INTERVIEW: NFL Starlet Francis Kallon

Photo by Erik S. Lesser

Hollywood stories like this don’t come around very often. Just one year ago, Wandsworth born Francis Kallon moved over to America with his family and experienced the world of American football that would change his life forever.

Admitting he didn’t even know what American football was about, Francis was encouraged to try it out by his high school coach, Todd Wofford who noticed his potential and led him onto the sport. Since then, Kallon has become a national prodigy and received 15 scholarship offers in a matter of weeks from top universities around the country, before settling for Georgia State.

Explaining the feeling behind all this attention flying his way, Kallon claims: “It was scary at first, but it was such a great opportunity to go to a top college as well. It was surprising of course, but it was good!

“My coach (Todd Wofford) pursued me and persuaded me to come join the team, so eventually, after agreeing it with my parents, I was allowed to play. I wanted to try a different sport, but I didn’t know it would be up the avenue that it was.”

“The NFL is definitely in the picture, and if it comes I’ll take it.”

So for a man that’s only been playing the sport just over a year, compared to the millions of teenagers across the U.S. that spend their whole adolescence fighting for a shot at scholarships, Kallon has picked it up extraordinarily fast. With a history in basketball and football, Kallon admits it was surprising that everything came so natural to him.

“The way I was able to move and do the things I was told so easily was strange. It was hard at first with the rules and everything, but I picked it up quickly.”

Naturally, such raw talent always creates a buzz. Sections of the British media have already branded Kallon NFL bound, despite him only just starting university, but as he explains, it’s the same in the U.S. and just something he deals with everyday.

“It’s a lot of pressure but it’s something that could happen if I keep working at it the way I am because it is possible.”

For all this attention flying Kallon’s way, he remains grounded about his chances, and instead is focused on achieving his degree in biochemical engineering.

“Right now I’m just looking to do as best I can in college and graduating, but the NFL is definitely in the picture, and if it comes I’ll take it.”

With his feet firmly on earth, Francis Kallon is a man with a very, very bright future. Remember the name, no doubt we’ll be hearing it much more in the years to come.

COMMENT: Lee Bradbury Sacked – but is it all it appears?

AFCB

So it’s come to this. 14 months after he took over the managerial role from Burnley bound Eddie Howe last January, AFC Bournemouth have parted ways with manager Lee Bradbury.

The decision comes after just 2 wins in 11 games for the Cherries, which included 5 back-to-back losses. But after a typically withdrawn statement from both club and chairmen Eddie Mitchell, we can’t help but ask the question:- why did he really go?

In an extraordinarily closed off interview with BBC Sport, Mitchell announced cryptically the decision was “best for the club”, but refused to add further comment, instead avoiding all accountability. In a press conference by the club, it was revealed a disagreement between Mitchell and Bradbury occurred when he was offered extra support from now interim manager Paul Groves and head of youth Shaun Brookes, who will take over until the end of the season. According to Mitchell, Bradbury refused and the pair left on ‘amicable terms’, but for a man with a history of controversy, it’s hard to believe the altercation was purely professional.

“It contributes further to the appearance from the outside, the club are unable to control its trigger-happy chairmen, who acts more like an over-zealous fan than a professional owner.” 

Adding more fuel to the controversy fire, just over a week ago Mitchell gave Bradbury his full backing despite the poor run and dwindled promotion challenge. Yet within a fortnight, he has reversed his position, and left the whole of Bournemouth wondering what the final nail in the coffin was. Refusing to say whether the choice was based on pressures from new co – owner, and oil billionaire Maxim Demin, Mitchell continually reiterated it “wasn’t his place” to comment on. A man, who is not finding himself accountable for his position as chairmen has now left the club in turmoil, choosing to jet off to Dubai for 2 weeks to escape the storm.

Clearly Bradbury’s investment in the promotion push in January hasn’t paid off, and he’s paid the ultimate price of modern day football. Matt Tubbs is struggling the settle in after his club record signing, and instead of the desired 6^th place AFCB spent over £1million to achieve, the Cherries find themselves in 13^th after another narrow loss against Oldham at the weekend.

But is there any function in dumping Bradbury now? In a time where AFCB need a period of stability after weeks of media attention, which included banning the Bournemouth Daily Echofrom reporting at Seward Stadium, and Mitchell cut off Radio 5 live after swearing 3 times, the move does nothing to steady the ship. Instead, it contributes further to the appearance from the outside, as a club unable to control its trigger-happy chairmen, who acts more like an over-zealous fan than a professional owner.

