Shanahan departs

Pat Bowlen did the unthinkable.
He fired his coach for life, Mike Shanahan.
Some thoughts to start the discussion:
• It's about time. You can't lose a three-game lead with three to go and not expect to pay for it in some way, shape or form.
• You can't foul up defensive drafts as badly as he did the past few seasons. You don't give up 52 points in a season finale and more than 400 points the past two seasons without some effort.
Weigh in ...

Filling in her spare time

Jeanne Zelasko, formerly of the (free) Fox TV baseball warm-up show (axed for the coming year) is angling to become a new TV voice for the L.A. Dodgers, according to www.awfulannouncing.com.
She admits to knowing nothing about baseball, in spite of whatever she learned from former Manager Kevin Kennedy during the alleged baseball discussions that preceded Fox's baseball games the past several years.
The man who would be her cohort, Vin Scully, makes broadcasting seem very easy. But it isn't, particularly if your assignment is baseball. There's a considerable amount of dead time to fill, whether it's with anecdotes, stats or (heaven forbid) letting the audience listen to the crowd.
First views? She'd be in for a rough start, no question about it. And it would be quite a change from being the star of a program to being a supporting player.

Trip in time

Sportsland is back in action despite a bit of rain and way too much mince pie. I hope your Christmas was everything you hoped for ... and perhaps a little less on the mince pie (but Mom's mince pie is something else!!).
Instead of rehashing the carnage from the Broncos game last night (can someone say "Time for a new coach?"), I wish to show my age (again). I watched an old game show while I was gone ... "What's My Line?" The game was simple to follow. A panel of four well-known celebrities tried to guess a hobby, job, passion of a guest or series of guests.
What made this half-hour a change from today's alleged game shows was the demeanor of the people involved. No one was interested in making fun of the guests, the hosts, one another. The humor was real, not forced.
It'd be nice to see that in 2009. But it, like the Broncos guaranteed playoff run in 2008, will have to wait a while.

Merry Christmas

Holiday hiatus

In the spare time available before various recipes were finished the other night, I heard an interesting back-to-back batch of Christmas tunes.
Kate Smith.
David Seville and the chipmunks.
Only at Christmas.
Sportsland is going to take the act on the road for a week or so. There will be some time to check in. But most of the next eight days will be reserved for a visit to the Left Coast and see Santa in his Bermuda shorts try to make a landing in the palm trees and having a cheeseburger Christmas Eve.
Whatever the traditions, here's to a wonderful holiday season to you and yours.

Traffic stats

Heard this one on the radio yesterday morning from Mark Koebrich, the channel 9 anchor.
In Beijing, scene of this summer's Olympics, 2,500 people get their driver's licenses each day. There are some 400 accidents per day in Beijing, and pedestrians don't get the same protection from crossing the street as we do.
And you thought Denver traffic was bad.

Breathless

It applies to the efforts to avoid discussion on the Broncos loss to Carolina Sunday. As colleague Kevin Denke pointed out, the local press moved real quick to sweep a 20-point loss as far out of sight as they could and to start hyping the game with Buffalo this weekend.
But even after 30-plus years of living in these parts, I can't understand why the Denver press leads the Sunday night news with ..... the Broncos. Most people watched the game and, one would think, might have seen the highlights. If they didn't, there's a good chance they weren't interested.
I'm interested in what the Broncos are doing, but I'd also like to know what happened while the game was on.
Wouldn't anyone else?

Slow times in Congress

"WASHINGTON -- Taking aim at a BCS system he said "consistently misfires," a member of Congress planned to introduce legislation Wednesday that would force college football to adopt a playoff to determine the national champion.

"Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, didn't specify what sort of playoff he wants -- only that the BCS should go."

The view here ... solve something a little more immportant, say the nation's fiscal crisis, the rising unemployment rate. Find some way to restore retirement funds that are going up in smoke.

What was he thinking?

Avalanche center Joe Sakic broke three fingers the other day while clearing snow from the driveway of his home.
He is the same Joe Sakic who is out of the Avs lineup because of a bad back.
Which prompts the question ... why is someone with a bad back horsing around with a snow thrower?

