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Monday, February 7, 2011
Packers Put the Title Back in Titletown
February 6, 2011
Packers Put the Title Back in Titletown
By JUDY BATTISTA
nytimes
ARLINGTON, Tex. — When the Green Bay Packers watched Aaron Rodgers sit in the green room as he plummeted down the first round of the 2005 draft, they noted his poise at dealing with his agonizing plight.
The Packers had already done extra research on Rodgers when they heard the predraft buzz that he might drop, and those long moments under the klieg lights only reassured them that he might be able to handle what was to come.
Rodgers’s equanimity was tested later in his career, when Brett Favre did not go gracefully into retirement, casting Rodgers in the awkward role of a franchise quarterback in waiting, unwanted by some of his own team’s fans.
Rodgers’s talent has long since soothed most of the Favre loyalists, and his performance this season, as the Packers’ roster was decimated by injuries, made him one of the N.F.L.’s brightest young stars. But it will be his levelheadedness in the Super Bowl on Sunday night, when he rebounded from errant throws, dropped passes and a torrid comeback attempt by the Pittsburgh Steelers, that will solidify his spot in the lore of one of the league’s most storied franchises.
With fans wearing cheeseheads in a pigskin palace, the Green Bay Packers won their fourth Super Bowl by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25, at Cowboys Stadium. It was the first title for Titletown since the 1996 season, when Favre won his lone Vince Lombardi Trophy, named for the Packers’ legendary coach. The Packers, the league’s only community-owned franchise, also won nine N.F.L. championships before the Super Bowl era, and their 13 titles make them the most decorated team in league history.
As the final seconds ticked away, Rodgers stood over the N.F.L. logo at midfield and jumped up and down. He had completed 24 of 39 passes for 304 yards and 3 touchdowns, and was named the most valuable player of the game, completing a career arc notable nearly as much for his maturity as for his passing.
“I’ve never felt like there’s been a monkey on my back,” Rodgers said. Then he recalled a conversation he had with General Manager Ted Thompson, who had been excoriated for the ugly divorce with Favre. “I told Ted back in 2005 he wouldn’t be sorry with this pick,” Rodgers said. “I told him in ’08 that I was going to repay their trust and get us this opportunity.”
Still, Rodgers bemoaned the throws he missed Sunday. The Packers never trailed, but the victory felt far from dominating because the Steelers roared back from a 21-3 first-half deficit and had the ball trailing by just 6 points at the two-minute warning. That was when the Packers’ defense, the backbone of a season in which none of the team’s six losses came by more than 4 points, finally held off the Steelers. Green Bay sent Pittsburgh away without its seventh Super Bowl title in a game that had turned the reputations of two grind-it-out teams on their heads. The teams combined for 79 pass attempts, 36 runs and 725 yards of offense.
The Packers were intent on testing the weakness of the Steelers’ defense — the cornerbacks — from the start, spreading the field with the game’s best set of receivers. Rodgers, whose scintillating performances during the playoffs had solidified his position among the game’s best passers, threw on every first down except two in the first half, while the Packers ran for just 37 yards.
Rodgers’s first few passes were high, perhaps a sign of nerves, but he settled down on the Packers’ second drive. On third-and-1 from the Steelers’ 29, he checked into a pass play, spotting Jordy Nelson with one-on-one coverage on the outside, and lofted a perfect pass to Nelson’s outside shoulder. The touchdown gave the Packers a 7-0 lead and a good omen: they have scored first in all five of their Super Bowl appearances.
Then the Packers got their first break. On the next play from scrimmage, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, with a defender’s hand in his face, threw a pass that floated so long in the air that the Packers’ Nick Collins, reacting to Roethlisberger’s pump fake to the left side of the field, ran to the sideline. He leaped up to intercept the pass and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown.
That gave the Packers a 14-0 lead. And it was the first of three touchdowns that came off Steelers turnovers, two of them interceptions. Roethlisberger entered the game 10-2 in playoff starts, but after a season in which he had carefully tried to rebuild his image after a sexual-assault allegation, this was a crushing loss.
Roethlisberger (25 of 40 for 263 yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 interceptions) spoke softly after the game about how he felt he had let the city of Pittsburgh down.
“We’re a team of fighters; we don’t quit,” he said. “If I had played a little bit better, I feel like we would have had a better chance to win the game.”
