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It was an eerily warm November morning when I arrived in South Bend yesterday with my son, Gary, to attend the Notre Dame-Navy battle. "What a beautiful day for a game!" I exclaimed to my son as we listened unsuspectingly to the band's pre-game rendition of the Notre Dame Victory March. Little did we know that we were not about to witness a football game, but a funeral. For not only did the Naval Academy's efficient yet stunning 23-21 victory, their second in three years against the Irish after Notre Dame had defeated them 43 years in a row,...

The likelihood of outrage seems inevitable this year in college football: The BCS controversy, which even President Obama has issued proclamations about, seems ready to explode, since six undefeated teams - two from minor conferences - survive with only three games left in the season. Two conferences, Mountain West and Western Athletic (WAC) are excluded from automatic participation in the BCS, and must compete for one of two wildcard teams, and both still have undefeated teams. But should a team which has gone undefeated and unchallenged take a slot from Alabama or Florida, which are likely to also go undefeated......

Charlie Weis likes his team's chances of earning a Bowl Championship Series berth -- if No. 19 Notre Dame keeps winning. Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett does, too. Catlett said the Gator Bowl would love to have a Fighting Irish team that finishes 10-2, but can't imagine it happening.

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NEW YORK — Maryland and South Carolina will wear uniforms with camouflage designs during their games Nov. 14 to honor military veterans and promote the Wounded Warrior Project. The black with tan camouflage uniforms, designed by Under Armour, will have a Wounded Warrior logo on them. Instead of players' names, the backs of the jerseys will have words such as courage, loyalty, integrity and service. "Ooooh," South Carolina defensive tackle Ladi Ajiboye said Tuesday after seeing the camouflage cleats the Gamecocks will wear. "I could wear these the whole season." The Wounded Warrior Project acts as an advocate for injured...

1 Florida 2 Texas 3 Alabama 4 Iowa 5 Cincinnati 6 TCU 7 Boise State 8 Oregon 9 LSU 10 Georgia Tech

Covered in blood, this is Marlon King's victim minutes after he smashed her in the face. Emily Carr was punched so powerfully by the footballer that she felt she had been hit with a brick. Her nose is permanently disfigured. King, 29, a £35,000-a-week striker for Premier League Wigan Athletic, was jailed on Thursday for lashing out at the 20-year-old student when she spurned his crude advances in a club...

The long awaited match-up between the top two teams in the country turned out to truly be a battle with No. 2 Navarro College coming away with a hard-fought 23-20 victory over No. 1 Blinn College.

Are the Longhorns ready? More specifically are Colt McCoy and his wide receivers ready? Colt seems to think so, “Everybody wants to play and be a part of what we’re doing,” McCoy said. “When you have a little competition…it requires them to come to practice and be prepared every day. If they have a good week of practice, they know you’ll see them get a chance to play more on Saturday. It has helped us and you can see it in our offensive work.” The Cowboys seem to be ready for the challenge too. “I always felt good about playing...

FORT WORTH – A deal to make it easier for visitors in town for the 2011 Super Bowl to get to Cowboys Stadium could be close, a spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad said Thursday. UP has been in talks with Super Bowl host committee officials for months over a rare agreement that would let the region run passenger rail cars along busy freight lines owned by the railroad. Passengers headed to the big game could leave from rail stations in Fort Worth or Dallas, and would be dropped off near downtown Arlington, less than a mile from the stadium. Shuttles...

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, safety Darren Sharper of the New Orleans Saints and kick returner-wide receiver Johnny Knox of the Chicago Bears are the NFC Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Players of the Month for October, the NFL announced today.

It took a while, but Jonathan Nelson finally discovered the secret to getting on the field for No. 22 Oklahoma: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. A string of injuries had held Nelson back since he arrived on campus in 2006, but the last hurdle he had to clear before earning some playing time was convincing secondary coach Bobby Jack Wright that he had put enough meat on his slight frame to play safety. That's where the PB&J came in. Strength and conditioning coach Jerry Schmidt put Nelson on a diet requiring him to eat several peanut butter and jelly sandwiches...

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WASHINGTON -- Mr. Conyers intends to focus this hearing specifically on brain injuries -- and on their ramifications in college and high school football as well.

If the Redskins keep running their team as they are, we're going to have to do a Washington-only offshoot of Shutdown Corner, dealing with nothing but the exploits of Danny "Commodus" Snyder's Declining Roman Empire. There are a lot of great stories in the NFL this year, and it's not our intent to ignore or shortchange them, but geez ... how do you not whack hanging sliders like these over the wall? Dan Steinberg of the indispensable D.C. Sports Bog put up a post today based on signs he picked out of various garbage cans outside FedEx Field. The signs...

Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez took a little break from Sunday's game against the Raiders to enjoy a delicious Oakland hot dog. During the final minutes of the game, CBS cameras caught the USC alum chowing down. "I wasn't feeling very good and didn't eat much before the game, so I was feeling a little queasy," Sanchez told the Associated Press. "Toward the end of the game, I probably should have eaten one of those bars or something, but someone offered (a hot dog), so I grabbed it and tried to be discreet about it, but obviously not discreet enough. So...

Can anyone at ESPN keep a job? The network suspended Bob Griese today for a racist remark he made about NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya. While he was calling Saturday's Minnesota-Ohio State game, Griese made a crack about Montoya saying he was "out having a taco." Montoya is Colombian. ESPN is yanking Griese off the air for one week, and a rep for the network says Griese "understands the comment was inappropriate." Yesterday ESPN fired baseball analyst Steve Phillips after news broke of his sex scandal with a production assistant.

The 49ers had pulled to within three and were driving with 1:38 remaining in the game....

Even with no time on the clock the top-ranked Blinn Buccaneers scored points in their homecoming game against Cisco College to log their eighth win of the season and set up a showdown with No. 2 Navarro next Saturday in Corsicana. The Bucs scored seven touchdowns in the first half and five in the second half to win 84-13 at Spencer Stadium.

Last play of the game, 4th down!!! Hawks win!!! 8-0 BAYBEE!!!!

WASHINGTON — The Washington Redskins front office capped a week of high drama Friday with an unexpected vote of confidence in coach Jim Zorn. "Jim Zorn is the head coach of the Washington Redskins and will be for the rest of this season, and hopefully into the future," executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato said on his radio show on ESPN980.

On Sept. 5, while Florida feasted on Charleston Southern and Texas opened with Louisiana-Monroe, the Oklahoma Sooners played a strong BYU team on a neutral field. That’s when Sam Bradford sprained his shoulder while being sacked, an injury that derailed OU’s title hopes. A week later, while Florida annihilated Troy and Texas blew out Wyoming, Southern California played at Ohio State.

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Angelo, look at the way your son's eyes darken now. Look how he balls up his fists and uncrosses his legs, as if he's uncomfortable, as if he suddenly remembered someplace he needs to be. Look how the smile on his face—the smile that punctuates all the stories he tells, like the one about Bear Bryant wanting a lane of traffic cleared for his team (the Pennsylvania governor said no), or the time at a coaches' convention that Dan Devine mentioned an unnamed loudmouth coach at Oklahoma, and Barry Switzer shouted, "Switzer!" and raised his hand—look how that grandfatherly smile...

ESPN's "30 for 30" -- 30 films by 30 noted filmmakers about the biggest, most important, or most-deeply felt events in sports from 1979 to 2009 -- focuses tonight on that giant of professional sports: Donald Trump. While you might think he's just a guy obsessed with games (as in gaming) or competition (as in "The Apprentice"), he is also the man credited with -- or, more accurately, accused of -- destroying what seemed like the best chance professional football ever had of being the pure fun sport it was intended to be, as opposed to the NFL which players...

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said Monday that they are backing a federal political action committee "dedicated to discarding the Bowl Championship Series and instituting a competitive post-season championship for college football." The people behind Playoff PAC – whose tagline is "Beat the BCS. Save College Football." – believe that the Bowl Championship Series is "inherently flawed," the group said in a press release. "It crowns champions arbitrarily and stifles inter-conference competition," the group argued. "Fans, players, schools, and corporate sponsors will be better served when the BCS is replaced with an...

Friday night, wrapping up the Rush Limbaugh/NFL brouhaha on Fox News’s Special Report with Bret Baier, the panel unanimously decided that Rush had been unfairly smeared as a racist, but that he was way off base in calling Donovan McNabb overrated. That's the consensus, but the consensus is wrong. Donovan McNabb is consistently a merely above average quarterback with flashes of brilliance who has never justified the hype surrounding him. Here is the infamous quote (note that usually the first and last sentences are left off of this quote, which makes is sound slightly harsher out of context):

Heading into Sunday’s match up against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Texans had posted two wins this season against teams with a combined record of 1-9. Beating a red-hot Bengals team, who were riding a four game winning streak, would certainly be a needed shot in the arm, and a great way to silence critics who claim that this is indeed another Texans team going nowhere soon. Heart wrenching losses and erratic decision making over the past few weeks have certainly heightened that uncertainty, and falling to 2-4 would have placed the team in a very precarious position, but Matt Schaub...

