UCLA Football's new ad campaign

Yeah, right.

2008 ESPY Awards Nominees

I've said this for the past few years and I'm still surprised that I'm actally dead serious...if I could go to any major awards show, I'd go to the ESPYs. The show is always fun, everyone looks like they're happy to be there, it's not as stuffy or super fancy as other shows...and it's all about sports.

How does it get better than that?

The official list of nominees was released today, and is available for viewing and voting at the official 2008 ESPYs Website.

Below, some of the more itneresting categories (and my choice is italicized):

Best Male Athlete

Tiger Woods
Tom Brady
Kobe Bryant
Alex Rodriguez

Best Female Athlete
Lorena Ochoa
Candace Parker
Danica Patrick
Lindsey Vonn (skiing)

Go Danica!

Best Moment
H.S. Softball Sportsmanship (This was the actualization of everything they teach you sports SHOULD be about when you're a kid, and that beats everything else in my book)
Lester's No-Hitter
Danica Patrick's first win

Best Championship Performance
Venus Williams at Wimbledon 2007
Josh Beckett in the MLB Playoffs
Rafael Nadal at 2008 French Open
Tiger Woods at 2008 US Open

Prepare for total domination.

Best Game
Super Bowl XLII: Giants over Patriots
NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Kansas over Memphis
NBA Finals Game 4: Celtics over Lakers (I'm not a huge basketball fan, but this game was amazing)

Best Team

Red Sox
NY Giants
Celtics
Kansas Jayhawks
Tennessee Vols Women's BBall
Red Wings

Best Play
Trinity Laterals (this was one of the most jaw-dropping things I have ever seen...and they did it for the win)
Manning to Tyree
Minnesota's Buzzer Beater (Hoffarber)
Rick Nash Goal

Best Upset
Appalachian State over UM in Week 1 of College Football (I LOVED this when it happened, not realizing that it would set thesage for one of the strangest, most upset-filled seasons of college football in recent memory)
Da'Tara wins the Belmont Stakes
NY Giants defeat the Patriots in the Super Bowl
Fresno State wins the College World Series over Georgia

Record-Breaking Performance
Barry Bonds
Tom Brady and Randy Moss
Brett Favre (broke the career touchdown record and the career interception record in conecutive weeks...but he's one of the best there ever was)
Usain Bolt

Brett Favre: All kinds of awesome.

Best Coach/Manager
Tom Coughlin, NY Giants (Even though he beat my beloved Packers in the NFC Championship game, what he did with that team was nothing short of astonishing)
Doc Rivers, Boston Celtics
Terry Francona, Boston Red Sox
Pat Summitt, Tenessee Lady Vols

The ESPYs, hosted by Justin Timberlake, will be broadcast on ESPN on Sunday, July 20 at 9pm EST.

Brett Favre retires

I wrote all about my love for Brett Favre back in January, right after the Packers' overtime loss to the Giants in the NFC title game.

I hate to repeat myself, so I'll keep this short. Late last night, Favre told the Packers (and this morning, they told the world) that after 17 seasons, he was retiring.

Excuse me, my heart is still a little busy breaking. The last of my childhood sports idols has hung 'em up.

Unarguably one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Favre leaves behind a young Packers team absolutely primed to do big time things (which they proved over and over again during the 2007 season). Without him...who knows? Their QB spot is a huge question mark.

I'm going to try not to focus on that right now. I'm going to focus instead on all of the things I love about Favre that I'm going to miss not getting to see...ever again. Like how much fun he always seemed to be having trudging back and forth across that field, even in snow and subzero temperatures. His love of the long ball (and how he could still throw it better than anyone else at 38). His flair for the dramatic and the unexpected. How infallible he is: playing through countless injuries, 275 consecutive starts, having that magical Monday Night Football game right after his father unexpectedly passed away. Favre is a steady, dependable constant: a rock of a player on whose shoulders Green Bay built their team. On top of all of that...he's actually a nice guy to boot. He has a presence, an intangible thing that he brings to the game of football. I'm going to miss it.

No. 4 retires, this blogger cries.

EDIT: Wright Thompson at ESPN puts it better than I ever could: Favre Retires

My heartbroken ode to Brett Favre

THE man. There will be no arguing with me.

I have to say one thing before I go any further: I love Brett Favre.

I've loved him since I was 12 years old. At the start of the 1996 season, Los Angeles had no football team. It was the first year I payed even the slightest bit of attention to football, and I fell in love with the reigning Super Bowl champs and their QB. I admit, it was a bit of a convenient, random choice. But my hometown no longer had a team, and there was something about Favre that my 12-year-old self just adored.

