http://www.sportsfilter.com/user/Drood New links and comments. en-us http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Wordzilla/0.58 10 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12641/bernie-ecclestone-loses-mind Ecclestone says Formula One will use a medals system next year to decide the title. <i>"When asked if it was fair that someone who wins six races but doesn't finish any others beats someone who had finished every race in second place, Ecclestone replied: "He'll have to try harder next year.""</i> Eddie Jordan remains <a href="http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72256">unconvinced</a>. There are so many flaws in Ecclestone's proposed system that it's hard to know where to start really. For the record, had this medal system been in use in 2008, Felipe Massa would have been champion. Begin Ferrari conspiracy theories in 5... 4... 3... Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:31:04 -0500 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12641/bernie-ecclestone-loses-mind#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.12641 sports auto racing, 12641 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12553/ufcs-dana-white-shares-his-thoughts After the Seth Petruzelli controversy (also covered <A HREF="http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12549/allegations-taking-slice-out-proelites">below</A>), here's UFC's Dana White with a few thoughts on it. Dana is his usual, eloquent, restrained self. (Single link YouTube Post. Contains bad words and amusing invective.) Dana is a relentlessly good self promoter, and has never let a chance to promote UFC slide so this video isn't really a surprise. Though this time any MMA fan, regardless of what you think of White, will most likely agree with him. Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:45:43 -0400 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12553/ufcs-dana-white-shares-his-thoughts#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.12553 sports other, 12553 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9943/robert-kubica-wins-canadian-grand-prix Robert Kubica becomes the first Polish driver to win a Grand Prix, scoring BMW's first ever victory in the process. His teammate Nick Heidfeld made it a BMW 1-2 after Lewis Hamilton ended his and Kimi Raikkonen's race in a bonehead incident in the pitlane. A year ago, Kubica was lucky to leave Montreal with his life. This year he leaves it leading the drivers championship by four points. What a difference a year makes. Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:40:01 -0400 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9943/robert-kubica-wins-canadian-grand-prix#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9943 sports auto racing, 9943 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9724/nfl-year-2000 <i>&quot;Don't be shocked when the 21st century arrives and the NFL teams in Super Bowl XXXIV have women quarterbacks launching 135-yard touchdown passes with their power-assisted arms.&quot;</i> Unintentional comedy gold from Sports Illustrated. Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:06:25 -0400 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9724/nfl-year-2000#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9724 sports football, 9724 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12153/2008-formula-one-season-preview 2008 is upon us. The biggest change? No more traction control! Now we'll see who the best really are. Take a drive with me as we take a peek at the upcoming season and what we can perhaps expect. I wrote a preview <A HREF="http://www.sportsfilter.com/column.cfm/252">last year</A> on here. My predictions weren't bad. I called Raikkonen winning the title correctly, and, had the FIA not pulled "BANISHMENT" from the random punishment hat of death, I called the constructors right too. <P> In 2008 the tedious, unending espionage tale continues on, and will do for some time. It's the story that won't die. Except here. I will not mention it again.<P> Going into the season, Ferrari would be the obvious horse to back. I'm calling Raikkonen for champion again. Ferrari has the best car, and Massa just isn't man enough to win the title. Lewis Hamilton is quick, but still an immensely flawed driver who doesn't understand race strategy or subtlety behind the wheel. There is a certain naive charm in his style of "mash the pedal to the floor until I finish the race or crash", but until he tempers that with wisdom and critical thinking, he's destined to see his title end in a Chinese rock garden again.<P> The dark horse this year is Kovalainen. Heikki was fun to watch in 2007. His first few races were not good. Rumours were flying that he was hanging by a thread at Renault and was going to be booted and replaced with Piquet - The Next Generation. Then came Canada. On the Friday, he stuffed the car into the wall. Then he wound up starting the race at the back, only to drive a storming race and score a fourth place finish. His season picked up from that point and he was a changed man. This season he has a drive at McLaren. Unlike Massa who will always be in Kimi's shadow, I don't think Heikki is going to be one to play second fiddle to Lewis. Another interesting year for young Mister Hamilton looms. Does Lewis have the resilience to survive another teammate onslaught?