This Week in Sports 2010: Week 2

 This is week 2 of my weekly column "This Week In Sports 2010". The major news stories this week in my opinion are Mark McGwire coming clean to using steroids, the NFL Playoffs, Lane Kiffin leaving Tennessee football after only 1 season, and a couple NBA game winners. So lets get started with what i think is the biggest.

Mark McGwire has been ridiculed and suspected of taking steroids during his playing career, including 1998 when he hit a then-record 70 home runs. McGwire admitted his usage during an interview with the MLB Network's Bob Costas. McGwire seemed quite apologetic during the interview and was also emotional. McGwire also answered questions referring to former teammate Jose Canseco's book "Juiced", where he states he and McGwire would go into a bathroom stall together pre-game and shoot each other up with steroids. McGwire says this never happened, sparking a war of words between him and Canseco, who played with McGwire on the A's. McGwire is now the hitting coach for the St Louis Cardinals, who have publically backed him up on this whole situation. McGwire retired in 2001 from injuries, which could have been affected by the steroids.

The NFL Playoffs continued this week, with the Saints taking on the Cardinals and the Colts taking on the Ravens on Saturday, and Cowboys at the Vikings and the Jets playing my Chargers on Sunday. They were all blowouts with the higher seeds wining (Colts, Saints, Vikings), except the Chargers-Jets. Man, that really ruined this 3-day weekend for me.  San Diego loses to the Jets 17-14. The Chargers lost the game; the Jets did not win the game, in my opinion. In other words, the Chargers beat themselves, missing 3 field goals, though they have the most accurate kicker in the NFL. They had costly, stupid, penalties. Their run defense was not good enough to fully contain the Jets league leading run game. Overall, it was a helluva season for Philip Rivers and the Chargers, but they came up short in their one goal, a championship.

Lane Kiffin came to Tennessee with a bright future. Tennessee looked like they would have a solid football program to come. But then the USC job opened up when Pete Carroll decided to take the Seattle Seahawks job. Lane Kiffin left Tennessee to take the USC job, sparking anger in Knoxville. People stood around campus holding signs with vulgar terms towards Kiffin. Kiffin’s wife had to call the police because of suspicious vehicles outside their home. Kiffin’s recruits to Tennessee felt a sense of betrayal. Kiffin was an assistant coach with USC from 2003-2005, so this was sort of a dream job for him. Lets see if it was worth it to leave, and lets see how the betrayed football program of Tennessee handles this whole situation.

There was excitement in the NBA this week. There were 2 really exciting game winning/tying shots. There was the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Houston Rockets. T’Wolves inbounded down 3 with 2 seconds left and no timeouts. They inbounded it and hoped for a miracle. They got one. Corey Brewer hit a 50-foot half court shot to send the game into overtime. And then there was another overtime, then another one. The game finally ended with the Rockets winning 120-114 in triple overtime. Another exciting game winner was Jamal Crawford of the Hawks beating the Suns at the buzzer with a 3. The Hawks won 102-101 on the Crawford three, though Crawford was not even the first option on the inbounds play. You can see both shots above.

This week was exciting, surprising, and disappointing (for me at least). But it was also tragic, with not only the disaster in Haiti, but also another loss in the NFL community. Chicago Bears DE Gains Adams died early Sunday due to cardiac arrest. He was 26 years old and was the 4^th overall pick in the 2007 draft. Till next week, have a good one.

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