Lee Corso is totally unbiased and does not play favorites

Here's Mr. Corso just before Saturday's Penn St./Ohio St. game doing what he does best. Being a completely serious journalist who doesn't pander to the crowd. By the way, today is Opposite Day.

-WCK

What we learned from Sunday's NFL action

Not the best of Sundays. A horrifying number of blowouts today, capped of course by that ridiculous Pats/Skins game. In addition, a ton of less than inspiring games - like Cleveland/St. Louis. And here in the Bay Area, we had to watch the Raiders lose a snoozer followed by the 49ers getting destroyed. Sweet.

Anyway, on to what we learned.

1. The Patriots are ultimately going to get someone injured at the rate they're going. I'm not going to get into the "did they run up the score" question. Because they did, no question. Running a pump and go when you're up by 38 in the 4th quarter and then later going for it on 4th down is running up the score. But you know what, the Skins could have played better defense as well. But the better question to ask here is why did Belichick leave his starters in so long and risk getting them injured? Michael David Smith at the Fanhouse alluded to this and he's right. Imagine Brady getting hit in the knees in the 4th when the Pats are up by 38. Man, Belichick would be hung by Pats fans. The fact is that the Pats really should take their first-string guys out when they're blowing someone out - not to be nice - but to prevent them from getting injured. Either on freak plays or on not so freak plays when some opposing player decides to take a cheap shot.

2. John Kitna is smarter than an awful lot of us. Kitna said the Lions would get 10 wins this year, they're now half way there. I'm still not 100% sure they'll get there, but I didn't see them winning more than six games this year, so what the hell do I know? Besides, they've beaten the Bucs and Bears in back to back games. The truth is that they play in what is quickly becoming a pretty weak division. And I say that because if anyone thinks Green Bay is going to keep winning with no running game as it gets colder out - forget it. Color me impressed Mr. Kitna.

3. Brian Griese is still a pretty bad QB. I always believed that the Bears had to make a change from Rex, but I was never really excited by Griese. And for good reason. Nothing like throwing 4 picks against the Lions, 3 of them in the end zone. Yikes. The fact is the Bears have no one really to play QB, they're defense isn't nearly as good as it was last year, and Cedric Benson sucks. He's horrible. The Bears will become yet another Super Bowl loser not to make the playoffs the following year.

4. St. Louis and Miami, I like your chances of going 0-16. Both these teams lost close games on Sunday, but whatever, they still lost. Also St. Louis lost Steven Jackson yet again and Miami is quickly becoming the Isiah Thomas Knicks of the NFL. What's even better is that these teams don't play each other, so both could go 0-16. That's probably pretty unlikely, but if I had to bet on one of them to do it, it'd be Miami.

5. It's officially time to revoke Mangenius's nickname. He'll now only be known as Mangini. He's about the only person in the world who wanted to stick with Pennington these last few weeks and needless to say, it hasn't worked out so well. And losing to the Bills, well, that SHOULD be the final nail in the coffin for Pennington. As we said last week Mangini, your season is over, might as well see what Clemens can give you.

6. The Chargers look like they're back. Basically stealing Chambers from the Dolphins was absolutely huge. It just can't be stressed enough how great a deal that was for the Chargers. That gives them a very legit receiver to take some of the defensive pressure off of Gates, and man did it work on Sunday. This team looks primed for a big time run and in all likelyhood we'll look back at that Chambers deal and say that's when things came together for this team.

7. Even though Norv's a bad coach, he's a great O-coordinator. And man, oh man do we miss him in SF. Our 49ers are abysmal on offense right now and it's easy to see why. Every week teams stuff 8 or 9 guys in the box against the 49ers to stop Gore and dare whoever's at QB to beat them. That's it. And it's working really well. The simple fact is that the only difference between this year's offense and last year's offense is Norv. Same QB, same RB, same TE, same O-line. Different O-coordinator. It's hard to say it's anything else.

8. I don't expect England to start liking our football anytime soon after Sunday's game. The Giants and Dolphins combined for 187 passing yards, 7 fumbles, and two missed field goals. Yes it was played in the rain and on a slicker than normal surface, but seriously, if Goodell wants to attract more fans he better provide a better game for them.

9. The Jags/Bucs was the best game of the day. I watched it, and yet I still can't figure out how Quinn Gray wound up being on the winning team. I know it was defense, but still, I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that Quinn Gray helped lead the Jags to victory, while Alex Smith is totally inept.

10. Tom Brady is no longer the best dressed man in America. That hat he wore in the post game interview - bizarre and horrible.