Room to improve on two fronts

Hooray for Denver. They beat a team they were predicted to beat yesterday in the Kansas City Chiefs. There are still some holes, esp. on defense, that haven't been (won't be?) addressed.
But today, we're going to whine about CBS analyst Steve Beuerlein, the former quarterback for the Raider and for Denver. It's easy to see why he is part of the 10th announcing team for CBS. He was wrong more often than not yesterday. He was smug more often than he was right, and he tried to play doctor (we will assume he did so without staying at a Holiday Inn Express).
Instead of waiting for a replay, Beuerlein bellowed that running back Peyton Hillis landed on his head after a play during the second quarter. Hillis left the game with a leg injury, not a head injury (at least he had the right player), and did not return.
Note to Beuerlein: don't first guess in case of injuries, especially potentially serious ones.
And don't give up your day job.

Simpson sentenced

Nine to 33 years in prison. That was the sentence for former football star/actor/pitchman/broadcaster O.J. Simpson yesterday for his part in a botched effort to retrieve some property he said was stolen.
What are your thoughts about the sentence? About Mr. Simpson? I'd love to hear them.

BCS bonanza Sunday

Random thoughts before the BCS has its say this weekend on who plays for the national collegiate football championship.
* President-elect Barack Obama will have a lot of pull come Jan. 20. But he hasn't met anyone as short-sighted as the NCAA Division I presidents when it comes to a national championship game. As much as Mr. Obama -- and others -- would like to see the college football championship decided on the field, it's not likely to happen any time soon.
* That said, here's one dude's guess for the two teams that will wind up in Miami the second week of January for the coveted computer title -- Oklahoma and Alabama. They are the two best teams I've seen this year and (sorry Pete Carroll), either one of those could take USC behind the wood shed.
What are your thoughts? Weigh in .. the floor is open.

Odd bounces

Memo to Plaxico Burress of the New York Giants: Why did you feel the need to take a gun to the club with you the other night? And why did you rearrange the motto of the Rotary Club to read "Self Above Service?"
Memo to Pete Carroll of USC: The rules of the BCS are the same as they've been. The only change is to your team. It's the sort of thing that happens when you lose to Oregon State.

Just a matter of time

Just when you thought it was safe to get away from the empire that is all things ESPN ..

Now there are high school public address announcers who think they are ESPN SportsCenter anchors – even down to the same inane expressions that people under the age of 10 might understand.

Please .. just stick to the facts of the game at hand. The world does not pay money to listen to you, nor should it have to listen to any more of Stuart Scott's bromides than is rightfully allowed by law.

Happy Thanksgiving

Make it a great day with family or friends. See you back here Monday morning.

A couple of musings

• Since when did it become impossible to determine what advertisers were trying to sell the general public on TV?
• NBA coverage on Turner Network Television is far superior to anything offered on ABC/ESPN. Why? One reason. The TNT folks pay some attention to the game. The ESPN people are far more interested in self-promotion.

7-9 could win the AFC West

There's a parallel forming between the AFC West and the NL West.
It's a division no one should be forced to belong to.
It's entirely possible that someone will win the AFC West with a record that is below .500. Denver took a step in that direction by not showing up for its game with Oakland yesterday. San Diego stayed two games behind by losing to Indianapolis last night.
Denver coach Mike Shanahan may have been right when he guaranteed his team would be in the playoffs. But at 7-9, that's nothing on which to hang a hat.

Sad news

Former Jefferson County sheriff and Golden police chief Russ Cook was found dead in his South Jeffco home today. He was 59.
His troubles with alcohol were well-known. They cost him the sheriff's job in 2003 after just six months on the job.
I worked around Cook for many years. He was a good man, hired in Golden at a time when the city needed some leadership stability and accountability in the department. He was as open, as accessible and as pleasant a police chief as a press person or member of the public could ever hope to see. He also offered a certain reporter his resources to find family members who hadn't been heard from following a huge earthquake in the L.A. area in 1994.
Cook's heart was in the right place. But the bottle wasn't too far away, and that's the saddest part of all.

Greenberg movie opens eyes

Watched an interesting movie the other night on Detroit Tigers' slugger Hank Greenberg. He was the first Jewish player of note in the majors, and he played in the 1930s and 1940s.
The biographical information and his career stats are fairly common knowledge. What opened my eyes was a comparison between the amount of abuse he took because he was Jewish and the amount of abuse Jackie Robinson took because he was a Negro. Greenberg's career finished the same year that Robinson broke the color barrier.

Super Bowl? Not a chance

Two straight wins do not make a Super Bowl champion.
In the eyes of the Denver talkers and TV stations, the Broncos are unbeatable.
True, the defense showed up the last two weeks.
It's also true that half the offense – the runners – can't show up for a while because of injuries. And as good as Jay Cutler seems to be, he can't carry the troops alone.
It's also true the defense is quite suspect, despite the last two games.
Hooray for the two wins. But let's put a cap on Super Bowl talk.