<P> Speaking of Lewis, we saw what happened at McLaren in 2007. Which is why Fernando and McLaren have parted company, and the floppy haired one is now back with Renault. The team fell off the pace quite horribly last year, and according to Alonso they have to find 0.6 seconds per lap to match McLaren and Ferrari. While Alonso is more than capable behind the wheel, asking him to get the Renault consistently up to the front is a big ask. At certain races I'm sure he'll be up there, but to place him in even the top 3 of the championship comes seasons end would be extremely naive. <P> The last of the top four teams is arguably BMW. They've slowly moved up the grid to where they can bother Ferrari and McLaren. 2008 is the year they really need to start challenging for race wins. Going back just five years, BMW would have most likely won by now, purely and simply on reliability issues hitting other cars. However we're now in an era of astonishing reliability. For BMW to win, both Ferrari's and Mclaren's have to hit trouble, which is extremely unlikely.<P> This time last year, I'd have picked Heidfeld for that first BMW win. This year I'm not so sure. Kubica bounced back from his horrendous <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYy97vGVUlg">Montreal crash</A> that by rights, should have killed him. The big test of any driver is how quickly and easily they bounce back from a truly epic accident. Kubica showed no psychological effects whatsoever and it'd be a very tough call to pick which driver at BMW will reign supreme this year. Once again, the intra-team battle at BMW should be fun to watch. It's like the Mclaren one, only with less annoying personalities involved.<P> Of the rest, what do we have? Well Toyota are supposedly going to surprise us this year. Though if previous years are anything to go by, then the surprise will be just how slow you can be with a half billion dollar budget. Jarno deserves better.<P> We also have musical teams going on again, with Jordan/Midland/Spyker changing once again, this year to Team Force India. The big news is they've raised the cash to pick up Giancarlo Fisichella as a driver. Which admittedly may have been quite easy, what with that "Will Drive for Food" sign and all... I feel bad for Fisichella. His dream was always to drive for Ferrari. At least he gets a Ferrari engine behind him this year. Hopefully that's worth the cost to his dignity slumming it at the back of the grid and leaving F1 with a whimper rather than... Erm... A slightly smaller whimper. I really feel he should have done what Ralf Schumacher has done, and quietly walked away, rather than put this sad little footnote at the end of his career biography. Fisichella was always one of the good guys, and it's sad to see it end this way.<P> Super Aguri have been the "will they, won't they?" team in regards to this season. However they just received an injection of hot juicy cash and now Aguri are assuredly going to be on the grid at Melbourne. HURRAY! Let's not forget that last year at Montreal, Takuma Sato was well up there and actually PASSED Alonso on track. Sato and Davidson will no doubt be bringing up the rear again most of the year, but they'll be doing it with a smile on their faces and a song in their hearts. Their big brothers at Honda should be expected to move up a bit with Ross Brawn now guiding the ship, but just how much influence will Brawn have?<P> Lost among all the noise for the upcoming season is the fact that the big fish from Champcar, Sebastian Bourdais, has left what WAS the safe confines of American open wheel racing (unless he had some serious advance warning that Tony George was going to crush Champcar like a bug) to take his place in a lower to mid-grid F1 team, alongside the highly rated Sebastian Vettel. With Red Bull having a test driver called Sebastien Buemi, I have come to the conclusion that Scuderia Torro Roso will soon become Sebastian Torro Rosso, as clearly Dieter Mateschitz is trying to create a team where everyone has the same name, just like that old Monty Python sketch with the Bruce's.<P> Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the season is the banishing of traction control. Just watching onboard footage from the previous few years you can tell which drivers mash the pedal to the floor, and which prefer to use a more delicate touch. According to reports Felipe Massa is finding it especially hard to adjust to having the "tool sent by Satan to destroy motorsport" (as <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Despain">Dave Despain</A> once called it) removed. <P> My fervent hope for the year is that when we look back on 2008, it's for what happened on track rather than what happened in a courtroom. It all kicks off this Friday in Melbourne. I can't wait! <P><P> (Cheap plug: You can find me spitting venom and rage about Formula One <A HREF="http://droodreport.wordpress.com">here</A>. After a two year break from writing, I decided enough was enough, and I had to stick the boot in on my beloved sport once again.) Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:24:34 -0400 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12153/2008-formula-one-season-preview#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.12153 sports commentary, 12153 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9434/chicago-bulls-fire-coach Nothing says &quot;Merry Christmas&quot; like sudden unemployment. Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:49:34 -0500 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9434/chicago-bulls-fire-coach#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9434 sports basketball, 9434 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9432/human-toll-hockey-concussions Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:36:01 -0500 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9432/human-toll-hockey-concussions#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9432 sports hockey, 9432 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9366/first-documented-us-mma-death Samuel Vasquez, a 35-year-old mixed martial artist from Houston, Texas, died on Friday. Sun, 02 Dec 2007 16:43:44 -0500 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9366/first-documented-us-mma-death#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9366 sports other, 9366 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9347/physics-football-hit &quot;At 5 ft. 11 in. and 199 pounds, Marcus Trufant is an average-size NFL defensive back (DB). [...] a DB's mass combined with his speed -- on average, 4.56 seconds for the 40-yard dash -- can produce up to 1,600 pounds of tackling force.&quot; Given the recent research that's showing concussions are far more serious than was once thought, this is a sobering read. Tue, 27 Nov 2007 05:19:05 -0500 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9347/physics-football-hit#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9347 sports football, 9347 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9292/sporting-news-goes-back-time In the off season, Sporting News are recreating the 1986 baseball season with Strat-O-Matic Baseball, and reporting it all. Teams are managed by various baseball luminaries. (Curt Schilling for example.) Thu, 08 Nov 2007 22:54:34 -0500 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9292/sporting-news-goes-back-time#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9292 sports baseball, 9292 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9208/raikkonen-wins-improbable-f1-title All the hype was surrounding Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen however, all but discounted from winning the title, quietly went about his job and won the race and the F1 World Championship by a solitary point. There have been eleven three way battles going into the final race in the history of the sport. This is the first one since 1986, and the first time the third place driver going in has won the title since Farina won in 1950. In the end in 2007, the top three were separated by just one point. Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:24:44 -0400 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9208/raikkonen-wins-improbable-f1-title#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9208 sports auto racing, 9208 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9098/colin-mcrae-killed Former World Rally Champion, as well as Le Mans and Dakar Rally competitor Colin McRae has has been killed in a helicopter crash. His five year old son was also killed. Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:20:45 -0400 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9098/colin-mcrae-killed#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9098 sports auto racing, 9098 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8647/twenty-five-years-ago-today arguably Canada's greatest ever racing driver, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Villeneuve">Gilles Villeneuve</a>, was killed during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. In the final moments of qualifying, he came up behind Jochen Mass. Mass moved offline of the way. Sadly Villeneuve moved in the same direction, the cars touched, launching Villeneuve's Ferrari into a ferocious accident. Villeneuve died later that day from his injuries. Salut, Gilles. Tue, 08 May 2007 14:45:11 -0400 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8647/twenty-five-years-ago-today#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.8647 sports auto racing, 8647 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12095/2007-formula-one-world-championship-preview With Melbourne mere days away, what can we expect from the top drivers fighting to be number one? Let's have a look... The German's reign of terror is over. In a few days we head to Melbourne for quite possibly the most exciting season in a very long time. Let's have a look at what we can expect when the top teams wheel out their cars in Australia this weekend. The only certainty? Anyone betting money on the outcome of this years title is a very brave individual.<P> Let's start with the new McLaren "Dream Team". Fernando Alonso's McLaren adventure was announced well in advance when Renault wouldn't say if they were in F1 for the long haul. Alonso was ready to go elsewhere, and McLaren were more than happy to give the talented young Spaniard a nice shiny car. They also stole Vodafone Euros away from Ferrari as well.