Jackson Free Press

In light of Rep. Todd Akin's lunatic comments this weekend about "legitimate rape," other extremist statements about women's health issues are emerging from members of Congress. Take this video of Rep. Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss., slamming Planned Parenthood in support of an effort to de-fund the organization. In it, Nunnelee states:

In this resolution not one dime or womens’ health or family planning health funding is reduced. It simply says those dollars cannot go to Planned Parenthood. This is an organization that has protected those who prey on our children and has protected those who have raped our granddaughters.

Raped our granddaughters? WT...? We have called Nunnelee's office to find out what he was talking about. Our best guess is that he is referring to accusations by the right that Planned Parenthood protect older statutory rapists who prey on under-age women.

Of course, that would be especially ironic if so, considering that Nunnelee worked with Rep. Akin, Ryan and other House Republicans to redefine the definition of rape to "forcible rape" to make it harder for teen girls to get abortions, especially in the case of statutory rape.

So, is this really about protecting our granddaughters, Rep. Nunnelee—or forcing teenagers to give birth to babies of their rapists of whatever age? Mississippi rape victims, and their parents, eagerly await your response.

File this under the finally, about time file.

Augusta National Golf Club announced today that the club will welcome its first two female members when the club opens for its new season in October. For years, the home of The Masters has resisted allowing women to join the private all-male golf club.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore have accepted to join the club and will be the first female members to don a green jacket in the club’s history. This move has been coming since 2002.

Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations wanted the club to add women members in 2002 and lead a small boycott of the 2003 Masters tournament. Former club chairman Hootie Johnson, chairman during Burk’s protest, dug his heels in once saying Augusta National might one day have a woman in a green jacket, "but not at the point of a bayonet."

The Masters lost television sponsorship for two years and the club paid CBS to broadcast the tournament commercial free for those two years. Johnson retired in 2006 and Billy Payne has been more open to allowing women than his predecessor.

"These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership," Payne said in a statement. "It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their green jackets when the club opens this fall. This is a significant and positive time in our club's history and, on behalf of our membership, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome them and all of our new members into the Augusta National family."

In the ESPN article linked above, it states from private sources that women have been considered for membership five years ago. It is about time, Augusta National added women members and hopefully these two women will not be the only female members added.

The news exploded today that a Republican senatorial candidate in Missouri, Rep. Todd Akin, has declared that women can't get pregnant from "legitimate rapes." This idiot was defending his anti-abortion stance (including rape and incest, of course):

“It seems to me, first of all, what I understand from doctors is that’s really where—if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

and:

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something,” Akin said. “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

Clearly, every woman who has ever gotten pregnant from a rape is lying about it being rape, according to this fool's logic.

Much has been made so far this year about the "war on women"—from Rush Limbaugh's horrendous attacks on Sandra Fluke to many Republicans supporting all sorts of anti-women regulation including outlawing in vitro and birth-control pills.

This latest affront to women—1 in 6 are sexually assaulted before age 18 as I was—is where we must say "ENOUGH"! We must demand that all of our elected officials disavow Akin's remarks. More importantly, we must demand pro-women and actual pro-family legislation from our elected officials, including right here in Mississippi. Women have the power to stop these attacks on us and our rights, if we only will.

This is too much, and it's time we decide what kind of nation we're going to be in the future. Speak up, women and men. An attack on one woman's rights and self-respect is an attack on us all.

On Wednesday of last week (Aug 15) Ole Miss announced sophomore wide receiver Tobias Singleton had left the program. The former four star recruit from Madison Central was one of the big pieces of former Ole Miss Houston Nutt’s last recruiting class.

The Rebels have lost Singleton and highly sought after recruit Nickolas Brassell. Many in the blogosphere have speculated that academics were the reason for Singleton leaving the program.

Brassell was ruled academic ineligible which led to his transfer. One of the bright spots on a bad Ole Miss team last season, Brassell played wide receiver and cornerback.

Singleton announced he would enroll at Jackson State. Because he is transferring to an FCS (Bowl Championship Subdivision) Singleton can play right away.

For those wondering, if Singleton had transferred to another FBS school (Football Bowl Subdivision) like Mississippi State for example, he would have to set out for one season.

