Author: Jack

Roy Halladay died yesterday in an airplane accident.  He had a pilot’s license and his two-passenger aircraft crashed in the Gulf of Mexico.  He was only 40 years old.  Halladay won the Cy Young Award in both the AL and the NL and he threw a perfect game in his career.  When he becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame, he should be enshrined.

Rest in peace, Roy Halladay…

Back in August of this year, I offered up a categorization of the of the NFL Backup QBs for all 32 NFL teams.NFL .  In August 2015, I wrote about how the Law of Supply and Demand applied to NFL teams and available QBs to play for those teams.  The names may have changed somewhat, but the situation remains the same; the absence of 32 very good QBs forces teams to pursue and pay competent QBs handsomely and the weakness of the “backup QB cadre” puts teams in a severe bind should they have to resort to using a backup.  Plus ça change ; plus ça même chose …

Because professional football is played by human beings and not automatons, there is necessarily a difference in the capabilities and the performance of the quarterbacks among the 32 teams in the league.  Moreover, NFL fans must have recognized over the years that the difference in performance from the best QB to the worst QB is starkly evident.  It is that “performance disparity” that entices NFL Front Offices to look for “franchise QBs” almost over anything else a team may need; and then, when they find a player they consider to be a “franchise QB”, they inundate him with money.

This is the “new normal” in the NFL economy and it is not necessarily rational.  Consider:

• The highest paid player in the league in 2017 is Matthew Stafford.  He is 29 years old and his stats and the “eyeball test” certainly indicate that he is in the upper echelon of QBs plying the trade today.  At the same time, the stats also indicate that Stafford has a losing record as a starting QB (55-62) and that halfway through his 9^th season, he has led the team to the playoffs only 3 times and has yet to win a playoff game.  He is the highest paid player because he is the most recent QB to sign a long-term “franchise deal”.
• The second highest paid player in the league in 2017 is Derek Carr.  He is 26 years old and his stats and the “eyeball test” also indicate that he is in the upper echelon of QBs plying the trade today.  Like Matthew Stafford, Carr has a losing record as a starting QB (26-29) and while he did lead the Raiders to the playoffs last year, he was injured for that playoff game.  He is the second highest paid player because he signed his long-term “franchise deal” a bit before Stafford signed his.
• The third highest paid player in the league in 2017 is Kirk Cousins.  He is 29 years old and his stats and the “eyeball test” also indicate that he is in the upper echelon of QBs plying the trade today.  He too has a career losing record as a starter (23-25-1) and he too has never won a playoff game.  He is being paid at this level because the Skins’ Front Office/ownership has used the franchise tag on him two years in a row.  He will be “franchised” again at the end of this year or become a free agent looking for more money than Matthew Stafford got in his most recent “franchise deal”.  He just might be the highest paid player in the NFL in 2018…

I cite these situations not to demean the players in any way nor to suggest that the teams involved should not have signed them when they had the chance to do so.  What I am trying to point out here is that the marketplace for competent NFL QBs is so thin that teams are paying very large sums for “potential” instead of for “performance”.  No one who watches/follows NFL football even casually would suggest that the troika of Stafford/Carr/Cousins is more accomplished than the threesome of Brady/Roethlisberger/Rodgers.  Nevertheless, the compensation rankings might suggest that were the case…

The reason teams fall all over themselves to overpay good QBs can be seen when you look at the folks who are backup QBs on teams that have not needed them to play and then looking at what has happened to teams forced to go to the bullpen – so to speak – recently.

• It took the Colts’ braintrust about no time at all to realize that Scott Tolzein would not cut it as a starter for an extended period of time this year and they rushed to trade for Jacoby Brisset.  Make no mistake, however, Brisset does not perform at the level that the “franchise QB” – Andrew Luck – did before he suffered his shoulder injury.
• We have only seen about 6 quarters of play by Brett Hundley in relief of the injured Aaron Rodgers.  Nonetheless, I will go out on a limb and say that the results on the field to date assure me that the Packers are in deep doo-doo until Rodgers’ injury is healed.
• The only time “Tom Savage” and “Deshaun Watson” might belong in the same sentence would be in the answer to a Jeopardy category – “Houston Texans Quarterbacks in 2017” …
• When the Ravens had to turn to Ryan Mallett for part of a game when Joe Flacco was concussed, the Ravens’ offense was immobilized.

The entry of Luck/Tolzien/Brisset on the list above raises an interesting point in light of comments earlier this week.  Colts’ owner, Jim Irsay, evidently told Tony Dungy privately that Andrew Luck’s shoulder injury/rehab is now “in his head” and not in the shoulder.  Jim Irsay is not the most “buttoned-up” owner in the NFL Owners’ Club by any stretch of the imagination but I cannot imagine any scenario that would motivate him to speculate on something like that regarding his franchise QB.  After all, he actually has one – and all of the evidence points to the fact that there are not enough of them to go around.

Finally, consider this comment from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald:

“JJ Redick is commuting from Brooklyn to Philadelphia.  An interesting statistic, he could run that far with the ball and not be whistled for traveling.”

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

 

 

 

Mitch Albom wrote the book, Tuesdays With Morrie.  Around here, Tuesdays are usually devoted to reviewing football happenings from the previous weekend – – and so to begin with college football.

1. Ohio St. suffered more than a letdown after a miraculous come-from-behind win over Penn St. two weeks ago.  The Buckeyes went to Iowa and lost by 31 points.
2. Penn St. – meanwhile – suffered a hangover from their loss to Ohio St. and lost again last week to Michigan St.
3. Wisconsin beat Indiana and is now the only team in the Big 10 with fewer than 2 losses.  In fact, if Wisconsin stumbles badly and drops out of consideration for CFP participation, then the big 10 is going to be shut out of the playoff this year.  By the way, Wisconsin’s defense is allowing an average of 10 points per game this season.
4. Notre Dame continued its winning ways with an 11-point win over Wake Forest last week.
5. Iowa St. stubbed its toe losing on the road to West Virginia.  Oklahoma beat Oklahoma St. in a game with no apparent defense at all.  TCU took care of business beating Texas.  That leaves Oklahoma and TCU atop the Big 12 with 1 conference loss each; close behind with 2 losses in conference are Iowa St., Oklahoma St., and W. Virginia.  These guys all play one another down the stretch…
6. Baylor won its first game of the season beating Kansas handily at Kansas.  Both teams are a miserable 1-8 for the season but point differentials here are very different.  Baylor’s point differential of minus-92 is not good by any means but it looks downright laudable compared to Kansas’ point differential of minus-203.
7. Clemson beat NC State by a TD, but it was a struggle.  Also in the ACC, Miami beat VA Tech in what seems like a “signature win” for Miami.
8. Georgia and Alabama remained undefeated in the SEC; both have conference records of 6-0.  The only team in the SEC with only 1 conference loss is Auburn and their two remaining conference games are against Georgia (this week) and Alabama (in two weeks).
9. Out west, USC grabbed control of the PAC-12 South race with a 2 TD win over Arizona last week.  In the North Division race, Washington maintained its 1-game lead over Washington St. and Stanford aided and abetted by Stanford losing to Washington St. last week.  Washington is the only PAC-12 team with only one loss overall.
10. UCF remained unbeaten for the year with a win over SMU last week.  The next two weeks do not look to be severe hurdles for UCF leading up to a season-ending game against USF – a conference rival with only 1 loss so far this year.
11. Army beat Air Force 21-0 last week.  The amazing stat from that game is that Army did not attempt a pass for the entire game.  Shades of 1917 …
12. Linfield College ran its record to 7-1 with a shutout win over Pacific Lutheran last week.  The Wildcats close out their regular season this weekend hosting Pacific (OR).  Linfield has clinched the Northwest Conference title and a likely spot in the Division III playoffs.

Because this is Curmudgeon Central, I do not subscribe to the idea that every team is a winner because every player tries his hardest.  Here is my Bottom 10 for now:

• Georgia Southern and UTEP have not won a game so far this year.
• Coastal Carolina, Kansas, Rice and UNC-Charlotte have only won one game so far this year – – and all have suffered some big defeats.  [Aside:  Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern close out the season against one another.  What a hot mess that game will be.]
• Ball St. (MAC) has 2 wins this year but has given up 55 points or more in 4 of its last 5 games.
• Kent St. (MAC) has 2 wins this year but a couple of horrific losses too.
• Bowling Green (MAC) has 2 wins this year – one over Kent St.
• E. Carolina has 2 wins this year – – and one loss to a Division 1-AA team.

