Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

Your loser update: week 11, 2021 (with bonus firings).

Monday, November 22nd, 2021

Sorry. I’m running a little behind, as I was tied up much of yesterday with various things, including going to see “Dune”.

(Random thought: it is refreshing to know that, thousands of years in the future, even on desert planets, there will be coffee.)

Anyway, NFL teams that still have a chance of going without a win this season:

Detroit.

The Lions play the semi-hapless (3-7) Bears on Thanksgiving Day. I’m thinking this is a toss-up, though ESPN seems to favor the Bears.

In firings news: Dan Mullen out at Florida. 34-15 in four seasons and they were in the national championship game last year, but (as Easterbrook often says) “what have you done for me lately?” (Answer: gone 5-6 this year and 2-6 in conference.)

Chip Lindsey out at Troy. 15-19 in three seasons, and 5-6 this one. Sensing a trend?

More firings.

Tuesday, November 16th, 2021

I’m back home, but playing catch-up. In the meantime, Justin Fuente out as Virginia Tech head coach.

43-31 overall and 28-20 in the ACC over six seasons.

But in the last four years, the Hokies are 24-23, 17-15 in the conference. They went 6-7 in 2018, the program’s first losing season since 1992, and 5-6 last year.

Firings watch.

Monday, November 15th, 2021

Riding shotgun on the way home. In haste: Butch Davis out at Florida International.

Even better: it’s sabotage!

Davis, who is 24-30 at FIU and 1-9 this season, told The Action Network that in addition to the posting about his job, the school is using old uniforms and equipment, refused to offer multiyear contracts to assistants and would not allow the coaches to go out recruiting the past two years because of financial reasons as well as COVID-19 concerns.

Obit watch: November 14, 2021.

Sunday, November 14th, 2021

Another quick obit roundup while I’m still on the road.

Sam Huff, linebacker for the New York Football Giants.

Playing for the Giants in their glory years of the late 1950s and early ’60s, Huff came out of the West Virginia coal country to anchor a defense that gained the kind of renown that had previously been reserved for strong-armed quarterbacks and elusive runners.
He played in six N.F.L. championship games in his eight seasons with the Giants. He was named to the all-league team three times and played in five Pro Bowls.
Huff was remembered for his head-on duels with two of the game’s greatest fullbacks — the Cleveland Browns’ Jim Brown and the Green Bay Packers’ Jim Taylor — but he also had 30 career interceptions. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.

Jonathan Reynolds. He was a playwright and wrote a food column for the NYT. I wanted to note his passing because he was also a screenwriter. His first script was “Micki + Maude”, a Blake Edwards/Dudley Moore movie that I was unfamiliar with, but which was apparently well received. But…

His next Hollywood experience, though, was not received so warmly. He was the screenwriter who adapted a story by Bill Cosby into a secret-agent comedy called “Leonard Part 6.” The movie, which starred Mr. Cosby and was released in 1987, came out so poorly that Mr. Cosby himself denounced it. In The Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel called it “the year’s worst film involving a major star.” Others have put it on lists of the worst movies ever made.

He also did “Switching Channels”, “My Stepmother Is An Alien”, and “The Distinguished Gentleman”.

Gavan O’Herlihy. He had a fair number of credits, including “Willow” and “Lonesome Dove”, but seems to be most famous for playing “Chuck Cunningham” in nine episodes of “Happy Days”.

Your loser update: week 10, 2021.

Sunday, November 14th, 2021

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Well, it’s complicated.

Detroit tied Pittsburgh in overtime. But apparently the NFL is playing 17 games this season? Who knew?

(No, really. I didn’t.)

So it is still theoretically possible for Detroit to go 0-16…and 1. Does that count?

Reply hazy. Ask again in week 17, assuming Detroit hasn’t won one by then.

Firings watch.

Thursday, November 4th, 2021

Tom Arth out as head coach of the Akron Zips.

3-24 overall. They were 0-12 in his first season, 1-5 in 2020, and are 2-7 so far this year.

Henry Ruggs III out as wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders. Of course, Mr. Ruggs has other issues, which are being well covered elsewhere, but I wanted to note it here because: 156 miles per hour.

Aristophanes, call your office, please.

Monday, November 1st, 2021

Gary Patterson fired as head coach of TCU.

Patterson arrived at TCU as Dennis Franchione’s defensive coordinator in 1998 and took over as head coach in 2001. He went 181-79 at TCU and oversaw the Horned Frogs’ rise from being left behind after the breakup of the Southwest Conference back through Conference USA, the Mountain West and back into the Big 12, largely due to the success the school had under Patterson.

Despite his history at TCU, Patterson started to come under fire in recent years. The Horned Frogs haven’t finished a season ranked in the AP poll since 2017, when they went 11-2. The past four seasons, they were 21-22. He had also lost two straight to rival SMU after seven consecutive wins over the Mustangs.

Your loser update: week 8 and 9, 2021.

Monday, November 1st, 2021

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Detroit

Next week is the Lions bye week. (Insert joke about Vegas odds against the bye here.)

Firings watch.

Friday, October 29th, 2021

Joel Quenneville out as coach of the Florida Panthers (in the NHL) in another “resignation” that seems closer to a firing.

This is also related to the Chicago Blackhawks sexual abuse scandal: he was the Blackhawks head coach at the time.

