Organized Chaos

The strangest story of the week came when former Cincinnati Bengal Rudi Johnson signed with the Detroit Lions. That wasn’t strange in itself. The fact he accused Tatum Bell of stealing his luggage was the odd part.

You can read the story by clicking here if you need a refresher.

The Lions had no more need for Bell, who was expendable after Johnson came in. In fact, it was the same story for Bell in Denver. Even more to the fact is how Denver has a way of getting the most out of their running backs, then seeing that they are breaking down or becoming unstable and dropping them.

Bell had a decent time in Denver, but never panned out. He was traded for Dre Bly, which was an upgrade.

Denver stood by Travis Henry while he battled a positive drug test last season. The Broncos saw the writing on the wall and got rid of him in the offseason.

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Update, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 6:50 p.m.: Jimbo Fisher named Christian Ponder the starter for Saturday’s opener. It’s a small surprise, though I read somewhere that an “insider” said the job was set up for him to win unless he totally fell on his face. He didn’t and he’s the starter for now. Will he be the starter against Wake Forest is the question.

You can read my story by clicking here.

Original post follows— 

Update, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 3:18 p.m.: Word has been released that Jimbo Fisher will indeed name his starting quarterback after Wednesday’s practice, which is scheduled to end at around 5 p.m. CDT.

Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden said on Wednesday that Jimbo Fisher has made a decision as to who will start Saturday’s season opener against mighty Western Carolina. Bowden said he agreed with the choice, but declined to comment on who the starter was until Fisher spoke to the three QBs in the running.

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The Atlantic Coast Conference was 7-4 in season openers this past weekend, but the two favorites laid eggs. Big ones.

My picks for the ACC title game, Virginia Tech and Clemson (my predicted champion), both ranked in the preseason poll, lost in embarassing fashion on Saturday. Virginia Tech, then ranked No. 17, traveled to East Carolina and ironically lost on a blocked punt late in the game. Clemson, then ranked No. 9, was taken apart by No. 24 Alabama 34-10 in the Georgia Dome.

Clemson’s loss is more glaring because it came in one of the ACC’s important matchups of the week. Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said last week the game would go a long way in determining how far the ACC has come to get back on top of the national scope.

Well, this set the ACC back and again painted Clemson as overrated. It’s still early, but the ACC is shaping up to be an afterthought in college football.

Recent history in the ACC is becoming what the Big East was 5 to 10 years ago. Miami ruled the roost (then left along with Boston College) and the other teams were average at best. The ACC is quickly becoming the same, with no major power to challenge in the Bowl Championship Series.

The ACC has to do something to change that image. Saturday didn’t help.

I can’t do my look at the Atlantic Coast Conference without first tackling the Florida State Seminoles.

Oh, the Seminoles. The team that long ago was the standard-bearer in the NCAA. Now they are a team basking in the muck of back-to-back 7-6 seasons.

But don’t despair, FSU faithful.

The Seminoles will have an improved offense behind an inexperienced but talented offensive line. The defense will again be strong.

The key is moving past the first three weeks, which will see several players suspended due to the academic cheating scandal that was uncovered late last year.

FSU has been fairly tight-lipped on which players will be out, but it will be obvious who’s gone once the lineups for the opener against Western Carolina released. The word is as many as six starters on defense might be out.

This won’t matter in the first two weeks, which see the Seminoles play teams no better than any area high school. I’d be shocked to see an upset, but then again you never really know.

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Gamers were spoiled a bit this summer, as the typical slow time for companies was anything but with solid titles on all systems.

However, we’ve been in the lull for several weeks, and the next batch of great titles still is a few months away. This was never more evident than when I took a recent trip to the nearby Gamestop.

I traded in five titles, and with my Edge Card 10 percent increase for trade-ins, I received more than $115 in store credit. A quick scouring of the used games on the PlayStation 3 side led to meandering to the Nintendo Wii section. Then back to PS3, then back to Wii and so forth.

In the end, there was nothing that grabbed my attention. So I paid for reservations on Resistance 2 and Call of Duty: World at War, both of which will be released in November. I’m hedging on my Call of Duty reservation, as the series returns to the World War II genre, which is way overplayed.

A decent throng of games is set for release in September. The brunt of the action ramps up in October on all platforms.

PS3 owners were treated to Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty, which is available for download on the PlayStation Network for $15. The next game in the popular franchise is a four-hour adventure bridging the gap between Tools of Destruction and the next edition due out in late 2009.