Moving up to the NFL, I asked last week how much “coaching up” the Packers’ staff had been able to impart to Brett Hundley.  The answer is “not nearly enough” – – particularly if the Packers’ defense goes into “sieve-mode”.  In the loss to the Lions last night, the Packers’ defense did not force the Lions to punt even one time.

The Bucs lost to the Saints; but more importantly, it looked as if the Bucs imploded as a team.  Jameis Winston demonstrated the maturity of a 5^th grader instigating a brawl once he had been removed from the game and the Saints dominated the Bucs in just about every aspect.  The Saints lead the NFC South this week and the Bucs’ season is in the dumpster.

The other two NFC South teams squared off last week and the Panthers beat the Falcons by a field goal.  The Falcons are in the midst of one of the worst Super Bowl Hangovers ever; they rode to the game last year on the foundation of a high scoring offense; just about everyone is back this year but the Falcons have been held under 20 points in 4 of their last 5 games.  The Panthers are not fun to watch, but they are effective and win games.

Scoring 50 points in an NFL game is unusual.  Last week, the Eagles and the Rams both reached that plateau scoring 51 points against their opponents, the Broncos and the Giants.  The Broncos defense had been #1 against the run going into Sunday’s contest; the Eagles ran for more than 200 yards in the game.  The Giant’s defense was thought to be one of the best in the league; some say that unit quit during the game; I don’t know if that is the case, but they surely played listlessly and gave up some huge TD plays.  [Aside:  One more loss like this and the Giant’s coach will be known as Ben McAdon’t.]

By the way, in Brock Osweiler’s first start for the Broncos this year, he stunk out the joint…

The Texans lost to the Colts last week with Tom Savage at the helm.  The Colts’ defense is anything but formidable, but they throttled the Texans’ offense allowing one offensive TD all day long.  I do not care how big a distraction anyone thinks Colin Kaepernick may be in a locker room; Kaepernick must be better than any of the QBs currently on the active roster in Houston.

AJ Green got himself ejected from the Bengals’ game against the Jags for starting a fight and throwing punches.  The Bengals season formally ended last week; I won’t say the team quit, but they surely did not seem particularly interested in playing hard.

The Skins pulled out a last-minute win over the Seahawks in Seattle keeping their playoff hopes alive.  It is very possible that the NFC East will put 3 teams in the NFC playoffs this year.

The Raiders beat the Dolphins on Sunday Night Football in a game that was anything but “artistic”.  If the Raiders are going to tease fans with a “playoff push”, someone on the coaching staff needs to take the initiative over the BYE Week and teach defenders how to tackle.  Some of the attempts to do that on Sunday night were embarrassingly bad.  [For the record, the Raiders have played 9 games this year and have not intercepted a pass yet.]

Finally, here is a football commentary from Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel:

“A new national survey shows that Major League Baseball has surpassed the NFL as America’s favorite professional sport. I have a name for the people who voted on this survey: Liars!!! NFL TV ratings may be down, but they still dwarf MLB ratings. And, besides, everybody knows America’s favorite professional sport is college football.”

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

 

 

Over the weekend, the Breeders’ Cup races happened.  Twenty years ago, this was one of my favorite sporting events on the annual calendar, but my interest has waned significantly.  This years’ races were held at DelMar just outside of San Diego for the first time.  [Aside: If you want to go and spend a day at the races anywhere, DelMar and Saratoga are my two favorite racetracks in the US.]  The total betting handle for all the races was $166M; the handle at DelMar from the crowd in attendance was $25.2M.  Obviously, the Breeders’ Cup is economically sound.

Notwithstanding the success and the glamor surrounding the races last weekend, horseracing in the US continues its decline.  In 1989, the number of races run in the US hit a peak; that year there were 74,701 thoroughbred races run.  In 2016, that number dropped to 41,277 races; that is a 44% decrease in races over a 27-year period.  That data are anything but encouraging for those interested in the business end of horseracing.  But wait, it gets worse…

For much of the second half of the 20^th century, the average number of horses per race in the US remained relatively constant; when horses were called to the post in the US, the average race had 9 runners.  Last year, that number dropped to 7.4 runners per race and that figure has a double whammy for the economics of the industry:

1. With significantly fewer races AND significantly fewer horses running per race, the only conclusion one can draw is that the “inventory” of horses in training – the only things capable of generating income for owners – has decreased.
2. Races with smaller fields tend to draw much less interest from the betting public simply because payoffs tend to be smaller in races with fewer runners.  When the handle goes down, racetracks have few options other than to reduce purses for the races they run.

There is another angle to consider here.  In times past, the top horses in training raced frequently; Seabiscuit had a 6-year racing career and he made 89 starts; as a 2-year old, he went to the gate 35 times.  Man O War had a 2-year racing career; in those 2 years, he raced 21 times.  Forego raced until he was 8 years old.  John Henry raced until he was 10 years old and started 83 times.  You get the idea here…

• Those horses generated a following; people cared about what happened in races involving these horses and people went to the tract to see them run.  Today’s best horses might run 5 or 6 times in a year; some horses will enter Breeders’ Cup races in November with as few as one prep race in that calendar year.   It is far more difficult for the public to “get excited” about individual horses today than it used to be.

The economic pinch in the industry has not hurt “the big guys” all that much yet.  There are still enthusiastic crowds betting plenty of money at places like DelMar and Saratoga and Churchill Downs.  However, there is a blemish that has appeared among “the big guys” in the industry; Santa Anita used to race 5 days a week; currently, they race 4 days a week and track owners are reportedly considering the possibility of racing only 3 days a week.  Frankly, that makes loads of economic sense – if all you look at are “the numbers”.

• Historically, the biggest days for racing cards are Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Those days would definitely be days to open up and present racing to the public.
• If a track raced a 4^th day – let’s say Monday – that would almost certainly be the “slow day” for business but it would still put a drain on the inventory of runners at the track.  Rather than racing 7 horses in a middling claiming race on “Monday”, why not stage that same middling claiming race on “Friday” with a field of 12 – the ones that would have entered the race on “Friday in any event plus the ones who would be needed to fill the field on “Monday”?

Those numbers make sense; but those numbers do not account for the attention span of the customers.  Fifty years ago, legal venues for gambling were uncommon – except for racetracks.  Of course, people gambled in illegal ways, but the racetracks had close to a monopoly on places where gambling was acceptable.  That is far from the case today; there are casinos and lotteries available just about anywhere that a racetrack is available.  Cutting the number of racing days could present a problem for tracks if people forget they are there and take up other gambling activities instead.

In the racing industry, these are interesting times…

Since the theme for today has been economic trends related to sports, let me continue with a comment on the tax reform legislation that has been proposed in the Congress recently.  So that you know where I come from on that issue:

• I believe that tax code needs reform.  It is hugely complicated, and it obviously does not raise sufficient revenue to fund all the things that the Congress votes to spend money on.
• If the 535 Congressthings on Capitol Hill would focus on those aspects of any new legislation instead of sound bites intended only to polarize the debate, we might actually make some progress here.

There are two proposals in the tax reform bill as it stands now that I find very positive.

1. There is a “special tax rule” that has been around for a while that I knew nothing about.  This rule allows provides college sports fans with a tax deduction for a portion of their season ticket costs to athletic events.  The way this happens is that for some schools, one must make a donation to the school’s booster club in order to allowed to buy a season ticket to the football games – or basketball games.  That portion of the cost of the ticket becomes a charitable deduction to the school.  The proposed tax reform would do away that that nonsense.
2. The second proposal is one I have suggested for at least 2 decades.  If enacted, cities and states would not be allowed to issue tax free municipal bonds to fund athletic stadiums/arenas.  Any such borrowing would have to be with taxable bonds meaning that the interest rates paid by cities and states would have to be higher than they would be for tax free bonds.  This would increase Federal revenue and it would decrease the leverage that sports owners have over cities to fund new venues for them at taxpayer cost.

