Happy Tuesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for January 8, 2013 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
- Alabama crushes Notre Dame 42-14 to win the BCS Championship game.
- The Lakers season is going from bad to worse as Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol are out indefinitely with injuries.
- Scott Skiles is out as Milwaukee Bucks coach.
- Word is the Jets have fired offensive coordinator Tony Sparano.
- This will be juicy. Baseball Hall of Fame voting will be announced tomorrow. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens head this year's ballot.
2. Roll Tide
Can you say dynasty boys and girls? Alabama has now won three BCS National Championships in the last four years. No wonder NFL teams are drooling over their coach Nick Saban, but why should he leave? Right now he's the king of Alabama approaching Bear Bryant status. Why would he want to give that up? The game was so lop-sided that many sports fans found Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron's girlfriend to be the highlight of the night. Katherine Webb is Miss Alabama. How powerful is national television? 24 hours ago she had 500 followers on Twitter. This morning she had over 120,000. Wasn't anyone watching the game? Speaking of Twitter, model Kate Upton might have had the tweet of the night: "It's OK Notre Dame this happened to the Jets every week." Ouch!
3. Lots of Noise
If you didn't know, they are Redskin-crazy in Washington. They've been that way forever. And Sunday's playoff loss has its share of controversy. For starters should rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III have been allowed to play with his bad knee? Was it the coach Mike Shanahan's fault? Did he endanger the kid's future? The Washington Post reports that the kid has two partial tears in right knee. As for Griffin, he tweeted yesterday. Many may question, criticize and think they have all the right answers. But few have been in the line of fire in battle. And wait, there's more in Redskin-land. Several fans claim that the team piped in artificial crowd noise during the game. That's nothing new in sports. The Nets did it for years in New Jersey. But extraneous noise coming out of Washington? Shocking.
4. Hockey, Eh?
Hockey fans love their sport. The problem is there just aren't enough of them. The love/hate line was in evidence when I asked on Facebook at "Len Berman's Top 5," "Just curious if you're excited that hockey is back? Did you know it was away?"
*From P.S. I heard they are still clearing the ice for curling. That's as exciting as hockey isn't it?
*T.S. I missed it every day. SOOO glad it's back!
*D.L. I am mostly happy for the small businesses that depend on hockey for their survival... and if the Rangers win the cup they will still have a parade and we will not throw the cup back.
*M.R. I am tired of billionaires fighting with millionaires, over the money they are going to take out of the pockets of fans that make a fraction of what both of them make... Greedy SOBs will not get any more of my attention!
*J.M. Didn't watch it before, won't watch it now!
*D.S. I am in Ottawa which is a one horse town when it comes to sports. Front page news in all three dailies. Lead story on radio and TV. I would say there is a lot of love left for the NHL in the GWN (Great White North).
*R.S. I'm a hockey -- and Islanders -- fan, but at this point, it's all so ho-hum. My mind is already on pitchers and catchers reporting next month.
5. Down in Front
Some really awful stuff happens at soccer games overseas. Riots, tear gas, standing-up. What? In England 38 fans of Sunderland were ejected from the stadium for "persistent standing." It's kind of annoying to other fans seated behind them. Sunderland fans have taken to chanting "We'll stand if we want." It's not exactly up there with "You've got to fight for your right to party," but it's a rallying cry nonetheless.
Happy Birthday: Outfielder Jason Giambi. 42.
Bonus Birthday: Elvis would have been 78 years old today!
Today in Sports: Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Chess Championship for the first time at the age of 14, the youngest in history. 1958.
Bonus Event: President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City. 1790.
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