On Dee Dee McCarron and the ‘Speak English!’ phenomenon (VIDEO)

Once again a Z-list celebrity has taken to Twitter to tell people to ‘Speak English!’. In this case that Z-lister is Alabama Quarterback AJ McCarron’s mother, Dee Dee McCarron. This is sadly not a new phenomenon, and here we look at some of the ironies around aggressive, angry, silly people telling other people to ‘Speak English!’.

 Jameis Winston 

All too often lately we are seeing reports of individuals taking to social networks to chastise people from other cultural backgrounds to ‘Speak English!’. In most cases it takes place after a sporting event where an athlete might excitedly break into Spanish or perhaps an urban slant on English, at which point the angry, often aggressive, militant takes it upon themselves to instruct the subject to ‘Speak English!’. This played out last night after the BCS Championship as Florida State’s breathless, overjoyed Quarterback Jameis Winston attempted to answer some post-game questions. Dee Dee McCarron, mother of Alabama Quarterback AJ McCarron, decided to Tweet the following:

The Tweet has since been deleted and the standard ‘I am not racist’ apology has been hurried up in its place.

There are obviously a number of issues with Dee Dee McCarron’s idiotic Tweet.

First of all, shouting at someone to ‘Speak English!’ is effectively ordering someone to communicate in a certain way. It is unusual of anyone to demand that anyone communicate with anyone else in a particular way, but even more so in a country, the United States, where freedom of speech and expression, in other-words freedom of communication, is expressly protected by the constitution of that country. It is very interesting to see certain groups demand the freedom of speech allowed in the constitution to, for example, protect a hate-filled television show that spouts racist rhetoric ad nauseum, and then deny that same freedom of expression, speech and communication to other groups and peoples.

Apparently freedom of speech (and communication) only applies if you are a fat, middle aged white guy who is angry about something.

The second point is an off-shoot of the above, and that is the United States is a vast boiling pot of cultures and peoples, and that comes with a myriad of varieties of languages and variations of those languages. Dee McCarron is from Alabama, and her Twitter account is full of those adorable little southern quirks like ‘Ya’ll’ and so forth. To my knowledge nobody has shouted ‘Speak English!’ to Dee McCarron, despite the fact that she is taking part in a massive bastardization of the American-English language on a daily basis.

That anyone from Alabama should comment on any other human beings usage of the English language is rather ironic, to say the least.

Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that nobody in the United States really speaks English. Instead a bastardization of the English language called American-English is used, a particularly lazy language that effectively drops letters and simplifies words for its users. The correct English spelling of the word Colour changes instead to the lazier, shorter, Color in the United States. If Dee McCarron and all those other confused individuals who impeach upon others to ‘Speak English!’ wanted to be technically correct, as it would appear they are cajoling others to be, they would in fact stipulate that the subject of their ire should ‘Speak American-English!’.

One final thought, the interview itself. Considering a number of elements, the context of the interview, the unprepared nature of the response, the excitement of just having won such a big game, and in such a dramatic manner, and finally considering the clearly overjoyed and thus extra excited nature of the man giving the delivery, frankly this author (or, author, if you wish to use American-English) thinks that the communication in question was actually a thing of beauty. Every sentence is free, easy and quite entertaining to listen to. The message is colourful, humble and good natured.

Jameis Winston’s post-game interview:



It is so sad that someone in a position of responsibility (someone with a large following of very easily suggestible peoples on Twitter) would then take from that same communication the desire to spread a shorter message of aggressive, hate filled dominance.

Jameis Winston spoke, clearly, emotionally and entertainingly, from the heart.

Let’s just hope Dee McCarron was not doing same.

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Bookies release odds on Johnny Manziel staying at Texas A&M

All the talk on the Texas A&M campus right now is around whether Quarterback Johnny Manziel will stay for another year at the collegiate level, or if he will take his talents to the NFL instead. We talked to one of the bookmakers who has set odds on this very question.

Johnny Manziel

Texas A&M Quarterback Johnny Manziel led his team to one last big win last night, hammering Duke 52-48, and as soon as the game ended the questions started, will Manziel stay at the college level next season or will he join the ranks of the NFL?

The speculation is voluminous, to say the least. From Twitter threads to the sports pages, to Texas A&M forums filled with sad fans trying to convince each other he's staying, like passengers on the Titanic convincing each other the ship isn't going down.

To cut through the noise and get closer to a logical answer to the question, we approached a well known bookmaker to ask him, what are the odds of Johnny Manziel staying in school next season?

Viktor Jerkoffavitch of Back Alley Sports Betting had this to say;

''We took a number of things into consideration while setting these odds. After lengthy analysis it was clear to us that money, fame and, well, money, are probably more important to Manziel than anything else. So with that in mind we are offering 2,500/1 that Manziel will stay at Texas A&M.''

Manziel. Money.

''Of course there is also the fact that, you know, he hates being there, too.''

What these odds of 2,500/1 means is that it is rather unlikely that Mr Manziel will be staying in college for another year. Essentially there is, as they say, a snowball's chance in hell.

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Katherine Webb and the morbid depths of US sports 'journalism'

A look at a popular sports website article, the related comment section and the Katherine Webb situation is not a pleasant experience. 

Katherine Webb (right)

In a brilliant, cutting, journalistic masterpiece the site Bleacher Report brings us the vital report, ‘’Katherine Webb Says She's 'Nervous' About Iron Bowl Game’’. Earth shattering stuff. Sarcasm aside, this is a reflection of two topics. This is what Webb has to look forward to the rest of her life, and secondly, yes, this is the state of Sports ‘journalism’ in the United States.

