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Vocabulary > Sports > USA > Football, Pro football
Green Bay Packers Sam Shields (37)
breaks up a pass intended for New Orleans Saints Devery
Henderson
during the first half of their NFL football game Sept. 8 in
Green Bay, Wis.
Mike Roemer/Associated Press
Boston Globe > Big Picture > 2011 NFL season kicks off
September 14, 2011
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/09/2011_nfl_season_kicks_off.html
NFL Photos > Celebrating on the field
Quarterback David Carr #8 of the Houston Texans
celebrates while running for a
touchdown against the Miami Dolphins
at Reliant Stadium October 1, 2006 in Houston, Texas.
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d80195814
NFL > Photos
Best of the 2007 Preseason
IRVING, TX - AUGUST 09: Running back Marion Barber #24 of the Dallas Cowboys
runs the ball against the Indianapolis Colts
during a preseason game at Texas Stadium on August 9, 2007 in Irving, Texas.
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d8016a8ce
NFL Photos > Best of the 2007 Preseason
CHICAGO - AUGUST 25: Garrett Wolfe #25 of the Chicago Bears
is tackled by Hannibal Navies #55 and Marcus Hudson #23 of the San Francisco
49ers
during a preseason game at Soldier Field August 25, 2007 in Chicago, Illinois.
The bears defeated the 49ers 31-28.
(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d8016a8ce
American football
USA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football
Fletcher Joe Perry
1927-2011
San Francisco 49ers’ Hall of Fame fullback
who was one of the first black stars in modern professional football
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/sports/football/26perry.html
quarterback and place-kicker > George Frederick
Blanda 1927-2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/sports/football/28blanda.html
BBC Sport > American football
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/american_football/default.stm
New York Times > Pro football
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/football/index.html
Giants
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/sports/football/super-bowl-resilient-giants-edge-patriots-to-win-super-bowl-xlvi.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/sports/football/27giants.html
New York Times > College football
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/ncaafootball/index.html
flag football
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/sports/16flag.html
National Football League
NFL
http://www.nfl.com/home
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/sports/football/junior-seau-famed-nfl-linebacker-dies-at-43-in-apparent-suicide.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/sports/football/kris-jenkinss-view-of-life-in-the-nfl-trenches.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/sports/profootball/nationalfootballleague/index.html
Boston Globe > Big Picture > 2011 NFL season
kicks off September 14, 2011
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/09/2011_nfl_season_kicks_off.html
National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal
NFL history
http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1869-1910
The New England Patriots
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2007-12-29-patriots-giants-perfection-gamer_N.htm
safety > David Russell Duerson
1960-2011
four-time Pro Bowl safety
who won Super
Bowls with the Chicago Bears and the Giants
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/sports/football/19duerson.html
linebacker
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/sports/football/junior-seau-famed-nfl-linebacker-dies-at-43-in-apparent-suicide.html
quarterback
receiver
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/sports/football/welker-drop-and-brady-safety-led-patriots-miscues.html
on the sideline
in the endzone
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/sports/football/10saints.html
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d8016a8ce
drop
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/sports/football/welker-drop-and-brady-safety-led-patriots-miscues.html
score a touchdown
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/sports/football/10saints.html
tackle / tackle
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d8016a8ce
fan
NFL Photos > Fans of the NFL
A Raider fan gets ready before the Oakland Raiders take on the Philadelphia
Eagles
in the AFC-NFC Pro Football Hall of Fame Game
at Fawcett Stadium on August 6,
2006 in Canton, Ohio.
Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d80144fe8
NFL Photos > Fans of the NFL
A fan of the Oakland Raiders watches his team as the Oakland Raiders
host the Detroit Lions at McAfee Stadium on August 25, 2006 in Oakland,
California.
Photo by David Paul Morris /Getty Images
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d80144fe8
NFL Photos > Fans of the NFL
A fan shows his support as the Seattle Seahawks play against the Arizona
Cardinals
at Qwest Field on September 17, 2006 in Seattle, Washington.
The Seahawks won 21-10.
Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d80144fe8
NFL Photos > Fans of the NFL
A Green Bay Packers fan watches them play against the Buffalo Bills on November
5, 2006
at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. Buffalo won 24-10.
Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images.
http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d80144fe8
Football > NFL > Super Bowl USA
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/super_bowl/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/sports/football/super-bowl-resilient-giants-edge-patriots-to-win-super-bowl-xlvi.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/sports/football/manninghams-patience-is-rewarded-in-critical-catch.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/sports/football/dented-by-patriots-game-plan-defense-held-together.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/sports/football/welker-drop-and-brady-safety-led-patriots-miscues.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/sports/football/nfc-title-game-overtime-win-sets-up-rematch-for-giants.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSSP7041220080204
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/games/2007-02-04-super-bowl-game-story_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2006-02-03-super-ads-usat_x.htm
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/americansports/story/0,10161,1407938,00.html
New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi (L)
celebrates
after his fourth quarter interception,
alongside teammate and linebacker Jarvis Green,
on a pass thrown by Philadelphia
Eagles quarterback Donovon McNabb
during Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Florida February 6, 2005.
