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.

WhatsOnMyMind...sort of

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OnMyMind: As we approach week 16 in the NFL season, the Detroit Lions are a league worst 0-14. This week they are playing the 7-7 New Orleans Saints. Do not count out the Lions in this game because the game will be played in something they are used to, a dome. However I don’t think that the mediocre Lions secondary will have an answer for the best passing attack in football led by Drew Brees. The Lions have looked like a young Simba this year rather than a King Simba. Even after the firing of the arch nemesis Scar, COUGH! COUGH! Matt Millen. The city of Detroit is desperate for a win with the economy of Detroit in shambles after the automobile crisis. It seems as though the Lions will need a secret potion from Rafeeki to turn their city around, or maybe a first overall draft pick would do it.

FunnyBone: If I was Terrance Cody I would dump my girlfriend after the stunt she pulled the other night. Cody, a lineman on the Alabama football team has had a huge impact in the Tide’s defensive play but had no impact on the decision his girlfriend made as she hacked onto his Facebook page. There she wrote as Cody’s status: “I’m going pro!!!!!” Cody has not stopped receiving emails either congratulating him or criticizing him and telling him to play another year  for the Tide.

Butt... Do not forget that last year the Miami Dolphins were in a similar position having only 1 win at the end of the 2007 season. After winning the rights to Jake Long the Dolphins turned their team around and are in contention for not only a playoff birth but a division title. Look out 2009 Bears, Packers, Vikings, here come the Lions?

Footnote: Remember a previous “Footnote” post where I mentioned Tyler Hansbrough’s shin injury? Apparently he felt as though reading NeuCappucino was more worth his time than reading Jock-Lit-Rain. Congrats to Hansbrough as he obtained the all time scoring record al the University of North Carolina, which is not an easy task, especially since Hansbrough did it as a Junior. I guess his shin isn’t bothering him and the Tar Heels will go undefeated this year since no one has come close to stopping them.

EyeOnThePrize: Bradon Roy definitely had his EyeOnThePrize Thursday nights game against the Phoenix Suns. Roy dropped a career high 52 points! Does anyone know that this guy is only a third year player? I know it is too early to be placing him in the realm of Kobe and LeBron but after listening to this guy do an interview on Pardon the Interuption, he could be one of the most mature and well-spoken guys in the NBA. He will most surely be seeing success on the basketball court in the future.

ChipOnTheShoulder: The Boston Red Sox have a chip on their shoulder after the Yankees signed 2 former all stars this week in CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. The Yankees are also looking to possibly sign Manny Ramirez as well. Holy crap! The Sox cannot forgo signing Mark Teixeira even if it eliminates Mike Lowell from a starting position. The Sox need to make a move just to prove that they are still around and still compete. Baseball is on the downhill slope. Whatever happened to grooming players?

HardToStomach: The “White Out” has been postponed. After all the hard leading up to this Friday’s home game it was all for nothing. Now the fans will have to wait and more planning will need to happen in order for money to be raised for the Jimmy Fund. Have no fear though. There will be another “White Out” game that hopefully does not get “Whited Out.”

HardToPutAFingerOnIt: It’s hard to put a finger on how the East Greenwich Boys Varsity Basketball team has lost 2 back-to-back overtime games by either 2 points or less. After key performances by AJ Anusavice and Brad Van Fechtmann, the EG boys find themselves searching for their first win. Even though the first two games did not matter, the losses have hurt the team and the team hopefully will learn from their mistakes and look to start their regular season games strongly after the winter break.

Footnote: It is Brandom Jacobs’s ankle that is keeping him listed as Questionable for Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers. However without Jacobs the running game will take a huge hit and without a force like Jacobs the ability to set up the quicket backs liek Bradshaw and Ward will be more difficult for ELi and the gang. Jacobs needs to play in this game because without him the Giants are awful and not the same. Also the Giants will need everything to beat the NFC leading Panthers.

Tuesdays With Kirstin

A scattered rainbow of emotions was illustrated over the past week or so in sports. However, other than the random uprises and happenings, its been pretty uneventful lately. We’ve got a ways to go in football till February when the superbowl concludes the season. Teams are on their final legs. Basketball is just beginning along with hockey. Golf is on and off depending on the weather. These are the main sports that get media attention right now.

For some, death has faced us. Mike "Mad Dog" Bell, a former professional wrestler was found dead at the age of thirty-seven. The documentary: “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” illustrated his struggle with substance abuse. Coincidentally he died at a Rehabilitation Center. Justin Levels, a mixed martial arts fighter and his wife Sarah McLean-Levens were found shot to death in their Laguna Niguel condominium in California. It couldn’t be distinguished as to whether it was a murder or a suicide. Sammy Baugh, a quarterback for the Redskins died at age 94 on Wednesday. He made it to the Hall of Fame, leading the league in passing, punting, scoring and interceptions from the beginning of the NFL.

