49er fan falls and dies

Yesterday at the San Fransisco-Minnesota game a man fell to his death.  According to ESPN, he was in the concession area and tried to jump on a ledge to sit.  He misjudged his jump and fell about twenty feet to his death. The wall area was only four feet high and six inches wide.  It was also sloped so it would be hard to sit on.  Paramedics worked on him for about a half hour, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.  After investigation it has been treated as an accident. 

Vick Sentenced

Who was once one of the NFL’s most exciting players and one of the most game changing quarterbacks has been sentenced to 23 months in prison.  Vick was sentenced on dog charges and one charge of marijuana use.  I think it is pathetic in what happened to such a great athlete and football star.  It is sick what he and the others involved in the fighting.  I don’t know what comes over people to go kill dogs in such a way as electrocuting, drowning, hanging, and other inhumane for lack of performance.  Dog fighting is cruel and immoral.  I remember seeing a photo of a severely injured dog after a fight. His face was all torn and mangled, blood and open wounds covering his face.  Dog fighters have no feeling for the animals, just the money.  They act as if the dogs are tools used to kill for cash.  I feel Vick deserves more than 23 months.  Maybe 4 or 5 years.  Just as a warning to professional athletes that they cant get away with everything.

KO’d Hatton

Saturday night in Las Vegas a showdown of the decade, or at least in my opinion, took place between two of boxing’s finest.  Floyd “Money” Mayweather took on Ricky “Hitman” Hatton in the welterweight championship.  Hatton the englishman from Manchester, England was the underdog in this one, but attracted much attention especially those in England.  Approximately 20,000 Brits fled to the MGM Arena to help cheer on Hatton.  Their cheering didn’t do much good in the actaul fight. Mayweather pretty much dominated Hatton from the start.  The fight went on to the 10th round when Hatton was knocked out.  This is Hatton’s first loss, 41-0 heading into the match, now 41-1. Mayweather  improved to 39-0.

Jordin Lindsey Attacked in Five Points

Five Points, Columbia, South Carolina, usually is a fun and good place to go to relieve stress from the week.  It wasn’t so fun for South Carolina football player Jordin Lindsey when he was attacked from behind and cut on the neck early Saturday morning.  He was with his twin brother Billy when he was stabbed from his blindside. 

Two men yelled at the brothers from across a street, but the twins didn’t think much about it — until they heard footsteps and Jordin Lindsey was stabbed, Billy Lindsey said

He needed surgery but he still left Sunday afternoon anyways. I guess being a big defensive lineman you learn to live through the pain.  Lindsey was red-shirted this past season due to academic reasons, but hopefully he will be back next year because he is one of the team’s best Defensive Ends. 

Steelers Embarrassed by Brady and Patriots

For the first half of the game their was not much separating the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots.  They entered the locker room 17-13 New England leading.  Then after the short break Tom Brady began to warm up hitting Moss left and right. Moss, complimented by Gaffney, Watson, and Stallworth, was found wide open quite a few times adding to New Englands lead.  The Patriots cruised to an easy victory 34-13.  Brady finished with a godly 399 yards passing and four touchdowns.  Moss had 135 yards receiving and two touchdowns.  These two are tough to stop when they get in the zone and they proved this last night.  This improves the Pats to 13-0. Six wins away from tieing the Dolphins record.

Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes, Randy Mosscaught two and Steelers safety Anthony Smith, who guaranteed his team would win, was burned on two long scoring throws.

Tebow 2007 Heisman

Not that big of a surprise when Timothy Tebow of Flordia took the hardware in the 2007 Heisman race.  It seemed the entire presentation was about him, so it wasn’t that big of a shocker.  During commercials they would show snippets of Brennan, McFadden, and Daniels staring at the trophy, but then there was Tebow holding it. Strange right.  He was deserving of it though. Having nearly double the touchdowns than any other candidate.  McFadden finished second in the race with less than half the votes of Tebow. 

Tebow received 462 first-place votes and 1,957 points to beat out Arkansas running back Darren McFadden, Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel and Hawaii signal-caller Colt Brennan, the other three finalists for college football’s most prestigious honor.

Gamecock Season Ends

Yesterday afternoon when the bowl games were announced South Carolina found themselves left out.  Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide received the bowl bid instead.  In my opinion I believe they felt, even though we were eligible, that we didn’t deserve it.  At least I didn’t.  We lost the last five games of our season and finished 6-6.  Who wants to see someone go into a bowl game and lose it before it even starts.  Spurrier said in a recent interview that the only ones to blame were themselves. He also said now that the season is over he would turn toward recruiting and off-season training, getting his players ready for spring practices.  There will be some good bowl games this season though, LSU will face Ohio State for the championship,  Georgia will face undefeated Hawaii, Virginia Tech will play Kansas, and Oklahoma will face West Virginia.  Lets see how this crazy college football season finishes in which look like some great match-ups.

