How many hilarious things do you see in this photo? I count ten…
1. His smile.
2. Her smile.
3. The “19-0″ on the sign.
4. The “Oh So Sweet” on the sign.
5. Her fur coat.
6. His Tom Brady jersey.
7. His Red Sox cap (as if it wasn’t already clear what his affiliation was).
8. The optimistic Tom Brady jersey-wearing clone #1 in the background.
9. The optimistic Tom Brady jersey-wearing clone #2 in the background.
10. How much this couple must have spent on this excursion, only to see the Pats go down in flames.
The big question is how did this photo ever hit the internet in the first place?
Fox Sports put together a good list of the top sports stories that didn’t happen in 2008.
The 10th-seeded Wildcats should have toppled Kansas in the Midwest Regional Final. Down by two points, Davidson had the final possession. It was a good three-point shooting team. All the Wildcats had to do was get somebody free to knock down the decisive trey. With one more bucket, they would have furthered the legend of March Madness.
Alas, Davidson guard Jason Richards took the last shot and clanked it. The Jayhawks escaped, 59-57, then went on to win the national title. Had Davidson done the right thing, North Carolina coach Roy Williams would not have attended the championship game as a KU fan. That was uncomfortable for everybody.
“You dream about that type of stuff when you’re a little kid, having the opportunity to win the game, take your team to the Final Four,” Richards said of his last shot. But this dream didn’t come true. “I had a great look,” he said. “Maybe you could say we could have gotten a better shot. At that point, it seemed like the best shot for us. My team had confidence in me. Unfortunately, I just missed the shot and fell short.”
Apparently the 2010 Pro Bowl will be played one week before the 2010 Super Bowl.
The Pro Bowl will be played one week before the Super Bowl in 2010 and both games will be staged in Dolphin Stadium, a person directly involved in the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the NFL has not announced the move, but Hawaii’s governor and Honolulu’s mayor both confirmed the situation later Monday.
“While I am disappointed the Pro Bowl likely will not be played in Hawaii in 2010, I respect the NFL’s decision to play the post season all-star game in the same city as the Super Bowl, one week before the Super Bowl, on a one-year test basis,” Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said in a statement.
It’s not a new notion to have the game moved up to take place between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The NFL has discussed it multiple times in recent years, and commissioner Roger Goodell told the AP last month that having the game precede the Super Bowl would avoid a “somewhat anticlimactic” ending to the season.
“Plans for future Pro Bowls are not final, but we have stated publicly several times that we are giving strong consideration to moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “We also have been exploring playing future Pro Bowls at the site of the Super Bowl as well as in Honolulu.”
So what happens with those players that were voted into the Pro Bowl but are also playing in the Super Bowl? They obviously can’t play in the Pro Bowl and risk injury, so they just lose out on the honor of making the All-Star game? (Not that it’s much of an honor for players these days.)
This is a stupid idea and it’s sad that Hawaii is going to lose even more tourism that year than it already has because of the bad economy.
According to Las Vegas oddsmakers, the New York Giants and Tennessee Titans have the best chances of squaring off in Super Bowl XLIII February 1.
Las Vegas sports books favor the New York Giants over the 11 other teams in the NFL playoffs to win the Super Bowl, giving 2-to-1 odds on the NFC’s No. 1 seed to repeat as champions.
The Tennessee Titans are the favorite among AFC teams to win a title at 4-1.
Oddsmaker Mike Seba of Las Vegas Sports Consultants says the Giants have the easiest road to get to the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, while the AFC teams are more evenly matched.
The Giants would have to beat either the Arizona Cardinals or the Atlanta Falcons to reach the NFC championship game. The Cardinals are the biggest longshots for the title at 40-1; in the AFC, the Miami Dolphins have 30-1 odds.
Before the season, the two teams that opened with the longest odds to win the Super Bowl were the Dolphins (250-1) and the Falcons (200-1). Now they’re both in the playoffs.
The two preseason favorites — the New England Patriots (2-1) and Dallas Cowboys (7-1) — failed to reach the playoffs.