200-400 word ‘articles’ with ridiculously inane headlines, an excuse to publish a few pictures and catchy captions, fodder for the comments section. And boy oh boy does the Bleacher Report comment section deliver, as always.

Let’s just say a trip to the depths of a Bleacher Report article comment section is something that future generations will probably study in terms of the depths of human stupidity. A more moronic, monosyllabic and ignorant place you shall never find.

This ‘article’ brought out the best in Alabama football fans  (click the image to view the comments but be warned, some are offensive).

In a way, you can’t blame them, this is the way they are led by the super media powers that be. This is what they are fed, and this is what they are reacting to. In January of this year I suggested that the blatant objectification on television of Webb was sexist and frankly kind of misogynistic. Some people liked the article, plenty hated it, and it generated reams of hate mail and aggressive comments from readers who called me everything from an idiot to a liberal to a liberal idiot and plenty more I won’t repeat here. College football generates the wildest, most angry of responses from its fan base.

It also generates the worst kind of commentary from same
(click the image to view the comment but be warned, it is offensive).

Let's call a spade a spade here, Bleacher Report may try and portray itself as a sports website, but really it is just a portal for trolls to say offensive things. If they want to argue that fact, well you can just point toward any of their moderated comment sections, which are all basically as bad as the above.

Back to Webb for a second.

As we said, this is her future. Basically a punchline to a stupid story. It has been a year, and it doesn’t appear as if Brent Musburger’s swarthy, scum-bag, salacious comments have got her anywhere really. No career rocket blast appears to have occurred, Instead Webb will continue to be fodder for the likes of Bleacher Report. It was suggested by some back in January that Webb herself was okay with Brent Musburger’s comments, and that she viewed it as a launching pad for her career. It would be interesting to talk to her in a couple of years, after a few more thousand ugly, sexist and misogynistic comment sections get their hands on her, to see if she still felt that Brent Musburger basically salivating over her on National TV was really a porgressive vehicle for her career.

At the end of the day, this is where we are at. Idiotic articles, ugly, aggressive comments sections and sexism in mainstream US sporting media unchecked.

If only some of the billions of dollars generated by College Football in the USA were spent on, you know, education.

There's a caption in here somewhere..

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Alabama to change their mantra ‘Roll Tide’ to ‘Part, Tide’.

After a dramatic weekend of College Football action, Alabama have decided to change their historic old mantra from 'Roll Tide' to a more apt, modern version. 

Alabama may have lost their unbeaten season, and possibly a shot at the BCS title game, however it is not all bad news for 'Bama fans. After the dramatic, final second loss to rival Auburn in the Iron Bowl game last Saturday, the Alabama powers that be have decided a fresh, updated mantra is required for the school to modernize itself.

Art Buckawinski, a school administrator, talks us through the change.

''Well, as you know, the Alabama special teams parted like the Red Sea to allow Auburn to score that missed field goal return, so we thought, heck, why not update the old mantra and bring in something new, fancy and, I guess, sexy. Well, a few of us were sitting around with a few school boosters and we thought, what about 'Part, Tide'. Seems like the right thing to do''.

There you have it.

Goodbye 'Roll Tide', hello 'Part, Tide'.

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The Gladiator and the NCAA football player, 1,000s of years apart, but linked through eternity

Watching Alabama take on LSU on Saturday night, the viewer could quite easily, and without too great a leap of the imagination, have been watching any of the major Gladiatorial events of the final period of the Roman Empire. With slightly less blood spilled, of course. One focal commonality exists between the two however. Whilst all other related parties profited both then and now, neither the Gladiators of Rome nor the athletes of the NCAA were or are paid for their blood, sweat and tears.

The roar of the enormous crowd. The sweating, heaving, equally entertained and enraged masses. The pulsating energy hovering over the stadium. The vicious encounter on the field of play. The militaristic overtone, laced into the crowd and spilling out around the boundaries, be it full uniform military service personnel or constant reminders of the state’s knee-deep involvement in military exploits. Gambling, snack type food and side-line entertainment above and beyond the action on the field.

We could be describing Alabama taking on LSU on Saturday night, or we could be describing any of the major Gladiatorial events from ancient Rome. Every single one of the above elements are true to both.

Yes, even the gambling. In ancient Rome, a ‘libellous’, a detailed program of the respective Gladiator event, gave the records of fighters for the benefit of gamblers. Much like ESPN giving gambling related information on its website before a big college showdown (despite the fact that, you know, gambling is illegal in most States and all that!).

The similarities between the peak of the Gladiator phenomenon and the peak of College Football are tantalizingly fascinating.

Both entities reached or are reaching their peak at a historical time of political and social upheaval. Rome was in the throes of being dragged to pieces both internally by bickering politicians, and externally by hordes of barbarians. The United States? The internal political strife may be even worse than ancient Rome, however perhaps the external dangers haven’t fully metastasized as yet. Unless of course you take the recent US Military doctrines all being remodeled to prepare for war with China as serious. Then, the barbarians the Roman legions faced are like a pack of rowdy kids wearing Mickey Mouse hats banging on the door.

The similarities between the two entities, separated by thousands of years, are enticing at a superficial level, and almost hilariously fascinating when you dig a little deeper. At every level of the Gladiatorial games we can match them, almost perfectly, to modern NCAA football.

Gladiator games had sponsors, College Football has shady booster groups, who plow money through dark-alley-type avenues into football programs. You could also compare the Gladiator sponsors to modern day advertising, which flushes money into College Football while promoting itself alongside this.

