When the kids were stretching and warming up. Jim would go out there and start doing some push-ups. He was offense, and I was defense. We used to talk a little junk. We were trying to foster that environment because the Stanford kids were the opposite of a lot of other kids at that time. They were downtrodden and hadn't won many games. They were almost too, "Yes sir, no sir." We were like, Hey, we've got to get these kids to loosen up.

Everything was a competition. Everything. I remember Jim played running back in [an] Oklahoma drill and didn't have any pads on. The kid thudded him and everyone went nuts. Everything turned into such a great competition. I can't tell you how many times we went off script in practice because it turned into a war. They were fighting to win a competition, every single warm-up and practice. He was doing push-ups up there.

One of my players, I don't remember who, said, "Coach are you going to let him do that?"

I said, "What?"

He said, "He's trying to show you up doing push-ups."

I ran right up next to him and said, "I'm in."

We started with, like, 25 push-ups and added one every day. By the end of the season, we're up to the worst 150 push-ups you ever saw. It kind of got the kids going and got 'em fired up. At our banquet, we had a highlight video and they showed us, and (AD) Bob Bowlsby said, "I think those are the worst push-ups I've ever seen."

IRVING, Texas (Feb. 25, 2014) – The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and the National Football Foundation (NFF) announced today that they will jointly conduct a weekly  major-college football poll during the 2014 season.

Officially, the poll will be known as the “FWAA-NFF Grantland Rice Super 16” poll, named in honor of the great sportswriter who became an influential leader of the NFF during its early years in the late 1940s. Rice played a key role in the history of both organizations as an FWAA member and NFF president. His name adorns the FWAA national championship trophy that has been presented since 1954, and he helped select the FWAA All-America teams until his death in 1954.

“We are proud to partner with the FWAA on the launch of the Grantland Rice Super 16 poll,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “Objectivity represents a core value for both our organizations, and we hope that by combining the credibility of both our organizations that we’ll provide a fun reference point for fans to follow during the college football season.”

The pollsters will consist of FWAA writers, College Football Hall of Famers and NFF Board Members. The poll aims to draw on the vast knowledge of the nation’s top journalists with extensive experience covering college football in combination with some of the greatest legends to have ever played or coached the game as well as the perspectives of several of the gridiron’s most respected and influential administrators.

“We are extremely excited to announce this first poll in conjunction with the National Football Foundation at a time when major college football is ushering in a new era,” said 2014 FWAA President Kirk Bohls. “I can’t think of a better partner in jointly producing the ‘Grantland Rice Super 16’ poll of the best teams in the nation.

“Our poll will include distinguished past presidents of the FWAA as well as outstanding NFF Hall of Famers who have given so much to the game we all love and who hope to bring more insight to college football and enjoyment of this fine game. We feel we can provide a very valuable poll of some of the best-credentialed voters and most knowledgeable, objective college football minds around.”

The decision to conduct the new poll was made in December and January by the boards of both organizations at the conclusion of the 2013 season. Long-time partners since the formation of the two organizations in the 1940s, the FWAA and NFF will pool 36 voters (26 from the FWAA and 10 from the NFF) ranking the top 16 teams in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision. The poll will be announced on Sundays during the 2014 season, culminating with a final release on Dec. 7, the day after the conference championship games.

The 26 FWAA voters, all current or past writers of national stature, will be selected to ensure balanced-geographical representation. The 10 NFF voters, comprised of Hall of Fame players, coaches and administrators, will also add to the diversity of perspectives, coming from different conferences and regions of the country. The names and affiliations of the voters will be released to the general public in early summer, and their votes will be made public each week during the season.

The FWAA, which possesses a reputation as one of the foremost objective voices in college football, has conducted a pre-season poll for a number of years and has also had a weekly poll in the past. Both organizations have used panels at the conclusion of the college football season to determine the recipients of their respective national championship trophies. Since 1959, the NFF has presented the MacArthur Bowl, named for the famous Army general who was a guiding father of the NFF in the early years, and since 1954, the FWAA has bestowed the Grantland Rice Trophy to its national champion.

Afterward, he told The Valley News Dispatch of Tarentum, Pa., that even some of his neighbors did not believe his stories.

''A lot of people called me a liar,'' he said. ''Now they say: 'Gee whiz, here's a guy living in our hometown. We didn't know he was the first black quarterback.' Just like they didn't know, the rest of the country didn't know.''

As players have grown heavier in the N.F.L., shoulder pads have become lighter by as much as 50 percent over the past 10 to 15 years, manufacturers said. Gone the way of other fashion excesses of the 1980s are enormous pads that once cantilevered out from the shoulders and seemed to engulf a player like a treehouse for the head.

