Happy Monday everyone, here's my Top 5 for November 26, 2012 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
- Separation. All eight first place NFL teams won over the weekend, capped off by the Giants rout of Green Bay last night. The Packers had been tied for first with Chicago.
- Two Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders shaved their heads in support of Colts coach Chuck Pagano who is battling leukemia.
- In the 100th Grey Cup, Toronto beat Calgary 35-22. The Argonauts broke the handle off the Grey Cup in their locker room celebration which is nothing new. The Grey Cup has been broken on several occasions.
- Notre Dame, by beating USC 22-13, completed a perfect season and will play for the BCS Championship in January against either Alabama or Georgia.
- Auburn is 3-9 just two years after winning the national title in college football. Yesterday they fired coach Gene Chizik.
- Boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho died at the age of 50 after being taken off life support. He was shot in the face last week in Puerto Rico.
2. Crash Landing
That had to be rock bottom for the Jets against the Patriots, right? The restive crowd was calling for Tim Tebow, but unbeknownst to them Tebow had broken ribs. In fact he played a couple of downs the previous week despite his injury. The Jets are tied for last place and have spiraled downward since their back-to-back appearances in the AFC Championship game. Even their unofficial cheerleader Fireman Ed has quit his "position." The only question is where exactly do they back up the truck? Players? Coaches? Management? Ownership?
3. Dumb Rule
Rules have to make sense. No matter how bizarre they seem, there has to be an underlying reason for it. That's why the NFL will change the dopey rule, perhaps any minute now, which may have cost the Detroit Lions the game against Houston on Thanksgiving. Lions Coach Jim Schwartz threw the red challenge flag on a Houston touchdown. All touchdowns are reviewable, but if a challenge is made then the play can't be reviewed, and a 15-yard penalty is called against the challenger for good measure. That is not only piling on, it's dumb and dumber. The whole idea of replay is to get the play right. This rule fails on so many levels.
4. Flip-Flopper
Congratulations go out to Reggie Evans of the Brooklyn Nets. He's the first player to be fined $5,000 under the NBA's new anti-flopping rule. None other than Meta World Peace tweeted his derision of the Nets flopping and the league apparently agreed. Check out the last part of the video. Good for the NBA. Flopping, while an art form is just plain silly.
5. Play, eh?
Kudos to the NHL stars who played an exhibition game before a sold out crowd in Atlantic City Saturday night. Operation Hat Trick, as it was called, benefits victims of hurricane Sandy. It bears repeating, but hockey players just want to play hockey. They are not on strike, they are locked out by owners who expanded too much and offered all those "onerous" contracts that the players signed. And lets face it, if all the owners competed in an arena for charity, how many fans would show up to watch? When the NHL canceled its latest round of games the league had the gall to say they felt bad for their fans. Well how bad exactly? Enough to make a deal so players can play? Saturday night showed that hockey fans are starved for hockey. Owners might exhibit the same passion for their sport by getting back to the bargaining table and staying there.
Happy Birthday: Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson. 59.
Bonus Birthday: Singer Tina Turner. 73.
Today in Sports: Reds second baseman Pete Rose is named National League Rookie of the Year. 1963.
Bonus Event: George Washington declared the first national Thanksgiving Day. 1789.
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