Brad Hubbard Baseball, Hockey, MLB, NHL, Soccer, The Sunday

The Sunday: Hooks & History

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard

The KO

So Saul “Canelo” Alvarez knocked Amir Khan out cold on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Finally a boxing match with an actual finish!

 

Big Fly

NY Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon is 42 years old (and that could be debatable). He hit his first ever home run on Saturday night in San Diego. Yes, it is as amazing as it sounds and it nearly broke twitter.

Not to be outdone, Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh homered off a tee. Then dropped the bat and dabbed.

 

The Hook

An nothing may have been more impressive than Sporting KC’s Brad Davis’ goal against his former club last weekend.

 

FIRED UP

How fired up does Diego Simone of Atletico Madrid get during a Champions League match? So much so that he hit his assistant.

 

They Did It

Leicester City did it. They won the Premier League title when Tottenham drew with Chelsea on Monday. The best City had ever finished with second back in 1929. The biggest winners? The people who put money down on City to win the Premier League Title at 5,000-1 odds.

 

The Youngster

Speaking of history, the Arizona Coyotes made it this week by hiring the youngest GM in major sports history. John Chayka is just 26 years old and he is now in charge of leading the Coyotes to the promised land. So yes, this officially makes the Coyotes the NHL’s version of the Oakland A’s.

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Brad Hubbard Basketball, College Basketball, Football, Hockey, NBA, NFL, NHL

The Sunday: Shots, Saves & Scene

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard

One And Done

Greg Hardy’s time with the Dallas Cowboys is at an end. He didn’t play a full season due to his suspension, fought with teammates on the sidelines and generally lost the backing of everyone in the organization.

Unknown at this time if another NFL team will take a chance on a player who threw his girlfriend onto a couch full of guns and threatened to kill her. He is really a stark contrast from another Briarcrest teammate, Michael Oher.

 

And The Save

How do you get noticed when you are minor league hockey players traveling on buses from some low population center to another? You have your name be Bud Halloway and you layout to stop an empty net goal.

 

Steph Curry Moment Of The Week

How about a game winner from 35 feet-ish away after he went to the locker room earlier in the game to get his ankle fixed up after he had it stepped on. The man continues to impress…no, he continues to amaze.

 

For The Win….

Well he wasn’t Steph Curry but he did win $18k by making this half court shot on College GameDay. Beers are on this guy!

 

And Scene

Former Mississippi State defensive lineman Chris Jones probably had better days. Nothing like ripping your skin tight shorts and have your junk fall out during your job interview.

 

Brad Hubbard Basketball, Football, NBA, NFL, NHL

The Sunday: Be Like That

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard

Speechless

Monty Williams may not be a household name to a lot of people despite his decade long NBA career as a player, former head coach and now assistant coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He will be after his eulogy for this wife who died in a car accident a few weeks ago. There really isn’t anything else to be said, just watch his eulogy….even if you are not religious.

 

Ride Off

Jared Allen is an animal. He terrorized quarterbacks for well over a decade. And like any good cowboy, when your time has come, you ride off into the sunset.

 

Impaled

A 14 year old girl was impaled by the wood floor during a basketball game in Wisconsin. No, I didn’t make this up. She is alright and should be playing basketball again soon but, it’s still creepy.

That Just Happened

Let’s be honest, there was not a lot of national attention for the Buffalo Sabers at Columbus Blue Jackets game this past week. There was afterwards when David Legwand made this absurd shot.

 

Steph Curry Moment Of The Week

Brought to you this week by Russell Westbrook.

 

 

Brad Hubbard College Football, Football, NFL

The Sunday: Leftovers

Sunday Change

Mark RichtWhile LSU’s Les Miles got most of the headlines the last week or so (and now he’s staying at LSU), Georgia’s Mark Richt was almost an after thought. Now he’s the one who is out after 145 wins and 15 years. What we said for Miles applies to Richt.

He’s a heck of a coach who has never had one losing season (that’s because they lost their bowl game) and went to a bowl game in every one of his 15 years.Georgia better have a damn good idea of who they want cause Richt will be very, very hard to replace.