Matt Cassel, starting quarterback for the Patriots has been coping with the death of his father. Despite this misfortune, he never considered the idea of missing the Patriots game six days after his father's death. He was driven by his father to keep playing and pushing forward. As a result of this effort, the Pats were led to a decisive win against Oakland Raiders. The score was 49-26. Cassel had a career high of four touchdown passes even though he had taken time off from practice last week to be with his family. Now he is rated sixth-rated quarterback in the AFC. Cassel sends an important message to the world about life and death saying, "I've overcome a lot of adversity and I think it's taught me to keep pushing forward, and keep moving on, and don't listen to people who are negative and work against you," He also said, "Just continue to surround yourself with people that are positive and can help you and things will turn around for you."

There has been a good amount of outbursts for varying reason among athletes and coaches. John Daly hit a wide shot on his ninth hole causing him to walk in to some forest for his next shot. Brad Clegg tried to take a picture in close proximity and Daly smashed the spectator's camera into a tree. He will probably be disqualified for this.

Mississippi Coach Kennedy was charged with assault after punching a cab driver and calling him names such as “Osama Bin Ladin”. Kennedy denies everything in court.
Frank Walker of the Baltimore Ravens was accused of spitting on Mitch Berger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Frank denies it. This scenario seems to happen a lot in football. But Why? I don’t understand why people act so immature.

Coach Zorn of the Redskins recently had an outburst saying he was the worst coach in America at a weekly team meeting. Team members like Pete Kendall disagreed with Coach Zorn, saying he was not the worst coach. Kendall also said that it was his first year coaching and that there is a lot of responsibility and despite the bumps in the road teams will become stronger.

Washington Red Skins middle linebacker London Fletcher spoke out to the public recently to defend his right to be in the Hall of Fame. Fletcher says, "I don't know if it was because I wasn't a first-round draft pick, I don't do some kind of dance when I make a 10-yard tackle, I don't go out and get arrested," He continued, "I believe in playing the game the way it's supposed to be played. You line up each and every week, each and every play, and you go out and get the job done. You look at my body of work and I've done that for 11 years, but because I'm not going out causing a lot of controversy, holding a private meeting with the coordinator saying this, this and this, causing a lot of strife on my team, I don't garner a lot of attention." Fletcher is the leading tackler in the NFL for this decade, never missing a game in his entire career. He is also considered to be the MVP for the Redskins as well. And he’s been elected eight times. So why don’t they elect him one of the two middle linebackers that make the Hall of Fame?

This week in sports shows that you never really know how things are going to turn out whether you are involved in the game or not. Whatever hand we are dealt, we must stay postive and surround ourselves with others who share this outlook.

Around The Bases: Who Is Number One?

As you all know the Boston Celtics are on a complete tear winning their 17th game in a row verse the Chicago Bulls. Where does this team rank in comparison to the top teams of all time?

First Base
In fourth place we have who other than The Boston Celtics of the 1980s. This team was all about the rivalry. The Bird vs. Magic rivalry really set the tone for these two team to battle it out all through the 1980s. The Celtics were dangerous for the simple fact that they had skill from the starting five and all the way to the end of their bench. Bird, McHale, Parish, Dennis Johnson, Ainge, Walton, and Rick Carlisle are some notable names that you may remember from this dream team. This team averaged 114 points per game to their opponents 104.7 points. But what one this team games, and eventually world championship rings was their clutch shooting abilities and their poise. Coming in on fourth of the list of greatest basketball teams of all time is the Boston Celtics of the 1980s.

Second Base:
The Los Angeles “Showtime” Lakers. If there were any team that would give the Boston Celtics any trouble it would be the Lakers. This squad finished the 1984-1985 season at 62-20 scoring an unheard of 118.2 points per game. Most will agrue that this team did not have the depth that the Boston Celtics had, but they sure had just a little bit more talent. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar could score at will in the 1980s. He would not be the success that he is known to be without the teams MVP Magic Johnson, he was quick, he was innovative and people said he really changed the pace of the game. This team was surrounded by tremendous role players such as James Worthy and Byron Scott and Michael Cooper. Winning five NBA titles, this squad of the 80s really put the Forum on the map and inclined the Los Angeles Lakers into being the prestigious team that we all know and love today.

Third Base
The Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. In the 1995-1996 season the Chicago Bulls did something memorable. Something critics say will never, ever be topped. They won 72 out of their 82 game season. When you hear about the Chicago Bulls you think Michael Jordan. Jordan is the poster child of basketball, game in and game out just toying with his opponents. Averaging 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game over his 15 year career winning 6 NBA championships. Michael Jordan has gone down as the most dominant, and clutch player that the National Basketball Association has ever seen. To your shock, this team was much more than Michael Jordan. This team was Jordan, Pippen, Kukoc, Kerr, Harper, Longley, and Rodman. Jordan would have 6 fewer championships than he has right now without the rest of this squad. They were dominant, although other teams during this time period were great and should have won championships, they just couldn’t because they would eventually have to face the Chicago Bulls. Coming in second place on the top NBA teams of all time, The Chicago Bulls of the 1990s.

