I was intrigued by Chris Ivory when I heard an announcer say he went to Tiffin University, which is in a town near where I grew up, played golf and went to basketball camps at. Ivory’s story is pretty neat and as much as it pains me to say so, I think the Saints have a great scouting department/system.

Chip Kelly is the new Mike Leatch. Kelly runs a high-speed offense at Oregon and is rethinking the game a bit with his strategy. In some cases his approach is similar to Phil Jackson and how he lets his players find the flow and tempo of the game.

But in more traditional settings, what slows things down is the impulse of coaches to stop the action and be heard. To instruct and correct. Coaches­, after all, get into the business because they love a sport and want to see it played right. They have limited control during a game. Practice is when they can stop time and choreograph perfection. (…) It doesn’t happen at Oregon. Coaches sometimes pull players from the field for quick talks, but first they send in substitutes, and the plays keep on rolling. They look back at the films from each practice — identify mistakes — and then point them out in early-evening players’ meetings, which are also short.

Barry Sanders is my all-time favorite (pro) football player. I was just looking at his Score rookie cards I own today. Here is a video of Sanders’ best plays that show why I love(d) watching him so much.

Awesome mashup of Lebron’s recent Nike commercial and an older Michael Jordan commercial.

I’m all for re-designing sports jerseys; I even encourage it in many cases. However, getting a look at what Nike is supposedly proposing for the 2012 NFL uniforms is straight up nasty. As a Bengals fan, their jerseys look like they should be in the XFL. Let’s go back a few years and gain some inspiration from the past.

As a Cincinnati Bengals fan, it pains me to say this, but Carson Palmer is overrated. He’s the reason our season went down the tubes. Don’t believe me, ask the Sports Guy.

I’m the only person outside of Cincinnati who realizes that Carson Palmer hasn’t been good in four years. My favorite thing about Palmer: His conventional statistics keep throwing everyone off his rancid scent — 1,855 yards (seventh overall), 12 TDs, seven picks, 83 QB rating. Not terrible, right?

So you have to dig a little … and that’s when you find out that he’s last in third-down passing (49 percent completion rate, 431 yards, 62 rating), or that defenders have dropped 215 possible Palmer interceptions (approximate), or that his receivers unofficially lead the league in walking off the field shaking their heads at one another (which, by the way, really should be a stat). If the Bengals were smart, they’d start pounding the ball with Cedric Benson and reducing Palmer’s effect on the game, but they aren’t, and that’s why I will keep picking against them.

Here’s to drafting Ryan Mallet.

But then, starting from a small burst of applause, a roaring standing ovation. Sparky was on the field. Everything stopped. Players running sprints in the outfield turned around and ran to Sparky. Broadcasters, umpires, opposing players. There was the guy who loved baseball, and the city who loved him for the life he’d brought it. The ballpark felt like home again.

Bless you, Sparky Anderson.

Not really sure how it’s possible that I haven’t referenced these two articles by Michael Lewis on former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. The first one details the (revolutionary) offense and his strategy for competing with some of the top-tier football programs. And, the second is a follow-up interview with Lewis on Leach after Tech got to No. 2 in the nation.

Now, while Ohio University’s (my alma mater) football program has had some success with Frank Solich, I would LOVE to hire Leach to the program. I think it could add the needed boost and spark to our program.

Add this to my Germany to-do list: surfing in Munich.

Munich, a German city that perhaps couldn’t be further from the ocean. And I was shocked. Barefooted Germans in wetsuits carried surfboards past others in suits and ties, and no one batted an eye. The surfers were all headed to Munich’s Englischer Gartens for a ride on one of Europe’s best waves, albeit in a river.

Michigan QB Denard Robinson … We haven’t seen this type of college football playmaker since … Barry Sanders?

Having gotten to watch Robinson play (in person) this weekend, I have to say that there are only a couple of college football players who have captured my attention as much. Barry Sanders, Bo Jackson, Michael Vick and Charles Woodson are the others. At any point Robinson can break a play for 70 yards. You just sit there waiting for him to do it; it’s something special.