My Top 10 Sports Movies

This is something I have thought about for a while, yet have had a very difficult time deciding on. I wish I could say that was because of the countless great sports movies all vying for the honors, but its quite the opposite. Hollywood has always had a very difficult time delivering authentic sports movies. The balance between feel goodiness and realism is a very difficult tightrope to manage, and few have done it successfully.

I realize that there are several solid sports movies that I have never seen (Eight Men Out, Chariots of Fire, Bang the Drum Slowly to name a few), and I will make it my point over the next 2 months to watch them, and adjust the list if need be. And since it is too hard to include comedies in this category, I have added a top 5 comedy list.

Top 10 Sports Movies:
1. Hoosiers
2. Rocky
3. Miracle
4. The Wrestler

5. Cinderella Man
6. Seabiscuit

7. Raging Bull
8. Field of Dreams
9. We Are Marshall
10. Friday Night Lights

Top 5 Sports Comedies:
1. Caddyshack
2. The Big Lebowski
3. Major League
4. Happy Gilmore
5. Dodgeball

Click Here for SportSpectator Rankings

Penn's Huge Win

I know it may seem a little ridiculous for a team that is 4-15 overall and 3-2 in the Ivy League and fired their coach 7 games into the season, to have what I would a "Huge Win". However the ramifications of last night's shocking home victory over Cornell could possibly be felt all the way to March 15th. As most of us should know by the Ivy does their automatic selection the old fashioned way, no conference tournament, regular season champ gets the bid. And the majority of the college basketball world all just assumed that the regular season would be a coronation of the Cornell Big Red, given the fact they are a nationally ranked, senior laden team that almost went into Lawrence and beat the odds on pick to win it all in Kansas. Pretty much everyone assumed they would run the table, or end up 13-1 and cruise to the title, however, surprisingly Princeton has surged to an undefeated start and until yesterday was tied with Cornell for the lead, not Harvard who most expected to be Cornell's main challenger. The thing is, even after Princeton's hot start most expected Cornell at the worst to maybe split their games with Princeton, end up 13-1 and get their bid. Penn has changed everything with their shocking win last night, and yes it was shocking. They were a 17.5 point underdog at home to a team that hadn't lost a game to anyone outside the Big 12 or Big East all year. Why this is such a huge loss is that if Princeton can somehow run the table, not impossible in the weak Ivy as they have already won at Harvard which would be the toughest non-Cornell game on the schedule, and gather a split with Cornell they, not Cornell will take the automatic bid. This could result in an unprecedented first automatic bid for the Ivy League in the conference's history. Never before has a team warranted an automatic bid from the Ivy because they never generally have 2 teams worthy of a bid, and if they have 1 they usually dominate the league. Princeton's hot start has changed all that. Now for the tough part, winning even at home against Cornell will be tough, even in Penn did it as a fluke, Princeton will still be roughly a 5-7 point underdog most likely. But if it does play out like above, if Cornell ends up 22-5, 12-2 in the Ivy, and Princeton runs the table I don't think the committee will be able to justify keeping Cornell out with their resume, and some angry team will be sitting at home cursing and wondering why and how Penn, a 17.5 point underdog, managed to beat mighty Cornell.

Bobs Superbowl Pick

I'll start by saying that this line makes me nervous. The Colts have been impossible to bet against this entire season and the playoffs haven't been any different. That being said, with the exception of last week, the Saints haven't exactly been a fluke. Their performance against the Vikings left a lot to be desired, and I imagine they'll have tweaked a few of their defensive schemes to avoid giving up that kind of yardage in the Superbowl. Even though the Colts are the better team and although I generally don't buy into destiny stories, I think this is the year for the Saints. I'm taking the 5 and hoping its close late.

New Orleans +5 vs. Indianapolis

Playoffs: 3-5
Season: 29-18-1

UFC 109 Predictions

Its time for some quick UFC 109 predictions a half an hour before the PPV event starts. This event is interesting. Some great fighters, but not exactly great fights. It seems like they are all pretty easy to call, but anything can happen in the Octagon. Here goes...

Matt Serra over Frank Trigg: I've never been a Trigg fan and although Serra is coming off a huge fight layoff, I expect him to win this late in the fight.

