Friday, September 16, 2011

Sports Shorts Sept. 16

Checking my (sports) shorts wondering whatever happened to Randy Moss....

* Titans RB Chris Johnson acted like a whiny child all training camp demanding to be paid like the top offensive player in football let alone the top running back. And, how has he rewarded Tennessee? Nine carries for 24 yards against a weak Jacksonville defense in his first game after signing his record deal. Last week, 48 players ran for more yards than the alleged best player in football including QBs Josh Freeman, Donovan McNabb, and Chad Henne. Good to see he is proving to Titans fans he deserved $55.26 million over six years.

* Kudos to Rochester native Ryan Callahan as he was named captain of the New York Rangers on Monday. As NHL training camps get underway, four American born players are captains. With Callahan's new role, three of the four have ties to upstate New York. Callahan, Rochester native Brian Gionta of the Montreal Canadiens and Ithaca native Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings.

* Can anyone explain the ridiculous need for ESPN to over-hype just about everything? Why is week three of the college football season dubbed "Road Test" weekend? While there are a couple of interesting games this weekend, not many of the top 25 have "road tests" and actually the majority of them play at home. I'm guessing #4 Boise is not concerned with going to Toledo, nor is #7 Wisconsin at Northern Illinois, or #21 Auburn heading to Clemson. To add to the insult, one of the network big shots, Scott Van Pelt, has been poking fun at it all week on his radio show calling it "Roadhouse" weekend. Pretty sad when your own can't take the hype machine seriously.

* For a long time, I was not a big fan of Patriots coach Bill Belichick. I think just about all of Western New York agrees with me. But, after watching this great piece by NFL Films (http://www.nfl.com/videos/new-england-patriots/09000d5d8223ad1a/Films-Encore-Belichick-the-next-generation), you can finally see the human side to him. I started to warm up to Belichick a few years ago when I learned he played lacrosse at Wesleyan in the '70's and kept a stick in his office. Now, as I try to involve my son in my own coaching activities, I think I like the guy. For the record, Stephen Belichick just finished a four year career as a lacrosse player at Rutgers and is now a long snapped for the Scarlet Knights football team. Belichick's daughter Amanda is following in her dad's footsteps as she also played lacrosse at Wesleyan and is now an assistant women's lacrosse coach at Ohio State.

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