Challenge the Stupid Sportswriter, Week 12
On the season leaderboard for Fred Roggin's "The Challenge," which airs every Sunday night after the NFL game, it's now a bit disheartening to note that we've amassed just 1,425 points and fallen into a tie for 153rd place with my new best friends, Emmanuel Williams, Bruce Swinford and Craig DeBano -- which may be first and last times those other three guys ever see their name on a blogboard.
We feel like the USC offense in Saturday's game against UCLA: Stagnant, uncomfortable, overlooking the competition.
That's just wrong.
According to our calculations, if we'd have been around to play Week 12, we'd have amassed our greatest one-week total of all time: 255 points and made it into the Top 15, looking up at the weekly leader, Satoshi Nago with (gulp) 310 points out of a possible 360. Yikes.
Alas, we didn't play. Again.
We TiVo'd the show because we had another family committment, and as Christmas nears, that's gonna be the theme for the month of December. If we had planned this right, we could have built a big lead and then coasted. Instead, we stumbled, mumbled and fumbled our way through a dozen weeks, hardly cracking the Top 25 in any of them (maybe the first week, we'll have to go back to check). We've won no prizes.
But we don't cheat, either. We don't have a buncha friends hanging around shouting out answers to us (that's two weeks in a row Mrs. Roggin has finished near the top, by the way). We don't even have the full time allotment to answer since our TiVo delay on DirecTV already has us in a delay mode. And ...
We'll stop the whining right there. There's no way we're catching current overall leader Sonia (don't call me Steve) Desaegher (2,905 points) or No. 2 man Patrick Alog (2,875).
We'll just lay out the questions and answers for you and see how you'd have done:
Question 1: Who was the Bruins starting quarterback the last time they beat the Trojans back in 1998?
a) Wayne Cook
b) Cade McNown
c) Cory Paus
d) Drew Bennett
Question 2: Before the Ducks, what was the last team Rob and Scott Niedermayer played together on for a full season?
a) Seattle Thunderbirds
b) Kamloops Blazers
c) Cranbrook Bantam Eagles
d) Brandon Wheat Kings
3. Which former Lakers coach graduated from USC?
a) Bill Sharman
b) Randy Pfund
c) Paul Westhead
d) Bill van Brenda Kolff
4. (audio) What is the name of this Shaq (O'Neal) song?
a) Can't Stop the Reign
b) Superman
c) Shaq-Fu!
d) Connected
5. What is Hulk Hogan's real name?
a) Roderick Toombs
b) Dwayne Johnson
c) Terry Bollea
d) Paul Michael Levesque
6. Besides Joe Namath, wha tother quarterback led teams to a college national championship and a Super Bowl title?
a) Joe Theismann
b) Roger Staubach
c) Jim Plunkett
d) Joe Montana
7. Mark Price is one of two players in NBA history to have a career free throw percentage of 90 percent or better. Who is the other?
a) Rick Barry
b) Calvin Murphy
c) John Stockton
d) Jeff Hornacek
8. What southland high school did Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway attend?
a) Canoga Park HS
b) Granada Hills HS
c) Mater Dei HS
d) Taft HS
9. Who lit the torch at the 1984 Olympic Summer games in Los Angeles?
a) Florence Griffith-Joyner
b) Jackie Joyner-Kersee
c) Muhammad Ali
d) Rafer Johnson
Answers:
1. b) McNown. They showed a clip of it in the waining moments of ABC's coverage of Saturday's USC-UCLA game, so that took the mystery out of it for us, and likely provided the question for the show. 35 points for us. For paying attention, not for actually knowing it without that hint Saturday.
2. c) Cranbook, in British Columbia. After surveying the choices, we'd have taken that choice because of the name "Bantam" in it. Those other minor-league teams didn't ring a bell for us. I'd have given myself 20 points.
3. a) Sharman in 1950. Knew it. Woulda got 35 points.
4. d) Connected. I heard the lyric "connected" a few seconds in an figured that was as good a guess as any. I'd give myself 30 points there.
5. c). Terry Bollea. That would have been my guess after a few choices were eliminated. So I'd take 20 points.
6. d) Montana led Notre Dame to a title and San Francisco to four Super Bowl titles. I had it narrowed down to him and Theismann and guessed Theismann. 0 points.
7. a) Barry. I'd have guess that because of the underhanded nature of these questions. Give me 35 points.
8. b) Granada Hills. Could you make it any easier? Give me 40 points. I knew it before the answers were put up.
9. d) Rafer Johnson. Another gimmie. 40 points.
Comments
Please find out what Arbogast is going to do now that the USC regular season is over. He must watch every USC B-ball game and think "Damn you Rory Markus, that is my job, my birthright."
Posted by: USC_89 | December 5, 2006 05:48 PM
Let us not forget, Fred Roggin ostensibly quit his job at 1540 because this show was requiring too much prep time. Uh huh.
Posted by: listener | December 6, 2006 11:17 PM
To answer your question, Arbogast will be doing USC Women's basketball on 710. With you being the anti-Arbogast person you are, I'm sure the mute button will be quite active, eh?
Posted by: Robert | December 7, 2006 12:56 PM