The Biggest Victory

We all tend to focus too much on the negative stories in sports. Sports radio would cease to exist if it could not focus on all the bad news and scandals in the world of sports. Its rare to hear anything positive these days. With the exception of the 'holiday sob stories' we get on Thanksgiving and Christmas, its pretty much all trash talk all the time.

So when a truely positive story comes along, its important for all of us to take a moment and reflect upon it. Fortunately, there is at least one story in sports right now that defines the term 'feel-good story.'

Kevin Everett will be transferred Friday morning to a Houston hospital to begin the next phase of his rehabilitation, less than two weeks after the Buffalo Bills tight end sustained a life-threatening spinal cord injury.
And doctors said Thursday they believe he will be walking within weeks -- perhaps sooner.

Everett is currently capable of sitting up in his bed without assistance now. Thats a huge leap of progress for a man who needed a respirator to breath a few days ago. Most experts had already taken for granted the fact that Everett would be paralyzed for life. Now he is on his way to living a normal life.

There is certainly no chance the Everett will ever play football again. But considering the situation, football is a pretty trivial matter. Sometime in the near future, Kevin Everett will WALK out of a hospital under his own power. That is a victory bigger than any Superbowl win could ever be.

Mission from God?

No doubt about it... John Kitna is on a mission this year. But is it a mission from God? Matt Millen certainly hopes so. And Detroit fans... or whats left of them... will not complain if a little divine intervention puts them into the post season this year.

For those of you who have no idea what the hell I am babbling about, here's the rundown: Lions QB John Kitna was knocked out of Sunday's game with a concussion in the second quarter. He returned in the fourth and led the Lions to a 20-17 win over the Vikings in overtime.

"It was a miracle," Kitna said Monday. "I've never felt anything like that, and for it to clear up and go right back to as normal as I can be, is nothing short of a miracle," Kitna said. "I just definitely feel the hand of God. That's all it was. You can't explain it. I have no headaches, no symptoms, no lingering effects. But that was the worst my head has ever felt, and the worse my memory was in the second quarter. Yet, after halftime there was nothing."

Team doctors say that Kitna has 'a very mild concussion', yet Kitna ran the ball twice on the final possession, taking even more hits, and led a game-winning drive.

So what exaclty happened here? A medical miracle? Or an act of God?

Maybe Kitna is in fact the Chosen One, brought to Detroit to restore the team to its former glory. If so, my question is this: Why Kitna? Is he really the best guy God could find at the moment? Was Brett Favre too busy at the time? Did Peyton Manning convert to Islam and not tell anyone? We all know that Derrick Anderson was not an option, since its clear he already sold his soul to the Devil last weekend.

And if the Hand of God was involved in this game, then why no game winning Hail-Mary into the endzone? Will we now have a Touchdown Jesus statue erected at Ford Field?

We all know that Matt Millen has been praying for a miracle for years, but I doubt he expected it to come in the form of John Kitna. And Detroit fans have been praying for a miracle for years, but all they really wanted was for Millen to finally be fired. Now Kitna comes along and just might save Millen's job.

I am certainly not making light of Kitna's ability on the field. I have always been a strong supporter and felt he has been greatly underrated for years. I believed he would improve the Lions team, but never really thought he would turn the team into a contender. But Kitna is a man of conviction. He boldly predicted 10 wins this season. Maybe he knew something we didn't. Maybe he got an inside tip from the man upstairs.

On a serious note, I do not like to joke about concussions. The NFL needs to do a much better job diagnosing and treating players with head injurys. The recent Chris Beniot wrestling tradgedy brought the NFL concussion issue to the front burner this summer.

Players suffering from multiple concussions in their careers need to be monitored closely for signs of trauma. Delerium is one such sign. If Kitna truely believes God intervened on his behalf, thats one thing... a religious experience that science cannot explain. But if Kitna starts claiming he actually HEARD the voice of God, then he could be experience delerium due to severe head trauma. There is a difference, and league officials and doctors need to pay close attention to the Kitna story right now.

The Freak Show

The BCS has more than its share of freaks. It just seems like the freaks are stepping out of the shadows and into the center ring this season. And it all starts with the biggest freak of them all... Notre Dame. The entire sportsworld is scratching its head trying to figure out what went wrong in South Bend. The team is 0-3, and has not yet scored an offensive touchdown this season.


True, the team is young and inexperienced. But Michigan was not exactly a juggernaugt when they met last weekend. The problem with Notre Dame right now is thier coaching. The world is starting to discover that Charlie 'The HunchBack' Wies is not the genious everyone hyped him up to be. The public bought into the media PR machine, and now everyone is feeling a bit foolish.





