thesportsenthusiast-blog

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Class project. #letsmakecookies #bake #yumm #jschool

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Hanging out at the Georgia Aquarium.

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I just realized that in my disappointment with Saturday's performance, I didn't give a shout out to Kenny Bell. Amazing block. If there's one thing I take pride in, it's that people know who I support when it comes to college football. Moments after that block, I received numerous texts remarking on the incredible moment they just experienced--and then about a minute later I received more texts filled with various profanities and remarks in ALL CAPS. These were not fellow Husker fans (well a few were), these were Oklahoma State fans and Navy fans and Florida and Tennessee, and the list goes on and on. So that tells me one thing...no one believed in that call. If he had fallen with the block, if his arm wouldn't have flung out quite the way it did, or if it simply hadn't been "the best block of the year," then maybe that flag wouldn't have been thrown. It's simply football. If you do your job right, and block a guy chasing the ball carrier, he's going to hit the ground. Would that have changed the result of the game? Maybe, maybe not. But that's not the point. 

On a side note, anyone who thinks Bo needs to be fired needs to take a look back into Husker History. If you don't recall the Dark Ages of Bill Callahan (perhaps you have selective amnesia which I wouldn't blame you for), then you don't need to have an opinion about who coaches the Cornhuskers. Frank Solich was fired for a 9-3 season (Huskers went on to defeat Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl under none other than Defensive Director, and interim head coach, Bo Pelini, making it a 10-3 season).  Next year we went 5-6 and our defense fell to 56th nationally. I still resent the fact that my first season at the University of Nebraska was marred by his pathetic performance as a Head Coach. The point is, even Tom Osborne didn't have amazing success in his first five years at Nebraska. Bo has brought us back to national acclaim, and he will continue to help us rise back to the team that everyone respected in the 90's (although no college team will ever be as great as the 1995 Cornhuskers...and you know it). Not to mention, we trade out Ohio State and Wisconsin for Purdue and Illinois...so if we do our job, we'll be undefeated for the regular season. After all the rambling...great job Kenny Bell! 

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In honor of making it to the first week of Fantasy Football playoffs, I want to put a spotlight on the MVP of my team...Randall Cobb. There are several players who have been amazing this season; I was smart in predicting how dynamic the duo of Peyton Manning and Demaryius Thomas would be, and was lucky to get Heath Miller after the first few weeks of the season. Not to mention I picked up injured Trent Richardson fairly late in the draft, who has battled setbacks throughout the season but still manages to deliver solid performances. But with a team featuring stars like Arian Foster and AJ Green, it's the Wide Receiver from Green Bay who has really been the pleasant surprise. 

No one can forget his standout performance in Game 1 last season against the New Orleans Saints; I mean a 108 yard kickoff return (tying the NFL record) in his first regular season game?? Not to mention that was the second touchdown for him in that game. So when this season came around, I decided to take a chance and draft him somewhere around the eighth round; I thought maybe he'd have a few great games in him. Surprisingly, he has become one of the only players I never doubt. Just to give you an idea of his numbers, he only trails Arian Foster in fantasy points by less than four...but that does't necessarily reflect on his game performances. So maybe it's his running game that needs to be mentioned. In the 26 games he's played in the NFL, he has averaged 12 yards per carry (132 yards on 11 carries), making him tied for ninth for most yards per carry in the history of the league (since 1966). Of players who have had five or more rushes this season, he has the highest yards per carry in the NFL. I could go on all day about his performance this season, and where I imagine he is going with his career, but I won't. I just wanted to put him in the spotlight, since I don't think enough people appreciate how great an athlete he is. Not to mention I bet you can't tell me where he played college ball at...the University of Kentucky. Bet you didn't know they had a football program. That'll all change now that Mark Stoops has taken over; but that's a post for another day near in the future. 

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This to me is one of the greatest moments in the history of sports. Not because we ended up winning a gold medal, but because there will never be another moment like it in our history. Just like in the movie, when "Herb Brooks" reflects on that time, he mentions Dream Teams. We have so many Dream Teams; look at the NBA, every city has its own "Dream Team." And now, with talk about paying college athletes a salary or "stipend," it seems we are even further removed from the purity of that moment in 1980--a moment when a group of amateurs, in the purest sense of the word, beat one of the greatest hockey teams to play the game. 

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One of the greatest games in all of baseball. 

• First World Series game in history in which a team got down to its final strike, its final breath, twice -- once in the ninth inning, once in the 10th inning -- and somehow won.

• First World Series game ever played in which any team trailed five times -- and still came back to win.

• First World Series game ever in which a team found itself losing in the ninth inning and extra innings -- yet still found a way to win.

• First World Series game in history in which two players -- Josh Hamilton for the Rangers, then Freese for the Cardinals -- hit go-ahead home runs in extra innings.

• First team in the 1,330-game history of postseason baseball to score in the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th innings of any game.

They played in a baseball game that reminded all of them why they play, why we watch and why sports can be such a powerful force in all of our lives -- because the term "baseball game" doesn't begin to do justice to this remarkable life experience.

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Once a Husker always a Husker. GBR. #gbr #huskers #btn

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Amazing shot

Last week, the photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind took over The New Yorker’s Instagram account, documenting a long weekend in the English countryside with Camilla Naprous, a twenty-five-year-old rider and horse master and part of the stunt team The Devil’s Horsemen. For the past two years, the team has worked on the HBO series “Game of Thrones.” Anastasia caught up with them at the family farm in Buckinghamshire. Click-through for a selection of her photos: http://nyr.kr/ShMP9B

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Just standing in a pumpkin patch... #fall #photograph

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Cannot wait until Saturday's Big Ten Championship game. 

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And the greatest quarterback in the NFL...

Team MANNING!!!! #peytonmanning #18

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I don't think people realize how amazing this man is, and what a great coach he was. I could probably fill a book with why I think he is one of the greatest coaches of all time. 

#thanksTO #GBR #huskers #huskernation

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Best memory at Nebraska might have been meeting Tom Osborne 

The best day to be a Nebraskan. #ThanksTom #GBR #Huskers (at Memorial Stadium)

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Save a turkey, fry a hawkeye! #GBR 

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horses.