Sports Scribe

Did McNabb get what he deserved?

2010-04-11T10:30:00.001-07:00

Rush Limbaugh once implied that Donovan McNabb was overrated. The fact that he made this point amidst a polemic rant insinuating that there was a liberal conspiracy in the sports media designed to promote the success of a black quarterback resulted in Limbaugh losing his ESPN gig and precluded a necessary discussion on the competency of Limbaugh as a sports analyst. The truth is, McNabb has always been underrated and Limbaugh has always been a blithering idiot.

It seems as though people love to hate McNabb even though the guy has done nothing but put together one of the all time greatest careers of any quarterback in the history of the game. Granted, he's without a Super Bowl ring, but so is Dan Marino and, like Dan Marino, McNabb has seen the best years of his career squandered by an overrated coach and a clumsy front office that has consistently failed to provide the weapons necessary to win championships.

McNabb doesn't even get credit for leading is team to the Super Bowl. That often goes to Terrell Owens, who actually didn't have any hand in the Eagles getting to there. Owens went down with a broken leg late in the 2004 season, missing the playoffs. Owens wasn't available until the Eagles played in the Super Bowl, which begs the question of whether or not is presence was a distraction. There was quite the media circus around Owens' recovery and potential availability.

The reality is that Owens didn't help the Eagles accomplish more than they had in previous years. It's true that McNabb and the Eagles had lost three consecutive NFC title games heading into the 2004 season but with their starting receiver out of action, the Eagles had more than a string of losses to overcome. McNabb stepped up and led his team to the Super Bowl. Owens put up nice numbers in the subsequent loss, but somebody had to throw him those 9 passes he caught and if not for Owens' penchant for occasionally losing interest in running the called route or quitting when a play is designed to use him as a decoy, Owens might have caught more. Many quarterbacks have thrown interceptions when TO has given up on a route, short-armed a high pass or simply failed to make his cut when he was supposed to. This was no different in the Super Bowl.

His statistics are enviable by all but a few of the people who have played the QB position and those who rank ahead of him consider McNabb worthy of their company. McNabb hasn't simply padded his stats year after year, he's played the game the way it should be played. He's tough, smart, athletic, he plays to win and he has delivered the Eagles franchise and their coach more wins than they deserve.

McNabb is simply the greatest player in the history of the Eagles franchise. It's hard to make an argument against him. In a league where teams struggle for decades to find a serviceable quarterback, McNabb has been outstanding. He's also been a consummate professional. When Terrell Owens tried to bait McNabb by throwing a nationally televised tantrum at the QB's expense, McNabb kept his mouth shut. When the Eagles kept their purse strings tight in the free agency market, forcing McNabb to take the field without any elite receivers or a dependable running game (Brian Westbrook was always more of a multipurpose threat than a downhill runner) McNabb resisted the urge to hold out and demand a quality acquisition or a trade. He has also lived clean in both his professional and personal life. No arrests, no sordid sex scandals, no positive drug tests...quite an accomplishment in today's NFL.

McNabb's not exactly past his prime. He's 33 and not showing any signs of wearing down. He's suffered a few injuries but he's demonstrated an ability to recover quickly and completely. The other options the Eagles have at QB aren't inspiring. Michael Vick's arm is as inconsistent as it ever was and he doesn't bring the same athleticism to field that we saw prior to his stint in federal prison. Kevin Kolb has looked impressive in limited action, but he doesn't look better than McNabb and what happens when teams get to study more film on him? It's quite common to see backup quarterbacks look great in their first three or four starts only to hit a wall later in the season. This is especially true when those QBs face divisional rivals the second time around.

The NFL is a business and that fact is driven home with cruel clarity every year. Ladainian Tomlinson saw his role with the Chargers diminish after he sustained an injury and now he's going to see if he can become the second option on a team that doesn't really need him. Joe Montana was unceremoniously kicked to the curb in favor of Steve Young and the Green Bay Packers decided they couldn't stay committed to a player who couldn't stay committed to his own career even if he had a Pro Bowl season left in the tank.

McNabb isn't pushing 40. His arm isn't held together with duct table and bubble gum. He hasn't spent an off season capitulating on is future. He was the best player the Eagles had and he provided them with their best chance to win. With 2010 being an 'uncapped' year it wasn't like the Eagles needed to unload his salary. In a business-first league, trading McNabb was a terrible business decision.

Some people believe that McNabb deserved better from the Eagles and they're right but it's also true that McNabb deserves better than the Eagles. By heading to Washington, McNabb will get to play for Mike Shanahan rather than Andy Reid and he'll play for an owner in Dan Snyder who isn't afraid to spend money. Granted, Snyder hasn't always been smart with the money, but that's why he hired Shanahan.

McNabb could very well find himself in position to win that elusive Super Bowl his detractors insist is required before we can frame him as one of the great ones. The Eagles could find themselves regretting this trade for the next 10 years.

One can only hope.

Tiger's Talk

2010-02-23T14:19:00.000-08:00

A lot was made over Tiger’s mea culpa this past Friday. Some PGA players were upset at the timing, since it took place on during the Accenture Match Play Championship. People speculated that Tiger timed his press conference to get back at Accenture for dropping him as a sponsor. PGA officials however, have stated that they gave Tiger clearance for the press conference and granted him access to their facilities to conduct his public engagement.

Let’s be honest, Ernie Els can complain all he wants but the fact remains that the PGA is a shadow of what itself without Tiger. Since Tiger joined the PGA, purses have tripled, mediocre golfers are getting noticed and sponsorship money is at an all time high. Rocco Mediate is still doing interviews because his greatest achievement as a golfer is LOSING to Tiger Woods. Golf has become much more popular with a much younger crowd. That’s because of Tiger Woods. So back off and let the guy speak—it doesn’t matter if it’s during the final round of the Masters--he’s only been putting food on your table for the last 13 years.

Even if Tiger’s timing was vindictive, so what? Tiger is bigger than any non-major event on the tour. This is clear when you look at the attendance of any non-major event. Patron Passes sell out when Tiger confirms his participation. He’s like an instant cash infusion. Last weekend’s event was marginalized because Tiger wasn’t playing, his press conference actually drew more attention to the event because news crews wanted the reaction from other players. Ernie Els should be thanking him because if not for Tiger nobody would have put a microphone in front of his face.

Some people think Tiger’s response was insincere. He read a statement and didn’t speak from the heart. So? Tiger is not a person anymore, he is a corporation. Tiger can’t afford to speak from the heart because he is responsible for an enterprise that is worth more than a billion dollars. Corporations hire PR firms to craft statements, that’s what Tiger did.

People have tried to compare Tiger’s exploits to those experienced by other athletes. The problem is, there’s no comparison. A friend asked me what people would have thought if another golfer had done the same thing. I told him they wouldn’t have thought anything because people don’t care about other golfers. Tiger’s extramarital adventures are bigger news then Bill Clinton’s office BJ from Monica Lewinsky.

Tiger Woods is the biggest name in sports, which is amazing because he plays a sport few people find interesting. Tiger is bigger than the NHL or the NBA, which is why his affair(s), that doesn’t include criminal charges, is bigger news than Kobe Bryant’s. Granted, the allegations against Kobe were false but Kobe didn’t take time away from the game. He might have missed a start or two, but he didn’t take a leave of absence and enter rehab. Koba apologized to his fans and sponsors, bought his wife a big diamond ring and moved on. He endured a season’s worth of consternation from some fans, but he wasn’t taken to task the way Tiger has been.

Tiger’s demise is bigger news than Michael Vick, who actually committed crimes. He did Federal time and could very well be starting at QB for an NFL team next year.

Tiger didn’t break any laws. Forget about the petty traffic violations, nobody in their right mind thinks anything of that. People like to speculate as to what really happened, but Tiger’s not talking. Did Elin take after him with a sand wedge? Maybe, but that’s really between them. The cops seem satisfied with issuing a citation and hitting Tiger up for the cost to repair the damage. No big deal.

Ultimately Tiger cheated on his wife. He didn’t hurt anybody else. The women he slept with knew who he was and knew that he was married. They were using him as much as—prehaps even more than—he was using them. Tiger wanted sex, they wanted money, fame or both. He doesn’t owe any of them an apology. He doesn’t owe his fans an apology. He only has to make amends with his wife.

Tiger never cultivated an image. He was always a robotic prick who wanted to win. His focus on the task at hand caused him to be less than engaging with fans in the gallery. If things weren’t going well he could become surly and he was known for flinging around some harsh language. Of course anybody who has golfed will tell you that the most commonly heard four letter word shouted on the course is not ‘fore’ but it tends to follw a shot as well and it also starts with the letter ‘f”. To be honest, club throwing and cursing is all too common a sight on a golf course. It’s just that Tiger tends to be on camera more than any other golfer.

Because Tiger tends to be so robotic, people created an image for him. We assumed that he was so dedicated to golf that there wasn’t much off the course that brought him pleasure. We didn’t see him yucking it up with celebrities or clowning around on Saturday Night Live like Peyton Manning, but even though Tiger never tipped us off to his sexual transgressions, he also never gave us any reason to assume he was a boy scout. Tiger failed to live up to our expectations, but why did we have those expectations? What did Tiger do to make us assume he was a saint?

It’s not like Steve Garvey who wholeheartedly embraced his “Mr. Clean” persona, even though he was cheating on his wife. A lot. It’s also not like John Edwards who presented himself as a loving husband standing by his wife’s side while she battled cancer only to maintain an child-bearing affair with a tasty blonde. Tiger always kept his personal life under wraps and he never tried to sell us a persona. He always comes across as stiff and robotic.

Of course now people are questioning his sincerity. They aren’t buying Tiger’s apology. He let his lawyers write a statement and then he read it before a carefully selected audience that was not allowed to ask him any questions. How dare he?

But who is Tiger supposed to answer to? His sponsors have a choice, they can cut ties with him and find somebody who fits their image. Tiger’s fans have a choice as well, they can hop on the Mickelson bandwagon and cheer while Phil fights to keep his man boobs from chafing. The only people Tiger has to face are those he hurt. His wife and his family get to judge him. They’ll determine whether or not he’s sincere.

If Tiger’s putting on an act, it’s not for us it’s for them. He didn’t violate our trust. There’s no reason he can’t go back on the PGA tour tomorrow and win another PGA Player of the Year trophy. Moreover, he can do continue to cheat on his wife while he does it.

Tiger is a global icon. He transcends what we understand of fame. This guy is a golfer and he has made Michael Jordan look like a bush league side show. What sets Tiger apart is the way he has distanced himself from the spotlight. Tiger does commercials because he gets paid to. He does golf-oriented interviews because he has to, although it’s often lamented that he doesn’t do many golf-oriented interviews and is quick to retreat into seclusion. If Tiger wanted more exposure he could surely have it but Tiger opts to keep a pretty low profile. Yeah, we see a lot of Tiger, but how much of it is initiated by him? The guy seems genuinely uncomfortable with attention.

He also seems genuinely concerned about his marriage. Other celebrities don’t take time off to make things right, not unless a judge tells them to, anyway. Tiger is, for all intents and purposes, a rock star. He’s rich, he’s got millions of fans who go out of their way to see him perform and his wife is a bikini model. Is it any wonder that he’s a womanizer?

Tiger spoke of the temptations he faced and the sense of entitlement he felt. He worked hard all his life to be the best in the world. He deserved the spoils. Of course he didn’t think about how it would affect other people, that’s probably because those people aren’t in the gym at 6:00am working their butts off to be the best.

Were his actions selfish? Sure, but isn’t the culture of professional athleticism inherently selfish as well? The amount of work you have to put in to being the best at what you do demands it. Tiger was raised to put his success on the golf course first and a by product of that is not thinking about how your actions will affect others. Why do you think so many people of Tiger’s ilk--other professional athletes, actors, singers…politicians--seem more likely to cheat on their spouses?

Tiger’s sincerity is nobody’s concern but Elin’s. There’s no question that every word was measured but he doesn’t have to speak from the heart to anybody but the people he loves. His relationship with everybody else is strictly professional.

As great as Tiger is, there were a lot of people who hated him. Some hated him because of his race, others because he’s not friendly enough mostly he’s reviled because he’s so much better than everybody else. Those people are always going to find reasons to hate Tiger. That’s fine. It’s natural to create heroes and villains. Somebody has to be the bad guy and in every event Tiger plays he’s the favorite to win so there is never any shortage of underdogs. Tiger is the Darth Vader of the PGA . Fair enough, just don’t pretend that you started hating him after this story broke.

The majority of the people who liked Tiger will continue to like him. They’re pulling for him. If anything, the media frenzy around his private turmoil will probably rally more people around him. When he comes back the best golfer in the world will be an underdog. He’s been properly humiliated and people will cheer him on as he overcomes the consternation to win his first major since the fallout of his affairs.

Ultimately, Tiger Woods will be just fine. His marriage might fail and he could end up paying Canada’s GNP in child support for the next 17 years but he’s got plenty of money and the means to earn more. Other people will cheat on their wives and the tawdry tales of their elicit affairs might make headlines as well. People will remember that this is nothing new and they’ll remind themselves not to get personally invested in people they don’t know.

Super Bowl doesn't have Super Powers.

2010-02-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

Every year during the Super Bowl fortnight a story emerges that makes me want to puke. I get angry to the point where I vow that I won’t watch the Super Bowl just because I’m tired of the hype. Among the greatest hits are The Kurt Warner Story, The Archie Manning Story, The Tom Brady Story and Those Crazy Chicago Bears. And let's not forget a cameo appearance by Brenda Warner's hideous fuzzy sweater and her trailer park mullet.

I was terrified that this year would force me to endure two weeks of a Brett Favre love fest. Sport reporters, who tend to be fat and old, love Brett Favre because he’s old. More than just being old, Favre looks it. He’s only 40 but his hair is gray and his stubble is almost white. After every game he looks like he got into a fight with a cotton candy machine. Favre’s toughness is well-documented and I wasn’t interested in hearing about it for two whole weeks. I’ve grown to dislike Favre a great deal. Besides being a big fat drama queen he is also a pretty lousy QB when the game is on the line. So no Brett Favre at the Super Bowl is a good thing.

Still, the media have done it again. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present: The Katrina Story.
In case you missed it, New Orleans was nailed by a hurricane back in 2005 and has been struggling mightily ever since. Moreover, the entire Gulf Coast has been struggling thanks to several storms that ravaged the area in 2005. Katrina gets the most attention because it scored a direct hit on The Big Easy. Even though FEMA would be quick to point out that they did more damage than that stupid fly by night storm. Sure, give credit to the shock and the awe, but who was there making sure aid and supplies didn't get to the people who needed it the most? FEMA. People don't dies from infection overnight, you know.

For some reason people seem to think that winning a Super Bowl is just what New Orleans needs to get back on its feet. To hear sports blabbermouths tell it, a win on Sunday will make everything better.

This is bullshit.

Winning the Super Bowl would be great for the Saints organization and would make Saints fans, who have never seen their team play in a Super Bowl, very happy. As a long suffering Browns fans who has reached a point where I’d just as soon see the Browns disbanded and everybody who works in the front office set on fire, I can appreciate this.

Beyond that a win would mean nothing. Even though the Saints have a lot of great fans, there are millions of people in the region that couldn’t care less. Literally. Thanks to decades of unadulterated suckiness by the Saints, New Orleans is home to a staggering number of Cowboys fans. Those people don’t care. They’re probably tired of hearing their friends and neighbors scream HOODAT every 3.65 seconds. The Gulf Coast is also home to people who grew up in other cities. So you’ve got a lot of people who are happy for the Saints but don’t really care who wins.

And all a Super Bowl win will do is make fans happy…for a little while. From what I’ve been able to gather that happiness doesn’t last nearly as long as you’d like it too. Steelers fans just watched their team snag a sixth Super Bowl ring last year and they’re already miserable because the Steelers didn’t make the playoffs. And that’s a great place to examine how much a Super Bowl really means. No city has more Super Bowl titles than Pittsburgh but does that make it a place you want to visit? Nope. How many Super Bowls has Pittsburgh hosted? That’d be zero. Are Steelers fans still ugly, unintelligent and more than a little malodorous? Sadly, yes. And the city still puts the Pit in the ‘burg, if you know what I’m saying. The reason you spell Pittsburgh with that “h” on the end is because most people say it with a resigned sigh at the end. So, Andy, where are you from? pittsburg-eh.

The only thing all those Super Bowl titles has given Pittsburgh is a false sense of accomplishment. Living in Ohio I can’t even tell you how many Pittsburgh fans love to brag about all those titles as if they had something to do with it. One guy I know will ask Bengals and Browns fans how many rings they have. Um, chief? The same number as you: none, remember? All you’ve ever done is wear another man’s jersey (like a cheerleader on game day) and wave a towel around like an idiot.

Am I jealous? Maybe a little. I really don’t know. None of the teams I root for have done anything while I’ve been around to see it so I don’t have any context. The only thing I do know for certain is that my life will remain unchanged. My happiness over my favorite team winning would subside the minute I realized that I’m still a loser with a boring job, a crappy car and ear hair like steel wool.

Even if the Browns did win a Super Bowl, once I got used to monkeys flying out of my butt, some idiot Steelers’ fan would go out of his way to point out that his team won six, even though he wasn’t around when they won four of them. Also he wouldn’t say his team won them, he would say “we” yet again implying that he played a role in this accomplishment. I’m sure the Rooney family will rush to correct their oversight in not including him in the parade.

New Orleans winning a Super Bowl would be a nice reward for the half dozen fans that used to sit through entire games wearing paper bags over their heads back in the 70s and 80s, but it’s not going to restore the 9th Ward to its pre-Katrina luster. Winning the Super Bowl would be a nice accomplishment for Drew Brees who was treated like some little dude with a freakish mole on his face by the San Diego Chargers (perhaps the most poorly run franchise with a winning record), but it’s not going to create any jobs in the region.

I’m tired of hearing about it. Regardless of what happens on Sunday, New Orleans will wake up on Monday morning and still have work to do. Nothing’s going to change. The Super Bowl isn’t that big.

Personally, I’m rooting for the Saints. Not because I think it would mean anything to New Orleans or because I think the fans deserve it. As a fan I can honestly admit that I don’t deserve a damned thing. I’m rooting for New Orelans because they’re the underdog. I’m rooting for them because I like Drew Brees and Darren Sharper. I’m rooting for the Saints because Will Smith and Malcolm Jenkins used to play for the Buckeyes. Even so, I’m not emotionally invested in this game. If the Colts win, I won’t mind. I think they’re a great team and I like watching them play. Peyton Manning is, without question, the greatest quarterback to ever play the game and he’s fun to watch.

That’s why, even though I’d like to see the Saints win, I don’t believe they will. The Saints will be overcome with emotion. Part of that will be due to the fact that everybody wants to make a big deal out of what this game means to New Orleans; part of that will be because the Saints are here for the first time. The Saints will also be overcome by an onslaught. Peyton Manning is great at exposing weaknesses in opposing defenses and New Orleans is full of holes.

The Saints play an aggressive brand of defense that requires a lot of pressure on the QB and a lot of gambles by the defensive backs…all of which are factors that play into Peyton Manning’s hand. He’ll read their coverages and use the opportunistic nature of the Saints’ secondary to his advantage. Drew Brees might keep it interesting for a while and the score will be high, but I see the Colts winning by 10 points.

And after everything is said and done the only thing that will be true about this Super Bowl is that it was only a game.

Legacy of a Gunslinger

2010-01-25T09:44:00.001-08:00

I don’t want to pile on Brett Favre. He’s taken quite a bit of heat for the drama he created and he deserves that. He also deserves criticism for making yet another poor decision in a big game. People who defend him by saying that he’s always made plays with his arm need to stop. Sometimes you have to run. Great quarterbacks make great decisions. Not all the time, but when they count. Favre is the opposite.

But Favre was put in a tough spot by his coach who decided to try to confuse New Orleans by running too many people onto the field. Minnesota huddled up with 12 men and got nailed with a five yard penalty that pushed them out of field goal range. So it was “Chilly” who backed Favre into a corner and forced the issue for a big play.

It was also Adrian Peterson and his buttery fingers that kept the Saints in the game. No matter how great a team is, overcoming five turnovers is virtually impossible. Peterson contributed three of them.

And then you had the penalties, particularly in overtime. Vikings’ fans might cry foul over the nature of some of those calls but it was still a sloppy game on the part of the vaunted Vikings’ defense. The game shouldn’t have gone to overtime in the first place.

Still the Vikings had a chance to win it and in the end the game was in Favre’s hands. He rolled to his right, saw seven or eight yards he could have easily run and turned the game over to his kicker for an easy field goal. Instead, Favre threw across his body to a receiver who was clearly covered. Once again he made a poor decision and once again it cost his team a trip to the Super Bowl.

I don’t hate Favre for it. I don’t hate him for coming back. He loves to play and loves the spot light. He did the best he could. His effort has never been in question, but his decision making has. Favre decided to make a spectacle out of coming back. Don’t believe those who tell you the media did it, Favre carefully played the press to his advantage and milked it for all the attention it was worth. He wanted to play in Minnesota, partly because he knew the system and partly because he would steal the thunder from his old team, the one that decided it was time to move on. He desperately wanted the spotlight to shine on him and now, even though it’s revealed an aspect of his legacy that will, rightfully, always keep him off the very top of the list of all time greats, he has to live in its glare. At least for a while.

Favre belongs in the Hall of Fame. He consecutive games streak is almost reason enough, but then you have impressive numbers. He’s simply amassed mind-boggling statistics and, in spite of losing some big games, he’s been a winner. It’s hard to give one player credit for Super Bowl wins. I don’t like using that as a barometer of greatness. Super Bowls are team achievements. Failing to acknowledge that means that Trent Dilfer is as good as Peyton Manning because they have an equal number of Super Bowl rings; or arguing that Ben Roethlisberger is better than both because he has two. Then you’d have to downgrade Dan Marino to the bottom of the list because he didn’t win any. That’s just stupid.

Favre’s career has been impressive. He’s been fun to watch and when you factor in all of his toughness you have to rank him among some of the greatest football players of all time. But when you compare him to other quarterbacks you have to think about more than raw numbers. How did he do under pressure?

Four NFC Championship games have been decided in overtime. Brett Favre played in two of those games and lost both. It's not all his fault, but he had the ball in his hands with an opportunity to win both games and came up empty. That’s tough to overlook.

Vick's back?

2009-07-27T15:05:00.001-07:00

Michael Vick is not Adolph Hitler. I think that most people understand this, but nevertheless there are those who insist that he got off light and does not deserve to return to the NFL.

Whether or not he deserves to return to the NFL will be determined by several things, one is his playing ability. Vick has been out of football for two years. He hasn’t had access to the same athletic training and nutrition he had when he was chucking footballs for the Falcons. Vick’s going to have to earn a spot on a team if he wants to make a living as a football player.

He also has to find a team. That’s not going to be easy. Vick wasn’t exactly a great quarterback when he left. He was a remarkable athlete who resented the very appropriate criticism people in the know expressed regarding his abilities. His athleticism was never questioned but a lot of people wondered if he was a liability as a signal caller. Rather than honing his skills to dispel doubts, Vick pouted. The Falcons enjoyed some success without Vick which has a lot of people think that Vick might have been overrated. That’s a touch call because a lot has changed in Atlanta besides Vick’s departure. Still, Vick wasn’t exactly a joy to coach.

In addition to the dog fighting ring Vick was involved in, he also had some issues regarding substance abuse. A big part of the reason Vick didn’t get any leniency when he was sentenced is because he tested positive for marijuana while he was out on bond. He also had the airport security problem when his stash bottle was confiscated. Initial reports that the secret compartment smelled like pot were denied but the whole ordeal seemed like a cover up. A few hundred grand donated to the FOP can make minor charges go way. Especially when you’re dealing with residue and not the real deal

So Vick has baggage and teams aren’t going to want to check it. Did a year and a half of time behind bars help Vick put things in perspective? Did he check his massive ego? Is he willing to shut up and listen to his coaches? The NFL reinstated him but Vick is going to have to pass a lot of scrutiny if he wants to play. Teams are going to poke and prod him, looking for any sign of a public relations disaster. And if he does land a contract, a very modest contract by his standards, he will be on the shortest of leashes. One tantrum, public or private, and Vick will be cut.

It would probably be better for him to play in Canada. The CFL is the sort of league that makes guys like Vick look really good. He could win a Grey Cup or two and maybe set a few records. More importantly Vick would get more money. The CFL isn’t under the same microscope that the NFL is. Canadian fans aren’t going to be as passionate about Vick’s past. They’ll give him a second chance and a little more room to breathe.

Most fans in the US aren’t going to forgive him. For one thing, he’s black. Our society has a much harder time cutting black guys slack. Roger Clemen’s is a big a jerk as Barry Bonds and cheated just as much but baseball fans are more supportive of Roger. I’m not saying that they should give Barry a pass, the man is a jerk and should be reviled by all. The thing I’m saying is the Roger Clemens should be held in the same esteem.

Vick’s cut from the same cloth as both of those guys. He’s a gifted athlete who was spoiled because of his physical prowess. He grew up in the projects but Vick got breaks other kids didn’t because he could win games. He was never held accountable. Neither was his brother, Marcus, who eventually got in so much trouble Virginia Tech finally had to draw the line and cut him.

The NFL should probably draft a policy forbidding convicted felons from playing. I’m all for people getting second chances after they’ve paid their proverbial debts to society but the NFL is in the business of public relations. They don’t have to give second chances. Society at large does, but the NFL is different and should do a better job of insulating itself from troublemakers.

Vick also didn’t get off easy. They pretty much threw the book at him, but because our criminal justice system doesn’t see animal cruelty as that big a deal, the sentence seemed a little light. I’m not going to blame Vick for that. If we want tougher sentences for animal cruelty we need to write tougher laws. Vick’s just a guy who broke the law. He was punished in accordance with it. I think he deserves a chance to move on.

Because the NFL doesn’t have a no felony policy, they have no reason not to reinstate him. Some through Roger Goodell would harbor a grudge because Vick lied to him when the dog fighting allegations first hit the press, but who does Goodell think he is? He’s not Vick’s attorney or his priest. If Vick had been honest with Goodell Goodell could have been compelled to testify against him at trial. Goodell was an idiot for even asking Vick about the pending criminal investigation. He’s equally stupid for meeting with Ben Roethlisberger after the Steelers’ QB was accused of sexual assault via a civil action. Ben can’t answer Goodell’s questions honestly.

So Goodell did the right thing and reinstated Vick. He’s not guaranteeing Vick a $10 million contract or making him the poster boy for the leagues community outreach. Goodell is simply putting Vick’s future into the hands of Michael Vick and any team willing to sign him. He really didn’t have any other choice.

Missed it by that much

2009-07-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are calling Tom Watson’s showing at The Open Championship this past weekend one of the great moments in sports.

Bullshit.

If Tom Watson had won it might have been one of the great moments in golf, but even then I doubt it. Tiger Woods, still struggling to find his stroke after reconstructive surgery on his knee, didn’t make the cut and Phil Mickelson skipped the event to be with his wife. Neither of them are exactly suited for the course at Turnberry, which penalizes the more powerful golfers on the tour, but you have to figure that it’s a lot easier for a the rest of the field to relax when Tiger’s not poised to make a late charge up the leader board.

At the age of 59, Watson would have been the oldest major champion in the history of golf, a mark that would likely stand the test of time but, given the circumstances, only as a trivia question. Ultimately, Watson put such a discussion to bed by failing to make a clinching put and ultimately fading in a playoff.

The fact that he essentially choked robs Stewart Cink of the adulation some think he deserves for winning the event. The story of the day is Watson’s run. Cink just managed to be in the right place at the right time. Some sports writers are trying to bring the focus back on Cink but because of the bar Tiger Woods has set, if you don’t win multiple majors most people think you’re a fluke. Cink’s career seems to support that notion. He’s a solid tour veteran with six career wins in 352 events played. He’s a respectable money earner but not a winner. So until he backs up his first major with, at the very least, a couple of top five finishes in the next four he plays this was just a lucky break. Besides, the fact remains that Tom Watson was eight feet away from closing the deal. Cink doesn’t deserve that much credit. If he had put up a low number that Watson couldn’t chase then we’d have a feather to stick in his cap.

The great story everybody was following this weekend went unfinished. The carriage turned into a pumpkin and Tom Watson’s beautiful gown morphed back into rags, seconds before he caught the eye of the handsome prince. Golf is a sport of winners and Tom Watson simply didn’t win. He played a couple of nice rounds of golf but he wasn’t at his best when it mattered most. Second place isn’t good enough. Not when you’re trying to frame this as one of the greatest moments in sports history.

As far as history is concerned, Watson’s finish is only better than Tiger’s from an academic standpoint. He posted a better score and took home more money but that’s about it. People who think that we’ll be talking about this moment years from now are nuts. At next year’s Open it will be a big deal and whenever some geezer stumbles into contention Watson’s name might surface. Other than that it will become part of Turnberry’s history. The vast majority of golf fans have already moved on and the vast majority of sports fans, many of whom couldn’t care less about golf, lost interest when Tiger Woods went home. Tom Watson was just a blurb on ESPN to them.

No offense to Tom, it’s nice to see him take one of those big checks that didn’t exist in his heyday. He got a little taste of the Tiger era and I’m sure he enjoyed it but his place in history hasn’t changed and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Unless you’re the 18-0 New England Patriots, second place is always second tier.

Phat Albert is juicing!

2009-07-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

You’ve heard it here first: Albert Pujols is on steroids.

I have no facts to support that claim and I’m not going to even try to prove that statement. It’s a pessimistic theory based on my belief that most professional athletes are willing to go to great lengths in order to be successful.

I realize that not everybody with muscles is on steroids. I realize that there are people out there who are just freaks of nature. I also believe that a freak of nature can take steroids and/or human growth hormone to enhance their abilities to even freakier levels, like 32 home runs at the all star break for instance.

People will get angry with me for making such a statement. They might even question my journalistic integrity, but I’m a guy writing a blog right now, not a journalist. I am an officer of the court of public opinion. It’s my duty to rush to judgment.

Major League Baseball is proud of its drug program and fans actually believe that the game has been cleaned up. They’re buying A-Rod’s story that he dabbled in steroids because he was young and stupid and give him the benefit of the doubt today. I think A-Rod’s still taking them. He makes enough money to get his hands on the really good stuff--the undetectable drugs that BALCO used to crank out before they got greedy and left their fingerprints behind for the FBI. Marion Jones never tested positive for steroids even though she admitted to taking them. She passed the International Olympic Committee's tests. Tests that make Major League Baseball’s drug program look like a Facebook quiz.

And that’s the real reason I think Pujols is on the juice. Major League Baseball wants him on it. They want all their players on it because homeruns sell tickets. Triple crown winners sell tickets. Without steroids, baseball would look a lot like it did 25 years ago. A couple of beefy sluggers surrounded by skinny guys from Latin America.

Maintaining 240 pounds of solid muscle isn’t hard to do if that’s all you have to do, but combine that responsibility with the rigors of playing 162 games and it’s virtually impossible. When do these guys have time to recover? If they’re taking steroids they don’t need to.

Even though I watched Manny Ramirez get bigger each year, he was the last person I figured would be a juicer. It’s not that he demonstrated a great deal of integrity, but he’s just such a flake I never would have pegged him for taking an interest. It turns out I was wrong.

It didn’t shock me, because as stupid as Manny seems to be the guy does love his cash and in the sports world steroids can mean an extra $10 million in guaranteed money. If Manny connected the dots, he’d take steroids and if Manny can see the logic in taking them so can Albert.

I’d love for him to prove me wrong, but unless he enters the Tour de France and passes their battery of drug tests I don’t know how he can. Barry Bonds insisted that he never took steroids and dared people to prove it, then they’d offer to test his urine and he’d be too busy, or he'd object to the spirit of the test. His name was linked to the BALCO investigation that sent Marion Jones to prison by way of perjury and if Victor Conti ever gets tired of stewing behind bars Bonds could do a few years as well. So it’s not hard to believe that Albert’s sitting on a dirty little secret too.

I’ll admit that I’m taking an easy position. If Albert tests positive for steroids in the next few years I’ll be able to point to this and people can pat me on the back for having the balls to stand up and claim something stank. If he never tests positive I can act like he got lucky, or blame the wide world of sports for fueling my righteous skepticism. I can’t lose.

So what’s the point? The point is I don’t want to be this way. I’d like to see all the major sports take a hard stance against steroids. In cycling athletes are suspended if they are simply associated with cheating. They don’t have to test positive. If Lance Armstrong’s dentist is dealing HGH on the side Lance gets banned. During the Tour de France, and a number of other events, cyclists are being tested every couple of days. In the Olympics test are conducted before, during and after the games. Doping is taken very seriously and violators aren’t suspended for a few weeks or even a few months; it’s years. There’s no warning. Test positive one time and you sit out for two years, test positive again and you’re done.

In the NFL players get slapped with a four game suspension if they test positive for steroids. There are 280 pound defensive ends running the 40 yard dash in 4.6 seconds but the NFL feels its testing policy is adequate. They feel that a 4 game suspension is enough to discourage steroid use. Really? How discouraging is it when a guy can test positive for steroids and sign a contract extension six weeks later?

Baseball’s 50 game suspension sounds pretty stiff but it’s not much more severe than the NFL’s. Manny missed about a third of the season but he got to sharpen his skills at the minor league level during that period. Now he’s back, the Dodgers are favored to win the NL West and Manny’s probably going to bat cleanup in the postseason. At his age, the 50 games off are probably beneficial. Oh, and Manny will still make more money this year than most people will earn in three lifetimes.

The way it’s structured, athletes are stupid not to take steroids. The testing procedures are laughable and the penalties for people stupid enough to get caught are minor. With the kind of money being throw around, why not?

So, yeah, I think Albert Pujols is on steroids. Prove me wrong.

Touch 'em all time

2009-06-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

Say No to Shaq…

Rumors abound that Danny Ferry is working the phones in order to hammer out a deal to bring Shaq to Cleveland. After watching the Cavaliers struggle against Orlando, a team that was soundly spanked by the Lakers in the Finals, Ferry knows that there are still pieces missing from the championship puzzle.

Shaq, however, isn’t going to fit. Not anymore. Shaq is a 37 year-old child who can no longer deliver big minutes and if the East is going to run through Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic you need a big man who can work his butt off for 40 minutes a night. That’s not Shaq. He is no longer the most dominant force in the league. And he wants a contract extension. 20 millions bucks for one season is bad enough, but 3? Not on your life.

The Lakers have a lot of tall guys but nobody would describe them as “big.” Most often you hear the term “long” applied to them. Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol are lanky guys with a lot of athleticism. They’re considered to be finesse players but they are physical enough to keep things honest in the paint. Cleveland’s “big” men aren’t agile enough to be labeled as “finesse” players but neither Zydrunas Ilgauskas nor Anderson Varejao has the marbles to get nasty down low. Anderson will flail around in hopes of drawing a foul, but that tactic backfires in big games. While he’s laying on the floor begging for the call, his opponent is throwing down a nasty two-handed jam. Z doesn’t even try to front people. He’s too slow, too weak and too cowardly to own the paint. When Z encounters physical contact he retreats.

A stronger presence in the paint would help the Cavaliers immensely but what killed them against Orlando was perimeter defense. They simply let Orlando get too many open looks at the basket. Even when the defenders got out in time, they were too short to get hands in the faces of shooters. Shaq isn’t going to change that. Moving LeBron around when he doesn’t have the ball might have gotten the Cavs past Orlando. Shaq and his slow motion attack will not.

The News that Isn’t….

People suspected Sammy Sosa of taking steroids all along. Like Mark McGwire, Sosa grew from a muscular baseball player in the early 1990s into a cartoonish representation of a comic book superhero.

The burning question is how it will affect his hall of fame credentials. He’ll get a number of votes when he’s eligible, outnumbering McGwire because Sosa didn’t pull the same disappearing act Big Mac did when the scandal broke, but Sosa did sit in front of congress and pretend he didn’t speaka de Ingles. He was overshadowed by Andro man saying that he didn’t want to talk about the past and Raphael Palmeiro’s umbrage over being called out by a liar like Jose Canseco, but Sosa never did come clean.

Most of the writers who vote “no” on him will justify it the same way the justified voting no on McGwire. Aside from raw power, his numbers just aren’t that impressive. Although Sosa was a better all around player than McGwire. Sosa stole bases and was a solid defensive player in addition to being a beast at the plate. Like Mac, Sosa struck out a lot but power hitters often miss.

No matter what anybody says, steroids will keep him out because power is the one thing people draw a straight line to when steroids are the issue. Roger Clemens might manage to get in because people have a harder time believing that steroids provide that much of an advantage to pitchers.

Sports writers won’t give that as a reason. They’ll claim that they aren’t experts on steroids and physiology but the reality is that nobody is in a better position to become an expert on the subject than a person who gets paid to report on these issues.

And there’s who you get to blame for the steroid problem. Sports writers. These guys were in the locker rooms. They had access to all of this for the 25 years the steroid era unfolded. They ignored it. They put their heads in the sand and refused to ask questions. It wasn’t until a slightly more inquisitive reporter spotted a bottle of a substance banned by the NFL and the International Olympic Committee in McGwire’s locker that the whole issue of steroids in baseball started to shake loose. Do you really think he was the first guy to see that stuff?

Like Sands in the Hour Glass….

Brett Favre wanted out of Green Bay so he could play for his buddy Brad Childress in Minnesota. He just lacked the guts and the integrity to say it out loud. Favre needs people to love him and he knew that turning his back on loyal fans in Green Bay would result in a lot of people not loving him.

So he worked the system. He retired and unretired. He pouted. He whined. He called press conferences where he pouted and whined. He publically discussed private conversations with “friends” in order to validate himself in the eyes of football fans.

His most recent exploits were cleverly orchestrated. To Favre’s most loyal fans it looks like the media simply hounded him but to those who have seen how egomaniacal celebrities manipulate the media, it’s obvious that Favre kept the spotlight on himself.

The Vikings deserve him and his massive ego. They also deserve the three interception he’ll throw in the second half of the divisional playoff game that they will lose to Arizona in January. They deserve the disarray that Favre will leave them in after he quits again. Favre eventually will get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and he deserves that. He also deserves to be remembered as a guy who spent the last 8 or 9 years of his career selfishly padding his stats so he would get in.

Not that you care….

Can’t leave out the NHL when you give the other sports space, right? Well here’s two things:

1. The whole Sydney Crosby handshake drama is stupid. He’s a young punk who won his first Championship against a heavily favored opponent on their home ice. He was excited. He celebrated for a while. Maybe he wanted to rub it in the noses of those insufferably arrogant Red Wings fans. So what? He did eventually line up to shake hands. If that wasn’t quick enough for some of the Red Wings who were sore about handing the Stanley Cup to the Penguins too frickin’ bad. You don’t have to wait for Crosby to stop patting himself on the back but also don’t go to the media and whine about being snubbed. Be a man, take your medicine and get even next year. The Red Wings should wear pink next year.

2. The Columbus Blue Jackets don’t like their lease arrangement and they’ve mentioned that they might have to move if they don’t get a better deal. The company that owns the Nationwide Arena (and also has an incestuous relationship with the ownership of the team) is willing to sell the arena to Franklin County which would allow the county to negotiate more favorable terms. Smart people know that this is a scam. Voters didn’t want to foot the bill for Nationwide Arena when it was built and they don’t want to buy it now. Interestingly, this gambit comes on the heels of the Jackets’ first foray into the post season. They most have been hoping that the 2000 fans they won over this year would be concerned.

Joe-LEEEEN! Come git me the clicker!

For those of you wondering why I didn’t mention NASCAR. It’s still boring, it’s still not a sport and I still think NASCAR fans are creepy inbred freaks who should be kept in specialized holding pens. Or we could just seal the doors at WalMart the next time they have one of those big holiday sales.

Slumping Tiger

2009-06-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Tiger Woods stormed through the final round at The Memorial in Columbus, Ohio posting a seven under 65 and watching anybody who had a chance to beat him choke. He played brilliantly finishing with two birdies on two of the more difficult holes on the course. A course that plays more like a major than one of the fun events leading up to one. Some people take that as a sign that Tiger has emerged from a post-injury slump, others think that Tiger just got himself into the zone.

It’s interesting how people are responding to Tiger’s struggles. He’s the top-ranked golfer in the world in spite of missing two majors and the FedEx cup playoffs after limping his way to a win at the US Open last summer in Torrey Pines. He underwent reconstructive surgery on his knee and started hitting the links a few weeks before the Masters where he struggled to a sixth place finish.

In seven starts Woods has two wins and six top 10 finishes. He’s also fourth in the FedEx cup standings. Still people are looking to the US Open to see if Tiger’s back. If he wins people will say that he is fully recovered and credit him for shaking off the rust. If he loses they’ll shake their heads and wonder if he’ll get back into form this year. There are even those who think that he’s done. His body has broken down and Tiger is destined for a life of mediocrity on bad knees.

What’s funny is the fact that Tiger’s slump would be a career year for 80% of the golfers on tour. Jim Furyk has played in 12 events, won none and posted 6 top 10 finishes. He is 13th in the FedEx cup standings. Furyk didn’t win an event last year and since 2005 he has only posted 4 wins. Tiger won 4 last year alone, in just six events. Phil Mickelson is the second ranked player in the world and has two wins in 10 events this year. He’s sixth in the FedEx standings and has posted five top 10 finishes. Good, but Phil’s not on the mend. He doesn’t have an upside.

The point is that this slump Tiger is in would be a welcome streak of good fortune for even some of the most respected names in golf. Tiger’s not even a year removed from his surgery and most experts agree that it takes at least a year to fully recover. Even though his knee is stable enough to handle tournament play, it’s still going to be a few months before Tiger’s knee is restored to its full strength and range of motion.

It’s amazing how spoiled we are. The standard to which we hold Tiger Woods is by far and away much higher than the standard we hold the rest of the gold world to. After his second place finish to Tiger at The Memorial, Furyk was informed that he was the “low mortal” that day. It was a sentiment that Furyk didn’t take issue with.

But Tiger’s not a god. It’s easy to think that he is. It’s easy to shrug your shoulders and give him his due for having so much talent but talent isn’t what separates Tiger from the field. Tiger’s not better because his dad stuck a club in his hands when he was three. A lot of guys on tour have been golfing since they could walk. Phil Mickelson swings left-handed because when he was a country club brat who used to mirror his dad’s swing. He was a prodigy too, we don’t hear as much about it because Phil’s not as good. Phil didn’t storm into the PGA by blowing away the field at the Masters. Phil hasn’t won 14 majors. Nobody, except for Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods has done that. Only three golfers have posted double digit wins in majors and Tiger’s the only one still active. No other active player is close.

The difference is how Tiger handled his win last weekend. He had his coach there to critique his performance and instead of staying up all night celebrating his triumph, Tiger hopped an early flight to Long Island and had Haney coach him up for the US Open. The guy just outworks everybody. His personal trainer (how many other PGA golfers have one?) believes that Tiger’s fitness level is on par with the best athletes in the world.

He’s probably flattered that people are concerned about his game. He clearly sets the bar pretty high for himself so it’s logical to assume that he doesn’t mind when others hold him to his own standards, but why let the rest of the PGA off the hook? Why pat Jim Furyk on the back when he bogies away a chance to beat Tiger at The Memorial and tell him it was a good effort? Jim’s a big boy. He’s a professional golfer. Dammit, Jim, beat that guy or hang it up 0 wins in two years in unacceptable. The same goes for Phil, Vijay, Garcia, Els and anybody else who wants to make a living on the PGA Tour. If you aren’t willing to do what it takes to give Tiger a run for his money, stop wasting everybody’s time.

When Tiger confirmed he was a go for The Memorial, the phones rang off the hook. People in Columbus support their local PGA event but when Tiger shows up, as is the case with any event, everybody wants to go. It’s not because he’s prettier than other golfers, nor is it because of his sunny disposition. People watch Tiger because they know he’s the best. 30 years from now people will still talk about him.

When Tiger finally does retire, the PGA is in big trouble. Tournament purses have increased over the past 10 years thanks in large part to Tiger Woods. His popularity has inspired greater interest in the game and that has triggered more revenue. If other golfers don’t start attacking the game with the same tenacity people will quickly lose interest.

And maybe that’s the problem. Top 10 finishes pay too damned much. Golfers are too content to settle for second best because there’s often a five or six figure check attached to it. Plus you have the sympathy factor: there’s no shame in being beaten by Tiger, he’s just too good. Other athletes don’t accept those condolences. Dwight Howard isn’t going to take solace in the fact that the Lakers are a more talented team. When the Magic eventually lose he is going to fume over a blown opportunity all summer long.

For most professional athletes second place is worse than finishing dead last. If you finish last you can’t be haunted by one or two mistakes. All you can do is go back to the drawing board and get better. When you come in second you lay awake in bed replaying those free throws you missed that would have put you up by 5, or the pass you dropped for a first down, or that hanging curveball you could have blooped into right field for the go-ahead RBI. For some reason, professional golfers don’t seem to view second place as the turd sandwich everybody else in the sports world sees it as.

The rest of the PGA missed a golden opportunity when Tiger was hobbled. Somebody could have emerged from the pack to take ownership of the Tour. Instead of wondering if Tiger’s going to emerge from his slump we should probably be asking why he’s still the best golfer in the world. How can a guy just seven events into coming back from major knee surgery be leading the pack rather than chasing after it? People shouldn’t be concerned about Tiger, it’s the rest of the PGA that’s hurting.

Next Year

2009-06-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

As a life long Cleveland Sports fan I don’t even have to say it. Wait until next year is embedded in my DNA. In spite of the fact that the Cavaliers dominated the NBA this year, deep down inside I knew that they weren’t going to win it all. It’s simply impossible.

Cleveland’s last major sports championship was delivered in 1964 by the Browns. That was a full six years before I was born and since it was also before NFL and AFL merged, it doesn’t count.

The Indians managed to get to the World Series twice in 1995 and again in 1997. They gave the Atlanta Braves a long awaited title by going cold in ‘95 and just gave away the series to the Marlin’s in ’97. I knew it would happen. It was exciting to get to that level but I knew the Indians were going to lose. As a Clevelander I can’t conceive of anything else. The Drive; The Fumble; The Shot; The stupid trade that sent Ron Harper and two first round picks to the Clippers for Danny Ferry and a bag of stale peanuts people called Reggie Williams…if I ever want to back a winner I’m going to have to pick another team.

I’ve had people try to console me with Ohio State but that’s no good. It’s not that same. College Football doesn’t even have a true National Championship and I’m not that big a fan of college sports anyway. There’s too much corruption and it’s hard for me to look the other way. I prefer my greed upfront where I can see it. Besides, Jim Tressel creeps me out. I also hate Buckeye fans. Living in Columbus will do that. OH indeed.

In spite of the setback against Orlando, a series I had hoped wouldn’t happen, the Cavaliers still represent the best hope for a title. The Cleveland Browns had hired an idiot for a head coach and will likely be rebuilding again in three years. The Indians also have an idiot running the show and Major League Baseball shamelessly stacks the deck in favor of large market teams. So the Indians, like most baseball teams, are essentially a farm team that gets a bite at the apple if they manage to get prospects to produce before they get lured away with big contracts. Meanwhile Boston, New York and LA just keep spending that money. I don’t even like baseball anymore. Even if the Indians were doing well I don’t think I’d care because I can’t allow myself to identify with the players.

The Cavaliers will retain LeBron James. In spite of the fact that there is still a paucity of talent on the team, Danny Ferry has done a great job in finding help and Cleveland will have some money to spend. Rumors are circulating that Ben Wallace is set to retire, freeing up more than $14 million under the cap. Wally Szczerbiak is a free agent this year which means his $14 million will be available as well.

The concern in free agency for the Cavs is Anderson Varejao, who begrudgingly signed his contract after holding out a season ago. He can opt out if he likes and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him test the waters, but Danny Ferry doesn’t want to overpay. Anderson brings a lot of energy to the table but he doesn’t provide much in the way of consistency and he needs to hit the gym to become a more physical presence in the post. Cleveland really needed to knock Dwight Howard around in that series but they didn't have anybody who could.

LeBron James isn’t stupid. He knows that the New York Knicks won’t offer any more of a title shot than the Cavs do. Even if he does go to New York and grabs a couple of rings, it won’t be the same. He’ll be a mercenary who let somebody buy him title, rather than earning his legacy the way Jordan did. Moreover, New Yorkers won’t hold him in the same esteem that Cleveland fans will. In New York LeBron would be one of many vaunted sports heroes. His popularity would fade with his skills. In Cleveland LeBron would be adored long after his playing days are behind him. Under the NBA’s salary cap, no other team can offer him more money and because of the global marketplace, New York and LA aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

So what does that mean? It means that Danny Ferry needs to get busy. Encourage Ben Wallace to call it a career and let Varejao shop around. Go out and see if you can pry Big Baby away from Boston, and find out if Lamar Odom is tried of catering to Kobe’s ego in LA. Ron Artest seems to have matured over the past several years and his defensive skills would fit nicely in Mike Brown’s scheme.

It might not be a bad idea to shop some players around. Delonte West should be commended for his effort, and Mo Williams was money from the perimeter until the Orlando series but do the Cavs really need two starting point guards? Especially when the offense runs through James? The Cavaliers were killed by Orlando’s height. In order for Williams and West to get a hand in the faces of Orlando’s shooters they had to leave their feet which is a fundamental mistake.

Before Cleveland starts addressing needs they must answer one question: what is LeBron James. The biggest problem Cleveland had against Orlando was that it couldn’t decide whether LeBron James is a forward or a point guard. On paper they seem to think of him as a forward but as the game goes on he plays the point. And he should. He’s the best passer on the team. When he has the ball in his hands he forces defenses to respond to him and that creates opportunities. Magic Johnson was 6’9” and played the point, why not LeBron?

The Cavs didn’t struggle offensively against Orlando, what killed them was defense. That’s because Mo Williams and Delonte West were giving up nearly a foot to Orlando’s lanky shooters. Off the bench the Cavs often brought in Daniel Gibson who is also diminutive by NBA standards. The Cavs just couldn’t stop Orlando and the Magic aren’t going anywhere. Cleveland and Orlando are going to rule the east for years to come and right now Orlando just has Cleveland’s number. Danny Ferry needs to build this team to beat them.

The Cavs need a true big man. They need a tall guard and some depth on the bench. It’s not rocket science, but Danny Ferry and Mike Brown need to figure out how they want to deploy LeBron. If you’re going to run the offense through him, cut a point guard loose and get a true small forward. If you want LeBron to settle in as a 3, get him a real shooting guard who can match up on bigger guards. Until they decide on LeBron’s role, it’s going to be hard to find the right pieces and harder still to claim that title.

Manny being Manny

2009-05-08T10:34:00.001-07:00

I heard Buster Olney on the radio this morning talking about Manny Ramirez. Buster was whining about the fact that players like Manny Ramirez are essentially ruining baseball. He claimed that Manny was hurting other players by casting all of baseball under the steroid shadow. He cited an unnamed general manager who allegedly voiced concern that Manny, by signing a fat contract, was being rewarded for cheating.

I don’t disagree with Buster or his mysterious GM confidant, but Manny didn’t victimize Joe Torre or the Dodgers’ organization. Both parties entered that deal with eyes wide open. Just because the Dodgers didn’t want to ask why Manny was still such a beast at the plate even though he’ll be 37 in this month doesn’t mean Manny tricked them. Just because Joe Torre says he doesn’t want to believe that steroids are the norm doesn’t mean he actually believes it.

If the Dodgers, or any team, really cared about steroids they’d include anti-steroid clauses in the contracts, but nobody does that. If Major League baseball really cared about steroids they’d implement the same testing policies and procedures used by the International Olympic Committee.

The reality of the issue is that steroids are good for baseball. Getting caught is bad, but as long as players can stay ahead of the tests and beat the system, everybody’s happy. The proof is in the salary structure. Manny Ramirez got caught cheating. He trotted out that sorry “medical condition” excuse, but didn’t see fit to appeal his case to Major League Baseball.

Now it’s possible that Manny really was receiving treatment for a “personal” medical condition that he doesn’t want to talk about. Maybe he wants to get pregnant. But it’s interesting that about five minutes after the announcement was made, investigators identified the drug he tested positive for and experts immediately connected it to steroid use. It turns out that the practice of using female fertility drugs to stimulate testosterone production after a steroid cycle is pretty old school.

According to reports, Manny tested positive for elevated testosterone, which prompted further investigation. That yielded paperwork that connected Manny to hCG, which is similar to a designer drug that was at the middle of the BALCO investigation. This drug is used often enough for performance enhancing purposes that it is listed as a banned substance. Ergo, Manny is a cheater.

What people need to grow up and realize is that Manny is not the exception, he is the rule. There’s too much money being thrown around for these guys not to cheat, especially when the testing procedures are wanting and the penalties aren’t stiff enough. The IOC issues two year suspensions for doping and people still try to beat the system. The Tour de France is also strict but that doesn’t stop dozens of the world’s best bicyclists from taking their chances.

And we haven’t even talked about football. College and professional football players defy logic but for some reason we don’t connect them to steroids unless they fail the NFL’s testing procedure. Former players have called the test a joke, but because they admitted to cheating they are deemed unreliable and their claims are dismissed, but consider this: wide receivers and defensive backs are among the greatest athletes in the world, yet none of them ever compete in international track and field events. Why is that?

Perhaps the NFL doesn’t want players to miss summer workouts, but you’d think that letting a star receiver skip the preseason to represent his country at the Summer Games would reflect positively on the league. Surely none of the franchises would object to allowing a player to take some time off to pursue a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Still, we haven’t seen a prominent NFL player participate in an Olympic event since Willie Gault joined the US bobsled team more than 20 years ago. Maybe that’s just a coincidence.

Maybe Manny’s telling the truth. Maybe A-Rod is too and Barry Bonds never tested positive for steroids, did he? Perhaps we should take them all at their word. Never mind the bulging biceps and 30 pounds of solid muscle that magically appeared in an offseason. Forget about the fact that a 36 year-old veteran is playing with the vim and vigor of a 20 year-old rookie. Ignore the logic that says people shouldn’t be coming back from surgery in four or five weeks.

Just don’t complain when the next superstar tests positive.

Queen Favre

2009-05-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

I wouldn’t care about Bret Favre and his latest drama queen moment if it was not painfully obvious that he just wants to spite the Green Bay Packers. Even if he ultimately decides to stay retired, there’s far too much attention being paid to this saga. I’m convinced the Favre, through his minions, has orchestrated this.

It would have been entirely possible for all of this, the discussions with Vikings officials, to go on under the radar. Even after Favre asked for and was granted his release from New York, keeping his intentions secret would be easy.

Most celebrities, be they high-profile professional athletes or high-profile actors, have fragile egos. They get used to being the center of attention and when they perceive that they are being marginalized they do things to draw attention to themselves. Pop princesses might be inclined to shave their heads and go clubbing without panties, aging actors might cheat on their wives with girls half their age and athletes often stage press conferences. Santonio Holmes decided to reveal his drug-dealing childhood when the Super Bowl media focused on Big Ben and Kurt Warner, now Bret Favre is waffling on his retirement.

I wrote about Favre’s drama last year. I felt then that he was out of line and I believe that. He’s got every right to be unretired. He’s got every right to play where he wants but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. Last year he put the Packers in a tough spot and they opted move on. They just didn’t feel that Bret Favre was the right fit at the time. As great as Favre has been, teams are built around continuity. You have to know who your quarterback is year in and year out if you want to be successful. With Favre Green Bay was getting a question mark.

Favre was upset because the Packers didn’t roll out the red carpet and sound the horns when he announced his desire to return. He demanded his release but the Packers still had rights to him and figured they’d broker is itch to come back for a little bit of value. If anything they could keep Favre from signing with a divisional rival and stirring up bad blood within the organization.

Favre wanted to play for the Vikings. He thinks he’s pals with Brad Childress and the Vikings need a quarterback. Some people believe that the Vikings are a good QB away from a serious playoff run. Others aren’t so optimistic. It’s also pretty obvious that Favre is no longer a good quarterback. He’s slightly above average on his better days but he still has a tendency to self-destruct when it matters most. He did that last year, throwing interceptions as the Jets squandered their opportunity to get to the playoffs.

Favre’s apologists will say that Favre wasn’t the only reason the Jets fell apart and even if he was the main reason, he was injured. Bull shit. If Favre was injured to the degree that his performance was a detriment to the team he should have stepped aside. A true professional needs to know when they’re doing more harm than good, but Favre’s more caught up in his consecutive games played streak than his fans are. Favre’s ego won’t let him take a seat when common sense tells him to.

In addition the way he finished the season, Favre also alienated his teammates by behaving like some sort of prima donna. Several Jets’ players came forward and said good riddance to Bret when he decided to call it a career (again). They talked about how he didn’t participate in meetings, drills or other organized team functions. Favre had his own little room, a fortress of solitude if you will, where he hid from essential contact.

Perhaps that’s because Favre really didn’t want to play in New York. What he really wanted was another bite at getting to the Super Bowl and after his interception in overtime cost the Packers that opportunity two years ago he figured his best shot was with them. But he waited too long and the team decided it was best to move on.

His goal at that point was not to win a Super Bowl, but to stick it to his former team. How dare they? He’s Bret Favre, master of the universe. He’d show them. He’d sign with the Vikings so he could remain close enough to Green Bay to listen to the fans call into the sports talk shows and rip the Packers for letting their icon slip away. He thinks that the fans will be on his side because he thinks he’s bigger than the Packers. He wants to go to Minnesota to prove it to everyone.

Bret Favre is a selfish jerk who doesn’t even know how to pronounce his own name. He’s always been that way, but it was easier to overlook when he was younger because he overcame his personality flaws with raw athletic talent. His ego was bruised and now he wants to settle the score, so he’s engaging in very public talks with his former team’s biggest rival. He wants to see them squirm. He’s like that girl you dated in high school who went to the prom with your best friend after you dumped her.

If Brad Childress is willing to kiss Favre’s ass in the right places and make him feel appreciated, Favre will come back for another season. He will gleefully don a Vikings uniform and walk onto the frozen tundra of Lambeau field, expecting a warm welcome from all those fans who adored him all those years. Showing up Green Bay’s front office means more to Favre than winning a Super Bowl, but Packers’ fans aren’t that gullible. By now even they can see Favre for what he is and they’ve got to be glad that he’s no longer holding their team hostage with his childish behavior.

Childress is an idiot if he signs Favre, just like your best friend is the idiot for agreeing to take your ex to the prom. Favre’s not interested in the Vikings or their fans. His eyes are always going to be on Green Bay to see if they’re noticing him. Favre will end up hurting the Vikings more than they know. Even if Favre did have the right intentions there is the pesky little issue of his performance. Do the Vikings really want to watch Favre break their heart in the post season with ill-advised throws into double coverage?

It’s a low class move on Favre’s part. In spite of the way things ended up, Green Bay, the team and the fans, treated him like a king for most of his career. Regardless of what he does he will always be remembered as a Packer but if he goes through with this and signs with the Vikings his legacy in Green Bay will be tainted forever. Football is a business and ultimately fans put aside their personal feelings and accept it. 49ers fans understood why Jerry Rice and Joe Montana had to move on, but Rice and Montana didn’t sign with divisional rivals to spite the organization. If Favre signs with Minnesota he will have made it personal and every bit of goodwill he has earned with the fans will be exhausted.

Big 10 gets no credit for Sparty's success.

2009-04-06T10:12:00.001-07:00

With Michigan State and North Carolina facing each other for the NCAA Championship tonight it would seem that the joke is on the mighty Big East. All of the experts spent the last two months of the season lauding the Big East and convincing the rest of us that the Big 10 and the ACC weren’t all that good. OK. Never mind the fact that the Big10 and the ACC faced the Big East head-to-head and won convincingly, and lets not carp over the fact that the Big East is home to half the teams in college basketball and logic would dictate that a few of them would be pretty good; the fact remains that the Big East did send two teams to the Final Four. That’s impressive. Seriously, it really is.

And while the Big 10 isn’t exactly playing tether ball, it’s tough to watch conference play. Michigan State is a tough team because they won a conference that seems to view basketball the way Jim Naismith did when he invented it: as a way to keep footballers in shape. Players routinely get mauled in the Big 10 and it results in ugly slugfest games with really low scores. It also creates the illusion that the Big 10 isn’t talented enough to face quality opposition deep in the NCAA Tournament. Michigan State, regardless of the outcome tonight, has proven that theory invalid.

Of course that doesn’t mean that the Big Ten should pat itself on the back for a job well done. I’m a Big 10 fan. That is to say that I was pulling for Michigan State the whole way. I wanted that rest of the Big 10 to do well too, but I really like Tom Izzo and I felt that a deep run in this tournament would finally get him the national recognition he deserves. The guy is a great coach and deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as Jim Calhoun, Rick Pitino and Coach K. By advancing to the championship game, Izzo accomplishes that. I hope he wins it all, but that’s just icing on the cake. Michigan State’s got a lot to be proud of.

The Big 10, doesn’t deserve Tom Izzo. Fans don’t deserve the Big 10. Tough play is one thing, but that doesn’t mean the games should be tough to watch. The Big 10 needs to revamp its officiating crew and do something to open the games up. Against UConn Michigan State ran. Nobody knew that Izzo’s team could run the floor that way but the Spartans used the fast break to gain an edge over UConn. The Huskies seemed confused by it, the announcers were impressed and the analysts were dumbfounded. Where did Sparty get his jets?

It’s not that Michigan State couldn’t run, for some reason it doesn’t happen in the Big 10. Not enough. Officiating crews seem to give defenses the benefit of the doubt so teams get away with the physical plays (fouls) that other conferences frown on. Moreover, the offense doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt on traveling, screens and pick and roll plays. There seems to be a conspiracy afoot to keep scoring minimal and the pace of the game slow. So the Big 10 regular season is like an 18 game boot camp. It’s the reverse of everywhere else in sports where rules are tweaked to increase offensive production.

I enjoy college basketball but I don’t watch much regular season play and I rarely bother with the Big 10. I keep track of the box scores and read the game recaps, but I have trouble watching. It’s just so boring. I’ve heard people say that it’s real basketball because teams play tough zone defense and there’s a lot of half court action, but that’s just something people say. It’s inferior basketball and people shouldn’t feel obligated to watch it.

It’s not just the officials. Schools like Penn State, Northwestern and Wisconsin aren’t talented enough to play more the more up-tempo games. They just don’t recruit the kind of players who can run up and down the court night after night and average 80 points per game. So those teams have to resort to brute force. Tom Izzo joked that he blames Woody and Bo for the “Three yards and a cloud of dust” mentality that permeates the entire conference. It was funny, but had a ring of truth.

Perhaps the answer isn’t in tweaking the officiating, but maybe some thought should be given to eliminating more of the conference games. Why should Michigan State have to play Iowa and Penn State twice? Drop a few of those games off the schedule and let the more competitive teams in the conference schedule more non-conference games.

That’s not to say that all of the Big 10 players are inferior, they’re just forced to play that way most of the year. Now that they’re out from under the suffocating blanket of Big 10 officiating, Michigan State is flying high and has a chance to win a title. North Carolina will be a tough test, but it’s going to be fun to watch, mostly because you can’t be sure what to expect out of Michigan State. That’s how they beat UConn and Louisville, neither one of those teams was ready for the incarnation of Michigan State that took the floor against them.

There are Big 10 apologists who would turn that logic back on me and ask why the Big 10 would want to change if their tactics helped Michigan State fool the field. It’s a fair point, but too often it doesn’t work that way. Sometimes the Big 10 is caught flat-footed and unable to keep up with running teams. Let’s not forget that while Michigan State is enjoying a great run, a number of other Big 10 entries failed miserably. Notably, Ohio State looked lethargic in their first round game against a smallish Siena team and even if you could point to consistent tournament success you’re still stuck with the snooze factory that is the regular season. Is it really worth the empty seats and dwindling television audiences?

Perhaps it would be if the Big 10 made more Final Four appearances or tucked a few more titles under its belt, but most of the time the Big 10 falls short of achieving the benchmarks that would mitigate that way its regular season games are played.

It’s something to think about tonight. If Michigan State wins I’m going to be mad at the Big 10 for stifling them all year, if they lose I’ll wonder if they would have fared better had they been able to run a little more during the regular season. The Big 10 can’t win. I only hope that Michigan State can.

This isn't your father's NCAA

2009-03-31T10:49:00.001-07:00

When Billy Gillispie eschewed a happy home at UTEP for the allegedly prestigious trappings of Kentucky I thought he was making a big mistake. After just two seasons, Kentucky pulled the plug on Gillispie and they seem poised to lure John Calipari away from Memphis. This is a big mistake for Kentucky. Calipari is too in love with himself to pass up the job. He’ll go to Kentucky, act like he’s god and in about four years he’s going to realize that Kentucky’s trustees and boosters aren’t willing to change their ways.

Gillispie was in the middle of rebuilding the Kentucky program to succeed in the modern era of college basketball. That’s where teams embrace the so-called one-and-done players who only play in college because the NBA insists that they wait a year before joining the league. Old school coaches want to establish continuity and recruit upstanding citizens who believe in the school and want to play for four years. That’s a formula that just isn’t working. Just ask Duke about it.

Granted North Carolina and UConn are in the Final Four and they feature allegedly old school coaches as well as players who seem committed to the names on the front of the jerseys, and Michigan State managed to bully its way into the picture with a bunch of guys that probably don’t pique the interest of most NBA scouts. While it’s true that experience goes a long way in the tournament, athleticism matters too. Experience doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the athletes to get you there. So balance is the key. Coaches can’t focus entirely on NBA ready talent, but they shouldn’t limit themselves to players who have to spend four years in college either.

By all accounts, Billy Gillispie was doing a good job as far as recruiting, but because Tubby Smith tried to recruit four year players who wanted the honor of playing for a storied program, Gillispiie faced the challenge of opening doors that Kentucky simply hadn’t knocked on before. Players are committing to programs earlier and earlier. For some reason the NCAA doesn’t see a problem with coaches cultivating relationships AAU clubs and tendering scholarship offers to players before they even play a varsity game. That forces a guy in Gillispie’s situation to either focus on a four year plan or betray a lot of trust by coaxing kids to renege on early commitments.

Gillispie made his own bed. He had a pretty sweet deal with UTEP. Fans and trustees don’t expect a sweet 16 finish every season but they still value a good coach who keeps their team competitive. Gillispie thought the grass was greener at Kentucky because he was caught up in the mystique of that program. But that mystique was in his own mind.

Calipari, like most coaches, craves the spotlight and at Memphis it’s not on him all the time. Memphis plays in a smaller conference so Calipari’s not a celebrity until his team makes the Tournament. At Kentucky, Calipari have all eyes on him throughout the season. Especially in his first season or two, where people would be curious to see how his game holds up in a tougher conference. Calipari, however, had better hope success comes sooner rather than later.

Players today don’t care about history. It’s likely that they never really did. I can only speak for myself, but when I was of the age that these players are committing to colleges I thought four years ago was ancient history. Because when you’re 16 it is. When I was 12 I was a lot more interested in watching Thundar the Barbarian than I was in the Final Four. That changed quickly but when I did start taking an interest in watching sports I couldn’t be bothered with educating myself as to who won the title three years earlier.

My perceptions were shaped by the adults I knew and what my friends were thinking. I didn’t know anything about Adolph Rupp at the time. I was trying to find a team I could identify with and being a Cleveland-area boy I took an interest in Cleveland State because around the time I started enjoying sports as a spectator Cleveland State was in the process of upsetting Indiana in the NCAA Tournament. Even so, I was much more enamored with the NBA because the players were better and the games were more fun to watch.

I know, there are college basketball “purists” who argue the point and insist that the fundamentals of the college game are better. That’s a load of crap. 99% of the players playing college basketball right now couldn’t mop the locker room floor in the NBA. LeBron James, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard would cruise through the NCAA tournament 3 on 5 and not one game would be close.

So it’s not surprising that great players want to get to the big stage as quickly as possible. Especially before some egomaniacal college coach ruins them by putting his own interests ahead of the interests of his players. That’s a huge problem in college hoops. Coaches are driven by ego. It was the reason for Bobby Knight’s demise at Indiana, and it is undoing Coach K at Duke. If Calipari leaves Memphis for Kentucky his ego will ultimately do him in as well.

Kentucky’s run in the sun could be over. Besides all of the shady deals—the hiring of parents and AAU coaches, the offers of scholarships to friends and family—players are lured to luxurious facilities and national exposure. Nobody cares about the history of Cameron Indoor, kids aren’t going to fall in love with Rupp Arena. They want to know how many games you play on national television and how often you get into the NCAA tournament. Forget about the “college experience”; where’s the bling?

Right or wrong, that’s how it is. Most people go to college to get something in return. They hope that they can parlay the time they invest at school into a bigger salary when they get out. Ambiance and history are secondary to that. Why should athletes be any different? College is a means to an end and the programs that will be successful in the future will be the programs that get players where they want to be faster.

So Kentucky can save the history lesson for the fans and get down to the business that is basketball. The tables have turned, the four year plan is gone. The best players in the country are calling the shots, the prolonged exploitation of the athlete pretending to be a student is over. One-and-done is the norm. Until places like Kentucky and Duke learn to accept that and embrace it, success will continue to elude them.

Pondering the World of Sports

2009-03-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Can somebody get Jay Cutler a binky? I’m sure that it’s a little unnerving to discover that your new coach would rather have somebody else as his starting QB, but when you really get down to it that’s pretty much how every QB not named Peyton Manning feels. Seriously, Jay, put on the big boy pants and play ball. Every player in the NFL is available if the right offer is made and sometimes teams feign interest in a deal just to make sure that a rival isn’t pulling off a steal.

Speaking of babies, Curt Schilling, announced his retirement and the discussion is raging: is he a hall of famer? A lot of baseball people think he his; even though he falls short of several statistical milestones people revere. What sets Curt apart is his post season success but the Hall of Fame isn’t a post season award, it’s an honor bestowed upon the best players in the game. Should Curt get a pass for all those mediocre seasons? There’s speculation that Curt’s surly disposition could cost him a vote or two and a few baseball writers think that’s wrong. The Hall of Fame is about what you do on the field, they claim. Of course when somebody happens to be a great guy on and off the field they give him credit for being an “ambassador of the game”. So if being a swell guy can help somebody get in, why can’t being a jerk hold somebody back? It seems to me that there should be consequences for being a jackass.

Speaking of jackass, why would the Celtics want to add Stephon Marbury to their team? There’s no question that the dude has talent, but can the Celtics really afford a tantrum in the middle of a tough series against Orlando or Cleveland? You’d think Marbury would have the sense to keep his mouth shut and go along for the ride but one thing Marbury has proven throughout his career is that he doesn’t have any sense. If the Celtics win, Marbury will probably be a model prisoner but the danger is how he might act if the team gets stuck in an 0-3 hole. There’s no question that Boston’s got the talent to win four games in a row, but Marbury could easily derail the effort if he decides to pout. As a lifelong Cavaliers fan, I’m hoping for a classic Starbury implosion.

Implosion pretty much describes the Cleveland Browns. Eric Mangini is remaking the entire team in his own image which is to say that he’s alienating existing players and poaching a roster full of mediocrity from the New York Jets. Rumor has it that Mangini is strutting around Browns HQ with oodles of ego, but that the act isn’t impressing anybody. Mangini squandered his credibility with the New York Jets. He was the hot young protégé of Bill Belichick a few years ago when he was hired by the Jets but aside from stirring up trouble when he blew the whistle on Spygate, his career stalled. The Jets finally cut him loose after he presided over the Jets meltdown last year. Four years from now the Browns will be starting from scratch again with a new coach and a paucity of talent. Perhaps the NFL should put an end to Ohio’s misery by combining the Brown and the Bengals into one semi-respectable team and relegate it to the CFL where they might actually make the playoffs.

Playoffs? Don’t talk about playoffs. Not if you’re the Cleveland Indians. Cliff Lee will follow his Cy Young performance with a humbling season of frustration. It was a fluke. Lee is a mediocre pitcher who had everything go his way last year. The Indians will probably be a more productive team this time around but Lee will be lucky to crack the .500 mark. Fausto Carmona will be healthy this year but expect him to look mortal as well. It’s just the reality of the game. A lot of guys have great seasons but great pitchers are few and far between. Mark Shapiro is nuts if he thinks that he’s managed to slip a couple of aces in his deck when nobody was looking.

The Yankees are probably going to be surprised the return they get on their off season investment plan. CC Sabathia is a streaky pitcher who isn’t known for sticking to a conditioning plan. He’s due for a down year and considering the signing bonus he just cashed, I’d bet that he’s going to get off to a slow start. Yankee fan won’t like that and CC isn’t going to like the fishbowl that is New York City. I’m sure there are tabloid editors itching to dazzle readers with clever “CC” nicknames. Calorie Consumer, Check Casher, Chilli Cheese…

I didn’t mention the NCAA Tournament because my brackets--yes there were several (hundred)--are busted. I wanted to pick Cleveland State over Wake but I didn’t. I really thought Ohio State’s size was going to give Siena trouble. Now we’re already staring at the Sweet 16 and there aren’t any surprises. It’s all chalk. Some people like it that way, others don’t. I’ll reserve my opinion until after I see next weekend’s games. The bottom line is that the best teams are supposed to advance. When you have a lot of upsets it only proves that nobody knows what they’re talking about. Most of the time that’s true, but after watching thousands of games played over the course of six months you’d think that identifying the top 15 teams in the country wouldn’t be hard to do. So all the ones, twos and threes are still alive. There won’t be a Cinderella story this year, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some good games left to watch. Especially if you want Gonzaga to win it all.

Jose Canseco is my hero

2009-02-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

Jose Canseco is my favorite baseball player of all time. I don’t believe that he belongs in the Hall of Fame because he didn’t bring anything to the table defensively but some of my favorite athletes in other sports will never get into their respective halls of fame either.

I first became aware of Jose Canseco back in the late 80s. He was built like a defensive end long before you saw baseball players hitting the weights to build muscle. Before Jose turned in that 40/40 performance in 1988 it was widely believed that weightlifting would diminish flexibility and bat speed. Jose Canseco was a key factor in the Oakland A’s success and a lot of people forget that Mark McGwire was really the Robin to Canseco’s Batman. Over the years McGwire emerged as the hero, at least before he scurried away from the truth like a cockroach suddenly bathed in light.

