Enjoy!

———————-

August 29, 1999

ON ANY GIVEN SATURDAY

Chuck Culpepper Herald-Leader sports columnist

It’s Saturday in a big country, and there’s an eagle flying in a stadium down on The Plains; there’s a steer named Bevo running through the stadium at Austin; there’s a buffalo named Ralphie running through the stadium at Boulder. There’s a trojan riding a horse around a field in Los Angeles; there’s a regal bengal in a cage by the stadium at Baton Rouge; there’s a bulldog with a pretty face at Georgia.

In Miami, always odd, there’s this giant ibis.

There’s more orange than you ever saw in your life in eastern Tennessee; there’s more red than you ever saw in your life in eastern Nebraska; there’s ample green under the clouds at Huntington; there’s more powder blue than you ever saw in your life in the Rose Bowl.

There’s a grove in Mississippi full of jackets and ties and old elegance; there’s a Lawn in Virginia just in case we’re wondering what Mr. Jefferson would have thought of all this (note: He would have advocated a free-form offense); there’s a stadium in Seattle with a view of the sailboats on the lake outside; there’s a gem of a field even at the top of New York City.

It’s Saturday in a big country, and there’s heavy air in the Swamp and the Orange Bowl; there’s an early October game in New England – Princeton at Brown, Oct. 9? – about to show off some serious leaves; there’s a late-October game somewhere in the Rockies with snow written all over it; there’s a clash of Ducks and/or Beavers in perpetual Oregon rain.

There’s an old coach down in Tallahassee you’d just love to know, the kind who calls everybody, “Hey buddy”; there’s an old coach down in South Carolina who stalks the sideline part preacher, part general; there’s an old coach up in Pennsylvania who comes to the game by water, for he walks on it; there’s a coach getting old out in Kansas (State), his car still in the parking lot ’round midnight most nights.

There’s a band member out-of-this-world honored to dot the “i” on the field at Columbus; there’s a bunch of grown young men touching a rock at Clemson; there’s a regular college student on the kickoff team out at Texas A&M; there’s the chance 100,000 grown people in Knoxville might sing Rocky Top so loud it’ll tingle your neck; just up the 81 in southwestern Virginia, there are grown adults chanting, “Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, high!”

If that weren’t enough, somehow the word “touchdown” is about to share a phrase with the word “Jesus” in the allegedly staid Midwest.

It’s Saturday in America, and Michigan is trying to establish the running game; Alabama is trying to establish the running game; Nebraska is trying to establish the running game; Florida is trying to establish the passing game; and some wild game will zigzag through the western night after the East has gone to bed, some tussle still not complete at midnight and at 45-42.

There’s a quarterback you should see at Georgia, a quarterback you should see at Georgia Tech, another at Louisville, another at Marshall, two more in Indiana, one at Purdue throwing maybe 80 passes just today. There’s a running back you should see at Arizona, a running back you should see at Tennessee, another at Alabama, and a big ol’ running back you’d call a load up at Wisconsin.

There’s a receiver you should see at Florida State, a linebacker you wouldn’t believe at Penn State – OK, there are two of those, as usual – and an offensive line full of big grocery bills at Michigan. There’s somebody named Beano who seems to know all about it.

There’s a football team called Owls that pulled one of the biggest upsets of the century last year; there’s a football team called Vandals that won the Humanitarian Bowl, if you can believe such a thing; there’s a football team in Oklahoma so beloved they went ahead and elected a quarterback to Congress; there’s a new Division I football team this year: Buffalo. Did I mention Them Hogs are back?

There’s an Old Oaken Bucket, an Axe, a Little Brown Jug. To top it all, there are a few thousand Cadets about to cheer from one side, a few thousand Midshipmen about to cheer from the other.

Look at the hats fly.

It’s Saturday in America, and it’s the best game we have, college football, better than some of our games by a little bit, better than others by a lot – not only because it’s (usually) outdoors, not only because it’s ritualistic, not only because it’s social, not only because it is the sport in which each game is more precious and meaningful than each game in any other sport, but because there’s so much going on in one day it’s darned near impossible to cram it all into your head.

Copyright (c) 1999 Lexington Herald-Leader

Yum!

