BEHREND BEACON
October 30, 2009
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
PSU FOOTBALL
Penn State's finest import
SHAWN ANNARELLI
Torts editor
Jack Crawford came to the
United States to play basket
ball. And then he found foot
ball.
Crawford moved to New Jer
sey from London when he was
a 16 year-old basketball
prodigy, but he got hooked onto
football after watching the 2006
BCS Championship game be
tween USC and Texas.
Crawford decided he liked
the USC Trojans despite their
loss. He figured he would give
football a shot the next fall as a
junior at St. Augustine Prep.
A good call.
Crawford's physical attrib
utes were nearly unmatched as
often single-handedly con
trolled games. A young man
who had never really given
football a shot before his last
two years of high school caught
attention around the country.
Coming out of high school he
was rated the fifteenth best de
fensive end in the nation by
scout.com.
Crawford chose Penn State,
because he was told it would be
an honor to play for legendary
coach Joe Paterno.
His freshman year at he
joined with running back Bran
don Beachum and linebacker
Michael Mauti as the only true
freshman to play in every
game. He got to play 127 snaps,
which is pretty impressive con
sidering he was behind Mau
rice Evans, Aaron Maybin, Josh
Gaines and Jerome Hayes on
the depth chart.
He has impressed coaches
and teammates alike with his
tremendous work ethic.
After Penn State's Blue and
White game last spring, defen
sive coordinator Tom Bradley
happened to spot Crawford
watching game film late at
night. Most other players were
either hanging out with friends
Jon Klein / The Behrend Beacon
Crawford hails from London, England. He came to the United
to play basketball, but found a knack for sacking quarterbacks.
Jack
States
or relaxing with family.
Crawford got better physi
cally, too.
After adding 12 pounds of
muscle in the offseason and
being listed at 6'5" and 262
pounds, Crawford has stepped
up as the Nittany Lions' great
est threat to opposing quarter
backs.
In fact, with a team-leading
12 tackles for losses and five
and a half sacks, Crawford is
practically setting up camp in
the opponents' backfield week
in and week out.
He is only getting better. This
past weekend against Michigan
he had a sack, a forced fumble
and three tackles for losses. His
sack and three tackles pushed
the defense back 14 yards.
Crawford also played an inte
gral role in forshadowing a
safety against Michigan. On
plays prior to the errant snap
through the back of the end
zone he provoked holding and
false start penalties against left
tackle Mark Ortmann.
And the Brit is only a sopho
more. He has got the rest of this
season and all of next to con
tinue raising bloody hell.
6 ili:
MLB season is too long
The NFL is heading into their
eighth week of the season,
most NHL teams have played
over 10 games, the NBA season
is underway and MLB is still in
their season.
Let's face it: things will never
change. But the professional
baseball season seems to drag
on for far too long.
The MLB season takes place
in 182 days spanning April to
October. In that time frame,
teams play 162 games. That's
just the regular season.
In 182 days, teams have a
total of 20 days off. That's
about one day off per week, for
24 weeks.
Do you know what those off
days are used for? Forget about
practicing; the teams need that
day off to travel to the next city
they have to play in or they'd
probably play every day of the
week.
Now I haven't even included
spring training (preseason) and
the playoffs yet.
Spring training begins in the
last week of Feburary, and the
World Series goes into the first
week of November.
So both teams that play in the
World Series play a total of
seven and a half months, in
cluding all three parts of the
season.
Now most of the major sports
leagues in America last as long
as baseball season does, how
ever there aren't as many
games played in those time
frames.
The NHL and NBA seasons
last about the same amount of
time as MLB's, but each league
only plays an 82-game regular
season. That's about three
games per week.
The NFL season lasts about
the same amount of time as
MLB's, but they only play a 16-
game regular season, due to the
physicality of the sport.
I just don't understand why
MLB has to play so many
games in a single season. What
does it accomplish?
It's not necessarily that their
season is too long,
considering that
other major sports
have a season of
the same length,
it's how many
games that are
played within that
season
Baseball season
seems to drag on
forever, and I think
it's because they
play so many
games in their season
It may be due to the fact that
baseball isn't as physically de
manding as other sports. I'm
MLB's teams play
Then one team
162 games in 182 days during the regular season
may play up to 19 playoff games in one month.
Sports
not saying that baseball players
aren't athletes, but compared to
hockey, football and basketball,
baseball doesn't
take as much out of
you.
NICK BLAKE
sports editor
that a shortened
season, or less games, would
make for a more interesting
sport.
That fact is
that the baseball
season has a drag
ging effect that
causes me to lose
interest as the sea
son wears on, and I
think that may be
the case for other
fans as well. I think