Lest you think the change from tax free bonds to taxable bonds is a trivial matter, here is some data from a Brookings Institution study:

• Since 2000, there have been 45 stadiums/arenas built or significantly renovated in the US for professional sports teams in the “Big 4” of pro sports.  Of those 45 constructions/renovations, 36 were paid for using tax-free municipal bond offerings.
• Using one example here, when NYC raised the funds needed to build the new Yankee Stadium, they did so with $1.7B of tax free bonds meaning that investors who bought those bonds did not pay any Federal tax on that interest.  Assume that the bonds paid 2.5% tax free interest; that means the Federal coffers did not receive any tax on income received by investors totaling about $425M.

It is not often that I have a lot to say about the US Congress that is positive.  I recognize that all of the above is merely a proposal and that none of it may make it into any new legislation – assuming that there will be new legislation passed by the Congress.  Nonetheless, I think both of those provisions in the tax-reform bill are good ideas that I support.

Finally, sticking with today’s theme of money and economics and the like, consider this comment from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:

“Aston Martin is selling a Tom Brady-edition automobile for $360,000. It is preprogrammed to drive straight to the Super Bowl.”

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

 

 

Since Friday rolled around again, I guess the thing to do is to look ahead to a weekend of football.  As is the custom in these parts, that means starting with college football.  There are several important games on the card for this weekend and a few others that might be interesting.

1. Notre Dame is squarely in the picture for the CFP; and last week, they handled a good NC State team and won by 3 TDs.  The Irish need to avoid a let-down at home this week against Wake Forest; the oddsmaker seems to have factored in that concern making Notre Dame only a 13-point favorite in the game.
2. Ohio St. has a similar concern.  After their fantastic comeback win over Penn St. last week, the Buckeyes go on the road to play a solid-but-not-great Iowa team.  The oddsmakers have Ohio St. as an 18-point favorite this morning.
3. Penn St. has the opposite challenge this week.  They lost a heartbreaker to Ohio St. last week and have to go on the road again this week to play Michigan St.  The Nittany Lions are favored by 8.5 points here but if they come out flat …
4. TCU is in the same boat as Penn St.; they suffered their first loss of the year last week in a defensive struggle with Iowa St.  This week they play a middling Texas team at home and TCU is only a 7-point favorite.
5. Auburn is a 2 TD favorite over Texas A&M and they had a BYE Week to prepare for this game.  At the same time, this is a classic “trap game” for Auburn having been idle last week and knowing that after this opponent they are supposed to beat they play Georgia – – merely ranked #1 in the country in the CFP poll.
6. Alabama hosts LSU this week and that is always an interesting game.
7. Wisconsin continues its quest to arrive at the Big 10 Championship Game undefeated with a visit to Indiana.
8. Miami also seeks to arrive at an ACC Championship Game undefeated.  This week there may be a small speed bump in the road as VA Tech pays a visit.  Tech is a very quiet 7-1 for this season and is a 2.5-point favorite despite the venue.
9. Arizona goes to USC for an important PAC-12 South game; both teams have only one loss in conference this year; the winner will have the inside track to the PAC-12 Championship Game.  This game has the potential to be very high scoring.  Arizona has scored 45 points or more in each of its last 4 games; USC can score, and they also give up points.  The Total Line for this game is 73.5 points.
10. Oklahoma St. hosts Oklahoma in an important Big 12 game that is almost guaranteed to be a scoring fest.  The game features two excellent QBs – Baker Mayfield and Mason Rudolph.  Oklahoma St. scored 50 points last week; Oklahoma scored 49 points last week; the Total Line for this game is 76 points; that seems low.
11. In another Big 12 game of importance, Iowa St. goes on the road to W. Virginia seeking to continue in its role of “giant killer” once again.  The Cyclones are 3-point underdogs in this game; I know that the Mountaineers are tough at home, but Iowa St. has already beaten an undefeated-at-the-time TCU squad and they beat Oklahoma in Oklahoma.  I think I have this right; if Iowa St. wins out, they will be in the Big 12 Championship Game.  Why is that a big deal?  Iowa St. has only won a division title once in its history; that was in 2004.  In the conferences that led up to the big 12, the last time Iowa St. was conference champion the name of the conference was the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the year was 1912.  To put that date in perspective, that was the year the Titanic sank.
12. Winless Baylor is on the road at Kansas this week and they are a 7.5-point favorite to win their first game of the year.
13. Appalachian St. is a 9-point favorite over La-Monroe this week.  That game is of no interest except for the implication for next week.  La-Monroe is not considered to be close to Appalachian St. this week and La-Monroe is scheduled to play Auburn next week.  That game should be in doubt for about 12 minutes…
14. Florida goes to Missouri this week.  Florida was stomped last week and fired their coach; Missouri has 3 wins this year over 3 embarrassingly weak teams.  Mizzou is a field-goal-favorite here.
15. Stanford visits Washington St. this week and the Cougars are 2-point favorites at home.  The thing a=bout Washington St. is that you never know what to expect.  Sometimes they come out and score a ton of points; other times their defense shuts down an opponent; sometimes, both the offense and the defense are no-shows…

Let me close out the college football commentary with an observation from Brad Rock in the Deseret News:

“Utah has lost four straight football games.

“ ‘Miserable,’ coach Kyle Whittingham said. ‘Miserable month. I guess it was 0-for-October.’

“With a bowl invitation in question, they’re already looking at 0-for-December.”

Before talking about weekend NFL action, there has been big QB news this week.  The worse news is that Deshaun Watson suffered an ACL injury in practice on a non-contact play and will be out for the rest of the year.  Tom Savage was the only other QB on the Texans’ roster so that put the Texans in the market for a backup QB where pickings are slim.  The Texans signed Matt McGloin who played for Texans’ coach, Bill O’Brien at Penn State.  We saw Savage in last year’s playoff situation; he will need to have made major improvements in his game to get the Texans over the hump and into the playoffs again this year.

The other QB news from this week emanates from the team that will travel to Houston to play the Texans on Sunday – – the Indy Colts.  The Colts announced that they have put QB Andrew Luck on IR and that he will not play this year.  You may recall that I suggested this would be a good move for them lest they be tempted to put a less-than-100% Andrew Luck out on the field and in harm’s way.  No, I will not be charging the Colts a consulting fee for that advice.  The reason this is a good move by the Colts is that the team management has competing motivations this season:

• The Colts have a new GM who inherited a hugely flawed roster and is in the process of trying to turn it over.  That will take time and the Colts are going to lose plenty of games while it is in progress.  However, this must be done; particularly, the team needs a huge upgrade to the OL in order to protect whoever is playing QB for the team.  Remember, the Colts have Andrew Luck signed for a total of $140M.
• The Colts have a coach who is on a VERY hot seat.  Chuck Pagano had 3 successful seasons when he took over going 11-5 in all three seasons and making the playoffs too.  In the last two years, the Colts have gone 8-8 and missed the playoffs in a division that was not nearly the toughest in the league.  This year the Colts are 2-6 and Pagano is a holdover coach – not hired by the new GM.  He is motivated to win some games this year more than he is motivated to worry about next year when someone else might be the coach.

In any event, the Texans opened the week as a 13.5-point favorite over the Colts.  Given that this is a division game, that is a big spread indeed.  However, with the news about Deshaun Watson, the spread has dropped to 6.5 points at some sportsbooks and to 7 points at most of the sportsbooks.  Interestingly, the Total Line did not move much; it did drop but only from 50 points to 48 points.

The Ravens visit the Titans on Sunday as a 3.5-point underdog.  The Titans had a BYE Week last week and the Ravens saw Joe Flacco leave the game with the Dolphins and enter the concussion protocol.  Flacco is expected to play but he has been hobbled all season long and it is hard to imagine how that blow to the head helped his game in any way.  The Ravens’ defense played the way you expect Ravens’; defenses to play last week; and if the Titans come to the game determined to use a power running game, this could be a low-scoring slugfest.  This is an important game for both teams.

The Eagles host the Broncos this week and the Eagles are a 7.5-point favorite in the game.  That seems like an awful lot of points to lay against a top-shelf defense like Denver’s.  At the same time, the Broncos made QB news of their own last week; they have benched Trevor Siemian and announced that Brock Osweiler will get the start.  The Eagles’ defense ain’t too shabby and could provide Messr. Osweiler with a significant challenge.  I expect a low-scoring game here and that is an awful lot of points to lay in a low-scoring game.

