Author: Jack

The MLB regular season is all but over.  However, there is a game on the schedule for today that is of interest here in Curmudgeon Central because it is a benchmark game in terms of futility.  The Seattle Mariners – a team that I have traveled across the country to see more than a dozen times – are a bad baseball team.  They started the season winning 13 of their first 15 games; and then, the wheels came off the wagon.  As of this morning, the Mariners record is 66-91; they are a mere 37 games out of first place in the AL West.  Today, the Mariners play the first-place Houston Astros who have wrapped up the division championship, and that game is one to watch.

Being in the same division, the Mariners and the Astros are scheduled to play each other 19 times.  Today is the final time in 2019 the teams will meet.  After losing to the Astros last night, the Mariners’ record against the Astros in 2019 stands at 1-17.  If they lose again today, that would leave the Mariners record against the Astros at 1-18 which you would think would be the futility standard for a modern MLB team.

But it would not be the futility standard …  Earlier this month, the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians concluded their 19-game schedule against each other, and the Tigers lost 18 of those games.  If the Mariners lose again today, neither the Mariners nor the Tigers will be in the record books alone for their ineptitude in the 2019 season.

Sticking with MLB for the moment, the Padres fired manager Andy Green last weekend with 8 games left to go in the season.  Granted, the Padres had higher expectations for 2019 than winning 70-75 games; however, making the change with 8 games left to go in the season seems awfully petty.  I am not saying that firing Andy Green was a bad idea; his record with the Padres from 2016 until last weekend was a less-than-inspiring 274-366.  What advantage might accrue to the Padres now that they did not wait for another 8 games to announce his termination?

Bob Molinaro had this comment in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot recently related to MLB:

“Sarcasm ahead: Before Giancarlo Stanton returned to the lineup Wednesday, the Yankees’ highest paid player – $26 mil – had appeared in nine games this season. The team was so badly crippled by the absence of his bat that the Yankees are en-route to winning a mere 100-plus games. You get the drift. Another slugger who isn’t worth his asking price.”

Moving on … the biggest story of the day is probably the announcement by the NCAA that they have charged Kansas University with 5 “Level 1 violations” of NCAA rules and they have also asserted that there was “lack of institutional control” at Kansas during the time the alleged infractions were happening.  This is a big deal for a lot of reasons:

1. Kansas is a blue-blood NCAA basketball program.  The first coach at Kansas was none other than Dr. James Naismith who is regarded as the inventor of the game of basketball.
2. Current coach, Bill Self, has been the head coach at Kansas since 2003 and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
3. Kansas has won its conference championship 61 times – – approximately every other year over the history of the program.  The team has had a winning record in 97 of its 121 seasons.
4. Each of the five “Level 1 infractions” would carry with it penalties of reduced scholarships plus seasons banned from post-season play.
5. If – I said IF – Coach Self is found to be materially guilty, he could be forced out of his job and slapped with a show-cause order – meaning that any other school that wanted to hire him would have to appeal to the NCAA to do so lest it inherit the same penalties levied on Kansas.

The biggest deal of all are the words “lack of institutional control”.  That is what the NCAA used to invoke the so-called “Death Penalty” on SMU’s football program in the 1980s.  Basically, it shut down the program and allowed all the players to transfer; the football program at SMU.  The school was not allowed to play any games for 1 year and then not allowed to play any home games for another year.  The school lost a total of 55 scholarships spread over multiple years and no “off-campus recruiting” was allowed for two years.

SMU was a big-time football program at the time.  Since returning from the death penalty, SMU football has been hugely unsuccessful; there have only been 5 winning seasons since football resumed at SMU in 1989.

Kansas and Bill Self have loudly proclaimed innocence here and it does not appear that this controversy will go quietly into the night.  The NCAA has its own reasons to take a hard line on this matter.  Remember, the NCAA super-sleuths are responsible for turning up exactly nothing related to these charges.  Whatever the NCAA has accused Kansas of doing was handed to the NCAA on a silver platter by the FBI and Federal prosecutors using taxpayer dollars.  Without that federal investigation of criminality in the college basketball recruiting process, the NCAA would still be sitting on their collective thumbs at NCAA HQs in Indianapolis, IN.

The image of the NCAA and its ability to enforce its own monstrously complex set of rules is akin to that of Inspector Clouseau.  I would assume that that the NCAA mavens would prefer to shed that imagery but the only way for them to do so will be to see to it that someone takes a fall for the violations that the NCAA alleges to have occurred.  After all, if the police and the authorities do not – or cannot – send Inspector Clouseau to jail after he drops the Pink Panther out of his handkerchief, then it is the police who are the bumbling fools and not Clouseau himself.

This saga will go on for a while; there will be threats; there will be venting of spleen; there will be high drama.  Here is what I think I know going into all of this:

1. College basketball players – at Kansas and at other schools – are now and have been paid money under the table.  NCAA rules forbid that.
2. The NCAA – lacking subpoena powers and the ability to acquire search warrants as is proper – cannot enforce its own rules without dumb luck handing them irrefutable evidence.
3. I do not see how the NCAA can “save face” or emerge from this appearing to be in control of the sport(s) it purports to oversee without a visible and recognizable person or entity facing serious sanction(s).  Kansas and Bill Self seem to have been chosen by the NCAA overlords to be those visible and recognizable ne’er-do-wells.
4. Sooner or later, the NCAA will find it advantageous to expand its assertion of authorities here and my guess is that the University of Arizona is next on the list.

Stay tuned…

Finally, having dealt with allegations of cheating and skirting the rules today, please consider this comment from Brad Rock formerly of the Deseret News regarding another sporting cheater:

“Lance Armstrong trolled Mike Pence on Twitter, saying he ‘just blew the doors off’ the Vice President while passing him on a bike path in Massachusetts.

“Armstrong now plans to enter the Cub Scout Olympics to see if he can sweep the sit-up and softball toss competitions.”

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

 

 

While I was on hiatus, September 19 passed into history and plenty of folks celebrated National Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Brad Dickson took the opportunity to comment on that happenstance as follows:

“Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. I have a better idea. How about Talk Like an English Major Day.”

One other story that broke in my absence involves what appears to be the collapse of another pillar in the business edifice constructed by LaVar Ball.  It has been a while since Lonzo Ball fired Alan Foster as his agent.  Foster was a partner with LaVar Ball in the creation and development of the Big Baller Brand; Lonzo Ball has accused foster of “misappropriating” a little more than a million dollars of Lonzo’s money.  That has apparently caused friction within the Ball family and that “drama” has yet to play itself out.

In the past week or so, the NY Post has reported that there are also financial irregularities surrounding LaVar Ball’s Junior Basketball Association (JBA) – an entity that existed for a season even though you may not have realized it.  The JBA was supposed to be the sporting enterprise that would strike a dagger into the heart of the NCAA because it was going to give top-flight high school players a way to play basketball and make money for that year they had to “cool their heels” between high school and the NBA.  The JBA was supposed to be the death knell for college basketball’s one-and-done.

I argued when the JBA was announced with great fanfare that college basketball had a huge advantage over the JBA that was not likely ever to be overcome.  College basketball has tradition and TV exposure and it would have taken the JBA years if not decades to approach college basketball on those dimensions.  Zion Williamson is a perfect example; he had the option of playing in the JBA last year.  Once the college season was over – as was the JBA’s season – how many basketball fans knew about Williamson as opposed to anyone and everyone involved in the JBA?

According to the report in the NY Post, many players were stiffed out of paychecks and some players allege that stats for the league were cooked up to favor those players that LaVar Ball and/or Alan Favor preferred.  The report is based on interviews with 5 of the players in the JBA and a former employee of the league; based on those interviews, the author asserts:

“… a picture of the league’s rampant dysfunction and possible fraud becomes clear.”

Here is a link to the report.  It is a sad commentary for many of the players in the league who were not paid what they were promised and who have now used up their NCAA eligibility by having signed a professional contract.

Recall about a month ago, I mentioned that Bob Davie – head football coach at New Mexico – convinced the Athletic Department to rescind a cost saving rule it had instituted and allow Davie and the football staff to have the New Mexico football team stay at a local hotel the night before home football games.  The argument used then was concocted to make it appear that staying in that hotel the night before a game was a “player safety issue”.  Let me just say that argument was “thin” and leave it at that.

There was a recent report based on requests for public records that shows what some schools paid to put up their football teams at local hotels the night before a home football game.  One of the schools cited in the report was the University of Florida in the 2018 season.

• The team reserved 48 rooms in the hotel.
• Meals for the team – and staff – were catered.
• Cost of lodging and meals was approximately $6800.

Florida played 7 home games in 2018, so the hotel bills totaled about $48,000.  Evidently, Florida was frugal in terms of cost containment here; the report cited another school – not identified specifically – that paid “more than a quarter million” in these lodging expenses.  The report is based on records retrieved from 93 schools in Division 1-A and it goes into much finer detail than just the cost of the rooms for lodging the night before a game.

Here is a link to this report.  I suggest that you take a few moments and read it in its entirety.  The spirit of the NCAA rules about “student-athletes” is that the “student athlete” should not receive any benefit for being an “athlete” that is not commonly available to every other “student” at the school.  When you check out some of these “perks”, you will see that the spirit of that NCAA regulation is often honored in the breach.

Last week, the Patriots released Antonio Brown and Brown announced his retirement from the NFL with the intention of returning to Central Michigan to finish his studies in pursuit of his degree.  I really wish that I could believe this was the last we may have heard from and about Antonio Brown – but I seriously doubt it.  Maybe the NFL needs a new “list”?  It has the PUP List – the Physically Unable to Perform List; how about establishing the MUC List – the Mentally Unable to Conform List?  Whatever…

Finally, since I began today with a comment from Brad Dickson, let me make this rant symmetrical and close with another of his comments:

“A headline in this morning’s Wall Street Journal: ‘Head Of Planned Parenthood Out After 8 Months.’  If it’d been 9 months you’d have had something.”

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

 

 

Once again, briefly today…

I cannot cite exact stats here, but I can say that I do not recall ever seeing a week like this one on the odds boards for weekend football games.  Seeing spreads on NFL games in excess of 3 TDs is rare enough that one can go an entire season without ever seeing one of them.  This week there are two games with humongous spreads:

• Jets at New England – 23 (43.5):  The Jets are down to a rookie third-string QB going against a Pats’ defense that has not allowed a TD in the first two games of the season.  I would be surprised to see the Jets score more than 10 points in this game – – unless of course the Pats are leading by 35 at the end of the 3^rd quarter and play their scrubs for the entire 4^th quarter.
• Miami at Dallas – 22 (47):  If I were forced to make a pick in this game, I would take the OVER because the Cowboys might do that all by themselves.  The Dolphins are doing a bad job at pretending that they are trying to win football games this year.