-WCK

The Chinese, and Jackie Chan, are really psyched for the Olympics

The Olympics are still long way off, but don't tell that to the Chinese. They're already doing things like getting strangely awesome haircuts and building bizarre bikes. Apparently it took the guy in the above picture 2 months to build that bike. I'm not really sure why it took that long to do, but my guess is when you work 22 hours a day it's tough to build a bike in your spare time.

Also getting in on the action is Jackie Chan. I never had him pegged as a singer, but he's done a song for the Olympics called "We Are Ready." It's the official countdown song to the Olympics., whatever that means. Here are some of the lyrics.

"Waiting year after year/ We can see into the future/ Together with hard work and sweat, we've created the five different (Olympic) colors."

Not exactly a chart topper, but whatever. It sounds better when you hear Jackie Chan sing it. At least that's what I think. I don't know because I didn't listen to it.


-WCK

The Play II

The YouTube version of this is gone, presumably because of ESPN, so here's the official ESPN clip. It's Trinity College against Millsaps College from yesterday. And it took 15 laterals from Trinity to get the win. I like how bored the announcer is for about the first 8 laterals. Then things pick up a bit.

-WCK

What we learned from Saturday's college football action

I'm shocked, shocked, that an ASU fan would flash the shocker while he's on TV for about 5 seconds. It's not quite Thunderlabia, but it'll do for an ASU student. Of course later in the night, a panning shot of the student section showed everyone giving the shocker. ASU fans, all class. By the way, if you want to know our thoughts on ASU, we believe Ned Flanders said it best: "Apparently it's easier to get into heaven than Arizona State."

On to what we learned.

1. Ohio State may not be the best team in country, but they at least proved they're worthy of the #1 ranking. Going into Happy Valley and beating down Penn State was what Ohio State needed to do in my mind to prove to people they're a legit #1, and they did that. Even more impressive was that this game was never close. I'm still troubled by the fact that Ohio St. has played some serious cupcakes this year, but this was a big test and they passed it. The only team left that seems to have the ability to beat Ohio St. is Michigan. I can't believe I'm even saying that.

2. Oregon proved today that they belong to be in the same discussions as LSU for National Championship consideration. Oregon hung on to beat an extremely talented USC squad and should have beaten them by more if they hadn't had a few stupid turnovers. The amazing thing about Oregon is that they're literally one play away from being the undisputed #1 team in the country. That fumble into the end zone at the end of the game against Cal may be the difference between them playing in the National Championship and some other BCS bowl game. Regardless, this team's offense is truly something to reckon with, even though they've had a few injuries and a suspension. They can run, pass, and stretch the field in a way I haven't seen any other offenses do this year. Dennis Dixon is like a thin Vince Young and Jonathan Stewart is an absolute workhorse. It'll be tough for this team to make it into the National Championship game, but if they do get in, look out. If this team can put points up on the board against USC's defense, they can put points up on the board against any defense.

3. Speaking of USC, when do we bring out the official "Pete Carroll is a bad coach" chant? This team is ludicrously talented and now they could easily finish their Pac-10 schedule with 3 or more losses. How does this happen? Well, it happens when your coach isn't good at getting everything out of his players. If you think I'm being too critical, look at the Stanford game. The only way you lose a game like that is if you're coach doesn't prepare you for it. When Carroll had that incredible 3-year run from 2003-2005, everyone thought he was the greatest coach since sliced bread. But since losing the National Championship to Texas, a game USC really should have won (to take nothing away from Vince Young), USC has lost some truly head scratching games. The loss to UCLA last year that took them out of the National Championship was pretty terrible and the Stanford loss was about 10 times worse. Oregon totally deserved to beat USC yesterday, but still, there's something wrong with USC. And I think it's Carroll. I think he's a great recruiter, but a lousy coach. Which shouldn't be much of a surprise considering he was a lousy pro coach.

4. If you want our thoughts on BC, we wrote about that on Friday. We weren't real kind to BC.

5. The SEC and Pac-10 are too tough for their own good. Watching Kentucky lose to Miss St. followed by Florida losing to Georgia was pretty surprising. And in addition to that, Tennessee beat South Carolina. Meanwhile, watching Cal lose to UCLA and Arizona St. in back to back weeks (mainly due to Longshore's bad ankle) also speaks volumes about the strength of the Pac-10. And on top of that Arizona St. is in first place in the Pac-10. But you're nuts if you think Arizona St. is going to go through the Pac-10 undefeated. They have to play Oregon, UCLA and USC the next 3 weeks. They'll lose 2 of those games, maybe all 3. By my estimation, the Pac-10 has 6 very legit teams (out of 10) while the SEC has unreal 8 (out of 12). These teams match up against each other every week and absolutely bludgeon themselves to death during the course of the regular season. You should get a badge of honor for making it out of either of these two conferences with only one loss.

6. It looks like SEC teams are starting to figure out Florida. And by figure them out, I mean they're just keying on Tebow. He's literally their whole offense. And when you combine that with the fact that Florida only has about 6 total plays, they aren't really a hard team to prepare for. This isn't Tebow's fault at all by the way. It's Urban Meyer's fault. He hasn't done anything to take the pressure off of Tebow even though he promised to do that weeks ago. Now Tebow has taken way too many big hits and has that bruised shoulder - which is only worse after yesterday. And they've now got 3 losses. You can put all the blame on Urban Meyer.

7. The Heisman race just got incredibly cloudy. Most people going into this weekend had Tebow as the Heisman frontrunner. Then Florida lost. That would have left space available for Andre Woodson, but he had already lost to Mississippi St., officially putting a stake into the heart of his Heisman campaign. I have no clue who in the hell is going to win this thing any more.

8. Kansas is sort of good, maybe. I mean they're 8-0, but who've they beaten? Pretty much no one. But whatever. I'd love to see them go undefeated just to cause a nationwide riot against the BCS system.

9. Bill Callahan continues to dig his own grave at Nebraska.

10. I don't know anything about UCONN at all. But maybe I should start paying attention.

-WCK

Jason Elam has written the weirdest book ever

There's really no simple way to say this. Jason Elam, the longtime Denver Broncos kicker, has a book coming out in January entitled Monday Night Jihad.

You can stop laughing, because this isn't a joke at all. Even though Elam hasn't written anything since college, he somehow has authored a 350-page book that is loosely based on his life. The main character of the book will be Riley Covington, a military guy who has finished serving a tour of duty who then comes back to play for the local pro football team only to find himself brought back into the military world unexpectedly. Just so you know, Covington will not be a kicker.

The idea for the book came mainly from Elam's experiences as a pro football player. But it also came from time he spent in the Middle East. He got background for his book when he visited the Gaza Strip last year and got caught in a shootout. Sweet.

"What I was hoping to do, and think I pulled off, was contrast Christianity with radical Islam and moderate Islam," Elam said. "If Osama bin Laden himself were to pick up this book and read it, I'd want him to say, 'Yeah, that's why I do what I do. That's how I justify, how I reconcile, that's what I believe.'"

If you think there's no way this'll work, I'd have to agree with you. But apparently the publishing industry doesn't agree with us. That's because Elam already has a contract for a second book, with the lead character along the lines of fictional adventurer Dirk Pitt out of the Clive Cussler novels.

So if you're looking for a book about an NFL player who battles terrorists and solves the Mid-East crisis in his spare time, it'll soon be available. You can read an excerpt here.

I think I can confidently say without question that Elam is the new Shakespeare.

-WCK

Don't stick your hand in there

This is some British cable access program taking a look at some cheeky bastards who have been taking dumps in the holes of a local golf course. That's a pleasant prize for the lucky golfer who dips his hand in to retrieve his ball.

See, this is why I don't play golf.

-WCK

Pete Rose needs to move to Europe

I'm not quite sure how concerned Europeans are with their athletes using insider information for gambling purposes. But I guess they're a little more cool with it than people here in the States are.

That's because Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen of the EPL supposedly bet money on who his new head coach would be. Not so surprisingly he got it right and won some money. Also not surprising is that it's somewhat sketchy how he picked the right guy.

A little over a week ago, Bolton coach Sammy Lee left after a horrible start to the season. There were obviously questions about who would replace him - along with betting odds on who it would be. One person that wasn't really a popular choice with fans to replace Lee was Gary Megson. Megson was ultimately given 3-1 odds to become Bolton's new coach but wasn't even close to being the favorite.

Despite those odds, and fan hatred, Jaaskelainen supposedly put down £100 a day for 10 days on Megson to become his new head coach. Jaaskelainen also revealed he and his teammates had discussed the managerial speculation that had surrounded the club since Lee's departure.

Megson was named the head coach yesterday. So when it was all said and done, Jaaskelainen won around £3,000, which I realize isn't much for a pro soccer player. Even better is that there are already odds on whether Megson will make it through this season. Hopefully Jaaskelainen doesn't bet on that.

But I can't be the only one that finds it bizarre that athletes can bet on stuff like this when they're pretty likely to have insider information about it. Looks like Pete Rose should start getting involved in soccer.

-WCK

Unless you're Peyton Manning, don't appear in national ads

It's hard to miss Peyton Manning when you're watching TV. That's because he appears in an average of 3 ads per commercial break. That hasn't hurt the Colts at all because they're 7-0. But pretty much every other NFL star that's appeared in national TV ads this season has watched their team stink up the joint.