Dennis Metzger - Fountain City, Indiana
Josh Montgomery - Berwick, Louisiana
Manny Juncos - Chino, California

''It was just after World War II,'' remembered Collie Nicholson, who was Grambling's sports information director. ''I was watching him run over everybody he couldn't run around. I'd been a Marine in the South Pacific, and it reminded me of what I saw those tanks doing down there.''

''When Tank made it in pro football, he paved the way for everyone else in the black colleges,'' Nicholson said. ''He made it possible for a lot of young players who had been overlooked before.''

On a day when you could almost see the Louisiana heat shimmering at ground level along the tracks as far as the eye could see, Robinson and Younger went out to flag down the train. You could not help but wonder how out of so desolate a setting would come a player that would change the complexion of professional football forever.

"Now Tank, you understand you got to make this team," Robinson said. "You got to make it for all those who can come after you. If you don’t, it will never happen. Can you make it, Tank?"

There was just the two of them, standing in front of a boarded-up wooden shack that had once passed for the depot. Younger reached down for his cardboard suitcase, looked at the coach and said:

"If they playin’ volleyball, I don’t know. But if they playin’ football, I’ll make it."

NCAA Rules Committee

“The NCAA to consider new rules change to insure safety of the quarterback”

A new rule designed to insure the safety of the quarterback called the “# Mississippi Rule” will be instituted during the 2014-15 season. This rule described below is designed to lower the number of concussions sustained by quarterbacks.

Rule 14.204.333

Upon the snap of the ball, a defensive player shall NOT cross the line of scrimmage until said player has counted out loud to three, Example ”One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi”. At the completion of counting to three the defensive player may proceed across the line of scrimmage and attempt to tackle the quarterback.

We hope the institution of this rule will not change the true meaning of the game and is not intended to give one team a unfair advantage over another team.

Sincerely,

NCAA Rules Committee

Following the 1957 season Warmath and his staff began to make recruiting moves which would pay enormous dividends three years later. "It always had been evident to us from the time we arrived at Minnesota that we couldn't win consistently with teams comprised almost entirely of homegrown players," he pointed out. "There simply were not the speed players coming out of the upper Midwest."

In late 1957 and early 1958 the staff began to go to places like Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina and Illinois to seek top high school football players. When school started in 1958, Minnesota had secured players who in 1960 and 1961 would lead the school to its finest years since the Bierman era. They included Sandy Stephens, Judge Dixon, John Mulvena, Bob Frisbee and Tom Hall from outside the upper Midwest.

Not only was Warmath flying in the face of tradition by recruiting kids who were non-Minnesotans which irritated a lot of the old guard from the Bierman era, but he recognized the talents of the black athlete and made an effort to land them.

"It's tough enough for any kid to go away to school but if you're black and going to a place like Minnesota with a very small minority population, it's doubly intimidating," said Stephens. "One of the key people who made the transition easier was Carl Rowan, a black columnist for the Minneapolis papers. He impressed upon me and the other black recruits that the Twin Cities was a decent place to live and is a graduate of Minnesota, gave very high marks to the University."

"Rowan was instrumental in making the black athletes feel at ease and telling them that an education from Minnesota and life here was worth the commitment." Warmath added.

I was upfront with Warmath when I first met him," Judge Dixon remembered.  "I told him that I had some doubts. I was black and he was a white Southerner. This was 1958, remember, and the South was still steeped in Jim Crow.  But Coach Warmath was straight with me as he was with everybody. He said if I played by the rules, went to class and put out, he'd treat me fairly and didn't give a damn what color I was.  He always kept his word on that in my four years there."

Both Dixon and Stevens were highly recruited.  As stars out of the very competitive western Pennsylvania prep scene they had schools such as Michigan, USC and Ohio State recruiting them. Minnesota was chosen for a variety of reasons, Warmath being the most important.

"Murray told me from the beginning that he'd give me a shot at quarterback," Stephens remembered. "There were no black quarterbacks to speak of at the major college level in the late 1950s. I was taken by his honesty."

The 1958 incoming class was not only a turning point for Warmath and Minnesota football , it was a major milestone in the development of college football.  That year and in the years that followed, Warmath and his staff were at the vanguard in the advancement of black high school players into the college football scene, particularly when it came to recruiting players out of the South.  It wasn't until nearly 10 years later that Southeastern,  Atlantic Coast and Southwest Conference schools would knock down the segregation barriers. Until then,  it was the northern schools,  while not without their elements of racism, that offered the only chance for the black collegiate players.

