Different Points Of View

Apparently truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. If you talked with Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens this week, he'd have told you films confirm that two of the disputed calls in the Big Green's win over Brown were absolutely correct. There was early contact on a pass interference call against the Bears' Jose Yearwood and a near-touchdown catch in the end zone was bobbled as receiver Colin Cloherty went out of bounds.

Now ask Brown coach Phil Estes about what he saw watching the same two plays on film. Providence Journal reporter Mike Szostak did just that and here's what Estes had to say: "Jose clearly knocks the ball away. That was a great play. And Colin Cloherty got two feet in. He got his first foot down and dragged the second." Estes told the ProJo that he submitted the films for review by the officials. Estes: "They'll look at it, and it becomes part of their training film. We might get an apology, or they might say the call on the field was the right call. Either way, nothing will change."

I remember when I was researching my master's thesis in journalism coming across a quote about how sometimes sports columnnists try so hard to be funny that they can sabotage a good point. I think that's the case in a story by Lester Munson in SI.com. The subhead for the story sums up what it is about: "Harvard, Yale differ in dealing with off-field incidents." After applauding Tim Murphy for taking quick and decisive action after several Harvard players were involved in off-the-field incidents, Munson takes Yale coach Jack Siedlecki to task for how he handled incidents involving his players. Munson writes: "Maurice Clarett and Lawrence Phillips probably should have taken a harder look at Yale when they made their college plans." Whether you agree or disagree with how Siedlecki handled the affair, that's unfair.

Speaking of Siedlecki, he doesn't get any love from his own school paper today. From a column in the Yale Daily:

I fear that if Yale somehow beats Harvard this year (in spite of, rather than because of, the coach) and gets a share of the Ivy League title (which would be superficial if Princeton also wins next week), the Yale athletic director will forget the five consecutive losses to Harvard, the back-to-back defeats at the hands of San Diego - a team that had previously never beaten an Ivy League opponent and regularly schedules games against NAIA and Division III opponents - and doom us to another ten years of coaching ineptitude.

The Harvard Crimson has a story about former Crimson linebacker Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 and one Harvard linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski '00 being teammates on the St. Louis Rams.

Speaking of the NFL, former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer has returned after missing a week with a concussion to practice with the Tennessee Titans according to the Nashville paper. ... To read a story I wrote about Casey for the Dartmouth football program series, click here. ... On the Green Alert site yesterday I wrote about co-captain Mike Rabil; for the program series I wrote a piece about Mike's fellow co-captain, Preston Copley. ... You can find my 10-year anniversary story on the undefeated 1996 team here. ... I also wrote about wide receiver Ryan Fuselier and about Jason Bash.