It took a while, and maybe it's been all the commercials, but the Games have gotten to my head. I can't hold it in anymore . . . Give me snow, give me ice, give me Torino! I guess the Olympic spirit is in me, after all. It took a while, but I'm feeling it now. And so are the German athletes and the Norwegians and the Russians too. They all have the spirit. They're all winning medals.
Unfortunately the Olympic spirit doesn't seem to be in many of our American athletes. Sure, Shaun White came through and won a gold in the aerial snowboard competition. (In fact, our snowboarders have probably had the most success of any of our athletes in these Olympics.) And speedskater Shani Davis made Winter Olympic history by becoming the first ever African-American to win a gold medal in the Games. But, on the whole, we haven't been all that impressive. We're LOSING, for crying out loud. That's right, I said it. Losing. I know the Olympics are supposed to be all about team, country, camaraderie and the like, and we're not supposed to get caught up in the medal standings, the battle for first place and the International trashtalking glory that comes with it, but come on now, we're the United States of America. Our country is huge and there's a lot of cold weather that reigns over our land. We've got Alaska, North Dakota, and Colorado within our borders. We should dominate the Winter Games. But for whatever reason, it's just not happening.
Bode "Bonehead" Miller coughed up any chance of our placing in the medals of skiing. And our men's hockey team fell flat on its figurative face, with a quarterfinal loss to Finland. The women's hockey club, at least, was able to take a bronze. Even Sasha Cohen couldn't seal the deal in women's figure skating---after a strong short program, she fell twice in her long performance and had to settle for a silver. And silver isn't even the same tint as gold.
But maybe I've gotten a little out of line here. Perhaps my perspective on the whole Olympic shebang is a little jaded. After years of rooting for inept New York Knicks, Jets and Mets teams, I appear to have finally reached a point where I'll take the glory of victory wherever I can get it, even if it's in the Olympics.
Maybe I'm just an Ugly American after all.
-JAB
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Those Mid-February Sports Doldrums
Spring is still five weeks away, I have no idea what that darned Groundhoug said in Punxatawney, PA, this year anyway, and outside of a passing glance here and there at Torino's Olympics, there's not a lot going on that excites me much right now on the athletic scene. Where's March Madness when you need it? Give me a big-time buzzerbeater that gets me out of my chair already!
Of late a number of big names are going through their personal February struggles. Oklahoma State basketball coach Eddie Sutton---a lock for the Hall of Fame even without a national title---had his season (and possibly his career) ended abruptly after getting arrested for a DUI. Sutton's saga may not be over yet, but it's hard to sell the old fella on too many more postseason runs when he's already been on the verge of retirement for a couple years anyway. Oh poor Eddie. Get somebody else to drive for ya!
You want bottom of the glass sorrow? Take a look at my beloved New York Knicks. At 14-37, they've lost 16 of their last 17 games and have essentially given up on the season in front of (finally) unpacked houses at Madison Square Garden. Larry Brown offered it up himself earlier this season when he publicly issued: "This job is way more difficult than I possibly could have imagined." That pretty much says it all right there. And it's not like Larry is getting a lot of help decisionwise in the front office right now either. Isiah Thomas has taken an atrocity the size of Little Bighorn and turned it into Pickett's Last Charge. Blindly maneuvering his way through a series of ill-fated trades, Thomas has mortgaged the Knicks future without improving the present. He gave up two unprotected first round picks (including this year's) for Eddy Curry. Unprotected means even if the draft pick ends up in the top of the draft lottery selection order, the Knicks will still not get to keep it. And the worst part of this whole situation is that nobody else was offering anything near what Isiah Thomas did for Curry. The guy had major health questions after suffering from heart troubles the previous season. Now the Knicks have a bunch of out of position combos in Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Question Richardson, Nate Robinson and the recently-acquired Jalen Rose. It's all over in the Big Apple, folks. The only question now is who will leave first: Larry or Isiah?