…it must be Game Week!  The long, hot sports-less summer is almost over and Nature’s favorite season, Fall, is upon us.  College football kicks off tomorrow night, and come Saturday, we will all forgo the beautiful weather for our couches, televisions, and beer.  Besides, if you open a window while you watch the game, it’s almost like being outside, right?

The Wildcats travel to Louisville for this year’s rivalry game, although the circumstances are much different from last season.  Both teams are on page one of a new chapter.  Rich Brooks has retired to fish and tweet by the lake while Steve “Krapthorpe” scampered away from Louisville with his tail between his legs.  Now we’ve got two hot new head coaches:  man-in-waiting Joker Phillips and Mr. Congeniality Charlie Strong from Florida.  In a game that always sets the tone for the season, the biggest question may be: who needs the win more? Phillips is itching to get “Operation Win” off to a good start, while Strong is desperate to turn the page on a beleaguered Cardinal team.

Is Hartline ready?

Another man who needs a win is Mike Hartline. I hate it, but I’m still struggling to accept Hartline as the starting QB (although he’s now the everyman to this team, I still have Visions of WildCobb dancing in my head).  It’s not fair to Hartline, either.  We fans need to realize that he won the QB battle fair and square.  If Joker wasn’t fully confident in his abilities, he wouldn’t have named him starter.  Still, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous for his first snap on Saturday.  We need Hartline to play well so we can fully embrace him as the starting quarterback.

I’ll also be interested to see where most of the snaps go on Saturday.  Will the offense favor a newly healthy and ready to run Derrick Locke or will we continue to ride on Randall Cobb’s back to victory?  How will the Hartline to Cobb chemistry work?  I think the answer lies in the young offensive line, which Joker claims is the most impressive unit on the team in the preseason (surprising).

You can argue that it’s pretty hard to predict how the Cats will fare against the Cards because honestly, not many people know a lot about the Cards at this point.  They are completely in transition and searching for an identity, yet they have to be hungry for a win.  However, I feel confident that the Cats, who have known and played under Joker Phillips for years, will win because the 1-2 punch of Cobb and Locke will overwhelm Louisville’s defense. Let’s just hope Hartline plays to his potential and gains some much needed confidence and love from the fan base.

But, first things first.  What games are you watching tomorrow night? THE Ohio State University vs. Marshall?  The South Carolina Scowling Spurriers vs. Southern Miss?

Clearly not a RGWS reader

My fantasy football league draft is this Sunday and once again, I’m the only gal in the group.

This is a pretty familiar feeling.  But, I always wonder how the guys in my league feel about having a girl in their manly pretend world.  When they look at the schedule and see our matchup, do they mark it as an easy “W”?  Or do they see me as “one of the guys,” a title I’ve pretty much held since high school.  Granted, I finished 9th in this particular league last year, but in my other league, I got 3rd, so it’s not as though I have no idea what I’m doing.  And, I’ve finally conquered my original problem with Fantasy Football: drafting all UK players out of loyalty (to be fair, Andre Woodson and Rafael Little seemed like awesome sleeper picks at the time).

I asked my friend John, aka “Cooter,” how he feels about playing against girls in his fantasy football league.  If you’re a loyal RGWS reader, you’ll remember him from his posts on Butler basketball during the tournament.  Like the awesome person he is, Cooter says that anything that gets girls into sports is a good thing.  He claims that gender has no influence on how he judges a matchup.  But again, he is smart, level-headed and fair to the ladies.  For every Cooter in the world, there is a (insert clever and crude play on words here) guy who sees equates the “W” in “women” as a “W” on their FF record.

Looks like the number of women participating in fantasy football leagues is growing. According to the Daily Finance, 12% of Yahoo’s and 18% of ESPN’s fantasy football team owners are women.  There is even a “Girls’ Guide to Fantasy Football” website.  Now, I really wish I’d written this article earlier, because I’d start a RGWS Fantasy Football league.

Guys, how do you feel about having a lady in your fantasy football league?  Ladies, do you embrace or shy away from the “sports gal” role?

"Hey Saban, just stopping by to tell you that if you win another title, God says he'll let you into heaven."

