NFL
The Patriots once again asserted their dominance to the rest of the NFL Sunday
night. Ordinarily this would come as no surprise, but the franchise has been under
intense scrutiny the past week because of a growing scandal about its recording of
defensive signal calls. How did the Pats respond? By holding LaDainian Tomlinson,
who averaged 113 yards-per-game on the ground a season ago, to only 43 yards
with no touchdowns. Tom Brady passed for 279 yards and three touchdowns.
(This time it was without knowing what the defense was going to do before lining
up.) It will take more than removing a camera from the sidelines to crumble the
solid foundation in Foxboro. If you thought New England was doomed because of
“Videogate,” and this was the end of the dynasty, you better reevaluate your position
before making the costly mistake of picking a sleeper to win the AFC East.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
It’s time to get down to business in Columbia, S.C., and Steve Spurrier knows it.
The ol’ ball coach, now with the University of South Carolina, enjoyed a 12-year
tenure at the University of Florida, where he had the kind of success that left fellow
SEC coaches with nothing to do but envy him. His supremacy over rival schools
Georgia, Auburn and Tennessee, among others, afforded him some leniency in
making comments that most coaches with good character tend not to make. My
personal favorite was when he said, “The real tragedy is that half of them hadn’t
been colored in yet,” in response to a fire on Auburn University’s campus that
burned some of the players’ books.
Oh, Steve … few things in sports are more enjoyable than some friendly trashtalking,
but you need to continue to back it up with wins. Spurrier has just a
.529 winning percentage through 17 conference games as the Gamecocks’ head
coach, compared with the .872 mark he posted at UF against the same foes. South
Carolina is now 3-0 and has risen to No. 12 in the nation. It faces a crucial test
on Saturday as it travels to Baton Rouge to face No. 2 LSU, the same Tigers squad
that obliterated then-No. 9 Virginia Tech 48-7 two weeks ago. If Spurrier is out to
once again conquer the SEC, he needs to rally for the upset in Death Valley. The
Gamecocks will struggle just to keep pace with the Gators in the SEC East and
need this conference win for the chance to play LSU again to determine the SEC
champion, a title South Carolina has never held.
MLB
Last Friday night, 10-year-old Griffin Whitman was one of the lucky 36,590 fans
to gain admittance to Fenway Park for the first game of the weekend’s renewal of
the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. Just like any kid would, Whitman, a Red Sox fan,
pursued an opportunity to get an autograph before the game. He made an error in
judgment, though. Whitman approached Shelley Duncan, a reserve player for the Evil
Empire (your sworn enemy, Griffin!). Duncan, in the spirit of the feud between the
two teams, signed Whitman’s notebook with “Red Sox suck! Shelley Duncan.” Any
rational person who understands the nature of rivalries would treasure something
like that. Duncan admitted that he likes to add fuel to the fire and thought his act
was done in the name of good fun, which is quite believable. Griffin, along with
his family, have since pitched a fit about how this sends a bad message to children
and Duncan misused his position as a role model. Whitman is not much of a fan
if he wouldn’t have expected something like this to take place at that game; I don’t
think it even warrants mentioning some of the belligerence you might see at Fenway
for a Sox-Yanks game. Griffin’s parents were very naïve if they expected to show
up to the park and not see anything offensive and unfit for their son’s eyes or ears
(as if he doesn’t hear the word “suck” at school everyday). The bottom line is that
uptight parents shouldn’t expose their children to volatile situations if they’re going
to complain after the fact and cry for media attention.