Photo by
Robert Galbraith/Reuters
Brady Leads Patriots to Third Super Bowl Win in Four Years
R
Sun Feb 6, 2005 10:43 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7550869
Patriots fans tailgating outside Alltel Stadium
in Jacksonville, Fla.
Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse
PATRIOTS 24, EAGLES 21
The Dynasty Is Official
New York Times 7.2.2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/sports/football/07thegame.html
Angelo
Mancuso of Williamstown, N.J.,
voicing his support for the Eagles.
Julie Jacobson/Associated Press
PATRIOTS 24, EAGLES 21
The Dynasty Is Official
New York Times 7.2.2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/
sports/football/07thegame.html
An Eagles fan showing his true colors.
Pierre Ducharme/Reuters
PATRIOTS 24, EAGLES 21
The Dynasty Is Official
New York Times 7.2.2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07
/sports/football/07thegame.html
Junior Seau, Famed N.F.L. Linebacker, Dies at 43;
Suicide Is Suspected
May 2, 2012
The New York Times
By GREG BISHOP and ROB DAVIS
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Behind the police tape, a white coroner’s van
sat in front of a garage on the 600 block of South The Strand. It waited to
collect the body of Junior Seau, a linebacker among the most feared in N.F.L.
history, father to three teenagers, son to the mother who wailed long and loud
on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, according to the Oceanside Police, Seau’s girlfriend went to
the gym. When she returned, she found Seau in a bedroom, a gunshot wound to the
chest, a revolver found near his body but not a note. He was 43.
The police are investigating Seau’s death as a suicide, Lieutenant Leonard Mata
said, adding that they do not expect to finish the investigation until next
week.
Seau would be the second former N.F.L. player to commit suicide in the past two
weeks. Ray Easterling, a safety for the Atlanta Falcons in the 1970s and a
plaintiff in a high-profile lawsuit against the N.F.L. over its handling of
concussion-related injuries, died on April 19 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In February 2011, the former Chicago Bears star Dave Duerson shot himself in the
chest, saying in a note that he wanted his brain donated to the study of
football head injuries.
As word of Seau’s death spread through the city he long called home, the crowd
swelled outside the police tape, fans clad in Seau jerseys and San Diego
Chargers caps, carrying flowers and lighted candles and homemade signs.
At 1:17 p.m., or roughly four hours after Seau’s girlfriend called police, after
officials said they performed “lifesaving efforts” on an unconscious Seau in his
bedroom, dozens of family members and friends surrounded the coroner’s white
van. The back door opened. Seau’s body was placed inside. As the van inched
slowly down the street, through a crowd that numbered in the hundreds, Seau’s
mother, Luisa, threw her hands in the air and screamed.
“Seau’s last ride,” one onlooker noted.
“I don’t understand,” his mother said.
Outside the house with the brick front and chairs upstairs on the deck pointed
at the nearby ocean, they tried to make sense of Seau and what happened and
could not. Here was a linebacker who played 20 seasons in the N.F.L. for three
teams, who made 12 Pro Bowls and went to two Super Bowls and was named to the
1990s All-Decade Team by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Here was a man who grew up here, played college ball close by at Southern
California, starred close by with the Chargers for much of his professional
career. Here was a man who never really left the place he came from, who
directed many of his philanthropic efforts in the community where he grew up.
Here was a man with three teenage children: a daughter, Sydney, and two sons,
Jake and Hunter, at least one of whom was at the home Wednesday.
To those assembled, a crowd that included people who went to Seau’s barbershop
and stopped him to chat in local restaurants, this is how they wanted to
remember Seau, how they want him to be remembered, too. To Miles McPherson, a
former Charger, longtime friend and pastor at the Rock Church, “Junior was
superman.” When McPherson said that, heads nodded across the crowd.
The subject of Seau and how he changed or not in recent years appeared to make
his friends uncomfortable. They knew that Seau sustained minor injuries in
October 2010 when he drove his sport utility vehicle off a beachside cliff in
Carlsbad, Calif., where it landed some 100 feet below the roadside.
Earlier that day, Seau was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. Reports
at that time said Seau’s live-in girlfriend told the police Seau assaulted her
during an argument.
Friends and the police declined to speculate about Seau’s relationship with his
girlfriend. They preferred to focus on the positive, and many kept coming back
to the images that remained, like Seau, dressed perpetually in flip flops and
board shorts, talking about surfing.
