Eleven Warriors

Spielman's mustache had 155 tackles, good for #2 in the conference

On Saturday, months of planning and fundraising for the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research will finally come to frution with Eat Too, Brutus. From one tailgate, awareness (and some money).

The power of awareness cannot be measured like dollars for research. The ubiquity of the pink ribbon has done wonders for breast cancer awareness, which leads to earlier diagnosis that produces more treatable patients, better outcomes and saved lives, all independent of dollars raised.

If you're having trouble drawing a parallel to this type of proactivity, changing attitudes and habits around men's health issues, it's because you can't. The women's health movement is light years ahead of the the men's. And that's why Movember was created.

As October is the month of the pink ribbon, November is the month of the mustache. Movember is about wearing your support for men's health issues right beneath your handsome beak.

If you'd like to make it official, on or before  November 1 you can register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face - there's an Eleven Warriors Movember team that you're welcome to join.

Think of your mustache as a pink ribbon you wear for a month, except that it's to raise awareness around cancers that affect men, most specifically prostate cancer.

If you'd like to make it official, on or before  November 1 you can register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face - there's even an Eleven Warriors Movember team that you're welcome to join. Join our team, donate and grow a mustache for 30 days.

Or just join our team without donating or growing. It's all about awareness. I'll be 'staching out in November, and when people ask me why - I'll tell them.

You'll notice that all of the men and both of the ladies of 11W are on board. Resta assured; our ladies will not be growing mustaches - they simply support the cause.

Beyond the awareness that Movember generates, funds raised in the US support prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men. The money raised is directed to programs run directly by Movember and its men’s health partners, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG, which you probably know as Lance Armstrong's Foundation. 

For more information, visit the Movember home page. To join Team 11W, visit http://mobro.co/elevenwarriors.

Let's face it: The 2011 Ohio State football season is an exercise in humility. Between Nick Siciliano avoiding his true calling at Best Buy, Jim Bollman catching flying fish with his mouth and Joe Bauserman dropping scuds on innocent people, we might as well have a little fun.

Laughter helps ease the pain. You know what else helps ease the pain? Drinking games.

Here is a helpful chart for making what's sure to be yet another abysmal performance in Champaign on Saturday (in fairness, this happens with all Buckeye teams) at least somewhat entertaining. At least it might keep you in the bathroom instead of in front of your TV.

[The 11W legal team says that this game is only to be played by readers over the age of 21, that nobody should actually do this and that if you do choose to participate, anything you do to yourself or others is your fault and not ours.]

This afternoon ESPN conducted a conference call on the upcoming season with Lou Holtz and Mark May. It was moderated by Mike Humes of ESPN.

Highlights:

• Holtz is forced to choose between South Florida - coached by his son Skip - and Notre Dame when they face off this weekend. When asked about which team he'll be pulling for, he said he would be 100% behind the Bulls because he's been happily married for 50 years and isn't interested in getting divorced.
• Angelique Chenglis of the Detroit News asked about Michigan's chances this year.  May said that Greg Mattison had to be an improvement over Greg Robinson from a defensive standpoint, while Holtz was a lot more bullish on the Wolverines' chances suggesting that they could win up to ten games with the staff Brady Hoke as assembled.
• Several questions about Miami were asked. Both men feel the worst for Al Golden, whom they believe was blindsided by the multi-year scandal at Miami centered around booster Nevin Shapiro providing improper benefits to dozens of players. Holtz believes Miami should lock him up to a long-term deal and establish him as the leader of the program. May believes that the school has to be held accountable due to the relationship Shapiro had with school officials including university President Donna Shalala
• Interesting suggestion by Holtz to create a deterrent to taking money by players: Impose a penalty that would involve having to pay three times the amount taken back, if caught.  He didn't get into specifics.
• May's insistence that the school be held accountable was predicated on players coming from poor backgrounds being thrust into situations where it would be very difficult to turn away handouts, while schools are run by grown adults who need to be proactively guarding against this behavior. In regard to the latter, based on what has surfaced thus far Miami failed from the very top on down.
• May believes Miami deserves the death penalty, but won't get it on account of money (he didn't get specific, but I assume he means from a television, local, ACC and merchandising standpoint). He asked "anyone" to tell him what it takes to get the death penalty if Miami does not get it.
• My question, verbatim: