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RIP, Jasper; A Campus And A Family Mourn

Jeff Jacobs STORRS This late Sunday morning crept gray and cold and ugly on the campus of the state university. Police lights flashed in the downpour. Yellow tape cordoned off 300 yards of Hillside Road, guarding a crime scene that seemed unreal, screaming of a crime unimaginable. Tears fell hard from the October sky. Jasper Howard, who had helped lead UConn to a football victory over Louisville on Saturday, lay dying, stabbed shortly after midnight by an unknown assailant outside a school-sponsored dance at the Student Union. Rain gathered on the Husky Dog statue outside of Gampel Pavilion. Yes, Howard was stabbed fewer than 100 yards from the symbol of all that is good and endearing about UConn athletics. He had come to UConn from Miami to play football, the first in his family to attend college. A junior cornerback, he lived for the game. He wanted nothing more than to play professional football, to follow in the footsteps of Patriots defensive back Darius Butler. He wanted nothing more in life than to take care of his mom, Joangila, a woman who had worked multiple jobs to keep him clothed and fed. "When Jazz first came here, he didn't trust a lot of people," coach Randy Edsall had said in the late August heat. "We've had to gain his trust, and it's had to be hard at times on him to get him to understand that we don't want him just to be a football player. We want him to be a total person." As UConn President Michael Hogan, athletic director Jeff Hathaway, Edsall and one of his captains, Desi Cullen, met with the media Sunday afternoon at the Burton Family Complex, the pain of Howard's death only grew deeper. Edsall had spoken to Howard's girlfriend. Jazz was going to be a father. Recounting the tragic circumstances, Edsall never stood taller than on this day. He took us through a 1 a.m. phone call from director of football operations Tim Pendergast and through another from Jerome Junior that led to a mad rush to Hartford Hospital, only to find he should go to St. Francis. He took us through the calls to Howard's mom in Florida and how he met with students and athletes holding vigil overnight at the hospital. He told us how, ultimately, he was called in to identify Howard's dead body around 4 a.m. and how a team meeting was called for 6 a.m. on campus for him to tell all his players, heartbroken, devastated, they had lost a brother and teammate. And then Edsall said something especially profound and chilling. "One of my sons has been taken away," he said. "There is nothing in my job description that says you have to identify bodies." Edsall would throw his arm around Cullen's shoulders as the senior punter fought through tears. For six minutes, in a conference room stunned silent by the beauty and passion of his words, Cullen showed us what a man is. "We create a bond here that never will be broken, that's thicker than blood," Cullen said. "Where he grew up, through childhood to high school, to get through it was a miracle in itself. The idea of him coming all the way to Connecticut, where his mother thought he was safe ... is heartbreaking. "To hear the news he is a father ... and that [the child] will grow up without a father tears me apart. As Jazz looks down on us, I can promise his son or daughter will have 105 uncles. We will be better men because of Jazz." Howard grew up hard in Miami. When we spoke in August for a column, he talked about how his mom made so many sacrifices to support him and his sisters Keyondra and Jasmine. Jasmine had been afflicted with meningitis. "My mom was my mom and dad," Howard had said. "My father was never around. I call her every day and before I go to sleep every night. And I'm very close to my sisters. When Jasmine was younger, the meningitis of her brain was real bad. She's just a little set back now. She's 13. She's going to be OK." Try to imagine being a mom, sending your child from the tough inner city to rural Connecticut, believing all would be safe. "He didn't deserve this." Joangila Howard told CNN affiliate WSVN. The shock and horror Jasper's mom felt spread swiftly through the UConn campus. Heads dropped in the Sunday rain. Inside Gampel Pavilion, women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma stood quietly and watched as his All-American center Tina Charles walked past, tears on her cheeks. Butler, Howard, and a number of football players play pickup basketball with the women. There was a bond among many of them. "They are a tight-knit group," Auriemma said. "It's incredibly sad." Young people come to college to be safe, to learn and to find their future. A campus should be, must be, a safe place. Yet as we have seen in Connecticut, around the country, in so many different ways, college campuses have become crimes scenes of unspeakable tragedy. I bumped into Jonathan Mandeldove coming out of Gampel Pavilion. He knew Howard. Yes, hurt would run deep in Storrs. Mandeldove said coach Jim Calhoun had talked to the team at practice about the overwhelming sadness and how each of the players had to be vigilant, "to watch each other's back." "You go to college to get enlightened, to see things you didn't think you'd ever see, to learn there's a whole new world out there," Auriemma said. "It comes back to you that it's the same world that you left behind. It's not supposed to be that way. "I didn't know Jasper. I didn't know his family. But there can't be anything worse in the world than getting a phone call that something has happened to your son or daughter. I guarantee you last night when I went to bed I wasn't thinking what my son [Michael] was doing at St. Joe's. But I guarantee you tonight I'll be thinking what's he doing, who's he with." Howard was a chatterbox. It didn't take much to get him going. We shook hands in August and 30 seconds later he was showing me the tattoos across his midsection dedicated to his younger sisters. He loved to needle, to talk trash, exhort his teammates. There had been a time in Howard's freshman year when he thought about going back to Florida, things at home weren't that good and he considered going to work to help his family. He stuck it out and by this year he embraced freshman receiver Dwayne Difton, calling him his little brother, taking him under his wing the way Butler had with him. ``He's in my thoughts and prayers," Butler told reporters after making his first career interception in Foxborough. I'm not really ready to talk about it yet." Oh, sure, Edsall yelled at him after he dived into the end zone during spring practice after an interception. No showboating! But there was so much to love about Howard's energy. He picked off passes. He ran back punts. On Saturday not only did he force and recover a fumble, he made a career-high 11 tackles. He was as exciting and excited a player as UConn had. Edsall worked him hard to understand how important academics are, putting his foot down last school year. Jazz came around. He became a leader even as he matured himself. The one thing Howard always understood was the love of his mom. He always called her before he went to bed. Tragically, unspeakably, he will not make that call tonight.

