Aggie87

Well, it got him closer than any defensive player ever has gone before. And part of the justification was how good his character and leadership was. Hell, he wasn't even the best defensive player in college football this past season - not by a long shot. That suggests to me the voters looked further than just what his play on the field was, when they cast their votes for him. 1. Long before my time Larry Kelly & Leon Hart and though he didn't deserve it.....Charles Woodson. 2. The Heisman really is a joke. Like Woodson, Kelley and Hart were both 2-way players. I suspect they all won due to that moreso than pure defensive skills. But yes, you're correct. Teo is the highest vote getter who was purely a defensive player, I believe.

Well, it got him closer than any defensive player ever has gone before. And part of the justification was how good his character and leadership was. Hell, he wasn't even the best defensive player in college football this past season - not by a long shot. That suggests to me the voters looked further than just what his play on the field was, when they cast their votes for him.

"Te'o committed sins of omission and those seem to be the hardest for the public to forgive." That comment also presumes that Teo isn't complicit in the whole hoax. If he was complicit, and his "heartwarming story" almost won him the Heisman and undoubtedly would have raised his draft status (if the whole fiasco hadn't come out), then his sin - to me anyway - is far worse than a simple omission. What will the next player try to do to win the Heisman and up their $$ bankability with the NFL?

Your argument about every one juicing centers on the athletes all having equal access to equal drugs that produce equal effects in each person, no? I don't think that's the case in real life. And then there were still athletes that weren't juicing at all, so those were at an unfair disadvantage, though ethically and morally correct.

Very cool!!!

I read somewhere that in the neighborhood where Tuiasasopo lived/lives, a few doors down is a family with the name Kekua. I bet he just "borrowed" it from them. Here's one link that mentions that: http://www.dailymail...o=feeds-newsxml

How Manti and Lennay really met: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLagA-fxsAg

Hey! Happy Birthday!

I think if it turns out that Teo was complicit in this hoax, then it's a shame that he was voted as high as he was in the Heisman vote. To me he clearly wasn't the best defensive player in college ball this past season - Jarvis Jones probably was. A number of others (Clowney, Damontre Moore, Mingo, Milliner, Werner, etc) were better than him as well, in my opinion. Part of his appeal was that he was a good (not great) defensive player that embodied all that was good about a college athlete. And for him to have dealt with the dual deaths of his grandmother and his supposed girlfriend in the same 24 hours, and then essentially dedicate his season to them - that's terrible. I think Teo's overall popularity because of his story helped with his Heisman campaign, and helped Notre Dame get to the national championship. On the other hand, if he wasn't involved in the hoax at all, he's got to be one of the most naive, gullible people out there. Surely things didn't add up a number of times during their online/phone relationship. Didn't he ever try to meet her? To be as deeply in love as he claimed, surely he'd have tried to meet her in person at some point before she "died". edit - some stories are indicating that the person behind the hoax is a (male) friend of Teo's. There are supposedly pictures of the two of them together. Surely if this guy was pretending to be the girlfriend, Teo would have recognized his voice? If he truly wasn't involved.

I think that eventually people will come to respect Armstrong for at least telling the truth. I don't think he'll ever be adored by the public like he was before though. The difference to me with Bonds is that I doubt he will ever tell the truth. But for him it almost doesn't matter - he's never going to be adored by the public anyway.

I'm picking Denver and San Francisco for today's games. Denver's 7-1 at home,and SF is 6-1-1. Too hard to bet against.

I'm not impressed with this hire either. Kiffin's getting a bit old to relate to today's players, IMO. Yes, he did good things a long time ago in Tampa Bay, but that was a long time ago. I'm not sure the Cowboys defense will adjust to this new direction.

H4ppy Bir7hd4y!

Rock Scissors Paper - K, you go first, then I'll tell you what I picked!

Happy Birthday, Clifford, from Sammy Hagar and me!! **note - Person with Sammy is not me, and used for illustrative purposes only.

I'm going with both home teams today, Ravens & Redskins. Though the Seahawks are hard to bet against.

I'm gonna take the Packers tonight, too. Would have taken them anyway, but the Vikes are also without Ponder tonight.

I'm picking the Texans for the first game today. Do we have to pick all the games before the first one starts, or can we pick each of them up until game time? I'd rather just pick straight up than against the spread, I think, like we've been doing all season.

There was one about 8 years ago in a Texas vs Texas A&M game. I think that's the last one that has happened in college football, so they're pretty rare. Not sure why this merits it's own thread, though.

Perhaps "not getting it" and "not liking it" aren't the same thing.

Glad I caught this, I thought we were done! I'm not sure how I managed to catch back up, I thought Moose was going to take it all. I don't think the website is letting us make our picks yet for the playoffs though - anybody else having problems?

20 years ago...

Apparently her first job out of Notre Dame was as a DJ at Corpus Christi's hard-rock radio station, C-101. That's an odd first job out of Notre Dame. I remember listening to her when she moved on to Houston and was doing radio things for the Rockets and Astros.

Some of the craft breweries or microbreweries in the U.S. produce much better beer than the big corporate beer makers (Budweiser, Coors, and Miller and their ilk). That said, I prefer European beer in almost any case.

Jade says Happy Birthday!