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The High Court |
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Deep Thinkers Only... |
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The Darkside |
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January 9, 2006
“Oh Nelly, please beware……because I’m about to “Step Up”!
By Darth Reagan
If you are anything like me I’m guessing you caught the National Title Game between USC and Texas. All I can say about that game is Wow! Vince Young had one of the best performances I have ever seen by a college football player in a Championship Game. Ironically, it wasn’t until the final four minutes of the game that any of the announcers noticed! The question is…why?
First of all, we had Dan Fouts and Keith Jackson, who happen to love anything involving West Coast football. Honestly, the love fest that took place in the booth over Leinart and Bush was reminiscent of Al and Tipper Gore’s bar scene make-out session during the 2000 election…Both of which made me sick by the way! I understand the fact that the only thing Keith Jackson loves more than the Rose Bowl is USC…but couldn’t we have been spared the “stylings” of Jackson for some solid analysis during what turned out to be a Classic.
Leinart and Bush were excellent as usual and aside from the forward lateral by Bush they both played near perfect football. However, Vince Young was on the other side of the ball orchestrating a one man attack that we haven’t seen for decades. Vick was impressive against Florida State but even his performance paled in comparison. Young was simply dominating the field and doing so with unbelievable composure. In fact, as I watched the game I marveled at his poise and told my family that somebody in the booth better start recognizing it soon…and that was in the 2nd quarter! Then came the 4th quarter, when USC was ahead by twelve points and controlled the ball. Jackson went down to Craig James on the sideline, where he made the most unbelievable comment of them all when he said, “Lendale White is the MVP of this game. Unbelievable”…Are you kidding me, he was great but was he really the MVP Mr. James? 124 yds and 3 TD’s is a good night but let’s look at this line:
V. Young Passing: 30/40 267 yds, 0 Int’s Rushing: 19 attempts for 200 yds, 3 TD’s
Oh and by the way, the National Championship trophy on top of those stats! Hey Keith, Dan and Craig, it’s ok that Mr. Young had an incredible game…Bush deserved the Heisman Trophy for his play this year…even when you factor in the illegal “Bush Push” that lifted USC over Notre Dame in the final seconds! Nobody is saying Vince Young should’ve won the Heisman over your beloved Reggie Bush…but you all missed an opportunity to broadcast a once in a lifetime performance from beginning to end…Instead, you sounded scared as Young handled the ball in the final minute while trailing by 5! If you don’t believe me, just watch it for yourself on ESPN Classic, where it will be played for eternity!
Here’s the bottom line, sports broadcasting is much like every other profession in the fact that there are only a few truly great ones. Unfortunately, greatness wasn’t present during the National Title Game…
Now that the Bowl Season is over I truly believed we were finally done hearing the term, “Step Up” for the 567,000th time……Not to be outdone by their Collegiate counterparts, the NFL crew on ESPN made up for it by saying “Step Up” 567,001 times during their 4 hour Wildcard Pregame Show!
I also thought we might be done hearing absolutely over-the-top praise now that the Bowl Season is over…Unfortunately, I was wrong…Did anybody catch the Bucs vs. Redskins yawn fest? Unfortunately, I did! Joe Gibbs has the 4th best Post Season record in history and went into halftime with a 17-3 lead over a bad offensive team in Tampa…Gibbs was also 10 and 0 when leading at the half during his career in the playoffs…The Halftime crew commented that the Redskins had better not think their woeful offensive performance can win games in the Playoffs…The Skins went on to gain less than 100 yards in the second half…Gibbs is now 11-0 when leading at the half during the playoffs…
Finally, during the same game I heard what amounts to the most ridiculous comment of 2006. While trailing by a touchdown, Phil, I mean Chris Simms threw a great ball to Edell Shepherd which should have been caught for a TD…Shepherd dropped it! As the replay crew took a look, Paul Maguire and Joe Theismann called it the “best ball ever thrown in the history of the NFL”…Really folks? The best ball ever thrown? I doubt it. Let’s just call it what it was: a great throw! Not to worry America, because you will be getting much more of Mr. Theismann during next year’s Monday Night Football telecasts…Where I’m certain he will “step up” and drive us all to CBS for another great installment of CSI: South Bend…
Contact Darth Reagan at darthreagan@thehighcourtofsports.com. |