Monday night’s game will be interesting when the Bears visit the Skins.  The Bears’ offense has been pedestrian-at-best so far this year; some folks are beginning to wonder aloud if Mitchell Trubisky is indeed a franchise QB.  Meanwhile, the Skins’ defense has not been able to stop anything more robust than a runny nose so far this year.  In the first two games, the Skins defense has allowed opposing offenses to convert 65% of the third-down situations facing those offenses.  Something here has got to give…

Going into last week’s game against Temple, Maryland was undefeated and had outscored its two opponents 142-20.  Temple is a better football program than the Asthmatics Institute, but do not confuse Temple with a team that would strike fear in the hearts of the top-shelf college programs.  Maryland proceeded to implode last week losing to Temple 20-17.  Maryland QB, Josh Jackson, had been lighting up the scoreboard in the first two games; last week he was 15 for 36 for a total of 183 yards and 1 INT.  Maryland had been ranked #21 in the country after the first two blowouts; they are no longer in the Top 25…

File this next item under:

• Things You Cannot Make Up On A Bet

The Miami Heat have been playing their games in an arena that sold its naming rights to American Airlines.  The airline has decided not to continue that sponsorship; therefore, the naming rights are up for bidding.  One of the bids has come from BangBros which is an Internet pornography site based in Miami; their bid is for $10M for the next 10 years.  That should give you an idea of the profits available to such websites.

Finally, here is a comment from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“IndyCar racing will introduce hybrid engines in 2022, the circuit announced.

Which certainly gives ‘making a late-race charge’ a whole new meaning.”

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

 

 

Briefly today because I do need to get to be bed get some sleep…

Horseracing is – to be as positive as I can be – a sport in decline.  It is under attack from animal rights activists and it is a sport that does not appeal to millennials.  The animal rights activists had a field day earlier in the Spring when about 30 horses died at Santa Anita in racing and training “incidents” – that have yet to be explained sufficiently to blunt the criticisms of the track and the sport.  Now, it turns out that there is a less obvious – but still fatal – set of circumstances unfolding this Fall at Belmont racetrack across the country from Santa Anita.  USA Today reported here that 3 horses died at Belmont in the first two days of the current Fall meeting there.  Moreover, in the 40-day meeting that recently concluded at Saratoga, 11 horses died at that track.  Every PETA member worth his/her skin has been waiting for news of this ilk.

You could still chalk all of this up to odd circumstances and maintain there is “nothing organically wrong with horseracing”; this is all just malevolent happenstance.  But how then might one explain that the  California Horse Racing mavens had a failed drug test in hand for last year’s Triple Crown winner which should have made him ineligible to run in the Kentucky Derby – – but they sat on that information and let it slide.  The NY Times is far better known for its investigative reporting than it is for its sports reporting.  In this case the Times did investigative digging into a sports story and turned up more of the stuff that comprises the seamy underbelly of horseracing.  You can read the entire story here; the reporter is Joe Drape, and this is a well reported and well-focused exposition.

The big issue here is that it seems clear that trainer Bob Baffert – – one of the most decorated trainers and most influential people in the sport – – was given a pass with his horse that flunked the drug test.  That brings in the element of “privilege” into the matter and it makes everything seem even more sordid than it needs to seem.

The Breeders’ Cup races are going to be at Santa Anita in about 6 weeks. It could be the death knell for horseracing if a horse “goes down” on TV and must be euthanized on the track that has already claimed several dozen equine lives this year.  The California Horse Racing mavens won’t be able to explain that away with a wave of the hand and a reference to the “rules and procedures for failed equine drug tests”.

Mike Bianchi put a punctuation mark on all this nonsense in the Orlando Sentinel last weekend:

“Can you believe the California Racing Board buried Justify’ s positive drug test just so the horse could win the Triple Crown? Who do these people think they are — college football coaches?”

The Miami Dolphins followed up their 59-10 embarrassing loss in Week 1 with an even more dismal 43-0 loss in Week 2.  Supposedly, multiple players on the Dolphins have told their agents to try to get the players traded elsewhere in the NFL.  Obviously, I say that as third-hand information at the very best but if these reports are accurate there is a humongous problem facing the NFL regarding the “integrity of the game”.  There have been two teams that were 0-16 for a season in the last decade or so.  However, neither the Lions nor the Browns set out to do anything of the sort.  They did that because those two teams were truly awful.  The Dolphins are also awful – – AND – – the Dolphins are making decisions with their roster that makes it difficult for folks to believe that the team actually wants to win football games in 2019.  There is a palpable difference between an awful team and a team that is going out its way to make itself awful.

Our house guests hit the hay early enough for me to get this short rant written, proofed and posted.  I don’t know if/when a block of writing time will appear later this week.  We shall see…

Finally, let me close today with some words from comedienne, Lily Tomlin:

“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”

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

 

 

There are great confluences in the world such as:

• Chocolate and peanut butter
• The Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers
• Buddy Holly and The Crickets

Today commemorates a significantly minor confluence of events.  Football Friday takes place on Friday the Thirteenth.  All triskaidekaphobics can stop reading here…

Before going into this week’s offering, let me look back on last week’s Six-Pack.  The record was 4-2.  The two losses were Seattle – 9.5 over Cincy and Pittsburgh +6 against New England.  Neither of those two games was even close.

 

College Football Commentary:

 

Linfield College begins its 2019 season this weekend traveling cross-country to play Rowan University in pursuit of yet another winning season in football.  Go Wildcats!

Starting off on a sort of sad note, Les Miles is no longer undefeated in Lawrence, KS.  Coastal Carolina came visiting last week and left with a 12-7 victory.  Kansas started the season with a game against a Division 1-AA school (Indiana State) and a Sun Belt school (Coastal Carolina).  That is the easy part of their schedule; from here on out, they play Boston College this weekend and then 9 games against Big 12 rivals.

Last week, I said that the winner of the Arkansas/Ole Miss game might be looking at its only SEC conference win for the year.  Well, Ole Miss won that game handily by 3 TDs.  If I am correct that Arkansas will go winless in the SEC this year, that will make it 2 years in a row that the Razorbacks will be the doormat of the SEC.  I guess it’s a good thing that Frank Broyles is no longer around to see what has become of Arkansas football.

Speaking of an SEC team that has started out poorly, please take note of Tennessee.  The Vols led BYU 16-13 with 30 seconds to play; BYU had the ball at its own 20-yardline; it was 3^rd and 6 for the Cougars.  That is when the Tennessee defense decided to give up a 64-yard pass play that set up the game-tying field goal with 2 seconds to go to send the game to OT.  Not surprisingly, the Vols lost in the second OT 29-26.  Tennessee is now 0-2 for the season with losses to Georgia State and BYU; this week Tennessee hosts Tennessee-Chattanooga in what has to be a must-win game because the next 4 games on Tennessee’s dance card are:

• At Florida
• Vs Georgia
• Vs Mississippi State
• At Alabama

A loss this week might have the Vols looking at an 0-7 start to the 2019 season…

Missouri beat West Virginia 38-7; please do not confuse Missouri with the powerhouses in the SEC; Mizzou is one of the lower-middle class of that conference.  That leads me to wonder what the [bleep] is going on with football in Morgantown WV?  The Mountaineers had their hands full with Division 1-AA James Madison two weeks ago and then got blown out here.  Not a good omen…

Purdue beat Vandy 42-24 in a game where Purdue QB, Elijah Sindelar merely threw for 504 yards in the game and Purdue WR Rondale Moore contributed to that total by catching 220 yards worth of that total.  Purdue was one-dimensional in the game, however.  Running the ball produced only 31 yards on 18 attempts.

In what was probably the best game of the weekend, LSU went to Texas and beat the Longhorns 45-38.  Times are changing in Baton Rouge.  Who can remember LSU going on the road and winning a shoot-out game against a ranked opponent?  That did not happen often.  Using a spread offense this year, QB Joe Burrow looks like a modern QB.  He shredded the Texas defense going 31-39 for 471 yards and 4 TDs.  The Tigers get a breather this week against Northwestern State.  The line for that game opened at 51.5 points…

Alabama beat New Mexico St. 62-10 and did not cover the 54.5-point spread on the game.  New Mexico St. has now lost its first two games (Washington St. and Alabama) by a combined score of 120-17.  Next up for the Aggies is a visit by San Diego St. – a team that beat UCLA last week.  I suspect that New Mexico St. would be a 9-point underdog to Conjoined Twins College if such a team were on their schedule…

Since I mentioned that San Diego St. beat UCLA 23-14 last week, let me point out two things here:

• This is the first time in school history that San Diego St. has beaten UCLA in a football game.
• UCLA is 0-2 to start the season with this week’s task – a visit by Oklahoma – making it look like an 0-3 start to the season.

Chip Kelly’s image as a football innovator and dominant coach is going to be just a bit tarnished by the end of this year…

Staying with PAC-12 teams for the moment, Cal rallied from a 10-3 halftime deficit to beat Washington 20-19 in a game that was delayed by lightening/rain in Seattle for a bit more than 2 hours.  Washington was the consensus choice to win the PAC-12 North this year but this game showed that the Cal defense is for real and that the Cal running attack is serious.  Cal ran the ball 36 times for 194 yards against a good Washington defense.

Utah beat Northern Illinois 35-17 using defense and a controlled offense to win the game.

Oregon crushed Nevada 77-6.  In Week 1, Oregon lost at the end of the game to a ranked Auburn team.  In Week 1, Nevada upset Purdue out of the Big 10.  This game was 35-6 at halftime – – and then things got worse for the Wolfpack.  Not only did Oregon run up 621 yards on offense, the Oregon defense held Nevada to a total of 173 yards total offense.

Hawaii beat a PAC-12 team for the second week in a row.  Oregon St. – not one of the elite PAC-12 teams to be sure – ventured across half the Pacific Ocean and lost the game 31-28.  The margin of victory cane on a last second field goal by a kicker who had missed three field goal attempts earlier in the game.

