2B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
quote of the day
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2008
"The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer there are for a player to break."
Hall-of-Fame NFL coach John Madden
The Madden NFL video games have generated $2.4 billion in sales since 1995, and financial analysts estimate that John Madden makes more than $2 million annually from the video games series.
trivia of the day
Detroit Free Press
Q: What year did Electronic Arts produce the first of its Madden NFL football game series?
A: 1988. The game was originally titled John Madden Football and designed for the Apple ll computer
Players upset with video game
Junior running back Jocques Crawford could not wait to check out
"NCAA Football 2009" on his Play Station 3.
Crawford was certain he'd call up the Kansas running back depth chart and find a player listed with iersey
Crawford
No. 3 — the video-game version of himself. Only he didn't.
"I wasn't too happy because I don't know where I am on the game," Crawford said. "I don't know if I'm that No. 21. I don't know who
The only way to identify players on the game is by their jersey numbers. EA Sports, the company that created the game, cannot use real names of players because it would violate NCAA rules. The
that is — maybe it's me."
absence of his number upset Crawford.
"I don't think they rated anyone right," Crawford said. "Our guys have more abilities than what they put on the game."
But that's not the only pro blem Crawford had with the game. Even if No. 21 is supposed to be representative of him, he thinks the ratings are off. The game rates each player on
Crawford's roommate, sophomore receiver Rod Harris, had a solution for the ratings disparity.
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a number of categories, with b being the worst and 99 being the best. No.21, for example, has an 87 speed rating and a 74 strength rating. If No.21 is supposed to be Crawford, he thinks he should rank higher.
store Harris went home to Bryan, Texas at the end of July, he changed all the Jayhawk players' overall rating to 99.
video game because it would be unfair.
When he recently played against sophomore receiver Dezmion Briscoe, Crawford opted to play with West Virginia. He thought
the combination of speedy
the combination of speedy quarterback Pat White and playmaking running back Noel Devine would be enough to beat Briscoe, who picked to play with Clemson.
Crawford was wrong. He said Briscoe stuffed the Mountaineer running game and marched to an easy victory. Most of the layhawks cited Briscoe as the best NCAA '09 player on the team.
"He said he was the 'truth of the game," Crawford said. "Obviously, he is."
Senior receiver Marcus Herford isn't ready to jump to the same conclusion. Herford says he's a pretty good "NCAA Football 2009" gamer as well. He said he hadn't played Briscoe before but would challenge him in the future to find out who was the best.
Herford agreed that most of the Jayhawks didn't receive appropriate ratings. Instead of changing everyone to a 99 rating, however, Herford just went player-by-player and adjusted the numbers based on his own opinion.
Even Jayhawks who don't play the game were offended by the ratings. Junior safety Justin Thornton, who prefers playing Madden video games, said fans shouldn't pay too much attention to the player ratings.
"How are them guys going to know how we work and how things really go on around here?" Thornton asked. "They can go off the stats and what they've seen but they really don't know what goes on and the work we put in."
One player who should have no beef with the ratings is junior quarterback Todd Reesing. Reesing, or No. 5 quarterback in the game, has an overall rating of 92 — the team-high.
— Edited by Ramsey Cox
OLYMPICS
Performance in finals approaching for Russell
Scott Russell is one round closer to his Olympic javelin dream.
On Wednesday in Beijing, the former Kansas track and field athlete and current KU grad student advanced to the finals of the javelin competition at the Olympic Games.
Russell, a Windsor, Canada, native, threw 80.42 meters -- 263.1 ft. — on his first attempt, qualifying him for the finals. After qualifying on his first throw, Russell passed up his next two attempts to save energy if the final.
"I made the final and I'm ready to run," Russell told the Windsor Star.
Sportin' Jayhawks
Russell, who won multiple national championships in track and field while at Kansas, qualified sixth.
Vadims Vasilvskis of Latvia, silver medallist four years posted the top qualifying throw, heaving his javelin a distance of 83.51 meters.
Russell will throw sixth in the finals, which are scheduled to begin at 6:10 a.m. Saturday.
As for Russell?
Hiyah!
"We'll just see," Russell said. "I've never been a gambler, although I do like poker."
