No More Turkey Day Sleepers

Thanksgiving football the last couple of years hasn't been much of anything to watch but this year it looks like that may change.


The Lions have had a great season so far starting off with seven wins and only three losses. They always play on Thanksgiving and they will host division rival Packers who are the only undefeated team left in the NFL.


The Packers are undefeated but had a close call last week against Tampa Bay in a game that they allowed 455 yards to the Bucs. The Packers also lost leading rusher James Starks who went down with an injury in the fourth quarter.


I look for this to be an exciting match up with Matthew Stafford of the Detriot Lions and Calvin Johnson to chew up this Packers defense but I think they will do so in a losing effort. Can anybody stop Aaron Rodgers? He has thrown for 31 touchdowns and only four interceptions all season, an unbelievable accomplishment.


What got into the 49ers this year? Maybe they were inspired by the Giants success in San Fran and stepped it into gear. The 49ers sit at 8-1 going into the day and will face the Baltimore Ravens defense. Both teams have relied on their defenses and this will probably be a very low scoring game.


The only bad game of the day may be the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins were able to pull off three straight victories after starting out 0-7 but the Cowboys have also been playing well of late.


This may be a good game but I can't see the Dolphins continuing their winning ways this week against Dallas. This may be a very high scoring game but I'm not really sure who will come out on top, but I lean towards Dallas to win this game.

We Are...Penn State.

There have been many controversies at the university of Penn State recently with the football program. This being said, Penn State still deserves the bowl game that they will get this season. Any team with six wins in a season is bowl eligible. Penn State has nine so they will get a call following the season. 

With all these issues, Penn State was able to beat Ohio State on the road in a hostile environment. For some reason, Tim Keown says that Penn State should deny this bowl game that the team has worked extremely hard to get. Yes, Penn State isn’t the best place to be in the world but let me remind him and others that Jerry Sandusky hasn’t been on the Penn State coaching staff since 1999. So let me ask why a man who hasn’t been part of a College program should cause a 2011 Penn State football team to suffer.

It’s so horrible that the media made everything out to be Joe Paterno’s fault when what he knew or could’ve done is so vague. He reported the abuse to a supervisor of campus police who decided to cover it all up, and the board at Penn State decided to do the same thing.

This forced out the greatest coach in sports history. Paterno, at 84 was in the last year of his contract but he was and will continue to be Penn State football. This Penn State team plays from how he coached, and I am rooting for Penn State to win out, and get their fair shot at the Rose Bowl and to even have them win the game.

Tim Keown went on to credit the University of Miami for publically stating that they will not accept any bowl game that they would receive this year due to NCAA violations that took place after a booster gave players illegal benefits. A Miami Hurricane booster was part of a $900 Million Ponzi scheme he played to get recruits. Nevin Shapiro violated NCAA rules by paying players for their commitments to the university for athletics and for getting them prostitutes and throwing parties at his million dollar homes and even on his yachts.

Yes, I can agree with him that the situation at Penn State is much worse but in all reality Miami cheated, Penn State did not. Jerry Sandusky should, and will pay for what he has done but why should a program that hasn't had this man on their staff since 1999 pay for what he did? It’s a personal crime, not a university crime.

Penn State deserves to play out the season and the ones to come without any recruiting violations or sanctions.

NFL Players Fined For Stupid Reasons

Boom. We all love those hard hits that happen in football. Players have been hit heavily with the fines this season for as much as hitting a player illegally above the shoulders, or while leading with their helmets. These fines can be expected though they may not be right.

Bears wide out Earl Bennett was fined for wearing orange cleats in two straight games. Yup, you heard right. He was fined $10,000 for wearing orange cleats for the Bears last two games.  In the NFL dress code I guess it says somewhere you can't wear orange cleats in a game. Get over it Rodger Goodell. The alternate uniforms for the Bears are orange, and the cleats looked really cool with the jersey, so a fine for this is insane. In addition to these fines, the NFL said they will continue to fine him $5,000 for every game that he wears them. This may also result in delay of game penalties, or even an ejection. This is just nuts. Any player should be able to wear whatever cleats they want, especially if they have team colors in them.What will you do next fine someone for wearing the wrong colored gloves? Get a life commissioner.

Best Penalty Call Ever

Refs in all sorts of plays are always subject to criticism for making bad calls. Here is my favorite call of all time. Listen as Ron Cherry calls the penalty. No Ron Cherry, "Giving Him the Business" is not a penalty in College Football.

Verteran's Day Basketball

Veterans Day. A day to honor all the people who serve this country and fight for our freedom. This year the sports world has decided to do this in a totally different way. The Carrier Classic this year will actually be played on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson.

The flight deck was magically transformed into a full regulation basketball court with stands and two scoreboards. The number one team in the land will be playing Michigan State. This will be the first ever basketball game being played on an aircraft carrier. The carrier is in the Bay of San Diego, California. Michigan State and North Carolina may have some issues with the lighting, but this game should be very exciting.

Here is a video that shows how this basketball court was put together.


Interesting Facts:

The USS Carl Vinson is the carrier that buried Osama Bin Laden at sea
This carrier helped in the relief of Haiti after the earthquake
The ship is 1,092 feet in length

Forcing Out A Legend: The Joe Paterno Story

A coaching legend is about to see his end. Joe Paterno is being held accountable for knowing about Jerrey Sandusky's acts. Joe Paterno reported it to the people who he was suppose to tell and those higher ups decided to cover up the incident like it didn't happen. Sandusky has been accused of sexually abusing young boys on main Penn State campus and through his charity program called Second Mile. Sandusky has 40 charges against him that involves sexual abuse to minors.