 

Wasting A Perfectly Good Beer

Professional sports is a grind no matter what sport it is or where you play. Apparently in Australia fans think that pouring a beer on you is a appropriate behavior. Wrong. And the announcers let him know it.

 

The Fallen

The San Francisco 49ers were the ‘Team of the 80’s.’ They were also in the Super Bowl three seasons ago. Now, they forget to tell the media when the quarterback’s Press Conference is.

 

Little Man, Big World

Texas Tech got the better of Texas on Thanksgiving night partially because of a play called ‘Little Man, Big World’.

 

Punting, Catching and Slapping

Remember to get rid of the ball…

Then catch it…

…then slap it out of the ref’s hand.

Brad Hubbard College Football, Football, NFL

The Sunday: The Undefeated & Losing Your Mind

Undefeated No More

Three undefeated teams lost on Saturday. Ohio State lost at home to Michigan State on the last play of the game, Houston turned the ball over on the final drive and Oklahoma State was never really in their game. Ironically enough, Ohio State won the National Title last season and the head coach of Houston was their offensive coordinator. Both were undefeated for ten games and then received their first loss within about 20 minutes of each other.

Later in the evening, undefeated Oklahoma State lost to Baylor….and their third string quarterback! Needless to say, there are only two undefeated teams left, Clemson and Iowa, and the consensus seems to be that they will remain that way until at least the conference championship games.

Time To Celebrate

But if you’re the Michigan State kicker and you just made the game winning field goal….then you can celebrate anyway you want.

While this is good, it’s not better than Arizona Cardinals backup QB Drew Stanton’s celebration during Andre Ellington’s game sealing touchdown against the Seahawks. Ironically, Stanton went to Michigan State.

 

Or Not

Emotion is part of sports. Here are two examples of when emotion got the better of a a couple of coaches and a player.

Harbaugh hates his coat…

Pelini nearly attacks ref (go to the 3:30 mark)

And then there was this…..and the player wasn’t even ejected.

 

The Rant

And there is Nick Saban’s rant. Nick Saban may go down as one of the greatest football coaches in college football history. Better yet, ever now and then he gives us some great press conference fodder.

Alabama defeated Charleston Southern 56-6. Funny thing was, Charleston Southern is FCS Playoff bound and they rested their quarterback so he can be fresh for the playoffs.

 

May Helmet Be With You

Is there anything better than Minor League sports promotions? We think not. The Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League went all out for Star Wars night. Right down to the wear and tear on the the Rebel logo on the helmets. Now if only they would have had Star Wars night against the Fargo Force….oh the confusion.

Brad Hubbard Basketball, College Football, Football, Hockey, NBA, NHL, Soccer, UFC

The Sunday: Losses and the Unbelievable

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard

Attack

The world stopped on Friday as ISIS carried out a horrific attack in Paris, France. Scary things is that it could have been much, much worse. It is confirmed that one of the terrorists had a ticket to the friendly between France and Germany. If this individual was able to carry out his plan, the death toll would have been enormous and sports as we know it, would forever be changed.

 

Goodnight Rousey

It’s fair to say that Ronda Rousey has crossed over. Her fight headlined only the second arena show the UFC has ever done, she is in big budget Hollywood movies and she has some 1.94 million twitter followers. Well now she has a loss on her record thanks to a head kick knockout by Holly Holm.

ESPN’s sports money guy Darren Rovell broke down what this does to Rousey outside of the Octagon when it comes to endorsements.

 

Stephen Curry

We done trying to explain what record or how amazing Stephen Curry is. This vine pretty much explains it all.

 

Ok! Everyone in the box! 

6 Predators in a BoxThe Nashville Predators beat the Winnipeg Jets 7-0. This marked the Jets fifth straight loss and they were a little frustrated. Well when they were down 5-0 a Jets player tapped the puck passed Predators goalie Pekka Rinne after the whistle. That’s a no-no. A few minutes later, every one on the ice was in the penalty box. That’s right, a dozen players squeezed into two penalty areas.

