The Sports Curmudgeon

I have to make a couple of more comments about the Marty Schottenheimer firing in San Diego. The Spanos family owns the Chargers and the fact that Marty Schottenheimer did not get along with GM AJ Smith was not unknown to the owners. Until this week, they did nothing more to resolve this matter than what feckless parents do with squabbling children; they told the squabblers to “get along or else…” That’s certainly not top-shelf leadership but that situation is made all the worse by history.

Back in the mid-1990s, Chargers’ coach Bobby Ross and Chargers’ GM Bobby Beathard couldn’t get along. The Spanos family told these two combatants to “get along or else”; that didn’t work either and in the mid-90s, Bobby Ross was shown the door as Chargers’ coach. Ross had gone 50-36 with the Chargers and had a Super Bowl appearance to show for his tenure there – even if that was a gift handed to the team due to the scheduling quirks of the NFL at that time. Nonetheless, Ross was out and in the time between Ross’ departure and Schottenheimer’s arrival the Chargers went 23-57. Look closely at that record; the Chargers averaged less than 5 wins a season after Ross was shown the door.

Recall that Marty Schottenheimer’s Chargers were 35-13 over the past three seasons; that averages damned close to 12-4 each year. And he just got fired after winning 14 games in 2006. According to an e-mail from a reader, the last pro football coach to win 14 games in a season and get fired was Guy Chamberlain with the Frankford Yellow Jackets in the 1920s. I’ll take that as a fact because it’s more work than it’s worth to verify it. Nonetheless, it should be a sobering thought for the owners of the San Diego Chargers…

I really want everyone here to recall the entirety of this situation when next we hear about an NFL coach who spends 18 hours a week in his office sleeping on the couch and setting his alarm clock for 3:44 AM just to be sure he has everything covered and under control. Naturally, he does all of this because “winning is everything…”. Excuse me Mr. Maniacal Coach, but a 14-2 record just got one of your coaching brethren fired… So, tell me again why you’re sleeping in your office 100 nights a year instead of in the same bed with your wife?

Let me stay with NFL coaches for just a moment longer. Lions’ defensive line coach, Joe Cullen seems t have resolved his legal issues this week. You may recall that Cullen was cited for a DUI several months back and then was cited for driving while nude – but without any alcohol impairment – just a week after the DUI citation. He was sentenced to two years probation and will be required to attend AA meetings twice a week as a condition of that probation. I didn’t realize that Alcoholics Anonymous also had a treatment program for people who felt compelled to drive naked through the Wendy’s drive-thru lanes when they didn’t have a buzz on - - or much else of anything on for that matter. See what you can learn from reading the sports pages…

Hey, the NBA All-Star Game with all of its attendant festivities is about to happen in Las Vegas. When Joe Johnson left the Phoenix Suns to sign with the Atlanta Hawks a couple of years ago, he said that he had heard lots of stories about players not wanting to play in Atlanta; but he was going there to be “part of something special”. Here’s what’s “special” about playing in Atlanta. Johnson did not get voted to the All Star Game despite averaging more than 25 points per game in the pathetic Eastern Conference. Earlier this week, David Stern did name him to play in the game as a replacement for Jason Kidd who will not participate.

Memo to Joe Johnson: That’s why players did not want to sign with and play in Atlanta. Got the picture?

In another NBA related story, Sixers’ center, Steven Hunter, is a Chicago native and a Chicago Bears’ fan. After the Bears’ loss to Indy in the Super Bowl, Hunter said he would never again wear his Rex Grossman Bears’ jersey and that the Bears should have gone with Brian Griese in the second half of that game. Hunter then went on to put Rex Grossman and Steve Bartman in the same sentence and to say both should be forgotten in the annals of Chicago sports. Obviously, everyone is entitled to their opinion and fans are allowed to use hyperbole to express their unhappiness with a loss for their teams. However, we shouldn’t lose sight of a critically important item here:

Rex Grossman won’t be tempted to buy a Steven Hunter jersey any time in the foreseeable future - - nor will anyone else outside the Steven Hunter nuclear family. But Hunter found a reason to possess a Rex Grossman jersey because Grossman was in fact the QB for a team in the Super Bowl.

There is a rumor making the rounds that the Memphis Grizzlies will be moving to Las Vegas and that this announcement will be made proximal to the All Star game in Vegas this weekend. Obviously, I have no inside information on this matter but Las Vegas would certainly be a better location for the Grizzlies than Memphis. As I tried to remind everyone when the Grizzlies moved to Memphis from Vancouver, the ABA Memphis team was named the TAMS; that was not a team named after a Scottish piece of headgear; TAMS stood for Tennessee, Arkansas & Mississippi. They knew even back in the ABA days that the region would not/could not support a pro team unless the whole region bought into the team and the concept. It didn’t buy in during the time of the ABA; the TAMS lasted all of two seasons. And the Grizzlies haven’t lasted all that much longer in that area as an NBA franchise; I believe the Grizzlies moved there in the 2001/02 season.

Conventional wisdom has it that an NBA team with one transcendent player can be really good and a “tough out” in a playoff atmosphere, but that it takes two great players to make a championship team on a regular basis. History says that aphorism is more true than false. So what should one make of the hype and the accolades thrown upon the Denver Nuggets when they acquired Allen Iverson to play alongside Carmelo Anthony? Yes, I know that they haven’t been together all that long and that it takes time for great players to get used to playing with one another, Nevertheless, the Nuggets were 24-20 when Iverson and Anthony were able to join forces on the court for the Nuggets. As of this morning the Nuggets are 26-25. You do the math…

Oh and here’s another interesting stat from Jim Armstrong in the Denver Post. The Nuggets have scored less than 100 points 16 times this season. As of this morning, they are 0-16 in those games. In the NBA, offensive firepower is part of a winning team, but you also have to be able to play defense just a bit too. The Nuggets seem unable to do that and the addition of Allen Iverson to the roster is not likely to make their defense all that much better…

Finally, here’s a line from Peter Vecsey in the NY Post regarding the depths to which the storied Boston Celtics’ franchise has fallen:

“Ted Kennedy has a better chance of living in the White House than the Celtics have of visiting it.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…