The Sports Curmudgeon®

There are lots of stories out there about NFL franchises “thinking about moving” as a ploy to get public money injected into a new stadium project. A list of teams that may be “on the move” will always include:

The Vikings and the Chargers where new stadium negotiations have been protracted and barren

The Bills where 8 “home games” are already diverted to Toronto and

The Saints where the combination of Katrina devastation and economic downturn could make New Orleans unable to support an NFL franchise.

That is all posturing and posing; the team I think most likely to move from its current home is the Jacksonville Jaguars. Here is a brief history of that franchise:

Expansion franchise awarded in 1995 - - along with Carolina.

Jags won right away; they lost the AFC Conference Championship Game in 1996.

Team did not sustain that level of success and team lost attendance dramatically in the late 1990s.

Several years ago, the Jags put a tarp over and cordoned off almost 10,000 seats in the upper level of their stadium because they could not give those tickets away. That reduced the stadium capacity from just under 75,000 to 65,000. They still do not sell out all of their home games; I believe they missed a capacity crowd in three of their eight home games last year - - and they were a playoff caliber team last year.

Last week, the Jags hosted the undefeated Tennessee Titans – a division rival. In the middle of last week, the local media made it a point to report that the game would be televised in Jax because the Jaguars had indeed sold all the tickets for that game. The simple fact that this is a news story tells me that the Jags’ franchise is on a foundation of sand in Jacksonville. This was a division rival seeking to continue an undefeated season and the fact of a “sell-out” was newsworthy. Wow!

The Jags lost the game; they are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs; but unless they manage to secure the intercession of St. Jude, the players will be at home in January 2009. It will be interesting to see what the crowds are like for the three remaining home games - - this week against the Vikings, Dec 14 against the Packers and Dec 18 against the Colts on a Thursday night.

Elsewhere, reports link Jim Fassel to the Oakland Raiders. Supposedly, he sent a hand-written letter to Al Davis saying that he (Fassel) would be interested in becoming the coach of the Raiders. If you have never quite understood the concept of “an act of desperation”, think of Jim Fassel sitting down at his desk to pen that letter and then to put said letter in an envelope in order to mail it to Al Davis. You’ve heard of the elephants’ graveyard; the mystery about that place is that no one knows where it is. There is no mystery about the coaches’ graveyard; it is in Oakland.

NFL Commish, Roger Goodell, has met with the players who tested positive for a banned substance that somehow got into a new formulation of a diuretic. It is possible that four-game suspensions could come down from all of this. If so, the Minnesota Vikings will be in deep yogurt. Both of their defensive tackles, Kevin Williams and Pat Williams, could face suspension and the Vikes’ defense is predicated on those two guys making inside running a dicey proposition for opposing teams. If they are out at the same time, the only advantage the Vides’ defense will enjoy is that opposing offenses will have no idea what they will try to do next because they have never seen the Vikes play without both of these guys in the lineup.

At the same time, Vikes’ defensive end, Jared Allen, is meeting with the Commish about a series of questionable hits that Allen has put on QBs in recent weeks. Theoretically, Allen could face fines and ultimately a suspension for such behaviors. Were the Vikes to have to play without both DTs and Jared Allen in the same game, the Lions have to be rooting for that to be their game against the Vikes on 7 December.

Regarding those players – there are eight of them – who tested positive for the banned substance, which may be a masking agent for steroids, can someone explain to me why there is not clamor in Congress for hearings and investigations? I promise you if eight MLB players tested positive for anything more controversial than chocolate you would have a half-dozen of the professional grandstanders on Capitol Hill in full throat about the need for hearings and oversight and fact-finding. Senator Specter, come on down! Interesting…

Since the fiasco of the last play of the Chargers/Steelers game last weekend which did not affect the game outcome but did affect the outcome of the game against the spread, some have advocated a rule change allowing referees to go back to replay more than once to “get it right”. I will have more to say about that when I do my next essay on ways to improve the NFL, but based on a comment from Chris Erskine in the LA Times, my guess is that he will not be in favor of a second look at replay:

“I was married once. No replays. I watched the births of my children just once. No replays. So I sure don’t need to see a routine catch half a dozen times. Or all those cut-ins from other games. Like those 64-ounce sodas and Dolly Parton’s ample front porch, instant replay is threatening to be too much of a very good thing.”

The phrase “too much of a very good thing” is particularly apt at the time when college basketball teams are beginning their seasons. I love college basketball; it would take a comatose state in an ICU somewhere for me to miss any of the NCAA Tournament games. Having said that, college basketball is horribly over-exposed on TV. Consider that ACC teams by themselves will be on TV 273 times this year. That is correct; a single conference will be on TV more than 250 times this year, and this is not the first year that has happened.

Obviously, I have not counted nor do I intend to, but I would be willing to wager that of those 273 ACC appearances on TV, UNC and Duke will be part of at least half of them. One-sixth of the conference will probably account for about 60% of the teams on TV. Too much of a very good thing…

Finally, Bob Knight had these words regarding coaches who cheat in college basketball:

“In college basketball, if you get caught cheating, they should shoot you because you’re too dumb to be alive.”

Here’s an idea:

Make the cheaters go bird hunting with Bob Knight and Dick Cheney. That should provide a deterrent…

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