Colorado rallied in the second half to beat Nebraska.  The Huskers led at halftime 17-0; the final score had Colorado prevailing 34-31 in OT.  I guess the Nebraska defensive unit did not remember to take the field after the halftime festivities…

Brad Dickson had a Tweet about this game musing about the possibility that Ralphie the Buffalo could go into retirement at the end of the season:

“This is Ralphie’s last season. Next year he’s being replaced by a plant-based mascot.  How obnoxious is Ralphie? Even PETA said, ‘Go ahead – use him for animal experiments.’”

Brad Dickson graduated from the University of Nebraska if you had not already figured that out…

ACC teams had some setbacks last week.  Maryland beat Syracuse like drum 63-20.  Maryland scored 79 points in Week 1 against Howard; the question was whether they might be able to do that against a “real” defense.  I guess the answer is “Yes.”  Syracuse was ranked in the Top 25 for what that is worth going into the game.  Maryland ran the ball 45 times for 354 yards on the ground and a total of 650 yards on offense.  The schedule for Maryland over the nest six games looks manageable:

• At Temple
• Vs Penn State
• At Rutgers
• At Purdue
• Vs Indiana
• At Minnesota

Florida State won their game last week – – but it was not a feelgood time in Tallahassee.  The final score was Florida State 45 and Louisiana-Monroe 44 – – in OT no less.  The game was in Tallahassee so all the Seminole fans and boosters could see this game in all its ugliness.  Florida State led 24-7 at the half; the game looked as if were in the bag.  The margin of victory was a missed PAT by La-Monroe in that OT period.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but La-Monroe was supposed to be a “breather” on the Florida State schedule not a “nail-biter”.  La-Monroe is a Sun Belt team and playing against that caliber of competition, 2012 was the last winning season for La-Monroe.  The game was an embarrassment for Florida State.

Clemson is an ACC team that did not soil the sheets last weekend.  Clemson played a good Texas A&M team and beat the Aggies 24-10.  It took a Texas A&M TD in the final 10 seconds of the game to make the game as close as it was – and to give the Aggies a classic backdoor cover against a 17.5-point spread.  Glancing at the Clemson schedule from here on, I really don’t think they are going to face a team ranked in the Top 25 until – possibly – in the ACC Championship Game.  I am not banging on Clemson’s scheduling; that assessment is a cold-hearted view of ACC football for the 2019 season.  Pencil Clemson in as the #1 seed in the CFP this year…

In Big 10 action, it took Michigan 2 OTs to beat Army 24-21.  From my perspective, Army outplayed the Wolverines for most of the game.

Ohio State trucked Cincy 42-0.  After Cincy beat UCLA in Week 1, some people said that the Cincy defense was really good, and we would be hearing about it all season long.  Ohio State ran the ball for 270 yards here and threw it for another 234 yards.  There was one humorous moment in the game:

• A player for Cincy made a tackle and the name on the back of his jersey was “Tucky”.
• I said to one of my Las Vegas comrades that I hoped his parents had not named him “Ken”.
• They did not; the player is Ethan Tucky

Penn State beat Buffalo 45-13.  The unusual stat from this game is the Buffalo had the ball for about 43 minutes; normally, a team that holds the ball that long wins the game.  Not here…

After a dominating win in Week 1 over UMass, I said that Rutgers was stepping up in class with Iowa on the other side of the ball.  The final score was Iowa 30 and Rutgers Nil.

UCF beat FAU last week 45-17.  There was another unusual stat to come out of this game:

• UCF completed only 7 passes in the game.
• Those passes went for 245 yards and 2 TDs.

 

Games of Interest this week:

 

Clemson – 28 at Syracuse (65):  Maryland dropped 63 on Syracuse last week; this game is going to be ugly.  The Total Line here opened at 57 and has risen by 8 points during the week – – very unusual.

Oklahoma – 22 at UCLA (73.5):  This has the potential to be another ugly blowout.  The Total Line here opened the week at 66.5 points; it has risen 7 points during the week.  The oddsmakers are rarely that far wrong about public sentiment on such lines.  Oh, by the way, after facing Oklahoma this week, UCLA will get to try to stop the Washington State offense next week.  It is not going to be a happy time in Westwood any time soon.

New Mexico at Notre Dame – 35 (64):  The interesting thing about this game is that New Mexico coach, Bob Davie, will not travel with the Lobos to South Bend.  Davie had a “health incident” after last week’s game and in a statement, he said that the EMTs probably saved his life.  Davie was an assistant coach and an interim head coach for a game at Notre Dame about 25 years ago…

Florida – 8 at Kentucky (48):  Florida had a “breather” last week against Tennessee-Martin; Kentucky had an easy time with E. Michigan.  Here two good defensive teams from the SEC East will bang on one another for about 3 hours…

Maryland – 7 at Temple (67):  Temple has had 2 weeks to prepare for this game after handling Division 1-AA Bucknell in its opening game.

Hawaii at Washington – 22 (59):  This is the third consecutive PAC-12 opponent for Hawaii and they have beaten the first two.  Can they complete the trifecta here?  I doubt it because they are not at home for this game; Washington is a better team than either Arizona or Oregon St.; Washington should be highly motivated coming off a conference loss to Cal last week.  Purely a hunch, but I’ll put Washington in the Six-Pack to win and cover.

Cal Poly-SLO at Oregon St. – 14.5 (76):  Oregon St. has lost its first two games losing badly at home to Oklahoma State and then to Hawaii on the road.  If – I said IF – they lose here to start 0-3, the schedule ahead looks bleak for them.  On the Oregon State website, they have the PAC-12 Championship Game listed as a TBD on December 6.  There are two words that describe Oregon State participating in that game:

• NOT – – and – – HAPPENING

Texas – 32 at Rice (56):  Rice has lost its first two games to Army and Wake Forest.  Texas scored 38 points on LSU’s defense last week – – even though that was not enough to produce a win.  This game will be over by some point early in the 2^nd quarter.

Florida Atlantic – 2.5 at Ball State (65):  Ball St. is 1-1 – losing to Indiana in the opener and then demolishing Division 1-AA Fordham last week.  Florida Atlantic is 0-2 but those two losses have been to Ohio State and UCF.  I like FAU to win and cover here, so I’ll put it in the Six-Pack.

UMass at UNC-Charlotte – 20 (67.5):  UMass is 0-2 having been blown out by Rutgers and then by Southern Illinois.  Any team that loses to UMass this year deserves all the scorn it will get…

Alabama – 25 at S. Carolina (62):  Because of an injury to starting QB, Jake Bentley, the Gamecocks will start a true freshman at QB against Alabama.  Good luck with that…

Florida State – 7.5 at Virginia (58):  The Seminoles looked dispirited and disorganized last week against La-Monroe.  Virginia beat Pitt to open the season and then stomped on Division 1-AA William and Mary last week.  The undefeated team at home is getting points from a winless team on the road…  All right, then.

Oklahoma – 23.5 at UCLA (73.5):  It will be a long day – – and a long season – – for Chip Kelly.  This game should get completely out of hand quickly.  Here is another game where the Total Line has risen during the week; it started out at 66.5 points and is now up a full TD.

 

NFL Commentary:

 

Last week, Skins’ coach Jay Gruden did not put Adrian Peterson on the active roster.  Reports in the local media very politely said that Peterson was “upset” by that decision.  Rumors are flaring about how and why this happened; I have no idea if any of these are close to accurate so take the one you like best – – or make up one of your own.

• Rumor 1:  Jay Gruden wanted to cut Peterson and use that roster spot elsewhere but was directed by “upstairs” in the Skins’ organization to keep him.
• Rumor 2:  Peterson is very intense on the sidelines lobbying for more carries for himself.  Jay Gruden does not like to be distracted from his play calling duties, so he kept Peterson in street clothes for Game 1.
• Rumor 3:  Peterson is good friends with Skins’ estranged tackle, Trent Williams, and they have a mutual business interest in Houston.  The Skins’ Front Office wants to minimize Peterson’s role with the team because they see him as a conduit of information to Williams

Here is what I know…  The Skins decided to use Derrius Guice as their featured RB this year – – and of course he injured his knee and had surgery yesterday; he is out between 4 and 8 weeks  Now, the Skins can either use Peterson in that role or try to patch together a running game that features Chris Thompson, Wendell Smallwood and Craig Reynolds (currently on the Practice Squad).

[Aside:  NFL running backs get a lot of injuries.  Derrius Guice missed all last year with a knee injury and now will miss a big chunk of his second year in the league.  The Skins’ scouts and “Draft Board mavens” have shown a propensity to draft RBs who come to the league “pre-injured”.  Guice missed a significant part of his junior season at LSU with – – wait for it – – a leg injury.]

The Miami Dolphins are fielding a junior varsity level team this year aiming for a top draft pick in 2020.  Coach Brian Flores has asserted multiple times that the team is not “tanking” despite the fact that the Front Office in Miami has traded away most of the players who have any trade value.  There was a most appropriate signing by the Dolphins this week:

• The Tanking Dolphins signed free agent defensive end, Cornelius “Tank” Carradine.

If someone wrote that into a movie script, the film director would have it deleted as too obvious…

Last week, the Jags lost at home to the Chiefs 40-26.  QB Nick Foles had to leave the game in the first quarter with a broken collarbone and the prognosis is that he will be out 8 weeks.  His sub was Gardner Minshew who played last year for Mike Leach at Washington State.  Minshew acquitted himself well going 22-25 for 275 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT.  The fact is that the Chiefs’ pass pressure was tepid last week; this week Minshew will face the Texans who play better defense.

I saw a bit of LeSean McCoy with the Chiefs and while he may not be ready to be a feature RB carrying the ball 25 times a game anymore, he played well.  He ran the ball 10 times for 81 yards and caught 1 pass for 12 yards.  Not bad for a 31-year old RB…

I want to say a word here about Nick Foles.  He is a devout religious man who has said in the past that he intends to become a pastor once his football career is over.  That is a noble undertaking – certainly more noble that writing things called Football Friday and posting them on a website.  Notwithstanding the fact that I am not devoutly religious, I might point out here that God may have a message for Nick Foles that he might want to consider:

• Nick Foles has had good health and plenty of success when playing for Philly and living in the Philly area.
• Nick Foles has had limited success and some injury issues when playing for St. Louis, KC and/or Jax.
• Maybe Nick Foles should consider taking his ministry to the Philadelphia area…?

