Tyler Varga makes me sick. As in Male Envy Nausea (M.E.N, I believe, is the short form in the medical journals). Twenty-one, good looking, speaks three languages (English, French, Swedish), goes to Yale, where former Presidents drop by for alumni events (We see the secret service guys and the black SUVs every few weeks and know one of them is here), has a 3.7 Grade Point Average, follows around surgeons in his spare time as he plans to be an Orthopedist someday. Vargas life is one really impressive run-on sentence. Oh, and theres one other little thing. The Kitchener, Ontario native is having one of the best football seasons Yale has ever seen. And Yale has seen a few, seeing that football was basically invented there in the 1870s. Hows this for the first seven games of Vargas senior season: 18 touchdowns, including two 5-TD games, and 995 yards rushing. With three games left, he has a chance to break the all-time single season rushing record (1,375 yards) at one of Americans most historic football programs. And this is likely just the beginning. Without any question, he will play on Sundays, says Yale head coach Tony Reno, when asked about Vargas NFL potential. Hes an incredible talent. He can do all three things. He can run, he can block, and he can catch the football extremely well. To play in the NFL, if you have a checkmark against you in one of those categories, you better be incredibly talented at one or two of the others to make it. But Ty has all three. He could play tailback, he could play fullback, he could play H-back. And apparently quarterback, if need be. When Yale lost all four QBs to injury in Vargas first year there, he took over against Columbia and ran the option all day to perfection (220 yards rushing - 3TDs - victory). Like I say, nauseating. Yale has a fine Genetics Faculty, but you dont have to study there to conclude Tylers parents gave him a big athletic head start. Both Dad John and Mom Hannele are former professional body builders. John played football in high school, and Hannele played high-level rugby and ran track. They raised a nutrition freak whose physique now resembles Cleatus, the football robot in the NFL on FOX animations: 511, 234, with a body fat percentage around, oh, -3 percent.* (*I made that up. I did not go to Yale.) Varga fell in love with football the traditional way; by being bribed by Pokemon cards. His first football experience was flag football when he was 8-9 and I coached the team, says John Varga. We had a year when we went undefeated and un-scored on. The kids all loved Pokemon so Id give out Pokemon cards for everything: attendance, sportsmanship, good plays. The kids never missed practice. And Tyler fell in love with football. In fact, most of those kids still play the game. Pokemon bribery. Rex Ryan should try that with the Jets. Varga took what he calls an unorthodox route to his Ivy League stardom. He played his first year of university football at Western, and was on his way to breaking CIS records when an injury ended his season. His transfer to Yale the next spring shocked Greg Marshall and the Mustangs. Varga says he just couldnt pass up the opportunity. When I went to Western, I never intended on transferring. But Yale is one of the best schools in the world. This is where football started. It has one of the best football traditions anywhere. You meet amazing people and make connections that are invaluable to your future. I dont have the words to describe how awesome this has been. The feeling is mutual. As soon as we got pads on him, it was obvious we had something special, says Reno. A couple of freak injuries cut his first two seasons short. But this season it has all come together. Hes a great leader. He eats, sleeps, drinks football and somehow carries a 3.7 GPA. Pretty incredible kid. The Ivy League doesnt get a lot of attention on ESPN College Gameday, but everyone took notice when Yale upset Army 49-43 in September. It was the Bulldogs first win over a Division 1-A school since they dropped to 1-AA in 1982. Varga ran for 185 yards and five touchdowns, including the OT winner. The victory put Yale back on the SportsCenter (American version) highlights for the first time in forever. Varga! replaced James Franco is teaching here! as the campus #1 trending topic. That was a huge victory for our team, said Varga. Its been a long time for our school to get that national recognition... to be up on ESPN with all the analysts talking about us. Whether Mel Kiper and the NFL Draft analysts will be talking about Varga next spring is another matter. Coach Reno expects hell be drafted, but there are no guarantees. Hell almost surely be signed by someone if he isnt drafted. And if the NFL doesnt pan out, Varga wouldnt hesitate to come home. I would 100 per cent play in the CFL, he says. I just want to play football.. somewhere... as long as I can. But for now, its all about soaking in the last few weeks of a dream season at his dream school. There is a picture from the Army game of us in overtime and Ive just broken the plane of the goal-line and Im lying on my back in the end zone, and Im reaching my hands into the sky and the guys are just about to jump on me. That will be a great memory for the rest of our lives, and a pretty cool snapshot of this season. But we cant dwell on that now. We have three games left. Now we have to finish the deal. Robert Parish Jersey . Jamies number grades given are out of five, with five being the best mark. Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings (3) - Early goal against was on the power play. Cody Martin Jersey . Old times for a defence that has looked just plain old recently? "No," safety Ryan Clark said. "We used to be much better than that. https://www.cheaphornets.com/665l-dwayne-bacon-jersey-hornets.html. Marian Gaborik had two goals and an assist and Martin Jones made just 17 saves to record his fourth shutout of the season as the Kings snapped a three-game losing skid with a 3-0 victory over the lowly Oilers on Thursday. Larry Johnson Jersey . He still wanted out. "It just seemed like the direction they were going didnt fit what I thought my career was going to be," Kesler said. "At the end of the day I want to win a championship and I want to win it now, and four years is a little too long for me. Adam Morrison Jersey . This has become the Raptors mantra as they embark on a new era with a new regime and, in the not-so-distant future, a new image.SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- While much of the nation is buried in snow, glazed by ice or just plain shivering in the cold, its time to play ball in the desert. Spring training officially began Thursday when Arizona Diamondbacks pitchers and catchers reported, with their first workout set for Friday. On the other side of suburban Phoenix, in Glendale, Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers and catchers report on Saturday. Full-squad workouts for both teams begin next week. The Diamondbacks and Dodgers get an early start because they will open the MLB season with a two-game series in Australia on March 22-23. The rest of the teams begin workouts next week at their spring training haunts in Arizona and Florida. Arizonas reporting date signals the beginning of preparation for a season that wont end until the World Series eight months from now. The Diamondbacks are coming off consecutive 81-81 seasons and face the prospect, like the rest of the NL West, of trying to compete with the cash- and pitching-rich Dodgers. Arizona wanted to add a veteran starter in the off-season and still may. A person with knowledge of the situation said Thursday that the Diamondbacks were talking with representatives of Bronson Arroyo with the possibility of landing the 36-year-old right-hander. The person asked not to be identified because the talks had not been made public. The Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles also reportedly have interest in Arroyo. If no changes are made, the Diamondbacks rotation is expected to include left-handers Patrick Corbin and Wade Miley and right-handers Trevor Cahill and Brandon McCarthy. Young right-hander Randall Delgado and top minor league prospect Archie Bradley could vie for the other rotation spot. Diamondbacks players went through informal workouts in relatively chilly weather, at least by Arizona standards, on Thursday. Temperatures were in the low 60s but were expected to rise to the high 70s over the weekend. Kirk Gibson is entering his fourth season as manager and earlier this week got an extension of his contract, which had been set to expire this year. He said the early start to spring training will mean a larger gap between the start of full-squad workouts and the beginning of spring gammes.dddddddddddd "Well come in on the 11th and our first games on the 26th," he said. "It gives us a challenge. We need to get our pitchers ready to be ready to go on March 22." After the long trip to Australia, the Diamondbacks and Dodgers will come back to Arizona to complete spring training before their stateside regular-season openers. "The seasons going to be a little longer, " Gibson said, "but if you look at the other people that have played abroad early, I think theres 10 teams that went and five of them have went to post-season play." Even though its an early start to spring training, McCarthy said players are more than ready to get back at it. "In the last month is when you start to hit that boredom point," he said. "Youre done with the off-season, youre sick of your loved ones, you want to get out of your house. Now it turns real and you kind of get back to work." The other significant addition to the Diamondbacks pitching staff is Addison Reed, The 25-year-old right-hander had 69 saves the last two seasons with the Chicago White Sox, 40 last year. Arizona acquired him from the White Sox for third baseman Matt Davidson. Reed hasnt been anointed the Arizona closer yet, though, facing competition from the likes of J.J. Putz, David Hernandez and Brad Zeigler. "Obviously everybody knows that I want to close. Its the only thing Ive ever wanted to do," Reed said, "but Im here and whatever they have me do is what Ill do and Ill be happy to. As long as Im out there throwing, Ill be a happy guy." McCarthy said that a core group of Arizona players plans to take a bigger leadership role in the coming year. "I think theres a group of guys here that know exactly what they want," he said. "Last year I think we were kind of getting there but we didnt have that true leadership that really came through. Its the one thing Ive seen just in talking to guys so far, that heres an idea of exactly what we want and I think we know how to implement that now. "Youre going to see a clubhouse of guys that go out of their way to get things the way they want it, to set an attitude the way they want it." ' ' '