*********** With a few exceptions ("sure" is pronounced "shirr"; "hock" and "hawk" are synonymous, as are "air" and "error"), the Northwest accent is generally bland and undistinquished. But I do look forward to Hallowe'en and hearing people talk about "Hahnted Houses," full of "Whores." (Horrors) *********** "President Clinton received a report that there were over 100,000 cattle guards in Colorado. Because Colorado ranchers had protested his proposed changes in grazing policies, he ordered Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt to fire half of the guards immediately. Before Babbitt could respond, and presumably straighten him out, Colorado's congresswoman Pat Schroeder intervened with a request that before any were fired, they be given six months of retraining." Mark Shoup, associate editor, Kansas Wildlife and Parks Magazine (Uh, don't know if this story is true or not, but the joke here is that a "cattle guard," common to the wide open spaces of the West, where cattle tend to roam widely in search of grass., is not a person. There is no need to "retrain" one. A cattle guard is a grid of metal pipes laid across a pit in an access road to a main highway; cars and trucks are able to drive across the bridge of pipes and onto the Interstate, which is a good place for cars and trucks; cattle learn to fear stepping between the pipes and getting their feet caught, and so they wisely stay off the Interstate, which is definitely not a good place for them.) *********** A LITTLE COMMENT ON "COACH" NEIL LOMAX, FORMER NFL QB, CAUGHT TRYING TO FUDGE THE WEIGH-IN BEFORE A YOUTH GAME (NEWS - Oct 23) "Coach - Having been on the receiving end of a cheater, this is a topic that hits close to home. Those of us that try hard to win by doing the right thing, i.e playing all the kids, preparing, scouting, learning this thing "we call the double wing", it strikes right at the core of the values that I try to espouse. Sorry if I am making a big deal about this but to have an NFL guy do this to a fellow youth coach is just not right. Lastly, as always, you may use whatever you want from our emails regarding Lomax (the cheat)." John Torres, Manteca, California *********** Scott Barnes, in Rockwall, Texas, put me onto a great article in the Dallas News about "25 great games." And then the sonuvagun asked me about my list. And I had to say that I can't do those things because I would have to sit down with somebody and bounce ideas off him. It's like whenever I read about some celebrity's favorite songs, or foods, or places to go - I think how glad I am I don't have to come up with those things. How would I decide? Often, other than home, my favorite place is where I am at the moment. My favorite game is the one I'm coaching or the one I'm watching. Maybe with a couple of other guys, between the two or three of us we could come up with a list of favorite games, or maybe having my memory jogged I could come up with a list of my own. Somehow, though, I don't think I could list a game I hadn't seen, heard, or at least read about the next day - such as Notre Dame-Army in 1928, which appears on the Dallas News' list. Not that there aren't quite a few oldies that I'd like to see. I still watch football with the idea that maybe the game I'm watching right now will turn out to be one of the best I've ever seen. I think that's the major reason why I seldom watch pro football - because there's just no chance that it'll be an unforgettable game - instead, it'll just be another long series of commercials with occasional peeks at same-old, same-old football plays, played either indifferently or with great show-biz flair by guys who are only out to glorify themselves. *********** It was hardly worth the effort to pass it. The 26th Amendment gave 18-year-olds the right to vote. High schools make a great effort to register new voters, and liberal social studies teachers work feverishly to indoctrinate them. And in the last presidential election, only 32.4 per cent of voters 18 to 24 turned out (compared with 67 per cent of those 65 and over). Just as well. They went heavily for Clinton, probably because he played the saxophone on Arsenio and told them he wore boxers. *********** A woman named Heather Mac Donald has some harsh things to say about American education. Most of them are right on. In her book, "The Burden of Bad Ideas: How Modern Intellectuals Misshape our Society," she really gets after the school-of-education drones who would have us believe that you don't need to know anything so long as you know how to teach, and the kids don't need to learn anything, either, so long as they feel good about themselves and feel that what they're doing is "relevant" to their lives. She devotes a chapted entitled, "Why Johnny's Teacher Can't Teach" to an indictment of today's liberal teacher-training programs, that she says "can be summed up in the phrase: Anything But Knowledge. The early decades of this century, " she wrote, "forged the central educational fallacy of our time: that one can think without having anything to think about." She accuses educators of being desperate to show sensitivity to minority students, to the point of ignoring their academic and moral education in favor of subjects created merely so they can do well; she writes of one school in Brooklyn where the kids occupy their time "studying" graffiti and "deejaying," and writing rap lyrics. *********** "As Coach Castro (head coach) said, I am getting this Double Wing offense down to a science. Not that it is that difficult. 88SP, 88SP, 47-C, TOUCHDOWN! Or sometimes it's 88SP, TOUCHDOWN! In the fourth quarter I love to throw the 3 CHARLIE in there. My wife, who runs the camera, has trouble picking that one up never mind the kids on the field. We have thrown the TIGHT RIP - STOP - 77 SPECIAL POWER (Page 59 in the playbook) in and it works like a charm. The Franklin County Panthers had four players stacked out wide to stop the 88SP. Our A Back started in motion and you could see all four of them coming up. The A Back stops, takes the pitch and goes the other way with five blockers out in front of him. TOUCHDOWN! We are not making any friends with this offense but we are sure having a lot of fun. Thanks, Coach Doug Aiken, Roanoke, Virginia" *********** "Coach. my entire youth team went and saw Remember the Titans last week. All 25 of them (13-14 year old boys) love the movie. Of course now when we run in a grid they think they can sing. The Back Street Boys have nothing to worry about. We have spent some of our time talking about different parts of the movie. It has been a good history and life lesson for them." Don Hodson- rdding, California (Remember a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned what terrific jobs coaches Mike Dubose of Alabama and Tom Holmoe of Cal had done in rallying their players when things were looking grim? Turns out both coaches attribute the upswing in their players' attitudes to taking their teams to watch "Remember the Titans.") *********** Several Oregon State players have had shoes come off this season. So "spat" them - tape them on, right? Duh. Oh. I see. Nike won't allow them to cover up the Swoosh. Now, wouldn't you think that a company that employs nuclear physicists to design high-tech shoes for khayakers would figure out a way around this problem, short of paying a coach obscene amounts of money to tell his players not to tape over their shoes? *********** You never know where a great educational idea is going to come from, although you can usually be sure that it won't come from an "educator" (hate that word). A citizen named Bernie Constantine wrote to the Portland Oregonian on the subject of a proposal linking teachers' pay to students' performance. He said that the proposal is wrong to blame teachers: "If a child does not perform well in school," he wrote, "then the parents should pay a higher state income tax, since they are placing a larger burden our our school system." *********** I don't know what to make of the coming trend toward making little painted, perfumed sissies of our boys. I was brought up in the days when you went to the barber shop every two weeks, and when your turn came, you sat in the chair while a guy named Dom or Vince laid his clippers up against the side of your skull and went cruising. We were raised not to trust a "pretty boy," defined as any guy who spent an excessive amount of time on his appearance. You only spent any time in front of a mirror if you had a pimple that needed inspection. The pretty boys didn't play usually sports, so we pretty much ignored them. Even now, as a result of my upbringing, I'm suspicious of a guy who takes a lot of pride in his looks. (A certain President of the United States hasn't done anything to lessen those suspicions.) So from my point of view, what's happening to our young guys today is positively scary. A full 35 per cent of Tommy Hilfiger's beauty care products are sold to males. "Guys today are so much more involved in things only women used to do," Terry Darland, vice-president of Hilfiger's toiletries division told the Wall Street Journal. Research by MH-18, a magazine for pretty boys (I don't know what else to call them), made the interesting discovery that its readers wanted more perfume ads with "scent strips." Hair coloring for boys is huge. At a Clairol display at this summer's Gravity Games in Providence, Rhode Island, so many boys showed up to have their hair bleached that the company's booth ran out of water. Boys in some places pay as much as $95 for a "cut and color." Many of them go for a "shoeshine," in which the hair stylist colors just the tips of their hair. The Journal cited as an example a 17-year-old kid from Plainfield, New Jersey who colors his hair with L'Oreal dyes, and uses gel on his hair so it sticks up in front, "depending on my mood." According to The Journal, he spends an hour "getting ready" every morning. And then, no doubt, he strolls in late to first period. And says he didn't have time to do his homework. |
TRIVIA
QUESTION: An early devotee of weight training while also
gifted with blazing speed, he was called both "The
World's Strongest Sprinter" and "The World's Fastest
Shot-putter." He is considered the best football player
ever to play for his school, and after being at the
center of a bidding war between two rival pro leagues, he
enjoyed a successful pro career, first as a runner, then
as a tight end (HINT) His school's uniforms - especially
the white jerseys - haven't changed a whole lot since he
played there. (HINT) A long,
electrifying fourth-quarter punt return gave his team the
win over its arch-rival on Hallowe'en night, and was a
major factor in his school's only national championship;
(HINT) He became a dentist after retiring from pro
football; (HINT) His son was a very good football player
at Texas A & M
*********** "Coach, We won the first play off game in the history of our school last night. Trailing 14-10 with 3 minutes to play we stopped our opponent on the 10 yard line. We then drove the ball 90 yards in 2:30 and scored with 27 seconds remaining on a play we call I right 88 toss reach. You may notice we had 10 which means we kicked a field goal. It was our first attempt of the season and only the second attempt in the three years I have been head coach. Fortunately we made it. It was great to walk out on the field during a timeout with 30 seconds left and facing 4th and 6 and look my kids in the eyes and see the fire burning and hear them say "coach let us run 88 toss reach we will get it". Not only did we get the 6 we got 16 and a touchdown. Thank you for the system and the website. I don't know if 3 play off appearances in three years and the first play off win in school history have convinced the community but our staff and players believe and that is the important thing. Thank You, Keith Lehne" - Grantsburg High School, Grantsburg, Wisconsin *********** The term "standing room only" is at least as old as the practice of charging admission to sports events, but the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, governing body of that state's high school athletics, intends to make the phrase obsolete. Last June, without a lot of notice by the news media, the LHSAA passed a rule prohibiting anyone from standing in a gymnasium while a basketball game is in progress. Officials have been instructed to hold up play, if necessary, until everyone is seated. There are the usual arguments about avoiding liability in case of injury, but the rule seems to have come about because of a playoff game last year in which the crowd spilled onto the court during play. Players were forced to in-bound the ball while standing inside the end lines, and there were accusations that at one point a fan helped keep the ball from going out of bounds, directing it to a particular player. Needless to say, this will hit some schools hard. In the pocket book, that is. Small schools with small gyms routinely pack 'em in for big games, presumably with the permission of the local fire marshal, and the gate revenue from football and basketball is often the only thing that keeps their athletic programs going. *********** "Our 14 year old team that runs the Double-Wing is 4-0. Our twelve year old team is 3-1. What is funny is that our 11 year old team didn't run this offense all preseason and were shut out in two games; still wouldn't make the change and were shut out their first regular season game; made the change, won three in a row, and are sitting at 3-1. We have three teams that run it - our combined record is 10-1-1. The four teams that don't run it - their combined record is 2-14. Do I need to say any more? Take Care, Pat Pimmel, St. Charles, Missouri" *********** I had a good look at the inside of a $279-a-night room in the Las Vegas Four Seasons Hotel last weekend. I was 28 years old before I made $279 a week. I didn't say I stayed in the room. I could have got a reduced rate of $219 for a while, but I was late in deciding that I would attend a team reunion in Las Vegas, and by the time I made up my mind, the price was back up to $279 or so. Hello, Motel 6. Actually, I stayed at a very nice casino-resort called Mandalay Bay, which adjoins the Four Seasons, and I was able to get close enough to scout out the Four Seasons. For those of you who plan on earning football coach's wages the rest of your lives, this is what you will miss out on: the first thing you will notice is the lead edge of the roll of toilet paper, carefully folded so that it comes to a point. (At least that's the way it is when you first enter the room. I suppose that having housekeeping come up and re-fold it after every use costs extra.) The face towels are cleverly folded so that they form little pockets, and the wash cloths are folded accordion-style, then tucked into those little pockets. The shower soap comes in boxes, not cheesy little wrappers. Housekeeping stops by in the evening and turns the bed down for you. When you call the front desk, they address you by name. And, best of all, there is a restaurant where a breakfast of two eggs, hash browns, sausage links, juice, coffee and toast - one that will set you back all of $6.00 at Neder's in Washougal, Washington (where the old retired guys meet on Saturday mornings to dissect the local football coach) - will set you back $18.00. I ordered my eggs over easy and they were delicious. *********** Forget about the AP College Poll, USA Today Coaches' Poll, the BCS formula and all that crap. There is one poll, and only one poll, that is based on cold, hard logic, and that is the Oddsmakers' Poll, found only, so far as I know, in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It claims to be "a nonbiased poll of various sports book directors (a "sports book", legal only in Nevada, is a section of a casino in which people can place bets of all sorts and sizes on horse races and most popular sports), their in-house linesmakers (the people who initially determine what the spread will be between two teams in order to get the most betting going on both teams) and sports book managers throughout the state, various oddsmakers utilized by the sports book industry and licensed international sports books. Just like the AP, the Oddsmaker's Poll ranks Nebraska Number One. From that point on, though, there are big changes: Oklahoma is #2 in the AP, but #5 in the Oddsmakers. Virginia Tech is #2 in the Oddsmakers' Poll, and Florida State is back up there at #3. Michigan is #10 in the Oddsmakers' Poll, five places higher than in the AP. Southern Mississippi is #11, three places higher than the AP. Washington, TCU and South Carolina drop 5, 4 and 3 places lower, respectively, than they are in the AP. Texas is up in 17th place, five places higher than the AP. Auburn and Northwestern are off the list; Tennessee and Texas A & M are on. *********** Talk about October surprises! Vince Tobin was let go by the St. Louis Cardinals. Tobin was 9-7 just two years ago - the only winning record Arizona has had since moving to the desert in 1988 - but he's 2-5 this year. He was let go because in two weeks, the voters in Maricopa County (metropolitan Phoenix) are going to be asked to come up with $331 million for a new stadium so that the Cardinals can make more money so that they can pay the players more money so that they can win more games so that they can justify higher ticket prices so that they can make make more money so that they can pay the players more money, etc., etc. Presumably, firing Tobin was considered the Cardinals' way of showing voters how serious they are about providing Phoenix with a winner. *********** Didn't I tell you the fans at Oregon State would start to get spoiled? They're already whining because tomorrow's game against Washington State has been moved to 7:15 PM so that it can be televised. Uh, folks - maybe you'd prefer the not-so-old days when the Beavs couldn't find a win this side of Division I-AA, and instead of a sold-out stadium you could get all the tickets you wanted - at a discount, yet - and they never had to take the padlock off the door to the TV announcers' booth up in the press box. *********** I don't know whether this was written seriously, and I don't want to be a party to taking shots at a fellow Yalie, but Skip Bayless of the Chicago Tribune was writing about Bears' coach Dick Jauron's post-game press conference last Sunday, and as he tells the story, a reporter asks Coach Jauron if he's sure he know what he's doing. Jauron answers, "No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." *********** STRAIGHT FROM VEGAS!!!! WINNER WYATT'S HOT PICKS!!! THIS WEEKEND'S MORTAL LOCK: UNLV at Ole Miss. Take the Rebels. *********** QUESTION: What do Arizona State, UCLA, Colorado State, Iowa State, Georgia Tech, LSU, Southern Cal, East Carolina, Alabama, Pitt, West Virginia, Stanford, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Illinois, Boston College, Indiana, Syracuse, Penn State, Mississippi, Michigan State, Kansas, Air Force, Virginia have in common? ANSWER: They are 24 Division I-A teams that the Sagarin Football Rankings listed below Delaware, the top-ranked Division I-AA club, this week. Now, nothing against Delaware, a very good club that I have seen on videotape, but let's get serious for a minute - Delaware over Alabama? Delaware over Michigan State? Delaware, for that matter, over any of those clubs? Good as Delaware is, I doubt that there are too many kids on the Delaware team who were recruited seriously by any of those 24 Division I-A schools. *********** Albert Gore's daughter was in Washington the other day, and proudly announced that she could name the capital of the state. Said she knew it was Seattle. She was sure proud of herself for knowing that fact. 'Cept it's Olympia. *********** Central Bucks West High, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, tied their own school's state record of 53 straight wins last Friday night with a 49-0 trouncing of Levittown's Harry S. Truman High. The Bucks, three-time defending class 4A (largest) state champions, outgained Truman 438 yards to 98 in total offense, and held Truman to three first downs while racking up 22. Tonight they go for a new state record 54, breaking an earlier C.B. West streak set between 1984 and 1989. This week, the opponent is tougher: Pennsbury comes in with a 6-2 record. "I'll be glad to see Pennsbury," C.B. West Coach Mike Carey told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Frank Bertucci after last week's game. "They'll be 6-2, and my team rises to that type of challenge." *********** "Coach- Just wanted to let you know that we just finished our season 8-0 (the first time ever.) We outscored teams 214-49. Our two year record with this offense is 11-5. If you recall the team we took over went 2-6 the year before. I have to tell you this offensive system had a great deal to do with our success. Our team was made up of average players, but, in my opinion, the fact that we have so many people at the point of attack allowed us to get 5 yards a play. Our kids took pride in their game and I preached all year that we may face teams with one or two superstars, but, they couldn't stop our 11 on the field. We had long drives all year. The kids enjoyed playing in this offense. "A funny story about our last game against our cross town rivals. The defensive coach who is a good friend of mine spent hours on your site trying to figure out how to stop us. All week we heard that he had the secret on how to stop us. Well we scored 37 points, had our first team on the bench the entire fourth quarter and scored with our 2nd and 3rd teamers. I can only imagine what the score would have been if they didn't know how to stop us. I'm a firm believer that it's "not the X's and O's, it's the Jimmys and Joes", but if those kids understand the offense and believe in it, it sure is fun to watch. Coach, I'm looking forward to your next video or clinic. Thanks again. By the way, the varsity team is 6-2." Joe Cantafio, Head JV Coach, West Seneca West HS, West Seneca NY
*********** My world is collapsing all around me. Where have all my heroes gone? Now Darryl Strawberry has just come out and admitted using drugs. *********** John Dillon, a Double-Wing coach in Greeley, Colorado, wrote to tell me that he was under the impression that his team, the Kersey Cougars, had tied for his league's title, but was informed at the league meeting Tuesday night that the two teams would playoff tomorrow for first and second place. As he said, "How American." I told him to be grateful that at least they will get to settle it on the field. I know of numerous places where a tie between two or more teams, only one of which can go to the playoffs, is settled by a coin toss between administrators. *********** You guys who are at the mercy of the computer and have to sit around waiting to see whether it awards you enough points to qualify for the playoffs will understand. Coach Mike Emery at Fitch High, in Groton, Connecticut has done just about everything a Double-Wing coach can do to convince people that his kids are good. Fitch is the defending state class L (Large) champion, and in six games so far this season, Fitch has outscored opponents 333-30. (That's an average score of 55-5.) Fitch has scored 50 points or more in five game. The closest game has been a 44-16 nailbiter. For several weeks now, Fitch has been ranked Number One in the statewide polls. So the trouble is not convincing people. It's the computer. The computer currently ranks Fitch fifth in its class. Go figure. TO MY READERS: Demands on my time have made it necessary for me to change my publication schedule. (Basically, I'm just not getting anything else done.) So beginning today, I will be publishing new "NEWS" every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I don't believe you will notice any significant difference in the overall amount of material there is to read. The TIPS will still be updated on approximately a weekly basis, the Winner's Circle will still be updated whenever fresh information becomes available, and I will continue to provide new and additional features. Hugh Wyatt |
*********** Last weekend was really my first visit of any length to Las Vegas - previously, I'd only made connections at the airport. The airport itself is about what you'd expect of las Vegas - slots in the airport concourses, and Rich Little and Robert Goulet telling you to keep to the right on the moving walkways. A billboard on a wall in the airport says, "Elvis has left the building... we now have a vacancy in our schools." The ad's paid for by the Las Vegas Schools, and do they have a vacancy. Or 200. Las Vegas has grown 60 per cent in the last decade, making it the fastest-growing metro area in the US. That's a lot of new schools and a lot of new teachers every year, in case you happen to be a teacher looking for work. *********** A lot of stories came out of the 1960 Yale team reunion in Vegas last weekend, but one of the most amazing concerned Ben Balme. He played his high school ball at Grant High in Portland, Oregon, and was a quiet, hard-working kid whom everyone admired. His senior year, his pre-med major required hours of lab work, and every Wednesday, a team manager would have to borrow one of the school's station wagons and drive several miles, with Ben's equipment in the back, to pick him up after a chemistry lab. Ben would change into football gear along the way and arrive halfway through practice. Nonetheless, he made All-American. He lasted with the Philadelphia Eagles, defending NFL champions, until he came down with a mysterious illness and his weight dropped from 228 to 210, and he was the last man cut. And then he got serious and went to medical school at Yale. And when he'd got out and served his internship and residency, he volunteered to serve in a M*A*S*H unit in Viet Nam, and he was on duty when they wheeled in a young Marine named Watts Humphrey, a former Yale football player whose arm had been shattered by grenade fragments. Ben, a lover of the outdoors, established a practice as an orthopedic surgeon in the hunting and fishing paradise of Klamath Falls, Oregon and has remained there since. *********** "Coach, I enjoy your column online, and I am a supporter of not only the double-wing, but also the right-wing (get it?). I have a good friend who runs the double-wing at a high school here in Ontario, CA, (Chaffey High) and he is finally getting the respect he deserves from his fellow teachers and coaches. They have won their last two games by scores of 40-0 and 28-14. They did lose their first 4, as they adjusted to the schemes, and they also played schools a lot bigger than themselves, but they were not league games, so they won't have a bearing on playoff chances. "Anyway, kudos to you for your very correct stance on women being involved in men's athletics. I am only 24, but I am a Christian, and a very conservative one at that. I believe in the roles that woman and men are supposed to play in our society, and they do not include (for women) place-kicking for a NCAA Division 1 team. However, a recent news story on TV down here may interest you. A local high school (when I say local, I mean So. California) has a problem with a boy trying out for the women's field hockey team. It seems that they do not think it appropriate for a boy to be on the same team with a bunch of girls. While personally I don't think so, either, I do find it poetic justice that he is making such an attempt, in light of the recent Heather Sue incident. The CIF (California's governing sports body) has so far denied his attempts to join this team, and he has filed an appeal with them. It seems there is no boy's field hockey team, so he may have a legitimate gripe. Ironically, he is about the same size or smaller than most of the girls I saw him practicing with on TV. He almost looks like a girl from the backside, as they showed him running down the field. I will keep you posted (if interested) of the results of this 'controversy.'" David Henson (I am opposed in principle to men playing in women's sports, but the Heather Sue Mercer decision and the opinions expressed by that Lopiano woman have convinced me that we need to put our beliefs aside temporarily; that allowing boys to overrun girls' sports may be necessary to bring the equality-at-all-costs feminists back to the bargaining table.) *********** Credit Where It's Due Department. Maybe Rashard Casey, Penn State's quarterback, does belong in jail. But maybe Bill Clinton does, too, and one thing is for sure - Clinton, while he's been on the loose, has never done anything comparable to what Casey did Saturday against Illinois, turning what appeared to be an aborted pitch-out play into a 39-yard yard touchown, in possibly the greatest single athletic feat I've ever seen on a football field. *********** Field Goal Patrol: In the NFL games of this past Sunday and Monday, there were 44 field goals attempted, and 38 made. That's an excitement index of 14. (The excitement index is obtained by subtracting the percentage of accuracy from 100 - the lower the percentage of field goals made, the greater the excitement.) The average NBA field goal attempt, based on last year's league-wide 81 per cent average, rates 19 on the excitement scale, which means that an NBA free throw is more exciting, more suspenseful, than an NFL field goal. Only Denver missed more than one field goal. (Start packin', Jason.) In 10 of the games, there were no missed field goals. Sadly, there was not a single game in which no field goal was attempted. Now here's one for those of you who would like to join me in ridding football of placekickers: in nine of the 13 games played Sunday and Monday, the losing team attempted more field goals than the winning team. Moral: weenies kick field goals; winners score touchdowns. *********** Remember what I wrote about Vick, Dantzler and Crouch? Can I do that over? I need to make room in there for Antwaan Randle El. The QB from Indiana is an offense in himself. He can run and he can pass. But that's not all. Last week, after Minnesota scored to pull within reach of the Hoosiers at the end of the game, the Gophers' onside kick was recovered by - Antwaan Randle El. Talk about stones! *********** "Coach, For the first time in my coaching career - Playoffs!. We found out last Sunday. We have clinched a spot no matter what happens this final Friday. Hosting a playoff game and winning a co-league championship are still possibilities. Thanks for the support and advice throughout the last three years." Marc Gibson, Brookville, Ohio *********** Still don't know what to get for those hard-to-buy-a-gift-for persons on your list? Your Christmas shopping problems are solved! Get 'em the Hip Hop Hall of Fame Board Game, created at the actual Hip Hop Hall of Fame (betcha didn't even know there was one) by some of the good folks there (betcha didn't know there were any of them, either). By answering questions, Trivial Pursuit fashion, players work their way around the board and up the career path from "Unsigned Artist (not sure "artist" is the right word to be using)" to "Hall-of-Famer." There are numerous pitfalls along the way, including "Scandals," "Hard Times," "Groupies," and "Lawsuits." Presumably, "Hard Times" would include ambushes by rival rappers. Or threatened suspensions by the Commissioner of the NBA. Buy your copy now on the Web at www.hhhof.com *********** "Just finished watching Boston Public. GIVE ME A BREAK! WWF is more realistic!" Kyle Wagner, Edmonton, Alberta TO MY READERS: Demands on my time have made it necessary for me to change my publication schedule. (Basically, I'm just not getting anything else done.) So beginning today, I will be publishing new "NEWS" every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I don't believe you will notice any significant difference in the overall amount of material there is to read. The TIPS will still be updated on approximately a weekly basis, the Winner's Circle will still be updated whenever fresh information becomes available, and I will continue to provide new and additional features. Hugh Wyatt |
TRIVIA
ANSWER: #36 is the great running back Marion Motley, and
#14 is the equally-great quarterback, Otto Graham. Both
men helped to make the Cleveland Browns of the late
1940's and 1950's one of the greatest dynasties in the
history of pro football.
