So earlier today, I posted something on what I thought was the senseless backlash on the hiring of Penn State coach Bill O'Brien, where people are losing their minds over what a horrible hire it is. To me, it's a fine hire because he has nothing to do with the Joe Paterno-regime, and the fact that some people were actually upset about that irritated the crap out of me.

For the record, I go to Penn State, and I've been ashamed at my university over the last couple months, and not just because of what Sandusky did and what Paterno tolerated. I'm ashamed that the phrase "Penn State Proud" continues to be used. It tears at me every time I hear it. It's loyalty to a faculty that doesn't deserve it, it's indifference to the victims who have every right to hate this school. I am not proud to be attending a school where such a human rights violation could repeatedly take place. There are many words to describe what I feel, but pride isn't one of them. At the moment, there's nothing redeeming in saying you went to this university; not when doing so means blatantly disregarding everything that went on. I mean, Jerry Sandusky was recruiting for the football program as recently as last year; how can I possibly say I respect this school after learning that?

The issue isn't something you can wash your hands of. What happened indelibly stains the reputation of this campus. Child molestation is inarguably the most heinous crime anyone on this planet can commit, so what kind of people are we when we flippantly use the word "proud?" What kind of example are we showing, when we say we're proud knowing full-well what went on? Just what the hell are we proud of anyway, that we can ignore something so terrible that happened so frequently?

More to the point, what exactly have we learned when we criticize the hiring of Bill O'Brien? He was hired specifically to be something different from Paterno, an outsider with no ties to the previous administration, which when informed of the incident in the shower chose to look the other way. To me, this is the only thing that matters about O'Brien. Right now, football is the most inconsequential, irrelevant subject in the world. I really don't care if O'Brien is the worst coach on the planet. All that matters is getting the human-decency part of it right. Besides, even if O'Brien is a lousy couch, who the hell are we to say we deserve better? For three decades, our football program allowed a pedophile to use his status as an assistant to establish a charity, which he in turn used as a farm system to molest as many kids as possible. I don't think I'm saying anything extreme when I write that if Penn State goes 2-10 the next five years, it won't be the most unfair thing in the world. Truth be told, I don't think there should be a football program. You can say what you want about SMU, the last school to receive the death penalty, but as crooked as they were, little kids never got fondled.

And so when I read articles and Facebook statuses and Twitter updates and had face-to-face conversations were people actually told me how upset they were over the hiring, it threw me off the deep end. To me, it just confirmed everything the people in the media have been saying about Penn State. It's unbelievably insensitive to be demanding a better football coach, knowing full-well what a gift it is to even have a football program at all. This is the same campus that threw a riot after Paterno was fired, that formed a vigil around his house as though he was the victim, that promised to walk to his house in the event that they actually won their next game. This is the campus that showed virtually no outrage and anger and fury to the coach that allowed Sandusky to recruit for him, nine years after he was spotted raping a kid in the team locker room. And now, now of all times, the campus gets indignant and upset and furious at their coach… And why? Because they don't like him.

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For the second year in a row, Roy Halladay's playoff opener has people referring him to Don Larsen. After giving up a three-run home run to Lance Berkman in the first inning, Halladay retired the next 21 batters, something not seen in the postseason Larsen threw his perfect game in 1956. In last year's opener, Halladay joined Larsen as the only pitchers to throw a no-hitter in the postseason. Berkman's home run, incidentally, was the first three-run homer Halladay had given up since 2008.

Michael Conroy - AP

Peyton Manning has officially been ruled out of the Indianapolis Colts' opening game against the Houston Texans, ending his streak of 208 consecutive starts, 227 if including the postseason. Manning's mark, while impressive, falls well short of Brett Favre's record of 297 straight games, and considering the almost psychopathic devotion to the game that Favre had, it's hard to imagine a quarterback ever again lasting at least 18 years in the league without missing a single start.

With Manning out of the way, Ronde Barber is now the league's leading ironman, having played in 183 straight games. The longest active games streak for a quarterback stays in the Manning family, since his brother has played in 103 straight games. Mike Sando of ESPN points out that if Eli wanted to break Favre's record, he'd have to play until the third game of the 2023 season, at which point he would be 42 years old.

It begs to question what Favre is thinking right now. Sure, there's a sigh of relief now that his record is safe and secure, but look at all the hoops he went through to push his streak into the stratosphere last year. He played through a myriad of injuries on a lousy team at age 41. Part of that had to have been to distance himself from Peyton Manning, and I know that's speculation on my part, but that streak was one big vanity project on Favre's part -- to the point that it stopped being commendable. He may have still played last year without the incentive of keeping the streak alive, but now knowing that Manning was still years away from even threatening his streak, Favre has one more reason to conclude that last year's comeback was an utter waste of time.

