Monthly Archives: August 2010

A Look At San Jose State and Alabama Season Openers

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Of course this is the main reason you are going to the game but get ready for the hot WAC action when you get there.

Of course this is the main reason you are going to the game but get ready for the hot WAC action when you get there.

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On Saturday, Alabama will inaugurate the 116th season of Crimson Tide football facing the San Jose State Spartans in the newly renovated Bryant-Denny Stadium. It is the first time these two teams have ever met on the gridiron even though the Crimson Tide football program is but a single year older (the Spartan’s inaugurated their program in 1893).

San Jose State will be the 55th team the Crimson Tide have opened the season against. Alabama’s more common opening day opponent is Howard (now Samford) who have played the Crimson Tide 12 times to start the season. Alabama has faced out-of-conference opponents for the season opener each of the last 11 years (Vanderbilt in 1999 being the last SEC foe).

The Crimson Tide has opened the season 50 times in Tuscaloosa, compiling a 47-2-1 record over that span. Since Bryant-Denny Stadium’s construction in 1929, Alabama is 17-1-1 in season openers at the venue.

Alabama will be inaugurating the new expanded and upgraded Bryant-Denny Stadium. The South end zone addition will boost capacity to more than 101,800. The last time Alabama faced a WAC foe for the season opener was in 2006 when UA unveiled the North end zone expansion. The additional 8,000 seats boosted attendance to 92,138 for a 25-17 victory over Hawaii.

The Crimson Tide has traditionally dominated its season openers, racking up a 91-21-3 record in its history and currently riding an 8-year winning streak over which the Crimson Tide averaged of 37.8 points per game.

Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban holds an 11-3 record in season openers over the whole of his collegiate career. Coach Saban hasn’t opened the season in Tuscaloosa since his first game as head coach of the Crimson Tide, a 52-6 victory over Western Carolina in 2007.

Jordan La Secla

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

San Jose State’s Jordan La Secla will be the first to test Alabama’s young secondary. The Spartan senior earned 1,926 yards, 10 TDs and 11 INTs in 8 starts last season.

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Things aren’t promising for the Spartans who only mustered a 2-10 record last year and went 1-7 in the WAC. Head coach Dick Tomey retired at the end of the season and former Duke DC Mike MacIntyre was hired. Moreover, the squad lost 27 players off last year’s injury ravaged team.

It is the second time the Spartans have faced the pre-season No. 1 team in the season opener. San Jose State traveled to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2000 to be presented a 49-13 beatdown by the Cornhuskers. (Interestingly, that season saw San Jose State’s last victory over a top-ten opponent when they bested No. 9 TCU boasting running back LaDanian Tomlinson 27-24 in Spartan Stadium.)

San Jose State has never won a game against an SEC foe and two of those three losses came in season opening games. In 1991 the Spartans fell 59-21 to Florida and in 1999 they were bested by LSU. The Gators faced San Jose State in the second game of the 2003 season and served up a 65-3 win over the west coast visitors.

Gametime: 6:07 p.m. CST

Television: The Alabama-San Jose State game will be televised on a pay-per-view basis by the Crimson Tide Sports Network. Chris Stewart will call the action with former Alabama quarterback Tyler Watts as the color analyst and former Tide linebacker Barry Krauss reporting from the sideline. More info can be found here.

Radio: Eli Gold and Phil Savage will handle the radio call on the CTSN. KLIV (1590 AM, San Jose) will carry the game in California with Mike Chisolm and Kevin Richardson.

Internet: ESPN3 will carry the game online.

Roll ‘Bama Roll

Jay Mariotti Backlash Discussed On “Around The Horn;” Panelists “Saw This Coming” (Video)

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The vitriol directed at Jay Mariotti was a topic of discussion during a segment of “Around the Horn” today, with Kevin Blackistone, Woody Paige, and Bob Ryan weighing in on the backlash felt by their co-sports shouter in the wake of his arrest on domestic disturbance charges.

In case you’re just joining us, Mariotti was pointed and laughed by the entire internet after his arrest, then suspended by AOL Fanhouse, the website he works for, and psuedo-suspended by ESPN, the network for which he commentates for. Today, the whole ugly business was discussed on “ATH.”

It’s important to note the way host Tony Reali framed the discussion: they weren’t talking about the charges themselves (“that’s one thing”), but the disdain aimed at Mariotti following the arrest.

Both Blackistone and Paige agreed that pretty much everyone saw this coming (the disdain, not the charges), and that for someone who specialized in being a “provocateur” (TV-speak for “this guy was an asshole”), such a reaction was not surprising.

Nor was it surprising to Bob Ryan. But what was interesting about Ryan’s response was that there was a definite tsk-tsking at work – that Jay Mariotti, because of his habit of provocateuring, had dug himself a grave in the sports media community, and would not be getting any type of support from those within it.

