Karen Crouse of The New York Times writes about how Michael Phelps is able to block out the entire world, including his parents, as he prepares for a record 8 gold medals...“Phelps has also polished off enough pasta and pizza to feed a village, although not as much as the astonishing 12,000 calories a day he usually consumes, because he does not want to race on a full stomach." ...
Richard Sandomir of The New York Times writes about the day when Mark Spitz got his seventh gold medal in 1972 and showed very little emotion... "But while Spitz looked elated briefly, there was little celebration... "He put a towel over one shoulder. None of his relay teammates appeared to speak to him while ABC’s cameras lingered. Swimmers from other countries came by and spoke to Spitz’s teammates, but not him." ...
Billy Witz of The New York Times writes how Manny Ramirez has been a smash hit with Dodgers fans...“This is the biggest thing since Gibson hit his home run,” said Ray Gonzales, a Dodger fan since the 1960s, referring to Kirk Gibson’s game-ending home run in the 1988 World Series opener, the last time the team won a playoff series." ...
The Birmingham News has an update on stud high school player Anthony Orr who has already committed to Alabama...Orr is a nice guy off the field, but a monster on it... "
Cindy Swirko of The Gainesville Sun writes why beach volleyball requires men to wear shirts, but women to wear skimpy bikinis... "Federation spokesman Fabrizio Rossini wrote in an e-mail to The Sun that the shirts are required because they can “characterize in the best way the competition among countries, displaying clearly the country code.” ...
Harvey Unga, Sophomore Running back, #45, 6'0" - 240 lbs. Brigham Young is known for its great quarterbacks, but now it may have its best running back ever...even the name "Harvey Unga" sounds like a hard-nosed bruising back...last year as a redshirt freshman, Unga earned Freshman All-America honors, named the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year, and earned the BYU Steve Young Offensive MVP Award...
Unga finished with 1,227 yards rushing, 1,840 all-purpose yards, and 17 touchdowns...Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook wrote this about Unga, "He surpassed 100 yards seven times, including a career high 177 yards against UNLV. Unga is more battering ram than bullet -- his longest run from scrimmage was 44 yards -- but he has good vision and is a load to bring down." ...
Check out this last second touchdown run against arch-rival Utah...
Group: INXS Song: Never Tear Us Apart Album: Kick Year: 1988 Written by: INXS bembers Andrew Farriss and the late Michael Hutchence This is a song that has been forgotten in the United States but is loved in Australia, the home of INXS...20 years ago, in August 1988, "Never Tear Us Apart" reached a high of #7 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #24 in the UK...the song deals with the love between two people and how their worlds crashed when they saw each other...the use of violins in the background add a touch of class...
Interestingly, this song was played as lead singer Michael Hutchence's coffin was carried out of St. Andrew's Cathedral by the remaining members of INXS and his younger brother...in 2006, the song was voted the Nation's Favorite Lyric by viewers on VH1 Australia...
Recently, the song has been adopted by Australian football team Newcastle United Jets...the song is sung by their fan base, known as The Squadron, during the 40th and 85th minute of games...
Favorite line: I was standing You were there Two worlds collided And they could never tear us apart
The video, which was filmed in Prague, is such a peaceful video with the foggy landscape in the background...enjoy one of the classic ballads on the 1980s...music like this cannot be found today...
George Kimball of ESPN.com has a feature story about Youngstown, Ohio native Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik, who is the middleweight champion, and his next bout against Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins...
Today's college football facts deal with the Michigan Wolverines...the information was gathered from the trivia book Wolverineology Trivia Challenge....here are a Baker's Dozen of interesting facts:
- Michigan Stadium was built on top of an underground spring...during construction in 1926, the water completely engulfed a crane...the crane still remains underground and under the stadium to this day...
- John Navarre holds the Michigan single game passing mark with 389 yards vs. Iowa in 2003...he finished with 26 completions, two touchdowns, and 1 interception...
- Fielding Yost purchased The Little Brown Jug before the 1903 game against Minnesota because he feared the Minnesota people would contaminate Michigan's drinking water...the team manager went out a bought the 5 gallon jug...
- Ron Johnson holds the Michigan single game rushing mark when he rushed for 347 yards on 31 carries vs. Wisconsin in 1968...
- Tom Curtis holds the Michigan all-time record for interceptions...Curtis had 22 interceptions from 1967-69...
- The famous "Go Blue, M Club Supports You" banner first appeared in 1962 when head coach Bump Elliot allowed the banner on the field before the Homecoming game vs. Illinois...
- Steve Breaston holds the Michigan record for combined punt and kickoff returns for a touchdown...Breaston brought back 4 punts and 1 kickoff for touchdowns...
- Anthony Carter was the first consensus All-American wide receiver at Michigan...he was named All-American in 1981 and 1982
- Braylon Edwards holds the Michigan record for receiving yards in a career...Edwards finished with 3,541 yards on 252 receptions and 39 touchdowns...
- Mike Taylor was Michigan's first consensus All-American at linebacker...in 1971 he had 97 tackels, 7 pass breakups, and 2 interceptions...
- Fielding Yost was the first head coach in college football to use "motion" as a decoy on offense..
- The first bowl game that Michigan played in outside the Rose Bowl was the 1976 Orange Bowl when they lost to Oklahoma 14-6...
- Jack Clancy holds the Michigan record for receiving yards in a game...Clancy finished with 197 yards in a 1966 game vs. Oregon State...
Enjoy this 6:38 clip from the 1969 Michigan-Ohio State game when first year coach Bo Schembechler upset the #1 ranked Buckeyes of Woody Hayes 24-12...
Marc Lawrence's Playbook is one of the best football handicapper yearbooks...in one section, Lawrence breaks down each NFL team's record per month from 1990 through 2007....below are the winning percentages of NFL teams for the month of September...(strike games not included)....
I found this funny video on Drudge Report where a big ole fat snake gets slithers into meteorologist Kurtis Gertz's pants at the Iowa State Fair on live television...NO JOKE!...
I found this video on the blog Signal to Noise in which Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke and Chicago Tribune reporter Kevin Pang eat a penis in Beijing...NO JOKE!...
Enjoy this great one-handed catch made by Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards in Thursday's pre-season game against the New York Jets...Edwards played for the University of Michigan...
On Sunday, our fantasy football league held its draft...now some are probably thinking it is early, but that is the only day we were able to all meet...as we all get older, some now have families and it gets a bit harder to get a set day for the draft...
It is our 14th year of fantasy football and I will say, the other 7 guys that compete in this league are all "Ballers"...this is one tough assed league...it is also very racially and ethnically diverse...we have 3 African-Americans, 1 Puerto Rican, 1 Italian, 1 Jewish, 1 Irish, and 1 Greek Cypriot...
In our league you can start 2 quarterbacks...you can also start a variety of offenses such as 1 rb/4 wr, 2 rb/3 wr, 3 rb/2 wr, or 4 rb/1 wr...also, tight ends are considered the same as wide receivers...so that is why some people may have drafted 2 stud QBs or loaded up at one position...we go 20 rounds with 2 final speed rounds where the person has 5 seconds to fire off their pick...below is how the first 10 rounds went...please look over and give your thoughts...
Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle writes about Barry Bonds appearance at the San Francisco Giants game on Saturday to commemorate 50 years of the Giants being by the Bay... "On the way out of the tent a half-hour later, a sole reporter got close enough to him to ask why he had returned, and he said simply, "It's home." The perfect answer for the audience he was actually reaching - the paying customers." ...