We will look at the three basketball championships the the Sixers won. One was won as the Syracuse Nationals and the other two as the Philadelphia 76ers. I wrote this post at Liberty Ballers too.

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I know it seems absurd that Jack Butler isn't in the Hall of Fame, but he isn't

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It’s something that can drive men crazy and lead them to do stupid things; it probably came into being as a way to channel excess energy and reduce the natural and fierce spirit of competitiveness that man is born with; and today, it is not just a means of relaxation, it also makes a ton of money as well. Sport is more than just a game to most people – to some, it’s a lifeline to sanity, to others, it is life itself. It drives men and women crazy, its lucrative gains push them to do their best, and when this is not enough, it eggs them to adopt underhand means to win at any cost.

From time immemorial or at least as far back as we can trace, man has been involved in some kind of sport. Starting with the most primitive forms like throwing rocks the farthest and swimming rivers the fastest, our early ancestors soon moved to fashioning crude equipment and using them for sporting entertainment as well. Competitive events were held for glory alone, and winners were awarded wreaths or other such decorations instead of money or valuables. Some events were violent while others were toned down in intensity.

As the centuries passed, animals began to be used for sporting pleasure as well – royalty in Europe chose horses to race while their counterparts in India preferred elephants to play polo. The domestication of animals opened up many more opportunities for sport and lovers of sport. Individual events gave way to team games where entire villages or communities banded together to play neighboring units (incidentally, cricket is the oldest team game on record). Advancement and development in general life gave way to similar advances in sporting events as well, and even though the aggression and violence were toned down with rules and regulations, sport continues to have some amount of bloodiness in it.

The role of women in sports has always been minimal in the early years; they were expected to play more conservative roles in society and sport was something that was seen to be aggressive and so suited only for men. It was only in the 20th century that women were allowed to compete as well in professional sports; even so, even with all the anti-discrimination laws that are in place today, sport remains the bastion of testosterone-fuelled males with the feminine gender being pushed to the background and forced to play a smaller role (perhaps the one thing that remains common to ancient and modern-day sport).  

Today, it’s hard to imagine a life without sport – it’s not just a form of entertainment, it also constitutes a fun way to exercise and makes a ton of money for players, organizers, owners and everyone else associated with it. It will continue to be tainted by scandal, but these are side effects that we must ignore and try to prevent if the future of sports is to be bright.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Sandra McAubre, she writes on the topic of sports management degree programs . She welcomes your comments at her email id: sandra1.mcaubre@gmail.com.

Hopefully I am not spoiling one of the events in the post today. I originally thought this was for the 24th before finding out it was for the 25th.

August 25, 2004

Arsenal broke the 26 year old record set by Nottingham Forest for most games in a row without a loss in English competition at 43. They defeated Blackburn by a score of 3-0 behind goals from Thierry Henry, Gilberto Silva and Jose Antonio Reyes.

Arsenal would go on to have an unbeaten streak of 49 games in English games. This streak started in 2003, ran through the whole 2003/2004 season before ending with a 2-0 loss to Manchester United early in the 2004 season.

This is the greatest streak in English soccer and will likely never be matched.

When Lou Piniella put one of his pitchers, Sean Marshall, into left field for a batter in a game last year so he could keep him in the game and let him face the next couple batters, the announcer noted that he’d pulled a similar double switch on July 15, 1993, with Jeff Nelson, the former Mariners and Yankees reliever. I put together a long post about it at the time.

But now, with Lou having just managed his last MLB game, and facing what seems to be the imminent death of his mother, it's a good time to present the story again, to remember his unique style of managing. This, from the Tacoma News Tribune of July 16, 1993:

Lou Piniella manages one way – to win – though on Thursday he managed to confuse four umpires, the Boston Red Sox and more than a few of his own Seattle Mariners.

In the eighth inning of a one-run game, trying to nurse home a lead without closer Norm Charlton, Piniella brought in left-hander Dennis Powell to face one batter.

Instead of sending right-hander Jeff Nelson to the clubhouse when Powell entered the game, however, Piniella sent him to left field – enabling him to bring Nelson back to the mound.

All that worked, though the last out of the game was recorded by rookie Mike Hampton, whose first career save preserved Seattle’s 3-2 victory over Boston and continued a Mariners winning streak that has now reached six games.

“I’ve seen that move in the National League, but never in the American League,” Piniella said of his unorthodox plays. “In the National League, it’s just a one-for-one switch, but I knew over here it involved the designated hitter somewhere.”

When Piniella told home-plate umpire Durwood Merrill what he had in mind in the eighth inning, Merrill huddled for nearly two minutes with his crew – long enough to bring Sox manager Butch Hobson out of his dugout to see just what was happening.

“There was a little confusion, but they figured it out,” Piniella said.

“In 17 years in the big leagues, I’ve never seen that,” Merrill admitted afterward.

