A place for the discussion of all things not closely related to the sport and its competitive side. (Locked down several times a year during the major championships)
Conor Dary wrote:Oregon, Alabama would have been a much better pairing.
Time and time again over the last five years, Oregon's basketball-on-grass has proven that it struggles with anyone who plays solid old-school defense.
Such envy! If Oregon had had a field goal kicker, or at least one who had some practice during the season, they would have been there last night, pounding ND.
Conor Dary wrote:Oregon, Alabama would have been a much better pairing.
Time and time again over the last five years, Oregon's basketball-on-grass has proven that it struggles with anyone who plays solid old-school defense.
Such envy! If Oregon had had a field goal kicker, or at least one who had some practice during the season, they would have been there last night, pounding ND.
It was the field goal kicker that cost them last year against USC. Bobby Bowden learned a long time ago the hard way that having a good kicker is essential to playing college football at the highest level. Now Chip Kelly is learning that lesson too, but he he's not alone because I can assure you that Chris Petersen feels his pain.
College football fans spent the season hearing in extensive detail the heartwarming tale of Manti Te’o, a heroic Notre Dame linebacker who lost his girlfriend to cancer and whose life and death inspired his gridiron exploits. Deadspin has an unbelievable report that the girlfriend is a hoax — she never existed, in any form. She was created either as part of a publicity stunt or, as Te’o claims and Notre Dame maintains, by hoaxsters duping Te’o. (The latter scenario, requiring the concoction of a full-blown relationship with a nonexistent woman, would be, to say the least, extremely hard to pull off.)
I do not buy Te'o's "victimhood" for a moment. He acted like he lost his greatest thing on the planet (crying, praying...) as late as January, 4 months after the hoax was supposedly revealed. He may not have originated it, but he was a very willing participant.
Pego wrote:I do not buy Te'o's "victimhood" for a moment. He acted like he lost his greatest thing on the planet (crying, praying...) as late as January, 4 months after the hoax was supposedly revealed. He may not have originated it, but he was a very willing participant.
You think so....
The Deadspin story, however, is raising questions about Te'o's involvement in the ruse. The site says Kekua's purported Twitter account was created by a California man with ties to the linebacker and his family. An unnamed source suggested the death was a publicity stunt hatched by Te'o and his West Coast counterpart, according to Deadspin.
At the very least, Te'o and his family have made the truth difficult to decipher because they made references to Te'o meeting Kekua during their courtship. In October, for example, Te'o described her to ESPN as the most beautiful person he had ever met, and his father told the South Bend Tribune in October that Kekua had traveled to Hawaii, Te'o's home state, "every once in a while ... so he would meet with her there."
When asked about rising above the tragedy in the days before the game, Te'o said, "I think whenever you're in football, it takes your mind off a lot of things. You know this team is very special to me and the guys on it have been there for me through the good times and the bad times."
Pego wrote:I do not buy Te'o's "victimhood" for a moment. He acted like he lost his greatest thing on the planet (crying, praying...) as late as January, 4 months after the hoax was supposedly revealed. He may not have originated it, but he was a very willing participant.
What's amazing is how the Notre Dame A.D. went to the mat for Te'o. Oh what a tangled web we weave . . . . . .
An unnamed source suggested the death was a publicity stunt hatched by Te'o and his West Coast counterpart . . . [Te'o] made references to Te'o meeting Kekua during their courtship. In October, for example, Te'o described her to ESPN as the most beautiful person he had ever met, and his father told the South Bend Tribune in October that Kekua had traveled to Hawaii, Te'o's home state, "every once in a while ... so he would meet with her there."
If this is true, Te'o is toast*. He can say she's 'beautiful' without ever meeting her (i.e., beautiful mind), but if he EVERsaid he had met her . . .
*If he weren't Manti Te'o, this would be a silly little 'oops', but this was part of an extended national 'story' that he knowingly and willingly supported. His 'fame' is in no little way linked to this.
jazzcyclist wrote:[... What's amazing is how the Notre Dame A.D. went to the mat for Te'o. Oh what a tangled web we weave . . . . . .
local radio guy didn't find it amazing at all. He basically said, "Notre Dame isn't a school, it's a corporation, and that's the kind of spin corporations practice"
Notre Dame knew it was a hoax Dec. 26. But the school didn't call a news conference or issue a statement revealing that the girlfriend story was pure baloney. So Notre Dame is complicit in the lie. And all the spinning Wednesday night by ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick can't change it.
He called it "a sophisticated hoax" and said Notre Dame didn't come forward because "this was Manti's story to tell."