<P> Alongside the current world champion we have GP2 sensation Lewis Hamilton. Anyone who followed GP2 in 2006 saw that Lewis looks like the real deal. He left the series as champion after some truly spectacular drives. Hamilton, who has been guided by McLaren head Ron Dennis for many years, finds himself sat next to the current world champion, in a team who historically are one of the most successful in the history of the sport. A daunting prospect. Hamilton seems to be level headed about everything though, but the fact of the matter is being paired with a driver as talented as Alonso is going to be a real trial for him. His career could be over before it's even really begun if he doesn't measure up at all and at least stay close to Alonso. We've seen drivers rise triumphantly through the echelons of racing in the past and be touted as a future world champion, only to see them flame out in spectacular fashion. Let's not forget the last time McLaren fielded a rookie, it didn't work out too well. That rookie was Michael Andretti in 1993, who didn't even last a season.<P> The big question mark hanging over McLaren is reliability. Will 2007 see this problem solved? That is a very good question. However, could it be that the driving style of their team leader was exacerbating the issue?<P> Last year Kimi Raikkonen, upset with a car that always wanted to fall apart around him, decided he'd hop over the fence to sit in the vacant seat next to Felipe Massa at Ferrari. If pre-season testing is anything to go by, Ferrari will pick up where they left off last year, that being with the quickest car of the field. Both Kimi and Fernando are arguably the best drivers in F1 right now. One of them has gone to a team that is in a dry spell, to replace a driver who suffered chronic reliability problems and decided that red was more his colour. It's ironic really, but on paper, at first glance, you'd expect Kimi to be the one to beat in 2007, but will that really be the case? There are several issues potentially working against Kimi. <P> First of all, you have Felipe Massa. His debut season in a Ferrari didn't go well for the first half of the season. Perhaps the biggest ignomy was Australia, where Massa's race lasted one corner before he decided he didn't like what the engineers had done, and figured he'd try some remodelling. However, The Brazilian settled down as the season went on, and even those who don't rate him very highly begrudgingly admit that he sorted himself nicely, and went out on a huge high with his dominant win in Brazil. Ferrari undoubtedly have the car. A car that Felipe already knows extremely well. Kimi was unable to even sit in the car until January. This has to give Felipe some advantage, even if only psychological. Could Felipe be a championship challenger? Unlikely, but he does have the capability to be a very annoying fly in Raikkonen's ointment. Massa will not go down easily, and with no clear number one, he knows he can fight. <P> Then there is the issue of Kimi himself. Critics are very quick to point the finger at McLaren for their reliability problems in 2006. Now Kimi is undoubtedly an extremely talented driver, but is he perhaps too hard on cars? Almost nobody seems to have considered this, but if you look at his record in F1, there are so many failures, could it be perhaps that Kimi isn't so gentle on the hardware? There would certainly seem to be some evidence to indicate this. Perhaps his style is just adept at showing up a cars flaws. Rather than drive around the issues, he tries to drive through them. A technique which works well, right up until bits start to fall off or explode around him. To put it succinctly, is Kimi a car killer? We'll soon know if McLaren or Kimi were the problem. <P> Then there are the changes at Ferrari. The biggest change? Ross Brawn is gone. Brawn gets entirely too little credit for the Ferrari renaissance. If you look over the results, Ferrari didn't fully start their turnaround until Brawn arrived in 1997. The 1996 results, when a certain German arrived to great fanfare, the team actually scored LESS points that year than they had the previous two seasons with Berger and Alesi behind the wheel. To underestimate the impact of Brawn's departure would be to ignore history, and while it's being downplayed by all, losing Brawn has to have hurt Ferrari. The question is, how much? With no clear number one in the team, Massa and Raikkonen could take points from each other, though one would assume Ferrari would not allow this to happen. However, by the time a distinct one-two is settled upon, it may be too late.