A change in the NBA

No, it's not the Denver Nuggets. Yes, they changed people (Chancey Billups is here and Allen Iverson, Eduardo Najera and Marcus Camby aren't, and the Nuggets didn't get anything in return for Najera and Camby). But they don't figure to be a lot better than before .. at least until Carmelo Anthony takes full control of the team on the floor.
The major change of note is the Detroit Pistons. Yes, the same Pistons with the advanced degree in half-court offense. Now it's the Pistons who run the floor when the chance is available.
Times change. So do good teams. It'll be interesting to see what Detroit does this year.

Community rallies once again

Ten thousand dollars.
That's what organizers say is the total from a fundraising effort Friday night for Zach Canaday. He's the 9-year-old Brighton youth football player who has brain cancer, diagnosed just before his most recent birthday.
Those who want to help out should e-mail raedward@jeffco.k12.co.us.

Odd trade

Not because the Rockies traded Matt Holliday to Oakland.
It's what they got in return .. not very much.
Huston Street might help the Rockies pitching staff. The other pitcher in the deal has an ERA of 7, which is in line with pre-humidor Rockies pitching.
The idea was to trade Holliday before the Rockies got nothing for him when he hit the free-agent market in a year.
I hope the Rockies didn't get their share of the nothing a year too early.

Stop the speed-ups

Anyone else noticing the increased speed of TV replays of scoring plays in football?
If you're looking for something that looks pretty childish, then watch your favorite player run for a touchdown at warp speed.
Thanks but no. If it's an effort to save time, then find a scoring play that doesn't take so much of it.

Misplaced uproar

The folks in South Jefferson County are coming unglued at the seams.
A number of Columbine football players will miss their team's playoff game this weekend because they went to a post-playoff party last week at which alcohol was served. As they used to say in my day, that's a Bozo no-no. And it's not up for debate.
What is amazing to the sports editor for that group of papers is the uproar it is causing, that apparently nothing like this happens in Utopia or that their team is so perfect that nothing goes wrong.
Lest we forget. These are young boys under the microscope for this discussion. And young boys – girls too – tend to explore things that are best left alone.
Something got lost in translation, that's for sure.

'One small step for man ...'

Before all the political backbiting starts, I hope we can take a few days to realize just exactly what happened yesterday.
We elected a black man as president of the United States .. no small feat for a country that featured blatant and not so blatant segregationist moments .. some of which were rather recent.
It's a truly wonderful moment in our nation's history. The next chapter comes Jan. 20 at the inauguration takes place.

Nov. 5 will be a good day, too

It's come to our attention at the sports desk that Nov. 5 may be just as significant a day as today.
Voters will elect either the first black man to the office of president of the United States or they will elect the oldest man to serve a first term as president of the United States. And at some point later on tonight/tomorrow morning, we'll know more.
But come Nov. 5, the voters will not have to listen to any more political commercials, at least for two years or so.
I'm Steve Smith, and I approved that concept.

Making a point?

We hear that the new San Francisco 49ers coach dropped his britches the other day to make a point to his team.
Insert your own joke here.

Don't say we didn't warn you

Chris Berman of ESPN, the master of all things political, is going to interview Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama at halftime of the Monday Night Football game next week.
This is can't see TV.

Wet World Series

The weather-hampered World Series may continue tonight in Philadelphia.
Then again, it may snow.
Regardless, it's brought up a chorus of complaints and suggestions that the Series needs to move to a neutral location, much like what the NFL does for the Super Bowl.
It's a senseless knee-jerk reaction to a problem that hasn't happened very often in the history of the Series. No one complained after the earthquake in San Francisco. That was a 10-day delay. No one complained in 1986 when Game 7 of the Series between the Red Sox and the Mets was delayed a day because of rain.
The issue of suspending a game wasn't an issue before last year. If a tie game or a game in which the visiting team led during an incomplete inning, the score would have reverted to the last completed inning. Can you imagine the rumpus if the Series had been called off and Philadelphia declared the winner because of rain?
If there is a problem – playing around rain, snow, cold weather – it's MLB's doing. They want the games in the evening, even though most youngsters can't stay up and watch. Some grown-ups can't either. MLB voted in the extra round of playoffs, which pushed the last games of the Series back to Halloween and even November in 2001.
What do you think?

