From the Bleachers

Can Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o win the Heisman Trophy?

Just a handful of weeks ago a big, popular website scoffed openly at the potential of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o winning the Heisman Trophy, deriding the journalist who dared to suggest the possibility. Well, now that same website looks (even more so than usual) pretty stupid, as all the biggest sporting sites are openly discussing and indeed suggesting the validity of the young man’s candidacy.

Whisper it quietly, but Manti Te'o could just very well become the first defensive player to win the Heisman trophy since Charles Woodson. Manti’s play speaks for itself, as do his defensive statistics. 80 tackles in itself shows what kind of a demon he is on the field.

Obviously, the award is heavily weighted towards offensive players, to use that ugly old refrain, chicks dig touchdowns. However, as evidenced by the sheer weight of volume of text being put forth towards a Te’o win, it appears he really, legitimately is in with a shot.

Notre Dame go to 8-0 but, is it all in vain?

Notre Dame appear to have something cooking this season. Defying pre-season expectations they have beaten all comers culminating in an impressive 30-13 win over Oklahoma last night, on the road, no less. Everett Golson threw for 177 yards and dove for the decisive 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. They got some serious help on the defensive side too. Just a few weeks ago some idiotic websites scoffed openly at the chance of Manti Te'o winning the Heisman, well now bigger, national sites are commenting that the young man bolstered his Heisman Trophy candidacy with a late interception. That's right, bolstered.

Notre Dame would appear to be, as they say, legit.

Here's the problem. The possibility remains of this incredible season being eventually measured as having been basically for naught, lost in the quagmire of the usual vitriolic debate over how College football should award its winners.

Former Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine taking chances with Ortiz comments

You may have seen former Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine’s comments on David Ortiz the last 24 hours and thought to yourself, ‘so what, it’s just Bobby being Bobby, right?’. Well, apart from the fact the Valentine now appears to be alienating one of the few Red Sox players that actually backed him in the clubhouse, Bobby is also risking legal action by his former employees.

What’s all the fuss about? Basically in an interview on NBS Valentine called Ortiz’s desire to play through injury out. The quote is pretty damning, however, judge for yourself.

"David Ortiz came back after spending about six weeks on the disabled list and we thought it was only going to be a week. He got two hits the first two times up, drove in a couple runs; we were off to the races. Then he realized that [the team's trade with the Dodgers on Aug. 25] meant that we're not going to run this race and we're not even going to finish the race properly and he decided not to play anymore. I think at that time it was all downhill from there."

Whatever way you read it back, it would appear Valentine is throwing Ortiz under the proverbial bus. If that’s the case, it is a shocking move even by Valentine’s standards. As all Red Sox fans know, Ortiz is a proud man, and will not take these comments lightly. The manager versus player aspect will play itself out eventually, and Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe dissects it all knowledgeably here, however, there is another potential thread to this storyline that could come back to haunt Valentine.

2012 World Series preview

And then there was two. The Major League Baseball season is long. Very long. 162 games, to be exact. Now, finally, the playoffs have whittled the remaining field down to a final two, and all that remains is the World Series. This column would contend that there are no better teams suited for this World Series than the Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Giants.

The two teams are both great examples of exactly what a ‘team’ is, at least in Major League baseball terms. Much more costly, extravagant and indeed fancied teams have all been cast by the wayside on route to the final. The Yankees? Gone, along with their ridiculous $220 million a year in salaries. Texas? Gone, their big sluggers couldn’t bash their way through the playoffs. Detroit and San Francisco are arguably the most complete teams in baseball in their respective conferences.

San Francisco play great defence, have some shut-down type starting pitchers, a great bullpen, and can play small-ball when they want to, or bang home-runs when they have to. The Tigers? Detroit have a couple of the best pitchers in the game right now, and a fear-some middle of their order unlike almost any other in baseball.