The last time Shawn Mitchell, the Chargers’ chaplain, saw Seau, it was when the
team inducted him into its Hall of Fame. That was in sharp contrast from when
Mitchell visited Seau in the hospital after the crash, when Mitchell said Seau
sat with tears streaming down his face, grateful to be alive. A “mishap,”
Mitchell called the incident.
Seau began his career with the Chargers in 1990 and was traded to Miami in 2003.
After three injury-plagued seasons, the Dolphins released him. He signed a
one-day contract with the Chargers in August 2006 to announce his retirement.
Four days later, he signed with the New England Patriots and played for the 2007
team that went undefeated in the regular season and lost to the Giants in the
Super Bowl.
His last season in the N.F.L. was 2009. He finished his career with 1,524
tackles, 56 ½ sacks and 18 interceptions.
The N.F.L., the N.F.L. Players’ Association and each of the three teams Seau
played for released statements on Wednesday. All said they were deeply saddened.
“Of all the players I’ve been around, he’s the one who makes you most proud,”
said Bobby Beathard, once the general manager of the Chargers. “It’s just sad.
It’s hard to believe that now there’s no Junior.”
Family members gathered in front of the house Wednesday, singing songs and
praying. Children burst into tears. A makeshift memorial sprouted in front of
the house, with flower bouquets and candles and a sign that read, “We will miss
you.”
Later in the afternoon, another van pulled up in front of the house, to take
Seau’s mother from the scene. Two relatives helped her inside as she told the
crowd she appreciated how so many of them loved her son.
Junior Seau, Famed N.F.L. Linebacker, Dies at 43; Suicide
Is Suspected, NYT, 2.5.2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/sports/football/junior-seau-famed-nfl-linebacker-dies-at-43-in-apparent-suicide.html
Giants Beat Patriots in Final Rally
February 5, 2012
The New York Times
By JUDY BATTISTA
INDIANAPOLIS — Four years ago, the Giants were the charming underdogs who
took the New England Patriots’ perfect season and made it imperfect.
This season, however, having survived summer injuries and defections, a
four-game losing streak, calls for the coach’s job and six fourth-quarter
comebacks, the Giants arrived at their Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots as
something that seemed more formidable: a team prepared to face a deficit and
overcome it.
They did it again Sunday night.
Just as they did four years ago, the Giants prevailed in the final minute
against the Patriots, beating New England, 21-17 and giving the franchise its
fourth Super Bowl championship — one more than the Patriots — and its second in
four years over this generation’s greatest coach-quarterback combination, Bill
Belichick and Tom Brady.
The Giants are an improbable champion in an improbable season, one that nearly
did not begin because of a lockout, and ended with their becoming the first 9-7
team in N.F.L. history to lift the Lombardi Trophy.
For the Patriots, who were 13-3 in the regular season, it was another bitter
loss, a devastating repeat of the defeat that ended their undefeated 2007
season. They have won three titles, but none since the 2004 season, casting
their dynasty into the distance while the Giants are the only repeat champions
of the last five years.
“I thought four years ago was exciting,” the team co-owner Steve Tisch said.
“That was a dress rehearsal.”
The victory came, fittingly for a season with so many strange twists, in the
oddest fashion. Trailing by 2 points with 3 minutes 46 seconds remaining, the
Giants started the winning drive. Manning — who now has one more championship
than his brother Peyton — lofted a perfect pass down the left sideline to Mario
Manningham, who kept his feet inbounds by inches with two defenders on his back.
The pass went for 38 yards, a pointed answer to the yearlong question of whether
Eli was an elite player.
With a minute remaining, running back Ahmad Bradshaw rushed through a wide-open
hole — the Patriots were instructed to let him score — and tried to fall down.
That would have limited the Patriots’ time to mount a comeback of their own.
But his momentum carried him into the end zone, the 6-yard touchdown run giving
the Giants a 4-point lead with 57 seconds left. The Giants barely celebrated
because they knew that meant Brady had nearly a minute and one timeout to score
a touchdown.
The Giants’ defense, maligned early in the season after being decimated by
injuries during training camp, had pulled itself together for critical wins in
the final weeks of the season against the Jets and the Dallas Cowboys, then for
the playoff run. And starting with 57 seconds left, they thwarted Brady one last
time, pressuring him and forcing incompletions, dropped passes, and finally, on
a desperation heave into the end zone in the final seconds, a pass the fell
harmlessly to the ground.
The Giants co-owner John Mara said he held his breath. Coach Tom Coughlin, whose
job status was questioned for much of the season, said he could not scream loud
enough to knock down the pass. When it finally fell, and the blue and red
confetti rained down on the field, Coughlin had won as many championships as his
mentor, Bill Parcells, the former Giants coach who won the franchise’s first two
Super Bowls.
