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Play Ball Finally, it's here. The 2012 college football season gets underway this week, and it's about time. This has been one of the wildest "off-seasons" in college athletics....just think about it. Since Kentucky started cutting down the nets in N'awlins, we've had Bobby Petrino's bizarre undoing at Arkansas; the Jerry Sandusky verdict; the NCAA penalty of Penn State; conference expansion; a Honey Badger in rehab; and North Carolina's academic fraud spreading into epic proportions.....and that's just a few of the highlights from the past few months. Thank goodness we can watch games and have fun talking about the plays, coaches and teams. It all starts on Thursday, when the Top 10 South Carolina Gamecocks travel to Nashville to play James Franklin's Vandy Commodores. In fact, when I take a look at the first full week of college football, there are five games that grab my attention:
I love the fact that there are some fascinating non-conference match-ups in week one....plus, you know there is bound to be an upset or two that involves games not listed above. One other game that catches my attention is Ohio playing at Penn State. The interest surrounding the Nittany Lions is one thing, the other aspect is that the Bobcats can play and beating Penn State is not as crazy as it sounds. I know I speak for almost every college football fan.....it's just great to have the sport we love taking place every week for the next couple of months. I'm always amazed at how quickly the season goes by, so be sure to absorb every second of it. If you want to know when and where to find me on the air this football season, it's right here for your enjoyment: *** Monday thru Friday, from 9am-Noon, ET on SiriusXM Channel 91..."College Sports Today" I'm constantly doing interviews around the country, too....but you can't miss me on any of the radio and television stations listed above. The LA Dodgers are doing everything known to man to be relevant again. After being swept by my beloved San Francisco Giants in LA last week, the Dodgers decided to take every piece of baggage in Boston and ship it west. The Red Sox amazingly cleared 262 million dollars of salary while picking up some Dodger prospects.....in the meantime, the folks in LA celebrated the arrival of Nick Punto, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. Magic Johnson was heard on ESPN talking about the Dodgers being important in the LA sports scene again. Look at the good news, Magic, the Dodgers are now more important than your NFL team. Given the amount of salaries the club just inherited, I think the chances of the Dodgers going bankrupt again just increased ten-fold. Has a MLB team declared bankruptcy twice in a decade before? The only good news about this trade is that it forced ESPN to pretend there are teams west of Boston and New York. I'm sure the researchers in Bristol were freaking out, having to find out if baseball is even played on the left coast. I hope the Dodgers have enough money to build one of those "Manny-wood" signs for Gonzalez. Those Boston rejects have become a staple in Chavez Ravine. But I can't blame the Dodgers....they're tired of being the other team that plays my Giants. I had a Dodger fan emailing me over the weekend about how great their franchise is.....and I finally had to agree with him. The Dodgers were great in the 80s.....just like Notre Dame football and Members Only jackets.....and just like Magic Johnson. I can't help it that the Dodgers have won a grand total of 9 playoff games since their last championship season way back in 1988. The franchise has won only two playoff series in that span, and one of the teams they beat were the Cubs....does that even count? But the move adds some interest since to the Giants-Dodgers showdown....and it would be nice if somebody could remind the guys in Bristol that they do play baseball on the west coast. Roger Clemens is 50 years old and he pitches for the Sugar Land Skeeters. How sad. The last week when I was in Dallas, they were spraying for the West Nile virus. It was creating a big discussion in Big D at the time. I wonder if there is enough "spray" to head over to "Sugar Land" and see if they can take out another annoying "Skeeter"? The Roger Clemens saga is depressing.....listen, he's got every right to go play and make a living. I can't dispute that fact, but his ego must be bigger than Texas. What is scary....I actually think he could help the Astros.....and apparently, Clemens thinks that way, too. Lance Armstrong quit. I never thought I'd type, write or make that statement in my lifetime.....but it's true. The USADA apparently had the goods on the cycling legend, and the rest is history. Armstrong has been banned for life from a sport he loves and owns....and his 7 Tour de France titles have been stripped. Armstrong spun his side to the media, but given his accomplishments and his story, there's no way you wave the white flag....and that's true no matter how long you have lived in France. There are so many angles to discuss that it's crazy....but it's one thing for the European agencies to go after a man that had captured and dominated the sport of cycling....it's another thing for the US of A to take the lead in finishing off Armstrong. And evidently the evidence must have been overwhelming for Lance to back off and accept his fate. I'm sure in Europe they are cheering.....but many people in America are wondering if Armstrong's guilty acceptance means he's been living a fraudulent existence? Let's face it, he has single-handedly raised nearly a half a billion dollars for cancer research with his fame and success in cycling. That has to count for something.....but did he gain it on false pretenses? It makes for a great debate.....but if Armstrong was truly innocent....there's no way he would have given in to the latest witch-hunt. For more than a decade, he's been leading the pack and dodging every roadblock. But not this time. The changes that Bruton Smith made to the track at Bristol Motor Speedway were outstanding. For the first time in a long time, the racing at Thunder Valley looked like it was supposed to.....there were wrecks, hot tempers and flying helmets. Amazingly, Danica Patrick nearly survived the entire race.....but in the end, she does what she does best....she wrecked. Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth got into it....and it caused Stewart to throw his helmet at Kenseth's windshield. After the race, "Smoke" declared that he will wreck him every chance he gets for the remainder of the season. Stay classy, champ. You gotta love it when these guys (and Danica) start to lose their temper....that's when you know that the changes made by owner Bruton Smith were the right ones. It's good to have Thunder Valley back. |
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