Bleacher Report - Articles by Michael Ielpi

If You Want to be a Sports Owner, Try Not to be in a Rush to Judge

Michael Ielpi — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:05:12 -0400

I will start by saying this, unlike many of the columns you have read online, I actually listen to the Rush Limbaugh show. Am I a fan of everything says? No, and I do not really like it when he brings up race. Do I agree with some of the things he says? Yes, and I would wager that some of you who do not like him would agree to some of his comments if it came from someone not named Rush.

The group that was led by Dave Checketts, whom by the way is the one of the people who started the downfall of the events that have taken place at Madison Square Garden over the last decade, made two mistakes. The first mistake was making it public that Rush Limbaugh was one of the investors interested in buying the Rams. Checketts should have insisted that Limbaugh and everyone stay quiet. The second mistake was not letting this play out to conclusion.

My disappointment is that Rush did not even get a chance to get voted down by the NFL owners.

Limbaugh was not going to be the majority owner of the St. Louis Rams. He was never going to have ultimate control over the team and its decisions. I also doubt that the Rams would have a tough time attracting the best talent in the NFL to play for the team. By the looks of the Rams in their present state they are having enough trouble in that area.

Has Limbaugh ever said that he hates a certain race? Do you think if Rush had complete control of the Rams’ personnel that he would want his team to look like Nazi Germany instead of the best available talent that you could find regardless of race?

I would think Rush would want to be part of the Rams because he would want a team that would be a winner financially and on the playing field. If Limbaugh played fantasy football do you think his starting running backs would be Heath Evans and Brian Leonard?

The beauty of sports is that you cheer for a color, not black or white, but what color your team is wearing. When your team wins you high-five everybody, and when you lose, you console each other.

It does not matter who produced you, it matters what you produce.

People like Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson were accepted in American society before even the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964.

When someone is about to hand you a check that can change your entire family’s life for the better, it is tough to say no thank you. Limbaugh would not even be signing those checks.

Meanwhile, you have many owners in the NFL who run their teams cheaply and use the excuse, "well the city did not want to fork over the money so either I am going to move my team or you are going to have raise every citizen’s taxes to get me a new stadium."

Classic examples of owner frugality are the Irsays, the Modells, the Bidwills, the Brown family, etc.

In the NBA, my home state team, the New Jersey Nets are co-owned by rap artist Jay-Z. There is no way I could ever get an article published if I wrote some of Jay-Z’s lyrics .

I like some of Jay-Z’s music and I am totally content with him living out one of his dreams and being a partial owner of the Nets. My question is what if Jay-Z’s real name was not Shawn Carter, but Rush Limbaugh? Would he have any chance at all?

In baseball, you had Marge Schott using about every racial epithet in the book. She would use some of those terms on her own players. Yet, she was able to keep her team and was only suspended years later for her words.

Look at the NHL, with the case of Jim Balsillie wanting to completely overpay for the Phoenix Coyotes. Balsillie lost in court and lost to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman whose destiny to keep Balsillie from moving a floundering team to a more prosperous area will never happen under his watch.

The NFL and all other major sports want owners who will not be a public spectacle. Why do you think baseball rejected Mark Cuban’s bid for the Cubs? The problem is in the publicity. The professional sports leagues do not want people like Al Czervik in their club. They fear people like that will expose the league for some its hypocrisies. In the NBA, I am sure if David Stern had it to do over again he would have tried to stop Cuban from buying the Mavericks.

These leagues want their owners to trust them implicitly in the same way some brokers told investors to hold on their shares of Lehman Brothers or Washington Mutual. The code is keep your mouth shut as long as the checks are still clearing.

NBC Sports hires someone to do their NFL television program that has called the president a fascist, and accused him of war crimes. His name is Keith Theodore Olbermann. Should Olbermann not be allowed to broadcast highlights of the NFL because of what he has said on his other television show?

I tend to think Limbaugh would have passed a background check. I also tend to think that some of the owners in sports belong to country clubs where minorities are not allowed.

The NFL can use that same privilege. The league has that luxury of excluding anyone the other owners deem inappropriate. The NFL was fortunate that this time they could use some of Rush’s comments against him and come up with a decision as to why his group should be denied a chance at ownership of the Rams.

If you purchase shares of stock in a company, does that company care about what you say on the radio?

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also made a mistake.

“We’re all held to a high standard here and divisive comments are not what the NFL’s all about. I would not want to see those kind of comments from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL, no. Absolutely not.”

Why say anything at all? It is not him who gets to vote on this. Goodell is an awful public speaker. He never seems sure of what he is saying. He should really attend a Toastmasters' meeting. Goodell could have easily passed the buck and said, well when their bid comes up to vote, the owners will take an honest look at the bid and the people involved and make their decision accordingly.

Another person who should know better than to say anything is Colts owner Jim Irsay. Irsay said, “I can’t vote for that, [His] comments are insensitive and inappropriate. I wouldn’t feel comfortable in voting for him.”

This coming from a man whose father once made a complete drunken fool of himself on television using foul language and lying to the people of Baltimore about the Colts staying in the city. I know it has been 25 years, and people in Baltimore like the Ravens, but they loved their Colts.

Limbaugh already paid the price for making an obtuse comment about Donovan McNabb when he worked as a commentator for ESPN. He should know that as an NFL owner, he would be held to an even higher standard than he was as a commentator.

My only question is this, if the NFL is going to hold every single man or woman who would like to be a partial or full owner of a franchise to the same high moral standards?

Everyone else should be as well, and I highly doubt that will be the case.

Personally, I just do not think Limbaugh is that much different than everyone else when it comes down to being qualified to be an NFL owner. He has the money, but Judge Smails and the rest of Bushwood do not want his kind at Bushwood or Park Avenue in New York City.

The real reason that the Checketts group backed down was due to pressure from the league not wanting to have a blowhard like Limbaugh represent their image on a day-to-day basis.

The lead financier in the Checketts group is allegedly George Soros. Mr. Soros is one of the richest people in the world, but he may be best known for once comparing the Bush Administration to the Nazis. He did later retract his comment, but is it any different than what Limbaugh has said in the past?

NFL Head Coaches Power Rankings Through Week 4

Michael Ielpi — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:05:07 -0400

We have hit the first-quarter pole. Week Four is when the coaches can really jump into new categories. Jeff Fisher had the largest decline due to his team’s embarrassing effort against the Jaguars. Lovie Smith and Marvin Lewis keep rising while Tom Cable and Dick Jauron fall directly to the bottom.

Remember, just because a coach has one or two good weeks, it does not mean that he gets catapulted to the top. This is a marathon not a sprint.

ALREADY OWN KEYS TO THE CITY

1. Tom Coughlin – GIANTS (Last Week: 1)

The Giants did a nice job of repeating their Week Three effort by beating up a lesser team on the road. My girlfriend has been suffering with plantar fasciitis for almost two years; it is not a fun injury. If the Giants go up big on the Raiders on Sunday, Coughlin should have David Carr in there as soon as it is safe.

2. Bill Belichick – PATRIOTS (Last Week: 2)

The Patriots seemed to have an answer for most of what of the Ravens defense presented. A dropped ball saved the defense, and there was a little bit of help from the zebras. At the end of the day, the Pats are 3-1 and meet up with an old friend in Josh McDaniels in Denver, whose defense is playing better than Baltimore’s at this juncture.

3. Mike Tomlin – STEELERS (Last Week: 3)

The Steelers wanted no business of being 1-3. The Steelers held the ball for 40 minutes and while they let the Chargers back into the game, they still had enough in the tank to get the win. Now, that was the Rashard Mendhenhall we thought the Steelers had drafted two years ago. The Steelers should be 4-2 in two weeks as they play at Detroit on Sunday and then host Cleveland.

OWNERS, NOT RENTERS

4. John Harbaugh – RAVENS (Last Week: 5)

The Ravens were hosed on the roughing the passer penalty on Suggs, but they still had chances to win the game and just fell short. The opening kickoff fumble and Flacco’s interception cost them at least six points. Six points was the margin of victory for the Patriots. The Ravens host a battle for first place in the AFC North against the Steelers, whoops, I mean the Bengals.

5. Andy Reid – EAGLES (Last Week: 6)

BYE WEEK - Home to Tampa Bay on Sunday. No real bye week controversies.

6. Mike Smith – FALCONS (Last Week: 7)

BYE WEEK - Home to Chicago on Sunday.

7. Ken Whisenhunt – CARDINALS (Last Week: 8)

BYE WEEK – Home to Houston on Sunday.

8. Sean Payton – SAINTS (Last Week: 9)

Wait a second, you mean, they have a good defense, too? The Saints defense gave rookie Mark Sanchez a game he won’t soon forget, Darren Sharper has been rejuvenated and already has five interceptions, which equals the total of picks he had in his last two seasons with the Vikings. The Saints have a bye this week, but they will need the extra time to prepare for the Giants at home in a game that could mean a lot in terms of home-field advantage.

9. Brad Childress – VIKINGS (Last Week: 10)

I really did not like that late bomb that the Vikings threw with under three minutes to go and a 10-point lead. But, there is no denying that this team has serious playmakers in Adrian Peterson, Jared Allen, Antoine Winfield, oh, and some Brett Favre guy. There is not much of a reason why this team cannot be 5-0 as the travel to St. Louis to take on the winless Rams.

THAT NEW COACH SMELL IS MIGHTY FINE

10. Jim Caldwell – COLTS (Last Week: 14)

One day this team’s defense may get a little bit of credit as well. If you take away the Seahawks two late garbage-time touchdowns, this team has only given up 48 points this season. Peyton Manning has been nothing short of a Metropolitan Opera maestro so far this year.

11. Rex Ryan – JETS (Last Week: 11)

Mark Sanchez is going to make mistakes. He just cannot make them of that magnitude again. It is one thing to give the defense one touchdown, but two touchdowns just put his team into a hole that it could not escape. The Jets defense continued to play very good and on Monday they get a chance to take on the Wildcat.

I AM REALLY WARMING UP TO THAT GUY

12. Mike Singletary – 49ERS (Last Week: 15)

The 49ers defense has looked like one of the NFL’s best over the first four weeks. They are 3-0 in the NFC West, and have a big NFC clash at home against the Falcons on Sunday. The Falcons are not a great road team and the 49ers need to continue to show that strong defense to move their way up into the conversion of the elite NFC teams.

13. Josh McDaniels – BRONCOS (Last Week: 16)

His version of “Reunited” with Brandon Marshall has been just as good as the one Peaches & Herb did back in the 1970s. I cannot remember the Broncos having a defense that has won them games like this one is turning out to do. In the first hoodie bowl, McDaniels reunites with his former mentor Bill Belichick on Sunday. I would not expect to see any wardrobe malfunctions.

JUST LIKE ALICIA KEYS HE KEEPS ON FALLIN'

14. Jeff Fisher – TITANS (Last Week: 4)

In a must-win game, this team could not have played any worse. Jacksonville scored on five possessions in the first half and put the game out of reach and the Titans out of their misery. I like Jeff Fisher a lot and think he is one of the best coaches, but that effort on Sunday was worthless. With an 0-4 start in the AFC, the Titans role may be reduced to spoiler. It may be time to see what Vince Young can still do for this team, as it really needs to start preparing for the future.

SOMEONE JUST HIT DOWN ON THE ELEVATOR

15. Mike McCarthy – PACKERS (Last Week: 13)

Oh no, the loss to Favre. The Packers played well in spurts, but the time that their old quarterback got to throw compared to the time their current quarterback got to throw was far from even. It is good for Aaron Rodgers that the Packers are on a bye. He could use the rest and the offensive line could use more instruction on how to protect their current quarterback.

THIS DOG/FISH/MAMMAL STILL HAS PLENTY OF FIGHT

16. Tony Sparano – DOLPHINS (Last Week: 14)

A really impressive victory for the Dolphins came last Sunday. Sshh, the Wildcat still works well and the Dolphins still have Ronnie Brown who runs it better than anyone in the NFL. Can it work against the Jets mean green defense? If it does, there is a chance the Dolphins can still make things interesting.

HE TOOK DOWN THE FOR SALE SIGN

17. Lovie Smith – BEARS (Last Week: 20)

Lovie should thank his special teams the most for keeping him off the hot seat. Johnny Knox is making some forget that Devin Hester used to return kickoffs. Robbie Gould has been as good as gold when it comes to kicking. The Bears have hit their bye at 3-1.

18. Marvin Lewis – BENGALS (Last Week: 19)

The coaching decision of the week goes to Carson Palmer. Maybe, Marvin was playing for double overtime? Please tell your kicker, Shayne Graham that he needs to get under the ball better on his extra points and short field goals. Those should never be blocked. If not, maybe Chad Ochocinco is available to kick. The Bengals snuck out of Cleveland alive, and more importantly with a game they could not afford to lose.

HOLD OFF ON THE PARADE

19. Jim Schwartz – LIONS (Last Week: 17)

Well, that was fun wasn’t it? The Lions offense can certainly move the ball, but the poor tackling on this team is why this team is not going to win many games. The Titans defense misses Schwartz as their coordinator and Schwartz misses having the players on the Titan defense.

BARELY HANGING ON TO THE NEW COACH SMELL

20. Jim Mora, Jr. – SEAHAWKS (Last Week: 18)

I hope the Seahawks enjoyed their bye week. Oh wait, they actually played last Sunday. Wow, did they look lost against the Colts! While Mora is not fighting for his job, his team is in a must-win situation on Sunday at home against the Jaguars. A loss and there is no way the Seahawks have a chance at the playoffs with a 1-4 record.

I STILL HAVE AS MANY NFL WINS AS THIS GUY

21. Steve Spagnuolo – RAMS (Last Week: 21)

Sunday against the 49ers marked the second shutout of the year for Rams. They are averaging six points per game and are actually on pace to score under a hundred points for the season. On a positive note, the defense did not let up a score until midway through the third quarter. Unfortunately, special teams and the offense were responsible for giving up 21 points. Do not expect the Rams to break into the win column on Sunday as they host the Vikings.

22. Todd Haley – CHIEFS (Last Week: 22)

This offense has to find ways to move the ball. These four-yards-per-pass attempt, two-yards-per carry games from Matt Cassel and Larry Johnson will not come close to getting a win in this league. Todd Haley was brought to Kansas City for his offensive game planning. I think the fans need to see something more.

23. Raheem Morris – BUCCANEERS (Last Week: 23)

Your team is 0-3, you are down six and have the ball on the Redskins four-yard line with just over four minutes to play. How do you not take a chance and try to win the game? The Bucs kicked a field goal and never got any closer than their own 28-yard line. I still think Josh Freeman should start, not Josh Johnson who did not play very well as once again the Bucs struggled on third down going 2-for-13.

DO YOU HAVE THAT REAL ESTATE AGENT'S NUMBER HANDY?

24. Norv Turner – CHARGERS (Last Week: 26)

Dear Norv, the Sunday Night games start at 8:20 p.m. Eastern Time. The Chargers showed up to the game, they just picked the wrong time to arrive. The team did not quit, but the last thing you want to be is down 28-0, especially to the defending champions on the road. The Charger offense figured out way too late that Troy Polamalu was not playing for the Steelers and Antonio Gates could have a field day on that defense.

25. John Fox – PANTHERS (Last Week: 25)

BYE WEEK - The Panthers could not lose this week. The have a must-win game at home against the Redskins this Sunday.

26. Wade Phillips – COWBOYS (Last Week: 25)

This team has struggled in the clutch on both offense and defense and is the big reason why the Cowboys are 2-2. If Dallas is to win on Sunday against the Chiefs, they should go up early and not have to worry about having to tackle a receiver or having Tony Romo try to lead the team for the game-winning score. Allegedly, Wade Phillips is on Twitter where you can follow his tweets and twitter.com/sonofbum. There are some great typos on there.

27. Gary Kubiak – TEXANS (Last Week: 30)

It was a very good win for the Texans. They did not let the Raiders hang around and make it close. Steve Slaton had his first big game for the Texans this season. At 2-2, the next four games will really determine what happens to Kubiak. They start the next four-game stretch starts at Arizona.

IT IS STILL GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO GET YOU OFF OF THE HOT SEAT

28. Jack Del Rio – JAGUARS (Last week: 31)

That was a definitive win for the Jags. The team came out with a purpose and did just about everything right. The offense bullied the Titans and the defense suffocated them. Del Rio is pulling himself off seat but he needs to have the Jags continue their strong efforts at Qwest Field Seattle on Sunday, which unlike Jacksonville Municipal Stadium will have more than 20,000 in the seats.

MR. SNYDER STILL HAS YOU ON SPEED DIAL

29. Jim Zorn – REDSKINS (Last Week: 32)

Safe for this week, not much else to say other than the ‘Skins won a game they could not afford to lose. The defense played better, but the offense should have been able to do more. Jason Campbell added three interceptions to almost give this one away. The Redskins could be 4-2 if they are able to win at the winless Panthers and at home against the winless Chiefs. Those are big ifs.

YEP, THAT COACH STILL SMELLS LIKE LAKE ERIE

30. Eric Mangini – BROWNS (Last Week: 27)

It was a better performance this week than in any other Browns game this season, but the win column is still bare. Give the Browns credit for not falling apart when down 20-0 and for blocking an extra point that forced the game into overtime. But, this team did not do enough to win. Allowing Carson Palmer to run for a first down on 4th-and-11 in the last minute of overtime was typical of a Mangini-style defense. Jet fans should thank LeBron for getting Edwards out of Cleveland and thank Mangini for providing them with another gift.

WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU

31. Tom Cable – RAIDERS (Last Week: 24)

Yahoo listed Oakland’s top performer as Darrius Heyward-Bey with one reception for 18 yards. What a waste of a pretty good defensive unit. If the offensive could only muster six points against the Texans, how many will it have at Giants Stadium on Sunday?

32. Dick Jauron – BILLS (Last Week: 29)

Flat out embarrassing. It was tough to tell who was starting their first NFL game Chad Henne or Trent Edwards. Edwards threw three interceptions and had a rating of 51. While Henne, did not have a turnover and a rating of 92. The Bills got run over and lost by 28 to a team that was 0-3. The Bills had 10 first downs, none of them via the run. They were 1-for-11 on third down. A loss to Mangni and the Browns on Sunday would certainly seal his fate, despite his contract extension.

NFL Head Coaches Power Rankings For Week Three

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:19:41 -0400

Week three is when this list starts to move. Two coaches moved themselves out of jeopardy, while others are back on the hot seat. But, only one coach has moved himself to the very bottom. That honor belongs to Jim Zorn. The Lions may look better than last year, that does not give you the right to lose to them. Remember, just because a coach has one or two good weeks, it does not mean that he gets catapulted to the top. This is a marathon not a sprint.

ALREADY OWN KEYS TO THE CITY

1. Tom Coughlin—GIANTS (Last Week: 1) Wow, what a clinic put on by Tom Coughlin’s G-Men. That is how you win a game on the road against a team you should beat. They will get to repeat that effort this Sunday in Kansas City.

2. Bill Belichick—PATRIOTS (Last Week: 2) Although the Patriots were not wearing throwback uniforms on Sunday, the way that the team ran the ball and played defense made you feel like it was 2003 or 2004. The Pats held Michael Turner and Tony Gonzalez to 72 yards combined.

3. Mike Tomlin—STEELERS (Last Week: 3) This team is two plays from being 3-0, but they are also one play from being 0-3. It is tough to judge whether the champs are having a post-Super Bowl hangover or just missing Troy Polamalu too much? Sunday night at home against the Chargers, the Steelers will try not to fall to 1-3.

HIS KEYS TO THE CITY FELL OUT OF HIS POCKET

4. Jeff Fisher—TITANS (Last Week: 4) The Titans have lost three games by a combined 17 points. Last week was the first loss you could truly hang on Jeff Fisher. How he could have Ryan Mouton field another kick in the Jets game after he fumbled a kickoff earlier that cost them a touchdown? It just did not make sense. It was a rare coaching mistake from Fisher, but a very costly one. If the Titans cannot win at Jacksonville, this team could be 0-6 with Indianapolis and New England the following two weeks.

