Sports Then and Now

Cam Newton easily won the Heisman Trophy for 2010.

If this were a perfect world, Cam Newton might have been the first unanimous winner in Heisman Trophy history. Few college players have so overwhelmed a season as Newton has done in 2010. Every time his team the Auburn Tigers needed a big play to keep their undefeated season going, Newton used either his arm or legs to lift the Tigers to victory.

However, we all know that this is not a perfect world and unfortunately while a strange off-the-field situation didn’t cost Newton the Heisman Trophy, it did cost him a chance at the highest point total and largest margin of victory in the 76 year history of the award.

Even with being omitted on 105 of 886 completed ballots, Newton still eclipsed second place Andrew Luck by more than 1,100 points. Of the ballots where he was included, 93% had Newton rated first.

Now, the question becomes whether Newton will be able to keep the Heisman or if at some point he becomes the second winner in the last half dozen years to forfeit the award.

In his defense, Newton has starkly claimed and the NCAA has ruled that he was unaware that his father, Cecil Newton, was shopping around his services with the intent to receive money from the college that signed Cam Newton after he spent the 2009 college football season at Blinn Junior College.

These reports began to surface in late October while Newton and the Tigers were rolling through the Southeastern Conference (SEC) on their way to an undefeated regular season and conference championship. No evidence has ever surfaced showing that Auburn made illegal payments in the situation. Read the rest of this entry →

Is it still too early to decide if Chan Gailey is the right man to turn around the Bills?

One thing about Chan Gailey in Buffalo is certain. Paradox. Irony. He’s definitely playing against type. Think of the three great former Bills coaches: Saban, Knox, and Levy. They were articulate, sophisticated, all business.

Enter Chan Gailey, strong Texan-Southern accent, informal, grandfatherly, stumbles over his words not infrequently. When he sits down at a post-game press conference and tells you how badly he feels for his players because they tried so hard, you definitely get the grandfatherly feeling.

We Yankees (as in anyone who isn’t from the South or Texas/Oklahoma) tend to discount people with a southern accent. We write off the folksy informality as not smart or at least not serious.

And of course we Bills fans had our hopes of getting a high profile coach fed by Bills owner Ralph Wilson offering $10 million to Mike Shanahan, and were completely let down in the anti-climax of Gailey’s hiring.

But now that we’ve had sufficient exposure to Chan Gailey, what’s the verdict? Is he our coach because the price was right for Wilson, still perceived as a cheapskate despite the lip service paid to winning? Or is Gailey truly the right man for the terrible job of coaching the Buffalo Bills back to respectability?

I reserve the right to adjust or reverse my position at the end of the season, but for now, I’m arguing the latter. Read the rest of this entry →

Pat Gillick in the first pure general manager from the last 50 years of baseball to be selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The election earlier this week of Pat Gillick to the Baseball Hall of Fame was a deserving honor for a longtime baseball executive, but the Veterans Committee missed a chance to make the 2011 Hall of Fame class truly special.

Recognizing baseball front office personnel who were not owners or league officials is not one of the traditional strengths of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Gillick is the 32nd baseball executive honored by the Hall of Fame, but only the fourth whose primary responsibilities was as a general manager or team architect and the only one from the last 50 years of baseball.

While other general managers have received more publicity, few in the modern era of baseball have had more success than Gillick.

After beginning his career with the fledgling Houston Astros and then having a stint in the front office of the New York Yankees in the 1970s, it was after joining the expansion Toronto Blue Jays that Gillick began establishing his Hall of Fame credentials.

Originally hired in 1976 as the Vice President of Player Personnel, in 1977 he became Vice President of Baseball Operations and in 1984 named the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations.

Overseeing the development of the roster from expansion, Gillick crafted a roster that was built through the development of minor leaguers and then enhanced with savvy veteran acquisitions.

The Blue Jays posted their first winning record during their seventh season (1983) and two years later won 99 games and reached the AL Championship Series for the first time. They also won the AL East in 1989 and 1991 before claiming back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. He left the organization in 1994 and the franchise has not reached the post season since.

In 1995 Gillick became general manager of the Baltimore Orioles and in 1996 and 1997 the team reached the AL Championship Series. The Orioles have not had a winning season since his departure in 1998. Read the rest of this entry →

After playing on 2010 WPS Champion FC Gold, Christine Sinclair will look to have similar success with the Western New York Flash.

The Western New York Flash of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) has announced that it has agreed to terms with four players for the 2011 season, all of whom come to the Flash with experience in WPS.

As promised in their launch press conference, the club has signed a key Canadian player, Christine Sinclair, in an attempt to reach out to fans north of the border. The acquisitions were plucked from a rich pool of free agent talent made available by the dissolution of WPS 2010 Champion FC Gold Pride.

Along with Sinclair, Gold Pride defenders Ali Riley and Candace Wilson will make their way across the country from the West Coast. The Flash also agreed to terms with free agent Brittany Bock, who spent the 2010 season with the Washington Freedom.

Sinclair, one of the top strikers in the world comes to the Flash after an outstanding 2010 year. After winning the WPS Championship with FC Gold Pride, Sinclair went on to lead Canada in being crowned CONCACAF Champions after defeating Mexico, 1-0, in the final. Sinclair had the game-winning goal in the match and ended with six goals in the tournament. Sinclair has extensive international experience, with 140 caps and 107 goals and is currently the all time leader in goals in Canadian history. Sinclair spent both years in WPS with Gold Pride, appearing 40 times for the club with 16 goals and 10 assists in two seasons. Read the rest of this entry →

The final games of the 2010 season may be Alex Smith's last chance as quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers.

The desire to keep the San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl playoff hopes alive are resting heavy on the shoulders of Alex Smith, as he fears failure this season could mean he is without a team at the end of the campaign.

Coach Mike Singletary has turned to Smith as the 49ers, with a 4-8 record, know their clash with Seattle Seahawks is a must-win game and a defeat could eliminate them from play-off contention and the Super Bowl 2011 odds reflect this.

Quarterback Smith is back after a five-game absence from the 49ers line up due to injury. Singletary claims Smith gives the side a better chance of winning, and the player knows failure to make it into the Super Bowl play-offs could bring the curtain down on his career with the 49ers, who he joined as a Number 1 pick in the 2005 draft.

Smith claims his coach told him he is the number one quarterback for the remainder of the season as he can do anything in the playbook, unlike his rivals for the position who only arrived in September. The player will want to repay Singletary’s faith by throwing the touchdown passes that catapult the 49ers into contention for the play-offs, although the Super Bowl betting odds 2011 suggest their hope of going all the way are slim.

“He made it very clear that was his thinking – that we’re going into this game and I gave us the best opportunity,” Smith said of his coach.

“He made the decision, I’m going to get ready to play. We’re all going to get ready to go play.”

San Francisco linebacker Patrick Willis has stated he wants to see continuity at the quarterback spot now Smith has got the jersey. He claims the decision for Smith was made for the “betterment of the team” and now all the squad must strive to keep their Super Bowl dreams alive.

Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) has announced the calendar for its 2011 WPS Season, the league’s third year of play featuring the top players from around the world. In 2010, over 20 countries were represented by players in WPS.

Well, at least there’s going to be a season. Perhaps that is the point of the announcement, since with the folding of the FC Gold Pride franchise and the continued uncertainty over the viability of Chicago Red Stars (their escrow deadline has been extended to December 15) there have been serious doubts as to whether WPS would even match the three year run of their predecessor, WUSA.

What their announcement of today does not answer is whether or not the Chicago franchise will be included, and because that huge variable is unresolved, they also have not announced an actual match schedule, since the number of teams that are operational will obviously impact the schedule.

All we know for now is that next season, WPS teams will play an 18-game schedule, comprised of nine home games and nine away matches from April through August. This is six games less than the 2010 season and two games less than the inaugural season in 2009. Opening weekend has been set for April 9-10, 2011. Similar to the past two years, preseason will begin no earlier than March 1. The season will end with playoffs culminating with the 2011 WPS Championship presented by Citi , on the weekend of August 27-28.

The league’s Board of Governors voted to retain the existing playoff format used during the first two seasons. Retaining the playoff format will continue to see four teams qualify for the post-season. The last two regular seasons have seen exciting down-to-the-wire finishes with teams securing their playoff berths on the final weekend of the regular season. Read the rest of this entry →