28 November 2010 181.2 – Daniel wants the Tigers to get rid of their white alternate strip. Stan adds that the Tigers are hopeless at 1-7. Mark Fiorenti talks up Australia’s chances for the 2022 World Cup and thinks the bid looks a lot better than it did three or four months ago. He also thinks the USA are favourites. Daniel believes if Julia Gillard writes a letter of support that will sink the bid. The Professor thinks Bob Hawke should have been asked to write a letter. Mark also wraps up A League and Premier League matches of interest. He thinks it is Chelsea’s 
title to lose. Dr Leslie’s CSA returns to the show after a few weeks off. Daniel is not happy that the Professor signed off with “We all hope we get the 2022 World Cup”…this then promotes a discussion as to who actually wants the World Cup. Stan and Daniel don’t want it. The Gelding hopes we do get it. Suitably chastened, the Professor re-announces “The Gelding and I both hope we get it, Daniel and Stan definitely don’t”. The Panel then discuss emails about the Australian Test selections. The Gelding thinks the role of wicketkeeper has changed over the years as we now pick a wicketkeeper that is an allrounder. Stan believes it is no good trying to make a batsman into a wicketkeeper. Paul Dalligan is back to talk rugby league….didn’t
the season finish eight weeks ago? He talks about Russell Crowe leaking details of Greg Inglis’ contract on a US talk show. The NRL are now looking more closely at the deal. The Professor asks why this deal is different to the Mark Gasnier deal. Daniel thinks it would be good for Crow to team up with Inglis at the Rabbitohs. Paul then goes on to talk baseball and the ABL. Unfortunately, the Melbourne Aces first three home games have been rained out. We give a shout out to a new listener…Lisa Haye’s husband. The Panel talk about Mark “Choco” Williams appointment as Kevin Sheedy’s assistant at Greater Western Sydney. This leads into a discussion of whether Sheedy will actually coach the team in 2012. Stan 
decides to swing the axe and believes Mick Malthouse and Kevin Sheedy have reached their use by date and should retire as the old guys are keeping the younger coaches out of jobs. Sean Callanan comes on to talk social media and discusses the Dallas Cowboys forgetting to renew their domain name so they were left without a website and thinks the IT man at the Cowboys may be out of a job. The Denver Broncos have been fined $100,000 for filming the 49ers at practice. Sean talks about Vince Young apologising to his coach Jeff Fisher by text and says it is probably not the most effective means of doing that. A listener queries why Young didn’t call Fisher as he had the phone in his hand sending the text.
Tag Archives: nfl
McDaniels of the Denver Broncos – there may be smoke but sadly there is not enough fire….
It is never a good situation when as a coach in the NFL your Wikipedia page has been hacked and someone has changed your name to ‘Fire This Bum’.
But in the case of Josh McDaniels of the Denver Broncos that is exactly what is happening out there in cyberspace right now. At the tender age of just over 30 when he was appointed, there was always going to be a danger that McDaniels would be overawed on entering the cauldron of football fanaticism that is the city of Denver. This is of course the city whose home team the Denver Broncos have sold out EVERY game since the 1960s. The city where the only way to get yourself season tickets is in a will or buying the house of people leaving town who have left their tickets on the kitchen bench.
At the time of his hiring, the Broncos made McDaniels one of the youngest ever head coaches in the
NFL. McDaniels certainly had showed promise during his time as an Assistant Coach at the Patriots and arrived in Denver full of passion and momentum. In his first few games as head coach McDaniels prowled the sidelines with all the 
enthusiasm of a 6 year old at Disneyland. The fist pumps, the wild eyes and the audible roars after a great play would have reminded many of the cauldron of simmering fury that was the previous Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, whose match day complexion made Alex Ferguson look positively albino in 
comparison.
But sadly for Denver Broncos fans, that was where the similarities will end.
Because while they may share the same wound up persona on field, McDaniels (sorry, ‘Fire this Bum’) will never now match the record of Shanahan who managed to win two Super Bowls during his 11 year reign as head coach of the Broncos. McDaniels may still be the head coach of the Broncos but it will only be a matter of time until their owner pulls the trigger, especially after a woeful Monday Night Football performance against their biggest rival the Chargers.