OWNERS, NOT RENTERS

5. John Harbaugh—RAVENS (Last Week: 7) Doing exactly what you are supposed to do. Beat up a weaker opponent and do not make the game interesting. The Ravens have looked great on offense the first two weeks, last week they also looked great on defense. The revival of Kelley Washington as a receiver has been fun to watch. He was used primarily as a special teams guy in New England, which is where Baltimore goes to in week four and that should be a great test for this team.

6. Andy Reid—EAGLES (Last Week: 6) Good move by not playing McNabb or Westbrook against the Chiefs. Kolb was rock solid and LeSean McCoy played well and did not turn the ball over on Sunday. But, the key to their win was the defense. The Chiefs went 0-for-11 on third down. You do that; you win. The Eagles have a much-needed bye week and then another possible bye week as they are home to Tampa Bay.

7. Mike Smith—FALCONS (Last Week: 5) This team has to play better on the road if it wants to truly contend in the NFC. The Falcons allowed the Patriots to control the game and the Falcon offense really could not get going. The defense has to do a better job of getting off the field. The Falcons only had 20 minutes of time of possession. The Falcons have a bye and then travel to San Francisco.

8. Ken Whisenhunt—CARDINALS (Last Week: 8) You cannot turn the football over three times to Peyton Manning and expect to win. Tim Hightower’s fumble in the red zone led to a 14-point swing that the Cardinals never were able to recover from in the game. Kurt Warner has 863 yards in three games, but only four touchdowns. That number may double this week as the Cards host the Texans.

ON THE ELEVATOR UP WITH GEORGE AND WEEZY

9. Sean Payton—SAINTS (Last Week: 9) It was not that easy for the Saints up in Buffalo last Sunday. The Bills did a nice job keeping Drew Brees and the passing offense down. The Saints found their running game in the fourth quarter and got the road victory. This week they are home to the Jets who have a better defense than the Bills. If Brees and the offense struggle like they did in Buffalo, I would expect them to fall.

10. Brad Childress—VIKINGS (Last Week: 10) I am sure Tarvaris Jackson would have made that last second pass to Greg Lewis for the game winner as well. The Vikings were very fortunate to escape at home against a good 49er club. On Monday night it will Brett Favre Bowl against the Packers. The Vikings need to remember it is a team game and they have the best player on the field, not Favre, but Adrian Peterson.

THAT NEW COACH SMELL HAS A REALLY PLEASANT AROMA

11. Rex Ryan—JETS (Last Week: 13) The Jets almost fell right into that trap game. They came off an emotional win over the Patriots, and then they jumped out to a 14-0 lead over the Titans. Just when they believed the hype, they fell behind. Thanks to a couple of special teams fumbles, the Jets got the victory and are now 3-0. They head to New Orleans where we will find out if a great defense is better than a great offense?

12. Jim Caldwell—COLTS (Last Week: 14) Yes, this team has a defense as well. Caldwell has already won one more game this year with Colts than he did in his final season as head coach at Wake Forest. The Colts will play a regular Sunday day game at home against the Seahawks as they look to go to 4-0.

IT’S WHAT YOU DO THIS WEEK THAT REALLY COUNTS

13. Mike McCarthy—PACKERS (Last Week: 12) The Packers could not erase their loss to the Bengals in week two, but they did not let that losing feeling fester. They were able to finish off the Rams with two fourth quarter touchdowns. Now, they can concentrate on some guy named Favre on Monday night.

THE DOWN BUTTON IS STUCK ON HIS ELEVATOR

14. Tony Sparano—DOLPHINS (Last Week: 11) It is more like oh no and three. Losing to the Chargers was bad; losing Chad Pennington for the season may be just too much to overcome. Now, we get to see the possible future of the Miami quarterback position. Will it be Chad Henne, Pat White, Tyler Thigpen or a combination of all three? One thing I will tell you is that the Dolphins have a chance at home against the Bills with any of the three.

I AM WARMING UP TO THAT GUY

15. Mike Singletary—49ERS (Last Week: 15) There are no moral victories in the NFL. There are certainly no moral victories when you go 0-for-11 in third down conversions. But, give the 49ers credit. Frank Gore goes out in the first five minutes of the game and the team was just one pass deflection from pulling off their biggest win in years. Greg Lewis made a great catch, but there is no way he should have a chance at the ball with two defenders in the area. At the least, if the defender had interfered with Lewis the ball would have been at the one yard line for one final play. I am sure coach Singletary explained this after the game and the 49ers will learn from this heartbreaking defeat.

16. Josh McDaniels—BRONCOS (Last Week: 16) McDaniels has passed the opening true-false test of the schedule with flying colors. Three wins, no defeats against teams that they should beat. Elvis Dumervil is becoming a defensive star in the NFL. He has six sacks in three games in this league. I think he can pick up at least one on Sunday against the Cowboys, barring Flozell Adams does not kick him to the curb. If the Broncos beat the Cowboys at home, they will certainly be considered a team more than just an easy schedule tease.

COULD BE LOOKING AT A LIFETIME CONTRACT

17. Jim Schwartz—LIONS (Last Week: 17) The parade is coming. Congrats to Jim Schwartz and the Lions for finally getting the franchise to taste a victory. I do not think they are done winning in 2009. Their winning streak may end in Chicago on Sunday, but the fans never have to see a zero in their team’s win column for the next 13 weeks.

HE IS STILL HANGING ON TO THAT NEW COACH SMELL

18. Jim Mora, Jr.—SEAHAWKS (Last Week: 19) Since when does Olindo Mare play defense? He may have made a better effort of tackling Devin Hester on the Bears final drive than the defenders for Seattle did. Possibly, Mare’s leg was too tired from kicking four field goals and kicking off all of those times. If the Seahawks got a touchdown instead of a field goal, Mare may not have been the goat.

HE TOOK DOWN THE FOR SALE SIGN

19. Marvin Lewis—BENGALS (Last Week: 30) Holy Ochocino, Batman, Marvin’s alive! Did anyone think that the Bengals could pull that one out? Congrats to Marvin and the Bengals on their biggest win in years. The key for this team is not falling into a trap as they head to Cleveland to take on the struggling Browns. If the Bengals are not 3-1 after Sunday, last week’s win won’t mean all that much.

20. Lovie Smith—BEARS (Last Week: 27) For the second straight week the opposing field goal kicker played a big role in a Bears victory. This time Jay Cutler played a bigger role. Cutler was great when he had to be and Devin Hester made the play of the year for the Bears. With a win at home against the Lions on Sunday, the Bears go to 3-1 and Chicago starts to fall back in love with Lovie.

I HAVE AS MANY NFL WINS AS THIS GUY

21. Steve Spagnuolo—RAMS (Last Week: 18) The Rams offense played its best game all season and looked better with Kyle Boller under center than it did with Marc Bulger. The team reached double figures in points for the first time all season. The Rams only trailed the Packers by six in the fourth quarter, but the defense did not have an answer for the Packers passing attack when it mattered most. The Rams will travel to San Francisco on Sunday and catch a break with Frank Gore being out of the lineup.

22. Todd Haley—CHIEFS (Last Week: 20) On the positive front, Matt Cassel had a quarterback rating of 124.5. Now to reality, he only threw for 90 yards the entire day. The Chiefs were 0-for-11 on third down, and Larry Johnson averaged two yards per carry. A quarterback making his second career start, and a running back making his first career start shredded the Chief defense. It gets no easier for KC as the Giants come to town on Sunday.

23. Raheem Morris—BUCCANNEERS (Last Week: 21) My goodness, what a disastrous game they played on Sunday. The score may have only been 24-0, but it must have felt like a hundred to nothing on that sideline. No first downs in the first half, 28 rushing yards, 58 passing yards, 0-for-9 on third downs, a high school team may have fared better. I am not sure why Josh Johnson is going to start over first-round pick Josh Freeman, because if he is not ready to play in that lack of an offense, who is?

HIS RESUME WENT BACK ON MONSTER

24. Tom Cable—RAIDERS (Last Week: 22) JaMarcus Russell threw for 109 yards in week two. Last week, he threw for 48 fewer yards. His quarterback rating fell from 46 to 22.6. First-round pick Darrius Heyward-Bey has caught one pass this season. The Raiders might want to think to just keep the defense on the field for the entire 60 minutes. In other Raider news, they only drew 45,000 fans at home last Sunday. The game was blacked out which was good for fans who remember when the Raiders could actually play offensive at a high level.

I THINK I SAW HIS RESUME ON MONSTER

25. Wade Phillips—COWBOYS (Last Week: 24) Was it just me or did it look like Jerry Jones was actually coaching the team on Monday night? On fourth down, ESPN showed Jones in the owner’s box saying that the Cowboys were going to go for it, well before it looked like Phillips made his decision. Jones, oops, I mean Phillips and the ‘Boys travel to Denver for a chance to go 3-1.

26. Norv Turner—CHARGERS (Last Week: 31) The Chargers defense showed up on Sunday against the Dolphins. They were able to hold the Dolphins to field goals twice inside their own 10-yard line. The offense did just enough to get the Chargers to 2-1. The offense will need produce more points on Sunday night in Pittsburgh as the Chargers look for a little revenge from last year’s two losses at Heinz Field.

THAT NEW COACH SMELL NOW SMELLS LIKE LAKE ERIE

27. Eric Mangini—BROWNS (Last Week: 26) I am wondering if Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson draw straws to not be the starting quarterback. This team is in shambles. The stat of the year is that they have scored only one offensive touchdown in the last nine games. That is a streak of 540 minutes! I think they will get at least one this Sunday at home to the Bengals. If they can win the game, Mangini is off the hot seat for a little while, but if they lose then you will hear even more rumblings and he could be one-and-done.

DO YOU HAVE THAT REAL ESTATE AGENT’S NUMBER HANDY?

28. John Fox—PANTHERS (Last Week: 25) Eleven carries for DeAngelo Williams is not nearly enough. That did match the number of Delhomme’s incomplete passes, and the number of plays where Julius Peppers looked like he wanted to be there. This team has a much-needed bye and strangely can get back into this race if they can knock off the Redskins, Bucs, and Bills in the next three games. It is possible, but this team has to show more and has to limit Delhomme’s mistakes.

BACK ON THE HOT SEAT

29. Dick Jauron—BILLS (Last Week: 29) If you would have told me that Drew Brees did not have a touchdown pass in the game, I would have said the Bills either won the game or lost by less than a touchdown. But, that just did not happen as the Bills offense produced zero points in the game against one of the NFL’s lower-ranked defensive units. The Bills had a beauty of a call on the fake field goal for a score, but the offense never found the red zone. The Bills went 2-for-14 on third downs and their defense finally wore out as the Saints won 27-7. Six of the Bills next ten opponents are currently 0-3, this includes their trip on Sunday to Miami.

30. Gary Kubiak—TEXANS (Last Week: 28) Gary Kubiak went fishing last Sunday and when he pulled in his catch he found nothing but a lure as this one was the one that got away. Chris Brown’s fumble at the two-yard line with just two minutes play cost the Texans a shot at a comeback victory, but this game was lost in more ways than one. The run defense is the worst in the league. If this team cannot put it together at home against Oakland on Sunday, than Kubiak’s days as coach will be expedited closer to zero.

IT WILL TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO GET YOU OFF THE HOT SEAT

31. Jack Del Rio—JAGUARS (Last week: 32) The defense made the play of the game on Sunday by recovering a fumble at the two-yard line to seal their first victory. It was nice to see Maurice Jones-Drew have one those fantasy lovers dream games with three scores. Del Rio is far being out of the hot seat, but if they can pull an upset at home against the Titans, he could find his way to cooler waters.

MR. SNYDER WOULD LIKE A WORD WITH YOU

32. Jim Zorn—REDSKINS (Last Week: 23) The nadir. Well, maybe not yet. A loss to the Bucs at home would be the nadir. This loss to the Lions could not have sat well. Jason Campbell and Santana Moss both had great days, but the Redskin defense could not stop the Lions. Jim Zorn did show some fight, but his best fight may have been with former Redskin Sunny Jurgensen on the radio.

NFL Head Coaches Power Rankings For Week Two

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:57:20 -0400

Week two of the coaches ranking brought us some surprises, a new number one, a new man at the bottom and some small changes in between.

Remember, just because a coach has one or two good weeks, it does not mean that he gets catapulted to the top. This is a marathon not a sprint. Although, for some coaches in 2009, the season is getting away much faster than they thought.

ALREADY OWN KEYS TO THE CITY

1. Tom Coughlin—GIANTS (Last Week: 2)

Tom Coughlin’s players not only make plays, but they make smart plays. Kenny Phillips instinctively knowing that the ball that hit Jason Witten’s foot was a live football was the kind of thing that you can teach, but you do not always see it come to fruition.

How many times do you fail to see that play made?

The run defense was abysmal as the Cowboys had 251 rushing yards good for an average of 8.7 yards per carry. The Giants secondary was playing short, but you would have never known that. The Giants intercepted Tony Romo three times, but did not record a sack.

The way Eli Manning is finding receivers this year all of that, "Where have you gone Plaxico Burress?" talk will vanish.

2. Bill Belichick—PATRIOTS (Last Week: 1)

The offense looked stale. The Jets defense was giving the Patriots a million different looks, yet the Patriots seemed to be giving the same shotgun formation on a majority of the plays on offense.

While not having Wes Welker and Jerod Mayo hurt, there are no excuses. The Patriots had ample opportunities to win this game. Three trips to the red zone in the first half only got them three field goals.

You do that you normally do not win.

3. Mike Tomlin—STEELERS (Last Week: 3)

The usually reliable Jeff Reed could not make anything in the fourth quarter. His misses were as bad as can be.

While the Steelers defense was good, it was not great on Sunday in Chicago. The run defense did not allow much, but the pass defense made the day a little too easy for Jay Cutler.

Cutler was only sacked once and did not turn the ball over. The Steelers will need to do better than that as they head to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals, who are also 1-1.

4. Jeff Fisher—TITANS (Last Week: 4)

An 0-2 start was not in the plans for Fisher and the Titans. His normally solid defensive unit was torched for 357 passing yards and four touchdowns.

The key stats in this game were that the Titans could not get a sack against a normally porous offensive line, and that while Andre Johnson had 149 yards, the Texans other receivers complied 208 more yards.

Fisher and his Titans will have their hands full on Sunday at the Jets against the defensive coordinator whose old team ended their season last year.

OWNERS, NOT RENTERS

5. Mike Smith—FALCONS (Last Week: 6)

They should wear buttons in Atlanta that says, "Everybody Likes Mike." His Falcons just keep winning and Matt Ryan looks better each week.

Their defense struggled against the pass as they gave up 308 yards passing to Jake Delhomme and the Panthers. The Falcons are 2-0 and both wins have come at the Georgia Dome.

The Falcons struggled on the road, going 4-5 in 2008. While they travel to New England on Sunday, some would have written this one off as a probable loss before the season started, but I think this team has a very good opportunity to be 3-0.

6. Andy Reid—EAGLES (Last Week: 5)

After last week’s pounding by the Saints, it seems that maybe this team has a little bit more than a quarterback issue. Quintin Mikell led the team with 11 tackles on Sunday.

When your safety is making the most tackles on defense that usually means players are moving down the field and your defense is usually getting shredded. The Eagles have the Chiefs at home on Sunday, and if they can do a better a job on defense they should be 2-1 no matter who starts at quarterback.

7. John Harbaugh—RAVENS (Last Week: 7)

The Ravens escaped from San Diego with a last second defensive stand. It also helped that they were playing against a coach who let the game get away (see Turner, Norv way down below).

The Ravens have allowed 50 points in two weeks. Last season, the Ravens gave up 50 points in four weeks. Was it all Rex Ryan or is this defense getting older?

The defense should look better on Sunday against the Browns at home. Barring a huge upset they should be 3-0 heading into New England in week four.

8. Ken Whisenhunt—CARDINALS (Last Week: 8)

The Cardinals must have thought it was a throwback game as they played in a half-empty stadium in Jacksonville and not Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe.

Usually, teams from the west coast do not fair well during 1 p.m. kickoffs on the east coast, but the Cardinals blew that theory away by putting up a 24-3 halftime lead.

Kurt Warner was as close to perfect as you get, and the Cardinals looked good on defense and special teams as well. They have the Colts at home who will be coming off of short rest and have to travel to the desert.

ON THE ELEVATOR UP WITH GEORGE AND WEEZY

9. Sean Payton—SAINTS (Last Week: 12)

The talk of the league right now is Payton’s Saints. The offense is firing on all cylinders.

The defense did snag four turnovers on Sunday, but still gave up 391 passing yards to an inexperienced quarterback. I am not sure why Payton kept Brees in the game with the Saints up by 21 and just five minutes to play.

The Saints will be seeing plenty of New York as they travel to Buffalo on Sunday, followed by home games with the Jets and Giants.

10. Brad Childress—VIKINGS (Last Week: 10)

This week did not start off well for Minnesota as they fell behind 10-0 to the Lions. But, the Vikings regrouped and went on a 27-3 run to close out the game.

It is kind of funny that with all the media attention that Brett Favre gets, no one really reported that he went 23-for-27 with no interceptions. Three fewer incompletions and he would have had the record that Kurt Warner set against Jacksonville on Sunday.

The Vikings better not be looking past the 49ers at home this Sunday before their showdown with the Packers on Monday, October 5.

SOMEONE JUST HIT DOWN ON THE ELEVATOR

11. Tony Sparano—DOLPHINS (Last Week: 11)

Usually on the television show the Sopranos, when Tony Soprano gave an order for a hit, the hit got delivered. Last night, Tony Sparano’s orders to tackle went unnoticed.

It appeared that Arena Football made a comeback in Miami on Monday as the Colts had drives of 12 and 26 seconds. The Dolphins had the football for over 45 minutes and lost.

Sometimes too much time of possession means your defense is not doing a very good job. One thing will be for certain, the Dolphins defense will be pretty well rested as they travel to San Diego and look to avoid starting 0-3.

12. Mike McCarthy—PACKERS (Last Week: 9)

Gulp. This was not a bad loss. It was a brutal loss.

Was this a classic trap game or are the Packers really this mediocre? At what point do you say, hey, we might want to block Antwan Odom before he breaks the NFL sack record.

The sacks were bad enough, but the defense did not do its part either. The Bengals were 9-for-14 on third down.

The Packers travel to St. Louis where they will try not to kill the other half of the Survivor Leagues that they busted up last week.

THAT NEW COACH SMELL HAS A PLEASANT AROMA

13. Rex Ryan—JETS (Last Week: 14)

The Jets look more like the Ravens than the Ravens. Baltimore used to make their living on scores of 16-9. The defense has not allowed one touchdown in eight quarters.

It is easy to be pumped up when you are playing your most hated rival. Can the Jets bring that intensity back on Sunday at home against the Titans?

Last Sunday made Rex Ryan a star in New York, but this Sunday will determine how bright it shines.

14. Jim Caldwell—COLTS (Last Week: 13)

When the plane home from Miami landed in Indianapolis on Tuesday morning, I am going to wager that many of the Colts defenders were still asleep. The defense was on the field for just over 45 minutes and 84 Dolphin snaps.

The offense just made scoring too easy as the Peyton Manning show averaged 10.2 yards per play on Monday night in South Florida.

Caldwell’s 2-0 Colts travel to Arizona on Sunday Night against another offense that will be difficult to remove from the field.

15. Mike Singletary—49ERS (Last Week: 15)

This is becoming one of the NFL’s premier defensive units. Patrick Willis has 15 solo tackles in two weeks.

Frank Gore had two massive touchdown runs. But, if you take out those two large runs, he is only averaging two yards per carry on the season. That will have to improve if the 49ers want to be a contending team.

The 49ers tackle the Vikings in Minnesota on Sunday, and you do not want that defense to be on the field for that long against one of the NFC’s better offensive units.

16. Josh McDaniels—BRONCOS (Last Week: 19)

Your leaders in the AFC West are the Denver Broncos. Yes, they played Cincinnati and Cleveland, so curb your enthusiasm for now. The win over the Bengals was a fluke, but last Sunday’s win over the Browns was dominant.

