Cincinnati Bengals reciever Chris Henry dies

Today is a sad day and the end to possibly one of the greatest comeback stories in the NFL. 26 year old Chris Henry died around 6:30am from injuries he sustained while falling of the back of his pickup truck bed.

Henry throughout his career was notorious for always finding trouble off the field but for the past 3 years had turned his life around. His stretch of off the field issues included four arrests, three NFL suspensions and a release from the Bengals in April 2008.

Police are saying the Henry and his fiance were in an argument and as Henry's fiance was driving away Henry jumped in back of the bed and eventually fell out.

Although this may seem that Henry rooted back to his days as a "disturbance" but it is without question that the NFL as well as the Bengals lost a good player and a great man

A Saints Win is Another Man's Loss

Be careful what you ask for. While most fans were excited about the New Orleans Saints game-winning field goal in overtime last Sunday, one football fan was not.

Wayne Spring, a "fair weather" Saints fan, decided to go against the grain last Sunday.

The undefeated New Orleans Saints were going up against the underachieving Washington Redskins, and Wayne Spring decided to make a promise to his friends. If the Saints beat the Redskins on Sunday, anybody who wanted to, could come to his house and shoot his 60 inch high definition television.

Yes, this man actually bet against the undefeated Saints. I don't get it either.

Nonetheless, The Saints actually pulled out a over time win against the 'Skins and all hell broke lose.

As soon as the Saints won, his phone started ringing off the hook. Immediately after, around a dozen Saints fans showed up at his Louisiana home carrying firearms and a case of beer.

After they took his T.V. outside, the firing squad took position and unloaded on it, right in front of Spring. He didn't seem to mind either.

Spring put the video on YouTube and it immediately gained a ton of exposure.

Local authorities said no laws were broken at this murdering of a television, but they didn't believe mixing "booze and firearms" was a great idea.

After all rounds were fired on the T.V. and even after it took some tackles from the fans, Spring concluded he won't be betting against the Saints again anytime soon.

Though, I would never think of doing this, it was great to watch, let me tell you.

Notre Dame Watch: Sources say done deal!!

Sources at Notre Dame have informed me this afternoon that Brian Kelly has worked out a deal to become the Notre Dame Head Football Coach.

Tonight is the University of Cincinati's football banquet and the word is that they cancelled all media invites. Also tommorrow the Notre Dame Athletic Office cancelled their casusal friday meaning that a formal press conference could occur tommorrow if everything goes as planned.

Remember that you heard it hear first in The Oven

LET’S GO SUH!!!!!!

At the end of every college regular season we usually see The Heisman Trophy go to the pretty boy quarterbacks or the touchdown scoring running backs. This year we have the most dominate defensive player being recognized as a finalist for this top honor, for most outstanding college player of the year. He goes by the name of Suh, mainly because no one can pronounce his whole name, including me.

Last year’s top three candidates for The Heisman returned to the college gridiron this season to hopefully give us another close and exciting race. But the exact opposite happened. Sam Bradford, last year’s winner, was quickly sidelined with a season ending shoulder injury. Tim Tebow’s 2009 season hit a few rough patches. He has been a finalist for a third straight year, winning the 2007 trophy. Tebow is always highly admirable but this is not a career achievement award. Now as for Colt McCoy, he hit a few rough patches but played well enough to lead his team to the national championship.

On Monday the five finalists for this year’s trophy were released in no particular order:

1. Colt McCoy/QB/Texas

· Passed for 3,512 yards with 27 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

2. Mark Ingram/RB/ Alabama

· Rushed for 1,542 yards and scored 15 touchdowns.

3. Toby Gerhart/RB/Stanford

· Rushed for 1,736 yards and scored 26 touchdowns.

4. Suh Ndamukong/DT/Nebraska

· 82 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 24 quarterback hurries and 12 sacks (in 13 games).