“It’s hard to believe the altercation was purely professional.”

Sure, the Cherries have been on a poor run of late, but for those that have followed the team over the past 2 months, the run – in they’ve had has been incredibly tough, and they’ve challenged the likes of Charlton, Carlisle and MK Dons, only to fall victim to late strikes and unlucky results.

With just 8 games to go, bringing in Groves till the end of the season clearly isn’t a long-term solution, and with Bournemouth no longer fighting for a noteworthy position in League One, there is little rational for relieving Bradbury if not for personal reasons.

What those personal reasons are we may never know. Obviously details will arise to the decision by Mitchell and the club, but the truth may never surface. Matters are not made easier by Mitchell’s strenuous relationships with the media, and by not coming out with a clear reason why Bradbury has been relieved of duty leads nothing else for  us, and the fans to go on but suspicion.

AUDIO: Sports Show FM Special Preview

Just a taste of what to expect from Nerve Sport’s FM Show Special. 24th March. 3 – 5:30pm. Turn your speakers up.

Going live across Dorset and the UK on Nerve Radio 87.7FM, the award winning sports show is back and bigger than ever. Packed full of interviews, features and competitions, the Sports Show FM returns to your airwaves Saturday 24th March 3-5:30pm. Don’t miss it.

Mcilroy vs Woods: Has the New Prodigy Come Too Late for a Rivalry?

AP Images

Golf’s been waiting for a rivalry this sweet for a long time. This week Rory Mcilroy overtook fellow Brit Luke Donald as the World No.1 after securing the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic with a two shot victory over a resurgent Tiger Woods. The rise, unsurprising to some after Mcilroy’s record breaking US Open Championship win last year, which saw him shoot an all time low 268, 16 under par to become the youngest winner since Bobby Jones in 1923.

The young Northern Irishman now becomes the 2^nd youngest No.1 since Woods himself in 1997, and shows no signs of slowing up since his historic Congressional victory either. With top 5 finishes in 9 of his last 10 tournaments and a 2^nd place at the World Match Play Championship, he is fast establishing himself as the undisputed champion of world golf.

Yet what made the Honda Classic so interesting was the glimpse of something golf has long been waiting in the wings for. Tiger shot a personal low 62 in the final round, his best ever closing day finish and his lowest score over 72 holes since his last PGA Tour win way back in September 2009 at the BMW Championship. Despite Mcilroy remaining composed to shoot at solid 69 to clinch his 3^rd PGA Tour victory, Wood’s late surge proved he still has the imperious talent inside him, we just haven’t seen it consistently enough in the past 3 years.

Woods has been plagued with personal issues and a shoddy knee during Mcilroy’s rise to prominence, and has yet to find anything close to his true form in the past 18 months. But what last Sunday saw was Woods standing up to be counted and heading face on into battle with who could become his fiercest rival, ironically after he is no longer king. During Tiger’s reign of supremacy, few challengers emerged to dethrone him, and he became what Schumacher was to F1, but lacked the dramatic ferocity that Sampras was to Agassi.

Sure golf has thrown up some exceptional talents in the 15 years since Woods first became No.1, but none of them ever signalled a true intent to usurp the mighty Woods. The likes of Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson have all lit up the game of golf during their time, without ever threatening the face of the modern day Jack Nicklaus.

Harrington (3), Els (3) and Mickelson (4) all held the biggest challenge to Woods’ supremacy in terms of Major wins, but compared to Tiger’s 14, there hasn’t been a genuine rivalry in golf since the days of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer back in the 60s.  Not to say no rivalries have existed, as Phil Mickelson is one of the best golfers of his generation and there has never been much love loss between the pair, but there never existed a plausible chance of Mickelson overtaking Woods in his hay day, yet with Mcilroy there does.

“It would be a sad situation to see the best golfer of a generation slowly wilt away into obscurity without ever truly reconciling for the actions that may well determine him.”

What golf fans will hope across the world is that Mcilroy’s genuine threat of a 10+ major winning career will spark a flame in Tiger’s belly, and inspire him to react like the true champion he is. Whilst there is no contending that Mcilroy is deservedly the best player in world golf at the moment, despite only officially so since last Sunday, the concept of Tiger invigorating his former self to the 14 major winning, longest running No.1 and record number PGA Player of the Year is a site any golf fan salivates at the thought of.