Just because a guy worked for a successful franchise (in this case, the Patriots) it does not mean that the guy really was responsible for that success. Now Notre Dame is praying for a miracle, and their current saviour is feeling the pressure. Meanwhile the fans are starting to regret losing Ty Willingham.





Lloyd Carr is another of the freaks right now. On the verge of losing his job, the man is seemingly capable of denying reality. He has yet to display any sense of urgency or panic, and treats every press conferance as just another day at the office. Its as if he has not even seen their games this season. Somehow he believes that the 'big win' over Notre Dame was the turning point and the ship is now headed in the right direction. Even Gilligan had a better sense of direction that Lloyd Carr has right now.


Michigan is in trouble. The Big House has become a House of Horrors. If they don't do something right away, it will become a House of Echos as fans abandon the sinking ship.





Perhaps the biggest freak of all is Joe Paterno. The man is the Energizer Bunny of college football. He just keeps going and going. A few years ago, everyone was calling for his retirement, claiming his best days are behind him. Now Penn State is on the verge of becoming a serious contender again. They are not yet ready to compete for the national championship, but they are going to be knocking on the door. Next season they will be a team that can shake up the rankings.

Keep in mind that Paterno is over 80 years old. Its hard to forget, considering that the guys on ESPN continue to remind us every time they mention his name. But despite his age, he remains as active on the sideline as any coach in sports today. Last year he suffered a broken leg during a game. Two weeks later, he was back on the sideline. He has not lost any of the fire that he possesed in his younger days. If anything, the fire burns even stronger these days.



Appalachian State is certainly a freak. Its a giant fish in a tiny pond. For the past two years it has obliterated everything in its path. The only problem is that the path consisted of Division II teams and the Citadel. This year the team took a giant leap in evolution, and knocked off Michigan in the first game. Perhaps this game destroyed the psyche of Michigan and is the cause of all thier current woes. More likely is the possibility that Appalachian State is just an incredible team that has outgrown its current home.



This week, Appalachian State received FIVE votes in the AP poll. Thats not a big number, but its the only five ever received by a Division II team. Yes, the rules were just changed last week to allow them to get the votes, but that still does not diminish the accomplishment.



The Miami Hurricanes are also freaks. Call them 'The Incredible Disappearing Franchise.' They have quietly faded into oblivian. When Oklahoma pounded on them mercilessly, it barely even made a blip on the radar. Everyone celebrated Oklahoma's win, but most failed to even mention who they played. Thats the price of success: If you send enough players to the NFL, you don't have much left to play with next season.

The Enemy Within...

If the Chargers want to find the cause of their woes, they need to look at the man calling the shots. Their 38-14 loss to the Patriots was not the result of spectacular play by their opponents (although I must admit, Brady and Moss put on a pretty impressive show.) The Chargers have looked like crap in both of their games this season. The fact that they played both the Bears and the Patriots, two of the top teams in the league, is no excuse.


Observers are saying that the Chargers look flat. They are not firing on all cylinders. They look poorly prepared. They are suffering from miscues on seemingly routine plays. They are playing without passion. The sports reporters have said it all this morning, but none of them have addressed the real issue.


The Chargers have an enemy within their ranks. This is not another Patriots Spy-Gate scandal. This is something much more destructive.



The San Diego Chargers hired Norv 'the Noid' Turner as their head coach. Turner is the Typhoid Mary of the NFL. As a coordinator, he is fine. But as soon as he takes the reigns as head coach, everything he touches turns to dust.


Need proof? Just look at the what happened when he was calling the shots in Washington. Need a more recent example? Look at Raiders, where he took the team to a 9-23 record during his tenure. Lack of talent was not the problem in Oakland.


Norv 'the Noid' Turner is the issue in San Diego. The Offensive line is missing blocks and getting blown off the line.. something that did not happen often last season. Tomlinson is being asked to run a power game instead using his ability to bounce to the outside. And Philip Rivers has fallen apart under Turner's command. watch the tapes from last night's game...on EVERY PASS during the game, Rivers kept his eyes locked on his target receiver... he never tried to 'look off' the defense, or even bothered to go thru his check-down receivers...he simply focused on one guy, and wonders why the defense was able to break up the pass?


The Patriots did not need any dirty tricks to win this game. They already had their secret weapon in place. Norv 'The Noid' Turner is going to drag the Chargers down quickly. The team that was on the brink of greatenss will soon be on the brink of a top 5 draft pick.


Future teams be warned.... AVOID THE NOID!