5. Tim Tebow/QB/Florida

· Passed for 2,413 yards and threw 18 touchdowns while rushing for 859 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Ingram, Gerhart and Suh finished the season with great games. Ingram really lifted his Heisman campaign with a strong finish in the SEC Championship game against Florida. He ran for 113 yards while scoring three touchdowns. Suh on the other hand sacked Colt McCoy 4½ times and had seven tackles for a loss in an attention grabbing performance against Texas in the Big 12 title game. Gerhart also ended his season with a boom, running for 205 yards and three touchdowns and throwing a touchdown pass in a victory against Notre Dame.

Tebow and McCoy really didn’t finish their seasons the way they had hoped. Even though Texas came out on top against Nebraska, McCoy’s good play throughout the season was due largely to his teammate Jordan Shipley. Tebow is still in the shadow of his sophomore season when he broke the Touchdown record. He will always be held to that high standard and anything less will be criticized.

This award should go to the most dominant player in college football. So my top three candidates, in order, are Suh, Gerhart and Ingram. Ingram is the best player on the best team in the nation, but trails to Gerhart in two extremely important categories. Gerhart, who leads the nation in scoring and rushing yards, out rushed Ingram by about 200 yards and outscored him by 11 touchdowns. Two things Ingram does have going for him and what will probably get him the trophy is scoring three touchdowns while rushing for over one hundred yards against arguably the best defense in the nation and getting his team to the BCS National Championship.

BUT

Suh without a doubt has been the most dominating college football player this season. His playmaking resume from sacks and tackles for loss to turnovers produced and blocked kicks is more impressive than any other Heisman candidate. No Heisman candidate has solely stood out this season except Suh. If Suh does not win the trophy it’s not because someone was better but because they couldn’t pronounce his name.

Gatorade Says Good-Bye To Tiger !

So as you may or may not have heard... One of Tiger Wood's major sponsors, Gatorade maker of 'Gatorade Tiger Focus', has become the first to dump him after details of his sex scandal controversy continue to emerge.

However, the company is playing it off like this has been planned stating, "We decided several months ago to discontinue Gatorade Tiger Focus along with some other products to make room for our planned series of innovative products in 2010."

But I think we all know that the 11 women who have come forward now saying they have been with Tiger, may have had something to do with it.

Some of the newest details that have come forth in this scandal is that, like stated before, the number of women who have come forth has reached 11. Many pictures have emerged of him at night clubs with multiple women dropping lots of cash each night. A third party has offered Playgirl naked photos of Tiger (interesting?).

Elin and Tiger are planning on getting away from it all by leaving the country and moving closer to Sweden (Elin's home country) possibly to a private island. Another rumor is she apparently was offered to stay with him for 7 years for a very large sum of money (something to the tune of $300 million dollars?) so I guess that is why she is considering on trying to work through things with him.



I thought this story would have been over by now but it seems to only get worse for Tiger each day. We will wait and see what happens next...

Brodeur's Shut Out: Add It To The Resume

Last night, New Jersey Devil's goalie Martin Brodeur chased down history again. Brodeur tied the National Hockey League record for shutouts by blanking the Buffalo Sabres and notching his 103rd career shutout. Brodeur is tied with legendary goalie Sawchuk, who played in the league from 1949 to 1970. As you can see, this record has been untouched for quite sometime.

Martin Brodeur has racked up a number of records in his career thus far. His most prominent record being the one that makes him the winningest goalie in the history of the NHL. His wins record continues to grow and with his latest shutout Brodeur is up to 575 career wins.

In my opinion, this is the only record that can overshadow Brodeur's shutout record, which the way things are going it seems its only a matter of time until he passes Sawchuk to take full possession of the record.

"It's pretty amazing ... its hard enough to get 100 wins in this league let alone 100 shutouts."

Devils captain Jaime Langenbrunner told the media.

He is right, it is amazing. Martin Brodeur is the only active player within the top 22 players of the shutouts record list. The only other active player close to him is Detroit Redwing's goalie Chris Osgood who is placed at 23rd on the list with 50 career shutouts.

Martin Brodeur will soon enough pass Terry Sawchuk for the out right lead. Meanwhile, he is once again on the verge of breaking yet another NHL record. This time it is for most games played by a goalie. He is only four games away from tying Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy, who has 1,029.

