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The Pittsburgh Steelers have the Terrible Towel; let’s create unique rally items for the other NFL franchises.

SUPER BOWL LIMBO

Not much for loyal NFL fanatics to do during the two-week lull between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. It’s kind of like a drawn-out version of the moment just before you realize someone will see you naked for the first time:

The Big Moment is almost there, and you hope it won’t be a let-down like so many before. You’re hoping she doesn’t notice the mole on your ass (and doesn’t have one herself) or mind that girlish scream you render when you accidentally roll over on her kitty. If she does, you pray she has a sense of humor–and the class not to point when she laughs.

When I am searching for a column idea, I look for an event or people or conflict I can get angry about. Anger is one of my favorite motivators as a writer, and I most recently found a muse via a photo taken at this year’s AFC Championship game.
Continue Reading Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel – NFL Football

The Connecticut Huskies are dominating NCAA women’s basketball in a manner accomplished by only a handful of others in sports history.

59 and Counting…

Parity is generally a good thing in sports. The more teams or athletes that are competitive, the more fans that stay interested throughout the season and the greater the overall health of the sport (NB: for simplicity and clarity’s sake, for the rest of this article, I will use the word “team” to refer to both teams and individual athletes). No one wants to see the same couple of teams win year-in, year-out; for the most part, the casual fan drops out when his or her guys do, leaving only the diehards.

Perhaps the only exception to this rule is when one team is so completely dominant as to be playing in a league of their own. Such dominance attracts additional attention, either to see just how great those teams can be or to see them finally fall. Quite simply, whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to respect (and admire) ‘em.

Tiger Woods was that way before the ignominious revelations of last year. So was Michael Phelps. The UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team during the ’70s. Even, I’ll admit it, my most hated of teams, the New York Yankees, back in their glory years of the late 1920s to the early 1960s (not their current victorious squad, which would make Joe D., The Iron Horse and The Babe role over in their graves).

Riding a 59-game winning streak, the Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball team is currently in just such a category. Not a single one of those games has even been close; the Huskies have crushed their opponents by double digits every time they have taken the floor during the streak.
Continue Reading Connecticut Huskies Consecutive Win Streak – NCAA Women’s Basketball

AFC Championship & NFL Championship predictions and game analysis.

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP PICK AND ANALYSIS

JETS STILL A MIRAGE?

Being a Pittsburgh fan, I’ve seen Rex Ryan work his defensive magic twice a year for much of the last decade. His schemes utilize coverages, formations, and attack plans from the “46″ defense devised by his dad, Buddy Ryan.

The West Coast offense was, in large part, created to exploit the 46’s reliance on unbalanced alignment to the weak side (opposite the tight end), forcing the other side of the offense’s formation to block man. The alignment itself confused offenses in that it blew up the pulling guard’s assignments and the pass blocking angles of the other linemen.

The theory was to have at least one more guy rushing/attacking the line than the offense could block. The 46 scheme was based on unrelenting pressure–creating havoc on every play.

The 46’s weakness, in its first incarnation under Ryan, was its reliance on the defense’s front seven–often eight or nine–to be within just three or four yards of the line of scrimmage, making it vulnerable to a quick slant or a tight end hitch route on the strong side. In effect, the 46 freed the tight end as a receiver, and, once teams readjusted their blocking schemes, a strong-side trap play could create a huge hole and a long run.

That’s why after 1985, the elder Ryan’s defense didn’t endure–it is too risky and, if you don’t have the right personnel, it can be a disaster. It is also part of the reason why the tight ends after 1985 became prized for their pass-catching ability as much as their blocking skills.
Continue Reading AFC Championship & NFC Championship Picks – NFL

Mark McGwire’s admission to using steroids is at best delusional and at worst sleazy “image” spin-control to garner sympathy for Cooperstown consideration.

HITTING THE HALLMARK

Mark McGwire’s former team, the St. Louis Cardinals, has recently hired him as their hitting coach. It’s part of that organization and their famous slugger’s plan to help “Big Mac” slink back into baseball’s good graces–culminating with his Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, New York.

Some of America’s best sports writers weighed in on “Big Mac” after his tearful interview with Bob Costas during which the former slugger confessed to using steroids.

Here is a sampling:

MIKE LUPICA – New York Daily News

You walked away feeling sorry for McGwire…because how could you not? You walked away hoping he does make the most of this second chance, in a country of second chances. But if he only took drugs to heal a wounded body, why has he been this tortured for this long?

Continue Reading Mark McGwire’s Steroid Admission – MLB Baseball

Ron Bodine looks at the history of Mixed Martial Arts in the US and what that means for the future in first MMA article on Deep Into Sports.

Mixed Martial Arts: A Changing Landscape?

On November 12, 1993, Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) introduced America to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in an eight-man tournament called the Ultimate Fighting Champhionship (UFC). The result was an astounding night of fights in which 175-pound Brazilian Jujitsu blackbelt Royce Gracie defeated three men in one night to become the first ever UFC champion. Gracie’s performance forced the broader martial arts community to recognize the potency of submission wrestling and the importance of cross-training. It was a groundbreaking milestone that changed martial arts in America forever.

However, the UFC hit a number of rough patches on its way up. The intense and violent nature of UFC competition drew a great deal of criticism from U.S. officials such as Senator John McCain who described the sport as “human cock fighting.” Legal pressures forced the UFC to constantly evolve. Over the years, the UFC introduced more rules to protect fighters, weight classes, rounds, gloves, and other changes, all to please various state athletic commissions. Legal fees and the struggle to “find iteself” left the UFC on the brink of bankruptcy several times. SEG was forced to sell the UFC to Zuffa, LLC (lead by current UFC Commissioner Dana White) in 2001.
Continue Reading UFC vs Strikeforce – Mixed Martial Arts