’s books are open to members, but one of his cousins said Halbritter “ordered the tribe’s police to shackler her in front of her 6-year-old and take her to a federal holding facility in Pennsylvania – all because she wouldn’t let them inspect her home (a trailer). By the time her trailer was demolished, 13 other families had lost their homes and had staged a ‘March for Democracy.’”
Halbritter said her cousin’s trailer was a fire hazard.
There have been similar episodes and allegations about unfair financial practices, such as an $18 million contract being steered to a shell corporation controlled by Ray Halbritter’s brother.
Meanwhile, the Oneidas have spent tens of thousands of dollars on their “Change the Mascot” campaign, while to other tribal leaders around the country he is viewed as a hero. He also recently appeared at the White House and met with President Obama.
–I forgot to note in discussing Jimmie Johnson’s sixth Sprint Cup title that major kudos needs to be extended to crew chief Chad Knaus, who has been with Johnson for all six.
–Hall of Fame bowler Billy Hardwick died of a heart attack at the age of 72. Oh, I remember him, growing up, watching the Pro Bowlers Tour with Chris Schenkel and Billy Welu (I mostly watched in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, not after when Nelson Burton Jr. joined Schenkel).
Back to Schenkel, his final network appearance on ABC was at a PBA event in 1997. There is a touching tribute on YouTube (six-minute one) worth watching to remind yourself what a professional broadcaster is like, as opposed to some of the clowns we have today. Schenkel was a key on ABC’s Olympic coverage, for starters.
–The USGA and R&A have decided that players will not be penalized under the Rules of Golf if their ball moves and it wasn’t obvious to the naked eye.
In a joint statement, the USGA and R&A said: “New Decision 18/4 provides that, where enhanced technological evidence (e.g. HDTV, digital recording or online visual media, etc.) shows that a ball has left its position and come to rest in another location, the ball will not be deemed to have moved if that movement was not reasonably discernible to the naked eye at the time.”
Think Tiger Woods and the second round of the BMW when he moved a twig near his ball. Video evidence showed the ball moved, prompting a penalty stroke but Woods claimed the ball merely oscillated.
–So I’ve said since it was announced that Sochi was the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics Games that you’d have to be an idiot to think of going, but for television viewers the Alpine events will be great fun, especially to see how Lindsey Vonn* does, let alone Bode Miller and Ted Ligity. And the hockey could be spectacular.
But as the Wall Street Journal’s Brian Costa notes, the U.S. team, once it gets outside North America, hasn’t medaled since 1972. You have Lake Placid, 1980, silver in 2002 at Salt Lake City, and silver at Vancouver in 2010. The U.S. bombed out in Torino (2006) and finished eighth. They were fifth in Nagano (1998).
I forgot that in the U.S. and Canada, the rink size is 85 feet wide, but in Europe it’s 100 feet. So on the larger Euro surfaces it’s more about speed and finesse versus the NHL’s bruising style on the smaller playing surfaces.
It’s also about cultural differences, from food to sleeping quarters, as Costa notes.
The other thing is the NHL breaks on Feb. 9, four days before the U.S. begins play against Slovakia. “Because of the high cost of insuring players’ salaries, (the U.S. team) didn’t skate together during an August orientation camp,” writes Costa.
“They’re not even going on the same plane together,” said Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who will coach Team USA. “They’re going to step off the plane, get together, have a practice or two and play a game. It’s a daunting task to come together as a team and play with any kind of chemistry as a group.”
*Vonn crashed in practice in Colorado on Tuesday and as I go to post there is no word on the extent of her injuries. The U.S. Ski Team spokesman did not seem concerned, however. She was carted off the mountain but this is standard procedure. Fingers crossed…big time. Vonn said she has been reluctantly wearing a protective knee brace following her surgery after last February’s crash.
–At the Dallas Zoo on Sunday, a male lion attacked and killed a lioness in full view of visitors. The male seized five-year-old Johari by the neck. Zoo officials said the lions had lived together for years. The male will not be euthanized, but will not be allowed to live with females again.
Video taken by a zoo visitor shows the male apparently calmly clamping down on the female’s neck. A witness told a local television station that he thought they were playing.
Male lions are known to occasionally kill other males in the wild, but not females.
What to do with the ‘Lion,’ a perennial top ten on the All-Species List, is a difficult call and I’ve brought in the FBI to do an independent investigation before ruling on their status.
–At the National Zoo in Washington on Monday, a zebra attacked a zoo keeper, biting the veteran keeper several times. The keeper (not identified…don’t know if it is a ‘he’ or ‘she’) was taken to the hospital for treatment. The keeper was not supposed to be in the enclosure.
So right after this happened, a gazelle, in an enclosure next door, apparently spooked by the zebra incident, died when it ran into a barrier. Freakin’ chaos, I tell ya. Good thing the elephants didn’t start stampeding.
As for the standing of ‘Zebra’ on the All-Species List, the striped one, currently No. 98, is being placed on double-secret probation until after the holiday season; admittedly a big blow as they will be held out of view for zoo attendees, thus they won’t share in the gate receipts. [Zoo animals receive 7.4% of all ticket sales, in case you didn’t know this. Tiger Management LLC is responsible for investing said funds.]
Top 3 songs for the week 11/16/74: #1 “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” (John Lennon with The Plastic Ono Nuclear Band) #2 “Do It (‘Til You’re Satisfied)” (B.T.Express) #3 “My Melody Of Love” (Bobby Vinton…very underrated artist… “The Polish Prince” from Canonsburg, Pa., last big hit…)…and…#4 “Tin Man” (America) #5 “Back Home Again” (John Denver…still miss him…) #6 “I Can Help” (Billy Swan) #7 “Longfellow Serenade” (Neil Diamond) #8 “Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)” (Reunion…blows….) #9 “Everlasting Love” (Carl Carlton…excellent tune…) #10 “Carefree Highway” (Gordon Lightfoot)
NFL Quiz Answer: 1983 NFL Draft…quarterbacks in first round.
1. John Elway (Stanford) selected by Baltimore, Elway was a jerk (as was Dad), and Baltimore was forced to trade him to Denver.
7. Todd Blackledge (Penn State) Kansas City…went on to write highly useful “Taste of the Town” about college football’s best places to eat. Buy it for Christmas! Then go on a road trip.
14. Jim Kelly (Miami) Buffalo…Hall of Famer, awesome competitor, good man.
15. Tony Eason (Illinois) New England…eh
24. Ken O’Brien (Cal-Davis) New York Jets…not awful…Jets fans would love him today.
27. Dan Marino (Pitt) Miami…I was in the stands as a Jets fan during the fake spike TD play (1994) that to some of us is almost as bad as Carlos Beltran being frozen by Adam Wainright’s curve in the 2006 NLCS.
Nos. 2 and 3 in the first round, by the way, were running backs Eric Dickerson (SMU) and Curt Warner (Penn State), both of whom had great careers.
The next QB, incidentally, wasn’t selected until late fifth round.
Catch me on Twitter @stocksandnews [Starting slow…but I’m committed to it.]