The Left barely tolerates conservatives only so long as they talk to one another, write for one another, post for one another, and interact with one another. But if a conservative, especially a prominent one, should dare to leave the conservative “hood,” they jump all over him. He must be punished severely, so he will never again make the mistake of trying to mingle with “nice” people. That’s liberal? That’s progressive? That’s tolerant? That’s inclusive? No, that’s just the way things are.

The Florida Gators held the No. 1 spot in the first Bowl Championship Series rankings, despite playing a relatively weak schedule and struggling offensively in recent weeks. The Gators (6-0) had .989 points, giving them a 0.36-point lead over No. 2 Alabama in the standings, released Sunday for the first time this season.

A 12-year-old boy from South River has become a sensation at Rutgers University football games for his air guitar impersonation of Bon Jovi, according to a report in The Daily Targum. The report said Nicholas Sasso has become a fixture on the Rutgers jumbo screen when the public address system plays a Bon Jovi song. Sasso and his family have declined a Today show invitation.

What a game! The Vikes win it as the Ravens kicker pulls the ball just wide left of the goal post with 2 ticks left on the clock. 33-31

STORRS, Conn. - A University of Connecticut football player has died following an on-campus stabbing, hours after the team’s victory over Louisville. Twenty-year-old Jasper Howard of Miami, a junior and starting cornerback, was stabbed during a fight early Sunday. His death was confirmed to The Associated Press by an administration official who requested anonymity because of the police investigation.

Jasper Howard, a 5-foot-9, 174-pound starting cornerback on the UConn football team, died today after an on-campus stabbing. According to multiple sources, Howard, 20, was reportedly was stabbed near the student union.

Return to the Article October 18, 2009How Rush Limbaugh gave America its Sundays backBy Neil Braithwaite Ever since I can remember, from my days as a young boy sitting beside my dad perched in front of the old black and white 25" console, to just last week watching my high-def 42" flat screen television, pro football has been the essence of my fall and winter Sundays. I'm sure this is also true for countless milions of other men across this great land. But for many pro football loving men this past week, that came to a halt faster than...

After being knocked halfway to kingdom come, Tim Tebow knew that millions of college football fans would be paying close attention to his eyes the next time he led the Florida Gators into action. Viewers would be looking for signs that the quarterback was OK after a nasty concussion. Many would also want to see which Bible reference would be written in the patches of eye black that would be visible whenever television cameras focused on the face of America's most famous muscular Christian. Tebow was wearing Isaiah 40:31 when he got hurt against Kentucky: "But they that wait upon...

Actually, I'll refrain from watering down the spirit of my headline (like a Liberal writer would've) - and turbo-charge it instead: I'm European and regardless of the fact that American football is an extremely physical game, it still isn't a true contact sport like Australian football or soccer is and compared to soccer, it is often pretty safe. Period. Which part of the world houses the toughest sport on Earth? The Far East? Karate, Kung Fu and such hobbies are widely regarded as "true contact". But, provided you really wish to injure an opponent, the runway is longer and the...

The concern and negativity expressed by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Indianapolis Colts' owner Jim Irsay, and NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith over Rush Limbaugh potentially becoming a limited owner for the St. Louis Rams was certainly the right thing to do from a public relations standpoint. And it certainly accomplished its goal, as Dave Checketts essentially had no choice but to drop Limbaugh from his group that is interested in the franchise, which he did last week. But from a business standpoint, it sends a bad message to prospective owners and could end up hurting the league’s bottom...

Monologue | Aired Thursday night on NBC: Well, in sports news, the big story is the N.F.L. now stands for “Not For Limbaugh.” Well, as you probably know, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from a group of investors who were trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. Speculation was that Limbaugh was considered by the league to be too controversial, you know, unlike Michael Vick, Pacman Jones, coach Tom Cable, Plaxico Burress. The N.F.L. hates controversy. Hey, some good news for Rush. The Oakland Raiders are offering to give him the team for free. What’s going...

By Michael P. Tremoglie Tea Time Blog Since writing about the possibility of reverse discrimination in football last week (Tremoglie’s Tea Time Blog Oct. 8, 2009 http://tremoglieteatime.blogspot.com/2009/10/reverse-discrimination-in-football.html), I have received some examples of this and there has been a very public controversy involving the National Football League. My article was prompted by a quote from Stanford University Cardinals running back Toby Gerhart...

Editor's Note: See NewsReal's previous posts on the Left's attacks on talk radio host Rush Limbaugh's attempt to get into the professional football business here, here, here, and here.I like my coffee black and my NFL football straight, to paraphrase "Broadway Joe" Namath. In a recent blog critical of the International Olympic Committee (Jazzman Fails to Sanctify,) I wrote "my worst nightmare is the NFL getting involved in partisan politics like the IOC”. Sports are supposed to be what Jay Nordlinger calls a “safe zone” from politics. I have been a sports fan since I have been conscious. They provide...