Date:10.23.09 7:41 pm

A little monkey business lifts Angels as Los Angeles edges New York Yankees to stay alive in ALCS

By Greg Beacham • Associated Press writer • October 23, 2009 ANAHEIM, Calif. — Just when all looked lost, the Los Angeles Angels took a cue from an old friend. With their Rally Monkey doing his best work in years, the Angels sent the AL Championship Series back to New York. Kendry Morales drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the seventh inning, and the Angels responded to the Yankees' six-run comeback moments earlier for a 7-6 win Thursday night that trimmed New York's lead in the ALCS to 3-2. Vladimir Guerrero's single tied it in the seventh for the Angels, who somehow didn't surrender after blowing a 4-0 lead. New York struck immediately after manager Mike Scioscia removed ace John Lackey, with Robinson Cano capping the rally with a two-run triple. The Game 5 theatrics continued right up to the final pitch, when Angels closer Brian Fuentes retired Nick Swisher on a full-count popup with the bases loaded. "My hair is falling out," said shaved-headed Angels outfielder Torii Hunter, who had a two-run single in Los Angeles' four-run first inning. "We're having a little fun, man. Everybody thought we were down." Game 6 is Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, with Andy Pettitte facing Los Angeles' Joe Saunders. Also in the forecast: a huge rainstorm. When Cano put New York up 6-4, everything in somber Angel Stadium pointed to a clinching victory and a 40th AL pennant for the Yankees. Instead, the Angels showed off the knack for late-game comebacks they've possessed ever since their run to their only championship in 2002, when the beloved Rally Monkey began appearing in the late innings on their scoreboard and in plush form in the stands. "It's a missed opportunity, but we still have another game," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We've bounced back from tough losses all year long. We've had it happen to us before and been able to get off the carpet." Although two games in the Bronx — and shutdown starter CC Sabathia — still stand in the Angels' way, the collapse raised the slightest echoes of what happened to the Yankees' last big lead in an ALCS. The Red Sox famously rallied from an 0-3 deficit in 2004, making a late rally to win Game 4 before finishing off the biggest comeback in baseball history in seven games.

Date:10.23.09 7:21 pm

Iowa to celebrate historic coach Fry

The University of Iowa plans to honor legendary Iowa coach Hayden Fry on the eve of their first game against the University of Northern Iowa. The all-day event includes a tailgate, tradeshow and concert that will attract thousands of Hawkeye faithful. Coralville's 2nd street will be re-named Hayden Fry Way, the route the coach took everyday to work. The festivities will be held all day on Friday, September 4th at the coralville Marriot. Keep an eye out for the Tailgatebarn tent to get your favorite shirt before the game!