Really?
Swarbrick is the same mealy-mouthed bureaucrat who defended the football program after student videographer Declan Sullivan, a 20-year-old native of Long Grove, was sent into that scissor lift in the high wind and died when it collapsed in October 2010.
Swarbrick said then that the weather conditions before the tragedy were "unremarkable," even though Sullivan told friends on social media that there were "gusts of wind up to 60 mph" and he was afraid he would die.
Notre Dame's company line isn't any more convincing now than it was then.
1. Notre Dame knew it was a hoax Dec. 26. But the school didn't call a news conference. 2. He called it "a sophisticated hoax" and said Notre Dame didn't come forward because "this was Manti's story to tell."
1. It isn't ND's place to call a press conference for every 'misunderstanding' that arises on the campus, so 'strictly speaking' they're right . . . BUT . . . this was nat'l news. 2. Right again, strictly speaking, BUT . . . when he didn't, they needed to 'correct' the misunderstanding, which they knew was coloring the public's perception of him.
I don't believe he MEANT to foster national sympathy for him (the other death was enough) with the non-existent girlfriend, but when it blew up into a nat'l story, yes, he should have corrected it. By that time I'm sure he was too embarrassed. Did he really think think would never get exposed??!!
lonewolf wrote:Am I the only person in the world who was not aware of this girlfrend story until it was revealed as a hoax.?
Well you didn't even know what Gangnam Style was!!!
It was hard to miss it if you watch ESPN Sports Center and its ilk.
But, yes, you are forgiven for your egregious ignorance . . .
I did not know Gangnam either (still don't ), but watching bowl games on ESPN, you could not escape constant reminders of ND's greatness and their grief-stricken star.
Pego wrote:watching bowl games on ESPN, you could not escape constant reminders of ND's greatness
They really do lay it on thick, don't they??!! I'm starting to think that's why no one likes Tebow - they got tired of hearing how 'awesome' he was? The new GM of the Jags said he's not interested in Tebow in any capacity (Fullback? Tight End? Wildcat?) even though he knows the whole area is gaga for him and they'd literally sell 10,000 more tickets a week if they got him and played him a few downs every game. (We NEVER have sell-outs!).
lonewolf wrote:Am I the only person in the world who was not aware of this girlfrend story until it was revealed as a hoax.?
I'm surprised to hear that since you seem to have more than a passing interest in college football. At the very least, you should have heard mention of his grandmother and girlfriend during the Oklahoma-Notre Dame game which I figure you watched.
lonewolf wrote:Am I the only person in the world who was not aware of this girlfrend story until it was revealed as a hoax.?
You & me lonewolf.
and me
I too knew nothing about it either. But that is because I purposely ignore the ND over-satuation coverage here. Unless of course they lose...like last week.
Pego wrote:watching bowl games on ESPN, you could not escape constant reminders of ND's greatness
They really do lay it on thick, don't they??!! I'm starting to think that's why no one likes Tebow - they got tired of hearing how 'awesome' he was? The new GM of the Jags said he's not interested in Tebow in any capacity (Fullback? Tight End? Wildcat?) even though he knows the whole area is gaga for him and they'd literally sell 10,000 more tickets a week if they got him and played him a few downs every game. (We NEVER have sell-outs!).
One thing that makes me nuts with Tebow and at least some who support him and that is...why is it so important that he make it on the field if he can't play QB in the judgement of the team he plays for? We don't hear a clamoring for the backup QBs of other teams in the NFL to be move to FB/TE or wherever. If they can't beat out the starter they sit quietly or end up on the waiver wire.
lonewolf wrote:Am I the only person in the world who was not aware of this girlfrend story until it was revealed as a hoax.?
I'm surprised to hear that since you seem to have more than a passing interest in college football. At the very least, you should have heard mention of his grandmother and girlfriend during the Oklahoma-Notre Dame game which I figure you watched.
I did watch that game but since my primary loyalty is the other major Oklahoma university, I tend to multi-task and my interest may have been diverted by the new Tom Clancy novel and not riveted on the game during the fluff announcements.
I never heard the (now) hoax story either. I've always felt that Notre Dame gets too much publicity ever since Paul Hornung won the Heisman Trophy. What were they 2 - 7 the year he won it (or something like that)?
Pego wrote:I do not buy Te'o's "victimhood" for a moment. He acted like he lost his greatest thing on the planet (crying, praying...) as late as January, 4 months after the hoax was supposedly revealed. He may not have originated it, but he was a very willing participant.