It’s kind of crazy that oddsmakers feel that the Eagles (the sixth seed in the NFC) have a better shot of winning in the Super Bowl than the NFC West Champion Arizona Cardinals.
Apparently their victory over the Seahawks on Sunday wasn’t enough to make oddsmakers confident in the Cards.
At the end of the year, it’s always interesting to look back at all that has happened in the world of sports over the last 12 months. 2008 brought us a host of compelling sports stories, including the culmination of the Patriots’ (unsuccessful) quest for perfection, a Bejing Olympics that featured incredible accomplishments by the likes of Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and the Redeem Team, and, of course, Brett Favre’s unretirement, which managed to hold the sports news cycle hostage for a solid month or more.
As is our tradition, we’ve once again broken our Year End Sports Review into three sections. The first is “What We Learned,” a list that’s packed with a number of impressive feats. And when there are feats, inevitably there are also failures.
The New England Patriots weren’t so perfect after all.
After rolling through the 2007 regular season unscathed, the Patriots entered the 2008 Super Bowl as overwhelming favorites to roll over the pesky, but seemingly inferior New York Giants. The Pats were just one win away from staking their claim as the best football team in NFL history. But thanks to a dominating Giants’ defensive line, an improbable catch by David Tyree, and a virtually mistake-free performance by Eli Manning, the unbeatable New England Patriots were beat. It’ll go down as one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, and considering Tom Brady’s season-ending injury in 2008 cost the Pats a chance for redemption, it seems that many have forgotten how New England stood just one win away from perfection. – Anthony Stalter
Michael Phelps is part fish.
Eight gold medals in one Olympiad? No problem. Michael Phelps made the seemingly impossible look (relatively) easy en route to one of the most – if not the most – impressive Olympic performances ever. Phelps had to swim all four strokes, compete in both sprint and endurance races, and deal with the constant media attention and pressure that came along with his quest. Sure, NBC turned up the hype, but what Phelps accomplished is simply incredible. – John Paulsen
Usain Bolt is part cheetah.
First, Usain Bolt made Jamaica proud by setting a new world record (9.69) in the 100-meter sprint. Then, he broke the 12 year-old 200-meter world record with a time of 19.30 seconds. He showboated during the first race but cleaned up his act to win the second race in a professional manner. Some even say that Usain Bolt – not Michael Phelps – was the biggest story to come out of the Bejing Olympics. – JP
The Big 12 has the best quarterbacks in the nation.
The Big 12 housed some of the best quarterbacks in all of college football in 2008. Texas’s Colt McCoy, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Missouri’s Chase Daniel and Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell were all considered Heisman candidates at least at one point during the season, while McCoy and Bradford are still in the running. Amazingly, Bradford and McCoy aren’t done; both will return in 2008. And although they don’t receive as much attention as the top signal callers in the conference, Kansas’s Todd Reesing and Baylor’s Robert Griffin certainly turned heads this year as well. In fact, the highly versatile Griffin is only a freshman and could make the Bears a very dangerous team for years to come. – AS
While every year has its own host of surprises, there are always those stories that simply fit the trend. Sure, it can get repetitive, but if we don’t look back at history aren’t we only doomed to repeat it? Every year has its fair share of stories that fell into this category, and 2008 was no different.
Our list of things we already knew this year includes the BCS’ continued suckiness (Texas-Oklahoma), how teamwork wins championships (KG, Pierce and Ray-Ray), and the #1 rule for carrying a handgun into a nightclub – don’t use your sweatpants as a holster. (Come on, Plax. Really? Sweatpants?)
The biggest story of the summer was all the drama surrounding Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. This saga has been covered to death, but there’s one detail that never seemed to get that much play. At the start, it looked like the Packers were making a bad decision by moving on so quickly even when Favre decided he wanted to return. But when the news broke about Favre’s near-unretirement in March, the Packers stance became much more clear. They were ready to take him back after the owners’ meetings, but he called it off at the last minute. At that point, the Packer brass was understandably finished with Brett Favre, much to the chagrin of a good portion of the Packer faithful. – John Paulsen
The Chicago Cubs’ title drought is not a fans-only phenomenon.
