Sporting Sensations

[AlreadyGone95]

Today is a big day for fans of the UGA Bulldogs or the Uni. of Florida Gators. It's time for the annual game against each other. The rivalry is huge between both teams. It's like the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry of college football. It'll probably be a good game as it usually is. I hope that afterwards I get to hear "why did the gator cross the road?... Because he couldn't get into the end zone!". I can't wait to see kickoff at 3:30.

GoUGA BulldogsSic 'em Dawgs

[Jonny Come Lately]

Klopp endeared himself to everyone when he said he was 'the Normal One'. Take that Jose! I wish him success.

The two bosses (and of course, their respective teams!) met in a league match yesterday at Stamford Bridge.

Final score: Special One 1, Normal One 3!

Fantastic result, there's few better places for a Liverpool boss to take his first league win. Chelsea have had a shocking start to their season, six defeats from eleven games, the worst start to a title defence in the Premier League era, but they still managed to beat Arsenal so coming away from Stamford Bridge with three points is great.

I went to watch my other team Tranmere Rovers yesterday. Unfortunately, they played poorly and lost 1-0 to Dover, the third home defeat in a row, dropping to tenth in the league table. The team isn't in trouble, but are at risk of falling off the promotion pace in a division where only the champions and the winners of the play-offs contested by the teams in second-fifth places get promoted. The odd thing is that in our last away match they beat league leaders Forest Green Rovers 2-0.

[Freypower]

Could it be the turning point of Liverpool's season?

My husband is pleased this morning too because Everton beat Sunderland 6-2. He was hoping for 7-0 (he supports Newcastle; my daughter supports Sunderland).

Also New Zealand beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup final but it doesn't worry me as I follow league, not union.

[Glennsallnighter]

My brother supports Everton and has done since he was a kid in the mid 80's. The only other Everton supporter I knew was a student of mine 20 years ago. I put him in touch with my brother and continue to call them 'The irish Everton Supporters Club' because as far as I know theres only the two of them!!

[NOLA]

In addition to the festivities for All Saints Day and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the Who Dat Nation had another reason to celebrate: the Saints beat the Giants, 52-49, for their third straight win in a row! QB Drew Brees threw 7 TD passes, and Eli Manning (a native son of New Orleans) threw 6 for NY. It made for one helluva game at the 'Dome. "Bless you, boys!"

[Jonny Come Lately]

Everton Football Club isn't too popular in my household. In fairness though I definitely don't dislike them anywhere near as much as I dislike Manchester United and this point in time I also dislike Chelsea more than them. I would describe the rivalry between Liverpool and Everton as competitive but relatively friendly. Many families have supporters of both clubs so the rivalry lacks the venom of that shared by Celtic and Rangers in Scotland, or indeed between Liverpool and United. In the mid-1980s, when the two clubs collectively dominated English football, they met in the League Cup final in 1984 and some fans even wore half-Liverpool, half-Everton scarves. Between them, the teams won every title from 1981/82 to 1987/88 (5 for Liverpool, 2 for Everton).

Relations have cooled in more recent times for various reasons - the biggest was the Heysel stadium disaster in the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, where conflict between Liverpool and Juventus fans over territory led to the tragic death of 39 Italian fans. English football fans had a bad reputation for hooliganism in the 1980s and this was part of a series of incidents in that era. This incident led to a five year ban for English clubs in Europe, which was extremely unfortunate for Everton who had just been crowned league champions and would not get the chance to test their wits against Europe's best teams. They won another title two years later, but by the time the ban was lifted they were out of contention. I have a minor personal connection with the tragedy as a couple of relatives of mine were in the stadium, fortunately they were not involved in the conflict in any way and made it out safely.

Oddly, quite a lot of players have moved directly from Liverpool to Everton over the years - Kevin Sheedy, Gary Ablett and the great Peter Beardsley being among some of the most notable, yet transfers in the opposite direction have proved rare in the modern era. In 2000, the England international Nick Barmby (a boyhood Liverpool fan) became the first player in over 40 years to move directly to Liverpool from Everton, and in doing so infuriated Everton fans who have never forgiven him for the transfer.

FP, your daughter has my sympathies about the result, I'd hate losing at Goodison Park. I hope both north east teams can show some improvement soon, the last few years have been pretty poor for both in truth.

[EasilyTaken]

Gather round and get loud, Bengal's fans!!!

You know who you are.

Time for the impossible under the big-time spotlight.

[EasilyTaken]

Whoo hoo Who DEY!

8-0, Baby!

[jms18222]

Whoo hoo Who DEY!

8-0, Baby!

Congratulations on the awesome start. Andy Dalton still needs to win in the playoffs.
I'm a Raider fan so we are still 2-3 years away.

[AlreadyGone95]

I just saw this on the Atlanta Braves' Facebook page.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...dies/75499486/

Unless you're an Atlanta Braves fan, you're probably not familiar with Tommy Hanson much. He was one of our best pitchers from 2009-2012. My family nicknamed him "big red" for obvious reasons. I lost track of him when the Braves traded him. The fact that he was only 29 is a bit scary to me. Such a shame and a tradegy.

RIP Tommy. You were one heck of a pitcher there for a few years.