A Dynastic day for Lincoln High School's football team as they win their Fourth San Francisco Turkey Bowl in a row, historic.
I arrived at the game a few minutes into the first quarter and found that Washington had already scored and was leading 7-0. The long ticket and hotdog lines had worn me out and I mistakenly sat on the Lincoln side thinking it was Washington for some reason. I could've sworn Lincoln uniforms were white with red helmets and lettering.
It was half-time before I realized I was rooting for the Lincoln Mustangs and not the Washington Eagles as I'd planned. With my losing record at Turkey Bowl games I felt either I'd jinx the favored Mustangs into a loss or I'd enjoy my first win ever. I decided to stay the course with Lincoln.
And so it was that with 1:33 remaining in the first half and the Washington Eagles taking a 14-12 lead, that a little guy from Lincoln High would pull out the play of the game. Devon Marman, little brother to senior standout Deshon Marman with two touchdowns on the day, returned a kickoff 92-yards for a touchdown and the Mustangs would leave the Eagles gasping in their dust. The kick return was a momentum changer if ever there was one, and both teams sensed it.
The Washington Eagles would not give up the fight though and played a very aggressive second half, but so did the Mustangs. Lincoln caused at least two turnovers in the second half, one interception returned for a touchdown, and last years Champions had pulled off a Four-Peat in their championship victory.
Congrats Lincoln Mustangs for committing to achieving a SF Section Championship again
Lincoln players toss their principal, Ronald Pang, in celebration. Lincoln High defeated Washington High in the annual Academic Athletic Association SF championship game 36-14 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. (Lance Iversen / The Chronicle)
The Oakland Raiders get a taste of sweet revenge on the Denver Broncos with a 31-10 drumming of Shanihan and his donkeys in Denver. The Oakland upset was so unexpected, even I, a disgruntled Raider fan who'd chosen to spend my Sunday at an outing with my Grand kids, assumed Denver would triumph with ease.
I think Ashlie Lelie, former Bronco, christened the victory best when he compared this payback win to the feeling of "getting back at your cheating girlfriend." I believe the Broncos and Lelie parted company after contract re-negotiations turned ugly two seasons ago resulting in his release.
In this victory, all aspects of the Raiders team shined with Lelie possibly being the brightest star. Lelie , who had a momentum changing 51-yard catch, caught four catches for ninety-two yards and a touchdown.
One could say that the Raiders paid back the Broncos in full for the opening Monday Night game in Oakland, a 41-14 embarrassment. I believe this Broncos loss is a bigger blow to them than ours was that opening season game. The Broncos came into this game as western division leaders with a chance to possibly go up three games with five remaining. Instead, they remain two ahead of San Diego (Colts 23 Chargers 20) and only three ahead of the Raiders .
I caught the final minutes of the game on the radio, then listened to every morsel of post-game coverage while driving back to the bay area. It was the sweetest two hour drive I've had in a long, long time. Just me, my radio and my Silver and Black pride shining and blowing in the breeze. Oh, did I mention I'd pulled over to take out my Raiders AFC Champions flag and attach it to the car for the victory ride home? Nostalgia? Yes, it was a joyous Sunday that almost made up for these past weekends of gloom. Almost.
Coach Tom Cable is the one who really surprised me with his after game talk. He said all the right things and sounded sincere about his belief in the team. Maybe big Al has finally found a coach who the players can and will respond to.
Hats off to cornerback Chris Johnson for playing like a pro and stepping up to the challenge of a Bronco passing game aimed squarely at him. C. Johnson defended valiantly and didn't give up anything worth much.
We all prayed for JaMarcus Russell and the Godmother he lost to cancer this past week. After seeing the young quarterback complete 10 of 11 for 152 yds. and 1-touchdown, I know he's going to be okay in this league. Yeah, we've got us a true leader at quarterback here in Oakland ya'll.
Let's not forget special teams. Punt returner Johnnie Lee Higgins does it again with an 89-yd return for a touchdown.Hey , whatever happened to that free agent returner that was brought in two weeks ago to compete for Johnnie Lee's returning duties?
