Apparently, Mike Shanahan and his son Kyle have run the math and Rex Grossman leading an awful team is better than Donovan McNabb leading and awful team. In fact:

UPDATE: Wait, it gets better! Apparently, John Beck will be the backup and Donovan McNabb will be inactive as the third quarterback. Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan have decided that John Beck is better than Donovan McNabb.

Let me repeat.

Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan have decided that John Beck is better than Donovan McNabb.

via FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Redskins Will Start Rex Grossman Over McNabb.

Wow. In my opinion, Tommy Lawlor says it best at Eagles Blog:

I think Shanahan is trying to make McNabb the scapegoat. By benching him Shanny is hoping that outsiders will say “the offensive struggles are due to McNabb’s disappointing play rather than the coaching/personnel decisions of Mike and Kyle Shanahan”.

via Iggles Blog – Philadelphia Eagles Blog: Scapegoat.

McNabb behind Grossman and Beck? Yea, sure.

This sucks for Temple University, but is good for the U:

The 41-year-old Golden spent five seasons at Temple, transforming the Owls from a program that was 1-11 in his first season to winning 17 games in his past two seasons at the Philadelphia school.

“From the beginning of this process, one candidate stood above the rest as the right fit for the University of Miami,” AD Kirby Hocutt said in a statement. “We are proud to welcome Al Golden to The U. His desire, leadership, communications skills and preparedness stood above the rest and he is the right man to meet the championship expectations of this program.

via Al Golden accepts offer to coach at Miami – ESPN.

Usually the “right fit” jargon is just cliche for we really like this guy, but Golden built up Temple from a program on the brink of being shut down to a viable program in a mid major FBS conference. Not too shabby. In addition, Temple and the U have some similarities: both schools do not own stadiums, rent their home fields from NFL franchises and are metropolitan campuses.

He really is an impressive coach, he understands tradition and he built as clean a program as you can have at Temple University. Big loss for Philadelphia that I think will be solid for the University of Miami.

“You’re only as good as your last game” Vick’s interview with NFL on Fox’s Pam Oliver aired on October 3, 2010 prior to the Eagles loss to the Washington Redskins. The extended version is below. (video below)

I have been light on sports lately, but I had to comment on the Brad Childress vs. Moss/Harvin/Vikings Locker room story. Childress’ propensity for poor leadership was evident 3 years ago when he decided to fine WR Troy Williamson for missing a game to attend his grandmother’s funeral (which he paid for and organized).

Based on his 2007 salary of $435,000, the action by the Vikings will cost the three-year veteran $25,588. Williamson has 45 days to appeal Minnesota’s decision to withhold his pay, and NFL Players Association sources said he will do so.

Coach Brad Childress told Twin Cities-area media following Thursday’s practice that the decision was on a “business principle” of the Vikings organization.

“He had a family obligation that he had to see to,” Childress said. “We sat down and talked on it before he left. … He had to do what he had to do. Everybody handles that differently. [Williamson] had to do what his family situation called for.”

…

Williamson’s maternal grandmother, who helped to raise him and with whom he was very close, died last week and he returned to South Carolina, where he played a large role in arranging her funeral. He also had to make travel arrangements for several of his siblings, some of whom are in the armed services. He returned to the team on Wednesday as the Vikings began practicing for this Sunday’s game against Green Bay.

via ESPN.com – Vikes dock Williamson’s pay for missing game for grandmother’s funeral.

Later, players let Childress know that this was unacceptable.

Grieving Troy Williamson will get his last game check back.

Vikings coach Brad Childress called reporters Saturday to share the news, citing a need to change course that “came ringing back” to him following a weekly meeting with the veteran players on his leadership committee.

via Vikings to give back Williamson game check – NFL – ESPN.

Childress put a “business principle” over a player’s family values and didn’t see anything wrong with that until players who earned respect of the locker room and staff of the Vikings had to explain to him how nutty he was. It comes as no surprise that the players and now the owner are turning on him.

One veteran said: “I think there was a great window of opportunity this past week to make a change.”

That player says the issues are the same as in recent years but have become more intolerable because of the team’s 2-5 record. He says Childress has never been popular in the locker room.

One player described Childress as untrustworthy. Another said: “The players have had enough of his BS. He needs to go.”

via Some Minnesota Vikings think Brad Childress should be fired – ESPN.

An empirical review of the performance of the Vikings team under Childress would lead to the conclusion that Childress deserves another year to right the course of the team. All reviews of Childress’ leadership lead to the conclusion that he needs to go.

Childress wasted a third round pick with the impulsive, unauthorized (yet deserved) firing of Randy Moss and this week, got into an argument with Percy Harvin while accusing him of not exerting enough effort in a walk through while he was legitimately injured. He regularly castigates these players for a lack of effort and excused absences and yet he has established a star system where he has sent special delegations to convince 41 year old Brett Favre to jump into the starters role while not attending a full training camp in each of the last two seasons.

