NEW YORK – Step aside Mets and Yankees, it’s NFL football season and it appears your rivalry, as intense as it may be, may be sitting on the back burner until after the New Year.

The intercity rivalry between the first-place New York Giants (10-1) and, this is NOT a typo, first-place New York Jets (8-3) has found new life since Brett Favre jumped into the fray, joining the Jets after their underachieving season last year.

While the Jets struggled last season, the Giants were putting together a win streak that took them all the way to their Super Bowl upset victory over the undefeated New England Patriots.

Trash-talking in the parks and cafes are picking up steam since the first place Jets defeated the Titans last week who came into that game with a 10-0 record.

The Giants in the meantime are continuing where they left off and have only lost one game all year and are a favorite to make a return trip to the Super Bowl.

I spoke to several fans from both sides of the fence over this Thanksgiving weekend and clearly the passion for this rivalry has elevated. I discovered when you bring up the words ‘Giants’ and ‘Jets’, everyone is willing to drop their sandwich to jump into the discussion.

Giants fans believe if the two teams met, Favre would be running for his life and buckle from the pressure of the Giants defense and the Giants would “cakewalk” through a “blowout”.

Jets fans laughed that off and were still excited about Favre leading the Jets to the blowout of the previously undefeated Titans 34-13. They challenged the Giants fans, “Bring it on” and said their Jets look unstoppable now and that Eli Manning would need to be “scraped off the turf when the game was over if the two teams met”.

It’s great to see the passion Favre and the rejuvenated Jets have injected back into this rivalry.

Today’s week 13 schedule puts the Giants in
Washington and the Jets at home against the Broncos.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax

Donovan McNabb again responded to adversities with a stellar performance Thanksgiving night, leading his Philadelphia Eagles to a 48-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals.After being benched for the first time in his career last week, McNabb, the five-time Pro Bowler, completed his first six passes and threw for 260 yards and four touchdowns in front of his hometown fans. After turning over the ball seven times in the past two games, McNabb kept the away from the red jerseys opposition with no turnovers.

McNabb showed great poise and class through the benching that followed him admitting not knowing the “tie rule” for OT games in the NFL. That’s like a real estate agent not knowing there are closing costs in a real estate transaction; like a NCAA basketball player in a championship run not knowing something as simple as how many timeouts remain (Google-Chris Webber).

We all make mistakes including people like McNabb and Webber but what matters is how we respond to them.
Webber responded to the time out ordeal by facing the cameras like McNabb did and admitting the mistake making no excuses. He was later selected #1 overall in the NBA draft, was a five-time NBA All-Star and actually utilized the exposure of his blunder to create The Timeout Foundation in 1993. The foundation’s mission was to
provide positive educational and recreational opportunities to youth.

It’s hard not to cheer for a guy like McNabb who manages to keep his sense of self in check in a sports world overflowing with over-inflated egos.

Eagles coach praised his QB after yesterday’s win over the Cardinals, “He was under some scrutiny and he was able to block everything out and he went about his business. That’s a credit to him and the kind of person he is.”

McNabb added, “I don’t focus on what people may say on the outside or how one may feel about me. When it’s all said and done and I decide to hang the shoes up, how do you want to be remembered? This is all important to working on your legacy.”

It’s time for Philadelphia fans to stop living up to their reputation and stop emotionally stoning a player to death like they do McNabb. After completing his first six attempts, the seventh pass fell incomplete and the fans booed and let the QB have it.

Expect McNabb to handle questions about those boos with class to make up for the Philly fans lack of it.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

Full story here

Judge Susan Illston dropped three of the charges against ex-San Francisco Giants slugger, Barry Bonds, lightening the load of perjury charges he will be facing in his upcoming March trial.That’s a decent start but it’s time to drop the remaining 10 charges as well, unless the government charges everyone else who has outright lied in front of Congressional committees.

Bonds has been singled out, period!