We Raider fans should simply savor this win, a win that ranks right up there with the past few wins in Denver. More importantly though, this win should give us all a glimpse of what lies down the road for this team when its healthy with strong decisive leadership and executing like the machine it was built to be. Awesome!
There hasn't been much of late that the bay area can boast about when it comes to basketball. But there was a time..........
And Pete Newell is the man of that time. A coach and teacher, Pete is to west coast basketball what Kobiyashi is to competitive eating, a pioneer and innovator. He brought respectability to west coast college basketball programs.
Personally, I know little about the basketball era of 1959 when Pete led the Cal Bears to the NCAA Title. But after reading today's newspaper and internet articles about him I understand just how important a role he played in developing not only players, but coaches and basketball schemes. I think the SF Chronicle said it best:
"A Man Who Was A Legend To Other Legends."
It seems that more than anything, Pete was a great teacher of basketball. A Legendary Teacher!
Basketball Accomplishments as coach:
1949 NIT Championship (USF) 1959 NCAA Championship (CAL) 1960 Summer Olympics Gold 4 consecutive Pac-8 Titles (former Pac-10) 8 straight wins over John Wooden's early UCLA teams
Off the court Pete has a colorful history. He was a child actor who played in a number of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" movies. Imagine that, I've seen almost every little rascals still in print and never would've guessed that Pete Newell was one of the gang. He was also a steamship deck cadet, a WWII Navy seaman, author of numerous basketball instructional books, Husband and Father.
Anthony Morrow showcased his rookie skillz on Saturday with 37 points and 11 rebounds. This from a kid who after going undrafted planned to play in the Ukraine. Glad you decided to visit the Oakraine Anthony, we need you.
With Anthony's hot hand the Warriors defeated Baron Davis and the L.A. Clippers 121-103 Saturday. I missed seeing the game but hope to catch it on some type of cable/comcast replay. Coach Don Nelson and teamates all say they've never seen anyone with the hot hand that Anthony displayed. Let's hope the kid isn't a one-hit-wonder and can become a consistent contributor.
Just imagine when Monta Ellis returns. "Monta-To-Morrow", sounds like a winning combination don't you think?
Alex De Castro, 18-years old, a true sports fan and friend passed away recently. My prayers will continue to go out to him and his family. It is when compassionate, young persons such as Alex depart this life that I find cause to pause and question everything about it. I suppose we question God as a reminder of our faith in him. God grant us Peace!
World Championship Poker Champion Peter Eastgate says about winning, "It's not about the money." Okay Peter, sure it's not about the money, it's about how you plan to spend that money. The 22-year old Champion is the second youngest to win it all.
Though I still don't consider Poker a sport, I truly admire any champion who can bask in the glory of his earnings upon victory. Give me one other sport where the Victor is given his winning purse on the playing field. Even Thoroughbred Horses have to return to the stables to chomp down on their winning bales of hay. Only game shows come to mind, and they usually give you a fake colossal check that's made out of cardboard.
The #1 ranked Crimson Tide defeated the #16 LSU Tigers yesterday in overtime 27-21. It's the first time since 1980 that an Alabama team has won a game while ranked #1.
The Crimson Tide now have a smash mouth new anthem courtesy of the "63 Boyz" to go along with that #1 ranking. So if your team is going down to Alabama to do battle with the Tide, they'd better bring they're bibles and a few choice prayers.
In his 8-game tenure with the Raiders, Hall was beaten 40 times for 552 yards on 66 passes thrown his way, according to data compiled by STATS LLC. He's given up more yards than any defender this season and is tied for third worst in catches allowed.
Hall does not have a skills guarantee for 2009, so the Raiders will not owe him a $9.05 million option bonus for the final six years of the deal. Hall also won't receive the $7.5 million base salary he was scheduled to make in 2009.
"When you're losing there's a lot of finger pointing," Asomugha said. "I don't think he's the one scapegoat. There's fingers pointed everywhere. I don't think it's just him. He was kind of singled out in regards of let's cut someone." I agree with Asomugha, the Raiders needed a scapegoat and there was none better than D. Hall. I don't expect the team to win another game this season. Why? Chaos Theory!
I went to the Raiders game this Sunday. I should've gone to church instead and prayed like a Saturday Night Sinner. There's no way to explain the humiliating play of the Oakland Raiders against the visiting Atlanta Falcons. I don't think God is a Falcons fan, especially after Mr. Vick's conviction of abuse to man's best friend. But there were no blessings being laid on the heads of the Raiders today. Not one hint of divine intervention to stop the bleeding on the field.
How bad was the game for the Raiders you may ask? The game was so bad that we fans were unable to stand up and cheer a play until many minutes into the third quarter. It just so happened to be a play that gave us our FIRST first-down of the game. Did I mention that the Raiders had -2 total offensive yards in the first half?
How bad was it? It was so bad that they not only booed the team, but booed the Raiderettechearleaders also. Imagine that, football's most fabulous females being booed at the Coliseum. I Guess when the girls came out in the second half with jackets covering those enhanced mounds of milk and honey, the fans felt they'd been deprived of the one stimulating silver and black uniform on the field. One guy was heard yelling "Hey, What's With The Jackets?"
Seriously, I considered asking for a full ticket refund. I've been around long enough these past few years to see the Oakland Raiders play bad football, lousy football. But today they took poor performance to a new level. It wasn't the usual shoot themselves in the foot on third down kind of stuff, nor was it a blame it on the refs day. Oh no, this debacle was a plain and simple case of hopelessness. The team all around just seemed as if they had no game plan, no incentive, no interest what so ever in playing the game at a professional level.
The Oakland Raiders have simply quit playing football as a team. Maybe there are some players trying their hearts out to make a play, but as a team they looked as if it were the last game of another losing season and they couldn't wait for the off-season to begin.
I believe what I saw is a direct result of losing a head coach early in a season. Lane Kiffin at times had the team playing as a cohesive unit whether they were winning or losing. While Kiffin was coach, the team seemed as if they had something or someone to play for. Now, after two straight losses, the team appears lost without leadership. If leadership starts at the top, then the blame for what I saw today is at the top.
Our team has a serious problem, and the disease that was once lingering beneath the skin has erupted and is leaking puss all over the playing field in front of the paying customers.
As much as I wanted to see the Cinderella Rays win it all, I have to take my hat off and applaud the Philadelphia Phillies and their fans.
After twenty-eight years, and only the second time in their 120-plus year existence, the Phillies are Major League Baseball's Champions once again. Known as the losing-est team in professional sports, no team from as desperate a city deserved it more. The celebration in Philadelphia the other day was definitely one for the ages. Mild mannered Chase Utley dropped an "f" bomb while addressing the fans at the celebration. The networks covering the event live were initially unable to beep out Utley's "World Fuckin' Champions" boast on-stage. It was awesome!
Congratulations Philadelphia Phillies for bringing home to your city and fans the 2008 Major League World Series Championship Trophy. You've come a long way from booing Santa Claus! Merry Fuckin' X-mas.
So I'm here in New York wearing Raiders gear on the morning after a Raiders defeat of the New York Jets.
I Love The Smell of Victory in The Morning!
Yes, the Oakland Raiders overcame fatigue, penalties and plain old buzzards luck (can't kill nothing and nobody's dying) to win in overtime 16-13 over the Brett favre led Jets.
I was there on that Monday Night when Brett, playing a day after his father died, lit up the Raiders defense in a game that would become the classic Brett Favre moment. I won't call this weekend's Raiders win vindication, but I do feel it'll go down as a Raiders classic and possibly a season changing game.
The fact that I'm here in New York visiting just adds to the joyous outcome. I watched the game while surrounded by Raider-Haters in the person of family and old friends. I'd forgotten that we'd ended the Jets Super Bowl aspirations two years in a row in the playoffs this decade. I overheard someone mention after Feely's 52-yard field goal that it was finally pay back time for the "Heidi Bowl" game. Yeah, I suppose the Raiders have been a thorn in the Jets side for many years. Even my young pop warner aged nephew called to tell me that the "Raiders got lucky." They train'em young here too.
So it is with pride and joy that I wear my Raiders colors and strut around New York this morning to see the long faces of Jets fans in pain. A pain as old as the Heidi Bowl and as hard to swallow as a SeaBass 57-yd field goal splitting the uprights in over-time. Trust me when I say the Jets fans felt they'd win the game from the opening kick-off.
The Oakland Raiders record may only be 2-4 as of today, but with few AFC teams dominating, it gives a glimpse of hope to a Silver and Black organization that's seen a season of controversial shake-up. Rumor has it that the win was so uplifting to the Raiders that owner Al Davis immediately wrote a check to fired coach Lane Kiffin to cover the balance of his contract along with a letter of apology.
Al Davis held a press conference today not only to tell the sporting world that he'd fired Lane Kiffin, but to convince all that the reason was "cause." Cause being actions detrimental to the team. I say Al was wrong because his press conference comments sounded contrived, calculated and too much like someone who was using the media for his own gains. It wasn't a press conference to inform as much as it was a smear campaign. I wanted to believe that Al was bigger than that, it seemed so petty. Al Was Wrong.
I really couldn't bare to listen to it all, the press conference. Big Al, leader/Majority Partner of the Oakland Raiders, announcing the firing of coach Lane Kiffin. Media speculation has for weeks been reporting to everyone in sports that it was coming. But nobody expected to hear what came out of Al's puss this afternoon.
Al Davis, The Man, The Myth, The Legend, took center stage in sports news this afternoon and made a complete fool of himself. He didn't do it in a Sarah Palin (Republican VP Nominee) way by stumbling over and avoiding simple questions in front of the media. Nor did he use the semantic wizardry of President Bill Clinton ( I did not have sexual relations with that woman). What Al did was more like a mafioso/organized crime way of explaining his own actions or in-actions. He blamed it on the dead guy, or at least he blamed the absent fired guy and discredited him so, that any rebuttal would appear untrustworthy.
Funny thing is it almost worked. It probably would've worked if not for one thing. The dead guy ain't dead. He's alive, angry and loading up with attorneys. The corpse has scheduled his own press conference for tomorrow, same time, same stations.
Meanwhile the new coach, former Raiders offensive line coach Tom Cable, spoke today and appears to be capable enough to keep the team on its improving course. I like it that Tom said we have a good team and his job is to teach it how to finish games. That will be the measuring stick by which Tom is judged; will they learn to finish games? Tom cable believes they can and big Al has bought into it.
So for one more day the Oakland Raiders coaching saga will continue. Thanks in part to Al Davis, a man who calculates his every move. Actually, because we all know just how calculating Al can be, is what makes his statements today so unbelievable. Nothing goes down in Raider-land without big Al's stamp of approval. So to hear him espouse how coach Lane Kiffin acted on his own in making so many team decisions is hard to swallow. Or as a radio host said today, "I ain't drinking Al's kool-aid."
Today Al lost a few points with me. He tried dirty dancing in public today and his slip was showing. It was embarrassing to watch and seemed petty, childish and motivated by a foreseeable contract dispute. To the sports world I say "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." To true Raider fans you know the drill. We don't always agree with Al Davis, but we know he's as loyal to the Oakland Raiders as any one of us. And he don't like losing. He may run the organization like a mad scientist, but dammit he's one of us. And we still believe that we're one of the best organizations in professional sports. Keep Believing!
While the Raiders defense played inspired football on a hot Sunday afternoon, the offense just wasn't able to put up enough points and/or give the defense enough rest to finish strong with a win.
The Coliseum was loud and proud with a sellout crowd of Raider Nation faithful on hand. When the Raiders came out in their road-warrior white uniforms followed up by team group introductions, you felt we were in for a special afternoon. Lane Kiffin would later comment that the decision to wear white was made before the season, following the league trend of wearing white during hot weather home games.