“You know what, I felt pretty good about our team the whole time,” Coughlin said
of the season. “I knew there was stuff going on on the outside. You lose a game
in New York and you’re fired. Burned at the stake.”
This victory should buy him a little breathing room. The Giants were rarely
dominant this season, but they were often indomitable, led by Manning. He
completed 30 of 40 passes for 296 yards and a touchdown, and was named the
game’s most valuable player for the second time.
The Patriots’ offense suffered with the star tight end Rob Gronkowski seemingly
at less than full strength after injuring his left ankle two weeks ago.
Gronkowski, who had the most productive season by a tight end in N.F.L. history,
was held to two catches for 26 yards.
The Giants controlled most of the first half, looking sharper and more focused
than the gaffe-laden Patriots did. They opened the scoring by forcing Brady,
packed into his end zone with Justin Tuck giving chase, into throwing the ball
so far away that he was called for intentional grounding, worth a safety and the
game’s first 2 points.
It was an unusual mental mistake by Brady but just the first in a cascade of
lapses that put the Patriots in an early hole. When the Giants got the ball back
again, the Patriots were called for 12 men on the field, which negated a fumble
by Giants receiver Victor Cruz. Two plays later, Manning rifled a 2-yard pass to
Cruz in the end zone, giving the Giants a 9-0 lead.
“Amazing, I dreamed of this moment,” said Cruz, the breakout star of the Giants’
season. He added: “This is the best feeling of my life. I want to catch some
confetti. I want to bring it home.”
When the Patriots finally got the ball back — for only their second play, with
3:24 remaining in the first quarter — they drove deep into Giants territory. But
Jason Pierre-Paul batted down a Brady pass on third-and-4 from the 11, forcing
the Patriots to settle for a 29-yard field goal.
“There were 100 plays you could be talking about, and I would take a lot of
them,” Belichick said when asked what plays the Patriots could have executed
better.
But it was a mistake by the Giants that ended their momentum. With Manning
driving them again midway through the second quarter, guard Kevin Boothe was
called for holding, negating a first down and effectively ending the drive.
That put the ball in Brady’s hands with 4:03 left before halftime. The Patriots
deferred the opening kickoff the way they usually do because they crave the
opportunity to double up an opponent: to score on the final drive of the first
half, then again on the first drive of the second.
In this case, the Patriots got a significant assist from the Giants, who decided
to play deep, taking away the big play but allowing an accurate Brady to chew up
the field. The Patriots’ drive began on the 4 and was pushed back another 2
yards on a holding call.
With Brady unleashing quick pass after quick pass to nullify the Giants’ pass
rush, he shredded the defense, completing 10 of 10 attempts for 98 yards. A
4-yard touchdown pass to Danny Woodhead with eight seconds remaining was a gut
punch, a reminder that the Patriots are rarely out of a game, no matter how
poorly they start, as long as Brady is on the field.
Then, Belichick’s strategy worked perfectly when the Patriots went on a surgical
79-yard touchdown drive to open the second half.
After Brady completed a 12-yard scoring pass to Aaron Hernandez that put the
Patriots ahead, 17-9, he tapped the MHK patch on his jersey and pointed to the
heavens, a reminder that Brady and the Patriots were playing the season in
memory of Myra Kraft, the wife of the team’s owner, Robert K. Kraft. Myra Kraft
died last summer after a long struggle with cancer just as the lockout ended.
The Patriots’ defense, porous most of the season, held the Giants to two
straight field goals in the third quarter, helping the Patriots cling to the
lead until those final scintillating minutes.
And so, the final game turned out to be a microcosm of the Giants’ season, and
of the N.F.L. season as a whole. They had skidded to the edge of disaster, only
to pull off a victory one last time.
“We just fought to the very end,” Manning said.
Until the Lombardi Trophy was theirs once again.
Giants Beat Patriots in Final Rally, NYT, 5.2.2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/sports/football/super-bowl-resilient-giants-edge-patriots-to-win-super-bowl-xlvi.html
An Ordinary Football Game, Then a Player Dies
October 19, 2011
The New York Times
By JORGE CASTILLO
PHOENIX, N.Y. — Football coaches and school administrators at John C.
Birdlebough High School congregated in a small room off the library Monday,
huddling around a computer for a most painful and unusual review of game video.
They examined every play that one student was involved in, assuming the role of
medical examiners.
They were trying to discern which collision of the hundreds in a football game
at Homer High School on Friday night might have caused Ridge Barden, a
16-year-old defensive tackle, to fall to the turf in the third quarter and die
within a few hours. The coroner attributed Barden’s death to a subdural
hematoma, or a brain bleed.