With Brodeur's resume, it is very hard for one to argue against him being the greatest goalie to ever play the game. Besides all of his records, Brodeur's resume includes 10 All Star selections, three Stanley Cups, and an Olympic Gold Medal; among many other accomplishments.

Martin Brodeur is a guaranteed Hall of Fame hockey player and in my eyes he is guaranteed the title as "Best Goalie Ever."

Get 'em Marty.

Notre Dame Watch: Could it be Kelly?

As speculation reaches an all time high the hottest name on the Notre Dame coaching front is Brian Kelly current Head Coach of Cincinnati. It seems every coach in the country but Charlie Weis was not interested in the coaching job at Notre Dame but finally Kelly, a viable candidate, has agreed to interview for the job. Kelly showed great potential while coaching Grand Valley State and Central Michigan but truly hit his stride when he became the head coach of Cincinnati. Kelly has gone 34-6 at Cincinnati and currently has his team set for an undefeated season pending a Sugar Bowl match up against Florida.

Notre Dame picking Kelly would be a good fit. Although it is not one of the big name coaches such as Urban Meyer and Bob Stoops that the Irish fans hoped they would land, Kelly has all the tools to turn Notre Dame back into the powerhouse they once were. Kelly will also have to do this without the help of QB Jimmy Clausen and WR Golden Tate who declared for the NFL draft this morning.

Tiger Woods: The Not So Clean-Cut Side Revealed

So the hottest story this week has to be the news of the Tiger Woods sex scandal. Anyone and everyone knows at least part of what went down this week at Woods home. Every news station, website, and entertainment gossip site has their own version of the recent events that broke on his car accident.

Wait car accident? How does that lead to a sex scandal? That is because the tabloid, the National Enquirer began an investigation into the real reason Tiger Woods Escalade went crashing into a tree after hitting a fire hydrant, just outside of his driveway. How does such a minor accident out of a driveway to an unconscious Tiger with facial lacerations on the ground? Why did wife Elin have a golf club handy in minutes to break through a window to 'save' her husband? How was he going fast enough to cause the intense damage to his vehicle?

Many questions are still unanswered at the time. This is in large part due to the bland statements Woods has been releasing via his website, and the fact he has denied police into his Florida home more than once this week. His statements haven't told much, but what they have made his fans realize- is that he is not the clean cut image of what he has been portrayed of the years. He is apologizing to his friends and family for that actions he has made.

Apologizing (for something he hasn't publicly admitted yet) is one thing, but the longer Woods waits to address the situation, the more allegations are going to come out. Which is what is currently happening.. it seems every hour there is a new rumor brewing.

What we think we know: Rachel Uchitel, Tiger's alleged mistress, caused a fight between Elin and Woods when text messages between the 2 were discovered... leading to him fleeing the house and getting in the accident. Inside sources are now revealing that Uchitel was in Austraila, was flown there booked under credit cards from a close friend of Tigers, all while Tiger was competing in a golf tournament at the same time. Today, Uchitel and her attorney were scheduled to have a news conference.. which was then canceled last minute.

More & more seems to come out everyday... so only time will tell how the scandal will continue to unfold. Is there a prenup between Elin and Tiger? Hush money to the girls who are coming forward? Divorce?

It will be interesting to see how this works out. Catch up on this whole situation about Tiger's statements though this YouTube videos and leave your thoughts on how you feel about this situtation.

Notre Dame Watch: Weis Fired

ESPN reported this morning that the long awaited firing of Notre Dame Football Head Coach Charlie Weis finally took place. Now the real chaos begins with coaching hiring and firing season at its earliest stage.

Last week I listed a couple of candidates that were constantly popping up as a replacement for Weis. This week a new name could be added to that list the University of Oklahoma Football Head Coach Bob Stoops.

ESPN has even recently reported that Stoops was already offered the ND job without an interview. Something that is somewhat rare specifically to a strong tradition school such as Notre Dame.