When the Packers held the Steelers to a field goal on their next drive, then intercepted Roethlisberger again in the second quarter, they threatened to blow the game open. Rodgers threw a laser of a 21-yard pass to Greg Jennings in the end zone — another first-down pass — and the Packers had a 21-3 lead and their foot on the gas.
And then, suddenly, it stopped. The Packers entered this season as perhaps the most talented team in the N.F.L., but an avalanche of injuries caused them to squeak into the playoffs as the N.F.C.’s sixth seed after needing a victory in the final week of the regular season.
This game, then, became a microcosm of the season. It was marred by a series of injuries, the most critical one just before halftime when Charles Woodson, the Packers’ superb cornerback, dived to break up a deep pass and landed awkwardly. The fall broke his collarbone and Woodson, who was the defensive player of the year in 2009, watched with his arm in a sling for the rest of the game. Woodson tried to address the team at halftime, but was too overcome by emotion to continue.
“It doesn’t matter,” Woodson said later of his injury. “I’m a champion.”
But Woodson’s absence freed the Steelers for a precise two-minute drill that ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward that made the score 21-10 at halftime.
The Steelers dominated the third quarter, though. When Packers receiver James Jones, who has had a few other noteworthy drops this season, dropped what would have probably been a touchdown pass early in the third quarter, Thompson, sitting in the press box, put his hands over his head in dismay.
After taking their 21-3 lead late in the first half, the Packers had only one first down until the fourth quarter. And when the Steelers turned to their running game to grind out a touchdown drive early in the third, they trailed by just 21-17 — and felt as if they had a lead.
But then the game grew sloppy. Both quarterbacks threw errant passes. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Packers linebacker Clay Matthews blasted through the line of scrimmage and smashed into the Steelers’ Rashard Mendenhall. Mendenhall fumbled, and the Packers recovered. It might have been the play that saved the season, because the drive ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Greg Jennings that gave the Packers an 11-point lead with 12 minutes to play.
In the end, it was enough for a team whose entire season was predicated on hanging on. After the game, Rodgers said that a close loss to New England late in the season — which Rodgers missed with a concussion — convinced him that the Packers had a good team with an opportunity they should not waste.
They didn’t, and in Green Bay on Sunday night, one night after Coach Mike McCarthy had his Packers fitted for Super Bowl rings as a motivational ploy, the N.F.L.’s smallest market celebrated with an impromptu gathering at Lambeau Field. As the N.F.L. heads into an uncertain future, the championship had returned to its most hallowed roots.
Nicholls enters 10 for Grand National at Aintree in April
Nicholls enters 10 for National
Champion trainer Paul Nicholls has 10 of the 102 entries for the Grand National at Aintree in April.
2011/02/02
BBC
Nicholls has never won the race and his hopes include recent Cheltenham winner Neptune Collonges and What A Friend, part-owned by Sir Alex Ferguson.
The Midnight Club is among nine entries for Irish trainer Willie Mullins.
Jonjo O'Neill has three contenders - Don't Push It, who won the National for Tony McCoy in 2010, plus Synchronised and Can't Buy Time.
Entries for the Grand National closed on Wednesday, with the weights announced on 15 February. Of the 102 contenders, 34 are trained in Ireland and three in France.
Last year the race attracted 112 entries. although a maximum field of 40 is allowed on the day for the four-and-a-half mile contest.
Neptune Collonges and What A Friend are joined by stablemates The Tother One, Tricky Trickster, Taranis, Tatenen, Niche Market, Just Amazing, Gullible Gordon and Meanus Dandy.
McCoy won the National at the 15th attempt last year, and was voted the 2010 BBC Sports Personality.
It seems likely he will choose between Don't Push It and January's Welsh National winner Synchronised.
The Northern Irish jockey is retained by owner JP McManus, whose other entries are the recent purchase Quolibet, trained in France by Francois Doumen, as well as Arbor Supreme and Quiscover Fontaine, representing Willie Mullins.
Ballabriggs, trained by Donald McCain, hardened as ante-post National favourite after winning over hurdles at Ayr on Monday.
The 10-year-old, ridden by Jason Maguire, was scoring his fifth straight victory as he took the novices' hurdle over two miles and four furlongs.