The investigation, which was made public Tuesday, revealed that Quenneville was aware of the situation and took part in at least one meeting regarding the allegations during the 2010 postseason. Quenneville had previously said he only learned of the allegations in the summer of 2021 “through the media.”
In an interview with TSN on Wednesday, Beach said there was no way Quenneville was unaware of the allegations.”I’ve witnessed meetings, right after I reported it to [Blackhawks mental skills coach] James Gary, that were held in Joel Quenneville’s office. There’s absolutely no way that he can deny knowing it,” Beach said.
According to recollections from former Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman in the investigation report, Quenneville, after learning of the Aldrich allegations, “shook his head and said that it was hard for the team to get to where they were [the playoffs] and they could not deal with this issue now.”

Supplemental obit watch.

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021

The NY Post is reporting the death of Carl Madsen.

Mr. Madsen was a long-time NFL official: he worked on-field from 1997 to 2008, then worked as a replay official from 2009.

He worked the game between the Titans and the Chiefs on Sunday. According to the report, he was driving home to Mississippi when he had some kind of medical problem. The police responded, pulled him out of the car and did first aid, and transported him to a hospital where he passed away.

He was 71. Our condolences to his family.

Firings watch.

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021

Stan Bowman, “president of hockey operations” for the Chicago Blackhawks, has “resigned”, in what sounds like one of those “resign or get fired” deals.

This appears to be a result of a third party investigation commissioned by the Blackhawks. A former player, who is being identified as “John Doe”, sued the team and states that he was sexually assaulted in 2010 by “video coach” Brad Aldrich. This was during the Blackhawk’s Stanley Cup run. Aldrich apparently admitted to a sexual encounter with “John Doe”, but claims it was consensual: “John Doe” denies that it was consensual.

The current investigation concluded that Aldrich made a sexual advance to a 22-year-old Blackhawks intern after the organization was made aware of the initial allegations.

After leaving the Blackhawks, Aldrich was convicted in 2013 in Michigan of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a high school student. He was sentenced in 2014 to nine months in prison and five years of probation, which ended in 2019. He is on Michigan’s registry of sex offenders.

Wells. Wells Wells Wells. Wells.

Monday, October 25th, 2021

Matt Wells out as head coach at Texas Tech.

Since Wells took over going into the 2019 season, the Red Raiders are 13-17 and 7-16 in Big 12 games. Many Tech fans were opposed to Wells’ hire from the beginning, and discontent grew as the Red Raiders went 4-8 in 2019 and 4-6 in 2020.

A source close to WCD suggests that this is related to the ongoing Curse of Mike Leach, and that Tech won’t be successful until they cough up the bucks they (allegedly) owe Leach.

Wells is in the third year of a six-year contract. To fire him without cause, Tech is obligated to pay Wells 70 percent of the amount remaining in his contract, around $7 million.

Your loser update: week 7, 2021.

Sunday, October 24th, 2021

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Detroit

Just as a matter of personal curiosity, does anyone know if there was any kind of tribute to Chuck Hughes at today’s game?

Next week: Philadelphia (2-5) in Detroit.

Obit watch: October 24, 2021.

Sunday, October 24th, 2021

Two different people sent me this one, and neither one mentioned my hot button.

Val Bisoglio, actor.

He began acting under the tutelage of Jeff Corey and appeared on the New York stage in productions such as “Kiss Mama,” “A View from the Bridge” and “Wait Until Dark,” as well as in New York City’s Shakespeare in the Park with Arthur Penn.

He has 65 credits in IMDB. High points include: “Saturday Night Fever” (he was the father of Travolta’s character), “Cover Up” (ahem), “M*A*S*H” (he played “Sal Pernelli”, the cook. Not Igor, the guy who served the food, but the cook.), “B.J. and the Bear”, “Rockford Files”, “St. Ives” (the Charles Bronson movie based on a pseudonymous novel by Ross Thomas), “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” (“The Zombie“: if memory serves, he was a lower level mob thug), and “The Bold Ones: The New Doctors”.

His most famous role (and the hot button one): he played “Danny Tovo”, the restaurant owner, on 138 episodes of “Quincy, M.E.”

And yes! He did do a “Mannix”! (“Run Till Dark”, season 5, episode 7.)

Paul Salata. He originated the “Mr. Irrelevant” award for the last player drafted in the NFL college draft.

He wanted to celebrate the unheralded honor of being picked last because players at the end of the line rarely get noticed — even though one might have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than of being picked by an N.F.L. team. Mr. Rozelle blessed the idea, and Mr. Irrelevant was born.
“Everyone who is drafted works hard, and some of them don’t get any recognition,” Mr. Salata told The New York Times in 2017. “They do their work and should be noticed.”

Starting in 1976, Mr. Salata and his friends in Orange County raised money to fly the last player picked in the draft to Southern California, where he would receive a champion’s welcome. In the years since, the players — some of whom who had never been to California — have been paraded through Newport Beach, taken to Disneyland and feted at a banquet, where they received the “Lowsman Trophy,” which depicts a player fumbling a football.
Mr. Salata and his team also fulfilled some of the players’ requests, including surfing lessons, visits to the Playboy Mansion and being a guest announcer on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Many Mr. Irrelevants never made it past their first season or even past their first training camp, but a handful have stuck around in the N.F.L. In February the Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Ryan Succop became the first Mr. Irrelevant to score in and win a Super Bowl. He had been drafted last in 2009 by the Kansas City Chiefs.

James Michael Tyler, “Gunther” on “Friends”. I’m sorry if I am giving him the short end of the stick here, but this just came in, and I have never seen an episode of “Friends”.

Short historical note.

Sunday, October 24th, 2021

50 years ago today, Chuck Hughes died during a NFL game between Detroit and Chicago.

He is the last NFL player so far to pass away during a game.

NYPost tribute. Wikipedia entry.