WATERCOOLER CHAT: NCAA WANTS CLOCK, HESTER LEAVING BEARS, ROUSEY CHALLENGE TO MAYWEATHER
FOOTBALL
In college football, a major ruling was tabled on account of the negative outcry. The NCAA wanted to slow down the pace of the game, by putting a 10-second clock for the defense to properly switch their line-ups between plays. The problem is that so many teams play such a fast pace of football that it is primarily built on the idea of the defense NOT being ready. Oregon, Clemson and Baylor come to mind — the types of teams that can put up 70 points per game. The coaches spoke their mind on this one, and the NCAA has listened — squashing the idea for now. This means that we will continue to see the electric brand of football in college that we have come to love.
In the NFL, it looks like the Chicago Bears might be parting with one of their long-time heroes. Their terrific kick returner, Devin Hester, who was/is always a threat to run back a touchdown, said that he likely won’t be back with the Bears next season. Hester was so fast for the Bears, they even played him at wide receiver. He wasn’t alarmingly productive at that position, but he’s still so fast that it’s difficult to keep up with where he is. He will enter the free agent market in a few days, and there are many teams who would love his services out there.
MMA
Finally, in mixed martial arts (MMA), the emerging popularity of female fighter Ronda Rousey has inflated her confidence to an alarming degree. On Wednesday, Rousey said that she thinks she could beat boxing champion Floyd Mayweather in an MMA fight. Of course the rules of that sport are very different, but Rousey didn’t seem too threatened by the gender difference. Rousey said she wouldn’t even stand up in a fight like that, she would just keep doing an army crawl around him so he couldn’t hit her. Not a bad strategy if something this crazy actually happened.