The 2008 Cubs were easily the best team the franchise has assembled in decades, but they still couldn’t win a single game in the playoffs, and the reason is simple: the pressure finally got to them. Sure, they said the right things to the press about how they didn’t care about what had happened in the past, but don’t believe a word of it; there wasn’t a single person in that dugout that wasn’t fantasizing about being part of the team that finally, mercifully, ended the longest title drought in sports history. Once ESPN picked them to win it all, however, they were doomed. Ryan Dempster walked seven batters in Game 1, which matched his total for the month of September. The entire infield, including the sure-handed Derrek Lee, committed errors in Game 2. Alfonso Soriano went 1-14 with four strikeouts in the leadoff spot, while the team as a whole drew six walks and struck out 24 times. The team with so much balance in the regular season suddenly became the most one-dimensional team in baseball; take Game 1 from them, then sit back and watch them choke. And now that this group has lost six straight playoff games (the team has lost nine straight dating back to 2003), it isn’t about to get any easier. Get a helmet, Cubs fans. – David Medsker
If you’re going to wear sweatpants to a nightclub, leave the gun at home.
If winning a Super Bowl is the pinnacle of an NFL player’s career, than shooting yourself with your own gun in a nightclub has to be rock bottom. Case in point: Plaxico Antonio Burress. Just 10 months after helping the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg while at a nightclub. Apparently the (unregistered) gun was slipping down his leg and when he tried to grab it to keep it from falling, the lucky bastard wound up pulling the trigger and shooting himself. And that wasn’t the worst of it because as Plaxico found out, New York has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. He was arrested, but posted bail of $100,000 and is scheduled to return to court on March 31, 2009. If convicted of carrying a weapon without a license, he faces up to three and a half years in jail. He shouldn’t expect special treatment, either. The mayor of New York wants to be sure that Burress is prosecuted just like any other resident of NYC. The Giants, meanwhile, placed him on their reserve/non-football injury list and effectively ended his season. While “Plax” definitely deserves “Boner of the Week” consideration for his stupidity, what’s sad is that in the wake of Washington Redskins’ safety Sean Taylor’s death, most NFL players feel the need to arm themselves when they go out. Maybe players can learn from not only Taylor’s death, but also Burress’s accident so further incidents can be avoided. – Anthony Stalter
The Love of Sports put together a great list of sports clichés that the general public could do without hearing for the next couple decades.
1. “One Day (Game) at a Time”
Ah, how Zen. It’s great to know our admired athletes live along the same space-time continuum as the rest of us, despite possessing extraordinary physical skill. You may want to stay humble to maintain that underdog mentality, but don’t try to wow us with your existential wisdom.
4. “Nobody Believed In Us”
Really, no one? How very lonely you pro athletes must be. If this were true, then we should all be thankful none of us has to deal with the crushing abandonment that a come-from-behind sports franchise must. Even the Rays had a few thousand “believers” and they claim the most anemic following of anybody. Save the pity card and enjoy the win.
6. “We Never Gave Up”
On behalf of the millions of other fans who invest their money and time to watch you do your job, thank you. This should go without saying. So, by all means, don’t say it.
8. “We Just Had to Come Out and Play Our Game”
Uh huh. And? What a way to say nothing, yet hint at something truly profound. We know what game you played, but damned if we have any idea what “your game” actually was - or is. Clearly the game the other team played, though technically the same as the one you were playing, was inferior to this mysterious “You” game. Tell us more.
The “Nobody Believed In Us” is beyond the point of annoying. Players like to assume that everybody is against them now and it’s ridiculous. The whole “respect” thing is getting really tired.
