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 ...