Tag: football

Sac Ra’mento gets Flo Rida

As usual, I am 1 to 101 weeks late on the goings on in Sacramento, but I was reminded today that popular rapper Flo Rida will perform both during Fan Fest and at halftime when the Sacramento Mountain Lions (1-2) play host to the Las Vegas Locomotives (2-1) in a key game for both teams Friday at 8 p.m. Pacific at Hornet Stadium.

Flo Rida will perform on the “Coors Light Entertainment Stage” in Lot 8 of the Hornet Stadium parking lot during Fan Fest, which begins at 5 p.m. He then will perform a 12-minute set at halftime inside the stadium. “I’m excited to come to Sacramento and turn it out for the crowd at the Mountain Lions game,” Flo Rida said last week. “I’m going to bring the energy, get the fans out of their seats and have the players ready to go. The Locomotives won’t know what hit them.”

Is this a big score for Sacramento? I don’t follow popular music at all, but I would guess that for a fledgling professional football league like the UFL, this has to be good for business. Has anyone been to a game? Apparently, their first home game played to a sold out crowd at Sac State’s Hornet Stadium and lead to a traffic nightmare. This is being addressed for the October 15th game.

Also, a $40,000 scholarship will be awarded to a college student if he or she is able to kick a field goal. Students with proper identification will receive $5 off tickets to Friday’s game. And, tickets for Friday’s game are just $10 for California state employees.

Anyone that has ever tried to kick a field goal knows that it is extremely difficult to do. Even from 30 yards out. Any joker can get lucky with a half court shot at a Kings game, but knocking it through the uprights would be fun to see.

Grant vs Folsom on ESPN tonight!

Reminder that ESPN RISE will feature Grant High vs. Folsom High tonight at 7pm on ESPN 2.

The RISE site has a nice feature on Viliami Moala, Grant’s 340-lb lineman.

The big question is whether you’ll be listening to the coverage with Slammin’ Sammy on “Panther Radio” or getting En Fuego on 1040 a.m.…

Sacramento to sign former NFL star

The Sacramento Mountain Lions are close to signing former NFL quarterback Daunte Culpepper. Culpepper tried to give it up two years ago only to come back with the Detroit Lions last season.

How the sporting world views the UFL:

Not being able to land a job anywhere in the NFL, even as a third-stringer, has got to be difficult to accept for Culpepper, who most recently played quarterback for the Detroit Lions. We’re talking about a two-time All-Pro, a three-time Pro Bowler and a guy who once graced the cover of Madden. Now he’s on a team that’s also accepting players from open tryouts.

Ah, open tryouts, that’s right. 280 prospective players showed up for the Sacramento audition last week.

“I believe there are enough talented athletes out there who can succeed in professional football and we are giving them that opportunity,” said Sacramento Mountain Lions head coach Dennis Green. “Players who enjoyed successful college careers but for whatever reason did not then play at the professional level are still out there and we plan to find them.”

So, will you go to a Mountain Lions game?

Football in Sacramento?

Denny Green of the California Redwoods
It's worth watching again.

For those that are interested in showing lukewarm excitement for news stories like these, the United Football League is going to make a “special announcement” on Wednesday, March 3rd at 2:30 p.m. live on the Interwebs.

Of course, we all know that the announcement is that the San Francisco football Redwoods will be moving to Sacramento. I know, I know. Crazy, huh?

Coached by Dennis Green (of “…they are who we thought they were! And we let ’em off the hook!” fame) and owned by Paul Pelosi (yes, that name does sound familiar) the Redwoods are one of four teams mixing it up in the semi-almost-better-than-arena-football league entering its second season.

“To fulfill the needs of football fans in major markets currently under-served by professional football by providing a high quality traditional football league comprised of world class professional football players. The UFL will serve its communities with pride, dedication and passion, and uphold a leadership role in the development of football worldwide. The UFL will provide every fan with an affordable, accessible, exciting and entertaining game experience.”

Hey, you never know, right? Will you go?

UPDATE: Rocklin beats Del Oro, wins bowl game berth

Congratulations to the Rocklin Thunder, who with their 21-14 defeat of Del Oro in the rain on Friday night secured a berth in the CIF D-II state championship bowl game on Saturday in Carson, where they’ll play Servite of Anaheim. Unfortunately they apparently lost their star quarterback to an injury at the game, so they’ll hand the ball to a plucky underclassman QB who’ll try to make his small town proud, while trying to keep the hard-livin’ fullback from going off the deep end and also taking care of his gramma. They should make a so-so movie and then a superlative primetime TV show out of this story.

In reality, though, it looks like the replacement QB was actually their starting QB at the beginning of last season, who they lost to an early season injury last year.

Continue reading “UPDATE: Rocklin beats Del Oro, wins bowl game berth”

Sacramento rallies around Grant High

By now, you’ve heard that Grant High won the California Interscholastic Federation Open Division State Football Championship Bowl Game on Saturday night in Carson, CA. Fox 40 took the lead with their extensive coverage of the game. Watch the kids arrive in Northern California from cbs13.com. Ah, to be young again…

What’s really exciting here is how quickly the community gathered around to schedule a parade to celebrate the victory.

Twin Rivers School District officials, and city officials, are scrambling to lock down speakers, publicize the event, and make other preparations. “We got a permit rushed right though and every one is very excited to celebrate some good news,” said school district spokeswoman Trinette Marquis…Marquis said the Sacramento police and fire departments have chipped in by handing out fliers in addition to their normal crowd control and safety duties. The district’s automated phone system will be making more than 25,000 phone calls to invite district students, parents and staff to the parade and rally.

That’s good stuff right there. *rant* Seriously, how many more news stories about how things haven’t begun to suck yet can we all take? We get it! */rant*

The parade (great use of umapper.com, btw) is set to start at 1 p.m. at Grant High School and end with a 3:30 p.m. rally at the City Hall at 9th and I streets.

Grant High ranked #58 in nation

The Grant High School Pacers, the top area Division II football team, has been ranked #58 in the nation by Yahoo’s Rivals.com, my Yahoo home page tells me. Nifty.

Though a more important number for the Pacers is their #2 ranking by ESPN’s CalHiSports.com. (So they’re D-I in the state, but D-II in Sac-Joaquin? I’m going to need MSN’s Google’s Wikipedia to explain that to me. Obviously different measures are used by CIF and Sac-Joaquin.) Apparently that #2 ranking means they are looking at a berth in the CIF state championship game on December 20, where they would play the top D-2 school from So Cal. It’s a big weekend for local prep football, as Casa Robles are (apparently I’m British) still in play for the D-II CIF championship berth.

The Pacers and Rams should wear FlyJumpers Power Jumping Stilts Friday night in their Sac-Joaquin section championship games, that could put them over the edge…

Center High Football Scandal

The gossip (well, news) from Antelope is that Center High’s football coach, Digol J’Beily, was fired from his post because of a vendetta from a former parent of a kid passed over for starting quarterback. Who do these trustees of Center High think they are? Did they think they were involved in Texas high school football? It’s Center High. I have lived here for 25 years and I don’t even know where Center High is. (I do, actually, but the point is still good.)

However, I would totally wear a “FREE J’BEILY” shirt. I want one of those.