Random sports thoughts
Just a few quick sports rants, and then I'll get back to the main focus of CMB, - politics. But, a few things have happened in the world of sports in the last few days that have been too noteworthy to ignore.
• If I haven't said it recently, it certainly bears repeating - Nick Saban, the head coach of theLSU, um, Miami Dolphins, um, Alabama Crimson Tide football team, is a money grubbing, hypocritical jerk. One of the reasons I'm beginning to wane just a bit on sports is the over-the-top hype, ridiculous clichés, lawless behavior, and win-at-all-costs attitude. Saban embodies several of "virtues." 
His latest idiotic diatribe? His patently absurd comments following the Tide's loss to Louisiana-Monroe last week. A quick sample:
Of course, after his comments, the university rushed to clarify what he meant, and to defend its coach...
• The public now will find out how much JoePa makes in Happy Valley, coaching his Penn State Nittany Lions. From ESPN:
I won't even get into the fine print about how Pennsylvania wrongfully didn't include Penn St. in the state system when it was created back in 1983, but the bottom line is that Penn St. functions as a private university, with its own council of trustees, etc.
I'm not suggesting that JoePa is a bad person or coach, or that he doesn't deserve to be paid what a dope like Nick Saban is making. Quite the contrary. Paterno is an upstanding man with the highest integrity who has given back millions to the university. But, it's the principle of the point - if state funding might even be possibly paying his salary, then anyone who wants to know what Paterno is making should be able to find out.
• The NFL really needs to do something about its officiating. I still find it totally laughable that the richest sports league in the world still does not employ full-time officials. It's a disservice to the fans, owners, coaches and players. I've seen more blown calls this year than I can count, but a few come to mind that have really affected games, and two of them were in Dallas games: one was during the Patriots game, when Randy Moss was "awarded" a pass interference penalty in the third quarter for merely running into a defender. Unreal. The other one happened last week, when a Dallas pass rusher's hand (I believe it was DeMarkus Ware) merely brushed up against Redskin QB Jason Campbell's face mask (he did not grab it)... Result: 15-yard roughing the passer penalty. Absurd.
I realize that the league can't make every little thing eligible to be challenged, but something needs to be done about some of these penalties, and I don't just mean against the Cowboys. But, with calls like the ones I've seen this fall, it's not impossible to imagine a stupid call affecting the outcome of a Super Bowl, and when that happens, the very integrity of the game will rightfully be called into question.
• I REALLY wish that ESPN (or whichever network broadcasts Sunday and Monday night football in the future) would get away from the school of thought that a broadcast team must have an annoying former QB. Just when the world was mercifully spared from the infinitely annoying Joe Theismann, now we have to listen to Ron Jaworski (above, right) every week. It's tough to pick who was more annoying. Every Monday night, we're now subjected to his daffy rants about "quarterbacking" and his grating, rank cheerleading for "his Philadelphia Eagles." There are too many instances to list, but here's a few...
"Jaws" and Tony Kornheiser are constantly arguing on the air to the point that it takes away from the game. It's almost as if one will take a position opposite of the other just to be a contrarian.
What's more, Jaworski openly cheers for "his" Eagles and against the Cowboys, and it's so obvious. During the Dallas/Buffalo game on Monday night about 3-4 weeks ago, when Buffalo scored early, Kornheiser commented on the air that Jaworski was pounding his back in excitement that "Buffalo could really win this game." Give me a break.
Just because a former athlete played for a certain team, it's not impossible to be impartial. A great example? Troy Aikman, last week during the Redskins/Cowboys game, commented that, "Dallas should not have a home game the week before a Thanksgiving Day home game - it's an unfair advantage to the Cowboys and the league should do something about it." This coming from a former career-long Cowboy. Jaworski is a hack at worst, and at times mindlessly partisan at best. He should study some tape of Aikman if he wants to learn how to be an impartial broadcaster.
• Is anyone else quite annoyed that Dolphins RB Ricky Williams is now back in the league? Professional athletes are role models, whether they want to be or not. They get paid millions of dollars to play on national television in front of impressionable children, and for the life of me, I can't believe this guy, who so publicly has stated that he enjoys taking drugs, would be allowed back in the league. This guy has tested positive four times.
