Brown Bombers

The Brown website has posted its "outlook" for the 2008 season and optimism abounds in Providence. From the posting:

With most of the key components returning to the offensive side of the ball, and a veteran defense, the 2008 Brown football team will look to make a legitimate run at the Ivy League title with the return of 19 starters (10 offense, 9 defense), including nine All-Ivy players, after finishing third in the Ivy standings with a 4-3 league record a year ago.

One of the early adopters of Astroturf has finally made the move to FieldTurf. Cornell's Schoellkopf Field will have a surface much kinder on the body when Dartmouth visits there next fall. Check out the photo gallery here. ...

... A side note after looking at the pictures out of Ithaca. The decision was made to face the large Cornell "C" on the 50-yard line toward the "Crescent" side of the field. One of the pictures shows the view from the press box side and the upside down letter really sticks out. Dartmouth faced its "D" toward the home stand and press box, leaving it upside down for visitors/viewers looking out of the enormous windows that overlook the field from the Floren Varsity House, but perhaps because the block "D" is closed, it isn't has jarring as the Cornell "C." ... If I ruled the world I might have tried to work up something for the 50 that featured mirrored letters, or maybe a couple of offset letters facing in opposite directions. ... Just my two cents.

The Friday Daily Dartmouth had a column that began this way: "It’s been a quiet week in the world of sports, and in the Hanover bubble." Struggling for something to write (I've been there), the author included this:

We’re still just over two months away from the kickoff of the 2008 football season, and Conner Kempe ‘12’s highly-anticipated appearance on campus will come even sooner, but until then the Dartmouth super-fan must patiently wait for something interesting to happen.

To help combat the possibility of tear-inducing boredom, here are some ideas to keep you occupied until the Cubs fall apart, the Patriots can’t get over a loss and Dartmouth football barely exceeds expectations again.

1. Memorize the roster of two or three Dartmouth sports teams and find a fun fact about all of the players. I conducted an informal survey in Thayer yesterday and was disturbed to find out that a great majority of the sophomore class cannot name a single person on the Dartmouth football team. I was met with responses that included, “I have no idea,” “Um…Andrew…umm…I don’t know,” “Who are you?” and “Dude, I can name like five!”

And finally this ... Am I the only one that hopes Brett Favre doesn't come back and end his career the way Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath did, a broken-down QB in an unfamiliar uniform?