• So no matter that the new movie The Express might claim, West Virginia fans didn’t harass Ernie Davis during his Heisman Trophy-winning season, or ever? Next you’re going to tell me that Rudy really didn’t wind up getting carried off the field after saving Frodo from Gollum.



• Coastal Carolina’s golf team must have had John Daly as a role model, as three players were suspended for underage drinking. Drinking and golf? Who ever heard of such a thing. If they need a drinking buddy, maybe JJ Reddick news came out that his contract with the Magic could be extended - just so they can release him.
• Apparently the UC Davis Marching Band liked showing off their little Aggies a little too much for the band director’s taste - he’s filed a sexual harassment complaint against band members.
• Not fat? French league basketball player Ho You Fat. Also not fat: Bengals LB Darryl Blackstock. You usually aren’t when you’ve been yoking up with the help of steroids. Or as the Bengals call getting trouble with the NFL, “taking one for the team.”
• Mark Sanchez might not play this Saturday against Arizona St. If about 50 more players on the USC depth chart get hurt, the Sun Devils might have a shot!
• Read more…

It’s hardly news, of course that a movie that’s “based on a true story” would fudge some facts, much less a historical sports movie (Sure, the Titans won a playoff game on a last-second, 80-yard reverse. Sure they did). And hey, why not, right? If we already know that the protagonist will succeed, why not have him do so in the face of as much adversity as our sick minds can imagine?

Such was apparently the mindset of the producers of The Express, the story of Heisman winner Ernie Davis and Syracuse’s magical championship season in 1959. In the “uplifting” movie, Davis and his teammates endure untold amounts of harassment from opposing fans, perhaps nowhere more so than in Syracuse’s trip to Morgantown to face West Virginia.

There, the Orangemen encountered nasty, brutal, racist fans who showered the team in garbage, threats, and epithets. In a true testament to the team’s countenance, they struggled through the hostility and kept their championship dreams alive. There is, of course, one teensy little problem with that storyline. Read more…