Our longtime friend and all-around good guy, John Grohol, passed away on Jan. 13 following a long, tough battle with leukemia. He was 76, and I can tell you that he lived those 76 years to the fullest. I got to know Grohol nearly 50 years ago when we met as part of the production crew for ...
Coaches understand before they sign employment contracts that they are hired to be fired, something that’s particularly true in the NFL where the only measure of success is a playoff slot at the end of the season. That’s why there was no real outcry when Anthony Lynn was let go by the ...
After a close loss to Ohio State in 2018, Penn State Coach James Franklin described Penn State as a “great team” and Ohio State as an “elite team.” After witnessing, in person, Alabama’s 52-28 annihilation of Ohio State on Monday night, I am certain the gap between “great” and ...
By Paul Newberry The Associated Press Before the good folks in Jacksonville get too fired up about the arrival of Urban Meyer, let’s review a few cautionary tales. Like Nick Saban. And Steve Spurrier. And perhaps the biggest flop of all when it comes to college coaches going pro, Bobby ...
It’s Groundhog Day in the wIorld of college football. For the eighth time in 12 years, Alabama will play in the national championship game. That feeling of deja vu is not the product of an overactive imagination. Obviously, all things are not equal when one program can dominate to this ...
ATLANTA — Carver College has become college basketball’s equivalent of the Washington Generals, barnstorming from city to city, playing games almost every night, enduring one enormous beating after another. Appalachian State 105, Carver 23. Wofford 111, Carver 37. Georgia Southern 92, ...
SAN DIEGO — The biggest piece of San Diego’s sports history is slowly being knocked down and ground to bits. They’re tearing down the stadium once affectionately known as “The Murph.” Every day, heavy equipment obliterates more and more of 70,000-seat SDCCU Stadium in Mission ...
It was unrealistic to expect the college football bowl season to completely escape the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. But one can hope. As the sport’s postseason commences this weekend, 11 of the 43 bowl games that were originally scheduled have been canceled. The Montgomery Bowl will ...
There just a few times in history when, in any sport, the GOAT of a sport competes against the universally regarded “best player in the sport” in a meaningful game. Last Sunday afternoon in Tampa, I was able to witness one of those special moments when Tom Brady’s Buccaneers played ...
By Joe Reedy The Associated Press ESPN announced Thursday that Dan Le Batard will be leaving the network next month. Le Batard hosts a late-morning show on ESPN Radio as well as the “Highly Questionable” afternoon program on ESPN. Le Batard will make his final appearance on both ...
There has been much gnashing of teeth throughout Nittany Nation this fall regarding the worst start in the history of the football program. The fan base has certainly been spoiled throughout the years. Bowl games have become something akin to birthrights. Each decade since the 1960s has ...
Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, recently unveiled two new measures to try to temper yet another startlingly fast coronaviral spread, something that may end up being the most unwelcome encore performance in the Keystone state since incumbent Tom Corbett fell short in his ...
By Joe Reedy The Associated Press A look at Tiger Woods through the prisms of race and identity will be the subject of an of an ESPN documentary debuting later this month. “Tiger Woods: America’s Son” will premiere on Nov. 29. The one-hour documentary explores the significance of ...
If sports in this unfortunate year of COVID-19 have taught us anything, it’s to embrace the non-traditional. While Toronto and Edmonton were playing host to the NHL playoffs, NBA teams were competing in a bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The entire World Series ...
When Penn State started playing in the Big Ten in 1993, it lost its traditional rivals like Pitt and West Virginia, so the league invented the Land Grant Trophy and declared a Penn State-Michigan State rivalry. While there have been some great PSU-MSU games, every PSU fan knows the path to ...
The arrival of crisp autumnal weather means two things — college football is (or should be) in full swing and the annual aggravation I refer to as “leaf management” will most likely dominate the majority of the time I spend outdoors. Lush, green and beige foliage that provided both ...
By Dennis Waszak Jr. The Associated Press NEW YORK — No wins, eight losses and lots of frustrated fans. The Big Apple is pretty rotten when it comes to its professional football teams, and it’s tough to imagine things getting better any time soon. Both the Jets and Giants are 0-4 ...
Despite having 39 of their players in quarantine and a mere 48 hours after reporting 18 new positive COVID tests, the Notre Dame football team resumed practice on Wednesday to prepare for an all-important, hardly-the-game-of-the-century against Florida State. The 0-2 Seminoles sleepwalked ...
Not long after the Dodgers closed out a victory over Arizona in 10 innings in early September, Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw offered a less-than-ringing endorsement of the new extra-inning rule, which places a runner on second base to begin each extra inning. “It’s not real baseball,” ...
(Editor’s note: Former Forest Hills and Bishop Carroll football coach Chuck Sponsky died on Sept. 6.) I cringe every time I bump into a former student or athlete. Invariably, he or she will remember something I did or said as a teacher or coach that I forgot about long ago. In their ...