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NFL Halfway Outlook
Posted by pblackwell | 11/06/08
As is the case every year by the time you get to November, you find that the NFL regular season does not follow an exact script.
Remember those good old days when Dallas and San Diego were dead-set to meet in a Super Bowl? That, among other presumptions, have been tossed aside in favor of the usual bit of delightful improvisation.
Here is how each division, good and bad, stack up two months into the show.
AFC East - Right from the moment Tom Brady went down, the division flew wide-open, and anyone could win it now. The Patriots have held on at 5-3, but are no longer feared. Buffalo started 5-1 and were poised to take over before back-to-back division defeats deflated the balloon...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: NFL, season, halfway point, analysis
Weekly Column: Yes We Did
Posted by pblackwell | 11/07/08
When the moment came, tens of thousands spilled into the streets. They shared hugs, screamed for joy, shed copious tears, marveled at what they had just experienced, celebrated an impossible dream turned into reality. There were no riots, no destruction, no arrests – just people sharing a kind of happiness that was too big for words.
And that was just in America. The celebrations stretched from Australia to Amsterdam, from London to Toronto, from Kenya to Indonesia. In every part of the world, this single bit of news created a new sense of possibility for our time and stirred the soul the way few events ever have.
At 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the night of Nov. 4, 2008, it was made official – Barack Obama would become the 44th President of the United States...
CATEGORY: Government
TAGS: Election, Obama, volunteer, history
A Lot on the Plate
Posted by pblackwell | 11/11/08
First of all, it is Veterans Day, so when you get a moment, please thank all the brave men and women that have worn the uniform for this country. They can never get enough praise, really.
Meanwhile, a lot of high school championships are being decided as the fall season. To start with, we've got five worthy football teams carrying the Section III banner.
New Hartford was the best Class A squad from October onward, but still needed every bit of its firepower to fend off Camden in the Carrier Dome. Dolgeville's long wait (if you can call six years long) to reign Class D again ended with those two late touchdowns that shocked Watertown IHC, who had outplayed the Blue Devils most of the way...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: High School playoffs, state, sectionals
Weekly Column: The college chase of Carolina
Posted by pblackwell | 11/14/08
So Florida wins back-to-back college basketball national championships. Then everyone leaves, and the Gators are relegated to NIT status.
Kansas, the 2008 champs after its stirring comeback to beat Memphis in overtime down in San Antonio last April, faces the same dilemma after a mass exodus of talent. Absolutely no one thinks the Jayhawks will even lead its conference, much less the country.
As the college season tips off again, the buzz includes a push of the 3-point line back from 19 feet 9 inches to 20 feet 9 inches. Theoretically, this will make mediocre shooters resist the urge to cut loose from the perimeter and, instead, penetrate to seek higher-percentage shots inside. It will take a while for teams to get used to.
That’s the game aspect of it...
CATEGORY: Basketball
TAGS: College basketball, preview, North Carolina, challengers
Lifting the Gloom
Posted by pblackwell | 11/18/08
Mid-November, and winter is already settling in, with the daily snow counts that, in six months' time, will likely end up in the triple digits.
And as far as football is concerned, the gloom on many fronts is quite real, with no obvious solution. But each part of the issue can be explained.
On the SU hill, the Greg Robinson Error (to call it an era would be far too generous) is mercifully done, but the 9-36 damage leaves quite a mess for the well-paid successor to clean up. We'll spend more time in a later entry on this delightful topic.
Elsewhere, Section III football reels a bit...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: footballl, SU, high school, Bills, BCS
Absolute Integrity
Posted by pblackwell | 11/19/08
All right, it's official - if Sports Illustrated asked for a Sportsman of the Year Pick, I'd give them J.P. Hayes and be done with it.
What, you never heard of Hayes? True, he didn't win eight gold medals or hit 50 home runs or take the top prize at Wimbledon or sink the winning basket at the Final Four or some other mind-boggling sports feat.
No, he did something better - tell the truth, even when it cost him dearly.