The music that was played at Gladiator fights, which historians suggest rose to a crescendo as combatants brutally killed each other? How about those gaudy College marching bands, and accompanying cheerleaders, that frolic around as if they are mindless idiots after each score. Advertising? Now, FOX sports and their kin blast gaudy, colorful advertisements at us, urging us to believe we are about to witness a seminal point in our lives, the games are purportedly that important. The Romans loved a good billboard advertisement too, and enormous, detailed adverts were placed all over town pre-fight.

The Military? The Roman army was out in force during the Gladiatorial fights, and historians note that off-duty soldiers were given preferred seating, and cheered by the adoring crowd. If you followed major European soccer tournaments in the 1970s and 80s one feature was Eastern European matches invariably played out in front of hordes of Red Army soldiers, roaring on from the stands in their masses. The United States hasn’t quite reached that level of Communist Military adulation and deification, but goodness is it trying!

The Gladiators themselves? For the large part, mere fodder, lives to be snuffed out in a blink for the entertainment of the masses, and the benefit of sponsors. Doesn’t that sound very like College Football, where, for the large part, players risk life and limb without hope of moving on to the next level (The NFL), all for the entertainment of the drunken masses and the benefit of schools coffers, the NCAA and the corporations that promote themselves alongside College Football.

Gladiators were owned by the rich of Rome. They were bought and sold on the open market. NCAA football players are recruited aggressively by colleges, and pretty much ‘owned’ by them until they exit the program. If they step outside the bounds of their new role, they are summarily punished, much like the Gladiators before them.

In Ancient Rome a tiny proportion of Gladiators became so famous that they attained a celebrity status, and often won their freedom. I am sure you can see where we are going to go with that one, right? As we speak, a tiny, minuscule proportion of NCAA football players attain legendary status akin to their Gladiator counterparts, and obtain entry to the next level, the NFL.

The rest?

Just mere fodder for the corporate entertainment machine that is College Football.

In Ancient Rome, 99% of Gladiators fought to the death for the populace's entertainment and the rich sponsors' financial benefit. In the modern day United States, 99% of NCAA football players toil eagerly for our entertainment and so that Viagra can hock a few more little blue tablets.

Neither the vast majority of dead Gladiators nor the overwhelming majority of modern day NCAA players benefited financially from their efforts. Everyone else did, or does, just not the subjects themselves.

The decline of the Gladiators? This is intrinsically linked to the huge problems Rome had keeping control of its vast colonies, armies and related military expenditure.

Re-read that to yourself again and ask yourself, remind you of anyone you might know?

There is no doubt an inherent nobility and a brave dignity in both the exploits of the common Gladiator and indeed the common NCAA football player. However, much as with Ancient Rome, the massive, tarnished, twisted, money-grabbing and often corrupt framework around them is as ugly now as it was then, back when the Barbarians were at the gates.

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Northwestern's ‘Wounded Warrior’ uniforms are an insulting money grabbing act

Macabre uniforms designed by Under Armour and set to be worn by Northwestern are meant to honor the veterans of the military, but in fact are nothing more than an ugly and indeed insulting money-grabbing venture, something college football is very good at.

New Northwestern uniform

On November 16th Northwestern will wear a unique uniform in their game against Michigan. The outfit is being described as a ‘Wounded Warrior’ uniform, and a salute to patriotism and the brave fighting men and women of the United States of America.

This ‘salute to America’ has all the subtlety of a sledge-hammer and will no doubt be a wild hit with salivating sports anchors across America on game-day.

In this day and age, it is tantamount to treason to even remotely question anything as ‘glaringly patriotic’ as this, but, if you will allow me to get up on my soap box for a moment or two, let’s have a look at a few of the factors that make this one of the most crass attempts at merchandise flogging in recent memory.

First of all, to the uniform design itself. The brain dead monkey genius in Under Armour who came up with this design should spend a little time walking around military hospitals showing wounded veterans the drawings of his or her creation. It would be interesting to see how young, injured and often horribly mutilated veterans would react to a uniform that actually depicts their blood being shed on the ground.

Just marvel for a second at the sheer stupidity of this concept,

Blood spatter.

On a uniform intended to honor injured military service veterans.

Really?

Second, the finance of this operation would make most Mafia bosses blush. It is no secret that sales of merchandise attached to this project will go into the pockets of the University's football program, the NCAA and Under Armour to the tune of 90%. The Wounded Warrior program? They get 10%. Effectively a little chump change, broken off to pass this whole disgusting venture off as charity of sorts.

Above all else, it isn’t the fact that these jerseys are completely insensitive to the potential battlefield trauma suffered by veterans of the cause they are supposed to honor, and it isn’t even the disgusting fact that only 10% of the sales will go to the charity, it’s the sheer arrogance on display in the sale of this merchandise that stinks the worst.

Let’s be crystal clear here: if you buy one of these jerseys you are not progressing some kind of noble, patriotic act. You are not making America any safer from terrorism. To be 100% clear here, you are simply lining the pockets of a rich football program, a wildly rich institution and a super-rich clothing company.

If you just think they are ‘super awesome’ jerseys, and you just want to wear one as you drink your Coors Lite, great, knock yourself out. Please, just spare us the patriotic sanctimony. Giving 90% of your presumably hard-earned money to corporations is not a patriotic act. We looked it up. In no shape or form does doing this mean you are being even 1% more patriotic than yesterday.

In fact, you are possibly being less patriotic, as the time spent buying and wearing said jersey could instead have been spent volunteering at a homeless veterans food kitchen or visiting elderly veterans or volunteering at a center for the rehabilitation of injured, mutilated veterans.

That ties into my last point.

Genuine and meaningful philanthropic opportunities are scattered all around us, in a myriad of shapes and forms. If you really want to do some good in the world, there are literally a billion things you could do that would have a more positive effect than sending giving Northwestern’s football program, the NCAA and the clothing company Under Armour $9 out of every $10 you spend on their merchandise.