It was not a good night for the New Orleans Saints or the replacement officials calling the game tonight. The Saints defense struggled against second year quarterback Blaine Gabbert and the Jacksonville Jaguars first string offense.

Jacksonville won the coin toss and elected to receive. The Jaguars opened the game with a nine-play drive that lasted over five minutes and end with a Blaine Gabbert touchdown pass to rookie wide receiver Justin Blackmon.

Gabbert was a perfect three-of-three for 38 yards on the drive but the bulk of the load was carried by running back Rashad Jennings, who rushed for 42 yards on six carries. Jacksonville had a quick 7-0 lead on a drive where the Saints defense struggle to cover in the passing game and missed tackles on nearly every play.

New Orleans took their first possession from their own 20-yard line. Saints quarterback Drew Brees lead his offense down the field, but the drive stalled at the Jaguars 18-yard line.

Garrett Harley kicked a 37-yard field goal to cap off a nine-play drive that took a little over three minutes to cut the Jaguars lead to 7-3. Brees was 3-for-6 on the drive for 53 yards and running back Mark Ingram ran the ball twice for nine yards.

Jacksonville punted on their next drive, but the Saints could do nothing with the ball, punting it back to the Jaguars after failing to gain a first down on three plays. Gabbert took possession on his third drive of the night from his own 34-yard line with just over two minutes left in the first quarter.

The Jaguars would then go on a 14-play drive that took over eight minutes over 66 yards to take a 14-3 lead. Gabbert got Jacksonville into the end zone for the second time on the night on a 15-yard touchdown pass to Colin Cloherty. On the drive Gabbert was a perfect six-for-six.

New Orleans would only have the ball for one play after the Jacksonville score. Dropping back to pass, Brees was sacked by Jaguars defensive end Jeremy Mincey, who forced Brees to fumble. The fumble was recovered by Jacksonville’s Terrance Knighton at the New Orleans 15-yard line.

The Jaguars weren't able to convert a first down off the fumble. Jacksonville took a 36-yard field goal by Jose Scobee to take a 17-3 lead.

New Orleans would start their next drive from their own 15-yard line and Brees went to work. He lead the Saints on a nine-play, 85-yard drive that took four and half minutes.

On his final drive of the night, Brees was six-of-six passing for 66 yards. The drive was capped off by an eight-yard touchdown pass to Devery Henderson to cut the Jacksonville lead to 17-10.

Brees' night was over after the scoring drive and he finished 10-of-13 for 133 yards with a touchdown and lost fumble. In his final drive of the night, Brees finally looked like the quarterback who lit up …

Ouch. After GOP vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan cited Rage Against the Machine as on eof his favoriate bands, Rage's guitarist Tom Morello responded in an op-ed on the Rolling Stone webiste.. Morello started with the money quote: "Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades."

Here's more:

Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

Ryan claims that he likes Rage's sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don't care for Paul Ryan's sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

Seriously, Ryan. This reminds me of when the Reagan campaign tried to misappropriate Springsteen's "Born in the USA," helped along with a naive George Will. Message to politicians: listen to the lyrics, fools.

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A._(song)

Tonight, WUFX (local station known as “My 35”) will carry the New Orleans Saints against the Jacksonville Jaguars with a pregame show starting a 6:30 p.m. and kickoff at 7 p.m. The Saints come into the game with a 1-1 record in the preseason.

New Orleans defeated the Arizona Cardinals 17-10 in the Hall of Fame game. In their second preseason game, the Saints fell to the New England Patriots 7-6.

This is the third of five preseason games for the Saints (they play an extra game because they played in the HOF game) and with two games played there are some trends. No, you shouldn’t take everything in preseason at face value.

But remember last preseason, I mentioned the pass coverage and tackling by the Saints defense? While New Orleans was not terrible in either area every game of 2011, it did plague them throughout the regular season.

I have made a quick list of things to watch tonight. Again, just trends to watch in the preseason to see if they carry over into the regular season.

Saints running game

Everyone, including me, loves to gush over the stable of running backs the Saints have on their roster. It feels like New Orleans should dominate teams with their running backs and the ability to send waves of running backs with different abilities and strengths at opposing defenses.