Undoubtedly golf, more specifically British golf has seen a meteoric rise during Woods 2 and half year absence.  We’ve seen an emotional Open Championship victory for Darren Clarke, Ryder Cup triumph for Monty’s Europe, US Opens for Graeme McDowell and Mcilroy, as well as 3 British number 1’s in a row for Westwood, Donald and now the prodigal Northern Irishman.  But for a fan that grew up on Woods, something’s missing without him in the picture. It would be a sad situation to see the best golfer of a generation slowly wilt away into obscurity without ever truly reconciling for the actions that may well determine him.

“It may be naive to believe anything other than the facts; nothing has changed. Mcilroy is still winning tournaments and Woods is still trailing behind.”

For some though, however much promise from Woods, it may be naïve to believe anything other than the facts; nothing has changed. Mcilroy is still winning tournaments, looking set to enjoy the view of No.1 for some time, whilst Woods is still trailing behind. Whether he can achieve the record 283 consecutive weeks of Mr Woods remains to be seen, but the new kid on the block is in imperious form.

Yet maybe even Mcilroy himself is secretly hoping for a rivalry. Only then, when he’s truly beaten a resurgent Woods reverent of the one he grew up idolising, will he prove he’s the best.  Maybe it’s the other way round, with Mcilroy the key for Woods. In the young Northern Irishman he see’s a naturally gifted golfer, compared to himself who has worked tirelessly (albeit effectively) to reconstruct his swing to maintain dominance. But in Tiger we see a fighter, a true champion ready for the challenge. This rivalry may never materialise and Mcilroy may continue to assert himself as the undisputed champion of world golf, it’s something we’ve been yearning for years, something we can’t wait to watch grow.

Crunch Time for Cherries: AFC Bournemouth’s Promotion Salvage.

Lee Bradbury's men have a crunch period coming up if they are to clinch promotion. AFCB

With every passing game, AFC Bournemouth’s slim promotion challenge looks less and less likely. The Cherries came into February on the back of just one loss in seven, and up to 8th from 15th at the beginning of December. January saw AFCB pick up 10 points, a quarter of their total up to that point, and established themselves as the in – form team in League One. Manager Bradbury had spent big, investing in the promotion push, and the dream scenario that looked impossible mid – November, was becoming even more plausible.

But what a difference a week makes in football.

AFCB have suffered 3 losses on the trot for the first time since August, and going into a crunch period for the Cherries, with their next 4 fixtures against teams currently sitting above them, a jam-packed March couldn’t be more important for Bradbury’s men.

Bournemouth find themselves in 10th, a far from impossible 5 points off the final playoff spot, but everyone above them (including a couple below them) bar Notts County, all fighting for that 6th spot have 2 games in hand.

So on to Charlton, Bournemouth’s massive next home clash against the team sailing away with the League One title. Charlton sunk the Cherries in the first game of the season 3-0 back in August and have not lost in their last nine, picking up 6 wins along the way. The Addicks smashed a now bottom Chesterfield 4-0 mid-week, and will smell blood when they visit a wobbly Bournemouth on Saturday. Without a league win against Charlton since 1975, not much is to be expected from that game in all truth, but it is the fixtures that follow that hold so much importance.

After Charlton, AFCB face Sheffield Wednesday, Carlise, and Brentford, games they realistically have to win at least 2 of to maintain a fighting chance. If they can pick up 7 points from these next 4 games, their promotion shout will be firmly back on, but heading into them with 3 straight losses is hardly the best preparation.

To add insult to injury, star man Marc Pugh looks set to be sitting out for the next 3 weeks with an ankle injury, and despite captain Adam Barrett looking close to a return, AFCB are seriously lacking in the goals department of late. With only 1 goal in the last 4 games, the front pairing of Wesley Thomas, who’s imperious form at the beginning of the season has dropped in recent weeks and new record signing striker Matt Tubbs, who is still settling in to the club, are finding it hard to spark a relationship so the goals of suffered.

Bradbury obviously remains optimistic towards AFC Bournemouth’s chances of a playoff spot, and cites the next 4 games as a make or break period of their campaign. We will know a little bit more about their chances come 5:00pm Saturday evening, and an whole lot more about the character of AFC Bournemouth as a club.

VIDEO: AFC Bournemouth’s Lee Bradbury & Matt Tubbs

Published on Nerve Sport Blogs on February 12th 2012

In a very special video feature, we speak to manager Lee Bradbury and new signing Matt Tubbs about AFCB’s recent signings, last week’s result and their hard push for promotion in the coming months.The guys also add their 2 cents to the current England situation, and an interesting pick for captain from Mr Matt Tubbs.


