2010
24
Jul
Once again Lane Kiffin is in the news for another alleged shady deal. Apparently he successfully recruited the services of Kennedy Pola to be USC’s new offensive coordinator. Pola was the Running Backs coach for the Tennessee Titans. Where the deal gets shady is that Lane didn’t bother calling Head Coach Jeff Fisher until after the deal was already done.
How many times do you think Lane Kiffin can end up in the news for doing something wrong before actually leading a winning football team on the field? What has his professional coaching record amounted to? It seems like he has more scandals than wins, I don’t know about you but that is a slight problem.
This is not the type of attention the now highly scrutinized USC Football program needs. Are you sure this is the guy you want leading the storied Trojans every Saturday?
Am I making a big deal of this incident? Yes, but only because its the sum total of Kiffins actions that magnify this current mishap. Why don’t we take a look at his record and you decide for yourself?
Lane has been getting coaching positions since riding Pete Carrol’s talent rich Trojans to a 23-3 record as an offensive coordinator. Was this a result of Kiffin’s offensive brilliance or the fact that Reggie Bush was showing the world that he should be considered one of the best college athletes of all time? Again, you decide.
Mr. Kiffin was then offered and accepted a Head Coaching position with the Oakland Raiders. His overall record was 5-15 before being fired by Al Davis “For cause”. Several odd press conferences followed the firing in a back and forth verbal exchange between Lane Kiffin and Al Davis.
No need to worry, remember that 23-3 record as Offensive Co-ordinator? Back to College Lane would go, now as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers in the extremely tough SEC. On his way to a 7-6 season Kiffin would often talk up his future as Coach of the Vols. Like a politician telling his constituents what they want to hear Lane said “singing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida next year, it will be a blast”.
Sure he may have had great intentions of building the Tennessee football program, he may even thought they were going to beat Urban Myers Florida Gators…. That all changed when USC came calling. Kiffin dropped the Volunteers program as fast as he could and headed out west and with only one month until National Signing day!
Now head coach of the USC Trojans and the accusations keep pouring in. Potential recruiting violations of players from Tennessee and now this.
Lane, my advice to you is to shut your mouth and win! That may be tough to do with the NCAA smack down your program was handed earlier this year so good luck to you.
2010
22
Jul
So it looks like the 205 pound division will remain red hot. The winner of Rampage vs Machida will face the winner of Rashad vs Shogun. Part of me is very excited to see this fight but the other part thinks “I’ve seen this movie before”.
Rampage style might be just what The Dragon needs to bounce back from his loss to Shogun. Rampage will chase Machida looking to land a bomb and get caught with shots.
His only chance of winning this fight would be to take and keep Lyoto down and pound him out. You know you’re caught between a rock and a hard place when your best chance of winning a fight is to take down BJJ Black Belt!
There’s no way Team Rampage want this fight after a loss to Rashad but that’s why fans love the UFC. He doesn’t get a choice to hand pick his opponent like in boxing.
More to come on this fight as we get closer to November 20th.
2010
21
Jul
“Shark Fights 13” seems to be getting coverage based on the “Big Names” they’ve brought in to fight on the Sept. 11Th card. Houston Alexander will take on Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, better know to fans as just Sokoudjou while Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine will face Trevor Prangley.
At one time this card would have been HUGE but now I don’t see any big names listed there. I see fighters who’s career’s are in serious jeopardy and this is potentially a last ditch effort at a pay day.
Houston Alexander burst on the scene with a thrilling must see TKO of Keith Jardine at UFC 71. He followed that up with TKO of Alessio Sakara at UFC 75. Fans were drooling to see what this KO artist had in store for his next fights and that’s where things went bad for Houston. The next 7 fights turned in a very pedestrian 2 - 5 record. He was clearly outclassed by UFC caliber opponents.
With a record of 9-6 Sokoudjou is in the same boat. He’s riding a 2 fight win streak and says he plans on going undefeated in 2010 in an attempt to give life support to his struggling career. He’s 4-4 in his last 8 fights after a 5-2 start.
Keith Jardine will make his first non UFC fight since 2004. The Dean of Mean was cut after 4 straight losses and has not won a fight since a 2008 split decision win over Brandon Vera at UFC 89. After 4 straight losses and being cut by the UFC perhaps his biggest fight on September 11th will be his head.
Trevor Prangley brings the cleanest current reputation to the cage although serious fight fans will question the caliber of opponents he’s faced and beaten. Prangley should be looking to prove that step up in competition does not equal a loss when he faces Jardine.
