Classic Clips - "Go Home!"

Welcome to Classic Clips, 2.0! I'm taking over for Quaz on our weekly look at the most memorable plays in sports history, but the byline isn't the only thing you can expect to change. In addition to the historic highlights we all know and love, I'll be sprinkling in some amazing plays and finishes that you most likely missed when they happened. I also plan to focus on clips that relate to the most active sports each season. Right now, for example, while you may see some NBA, NHL and baseball bits, I'll most likely be force feeding you my favorite February/March sport - college basketball. MLB has October, the NFL has January and college football, for all its faults, captures the imagination throughout the fall and early winter, but nothing, aside from those fanciful first pitches and catches down south, can pull me away from NCAA hoops in February and March.



But enough about me. This is Bracket Buster week, which provides America a unique look at the small and mid-major teams that are poised to end some of the big boys' dreams next month. In honor of the little guy, here is a clip from 2006, in which little known independent Chicago State scores 6 points in the final 4 seconds to upset the mighty Kangaroos of the Horizon League's University of Missouri at Kansas City (which, even on its full ESPN team page goes by just "UMKC"). And on the 'Roos home court no less, a fact made blatantly clear by the reaction of Chicago St.'s No. 14 - check him out from about 0:43 to the 0:54 mark (his contributions here far outweigh his goofy looking, game-tying trey just moments earlier). A clip like this just wouldn't be complete without the most horrendous green unis since the Sonics', circa '83, and a three-chucking, bird-flipping, SmackJabbing cracker named Inabnit. Priceless.

Flawless Thoughts

If there is one day a year to watch auto racing, it has to be this Sunday. Even if NASCAR seems boring, or if the culture is just too.... complicated to wrap your head around, one thing that everyone can agree on is that NASCAR's origins are interesting, and the Daytona 500 is connected to these roots. During Prohibition, rum runners suped-up their cars with faster engines to evade authorities. Eventually these drivers would organize races, which became popular attractions. These outlaws would also participate in races on the sand at Daytona Beach, which are related to the modern Daytona 500. Besides, it's just another chance to go to a party, eat, drink, and be merry.

If the March CBA deadline rolled around and I was a billionaire, I'd attempt to make a deal with the NFLPA and start a new league, with the players being assigned to teams in similar locations, with the same rosters, according to the NFL teams that they had been on. It sounds ridiculous, but it might be the only chance investors interested in a new pro football league have of starting an organization that could be relevant alongside the NFL.

Further distancing itself from the "four majors" in sports, the PGA is fining it's most entertaining player for "spitting." That's right, there's no crying in baseball, no whining in basketball (as of this year), and no spitting in golf. Oh yeah, and no sexting in football.

Things Learned This Weekend

The "Big Three" live in Boston not Miami.

The St. Louis Cardinals aren't as gassed on Pujols as the rest of us.

Utah playing bad in the throwback gear gets Karl Malone pissed.
http://tinyurl.com/47867ae

Lemieux wants to rethink his involvement in hockey over a hockey fight.
http://tinyurl.com/4s474va

Tweet of the Week

ShaunPhillips95

I know Blake G is a beast but we need to get him a new barber his cut is a hot mess.

Favorite Retweet Reply

Heresy (Part 2 of 3)

This the second of a three-part series from guest contributor Pat Downes on the superiority of college football to pro football. To read the first part, “History,” click here.

Variety

If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, you should be grateful for the innovators who decided that different teams should wear different color uniforms. Otherwise, even if you were paying attention, it would have been hard to tell the teams apart. On offense, both the Packers and Steelers run a modified West Coast offense. On defense, both run a 3-4.

And it isn't just the Packers and Steelers. As Chris Brown of Smart Football points out, every team in the NFL runs just about the same offense.

Each team bases its offense on the same five running plays, and a horizontal, timing-based passing game. Defensively, about half the teams run a 3-4, and the other half run a more “traditional” 4-3. The trend is clearly in favor of the 3-4, which, in a few years may become as ubiquitous on the defensive side as Bill Walsh’s Stanford/San Francisco offense.

With college football, on the other hand, especially on the offensive side, pleasure is none, if not diversified. On any given Saturday, you can turn on your TV and witness:

*A traditional power running offense, with tight splits on the line, beefy linemen in three-point stances, fullbacks, and multiple tight ends, forcing the ball down the defense’s collective throat (with the occasional vertical, field-stretching play action bomb);

* The aforementioned West Coast (a.k.a. pro-style) offense, with heavy doses of zone blocking, a zone-read running game, and a short, horizontal, exquisitely timed passing game;

* The now passé “run and shoot,” including the “fun 'n' gun” pass-fest that Spurrier ran at Florida;

* Georgia Tech and the service academies employing the all-running-all-the-time triple-option;

* The spread (run-heavy variety), as pioneered by recently departed coaching heavyweights Urban Meyer and Rich Rodriquez, with the quarterback in the shotgun, the linemen split wide, and up on two feet, and various option and West Coast elements thrown in;

* The spread (pass-heavy variety), as engineered by coaches like Mike Leach and his disciples;

* Various adaptations of the spread, including: Nevada’s “pistol” offense, with the quarterback in a “semi” shotgun, and the running back directly behind the quarterback (which improves the rushing opportunities offered by a traditional shotgun and an offset running back); the old single-wing throwback known as the Wildcat (lately adopted by some forward-thinking NFL offensive coordinators); and Oregon’s “blur” offense, which adds a no-huddle, fast-paced, defense-exhausting element to the spread; and, finally,

* Various offenses incorporating elements of two or more of these systems.

