Readers here know that I like to have fun with the names of players/coaches. Ab out 15 years ago, I ran across the name of a QB at Eastern Washington University and immediately he became one of my “favorites”. His name is Bo Levi Mitchell – – and my immediate reaction then was:
- I’m a BoLiever in Bo Levi !
He has had a long and successful career in the CFL – – 10 years with the Calgary Stampeders and the last 2 years with the Hamilton TigerCats – – compiling a record of 99-39-2 as a starter. I mention this as an introduction to a game last week where Mitchell and the TigerCats beat the Toronto Argonauts 51-38. Here is Bo Levi’s stat line:
- 19 of 24 for 332 yards with 5 TDs and 0 INTs
[Aside: WR Kenny Lawler caught 6 passes for 207 yards and 3 TDs, so he had quite a good game too.]
I had an e-mail exchange working with Gregg Drinnan – – former sports editor of the Kamloops Daily News – – and he pointed out that there was another unusual occurrence in that Hamilton/Toronto game beyond a team scoring 50+ points and a QB having a night like that:
“During that Hamilton-Toronto game, there were two kickoffs returned for TDs. That earned a guy named Roy Lyster of New Westminster, B.C., a cool $1 million. (Actually, $50,000 a year for 20 years.) A Canadian grocery store outfit (Save-On Foods) runs a Million Dollar Touchdown To Win contest and has for a number of years. This was the first time it paid off.”“
Moving on … The US Men’s National Team (USMNT) made it to the finals of the Gold Cup Tournament and then lost to Mexico by a score of 2-1. The USMNT had been going through some rough times in various friendlies but seemed to be getting its act together in the Gold Cup tournament. That is a good sign because the team will be in the World Cup next year because the US will be host to more than half the games in that event.
I saw most – – not all – – of the game on TV and after the game there was a lot of complaining by the US team about the officiating. There was one critical call that went against the Americans which could have had a bearing on the ultimate outcome. Inside the penalty box, a Mexican player had lost his balance and was clearly extending his arm to break his fall onto the ground. He was not looking in the direction of the ball at all.
As he fell, a US player took a shot at the goalkeeper and the off-balance player’s hand trapped the ball, stopping it completely as the off-balance player went to the ground. Obviously, the Americans wanted that to be a penalty kick for a handball; the Mexicans were happy that the referee ruled that the hand contact was incidental.
Back in the 80s, Diego Maradona scored a goal for Argentina in a World Cup game against England, and it is pretty clear that the goal was caused by Maradona’s hand not his feet. The English side was upset at the time and remains upset to this day; Maradona coyly said afterward:
“Even if there was a hand, it was the Hand of God.”
Well, if Maradona’s goal was scored by “The Hand of God”, then the blocked shot in the US/Mexico game was saved by that same “Hand of God”. The symmetry of the universe is restored.
Switching gears … The NY Knicks found a coach – – and a pretty good one at that. Mike Brown will take over the team next year; he has been the NBA Coach of the Year twice in his career; his winning percentage in the NBA is .599. I think this will be an interesting situation to watch.
Like departed Knicks’ coach Tom Thibodeau, Brown has emphasized defense over the course of his career. One of the weaknesses of the Knicks poses an interesting situation for coaches who like to have their teams stop the other guys from scoring occasionally:
- The Knicks’ two best offensive players – – Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns – – are both well below average as defenders.
- Both need to be on the court together to maximize the Knicks’ scoring potential AND when both are on the court together, the team is playing 3 against 5 on defense.
Mathematicians tried for centuries to “square the circle”; the Knicks’ situation will not persist for centuries, but it may prove to be similarly intractable.
One other aspect of Brown’s signing with the Knicks, the team must have driven a hard bargain. The ousted coach, Tom Thibodeau, was reportedly making $11M per season. Brown’s deal is reported to be 4 years and $40M. I need not be a world-class mathematician taking time from my attempts to “square the circle” to figure out that an average of $10M per year is less than $11M per year.
Finally, apropos of nothing, I’ll close today with these words from Albert Einstein:
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………