I've followed Favre and the Packers for 12 years now and my loyalty has never wavered. So much has been said about Favre. He is the best QB the game of football has ever seen (sorry Tom Brady - check back with us in seven years or so and we'll talk. Until then, sit back and deal with being second-best) and one of the classiest sportsmen I've had the pleasure of watching in my admittedly brief life. Watching him and the Packers play just makes me HAPPY.

The 2006 season was awful. Critics proclaimed Favre, already old for a QB, finished. He teared up at the end of the 8-8 season and everyone thought he'd retire. But he came back for 2007 and absolutely blew everyone's expectations out of the water. Breaking records left and right (including most touchdown passes AND most interceptions in consecutive weeks) Favre and his cannon of a right arm lead the Packers to a 13-3 record, the NFC North title and a spot in the NFC Championship game.

They faced a resurgent Giants team, led by the Manning no one cares about. The Giants came out of nowhere in the last month of the season so clinch a Wild Card spot in the playoffs. And, in front of a hostile crowd of 72,000 at Lambeau Field, the Giants shocked the Packers in overtime, 23-20, ending Favre's Cinderella season and, possibly, his career.

I'm not gonna lie: I cried. I'm a girl, sue me.

My heart broke for my team and for Favre, who, in a perfect world, would've gotten one last shot at another Super Bowl title. My heart broke when, in overtime, Favre threw an interception that set up Tynes 47-yard field goal to win the game for NY...what could possibly be the last pass he ever makes. He deserved so much better.

But the Pack couldn't run the ball. Ryan Grant, so effective in last week's victory against Seattle, went absolutely nowhere all night long. The Green Bay O-line had incredible difficulty holding back the Giants defense, which meant Favre was under pressure all night long. The Packers' D, to me, seemed to have difficulty making the first tackle all night long. They got a last-second reprieve when Tynes missed the 36-yard field goal as time expired...but then came that second pass, the one Favre will probably wish until the end of his days that he could have back. It was a bad decision, plain and simple.

It would just be a damn shame if that's how Favre, for all that he's brought to the game of football, goes out. If that's the last thing people remember about him. Seeing his face answering questions after the game also broke my heart. He was agonized, and I'm sure it doesn't make his decision of whether or not to come back any easier. Should he come back for one more season, hoping the magic and his soon-to-be 39-year-old arm holds out (when they could very likely revert to the 2006 Packers...or worse)? Should he retire with pride in knowing that he's the best QB and one of the best players the NFL has ever seen and that there's very little he hasn't accomplished?

As long as he can still hold a football, I'd love to see him on my television screen every Sunday (and sometimes on Monday and Thursday). Football will be a little less classy when he's gone, a little less fun to watch. Plus, as long as he's out there, I always have faith in Green Bay to pull out a miracle.

I'm gonna say it now: Favre in '08. (And then I'm going to bury my face in my pillow and cry a little bit more).

Pete Carroll is a Golden God...

...as long as he remains where he is.

ESPN is reporting that Carroll has expressed itnerest in the open head coach position with the Atlanta Falcons. Granted, there is a story like this nearly every offseason. Carroll is one of the top (if not THE top) Division I-A college football coach in the nation. His .844 winning percentage is the highest among all active college coaches in the nation with at least five seasons of coaching experience. He swiftly and surely turned the Trojans' football program around into one of the Top 5 teams in the nation with a wink and a smile.

SMASH! (Again.)

All previous rumors have come to naught. If there ever were official offers, he turned them down. Carroll always says he's very happy where he is. upposedly, nothing short of full creative control over an NFL team would even possibly sway him to leave. However, that's exactly what the Falcons are (reportedly) offering him.

Carroll got burned in the NFL with the Jets and the Patriots and their fans haven't forgotten his "failings" (I can't enter into a conversation with my Boston friends that has the words "Pete Carroll" in it without them going off on a tangent about him...and don't even get me started on Bill Simmons). As the title of this blog states, as a college coach he is a golden god. Seemingly uncriticizable, untouchable, the greatest of the great. I have no trouble believing that Pete Carroll could ask for the moon and Mike Garrett would be on the phone 2.4 seconds later trying to figure out how to get it for him.

Oh, Petey. We love you so (Never ever ever gonna let you go).

I'm not quite sure why this story makes me uneasy. Like I said, he's been courted by the NFL before and has always stayed firmly rooted at USC. But that was before we stumbled this season. Before the rumblings of a crumbling dynasty started. Before Carroll (I keep having to stop myself from calling him "Petey" like many other Trojans I know do, he's that much "our guy") righted the ship by season's end, made Illinois look silly and had those critics eating their words. I don't know why I'm worried. I don't really think he'll leave.

I don't think he'll leave...until he does. If it happens, remind me to find a place to hide until the Trojan fury dies down. It won't be pretty. We don't let of our golden gods without a fight.

BCS: The "C" stands for "Chaos"

I have yet to find a single person who disagrees with the idea that this college football season (especially since the dust from the bowl selections has finally settled) proved, more than any other, that the BCS system is severely flawed.

