The 5th Quarter Movie Review

I recently watched another sports movie called "The 5th Quarter" that is based on an inspirational true story. I have to admit that before watching it I hadn't heard of the movie. Although this movie won't make my top 10 best sports movies ever, it delivered a great message and evoked a lot of emotion from everyone that watched it. In my mind, any movie that brings out that much emotion from me is worth watching and worth recommending to others.

The movie had some things that I really like and some things that really bugged me. Some of the things that bugged me were in the details and probably bugged me more because I played college football. For example, they would show a locker room conversation where the players were wearing their white (away) jerseys and then show them coming out to the field in their black jerseys. The crowd shots that they showed were not always consistent with the game that they were playing because they would show a day game and night crowd shots or home crowds for away games. The other small thing that bugged me was that the actor (Ryan Merriman) that played Jon Abbate looked way too small in football pads.

The biggest things that bothered me were the details about some of the periphery characters that were completely ignored. There was a car accident full of high school kids and it doesn't tell you what happened to any of the kids in the car except Luke Abbate. The movie is about the inspiration of Luke Abbate but some information about the other kids would be helpful. Most of the time when you watch movies based on true events it provides a summary of where everyone is currently at and what they are doing now but this movie didn't provide it for any of the characters. I also thought that some of the additional characters in the movie were not very well developed.

The things that I liked about this movie actually outweigh the things that I didn't like. As I mentioned earlier, I liked the emotion that it brought out in me and the inspirational message that it conveyed. I actually loved the fact that it used actual game footage for some of the football scenes. The reason I like this is because no matter how hard you try, you just can't make fake football look like real football and it emphasizes that this really happened.

I think this movie would be a great movie to show to teenage kids to show the consequences of bad decisions and to show how pulling together as a team and as a family can overcome real adversity.

I have a copy of this movie that I would like to give away so if you would like a free copy of this please leave a comment and let me know. If I get more than one comment I will randomly choose a winner.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I love this time of year. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. The heat is beginning to break, baseball playoff races are taking shape, NFL football is about a week away, and my favorite, College Football starts tomorrow.

I'm certain that I will have a tough time sleeping tonight as the anticipation of a new season filled with hope is at its highest. Fan's all over the country have poured over message boards and discussed perceived strengths and weaknesses of their favorite team and compared their team against the upcoming schedule. At this point everyone is wondering how their team will perform and the fans are probably feeling good about the new team and the new year. For some it is a new coach or a new stadium. For others it is a new conference with new competition. Some may have optimism over an easy schedule.

Only time will tell if the fan's optimism is justified for their team but as for right now only one thing is certain... Every team is currently undefeated and it is the most wonderful time of the year!

Top 10 Sports Movies - Warrior Movie Review

I got the opportunity to screen a new sports movie this week called "Warrior" and I really liked it. Although it isn't a "Christian" movie, it reminded me a lot of a modern day Prodigal Son. It was emotional, dramatic, action packed, intense, and the best thing I liked about it was that it felt real. It was a great movie about the power of forgiveness.

I am not a big Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fan but this movie is one that everyone should see so don't leave the women at home. I saw men and women alike wiping eyes when the lights came on and I thought Nick Nolte was absolutely phenomenal.

Warrior comes out on Sept. 9th and I recommend it with two thumbs up.

After I watched Warrior it made me think about my favorite sports movies. Below are my top 10 sports movies. It would be interesting to hear other opinions on this.

10. Pride

9. The Blind Side

8. Rocky

7. Field of Dreams

6. Coach Carter

5. Warrior

4. Rocky IV

3. Miracle

2. Hoosiers

Any my favorite sports movie is....
1. Remember the Titans

Honorable Mentions in no particular order include: The Natural, Glory Road, Cinderella Man, Radio, The Rookie, The Karate Kid, A League of Their Own, Finding Forrester, Victory, We Are Marshall, Rudy, Seabiscuit, Brian's Song, Rocky III, Rocky II, Rocky Balboa, Invincible, The Program

X-Men First Class Review

I got to watch X-Men First Class with the media this week and I thought it was an "X-cellent" movie. It was the best movie I've seen this year and just may be the best X-Men movie yet. There were great lines, great action, and there were some great cameos and surprises. It wasn't as dramatic as the Dallas Mavericks comeback this week in game 2 of the NBA finals but it had its fair share of drama.

The best way to describe how I felt about the movie is that when it ended I wished that it wasn't over and that I could see the next one.

I recommend this movie and give it two thumbs up!