In March 2005, Rafael Palmeiro pointed his finger at a Congressional committee to emphasis his statement and said these words, “I have never used steroids. Period!”

In a blood test that followed later that season, the potent anabolic steroid, stanozolol, was detected.

Doesn’t that indicate Palmeiro’s statement to the committee may have been a lie?

Questions followed and Palmiero was quick to use the name-dropping defense. Political contribution records show that on July 23, 2003 and August 17, 2004, the ex-Texas Ranger slugger donated $2,000 each time to the Bush/Cheney campaign.

Battling the media’s direct hammering of questions about the statements he made in front of Congress, Palmeiro said he was “a personal friend of President George Bush”.

Shortly after, the Palmeiro scenario was quickly brushed under the rug.

Roger Clemens had a similar response as Palmeiro. When Clemens was questioned under oath by a Congressional committee about steroid use, he responded, “I know the ex-President Bush and he was able to find me when I was hunting so . . . ”

What is with the name-dropping! It has no relevance whatsoever to whether or not these guys took a needle full of illegal substances in the glutes from a trainer.

Mindy McCready recently was interviewed about her affair with Clemens. Her statements as well as photos of a party at Jose Canseco’s home all contradict Clemens’ testimony.

Hard not to wonder what the hold-up is on pressing charges on these other players who have appeared in front of Congress and had questionable interviews.

It’s time to charge all of these players or drop all the charges against Bonds.

Full Story Here

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

ATLANTA – There’s a buzz around the city of Atlanta . . . the buzz?

The Atlanta Falcons have been put back on the NFL map.

The unexpected early success of the Falcons, (6-4 overall and 4-1 at the Georgia Dome) is lifting the fortitude of the city. Many predicted this young team with a rookie head coach to be a cellar-dweller.

That is certainly not the case and sports chatter is picking up steam at the local coffee houses and on the streets. The sports aura that hovered over the city had been depressing lately with the Falcons imploding.

Michael Vick was in shackles, the Falcon’s head coach Bobby Petrino like the ‘Cowardly Lion’ snuck out of town with his tail between his legs and many of the Falcons’ star players abandoned ship or were traded away for pennies on the dollar.

So much has changed in such a short time. The Falcons, under the leadership of rookie head coach Mike Smith and rookie-of-the-year candidate QB Matt Ryan continue to find ways to overcome the underdog role and win. In fact they have become favorites in some of their recent games.

The NFL has taken notice of the Falcons. The league pushed the November 23 Falcons/Panthers kickoff to 4:15 and upgraded the matchup to a national game.

Coach Smith commented on that compliment from the league, “It’s an honor for our football team for that to take place.”

Full story in The Sunday Paper-Atlanta

A lot is happening in the Cowboy’s camp this week. There is a buzz about Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones returning to the team, QB Tony Romo, who is throwing without a splint on his broken finger, spending the day at the movies with a homeless guy named, ‘Doc’, T.O missing practice with an illness, the list goes on and the media eats it up.Maybe too much.

While we columnists scramble to be the first to report the latest ‘news’ on the ‘Boys, the pertinent items, like performance on the field, find a way to make it to the back burner.

Pertinent items, like the fact these same ‘Boys have lost more games before Thanksgiving Day that they lost all last season and sit three full games behind the New York Giants.

Jerry Jones was quick to cheese in front of the cameras to tell the world his troubled player ‘Pacman’ was being reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell but here we are days later and there is still no official word from the NFL. Is Jerry jumping the gun here? Maybe he should borrow Romo’s splint and put it on his tongue and let the league do the press releases.

And the NFL’s newest Boy Scout, Romo–is this guy for real or is this all a PR stunt? Helping an old couple change a tire on the side of a dark road then going to a flick with the homeless guy-it’s old-school, Boy Scout walking the old lady across the street stuff, and the timing couldn’t be better for the Cowboys.

With the team anxiously awaiting a confirmation from the league, the timing of this Good Samaritan act is somewhat interesting.