Motley is
especially interesting because he was the forerunner of
the modern fullback. At a time when there were still
180-pounders running the ball, and 220-pound linemen were
commonplace, Motley was a solid 240 pounds, and he had a
sprinter's speed. It was with Motley at fullback that
Browns' coach Paul Brown developed and popularized the
"draw" play that is now a standard feature of any passing
team. Motley was 27 years old at the end of World War II,
and with a family to support, had taken a job in a mill
in his native Canton, Ohio. He had played only one year
at the University of Nevada prior to the War, and hadn't
played enough service ball to be noticed by pro scouts,
but Brown, who had coached against Motley's Canton
McKinley High while at archrival Massillon High,
remembered him well. "Motley became our greatest fullback
ever," Brown would later write in his
autbiography,"because not only was he a great runner, but
also no one ever blocked better - and no one ever cared
more about his team and whether it won or lost, no matter
how many yards he gained or where he was asked to
run...Marion's tremendous running ability also was what
made our trap and draw plays so effective. When he
ran off tackle, people seemed to fly off him in all
directions. He possessed tremendous speed for a big man,
and he could run away from linebackers and defensive
backs when he got into the open - if he didn't trample
them first. I've always believed that Motley could have
gone into the Hall of Fame solely as a linebacker if we
had used him only at that position. He was as good as our
great ones." (Thanks to Paul Brown's signing of
such gifted black football players as Marion Motley, Len
Ford and Bill Willis, the Cleveland Browns
were the first truly integrated team in all of
professional sports. "I never considered
football players black or white," Brown wrote, " nor did
I keep or cut a player just because of his color. In our
first meeting before training camp every year, I told the
players that they made our teams only if they were good
enough. I didn't care about a man's color or his
ancestry; I just wanted to win football games with the
best people possible.")
Just
in case you don't think I go back a way with the
Double-Wing, I want you to look at this photo very
carefully. Tell me if it looks a little familiar. Yes, the
B-Back is a little deeper than I like, and the wingbacks are
in three-point stances, in the manner of Don Markham. but
they're not turned in, and although you can't tell from
here, the line splits are a little wider, and the linemen
seem to have their weight a bit forward. But we could
straighten all that out if we had to. If we could.
*********** "I often catch myself wondering (or daydreaming) about last year's season and how much fun I had with the offense. If you recall the last game I installed "roscoe", East, West motions, among other new twist that I had not done previously. I had installed the Rocket motion about mid-season also. Anyway, I was on the treadmill this morning and thinking about these new motions and how it was driving the opposing teams defensive guy nuts! He thought he had a good scout on me and then I throw in these "new" twist. I chuckled to myself, I guess a little too loud, and anyway I turn and about a dozen people there in the gym are staring at me like I was a nut-case. If they only knew what I was laughing about and about the this thing we call the double wing. JT " *********** A youth coach mentioned that under the rules of his organization, teams are allowed to have a coach on the field during games, but the coaches must not say anything once the offense has broken its huddle. My guy says he happened to hear the opposing coach's play call, and, knowing what it meant, arranged his kids to stop it - all before the offense left the huddle. Now, he is having doubts. Did he cross the line of ethical conduct? Here's what I told him: There is a clear line between scouting and spying - "skunking" as spying is sometimes known in the coaching profession. Skunking includes watching another team's practice. It is unethical. Stealing signs is somewhat different. It is akin to hearing the opposing coach shout something, and then acting on what you've heard. Use of signs is an attempt to get around shouting - people are using that particular form of communication to give themselves an edge. One of the dangers of using signs is that they will be intercepted and used against you, but it's even more dangerous to call out instructions. So there's nothing unethical about stealing signs, provided you confine yourself to normal methods of detection. It seems to me that in your case, if you are standing on your side of the line of scrimmage and you happen inadvertently to hear the other team's play call, you have a right to take advantage of their carelessness. If, on the other hand, you are actively trying to listen in on their huddle, you have crossed the line. *********** If you are interested in what's in a film your kids (or you) want to see, take a look at www.screenit.com, which previews a film by displaying a grid on which the film is rated in 15 different potentially-objectionable areas, from alcohol or drug use to violence to profanity. It is quite specific in telling you what to expect. For instance, I clicked on the "PROFANITY" box for one film chosen at random, and this is what I got: "At least 1 "f" word, 5 "s" words (1 written), 1 slang term for sex ("knocking boots"), 2 slang terms using male genitals ("d*ck" and "pr*ck"), 1 slang term for breasts ("t*ts" in English subtitles), 14 hells (1 in English subtitles), 11 damns, 8 asses (1 used with "hole"), 1 crap, 4 uses of "G-damn," 2 each of "Jesus" and "Jesus, Mary and Joseph" (the latter in English subtitles both times) and 1 use each of "For Christ's sakes," "God," "Oh my God" and "Sweet Jesus" as exclamations." Might want to leve the kids home. *********** One of the most prominent youth coaches in Oregon's Tualatin Valley league is Neil Lomax. Maybe you recognize the name? He's a former Portland State and St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals' quarterback. He's a Portland native, and he's always enjoyed a sort of clean-cut, goody-two shoes image around here - family man and all that - so it was a bit disturbing to read in Willamette Week, an excellent Portland-area publication, that "Coach" Lomax was recently suspended by the league for two games and his team required to pay a fine. Seems that before a game, he was caught at the pre-game weigh-in trying to pull the old shoulder-pad switcheroo with his own kid (a quarterback), putting lighter-weight pads on him than the ones he normally wore so that he could make weight. *********** This is big-time college football by the way... Cal is leading Washington, 24-22, with 6:24 left in the game. The Bears have been playing their asses off. But now they're on their own 10 yard line and they need to hold into the ball for a little while They hand off over the left side, where there seems to be a little hole, but a defender reaches out and grabs the runner's hand - the only hand - that's carrying the ball. And pries the ball loose. And the Huskies recover on the Cal 17. And the Huskies score on the next play, and it's 28-24, Washington. Pffffft. That's the air going out of Cal. I'm sorry - I don't give a crap who reads this - that's the coaching. Excuse me. Lack of coaching. In a day and age when it's obvious that every defensive player is out to strip the ball, what the $%%#^& is so-o-o-o-o tough about demanding that your ball carriers protect the $#&%$ ball? Is there not one college or pro coach in America with the stones to tell a guy that if he won't protect the ball, he can't play? *********** Oregon State is now 6-1 and in the race for the Rose Bowl (the game) after having twice come from 10 points back Saturday to beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl (the stadium). It was only the third time in the 21 games regular seasons games UCLA has played in the stadium that the Bruins have been beaten there, and the first time in its not-so-illustrious history that Oregon State has beaten both UCLA and USC in the same season... Which brings up another matter. Oregon and Oregon State have one Pac-10 loss between them; UCLA and USC have one Pac-10 win between them. For the first time in its football history - including Pacific Coast Conference, Pac-8 and Pac-10 - USC is 0-4 in conference play... Three Pac-10 games Saturday went down to the final play - Arizona State beat Washington State in overtime, Stanford beat USC on the final play, and Arizona wasn't beaten by Oregon until Ortege Jenkins' pass into the end zone was deflected as time ran out... And when was the last time Alabama and Tennessee played each other and neither one was ranked in the Top 25? The game was once so important that back in the 1970's, Tennessee dumped an excellent coach named Bill Battle because, even though he averaged nine wins a year, he just couldn't beat The Bear... Mississippi State ties the game and takes LSU into overtime. And LSU choose which goal to defend - the one down in front of the student section. Don't know what difference all those noisy Tiger fans made, but LSU won it... Weber State scheduled its game with number-two ranked (I-AA) Portland State on a date that coincided with the opening of hunting season in Ogden Utah, and fewer than 5,000 people showed up. Hope all those missing fans guys got their bucks, because they missed probably the biggest game in Weber State's history: Weber 41, Portland State 9... Syracuse was taking it to number two-ranked Virginia Tech in the Carrier Dome, and led, 14-9 midway through the third quarter. But Syracuse was in a tough spot, starting out on their own 1-yard line. They called a pass, but as Syracuse QB Troy Nunes dropped, he tangled feet with a guard who was in a hurry to set up, and he started to fall. As he hit thr ground, apparently in an effort to avoid the safety, he flung the ball into the air, baby-in-the-air style - and it landed in the hands of the Tech free safety. Two plays later Tch scored to go ahead, 15-14. But Syracuse hung in there, and with under two minutes to play appeared about to hold the Hokies and force a punt. Michael Vick handed off on a sweep to their right and... wait - he didn't hand off. It's a bootleg! Stop that man! Good luck. Turning on jets that few football players have, he swept the left side and raced 55 yards to put the game away... Wisconsin lined up to kick a field goal in overtime and - nothing againnst the Badgers - Purdue did what should be done to every field goal. The Boilermakers blocked the kick, scooped up the ball, and returned it for the winning touchdown... *********** PAGING RICK NEUHEISEL: Katie Hnida's available. But this time I'd advise you to be careful. Katie, a place kicker from Littleton, Colorado's Chatfield High, was encouraged to turn out for the Colorado squad by then-Buffalo's coach Neuheisel, who has since moved to Washington. Neuheisel's successor, Gary Barnett, honored Neuheisel's commitment to her, whatever that was all about, but last week she was given her release. Rumors around the Denver area are that she might be headed to Washington and coach Rick. Being a Washington taxpayer myself, and seeing the way Heather Sue Mercer has driven up the price of female placekickers lately, I doubt that the Huskies can afford Katie Hnida. *********** "If I offended anyone..." That's the way most of the insincere, forced "apologies" start out these days. In other words, I'm not sorry I did it. I'm sorry for you that what I did bothers you. Sorry you can't deal with it. That's the way I suggest Phil Knight's apology should go. If he apologizes, that is. A group of harpies including famous feminist Gloria Steinem and famous lesbian Ellen DeGeneres says that Knight, Nike's chairman, owes women everywhere an apology for running the ad in which the nut with the chain saw can't catch the lovely young woman - because she's fit, and she's wearing Nikes. The group says the ad isn't funny to women who've had to deal with such situations. Huh? Guys with chain saws chasing women? Haven't seen a lot of that out our way, and God knows we've got our share of chain saws. And nuts. As a matter of fact, I think Phil Knight owes all of us men an apology. I don't happen to appreciate the insinuation that we're all chain-saw murderers. *********** "We have a new principal here at (our high school) - a female - and one of my darlings cussed in class and I told him drop and give me 20 push-ups. He said what for? So I wrote him up and sent him to the VP. Well I get called in by the principal and told I can't give a student push-ups for cussing - that is corporal punishment. The last principal would have said," Why didn't you give him 30?" My, how times have changed." NAME WITHHELD THE NEWS PAGE WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED AGAIN UNTIL WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25 |
*********** I am not impressed with the growing practice of "extending" the ball, in which a ball carrier (usually a receiver) who is headed out of bounds near the goal line reaches out with the ball in one hand and tries to touch the corner pylon and thereby, on a technicality, "cross the goal line." Or on a quarterback sneak, the QB extends his arms to try to penetrate the plane. I have seen more than one QB have the ball batted loose, and on Saturday an Oregon receiver tried the "touch the pylon" stunt as he went out of bounds at the USC one, but instead of giving his team the ball in scoring position, he fumbled out of the end zone and gave USC a touchback. I mean, what kind of a farce is this, when every part of a guy's body is headed out of bounds a full yard short of the goal line, and he reaches out with one hand and taps the top of the pylon and "scores?" Officials must hate the play. I think a modification of the rules is necessary to require that some part of the body other than the hand must cross the goal line ahead of the ball. *********** A judge in southern Oregon ruled that a school must reinstate a high school kid who was removed as student body president because of a drug offense. The kid and his parents, who seem to share our President's lack of shame, appealed the school board's decision to oust him, and, as happens so often, they found a sympathetic court. The kid is now back in office. But wait - it's not over yet. His fellow students, some of whom do have a sense of the shame he has brought on them and their school, have begun circulating a petition to recall him. They obviously have a lot to learn before they can become U.S. Senators, because they still seem to think that poor conduct "rises to the level of an impeachable offense." *********** I think it is wonderful that there are girls who like football. And I think it is all very nice that they'd like to have the experience of playing. I also think that's too bad, because I believe that football should remain an exclusively-male province - one of the few left in our increasingly-feminized culture. I believe that every time our boys are forced to give up something that was once exclusively theirs, we take another step toward an androgynous society - and a more effeminate one, at that - in which the males steadily become more feminized and less able to take care of themselves - more inclined to whine and ask presidential candidates, pleadingly, "what are you going to do for me?" I am the proud father of three daughters whom I love dearly, and for whom I want all the best. They all participated in sports and I loved watching them. I want the best for my three granddaughters, and if they want to take part in sports, I want them to have the opportunity. But I am not going to get sucked into trying to show what a sensitive, new millenium guy I am by advocating allowing girls to play football with boys. I am up to here with the "freak show" stories we read every fall, whenever a team has a girl placekicker. Forget the hundreds of boys in the area playing football. Nobody gets to read about them. They're just grunts who have worked their tails off all winter, spring and summer so we can read about little Barbie Ponytail realizing her dreams. You say girls have a "right" to play football? Hey - don't they also have a "right" to play girls' basketball and volleyball? So how come at large high schools dozens of girls will try out for a team, but only a handful will be kept? What about all the ones who were cut? What about their rights? Why doesn't the school provide another team for them? I am, by the way, all for providing football - flag or tackle - for girls. If they really want to play. They should be out right now, drumming up support among their friends and among the community. I would be glad to help them. *********** So they finally make a movie that both you and the kids can enjoy, and what do the critics do? They hammer it. Well, screw them. "Remember the Titans," based to some extent on the true story of an Alexandria, Virginia high school where blacks and whites experience playing together on an integrated football team, is a giant box-office hit. Reports Scott Barnes, of Rockwall, Texas, "I thought it was great - and you could bring your grandkids - not ONE word of profanity. Best scene - After watching a day of protesting the integration of their school, the "new" head coach walks onto the field, turns on the lights and describes the place as "his sanctuary" from all the other stuff going on in the world. Very Nice. Had to be done by a Coach. Take the time." What do critics know? People like it. *********** When Mike Pettine retired at the end of last season as head coach at Central Bucks West, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, few people predicted disaster. Coach Pettine built a powerhouse there, and he left things in good shape. CB West has won the last three state Class AAAA championships, and last went down to defeat on November 9, 1996. So far this season, CB West is 7-0, and after defeating crosstown rival Central Bucks East last Friday night, has run its winning streak to 52. CB West can tie the state record by defeating Harry S. Truman of Levittown (2-5) tonight. Should they win, they will tie the current state recordholder - Central Bucks West. *********** Does it bother you whenever a person we elected to lead wets his finger and holds it up to the wind? Did you really believe the polls that supposedly said "the American people" just didn't want Bill Clinton impeached? Who were those pollsters asking, anyhow? Why didn't we ever know anybody who'd been polled? Where did they find those people? What, exactly, did they ask them? And when? (I don't know about you, but I don't answer the phone at dinnertime.) For those who hate our present government-by-poll, a new web site proposes fighting back. Other than the fact that I'm not comfortable with lying (unless you include practical jokes), www.lietothepolls.com has some pretty good ideas: "When they ask you whether you'll vote for Gore or Bush, tell them you're voting for Nader, or Buchanan, or Hagelin, or Ventura, or your Mom.. Tell them you haven't heard of any of them but you'd like to know where they stand on suburban llama farming... Tell them that whoever will swallow a live goldfish on national television has your vote... Tell them you're undecided because you haven't had a chance to sleep with any of them to know what kind of men they really are... Tell them you registered under two names so that you can vote for both of them.... Tell them anything but the truth... Opinion polls are helping politicians lie to us. It's time for us to lie back." *********** A youth coach back East writes that now that he's won a few games - depite all the naysayers in his organization - a rival team has begun running a Double-Wing play or two. At least, he thinks so. Says one of them may be 88 Super-Power because it looks a little like it, but they are not having a lot of success. Well, duh. There are not many things uglier than watching somebody trying to run the Double-Wing (or quite a few other offenses for that matter) without knowing what they're doing, because there are so many little details that can bite them in the butt, and they don't know what they are. The only bad thing that I can see (at least from the standpoint of my marketing efforts) is that their failure will serve as further "proof" to some bystanders that the Double-Wing won't work. But from his standpoint, so what? That leaves him without competition. It still takes good coaching. And a set of stones. *********** The greatest thing about what I am doing (I still haven't come up with a name for it, should people ask) is the people I get to meet. I can't imagine a better group of people to do business with than football coaches. One of the guys I've "run into" over the Net is a Boston businessman named Lou Orlando, who's a youth coach in his town of Sudbury, Massachusetts. Lou also happens to be a fellow Yalie, who played on the line for Coach Carm Cozza in the late '70s. I mentioned to Lou that I would be going to Las Vegas this weekend for a reunion of the Yale football team of 1960, a truly great team. (I was a year out of school when they had their undefeated season, but they have graciously invited members from my class.) As a sort of tribute to them, I put together a "web site within a web site," (Yale Football '60) and directed Lou to it, and this was his reaction: "That's awesome...seeing Harry Jacunski in the picture of the Coaching staff brought back a FLOOD of memories..he was our Freshman Coach and was patient enough to treat us as one of his "family", given all the ups and downs that freshmen, particularly those in the Ivies, go through in that first year. It may sound kind of corny, but all season long he would call us "Bullpups". Then, during Princeton week, everyday leading up to our game against them he played a tape of Yale fight songs, before and