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A quick perusal of the archives made it clear in my head that I had let the Jerk of the Week go by the wayside for a few weeks. Now it’s back, with a look at bad sportsmanship from the Olympics.

We start off with Cuba’s Angel Matos, who kicked a referee in the head after being disqualified for taking too much injury time during a taekwando match. He was upset, which is understandable, but he should have walked off and taken it like a man. Instead, Mr. Matos, you took the coward’s way out and you were suspended for life for it. You deserved it.

Watch the video here.

Next we take a look at Sweden’s Ara Abrahamian, who threw down his bronze during the medal ceremony in grego-roman wrestling. He acted as if the guy who put the medal around his neck was to blame for his ineptness on the mat. The Swedish coach cried “politics” as the reason. I think a few better holds would have sufficed.

Finally, British runner Martyn Rooney took it upon himself to taunt Jamaica as he finished first in a 4×400 relay semifinal. The key word there is SEMIFINAL. Your team placed fourth. Oh, and Mr. Rooney fell flat in the 400 final. Way to go.

News came out about John Cena on Monday and it wasn’t good. The WWE star was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday to repair a herniated disc in his neck.

WWE is using the injury in Cena’s program with Batista, saying it occured when the two met at SummerSlam. The injury has been lingering, though, with Cena saying he had numbness in his right arm for a while. He said his strength was leaving him by the day so the only outcome was surgery.

This is Cena’s second major injury in the past year. He tore a pectoral muscle last October and came back in January. There is no timetable for return from this latest injury, but you can bet it will be a few months before we see him again.

Cena’s place as a top star is a given, but his recent position on Raw was somewhere in the middle. He lost to Batista cleanly and hasn’t been in the title hunt in weeks. He was scheduled to be in the Championship Scramble at Unforgiven and I would have been surprised if the plan was for him to win.

Now Cena and Randy Orton are on the shelf. Raw will have to get by without Cena and Orton in the coming weeks, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem.

CM Punk is still an emerging, and increasingly popular champion who will undoubtedly be chased by Batista in the future. JBL has filled the role of top heel well, though his in-ring work hasn’t been the greatest all the time. And the tag team of Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase are both stars in the making.

Speaking of Raw, here are my thoughts on this week’s show after the jump:

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Football season is creeping ever closer, with the NCAA starting this weekend and the NFL the next. High school football also starts next Friday.

I’ll start off a glance at the NFL and NCAA Football in general. I’ll have my Florida State and ACC predicitions within the next two weeks. Make sure to look out for them.

Here we go…………….

… Gators fans, your team will not win a national championship. However, they will be in the hunt for most of the season, given their all-world quarterback who goes by a name in my circle of friends that can’t be put here. The defense will be the downfall.

… There’s much talk about how the Southeastern Conference is so difficult, yet it has produced the past two national champions. This year is no different, as Georgia wins it all.

… And who will the Bulldogs play for said title? Ohio State is a logical choice. But it will be Oklahoma.

… Clemson will finish in the Top 5.

… Bobby Bowden will be out the door if FSU wins less than 8 games.

… Joe Paterno will be just like Bowden, with one-year deals the norm. However, unlike Bowden he’ll leave the school on “his terms” rather than stepping away for the good of the program.

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High school football begins next week with a gaggle of kickoff classics and jamborees, followed the next week by regular season openers. We’ll be on hand to cover as much as we can.

Meantime, you can check out our preview stories and capsules for each of our area high school football teams. Log onto PanhandleVarsity.com and head to the football section, where you’ll find all the stories cleverly headlined Prep Football 08.

We’re releasing stories for each team, two by the day and some days three. You can look at the archives to read each story.

Our football preview issue will release on Wednesday. This includes all of those preview stories, as well as a look at college programs in the ACC and SEC and a glance at the NFL schedule.

So get ready. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

 Here’s a glance at my predictions from last year, with comments on how good or bad I did.

… Florida Gators’ fans. Your team will not repeat as national champions. The Gators could win the SEC East, but the conference belongs to LSU this season. (Yes, and yes).

… Despite a tough schedule, Florida State will win nine games and return to the ACC Championship Game. But like LSU in the SEC, Virginia Tech owns the ACC. (Way no and yes)

… West Virginia and LSU will play for the national championship. LSU will win. (Off on one, good on the other)

… My alma mater, Colorado State, still stinks. (Yes, and they will be even worse this year)

… Duke will go winless again. (Close. The Dukies won 1)

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