I firmly believe that if someone tests positive for drugs once, it should be a lengthy suspension. Twice, and you're done. It'll never happen, though - the NFLPA would never allow it.
• ESPN's Len Pasquarelli, a wonderfully gifted writer, recently wrote a piece about the AFC's dominance over the NFC in the NFL. It reads, in part:
Anyway, it's amazing to me how the pendulum swings back and forth. I fondly remember the NFC's winning streak in the Super Bowl, which ran all the way to 13 games, from 1985-1997, before the Denver Broncos finally broke the NFC's hex in 1998. Counting that Denver Super Bowl triumph, its first, the AFC has won 8 in 10 Super Bowls.
However, I still say that either Green Bay or Dallas can beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl this January, and I'm sticking with my pre-season prediction that the Cowboys will meet the Patriots in the big game on Feb. 3. Speaking of the Packers and Cowboys and the 1990s...
• I can't wait for the Packers and Cowboys to meet next Thursday. It will mark the first time that two 10-1 teams have met since 1990, when the Giants met the 49ers. But, at least according to history, the winner next Thursday isn't an indication of who will go to Phoenix in February for Super Bowl XLVII. Back in '90, the 9ers won the regular season game, and the Giants came back to beat them in Super Bowl XXV, 20-19, in the most excited Super Bowl I have ever seen.
I'll spare you the suspense - I think the Cowboys will win a very good game next Thursday. Why? They know what's at stake - home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Cowboys do not want to go play the Packers at Lambaeu Field in January, which would give them a tremendous advantage in an NFC Championship Game.
Whatever happens, I hope next Thursday doesn't disappoint, no matter who wins - I want to see a good game, even though my heart may not take it. And I really hope these two teams get to meet in the NFC Championship Game, because they clearly are the two best teams in the NFC.
As for next Thursday's game, I'll be writing a great deal more about it next week, but right now, the Packers secondary is banged up, and that's not good news for Cheese Heads. If Charles Woodson is out, who's going to cover TO? It should be an interesting six days of hype leading up to this game.
• I spend enough time taking shots at Philadelphia sports fans, and I think rightfully so. But, they are not the only fans capable of boorish behavior - New York fans can at times be just as bad, if not worse. This week, I read a pretty disturbing piece in the New York Times about what Jets fans consider entertainment at Giants Stadium during football games. An excerpt:
According to this piece, written by David Picker, a reporter who approached several security guards to question them about this behavior was detained, threatened with arrest and asked to hand over his tape recorder.
The league and the team both deferred to the security detail, which is provided by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The NJSEA stated that preventive measures were being considered, including turning participants over to the New Jersey State Police.
All of this sounds... not good enough to me. For a league that fancies itself as a family league, it doesn't sound like it's taking this absurd behavior seriously. No one has ever accused me of being a prude - I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans twice during and right after college. But, parents don't take their sons and daughters to Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday with the expectation of civil behavior, but parents do expect decent behavior at an NFL game. And they should get it.
• I'm delighted that A-Rod is resigning with the Yankees for the ungodly sum of $275 million - this will prevent the Yanks from pursuing at least a few other free agents over the length of this contract. Oh darn. I also was happy to see that Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera signed for three years at $45 million, making him the league's highest paid reliever. Both contracts are high sums, even by Yankee standards. A-Rod's deal I can understand, on some levels, because the guy's a major talent (in the regular season ;o), but Rivera? That's money he deserved in the 1990s, but not now. The more desperate the Yankees get, the more I enjoy it.
Speaking of baseball, the Sox have resigned third baseman Mike Lowell to a three-year deal and Curt Schilling to a one-year deal. I was relieved on both counts. The hated Yankees were courting Lowell for first base, and his departure would have left a tremendous hole at the hot corner for the Sox. As for Schilling's deal, I'm glad it's for one year - he clearly is in decline, but he still is certainly worth of a starting spot on a five-man rotation.