Ballabriggs is rated a 16-1 chance for the Aintree marathon on 9 April.
McCain's father Ginger won the National four times - three with Red Rum in the 1970s, plus Amberleigh House in 2004.
Hoping to win the National for a second time will be David Pipe, whose five hopefuls number the 2008 scorer Comply Or Die, now aged 12.
He has also entered Junior, who could seek a remarkable Royal Ascot-Grand National double, having won the Ascot Stakes last summer.
The Evan Williams-trained State Of Play, Howard Johnson's Tidal Bay and Ferdy Murphy's Big Fella Thanks are other interesting contenders.
The Irish entries include the 2008 Welsh National winner Notre Pere, the Edward O'Grady-trained Tranquil Sea, Noel Glynn's stable star Becauseicouldntsee, the Martin Lynch-trained Oscar Time and Gordon Elliott's Backstage, who unseated his rider in the 2010 race.
But one Irish challenger who will not be making the trip is the 2010 Grand National runner-up Black Apalachi, who has been ruled out for the season.
Now a 12-year-old, Black Apalachi was going ominously well when unseating Denis O'Regan at Becher's Brook on the second circuit in 2009 before finishing second to Don't Push It last April.
He was being prepared solely with the race in mind again but has sustained a tendon injury.
"Can you imagine it? He jumps around Aintree with not a bother year after year and then he gets a leg," said trainer Dessie Hughes.
"I've no idea how it happened, it just appeared. We were lucky we didn't run him the other day.
"He might come back, but he's 12 now. He'll have to stand in his box for a month or two. This probably would have been his year.
"But maybe his year was the year he unseated - you don't get too many chances."
Another horse missing the race is Pipe's The Package , who has suffered a setback.
He was creeping into contention before unseating Graham Lee at the 19th fence in the 2010 National.
"Fortunately he is a relatively lightly-raced eight-year-old so there is still plenty of time for him, and I look forward to getting him back on track next term," said Pipe on his
Grand National entries
0P1-006 ALWAYS WAINING (IRE) 10 Peter Bowen
60U0-60 AMBOBO (USA) 11 Martin Brassil IRE
2212-52 APT APPROACH (IRE) 8 Willie Mullins IRE
0U2F-0P ARBOR SUPREME (IRE) 9 Willie Mullins IRE
256-021 ASKTHEMASTER (IRE) 11 Robert Tyner IRE
0BP-500 BACKSTAGE (FR) 9 Gordon Elliott IRE
3111-11 BALLABRIGGS (IRE) 10 Donald McCain
40F-044 BALLYFITZ 11 Nigel Twiston-Davies
0100-03 BALLYTRIM (IRE) 10 Willie Mullins IRE
2212-42 BECAUSEICOULDNTSEE (IRE) 8 Noel Glynn IRE
1F4/22-1 BELON GALE (IRE) 8 Wylie Howard Johnson
2U14-2F BIG FELLA THANKS 9 Ferdy Murphy
0C21-04 BLUESEA CRACKER (IRE) 9 James Motherway IRE
P12-UPP BURREN LEGEND (IRE) 10 Richard Rowe
4-56242 CALGARY BAY (IRE) 8 Henrietta Knight
16F-0P5 CAN'T BUY TIME (IRE) 9 Jonjo O'Neill
635P-6P CANE BRAKE (IRE) 12 Conor O'Dwyer IRE
12/- CARRONHILLS (IRE) 9 Rebecca Curtis
000-305 CHARACTER BUILDING (IRE) 11 John Quinn
30011-0 CHIEF DAN GEORGE (IRE) 11 Jimmy Moffatt
2/000-06 COMPLY OR DIE (IRE) 12 David Pipe
1P46-3U DEEP PURPLE 10 Evan Williams
363221- DEV (IRE) 11 Gordon Elliott IRE
23P1-P0 DON'T PUSH IT (IRE) 11 Jonjo O'Neill