Go forth and find one. You will feel the better for it (and, you will be a little less out of pocket too, probably!).

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The Nebraska Cornhuskers and 7-year-old Jack Hoffman, a moment of true class - VIDEO

The Nebraska Cornhuskers will be getting all sorts of Karma points for this classy act, where they organised for 7 year old cancer patient Jack Hoffman to score a touchdown in their spring training game

Jack Hoffman takes the field with the Nebraska football team

The Nebraska Cornhuskers turned a regular spring training game into something special, with a classy act that deserves every second of the positive exposure and discussion it is getting.  By now over 4 million people have viewed the incident on YouTube and 7-year-old Jack Hoffman has become a household name.

Late in the spring game, the Nebraska coach called a timeout, and out onto the field trotted little Jack wearing adorable, tiny football pads and a miniature No. 22 jersey. Hoffman stumbled around a little at first, but suddenly got a surge of confidence and zipped into the end zone, with a convoy of excited blockers to the side and in front of him. As he scored the TD, he was mobbed by both offensive and defensive players, and coaches too, and the huge crowd went crazy.

Do yourself a favour, brighten up your day by watching Jack on his epic rumble into the endzone below.



All too often even the most well intentioned of events like this can look staged and stale. The players and coaches of Nebraska deserve high praise for pulling this off with such total abandon and investment. The players and coaches really threw themselves into this fully, and it shows.

You too can join 'Team Jack' on Facebook right here.

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Manti Te'o: Probably not the world's greatest ever boyfriend

For the love of God, please, someone take the shovel off of Manti Te'o. This hole he is digging is getting so deep there is no way he is going to be able to climb back out of it. You are probably following Te'o attempts to clear his sullied, muddied name by staging bizarre ESPN 'interviews' (they would appear to be 'interviews' along the same lines as a Kim Jong-il Press Release) where no real questions are asked while Manti finds new and interesting ways of making his whole story more confusing.

We will leave you to trawl through the facts and fiction and instead point you in the direction of one pretty damning comment on the unfortunate young man's part.

When asked by ESPN why Manti didn't once visit his dying girlfriend in her time in hospital, Te'o responded, and we quote;

"It never really crossed my mind."

Manti, Manti, Manti. Oh boy. It never really crossed my mind. So on one hand Te'o has told us that he had this incredible connection with a woman, after their eyes met at a Stanford v Notre Dame game (don't even get us started on that!), he even went so far as to tell us he would spend hours on end on the phone with this woman as she lay in the hospital bed, going as far as to stay on the line with her as she slept.

However, visit this poor, terrified, dying girlfriend in hospital? It never really crossed his mind.

Ladies!! Be warned! Even if Manti comes out of this somehow smelling of roses (and goodness is that unlikely right now) this is not the guy your Momma wanted you to date. Get sick, and you will be lucky to get a stuffed teddy bear or chocolates. Life crisis? He's just not bothered!

Ladies, there are always alternatives. There is always, for example, Johnny Football.

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Comments
We love your comments! The communicative back-and-forth is one of the best parts of sports journalism. A couple of quick notes on same. This is a sports blog, and it deals with both the USA and Ireland, hopefully that answers a few questions! Also, your opinion is greatly valued, strong ones even more so, but if you revert to personal attacks or any kind of hate speech, your comment will be deleted. Repeat offenders will have their IP address banned.Thanks for all the great feedback to date! 

The curious case of Manti Te'o and Lennay Kekua -- A few questions for Mr Te’o

So first things first, we have to clear a little business out of the way. Regular readers of this column will recall a certain Heisman trophy winner being dragged through the mud for basically being of apparent poor character. Well now, Johnny Football doesn’t come across too bad now, does he?! It takes a big man to say sorry, and, Johnny Football, I am sorry. You are definitely not the least reputable character amongst that Heisman class.

No, that dubious title now belongs firmly to Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o.

Last night the Internet almost exploded under the weight of the Manti Te’o story. You could literally hear it creaking. The story is that this past season many of us (basically almost all of us) believed fully that Notre Dame’s dominant linebacker Manti Te’o played out his magnificent personal season with the heavy weight of the death of both his grandmother and his girlfriend hanging over him. Some few people were aware there were cracks in the story around his supposed girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, the majority of us found out the depth and severity of those cracks last night.

There is no such actual human being as Lennay Kekua.

 Lennay Kekua: Never existed

Incredibly, it would appear either Manti Te’o or a team of crack hoax organisers that Te’o and his father Brian Te’o are blaming for the controversy were able to create a human being that Manti Te’o dated and grieved over, and that the entire main stream sports reporting media of the United States bought hook line and sinker.

It would appear that it is not just Donald Trump that struggles to obtain facts, like believable birth certificates, in Hawaii.

Whatever about the facts of the matter, which are still few and far between and often confused, there are enormous, gaping holes in the logic behind Teo’s story that he is victim of a hoax. The crazed race to find the real ‘facts’ behind all this is like a side story from the movie The Usual Suspects, you half expect the name Kaizer Soze to pop up somewhere beside the name Lennay Kekua. You almost need to cut everything else out and look at the issues around much of what Manti has said in the last 24 hours but most of all in the past couple of years, to fully understand the insanity behind all of this. 

Read more: Manti Te’o Notre Dame hoax is like an episode from ‘The Twilight Zone’

Say we take it that Manti is telling the truth, and he is just a poor young student athlete caught up in an elaborate hoax, well even then, there are gigantic gaps in the logic behind his supposed story. Consider the below for yourself. Obviously the main factor is that Manti and his father in particular have at very best lied in the past about actually physically meeting this alleged girlfriend. At best, Manti is a complete and utter idiot. At worst? Manti and possibly his father are an integral part of the hoax.