Growing up in the shadow of a famous father can be overwhelming for a child, and the challenge of following the footsteps of an older sibling can also be harmful for a kid’s ego. Then, there is Eli Manning’s childhood; his father (Archie Manning) was a football hero in the Deep South and his brother (Peyton Manning) is the advertising face of the NFL with countless commercials. And all he does is become the MVP of Super Bowl XLII, in which he led the New York Giants to an upset victory over the previous undefeated New England Patriots.
While having a successful senior year as a high school football player, Manning was still undecided on which university to attend in the fall. That changed after receiving a call from David Cutcliffe. The Manning family was familiar with him, as Cutcliffe was offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee, and helped older brother Peyton elevate his overall game. He was named Head Coach of the University of Mississippi football team, and was hoping Eli Manning would become his first prize recruit in rebuilding the Rebel program. Upon hearing Cutcliffe’s recruiting pitch; Manning followed his father’s footstep, and became starting QB at Ole Miss.
Manning’s collegiate career was a lot like his personality: quiet but successful. He set or tied 45 single-game, season, and career records at Ole Miss. In his senior year, Manning won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s best all-around collegiate player, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and finished in third-place for the 2003 Heisman Trophy Award behind eventual winner Jason White, quarterback of Oklahoma, and University of Pittsburgh wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
John Paulsen and I were recently interviewed for Hey! Nielsen’s “Ask A Blogger” feature. If you care to read our opinions (and really, why wouldn’t you care to read our opinions?) on this year’s Olympics, Manny Ramirez’s haircut fiasco and what we would do to add or change current sports network programming, then click on the link below.
I know Brett Favre’s “will he or won’t he” act is getting tiresome.
I know it’s not fair to Aaron Rodgers.
I know this might make the Packers worse off in two or three years.
But if Brett Favre really wants to return to football, the Packers should take him back. There’s no other reasonable choice. Favre holds the keys. He can un-retire whenever he wants to. If/when he does, then the Packers either have to play him, trade him or release him, and those last two options aren’t really options.
This is a guy who threw for 4155 yards and 28 touchdowns, and had a quarterback rating of 95.7, which was the sixth best in the league last season. If not for Tom Brady’s insane year, Favre probably would have been the front runner to win the MVP award, which would have been the fourth of his career. Despite the fact that his interception in overtime against the Giants ended the Packers season, Favre had the highest QB rating of any signal caller in the playoffs (99.0).
Clearly, the guy can still play. I was absolutely stunned when he decided to hang ‘em up with the Packers this close to the Super Bowl.
He gives the Packers the best chance to win now. Rodgers may or may not be a good quarterback. Favre proved in 2007 that he’s still a great one. Life isn’t fair, and Rodgers hasn’t been dealt the best hand. If I’m Mike McCarthy, I just shrug my shoulders and say, “Them’s the breaks, kid. Keep your dobber up.”
I don’t buy the secondhand reports that Green Bay GM Ted Thompson forced Favre out. Everything he said after the season implied that it was Favre’s decision, and with the way he played all year, there was no reason for Thompson to force him out. And there was no reason for Favre to allow himself to be forced out. The entire Packer Nation wanted him to return for another season and I’d bet that a majority would love to see #4 under center come September.
But only if he’s wearing the green and gold.
And, assuming he actually wants to play, that’s why the Packers have to take him back.
Welcome to the second part of my infinite-part series, Correcting Bill Simmons. To find out why I started this series, feel free to read the first part. Simply stated - Bill Simmons is an entertaining writer, but sometimes he goes off the reservation and says something absurd.
This week, in his Ramblings column, he defends his Patriots over the whole Spygate fiasco.
If you have a national column in which you’re excoriating a sports team for cheating even though it already paid a severe penalty for what it did, and you’re hinting more revelations are coming down the road, and then it’s proven you were barking up the wrong tree … you need to admit defeat and quit blowing the situation out of proportion. No, really.
