The VY Roller Coaster Of Love

It's late November which means wives and girlfriends are out elbowing each other in an attempt to spend all of their (or someone else's) money on coutures and ornamental crap while the guys stay home and watch the NFL playoff picture come into focus while ignoring most Christmas shopping duties.

Usually by now, the NFL is separated into groups of have and have nots. Vikings? Good. Browns? Bad. The haves jockey for playoff position while the have nots jokey (yes, I meant to mispell that) for draft slots. Then right there in NFL purgatory sit the Tennessee Titans just a game below .500. The record isn't exciting, but how Tennessee got there is.

The Titans have become the first team ever to win five straight games after losing their first six. The common denominator in the turnaround is one Vincent Young. He just keeps winning football games. Yesterday, he proved he could actually pass as he threw for 387 yards including a game winning touchdown against the Matt Leinart led Cardinals.

Now we'll see all sorts of comparisons to Young's drive to beat the Leinart led USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl. It's cute. You get to see Leinart relive his college nightmare in the pros. And that's about it.

It's the NFL. If you play quarterback long enough, you will have a chance to win a game. How many game winning drives does Tom Brady or Peyton Manning have? That's nothing new.

Yet here goes everyone jumping back on the VY bandwagon. These are the same people that were falling all over each other to label Young a bust over the past year. So is Young the future in Tennessee? It was only two months ago when people were assuming Young would be gone from the Titans and possibly the NFL before long.

Did Young really become that much better of a quarterback on the bench? He's definitely matured. But he was leading the Titans to the playoffs before his benching too. So why did everyone suddenly label him a colossal bust and why have they suddenly reversed course after only five regular season games?

Vince will lose at some point, he's not going undefeated. He'll also have some bad games. It will be interesting to see the reaction when Young proves he's human again because right now it's like his fans are manic depressives. When he wins, he's in the Pro-Bowl, when he loses, he's in the toilet bowl.

Young has rejuvenated his career, but is this the norm or just a peak in his crazy NFL life?

Trophy Colt

As I watch the waning moments of the Florida/Florida State game and everyone falls over each other to talk about how wonderful Tim Tebow is and legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden deals with whether he will be forced to rusticate after this season, I think about the upcoming weeks in college football.

Barring a major upset, Texas will play the winner of the Florida/Alabama game for the national championship. TCU and Boise State should at least make a BCS bowl and if they don't, college football is flawed beyond recognition.

That just leaves one thing up in the air: who will win the Heisman Trophy (aka the most overrated award in sports)?

Some will probably vote for Tebow just because he's just so awesome and wonderful, but I'm guessing most people will resist the alluring pull of Saint Tebow. Which leaves a pretty tight race between the deserving players.

Alabama running back Mark Ingram was the front runner through last week, but with only 30 yards against rival Auburn, Ingram didn't leave a very good final impression. He'll have to dominate the SEC championship game to be the favorite again.

Stanford running back Toby Gerhart has come out of nowhere this year to get into the Heisman discussion. He's a powerful back who has a nose for the endzone. The problem is that his team just lost their rivalry game to Cal. Losses hurt even if Gerhart had a great game.

Speaking of losses hurting, C.J. Spiller is an all around threat at running back for Clemson, but that couldn't prevent the Tigers from losing three of their first five games this season. He also only ran for 18 yards against rival South Carolina today in a big loss.

With no front runner really emerging, I'd like to re-introduce Heisman voters to one Colt McCoy of Texas. Like the other Heisman favorites, McCoy has had his ups and downs this season. He started slowly and had a miserable day against Oklahoma earlier this year. Two big things though: the Longhorns won that game and McCoy has been scorching defenses since.

He's completed nearly 75% of his passes for 16 touchdowns and only two interceptions since the OU game and has run for 277 yards as well. The crown jewel was his performance against rival Texas A &M. Colt threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns, plus he ran for 175 more yards and a touchdown. It was a dominant performance against a juiced up rival. Without McCoy, the Longhorns don't win that game. He doesn't have the stats he did last year, but the Longhorns don't have a loss either.

And that's where McCoy separates himself from the other candidates. While some people keep beating me over the head with the fact that Tebow set a new SEC record for touchdowns in a career, I can look them in the eye and tell them that McCoy is the winningest quarterback in college football history.

Should winning count so much for the Heisman trophy? Probably not. But it does. With that in mind, it's hard to argue against Colt.

McCoy replaced Vince Young at Texas as a freshman which is feat no one could imagine doing. He led Texas to the brink of a championship last year, but was denied both a title bid and the trophy to the rival Oklahoma Sooners. This year, he hasn't been pretty always, but he's won. And now McCoy is rolling. He has one more game against a top defensive team in Nebraska. If McCoy performs in the Big 12 championship, he should finally get his trophy.

Fantasy Football PantsCast November 24

It's the Thanksgiving version of the fantasy football PantsCast!

In this episode we discuss:

-What do the Oakland Raiders have in common with Poland
-Some Pantsgiving wishes to NFL players around the league
-Plus the weekly awards

So get yourself in the holiday spirit and listen to the Pantsgiving episode of the fantasy football pantscast feast!

That's Not What The Gipper Meant

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Whether you love them or hate them, they have a lot of tradition. Generally, Notre Dame is known for it's Catholic education and rigid schedule that produces martinets for alumni. It's Brady Quinn telling us in a commercial how he worked 14 hours a day between football and school work because "that's how it is at Notre Dame."

