And nobody catches Bo

In honour of Al Michaels' classic call of a Bo Jackson touchdown on Monday Night Football here is a blast from the past.

For those who can appreciate the greatness that was Tecmo Bowl, here is video Bo Jackson showing why he was the greatest video game athlete of all time.

OU didn't!

I, as lover of Big Red and as obligated in the unwritten code that accompanies fandom of said Huskers, hate Oklahoma.

Now, that's nothing new or rare in the ranks of the Big 12. Pretty much everyone in the conference has a hate on for the Sooners and it comes for a number of reasons, not the least of which is most of their fans come off as complete (insert expletive).

So it was with great interest that I read an email forwarded to me by a fellow Husker fan in Omaha with the subject line: JEALOUS OF OU.

		The Sooners think we're all jealous of their football team/program...and here are a few reasons why........... 1)I'm jealous their football program is under NCAA investigation and will have to forfeit games that Rhett "Big Red Sports & Imports" Bomar played in. 2) I'm jealous their basketball program is on probation for cheating. 3) I'm jealous their legendary Coach they refer to as "The King" and they honor by naming buildings after ran a dirty program and got caught committing serious violations and got the program put on probation. 4) I'm jealous their team is named after their ancestors who were Dirt Burglars, cheaters and thieves (notice a theme here?). 5) I'm jealous their team is filled with brainiacs, so much that they got a whole 5 players named to the All Big XII Academic Team, ranking right up there with the likes of Kansas State for the lowest in the conference ...as an FYI the teams they hate like Texas and NU, had 24 and 22 respectively, most in the conference! 6) I'm jealous because during their 90s slump they had a five year stretch with a 23-33-1 including 3 losing seasons in row. In contrast, our slump consisted of one .500 season and one losing season, and only one year where we didn't go to a bowl game. 7) I'm jealous because despite their having an admirable run earlier this decade, going 60-7 in 5 years, playing for 3 National Titles, yet only winning one...it pales in comparison to our prolific run from 93-97 where we went 60-3, having played for 4 National Championships and having won 3 in that same 5 year stretch (the loss coming by missing a game winning field goal in the final seconds). Contrast that with our trouncing of Florida by a record 38 points in the '96 Fiesta Bowl, whereas the mighty Sooners nearly let USC break that record by getting trounced by a score of 55-19 in the 2004 title game. 8) I'm jealous because obviously our fans have nothing to cheer for, that's why NU has the longest sell out streak in the country, dating back to the early 1960s. 9) I'm jealous that in my lifetime OU has won 4 National Championships and my Huskers have 5.

That pretty much gets the point across.

The Huskers and Sooners will face off in the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday with a berth in a BCS bowl game on the line. It will be the first time in 11 years that the two heated rivals will play in the conference championship but there is no thought that that has dulled the fever heading into the big game. Nebraska beating Oklahoma any year makes the weekends sweet, but beating them in the title game? Well, that's off the charts.

Again the responsibilities of a career will keep me from watching the game unfettered. A Brandon-Simon Fraser women's volleyball match that I'll be doing play-by-play on falls right smack dab in the middle of the football fun. Just a little FYI, though? I'll have our courtside monitor switched to ABC. Don't tell anyone.

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A few rambling thoughts to fill this thing out...

• Got a letter to the editor in the Brandon Sun the other day in response to a column I did last week in which I tried to put a spark in the southwestern Manitoba community and its penchant for being, shall we say, dull at BU games. Neither disparaging nor insulting, the piece was meant to question why, at exciting sporting events, no one in the region seems to want to make their voices heard. The environment is, more often than not, maddeningly monotonous. The letter, in short, stated that this particular person had at one time been an avid fan who was vocal and energetic until being told by the athletic therapist to quiet down because BU fans didn't act that way and had respect for the opposition. Just when I thought that was his cue he was in support of my piece, his letter went on to tell me that it's not my job to tell folks what to do at games and that, in fact, BU is not that kind of school and the letter-writer seemed quite proud of that fact.

Listen, there's a fine line between being an obnoxious jerk at games and being a vocal, intense fan who knows it's OK to make some noise. I can't even believe I'm feeling the need to justify this and perhaps the fact that I do feel it says volumes about the community in which I currently reside.

Not to beat this horse again, but the greatest sporting environment I've ever been in was in Lincoln and the fans there are known for their over-the-top graciousness to the opposition. Well somehow they manage to balance that with being absolutely rabid for their team.

So explain to me again why it's wrong to suggest Brandon could do the same.

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• Last week I got through watching the five-part long VH1 documentary "And You Don't Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop" on YouTube, which was a nostalgic reminder of all the things that make that genre great to me. That enthusiasm was anhilated, however, a day later when I read an Associated Press review of Kevin Federline's album that said, in so many words, "hey, it's not so bad, y'know."

Actually, it is. Atrocious. What the reason behind suggesting it is anything but a steaming pile is, I don't know, but make no mistake there is nothing redeemable here and allowing Federline to come off as some sort of rags to riches inspiration is preposterous. Crediting his lyrics as "some of the most sincere urban storytelling" is just plain insulting.

