Coaches and players love to talk about how “we win as a team and we lose as a team.” That may be true, but on Friday night the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach, Corey Chamblin, lost one for his side. The Roughriders held an 11-point lead over the host B.C. Lions with about two minutes to play in the fourth quarter. Chamblin went with an empty backfield on third-and-short late in the quarter and the QB sneak got stuffed by B.C. Lions linebacker Adam Bighill. Then, on third and short in OT, Chamblin — what was he thinking? — chose to kick a field goal. Three plays later, the Lions scored a touchdown and won the game. . . . It isn’t often you can point the finger at a head coach and say “This one’s on you,” but that’s the case here. . . . Oh, Chamblin also is in charge of the Roughriders’ defence, which was anything but aggressive. . . . They now are 0-3 and the howling of Rider Nation can be heard across the country. . . .
With the U of Texas having OK’d the selling of beer and wine at football games, John Sharp, the chancellor at Texas A and M, has said his school won’t go down that road. As he told TexAgs Radio: “Our athletic program has not reached the point where we require the numbing effects of alcohol.” . . . ZING!!!! . . . Headline at Fark.com: And in Pamplona, the early score is Bulls 11, Idiots 0. . . . One more from the gang at Fark.com: Eugenie Bouchard’s black bra runs afoul of Wimbledon’s dress code / Moaning, grunting, shrieking all still OK. . . .
“Matt Stonie and Joey Chestnut, who combined to down 122 hot dogs in finishing 1-2 at this year’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, also share the same hometown,” writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Bet the all-you-can-eat places in San Jose, Calif., just love to see those two walking up.” . . . He’s hardly in the same league as Stonie and Chestnut, but Marcus Hanel, the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen catcher, recently ate 23 cheesesteaks during a four-game series in Philadelphia. . . . “Or,” wrote Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, “as Joey Chestnut calls it, brunch.” . . .
Bill Littlejohn, our South Lake Tahoe, Calif., correspondent, reports: “Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are going to make a movie about the FIFA scandal — Good Will Bribing.” . . . Littlejohn also noted that “international timekeepers added one second recently to compensate for a slightly slower earth rotation — and possibly for David Ortiz' slightly slower bat speed.” . . . One more from Littlejohn: “Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs says that tennis elbow caused by his iPhone led to his poor shooting. Tennis elbow from an iPhone — is that a case of 'server error’?” . . .
There may not have been a NASCAR race with a better name than the Firecracker 400 that always was run on July 4. Except that this year’s race became the Coke Zero 400 and was held on July 5. As Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel put it: “Once again, let’s cue the patriotic music: ‘My country ’tis of thee, sell your soul to network TV.’ ” . . . Comedy writer Jerry Perisho: “Breaking: Golfer Phil Mickelson will never be inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame.” . . .
You may have heard that Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller claims that he was fined for flatulence during team meetings. His defence? According to Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald: “He tried to claim Tom Brady let the air out of him.” . . . Dickson also noted that the World-Herald “published a Q&A with (U of Nebraska Cornhusker) coach Mike Riley. Big surprise: It was only three times as long as our Q&A with the governor.” . . . Dickson, again: “Ohio Gov. John Kasich will reportedly announce on July 21 that he’s seeking the GOP nomination for president. By then he will be the 89th declared GOP candidate for president. Kasich is the third most powerful person in Ohio behind Urban Meyer and LeBron James.” . . . One more from Dickson: “The FCC chairman has proposed bringing high-speed Internet to the poor. According to an informal survey, 99.9 percent of poor people would rather have food.” . . .
The flag of the state of Washington features a photo of George Washington, and Ron Judd of the Seattle Times suggests it’s time for a change: “Keep George W., but redraw him to look more hip, swarthy and ticked off. Sort of like the way marketing geniuses changed the old, friendly Seahawk into the modern, constipated Seahawk.” . . . Failing that, Judd writes, “Cut to the chase and go with an image that more directly reflects our modern governmental process: corporate lobbyists and paid signature gatherers, arm-in-arm on the Capitol steps.” . . . Hey, that being the case, perhaps B.C. and Washington could share a flag. . . . “A 22-year-old worker was thrown up against a wall and killed by a robot in a Volkswagen plant in Germany,” Judd reports. “This is how it begins.”
(Gregg Drinnan is a former sports editor of the Regina Leader-Post and the late Kamloops Daily News. He is at gdrinnan.blogspot.ca and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears here on weekends, except when it doesn’t.)
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