Sportsmanship should trump

FORT LUPTON -- Fort Lupton's football team won its third game in a row Friday night. They beat Frederick 33-0.
It could have been worse. Already leading by the 33 points and after seeing a player taken off the field on a stretcher, Fort Lupton had the ball first and goal on the Warriors' 3-yard line. Coach Mike Muedeking ordered four kneel downs and gave the ball back to Frederick.
So of course the postgame discussion was why the Bluedevils didn't pile it on late.
The answer is pretty simple. It's called sportsmanship. And unless something has been discussed in a back room somewhere out of view of most people's ears, that's one of the main facets of prep sports that should be emphasized when possible.
It wasn't necessary to score six or seven more points at that point in the game. It wasn't necessary to do anything at that point in the game other than leave the field and hope the injured player is OK.
The Bluedevils have had a tough year. But not in this instance. Muedeking made the right call.

Leave it to the new dad on the block

Colleague Kevin Denke summed up today's feelings about the Denver Broncos ..
"Thank goodness they are in the NL West."

Pondering

The media bias has come to the doors of MetroWest.
What I can't figure out is whether we are liberal because the conservatives don't like what we write or if it's vice versa.
If it's that simple, then we must be doing our jobs.

Rays and Phils starting tonight

Make it the Rays in six.
There's nothing particularly wrong with the Phillies, although resorting to bean-ball antics the way they did in the NLCS makes me scratch my head some.
It seems like the Rays are playing well enough right now – and all during the season – to make the worst to first story complete with a World Series title.
What are your thoughts?

Good job times two – part 2

FORT LUPTON – The second part of our round of congratulations goes to the Fort Lupton football team.
The Bluedevils won their second game in a row Friday night. And they beat a team rated in the state 3A polls that, quite frankly, didn't play like a team that deserved to be in anyone's poll.
The smiles on the players' faces and the coach's faces after the game told the whole story, far better than anything available in words. And they were well-deserved. Fort Lupton hasn't had a lot of luck this year. So to beat a rated team so late in the season – as the commercial says, it was priceless.

Good job times two

AURORA – It's a two-parter of "atta boys and atta girls" to start this week's blogging.
The Frederick softball team gets the first round of congratulations. The Warriors finished second in the state tournament over the weekend. This, despite a 14th seed of 16 teams in the field.
The finals didn't go so well. Wheat Ridge took it to Frederick in the finals. But something tells me that the players realized what sort of effort it took – as the 14th seed especially – to reach the finals.

Halfway to Tampa-Philadelphia Series

There's no way in the world that the executives at Fox are looking forward to a Tampa-Philadelphia World Series.
The other match – Boston and the Dodgers – would have treated them and us to an entire week of Manny Ramirez stories, like we haven't seen enough of that already. But the sight of Tampa Bay (one more win in the next three) and Philadelphia in the showcase event for Fox's coverage of MLB has to send its executives into absolute panic.

Tampa Bay in the Series?

Could it be?
The Rays dismantled the Red Sox last night .. and the night before that. And they won Saturday night's marathon as well.
The Rays?

What goes around comes around ...

A few short weeks ago, it was Ed Hochuli botching a call late in Denver's win against San Diego that gave Denver a win. And it was Mike Shanahan who insisted that those things happen in the NFL.
So here we are digesting the Broncos' latest defensive collapse against Jacksonville. The press seems to think some calls may have swung the game in the Jags' favor. And Shanahan was on stage to cry foul, not "those things happen." Hypocrite.
The only thing foul about Denver is its defense. It couldn't stop a good high school team right now.
Believe it or not, the officials don't play defense, though they could help Denver in more ways than one.

Congratulations!

Our colleague and friend, Kevin Denke, and his wife, Malisa, welcomed a new addition into their house yesterday. Tierney Marie was born shortly before 4:00 in the afternoon at Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton.
She was 7 pounds 8 1/2 ounces and measured 20 3/4 inches. To see a picture, go to http://royalbness.blogspot.com/
We suspect that all are sleeping soundly today, and we couldn't be happier.

Thanks for the education

Leave it to Major League Baseball to re-educate this old coot on the calendar.
For the last two years, they've been telling me that "there's only one October."
I can safely say, "Thank you from the heart of my bottom."

Surprised and not really surprised

Aside from being the favorites to meet in the World Series and from being among the teams ousted in the first round of the playoffs, the Cubs and the Angels have something else in common.
They forgot how to do the things that made them the talk of baseball this season.
In the Cubs case, everything shut down at once .. pitching, hitting, defense. If you can't do the three basic fundamentals of baseball, the success rate won't be real high.
In the case of the Angels, it was "waste not, want not." One player left 14 runners on base by himself in four games. The Halos surrendered three runs Sunday night by not catching a 150-foot fly ball. They surrendered two more runs because they couldn't turn a double play.
On to the next round. The games should get better over the next 2 1/2 weeks.