Date:08.23.09 11:13 am

Busch holds off Martin at Bristol, closes Chase gap

By Sporting News Wire Service August 23, 2009 BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch made a statement Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. So did pole-sitter Mark Martin, who pressured Busch during a four-lap run to the checkered flag of the Sharpie 500 but couldn't make the pass for the win.Instead, Busch won for the fourth time this season and for the second time at Bristol in 2009, despite having a car Saturday night that was no better than second-best. Busch showed emphatically he is not out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup picture, and Martin strengthened his hold of a spot in NASCAR's postseason. Busch moved up two positions in the standings to 13th, 34 points behind 12th place Matt Kenseth. Martin likewise gained two spots to 10th, 60 points ahead of Busch. The top 12 drivers after the Sept. 12 race at Richmond qualify for the Chase. "Mark Martin -- what a class act," said Busch, who won for the 16th time in the Cup Series. "He deserved to win this race. I'm sorry he came home in second. I know how he feels. I drove as hard as I could. "He had a chance. He could have done it [moved Busch out of the way]. But he didn't. He raced me clean." Marcos Ambrose ran third, followed by Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman. Kurt Busch came home seventh, followed by Jimmie Johnson, who recovered from trouble on pit road to salvage a top-10 finish. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished ninth and Kenseth was 10th.

Date:08.23.09 10:34 am

Favre's case is paralysis by overanalysis

by Jay Price/Staten Island Advance Sunday August 23, 2009, 8:15 AM Brett Favre is back in the NFL with the Minnesota Viking ... for the time being. It's that time of year again, when Brett Favre changes his mind about playing football, and then changes it again, and all the hall monitors who make their living, if you want to call it that, analyzing what it means every time the old gunslinger spits or clears his throat, are shocked ... shocked, I say ... that such a thing could happen. Favre became a Viking last week, maybe you heard a thing or two about that. Now the same folks who made him sound like George Washington crossing the Delaware every time he threw a last-minute touchdown pass off his back foot to win a football game his team should've lost ... the same talking heads who traveled to Hattiesburg, Miss., to give us breathless reports about Favre cutting the grass on his John Deere tractor or working out with the kids at the local high school ... are acting like he's running around the streets of Minneapolis, tipping over baby carriages and terrorizing the populace. The smart money says Favre's too old and too brittle to make much of a difference in how this football season plays out, a 40-year-old quarterback coming off surgery who still has a rotator cuff injury that's not going away, and isn't going to get better with 280-pound defensive ends trying to pound him into the artificial turf. The Vikings apparently think he can help. Which, given the records, such as they are, of Tarvaris Jackson, Sage Rosenfels and John David Booty, the quarterbacks the Vikings had in camp before Favre showed up, isn't the craziest idea we've heard this week. NOT THE FIRST Maybe that's why the head coach drove to the airport to pick him up. Maybe it's why the rest of the Vikings seemed so happy to see him. Favre's not the first sports star, or the biggest, to unretire. Just the first one to have a microphone in his face or somebody taking notes every time he thought out loud. There was a basketball player named Michael Jordan who retired and unretired a couple of times. But here's the thing about this whole retirement business: Professional athletes do it because they can. It wasn't always like that. In the days before free-agency, when most athletes were regular working stiffs like the rest of us, guys like Johnny Unitas and Y.A. Tittle kept coming back as long as their knees held up, until somebody told them they couldn't play anymore. With a few notable exceptions ... Jim Brown, Joe DiMaggio ... who famously walked away when they were still on top of their game, or close to it, they kept coming back for the same reason boxers keep fighting. Because they needed the money. Now every third-round draft pick is rich enough by the time he's 25 to start speculating about how long he wants to play. Or not. As far as anybody knows, Favre doesn't need the money. If his first press conference as a Viking, the one where he was wearing a sweat-stained seed cap and a four-day beard, was a clue, he sure isn't blowing his savings on clothes. Or bling. WHO REALLY WANTS IT? The upside to all the athletes being rich is you get to see which ones really want to play, and which ones were only in it for the quick score. Jordan wanted to play as long as he thought he was better than the next guy, and he'd kill himself, or you, trying to prove it, whether he was playing in the NBA Finals or in somebody's driveway. Favre's got some of that in him. He likes being around the game, likes running out of the tunnel on Sundays, feeling the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He likes stepping into the huddle with the game on the line, knowing it's all on him. And as much as he likes to fish, he knows the adrenaline rush just isn't the same. Does that make him selfish? Maybe. But last time anybody looked, that wasn't a crime. It's not like, you know, he carried an unlicensed gun into a club and shot himself. For 20 years, every broadcaster and sportswriter lucky enough to get his ear told Favre his dirty socks didn't smell. If he's guilty of anything, it's believing half of what they said about him. So, he changed his mind about retiring. Again. Now the same guys who make careers out of covering Favre in the same way the gossip rags cover Britney Spears or Michael Jackson -- because, hey, we can't talk about Michael Vick 24 hours a day -- want to tell us what an outrage it is that Favre wants to play football. The same ones who got goosebumps ... and some nice raises ... because he talked to them, are suddenly offended because he's talking to them. He loves the attention we give him! It's a circus! Stone him! Hey, it's football. How 'bout everybody pipes down and gets out of the way, so we can see what happens.

