SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen and receiver Golden Tate announced they will skip their final year at the university to enter the upcoming NFL draft.

The university made the announcement Monday on campus explaining the players made their decisions after speaking to fired head coach Charlie Weis this past weekend.

“Growing up as a kid, one of my lifelong dreams has been to play in the NFL and with that being said, with the support of my family and coaches I will be forgoing my senior year and entering the 2010 NFL draft,” Clausen said.

Throughout the season Clausen has been included in some of the Heisman talk and may be expected to be chosen in an earlier round of the draft.

The Irish certainly will have some rebuilding to do. They fired coach Charlie Weis last week and now are unexpectedly losing two of their key players to the NFL draft.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax

SOUTH BEND – After producing a dismal 35-27 record over five seasons in South Bend, Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis was fired on Monday according to an AP source.

Weis had 6 years remaining on his contract but the university felt pressured to make the move regardless the price.

Weis left the NFL New England Patriots five years ago to take the job in South Bend and while he expected to turn the Irish around, he actually had a winning percentage lower than his predecessors getting worse as the years went on (16-21 over the final 37 games).

“We have great expectations for our football program, and we have not been able to meet those expectations,” said Notre Dame’s AD Jack Swarbrick. “As an alumnus, Charlie understands those goals and expectations better than most, and he’s as disappointed as anyone that we have not achieved the desired results.”

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax

ANN ARBOR – University of Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez and Wolverine linebacker Jonas Mouton have earned this week’s Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week honors.

The struggling Michigan coach who was recently accused of breaking NCAA rules, again made negative headlines after he ignored a serious incident involving Mouton during last Saturday’s victory over Notre Dame.

Mouton officially joined Oregon Ducks player McGarette Blount as a cheap-shot artist when he threw an uppercut sucker punch into the jaw of Notre Dame center Eric Olsen while Olsen was on his knees attempting to get up on his feet after a play was over.

As the embarrassing video made its way around the internet and sports sites all over the country, Rich-Rod continued to brush the incident off until finally delivering a lame account followed by a description of the incident that doesn’t match the tape, even in the biggest stretch of imagination. “The little bit I saw, the clip I saw, the guys got tangled up together and Jonas was trying to free himself.” said Rodriguez. Here’s the punch on YouTube.

The Big Ten responded to the sucker-punch by suspending Mouton for one game for violating the Big Ten Sportslike Conduct Agreement.

“The actions of Jonas Mouton during the Notre Dame game are unacceptable,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said. “Mouton’s behavior has no place in the sport of football or the Big Ten Conference.”

What is just as bothersome and unacceptable is Rich-Rod’s ignorant choice to let Mouton evade punishment prior to the league stepping in.

Blount was suspended for the entire season for his assault on the Boise State player opening week while Mouton’s actions earned a one game slap on the wrist.

Although Blount was much more aggressive in his incident, he was also provoked after his team suffered an embarrassing loss. Mouton initiated his attack unprovoked and many believe he should have received stiffer disiplinary action than the one game.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax

Just days after the NHL implemented stricter rules and disciplinary actions against fighting in the NHL, a brawl broke out near the end of a Friday night NCAA basketball game between Utah State and New Mexico State.Not between the players, it was the mascots who had a difficult time controlling their adrenaline.

During a timeout with seven seconds left and New Mexico State leading 70-69, several newspaper photographers standing courtside heard an exchange between a fan and Utah State mascot, “Big Blue”.

The fan offered Big Blue $100 to go rip the moustache off New Mexico State’s mascot “Pistol Pete”.

Big Blue dashed over to his rival mascot, tore Pistol Pete’s fake ‘stache from his face and the brawl erupted. A ticked off “Pete” chased “Blue” to center court and jumped on his back trying to pull him to the floor.

When efforts to body slam “Blue” failed; “Pete” attempted to choke his rival.

The fan later confirmed to the AP that he paid “Blue” the $100. The school has announced “Blue” is required to donate the $100 to a charity.

Utah State won the game 71-70.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax

ATLANTA – There’s a buzz around Georgia that Bulldog Matthew Stafford may not accept the offer to work out during this month’s NFL Combine.If Stafford refuses to participate, he and his agent should be sent a strong message. Teams high on the draft list like the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs should pass and let the underclassman sit and squirm in his seat as a list of names are called before his.

If you think that cannot happen, Google Brady Quinn and Matt Leinhart. Both award-winning college quarterbacks were projected by many to be No. 1 picks.

Leinhart, a USC standout, sat for hours finally being taken 10th by the Arizona Cardinals and Quinn of Notre Dame was forced to sit and squirm in his seat and listen to 21 names echo in the hall before his was finally called by the Cleveland Browns.