There has also been word closer to the situation that this has been an ongoing deal for the past couple weeks. Stoops could be in South Bend as early as tomorrow to discuss a deal. Why would Stoops leave Oklahoma? That remains to be seen but one can say that the possible departure of QB Sam Bradford has a lot to do with it.

The best thing to do is just sit back and relax and watch the mayhem unfold

Notre Dame Watch: Time for a Change

Charlie Weis’s days as Notre Dame Football Head Coach are numbered and frankly it’s about time. The Irish coach has accumulated a record of 35-26 (.573) a standard that is far below what we have come to expect from Notre Dame Football.

Weis started out strong at Notre Dame finishing the 2005 season with a 9-3 record after losing the Fiesta bowl to Ohio State and a 10-3 record after losing the Sugar bowl to LSU in the 2006 season. Perhaps the most important fact about these seasons is that Weis had Heisman Candidate Brady Quinn and record breaking WR Jeff Samardjia at his disposal, both players recruited by previous Notre Dame HC Ty Willingham.

Since then Weis has shown his true colors going 16-20 (.444) without Willingham’s leftovers despite three consecutive Top 10 recruiting classes. Which including landing Jimmy Clausen, the most highly anticipated quarterback to come out of high school since John Elway.

Notre Dame has failed to consistently be in National Championship contention since Lou Holtz retired after the 1996 season and can you honestly remember a time since Weis has been HC that they won a game that they were not favored in. In order for Notre Dame to return to the prestigious program they once were, a new coach with a proven background is the only reliable solution. There have been a bunch of names being thrown around and I have picked three that have been intriguing to me.

Urban Meyer (University of Florida, Head Coach)- Many look at this move as pure fantasy but you have to remember that Meyer has referred to the Notre Dame job as his “dream job” numerous times and quite frankly I feel that Notre Dame would be willing to make a record breaking offer to Meyer.

Brian Kelly (University of Cincinnati, Head Coach)- Kelly spent the end of the 2008 season being on a number of school’s short lists for Head coaching jobs. His current undefeated season with Cincinnati has only helped his chance but the word is that Kelly has some skeletons in his closet that are preventing big name programs from pulling the trigger.

Mike Leach (Texas Tech, Head Coach) - Leach’s name has not been mentioned as much as last years coaching carousal and to be honest I am shocked. College Football is entering an era where the spread and the wildcat are slowly but surely taking charge and Leach’s dynamic spread offense has been one of the most successful schemes in the game.

Other possible candidates- Bob Stoops, Jon Gruden, Charlie Strong, Greg Davis

Whatever happened to sportsmanship?

So as you may have heard on every news station this past week... in a girls college soccer game between University of New Mexico and Brigham Young University, player Elizabeth Lambert made headlines for her unusual on-field behavior.

Punching, kicking, tripping and eventually a vicious ponytail grab from behind towards an opponent has put Lambert's name on the tip of everyone's tongue. Her rough actions have caused a national uproar for the way she behaved towards the other team. And the odd part of it is that she only received one yellow card throughout the game. If you watch the video you can clearly see she should have received a red card and been ejected from the game.



Now Lambert has come out with a statement saying that she regrets her actions and she has realized it made her look like a monster. "I definitely feel because I am a female it did bring about a lot more attention than if a male were to do it. It's more expected for men to go out there and be rough," she said.

However, that statement jujst doesnt seem to sit right with me. I feel as if she should be sincerely apologizing to the other team as well as all the fans who support her. The fact that she is implying that if this was an action of a male sports player it would not be dragged on like her situation- seems like a sad excuse on her part. Yes soccer is a physical sport, and males tend to be more aggressive on the field and it goes unnoticed- however pulling someones hair so hard that they fall right to the ground is simply inexcusable and childish. She intentionally acted that way for a reason and should not be trying to blame the media for the way this issue has played out so far.

The apology doesn't seem to make up for her conduct on the field... However the New Mexico coach Kit Vela announced that Lambert has been suspended indefinitely from the team prohibiting her from practicing, conditioning, and taking part in any game.