Warmath was a force in starting that process.  True,  he needed their athletic abilities to turn his program around.  At the same time, he gave them opportunities they wouldn't have gotten elsewhere.
 
"Coach Warmath gave us opportunities not just on the football field, but in the classroom and later life that we would otherwise not have had," Stevens added.  "I will always be indebted to him for what he did for me."

PULLMAN — A Washington State University student was treated for hypothermia after he was found unconscious on campus when the temperature was minus-3 degrees.

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports emergency crews responded about 2:30 a.m. Thursday and found the 36-year-old Pullman man highly intoxicated outside the Honors Hall residence building.

He was transported to Pullman Regional Hospital for treatment of hypothermia and detoxification.

Here's a game I sometimes play with my students. I ask them to think of a song, not tell anyone what it is, and tap its beat on a table.  Next I ask them to predict how many other students in the room will correctly guess the song's name. They usually think that about half will get it.  Then I ask the rest of the students for their predictions - and no one ever gets it right.

The point is that when we know something and know it well, it is hard for us to appreciate what other people understand. This problem is sometimes called "the curse of knowledge." We all suffer from this affliction, but it is particularly severe for my fellow academics. We study things until they seem entirely natural to us and then assume that everyone else easily understands them, too.

Dear International Olympic Committee: You Had ONE JOB!

When Charles Lane wrote this piece (in the Washington Post) calling for an end to the Olympic tradition last month, it seemed hyperbolic: "Any benefits have to be weighed against the Olympics' costs, which are political, financial, moral and — for athletes ravaged by steroid abuse — human. . . . Supporters speak of the Olympics as a 'movement,' as if the Games were some sort of insurgent force for good, not the leviathan they are. What we really need is a movement to get rid of them."

Now, as we look at the worsening mess that is the Sochi Winter Olympics, we have to wonder whether the International Olympic Committee can be stopped before they run the games into the ground. Next stop, Brazil, where they're not sure they'll be ready in time, part of a stadium collapsed during construction, and the locals are protesting the billions going to stadium construction and other costs instead of helping the poor. Did I mention the drug traffickers shooting down police helicopters in Rio?

I know you're wondering how the IOC picked that city, but they had to; Mogadishu, Somalia, was already booked those weeks.

Russia was an astonishingly bad choice to host the games for so many different reasons: Putin's authoritarian tendencies, the country's ludicrous anti-gay law, and the massive threat of terrorism are three big reasons. But recent days have shown us so much more.

For starters, some of the basic structures and facilities aren't finished yet:

From the Black Sea resort of Sochi to the snow-draped peaks dwarfing the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, Olympic fervor is mounting as thousands of workers scramble to finish grandiose projects. This isn't polishing the silver or closing out a punch list. This is full- blown construction, with the Opening Ceremonies on Friday and the first full day of competition Saturday.

Backhoes and dump trucks weave between buses full of reporters. Hotels seem weeks away from opening. Tile saws send dust spewing from restaurant doors draped in "Coming Soon!" posters. Roadways are clogged with cranes erecting street lights alongside crews installing guard rails.

Wait, there's more! "The Olympic Village in Sochi still looks very much like a work-in-progress. Sidewalks are half built; wiring is still unfinished; and piles of trash are collecting within a short distance from the Olympic Park. Of the nine media hotels planned for the Games, only six have been built with a last minute sprint to get the others finished before the Olympics officially commence."

Or how about the brutal approach to stray dogs? "The city of Sochi has hired a pest-control company to kill homeless animals by the hundreds, all in an effort to clean up the streets in advance of the Winter Games."

And apparently "hacking" is now an Olympic sport this year:

According to an NBC News report, unprepared Olympics attendees are being hacked the second they fire up their electronic devices.

NBC reporter Richard Engel worked with a security expert to set up two test computers in order to see just how quickly he'd be attacked when logging onto Russian networks. But, he reported, when sitting down at a cafe with the expert, "before we even finished our coffee" the bad actors had hit, downloading malware and "stealing my information and giving hackers the option to tap or even record my phone calls."

Once the two test computers went online, the hacking happened just as fast, Engel said. It took "less than 1 minute [for hackers] to pounce, and in less than 24 hours, they had broken into both of my computers.

But the story of the Sochi Olympics is one that must be seen, not told. From various reporters' Twitter feeds, we can see what we're missing by not shelling out the money to go.

For starters, you can't  drink the water in the Sochi hotels! Or even use it on your face!