Monday night is the night when an already sports mad country steps up their fanaticism to maximum intensity. Surely that would have been the perfect stage for McDaniels to find some of that old fire as his team tried to keep their season alive. As the game wore on however McDaniels seemed to retreat more and more into his shell on the sidelines. It looked like someone had spiked coach’s Gatorade with prozac as McDaniels looked about as ambitious and energetic as a three toed sloth. What really made
the Broncos fans howl however was McDaniels incredibly conservative play calling. When you are down by 30 points, it is time to roll the dice. McDaniels on several occasions decided to punt on 4th down, rather than find those dice and throw them with caution to the wind like wedding confetti on a windy day.
Punting on 4th down is usually a wise choice, but when you are down by such a big margin it is the equivalent of standing on 12 against a dealer’s 10 in blackjack. The game was well and truly over and even trying anything could seem like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, but surely the fans deserve to see their coach at least giving it a shot. Exactly why McDaniels decided to close the shutters and play out the game with all the intensity and excitement of a man serving his sentence on death row is well and truly beyond this observer.
Broncos fans can take some comfort from the fact that McDaniels days are numbered in Denver. Until 
that day they will simply have to endure the Titantic that the Broncos season has become, with a coach who promised so much but has now become too scared to sail the stormy seas.
POSTSCRIPT: Since the time of writing this article McDaniels has been faced with one of his assistant coaches being caught spying on and recording
an opposing team. In worse developments for McDaniels only today the Denver Broncos lost at home to the previously woeful St Louis Rams – it can’t be long until there is an axe being wielded in Denver…
Sportzfan Radio #181.1
28 November 2010 181.1 – Daniel is suffering with a toothache and gets plenty of sympathy, especially from Stan who says if you don’t clean 
your teeth you pay the penalty. The Gelding is late but hopefully he has a note from home. Stan has his weekly question to Daniel on the Melbourne Tigers. Daniel says he doesn’t think Tigers coach Al Westover should be sacked because he likes him. The Gelding talks about the First Ashes Test and the form of Michael Hussey. Daniel wants to know why Brad Hodge isn’t in the team and Stan observes that it is probably due to Victorian batsmen having fallen foul of the selectors in the past. Dan Butterly delivers his US report and starts 
with a discussion of Vince Young hurling his pads into the stands and then texting an apology to the coach, Jeff Fisher. He thinks that it was easier to get rid of Brad Childress than Brett Favre in Minnesota. He doesn’t think Favre will quit until the end of the season. In the NBA he feels that the Miami Heat don’t have a leader on the team as Wade, LeBron and Chris Bosh are all playing ‘nice’ to each other. Daniel talks to Dan about LeBron’s return to Cleveland and says it should be an exciting game. He would go if he had a ticket. Daniel would like to see LeBron not voted into the starting five in
the NBA All Star game and wants the Professor (and Sportzfan listeners) to vote for Amare Stoudemire to try and achieve this. Dan thinks LeBron will do the ‘powder clap’ in Cleveland. He has nothing new to report on Carmelo Anthony and says he will be staying with the Nuggets at this stage. In College football he is amazed that Boise State missed a field goal against Nevada that would have won the game. They went on to lose it and therefore won’t play for the national championship. Dan also talks on the BCS comments from Ohio State President Gordon Gee – he disagrees with him 
naturally. In MLB, the Yankees playing hardball with Derek Jeter but Dan believes he’ll eventually resign for what the Yankees have offered. Daniel explains the ‘powder clap’ for the listeners. The Gelding talks about the winners and losers from Sandown and Randwick and says the rain played havoc with the fields due to so many scratchings. The Panel discusses the heavy penalty handed out to rider Danny Nikolic over his behaviour to stewards after he was found wearing a modified racing vest.
Can Brett Favre make THE decision himself?
Prior to commencing this rant, I need to declare myself as a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan.