It is tough to judge where this team really stands until it faces a bigger opponent, but 2-0 sure sounds nice in the Mile High City.

Can McDaniels’ Broncos beat the Raiders on Sunday and possibly grab a two game lead in the division (if San Diego loses vs Miami)?

Their schedule will get dicey after that.

THEY ARE STILL HANGING ON TO THAT NEW COACH SMELL

17. Jim Schwartz—LIONS (Last Week: 21)

I think the decision to have Stafford play from the start will pay off eventually for the Lions. It sure started well with Stafford throwing his first NFL touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson in the second quarter giving the Lions a 10-0 lead.

Rookie tight end Brandon Pettigrew had four catches. If this team can cut down on their turnovers then four wins may not be out of the question. The Lions have a winnable game at home against the Redskins on Sunday.

18. Steve Spagnuolo—RAMS (Last Week: 20)

The defense showed some improvement and kept the Redskins out of the end zone the entire game. The offense found the end zone for the first time this season. That was the good news.

The bad news is that the Rams have scored a grand total of seven points in two games and that one of the best players for the Rams on offense, Donnie Avery, has fumbled in both games.

I was disappointed in Spagnuolo at the end of the first half. The Rams had the ball on their own 35 with 1:12 on the clock and all three timeouts. They chose a running play that picked up five yards, but then a holding penalty negated the run and ended the half.

When you are coaching a team that is having trouble scoring you need to stay aggressive and try not to waste any possessions.

19. Jim Mora, Jr.—SEAHAWKS (Last Week: 16)

The Seahawks stacked the box to try to stop Frank Gore. Gore ignored the stop sign and went plowing through.

One thing that most kids learn while playing high school football is that while the majority of teams will run the ball either with the option or some other version, you better hope those last two in the backfield can make the saving tackles.

They could not, and Frank Gore ran like he was being filmed for a re-make of Forrest Gump. One run of over 70 yards is embarrassing, but two?

It is unknown as to the state of Matt Hasselbeck for Sunday against the Bears, but Seneca Wallace did start eight games last year, so the cupboard is not bare.

20. Todd Haley—CHIEFS (Last Week: 17)

Do not look at the statistics from this game. Oh, ok, let’s take a peek. The Chiefs had 409 yards of total offense. That was 243 yards more than the Raiders gained.

The Chiefs had the ball for over 38 minutes and held JaMarcus Russell to three completions late in the fourth quarter. You would have thought the Chiefs won by 21. Instead, they lost 13-10.

Haley said after the game, "When we had the personal foul penalty we kind of were in a position to put them in a bit of a difficult position, and we let them off the hook."

We let them off the hook? Oh my goodness, those are Denny Green’s words!

Somehow the schedule makers have the Chiefs playing all four of the teams in the NFC East in a row. It starts in Philly on Sunday.

If the Chiefs could somehow split the four games, their season could still have hope. But I can totally see this team winning one or none of those games and starting 1-5 or 0-6, which makes the loss to the Raiders even more painful.

21. Raheem Morris—BUCCANEERS (Last Week: 18)

Last week, the Bucs had their problems stopping the long pass. This week it was their run defense that was their Achilles heel.

The Bills ran for over 200 yards as a team and averaged 6.2 yards per carry. It will get no easier for the Bucs in week three as they host the Giants, a team that runs and passes the ball very well.

HE TOOK HIS RESUME OFF OF MONSTER

22. Tom Cable—RAIDERS (Last Week: 25)

The Raiders produced a grand total of 166 yards of offense. JaMarcus Russell completed seven total passes for the game, and four of those completions came on the final drive.

The Raider defense is good enough to win games, but if the offense cannot produce, it will be a wasted effort.

This is a make-or-break week for the Oakland Raiders as they host the Denver Broncos. A win would put them tied for first in the AFC West, a loss puts them two games behind with two of those losses coming within the division.

I THINK I SAW HIS RESUME ON MONSTER

23. Jim Zorn—REDSKINS (Last Week: 27)

I am all for aggressive play calling, and I did not mind that the Redskins went for it on fourth-and-one from the Rams two-yard line. At the worst, if you fail to make it the other team has to go 60 yards to win the game with a field goal.

But, the play that was called was a bust. I cannot understand why on fourth down and short you would try a run to the far left, where your running back (in this case Clinton Portis) has to run six or seven yards to get one.

This offense tries to be too creative at times, when I think it would be better off playing more a smashmouth style of football. This team heads to Detroit on Sunday, and I think there is a good chance that they might not walk out of Ford Field victorious.

24. Wade Phillips—COWBOYS (Last Week: 23)

We all know that Tony Romo was T.O.’s quarterback and teammate. But, is he still Wade Phillips'?

Romo once again could not deliver in a big game. This time he threw three costly interceptions and ended up with a QB rating of an anemic 29.6. It was a shame for Dallas, because the Cowboys ran the ball for an amazing 251 yards against one of the better defenses in the league.

The Cowboys seemed to be able to keep the Giants rushing game in check, but the Cowboy pass defense made Steve Smith and Mario Manningham look like the second coming of Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.

25. John Fox—PANTHERS (Last Week: 26)

Fox was right to trust his gut and start Jake Delhomme. Delhomme only had one interception.

He and Steve Smith hooked up like it was old times as Smith had eight catches for 135 yards.

The Panther defense does not look like its old self. Matt Ryan had a field day throwing the ball against them.

Julius Peppers had just two tackles and Ryan was not sacked. The Panthers head to Dallas where this team will be in S.O.S. mode as they try not to fall to 0-3.

THAT NEW COACH SMELL NOW SMELLS LIKE LAKE ERIE

26. Eric Mangini—BROWNS (Last Week: 22)

Are there any Fan-gini’s left in the world? Here is one thing the Browns cannot do for you: Tackle. My goodness, in two weeks the Browns had more whiffs than the Indians.

If there has been one positive it's that Braylon Edwards had six catches for 92 yards. And if there is any sign that the Browns could be turned around that is a start. The Browns are 0-2, and it will not get any easier as they travel to Baltimore in week three.

FOR AT LEAST ONE WEEK THEY ARE OFF THE HOT SEAT

27. Lovie Smith—BEARS (Last Week: 28)

Jay Cutler played much better and did not give the ball away this week. But, the player that Smith has the most confidence in on the Bears is Robbie Gould.

After watching Pittsburgh’s kicker Jeff Reed badly miss two field goals earlier in the fourth quarter from shorter distances, Smith’s Bears team got to the Steelers 34 with 1:16 to play, and Gould hit from 44 yards to win the game.

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Gould missed the kick and the Bears lost the game in overtime. But, a win against the defending champions is still a very good win that takes you out of the doghouse, for at least one week.

28. Gary Kubiak—TEXANS (Last Week: 30)

What a nice surprise this was for Houston. The Texans unleashed the beast that is Andre Johnson, they had no turnovers, went two-for-two on fourth down conversions, and most importantly did not give up when down 21-7 early in the second quarter.

All were great signs, but seeing Steve Slaton average just two yards per carry, while the Titans averaged a massive 9.2 yards per carry is a sure sign of where the Texans need improvement.

This team can still make the playoffs. They have a very favorable schedule that begins at home on Sunday against Jacksonville.

29. Dick Jauron—BILLS (Last Week: 31)

In another good job of recovering from a bad loss the Bills opened up a 17-0 lead after the first quarter and did not really look back.

The defense controlled a good Buccaneer run attack. The Bills get Marshawn Lynch back from suspension after week three, but how can you sit Fred Jackson after the two weeks he has played.

Jackson has run for 220 yards and has 108 receiving yards. The Bills have a two-headed monster in the backfield.

Trent Edwards does need to do a better job of getting the ball to his wide receivers. Lee Evans only had one catch.

30. Marvin Lewis—BENGALS (Last Week: 32)

We were all wondering how the Bengals would respond after such a devastating loss in week one. Turns out, it was a lot better than most would have thought.

Thirteen penalties for 100 yards and not falling on the onside kick still does not make me feel that this team is very disciplined. But, for one Sunday, let’s give Marvin his props as his team pulled off the upset of the week.

The Bengals defense was a menace to Aaron Rodgers all day, and Antwan Odom had five sacks on the day. Odom had only 17-and-a-half career sacks in 117 prior games.

On the offense, Cedric Benson carried the way with 29 carries for 141 yards and Chad Ochocinco scored the game-winning touchdown.

Enjoy your week off the hot seat, Marvin. You have the Steelers at home this Sunday.

DO YOU HAVE THAT REAL ESTATE AGENT’S NUMBER HANDY?

31. Norv Turner—CHARGERS (Last Week: 24)

Easily, the worst coaching I saw over the weekend. Late in the first half, the Chargers complete a pass that goes down to the Ravens one-yard line. There is a penalty against Baltimore than pins the football at the one-foot line.

The video replay booth challenges the ruling and proves that it was a catch, and the referee whistles the ball ready for play.

Turner is blaming the officials for not resetting the play clock back to 25. They had two minutes thanks to the review to get to the line and call a play! The Chargers still had at least 12 seconds to get the play off, and they did not. The five-yard penalty moved the ball back to the six-yard line.

If the team was not ready to get a play in they could have spiked the ball and went back to the huddle, it was only first down. The Chargers settled for an incomplete pass and a field goal to end the half.

That indecision probably cost the Chargers four points. Had they had those four points, they would only have needed a field goal instead of a touchdown at the end.

The Chargers hopes ended as a fourth-and-2 play from the Ravens 15-yard line was stuffed as no one on the Charger offensive line remembered to account for Ray Lewis.

I probably couldn't block Ray Lewis either, but at least I would have laid a finger on him before letting him tackle my running back.

HIS SEAT FELL INTO A BURNING RING OF FIRE

32. Jack Del Rio – JAGUARS (Last week: 29)

In 2007, the Jaguars played the Patriots in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. Tom Brady went 26-of-28 and set the NFL record for completion percentage in a playoff game. On Sunday, Kurt Warner went 24-of-26 and set the regular-season completion percentage record.

It is quite possible that Warner could have broken Brady’s record, except for one small issue. The Cardinals were winning 31-3 and his services were no longer needed in the contest.

The Jaguars looked like the team from the west coast playing a 1 p.m. game, not the Cardinals. Del Rio has his work cut out for him if he wants to stay with this team. A half-empty stadium does not help his cause.

NFL Head Coaches Power Rankings for Week One

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:08:36 -0400

Welcome to the NFL Coaches Ranking. This will be a weekly series that will rank each of the 32 head coaches in the NFL.

There are so many who do a great job with the team power rankings, I thought it would be interesting to size up each NFL coach and rank them based on record, decision-making, past performance in big games and even Coors Light press conference moments.

The rankings take past performance in to heavy account. Just because a team has a bad week that does not move a coach off one of the pedestals, although, he could lose or a spot or two. It takes a streak of either good decisions or poor decisions to move a coach to a new level.

ALREADY OWN KEYS TO THE CITY

1. Bill Belichick – PATRIOTS

There is no question that Patriots got lucky on Monday night. What separates the good from the bad is how you take an advantage of those breaks. Leodis McKelvin did not lose the game for the Bills by himself. The defense had two opportunities to keep Tom Brady and the Patriots out of the end zone and they failed both times.

What I loved is that while the Patriots appear to have problems on defense, they still followed the old blueprint of taking away the other team’s best weapons. The Bills wide receivers only caught five passes on Monday.

While, the Bills ate up yards running the ball and with short passes, they could never hit the home run ball and that is a specialty of the Bills offense.

2. Tom Coughlin – GIANTS

The Giants defense did what is always does to the Redskins. They make Washington’s day miserable. Big Blue’s offense took care of the rest. One thing I will tell you with certainty, do not expect this team to fall victim to a fake field goal or punt the rest of the season. The Giants biggest test comes on Sunday night at the new Cowboys Stadium.

3. Mike Tomlin – STEELERS

The defending champ’s team did what most defending champions do on opening night; they win their opener. It was not pretty, and it certainly came at a cost, as the Steelers All-Pro Troy Polamalu was lost to an injury.

While, not much of the Steelers award-winning cast changed from last season, not having Troy Polamalu for a few weeks is definitely something Mike Tomlin did not want to have in his plans.

4. Jeff Fisher – TITANS

If not for a loss of the coin flip, it might be the Titans who are 1-0. Even without defensive tackle, Albert Haynesworth, this defense is as good as ever. If its offense can make the most of their opportunities and not squander them like did last Thursday, this team should be the class of the AFC South again.

OWNERS, NOT RENTERS

5. Andy Reid – EAGLES

It can never be all good news for Andy Reid, can it? The Eagles devour the Panthers by 28, but Donovan McNabb is injured running in a touchdown with the Eagles up by 21 late in the third quarter. It will be interesting not only who starts at quarterback this Sunday, but especially next Sunday in week three, where Michael Vick returns from his suspension.

6. Mike Smith – FALCONS

Smith is turning into one of the better coaches in this league. He goes under the radar. This Falcon team should be mentioned at one of the top contenders in the NFC. The Falcons were very impressive against the Dolphins.

The Wildcat was shut down and the defense forced four turnovers and had four sacks to keep the Dolphins off the scoreboard for 56 minutes. Their schedule is daunting, but I do not see this team getting out coached much this season.

7. John Harbaugh – RAVENS

This may be a misprint but the Ravens appeared to have 501 yards of offense on Sunday. Joe Flacco threw for over 300 yards and Ray Rice ran for over 100 yards. The team scored 38 points. All of that being said you would have thought the Ravens would have beaten the Chiefs by 30, but it did not turn out that way.

The fact that Brodie Croyle had a QB rating of 116.1 makes me think that the Ravens defense has more work to do than its offense.

8. Ken Whisenhunt – CARDINALS

Last season the Cardinals were 6-0 against the NFC West. This year they are already 0-1. Everyone knows the plight of the Super Bowl loser the following season usually struggles. This team will need to be at least 3-3 after week six if they want to repeat as division champions.

The offensive line needs to protect Kurt Warner better than they did on Sunday against the 49ers.

ON THE ELEVATOR UP WITH GEORGE AND WEEZY

9. Mike McCarthy – PACKERS

A wonderful call on 3rd-and-1 fools the Bears and the Packers win the game. The defense was excellent. The Packers held Matt Forte to only 2.2 yards per carry and they made Jay Cutler’s first game in the NFC North a night he will not forget, intercepting him four times. The Packers have a great chance to improve to 2-0 with a win over the Bengals.

10. Brad Childress – VIKINGS

Dear Brad: Please use that same formula on offense every week. Signed, the fans of the Minnesota Vikings. Adrian Peterson sure made the most of his 25 carries against the Browns, and Brett Favre only threw 21 passes and did not turn the ball over. If the Vikings can keep that up they should be in the playoffs again this year.

11. Tony Sparano – DOLPHINS

The Wildcat should not surprise anyone this season. But, I still think the Dolphins can be effective using that formation. Too many turnovers were the reason the Dolphins start the season with a loss.

The Dolphins host the Colts on Monday Night Football, should they lose they will fall to 0-2. But, Sparano should not worry about going 0-2; he has an executive and former coach that knows a thing or two about turning around an 0-2 and making it to the playoffs.

12. Sean Payton – SAINTS

The offense was practically flawless. Drew Brees made a nice opening statement and Mike Bell came off the missing persons report with his best outing as a pro. But, all of this is taken with a grain of salt as this came against the Lions. This week’s test in Philadelphia may be a totally different story.

THEY HAVE THAT NEW COACH SMELL

13. Jim Caldwell – COLTS

He probably has the most difficult job in the league. He has replaced one of the most popular player’s coaches in history. On Sunday, Caldwell did something very reminiscent of Tony Dungy; he won.

14. Rex Ryan - JETS

This was as impressive of a debut as you will find. The Jets completely dominated the Texans. The Jets had 10 successful third-down conversions. Starting their season on the road with a rookie quarterback and rookie head coach and pull off that kind of team effort gets you noticed. I am sure that the Jets week two opponent, the Patriots took notice.

15. Mike Singletary – 49ERS

Singletary’s defensive game plan against the Cardinals was very smart. The 49ers defense was able to put pressure on Kurt Warner and forced two interceptions. But, the real beauty was the way they played the passing game. Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald only combined for 93 yards.

While Tim Hightower had a field day with 12 catches for 121 yards, the 49ers took away the strengths of the Cardinals and that is how you win big games in the NFL.

16. Jim Mora, Jr. - SEAHAWKS

If it had not been for the three turnovers, the Seahawks would have pitched a perfect against the Rams on Sunday. As long as their offense can stay healthy, the Seahawks should be contenders for the NFC West title. They have a big divisional showdown this Sunday in San Francisco.

17. Todd Haley – CHIEFS

Not many gave his Chiefs a chance going to Baltimore in week one. Few gave them a shot when quarterback Matt Cassel would not suit up and Brodie Croyle would be the starter. But, this team came back to tie the Ravens at 24 late in the fourth quarter.

That is saying a lot since this team was outgained by 313 yards. The Chiefs will look to improve upon that as they return home to face the Raiders.

18. Raheem Morris – BUCCANNEERS

It was a pretty solid debut for Raheem Morris’ offense on Sunday. Having an excellent day on the ground with the return of Cadillac Williams and newly acquired Derrick Ward. The problem was the Bucs defense was abysmal. The defense gave up three passing touchdowns of over 40 yards in length and was not very effective in stopping the run.

19. Josh McDaniels – BRONCOS

After the game, McDaniels’ next stop was not to the locker room, it was to one of those riverboat casinos on the Ohio River. If you get that lucky, you just want to test your luck in other things. If the Broncos play as poorly as they did on Sunday, this team’s luck will run out fast.

Besides, the miraculous touchdown, the Broncos never had the ball past the Cincinnati 24-yard line. I do not have the numbers on me, but how many teams have ever won a game when they never had a play inside their opponents’ red zone.

20. Steve Spagnuolo – RAMS

Many of us have something in common with Steve. We all have the same number of points scored as Steve as an NFL head coach. Unfortunately, after 60 minutes Spagnuolo and the rest of us are still tied. This Rams team is a mess on offense. I think Spags can be a very good head coach in this league, but this offense is brutal.

21. Jim Schwartz – LIONS

This may be my favorite job to have in America. You cannot go any lower than last year. I am quite sure that Jim Schwartz wishes he still had that Titan defense that he led to be one of the NFL’s best last season.

The Saints had a total of 515 yards of offense and went 9-for-13 on third down conversions. The Lions will get a win this season, but it will take a better effort than they had on Sunday to get it.

22. Eric Mangini – BROWNS

Mangini’s mentor and best enemy, Bill Belichick once said, “Don't give me a defensive player who can't tackle, I've got no use for them.” It appears that Mr. Mangini has inherited some of those players. It’s okay, Eric, I cannot tackle Adrian Peterson in the open field either.

I THINK I SAW HIS RESUME ON MONSTER

23. Wade Phillips – COWBOYS

You know this team always starts off well. It will start off extremely well if they can christen their new stadium with a win over the Giants on Sunday night. Wade Phillips had to smile a little as Roy Williams, now on the Bengals pretty much watched Brandon Stokley run away with the game-winning touchdown for Denver last week.

I cannot imagine that he was smiling much that his own defense allowed 5.6 yards per carry to Tampa Bay on Sunday.

24. Norv Turner – CHARGERS

That defense sure looked vulnerable on Monday night. The Raiders were able to have an average of 4.6 yards per carry and the nightmarish coverage on that fourth-down bomb where they gave up the lead makes me think that this team is very lucky to be in a very weak division.

One thing I will say about the Raiders-Chargers game, if that Oakland touchdown catch turned incomplete pass does not happen in the last two minutes of the half, does Norv Turner challenge the ruling?

25. Tom Cable – RAIDERS

The go-for-broke bomb on 4th-and-14 from your own 43 was the equivalent of doubling down on 16 in blackjack and hitting a four. The only problem was the Raiders left the Chargers with too much time and one too many cards in the deck and the Chargers pulled out with a 21 just in time.