Mike Lude, from his autobiography, "Walking the Line," 2004

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a non-profit that raises charitable donations to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty. In this interview, she talks about her revolutionary approach to philanthropy that has impacted the lives of over 100 million people, what moved her to leave her safe world of banking to work with the poor, and the importance of humility and deep listening for anyone hoping to create deep change. Read on to learn about the journey of this self-proclaimed "relentless, pragmatic, determined optimist" who deeply believes in people and in human potential.

When I first went to Africa, I thought that I was personally going to save the continent, if not the world. The only way we really create change is to enter any situation with the humility to listen and to recognize the world as it is, and then the audacity to dream what it could be, to have the patience to start and let the work teach you, to be willing to lead when you need to lead, and to listen. To have a sense of generosity and empathy, but not over-empathy, because accountability is so critical to building solutions that work. If there’s one value that is immutable, it’s integrity or respect, for others and for yourself. The best change that comes to the world is when all parties are seeing each other as equal, and all parties have the opportunity to be transformed. That really goes back to the idea of dignity.

I do not use the high hookup chin strap. Several years ago, Jon Falk at MIchigan had a player get a broken jaw because his helmet came off.   Not long after that, Jon and I visited Schutt (helmet manufacturer) and we were able to do extensive testing with David Halstead (of Southern Impact Research Center, in Tennessee) and were able to determine that the angles created by the low hookup were more conducive to holding the helmet on the head (best way to explain this is when a person wants to take his helmet off with the high hookup all he has to do is unhook the back snaps and the helmet comes right off, but with the low hookup he has to undo the entire side.)

Also, the high hookups on the top are in the hitting area and are much more likely to be knocked off or damaged.

Before I switched to all low hookups I would have approximately 10 helmets come off per year during practice and games.  In the four years that I have been completely low hookup, I can name only two times that a helmet has come off.

The low hookup is a great deal safer in my opinion.

Back in the days when we dressed in the old gym and practiced on the field across from the plain and next to the baseball field: I was running late for practice and dressing in a hurry. I decided my pants were too loose and I strapped a piece of tape around my right thigh.  I was met on the edge of the practice field by Colonel Blaik himself who asked  me where I was going. “To practice,” I said. “Not dressed like that, you’re not!”  he said, pointing to the tape on my pant leg. I raced back to the gym and corrected the error.

He loved his family, his neighbors, Georgia Tech, the Atlanta Braves, bowling (he was a great bowler), the Atlanta Journal/Constitution (where his dad had worked), Waffle House, Hickory House and the Picadilly Cafeteria, and Little Debbie. He didn't get his final wish for Tech, which was to see Paul Johnson get fired, but hey, there's still time.

Have a 2.5 GPA or higher (4 point scale, unweighted)
Be in the top half of their graduating class
Have an SAT score of 1000 (math and verbal only) or higher, or ACT of 18 or higher

Mississippi's Gov. Frank "Boo" Burnham, the conservative who won a 2011 landslide, gave an interview Friday in which he demonstrated all that is wrong in American politics - all its division, its intolerance, its ignorance and sickness. Burnham damned and removed from the rolls of the respectable everyone in his state who is pro-choice, who is for some form of gun control, and who supports gay marriage. In a radio interview marked by a tone of smug indignation and self-righteousness, Burnham said "extreme liberals" who are "for abortion, who hate guns, who want homosexuals to marry - if that's who they are they're the extreme liberals, they have no place in the state of Mississippi because that's not who Mississippians are."

Players will attend all of their classes and sit in the front two rows of all of their classes.  GAs, academic folks, position coaches will be checking constantly now.

No headphones in class.  No texting in class.  Sit up and take notes.

If a player misses a class, he runs until it hurts.  If he misses two classes, his entire position unit runs.  If he misses three, the position coach runs.  The position coaches don't want to run.

No earrings in the football building.  No drugs.  No stealing.  No guns.  Treat women with respect.
Players may not live off campus anymore, unless they're a senior who hits certain academic standards. The University will buy out the leases for every player currently living off campus and put them in the athletic dorm.

The team will all live together, eat together, suffer together, and hang out together.  They will become a true team and learn to impose accountability on each other.  The cliques are over.

There's no time for a rebuild.  "I don't have time for that."  The expectation is that Texas wins now.

Players will learn that they would rather practice than milk a minor injury.

The focus is on winning and graduating.  Anything extraneous to that is a distraction and will be stamped out or removed.

Strong met individually with seniors and key leaders and re-emphasized that the plan is to win now. They can lead the new culture or be run over by it.

"I don't want to talk about things.  I'd rather do things.  We just talked.  Now it's time to do."

What Ms Kramer and those who share her opinion don't seem to comprehend is that businesses need to make a profit, even if it is negligibly small, or else the business fails and those jobs are lost.