When I heard that Brett Favre was coming back for another season with the Minnesota Vikings in
August this year, I polled a number of people about how difficult it would be at 40+ to step back in as a quarterback in the NFL with no adequate pre-season training or conditioning. It is not surprising that all those questioned said that it would be almost impossible. The season is certainly playing out like that for Favre. There was one other word used by the people responding…’arrogance’. Not a word that I had really associated with Brett Favre until then.
I suppose that I have wanted to give Brett the benefit of the doubt over the years…even through all those years of ‘will he or won’t he?’ (aka THE decision) at Green Bay when, as a supporter, it was what I 
expect death by a thousand cuts to be like. But that was Brett being Brett and he was in the most part forgiven each year (by the way LeBron only did it once…and look how he has been pilloried in the media).
At the time the Packers made the move to go with Aaron Rodgers, I was dismayed and upset about the thought of Favre not being part of the Packers again. However, the Packers rightly said enough was enough and took control of the quarterback situation for the long term. With the benefit of hindsight it was a great decision as since then Favre’s career reads more like a soap opera episode than a sporting career. If we take out the stellar season with the Vikings last year, we see a mediocre season with the New York Jets where there was bickering amongst the team and this year where the scene is playing out exactly the same
only this time in Minnesota. We also have the unwanted distraction of the sordid allegations surrounding Favre and a former Jets female employee which are being investigated by the NFL.
I must say that I never thought I would hear the call from the media for Favre to call it a career and retire….or worse be benched by the Vikings in favour of Tavaris Jackson. But they are the unfortunate realities when one tempts fate and tries to go to the well on one too many occasions.
I sincerely hope that Brett finds a way to exit gracefully from the playing field without the decision being made for him. Like I said, I hope but somehow I think that word ‘arrogance’ may stand in the way of that happening.
Sportzfan Radio #178.1
7 November 2010 178.1 – Stan doesn’t take long to take Daniel to task about the performance on the Melbourne Tigers and queries whether the Tigers, Tiger Woods or the Australian cricket team will be the next to win. Daniel hints that one of the Tigers imports could be cut very soon. Stan wonders whether the Tigers should bring back Lindsay Gaze. One of our twitterers says bring back Andrew Gaze or the Tigers will remain a mess. Dan Butterly talks US sport including NFL with the Randy Moss/Minnesota Vikings/Brad Childress/Brett Favre debacle and the will she or won’t she tell the NFL. He also discusses the quarter back ‘controversy’ at the Washington Redskins with Mike Shanahan benching Donovan McNabb at the end of a game. MLB is wrapped up with the San Francisco Giants overcoming the Texas Rangers in five games. In College football, the Air Force Academy defeats Army to take the Commander in Chief’s trophy. The Panel talks with the Gelding and JC about JC’s horse ‘It’ll Be Fantastic’ then goes on to discuss the Emirates Stakes day and the winners and losers at the track.
Sportzfan Radio #175.1
17 October 2010 175.1 – The show starts with the Professor asking the Gelding whether the Caulfield Cup race meeting should have been postponed because of the bad weather. Stan tells Daniel that in the season opening NBL match the Melbourne Tigers were hopeless. This then prompts a discussion of the Tigers players. In the US report this week Susan Shan talks about Brett Favre and alleged problematic texts and emails to a NY Jets female employee. San Francisco 49ers are her surprise due to their poor showing in the NFL season so far. In MLB she thinks Cliff Lee is beatable but not likely during the post season. She thinks the Phillies and Rangers will make it through to the World Series whilst the Cubs and Cardinals were the biggest busts of the 2010 season. She doesn’t think Bobby Valentine will be going back to the Mets any time soon. The Gelding discusses the Caulfield Cup day races and observes Chris Munce is one of only seven jockeys who have won the Big 4 – Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Golden Slipper. The Professor calls it the ‘Grand Slam’ of racing. Gelding awards an ‘S-Hit’ ride to the jockey of Shocking who he says should have won easily. The Professor and the Gelding again talk about their interest in Danish Rock.