Sean Taylor Shot and Killed

Sean Taylor, Washington Redskin safety and NFL Pro Bowler, was shot in his Miami home last Monday.  He was seriously injured and was found bleeding profusely by his girlfriend .  His death was due to injury to the femur artery.  Taylor died at the age of 24.  Charged in the case were four teenagers. Sean Taylor was one of the greatest safeties to ever play in the NFL.  It is a shame that he died at such a young age and that his football career was short lived.  He played for the Redskins for 4 years.  He attended the University of Miami and in the 2004 NFL draft he was selected with the fifth pick of the first round.  In his short career he accumulated 306 tackles, 8 forced fumbles, and 12 interceptions.  He will be missed and will be hard to replace.

Steelers Beat ‘Phins 3-0 in Final Seconds

Prior to Monday nights game minor renovations were done to the field.  What was a grassy surface turned into a wetlands after they added a second layer of playing field.  It rained upon Pittsburgh all night making piles upon piles of mud.  At one point in the game the ball was punted and when contacting the ground stuck in the spot it fell.

Besides the adverse weather and playing conditions this game was a defensive battle.  Even though the victory was only by three points a win is a win.  Ben Roethlisberger completed 18 of 21 for 165 yards and Willie Parker broke 1,000 yards for the third consecutive year.  Advancing to 8-3 the Steelers remain one game ahead in the lead of the AFC North.  The Dolphins fell to 0-11 in the loss, their sixth loss of three or less points. Ricky Williams also made his re-appearance in the NFL last night, but left the game with a shoulder injury.  The entire game it seemed the dolphins were stuck pinned against their end-zone, and never moved down the field.  We also remained in their side of the field, but were held to three points after 60 minutes of football. 

The offense finally got clicking late in the fourth quarter. Roethlisberger completed a 19-yard pass to Ward, but on the next play a holding call negated a nine-yard run by Parker. Roethlisberger went back to Ward for an 11-yard gain, giving the Steelers a third down at the Dolphins 12-yard line at the two-minute warning. Willie Reid pulled in a six-yard reception for a first-and-goal at the six-yard line. Roethlisberger was sacked on third down and it all came down to Reed. Reed came through with a 24-yard field goal, to give the Steelers the 3-0 win.

Re: Heisman Race

Heisman update here. While this college football season has been plagued with parity, especially in the SEC, there has not been a single Heisman candidate to rise above the pack like there has been last year. It isn’t because all these phenomenal players aren’t putting up like statistics; it’s that no one player has elevated his team above the rest. The likely candidate right now is Dennis Dixson. Despite the fact that he hasn’t put up the compelling numbers other quarterbacks in the running have, he has been the most consistent and been the go-to man for the Oregon Ducks. Compiling 2074 yards through the air, with 20 touchdowns and 3 interceptions, also 549 yards on the ground and 8 touchdowns averaging 5.3 yards per carry, Dixson has done more for his team than all of the other candidates. The fact that more attention is paid to how well the team is doing compared to the individual statistics is a problem.

In the past, the state the team was in really didn’t have as much of an effect as it does now. For instance, in the past 6 years, each Heisman winner has come from a top 10 team. In the past the teams situation did not have that much weight. In my personal opinion I think that this needs to be lessened. If the team is losing to respectable teams, not creampuffs, but the candidate is still putting up ungodly numbers, then that candidate should be in the same consideration as the player on the undefeated team with the same numbers.

There really isn’t a true standout Heisman candidate this year.  Yes, Dennis Dixon has had some brilliant performances up to now, but his recent injury adding two losses to Oregon’s record may have ruined his chances.  In my opinion Tim Tebow will win it in a close race, just beating Darren McFadden and Pat White.  These are the three most electric players in the nation right now and are very hard to stop.  Tim Tebow being only a sophmore looks like a senior out there when he has the ball.  He has the combination of size, speed, leadership, field awareness, and arm strength and accuracy which makes him such a valuable weapon.  Not only is he the leading passer with 3,132 yards and 29 touchdowns but also is the leading rusher with 838 yards and 22 touchdowns.  That is 51 touchdowns alone, absolutely sickening!  The other player I feel that has a chance to get it is Darren McFadden.  Darren McFadden has been a consistent runner these past two seasons for Arkansas putting up huge numbers, even though he splits time with teammate Felix Jones.  McFadden has rushed for 1,725 yards this season with 15 touchdowns. More than 300 of those yards were compiled against South Carolina.  Pat White has also had a great season.  Alone, he has put up 26 touchdowns.  He has thrown for 1,498 yards and rushed for 1,144 yards.  Overall, Tim Tebow is gonna take the hardware.  Pat White and Darren McFadden don’t have the complexity of Tebow.