The unfortunate part of that reality is that consumers are either unwilling or unable to overpay for anything. I suspect Ms. Kramer looks for the best bargain she can for everything she buys, rather than happily paying full price just so the local merchants can pay their employees better.

Introduced in 2012 by the NFL's youth development arm, USA Football, and funded entirely by the league, Heads Up is now employed by 2,700 youth leagues.

critics view Heads Up as a cynical marketing ploy -- a repackaging of old terminology to reassure parents at a time the sport is confronting a widening health crisis. Participation in Pop Warner dropped nearly 10 percent between 2010-12, "Outside the Lines" reported last November. According to an HBO Real Sports/Marist poll published last fall, one in three Americans would be less likely to let their child play football because of concussion risks.

NFL and USA Football officials sought to downplay the NFL's role in the program to "Outside the Lines." The league initially referred all questions about Heads Up to USA Football. A USA Football spokesman repeatedly declined requests to provide a copy of a video showing Goodell visiting a Heads Up pilot program in 2012; after finally agreeing, the spokesman explained that one of his concerns is that people would be confused and conflate the NFL's role. Scott Hallenbeck, USA Football's executive director, described Heads Up as "a USA Football program that the NFL has helped fund. It has taken the media a long time to say that accurately."

After serving 10 years as a state prosecutor and 9 years as a criminal defense attorney, I absolutely concur with your assessment.  Traditionally, criminal rape required an element of Force to be proven.  For better & worse, Rape Law reform eradicated the Force element, resulting in Sex Assault & Sex Abuse crimes in most states.  Without the Force element, these cases turn on "He said/She said" evidence regarding verbal consent/non-consent with little corroborating evidence or witnesses to what occurred in the bedroom.  Throw in some alcohol at a party and good luck with what really happened.

I think there is another difference between service academies and other schools that doesn't get mentioned. Let's say the incidence of false rape accusations at a generic college is x% (I won't editorialize about how high or low that might be). Those false accusations have certain motivations, all of which exist at a service academy. But there is an additional motivation to falsely claim rape at a service academy. At most colleges, consensual sex is almost never illicit. At service academies, consensual sex is often illicit, either because of location or the participants (fraternization). And the punishment for this illicit consensual sex is very high (often separation).

This provides an extremely high incentive, when the illicit sex is discovered, to claim that it was not consensual. Therefore, I would guess that false rape claims at SAs are somewhat higher than X%.

And politics being what they are, service  academy administration is highly incentivized to not be too diligent in flushing out false rape claims.

I served in the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a Marine infantry squad leader. We rode into war crammed in the back of amphibious assault vehicles. They are designed to hold roughly 15 Marines snugly; due to maintenance issues, by the end of the invasion we had as many as 25 men stuffed into the back. Marines were forced to sit, in full gear, on each other's laps and in contorted positions for hours on end. That was the least of our problems.

The invasion was a blitzkrieg. The goal was to move as fast to Baghdad as possible. The column would not stop for a lance corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, or even a company commander to go to the restroom. Sometimes we spent over 48 hours on the move without exiting the vehicles. We were forced to urinate in empty water bottles inches from our comrades.

Many Marines developed dysentery from the complete lack of sanitary conditions. When an uncontrollable urge hit a Marine, he would be forced to stand, as best he could, hold an MRE bag up to his rear, and defecate inches from his seated comrade's face.

Yes, a woman is as capable as a man of pulling a trigger. But the goal of our nation's military is to fight and win wars. Before taking the drastic step of allowing women to serve in combat units, has the government considered whether introducing women into the above-described situation would have made my unit more or less combat effective?

Societal norms are a reality, and their maintenance is important to most members of a society. It is humiliating enough to relieve yourself in front of your male comrades; one can only imagine the humiliation of being forced to relieve yourself in front of the opposite sex.

Despite the professionalism of Marines, it would be distracting and potentially traumatizing to be forced to be naked in front of the opposite sex, particularly when your body has been ravaged by lack of hygiene. In the reverse, it would be painful to witness a member of the opposite sex in such an uncomfortable and awkward position. Combat effectiveness is based in large part on unit cohesion. The relationships among members of a unit can be irreparably harmed by forcing them to violate societal norms.

"She also called for a serious exploration of a proposal by UConn Coach Geno Auriemma to lower the rim to 9 or 9 ½ feet from 10 feet. Some purists reject the idea, saying it would suggest that women play a lesser game."

"Some coaches and officials believe the proliferation of tattoos and baggy uniforms has hurt the appeal of the women’s game. Ackerman said some have proposed allowing no new tattoos or no new visible tattoos once players join college teams."