To make matters worse, Quinn was forced to sit out and miss the first several days of camp as his agent tried frantically to get a deal signed, a deal signed so late, it eliminated the quarterback’s chance of taking the snaps on opening day.

Getting back to the Stafford issue. There is a certain amount of pressure in performing in front of an audience like the Combine but organizations deserve an opportunity to see how these young athletes respond under a little pressure, especially when those unproven players have agents who plan on asking for tens of millions of guaranteed dollars.

Bottom line is, if a player, especially an underclassman quarterback, cannot perform up to par at a Combine, should he and his agent walk with a semi-trailer full of millions?

If Stafford does not show as expected, this may prove to be risky advice by his agent. It’s almost like they are hiding something from the NFL scouts.

The Lions or Chiefs are foolish to choose Stafford unless he puts on the spikes and airs out some balls this month.

If the ‘Dawg from Georgia doesn’t show, there may be some extra-motivated lineman that will salivating for the draft.

Copyright © 2009 – Sports Climax

The Notre Dame non-Fighting Irish and Michigan share the Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week honors after both confirmed they are bottom-of-the-barrel, lower than whale-shit football programs.

The non-Fighting Irish program is at an absolute low after allowing a (2-8) Syracuse team to embarrass them on their home field with a 24-23 win. The underdog Orange actually trailed 23-10 in the fourth quarter before rallying to score and eventually winning the game with an 11-yard pass with 42 seconds remaining.

For the Irish (6-5), losing to an underdog like Syracuse ranked among the worst losses in team history and left coach Charlie Weis with an inexcusable 28-20 record in four seasons.

The Michigan Wolverines and coach Rich Rodriguez rightfully share the honors this week after getting totally dominated, spanked, beat up and bitch-slapped by their rival Ohio State, 42-10 in the most lopsided score of this rivalry game since 1968 when OSU slammed U of M 50-14.

After that game OSU coach Woody Hayes was asked why he went for two with such a ridiculous lead late in the game. His response, “Because I couldn’t go for three.” Now that’s a rivalry!

Charlie Weis, who is also a member of our Fat Bastards Gallery, and Rich Rodriquez, you easily earned this week’s Sports Climax Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week.

Copyright ©2008 Sports Climax

TALLAHASSEE – Florida State University attended their NCAA hearing on October 18 concerning the cheating scandals that rocked the university and put another ding in their athletic program and will be anxiously awaiting the committee’s decision. 

The good news is, this time the rap isn’t an athlete raping or getting busted with weapons and drugs. This bad news is, the scandal involved university personnel; more like a corrupt white-collar offense; and higher-ups must surely have known about it. If they didn’t, then they weren’t managing their staff properly.

The initial report of a cheating scandal came from a solo student who ratted out their fellow athletes during spring 2007.

After receiving the news and putting their brain cells together, the university decided to do an “in-house” investigation. That inquiry revealed that staffers provided student-athletes with answers to exams and went as far as tying papers for them during 2006-07.

In all, 61 athletes cheated and were forced to retest. Out of the 61 Seminoles retested, 59 of their scores took a plunge.

In their most recent investigation, the NCAA found no additional evidence of academic cheating-can you say paper shredder–but may still consider additional penalties against the school, including the forfeiture of games.

The university admitted cheating and manipulating of scores occurred but argued against having to forfeit games. FSU may be expecting a slap on the wrist and appears to be ready to fight to the death about taking a few wins from their football team.

“We believe that ours was a through and exhaustive inquiry including extensive examinations of computer records and files to search for any evidence of impropriety regarding NCAA or university rules,” Florida State president T.K. Wetherell said in a statement.

This is a typical example of manipulating and cheating to get ahead, then when you’re caught, do an “in-house” investigation and make a statement about how thorough and unbiased your findings are.

People are not that stupid, T.K.

Should we have criminals do their own investigations after we arrest them?

How about the next time you guys play the Miami Hurricanes we ask a few of the ‘Canes coaching staff to put on the zebra-wear, give them a whistle and let them call the game.

An AP report stated that in February, Florida State announced it was penalizing itself with two years of probation, the loss of scholarships in 10 sports and suspensions of 30 percent of a season for 61 athletes – about a third of them football players, many of them starters. The probation does not include a ban on postseason play.

Of course it doesn’t-and the 30% may sound like a lot but it’s only three games of the football season.

Again, do we look that frickin’ stupid, T.K!

Florida State also has made changes in staffing, basically fired a few ‘Scooter Libbys’, who were doing something a higher up must have known about.

It will be interesting to see if the NCAA does the right thing and nails FSU with severe sanctions as opposed to accepting FSU’s “self-sentence”.

In the meantime, the Seminoles will have to sit and sweat it out.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax