Hole Punch Sports

Last Sunday I had the inestimable pleasure of spending my Sunday in a chair at a friend’s place watching NFL Sunday Ticket on a brand-new Sony HDTV. It was a blast. I don’t think I could do it every week, but if I had more time to spend on football, Sunday Ticket is a pretty sweet way to do it. Sunday Ticket’s a DirecTV package that lets you watch every NFL game every Sunday. For some reason, the package is still subject to the NFL’s blackout regulations. So, for example, if you live near Oakland, as my friend does, and the team is unable to sell out its home game against the Broncos, as they were earlier this year, you don’t get to watch the game on TV. (Actually, he found it on some other channel, but you’re not supposed to have that option.) Anyway, Sunday Ticket is mostly just a ton of channels that have NFL games on them. And that’s pretty awesome all by itself, because the NFL was made for television. (I mean, unless it’s the playoffs, aren’t games better at home?) Sunday Tic...

I have a plane to catch…in several hours, but anyway, I’m too lazy to write about this. The Denver Post is reporting that Mike Shanahan may well be heading to the Redskins, which is sad because how well did it work for him the last time he had a control-freak owner? (And at least Al Davis knew football.) If anything big happens with this over the weekend, I’ll post some thoughts on Twitter.

The BCS sucks. It’s a corrupt piece of garbage that goes against everything pure in sports, foisted upon us by fat cats with no concern for fair play, giving the fans what they want, or letting anyone win the title on the field. If it weren’t for big-money conferences, it wouldn’t exist. We all know this. Everyone puts up with it, though, which makes me sick. This year the BCS matchups are particularly stupid: Alabama, which just dominated the vaunted Florida Gators, will be playing Texas, which tried valiantly to lose to Nebraska last week, for the national championship. Left out of a shot at the championship are undefeated TCU, Cincinnati, and Boise State. The great things about college football are the same things that are great about America. There’s all the pageantry, the spectacle,  the youthful and regional pride, but most importantly, sports are a meritocracy. You want to know which of your state’s big schools has the best team? Let them figure it out, on the field, ...

My heart broke Monday when I read the apology that BYU quarterback Max Hall issued after some comments he made following Saturday’s 26-23 win over the Utah Utes. Let’s start with the apology : ‘I want to take the opportunity to clarify and apologize for a few of my remarks after the game yesterday,’ Hall said in a statement Sunday, according to the Deseret News of Salt Lake City. ‘Last year at [Rice-Eccles Stadium], my family was spit on, had beer dumped on them and were physically assaulted on several occasions. They had to endure extremely vile comments personally attacking my wife, my mother, other family members and our religion. They had to be escorted to their car by local police. ‘As a result of what happened to my family last year, this rivalry became personal, and in the heat of the moment yesterday, I made comments toward the entire university that were really directed specifically at those fans in RES. It was not intended to be directed at the entire organization ...

Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony went for 50 points for the first time in his career Friday night against the New York Knicks. It was a very efficient night for Carmelo, who shot 17-for-28 from the floor and missed just one of his sixteen free throw attempts. He also passed for five assists, which beats his season average of three and a half. I spent the evening with my younger siblings and missed the game completely, but if you want to be like me and catch up with some rather-tame highlights, click below.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, and really family, I decided to recap some of the best/most-telling scores of the college football regular season for anyone who hasn’t seen them: CU 24, Wyoming 0 BYU 35, Utah State 17 BYU 52, Wyoming 0 CU 35, Texas A&M 34 BYU 26, Utah 23 (OT) Enjoy the highlights! Also, though it has nothing to do with how awesome my colleges are: Stanford 55, USC 21

The Denver Nuggets beat the L.A. Lakers 105-79 last night at the Pepsi Center in our best win of the young season. I’d been looking forward to this game for weeks, but on the way home from work yesterday I bought Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and, well, I barely caught any of the Nuggets game. Go ahead and judge me, but then try racing down a mountain with a handgun on a snowmobile and change your mind. It’s a great game, even better than the first Modern Warfare . Anyway, have some highlights, and be sure to stick around for Ty Lawson’s dunk at the end:

The greatest championship ever was won on January 25, 1998, when the Denver Broncos upset the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. Why do I call it the greatest? The Broncos are my favorite team in any sport: I’d root for them even if I was playing against them. But the stars aligned so well for that team that I will never root for a group of athletes in quite the same way again. First off, the agony: the 1996 Broncos had burst out of the gates to a scorching 12-1 start and clinched homefield advantage way too early. They began resting players, they said, but perhaps really just screwing around, and I remember a picture in the paper of someone like Alfred Williams trying to kick a field goal in sweats. Not that you can’t relax a little bit, but the Broncos seemed satisfied with their ability to take care of business and were just waiting for the playoffs to begin. John Elway, the 36-year-old quarterback in his fourteenth year, would finally get the chance to return to the Super B...

Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets continued their torrid start to the season tonight with a 133-123 win at home over the Memphis Grizzlies. Anthony scored 42 points in an effort that gave flashbacks to last year’s playoffs. He hit 15 of 26 field goals, including a three, and converted eleven of his twelve attempts from the stripe. Totally effective and, as far as I could tell after missing most of the first half, totally in the flow of the game. 26 shots isn’t bad at all, especially when Anthony’s that on. Carmelo’s point totals just keep going up, too: 30 in the opener against Utah and 41 the next night in Portland before his answer to life tonight. The Nuggets, of course, are 3-0 and looking great. Tonight was a relatively safe win; even though Memphis was competitive in the first half, I saw the scores were in the 60s and knew the pace favored Denver. The opening night win over the Jazz was also lovely, especially when Carmelo missed a three, then tipped away a weak outlet...

Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings captured the season series sweep over their former employer/divisional rival Green Bay Packers today with a 38-26 win in Green Bay . Favre was outstanding, throwing for four touchdown passes and none of his sometimes-characteristic picks (though he has only three this season). He continued what has been, by any measure, a fantastic season, which is all the more impressive because Favre turned 40 last month. Of course, it helps to have Adrian Peterson on your team—Green Bay’s leading rusher was Favre’s replacement, Aaron Rodgers, who had an awesome game statistically and is having an impressive overall year himself. Rodgers has already turned out much better than I ever thought he’d be. Nothing about this game was a surprise to me, though, especially after the Vikings’ win over the Packers last month. And the Vikings are widely regarded as a superior team. But honestly, the Vikings were gonna win today because they have Brett (freakin’) Favre....

The Baltimore Ravens just ended the Denver Broncos’ six-game, season-long winning streak with a dominating 30-7 victory at M&T Bank Stadium. All season long Broncos fans have asked themselves: how good is this team, really? The Broncos have won close games against tough opponents and dominated bad ones, suggesting they’re among the NFL’s elite. Today they were annihilated by a Ravens team outplaying them in seemingly all phases of the game. But the Broncos aren’t as bad as they looked. A few things I noticed during the game: 1. The Ravens have to be one of the worst teams to play coming off a bye week. It’s not like there’s some big secret to Baltimore’s defensive prowess over the past decade: just that the Ravens are, even by NFL standards, a very physical team. Even in the first quarter the sound and violence of their hits stood out. While we had an extra week to prepare for the Ravens (as they did for us), it’s hard to scheme around getting smacked in the face time after ...

Due to frankly incredible circumstances I missed tonight’s Broncos game, which they won over the Chargers of San Diego 34-23. Eddie Royal took a punt and a kickoff back to the house, becoming the only Bronco ever to do so in a single game. It’s tough to appreciate how impressive that is. In the ’90s we often saw a stat in the Denver Post’s notes sections saying the Broncos hadn’t returned a kick for a touchdown since 1972 , a string we didn’t break until late in the 1998 season. For a franchise with returners as gifted as Darrien Gordon and Rick Upchurch it’s a little surprising that this hadn’t happened before, but congrats to Royal. Elvis Dumervil picked up his ninth and tenth sacks of the season. I think I’m finally grateful that Mr. Shanahan is out—he would never keep a pass rusher after a season like this. Anyway, what else did I miss?

Yesterday I caught an early rivalry game: the Texas-Oklahoma showdown at the Cotton Bowl. Texas beat the Sooners 16-13 in a close but not great game. The Sooners were very competitive though they were clearly a little overmatched this year. Sam Bradford went down on another routine tackle and left the game with a reinjured shoulder. I had to wonder yesterday whether the Heisman winner’s best days are already behind him. Landry Jones is doing well considering the circumstances, which should not be confused with doing well, at least compared to OU’s preseason expectations. As for Texas, I was a little impressed with Colt McCoy’s mobility, and their run game looked very good in spurts, but the defense is clearly their bread and butter. Their D reminds me of other great teams, as Oklahoma has been in the past, with monstrous, athletic defenders who appear somehow bigger than their NFL counterparts. I don’t count it against the Longhorns that this game was so close; that’s just how r...

So I’m a little late to the party, seeing as the book came out in 2006, but I just finished reading Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side , a book about many things which tells the story of Baltimore Ravens tackle Michael Oher, who started his first game on the left side of the line Sunday. That’s not only the same weekend I started reading the book, but Oher and I have nearly identical names (his last name rhymes with mine); we’re basically the same guy, right? In The Blind Side as in the outstanding Moneyball , Lewis combines fantastic reporting and storytelling to touch on a ton of fascinating topics, and in this case they include race, opportunity, and pro football. Like Moneyball , this book changes the way I think about things. In The Blind Side Lewis discusses the rise of the left tackle, sure, but also touches on the careers of players and coaches who changed the game in that direction, like Lawrence Taylor and Bill Walsh. In other words, he talks about the real stars of my childhoo...

As I watch the Rockies tie the game up in the first inning tonight and threaten to do more, I can’t stop thinking what wonderful momentum the Nuggets’ playoff run brought to our city. We ain’t quite Boston, but we’re getting there. (And it’s 2-1, Colorado.) Of course it would be absurd to suggest that Chauncey Billups can really influence that many athletes, even as great as he is, but suddenly the Denver sports scene is booming again, even in vertically-striped socks. Today I feel it almost necessary to take back every mean thing I’ve said about the Denver Broncos since they fired Mike Shanahan and traded Jay Cutler. Because this year’s team is good . Why, I don’t know. I mean, Mike Nolan, whose biggest achievement in San Fran was wearing those suits on the sideline, is doing a bang-up Joe Collier impression and putting the 3-4 back in vogue in Denver. The defense is awesome . They forced a three-and-out on New England’s first real crunch-time possession and forced a fumble on t...

Tyler Hansen, who lost his favorite red shirt Saturday, will, if all goes well, be starting at quarterback for the Colorado Buffaloes for the rest of the season . I felt bad for Hansen during the game Saturday, wondering if he was really prepared to play and if he would get much playing time down the stretch this season, or if perhaps he’d been compelled to surrender his year off for little gain. The ESPN.com article shows, however, that the coaches planned this out a little more than the ESPN broadcast crew led us to believe. (Yes, the same crew whose Brad Nessler cruelly suggested we’d learn more about the quarterback controversy by reading the Rocky Mountain News today. Ouch .) Turns out the coaches approached him before the game, and Hansen wanted to play, so it’s all good. But anyway, the term redshirt reminded me of a cool quote from the man himself, Pat Tillman, that I wanted to share (that whole article is outstanding): When the coach raised the possibility of a redsh...

For the record, I like Matt Holliday. He was a key player during the Rockies’ 2007 World Series run. Unless he does something really awful—and wanting more money is not nearly “wrong” enough for me—I’ll always be a fan. Even if I wasn’t, though, I think I’d still call the reaction to his play last night overblown. ESPN’s main story right now: “Lost Holliday.” Over on the headlines, it’s: “Holliday’s error puts Cards in 2-0 hole.” As you’ve probably heard, Holliday misjudged and dropped a low fly ball with no one on last night that would have ended the game with a 2-1 Cardinals victory. Instead, James Loney was safe on second. Casey Blake walked, then Ronnie Belliard singled to drive in the lead runner and tie the game. A passed ball moved the runners up, then another walk, then Mark Loretta singled to win the game. In other words…a ton of stuff happened to ensure a Cardinals loss. If reliever Ryan Franklin had retired either of the two batters after Holliday’s drop, St. Louis ...

Yesterday was another proud day for the fat cats of college football. The No. 2-ranked University of Texas Longhorns eked out a narrow 64-7 victory at home over UTEP. The No. 8 Boise State Broncos destroyed 1-3 Bowling Green 49-14. And No. 16 Oklahoma State devoured Grambling State’s defense to the tune of 587 yards in a 56-6 win. You could say that the sham that is college football’s championship system encourages this kind of junk. (It’s often said that a team could lose on any given week and lose its shot at the national title. While that’s literally true, many of these matchups are like the U.S. Navy going against, I don’t know, the Antarctic Imperial Guard or something.) Of course, the whole season won’t be that easy. Texas and Oklahoma State have to play each other, for starters, and of course the Longhorns have that Red River Shootout every year. Boise State will have to…well, actually, their schedule’s kinda easy, but you know what I mean. I can’t help but think of th...

They’ve done it! Josh McDaniels’ Broncos are now 2-0 and appear to be an unstoppable force. All right, they’ve beaten two bad teams, but the defense, which needed seven tons of improvements after last season, has only given up thirteen points in two games. (We’d give that many up every 27 minutes and 52 seconds of game time last year.) Also, and I had thought I brought this up before, but I love Elvis Dumervil, maybe the last great defensive pick of the Mike Shanahan era. I still don’t get how a guy with twenty sacks in one year at a big-time program falls to the fourth round, but it’s okay with me that he did. The twin rushing attack of the skin-softening Correll Buckhalter and Knowshon Moreno looked pretty good, too. I’ve always liked Buckhalter’s toughness and style. Moreno, though, ran exactly like a Shanahan-era back today. He didn’t do anything too special—it was only his second game—but the way he hit the hole and ran with balance and shifted his weight on his moves looked ve...

Now is the time for Colorado Buffaloes fans to breathe a huge sigh of relief: the football team picked up its first win of the season yesterday in a shutout over the Wyoming Cowboys at Folsom Field. I was terrified all week that Wyoming would win. My brother and his wife were both athletes there and I thought if I didn’t make a big deal of it before the game, maybe they’d let me off easy afterwards. By Thursday I realized that the nature of the matchup (Big 12 vs. Mountain West) meant I’d be hearing a bunch anyway, so I talked a tiny amount of trash, and was very pleasantly surprised to check the score yesterday and find us winning. I didn’t get to watch the game, since I don’t get Fox College Sports Central, which I could swear I’d never heard of before last week. I’m troubled by the box score that says our quarterback threw a ton of passes again (31) for not a lot of yards (175), but it appears our defense and running game were great, so I’ll take it. Any of you see what happene...

Broncos fans: enjoy the picture below, snapped tonight by commenter and friend of the blog David V. at the Oakland Coliseum.

I didn’t see the game (or any pro football today, actually), but with all my pessimism before the season I have to at least link to the highlights of the Broncos’ spectacular win over the Cincinnati Bengals today. What a win!

Congratulations to this year’s class of inductees to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Two coaches and three players were enshrined yesterday. C. Vivian Stringer: Currently the head coach at Rutgers and owner of a pristine 813-269 career record. I don’t know enough about her career to cover it fairly; check Wikipedia for more information. Jerry Sloan: I have mixed feelings about this guy, who seems like a jerk, and whose teams have never won a championship, making it into the Hall. On the other hand, he was a well-regarded player, especially defensively, and has a great reputation as a coach—is it fair to combine the two? In an interesting historical note, Sloan has never won the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award. That’s OK with me because I’ve had a higher opinion of several coaches who have been active during his tenure, particularly Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Gregg Popovich. But it’s also bizarre because Sloan is a better coach than many of the men who have wo...

Last night was rough. The Colorado Buffaloes lost their first game of the season 23-17 in a game that was much less competitive than the final score appears. Colorado made some plays, sure, and they even started the second half with a quick scoring drive. But they struggled to move the ball for most of the game. CU’s opponent moved the ball effortlessly in the first half, then faltered as the game went on, scoring only a field goal in the second half. They gave the Buffs enough of an opening to get back into the game, but CU couldn’t capitalize. In Boulder right now, you can buy the jerseys of two active players and one legend . The No. 7 jersey belongs to Cody Hawkins, who threw forty passes yesterday. The No. 2 on sale is worn by running back Darrell Scott, who carried the ball once last night for one yard. Is it fair to suggest the coach is putting his son ahead of the team? No, but these are the kind of things that come up when you fall madly in love with airing it out. Rod...

No. 3 Oklahoma may have lost Hyped Man Sam Bradford in the second quarter, but they still let the No. 20 BYU Cougars take it to ’em in crunch time. BYU notched the upset win 14-13 tonight in Dallas. I’ve seen BYU make plenty of comebacks, but it’s been years since both the offense and defense played with the kind of mental toughness they did in tonight’s fourth quarter. Cougars QB Max Hall threw a costly pick at the end of the third that left Oklahoma with good field position at BYU’s 27, with the Sooners already holding a 10-7 lead. They immediately picked up a first down, too. But that was about it for OU tonight. Oklahoma running back Chris Brown picked up a first and goal, then BYU stopped him on consecutive plays. Third and goal from the five. On the pass, BYU cornerback Brian Logan appeared to knock the ball down cleanly, but was flagged for pass interference in the end zone. I thought this was a horrible call, honestly, and it gave Oklahoma first and goal at the two. Havi...

Inspired by the Sports Guy’s debates this year about what has been the best whatever of the decade, I thought it would be nice to talk, as the last football season of the decade kicks off, about which have been the best games of the double-ohs. (Hopefully I’ll look dumb for leaving out some awesome game that happens this season.) Honorable mention: Sadly, I had to exclude the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, when Ohio State upset the favored Miami Hurricanes for the national championship—the game even went to a typically-awesome college overtime, but I really hated the pass interference call that extended the Buckeyes’ first overtime possession…the fourth and 26 game…the Rams-Titans Super Bowl XXXIV showdown, which was sorta boring until the last few minutes, when my BYU companion conveniently scheduled a home-teaching appointment…the Titans’ third win of the season over the Jaguars in the AFC Championship right before that game…the Music City Miracle, which never would have happened if Wade Phil...