Paterno is one of the few good men left at Penn State and it would be hard to imagine another coach at Penn State. Since Joe Paterno told who he needed to at the university and they failed to go to the police, they are trying to get him to step down as coach of Penn State. He has lost all the support that he had from the university and their trusties. He now only has support of the fans and they all rallied around the Paterno house on Tuesday night.

Joe Paterno became the coach with the most wins in division one college football this season with 409 victories. He has been a coaching icon and has been there for 46 years.

Just to show how impressive this record is here is something to consider. If a coach went undefeated, or 12-0 every season without bowl games it would take him 34 seasons to accomplish. Take a minute and think about that. Joe Paterno is a football legend, and has been a grandfather-like coach. He has decided that he will retire at the end of this year but Penn State has decided to force him out immediately. People remember how you leave, not what you do but hopefully this won't happen to this great man.  We still love you Joe Pa.

NASCAR Race For The Cup

Gentlemen, start your engines! Last week Tony Stewart made up some ground in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series by winning the race at Martinsville. Tony gained a lot of ground and moved into second place behind Carl Edwards to enter Sunday's race at Texas.

Tony Stewart was in second by only eight points after his win at Martinsville and now the questions are starting to come up. Who will win the cup? Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, or five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson? Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards battled all race long at Martinsville and this continued this week at Texas. The races have been very interesting and have come down to the last few laps in each one. Tony Stewart held off Carl Edwards this week at Texas to win and is now only three points behind Carl Edwards for the chase lead. There are two races remaining this season.

Week 10 College Football Rankings

This week there will be a change in the college football world as the two best teams will go head to head this week in Bryant-Denny Stadium in Alabama. After this week we will know who is the real number one team in the country.

1.LSU is the best team in the country though this weekend will be the game of the season other than the national title game. They travel to Alabama to play the Crimson Tide in SEC play.

2.Alabama is the second best team in the country but will face the top rated Tigers of LSU. They should have a better chance playing at home but they will still probably lose this weekend if LSU can force them to throw.

3.Oklahoma State is in a good position right now to be in the hunt for the title, as long as they control their own destiny. Alabama or LSU will lose this weekend which will leap frog Oklahoma State to number two as long as they win this weekend at home against a surprisingly good Kansas State team.

4.Stanford should be in good shape this weekend as the travel to Oregon State to play the 2-6 Beavers. After losing the Rodgers brothers last year Oregon State hasn't had anything this season and it should be a cake walk for number 4 Stanford.

5.Oklahoma even with its one loss is much better than Boise State. Oklahoma had a bad week against Texas Tech but they wont slip up again this season. I have them at the number five spot for this week.

6.Arkansas should be getting more credit as a 7-1 team since its only loss is to a powerhouse Alabama team. Arkansas should get a good bowl game this season if they can stay a one loss team in the SEC.

7.Boise State is a top ten team even though they have possibly the easiest schedule in the entire nation in Division One football. You have to respect them for going undefeated but if they play teams that are this bad they don't deserve a big bowl game.

8.Oregon will face the Washington Huskies this weekend and I could even see an upset, but Oregon is still a great team though its not even the best team in the PAC 12 since Stanford certainly is better but Oregon is a team that you wouldn't want to sleep on. How could you though, with those awesome Nike uniforms.

9.Nebraska shocked me this weekend beating Michigan State 24-3 behind a strong running game and shut down defense against the Spartans at home. Nebraska is a great team but they wont stay unbeaten much longer. they will lose against Penn State in Beaver Stadium this season so they will finish as a two loss team.

10. South Carolina surprised me last week that they are still holding up after losing Marcus Lattimore for the season. He had already rushed for 818 yards before going down with an injury that will sideline him for the rest of this year. He ran for nearly 1200 yards last year but they were able to win their game even though they had to deal with the loss of quarterback Stephen Garcia for off the field issues but Sophomore quarterback Connor Shaw has really stepped up to the task and has been better than Garcia was so it was almost a blessing in disguise.

Worst Defensive Play of The NFL Season So Far

http://www.nfl.com/videos/auto/09000d5d8239d43b/Young-scores-on-41-yard-pass-play


This is the worst defensive break down in possibly NFL history. Titus Young shouldn't be that open in high school yet alone the NFL! Cmon, someone should really be getting their ear chewed out for blowing that defensive assignment. I mean if you leave somebody open by about twenty yards then you need to be benched. I like how Titus Young looks around as if to say "Where's the defense? I can't see the defense!"

That is just insane. Things didn't get any better for the Broncos as the went on to be pounced by the Lions. Tim Tebow didn't play well and things are just taking a turn for the worst in Denver. Thanks to nfl.com for the video.

Lebron James

Lebron James really needs to improve his performance in the playoffs and the media hasn't been shy at all to criticise him since he left Cleveland for Miami on National Television on an hourly ESPN special. Lebron has been virtually unable to do anything in the NBA Finals and is possibly the biggest choke artist in NBA history. Lebron got his team to the finals this year, he was a big factor in that but he failed to do much of anything against Dallas in the finals.

There is a way that Lebron could get better and be able to perform late in games. He needs to improve on his post game where he would be virtually unstoppable. He is a great scorer and if he could finally get it together the Heat could win a championship. He always trys to settle to be a point gaurd when he should be using his 6'10" frame to his advantage and get down in the paint and score some more points and be more effective in the games to come.