after practice. You had to see the tape player..it was one of those big, reel to reel jobs like in the spy movies when they're interrogating the guy. Well, after out last practice, Harry, this big, hulking guy, comes into the locker room, turns off the machine and launched into a speech that would make Knute Rockne proud. At the end, he tells us," When you came here, all you were were a group of individuals, a bunch of Bullpups...Now, when you get on that field on Friday you will no longer be a bunch of Bullpups... You will be a team of.... FULL-FLEDGED, SNARLING BULLDOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Coach, we were ready to rip the doors off the locker room and play right then and there.. we killed 'em on Friday and then blasted Harvard the next week in a torrential down pour..in that game one of the asst. coaches, Vito DeVito yelled at one of our ball boys "Hey Smitty..what are you doing? The towel you're using is soaked!! you wipe off a wet ball with a wet towel, it just gets wetter!!".. Those of us lucky enough to be standing there close enough to hear it almost peed in our pants we were laughing so hard.. Needless to say, that line has been carried forward, even 20 years after it was said. Have a great trip!" (Harry Jacunski is still living. He is a truly great man. He played on the line at Fordham with Vince Lombardi, as one of the famed "Seven Blocks of Granite," played after that for the Packers from 1939 to 1944 with time out for service, and coached at Yale for years, first as varsity end coach and then, after a turnover in the varsity staff, as freshman coach. A gentle giant, he never raised his voice, but he had a presence - you either have it or you don't - that allowed him to be close to his players yet command their utter respect. His twin sons, Bob and Dick, were on that 1960 team, and I hope they will be able to attend. Assuming most of the guys at the reunion still have our memories intact, I can only imagine some of the stories that will come out it.) *********** You've got to try this: Call National Discount Brokers (1-800-888-3999 - it's toll-free)... Listen to all the menu options... After hearing #7, hit 7 (Thanks to Scott Russell, Sterling, Virginia) *********** I dunno. Maybe we should repeal the 19th Amendment before it's too late. That's the one that gave women the vote. It also gave us Bill Clinton. Thursday, I'm listening to the radio, and on comes a clip of dialogue from "The View." It's a show you've probably never seen unless you're a female with nothing better to do with your life than sit on your butt and watch four witches named Barbara Walters, Lisa Ling, Meredith Viera and Joy Behar sit around and make girl talk. What scum. (Excuse me if I spelled any of those names wrong, "ladies.") Evidently, girl talk these days consists of a lot of snickering - at the size of Al Gore's, uh, member. Actually, "package" was the term this Behar witch used, as she proceeded to show the group the cover of a certain magazine (why should I publicize it?) on which Mr. Gore appears to be, shall we say, in a state of obvious arousal. (Probably thinking about the next lie he's going to tell.) "When the rest of the country sees this, his polls are going to go way up," she predicted, which shows how much respect she has for the intelligence of her fellow American females. I hope she's wrong. But what a bunch of hypocritical tarts on that show! If four men were to sit around and make jokes about Hillary's body parts, they'd be yanked off the air. And what mindless twits their audience must be as they rock with laughter! They've got to be the same ones who elected - and provided cover for - the White House rapist. |
*********** To further prove my point about Massachusetts, I got an e-mail from Jeff Gordon, a youth football coach in Western Massachusetts, who is also a state trooper. He sent along an article that indicates that living in the Bay State might sometimes be a little tough on those people who still manage to cling to their sanity. Last November 20, a 22-year-old Dorchester, Massachusetts transsexual (funny - I managed to grow well into middle age before I ever even used the word) named Charles Horton, dressed as a woman, lured a 12-year-old boy into his car. He drove the youngster to a deserted parking lot, where he held a screwdriver to his neck and demanded oral sex. Somehow, Boston police managed to arrive on the scene and interrupt the attack, during which Horton admitted shoving the screwdriver and his fingers into the kid's mouth. It took Judge Maria Lopez a while to get around to sentencing Horton, because she wanted to wait until media outrage over the attack subsided, but last week, she sentenced him. SHE TURNED HIM LOOSE! Charles Horton, who admitted committing the despicable crime he was accused of, is now a FREE MAN! Judge Lopez, angrily scolding the prosecutor for having the effrontery to ask for a prison term of eight to 10 years for what she called Horton's "low-level'' offense, slapped a year of home detention on Horton, but gave him permission to attend college classes and "transgender counseling." But she wasn't done. She threw the book at him - five years probation! The dreaded probation, so feared by offenders everywhere. (I can hear Horton now, screaming out in the courtroom, "NO! NO! NOT PROBATION!") As is so often the case, there is a feel-good liberal behind the judge's decision. Seems a social worker evaluated Horton while in jail and found that he was "not a threat to society." How much you wanna bet he looked at that social worker with big, teary eyes, and convinced her (why do I think it was a female?) that he had "accepted responsibility for the crime" (Yeah. I can hear him now - "I made some bad choices... I screwed up... I made a mistake"). Not only that, but he has been undergoing counseling - and we know how effective that can be - and, while he was in solitary (placed there for his own protection), he claims to have had a "transforming experience." Several Massachusetts legislators, just to prove that not everybody in the Bay State is nuts, are now attempting to have Judge Lopez removed. She insists that there are mitigating details the public isn't aware of. "The defendant," she said, "was given a fair sentence.'' Now what was it you wanted to ask the Governor of Texas about the death penalty? *********** Huh? A North Carolina high school football coach was fired after being accused of telling one of his players to "put a gun to your mouth and pull the trigger" during halftime of a game back in September. He continues to teach at the school. *********** L.A. Times columnist T. J. Simers noting that Bears' QB Cade McNown had made off with "Brande," one of Hugh Hefner's constant-companion triplets, said that he, himself, is not that sort of guy. "I know this, " Simers wrote. "No matter how much the twins Sandy and Mandy come on to me, I'm not going to offer to take them places they've never been before, because NFL and major league baseball rules strictly prohibit outsiders in the press box." *********** "Coach Wyatt, Sometimes it is hard to find success stories when you are only 3-4, but when you have lost a couple of tough ones, sometimes you need a week like we just had to put everything in perspective. We lost a tough game a week ago to our arch rival after we took an 18-0 lead in the first seven minutes of the game. We got some kids banged up and were not sure what we were going to do this next week. Our JV's had been very successful with a 5-1 record so far, but we needed to bring some of their talent up to help us out. Well, we brought up their QB, A-Back, C-Back and a starting guard to the varsity. The revamped JV's proceeded to go out on Thursday night and beat Leesburg 60-0 and played just great. Then on Friday we were to play Crescent City, which was 6-0 and rated #1 in Class 1A. We started the freshman QB, and the C-Back started on defense for us. The other two guys played throughout the game, but we went to Crescent City and pulled off the big upset. We won 30-24 and had the following drives: Drive #1 - Took 11 plays, 68 yards and 5:41 off the clock. Drive #2 went 93 yards in 16 plays and took 8:29 off the clock. Drive #3 went 70 yards in 14 plays while eating up 7:48 of clock. Drive #4 went 51 yards in 15 plays and took 7:04 off the clock. The last drive we were milking the clock and scored with 1:29 left in the game. This gave us a 30-18 lead, and then they scored on the last play of the game to make it 30-24. Our freshman QB played a mistake-free game, and throughout the game there were times we had as many as three freshmen in our blackfield at the same time. We have a freshman fullback who has been up with us all year, 5'10", 255 lbs, and he is a load. He had 126 yards (with a 50 yard TD last week) and he got 87 yards this week. This whole week showed that if you plug good athletes into this offense and don't make mistakes, you can always be competitive. Of course, we all knew this, but I think it opened some eyes around this area. Just some more ringing indorsements for all double-wingers." Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida *********** If people insist on "gender equity"... if, as modern educators are fond of saying, "all sports have equal value" and therefore football's just another sport, then it's becoming apparent that somebody's going to have to reach into their pockets to pay for those beliefs. The most recent evidence of the high cost of providing "equity" comes from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletics Association (PIAA), which after losing more than $762,000 last year, is forecasting a deficit of $370,000 for this year. The PIAA, which oversees - and subsidizes - costly post-season tournaments in any number of "minor" (read non-revenue) sports, had a $1 million balance in its bank account just a year ago; it is now below $400,000. They can only milk football and basketball so much. |
A joyful reunion with
La Center players, fresh off the biggest
win of their season. Many of them were
just freshmen when I last coached
them. An equally joyful
reunion with victorious La Center coach
John Lambert - a former student, former
player, former assistant, and one of the
top young coaches in our area *********** I was on hand last Friday night when
one of my old schools, La Center, beat another one
of my old schools, Ridgefield, for the first time
since 1993, and only the second time since the two
schools - just 10 miles apart - have been playing.
I taught and coached at Ridgefield, as offensive
coordinator for head coach Art "Ozzie" Osmundson,
whom I love dearly; after Ridgefield, I was head
coach at La Center, where one of my assistants was
John Lambert. John had been a student in my history
class at Hudson's Bay High in Vancouver,
Washington, and played ball for me there. He was a
good football player and an outstanding student. He
went on to play four years at Western Washington,
and after a couple of years in business decided to
become a teacher and coach. I was fortunate at
LaCenter to have a principal who realized that
football coaches are not automatically bad teachers
and he hired John. John was a great assistant to
me, as I knew he would be, and when I left La
Center after the 1998 season, I told the principal
that I thought he was ready to take over - that he
had a great ability to work with kids, and that his
great capacity and eagerness to learn would take
care of anything he didn't already know. As a head
coach, John has been able to build a staff of
people who had worked for me at La Center, a few
former La Center players as volunteer assistants,
and a few of my former Hudson's Bay players as paid
assistants. They form a very strong staff, unusual
these days at a small school, and last year they
followed up the school's first-ever winning season
in 1998 with its first-ever repeat winning season.
This year, they are doing a marvelous job with a
very young team, and on Friday night they ruined
Ridgefield's homecoming (!) with a 13-0 shutout.
Their kids were well prepared, and they played
hard. One of their scores came when their senior
quarterback, Brett Yaw, blocked a punt and recoverd
it in the end zone. The Wildcats are now 3-3, and
with three games remaining to play, have a decent
shot at a 6-3 season - best in school's history -
and the school's first post-season playoff
berth. *********** There was one aspect of the presidential "debate" last night that I found especially humorous: the point at which Big Bad Al walked right over to Governor Bush, seemingly trying to flex his lats in intimidation, and Governor Bush just turned, looked at him curiously, nodded coolly and resumed talking. It reminded me of a commercial years ago - I think it was for a credit card - in which a bunch of hostile "Redskins" (in Washington football gear) walk into a saloon and surround a cowboy, dressed in a western hat and a duster, who turns out to be Dallas Coach Tom Landry. (Get it? Cowboys and Indians?) Coach Landry, cool as a cucumber and oblivious to the danger he is in, looks up, tips his hat, and says, "Howdy." *********** "Thank you for remembering October 17th in your news. About 150 of us went into the jungle that day, 58 died including two still MIA, about 80 of us were wounded, and only 12 men made it through the day unscathed-at least in body. No doubt about it, football is more fun." Tom Hinger (Tom Hinger was an Army medic with the famed Black Lions; Don Holleder died in his arms.) *********** From another Black Lion who survived the battle of Ong Thanh, General Jim Shelton, came this note: "Another interesting happening is that David Maraniss, the author of WHEN PRIDE STILL MATTERED, bio of Vince Lombardi, is writing a book about the Black Lions and the Battle in Vietnam, counterpointed against a riot that took place at the same time at the U of Wisconsin-Madison. It will be called "Battle Cries of October" or something like that. I spent 8 hours on tape with David, who has become almost a member of the family. A superb writer and a good guy. Three of the chapters in his Lombardi book are about West Point. I think Lombardi helped recruit Don Holleder from Aquinas Institute in Rochester, NY. Lombardi was Jesuit trained as was Don. David tells me it will take three years to write the book. I hope I live that long. Thanks for remembering. You are a special friend to us. Sincerely, Jim" (Jim Shelton, a football player himself at Delaware, is a retired General who shared with me his reminiscences about facing Don Holleder on a football field, as well as serving with him in the Army in Viet Nam.) *********** Coach Wyatt, Just a note to let you know how our season is going. North Douglas High School (in Drain, OR) is now 6-0 and has outscored opponents 235-18. Three times the games have ended due to Oregon's 45 point rule, with our J.V.'s running in the final touchdown in each contest. This is my third year here as the Head Coach and running the Double-Wing offense has turned around this program. After the school went 1-17 in '96 and '97, we had back-to-back 5-4 seasons before this year. I have excellent assistant coaches who help run the defense for me this year, which takes the pressure off me to run the offense. We have three games left in the regular season and must win 2 to go to the playoffs for the first time in 28 years. The whole community is behind the team and the excitement is building. It is great to see what all this is doing to the confidence of these fine young men we coach. This is similar to when I was at Oakland, Oregon from 1995-1997 in my first Head Coaching position and we went 21-6 in the regular season with 2 playoff appearances (they hadn't been since 1970!). Oakland, ironically was 1-17 in '93 and '94 before our coaching staff arrived. I am a believer in the Double-Wing and I think many others are starting to agree. I have been blessed to have never had a losing season in six years as a head coach. Although I use the Markham numbering and play calling system, I appreciate your website, it is an inspiration! God bless you. Sincerely, Cal Szueber, Head Football Coach and Athletic Director, North Douglas High School, Drain, Oregon" *********** Judging by the homecoming games his team has had to play this year, Coach Paul Maier, of Mt. Vernon, Indiana, has made great progress in his three years as head coach. He wrote that several years ago, when one of his assistants, John Mitchell, was a senior at Mt. Vernon, the team won seven homecoming games, one of which was their own! "Shows you how much respect we used to get," he wrote. "I think we played in 2 this year. Maybe that is a measure of success." *********** Sunday was another exciting day in the NFL - if you like placekicking. The guys with the single-bar face masks neared perfection in points after touchdown, bringing excited crowds to their feet as they went 56 for 58 on extra points. I haven't heard back from the NFL yet on my proposal that the defenders on extra point tries be given whips and chains, so I have to assume that they're still considering it. Except for St. Louis 45, Atlanta 29 - which will go down in NFL infamy for not having had a single field goal attempted - there was at least one field goal made in every game Sunday. Baltimore, which seems to prefer scoring via field goals exclusively, was held to only one this week. Talk about suspense - in half of the games, there wasn't so much as a single missed field goal. Kickers made 81 per cent of their field goal attempts, providing excitement on the same order as the NBA's 81 per cent overall free throw shooting. Three thrillers were decided by field goals - Green Bay over San Francisco with 54 seconds left, Oakland over Kansas City with 45 seconds left, and Buffalo over San Diego in overtime. In fairness, there was a certain element of suspense to the Oakland victory - kicker Sebastian Janikowski had missed two earlier attempts. *********** I have a lot of friends in Massachusetts, and I find them to be perfectly normal in every respect. But somebody ought to tell them to look around at what's going on in their state. A Massachusetts judge has ruled that an eighth-grade boy can wear whatever he wishes to school, which in his particular case consists of a dress, a padded bra, high heels, etc. Not allowing him to do so, said the judge, would violate his "right to free expression." Now, I've been through the Constitution a few times, and I have some acquaintance with The Federalist papers, in which the proponents of the Consitution tried to sell it to the people by explaining what it really meant, and I'm a sonuvagun if I can find anything in there about cross-dressing. *********** My hat is off to Mike Dubose and Tom Holmoe. Coach Dubose at Alabama and Coach Holmoe of Cal have served sentences in coaches' hell this season. Their teams started out losing. Only someone who's been there (and few of us can even imagine what an Alabama coach on a losing streak goes through) can understand the self-doubt, the questioning, the finger-pointing that can affect a program once it seems to be on the ropes. It takes real leadership to stop a skid, when every letter to the editor and every angry caller to the radio talk shows says the team can't possibly win with the present guy in charge. It has to affect the players. So to Coach Dubose, who has rallied his team to win two in a row, and Coach Holmoe, whose team took UCLA into overtime last Saturday - and won - I say, "you got stones." *********** "Coach Wyatt, I was reading the "News" section and saw your article about Mississippi's three colleges. You forgot about Delta State (Division II) 7-0 on the season and ranked # 7 last week. I went to the game at Southern Arkansas last week. 30-28 win!" Steve Jones, Florence, Mississippi (By the way - Coach Jones' son, Chris is a wide receiver at Delta State!) |
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*********** Tim Brandt, doing the color on the USC-Oregon broadcast, happened to mention the Heather Sue Mercer verdict. Keith Jackson, doing the play-by-play, seemed to be under some sort of gag order, as he shot back, "Do-o-o-o-o-n't bring it up." *********** Beano Cook did a halftime special Saturday on the traditional post-game handshake between coaches. He doesn't like it. Now, I respect Beano Cook, and I respect a lot of Beano's opinions, but not this one. I think every time we peel off a little bit of the civility that should exist between coaches as fellow professionals, we lose a little more of our right to call ourselves professionals. He invoked the usual paramilitary crap, asking whether General George Patton would have shaken hands with an enemy general. That I can't say - actually, I suspect that a good military leader respects a worthy adversary - but knowing our present-day society, I think I can say that if General Patton were to come back today and want to coach football - or even lead an army - he'd first be looking at undergoing some serious anger management and sensitivity training. But then Beano went on to say that there is a least one prominent football coach who would prefer not to have to shake hands after the game - Steve Spurrier, as if you couldn't have guessed. Said Terry Bowden, former Auburn coach, when Beano had finished and they returned to the studio, "there are not many coaches that like to shake hands with Steve Spurrier, either." *********** This past weekend, Minnesota beat Ohio State in Columbus, the first time that's been done since 1949, when a guy named Bud Grant played for the Gophers...and Oregon beat UCLA, USC and Washington in the same season for the first time since 1948, when Norm Van Brocklin was the Ducks' QB. *********** Oregon ran a beautifully-executed shovel pass against USC - ran it twice, in fact, both times to Maurice Morris. It worked both times, the first time for an 8-yard touchdown, the second for 15 yards and a key first down. (There is an example of such a play on page 85 of the playbook.)