Sportzfan Radio #174.1
10 October 2010 174.1 – The show reprises Daniel’s singing of the Collingwood theme song from show #173. The Panel discusses Michael Vick’s injury with Dan Butterly in his US report and Dan says a quarterback in the NFL can’t take the same chances to run the ball as players do in College. Paul Dalligan talks to Dan about the rumor on Brett Favre and a former NY Jets female employee and wonders whether Brett has been playing golf with Tiger Woods. Paul also talks about his surprise at the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs being in the match of the round against Indianapolis Colts. Dan also talks MLB playoffs and thinks the Yankees, Rangers, Phillies and Giants will win through. #1 ranked in NCAAF Alabama losing may reignite the BCS controversy and discussion on whether a BCS College that has lost a game is more deserving of playing in the BCS title game than a non-BCS College that has not lost a game. The Gelding talks about his selections at Caulfield and the Sydney Colt’s selections at Rosehill. He has a discussion with Daniel about backing horses each way. Daniel thinks backing a horse not to win does not make sense. The Professor starts off a discussion on the Delhi Commonwealth Games.
Sportzfan Radio #172.1
26 September 2010 172.1 – The Gelding starts the program with an impersonation of Stan. The Panel then gets into a discussion of the drawn AFL Grand Final and the ramifications of the replay. Daniel says the AFL should give 45,000 tickets to each competing Club. Will there be another Grand Final parade? will there be another Footy Show? will there be different Gtand Finals replayed in the all night marathon? Dan Butterly tells Paul Dalligan he couldn’t watch cricket for five days with no result. Dan also talks MLB pennant race he thinks the Seattle Mariners will probably lose 100 games even with the roster thay have and feels the Yankees will make the World Series again. In NFL, Dan looks at Michael Vick’s re-emergance as a starting quarterback with the Philadelphia Eagles and he thinks Brett Favre is regretting coming back. The Professor discusses last week’s Michigan State trick play to beat Notre Dame in overtime. In NBA, Dan thinks Carmelo Anthony will be traded to the New Jersey Nets within the next 48 hours. The Gelding takes pride in the fact that he and the Sydney Colt from 9 selections at both Moonee Valley and Randwick had a return of 6 winners and 2 thirds. The Panel don’t necessarily agree with the Gelding that you can have a “good seventh” in a race with nine runners. The Panel also agrees that Dr Leslie’s CSA seems to have taken up a permanent position after the racing segment.
Sportzfan Radio #170.1
12 September 2010 170.1 – A political discussion starts the program with Daniel finding it hard to work out why, if the Western Bulldogs scored more than Sydney and won the game, why didn’t the Coalition win the election as they scored more than the Labor Party. The Professor’s reveals that his nomination for the name of the horse the syndicate will be racing is Sir Yorrick. Dan Butterly talks US sport including discussion of the NFL opening round, the MLB playoff races, the Air Force Academy’s great win over BYU in College football, Lauren Jackson winning another MVP award in the WNBA and Boise State’s fortunes in basketball in the coming season. The Gelding talks racing and chats about his tips for Moonee Valley and the Sydney Colts selections at Rosehill. He says that of the eight selections made by he and the Colt they garnered 5 firsts, 2 placings and a fourth. Mordiboy returns behind the microphone to talk golf and interview Rossdale trainee professional Baden Schaff.
Sportzfan Radio #169.1
5 September 2010 169.1 – Susan Shan makes her Sportzfan Radio debut and talks US sport with the Professor and the Panel. She likes the Green Bay Packers to do well in the NFL this season and thinks the Oakland Raiders defence will be their big problem although they will be better than last year. She is surprised that there aren’t more Aussie punters and kickers going to the US to try out for the NFL. Gelding talks racing and is surprised that the penetrometer didn’t go in as far this week given the rain that had fallen in Melbourne. He thinks he was unlucky with his tips and compliments the Sydney Colt for his 3 winners. Gelding says his wife knows everything and therefore he would have backed that horse to win over “Wife knows nothing”. Mordiboy makes a welcome return to the show to talk golf and in particular whether married golfers are more successful than single golfers and expects Tiger Woods to win his next championship within six months.