<P> Now we've gotten this far without a mention of Renault. Should we dismiss the team this year, simply because golden boy Alonso has gone? Well if the team was being lead by Fisichella, then yes. No offence to Giancarlo, but he is not championship material. Sorry to say, he's barely race winning material most of the time either. However, with the arrival of yet another Finnish sensation, Heikki Kovalainen, a lot of people are touting Heikki as Renault's saviour in the wake of Alonso's defection. He's a new boy, but Lewis Hamilton is drawing all the press attention, leaving Heikki relatively unburdened by the weight of expectation. Renault are expected to underperform this season, which means the weight of that pressure doesn't exist. Then for a teammate, he has Fisichella, who is most likely still psychologically damaged from the demoltion he suffered at the hands of Alonso, meaning Heikki is facing a far softer target than Hamilton. Put all that together, and you have one of, if not THE dark horse of 2007, who may just surprise everyone out of nowhere. There could very well be a Finnish world champion in 2007. Only thing is, it may an entirely different Finn than the one expected.<P> So that's three teams. There's usually a big four. Who is number four going to be? Logic would decree it would be Honda. However, the team seems to be spinning it's wheels somewhat. Very little forward progress seems to be forthcoming from the Japanese manufacturer, and one win not withstanding, neither Barrichello nor Button seem to be on the rise. Button had good reliability in the closing races, but reliability doesn't mean a damn if you're not finishing atop the podium.<P> Williams will see an upturn in fortune with the arrival of Toyota power, and will certainly humiliate the Toyota works team, but after the debacle of 2006, to expect Williams to crack the top four is absurd. So who will it be? The Deadly Bavaria/Hinwill Alliance!<P> Yep, BMW will take it's spot as number four in 2007. Two reasons, and they're both the nuts that hold the steering wheels. <P> Firstly, we have Nick Heidfeld, a driver who has shown flashes of brilliance in the past, but who has largely lived in the shade. Let's make no mistake. 2007 is Heidfeld's last chance, because sitting across the other side of the garage is the Polish Pulverizer, Robert Kubica. A driver who stunned many with his raw pace last year. His stock had risen very high come seasons end, however, Heidfeld is quick to point out that he basically spanked Robert most of the time. Kubica, despite only driving a handful of races, is seen by many as a future star, and rightly so. Heidfeld HAS to beat Kubica. It's that simple. Heidfeld beats Kubica, his stock will rise considerably. Kubica beats him, it's all over. It's a harsh statement to make, but Heidfeld has to go big, or go home. <P> However, Heidfeld is in the right place, at the right time for once. Something he never had the luxury of before. The BMW is a good car. In fact pre-season testing has shown it to be a very good car. BMW will not be content to sit back, and will be hellbent on making it a GREAT car. They want to win. BMW have the capability, talent and bank balance to do it. Some people have even gone so far as to predict Heidfeld for the 2007 title. Madness? Perhaps, but anything is possible. BMW are no slackers, and with Kubica pushing him hard, Heidfeld knows it's make or break. The mere fact you've got two guys, both of whom have different points to prove, will provide a huge spark for BMW. This is going to be a brawl for the ages. A battle for supremacy, under the watchful eye of the good Doctor Mario. I believe Heidfeld has the talent. Can he be world champion? I would say no for 2007, but I would be very surprised if he isn't top 5 in the World Championship come seasons end. Nor do I expect Kubica to be far behind him. With both undoubtedly talented drivers pushing each other so hard, BMW will be a fascinating team to watch in 2007. Constructors title by 2010? I wouldn't be at all surprised. 2007 will be the year BMW make it clear they aren't here to make up the numbers.<P> So final predictions then? Predictions are a mugs game. However, if you've read this far, you most certainly don't want me to wuss out, so...<P> For the drivers championship, I'd be happy to see: 1) Alonso, 2) Raikkonen, 3) Hamilton. However, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Kovalainen or Heidfeld in third, or possibly even second! Or to see first and second transposed. As for the constructors, I honestly don't know. I think McLaren have the edge though, with Ferrari close behind, and BMW and Renault being too close to call.<P> If I was a brave betting man, my pick would probably be drivers title to Raikkonen, and constructors to McLaren. Really, though, this year is the hardest season to call in a very long time. Throw in the new engine rules, tyre regulations, with drivers having to use BOTH compounds during a race, and it's really up in the air. All I will predict is we're in for a season that will be long remembered. Rarely does a season start with so many changes around the top end of the field.<P> I can't wait!<P> Mon, 12 Mar 2007 01:58:03 -0400 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12095/2007-formula-one-world-championship-preview#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.12095 sports commentary, 12095 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8027/2006-college-bowl-listings Does exactly what it says. A list of who plays who, and where. Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:48:07 -0500 Drood http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8027/2006-college-bowl-listings#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.8027 sports football, 8027