It's annoying and the golden domer holier than thou attitude always rubbed me the wrong way, yet I always respected them. A Notre Dame fan generally understood sportsmanship. They weren't a group of drunk morons who didn't care if the linebacker raped a woman last week as long as he led the team in tackles. They had dignity.

Either I was wrong or losing took that away too since Notre Dame fans are apparently acting just like the idiots at any state university.

First came the potshots at Charlie Weis. This is a guy who actively seeked out the Notre Dame coaching job because he's an alumnus. He wanted to bring his beloved university back to the mountain top. Things haven't gone as planned and according to Weis, they are much worse than anyone can imagine.

Speaking candidly like a coach who knows he's gone after the season, Weis absolutely blasted Notre Dame fans for taking such personal shots at him saying that people went over the line and hurt his family. Weis said "The damage to Maura and Charlie Jr. is irreparable, it's watching me get hammered. I'll never forgive the people who character-assassinated me without even knowing me. Those people did irreparable damage to my wife and son, and I'll never forgive them."

You might be thinking that Weis just has a thin skin and is overreacting. Then how about this cheap shot....literally? Jimmy Clausen the star quarterback for the Irish was having dinner with his family and friend after this weekend's loss to UConn when there was an altercation where he was sucker punched in the face by a fan.

Apparently losing makes Notre Dame fans forget all about that silly stuff like dignity and discipline. What a pile of hypocrites. Oh well, I guess there's still Joe Paterno.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Of Those Word Like Things

I could sit here and write you a novel about what NFL fans think about the Chicago Bears offense this season which I had the displeasure of viewing on Sunday Night Football, but then I had the benison of finding a picture to do my talking for me.


I'm pretty sure Devin Hester feels the same way.

Blown Karma

Since college football has such blah match-ups today--- the top teams are all gigantic favorites against teams like Florida International and Tennessee Chattanooga while the Michigan/Ohio State game will determine nothing except local bragging rights--- I guess today is a germane time to talk about a different kind of football. As in futbol.

While we Americans are knee deep in BCS madness and NFL playoff runs, the rest of the world is watching the World Cup qualifying games. One such game just took place between Ireland and France this past week. On the line was an invitation to the World Cup tournament next year.

As Irish luck would have it, France won. But not without major controversy. French super striker Thierry Henry set up a game tying goal for his team as he's done so many times. Unlike the other times, Henry blatantly used his hand to pass the ball. That's a no no.

Somehow, the refs missed this call. The goal stood and the game ended in a 1-1 draw which sent France into the tournament and the Irish home with a bitter taste that all the Guinness on the island couldn't remove.

Ireland officially appealed the goal and even asked France to replay the game to make sure things ended properly. France naturally declined which left the Irish with little other recourse than to call foul on the whole situation.

Irish football CEO John Delaney asserted that "without doubt, the credibility of fair play has been damaged by this incident in front of a worldwide audience." The goal definitely shouldn't have counted, but does everyone think that the credibility really suffered? After all, we've seen missed calls in every sport and very few seem to withstand the test of time except with the fans who were wronged.

Many sports fans just accept blown calls as part of the game and that karma will eventually even things out. It's a nice, easy, cut and dry way to deal with a situation. Unless, of course, your team is the one that got screwed. One thing is certain, Irish eyes as well as everyone else's in the soccer world will cast a skeptical view upon the French come tournament time next year. Don't expect a bailout.

Too Bad, So Sad, Bye Bye?

As Nebraska and Kansas State battle this weekend to figure out which Big 12 North team gets to be fed to Texas in the conference championship game, a program that was favored in the North continues to unravel.

The Kansas Jayhawks went from pre-season favorites in the North division to a 1-5 disaster in the conference. The hard feelings are starting to bleed over into the press as the Kansas fatty Mcbutterpants of a head coach, Mark Mangino, has been called out by former players for using billgingsgate, throwing around remarks in poor taste, and even physically abusing his players.

Former Kansas receiver Raymond Brown says that one time during a practice that followed an unrelated iincident where Brown's brother was shot and wounded in his home city of St. Louis, Mangino got upset with him. "I dropped a pass and [Mangino] was mad," Brown said. "And I said, 'Yes, sir. Yes, sir.' The yelling didn't bother me. But then he said, 'Shut up!' He said, 'If you don't shut up, I'm going to send you back to St. Louis so you can get shot with your homies.'

Brown was obviously a little shocked that his coach would throw out that type of comment.

Brown also tells the story of another former Jayhawk who confided in the team that his father was an alcoholic and the player dreamed of becoming a lawyer. "One day, [Mangino] said in front of the entire team, 'Are you going to be a lawyer or do you want to become an alcoholic like your dad?' "

Brown has been backed up by some other former players who agree that Mangino would take your personal business and use it against you. Sometimes he'd even grab you if he lost his temper.

Mangino maintains that these are false accusations by bitter players whose college career's didn't turn out the way they wanted.

But the accusations linger and now SportsbyBrooks.com is reporting that university reps are looking to buy out Mangino's contract at the end of the season. This is a coach that only two years ago resurrected a dead Kansas football program and won the Orange Bowl with them. That's one hell of a fall.

Even if Mangino gets to stay, opposing coaches will have field days with these accusations during recruiting season. It could be dark days ahead, again, for Kansas Jayhawks football. Hey, at least basketball season is starting.