Demian Maia over Dan Miller: Maia is coming off an awfully quick loss to Marquardt but is still one of the best in his weight class. This should be easy.

Paulo Thiago over Mike Swick: This fight could go either way, but I am more impressed by Thiagos last 2 wins than I am with Mike "The Machinist" Swicks victories. Should be interesting.

Nate Marquardt over Chael Sonnen: Sonnen is a tough guy but Nate the Great is on a mission for a title shot. This is my lock of the night.

Randy Couture over Mark Coleman: Im not sure how Coleman got to this point. He has 4 fights in the last 12 years and has lost 3 of them. His only win was against one of my favorites, Bonnar, but lets be real, it wasn't that impressive. Couture is old, but he is light years ahead of Coleman.

Prop Bet Madness

Here's the game:

You have $1000 dollars to gamble on Super Bowl Prop Bets. You have to use all $1000 and whoever has the most money after the Super Bowl wins. I'm trying it out this way instead of just plain heads up wins and losses. Click below to see our entries this year.

SUPER BOWL PROP BET GAME PICKS

Raleigh's Super Bowl Prediction

New Orleans vs Indianapolis (-5)

I know I shouldn't go based on one game but that NFC Championship really turned me off to New Orleans. To turn a team over five times and still need overtime in your building to win was off-putting. I'll be rooting for the Saints but their performance two weeks ago and the fact that nobody has beaten Peyton Manning this year is giving me the feeling that it'll be a 31-21 game.

New Orleans does have an opportunistic defense (8 defensive touchdowns) and being that the Colts don't run means Peyton does throw it up for grabs more than you may think (16 INTs). I think the Colts will win either way but I think a Saints cover lies in a defensive TD and I'm not taking that prop so I'm taking Indy.

Since I was 24-24-3 during the regular season and 4-4 in the playoffs, this game will probably push officially ending my average NFL picks season.

Concussions in Professional Football

Lately, the way I watch football is very different. It has become impossible to watch a football game with the usual disregard for player's safety since the long term effects of multiple concussions have become more public. I say "more public" because the risks have been researched for the last several years, but it has only been in the last 2 years that the NFL has acknowledged a possible link between repeat concussions and mental.

It started this past fall when I was reading the October issue of GQ. In an article titled "Game Brain" I began reading of several ex-NFL players who had essentially gone crazy shortly after their playing days were over. Now, it wouldn't be surprising that a few athletes lose their mind after a raucous, violent, and possible alcohol and drug fueled playing career. But this wasn't Carl Everett crazy. This was full blown depression, Alzheimer's, paranoia, dementia, and almost everything in between.

Take Mike Webster. Hall of Fame Center, Nine time Pro-Bowler and 4 time Superbowl winner with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was dead at the age of 50 after years of bizarre behavior that included urinating in his oven, putting superglue on his teeth and using a taser gun to zap himself into unconsciousness just to get some sleep. His life ended broke, homeless and living in a truck. Andre Waters, the bruising Philadelphia Eagle safety, shot himself in the mouth after years of battling depression. Then there is Terry Long. Another Steeler who eventually killed himself by drinking anti-freeze after years of depression, memory loss and suicide attempts. Hall of fame Tight End John Mackey of the Baltimore Colts has also battled dementia for years after a career that was riddled with injuries deemed not serious enough to miss gameday.

What all of these guys and so many more have in common is a disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. Essentially, it is severe brain damage caused by repeat trauma to the head. Often seen in boxers, it had never really been studied in football players until a few scientists from the University of Pittsburgh and an ex-WWE wrestler from Harvard decided to start digging deeper. After years of having their data swept underneath the rug at the NFL, they have finally generated enough pressure and overwhelming evidence that the NFL is finally starting to take notice and implement some rule changes meant to curb the rising tide of head injuries.

It is already too late for John Mackey and scores of players from his generation, but there is hope that the athletes of tomorrow may fare better. More brain analysis is being done everyday and many current football players have already offered their brains to be used for science when they die. But the real question is, can you ever make football safe? The answer, is no. But could there be a way to make football safer, so that the risks associated are clear and avoidable? Lets hope so.

http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel/index.html#/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel/episodes/0/154-january-19-2010

http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/200909/nfl-players-brain-dementia-study-memory-concussions?currentPage=1