The Sports Review

As the NFL Preseason draws to a close, we can start getting ready for the Denver Broncos to start their season. Over the offseason, they traded Jay Cutler over to the Chicago Bears. Last night’s preseason game felt like the moment when two people open up their bank statements at the same time. Kyle Orton played well and he’s a good quarterback. Not an All Star or anything at this point, but a good steady guy. On the other side was Jay Cutler, who was a strong player, endured the boos and all of that. He has shown good sense since he came to Chicago, not going out into the media on his own, even issuing a few statements of apology or clarification. He’s fine now, he seems to be more mature and he’s been holding downt he fort. Chicago won 27-17 and that’s the kind of wins they need to get. Denver seems to be flailing a bit, with both their starting QB and backup injured (albeit in minor ways), but they’ll have to get it together in order to get back into real season play.

It was a titanic series this week, with the Rockies taking on the Dodgers. The Rockies have come out of nowhere this month to create a big challenge for at least the Wild Card and possibly also the Western Division title. These two teams are fairly evenly matched this year and especially right now. But last night, the Dodgers bombed them 6-1. Opening up a 3 game lead over the Colorado, they are still trying to keep themselves above the water until September and October can roll around. The Rockies were down by more than 15 games at the beginning of June and have roared back into very serious playoff contention this year. Here come the Rockies! The Dodgers are going to have to remain consistent as time moves forward, so we’ll have to see what they can get done.

Jake Peavy might be ready to make his starting debut this weekend for Chicago against the NY Yankees. He has been in rehab all this time since he was traded to the White Sox from San Diego. He might be on tap to pitch opposite CC Sabathia this weekend and that could be a huge matchup. Not that the Yankees have too much to prove. The White Sox just have to get some wins to keep pace with Detroit as well as the wild card. But otherwise, these teams don’t affect each other too much. Peavy is a good pitcher and it’s going to be great when we are able to see where he is in his rehab. Especially in the New Yankee Stadium. Especially against CC. Wow, what a weekend this could turn out to be!

This year is expected to be a comeback year for the Fighting Irish. If it hadn’t been for a couple of mistakes in key games, the Irish would have been 8-4 on the season. This might not have put them in any bowls, especially since the NCAA was so good last year. But that isn’t a big deal. Jimmy Clausen will be working hard to get into his groove next year. He has been a good quarterback, but with his new experience he will be even better. He does have a good pair of wide receivers to work with in Golden Tate and Michael Floyd. They are two of the best receivers around and it will be interesting to see if they are able to push the team further forwards this year. It will be great to see this team reach higher levels of success this year, so get your Notre Dame football tickets today and enjoy an even more talented team!

Just as soon as you thought the long saga was over, Brett Favre has jumped into the fray once again. A man who never shies from theatrics and excitement, today’s newest chapter is one of the biggest so far. This morning, he apparently boarded a private plane…with a Vikings logo on it. He is said to be headed back to Minnesota to sign a contract worth $10-$15 million with the team. It will be interesting to see what happens now. Just a few weeks ago he re-retired and now he’s un-re-retiring to join the NFC North. This shakes up the expectations of this part of the NFL world something fierce and we’ll have to reevaluate a lot of what we’ve thought about that tough division. With a real quarterback (even if he hasn’t attended practice), this team might well hit the ground running. Those of you in Green Bay ought to be quaking right now, I suppose.

Now that we’re pretty sure the Detroit Lions will actually win a game this season, some people are saying that they can easily imagine a situation where other teams go completely winless this season. The Cleveland Browns are one of those teams. Between the fact that one of their major players suffered a season-ending injury and their banner wide receiver was suspended for the season. The St. Louis Rams are also in danger of this, because they don’t really have anything on offense or defense. Their quarterback is decent, but can’t really get much going, certainly not with essentially amateur receivers. And finally the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the potential to go this way, with a new coach and some difficulty in all the positions on the field. These teams are just generally weak and can’t get a spark of any kind going most days. We shall see if any of them actually go winless or if they just threaten to do so.

Michael Schumacher was going to try to make a comeback to Formula 1 racing this year, perhaps only on a temporary basis. But he was interviewed on the radio yesterday and he told them that he wasn’t physically able to come back because he was having neck pain. The doctors weren’t able to fix it, nor were his trainers, so he’s going to have to skip out on his chance to make it back to top level racing. The neck is interesting for racers, because that’s what they need to train a lot in order to take on the kinds of gravitational forces that these racers have to deal with. He hurt his neck once more this February in a motorcycle race which exacerbated the situation for him. So he will stay in retirement.

Tiger Woods remains dominant, but not as typically dominant as he used to be in the golf world. Woods was at the Buick Open this weekend. He started out very poorly, tying for 95th after the first round, but moving all the way up to a victory thereafter. He decided to push forward, play as consistently as possible, and ended up with a great performance ultimately. This is when the Tiger shines the most, when he’s behind. This time around, he decided that he was going to win the final Buick Open, no question. The Buick Open will probably be the last time the PGA comes to Michigan for a long time, because they need more sponsors to back the competition up again. Perhaps late in the next decade, we will get to see them back in this place that likes golf so much.