This “This is Sportscenter” promo came out on December 6th but surprisingly the first time I saw it was today. I’ve seen the ad where they are in the Winnebago a few times but not this one.
The first video is the “This is Sportscenter” feature and the second is the one of them in the Winnebago. Enjoy the videos.
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Much has been made of the New England Patriots pursuit of perfection this season. Every time the possibility of a perfect season comes up the 1972 Miami Dolphins are mentioned and rightfully so they were the NFL’s only post-merger perfect squad going 14-0. The Dolphins also added 3 playoff wins as they won Super Bowl VII and finished with a 17-0 record.
Most of the 1972 Dolphins don’t seem to mind when a team looks like it has a chance at an unbeaten year it gives them some face time and some recognition for their wonderful feat. Former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris though seems to have a severe disdain for any team who is approaching his vaunted Dolphins. Mercury has done his angry best to belittle other teams accomplishments, wrote a rap about being undefeated and has generally played the angry old man route to its most annoying. But Morris said it best I think when he said “don’t call me when you’re on the turnpike, call me when you’re in my neighborhood”.
Well don’t look now Merc because there is a team in your ‘hood baby, they’re on your street and that beeping sound you hear is the moving truck backing up the to the house next door.
According to the Baltimore Sun, U.S. Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) is getting into the act of trying to get this Saturday’s NFL game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants moved from the NFL Network to NBC.
The NFL Network is a cable-based network that is in only about 35 million households nationwide due to a battle with cable operators over channel positioning and pricing.
The game meanwhile pits the first NFL team in 35 with a chance to finish a season undefeated as the 15-0 Patriots face the Giants in the season finale for both clubs at Giants stadium in the Meadowlands.
On Christmas Eve Day Kerry officially requested through Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, that the game be placed on national television and has threatened Senate hearings if it is not.
“Under the unfortunate circumstance that this matter remains unresolved, leaving 60 percent of households across the country – including thousands in Massachusetts – without access to Saturday’s game, I will ask the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer,” he wrote to Goodell today in a letter released by his office.
“As a Bostonian, I couldn’t be more pleased that in just five days, the New England Patriots will attempt to become the first NFL team in 35 years to finish the regular season with an undefeated record,” Kerry wrote. “But as someone who represents all of Massachusetts and not just those in the Boston media market, I remain deeply troubled that today as many as 250,000 Massachusetts households, and millions of Patriots fans nationwide, may be denied access to this historic sporting event. …
“For a game of this significance to be used as a bargaining chip or point of leverage between corporations locked in a dispute would say a great deal about the esteem in which America’s football fans are held by the big interests,” Kerry wrote.
Seeing as entry into Carl Everett’s Crazy Hall of Fame should be special I wanted to give people the opportunity to vote on its potential new members. Much like the BBWAA (Baseball Writer’s Association of America) controls the fate of players trying to gain entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame you now control the fate of the Carl Everett nominees.
Here are the voting rules:
The 2008 Carl Everett’s Crazy Hall of Fame nominees are:
As expected, the UConn Huskies women’s basketball program is the new #1 team in the land after Tennessee lost to Stanford 73-69 in overtime on Saturday night. The Huskies sit atop both the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll.
Here’s an interesting fact though for you stat geeks out there. The current class of seniors, Mel Thomas, Ketia Swainer, Brittany Hunter and Charde Houston have never been on a UConn team that’s been ranked #1. The last time they were ranked #1 was Feb 23, 2004. That was also the last year they won the NCAA Championship. It also marked the last time a UConn women’s team went to the Final Four.
“This is going to be fun for our team because it is the first time for this group,” Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. “I’m really proud of them and I’m anxious to see how we respond.”
“Before last Monday, I felt we were the best team in the country. Now that we are not intact, I’m not as certain,” Auriemma said. “So being No. 1 is neither here nor there. Which is fine, since the goal at Connecticut never was, nor never will be, to be ranked No. 1 in the polls in December.”
A full look at both women’s polls after the jump.
Hot Stove Cool Music in association with and for the benefit of A Foundation To Be Named Later will be holding a pretty cool fundraiser on Saturday January 5th from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the State Street Pavilion at Fenway Park. For $100 you can join Boston sports executives for a roundtable discussion on:
Building a Winning Enterprise: Excellence on the field, court and ice — and in the community
Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, Celtics board member Steve Pagliuca, Bruins Vice President Cam Neely & others will share insights and observations from Fenway, Foxboro and the Garden.
That is immediately followed by:
Inside Baseball 2008:
With ESPN’s Peter Gammons, Baseball Statistician Bill James, Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and other surprise guests!