These may all be good-faith gestures but either way, it takes the media pressure off the ‘Boys concerning their lackluster performances. Has anyone asked T.O. and the team about Owens gaining less than 40 yards per game over the past four games?

PR. Gotta love it.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

It seems like Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, has created a part-time gig for himself called, “NFL spokesman.” The charismatic, scene-stealing owner of the Dallas Cowboys told the media, his troubled player Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones is returning to the field in a few weeks.

We should expect the NFL to verify this but why have they refrained from doing so and allowed JJ to run loose with it?

The league responded to Jones’ comments with an email from a real NFL spokesman Greg Aiello that read, “When there is a final determination, we will announce it.”

Pacman, who has an album full of mugshots and laundry list of court appearances, has completed the inpatient portion of his NFL-ordered alcohol treatment in the Boston area and had been awaiting word from Roger Goodell and the league about his immediate future.

JJ stated to the press that Pacman was “Being reinstated by Roger Goodell and will begin limited practice before returning to the field when the Cowboys play in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on December 7.”

JJ said, “He’s a long way, a long way from having clear sailing.” and that he would not have bodyguards for ‘Pacman’ in the future.

Is this insinuating the bodyguards were at fault for the “brawl in the stall?”

Pacman’s attorney, Worrick Robinson added this, “It all starts with him (Pacman) and his decision-making. He’s comfortable making decisions for himself.”

And there lies the problem.

Tom’s National Examiner sports column.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

Is Mike Singletary’s act of humiliation–dropping his pants to the floor in front of his entire team in the locker room–setting a trend?Probably not because the latest drawer-droppers don’t speak English and probably don’t follow American NFL football, but either way this act of child’s play needs to stop.

I’m talking about the recent futbol match between Catania and Torino on Catania’s home field on November 16, 2008. Three Catania players dropped their pants to block the view of the opposing goalie during a free kick. They actually scored on the play and won the game 3-2. Torino protested the move to no avail.

This move reminds me of NHL player Sean Avery waving his hands and blocking the view of New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur during a playoff game. It wasn’t officially against the rules but the NHL called an emergency meeting and made a rule against Avery’s unsportsmanlike, cheesy act the following day.

Let’s see how the European futbol league handles this one.

A Catania team spokesman said in a radio interview that the pants dropping, “is a strategy his coach practices . . .”

Can someone explain how answering the question, “Boxers or briefs” to 70,000 strangers on national television has to do with ‘strategy’ please?

Or why a Hall-of-Famer like Singletary could think exposing himself to a group of NFL players in the locker room is any kind of motivation.

Maybe Singletary’s performance was retaliation to his father who, according to answers.com, was “a strict Christian minister who preached against such sins as playing sports and wearing shorts” and a man who left Mike and his family hanging when he left them for another woman.

Hopefully this juvenile act goes away quick and doesn’t turn into a tacky trend that people find as a way to get ‘exposure’ . . . and please, T.O and Ocho Cinco, don’t even think about it during your next TD celebration on Monday Night Football.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

Is Detroit Lions’ coach Rod Marinelli finally losing it? How much can we expect one man to take. We’ve heard of train wrecks but Marinelli’s Lions are a train derailment.

It took him a little longer to get the “deer-in-headlights” look than some of the other ‘M’ coaches who were hired by recently-fired team CEO Matt Millen.

Millen, Mornhinweg, Mariucci, all are notorious for leaving the media scratching their heads while they stood at the mics with glassy-eyed glares, mumbling on like crazy homeless guys, trying to come up explanations on how and why they and their team were so incompetent.

One of Marinelli’s recent inarticulate rant sounded like a monologue out of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

Get the syringe ready, where’s the Valium!

Here’s Marinelli’s mumble-jumble at that press conference on November 12, 2008.

“You’re in this dark tunnel and you’ve got no way out,” he said. “You’re waiting for light, and you see that light, what do you do? What do you do?

You start digging and getting out. … I’ve always believed you stay in the tunnel and you keep digging when you expect no light.

