After an exciting Super Bowl came to a close today with the New Orleans Saints upsetting the Indianoplis Colts, the football fans of the world will have to wait until the fall to see these players in action again.

So many teams were up and down this year including two undefeated teams through 13 weeks (Colts, Saints) and two winless teams for quite a long time (Rams, Buccaneers).  Starting the season off, it’s hard to forget the drama that Brett Favre brings the NFL every year. He decided to sign with Brad Childress and the Vikings, whether to spite the Packer Nation or not. (Being a Packer fan, I wasn’t too happy) And it seemed to be a great choice after seeing their high-flying offensive attack the first 6 weeks of the season as they tore every team apart. On the other side of things, Peyton Manning wasn’t slowing down either. He led his Colts to an impressive 13-0 record with a few close calls along the way.  They had to try and steal the spotlight from the Saints and Who Dat Nation. They surprised the NFL by also going 13-0 until the Dallas Cowboys knocked them off.

The defensive players this year stepped it up a lot.  Charles Woodson won Defensive MVP on an impressive season with the new Packers 3-4 defense.  Another defensive back in Darrelle Revis for the NY Jets had an amazing year himself, and a lot of people thought was more deserving than Woodson.  Jared Allen for the Vikings was constantly “roping calfs” after sacking the oppositions quarterback like he’d been doing for years.

On the offensive side of things, running back Chris Johnson put on a show for the whole league.  After the Titans started 0-6, he single handedly fired the team back up and behind his NFL Record rushing yards performance won the next 5 games.  Rookie Wide Receiver Percy Harvin was catching balls like crazy from his hot handed new quarterback Brett Favre. This led him to receive the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.  He was unstoppable in his sharp route running and will develop into a great slot receiver for years to come.

That about sums up the big names this year in football, but I’ll see you next year and the draft isn’t too far away.
Go Packers!

-FalconKP

Hey everyone! Christmas is finally wrapping up and I must say, it was really a great time. I’m going to try and get to most of the big four sports that happened in 2009 as a sort of “”Year in Review”  Well, here it goes!

Football-
–Early in 2009, Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators beat out the Oklahoma Sooners 24-14 to win the BCS National Championship
–The Pittsburgh Steelers won with a toe tapping fingertip catch by Santonio Holmes in the endzone late in the 4th quarter to beat the Arizona Cardinals and win the 43rd Super Bowl in Tampa.
–Two teams take an undefeated season through 13 games, the Colts and the Saints. Sadly, both of the teams end up losing in the last 3 weeks of the season.

Baseball-
–Japan emerges victorious in the 2009 World Baseball Classic over South Korea by winning 5-3 in 10 innings.
–The New York Yankees long hard battle back to the top of the baseball world was capped off by a win in the World Series upon the bat of Alex Rodriguez.
–The unthinkable happened when Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. He almost lost it, but Jermaine Dye robbed a home run late in the game to preserve this historic feat. It has only been done 18 times in major league history.

Basketball-
–North Carolina trounces Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament Championship by a score of 89-72 behind the gritty and determined play of Tyler Hansborough.
–The Los Angeles Lakers are led by Kobe Bryant to take the 2009 NBA Finals 4-1 over the Orlando Magic. “Superman” Dwight Howard had a hard time containing Pao Gasol as the series was never really in doubt.

Hockey-
–Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin lead their team back to the finals against the same team they faced last year in the Detroit Red Wings.  In one of the most exciting series’ ever, the Penguins clinch the Stanley Cup with an impressive Game 7 victory. Malkin was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for best player in the playoffs.

Tennis-
–Roger Federer loses 2 of 4 Major Championships to Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro.  The Wimbledon Final against Andy Roddick will go down in history as one of the greatest matches ever played when Federer finally broke Roddick to win in the 5th set 16-14.
–Serena Williams wins the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Svetlana Kuznetsova won the French open, while Kim Clijsters won the US Open.

Golf-
–The Masters was won by Angel Cabrera in a sudden death playoff over Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell.
–Lucas Glover won the US Open over three other American players in a rainy 4 day tournament.
–A magical performance by 59-year-old Tom Watson led him to a four hole playoff against Stewart Cink.  The experienced Watson couldn’t keep it together, but left a tournament to remember for the ages.
–Tiger Woods couldn’t come back from the final round deficit in the PGA Championship where Y.E. Yang was the first Asian-born player to win a major men’s championship.
(Needless to say, Tiger ran into a few more problems later in the year…)

Hopefully if you slept for 365 days in 2009, this one article can get you back up to speed on the sports you care about.
-FalconKP

The historic and prestigious coaching position at the Universtiy of Notre Dame was announced this morning in a press conference in South Bend, Indiana.  The Fighting Irish picked from the top of the coaching staffs and recruited Brian Kelly, who just led the Cincinatti Bearcats to a 12-0 season and a BCS Bowl Bid against the University of Florida in the Sugar Bowl. The Bearcats will have to play that game without Kelly who has already accepted the position at Notre Dame and had only high praises for the Bearcat team he had just coached.

Brian Kelly has quite the impressive resume and has been a head coach for 19 years. His first 13 years he was head coach at Grand Valley State University where he led the GVSU Lakers to two Division II National Championships (2002 and 2003).  His overall record there was an astonishing 118-35-2 and set the Div. II all time scoring record putting up an impressive 58.4 points per game.  In 2004, Kelly moved on to bigger things at Central Michigan University.  There wasn’t as much star power at CMU, but in three short seasons there he managed to lead Central Michigan to a 2006 MAC Conference Championship and a bid in the Motor City Bowl.  Just after the Motor City Bowl was announced, Brian Kelly had accepted a job position at the University of Cincinatti.

Brian Kelly then started to make a name for himself.  The year 2007 marked his first full season at Cincinatti and instantly led them to the school’s 2nd 10-win season in history and was awarded the Big East Coach of the Year.  In the following year, Kelly led the Bearcats to the Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech and was the first coach in Cincinatti history to win all three traveling trophies. [the Victory Bell (Miami, OH), the Keg of Nails (Louisville), and the River City Rivalry Trophy (Pitt)]  This year, which turned out to be his final year at Cincinatti, the team rose to become the #3 ranked team in the country with dominating performances throughout the whole season.

In Brian Kelly’s press conference held this afternoon, he said he has plans in place for his coaching positions and a passion to bring Notre Dame back to the football program that people are scared to play.  He had met with the players earlier this morning and said he saw a bunch of faces that “wanted to win”.  You’d better believe they want to win.  Their last 5 seasons have been getting worse and worse under the old coach Charlie Weis going 1-2 in the last 5 years of postseason football.  They’ve lost to Navy after holding a 43 game win-streak against them and posted a 3-9 record in 2007.

Things needed to change at Notre Dame and I’m glad to see that the University noticed it and brought in a coach who I think will have the world’s weight on his shoulders to perform well.  To wrap it up I will quote Brian Kelly at the press conference, “I can guarantee we’ll win the Spring Game and start 1-0″.  Coach Kelly, you’d better hope you can’t lose playing against yourselves. Good luck.

-FalconKP