2010
20
Jul
Boxing is dying on the vine. They may not be in a state of panic yet but they have been struck with indecision to say the least. Paralysis through analysis is plaguing the sport. I may be wrong but the actions of Boxing’s top brass must be saying “What if he lost” to often.
In the sports glory days you had a round robin of fighters competing against each other. If your fighter lost, but the fight was competitive, you brought them together to fight again. Hopefully it was competitive again with each fighter winning once, now you have a trilogy!
Boxers are now protected by their promoters and networks. They would rather protect the reputation of the fighter and market him to be a star. In the old days fighters fought their way into the fans hearts. Fighters in the 80’s like Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Haglar, Thomas Hearns all fought each other. None of them were worried about their reputation being tarnished with a loss. They would have rather fought valiantly and lost than avoid fighting a worthy opponent.
The UFC has learned from Boxings mistakes and top 10 fighters can be seen fighting each other on every single card. One look at how the UFC has handled Brock Lesnar will show you they aren’t interested in protecting fighters. If you’re going to be a star in the Octagon the formula is simple, win.
If the UFC wanted to protect Brock Lesnar for a few fights that would have been understandable. His pursuit of becoming an MMA fighter was highly publicized and they could have used that to manufacture a star without risking him losing. Instead they put him in with former Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir in his very first fight in the UFC and followed it up with MMA veteran Heath Herring. Then came Hall of Famer Randy Couture, and a rematch with Mir.
Brock then came down with what was considered a career ending illness and was out for a year. In his first fight back he deserves a break right? Nope, your a champion and this is MMA! He fought Shane Carwin who was a perfect 12 - 0 and had never seen round 2.
Why spend all your time protecting a fighter when you can simply promote the fighter who beats him? Giving the fans what they want to see is a recipe for success and the UFC knows it.
2010
19
Jul
You remember the movie right? Keanu Reeves plays the former college QB who finally gets his chance to play pro football because of a lock out. Gene Hackman plays the role of the wise old coach who brings in talent from all over the country to fill the empty roster spots. Did you ever envision that happening in today’s NFL?
NFL Owners are arguing that player salaries are out of control and they’re profits are plummeting as a result. They claim that high profile athletes are taking the league hostage one contract at a time.
Their solution? An 18 game schedule! From a fans perspective that’s great, two more NFL games per year! So the players get to keep their salary increases and the owners make up the revenue right? Wrong. The owners are saying that revenue’s have decreased so much that they are suggesting an 18% pay cut + an additional two games!
The current collective bargaining agreement between team owners and the Players Association takes us through the end of the 2010 season. A new agreement would have to be put in place or the start of the 2011 season is in jeopardy.
This all sounds crazy at a time when the NFL is at an all time high in viewer ship and revenue. If there’s a recession going on you can argue that the NFL is not a participant in it. TV revenue alone from FOX,CBS,NBC and DIRECTV for 2009 was 4.1 billion. MNF telecasts drew 14 of the top 15 largest cable audiences of 2009. With big audiences comes big advertising dollars. In 2008, average team profits increased by 31%, while labor costs increased by only 4%.
Two things are clear. 1. The NFL is making a massive amount of money. 2. The two sides are very far apart.
Let’s hope we don’t see a lockout, the last thing we need is for Ryan Leif to mount a comeback!
2010
18
Jul
At one point in my life I was the self proclaimed biggest boxing fan in the world. I watched every Showtime and HBO fight. I ordered every PPV fight and watched every Friday Night Fights. I was a junky and boxing was my fix.
April 22ND 1995 tested my boxing loyalty when George Foreman won a decision vs Axel Schulz. You could argue that Foreman barely won a round let alone a majority decision! Schulz was robbed and everyone knew it! This was not the first time I had seen a bad decision but this was so blatantly obvious it felt like a personal insult.
It’s no secret that boxing has taken a hit in popularity with the rise of MMA. Jim Lampley would argue that boxing has seen this before and overcome it, and he would be correct.
This week we received news out of the Pacquiao camp that a fight with Mayweather is highly unlikely to happen this year. They issued a deadline on their offer and received no response from Team Mayweather. This is most likely in large part to Roger Mayweather’s (Floyd’s trainer) pending criminal case.
Could you imagine if this fight never takes place? At a point when boxing is losing fans by the 1000’s they’re struggling to put together what would be the richest fight in the sports long history. Both fighters would receive an estimated 40 million each!
Every month that passes the UFC continues to put together meaningful fights that fans want to see and boxing refuses to answer the bell.
