Week in Review

OK, some big things happened this week in sports. One thing that is huge is in college football with Notre Dame and Michigan. Both starting 0-2 for the first time ever in their wonderful history. Notre Dame's offense is a big 0fer for the first 2 games without putting a single point on the board. They started with 3 quarterbacks and that was a big mistake and then appointed Jimmy Clausen as the single starter which was a good idea by Weis. I think if Notre Dame can take a single bad year Clausen will pull it together and be a wonderful quarterback not just in college but also in the NFL or CFL (or NFL Europe).

Michigan is a different story...Lloyd Carr is in a pressure wash and the only way to get out of it is to resign. Michigan won't fire Lloyd in the middle of the season because they would look bad, but everybody is pressuring Lloyd to resign as the head coach to make everybody's life much easier. The team started at #5 in the preseason polls when they were going to play Appalachian State (division II team). Everything was going to be easy for big Michigan against the Mountaineers but that did not happen. Michigan only lost the game by 2 points in the end but the score didn't show how bad the Wolverines played. The wolverines were outplayed and out-coached in the end and got destroyed. It was in my mind the biggest upset in the era of college football. There was outrage in Michigan and so after days of players and coaches addressing the pissed off fans they went up against the Oregon Ducks which just got off of a game in Oregon against Houston (W 48-27) and Oregon brought the offense that Michigan could not and still cannot defend: the spread offense. Oregon went into the "Big House" and destroyed the Wolverines just like the Mountaineers did a week ago. The Ducks piled 624 total yards against the vaunted Wolverines defense, 331 on the ground. The final score was 39-7 and the Michigan senior quarterback was injured during the game (Henne). Now, against Notre Dame Michigan will have a true freshman against the Notre Dame defense. The first time Notre Dame and Michigan have been both 0-2 starting a season in college football ever.

LSU has been dominating by shutting out Mississippi State 45-0 and destroying #9 Virginia Tech in Louisiana. I think LSU should be considered #1 in the polls just because how they have dominated the other teams they have played. I know #1 USC has only played one game because in week 2 they had a bye but still, USC had issues with Nevada at home.

In the NFL, we have a story that expanded very fast is the Patriots spying case which was resolved last night by the commissioner Roger Goodell. During the Patriots-Jets game in New York on Sunday during the game an individual was video taping the Jets coaches and sideline looking for signs and hand signals (stealing signals), the Jets head coach, which coached under the Patriots head coach Bill Belichick for a few years tipped off to the NFL that the Patriots were video taping the Jets sideline. The NFL took a video camera and tape with them and sent it to New York (it didn't have to go far) and looked at it. The NFL commissioner yesterday came down hard in the coach and organization for what they did. The New England head coach was fined the maximum the NFL can fine players/coaches $500,000, and the Patriots team has to pay $250,000. Also, the Patriots will lose a draft pick: if they make the playoffs this season they will lose a first round draft pick and if they don't make the playoffs their 2nd and 3rd round picks. I think that was a big penalty not just the money the team/coach has to pay at a total of 3/4 of a millions dollars in fines and to lose their picks for this next season is huge for "cheating" in the rule books for the NFL. Belichick said he misunderstood the rule, but I think that wasn't fully true, the guy is a genius and couldn't read a simple rule?

More names in the human growth hormone (HGH) era are coming out in the news from various sources. The first large one was Jason Giambi and now the feel good story of Rick Ankiel of the Saint Louis Cardinals is now tainted like everything else in MLB. Ankiel got HGH shipped to him from a Miami doctor who also is being indicted by the government. What's interesting about this story is that HGH was not banned in MLB until 2005 and Ankiel received and supposedly used the supplement in 2003-2004 during his rehab from surgery he had. Ankiel today told the St. Louis Dispatch that he talked to baseball officials to talk about HGH. Baseball's one feel good story this season that was going to take them away from steroids and hgh was destroyed by another big name that used the "juice" during the era of all eras.

Greg Oden (#1 pick by Portland Trail Blazers this season) went in and had micro-fracture surgery on his right knee and will likely be out this next season at least. LeBron James had surgery on his eye to improve his sight...LeBron James now having better sight is something that players on different teams are scared about. Boston Red Sox still have best record in MLB which is good and it looks like the Yankees will make it in as the Wild Card Spot but they have to play the LAA Angels which they have been outplayed and killed by playing the Angels in the past playoff series.

There was more that went on in the past week of sports, but from now on I will post at least once a day about big stories and my take on them.
Enjoy,
Ryan