College football has long been an incubator for innovation. Some schools lack financial resources. Some have institutional or geographical limitations. Every school has to compete with 119 other Division 1-A programs. As a result, not every team can land the 6’7” 310 -pound offensive linemen with freakish athletic ability, or the skill position players who can run the 40-yard dash in less than 4.5 seconds. If you want to move the ball down the field at these schools, you have to find a way to do it with the players you have. For decades, college coaches have developed the systems described above (and a bunch more besides), to do just that.

In the NFL, on the other hand, there are 32 teams that share television revenue, and thus have roughly equal resources, equal access to a relatively deep talent pool, and a uniform salary cap. Unless your team is ineptly managed (i.e., run by Daniel Snyder or Al Davis), you are going to fill your roster with players at every position who have all, or nearly all, of the attributes that you're looking for. You’re going to find a left tackle with near-ideal height and weight, with long arms, and freakish agility. If you run a 3-4 defense, you’re going to find a 340-pound nose tackle who can consume two blockers. You’re going to find a running back who can pick up the blitz, catch the ball as an outlet receiver, take a handoff, pick the right hole, and hit it hard.

Some players are better than others, sure, but in relative terms, at most positions, there really isn't that much daylight between the best starter in the league, and the worst starter. Every team, more or less, has the tools they need to run the offense they want, and there is no incentive to innovate as there is in college.

In some ways, the NFL is the sporting equivalent of the string of fast food joints off the freeway exit, or the suburban strip mall. It’s the same damn thing all over America. The fan in San Diego is consuming the same product as the fan in Indianapolis and the fan in Atlanta. It’s a high-quality product, to be sure (more Ruth’s Chris than McDonald’s), but there’s no regional differentiation; nothing unique, nothing genuine.

College football is the cultural kin of the mom and pop store that’s been run by the same family for a century. It’s the genuine article, the tangible, non-Disneyfied, remnant of real America. And like the mom and pop stores, we’d be better off as a country if we valued it more.

Stay tuned next week for “Passion,” the third and final installment of “Heresy.”

Classic Clips

Christian Laettner, he's not famous for being a Minnesota TimberWolf! He spent thirteen years in the NBA but there was one college game that would make him a legend. What a play, Hill's pass was like something you'd see Joe Montana do, and the jumper Laettner hit was so unbelievable that it's folklore for all NCAA basketball fans. When I think of March Madness, I think of this play first.

Lock It Up

My lock of the week is the New York Rangers over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday. The Pens have lost Malkin for the year and though they'll still make the playoffs and maybe win a series, they won't get to the Cup without him. The Rangers are having a great season, playing great even with their ugly new jerseys. I know I know, nothing is worse than when the Islanders wore those jerseys with the fisherman logo, but still.

Stay away from Lakers vs Knicks on Friday, should be a good game, but when pressure from questions regarding the Lakers championship abilities meets the nothing to lose attitude of the Knicks there could easily be an upset.

Get in on the action and comment or tweet your Lock of the Week. Add #smackjabber #lockitup in your tweet with your pick/s @quazflawless.

Lock It Up 2011 Standings

Lee Feinstein : 4-1
Quaz Flawless : 3-3
Bill Beck : 2-1
ThalerND : 1-1
Dan : 0-1
Matt Summa : 0-2
Ian : 0-2
Pat Downes : 0-3

Flawless Thoughts

The last NFL game has been played, and there won't be another for at least seven months. That game was a great finale, keeping the streak of exciting Super Bowls running and leaving me satisfied for the long break ahead. The Black Eyed Peas performance was not the only misguided decision to result in disappointment, as a certain amount of seats where deemed unusable only a few hours before the game, and the owners of those tickets relocated to seats outside of the stadium. That's right, imagine that you traveled from say Green Bay, all the way to Texas and your seat was relocated outside of the stadium. Even though these fans were reimbursed, what a buzzkill.

The Yankees offseason has been a little weird, though I guess nothing beats A-Rod's strange roid confession during the 2008/09 offseason. But this year, why would you make a guy who is the face of your franchise, look like some guy who's past his prime that you'll do a favor for? What were they thinking making Jeter look greedy? The Mets offseason though? This one is up there on the list of strange offseasons. Leave it to the Mets owners to be publicly aligned with Bernie Madoff, not as a victim, but as a group that made money!

The Lakers aren't, "good enough to win a championship". That's strange, because they have the third best record in the West and are fifth best in the league and it's only February. Apparently they are now interested in trading Bynum for Melo. That sounds like a big mistake to panic and make a trade like that. Getting rid of the future for a loan like Melo, who would most likely not sign past the remainder of this season with the Lakers. Sounds risky as his style could clash with Kobe, who has been known to not get along with other superstars.

Things Learned This Weekend

Getting rid of Bret Favre was the right move for the Packers.

Christina Aguilera is way better than Janet Jackson at Super Bowl malfunctions.

The minotaur known as Alex Rodriguez requires Cameron Diaz to feed him.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d81e2d9ae/The-stars-come-out-in-Big-D