So what do you think of the situation? Do you think she received the correct punishment for her actions or has this story been blown out of proportion?

Leave OchoCinco Alone!

We all known Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad OchoCinco. We all know his style. We all know his antics.

Whether its from racing a horse, putting a football with a pylon, grabbing a sign from the stands that says, "Dear NFL, Please don't fine me again!", or simply the fact that he actually changed his name from Chad Johnson to Chad OchoCinco...legally.

The point is, OchoCinco loves having fun and the fans love it too...under one stipulation:

He lights it up on the gridiron.

In the 2009 season, he has done just that. But it has not always been that way.

In the 2008 season, OchoCinco was practically non-existent. After being deemed as a "cancer" to the Cincinnati Bengals organization, it seemed as if his team had given up on him. Talks of trade loomed large and it seemed as if OchoCinco would soon be a Bengal no more.

OchoCinco himself even declared he wanted to be traded before the 2008 NFL Draft. It turned out that he was not traded and soon after the Bengals started their season 0-8. OchoCinco ended the 2008 season with just 53 catches and 540 yards, an absolutely terrible season for the star wide receiver. Suddenly, his comedic antics on and off the field didn't seem to amuse the team and the fans anymore.

But that was 2008.

This 2009 season is a complete turn around for OchoCinco and his Cincinnati Bengals.

He has already amassed more yards and touchdowns than in 2008 and is only a few catches behind. Along with his turnaround the Bengals are off to a shocking 7-2 start and a 5-0 record in their division, which also gives them first place in the AFC North. Their highlights of the season so far are two strong wins over the defending Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

With all this winning the Bengals are doing, it is only fitting for OchoCinco's antics to surface once again. So far this season, he has done such things as:

-paying for a group of Bengals fans to fly to Lambeau Field in Green Bay an sit in the front row so when he scores a touchdown in the game he can perform the "Lambeau Leap" into them.

-sending deodorant to the Baltimore Raven's.

-wanting to send the Pittsburgh Steelers mustard.

-and most recently he jokingly tried to "bribe" an NFL referee $1.00 to call a catch in his favor, which he later was fined $20,000 for.

The point is, when the Bengals are winning and OchoCinco is lighting it up on the field, not only are his antics amusing but they bring a whole new aspect to the NFL: ENTERTAINMENT.

NFL, leave OchoCinco alone, your only making the unwanted nickname of the "No Fun League" more plausible.

Child please.

Brady vs. Manning...Who's the better QB?

Over the past decade, the week leading up to the annual Patriots- Colts showdown has become less about the teams, and more about the quarterbacks.

The similarities between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are astonishing. Their career quarterback ratings are almost mirror images. Brady’s 93.4 rating is just under Manning’s 95.3. There is no debating who the better player is. His post season resume is what puts Brady’s 14-3 record head and shoulders above Manning’s 7-8. A lot of what goes on with postseason record depends on what kind of team you have. Peyton clearly has choked in a lot of big games like back in 2005 when he threw the four interceptions against the Patriots in the playoffs. I do think his record could be something like 9-6 if some of his team circumstances were different. But winning the Super Bowl trophy is all that matters in the NFL. I can guarantee Peyton would trade his three MVP awards for Tom’s three Super Bowl rings.

The teams built around these two future Hall of Famers have a direct impact on whether or not championships are won. Indianapolis and New England have both fielded dominant teams with almost identical records since the start of the 2001 season. However, come playoff time Brady has drastically outplayed Manning. Great players win MVP’s, but legends win Super Bowl MVP’s.

This is coming from a die-hard Jets fan:

ADVANTAGE BRADY

Welcome to The Oven

A little bit about who we are...

'The Oven' provides you with a full serving of what's going on in the sports world each week through posts from all of our team members. We are four college students at Rider University, all with a love for sports and communication. The Oven will dish out our opinions on the hottest, the most unusual, and the greatest sports stories of the week-- straight to your plate. So we welcome you to our video blog and can't wait for you to see what's cookin.


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Leigh, Dave, Tim, & Andrew