Some Questions To Ask

           Before we get going, I thought this would be a nice time for a little pop-quiz.  I know no body wants to read the sports section of a newspaper and have to take a quiz, but this one will be a little fun.  Well, at least it was fun for me to come up with the questions.  Plus it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out the correct answers.  The answers will be displayed at the bottom of the column.  Don’t cheat!

            1.      True or False: The defending Super Bowl champs are 13-0 in season-openers over the last 13 years.

2.      True of False: The Dallas Cowboys are 6-0 all-time in season openers versus the New York Giants.

3.      True or False: Roughly five minutes after the Giants lost to the Cowboys last week, Eddie Hedes started making excuses.

4.      If “Dallas Cowboys > New York Giants” is a true statement, and Dallas Cowboys = Shawn McFarland and NY Giants = Eddie Hedes, then what else must be true?

5.      The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Viking and Arizona Cardinals all currently have more wins than the New York Giants.

6.      Despite their loss, the Giants still looked better than the Philadelphia Eagles.

            Now onto something that popped into my head the other night.  Thought I would share it with everyone…

            In this day in age when every athlete who accomplishes any sort of crazy  feat is eventually suspected of steroids, one person in particular has seemingly dodged the HGH bullet.  That person is Serena Williams.

            My suspicion arose the other night as I laid in bed and watched some highlights on ESPN.  As the replays went on, they showed Williams serve three aces in a row – all over 110 miles-per-hour – and fist pump afterward to the point where her bicep looked photo-shopped onto her arm.  If someone had digitally removed her body and left just her arm, and then asked me to guess who the arm belonged to, my first guess would have been Evander Holyfield followed by Deebo from the Friday movies.

            This is when someone from my generation says, “I’m not sayin,’ I’m just sayin.’”  I’m not sayin’ Serena Williams is definitely on steroids, I’m just sayin’ that if she would be the odds-on favorite to win an arm wrestling tournament at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York – maybe she should at least be tested.

            The whole steroid debate doesn’t really have me going one way or another.  Baseball was loaded with users.  I get it.  Football probably is too although no one would ever admit it.  Honestly, if practically everyone was on it then I don’t see the big deal.  It was a somewhat level, albeit juiced, playing field.  It’s impossible to tell who is or isn’t juicing anymore, so I’m over it.

Most people use steroids or HGH more for quicker healing rather than a performance enhancer.  The only people I have ever had a problem with were Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa because they are only known for their power and wouldn’t have amounted to much without the homerun chase of 1998.  Thankfully they have seen been ostracized.  Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were Hall of Fame quality before they allegedly started juicing so I don’t hate them as much as other people do.  All I know is that my all time hero, Ken Griffey Jr., never juiced.  That dude got hurt way too much to be on anything.

So, with Williams, I’m not saying she is taking steroids.  She has always been a muscular woman.  I probably wouldn’t care even if she was.  All I am saying is that I am surprised the idea has never brought up.  After everything with A-Rod, Rafael Palmeiro and Lance Armstrong, you never know what will come out five years down the road.

Quiz Answers: 1. False: The Giants’ loss was the first for a defending champ since 1999. 2. True. 3. False: It only took 30 seconds. 4. Shawn McFarland > Eddie Hedes. 5. True. 6. Very True.

            I’d just like to point out that I didn’t say one word when all you Giant fans were talking noise last week.  But if you are going to dish it out then you better be ready to take it.

Borre blurs Huskies' vision

     Not too long ago, ADIDAS came out with a few advertisements in which it proclaimed “Fast Don’t Lie.”
After last Friday night, the company may want to recruit Pleasant Valley’s Austyn Borre to be the new spokesman for its marketing campaign.
     The Bears’ freshman running back ran around, through and away from the Dieruff defense last weekend on his way to racking up a school-record 246 yards and four touchdowns on just eight carries. As if his 30.75 yards-per-carry average wasn’t enough, it becomes even more amazing when one finds out that Borre did all of that in just a little over a quarter of play.
     Borre’s most recent performance proved that his 100-yard effort against Nazareth on opening night was no fluke. Perhaps more importantly, it has also earned him the TIMES NEWS Football Player of the Week award for week number two.
     “It feels great to win an award like this, especially with me being a freshman in just my second week,” said Borre, who was clocked with a 4.5 in the 40-yard-dash earlier this year. “But I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without my offensive line. They opened up the holes for me. Without them or the rest of my team, I wouldn’t be able to put up the numbers that I did.
     “The blocking was perfect and everything was wide open. It was an amazing night. It is something I will never forget.”
     Borre began his night against Dieruff much like he did against Nazareth. Whereas the 5-9, 180-pound back took his first carry versus the Eagles 75 yards to the house, he grabbed his opening carry last week and ran 59 yards before being taken down at the six-yard-line. He gained three more yards on his next carry before fullback Josh Thornton plunged in from three yards out to cap the scoring drive.
     Borre would total nine yards on his next three carries before breaking out in a major way. His final three totes of the night went for 62, 46 and 67 yards - all touchdowns. They made for the third, fourth and fifth carry of his young career that have gone for 46 yards or more.
     Pleasant Valley possessed the ball for a total of two minutes and 39 seconds while Borre was in the game. That means he ran for 246 yards in only 159 seconds. Do the math and that’s an average of nearly 1.55 yards-per-second. And as we all know, a football player doesn’t run continuously while his team has possession. The offense has to huddle up and call another play before handing the ball off again.
     “He really is a special kid,” said head coach Jim Terwilliger. “I haven’t seen a kid with his attributes, especially his speed, at this young of an age. As good as he talent-wise, he is a great worker and a good character kid. It’s always ‘yes sir, no sir’ with him. He is all about getting things done and is a results-oriented kid.”
     Through the first two weeks of his career, Borre has run the ball 19 times for 351 yards (18.47 average) and six touchdowns. His eye-popping stats at the middle school level (5,152 yards and 69 touchdowns in 20 games) had his coaches drooling at the thought of what he could do at the varsity level. However, no one expected him to be this good right out of the chute.
     “He has done a tremendous job of working hard and putting himself in a position to be successful,” said Terwilliger. “He has done a nice job in two games, but here we sit at 1-1. Now we are looking at game number three. I think our goal is to not look at what we have done, but look at what we have to do to move forward. I know Austyn feels the same way and we are excited to see what the rest of this year brings.”
     As for Borre, he couldn’t have imagined a better start to his high school career.
     “No, I don’t think I could have,” Borre said. “These past two weeks have been great and I am happy with my numbers, but I am never satisfied. I am going to continue to work hard and try to get better every week. It’s all about putting points on the board and helping my team win games.”
     Borre had just one goal in mind when he practiced with the program over the summer. Now that he has since checked that task off the list, he has reset his goals for the remainder of the year.
     “Before the season, my only goal was to play varsity,” admitted Borre. “I didn’t care about any stats. I just wanted to play and help my team win games.
     “Now that I accomplished that, I would like to help the team win the Mountain Valley Conference championship. Rushing for 1,000 yards would be nice too.”
     While Borre will need help from his teammates to accomplish the former, he has put himself in a great position to achieve the latter.
     Pleasant Valley fans who watch Borre the rest of this year may not want to blink much. Otherwise they might miss him.