*********** Are things really this bad? Are we really such a bunch of wimps? I heard a reporter (female) on Fox News telling us, from Yemen, that despite the tragedy of the USS Cole, she doubted that its crew members were "so demoralized" that they wouldn't want to return to duty. Huh? Can you believe that? What an insult to our service people! As if there would be any question. It just demonstrated once again the vast disconnect between our weenie "it's-okay-for-guys-to-cry" culture and the stones that are still needed to defend it. *********** I am frequently asked by youth coaches, even this late in the season (perhaps because they're thinking about a wrinkle for the playoffs), whether 12-year-olds, or 10-year-olds, or 8-year olds can run the Double-Wing. It's a reasonable question, because what we are doing is a relatively novel approach to youth football offense, in that it expects kids to do things that plenty of "knowledgeable football people" will tell you they can't do. Let me just say without any hesitation that there is no doubt that kids can run this offense successfully - provided the coach knows what he's talking about, knows how to teach it, knows how to fix the little things that can go wrong, and has "the stones" to stand up to all the people who will say it won't work. There is no offensive or defensive system that by itself will make a team better, It still takes coaching and it still takes salesmanship. But if anyone has any doubts, he should take a look at the lower part of The Winner's Circle, which I update every week, at the Youth teams whose scores are reported on there. There are well over 100 of them that I know are running the Double-Wing around the country, so those scores are just from those teams whose coaches report them to me. *********** Ouch. From Avon Grove, Pennsylvania, Mike Lane writes, "Coach, I haven't heard from you lately. Is that because you pulled a hamstring running so fast to the record store to buy Allen Iverson's new rap CD???" *********** In case you're interested... Keith Babb, of Northbrook, Illinois, sent me a link to a great prayer that has been circulating. It is a shocking call for us to shape up as a nation. PRAYER |
Your girls' volleyball team need a little height? Hey, your boys' basketball players aren't doing anything in the fall - get them out for volleyball. Upset because our women's soccer team only took silver in the Olympics? Wait'll Athens, when our team is all male. Go to it guys. Fair's fair. We're at war. Remember that female place-kicker I told you about? The one who sued Duke University and Fred Goldsmith, saying she was only cut because she was a woman? She got a jury to buy her sad little story, and they awarded her $2 million in punitive damages. We're at war. Never mind that former Duke Coach Fred Goldsmith had sawdust in his head when he decided to play Mr. Nice Guy and let her try out. (I suspect she saw "Rudy" one too many times.) She thought she could have earned a scholarship. Never mind that very few walk-ons, even the invited kind, ever wind up being scholarshipped. Never mind that Coach Goldsmith and six other place kickers on the team at the time she was cut testified that she just didn't have the skills to play at the level of a team that has to play Georgia Tech, Clemson, Florida State and other ACC opponents. Don't confuse a jury with facts. What matters is feelings, and she was crushed when she wasn't allowed to realize her dreams. Her attorneys succeeded in convincing the 5-woman, 3-man jury that she was cut - her dreams shattered - because of her gender. Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, said that this ruling will force schools to take women seriously when they try out for men's teams. "And that's only right," she said. Right? Really? Women trying out for men's teams? Right, says Lopiano. "This court decision is consistent with federal court decisions in that girls need to be allowed to play on boys teams, especially when there is not a team for the girls." And what, Ms. Lopiano, if there is not a volleyball team for the boys? Or a field hockey team? Or a softball team? Who are these judges who make up these rulings out of thin air, and who appointed them? Are his initials WJC? Where is it written that "girls need to be allowed to play on boys teams?" Are there still men with the stones to resist the feminization of our boys? Our country? I would be very interested in hearing where the two presidential candidates come down on this issue. I have a pretty good idea, don't you? *********** My son, Ed, writes from SBS, the TV network he works for in Australia, "I've volunteered to be the "gridiron" wrapup guy which is fine with them. We get highlights of one game - last week it was Buffalo v Miami - and give scores of the others. Today I went and did a face-to-face interview with Andrew Gaze. Very interesting. He said he went to Seton Hall because he had a chance to go to school AND play basketball, something he couldn't do in Australia. He said he has a happy go lucky attitude because his Dad instilled in him the fact that after all is said and done, it's only a game. The only things you absolutely NEED to win, his Dad told him, are "war and surgery." Pretty funny view on life huh? He is a hell of a guy." *********** Got a kid whose heart (or whose dad's heart) is set on his playing running back - or quarterback - or linebacker - and you want him to play someplace else? Getting some resistance? Tell him about John Lynch. John Lynch was a highly-recruited high school quarterback in San Diego. Stanford recruited him. He started out there as a quarterback, but he didn't play much his first couple of years, and by his junior year it was obvious he wasn't going to be playing a lot of quarterback for Coach Dennis Green. But he wanted to play, so he asked if he could try defense. He'd played defense on high school. "I just wanted to be on the field somewhere," he told The Sporting News' Dave Kindred. He not only made it onto the field, he earned a reputation as a hard-hitting strong safety. Now, he is in his eighth year in the NFL as Tampa Bay's strong safety, known as one of the NFL's hardest hitters, and before the start of this season was voted captain of the Bucs' defensive unit. "The proudest moment of my NFL career," he called it. (Wonder where he would be if he had insisted on staying at quarterback?) *********** Ever been in the middle of the lesson and been interrupted by somebody delivering a "Happy Birthday" balloon bouquet to some kid in your class? Administrators at three Seattle-area high schools finally put a stop to the practice, which had clearly grown out of hand, sending out notices to area florists that the schools would no longer accept deliveries of flowers, balloons, teddy bears and other assorted gifts. Things had reached the point where on certain occasions schools had to hire extra help just to sort out deliveries for students to pick up. There were numerous instances of singers by-passing the office and going straight to classrooms to "deliver" singing telegrams. Think coaches are the only people who have to deal with irrational parents? "We had instances," said Principal Vicki Sherwood of Inglemoor High School, "where parents were angry because we didn't deliver at a certain time." *********** "Coach- Just had to tell you... We traveled to Jamestown, NY to play a team who has not lost in years. In fact our school has never beaten them in Jamestown. (We have only beaten them once in the last 25 years or so.) We ended up winning 20-15. I have to tell you about the turning point in the game. After a goalline stand, we had the ball on the one inch line. (Jamestown players are twice the size of any of our players.) Of course on first down we ran a 2 wedge to get us 6 yards and some breathing room, then on third down we ran tight rip 77 super power (for the first time in the game.) and got 50 yards. That clinched us the game. Thanks again for the tip on that play. We are now 6-0 with two games left. Talk to you soon. "Joe Cantafio - Head JV Coach - West Seneca West HS, West Seneca, New York (Jamestown, New York is one of those towns that are so heavily into football that the football coach could be elected mayor. But Jamestown goes all those other towns one better - head coach Wally Huckno is the Mayor!) *********** "I have already linked James McFadden's website (www.bettergrammar.org - see News Oct 12) to Embassy Ljubljana's home page -- with the intense interest here in all things involving the English language, I will not be surprised to hear that McFadden starts getting large numbers of orders from Slovenia -- a country of only 2 million people. Regards, Ted Seay "- U.S. Embassy - Ljubljana, Slovenia *********** I spent yesterday afternoon in Hillsboro, Oregon watching an 8-man game. Well, actually, a little over half of an 8-man game, to be precise. The final score was 52-6, and in Oregon 8-man ball, as soon as one team gets up by 45 from halftime on the game is over. (They call it "Forty-fiving" the opponent). One school, St. Paul, won the state championship a couple of years ago and didn't have to go the distance in a single game. They "forty-fived" every one of their opponents. That's what happened in the game I saw. I was invited by Eric Clendenin, offensive coordinator at Perrydale, a small farming community about an hour south of Portland. Perrydale, along with Wells, Nevada, is field-testing the 8-man version of the Double-Wing, and went into yesterday's game 5-0 for the first time in school history. The Pirates have "forty-fived" several opponents so far. It is not entirely the Double-Wing, I should point out: Perrydale has good kids and plays very sound defense, too. But the 8-man Double-Wing looks quite good, and yesterday, against Wasco, a team from the desert country east of mountains, Perrydale pretty much had its way. In fact, Perrydale built a 40-0 lead running only super power and super power reach, criss-cross and wedge. Perrydale is capable of running a whole lot more, if necessary, but Coach Clendenin told me before the game that with the next two weeks' opposing coaches in attendance to scout them against Wasco, he was hoping he wouldn't have to show a whole lot more than he did. The strategy begins to get interesting as the score mounts, because even in the case of a runaway, both sides would prefer to keep playing. So when Wasco scored to make it 40-6, then Perrydale came right back to go up 46-6, Coach Clendenin went with his "Number Two" offense, which consists mostly of freshmen. Their execution was not on a par with that of the starting unit, and they even passed a little, which with a freshman quarterback is an act of mercy, but Perrydale's defense (a 5-2) continued to stifle Wasco; and when a shotgun snap went over the passer's head and Perrydale recovered at the Wasco one yard line, there was little Perrydale could do to prevent a score short of making a farce of the game. It took the young Pirates just two plays to shut things down for good, with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter.
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*********** It is amazing how often I will hear from someone - a youth or high school coach - who has paid his dues and done everything he can to learn all he can about the Double-Wing, and then tries introducing it to the rest of the coaches and they turn out to be flat-earthers. It is very frustrating to a coach who has done his homework, because they aren't interested in listening to what he has to say. (Happens in business all the time.) They know it won't work. How do they know? Because they know their football! Sure they do. There is so much we all still have to learn about this game that nothing disturbs me more than a guy whose attitude and lack of curiosity tells me that he thinks he already knows everything there is to know. I can assure you that he doesn't. He not only doesn't know, he doesn't even know that he doesn't know. It is disturbing because it shows a fundamental lack of respect for the game and for other coaches. You would be surprised at how many of these guys there are. It is easy to spot them. They will give themselves away by fighting you tooth-and-nail if you suggest running the Double-Wing (just to pick one offense) , because "it won't work." Why won't it work? Because they know it won't work. They know all there is to know about football, and facts will only confuse them! They also believe that the earth is flat. *********** "I wanted to let you know that our 105 lb. (10 year old) team is currently 4-0 with the latest win coming over McAdory (the home of Bo Jackson) 32-0. We are averaging 31 points per game running the Double-Wing." Chad Gillikin, Hoover, Alabama *********** A few years ago, when I was teaching both Creative Writing and Expository Writing at a Washington high school, I was asked by one of our elementary school principals if I would be a judge in a writing contest her school was having. The kids would not be judged, I was told, on spelling, punctuation or grammar. Whoa, I said. Then what are we judging them on? Here I was at the high school, trying to teach an advanced form of the writer's art but instead finding myself having to teach the most basic of writing fundamentals to high school seniors - and this "educator" was telling me not to bother with them in judging kids' writing? I begged off, telling her it would be like asking the Vocational teacher to judge a shed the kids had built, without checking on whether they had bothered to use nails or cut the 2-by-4's to the correct length. For quite some time now, American kids - not to mention American speech and writing - have been victimized by feel-good educators who thought it was just too hard, or too boring, or too "stressful" (you hear that a lot in education) to teach such mundane things as spelling, punctuation and grammar. Why - they'd tell anyone who was buying - spending time on those things only stifles kids - keeps them from being creative. Just encourage them to write, to get something down on paper, the theory went - they'll get the rest of that stuff later. So kids have been encouraged to do the literary equivalent of finger-painting (you ever see some of their writing?) and, not surprisingly, they never do get "the rest of that stuff" - the tools of a good writer that it is their right to be taught, and the schools' obligation to teach. And as for the MTV-driven speech of today's kids, their "Me and him went to the movies," and their use of "like" as a punctuation mark in everything they say, teachers have been much too busy identifying with the kids - trying to be one of them - to model proper speech for them, much less correct them. Correct them? Why, that would require us to be - dare I say the "J" word? - judgmental! But just when the educators almost had people convinced that it didn't matter how something was written or said, along came e-mail, and a renewed emphasis on the written word. And a President who played "gotcha!" with us over the meaning of the word "is." Yes, reasonable or not, the value of what you say is often judged by how you say it. "The people who get ahead," Verizon's Group President Paul Crotty told the Wall Street Journal, "are the ones with good presentation skills." Sounds like writing and speaking to me. The trick is to convince kids that good writing and speech is every bit as important in people's perception of them as the things that they obsess over - the right shoes, pants, tee-shirts, back-pack, hair style, jewelry, tattoo, etc. In fact, good English is more important, because it's not a fashion fad that can die overnight. It's a tool that lasts a lifetime. So precisely at a time when he's needed the most, along comes Captain Grammar. His name is James J. McFadden, and he is a former labor commissioner of New York City. He has made it his mission to do something about perhaps the most glaring symptom of today's poor education, the decline of everyday English. Backed by Verizon and New York's WNBC, his Manpower Education Institute just published a marvelous handbook entitled "Promote Yourself With Better Grammar." Its mission, in the Wall Street Journal's words, "is not so much to persuade people that grammar is important but to help those who already know that their grammar needs help and want to do something about it." It deals with the basics of our language, in the sort of way you would begin study of a foreign language. It even goes into such seemingly-obsolete things as sentence diagrams, and provides lots and lots of helpful questions (don't worry - nobody's grading you) to make the lessons clearer. Already, City University of New York and St. Johns University plan to use the handbook for freshmen in need of help with their writing. It may very well serve as a lead-up to Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style," the basic writer's handbook, since so much of Strunk and White (that's E.B. White, as in "Stuart Little," "Charlotte's Web" and "Trumpet of the Swan") has assumed a basic working knowledge of English which nowadays often just isn't there. For more information about what I consider to be Mr. McFadden's heroic undertaking, check out www.bettergrammar.org *********** Coach Ivan Zimmer, Of Gary, Indiana Calumet High, writes, "Fans are screaming to throw the ball. I just laugh to myself about the 0-10, 0-9 seasons throwing the ball!" *********** I came across a newspaper story in which a losing coach told a sports writer that he was "embarrassed" by the way his kids had played. "We don't block, we can't tackle," he said, "and I am embarrassed with the way we play." Ouch. That's sure to get the gang to pull together. Actually, I always thought it was the coach's responsibility to teach blocking and tackling; and I certainly never thought it was the kids' responsibility not to embarrrass their coach. But he dug himself in deeper, going on to tell the reporter, "This week we are just going to hit, hit and hit and the ones left standing will play against (the next opponent)." Now guys, at this very moment , in the Portland-Vancouver area alone there are three kids lying in hospital beds as a result of serious football injuries. Our game is taking some big hits in the local newspapers and radio talk shows. A little common sense would suggest that it there's ever a time to be talking about making your kids hit until there's 11 kids left standing - and I doubt it - this is not it. No ethical present-day coach would ever run the sort of practice described anyhow, so if it's just a figure of speech, an expression of frustration, it oughtn't to be said. Maybe it's just a football expression, but if, by some chance, a kid should get hurt in one of those "hit till there's no one left standing" practices you said you were going to have, you shouldn't expect the ladies on the jury to understand it's just a football expression when a skilled trial lawyer reads your quote to them. *********** Mississippi and Oregon are small states, fairly comparable in population, whose colleges are having extremely good seasons. Oregon has two schools - Oregon and Oregon State - ranked in the top 25, and one, Portland State, ranked number two nationally. Mississippi has three schools - Mississippi State, Southern Mississippi and Ole Miss - ranked in the Top 25. There is a major difference in how they're doing it, though: The Oregon schools are doing with Californians. More than half the players on the combined rosters of Oregon, Oregon State and Portland State - 152 of 299 - are from the Golden State. Mississippi's achievement is all the more impressive, then, because the Mississippi schools are doing it with Mississipi kids: of the 300 men on the rosters of MSU, Ole Miss and USM, 159 are Mississipians. *********** I was zipping through the channels recently when I came across the XFL tryouts. Or so I thought. Maybe "auditions" would be a better word. There were these unnaturally-muscled guys doing a lot of drills involving crashing into each other and falling around, followed by lot of strutting and posturing by winner and loser alike. The resemblance to pro wrestling was clear. I decided to stick around to the end to see which ones "Coach" Butkus would draft for his Chicago team, when, much to my surprise and disappointment, I learned that what I was watching was not tryouts for a new football league at all, but a weekly show called Battle Dome. |
TRIVIA ANSWER (What product was advertised here?): If you were an easterner and you were alive in the 40's, 50's or even 60's, you would recognize the "3-Ring Sign" of Ballantine Ale & Beer. Ballantine Beer, brewed in Newark, New Jersey at what was then the world's largest brewery, was popular from Philadelphia to Boston, and was the best-selling beer on the East Coast; Ballantine Ale, one of the few remaining ales sold in America at that time, was the country's best-selling ale. From the earliest days of televised sports, the name Ballantine was synonymous with sports sponsorship in Philadelphia and New York, and it was at the brewery's urging that famed Yankees' broadcaster Mel Allen referred to a Yankee home run as "A Ballantine Blast!" Beer drinkers were urged to "simply make the 3-ring sign" - forming a ring with the tips of the thumb and forefinger, while holding up the remaining three fingers (an obscene gesture in Brazil, by the way) - "and ask the man for Ballantine!" (Answered correctly by one very intelligent person with an astounding memory: Greg Chambers-Groton, Connecticut.) *********** "Coach, This year we have posted a 6-0 record, the best that this school has ever done in at least the last 40 years. we are averaging 33 points and over 300 yards offense a game. However, our best player broke his foot last week, so things will be a little tougher. Through six games he had 19 TDs, almost 1000 yards rushing, and had four receptions averaging 65 yards all for touchdowns (makes you wonder why we didn't throw to him more often doesn't it? ). I told our team that some good can come of this tragedy, however. now they get the chance to prove to all of our critics that we aren't just a one man team; we just have to "suck em up" and play that much harder. I have a feeling that our kids will rise to the occasion." Coach Tim Cochran, Geraldine, Alabama *********** Beginning right after Labor Day, the Wall Street Journal's web site ran an "October Surprise" contest, asking its readers to try to guess what dramatic stunt President Clinton might pull (bombing an aspirin factory in Sudan, for example) to try to influence the campaign in its final days.The greatest number of respondents chose war of one sort or another, with Iraq the most frequently chosen enemy. Three readers guessed an attack on Texas. A resident of Boise suggested that the President would "nuke Utah and blame it on the Mormons for being 'Intolerant.'" Several readers predicted that Mr. Clinton would step down, citing health reasons, so that Al Gore could run as an incumbent. The best prediction of all came from Allan Radman of Aptos, California, who said, "Hillary, Tipper and Hadassah will all announce that they are pregnant. And, in a moment of confusion, Al Gore will announce on 'Larry King Live' that he, too, is pregnant. At the same time, Geraldo Rivera will attack Governor Bush for not being pregnant." *********** As it turned out, I had a very close look at quite a performance Saturday, standing on the Hofstra sidelines as Portland State's Charles Dunn rushed for 324 yards and earned himself the Division I-AA National Player of the Week Award. And for their effort, the Portland State Vikings moved to number two nationally, just11 votes behind Georgia Southern. *********** Last summer, the townspeople of Buffalo, New York livened things up for visitors by placing almost-life-size statues of buffaloes in various places around the city, all of them different in some way. One was painted the colors of the beloved Bills. The state of Rhode Island did something similar, but, since buffaloes were already taken, it did potato-heads in an assortment of get-ups. And then - perhaps you read about it - someone complained about the version of Mr. Potato Head sitting outside the Warwick, Rhode Island city hall. Said it was "racist." When I first heard this, I immediately thought of the sort of people we see and hear so much of nowadays, people who aren't happy unless they can find something that offends them. Fortunately for them, they don't usually have to look too far. A racist Potato Head. Right. And then I saw a photo, and my jaw dropped, and I said, "holy s---!" It was racist! This was not just another PC rant. This was the darkest-skinned potato you've ever seen in your life. (The artist explained that this was a "tourist" potato - that along with the floral shirt and sunglasses, the dark skin was supposed to represent a deep tan.) Except the dark skin of Mr. Potato Head's face was broken by an exaggeratedly wide grin, with pink lips and large, white teeth. It looked like some of the old-time minstrel-show-type caricatures of blacks that were once popular (among whites). As Leonard Pitts, columnist for the Miami Herald wrote after seeing it, "the only thing missing was the watermelon." I can't imagine that this was a consciously racist act. The real issue here, it seems to me, is ignorance. I doubt that there is a soul in the entire state of Rhode Island in a position to put such a work of art in a public place who would intentionally have approved a piece of art deemed remotely racist. The artist claimed she was unaware of the resemblance between her work and those highly offensive drawings of days gone by of little black boys smiling as they ate away at their watermelon. I'm not a big fan of sensitivity training, but I am a historian by education, and it seems to me that a lot of people missed a lesson or two here. And the sad thing, says Mr. Pitts, a black man whose writing I admire, is that as the races seem to grow apart in America, driven there by leaders who profit from racial distrust, we could be in for more of the same. *********** A Chicago area coach wrote about the youth football feats of the offspring of former professional athletes, Michael Jordan and Dave Duerson: "the 5th/6th grade Red team won 