It appears that Richard Seymour not only will just show, he will show up to play. Seymour had two sacks on Monday night.

26. John Fox - PANTHERS

Jake Delhomme appears to be in the Mark Wohlers stage of his career. It is very tough to recover from giving away a big one from the prior season. The road for Fox and the Panthers gets no easier as they travel to Atlanta this week and then Dallas the following week.

27. Jim Zorn – REDSKINS

When does it appear that you are probably not going to Disney World with Jason Campbell as your quarterback? Your owner spent $100 million on a defensive tackle but has left you with a quarterback from the discount rack. The fake field goal was a thing of beauty. The poor tackling and the runs on third-and-long were ugly.

28. Lovie Smith – BEARS

A couple more games like that out of new arrival Jay Cutler and Bears fans will recall the glory years at quarterback and I don’t mean Sid Luckman or Jim McMahon, they will talking about Rex Grossman’s era. The Bears defense without Brian Urlacher has made the Bears softer and cuddlier, which is not good in terms of playing football.

I am wondering if any of the Bears coaches were saying to watch for the play-fake on 3rd-and-1 that led to the Packers’ 50-yard game winning score.

THEIR HOUSE IS LISTED ON THE MARKET

29. Jack Del Rio - JAGUARS

The Jaguars averaged 3.9 yards per play in last week’s loss to the Colts. That means if the Jaguars start a drive on their own 20, it will take them 21 plays to score a touchdown.

The team has a defense that is good enough to win it some games, but if its offense especially with its mediocrity at the receiver position cannot make plays the Jaguars and Del Rio’s future is doomed.

30. Gary Kubiak – TEXANS

For a coach who is squarely on the hot seat, an opening day home dud is absolutely no way to instill any confidence in your ownership or the fans. The Texans visit Tennessee on Sunday, which may mean a 0-2 start before their schedule lightens up a little.

31. Dick Jauron – BILLS

For 55 minutes the Bills looked like they could be this year’s Miami Dolphins and be the surprise out of the AFC East. I was really upset at Jauron for not having a Denny Green-style press conference after the game.

The Patriots were who we thought they were and we let ‘em off the hook! Can he get this Bills team to find that consistent play they had for most of the game or will this team not be able to shake the memory?

32. Marvin Lewis – BENGALS

Why did I watch Hard Knocks this year? Marvin, I wanted to believe that this team had truly made strides to get better and not live up to the Bungles nickname. As bad as the loss was for the Bengals, did they really play that well? They did not score a point for the first 59 minutes.

All that being said, I do not know how you recover from a loss like that. It looks like it only gets worse with the Bengals traveling to Green Bay this week and then home for the Steelers in week three.

NFL: An Idea to Improve Overtime

Michael Ielpi — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:08:21 -0400

We've played only game of the 2009 NFL season and the first overtime game has already taken place.

The Pittsburgh Steelers won the coin toss and marched down the field for the game-winning field goal. The Tennessee Titans never got to touch the ball on offense. I am not sure how anyone can be a fan of the current overtime system unless their team won the game.

I know many will argue that the coin toss winner wins the game only 50 percent of the time. That is true. But, it does not make it fair when a team drives down the field to kick a field goal and ends the game without the other offense getting a shot.

In all of the other major sports, each team has a chance with the ball or the puck to score with their offense in either overtime or extra innings. Why does professional football have to be different?

My solution to overtime in the NFL is do a system similar to what college football does, but instead of starting at the opponents' 25-yard line, have the team start on their own 25-yard line. Should the team who got possession of the ball score first, then the other team starts at their own 25.

There are no kickoffs. Kickoffs are one of the more common places on the football field for injuries. Kickoffs are the equivalent to a child's playground when it comes to injuries. So taking them out of the equation is probably a good thing.

If the team that starts with the ball fails to score, they do have the option of punting. If the team that started with the ball gives up the ball to the other team, (either by way of turnover, punt, loss of downs, missed FG, etc.) the spot where the other team gets the ball will be the start of their possession in the overtime.

Should the second team fail to score, it becomes sudden death.

This system would also make the winner of the coin toss think of whether to start first or second. In the college overtime format, the winner of the coin toss usually wants to start on defense. This way they will know what they will need to do on offense or they can win the game on defense if they return an interception or fumble for a touchdown.

In this format, the team who wins the toss will be equally compelled to start either on offense or defense.

If a team has a better offense, they may want to take the ball first. If a team has a better defense, they may want to start on defense and could win the game with a turnover.

If both teams score equal points, you play another overtime, with no forced two-point conversions.

After two overtimes the game ends in a tie, unless it is the postseason, which you continue playing until someone wins.

To me, it is either that system or just playing another 10-minute quarter straight to the finish. Both methods give each team with a shot at the ball on offense and a chance to win it on defense and there really cannot be any complaints.

While their have been a few Super Bowls that were very close to going in overtime, none have crossed into the fifth quarter. One day it will happen, and if the outcome of the Super Bowl has a lot to do with the coin toss, it may finally force the NFL to change its ways.

Is it too much to ask that we get a little more football to watch and never have a dispute based on a coin toss?

Week One NFL Picks: Dedicated To Frisman Jackson

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:21:32 -0400

Week one of the NFL season is the fabulous week when we really don't know much at all.

I can describe week one the best with a saying a high school history teacher once passed on to me:

"It's what you learn after you think you know it all that really counts."

I call week one the week of Frisman Jackson. For those of who you do not remember wide receiver Frisman Jackson, he had a career day in week one of the 2005 NFL season with the Cleveland Browns.

In week one, he had eight catches for 128 yards and a touchdown. For the rest of his career he would have sixteen more catches for 159 yards, and he would never find the end zone again.

Frisman Jackson was picked up in a ton of fantasy leagues after his week one performance, but by week four was all but a memory.

As always, Frisman, this week is dedicated to you.

These are just picks for leisure. Please do not use them as a gambling guide. While, I do like to bet and I do keep a score sheet against the spread, I prefer the over/under totals more than picking against the spread.

Here Are My Picks For Week One In The League Where The Leaves Are Still Green And Every Team Still Believes In The Dream:

Titans at Steelers

The Steelers really did not lose much from a team that was already pretty good to start.

There is one thing we know: The defending champion does not lose this game. Maybe it is because it starts on a weeknight and the visiting team’s schedule gets jostled, but the visiting team just looks uncomfortable.

I am not sure what the Titans will be this season. Their tremendous running attack is in tact, and if Kerry Collins can stay accurate there is no telling what this team could do. The key word in that last sentence was "if."

But until a defending champion falls on Thursday night, you have to go with the streak.

STEELERS 24, TITANS 13

Dolphins at Falcons

This is a battle of two teams that really took some of us by surprise last season.

This has the potential to be the best game of the week.

I like the Dirty Bird to fly over the original Wildcat.

FALCONS 20, DOLPHINS 14

Chiefs at Ravens

Matt Cassel will make some plays in his time with the Kansas City Chiefs. I just do not expect a lot of them will come in week one.

The Ravens' defense has lost a couple pieces, but the core is very much still on the field at M&T Bank Stadium.

RAVENS 20, CHIEFS 7

Broncos at Bengals

Does anyone else get that feeling that the Broncos may turn into the 49ers of the next decade? After all of that success over the years, is this when the Broncos fall from being competitive for a few years?

I am taking the Bengals, I will probably live to regret it. I will probably regret watching HBO's Hard Knocks with the Bengals and thinking that maybe they are not that poorly coached.

Bengals 27, Broncos 21

Jaguars at Colts

Ernest Wilford is going to make $7,000,000 this season. Here are his career stats.

That tells me what I needed to know about the Jags this season.

Peyton Manning and the Colts find ways to win; can you say that about this version of the Jaguars?

COLTS 24, JAGUARS 14

Vikings at Browns

Wow, how is this for an unexpectedly intriguing matchup. This week it was announced that when Brett Favre was a Jet, the team hid the fact that Favre was injured while starting the last five games with the Jets.

I wish they could have you bet on whether Favre and Mangini will shake hands after the game.

This week for an encore, Eric Mangini has hid the identity of his starting quarterback.

VIKINGS 27, BROWNS 17

Cowboys at Bucs

You know it could be a long season when you still have tickets available against one of the best road teams when it comes drawing attendance.

I do not think the Cowboys are destined for greatness, but with the Bucs passing game looking the way it does, that pirate ship in the end zone could be renamed the Bounty.

COWBOYS 20, BUCS 10

Jets at Texans

If this is finally going to be the year that the Houston Texans break through and go over .500 and look to make the playoffs, then they have to win this game. I do not know for sure, but I could see this game being a shootout.

Mark Sanchez may feel like he is back at USC for a minute. I do not think he will have that much trouble moving the football on Sunday.

TEXANS 31, JETS 28

Eagles at Panthers

This is one of those "close your eyes and duck" kind of games when it comes to predicting.

Are the Eagles as good as they are hyped to be? Will Donovan McNabb give us a consistent season where he throws more than a touchdown a game?

What effect if any will Jake Delhomme’s playoff disaster against the Cardinals have on his 2009 performance?

PANTHERS 21, EAGLES 20

49ers at Cardinals

The Cardinals were the feel good team of the NFL last season. After so many seasons of never being much of anything, they went on to win the NFC and went down to the wire in last year’s Super Bowl.

Last season, the Cardinals opened at the 49ers and won by 10. Who is more improved since then?

It took the Cardinals three playoff games to shake their losing reputation, but if they would fall in this game, that reputation can come back mighty quickly.

CARDINALS 27, 49ERS 16

Rams at Seahawks

Curb your enthusiasm on this one.

The Seahawks have built a nice receiving core with the signing of TJ Houshmanzadeh.

Maybe the Rams can trade for one. Wow, the Rams receiving group is as no-name as you will find.

SEAHAWKS 24, RAMS 14

Redskins at Giants

Last season, the same two teams kicked off the season at the same location.

This year there will be no banner ceremony before this game.

The Redskins managed only seven points apiece in their two meetings with the Giants last year. I think they will reach double figures on Sunday, but the result will not change.

GIANTS 17, REDSKINS 13

Bears at Packers

This game has the cachet of a great defensive matchup.

But, those days of Butkus and Adderley are long gone when it comes to these two legendary rivals.

Green Bay has an Arena Football League Two team; they may get them confused with the Packers as I foresee a shootout on Sunday night at Curly Lambeau’s field.

PACKERS 34, BEARS 24

Bills at Patriots

I was thinking that this game had the potential of being pretty close. But, then Terrell Owens spoke.

Bill Belichick will never say a peep about this to anyone outside of his close quarters, but his players will know all about it. I would expect the 2007 run-up-the-score Patriots to make an appearance at least for this night. Welcome back, Mr. Brady.

PATRIOTS 38, BILLS 17

Chargers at Raiders

If you look deep enough into the Black Hole you might find Richard Seymour.

But, if you look up at the Raiders' side of the scoreboard late on Monday night, the point total may not change that much.

CHARGERS 28, RAIDERS 10

SEASON RECORD 0-0

The Perfect Season.

Scarlet Frights: Cincinnati Claws Up Defenseless Rutgers by 32

Michael Ielpi — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:56:20 -0400

On Monday, Rutgers Stadium got a new look with an additional 11,000 seats in the south end zone for its students debuted on ESPN.

What the fans did not know was that it was turn-back-the-clock day at Rutgers Stadium. The team that Rutgers suited up looked like a Rutgers team from either the late 1990s or early 2000s. The defense was non-existent and the offense gave away most of its opportunities to stay with the Cincinnati Bearcat offense.

There is one stat that will tell you just about everything that you need to know on this game. The stat that stood out most to me was that Cincinnati did not punt the football until midway into the fourth quarter. It is a good thing that Cincinnati’s punter, Jacob Rogers is also its field goal kicker, because he had no need to make the trip if he was only the punter.

The final score was 47 to 15 in favor of the Cincinnati Bearcats, but this afternoon was just as much of a mark on the poor play of Rutgers than it was of the very good play of Cincinnati.

On Monday, it was still unsure of whom Rutgers would start at quarterback. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano went with fifth year senior Dom Natale.

In a way it was fitting that Dom Natale the starting quarterback for Rutgers wears number 11. He reminded me of a guy who used to wear number 11 in the NFL. His name was Drew Bledsoe. Bledsoe was known for holding the ball too long in the pocket and tapping the ball instead of being more decisive with his throws. In the first half, Natale was tentative. When a quarterback is tentative he tends to overthrow his passes and they tend to sail a little bit higher than normal. A couple of Natale’s passes sailed high and went off Rutgers’ receivers fingers and into the hands of Cincinnati defenders.

At times it looked like Rutgers was letting Natale play Canadian Football. It looked like he would only get two downs to move the Scarlet Knight offense. He would be taken off the field time and time again in favor of Rutgers’ other quarterback who was running a version of the Wildcat offense, Jabu Lovelace. Lovelace took five snaps that comprised of two poorly thrown incompletions and three terrible Wildcat runs that produced a long of two yards.

Natale, a quarterback who was once rated higher than Texas’ Colt McCoy by some college scouts, to finally get his chance to start and to have a performance he would like to forget has to be very disappointing. The news for Natale is probably not going to be any better. He would not start in the second half in favor of the highly touted true freshman, Tom Savage.

Savage had a decent second half that resulted in one touchdown and no turnovers. Savage did play most of it in garbage time. But his play should be enough to make him the starter on Saturday against Howard.

You cannot pin this loss on Natale and the Rutgers offense alone. The Scarlet Knights first drive of the game was a beauty. They had 20 plays which included two fourth down conversions to knot the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter. The Rutgers defense would take over from there and give away any chance Rutgers would have.

The biggest hits Rutgers had on defense did not come against Cincinnati players, but came against Rutgers own teammates. Rutgers safety Zaire Kitchen and defensive end George Johnson were injured due to hits by their own teammates.

For head coach Brian Kelly and Cincinnati, he was very upset about having to face an in-conference opponent to open the season. Since he could not get the schedule changed he did the next best thing. He took his anger to his playbook and gave his players the freedom to play downhill all day in Piscataway.

Cincinnati’s quarterback Tony Pike completed 27 of 34 passes for a career-high 362 yards. Pike threw for three touchdowns with an interception. Pike reached his career-high in only three quarters. His quarterback rating was a terrific 128.1.

Pike is out to prove that last season was no fluke. Cincinnati’s dynamic All-America candidate wide receiver Mardy Gilyard, did find the end zone, but the Rutgers defense did contain him for the most part. It was the rest of Cincinnati’s passing offense that Rutgers would come up with no answer for. Cincinnati had ten different players catch at least one pass. That number was twice as many as Rutgers had.

At Rutgers Stadium, one of the traditions is to play the opening riffs from Metallica’s, “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” to get the crowd pumped for a third down play for the opposing offense. On Monday, the stadium’s music director may want to change that to “Anyway You Want It,” by Journey. The Cincinnati offense was able to move the ball at will on Rutgers. It would not surprise me to hear that Brian Kelly took his players to Burger King before the game because his players had it their way the entire afternoon.

Cincinnati was supposed to be the defense that was going through significant changes. The Bearcats only returned one starter on defense. You would never have known it. The Bearcats had three interceptions and five sacks on the afternoon and kept Rutgers off the scoreboard during the second and third quarters.

The Rutgers defense on the other hand, returned half of its players from a year ago on the field. In a reversal of fortune, the Scarlet Knight defense looked confused and tired, there were missed coverage assignments, they lacked significant pressure to the quarterback and left the middle of the field wide open for Pike to pick them apart.

Cincinnati has defeated Rutgers for the fourth straight time. The Bearcats were supposed to take a step back this year. After Monday’s effort, they have no plans of giving up their Big East title defense without a fight.

Cincinnati has won the Big East conference and has gone on to a BCS bowl with last year’s trip to the Orange Bowl. Rutgers has not done that. Brian Kelly has won coach of the year twice. It took him a total of two years to get those two awards. Schiano is in his ninth season at Rutgers, and he has accomplished this once.

Today in New Jersey, there are many wondering how good of a coach Greg Schiano is at this point. Is he a good coach that gets off to poor starts or, is he a good recruiter but not that good of a game day coach?

The Scarlet Knights should get a couple of weeks to lick their Bearcat claw wounds against Howard and Florida International before playing their biggest out of conference game of the year on Saturday, September 26^th at Maryland.

Rutgers Stadium is Schiano’s Ship. He has redesigned the place to be the place he imagined it could be when he took this job in 2000. The stadium looks great, but if the team disappoints like they did on Monday, I wonder if he can keep this ship full in a sea of red.

I am sure that some of the fans missed that picturesque look at the trees and the views of nearby Johnson Park at the end of the day in Piscataway. The view of the park is now obstructed by the new seats in the south end zone. That park sure looked nicer than the performance Rutgers gave to its fans in its opener.

Big East Season Preview: It's All About R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Michael Ielpi — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:00:14 -0400

Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” should be the anthem played at every Big East football game. Despite a 12-4 Bowl game record the last three seasons and a respectable 3-2 in the last five BCS Bowl games, the conference still gets little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

No Big East team is currently ranked in the top 25. That will change during this season. As soon as there is separation in the conference, I think the Big East can have three teams in the top 25.

The only thing for certain in the Big East conference this season is that there is plenty of uncertainty. This conference has no clear-cut favorite.

I love Big East football, and I want you to love it as well. The competition is better than you realize. The coaching around the conference is solid. The conference sends productive players to the NFL and it did have three players taken in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft.

This is not the SEC, the Big Ten, or Big XII. This league plays every team in the conference every season. There is no show-me-the-money conference championship game.

The offenses and defenses are run mostly pro-style. You will not really find any jump passes or old ball coaches up here.

The following are my picks in the Big East in terms of conference record:

West Virginia—10-2, 6-1 Big East

Give kudos to Bill Stewart for putting together the best non-conference schedule of any school in the Big East. The Mountaineers will open at home against Liberty, and then home against perennial troublemaker East Carolina.

Last year ECU thumped West Virginia 24-3. This was a week after the Pirates knocked off No. 7 Virginia Tech 27-22 to open the 2008 season.

West Virginia then travels to Auburn, and will host Colorado before starting Big East play at Syracuse.

Player to Watch: Jock Sanders, Wide Receiver/Running Back

Sanders is a playmaker. He can run, and he can catch. Sanders had 712 combined yards and nine touchdowns last season. If he can keep himself out of trouble he could be the difference in West Virginia’s season.

The loss of Pat White, who was the only quarterback to start and win four bowl games, will be tough at first for the Mountaineers. But, WVU has a very capable quarterback in Jarrett Brown.

Just ask Rutgers coach Greg Schiano about what Jarrett Brown can do for WVU. Brown’s career record is 2-0, and both wins came against Rutgers. That included the 2006 game, where West Virginia beat Rutgers in three overtimes to knock Rutgers out of the Big East championship.

Trap Game: Friday, October 30 at USF

This game will be the fifth straight for the Mountaineers and they will have one less day of rest after playing Connecticut on October 24. Plus, it is mischief night and something strange in the Tampa air will give West Virginia its first Big East defeat.

Analysis: I think The Mountaineers' difficult early schedule will help them and they will win the Big East. Their road schedule is not difficult in the Big East. They play at Syracuse, at Cincinnati, at USF and at Rutgers.

I think they will lose at USF on October 30, but win the remaining four games including the last two—the Backyard Brawl against Pittsburgh and at Rutgers.

West Virginia has not lost to Rutgers since 1994. The combination of Jarrett Brown, Noel Devine and Jock Sanders may be too much for any Big East defense to defend.

Rutgers—9-3, 5-2

Rutgers returns the best offensive line in the Big East. Rutgers does not return its quarterback, two starting wide receivers, and much of its secondary.

They open with Cincinnati at home on Labor Day. That game is considered to be the make or break game for Rutgers.

Player to Watch: Quarterback Position. Currently it is a battle between fifth-year senior and Michigan State transfer Dom Natale and true freshman Tom Savage.

Mike Teel, the New Jersey native, had been part of the Rutgers offense since 2005. In 2006, he became the full-time starter.