So, far the running game has not done much, only averaging 87 yards in two preseason games. To be fair, Mark Ingram played sparingly in the HOF game and not at all against the Patriots.

Also, the Saints haven’t used Darren Sproles very much this preseason either. Still, the other backs on this roster need to pick up the pace and work load.

It is not like New Orleans is not trying to run the ball. The Saints have averaged 28.5 rushing attempts per game.

I would like to see the running backs do more with the carries they are allotted. This group has only made 10 first downs rushing in two games (5 first downs in both games).

That type of production in the regular season will not help the Saints close out games with a lead. A strong running game will help New Orleans chew clock and play keep away with opposing teams.

I need to see harder running and breaking tackles from this group. The motto should be “no one goes down easy”.

Saints passing game and scoring offense

I am not extremely worried about this right now because Drew Brees is not playing very long, but through two preseason games the Saints are only averaging 11.5 points per game.

A couple of things to remember: The replacement officials are allowing defenses to be more aggressive in pass defense (I love this) and none of the Saints backups are Drew Brees. Still, I would like to see more from Chase Daniel when he is leading the offense.

It would also …

The band DEVO has teamed up with Dogs Against Romney to take a jab at presumptive presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

From the press release: "Gerald Casale, a founding member of the American punk/New Wave band DEVO, has announced a new single “Don’t Roof Rack Me, Bro! (Seamus Unleashed).” The track, written by Casale, will be released in conjunction with a mobile game titled The Crate Escape: Seamus Unleashed, a new mobile game that satirizes the dog-on-roof incident. Both the single and game are planned to launch on August 26, which is both National Dog Day and one day before the Republican National Convention. The single will be available at all digital music retailers while the game is initially being launched as an app on iTunes.

"In releasing this single, DEVO has joined forces with Dogs Against Romney, an online advocacy group with more than 70,000 members on Facebook, and Censault LLC, a Dallas mobile/social game publisher, to help call attention to Mitt Romney’s 'crate-gate' scandal."

“'I can’t overstate how excited we are to have DEVO’s Gerald Casale as a partner with us in making sure every voter in America knows Mitt Romney strapped his dog, Seamus, to the roof of his car for a 12-hour trip to Canada,' said Scott Crider, founder of Dogs Against Romney. “The new DEVO song Gerald created with his bandmates is awesome, and I believe it will be the soundtrack for Romney’s defeat in November.'

"... The Crate Escape: Seamus Unleashed game will be launched as a free app for the iPhone and iPad. Pledges are being sought on Kickstarter to raise money for adding additional features to the game and for the creation of version compatible with and playable on other devices. For additional game info and images, go to www.facebook.com/CrateEscapeGame."

Read more about it and listen to the song on the Rolling Stone website.

Daniel MacGregor is an abstract artist and photographer with a studio in Flowood, and one thing I look forward to daily is seeing what painting he will share next on Facebook. HIs Facebook page has hit the 1000-like benchmark for good reason: his paintings are vivid and rememberable. A common theme of his is a landscape of trees with a rainbow sky in the background - my personal favorite. He sometimes asks Facebook visitors to name his painting, so I like this level of interactivity between artist and viewer.

MacGregor also offers acrylic painting classes every Thursday from 7-9 p.m. The classes are only $15, and you get $5 off if you bring your own 11-by-14-inch canvas. More details here. Sounds like a good way to spend an evening!

Lost in some of the Rand/Medicare/Taxes discussion of Rep. Paul Ryan was a glib line that he's now offered a few times on the stump, taking President Obama's "You Didn't Build That" line out of context to suggest that Obama was saying that small businesses didn't build their businesses.

The irony is two-fold (a.) Ryan has spent his adult entire career working in government in Washington, aside from a year he listed as a "marketing consultant" for his family's company and (b.) his family business, Ryan Incorporated, began in the 1800s building railroads for the government, switched to roads and highways (for the) government in the 20th century, had a hand in building O'Hare in Chicago, and more recently has made a a fair bit of scratch on defense contracts. In other words, the family fortune has done just fine by way of the government and, particularly, the infrastructure that Obama was talking about when Ryan misquoted him.