During the NFL offseason, the Cleveland Browns were the roster building winners.  They traded for Odell Beckham, Jr, and acquired Jarvis Landry to catch those passes from Baker Mayfield.  They will get Kareem Hunt as part of their backfield once his 8-game suspension is served.  Their defense drew lots of very positive accolades.  The Browns were the trendiest Super Bowl pick on the board.  And then they started to play the regular season games…

The Browns trailed the Titans 15-13 with about 2 minutes left in the third quarter.  Then the roof caved in:

• Defense gave up a 75-yard pass in the flat to Derrick Henry.  Titans 22-Browns 13.
• Defense gave up 2 short TD passes from Marcus Mariotta to Delanie Walker.  Titans 36-Browns 13.  Time left is 9:03 in the fourth quarter.
• Baker Mayfield tosses a Pick Six.  Titans 43-Browns 13.  Time left is 3:02 in the fourth quarter.
• Add these up and you find 28 unanswered points by the Titans in a game that had a 2-point differential with 17 minutes on the clock…

By the way, Baker Mayfield threw 3 INTs in the game and was tackled in the end zone for a safety.  Mayfield and his Browns’ teammates have done a lot of woofing in the offseason about their prospects and about other players in the league.  When it was time to play for real, the Browns reverted to – – being the Browns.

Bob Molinaro had this to say about the Browns in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot last week:

“America’s Team: No franchise is getting more early media play than the Browns. Between Weeks 2 and 5, Baker Mayfield and Co. are featured on Monday and Sunday night games three times.”

Let me turn to another miserable performance by an NFL team last week – – this one also by a team that year-over-year continues to find new ways to disappoint its fanbase.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Detroit Lions.

For 3 quarters of their game against the Arizona Cardinals with that new-fangled air raid offense, the Lions throttled that offense.  The longest “drive” for Cards was 11 yards in the first half.  At the end of 3 quarters, the Lions led 17-6.  Then the Lions reverted to – – being the Lions.

In the 4^th quarter, they gave up almost 200 yards of offense to the Cardinals who managed to tie the score at 24 to send the game to overtime.  Time expired with both teams having kicked a field goal on the overtime period, so the game goes into the record books as a tie.  This game was played in Arizona and I swear you could smell the funk all the way up to Las Vegas…

The Miami Dolphins quest to stink out the joint in 2019 was on track last week losing to the Ravens 59-10.  The Dolphins showed no particular aptitude in any phase of this game; it was a rout from start to finish.  Even when John Harbaugh pulled QB, Lamar Jackson, from the game and substituted RG3, the bleeding did not stop.  Here is RG3’s stat line:

• 6-6 for 55 yards and 1 TD with 0 INTs
• He also ran the ball 4 times for 9 yards.

There was an unnecessary bit of piling on here.  Leading 35-3 near the end of the first half, John Harbaugh called for a fake punt which resulted in 60-yard run that set up yet one more first-half TD.

The Bills/Jets game was “ragged” – to be polite.  There were plenty of mistakes by both teams that kept the game relatively close.  The Jets led 6-0 at the half and 16-3 after 3 quarters.  Then the Bills rallied to win the game 17-16.  The Jets’ kicker last week was Kaare Vedvick; he missed a field goal and a PAT in this game that was decided by a single point.  Vedvick was cut by the Jets and is now looking for work…  One bright light from the game is that Jamison Crowder – signed by the Jets as a free agent in the offseason – caught 14 passes for 99 yards.

The Bears lost to the Packers 10-3 on Thursday night to open the season.  Mitchell Trubisky soiled the sheets in this game; he kept going to check down receivers and the Packers were having none of that.  Trubisky’s stat line was 26-45 for 228 yards with 0 TDs and 1 INT; that is only 5.1 yards per pass attempt.  The Bears’ defense is good enough to keep them in games for most of the season, but that offense has to do a lot more than it showed last Thursday night.  Three points in 60 minutes don’t feed the bulldog…

[Aside: The Bears traded up to take Mitchell Trubisky in the draft.  In that same draft, we saw the Chiefs trade up to take Patrick Mahomes.  Seems as if the Chiefs’ scouts and draft strategists had an advantage over their Bears’ counterparts there…]

The Falcons lost badly to the Vikes last week.  They were pushed around by the Vikes offense and had difficulty gaining any traction against the Vikes’ defense.  Matt Ryan threw the ball 46 times and produced 12 points.  Kirk Cousins only threw the ball 10 times and produced 28 points.  The Vikes ran the ball 38 times for 172 yards.  Somewhere, Woody Hayes gave this game a fist pump…  This was an old-fashioned butt-stomping.

Even thought the Colts lost to the Chargers in Week 1 30-24 in OT, the Colts showed a lot stronger than many folks might have imagined given the late pre-season retirement announcement by Andrew Luck.  Let me be clear; I do not think that Jacoby Brisset is going to lead the Colts to a Super Bowl win next February.  At the same time, he showed last week that he is not a stumblebum who cannot tie his shoes and whistle a tune at the same time.  Austin Ekeler stood in as Melvin Gordon’s replacement for the Chargers and scored 3 TDs for the Chargers.  Melvin Who?  On the Colts’ side of the ledger, Colts’ RB, Marlon Mack carried the ball 25 times to gain 274 yards rushing.

The Niners beat the Bucs despite a lackluster offensive showing by Jimmy G and his cohorts.  Jameis Winston contributed significantly to the Niners win tossing 3 INTs and 2 of them were of the Pick-6 variety.  (He also fumbled the ball twice just to keep everyone in the stands and watching at home on TV awake and alert.)  Bruce Arians was supposed to be the guy who could teach Winston to be more careful with the ball.  One game is too small a sample to declare that supposition a failure – – but it surely was a failure for Week 1.  Since entering the NFL in 2015 Jameis Winston has been the “interception leader” in the NFL.

The Seahawks beat the Bengals in Seattle by a single point.  A win is a win, but this is not a positive omen.  The Seahawks defense gave Andy Dalton his biggest passing day of his career with 418 yards – – and that was without AJ Green catching the passes.

The Eagles were sleepwalking in the first half trailing 17-0 and then 20-7 at halftime against the Skins.  Nonetheless, this game exposed a significant weakness for Skins.  – – the secondary does not cover deep very well.  DeSean Jackson caught TD passes of 51 yards and 53 yards.  The second half was totally different; the Eagles were dominant.  The Skins DL is the source of most fan-pride in this area.  Against the Eagles the unit was AWOL.  Two stats to consider:

1. On third down, Carson Wentz was 12 for 13 for 178 yards and 3 TDs.
2. Eagles also ran the ball for 116 yards in the game.

[Aside:  DeSean Jackson is now one of only two players in NFL history to catch 30 or more TD passes of 50 yards or longer.  That “other player” is Jerry Rice.  Jackson now has 31 TD catches in this category; Rice retired having caught 36.]

The Pats humiliated the Steelers 33-3.  They ran the ball at will and they threw it wherever they wanted.  By the way, Tom Brady can still throw the ball downfield when he wants to…  There was an interesting coaching decision in this game:

• The Steelers had the ball at the Pats 2 yardline in 3^rd quarter trailing 20-0.
• The Steelers chose to kick a field goal – – which kept it as a 3-score game
• Really?

Ben Roethlisberger finished the game with a QB Rating of 65.6.  I am dubious about QB Ratings when it comes to hair splitting, but 65.6 is a bad rating.  Former Steeler QB, Kordell Stewart had a career QB Rating of 70; any time Roethlisberger has a game below an average game for Kordell Stewart, that is a bad day for the Steelers.   Sony Michel had a dull game for the Pats with 15 carries for 14 yards.

The Saints beat the Texans at the buzzer last week – – but the story here is that the Texans have not solved their OL issues even with Laremy Tunsil at left tackle.  Deshaun Watson was sacked 6 times in the game.  That is not how you win in the NFL – – and more importantly – – that is not how you keep your franchise QB ambulatory.

The Raiders looked very good in beating the Broncos.  I was very impressed with the way their OL stood up to the Denver pass rush.  The Broncos went inside the Raiders 10 yardline twice in the early stages of the game only to come away with field goals.  That cannot be a common occurrence if the Broncos hope to win games this year.

 

NFL Games this week:

 

Indy at Tennessee – 3.5 (44):  This is a big game in the AFC South.  If the Titans win, they will start out 2-0 and the Colts will start out 0-2.  The Texans and the Jags both lost last week and they face each other this week – – so one of those teams will also start 0-2.

Chargers – 2.5 at Detroit (48):  This will be a “body clock game” for the Chargers.  However, I think they are the better team and will cover this spread even on the road.  I’ll put the Chargers to win and cover in this week’s Six-Pack.

Buffalo – 1.5 at Giants (43.5):  The spread opened as a “pick ‘em” game.  The Bills defense was very good last week; if their offense can show up a bit earlier than the 4^th quarter this week, the Bills should prevail.  I’ll put the Bills in this week’s Six-Pack to win and cover on the road.

Arizona at Baltimore – 13 (46):  The Total Line here opened at 41.5 points and soared to this level pretty quickly.  This is a game matching two “scampering QBs”; Kyler Murray looked miserable for 3 quarters of the game last week and then looked sensational in the 4^th quarter.  Lamar Jackson dominated the Miami junior varsity defense.

New England – 19 at Miami (49):  The spread opened at 14.5 points and has been climbing all week; I would not be shocked to see it go even higher.  Do not forget, however, that in each of the last two seasons, the Pats lost to the Dolphins in Miami – – even though the Pats went to the Super Bowl both years.  I hate double digit spreads in NFL games but just for fun, I am going to follow an old Groucho Marx adage:

• If it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, chances are it’s a duck.

This looks and smells like a blowout.  I’ll put the Pats in this week’s Six-Pack to win and cover here.

Dallas – 6 at Washington (46.5): This spread opened at 4.5 points and has been creeping upward all week.  The Cowboys are clearly the better team, but the Skins always get up for this game in Washington.

Jax at Houston – 8.5 (43):  The Jags will give Gardner Minshew his first NFL start here on the road against a good Texans’ defense.  The Jags’ defensive unit has done a lot of woofing about how they are an agglomeration of bad asses; with Nick Foles on the shelf, that defense needs to show up in a big way.  I think that line is fat.  I’ll put the Jags plus the points in this week’s Six-Pack.

Seattle at Pittsburgh – 3.5 (47):  The Steelers looked awful and lost last week; the Seahawks looked bad – but won last week.  The Steelers need this game badly.

SF at Cincy – 2 (45):  This spread opened with the Niners as a 1-point favorite and then flipped.  This is the second consecutive road game in the Eastern Time Zone for the Niners 

Minnesota at Green Bay – 2.5 (43.5):  Call this the Game of the Week.  Both defenses looked very good in Week 1.  The Vikes’ offense was dominant while the Packers’ offense sputtered in Week 1.  I see this as a low-scoring game that will be in doubt until the final possession.

KC – 7 at Oakland (53.5):  The Raiders’ defense was excellent last week against Joe Flacco and the Broncos.  This week, that unit faces a slightly different challenge with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

New Orleans at Rams – 2 (52):  This is a ”revenge game” or a “vindication game” depending on which team you like better.  I have no idea who is going to win this game – – but if you must think about a wager here, I would be tempted to take OVER.

Chicago – 2 at Denver (40):  Based on Week 1 performances, this should be a dreary game; both offenses were AWOL.  This is a big game for the Bears.  If they lose and start 0-2, they will be two games behind the winner of the Vikes/Packers game in the NFC North.

(Sun Nite) Philly – 2 at Atlanta (52.5):  The spread opened as a “pick ‘em” game.  Can the Falcons really be as bad as they looked last week against the Vikes?  Can the Eagles really be as bad as they looked in the first half against the Skins?

(Mon Nite) Cleveland – 6.5 at Jets (44):  This is the Dog-Breath Game of the Week.  There are plenty of interesting pairings in Week 2 and somehow ESPN gets this pile of doggy-dooty for MNF.  That was my thinking BEFORE it was announced in mid-week that Sam Darnold has mononucleosis and will not play this week – – and maybe for several weeks.  Jets’ fans need to say hello to Trevor Simien at QB.  Meanwhile, the Jets’ defense will try to do to the Browns what the Titans’ defense did last week.  The best thing to do with this game is to flush it.

So, let me review this week’s Six-Pack:

1. Washington – 22 over Hawaii
2. Florida Atlantic – 2.5 over Ball State
3. Chargers – 2.5 over Lions
4. Bills – 1.5 over Giants
5. Patriots – 19 over Dolphins (just for fun)
6. Jags +8.5 against Texans

            Finally, since one of the features here is a Six-Pack of possible wagers, let me close with Damon Runyon’s commentary on betting:

“It may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong – but that is the way to bet.”

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

 

 

If you had any doubts that this is MLB’s “Boom or Bust Era”, here is a datum:

• The regular season does not end until 29 September.  Nonetheless, with 17 days still to go in the regular season, MLB set a record last night for the total number of HRs in a season.  The old record – set in 2017 – was 6,105 home runs.

Speaking of the impending end of the MLB regular season, the news that Christian Yelich will miss the rest of the season with a broken kneecap pretty much ends the debate as to the NL MVP for 2019.  Until the revelation that Yelich would miss the final 3 weeks of the season, I thought it was a two-horse race for the MVP honor.  Now, I think Cody Bellinger is a shoo-in for that award.

Some of the TV ratings data have come in for the first week of the NFL season and the numbers do not support those who think that the Age of Football in America is over:

• The opening game between the Packers and Bears on Thursday night saw a ratings increase of just under 15% from last year.
• Moreover, the ratings maintained their high level throughout the game even though it was a defensive struggle that ended with a 10-3 score.  [More on that later…]
• The two Monday games also drew higher ratings.  Having the Texans and Saints playing in New Orleans after the events of last year’s playoff debacle there surely helped those ratings.  This “early” Monday game had ratings up almost 24% from last year when the game was the Lions versus the Jets.
• Seeing the Raiders in the aftermath of their Antonio Brown saga probably drew a few eyeballs to that late Monday game.

I think it is interesting to note that the ratings for games often decline as the game goes on.  Those declines were smaller for this season’s opening games than in the past and this is my hypothesis as to why that is the case:

• In 2019, sports betting is readily available to people who do not live in or who have traveled to Nevada that weekend.  Sports betting is now conveniently located near large population centers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania with more “convenience” coming soon.
• I suspect that means that more people had wagers on the games last weekend; and when you are betting with the spread or on the Total Line, the game on the TV in front of you can remain “in doubt” up until the final play of the game.

If I am correct, then TV ratings – and the persistence of those ratings – should be up for much of the season.  Since TV ratings are large revenue drivers for the league, that could be a significant omen as they enter into negotiations with the networks for the next set of media rights contracts.  I believe the current network deals need to be renewed in 2022.

People who believe – or want to believe – that the Age of Football in America is in decline can point to live attendance figures to bolster their assertions(s).  Last year, the average attendance at an NFL regular season game was 67,050; that was the lowest average live gate for the NFL in 8 years.  However, the important thing to note here is that live attendance is not the revenue driver that television is.  Let’s do some math:

• If the average seat costs $100, then those 67,050 folks attending all 256 NFL regular season games produced a total revenue of about $1.72B.  That is a lot of cheese – – until you realize that the revenue is an average over 32 teams and so each team would take in about $54M.
• The network TV deals are also split evenly among the clubs and those deals bring each club a tad more than $220M.
• Even if you add in the parking fees and the beers consumed, there is no way that the live gate is comparable to the TV revenues.

In fact, I could be convinced that the NFL would not mind a bit if the live attendance dropped even more so long as TV ratings climbed a bit.  Over the past decade, the NFL teams have done just about everything they could to make the “home TV experience” as good as – or better than – the “live game experience”.

Forget the vagaries of the weather – particularly in places like Buffalo in December or Arizona in early September – the league has made the home viewing experience superior to the live game experience:

• It is more convenient – no traffic and parking hassles
• You can see the plays better on a big screen HD TV than you can at the stadium
• You can select the people with whom you will see the game
• There is less likelihood that a fight will break out in your living room as compared to the stands.
• You can watch The Red Zone Channel if that is your thing, [Aside: It is not my thing; I never watch the Red Zone.]
• Add to all the above that it is cheaper for the fan to stay home and watch the game.  Oh, and that could mean that the fan has a little more cash to “get down” on a game or two that he will want to watch to its conclusion…

The total number of fannies in seats for NFL games last year was 17.2M.  There are lots of people who attend multiple games so I would be surprised if the number of different folks going to a stadium to see a game was over 12 million.  Compare that to an estimate – surely inflated to the high side given the estimate’s source – by the American Gaming Commission that 38 million people will wager on an NFL game sometime this season.

The conclusion here is that NFL Football is a TV series and it is a TV series that is enjoyed by a wide and loyal audience.  Everything that enhances that TV series makes the NFL an even bigger player in the entertainment segment of the economy and society.  The Age of Football in America is not over yet.

Finally, here is a comment from Greg Cote in last week’s Miami Herald:

“The Ironman 70.3 World Championships were held Saturday in France. I’d planned to compete, but decided at the last minute to wait in a long line for one of those Popeye’s chicken sandwiches instead.”

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

 

 

Just when you thought it was safe to go back and read the NFL news summaries …  I thought – until last evening – that the only interesting plotline going forward regarding Antonio Brown was the possibility that he might not blend into The Patriot Way thereby setting up a divorce process that would be short-and-sweet.  How wrong was that?

The latest is that Antonio Brown has been accused of forcibly raping his former trainer on 1 occasion in 2017/ 2018 and sexually assaulting her in 2 other incidents.  The Pats assert that this is the first they have heard about this behavior; Brown professes innocence and his lawyer says that Brown:

“… will leave no stone unturned and will aggressively defend himself, including all of his rights in countersuits.”

You can read the details of this woman’s allegations in a dozen places; suffice it to say here that it will be interesting to see how the NFL handles these allegations and these investigations and balances that with Antonio Brown’s eligibility.

Speaking of Antonio Brown, if anyone were to create an award named the “Antonio Brown Yoo-Hoo I’m Over Here Look At Me Award”, I believe we would have our first nominee for that award to be given at the end of the NFL season.

• Odell Beckham, Jr. wore a wristwatch – supposedly worth $350K – during the Browns/Titans game last weekend.  He says he is going to continue to do that in future games.

I have a question here …  a watch could be used as a weapon and it certainly might inflict a totally accidental injury; so how is that allowable under the NFL rules?  If a player were to wear a pair of brass knuckles that had a watch built into the crossbar piece, would that also be an allowable accoutrement on the field?  Sheeeesh…

When I got home from Las Vegas on Monday, I had time for a nice dinner with my long-suffering wife before settling down to watch the ESPN doubleheader for Monday Night Football on opening week.  Here are a couple of observations:

1. Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland – in the booth and liberated from the sideline roving “Boogermobile” from last year – are an improvement over the three-man booth with Jason Witten.  My problem with this duo is that it does not eliminate a significant flaw for the viewer/listener who knows even a smidgen about football.
2. Let me put this in a nutshell.  Every 5-yard run or 3-yard pass completion in the flat – even if either play results in a first down – is NOT an Earth-shattering event that demands a high-decibel and breathless call on the air.  Joe Tessitore – and to a lesser extent Booger McFarland – need to dial that level of commentary back and save it for the REALLY meaningful plays in the game.

Technically, I misspoke above.  The ESPN announcing booth is really a 2.5-man booth this year.  They have a retired NFL referee, John Parry, in there to be used on an “as needed” basis and here is the deal on John Parry:

• John Parry speaks English very competently instead of “Rulebook” which is an arcane language used only by game officials, rules analysts and roger Goodell when he wants to shut down a line of questioning.

A good telecast of a well-officiated game would keep John Parry in the background collecting whatever his contract calls for on a per game basis simply because he is not needed.  But he looks to be a good addition to the ESPN announcing team for Monday Night Football.

ESPN deployed a “B-Team” crew to do the Raiders/Broncos game as the second half of the double header.  In the past, ESPN has botched the choice for that assignment; simply recall when Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic did the late game and you will understand what I mean by “botched the assignment”.  Steve Levy was very good on play-by-play; I think I prefer him to Joe Tessitore despite Levy’s lack of experience in that sort of role.  Louis Riddick was also very good as a color analyst.  Brian Griese was OK as a third voice in the booth – – but my preference would have been to have Levy and Riddick do the game as a pair and not as a trio.

USC accepted the resignation of Lynn Swann as the Athletic Director there.  Swann is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame; he is never going to be inducted into the Athletic Director’s Hall of Fame should one ever be created.  Let’s review the bidding here:

• USC Athletic Directors seem to get the job because they were star football players for USC back in the glory days.  That explains the selections of Mike Garrett, Pat Haden and Lynn Swann.  None brought any “Athletic Director experience” of any significance to the job.  If the school wants to follow that recruitment model, may I suggest that OJ might have some time on his hands soon once he finds the real killer(s).
• Swann’s most notable post-football career accomplishment was to run for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2006 and to lose that election in a landslide.
• Swann was supposed to make USC athletics relevant again without incurring any scandals along the way.  USC athletics are nowhere near as relevant as they have been in the past and there have indeed been scandals during his tenure.  We had the rich parents bribing coaches to indicate that the rich parents’ kids might be athletically relevant to gain an admission advantage; we had the FBI probing the USC coaching staff for improper/criminal basketball recruiting…

Finally, since I wondered why officials allowed a player to wear a wristwatch during a game earlier today, consider this comment from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Argentina’s women’s basketball team was forced to forfeit its Pan American Games contest against Colombia for showing up in white uniforms instead of blue.

“And you thought the NFL’s fashion police were strict?”

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

 

 

The fact that I am back at the keyboard today means that my weekend winnings in Las Vegas were not such that I wound up as the owner of one of the major casinos there.  Not to worry though; as they must say in the Detroit Lions’ Front Office:

• We’ll get ‘em next year.”

Many Internet sites are commercial enterprises; they exist to make money for the person(s) who own the site and who work to keep the site relevant.  In that world, it is critical to get people to visit the site regularly and frequently.  It is analogous to the TV business where the ratings for programming drives revenue for the stations/networks; the essential measure is how many eyeballs are on your site or station because that is what advertisers will pay money for.

There are myriad ways to attract viewers or readers; one such way is to keep the content on the site as edgy as possible.  Over the weekend, I read a report that the owner/founder of an Internet sports website criticized the fact that one of the Notre Dame leprechaun mascots this year is not a “midget looking ginger”.  Indeed, one of the leprechauns is Black.

Why that is important in the sports world is not nearly clear to me.  Why that is important in a current sociological sense is not clear to me either.  The potential for economic benefit here is transparently clear to me and even though I am a staunch advocate for free expression and for free enterprise, I find this one just a tad on the smarmy side of the ledger.  The fact that this comment about a leprechaun mascot that does not look the part might indicate that that the speaker does not realize that one of the other Notre Dame mascots this year is a female.  [Evidently, there are three leprechaun mascots at Notre Dame; who knew?]  I am not an expert in Irish legends and folklore, but I do not recall any stories where leprechauns were of the female persuasion.

Things are REALLY getting outrageous at Notre Dame these days …

I overheard a segment of sports radio in Las Vegas – I don’t know the station or the host(s) – but the topic of discussion was Andrew Luck’s abrupt retirement from the NFL.  One of the speakers contended that Luck’s decision was another sign that the “age of football” (his oft-repeated phrase) had peaked and was now starting into a slow decline.  His reasoning was that the NFL will not see many players choosing to play into their 30s anymore because the players now recognize the long-term damage it does to their bodies and their brains.  That recognition coupled with the escalating salary cap – at least for now – gives players the chance to make money in their 20s and then brush the game off leaving the league with a shortage of marketable stars over long and sustained careers.

In Andrew Luck’s specific situation, he made approximately $100M in his 20s – and took a physical beating while doing so.  This radio host/speaker is absolutely correct to say that anyone in such a situation can choose to stop working in that field of endeavor and stop taking a beating.  However, I do not think that is nearly a sign of the sure-fire demise of football in the US.  Consider:

• Even with escalating salary cap numbers, there are not a lot of players who will make $100M while they are still in their 20s.  The NFL has about 2000 men on their collective rosters.  Even if every player who made that kind of money chose to quit the game before age 30, there would still be plenty of people to play the games.
• The fact that the opportunity to make that kind of life-changing wealth in short order may possibly attract even more players to the game.  One might not choose to “take a beating for 6 or 7 years” in order to make a million or two, but for 100 million…?

Predictions based on extrapolation from small data sets is risky business indeed; extrapolation from a single datum is not extrapolation; it is guessing.  This radio host/speaker may be completely correct – – but I will need more data before I agree.

I cannot make it through a rant for today without that Antonio Brown signed on with the Patriots over the weekend.  My initial reaction was surprise until I recalled that the Patriots and Bill Belichick have done this before:

• Randy Moss
• Chad Ochocinco (née Johnson)
• Albert Haynesworth
• Josh Gordon (currently on the active roster)

Will Antonio Brown work out in New England?  Randy Moss did; Albert Haynesworth did not.  Here is the only thing I am confident about:

• If Antonio Brown continues to enhance his brand by acting the fool and by poking at his coaching staff and teammates, he will be released unceremoniously by the Patriots.  Signing Brown is not a deviation from “The Patriot Way”; signing Brown is an offer to him to buy into “The Patriot Way”.

The Boston Red Sox are less than a full season removed from their World Series win last October.  It appears that the Sox will not make the playoffs this year without a spectacular finish to the season and the franchise has demonstrated a belief in the credo, “What have you done for me lately?”  They fired GM, Dave Dombrowski – the architect of that World Series winning team from 10 months ago.

The significant question facing the person who permanently succeeds Dombrowski in the job is very direct;

• Was 2019 an aberration for the Red Sox – – or is this roster too overpaid to allow the team any sort of flexibility to fix the most obvious flaw (the bullpen)?
• The Sox also need an overhaul/restocking of a farm system that is rated near the bottom in MLB by folks who follow that sort of thing closely.

That is a tough environment for a new GM when the team is in “What have you done for me lately?” mode…

Finally, since I mentioned Antonio Brown above, consider this comment about Messr. Brown by Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“A British man has been hospitalized for weeks with groin blisters and severe burns from leaving hair-removal cream on too long.

“On the bright side, though, he just clinched the first annual Antonio Brown Weird Injury of the Year Award.”

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

 

 

Football Friday falls on a Thursday this week.  The reason for that calendar inversion is rather simple.  Early tomorrow morning, I will board an airplane for a flight to Las Vegas; our “Annual Autumnal Pilgrimage” is much earlier than usual this year due to major calendar conflicts in the month of October.  And so, this week’s offering is being composed at a time when the lines for some of the games – particularly NFL games – are still in a fluid state.  No matter; we will make do with what we got…

College Football Commentary:

Let me start with some reflections on last week’s college football games.  The teams ranked in the Top 25 in the pre-season polls did very well last week.  Those teams went 24-1, and the one loss (by Oregon) was to another team ranked in the Top 25 (Auburn).  There will be plenty of changes in the shuffling of the order of these teams – and there will surely be lots of “replacements” too as the season progresses.  However, for the first week the pollsters seem to have “gotten it right”.

The seemingly perennial success of the SEC in football has generated a cadre of folks who in modern parlance are “haters”.  Those haters can revel in the results of last week’s college football games where 4 SEC teams lost to opponents that do not have the pedigree of “an SEC team”.  Let’s review:

1. South Carolina led UNC 20-9 in the 4^th quarter and came from ahead to lose the game 24-20.  Remember, UNC was 2-10 last year.  This was Mack Brown’s first game back as a coach in about 7 years.  This loss is probably the least embarrassing one for the SEC since UNC is also a Power 5 school.
2. Missouri lost to Wyoming – not a Power 5 school – by a score of 37-31.  Mizzou outgained the Cowboys 530 yards to 389 yards and only gave up 92 yards passing.  Here is the embarrassing part; the Wyoming coach earned a “six-figure bonus” in his contract for beating this SEC opponent.
3. Ole Miss lost to Memphis 15-10.  Memphis is a member of the American Athletic Conference (AAC) which is never mistaken for the SEC when the subject is football.  What makes this game very embarrassing for Ole Miss and the SEC is the dominance of the Memphis defense here.  For the game, Ole Miss generated a total of 163 yards of offense (83 passing and 80 rushing).  In the first half, Ole Miss had a total of minus-1 yard rushing.  That’s bad enough but the Rebels’ offense is now under the tutelage of Rich Rodriguez who is generally known as an offensive guru.
4. Tennessee lost to Georgia State 38-30 in the most embarrassing loss of the day.  Why is this the most embarrassing loss of the day?  Let me count the ways…  First, Tennessee reportedly paid Ga St $950K to make the trip to Rocky Top and take a beating at the hands of the Vols.  That did not happen.  Next, Ga St was a 26-point underdog in the game, and this was the first time that Ga St has ever beaten a Power 5 team.  Third, Ga St is a Sun Belt team and Sun Belt teams aspire to become AAC teams one day.  Fourth, lest you think that Ga St was some sort of lurking power among the smaller football programs, they were 2-10 last year.  They were mediocre on offense (90^th in the country out of 130 schools) and they were way south of mediocre on defense (125^th in the country).  Fifth, the Vols overhauled their coaching staff significantly in the offseason to “change the culture”; they have a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator.  And all of that resulted in a loss at home to Georgia State…

Jeremy Pruitt is the head coach at Tennessee and his job security took a major hit last weekend.  BYU comes calling this week and then there is another cupcake home game against UT-Chattanooga before the Vols start SEC play with games against Florida and Georgia.  Pruitt came to Tennessee last year and went 5-8 in 2018; this embarrassing loss is not going to be forgotten quickly; Jeremy Pruitt’s honeymoon at Tennessee is over.

You can accuse me of piling on here if you wish – – but that is what we do here in Curmudgeon Central:

• One more home loss to a school of the football pedigree of Ga St and you can start referring to it as Rocky Bottom.
• Since Tennessee paid Ga St to make the trip and then Ga St beat them up, you might want to call this a “Jussie Smollett Game”.  Too soon …?

Teams at the top of the SEC did just fine last week.  Alabama beat Duke 42-3 in a game that I said would be an organized ass-kicking.  Georgia beat Vandy and covered a 3 TD spread in the process.  Auburn rallied to beat Oregon as noted above.  Florida beat Miami and LSU demolished Georgia Southern.

In the Big 10, Ohio State toyed with Florida Atlantic winning by 24 points.  Illinois beat Akron 42-3.  Wisconsin dominated USF 49-0 with Jonathan Taylor rushing for 183 yards in less than ¾ of a game.  Penn St. beat Idaho 79-7 in a game that should not have been scheduled in the first place.  Maryland beat Howard 79-0 in another game that should never have been scheduled.  Northwestern lost to Stanford 17-7, but Stanford was ranked in the Top 25 so that is not an embarrassing loss.

Nebraska beat South Alabama which was expected.  What was unexpected is that it took two defensive TDs and a punt return for a TD to make it happen.