Poll time

One thing reporters tend to be is curious. And in the sports department, we were curious about football.
Our specific question is “Who is the best football player from Fort Lupton and Brighton high schools?”
Yes, we know that players come from different eras and had different emphasis on training and weight rooms and the like. And we realize that it makes such comparisons somewhat hollow.
But that doesn’t matter to us. We want to give you your chance to state your case for the best from the gridiron.
Send us some information about the player. When did he play? What position(s)? What made him your pick for the top player in the school’s history? Did he go on and play collegiately? Did he come back and coach either at the school or somewhere locally?
Be as eloquent as you choose. Be as brief as you choose. But send us some names. The school has a rich tradition in athletics, and we’d like to tap into some of that history.
The rules are few and far between.
* Vote early and vote often (just like in Chicago). We encourage ballot-box stuffing and all sorts of other chicanery. We won’t draw the line at sorting through hanging chads either.
* Have some fun with this while knowing that you are educating some newcomers to the area at the same time.
Send your nominations to ssmith@metrowestnewspapers.com or sports@metrowestnewspapers.com. The deadline is Nov. 26. We’ll name the winners Dec. 3.

Where did everyone go?

Courtesy of colleague Kevin Denke, this was the scene at Tropicana Field just before the Tampa Bay Rays ventured into the playoffs for the first time yesterday.
It's just flat embarrassing, not just for the servicemen and women on the field but for the franchise as a whole.
One gets the feeling the ownership hasn't made many friends, even with this year's on-field success.

Arrogance away?

The University of Colorado's football team has a well-deserved reputation for arrogance. Has had for years.
So could there be a sign of change brewing in Boulder?
Starting quarterback Cody Hawkins drove out to Brighton this week and let 9-year-old Zach Canaday shave his head. The story is in this week's Brighton Standard Blade (www.metrowestfyi.com).
Hawkins did this on his day off from practice and because someone else in the community needed a pick-me-up.
Say what you will about the program or his dad (who happens to be the coach). It's pretty obvious the Hawkinses raised a pretty decent son.

Jobs that won't last

We're starting a list of sports-related jobs that may not last, regardless of the present economic condition.
The first members are:
1) An organist at any professional sporting event
2) The sole source of mature advice for such athletes as Ricky Williams of the Miami Dolphins (quoted as saying he was tempted to smoke marijuana during his team's week off last week) and Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets (he and many a police officer are on a first-name basis around Denver).
3) Coaches for the Oakland Raiders until Al Davis retires.
Additions?

It figures

How else should the Colorado Rockies season end but with a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth inning?
It's another testimonial to Clint Hurdle's book – the one that says, "I will use this pitcher in the eighth inning and another pitcher in the ninth, regardless of success," .. the same one used by managers all over the game and the same one that needs to be rewritten or burned. The successful pitcher Sunday struck out 10 in seven innings.
Now starts the offseason. One thing seems certain. We won't be seeing the same Rockies when spring training starts in a few months. Matt Holliday may not be part of the crowd. Garrett Atkins may leave. So might Brian Fuentes. The Rockies are in a position where they have to get something – pitching? – for those players while they can. If they wait another year (in Hollilday's or Atkins' case), they won't get anything.
Let the fun begin.

Best 1-3 team ever?

You could make that case on behalf of the Denver Broncos' record to this point in the season.
The facts are that the Broncos are a one-dimensional team (haven't we been down this road before?) and the one dimension isn't the defense.
Then throw in yesterday's debacle in Kansas City where they – somehow – managed to overlook one of the worst teams in the league.
As colleague Kevin Denke points out, just wait until the Broncos play against someone with talent, such as New England or even Tampa Bay this weekend. Those won't be pretty either.

QB nominations

Because Kansas City didn't settle on a quarterback right away, we here at Under the Seats will help out the Chiefs.
Here are some suggestions:
* Bronco Nagurski
* George Blanda
* George of the Jungle
* Len Dawson
* Len Berman

A day at the ball yard

DENVER – It's a good thing baseball fans like to visit. Otherwise, Colorado's home finale would have been worse than it was.
After all, a 7-0 lead in the fourth inning (by which time the home team is on its third pitcher) can't be good. The final wasn't good either .. D-backs 13, the home team 4.
So how about a discussion about a peach muffin recipe? Or another one about the Rockies' good shortstop, Troy Tulo-whiskey.
How about a wonderful pregame salute to our servicemen and servicewomen, including a flyover from units based at the former Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora?
How about some knowledge about manicuring Coors Field? They cut the grass twice a day to keep it in playable shape.
That, plus the usual cries for Clint Hurdle's scalp and an afternoon-long hope that the game would finish promptly made for a fine afternoon.
But it wasn't the same as a year ago.
No sir.