For Rutgers fans, it will be a little strange not seeing Teel as the man under center. Teel was maligned for his start of the 2008 season where he threw seven interceptions in his first four games. But, the resilient Teel only threw six picks in his final nine games.

Teel did have a penchant for throwing some odd mid-range interceptions, but he threw a very good deep ball and was a big reason why three of his targets from a year ago, Kenny Britt, Tiquan Underwood and Kevin Brock are currently on NFL rosters.

Teel is now with the Seattle Seahawks.

Trap Game: Friday October 16 vs Pittsburgh

I say it is a trap game because it will be Rutgers' first Big East game since Labor Day against Cincinnati. After the Cincinnati game, Rutgers hosts Howard and Florida International. They travel to Maryland to take on the Terrapins on September 26 and then return home to face Texas Southern on October 3.

Pittsburgh will have played back-to-back Big East games before coming to New Jersey that Friday. The Panthers will be knee deep in conference football by then, while the Scarlet Knights will be learning to get their feet wet again.

Analysis: The Scarlet Knights have a golden opportunity to win the Big East. Their road games are at Maryland, at Army, at Connecticut, at Syracuse, and at Louisville. The big games for Rutgers are all in Piscataway.

If the play at quarterback is very good, then Rutgers will be playing for the league championship against West Virginia on December 5. I think the play will be good, but not good enough to punch a BCS ticket.

USF—9-3, 5-2

South Florida has a nice opening stretch where the Bulls should be 3-0 after wins over Wofford, Western Kentucky and Charleston Southern.

Two big games for the Bulls happen in their home state, but are not Big East games. On September 26, South Florida travels to Tallahassee to take on Florida State. On November 28, the Bulls drive south to take on Miami.

Should USF beat both of those legendary college football schools, does USF truly move up to number two in the state of Florida behind the Gators? Those two games will be Rodney Dangerfield moments for Jim Leavitt and his Bulls.

USF is feeling quite confident about their season that on their website Game 13 is listed as a bowl game.

Player to Watch: Matt Grothe, Quarterback—Yes, he can run, he can pass, he can sell popcorn in the stands, but can he cut down on his turnovers?

I want to see Grothe play more consistently and put together a streak of four or five really solid games. For now, the consistency in his game is that in each of his three seasons with USF he has thrown for 14 interceptions.

He has never thrown for more than 18 touchdowns in a single season.

This is his last chance to really put his stamp on the conference and move his draft position and rookie pay-level in the NFL.

Trap Game: Thursday, November 12 at Rutgers

This is the final game of a brutal four game stretch for the Bulls that will first have them home to Cincinnati on Thursday, October 15, at Pittsburgh on October 22, and home to West Virginia on October 30.

If they survive those three games successfully there is still one more, and it is at Rutgers on a Thursday night. Two years ago on a Thursday night, USF was ranked No. 2 in the country and got knocked off by Rutgers, 30-27.

That is the toughest stretch that any contending Big East team will face. If the Bulls end up 3-0, they win the Big East.

If they go 2-1, they are contenders, and if they are 1-2, they will be contending for a bowl that does not have three letters associated with it.

Analysis: South Florida has two of the best players in the Big East in Matt Grothe and linebacker George Selvie, but this schedule is an absolute gauntlet.

Give credit to Jim Leavitt for wanting to play Miami and Florida State in the same season, but pile that on with the stretch that I mentioned above and the Bulls will be running themselves out of the Big East race by early November.

Pittsburgh—8-4, 4-3 Big East

If there was a favorite to be found in the Big East, it is Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh returns the most starters of any school in the conference.

But, the last time the Panthers took the field was the 2008 Sun Bowl where they were beaten by Oregon State, 3-0. Quarterback Bill Stull had a miserable day. He threw for just 52 yards and was intercepted.

Player to Watch: Bill Stull, Quarterback—Stull will need to find a way to play better if this team is going to go anywhere this season. He threw for only nine touchdowns in 2008. He only had one game where threw more than one TD pass.

He will not have LeSean McCoy in the backfield to rely on this season. Pitt does not currently have a true No. 1 starting tailback. The position currently is split between Dion Lewis, Ray Graham, and Chris Burns.

Someone may step up during the season and become the feature back, but for now, a lot rests on Stull’s right arm.

Trap Game: Saturday, October 10 vs Connecticut

Pitt will return home after games at North Carolina State and at Louisville to face Connecticut. I think Pitt may slip up here because they may be looking ahead to a game in six days at Rutgers, and a game the following Saturday at USF.

Analysis: This should be Pittsburgh’s year to go back to the BCS, but for some reason, it just will not happen. Until Dave Wannstedt proves he can move this team into the upper echelon of the conference, I cannot give the Panthers the Big East.

This team will lose a game it was probably supposed to win somewhere down the road. I just cannot shake that. I am sure there are many Panther fans that feel the same way.

Also, West Virginia will not let Pitt forget that Pitt’s win in last year’s Backyard Brawl cost them a share of the Big East title.

Cincinatti—7-5, 3-4 Big East

The defending champions of the league have some very good news on offense. Eight starters return including their two stars from last year. Quarterback Tony Pike and wide receiver Mardy Gilyard are back and should wreak havoc on defenses throughout the season.

The bad news for the Bearcats is only one returning starter is on defense in safety Aaron Webster.

One thing I will say for certain is that barring a perfect season Cincinnati’s head coach Brian Kelly will not be the Big East Coach of the Year. Kelly won this award in 2007 and in 2008.

Player to Watch: Mardy Gilyard, wide receiver—Gilyard set a school record with 1,276 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2008. He could have left early to enter the NFL draft, but I am interested to see what he does for an encore in his final season as a Bearcat. He may be the best overall player in the Big East.

Trap Game: Monday, September 7 at Rutgers

It is hard to call the first game of the year a trap game, but this one truly is a trap. College football is not as rigid when it comes to scheduling as the NFL, so why do you have your defending conference champion open on the road against a conference opponent? You can read more about that here.

Analysis: The overall offense should still be one of the best in the conference, but there is no standout at running back.

The lack of returning starters on defense is a little frightening. Brian Kelly is a very good coach and will find a way to keep this team in bowl contention come November, but a return trip to the BCS will not happen this season.

Connecticut—6-6, 3-4 Big East

Connecticut has a chance to either make a big splash in the standings or finish just ahead of Louisville and Syracuse.

The Huskies' biggest problem is that most of their Big East games against the top section of the league are on the road. The Huskies will be at Pittsburgh, at West Virginia, and at Cincinnati.

The Huskies will certainly miss their all-time leading rusher Donald Brown who skipped out on his senior year to become the first-round draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts.

Player to Watch: Andre Dixon, Running Back

Dixon is an interesting story and will definitely be a big factor in where the Huskies finish in the Big East in 2009.

Dixon’s injured ankle in last year’s preseason allowed Donald Brown to take over, and Dixon was left behind. But Dixon had a very strong 2007 in which he ran for 828 yards and averaged an impressive 5.0 yards per carry.

Trap Game: Saturday, November 28 vs. Syracuse

Normally, this should be a game where UConn should roll, but the team will make its first trip to South Bend the week before and you cannot help but think that should be an emotional week for the Huskies.

UConn may still win the game, but I think there will be a little bit of a hangover. It will also be Syracuse’s final game of the season and they may not have any conference wins at this point.

Remember, Connecticut just a decade ago was playing in Division I-AA. For their only head coach at the Division I-A/FBS level, Randy Edsall, I am sure that will be a special day for him in South Bend—even more so if the Huskies beat the Irish.

Analysis: This team lost more than just Donald Brown last year. While, Dixon should fill in nicely for Brown, the quarterback situation and in the secondary is not as easy to fill.

Zach Frazer will take over at quarterback for Tyler Lorenzen. The team also lost cornerback Darius Butler to the NFL and safety Dahna Deleston. The two had combined for 88 starts with the Huskies.

This team will be competitive, but it has three tough conference road games at Pittsburgh, at West Virginia, and at Cincinnati. I just do not see them winning more than one of those three. If they do, then they are right in the race. But, for now, I see them fighting for the last Big East bowl berth.

Louisville—3-9, 1-6

The University of Louisville will be in the sports pages on a regular basis during the fall. Unfortunately, it appears that the stories will be about basketball coach Rick Pitino rather than the success of the football program.

Louisville’s football head coach, Steve Kragthorpe, may be the Big East coach on the hot seat this season. But, as long as Pitino keeps staging these mock press conferences, Kragthorpe’s job may not be in that much jeopardy.

It seems like forever ago that Louisville was 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl. But that was just three seasons ago in 2006.

Player to Watch: Victor Anderson, Running Back

Anderson is just a sophomore and was named the Big East Rookie of the Year last season. He was fifth in rushing in the conference in 2008. He averaged 5.7 yards per carry.

With some very talented backs in the Big East moving to the NFL, Anderson could very well crack the top three this season.

Louisville, which has been known for producing stability at the quarterback position, finds itself in a rare competition for the spot. Redshirt freshman Zach Stoudt should be the long-term solution, but he will battle juniors Justin Burke and Adam Froman for the spot.

Trap Game: Friday, November 14 vs Syracuse

In what should be a battle for each team’s first and possibly only Big East win the Cards will only have six days to prepare for the Orange. Last season, Syracuse beat Louisville in Syracuse 28-21.

Analysis: Someone seems to have eaten most of the tasty slices at Papa John’s Stadium. Maybe one of the quarterbacks will step up and be the future of what has been a very good past at the U of L.

Syracuse—2-10, 0-7

The good news for Syracuse fans is that only three senior starters will be lost after this season. Also, they do not have head coach Greg Robinson to pick on anymore.

Syracuse will be the only member of the Big East with a new head coach for 2009. He is Doug Marrone. Marrone does not inherit much, but he can certainly build the right pieces.

The Big East needs Syracuse to be competitive again. Syracuse has a great tradition

How many other schools had a movie made about them? If you saw last year’s film, "The Express," the story of Ernie Davis, you will know what Syracuse University means to college football.

Can he lead the once-proud Orange and Blue down the field and back to prominence? Time will tell.

Player to Watch: Arthur Jones, Nose Tackle

Jones was an All-Big East selection last year, and is projected to be in the running for an All-America selection this season. Jones tore his pectoral muscle and has spent most of the offseason healing. If he is healthy, he should be the best player on the field for the Orange.

At quarterback for the Orange, will be someone recognizable to most as a Dukie. Former Duke point guard Greg Paulus will be under center and will draw the attention of the media.

Unfortunately, it will not be Otto the Orange taking the snaps.

Trap Game: Saturday, October 24 vs. Akron

The Akron Zips just a season ago beat Syracuse 38-24 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse’s home opener. This is a game that Marrone needs to win to at least do one better than his predecessor.

Analysis: The Cuse will gather more attention with Paulus, but they will not gather any more victories. This program will be about the next decade in the Big East.

Enjoy the football. My predictions are probably way off and that is the beauty of college football and especially being a fan of a very competitive conference. Just give the league its propers if you like the football that is played every week in the Big East Conference. Just a little bit.

New York Jets Attempt to Fly in Preseason

Michael Ielpi — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:27:43 -0400

On Monday night, the New York Jets passed the halfway mark of the preseason. The Jets are 0-2 in the preseason. The Lions went undefeated in the 2008 preseason, so that tells what a preseason record means.

Today, in a surprise to almost no one, Rex Ryan named Mark Sanchez as the opening day starter for the Jets.

Sanchez did not show much to win the job, it was more that Kellen Clemens did not show enough to make anyone say that he deserves to still compete for the starting quarterback spot.

Ready or not, Sanchez is under center for the first snap in Houston.

The biggest fear for any franchise is to see its star player, especially a quarterback, go down. If Sanchez should miss time, he will most likely be missed as much as any superstar quarterback in the league. The depth of the roster is at a kiddie pool level.

Sanchez had 16 career starts at USC. He will need to equal that number in one season in the NFL.

Kellen Clemens is not showing much. Clemens is in his fourth season and should be showing more rhythm than blues, but it just is not there for him and it makes one wonder what the Jets really saw in him.

The real quarterback battle is for the number two spot. Erik Ainge, in his second year, has looked slightly better than Clemens. It is tough to truly judge Ainge’s performances because they have come against some players who will not be collecting full NFL paychecks this fall. But, I think he could at least equal Clemens’ performance on the field.

The Jets should look to grab any veteran backup they can find. Does Vinny Testaverde still have another year left in him?

Leon Washington should never leave the field. I think Washington would even contribute on defense if you put him in the secondary. He is that much of a playmaker.

He is in a contract dispute with the Jets, but the more I see his effort, the more I want the Jets to become Teddy KGB from Rounders and say, “pay that man his money."

David Clowney is averaging 27 yards per reception in the two preseason games. He needs to see action with the first team against the Giants on Sunday. Clowney has great speed, but I really want to see it in action against a first team defense.

The number-two wide receiver position still appears open. Chansi Stuckey has it presently and Brad Smith is right behind him, but Clowney should see more time and should be the home run threat in this offense.

Dustin Keller will be the primary target. Many rookie quarterbacks tend to find their tight end to save them as the pocket shrinks and the time they used to have in college to throw the ball elapses.

I think we can expect around five catches per game in the 2009 season for Keller. He can get open and take a 10-yard pass and turn it into a 20-yard pass.

The Ghost has been precisely that. Linebacker Vernon Gholston has one solo tackle and two assisted tackles in two games.

With Calvin Pace missing the first four games of the season due to suspension, you would think that Gholston has a great opportunity to shake the bust label. From what we have seen in the preseason, Gholston has looked a little slow and a little bit lost. His ability to shed blocks must improve for him to be an integral player on defense.

The undrafted rookie from Rutgers, Jamaal Westerman, is having a very nice training camp. He should not only make this team, but should contribute down the road.

The Jets currently have three players from Rutgers. They are Westerman, linebacker Brandon Renkart, and tight end Kevin Brock. Rutgers ranks tied for tenth in the number of players from one college playing in the NFL. That says quite a bit for a team that only eight years ago lost three games to West Virginia, Miami and Virginia Tech by a combined 184 points.

On special teams, Jay Feely has been 3-for-3 in his field goal attempts. Reggie Hodges has done well punting the ball and should be the starting punter.

The Jets do not have their full lineup like most teams because of some nagging injuries. Kris Jenkins, Shonn Greene, Darrelle Revis, and a few others have missed either a preseason game or some practice time.

And that is your in-flight entertainment for August on New York Jets Flight Number 2009. Currently, this plane has just left the hangar.

Rutgers-Cincinnati Big East Opener Promises Summertime Blues For Someone

Michael Ielpi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:31:22 -0400

As a fan of both Rutgers and Big East football, I usually try to defend the conference against its mightier and more profitable leagues.

The Big East has amassed a 12-4 bowl game record the last three seasons. Since the two former Big East powerhouse schools in Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC in 2003, the conference has gone a respectable 3-2 in BCS games.

This time, I cannot. Allegedly, the Big East wanted to get a Labor Day rivalry game to open the season. The Big East is taking its defending champion and one of the real feel-good stories of the college football season, the Cincinnati Bearcats, on the road to play a conference rival in the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

The Bearcats deserved an opportunity to open at home and raise the championship banner instead of facing a game they could lose on the road.

Remember, when Miami and Florida State began their Labor Day rivalry, Miami was in the Big East. Now that both are ACC members the tradition continues, but it makes less sense.

Most other schools use the opening week as almost a preseason week where they stay home and face either a FCS school (formerly I-AA) or a low-level FBS school.

But the game will be played on Labor Day, and it should be a good one at that.

Rutgers and Cincinnati have put together a nice little rivalry over the years. This began even before they were both in the same conference. You can go back to 1992, when Cincinnati crushed Rutgers' hopes of making its first bowl game since 1978 with a 26-24 victory.

In 2005, Rutgers beat Cincinnati 44-9 to finally get that monkey off their back and accepted an invitation to the Insight Bowl. The following season, Cincinnati stunned previously unbeaten and No. 7-ranked Rutgers 30-11 in November. Cincinnati won in 2007 by five points in Piscataway, and in 2008, the Bearcats bested Rutgers by three points at home en route to their first Big East championship.

When given the news about the opening game, Cincinnati’s head coach Brian Kelly had this to say, “I screamed. I yelled. It did no good. At some time we have to be able to step back a little bit and go with what’s in the best interest of our teams more so than what’s in the best interest of our conference.”

The team that loses this game will have one conference loss with a month to mull it over.

The next Big East football game is not until Oct. 2, when Louisville travels to Pittsburgh.

Labor Day should be a time where your team plays at home for the first time and opens up against a team it will likely defeat by a reasonable margin. The rest of the conference appears to have gotten that memo.

Here are the other preseason contenders for the Big East title schedule on opening weekend:

Liberty at West Virginia

Wofford at South Florida

Youngstown State at Pittsburgh

The game will be played on Labor Day, Sept. 7 at 4:00 PM. This Monday night game will be televised on ESPN. While the TV exposure is nice for the Big East conference, how many will be spending that last real day off in the summer to stay inside and watch football is to be determined.

The tradition in New Jersey on Labor Day is to grab one final weekend at the Jersey Shore before the younger ones begin school again.

The newly renovated Rutgers Stadium should be close to capacity. There are a few tickets available. But how many other New Jerseyans and college football fans in general will be glued to their television sets for this pretty important opener?

November should be the month where the Big East football season fully takes shape and we find out who is going to represent the league in January.

I doubt that the Big East will change a Connecticut-Syracuse basketball game to November this upcoming season. You would not want to waste one of your premier match-ups during a time when people are more focused on pigskin than hardwood.

Just like you would not want to waste a weekend when people are thinking about sunsets rather than what is being communicated to the head coach’s headset.

But, come Labor Day evening, the Big East has just created a new version of the summertime blues for one of their contenders.

Rick Pitino, You've Lost My Respect

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:57:44 -0400

Rick Pitino and I share a few things in common. First, we both have the same birthday, September 18. We are both Italian and come from the New York City area. We both share a love for basketball and fell in love with women whose name happens to be Joanne. We both lost a relative on September 11th in New York City.

Rick Pitino is a phenomenal motivator and college basketball coach. What he did at Providence College, taking over a losing team in 1985 and going all the way to the Final Four in 1987 was the stuff of legend.

The Pitino show left Providence to take him back home to New York to become the head coach of the Knicks. With the Knicks, Pitino's magic touch carried straight to the NBA. The Knicks made the playoffs each of his two seasons at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks under Pitino would win the Atlantic Division title in 1989; this would be the Knicks first division crown since 1971.

Surprisingly after the 1989 season, he would resign from the Knicks, famously saying, "I'm a college coach."

He would go on to find his greatest success at the University of Kentucky. He would take this legendary college basketball program from coming out of probation to a National Championship.

After falling in overtime in the 1997 National Championship game against Arizona, Pitino would leave Lexington, Kentucky and move up near Lexington, Massachusetts and sign a $50 million contract to coach the Boston Celtics.

Something would happen to Rick Pitino in Boston that never happened to him in the past. He failed. The Celtics from 1998 to 2001 missed the playoffs each of the three-plus seasons that Pitino was at the helm. He would resign in January 2001.

Pitino usually knew when to leave a situation, but this time he resigned in disgrace. He resigned in Miami after the Celtics had lost to the Heat and did not return to Boston to face the media.

A couple months later, he would find himself back in school and in the state of Kentucky, but this time it would be at Louisville, as he replaced Hall of Famer Denny Crum as the head coach of the Cardinals. Pitino's return to college basketball has been very successful. Louisville went to the Final Four in 2005, and was ranked the number one team in college basketball for a portion of the 2008-09 season.

His method of solid recruiting and coaching along with being able to motivate players has been a staple of his success in college basketball for over twenty years.

There is one problem with this latest sales pitch. No one is going to buy it, and for a rare time in his life, Rick Pitino is on the defensive. Remember one of the last times he was on the defensive?

You could laugh at his Boston press conference with those infamous comments. But, you cannot laugh at what has taken place between Pitino and a woman not named Joanne Pitino.

This week, Rick Pitino is facing a problem the likes of which cannot be solved by moving on or by saying something motivational.