See the lead up to the banishing. 

 

The Best Of Saturday

During next spring’s NFL Draft, this is the video they will show when a team drafts Ohio State’s defensive end Joey Bosa.

Montana’s Yamen Sanders unloaded on the Eastern Washington quarterback.

The Hatter had to be behind this one. 

Look Ma! One Hand!

One Handed

 

Brad Hubbard Basketball, College Football, Football, NBA, NFL

The Sunday: Slips and Misses

And That’s Not Travelling?

We know it’s early in the NBA season but how do multiple steps without a dribble get by the refs? They are professionals right?

 

The Slip

Arkansas Head Coach Bret Bielema was so happy about his teams OT win at Ole Miss that he couldn’t wait to jump….

He was probably still blown away by this play that kept Arkansas alive in OT.

 

No Direction

Ken WhisenhuntThe Tennessee Titans fired Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt less than two years into his regime. Not only that, they fired him with starting quarterback Marcus Mariota out, they recently took the 5-1 Atlanta Falcons to the wire and he convinced one of the greatest defensive minds in NFL history (Dick LeBeau) to come to Nashville this past off season.

It is clear that the Titans ownership (or lack thereof) has no clue what they are doing or what direction they are going. It is a franchise that is being run remotely from Houston. The best thing that can happen for Titans fans is for the franchise to be sold to an owner who actually has a plan and cares about the franchise.

Were Those ACC Officials?

Nebraska defeated #7 Michigan State on a 30 yard touchdown catch that shouldn’t have counted. The Nebraska wide receiver was clearly out of bounds but the refs said he was pushed (meaning intentionally). It doesn’t really appear that way. Michigan fans may call this karma.

While that is bad, the following was called as a taunting penalty. Seriously.

Unstoppable?

The Golden State Warriors are the defending NBA Champions. Guard Stephan Curry is the reigning MVP. So far they are 7-0 in the 2015/2016 season and Curry has scored 20 points in a quarter three times already. To give you some perspective, Oklahoma City’s Brian Westbrook lead the NBA in that category last year and he did it four times….all season. Yes, Curry is taking it to the next level. 

That Just Happend

North Dakota State Zack Vraa made arguably the most outstanding catch of the weekend. Best part? Watch the defender afterward.

NDSU WR Catch

Meanwhile this happened in Pocatello, ID to end the Montana vs Idaho State game in overtime.

Brad Hubbard Baseball, College Football, Football, Media, MLB, MLS, Soccer

The Sunday: The End, The Beginning & Why We Keep Watching

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard

The Best Hangs’em Up

Abby Wambach was the best. We say ‘was’ because she announced this week that she will retire from the game after the USWNT December 16th game against China. Currently she has had 252 appearances on the international stage and 184 goals. Hats off to the best.

Power Outage

PLEASE STAND BYGame one of the World Series is kind of a big deal….and then the power goes out to the TV trucks. That’s essentially what happened to FOX during game one. Luckily it was just FOX (along with Televisa and NHK) and not the stadium itself.

FOX did rally well and was tapped into the MLB feed a few minutes later so the game could continue.

Yes they did delay the game.

 

Shootout To Ends All Shootouts 

If you didn’t watch the shootout in the MLS Cup Playoff knockout match between Portland and Sporting KC then stop what you are doing and click on the video below. It was unbelievable, un….everything. That includes breaking the laws of physics.

 

Yeah, That Shouldn’t Have Counted

Miami Lateral GraphicPlease see image to the right. Looks amazing right? Ok, now go watch the video below. We count a knee down of a Miami player before he pitched the ball, three blocks in the back (only one drew a referee’s flag & was reviewed which isn’t reviewable but officials didn’t enforce it anyway), a Miami player running onto the field towards the end of the play from the sidelines with his helmet off (too many men on the field and a player with helmet off are both penalties) and the replay officials are like, ‘yeah looks fine. Want to go to the Halloween party?’ To be fair….no there really isn’t fair here. Duke got screwed.