Ringleading a notorious dog fighting ring wasn't enough to prevent Michael Vick from being welcomed back into the National Football League’s fold. Likewise, his involvement in a fatal drunk driving accident probably won't prevent Donte Stallworth's eventual return to the league. So it strikes me as more than a little ridiculous that the league thinks it is too good for Rush Limbaugh. In case you haven’t heard, Limbaugh was just dropped from a group trying to purchase the St. Louis Rams, following a fuss about his inclusion in the deal. Dave Cheketts, the leader of the group aiming to buy...

Media Bias: Not long after pro football welcomed a convicted felon back on the playing field, Rush Limbaugh is dropped for his opinions from a group seeking to buy an NFL franchise. Won't someone throw a flag? When even Keith Olbermann says back off, you know the politically correct critics of the conservative icon and megaradio talk host's proposed part ownership of the St. Louis Rams are guilty of piling on. The prospect of the leading conservative voice in America participating in the purchase of a football team sent the liberal elites into cardiac arrest and into a frenzied campaign...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - It didn’t take long for Ryan Abshagen to discover how many Buffalo Bills fans are unhappy with their team and want owner Ralph Wilson to make sweeping changes. In a little more than a week, Abshagen, an unemployed 18-year-old from New Freedom, Pa., raised enough money—$1,402 and counting as of Wednesday— through an Internet campaign to rent a billboard and advertise a message of discontent for everyone in Buffalo to see. “I honestly never thought it would ever be this big,” Abshagen said. “Fans are disgruntled. It’s out there. It’s big. People are going to hear...

Updated 29 minutes ago (SNIP) ST. LOUIS (AP)—Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh blames others for being dropped from the group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. On his syndicated show Thursday, Limbaugh said he was approached by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts earlier this year about participating in a Rams bid. He also said Checketts assured him his involvement as a minority investor had been vetted by the NFL. “I said to him at this meeting, ‘Are you aware of the firestorm?’ He said ‘We wouldn’t have approached you if we hadn’t taken care of that,”’...

Let me preface this by saying that I love football in general and the National Football League in particular. Having said that, I find something peculiarly hypocritical and twisted about the morality that apparently prevails in this league today. It has been estimated by some independent analysts that approximately 25% of NFL players get arrested at some point during their careers for a variety of crimes ranging from drug use, to drunk driving, to assault, even murder. Just in the last several years alone, we have had former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth convicted in a conspiracy to murder the woman...

Thanks to the Washington Post's Roman Oben, we now have complete clarity on the new rules for potential NFL team owners: Obama critics need not apply. In a candid moment during today's Al Sharpton radio show (probably not intended for the rest of us to hear), Oben admitted that Rush's political views regarding Obama were key to the opposition that appears to have derailed his bid to purchase the St Louis Rams. Were the fabricated racist statements and overall smear campaign simply added to camouflage the real (partisan political) agenda? Oben's revelation comes a day after news that Barack-tart Fergie...

Congresswoman Jackson Lee went on a rant today on the House floor about how Rush Limbaugh wouldn't choose a poor girl who may have a Democrat hero. She went on to insult Limbaugh and suggest he is in no way good enough for the NFL. Here's video of her. Skip to 2 minutes 30 seconds in to get to the Rush Limbaugh part. Congresswoman Jackson Lee D-Texas Suggests Rush Limbaugh Wouldn’t Choose A Democrat For Miss. America. Goes On A Rant On How Rush Shouldn’t Be Able To Be An NFL Owner. On The House Floor. Skip To 2:30.

“As a white running back you get stereotyped,” Stanford University running back Toby Gerhart said during an interview in the October 12, 2009 edition of Sports Illustrated. “When I tell people I play football they say, ‘Oh, you’re a fullback,’” he said. For those unfamiliar with the sport, fullbacks are running backs who rely more on strength then speed. However, they rarely carry the ball. Their role is usually reserved to block for the running back. Gerhardt then mentioned during one football game that he overheard a coach from the University of Washington refer to him by yelling, “He’s not...

One of two people who transported a spray-painted goat that had Brett Favre's number shaved into its sides admitted Monday she tied the animal up and locked it in the trunk of her car, according to the Winona Daily News. Janelle Dorothy Riopel, 21, of St. Paul pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cruelty to animals in transportation. She was placed on unsupervised probation for a year and ordered by Judge Mary Leahy to pay a $200 fine.