Overrated?

There are those who think Denver's football team is considerably overrated.
The Broncos are 3-0. They've beaten two weak sisters in the league and figure to beat another one Sunday in Kansas City.
The "bent-but-don't-break" defense can't be good either.
What do you think?

Time to move on

Note to Channel 4:
Yes, the whole world knows you are the Broncos station. And yes, the world knows you get first dibs in the locker room after each game, not that such a thing matters to the masses – it certainly doesn't matter to this particular mass.
But please. The Ed Hochuli/inadvertent whistle/the NFL says it will investigate better means to enforce inadvertent whistles in conjunction with replays story doesn't amount of beans now.
I'm sure you can find something else in your self-promotional world to harp on besides the fact that a respected official made a mistake.

Idea for the Chiefs

Because the Kansas City Chiefs seem to go through quarterbacks the way we go through socks, we'll offer a suggestion.
How about using a single-wing offense? It eliminates the need for a quarterback.

Time for a rule change

Most people realize that Denver was lucky to beat San Diego yesterday. If not for an inadvertent whistle on a fairly obvious fumble, Denver would not have won.
Which brings us to the subject for today. It's time for the NFL to stop making inadvertent whistles as important as intentional ones. As it reads now, the whistle stops everything, even when the call on the field is proven to be incorrect.
If the NFL expects its officials to be right 100 percent of the time – and sometimes even that's not good enough – then it needs to allow for wrongly timed whistles to be overturned.

Tough spot

Courtesy of Frederick High School athletic director Kris Keith ...
Players from Skyline and Fossil Ridge high schools got into an on-field altercation last week. One of the players took his helmet off and hit one of the opposing players with it.
Police took the offending player off the field.
The victim's father is also an assistant coach. He's in a tough spot. On the one hand, there's the "heat of battle" argument. On the other hand, there's a potential for assault charges.
What would you do?

9/11

NFL observations

* The spiked Kool Aid that usually follows a Broncos win isn't quite as apparent this week. Yes, Denver beat Oakland. No, Oakland isn't going to make anyone sit up and take notice, unless you like watching bad teams self-implode.
Which brings us to the next point of order:
* There are two games on this week's schedule that deserve to be watched by diehard fans of the teams and no one else -- the essence of what the TV networks call "regional coverage." Oakland and Kansas City is one (boy, that should be a beaut). And Miami at Arizona is the other.
For those in office pools and in fantasy football leagues, you have my sympathies.

Are you sure?

It took a quarter and a half of last night's Broncos' game before one of the ESPN motormouths offered this gem.
He told young receivers that they "should catch the ball with their hands."
As opposed to their face?

Something in the water?

Item No. 1 – the Fort Lupton assistant C-team coach (who also is the police chief in Fort Lupton) resigns after an altercation on the sideline during Friday's game between the Bluedevils and Berthoud. The coach was on his own time and not serving as police chief at the time.
Item No. 2 – A Frederick parent applauds a Warriors' player who was kicked out of Friday night's league loss to Windsor.
How about some thoughts?

Just curious

ERIE – A lot of people left the Prairie View stands last night, long before the end of the ThunderHawks game against Erie.
Yes, the game was one-sided. But I hope those who left early (I don't think all of them were coaches) were trying to beat the traffic or just happened to be in the area and thought they'd watch a game.

Reading material

The Sept. 8 issue of Sports Illustratedincludes a short article on Vin Scully, longtime radio and television voice of the Dodgers. Give it a look. I loved the extrapolation between Shakespeare and sideburns!

Broncos ready for 2008 season

Be interested in some thoughts about the Denver Broncos season.
Rod Smith and John Lynch are gone. So is Domonique Foxworth. Those are some pretty big holes to fill on both sides of the line.
Step right up and offer up a thought or two ..

Future of CU-CSU

Because it's fairly quiet in the sports world (after all, it's another six days before Broncomania officially takes hold), the papers have been full of stories about the Rocky Mountain Showdown, the annual football game between CU and CSU that took an act of the state Legislature to resurrect.
Where should it go after 2010? Should it be played at all?
I'd love to have your thoughts.