The Rams travel cross-country to play the Giants on Sunday.  Both teams had a BYE Week last week; I wonder if the Giants managed to find an offense in that time…

The Saints host the Bucs in a division game.  The Bucs are 2-5 and are hanging onto playoff hopes by their fingernails; the Saints, surprisingly, lead the division and are riding a 5-game winning streak.  The Bucs’ defense has underperformed this year; it ranks 29^th in the NFL; the Saints’ defense – traditionally a horrid unit – has been a most pleasant surprise this year.

The Bengals visit the Jags this week.  Here we are in early November and this game means more to the Jags than it does to the Bengals; moreover, the Bengals are 5.5-point underdogs in the game.  Who woulda thunk that back in August …?  Not I.

The Falcons visit the Panthers this week in what ought to be a good game and what is definitely an important NFC South game.  The Panthers are 5-3; the Falcons are 4-3.  Both teams have been inconsistent this year, but you have to suspect that each will bring their “A-game” here.  The line opened with the Panthers as a 1.5-point favorite; then the favorite role flipped to the Falcons and then back to the Panthers.  This morning the Falcons are 1-point favorites just about everywhere.

The Cardinals are on the road this week to play the Niners and the Cards are 2.5-point favorites on the road.  If the Niners want bulletin board material, that line ought to provide some; then again, the Niners are 0-8 and can find something nominally insulting to put on the bulletin board in just about any of the papers in the Bay Area.  This is unquestionably the Dog-Breath Game of the Week featuring a QB clash between CJ Beathard and Drew Stanton.  From here on out, there is only one reason to watch any game involving the Niners; that would be to answer this question:

• Will Jimmy Garoppolo play this week?

The Skins make a transcontinental journey to the Great Northwest this week to play the Seahawks.  Unless the Skins can get a minimum of two of their starting O-linemen healthy enough to play respectably, this will be a long and painful day for Kirk Cousins.

The Chiefs visit the Cowboys this week.  If you and Mr. Peabody take a trip in his Wayback Machine, you will arrive in the early 60s and find that the KC Chiefs were then the Dallas Texans; in a sense, this is a homecoming for the Chiefs.  It appears that Ezekiel Elliott will play in this game based on a late-week court decision.  I don’t know about you but these legal wranglings are getting awfully tiresome.  What do you think the Over/Under is on the legal fees racked up by the attorneys representing all sides in this matter…?

The Raiders are 3-point favorites over the Dolphins in the Eastern Time Zone on Sunday nite.  Both teams are on a downslope at the moment; the Raiders are at the bottom of the AFC West and the Dolphins have lost 3 games by a combined score of 80-6.  Here, they both get prime-time exposure and I guess the story line is this:

• Which team wants to flip its negative narrative more than the other?

The Packers host the Lions on Monday Night Football.  Historically, a cold-weather game in Green Bay has not been a plus for the Lions; that seems to be what is on tap for this game.  The Lions looked awful against the Steelers last week; then again, they are not playing a defense nearly as good in this game.  The Packers had a BYE Week and this game could provide the answer to a key question for the team going forward:

• How much “coaching up” did the Packers’ staff impart to Brett Hundley during the week off?

Speaking of the Monday Night Football game, there was a report earlier this week that the Tampa Bay Bucs might make a serious run at Jon Gruden to return and take over the football reins there.  Since Gruden was fired by the Bucs, they have gone through Raheem Morris, Greg Schiano and Lovie Smith as head coaches.  I have no idea what prompted Gruden’s firing back then; but since he left, his replacements have not been an upgrade.  Since I have made it no secret that I do not like Jon Gruden as a TV analyst, I am rooting for this to happen.

Finally, since I mentioned the obvious cost of the Ezekiel Elliott litigation above, here is a comment by Scott Ostler of the SF Chronicle about the resources expended to track down and recover Tom Brady’s stolen Super Bowl jersey:

“Brady’s jersey is an important American artifact, but it ain’t exactly the Shroud of Turin.”

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

 

 

I want to try to stay away from hyperbole and superlatives here; nonetheless, I have to say that MLB is on a roll with regard to World Series excitement.  Last year’s 7-game presentation plus this year’s 7-game’s worth of excitement should provide MLB with a spike in interest for next year.  The Astros are the champions and the Dodgers have little if anything to be ashamed about.  Here are a few quick observations:

1. Baseball pundits look at the young Astros’ lineup and say they are poised to be winners for a long time to come.  I agree; they are really good and exciting to watch.  However, that is just what the pundits said about the Cubs 12 months ago…
2. Near the trade deadline, both the Dodgers and the Astros added a top-shelf starting pitcher.  Both Yu Darvish and Justin Verlander contributed during the regular season; in the World Series, Darvish had two awful outings while Verlander pitched well.
3. George Springer is deservedly the MVP of the Series.  I was hugely impressed also by the defensive performance of Alex Bregman throughout the playoffs.
4. The Astros beat the Red Sox, the Yankees and the Dodgers on their way to this championship.  Those are the teams which started the season with the three highest payrolls in MLB.
5. Charlie Morton has been in MLB for seemingly forever; and until this post-season, no one would have argued with putting a “journeyman” label on him.

Last year, the Cubs completed a 4-year rebuilding to win the Series; this year the Astros completed a 4-year rebuilding to win the Series.  So, which of the bottom-dwellers in 2107 will be on top once the 2021 World Series is completed?  The Braves, Phillies and White Sox would be the ones to watch.

And just for the record, one of the Internet sportsbooks has already posted odds on winning next year’s World Series.  The favorite is … the Los Angeles Dodgers at 3-1.

Scott Ostler had an interesting “World Series memory” that he shared with readers of the SF Chronicle recently:

“That was cute when the Dodgers sent Vin Scully to the mound for the ceremonial first pitch before Game 2 of the World Series, and then Vinny summoned Fernando Valenzuela to do the job. Reminded me of the 2010 Series, Giants at Texas. In the press box there was a line for the men’s room. I completed my stand-up business, turned and saw that the on-deck man was Juan Marichal. I tapped my right arm with my left hand and said, ‘Juan, I’m bringing you in for relief.’

“No, he didn’t laugh.”

The NFL has provisionally reinstated troubled WR, Josh Gordon.  He can be with his team – the Browns of course – and work out with them and practices and such.  Later in the season he will be tested regarding the terms of his reinstatement which has to include staying sober and avoiding any run-ins with the gendarmes for anything more than a parking ticket.  At that point the league will reassess his status and decide if his suspension will be lifted completely allowing him to play.

I referred to Gordon as “troubled” above.  Here is a brief listing of his “troubles”:

• In 2010, he was arrested for possession of marijuana.  By his account, he was then “counseled” by an assistant coach how he could detox himself to pass any subsequent drug tests.
• In 2011, he was kicked out of Baylor for failing a drug test.  Then when he applied to Utah, he was denied admission because he failed another drug test.
• In 2013, he was suspended for 2 games from the NFL for – wait for it – failing a drug test.
• In 2014, he was arrested for DUI and that led the NFL to suspend him for a season.
• In 2015, the Browns suspended him for a “violation of team rules”.
• In 2016, the NFL suspended him for a failed drug test.  Later that year, he admitted himself to a rehab facility.

It is fashionable today to speak in terms of “white privilege” or “male privilege”.  May I suggest that Josh Gordon is a shining example of “athletic privilege”?  He is immensely talented on the football field and that talent has allowed coaches and organizations to justify looking the other way and giving him multiple second chances.  If Josh Gordon whiffs on this one, it ought to be his last chance…

Shortly on the heels of a video showing Tiger Woods hitting a driver with a full swing, Woods announced that he is returning to competitive golf in a tournament to be held in about 4 weeks.  It remains to be seen if he can return and be competitive with the top PGA pros anymore but there is not a shred of a doubt that his return will provide golf writers and golf commentators with acres and acres of room to dissect his every swing and statement.  Greg Cote summed up that situation in the Miami Herald:

“Tiger cleared to resume full activities: It isn’t that I’m pessimistic, but I hear that Tiger Woods is free to resume full golf activities and I immediately wonder when his next setback will be?”

Finally, you know that I like to have fun with players’ names; here is an observation along those lines from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald:

“Kory Cool won the Omaha Marathon. Husker football has Dicaprio Bootle and Creighton offered a basketball scholarship to Bol Bol. When did this become the all-name team capital of the world?”

