I actually know only one person who attended Stanford, and as I watched the second half of the Fiesta Bowl at 8 a.m. UAE time, I was thinking of his (and other Stanford fans) suffering.
Frankie, my condolences. I feel your pain.
Fourth-ranked Stanford contrived to lose to third-ranked Oklahoma State, 41-38, in overtime, in a Fiesta […]

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To “sort out” is Brit-speak, and it commonly is used when referring to soccer and describes the process by which good defenses deal with attacking players.
It implies a sort of impudent coming forward of small men with high-skill … for whom the antidote is a few hard men of limited finesse but grim countenance, and […]

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I wrote about the BCS championship game for the Monday editions of The National. Keep in mind, probably 90 percent of our readers are unclear on the concept of American football … never mind college football … not to mention the states of Oregon and Alabama. (How many Americans know where Sussex is? Or the […]

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Seattle Seahawks 41, New Orleans Saints 36.
Like anyone else who didn’t see the game live (or doesn’t live in Seattle), there was a shock factor when I saw that score.
But once the jolt of “what the …?” subsided, my next thought was one word:
“Pete!”

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Going to try something here I’ve never done before — slap in a gmail “chat” I had with a fan of the Seattle Seahawks late tonight, his time.
Seattle defeated the St. Louis Rams 16-6 to win the NFC West with a 7-9 record. It is the first time in NFL history in a non-strike season […]

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I saw the story on espn.com … taken from wire services … from the hefty Sports Illustrated piece in which a former football agent talks about making cash payments to college players during the 1990s.
I should have thought of R.Jay Soward immediately. Instead, it was more of an “well, of course” moment, when I got […]

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As a kid, I preferred UCLA over USC. The Trojans were big and bad, but UCLA was little and lithe and a little smarter than your average oafs, and I liked that.
Terry Donahue played defensive tackle at 205 pounds. Bob Stiles was 5-foot-9 and and 175 pounds, but he stopped Michigan State’s huge fullback just […]

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First, the good news: USC 49, Hawaii 36.
And now the bad: Matt Leinart released by the Arizona Cardinals.
How the great have fallen. First the on-probation Trojans. Now Matt.
It’s almost as if that whole mid-decade USC team is having its history rewritten, and not in a flattering way. Reggie Bush cheated. Pete Carroll was asleep at […]

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Part 3 of the series in The National about the best sports venues in the world. Broken out by continent.
In Monday’s editions: North America!
Interesting, how the voting went.
I will tell you who won: Augusta National. Even the Brits in the room know about “the course like no other” or whatever it is network TV gets […]

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It is being reported that Pat Haden will succeed Mike Garrett as athletic director at USC, and let see if I can summarize my first impressions of that move.
“Inspired … a perfect decision … a great guy … a very very smart man … a classy dude … absolutely the right man for the job.”
Or […]

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