"Some important matters were not explored, like how to address lesbianism more openly."

The mark of a great player isn't how well he performs when things are going well, but the championship traits that he displays when he doesn't have his "A" game. While most focus on physical characteristics when evaluating players, it is the grit, determination and leadership skills that an elite player shows in critical moments that typically translates to success at the next level.

“One of the first things Coach Monken did was go through the locker room, and he saw that it was in disarray (a staple of how little care/pride Ellerson instilled). He asked if there was a locker SOP, which there is. So, he had the equipment staff empty every locker that wasn’t in accordance with that SOP into trash bags, and had those bags put in the visitors locker room, which doesn’t have heat. Those players have to use that locker room until Coach decides they earn the privilege of being back in the home locker room. Discipline, thy name is Monken. I’d be willing to bet we have a much better turnover differential next season.”

Next time some lefty tells you how uninformed Fox News viewers are, remind them of  this:

81: Percentage of young Democrats who approve of the Affordable Care Act, according to December poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics.

58: Percentage of young Democrats who approve of "Obamacare."

Ahem. "Obamacare" and the "Affordable Care Act" are the same thing.

NEW YORK—Admitting that the previous incarnation of its program may have set unrealistically high expectations for the nation’s youth, the NFL unveiled Thursday its newly downscaled “Play 60” campaign, in which the league is encouraging children to be physically active for 60 seconds per week. “In hindsight, hoping that kids would be able to get out there and move around for an entire hour every single day was wildly optimistic, but we’re hoping that a solid minute of motion every week or so is a bit more attainable,” NFL spokesperson Clare Graff said of the more reasonable health and fitness campaign, which urges children to make an effort to engage in such activities as standing, waddling, and holding a “semi-vertical” pose to whatever extent they are capable. “And keep in mind that those 60 seconds don’t all have to come at once. No need to overdo it. You can split it up into five- or 10-second chunks, and you don’t have to start with a full minute at first. Just, you know, try your best.” Graff added that in an effort to spread word about the revised exercise program, the NFL is planning on airing a new Play 60 commercial featuring a group of panting, red-faced children shifting around on a couch with Green Bay Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji.

“When I made the comment, the bottom half of the SEC was like 0-36 against the top half of the SEC. You realize that? A year ago … nobody talks about that. My point was, don’t say SEC like they’re all doing that (beating everyone). One or two or three top teams … sure, you give them the credit. Alabama … I’ve got the utmost respect for them. Are you kidding me? How could you not? But in the end, don’t talk about the entire conference that way. It’s just not true.

“Hey, I’ve got total respect for Alabama, but you can’t deny what we did last night. Obviously, we can play with anybody, whether it’s the SEC or anyone else. And to say we can’t … well, Alabama’s been rolling the SEC for the last three years and we didn’t seem to be overwhelmed last night. I’m done with that talk.”

As Kelly and his players left the field after a devastating 26-24 loss to New Orleans, fans at Lincoln Financial Field cheered them into the tunnel. When was the last time that happened after an Eagles playoff defeat?

"No matter when, no matter where,

Marathon will take you there…"

Q. There is a woman down the shore (that's a Philly exprression meaning "down at the Jersey Shore" HW)  that sent you a device that you use on the sidelines for signal calling. What were your thoughts immediately when you were looking at it?

COACH KELLY: That this could help us.

Q. You guys are professionals here. You do what you do. So to have someone off the street in a sense, a fan just send you something --

COACH KELLY: Yeah, if they send us something that's going to work, we're going to use it. I think you can learn from any person in this world, and I think if your mind is so closed that you're going to say, ‘We've got all the answers,’ then shame on you. But I opened it. It looked like a good suggestion, so we used it.

Q. Given that you do control your own destiny now --

COACH KELLY: You know you can't control destiny? Destiny is a predetermined set of events, therefore if it's predetermined, you can't control it.

Q. 14 games in, is there anything that surprised you about the difference from the college game to the NFL?

COACH KELLY: No, I had a good understanding of what the league was all about, was prepared for it. I think the difference between the college and the pros is that every single week is a challenge. You can look at some of the games you've played in college and you may hype them up that way. But in the back of your mind, you know what the outcome of the game will be before it's played because there is such a big discrepancy. In this league, there is no discrepancy. You've got to come to play every week. The team that executes the best usually ends up the team that's on top. But in terms of a surprise, nothing that's really come out that's been like, well, I didn't think that was ever going to be that way.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study by government scientists says wind energy facilities have killed at least 67 golden and bald eagles in the last five years, but the number could be much higher.

