I decided I wasn’t going to write a heck of a lot about college hockey this season for a variety of reasons that I won’t delve into here. I gave up my college hockey column for SBNationBoston. So far this season, I have only reported harmless media deals on this site, not delving into any real analysis.
And now that we’re a month into the season, I immediately and totally regret this decision. I’ve got too much to say. So here are my pent up college hockey thoughts from this weekend- edited and sanitized of course. Continue reading
New Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington had his introductory (or re-introductory?) press conference overshadowed Tuesday afternoon by an announcement he made about 45 minutes into the event. In one of his first public acts as GM, he announced that beleaguered pitcher John Lackey would be going under the knife for Tommy John surgery.
My first thought was, “Isn’t that a bit…convenient?”
I do not have the ability to argue that Lackey does not need an ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction (UCL, the medical term for Tommy John surgery.) I am not a member of the medical community. But we have reached the point where it seems like every time a major league pitcher needs to take a “vacation” for a spell, they’re sent down to visit Dr. James Andrews (the nation’s best surgeon for this particular procedure) in Birmingham, Alabama.
This leads me to ask: Is the baseball community overprescribing Tommy John surgery? Continue reading
Last week may have kicked off regular season play for many college teams, but it was only this week that coaches really started making the media rounds in New England.
Jerry York, head coach of Boston College (who are ranked tops in the country this week by USCHO), took to 98.5 The Sports Hub to speak with The D.A. Show (I can’t find the link on their site, but I’ll keep searching.) During the interview, the station announced that they will be broadcasting select Boston College hockey games this season starting tonight against Denver. This is a giant get for Hockey East, who already have games on NESN and CBS College Sports this season.
Maine head coach Tim Whitehead, who split their opening weekend, losing to Merrimack but winning against Northeastern, spoke to the good people at the Maine Sports Network on Wednesday. Whitehead may be on thin ice in Orono – losing their season opener to a team who had not beat them at home since the Clinton administration is not the way to start. He has to motivate his team to play big and consistent, or Maine fans may strengthen their call to boot him as head coach.
Vermont’s Kevin Sneddon spoke with the Chris and Rich Show on 101.3 ESPN Burlington late Thursday afternoon. Sneddon has a group not unlike last season’s Boston University team – talented youngster heavy. It could be rocky for the Catamounts, who open their season tonight against the U.S. Under 18 Team, but once their freshmen get their feet under them, they could be dangerous. I am eager to see if they can harness sophomore Connor Brickley’s enthusiasm, which last season tended to manifest in big NHL style hits that aren’t exactly kosher in college hockey.
The Sneddon interview is also significant for another reason. I happened to mention to my friend Chris that my fantasy hockey team was once named, “Kevin Sneddon’s Playoff Beard.” I find Sneddon’s post season choice of a playoff goatee as opposed as a full out beard fascinating. It’s meticulously kept, unlike most unruly and grizzly hockey beards. I once wrote that I wanted to name my imaginary garage band after it. But since I’m tone deaf, I named my fantasy hockey team after it instead.
Like a good friend, Chris then mentioned my fantasy hockey team name when introducing Sneddon. The response by the coach is priceless.
The US women’s gymnastics team faced a fair amount of controversy and challenges heading into the World Gymnastics Championships this week in Tokyo, Japan. USA Gymnastics continued to eschew their own National Championships as a means to select a world team, including having a currently training gymnast (Nastia Lukin) picking gymnasts for the team. Several of their gymnasts fell to injury, and one of their best uneven bar workers wasn’t used because she doesn’t fit into the Marta Karolyi ideal due to her college background and age.
“Now that we are world champions… can we meet Justin Bieber yet? #welldeserved …. Who has connections!?!?”
Well, when the team you put on the mat is all under the age of 19, of course Bieber is going to be a motivator. No word if Bieber will cross country lines (Bieber is Canadian, and the Canadian girls finished 11th as a team) and grant Wieber her wish.
But for the time being, Wieber has bigger fish to fry. She competes along with Boston based gymnast Aly Raisman for the all-around title on Thursday morning.
It’s the 50th birthday of my favorite NFL quarterback of all time, former San Francisco 49er Steve Young. (Or as my husband likes to refer to him, “Joe Montana’s Backup.” But when he does that, he gets the silent treatment for a good 20 minutes following.)
Young paved the way for me understanding and enjoying the game of football beyond my home region Buffalo Bills. Watching him helped teenage me understand football beyond the no-huddle offense and stoic passing quarterbacks like I was used to watching with Jim Kelly and Frank Reich. I was too young for my father’s favorite quarterback ever, Fran Tarkington, so my dad used Young as an example of what I had missed in the 1970s. Plus, my dad was naturally obsessed with any NFL player who shared his first name (Steve). That meant that my family loved Steve Tasker, Steve Wallace, Steve Bono, and Steve DeBerg along side Young. If you were a Steve, you were a football player worth watching.
But Young also paved the way for many of the ways we look at quarterbacks beyond the playing field today. While quarterbacks had always had some endorsement deals and occasionally made poor attempts at humor on Saturday Night Live and variety shows, Young took the idea of “quarterback as superstar” to a whole new level. He was one of the most commercially viable quarterbacks of all time, paving the way for what we see the Manning brothers and Tom Brady endorsing today. In 1994-95, he became one of the first celebrities featured in a “Got Milk” ad, shilled for Powerade and the then-brand-new PowerBar, and predated Brady as a Visa spokesperson, taking wide receiver Jerry Rice out to a fancy dinner. (Brady did a similar ad a decade later featuring his offensive linemen.) Young also became the king of the television cameo – he did gigs on several TV shows, including the original Beverly Hills, 90210 (every 1990s teenagers favorite show.) Even today, Young is has more national endorsements than some active quarterbacks. Young and his Dallas Cowboys counterpart Troy Aikman set the stage for how a quarterback could be used off the field, and in many respects, also carved out the niche of “quarterback as celebrity.” Quarterbacks were more than just football players – they could be well spoken, be good looking and have lives outside of football.
Steve Young wasn’t the best quarterback of all time, but he was a hell of a quarterback regardless. He was mobile, he read the field and distributed the ball well, and he was a great leader of his offense. That and his off the field presence made him a significant part of NFL history.
And if it hadn’t been for tweenage and teenage me becoming obsessed with him like my friends had with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, I might not be writing about sports today. They had their Tiger Beat posters of the Home Improvement star, and I had my Sports Illustrated covers of Young. So happy half century, Mr. Young.
(If anyone can find his famous “self-catch,” let me know. I wanted to put it in this post, but can’t find it.)
Steve Young and his famous 1988 run against Minnesota