The Pitino show has hit its biggest speed bump. Pitino has been hit with his own full-court press, like the kind he used to torment everyone else's defense with on the basketball court.

It would be foolish to think that the woman that Pitino had relations with, Karen Sypher—the wife of Pitino's equipment manager, Tim Sypher—had an encounter with him just because she liked the way he coiffed his hair or his Armani suits. Karen Sypher saw a meal ticket, similar to the way many high school basketball recruits do when they get recruited. Being in the presence of someone with the prestige of Rick Pitino is a way for them to "better" themselves .

Karen Sypher went way too far and is now being investigated for extortion and lying to federal agents.

I went back today and took out my old copy of Success Is A Choice. This was the best-selling book that Pitino co-authored after Kentucky's 1996 National Championship. I wanted to see what he wrote about discipline:

"Discipline is our plan, our awareness of where we are starting from and what road to take when we arrive at our destination. By creating this discipline and by combining it with organization and methods, you are leveraging this motive for positive results. You have no more doubts."

Pitino's lack of discipline has led him to a disciplinary meeting with the University of Louisville.

If I was the one with the power at the University of Louisville, I would not rush to judgment and I would want to know all of the facts. Unfortunately, Louisville seems to think it knows all of the facts, and today University President James Ramsey has said that Pitino is "our guy." It is his decision and I am sure some of his decision is financially motivated. But, he does not necessarily have to fire Pitino.

There are two sides to every story and the truth is somewhere in the middle. Rick Pitino has brought in millions for the Louisville basketball program, but either way, the decision is far from easy. It appears that Pitino would have violated the morality clause in his contract. Mr. Ramsey should know that the school is setting a precedent that is going to be very difficult to apply to others who do not happen to bring in millions like Pitino.

What really disgusted me about this whole affair was not that Pitino cheated on his wife, or had sexual relations in a restaurant, or even that he allegedly paid for an abortion. All of these issues I find completely disturbing, but some of those issues I mentioned are becoming common in today's society.

What I found most disturbing was that Rick Pitino gave a mock press conference yesterday where he wanted to give a statement and not answer any questions. He apologized for his actions and said that he would cooperate with the authorities. That was fine, but as we've seen in other contentious press conferences held by Pitino, he could not leave his ego out of all of this.

"I came here at a very difficult time," he said. "9/11 hit and I needed a community to get over it. In New York City, it was easy. Everybody knew the devastation and they got over it. In Louisville, the impact wasn't felt like it was in New York, but university officials, my friends and loved ones helped me through this difficult time."

I have no idea what that meant. Who has truly gotten over what happened on September 11th? Whether you have lost someone you knew or not, you did not really get over it. Sure, you move on with your life, because that is just what life does, it moves on, for better or for worse. But, to say that people got over it was just a ridiculous remark. Pitino is in a hole and he was just handed a new shovel.

I do not know Rick Pitino's wife Joanne, but she must be a woman of incredible strength. In 1987, she lost a son to congenital heart failure at only six months. Her brother, Billy, was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11th. To me, she had to deal with more pain in her life than should be allowed.

I do not know if or how long she knew about her husband's affair, but the pain that she feels now and the hurt for what her husband did must be devastating. If this Joanne is anything like my Joanne at home, I am wondering how Rick Pitino is still able to stand after his choices. I know a month from now at my birthday party, my Joanne will be by my side. I do not know if Pitino can say the same on September 18.

Pitino's legacy is completely tarnished by this scandal. He will try to act like the same guy he has always been, but the truth that has now set him free is now going to haunt him wherever he goes. The fans will probably heckle him to no end, and some of his endorsements may be lost forever. But, a part of Rick Pitino died when this news came to the media.

When respect is lost, it is hardly ever regained. That is a choice that was unsuccessful. I cannot feel bad for Pitino. This was all his choice.

The respect that I used to have for someone I once held to higher standards, because I thought he was so much like me and shared my values, is gone. Rick Pitino and I may share a lot of similarities, but this latest allegation is something Pitino can have all to himself.

8/27 UPDATE: Rick Pitino is now blaming the media for turning his life into a living hell. He has moved on from 9/11 to saying that the media should have left him alone today because Senator Ted Kennedy died.

Here is the video of Pitino's press conference yesterday.

I think he believes that he can talk his way out of the mess that he himself started with his inappropriate actions. He does not seem to realize that the media does not act like basketball players. You cannot talk and motivate them to do something that gets you your desired result. The media will eat it alive. The more Pitino talks, the crazier he is sounding. He becomes a YouTube phenomeon.

If he cares about his family like he says, he should keep quiet and hope that stories like Senator Kennedy can overshadow the embarrassment and the circus he is creating down in Louisville. The more he talks about this, the bigger the media mess it becomes. Pitino is someone who does not like to be liked. He is learning that having people not like him is driving him to get more red than a cardinal.

Thank you to everyone who read this. I never dreamed that I would ever have a story with over 1,000 reads.

My 2009 Fantasy Baseball Surprise Team

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:05:46 -0400

Some people like surprises, some people do not. When it comes to fantasy sports, surprises are only good when you can catch them and not let them slip away. My list goes position-by-position to find one player that likely was taken late or not at all in your fantasy baseball draft. I went back and looked some baseball publications and my own personal notes to come up with a list of players that are having very good seasons For me, it is always fun and painful at the same time to see what players you either got right or completely missed the boat. It is only August and while the season is not over yet, there may be one of these players still available in your league. Most, if not all of these players will be selected much higher in your 2010 fantasy baseball draft. The preseason rankings were pulled from CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball Preview. Here are ten pies-in-the face for the 2009 Fantasy Baseball season.

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How the New York Mets Can Save the Little Face They Have Left

Michael Ielpi — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:47:55 -0400

As someone who has spent his daily life in Human Resources for the past 11 years and a New York Mets fan, I am completely torn. My daily life is spent valuing ethics and creating an open environment for all.

The Mets are a Human Resources Department’s worst nightmare.

Yesterday, the Mets held a press conference to say that their Vice President of Player Development, Tony Bernazard was fired for gross misconduct by trying to start a fight in the New York Mets double-A clubhouse in Binghamton, NY.

Here was Adam Rubin’s original report that ran in the New York Daily News on July 22, 2009.

It appeared that the Mets went through the proper channels by bring in Human Resources to speak with eyewitnesses and come up with the proper evidence to fire Bernazard.

The announcement was made around 3 PM, yesterday that the Mets were going to fire Bernazard. The last person you thought you would remember after the press conference would be Adam Rubin.

But the Mets yet again cannot seem to do anything right and turned a just firing into a media circus. In the largest sports market in the country, the last thing you want to see is a headline on the front page of the most read paper in your city that says, “Smears of a Clown!”

I think it was completely fair that the Mets questioned the source of the report. In Human Resources, when you hear a complaint, you determine if the source has something to personally gain by revealing this information. After you meet with the accused and the witness you determine the facts and you move forward with your actions.

There is just one problem with that. You never go out to the public or media and release that you know that the reporter went to the ownership to talk about a possible position with the club.

The Mets had a chance to bury a minor story and throw it away. The Mets just could not do it. The team even emailed all of their fans on their email list to announce that Bernazard was fired. This was totally unnecessary.

A good majority of Mets fans do not really know who Tony Bernazard is, and the ones that do know were not really sure what he actually did for the club. But they could not let this deed go without being vengeful.

It was absolutely the wrong time and place for that. It made the Mets seem like they were going for the eye-for-an-eye route. That kind of behavior is totally unprofessional.

No one is sure whether Adam Rubin went to the ownership of the Mets looking for a job or just to trying to network on how someone could get a job in player personnel in the major leagues. It is common practice to network in any field.

The one question I have on Rubin was his interest in working in Major League Baseball. I have a feeling that Rubin is trying to play it both ways, and right now he has the media in his pocket and the upper hand on the Mets.

Obviously if Adam Rubin’s report was false, Tony Bernazard likely would still have his job with the Mets. Were there discrepancies from Rubin’s report to the one filed with Human Resources? Absolutely. Today, Adam Rubin wrote that he stands by his story and that it was accurate. While his story was true, it does not mean it was 100 percent accurate.

I am sure there were discrepancies from what Rubin was told and from what Bernazard and the eyewitnesses said to Human Resources. There are always two sides to every story.

If the Mets hired me as their consultant, here is how I would guide the team in attempt to regain some of what they lost in terms of credibility yesterday:

First, apologize to Adam Rubin. Apologize directly to him; do not go through the media channels. I would try to have a member of the Wilpon family meet with him along with Omar Minaya, and possibly a member of the Human Resources Department to witness the meeting.

Instead, Omar Minaya made a public apology to the media last night without any mention that he had any private conversation with Rubin.

I would have Minaya say to Rubin that I picked the wrong place and the wrong time to discuss the personal motivation of the writer.

Second, I would do my best to let Rubin know that he is a good reporter that has been working for the newspaper on the Mets for the past six years.

Third, I would want Rubin to know that we do not want him to feel unwelcome in the team’s locker room and clubhouse. You want to maintain that you are a professional organization and you are not looking to turn your job into a hostile work environment. Stress that the players and coaches is still open to your questions.

Fourth, if you plan on keeping Omar Minaya as General Manager, please let him take a course in public speaking or have him write his own script. Sometimes when you are reading from a script that you probably did not write means that you may or may not believe what you are saying.

Omar Minaya looked lost at the podium. He said the word investigate 13 times during the seven minutes that he spoke. He stuttered and stammered like a man who did not read what he was saying before he spoke to the media.

Finally, the biggest way the Mets can put this disgraceful act to bed is to something that no one in the front office can do. That is to win on the field. Winning makes people forget some of their problems.

Winning is an elixir. It is rare to hear about an organization that is known as being classless when it is a winner. It has happened, but that team has to do something very serious to tarnish its image.

The Mets now have stooped to a level that only another team that dresses in orange and blue has hit, and those are the New York Knicks. The Mets are only a harassment suit away from that abyss.

Oh, by the way, Tony Bernazard was fired for cause yesterday.

The Old Guy, Texting Kid, and 8 Others Who Drink All the Fantasy Draft Party Beer

Michael Ielpi — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:44:30 -0400

We have reached the dog days summer and the six-month hiatus without football is finally nearing its end. The wait without fantasy football has been even longer due to the fact that most fantasy football leagues end their season after week 16. For some of you whose fantasy team(s) had disappointing seasons, which ended in November, the wait has been over eight months. I am as experienced as you will find when it comes to game of Fantasy Football. That does not make me a better player than anyone else. I began playing fantasy football, or what we knew to be rotisserie football back in my senior year of high school in 1993. My league got laughed at as being for stat geeks and dorks who needed a hobby besides Strat-O-Matic. One day you will thank me for taking those verbal beatings. Now, the people who made fun of me are in way more fantasy leagues than I am. Draft day is one day that I really look forward to on my calendar. As you get older, you do not get to see your friends as much and the times you get to hang out with your buddies without a wife/girlfriend/children is rare. I know many do their drafts online. Online drafts are great because all of the research and rankings are right at your fingertips. But, if you have the opportunity to hold a live draft in person with your entire draft crew available, go for it. Your draft crew may consistent of friends, co-workers, guys you know online, etc. As someone who has hosted over ten drafts at his place of residence I want to import some of my knowledge to you. Most importantly: Have fun. Enjoy the day, make jokes, eat and drink, because it beats either working at your job or working on your home. Make sure you have guys in your league that you can trust to take the league serious enough to talk some fun smack, but not too serious that the smacks get physical. I do not like to see guys who take it so seriously that they forget that it is just a game and fantasy football loses what it was originally intended to be. When it is not fun anymore, I would suggest finding a new hobby. Here is a list of things that can make for a better draft day experience: 1 – Announce Your Day and Time Well in Advance – People’s plans change like the weather, so try to pin as many down as quickly as possible to give them time to clear out the day just for you. 2 – Do Not Expect Your Draft To Start On Time – Some people are just habitually late and some may hit traffic or some other unexpected event. My advice is to put your draft time at least a half-hour or an hour before the actual time you really want to begin the festivities. 3 - Have Some Supplies Available – I mean the real basics like pens and paper. You will be surprised how many come without something to write. If you would like to have your league bring in food and beverages that is more than acceptable. Just do not start the heavy drinking until after the draft is complete. 4 – Sit In Draft Order – This works very well especially if the group does not know each other that well. Most drafts are done in a serpentine format; this way the person will always know when he is next to select. 5 – Hide Your Remote Control or Video Game Controllers – Try to keep the distractions to a minimum. You know it is very difficult to keep people contained for a couple of hours at a time. I like to keep one channel on mute to at least provide a little bit of entertainment without losing the audience. Now, I would like to introduce to you the ten people you will find at your average Fantasy Football draft. Amazingly, all of these players have similar odds of winning the title. In my 16 years in rotisserie/fantasy football, each one from one of these ten categories has at least one championship to their credit. They are all great in their own way, but they all find themselves falling into one of these categories. If you have a new category of fantasy football player to add, feel free to let me know.

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Fanarchy: A Good Idea By Versus Gone Miserably Wrong

Michael Ielpi — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:56:06 -0400

I want to give credit to the Versus channel for one thing. There coverage of the Tour de France has been terrific. It is as good of a job by any network as you will find. First, with a capable studio host in Craig Hummer, second, a great play-by-play commentator in Phil Liggett, and two respected analysts in Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll.

They have a nice pre-race show that opens the telecast. They give you three solid hours of coverage of the race and then have a post-race show complete with interviews and commentary.

Versus has a few webpages dedicated to the Tour are very good complete with information on every race, standings, blogs and video archives.

Versus struck gold, or should I say yellow, by being able to acquire the Tour de France. By having exclusive rights to the event and with one the world’s best-known athletes, an American named Lance Armstrong as its star, Versus has itself a very important piece of sports television.

The fledgling network formerly the OLN (Outdoor Life Network), owned by cable giant Comcast has been able to score some pretty good deals with the NHL, the Indy Racing League, college football, and World Extreme Cagefighting, which owned by the company that owns the UFC and bull riding.

But, the channel has not been able to recreate that magic with most of the other sports they cover. Its hockey coverage has been mediocre. They were able to televise the Stanley Cup Playoffs and even a few games of the Stanley Cup Final. The television coverage during the game was fine, it was the jarring lack of post-game coverage that left a viewer wondering why the channel decided to skip out on the post-game press conferences to show repeats of someone fishing for bass.

No offense to the fish, but they will still be in the lake in an hour.

Versus launched a show last month called Fanarchy.

Former ESPN Dream Job contestant Zach Selwyn hosts the show.

I was excited to see that Versus was going to let fans voice their opinion instead of it always being a sports columnist or former athlete.

It is a good concept for the network; it is relatively inexpensive to run because the guests are unpaid and if it catches on they can charge more in ad fees without any increase in expenditures.

Fanarchy’s tagline is, “Real sports fans with real issues.”

These people seem to have serious issues, but most likely they are not sports related.

You can see these people on their web cams, some of which are in their bedrooms, mom’s basement, hourly stay motel, etc. They dress in their favorite team’s jersey; some of them paint their face or their chest, or wear some other form of goofy outfit.

Sorry, but it does not make you more of a fan of your team if you paint your face, get a team tattoo, or buy that $500 customized jersey.

There should only be one mascot, and that person should be on the field.

They call their local sports radio show and say, “I think the Yankees should trade Derek Jeter.” They feel this way because he went 0-for-3 with an error in one game. They forget what the player means to an organization and how hard that player works to make himself the best he can be.

The fine people over at Versus have decided to show us what some of these callers actually look like. Good Lord.

Oh, and if you are a female, you better not be afraid to show at least three inches of cleavage because you likely will not be heard otherwise. That is unfortunate, because I know quite many women who really know their sports, but they would never stoop to wear a bikini top on television.

It is sad because the jersey of the player they are wearing, they probably could not tell who wore that number before on the team. They probably have never read a column by the likes of a Jerry Izenberg or read a great sports book.

These types of self-proclaimed “diehard” fans are nowhere to be found in the stands when their team is blown out at home. They also run away from message boards after commenting all week how their team is going to beat up the other team.

Here is one of their discussions about whether or not tennis player Simona Halep should get a breast reduction. Try not to be too overwhelmed with their lingual skills.

These are exactly some of the people who attend sporting events. They come to tailgate and get completely blitzed and you just pray that someone else is driving them home.

I have no problem with tailgating. It is an enjoyable experience, which like anything should be enjoying in moderation.

But some of these people get so drunk or high that they come to scream obscenities at other fans wearing the opposing jerseys and probably hope to get into a fight. Sometimes, they even fight with their own fans. It’s funny at first, but pretty sad, when you realize they spent hundreds of dollars to see an event they likely will not remember much of the next day.

You will not just find them at sporting events. They are also at your favorite concerts screaming, “I love you (insert singer or band name)” at the top of their lungs blowing out your eardrums. Oh, did I tell you that their seats are about 1,000 feet from the stage and the person that they are telling their admiration for will never hear them and likely does not care too much, because they are already got their money.

The other night, the Fanarchy panel was discussing the UFC fight between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir. The person behind the scenes at Versus typed in the headline as Brock Lesner vs Frank Mir. It appeared incorrect for the entire segment.

It is very difficult to give a new show any credibility when they make such an easy typo.

I have been trying to find a clip of this online, but no one has it.

There had to have been at least twenty bleeped curse words and it turned into a shout fest.

If I want a shout fest, I will watch those so-called analysts on CNBC or the political clowns on CNN.

I am not sure how successful Fanarchy has been so far, but it does have its own official YouTube channel and not one video has more than 300 views. Meanwhile, a cat playing the keyboard has millions of views.

I do not want to sound like a bitter old man. But, is this the best we have to offer?

I am 32, and as you get older, things may not be the same as you remember them 10 or 20 years ago. I have grown up, but I have no intention of growing too old to where I do not enjoy sports anymore.

I was never very serious into sports writing, I had a small blog that I wrote in every once in a while, but I did not update it regularly.

But, then I found this website that some of you may have heard of, it is called Bleacher Report.

Bleacher Report has real sports discussions by true fans with smart commenting and people who can say more than either your team sucks or you suck personally. You can go just about anywhere to find that.

Here it is different. Editors actually give you constructive criticism on your articles and give you valuable tips on being a better writer.

I cannot thank all of you enough for energizing me as a writer, a commentator, and most importantly, a fan.

May the Bleacher Report continue to grow with good writers, great fans, and real conversations that are more about fair opinions than foul language.

Let’s hope that the Bleacher Report does not become Fanarchy in the future. It is a pretty bleeping good democracy right now.

Caught In A Trap: The New Jersey Devils Welcome Back Jacques Lemaire

Michael Ielpi — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:01:40 -0400

An old friend of the Devils' fans know has stopped by to say hello and to coach his old team.

Today, the New Jersey Devils brought back former coach Jacques Lemaire to be the head coach again. This comes after the team was caught by surprise with Brent Sutter quitting on the team in June.

The team went through the entry draft and the first week of free agency without a head coach.

As a Devils fan, I have mixed emotions on this.

I have always liked Lemaire as a coach; what he did for this franchise can never be forgotten.

Lemaire took this team from mediocrity to glory. In one season, Lemaire took a team that had never finished with more than 87 points in franchise history to a team with 106 points in 1993-94. That year, the Devils came within one goal of the Stanley Cup Finals and would have likely beaten the Vancouver Canucks that season for the Cup.

The following season, the Devils went all the way and captured the Stanley Cup in a surprising sweep over Lemaire's former coach, Scotty Bowman and the Detroit Red Wings.

However, I can't forget the disappointments after 1995, when the Devils came nowhere close to a conference final. In 1996, the Devils became the first team to fail to make the playoffs after winning the Stanley Cup in over twenty years.

The Devils came back and won their first two Atlantic Division titles in 1997 and 1998. But, the regular season success was quickly forgotten as the Devils were bounced by the Rangers in five games in the 1997 Eastern Conference Semifinals.

In 1998, the Devils became one of those embarrassing statistics by being one of only a handful of No. 1 seeds to fall to a No. 8 seed in the opening round of the playoffs. The Devils lost to the Senators in six games.