“You have the same faith when you expect no light. You have the same belief in what you’re doing when you expect no light. … It’s dark and I’m going to dig through. My shovel is sharp and my pick is sharp and my will is outstanding.”

Sharp shovel, dull shovel, pick or no pick, Marinelli appears emotionally drained at this point.

After yesterday’s loss to Carolina, his team dropped further into the cellar to a league-worst 0-10 and he jumped in the face of one of the reporters during the post-game, “You go out there and find me guys on the street and bring them into Allen Park and I’ll inspect them”, referring to replacing his current players with anyone off the street.

Scary thing is, he sounded way too serious.

What can you say besides the stress of coaching the worst team in NFL history is capable of driving a man crazy . . . maybe literally.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

Previously published in The Sunday Paper – Atlanta November 16, 2008

ATLANTA, GA. – There’s a buzz around the ATL, and it’s gaining momentum by the minute. For some it’s a cure for the stress brought on by billion-dollar bailouts, drawn-out wars, historic home foreclosure rates, the threat of recession. This fix comes in the form of two birds: Hawks and Falcons.

The Atlanta Falcons (4-0 at the Georgia Dome, 6-3 overall) and Atlanta Hawks (6-1 as The Sunday Paper went to press on Thursday) both sprinted out of the gate with ferocious starts in 2008, and are putting Atlanta back on the sports map. The Hawks are enjoying their best start since 1997.

And after underachieving seasons by both the Braves and Thrashers, the timing couldn’t be better.

For years, sports fans have leaned on their teams to provide an escape from the pressures of everyday life. When those teams are winning, it helps pull the city and fans out of their funks.

Detroit is a perfect example. The Motor City holds the crown for most troubling economy and severe collapse in real estate values. But when their Red Wings or Pistons take home a crown, millions take to the streets to celebrate, leaving their troubles locked up at home (if it hasn’t been taken by the bank yet).

That’s what Atlanta is experiencing right now. In the coffeehouses and on the streets of this city, sports chatter is picking up steam. Spirits are being lifted.

“The sports bars have been packed with local fans,” says Vinings resident Megan Harpring. Megan is no stranger to sports-she played basketball at Georgia Tech, and her brother plays for the NBA’s Utah Jazz.

“It’s filling everyone’s lives with something positive, something exciting,” she continues. “The success of the Falcons-it’s a motivator. We’re getting excited about the next game, the next weekend.”

Lawrenceville resident Derek Wheeler, another avid sports fan who played baseball for UGA, attended the Falcons’ miraculous last-second comeback against the Bears this year at the Dome and the Hawks’ Game 6 win against the Celtics last season. He is thrilled with his local teams. “It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?” he says. “I never would have thought the Falcons would have a year like this. And the Hawks-last year wasn’t a fluke at all.”

DOOM AND GLOOM

This aura of excitement stands in sharp relief to the dark clouds that have hovered over the city in the recent past.

When Atlanta’s All-Pro quarterback Michael Vick was sent off to live behind bars, doom and gloom set in for the city’s sports fans. And it only got worse. Their star player in shackles, their team a laughingstock, their head coach Bobby Petrino snuck out of town in the dead of night with his tail between his legs. Many of the Falcons’ star players abandoned ship or were traded away for pennies on the dollar.

A lot has changed since then. The Falcons, under the leadership of rookie general manager Thomas Dimitroff, rookie head coach Mike Smith and rookie-of-the-year candidate Matt Ryan at quarterback, continue to find ways to overcome their underdog status and win games.

No longer are fans wondering whether the Falcons have what it takes. The new questions on the street are: “Michael who?” “Bobby who?”

The NFL is certainly taking notice of the new Falcons. The league pushed the Nov. 23 Falcons/Panthers kickoff to 4:15 p.m. and upgraded the matchup to a national game. “I think that … is confirmation that we are doing things right,” Coach Smith said during a press conference last week.