 

The End Of The Project

GrantlandESPN shuttered Grantland. The long format mix of sports and entertainment started by now ex – ESPN employee Bill Simmons had a lot of twists and turns. It, ironically enough, deserves its own ESPN 30 for 30. The sight did prove two important things: One person is not more powerful than a Disney subsidiary & long format content can work in the era of 140 character limits.

 

The Shorts From Saturday

It’s called elevation holmes.

jump.0

Brad Hubbard College Football, Football

The Sunday: Bad Tackling and Big Mouths

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard

Bad Tackling

The story of Saturday was LSU running back Leonard Fournette. He literally ran through the Auburn defense. While he clearly has next level talent, his talent was greatly helped by some very good blocking by the LSU offensive line and supremely bad tackling by Auburn. As we said, Fournette literally ran through the Auburn defense but trying to jump up on his shoulder pads? What was that? Auburn has some work to do.

Another example of bad tackling was when Tennessee defensive back Evan Berry was wrapped up by a Western Carolina defender….sort of. He spun out of it on his way to an  88 yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

 

Bad Idea = Great Result

While the talk down South is how Ole Miss beat Alabama in back-to-back years for the first time in school history, the real talk should be about the horrifically bad idea Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly made that turned out great. Kelly took a bad snap and with a defender bearing down on him, heaved the ball up for grabs. Luckily Ole Miss wide receiver Quincy Adeboyejo was there to come down with the ball and score a touchdown.

Pretty sure head coach Hugh Freeze said later, ‘great job, don’t ever do it again.’

 

Big Mouths 

Brett Bielema has done a great job of firing up the fanbase at Arkansas and pissing off other coaches along the way. Arkansas looked like world beaters in the last three games of 2014 and the first game of 2015. Now, they have lost two in a row and Bielema’s big mouth is coming back to haunt him. Texas Tech’s Kliff Kingsbury made sure everyone knew how he felt about Bielema’s rants this offseason after Texas Tech beat Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR.

Having a big mouth ended up in fisticuffs after the Monday Night game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Minnesota Vikings. A Vikings fan was pummeled in the parking lot after trash talking with 49ers fans. Our question is, when did 49er fans become Oakland Raiders fans? This is sad and unacceptable.

 

Sad

Notre Dame defensive back Drue Tranquill blew out his knee after doing a celebration jump with a teammate.

This reminds us of a few years ago when Georgia’s Malcolm Mitchell blew out his knee celebrating a touchdown with then Georgia running back Todd Gurley. Coaches may want to outlaw jumping celebrations.

But on a happier not, is there anything better than shots of sad Alabama fans? SBNationn put together a best of for us. We highly recommend checking it out here.

Brad Hubbard College Football, Football, NFL

The Sunday: Full Swing

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard

Perfect

There were a lot of questions about Marcus Mariota’s professional football prospects. Well things are looking good after week 1. First the Tennessee Titans beat up on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 42-14 and second, Mariota was a big part of that as he went 13-16 for 209 yards and four touchdown passes. He was, in a word, perfect.

 

Showing Class

Oklahoma defeated Tennessee in a fantastic comeback in Knoxville, TN. However now it becomes about actions by OU players after the game. OU defensive end Eric Striker and Tennessee head coach Butch Jones got into it. Jones took issue with Striker’s celebrations after the game. He told him as tweeted by Jason Kersey,

 

Later, safety Hatari Byrd was caught on video flipping off the Tennessee fans. Safe to say that if these teams meet again in the future, there would be no love lost.

Cardiac Cougars

BYU may be the 2015 football version of the ‘Cardiac Pack’.  They won their second straight game via Hail-Mary. 

There is some questioning of the Cougars though. In the last three games they have had some questionable conduct. BYU offensive lineman Ului Lapuaho punched a Boise State player squarely in the nuts during a scramble for the football on Saturday night. This comes on the heels of the brawl BYU had with Memphis in the Miami Beach Bowl last season and some questionable hits on Nebraska players two weeks ago.

The Sweetness

Love soccer or hate soccer but you have to admit, this was a thing of beauty.