Jazz

// October 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // Minnesota, Uncategorized

The Lowest Of Lows: Injured While Celebrating

// September 14th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Minnesota, Uncategorized

The NCAA has always had a stranglehold on fun.

I’ll save the “Amateurism is a joke” post for another day; what I’m talking about is the celebration factor. NCAA — No Celebrating At Anytime.

In my time at UConn, unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to do many touchdown dances. After the one touchdown I did have (ah, I recall it fondly), I was too surprised by my

own good luck to even consider anything flashy. Who really wants to see a fat white guy dance anyway? But, I digress.

Until this weekend, I thought it was foolish. If someone earns a touchdown,

let ‘em dance, spike, and sache themselves into the SportsCenter Top 10, or at least YouTube lore.

But then, after watching the UConn-UNC game this weekend, I thought to myself, “Hmmm, maybe the NCAA is right,” after a UNC player went down in his post-touchdown jubilation. It wasn’t until I got online and read this, that I was inspired to write this post:

“UNC’s Zack Pianalto dislocated his fibula after catching the tying touchdown. He caught his cleats wrong on the turf as he celebrated.”

Celebrations do seem to be incredibly detrimental to a football playe’rs health,

so I decided to do a little research on football players that have been injured celebrating.

Bill Gramatica

Probably the go-to example of how not to celebrate your accomplishments, the kicker tore his ACL after a meaningless field goal. Kicking a field goal: good. Six months of rehab: bad.

Ted Ginn Jr.

In the 2007 BCS title game, Ginn returns the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown. He would miss the rest of the game after he injured himself celebrating in the end zone with his teammates.

Ohio State went on to lose the game, and Jim Tressel sobbed himself to sleep clutching his sweater vest.

READ THE REST HERE

Blount Versus Hout: Add Your Own Soundtrack

// September 5th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Minnesota, Uncategorized

In addition to writing for sites like NESN and DEADSPIN, I’ve also chosen a slightly more glamorous career path: bouncing.  On my shift Thursday night I got lucky; from my post I had a clear view of the Oregon v. Boise State game.  The only problem was that, with the DJ spinning the hits, there was no soundtrack to the game.  Boise States dominance, I had to fill in what the talking heads at ESPN were probably saying.  Which wasn’t difficult, as you might imagine—  Tim Tebow, a few Phil Knight references, and then something about “smash mouth football”

And then, at the end of the game, I got to watch Oregon’s LeGarrette Blout sucker punch Boise State’s Byron Hout.  Connecting on some sweet, sweet chin music.  This was probably the highlight of my night, instead of watching guidos swing on each other at closing time, I got some HBO quality entertainment, during NCAA Primetime.

And I got to add my own soundtrack—the only thing that came to mind was that scene from Major League, where Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn squares off with Willie “Mayes” Hayes—with Bob Uecker giving the call…

“Hayes swings and misses. I don’t know Monte, it looks like Vaughn is carrying his left a little low. This could hurt him in the later rounds. ”

Enter the Meat Grinder

// July 28th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Minnesota, scheduling, wob

Minnesota is jacking up the level of competition in the years to come. According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg they are looking to add Texas to a post-2009 slate that includes USC, Colorado and Oregon State after an already challenging 2009 schedule. Coach Tim Brewster ain’t scurred:

The schedule is extremely challenging, but that’s to my liking. I love the fact that we’re playing Air Force, we’re playing Cal, we’re playing Syracuse. We’re playing some really good football teams. Somebody said that we had the fifth most challenging schedule in America, and I like that. I think it’s a good thing.

Missing Indiana and Michigan during the conference schedule in 2009 helps the strength of schedule but eliminates two very winnable games. And going big seems to be helping recruiting:

But from a recruit’s perspective, I think that’s what they want. When I talk to recruits on the phone, they say, Hey, coach, who are you playing in the nonconference schedule? They want to know. When I say, We’re playing USC, you can sense an excitement in a young man’s voice. Kids want to play in marquee nationally televised games.

To be honest with you, I want the University of Minnesota to be on that stage. I want to play nationally televised games where tremendous exposure is put on our program. And when you play USC, that happens.

We’re going to play some other teams also that are going to give us exposure. I don’t think there’s a downside. I really don’t. We’re an ascending program the way I look at our program. We’re going to keep getting better. We’ll be up to the challenge of playing the type of schedules that we’re going to play at Minnesota through the next couple of years.

The added hypothetical exposure will be beneficial, but only with wins and bowl games. The big name teams seem to be offset by the standard BCS cupcake menu. Other schools currently on the docket from 2010-2015 are South Dakota, North Dakota State, Syracuse {Also the opening game of the ‘09 season.}, San Jose State, UNLV, Western Illinois, Miami of Ohio, South Dakota State and Ohio {www.gophersports.com}. Naturally this is incredibly premature and open to an abundance of change. They could conceivably play none of these teams if a school with a bigger checkbook comes calling. A lot of scheduling comes down to the strength of a school and the luck of hitting big name teams on a down swing and avoiding mid-majors on an uptick.

The final result will be interesting to see, but it will be difficult to ignore Minnesota scheduling big name teams from out of the conference. Although it will be a meat grinder, we’ll borrow words of wisdom from Wedding Crashers: Rule #76. No excuses. Play like a champion.

Linkage: Memorial to the Brickhouse

// July 27th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Minnesota, retro, wob

Walk On Boy back trying to get back in the blogging groove with some gratuitous Gopher retrophilia {HT: Brian Cook of The Sporting Blog and Smart Football.} celebrating the return to campus. Can we return to media guide photos like this please? I tried while I was in school, but the uptight photographers wouldn’t allow it. The fact that I wasn’t very good probably had something to do with it. Whatever.

Explore, enjoy and either be excited for the Gopher’s returning to campus and the great outdoors or thankful that your team is already outside. {Unless you’re a fan of Syracuse, Idaho or another team that plays in a dome.} However, I can already foresee people pining for the Metrodome during the first bad weather game at the Stadium-That Must-Not-Be-Named {And of course they didn’t allow liquor sales.}. Any suggestions for a nickname on par with The Brickhouse?