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

 

 

The bad news is that my World Series prediction of “Astros in 6” has gone down the drain.  The good news is that we get to see a Game 7 in a World Series that has been exciting and interesting.  Barring a weather intervention, the MLB baseball season will end tonight.

Before getting to the football roundup from last week, let me comment on the Eagles’ acquisition of RB, Jay Ajayi, from the Dolphins for a 4^th round pick.  This trade is confusing for a couple of reasons:

1. The Dolphins are offensively challenged; they have scored 92 points in 7 games (13.1 points per game); they are the only team in the NFL to score fewer than 100 points.  Why are they trading away any offensive assets for draft picks?
2. The Eagles have 4 RBs on the roster and have used all of them in spots so far this year.  How does Ajayi fit into that mix – particularly how does he fit in with LeGarrette Blount?

In college football happenings, Florida fired head coach Jim McElwain after a 5 TD loss to Georgia over the weekend.  According to reports, McElwain will get $13M in addition to whatever he has earned at Florida to date.  He had just gotten an extension to his contract in June of this year so that decision has to be called into question about now.  In any event, I doubt that McElwain will need to worry about eating at the early-bird special prices in Boca Raton any time soon.

Iowa St. continued on its run of upsets handing TCU its first loss of the season.  The Big 12 Championship picture is now wide open.  Four teams – Iowa St., Oklahoma, Oklahoma St. and TCU now have one loss each in conference games and there are plenty of games left among those four.  This could get very interesting…

Ohio St. and Penn St. played a great game on Saturday.  If that game were to give an encore performance in the CFP, I would not object.

Houston beat USF over the weekend and that was USF’s first loss of the season.  That leaves only 5 undefeated teams left in Division 1-A college football:

1. Alabama
2. Georgia
3. Miami
4. UCF
5. Wisconsin

Alabama and Georgia could meet in the SEC Championship Game; Miami still has Notre Dame and the ACC Championship Game opponent to play; UCF has USF on its regular season schedule; Wisconsin should stroll into the Big 10 Championship Game unbeaten.

At the other end of the accomplishment spectrum, there are still 3 winless teams in college football this year:

1. Baylor
2. Georgia Southern
3. UTEP

Baylor plays Kansas this week and opened as a 10-point favorite on the road at Kansas.  Seriously …  That line has dropped to 8 points as of this morning; but even so, that tells you something about the oddsmakers’ opinion of Kansas.  Georgia Southern is only a 3-point underdog this week at home against Georgia St.  UTEP is on the road this week and is a 17-point underdog to Middle Tennessee St.

One team that seems on a downward arc is Virginia.  They started off 5-1 for the season beating Indiana and Boise St. handily along the way.  Then came a 31-point loss to BC followed by a 17-point loss to Pitt.  The schedule for the Cavaliers does not get any easier starting this week with a visit by Georgia Tech.  After that they go on the road to Louisville and Miami before closing the season at home against VA Tech.

Arizona beat Washington St. last week 58-37.  Arizona is in the race for the PAC-12 South crown; they have 1 conference loss as does USC – – and this week Arizona pays a visit to USC in an important game.  As of this morning, the Wildcats are a 7-point underdog on the road.

One last college football comment …  I noticed that Missouri beat UConn last week by 40 points and improved its record to 3-5 in the process.  I wondered why Missouri and UConn were playing in the first place and I thought I remembered that Mizzou played Idaho before that; so, I went and checked out the Missouri schedule.  The Athletic department there should be ashamed; Missouri scheduled 3 out of conference opponents this year:

• Missouri State (Division 1-AA)
• Idaho
• UConn

Indeed, Missouri has 3 wins this year and you are looking at the three vanquished foes.  Oh, the cumulative scores in those games is:

• Mizzou 192 – Sacrificial Lambs 76.

Moving up to the NFL action last weekend, the Raiders laid a giant egg in Buffalo.  The Raiders either cannot or choose not to run the football and their defense is substandard.  I picked them to win the AFC West; that is not happening.  In fact, they are going to have to scratch and claw just to be anything more than a mathematical possibility for the playoffs come December.

The Browns lost to the Vikes in the London Game last weekend; the Browns’ losing is hardly news.  Here is the News Flash:

• The Cleveland Browns led at halftime for the first time this year.

Be patient Browns’ fans; progress comes in small steps …  Here is another small step forward:

• DeShone Kizer did not turn the ball over in this game.

Like I said, baby steps…

The Panthers beat the Bucs 17-3 last week and it appears as if the Bucs’ season is coming apart at the seams.  The Bucs turned the ball over 3 times in the game and were only 2 for 12 on third down attempts.

The Saints and the Bears played an ugly game.  Here is the “bright spot” from that game:

• The Saints won this game even though Drew Brees did not throw a TD pass; the last time that happened was in October 2009.

The Falcons did beat the Jets in a driving rainstorm last week, but the Falcons did try to give the game away.  Matt Ryan and center, Alex Mack, managed to create 4 fumbles on snaps from center in the game.  This is not Pop Warner football even if it was raining like Hell…  This game went down to the wire despite the fact that the Jets absolutely could not run the ball at all (43 yards total rushing for the game).  The Jets trailed by 5 points and had the ball for 2 possessions in the final 5 minutes of the game and came up dry both times.  It seems as if the team that wanted it least lost this game.

The Eagles beat the Niners simply because the Eagles’ roster has more talent than does the Niners’ roster.  The Niners’ started CJ Beathard at QB in his first start; he was over-matched against the Eagles’ defense.  Caron Wentz played his worst game of the year and outcome of the game was not seriously in doubt.

The Bengals/Colts game was as close as it was meaningless.  The Bengals prevailed and once again, the Colts blew a 4^th quarter lead.  For the season in the 4^th quarter of games here is the Colts’ cumulative score:

• Opponents 92  Colts  25.

The Cowboys beat the Skins 33-19 but the margin here is inflated by a late Pick Six on a tipped pass.  Indeed, the Skins are hobbled on offense with some guys playing on the O-line here who had only arrived at the Skins’ facilities about 48 hours prior to game time.  Nonetheless, that does not explain why Ezekiel Elliot ran the ball for 150 yards and 2 TDs.  Skins abandoned the run game early and only totaled 49 yards on the ground for the game.

The Texans/Seahawks game was a “points-a-palooza”.  Given the two defensive units on the field here, I certainly did not expect that.  Texans’ WR, DeAndre Hopkins caught 8 passes for 224 yards in the game.    Russell Wilson threw for 452 yards in the game and the Seahawks won despite being held to a measly 32 yards rushing.

The Steelers/Lions game was a coming-out party for JuJu Smith-Schuster.  Based on what I saw on Sunday nite, there is little motivation for the Steelers to put up with Martavis Bryant and his diva nonsense.  The Lions rolled up 487 yards of offense (very good) and got to the Steelers’ red zone 5 times (very good) and managed to score exactly zero TDs.  (Say what?)  In fact, the Lions had the ball at the Steelers’ 5 yardline or closer 3 times and managed to turn those three opportunities into 1 field goal.  Guess who won the game…

Finally, consider this timely comment from Brad Rock in the Deseret News:

“Groundbreaking for the new NFL stadium in Las Vegas is set to occur next month.

“No truth to the rumor the team has already asked the media not to use the term ‘busted flush’ for missing the playoffs.”

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

 

 

I must admit that I was surprised to see yesterday that the Pats traded Jimmy Garoppolo to the Niners leaving them with Tom Brady as the only QB on their roster and/or practice squad.  I understand that the team does things their own way – the Patriot way – and all that stuff, but one QB is very much against the grain even when that QB is not 40 years old.  I do not doubt Tom Brady and his continued ability to play the position but there is this little thing involved in the NFL called “injury”.  Current thinking is that the Pats will sign Brian Hoyer whom the Niners released because Hoyer was previously the backup in New England and therefore “knows the system”.  For the record, he was the backup there from 2009 through 2011 so the Pats must assume he has a really good memory for “the system” since he has been with 5 different teams and in 5 different systems since 2011.

• [Aside: Here is a bar bet you could probably win if you could set it up.  In 2014 – his last year in Cleveland – Brian Hoyer led the NFL in Yards per completion with 13.7.  I would never have guessed that.]