Fall flailing

Rocktober 2?
Probably not.
Yes, the Rockies are making some noise. And they are making some noise in one of the worst divisions ever invented.
Does it rise to the level of what we saw a year ago? Probably not.
Enthusiasm is one thing. But a straight reporting of the facts would be even better.
But fear not. We could be in either Green Bay or New York, where news of an on-again, off-again retired QB continues to dominate conversation.
It could be worse.

Not a bad life

But can someone loan me the $3.5 million it would take to get a house on Grand Lake?

Look before talking

Colleague Kevin Denke pointed out that the two Rockies TV announcers made a rather large rumpus out of the idea that the Dodgers would have to play a late-night game against Philadelphia on a get-away day.
Then they said that, well, it wouldn't be so bad because L.A.'s next game was in Washington, D.C.
Then they realized the Dodgers had one more game to play in Philadelphia.
Far be it for me to say so. But there's a thing called research. It's a wonderful thing and helps prevent a certain amount of egg on one's face.

Grandiose

Was it just me? Or did the closing ceremonies of the Olympics last night seem to take as long as a Colorado Rockies game? The opening ceremony was almost four hours long. The one last night seemed to trudge wearily on and on and on.

Weighing options

We could yak about the end of women's beach volleyball (hooray for the gold medal. Now let's put the "sport" and the "sport" of ballroom dancing in mothballs.)
We could yak about Usain Bolt, the two-time gold medalist from Jamaica. His accomplishments on the track are something to be behold. You don't win the 100- and 200-meter races by that wide a margin without some talent.
But instead, I should like to direct you to colleague Kevin Denke's blog (www.nomeansknow.blogspot.com). When you see it, you'll know why.

World Series picks

It's a little early, I know. But if ESPN can start talking about this and the best 25-year-old-and-under team (they were airing a really bad game, that's for sure. Either that, or analyst Steve Phillips hadn't talked for 30 seconds), then so can we.
My picks at mid-August are the Angels and the Cubs. They are the two best teams in the majors, hands down.
Weigh in with yours ...

More from gymnastics

Can anyone explain the gymnastics tie-breaker used last night in the uneven parallel bars?
Me neither.

What a weekend in Beijing

It was a wonderful three nights of races in the Olympics, even with an hour delay in this time zone.
If it wasn't Michael Phelps winning his seventh and eighth gold medals in the Olympics and his humility, given the situation, it was the two Jamaican sprinters, Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser running away from their respective 100-meter dash fields to win the gold.
It's reasonably easy to stay away from a computer or other media source when the event iss something you particularly want to see. Pity the poor folks on the West Coast. They had to wait three hours to see the coverage.
Tom Hammond, who calls the track and field events, should be a prize in the NBC announcing stock. His enthusiasm is appropriately timed, such as the two, 100-meter races. And he clearly does his homework, even though NBC doesn't spend a lot of time covering track and field during the three years leading up to an Olympiad.
Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines, who were poolside for Phelps' run to the eight gold medals, were equally as good. Both were prepared, and both were surprised (as were the rest of us) when Phelps won the butterfly title by 0.01 of a second.
It would be hard to top what's been done in the first week of the Games. But someone will.

A record that doesn't belong to Mr. Phelps

If I'm reading correctly, it's been at least two weeks since anyone on TV has made the "Manny being Manny" reference to the new Dodgers' left fielder.
That has to be a record, even if most of the free world doesn't understand its meaning.

Oh boy .. more of that transplanted and confused Green Bay QB

According to awfulannouncing.com, because the world hasn't had enough of the escapades of the former Green Bay quarterback, CBS decided to show most of the football world the game between the Jets and Miami the first weekend of the season.
Because the Broncos play in Oakland for the Monday night game, you may be subjected to it ..
Then again, you might be lucky and have other plans ...

Tough summer in sportsland

The Rockies are stumbling through one of their worst homestands of the season at the worst possible time, assuming someone thinks the Rockies might win 21 of 22 between now and the end of September.
The TV stations think that dancing Denver Broncos are worth air time before the regular, restricted coverage of training camp.
Joe Sakic can't make up his mind about playing another season for the Avs.
The Nuggets begin another season soon. Even though Carmelo Anthony may have learned a lesson from good players in Beijing (well, we can always hope), the team certainly won't be any better than last year. You can see for yourself 16 times on national television this season.

