You either love him or you hate him.  I can probably say with 100% certainty that if you’re a fan of the New England Patriots you hate him.  And we’re talking about Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter who is once again spouting off about the New England Patriots.

Here is some of what Porter said to ESPN’s Tim Graham:

Do you think Bill Belichick will take this game personally given what happened the last time you played the Patriots?

Porter: We played them up there last year and they were up by 21 and they was running run plays with a minute left. They could’ve kneed the ball. We couldn’t win the game. They was up by 21. So I really don’t care how they feel or what they’re getting ready for. Doesn’t really matter to me.

Everybody was hoping we was going to be 0-13 and they were going to be 13-0, and they were moving the game around to get us on TV. They were up, and I’m looking at [Tom] Brady, thinking he’s going to take a knee. We don’t have no timeouts or nothing. But they continued to run the ball. So if that’s how they feel, then it is what it is.

You certainly have a long memory.

Porter: Yeah, I got a long memory. Why wouldn’t you remember that?

You can read all of what Porter had to say by checking out the article.  One thing he did touch on that I agree with is the part about his son’s 8-year old football team but what Joey has to realize is that he plays in the NFL on Sunday’s and not in the Pop Warner League like his kid.

For the second time this season, UConn Huskies kicker Dave Teggart has been honored as the Big East Special Teams Player of the Week.

During UConn’s 39-14 win over the Syracuse Orange, Teggart was 3-for-3 on field goals (23,37,21) and made all 4 of his extra points. Teggart is a perfect 9-for-9 on field goals to start his career since taking over for Tony Ciaravino.

The Big East also named Cody Brown and Donald Brown to the Weekly Honor Roll.

C. Brown had four tackles, including two sacks and three tackles for loss, with three pass breakups, in a 39-14 win at Syracuse while D. Brown had 22 carries for a 131 yards with 1 touchdown that came on a 49-yard run. D. Brown is now the all-time leading rusher in UConn history with 3,254 yards.

With the headline we could easily be talking about the way Paul Pierce has played on the basketball court in the last three of four games but actually we’re talking about bowling.

Tomorrow (Monday November 17th) at 6 p.m. at King’s Lane’s at 50 Dalton Street in Boston, Paul Pierce and some of his Celtics teammates along with members of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots will take to the lanes in an effort to raise money for Pierce’s foundation, The Truth Fund.

Limited tickets are still available for the event and Pierce is also hosting an online raffle in which one grand prize winner wil receive 16 tickets to a Celtics game in Pierce’s luxury suite, a meet and greet with Pierce and an autographed jersey.  Tickets for the raffle can be purchased on line through February 24 at 9 a.m.

Syracuse Orange AD Daryl Gross announced this afternoon that he was firing head football coach Greg Robinson with 2 games to go in the season. Robinson will stay on to coach those final 2 games.

In 3+ years with the Orange, Robinson had a record of 9-36 and was 3-25 in Big East competition.

Why is this important to UConn fans. Well the rumors now will start to fly about Randy Edsall going to coach his alma mater. For the record, Edsall really didn’t have much to say.

“I don’t talk about personnel issues and never will,” Edsall said. “I’m just concerned about coaching this football team here and making them better and just getting focused for South Florida [Sunday night] and that’s it.”

“I don’t talk about personnel issues as I’ve just said . I’m just focused with this team, trying to make us better and do the things that I can to make our team the best we can and I’m just focused on South Florida.”

The Syracuse Post-Standard says that Edsall is very interested in the job. Just like we did last year with the Georgia Tech opening, we can expect the rumors to run rampant over the rest of the season.

Edsall Won’t Discuss Now-Vacant Syracuse Job [Hartford Courant]

Maya Moore led the No. 1 UConn Huskies with a double-double this afternoon as they struggled to an 82-71 win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in front of 8,871 at Gampel Pavilion.

Moore had a game-high 20 points and 14 rebounds to lead 5 Huskies in double figures. Tina Charles had 15 points and 8 rebounds while Renee Montgomery also had 15 points, 5 assists and 4 steals. Caroline Doty had 13 points in her Huskies debut and Kalana Greene scored 11 points and added 3 steals in her return to action.

Mo Bennett paced the Yellow Jackets with 19 points while Jacqua Williams had 14 and 6 assists. Alex Montgomery (no relation to Renee) chipped in with 12 points and Iasia Hemingway rounded out the Yellow Jackets players in double figures with 10 points.

The Huskies got out to a 4-0 lead before falling behind 7-5. The Huskies regained the lead on an old fashioned 3 point play by Montgomery before Tech retook the lead. UConn would build up their lead to 9 points at 19-10 before the Yellow Jackets would battle back to tie the score at 34 heading into the locker room.

UConn started off the second half with a  13-4 run to take a 9 point lead. They would push their lead to 11 and then the Yellow Jackets cut UConn’s lead to 3 at 67-64. The Huskies would increase their lead to 15 points but Tech would get no closer than 11 the rest of the way.

It was not the effort we expected from the Huskies as they were sloppy at times and may have thought it would have been a cake walk. Well the opposite happened but the Huskies did what good teams do, they perservered on defense. They always say the best offense is a good defense and that was the case for UConn in the second half.

Next up for the Huskies is San Diego State on Thursday night at the XL Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 PM.

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Nothing like a nice shot to the nuts from last night’s fight between Jorge Gurgel and Aaron Riley in UFC 91 to start your afternoon.

[flash http://ianbethune.com/nutshot.FLV w=425 h=300]

I love the crowd reaction.