Then there's Wayne Gretky. The Great One has maybe had the worst month of anybody, what with his wife and close friend both being targeted in a criminal gambling investigation at the same time. Wife Janet and close friend Rick Tocchet are both in a lot of hot water right now, and the big questions are how much did #99 know and when did he know it? Obviously the guy was aware of what was going on, but was he profiting from it any kind of way? Probably not, but then, you never know about these things. Odds are, teflon Wayne will salvage his job after his first and only real public persona hit. If anything, it probably gives the Great One a little more gangsta flava, which never hurts the mystique....
Still, I can't close out the mid-February Doldrum Round-Up without harping at Boh-dee Miller. Mr. Miller couldn't even complete his big slalom event, but the bigger point is that nobody was really rooting for the guy anyway. Sure he's an American, and that's always the big rallying factor for the TV audiences at the Olympic Games, but the guy isn't somebody most folks would be proud to root for, what with the recent public statements and all. In case you forgot, Miller disclosed that he was a pretty regular drinker, to the extent that he claims he has competed "half-drunk" several times in the past. As if that's something to be proud of.
Not surprising then, out of all these troubled characters, the one who's pain I feel the least is the Bodester.
March can't come soon enough.
-JAB
Of late a number of big names are going through their personal February struggles. Oklahoma State basketball coach Eddie Sutton---a lock for the Hall of Fame even without a national title---had his season (and possibly his career) ended abruptly after getting arrested for a DUI. Sutton's saga may not be over yet, but it's hard to sell the old fella on too many more postseason runs when he's already been on the verge of retirement for a couple years anyway. Oh poor Eddie. Get somebody else to drive for ya!
You want bottom of the glass sorrow? Take a look at my beloved New York Knicks. At 14-37, they've lost 16 of their last 17 games and have essentially given up on the season in front of (finally) unpacked houses at Madison Square Garden. Larry Brown offered it up himself earlier this season when he publicly issued: "This job is way more difficult than I possibly could have imagined." That pretty much says it all right there. And it's not like Larry is getting a lot of help decisionwise in the front office right now either. Isiah Thomas has taken an atrocity the size of Little Bighorn and turned it into Pickett's Last Charge. Blindly maneuvering his way through a series of ill-fated trades, Thomas has mortgaged the Knicks future without improving the present. He gave up two unprotected first round picks (including this year's) for Eddy Curry. Unprotected means even if the draft pick ends up in the top of the draft lottery selection order, the Knicks will still not get to keep it. And the worst part of this whole situation is that nobody else was offering anything near what Isiah Thomas did for Curry. The guy had major health questions after suffering from heart troubles the previous season. Now the Knicks have a bunch of out of position combos in Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Question Richardson, Nate Robinson and the recently-acquired Jalen Rose. It's all over in the Big Apple, folks. The only question now is who will leave first: Larry or Isiah?
Then there's Wayne Gretky. The Great One has maybe had the worst month of anybody, what with his wife and close friend both being targeted in a criminal gambling investigation at the same time. Wife Janet and close friend Rick Tocchet are both in a lot of hot water right now, and the big questions are how much did #99 know and when did he know it? Obviously the guy was aware of what was going on, but was he profiting from it any kind of way? Probably not, but then, you never know about these things. Odds are, teflon Wayne will salvage his job after his first and only real public persona hit. If anything, it probably gives the Great One a little more gangsta flava, which never hurts the mystique....
Still, I can't close out the mid-February Doldrum Round-Up without harping at Boh-dee Miller. Mr. Miller couldn't even complete his big slalom event, but the bigger point is that nobody was really rooting for the guy anyway. Sure he's an American, and that's always the big rallying factor for the TV audiences at the Olympic Games, but the guy isn't somebody most folks would be proud to root for, what with the recent public statements and all. In case you forgot, Miller disclosed that he was a pretty regular drinker, to the extent that he claims he has competed "half-drunk" several times in the past. As if that's something to be proud of.