“There’s nothing here; there’s still nothing there; there’s nothing there;
there’s nothing there — and now he’s laying on his stomach,” Jeff Charles, the
head coach, said while watching the sequence frame by frame.
As those who play and coach football learn new ways to improve safety — through
training, medical response and equipment — sometimes they are left to
contemplate this: brains remain vulnerable, and even the most ordinary
collisions on the field can kill.
Teenagers are especially susceptible to having multiple hits to the head result
in brain bleeds and massive swelling, largely because the brain tissue has not
yet fully developed. According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport
Injury Research, Barden was the 13th high school player to die from a brain
injury sustained on a football field since 2005 and the third this year.
Including college and youth football players, there have been 18 fatalities
since 2005.
With heightened attention focused on brain injuries in football in recent years,
Barden’s death delivered an unwelcome reminder that even the best-known
practices sometimes fall short. As it happened, the Senate Commerce Committee,
the latest group in Washington to explore the topic, held a hearing Wednesday to
discuss concussions in sports and the controversial marketing of
“anticoncussion” equipment.
Barden had no history of head trauma and showed no concussion symptoms, his
coaches and father said. The Cortland County coroner’s office said the autopsy
showed no evidence of a pre-existing problem.
Barden’s helmet, a Riddell Revolution, was purchased by the school two years ago
directly from Riddell. It was reconditioned after last season and recertified
for use in 2011 by Stadium System, a company based in Canaan, Conn., that
reconditions helmets for hundreds of schools around the country.
Two certified athletic trainers and three student trainers from the nearby State
University of New York at Cortland were on hand and treated Barden on the field,
and emergency medical technicians arrived with an ambulance within minutes.
“You can have the perfect plan in place but if all of these things happen, it
can still result in a catastrophic injury and death,” said Kevin Guskiewicz, the
chairman of the department of exercise and sports science at the University of
North Carolina and a leading researcher on sports concussions.
Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, director of the Michigan NeuroSport concussion program at
the University of Michigan, was among the witnesses who testified at the Senate
hearing Wednesday. “Those kind of injuries are very rare, they’re catastrophic,
they will happen and there’s no real way of preventing them through equipment,”
he said about Barden’s death in an interview after the hearing. “That’s going to
happen any time there are impacts to the head of significant force.”
After reviewing the video, the coaching staff deduced that the critical blow was
sustained on Barden’s second-to-last play, a routine collision with an opposing
lineman at the line of scrimmage. But Barden appeared to be fine as he prepared
for the next play.
At first, after collapsing, he was groggy but responsive and coherent, Mr.
Charles said. Barden told his coach that he had sustained a helmet-to-helmet hit
and that his head hurt. Barden rolled over on his back then sat up on his own,
but his condition quickly deteriorated. He began moaning and closing his eyes.
When asked to stand up, he tried but immediately collapsed.
The emergency technicians planned to take Barden to University Hospital in
Syracuse, about 45 minutes away, but they rerouted when Barden went into cardiac
arrest. While the crew performed CPR, the ambulance drove three minutes to
Cortland Medical Center instead.
When Barden’s father and grandmother arrived from Phoenix, the doctor told them
he was dying; only CPR was keeping him alive. At 10:18 p.m., less than two hours
after the seemingly ordinary play at the 6-yard line, Barden was pronounced
dead.
Dr. Guskiewicz said the only way Barden might have been saved from a subdural
hematoma would have been if he had undergone immediate surgery to relieve the
pressure on his brain. But a CT scan would have been needed to diagnose the
problem, and, according to accounts, Barden’s condition deteriorated too quickly
for him to have a CT scan.
Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon at Boston University and a leading expert in
sports-related head injuries, said that in cases similar to Barden’s, in which
the person was conscious right after the hit before quickly deteriorating, he
had discovered that the subdural hematoma was not the cause of death but rather
massive brain swelling. And in many cases the condition began with a previous
hit and a second impact was the lethal blow.
Dr. Cantu said he could not speak to the particulars of Barden’s case without
examining the brain.
“All I can simply say is that when I see this precipitous deterioration, my ears
immediately go up and I wonder about second-impact syndrome in association with
subdural hematoma,” Dr. Cantu said, adding that an original blow can be
sustained off the field. “But it’s the second impact that’s the lethal part.”
Students, coaches and administrators remembered Barden this week as a straight-A
student who would walk a long way from his home to school for voluntary workouts
in the summer. Friday night’s game was his first start with the varsity team.
The community was left wondering what could have been done differently. The
coach, Mr. Charles, contemplated whether he could return to coaching football.
His team’s last game of the season has been canceled.
“I will never bad-mouth the sport of football,” Mr. Charles said. “I played it
and I loved it and I’ve coached for years, but it does make me take a second
look at it.
“I’ve had a few people asking if I’d coach again, and you know what, I don’t
know. Right now I think the irrational thing would be to say: ‘No, I don’t feel
like coaching again. It scares me.’ But to be honest, I don’t know how it’s
going to affect my coaching. It scares me right now that I don’t know if I will
be a good coach.”
Barden’s father, Jody, said he had no objection to the sport in the wake of his
son’s death.
“I just don’t want a negative spin on this,” Mr. Barden said Sunday. “There is
no blame in this. I don’t want to scare kids from playing the game. Ridge loved
playing the game, and I know he wouldn’t want it to get a bad name.”
An Ordinary Football
Game, Then a Player Dies, NYT, 19.5.2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/sports/seemingly-ordinary-football-game-then-a-player-dies.html
No. 1 U.S.C. 35, No. 5 Ohio State 3
Trojans Leave No Doubt About Who Is No. 1
September 14, 2008
The New York Times
By PETE THAMEL
LOS ANGELES — As college football scripts go, this potential blockbuster
never would have made it to the big screen.
When No. 1 Southern California met No. 5 Ohio State in the first marquee event
of college football’s regular season, the much-hyped matchup turned into a
big-time bust.
In U.S.C.’s 35-3 mauling of the Buckeyes before 93,607 at the Los Angeles
Coliseum, the characters were too familiar, the results too predictable and the
lack of drama too obvious.
Coupled with Georgia’s hard-won victory over South Carolina on Saturday, the
Trojans established themselves as the best team in the country and the favorites
to win the national title. After losses to Stanford and Oregon kept them from
the Bowl Championship Series title game last season, the stars have realigned in
Troy.
“Tonight, it didn’t matter who we were playing,” U.S.C. Coach Pete Carroll said.
The underwhelming performance by Ohio State was the third consecutive time it
imploded on college football’s biggest stage. Twice in the past two national
title games, the Buckeyes self-destructed. This performance will probably give
them the hook from the national title race, to the joy of college football fans
outside the Big Ten who have built up a resentment toward the Buckeyes because
of their big-game foibles.
U.S.C. used the stage to showcase the latest in its long line of stars. The
junior quarterback Mark Sanchez completed 17 of 28 passes for 172 yards and 4
touchdowns. The sophomore tailback Joe McKnight followed up his dazzling Rose
Bowl performance by rushing for 105 yards on 12 carries.
“When he has time and a little bit of space, anything can happen,” Sanchez said
of McKnight.
Ohio State played without its injured star tailback, Chris Wells, but the
Buckeyes’ biggest problem was that they could not get out of their own way.
Todd Boeckman’s second-quarter interception that resulted in Rey Maualuga’s
48-yard return for a touchdown epitomized an error-filled day for Ohio State.
The touchdown gave U.S.C. a 21-3 lead and rendered the rest of the game a
formality.
It also offered the definitive image of Boeckman’s long night, because he had a
perfect angle to push Maualuga out of bounds. Instead, he appeared tentative,
uninterested in making the tackle, and was driven to the turf by two Trojans.
Boeckman finished 14 of 21 for 84 yards and two interceptions.
Much as Louisiana State’s had in the national title game in January, U.S.C.’s
pass rush exposed Boeckman’s lack of mobility. When he is forced to move around,
he transforms from a solid quarterback into a major liability.
And if his poor performance was not enough, Boeckman will probably find himself
mired in a quarterback controversy when he returns to Columbus. The freshman
Terrelle Pryor, the nation’s top quarterback recruit last season, moved the ball
much more effectively than Boeckman when he was intermittently mixed in for more
than a dozen snaps. Along with just how far the Buckeyes will drop in the polls,
the other question hovering around them will be when Coach Jim Tressel will
supplant Boeckman with Pryor, who finished 7 of 9 for 52 yards.
“The big-game setting was not too big for him,” Carroll said.
After leading at halftime, 21-3, the Trojans poured it on in the third quarter.
They outgained the Buckeyes, 135 yards to 2, and Sanchez lofted two touchdown
passes to Damian Williams, from 24 and 17 yards. Williams was so open in the end
zone on the second touchdown that he could have done a cartwheel while the ball
was in the air and still caught it.
“He caught it like a punt,” Sanchez said.
The game had all the familiar trappings of a U.S.C. home game, right down to the
lopsided final score. The game-time temperature was 74 degrees. From the parking
lots jammed five hours before the game to the four-jet flyover before the
kickoff, the evening had a red-carpet feel.
Ohio State actually led, 3-0, and moved the ball efficiently in the first half,
mixing Pryor and Boeckman on its scoring drive. But the Trojans took the lead,
7-3, on a dazzling play from an old-school position. The fullback Stanley Havili
caught a 35-yard pass with his fingertips, making Tressel sound like a prophet.
