| Sam Donnellon | Bold standard works, Andy
A.J. FEELEY'S passer rating suffered greatly from his three interceptions Sunday. Which is why the passer rating is one of the silliest statistics in all of sport. Because Feeley could just as easily have thrown six picks the way he was slinging it out there against the Patriots. That touchdown throw to Reggie Brown in a crowd just inside the goal line, the one Greg Lewis practically picked from the hands of two defenders in the back of the end zone, and about a half-dozen others he completed could easily have gone the other way, and led to the final score oddsmakers had in mind. Which leads us to Andy Reid - doesn't it always? The Eagles' play-calling was so wonderfully bold and unpredictable that by the end of the third quarter you felt someone had dropped a big, unexpected holiday package at your doorstep.
Fans are losers in NFL Network impasse
The NFL knew it had something special when its scheduling formula spit out a Packers-Cowboys matchup this season. While the league could never have anticipated they would rank as the top teams in the NFC, it did know the value of tradition and could document each team's enormous drawing power on national television. So when the schedule maker divvied up 2007 games among the league's television partners, it decided the Packers-Cowboys would not go to Fox, the network of the NFC, or the prime-time packages on NBC or ESPN, a trio which anted up $2.41 billion in rights fees this season. Instead, the NFL delivered the game to its own fledgling NFL Network, which will deliver the game to only one-third of the country. It's part of the league's plan to help transform an ugly duckling into a cash cow.
Basketball season!
As Webster County�s Bev Hart enters his third year as head coach of the Trojans, he�s looking for two things from his troops ... aggressive play and a nasty attitude in rebounding. The Trojans begin the 2007-08 campaign without the services of last year�s talented seniors, Jordan Coomes, Logan Dennison and James Tapp. The trio took with them a ton of points, rebounds and more importantly that hard-nosed play that the WCHS coaching staff is looking for. �Early this summer we were pretty rough around the edges. But our play got better the last two weeks of the summer and won 10-of-12 games,� Hart explained. �We really got into a rhythm and played very well. �But right now, I don�t think we�ve gotten back to that level. We�re still a little slow in decision-making and our biggest concern is defense and rebounding.
Retailers gear up for big day
Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally gives retailers a significant sales boost - should wake up consumer's wallets with plenty of holiday shopping options this weekend.Greenwood Mall will begin its shopping blitz at 6 a.m., giving away shopping bags filled with goodies for the first 500 adult patrons who show up near the carousel entrance. Bags will be filled with retail discounts and randomly placed prizes, including a Nintendo Wii, and mall gift cards ranging from $50 to $250, according to Greenwood Mall marketing manager Shelli Rose."They typically go very fast," Rose said. "People have been known to line up as early as 4 a.m."Mall shoppers can also browse the mall's seasonal in-line stores, including Pet Dreams, which provides clothing, furniture and other trendy items for pets; Kitchen Collection, which specializes in gadgets for the kitchen; Quail Hollow Candles and Gifts, and Big Country Power Sports, Rose said.At Best Buy, product process manager Kyle Gerkins will accommodate those who flood the long lines at his store early Friday morning with port-a-potties."Last year, people started lining up on Thanksgiving morning," Gerkins said.Gerkins said the store has increased its stock to handle the crowds, especially those looking to stuff stockings with flat-panel, plasma or LCD TVs, MP3 players and video game systems.Gerkins expects the Nintendo Wii to garner considerable attention again this year, since shoppers are still hungry for the console because of supply shortcomings.Digital picture frames, which flash slideshows of snapshots loaded from a memory card, are also expected to be a huge seller.Doors will open at 5 a.m.
Gogoi now rushes into award for cricketers
Two days ago, as Team India defeated Pakistan in the first one-day international cricket match at the Nehru Stadium here, the first thing that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi did was to declare a cash award of Rs 1 lakh to each of the Indian team members. What is surprising is that the Assam Government is yet to disburse cash awards that Gogoi had announced for each of the 148 players from Assam who had won medals in the 33rd National Games held here in February. Assam had won 38 gold, 53 silver and 27 bronze medals in the National Games and became the overall third best team, Gogoi had announced Rs 3 lakh, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh each for the gold, silver and bronze medallists, respectively, in individual events. For team events, the awards announced were Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh.
Knights in national spotlight
With the Rutgers women's basketball team playing nationally or regionally televised games at least twice a month all regular season, I started thinking about what these big games can do not only for the Scarlet Knights program, but also the sport of women's basketball as a whole.
RU plays on the big stage 12 times this year, including three of the five games that the Knights have played so far this season.
The increased exposure is due to a few factors: the team's heightened profile following last season's finals appearance and the fact that 12 of the Knights games are against preseason Top 25 opponents. In fact, the Dec. 30 game versus Temple on ESPNU is the only televised matchup that does not involve one of the aforementioned ranked opponents.
Playing in to both the toughness of RU's schedule, as well as the increase of TV time for the Knights, is the strength of a Big East Conference that sent eight teams to last year's NCAA Tournament.
Hardly the retiring type: Salem's Gosselin still can be found where the action is
SALEM, N.H. - The wide array of school photos which have taken over the table in Bill and Irene Gosselin's Salem home tell the story of this busy, but happy retirement.
It's been better than a half a century since Gosselin played his last down of football for Arizona State. It has been nearly as long since he last held a clipboard in a high school football coaching career that saw him crisscross the Merrimack Valley with three different teams (Lawrence, Woodbury in Salem, N.H., and Methuen), and it has also been 14 years since Gosselin last spent the bulk of his waking hours in the Methuen's AD's office.
But the fall is still all about sidelines and whistles for the Gosselins. Whether it be a middle school field hockey game in Windham one day or a freshman football game at Central Catholic the next, when you had seven athletic children who correspondingly add another 22 grandchildren into the mix, it goes with the territory.
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