Not surprising then, out of all these troubled characters, the one who's pain I feel the least is the Bodester.
March can't come soon enough.
-JAB
Monday, February 06, 2006
Pittsburgh Steels the Deal
Pittsburgh 21 - Seattle 10.
All right, so Big Ben didn't get the MVP award . . . But Super Bowl XL still went down pretty much as predicted here on the website and on the Sports Rush radio program. Too much defense, too many big plays on offense late in the year for a Steelers team that came on like gangbusters down the stretch.
Don't forget, these guys had to win their last four of the regular season just to get in the post-season dance. They won their last eight in a row overall, and essentially dominated every team they played to get the Lombardi Trophy.
Which is not to say that the game last night proved to be an extremely exciting Super Bowl. On the contrary, it was a sloppily played contest in which both clubs showed signs of being more than a little bit antsy headed in. The game itself never had a real good flow to it, but at least, at three hours and twenty minutes, it was shorter than your average Super Bowl of the last decade which has tended to run in the four plus hour range.
And yet the bulk of pregame and halftime festivities did have their moments on the telecast yesterday. A celebration featuring most of the previous 39 Super Bowl MVPs caught my attention before the game. (Noticeably absent: Super Bowl MVPs Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, who insisted on more than the offered appearance money.)
I also enjoyed the Stevie Wonder led musical tribute before kickoff. John Legend, Joss Stone and a host of dancers and backup singers cooing the soul tunes of yesterday alongside the Hall of Fame musical legend. Wonder sounded strong and played well in an enjoyable reverie of old school tunes.
The halftime show was a decent one as well. The Rolling Stones came on to a host of cheers from the packed crowd (many of whom had not even been born when they first started doing their thing in the mid-60s) and moved through "Start Me Up", "Rough Justice" and "Satisfaction" before wrapping it up---the whole halftime break taking an extra long 31 minutes.
But I digress. Let's return to the Big Game itself, the XL matchup . . . and a huge win for the team from southwestern Pennsylvania.
An 11 point triumph for a team that hadn't won it all in almost three decades. Finally a connection to the championship clubs of Knoll and Bradshaw and Harris and Swann and the great big Iron Curtain of the 1970s behemoths.
Finally a championship for Jerome Bettis, the fifth leading rusher in NFL history. Just 14 carries for 43 yards in the ballgame, but no matter.
The Bus, having officially announced his retirement, will be able to roll into Canton in 2010 wearing a ring on his finger.
A lot of thanks on his front to Hines Ward, who won the game's MVP award with 5 catches for 123 yards, directly contributing to two Steelers' touchdowns, catching one of them.
And how about Bill Cowher.
The guy is an old school diehard. He's persevered for 14 years in a field where you can't even count on having the next day's meal money. And now, with the ring, and two Super Bowl trips overall, he's entered the elite upper echelon of all-time NFL coaches, end of story.
Another trip to the Elite, as we'll just call it from here on in, was completed by Big Ben Roethlisberger. The Miami of Ohio quarterback has come on the pro scene in his first two years to show you the best winning percentage (at almost 90% of all regular and post-season starts) of any quarterback in such a career-starting span since Dan Marino. (And Dolphin Dan, while a phenomenal QB, never got the Big One.)
Ben was good enough again last night despite some shaky moments throughout XL. He missed or underthrow open receivers in every quarter, and lofted two terrible, wobbly passes for interceptions that cost his team points both times. But his throw shortly before the end of the first half on a third and 28 was a thing of beauty---a nifty dance along the ever so close line of scrimmage at the forty yard line, then a textbook planting of the feet to get set, and a line drive rocket that game MVP Hines Ward snared away from a couple of Seahawks' cover men at the two yard line. It would lead to a Pittsburgh touchdown from the one yard line on a third-down bootleg dive by Ben late in the first half. A touchdown that was reviewed and not overturned after a lenghty delay.