Let’s have a look through the problems in Manti’s alibi.

A couple of questions ‘From the Bleachers’ would like to ask Mr Manti Te’o

• Manti, we are sorry for your loss. A few questions for you, however. Notre Dame's athletic director Jack Swarbrick said you had learned of the hoax in early December. If that's the case then why are the public learning about it in late January? Is there a particular reason for this, other than a desperate attempt to play out the season without this controversy arising?
• Manti, Mr Swarbick has outlined how you told him that when you were at the ESPN awards on December 6th you received a phone call from a woman whose phone number matched Lennay Kekua's. He is widely quoted as saying "When he answered it, it was a person whose voice sounded like the same voice he had talked to, who told him that she was, in fact, not dead." Manti, our question is, why did you wait until December 26th to inform your coaches of the hoax? Why did you wait three weeks to reveal the alleged hoax?
• Something that is really troubling us today Manti, it was reported by Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel that you would phone your sick girlfriend in her hospital room and you would dutifully stay on the line with her for hours on end as she slept through the night. A quote from the interview "Her relatives told him that at her lowest points, as she fought to emerge from a coma, her breathing rate would increase at the sound of his voice," Well Manti, what relatives? Where are they? Also, what hoax organiser has the time to pretend to be in a hospital bed and stay on phone with anyone, even the great Manti Te’o all night? We have all played a few pranks in our time, I may have called a friend’s house once pretending to be the Police but after 3 minutes myself and my buddies were on the floor laughing. Hours and hours of sitting on the phone with someone as they slept? Phone hoax’s just don’t last that long. So, are you lying, or embellishing the facts perhaps? Or did that call ever take place?
• ESPN senior columnist Gene Wojciechowski is on record as saying he couldn't find an obituary for your supposed lady friend Lennay Kekua. He also couldn't find any records about a car accident. These should have been obvious red flags, and because of this Mr Wojciechowski asked if he could contact Lennay's family. Why did you say they would prefer not to be contacted? Why did you tell Wojciechowski  the Lennay family didn’t want any further pictures of Lennay circulated also? Manti, if this was all a hoax, who on earth are you talking about? What family members? Who, exactly? If this is a hoax, why were the pretend girlfriends pretend family contacting you to tell you to tell the press to back off?
• Manti, the South Bend Tribune (story now removed) said you and your girlfriend supposedly locked eyes after the Notre Dame and Stanford game in 2009. The same paper later wrote that your father, Brian, said Kekua sometimes travelled to Hawaii to see you, though the family had never met her. I assume you know what we’re going to ask next Manti, basically, which is it, are you lying about having locked eyes with this supposed girlfriend, to make your college football career sound cooler, or is there something deeper and darker going on?
• Manti, back to that South Bend Tribune article, in it you were quoted as saying that you and your girlfriend met November 28th 2009 after Stanford's 45-38 victory over Notre Dame in Palo Alto, according to the South Bend Tribune: "Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes." Further to this you told the paper that Kekua, allegedly a Stanford student, physically gave you her phone number. Hey, you know what’s coming, right? If this is all a hoax, then how did all this physical interaction happen? You need to either explain that, or admit that you lied your backside off to the media.
• Manti, your Dad Brian told the Tribune in 2012 that "Every once in a while, she (alleged girlfriend) would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there." Manti why would your Dad lie about this? Or did you lie to him about it? Which is it?
• Finally, and we’re kind of angry about this one, after your hoax, virtual, alleged girlfriend died, you came out with this heart wrenching quote; "All she wanted was some white roses. So I sent her roses and sent her two picks along with that." – Manti, and we really want a straight, honest answer from you on this one, Manti, where did those flowers go? Where did you send them? To what physical address? 

You know what, you feel like you need a shower after considering all of the above.

What are we being left with, currently? Is this all a hoax created by friends of Manti's , as some kind of cruel joke? Was Lance Armstrong involved (to divert attention from him!)? Did an Alabama alumni foresee that Notre Dame would provide the final hurdle to the BCS and create this heinous hoax?

Possibly one of the few shreds left to Manti is that there is another way of looking at this. This is Manti te'o's private life. No crime (at least none we are aware of as yet) has been committed by Manti. Other than the curiosity of the public, Manti owes nobody an apology on any legal grounds.

The big problem of course is if this is a hoax, and if he is a victim, well then Manti has told a whole mess of lies.

So what are we left with?

First, Manti Te’o has to get in front of this and either a) explain why he said he physically met his ‘girlfriend’ on several occasions (if she was a hoax) or b) come clean and spill the entire beans on this ridiculous story.

There is another group that has some explaining to. The journalists who merrily reported on Kekua graduating from Stanford, the journalists who reported on Manti meeting with his ‘girlfriend’ on those occasions, the journalists who reported on her ‘death’, they have a lot of explaining to do. Have the upper levels of journalism really experienced that level a drop in journalists standards, analysis and fact checking, that a website like Deadspin is the authority on this completely insane story?

The final possibility is that President Obama created this hoax in his spare time between planning to take away all the guns that honest hard working Americans have been hoarding and further plans to change the state flag of Texas to that of Mexico.  Of course, we have no way of knowing if that is true or not. It could be. It might not be. We're just asking questions.

Questions the journalists who had access to Manti all season long should have asked.

What a mess.