01F24-4 DOONEYS GATE (IRE) 10 Willie Mullins IRE
21PP-PP DREAM ALLIANCE 10 Philip Hobbs
05241P DUERS (IRE) 9 Paul Magnier IRE
3/402P-0 FAASEL (IRE) 10 David Pipe
1500-10 FAIR ALONG (GER) 9 Philip Hobbs
1F3U-P1 FRANKIE FIGG (IRE) 9 Howard Johnson
313-355 FROM DAWN TO DUSK 12 Philip Hobbs
5/2613-P GALANT NUIT (FR) 7 Ferdy Murphy
F123-P2 GILES CROSS (IRE) 9 Victor Dartnall
1-P1440 GLENCOVE MARINA (IRE) 9 Eoin Griffin IRE
421001 GOLDEN KITE (IRE) 9 Adrian Maguire IRE
11FP10 GRAND SLAM HERO (IRE) 10 Nigel Twiston-Davies
P22-41F GULLIBLE GORDON (IRE) 8 Paul Nicholls
005P-1P HELLO BUD (IRE) 13 Nigel Twiston-Davies
P0-24U3 I'MONCLOUDNINE (IRE) 8 Neil Mulholland
F42040 I'MSINGINGTHEBLUES (IRE) 9 David Pipe
566U-34 IN COMPLIANCE (IRE) 11 Dessie Hughes IRE
3131-32 JUNIOR 8 David Pipe
121616- JUST AMAZING (IRE) 8 Paul Nicholls
315F-0(3) KHACHATURIAN (IRE) 8 Donald McCain
P2P-253 KILLYGLEN (IRE) 9 Stuart Crawford IRE
3211-11 KING FONTAINE (IRE) 8 Malcolm Jefferson
3P-0204 LE BEAU BAI (FR) 8 Richard Lee
16-1155 LITTLE JOSH (IRE) 9 Nigel Twiston-Davies
U62/1-31 MAJESTIC CONCORDE (IRE) 8 Dermot Weld IRE
P1P-41U MEANUS DANDY (IRE) 8 Paul Nicholls
0D61-0F MERIGO (FR) 10 Green Andrew Parker
1-41111 MIDNIGHT CHASE 9 Neil Mulholland
15P-614 MOBAASHER (USA) 8 Venetia Williams
1-122B0 NEDZER'S RETURN (IRE) 9 Gordon Elliott IRE
F14/-B01 NEPTUNE COLLONGES (FR) 10 Paul Nicholls
520P-F5 NICHE MARKET (IRE) 10 Paul Nicholls
331-P31 NICTO DE BEAUCHENE (FR) 10 Victor Dartnall
021-062 NOBLE CONCORDE 9 Jim Culloty IRE
P-55004 NORTHERN ALLIANCE (IRE) 10 Tony Martin IRE
4UP-250 NOTRE PERE (FR) 10 Barry Potts IRE
1P0-053 ONE COOL COOKIE (IRE) 10 Charlie Swan IRE
2F1425 OR NOIR DE SOMOZA (FR) 9 Jean Pierre Totain FR
1215/1P/- ORNAIS (FR) 9 Paul Nicholls
3152-26 OSCAR TIME (IRE) 10 Martin Lynch IRE
013111- OUR MONTY (IRE) 8 Willie Mullins IRE
00P-234 PIRAYA (FR) 8 David Pipe
PF4-536 POMME TIEPY (FR) 8 Willie Mullins IRE
321112 PUTNEY BRIDGE 9 Keith Goldsworthy
012P51 QUEZAC DE LA ROQUE (FR) 7 Francois Cottin FR
510-113 QUINZ (FR) 7 Philip Hobbs
0/1160-2 QUISCOVER FONTAINE (FR) 7 Willie Mullins IRE
2F-FF25 QUOLIBET (FR) 7 Francois Doumen FR
560-P23 REGAL HEIGHTS (IRE) 10 Tom George
3P6/454- ROLL ALONG (IRE) 11 Nigel Twiston-Davies
P5U-42P ROYAL ROSA (FR) 12 Howard Johnson
111U0-6 SADDLERS STORM (IRE) 9 Tony Martin IRE
31-PP11 SAGALYRIQUE (FR) 7 Donald McCain
6-22000 SANTA'S SON (IRE) 11Howard Johnson
20-3534 SCOTSIRISH (IRE) 10 Willie Mullins IRE
5121-00 SILVER BY NATURE 9 Lucinda Russell
41/313-0 SKIPPERS BRIG (IRE) 10 Nicky Richards
032236- SNOWY MORNING (IRE) 11 Colin Bowe IRE
11P61/0/- STARZAAN (IRE) 12 Hughie Morrison
0/144/P3- STATE OF PLAY 11 Evan Williams
PP2/111/- SURFACE TO AIR 10 Chris Bealby
131-561 SYNCHRONISED (IRE) 8 Jonjo O'Neill
14P//1-0F TARANIS (FR) 10 Paul Nicholls
UP-3631 TATENEN (FR) 7 Richard Rowe
301050 THAT'S RHYTHM (FR) 11 Martin Todhunter
U3133-2 THE MIDNIGHT CLUB (IRE) 10 Willie Mullins IRE
00-5064 THE SAWYER (BEL) 11 Bob Buckler
204/12-P THE SLIOTAR (IRE) 10Philip Hobbs
205-244 THE TOTHER ONE (IRE) 10 Paul Nicholls
104-322 TIDAL BAY (IRE) 10 Howard Johnson
4F2P-43 TINAKELLYLAD (IRE) 7 Mouse Morris IRE