I knew Canseco was on Steroids back in 1988. I was 17 and had no background in physiology nor did I ever dabble in steroids myself, but I knew he was juicing. Whenever anybody is built like that you have to be suspicious, but when somebody weighs 250 pounds and runs fast enough to steal 40 bases over 158 games you can take the suspicions to the bank.

I also recall reading an article on Jose Canseco and saw pictures of him in the minor leagues; pictures of a comparatively scrawny Canseco standing next to his equally scrawny brother. At the age of 17 I knew that it wasn’t natural for a guy to pack on that much muscle in such a short period of time. He had to be on steroids.

Of course there were plenty of media types who refused to speculate on that. I still remember listening to Jim Rome lash out at people who questioned the authenticity of Mark McGwire’s physique. Rome seemed to think that McGwire just spent more time in the gym than anybody else and he readily admonished people for being jealous of his work ethic when they speculated that those muscles came from a bottle.

That’s why to this day I think Jim Rome is the biggest moron in all of sports. Here’s a guy who gets paid to spew his opinion all day. He’s got no reason to hedge. You can’t get sued for slander and libel for expressing an opinion, where as real sports journalists can’t speculate without proof. Of course most sports journalists balk at having to cover anything resembling real news. They’d rather wax philosophically about the meaning of the game and focus and stats. Some guys like Jim Rome, who served as apologists for the better part of a decade, can share some of the blame for ruining baseball. I’d say guys like Rome are more to blame than Bud Selig because guys like Rome played an active role in dodging the issue. Selig just pretended not to see a problem which is a reasonable position considering most people weren’t making an issue out of it.

When Jose Canseco’s book, Juiced, was published people were furious. He was accused of being dishonest and throwing former teammates under the bus for the sake of getting paid. Everybody Canseco named called him a liar but nobody took legal action. The steroid apologists argued that it’s hard to prove a negative, but the reality is that none of those guys wanted to have private investigators poking around. As the issue of steroids become a priority and major league baseball implemented testing the truth slowly came into light. Raphael Palmeiro famously tested positive for Stanzinol, a powerful steroid, less than six months after testifying before Congress that he had never used steroids.

People started to give Canseco some credit but there were still suspicions that he got lucky when Palmeiro came up dirty. One of the reasons people questioned Canseco was because he dropped Alex Rodriguez’s name into the mix. A lot of people felt like Jose did that to sell books and possibly to impugn the integrity of baseball in general since A Rod was the golden child. Everybody loved him and believed that he would re-legitimize the game by setting all the records the right way. That all came unraveled over the past several weeks. A Rod, like McGwire, Palmeiro, Roger Clemens and numerous others, cheated and lied. His integrity is gone and his accomplishments are tainted. Baseball now has two black eyes.

Jose Canseco won’t go down in history as the guy who cleaned up baseball. I wouldn’t even go so far as to credit him with being a whistle blower. He simply came clean about a subject with which he was familiar. He confirmed what a lot of people had suspected for years.

Going forward it’s irresponsible to think that steroids will go way. The NFL has had a testing policy for years and steroids are still a rampant problem. Testing procedures are a joke but the goal isn’t to eradicate steroids so much as it is to create an illusion of propriety. Most NFL fans will agree that the majority of players in the NFL would fail the tests used in the Olympics and it’s understood that the 4 game suspension imposed by the NFL is a punishment for stupidity more than it is a sanction for cheating. Baseball is taking the same approach. Players are still taking steroids; they’re just smarter about hiding that fact.

So I’m going to go ahead and appreciate Jose Canseco because as far as I can tell the only difference between his career and that of everybody else is that he’s willing to admit that steroids helped him out. He’s never made any bones about that. Which is more than you can say for A Rod, who is now claiming that he’s not sure if steroids provided him with a physical advantage or if it was just psychological.

A Rod’s act of contrition is making me sick. I understand that he has to see himself as a brand and take steps to protect his image but he’s laying the BS on really thick. He’s tried to blend a heartfelt apology with a litany of excuses. He was young and naïve. He felt a lot of pressure to live up to his massive contract. He never went to college. His nameless cousin injected him with an over-the-counter substance purchased in the Dominican Republic.

When asked what steroids did for his game he answered that he felt that steroids “like anything else” are 50% mental. Then he said that if you drink water believing it will make you better you will perform at a higher level. Perhaps he didn’t compare steroids to water, but why did he even go there? It’s like he’s trying to make sure his confirmed steroid period doesn’t get subtracted from his legacy when it comes time to tally up the final numbers.

Jose Canseco never hemmed or hawed about what he did. If you ask him he will tell you exactly what he took, provide the dosage and outline his regimen. Canseco has never tried to dismiss the impact steroids had on his performance. He’s said all along that they made everything come easier. Steroids cut his workout time in half, helped him recover from injuries faster and allowed him to play longer.

Moreover, Jose Canseco doesn’t claim that he was misled by anybody or blame his youth for his mistakes. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Canseco call taking steroids a mistake. It seems as though he went into the world of steroids with eyes wide open. He doesn’t blame his steroid use on ambitious trainers, mysterious cousins or teammates with vials of tainted B-12. Jose Canseco is far from being a role model, but what athlete really is. These guys are human beings who get paid a lot of money to be really good at playing a game—not to be team players—not to be role models, but to perform at a high level as individual athletes. It’s important to keep your expectations reasonable.

These guys know that steroids are illegal and regardless of whether or not their league specifically outlined a policy prohibiting the use of steroids they know that steroids are tantamount to cheating. I knew that when I was 17. Professional athletes take steroids because they want to have an edge. That’s the one thing that all great athletes have in common. Steroids provide a significant advantage and when you minimize the risk of getting caught it’s a temptation few are going to pass up.

Do you think it’s magic when a QB manages to cut his recovery time in half coming off of major surgery? Were you really under the impression a 40 year-old pitcher could still bring 100 mph heat in September? Had you been holding out hope that Alex Rodriguez was actually from the planet Krypton?

Maybe A Rod thinks he can get away with his sob story because the fans and the media have proven themselves willing to accept this nonsense for so long. College football fans will marvel at a linebacker’s work ethic when he packs on 50 pounds of solid muscle over three years and not for one second consider the possibility that it wasn’t real. When you ask reporters and columnists why they don’t pose the steroid question more often they’ll tell you that it’s not fair to assume that everybody is on steroids.

But everybody isn’t falling under suspicion, only people who do freakish things. It’s a logical question and anybody who has hit the weights or the track in hopes of being a better athlete can tell you that some of these guys make it look too easy. The reason the average jock doesn’t spend 9 hours a day in the gym is because the human body isn’t built to endure that kind of regimen unless you’re providing it with unnatural levels of testosterone and growth hormone.

People don’t want to accept that. During Mark McGwire’s magical pursuit of the single season home run record there were people who pondered the physical transformation of Big Mac. He was a bulging beast of a man who, at an age when a lot of players see their skills diminish, was performing at the highest level of his career. Nobody wanted to talk about it. They wanted to enjoy history.

Well that history is ruined. Everything that has happened in baseball since the middle of the 80s is under suspicion…including Cal Ripken’s streak. Yeah, I said it. Cal was part of a tainted era and it’s not hard to believe that a guy obsessed with playing more than 2000 consecutive games wouldn’t be tempted to improve his recovery time between starts. It’s not like Cal was a young man when he broke Gehrig’s record and as far as we know Cal never passed a steroid test. More importantly, Cal played with guys who took steroids. Even if he didn’t take them he failed to take stand against them. That makes him, at the very least, an accessory.

Canseco’s hands aren’t clean. He was more than happy to pass his knowledge along to other players. They’d go to him for advice on what to take, where to get it and how to take it. Of course blaming Canseco for the problem is unfair; it’s all the players, coaches, general managers, owners, league officials, commissioners, fans, and reporters who looked the other way who made steroids the rule rather than the exception. Steroids were accepted by the people who mattered. Everybody’s guilty.

What sets Jose Canseco apart is his candor. You can say that he’s doing it for attention or money or to elevate his legacy by degrading the rest of baseball’s. I won’t argue that. But regardless of his motives it would appear that he’s being honest. That’s more than I can say for anybody else. So, Jose Canseco, you’re my hero.

Stealers win....we all lose.

2009-02-02T13:40:00.000-08:00

Nice Timing

I thought we might have reached the “nobody cares” threshold regarding Michael Phelps but recently the Olympic….err, umm, athlete who won something at the recent games in…uhh…that one country issued an apology for getting caught on film taking a bong hit.

Man, with his lung capacity you’d better hope he brought his own.

Look folks, Phelps is 23 and he’s spent a significant portion of his childhood competing at an Olympic level which means he hasn’t had a childhood. If you think Lindsay Lohan has had it rough, check out the schedule of a world class amateur athlete sometime. He’s allegedly a world record holder and he can get across open water faster than Jesus Christ so let’s cut him a little slack and let him chill. He deserves a break and a family-sized bag of Goldfish snack crackers. Unless this was all a publicity stunt on his part to get a little ink right before the Super Bowl…you know, kind of like Santonio Holmes telling the whole world he used to sell drugs. Sorry, but if Santonio wanted to be a humanitarian he would have made that revelation upon starting up an outreach program.

Super Sunday

I watched the Super Bowl in spite of a full two weeks of idle threats not to. Yes, it's because I'm bitter and jealous because the Cleveland Browns are a joke, but let's be honest Steeler Nation: most of you weren't old enough to remember when the Steelers won two thirds of their titles. I know this because of been to Pittsburgh and can attest to the fact that the average life expectancy there is 40. Seriously, if you see somebody who looks 60 it means that they're getting ready to graduate from trade school. Ok, enough Pittsbugh bashing. They've got a great organization because they have owners who aren't stupid. DO YOU HEAR ME RANDY LERNER????

I did manage to avoid too much of the hype by watching a reruns of House but I forgot that the FCC requires at least 40 full minutes of verbal masturbation before every deciding championship game and I caught part of Faith Twain singing the official national anthem of WalMart shoppers and conservative Christians who burn books during the work week. God Bless America? Please, has anybody noticed how our “anthems” are simply reworded versions of English songs? I guess it was good in the sense that it reminded me why I hate country music. You know it’s bad if it can make the beauty pageant rejects they sign to Nashville record contracts seem unattractive. I used the remaining 3 minutes to round up some snacks.

Unfortunately I returned in time to be subjected to a really lousy arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner which was screamed at me by a chunky Jennifer Hudson. It opened like a Disney movie and turned into a Tim Burton joint. J-Hud, as the homies like to call her, seems to be on the Aretha Franklin diet program. Yeah, go ahead and call her curvy but when they have to reserve two seats for her at next year’s American Music Awards I’ll be sure to tell you I told you so. The girl can sing, but she didn’t do it on Super Bowl Sunday. I think she ate some of my guacamole instead. Right through the TV. That’s how bad she sucked.

The game proved to be pretty good although the officials seemed to have it in for the Cardinals all night long. They avoided ringing Pittsburgh up with penalties until the Steelers started snatching purses from women in the stands late in the game. The Cardinals managed to make a game of it in spite of tallying up more yards in penalties than the Cincinnati Bengals amassed all year. Still, you wonder if Deshea Townshend gets nailed for holding when he grabbed and dragged Kurt Warner out of bounds on Harrison’s 100 yard interception return for a TD, would the game have been the same?

Probably, especially considering that the Cardinals didn’t seem interested in playing unless they were behind. Once the Cardinals picked up the lead they quit and that’s why the Steelers marched right down the field and scored the winning TD with half a minute to play. I didn’t like a few of the calls that went Pittsburgh’s way but after everything was said and done the Cardinals laid an egg. Witty, no?

Then Ken Whiz-in-hut, the first Native American coach to advance to the Super Bowl, topped the whole thing off with the dumbest quote ever: we scored too quickly.

This is a popular thing for coaches to say when they battle back to take the lead only to have their opponent march right back and win in the final seconds. It’s like an excuse but it’s stupid because THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SCORING TOO QUICKLY!!! That’s true during the regular season, it’s true on prom night and it’s definitely true in the Super Bowl. You score when you can. Too quickly, indeed.

Yeah, stupid Larry Fitzgerald had to go and ruin the whole game by scoring from 64 yards out because as we all know the NFL doesn’t allow a team to play defense if they are ahead with less then five minutes left. Shut up Ken. You play to win the game and you win the game by scoring more points than your opponent. If you try to get cute and burn up the clock you just might burn up your chances to win…especially against a defense like Pittsburgh’s. Tell it like it is: you thought the game was in the bag and you stopped playing to win. That's what happened. Idiot. That's why the Cardinals were 9-7...the coach doesn't know how to put things away.

You lost because whatever you were doing on defense to shut the Steelers down all game long either stopped working and you failed to adjust, or you stopped doing it and let the Steelers win. Either way that loss is 100% on the coaching staff and the handful of defensive players who decided that Santonio Holmes had cooties. The guy’s a good athlete but the Cardinals made him look like Barry Sanders out there. It’s too bad because right up until that final drive the Cardinals’ defense was outstanding. But the game is 60 minutes long...unless you're at home, where it lasts forever. I guess in the span of the four hours and change from opening kick to final gun it's easy to lose track of two or three minutes of game time. I managed to lose at least a third of a bag of corn chips in the cushion of my couch...unless Hudson got them.

In spite of it all the game was the most entertaining part of the whole affair…unless you count the one hour episode of The Office that followed. The commercials were dull, probably because all of the companies with a sense of humor are out of business right now, and the halftime show was tired and old, much like that wrinkled old guy who was screaming into the microphone the whole time.

(As an aside, why is Danica Patrick still doing Go Daddy commercials? She's not nearly as attractive as we once thought and she's a mediocre race car driver. At least Anna Kournikova made up for her lack of skill be being legitimately hot and Maria Sharipova is both hot and talented. Mostly hot, which is the most important thing if you're doing commercials. The only attraction to Danica Patrick is that she's surly, but so far it's all bark and no bite. Until she throws down I really don't need to see her. )

Of course the worst performance on the microphone had to be Al Michaels. There was a time when he was one of the best broadcasters in the business but for some reason he was tough to take last night. He seemed too excitable and kept repeating the same 2 big words he memorized before the game. I don't think that word means what you think it means. Maybe John Madden ate his thesaurus before the game.

I’m not saying Michaels is stupid, but everything seemed forced last night. Ben Roethlisberger, on the other hand, seems stupid. Every time I hear that guy talk he sounds a little dumber. He might be a heck of a football player but when he talks I think my brain starts to smooth over. Maybe it’s Pittsburgh. It seems to me just about everybody who has ever played the QB position in Pittsburgh ends up sounding like a rube.

The good news is that he’ll have a future after he retires because the “analysts” the networks to hire don’t seem to exude much in the way of brain power. Fox has already turned the pre and post game shows into frat parties for old guys who hawk Levitra in their spare time and CBS isn’t upping the ante with their lineup.

Super Bleh

2009-01-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

So the Super Bowl is set. The Arizona Cardinals managed to overcome their own inability to close out a game and the Steelers rolled over a divisional rival they had already beaten twice during the regular season.

The next few weeks fuel my cynicism toward the NFL. I think football is easily the most entertaining sport to watch and it is-- at the risk of sounding cliché— the ultimate team sport. That expression gets used far too often but it’s true. The fact that the Arizona Cardinals were able to string together an impressive run in the middle of the season, upset what appeared to be better teams in the playoffs and arrive at this point is a testament to that what can be accomplished when a team comes together.

Over the next week or so I will voice my displeasure with the hoopla and even threaten to not watch the game. I’ll bitch about the half-time show, the pregame festivities and even whine about the location. I’ll also mock the alleged fans in attendance because I think the Super Bowl is where the NFL turns its back on the everyday fans and embraces the self-absorbed celebrities who come out of the woodwork because of all the attention.

We’ll be subjected to sappy human interest stories, bad sketch comedy acts and pedantic analysis of the basic principals behind each team’s playbook. I’ll try to ignore it but the hype will be everywhere and I’ll be fed up.

This time, it’s really going to get laid on thick and that’s because of the Arizona Cardinals. They will be the underdog. The team nobody loves. This is the first Super Bowl the Cardinals have ever been to and they will be facing the big bad Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the most successful teams in NFL History. The Steelers have five Super Bowl championships to their name and this marks their seventh trip to the NFL’s greatest game. They are the big bad bully on the block.

Worse is the fact that the Cardinals are led by quarterback Kurt Warner who rose to fame in the late 90s with the Rams. His story will be rehashed. We’ll hear about his days bagging groceries and how he married a trailer park harpy. The story of his struggle to rise through the ranks of professional football will be driven home again and you can bet they’ll hammer us with tales of his deep-rooted faith. Warner is a bible thumper of the highest order and you can bet he has a throng of Jesus freaks in the Arizona locker room. They’ll tell us their faith is what has carried them this far.

I want to puke already.

Then we’ll have interesting stories about the Steelers and we’ll hear about what a great town Pittsburgh is and how devoted those fans are. The truth is that Pittsburgh is not a great town. It’s dirty, white-trashy and Steelers fans are spoiled and carry a sickening sense of entitlement. It’s great that their team has been successful for so long but that success has cultivated some of the vilest people on the face of the earth. Steelers fans are frightening. Between the inbreeding, unemployment and chemically-induced mutations the people most likely to root for the Steelers are either a step up or a step down from CHUDs…depending on who you ask.

Granted there are Terrible Towel waiving idiots to be found all around the country but those who do not originate from Western Pennsylvania are simply wieners who hopped on the bandwagon because the Steelers manage to win games.

Jokes aside, Pittsburgh is a dandy sports town and that is driven by the success of the Steelers, a team that owes its success to the Rooney family. Make no mistake, the Rooney family is not hurting for money but when it comes to running an NFL franchise these people put the fans first and it’s an attitude that flows through the entire franchise. The Steelers appear to love Pittsburgh because the Rooney clan loves Pittsburgh.

Arizona is another one of those places where everybody seems to come from somewhere else so loyalty to the Cardinals is dictated by the team’s position in the standings. Now that the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl, they have plenty of fans but the love affair is fleeting. The Cardinals are lucky to be where they are. They played in the weakest division in all of football and stumbled into the post season with only 9 wins. The Chargers did represent the AFC West with 8 wins but at least they could blame their mediocre record on the quality of their competition. And because the AFC is a better conference than the NFC, the Chargers were eliminated before things got too ugly.

It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where the Cardinals come out on top after this game. The Steelers are bringing one of the greatest defenses in NFL history to this party and they have enough firepower on offense to offset any big plays that the Cardinals might sneak in. People will tell you that the Cardinals coaching staff is intimately familiar with Pittsburgh but that’s only helpful if Pittsburgh's coaching staff forgot about the tendencies of their former colleagues. Moreover, the NFL is an incestuous organization. Everybody seems comfortably familiar with everybody else. The Steelers are in a better position to surprise the Cardinals because the Steelers didn’t have to pull out every stop to get to this point. I hope that the Cardinals can score early and keep things somewhat interesting but I fear that this could be one of those 80s Super Bowls where the game ends shortly after it begins.

Aside from all the glitz and glitter, the game could be interesting. The Cardinals have an assortment of weapons and the luxury of being the underdog. They can turn doubt into chips that they can wear on their shoulders and play the game as though they have nothing to lose. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, is the favorite. They do have something to lose and if they don’t keep their heads together they stand to lose it big time. Even though all the logic tells us that the Steelers will win, the Cardinals have, by beating Atlanta, Carolina and Philly,proven that there is a reason they play these games out and that’s enough for me. I’ll do my best to avoid the hype but when you scrape away all of that awful, sugary icing there’s still some substance to the Super Bowl.

Dungy Deserves Highest Honor

2009-01-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

Tony Dungy has decided to retire from coaching and the question being asked is whether or not he belongs in the Professional Football Hall of Fame. I say that he should be inducted without reservation. First ballot. Unanimous.

There are some stat geeks who argue that his numbers aren’t as impressive as other coaches. There are other state geeks who will tell you that his numbers are better. There are people who believe that one Super Bowl win isn’t quite the feather in Dungy’s cap people make it out to be, while a number of people insist that Dungy deserves credit for the Super Bowl Tampa won the year after he was replaced by Jon Gruden. In fact, one of those people is Jon Gruden who, upon winning the Super Bowl in 2003, made a point to thank Tony Dungy for his contributions to that championship team.

Forget about the numbers. Dungy won more games than he lost; he turned two teams around and has a championship ring. The numbers tell us that Tony Dungy was a great head coach. You can split hairs over percentages or you can stop, take a deep breath and review the big picture that is Tony Dungy’s career. Too often we forget that football is not a numbers game. If it was, we could just around the championship to the teams with the most impressive stats year after year. The game is played on the field. Stats never lie, but too often they fail to tell the whole story.

The Professional Football Hall of Fame recognizes career achievements that can’t always be measured by numbers. Dungy was a player before he was a coach and while he isn’t regarded as one of the greatest players to ever play, he did play for a team that won a Super Bowl. After his playing days Dungy went on to become an assistant coach and commanded tremendous respect. He won’t take credit for developing what is often called the Tampa Two defense, but his fingerprints are all over it. On the surface it doesn’t seem much different than the defense he learned as a player under Chuck Noll but Dungy tweaked it to meet the demands of the modern era.

Dungy’s defensive schemes proved to be invaluable with the Indianapolis Colts who spend the vast majority of their salary allotment on the offense. He took a team that finished 6-10 under Jim Mora and posted a 10 wins season in his first year finished with 12 wins or more in each season after. With a limited budget Dungy was able to find the right people to fit into his defense and put their skills to use. The Colts were never considered to be a defensive powerhouse but when you consider what Dungy had to work with and contrast it with what he was able to accomplish the man pulled off a miracle.

Another important thing to remember is that Dungy didn’t advance to the position of head coach as quickly as he should have. So one could argue that he was deprived of four or five years in which he could have won another title or at least compiled more wins. He advanced to the position of defensive coordinator back in 1984 but didn’t become a head coach until 1996. Part of the problem is that Dungy is a pretty mellow guy. He doesn’t yell and scream, he refuses to make idle threats and he doesn’t get too high or too low. He was passed over for several opportunities because a lot of people thought his personality wasn’t dynamic enough to command a franchise.

Of course you can bet race was an issue. Dungy’s success has played no small part in creating opportunities for more black coaches. Art Shell and Dennis Green might have opened the door in the modern era but Tony Dungy took it off its hinges. Not only did he prove that he could win, he proved he could win consistently.

It would be foolhardy to believe that the NFL is colorblind. Black coaches don’t get nearly the same margin of error as their white counterparts nor do black coaches get recycled as readily but the playing field is closer to being level and that’s something Dungy’s success has played a part in. Dungy shouldn’t get special treatment because he’s the first black coach to win a Super Bowl but his contributions to racial equality aren’t without merit.

Even if you remove race from the discussion, Dungy’s influence around the league is as important as any other coach in NFL history with the exception of Paul Brown. Dungy’s defensive philosophies are as creative as Bill Walsh’s approach to offense. Like Walsh, Dungy took something that had been done for years and looked at it differently. Today people are implementing Dungy’s ideas in their own defensive schemes but more importantly, Dungy’s approach to dealing with players has opened a lot of eyes. You can still find authoritarian blowhards around the league but more and more teams are turning to guys with cool heads and inner strength.

That being said, I’m not in love with the guy. In fact, there are a lot of things I really don’t like about Tony Dungy but they have nothing to do with football. People say that he’s a good guy and that we shouldn’t let that affect how we view him when it comes to the Hall of Fame, but I don’t like him. He rubs me the wrong way and I really think the good guy routine is an act. I could be wrong, but that’s how I feel. I respect him purely from a football perspective. When I think about what the man has done throughout his career I don’t know how anybody could make an argument against his eventual induction into the Hall of Fame.

NFL Wrap Up

2008-12-29T13:42:00.000-08:00

It sure was nice to have so much hanging in the balance in week 17. If teams weren't fighting for their lives they were fighting for their dignity or not fighting, depending on how you look at it. The great thing about the final week is that the hatchets start swinging early. We've seen several coaches and general managers get their pink slips and Bill Cowher has already turned down an offer to coach the Browns.

Nice isn't in the Job Description

Romeo Crennel and Phil Savage are officially finished in Cleveland. Phil Savage was a bold GM who was able to broker deals to bring in impact players, unfortunately Romeo didn’t coax enough consistent effort from the role players to make it matter. Phil’s problem was that even though he was a solid GM, he was not nearly as valuable as he thought he was. His ego got in the way and he wore out his welcome. Good riddance. Humility is a virtue, Phil. Live and learn.

By all accounts Romeo Crennel was a great guy. In fact, we heard announcers say as much all season long. Well, we all know what happens to nice guys. A few of the players said they wanted to fight for Romeo to keep his job, but if they would have applied that fight to the execution of their plays Romeo’s job would have been safe. Romeo never exuded a sense of control over the team or a firm grasp of the situation they were in. He didn’t manage games exceptionally well and didn’t even attempt to kick start the Browns until the season was all but in the crapper.

Now the Browns have an interesting problem. They have plenty of talent on both sides of the ball. Can they find the right combination of GM and coach to whip the team into shape, or will Lerner make the mistake of hiring more high profile egomaniacs bent on making their mark by dismantling the team and starting from scratch?

Let the Drama Begin

Brett Favre proved once again that he is a throwback player, except when he has to throw back. He’s a gunslinger, even when he happens to be across the line of scrimmage and on the receiving end of a reverse lateral. For some reason the officials opted not to run off the last seven seconds of the game after Favre hurled the ball forward on a hook and lateral gambit. They decided that he wasn’t intentionally trying to stop the clock, so apparently they believe that Brett Favre is just stupid. That makes sense. Stupid, selfish and childish.

The Jets canned Eric Mangenious in the wake of missing the playoffs but the Jets fans can hang the mediocre way the Jets finished the season of Brett Favre and his old school ways. It’s not his fault the NFL expanded the season to 16 games. He gets tired, and crabby and throws three interceptions when his team is on the brink of being eliminated from the playoffs.

Ironically Chad Pennington enjoyed on of his best seasons in leading the Dolphins to the playoffs. Unlike Favre, Pennington played smart and stayed focused which allowed the Dolphins to wrap up a division title and complete a historic turnaround from last year’s 1-15 performance.

Favre doesn’t know whether or not he’ll be back. His shoulder hurts and he wants to see what the MRI has to say before he makes any decision. No word on whether or not he’ll have his head examined this Spring when he makes his indecision public. Here's hoping that the Jets exercise his binky option and put this baby to bed.

Loser thy name is Marinelli

Rod Marinelli got the heave-ho after his Lions put the finishing touches on an 0-16 season. How in the hell does that happen? With all the parity in the NFL and a salary cap that makes it impossible for teams to hoard great players you simply can’t lose 16 games. The Lions managed to lose to a Green Bay team that had nothing to play for. That’s special.

I heard somebody say that it wasn’t like the Lions were trying to lose. I beg to differ. They had to be trying. No word on whether or not Rod Marinelli’s daughter is looking for a better defensive coordinator just yet, but we’ll keep our eyes open in the Casual Encounters section on Craigslist.

Marinelli is believed to be considering a move to the business world where he'll parlay his inspirational leadership skills into a career as a auto executive.

Hanging up the Hat

Speaking of heavy drama, how about them Cowboys? They got worked by the Eagles and then blamed Jason Garrett for not being creative enough. Apparently all those turnovers were designed plays intended to catch the Eagles off guard. I don’t know if Jason Garrett’s any better at coaching than he was at toting a clipboard all those years but the Jr. High School antics of TO, Romo and Romo’s butt-buddy Jason Whitten certainly didn’t help the Cowboy’s stay focused down the stretch.

As a football fan I couldn’t be happier. I grew up hating the Cowboys. I still think Roger Staubach is putz and Jerry Jones gives me the creeps. Tony Romo doesn’t impress me and anybody who respects TO doesn’t respect the game of football. I hope that whole wagon full of ass clowns rolls into next season intact and lays another egg right on top of Big D. America’s team my ass. Dallas sucks and it's only fitting that they have a team that does as well.

Predictions

And that brings us to the post season. The Patriots and Cowboys were the odds on favorites to make it to the Super Bowl and both teams failed to even make the playoffs. HA HA. At least the Patriots can point to the loss of Tom Brady as a problem. To their credit they almost made it. And that's with all of Belichick's brilliant asistants lending their winning ways to other venutres...oh, right.

The Giants really ruled the roost in the NFC and seem to have to best chance at advancing thanks to their bruising running game and a vicious defense. Carolina looks tough but when they are forced to pass they really put their trust into one man and that is not their QB. You can’t be too high on a team that has built its offense around a wide receiver. Steve Smith is a fantastic player, but he can only make a difference if he gets the ball. I don’t know if that’s a Super Bowl winning formula.

After that the NFC gets really thing. Atlanta enjoyed a nice turnaround but they don’t have the depth to advance and it’s hard to picture the Eagles or the Vikings plugging their leaks long enough to float through the playoffs. The Cardinals made the post season by managing to be mediocre enough to stay on top of a lousy division but they aren’t fooling anybody. The Giants will return to the Super Bowl.

In the AFC the picture isn’t so clear. The Colts are dangerous because Peyton Manning is simply the best quarterback to ever play the position. Period. He makes the offense better and if the Colts can score that frees up their defense. Pittsburgh was strong all year and they seem to have their horses healthy. They have a great defense that can keep the game close and that means they won’t have to count on a lot of production from Big Ben, who remains one of the more overrated QBs in the game.

Baltimore also has a liability at the helm but not nearly as glaring in seasons past. Flacco is just a rookie but he’s delivered when he had to. The Ravens also sport a great defense that can keep the game tight enough the minimize Flacco’s deficiencies.

San Diego is a non factor. Phillip Rivers is a clown he won’t rise to the challenge of outsmarting the AFC’s better defenses. He picked apart the Broncos but it’s unlikely he’ll out duel Manning in the first round. Even if the Chargers manage to contain the Colts and advance, Rivers will come unglued against the Ravens, Steelers or the Titans.

For some reason, I don’t buy the Titans. They have a great defense and dominated the AFC all year but I wonder about Kerry Collins in the playoffs. Surely the time will come when he’s called upon to win a big game and I don’t know if he can answer that call. The Only QB in the AFC that you can count on in such a situation is Peyton Manning but it’s going to be hard for him to deliver three weeks in a row. The Colts will probably get past the Charges handily and they might surprise a rusty second round opponent but unless Miami upsets Baltimore and Pittsburgh to advance to the AFC title game I think the Colts will get stopped there. So who will it be?

Baltimore will beat the Dolphins. It’s a great story for Miami but that 10 game turnaround has as much to do with a softer schedule as it does with an improved game plan. That wildcat offense isn’t going to fool the Ravens, not unless Ronnie Brown comes out throwing like Joe Montana…and that isn’t going to happen. The Ravens will wear the Dolphins out and win easily. That would pair the Colts with the Steelers and the Ravens would face the Titans. That’s not good for the Titans. The Ravens will be pumped up after the wildcard game and it will take the Titans a while to get going but it will be too little too late. The score might be close but the game won’t ever be in doubt.

The Colts will face a tall order in getting by the Steelers in Pittsburgh on the terrible turf. If the conditions aren’t absolutely atrocious the Colts might be able to find ways to frustrate the Pittsburgh’s defense and get some points on the board. The Colts will have to come up with big plays on defense because they simply can’t grind it out up front for 60 minutes. They need to force turnovers and coax the ball in to Roethlisberger’s hands. It won’t be easy, but I like their chances if they don’t get banged up in the first round. Those bye weeks can be counter productive and the Colts might be able to stun the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

That would put the Colts at home verses the Ravens or on the road against the Titans. I don’t know if they’ll have enough gas left for either contest. The Colts aren’t built to take a beating. For some reason I can picture an Manning a Manning Super Bowl but I don’t think it will happen this year. The Giants will get Eli to the big dance but the Colts just don’t have the muscle to run the AFC gauntlet. You can never count a player like Peyton Manning out, but that doesn’t mean you should bet on him either.

So after all of that I guess I talked myself into the Ravens and the Giants in the Super Bowl and if the Giants are healthy you have to like their chances. They put on a rushing clinic when the faced the Ravens earlier in the season but that could have been a fluke. It’s also hard to say what the Giants will get out of Eli Manning, especially with Plaxico Burress being weighed down by all that baggage.

Rematches are always tough to call and a lot can happen in the next three weeks. If both teams are healthy and happy going in I think the Ravens will have an advantage simply because they’ll have something to prove, but the Giants seem to have more weapons on offense even if Plaxico Burress is out.

Of course, predictions are only fun because they’re often wrong. They play the games for a reason and if the Super Bowl ends up being a contest between the 9-7 Cardinals and the 8-8 Chargers it wouldn’t surprise me at all. It might bore me, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

You're out of order...

2008-12-24T06:50:00.000-08:00

A lot of people are talking about Rob Parker, the columnist for the Detroit News who asked Rod Marinelli if he wished his daughter had married a better defensive coordinator. Marinelli blew off the question during the press conference that followed Detroit’s 42-7 loss to the Saints but later he expressed his anger and now that people have taken his side he’s expressing it more. Anything to distract people from the fact that his team is 0-15 on the year thanks in large part to a defense that gives up a lot of points. A defense that happens to be coached by his son-in-law.

Now Marinelli gets to play the role of concerned father. He’s putting his foot down and won’t allow his daughter to be attacked by the likes of Parker which is what you expect a family man to do…except for the fact that Parker didn’t say or imply anything about Marinelli’s daughter.

The object in question is Marinelli’s judgment. His daughter might be a great girl and her husband, Joe Barry, is probably a swell guy who’s only guilty of not being able to coach a defense. Rob Parker isn’t casting aspersions on either of them. The issue is whether Marinelli is letting his love for his daughter interfere with the business of football. The Lions are on the verge of becoming the first 0-16 team in the history of the NFL. If Marinelli is compromising his staff because of nepotism it’s a valid topic for discussion.

Terry Bradshaw threw a bit of a tizzy over the question and a lot of other people are chiming in. They think Parker should be fired because he made it personal.

Bullshit.

Marinelli made it personal. This issue is why most successful companies have very strict policies about the employment of family members. It’s hard to fire your son-in-law. Parker’s question is just a snarky way of asking why if Marinelli is letting his personal relationship with his staff affect his managerial decisions. It’s a valid question that deserves an honest answer. Rod Marinelli gets paid a lot of money and he has to answer for his team’s performance.

Instead, Marinelli saw an opportunity to throw his daughter in front of the question and pretend it was an attack on her. The reality is that nobody cares about the little tramp. We want to know if Marinelli is more willing to face the consequences of an 0-16 season than he is to face his daughter when her husband is staring down a 30% cut in pay.

I think Rob Parker’s question was funny but I’m not surprised Rod Marinelli didn’t see the humor in it. When you’re 0-15 you shouldn’t find the humor in anything, but you also don’t get to throw a pity party for yourself because your daughter’s marital status was the subject of a question.

There’s been some speculation that Marinelli might retain his job after this season is over. A lot of people believe that the Lions were hamstrung by Matt Millen’s ineptitude as a general manager and there’s no question that Rod Marinelli had his work cut out for him but 0-15 is simply inexcusable. Since he’s clearly not doing his job as far as winning football games, the least Marinelli can do is explain why he is not.

I can’t get behind Marinelli on this. He gets paid a lot of money and part of the job is answering tough questions. Rob Parker’s job is to ask them. Parker might have been snide in the way he asked the question and it’s possible that the question was actually rhetorical but it wasn’t out of line. The people who are upset with Parker are out of line. That goes double for Terry Bradshaw…stick with being the comic relief on the frat party Fox passes off as NFL analysis. Leave the real work to people more qualified.

Bowling for Dollars

2008-12-19T09:17:00.003-08:00

One of the arguments against a playoff system at the FBS level of college football is that it would deprive schools of the privilege of playing in a bowl. It’s true that a lot of teams will never aspire to the level of play necessary to qualify them for a shot at a national title but they still get to play one last game on the national stage if they win enough during the regular season. Six is the magic number, which is why 6-6 Notre Dame managed to secure a trip to Hawaii on Christmas Eve.

Not every six win team gets to play in a bowl because 6-6 does not a winning record make, but when you have the kind of history Notre Dame has and the harbor porpoise you call a coach has been out of the water too long, you get to pack your bags for paradise. Never mind the fact that Notre Dame didn’t beat anybody respectable. Forget about the reality of the modern era where Notre Dame is a second tier program that refuses to join a conference for fear of not being able to negotiate its own television contracts.

Implementing a playoff system doesn’t mean you have to eliminate bowls. You can still have obscure bowls played in the middle of the week to appease the mediocre teams who win 7 games or take home a conference title nobody really cares about. Playoffs would only require modifying the BCS bowls to accommodate a post season tournament.

There are people who complain that playoffs would diminish the importance of the other bowl games, but as I look over the schedule I find it hard to believe that these games could be any less significant.

There are two games that I’m going to sit down and watch. I’m interested in seeing if Penn State was tested enough during the regular season to keep USC under wraps. I don’t think they were, but I have to see it for myself. Personally I think that the Big 10 was weak this year and Penn State didn’t play anybody worthy of national respect. Ohio State was an important win for Penn State but I’m not so sure it proves anything. USC wasn’t as dominant as people thought they were after the beating they handed the Buckeyes but they still have some firepower and they have a good defense. Penn State’s in trouble.

I’m also interested in the Oklahoma/Florida pairing. I hate the BCS and I won’t give either team credit for winning a national title when this one is over, but I think that off all the games you could have scheduled for this bowl season, this is the best pairing. I suspect Oklahoma’s defense is a lot better than people think and Florida won’t be able to keep up with the Sooners, but Bob Stoops has suffered a couple of humiliating BCS losses in recent years. This game is a toss up. It could go either way. I don’t like either program but Tim Tebow seems like a big, fat, overrated jerk to me and I like Sam Bradford so I’m rooting for Oklahoma.

I won’t waste my time watching Utah get throttled by Alabama. I hope Utah does well but I don’t think they stand a chance in this one. I maintain that the BCS scheduled this match up to punish Utah for crashing the BCS party. Alabama and Texas was an intriguing concept but I suspect that game would have impugned the credibility of the BCS title game. So the BCS people ruined it for everybody. Thanks, old white guys in suits, you really know how to screw things up.

Even though I consider myself a waning Buckeye fan I won’t waste my time watching the Fiesta Bowl. Jim Tressel manages to throw a soggy sweater vest on everything, including Terrelle Pryor. The Buckeyes are predictable and boring. The defense doesn’t make big plays, and the offense has become one dimensional. Don’t let the spread formation fool you, Tressel’s offense is easy to read and tough to watch. Texas will dismantle the Buckeyes in short order, holding out hope that a big win will help them make a case for being the people’s champion. Sadly, Ohio State has become a BCS doormat and beating the Buckeyes won’t impress anybody.

Outside of that, I really couldn’t care less about the rest of the bowls. Not only will I not bother watching, I think that I might even forget to check the box scores to see who won. No offense to the fans and players of all of those teams who will be playing, I just don’t care. It’s not my fault that college football has the audacity to lump 119 programs in one subdivision as if they’re all equal. Fans know better. There are 20 teams that matter and the rest are just fodder for the schedule. Most of the bowls are like those cheap hats they stuff into cases of beer. But hey, it looks good on you though.

Racism is still a factor

2008-12-18T06:16:00.000-08:00

It's interesting that the United States recently elected its first African American president. On the surface it leads one to believe that this country has come a long way with regard to racism and prejudice. When you look closely at Barack Obama you realize that not only did he overcome the obstacle of race, but he also hurdled xenophobia and a significant generation gap.

In the world of sports the accomplishments of athletes and their significance are often overstated in the name of nostalgia. Sports writers are held to a much more relaxed standard and they tend to publish articles that wax philosophically about the importance of trivial events. Otherwise reprehensible people are often sanctified in print because they played through an injury or put familial obligations on the back burner in order to play an pivotal game. In many cases athletes are given credit for acting selflessly when their actions were entirely selfish.

There are some things that do matter. Jesse Owens shattering Hitler's notion of a superior Aryan race in the 1936 Olympics matters. It's ironic that Owens was an American hero at those games but when he came home he was often required to enter hotels and banquet halls through the service entrance, but his accomplishments at the games and the manner in which her carried himself broke down barriers.

It was the strides Owens made that opened doors for Jackie Robinson years later, although it's unfair to forget that black soldiers who served heroically in combat during World War II opened many doors as well. Robinson, however, was a catalyst and it was his ability to grasp the full scope of his responsibilities that opened the door for other black players.

The integration of sports was a major step in the right direction. People identify with athletes and as black players achieved excellence in athletic competition, a wary, white public began to accept them. It was a qualified acceptance but the integration of sports helped ease the integration of society.

Even though the NFL, or at least what later became the NFL, accepted black players and even had a black coach, Fritz Pollard, in the early 1920s, it was difficult for black players to make the transition into coaching and even more difficult for the few black assistant coaches in the league to advance into the head coaching position. Even into the 1980s there was a belief that black athletes lacked the intellectual capacity to be successful as starting quarterbacks and head coaches. Doug Williams became the first African American quarterback to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory in 1987. Art Shell became the first African American head coach in the NFL since the NFL started using face masks.

Even though the NFL loves to claim that it was a bastion of racial harmony from its inception, the reality is that it left a lot to be desired. There was a difference in how black players were treated and compensated. Racial prejudice and bias influenced personnel decisions for years. People questioned why a league that relied so heavily on the performance of black athletes seemed to deny opportunities to African Americans behind the scenes. It was in the 1990s the NFL began addressing that issue and it's been only in the past 10 years we've seen something resembling equality. There's still work to be done, but the NFL has kicked a lot of doors open.

The same is not true in college football. Recently Auburn infuriated people around the league by offering its head coaching position to a former coordinator who had achieved nothing but failure as a head coach at Iowa State. Gene Chizik was successful as a defensive coordinator at Texas and Auburn but his 2 year stint at Iowa State resulted in a total of five wins. Moreover, he left Iowa State with four years remaining on his contract. So not only did Chizik fail to demonstrate success as a head coach, he also failed to demonstrate integrity.

Turner Gill is an African American head coach from Buffalo. In his three years at the helm Buffalo has steadily improved, winning the MAC Championship over unbeaten Ball State and earning a bowl bid this year. Not only has Gill proven his abilities to develop a program, Gill's background includes NFL experience. He was the Director of Player Development with the Green Bay Packers before he was offered the top job with the Buffalo Bulls.

There are plenty of reasons Auburn passed on Gill. His lack of familiarity with the SEC likely played a significant role. Similarly Chizik had demonstrated success at Auburn as the defensive coodinator for an unbeaten team a few years ago. So not only was Chizik familiar with the SEC, he also knew a lot about Auburn. It's hard to believe that race was the deciding factor in Chizik's hiring but you can bet it was an influencing factor.

Out of 119 Football Bowl Subdivision (Division 1-a) programs only four have African American head coaches. Of those four programs only one (Miami) is a respected football power and it is in the middle of a rebuilding process after a number of problems forced out the previous coaching staff. Randy Shanon will probably be given plenty of time to repair the once storied Miami program but even if he is successful at restoring Miami to greatness the odds of other significant schools hiring black coaches are slim . When you look around the NCAA you just don't see any prominent assistant coaches who happen to be black. Several teams with older coaches are grooming heirs apparent and all of them are white.

The problem with the NCAA is that there really isn't a singular authority. The National Collegiate Athletics Association is a voluntary affiliation. The rules are established by the university presidents. In the NFL the teams are franchises that must conform to the mandates from the league office. So it's a lot easier for the NFL to identify and address perceived problems.
The NFL is also a money driven league. Coaches don't have to recruit players, nor do the players have to meet certain academic criteria. In college coaches have to play political games. They have to raise money, sell tickets and convince the best players to play for them. Yes, there are times when money changes hands. Some coaches work the secret booster circuit to acquire financial inducements for top players. Those who don't have to be really good at selling their program's ability to help players make it to the NFL. So it's a lot harder to hire the right guy. Often, bigger schools like Auburn prefer to hire a coach who knows how to schmooze the boosters over a guy who can coach. After all, a lot of Athletic Directors will tell you, the head coach is the CEO and the assistant coaches handle the Xs and Os.

Money talks. It always has. In the NFL the money is right there on the table. It's all about tickets and advertising. Winning solves all the problems. In college football it's not always so simple. Winning consistently doesn't solve problems so much as it keeps them on hold. Winning generates some revenue but the real money comes from checks signed by rich boosters. University presidents have to make sure that they keep the benefactors happy. Too often the decision to hire a coach isn't made by the athletic director or even the university president. Gene Chizik might have landed the Auburn job over Turner Gill because somebody with deep pockets wanted him bad enough to sign a six figure check. There aren't any rules that prohibit these things and until there are, the NCAA can't get a handle on why black coaches are passed over.

The problem with racism is that it isn't a singular entity. Racism is like a cockroach infestation. You can't eliminate it in one fell swoop, you have to go cupboard to cupboard. Even then, you can't be sure you've solved the problem. Everybody knows that if your house is dirty, the roaches are only going to come back. Nobody keeps a dirtier house than college football and until something is done to clean it up, racism isn't going away.

The Dirty Business of the BCS

2008-12-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

I have a love/hate relationship with college football. Growing up in Northeastern Ohio I was essentially raised on the game and I have a deep appreciation for the nuances and the history of the sport. I have watched the game evolve and players get better as the seasons go by. It’s a remarkable game that provides endless entertainment.

Growing up in Ohio, it’s hard to not have strong feelings about the Buckeyes. Most people love them. Ohio State has a long, illustrious history and some of the greatest figures in the game have spent time in Columbus. Still, there are those who can’t stand Ohio State. They get tired of having all things scarlet and gray crammed down their throats 365 days a year. I can certainly appreciate how they feel.

My problem with college football isn’t specific to Ohio State, but since Ohio State is one of traditional powers in college football the things I hate about the game are very much a part of the Ohio State legacy. The greed, the corruption, the politics, the cheating…Ohio State isn’t above breaking the rules, but anybody who thinks they’re alone is living a lie.

The NCAA enables the sort of plausibly deniable malfeasance that Ohio State engages in to go on at the bigger programs. It’s good for business and in the end that is exactly what college football is. The difference between college football and the NFL is that the NFL is honest about its agenda. The NCAA still tries to pretend that it serves a noble purpose.

In college football everybody is on the take but only the players suffer consequences when their greed gets the better of them. This January the NCAA will parlay it’s approval of a non-sanctioned postseason into hundreds of millions of dollars of which the players who risk life and limb in these games will see nothing in the way of compensation. Sure, the bowl sponsors do arrange for the players to receive gifts but when you think about the money changing hands at the administrative level these gifts are insulting.

Players accept it because the NCAA has managed to convince everybody that it’s in the best interest of the “student athlete” to forego compensation. If players were paid for their performance, the NCAA argues, then they wouldn’t focus on their academic development.

Of course the NCAA doesn’t seem to care about the quality of the education being offered. Many college football players attend college for five or six years without obtaining a degree. Many of the players who do receive diplomas accomplish this feat in convoluted courses of study that have no value in the real world and even less value to the so-called “student athlete” who might want to pursue a career in football.

Apologists will tell you that the money that changes hands gets put back into the schools. They’ll tell you that college football generates revenue that supports gymnastics, swimming, field hockey and tennis. This is true, but not until a lot of old men in suits get paid. Most of the college coaches you’ll see on the sidelines in January make base salaries that exceed one million dollars per year and most of those coaches are under contracts that guarantee that money for a number of years beyond this one. A few coaches even have provisions in their contracts that allow them to renegotiate for a raise if they achieve certain performance benchmarks, few of which pertain to the academic achievements of their teams.

Beyond base salaries coaches are able to broker marketing deals on behalf of the team that secure even more money and most coaches have agents that seek out endorsement contracts that are completely independent of their collegiate responsibilities. So the average compensation package of your typical coach roaming the sidelines in a BCS bowl is quantified in terms of millions of dollars. A few coaches will actually receive bonuses measured in millions if they win their BCS bowls. Meanwhile the players are walking away with a few hundred dollars worth of corporate swag. That’s fair.

Still, I could get past this. Players go into this situation with eyes wide open. They know they’re going to get used for four or five years and some of them manage to negotiate illicit deals on the side that may or may not be facilitated by their coaches. Athletic directors and coaches look the other way and the NCAA ignores these issues until they are so blatantly obvious and embarrassing that somebody has to be sacrificed upon the alter of deniability. At a big revenue-generating program like Ohio State or USC it’s the wayward player, at a less important school you’ll see scholarships stripped and bowl privileges revoked. There’s no oversight committee checking up on the NCAA to ensure that it is enforcing its rules and applying its penalties evenly and none of the college presidents are going to rock the boat because they know that their own programs wouldn’t survive a thorough investigation. So mum’s the word.

But so is money and that brings us to this year’s BCS selections. Obviously the BCS title game pits the number one ranked team in the final BCS standings against the number two ranked team. This year both teams finished the season with one loss. Interestingly enough the top ranked team, Oklahoma, lost to another team that finished the season with one loss: Texas. Even though the usual suspects are telling fans to let it rest, this is cause for concern. Texas seems to have a very legitimate argument that they should be playing for a national title.

The BCS managed to solve that problem by pairing Texas up with a very overrated Ohio State team in the Fiesta Bowl. Logic would dictate that Texas, as the third ranked team in the final BCS poll should play the next best team which, in this case, seems to be Alabama. Alabama spent most of the year ranked number one before losing to Florida in the SEC title game. Of course, if Texas happened to beat Alabama convincingly then Texas would have even more of an argument for being the best team in the country. By relegating Texas to a less appealing battle with an Ohio Sate team that has a recent history of BCS failure, Texas won’t have as compelling a case. Everybody, you see, beats Ohio Sate in January.

The BCS BS doesn’t stop there. BCS officials weren’t happy to see Utah and Boise State finish in the top 10. Granted, both schools come from weak conferences but they are the only unbeaten teams remaining and a lot of fans would like to see how they fare against traditional powers. Boise State famously upset Oklahoma in a BCS game two years ago but it was on the strength of a gimmicky play so most people think it was a fluke.

The BCS doesn’t care about flukes. The BCS cares about two things: money and credibility. And credibility only matters because it influences future revenue. Credibility is why Texas is being insulted with a game against an Ohio State team that beat 10 creampuffs and it’s why the BCS doesn’t want teams that are in non-BCS conferences winning BCS games. If that happens a couple more times the BCS will have to re-evaluate which conferences deserve the BCS honor. The ACC and the Big East won’t like that.

Another problem with schools like Boise State and Utah is that they don’t travel many fans. It was bad enough when West Virginia failed to sell its ticket allotment last year and bowl officials had to fill seats with random people from the streets and it hurt West Virginia to be on the hook for that money. The reality is that most schools don’t have a national fan base that can buy tickets to bowl games on the west coast. Most schools aren’t in the middle of a metropolitan area that has enough people with the money to make the trip to watch a BCS bowl. So the BCS likes to keep the club exclusive.

Which is fair, but don’t run around claiming that the BCS Championship game is the national championship fans have been looking for. The problem is that a lot of people will lose interest if the BCS admits that what they’re really doing is arbitrarily nominating a champion from a number of select schools that generate a lot of money.

That’s why the BCS opted to punish by sending them to the Sugar Bowl to face Texas. Rather than invite unbeaten Utah to Arizona to face Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, a game many Utah fans could rive to, BCS officials begrudgingly sent Utah to be sacrificed for being insolent enough to shake up the final poll. Alabama was two scores shy of playing for the national title. They won 12 games over the course of the regular season and only lost to a favored Florida team in the SEC title game. Utah’s unbeaten and it’s players relish a shot at playing on the national stage but reality tells us that Utah won’t last a quarter. Stranger things have happened but the smart money says Utah won’t even be competitive against Alabama. But Utah might put up a fight with Ohio State, and could beat Virginia Tech and/or Cincinnati which is why the BCS didn’t make those games a reality.

It’s interesting that the two weakest teams in the BCS picture are playing each other. That will give the casual observer the illusion that the game is interesting. Cincinnati won a disappointing Big East conference this year and Virginia Tech staggered to a win in the beleaguered ACC. Nobody things either of these teams worthy of a BCS honor but they won titles in conferences that are guaranteed a BCS berth. So the BCS swept these two embarrassing dust bunnies under the rug by having them play each other.

If Utah were to throttle either of those schools the BCS would have a lot of explaining to do. How could the BCS continue to deny entire conferences access to the BCS party when it’s been proven that those conferences can beat BCS teams in big games? The same is true if Utah holds its own against Ohio State. The BCS can’t accommodate everybody which is why fans want playoffs. If the Utahs and Boise States of the world compete toe to toe with BCS schools in BCS games the push for playoffs will continue to strengthen.

So the BCS manipulates the matches to minimize scrutiny. We might carp about some of the selections, but after the games are played fans will accept the results. As long as those results don’t impugn the integrity of the BCS the BCS officials are happy. Alabama will clobber Utah, Virginia Tech and Cincy will wallow in mediocrity and Texas won’t have much to brag about if they humiliate Ohio State. In the end, the BCS will have successfully determined who the best team in the country is and nobody will have room to complain. Most importantly, the money will end up in the right hands once again.

And that’s what college football is all about.

Duh

2008-11-18T08:49:00.001-08:00

Donovan McNabb is under fire for admitting that he didn't know that a regular season NFL game ends in a tie if neither team scores in the sudden death overtime period. Donovan went on to say that he'd hate to see what happens in the playoffs or the Super Bowl which further demonstrates his ignorance as the NFL has addressed that issue as well by utilizing additional overtime periods.

Now I like Donovan McNabb. I think he's an outstanding quarterback who has been shortchanged by a lousy coach and weak front office management for most of his career. He's played behind an inferior offensive line and his receivers have always left something to be desired. You wonder how much more McNabb would have accomplished throughout his career if he played for a better organization.

That being said, I was disappointed to learn that Mcnabb wasn't up to speed on the NFL's overtime rule. It's only been in existence since 1974 and the last tie occurred during McNabb's playing career back in 2002 so it's not as if a tie is something new. True, they don't happen very often but that's because teams play much differently during the overtime period. They play differently because the first team to score in the extra period wins the game.

Donovan and his coach, Andy Reid, insist that this lack of knowledge did not influence the outcome of the game. I find that hard to believe. Had Donovan realized that there was not going to be an extra overtime period he probably would have managed the clock more aggressively. He also might have executed his plays with more tenacity. It's not uncommon for teams to let the waning seconds of the fourth quarter slip away in favor of regrouping during over time so why not protect the ball during overtime and wait for the extra extra period to start?

McNabb wasn't alone in his ignorance. Other players confessed that they were at a loss when time expired. You could see the confusion on their faces as the Bengals came out to shake hands, but McNabb is the quarterback and he's got to understand every situation. In some circles people are making too much of this, but at the same time McNabb and Andy Reid seem to be dismissing it as a minor issue. It's kind of a big deal.

Andy Reid is taking the blame for not making sure his players were aware of the circumstances and if we're being fair Andy Reid should take the blame for a lot of things. He's overrated as a coach and his team would be more successful if he wasn't there. That being said, Reid shouldn't have to teach his players about a rule 80% of the fans knew going in. The fact that the Eagles didn't know this might explain why they let a team as lowly as the Bengals play them to a 13-13 tie.

Of course the NFL should do away with the sudden death overtime provision. Generally teams play rather conservatively when it comes to big plays. Kicks and punts are short so as to minimize the potential for long returns and teams avoid taking risks on either side of the ball because all it takes is a field goal. Nobody wants to take chances and give up their own 30 yard line. More over, teams often send the kicking unit out on second or third down once they are in field goal range. It's ironic because overtime games, which are often so dramatic during regulation time, get decidedly boring in overtime. It's like topping an ice cream sundae with an olive.

Rather than subject people to sudden death, which sounds more exciting than it really is, the NFL should consider adopting a shortened overtime period. Put six minutes on the clock and play it like a regular period. You could argue that a team can easily burn up 6 minutes on a 70 yard drive that ends in a field goal but that's what time outs are for. It would be no different than the final six minutes of a half.

Another solution is the shootout method employed at the collegiate level. College games used to end in ties rather frequently since the NCAA did not see fit to utilize any tie-breaking procedure. the problem with the shoot out is that they tend to go on for a while. Perhaps putting the teams on the 25 yard line makes scoring too easy or maybe the rules should be altered to make two-point conversion mandatory from the very start. Regardless, the NFL is unlikely to take a page out of the NCAA's rule book.

Something should be done to improve the wet blanket that is sudden death overtime. The Eagles and the Bengals proved that not all close fought games are exciting. I don't know if McNabb's failure to learn the rules contributed to the tedious exercise in futility that was the overtime period but whatever the case it was a waste of time. The NFL can and should do better.

Looking Good

2008-11-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

Like lipstick on a pig...

Brady Quinn looked pretty good in his debut with the Browns. He was limited to throwing short passes and did miss his mark a few times but, considering who he was replacing, it was a big improvement. The big problem is that the Browns didn’t seal the deal on defense. Again. So the Browns have already matched their loss total from last season which virtually guarantees that the Browns will miss the post season. Romeo Crennel, you’re fired. It hasn’t been officially announced but you’ve been out of a job since the opener, Phil Savage is just biding his time.

Do you want a binky?

Jim Tressel looked pretty good storming out of his weekly press conference when questions centered on Ray Small. Senator Jim wanted the reporters to focus on the upcoming game against Northwestern but since that’s rarely a game they were more interested in getting the scoop on the star-crossed receiver Tressel refused to release from his scholarship last year. Thanks to his big game meltdowns Tressel isn’t being given the free pass he used to get from local sports writers and criticism abounds. Rumor has it that the heat will be on Tressel to make some serious changes to his coaching staff this off season. Ohio State should get ahead of the impending disaster and send Tressel and his phony Mr. Rogers act packing. The guy is a creep and overrated as a coach.

Little Big Man

Penn State looks pretty good sitting in at number 3 in the BCS polls. Sure, people in the Keystone State are put off over Texas Tech leapfrogging the Lions in the polls but Texas Tech deserves it. They’ve put up impressive numbers and upset a very good Texas team but Penn State fans can take solace in the fact that when the dust clears their team will be ranked number 1. That’s because Penn State, who hasn’t played anybody really good all year, doesn’t have to play anybody good to finish the season. Texas Tech has to run a gauntlet playing Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Baylor before defending its claim to BCS glory with a Big 12 championship game against, possibly, Missouri. I wouldn’t count on the Red Raiders staying perfect over four tough games in a row and Alabama isn’t going to run the table in the SEC either. So Penn State will make it to the BCS Championship game and you know what? They still won’t deserve it. They played a weak schedule and dominated a weak conference. Their biggest win was a 13-6 slugfest over the bloated Ohio State Buckeyes...not impressive.

To the question nobody asked...

Allen Iverson looks pretty good leaving Denver. The Detroit Pistons traded Chauncey Billups, the back bone of their recent success, along with a valuable reserve in Antonio McDyess for The Answer. Look, I’ll admit that AI has matured a bit in his twilight years but he still struggles with bouts of selfish play on the court. Iverson is a phenomenal basketball player but there’s a reason he isn’t sporting any Championship rings. I know that Iverson says he’s willing to make sacrifices and support his teammates but that’s all talk. We heard the same BS plop out of Karl Malone’s mouth when he went to play for the Lakers but as the season went on the prima donna who couldn’t bear to share the paint with his teammates at Utah proved to be a liability for the Lakers. The wiley veteran couldn’t even command enough respect from Shaq and Kobe to put an end to their schoolyard squabbling. So don’t expect AI to change just because his uniform did.

Cha-ching!

Manny Ramirez’s financial outlook looks pretty good. That’s because he’s a free agent who made a good case for being the NL MVP in spite of only playing a half a season in the NL. Manny is Manny. A lot of people don’t like him because he projects a selfish and lazy attitude, but the dude can hit the stitches off of a baseball. When it comes to what he does with a bat it’s hard to find somebody better. Yeah, the guy is a little goofy. He leaves a lot to be desired in the field and he’s not exactly somebody you want on base if you have to manufacture runs but there’s nobody else you’d rather have at the plate when you need to drive in a run. Manny Ramirez is a menace who actually does better in pressure situations. That’s because the same qualities that make Manny such a doofus away from the plate turn him into a machine when he’s at it. Manny doesn’t think about the circumstances, Manny doesn’t get caught up in the moment. Manny sees ball. Manny hits ball. Hard. That’s why he’s going to get paid a lot of money before the off season is over. Right or wrong, Manny’s value is measurable and his deficiencies are predictable. When the hemming and hawing comes to an end, Manny Ramirez is going to get a ton of money.

Football, Ohio Style

2008-09-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

Rumor has it that Ohio is home to two professional football teams. I was skeptical about this until I did a little research and discovered that there are two NFL franchises in Ohio. As luck would have it they played each other yesterday. So being an Ohioan I tuned in, hoping to learn more about these elusive teams. I don’t know what they were playing, but whatever it was sure didn’t look like professional football to me.

In all seriousness, the NFL has to step in and do something about the Bengals. Even though the Browns stink this year, they did go 10-6 last season and they are taking strides to become more competitive. The Bengals are a disgrace to the NFL. There are teams that fare worse but the Bengals’ legacy is consistency. The Bengals went 12-4 in 1988 and made it to the Super Bowl where they lost to the 49ers 20-16. Since then the Bengals have only managed to post two winning seasons. Coaches have come and gone and so have great players. The Bengals always drift just below the surface of mediocrity.

There’s a pretty good chance the Marvin Lewis will be fired either during or after this season but he is not the problem. The problem is Mike Brown. Mike is the son of the legendary Paul Brown. Mike took over control of the team when Paul passed away in 1991 and since then Mike has tried to run the team the way his father did. This presents two problems: 1. He’s not his father, and 2. Times have changed.

The Bengals started experiencing problems shortly after the 1988 season. Paul Brown struggled with the attitudes and demands of modern era players. When the collective bargaining agreement gave players more freedom in choosing teams and negotiating contracts, the Bengals began to lose ground in the free agent market. Mike Brown simply continued his father’s path of resistance. The problem with the Bengals is that there are teams who do worse each season so nobody really notices just how flawed the franchise is. The Bengals have finished a number of campaigns with an 8-8 record leading people to believe that they’re on the right track. They aren’t.

The Bengals won the AFC North in 2005 with and 11-5 record. Then Carson Palmer went down with a knee injury in the Wild Card game and the Bengals had a convenient excuse for failing to advance. They also had a great excuse for performing poorly in 2006. The Bengals always have a great excuse for coming up short. The problem is that people accept those excuses and it breeds a culture of failure.

The Browns are a different story. Even though the Browns carry a rich football tradition the current incarnation of the team was born in 1999. A number of very poor decisions were made over the first five years and the current front office is just now starting to sort out the mess left behind by the likes of Carmen Policy, Dwight Clark and Butch Davis. Romeo Crennel seems to be out of his league as a head coach but General Manager Phil Savage knows what he’s doing and the Browns finally appear to be headed in the right direction.

That being said, one has to question why Brady Quinn wasn’t given the nod against the Bengals this past Sunday. Derek Anderson has been playing poorly dating back to the end of the 2007 season. His passes tend to float and he telegraphs his intentions to the defensive backs. Anderson is on track to throw for twice as many interceptions as touchdowns and he is clearly not reading defenses. The Browns are 1-3 to start a season many people felt would be a very good campaign for them.

The Browns were smart to hold on to Anderson after the way he performed last year, but Anderson had a lot of work to do. He needed to hone his accuracy, perfect his ability to check down receivers and learn how to call audibles to exploit defensive alignments. Anderson failed on all counts. He has proven himself to be what scouts thought he would be all along: a fairly talented back up quarterback with a soft touch and a slow delivery.

Quinn might not be the answer but the Browns need to know. If Anderson is incapable of stepping up and being an elite QB in the NFL, the Browns need to see if Quinn is. Anderson has had four games to put it together and he’s failed. The Browns have no choice but to hand the ball to Quinn and see if he can rise to the challenge. If Quinn proves to be a bust then the Browns need to take a long hard look at the quarterbacks who will be available in the upcoming draft and make a move. The Browns can’t afford to be like the Bengals and make excuses for themselves. There must be a sense of urgency.

The Bengals are in the midst of a 20 year slump. This January will mark the 20th anniversary of their last Super Bowl appearance and 1990 is the last time the Bengals won a playoff game. That’s just unacceptable.

The Browns aren’t much better with zero Super Bowl appearances in the team’s entire history but in their defense this team isn’t even 10 years old yet. People sometimes forget that the team that played in Cleveland for all those years packed up shop and moved to Baltimore. It’s disappointing to see the Browns fail to improve on last year’s 10-6 record but comparing Cleveland’s legacy of failure to Cincinnati’s is unfair. Both teams need to make some serious changes. Both teams owe their fans better but the Bengals have elevated underachieving to an art. If they can’t right the ship the NFL should step in and reorganize the franchise.

St. Jim deflects blame

2008-09-24T06:23:00.001-07:00

Well, the Terrelle Pryor era has officially begun in Columbus Ohio. After enduring a vicious spanking at the hands of the mighty USC Trojans, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel announced that the Buckeyes would give the true freshman QB a serious look in the week leading up to a snoozer against Troy. Pryor ended up taking all but the final two snaps of the game. He set a Buckeye record for a freshman by throwing for four touchdowns and Buckeye fans are excited at what this all means.

What it means is Ohio State will lose at least two more games. Look, Troy stinks. I know that Troy made a name for itself by playing tough against rank opponents over the past few years but even after stinking up the field in a win over Ohio and stinking up ABC’s prime time broadcast of the eventual bloodletting, Ohio State was still heavily favored by odds makers heading into the game against Troy. Having watched Ohio State and Todd Boeckman perform against inferior opponents much of last year, Pryor really didn’t do anything special against Troy. Boeckman might have thrown for five touchdowns against that team.

What people don’t realize is that Ohio State’s problem is not at the quarterback position. Todd Boeckman looked terrible against USC but that was because USC knew when he was in the game the Buckeyes were probably going to pass. Tressel put a target on Boeckman’s back by inserting Terrelle Pryor into the game in certain situations.

It was obvious early on that Boeckman’s rhythm was off, but the OSU coaches kept throwing him to the wolves. Then on Monday, in front of mobs of angry fans who finally had enough of nationally televised disappointments, Jim Tressel announced that Todd Boeckman was going to see his role reduced. Basically Jim Tressel put 100% of the blame for the USC loss on Boeckman. He didn’t say it, but actions speak louder than words.

The problem is that Boeckman didn’t do anything wrong. Tressel’s QBs have a history of struggling in big games. His teams don’t play with any energy when the pressure is on. The plays that are called are slow to develop and predictable, fullbacks and tight ends are underutilized and the defense waits for contact to come to them rather than attacking the ball. Ohio State looks good against inferior teams because Ohio State still recruits some of the most talented players in the country, but when the level of talent is close to being equal Ohio State looks slow, stupid and completely overrated. That’s a result of coaching.

Jim Tressel is a putz. He’s quiet, reserved, stiff and methodical. Somehow he manages to recruit great players but the guy shows no visible signs of passion or intensity. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes a leader needs to have ice water in his veins, but with Tressel it seems more like tepid pond water. Ohio State is stagnant and that’s because Tressel’s personality dominates everything.

Now Todd Boeckman leaves a lot to be desired as a QB, but a lot of that falls on the coaching staff. Coaches are supposed help players get better from one year to the next. Todd Boeckman has been with the Buckeyes for a long time. He was a prized recruit out of high school who wanted to play at Ohio State so badly he spurned scholarship offers from other schools to wait in the wings. Tressel rewarded him for his loyalty by effectively benching him.

That’s not so bad except for the fact that Ohio State’s failures against USC went much deeper. The running backs weren’t reading their blocks, the linemen weren’t picking up the stunts, the receivers weren’t adjusting routes and the defense looked pathetic. The failure was universal. The only players showing any passion that evening were Chris Wells who was sidelined with an injury, and Terrelle Pryor who hasn’t been around long enough to be assimilated into the hive. Give him another year and he’ll be as boring and uneventful as a used dryer sheet. Just like Jim Tressel.

Instead of kicking a diligent player to the curb, Tressel should have taken his assistant coaches to task. Co-defensive coordinators Luke Fickel and Jim Heacock have presided over one of the most talent laden defenses in the country over the past four years. In spite of all that talent, the defense gets worked in big games. Florida and LSU shredded that defense with short passes in consecutive BCS title games, Illinois upset the Buckeyes with a mobile QB and USC just humiliated the front seven. The Buckeyes don’t blitz effectively and seldom use stunts to create any kind of a rush. It’s almost as if the coaches can’t believe that ranked teams don’t buckle in awe of the talent the Buckeyes put on the field. Maybe that’s because the Buckeyes spend so much time playing the likes of Akron, Ohio and Youngstown State that awe is usually the response they see.

Jim Bollman is charged with overseeing the offense. He’s technically the offensive coordinator but everybody knows that Tressel calls the shots. It’s his offense, Bollman coaches the line and kisses Tressel’s ass. That’s what they pay him for. Still, Bollman has squandered tremendous talent. Even though Ohio State’s linemen seem incapable of adjusting to stunts and picking up blitzes, the NFL is always happy to see Ohio State offensive linemen on the board. The talent is there, the talent is deep, the talent is wasted. That’s Bollman’s fault.

Tressel should have taken his coaches to task in the wake of another nationally televised failure but he has spent so much time surrounding himself with like-minded yes men that he realizes that acknowledging their failures would be admitting to his own. Tressel’s too arrogant to do that. Tressel wrote the book on winning (at least a book) and he will not admit that he’s in over his head or that the game has passed him by. He still thinks that 2002 national title actually means something even though Ohio State had the 107th best offense in the country and won the game over Miami courtesy of a suspicious call or two.

Until Tressel can own up to his deficiencies Ohio State will continue to be a second rate team. Sure, they’ll win 9 or 10 games a season but that will be against in-state rivals and Big 10 fodder. Ohio State has had several opportunities to prove itself on the national stage against the best teams in the country and it has failed. That’s Jim Tressel’s legacy and you can’t hide that behind Todd Boeckman.

Are you ready for some football?

2008-09-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

I don't know who what genius decided to shuffle Monday Night Football over to ESPN but considering the fact that Disney owns both ABC and ESPN I'm pretty sure the culprit was Goofy. ABC took a giant risk when they agreed preempt regular programming to feature on marquee game on Monday night. Prime time. Back in 1970 there was no such thing as basic cable. The Big Three ruled the airwaves and the other two networks had already passed on Rozelle's plan.

MNF proved to be so successful that other networks quickly altered their programming so as not to waste good shows on a losing ratings battle. Monday Night Football was an institution the dramatically increased the NFL's appeal. In the 1980s Monday Night Football was the original must see TV. Some of the most memorable moments in football history occurred during the broadcast. ABC spared no expense. The production quality of the Monday night game was for superior to anything else in sports. The best production team, the most skilled camera men and the most appealing broadcasters were hired to enhance the experience.

Not only that, but Monday Night Football was a boon to the city hosting the game. ABC's crew featured stories about the hosting city, and promoted the culture of the team's community. Monday Night Football had the atmosphere of the Super Bowl. Perhaps not as big, but every bit as exciting.

Mistakes were made. Dennis Miller was not a good fit in the booth and the entire nation witnessed the demise of one of the must enduring sports broadcasters in history. Howard Cosell is remembered for uttering the unfortunate expression "somebody let that little monkey get loose" but his chronic alcohol abuse and erratic behavior led to his dismissal. However, Monday Night Football will be remembered for its best moments, not its worst.

Even though Monday Night Football still exists, the move to ESPN cheapens it. Even though most Americans have hundreds of channels to choose from, the Big Three still matter, which made ABC's sponsorship of Monday Night Football so important. By relegated the broadcast to basic cable Disney effectively destroyed an institution. Now NBC and CBS are happy to attack Monday night with their best shows. That means fewer people are watching Monday Night Football. NBC bought back part of its share of the NFL pie by snapping up a Monday Night game but it's not the same. Monday Night Football was special. It was an event. Now, it's just a game.

ESPN used to be special, but they've over saturated the market with themselves. There are too many channels and there's too much coverage. I enjoyed football more when there was some mystery to it, now there are mobs of former players going to great lengths to demystify the game. As somebody who considers himself a student of the game, I find the endless lectures to be boring and often erroneous. Former coaches are such for a reason and ex-jocks are generally hired for name recognition. They aren't any more credible than any of the millions of fans who have studied the game since they were kids. It's actually a little insulting to have a clown like Howie Long preaching football from on high. So I try not to watch.

Even though my interest in the Sunday games had waned long ago, I still found myself tuning in to MNF. I enjoyed the game. It was Monday, after all...there wasn't much else to do and, until John Madden came along I enjoyed the broadcast team. Dennis Miller was terrible but I loved watching him humiliate himself every week. I loved watching Al Michaels hold back the urge to punch him in the face. Veins bulging on the side of his head, jaw clenched, the uneasy laugh when miller tried to blend an obscure pop culture reference with football. It was gold. Now Dennis Miller's a conservative pundit with a dwindling audience. Who'd have thought Rob Schneider would be the bigger star?

I don't think I've watched a Monday Night game since the move to ESPN. At least not in its entirety. I've seen enough to know that Tony Kornheiser makes Dennis Miller look like Dan Dierdorf which doesn't bode well. I used to like Mike Tirico but he's one of the shills who is always trying to find something meaningful in sports when it's just a bunch of overpaid jocks beating each other senseless. I haven't seen Ron Jaworski's performance on MNF but I'm sure he doesn't stop talking. Which is good because that means less Tony, but it's not like it used to be. And that's too bad.

The NFL is popular enough that it is going to survive this debacle but I don't think I'm alone when I skip Monday Night Football and find something else to watch. Like reruns of House.

Bitter Buckeye

2008-08-22T07:25:00.001-07:00

I hate to call myself a Buckeye fan but I root for the team. I can’t stand Jim Tressel, with his button-down, fussbudget style, but I can’t complain about his record even though he’s shown a propensity for being outcoached in big games. I don’t relish it when the Buckeyes lose but there’s a sadistic little part of me that takes pleasure in knowing that Buckeye Nation, as they like to call themselves, will feel the pain of that loss for months on end.

It’s no secret that there are a lot of OSU haters around the country. Part of that is because Ohio State has been very successful over the past few seasons and that’s what Buckeye Nation tells itself. The animosity is steeped in jealousy. To a degree that’s true, but the ill will towards all things Buckeye has legitimate roots. Soft scheduling, abundant home games and dominance of a sluggish conference that has yet to embrace the concept of a championship game are major issues people take with Ohio State. Suspicious recruiting tactics, academic issues and boorish behavior by the players is also part of the problem.

I tend to cut players slack. I went to college. I drank and acted a fool. That’s what college kids do. That’s also what 40 and 50 year-old men tailgating outside of the stadium do. People sometimes get their ass on. No biggie. So when Antonio Henton got nabbed for trying to pay an undercover vice cop $20 for a quickie, I kept it in perspective. How was he supposed to know the cardinal rule? Hot hookers are always cops…well, at least to whatever degree a vice officer can be a cop. If you want a $20 BJ you need to settle for the flabby old hag with skuzzy teeth and body odor.

I didn’t cut the players slack on two occasions last year: their losses. There’s no shame in losing but beating yourself is unacceptable. That’s what Ohio State did when they lost to Illinois. But that’s not what irked me. Ohio State went out and laid an egg. They played with no energy and got worked over like a sparring partner but somehow after the game all those tired Buckeye players managed to muster up enough energy to engage in a midfield brawl because Illinois was celebrating a little too vigorously. Hey guys, if you wanted to defend your honor you should have won the game. Losers hit the showers, winners dance for joy. Deal with it.

Those same players showed poor character during the BCS Championship game against LSU when the vaunted Buckeye line invested more energy into running their mouths than they did in trying to block LSU’s defensive front. I’m not naïve, I played a little football and I know that there’s some jawing that goes on in the trenches but generally you keep your mouth shut when you’re getting your butt handed to you on every play. Not if you’re a Buckeye, apparently.

Now I’m an Ohio native and I’ve always consider the Buckeyes to be my favorite team so if I’m watching these guys play and thinking what a bunch of jerks they are, what are non-Buckeye fans thinking? There’s another solid cornerstone to Buckeye loathing. This program has shown a hell of a lot more ass than it has class. Is it as bad as Miami? No. Nobody can limbo quite that low but it is a departure from the standards I thought the program aspired to.

The perception that Ohio State, and by extension the Big 10 conference, is soft really doesn’t hold as much water as people like to believe. Ohio State sends as many players to the NFL as the next team and the conference holds its own in bowl games against any conference, even the ballyhooed SEC. The problem is that the Big 10 closes its season early and doesn’t feature a conference championship game even though the conference title has been shared on numerous occasions. It’s unfair to judge the entire conference by Ohio State’s disappointing performances in the past two BCS title games but the conference isn’t doing much to alter that perception. Instead conference honchos get defensive and whiny. That makes matters worse and that gives people more reason to hate on Ohio State.

Buckeye Nation won’t hear any of this. They bitterly complain about Ohio State gets no respect and how underrated the team is. Ohio State enters the coming season ranked anywhere from #2 to #5 in the countless number of preseason polls with the consensus locking them in the top 3. Still the scuttlebutt around the water cooler in any Columbus office is how the Buckeyes aren’t being given enough credit. That happens when you lay eggs when the national title is on the line, folks. Frankly, I’m surprised the Buckeyes are ranked inside the top 5.

That being said, the bar is set high this year. The Buckeyes are loaded with a slew or starters returning from last year’s runner up. Only one significant player left for the NFL and the Buckeyes has enough depth on the defensive line to fill Gholsten’s shoes. Aside from a road trip to USC the Buckeyes should win every game on their schedule with great ease. The USC game is even favorable because USC has big question marks on the offensive line and at quarterback. With the Buckeyes returning a veteran cast on defense they should have a tremendous advantage over the Trojans in spite of playing on the road. So it’s pretty safe to say that Ohio State should be unbeaten this year. Can they deliver?

I’m doubt it. They should have been unbeaten last year and the year before. I don’t think this team can stop admiring itself in the mirror for an entire season. That seems to be their downfall and that’s why people hate them. I cant say I blame them.

I hope the Buckeyes do well, I really do but if they stumble I can take solace in the fact that the idiots who call themselves Buckeye Nation will have to swallow that bitter pill.

Pop ups

2008-08-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

Woody Austin was quoted as saying that the PGA Championship isn’t a lesser tournament because Tiger Woods won’t be playing. Um, yes, Woody, it is. Until I read that quote I didn’t even know the PGA Championship was coming up this week and for the life of me I can’t tell you who won the British Open. Maybe that makes me less of a golf fan but so are the other 10 million people who don’t care about the PGA if Tiger isn’t playing. I think that says more about grouchy old hacks like Woody Austin than it does me.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy met with Brett Favre and concluded that Brett isn’t ready to dedicate himself to the team in a manner that will be beneficial. Duh. Brett said as much in his retirement speech. He’s tired. A few months ago Brett said that the only scenario he could envision himself playing again was one where he was guaranteed an appearance in the Super Bowl. That scenario doesn’t exist. You have to play all 16 games and then run the playoff gauntlet to get in. That’s hard to do and requires serious effort. See ya later, Brett. Too bad you ruined your legacy with an intricate web of whining and backstabbing.

The Milwaukee Brewers are starting to come unglued. Prince Fielder is shoving pitchers around, the manager’s complaining that the press wants to ask about the team chemistry in the wake of said shoving match and the Cubs are pulling away. That CC Sabathia trade is looking brilliant.

The Yankees just sent Joba Chamberlain to the doctor. Remember when Hank Steinbrenner was throwing a fit over how slowly the team was bringing Joba into the starting rotation? Me too. Just sign the checks, little Stein, leave the baseball stuff to the baseball people.

LeBron James has put the fear of god into the NBA by admitting that he would consider offers to play in Europe. The question is whether or not LeBron is posturing to give NBA players some bargaining power when the next collective bargaining agreement is negotiated. The NBA is a star-driven enterprise and it can’t afford to lose somebody with the presence of LeBron but can any team in the NBA compete with some foreign billionaire who wants to throw a feather in his team’s cap? More importantly, can LeBron afford to lose the publicity he gets in the NBA? It should be interesting to see how this plays out but it’s highly unlikely any big name player is going to risk the side benefits of the NBA to chase a big contract in Europe.

Preseason polls have Georgia ranked number one. I guess we can tune in this coming January to see them get the BCS trophy. I believe Ohio State is a 5 to 1 favorite to play them and lose because apparently Jim Tressel is still under the impression that nobody throws underneath.

Speaking of Jim Tressel, he has a book on the market…something about winning. I checked and didn’t see any chapters on ignoring obvious signs of NCAA violations, scheduling 8 home games in a season, playing down to the level of your cupcake opponents or hypocrisy so I expect volume two to be out next summer.

The Olympics set to begin and even though interest seems to be at an all time low it might be worth following to see if the professional athletes the US sends can attain a lower international approval rating the George W. Bush. It’s going to be tough without Gilbert Arenas on the team but somehow I think they’ll pull through.

Packers need to move on

2008-07-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

I knew Brett Favre wasn’t going to stay retired. I wrote that on this blog back in March. This is a guy who has played through injury, illness and personal loss. I don’t know if that makes him a great man or a selfish child but there’s no question about what it means on the football field. He’s a warrior.

A few years ago the Green Bay Packers were at fault, they were more concerned with building for the future than winning with Favre. I believe Favre wanted out so he could play for a Super Bowl contender. The Packers weren’t at that level so he was seriously considering calling it quits. The Packers wouldn’t give him an out, and Favre didn’t want to anger his fans. If you read between the lines of his recent retirement speech it was clear that Favre was “tired” and the only way he’d entertain playing another season was if he was virtually guaranteed a shot at winning a Super Bowl. In short, Favre wants a ring handed to him.

Well, Brett, you had your chance last year. The Green Bay Packers got everything they wanted when the New York Giants upset the Dallas Cowboys to shift the NFC Championship game to the frozen tundra. The Giants were plucky but playing in Green Bay during the month of January was bad news, everybody believed the Packers were going to win.

And they should have, but the Giants played hard and had a chance to win the game with a 36 yard field goal at the end of the fourth quarter. So at the end of regulation it was tied, with momentum clearly on the side of Green Bay. The Packers won the all important toss heading into overtime and with Brett Favre playing on his home turf a third Super Bowl appearance seemed a given. At least until Favre threw an interception in his own end on the second play of the overtime period. The Giants returned the pick to field goal range, ran a few plays to center the kick and won the NFC Championship game. Then they went on to upset the Patriots and forever sully the only 16-0 record in NFL history.

Everybody keeps talking about how great Favre is but ever since his first Super Bowl appearance way back in mid 1990s he’s been a sketchy post season performer. Part of the problem has been a lack of talent around him, but the problems go beyond dropped passes and poor second efforts. Favre has been lackluster when it counts the most. He’s hurt the Packers with erratic play. Favre likes his “gunslinger” reputation even though his lousy passes and reckless decision making have lost more close games than they’ve won.

Now he’s hurting the Packers again. This time he’s at fault. Favre retired back in March and insisted that he was done. He stated over and over and over again that he was not going to change his mind and come back. So the Packers moved on. They threw everything behind Aaron Rodgers and committed the entire organization to starting the post-Favre era. Now Favre’s trying to come back.

There’s no question that Favre has every right to come back, but rather than play this cat and mouse game with the Packers he needs to assert himself and jump back in with both feet. He needs to be upfront about his intentions. If he wants to be released he needs to demand it. It’s not fair for Favre to put one foot in the water and expect the Packers to turn the ship around to pick him up.

A lot of people are on Favre’s side, they can’t figure out why the Packers seem reticent to bring him back as the starter. I don’t understand it. Favre’s becoming quite the high maintenance princess and his most recent performance really left a lot to be desired. Yeah, the Packers got to the NFC title game but Favre completed only 19 of 35 passes and threw two interceptions, one of them directly resulted in the Giants winning the game.

It’s clear that Brett Favre believes he is bigger than the Packers. If the Packers pass on Favre he could indeed come back to haunt them by playing with the Bears or the Vikings and the fans would be livid, but after all is said and done such a move would say a lot more about Brett Favre’s selfishness that it does about the ineptitude of the Packers’ front office. Favre’s best years are long behind him. It’s hard to say what’s older, Favre or his pay-attention-to-me act. The more this drama plays out the more I’m convinced that the Packers should have given up on Favre long ago.

C-ya CC

2008-07-08T10:18:00.001-07:00

CC Sabathia wasn’t a bad guy. He never got into trouble, didn’t create issues with his teammates and was always gracious toward Cleveland fans. He was also a very good pitcher for the Indians. That being said, from purely a baseball perspective, good riddance to him.

Everything you need to know about CC can be summed up with his performance last season. He went 19-7 and won the Cy Young Award for the American League. Then he stunk up the mound in the playoffs. Why? Because CC is a notorious rhythm pitcher who can be dominant for long stretches only to come unglued because of a rain delay. It would be unfair to call him a head case because he’s not outwardly loony but it’s pretty obvious that he does have certain psychological issues that make extended pitching slumps a factor in his game.

CC never really proved himself to be the dominant starter everybody in Cleveland had hoped for. He’s never won 20 games in a season, nor has he threatened to crest that vaunted 300 strikeout mark most power pitchers are held to. CC’s ERA was never eye-popping because of his tendency to give up runs in bunches when he gets off track. That’s not to say he’s not a good pitcher but CC is banking on becoming the highest paid pitcher in all of baseball even though his stats, especially those that measure individual performance, fall short of being the best.

There are some concerns over CC’s work ethic. He’s not exactly lazy but he does suffer from those nagging little injuries that can take him out of the starting rotation for a week or two and that’s when CC is likely to embark on a slump where he either can’t find the plate or he finds entirely too much of it. It’s a long season and power pitchers tend to tweak muscles along the way but CC’s a chubby guy whose weight more than likely contributes to his knack for getting dinged. Even if he manages to stay healthy, one has to wonder if he’ll ever be able to rise to the challenge of pitching in the playoffs.

Tribe skipper Eric Wedge stunned baseball analysts when he opted to extend his post season pitching rotation to maintain the continuity of the regular season. This was an attempt to keep CC on his normal pitching schedule. Most teams don’t do that and most pitchers don’t expect it. It’s the playoffs so you go out there and give it everything you’ve got night after night. Even so, CC struggled making the transition from the conclusion of the regular season to the playoffs. He got more days off between starts and it took the Sabathia Express right off its tracks. The result was another post season failure by the Indians. They lost as a team but it didn’t help that they didn’t get one solid performance from their so-called ace. Wedge exacerbated the problem by refusing to recognize that CC had left the reservation and minimize the damage.

So now the Brewers are banking on CC. Let’s hope for the sake of that franchise the gamble pays off. They gave up quite a few promising young prospects to acquire the temporary use of CC Sabathia. They know that they have no chance of retaining his services beyond this season and CC’s current salary is already pushing the team’s payroll past its limits. The Brewers are hoping that a pennant chase will drive attendance enough to help the club break even financially and that CC’s talents will drive the team deep into the playoffs. In all honesty this was a championship-or-bust move. The Brewers won’t dare speak of it but this trade was made to win it all. Anything less is failure.

The sad thing is that the Brewers can’t afford to fail. If CC comes up short…again…the Brewers will have sacrificed future stars for nothing. CC will end up with the Mets, or whoever else has 250 million to burn and the Brewers will be sitting on an aging team with nothing in the cupboard and nobody to trade. I don’t want to see that. I’m an Indians fan…I’ve been there. I don’t wish that on anybody. Except the Yankees.

Even though he’s gone, I’m pulling for CC. I want him to do well and for the sake of baseball I hope the Brewers do well too. If small market teams can find ways to win maybe the big market teams will stop trying to drown the league with money and actually resort to smart front office moves to build championship contenders. We can’t expect the League Office to do anything about it.

Of course, that won’t happen. CC Sabathia is a good pitcher, but he’s not great. The Brewers didn’t improve their chances enough to justify the trade and at the end of the year they’ll be kicking themselves for giving up so much for a hired gun with a soft head. Of course the Indians won’t be laughing because they still have too many holes to fill to be a serious contender. By the time the players they acquired in this trade start showing promise the Indians won’t be able to afford them either.

Help Wanted

2008-05-19T13:38:00.001-07:00

Photo by David Liam Kyle/Contributor/Getty Images

The Boston Celtics got past the Cleveland Cavaliers. Barely. The triumvirate of Pierce, Garnett and Allen got a lot of help from Posey, Davis and Powe but credit for Boston’s game seven victory has to be given to players with names like Wallace, Ilgauskas and Szczerbiak. Honorable mention goes to Sasha Pavlovic for committing the dumbest fouls on the floor. When Danny Gibson negotiates a bigger contract he should give Pavlovic a percentage for making the case.

That was the big difference. Daniel Gibson has been the spot shooter who can help out on defense. A healthy Gibson kept the inconsistent Pavlovic on the bench through most of the season but when Gibson tore up his shoulder in game 6, Mike Brown had to put Sasha in the game. After James and Delonte West Pavlovic played more minutes than anybody else but delivered the least.

The thing is nobody expects anything out of Sasha. He’s a decent shooter who can pull the ball down and drive the lane once in a while but he gets lazy. He turns the ball over, makes bad decisions and lacks the heart to play any defense. This isn’t a surprise to the Cavs. The surprise came in the form of a magic act:

How do you make a giant disappear?

Put a #11 jersey on him.

Zydrunas Ilguaskas went 2 for 8 from the field scoring only 8 points. It seemed as though every time LeBron or Delonte West looked for the big guy he was somewhere out on the wing. The result was one of the biggest and most athletic players in the NBA pulling down only five rebounds. Z didn’t even come close to getting into foul trouble. With Paul Pierce taking the ball to the rack and Kevin Garnett finishing several pick and roll plays, Z failed to assert himself in the middle of the floor on either end.

The Cavaliers have been aware of Z’s penchant for getting lost in physical games which is why Ben Wallace seemed like a great acquisition. Big Ben let the ‘fro out for game seven but he left his game tied up. He seemed old and tired. Ben only blocked one shot and he tallied just four rebounds. More importantly he hurt the Cavs by refusing to take advantage of open looks at the basket. Nobody expects Wallace to split a double team and finish strong to the hole, but in 30 minutes he took one shot. LeBron zipped several nice passes to the human tree trunk only to have them kicked out to a cold shooter on the perimeter.

Wally Szczerbiak lost his shooting touch the minute his plane touched down in Cleveland and while he looked like he was getting into form in the first round, he went cold again in game 7. He was 0-3 from the floor and his lack of confidence compelled him to pass on open shots and drive the lane. The result was disastrous. Wally did play tough defense and he gave up good fouls to force the Celtics to the line when an easy bucket was imminent but Wally’s a hired gun and he was shooting blanks.

It’s not fair to say that LeBron didn’t have any help because Delonte West played hard for 45 minutes. He brought 15 points to the table and drilled a couple of threes to keep the game close. West also played tenaciously on defense. He’s not a pure defender because he lacks lateral mobility and explosion but he knows how to take away angles and stay between the ball and the basket. West also doesn’t shy away from contact and gives as good as he gets.

In fact, that’s the bright spot in this loss for the Cavs. West might be the point guard they’ve been looking for. He’s not exactly cut from the same cloth as a John Stockton or Steve Nash but he’s like a poor man’s version of Jason Kidd. If West can embrace being playing Pippen to LeBron’s Jordan and he puts in the off season work to get better West might be a key ingredient to a championship juggernaut.

The Cleveland Cavaliers fell short this year but Boston was supposed to go through the Eastern Conference with a broom and challenge the Spurs for NBA supremacy. Everybody dismissed Boston’s first round scare as a wake up call and most of the experts figured that was bad news for Cleveland. Now people are wondering if Boston was overrated or if Cleveland was better than they were given credit for.

The final verdict will come over the next couple of weeks but after winning 66 games over the regular season there’s no question that Boston was a very good team. They managed to make LeBron look mortal for a few games but the Cavaliers put up a fight. With two players showing up to play in Boston the Cavaliers almost pulled off the big upset. Imagine if Danny Ferry can find a third.

Spygate lost its Sizzle

2008-05-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well the other shoe dropped and it looks like the New England Patriots are in the clear. There was no gunman on the grassy knoll; Deepthroat did not have the goods on Nixon; the revolution will not be televised.

And that's how the NFL wants it.

Do I think that there was more to the story than officially reported?

You betcha. I suspect that Matt Walsh had some pretty convincing evidence that Belichick's scheming went well beyond what the NFL made public but if the NFL can impose million dollar fines it can also pay people to "lose" DVDs and "forget" pertinent facts. Roger Goodell doesn't want to have the stink of Spygate clinging to his league heading into another season, especially when the Patriots are the sexy pick the rule the AFC again.

The thing is, what Belichick got caught doing isn't exactly that big a deal. There are differing opinions among people who have actual NFL experience but the sort of cheating Belichick practiced is commonplace. Perhaps Bill put more stock in it, but any coach who claims that he never tried to steal a few signals is a liar. We can focus on the Patriots and say that they won Super Bowls by tiny margins that could have been influenced by knowledge of certain plays and signals from the sidelines but anybody who watches football knows that play calling is often predictable. There are nuances within the game that telegraph plays. These are professional football players who study game film in their free time, on any given Sunday 60% of the plays are known by the other team. Football games are not won and lost because of secrecy or surprise. Football is about execution. The best teams will tell you exactly what play they're going to run and beat you anyway. Any high school player can tell you that.

What kills me is Arlen Specter. He knows there's something fishy about how all of this worked out but he's too much of photo op whore to consider that it just doesn't matter. He's ranting and raving and threatening to form a Congressional Committee to dig deeper into this matter. Why? It's a game. Congress should have more important things to do. It's a moot point anyway. The NFL makes its own rules and can enforce the rules as it sees fit. If an owner, player or even a fan feels that the rules have been interpreted unfairly the only option is to file a lawsuit against the league. Belichick didn't break any laws, and Goodell is not obligated to justify his managerial decisions to Specter.

I'm not a big fan of the Patriots but I don't hate them either. Being a Cleveland fan I could have told you Belichick was a snake but he's not my problem anymore. I wasn't concerned one way or the other about the Super Bowl. Living in Central Ohio I guess it's nice that I don't have to deal with another thing Mike Vrable can brag about, but I was able to watch the Super Bowl and just enjoy the game because I didn't have a favorite. Ultimately I guess I like the way it turned out because the Patriots have to live with crapping all over their perfect season and the crabby Dolphins who make such a big deal about '72 will be dead before long. It's all good.

People who are upset with how this worked out should just stop watching the NFL. It's not like you can complain and Roger Goodell will act. As long as the revenue is there he'll continue to run things the way he sees fit. Of course if enough fans are willing to turn their TVs off this fall and do something productive on Sunday the revenue will dry up and Goodell will have to do something about it. But that won't happen. It's just one of those little things people carp about until they have more important matters to attend to. By November nobody will remember Spygate.

Except for Arlen Specter...he's got to have the face time.

Letting the Baby Have His Own Way

2008-05-12T14:50:00.001-07:00

In the sports world we hear lots of talk about biases. In college football most people believe there is an East Coast Bias which makes it difficult for teams on the West Coast to attain a favorable national ranking. As an avid student of the game I can tell you that there is no bias. There are simply more people living on the East Coast which means there are more high schools, more student athletes and more colleges.

The population density of the west gets pretty spare when you move eastward from the coast. All you have to do is compare the number of athletic conferences from region to region. The reason it seems that the East Coast has more nationally ranked teams is because they have more teams in the first place. If there was a bias USC wouldn’t have produced three of the last six Heisman Trophy winners.

There does seem to be a bias in major league baseball and that bias favors the Yankees and Red Sox. It’s not really that there’s a conspiracy afoot to ensure the success of these two teams so much as there’s a complete lack of vision on the part of Major League Baseball to protect the interests of smaller market teams. Baseball has always been a corrupt enterprise ruled by greedy men with selfish agendas which is why the Yankees and Red Sox can spend nearly half a billion dollars on payroll. The NFL doesn’t allow money to give teams an advantage and the NBA utilizes rigid salary caps to keep the playing field level.

Of course the NBA is the one place in sports where there is a true bias. The NBA as an organization has a relentless desire to see its big market teams succeed. The reason is because the NBA believes that big market teams bring big television ratings. The statistics bear that out but it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the NFL can enjoy fantastic ratings for the playoffs, regardless of where the teams are from, why can’t the NBA?

The problem is the NBA markets individual players rather than the league as a whole. Kevin Garnett has always been an outstanding basketball player but now that he’s in big market Boston the NBA is hell bent for leather putting his face out there. It’s obvious that the league wants to see Boston and LA back in the finals. To the NBA that symbolizes the entire country: East Coast versus West Coast…to hell with everybody in between.

That bias was part of the recent MVP voting. Kobe Bryant won it in spite of the fact that he spent the entire off season trying to force a trade. When that didn’t go through he threatened to skip the season and when the Lakers called his bluff he played, but not without holding a daily press conference to whine about being stuck in LA.

Kevin Garnett was hyped as the MVP all year because Boston went from being a joke to winning 66 games. The problem is that Boston didn’t miss a beat when Garnett was out of the lineup. It’s hard to call yourself the MVP when your team does so well without you.

LeBron James (and I’ll cop to my Cleveland bias now) finished the season with the scoring title. He also was at the top of the leader boards in assists and rebounds averaging close to a triple double yet again. Through sheer will power alone he kept a banged up team in the playoff hunt and carried a new look roster into the playoffs in hopes that they’d find some consistency.

All the while, LeBron kept his mouth shut. He wanted the Cavs to get aggressive in the trade market but he didn’t throw tantrums or call his teammates out in the media. LeBron just went out night after night and played his best. He’s always respectful of his teammates even if those teammates, like Larry Hughes, aren’t worthy of it. When the Cavs entered the playoffs people asked LeBron how it felt and he immediately talked about new teammate Joe Smith who, in all his years of playing, had never advanced in the post season.

Kobe Bryant is a phenomenal athlete and a multi-faceted basketball player but LeBron is better. In head to head matchups LeBron takes Kobe to task and when you sit back and look at the big picture LeBron is the kind of guy who you want leading a team. You know LeBron is always going to stand up for his team. Kobe has proven that he’ll throw them under the bus if he thinks it’s best for him.

So how does a certified jerk like Kobe win the MVP? Big City Bias. The NBA embraces columnist and commentators who refuse to hold players accountable for being jerks. Kobe’s getting credit for leading the Lakers to the top seed in the west when the Lakers succeeded in spite of him. It was the addition of Pau Gasol that made the different down the stretch, and the subtraction by addition stunt the Suns pulled in acquiring Shaq. The Lakers posted a better record than LeBron’s Cavaliers but without LeBron the Cavs would have been vying for that first pick in the draft.

Even if Kobe had to win the MVP because of seniority, which is not how it’s done, the voting should have been close. LeBron wasn’t even in the same ballpark. Kevin Garnett and Chris Paul finished ahead of James in the balloting. You could make a great case for Chris Paul, who was almost as important to his team as LeBron but KG’s finish was another example of that bias.

The message this sends to everybody is that class, poise, and tireless effort don’t matter nearly as much as making a scene and playing in a big market. Kobe was awarded the MVP because he whined the loudest. Let’s hope LeBron doesn’t follow suit.

BORING

2008-05-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

There are certain endeavors that don’t generally garner a great deal of attention. Some people call them sports and while I agree that many of these endeavors do qualify as sports, most fall short of that moniker for me. Granted, I’m guilty of equating sports with athletics and when I define athleticism I believe there has to be some significant degree of exertion. I ride a bicycle but I don’t consider myself to be participating in a sport when I do.

So pardon me if I don’t think of various forms of racing, particularly the horse and automotive varieties, to be sports. The physical exertion of the athlete is not a direct component of the race. Jockeys and drivers can’t improve performances by hitting the gym. At least in horse racing the credit goes to the pony. In automotive racing we celebrate the guy who spent the better part of a Saturday turning left. WOOOO!

So here we have THE FIRST SATURDAY IN MAY which means its Kentucky Derby time. By the way, is anybody else just a little creeped out by the fact that Kentucky’s official abbreviation is KY? Squeal like a pig! And do you suppose that there’s a tobacco flavored intimate lubricant made for of dentally-impaired friends to the south?

It kills me that so many people become so enamored with the Kentucky Derby, just as millions of people will suddenly take an interest in Indy Car racing in a few weeks. The entire year goes by and nobody thinks about horse racing but this weekend everybody will be talking about it. There are two other horse races that people follow but that’s because there’s an infatuation with the TRIPLE CROWN. Interest in the Belmont Stakes depends on whether the Derby winner wins The Preakness.

Don’t get me wrong, horses are awesome animals and as a country we owe a considerable debt of gratitude to these ready, willing and able creatures but I have trouble celebrating a horse as an athlete. I just don’t believe that horses are capable of making the conscientious sacrifices human athletes make. Michael Jordan could have easily called it a career after winning his third NBA title in a row. He was rich, at the top of his game and had nothing left to prove and he actually did step away for a while but he came back and won three more titles.

Horses don’t get themselves out of bed at 4am. They don’t spend 12 hours a day perfecting themselves because they want to be the best…horses follow orders. They train because that’s what they’re told to do. I’m not saying that horses don’t think, and that they don’t have personalities but it’s not on the same level as people. We can debate it all you want but until you show me a horse holding out for a better contract I’m not buying it.

Besides, I don’t much care for people races. Track and field events don’t excite me at all. I appreciate the effort and athleticism world class athletes exhibit but I just don’t much care to watch anybody or anything run around in circles as fast as they can.

Later this year we’ll be treated to the Summer Olympics where people get excited about more endeavors they usually couldn’t care less about. Pardon me for not jumping on the bandwagon.

REALITY CHECKS

2008-04-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

CHECK ONE

I don’t really care much about racing but I caught a blurb on ESPN about Danica Patrick winning her first race. This is apparently a big deal because she’s a woman. Aside from played out jokes about women drivers I fail to see why gender matters in automotive racing.

The car does most of the work and the real key to victory is the pit crew. Races are won and lost because of the guys who change the tires and perform quick mechanical repairs when the driver guides the car into the pit. Most of the strategy is conveyed to the driver via radio from a crew chief who has a better vantage point of the action. The driver’s toughest task might be using diapers.

Now I know that I might get comments from racing fans who will go on and on about “feeling” the track and how the car is responding but no matter how you slice it the fact remains that the only thing that separates a race car driver from Connie Commuter is speed. The race car driver’s job is actually made a little easier by the fact that the track is carefully maintained to provide a safe racing surface and everybody is heading in the same direction as fast as they can. You don’t see a lot of brake lights on a race track.

Danica Patrick’s accomplishment is made even less significant by the fact that she won a race most race fans haven’t even heard of. When it comes to Indy-style racing there is one event that matters and it isn’t the Nippon Ham 300 or whatever Japanese race Danica won. If she wants to be relevant she has to win the Indianapolis 500. If she wants other races to count she needs to yank out a couple of teeth, marry a cousin and join the NASCAR circuit. Even then, the races won’t matter to most sports fans but at least she’ll have morbidly obese men in mullets cheering her on.

CHECK TWO

Shortly after finishing second in the Masters, Tiger Woods went in for surgery on his knee. He’ll be out for about six weeks possibly returning at the end of May to shake the rust off at The Memorial in Columbus Ohio.

It’s interesting that Tiger finished where he did on a bum knee but even more interesting will be the lack of interest in the upcoming events. Suddenly The Players Championship doesn’t seem as important. If you don’t believe that just compare the hype The Players Championship generates with that of wherever Tiger makes his post-surgery debut.

Golf purists will dismiss the Tiger lull as pop culture following a celebrity but Tiger isn’t a true celebrity. He’s popular because he’s the greatest golfer in the world. He doesn’t create his own hype, his game does. If anything Tiger is popular in spite of his personality. He’s characterized as cold and even surly. He doesn’t ham it up for the cameras but yet he’s the most marketable figure in golf if not sports in general. You might be able to make an argument that Tiger Woods isn’t the greatest golfer in history but he’s definitely the most important. The PGA wouldn’t be where it is today if Tiger hadn’t burst on to the scene 10 years ago.

CHECK THREE

I don’t believe in curses but that’s the only thing that describes what has happened to the Miami Dolphins. Last year Miami invoked the fury of its fans by passing on Brady Quinn and taking a gamble on the explosive Ted Ginn Jr. out of Ohio State. It wasn’t a dumb move by any stretch of the imagination. Miami thought that they’d get something out of Trent Green and that second round pick John Beck would develop into a quality starting QB. There were some serious doubts about Brady Quinn which is why he slipped to the 22nd spot where Cleveland scooped him up.

Ginn was the catalyst for a highly explosive Ohio State offense, Quinn put up great numbers but never delivered that big win against quality opposition at Notre Dame. Ted Ginn Jr. would provide an instant threat with his ability to return kicks and as he honed his skills at the wide receiver position he had the potential to be a game breaker. On paper the move made sense. In reality it fell apart like a wet paper bag.

Quinn didn’t see enough action to prove his worth and Ginn’s far from being a bust. The Dolphins just couldn’t stay healthy. Most of their losses were by less than a touchdown so you can’t say that they weren’t competitive. The Dolphins just couldn’t finish. That’s probably because they had serious issues at the QB spot. Green couldn’t keep his head together and it got worse from there.

Now, the Dolphins have the top pick in the draft and they don’t need it. This is one of those years where there’s plenty of great talent but no one or two players that stand out above the rest. It would be a great year to trade down and secure a few extra picks later in the draft but nobody wants to trade up. After last year’s debacle the Dolphins would love to excite their fans by drafting a hot commodity but the top players in this year’s draft are defensive linemen. That’s not going to sell season tickets. So the Dolphins might reach for RB Darren McFadden or QB Matt Ryan even though neither appear to be as solid as the triumvirate of defensive linemen.

No matter what the Dolphins do people will complain. Then the season will start and the Dolphins will look halfway decent. They might even make a run for the playoffs and people will give all of the credit to Bill Parcels even though the Dolphins weren’t nearly as lousy as last season’s record would have you believe.

Smack

2008-04-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

CC as in Crispy Cream

As in doughnut…as in 0…as in how many wins last year’s AL Cy Young winner has this year….

CC Sabathia passed on a contract extension earlier this spring, opting to focus on the season and the riches awaiting him in free agency. A month into the season and the hefty lefty is 0-3 in four starts with an ERA mathematicians are still trying to calculate. Cleveland’s ace, who went off the reservation during last year’s playoffs has already walked 14 batters in just 18 innings worth of batting practice. We can’t call it work at this point because the Indians don’t pay him to help other teams get their hitters on track, which is just what he did for the Tigers. Detroit was struggling and Cleveland had a chance to send them into a panic, CC changed that by giving up nine runs on eight hits in four innings.

CC’s not a bad guy. Fans are giving him grief and he’s taking it like a man but he’s not pitching like one. (and yes, Karen, I know it’s supposed to be Krispy Kreme)

...As in Agent 0

Not to stay obsessed with Cleveland, but could Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards be any dumber? The Cavaliers might not be the pride of the Eastern Conference but they are still a better team than Washington. Nobody should enter a contest thinking they’re going to lose but you certainly don’t want to rile your opponent up before hand. Especially when your opponent has a guy like LeBron James who consistently puts up big numbers against your team. Do you really want him out to prove a point?

Not to stay obsessed with LeBron but if Kobe wins the MVP award after acting like a punk ass the last two years…

Are you Pucking with me?

Apparently the NHL playoffs have started and I thought I would start paying attention but my neighbor just painted his garage and I’ve been watching it dry.

Is it chilly in here?

There must be a draft. Like the NFL Draft coming up which will have millions of viewers. If you’re wondering why things pretty much suck in the world today it’s because more people watch the draft than show up for elections. The sad thing is that the vast majority of the players picked won’t ever matter. I’ve watched bits and pieces of previous drafts and I have to tell you it’s pretty much a waste of time. Nobody’s going to see anything amazing during the draft. 40 years from now people won’t be talking about watching Brady Quinn fall to the 22nd pick of the 2007 draft. Get a life.

Jackie Robinson Day

On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson played in his first Major League Baseball game. The league was founded in 1869 but when you consider the impact African American players have had on baseball it’s fair to say that professional baseball didn’t exist until Robinson crossed the color barrier. Racial problems continue to exist and the integration of baseball is hardly more important than the integration of schools and hospitals but Jackie Robinson made it easier for this society to move forward. His contributions both on and off the field always seem to be underappreciated.

What really made Robinson special is the fact that he didn’t break down the color barrier. He politely simply opened the door. He recognized that his place in history was to simply prove his equality. The forceful gestures and brash statements that were necessary in the 60s were only effective because Robinson understood the importance of what he was doing. Robinson resisted the urge to retaliate when people called him names and threatened his life. He refused to take the bait when other players provoked him.

It’s only a game and we often place too much significance on it. In Jackie Robinson’s case we don’t place enough. Serious consideration should be given to the idea of declaring April 15th a National Holiday. The IRS can push its deadline back a day to honor a true American hero.

Products of the System

2008-04-04T09:47:00.001-07:00

Chad Johnson is in the news again. The timing makes it clear that this is by his own design. Chad’s making a lot of noise but when you get right down to it he’s just not saying much. Apparently he’s unhappy in Cincinnati which isn’t unusual. The Bengals have a long history with disgruntled players, which makes it clear that the team is horribly mismanaged. After an 11-5 run a couple of years ago Cincy has found its losing ways and seems poised to wallow in the depths of mediocrity for another decade and a half.

I can’t blame Johnson for wanting out. There are those who will demand that he shut his mouth and honor his contract but I submit that he signed his contract believing that the team would strive to get better. Also, players see their contracts terminate by teams all the time so I believe that players have every right to sit out and wait for more money. If they are willing to risk unemployment for the duration of the deal then they have that right.

I don’t know that I even have a problem with Chad taking his grievances public. If the team isn’t working with him he also has the right to put public pressure on them. Freedom of speech is an important right and people should exercise it.

My issue is that Chad is doing a lot of talking but he isn’t saying anything. He’s unhappy in Cincy but he’s not sure if he wants out. He wants the team to get better but he doesn’t have the guts to say what the problem is. It’s all very abstract which makes it pretty clear that this is all about attention. Chad’s a spoiled little brat who wants people to know he can pee in the big boy potty. And we’re the doting parents who spoiled him.

Chad’s been an unmitigated ass from day one. He’s been drawing attention to himself from the start. He gets cut too much slack because, unlike many of his Bengals teammates, he doesn’t tend to get arrested and he does seem to play hard, of course he will start rounding out his cuts and jogging through his patterns if the ball isn’t put in his hands early and often.

Chad is all about Chad. Everything he does draws attention to Chad. Chad is very aware of his personal accomplishments and will happily tell you how many touchdowns he’s scored. What he won’t tell you is that his dog and pony show is a constant distraction for the team and Chad’s infatuation with Chad prevents him from being a team leader.

Football isn’t just about talent. Football is about 53 guys being on the same page. That’s Why Terry Bradshaw has more Super Bowl rings than Dan Marino and Brett Favre and John Elway combined. Team is why Emmitt Smith rushed for more yards than Barry Sanders. Team is why Jerry Rice didn’t win Super Bowls after he left San Francisco.