Earlier this decade, Hayes was a fine player on the PGA Tour, winning twice. But he had lost his Tour card and was trying to get it back at the second stage of the dreaded Q School at a course in McKinney, Texas. The top 20 finishers would advance to the final stage...
CATEGORY: Golf
TAGS: J.P. Hayes, rules, disqualification, penalty, integrity
Forgotten Courage
Posted by pblackwell | 11/20/08
When the University of Buffalo Bulls needed four long overtimes to beat the Akron Zips 43-40 a week ago in the last game in Akron's Rubber Bowl, it improved to 6-4. Just another Mid-American Conference Game, right?
Well, not the case. This made the Bulls bowl-eligible, something that's never happened since UB returned to the FBS (also Division I) ranks.
A program long in the basement had climbed out, thanks to the leadership of head coach Turner Gill, and the sound you hear is Syracuse fans begging Daryl Gross to give Gill a look before some other big-name program snatches him.
And talk about historical symmetry. Only once in a century of football has UB received a bowl invitation, exactly half a century ago in 1958. That's a story unto itself...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: University of Buffalo, football, bowl game, refusal
Pull of Mortality
Posted by pblackwell | 11/21/08
All of us in this profession have a routine in the fall. Park the car, walk to the gate, flash a badge, then find your way to the sidelines or, if there's room, up to the press box. Repeat over and over, and you get the bland picture.
So it was that on the Saturday afternoon of Nov. 8, Buffalo News sports reporter Tom Borrelli made his way to the press box at All High Stadium for a city football game.
It's an old grandstand, so to reach the press box, one must climb a dozen metal stairs. Borrelli did so, but at the top he hit his head and fell back down those unforgiving steps. It paralyzed him from the neck down.
For nearly two weeks, Borrelli gamely tried to heal, but early this morning he passed away at Erie County Medical Center. He was just 51 years old...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Tom Borrelli, reporter, death, fall
Weekly Column: A Redemptive Day
Posted by pblackwell | 11/23/08
What is it about the worst of conditions, the worst of situations, or the worst of outcomes, that brings out the best in our human character?
Think of how a nation rallies around its citizens when natural or man-made disasters occur. Or maybe the concession speech at the end of a political campaign – was John McCain ever more gracious than on Election Night, when he saw the people’s verdict?
Sports offer the same kind of examples. How else can you possibly explain what took place early on a chilly Saturday evening, in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus?
Here stood Syracuse, 2-8 and truly in the college football pits...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: SU, Robinson, Notre Dame, upset, Weis, standards
All Heating Up...
Posted by pblackwell | 11/25/08
Until Sunday, we'll all wonder whether Oneida can pass the ultimate test and win a state Class B championship at the Carrier Dome against Rye High, which had won two of the last three.
On the plus side, the Indians have gone to the Dome twice this fall and have won with ease, including a 20-0 blanking of Westhill in the sectional finals, so they like the setting. Combine a quick, hard-hitting defense with the numerous headaches Ryan Kramer causes for the opposition, and Oneida stands a great chance.
Yet this will be a new kind of nerves for the Indians, a state championship stage that Rye knows all about. To be sure, there will be early nerves. We know Rye will conquer them. Can Oneida do the same?
At least it is clear-cut in the high-school world...
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: football, Oneida, BCS, Jets, Giants, NBA, college hoops
Weekly Column: Tanking One For the Team
Posted by pblackwell | 11/26/08
Two nights before Thanksgiving at Madison Square Garden, and LeBron James lit it up to delight the New York Knicks fans. He had 26 points, then sat the fourth quarter during a 119-101 game, even more lopsided than the score would suggest.
Just one problem – LeBron still plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Though you might not know that by the kind of things that have been said in the last couple of weeks.
Everyone on earth knows that LeBron James becomes a free agent in the summer of 2010. So do other stars like Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. It projects to be a bonanza, NBA teams spending hundreds of millions securing the game’s biggest stars.
But LeBron is, by far, the biggest name...
CATEGORY: Basketball
TAGS: LeBron James, Cleveland, New York, free agent, 2010
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