“Their fullback is one of the best receivers you’ll ever see,” Tressel had said
Tuesday in a news conference.
Tressel saw plenty more superlative plays on Saturday. Just as it was in Ohio
State’s title game flops against Florida and Louisiana State, the Buckeyes’
early lead became nothing but a curious footnote.
And much as it had in those games, Ohio State repeatedly shot itself in the
foot. Two false-start penalties stymied the Buckeyes’ opening drive.
Ohio State’s signature penalty came when a holding call on Ben Person nullified
a Boeckman touchdown pass to Brian Robiskie. Earlier in the drive, Ohio State
had appeared to earn a first-and-goal from the 3 until that play was nullified
by another holding penalty. A touchdown on the drive would have cut the lead to
14-10. Instead, Ryan Pretorius missed a 46-yard field goal.
That was the last time the game was competitive, and the old plot lines quickly
re-emerged. U.S.C. is again the unquestioned best team in the country. And Ohio
State melted down on college football’s biggest stage.
Trojans Leave No Doubt
About Who Is No. 1, NYT, 14.9.2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/sports/ncaafootball/14usc.html
College Football
No. 3 Missouri 36, No. 2 Kansas 28
Missouri Hands Kansas Its First Loss
November 25, 2007
The New York Times
By THAYER EVANS
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 24 — After No. 3 Missouri’s 36-28 victory against No.
2 Kansas on Saturday night, Tigers fans proudly made the No. 1 sign with their
index fingers.
For the first time in team history, Missouri could be exactly that when the Bowl
Championship Series standings are released Sunday after the Tigers won the Big
12 North title and the latest game in this heated border rivalry on a frigid
night before 80,537 rowdy fans at Arrowhead Stadium. Top-ranked Louisiana State
lost Friday.
Missouri (11-1, 7-1 Big 12) could also top the Associated Press poll for the
first time since 1960, when it held the spot for a week.
“It’s great,” Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel said of a possible No. 1 ranking. “It’s
good. I don’t know what you want me to do. I’m not going to jump up and do a
backflip. I can’t do that.”
The freshman wide receiver Jeremy Maclin said: “We’ve got all the right pieces.
Now, you’ve got to put the puzzle together. We’re almost done putting that
puzzle together.”
The Tigers will next play No. 10 Oklahoma (10-2, 6-2) Dec. 1 in the Big 12
Championship game in San Antonio. Last month, Missouri lost at Oklahoma, 41-31.
Kansas (11-1, 7-1), which entered the game ranked eighth nationally in defense
at 300 yards a game, gave up 519 yards of offense to the Tigers.
“Missouri’s offense is really talented,” Kansas Coach Mark Mangino said. “They
pitch and catch very well.”
In front of a national television audience, the Missouri junior quarterback
Chase Daniel made a strong case to be considered for the Heisman Trophy by
completing 40 of 49 passes for 361 yards and 3 touchdowns.
“This guy is special,” Pinkel said of Daniel. “I’ve said this for a year and a
half. America got to see today how special he is. What a remarkable competitor.”
This season, Daniel has thrown for 3,951 yards and 33 touchdowns, and has thrown
9 interceptions.
Asked whether his play Saturday night was worthy of a Heisman, Daniel said:
“I’ll let you all take care of that. I’m just playing football and trying to win
football games.”
Trailing by 14-0 at halftime, Kansas took the second-half kickoff and drove deep
into Missouri territory before quarterback Todd Reesing was intercepted at the
Tigers’ 11 by Castine Bridges, who returned the ball 49 yards.
After the interception, Missouri covered 40 yards in a seven-play drive capped
by a 1-yard touchdown run by Jimmy Jackson for a 21-0 advantage with 10 minutes
36 seconds left in the third quarter.
The teams traded touchdowns before Kansas scored its second touchdown on
Reesing’s 5-yard run with 13:02 left in the game. Missouri kicker Jeff Wolfert’s
43-yard field goal a little more than three minutes later made the score 31-14,
allowing the Tigers to remain as the only team in the Football Bowl Subdivision
to score at least 30 points in every game this season.
Kansas pulled to 10 points behind after a 10-yard Reesing touchdown pass with
8:28 left in the game, but the Tigers scored on another field goal by Wolfert.
Reesing then threw another touchdown pass, but the Jayhawks could not recover
their onside kick with about two minutes left.
Missouri scored the game’s final points on a safety with 12 seconds left,
setting off flickering camera flashes throughout the stadium.
The stakes of Saturday night’s game were perhaps the biggest of the 116 meetings
between the teams. The annual game is the second most-played rivalry in the bowl
subdivision, behind Wisconsin-Minnesota.
The Tigers opened the scoring with 29 seconds left in the first quarter. Facing
fourth-and-goal, they lined up in a shotgun, five-wide receiver formation from
which Daniel passed to tight end Martin Rucker for a 1-yard touchdown at the
Missouri end of the stadium.