It probably was a touchdown. Mike Holmgren went crazy about it at the half, but in all honesty, it was close enough even on the up-close replay that half the people in the room I was in swore it was a TD, while the other half swore it wasn't (I was, however, among the latter half).
Still, the overall weight of four or five huge calls seemed to go overwhelmingly in Pittsburgh's favor. That includes a huge call in the fourth with Seattle driving for the go ahead score. Another apparent holding penalty called on the Seahawks up front, wiping out a pass completion at the two that would have set up a first and goal. And while you can't say that necessarily decided the outcome of the game, it certainly didn't help matters much for Seattle, which never could get the key defensive stand, especially late in the game when it absolutely had to get one.
The reverse touchdown pass from Randle El to Ward was a thing of beauty, the kind of play the Steelers have executed almost routinely throughout their run down the stetch. And the Willie Parker Super Bowl record-setting 75 yard scamper off the right side was a perfect display of pull-blocking against an off-balance (why?) Seattle defense early in the third quarter.
Usually, you get higher point totals then the 31 we saw the Steelers and Seahawks combine for the other night. Usually you get more than the three or four really good commercials I saw (favorite one being the Magic Revolving Refrigerator), but usually you don't get a number six seed going out and winning three straight road games to make the Big Game, let alone win it.
In the end, a year that started with simultaneous tragedies finishes with a classic franchise winning its first title in 28 years and its fifth in all. The pre-season death of 49ers lineman Thomas Herrion (he collapsed from exhaustion and a blocked heart in an August workout) and the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina (and its direct effect on the vagabond New Orleans Saints) both started the year on down notes.
But as always does happen in the world of athletics, the year ends with the up note of the crowning of a champion.
And this year it's the deserving Pittsburgh gang.
Enjoy it, oh ye black and gold faithful.
-JAB
All right, so Big Ben didn't get the MVP award . . . But Super Bowl XL still went down pretty much as predicted here on the website and on the Sports Rush radio program. Too much defense, too many big plays on offense late in the year for a Steelers team that came on like gangbusters down the stretch.
Don't forget, these guys had to win their last four of the regular season just to get in the post-season dance. They won their last eight in a row overall, and essentially dominated every team they played to get the Lombardi Trophy.
Which is not to say that the game last night proved to be an extremely exciting Super Bowl. On the contrary, it was a sloppily played contest in which both clubs showed signs of being more than a little bit antsy headed in. The game itself never had a real good flow to it, but at least, at three hours and twenty minutes, it was shorter than your average Super Bowl of the last decade which has tended to run in the four plus hour range.
And yet the bulk of pregame and halftime festivities did have their moments on the telecast yesterday. A celebration featuring most of the previous 39 Super Bowl MVPs caught my attention before the game. (Noticeably absent: Super Bowl MVPs Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, who insisted on more than the offered appearance money.)
I also enjoyed the Stevie Wonder led musical tribute before kickoff. John Legend, Joss Stone and a host of dancers and backup singers cooing the soul tunes of yesterday alongside the Hall of Fame musical legend. Wonder sounded strong and played well in an enjoyable reverie of old school tunes.
The halftime show was a decent one as well. The Rolling Stones came on to a host of cheers from the packed crowd (many of whom had not even been born when they first started doing their thing in the mid-60s) and moved through "Start Me Up", "Rough Justice" and "Satisfaction" before wrapping it up---the whole halftime break taking an extra long 31 minutes.
But I digress. Let's return to the Big Game itself, the XL matchup . . . and a huge win for the team from southwestern Pennsylvania.
An 11 point triumph for a team that hadn't won it all in almost three decades. Finally a connection to the championship clubs of Knoll and Bradshaw and Harris and Swann and the great big Iron Curtain of the 1970s behemoths.
Finally a championship for Jerome Bettis, the fifth leading rusher in NFL history. Just 14 carries for 43 yards in the ballgame, but no matter.
The Bus, having officially announced his retirement, will be able to roll into Canton in 2010 wearing a ring on his finger.