A current search of Defense Department contracts suggests that “Ryan Incorporated Central” has had at least 22 defense contracts with the federal government since 1996, including one from 1996 worth $5.6 million. … Mr. Anti-Spending secured millions in earmarks for his home state of Wisconsin, including, among other things, $3.3 million for highway projects. And Ryan voted to preserve $40 billion in special subsidies for big oil, an industry in which, it so happens, Ryan and his wife hold ownership stakes.

Speaking of his wife, Janna Ryan was a D.C. lobbyist before she became the "stay at home mom" that she has been introduced as -- for big pharma, big oil, "nuclear waste issues," health insurance and the cigar lobby, as they fought to keep the same warnings off cigars that cigarettes have.

The Summer Olympics are over for the next four years. In two years, the Winter Olympics will take place in Sochi, Russia. We won’t see the summer games against until 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

Every nation will have to wait four more years to catch up to the United States in total medals. After all the medals where given out Sunday, the U.S. stood alone atop the medal standing as the only nation to break triple digits in medals.

The U.S. finished with 104 overall medals outpacing second place China, which finished with 87 total medals, by 17 more medals and third place Russia, who finished with 82 total medals by 22 medals.

No one finished with more gold medals than the USA either. The U.S. finished with 46 gold medals with China at 38 gold medals in second and Great Britain, who finished fourth in total medals with 64 total medals, who had 29 gold medals.

Overall the U.S. finished with 36 gold medals, 29 silver medals, and 29 bronze medals. In the final medal count, 25 nations finished in double digits in total medals.

Bahrain, Botswana, Cyprus, Gabon, Grenada (won gold), Guatemala, and Montenegro all won their first ever Olympic medal. There were 204 countries competing and 85 of those countries received at least one medal.

Rounding out the top ten in total medals were Germany (44 total medals) in fifth, Japan (38 total medals) in sixth, Australia (35 total medals) in seventh, France (34 total medals) in eighth, South Korea and Italy (28 total medals each) tied for ninth to round out the top ten.

London was a successful Olympic games for the United States. Since 2000 games in Sydney, the U.S., China and Russia have finished in the top three spots.

Since 1992 games in Barcelona, China has finished in one of the top four spots as the Chinese have become a world power in the Olympic games after not even being in the top ten in the 1988 games in Seoul, South Korea.

The United States leads the way to Rio in total and gold medals but Brazil, China, and Russia will be hot on the U.S. heels in four years.

Mississippians Against Racism is asking everyone to sign a card for Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas to congratulate her for her gold medal wins, and encourage her after the controversy surrounding how she wore her hair during the competitions. Here is the press release with minor corrections to the dates:

In light of the huge controversy over the natural hair texture, Mississippians Against Racism wanted to tell the exceptional 16 year old, 90 pound, Olympic Gold Medalist, Gabrielle Douglas, that the weight of our race is not on her shoulders. Such is the responsibility of Adults and institutions. In addition, we wanted her to know that we fully understand why her natural hair showed itself during her performance and we happy she was nappy, beautiful like God made her.

Mississippians Against Racism will be inviting others who share these sentiments to express their love for Gabby on a special congratulatory card made in & for Mississippi. Everyone interesting in telling Gabby we love her because we love our daughters, nieces and sisters should jointly visit Marshall’s Music and Book Store, 618 North Farish St. in Jackson, MS to sign this special card. We begin at Noon on Friday, August 10th with this symbolic gesture of love. A special signing will begin on Saturday, August 11th , 2012 at 3:15pm prior to the monthly community forum. The Monthly Sick & Tired and Seeking SOULutions Community Forum will be held at the Afrikan Arts & Cultural Studio, 612 North Farish Street 4 - 5:30pm. After the forum, interested signers can come to Marshall’s Music and Bookstore 10am-5pm Monday and Tuesday.