The game itself was a high-tension well played football game. Unfortunately for the Raiders it came down to a tale of two halves. One a dominating performance and the other a turnover filled egg. With key players out or suffering from injuries the Raiders still looked as if they could play with the best. I suppose that's what makes this loss so painful. To go out and prove that you can dominate a well-balanced team like the Chargers, then not finish them off is simply mind-boggling. Is it player conditioning? Play calling? Second half adjustments? Something happens to the Raiders in the third and fourth quarters that is costing them games. Until they can fix that something, they'll continue to struggle finishing games.
I will say this, if we had our three-headed running game of Fargas, McFaddin and Bush all healthy and playing, the Chargers would've never come back and won the game. That I can guarantee you. But, what should've, could've, would've been, just wasn't to be.
A tough loss that showed promise and hope for our young team.
Just because I live next to a hospital doesn''t make me an expert on open-heart surgery.
Give me a break with this broad. At least McCain picked someone like him: an idiot and amateur orator. I watched the Sarah Palin Interview with CBS News Anchor Katie Couric. Ms. Palin embarassed herself, the American Government (not just Republicans), and most of all Women in politics. The scary part is that she doesn't see that she's doing anything wrong or hurtful.
This comment sums up most feelings about the interview:
I actually started to cry while watching this. I don''t cry easy either. I''m not going to say I would do much better while being interview by Katie Couric, but I''m not on one of the tickets for the White House, expecting all of my fellow Americans to vote for me.
What has happened to our country? Who is this person? Is she so delusional that she believes she knows what is best for all of us? Not only us, but what is best for the rest of the world? Do we think the rest of the world will watch this and line up to back us on our future foreign policies?
We used to have great men and women run for presidency. We would hold them to such high esteem, that if they were anything outside of almost super human we wouldn''t allow them access to most powerful seat in the world. We expected them to at least gain if not the support, of the other patisans, the respect. WHO respects this bumbling idiot????? Not once did she actually answer a question with intelligence, insight or conviction. She just spun the talking points over and over like a republican parrot. My God!!!!
I do not hate this woman. But, I am sad. Extremely sad that this may be the first woman to be in such an influential position in the world. We women have worked and fought so hard to get here, Why, Why, Why are we sending such a feeble example in our stead.
They're probably still storming the field in Corvallis, Oregon after what was the biggest upset of this young college football season.
The unranked Oregon State Beavers, 25-point underdogs, defeated the #1 ranked USC Trojans 27-21. They did it by using aggressive defense, solid blocking and spectacular play by the Rodgers brothers James and Jacquizz.
WR James Rodgers had 2 receptions for 36-yards and 2-touchdowns. But it was his younger brother "Quizz" who kept the Trojans on their heels with his inside running game. Quizz is all of 5 feet 6 inches tall, in cleats, which caused the USC defenders to tackle too high or just lose him altogether in the blocking beavers sea of orange jerseys. Quizz finished the game with 186-yards on 37 carries and 2 touchdowns.
The Trojans tried desperately to stop the little guy, horse collaring him a few times and wrenching his helmet off during a tackle or two. He needed help hopping off the field where a Trojan had rolled onto his ankle during his last touchdown run. But Quizz proved that football is more about heart than size with his lionhearted never-give-up style of play. The night definitely showcased the toughness of Jacquizz Rodgers aka "Quizz."
The game had it all; suspense, drama, excitement, tension, all being played out in a carnival like atmosphere of orange-clad Beaver fans of the northwest. And with the final Beavers kneel down, that same sea of orange poured out onto the field as if a Beaver Dam had burst. It was celebration time! ESPN did a splendid job of staying out of their own way and letting the game market itself. You just gotta love college football. Its march madness for four whole months. Wow!
A VILE gang ofdevilworshippers has killed and eaten four Russian teenagers in a sickening ritual. The Satanists stabbed each of their victims a terrifying 666 times before dismembering their bodies and cooking them on a bonfire.
Lincoln players toss their principal, Ronald Pang, in celebration. Lincoln High defeated Washington High in the annual Academic Athletic Association SF championship game 36-14 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. (Lance Iversen / The Chronicle)