The worst loss for the Big 10 came when Purdue lost to Nevada 34-31.  Purdue was cruising at halftime with a 24-7 lead.  But the second half was all Wolfpack.  The fact that Purdue turned the ball over 5 times assured their demise.

There was another embarrassingly bad loss last weekend; Florida State lost at home to Boise State 36-31.  That may not sound all that bad – – until you know that Florida State led at halftime 31-19; that’s right; they were shut out in the second half and as embarrassing as that could be, consider that the Boise St. comeback was led by a true freshman at QB.  Coach Willie Taggert – – who is not all that far from becoming known colloquially as Beleaguered Coach Willie Taggert – – said that he was not sure that his team was properly hydrated for that game.

• Memo For Coach Taggert:  That’s on you!  If you and your staff – in the second year of your regime in Tallahassee – cannot more properly hydrate your team than the folks from not-so-tropical Boise State, then you may not be up to the job you have signed onto.

It’s time to cut out the apologetic language for the Florida State program under Willie Taggert.  It stunk out the joint last year and it did not cover itself in glory in Game One of this year.  Consider that the Seminoles’ defense allowed Boise St. to post 586 yards of offense.  Meanwhile, the total offense for the Seminoles in the second half was all of 51 yards.  That is – – using plain language – – unacceptable…

Here is the “fork in the road” question from the outcome of the Florida State/Boise State game:

• Does this fire up the “FireWillieTaggert.com” website and its progeny?
• Does this start a media narrative that Boise St will be the team that is frozen out of the CFP this year?

Or … could it be both…

If you want a feelgood story from last week, consider that Kansas won its season opener against Indiana State.  Yes, I know that Indiana St. is a Division 1-AA team but this is a win for Les Miles in his first game at Kansas; as of this morning, Les Miles is undefeated in Lawrence, Kansas; that situation will not obtain for very long, so we need to enjoy it for the moment of its expression.

In ACC action, Clemson beat Georgia Tech 52-14.  Last week, I said this game would get ugly quickly; the score was 28-0 at halftime.  The Clemson defense looked as if it might be a top-shelf unit once again this year despite sending 4 players to the NFL over the summer.  The Clemson offense racked up 632 yards and Travis Etienne carried the ball 12 times for 205 yards and 3 TDs.  Wow!

Boston College beat VA Tech in a conference game on opening day by a score of 35-28.  The surprises here are twofold:

1. BC actually scored 35 points in a single game?
2. BC did that against the defense coached by the legendary Bud Foster of VA Tech?

So that you know that this outcome was not a fluke, Boston College amassed more than 300 yards of offense in the first half of this game…

Notre Dame beat Louisville 35-17 – – but the Irish did not look dominant in doing so.  Louisville was a disaster last season giving up 40+ points every time you looked at the weekend scoreboard.  The Cardinals were 2-10 for the season and 0-8 in ACC games.  They turned over the entire coaching staff and this team has plenty of speed but not a lot of brute strength.  Speed can – however – be lethal and after watching this first game, it would not surprise me to see Louisville win a handful of game this year.  The Louisville QB runs around a lot – and he is very fast – but when he tries a pass, it is like Pee Wee Herman trying to connect with a certified hottie in a bar during Happy Hour.

Cincy beat UCLA 24-14 last week.  This is not an auspicious start for Chip Kelly in his second year in Westwood.  The reason I say this not auspicious is that “OFFENSE” is Chip Kelly’s calling card and in this game the Bruins managed to gain only 2.5 yards per offensive play against Cincy.  Maybe at the end of the year, I will look at this differently if Cincy holds the rest of its opponents to similarly underproductive totals.  However, I am not going to bet on that; I think that Chip Kelly does not have the players to run his style of offense at UCLA and that he is too stubborn to admit that and make changes.

Out west, Utah/BYU was a 9-6 game at half time in the rivalry known as The Holy War.  [Aside:  The intensity of this rivalry equals many of the nationally recognized rivalries but this one does not get nearly the widespread attention that it deserves in my opinion.]  Utah was one of the pre-season Top 25 and the Utes pulled away in the second half to win 30-12.  I said in a previous rant that I think Utah can win the PAC-12 South again this year and maybe win the PAC-12 thereby going to the Rose Bowl; their defense in Week 1 was solid; it held BYU under 300 yards total offense.

There was a meaningless game that caught my attention last week.  Rutgers beat UMass like a drum.  It was 21-7 early on; it was 38-21 at halftime; the final score was Rutgers 48 and UMass 21.  I said last week that being a “more-than-2-TD underdog” to Rutgers might be a message to the folks who run UMass that maybe – – just maybe – – they do not belong in Division 1-A football.  Losing to Rutgers by 27 points puts an exclamation point on that suggestion I made…

NCAA Games This Week: (Remember, these are lines from early in the week…)

Texas A&M at Clemson – 17.5 (64.5):  The spread opened at 19 and dropped immediately to this level; the Total Line opened at 60.5 and jumped to this level by Tuesday afternoon.  Let me be clear; I do not think Texas A&M is going to win this game on the road against Clemson.  But that line might have a bit of fat in it.  The Aggies do not have the talent level of teams like Alabama or Clemson; but they are not a bunch of stumblebums who just happened to find their way into a sporting goods store where there was a sale on shoulder pads.  The Aggies should keep this closer than Georgia Tech did last week; they might keep it down to a 2-score game.  Put this one in this week’s Six-Pack.

New Mexico St. at Alabama – 54 (64):   The spread here opened at 55.5 and has dropped because that is a metric ton of points to lay.  However, consider this…  Last week New Mexico St lost to Washington St. by 51 points.  So, is Alabama only a field goal better than Washington St.?  Here is another question …  Who has done the scheduling for New Mexico St. starting out against the likes of Washington St and then Alabama?  The Marquis de Sade?

Stanford at USC – 1.5 (45): USC had a Pyrrhic Victory last week; they beat Fresno St. 31-23 but lost their starting QB for the season to a knee injury.  Stanford is on the fringes of the “Top 25” and travels to LA to take on the Trojans.  The spread opened at 3.5 points and has dropped quickly to this level.

Rutgers at Iowa – 20 (50):  Rutgers manhandled UMass last week.  Please do not confuse UMass with Iowa.

LSU – 6.5 at Texas (55):  Both teams would like to think of themselves as “dark horses” to crash the CFP party this year.  I am not buying into any of that; but these are two very good teams and this is probably the best game of the week in college football.  The spread opened at 4.5 points and has inched up all week – – telling me that there is a heavy preponderance of money on LSU in this game.  I don’t think LSU is 9.5 points better than Texas which is what the spread would be on a neutral field if the spread at Texas is 6.5 points.  That means the line is fat so put LSU plus the points in this week’s Six-Pack.

Cincy at Ohio St – 15.5 (55.5):  Cincy beat UCLA comfortably last week.  Ohio St. plays football on a higher plane than UCLA.

Army at Michigan – 22.5 (47.5):  It is always interesting to watch a “big-time school” take on one of the service academies because it means the “big-time school” has to defend the triple option for the one-and-only time of the season and it has to deal with an opponent that though out-manned will not stop playing hard.

Vandy at Purdue – 7 (56):  Both teams lost last week and neither loss was a pretty one…

USF at Ga. Tech – 6 (62):  Last year, USF won its first 7 games.  Then it lost 6 in a row and it started off 2019 with a loss last week.  Not good…  Ga Tech got trucked by #1 Clemson last week and has a new coach and a new offensive system.  Not good…

Arkansas at Ole Miss – 7 (52.5):  I am looking at last week’s results and the upcoming schedule for these two teams in the SEC West and thinking that this may be the only “Conference win” for whoever wins this one.

(Fri Nite) Marshall at Boise St. – 10.5 (57):  Will this be a let-down game for Boise St, after beating Florida St last week?  How will Boise St. do on a “short week” and the long trip home from Tallahassee to Boise – – approximately 2000 miles.

Ohio at Pitt – 5 (54):  Ohio will try to run the ball against Pitt.  If they can do so in their power run game, they will turn this game into a classic UNDER bet.  Pitt gave up 129 yards on the ground last week…

Syracuse at Maryland – 2 (56):  My guess is that one of these teams will win this game by at least 10 points.  Which one …?  If you pick the winner here, the spread should not intervene…

Nebraska – 3.5 at Colorado (65):  Colorado beat Colorado St. by 3 TDs last week; Nebraska beat South Alabama by 2 TDs last week.  What bothers me about Colorado here is that they gave up 505 yards of offense to Colorado State in the process of winning that game.  Here are two undefeated teams that did not look all that good in Week 1.

BYU at Tennessee – 3.5 (52):  This is a career moment for Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee.  If the Vols lose this game at home, they are looking at a 1-4 start for the season and that will not feed the bulldog with the folks in Knoxville who have humongously unrealistic expectations for their football teams.

Coastal Carolina at Kansas – 8 (52):  Les Miles seeks to extend his home game win streak to 2 games here…

Miami – 3.5 at UNC:  The spread opened at 6 points and has been edging down all week.  This is an important game for both teams.  If UNC wins, it will be 2-0 and will have matched last year’s win total before the equinox.  Miami lost last week against a team considered to be in the Top 10; no one thinks UNC is of that caliber; so, if Miami wants to use the loss last week as a rallying point for the season, it needs to win this game convincingly.

Cal at Washington – 14 (43):  If this is indeed a low scoring game as indicated by the Total Line, those 14 points look very attractive.

Oregon St. at Hawaii – 6.5 (78):  This is the second PAC-12 team in two weeks to pay a visit to Hawaii.  Last week, Arizona came home with a loss.  Most folks think Arizona is a better team than Oregon State.  You make the call …  The Total Line here indicates that this should be a “TIO Game” where Tackling Is Optional.

NFL Commentary: 

            As the 100^th season of NFL football commences with a Packers/Bears game in Soldier Field, two very brief points of NFL history seem appropriate:

1. The Packers joined the American Professional Football Association (APFA) in 1919 and that entity morphed into the National Football League.  When the team was formed, Curly Lambeau got money from the Indian Packing Company – a company that packed and canned meats – to fund the team’s uniforms.  That is how the team nickname became the “Packers”.
2. The Bears began their existence as the Decatur Staleys.  It was a “company team” for the A. E. Staley Food Starch Company and they played their games at Staley Field which was a “recreational facility” for the employees.  The company hired George Halas to run the club in 1920 and turned the team over to Halas in 1921 as negotiations proceeded to give birth to the National Football League.