The Niners gave up a second-round pick next year to acquire Garoppolo which is a fair price; the rumors last year that the Pats were asking for a high first round pick plus other picks or players were exaggerations or fantasies depending which side of the trade you were on.  TV talking heads were quick last night to declare the winner and the loser in this trade which is absurd until you know what the Pats do with the acquired draft pick next year.  However, I think that this trade has a ripple effect that goes beyond the simple exchange of these two assets.

1. Kirk Cousins:  It was never an axiom that he was going to the Niners at the end of this year when the cost to the Skins of keeping him on a year-to-year basis became ridiculous; nonetheless, even the speculation about such a landing spot for him gave him leverage.  One bit of the leverage is now gone.  Cousins will still attract plenty of suitors in free agency but there is one less call that his agent will be taking.
2. Browns/Jets/Giants/Cardinals:  These are 4 teams that need QBs in next year’s draft and all of them could have picks in the Top 10.  The Niners would also have been in the QB market in the draft and would definitely have been in the Top 10.  Now there is “less traffic” for those 4 teams.

There is another question that this trade poses and the answer depends on which end of the telescope you want to look through.  Here is the question; what does this trade say about the quality of the QBs in the upcoming draft?  After all, everyone has been saying that this might be a great class of QBs with lots of depth in the field.

1. The QB Class is not all it is cracked up to be:  Well, if you want to believe that, you have the Niners to point to as your “evidence”.  Did John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan make this trade because they have concluded that the QBs in the 2018 Draft Class are over-hyped and under-talented?  I don’t read minds, but if you want to think that, you are free to do so for the next several years until we see how the QBs in this class turn out.
2. The QB Class is even deeper than anyone thought:  Well, if you want to believe that, you have Bill Belichick – the sinister hooded genius – to point to as your “evidence”.  Did the Pats make this trade because Belichick & Co. have already identified a QB they are confident they can get in the second round who is good enough to be the primary backup and heir apparent in New England?  Once again, I don’t read minds but if you want to think that, you are free to do so until we see what the Pats do in the draft next year.

I mentioned 4 teams above that need QB help badly who look to be on the way to high first round picks.  There is another team that is in desperate need of a QB in a different category.  The Denver Broncos have a defense that could carry the team to the playoffs and maybe deep into the playoffs; that defense is that good.  Their problem now is that their starting QB, Trevor Siemian, is self-immolating.  The fact that Siemian was not benched at halftime of last night’s game tells me that the Broncos are in deep yogurt; Siemian’s performance last night requires adjectives such as “abysmal”, “awful”, “appalling”, “atrocious” – – and I am not down to the letter “b” in the alphabet to get to words such as “bad” or “beastly”.

The Broncos have two QBs on the roster.  One is Brock Osweiler; I think there are enough returns in to declare that he is not a long-term answer to a QB problem in the NFL.  The other is Paxton Lynch who has been injured but who – also – has been unable to beat out Trevor Siemian in the Exhibition Season for two years in a row.  Compounding the problem for the Broncos here is the schedule maker.  With a record of 3-4, the schedule gets tough for the next month; this will be a severe test for that defense:

• At Philly:  The Eagles’ defense is playing very well – particularly on run defense.  That sets up a situation where the Broncos’ QB will need to be an important cog in the offense.
• Vs. New England:  Tom Brady has never played well in Denver and the Pats’ defense is not the team strength.  Nonetheless, the Denver QB cannot be a turnover machine against the pats.
• Vs. Cincy:  If the Bengals’ defense shows up and plays to its ability – and avoids its own self-immolation tendencies – this will be a very low-scoring game.
• At Oakland:  If the Bengals navigate successfully through those first three games, they then have this division game on the road that will be very important regarding playoff tie-breakers.

Finally, here is a timely NFL commentary from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“The Texans’ Bob McNair, discussing protesting players with his fellow owners, said, ‘We can’t have the inmates running the prison.’

“There went O.J.’s hopes of making his NFL comeback in Houston.”

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

 

 

Until about 8:00PM EDT on Sunday, this was a typical autumn weekend in sports.  There were some surprising results in college football games on Saturday; the NBA and NHL regular seasons slogged on; a coach was fired, and a manager was hired; the NFL had a couple of exciting games but no real show-stoppers; and then … Game 5 of the World Series began.  Let me say this before the results are in:

• I expect the TV ratings for SNF to be down this week because anyone who flipped over to see the World Series during commercial breaks in the Steelers/Lions game had to be severely tempted to stay with the baseball game on this night.

What a great baseball game that was!  I can understand people being unhappy with the outcome of the game if they are Dodgers’ fans or if they had a financial stake on the game that was a loser.  Having said that, I would suspect that even those folks would have to admit that this was an entertaining and exciting contest.  I was “fortunate” to be home from school with a cold on the day Don Larsen threw the perfect World Series game; so, I really cannot say that last night was the “best World Series game I ever saw”.  I also saw Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off and Joe Carter’s walk-off and Kirk Gibson’s too; I remember Carleton Fisk’s home run in the series against the Reds; I remember Willie Mays’ catch in centerfield; I saw the miracle that followed Bill Buckner’s error; I remember Madison Bumgarner’s relief heroics on short rest for the Giants and I surely remember last year’s Game 7 that gave the Cubs their first World Series title in more than a century.  I walked you down that World Series Memory Lane to give perspective to this statement:

• Last night’s Game 5 between the Astros and the Dodgers’ was as exciting a game as any of those memorable moments from the last 60+ years.

It was only about 18 months ago when Leicester City stunned folks who follow European soccer and won the English Premier League.  As recently as 2009, Leicester City had not been part of either of the top two tranches of English football competition, but they won it all in 2016 only a year after returning to the top-level of the sport.  One might think that the team continued to bask in the after-glow of that accomplishment.  That is not the case…

Claudio Ranieri was the club manager for the “miracle season”.  However, in February of the ensuing season, Ranieri was sacked and replaced by Craig Shakespeare.  Leicester City finished 12^th in the EPL in May 2017; the team played more effectively under Shakespeare and rallied to end up comfortably above the relegation line.  Earlier this month Craig Shakespeare was fired as team manager with the season only 25% of the way to the end and was replaced by Claude Puel.  Leicester City stands in 11^th place as of this morning; I wonder if   that miracle championship in 2015/16 imbued the team owners with unrealistic expectations for the near future…

Every once in a while, I have a moment of insight and to explain my latest one to you, I need to set the stage.  In the area where I live, there is an active youth football league that organizes teams to play all the way from ankle biters through early teenage years.  It is well-organized, and it gets lots of kids involved.  When I need to drive to the supermarket for groceries, I pass by one of the practice fields for some of these kids and I happened by a week or so ago and got to watch two teams practicing.  There was a minor fender-bender on the road and so traffic was backed up for about 5-10 minutes as the police did what they needed to do.  To kill a moment or two, I pulled over and got out of my car to watch the kids practicing.  I would guess that one team had kids about 12-13 years old who weighed 150 lbs; the other team was clearly younger; for the purposes of illustration only, call them 10-12 years old and 120 lbs.

Each team was scrimmaging simultaneously and here is what I noticed.  Both teams were using a shotgun offense and a spread formation.  I only watched for about 10 minutes so I have no idea about the total offensive system for either team; but in the time I watched, they both used 4 WRs and a tight end most of the time and 3 WRs, a tight end and a running back on all the other formations.

I have said before that the spread formations used in many college systems these days does not fully prepare QBs to play in the NFL.  For that position, the colleges are not serving well as a minor-league system for the NFL.  [To be fair, that is not the purpose of college football.]  Many other observers have suggested that the offensive line positions are similarly under-prepared to play NFL football because offensive linemen in college to not spend time learning a variety of blocking techniques; they focus mainly on pass blocking in a system where the ball comes out quickly.

I went digging through back columns by Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot because I remembered that he had an observation along this line:

“Short stuff: Whatever the reason – a dearth of reliable quarterbacks, sieve-like offensive lines – the NFL has become a dink-and-dunk passing league. Not a lot of fun to watch.”

My moment of insight was that the spread system has worked its way all the way down to youth football.  These kids are being taught football fundamentals tailored to that style of play from the earliest age groups.  [Well, maybe not the earliest.  I did not see any ankle-biters practicing using spread formations.]  Proficiency in almost all athletic endeavors involves practice and repetition to develop “muscle memory” and a sense of comfort/confidence in what one is attempting to do.  The spread offense ought to be very effective in high school and college where the defenses always have athletic limitations; the same goes for youth football prior to high school.  Ergo, coaches use that system to be successful in their games and that is what kids practice and develop “muscle-memory” for.  And perhaps, that is why some QBs and O-linemen arrive at the NFL as physical specimens who need loads of technique development before they can be “coached up” for a game.