The "Mississippi Loves Gabby Card" will be mailed to Gabby Douglas on Wednesday, August 15th, 2012. We hope to have at least one thousand signatures on the Mississippi Loves Gabby card, so join us Saturday, August 11th at the Afrikan Arts & Cultural Studio, 612 North Farish Street, 3:15pm to sign the card. Or stop-by Marshall’s Music & Book Store, 618 North Farish Street on Monday or Tuesday to add your love. Bring your daughters, nieces and sisters, because Black Self-Hate affects, effects, and destroys us all and Black Love heals of all.

For more details about this special expression of love for Gabby, call 601.355.5335 or 601.979.1413.

I woke up this morning with cool breeze in the air and I couldn’t help but reminded of how close high school football is to starting. Several teams are traveling across the state tonight to participate in jamborees before the season kicks off next week.

Since the other local paper has gone to a pay website, finding football scores will become harder unless you want to wait and get a paper the next morning. Or hope that one of the television stations post scores on their website.

So, I am asking JFP Nation for help. If you guys can help me get scores, I will post them in a blog post each Friday night with updates as I receive them. High schools in the metro-area are my main focus but I will post any score from any team across the state.

Send scores to twitter by following @jfpsports, the JFP Sports Facebook page or email at [email protected]. I know JFP Nation can make this become a regular part of sports coverage.

Thank you in advance for your help.

After the Hall of Fame game, the New Orleans Saints spent the week holding joint practices with the New England Patriots before their preseason game. Those joint practices might have allowed both teams’ defense to dominate during the game.

The game started with the Saints losing the coin toss and the Patriots deferring until the second half. New Orleans' offense would fail to make a first down and was forced to punt on their first possession of the game.

That would be the story most of the night for the Saints offense, as it failed to get on track for the majority of the game. Even Drew Brees had a rough outing, only completing one pass for four yards in two offensive series.

After the Saints punted, New England was forced to punt, but an offsides penalty on Martez Wilson kept the Patriots drive alive. New Orleans was able to end that extra drive after the penalty when Will Smith sacked Tom Brady and forced a fumble.

The fumble was recovered by Curtis Loftin at the New England 34 yard line. Brees was unable to get the ball into the end zone and the Saints were forced to kick a field goal. John Kasay converted on a 46-yard field goal to give New Orleans a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.

Brady would finish the night completing just four of seven passes for 30 yards with no touchdowns and, of course, a fumble.

Neither team did much offensively for the rest of the first half. There were more low lights than highlights for both teams.

Replacing Brees at quarterback was Chase Daniel, with just over five minutes left in the first quarter. Daniel would get picked off by Steve Gregory at the Patriots 12-yard line. Gregory would return the ball back to the New England 17-yard line.

Daniel’s night would be over after his interception, having completed four of six passes for 62 yards. After the INT, Brian Hoyer replaced Brady and was helped out by another Saints penalty on a punt to keep the drive after Daniel’s interception alive. Martez Wilson was flagged for running into Patriots punter Zoltan Mesko.

Hoyer was replaced by Ryan Mallett, who would be unable to take advantage of the second penalty by the Saints on fourth down that kept a New England drive alive.

Mallett would throw an interception of his own right before the two minute warning. The former Arkansas Razorback was picked off by former Alabama player Marquis Johnson at the New England 49 yard line.

Sean Canfield would take over for Daniel after the Johnson interception. He drove the Saints down to the Patriots 32 yard line.

Canfield floated a pass on first down that Patrick Chung intercepted at the Patriots 11-yard line. It was a tough night overall for Canfield, as he went completed six of ten passes for 45 yards.

Mallett got a final drive after the Canfield interception. He drove …

Football is back. After an offseason where player activity has made more news than player signings, the New Orleans Saints getting back on the playing field meant more -- after one of harshest punishments ever given to an NFL franchise in the wake of "bounty gate."

In the NFL Hall of Fame game, New Orleans finally got back to football and away from the offseason drama. The Arizona Cardinals helped the Saints open the NFL preseason.

New Orleans received the opening kickoff and Drew Brees went to work. In a ten play drive that covered 77 yards in just over four minutes, the Saints first string offense looked in midseason form.

Mark Ingram scored on a one-yard plunge to give New Orleans an early 7-0 lead. Brees’ night was done after the score with him going four of five for 41 yards.