Per the weather blog for ABC 33/40 in Alabama:

Thanks to Petty Officer Neil Eubanks for this image… he writes…

“James,

My name is Neil Eubanks, I used to live in Hokes Bluff Alabama, but now I work for the U.S. Coast Guard in Jacksonville Florida. The picture I have attached is of a cloud that appeared here in Jacksonville last month while I was on duty attending to evening colors. The cloud has a likeness of the late Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant wearing his traditional hounds tooth hat. I am an Univ. of Alabama football fan and thought I would share this photo with you so you may share it with others on your blog or evening news cast.”

And they say Kentucky basketball fans are crazy…

While planning a Labor Day weekend trip to Kentucky, I realized that football was less than a month away. The countdown is truly on, people.  You know it’s time for fall when your pulse quickens for quite possibly the most meaningless sports event ever, the Hall of Fame game.  Think you’re a true football junkie?  Try sitting through an entire preseason NFL game.  After the thrill of hearing the NFL Sunday Night Football theme wears off, it gets boring pretty quickly.  But, there is something so comforting about seeing your favorite players (yes, I’m looking at you, Ocho) strutting the sidelines.

But the Hall of Fame game pales in comparison to the excitement of Media Day.  For any college football fan, this is the true start of the preseason.  Back in the day when people actually read newspapers, I remember smoothing out the pages over the kitchen table to lose myself in bright blue uniforms, candids, position battles, and general coachspeak.  Even if the whole country thinks your team will be lucky to win one game (which was often the case for Kentucky when I was growing up), there is an irrepressible optimism on Media Day.  The team’s slate is as clean as their newly stitched jerseys.

The star of last year’s Kentucky football team was undeniably Randall Cobb. The manchild can do it all: wide receiver, quarterback, punt returner…you name it.  I can’t count the number of times Trashy and I yelled “GET THE BALL TO COBB” last season…he is clearly the most talented player on the team and things just happen when he has the ball.  Sometimes I still think he should play QB full time (and he will, at least in the “Wildcobb” formation).

Joker Phillips knows this team can’t succeed without Cobb.  “He will be the sorest player in the league,”  Phillips promised at SEC Media Days.  Cobb is embracing that role as well.  Word out of Lexington is he even offered to play defensive back. That “go gettum” spirit, combined with his talent, speed, and beautiful golden eyes (take that sparkle vamp from those movies), moves him to the top of my favorites list this fall.

Barring any possible injuries (get on your knees and pray, Kentucky!), what kind of season do you think Cobb will have this year?

Because I don’t like Tebow, I’m not surprised that his new Nike show, the Nike Trainer, 1.2 is ugly.

From The Denver Post:

“The shoes, which are called Nike Trainer 1.2, are the same orange-and-blue color scheme featured at the University of Florida, where Tebow won two national championships and a Heisman Trophy.

Nike promotional photos released this week in Florida show a shoe with a blue upper and an orange sole. They also feature the EA Sports logo on the tongue of each shoe.

One shoe will have “Promise” stitched on the heel, a reference to Tebow’s impassioned speech after a loss to Mississippi in September 2008. That speech is inscribed on a plaque outside the Gators’ football complex.

Stitched on the heel of the other shoe will be the years Tebow reached major milestones in college football, such as the year he won the Heisman Trophy — 2007 — as well as the national titles and years he was named an All-American.”

Gag.

Your shoe makes me want to cry too.

]]> http://www.realgirlswatchsports.com/?feed=rss2&p=885 1 http://www.realgirlswatchsports.com/?p=869 http://www.realgirlswatchsports.com/?p=869#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:22:27 +0000 Tyler Thompson http://www.realgirlswatchsports.com/?p=869

Definitely ready to see this guy again

By Tyler Thompson

Last Saturday, I was at a cook out and had a spicy buffalo wing for the first time in months.  Immediately, I was transported a month and a half into the future, with a comfy sofa under me and a frosty beer in my hand.  My television was blaring with the wonderful grunts, whistles, trumpets, and cheers that can only mean one thing: college football is near.

And thank god for that. I really have tried to be a diligent sports blogger this summer…I had posts upon posts planned for the World Cup, Wimbledon, and NBA Summer League.  While I’ve enjoyed all of those events (especially the World Cup when the US was still in it), they aren’t college football or basketball.  In my brief stint as a sports blogger, I have accepted one fact about myself:  I am much better at writing about subjects that I’m passionate about. Those subjects include: college football and basketball, especially Kentucky football and basketball.  I think that I use up so much energy cheering my teams on in the fall, winter, and early spring that summer is my time to hibernate.  But, like that yummy chicken wing, signs of life are starting to emerge: UT players are getting arrested, football articles are trickling into the mainstream news, and SEC football media days are almost upon us.  Or, maybe it’s still forever away and I’ve been watching too much “Friday Night Lights.”  Either way, I’m excited.

Here are a few of my favorite things about college football (also known as “Reasons College Football is better than anything, ever”)

-Tailgating (so wonderful it deserves its own post closer to the season)

-Fall (it’s been such a hot summer in Nashville that I’ve been in that “it’s late July/August hot and I’m antsy for fall” mode for a while now)

-Starting every Saturday with College Gameday (which was just expanded to 3 blissful hours)

-Giant white pizzas and pitchers at Sam’s when games are on ESPN Gameplan

-Trashy getting into fights with people over tvs/chairs at Sam’s when games are on ESPN Gameplan

-Again, fall

-That irrepressible batch of butterflies that swells in my stomach while I watch a game. There’s nothing like that toe-tapping, heart pounding pulse of a fourth quarter drive.

-Having the luxury of pretending not to care about football any more if your team isn’t doing well because basketball season is right around the corner (you know what I’m talking about, UK fans).

Only 48 days to go, folks…

Steinbrenner was coined “The Boss” by a New York tabloid and the name stuck in part because of his no holds barred attitude towards men dressing as professional men, players holding themselves accountable for their actions (Jeter’s partying days…) and firing whoever he chose whenever he wanted (and sometimes hiring them back a few times). He was loved by Yankee fans and loathed by many others as he spent whatever it took to sign players who would win games. He benched players for disobeying the team grooming standards, was convicted of felony obstruction of justice (although finally pardoned by President Reagan) and suspended from the game. Yet through those 27 years, including the very long 1980’s/early 90’s dry spell, George had a plan. He didn’t buy a small market team in a less-than city. He bought the New York Yankees and he was going to show everyone what he could do with the most revered team in the history of sport. And show them he did. He hired the right staff and gave them the space to find and develop young prospects (Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, Bernie Williams and others came from the Yankees farm system). Thirteen years after George bought the bargain basement team, he had the pleasure of watching the fruits of his labor explode in the form of four World Series wins in five years. A new Yankee dynasty was here, with mystique and aura appearing nightly. Steinbrenner’s $8+ million investment had become a $1.2 billion empire. 

While on the business side George was always thinking of “what’s next”, in the form of the Yankee Entertainment Sports (YES) Network and a new Yankee Stadium he still found time to laugh at himself with a hosting appearance on Saturday Night Live, VISA commercials with Derek Jeter, and the use of his likeness (and edited out appearance) on Seinfeld. He was a man of many interests including horse racing, Broadway and professional wrestling and a generous philanthropist through donations to The University of Florida and the now aptly named George Steinbrenner High School in Lutz, Florida.

The baseball world is in mourning today. There will be a moment of silence this evening at the All-Star game and a number of flags in New York City will be flown at half-staff. For those of us who bleed Yankee pinstripes, George was unlike anyone in the baseball world, and no one will ever take that place in the same way after him. Rest in Peace, Boss. 

My own personal Yankees tribute

It’s an energy drink…for your feet!  Brilliant!  And while we’re doing the John Wall video thing (because tomorrow is his big day), I still can’t get this out of my head…except now, maybe I sing it on Sundays.  Maybe I change the words to “yiggy yes yallin’, I’m kickballin’”…or maybe not.

Sorry Algeria...at least you're better than France!

Obviously we’re all rooting for a USA win today vs. Algeria in the World Cup (apologies to our Algerian readers out there).  But what happens if the USA doesn’t win?  Here’s what we have to do to advance to the round of sixteen:

1. Win versus Algeria

2. Tie and Slovenia-England tie IF England doesn’t outscore USA by 2+ goals

3. Tie and England loss

Note: If USA-Algeria and England-Slovenia end in draws, and England scores exactly two more goals than USA, then USA and England would be even on all tiebreakers. A coin flip would break the tie.

So here’s hoping Jozy Altidore’s stomach settles and we win this thing!  Send that boy some Mylanta, stat!