Johnson thinks that his personal stats are all that matter but what about his behavior in the playoffs a few years ago when Carson Palmer went down with a knee injury? Did Johnson step up and lead his team through adversity? Nope. He pouted for the rest of the game because Jon Kitna couldn’t throw the ball as far as Palmer.

Chad cares about Chad. He wants people to look at him and because he teammates actually put the team first they won’t call him out on it. That’s the catch-22. Donovan McNabb sat there and took every nasty comment TO hurled his way without reacting because he wanted to put the team first. You’ll never get 52 guys to admit that one is bringing them down. That’s why teams hire General Managers and coaches.

Sadly, the NFL and it’s media partners create people like Chad Johnson. How many Fat Head commercials have you seen Marvin Harrison in? How many deodorant commercials has Hines Ward shot?

Check the ESPN studio and you’ll find Keyshawn “Throw me the Damn Ball” Johnson and Michael “Pass the Crack Pipe” Irvin getting paid a lot of money to talk about the game they made a mockery of. The reality is the jerks get rewarded.

Much of the blame falls on the NFL. The players who keep their helmets on and play with a little class blend into the background. No matter how brilliant they are on the field, the NFL owns them. Players like TO and Chad Johnson defy the NFL and create individual personas that become marketable outside of the NFL’s realm. So Jerry Rice settles for Dancing with the Stars while Shannon Sharpe get’s a studio assignment. It’s not fair.

Guys like Chad Johnson, TO and Randy Moss have been rewarded for being jerks and their predecessors continue to reap the rewards. The question isn’t why Chad Johnson acts the way he does, the question is why more people don’t.

Masculine Observations

2008-03-27T13:23:00.001-07:00

Man up.

Tiger Woods is in the news again for losing his cool and hurling choice expletives at reporters after a camera flash interrupted his swing during the WGC-CA Championship. While Tiger’s not the only golfer to throw a tantrum over something stupid, it makes you wonder how athletes in other sports cope with thousands of people intentionally trying to rattle them. Maybe it’s time for golfers to grow some thicker skin. As for Tiger, before he gets too pissed about the throng following around the course he might want to take a look at the balance in his checking account.

Man out.

The exodus from Michigan has not subsided. Now starting offensive lineman Justin Boren has announced his decision to leave Michigan and possibly enroll at Ohio State. Boren stated that he feels Michigan’s values have gone off track. It’s a little cryptic and there’s a possibility Boren might not like the demands of the new system but given the fact that none of the Michigan players have seemed overly impressed with their new coach it could be an issue of diplomacy. Rodriguez hasn’t been very respectful of the Michigan program he inherited and with Michigan losing the recruiting war over Terrelle Pryor to Ohio State it looks like it could be a while before anybody can respect the program he’s trying to build. You know, it’s not as if Michigan was a bad team before Rich Rodriguez got there but there’s a good chance they will be before too long.

Whachutalkinbout, Man?

Somebody asked me what I thought about the NHL playoffs. What’s the NHL?

Southern Man.

Somebody else asked me why I never post anything about NASCAR. Well, here goes:
NASCAR is stupid. If I want to watch rednecks drive around in circles I’ll go to Walmart and watch the white trash cruise for a spot up front.

Oh Man.

Apparently Major League Baseball opened the season early in Japan. Yippee. Now we only have 161 more games until the playoffs. Dude, seriously, call me in August so I can see if I actually care about the teams in contention.

Man Oh Man.

Wouldn’t the NIT tournament be interesting the four regional finalists in the NIT bracket played the four regional semifinalists who lose the Elite Eight games? It would certainly boost the credibility of the NIT championship. I’m not saying the NIT Tournament is bad or boring but it’s hard to get excited about mid week basketball when more compelling games are being played on the weekend. Injecting teams that were good enough to advance in the NCAA Tournament into the less prestigious NIT would get my attention.

Wo-man.

I hate to say it but I just can’t get excited about women’s basketball. I think there are a lot of great players in the Women’s NCAA Tournament but unfortunately the talent isn’t that deep and it makes some of the games tough to watch.

Woe-man.

Count me among the handful of people that was excited about David Beckham coming to the US to play Major League Soccer. Now, I realized that he was always a bit overrated and I was also well aware of the fact that his skills had diminished considerably but he was still a very good international player and I believed that we would get a good look at the disparity between our foray into soccer and what everybody else plays. Sadly I think I saw more of Victoria Beckham than I did of David. It looks like hopping the pond did more for her career than it did for David’s or the future of Major League Soccer. We’ll see if that changes as the new season begins in the coming weeks but I’m not holding my breath…or buying advance tickets.

Manly Man.

Don’t count me among the millions of idiots who will actually make time to watch the NFL draft in April. Sure, I’ve tuned in when there was nothing better to do but there are people who actually schedule this as a “must see” event. That’s just sad. 16 hours of Mel Kiper’s hair is more than anybody should have to put up with. I’ll read about the draft on Monday and be just as informed as anybody else. I might not understand why Joe Theisman is all worked up about Brady Quinn’s tie but to be honest I never really cared why Joe Theisman is all worked up.

Big Man.

LeBron James got caught up in mild controversy when he posed with Gisele on the cover of Vogue. Apparently it’s supposed to be a racial issue because he’s depicted as King Kong clutching a fair blonde hoochie in one hand. As Lebron James once said, he’s 6’9” weighs 260…he’s OK. If King James doesn’t have a beef with the cover I don’t either. Let’s save the outrage for when it really matters.

The Vest Lands the Best

2008-03-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Terrelle Pryor finally announced his decision to accept a scholarship at THE Ohio State University. After all the hype it appears that the delay in signing his letter of intent was little more than a publicity stunt as Pryor failed to make good on his threats to visit Penn State and Oregon.

It’s hard to remember a high school football player who got more attention which means that the deck is already stacked against him. Combine that with Jim Tressel’s unique ability to destroy a promising young quarterback’s confidence and Pryor is a 3-1 favorite to be selling real estate in Central Ohio in between sporadic appearance on local sports radio shows.

Pryor’s delay in signing his letter of intent actually backfired. Reporters watched every move he made and interviewed just about everybody living within a 200 mile radius of Jeannette, Pa. hoping to get in inside track on what Pryor was thinking. The result was a lot of speculation that Terrelle has an attitude problem. Those theories are supported by Pryor’s involvement in two fights during his team’s run at a basketball championship.

Pryor seemed a little cocky in his press conference. He was pretty glib about not bothering to visit Oregon because it was too far from home and said that Penn State never had a chance because State College is too small a town for him. He did extend an apology to Michigan because he knew that a lot of people were hoping to build next year’s team around him and he seems to understand that he’ll be one of several talented quarterbacks vying for playing time at Ohio State. He made a comment about being a bad guy not mattering because he’s a good football player. That’s a little hairy but seeing as how he’s 18 you have to figure that he meant to say something more meaningful. Athletes tend to put their feet in their mouths all the time.

Judgment on what sort of person Terrelle Pryor is will have to wait. He spent the last six weeks under a microscope so we owe him the benefit of the doubt. That doesn’t mean that Pryor is not a big risk. He could be cut from the same cloth as Donovan McNabb and Peyton Manning or he might be an aspiring felon like Marcus Vick. It’s more likely that he’ll end somewhere in between. We’ll have plenty of time to scrutinize Pryor in the next couple of years.

The person to second guess right now is Jim Tressel. The Ohio State coach cultivates a squeaky clean image. He has the players line up in the end zone after every game and sing Ohio State’s Alma Mater, Carmen Ohio, to the band; He participates in a number of Christian-based fundraisers and evangelical events; He wears a tie and a Mr. Rogers-esque sweater-vest; but underneath it all is a guy focused on money and wins.

The NCAA has had cause to investigate Tressel on at least two occasions for similar reasons. At Younstown State Tressel was cited for failing to maintain institutional control of his program. A few years later the NCAA was investigating similar issues at Ohio State but the blame was placed entirely on the shoulders of Maurice Clarett. In both instances Tressel was, at the very least, guilty of looking the other way.

With Clarett Tressel and the Buckeyes ignored his problems on and off the field until they spiraled out of control. Once the NCAA got involved the Buckeye spin machine went into overdrive and the program was protected but that’s nothing new. The NCAA has a history of looking straight ahead when a money making program is in trouble.

Clarett exhibited similar traits to Pryor. Both have big egos, both speak their minds and both seem to have families with dollar signs in their eyes. Pryor might not be as self-destructive but after watching Maurice Clarett implode one would think that Tressel would be leary. Besides, Ohio State isn’t exactly hurting at the QB position anyway.

Tressel has had issues with other players as well. Under his watch former QB Craig Krenzel and WR Chris Gamble were tied to illicit funds. That issue was resolved when the money they received was donated to charity but Troy Smith took money as well and had to be suspended. Then you factor in a few arrests, excessive trash talking, some post game fights and Robert Reynolds trying to rip Jim Sorgi’s throat out and Tressel’s star loses a little luster. He’s not a character guy at all.

People with the best intentions often make mistakes and that could be the case with Jim Tressel but even if it is, why take a chance on somebody like Terrelle Pryor?

It’s hard to root against Pryor. He’s a kid who still has a lot to learn and quite a bit of growing up to do. The question is whether or not Jim Tressel will put Pryor’s development as a young man ahead of his performance as a football player. If Pryor fails will Jim Tressel accept responsibility for his part? Or will he walk away with his hands in his pockets like he did when Maurice Clarett crashed and burned?

Chip Shots

2008-03-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

Favre from over.

Brett Favre's tired. Physically he feels great but mentally he's just tired of having to prepare to play football week after week. It's interesting that everybody is denying that Randy Moss signing with the Patriots had anyhting to do with it even though the official announcement came after Moss' deal was announced.

Brett was a great quarterback who would have been so much better if the Packer's had actually surrounded him with more talent. Favre and Marino are two guys who did great things with mediocre help. Elway, Young and Montana were lucky to play with some of the best players in the game. Imagine what Favre would have done if the Packers had signed a great running back or a consistent receiver.

Of course, Favre's not done. He's burned out right now but after a few months off he'll get the itch, and by the time the season starts he'll have a burning desire to play. A contender will lose their starting QB in the second or third week of the season and Favre will sign a one year deal to take over. If Vinny Testaverde and Kurt Warner keep getting mid season offers can Favre really stay away? No way. Especially if a team like Indy or New England loses their franchise QB for the season.

Favre's retirement seems more like closing the Green Bay chapter of his career. He still wants to win a Super Bowl and if a good team suffers a tough break on the way to the playoffs, Favre will be lacing them up before you can say Strahan.

Long Knight

Bob Knight is going to bring his sense of entitlement to ESPN as a studio analyst covering college basketball. A lot of reporters think this is ironic because now he's one of them. Nope. Bobby's got a multi-million dollar contract. Bobby doesn't have to stay up late trying to get his story finished by midnight. Bobby won't have to interview Bobby.

Knight's going to park his fat ass in a chair and do what he does best: tell everybody how smart he is. Never mind that he got so full of himself that Indiana had to fire him, and forget about the past 20 years where Knight's teams have done nothing of consequence.

This is just another fine example of ESPN padding the studio with big names and small brains.

Spring Fever

Excited about Spring Training? Why?

Baseball doesn't matter until the end of August. Take up a hobby, losers.

DRAFT

The NFL draft is coming up and we'll see how committed teams are to character when Darren McFadden gets drafted in the top five. His numerous brushes with the law, aggressive social disposition and disdain for birth control won't matter as much as that 4.28 second time in the 40. And nobody's going to ask about steroids or HGH. In the NFL everything's legal as long as you don't get caught. Just ask Shaun Merriman.

MADNESS

Dick Vitale can whine about players leaving early for the NBA but you can't take anything away from the NCAA Championship Tournament. 65 teams get a shot at winning it all. Forget about the bubble teams that don't make it. If you can't stay on the inside of the top 50 you're lucky to be in the conversation at all. Next time play harder.

As for the Tourney, how can you not enjoy it? This is simplicity at it's best. Win and you're in, lose and you get to watch the rest of the BIG DANCE on TV. There's no "best of" series. Teams have one chance to prove themselves. That's the way it should be.

Good vs. Evil

Kobe Bryant threw a preseason tantrum because he thought his team was crappy. He bitched and moaned and demanded to be traded. The Lakers were close to dealing Kobe to Chicago but the teams couldn't agree on the details. Now the Lakers are playing well, players Kobe called out are stepping up and they even made a big trade before the deadline. Now the Lakers are the sexy pick to win the West, even though Tim Duncan and the Spurs are the ugly chick you'll go home with at closing time.

LeBron James didn't throw any tantrums. Rumors circulated that he was frustrated that the Cavs hadn't improved but King James refused to throw his teammates under the bus and stopped well short of demanding anything. Danny Ferry tried to find LeBron the help he needed but deals for Mike Bibby and Jason Kidd fell through. The Nets didn't want Kidd staying int he East and the Kings wanted too much in return for Bibby. LeBron kept his mouth shut, played his ass off and was rewarded with an overhaul. Now the Cavs have workhorses who can compliment James by doing the dirty work, rather than get in his way.

So why is there any discussion about MVP? James wins it hands down. Beside averaging close a a triple double all season long, James has been the ultimate team player. Kobe might be a dynamic scoring machine but he's got the mentality of a spoiled little boy, James is a man among men. James is everything right with sports, and Kobe is a good bit of what's wrong with them.

Tiger Woods

Can't have a title like Chip Shots and not mention golf and with Tiger playing a game with which most people aren't familiar, it's worthwhile. There's not only talk of Tiger sweeping all four majors this year, some people wonder if he can win every event on his schedule. Tiger has run away with victories and he's come from behind to steal them. Sure, it's early but The Masters is right around the corner and he looks unbeatable. He's in his early 30s which means he's just entering what most people consider to be a golfer's prime.

Tiger's so good that he's made the rest of the PGA Tour irrelevant. Golf analysts lament that Tiger doesn't have a chief rival the way Jack had Arnie. It's not that the talent isn't there, it's that Tiger is that much better than everybody else.

Tiger's success makes him the golfer people love to hate. Traditionalists discredit his victory tally because he's played in a number of special invitation events that may or may not have excluded golfers who can beat him. Tiger has long talked about defining his career in terms of major victories and he's already in double digits there. He's on pace to bury Jack Nicklaus within the next three or four years and given Tiger's commitment to fitness, he could be a physically dominant golfer when he's in his 50s. Before he retires Tiger might have more major wins than most golfers can claim in regular PGA events.

Tiger has a reputation for being arrogant and rude but so have a lot of great athletes. Tiger is focused when he's on the course and doesn't have time to mug for the cameras. That's why he wins. Outside of golf and a few commercials Tiger lives a very private life. His swimsuit model wife has even stepped out of the limelight. Like him or not you have to give the guy credit for his commitment to excellence and consistency in his behavior.

Don't Believe the Hype

2008-02-20T10:56:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time in a little town called Jeannette, there lived a boy named Terrelle Pryor. Now Terrellle was young but he wasn’t little. He was as tall as the day is long and stronger than a team of oxen. Terrelle could outrun a bolt of lightening, catch the thunder on the tip of his pinky finger and throw the entire storm to the other side of the world.

News of Terrelle’s athletic feats traveled far and wide. As he came of age kings from distant lands begged Terrelle to come lead their armies. They made him promises, gave him gifts and offered him his choice of the most beautiful women in the kingdom.

Which is why he won't choose Michigan.

Unless he likes sheep, they love their sheep in Michigan. Ba-a-a-a.

Being in Columbus I get treated to a front row viewing of one of the most ridiculous events in sports: college football recruiting. Sometimes fans get credit for being smart, too often sports columnists do and most people assume that coaches have a head for the game but when you witness a recruiting frenzy first hand you realize that everybody is an idiot.

I don’t know Terrelle Pryor. I’ve never seen him play. He could be a great guy and a phenomenal athlete. He could be a total jerk and a complete bust. Knowing what I do about reality I figure he’s somewhere in between on both counts. Knowing what I do about football I seriously doubt he’s going to make or break any of the college programs that are courting him.

A few years ago the Ohio State Buckeyes landed one of the hottest quarterbacks in the country. Everybody loved Justin Zwick. He was tall, athletic, smart and had a cannon for an arm. He looked like a young Bret Favre. Of course he was picking apart high school defenses and he played on a pretty good team that had a dominant line and receivers who could actually catch the passes he was throwing. Justin enrolled at Ohio State and learned Jim Tressel’s program. After a couple of years Ohio State was led to a perfect season by a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback. It wasn’t Zwick.

Troy Smith might not have received a scholarship from Ohio State if Tressel didn’t think that signing the athletic young man would all but guarantee the Buckeyes could lock up Ted Ginn Jr. the following season. Such are the politics of the recruiting trail. Smith was told he could try his luck at QB but that he might better serve the team as a defensive back. Or waterboy. Smith put in his time and emerged as the best quarterback in Ohio State history. You could argue that point but you’d be arguing against his Heisman. No other Buckeye signal caller can lay that trump card down. Sorry, Art.

It’s not Terrelle’s fault that he’s the object of so much hype. He’s a great athlete and football fans are so bored with every other aspect of their lives that they have to obsess about a high school senior who is trying to finish his basketball season. He’s got a full plate and a lot to ponder but fans seem to think that this is an egotistical game. Even if it is, he’s in high school. He should be enamored with the publicity. He might as well ride that wave now because they won't be singing his praises when he gets redshirted.

Buckeye fans are wringing their hands over the possibility of Pryor spurning Ohio State in favor of Michigan, Penn State or Oregon. If he chooses Michigan most fans are ready to write off the next four years. How can the Buckeyes beat Pryor?

It’s almost as though the Buckeyes don’t have anybody at the QB position right now. Sure, that Antonio Henton character had everybody excited when he was recruited but now Pryor is the toast of the town. And there is this Boeckman guy who started every game last year but at 23 he’s too old to do improve this year. Pryor is the key. Without him all is lost.

In basketball it makes sense to get excited about one player. LeBron James single-handedly makes the Cavaliers a contender. Take him away and the Cavs become a 25 win team. In football a player is just 1/11th of whatever side of the ball he's on. And that's simplifying it a bit because when it comes to football the whole is GREATER than the sum of the parts. That's why the Giants upset the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Pryor draws comparisons to Vince Young because of his athleticism and size but Vince Young was successful because Texas had a great line, a solid defense and talented backs and receivers. Young added a dimension that made it hard to stop Texas but if the only weapon teams had to stop was Vince Young the Longhorns would have lost every game.

That’s why we have busts. So many great college players trade Heisman Trophies for clipboards when they get to the NFL. The reason they looked so good in college is because thy played for a great team. We thought Reggie Bush was going to make us forget all about Barry Sanders but Reggie’s NFL team isn’t head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. It turns out that all of the flash we saw in Reggie at USC was the product of a loaded program. Reggie’s a great athlete but he’s not exactly a threat to get into Canton without paying full admission.

We give Mike Shanahan credit for being so crafty when it comes to finding successful running backs but the talent d0oesn't lie with Shanahan or the backs, it's always been the offensive line. Look at the difference between Steve Young in a 49ers shirt and the guy who played for Tampa. Great players are often the product of great teams. There are a few rare exceptions, like Barry Sanders, but generally the all time great players played for all time great teams. In the NFL, lousy teams are rewarded for their failure by getting the best picks in the draft. So every year we see the top collegiate performers get plucked from great teams and plugged into miserable circumstances. Then we blame the players for failing to meet expectations.

We don’t notice it so often during the transition from high school to college but that’s only because we don’t spend our Saturdays watching 10 high school games on 8 different ESPNs. We don’t look up high school stats and standings online every Monday when we should be working. If we did we’d notice a staggering number of great high school players dropping off the radar at the collegiate level. People who follow recruiting will sometimes ask what happened to a certain recruit but they always chalk his failure up to effort or attitude. We never consider the fact that the player was evaluated on the merits of his high school team rather than his own ability. And that's why some of the better players in the NFL have been coming from some of the weaker teams in college football. Those mid majors have to evaluate talent differently so they find more dynamic players.

I hope Terrelle Pryor has a fantastic career. I hope he exceeds all expectations but when it comes to football I know better. Even if he is all that he has been made out to be he will only be as good as the rest of the players around him. That’s why football’s so much better than other sports. It’s too bad fans can’t keep that in mind.

The Rocket's Red Glare

2008-02-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

"Well yeah, my balls got smaller but I can still throw 96..."

I’m tired of hearing about HGH and steroids. I’m angry that Congress is involved. It’s a waste of time, resources and money. Athletes will do anything to gain an advantage over the competition. They’ll cinch their urethras closed to boost ureic acid in their bloodstream, they’ll risk serious medical complications by pumping a little extra blood into their bodies to increase platelet counts. Of course they’ll risk everything to take steroids and hormones. And then they’ll lie about it. Even when they tell the truth they qualify it with a lie. Now the most popular lie is that they broke the law and cheated only for a little while to recover from injury.

And Bill Clinton didn’t inhale.

Roger Clemens is an ass. That’s being polite. Most major league pitchers are jerks. Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson...these are guys who built their careers around breaking the rules to gain an edge. Look, it might be part of the game but it’s still against the rules to throw a fastball at somebody’s head and every one of these guys is known for using the dreaded high and tight fastball to keep hitters off balance. Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan were ruthless when it came to drilling hitters and Randy Johnson milked his reputation as a wild hurler long after he got control of his 100 mph heater. When you consider the velocity of these pitches it’s not a stretch to call it lethal force. A 95 mph fastball can kill, but this form of cheating is largely accepted and pitchers seldom try to connect with the noggin. It happens but not too often.

Steroids and HGH aren’t on par with high cheese but a pitcher who would put another man’s life in danger just to gain an edge on the next pitch probably won’t hesitate to inject a little extra mojo into their bodies to gain an edge on every pitch. Especially when the pitcher in question is an egomaniacal drama queen like Rocket. After what he did last year, holding out for the best contract in baseball only to throw like a girl all season long, Rocket has got to be loving the attention the steroid scandal has given him. Most people wouldn’t want their integrity questioned but Roger has taken the spotlight and run with it.

Like the arrogant whiner who threw a chunk of shattered bat at Mike Piazza a few years ago, Clemens is throwing an epic media tantrum. He’s making threats, calling people names and kissing every butt that might have a chance to help him save his reputation. The problem is that nobody believes him. He’s a liar and a cheater. A selfish bully who wants to have his way. Unlike fellow cheater Mark McGwire, Clemens refuses to accept his legacy and wait for people to forgive and forget.

The thing is all of it is for nothing. The hype over steroids and cheating is just a show. Years ago people made a stink about steroids in the NFL, so the NFL fell on its sword and adopted a testing policy many former players have characterized as a sham. The public takes the NFL’s side because every year or two a couple of players serve a paltry four game suspension but the fans are willing to believe that bloated freaks like San Diego’s Shaun Merriman and journeyman drug addict David Boston come by their athletic prowess naturally. Fans actually believe that a player can stop taking steroids and maintain the same level of performance. Or they want to believe it.

Even if professional sports leagues in this country drafted aggressive testing procedures like those used in the Olympics and the Tour de France, players would still take their chances. Marion Jones did it, and actually beat the system. She was able to reduce her risk of getting caught and felt that the ends justified the means. Unfortunately she left a paper trail.

So there are no fool proof methods. However, the IOC and the Tour de France offset the technological gap by imposing steep penalties. Floyd Landis and a host of other bikers thought they could beat the system used by the Tour de France but when they got caught they paid a steep price. When you get caught cheating on the international stage your suspension is measured in years, not days. They don’t care about excuses or reasons. If you test positive you get stripped of all titles and sit in limbo for a significant portion of your career.

More over, merely being associated with cheating can cost you dearly. International athletes who find themselves linked to labs or doctors who aid and abet cheaters are typically suspended until they can prove themselves innocent. It’s accepted that athletics are not the real world and the notion of due process is checked at the door. So international athletes have to be cautious. Domestic professionals do not. NHL player Bryan Berard was suspended from international competition for two years for testing positive for a steroid leading up to the 2006 Olympics but the NHL couldn’t suspend him because the Olympic test exceeded the scope of their program. I wonder how many MLB or NFL players could pass the Olympic smell test.

Steroids are illegal but law enforcement officials don’t care about steroids. Criminal penalties for steroid use are virtually non-existent. Steroid distributors are a different story but mostly because they don’t pay taxes. Nobody arrested Shaun Merriman when he tested positive a couple of years ago. In fact, he even made the Pro Bowl. The NFL virtually encourages steroid use. And why not? The money keeps rolling in. If fans weren’t ready to boycott the NFL over Michael Vick, Roger Goodell would have worked with prosecutors to enroll Vick in a work release program.

Major League Baseball should go back to 1990, which is the year most people agree that steroids became a commodity in baseball, and just compartmentalize the whole era. Players saw Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco parlay steroids into MVP caliber seasons and got in on the act. Ironically that was the same year steroids were criminalized by the US Government. Sure, not everybody was taking them but players knew about it and they did nothing. Just take every player who played the majority of his career between 1990 and today and disqualify them from the Hall of Fame.

Going forward professional sports leagues in the US should impose a minimum suspension of one year and not let the player return until the beginning of the season following the suspension. Then impose a stiff fine and a reinstatement fee. And forget about appeals and excuses. If you test positive or your name comes up in a provider’s black book you get suspended and if you text positive for any performance enhancing substance a second time you can kiss your career goodbye. Players might be able to afford those designer steroids that don’t show up on every test but would they want to take chances if the price was that high?

Some would. That’s why Marion Jones is going to prison…and she didn’t even test positive. She was linked to a steroid scandal through a law enforcement investigation. And technically she isn’t going to prison for taking steroids, she was stupid enough to lie about it under oath.

Roger Clemens should take notes on that. Right now he’s in the middle of an inquest and he’s denying any wrongdoing. By the time it’s all said and done, Rocket could be watching his own Hall of Fame induction from a television in his minimum security prison cell. We all know he cheated, but now he’s making matters worse by committing a felony.

18-1

2008-02-06T11:07:00.001-08:00

Man. Super Bowl week came and went and I missed out on publishing snarky commentary denouncing all of the hype. I also missed an opportunity to impress everybody with my prediction. In all honesty I really believed that the Patriots were going to win by 20. I figured the Patriots would take away the run and force Eli Manning to make mistakes. As it turned out the Patriots did take away the run but Eli Manning stepped up in a big way. His lone interception was a tipped ball that should have been caught and any throw he missed was more than made up for when he willed himself out of coverage to connect on a clutch conversion. Even though he didn’t put up eye popping stats, Eli was the MVP. He might have been more deserving of that distinction than his brother was last year.

The interesting thing about that game is the way the Patriots played. They gave up three points on long time consuming Giants’ drive to start things off but they responded with a touchdown and held onto the lead for most of the game. Still, you could sense that the Giants were comfortable with a defensive struggle whereas the Patriots were nervous. That feeling manifested when Belichick opted to go for it on fourth and 13 even though he was within field goal range. After that play blew up I was pretty sure that the Patriots were doomed.

Tom Brady looked average. With no running game to soften the Giants front and his line struggling to give him the eons of time he had grown accustomed to, Brady looked a lot more like Jim Kelly than Joe Montana. It pretty much closed the book on the argument over who the better QB is. The Colts are successful because Peyton Manning is spectacular. Tom Brady is spectacular because the Patriots are successful. There’s a big difference and we saw it in the Super Bowl. Eli Manning showed us what maintaining one’s composure can do. It looks like Eli might be related to Peyton after all and Tom Brady, well after that performance I think we see a lot more of Jan than we do Marcia.

The difference in the Super Bowl was quarterback play. Everything else was just about even. Manning had Patriot defenders in his face all game long. The Giants couldn’t establish the run. The reason the Giants won is because Eli Manning stayed focused on the task at hand and came up with the plays when they mattered most. He threw two beautiful passes for touchdowns, one was a dagger that demonstrated his arm strength and the other was a nifty game winning fade that showed us Eli can read a defense as well as anybody. And while nobody will forget the amazing hand to helmet grab Tyree came down with, it was Eli’s amazing tackle-breaking scramble that made it possible.

The Patriots looked old and tired. They looked like a team that passed its prime somewhere in the first quarter. Belichick started that game a genius and ended it as the dour little troll who dismantled the Cleveland Browns back in the early 1990s. He couldn’t even stomach going back on the field to play out the last second of official time.

Of course, who cares? The clock ran down after Brady desperately heaved another pass out of reach on fourth and the end of a dynasty. Everybody was on the field because they thought the game was over. Why somebody opted to get persnickety over the final second is anybody’s guess but it wasn’t Belichick’s fault. Nobody likes to lose and expecting somebody to run all the way back to his sideline to relive a tough loss is just ridiculous.

There are plenty of downsides to this Super Bowl. First of all New Yorkers have something to be happy about which will keep them cheerful for about 15 minutes. Then they’ll go back to their routine of arrogance and self-pity. By the time spring rolls around the Super Bowl will be ancient history and the Yankees will be the center of attention. By August people will hate Eli Manning and a sense of entitlement will start to build in the heart of every spoiled fan. It’s too bad the football Giants didn’t pack up and leave with their baseball counterpart decades ago. They’d be easier to root for.

Then we have the handful of loudmouths from that 1972 Dolphins team. In case you were wondering what the sound was, they spent Monday and Tuesday patting themselves on the back. It’s OK to let them have their last little vestige of glory because they gave up any semblance of class and dignity 25 years ago. The best response to their demands for attention is the honest one: They played football back in 1972?

The upside to this Super Bowl is that we don’t have to listen to the Patriots extol their own virtues for the next 30 years. Of course some of the guys on HGH (Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison for example) probably won’t make it another 5 years but Matt Light sure seemed to enjoy the camera in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. Surely a win would have made him a major celebrity. Given the manner in which he got worked by the Giants he might want to consider a career as a door mat.

Another interesting dynamic to this outcome is how far the Patriots have fallen in public esteem. A few weeks ago every sports pundit was making a case for the Patriots as the greatest team of all time and the question was when the winning streak would end. With one loss in a tightly contested game these Patriots, who set records that might not be broken fell not into obscurity but infamy. Nobody remembers Super Bowl losers unless they do it in grand fashion. The Buffalo Bills lost four straight; Dan Marino lost in his only appearance; Fran Tarkenton and his Vikings were consistently turned away in the final game. Nothing comes close to this. This loss, coming off of one of the most remarkable regular season performances in history eclipses everything the Patriots have done. It’s a loss that will loom larger over the franchise than the three Super Bowl wins they acquired since Bill Belichick and Tom Brady became household names.

It almost seems unfair. Can we really take everything away from this team because they came up short in the championship game? This is a team that defeated the best the AFC had to offer and lost by three points to a team that they beat in the final game of the season. Should they be punished so severely for falling 3 points short of history?

You bet. That’s the way it’s done. There’s no best of seven series in football. One shot, winner takes all. That’s why almost a billion people watch the NFL’s championship game and nobody watches the World Series until game seven. The Patriots knew that going in. The schedule didn’t change. Right after they beat the Chargers they knew when, where and who they were going to play. They had two weeks to get ready.

The thing of it is, the Patriots didn’t look flat, or tired, or like they didn’t take the Giants seriously. They simply looked like the lesser of two teams. The game was close but the Giants seemed to have a better handle on things. The Giants got better as the game went on.

Sometimes you’ll witness a big upset and walk away believing that if you played that game over 100 times the favored team would win 99 of them. Appalachian State’s upset of Michigan last year had that sort of feel to it. Other times you’ll see a close game and figure it would be a coin too every time. But the Giants finished the Super Bowl looking like a much better team than they were when they started it. If the Patriots and Giants were to square off in a rematch there’s little doubt that the Giants would win.

What’s more is the fact that the Giants were banged up. They were without their All Pro tight end, their top receiver was playing a bad ankle and the New York secondary was held together with a little spit and tape. The Patriots, on the other hand, were healthy. So that makes the Giants upset even more convincing.

Of course, it’s a little premature to throw dirt on the Patriots grave just yet. They looked bad in the Super Bowl but they don’t need to tear the roster apart and start from scratch. It might be time to let Rodney Harrison go and sign some younger linebackers but overall the Patriots are a solid team and will remain competitive. Belichick might have been outcoached for the first time in nearly 10 years but he’s still a smart guy who can set up a game plan. The dynasty might have ended but there’s still some life left in New England. Whether or not it’s enough life to get back to the Super Bowl and win is another story.

Don't confuse Buckeye BCS Blunder with Big 10

2008-01-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

Ohio State waltzed into its second consecutive BCS Championship game with the nation’s best record and a number one ranking only to get clobbered by an SEC opponent. Is the SEC better than the Big 10? Stats can be produced that prove it’s not but at the end of the day the SEC has claimed back to back national championships via the convoluted system people accept in lieu of playoffs.

Of course the BCS wins don’t really point to superior talent or greater team speed. One need only check the NFL to see that the Big 10 does quite well when it comes to recruiting talent. Ohio State can produce an impressive list of players who have enjoyed successful careers at the NFL level. Speed is not an issue. NFL scouts are always impressed with the physical attributes of players coming from Ohio State. So why does the Big 10 seem so sluggish on game day?

Coaching…and let’s be fair, Ohio State is giving the Big 10 a bad name. Michigan matched Florida’s speed and Wisconsin was far from overwhelmed by Tennessee’s quickness. Last year Penn State was able to beat Tennessee and Wisconsin stifled Arkansas in bowl games. The Big 10 does just fine against the SEC. It’s Ohio State that fairs poorly and the culprit is Jim Tressel.

Who else are you going to blame? Last year Ohio State was a juggernaut featuring a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who could beat you with his arm or his legs. Florida crushed the Buckeyes. People wondered if Ohio State took the game seriously and it was widely accepted that the Buckeyes were fat and happy. That wasn’t the case this year. Ohio State might have been number one but outside of Columbus nobody had any respect for Ohio State. The Buckeyes had something to prove. Not only did they have the BCS beat down suffered at the hands of Florida to motivate them, every national pundit was calling Ohio State a fraud.

So the Buckeyes came in ready to send a message and two plays into the game Chris Wells exploded for a 65 yard touchdown run. The bruising 235 pound back blew right past the speedy LSU secondary proving in one play that the disparity in speed was a myth. LSU seemed hobbled by the opening blow and self-destructed on its opening drive. Ohio State quickly responded with another big play but the promising drive ended in a field goal.

Nobody expected Ohio State to jump out to a 10-0 lead with nearly 10 minutes left in the first quarter but LSU found its composure and the coaches made adjustments on both sides of the ball. First LSU neutralized Ohio State and then they started to tip the scales back in their own favor. The final result was a 38-24 LSU victory that wasn’t nearly as close as the score seems to indicate. LSU simply dominated. They humiliated Ohio State’s offensive line, rattled Ohio State’s quarterback and picked apart the vaunted Buckeye defense.

Ohio State helped LSU with stupid penalties. LSU saw drives extended deep into OSU territory thanks to 15 yard personal fouls. Ohio State even stymied its offense with a 15 yard foul but the biggest boner of the night came when Ohio State finally put the screws to LSU’s offense in the second half and forced a punt on fourth and forever. That’s when some dumb reserve linebacker came flying through the line and into the punter. Automatic first down. Ball game. Yes, that play pretty much sealed it. Ohio State came up with a big defensive stop and was poised to start a comeback but LSU managed to score again.

Of course Ohio State’s biggest problem was a lack of production on offense. Sure, they put up some yards but they didn’t score. LSU stopped the Buckeyes when it mattered. Ohio State tried to connect on big plays and missed. Rather than staying composed and using quick passes to keep the LSU defense honest, Ohio State tried to go vertical. Once LSU realized that the Buckeyes weren’t going to attack the short and intermediate zones, the Tigers pinned their ears back and attacked. That resulted in turnovers. Boeckman was a nervous wreck in the pocket and the coaching staff did nothing to help him regain his composure.

It’s so simple, really. Teams use short passes to create manageable situations. Connecting on a four yard pass on first and 10 creates a second and six, picking up three yards on a run presents a third down and three situation. Third and three is much harder to defend than third and 10 which is why LSU won the game. The Tigers didn’t try to pick up 50 yards on every play, they were content to slowly peck away at the field and take what the defense offered. As a result, Ohio State struggled to pressure LSU’s quarterbacks and the LSU line got to beat up the Buckeye front seven. In the end, LSU won because they didn’t try to force things.

Buckeye fans will lament that this wasn’t even supposed to be Ohio State’s year. The Buckeyes were supposed to be rebuilding. But when the season started Chris Wells was in the Heisman discussion, Jim Laurenitis was the defensive player everybody was talking about and Todd Boeckman wasn’t your typical first year starter. Even though Ohio State was picked to finish third in the Big 10, nobody was stunned to see their stock rise as the season progressed, especially given the caliber of their competition. The Buckeyes have always been one of those programs that reloads rather than rebuilds so a BCS Championship bid was not exactly out of the question. Inexperience is no excuse. In fact, that’s an insult to the players. Besides, wasn’t LSU coming off the departure of its starting quarterback and wide receivers from last year as well?

Ohio State’s talent is a as good and as deep you will find anywhere in the country. LSU was a better team when they played for the BCS Championship but that doesn’t mean that LSU is really the better team. What it means is that Les Miles is a better coach.

Jim Tressel gets a lot of credit for running a successful program and much of it is deserved. Since taking over the Ohio State football program he has amassed five seasons of 10 or more wins, three BCS Championship appearances and of course a legacy of dominance over arch rival Michigan. Just before embarking on another collision curse with disaster in the BCS Championship Tressel notched his fourth straight win over Michigan. When you consider that players as good as Chad Henne, Mike Hart and Jake Long are leaving Michigan with 0-4 records against Ohio State, that is quite the feather in Tressel’s cap.

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Ohio State has been a miserable failure against the SEC in bowl games. Trivialize the conference chest-puffing all you like but in today’s world of college football perception is reality. LSU got into the BCS Championship game because it won the SEC. The conference reputation was the tie-breaker. And if perceived inferiority can influence bowl pairings, what do the top recruits think?

That’s where Tressel’s BCS failures are unacceptable. The reputation of the conference was riding on Ohio State’s performance and once again Ohio State looked like a junior college trying to pull off a season-opening upset. The players weren’t out-classed, the coaches were. Jim Tressel and his staff came in with a plan and stuck to it. Even after LSU figured that plan out. Les Miles, on the other hand, kept making adjustments and never let Ohio State draw a bead on them.

It looked like a promising heavy weight fight between a top contender and the defending champion. Ohio State delivered a staggering opening blow and had LSU on the ropes. They got a few more good licks in before LSU covered up, cleared its head and worked back into the fight. Like a true heavyweight champ, LSU didn’t go for the early knockout. They battled back with jabs and body shots, slowly taking the wind out of Ohio State’s attack. LSU was crafty and didn’t deliver a big blow until Ohio State dropped its hands.

Tressel and his coaching staff were lost. They kept calling the same plays. They tried to duplicate Wells’ big run and got stuffed. They tried to connect on that sideline pass to Saine and got sacked. Tressel threw a haymaker and Miles hit him in the ribs. In the end, the fight was a TKO. Ohio State never had a chance. Not for lack of talent, but for lack of brains.

History in the making

2007-12-31T08:30:00.000-08:00

The NFL might be the most competitive sports league in the world. Very little separates the winners from the losers. The Miami Dolphins finished the season 1-15 while the New England Patriots achieved regular season perfection winning all 16 of their games…Including two victories over the hapless Dolphins. Still these teams were much closer than the 15 game difference in their final records.

Consider that six of the Dolphins’ losses came courtesy of a three point margin. Even games where the Dolphins lost by more points they were pretty competitive. The Dolphins just didn’t get any breaks. They lost key players to injuries, had big plays called back by penalties and saw the ball bounce the other team’s way in more than one contest. Looking back over the Dolphins’ season it’s hard not to believe in luck.

The Patriots didn’t seem lucky. They were just good. They obliterated opponents all season long. Granted there was a stretch where the Patriots seemed to lose motivation and they found themselves in close games down the stretch but when they needed a defensive stop or a long scoring drive they managed to get it. Still, luck was on their side. Imagine how the Patriots might have fared if they’d have lost Tom Brady to a severe concussion or Randy Moss to a torn ACL. Although the Patriots made their own luck on the field, the fact that their key players managed to stay healthy all season was remarkable.

The 1972 Dolphins weren’t that lucky. They lost their starting QB early in the season and had to rely on their backup QB. Of course that back-up happened to be a wily veteran who had intimate knowledge of Don Shula’s game plan but Earl Morrall was still a reserve. How many teams could qualify for the playoffs, let alone win every game with a reserve QB calling the signals?

Of course football was different in 1972. Players didn’t have as much power as they do today and teams were able to load up on talent and Shula’s Dolphins were loaded. They had a fantastic line and a powerful running game. They weren’t known as a passing team back in the 1970s. Bob Griese wasn’t the greatest QB in NFL history. Larry Csonka was the weapon of choice and Miami’s line allowed him to build up a head of steam. In fact, of all the players the Dolphins could lose to injury, the QB was probably the one they needed least. When you think about the way the game was played back then and the way it’s played today the Patriots 16-0 is far more impressive than Miami’s 14-0 run.

Of course the regular season feat doesn’t matter. Miami continued the perfection into the post season winning the divisional playoffs, the conference title and finally sealed the deal with a 14-7 Super Bowl win over the Redskins. New England has to match that feat and in today’s NFL there’s very little separating one playoff team from another. If New England doesn’t beat all three of its post season opponents the 16-0 regular season record will become a running joke. Teams are judged by the championships they win, not overall records. Just ask the Buffalo Bills who dominated the 1990’s by winning 4 straight AFC Championships, but the albatross the members of those teams will forever wear is the 0-4 record they hold in the Super Bowl. Nobody cares that they made the playoffs every year from 1988 through 1993 or that they won 70 regular season games in that span…an average of more than 11 wins per season.

If the Patriots make good on the promise their 16-0 season committed them to, there’s no denying where they stand in NFL lore. The nature of today’s game makes their accomplishment so much more significant than anything anybody’s done before. Football is at its pinnacle. Players in the league are more athletic and work harder at the game than the players in seasons past. There’s very little difference in talent. Now more than ever the “any given Sunday” adage is true. The Patriots ran a gauntlet to get to 16-0 and now they will face three monumental tests. If they succeed there will be no denying how great this team is.

In fact, it’s hard to deny it now. When you think about how fierce the competition is in the NFL, the fact that they actually went 16-0 should be enough to hold them in high esteem. If the Patriots fall in the playoffs or come up short in the Super Bowl, is it fair to relegate them to anonymity? Can we make fun of a team that goes 18-1?

Sadly, the answer is yes. If the Patriots don’t win in the post season people will speculate that they were so focused on that perfect regular season record that they lost site of winning a championship and in the world of professional sports that’s a cardinal sin. Teams don’t start training camp in the middle of summer so they can win 16 games, they do it because they want to win the Super Bowl. That’s the prize. Now the Cleveland Browns can take solace in winning 10 games, and the Packers can bask in the glory of capturing a division title but ultimately every player on every team starts the season with the goal of winning a Super Bowl. Out of all the games a team plays throughout the season the only one that matters is the one that ends the journey. For the Patriots that game hasn’t arrived yet, for the Browns that was last week when they lost to the Bengals, for the Dolphins, Raiders, 49ers, Bears and Ravens, that game came along months ago.

9-7, 11-5, 16-0...Those are just numbers. The only thing that matters is whether or not you get to the playoffs. The Tennessee Titans are as successful as the Patriots at this point. Now it’s a single elimination tournament. The only thing that matters is winning. Everything else is just talk. The team that wins it all will be the team that wants it more. Stats, rest, injuries fatigue, home field advantage…none of that really matters. It’s a new season and the best team will win. Everybody has a chance to make history.

Browns Made Big Strides in 2007.

2007-12-27T09:43:00.000-08:00

The Cleveland Browns surprised almost everybody this year. Regardless of whether they win or lose their final game, the outcome of which has no impact on their playoff aspirations, this 2007 campaign has been a success. Granted, this is a team that shot itself in the foot several times over the course of the season and the defense leaves a lot to be desired but back in April, when the Browns traded for Dallas’ pick to land Brady Quinn, a lot of people wrote the Browns off as a bust.

Joe Thomas has proven himself to be as good as advertised. That’s big. Plenty of teams have played it “safe” in the draft by selecting a highly-touted lineman with a top five pick only to find themselves struggling to mitigate that selection years later. Thomas is going to be a stalwart tackle in the NFL. For every Chris Samuels there is a Robert Gallery. Thomas is the real deal. That was a smart move. The Browns also got a lot of mileage out of Eric Wright and Ben McDonald. The rookie corners made big strides throughout the season.

Landing Quinn with the 22nd pick was a coup for the Browns who needed to take out an insurance policy against the Charlie Frye experiment. Frye narrowly won the starting job over a lackluster Derek Anderson in preseason only to find himself run out of town on a rail after regressing in the season opener against Pittsburgh. Anderson stepped in and stepped up, elevating his game to a remarkable level. Now the only question about Quinn is whether he’ll ever get a chance to lead the Browns.

But Anderson is a sketchy proposition. As impressive as his stats appear at first blush, a closer look reveals a very raw QB who could very well end up playing in the AFL if he doesn’t make some improvements. Anderson can be reckless at times, firing the ball into tight coverage. He’s been bailed out by great receivers and aided by a resurgent Jamal Lewis. But what happens when defenses start keying on his weaknesses? Anderson’s four interception performance against the Bengals is an indication that the NFL might be on the verge of figuring him out. We’ve seen it happen a hundred times before. The fact is that there are more Kerry Collins stories than Tom Brady epics. The law of averages tells us that Anderson is on a collision course with mediocrity. Anderson can’t throw short and intermediate passes with any consistency. That’s bad news for an NFL team with any hope of winning a title.

But that doesn’t mean the Browns should cut him loose. Until he hits that wall he’s a great player. The Browns need to hedge their bets and that means keeping Anderson and Quinn on the same team. If somebody outbids the Browns for Anderson’s services so be it. Take the compensatory draft picks and move on but don’t let Anderson slip away for a song. The best move for the Browns is to start the 2008 season with a lively battle of the starting spot and hold onto a promising backup for another year. If Anderson proves to be a flash in the pan, you got exactly what you wanted: a solid year of preparation for the future of the team. If Anderson improves and becomes the franchise the Browns have been looking for Quinn will still command some value on the trade market. GM Phil Savage has already indicated that they will offer Anderson the maximum tender which means that the Browns will receive first and third round picks if another team scoops him up. It’s doubtful that a team would want to beat the Browns offer and give up two picks in the draft but stranger things have happened. Look at what the Dolphins did.

The Browns look good on offense. Edwards and Winslow matured a lot heading into this season and should get better next year. They’ll anchor one of the best receiving corps in the NFL for a few more years. Retaining Jamal Lewis is a good idea, especially if they can keep him as hungry as he was in 2007. LeCharles Bentley is rehabbing his knee and should be ready to bolster a much improved line. Finding an explosive compliment to Lewis is a nice idea but it won’t be feasible without a first round pick. The real focus needs to be the defense. Romeo Crennel earned his chance to coach the Browns because of his pedigree as a championship-caliber defensive coordinator. Since he took the helm, the Browns have been struggling to implement the 3-4 defensive scheme employed by the Patriots. The Browns are awful against the run and generate no pressure on the QB during the two minute drill. Teams seem capable of moving the ball at will.

While there’s no question that the Browns could use some help on the defensive line, blaming the deficiencies on talent alone is unfair. There are some solid athletes on that defense but they aren’t being deployed effectively. The Browns are running a 3-4 defense with 4-3 personnel. Something has to change. If the Browns aren’t willing to overhaul the defensive personnel in the off season then a change will have to be made with the coaching staff. Crennel might have to relinquish control of his defense to 4-3 guru.

For the Browns it’s great to be in this position. For the first time in ages it looks as though the Browns can stop rebuilding the franchise and start tweaking the team for a championship run. It’s still a long road ahead but long roads are much easier to deal with when the engine is finally running.

Damage Control

2007-12-18T09:38:00.001-08:00

It looks like HGH is the easy way out for the players who have been exposed by the Mitchell Report. Andy Pettit copped to using HGH a couple of times to speed the recovery process after sustaining an injury. Now Fernando Vina is making the same excuse. How many more will follow? Of course, let's give credit where credit is due, Paul Byrd spun this web of lies during the ALCS when his name was connected to a massive shipment of HGH.

Bullshit.

The truth of the matter is that the guys on this list represent a small percentage of cheaters. Just because Jose Canseco is the only guy willing to admit that he regularly used steroids to enhance his performance doesn't mean the other players are just dabblers.

Even if Andy Pettit is being honest and he really limited his excursion into the realm of performance enhancement to a recovery process skepticism is the price he has to pay. It's not like Pettit came forward before the report was released. He was just the first guy to use an admission as damage control. That doesn't make him a good guy, just a smart one. He's still a liar and a cheater. If he was honest he would have assisted in the investigation.

Look, playing baseball is a privilege. Players are expected to do things a certain way. There's no question that the temptation to take steroids is tremendous and in some cases the use of performance enhancing substances might even be required but there are consequences for every action.

And let's get real...

It would be fitting if every player from the mid 1980's through the 2007 season was denied induction into the Hall of Fame. Even though a lot of players didn't cheat, most knew about it and didn't say anything. Everybody involved in baseball over the last 25 years has a hand in this mess. Tony Gwinn and Cal Ripkin Jr. are just as guilty of dishonoring the game as the guys on the Mitchell Report. Aiding and abetting.

By the way, Pete Rose fans...Pete's still a scumbag of the highest order. Right or wrong, prior to 2002 gambling was the worst crime a baseball player could think of committing. One of the greatest players of all time, Shoeless Joe Jackson, is still banned from baseball even though most baseball historians feel he was an innocent victim in a massive scandal. Pete Rose was no innocent victim. He was a egomaniac who willfully and wantonly broke baseball's cardinal rule. Then, after he signed his own ban, he embarked on a campaign to ruin baseball for everybody else. Steroids might be the worst form of cheating but nothing is more disgraceful than Pete Rose.

Roid Rage

2007-12-14T08:59:00.001-08:00

Well the laundry list is out and there are a lot of players who’ve been linked to steroids. Big, bad Roger Clemens is among the would be Hall-of-Famers who will spend the next few years being hounded by their connection to performance enhancing substances. Sadly, the list is far from comprehensive. The Mitchell Report might have been exhaustive but that doesn’t mean they got everybody. The goal of this inquest was to identify the scope of the problem, not to resolve it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this list represents only 10% of the players who are guilty of doping.

Naturally, just about everybody on this list denies any wrong doing but let’s just see how many of them hire lawyers to sue for slander. Mark McGwire and Raphael Palmiero both too k vicious shots at Jose Canseco but stopped short of holding Canseco legally accountable for defamation of character. That’s because Jose told the truth. In retrospect, Canseco should have sued them for questioning his integrity.

It’s not practical to retroactively punish players. Major League Baseball needs to move forward and address the issue of current cheaters. Let the court of public opinion handle the players on the list. Shame can be a powerful thing. The issue at hand is current and future use. There are laboratories feverishly working on better performance enhancing substances. There are loopholes to exploit. That’s why Mark McGwire dodged a bullet when he was caught with Andro. Andro wasn’t a steroid but rather a precursor that became a steroid in the body. Technically speaking, Andro wasn’t even illegal at the time and it wasn’t banned in baseball. But the truth is that McGwire used Andro to supplement his regular steroid regimen.

Labs are doing more than exploiting loopholes, they’re also creating illegal drugs that can’t be readily detected. Scientists carefully study the methods used in current testing and engineer drugs to avoid the indicators. Steroids are traditionally fat soluble which means they tend to linger in the system for weeks but Barry Bonds was implicated in an operation that alleges the use of water soluble steroids that don’t stay in the system for more than a day or two. The now infamous “Cream” and accompanying “Clear” are examples of steroids that were engineered to beat conventional tests.

Nobody utilizes more rigorous testing than the International Olympic Committee but even the IOC was duped by Balco. Marion Jones managed to foil the numerous tests Olympic competitors undergo and the result was Olympic domination. Her name surfaced in the BALCO nightmare and she subsequently admitted to using steroids. The result: she was stripped of her medals. Also, although it was unlikely she was planning a comeback, Jones is banned from international competition for a minimum of 2 years. Even though the tests can be beaten, the consequences of a positive test make the risk exceed the reward.

Imagine if those penalties were imposed in professional sports. Currently players face a suspension that amounts to a fraction of the regular season. In fact, in the NFL steroids are treated in the same manner as marijuana. Why? Marijuana is not a performance enhancing substance and it doesn’t impugn the integrity of the game. It’s about image. People seem more disgusted with Ricky Williams than they do Shawn Merriman but it was Merriman who cheated. Merriman’s decision to break the law made him bigger, stronger and faster. Ricky’s made him hungry. Merriman even made the Pro Bowl on the heels of his positive test. And now it’s all better. He’s still a gridiron hero but Ricky Williams is a punk. Frankly, Ricky Williams is more worthy of our respect and trust.

Professional athletes have the wherewithal to purchase steroids on their own. Pay is based on performance so players see steroids as an investment. If they can mitigate the risk, there is a tangible reward. Forget about health concerns, these guys risk permanent injury on every play. Long term liver failure is the least of their worries. The risk is getting caught. The risk is losing money. Furthermore, since teams aren’t held directly accountable for doping there’s a culture of looking the other way throughout sports. It’s not just at the professional level either. College coaches and athletic directors can see the impact of steroids better than anybody but when’s the last time you heard of a college coach blowing the whistle on a player who miraculously packed on 40 pounds of solid muscle over an offseason? And because college athletes have a desire to compete at the professional level, the use is prevalent.

For decades former athletes at the professional and collegiate levels have characterized drug testing as laughable. Players know when they might be tested and there are hundreds of ways to beat the test. Combine that with the masking agents and more difficult to detect drugs and you have a system designed to create the illusion of propriety. Ultimately the primary concern is revenue. If doping generates more money, nobody really cares.

Part of the problem is that fans don’t really care. Most see steroids as a minor problem. They don’t give steroids credit for the impact they have. Many people are ignorant to the science of steroids and assume that steroids result in big, bulky, slow behemoths. But then you have Marion Jones. The reality is that steroids falsely increase hormone levels that enhance athletic performance. The athlete can use a training program to dictate the impact steroids have. Marion Jones used steroids to improve her speed. Roger Clemens used steroids to speed his recovery time and, like Barry Bonds, used steroids and HGH to shave years off his performance. How do you quantify the impact? You don’t have to. Once a player tests positive it’s safe to assume they’ve been juicing all along and that everything they’ve accomplished is tainted. Because the testing procedures are such a joke you can go ahead and assume that they’ll hop right back on that steroid cycle after they jump through a few hoops to appease the masses. Once a doper, always a doper. That might sound unfair, but so are steroids.

It wouldn’t be that big a deal if it weren’t for the kids. What an adult chooses to do to his body is his business but what about those kids who are pursuing the dream of playing big time college ball or even making it as a pro? If the road to the NFL or Major League Baseball is paved with the Cream, then collegiate players will be juicing to catch up and if collegiate players are fortifying their performance with dangerous substances it’s ridiculous to assume that high school athletes aren’t following suit. From there it only gets worse.

That’s why it’s time to stop fooling around and impose some serious penalties. Improve the testing procedures and put the screws to those who come up positive. Instead of suspending a player for a month, kick them out for two years and impose sanctions on the team. You can bet your bottom dollar that the San Diego Chargers would have dealt with Shawn Merriman internally if a positive test would have cost them the playoffs. The Yankees would have never signed Roger Clemens is his positive test would have resulted in a forfeit of the entire season. That’s if the player would even be willing to risk getting caught if the penalty was as severe as a two year layoff. As it stands right now teams can benefit from the actions of cheaters and the only risk they face is losing that player. Raise the stakes. Once you take steroids out of professional sports, amateur sports will follow.

Squib Kicks

2007-12-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

B_S

Ohio State stumbled into the top ranking in the final BCS poll. Thanks to a soft schedule and a battered Big 10, the Buckeyes managed to go 11-1. Buckeye fans don’t like hearing it but the fact that the Buckeyes are in the BCS Championship makes a mockery of the term National Champion. Not the LSU is exactly worthy of the hype. The Tigers lost twice. Granted both losses came in overtime but that says a lot more about LSU’s coaching staff than it does about the Tigers’ opposition. The SEC is a strong conference but it’s not that much better than the Big 10 or the Pac 10. About the only thing that sets the SEC apart is its championship game which forces two very good teams to beat on each other at the end of the season. The SEC title game is why Florida was able to exploit a lethargic Ohio State team last year.

Don’t count on Ohio State to make the same mistakes. Even though the Buckeyes lost to the only formidable opponent on their schedule (at home against Illinois), Ohio State isn’t short on talent. They never are. There are a number of players on the Buckeye roster who are more than capable of playing on Sundays next year. Ohio State’s schedule might have been soft but they did win their games in convincing fashion. These guys can play.

And the Big 10 needs them to. In spite of proving itself as a conference in head to head competition against the SEC in bowl games last year, fans and commentators ignored the success of Wisconsin and Penn State and cast doubt on the Big 10 in light of Ohio State’s sleepwalk in the so-called championship game. It’s not fair but Ohio State and the Big 10 have become a punch line. If Ohio State loses another bowl game to an SEC school the Buckeyes and the rest of the Big 10 will be punished in future polls.

Make no mistake, perception is reality. If public opinion of the Big 10 is low that will be reflected in the preseason rankings. Even if Big 10 schools perform well during the course of the season, voters won’t be as willing to reward those teams with lofty poll position. That means the Big 10 could find itself on the outside looking in. Over the past few years the Big 10 had enough clout to break a tie in favor of its teams. A 10-2 Wisconsin team used to have enough clout to get ranked ahead of an 11-1 Big East program. If Ohio State loses they will confirm suspicions that the Big 10 is fat, slow and noncompetitive thus guaranteeing a long hard road to those at large BCS bids.

Can I get that in writing?

Speaking of guarantees, was that angle played a little too aggressively by the media in the prelude to the Steelers/Patriots game? It’s not like anybody went out of their way to disrespect the Patriots. If you ask any player in any sport if they think they can win their next game they are probably going to say yes. That’s why we play the games.

It’s unlikely anything any Steeler said had any impact on the Patriots performance. The Patriots were coming off two sketchy performances and had a point to prove. The message was delivered. The Steelers were supposed to be a contender. Losing by 20 points this late in the season doesn’t bode well for Mike Tomlin and the boys.

16-0

On the heels of spanking the Steelers New England looks primed to complete a perfect season. A win next week over the lowly Jets matches Miami’s miraculous 14-0 performance and then the only question is whether the Pats will play to win against the Giants. Thanks to Don Shula’s recent tantrum over “Spy-gate” B-squared will probably lay the wood to New York just to spite everybody. Then the only issue is capping the perfect season off with a perfect post season. Somehow going 16-0 doesn’t seem special if it’s followed by a 1-1 playoff performance.

For the record, Don Shula should just shut up. First of all, he knows damned well that every coach in the league cheats. His Dolphins, like so many of the great teams of the 1970’s were the product of steroids. Shula probably stole signals from opposing teams as well. Everybody knows that the only difference between Belichick and every other coach in the league is that he got caught. Get over it.

Frankly, Don Shula is the most overrated coach in NFL history. He gets too much credit for that 17-0 team but his biggest mark on NFL history came a few years earlier when his Baltimore Colts failed to beat Joe Namath and the upstart Jets. Combine that with squandering Dan Marino and you have a guy who was lucky rather than good. As much as I dislike Belichick, I hope that Don Shula lives to see the only feather in his cap get blown into the gutter. Go Pats!

Crash and Burn

2007-11-12T18:39:00.001-08:00

Normally I don't like the way the BCS penalizes good teams for losing tough games late in the season. If a good team is going to be upset it will likely come against a tough conference rival who knows its opponent and has had plenty of time to review the game footage. Teams that lose early are often victims of their own in experience. Teams that lose late are often victims of a tough home stretch. So normally I'd cry foul over Ohio State's big drop from number one in the BCS poll to number seven. But this isn't a normal season.

Nobody forced Ohio State to line up an opening salvo of cream puffs. Just because the NCAA opened the door to Division 1-AA, conveniently renamed the Champion Subdivision., doesn't mean Ohio State had to lure Youngstown State to town with a million dollar contract. When the NCAA gave a twelfth game the green light the Buckeyes plugged a depleted Kent State into its bye week without even thinking of a respectable game against somebody else.

Ohio State didn't face a real challenge until they overcame Wisconsin in the second half a couple of weeks ago but even then Wisconsin was without key players so it was hard to judge Ohio State's performance. When you take a long hard look at who Ohio State has played and how those teams have fared it's really hard to come away impressed with any of their victories. Ohio State was number one by default and the only way the Buckeyes were going to retain national respect was by winning out. The Buckeyes understood the consequences of losing.

I don't think West Virginia is better than Ohio State but because Ohio State dodged any meaningful competition this year I don't know that for sure. West Virginia managed to beat some pretty respectable teams this year and they feature a much more refined mobile quarterback than Juice Williams of Illinois. Maybe West Virginia has the tools to beat the Buckeyes after all. Sadly, we won't get to see that on the field. By losing to Illinois Ohio State's best possible finish will get them to the Rose Bowl where they will likely face a Pac Ten opponent. If Oregon wins out the Ducks will earn a BCS berth which means Ohio State could draw an at large team but the Rose Bowl committee will be mindful of selecting a team that will draw plenty of fans to Pasadena. That means it will be a westward orientation. Aside from Oregon, none of the teams likely to end up in Pasadena excite me. Even Kansas , though unbeaten, seems a little suspect against Ohio State. Since we've seen a mobile QB give Ohio State trouble that leaves Pat White as the best possible test. Will the Rose Bowl see it that way? Probably not, the problem with the bowls is that they are all about money.

Even though I'm in the camp that concurs that Ohio State was overrated this year, I still would love to see the Buckeyes get a chance to redeem themselves in some sort of playoff. It's hard to win every game and more than a little short-sighted to put such a high value on a perfect record. Luck plays such a key role in going 12-0. The Buckeyes enjoyed that luck for a while. They avoided injuries to key players and faced opponents who had suffered injuries. In fact, Ohio State's final opponent, Michigan, is decimated by injuries to its best players. quarterback Chad Henne and running back Mike Hart have been hampered by serious injuries for much of the season.

Playoffs would give teams a chance to play for the national championship in spite of suffering set backs. Granted, Michigan would probably not recover from three losses but taking the sting out of a couple of early losses would give teams more of a reason to schedule quality opponents. Look at most high school playoff systems. In most places teams desperately try to schedule bigger and better programs in the hopes of earning a lot of qualifying points in the event of a victory or at least gaining some experience to prepare for later games.

Sadly, the people who control big time college ball don't want to give up the big time college money. Even though playoffs would likely generate more money, it would spread that money into more pockets. It would give too many of the teams that finish on the cusp of BCS glory a chance to prove themselves in a good, old-fashioned fight to the finish. Nobody wants to be the team that lost to Hawaii in the playoffs. People don't want to see Boise State getting a regular shot of the big dogs. Parity scares the hell out of the NCAA and they'll do anything to keep it in check. Even if it means punishing Ohio State for playing along.

Short Outs

2007-11-02T07:48:00.001-07:00

There are some columnists complaining about all of the hype surrounding the Colts/Patriots clash this weekend. Why? The unbeaten defending Super Bowl champion is playing an unbeaten intra-conference rival most people have picked to win it all. New England looks unstoppable and the winner of this game could finish the season with a perfect record. The only problem with this game is that it should be moved the prime time spot. You can’t hype this game enough. The two best teams in football are going head to head.

Barry Bonds issued a half-hearted threat: If the asterisk-emblazoned 756 ball ends up enshrined in the Hall of Fame, he won’t go. Then he qualified his remark and said that he’s simply expressing how he feels now but that in five years he might change his mind…so Barry did leave wiggle room for his ego. Barry also talked about history and records and stated that you can’t put an asterisk in baseball. Well Mark Ecko proved that you can. He seared a big red one into that record-breaking ball and everybody knows it. The fans have spoken, Barry. You’re a liar, a cheater and a jerk.

Am I the only person who doesn’t give a flying F**K about Joe Torre? Can we stop the pity party? The fact of the matter is that Torre was overpaid and overrated. The Yankees offered him a very generous contract to come back next year and they were not out of line by including incentives. I hate the Yankees and think that George Steinbrenner is an enormous ass who raised two sons to be even worse but the man isn’t spending twice as much as anybody in baseball to lose in the ALDS. Joe Torre didn’t get the job done.

Is Ohio State the best team in the country? Yes. I didn’t think so a few weeks ago but after clobbering Penn State 37-17 in Beaver Stadium the Buckeyes proved their point. Nobody can make a stronger case for the top ranking in the country. The SEC has been enjoying a lot of respect this year but the Big 10 proved to be rather formidable against the SEC in head to head competition this past January. Wisconsin and Penn State defeated their vaunted SEC opponents in convincing fashion and Florida’s win over Ohio State didn’t raise as many eyebrows as Ohio State’s soft performance did. The Big 10 is still a football powerhouse and at this point in the season Ohio State’s record is worthy of respect. There’s still football left to be played and Ohio State will have to avoid looking ahead to its finale against Michigan but until the Buckeyes go out and prove otherwise they’re the team to beat.

In case you missed it, the NHL and NBA both opened their seasons. You don’t have to pay attention yet, but mark your calendar to check the standings after the Super Bowl. Your favorite team might be playoff bound.

Were you surprised to see the Red Sox sweep the Rockies? Yeah? You’re an idiot. The Red Sox were better in every facet of the game. The Rockies ran off an impressive winning streak at the end of the season but they did it in the National League. Money talks people. The Red Sox spent a lot of money picking apart small market teams in free agency. Unlike the Yankees, the Red Sox guessed right on their purchases and it paid off. Your first clue that the Sox would win was in the 100 million dollar disparity in payroll. Duh.

Speaking of exercises in futility, who’s your Heisman favorite? Don’t tell me another Boston College QB is going to win it on the strength of one miraculous performance. Can anybody recall a more wide open race? Perhaps we could if the media would stop picking the front runners right after the previous season’s trophy is handed out. Darren McFadden was crowned as this year’s winner last December but a funny thing happened on the way to the podium, he played another season. Now everybody’s confused because the best players in college football weren’t on the short list of contenders. The solution? Stop making short lists! Let the players play a few games before we start worrying about who will hoist the Heisman albatross…I mean trophy.

A-Hole

2007-10-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

Look At Me!!!!

I’ve never had much of a problem with Alex Rodriguez. I suppose if he was choking on all of my team’s post season chances I might think he’s overrated but you can’t lay a post season egg if you don’t get to the playoffs and A-Rod has been an integral part of that equation for the Yankees.

I also don’t really have much of a problem with his bush league antics. Slapping the ball out of a wayward glove and calling off a fielder with an “I got it” is low but hardly a disgrace to baseball. It’s more childish than cheating.

There’s no question that A-Rod is vastly overpaid. In the minds of most fans athletes are all overpaid but when you consider the revenue they generate quite a few professional athletes are actually underpaid. LeBron James and Tiger Woods come to mind as two guys who should get paid just for breathing. Both are single handedly responsible for generating at least ten times the revenue they are paid. Tiger’s mere presence at a PGA event doubles patronage and LeBron has increased the overall value of the Cavaliers by nearly 200 million dollars.

Even by those standards A-Rod is overpaid. Because of salary cap provisions A-Rod can push a team over the limit and incur a luxury tax. That makes the real cost of signing A-Rod a lot higher than his total contract value. Teams with the assets to afford this financial impact have to win a championship to avoid losing money on the year. Even the endlessly wealthy New York Yankees struggled to stay in the black while shouldering just a portion of A-Rod’s deal. People sometimes forget that part of A-Rod’s contract was being paid by the Rangers. Another caveat in that contract was a player option. That’s where A-Rod proved what a jerk he is.

He doesn’t owe the Yankees a damned thing. Opting out of that contract doesn’t make A-Rod an A-hole. He’s got every right to pursue a better deal with a team that will appreciate him more. The Yankees are a calculating organization and Yankee fans are myopic brats who lack any semblance of class. Screw them. A-Rod is a better defensive shortstop than Derek Jeter but the Yankees refused to slide Jeter over to the hot corner for fear of offending him. If Jeter was half the leader everybody makes him out to be he would have volunteered to move over but Jeter’s ego is almost as oppressive as A-Rod’s. A big part of the reason A-Rod never really seemed to fit in with the Yankees is because Jeter happily fostered the idea that A-Rod wasn’t a “real” Yankee. So be it. It’s also worth pointing out that Jeter’s heroic post season performances are ancient history and his lackluster play in the ALDS was even more atrocious than A-Rod’s. Jeter’s a loser too.

But A-Rod trumped everybody. He could have waited until a few days after the World Series to announce he was terminating his contract. It wouldn’t have made him any more or less valuable on the open market to declare his intentions next week. But A-Rod couldn’t do that. He waited until the deciding game was well under way to tell the world that he was pursuing free agency. Of course the sports outlets started reporting it immediately and it became a topic of conversation throughout the game.

A-Rod’s move was a calculated attempt to steal the spotlight. It reveals a lack of respect for the game and its fans. It should weigh heavily on the minds of his future employers but it won’t. People will talk about his timing and his selfishness but over the coming months the bidding will begin and A-Rod will ink a 300 million dollar contract. He’ll put up great stats, break records and eventually land himself in the hall of fame because nobody will stop to investigate the story behind the numbers.

And that’s where baseball goes bad. Pick a sports hall of fame and you can name at least a dozen players who have been inexplicably snubbed but baseball sets the standards for unworthy honorees. Baseball writers are notorious for hiding behind the numbers and avoiding making and decisions about a player’s personality, leadership and overall character. A-Rod might prove to be so outstanding that his numbers will transcend the intangibles but the fact that they won’t even be discussed is why baseball is such a joke. We know A-Rod’s a jerk, but nobody will dare hold him accountable.

Another BCS blunder

2007-10-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

The Ohio State Buckeyes have looked impressive so far this year. Granted, they didn’t exactly obliterate Youngstown State and they struggled to get their offense on track when Akron came to town but they convincingly beat Washington on the road and laid the wood to their early conference foes. Ohio State looks like a strong contender of the national championship.

But looks can be deceiving. Ohio State hasn’t really played anybody of consequence just yet. They boast a perfect record, have put up impressive stats and have a considerable average margin of victory but they haven’t beaten a top 20 team. By the time the season finally wraps up Ohio State might find themselves unbeaten, untied and untested. Does that make them worthy of a title shot?

South Florida stumbled into the number two spot and a lot of people are second guessing them but the Bulls have impressive victories on their resume. Early in the season South Florida shocked a highly ranked Auburn team with a gritty overtime win. A few weeks later West Virginia found themselves unable to move the ball effectively against a quick South Florida defense. At the time WVU was ranked number four in the country.

Ohio State’s highest ranked foe so far is Purdue which had just cracked the top 25 before getting worked over by the Buckeyes. Purdue might have reclaimed a top 25 ranking if it hadn’t fallen to Michigan a week later. People joked about Ohio State starting its season with a YAWN (Youngstown State, Akron, Washington, and Northwestern) but now the Big 10 schedule looks weak with Ohio State facing only one more ranked opponent when it plays Michigan in November. If Michigan continues to win the Wolverines could prove to be a formidable foe but right now nobody sees Michigan as a force to be reckoned with.

The odds are in Ohio State’s favor and if they run the table in a big conference there’s no question that the Buckeyes would be worthy of a shot at the BCS title but the current ranking is premature. Ohio State has not proven that it’s the best team. A perfect record can be impressive but only if the teams on the schedule were competitive. Right now the poll-makers are saying that Ohio State is better than everybody else but if we matched Ohio State up against Kentucky would the Buckeye defense hold? Is that Ohio State offense good enough to get vertical against that LSU defense? Florida humiliated Ohio State by putting Tim Tebow in to pick up tough yards, has Jim Tressel come up with a plan for Superman?

Nobody can answer these questions. That’s why they play the games. USC had too many weapons and Texas only had Vince Young but somehow the Longhorns walked away with a BCS Title in 2005. Last year the BCS Championship was played a month and a half early when unbeaten Ohio State outlasted unbeaten Michigan in a barnburner. Then Florida hung 41 points on the Buckeyes during a rout of the greatest college team ever assembled. Play the game.

Ohio State should not be rewarded for playing a soft schedule. There are those who would say that its unfair to punish the Buckeyes since the schedules are filled years in advance but it’s not as if Akron, Washington and Kent State were top-ranked teams four or five years ago. Nobody forced the Buckeyes to play Youngstown State. The Buckeyes can’t control how competitive their conference is year to year but they certainly have control over the number of in-state patsies they book.

The easy solution is playoffs. The BCS system is a beauty contest that rewards perfection. The polls are supposed to be subjective because the people voting in the polls are supposed to consider each team on its own merits, not just run down the schedule and see who has the most wins. LSU would be ranked ahead of Ohio State if not for one loss; a hard fought overtime heartbreaker to a very tough Kentucky team. While LSU was fighting a tough opponent to the bitter end, Ohio State was enjoying a leisurely stroll to the end zone over a Kent State team so outmatched that the Kent State coach admitted he would be resting his starters. Cal moved up in the polls two weeks ago for no other reason than having a bye week when other teams lost.

Dumping the BCS in favor of playoffs would not make the regular season mean less it would make quality opposition mean more. Coaches wouldn’t want to enter the playoffs having cakewalked through a soft schedule only to get massacred in December. Tough non-conference opponents would be the best way to prepare a team for a championship run through a playoff field.

The best part about playoffs is that post season match ups would no longer be determined by selection committees. For once the NCAA Division 1-A championship would be determined on the field not in some conference room.

Something's Bugging Yankee Fans

2007-10-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

eek!

After watching the Yankees fall three games to one in the ALDS people can’t help but wonder what might have been. The Yankees seemed poised to steal home field advantage from the Indians in game 2, regrouping from a 12-3 beat down in game 1, only to have their efforts derailed by a swarm of flying insects known as midges. Refer to your local entomologist for more details.

The bugs were thick and players on both sides were struggling to cope with the waterborne pests but the Indians prevailed. Fausto Carmona had just as many midges crawling around on his face as Joba Chamberlain but it was the pampered reliever who struggled with the infestation. Fausto tuned out every distraction and threw 9 innings of lock down baseball while Joba fell apart. At least he didn’t make excuses for it after the game.

