» I officiated a youth football game Sunday afternoon where the two teams could not agree on the simplest of rules, forcing my crew to lay down some edicts. And one team complained that the other team wasn’t honoring the league’s participation rules. Oh, did I mention these were 7-year-olds? …
» Did you notice that Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners was ejected from a game for the first time in his major-league career last week? Either his English is getting better or some words are just universal …
» I wrote in last week’s column that I thought I would have a much better grasp of the Pac-10 football race after another Saturday of games. I was wrong. Way wrong. I may be even more confused now …
» I don’t know what to make of Oregon’s 42-3 win over then-No. 6 Cal or Arizona’s 37-32 win at Oregon State …
» I do know one thing: That’s the way I expected the Ducks to play coming out of the chute at Boise State. And who envisioned the Ducks, wearing 1995 throwback uniforms, would hold Cal to 3 points? …
» Washington’s Huskies look like dogs again after getting humbled at Stanford 34-14, a week after upsetting conference favorite USC …
» Speaking of the Trojans, is it time for USC fans to start getting concerned? They didn’t come close to covering the spread against hapless Washington State. This week’s trip to Berkeley is shaping up as a do-or-die contest for both teams …
» The other big Pac-10 game this week is unbeaten (3-0 overall) UCLA at league-leading Stanford (2-0 in conference games). The winner of this one will be feeling pretty good about things …
» Of the unbeaten teams in the NFL through Week 3, I think the Denver Broncos are the only real surprise …
» On the flip side, the biggest surprises at 0-3 have to be the Tennessee Titans and Tampa Bay Bucs …
» In response to my comment about the multipurpose stadium in Oakland shared by the Raiders and A’s during the late summer and fall, several readers pointed out that the Miami Dolphins and Florida Marlins also share a stadium, Land Shark Stadium. The Minnesota Vikings and Twins, of course, also share the Metrodome, but I’m pretty sure they cover up the baseball dirt with artificial turf for the football games …
» And, in response to my comment about the orange-striped officials at a recent NFL “throwback” game, Noozhawk reader Aaron Solis writes, “The … orange-striped uniforms isn’t an NFL throwback, but an AFL throwback because this is the 50th year of the original AFL teams.” …
» Speaking of the old AFL, can you name the original teams in that league? They were the Houston Oilers, Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Boston Patriots, Dallas Texans and New York Titans …
» I also heard from several disappointed USC fans, including Noozhawk reader Mark Dispenza, who wrote, “Now that USC has its annual embarrassing loss to an unranked Pac-10 team out of the way, we Trojans can look forward to a better season (fingers crossed). After four straight seasons of this annual debacle, I have to ask, ‘Where was the team that played Ohio State last week? Is it time to send Pete (Carroll) to one of USC’s acclaimed alumni shrinks? Does he have a secret wish to sabotage his own team’s BCS title ambitions?’ I just don’t get how the Trojans can play so well every game of the season except that one annoying Pac-10 game that’s always full of questionable play calls in contrast with the slick machine at every other game. Now that I have committed the sacrilege of questioning a Trojan deity, I will go into hiding. These are the musings of a frustrated Trojan who wants another BCS title for his beloved team.”
— Noozhawk columnist Paul Yarbrough can be reached at pyarbrough@noozhawk.com.