Let's take a look:

Steven Jackson - Nike ad. Team record: 0-7 and got injured.
Shawne Merriman - Nike ad. Team record 3-3.
LaDainian Tomlinson - Vizio ad. Team record 3-3.
Reggie Bush - Subway ad. Team record 2-4.
Jason Taylor - A version of him appears in Manning's phone ad. Team record: 0-7.
Vince Young - Madden. Team record: 4-2 and got injured.
Tony Romo - Pepsi ad. Team record: 6-1.

We realize Marvin Harrison appears in Manning's ad as well, but since he's Manning's teammate, he doesn't count.

So if you take Manning (and Harrison) out of the equation, guys that have appeared prominently in national TV ads have a combined record of 15-24 (We're counting Merriman and Tomlinson as one) with only the Titans and Cowboys having winning records. That's horrible. I'm guessing Nike wishes they had gotten someone besides Steven Jackson in their marquee ad.

At least the Cowboys are 6-1, but that's definitely because Romo gets sacked and fumbles in his commercial.

-WCK

Friday "Prepare for the Pac-10" links

Screw the World Series. I don't care anymore. What I do care about is Oregon and USC playing this Saturday. Also Cal and Arizona State. And if I feel like it, maybe I'll catch the dumbasses at College Gameday doing the Ohio St./Penn St. game. How in the hell could they pick that game over Oregon/USC? No one even thinks Ohio St. is the real #1. Great minds working there at ESPN. And by "great" I mean "dumb as hell."

On to the links.

It's a tough sports weekend down in SoCal. [SPORTSbyBROOKS]

Ben Gordan is the Doughnut Man. [Larry Brown Sports]

An interview with that Jags fan who was doing work on Thunderlabia. [Mr. Irrelevant]

The most corrupt football team in America is surprisingly not the Patriots. It's a high school team. [Rumors and Rants]

Boston can suck it. [My Brain Says Rage]

Pics of the Sox rocking out after the ALCS. Papelbon looks like a complete tool. [Part Mule]

Who are the Sox going to sit in Colorado. Ok, no more damn Sox-related links. [I'm Writing Sports]

-WCK

Looks like we've got ourselves a good 'ol fashioned nightmare scenario

BC's win tonight was huge, but it also may have thrown the ultimate monkey wrench into the college rankings this season.

The fact of the matter is that unless Ohio State beats Penn State this Saturday by a wide margin, there's a good chance BC will become #1 in all the rankings. And while that's the right thing - technically - to do, it's also just completely and fundamentally wrong.

BC lucked out last night, plain and simple, in multiple ways. The first was that they didn't have to face V-Tech's #1 QB Tyrod Taylor. The second was that they recovered that onside kick. The third was that they converted with 11 seconds left.

Now, BC could potentially finish the season undefeated and play in the National Championship. Even though I can think of multiple one loss teams (LSU, Oregon, Oklahoma, USC) and even some two loss teams (Florida, Cal) that could all manhandle BC.

Plus, Ohio State could go undefeated as well, setting up a Boston College/Ohio State National Championship. Yikes. I'd hate to see the ratings for that game.

The problem here is that teams like LSU, Florida, USC and Oregon play in far superior conferences and have to match-up against each other during the course of the season. And then they get penalized too much when they lose while a team like BC can potentially ride a less than stellar schedule to the National Championship provided they win one or two big games against a good - but crippled - opponent.

And that's exactly why we need a playoff system. Because in many peoples' minds, whether BC is undefeated or not at the end of the season, they should have to at least prove themselves against one of the big guns from the SEC or Pac-10 in order to be considered true national champions.

-WCK

Kevin Pittsnogle is playing basketball in France with a fat ho

It seems to be international sports day here at 100%, and this story is no exception. Anyway, I'm sure you've spent many a night wondering what happened to Kevin Pittsnogle. Who? He was a former white trash center at West "F*cking" Virginia. I always thought he had a hilarious last name, but I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Pittsnogle is currently playing (I use that term loosely) in France's top basketball league - Ligue Nationale de Basketball - for Cholet Basket. But he's been totally outclassed in the last name department. He's got a teammate named Steeve Ho You Fat. And no, I'm not kidding, here's his player profile page. And just in case you were wondering, Ho You Fat is actually pretty thin and surprisingly not Asian.

Neither Pittsnogle nor Steeve are getting much playing right now, actually none, but I could care less about Pittsnogle. I want Steeve to get some minutes and start improving. He's only 19 by the way. That way he'll eventually suit up for an NBA team some day. The thought of 18,000 fans yelling "Ho you fat!" in unison is almost too awesome to comprehend. Plus it would give me an excuse to yell at fat chicks during games without getting slapped.

HT: Tim's Take for discovering Mr. Ho You Fat. And me for discovering Pittsnogle was his teammate.

-WCK