RealClearSports: Jets' Losses End Sweet Smell Of Success

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

John Madden, who coached a Super Bowl winner before becoming an announcer, had a favorite phrase about team sports, to wit: "Winning is a great deodorant.'' As we are learning this week from a team that lost, the New York Jets.

Beneath the surface, there is always tension, division, sometimes open rebellion, the figurative smell.

Players can't get along with coaches. Players often can't get along with each other. Backups...

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© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Alex Smith managed the San Francisco 49ers to playoffs

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The 49ers have gone beyond expectations and predictions. Who imagined, after eight consecutive losing seasons, they’d finish the regular season with the second-best record in the NFL? Who dared think they would have the top defense against the rush?

A bye in the first round of the playoffs? That’s for teams like the old Niners or the new Packers, except these Niners reached that pinnacle — and it is a pinnacle as well as an advantage — while the Saints and Steelers, Super Bowl entrants the previous two years, did not.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Playoffs? Nah, Bowl Games Are Just Fine

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

PASADENA, Calif. — Playoffs? Not to sound like Jim Mora, so let’s paraphrase him. In college football, who needs playoffs?

We have bowl games. We have the BCS. We had an overload of overtime. An abundance of suspense. What else do we need?

You think LSU-Alabama will be any better than Oregon-Wisconsin...

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© RealClearSports 2012

Newsday (N.Y.): Oregon gets 1st Rose Bowl win since 1917

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — Oregon's "Quack Attack'' offense of rapid-fire plays, so effective until the postseason, finally showed up in one of the wildest Rose Bowl games ever, one that broke scoring records and in the end broke Wisconsin's heart.

The Ducks had the ball 11 minutes less than the Badgers, but if they trailed in time of possession they didn't on the scoreboard, opening 2012 with a 45-38 win Monday night in the 98th version of what has been nicknamed "The Granddaddy of them All.''

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.