Finally, here is a comment from Brad Dickson in the Omaha world-Herald:

“A Buffalo Bills fan threw beer at a player. The fan was immediately wrestled to the ground and rushed to a hockey game where he was seated in the first row.”

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

 

 

It is Football Friday here in Curmudgeon Central; and because I am a creature of habit, I shall begin today with college football commentary.

The Linfield College Wildcats assured themselves a winning season in football for the 62^nd consecutive year with a 12-6 victory over George Fox University last week.  Both Linfield and George Fox had been scoring machines up until this game.  Linfield dominated time of possession and led 12-0 on four field goals until the final play of the game which was a George Fox touchdown.  This victory was the 20^th consecutive conference win for Linfield; their last loss was on November 1, 2014 to Willamette.  Go Wildcats!

The way the College Football Playoff is structured now, there are four teams that get into the playoffs and there are 5 so-called Power Conferences.  It does not take much mathematical mastery to recognize that one conference – at least – will be on the outside looking in every year.  I wonder if that conference will be the PAC-12 this year.  Consider these projected decisions by the Selection Committee:

• Alabama or Georgia – whichever is the SEC Champion – is guaranteed one of the four slots.  If these two go to the SEC Championship game undefeated and the winner comes out with an overtime win, they both might get in.  For now, count that as one slot filled…
• The Big 10 Championship will be decided in a game between Wisconsin and either Penn St., Ohio St. or Michigan St.  If Wisconsin wins the conference, it will likely be 13-0 at that point; that will put them in the playoffs despite a lackluster schedule.  If Ohio State wins the conference, it will have one loss and a tough enough schedule to get in.  If either Penn St or Michigan St win the conference, they would probably be undefeated and be guaranteed an invitation.  Therefore, the Big 10 will get a team in the CFP but probably not two.
• The ACC standings as of now offer too many possibilities for a champion to project.  Miami and NC State are undefeated in the conference but there are 4 teams with only one conference loss.  If Clemson prevails, they will probably get into the CFP as the defending champion.  Otherwise …?
• TCU looks like the class of the Big 12 at this point and undefeated to this point of the season.  However, there are four teams in the conference – Iowa St. Oklahoma, Oklahoma St. and West Virginia – with only one loss in conference.  If TCU runs the table, I think they are definitely in.  If not … ?
• Notre Dame is a wild card here.  For football, Notre Dame has no conference; Tony Kornheiser has called Notre Dame the “University of Football in North America”.  As of this morning, Notre Dame has one loss; that was by one-point to Georgia (see above).  If they run the table and beat NC State and Miami and Stanford in the process, there is a real possibility the Selection Committee will put Notre Dame in the CFP.

Just looking at the possibilities above, the CFP could be “over-subscribed” and I have not yet come to the PAC-12 where the situation is this:

• USC leads the PAC-12 South but it already has 2 losses and one of them was by 5 TDs to Notre Dame.  That game is a stinker and with 2 losses, USC’s credentials are not all that strong.
• Stanford also has 2 losses already and last night they beat a bad Oregon St. team by 1-point scoring a TD in the final minute to do so.  Two losses plus one of the ugliest wins ever is not much of a calling card.
• Washington and Washington St. each have only one loss but they will play each other later this year in the Apple Cup game.  The loser of that game is probably out of luck so let’s look at both teams.
• I think Washington St. would be the stronger PAC-12 nominee of the two if they wind up with 1 loss because their out of conference schedule is stronger than Washington’s.  I did not say it is a “strong out of conference schedule”; I said it was better than Washington’s.  Washington St. will have played and beaten Montana St., Boise St. and Nevada while Washington would have played and beaten Rutgers, Montana and Fresno St.  The Selection Committee professes to weigh heavily the “strength of schedule” in its rankings.  Both Washington and Washington St. would arrive at the final rankings with a loss on their record; a not-so-tough conference schedule and a meek out of conference schedule.  Not promising …
• Arizona and Arizona St. both have only one loss in the conference and one of them might wind up winning the conference championship game.  The problem for the PAC-12 here is that Arizona St. has 3 losses so far and Arizona has 2 losses – to Houston and Utah.  I cannot see either team making the CFP even as the PAC-12 Champion.

The final CFP rankings will not be out until 3 December.  Far too many things can happen between now and then to do anything but label all of the above as a guess, but that is part of the fun of following college football.

I mentioned above that Stanford had an ugly win over .Oregon St. last night.  Stanford won the game with 214 yards of total offense; Oregon St. outgained them on the field with 236 yards of total offense.  There were 4 turnovers in the game and 14 penalties; it was hard to watch.

Last weekend, Arkansas lost to Auburn 52-20.  Auburn is a good team, but Arkansas’ self-image in football is not that they are a patsy.  The Razorbacks are 2-5 this year and 0-4 in the SEC; the 4 SEC losses were by a total of 96 points.  Bret Bielema has been at Arkansas for four and a half seasons; so, this is “his team” with “his recruits”, and as of this morning, his overall record at Arkansas is 27-31 and his SEC record is 10-26.  I was wondering if he was on as hot a seat as that record might suggest and I ran across two reports that said his buyout clause is either $12M or $15M depending on the report.  Obviously, I do not have access to the contract itself, but if that clause is in there, let me say this unequivocally:

• Bret Bielema’s agent served his client VERY well…

The normal order of college football in Florida is upset so far this year.  Florida St. has a losing record and will struggle to be bowl-eligible.  The best way to describe the season for Florida so far is “Meh!”  However, look at other Florida teams:

• Miami is undefeated at 6-0 and leads the ACC Coastal Division.  They have beaten Florida St. this year.
• UCF is undefeated at 6-0 and could well be 10-0 when they host USF on November 24.
• USF is undefeated at 7-0 and could well be 10-0 when they play USF on November 24.
• Florida International is 4-2 and appears to be a cinch to achieve bowl eligibility this year.
• Florida Atlantic is 4-3 and should make bowl eligibility this year too.  FAU has Lane Kiffin as its coach for the immediate term but no one there ought to think of Kiffin as a fixture with the Owls.  This is a “penance assignment” for him – a “stepping stone” if you prefer – until a better offer comes along.  When that happens, he is off like a prom dress…

Looking at games this week, the biggest game of them all – and probably the biggest game of the season to date – is Penn St. at Ohio St.  This is a revenge game for Ohio St. for last year’s loss in State College; and with all due respect to Jim Harbaugh, Mark Dantonio, Paul Chryst, Kirk Ferentz and Pat Fitzgerald, this game matches the two best coaches in the Big 10.  Ohio St. is a 7-point favorite at home.  I think this will be a defensive game and in defensive games I prefer to take points than give points.

TCU is for real this year.  They are undefeated and they are only allowing 15 points per game while scoring 41 points per game.  This week TCU is at Iowa St and the Cyclones have beaten Oklahoma two weeks ago and held Texas Tech’s offense to 13 points in Lubbock last week.  TCU is a 6.5-point favorite on the road and I think they will prevail here.

Last spring when DeShone Kizer declared for the NFL Draft, Notre Dame coach, Brian Kelly, said that Kizer needed to stay in school.  Most everyone figured that Kelly was taking a position of self-interest with that statement, but having seen Kizer in the NFL, Kelly was probably right.  However, things seem to have worked out just fine in South Bend because Kizer’s absence opened the door for Brandon Wimbush to be the Notre Dame QB.  Wimbush appears to me to be as good as Kizer was last year and Wimbush is certainly more entertaining to watch.  This week Notre Dame hosts NC State and the Irish are a 7-point favorite this morning.  NC State is 6-1 for the season and this is an important game for them; it should be a good game.

Oklahoma St. visits West Virginia this week.  As noted above, both teams have only one loss in conference; so, this is a big game for both.  The Cowboys are 7.5-point favorites on the road.  I think both teams will score often; the Mountaineers are tough at home; I think that line is fat.

Georgia/Florida is the rivalry game of the week.  Despite the success of the Gators in recent matchups, Georgia is a 14-point favorite here on a neutral field in Jax.