The research represents one of the first tallies of eagle deaths attributed to the nation’s growing wind energy industry. A total of 85 eagles were killed at wind farms since 1997, the study concludes, but most of those occurred in 2008-2012. Most deaths - 79 - were golden eagles.

While the birds are protected by federal law, the Obama administration has yet to file criminal charges against a wind energy company for killing any eagles.

They balance the rigors of an Ivy League-quality education, taking 17 to 20 hours of classes a semester, with year-round physical and tactical training to maintain the discipline the military demands. Playing football is at once the easiest, most fun and least important thing they do over the course of their 47 months as an officer in training.

There is no summer vacation, or even much opportunity to take a course over the summer to lighten the academic load in season. The incoming freshmen start Beast Barracks - or basic training - in late June, and upperclassmen must take part in leadership training that can include simulated combat missions and Ranger School and can take cadets to places like Fort Benning, Ga., and Germany.

“We’ve got to do a better job in sequencing,” Athletic Director Boo Corrigan said. “These guys come out of training all beat up and then go right into football camp. We’re not looking to get them out of it, but for a better way.”

Bobby Ross won a share of a national championship while the coach at Georgia Tech, and he took the San Diego Chargers to the Super Bowl. But in January 2007, after going 9-25 in three seasons at Army, he retired, frustrated that he could not persuade West Point administration to ease admission and training policies. He wanted better and bigger players, but he could not get them in or keep them big.

I saw that myself in 2011, when I watched Steve Erzinger, already undersize as a 210-pound linebacker, shrink to 190 pounds. He was hardly alone.

On any given Saturday, the Black Knights are outweighed by 50 pounds along the line, and after the game, the training room is standing room only.

Nagging injuries become chronic ones because cadets still must attend to their military duties, go to class and visit the library. There is no rest or recovery.

There is a sizable and prominent group of West Point graduates willing to push at least a little harder to win, including Pete Dawkins, the 1958 Heisman Trophy winner and a member of Army’s last undefeated team. He played for Coach Earl Blaik, who was known as Red and won 121 games over 18 seasons, winning at least a share of three national titles. Dawkins has also been a member of three study groups formed over the last 12 years to assess the prospects of Army football.

“You can tell if a young person has the core qualities to be very able Army officers,” Dawkins said. “It’s entirely fair to accept some risks and then tutor them and make them successful. I think it’s something we can do without compromising the standards and culture of the place.”

Are beating Navy and winning a few more football games worth, if not lowering academic standards, perhaps bringing in a young man whose focus is first on football and second on becoming an Army officer?

“We’re a national institution that should play against other colleges and institutions and all over the country,” Dawkins said. “I think it’s crucial that West Point stand out as a place of winners. We owe it to the country. They deserve to have a winning Army football team.”

To our West Point Graduates:

I share with you the disappointment of the Army Football Team's continued losses to Navy - the 12th in a row occurring last Saturday, 14 December, in Philadelphia. The players had worked too hard, the Corps had laid it all out all year in support, our graduates were watching with great anticipation, and our Soldiers across the globe expected a different outcome. But they did not get it this year. They deserve better and you deserve better. I accept full responsibility to get us moving immediately in that direction.

At West Point, we continue to attract the right young men and women from across America to develop the world's best leaders on and off the field. We must surround our cadets with staff, faculty and coaches who will develop them and toughen them for the world we know they'll face when they graduate. They must connect, challenge, and inspire them, or we will cause harm beyond the playing field.

To that end, our Athletic Director Boo Corrigan and I have decided to terminate our football coach, Rich Ellerson's contract, and to immediately begin a search for the coach who will provide the leadership that will quickly build a winning program here at Army. In preparation for a possible move, we have and will continue to consult with former coaches and players who participated in winning programs, and have also carefully reviewed the input of many graduates whose recommendations and observations have been appreciated. Substantive work has already begun on a comprehensive, national basis to identify a pool of very impressive candidates.

Leadership must come from the Institution, the coach, and the players. We are also reviewing previous football studies and looking at institutional changes that are necessary to support winning programs, but fully integrated with our intellectual, military, physical and character developmental programs.

Thank you for your continued support of West Point. When America puts its sons and daughters in harm's way, they do not expect us to just "do our best"... but to win. Nothing short of victory is acceptable. That fundamental ethos is at the heart of this Academy. It must be ingrained in every one of our athletic programs. Our core values are Duty, Honor, Country. Winning makes them real.

Go Army - Beat Navy!

Robert L. Caslen, Jr.
LTG, U.S. Army
59th Superintendent

Because of logistics and a cap on the number of overall athletes invited to participate, the most likely style of American football that would potentially gain acceptance is of the seven-on-seven variety already played by some U.S. high schools and youth programs. Having both men’s and women’s competitions also would likely be required for selection as an Olympic sport.