The 23-year-old Ryan, fresh out of Boston College, has replaced Vick in the hearts and minds of Falcon fans and the general public. Vick is still listed as “suspended” on the Falcons’ team roster, but most expect him to be officially released soon after he swaps his prison garb for civilian clothes sometime next year.

At the Falcons’ side are the overachieving Atlanta Hawks, led by All-Star Joe Johnson, who always manages to shine while coasting under the NBA radar.

The Hawks’ performance in last year’s NBA playoff series against the heavily favored Boston Celtics brought life back to the lackluster franchise. Those young, inexperienced Hawks were expected to be swept off the planet in four merciless games. But they refused to go down without a fight, taking the Celtics (who eventually took the championship) to seven games.

Seven games into the 2008-09 season (at press time), the Hawks are continuing where they left off. Before Wednesday’s loss to the Celtics, they were the only unbeaten team in the entire Eastern Conference-that’s right, a hotter start than the Celtics, Pistons or Cavaliers. The 2009 NBA All-Star ballot includes five Hawks: Johnson, Josh Smith, Mike Bibby, Al Horford and Marvin Williams.

HOMETOWN HEROES

Local sports-talk radio programs have been bombarded with excited callers, heaping praise on the Hawks with comments like “They’re playing with passion” and “it’s awesome to watch.”

As Christopher Rude, co-host of the “Rude Awakening” morning show on 680 the Fan, put it: “Sports fans in Atlanta are guardedly optimistic.”

Marc Stein’s Week Two NBA power rankings on ESPN.com had the Hawks ranked fifth out of 30 teams in the league. “Atlanta has deservedly gate-crashed the top five with its first 5-0 start in a decade,” Stein wrote last week.

Considering that both teams’ rosters were recently stuffed with unknowns and rookies who were considered fortunate to be wearing pro uniforms, the fact that they’ve both stepped up and are quickly making names for themselves while returning a sense of pride to Atlanta fans seems nothing less than incredible.

I was at Ryan’s first game against the Detroit Lions, and witnessed his first NFL pass in front of his new hometown fans. The ball was snatched up by Michael Jenkins, who galloped 62 yards into the end zone. Last weekend against the New Orleans Saints, 22-year-old rookie Chevis Jackson intercepted a Drew Brees pass and raced 95 yards for a TD with 1:17 left to play, sealing another victory for the Falcons at the Dome.

Plays like these are like paper shredders, taking the heart-wrenching negative headlines we’ve been force-fed all week and slicing them to ribbons-at least for a moment.

We all need heroes. The larger-than-life champions in summer action films sweep us away from the doldrums of our current realities. And young, enthusiastic athletes like Matt Ryan and Al Horford, and men like Joe Johnson and John Abraham-guys who show up every day and play their hearts out, determined to overcome adversity-are doing the same.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

MOSCOW – The investigation into the sudden death of Alexei Cherepanov, the New York Rangers’ first round No. 17 pick in the 2007 NHL draft revealed that poor medical treatment was not the cause of death according to statements made during a press conference today. Here’s the video of what little transpired between medical personnel on the bench after the player collapsed…you be the judge:

Russian officials originally reported that the arena medical defibrillator was faulty and it took an excessive amount of time for emergency personnel to respond to the incident.

Those accusations have changed over a course of time and during the press conference, KHL spokesman Vladimir Shalaev shared a Russian State Police report and said that medical personnel “acted professionally and did everything they could. The absence of special medical equipment in the arena was not the cause of death of this hockey player.”

The prosecutor in the case, however, is keeping the criminal investigation open.

The 19-year-old player died after collapsing during a hockey game with Avangard Omsk in the KHL on Oct. 13 in Chekov, a city near Moscow.

The following came from information taken from a report that was given to ESPN. ‘Russian officials refused to reveal exactly what caused Cherepanov’s death, but promised that information would be forthcoming. It is unknown whether criminal charges still might be filed.’

The police are however, keeping the case open.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax