Second thoughts

— Water time special for Iraqi rowers

For Haidar Nozad, each stroke on Lake Carnegie was like a rowing fantasy camp.

At home in Iraq, Nozad and his teammates face roadblocks or a military presence on their way to the Tigris River. Some days, they don’t even make it to the river.

Soldiers tell them: Turn around, go home, try again tomorrow.

On a leisurely Tuesday morning on an Ivy League lake, all Nozad had to think about was improving his technique. He slept well in a hotel, ate breakfast and had his ride waiting for him at the Princeton University boathouse.

“Here, you have time,” Nozad said. “There’s nothing to make you delayed. You are on time for training. You are safe here. You can do whatever you want.”

Nozad is part of a group of six Iraqi rowers and two coaches training in the United States with the American national team. The Iraqi rowers will train in Boston,Princeton and Cincinnati to prepare for the 2010 Asian Games in November at Guangzhou, China.

The Iraqi rowers are making three stops to ease the financial burden of each hosting club.

Limited sightseeing is planned - they’re here to practice, not tour.

Their families did have one request.

“They said buy some iPhones for us,” Nozad said smiling. “At our home, it’s about $800, $900 dollars. Here, maybe it’s a little bit cheaper.” Retweet?

Colin Montgomerie is retweeting ... umm, retreating.

After it was announced that the European captain and U.S.

captain Corey Pavin didn’t want their players using social media like Twitter during Ryder Cup week, Montgomerie seemingly backed off the demand Tuesday.

He said players can use Twitter as long as they respect the privacy of the team room and whatever else happens with his teammates.

Ian Poulter tweeted his more than 1 million followers explaining the policy hours after it was announced Monday.

When asked about the matter Tuesday, Montgomerie said he thought he was captain of a golf team, not a tweeting organization.

Tweet catch

Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald on Randy Moss’s one-handed touchdown catch for New England against the New York Jets on Sept. 18: “In a sign of the times, he was tweeting with his free hand.”

From Irish to ESPN

Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind .,writes that Notre Dame Coach “Brian Kelly is 1-3 after his first four games, the same record as Lou Holtz and Bob Davie at similar points of their career.

“You know what that means. Kelly will go down as an all-time great or be fired, but either way he’ll end up working for ESPN.”

Knowing the score

Also from Reggie Hayes:

“The San Francisco 49ers fired offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye on Monday after the team fell to 0-3 and 31st in the NFL in points scored. The move came one day after Coach Mike Singletary gave Raye a vote of confidence, but apparently forgot to add ‘unless we can only score 10 against the Chiefs.’ ”Quote of the day “Rachel Alexandra owes us nothing.” Majority owner Jess Jackson on the decision to retire Rachel Alexandra

Sports, Pages 22 on 09/29/2010

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