Bedlam almost rocked Palo Alto this past Saturday. Almost being the key word because at halftime Stanford led the #1 team in the country by a score of 28-17. Had Stanford hung on to win it would have been the second time the Men of Troy had seen their dream of undefeated season ended by a team from Northern California. Following the game most analysts tried to pin point what exactly USC did right in the 2nd half and what Stanford did wrong for such a reversal of fortunes. They all were wrong. In fact, up until now no one has been able to quantify the relation the Stanford campus has on it’s football team. For those of you whom have never been to Palo Alto and the Stanford campus you are missing out on what is the most serene and picturesque college campus in the country. Surely the players are aware of this and one has to imagine that in a game such as the one this past Saturday that come halftime, after the team had time to collect it thoughts, came to the following revelation. “Win or lose, who cares, look where we go to school?” Can you blame them then for any loss of concentration? How can you possibly get that involved in a sport when you are surrounded by beauty everywhere you look? It is this theory that can explain why a school like Nebraska or Oklahoma is so good in football, it’s all they have, for Norman is a far cry from Palo Alto.
TREND OF THE WEEK
The trend this week was complacency in the fact that there were no upsets and many of the top ranked teams, save for USC, rolled to victory over lesser opponents. Florida pasted Kentucky, Texas wacked Rice and LSU beat the holy hell out of Mississippi State, proving that no matter what color the skin of your head coach, if your team sucks, you will lose none the less. Many pundits declared this to be the most boring week of college football since the advent of the BCS system but all the true fans know that in the non stop excitement of College Football even the most ardent of fans needs time to breath. With big games like Oklahoma-Texas, Tennessee-Auburn and North Texas-SMU (just kidding) on the horizon for October, this was a week to rest and relax.
GOD DAMN! PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
Time to offer a hardy L’Chiam to Wisconsin RB Matt Bernstein for 129 yards in leading the Badgers to victory over Penn State. A career back up, Bernstein got the call despite having not eaten for 24 hours due to the Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur. Even more impressive is that he gave up attending his usual “break fast” dinner of eggs, bagels, lox and other assorted delicious treats. While other backs ran for more yards and scored multiple touchdowns, the simple fact is that the Jewish Book of Sports Hero’s is not overflowing and anytime a Jewish player does something note worthy is demands attention. For any Jewish child growing up they know that their sports history starts with David upsetting 19 point favorite Goliath and ends with Sandy Koufax. Sure Shawn Green of the Dodgers, a baseball team, has had his share of the spotlight in past years, but for the most part those of the Hebraic persuasion are amiss when it comes to sports accomplishments. Oh yeah, Hank Greenberg was really good too. The point being, on this day, Mr. Bernstein performed a Mitzvah for the Badger faithful.