“I had no idea what he was doing – none,” Ken Griffey Jr. said. “But when I saw Jeff Nelson going to left field I just started smiling.”

When Butch Hobson opened the eighth by sending out right-handed pinch hitter Carlos Quintana, Piniella countered with Nelson, who got the first two batters he faced and should have gotten the third. But Tino Martinez dropped Billy Hatcher’s foul pop-up near the Red Sox dugout, and Hatcher followed with a single.
Up came left-handed hitting Mike Greenwell. Out of the Seattle dugout came Piniella. And the fun began.

By sending Nelson into left field and letting Dennis Powell pitch to Greenwell, Piniella lost his starting left fielder – Greg Litton – and the use of his DH for the night. But after Powell retired Greenwell, Piniella was able to use Nelson again in the ninth inning.

On the mound.

“I didn’t have a clue what Lou was doing when he started talking to the umpires,” Nelson said. “Then he told me to go out to left field. I haven’t played the outfield since Legion ball in ’84.”

"He shags real well during batting practice,” Piniella said, then grinned. “But the first thing I told Powell was `Don’t let ‘em hit it to left.’"

Powell didn’t, getting Greenwell to pop to second base.

Came the ninth inning, and Nelson got Andre Dawson and Bob Melvin before Martinez booted a Nelson Riles grounder for an error to bring up the go-ahead run in left-handed hitting Scott Cooper.

Out came Piniella again, and this time Nelson was pulled entirely for Hampton.

SB Nation is four blogs closer to conquering the entire planet. Bow before you benevolent rulers, for those who do not possess an SB Nation blog are not worthy and must be cast into the shadows, where no one will ever ask them what their opinions on sports are. Nay, these non-blog heathens are truly the filth of the Earth, for to not have an SB Nation blog is tantamount to not existing. Oh, a humanity where non-SBN bloggers run amuck is indeed a treacherous one, and those who wish to achieve salvation have but one hope of redemption: to join SB Nation.

In layman's terms, SB Nation now has a gargantuan amount of blogs, and since I can only list one link at a time with a FanShot, I'm writing this FanPost to promote the three newcomers to the SBN family (along with We Ain't Go No History and Cowboys Ride For Free):

Eight Six Forever - (Vancouver Whitecaps)

Dynamo Theory - (Houston Dynamo)

Hustle Belt - (Mid-American Conference)

It's hard to believe that in the 10 months since Inhistoric joined SBN, there have been 57 new blogs added to the network. That's a lot of blogs.

Ben Roethlisberger recently gave his first public interviews since a woman alleged he sexually assaulted her. The Steelers QB apologized to his fans and teammates about his actions, and also tried to explain himself in what could be one of the weakest I'm-not-that-kind-of-guy excuses in history.

(via the AP):

A contrite Ben Roethlisberger said he got caught up in being a caricature called Big Ben, not the grounded player and person he once was, leading to his off-field problems and affecting his play as the Steelers quarterback.

"Big Ben just kept building up. It ended up coming off the field. It kept taking over. Superman kept taking over Clark Kent and you just never saw who Ben Roethlisberger was any more," Roethlisberger told KDKA-TV. "At the time, I didn't see it. I was gaining everything but I was losing a lot of who I was raised to be. It got so overwhelming, it consumed me."

Poor, poor Ben Roethlisberger. All this time we've been blaming him for his crazy actions, when it was really his alter ego -- his dark side that he has no rational responsibility over -- that we should be blaming. And really it makes perfect sense, because when I think of lecherous sex offenders who walk around bars with their junk exposed, I immediately think of Superman. Don't you?

Oh, and if you think Roethlisberger's excuse wasn't the theme of his interviews, here's a few more quotes:

"My dad said to me about a month ago, it's good to have my son back," Roethlisberger told WTAE. "That killed me because my dad's been my best friend. For him to say that to me really let me know I wasn't who he raised me to be."

Roethlisberger gave the interviews upon the advice of consultants hired to help him and the Steelers rebuild his badly damaged public image. He promised several times that fans won't see the bad Roethlisberger – rather than the popular, championship-winning player of before – any longer.

"I know I've slipped, stumbled ... but you'll see a new Ben," he told KDKA.

and...

"Those chapters in my life, I've closed that book and I'm not opening them up," he told WTAE. "It only matters what I do from here on out. That's what I'm excited about – showing people, proving to people, fans, teammates, my family, the commissioner, everybody, who Ben Roethlisberger is. And that Ben is here to stay."

It's one thing to say that you're a changed man, that you've learned something or that you've matured. But to say that your actions were just the manifestation of your own bloated ego, that he literally created a monster named "Big Ben" who could do whatever the hell he wanted, and that he himself, the Good Ben, had nothing to do with it... that's just weak dude, especially from a man twice accused of raping a woman.

(Photo by Jared Wickerham, Getty Images)