Part of an NFL head coaches job is establishing a system where results, effort and professionalism are rewarded. Childress just isn’t able to do that. He’s better off being an offensive coordinator. Video of the ESPN report on the turmoil in the Vikings locker room is below.

Of course, the sad truth about the death of University of Notre Dame football team’s cameraman is that it didn’t have to happen.

Therefore, I can say with full confidence that the death of Declan Sullivan was not only preventable, but should have been prevented, and that Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick and coach Brian Kelly should pay for the tragedy with their jobs.Every professional cameraman has horror stories about shooting from scissor lifts. My guys this week all nodded grimly and knowingly when the news broke. No one was surprised. Many of them refuse to go up on a scissor lift in anything but perfect, windless conditions, such as those we had Saturday in Florida. And these arent fraidy cats — they have shot out the door of helicopters during boat races and jumped the wall in NASCAR pits and gotten in the way of angry bulls on rodeo shoots. Yet the idea that Sullivan would mount the scissor lift in conditions far from ideal shocked them.

via FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | One Foot Inbounds: Tragedy Off The Field.

Notre Dame has been playing like a second rate football team and this young man’s death speaks to the fact that this AD and Head coach are running a second rate program.

“When it gets that loud, it’s hard to ignore. I thought, especially the last three innings, it seemed liked it got louder every inning. It’s obviously one of the most electric atmospheres I’ve ever been in. It was pretty neat. It was something you obviously can’t ignore.”

via The700Level.com – Philly Sports & Minutiae: Quotable: Halladay On the Postseason Atmosphere at Citizens Bank Park.

It feels good to read this:

A few words from Braves catcher Brian McCann:

“We knew what we were getting into coming in here. We knew who they were pitching. We’ve all faced them before and they’ve all got great stuff. They executed every pitch and when they got themselves in trouble, they got out of it. That’s what number ones do and all three of those guys are number ones.”

via The Zo Zone: Magic Number Is 4.

4 more wins to clinch the NL East.

The big NFL news is from my Philadelphia Eagles as they pick Vick over Kolb to start this Sunday. I guess Andy Reid looked at the game tape and saw a Vick the NFL hasn’t seen before. One QB who was able to pass (not just throw) and still had enough of that jaw dropping speed (even after a prison bid) that leaves defenders looking like they are running with lead shoes.

The NY Jets players and staff heckling/harassing Inez Sainz leads me to ask: why the hell do any reporters need to broadcast or record reports in the locker room? I think everyone at home will be just fine waiting for the players to get fully dressed after athletic competition before they answer questions from the media.

It would be better for all sports industry professionalism if recording and/or broadcasting interviews of any kind from the locker room became a thing of the past. Video courtesy ABC News outlining the controversy with an interview with Sainz below:

Apparently, Michael Oher doesn’t care for the movie based on the Michael Lewis book about his transition from impoverished teen to DI football phenom:

Baltimore tackle Michael Oher has been invited to appear on Oprah twice. He’s been invited to the Academy Awards. He’s been asked to be in the audience at the ESPYs.

No, no, no and no.

Seems Oher is not very happy with how he was portrayed in The Blind Side movie. He thinks he was made to look like a simpleton who knew nothing about football before he was picked up off the Memphis streets and taken to live with a wealthy family. Seems he has no interest in furthering that public image, so he’s concentrating on one thing: being a football player.

via Brad Childress has no regret after begging Brett Favre to return – Peter King – SI.com.

This reminded me of the AV Club review of the film:

Sports movies have a long, troubled history of well-meaning white paternalism, with poor black athletes finding success through white charity. But The Blind Side, based on Michael Lewis’ non-fiction book, finds a new low. In the character of “Big Mike” (real life success story Michael Oher, played by Quinton Aaron), a poor, undereducated teenager later groomed into a top-tier offensive lineman, the film suggests a gentle, oversized puppy in need of adoption. (The family that takes him in literally picks him up from the streets during a rainstorm, like a stray. All that’s missing are the children pleading, “Mom, can we keep him?”) Given his background and 0.6 GPA, there’s no question that Oher was well behind his peers, but casting him as a big-hearted simpleton makes him seem subhuman, more mascot than man.

via The Blind Side | Film | Review | The A.V. Club.

The network will broadcast 14 CFL games from July through November this season. It starts with Thursday night’s league opener matching the Montreal Alouettes against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

via Canadian Football League games to be broadcast on NFL Network – ESPN.

Football is football. I’m a sports junkie. I’m in.

“I work to save people, I can always make more money, but you can’t bring back those that are gone.” – Manute Bol