Still Keeping Score

I think the world is absorbing the shocking information rolling out of Penn State the last couple of days and for the most part, we're all moving to the inevitable conclusion that an otherwise accomplished and fantastic football coach made a mistake that should cost him his job. Joe Paterno, if he is half the person I always thought he was, should resign this week, before the game against Nebraska.  As Dan Patrick noted on his show this morning, it is not about the game now, it is about the lives adversely affected by an entire institution looking the wrong way when these children needed them the most. In case you have been in a cave the last 48 hours, a former Penn State defensive coordinator was arrested and is facing charges of child molestation.  And I am completely aware I awoke in the United States this morning, where we proudly declare "innocent until proven guilty" as we should.  The courts will now process all of the horrific information and make a decision, ...

As one of craziest nights of baseball wrapped up last night, ESPN baseball guru Tim Kurkjian said he essentially witnessed the "greatest regular season night in the history of the game."  A bold statement indeed, but it only took me a few moments to completely agree with him. I know, a blog is supposed to kick up some dust, throw a little controversy on an otherwise glorious occasion.  However, I am choosing to enjoy the afterglow. A lot of tight races down the stretch, and yet nothing like four teams staying alive for two wild card playoff spots on the last day, deadlocked in the standings.  Both the American and National Leagues had slated not one, but two extra games today if needed. As if that wasn't drama enough, most of the games lived well beyond expectation in the thriller department.  The relentless run of the St. Louis Cardinals provided the only timely result by putting away the Houston Astros 8-0 on the road.  The only person who believed the Card...

Media members across our great land, and a substantive number of Denver Bronco faithful keep asking the question, but the team has answered it a whole bunch. The recurring question that continues to haunt the locker room and Twitter accounts seems to be, "When is Tim Tebow going to play?" Not now.  That has been the answer since the NFL solved the lockout that was going to cost us all part or the entire season fans are currently enjoying.  Or not enjoying for Bronco fans after the later than usual kick-off as part of the second half of a Monday Night Football debacle. This is part of the problem.  A lot of fans don't like the answer.  And they really hate the answer of "not now" regarding the team's former first round pick when the home team played like they forgot how to play against the much hated arch rival Raiders. A valid question, that deserves some examination, but not so much.  We don't need Mel Kiper Jr., or CSI New York to help solve this c...

The ancient television show from my youth was called, "Eight is Enough," and it was a vastly mediocre comedy/drama show about a family with, you guessed it, eight kids.  Because we all know too many kids can be overwhelming, which reminds me of all the screaming children remaining in the Big-12.  Or as I enjoyed referring to them as the Texas Ten. Eight teams was certainly enough for the old Big Eight, the old Southwest Conference, the older PAC-8, and even the SEC in the way back machine.  Twelve seems to enough now, but of course, this time last year sixteen teams was the magic number for the 'Super' Conference.  The aforementioned Super Conference theory looked inevitable after the departure of Colorado and Nebraska from the Big-12, and the wild game of musical chairs between the WAC and the Mountain West Conferences, that the world of college football was destined or doomed, depending on perspective, to move into at least four sixteen team conferences and openi...

I could always go crazy for soccer, but I think there are plenty of fans of the sport who would crowd me out of my attempt to go insane for the game.  Instead, I am finally going sane for soccer.  And instantly, as a true fan of the sport, I must immediately apologize to the rest of the world, because I meant football. Of course, at this point, anyone who ever heard me on the radio, way back when, or ever read one of my newspaper columns, or online ravings, or even just a long time associate, is wondering how I can include the words "sane" and "soccer" in the same sentence.  There, now I've gone and done it, twice now. Yes, soccer, I mean football. Via the addition of grey hairs, and far fewer hairs overall, Mother Nature is telling me I am getting older, perhaps a little wiser.  I could be one of those folks who gets set in their ways and cheer for the same teams, same sports and eat the same breakfast until that final buzzer of life sounds, but not me.  ...

Okay, so it isn't quite dreaded "Mad Cow" disease, but "Buff Madness" has some less severe, yet substantial symptoms. We're talking of course of a coaching decision that appeared to have been made, then denied and now still moving in a direction that will secure a new football coach at the University of Colorado. The symptoms of Buff Madness include media members rolling with single source facts (i.e., gossip for regular non-media folks), fans roaming in several unique packs and factions sniping at each other, former players meeting at all hours and rich donors threatening fewer dollars to the school if the search committee fails to meet the expectations that are wide ranging and tend to stray from reality. Expectations range from an insistence to return former coach Bill McCartney back to restore the glory all the way to and including stealing LSU Tiger Les Miles away from the his BCS Bowl bound team in time to recruit new Buffs.  Along the way, former O...

Too much of anything isn't good for you.  Too many girlfriends can get a guy killed.  Too many twinkees can make a guy fat.  Too many beers can make a guy drunk AND fat.  So how many NFL regular season games is too much? Utilizing a basketball analogy, the NFL is putting on a full court press on adding two more regular season games every year.  We don't know if that means an extra bye week (sorry fantasy football fanatics) will be added to help the players out with two additional weeks of games that count.  So, an extra bye week and two more 'real' NFL contests suggests such a season would have started a few weeks ago.  Full on football before the leaves begin to turn or all the kids get back to school and folks stop watering the lawn in hopes of less yard work to end the summer. Setting traditional time lines aside, there are some substantive hurdles to consider before we all jump feet first into the idea that more is better.  The NFL has pre...

Apparently, when Texas decided to keep the remnants of the Big-12 together, the conference shuffle didn't stop. It just moved to another old west shoot-out between the WAC and Mountain West. The first jerk of the knee lends most folks to blame the chase for the almighty dollar, but it may be more about survival than greed in the latest move toward "super" conferences. ESPN.com released an interesting report on the latest numbers regarding NCAA economics and in that article, it notes only "14 of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools made money from campus athletics in the 2009 fiscal year, down from 25 the year before." Of course the same company that published that report offered BYU four million bucks for four home games in 2011. I'm no math major, but that any time the numbers break down into a cool million per contest, it is a pop quiz worth another look. That kind of cash will motivate any school to look beyond the super conference into corporation...