bender's profile

bender
15449
Name: Jeff Zelek
Location: Fairfax, VA
Gender: male
Member since: September 13, 2006
Last visit: November 06, 2009

bender has posted 1 link and 228 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 2 comments to the Locker Room.

Sports Bio

My teams:
Ohio State Buckeyes
Tennessee Titans
US Soccer
Cleveland Indians
Washington Capitals
Columbus Crew
Vanderbilt Commodores
Washington Nationals
Nashville Predators

Significant sporting events I've attended:
1999 Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tennessee Titans (inaugural game for the Titans)
2001 and 2002 Memorial (golf) Tournaments
Ohio State vs. M*ch*g*n 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 (and many other Ohio State games)
2004 Fiesta Bowl Ohio State vs. Kansas State
2006 World Cup USA vs. Ghana
2007 BCS National Championship Game Ohio State vs. Florida

Stadia I've been to:

Football:
Neyland Stadium (University of Tennessee)
Vanderbilt Stadium
Adelphia Coliseum (Tennessee Titans)
Memorial Stadium (University of Illinois)
Notre Dame Stadium
Ohio Stadium
Cleveland Browns Stadium
Paul Brown Stadium (Cincinnati Bengals)
Hall of Fame Stadium (Canton)
RCA Dome (Indianapolis Colts)
Michigan Stadium
Carter-Finley Stadium (NC State University)
Kinnick Stadium (University of Iowa)
Ryan Field (Northwestern University)
Ross Ade Stadium (Purdue University)
Spartan Stadium (Michigan State University)
Sun Devil Stadium (Arizona State University)
Nippert Stadium (University of Cincinnati)
Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome (University of Minnesota)
FedEx Field (Washington Redskins)
University of Phoenix Stadium (Arizona Cardinals)
Husky Stadium (University of Washington)
Beaver Stadium (Penn State University)
Scott Stadium (University of Virginia)

Baseball:
Municipal Stadium (Cleveland Indians)
Greer Stadium (Nashville Sounds)
Fulton County Stadium (Atlanta Braves)
Hawkins Field (Vanderbilt University)
Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles)
Jacobs Field (Cleveland Indians)
Comiskey Park (Chicago White Sox)
Bobby Dodd Stadium (Ohio State University)
Cinergy Field (Cincinnati Reds)
Cooper Stadium (Columbus Clippers)
Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds)
RFK Stadium (Washington Nationals)
Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies)
Nationals Park (Washington Nationals

Basketball/Hockey:
Memorial Gymnasium (Vanderbilt University)
Gaylord Entertainment Center (Nashville Predators)
Value City Arena (Ohio State University)
St. John Arena (Ohio State University)
Nationwide Arena (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Patriot Center (George Mason University)
Verizon Center (Washington Capitals)
Quicken Loans Arena (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Soccer:
Columbus Crew Stadium
Jesse Owens Stadium (Ohio State University)
RFK Stadium (DC United)
Frankenstadion (Nuernberg, Germany)

Recent Links

Ice Bowl is one for the ages: The consensus about the Ice Bowl, aka the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic? It was cool.

posted by bender to hockey at 10:35 AM on January 02 - 42 comments

Recent Comments

Florida Linebacker Tried to Eye-Gouge Opponent

You don't think his players already respect Meyer? Who won a nat'l championship last year? Who are #1 in the polls?

Of course they respect him from a football standpoint. If he doesn't have the balls to appropriately punish a player when the situation warrants, though, that will likely lead to more players breaking rules or losing discipline. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't want to develop a reputation of being soft when it comes to punishments. There may be some benefits for you, but it's going to cost you more in the end.

-On preview-what rcade said.

posted by bender at 09:16 AM on November 03

Florida Linebacker Tried to Eye-Gouge Opponent

but what i found out was that on the previous play Ealey spit in his face, and all Spikes did was wipe off the spit and was trying to smear it on Ealey's face.

What is he, 6? I don't have any idea if anything you wrote there is true, but either way, 1/2 game is too short.

What do you gain, as a coach, by punishing Spikes more?

You gain respect from your players that if they do something wrong, they will be punished for it. You also save yourself from the reputation hit of being ripped from everyone from ESPN to local news to Sportsfilter. That hit's going to last a lot longer than the appropriate punishment would last.

posted by bender at 08:05 AM on November 03

SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle

I don't care that there was no football game last night or that the Giants-Eagles game was moved to accomodate the World Series. Those were the right things to do in this scenario. My objection has nothing to do with football. Rather, baseball is a Summer sport, and I think having the playoffs in late October and into November is dumb. If not reducing the number of games or adding doubleheaders, I would move the start of the season up so the cold games are at the beginning of the season rather than the end.

posted by bender at 10:59 AM on November 02

SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle

I agree that the one-game-a-week idea is ridiculous, but why not end in September? There's no reason to play the most important games of the year in 40-degree weather in New York.

posted by bender at 09:36 AM on November 02

Titans Owner Wants Vince Young to Start at QB

I don't see how starting a QB who has thrown 5 times this year without a completion is going to save them. They really need to look at the coaching staff that has essentially taken a team that won 14 games last year to an 0-6 start. Of course from what I can tell they are in love with Fisher so therefore Kerry Collins gets thrown under the bus. Well I don't see how you can blame a QB or make a QB change and solve the teams problems when their defense gave up an NFL record 5 TD passes in one quarter and allowed 59 points in a game.

At this point, it's not about solving the team's problems or saving the season. I agree completely that the beginning of the season was brutal, but the damage is done. If the Titans pull a miracle turnaround and go 10-0 to finish the season, they still may not make the playoffs.

Kerry Collins was brought in because Vince Young was not ready to take over the team. I'm not even going to argue that Vince Young is ready to take over the team now, but if either of these guys is the future, it's Young. The Titans have to figure out if Vince Young is the man going forward or if they need to try again (either in the draft or free agency). The current scenario sucks for the team for the rest of the season, but it is ideal for the purpose of evaluating Young's progress. Either he comes in and gets it done, building momentum for next season, or he fizzles out and they part ways. Hell, in 2006, Vince Young came off the bench to lead the Titans (amazingly) to the playoffs and win Rookie of the Year. Who knows?

posted by bender at 03:13 PM on October 28

Titans Owner Wants Vince Young to Start at QB

I was expecting to see him come out after halftime in the Jacksonville game. The season is over. The coaches might has well give him another look in real games and decide if he has a future.

posted by bender at 01:15 PM on October 28

Crazy Finish in Michigan High School Football Game

Wilton alertly scooped up the ball and took off running and 33 yards later he had scored his first career touchdown and won the game, 33-28.

The kid who scored the touchdown is getting too much credit from the article and the announcers in the clip. He just caught the ball that fell back into his hands and stood there for 8 seconds until the people on the sideline realized the game wasn't over and told him to run to the endzone.

posted by bender at 02:50 PM on October 14

Dodgers Sweep Cardinals, Advance to NLCS

Bo, let it go. You've already made igottheblues's original point three times over. There's nothing wrong with you (or any other group of fans) believing you are the best fans, but there's no need to endlessly promote it or convince anyone else that it's true.

posted by bender at 04:00 PM on October 13

SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle

How are the Titans this bad?

They really miss Albert Haynesworth.

I think they miss Jim Schwartz way more than Haynesworth.

posted by bender at 12:46 PM on October 12

US Books Spot in World Cup with 3-2 Win in Honduras

Not that it was seriously in doubt, but I'm happy to safely avoid the play-in with South America. Honduras or Costa Rica is going to have to face Argentina (if they don't get a result at Uruguay Wednesday) or Uruguay to get into the field of 32. Ouside of that, the US has struggled in World Cups in Europe but has typically advanced in World Cups off of European soil--including each of the last two--so here's to hoping that we do well in South Africa!

posted by bender at 10:34 AM on October 12

Rio De Janeiro Awarded 2016 Olympics

Doesn't that go on all the time? I assumed that was why they picked Rio.

posted by bender at 01:32 PM on October 02

LeGarrette Blount to return to the college gridiron?

Or it could very well mean that Oregon has a better chance to win the PAC-10 with Blount in the lineup and although Coach Kelly originally suspended Blount for the entire season, now that they have a chance of winning it all, he wants one of his better players out on the field even though it'll contradict his inital reaction and decision.

It wasn't as if Coach Kelly suspended Blount the very day of this alteraction that Blount caused, he thought about it for a day or two and came to the conclusion that a year-long suspension would be suffice.

I'm not buying that Oregon's record has anything to do with this. He was suspended after Oregon lost their first game of the season--a non-conference game. To say that they reinstated Blount because they now have a chance to win the conference implies that at the time he was suspended they believed they didn't have a chance, and that is ludicrous.

For the week after the incident, this was all over the news, and that, coupled with Blount's prior disciplinary issues lead them to drop the hammer. [Aside: I agree that an open-ended suspension would have rendered this discussion moot, but that's not what happened.] I believe that was an overreaction, but I understand the idea that it is better to come down too hard than too soft. Since that time, they have given him some instruction on what they expect to see from him, and they have decided that his actions show improvement. That's good enough for me. He was suspended for a few games, and you know good and well that any future transgressions will sit him down for the rest of the season.

To those of you comparing this to NFL players being sent to prison, I think it's a bit of a stretch, but for the sake of argument I'll play along. Sentences can be reduced for good behavior. That appears to me to be what has happened here. If the suspension thus far has helped this kid turn a corner with his anger issues, can't we just call it a win and move on?

posted by bender at 12:01 PM on October 02

LeGarrette Blount to return to the college gridiron?

I honestly thought a full season suspension was a bit of an overreaction. In that season, I give the team benefit of the doubt and don't have a problem with a harsher penalty than I might think given that they may have other information that I don't have. It sounds like Blount is making some progress with his issues, and I'm for giving people second chances when they show the effort to earn them. I hope if he is reinstated that this continues to be a positive outcome for him.

posted by bender at 08:29 AM on October 02

U.S. Wins Baseball World Cup Over Cuba

No wonder no one's ever heard of it. According to the wikipedia page for the Baseball World Cup, they can't even decide how often they want to play it. Years between consecutive tournaments counting backward from this one are as follows: 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, <1 (somehow they played it twice in 1973), 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 4, 8, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 Between that ridiculous schedule and the fact that they play during the MLB season but do not have MLB players, there's no surprise that this slides by unnoticed every time they scrape it together. In fact, rcade, how did you even find out about this in the first place?

By the way, I do think it's kind of cool that one of the countries in each group hosted it's group's play, and then they ones who moved on played the next round in the Netherlands before playing the final round in Italy. That may not be conducive to spectators attending the event if they weren't already in those locations, but it is an interesting concept for a tournament--I suppose it's kind of like the college baseball playoffs/World Series, but on an international scale.

posted by bender at 03:11 PM on September 28

Bobby Cox to step down after 2010.

Championships or not, their string of NL East titles is very impressive. In baseball, more than any other sport, just making the playoffs is a significant accomplishment.

posted by bender at 07:26 AM on September 24