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It seems New York Giants fans are selling their tickets to Saturday’s game against the undefeated New England Patriots by the boatload. The ticket broker site StubHub reports that this could be one of their Top 25 best selling events. Apparently Giants fans would rather cash in on their team than support them.
“It looks like it’s on pace to be one of our top 25 events for all time. It’s definitely one of our hot sellers,” Joellen Ferrer, a spokesman for StubHub told the Star-Ledger. “Although it’s meaningless to the Giants, it’s still going to be a great game to watch.”
As of Monday nearly 3,000 tickets to the game were available on StubHub for as much as $1,600 apiece.
StubHub’s sister site Ebay reported that after the Giants beat the Bills on Sunday more than 200 ticket holders put their seats up for auction.
If the Patriots win on Sunday they would be the first NFL team to go undefeated in 35 years joining the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only clubs to do so. And with all the Giants fans bailing on the game it may even seem like an additional home game for New England even though it’s being held at Giants Stadium. Oh by the way Tom Brady is 7-0 in games played at the stadium.
First of all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you now it’s into the red zone where we start with the coach, Bill Belichick and his weekly visit with the local Boston media. The coach’s WEEI segment took the week off due to the holiday. He talked about the upcoming game with the Giants, Troy Brown and the schedule for the short week with the game on Saturday and the holiday on Tuesday.
Rodney Harrison called into WEEI in Boston for a Patriot’s Monday visit with Paul Perillo and Butch Stearns sitting in for Dale & Holley.
Some of the players are now starting to talk a little bit about 16-0 but mostly in the way they’ve talked about the next game all year. When they were 8-0 they talked about being 9-0. Now that they’re 15-0 it’s starting to creep into the conversations. Here’s Tedy Bruschi’s take:
“We’re not shooting for anything. We have to focus on who is in front of us. A small piece has to be in our mind what we can achieve. We want our fans to have fun and you can talk about it. Now that we’re 15-0, yes, we want to be 16-0.”
Nothing exciting going on this Christmas morning as far as the Red Sox are concerned. Ian Browne from MLB.com conducted a couple of interviews with Jacoby Ellsbury and Red Sox radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione about their thoughts on the holiday season among other things.
Here are excerpts from both.
MLB.com: Given what just happened to you on the baseball field, winning the World Series with the Red Sox and playing such a big role, does that make this Christmas and this holiday season even more enjoyable for you than normal?
Ellsbury: Yeah, everybody is excited. My family is very proud and excited. It’s just been fun, them sharing the moment and the memories with me. They were in Boston for the World Series and in Colorado, and for my birthday in September. It’s been a memorable year. This time of year, you can kind of reflect back on what happened throughout the course of the year — not only myself, but the rest of the family. We have some great memories of 2007.
MLB.com: It had to mean a lot to you, not just winning the World Series, but breaking into the Major Leagues earlier than you could have expected. How memorable was this year as a whole?
Ellsbury: Very memorable, just the way I started off in Double-A, then went to Triple-A and got the first callup before the All-Star break, then being a September callup and being put on the postseason roster — just the whole year, just kind of how everything unfolded. I couldn’t be more grateful than to see what’s happened on the baseball field and now to be able to enjoy it all with my family.
MLB.com: You’re coming off a great year professionally. The Red Sox just won the World Series — again. Does that make this holiday season even more enjoyable?
Castiglione: I think so. You still pinch yourself that we won again, the second time in four years. It’s really different than the first time in some ways. Not that it’s any less exciting. It’s like comparing your kids. You really can’t compare. The first one was more about the miracle and ending curses and winning it for people no longer with us. This year was about being the best ballclub. It was really a wire-to-wire season. It really is special to go into this time of year knowing that you won it all because I certainly remember ’86 and ’03 and others. Not that you think about baseball constantly during the holidays, but it adds a nice twist to it when you’ve won it all.
MLB.com: What does it mean to you to be the only Red Sox broadcaster to ever be at the mic when the team has won the World Series? You’ve now done it twice, and nobody else can even say they’ve done it once.
Castiglione: It’s just a feeling of how blessed I am of being able to be in that position. I’ve never dreamed about it. I thought about winning it all once, but I never thought about being the first to call the last out. I remember in 1986, I did the top of the 10th of Game 6 against the Mets and I said to Ken Coleman, ‘Do you want me to do the bottom of the 10th or go to the clubhouse?’ He said, ‘It’s up to you.’ I thought after 20 years, he should call the last out. Plus, I wanted to be down there. But we all know what happened. Yeah, it is amazing. I’ve been in that position at the right place at the right time. I know a lot of great broadcasters who have never had the chance.