The Devils won 27 playoff games in Lemaire's first two years, but only won seven games in his final three seasons with the club.

Jacques Lemaire was fired after the 1998 season. He signed on with the expansion Minnesota Wild in their 2000 inaugural season.

It took Lemaire only three seasons to get the Wild into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In 2003, the Wild won a back-to-back seven game series to reach the Western Conference Finals, where they were swept by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Ironically, the Mighty Ducks would fall to the Devils in the Finals that season.

The Wild would make the playoffs three times in Lemaire's final five seasons with the team, but failed to win a playoff series.

Just like in his final seasons in New Jersey, Lemaire's team would win the division and lose in the first round.

His press conferences were usually pretty funny and he will hardly ever place blame on himself. It is pretty comical to watch.

Three reasons I like the Lemaire hiring:

Lemaire will stress defense which has been this team's Achilles heel since Scott Stevens retired in 2004.
Familiarity with the five current Devils who played for Lemaire in the 90's. They are Martin Brodeur, Patrik Elias, Jay Pandolfo, and Brian Rolston. Rolston also played for Lemaire in Minnesota.
I highly doubt he will just walk away from this team like Brent Sutter did. Also, I think Devils' President Lou Lamoriello will give Lemaire his space.

Three reasons I do not like the hiring

Is Lemaire's trap style of play still effective in a more open NHL? Can he change as the team has?
The current Devil team has its best players up front and does not have great defensemen like Stevens and Niedermayer that you can rely on to keep men and pucks away from the steady Brodeur.
Lemaire's teams have only been out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs once in the last nine seasons. The Devils have not won more than five playoff games in a season since 2003.

One question that may not have an answer

Will we ever know why John MacLean keeps getting passed up for the job?

Over the last couple of years, Lou Lamoriello seems to be waxing poetic from 1995. He signed two of the members from that team last year in Bobby Holik and Brian Rolston. Holik retired after a very poor season in 2009 and Rolston's numbers were the worst of his career.

The Devils best forward, Zach Parise, was 10-years old when the Devils won the Stanley Cup in 1995.

Let's hope Lemaire has a little bit more success in his return to New Jersey, but I think most Devil fans have suspicious minds on the move. And as Elvis said, "We can't build our dreams on suspicious minds."

Welcome back to the Devils trap; you can't walk out.

Thunderstruck: A Personal Remembrance of Arturo "Thunder" Gatti

Michael Ielpi — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:22:05 -0400

Thunderstruck. Webster’s defines the word thunderstruck as an adjective meaning to be overcome with consternation; confounded; astounded.

For fans of Arturo “Thunder” Gatti and for boxing fans around the world the feeling of hearing Arturo Gatti dead at the age of 37 leaves us thunderstruck.

“Thunderstruck” was also an AC-DC song that Arturo Gatti would use sometimes before his fights in Atlantic City.

Arturo Gatti was born in Italy, raised in Montreal, and fought out of Jersey City, NJ. So, to say his fan base was all over the world would not be much of an understatement.

Gatti’s career has two parts. First, is his rise in the mid-1990s winning the IBF Super Featherweight title where he would become champion by beating Tracy Patterson, the adopted son of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson.

He would successfully defend his title three times. Gatti would move up to lightweight and his legend would continue to grow.

As a lightweight, Gatti lost to Angel Manfredy via TKO in round eight, but it would be his first fight with Ivan Robinson that fans began to notice that the word “Warrior” was not just a tattoo on Gatti’s stomach, but a true testament to which this fighter was.

Gatti knocked down Robinson in the fourth round, but Robinson won a split decision in what was Ring Magazine’s Fight of the Year in 1998. They would meet four months later in a rematch where Robinson won a unanimous decision.

Gatti would move up to welterweight by the year 2000. He would run off four straight victories and score a fight with Oscar De La Hoya in 2001 in a non-title fight. De La Hoya would score a fifth round TKO and most experts thought Gatti’s chances a seeing a title were gone.

Part two of Gatti’s career begins with a bout with a fight with long-time veteran light welterweight Micky Ward. If Gatti lost this fight his chances of getting a big-money fight again would be very slim, if he won, few would likely remember it and Gatti would try to climb back up the welterweight ladder.

What happened that May 2002 night at Mohegan Sun was epic. Gatti and Ward battled toe-to-toe trading punches the whole 30 minutes. Ward would win a majority decision by a point. The fans knew one thing, we wanted more and we wanted to see these two again. This would be the “Fight of the Year” in many boxing polls.

Gatti and Ward fought six months later, with Gatti winning convincingly, but the fight was still good enough and the fans still wanted to see a rubber match.

Here is where my personal story with Arturo Gatti truly begins.

I have never seen any concert act four times. I never went to the movies four times to see the same film. But I was fortunate enough to see Arturo Gatti fight live four times.

My best friend and I have been to Atlantic City probably 20 times or more together. We never stepped foot into the famed Boardwalk Hall where Miss America was for over 80 years until she left the Boardwalk for Vegas, like most of boxing did after 1990.

But Gatti single-handedly was the man who brought boxing glory back to the Boardwalk Hall.

Even when Gatti was defeated he gave you that effort that you still feel like you got your money’s worth.

The Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City is a great place to see a fight. We never knew this until we saw Arturo Gatti raise the roof on the place time after time. My best friend and I knew when Gatti was going to fight in Atlantic City we needed to head down there for the weekend.

The first time we saw Arturo Gatti live it was, June 7, 2003, at the Boardwalk Hall for the completion of the Gatti-Ward trilogy.

What a show these two warriors put on for the sell-out crowd. You had the fans who came down from New England chanting, “Micky, Micky”, and the New Jersey fans chanting “Gatti, Gatti”, whenever either fighter would gain an advantage the crowd will yell his name.

Rare in any sport is it to find two individuals or teams so evenly matched that you need to see them play again in order to really say who might be just a hair better than the other.

In boxing, when it happens it gets put on the highest of pedestals.

Unlike that more famous trilogy, Gatti and Ward did not hate each other for the rest of their lives. Actually, they became close friends. Micky Ward would be in Gatti’s corner many times over the last few years. Ward would become Gatti’s primary trainer in 2006.

There was hardly a fight in his career where Gatti’s face was clean and his eyes were not puffy.

Arturo Gatti will never make any list of pugilistic experts; he just had something that you thought only existed in the movies.

More skilled fighters wished that they had the chin and the heart that Gatti had. You could knock Gatti down but rarely could you knock him out. He had five losses by way of technical knockout, but none of the traditional 10-count knockout.

He was the type of fighter that would live by the style of taking two or three punches to land one. He would just keep moving forward and not care about the punishment that his body was taking. It was common to see him break his right hand during fights and beat someone left-handed.

You would sit in the stands awe-struck that a man could lose his primary punching hand, continue to hit and get hit, but somehow find the strength to win the fight.

Gatti won many fights but more importantly he won over the hearts of the fans. At the end of the day, that is what matters most to a fan.

Boxing was relevant in Atlantic City once again. The main dressing room at the Boardwalk Hall was named after Arturo Gatti a few years back. They could have named the Boardwalk Hall after him and no one would have complained.

Gatti brought the building back to prominence and even got the best pound-for-pound fighter, Floyd Mayweather to come to Atlantic City.

Mayweather won the fight, but Gatti still had the fans after taking a great deal of punishment from the undefeated world champion.

I would be in Atlantic City, for Gatti’s last victory an eleven round TKO of Thomas Damgaard. The crowd would erupt as the referee stopped the fight and Gatti was the victor.

We would also be there for Gatti’s last title shot. This would be for the WBC welterweight title against Carlos Baldomir. Baldomir’s strong hands would win him a ninth round TKO.

There were rumors of Gatti coming back to fight. I was hoping he would stay retired. I was at Gatti’s final fight against Alfonso Gomez, a journeyman boxer from the reality show The Contender. Gatti was overmatched and any chance of Gatti being relevant in boxing was all but over.

He will always have the heart of a champion, but his powers were fading faster than low tide on the Steel Pier.

Gatti’s career was finished, but his legacy was very much in tact. He would be remembered as a warrior in a time when that word was being used for other sports.

In the end, Arturo Gatti never had the love outside the ring that he had when he was inside the ring.

The reports are saying that it was Gatti’s wife who strangled him with her purse in their condominium in Brazil. Sadly, his life is over and her life may be spent in prison and their one-year child will never really know either parent.

The Boardwalk has lost its champion and my best friend and I will always comeback to see fights at the great hall and remember it forever as Arturo’s house. Today we are thunderstruck by the news. Three lives were completely destroyed on Saturday.

Micky Ward may have said it best, “You fight a guy, you go to war with them, and there is a respect there. But with me and Arturo, it was greater,” Ward told RingTV.com. “There was a real bond between us.

It’s why hearing this, hearing what happened to Arturo is like a piece of you is gone, because we shared so much of everything in the ring. We were friends, close friends.”

Most of us will never get to experience in the ring what Gatti and Ward did three times. We will never know what it is like for someone to be an equal in sport. But, we do feel a similar void in our lives.

I just know it is highly unlikely that my best friend will never see the same fighter four times live again. But, every fight we attend together will be because of the excitement Arturo Gatti gave us. We can only hope to feel that way once again on a Saturday night in Atlantic City.

Personally, I have always felt that the ringing 10 count of the bell is the greatest tribute in sports when someone relevant in that sport has passed.

For one of the few times in his life, the count will reach 10 and Gatti will not rise from the canvas.

Big City Sliders: A New York Mets Informercial and Tribute to Billy Mays

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:11:30 -0400

I received many nice compliments on my slideshow relating the music of Michael Jackson to sports, so I wanted to try my hand at another tribute. Thank you to everyone for the comments, and the POTDs.

This one will be a column and it is dedicated to only one team and one man.

The man is Billy Mays; the team is the New York Mets.

I got to know more about Billy and his fellow pitchman, Anthony Sullivan, thanks to The Discovery Channel’s new program, Pitchmen. The final episode of Pitchmen is tonight.

On Pitchmen I got to see the personal life, and that Billy Mays was not as loud and annoying as he seemed during those commercials. He appeared to have a heart as loud as his voice.

For those who thought Mays was just a showman and people never bought anything he sold, well he did rather well over the years.

Church & Dwight Company, the company that makes Arm & Hammer purchased the OrangeGlo Company, the company that made OrangeGlo and OxiClean for $325 million in 2006.

The OxiClean website has saluted him by dedicating their homepage to him.

Billy left a void in the field of $19.95 pitching that can never replaced.

Last year, Billy introduced America to the Big City Slider Station. The actual product, the Big City Slider Station allows you to press five tasty burgers at a time.

The video for the commercial can be viewed here.

I am going to give you the mock screenplay to what would have been Billy Mays second sports commercial, the first one being the one he did for ESPN360.com:

“Hi, Billy Mays here, for the Big City Sliders, better known as the New York Mets!”

“Are you a season ticket holder who fears that you may not be able to afford playoff tickets?”

“Do you get sick and tired of spending money to buy your team’s championship hats, t-shirts and videos?”

“Well, let me introduce you to a money-saving franchise that will drive you to drink, because this team will finish lower than you think!”

“The New York Metropolitans are real major league baseball team. They play in America’s largest city, and have the third highest payroll.”

“Do you live in the big city and are not sure what team to root for? Or do you live in a small town and want a heartbreaking big city team to cheer on?

Well come along and Meet the Mets!”

“The team that has the muscle, but totally lacks the hustle.”

“A seven-game lead with 17 games to play, the Mets could not blow that lead, right? Wrong, it is no problem for these sliders!”

“The slide will come quickly and they will give you plenty of time to concentrate solely on your Fantasy Football team before October.”

“If you think catching a pop fly is as easy as pie, it’s not for these little guys!”

“The fielding is so laissez-faire, it will remind you of those Bad News Bears!”

“The runners on base will just stand in place, as the Mets will strand them time and time again!”

“Groundhog Day is everyday, whether it was at ol’ Shea, or the cavernous Citi Field!”

“Reyes, Beltran, Wright, and Delgado, just say it ain’t so!”

“These sliders are not for everyone. They make a great fit for people who like dentistry without Novocain, or those who jump on to a bicycle without the seat, or any truly painful activity. These guys in orange and blue are for you!”

“These Mets will rise to the top of the standings and slide down with ease once the Pennant gets near. It will seem like it only takes seconds!”

“You can order your limited edition New York Mets Big City Sliders for just $19.95! It’s less than one-fifth the price of your field level Citi Field seat!”

“But, if you call now, I will throw in the 2008 collapse absolutely free.”

“Ask about our 2009 Rolaids package before it ends up completely on the Disabled List.”

“So, if you want a reason to not be able to cheer this post-season, call now for the New York Mets Big City Sliders!”

“Here’s how to order!”

Voiceover man: Please consume these sliders in small quantities. These sliders have a tendency to get caught in your throat and force you to begin choking. The Mets are not recommended for those with any type of heart condition. The writer of this article is a die-hard Met fan and a partial season ticket holder.

Rest in peace, Billy Mays, the 2009 New York Mets should be joining you with their blue shirts on sometime in September.

Remembering Michael Jackson in Music and in Sports

Michael Ielpi — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:12:15 -0400

I dedicate the list to the one and only King of Pop, Michael Jackson, whom we lost on Thursday, June 25. The list takes some of Michael’s biggest hits and attaches them to someone in sports. Before, Jackson became Jacko and went too far off the wall, if you grew up in the late 1970s through the 1980s like I did, there was not a bigger celebrity than Michael. The Thriller album has sold over 110 million copies, that number will go even higher as his record sales after his death have skyrocketed. The next biggest selling album is Back in Black by AC-DC which has sold less than half that of Thriller, with about 45 million copies. The only sports record that could put that into perspective was Cal Ripken’s consecutive game streak. Ripken played in 2,632 consecutive games; he bested Lou Gehrig’s record by 502 games. Everett Scott is third on that list with 1,307 games. But, where Ripken really separates himself is actively in Major League Baseball. No player is close to even half of Ripken’s total. The current active leader is the San Diego Padres’ Adrian Gonzales at around 300 games. All this weekend, I have been listening to the King of Pop’s music and remembering how good that music was. There have been songs I have not listened to in over ten years, but somehow my brain remembers the lyrics exactly. I wish my memory was that good in other areas of my life! His music was more a part of my life than I knew. I knew where I was when I first saw the Thriller video on MTV, when his hair caught on fire during that Pepsi commercial, when he captured eight phonographs at the 1984 Grammy Awards, etc. I am going to remember Michael Jackson in a positive spotlight. I think his problems in his life trace back to growing up. Michael grew up in front of all of us. He was seven years old at the start of the Jackson 5. He was ten years old when the Jackson 5 had their first number one hit with, “I Want You Back”. I could not imagine my childhood as a star recording artist with a very demanding father. It is likely that Michael never played Little League or had much time to associate with friends in school like so many of us did. If there was one person in music capable of pulling off a comeback like Elvis did, in his ’68 Comeback Special, it was Michael Jackson. Sadly, we will never see that comeback.

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New Jersey Devils Fans Should Raise Hell When Brent Sutter Returns to Town

Michael Ielpi — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:52:29 -0400

Move over Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Bobby Petrino, Nick Saban, and others. You’ve got company in the field of sneaking out of town so you can coach a new team.

His name is Brent Sutter.

On June 9, 2009, Sutter decided to resign as head coach of the New Jersey Devils.

"I don't look at it at all as I'm quitting on anything," Sutter said. "I took two years of my life and made a big commitment 2,000 miles away. By me doing that, my life suffered in other areas. When it involves family and personal things that you throw everything into, ultimately you have to make certain decisions.”

"My decision is I've officially resigned as head coach of the New Jersey Devils, effective today," he began. "My reason? Personal and family reasons. It has a lot to do with a lot of things here in Red Deer. Some things have occurred over the last year that made it more difficult.”

I wrote this article the next day focusing on Sutter’s resignation and the potential future coaches of the Devils.

That sounded very noble and gracious. I am no one to say that someone should not be close with his family. I just do not use that as a crutch to get to my next job and not tell anyone about it.

Maybe, when Brent took the job two years ago with the Devils, he did not realize that you couldn’t drive from Red Deer to Newark in a day. Sutter had a three-year deal with the Devils and left with just one year remaining on the contract.

Lou Lamoriello, the Devils general manager, is known for being impatient when it comes to head coaches. He fired Robbie Ftorek and Claude Julien while the team was in first place and with less than ten games to go in the regular season.

Lamoriello was surprisingly very patient with Sutter. It seemed he was trying to learn from past mistakes. This one ended up going completely opposite. The coach fired the team.

"I certainly feel disappointed because I thought Brent was the right coach for the long term," Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek said today.

The Devils gave Brent Sutter over a month to determine his future. It took Brent all of two weeks to decide that he wanted to coach in the NHL again.

Two weeks to the day, Brent Sutter accepts the job to be the next head coach of the Calgary Flames.

Hmm, it takes six weeks to decide that you want to return home and only two weeks to decide that you want to coach a different NHL team? Let’s just say if that is one’s decision-making process, coaching may not be the best place for him.

Could this have anything to do with some conversations that you likely had with your brother, and Calgary Flames general manager, Darryl Sutter? Um, how do you spell nepotism?

Personally, I did not care for Sutter as a head coach. I thought he was a little wishy-washy, and did not focus on defense enough. But, he did a fantastic job with the Devils this regular season. The Devils won a division that had the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins, won 50 games and most of them without their all-star goalie, Martin Brodeur.

The playoffs, on the other hand, were a disaster for Sutter in his two seasons in New Jersey. The Devils were bounced in five games to the Rangers in the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs. In 2009, the Devils lost game seven at home to the Carolina Hurricanes, giving up the lead and the series in the span of 39 seconds.

The Devils lost five of their seven playoff home games in those two series.

Basically, the Devils groomed this guy so he could go home and coach for his brother’s team. There has not been an announcement of any type of compensation deal struck. Knowing NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, some excuse will come out and the Devils will get next to nothing for this.

It would be nice to dream about getting Dion Phaneuf as compensation, but this is not 1991 anymore. In 1991, the Devils were given Scott Stevens as compensation for Brendan Shanahan signing with the St. Louis Blues.

The Calgary Flames have been bounced from the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs each of the last four seasons. Today, they hired a guy who has done no better than the prior two Flame coaches. The Sutters seem to get to the dance, but they sure do not seem to get their teams very far once they get there.

I implore my fellow Devil fans to sell out the Rock when the Flames come in to town and give this quitter a righteous unwelcoming party. Let’s just say, it’s for personal and family reasons that you need to be in Newark.

Which New Jets Player Jersey Will You Own?

Michael Ielpi — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:11:58 -0400

I put together a little synopsis of the seven new, New York Jets that will put on the green and white in 2009. The Jets made it easy with only three picks on draft day, all three of those picks should be on the 2009 opening day roster. The other four new Jets, are veterans who came either via free agency or through a trade. I did not include any undrafted Jet at this point. If someone should step up; I can always add to this list. I also added a little feature about what jersey number the player will wear and the odds of a Jet fan wearing one during the season.

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Sneaky FDU Hires Greg "Shoes" Vetrone As Interim Coach

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:05:42 -0400

On Monday, after an exhausting three-day search (joking), Fairleigh Dickinson University announced that current assistant coach Greg Vetrone has been named interim head coach of the men’s basketball team.

I wrote an article after former head coach, Tom Green, was fired by the University after 26 seasons at the helm on Thursday.

The decision by Athletic Director David Langford took all of one day. All three of Green’s assistants were interviewed. Only one had a real chance.

Long time assistant, Ron Brown, a former head coach at Florida A&M and Long Island University is 58 years old and has a career coaching record of 20-71. I doubt he had much of a chance.

Jared Stephans, was FDU’s Graduate Assistant from 1998 to 2002. In 2002, he was given the title of assistant coach. Stephans only experience is what I have listed. His chances were doubtful at best.

