2001 Week 4
October 11, 2001
First of all, I want to correct an error I made last week. I had stated that it was very ironic that Texas quarterback Chris Simms was the son of Oklahoma legend Billy Simms. This was incorrect, as many of you have noted.Chris Simms *is* the son of a famous football player, but it's not Billy (that's not surprising, they don't look very much alike, Billy's a lot stockier and has darker hair).
Chris's father achieved his fame in the NFL, although he was well-known in college. Chris is following in his father's footsteps, as UT QB Chris is the son of Texas DT great Ken Simms.
Last week's Georgia/Tennessee game in Knoxville was a quite exciting affair that went to overtime. Apparently they've changed the overtime rules yet again, it's been kind of hard to keep up with the rules.
It used to be that in overtime each team got a shot from the opponent's 25 yard line, needing to move 25 yards to score. Tennessee and Georgia did something similar, except they started from their own 20 yard lines, so to get to the end zone they had to go a full 70 yards.
Tennessee went first and scored, then Georgia moved the ball quite well and scored too, and both sides kicked their extra points. Georgia was ruled the winner, apparently because they were ahead at the end of regulation, before the overtime started.
Last weekend I saw the strangest type of overtime I've seen yet. After the terrorist attacks caused many of the September 15 games to be postponed, lots of schools had to rearrange their schedules and move games around.
Apparently one of the games that got moved up was the Michigan vs. Michigan State tilt, which was originally scheduled for East Lansing's Chippewa Stadium in early November.
I didn't know this (I haven't been able to keep up with games that got moved back, or games that got moved up to make other games possible, I have a tough enough time remembering which medicine cabinet contains my special medicine). I was just channel flipping and saw the familiar stadium, and I saw that this Michigan State/Michigan tussle was a defensive duel, with the score was tied at 3 and the game was heading to overtime.
Now this was the oddest version of football overtime I've ever seen. They didn't even play football to decide the winner. The football players changed their uniforms (well, the Michigan guys kept their helmets on), put on figure skates, and, before a huge crowd, played that strange Canadian game, hockey.
Apparently Canada went in and annexed Michigan while we weren't looking. I'm not fully familiar with Canadian football rules, though I'm guessing that they probably settle ties by making them play hockey. They even brought in the King of Canada, Gordie Hull, to preside over the match.
My biggest concern is that in future weeks those two schools will be playing their games under Canadian football rules. That would be a big advantage, what with the 12th player on the field and all those men in motion for the Michigan and Michigan State teams. Someone needs to look into this. Where's the Pony when you need him? I miss the Pony.