311120- TOBY JUG 10 Sarah Humphrey
2106-11 TRANQUIL SEA (IRE) 9 Edward O'Grady IRE
F/116PP- TREACLE (IRE) 10 Tom Taaffe IRE
1/2100-P TRICKY TRICKSTER (IRE) 8 Paul Nicholls
501B-00 VIC VENTURI (IRE) 11 Dessie Hughes IRE
2P/00-11 WEST END ROCKER (IRE) 9 Alan King
61/211-5 WHAT A FRIEND 8 Paul Nicholls
Welsh champion hope for Walters
Welsh champion hope for Walters
BBC
2011/02/02
Welsh Champion Hurdle
Venue: Ffos Las Racecourse
Date: Saturday, 5 February
Starts: 1440 GMT
Coverage: Full coverage on
Dai Walters hopes his star performer Oscar Whisky can continue his good form at his home Ffos Las track in the Welsh Champion Hurdle on Saturday.
Local millionaire businessman Walters was the driving force behind the new Welsh track and hopes for a winner in Ffos Las' inaugural two-mile showpiece.
The Nicky Henderson-trained six-year-old has suffered one defeat in six starts and Walters is hoping for more.
"He has done very well so far," said Walters. "Let's hope he keeps going."
Barry Geraghty, the 2003 Grand National winner, has ridden Oscar Whisky in all of his six outings since March 2009.
But 15-time champion jockey Tony McCoy, who rode Don't Push It to 2010 Grand National victory, has spoken of his desire to complete a Welsh double.
McCoy won the Welsh National at Chepstow last month on Synchronised and would like to add the £45,000 Welsh Champion Hurdle title to his impressive CV.
We have targeted the race right as it's six weeks before Cheltenham and I think it will be a good trial
Ffos Las owner Dai Walters
But McCoy is expected to ride Binocular at Sandown on Saturday.
Walters, the Ffos Las owner and civil engineering magnate, knows Oscar Whisky has a great chance to win the first Welsh Champion Hurdle in the biggest day of the Carmarthenshire course's 18-month history.
"He is in the number one stable at Nicky's," said Walters.
"And Mick Fitzgerald [former stable jockey] told me that when a horse is in the number one stable, Nicky thinks a lot of it.
"The plan would be to go to Cheltenham, but let's get Saturday out of the way first and then decide what race we go for.
"It's virtually Nicky's call when he wants to run him. It will be one or the other of the Champion Hurdle or the World Hurdle."
While obviously hoping his charge will emerge victorious, Walters is pleased to see the contest has attracted a high-class list of entries.
Local trainer Rebecca Curtis has a fantastic record at Ffos Las and the Pembrokeshire handler is represented by eight-year-old Black Jack Blues.
There are a total of 11 possible runners, including Donald McCain's unbeaten Peddlers Cross and smart stablemate Overturn.
Irish raider Won In The Dark and the Nicky Richards-trained Noble Alan are other interesting contenders.
"There is some good prize-money there, I think the race is worth £45,000," Walters added.
"We have targeted the race right as it's six weeks before Cheltenham and I think it will be a good trial."
WELSH CHAMPION HURDLE 1440 GMT Barizan (E Williams) Oscar Whisky (N Henderson) Won In The Dark (Miss S J Harty) Black Jack Blues (Miss R Curtis) Tarkari (E Williams)
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