Brees' counterpart, Kevin Kolb of the St. Louis Cardinals, didn’t have quite the night the record-setting Saints quarterback did. Kolb was constantly harassed by the Saints defense as the Cardinals porous offensive line failed to give very much protection.

Kolb didn’t help make his case to be the starting quarterback when his first pass of the night was intercepted by Malcolm Jenkins. Kolb didn’t see Jenkins jump a short passing route as he made the first of several terrible defensive coverage reads of the night for Arizona.

While Brees only played one offensive series, Kolb kept playing as the Cardinals offense struggled. Kolb’s night ended after he was knocked down in his own end zone after an incomplete pass, injuring his ribs.

Kolb didn’t make it through three full series before he was injured. He was replaced by John Skelton, who is also fighting for the starting quarterback job.

Late in the first quarter, Skelton got the Arizona offense going, in a drive that went 89 yards in 14 plays that lasted over seven minutes to tie the game at 7-7.

After Brees left for the evening, he was replaced by back-up quarterback Chase Daniel. While the Cardinals quarterbacks were under duress most of the night, Daniel put up solid numbers as he played most of the first half and midway into the third quarter.

Daniel finished the night completing 15 of 20 passes for 203 yards. After the Cardinals tied the game, Daniels got the Saints offense rolling once more, driving to the Arizona four yard line.

New Orleans was unable to cross the goal line instead opting for a 23-yard field goal from 42-year-old John Kasay, also fighting for his job, to retake the lead at 10-7. The Saints field goal scoring drive lasted just over four minutes and covered 36 yards in 10 plays.

The Saints got a chance to run their two minute offense in the second quarter and Daniel ran it nearly to perfection. Daniel drove New Orleans 94 yards in seven plays in under a minute and half.

Daniel capped the drive with a Travaris Cadet catching the four yard …

Football returns on Sunday with the Hall of Fame game between the Arizona Cardinals and New Orleans Saints. The Saints finally get to play football after a tremulous offseason that included a prolonged contract dispute with quarterback Drew Brees and the bounty gate scandal.

This game will be the first game of head coach Sean Payton’s yearlong suspension due to bounty gate. The Hall of Fame game also marks the debut of Steve Spagnuolo's defense.

Before the game, here is a look at five things to watch during the game:

Saints offense on third down and goal line

This will be something to watch all preseason long. When the Saints offense reaches third down and/or the goal line, the effects of Payton’s suspension might hit New Orleans the hardest.

Payton’s play calling helped the Saint offense stay at its high-powered best -- but his best play calls came when the Saints reached third down or the goal line. Brees will be able to carry Payton’s thought process onto the field, but it will not be the same as having Payton on the sideline looking at the play sheet and having his unique feel for calling games.

Offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. will take over the play calling duties, as he did when Payton broke his leg last season. The Saints offense struggled at times in Payton’s absence, suffering two of their three losses last season after the injury.

How the Saints offense converts third downs and goal line situations in the preseason could be a key indicator to how the New Orleans offense will operate during the regular season. While Brees is directing the first team offense, play-calling in key situations is must watch.

Another effect of Payton’s suspension will be gamble plays -- like going for it on fourth down either for a score or a first down -- and gutsy calls like the on-side kick from the Super Bowl. It will not be until the regular season that New Orleans would feel the pain of not having their riverboat gambler head coach making big calls.

Saints’ defense

As discussed above, Steve Spagnuolo takes over the defensive coordinator job after Greg Williams moved on to St. Louis Rams for the same position (Williams was later suspended for the year for bounty gate). Spagnuolo is taking over the New Orleans defensive unit after he was fired as head coach of the Rams.

As defensive coordinator for the New York Giants, Spagnuolo became a head coaching candidate after his defense held the record-setting New England Patriots offense to just 14 points in Super Bowl XLII.

Much like former defensive coordinator Greg Williams, Spagnuolo uses a base 4-3 defense. Spagnuolo will blitz, but not as much as Williams did. He will also try to disguise his blitzes more than Williams did.

In the NFL, it can take a year to two years before a defense learns the ins and outs of a defensive scheme. Learning assignments and executing those …

As the Olympics round the turn into the final week; this mega two week spectacle finally moves to track and field. The United States finally moved to the top of the leaderboard in overall medals as well.