2010
14
Jul
In an interview with Karyn Bryant from MMA Heat Evans says he’s content to sit out until March to fight Shogun who’s recovering from knee surgery.
Bryant: “So the word is that Shogun could be out until March, do you think that’s to long? Do you think there needs to be an interim fight?”
Rashad: “No I don’t think there needs to be an interim fight.”
So one of the best divisions in MMA should be put on hold while Rashad relaxes and Shogun recovers? Meanwhile Machida, the only man to defeat Rashad, is ready to go before the year is out.
Someone needs to send a memo to “Sugar” and let him know this isn’t boxing! In MMA you risk your reputation and status every time the cage door closes. There are no easy fights. No tune up fights. Would it be risky to fight Machida again before a shot at Shogun’s title opens up? Yes, of course it would! Don’t you think that avenging that brutal KO loss would mean more than getting the belt back?
You would think the answer would be yes but Rashad’s actions say otherwise.
2010
14
Jul
JONES vs MATYUSHENKO
Jon Jones has had a meteoric rise in popularity in the UFC. If you haven’t heard of him perhaps your a casual fan, don’t worry, you’ll be hearing a lot about him in the future. Once again the UFC will call on Jones to anchor the main event on Versus 2, as he did in Versus 1 defeating Brandon Vera.
Jones is quickly becoming a fan favorite with his aggressive and off the wall offensive tactics. His domination of Brandon Vera came as a surprise to most. Vera, a veteran of the sport, rarely looks out classed or over matched. He did the same to Matt Hamill in their fight.
Attempting to bring Jones and his reputation back to earth will be Vladimir Matyushenko. He’s a seasoned MMA veteran with a 24-4 record. Vlad is 11-1 in his last 12 fights. He’s been in there with tough opponents in the past like a prime Tito Ortiz, Pedro Rizzo and Andrei Arlovski so he won’t be scared.
At just 22 years old the sky is the limit for Jones. If he stays hungry he has a chance at becoming champion at 205 or whatever weight class he chooses.
Don’t miss this fight on August 1st!
Also on this card is Tyson Griffin vs Takanori Gomi! That’s a subject for another blog on it’s own.
2010
14
Jul
George Steinbrenner was more than a baseball team owner, he was a winner. He put a winning team on the field and created a global brand with the Yankees. Its grown so powerful and recognizable that it not only represents a team but also the city and the state of New York. If you didn’t know any better you may think the classic NY was a clothing label.
His teams commanded so much respect among the public that people seemed to forget they lost in 2001 to the D’Backs and 2003 to the Marlins. His late 90’s to early 2000’s teams were so succesful you could hear people everywhere saying “The Yankees always win”. Before last years World Series win I would hear that even though they hadn’t won it all since the 2000 World Series!
George bought the team in 1973 for around 8 Million and now Forbes estimates them to be worth 1.6 Billion! That’s a sound investment if I’ve ever seen one. Still to Steinbrenner the only thing that mattered was winning. He would invest all the profits from the Yankees back into the team. He was so aggressive in pursuing top free agents that it can be argued that he’s responsible for swinging the balance of power from the National League to the American League.
If teams wanted to compete with the Yankees they had better spend money or hire the best and brightest baseball minds to build a farm system. Either way if you wanted to win you were going to have to build a team to beat the Yankees.
RIP George. The game of baseball is better for your contributions.
2010
13
Jul
I always love watching the MLB All Star game. Its a chance to see the most popular and typically the most talented players the game has to offer on one field. For years the AL has dominated the mid summer classic. As a fan of the National League that’s been tough to swallow. The NL has produced some great teams the last few years and every year I thought, “This is the year the NL finally wins!”. Tonight took a combination of good pitching, a couple great defensive plays and timely hitting.
It took Ryan Braun’s diving catch in left, Byrd’s heads up play in right to throw out Ortiz, Brian McCann’s clutch 3 run double and every pitcher the NL had to offer to beat the American League.
So while the National League and its fans can finally celebrate, its time to figure out who stands to benefit from this victory? Since the 2002 All Star game ended in a tie game the winner now gets home field advantage for the World Series.
A quick glance at the standings shows San Diego in first place in the West, Cincinnati in the Central and Atlanta in the East. I don’t think San Diego has the offense to maintain first place in the division and Cincinnati has to keep a close eye on St. Louis. Atlanta just might be for real but I’d be a fool to ignore that ferocious Philly offense and a Mets team that looks poised to be around in September.
There’s plenty of baseball left and anything can happen!