            Back in the Spring – it was proximal to the NFL Draft as I recall – there were reports that the league and the players’ union were going to sit down and begin discussing/negotiating a new CBA despite the fact that the current one still has time to run.  The reports said that the NFL wanted to have a new deal in place by the start of this season.  Well, “this season” begins tonight at 8:20 PM when the Packers and Bears kick off at Soldier Field.  Having heard no reports from insiders regarding major breakthroughs in said discussions/negotiations, I suspect that this will be a deadline missed.

An NFL storyline that persisted over the summer months dealt with the retirement of Rob Gronkowski and whether he was going to change his mind and come back to play with the Patriots in 2019.  The fact that he has not signed on to do so as of this morning coupled with the start of the season this evening would seem to suggest that he will not be playing a full season in New England in 2019.  However, his retirement does raise an interesting question:

• Who deserves the mantle of “Premier Tight End in the NFL” now that Gronk has retired?

I think there are two candidates and I will list them here alphabetically because I am certain that any of the 30 teams that do not have one of these guys on their roster would offer sacrifices to the football gods if they could acquire either one.

• Zach Ertz (Eagles):  He is not quite the downfield threat that Gronk was nor can he block in the power run game the way Gronk did.  He runs great routes and when he gets his hands on the ball it is as if he has magnets in those hands.  Last year, he caught 116 passes for 1163 yards.
• Travis Kelce (Chiefs):  Like Ertz, he cannot block nearly as well as Gronk could.  Kelce is a bigger downfield threat than Ertz.  Last year, he caught 103 passes for 1336 yards.

You make the call…

Ezekiel Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys have finally reached an agreement on a contract extension and Elliott can stop working out in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  According to reports, the deal is for 6 years (to begin after the 2 remaining years on Elliott’s rookie contract expire) for $90M with $50M of that contract guaranteed.  I do not doubt for a moment that there were sticking points in these negotiations along the way, but the timing here causes my cynicism gene to activate.

• If the Cowboys can “accommodate” $90M to Elliott from 2021 through 2027 with regard to the salary cap and its anticipated levels in those years, it would seem clear to me that those calculations and accommodations could have been recognized several months ago.
• It is going to take a bit of convincing to get me to believe that this “contractual impasse” was not driven by a desire to keep Ezekiel Elliott out of harm’s way in training camp – and meaningless Exhibition Games – as much as by money and contractual language.
• The ancillary benefit that accrued to the Cowboys by making this a “contractual impasse” was to keep the Cowboys front-and-center in NFL news stories for the past several months.  And we do know how Jerry Jones loves to deal with the media…

A story broke earlier this week that the Raiders have fined Antonio Brown $53,950 for missing 2 practices.  There is no question that he missed the practices; there is no question that the Raiders are within the terms of the CBA to levy and collect the fines; there is no question that many teams rescind such fines for star players; there is no question that Antonio Brown is not happy with the fact that the Raiders want him to “pay up”.  None of that is particularly interesting to me because there is another issue here that is below the surface:

• One of the things that was cited about Brown’s deleterious effect on the Steelers’ locker room was that he sometimes skipped practices.  [Aside: Somewhere Allen Iverson smiles knowingly…].
• The Raiders gave Brown a new $50M contract with about $30M of it as guaranteed money as one of the events that got him from the Steelers to the Raiders.
• The Raiders may be a tad miffed that Brown has not shown the same respect for the Raiders that the Raiders showed to him.  However, can they really be surprised here?  They gave a certified prima donna $30M guaranteed and then they expected that he would change his behavior patterns?  Really?

The Games: 

(Thurs Nite) Green Bay at Chicago – 3 (46.5):  The Bears featured defense last year and they have a new defensive coordinator for this opening game.  The Packers featured offense last year – and for several years before that – and they have a new coach and a new offensive system for this opening game.

Atlanta at Minnesota – 4 (48):  This line has been rock-solid; no movement of any importance.  The Falcons have the better QB and the Vikes have the better defense.  The tipping point in this game is Dalvin Cook because the Falcons defense has been vulnerable to the run for several seasons now.

Washington at Philly – 10 (45):  This is the biggest spread on the board for the weekend, and it has been getting larger as the week unfolds having opened at 7.5 points.  I will not make a pick in a Week 1 divisional match-up where the spread is in double-digits, but the Eagles are a better team than the Skins.

Buffalo at Jets – 3 (40.5):  Another divisional game in Week 1 but this one ought to be close.  The game may be very important to these teams in terms of tiebreakers once December rolls around.  The Bills’ defense was second in the league last year in terms of yards allowed; it was the Bills’ offense that did not hold up its end of the stick.  Josh Allen and his buddies need to show improvement this year.  I am tempted to take the UNDER here, but it is too early in the season to put that sort of trust in both of these defensive units; however, I agree with the oddsmakers that this should be a low-scoring game.  In low-scoring games I like to take points so put the Bills +3 in the Six-Pack for the week.

Baltimore – 6.5 at Miami (38.5):  Who knows if the Ravens’ “newfangled offense” for Lamar Jackson is worth anything?  Given the opposition this week, we will likely not know the answer to that for Week 2 – – unless of course the Ravens’ total offense in this game is 125 yards.  Against the Dolphins’ defense, this is a game where Lamar Jackson should shine and get people to over-react to his Week 1 stats.  The Dolphins are tanking and if Ryan Fitzpatrick maneuvers a win for the team here, you can consider his “Fitzmagic” to be on a par with Harry Houdini’s.  Mao Zedong embarked on “The Long March” as part of his revolution to seize control of China; the Marlins start here on their own version of “The Long March” but their destination is “Sorry-assed”.

SF at Tampa “pick ‘em” (50.5):  The oddsmakers want me to pick the winner here.  I prefer not to do that.  I think the Niners are the better team – – but they are not yet a reliably good team.

KC – 3 at Jax (52):  We can be pretty sure that the Jags’ defense will be good, and we can be pretty sure that the Chiefs’ offense will be pretty good too.  The reports surrounding the Jags for this year say that the biggest improvement there is not Nick Foles at QB but rather, a new and energized running game featuring a more mature Leonard Fournette.  If that is the case, then the Jags have a shot at this game because the Chiefs’ defense against the run is suspect.

Tennessee at Cleveland – 5 (45.5):  This is another of those “Tectonic Lines”; there has been little to no movement.  The Titans have been one of the most unpredictable squads in the NFL for several years now; the Browns are – far and away – the most over-hyped squad in the NFL now.  The last time the Browns won the opening game of the season was in 2004.

Rams – 2.5 at Carolina (49.5):  Assuming that Cam Newton is fully healthy on Sunday, I think this game could turn into a shootout where the losing team scores 30 points.  I like the OVER in this game, so put it in the Six-Pack for the week.

Detroit – 3 at Arizona (46.5):  This game opened as a “pick ‘em” game and for some reason enough people bet real money on the game to move the line.  Folks, this is the Dog-Breath Game of the Week.  Who knows how – or even if – Klif Kingsbury’s air attack offense will work in the NFL?  Who in their right mind would bet on the Lions on the road and give points?  File this game under the letter “I” – – for “Ignore”.

Cincy at Seattle – 9.5 (44):  The Seahawks are a good team that just got better by adding Jadeveon Clowney.  The Bengals are a hot mess on offense because their OL is not very good plus AJ Green is injured and he is far and away the best offensive player on the roster.  It’s a large spread, but I think this one will be a blowout in Seattle so put the Seahawks to win and cover in this week’s Six-Pack.

Indy at Chargers – 6.5 (44.5):  The spread here opened at 3.5 points and the Total Line was 48 points; then Andrew Luck made his announcement.  Luck’s absence here has overshadowed the fact that the Chargers will play without Melvin Gordon and Derwin James.  Gordon’s replacement will be Austin Ekeler.  If that name is unfamiliar to you, that is because he was an undrafted free agent who went to college at Western Colorado in Gunnison, CO.  Yes, this is a road game for the Colts in terms of geography, but the tiny crowd in the StubHub Center will not be any sort of intimidation here.

Giants at Dallas – 7 (45.5):  Anyone who thinks the Giants are the better team here is living in a delusion; even if Ezekiel Elliott were still in Cabo San Lucas working out there, the Cowboys would be the better team on the field.  The most interesting part of this game is that Elliott and Saquon Barkley will both be on display.

(Sun Nite) Pittsburgh at New England – 6 (50.5):  This is the Game of the Week.  I think both teams will win their division; that is not true of any other match-up in Week 1.  Both teams had to make roster changes in the offseason, but these are the two most stable coaching staffs and franchises in the league.  Neither team is going to make disastrous choices on that axis.  I think that line is fat; I can easily see this game being decided on the last possession.  Moreover, even in the decade of dominance for the Pats, they are not nearly as dominant in September as they are in December/January.  I’ll put the Steelers plus the points in this week’s Six-Pack.

(Early Mon Nite) Houston at New Orleans – 7 (53):  The Texans’ outstanding defense took a hit last week with the trade of Jadeveon Clowney.  The Texans’ embarrassingly bad OL got an upgrade last week with the trade for Laremy Tunsil.  The team may or may not have improved, but Deshaun Watson’s peace of mind must have improved.

(Late Mon Nite) Denver – 1 at Oakland (43):  This line opened with the Raiders favored by 3 points at home.  For the line to have moved that much – and to have changed the favorite – there must have been a preponderance of “Bronco money” that showed up early.  Here is a key to this game:

• The Raiders OL has been less than good for a couple of years now.  The Broncos have a pair of pass rushers in Bradley Chubb and Von Miller that will harass Derek Carr all night.  Can Jon Gruden scheme a way to negate their pass rush?

Let me review this week’s Six-Pack:

1. Texas A&M + 17.5 at Clemson
2. LSU +6.5 at Texas
3. Buffalo +3 at Jets
4. Rams/Carolina OVER 49.5
5. Seattle – 9.5 vs Cincy
6. Pittsburgh +6 at New England

Finally, the full onset of football season will provide the opportunity for automobile manufacturers to inundate us with ads for their SUVs.  You know they are coming…  So, here is a pertinent entry in The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“SUV: Sport Utility Vehicle.  A type of automotive transport that has, for some unknown reason, gotten a bad rap just because, in times of world unrest, difficult economic circumstances, and impending environmental destruction, its fuel economy tops out at about 4.2 miles per gallon.”

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