What gets me is that he thinks that the Patriots “already paid a severe penalty” for what they did. This is why Boston fans annoy me. Let’s see, the Patriots were caught videotaping the Jets sideline in a game last season and Matt Walsh produced more videotapes from 2000-2003, so it’s pretty clear to anyone that’s objective about the situation that the team has been videotaping their opponents’ sidelines during Bill Belichick’s entire run. And the “severe penalty” is losing a single first round pick and paying a fine? Is he serious?
If you took a poll of all NFL fans, I think the overwhelming majority would say that the Pats got off with a slap on the wrist. Their “punishment” was a joke considering that they knowingly broke the rules by stealing signals for at least seven years. If this were the Giants, Boston fans would be foaming at the mouth, bitching and complaining that the penalty wasn’t stiff enough.
Bill, take the Patriot Glasses off for a minute and look at this situation objectively.
Deadspin.com has an amazing story that any football fan (especially a Giants fan) could appreciate. During the Giants’ Super Bowl celebration in New York City earlier this week, one fan snuck through several security checkpoints to get on to the field during the trophy ceremony, as well as in the locker room with the players.
As we are pulling away from City Hall, the streets are lined with Giants fans cheering for “us” and we had a police escort the entire way to Giants Stadium. That’s where things got interesting. We got off the bus and were escorted directly into the Stadium tunnel. This is where I thought I was going to get caught. I had no idea what to do next. All of the players went in the locker room and all the Mara’s said they were going up to the owner’s box for the ceremony. I had to make a decision. I then saw David Tyree walking in with his little son and decided I would act like I was with them. I walked right behind him and got right into the locker room. So now the real fun starts. I’m hanging out as if I’m a player while all the guys in the locker room are just getting each other’s autographs on the game balls and on their jerseys. This was my time to shine. I walked around and took some pictures of some of the lockers and then I got to Eli’s. I asked Eli if he could sign my ticket stub from the Super Bowl, which he did. I then asked him to sign my Super Bowl jersey, which he did. I was then ecstatic and didn’t know what to do. I even had people coming up to me asking me for my autograph. They must have thought I was Lawrence Tynes or something.
Click here to read the entire story, as well as view the pics. His bit about people thinking he was Lawrence Tynes is funny.
SPORTSbyBROOKS.com has a story about a would-be bar owner who plotted to shoot people at the Super Bowl because he was angry at being denied a liquor license.
The crazy guy behind the plot is named ****, and he “recently purchased an AR-15 assault rifle from the Scottsdale Gun Club (and) mailed to media outlets eight copies of a manifesto. In it he explained why he was planning to kill people at the Super Bowl.”
What is wrong with people? He was denied a liquor license so he decided to take innocent people’s lives? I refuse to print this ass clown’s name so that he doesn’t get any more national recognition for being a selfish prick.
When football fans reminisce about Super Bowl XLII, they’re likely going to talk about Eli Manning and the Giants’ final drive to beat the previously undefeated Patriots. Or David Tyree’s catch. Or Will Ferrell’s, “Bud Light – suck one” commercial.
But one small facet that is currently being overlooked is the decision Bill Belichick made in the third quarter to go for it on 4th and 13 instead of attempting a 48-yard field goal. FOXSports writer Mark Kriegel talks about that play in one of his latest columns. (As well as how Belichick has decided to hide in a hole following the game.)
Recall Belichick’s decision to go for it on fourth down with the ball on the Giants’ 31-yard line. With a chance for a 48-yard field goal, Belichick keeps his kicker on the sideline. It was the third quarter. Points were precious and few on Sunday. The kicker, Stephen Gostkowski was 21-of-24 this year, three-of-five from a distance of 40-to-49 yards. The longest field goal of his career was a 52-yarder he made last season as a rookie. He’d been kicking them from the 50 in practice. And it’s not as if there was any interference from the elements. University of Phoenix Stadium was a dome Sunday night with its roof closed. All that, and Belichick goes for it. As it happened, Tom Brady — having his problems all night with the Giants defense — would throw an incomplete pass to Jabar Gaffney.