• If I haven't said it recently, it certainly bears repeating - Nick Saban, the head coach of the
His latest idiotic diatribe? His patently absurd comments following the Tide's loss to Louisiana-Monroe last week. A quick sample:
"Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event," Saban said. "It may be 9/11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, and that was a catastrophic event."What a complete moron. I know that coaches have to dig deep to motivate their players after a heartbreaking loss, much less than two in a row, but comparing a sporting contest to alcoholism or 9-11? Breathtaking.
[Snip]
[His analogies then became only slightly less outrageous...]"They talk about alcoholics and people like that who never ever change until they hit rock bottom," Saban said. "Well, they change because when they hit rock bottom they have an awareness, they have an acceptance and a commitment to change.
"That's what our players need to do right now because in the past two weeks since the LSU game, I haven't seen the same spirit, I haven't seen the same work ethic. That's something we've got to get right."
Of course, after his comments, the university rushed to clarify what he meant, and to defend its coach...
"What Coach Saban said did not correlate losing a football game with tragedy, everyone needs to understand that. He was not equating losing football games to those catastrophic events," football spokesman Jeff Purinton said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The message was that true spirit and unity become evident in the most difficult of times. Those were two tremendous examples that everyone can identify with."Whatever. I ain't buyin' it. I haven't despised a college coach this much since Steve Spurrier was relevant. Saban is a liar, a rube and an arrogant ass. If you think I'm being too hard on him, refer to his broken promises to LSU and the Miami Dolphins, after they threw millions of dollars at him.
• The public now will find out how much JoePa makes in Happy Valley, coaching his Penn State Nittany Lions. From ESPN:The salaries of Penn State coach Joe Paterno and the school's top administrators must be disclosed by the state retirement system, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.Good - the people of Pennsylvania have a right to know how much JoePa is getting paid. Why? Because Penn State, which is not part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, receives an appropriation of over $300 million from the state every year, yet it doesn't have to tell the state how it spends the money, which I found outrageous.
The 4-2 decision said the Commonwealth Court, which had ordered the disclosure, properly balanced the public's interest in knowing details about retirement system finances against the effects disclosure might have on reputations and personal security.
There's been speculation for years that Paterno is among the highest-paid coaches, but the numbers have never been public.
The Paterno case was the result of a 2002 request by The Patriot-News in Harrisburg that sought the salaries of Paterno and three other Penn State officials from the State Employees' Retirement System.
The retirement board had granted the request, but disclosure was put on hold while the university appealed.
"We hold that the public does in fact have a right to such information to the extent necessary to justify all guaranteed disbursements from the fund," wrote Justice James J. Fitzgerald III for the majority.
I won't even get into the fine print about how Pennsylvania wrongfully didn't include Penn St. in the state system when it was created back in 1983, but the bottom line is that Penn St. functions as a private university, with its own council of trustees, etc.
I'm not suggesting that JoePa is a bad person or coach, or that he doesn't deserve to be paid what a dope like Nick Saban is making. Quite the contrary. Paterno is an upstanding man with the highest integrity who has given back millions to the university. But, it's the principle of the point - if state funding might even be possibly paying his salary, then anyone who wants to know what Paterno is making should be able to find out.
• The NFL really needs to do something about its officiating. I still find it totally laughable that the richest sports league in the world still does not employ full-time officials. It's a disservice to the fans, owners, coaches and players. I've seen more blown calls this year than I can count, but a few come to mind that have really affected games, and two of them were in Dallas games: one was during the Patriots game, when Randy Moss was "awarded" a pass interference penalty in the third quarter for merely running into a defender. Unreal. The other one happened last week, when a Dallas pass rusher's hand (I believe it was DeMarkus Ware) merely brushed up against Redskin QB Jason Campbell's face mask (he did not grab it)... Result: 15-yard roughing the passer penalty. Absurd.I realize that the league can't make every little thing eligible to be challenged, but something needs to be done about some of these penalties, and I don't just mean against the Cowboys. But, with calls like the ones I've seen this fall, it's not impossible to imagine a stupid call affecting the outcome of a Super Bowl, and when that happens, the very integrity of the game will rightfully be called into question.