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Comments
We love your comments! The communicative back-and-forth is one of the best parts of sports journalism. A couple of quick notes on same. This is a sports blog, and it deals with both the USA and Ireland, hopefully that answers a few questions! Also, your opinion is greatly valued, strong ones even more so, but if you revert to personal attacks or any kind of hate speech, your comment will be deleted. Repeat offenders will have their IP address banned.Thanks for all the great feedback to date! 

Objectification of Katherine Webb shows just how far behind the times US sporting media has fallen

The BCS bowl game Monday night sadly was not what you would call compelling viewing. For Notre Dame fans the writing must have been on the wall as the teams came out of the tunnel, and they suffered that scary moment of realisation that hits all teams from high school up through college. ‘Damn, those guys are huge!’.

The game was such a non-contest that the commentary team’s minds and mouths wandered. Brent Musburger and his broadcast partner Kirk Herbstreit decided to add some commentary to camera shots of AJ McCarron's girlfriend Katherine Webb. You know what, you be the judge. Here’s the video.



So, we hate to be ‘that’ guy, but, seriously? To borrow a well-worn and still hilarious phrase from Monday Night Football, C’mon man! Scarily, there has been little or no reaction from the media or the public, other than people laughing it off, excusing Musburger on the basis of his age, or worse yet, agreeing with his frankly disgraceful comments. To their credit, ESPN has admitted that the commentary was at the very least over the top. Their comment; "However, we apologise that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that."

For me this doesn’t go far enough. Not even close.

Musburger’s comments would have been at home in the 1950s when women were meant to stay at home, make the dinner and look pretty. His comments were the worst kind of passive-aggressive crap that may sound inoffensive at first to some, but when you think about it, his behaviour is the worst kind of sexist bullying that we would never like any women that are in our lives to be subjected to. It doesn’t matter that Ms Webb has gracefully brushed the comments off. The inane, archaic and blatantly sexist comments affect far more women than just herself. If you can’t see the problem with the comments, then you may as well stop reading now, as you and I are not going to agree on this.

The main problem is how Musburger objectified Ms Webb. His comments basically suggested that she was nothing more than something nice to look at, a painting on the wall, a sculpture, whatever. Worse yet, if you think about it, his further recommendation that ‘’ If you're a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pops’’ seems to be suggesting that you too can obtain a woman by doing that. You can get yourself one too!! Are we talking about watches here, or iPads or something? Musburger is guilty of the worst kind of sexist objectification. Just because he didn’t use any sexual slang or expletives doesn’t mean his comments weren’t sexist. 

''You too could own a Katherine Webb!!'' Brent Musburger

Most professionals who have to analyse and deal with sexism on a daily basis would have a field day with Musburger’s sexist comments. To the rest of us, they should at the very least be uncomfortable and perhaps leave us considering how we interact with the women in our lives on a daily basis.

Sadly, the Internet is reacting exactly how you would expect the Internet to react. The comments range from the confused ‘I don’t see what’s wrong here?!’ to the completely offensive ‘I would have said much worse!’ Those muddled fools are displaying exactly the cowardly bravado you would expect from the anonymity of the Internet. Here’s hoping that’s not actually how they think.

Going back to the ESPN reaction for a minute, and their tepid comment which seems to be agreeing with common decency, that Musburger’s sexist reaction was not OK. Is it enough for them to release said luke-warm statement? ESPN just sacked Rob Parker for inflammatory comments about race. Is race a more serious matter than sexism? Furthermore, is the US sporting media that archaic, stale and broken that is really is not going to react at all as an entity (I can’t find one single article anywhere on any sports site chastising Musburger)?

Take ESPN’s frankly minimal reaction to that of Sky Sports in England, when a similar controversy broke in 2011. Richard Keys and Andy Gray were the biggest soccer commentary team possibly in all of Europe, and both were sacked immediately in the aftermath of a controversy that saw them make sexist comments about a female official that were picked up on air. Gray’s comment in particular was very similar to Musburger’s seemingly senile ramblings. At the time, Gray said; "Can you believe that? A female linesman. Women don’t know the offside rule." Sky Sports acted immediately, sacking the two for that and other comments, and were almost unanimously applauded for doing so.

Why is it not OK in the UK and Ireland to make sexist comments to a wide audience, but, it would appear it is OK to do so in the USA? None of the fallout from this is funny, or acceptable. In this day and age we should not be accepting the objectification of a gender, male or female.

If you are one of the idiotic luddites who is laughing at this and boldly declaring ‘I don’t see what the problem is?!’, well consider for a second that it was your mother, sister, wife or girlfriend being salivated over by what sounded frankly like a disgusting old pervert, picture that and ask yourself, is that OK? Are you cool with that?

Completely unacceptable behaviour for anyone, and particularly for a senior ESPN analyst.

Let’s see if there is any further fallout, or if ESPN are going to play double-standards, and sack Rob Parker for a race related comment, while basically only slapping the wrists of Musburger.

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Kentucky interim coach Lance Guidry blows his kids chance to win bowl game, but makes 'great' pre-game speech!

If you simply read the vanilla flavour game reports on last night's Bowl game between Western Kentucky and Central Michigan you would think the underdogs from Michigan survived a dramatic late decision by Kentucky to go for it on fourth down to win the game. Basically that was it. That's certainly how it is being presented.

However, if you actually watched the game, there was a number of aspects that didn't sit well after the fact. Certainly not with this column anyway.

To summarize, Kentucky interim coach Lance Guidry watched as his team drove down field into field goal position with a minute left in the game, trailing by, you guessed it, three. Instead of kicking a relatively simple chip shot, Kentucky went for it on fourth and two, and didn't make it.

Game over.

It just isn't as simple as that. If you saw the game, did you catch Guidry's self aggrandizing speech to his players pre game? Obviously it is a matter of perspective, however this column's 'take away' from the speech was that Guidry was playing to the cameras. If you recall it, he actually mentioned a previous bowl game with another team where he was also interim coach. Perhaps we are missing something, but how is that something that's going to energize his current squad?

Judge for yourself. I found this speech to be the worst kind of pandering, showboating possible, and I am pretty sure Guidry glances at the camera a few times. Don't worry coach, all eyes are on you!



The very first offensive play Guidry called was a trick play (that, it should be said, worked) and from that point it was clear Guidry was going to leave his mark on the game, whether it was for the best of the kids he was coaching or not.

Then the big play. Fourth and two. The commentators almost screamed at Guidry to kick the easy field goal and take the game and his team to overtime. You just don't mess with your players like that. Imagine the seniors on the team waking up today and realising their chance to win a bowl game was torn out of their hands by a showboating coach who may or may not have been auditioning on live national TV for a job at another college.

Kick. The. Field goal.

My stomach turned this morning when I read Guidry said post game that it was his players who basically demanded he 'go for it' on fourth and two. I am calling shenanigans on that. I was watching intently as the decision was made, and at no point whatsoever did Guidry consult with his players.

For him to throw them under the bus after the decision was made like that is disgusting, and indeed cowardly. They can dress this up whatever way they want, and no doubt some loyal players will claim they had an input, however those watching will have seen Guidry excitedly calling for the team to go for it, it was clear it was his decision, and it is also pretty clear why he made it.

For himself.

If Guidry really did take on input from his players, he, as the head coach, should have instead made the logical and correct call to kick the field goal. Instead, he goes for it, fails, and then blames his kids! A final thought on that aspect, if the players did demand they go for it, Guidry should still have had the common decency to point at himself as the coach after the failure.

Instead, he threw his players under the bus.

"That was all the players. We were going to kick the field goal, but they told me that they were here to win the game. I asked everyone and they wanted to go for it so we took the chance."

Sorry Coach Guidry, with all due respect, that is absolute rubbish. Anyone who watched the game saw what happened, there was no democratic polling on the sideline, it is clear you went for the big splashy dramatic decision to try and get your name in the morning papers.

Now Guidry is just another coach who flunked a basic decision, and his players chances at winning a bowl game are gone up in smoke.

That's who you are left feeling bad for, the kids who worked so hard to get to the bowl game in the first place. They took a back seat as their camera hogging coach grabbed centre stage, to his own end.

Of course, in retrospect, this is exactly the kind of showboating, poor decision making that comes from a program that just hired Bobby Petrino.


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Scooby Doo (Johnny Manziel) wins the Heisman Trophy

And so it has come to this. Scooby Doo has won the Heisman Trophy. By Scooby Doo we of course mean Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel, the diminutive QB who will, let's face it, have a very hard time making at the next level. Despite losing twice in the NCAA football season. Despite having been arrested and charged with three misdemeanours -- disorderly conduct, failure to identify, and possession of a fictitious driver's license. Despite dressing up as Scooby Doo for Halloween and allowing himself to be pictured with several scantily clad females (hey, it's a free world, but, do you see more serious football players allowing themselves to be caught in those situations?!).

Looking back, a day after the event, you do of course have to empathize with the Heisman voters. In fairness to them, it is not like they had any alternative in selecting their Heisman winner. Clearly they didn't have anyone else to choose, I mean, it's not like they had the hard working, emotional and football-passionate leader of an unbeaten team with four ranked teams amongst it's scalps.

Read More: Notre Dame defensive coach Bob Diaco said to interview for Boston College job

It's not like they had the fearsome defensive captain of a team that led the entire NCAA in points allowed per game (an almost unbelievable 10). It's not like they had the ferocious leader of a defence that's going to play for the BCS title in January whom they could have selected instead of Johnny Police Record.

All facetiousness and indeed all team allegiances aside, ask yourself a question. Which player is more likely to be a household name in 3-4 years time. Manziel or Te'o? And to stress, we're talking for football reasons. Not because he might be all over the Internet in situations like the below.

I'm going to come out and say it. Very odd choice by the Heisman voters. They had a chance to pick a football player who does nothing but eat, sleep and drink the game. A ferocious, hard nosed tackler who's devotion to football is only second to his family and his studies. Not only that, they had a chance to pick a winner, who has driven his team to a unbeaten season and a chance to play for the title.


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They had a choice between that, and this nincompoop?

Seriously Heisman voters?



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Update! 18th January 2012

Well, well, well. How about that! Thanks to Manti Te'o, Johnny Football all of a sudden looks like a choir boy! You can read my full apology to Johnny in this Manti Te'o article. Is there a lesson in all of this? Perhaps, like the tagline of the movie Traffic, ''No One Gets Away Clean''. 

Hopefully your Texas folk are enjoying the whole Te'o revelation, and judging by the emails and comments, you sure are.

If you have a dictionary somewhere look up the term 'Schadenfreude'. In the meantime, once again, congratulations Johnny, as it turns out, you were not the least worthy character based candidate!

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Comments
We love your comments! The communicative back-and-forth is one of the best parts of sports journalism. A couple of quick notes on same. This is a sports blog, and it deals with both the USA and Ireland, hopefully that answers a few questions! Also, your opinion is greatly valued, strong ones even more so, but if you revert to personal attacks or any kind of hate speech, your comment will be deleted. Repeat offenders will have their IP address banned.Thanks for all the great feedback to date! 

Barkley injury opens the door for The Fighting Irish

With another dominant win, this time blasting past over-matched Wake Forest, Notre Dame marched a little closer towards its first National title since 1988. With some dramatic news following USC’s capitulation to UCLA, that march became a full on charge. Word has come out that USC Quarterback Matt Barkley will not be able to face The Fighting Irish after injuring his shoulder against UCLA. The injury is being reported as a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder and is serious enough that Trojans coach Lane Kiffin has already ruled him out of the game against Notre Dame.

Kiffin has also confirmed that the immortal Max Wittek will take Barkley’s place. Wittek has never started a collegiate game.

What this means is that all that stands in the way of Notre Dame finishing the regular season unbeaten and advancing to the National title game is a downtrodden team fresh off a 28-38 beat-down and led by a QB who has completed 8-of-9 passes thus far in his entire college ‘career’. USC have been a relative flop this season (once holding the number one spot in the BCS standings), and basically have nothing to play for next weekend. Notre Dame on the other hand, will be taking the field knowing their destiny is in their hands. One more win and they go to the big dance.

Manti Te'o and his defensive colleagues must be frothing at the mouth, waiting to get their hands on Wittek.

It should be noted that while this is obviously incredibly good fortune for Notre Dame, Barkley deserved better. If you recall, he did not enter the NFL draft last season instead choosing to finish off his education and complete his senior year with his team mates in USC. The good news for Barkley is, he will still be drafted high up the board as he has all the skills needed at the next level. There are plenty of clowns out there who will stab at this and say ‘he should have left college’ (and entered the draft) but what they are missing is Barkley will finish his education and his final year at school will stand to him the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, next Saturday Notre Dame have a chance to make history and make their way to the BCS title game.

That path just got a little bit easier with this unfortunate news.

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Can Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o win the Heisman Trophy?

Just a handful of weeks ago a big, popular website scoffed openly at the potential of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o winning the Heisman Trophy, deriding the journalist who dared to suggest the possibility. Well, now that same website looks (even more so than usual) pretty stupid, as all the biggest sporting sites are openly discussing and indeed suggesting the validity of the young man’s candidacy.

Whisper it quietly, but Manti Te'o could just very well become the first defensive player to win the Heisman trophy since Charles Woodson. Manti’s play speaks for itself, as do his defensive statistics. 80 tackles in itself shows what kind of a demon he is on the field.

Obviously, the award is heavily weighted towards offensive players, to use that ugly old refrain, chicks dig touchdowns. However, as evidenced by the sheer weight of volume of text being put forth towards a Te’o win, it appears he really, legitimately is in with a shot.

Looking around the wide expanses of the World Wide Web, it is truly astonishing to see the growth of support for the fierce defender. First the best news. The ESPN fan ballot has Manti crushing it. Absolutely crushing it.

You do of course have to take that with a pinch of salt. That’s just fan voting and relative busts like Matt Barkley are still polling 5% because of the vagaries of said style of voting. The ESPN experts poll is probably a better measure of his actual chances, and they have him at number two, behind Kansas State QB Colin Klein.  This is of course still very respectable

USA Today is perhaps less kind to Manti, and has him second, with 23 second place votes, again behind Klein who has a whopping 35 first place votes.

Sports Illustrated also has Te’o at the two spot.

What appears obvious is that thanks to The Fighting Irish’s incredible run of success this season, Te’o is right there in the spotlight, and is seriously being touted as a possible Heisman winner. The problem is basically Collin Klein. The logical answer to the question whether Te’o can take the award or not, is that basically Klein needs to submit a couple of stinkers.

If Te’o can keep his performance levels at the lofty heights they are right now, and if he can perhaps chip in a couple more flashy plays, and if Klein slips even just a little bit, Te’o could very well be that rarity of rarities.

A defensive Heisman trophy winner.

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Notre Dame go to 8-0 but, is it all in vain?

Notre Dame appear to have something cooking this season. Defying pre-season expectations they have beaten all comers culminating in an impressive 30-13 win over Oklahoma last night, on the road, no less. Everett Golson threw for 177 yards and dove for the decisive 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. They got some serious help on the defensive side too. Just a few weeks ago some idiotic websites scoffed openly at the chance of Manti Te'o winning the Heisman, well now bigger, national sites are commenting that the young man bolstered his Heisman Trophy candidacy with a late interception. That's right, bolstered.

Notre Dame would appear to be, as they say, legit.

Here's the problem. The possibility remains of this incredible season being eventually measured as having been basically for naught, lost in the quagmire of the usual vitriolic debate over how College football should award its winners.

The fact to bear in mind here is the switch to the much anticipated playoff system doesn't come into force until next season. That means that even if Notre Dame run the table, and beats (in order) Pittsburgh, Boston College, Wake Forest and USC (on the road), the chances are they are not going to be playing for the National Championship.

How can we suggest that with such confidence?

Easy.

Alabama, Kansas and Oregon are all now 8-0 after impressive weekend wins, and are ranked higher than Notre Dame in the BCS standings. Kansas have beaten three ranked teams, including their last two victories. and have a relatively easy run-in on their schedule. Kansas should finish 12-0. If Alabama survives next week's battle with LSU, they should also finish 12-0.

Oregon faces perhaps the toughest run in, on paper at least, however USC and Stanford are not the forces they once were, and California should be easily swiped aside. Oregon's last game against Oregon State will probably decide whether they go 12-0 or not.

The bottom line is, at least two of those three should finish 12-0, and even if The Fighting Irish beat their own last four opponents, they most likely will not be playing for the National Championship.

Up to now, many great college teams have lost out of playing for the National Championship thanks to the antiquated, out-dated and frankly farcical old BCS format. Thankfully from next season four teams will have a chance to battle it out, in what should provide excellent, dramatic viewing for us the fans.

Sadly, that will most likely come a season too late for this Notre Dame squad.

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