What's amazing is how the Notre Dame A.D. went to the mat for Te'o. Oh what a tangled web we weave . . . . . .
just another example of the deceit and lies that NCAA football programs (especially major football schools) willing indulge in,in order to make sure they do not lose a star player.
All Notre Dame has done is take a leaf out of the Church's playbook in regards to covering up priestly preferences.
Pego wrote:I do not buy Te'o's "victimhood" for a moment. He acted like he lost his greatest thing on the planet (crying, praying...) as late as January, 4 months after the hoax was supposedly revealed. He may not have originated it, but he was a very willing participant.
What's amazing is how the Notre Dame A.D. went to the mat for Te'o. Oh what a tangled web we weave . . . . . .
just another example of the deceit and lies that NCAA football programs (especially major football schools) willing indulge in,in order to make sure they do not lose a star player.
All Notre Dame has done is take a leaf out of the Church's playbook in regards to covering up priestly preferences.
Right. The peons like that kid in the tower who got killed filming a practice last year are just fodder for the program. The AD was pretty dismissive of the whole thing. 'Hey, it wasn't that windy. Meanwhile the guy gets weepy over Te'o...
"The single most trusting human being that I have ever met, will never be able to trust again," said Swarbrick as he became visibly emotional as he took questions."
Johnny Manziel thwarts Alabama once again, gentle readers. Young Master Football’s Heisman Trophy victory means the Tide will be unable to complete the celebrated Switzer Sweep of winning the BCS championship, Fulmer Cup and Heisman Trophy in a single year, as Auburn did not too long ago. But ‘Bama’s making up for missing out on the third element of the Slam by going after the second as it does on the football field: With alarming depth and relentless tenacity.
Crimson Tide running back Brent Calloway, linebacker Tyler Hayes, defensive lineman D.J. Pettway and safety Eddie Williams have all been arrested and charged in connection with an incident in which two students were robbed, and a credit card obtained in the attack was used to purchase … vending machine snacks? College! Charge details, per the Associated Press:
Minor stuff....But Crimson Tide fans can relax because they don't use PEDs since they ain't ever had a positive and the USADA only worries about races in France and sports with a .0001% fan base.
PS. Yes, I know the original story has nothing to do with PEDs but I always think it is pretty comical there is never anything about PEDs in college football, a sport they are tailored made for and a host of athletes with the morals of street thugs.
Conor Dary wrote:I always think it is pretty comical there is never anything about PEDs in college football, a sport they are tailored made for and a host of athletes with the morals of street thugs.
Conor Dary wrote:I always think it is pretty comical there is never anything about PEDs in college football, a sport they are tailored made for and a host of athletes with the morals of street thugs.
I'm skeptical. You've never heard of big boned?
And since Big Daddy Lipscome went from being the biggest pro around to not being able to crack the lineup at numerous colleges, including our local one, there has been vast genetic change in the human population, right? [not clear if you were in need of clarifying smilies]
Conor Dary wrote:I always think it is pretty comical there is never anything about PEDs in college football, a sport they are tailored made for and a host of athletes with the morals of street thugs.
I'm skeptical. You've never heard of big boned?
And since Big Daddy Lipscome went from being the biggest pro around to not being able to crack the lineup at numerous colleges, including our local one, there has been vast genetic change in the human population, right? [not clear if you were in need of clarifying smilies]
Having said that, I never cease to be astounded that young scholar (???)-athletes, given a golden opportunity to receive a college education, can throw it all completely away, many times ending up in prison, and ruining whatever chance they had for a half decent future.
No sympathy here from me. But I can't call them thugs as that is not politically correct any more. So I'll just call them worthless stupid human beings.
dukehjsteve wrote:You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Having said that, I never cease to be astounded that young scholar (???)-athletes, given a golden opportunity to receive a college education, can throw it all completely away, many times ending up in prison, and ruining whatever chance they had for a half decent future.
No sympathy here from me. But I can't call them thugs as that is not politically correct any more. So I'll just call them worthless stupid human beings.
I didn't say they were street thugs, only they had the same morals, though in this case the description might be apt.
Williams, for what it's worth, might not be the greatest dude. This was his second arrest in three days. On Sunday, according to police, he refused to pay for his gas, and threatened the station attendant by mentioning he had something in his trunk. Police say they stopped him shortly thereafter and found an unlicensed pistol in his pants pocket, a crime which appears to be no more serious in Alabama than a moving violation. He was released after paying $500 bond.
As for wasting an college education, I suspect that opportunity disappeared years before, when they were never held accountable in high school, as long as they played well.
[not clear if you were in need of clarifying smilies]
