Archive for November 11th, 2012

WATERCOOLER CHAT: ALABAMA STUMBLES, FALCONS FALL, LAKERS WANT PHIL JACKSON

FOOTBALL

In college football, after beating LSU, #1 Alabama thought the rest of their schedule would be a cake walk.  And that’s exactly how you stumble.  They took on Texas A&M IN ALABAMA, and quickly had their hands full.  Texas A&M was big and physical and gave the Crimson Tide fits.  Plus, their quarterback, the undersized Johnny Manziel (dubbed Johnny Football by Aggies fans) was terrific.  He threw for 253 yards and two touchdowns and led the Aggies to an upset win over Alabama.  With the loss, the Tides title hopes aren’t over, but they surely took a hit.  They will no longer be in the Top 2 (that will belong to Oregon and Kansas State), and it begs an interesting question about the SEC Championship Game, as there’s a chance that the winner WON’T play for the National Championship.  We’ll see what happens, but we might get some fresh teams in the BCS Championship game this season.  Texas A&M 29, Albama 24.
And in the NFL, the Atlanta Falcons were looking to go 9-0, but they would have to travel to a raucous New Orleans Superdome to do it.  And everybody knows that the Saints are not easy to beat at home.  The Falcons fell behind early with Drew Brees having a stellar day with 298 yards and 3 touchdowns, but the Falcons came driving back.  They had one last chance to win the game in the red zone, but the Saints defense SHOWED UP (not always the case) and kept Matt Ryan from firing a touchdown to Roddy White.  With that, the game was over, and there are no longer any undefeated teams in the NFL.  Plus, the Saints have introduced game film on how to beat the Falcons.  The NFC is up for grabs.  New Orleans 31, Atlanta 27.

BASKETBALL

Finally, in the NBA, some very interesting news.  On Friday, the Los Angeles Lakers made a very bold decision.  They decided to fire their new head coach Mike Brown after just 5 games.  The Lakers started out 1-4, and Brown said he wasn’t concerned. If you’re the owner of the Lakers, and you just shelled out millions and millions of dollars to build that powerhouse, to hear “I’m not concerned” from your head coach is not exactly the words you wanna hear.  So Brown is out, and he will be paid out the money from his contract.  But now, obviously it’s about who is going to coach the Lakers the rest of the way.  And, given their star-studded roster, they could only think of one man:  the man, the Zen-Master Phil Jackson.  They have already started talks to get Phil to come back, and they are willing to pay out the nose, because they know the players will listen to him.  But Phil is naming his price, which may include not having to attend road games (because traveling is painful  toJackson on account of his bad back). It’s still up in the air, with Mike D’Antoni and Mike Dunleavy scheduled for interviews, but Jackson is definitely the guy they want.  We should know soon.

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