Every year, multiple articles bemoan that very same fact, however. There's always some team that gets overlooked because it's in the wrong conference or it lost at the wrong time or having it in that particular bowl game isn't the best monetary decision (and, we all know, that last part is what REALLY skews things).

Ohio State is the No. 1 team because of a soft non-conference schedule, a final week bye and a top ranking in a completely unimpressive Big 10. Hawaii is the only undefeated team in the nation, but playing in the WAC and not being a college football "heavyweight" (read: lacking the pedigree and the ability to draw in the big money like a top team in the Big 10, Big 12 or SEC could) means a No. 10 ranking and a spot in the Sugar Bowl. Not too shabby, but still...

We're Number One!

Really? REALLY?!

This isn't fair. But it isn't unfair, either. It's not an argument I really want to go anywhere near, because there's just no way to satisfactorily resolve it under the current system.

Almost every other NCAA sport had a playoff system in place. I realize that implementing such a system in college football has huge hurdles - the largest of which is a big, fat dollar sign. I wish sportsmanship and the spirit of competition and drive to prove who REALLY is number one still took precedence over who could draw the most sponsorship money. But you know what they say about wishes...

Still, there's something clean and satisfying about a playoff system. You fight all year to MAKE the playoffs, but once you get there, everyone is on equal footing again. You have to prove yourself all over again. In a year where it seems like no one REALLY, CLEARLY belongs at the top, playoffs seem like the thing that would calm the chaos. Make those two-loss teams (nearly all of whom suffered an embarrassing, heart-wrenching upset) lock helmets and EARN it. Can you just imagine the football games we'd get to see? I'm getting excited just sitting here thinking about the mere possibility.

Damnit. I always do that, though. Get really, really excited about things that will never happen. Because money always wins out. Always (though I will cast a sidelong, puppy dog glance at the BCS committee that says "please, boys. Prove me wrong.").

Barring my pipe dream, here are my gut picks (sans any real analysis...yet).

ROSE: USC over Illinois

SUGAR: Georgia over Hawaii

FIESTA: Oklahoma over West Virginia
ORANGE: Virginia Tech over Kansas

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP: (I hate both of these teams, but) LSU over Ohio State

The mighty Trojan Nation

As I sit here watching USC play OSU, I feel sort of like an old biddy in a rocking hair, reminiscing about the glory of days gone by. Yeah yeah, I'm a spoiled little football bitch (and a smug one at that). No one needs to tell me this; I am fully aware. Two National Championships (and very nearly a third...but I can't talk about that), three Heisman Trophy winners in four years and a record of 48-4.

I come from the era of thunder and lightning, Pete Carroll, "the push," repeated stomping of rivals UCLA and Notre Dame and more oranges and roses than we knew what to do with. My classmates and I don't really understand the meaning of that big, ugly "L" (though I WAS at that fateful 2006 Rose Bowl and I'm still not going to talk about it...) Sports columnists touted us as one of the greatest college football teams EVER. We took over as THE Los Angeles team (because the Dodgers, Kings, Clippers and Lakers sure weren't doing much in that stretch). Even our harshest critics' hurled insults were so feeble, they were laughable.

Then came Oregon State. And the baffling 13-9 UCLA loss. Everyone was just a bit too eager to turn on the top dog. So we went to the Rose Bowl and thoroughly dominated Michigan (again) and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. A funny thing happened during the 2007 off season, though. The Pac-10 (which previously consisted of USC and...um...I'm out) started stepping up their game.















The 2007 season features a fantastic Oregon team, a bafflingly good Arizona State team, and solid Cal and UCLA teams. That's not even getting into one of the craziest, David-beats-Goliath seasons college football has seen in years (kicked off by *hee-hee* Michigan and Appalachian State). We inexcusably lost to Stanford at home, breaking a 35-game home winning streak. We understandably lost to Oregon.

With a month left in the season, we sit at #19...an unimaginable number. I can make arguments about Booty's middle finger and an offensive line decimated by injuries. But I won't. Many in the Trojan Nation are full of sputtering excuses and a lot of sports columnists are smugly touting that they "knew it was coming."


Don't fool yourselves. The Trojan dynasty has not died. Our defense still puts most others in the nation to shame. Our offense is still play making just fine, thanks. Being a two-loss team shouldn't inspire "end of the world" hand-wringing. Sure, it takes us down a peg or two, but everyone needs to be force-fed a healthy dose of reality every once in a while. We're not invincible. But we're also not to be dismissed or counted out...ever.


Besides, it's a great ploy for the mightiest to lull everyone else into a false sense of security for a while before turning around and leveling everyone in their path (Hey, I may have been taken down a peg or two, but my football ego remains firmly intact).