Reviving A Rivalry

Penn State and Pittsburgh are finally going to revive a series that was last played in 2000.

It's about time. New Pittsburgh head coach Todd Graham had said that he wanted to get the series rolling again about a month ago. Both schools announced on Tuesday that the Pitt-Penn State rivalry will be restarted with a two-game series in 2016 and 2017. The series will be a home-and-home, with the 2016 game played at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and the 2017 game at Beaver Stadium in State College.

All parties involved seem to be express their excitement about the revival except for Penn State coach Joe Paterno. He had no statement on it as of press time, but Pittsburgh athletic director Steve Pederson believes Joe Pa signed off on the series. Keep in mind that Paterno has been thought of as the force that kept the rivalry dead since 2000.

“I know that, like Coach Graham, Coach Paterno was supportive of this, so it was good on all fronts,” Pederson said. “The first person I talked to about this was Coach Graham, and he was raring to go. And obviously they did the same thing on their end.



“This is big institutionally. You have these two great universities in this state, such an important part of the fabric of the state institutionally, and then you have the athletic component of this, and I think it’s probably a feel-good for everybody in the state of Pennsylvania.”

We'll never know, but it's good to see this rivalry get some new life.

The FBI Wants To Review The Tape

Former cycling teammates Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton have a strained relationship to say the least. We're no talking about Barry Bonds and Greg Anderson here.

I'll make the summary short but brief. Armstrong and Hamilton were teammates when Armstrong was winning multiple Tour de France events. Armstrong has been under suspicion for taking performance enhancing drugs. Armstrong has denied the claims through and through.

Recently Hamilton went on 60 Minutes to tell the world that his former teammate Armstrong had been doping it up. Of course Armstrong didn't take to kindly to that and when the two had a "chance" encounter at a Colorado bistro things got interesting.

Hamilton and Armstrong had a run in and now the FBI wants to review the tape of the incident.

Hamilton attorney Chris Manderson said his client was rattled by some of Armstrong’s comments. “It was aggressive and intimidating and we thought it should be reported to federal investigators,” Manderson told The Associated Press.

"Lance Armstrong is a possible defendant in an investigation that's been widely reported, and Tyler is a probable witness," Manderson said. "When there's any contact, especially aggressive contact, we as lawyers have a duty to inform the authorities. ... What they will do with it, I don't know."

Armstrong and one of his attorneys said the encounter was uneventful. I guess it depends on who you ask. Right now the FBI is in the review booth with one of the agents under the hood.