Date:08.23.09 10:22 am

AP Preseason Top 25 Poll: Florida is No. 1, Alabama at No. 5

NEW YORK -- As Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators prepare to make a run at their third national title in the last four seasons, the defending champions have already made some history. Florida is No. 1 in The Associated Press' preseason Top 25 released today, followed by Texas, Oklahoma, Southern California and Alabama. But the Gators are in a class by themselves, the most overwhelming preseason No. 1 in the history of the media poll.Florida is preseason No. 1 for the third time (1994 and 2001), and the Gators are the 20th defending national champ to start the season on top. From the moment Florida wrapped up its 24-14 victory over Oklahoma in the BCS championship game in January, talk of a repeat started. And when Tebow a few days later announced at a rally on campus celebrating the national title that he would come back for his senior year, there was no doubt the Gators would be the runaway preseason No. 1. Florida's rugged, multidimensional quarterback won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and finished third behind Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy last year. As good as Tebow is -- he has a chance to end his career as the most decorated player in college footbal history with three national title rings and two Heismans -- Meyer sees areas for improvement. "I'd say in the passing game he can certainly improve some things," Meyer said. "Leadership-wise he used to get angry when he felt other guys weren't working as hard as he was. Now he gets those players to play at that level." While Tebow leads an offense with plenty of speedy gamebreakers, All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes -- another guy who passed on a chance to enter the NFL draft to return for his senior season -- leads a defense that has potential to be the best in the country. All 22 players on the defensive depth chart for the BCS title game are back. Among the standouts are defensive end Carlos Dunlap and cornerback Janoris Jenkins and Joe Haden. All that experience will allow defensive coordinator Charlie Strong to good deep into his playbook. "Our defense has been installed at a much greater pace than ever before," Meyer said. "That allows you to put in a lot more different packages, three down (linemen) and four down." The Gators are one of five SEC teams ranked in the Top 25, matching the Big 12 for the most from any conference. Joining Florida, Alabama and Ole Miss are LSU at No. 11 and Georgia at No. 13. No. 23 Nebraska and No. 25 Kansas are the other Big 12 teams, along with Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Utah, which finished No. 2 last season and was the only undefeated team in major college football, is ranked 19th to start this season. But the Utes aren't even the highest ranked team from the Mountain West Conference. That distinction belongs to No. 17 TCU, while No. 20 BYU gives the MWC three ranked teams to start the season, as many as the Big Ten and Pac-10 and three more than the Big East, which was shut out. No. 14 Boise State is the highest ranked team from a conference that does not automatically qualify for the Bowl Championship Series. The Broncos, the champions of the Western Athletic Conference, play the season's first big game, facing No. 16 Oregon on Sept. 3. Notre Dame is back in the rankings for the first time since the final poll of the 2006 season. The Fighting Irish, coming off a 7-6 season, are No. 23. by Ralph D. Russo, Associated Press August 22, 2009 8:22 AM

Date:08.23.09 10:10 am