This anthem's for you

It's an honor to represent your sport for the Olympics, even if half the men's basketball team plays in the NBA.
It's a bigger honor to represent your country in the Olympics.
But watching several medal ceremonies the past few days made me wonder how big an honor it was for the gold medalists to stand on the platform and hear their own national anthems.
My guess (obviously, there are no Olympics in my future any time soon)? Priceless.
One of the American female swimmers almost didn't make it through the Star Spangled Banner last night .. sorry, it was late and I can't think of her name. She fought back those tears all the way through the anthem, and then out they came. Just as if someone turned on a spigot.
Those sorts of pictures (and one's individual thoughts) are far better memories of the Olympic Games than wondering about drug testing or the level playing field that may or may not exist in gymnastics.

E-e-e-e-e-e-e nuff

The breathless coverage of that former Green Bay quarterback continues unabated.
Word is he was punished for bobbling a snap in training camp.
It's almost as suffocating as the Denver coverage of a long-since retired quarterback.
It's time for the media to find something else. Few people care.

A real Olympic sport?

I like volleyball. I played for three years in high school and was even on a league championship team.
Regular old volleyball has been an Olympic sport for many years. Even though NBC will stuff it into the middle of the night somewhere on some three-lettered network (maybe five?) it owns, it will be worth recording some of the play.
But I cannot get that enthused about watching beach volleyball, which was introduced to the Olympics when the Games were in Atlanta.
I've played beach volleyball. It's tougher than regular volleyball.
But in comparison to other sports at the Olympics, beach volleyball belongs on the sidelines together with ball room dancing – another suggestion that has yet to see the light of day.

Perpetuate vs. real curiosity

I really am trying to stay away from the quarterback issue in Green Bay.
But I was wondering if anyone stayed home yesterday to see ESPN's breathless coverage of physical exams in Wisconsin?
There are some billboards that make me glad I work during the day.
That was one of them.

New topic .. please

In my never-ending effort to get away from all things Wisconsin, I offer these snippets from the weekend ...
* There are pennant races in progress (except in the A.L. West). The Angels are among the top teams in the American League, and I'm not sure there's a National League team that could knock 'em off in the World Series. The Cubs are the best team in the NL but not quite strong enough for everything the Angels offer.
* Why did the Colorado Rockies stood pat at the trading deadline?
* NASCAR has to fix a serious problem with its approved tires that made the Brickyard 400 a joke.
* Channel 9 actually covered a Denver City Council meeting last week, but only because Rod Smith was there to get a proclamation. (Note to the Channel 9 anchor .. those sorts of things are ceremonial. It's nothing to get excited about when the council passes a proclamation by unanimous vote).
There. I feel better.

This is easy

The mere fact that the Green Bay Packers offered $20 million if a former player would stay away tells me a lot.
Perhaps he's not welcome any longer?
Even if you don't buy that, it wouldn't be a tough choice if someone offered $20 million to stay retired.
Would it?

Over-discussed topics

1) Brett Favre.
2) Manny Ramirez.
Solution No. 1: Tell them to go off into the sunset.
Solution No. 2: Read a good book.

Everyone calm down

It's wonderful that the Rockies are starting to play a better brand of baseball. It's even better that Garrett Atkins is providing some much-needed pop at first base.
But does beating up the likes of Cincinnati, the Dodgers and, perhaps the Pirates (to whom they have lost two straight this week), signal a return of last fall's run to the playoffs?
Not hardly.

Moonlighting referee

Randy McCall has two jobs. His main one is to be athletic director at Cherry Creek High School. The other is to officiate NCAA basketball games during the winter.
Media reports say he will be allowed to miss 37 days of work next year (with a corresponding pay cut of 20%) to referee the games. The district says it's a beneficial arrangement and will use the money to hire someone to sit in McCall's office while he's away.
The reports also implied that the district said there wasn't as great a need for a full-time AD because Creek has such an outstanding record in McCall's 11-year tenure there. What they forgot to include was that Creek has its pick of the top-of-the-line athletes from there and other parts of the metropolitan area.
But we quibble.
What are your thoughts about this arrangement?

No interest, thank you just the same

Dear Denver media:
John Elway played in the Colorado Open golf tournament at Green Valley Ranch over the weekend.
Whopee.

Rod Smith a Hall of Famer?

Someone swallowed the original version of the blog yesterday.
But fear not. With some good curse words and help from colleague Gene Sears, we're back among them again.
It's a new format. But the same rules apply. All comments are welcome, unless you choose to butcher the king's English with foul language.
On the docket for today is the issue of former Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith and whether he belongs in the NFL Hall of Fame. The Denver media would have you believe that anyone who ever played for the Broncos – including the vertically striped socks days – belongs.
What are your thoughts? Weigh in.