Make sure to watch it in HD!



 Interview by Toby Gray. Video credit to Steven Baldwin. Thank you to AFC Bournemouth for facilitating filming.

Super Bowl Adverts of 2012: The Best (& Worst)

For all those tuning into watch the always much anticipated Superbowl XLVI, especially in Britain, it’s easy to pave over one of the biggest traditions in the States; choosing your favourite ads, for which they are plentiful. Each year, companies invest millions into developing the defining ads, and with a Superbowl ad slot the single most expensive in broadcasting at around $3.5million per 30 seconds, there’s as much to lose as there is to gain. But the rewards can be spectacular, with 2012′s game brining in over 111 million viewers in the U.S. alone, it can be a relatively cheap form of advertising, if it works. Last years success stories were as diverse as a grateful beaver to a mini Dark Lord, and this years endeavours would take some beating to top Jim Beam’s touching biopic which found crowning glory in 2011.

So without further due, we present you our favourite (and least favourite) adverts of this year’s Superbowl. Enjoy.

 Doritos – “Baby Sling”

Doritos got the right ideas with their superbowl advertisement campaign. Instead of spending time and money designing and promoting their own ads, they set up a competition for fans to produce a Doritos commercial, and the winner gets $1million dollars alongside their ad featured during the big game. ‘Crash the Superbowl’ as Doritos coined is now in its 6th year and each year they whittle the top ads down from over 6000, to just 5. All 5 contenders were fantastic, but our favourite, and eventual winner of 1 of 2 sought after spots has to be “Sling Baby”, in which a spoilt, contemptuous pre-pubescant gets his comeuppance when he pushes his sweet grandmother and innocent baby just a step too far. Despite signalling that horrific endangerment  of children is better than selfishness, as ad is pure, cute gold, and even more impressive that it’s a fan made production.

Honda CRV- Matthew Broderick’s Day Off

One for the film buffs, Honda’s rehash Broderick’s iconic film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was used to show that sometimes, just sometimes, there are better things in life, and a Honda CRV is one of them. Packed full of references to the original film, and using all the fancy gizmos of the flashed up Honda, Broderick is able to avoid his foolish boss and live life likes it’s meant to be, by singing in oriental parades and scaring small children in museums, obviously. Broderick is then so wrapped up in his relaxation day; he manages to get his car stolen by a runaway valet. Just another day in Hollywood it seems, but we still loved it.

Chrysler – It’s Half Time America

Now we’re not American, but this one runs deeper than that. Despite exemplifying the U.S.’s fortitude towards the crippling economic crisis, Chrysler create a society fighting back, and offers up some awe inspiring words of wisdom from the one and only Clint Eastwood. Beautifully shot with a delivery nothing short of perfect from Eastwood, he paints a world of hope and togetherness in the face of a misty future, and a determination to lead America back into prosperity. Now Chrysler could be criticised for exploiting hyped U.S. patriotism and disenchantment with the economy to essentially sell a product (an expensive one at that), when supposedly no one has any money and should be focusing on ‘rebuilding’. But for what it’s worth, this was a fantastically creative effort from Chrysler, who cleverly captured the hearts and possibilities of an American public wavering. Plus, we’d have Clint Eastwood as our gristled cheerleader any day.

Toyota Camry – It’s Reinvented

One of the funnier ad’s we’ve seen, Toyota show how inventive they’ve really gotten with their new Camry by claiming they just “couldn’t stop inventing” afterwards. Now the ad doesn’t actually show what’s been reinvented with this new car (we assume not the wheel – get it?) but it’s clever nonetheless. And who wouldn’t want a time machine baby?!

We had a pretty tough time deciding between this Camry advert, and the more serious, sentimental attempt from Toyota, which you can see here, but we’re confident we went the right route.

Volkswagen – The Dog Strikes Back

Now this ones a bit of marmite. We loved the concept of the advert in itself; a fat dog must lose weight and avoid all the finest temptations in order to fit through the doggy door and chase the volkswagen of his dreams. But the unnecessary addition of the star wars reference tolast years advert drew it back somewhat. Why did we need to be reminded on how successful last years advertising campaign was? Sure it was nicely intertextual but essentially, it was a fairly lame attempt from Volkswagen to further milk the massive success of ‘LittleDarth’. Despite this, the advert was made a whole lot more impressive when tagged with the teaser advert released pre –game, which brilliantly recreates the “Imperial March” theme using just the barks of dogs. Now obviously, with the recurrent Star Wars theme, the main problem is the stretched link between that and the dog? Is there even one? The Star Wars reference just seems superfluous and ‘stuck on’ at the end, which is disappointing. But nonetheless, the original ad was brilliant, and huge credit has to go to whoever choreographed that teaser which was essentially perfectly executed and deliciously nerdy.

