Welcome back, dear readers, to another week of Life, Love…Sport (Vindication Edition). It was this past week that showed us who the NFL contenders and pretenders are. This week also gave us a preview of March Madness and, best of all, no one had to get stuck watching NBA games! Fantastic! I might introduce a new sport in the column today, just for kicks and giggles. Let’s begin.
This past weekend, the NFL finally gave fans some closure regarding the playoff race. The Cincinnati Jail-Cats (aka Bengals) finally decided “Hey, maybe making the playoffs would be a blast.” Chad Johnson, the LLS player of the year, nay, decade, is officially out of his season-long slump and has been starting to celebrate his touchdowns again. Mark my words, he will win “Dancing with the Stars” in 10 years. His moves are electric.
The AFC, in general, is out of control deep this year. As they were the year before. In fact, the NFC hasnt really been good since Brett Favre actually threw passes to his own players back in 1996. The Carolina Panthers seem to have lost that winning feeling, Rex Grossman doesn’t remember how to throw touchdowns and the ‘Niners might win the NFC West division with a sieve for a defense and a pathetic excuse for an offensive line.
Thanks to ESPN, people got to watch college basketball every day last week as part of their
“Feast Week” package. Which is great if you like watching teams like University of Alaska play Loyola Maryland, but not so great if you want to watch a regular game. Along with ACC/Big 10 challenge, the past week really showed us who can make a run at a Final Four berth this coming March. Kansas seemed to have learned from last year and seemed ready to make one last run in the tournament before their starting five jump to the NBA next season. Meanwhile, Boston College, a team that has consistently been good the last five years, has seriously crapped the bed this year. They do not look like a tournament team this year. So far, my Final Four picks of Florida, Kansas, North Carolina and Ohio State are looking solid. Although it’s only November, I look like a genius yet again.
In its lifelong pursuit of educating the casual sport fan, the LLS is willing to look at some obscure sports. In part one of our endless “obscure sports” series, I would like to proudly present rugby! Now many of you might think that you know a lot about rugby, but trust me, you don’t.
Rugby is played on a field with 13 players on each side, made up of backs and forwards. The whole purpose of the sport is to score a “try.” The attacking team has six chances to score. The defense tries to stop them by tackling the player carrying the ball. If the attacking team doesn’t score, a change of possession, called a “hand over” occurs. Teams all over the world play rugby; athough Australia has dominated competition, winning every World Cup competition from 1975 to 2005, where sort of makes them the Yankees of the rugby world. But honestly, how could you not like a sport which calls its players
“hookers.” Tune in next week when we dissect another obscure sport. If you have any suggestions, let me know.
Let’s review the college football season. It’s not yet over, but all the games that matter have been played, all the players that matter have amassed their stats and fights have been fought. Following the LLS’s new favorite fad, we shall now list the best moments, players etc. of the college football season (and some of its worst).
Heisman: Darren McFadden, RB (Arkansas) – 1485 yards rushing, 14 TDs. What a fantastic player. If he could leave school right now, he’d be a top 10 pick.
Anti-Heisman: Drew Weatherford, QB (Florida State) – 1829 yards, 12 TDs, 11 INTs. A significant regression from last year, he is a big reason as to why one of the powerhouse teams of college football dropped to 6-6.
Defensive Player of the Year: Lamarr Woodley, DE (Michigan) – 11.5 tackles for loss; 11 sacks. Part of a revitalized Michigan defense that led them to a 11-1 record and a Rose Bowl berth.
Coach of the Year: Houston Nutt (Arkansas) – Led his team to a 10-2 record after years of futility.
Final Fact: Many Japanese golfers carry “hole-in-one” insurance because it is traditional in Japan to share one’s good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an “ace.” The price for what the Japanese term an “albatross” can often reach $10,000.
Maystrovsky’s article appears weekly.
Maystrovsky is a member of the class of 2009.