U.S. swimmers, American’s first gold in Judo for a man or woman, women’s eight team rowing and one all-around individual in gymnastics helped the jump China. The USA now has 37 overall medals to China’s 34 overall medals.

More importantly the U.S. has tied China for the most gold medals with each country having 18 gold medals apiece. The USA has nine silver and 11 bronze to China’s 11 silver and five bronze. Rounding out the top ten in total medals are:

Japan in third with 19 medals (2 gold, 6 silver and 11 bronze), Germany (4 gold, 8 silver, 5 bronze) and Russia (3 gold, 6 silver, 8 bronze) are tied for fourth, France is in sixth with 16 medals (6 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze), host nation Great Britain is seventh with 15 medals (5 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze), South Korea is eighth with 14 medals (7 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze) and the top ten is round out with Italy (4 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze) and Australia (1 gold, 7 silver, 3 bronze) tied for ninth with 11 medals.

Before thinking about track and field, let’s look back at these Olympics so far. We have seen women breaking through with Gabby Douglas becoming the first African-American woman to win the gymnastics all-around individual title and Kayla Harrison win the first gold medal in judo for an American, man or woman.

Of the 37 medals the United States has won, 19 of those medals have been won in women’s events. In the same year Title IX turns 40 women are a major part of the United States athletic success at these games.

These games truly show the effects of Title IX have had an impact and are still having an impact. U.S. women in these games have been strong in nearly event.

Track and field events haven't even taken place and American women have been leading the way. It seems nearly every record broken, U.S. earning its first medal, or medal repeat has been from an American woman. Thank you Title IX.

Michael Phelps says this is his final Olympics and if it is he has acquitted himself for his slow start. Since his fourth place in the 400m IM, Phelps has gone on to win two gold medals and two silver medals.

Phelps has become the most decorated Olympic athlete ever with his 20 total medals to pass Russian gymnast Larissa Latynina who once ruled with 18 medals. There are two events left in Phelps Olympic career if he doesn’t decide to return in 2016 game in Brazil.

Ryan Lochte was supposed to supplant Phelps has king of the pool but it doesn’t feel like he has done so. Lochte leads Phelps and …

There might not be a bigger lasting complaint about the London 2012 Olympics than results getting posted early for events NBC is delaying to show later in the night. Tape delay in 2012 seems laughable if you cover sports all day like I do.

London is the first Olympics where the internet is having a major effect on how quickly we get information. Now with streaming video, Twitter, Facebook, and a multitude of websites; results are at the touch of a finger.

Smart phones now give us updates no matter where we are as long as we have internet access. Four years ago smart phones, Twitter and Facebook were in their infant stages when Beijing held the Olympics in 2008.

I have seen several sports writers, radio host, sports bloggers and more post tweets about complaints of releasing results early. Most see it as their job to get information out to people regardless of when the event will air.

No longer do we have to wait for the morning paper or NBC to show results. Results can be found instantly on a multitude of platforms and that is not going to change.

In the race to post first, give instant analysis, and direct readers to web traffic; it is going to get harder and hard not to see results before they air on NBC primetime. Complaints about getting early results are not new.

Once 24-hour cable news and ESPN found their footing, they have been giving away results for a while now. But London is the first Olympics where viewers are bombarded with early results.

Each media outlet has to decide how they want to handle the tape delayed events. It becomes, do we want to be first in information or not ruin the experience for viewer.

There is nothing wrong with releasing results early. I want to know what happens as it is happening but this is what I do for a living so I understand wanting information or watching early does not work for everyone else.

As we enter the new digital media age, more questions will arise about covering events across the world. One thing that won’t change is finding out results early.

Media outlets like ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated and other are going to keep posting results on tape delayed events. This will not change unless NBC can reach a gentleman’s agreement with other media outlets and I for one believe that will never happen.

Figuring out how to hide from early results might be the harder question to answer.

The opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics haven’t even taken place but there has already been some early Olympic excitement. France put a scare in the USA women’s soccer team early today in Glasgow, Scotland.