Corrupt College Football Rankings

At the beginning of this football season, I wrote an article about the glass ceiling of college football. I guess I was even more right than I originally thought. Teams that don't play in the big conferences or the BCS conferences don't get any respect by the voters in the polls. This year there were two non-automatic qualifying teams that deserved a spot in the BCS and the wonderful BCS paired the two teams up against each other that proved absolutely nothing. Then, to add to it, the voters snubbed Boise State in the final AP rankings. I guess they had enough of hearing about Utah being ranked #2 and being undefeated last year and they wouldn't let that happen again. Let's take a look at the final AP rankings and you tell me what you think (The final BCS rankings are released before the bowl games are played).

Here are the final AP rankings for 2010.
1) Alabama - No surprise here, they were one of only two undefeated teams and won the National Championship game
2) Texas - This makes sense from the perspective that they lost in the National Championship game but not from the perspective that they are the second best team in the country. The only teams that Texas beat during the season that ended in the final BCS standings were #19 Oklahoma State and #22 Nebraska. Certainly Texas was a good team and one of the best but let's continue to examine the rest of the field.
3) Florida - Oh, mighty Florida! The Gators got a lot of hype from the beginning of the season and I admit that it is hard to win with all of that pressure on you. However, if you examine their schedule a little closer, it isn't as impressive as you would expect. Florida played three teams in the BCS final rankings and won two of them. They beat #12 LSU and #3 Cincinnati and lost to #1 Alabama. I think this is more impressive than the Texas team and given the fact that they lost to #1 and beat #3 then maybe they belong at #2.
4) Boise State - This is the ONLY team in the top 5 that is undefeated AND beat two other top 10 final BCS ranking teams. Take a look, Oregon ended up at #7 and TCU ended at #4. They beat everyone they faced (unlike Florida) and they beat some great competition. They didn't get a chance to play the #1 team but that isn't their fault, the BCS matched up TCU and Boise State, that wasn't scheduling. Again, I think the voters were tired of hearing about Utah from a year ago and didn't want to hear it again. Sure Florida only lost to #1 but Boise never got the chance to even play #1 and they NEVER LOST.
5) Ohio State - Ohio State was the only team in this final top 5 to beat three other teams in the final BCS standings. They beat #10 Iowa, #13 Penn State, and #25 Wisconsin. They also lost to #24 USC. So arguably, Ohio State had the toughest schedule of all the teams in these top five. The only problem is that they are the only ones with two losses as well.

Based on these facts, here is my final top five for 2010.
1) Alabama
2) Boise State
3) Florida
4) Ohio State
5) Texas

I really believe that Boise State deserved to and should have ended the season ranked #2. I also believe that the college rankings are like the rest of college football - corrupt, media driven, and money grubbing.

What are your rankings? Is college football as corrupt as I see it?

Most Bone-Headed Coaching Decisions of All Time

Over the past few weeks I've seen what I consider some of the worst coaching decisions I have ever seen in my life. It started on November 15th when the undefeated Indianapolis Colts hosted the rival New England Patriots. The Colts were able to overcome a 17 point fourth quarter deficit to win the game 34-35 and stay undefeated. However, they were able to do this in part because of the terrible decision by Patriots head coach Bill Bellichick. With a fourth and 2 from their OWN 28 yard line with 2:08 remaining in the game Bellichick decided to go for it and didn't make it turning the ball over on the 29 yard line. Sure Payton Manning and company may have scored to win the game anyway but at least make them go 60 yards or more rather than 29 yards with two minutes left. Besides, Payton Manning was struggling in the game and who knows if he could have moved them all the way down the field with only one timeout and 60 plus yards to go. I think this is the worst coaching call I have ever witnessed in any sport but I wanted to think about it and brainstorm other bone-headed coaching decisions before writing this post. These are the top bone-headed calls that I came up with.

While I was compiling my list of the most bone-headed coaching calls I got to witness another bad coaching call, this time it was college football. On November 21st, LSU traveled to Old Miss for an SEC showdown. LSU was down 17-25 with only 3:32 left in the 4th quarter. However, they drove 66 yards to make the score 23-25 with 1:17 left. They had two attempts at a two point conversion but failed on both tries. LSU then recovered an onside kick and completed a 26 yard pass to get them into field goal range. Then came the bone-headed coaching decisions. LSU took a sack and a loss on a screen pass that lost them 16 yards and took them well out of field goal range but the poor coaching decisions don't end there. The screen pass was blown dead with about 26 seconds left and LSU let the clock run down to 9 seconds before calling their last timeout of the game(15 seconds that they could have saved). To quote the late Billy Mays, "But wait, there's more!" LSU comes back on the field and connects on a long pass play to the Old Miss 5 yard line with one second remaining. The clock stops for the chains to reset and LSU lines up for the last play of the game only to spike the ball and let the clock run out. So, this had several bone-headed coaching calls that stacked up on each other. 1) Make sure you don't get sacked or take losses when you are in field goal range to win the game. 2) Why let 15 seconds run off the clock before calling timeout. 3) During the timeout, why not get your kicking team ready to run on the field just incase you are able to convert (which they did). 4) If you aren't going to get your kicking team ready to run onto the field then why not have a second play called during timeout to run incase you are able to convert (which they did).

During the 1995 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys traveled to Phillidelphia to take on the Eagles. With Berry Switzer as the head coach, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones made the statement that offense now wins championships in the NFL. Maybe Switzer was trying to back that statement up when he made a huge bone-headed coaching decision not once but twice. With the game tied at 17 and just over 2:00 minutes left in the game, Berry Switzer decided to go for it on 4th and 1 from their own 29 yard line. They tried a handoff to Emmitt Smith who was stuffed short of the first down at the 3o yard line. However, the officiating crew ruled that the play started after the two minute warning and gave the Cowboys a chance to rethink and punt the ball. After the two minute warning Berry Switzer sent his offese out on the field again and ran the same play with the same result, Emmitt Smith coming up short of the first down. The Eagles ran three straight dive plays and kicked the winning field goal. Cowboys 17 - Eagles 20. I thought Bill Bellichick's decision was bad but at least he didn't make the decision twice.

During the past few weeks of brainstorming the most bone-headed coaching calls, I have come up with many but these are my top three. Below are some of the honorable mentions.

• BYU loses at home to Stanford because head coach Gary Crowton decides to throw the ball with time running down deep in their own territory and clinging to a 2 point lead. Stanford picks off a pass and wins the game. When asked about the decision to throw Crowton stated, "I wanted to win by 9 not by 2." As it turns out, he wanted to lose by 4.


• Detroit Lions head coach Marty Mornhinweg wins the flip for sudden death overtime, and chooses to kick. The Bears get the ball and score on their first and only possesion.


• Larry Bird calls an iso for 5' 11" Travis Best with the game tied at the end of regulation of Game 4 during the 2000 NBA Finals. Reggie Miller and Rick Smits don't even get a chance to touch the ball and Best misses his shot with 2.5 seconds left. The Lakers go on to win in overtime and gives the Lakers a 3-1 lead in the series.

What do you consider the most-boneheaded coaching decisions of all time? Do you agree with my list? If not, what should be included?

America's Unfair Pastime

Ok, I have to admit that my dad raised me as a Yankees fan. However, before you start to hate me, let me tell you that I admit that the salary structure of baseball is unfair. The Yankee's out spend all of the other teams year in and year out. This year the Yankees payroll was 26% higher than the next highest payroll of the New York Mets and 82% higher than the lowest payroll Florida Marlins. Although the Yankee's don't win the World Series every year, they rarely miss the playoffs and it is hard to ignore the fact that they go out and buy the best talent they can find in the market. This year they bought their ace pitcher C. C. Sabathia and slugger Mark Teixeira who have played key roles in the Yankees success this year. So, if it is unfair why don't they change it? Why doesn't MLB incorporate a salary cap?

There is a raging debate about the use of a salary cap in Major League Baseball. Some say that it will save the game and others think that it will destroy it. Currently, the only real constraint on salaries is called a Luxury Tax. This means that any salary money spent by a team over a certain amount will have to pay a tax (or a fee) to the league. The offending team has to pay 22.5% for the excess amount and the tax increases if the team "repeat offends" the excess amount. This tax doesn't come into play much though because it is set so high. Most teams don't even have to worry about the tax and the Yankee's seem to ignore it because they are usually repeat offenders and pay more than the 22.5%. One of the reasons the Yankees have been able to afford their payroll is because successful teams have been proven to increase revenues significantly. They have the advantage of charging for lucrative playoff tickets and they see increased regular season sales because people want to see winning teams and therefore they can continue to spend more.

I think the only solution to the inflated salaries and the unbalanced spending is some form of a salary cap. I think this would also create more parity in the league and allow more teams to make the playoffs. That way it would be even sweeter when the Yankees win the World Series.

What do you think, is baseball an unfair game? Do the Yankees have an unfair advantage? Would a salary cap fix baseball? How would you fix baseball?