That hasn’t stopped others from throwing a tizzy. Roger Clemens whined about the bugs and said that the umpires should have delayed the game. George Steinbrenner took a break from threatening Joe Torre long enough to call Bud Selig and cry foul. Everybody seems to think that the bugs cost the Yankees the game and now that New York has lost another divisional series you can bet the innocent midges will take the heat for that. Never mind the fact that A-Rod sucked out loud yet again, or that Derek "God" Jeter played poorly in every aspect of the game.

Forget about Rocket laying an egg in game three and forcing Torre to exhaust his bullpen early. Thanks, pops. Now about that 18 million...I didn't see any insects forcing Wang to post an ERA so inflated it can only be quantified with exponents. And can we think about blaming Steinbrenner for applying undue pressure? By putting Joe Torre’s future on the line, Steinbrenner made it impossible for the players to relax and play naturally. Every mistake was another nail in Torre’s coffin. Maybe the Yankees lost on purpose just so they could get a break from Big Stein. Sometimes the owner needs to shut up and let the players play.

By the way, the umpires did delay the game. Everybody got to soak themselves in copious amounts of OFF. Unfortunately the unseasonably warm temperatures triggered a massive hatch and the bright lights of Jacobs field attracted millions of the harmless bugs. The lush grass drew the bugs to field level and the sweaty players rendered the repellant moot. Umpires aren’t supposed to stop play unless safety becomes an issue and the bugs, though annoying, did not pose any threat. Delaying the game for an extended period of time probably would have made matters worse as more midges became active throughout the night. Were they supposed to throw the entire post season into disarray because a couple of Yankees had got a case of the heebie jeebies?

The reason the umpires didn’t see any risk to the players was because only a few players seemed adversely affected. Doug Mientkiewicz acted as though he was going to die after inadvertently eating one and Joba tried to pitch with his eyes closed. They probably drowned their sorrows in Cosmopolitans after the series and they might take their mind off the loss with a day at the spa. Pedicures for everybody! Most of the players seemed capable of tuning the bugs out when it was time to play. Even her royal highness A-Rod and Dame Derek Jeter sucked it up when it counted. If Fausto Carmona had gone wild as well a delay might have been in order but the call on the field was that the bugs were a distraction that the players simply had to overcome. The conditions were fair and safe. Get over it.

New York fans can bitterly crack jokes about Cleveland but the Yankees will spend another off season trying to figure out where they went wrong. Steinbrenner will bluster, Torre will get the boot and A-Rod will opt out of his contract…he’ll probably end up winning a World Series in a classier city with better fans. Meanwhile Cleveland, swarms of midges notwithstanding, is reveling in a hard fought win. Even if they fall short against the Red Sox the team seems back on track and will remain in contention for a number of years. The Yankees are in trouble. The Boss might not be able to buy them out of the hole they’re in right now so they’ll whine about what might have been if those pesky midges hadn’t made an appearance in game 2. In all honesty, they would have lost anyway. The Yankees have no leadership and no heart.

The bottom line is that the Indians were the better team. They wanted to win more than the Yankees did. The bugs didn’t discriminate in game 2; they bothered everybody. The difference was that the Indians weren’t looking for an excuse. The Yankees came unglued because they aren't a real team. That’s one thing money can’t buy. New York is a collection of gutless prima donnas who don’t know what toughness is. The midges made it easy to give up.

LeBron Demonstrates Youthful Stupidity

2007-10-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

It was bound to happen. LeBron's too young not to screw up once in a while and we all know he would do something foolish before long. What would it be... Dog fighting? Dope? Seven kids by way of 10 different women? As it turns out LeBron's first faux pas was a wardrobe malfunction.

I don’t have a problem with LeBron James wearing a Yankees cap. LeBron’s 22 which means he was 12 years old the last time the Indians got to the World Series and what do they do? Choke. Then the Indians unloaded the stars from that team and embarked on several rebuilding attempts. I was so disgusted I took a baseball sabbatical. Yes, I’m back on the Tribe bandwagon but I’m 15 years older than LeBron which means my Indians were the hapless losers of the 1980s who inspired somebody to write the script for Major League. It was a great movie but the fact that I had tears in my eyes at the end speaks volumes. It’s not easy being a Cleveland fan but if you made it through the 70s and 80s you don’t have much of a choice.

I should be a Yankees fan. Everybody from Cleveland should. Blowhard Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is a Cleveland boy who made good so we have a way to connect with the winningest team in baseball history. More than a handful of promising Cleveland prospects have earned championship rings in New York. It’s easy. Why waste time with a team that hasn’t won a championship since 1948?

Still, LeBron didn’t need to sit in Jacobs’ Field during the American League Divisional Playoffs wearing that Yankees hat. It was just cruel. Cleveland is a city that has taken some hard knocks over the years and not just in sports. The Cuyahoga River caught on fire. The city is cold, wet and dirty. Jobs are hard to come by and low paying anyway. The rich side of Cleveland looks like the poor side of everywhere else. Dennis Kucinich.

Sports are important to Cleveland. They are more than a diversion. People get to distract themselves from the drudgery of everyday existence by following their hometown teams but they also draw their self esteem from sports. It hasn’t been good. The Browns have never been to a Super Bowl, last winning a championship in 1964 but the worst was when Art Modell stabbed the city in the back and deprived Cleveland of the Browns for three years. The city fought tooth and nail with Modell and the NFL to retain the rights to a lousy team and since 1999 the new incarnation of the Browns has been terrible.

The Indians were awful for decades. After blowing the 1954 World Series the Tribe devoted itself to embarrassing the city and making a mockery of baseball every year until 1994 when a strong showing by the Indians was crushed by a labor dispute. There was no World Series in 1994 and the Indians might have been in the mix to win it. After winning 100 games in 1995, the Indians handed Atlanta its first World Championship and then relinquished the 1997 title to the upstart expansion Florida Marlins. Rumor has it that the Cavaliers have been a professional basketball team all along but most people can’t recall anything of the sort until LeBron arrived. All of that misery but yet the fans still show up. Nobody needs to rub salt in the wounds.

LeBron is the Chosen 1. He tattooed that sentiment on his back so he has clearly accepted the challenge. Clevelanders are terrified that LeBron will soon leave Cleveland for the fame and fortune of a much larger city. Rumor has it that the NBA is conspiring to put James in a Knicks’ jersey in the near future. So that Yankees hat plays on those fears. If LeBron loves the Yankees he might love New York and that makes it possible that Cleveland’s hero will soon be breaking their hearts. It’s hard to take. We always get screwed.

Of course that’s silly. LeBron might love the idea of building his own dynasty right there in Cleveland the way Jordan did in Chicago. If LeBron jumps ship and heads for a big market franchise with a storied past he’ll be one of many great players but in Cleveland he will be the greatest. Any former Cleveland player who left on good terms will tell you that Cleveland fans never forget. 20 years after hanging it up mediocre players can still get free drinks. Hey, Brook Jacoby! Let me buy you a beer. The money will be there regardless but the glory is greater when it is earned the hard way. LeBron wearing a New York hat has nothing to do with his NBA career.

Nevertheless, it’s in poor taste. He’s a shining star in Cleveland and has committed himself to being a force for positive change in what is essentially his home town. That means he should show support for the Indians, especially during the post season. If he wants to root for the Yankees privately that’s fine but as a high profile figure in Cleveland he needs show solidarity with the Indians.

It goes deeper than psychology. If LeBron shows up in the postseason cheering for the hometown team, the Indians will reciprocate. It’s good for the players from both teams to demonstrate camaraderie on and off the field. LeBron was disrespectful of his baseball counterparts.

Late in the game the Yankees were getting spanked and LeBron sat brooding in his NY cap. The entire city of Cleveland was thrilled to see its Tribe dominating the reviled Yankees for the first time all year and the most recognizable Clevelander was sulking like a petulant child. For the first time in his life LeBron seemed immature. He’s entitled to make mistakes and in the grand scheme of things this one is pretty minor but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth calling him out. The real problem is that LeBron drew considerable attention to himself when it was the Indians’ time to shine. He made himself the center of attention and looked a bit like a jerk in doing so.

Fans will forgive him. As long as LeBron shows up at the Q in a Cavaliers uniform, LeBron will continue to be the King. It’s just unfortunate that the King did have the good sense to be magnanimous.

Somebody get Grandpa his meds

2007-10-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

Every October old school baseball fans finally put in their dentures so they can denounce the wild card. They wax philosophically about “the long haul” and how the wild card "rewards mediocrity". Then they get sleepy and take a nap. If they could keep their eyes open and actually watch the playoffs it might open their minds to the fact that this is good baseball.

Look, Pops, the wild card is the best thing to happen to the game since Jackie Robinson. It’s given teams the opportunity to overcome injuries and inexperience during the course of a season and still have a chance to win it all late. It has also put the pressure on the early divisional leaders to stay fresh and find an edge down the stretch. That means better baseball late in the season and the best team having a chance to win it all. Instead of deciding the championship based on record alone, we throw the best eight teams into the post season and see who wins on the field. That means the hottest team in baseball can upset the winningest team. If it upsets you that the playoffs are open to too many teams, do away with the pretense of playoffs altogether and just hand the championship to the team with the best record.

Look at the way things shaped up this year. The Yankees were dead and buried back in May but they fought through their struggles and now they get to face a team they owned all season long. If the Indians get past the Yankees we’ll know they’re for real but if the Yankees continue to dominate the Tribe it will prove that the AL Central was a joke. In the NL the Phillies set their sites on the Wild Card and managed to pass the free falling Mets in the process. As it turns out, the NL wild card could feature the scorching hot Rockies who will face the Padres for a one game play-in today. If the Rockies get in they will be the hottest team in baseball and a real threat to get to the World Series based on momentum; are you telling me that’s a bad thing?

Before the wild card format was created, the old timers complained about the short series. The old timers always have something to complain about. They complained when the league opted to keep the balls clean and again when the league banned the spitball. Old football fans screamed bloody murder when the NFL replaced leather helmets with plastic and again when the face mask was added.

Apparently the World Series used to be a 900 game affair with triple headers finishing up well into the wee hours. Pitchers threw 400 pitches per game and were required to bat…blindfolded. Bats weighed 40 pounds and gloves were no bigger than an oven mitt. Maybe it wasn’t that strenuous but I still remember listening to my grandfather complain about the “short” seven game series back in the 70s. How dare they?

It happens in every sport. My dad will sit there with a straight face and tell you that Otto Graham would make Peyton Manning look like a cheerleader if he played today. The reality is that Otto Graham wouldn’t be able to wrap his mind around a typical two minute package. Joe Montana would have a stroke if he tried to process the information today’s QBs internalize. Times change, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s for the worse.

My dad is also of the opinion that baseball was better when he was a kid; today the “pitching is diluted”. He doesn’t seem to believe that the fact baseball is now a global game and that the pool of talent is deeper than ever. He doesn’t think that training and nutrition make for a better baseball player. Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs and never lifted a weight in his life. Warren Spahn didn’t have a resistance machine in his clubhouse. He sees the numbers and assumes that the pitching is weaker. People will cite the statistics amassed by legendary players like Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Babe Ruth and dare you to find a modern player close to those numbers. Case closed. Numbers don’t lie, right?

Of course they do…because numbers never tell the whole story. And the old timers know it. They use that when the stats are stacked against them. Jim Brown played fewer games, Peyton Manning plays in an era where the rules favor offense. 50 Home runs means less now because seasons are longer and parks are smaller. But then they’ll talk about Chief Wilson hitting 30 triples and fail to mention how that was back in the day when some fields went on forever. It’s funny how nobody seems to mention that the worst player in any professional sports league is thousands of times better than the worst player just 25 years ago. The gap between the best and the rest is smaller than ever because the also rans have closed it. Today’s mediocre player is better than yesterday’s mediocre player. That’s why we need wild cards. Boston’s roster isn’t that much better than New York’s and the separation between contenders in the NL is nonexistent. We need the wild card to ensure that the best teams are playing.

The problem is that people get nostalgic as they get older. They have trouble accepting change because it makes them feel less significant. The past becomes less relevant so they do to. It’s what one might call hateration. Instead of enjoying the game, whatever game it might be, for what it is and embracing the changes the old farts focus on the negatives and raise a ruckus whenever they’re reminded of that change.

And I’m not some 20-something punk taking cheap shots at the old guys. I’m 37. I’ve seen the games I enjoy change tremendously. I still get nostalgic but not at the expense of dissing today. I roll with the punches and if I don’t like something new I’ll voice my displeasure but not at the expense of saying well in my day…I don’t ever want to be that guy, shaking my fist and yelling, “You kids get out of my yard.”

What these old fogies have to wrap their minds around is the fact that nobody cares. Every good sports fan is cognizant of sports history but they recognize it as just that: History. As in over. Bob Gibson WAS good; CC Sabathia IS good. Reggie Jackson WAS Mr. October but he isn’t going to see one pitch this month. It might make for an interesting discussion but no matter how hard you try there’s no going back in time, so just shut up and enjoy the game, whether there’s a wild card team playing or not. If you choose to live in the past you also choose to be irrelevant. Whining about the good old days isn’t going to bring them back and it won’t get you invited to any World Series parties.

Get over yourself, have a beer and enjoy the frigging game.

Or we’ll call the nurse.

Not so fighting Irish

2007-09-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

I have to be honest. I love see Notre Dame suffer. It’s got nothing to do with Charlie Weis, although his ego is only rivaled in size by his belly. It’s also got nothing to do with the classless way Notre Dame pulled the rug out from under Ty Willingham. While I think that the color of his skin made it easier for the trustees to send him packing before he crossed that fifth year threshold every other Irish coach had been afforded to that point, I don’t think race was the reason he was fired. A factor? Sure, but not the reason.

My hatred of Notre Dame goes way back and has cultural implications. I grew up in the Cleveland area. Catholic high schools dominate the football landscape throughout Ohio but in Cleveland they seem untouchable. Somehow the Catholic schools always had the best athletes in every sport. Cleveland St. Ignatius high school was among the top five ranked high schools in the country for five years straight.

To those from outside the area the run seems impressive but people living in Cleveland understand the corruption involved. Football is a big deal in that part of the country and every year there’s a scandal involving some outstanding player changing schools. Public schools have to follow pretty strict rules regarding sports recruiting but Catholic schools are private entities who do not answer to public administration. It’s no secret that these schools offer scholarships to standout players but it goes deepe: parents are offered administrative jobs, siblings get scholarships and other financial considerations are presented.

Although he didn’t play football, Lebron James was implicated in a high profile example of this sort of tomfoolery. James didn’t come from a family that could afford parochial tuition but somehow he managed to attend Akron St. Vincent St. Mary’s for four years. Before he signed an NBA contract, James drove to school in a brand new Hummer. The car was in his mother’s name but his team…his high school team…was traveling around the country playing in NBA venues to sold out crowds. His school got a huge portion of the gate. Even with such a remarkable player most public schools would not be able to absorb the expense of marketing their basketball program and if they did it would draw the attention of public officials. A Catholic school, however is part of a much larger organization that doesn’t have to answer to the same people. In the end the diocese invested in marketing Lebron James and reaped massive financial rewards. Make no mistake, they paid him. They had to. Good luck proving it.

High school football players are rarely so publicized but the top recruits heading to big time college ball seem to come from large catholic schools. In Cleveland you’ll see kids transfer from a rough inner city high school to a posh Catholic campus just weeks after completing a break out season. Sometimes the transfer will entail a move of 40 or 50 miles. Where does a family scraping by on food stamps come up with the money to make that happen? Other private schools join the fray as well but in the Midwest the Catholic schools have a stranglehold on athletics.

This is a big part of the reason Notre Dame was so successful. NCAA recruiting rules are designed to level the playing field and give each program a fair chance to make a pitch to a promising high school athlete but for decades Notre Dame had its hooks into the very best players long before any other college could consider them. By using the Catholic diocese to funnel top athletes to Catholic high schools, Notre Dame was able to exploit the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to contact players about playing for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame saw its fortunes turn for the worse when the NCAA imposed scholarship limits on the major programs. That leveled the playing field. Before those scholarship limits were imposed players prestigious programs could hide great players on the bench strangling other schools. Well endowed schools could offer countless scholarships while less known programs scraped by. Now those lesser programs are starting to shake things up. That’s why Boise State and Rutgers are suddenly contenders while Notre Dame struggles to establish some consistency.

Another factor in Notre Dame’s demise is that the NCAA is allowing for much earlier contact between high school players and college coaches. Players are verbally committing as juniors and contact can start as early as junior high school thanks to skills camps and other events coaches are allowed to participate in. Notre Dame has lost its advantage. The Catholic high schools are no longer a safe haven for Notre Dame recruiters.

Notre Dame’s biggest problem is that its trustees refuse to change with the times. They still approach recruiting as though Notre Dame is doing the athlete a favor. While it’s true that Notre Dame does have more stringent academic requirements, the problem is that Notre Dame is arrogant enough to believe that its legacy sells itself. That is no longer the case. Today’s players don’t care about Knute Rockne, Bear Bryant or Woody Hayes. And they shouldn’t because it ancient history. They care about playing time and media exposure. Nobody wants to sit on the bench for three years…not even if its at Notre Dame.

The final problem Notre Dame faces is the expanded media coverage. Notre Dame enjoyed a national television contract and gleefully crammed its product down the throats of a sports-watching public that simply didn’t have a choice. Now there’s plenty of choice. Credit the Big East and the MAC for leaping at the opportunity to play weeknight games on ESPN. Now they have an advantage in recruiting players because they get prime time exposure. Notre Dame and other traditional powers balk at the idea but a high school player dreaming of playing on Sunday would be wise to eschew regional coverage on Saturday for prime time coverage on Thursday. It won’t be long before USC loses a top recruit to West Virginia and then you’ll see the mad dash for weeknight games.

Notre Dame used to be the only show in town, now Saturday is a blitz of intense coverage. Games are analyzed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Fans aren’t easily fooled and everybody knows Notre Dame isn’t the best show in town. Fans are smart and they are getting smarter. Failing to recognize the changing market place has put Notre Dame at a severe disadvantage. People are no longer enamored with the Irish.

And I’m loving every minute of it.

Polls or Playoffs?

2007-09-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

As you look up and down the two college football polls one has to wonder what people are thinking. Ohio State certainly hasn't performed like a top 10 team, nor has Texas but yet they remain fixed in their places because they won. USC looked flat in its opener but held on to its top ranking in spite of taking a week off while LSU spanked Virginia Tech. West Virginia is entrenched in the top 5 even though the Mountaineers feature a defense that couldn't stop a Pop Warner team from scoring. Never mind that five or six teams ranked outside of the to 10 look much better than half the teams in it,.the preseason poll determined the national champs before a game was played.

BCS advocates will tell us that the BCS rankings take much more into account but the polls carry quite a bit of weight in the final tally. The polls wouldn't be so bad if the people casting their ballots watched every game or at least analyzed the stats to appreciate how teams win. If I'm being objective I can't justify Ohio State being ranked ahead of Oregon at this point in the season and I certainly couldn't leave USC ranked ahead of LSU simply because USC didn't lose. But even if the polls did a better job of analyzing each team, there are still fatal flaws in the system.

Champions should be determined on the field. BCS proponents warn that there would still be controversies over who got into the playoffs and some erroneously argue that playoffs would diminish the importance of the regular season. The enormous success of the NFL proves that theory wrong and while there would be a handful of people crying foul over one or two of the playoff selections, the fact that pretenders and contenders would run a gauntlet to win it all would dry those tears in a hurry. You can't say the same for the BCS.

Arbitrary champions winning paper titles? That's not football.

Michigan seals fate of NCAA Football.

2007-09-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

Michigan put together a nice run last year that was capped by a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of a talent laden Ohio State squad that could only be stopped by its own complacency. Coincidentally, that is precisely why Florida won a so called national title. Even after the loss Michigan was very close to getting another shot at Ohio State and a chance to be crowned BCS champs. Ultimately the Wolverines fell short of enough points to qualify for that title shot.

Ironically Michigan chose to play a team that won a legitimate national title last year. Appalachian State is a division 1 AA college which means it is considerably smaller than Michigan but somehow the NCAA has no problem with organizing a playoff system for the smaller programs. Appalachian State didn't have to worry about computer points and polls because in division 1 AA champions are determined on the field.

Appalachian State had little hope of beating #5 Michigan. Michigan was loaded on offense and only needed to tune its defense to march through the season unscathed. Nobody gave Appalachian State much of a shot and starting the season off with a beating at the hands of a division 1 A powerhouse was not going to hurt Appalachian State's chances of repeating it's championship run. Michigan, however couldn't afford to lose a single game this year. Under the BCS system perfection is the only sure way of getting a title shot which means its better to be lucky than good.

Appalachian State is not better than Michigan and if they played 100 times Michigan would win 99. Appalachian State simply caught Michigan asleep at the wheel. Everybody knows this but that won't stop Michigan from free falling in the polls. Now Michigan, a team capable of beating anybody in college football will have to hope that other top-ranked teams lose later this season if they have a shot at playing in the BCS Championship game. Appalachian State, on the other hand, gets nothing but a pat on the back for pulling of the massive upset. Later this year Appalachian State will have to run a gauntlet of top caliber teams on the road to a real championship game while Michigan waits for reporters, coaches and computers to award it with enough points to play for something meaningful.

Lost in this story is the fact that Michigan did what every other top-ranked team in D1A did this year. Everybody scheduled a D1AA opponent in order to pad the schedule with an easy win while still collecting ticket revenue. The NCAA realized that there was more money to be made with a 12th game but nobody wanted to give up a home game so they opened the door to the newly dubbed Championship subdivision. It sounds better than D1AA.

While everybody is snickering at Michigan's misfortune the policy makers in the NCAA office are thrilled. This upset legitimizes the scheduling of D1AA foes and increases the marketability of these games. Who will be the next to fall?

The problem is it won't be anybody of Michigan's caliber anytime soon. Michigan was looking past this game and down the road at key match ups such as its November grudge match against Ohio State. Appalachian State went out hoping to catch Michigan by surprise. In the end it was all about motivation. What happened to Michigan will serve as a wake up call to the rest of college football. Coaches will have a tangible example of what can happen on any given Saturday and getting players motivated to play their best against a weaker opponent will no longer be a struggle.

Sadly that game will keep the critics at bay for a few years too. The NCAA can point to this upset anytime somebody questions a soft schedule. People will claim that parity has equalized the balance of power but when you ask why the Western Athletic Conference doesn't get an automatic BCS bid they'll change the subject. In the end it's all about the money and though Michigan will pay the price for this loss in the polls all year, this game has secured the financial future of the NCAA for the next decade.

Best Damn Fans In The Land?

2007-08-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

I was born and raised a Buckeye fan but living in Columbus, Ohio is starting to drive me away from the scarlet and gray. People around here think they’re great fans and they pat themselves on the back regularly. The fact is, they are pretty avid and the revenue generated by the Ohio State football program is pretty phenomenal but they leave much to be desired.

First, it’s all football all the time. In case you missed it, Ohio State plunged deep into the NCAA Tournament last year. That’s basketball for the reader in Columbus. The round orange sphere tall guys shoot through a hoop. Ring a bell? The men’s hoops team made it all the way to the championship game before getting clipped by a loaded Florida squad. They put up a fight but in the end Florida’s depth was too much to overcome. Buckeye fans didn’t take much of an interest until about halfway through the Georgetown game. What did they do during the regular season? Obsess over football.

Buckeye fans also have a reputation for inhospitable behavior. It’s often dismissed as a few “bad apples” giving the rest a bad name but I’ve been on Lane Avenue before a game and there are a lot of people behaving badly. The problem is exacerbated by the self-proclaimed good fans that stand idly by while their reckless counterparts run amuck. And the abuse isn’t limited to opposing players, coaches and fans. Ohio State football players who put in a lackluster performance are subjected to intense ridicule, personal insults and even death threats if the stakes are high enough. Most don’t condone personal attacks but the rest of the abuse is regarded as the price a player pays for playing big time college ball. Never mind the fact that these are kids who are trying to juggle big time college ball with full time college course work.

It goes deeper than that. Fans around Columbus are so obsessed they lash out at anything not scarlet and gray… literally in some cases. One of the area high schools, the one that produced All American wide receiver Terry Glenn, no less, happens to sport colors similar to those worn by Michigan. Wouldn’t you know those kids get harasses around town if they do something crazy like wear their letter jackets? And heaven forbid somebody taking an objective point of view and paying a compliment to a Michigan player. In fact, the Columbus Dispatch received bags full of angry letters expressing sheer outrage that Michigan Wolverine Braylon Edwards was depicted on the front page of the sports section after the Cleveland Browns made him their top pick a few years ago.

Former Buckeye hero Kirk Herbstreit routinely gets lambasted by local fanatics who can’t accept the fact that he has to be objective when breaking down games nationally. When he drops by to contribute to his local radio show he plays to the home crowd just a little bit but if he does something crazy such as rank a loaded Michigan team over Ohio State in a preseason poll the pitchforks come out. Keep in mind that this guy was the face of Buckeye football when he played in the early 1990s.

With the Buckeyes getting ready to kick off their 2007 campaign with a leisurely romp against Youngstown State, analysts aren’t lining up to praise Ohio State’s strength of schedule. Buckeye Nation is starting to get defensive. Fans are pouring over schedules looking for punch lines as comical as YAWN but the reality is that Ohio State won’t face a test until well into October.

The Big Ten looks weak, Ohio State doesn’t have to play one of the conference rivals that might be respectable which leaves two formidable opponents out of the 12. Now there’s a chance that Michigan State or Penn State will surprise some people and prove to be a challenge but as of right now the Big 10 looks more like the Big Easy and Ohio State looks like Homer Simpson hoarding all the cream puffs.

I hope the Buckeyes do well and believe that they’ll be a lot tougher than people think. Even though they lost all of their firepower from last year the people stepping up to fill those holes are capable. The Buckeyes will have a solid line and Chris Wells will be a more dynamic running back than Antonio Pittman. Pittman left Ohio State early because he was going to lose his starting job to Wells. Troy Smith leaves behind a Heisman-sized crater at quarterback but Todd Boekman has been a diligent understudy since 2003. He should be just fine and if he’s not, Tressel needs to take the heat for not developing his prized recruit over such a long period of time.

In spite of my high hopes and fervent belief that the Buckeyes will be serious contenders I can’t take offense to those who doubt Ohio State. This is a team coming off an embarrassing performance in the BCS championship and I have serious questions about the coaching staff. Jim Tressel might be a god in Columbus but I see a stodgy old man who doesn’t adapt very well and his loyalty to idiotic assistant coaches, like Jim Bollman, worries me.

Until I see this team prove to me that it can win creatively I’m dubious and I can’t argue with those who predict a 9-3 season. Tressel has had a great start to his career but he has a long way to go and this year’s team is where he’ll have to prove something. Anybody could win with the talent he had last year and 2002 had fluke written all over it. I loved it, but looking back with objectivity I can’t say that it could happen again. That offense was pitiful!

My doubts don’t make me less of a fan but in Columbus it’s dangerous to say these things. People have been punched out for less. That’s why I think Ohio State fans leave a lot to be desired. Overall I they go too far. There’s nothing wrong with taking your football seriously but you have to have perspective. That’s a foreign concept in Columbus and that’s why I’ve retired my Buckeye regalia. I don’t want to be counted among the nuts.

It's just business, baby.

2007-08-24T09:31:00.001-07:00

It looks like Michael Vick won’t be making things easy for the NFL. Reports indicate that Vick will plead guilty to interstate commerce charges but when it comes to killing dogs and gambling he maintains his innocence. That means there’s a possibility that Michael Vick will be available to play next season.

Michael Vick was essentially put on administrative leave by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. It wasn’t a formal punitive action. Simply put: the league couldn’t afford to keep Michael Vick active while criminal proceedings were under way. Technically the NFL had no grounds to do this and Vick could have challenged this decision but he couldn’t afford the additional publicity. A judge and jury would not take kindly to somebody who didn’t have the good sense to step aside when asked. Of course that was when the NFL expected a lengthy trial.

The NFL had it easy. The trial would last well past the point at which Vick could return to his team and the final outcome would absolve the NFL of the responsibility tied to rendering a decision on Vick’s playing status. If found guilty Vick would do a couple of years in prison rendering a return to football a moot point but if he was exonerated in a court of law the NFL could welcome him back with open arms. But the reality of our legal system came back to bite the NFL.

The NFL has no formal policy on interstate commerce or dog fighting. Goodell might be able to impose a short suspension under the conduct provision but it’s important to note that the recent suspensions imposed by Goodell have no legal standing as there is no policy outlining conduct provisions. Chris Henry, Pacman Jones, and Tank Johnson are serving their suspensions because Goodell and other league officials have convinced them that it’s the right thing to do but nobody has challenged them. Yet. That could become an issue if Vick is a free man come next August.

Goodell’s easy out was illegal gambling. If the feds forced Vick to plead guilty to illegal gambling then the league had precedent to suspend Vick for life but Vick isn’t copping to placing bets on the dogs. That means Goodell has to make something up. He’s been pretty good at that to this point but suspending relatively unknown players with a history of poor judgment is not the same as putting the screws to a guy who was once an officially licensed icon. Vick was one of the few players tapped to be the face of the NFL and he probably won’t go down with out a fight.

For Goodell it’s not personal. It’s not even a question of right and wrong. The stiffened disciplinary procedures have little to do with morality. Everything the NFL does is about money. It’s dollars and cents. The league doesn’t care about athletes run amuck unless those athletes create an image problem that hurts the bottom line. Rules aren’t imposed to improve safety or reduce injury, they are drafted to keep revenue flowing. That’s why all of the rules seem to protect quarterbacks. Quarterbacks are marketable because every play runs through them and the casual fan identifies more readily with quarterbacks. That’s why Peyton Manning is the most recognizable player in the NFL. He’s the best player at the most popular position. And that’s exactly why Michael Vick is drawing so much attention now.

It’s ironic that Fred McCrary, Algee Crumpler and Stephon Marbury have come out and voiced support for Vick. They wouldn’t attract this much attention if they were facing the same charges. Vick is the victim of his own popularity. He was not only a quarterback in the NFL but he was one of the more marketable quarterbacks.

At one point he was more popular than Peyton Manning but his inconsistent play and reported clashes with coaches made him a little less appealing. Some might point to race but the reality is that Vick was a mediocre quarterback with remarkable athletic ability. Based solely on his quarterbacking, Vick probably would have been cut years ago but his ability to run made him a star. A highly paid star at that.

It’s often stated that quarterbacks get all of the credit when their team does well but that they also take an undue amount of blame when their teams fair poorly. That’s a reality every quarterback accepts. They know that all eyes are on them and that everything they do, on an off the field, will be scrutinized and discussed. Tom Brady stirred up a mild controversy when he was photographed wearing a Yankees cap while shopping with his fiancée. Peyton Manning was lambasted a few years ago for criticizing his linemen after a Colts loss and Dante Culpepper was cut by the Vikings for being linked to the infamous “party boat” scandal. Mind you, Culpepper wasn’t found guilty of anything but the fact that he was there was enough to wear out his welcome in Minnesota.

So it’s not surprising that Vick is drawing all of this attention and that’s what makes this hard for the NFL. It doesn’t matter if the public outrage is fair. The NFL is a business and it has to make a business decision. If allowing Michael Vick back on the field will cost the league millions of dollars they have to try to keep him out. The league has to keep Michael Vick at arm’s length until the public is ready to accept him.

Michael Vick is entitled to due process. He’s entitled to his day in court and after he pays his debt to society he is entitled to a second chance. However, the second chance doesn’t necessarily mean he’s entitled to playing in the NFL again. Playing in the NFL is a privilege, not a right. The NFL has already lost money because it bet on Michael Vick. The Atlanta Falcons traded a pretty solid back-up quarterback to the Texans to demonstrate their commitment to Vick and he betrayed that trust. He associated with criminals and engaged in illegal activity. While he’s the only one facing a prison sentence, the NFL and the Falcons paid a price, why should they be compelled to pay it again?

The NFL is a business. Michael Vick knew that when he became on of the highest paid players in league history. Every player in the league realizes this. The NFL is not interested in justice or morality. Michael Vick is bad for business. Companies all over the country deny opportunities to convicted criminals, often on a case by case basis. They analyze the risks and consider the rewards. Second chances don’t come easy. Why should the NFL be any different?

Ohio State demonstrates need for playoffs with a YAWN.

2007-08-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

Youngstown; Akron; Washington; Northwestern

How fitting that Ohio State opens it’s season with a Y.A.W.N. Yes it’s become an old joke already but the fact that the initials of the Buckeyes’ first four foes spells out what football fans will be doing when they watch these games should have driven whoever drafted this schedule to reconsider. Expect the national pundits to beat that dead horse late in the season and watch it send Ohio State’s stock into a tailspin.

The Big 10 takes a lot of heat from commentators around the country thanks to a rotating schedule that often results in conference powers avoiding a meaningful confrontation. Last year Ohio State and Michigan closed out their schedules with a head to head showdown that had national championship implications but Wisconsin squeaked into the BCS picture by avoiding a difficult game against Ohio State and because of this quirk the Big 10 title is often shared. In 2005 Penn State shared the conference title with Ohio State even though the Lions beat the Buckeyes during the regular season. The 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes won the national title but shared the conference championship with Iowa and back in 1998 the conference title was split three ways. It’s ridiculous, but the Big 10 sells it as tradition. It was also tradition that a Big 10 program couldn’t represent the conference in back to back bowls. What happened to that one?

So all eyes are on the Big 10 and this year Ohio State, fresh off a perfect regular season capped by a disgraceful performance n the BCS Championship game, has responded to the challenge by booking a non-conference schedule that opens with Youngstown State. That’s the Division I double-A Youngstown State Jim Tressel coached at prior to starting his stint with the Buckeyes.

Ohio State chases its opening patsy with Akron, takes the road to face a Washington team that is still in the early stages of a major rebuilding plan and then it’s back to Columbus for a contest with Northwestern. Somehow Ohio State managed to maintain the integrity of its bye week by scheduling Kent State on October 13th.

It’s a schedule that Indiana would be sheepish about and it’s made worse by the fact that this is a down year for the conference. It’s not uncommon for Big 10 programs to schedule two creampuffs each year, generally one being an instate rival (that’s a loose interpretation of the term) and another being an at large whipping boy. This practice is normally quite acceptable as the conference has a history of being pretty tough. Not this year; Michigan and Wisconsin are expected to be solid but the rest of the Big 10 would struggle in the M.A.C.

This isn’t exactly Ohio State’s fault. The structure of the BCS rewards perfection over the course of a mediocre schedule. Thanks to the way teams are rated in the system it’s far better to be unbeaten than it is to be good. That’s not true in the case of a program like Boise State which plays in a non-BCS conference but if Boise State wants to have a shot at a national championship they can always move out of the W.A.C. The BCS is inherently flawed but would not be enhanced if the winners of the garbage conferences got a bite at the apple by default.

Why should Ohio State beat itself up with a tough non conference schedule when the road to the national championship is paved with patsies? Why would Ohio State trade the revenue generated by those extra home games when there’s nothing to gain in the BCS by playing on the road? The system rewards cowardice.

Ohio State’s uncharacteristically bad schedule is why the NCAA needs to step in and insist on a meaningful playoff system. Adopting a playoff format for determining a national champion would not eliminate bowls, it would just alter the bowl schedule to accommodate playoffs and those teams failing to qualify for the playoffs would still be able to play in the already meaningless bowls available to them. People would still watch Bowling Green play Utah State in the Crane Plumbing Products Toilet Bowl on December 21. We could still have the Motor City Bowl sponsored by Tampax.

A version of the BCS system would still be necessary for selecting the playoff teams but instead of giving conference champions automatic selections the criteria would be simplified to include the top 12 teams. The idea is that if a team couldn’t play well enough to merit a top 12 ranking it wouldn’t deserve a post season bid.

The top four teams would get a bye while the remaining eight teams played for the right to advance to the first round of eight. The play in round would take place in early December after the final BCS poll was released. The second round could then be played as an extra home game at the respective field of the top four teams and then the subsequent rounds would be scheduled as BCS bowl games on a rotating basis. The championship game could then be played on or around the ninth of January as is under the current system.

Because the additional games would take place over the winter break, the playoffs wouldn’t interfere with academics. No that the academics argument holds water anyway. The NCAA has managed to feature playoffs in the other divisions for years. The sticking point at the Division 1a level is money. University president are afraid that altering the current system will change the way money changes hands. A lot of people get rich off of the current system and they don’t want that to change.

But it will have to change. The integrity of the game is at stake and that will drive fans away in droves. Why would anybody pay money to watch a juggernaut like Ohio State lay the wood to Youngstown State? The fact is they won’t. Sure they’ll put up with it for a little while but as the practice of padding the schedule with soft opposition becomes more widely accepted by university officials, fans will lose interest and the money will stop flowing.

People are already growing weary of the annual ritual of crowning a paper champion. When the BCS system was first introduced fans were excited because traditional post season barriers were torn down. Now that college football is stuck in another arbitrary rut the chants for a better format are getting louder. The next step will be the dreaded “plus one” game but after that something will have to give. As much as the university officials hate to admit it, the fans call the shots.

Hopefully people realize this before it’s too late.