The Week in Review, 9/7-9/13

(And why we love Sports)


During this week I listened to interviews, saw news stories, or heard extensive talk on these negative sports subject: Pete Rose gambling, Donta Stallworth manslaughter, Michael Vick dog fighting, six Toledo players gambling on their own games, possible labor strife in the NFL and the always dreaded PED’s in baseball. All that stuff just wears me out when listening to talk radio, watching television or just discussing sports with my friends. But, like that one golf shot you hit every round, something always brings us back, and that is the great games and performances.

This week college and pro football (maybe the two most popular sports in America) started, the baseball season is winding down and looking toward another season of great playoff action, and some of the individual sports are coming to exciting conclusions of their seasons. Tennis is in the heart of the US Open, to me the two best weeks in all of tennis, golf’s newly tweaked Fed Ex cup system with Tiger Woods in the thick of things is coming to a conclusion and even if you are an Auto Racing fan the Race for the Chase came to head this weekend in Richmond.

MONDAY

Florida State and Miami capped off the opening weekend of college football with an instant classic. Miami drove down the field with under 5 minutes for the go ahead touchdown. FSU then marched right down inside the 10 yard line with less than :30 seconds to go. Miami got 4 straight stops to win the game, in heartbreaking fashion for the Noles.

In Flushing, American teen sensation Melanie Oudin continued her miracle run at the US Open, by defeating the #13 see Nadia Petrova.

TUESDAY

One of the slower days of the week. Just action at the US Open, where recently unretired Kim Clijsters continued her march toward winning the US Open as an unseeded player. Also, Rafael Nadal and Frenchman Gael Monfils played a brilliant 4 set match.

WEDNESDAY

Up in the Bronx just across the street from where so much baseball history was made, this night the new Yankee Stadium experienced its first night that will live in Yankee lore. Derek Jeter, the consummate professional, had a three hit night (not out of the ordinary) tying him for the all time hits record by a New York Yankee. Jeter has quietly climbed the list of all time greats for the greatest franchise in sports, and on this night he tied the immortal Lou Gehrig; in typical Jeter fashion with a hit to the opposite field. The crowd gave him a rousing ovation, including the visiting Rays, but Jeter was reluctant to accept the applause because his team was trailing at the time. What else would you expect?

In another borough the magical run of Melanie Oudin came to an end. As always the appreciative New York crowd gave her a well deserved ovation. There is nothing quite like tennis in Flushing, Queens on a cool summer evening in September.

THURSDAY

The NFL season got kicked off between the two best teams in the AFC from last season. The Steelers and Titans had a typical hard fought defensive battle which came down to overtime. As expected, Ben Roethlisberger lead his team down the field for a game winning field goal, much like last years Super Bowl game winning drive. No matter what has happened in the game Big Ben can always have a great drive at the end, its simply amazing.

College football had a wacky and wild Thursday night ACC match-up. Down in Atlanta the Clemson Tigers took on the Rambling Wreck. In the first half this game was all Georgia Tech. They scored on an 80 yard option play, a fake field goal and then Clemson lined up for a long FG but instead tried to pooch punt the ball and a Tech return man was waiting on it and took it 90 yards for a TD. Down 24-0 it looked as if Clemson would just get their doors blown off……not so fast my friend. Something clicked in the Clemson offense and they began to git big plays to CJ Spiller and Jacoby Ford en route to scoring 27 straight points. But Georgia Tech came back and kicked a game winning FG with under a minute to go, just a wild college football game

FRIDAY

Nothing too significant happened, no major college or pro football, tennis was rained out. Derek Jeter officially broke Gehrig’s record and his teammates stormed out of the dugout to congratulate him, a very classy move. All of what happened was just prelude to an unbelievable weekend to come.

SATURDAY

First we will talk about the lesser sports or individual sports if you will. Tiger Woods who started the week in second place in the Fed Ex cup standing decided enough was enough and shot a course record 62 to pull ahead at the BMW championship. In Flushing Kim Clijsters was in the process of owning Serena Williams when Williams flipped her lid. She repeatedly threatened a lines woman who called her for a foot fault and then was docked a point which happened to be match point. To me this was total bush league and just a way for her to end the match because she knew she was beaten.

Now to college football. Where to start? Houston rousing 21 point 4th quarter performance to beat #5 Oklahoma State (I’M A MAN). Georgia and South Carolina playing another classic as the usually do, ending when Stephen Garcia couldn’t put the Cock in the end zone on 4 consecutive plays inside the ten. The Clash in Columbus where true Frosh Matt Barkley calmly lead his team down the field in front of 100,000+ hostile fans scoring another victory for Southern Cal over Ohio State. Or the two former college powers Michigan and Notre Dame trying to recapture their glory. Looking like a Notre Dame victory most of the evening until the legend of Tate Forcier was born. Scrambling around like a mad man and hitting receivers on the run Forcier took his team right down the field throwing the game winning TD with 11 seconds to go. The best part of the game was Forcier celebrating with Coach Rodriguez and saying, “I told you so! I fucking told you so.”


SUNDAY

The first day of the NFL season provided us with plenty of storylines.

- Mark Sanchez and the J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS, which I am sure you will read more about tomorrow in Dan’s weekly segment

- Obviously the Vikings, and how little they need Favre to do most games. Just hand the ball to AD (yes AD, his nickname AD, All Day).

- The unspectacular debut of Jay Cutler.

- The spectacular start of the season for Drew Brees. The Saints are like a video game. Now they have to figure out how to play defense, because they gave up 27 points to the Lions

- The calm cool easy victory for the NY Giants. They just win games. Why, because they have the best offensive and defensive lines in the entire game.

- The McNabb injury coupled with the falling of Jake Delhomme, will he or the Panthers recover?

- Matty Ice and the Falcons with new addition Tony Gonzalez

- And of course, the Bungles. Only the Bungles could lose that game in that fashion

Should be another great season of NFL football.

But again with all that negativity swirling around the sports world we have a week like this past one, that brings fans so much chance for joy.