A lot of thanks on his front to Hines Ward, who won the game's MVP award with 5 catches for 123 yards, directly contributing to two Steelers' touchdowns, catching one of them.
And how about Bill Cowher.
The guy is an old school diehard. He's persevered for 14 years in a field where you can't even count on having the next day's meal money. And now, with the ring, and two Super Bowl trips overall, he's entered the elite upper echelon of all-time NFL coaches, end of story.
Another trip to the Elite, as we'll just call it from here on in, was completed by Big Ben Roethlisberger. The Miami of Ohio quarterback has come on the pro scene in his first two years to show you the best winning percentage (at almost 90% of all regular and post-season starts) of any quarterback in such a career-starting span since Dan Marino. (And Dolphin Dan, while a phenomenal QB, never got the Big One.)
Ben was good enough again last night despite some shaky moments throughout XL. He missed or underthrow open receivers in every quarter, and lofted two terrible, wobbly passes for interceptions that cost his team points both times. But his throw shortly before the end of the first half on a third and 28 was a thing of beauty---a nifty dance along the ever so close line of scrimmage at the forty yard line, then a textbook planting of the feet to get set, and a line drive rocket that game MVP Hines Ward snared away from a couple of Seahawks' cover men at the two yard line. It would lead to a Pittsburgh touchdown from the one yard line on a third-down bootleg dive by Ben late in the first half. A touchdown that was reviewed and not overturned after a lenghty delay.
It probably was a touchdown. Mike Holmgren went crazy about it at the half, but in all honesty, it was close enough even on the up-close replay that half the people in the room I was in swore it was a TD, while the other half swore it wasn't (I was, however, among the latter half).
Still, the overall weight of four or five huge calls seemed to go overwhelmingly in Pittsburgh's favor. That includes a huge call in the fourth with Seattle driving for the go ahead score. Another apparent holding penalty called on the Seahawks up front, wiping out a pass completion at the two that would have set up a first and goal. And while you can't say that necessarily decided the outcome of the game, it certainly didn't help matters much for Seattle, which never could get the key defensive stand, especially late in the game when it absolutely had to get one.
The reverse touchdown pass from Randle El to Ward was a thing of beauty, the kind of play the Steelers have executed almost routinely throughout their run down the stetch. And the Willie Parker Super Bowl record-setting 75 yard scamper off the right side was a perfect display of pull-blocking against an off-balance (why?) Seattle defense early in the third quarter.
Usually, you get higher point totals then the 31 we saw the Steelers and Seahawks combine for the other night. Usually you get more than the three or four really good commercials I saw (favorite one being the Magic Revolving Refrigerator), but usually you don't get a number six seed going out and winning three straight road games to make the Big Game, let alone win it.
In the end, a year that started with simultaneous tragedies finishes with a classic franchise winning its first title in 28 years and its fifth in all. The pre-season death of 49ers lineman Thomas Herrion (he collapsed from exhaustion and a blocked heart in an August workout) and the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina (and its direct effect on the vagabond New Orleans Saints) both started the year on down notes.
But as always does happen in the world of athletics, the year ends with the up note of the crowning of a champion.
And this year it's the deserving Pittsburgh gang.
Enjoy it, oh ye black and gold faithful.
-JAB
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Super Bowl
I've got my pick on the Steelers today. They've been too hot lately, and I don't think Seattle's defense can withstand the power of Pittsburgh's ground-based offense.
We'll go Pittsburgh 27 - Seattle 21.
I'm guessing the MVP award tonight will go to Ben Roethlisberger who is now safely entrenched as an elite, Top 5 NFL quarterback. And Bill Cowher becomes a Hall of Fame candidate with a win tonight as well.
-JAB
We'll go Pittsburgh 27 - Seattle 21.
I'm guessing the MVP award tonight will go to Ben Roethlisberger who is now safely entrenched as an elite, Top 5 NFL quarterback. And Bill Cowher becomes a Hall of Fame candidate with a win tonight as well.
-JAB
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