Russell's dad told the Kansan before the Olympics that while making the finals was a realistic goal, anything beyond that would be bicing on the cake.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Submit all photos by e-mail to photos@kansean.com with the subject line "Sportin' Jayhawks" and the following information: your full name, the full names of the people photographed, along with their hometowns (town and state) and year in school, what is going on in the photo, when and where the photo was taken and any other interesting or vital information.
China's Wu Jingyu, right, kicks out at Sweden's Hanna Zajc during a quarterfinal match for the women's taekwondo -49 kilogram class at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Wednesday.
— Rustin Dodd
NFL
Chiefs rookie injured
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rookie receiver Will Franklin limped off the Kansas City Chiefs practice field Thursday with a right knee injury.
Franklin, a fourth-round pick
"I took a little weird step and I felt a little slick sweat," Franklin said. "It was just a little awkward movement. I went to get (safety Jarrad) Page and the knee just gave out."
out of Missouri, was to see a doctor later Thursday to learn the extent of the injury.
College Night
Going into his sophomore season at Missouri in 2005,
Franklin said he is not concerned "at all" that the injury is serious.
The Chiefs will wait for the doctor's report before deciding whether Franklin will play Saturday at Miami.
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Franklin suffered a meniscus tear to the right knee, which required arthroscopic surgery.
Franklin had three catches for 37 yards in the first two preseason games.
"You can't prevent injuries, they happen and life goes on," Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said. "The next guy gets an opportunity. He's had a good camp. He played well for us. Hopefully, it's nothing serious and hopefully, he can get back."
MLB
Franklin is the eighth of the Chiefs' 12 draft picks this year to be injured in preseason.
Dodaers beat Rockies
LOS ANGELES — Derek Lowe knew he faced a difficult assignment against the Colorado Rockies. Not only were the defending NL champions on a roll, but they match up well against him.
So the 35-year-old right-hander did his best to keep the Rockies guessing.
The strategy worked.
Manny Ramirez contributed with a stolen base, of all things, as the Dodgers completed their 10-game homestand with a 7-3 record and moved within $1\frac{1}{2}$ games of NL West-leading Arizona, which played visiting San Diego on Thursday night.
Lowe cooled off Colorado by allowing one run in 6 1-3 innings. James Loney homered and drove in two runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Rockies 3-1 Thursday to salvage the finale of a three-game series.
"I think they have one of the best offenses we face, especially against me. They're all low-ball hitters," Lowe said. "I threw a lot of breaking balls and tried not to be so predictable, throwing sinker away, sinker away. You have to command your off-speed pitches against this lineup I was fortunate to keep it to one run.
"Manny got a stolen base to get us going. The bulpen did a great job."
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Rockies, who scored 36 runs in three wins
in Washington and two more at Dodger Stadium. It also ended Colorado's four-game winning streak against the Dodgers.
Lowe (10-10) allowed four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts before relieved by Hong-Chih Kuo after issuing a one-out walk to Jeff Baker in the seventh.
Kuo then retired the Rockies in order in the eighth, and Jonathan Broxton worked the ninth for his 10th save in 11 chances since taking over the company's role last month when Takashi Saito went on the disabled list.
"When he's hitting his spots like that, he's tough," Colorado's Ian Stewart said of Lowe. "It seemed like (Dodgers catcher Russell) Martin never moved his glove from where he set up."
Broxton was the losing pitcher Wednesday night when the Rockies scored a run in the ninth for a 4-3 victory.
After that, the Rockies didn't appear to have a chance.
Kuo struck out pinch hitter Troy Tulowitzki before Clint Barmes blooped a double to right. With the tying and goahead runners in scoring position, pinch hitter Willy Tavares popped to first to end the inning
"It was a stupid pitch on my part," Broxton said of the ball Stewart hit."
The Rockies scored their run in the first when Barmes singled, stole second, took third on an infield out and came home on Matt Hollday's sacrifice fly.
The Dodgers tied it with an uneared run against Jorge De La Rosa (6-7) in the fourth when Ramirez reached on an error by third baseman Stewart, stole second without a throw and scored on Loney's out-out single, the first Los Angeles hit.
Matt Kemp hit a two-out double in the fifth and scored on Andre Ether's single to put the Dodgers ahead for good.
Lowe, who threw 107 pitches on a hot day, worked out of a two-out, two-on jam in the fourth by getting De La Rosa on a fly to left.
Associated Press