19 - 6 led by Jeffrey Jordan's 2 TD's. He is rapidly developing into a superior football player where he looks like a man among boys. The 5th/6th grade Grey team won a very hard fought game 18-0. They were led on defense by Brock Duerson (son of Dave Duerson of '85 Bears fame) who was all over the field making hits that you can't believe were delivered by a little 75 pound kid. I guess he was inspired by a feature article in this Sunday's Chicago Tribune on his two older brothers. Anyway, on the final TD play, Brock threw the most devastating block I've seen in football this year - at any level. Brock was playing wing and was blocking the cornerback on the playside. After the runner passed him, he looked to peel back and pick off a trailing defender. Brock saw his prey and launched his entire body striking the poor defender square in the numbers with his shoulder pad. On impact, the defender was parallel to the ground, cleats facing skyward. A real de-cleater on a kid that outweighed him by 20 pounds. Wow! I wish all of my kids would hit like that." *********** "Coach Wyatt, As a graduate of the University of Georgia I was excited as anyone to see 9 years of frustration at the hands of Tennessee end. The Dogs did it with old fashioned defense and a good running game. The end of the game made me ashamed to be called a Georgia fan. The sacred hedges were destroyed by a mob of students who came onto the field to celebrate. This seems to be a new tradition that I hope is quickly stopped. A student was trampled and is in serious condition because of this tradition. I got a new tradition for those rowdy fans. Let me come to your house and stomp on your lawn and bushes and destroy your property. There seems to be a lack of control by some people today. Its not just at Georgia but is everywhere. LSU fans did the same thing a week earlier and I saw fans at Georgia Southern do this after a playoff win last year. The game was stopped with about a minute to play. Officials everywhere need to come up with a plan to stop this type of behavior. I thought this stuff only happens in soccer matches in Europe and South America. Do we need barb wire fences and moats around our fields too? Dan King Evans Ga. (feel free to use my name on this message.) PS I ve made arrangements to attend practice at Glascock County next week and I'm looking forward to seeing the 2 wing up close. Their coach was very cordial when I called him. Thanks for going out of your way to help me. (The remaining home games on Georgia's schedule will not be played "between the hedges", as has been the tradition at Georgia's beautiful Sanford Stadium. The beautiful hedges that separated the field from the spectators were trampled so badly that the University has had to cut them to stubble, in hopes that they will grow back in time for next season. Now, games will be played "between the chain-link fences." Says Georgia AD (and former football coach) Vince Dooley, "It's going to be ugly." I have to disagree with Coach King when he considers this a reflection on Georgia or its fans. It is a common occurence, and seems to stem in part from the "mosh-pit mentality" of the concerts that these kids attend. If you hadn't noticed, they don't go to concerts to listen to music: they dress up and make up appropriately, and then - they become part of the show! Think I'm wrong? Look at the way these idiots dress and make up and carry signs, then mug for the cameras at sports events. That's why they came! Their moment of fame! And colleges have contributed to the post-game mess by erecting "permanent" goal posts that merely raise the bar in challenging drunken students. Some of those goal posts could have survived the siege of Leningrad, but invariably, the mob brings them down. We are approaching the unruliness of English and Latin American soccer fans. ) *********** Coach Christian Thomas, of Cypress, California, notes with sarcasm, " I am sorry to report that the players/staff and family found it necessary to kneel in prayer for Justin Goe (young Oregon player seriously injured a week ago) prior to the kickoff. I am trying to figure out if we broke any laws..so what if we did, it felt good to do it for Justin." *********** I don't believe in curses or hexes, but at a time when football in the Northwest has never been stronger - Oregon is in the Top Ten and Oregon State is ranked, with Portland State at number two in Division I-AA - there is a certain uneasiness surrounding our game. With one young player, Kris Tyacke, still paralyzed and another, Justin Goe, in serious condition with a brain injury, Friday night saw another potentially catastrophic injury. The injured player, Matt Murray, of Castle Rock, Washington, suffered a severe brain injury when colliding with a Ridgefield player on what appeared to all who witnessed it and have seen it on video as a fairly routine play. He was life-flighted to a hospital in Portland, and the game was declared over with a little over three minutes to play. At last report, Matt was still in serious condition. Yes, that is the same Ridgefield at which I have coached, and if you have seen my 1999 Highlights video, Castle Rock was the opponent whom we played in last year's season finale, with the league title on the line. Matt Murray, number 11, went both ways, playing flanker back on offense and corner on defense. Your prayers can't hurt. Matt Murray, c/o Castle Rock HS, 5180 Westside Hwy, Castle Rock, Washington 98611 |
*********** A youth coach in Yuma, Arizona, L. E. "Stew" Stewart, wrote to report that his kids put on a 19-play, 71-yard drive this past weekend. (See Winner's Circle) That is something that any high school coach running the Double-Wing would be proud of, because it is a sure sign of how well-disciplined - how mentally tough - a football team is. *********** Ron Rapoport of the Chicago Sun-Times writes, "The time to call a halt to sending NBA players to the Olympics comes when you're rooting for Lithuania to beat them. Send our best college players, even if it means we won't always win. The Olympics should be for athletes who want to experience the bigest thrill of their lives, not for guys who would rather be at the beach." Makes perfect sense to me. I think it is the height of American arrogance to have NBA players masquerading as Olympians, while putting them up in luxury hotels away from the riffraff - no Olympic village for them. But there are a few problems. First of all, this Dream Team stuff wasn't exactly our idea in the first place. The IOC wanted NBA players and pressured the US to send them. Well, at least they wanted that first group, the original Dream Team. So, of course, did the chumps at the TV networks who fork over all that money to the IOC for the broadcast rights. Those groups might not approve of our trying to return the Olympic spirit to our team, if it meant sending "unknown" college kids. Then, too, there is the slight problem of finding the college kids. At the rate the really talented players are leaving school for the NBA, it is fair to assume that if we're going to take the very best college players to represent us in Athens, we will pretty much be looking at freshman and sophomores. That means that many of the members of our next Olympic basketball team are now in 9th grade. *********** My son recently received a summons from the Superior Court of Los Angeles Couonty to report for jury duty. Unfortunately, it won't be possible for him to sit on anything like the O.J. Simpson jury, because (a) he is no longer a redident of Los Angeles County, and (b) for the last year he has been living in Melbourne, Australia. I wrote this on the summons, but my hand trembled as I wrote, because beneath the "Excuse explanations" box, someone had not yet removed the now-obsolete statement, "It is perjury to falsify an excuse from jury service. Perjury is a felony punishable by up to four years in state prison." It is? I wanted to ask, "what if it's 'just lying about sex?'" *********** I had to wait for Monday night for my weekend sports highlight- Tampa Bay's blocking a Minnesota field goal and returning it for a touchdown! YES-S-S-S-S-S-S! I love it! Don't get me wrong - I like the Vikings. But I CAN'T STAND FIELD GOALS!!! They are RUINING THE GAME!!! They make it possible for WEENIES who don't even know how to block and tackle affect the outcomes of fiercely-fought games. MAKE ME PRESIDENT AND I WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! I WILL PUT PLACEKICKERS IN A LOCKBOX! TWO POINTS FOR A FIELD GOAL! NARROW THE GOAL POSTS! ONLY TEN MEN ALLOWED ON THE FIELD GOAL TEAM! TWELVE MEN ALLOWED ON THE FIELD GOAL BLOCK TEAM! TO QUALIFY AS A KICKER, A PLAYER MUST HAVE PARTICIPATED IN AT LEAST 10 SCRIMMAGE PLAYS (KICKING PLAYS EXCLUDED) DURING THE PREVIOUS TWO QUARTERS! BYE, BYE WEENIES!!! VOTE FOR ME! |
Hoftsra University's football team arrived in Portland Friday to play Portland State, and for two days I had the pleasure of keeping Hofstra coach Joe Gardi, company as the team prepared for its game with Portland State. I also had to keep up with him on the sidelines during the game. Let me put it this way - Joe is Italian. He is emotional; he is passionate; you do not want to be the official on Hofstra's side of the field if you screw up. Fortunately, the game was generally well-officiated, and the play by both teams was clean overall. It was an entertaining game by most spectators' standards, a 40-35 Portland State win in which the two teams combined for nearly 1,000 yards of offense and PSU's Charles Dunn rushed for a school-record 324 yards, but it certainly did not meet Joe Gardi's more exacting standards. A former New York Jets' defensive coordinator under Lou Michaels and Joe Walton, Joe was not happy about Hofstra's allowing Portland State more than 500 yards of total offense or its failure on several occsions to contain the Vikings on third-and-long. He knew going in that Dunn was good. "He's the best runner we've seen," he told me before the game. After the game, he could only shake his head and say, "I wish we had him." Joe also spent a year with the Jets as Lou Holtz' special teams coach, and although his staff now handles the offensive and defensive coaching, Joe still coaches Hofstra's special teams himself. So he wasn't too pleased with his punter's consistent failure to improve their field position, and he nearly came unglued when his holder - the punter again - failed to handle the snap on a field goal attempt right before halftime. But Hofstra's special teams did manage to block a PSU field goal attempt (they work on that a lot) and then, after forcing Portland State to punt late in the game, blocked the PSU punt and returned it for a touchdown. As we were leaning against the goal post watching his team in pre-game warmups, Joe mentioned that his kids had looked tired back at the hotel that morning. He turned to me and confided, "I've never been able to figure out whether they're ready to play." The kids looked to me as if they were dragging a bit, perhaps a combination of the time difference and a surprising warmer-than-usual Oregon Saturday afternoon. Hofstra's motto is "No Excuses," and in his pre-game talk with the team Joe tried to stick a fork in the jet-lag excuse by teling them of the time - this is no lie - our Philadelphia Bell team in the World Football League flew to Hawaii - a six-hour time difference - and we arrived in the evening and played the following night. And won. (It was conventional wisdom back then that you should arrive there a few days in advance and let your players adjust. Adjust? That's a laugh. You should see the distractions - called women - that Hawaii offers. So we flew in the day before, and even though we were heavy underdogs, we kicked their butts.) And then, before the Hofstra team went out on the field, they knelt - and prayed. No, they didn't win, but that wasn't what they were praying for. And when they came in after the game, they knelt again, and said a prayer of thanks. *********** Hofstra's football team left Margiotta Hall, their football complex on Long Island, at 6 AM Thursday to catch an 8:20 flight from JFK Airport to Portland for their game Saturday against Portland State. They allowed plenty of time- under normal circumstances - yet they nearly missed their flight. It was, after all, Long Island, and even at that hour, they encountered heavy traffic. In the past, they have had a police escort to help get their three-bus caravan through the traffic-clogged "freeways" of Long Island, but not this time. See, it's a gender-equity issue. The women's volleyball team - all 13 players and a couple of coaches - doesn't get a police escort when they go out of town. *********** After practice, I had the kids in a bunch, reviewing the practice, and giving them information about the upcoming jamboree. The gnats were pretty bad, so the kids were waving their hands all over the place and not listening. I told them to ignore the gnats for a few minutes. Obviously, this was too much, as two moms just grabbed their kids and left. I called one of them afterward and she said she took him because the gnats were bad and it was unfair to expect them to not keep waving at them. I told her how difficult it is to talk to 20 kids who were all waving their hands and turning their heads every which way. Funny how the kids didn't really mind, but the parents were over there squirming. To think that I would actually expect them to pay attention to what I was saying (and correct them when they were not doing so)." That gnat business is typical of what a principal I once worked for, a Marine named Chris Thompson, called "over-parenting." It tends to become worse the more affluent the community becomes. These people just can't let go. My wife, as a third grade teacher, runs into more of this every year - parents who say they "want to help" in the classroom, when what they really want to do is hang around their own kids. They just can't let go. *********** Congratulations to Mike Hause, coach of Kalamazoo Christian High and his wife Dawn, whose third child, a son, Cameron John, was born September 20. Cameron joins brother, Morgan, and sister, Erin. *********** Nobody in America watching NBC heard this part of Cathy Freeman's post-victory interview by an Australian TV station, when she was asked about seeing her family in the stands as she did her vistory lap, and running over to them and happily embracing them. "Biggest smiles I've ever seen," she said, "and they're not even drunk! My brothers." Evidently, what sounded to me a rather humorous comment about her brothers was seen by some Australians as something that, coming from anyone other than "our Cathy," might have been considered racially insensitive: heavy drinking is a problem among many Aboriginal people. *********** I'm glad I don't play for the Philadelphia Eagles. Because if I did, I would really be ticked at my coaches... Here my teammates and I played our butts off for 59-1/2 minutes, and there we were with, the ball on our own 20, tied at 14-14 and only 30 seconds away from overtime, and do you know what those idiots did? They passed! Deep! And what does Donovan McNabb do but throw deep - off balance - right into the hands of Darrell Green (who, last I heard, still happens to play for the Redskins), and he returns it into easy field goal range. And the Redskins win. And we lose. I hear that Pat Summerall called it a "heartbreaking loss for Coach Andy Reed." Yeah, heartbreaking. That ain't all I'd like to break, right about now. (Coaches, we have an obligation not to do something to lose a game that our players have put themselves into position to win. I tell my players before a game that the three things most likely to beat us are turnovers, stupid penalties, and dumb-ass calls. Well????) *********** Here they come, ready or not. During their times at the top, Barry Switzer's Oklahoma teams and the Miami teams of Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson did not always distinguish themselves by their sportsmanlike conduct. Maybe this time around it will be different, but for better or worse, it sure looks as if the Sooners and the Hurricanes are back. *********** "Coach, Having a great year for us here. Ranked 16th in the Class 1A poll. Have lost 2 games but to ranked 2A and 3A teams. A back has 600 yds, B-back has 500, and the C-back has 550. Lost last night, but outgained them 403 to 254. Had 4 fumbles, will work on that this week. The Superpowers and Cris-cross (WB to WB) are really opening back up the Powers. Special thanks, the undersized o-line got a 100 yards on the wedge. You should see them smile everytime it is called. We are going to make the playoffs this year, with a good chance of hosting at least the first round. Hasn't been done since they consolidated the schools. Currently 3-2, 3-1 in the conference and tied for first in the section." Chris Davis-HFC - Murray County Central HS - Slayton, Minnesota. *********** On the telecast of yesterday's Carolina-Seattle game, they showed a picture of Cliff Battles, the old-time Redskin, wearing a bandage across his nose. The play-by-play guy, Bill McAtee, I think, commented that it looked like one of those breathe-right gizmos that guys wear nowadays, supposedly to keep their nasal passages open. The color guy, Charles Mann, said that based on the way they played back then, it was probably to keep his nose on his face. *********** The power of prayer.... I was listening to the Mitch Albom show last week and he was interviewing Ms. Condoleeza Rice, Governor George Bush's national security adviser. Ms. Rice, a brilliant person, is on the faculty of Stanford University, and a Notre Dame graduate, so Albom asked her where her loyalties lay in Saturday's Stanford-Notre Dame game. She gave one of the better answers I've ever heard a person give in such a conflicted situation: "I'm pulling for Stanford, and praying for Notre Dame." *********** NO, your calendar's not wrong: "It's our Thanksgiving* this weekend, so we take Monday off and gear up for Wednesday's game vs. Parkland. The seniors play next Friday." Kyle Wagner, Edmonton, Alberta (*Canada) |
*********** Several years ago, I spent a summer as an intern in the athletic department at LSU. My major project was an analysis of recruiting - where the players were coming from and where they were going. There was special interest in areas that were net exporters of talent - states that produced more players than their state's colleges could use. (Kids who perhaps could be persuaded to take a look at LSU.) Florida, of course, was a no-brainer. At that time - mid-80's - there were only three Division I-A schools in a state that just churned out highly-talented, well-coached athletes. Florida kids who either weren't recruited by Florida, FSU or Miami or just plain chose to go elsewhere were found on rosters of teams all over the eastern half of the US. And Florida was an easy recruit logistically, with a high percentage of its high schools a fairly short drive from a major airport - Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Tampa-Saint Pete, Orlando or Jacksonville. The big shocker, though, was finding another state that nobody ever seemed to mention whenever the subject of talent came up. But it had a fairly large population, a lot of good athletes who were very well coached, it was easy to get in and out of and see a lot of kids in a relatively short time, and there was absolutely nothing to keep its kids in-state. In fact, its kids expected to have to leave their state to play big-time football. Okay - time's up. Did you say New Jersey? How did you know? Actually, it's no lomger much of a secret among recruiters. Penn State has feasted on New Jersey recruits for years. Nebraska has long known about the Garden State: remember Mike Rozier and Irving Fryar? Last year's Heisman Trophy winner, Wisconsin's Ron Dayne, came from Berlin, New Jersey. Joe Burris, in an article Monday in the Boston Globe, noted that 11 teams in the most recent AP Top 25 and five of the teams in the top 10 have players from New Jersey on their rosters. Third-ranked Virginia Tech has seven, seventh-ranked Miami has five, and sixth-ranked Michigan has three. Number 20 Mississippi State has three, number 24 Wisconsin five, and number 25 Notre Dame seven. The good ones just don't seem to want to stay home - after opening with wins over Division I-AA Villanova and Division I-A (but just barely) Buffalo, New Jersey's lone Division I-A school, Rutgers, has been outscored 142-23 in its last three games. *********** Hofstra arrives in town today for its game tomorrow against Portland State. Both are highly-ranked in Division I-AA. Hofstra has lost only to Delaware (my old friend from WFL days, Joe Gardi, coaches Hofstra, and he says this year's Delaware team is good enough to play in Division I-A) and has beaten Big-Sky perennial power Montana in Missoula. Portland State is undefeated. Think Division I-AA isn't tough? Hofstra beat Montana, Montana beat Idaho and Idaho beat Washington State! And Portland State opened its season with a whupping of Division I-A Hawaii - in Honolulu. Joe had a favor to ask of me. Asked me if I would be willing to stand next to him on the sideline and tend his headphone cord. Stand on the sideline? Next to the head coach? In a game between two of the top Division I-AA programs in the country? Gosh, I don't know. Think I should? |
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TRIVIA
ANSWER: Chuck Bednarik, the last of pro
football's 60-minute men, was born and raised in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and graduated from high school
there in 1942. With World War II going on, he enlisted in
the armed forces, and served the next two and a half
years in combat in Europe. He served as a waist gunner on
a bomber, and flew on more than fifty missions.
In
his honor, the Maxwell Football Club annually makes the
Chuck Bednarik Award to the nation's best collegiate
defensive player; last year's award went to Penn State's
LaVar Arrington.
Gifford,
meanwhile, was carried off with a life-threatening
concussion that would cause him to miss an entire season
of football. And the next day, Bednarik was portrayed as
a cheap-shot artist and a taunter at that, when the
nation's newspapers carried the photograph at left. It
froze in time the moment when Bednarik first jumped up
off Gifford, exultant at winning; but it gave the
appearance, to those who hadn't seen the game, that he
was standing over the fallen ball carrier and daring him
to get up for more. If he had a sword in his hand, he
could have been a gladiator preparing to administer the
coup de grace. At the very least, he appeared to
be taunting.
*********** A Coppel, Texas man was arrested Tuesday and charged with a felony for going onto the practice field of his son's youth football team and allegedly knocking one of the other players, a 10-year-old, to the ground. "Basically, the kids were practicing football, and this guy was watching his kid. He became upset with something and used a football block like this," Captain Gary Nix told the Dallas Morning News, folding his arms across his chest and jerking his arms upward. Mark Young, president of the Coppell Youth Football Association, told the nespaper that the accused father has been suspended from all league activities, including attending practices. The latter sanction would seem academic: he pulled his son from the team following the incident. There was no mention of any injury to the youngster, whose parents took him to their private physician, but injury to a child is a third-degree felony in Texas, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Police reported the incident to Child Protective Services, but because there was no allegation of any caregiver harming a child, CPS will not investigate. Had the accused aggressor been a coach, however, CPS would investigate, Captain Nix said.
"The problem is they have now gone to the superintendent lodging a formal complaint not only about the play calling, but that I belittle my players and never praise them, I don't let my assistants do anything in practice or games, we only run one play and everyone knows how to stop us ( It's funny - we are 2 and 3 with losses to schools that outsize us on the line by 50 to 70 lbs.) and that they can't talk to me. They wanted my immediate dismissal, which the superitendent refused to do. "All of this is false. We tell our players we are going to nit pick them on their assignments. Our players are not 3.0 GPA so we do a lot of nit picking, but we also prasise the kid when he does well. I set the practice schedule but my assistants decide what and how they cover at practice. At games I don't make any defensive calls or call the offensive plays. I give those coaches free rein with substitutions and play calling. Of course I make suggestions throughout the game and develop the game plan for the week. "I have decided to finish the season. I feel it's the best thing for the team, but right now I don't think I will coach next year." (I know this man well and I have seen him operate. He is a very good man, who cares about kids. He gives a lot more of himself to those kids than their parents will ever know - a lot more than their parents in many cases, I'd bet. He is not pointing the finger at the kids when he says they are short on receiving skills and undersized. I have seen them, and so have some other coaches I know. He has worked his tail off to get to the point where they are 2-3, something I would consider to be a miraculous achievement. I can't imagine what it would be like with those kids if he were trying to run wishbone, or veer, or Power I, or Delaware Wing-T or - it boggles the mind to even think of them running a one-back offense - run-and-shoot or West Coast. Maybe those parents would like to see a little shotgun? I don't know any of his assistants, and I have no reason to suspect anything is amiss, other than to know where that "not letting the assistants do anything" garbage usually originates, and to be awfully suspicious of a call for his "immediate dismissal. " That indicates to me that they already have someone else already lined up - someone has already agreed to take the job on an interim basis. Hmmm. Wonder where they found him?)
