Hole Punch Sports

So it’s not quite Jacksonville-Kansas City-Pittsburgh-Green Bay, but the Broncos are nonetheless coming up on their most exciting four-game stretch in years, and I can’t wait. This Sunday: Indianapolis at Denver. The Broncos host the Colts in Denver’s first real test of the season. (Unless you count the Rams.) The Colts’ perfect 6-0 mark does include road wins against both New York squads, but the horseshoe-shorn squad has already played half its home games. The Colts had an easy early schedule? Could the NFL front office be looking to do them some kind of favor? Indianapolis brings the third-ranked offense (and the fourth in scoring) into the home of the league’s stingiest defenders. But forget the numbers-this matchup is interesting because of certain recent postseason events I’d prefer not to mention. In like fashion, Denver has owned the regular season matchups, but this is the first recent in-season meeting to hold significance for both teams. Nov. 5: At Pittsburgh. After destr...

You’ve probably already heard that the NFL will hold a regular season game in a foreign country next year. (That’s not a first, but the league wants to make it a permanent part of the schedule.) This feels like a big story-for all I know, it led off SportsCenter, which I almost never watch. (For some reason everyone assumes I love ESPN. I guess that makes sense-I do run a sports blog-but still. I guess I just don’t like NASCAR highlights as much as you’d think I do. Or how they always pull that, “Coming up next…” crap when they have an interesting story that won’t air for another forty minutes. A few months back a friend of mine tried to invite herself over to watch some non-World Cup soccer game, because of course I get the Ocho and would have it on. No dice. I’m curious-do any of you guys watch SportsCenter regularly?) Anyway, I don’t much care for the idea, though it wouldn’t have much impact on any one team. The plan would be set up so that teams would rotate over a 16-year period...

Some thoughts from Monday Night Football... 1. I wish T.O. hadn’t been playing last night-sometimes, you just need a break from the guy. That said, he wasn’t the most loathsome player on the field Monday night-I’d take him over Jeremy Shockey, certainly, and probably Eli Manning. And yet, Eli and Shockey were playing the Cowboys . Can you root for both teams to lose? 2. Tiki Barber’s played for New York his whole career, but he’s still underrated. You should watch him while you still can. I’m serious. I can’t quite say why, but I got a feeling watching the game last night that this could be Barber’s last season in the NFL. I haven’t spoken to any Giants, but it just seems right. Call it a hunch. 3. Eli Manning’s first-quarter bomb to Plexiglass Burress was both a wonderful throw and a fantastic catch. When the younger Manning is making smart decisions with the ball, it can be a thing of beauty. When he’s rifling it at a triple-covered Amani Toomer, as he did later in the quarter, then ...

How many bloggers have ever written the words, “I love Microsoft”? I can only think of one . But sometimes love fades. Why? Because Microsoft came out with a new version of Internet Explorer last week, and it doesn’t show Hole Punch Sports properly. It’s not a big thing-the top search bar just overlaps the “Hole Punch Sports” box-but considering I’ve been nothing but a shill for that company, it’s a little weird. (Plus this website doesn’t even have pictures-I don’t know how you screw that up, but I guess they found the one possible way.) There may be an easy fix, but I didn’t find it in several seconds of Googling, so I gave up, especially considering there’s a decent chance Blogger will fix it for me. In the meantime, like my link-mate , I will point you in the direction of some alternatives. (Though I read and recommend the site, I’m not the Mike who commented on that particular post.) I tested this site with Firefox, Opera, Safari, Camino, Mozilla, and Konqueror, and each worked. ...

Game 7 of the NLCS, a do-or-don’t-go-to-the-World-Series game for both the Mets and Cardinals, will start any minute now. (It probably did start by the time this is up, but never underestimate a Fox pre-game show.) Me? I'm watching The Office tonight. I’m not alone. That show rocks. No, that’s not right. I mean I’m not alone in ignoring baseball. (I don't hate the game, but this matchup does nothing for me.) From an AP article : An AP-AOL Sports poll released Thursday shows that only one-third of Americans call themselves fans of professional baseball -- about the level of support for the last decade, but lower than 1990. Remember how boring baseball was in 1990? Me neither. Glad they pointed it out anyway. Some players don’t understand it. Brandon Inge of the World Series-bound Detroit Tigers was surprised to hear that only 32 percent of Americans consider themselves fans. "That sounds a little low to me," the third baseman said. "It's America's pastime....

If Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, and John Elway got together to mentor a quarterback, and he ended up like Ryan Leaf... If Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, and Hank Aaron took over as hitting coaches, and their best student couldn’t out-hit Neifi Perez... If Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd schooled a student in the art of pinpoint passing, but ended up with Kobe Bryant... ...would any of those be any more pathetic than Jackie Slater and Art Shell coaching Chad Slaughter today? Yes, two of the finest tackles of anyone’s lifetime are the men in charge of motivating and molding the Human False Start. John Madden, a former Raiders coach himself, pointed out late in tonight’s Broncos-Raiders game that Slaughter was actually doing a decent job blocking when he was punctual. I’m pretty sure my man Elvis Dumervil would disagree, but even if it was true, the Raiders still aren’t going to beat anybody anytime soon. Yes, the Chicago Bears are absolutely explosive and it appears, for the time being, that I gro...

1. The Yankees almost made my year . I recently told a friend that Yankees manager Joe Torre was the best manager of the last 20 years. I'm not sure if that's really true, but he's clearly one of the very best in the game. Yes, like the chart on the link shows, he was under .500 at two of his first three jobs. Yes, it's much easier to manage when Mariano Rivera's in the bullpen than when your options don't hold all-time records. And most definitely yes, a monkey could learn the complex system of single-switches required to manage in the American League. So Torre is human. But he's also a great manager and a great fit for New York. Playing for or coaching the Yankees is often treated as some kind of special situation, and there is pressure there, but I'm not sure it's all that tougher than managing in, say, Boston. That said, Torre's done a tremendous job managing the egos of the game's best-known and most-pampered players, while avoiding ...

How about them Broncos! It wasn’t very long into yesterday’s 13-3 win over the Baltimore Ravens that I realized the Broncos, still scoreless, were really in no trouble whatsoever. They’ve been playing slow, defensive-minded games and pulling them out their last two games, so why couldn’t they do it again? It’s easy to call Denver’s new keep-it-close style conservative, but that misses at least half the point. Compared to the offensive firepower the team showcased in recent years, the current gameplan is, in fact, far more risky. What happens when the other team gets the interception before halftime and kills one of our only scoring chances? (I know it's incredible that I could even suggest Jake Plummer messing up like that, but he is only human.) What I can’t tell is whether the grind-it-out style was only an adjustment to the teams we’ve faced or if it’s fast becoming a permanent fixture in the offense. Against Baltimore, it makes sense to take time off the clock, since the only w...

Can you play your way out of the Hall of Fame? That’s the question that comes to my mind lately whenever someone brings up Brett Favre. Favre, of course, is the longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback who won a record three Associated Press league MVP awards. (He shared his final award, in 1997, with Barry Sanders.) He’s also a member of the most elite class of sports heores in America: franchise quarterbacks who’ve won the Super Bowl. His talent was and remains off the charts. Unbelieveable arm strength from any of a thousand release points. Accuracy from the pocket, on the run, falling backwards, or over defenders. Great mobility and improvisation, especially in his younger years. And his toughness-oh my, but we’ll get to that later. Not only that, he’s now considered (if a bit inaccurately) to be the last remaining symbol of loyalty in team sports. He’s certainly had to clout to ask to be traded to a winner for his last few seasons. And, conversely, he’s certainly given his team caus...