Acura – Seinfeld

Probably one of the more higher budget ads this year as securing Jerry Seinfeld’s signature is far from cheap, but his hilarious performance deserves credence. In order to get the 1st ever Acura NSX, Jerry must use all at his disposal to convince the 1st in line to hand over the keys. Deliciously creative and amusing, Jerry finally gets his man until Jay Leno turns up to steal them away, offering up a flying squirrel suit; who wouldn’t want one of them? So essentially this one delivers what Seinfeld’s name signifies; fantastic stand up from one of the legends of comedy.  A novel idea for Acura was made even better by the whole host of additional extended content they posted online, making it one of the stand out superbowl hits, notching up nearly 18 million viewssince the end of January.

Bud Light – Rescue Dog

It would be impossible to feature the best ads of the superbowl without one on beer, and Budweiser wins for us this year. Combining 2 of man’s best friends, Budweiser create the dream pet; a dog that can give complete companionship and (probably more importantly for these guys) a loyal delivery servant of the holy suds. A real life rescue dog, and a nice touch from Budweiser to raise a quarter of a million dollars to help rescue dog’s, which we think paves over any ‘playful’ slave labour from the lovable ‘Weebo’.

 Worst Ads

Bridgestone – “Performance Sports”

Bridgestone tyres went the sport route by making a series of 30 second spots that highlighted their new infusion of noise absorbing “Serenity” technology into the worlds of basketball, American football, ice hockey etc, revolutionising the games as we know them. A strenuous link to sport at best is made even worse when the supposed Bridgestone ‘experts’, fronted byPS3’s ad starlet Kevin Butler can’t even fathom a supposed purpose for this innovation. The best line has to be “how will this revolutionise the game?” “It’s quite”. Just in case the NBA started playing their games during nap – time at pre-school, we can’t really see the advantage. In fact the noise of the basketball is pretty endearing, it would have worked so much better if they’d decided put a stop to that incessant squeak of basketball shoes, the noise that’s actually annoying. But then there would be no link to sport!

Furthermore, the quietness doesn’t  even transcribe to the American football ad, but instead it completely ruins the game by allowing for complete control of the ball, essentially ruining the sport as a competitive spectacle. Nice going Bridgestone, now keep your hands off ‘soccer’.

Audi – “Vampires”

Okay so vampires are cool again thanks to Twilight, or at least they are to teenage girls. So when Audi decided to market their £30,000+ car to ride that wave, did they not realise that most people that age probably don’t have those funds at their disposal? It’s also quite confusing. Is the ad proposing that the uncontrollably power of Audi’s mighty LED highlights is enough the say ‘#SoLongVampires’ and kill them all off? But we thought vampires were cool? So inadvertently, buying an Audi is such a momentous choice, it makes you idiotically turn your friends into speckles of vampire dust and ignore a chorus of deathly screams so you remain smooth. And since when was the power of headlights a selling point? Especially if it turns you into a mass murderer. It doesn’t work Audi, just no.

Fiat 500 Abarth – Seduction

This ad aims to depict the sensual, sleek sexiness of the new Fiat 500 Abarth by personifying it as a sensual, sleek sexy Italian woman, who becomes worryingly bi-polar in her reaction to his this mans gawk. So after a series of sexual cliches, including the ‘longing pull of the tie’ and the ‘speck of coffee foam falls provocatively on cleavage’ our man snaps out of his daydream to realise it’s really a car beside him. 2 problems. Not only does our man display a concerningly overwhelming sexual attraction to cars, to which therapy may be a serious option, the ad reminds us that beautiful cars are exactly like beautiful woman – open to objectification by men.  Obviously.

One for Discussion

1st Bank

1st bank went the risky route by making a deliberately dull ad encouraging viewers to go to the bathroom, safe in the knowledge that they won’t miss one of the ‘exciting ads’. But to what effect did this have? Was this really worth the $3.5million placement cost the Superbowl charges? But was it original enough to create a memorable ad? We really couldn’t decide, so we’ve left it to you. Have a look and tell us what you think, because we sure were stumped by this one.

What are your best and worst Super Bowl Adverts of 2012? Do you agree with our list? Let us know by leaving us a comment!