Making sense of the Patriot's 29-26 win over the Jets

The Patriots squeaked past the Jets last night 29-26 in a thrilling game that had a little bit of everything. Patriots fans were left on the edge of their seats as the secondary leaked like the Titanic post-iceberg, and the offence struggled to do anything right for long periods. The win did come, eventually, and Patriot nation exhaled. Whilst no one is jumping into the Charles this morning, the warning signs are there that the natives are restless. There was plenty of base, knuckle-dragging ‘booing’ throughout the night in New England. Once again, we are reminded, the ridiculous 2007 season ruined the expectations of Patriots fans World wide

 One thing you really have to understand and grasp onto as a Patriots fan is that you can’t win every single game 52-21.

Before 2007/2008 the Patriots were a blue collar, hardworking team  that managed to find ways to win close games. They were not generally a team that blew you out. They did the little things, they ‘did their job’ as the mantra goes. Just one season of blowing the doors of all comers right up to the Superbowl, and it would appear many Patriots fans have not adjusted as yet to winning games by a field goal, or indeed less.

The New York Yankees lose a game, a series and a dynasty

How easy was that? The Detroit Tigers simply swept the over matched Yankees aside, like dirt off their shoulders. The MLB International coverage was very good last night, something those of you Stateside don’t get to watch or hear, which is a shame. One very interesting note came late on, as they pointed out that with their season on the line, it was bemusing to see most of the Yankees slumped back in their seats. Ichiro Suzuki and Raul Ibanez were taking it like men and standing on the top step, however the rest of the Yankees were sulking back on their bench, quite literally as far away from the action as they could be without being in the club-house.

Losing is one thing, being embarrassed and not facing it like a man is a whole other issue. This Yankees team looked beaten all series long, and now has the toxic air of a broken down vehicle that has no use bar the scrap yard.

The Yankees now face a series of issues, the gravity of which does not appear to be sinking in for their own front office. Their problems are basically three-fold. First of all, they are old, Mike Illitch old. Secondly, those same old players, many of them are tied into huge salaries, the value of which would startle Donald Trump. Finally, those same players’ salaries are not only exorbitant, they are also long, long like a Miguel Carbera homerun.

After disgraceful scenes at under 21 football match Serbia must be banned by UEFA and FIFA

First things first, apologies if any normal, polite and reasonable Serbian football fan or regular Serbian Joe Punter person takes offence to the below, this is not directed at you, this is directed at your brethren who can’t contain themselves, and your football federation, who won’t contain them.

On to the matter at hand. Our American readers are going to find the pictures and videos on this piece shocking. You just don’t see this level of hate and violence in organised sport in the USA. Now, our Irish and European readers are going to think ‘Sure, seen this before, it’s just Serbia being Serbia’. However, enough is enough. No more excuses. No more warnings. This has to be the final straw. It is time to kick Serbia out of all FIFA and UEFA competitions for a good period, preferably ten years. FIFA needs to act now, and show its members, show the World, that FIFA does not condone racism, violence and thuggery at any level. At this stage there is absolutely no alternative, and FIFA has to stand up to these disgusting Serbian bullies.

Throw. Them. Out.

A Norwegian kicking in the NFL? Håvard Rugland 'kicking exhibition video" goes viral

Lance Armstrong no longer able to hide from the evidence: The full USADA report

You could drive yourself pretty crazy trying to reconcile the gap between Lance Armstrong the cheating doper and Lance Armstrong the incredible champion of the fight against cancer. Perhaps a time will come when former fans of Armstrong like myself can view Armstrong in two lights, separating his wonderful charity work, and his disdainful steroid usage. Right now that time feels a long way away, as the level of cheating that has been exposed is simply overwhelming.

There are plenty who aren’t wildly familiar with Armstrong’s charity work who are reviewing the mounting evidence and screaming ‘Just throw him in jail and throw away the key’. For those of us who witnessed the positive impact of both Armstrong’s written and physical work in the fight against cancer, it has been hard to face up to the facts.

The release of the US Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) report today basically wipes away any possibility at all that Lance ‘didn’t do it’.

Old Sox: Your 2013 MLB all Red Sox castoff all-stars

Sitting there eating popcorn watching Josh Reddick mash and swagger his way through the playoffs, his locks blowing in the wind, it is hard not to think, ‘what might have been?’ if the swashbuckling young man had stayed in a Boston Red Sox jersey. Damn would he look good patrolling right field, providing the finishing touches to an outfield of Ross\Ellsbury\Reddick which would be more than competitive, even amongst the daily grind of the AL East. Of course, Reddick isn’t the only ‘one that got away’.