Reading someone actually pimp this album as a worthwhile offering gave me an ugly feeling in my stomach. Actually, no.

Realizing that there's people who think this way about music gave me that feeling.

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• Haven't done a list in a while, so here is...

The List of Five:
5. Dog Bites Man — My new funniest show on TV
4. The Simpsons Bart vs. Australia on as I type this. — I see you've played Knifey-Spooney before.
3. Jean Grae — Great voice of hip hop.
2. Sarah Pavan — The biggest star at Nebraska.
1. Fiesta Bowl — Go Big Red

My Cup runneth over

In hindsight, I really should have known.

If you're telling me I'm going to go see a football game between the British Columbia Lions and Montreal Alouettes, in the very best case scenario I'm going to be indifferent to the proposal. And, it would be safe to say, seeing those two teams at the Grey Cup in my hometown could be classified as "the very best case scenario" for said opportunity.

But here's the thing: I hate the Montreal Alouettes and I'm only mildly short of hatred for the Lions. So, when the chance to see the Grey Cup game came up months and months ago, I prayed that my team — the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — would manage to be in it. When they were eliminated from the playoffs, my indifference shot through the roof to "rather be reading Chaucer" status.

So I should have really known better that even going to my first-ever Grey Cup would be polluted by the fact that I really couldn't give a damn who won the game.

Esthetically speaking, Sunday's big game was the equivalent of an orangutang doing colour-by-numbers. Montreal QB Anthony Calvillo was below average, his counterpart Dave Dickson was marginally better and the outstanding Canadian of the game got the honour because he managed to kick six field goals, an indication of sputtering offences more than a clutch boot. When a kicker wins any type of MVP award, ... well, that says a lot, doesn't it?

On top of that, neither team spread the field much. Calvillo went deep on the first play of the game and then spent the rest of the contest dodging defensive linemen and watching his receivers drop every pass they could. (This is excluding Ben Cahoon who was actually the best offensive player on the field.) Two touchdowns were scored, both on the ground, one on a plunge. Hardly riveting theatre.

For those who have been to Winnipeg Stadium (I don't use the corporate name), then you're likely aware of the binary opposites that are the East Side and the West Side. For those who don't: One side is drunk, the other side is old, okay?

It's a mass generalization but for the sake of proving my point I am sticking with it as reality. It's a little thing I like to call Armchair Prophecy and I learned about it in first-year psych, so just roll with it.

The West Side is the old, reserved and utterly unentertaining side. Members of this side of the Stadium are known to bring seat cushions with back support, wear hats they bought at the old Osborne Stadium and — this is most important to remember — never, under any circumstances, get up out of their seats. Dieter Brock could be handing out winning lottery tickets and they wouldn't so much as budge unless they were telling him to quiet down. In fact, after the referees blew a big call (more on this later), a frustrated Alouette hurled a game ball into the stands and it caused all of five people to react to try to get it. Unbelievable.

This is the side I sat on and, with most of the seats being retained by season-ticket holders, this is the crowd with which I watched the game.

So take an indifferent me, with a crowd better suited for an elementary school Christmas recital and mix in a bad football performance, and you'll see perhaps I'm not the right guy to ask "How was the game?"

And here is where you all ask me to turn in my Canadian citizenship...

The Grey Cup did nothing for me and the more I think about it the Canadian Football League more and more isn't doing anything for me.

I still pull rabidly for the Blue Bombers, I still believe at the most basic level the CFL game is far more exciting than the NFL game and I would be utterly crushed if the league somehow went away. But there is something that has tainted it for me and I believe it's a combination of a number of variables, a few that showed up throughout the playoffs.

The putridity of the CFL referees reared its ugly head on the game's biggest stage. Head ref Jake Ireland blew down a play in which Dickenson fumbled and the Als recovered and were alone into the endzone. The most senior official in the league took six points off the board with his rash reaction in the biggest game of the year (not to mention he had arguably the worst angle, coming from behind the flow of the play while another official was facing it head on and didn't blow the play down). If Ireland believes that the player is down, let the play run and then let the video replay prove you to be right or wrong. Instead, his move costs a team six points and plays a major factor in the final outcome.

Furtherto that, the analysts on the TSN post-game acknowledged merely that it was "unfortunate" for it to happen and left it at that further adding fuel to my argument that the CFL and the networks are in some sort of cohoots with each other to never lambaste or black-mark the league with actual commentary.

You're damn right that play should be held up to considerble scrutiny and rather than the CFL admit it or, lord help us, the analysts actually disect it for what it was, everyone just brushes it off and carries on with the "isn't it fun to play football"-type dialogue. No bite and barely even any bark.

In Canadian sports we have this notion that the Grey Cup is the be all and end all of sports in this country, which it very likely is when considering the one-game urgency of it. The presentation in-stadium was very good and the "show" itself was just fine but I guess I needed (or expected) more than just a few flashing lights and a full stadium.