• I REALLY wish that ESPN (or whichever network broadcasts Sunday and Monday night football in the future) would get away from the school of thought that a broadcast team must have an annoying former QB. Just when the world was mercifully spared from the infinitely annoying Joe Theismann, now we have to listen to Ron Jaworski (above, right) every week. It's tough to pick who was more annoying. Every Monday night, we're now subjected to his daffy rants about "quarterbacking" and his grating, rank cheerleading for "his Philadelphia Eagles." There are too many instances to list, but here's a few..."Jaws" and Tony Kornheiser are constantly arguing on the air to the point that it takes away from the game. It's almost as if one will take a position opposite of the other just to be a contrarian.
What's more, Jaworski openly cheers for "his" Eagles and against the Cowboys, and it's so obvious. During the Dallas/Buffalo game on Monday night about 3-4 weeks ago, when Buffalo scored early, Kornheiser commented on the air that Jaworski was pounding his back in excitement that "Buffalo could really win this game." Give me a break.
Just because a former athlete played for a certain team, it's not impossible to be impartial. A great example? Troy Aikman, last week during the Redskins/Cowboys game, commented that, "Dallas should not have a home game the week before a Thanksgiving Day home game - it's an unfair advantage to the Cowboys and the league should do something about it." This coming from a former career-long Cowboy. Jaworski is a hack at worst, and at times mindlessly partisan at best. He should study some tape of Aikman if he wants to learn how to be an impartial broadcaster.
• Is anyone else quite annoyed that Dolphins RB Ricky Williams is now back in the league? Professional athletes are role models, whether they want to be or not. They get paid millions of dollars to play on national television in front of impressionable children, and for the life of me, I can't believe this guy, who so publicly has stated that he enjoys taking drugs, would be allowed back in the league. This guy has tested positive four times.
I firmly believe that if someone tests positive for drugs once, it should be a lengthy suspension. Twice, and you're done. It'll never happen, though - the NFLPA would never allow it.
• ESPN's Len Pasquarelli, a wonderfully gifted writer, recently wrote a piece about the AFC's dominance over the NFC in the NFL. It reads, in part:
It has been a long, long time since the NFC won the annual interconference series against its AFC counterparts.Good stuff - I can't believe it's been that long since the NFC - and I loved the stroll down 1995 memory lane - back then, Amazon was a rain forest and a river, and Monica was someone on Friends, not a victim viewed through the haze of Rush Limbaugh's OxyContin addiction.
How long? Well, Bill Clinton was still president. Most of the country was fixated on O.J. Simpson's murder trial. Bosnia was the most prominent international hot spot. The FBI was still desperately searching for the Unabomber. Devoted Deadheads were mourning the death of Jerry Garcia. And pro basketball fans were celebrating the unretirement of Michael Jordan.
Consumers were still getting accustomed to ordering Christmas presents online from the year-old Amazon.com and computer hackers were still three years away from Googling anything. TLC was rhapsodizing about "Waterfalls" and, on movie screens, loveable but bumbling Forrest Gump was philosophizing over the meaning of life and chocolates.
The Atlanta Braves, Houston Rockets, New Jersey Devils and, yikes, even the Nebraska Cornhuskers, were all champions.
Yes, it has been that long, 1995 to be exact, since the NFC won the interconference series. The NFC topped the AFC in 33 of 60 matchups that season, with the Dallas Cowboys punctuating the senior conference's dominance by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17, in Super Bowl XXX.
Since then, the NFC's less-than-scintillating performance against the AFC should pretty much be XXX-out.
Anyway, it's amazing to me how the pendulum swings back and forth. I fondly remember the NFC's winning streak in the Super Bowl, which ran all the way to 13 games, from 1985-1997, before the Denver Broncos finally broke the NFC's hex in 1998. Counting that Denver Super Bowl triumph, its first, the AFC has won 8 in 10 Super Bowls.
However, I still say that either Green Bay or Dallas can beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl this January, and I'm sticking with my pre-season prediction that the Cowboys will meet the Patriots in the big game on Feb. 3. Speaking of the Packers and Cowboys and the 1990s...
