RYAN'S CHANTS

What Doesn’t Grind My Gears

You know what really doesn’t grind my gears?-

-The Celtics. The Boston Celtics have just won their 18th consecutive game over the New York Knicks, tying their franchise record. This win improved their record to 26-2 also tying the NBA record for the best start by a team with two loses. Their next game is against the Philadelphia 76’ers, a win there would give them the record for themselves. The other two teams who are tied with the Celtics for that record, coincidentally, are the Knicks and 76’ers of the past, both of which went on to win NBA titles the year of the record. This was a convincing win during which each starting players scored in the double digits, lead by the young point guard, Rajon Rondo, with 26 points. With defenses focusing on stopping the “Big Three,” Rondo has emerged as a scoring threat as well as a passer. This season is really looking good for the Celtics to repeat as the NBA champions.

-The Patriots. The Patriots do not have control over their own destiny, which is never a comfortable feeling for the organization, but no matter what happens with the playoff scenario they can look back at this season as a success. Many thought that their season was over 18 offensive plays after the opening kickoff. The franchise quarterback and defending MVP, Tom Brady, went down with a season ending knee injury after playing only 18 snaps in the first game. Then, while mourning the loss of the best player in the league, we saw the rise of the biggest surprise player of the season. When most thought that he wouldn’t make the Patriots’ 53 man roster after the preseason, backup quarterback, Matt Cassel, took the reins of the offense. The Patriots were still able to beat the Chiefs in week one despite losing Brady. Week two, against the division rival New York Jets, marked Cassel’s first career NFL start and first start since high school football. On the other side it was Brett Favre’s 18,374th career start (haha). The Patriots were able to rally behind Cassel and come up with a crucial win boosting the young quarterback’s confidence. Improving as the weeks went on, Matt Cassel did something that Tom Brady didn’t even do last year when he set all kinds of passing records. Cassel threw for over 400 yards in two consecutive games. Now, after beating the life and momentum out of the playoff clinched Arizona Cardinals, the Patriots stand at a miraculous 10-5. Their playoff chances are still alive, but they need either Baltimore or Miami to loose and they need to win against Buffalo in week 17. Not being able to control their own destiny, playoffs or not, this season was a success.
(Interesting Note: Arizona Cardinals’ rookie cornerback Dominique Rogers-Cromartie has never seen snow until he played the Patriots this week in the snow storm at Gillette Stadium.)

Because You're To Lazy Too

No coverage, no one cares? This week was the opening week for indoor track with the first meet, CCRI Invitational.
This invitiaional is the first one for RI Track and it is a big one, with all schools competing. The avengers distance team
looked strong after doing well in the fall, with Mark Feigen winning the 1000m relaxed with a personal best 2:37,
along with Nick Ross placing first in the 1500m. Another strong performance with Harrison Saunders placing 3rd
 in the 45meter dash and 4th in the 300m finials. The 4x 800 meter relay placed 3rd over all with Hendricken and
North Kingstown in front. The indoor track squad is coached my Peter Dion and Dustin Colman, new
replacements from the coach’s last year. After losing many seniors the team looks strong and ready to compete
amongst some of the best in Rhode Island. The next meet for the Avengers will be Brown Invitational, where the
top runners will be coming together to run the Distance medley relay, with Mark Feigen in starting off in the
1200meter, Harrison Saunders running the 400meter, ether Austin Schaffer or Andrew Keene to run the
800meter leg and Nick Ross running the 1600. 

Hidden Answers

The answers for all the questions that everybody asks but nobody knows

The Question
What are the differences between Football and Rugby?

The Answer
Okay folks, let's start slow on this one, we have to look to a lot of stuff. First we are going to look them separated, and then the two sports compare with each other. Let's start with the Football's “old man”, Rugby.

Just Rugby itself has different ways to play, the sport that I'm going to analyze is called Rugby League, the professional rugby. The game is played by 13 players on each side in two halves of 40 minutes each on a grass field with 120 meters in length and about 60 meters in width, on the middle of the field there is the 50 meter halfway, 10 meters from that there is the 40 meter line (in both sides of the field), followed by the 30, 20, and 10 meter lines and in the end there is the try lines, where they score the goal.

There is three different ways to score a point on Rugby, there is the Tries that worth 5 points, which consists in put the ball inside the try line, using the hands and not loosing control of the ball. The Penalties goals, they are place kicks from the ground, they have to pass through the crossbars on the try line area to be succeeded, they worth 2 points. And the Field Goal, they worth only 1 point and they are drop kicks during general play, as the penalty goal, it must pass through the crossbar, but it can be kicked from anywhere.

Players only can pass the ball downward, never forward. They use light equipments, like a Headgear, Mouthguard, Shoulder padding and protective vests are now becoming more commonly worn by players. The extent of the padding is limited by Regulation 12 of the International Rugby Board. This specifies that: shoulder padding will cover the shoulder and collar bone only and extend from the neck to a maximum of 2 cm down the upper arm.

Football in the other hand looks like Rugby with protection, but it is not the same thing, like the time, which is a 60 minutes long game with quarters of 15 minutes each. They play with 11 players on each side. The field is 120 yards long and 160 feet long, like in Rugby the middle filed marked as the 50 yard, and each 10 yard, it changes to 40, 30, 20, and 10 yard, and a final line called end zone.

On Football there is 5 ways to score a goal. Touchdown (six points), it happens when the player cross the end zone line and when he extends both arms vertically above the head. After a touchdown the team has the opportunity the a Try (one or two points), a try is more frequently called an extra-point attempt. Either one or two additional points may be scored during the try. The ball is spotted at the 2 yard line and the team is given one play to earn points: they can chose a kicking try or running try. The field goal (three points) is very similar to the kicking try, the ball must first be snapped to a placeholder, who holds the ball upright on the ground with his fingertip so that it may be kicked. Three points are scored if the ball crosses between the two upright posts and above the crossbar and remains over. The safety ( two points) it happens when a team pass the ball on their own end zone, the points goes to the opposite team, and its not very common. And finally the fair catch kick (three points), may be taken on the play immediately after any fair catch of a punt.

The players can pass to any directions, but there is some restrictions to where and when they can pass the ball. They use heavy and large equipments on football, they use hard helmets, mouth protectors, hard plastic shoulder, hip, tail, thigh, and knee pads.

Those are some of the major differences between Football and his father, Rugby, people says that an apple never falls far from the three, but as we can see based just on those informations, the apple usually just looks that it fell close from the tree, and that football is not a Rugby with protections, but a very different game.