“I only regret that Jay does not enjoy that [type of] support,” said Ryan. “But he’ll have to start rethinking how he goes about his business.”

SportsGrid

“I’m at the Trump International Soho, ask for me.” As I’m sure you are all aware, our beloved…

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Trump_soho

“I’m at the Trump International Soho, ask for me.”

As I’m sure you are all aware, our beloved Crimson Tide will be donning alternate uniforms provided by Nike for one game this season. The new unis will be unveiled at a media event in New York Wednesday morning at 9am CST, and as luck would have it, Nico2.0 and I will be boarding a plane for the Big Apple tomorrow afternoon to check them out. Why? ‘Cause Nike is paying for it, that’s why, and I’m not one to look a gift night’s stay at a five start hotel in the mouth. So ramble over here to RBR come Wednesday morning, where kleph will have your open thread goodness and Nico and I will be sending back pictures and video, plus talking about how awful everyone else’s jerseys look on the twitter.

Roll ‘Bama Roll

Seth MacFarlane Makes ‘MNF’ Theme Song Joke…But Where Have We Heard It Before?

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Ah, the classic Hank Williams Jr. “Are You Ready For Some Football?!?!?!?!” tune that’s brightened many a Monday night through the years. Go on, try not to sing it to yourself now that you’ve been reminded of it – it’s just the right combination of cheesiness and, um, more cheesiness to get you fired up for some gridiron action.

It’s an iconic enough anthem, in fact, that it recently spawned a Twitter joke from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane:

Congrats to Hank Williams Jr. for his Lifetime Achievement Award from the Football Readiness Institute.

It got retweeted like mad, and it’s easy to see why – it’s a fine joke. In fact, it would probably be one of my favorite jokes I’ve seen in a while…if not for this.

Sadly, MacFarlane has deleted his version of the joke (we’ve got a screengrab below), presumably after finding out The Onion did it almost nine years ago. Perhaps it was the right move, considering MacFarlane doesn’t exactly have a reputation as the most original voice around (ex. the joke at 1:02 of this NSFW clip).

Poor MacFarlane – we assume he had no malicious intent here (and check out the rest of his Twitter – he’s got some good lines, so it’s not like he’s incapable of thinking up something funny), and he still winds up looking like a joke thief.

One day, Seth, you will devise a brilliant line that will be yours and yours alone. And when that day comes, we will be tweeting. Screengrabs of both MacFarlane’s joke and the Onion’s brilliant original from October 31, 2001 (still one of my all-time favorite jokes of theirs) below.

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SportsGrid

This Exists: Head & Shoulders Takes Out $1 Million Insurance Policy On Troy Polamalu’s Hair

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Weird celebrity insurance policies, especially on notorious body parts, are the stuff of legend. Just observe this list – or this one, for that matter – for some of the craziest (and in some cases, quite possibly fakest) insurance policies ever taken out.

Well, we have a new one to add to that list. Head & Shoulders, manufacturer of perhaps the best-known anti-dandruff shampoo out there (and, as seen here and here, prominently endorsed by Steelers star Troy Polamalu) decided to protect its investment in Polamalu by making another one – a $ 1 million insurance policy on his luxurious mane.

The People writeup on the policy sounds a bit like a Head & Shoulders press release in spots, such as when Polamalu says, “One guy in particular…is stealing all of my Head & Shoulder products,” or when it says, “Women and men across America are desperate for the secret to those Samoan curls.”

Polamalu said the insurance policy renders him unlikely to cut his hair – something he hasn’t done in eight years anyway – so realistically, the only thing this policy guards against is potential baldness. Sure, there could be some freak hair-losing accident, but Polamalu’s sure to take extra care to make sure that doesn’t happen.

After all, Polamalu is the guy who, according to People’s writeup, takes 45 minutes before a game to care for his legendary locks. We’ll take their word for it, but…45 minutes? Well, actually, just look at that hair again. It’s worth the time – and, just maybe, worth a cool million.

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SportsGrid

Today In Athletes Who Make It Rain: Brett Anderson

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Brett Anderson’s injury-plagued 2010 continued on Friday night, when he was forced to leave A’s/Rangers game after tweaking his right knee.

However, the only thing that appeared to be plaguing him the night before were two ladies and a bunch of singles. The following picture was tweeted out from Anderson’s account on Thursday night, then made an appearance on SportsByBrooks:

There’s nothing technically wrong with the above picture. In fact, it’s pretty funny. Unfortunately, the A’s didn’t find it as humorous as we did, and made Anderson take it down. The pitcher then canceled his Twitter account in an apparent case of the morning-after guilties.

This means no more pictures of Anderson looking like the pudgy 20-something son of a Texas oil tycoon. And that’s just sad news for everyone.

SportsGrid

Minneapolis Police Federation endorses Mark Dayton

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The 900-member strong Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis is moving from the red to the blue column, announcing today that it was endorsing Democrat Mark Dayton for governor.
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The Blotter