Extrapolating this line of thoughts further it didn’t take long to create an entire team of former Red Sox from around the Major Leagues. Our ‘Old Sox’ squad would be extremely competitive, we think. In fact, it is hard not to imagine this Old Sox team bashing the living daylights out of the current incarnation which sapped the life out of baseball in Boston all 2012 long.

Assuming this column won the lottery this week, we would build a beautiful tidy little, fan friendly stadium in Cape Cod, naturally something ergonomically acceptable. In line with the swagger of our right fielder we would simply call them ‘The Old Sox’ and our uniform would be suitably unique. The stadium would fill up on a nightly basis, a mix of inevitable  Cape Cod tourists, gnarly Portuguese fishermen, college kids working on the Cape for the Summer, curious Irish J1 visa students, also working in the Cape’s bars and eateries, handsome older gentlemen  in crisp wind-sheeters, happily and diligently filling out old-school scorecards, holidaying New York families with the kids in Jets and Giants jerseys, dreamers and poets, artists and entertainers, the finest of the Cape and the North East. The Old Sox would play the game the right way, and their adoring fans would applaud the right moves.

Romney the Wolverine: Ohio State student paper links Mitt to Michigan

Readers of Friday’s copy of the Ohio State student newspaper the Lantern were greeted by an enormous, ultimately hilarious full page advertisement linking Presidential longshot Mitt Romney (currently trailing incumbent President Obama by a whopping margin in the only poll that matters, Vegas bookmarkers) to the Michigan Wolverines.

The text reads "I have been a Michigan and a Wolverine fan for a long, long time" a statement the former Massachusetts governor, who was born in Michigan, made the last year.

This statement will not go down well amongst the passionate throngs of Buckeye nation.

Analysis of a disaster: Meet the 2012 Red Sox club-house trouble makers

One of the first things that basically dragged me into the World of loving the Boston Red Sox was the superb level of in-depth journalism around the team. I remember sitting on a beach in Cape Cod in ’93 reading about Ken Ryan’s fastball and Johnny Val’s potential and devouring it all hungrily. Nothing has changed, although the out-put from the 'Knights of the keyboard' (as Teddy Ballgame dubbed them) might be a bit more negative the last couple of seasons in particular.

The scribes are still as incisive, however, none more so than the Globe’s Pete Abrahams, who really gets dug in to his task as beat writer to the Sox. There is a really interesting, short and yet illuminating piece by him in the Globe online today, in which he praises several players for being a pleasure to deal with. Basically he breaks the clubhouse down into three parts. Those who were a pleasure to deal with, a secondary level who he makes a point of saying were also easy to deal with, and then a pointed few who he doesn’t mention at all.

Mr Abrahams obviously has to be careful about who he chastises for being difficult to deal with, assuming they are back next season and assuming he is covering the Red Sox in 2013. However, it can’t be ignored that he named so many players and left a small number out in the cold as it were.

How the US sports media is taking the Ryder Cup loss (clue: not very well)

Well, well, well. Would you look at this. There is cowardly, and then there is downright pathetic. Over the course of a magical Sunday yesterday, the European Ryder Cup team pulled off one of the greatest, most dramatic, come-back victories in team sports history. On Saturday night, despite Ian Poulter’s animated dramatics, most considered Europe completely down and out. The bookmakers had USA restrictive 1/5 favorites, with Europe available to back anywhere between 6 and 10 to 1. Come Sunday night, and Europe had hauled the USA all the way back in, to the point that Tiger Woods pathetic miss on the 18th meant Europe not only tied the US and retained the title, they won the tournament outright 14 ½ to 13 ½ .

A spectacular come-back for the ages, and, you would assume, headline news, right?

Visiting the US sporting media main pages today, it is very interesting to note that the US’s sports journalists appear to have run, scampered to the hills, their proverbial tails firmly between their legs. Is it embarrassment? Shame? Or just undignified, cowardly journalism? Instead of correctly acclaiming or at the very least tipping their caps to such a sensational come-back victory, the US sports media has simply avoided the topic of the Ryder Cup like the plague.