Our children are soaked with the cult of safety the way they would once have imbibed religion or patriotism. At school, teachers 'street-proof' children—that is, they teach them that kidnappers and child molesters lurk in every playground. Television excites children with environmentalist fears that the air and water they breathe and drink teem with toxins, that the food they eat is saturated with deadly pesticides, and that the juice bottles they discard will soon cover the entire surface of the earth.

Save that sentence.  

We're rapidly approaching the day when you'll only have to change the word "Ukrainians" to  "Americans."

In his book, "Not So Smart," author David McRaney "describes a 1974 experiment conduced by psychologist Alan Ingham: people were blindfolded and then instructed to grab a rope, which was attached to a device that simulated the resistance of an opposing team.  The subjects were told they were part of a large team engaged in a tug of war. They tugged, and Ingham measured their effort.

Next,  they were told they would be pulling alone, and again Ingham measured.

Actually, they were pulling alone in both cases - the reason for the blindfold - but when they thought they were pulling as part of a team, they pulled, on average, 18 per cent less hard.

Not that that's necessarily how the subjects see it. In  his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow," Daniel Kahneman elaborates: "Many members of a collaborative team feel they have done more than their share," and when asked to estimate  their contribution as a percentage of the team's effort, the sum total of their estimates normally exceeds 100 per cent.

ONE WINTER a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold.
The snake said to the Farmer:
    "If you pick me up and hold me to your stomach, your body will make me warm."
The Farmer said:
   "If I do that you will bite me."
The Snake answered:
   "Why would I do that if you save me?"
The Farmer had compassion on the Snake, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom.
The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound.
   "Oh," cried the Farmer, "Why did you bite me after I saved you?"
 Answered the Snake,  "You knew I was a snake when you picked me up."

Johnson had been Weatherbie’s offensive coordinator for two seasons and, in 1996, had played a key role in the Mids’ first winning season since 1982. That team went 9-3 and won the Aloha Bowl. Johnson then left to become the head coach at Georgia Southern, where he won two national championships in what was then known as Division I-AA while Navy was spiraling.

Johnson knew how difficult the Navy job was and how far the program had fallen when Gladchuk and Vice Admiral John R. Ryan, the academy’s superintendent at the time, came to interview him for the opening.

“What it’s going to take, Coach?” Ryan asked when negotiations stalled. “What do I have to pay you to get you to coach my football team.”

Johnson told him. Ryan was stunned. “Young man,” he said. “I’m a three-star admiral in the United States Navy and I don’t make anywhere close to that kind of money.”

“Well, Admiral,” Johnson replied, “I guess you got into the wrong business.”

he endured a frightening moment when Ted Williams hit a line drive that caromed off his brace.

“I hit a ball back to the box, a real shot, whack, like a rifle clap,” Williams recalled in his memoir “My Turn at Bat” (1969), written with John Underwood. “Down he goes, and everybody rushes out there, and I go over from first base with this awful feeling I’ve really hurt him. Here’s this war hero, pitching a great game. He sees me in the crowd, looking down at him, my face like a haunt. He says, ‘For chrissakes, Williams, pull the damn ball.’ ”

"An image-conscious regional chamber of commerce and Bergen Community College are giving one-day classes to teach ways to give Super Bowl fans a warm welcome.

"But the classes were canceled after no one signed up."

Football should be pretty much exclusively ours for generations to come.

Well, maybe.

For that to happen, we will need players, and there is one thing Roger Goodell may not have considered.

The mothers of America could shut down football today.

I’m not saying they’re going to, but they could. The mothers of America could band together and say, “Uh-uh, no way. My boy’s not playing football. And that’s all there is to it.”

Football is a brutal, almost barbaric game. It is a game in which ridiculously large men, pumped up or drugged up or gorged upward of 30 percent more than the weight they should be safely carrying, smash into each other upward of 80 times a game at a point in the field known as the “line of scrimmage.”

Were any of these supposed football players ever taught to tackle? All half these guys know is how to launch themselves at somebody or shoulder-roll someone. I’ll bet Pat Fischer never launched himself or shoulder-rolled anyone in his life.

Fischer was a great 170-pound safety who actually put his shoulder into a ballcarrier and hit him in the midsection. In other words, he actually tackled someone. Perhaps Roger Goodell should send him around to conduct a few clinics.

Football has an enormous appeal to many people who are borderline psychopaths in a manner that no other sport - and this includes the very virile sport of hockey - does not.