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*********** ED WYATT REVIEWS LATE-NIGHT TV DOWN-UNDER - The "Roy & HG" show - a late-night comedy show that follows the Olympics - is getting unbelievably rave reviews, even from international athletes in Sydney. Their success is a combination of people wanting to laugh after a full day of sports, their willingness to "take the piss out of" (Aussie term) anything and anyone, and their skill at making fun of the more obscure Olympic sports. Some examples... --they add their own commentary to gymnastics, giving names to various maneuvers. When a female gymnast does a split, they call it the "Hello Boys." When a male gymnast does a split, they call it the "Flat Bag." When a male gymnast falls facefirst onto the mat, they call it the "Battered Sav" ("sav" short for saveloy, or sausage). --they've been the only program to show Judo and Greco-Roman wrestling. Their analysis of Greco-Roman wrestling is that the only way people understand the sport is to dig up old Grecian urns and follow the moves depicted in the artwork on the urns. --they voiced over a Russian synchronised swimming routine as if it were choreographed to the story of Rasputin and the Royal Family, which was absolutely fantastic. --they've created their own mascot to rival the official Olympic mascots. Theirs is called "Fatso the Big-Assed Wombat" and has been a huge hit in the Olympic village. Some swimmers even took the wombat onto the medal stand with them. --they've gleefully kept track of New Zealand's low medal count, holding up "examples" of what the next day's headline would be in New Zealand. (Aussies love to ridicule New Zealand.) After the Kiwis' first gold, the headline was "Gold Rush." --they've also had gold-medal winning athletes on and haven't been afraid to ask tough questions. They asked American pole vault champ Stacy Dragila why NBC wasn't showing the Games live. The essence was "Are those NBC people idiots?" All in all, it's been a remarkable show and one which has captured the Australian viewing public. To me, it's more like Letterman or Conan O'Brien, since it's every night of the week and they can use "running gags" to draw viewers in. The long-term question is would something like this fly in America? I'm guessing no, because NBC deals with the Olympics so seriously and so emotionally. *********** Remember where you read this when they start swinging from the street lights in L.A. Evidently street gangs in Paris are more technically advanced than ours. Here ours are, still defending their turf and protecting their stashes with the same old pit bulls and rottweilers, while their Parisian counterparts have taken to using barbary apes. The animals - actually tailless monkeys - are famous as the inhabitants of the Rock of Gibraltar, and are known to have strong arms and legs, extremely sharp teeth, and short, fierce tempers. They are purchased for somewhere in the neighborhood of $30, and after "training," are used as attack animals. Their preferred method of attack is to jump on an enemy's head. Here. Take my wallet. Please. ***********"To go along with Coach Wagner's comments, the popular phrase on our practice field is "My bad." We hear it whenever a player has made a mistake. It is usually proceeded by a (or more than one) coach yelling the player's name to let him know that he made a mistake. Apparently, "my bad" is a combination of an acknowledgement of the error, apology for said error and a promise not to make the error again. "After watching the same guard miss the same assignment two plays in a row in our run throughs, I sent in the next guard on the depth chart and told the offensive huddle, 'My bad.'" Brian Campbell, Saginaw, Michigan *********** "A growing trend that I am not too fond of and I think will make you grit your teeth is this NFL emphasis of having to have your names on the back of your jersey......I remember just being proud to have a jersey that didn't have the numbers peeling off!!! We were the last town in our league to stop supplying home blues and away whites to the kids and bowed to the pressure (parent pressure of course) of going to one jersey that the kid keeps every year with his name on it. So now in our division we have 12 towns with 5 wearing white, 2 wearing black, 2 wearing red, one wearing royal, gold and navy......how stupid!!! More important to look good than be good I guess..... Regards, Bill Lawlor, Hanover Park, Illinois" *********** A couple of weeks ago, Scott Barnes, a youth coach in Rockwall, Texas, told me that he'd suddenly lost a few players, including his son, Austin, from an already-thin roster. He had to go into the next game with 11 players, and he told me that if they won, they'd deserve higher billing in The Winner's Circle than "some of those high school coaches with 60 players." Turns out that his kids played to a 6-6 tie, which is a super achievement, but I did remind Coach Barnes that those high school coaches earn that higher billing: every one of those 60 players has at least one parent, each of whom expects his kid to make All-County and get a full-ride to the Division I-A school of his choice - which he will, if the stupid coach will do his job. *********** Last year, there were 1,710 student assaults on teachers - in New York State alone. So New York's Governor Pataki signed a law making an attack on a teacher a felony rather than a misdemeanor. The law goes even further, dealing with those situations where you've sent an unruly student to the office and five minutes later he's sauntering back into class, a smirk on his face as he struts for his buddies and hands you a note from the principal readmitting him to class. The law requires every school to have a code of conduct - updated yearly - on file with the state Education Department, specifying what it considers to be misconduct and what the consequences of such misconduct will be, and that before a student who has been ejected can return to class, the principal must have decided on appropriate discipline for him or her. Dealing with a somewhat different matter, the law also provides criminal penalties for districts that allow "silent resignations," those deals that permit school personnel accused of abuse or harassment to resign without anything going on their record. Apparently this sort of arrangement - "we won't investigate if you will leave quietly" - has been common practice, in New York at least, because I have been told of instances in which accused individuals had been allowed to "leave quietly" - and were almost immediately hired by another - unsuspecting - district. *********** This year we are using your tackling technique for the first time.After 21 years it's tough to make such a change in teaching tackling.But I believed it was safer and I went with it 100%.After our first two games we were 1-1 and not tackling well.At our coaches meeting it was suggested by the def. coord. that we scrap the technique due to it's innefectiveness and he had two supporters while two other coaches kept quiet.This is a veteran coach and friend who has been with me for 12 years.My reply,"I don't give a s--- what you think, you guys better start coaching your kids up or I'll do it alone."This is a rock tight staff with no fathers and two of my former players on staff and they do a great job.We went back to work with a bye week and started practice for two weeks with tackling.Our kids are improving daily because we stress it and teach it. It paid off in this game (a 40-0 win) and I will continue to begin practice with tackling all season.I once heard a coach say that this guy and that guy were p----.Another coach replied that maybe it's because you coach p---- football.I believe that they will do what we teach them.Thank you for helping us on both sides of the ball this season." Coach John Trisciani, Manchester, New Hampshire |
*********** "Coach Wyatt, Thanks coach for the advice. We are now setting at 2-2 on the year with a 21-2 loss to C-1 No. 9 Oakland Craig and a 7-0 loss to 3-1 Pender. Anyway, I thought I would write to tell you about the Pender game. They took the power and the criss cross completely away from us by chopping our pulling guard and fullback (depending on the play). It was brutal. We kept talking to the officials to no avail. It was ugly. We weren't fast enough to get outside of these guys, so we went to the air for 135 yards, but couldn't punch it in. We couldn't execute our base stuff. Their d ends got inside the head of our fullback and he had his worst game all year. We are sending a copy of the tape to the state." Coach Steve Cozad, Northeast HS, Lyons, Nebraska---- Coach Cozad - The AFCA is quite clear on the matter: "To gain an advantage by circumvention or disregard for the rules brands a coach or player as unfit to be associated with football." (American Football Coaches Association Code of Ethics). This is no time to be thinking about protecting an opposing coach who is so branded by the AFCA. Parents don't entrust their kids to us without expecting us to do everything in our power to protect them. If an opponent chooses to circumvent or disregard the rules to gain an advantage - and endangers your players in the process - I suggest you consult an attorney about preparing a letter to be sent to the head of the officials' association and the superintendent of the offending school, notifying them of the rule involved, and putting them on notice that continued dirty play will be considered prima facie evidence of its having been taught by the coaches and condoned by the officials. Maybe a coach who teaches tactics like that won't understand what all that Latin means, but his superintendent will. *********** Get that kid outta there before he gets hurt! Aaron Miles, a senior at Portland's Jefferson High is a blue-chipper. In basketball, that is. In fact, he is considered by many to be the top point guard in the country, and is being recruited by Arizona, Duke, Kansas and UCLA. So what does he do a couple of weeks ago? He TURNS OUT FOR FOOTBALL! His buddies told him they needed him at quarterback, so, even though it was a little late, he turned out anyhow. And last Friday night, in his first start, he led Jefferson to a 19-13 defeat of archrival Benson Tech. Asked in a post-game TV interview what he was doing playing football, he said, "I've only got one senior year to play and have fun." Show this to those twinks at your school (every school has them) with their 18-inch vertical leaps who don't turn out for football because they need to work on their hoops. *********** "Hey COACH - ..ya think folks have lost perspective or what? I just received a call from the director at the YMCA. He said my team's cheerleader "mom" called, and they all want their money back. Now mind you, I've never even met this person. The way they do it is they assign a "cheer team" to each football team. There is no relation between the two, and I was told that I had no responsibilities whatsoever regarding the "cheerleaders". So anyway, when we had our coaches meeting, the director made sure that one of his bullet points was "don't p--- off the cheerleader moms". Big chuckles throughout..I had no idea what he was talking about. Since we were the New team, I was given the option of 2 color schemes to work with when selecting uniforms. Blue/White was one of the options. I had a BIKE catalog, showed the director the color jersey I was going to order and, after his ok, was off to the sporting goods store. Little did I realize the significant difference between "CB Blue" and "RB Blue". Being the Mustangs, we of course opted for the "RB Blue"...however, the cheerleader moms had a much stronger preference for the CB Blue and went that direction (unknown by me). Well...the Cheerleaders just got their uniforms late last week and realized the significance of the different "blues" and refused to wear their uniforms to the game Saturday..they opted instead for T-shirts and shorts. (I didn't even know they were at the game, quite honestly). So after their "protest", they called the director and demanded their money back because they could not ask their poor little cheerleaders to be on the field in uniforms that were such a significant shade of blue different than the players. Apparently, it would really demoralize them. So here's this director about to refund over $900 worth of fees and uniform money to some moms because their freakin' uniforms are a different shade than my guys! I KID YOU NOT!! THIS IS TRUE!! I kept asking him to tell me he was kiddin', but you know "we'll never understand their position because we don't know what it's like to be a cheerleader"....yeah, whatever! I say give them their d--- money back and tell them to grow up! Ask the moms, and they'll tell you they have their little girls in cheerleading so they can learn dance, stay in shape, blah, blah, blah..I call bulls--- on this one! I'm now waiting for the return call where he is telling me it's cheaper to change our jerseys, so we'll need to go reorder the CB Blue to match our beloved cheerleaders! I KNOW this call is coming..what a crock, huh?? (Uh, Coach... you do remember that cheerleader mom down in Texas who put out a hit on her daughter's rival... ) *********** "Hi Coach, I had to write as soon as I read your news (even before I finished the rest) about the part on manners with kids. Now as you know, I am not THAT old being only 28, but I do not believe asking kids to be respectful is being an "old fart". What then would I be called? I've got it, a Gen-X fart! It seems every season it gets worse. I have had to ask more players this year than most years to ask me a question with proper address than I can remember. Up here we get a lot of "Hey, do you know where to go to try-out for football?" or "Thanks, man." My personal favourite is "Whatever" when you try to correct a student. But it is more than just talking. I teach in an open computer lab and kids feel they can just walk in or cut through to go to other classes. I even had a student walk in between the class and myself while I was at the whiteboard teaching! (30 minutes after the bell had rung) The other thing that really gets me is this notion of "packing up" to get ready to go. When did this become the end of class? As I tell my students you start at the bell and you don't finish untill the next bell. You could just see some of these kids thinking to them self "I gotta get out of this guys class! He's making us work in computer class!" "Well I guess my point is I am either an "old fart in training" or we just expect that people treat each other with a certain amount of dignity. Maybe you can think of a nickname for us young guys? "I had two kids quit last week and I was a little surprised since thay had played a number of years of Bantam. They said that they were too tired to do homework.. I asked them how they managed to do it last year; their reply was "We didn't work as hard." Partly P. O.'d and partly in a hurry to go to practice I said "Well that's why we were in the Championship and your team sucked." Upon reflection probably not appropriate but it was 100% true." Kyle Wagner, Jasper Place High School, Edmonton, Alberta *********** A survey of 12,000 students conducted in 1997 by the Universities of Minnesota and North Carolina showed that high school kids who work 20 hours or more a week - nearly 20 per cent of those surveyed - were more likely to be emotionally distressed, to drink, to smoke, to use drugs, to have early sex. Kate Kelly, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Raising a Teenager," is opposed to teens holding jobs. She says, "teens already have a job, and that's school." Add in homework, extracurricular activities, family time, and the extra sleep that all the experts tell us teenagers need, she says, and there isn't a whole lot of room left over for a job. In other words, to make room for a 20-hour-a-week job, things of great value to the kid's future are sacrificed, to make it more likely he'll engage in things that endanger his future. |
*********** Who even knows what a "miler" is these days? Back about 40 or 50 years, though, everybody knew the names of America's - the world's - top milers. Track itself was a lot bigger then - not just something that went into hiding between Olympics. And the mile was track's premier event. I read a couple of articles lately that reminded me of this. One was about former Oregon miler Jim Grelle, who competed in the 1960 Olympics, and now, semi-retired and unable because of bad arches to do any running of his own, coaches the high school cross-country team in Seaside, Oregon. He and teammate Dyrol Burleson were two of America's best, and they had a lot to do with the fact that Eugene, Oregon, home of the Ducks, remains one of the few places in the United States where a track meet will draw a crowd. (There are people who will tell you that "the wave" started at Hayward Field to encourage runners going around the track. Washington Huskies' fans will tell you otherwise.) The other article I read was one in the Wall Street Journal about Wes Santee, one of a string of great milers (Glenn Cunningham before him, Jim Ryun after) to come out of Kansas. What an amazing story! As a kid growing up on a ranch in southeastern Kansas, he was allowed by his dad to run in high school meets only on the condition that they not interfere with his chores. So he would wake up before dawn and put in two hours of work before school, then return home after school and work until dark. His coach, recognizing the kid's talent and work ethic, finally agreed to let him skip team practice and get his workout in during study hall. As a sophomore at Kansas University, he was featured in Life Magazine (the equivalent then of USA Today, only bigger) when he ran a 14-mile road race against 28 of his fraternity brothers - each running a half-mile - and won. Set to run in both the 5,000 and 1,500 meters in the 1952 Olympic trials, he first qualified in the 5,000, but the next day, while lining up for the start of the 1,500, he was pulled from the track - literally - by an Olympic official. At the Olympics, he lost in the 5,000 qualifying heats, while the American entrant in the 1,500, whom Santee had beaten often, finished second by a tenth of a second. The mile really became the hot event as runners competed to break the four-minute mile mark and Englishman Roger Bannister finally did it in 1954. Bannister's duels with Australian John Landy became part of track legend, and Santee, America's best, was expected to challenge them in the 1956 Olympics. He never made it. He was serving in the Marines and still managing to run, but when he was forced to cancel out of a meet in San Francisco, someone there, biter at his cancellation, revealed that Santee had been taking under-the-table "expense" payments to appear at meets. Under the pure amateurism required of Olympic athletes at the time, this was clearly illegal. But when called to testify about the practice, Santee chose not to appear, and his amateur status was immediately revoked. (He later said he refused to appear because if he had had to testify, he would have had to reveal the names of others taking payments, and "if I'd have told the truth, we'd have lost half our 1956 Olympic team.") Years later, both Jim Grelle and Wes Santee note that the mile is no longer the marquee event it once was. Instead, it's the 100 meters. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. Santee said it's because of Americans' general unwillingness to do the work required by the longer events. That certainly makes sense when you realize what goes into becoming a great miler, because no matter how much God-given ability you may have, there's still no way around the hard work involved. You still have to reach way down and get the most out of what you've been given. And the payoff is not going to come immediately: you have to be able to delay gratification, not normally a trait common among today's young Americans. I personally think the decline in popularity of the mile may also have something to do with our collective attention span, so finely honed by ESPN highlights and by MTV, where the average scene lasts a second or less. I mean, have you ever had to sit there and watch a race that lasts four minutes?
*********** You know and I know that we should accord officials the respect they're due. But we also know that frequently the reason they don't always get that respect is that sometimes they can be real butts. Some of them come out on Friday night and spend two hours or so earning beer money, while they trash the work of the kids and coaches who have been busting their buns to play a hard, fair game. And they come across as arrogant - uncommunicative and dictatorial. Guys like this have problems with an unfamiliar offense like the Double-Wing, and they can sometimes be quite inventive in calling a Double-Wing game. To head off problems that may arise owing to unfamiliarity, I have distributed at my clinics a checklist of things to go over in the pre-game. They are things that I routinely cover with officials when they come to me and say, "is there anything we should look for?", and I have never run into any discourtesy. Maybe I have been spoiled by courteous officials, or else they're treating me more gently in my old age, but this experience of a Colorado coach (whom I can't name) really pushes the limits: "I wanted to share with you my experience with the worst officiating crew I have ever encountered. I shared my pre-game checklist with them prior to the game, and all seemed well. However, 19 penalties for 175 yards later, it was obvious that something wasn't quite right. Additionally, they didn't allow an obvious made field goal at the end of the first half. During the game, when I asked the white hat what was going on, he told me that my team was the worst coached team he had ever seen. He also allowed the other team to simulate our snap count all night long, but when my team captain asked him about it, my player was told he would be flagged every time he did the same thing. Further, they didn't know that when my punter was roughed it should have been an automatic first down. Well, yesterday I called the head of their officials association. During our discussion he told me that his officials took offense to my telling them how to officiate during my pre-game discussion. In essence, he was telling me that they weren't professional enough to handle it, and I feel they held a personal grudge throughout the night. We were called for holding on all but one pancake block that we threw. They totally lost control of the game, and it lasted three hours. I told the head of the association that I don't want that crew again, but he is sure to prejudice the rest of his officials. He even said that I shouldn't be discussing rules interpretations with the officials before the game. Wow! Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. Onward and upward from here!"
*********** The Washington State Cougars dropped to the bottom of the Pac-10 - maybe all of NCAA Division I-A - in at least two important categories: wins (zero) and sportsmanship (sub-zero). The former is excusable; the latter is not. After getting their heads handed to them by the Idaho Vandals Saturday, few of the weary WSU lads could summon the energy or the graciousness to shake their opponents' hands. *********** Cory Jones, of Florence, Mississippi, a 5-10, 168-pound 15-year-old sophomore, has carried the ball 76 carries for 589 yds in 5 games - an average of 7.8 yds per carry. He has caught 6 passes for 79 yards, and has scored 10 TDs and 3- 2 pt conversions to lead his division in scoring. He also has returned 4 punts for TD's, although 3 of them were called back for clipping. Cory ran 4.55 in the 40 at a college camp this summer. His coach thinks he could be a good player."He could be a real good one," says his dad, coach Steve Jones - " if I don't over coach him!"
*********** Youth coach Jim Carlton, of Los Gatos, California writes: "Today I used one of your tips and moved my linemen back from the LOS so their helmets were on the hip of the center. Wow! What a difference it has made in creating better pulling lanes and in picking up blitzes. It was especially helpful for my "training offense" (the third string) who were really struggling with the pulls. You've made them more successful already!" *********** I thank the good Lord that I've never been involved in a serious injury to a player or an opponent. The odds are that most of us will be fortunate enough to spend an entire coaching career that way. And then there's Faustin Riley, head coach at Beaverton, Oregon High. He's seen lightning strike his program twice in the last year. Less than a year ago, lineman Brendan Fitzpatrick died during the season of a heart attack, unrelated to football. His teammates rallied, and went on to win the state class 4A championship. In the first quarter of last Friday night's Beaverton-Glencoe game, Beavers' quarterback Kris Tyacke was rolling out on a bootleg when he was tackled from behind. After they unpiled, Kris lay on the ground motionless; he was taken to Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital with a fractured vertebra, and underwent six hours of surgery. Today, he is said to be awake and alert, but his condition remains serious, and doctors admit that there was injury to the spinal cord, and Kris has not yet recovered movement in his limbs. There is general agreement that Kris' was a freak injury, totally unpredictable and unpreventable. His teammates prayed as he lay on the field and then was taken away; understandably, when play was resumed 30 minutes later, they were not the same team. They had come into the game ranked number1 in the state, but on Friday night they fell victim to Glencoe, 35-28. I pray for the recovery of Kris Tyacke and for the safety of every other young man who plays football. If you care to do the same, I'd like to see the ACLU stop us. (If you were to get a card and have your team sign it, it would be a great gesture of the brotherhood of football players. Send it to - Kris Tyacke, c/o Coach Faustin Riley/ Beaverton High School/ 13000 SW 2nd St/ Beaverton OR 97005) |
In New York Tuesday night, 71-year-old retired coach Jerry Claiborne was inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. 250 of his friends, family and former players were on hand. Coach Claiborne is certainly richly deserving of the honor. He compiled a 179-122-8 record between 1961 and 1989, in turning around three major college programs - Virginia Tech, Maryland and Kentucky. I can tell you about Maryland, because I was living there when Coach Claiborne came on the scene. Before he got there, the Terps sucked: Maryland's record was 25-66 in the nine seasons before he arrived. When he departed 10 years later to take over at his native Kentucky, Coach Claiborne left behind a record of 77-37-3. He took the Terps to seven bowl games and won three ACC titles. So when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, "I wish this could have happened a year earlier," his wife, Faye told the Baltimore Sun. "Jerry would have been able to enjoy it so much. He used to go to New York often for this dinner and loved it." Coach Claiborne, you see, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Always considered stern, cold, gruff, demanding, Coach Claiborne worked his players and assistants hard, and stressed sound defense (wide-tackle six) and special teams to go with a conservative - some fans said dull - offense. And discipline. "If you made a mistake, he made you pay for it," recalled former assistant Jerry Eisaman. Think his players hated him for it? Think again. In October, 1998, Maryland honored its 1973 Peach Bowl team, the Terps' first bowl team in years, and Coach Claiborne was carried off the field by his players, including the likes of Bob Avellini, Louis Carter, and NFL Hall-of-Famer Randy White. Word had spread among the players that their coach might be in the early stages of Alzheimer's, and when he tried to speak to the players but choked up and couldn't finish, they began calling out "Coach, we love you...We love you, Coach." According to Gib Romaine, an assistant coach on the 1973 team, "It was unbelievable to see all those big, tough football players in tears and showing so much love for a coach who had been so tough on them. I mean, here was Randy White, who was supposed to be one of the meanest players ever, crying his eyes out." Coach Claiborne said afterward, "When I looked at those boys, I couldn't help breaking down. It was an unbelievable thing to hear them telling me, 'I love you, Coach.' I'll never forget it." His son, Jonathan, who played for him at Maryland from 1973-1975, said of his dad's induction into the Hall of Fame, "It's great to see they're recognizing someone who always worked hard, played by the rules, and touched peoples' lives with his no-nonsense discipline. He never won a national championship, but he showed three different times how he could turn a program around by instilling pride and self-respect in players who had very little of that before he got there." Coach Claiborne, who retired in 1989 after a near-miss when the helicopter he was riding in on a recruiting trip had to make an emergency landing in a Kentucky cornfield, now lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I called his home on Wednesday, in hopes of obtaining his address so readers might send him congratulations, and wound up having a delightful conversation with Coach Claiborne himself. He thanks all well-wishers, but said he and his wife would prefer not to receive a whole lot of mail. We did have an interesting talk, however, especially on the subject of the wide-tackle six, which has always been a part of my defensive package. Coach Claiborne said he originally got it from "Coach Bryant" (yes, the Bear) for whom he played at Kentucky. he later assisted Coach Bryant at Kentucky and Texas A & M (read "The Junction Boys" when you get a chance!) and it was his base defense at all three places where he was head coach.