• I can't wait for the Packers and Cowboys to meet next Thursday. It will mark the first time that two 10-1 teams have met since 1990, when the Giants met the 49ers. But, at least according to history, the winner next Thursday isn't an indication of who will go to Phoenix in February for Super Bowl XLVII. Back in '90, the 9ers won the regular season game, and the Giants came back to beat them in Super Bowl XXV, 20-19, in the most excited Super Bowl I have ever seen.
I'll spare you the suspense - I think the Cowboys will win a very good game next Thursday. Why? They know what's at stake - home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Cowboys do not want to go play the Packers at Lambaeu Field in January, which would give them a tremendous advantage in an NFC Championship Game.Whatever happens, I hope next Thursday doesn't disappoint, no matter who wins - I want to see a good game, even though my heart may not take it. And I really hope these two teams get to meet in the NFC Championship Game, because they clearly are the two best teams in the NFC.
As for next Thursday's game, I'll be writing a great deal more about it next week, but right now, the Packers secondary is banged up, and that's not good news for Cheese Heads. If Charles Woodson is out, who's going to cover TO? It should be an interesting six days of hype leading up to this game.
• I spend enough time taking shots at Philadelphia sports fans, and I think rightfully so. But, they are not the only fans capable of boorish behavior - New York fans can at times be just as bad, if not worse. This week, I read a pretty disturbing piece in the New York Times about what Jets fans consider entertainment at Giants Stadium during football games. An excerpt:At halftime of the Jets’ home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, several hundred men lined one of Giants Stadium's two pedestrian ramps at Gate D [Above]. Three deep in some areas, they whistled and jumped up and down. Then they began an obscenity-laced chant, demanding that the few women in the gathering expose their breasts.Are you kidding me? Even worse was the reaction from the Jets, the NFL and certain members of the security guard staff.
When one woman appeared to be on the verge of obliging, the hooting and hollering intensified. But then she walked away, and plastic beer bottles and spit went flying. Boos swept through the crowd of unsatisfied men.
Marco Hoffner, an 18-year-old from Lacey Township, N.J., was expecting to see more. Not from the Jets — they pulled off a big upset over the Steelers. He wanted more from the alternative halftime show that, according to many fans, has been a staple at Jets home games for years.
"Very disappointed, because we're used to seeing a lot," Hoffner said.
The mood of previous Gate D crowds — captured on video clips posted on YouTube — sometimes bordered on hostile, not unlike the spirit of infamously aggressive European soccer hooligans. One clip online shows a woman being groped by a man standing next to her.
According to this piece, written by David Picker, a reporter who approached several security guards to question them about this behavior was detained, threatened with arrest and asked to hand over his tape recorder.
The league and the team both deferred to the security detail, which is provided by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The NJSEA stated that preventive measures were being considered, including turning participants over to the New Jersey State Police.
All of this sounds... not good enough to me. For a league that fancies itself as a family league, it doesn't sound like it's taking this absurd behavior seriously. No one has ever accused me of being a prude - I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans twice during and right after college. But, parents don't take their sons and daughters to Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday with the expectation of civil behavior, but parents do expect decent behavior at an NFL game. And they should get it.
• I'm delighted that A-Rod is resigning with the Yankees for the ungodly sum of $275 million - this will prevent the Yanks from pursuing at least a few other free agents over the length of this contract. Oh darn. I also was happy to see that Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera signed for three years at $45 million, making him the league's highest paid reliever. Both contracts are high sums, even by Yankee standards. A-Rod's deal I can understand, on some levels, because the guy's a major talent (in the regular season ;o), but Rivera? That's money he deserved in the 1990s, but not now. The more desperate the Yankees get, the more I enjoy it.
Speaking of baseball, the Sox have resigned third baseman Mike Lowell to a three-year deal and Curt Schilling to a one-year deal. I was relieved on both counts. The hated Yankees were courting Lowell for first base, and his departure would have left a tremendous hole at the hot corner for the Sox. As for Schilling's deal, I'm glad it's for one year - he clearly is in decline, but he still is certainly worth of a starting spot on a five-man rotation.
posted by RJ at 7:04 PM
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