Things didn’t look good for the U.S. women early, who are seeking to win their fourth gold medal in soccer and repeat as Olympic champions, as France struck first to take a 1-0 lead 12 minutes into the game off a nice goal from Gaëtane Thiney.

France put the U.S. women in an even deeper hole after the USA failed to clear a French corner kick and France moved the ball around to find the back of the net again. Marie-Laure Delie scored the second French goal to give them a 2-0 lead less than 15 minutes into the match.

The USA team got on track in the 19th minute when Abby Wambach scored off a header from a U.S. corner kick. Wambach, one of the greatest women’s soccer players in U.S. history, once again sparked this team.

Team USA pulled level when Alex Morgan scored to make it a 2-2 game 32 minutes into the first half. France still looked dangerous in the first half barely missing a couple of chances at a third goal. The teams were tied 2-2 at halftime.

In the second half, the U.S. women slowly took control of the game earning more possession and playing sounder defense in front of goalkeeper Hope Solo. The comeback was complete when Carli Lloyd scored in the 56th minute to give the U.S. their first lead of the game at 3-2.

The French women look to tire as the second half went on and the more talented U.S. side began to play up to their talent level. U.S. talent and French fatigue led to a final, nail in the coffin, goal for the ladies from the USA. Alex Morgan scored her second goal of the game in the 66th minute to give the U.S. women a 4-2 lead. USA held off any offensive attacks from France in the final minutes of the game.

The two French goals are the most goals allowed by the USA women in any game since their World Cup Final loss to Japan last year. Soccer and Archery are the only two sports that start before the opening ceremonies on Friday.

USA women will face Columbia next on Saturday.

This morning the NCAA came down hard on Penn State in an unprecedented action not involving infractions of NCAA rules. Penn State was hit with a four year bowl ban, $60 million fine and a reduction of 10 initial scholarships and 20 scholarships for the next four years. Also 111 wins vacated from 1998 to 2011, basically symbolically ending Joe Paterno's legacy.

While the NCAA didn't give Penn State the death penalty, it did cripple the program for the next 10 to 20 year if not more. Players still eligible can transfer to other schools and play immediately.

The feeding frenzy of coaches trying to lure Penn State players away might show football programs are not even thinking twice about happened to the Nittany Lions today. I doubt that the punishment of Penn State will curb the spending and power of college football.

Even though NCAA president Mark Emmert says the Penn State punishment doesn't open Pandora's Box in college sports. It does raise a serious question of why not.

The NCAA did nothing in 2003 when Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson murdered teammate Patrick Dennehy. Former Baylor head coach Dave Bliss even conspired to cover up the true facts of Dennehy’s murder. Baylor was punished for NCAA violations but in there was no punishment that was included for the murder of Dennehy. Baylor basketball has bounced back to play in the post season in basketball four times since the NCAA levied penalties on the Bears in 2005.

Should the NCAA go back and punish Baylor (retroactively punishing school is something the NCAA does all the time)?

What about the death of Virginia women’s lacrosse Yeardley Love? In 2010, Love was murdered by her former boyfriend and men’s lacrosse player George Huguely.

Love’s mother, Sharon Love, is suing the state and coaches ignored Huguely's erratic behavior, including two alcohol-related arrests, frequent intoxication and attacks on another female student, a teammate and a Virginia tennis player.

Sharon Love claims the university, head coach Dom Starsia, assistant coach Marc Van Arsdale, and athletic director Craig Littlepage didn’t discipline Huguely for his behavior or get him treatment for anger management and alcohol abuse.

If the claims are true, should Virginia be punished for not protecting Love from Huguely and because of their lack of concern she ended up dead?

In an ongoing investigation, several Montana football players along with another man are accused of gang raping a fellow student. In the Montana case, head coach Robin Pflugrad disciplined several players but didn’t report the incidents to his superiors.

Montana university president Royce Engstrom said in a statement "The University of Montana has determined not to renew the contracts of Athletics Director Jim O'Day and head football coach Robin Pflugrad." Then Engstron thanked both O’Day and Pflugrad for their service as he let them go.

The Department of Justice is investigating the university and campus police, along with the …