What in the Sam Hill is going on in America?! First NASCAR lets a girl drive. THEN With Leather lets a girl write. And now the NCAA is letting a girl GASP! officiate a bowl game.
Sarah Thomas made history yesterday at the Pizza Bowl as the first female to officiate a NCAA bowl game.
“It was an honor,” Thomas said while running off the field with her colleagues after Marshall’s 21-17 victory at Ford Field.
Thomas’ position as line judge meant that she spent most of the game in front of the Thundering Herd’s bench, but the Marshall players didn’t pay much attention.
“I noticed her before the game, but that was it,” said Marshall running back Martin Ward, the game’s MVP. “Once the game started, she was just doing the job that the line judge does in every game we play. It didn’t matter that she was a woman at all.”–Foxsports.com
It was nice of Ward to point out that “she was just doing the job that the line judge does”, as if she was going to go out there to paint her nails and give herself a bikini wax. Just you wait. With all of this progressive thinking women might some day get to vote and wear pants!
In a time when the recession is being felt by most everyone in their pants…pocket (sorry if you’re feeling something else in your pants. I was looking for my keys, I swear. Awwkkkkwaaarrrdddd!); and the saying “another day another dollar” takes on a whole new value, it’s stories like these that really remind you that some people are good. Of course it’s not anyone you know, or I know, but still.
In NCAA, players are given a per diem for hittin’ the road all by their lonesome. Whatever they don’t spend they get to pocket. However, there’s one team this holiday season that has opted to exchange cash for brotherhood: Bama’s Crimson Tide.
Naturally, Alabama partisans are proudly applauding their boys’ selflessness, leadership and sacrifice for the greater good of the Tide cause — in contrast to the heathen ‘Horns from Texas, who will break, accept the stipend and come together again in California as usual, the callous individualists. And if the NCAA accepts ‘Bama’s appeal to restore the travel money, anyway, it’s a smashing victory for team unity all the way around. (Even if it probably amounts to zip on the field.)–Yahoo.com via Dr. Saturday
Now that’s the Chrismakkah spirit, boys! I just wonder if SoCal folks are beaming with the same sense of pride as they watch Joe McKnight roll by in his fancy schmancy Range Rover. ALLEGEDLY. (Hey Joe, can you hook me up with a baby tee when those 4joemcknight.com royalties start rollin’ in? kthx!)
Earlier this week it was reported that South Florida Coach Jim Leavitt allegedly grabbed sophomore defensive back Joel Miller by the throat and smacked him in the face twice during halftime of their Nov 21st game vs. Louisville. Miller went to his former Wharton High School coach, David Mitchell, for guidance. Mitchell, who is also a deacon, is speaking out and confirming the story as the Hand-to-God truth.
“I would not send a kid where he will be humiliated or mistreated,” Mitchell said. “It [playing for Leavitt] is like knowing someone is considering buying a bad car. You tell them ‘It doesn’t run, it’s no good, don’t buy it.’ If they still decide to, they have to live with that decision. But at least I let them know how bad it was.”–Fanhouse.com
Miller has since changed his story to say he was only grabbed by the shoulder pads to motivate him after he totally F’d up and completely let his team, fans, and entire family and neighborhood down and probably should have been stoned or banished from the community for his special teams mishap. So either a) he’s afraid of the repercussions of coming forward, as was implied in the first report; or b) he’s a big liar liar pants on fire drama queen who just wants attention.
I don’t really see what the big deal is. Sometimes those damn kids just don’t do what you want them to do and they deserve to get slapped. It was just a love tap! It only hurts because I love you!
For those hoping to see the baseball season finally come to a possibly-soggy end, I have bad news: Game 5 won’t be played until tomorrow. Philly’s quest for a championship has been delayed at least one more day by Mother Nature, who, if she were an actual mother, would probably have been booed, beaten, and gang-raped on the concourse of Citizens Bank Park last night. Hey, those fans love their Phillies!
But there will…hey, get back here! There will be some college football tonight. It’s MAC and Conference USA, sadly, but it’s football on a Tuesday! Buffalo at Ohio start first (7 PM, ESPNU) and then Houston takes on Marshall at 8 (ESPN2). I know, that’s maybe one step above watching electric football, but Houston’s 3-0 in their conference, and I hear Marshall’s coach is dating Kate Hudson. So that’s something.
And oh yeah, the NBA starts tonight. There’s a doubleheader on TNT if you stay up for it. Cleveland is at Boston at 8, and then the Lakers host Portland at 10:30. It’s a fair night for sports, considering it’s a Tuesday and I got Drew’s book about a month before any of you did. Oh, and I hear they are, in fact playing hockey this year…that’s nice.
BYU’s 16-game winning streak and their veritable train to a BCS bowl was derailed last night after they filled up a diaper against TCU. Brigham Young fell behind 17-0 after two big turnovers and were unable to recover.
“Nobody has been able to do that to BYU for a couple of years,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “No way I could have seen it coming.”
Even though TCU (7-1, 4-0) had been pointing to this game since January, when a BYU logo was placed on a blocking dummy in the team weight room. [...]
“It’s more disappointing than surprising,” BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “We knew they were a very good football team. But when you make mistakes like we made against a team like that, that simply is the result.”
BYU was shaping up to be one of the more fun stories in college football this season, but that’s all over now. We’ll point to the failures of the Provo-based football program when Ohio State winds up back in the BCS Title Game. I’m not any happier about it than you are.
Oh, Florida State is suddenly 5-1 now with their win against NC State last night. Hooray, geriatric mouthpiece head coaches!
[NBC Sports, home of Notre Dame football and that one fat coach]
If you’ve been anywhere near a TV in the last two months, you know that the Ernie Davis “biopic,” The Express, was released in theaters today. And you guys aren’t gonna believe this, but it turns out that some things that happened in the movie weren’t really true. Dick Easterly, who played quarterback for that Syracuse team, saw a preview of the film, and condemned its racist depiction of West Virginia fans. From Game On:
[T]he biggest issue stems from the characterization of a game that Syracuse’s undefeated team of 1959, supposedly played at West Virginia…Regardless of what year it was, Easterly says West Virginians are entitled to be deeply offended by The Express, because Syracuse never encountered racism there.
“I apologize to the people West Virginia because that did not happen,” Easterly said of the taunting and garbage-throwing scenes. “I don’t blame people in West Virginia for being disturbed. The scene is completely fictitious.”
Do they expect everyone to believe that people in West Virgina were racist? This is shaking my entire worldview. Next you’re gonna tell me that French people are pussies, Italians smell bad and that Asians are good at math. I’m really disturbed by such ugly generalizations about people. Especially from those dirty Hollywood Jews.