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*********** OLYMPIC EXCLUSIVE FROM ED WYATT IN MY AUSTRALIA NEWS BUREAU: "My vote, by the way, for most boring Olympic sport? No, not fencing, not kayaking, not even dressage...how about softball? Jeez, could you get a less interesting TV event? Maybe a couple of hits per game, usually infield hits, and a final scoreline of about 2-1. Snoozefest." *********** If you thought you'd noticed an increasing number of "road gators"- large strips of tire and steel belting - strewn on the roads, you were right. It is estimated that between 1993 and 1995, the amount of tire debris on American roads has increased by 28 per cent. A study by the American Trucking Association found that it came from all different makes and sizes of vehicles. This is not, by the way, the case in Europe, where with roads such as Germany's autobahns permitting sustained speeds of over 100 mile per hour, tires are built to handle the extreme speeds. I bring that up because by now, everybody who draws breath knows there's something going on with Firestone Tires and Ford Explorers. Seems the tires have been known to unravel at bad times, like when the Explorer is going 60 or 70 or 80 or so. The one component of the car whose design automakers don't get involved in - and don't warranty - is the tire, so naturally, Ford is blaming Firestone. Firestone claims its tires are safe at proper pressures, and blames Ford for suggesting lower tire pressures, at which drivers get a smoother ride. (The smoother ride comes because the less-inflated tire itself absorbs much of the road bounce; but that requires the tire walls to do a lot of flexing, which creates heat, which can lead to tire failure.) And so it goes. The politicians are all over this one, because whoever's at fault, there's a big corporation to be bashed, and when you're for "the poeple, not the powerful," that means votes! The American people love seeing those big, evil, soulless corporations get bashed. Even when the fault isn't entirely theirs. Imean, who regularly checks the air pressure in his tires any more? (Come to think of it, maybe it's the fault of the switch to self-service gas stations: used to be, an attendant would check your oil, your radiator and your tires.) And who ever thinks abouot whether his vehicle might be overloaded? And, finally, get this: California has reported that the number of drivers pulled over for going 100 miles an hour or more has doubled in the last ten years, As Holman W. Jenkins, Jr, writes in the Wall Street Journal, "If Americans are going to drive at autobahn speeds, we can't go on pretending our tires are still living in a 55 mile-per-hour world." *********** Our local high school has just installed an artificial surface which is supposedly state-of-the-art. There are few of its type in the Pacific Northwest - a soccer field in a park in Portland, and Husky Stadium at the University of Washington. It seems to be a great surface, with blades of plastic "grass" poking up through bits of finely ground-up rubber tires which hold the blades erect, allow for drainage, and provide a soft cushion quite similar to a well-watered grass field. Unlike most artificial surfaces, soccer people seem to like this one - in fact, the local youth soccer organization is kicking in 1/3 the cost of the field here (that'll show you how much money those people have!). There very well may be a snag, though - it may be a great soccer surface, but soccer players rarely fall on their faces. And now, with the Seahawks playing in Husky Stadium, I've noticed in the last couple of weeks that there have been a few problems with tiny bits of rubber occasionally getting into players' eyes. Maybe they can trace it to Firestone... *********** I'd hate to see how those officials would interpret the Bible... The coaches at Kalamazoo Christian High ran into some inventive officials last Friday who told them that the wedge was illegal. They weren't given any basis for the reasoning, but someone heard some reference to Rule 9 Section 4 Article 2-e. If you look at that rule, though, you won't find much support for the officials. It says, "No player shall position himself on the shoulders or body of a teammate or opponent to gain an advantage" (This rule has nothing to do with a wedge, and was inspired by Coach Bob Blackman of Dartmouth, who in 1965 tried to counter the new-fangled soccer-style field goal threat posed by Princeton's Charlie Gogolak, reasoning that the soccer-style kick, with its lower trajectory, might be blocked by a man artificially launched high in the air. Coach Blackman positioned a man in the secondary - wearing soft-soled shoes - and had him practice taking a running start and launching himself high into the air off the backs of crouching linemen. Unfortunately, under game conditions, the intended blocker, one Sam Hawken, misfired, vaulting across the line prematurely and drawing a penalty. It must have been disconcerting to Gogolak, though, because after the penalty was stepped off, he missed the kick anyhow.) *********** My daughter, Julia, writes from Durham, NC- "Thought you'd like the cute, perky brunette on our local NBC station doing a leadin for sports by saying that Lance Armstrong would be competing in cycling at the Olympics, "the biggest challenge he's ever faced". Hmm. I would have argued that the Tour de France is probably a bigger challenge for a cyclist, as it's a longer more grueling race, but hey- CANCER wins. She probably doesn't even know who he is!" *********** "Coach - Just had to write you and let you know about a situation that came up today. It seems that a local sports bar and a local radio station have joined forces to honor high school football players in the area. They select the player of the week, and give them a plaque, a $50.00 gift certificate to the restaurant, and then interview them during a half hour sports talk show on Thursdays, from 4:30-5:00. We had our A and C backs selected from last week's game and then Coach Smith asked me if I would go with them since he had already made arrangements to eat with the seniors on our team after practice. I said sure, and it was a great experience. The two kids did great, and the sportscasters were wonderful. They talked to me on the show both before and after talking to the two players, and they asked a lot about the offense and its origins. I was able to talk about how it is becoming a very popular offense throughout the country and how the coaches are kind of a cult and share ideas and tapes. It was a truly great experience for our two players and these two guys put on a pretty good sports show. I was able to plug Coach Smith and what he has done for the Umatilla football program, and how hard our kids have worked to turn it around. I wish everyone had an opportunity to give their players this kind of situation. I just thought I should share this with you. I hope we didn't violate some high school or NCAA rule that would jeopardize our season or their eligibility. Must close as the lightning capitol of America is starting to fire up." Ron Timson- Umatilla, Florida *********** Congratulations to the ACC for using the complimentary spots given them on ESPN's Thursday night game of the week to promote sportsmanship. The spot, a TV montage showing one ACC coach after another talking about the importance of good sportsmanship, is eye-catching and compelling. *********** I know that with Alabama's current two-quarterback dilemma all Coach Mike Dubose needs is another quarterback, but anybody who watched N.C. State's overtime win over Georgia Tech (to go 4-0) has to wonder why State's true freshman QB, Philip Rivers, an Alabama kid, was still available when Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato came recruiting. Evidently Rivers' dad, who was a HS coach in Alabama, is now coaching in the Raleigh area to be nearer his son. Anybody know anything about that? *********** Years ago, Clemson went over the top with a poster it sent out to recruits. It was a shot of William Perry leaning against - a refrigerator. Life size! Unfair, cried opponents. From that point on, the NCAA imposed limits on the things schools could give away to promote themselves to kids. Meanwhile, I will tune in tomorrow to at least a portion of the Michigan State-Notre Dame game and grind my teeth as I watch those nauseating Notre Dame recruiting ads - Notre Dame Victory March playing in the background, Notre Dame athletes running the Notre Dame stadium steps, Notre Dame athletes tapping the "Play Like a Champion Today" sign over the Notre Dame locker room door, etc., etc - that come thinly disguised as commercials for Champion ("Official uniform of the Fighting Irish"). Bad enough that Notre Dame selfishly breaks away from the NCAA and negotiates its own TV contract that enriches only them; bad enough that the BCS seems to want to do everything in its power to somehow keep Notre Dame, an independent, in the national championship picture ahead of more deserving schools from "lesser" conferences; now, a surrogate runs ads for them. It is such a blatantly unfair recruiting advantage it's disgusting. |
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TRIVIA QUESTION: He coached the last Ivy League school to
play in the Rose Bowl.
He was the college
coach of the man who is acknowledged to be the first of
the great NFL T-formation quarterbacks. His team won the
1934 Rose Bowl game, in a shocking upset, thanks to a
now-legendary play called KF-79. His father was an
Italian immigrant whose family name was
originally"Piccolo" until they adopted the anglicized
version. Although he was offered numerous other jobs, the
President of Columbia University, a man named Dwight D.
Eisenhower, always managed to persuade him to remain at
Columbia ANSWER: As
head coach at Columbia for 36 years, LOU LITTLE(shown at
left) spent most of his career in a the
seemingly-unfortunate position a lot of guys find
themselves in - doing a masterful job of teaching and
coaching bright, hard-working young men of good character
who often, unfortunately, weren't as talented as the
people they had to play. But he did win some big ones.
Really big ones: in addition to the 1934 Rose Bowl
upset of mighty Stanford, his Lions pulled off one of the
greatest upsets of the 20th century, ending mighty Army's
32-game unbeaten streak with a 21-20 win. Coach Little
was born in Boston, the son of an Italian immigrant, and
raised in Leominster, Massachusetts. He went on to play
tackle at the University of Pennsylvania from 1916
through 1919, following which he played professional
football, such as it was in those days, with the
Frankford Yellow Jackets, the predecessors of today's
Philadelphia Eagles. He coached at Georgetown from 1924
through 1929, when he was offered the job at Columbia.
And there he stayed, until 1956. The early years were
good, including the Rose Bowl win; but Columbia's
emphasis on academics, and the rise to prominence of
other programs around the country, sent the Lions'
fortunes into a tailspin: in the last 20 years of Coach
Little's career,
Columbia had only five winning seasons. There was never
any stir among the alumni to get rid of Coach Little,
though - the concern of Columbia alums was that he might
finally give up in disgust and leave. It never happened.
It was said that his teams were "seldom outthought and
never outfought." He insisted his players be sportsmen:
he taught them to knock an opponent on his back, then
help him up. And despite Columbia's unbending academic
standards, he did come across some fine players, the best
known of whom was Sid Luckman, the man the Chicago Bears'
George Halas chose to be his quarterback when he decided
to install the T-formation. Luckman would earn lasting
fame as the first of pro football's great passing
quarterbacks. Following Coach Little's 25th year at
Columbia, the New York Football writers did something
unprecedented in presenting him with a silver plaque, and
they asked Columbia's president, Grayson Kirk, to make
the presentation. (The previous Columbia president,
Dwight D. Eisenhower, was now serving as President of the
United States) President Kirk told the sportswriters, "No
coach is any finer than Lou. He is not only a great
coach. He is a great
man."
(Identified
by: Adam Wesoloski- De
Pere, Wisconsin... Lou Orlando- Sudbury, Massachusetts...
Art Poltrack- Redding, Connecticut... Whit Snyder-
Baytown, Texas... Kevin McCullough- Lakeville, Indiana...
Ted Seay- US Embassy, Ljubljana, Slovenia...)
*********** An "educator" friend told me of the year-opening get-together in his district in which the superintendent addressed all the teachers from all the district schools, and began to lecture them on the need for them to modify their thinking somewhat. This "information" age we're in, he told them, requires teachers to place more emphasize on technological know-how, while de-emphasizing other things. Things such as punctuality and dress. At that, a veteran teacher stood up, and in front of the entire group took on the superindentent for undermining the faculty on an issue that they still considered important to kids and their education; when she was finished, she sat down to applause from the rest of the teachers. I don't envy those teachrs, but at least now they know where their fearless leader stands on a very important issue. It will help them to remember that when they have problems enforcing their rules. I find it amazing that an "educator" would come out in the open like that, declaring him/herself opposed to something as basic to kids' success as appearance and good work habits. And they wonder why people home school their kids. Or send them to private schools. Or why vouchers are a hot issue. Whaddya think's gonna happen in that district when you bench a kid because he keeps coming late to practice, and Mom and Dad complain to the Superintendent? *********** "I'd like to report a victory of sorts. Since we secured our field last year we've had to share it with a soccer association every other day. The problem was that soccer never used the field at all. Since they have 1200 kids to our 75 they carried much more clout with the city of Edmonds. The soccer folks secure all these fields even if they don't use them. We've been bending the ears of the parks and recreation department about this. Yesterday we were told that field is ours now. Six days a week. Soccer no longer can use the field and will not as long as the Cyclones want that field. There is a God!" Glade Hall, Edmonds, Washington *********** Thanks to Coach Bryan Campbell, of Saginaw, Michigan's Arthur Hill High, for directing me to an artile explaining the reason for South Lyon's having to forfeit its first three wins. South Lyon was ranked number 9 in something called the Super 10, when Coach Bob Scheloske first learned that he had used an academically ineligible player in all three games. "I was the only one who knew," Scheloske told Tom Markowski of the The Detroit News. "I immediately contacted my athletic director, then we met with other school administrators. I turned myself in. What else can you do? You can't face kids and tell them to follow rules and not do it yourself." The school administration then notified the Michigan High School Athletic Association, which - of course! - awarded forfeit victories to South Lyon's first three opponents. (Like they really earned them. What if one of those unearned "victories" by forfeit enables one of those teams to take a playoff spot away from another team?) Oh. The ineligible player - the one who gave South Lyon such an unfair edge - was identified only as an underclassman who appeared in all three games for a total of 11 plays. *********** Coach Doug Baker did a marvelous job in turning around a losing program on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but after last season, when his wife was offered a good job closer to their home in the mountains of Western Maryland, he and his young family picked up and moved back there, where this year he is biding his time as an assistant. I thought highly enough of what he'd been done at his old school that I asked him to share some of his thoughts at my Phiadelphia clinic last spring, and yesterday he wrote me with his thoughts on my latest TIP: "Dear Coach, I will strongly recommend that the advice you gave the coach who wants to change be followed - as structured as the DW is I am still trying to limit my play selection - it's very hard for an offensive minded coach - but regardless of the offensive philosophy - fewer run well is always, ALWAYS better - if his kids were confused last week - add a couple more plays and things are bound to get worse. If he wants to spice up practice - work on Special teams (a punt block, or punt fake, or reverse on the kick-off) more;or put in a new blitz. But leave the offense alone! "I think all seasoned coaches know that few changes are made when teams win - you polish what you did Friday - you don't stop doing what you're doing and begin anew - seperate the wins/losses from the real reason why you are coaching kids and you'll realize that. "Teaching - and not play calling - is the most important aspect of coaching; Don't teach kids to change when times get tough - Re-emphasize what you really believe in and sell it to those who believe it - I'll tell you from experience when you lose a game you will really find out what players support you and which have been coddled since childhood. It's a perfect opportunity to reward those kids that truly believe in you and what you're teaching; it's an equally good time to start moving the excuse makers and backstabbers out of your program. Our team learned that lesson the hard way last year - I had a cancer in my team and my principal wouldn't let me remove the kid - in the end he did what cancers do: he ate away at good parts and turned them into diseased areas as well! 88SP, Wedge, 47C - stick with the basics. Hope all is well!" *********** "Coach, I read about the coach who is concerned about the refs taking control of the game to keep the scores down. We as you know have a 3 TD rule that states you must put your second team in, or make changes (switch running backs and linemen) if you do not have enough players to make a second team. Anything to keep the score down ). If the opposing team scores, then you can put your first team back in. On occasions I will punt on first down to give the other kids a chance to score, just so we can put our starters back in. I have been coaching youth football for almost 30 years and have a record that is pretty good, but have never deliberately beaten another team by more than 3 TDs. I find it helps build your program for the next year, keeps the Moms and Dads happy, and doesn't demoralize the kids. I think some lose the concept of what we are trying to do at the youth level. It's definitely not trying to get A Backs and CBacks 300 yard. rushing games. If the refs see this attitude maybe they won't feel the need to take control of the game." Frank Simonsen, Cape May, New Jersey *********** "There are friends... and there are Molson friends." Those of you in the U.S. who may remember my telling you about the Molson "I am Canadian!" TV spot with the guy named Joe ranting on and on about the fact that he is not an American nor the American's stereotypical Canadian might be interested in seeing Molson's newest spot, called "Rash." http://www.adcritic.com/ *********** In the summer of 1998 I published a list entitled "17 Reasons Why Football is better Than High School," which had been written by Mr. Herb Childress and published in the April, 1998 Phi Delta Kappan. The I published the list exactly as it had been handed to me by a teacher in Wisconsin, in the summer of 1998, the early days of my site. I receive countless such articles, lists, etc. in the mail and over the web, and this was one of the few that I have used. I took care to attribute it to Mr. Childress, and was under the impression that this was his article in its entirety. I published it and and went about my business. I have since forgotten about it. In fact, if you asked me now where to find it on my site, I couldn't tell you. But a gentleman named Julio Rivera somehow found it, and wrote me recently to point out that the list was not Mr. Childress' entire article, and that a full reading of it would make it clear that it was decidedly not his intention to exalt football. He was kind enough to direct me to the original article, which I'd never seen. After having read it entirely, I must agree with Mr. Rivera. While it did seem nice to find an educator who would admit that football has value, academic honesty requires me to concede that Mr. Childress' article, while an indictment of high school, is not a glorification of football. Here is how Mr. Childress prefaced his list:: "Let me give you 17 reasons why football is better for learning than high school. I use football as my specific example not because I love football; I use it because I hate football. It's been said that football combines the two worst elements of American society: violence and committee meetings. You can substitute "music" or "theater" or "soccer" for "football," and everything I say will stay the same; so when I say that football is better than school, what I really mean is that even football is better than school." *********** Caption under a fake MasterCard ad sent to me by Scott Barnes in Rockwall, Texas, but apparently done by one Jason Oglesby, '00 - (I assume that means University of Nebraska '00): "Six scalped tickets from Notre Dame faculty - $1,320 ....... Two nights at Motel 6 in Plymouth, Indiana - $227.83....... Beer at the Linebacker Lounge- $128... Turning the House That Rockne Built Into a Sea of Red - PRICELESS" |
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Anderson was 17 of 24 for 349 yards and four touchdowns. Miller, a senior transfer from McKay, a large high school in Salem, was 14 of 22 for 311 yards and four touchdowns. That's 660 yards and eight touchdowns between them. In the first half. The halftime score was 35-34, Scappoose; the final was 63-47. Final stats for Anderson were 21 of 30 for 388 yards and five touchdowns; Miller finished with 29 of 48 for 500 yards and five TD's. Beaver fans, presumably, went away smiling. *********** His Excellency (I am not kidding you - that's what he likes to be called) Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee, had to return home to Spain, but while in Sydney, he stayed in a suite at the Regent Hotel that was said to go for $3,000 a night.
*********** Pity the kids and coaches at Elma, Washington. They opened their season a week ago defeating Washougal, 49-3. And then last Tuesday, after the Elma school board and the teachers' union (grrr!) arrived at a stalemate on the issue of coaches' pay, the board voted to terminate all school extra-curricular activities. The Elma coaching staff was not permitted to conduct practice and school grounds were declared off-limits to players without officially-sanctioned supervision. And Friday night, the Eagles were scheduled to face Tumwater, one of the state's top programs at any level.