It is understood that Grey Cup Week is more about the lead up to the game, than the game itself. But, with that said, the experience of any football game is not about how many decibals and watts you pump into the stadium.

A great football experience doesn't include: People getting up out of their seat and sliding past you in the aisle every 10 minutes, drunks spilling beer over any and everyone in the three rows in front of them, fans leaving the stands by the hundreds at various points in the game and, most importantly, spectator indifference.

Winnipeg and the league teamed up to do all possible to make the experience a memorable one but one thing they can't control is thousands of fans standing around you who don't care about the game or who have it ingrained in their every action that it is somehow wrong to whoop it up and behave with a modicum of craziness. How very Canadian of you. (Incidentally, I'm aware that this is what Super Bowls are like live as well, so leave that analogy at home.)

I have been to great football venues and the Grey Cup is easily trumped. It's nothing the CFL can cure; the city of Winnipeg put on a marvelous show and by all accounts made the week-long event well worth the effort of those who came to the city. But if we're just talking about going to the game, then I could go through another 50 years of Grey Cup games, not attend one of them and still live contently without regret.

Perhaps it's just simple enough to say the Grey Cup is the epitomy of putting Canadian and Sport together: Always falling short of spectacular because that's way we want it.

No Bye Weeks Here

In honour of Big Red's cliffhanger 28-27 win over Texas A&M in College Station on Saturday — and accompanying clinching of the Big 12 North Division — here's a bit of randomdess as we enter the UNL bye week with one regular-season game left before the Big 12 Conference Championship in December against Texas.

So to tide me over until the Huskers' next action — which is Nov. 24 in Lincoln against Colorado. Check your local listings — I went YouTube'ing to satiate my Big Red blood. So I bring you this:

The famous Nebraska Tunnel Walk with your special guest host Keith Jackson, the greatest voice in the history of football.

"Can you think of a better place to be than Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska?"

Nope. Go Big Red.

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The Tunnell Walk Prayer
Dear Lord, the battles we go through life,
We ask for a chance that's fair
A chance to equal our stride,
A chance to do or dare
If we should win, let it be by the code,
Faith and Honor held high
If we should lose, we'll stand by the road,
And cheer as the winners go by
Day by Day, we get better and better!
Til' we can't be beat...WON'T BE BEAT!

Legend

As in sports, the toughest thing to do is repeat.

After the flourish with which John Legend entered the music scene two years ago, the follow up album was a highly-anticipated offering from the man who brought soulful cool back to the R&B music scene and, with it, became a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning, certified music star.

Legend's first full-length solo venture Get Lifted beautifully flashed the Chicagoan's vocal ability against a brilliantly produced Kanye West musical backdrop; a perfect melding of two of urban music's most talented men and an ideal canvas for Legend to show off his unmistakable tone. The result was a return of classic R&B mixed with just enough pop tendencies to make Get Lifted a commercial and critical success.

With Legend essentially a household name, he returns with Once Again, his second solo effort that lets him step out more on his own. Although Kanye is still there to lay a bulk of the tracks, Legend is left to his own devices lyrically with no thoughts that guest appearances are needed to assist the overall product.

In the end, the second helping of Legend is not entirely like the first serving, but not entirely unlike it either.

The strengths on Get Lifted — Legend's soothing vocals and touch on the keys — are still readily evident on Once Again as is his ability to produce mesmorizing ballads. "Again" is the marquis ballad of the collection and has Legend reflecting on a relationship started out of sin and now ironically wrought with mistrust because of that guilty beginning. As compared to Get Lifted's flagship slow jam, "Ordinary People," it is perhaps not as extraordinary nor as poignant but it still makes a listener stand up and take notice. For those looking for the heart-wrenching feel of "Ordinary People" it lies in "Where Did My Baby Go?", a saccharine-y tale of unrequited love that is not nearly as peurile as the title may suggest.

On that same level, "Coming Home" hits close to the heart as well, a narrative of homes left empty by those off to battle. While it seems destined to back-up a CNN slow-motion montage of Iraq footage, it is nonetheless eloquent and while everyone seemingly wants to jump in with their poetic social commentary, Legend's entry aspires to be more down home than condemning.

As a whole, Once Again seems to lend itself more to Legend's stylings than to those of West, whose inspirations and hip-hop leanings could be felt more on Get Lifted. But that doesn't mean Once Again loses those feelings of the original completely, moreso that Legend is allowed to dip into his roots of funk and neo-soul more than he showed on his first album.

The product, then, is an album more funky and enterprising, one that plays with sound and comes off slightly more experimental while staying true to Legend as an artist. Once Again is less about making a cutting-edge R&B album — been there, done that — and more about producing just a cutting-edge album in general. For all its currentness — and undoubtedly it is current — Once Again is still decidedly nostalgic; as if you took Legend of today back 30 years ago and told Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Hendrix and Minnie Riperton (and whatever friends they could muster) to meet in a studio.

To that end, the sound is more soulful and inventive, mixing multiple genres into one pot before finally producing what could be referred to as neo-retro: A throwback album made for the 21st century and meant to last well beyond.