Afterward, Daniel jumped up and down, swinging his arms upward to pump up the
frenzied Tigers fans.
Kansas, which entered the game having only trailed for 27:15 this season,
advanced into Missouri territory for the first time on the second play of the
ensuing drive on Reesing’s 39-yard pass to wide receiver Kerry Meier that went
to the Tigers’ 26.
On the next play, Reesing underthrew wide receiver Dexton Fields at the Tigers’
2 and was intercepted. It was Reesing’s first interception in 213 passing
attempts, dating to last month’s Kansas State game.
The Tigers converted the turnover into Daniel’s second touchdown of the game, a
11-yard pass to wide receiver Danario Alexander for a 14-0 lead with 9:21 left
in the second quarter. On the play, Daniel scrambled for 12 seconds and received
a key block from an offensive lineman right before he threw the ball.
Kansas rebounded on its next possession and drove to the Missouri 16. From
there, Scott Webb missed a 33-yard field-goal attempt, his kick hitting the
right upright with 6:26 left in the second quarter.
After the miss, Mangino calmly walked over to his offense on the sideline and
began raising his right hand, which held his game plan, as if to tell his
players to keep their heads up.
After a Missouri punt, Webb missed another field goal, this time wide left from
45 yards with less than 90 seconds left in the second quarter.
Webb’s misses would have made a difference against a Missouri team that could be
the Associated Press poll’s fourth new No. 1 this season.
Missouri Hands Kansas
Its First Loss, NYT, 25.11.2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/sports/ncaafootball/25kansas.html
Appalachian State 34, No. 5 Michigan 32
Appalachian State Stuns Michigan
September 2, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 1 (AP) — Dexter Jackson sprinted through the
secondary early in the first quarter, taunting nearly 110,000 Michigan fans by
putting a finger over his lips en route to the end zone. Nearly three hours
later, he got the desired result and the Big House was silent: Appalachian State
34, No. 5 Michigan 32.
Julian Rauch kicked a 24-yard field goal with 26 seconds left to put the
Mountaineers ahead of the Wolverines and Corey Lynch blocked a field goal in the
final seconds to seal a jaw-dropping upset that may have no equal.
“I told them to be quiet — we’re going to be out here all day,” Jackson said,
explaining the gesture he used after scoring a 68-yard touchdown. “We’re
playmakers. They were talking trash on us, now we’ve gotten them back.
“It was David versus Goliath.”
Mike Hart, Chad Henne and Jake Long, Michigan’s threesome of offensive stars who
put off the N.F.L. and returned for their senior season to chase a national
title, never saw this coming.
Coach Lloyd Carr did not, either, after tweaking his contract to possibly pave
the way for this to be his last season on the sideline. Carr looked ashen as the
upset unfolded, and did not sound much better when he finally arrived at his
postgame news conference.
“I’ve never been part of a loss that wasn’t miserable,” he said.
Appalachian State made up for a slight size disadvantage with superior speed
and, perhaps, more passion.
The Mountaineers, the two-time defending champions from the former Division
I-AA, were ahead of Michigan, which has more victories than any college program,
by 28-14 late in the second quarter, before their storybook afternoon seemed to
unravel late in the fourth quarter. Hart’s 54-yard run with 4 minutes 36 seconds
left put the Wolverines ahead for the first time since early in the second
quarter.
One snap after the go-ahead touchdown, Michigan’s Brandent Englemon intercepted
an errant pass, but the Wolverines could not capitalize and had their first of
two field goals blocked.
Then Appalachian State drove 69 yards without a timeout in 1:11 to set up the
go-ahead field goal.
Henne threw a 46-yard pass to Mario Manningham, giving Michigan the ball at
Appalachian State’s 20 with six seconds left and putting the Wolverines in
position to win it with a field goal.
Lynch blocked the kick and returned it 52 yards to the 18 as the final seconds
ticked off. His teammates rushed across the field to pile on as the coaching
staff and cheerleaders jumped with joy.
“We’re still sort of shocked,” Coach Jerry Moore said after being carried off
the field by his players.
Appalachian State has won 15 consecutive games, the longest streak in the
nation. The Mountaineers are favored to win the Football Championship
Subdivision, but they were not expected to challenge a team picked to win the
Big Ten and contend for the national title. No Division I-AA team had beaten a
team ranked in the Associated Press poll from 1989-2006, and it is unlikely that
it happened after Division I subdivisions were created in 1978.
“Someone said it might be one of the big victories in college football,” Moore
said. “It may be the biggest.”
Appalachian State Stuns
Michigan, NYT, 2.9.2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/sports/ncaafootball/02michigan.html
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