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*********** Coach Eddie Cahoon, of Swan Quarter, North Carolina, always gets my nomination for Most Dedicated High School Football Coach in America. He has come to my North Carolina clinics, and I have been to visit him and stayed in his home, and I am in awe of what he has done for our sport. I have written about him before, but his story is worth repeating. He coaches at Mattamuskeet High School, which is about as far east as you can get in North Carolina without finding youself in the water or on the Outer Banks. Not too long ago, with football turnouts poor and records even poorer, the administration proposed giving up football at Mattamuskeet, but Coach Cahoon stepped in and fought the good fight. He got the district to let him drive its bus, picking the kids up for summer workouts and driving them home afterwards. And some of those kids live a distance! (He still drives the team bus to and from away games.) And then he got a new principal, one who supported football. When the principal gave him the okay to start a middle-school program, he also had to remind him of the bad news: there was no money for a coach. So Eddie coached both programs. (That's a story in itself.) When Coach Cahoon proposed starting a BFS program during school hours, the principal again gave his approval - under the condition that Eddie would have to teach it during his prep period. And that's what he did. There were years when he literally had no assistants. (Believe me, if there is no teaching job to offer, there is no way you're going to find another coach anywhere nearby.) Wins have come hard for the outmanned Mattamuskeet kids, but now, Coach Cahoon's hard work and selfless labor are starting to bear fruit. He wrote me recently, after his kids won their first game: "Things have really changed for Mattamuskeet football. We have 26 kids on the team, 3 assistant coaches, a Trainer with two student trainers, and 7 managers. Last night at the game while the offense was running plays in pre-game my middle linebacker was counting the rest of the team lined up behind us and when he said 'fifteen,' I turned around and told them that is how many we usually had on the team in the past and if they would stick with it, with only three seniors on the team, they would see a lot of playing time in the future." *********** Smile! You're on candid camera! Well, at least you could be. Remember what really cooked Bob Knight's goose? It wasn't grabbing that kid's arm and educating him on the right way to address someone; it wasn't throwing a chair across the court, or abusively berating a tournament official or countless boorish, tasteless, sexist, insubordinate acts. It was applying his thumbs to a young man's jugular. Actually,he might even have gotten away with that, escept... people could see what he did! Somebody had videotaped the practice session in which it at least appears (giving Coach Knight the benefit of the doubt) that he has both hands on a players' throat. From that point, he was doomed. The two political parties have begun to employ the services of volunteer camera people, who show up wherever an opponent appears, and tape his every move, in hopes of catching him in an awkward or compromising moment. I mention this, because the next time you might start to do something that in the context of coaching your sport might be considered perfectly normal but might be misinterpreted by an outsider - you might consider that someone could have a camera trained on you. It's not that hard to do. There are those vindictive sorts who will stalk you at practices and games - a friend of mine once met with a disgruntled parent who for weeks had kept a journal of everything he saw, and thought he saw - happening to his kid at every pracrtice and game. That was before video cameras came down in price and made his job much easier. Nowadays, anybody can get his hands on one. You ever seen the "zooms" on those things? Trust me, a guy can sit in the stands on the opposite side and get you up close and personal, almost as if you were on Monday Night Football. And if you didn't know this, it's time somebody told you - the first word any beginning lip reader can interpret starts with "F".
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*********** I had to admit I was a little taken aback a couple of weeks ago while watching an ESPN special, to observe coaches unself-consciously using the F-word in addressing players. They weren't even angry. They were just using the participle form of the word (with "-ing" on the end) as an all-purpose adverb or adjiective.Then, Coach Bruce Eien, of Brethren Christian High School in L.A., sent me a newspaper about the Los Angeles schools' adoption of a "no profanity" policy for its coaches. The policy will take effect next year, but it won't actually have any teeth in it until next year. What amazed me in reading the article was learning that at least in several schools in Southern California, it is just sort of accepted that "F-bombs" will be routinely slung around by coaches. Now, I must confess that I have used the word at times. When I worked in pro ball, it seemed as if every third word uttered by our head coach was a vulgarity, usually a synonym for Monica Lewinsky. George Halas (Yes, Papa Bear) was legendary for his mouth. But in all my years of high school coaching in the Northwest, I have rarely heard the F-word come out of a coach's mouth. And in all the places I have been, putting on clinics or camps, I have never heard the word used around kids. I can't say that I am swear-word free. I will use certain words for their effect. I don't use sexual vulgarities and I don't take the Lord's name in vain. But I have been known to say that a carelessly-executed play is Barbra Streisand ("B-S"); I believe an ass-kicking is an ass-kicking and that a great block puts a guy on his ass; I have seen "piss" in the Bible and occasionally, it makes my point rather clearly and emphatically when I let someone know that something "(urinates) me off"; I do agree with George W. Bush that the more common term for the sphincter anus is sometimes the most appropriate description for certain people, but not in front of kids. The article Bruce sent me told how the new L. A. policy is beginning to work. Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences, though - one coach evidently thought he had really cleaned up his act when, instead of swearing when a kid missed a tackle, as he once would have done, he now shouted at him, "You idiot!" *********** From Somewhere in the Heartland: "I am locked in a battle with the administration over using the digital camera. I was told the football team couldn't use it ever because it was too expensive. The school has owned it for 9 months and it has only been used about 4 times. The kicker is I found out that they let the band tape their halftime show with it. I may now be winning the argument. We will see."
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***********
TRIVIA QUESTION: When Duce Staley rushed for 201 yards
against the Cowboys on a week ago, he became only the
second Eagle ever to so do, and the first in a long, long
time. Who was the last Eagle to rush for over 200 yards?
HINT: He is a member of the
Pro Football Hall of Fame and in his time was
acknowledged to be the best runner in the game. He wore
#15, and played his college ball at LSU. The picture at
left is taken from the team photo of the 1948 "World
Champion" (that's what they called themselves) Eagles. He
was given several nicknames, including "The Golden Boy of
the Bayous," "Weavin' Steven," and "Wham Bam." ANSWER:
STEVE VAN BUREN Correctly identified by: Adam
Wesoloski- DePere, Wisconsin... Frank Simonsen- Cape May,
New Jersey... Tom Hensch- Staten Island, New York... Mike
Lane- Avon Grove, Pennsylvania... Mark Kaczmarek-
Davenport, Iowa... Mike Benton- Colfax, Illinois... Flash
Hughes- Erma, New Jersey... Kevin McCullough- Lakeville,
Indiana... L.P. Warner- Riverside, California... Bert
Ford- Huntington Beach, California... Dennis Metzger-
Connersville, Indiana... Ken Brierly- Carolina, Rhode
Island.... The team photo from
which this shot of Steve Van Buren was taken has hung on
the wall of my room since 1948, when I had the thrill of
a lifetime meeting Eagles' captain Al Wistert at a
cookout at my uncle's. (Pro football players were just
normal people then. A little bigger, but no better than
the rest of us.) I can't possibly describe Steve Van
Buren nearly as well as Philadelphia sports writer Ray
Didinger has done in his marvelous tribute in
***********
While still on the subject of a Double-Wing fraternity,
there's Coaches John Torres and Bill Shine. A successful
youth coach (Double-Wing I might add) from the San
Fernando Valley, Coach Torres worked out of the L.A.
office of the BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms) and was in on some major seizures of weapons
from some big-time bad guys. Whether or not that had
anything to do with it, Coach Torres was given a
significant promotion, but one which required him to move
north to the Bay Area. (I prefer to think that opposing
coaches conspired to get rid of him and his Double-Wing.)
He is without a team of his own this year, not so much
because he is a new guy in town as because he and his
wife chose to let their son, Zack, remain in Southern
California, to play his senior season with his buddies at
Valencia High. Zack came into Valencia as a promising
sophomore quarterback, but after being sidelined by an
injury, returned to find someone else in his job. That's
football. Those things happen. So he made the best of the
situation, converting to wide receiver, where he is now
considered one of the area's best. Friday night, Zack
Torres had four receptions for two touchdowns in
Valencia's 24-0 opening game win. Papa John, needless to
say, was there. But while in the Southland, he also
managed to get in a little coaching of his own, hooking
up with a bright, enthusiastic young coach whom I've come
to know, Bill Shine, in Van Nuys. (That's Coach Shine
in the photo, talking to his players.) It just seemed
to me that Coach Shine, in his first year of coaching,
could benefit from meeting a vet like Coach Torres, and
at the same time, Coach Torres could keep his hand in the
game, and I "introduced" them via e-mail. Coach Torres
said he enjoyed being at the practice, helping out as
much as he could - mostly, he said, selling Coach Shine's
assistants on the Double-Wing - and I have since heard
from both coaches about what a positive thing it was for
both of them. (Coach Torres was kind enough to send me
the photo.)
*********** Once again, for those of you who deal with parents who don't want kids playing football, or want them concentrating on one sport at any early age, a reminder that a certain Michael Jordan has two sons playing youth football in the Chicago area. And a youth coaching friend of mine (I gave my word that out of respect for the Jordans' privacy I would not identify the coach or the team) reports that "Mr. Jordan's sons acquitted themselves very well as Jeffrey scored 3 TD's and Marcus had 1 leading their 5th/6th grade team to a 35 -12 victory. (It is significant to note once again that "Mr. Jordan" - that's how the coach addresses all his kids' parents - has told my friend that he doesn't believe kids should specialize in one sport until they are in college.) *********** It's not exactly Michael Jordan's son, but... My son-in-law, Rob Love, is caught up in coaching little kids' soccer back in Durham, North Carolina. He writes, "A couple of weeks back I got the rosters for the 9-10 soccer team I'm coaching this fall. My neighbor Johnny had picked them up for me, and had apparently taken the liberty of reviewing the roster. I'm sure he did that only because he wanted to confirm that his son Jack was on the roster and that we could share the transportation duties to/from practices and games. Anyway, Johnny hands me the roster and tells me to take a look at my player from Chapel Hill. Now, we're a Durham league with mostly Durham players, but we have a few people escaping the competitive Chapel Hill soccer league for the recreational league in which we play. Dutifully following Johnny's request, I read that Trey Torbush will be on our team. Hmm I think to myself, where have I heard that name before? Yes, Trey's Dad is Carl Torbush, the UNC head football coach. Unfortunately, just before practices started last week I heard from Mrs. Torbush that Trey would be playing in a different sport this fall, so it was not meant to be. That's our brush with "fame" for the fall. I hope everything's going well with y'all. Rob" *********** Congratulations to Coach Andy Cooper, his staff and kids at Clarksville, Tennessee Northeast High. Friday night, they snapped a 29-game losing streak, defeating crosstown rival Clarksville Northwest, 42-7. Coach Cooper and his staff were at my Birmingham clinic. Read what he has to say in this week's Winner's Circle.) *********** I was so impressed by the way Coach Greg Stout of Thompson's Station, Tennessee framed the Bobby Knight issue that I had to share it with you: "I agree with some of what you said regarding the situation. The "Little Prince Syndrome," as you call it so accurately is prevalent today and I don't like it either. Even at 45 years old, I would not call someone that I do not have a close personal relationship by their last name. I was raised differently. Heck, I even open the door for women still. (to mixed reviews) "Whether we like it or not, times have changed (not necessarily all for the better.) But, I believe that even in this instance, it was not Coach Knight's responsibility to try to correct the actions of this student in the manner that it was reported. How about a simple but stern, 'That's Coach Knight to you?' "In my opinion, the "Zero Tolerance," penalty given to him came too late. As in the case of parents who do not correctly discipline their children when appropriate, no one had "The Stones," to address his long history of inappropriate behaviors. I do agree that, knowing his past, it was a matter of time before this was going to happen anyway. "Coach Knight walked the line between being a strong disciplinarian and being a bully. Being a disciplinarian is acceptable; being a bully in unacceptable. Coach Knight, in my opinion felt he was bigger than the game and the University. As coaches, we would not tolerate this seemingly blatant disrespect of others by players on our team. Whether he liked it or not, he was a role model not only to his players, but to coaches in all sports. As a disciplinarian/coach, I respected him. As a bully I did not." Greg Stout, Thompson's Station, Tennessee *********** Speaking of bullies. Oregon played a heck of a game against Wisconsin Saturday, but lost, 27-23. The Ducks' Joey Harrington put on a heck of a passing show, but Oregon receivers dropped 11 passes. So the Sunday Portland Oregonian's front sports page featured a very large (three columns by nine inches) photo of Oregon receiver Marshaun Tucker dropping a pass. The caption under the photo said, "Oregon's Marshaun Tucker, who had six receptions for 196 yards, also had five drops, including this one on the final drive." Now, that one got me mad! Those cowards were putting it all on a college kid, - blaming the loss on him. So I dashed off a letter to what they call their "Public Editor," and he passed it along to his sports editor. Here's what I wrote: When a 17-year-old is charged with the most heinous of crimes, you protect him, hiding him from us by not revealing his name. But let a 20-year-old drop an important pass in a football game, and a large, four-color photo with an incriminating caption appears on the front page of your "sports" section for all the world to know just who cost the Oregon Ducks their chance to beat Wisconsin. There had to be plenty of good things that occured in Madison yesterday. You had no right to humiliate that young man just to reinforce some "story line." This is scum that masquerades as "journalism." This is what I got back from the Sports Editor: Sir: Oregon dropping 11 passes was the story of the game, plain and simple, and it is our job to report that story, in words and in photos. To do otherwise would be to do a disservice to our readers, who expect honest, accurate reporting, not sugarcoating and cheerleading. And I think I would reserve words such as "scum" for people who have committed crimes, but that's just my preference. Now, if you didn't hear about the game, Wisconsin was down, 23-20, with under six minutes to play. They were on their own 16 yard line. Their passing game had produced exactly 65 yards. Their running game, on the other hand, was something to remember: Michael Bennett, Big-Ten sprint champion, had already rushed for 207 yards, including touchdown runs of 59 and 75 yards. So - think they might be giving the ball to Bennett? Well whaddaya know - that's exactly what they did, and 83 yards later he was dragged down at the Oregon one. Final score: Wisconsin 27, Oregon 23. So this is what I wrote to Mr. Peck: Sir: While you are, of course, entitled to your definition of the story of the Oregon loss as 11 dropped passes, I submit that a certain Michael Bennett (290 yards rushing, sir), or the ramifications of the shoe incident which caused your Mr. Culpeper to drive 25 miles from Madison to check out a shoe store, might also qualify. Even choosing to take the negative slant and overlook Mr. Bennett's outstanding performance, it is hard to overlook a defense that had only to hold Wisconsin in the last five minutes and all deficiencies in the receiving department would have been immaterial. You must admit that it is possible that "the" story might be a guy whom the Ducks had already allowed to rush for over 200 yards breaking free for 83 yards when Wisconsin, whose passing game was anemic, was backed up. But your choice of a "story line," if it is necessary to be trendy and declare one, was defensible. Your means of illustrating it was not. It was plain mean. It was cowardly. It was scummy journalism. I do not recall your similarly holding any Trail Blazer up to such public opprobrium. Could it be that that's because the Blazers can retaliate, while this poor college kid can't? (Does that sound like a bully?) *********** From a coach in the Midwest who is in his first year at a new job: "I thought I should tell you what has been happening at my former HS. All of my former assistants work for the new head coach there. He has made a lot of changes, which is to be expected. He is throwing the ball about 25 times a game. So far they have had 7 passes intercepted and 5 run back for TD's. My former assts went to the new coach and basically begged him to scrap the new offense and run the double wing. The new coach was skeptical, but after three humiliating defeats, he was willing to try. So to make a long story short they are running the double wing again! The kids are happy because they still know the offense from last year and the whole attitude of the team has changed. My former assts know the system as well as I do and they are trying to make the transition smooth. Unfortunately the schedule is tough from here on out. Just thought you'd like to hear that one!" *********** Another coach - a youth coach who's moved on, told me this horror story about his successor at his old place: "this guy showed up at the coaches meeting after having slammed a few cold ones down." Lemme tell you something, guys. There is nobody on this planet who enjoys a beer any more than I do. There are few people who drank as much beer as I did during the time I worked for a Baltimore brewer and didn't wind up an alcoholic. But I have never, at any level of football going back to 1970, had an alcoholic drink at any time during the day of a practice or a game. You are just kidding yourself if you think you can hide the fact that you've had a drink from a kid or a parent. |
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*********** On ESPN Radio Tuesday morning, Penn State's sophomore tailback Larry Johnson was awarded the Just-Shut-Up-and-Run Award. Actually, after offering his expert opinion as to where the second-winningest coach in all of major-college football had gone wrong over the years, "Coach" Johnson ought to be headed directly for the TV broadcast booth and an analyst's job." "We have the most talented backfield, I would say, in the nation," said Johnson following the Toldeo game (after rushing for seven yards). "When you don't have the line to go with it, we're not going to get anywhere." Could there be something deeper here that we don't know about? Something fundamentally wrong with one of football's winningest programs? Actually, I seem to have noticed an awful lot of passes being dropped by open receivers, but why don't we just ask this offensive genius himself what's wrong here? Hey - provided he can overcome what appears to be a slight loyalty problem, he might be just the man to take over the Nittany Lions' program and get things turned around. "It's the system, entirely the system," Johnson continued in his expert analysis. "We've got coaches who've been here for 30, 20 years. It seems like things never change. We run the same offense, and teams that played us know what we're gonna run. They can pull out tapes from back in '92, '93. We run the same offense. It's the same plays, same system. Guys (on opposing defenses) kind of guess on that, and they end up guessing right." Now, there are those of us who thought that continuity - retaining coaches like Fran Ganter and Jerry Sandusky for 30 years or so - was one of the Lions' strong points, but evidently "Coach" Johnson's two years of college football qualify him to say otherwise. Funny - none of this "same plays, same system" stuff should be news to the Talkative Tailback. He is a hometown kid, from right there in State College, Pennsylvania. Played his high school ball there. He knew that Penn State assistants tend to like it there and stick around a while. He went to Penn State games, and he knew what Penn State did offensively. He also knew they weren't going to change their offense just to suit him. Penn State doesn't make that phony promise to any kid. If he was good enough to play at Penn State, he surely heard from other schools anxious to show him how much more modern and up-to-date their offenses were. What really scares me here is not that there is dissension in a great program. Nobody's happy when you just got your butt kicked. What scares me is the soft, tolerant response of Coach Paterno, who in trying to be compassionate and understanding of today's youngsters, blah, blah, blah, finds himself instead making excuses for the unexcusable. That is not the job of a leader. That is the job of a cover-your-ass administrator. The job of a coach is not to coddle malcontents, and I can't help thinking that a younger, feistier Joe Paterno would have handled this outrage differently. Oh - Remember when I was talking about youth coaches and problems with "interested parents"? It sure sounds as if Coach Paterno has a doozy on his hands. I said that the kid was from State College, right? How's this for parental involvement - his dad, Larry Johnson, Sr., happens to be on Paterno's staff. He's an assistant coach, for crying out loud! Wouldn't you like to have been a fly on the wall at the first staff meeting after the kid popped off? You sure have to hope the kid didn't pick any of that stuff up at the dinner table. *********** When the Seattle city council decided to try to rid the downtown area of problem alcoholics (formerly called winos), it decided to start with a ban on the sale of "cheap drunks" - those "bigger bang for the buck" products that tend to be favored by the street drunks. With some help from certain activist groups, they came up with the following list of beverages on the drunks' preferred list: Thunderbird, Wild Irish Rose (Hey - I once sold that!), Night Train Express, Busch Ice, Colt 45 (sold that, too!), Keystone Ice, Old Milwaukee Ice, Olde English and Schmidt's Ice. *********** Jessica Rydman, a 31-year-old Portland woman who worked as a nude dancer and ran an, uh, "escort service," was one of three suspects in the murder of a Portland banker. Her picture was in the newspapers and all over TV for the better part of a week. She was the subject of an intense uh. personhunt. Finally, last Saturday, she decided to turn herself in, and walked into the Washington County sheriif's department, telling the person at the desk that she was wanted in adjacent Multnomah County. She neglected to say why she was wanted, but she handed over a gun which she said was evidence. The Washington County jail was over its limit of female inmates, though, so without so much as running a check on her or the gun, the sergeant on duty said she needed to go Multnomah County if she wanted to turn herself in. And gave her back the gun. *********** No sooner had The Man From Hope returned from Nigeria than he headed off to Colombia. You name it, he's been there. But you know what? He's never been to Nebraska. I suggest inviting him to Lincoln, and giving him a good look at the unmatched excitement of a Cornhusker home game. A real good look. At nose guard. *********** It is a pity in one sense that Tiger Woods is so great, because I can see a lot of stage fathers getting cranked up right now, trying to emulate in one sport or another the job that Earl Woods, Tiger's dad, has done. They need to be reminded of the anti-Woodses - Todd Marinovich and his dad, Marv. Todd had the genes - Dad had played at USC and coached in the pros, and Mom was the sister of former USC quarterback and Oregon State coach Craig Fertig. Dad took it from there, grooming the kid from the womb to be a star quarterback, carefully controlling his diet and exercise, and micromanaging the kid's life to the extent that by the time he got to college, he had never so much as eaten a hamburger. Briefly, Todd showed great early promise as a QB at USC but, once free of the rigid controls under which he had been brought up, his life has become one example after another of what psychologists would probably label as case of rebellion. Let it be a warning to potential Earl Woodses that for every Tiger Woods there are countless Todd Marinoviches. On the sidelines at last week's Arizona State-San Diego State game, sideline reporter Michelle Tafoya told us a little story about ASU quarterback Jeff Krohn. His dad, Jim, was a starting QB at Arizona, and played against Dan Marino and Pitt in the 1980 Fiesta Bowl. When Ms. Tafoya asked young Mr. Krohn if his dad ever gave him any advice about playing quarterback , he said yes, but that whenever it got to be too much, he just said, "Thank you, Mr. Marinovich."
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QUESTION:
Who is the Ram
pictured on the left? He played quarterback, and was
married to a Hollywood film star known as probably the
sexiest actress in the business.
He still holds the
UCLA and Rams records for longest punt--91 and 88 yards,
respectively--and he once kicked five field goals for the
Rams against the Detroit Lions, a club
record.