That left Vetrone. Vetrone had been a FDU assistant from 1988 to 1991. He moved on to be the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at UC-Irvine and then he moved on to UNLV in the late 1990s. He came back to FDU in 2008.

As someone who has a day a job in Human Resources, where I have been involved in hiring, promoting and firing people of all levels; I have been through similar situations.

This particular situation usually means that upper management made this decision already and tried to figure out the best “politically correct” way of making this look like it was not pre-planned.

The administration gave Vetrone the interim title of interim head coach. I do not know why when he will be the coach on day one of the upcoming 2009-10 season? It does not make incoming and potential recruits feel more enthusiastic about playing for the team if they feel that coach could be around for a short time.

I really do not know much about Greg Vetrone. So, I did what any normal person does when they need to know more; you Google them.

At one point, Greg Vetrone was in the top 20 as an Assistant Coach/Recruiter at UNLV. That is the good news.

Here comes the bad news.

On the first page of my search, this article archived from the Las Vegas Sun in 1997 appears.

Vetrone was an assistant under Bill Bayno at UNLV in the latter part of the 1990s.

During his time there was a scandal involving Vetrone and recruit, Lamar Odom, yes, that Lamar Odom who is playing for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals this week.

Greg Vetrone also appears on the Wikipedia page for former St. John’s and NBA player, Zendon Hamilton. You may say, well that’s odd; here is a snippet from that page:

“According to the story, Nate Cebrun a 51-year-old sports agent said that on June 3, 1994, Hamilton met him at the L.A. Marriott the night before the 6'11" center took his last SAT test.

"According to Cebrun, Greg Vetrone, an assistant coach at UNLV, and Gary Charles, the coach of Hamilton's AAU team, were also at the meeting in which he received $1,500 of the total $2,000 that he would eventually receive.”

Odom and Hamilton were not just the only players, Sports Illustrated ran a piece on this in 1997. Vetrone denies the allegations, but the article traces this possible SAT fixing back to his days at UC-Irvine.

Kevin Simmons, a New York City player recruited by Vetrone at UC-Irvine, was a high school All-American out of Queens’ famous Christ the King High School, had his SAT score go up 210 points and was questioned by ETS because of this impressive jump in his test score.

Simmons followed Vetrone and transferred to UNLV from UC-Irvine.

ESPN’s Andy Katz wrote a very good blog entry on the hiring of Vetrone and started by saying that, “Greg Vetrone was unofficially banished, sent away through a mutual understanding so UNLV could move on after violations emerged in the late 1990s.”

FDU’s Athletic Director, David Langford had this to say on his decision to hire Vetrone as interim coach:

"I had heard the rumors about everything that went on [at UNLV],'' Langford said of Vetrone's involvement.” I did a diligent search of what had transpired at UNLV and interviewed Greg personally.

"I had the heart-to-heart with him as two adults, and at the end of the research process, I was convinced that Greg deserved an opportunity to get back in coaching at Division I. Nothing that I've seen since has indicated it was the wrong decision."

In 26 years, you can Google, scour newspapers, search in microfiche and you will come up empty when searching for violations by Tom Green.

I believe that Greg Vetrone will use FDU as a stepping-stone to get back to a higher level of Division I basketball. Vetrone has seen and been part of the glamorous side of college basketball. At FDU, Vetrone will most likely not be recruiting players who have the chance to play on ABC in June.

If he can build this team back into a winner and win the Northeast Conference Tournament to get back to the NCAA Tournament; I believe that other schools will call and Vetrone will be happy to say thanks and depart.

Fairleigh Dickinson traded 758 games, 407 wins, four NCAA Tournament appearances, a coach with a clean record, and most importantly a coach who wanted to retire at Fairleigh Dickinson.

In return, the University now has a coach who has never coached a minute of college basketball and has a checkered past. For a man whose nickname is “Shoes,” his past sure is not squeaky clean.

Greg Vetrone probably deserves a second shot; I could be wrong. It just did not have to be this way.

In a move that some have called “fairly ridiculous,” I disagree; I say it is completely ridiculous.

Brent Sutter's Resignation and A List of Future New Jersey Devil Coaches

Michael Ielpi — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:08:15 -0400

Brent Sutter, head coach of the New Jersey Devils decided to resign. Sutter resigned via a conference call from his home in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Sutter who during the season had stated a desire to be closer to home, made that decision permanent by resigning today. I cannot say I am all that surprised. I am surprised that in Sutter’s press conference he did not thank the players or the fans. This was a cowardly way to resign and as a Devil fan, you cannot be too upset about it. He said he was not a quitter. Ok, maybe he is just a resigner. Sutter was a very good regular season coach, and possibly the best regular season coach in Devil history after this season’s Atlantic Division title without having Martin Brodeur for most of the season. The only thing to be upset about is the timing. The Devils have been off for the last six weeks and if Sutter knew he was staying in Red Deer; he should have made it easier for the organization to find his replacement. But in the NHL, it is all about the last two months of the season, not the first six. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were not kind to Sutter. Two first-round exits were embarrassing. In the 2008 playoffs, the rival Rangers knocked the Devils out in five games. The Devils had home ice in the series and lost all three games at the Prudential Center. In the 2009 playoffs, the Devils blew a three games to two lead, and in game seven gave up two goals in the final 90 seconds of game seven and lost the series and the game 4-3. In the past, Devils CEO, President & General Manager, Lou Lamoriello would have fired a coach after two straight first round exits. But, he did not this time. Noted penny pincher, Lamoriello is probably doing back flips, that he did not have to fire Sutter and now does not have to pay him. The possible list of candidates looks something like this: (Let me know if there is a candidate you think I missed. But, knowing Lou, the next coach of the Devils is not on my list.)

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Sacked in Hackensack: Tom Green Fired from FDU After 26 Seasons

Michael Ielpi — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:28:14 -0400

June is normally a very quiet time for college basketball. It has been two months since the Final Four. No sports are taking place and most of the students are at their homes. Recruiting for the upcoming 2009-10 is just about complete.

It was announced today by Fairleigh Dickinson University Athletic Director, David Langford, that men's head basketball coach Tom Green has been fired from the university.

This is an absolute stunner to anyone who has followed FDU basketball or any fan of the Northeast Conference. Tom Green was not only the head coach of Fairleigh Dickinson basketball, he is Fairleigh Dickinson basketball.

But after 26 seasons, 400 wins, four trips to the NCAA tournament, 17 winning seasons, and the most tenured basketball coach in the state of New Jersey (New Jersey has seven Division I schools), Green was let go.

You can read more about this on an article I wrote about the history of Fairleigh Dickinson basketball about a month ago.

Coach Green was reached for comment and said the following:

"I had lunch with my boss (Langford) three weeks ago. We spoke about the '09-10 season, and the recruits we have coming in...All my conversations since then with David Langford have either been about academics or about next year."

"Our last game was the last week of February. If this had happened in the beginning of March, or the middle of March, or even the beginning of April...as a Division 1 college basketball coach who has been around, I've got to understand that.

"But to do it in the last half-hour on the last working day in May shows a lack of respect for me as a person, a coach, and a loyal employee for 26 years."

I have a feeling there is something more behind this than just Green's last three under-performing seasons at FDU. The Knights were a combined 29-59 over the last three seasons, after two straight seasons making it to the Northeast Conference Championship game.

I know a couple of the student-athletes had academic difficulties, including starting guard Cameron Tyler, who returned to the team in the 2008-09 season after sitting out a year on academic probation.

I do not know if this was just Langford's decision or if the University's President, J. Michael Adams wanted to see the program go in a new direction. Fairleigh Dickinson is a private institution and Green's salary is not released. I do not know if this was done as a cost-cutting procedure.

You would have to believe that if this was based on the team's performance, Green should have been let go a few months ago. To see this firing done now, makes me think either Green had done something wrong, the basketball program is being cut, or some other coach is coming.

I am not sure what the FDU Athletic Director has up his sleeve for Green's replacement, but it better be something huge.

The foundation of the program has been removed.

The University's Athletic Director, David Langford released this statement to the media:

“We are so grateful to Coach Green for all that he has been able to do in his time at Fairleigh Dickinson, he has given a great deal to this University and department and we look forward to building on the legacy that he founded.”

Yes, David Langford, he founded the legacy here and he should be the one to decide how to see it come to an end. I am not sure if this was Langford's decision, so I do not want to put too much blame on the messenger just yet.

I would rather have 10 more losing seasons and have Coach Green retire than see the team make it to the Final Four. Coach Green meant that much to this program.

Tom Green, based on his stellar performance, had chances to move to schools with a bigger name, better conference, and better facilities. But he chose to stay where his heart was and that was in a place called Hackensack, at a school named Fairleigh Dickinson.

A class act was fired today in what seems like a crass move by an AD who acted like a snake in the grass.

Thank you for all of the great memories, Coach Green. You are the Knight that put the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights on the national scene in college basketball.

It's June, and usually I am thinking that the college basketball season cannot start soon enough. Today, I wish that the season would not start for another 10 years.

My Top 10 Super Bowl Coaching Decisions

Michael Ielpi — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:01:27 -0400

I know it is only June, but I still have Super Bowl fever. Going through some of my collection of Super Bowl memories I have created a Top 10 list of great coaching decisions that took place during the game. Some of these examples are just one play and some is the game plan as a whole. The criteria I used was how did it change the game and that the coach's team did not necessarily have to win the game. Two that did not make the cut came from the same game. Super Bowl XXXII between the Broncos and Packers had two very good coaching decisions. First, was Mike Shanahan's decision to use Terrell Davis as a decoy on a play where he was suffering from a migraine and had virtually no sight. The Packers went after Davis, but the ball went to the right and into the end zone for a Bronco touchdown. Second, was Mike Holmgren's decision to let Denver score a touchdown to take the 31-24 in the game so the Packers could get one last shot at tying the game. The Packers could not stop Denver's running game and this was their only shot. The reason Holmgren does not make my list is because he made the decision on second down. He thought it was first down at the time. I am sure I missed a few and would love to hear your feedback on what I left out or what I rated too high or low. I will be back next week to write about ten coaching decisions that were not so great.

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As Grand as It Gets: My First Trip to the New Yankee Stadium

Michael Ielpi — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:14:27 -0400

I made my first trip to the New Yankee Stadium last Saturday, when the Yankees took on the Phillies as a part of interleague play.

Is the New Yankee Stadium as grand as we have heard? In a word, yes. If it has a $1.5 billion price tag, it should be.

The exterior of the new stadium is a replica of its original predecessor, with the original 1923 feel.

After entering, the first place you may want to check out is the Great Hall, located between gates four and six. The Great Hall is quite grand, with plenty of elevators to take you to your desired level, and a full bar, located just to the left of the Hall. The most impressive part of the Great Hall, for me, are the posters of the Yankees adorning the pillars. On one side, you have a black and white photo of the player, and on the opposite side, the player is in color.

The big difference between the old Yankee Stadium and the new one is a simple one, to me. The Old Stadium was about baseball. You came to see the pinstripes of today and remember the bombers of yesteryear.

The New Stadium is about the experience. The Stadium has 56 luxury suites, nearly four times that of its predecessor. There are plenty of clubs, bars, and other seating areas in the stadium that are meant to be more than just a seat.

It boasts its own Hard Rock Café, which is accessible all year. There is a steakhouse open all year as well.

Any type of food is available for purchase too. I do recommend the garlic fries—just scratch plans of kissing anyone for a week afterwards.

My seat was in the center field bleachers, where I did not have an actual seat, but sat on a long, aluminum bench. My ticket cost $11.00—parking cost $19.00.

The video scoreboard in center field is mammoth. It stands 59 feet by 101 feet (three times the size of the prior jumbotron), and all of it is in High Definition. If you wanted to, you could forget about the field and watch the game on this screen.

Many sections contain TVs that allow you to watch the game as it happens, since some of the new seats in the Stadium have obstructed views.

The concourses are double in width from the old place. Anyone who remembers the old Yankee Stadium concourses can truly appreciate walking around the Stadium, and not being crushed on the four train during rush hour.

An exquisite museum, complete with original Yankee artifacts and an autograph “Ball Wall”, with hundreds of baseballs signed by former and current Yankee players, adorns the Stadium as well.

So, after visiting both New York baseball facilities, which one do I like better?

It is kind of unfair to compare the two. Yankee Stadium cost twice as much. It is similar to a neighborhood with a $1 million home, and a home that costs $500,000. The million-dollar home is likely to have a nicer yard, big pool, and other amenities that may not be found in the one that is half the price. But, the $500,000 home may have a better “sense of home” feeling than its larger counterpart.

This was my write up on Citi Field that I wrote in April. Citi Field has 10,000 fewer seats. Citi Field is a ballpark. Shea Stadium was a facility that needed to be replaced.

Yankee Stadium is a grand stadium. There is no intimate feeling.

I think both places got it right, for the most part—in terms of design. Citi Field wanted to be like Ebbets Field, with an intimate surrounding made of brick and glass. Yankee Stadium wanted to be the grandest facility for baseball, with its gold, marble, and granite.

Both places contain their flaws also. Citi Field has a very awkward outfield configuration, which makes it a pitcher's park. The lack of Mets colors and history in the park makes you feel like you are watching a first-year expansion team, instead of a team with five decades of history.

Yankee Stadium a Little League ballpark, in terms home run potential. Monument Park is more difficult to be seen since it hangs under a sports bar, and behind the center field wall.

The price of the seats at Yankee Stadium have been notoriously questioned. The best seats, behind home plate, went for $2,600 per seat, per game. Few of these seats were sold and the stadium looked bizarre, with the best seats being empty, and all of the upper sections being full. The Yankees did cut the prices of these seats, but some still go for over $1,000.

Oh, and, yes, there was a baseball game that I saw as well. The Yankees won the game in the bottom of the 9th, 5-4. The mystique and the aura of the old stadium may have carried over from the House that Ruth Built.

There was a time in the 1970s when Shea Stadium actually was home to all four New York baseball and football teams.

The new Giants Stadium will be completed in the Meadowlands in time for the 2010 football stadium. The combined costs of Citi Field, Yankee Stadium, and Giants Stadium will be $4 billion.

The best ticket to see all four teams play there would have been a combined $100.

Now, it is considerably more. If you want the grand experience, my advice to you is get your wallet ready.

Five Issues That Will Not Be Seen On the 2009 New York Jets

Michael Ielpi — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:30:59 -0400

Here is a list of five items that were a part of the 2008 New York Jets football season that I believe will not be a story in 2009. Two will be personnel related, one is scheme related and final two deal mainly with the New York media. The Jets have two major changes in 2009. One at quarterback and the other at head coach. Both Brett Favre and Eric Mangini left the Jets with issues that may or may not carry over to the new regime of Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan. History may not repeat itself, but if it looks similar to the 2008 Jets, that would be a surprise.

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IndyCar Series: A Radical Idea To Make Indy Racing Matter Again

Michael Ielpi — Sat, 23 May 2009 03:37:05 -0400

There was a time when the Indianapolis 500 meant everything in racing. Sadly, those days are gone.

Stock car racing was that thing that those southern boys did in the Carolinas. Open wheel racing was for the rest of us.

Open wheel or Indy Car racing is true racing, in my opinion. It is racing where the best car and the best driver can speed past an entire field. NASCAR with the tight rules of restrictor plate racing has to have drafting, and the racing while close, gets kind of compromised.

The names were as big as you would find in any sport. There were the Unsers, Papa Al and little Al, along with Emerson Fittipaldi, Danny Sullivan, Bobby Rahal, Johnny Rutherford, all champions of the great race.

Then there is the Andretti family, legendary father Mario, and his son Michael whose bad luck at Indy is as legendary as any other curse in sports.

These guys were superstars. They were on all the late night talk shows; even guest appeared on sitcoms, soap operas, commercials, etc.

You knew the Indy 500 Champions like you knew who won all of the Super Bowls. A.J. Foyt, the first to win four Indy 500 races. Then Al Unser did it, and finally Rick Mears joined in with their face to appear four times on the Borg-Warner Trophy.

But, something happened that would change the popularity of top-level open wheel racing in America. The main governing body of Indy Car racing was split up. CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) was the undeniable league in open wheel racing. CART was split due to mainly the work of one person.

Tony George is the grandson of Tony Hulman who purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the 1940s.

Tony George had an idea to start the Indy Racing League (IRL). The IRL was created to level the playing field and challenge CART. George wanted an all-oval racing schedule, which he felt would give American drivers a better chance at success. He demanded that 25 of the 33 cars in the 1996 Indy 500 come from the IRL. CART could not use the Indy 500 as a point-scoring race.

If you think that was confusing, get a load of this. In 1996, CART ran the U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway on the same day at the same time! The U.S. 500 was run three more times, but did not run on the same day as the Indy 500.

The 1996 Indy 500 had a roster that looked something like what you would see at a local USAC track on a Saturday night. There were 17 rookies in the field. One of those rookies, is a man by the name of Tony Stewart. That was another loss for Indy Racing. Stewart went to NASCAR a couple years later and won two Sprint Cups and is one of the most popular drivers in America.

As the next few Indy 500 races were run, the main CART owners like Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske found their way back to Indianapolis. In 2003, those teams defected CART for the IRL.

Coincidently in that year, CART filed for bankruptcy. CART re-opened and changed its name to Champ Car in 2004. Champ Car folded in 2008 after filing for bankruptcy.

There is finally one only Indy Car league, but the damage has been nearly catastrophic.

The Indy 500 is a mere shell of what it used to be. The sponsors are few and far between. The rough part for the Indy Racing League is that they had a tough time finding sponsors for all of their drivers when the economy was doing well. The drivers who used to know by heart are now seen in other places besides their cars.

Most people know Helio Castroneves for his Dancing With the Stars Championship than his back-to-back Indy 500 titles.

Dario Franchitti is know as the beau of Ashley Judd more than he is know as the 2007 Indy 500 Champion.

Most men know Danica Patrick for her provocative spreads in magazines, TV, Internet, etc. She has one career IRL victory. I will gladly give you a dollar if you know which race it was without looking it up. It was not even a race run in the United States.

I have a proposal to make the Indy 500 truly find itself again. It is radical and it still may not save the IRL, but it could put it back on the racing map.

Let one of the name drivers win. By name drivers, I mean Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti or Graham Rahal. If Patrick were to win the media attention would be on open wheel racing like it has never seen.

No offense to former Indy 500 Champions like Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, or to top IRL drivers like Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe, etc. On Monday, no one will really care too much if any of the other 30 drivers win on Sunday. There may be an exception if either the two other female drivers not named Danica (Sarah Fisher or Milka Duno) cross over the bricks first.

While you may miss out on some temporary glory, the IRL making its way back to relevancy could all the more enrich your sport. Bigger sports have “fixed” games in order to get the optimal financial result. Sometimes, they use the officials as a decoy to get this desired result.

Auto racing is not cheap. These six figure cars need sponsors, major ones.

What I am proposing may seem disingenuous, but I just do not want to see the great spectacle that is open wheel racing disappear. I fear that if some of these no-name drivers keep winning the race, ratings will continue to fall, and sponsors will leave and that may lead to the IRL following Champ Car into bankruptcy.

The legend that is the one and only Jim “Gomer Pyle” Nabors will be singing “Back Home Again In Indiana” on Sunday.

I wish that the Indy 500 would be the start of getting Indy Car racing back home again into the media spotlight.

My Top 10 Play-by-Play Television Broadcasters in My Lifetime

Michael Ielpi — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:19:18 -0400

I put together this list of my ten personal favorite play-by-play announcers. My criteria was as follows: First, I was born in 1976, so I do not have a true memory of broadcasters before then. The broadcaster had to at least be on TV Second, the broadcaster had to have a national spotlight. I love a lot of local announcers, but that is a column for another day. I tried to keep each announcer in their one sport where I thought they excelled. It was not easy. I hope this is the start of a friendly debate and not the end of it. I would love to hear some of your favorites that I left out. Honorable Mention to Jack Buck. Jack was a terrific announcer who has had some memorable calls in my lifetime. But, he never did the World Series on television. I always thought Jack Buck and Hank Stram in the 1980s on the NFL on CBS were as good of a tandem as there ever was.

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