The field goal was no guarantee, but Kriegel’s right for calling Belichick out. The odds of the Patriots scooping up a first down on 4th and 13 were slim compared to Gostkowski making a 48-yarder. It was a dumb decision and considering the media’s infatuation with Belichick the genius, one would think that they would call him out more for arrogant decisions like that one.
How the F did Eli Manning escape three sacks? How the F did David Tyree come down with that ball? How the F did the Patriots not sack Manning and Rodney Harrison allow Tyree to catch that pass? He had good coverage, but his swat at the ball was brutal.
Oh yeah, and how the F did David Tyree come down with that ball?!
As a Cleveland fan, I know exactly what it’s like to suffer heartbreaking losses. Until recently, Boston fans had their share as well.
ESPN’s Bill Simmons is a well-known Boston fan, and he does a great job capturing the agony and bewilderment that one feels after these kinds of losses. Of course, he focuses on Eli’s big play on the last drive, which reminded me of many of John Elway’s heroics against the Browns.
With that said, I never thought the Patriots would lose. I thought they’d be tested, I thought the game would be great … but lose??? You could point out 10 different instances when the Pats blew a chance to make a monster play or put the game away, and you could point out all the different times the Giants caught a break or had a ball bounce their way, but really, everything you need to know about Super Bowl XLII happened on the Miracle Play To Be Named Later — you know, the third down on the do-or-die drive when Eli Manning ripped himself away from the entire Patriots defensive line (THEY HAD HIS JERSEY!!!!!!) and threw a pass that hung in the air forever like one of those sports movie passes, and even though David Tyree and Rodney Harrison had an equal chance of getting it, Tyree jumped a little bit higher, hauled in the football, trapped it against his helmet and somehow held on while Harrison was doing everything but performing a figure-four leg lock on him.
Here’s another great paragraph from his column.
Speaking of Brady, if the Patriots had finished 19-0, I planned to start my column with a scene from the Patriots’ postgame party. Through some mutual friends, I had arranged to hang out with Brady’s crew for what promised to be a laid-back celebration in somebody’s hotel room, probably no more than 15-20 people since Brady’s circle is surprisingly and refreshingly small. Because it was a rare chance to catch Brady in an unguarded moment — and an important moment at that — I spent most of Friday and Saturday thinking about that first paragraph and all the different ways it could start. I kept seeing Brady sitting in a chair with his right ankle encased in ice, quietly sipping a bottle of champagne with a satisfied smile on his face, and Gisele would be there, and everyone would be recapping 19-0 and remembering the incredible season. I liked the thought of a famous person celebrating a historic night in such a totally normal and relatable way. And that’s what it will remain. A thought and only a thought. It never happened.
It’s rare that the Super Bowl lives up to the hype, but this year’s game surely did. Still, we all know that the Super Bowl is about more than just football. Companies pay a pretty penny for a thirty-second commercial during the big game, knowing that it will generate a ton of business. Here are my five favorite spots from this year’s game:
I, like many people, struggle with faith, spirituality and religion on a daily basis. I’m not sure what waits for us on the “other side,” or if anything waits at all.
But tonight, after the Giants denied Randy Moss a Super Bowl ring, I feel better about all of that.
Moss is supremely talented, but he sleepwalked through two seasons in Oakland, sandbagging it so hard that the Raiders eventually gave him away to the best franchise in football for a measly fourth round pick. And, for a while, it looked as if Moss was going to get a Super Bowl ring.
But a higher power…or karma…or maybe just a great Giants defense…something intervened tonight to keep that from happening.
Thank you, whatever or whomever is ultimately responsible. We are all grateful. (Well, all of us outside of New England, anyway.)
It will rank as one of the ultimate choke jobs. The Patriots go 18-0, dominating most of the way, only to lose the Super Bowl to the Giants on a touchdown drive at the end of the game. I guess the 1972 Miami Dolphins get the last laugh.
Also, I heard a lot of talk about Tom Brady being better than Joe Montana. He has more years left in his career to make that argument, but he isn’t there yet. It’s funny how mortal Tom Brady looks when a defense can put pressure on him.