Home Plate
You ask yourself, well the Bulls went number two on this list, who could possibly be better than them? The 2008-2009 Boston Celtics will go down as the best team to ever play the game. The Celtics start out with their three superstars in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Garnett is a 7 foot monster and with his career 20 points and 11 rebounds he will be solidified as one of the best big men that the NBA has ever seen. Along side Kevin Garnett they have Ray Allen who is ranked 2nd all time for most three point shots ever made, second only to Reggie Miller. For his career he averages 21 points per game. To finish off the “Big 3” there is Paul Pierce who averages a career 23 points per game along with 6 rebounds and 4 assists per game. Pierce is a fighter, he has been stabbed at a night club and lost numerous amounts of teeth on the basketball court, but nothing will ever stop him from playing the game he loves. Pierce is the leader and captain of this team and is the Celtics go to guy at the end of every game. What you don’t usually hear about is the “role players” with this team, who undoubtedly would be stars on most other teams. Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins come up big game in and game out. Rondo averages 11 points per game and more importantly 7.3 assists per game. This young true point guard has been compared to players like Bob Cousy for his enormous basketball IQ, except he is much more athletic than Cousy and will be a future All-Star and All-NBA player for years to come. Kendrick Perkins has always been a stump in the center for the Celts until 2008. Perkins is passionate and works harder than anyone on the team to excel in what he does. He can go out and get you 20 points and 10 rebounds when its needed but never tries to do too much, this is a player who knows his role on the team. This team puts fans in seats reminiscent of the old Boston Garden, the new generation of the Boston Celtics are the best team to ever play in the NBA.

Laws of Reflection

Last year in physics class we studied a number of different units ranging from projectile motion to energy, but one of the most hands-on units, reflection, was a true favorite of mine. For every unit my teacher, Mr. Lenox, was able to squeeze in one or two labs that demonstrated the laws or rules of such a subject. Therefore, for one lab we studied the laws of reflection and how mirrors perfectly reflect any light or image from any angle. Reflection is a law so simple and logical that we never even stop and think about it. But the thing is, its a law, a principle that all must abide by. This law was duly noted in our lab as we moved around different objects in front of a mirror and recorded their position on a piece of graphing paper under the mirror and said object. After establishing a point of reference on the object, you place dots of where that object actually is, and where it is reflected on the mirror. Trial after trial, it was easily demonstrated that the laws of reflection will always hold true no matter the circumstances. Now, science aside, it is the fact that the law of reflection held true no matter what, that is so important to my point.

As I moved the objects back and forth in front of the mirror, the mirror perfectly reflected the objects in a perfectly equal, but opposite, angle. The greater I created the object's angle from the mirror, the greater the angle of its reflected image became. Such rules are taken to different levels in society, especially when it comes to the current economic crisis. (Please bear with me for this analogy.)

See, as stocks rise and fall on Wall Street, so too do the emotions of every person and business in the United States. When the DOW drops to it's lowest point in decades, brokers become on the eve of suicide, businesses seconds away from bankruptcy, and the average American wondering if the money in their savings account for their child's education will still exist when they wake up tomorrow. This is a prime example of society following its own Laws of Reflection.

Now on the other hand, you have the sports industry - praised and aggrandized for all of its superstar athletes and overpaid talent. We give into the gimmick every day. Whether its catching a game on TV or buying that new jersey that you just HAD to have. All of these simple things fuel the industry's fire, and provide it with a demographic that becomes the perfect battering ram for all other shows, people, or business in its way. And to think that all of this commotion and attraction doesn't get into the heads of the athletes who play the games we love, is insane. Most athletes aren't even people anymore; they have become robots, and the men who steal their remote controls most of the time are their good ol' agents. A lot of agents conduct their business in the best interest of their client (and rightfully so), however, they always seem to take contract negotiations just a bit too far.


We live in a world where athletes fight for the top spot on societies pedestal, and somehow, multi-million dollar contracts are seen as the easiest, and best way at that, to view ones "wealth." Ergo, the more money you make, the more important you are than other players, and the more you are wealth than any player that tries to come close to your salary estimate. Players aren't satisfied with $100 million, they need to jack it up to $101, not so they can put their kid through school or use that money towards a charitable cause (as much as we would like to think that's what its for), but so they can say "Hey, that guy is playing 5 years for 100 mil, but I'm playing 5 for 101! Why don't you put that in your pipe and smoke it?"


But my point is that, why, during a total economic crisis, when it seems as though everyone is running around with their heads cut off, that the sports industry does stop spending their superfluous contracts when all of us know the players don't really NEED all of that money. Just look at the Yankees. I mean, they used enough money for three players this season to by a string of islands off the coast of New Zealand. In a time when everything seems to be following the "Law of Reflection" with regard to our country's economic status, the sports industry, especially a team like the Yankees, it not making cut-backs, but is backing up more materials into New York for a new stadium, and over paying athletes way past their true value. The NFL has had some problems in its office and instead of reaching into the pockets of owners for the cash, they followed suit with the rest of America and made some cuts. The rest of sports needs to buck up and open their eyes to what is really going on. I mean, its only science...