Another big rivalry game this week is Kansas St. at Kansas.  Kansas St. is a 24-point favorite on the road here.  The situation before us regarding this game is simple.  Kansas St. is an “average team”; Kansas is just plain “bad”.

Tennessee visits Kentucky this week.  This is a “border war” game and Kentucky is a 4-point favorite.  When I saw that Kentucky was favored, I thought this was the line for a basketball game instead of a football game.

Oklahoma hosts Texas Tech this week and the Sooners are a 20-point favorite.  What has happened to the Oklahoma defense?  Earlier this year, they held Ohio St. to 16 points in a major upset in Columbus OH.  However, in Big 12 conference games, the Sooners are 3-1 but they have given up an average of 34.5 points per game and only one of those four opponents has a winning record this morning.  Texas Tech is not a great team by any stretch of the imagination but they can score points in bunches.  The Total Line for the game is 75 points.  Were I in Las Vegas for the weekend, I would probably parlay “Tech plus the points” with the game to go OVER.

Virginia started the season by winning 5 of its first 6 games and then hosted BC last week.  In an ugly performance at home, Virginia lost that game by 31 points.  This week, Virginia goes on the road to take on a mediocre-at-best Pitt squad and the oddmakers have installed Pitt as a 3-point favorite.  Verry interesting…

As noted above, Miami is undefeated this year at 6-0.  This week Miami visits UNC; the Tar Heels are 1-7 and they are playing exactly the way you would expect a team with that record to play.  Question:

• Is this a trap game for Miami?

Next up for Miami are two home games against VA Tech and then Notre Dame.  Miami is a 20-point favorite over UNC.

Baylor is one of two winless teams so far this year; they are 0-7.  However, only 2 of those 7 losses have been by double digits.  This week, Baylor hosts Texas and the Texas QB, Sam Ehlinger, is questionable having suffered a concussion last week.  Baylor is a 9-point underdog and is +280 on the Money Line.  Is this Baylor’s first win of the season?

Wisconsin plays Illinois this week.  All I can say is that this will be more difficult than a BYE Week for Wisconsin – – but not much.  The Badgers like to run the football and the Illinois defense is nothing to crow about.

In the Big 10 East standings this week, there are two teams tied for fourth place.  Those teams would be:

• Michigan – – and – – Rutgers.

You probably could have gotten good odds on that prop bet back in August.  Well, that tie will be broken this weekend because Rutgers visits Michigan in Ann Arbor.  I suspect that Jim Harbaugh’s head will explode if he looks at the newspaper tomorrow morning and sees his Wolverines a notch below Rutgers in the Big 10 standings.  The oddsmakers say that will not happen; Michigan is a 23-point favorite in the game and is minus-2000 on the Money Line.

Moving on to the NFL, the Thursday Night Football game was about as exciting as watching a blinking yellow light at an intersection.  The Ravens beat the Dolphins 40-0.  If anyone thought that Matt Moore’s 4^th quarter heroics against the Jets last weekend should generate a QB controversy in Miami, they need to look at the tape of this game.  This game shows clearly why Matt Moore is now and has been for the last 10 seasons.  Last night he was just awful but he remains a solid backup QB if the duration of using him as a starter is only a few weeks.  Anything more than that will not end well.

There are six teams on a BYE Week this week:

1. Cardinals:  Last week was an unmitigated disaster; Carson Palmer broke his arm and newly acquired RB/offensive savior, Adrian Peterson, carried the ball 11 times for 21 yards.  Bruce Arians says that Drew Stanton is the starting QB going forward; I suspect that when drew Stanton is the starting QB, the direction involved is going backward.
2. Giants:  They have to be the biggest negative surprise of the season to date, right?
3. Jags:  Win one; lose one; win one …  That has been the Jags season to date.  Now they get a week off after a win.
4. Rams:  They might be the biggest positive surprise of the season to date – – or would that be the Jets?
5. Packers:  Good time for a week off so that they can “coach up” Brett Hundley…
6. Titans:  Last week, these guys needed OT to beat the Browns and never scored a TD in those 60+ minutes.  If there is such a thing as a moral victory, then that was an immoral victory.  Fans should start a petition to Roger Goodell demanding that if the titans are involved in any tie-breaker situations at the end of the year, that win over the browns should only count as half-a-win.

This week will see the fourth and final “London game” for the season and it will be played at Twickenham Stadium on the River Thames just west of London.  So far this year, the three previous games in London have been blowouts; the smallest margin of victory has been 20 points.  If the NFL is seeking to grow a fanbase there, perhaps putting more competitive games on the schedule would be a step in the right direction.  The game this Sunday does not seem to fit into that category.

In jolly old England this week, the Vikes will take on the Browns.  If that is not sufficiently nauseating, this game will feature a QB pairing of Case Keenum versus DeShone Kizer.  Be still my heart …  Let me review that Browns’ QB meanderings for the last couple of weeks:

• A couple of weeks ago, Kizer was benched in favor of Kevin Hogan.  That did not work out well …
• Last week, Kizer was benched at halftime in favor of Cody Kessler.  That too did not work out well …
• Now, Kizer is designated as the starter once again…

Here’s a thought.  Maybe the Browns can throw opponents off guard by not announcing their starting QB until game time.  After warmups, the three of them can do a round-robin of Rock/Scissors/Paper in the locker room to determine who will start and who will be the one to go into the game to relieve the starter after the starter stinks the joint out.  How bad can that be?

The Bears visit the Saints this week and the Saints are 9-point favorites.  The Saints have won 4 games in a row and the Bears have won 2 in a row.  Are those streaks mirages or are they real?  I suspect the Bears’ win streak is a mirage; I am skeptical about the Saints as a winning team going forward but skeptics are allowed to change their minds.  The Saints’ defense is playing lots better this year than in the recent past and the Saint’s offense is much more balanced between running and passing than in recent years too.

The Jets host the Falcons this week.  Both teams lost last week; the Jets blew a 14-point lead in the second half to the Dolphins; the Falcons were dominated by the Pats from start to finish.  Both teams are big surprises this year.  Some folks thought the Jets would lose every game; the Jets are 3-4 as of today.  The Falcons were in the Super Bowl last year with a dominating offense; this year, the Falcons are averaging 12.6 points per game less than they scored in 2016.  That is a shocking drop-off – – particularly since the same personnel are on the field on offense this year as last; that speaks to coaching/play calling.  Here is the nub for this game:

• The Jets’ defense is allowing 357.9 yards per game.  If the Falcons cannot move the ball and score in this game, they have some real soul-searching to do and they have already had their BYE Week.

The Panthers visit the Bucs this weekend and the Bucs are 2-point favorites.  Both teams have disappointed their fans this year.  Cam Newton looks nothing like someone who was the NFL MVP a year and a half ago; Jameis Winston has not taken a step forward in his development despite putting up gaudy stats.  Here is why this game might be interesting:

• The Bucs have the #1 offense in the NFC averaging 392.8 yards per game.
• The Panthers have the #1 defense in the NFC allowing 261.9 yards per game.
• The Bucs have the worst defense in the NFC allowing 408.5 yards per game.
• The Panthers’ offense is mediocre.

The Eagles host the Niners and the Eagles are 12.5-point favorites this morning.  That line opened at 10 points and has risen pretty steadily as the week progressed.  The Eagles are coming off a short week; the Niners have a long trip to the game and an early time slot.  In addition to being 0-7 this year, the Niners are 2-21 since the start of the 2016 season; the problem for the Niners is clear; they have a talent deficit with regard to most of the rest of the league.  Here is the question for this game:

• Is this a trap game for the Eagles?  Next up for the Eagles is a visit by the Broncos and then a BYE Week…

The Raiders visit the Bills this weekend in another game where a West Coast team travels a good distance to the game venue and looks at an early kickoff.  The Bills are a 2.5-point favorite here.  This is one of the best games of the weekend simply because it means a lot to both teams in terms of playoff aspirations.  Is it safe to assume that the Amari Cooper we got used to seeing last year is now back on the Raiders’ roster?  Last week he caught 210 yards worth of passes more than doubling his output for the season to date.  Oh, by the way, Raiders’ TE, Jared Cook ain’t bad either.  The Raiders’ challenge here will be stopping the Bills running game and LeSean McCoy.  The Bills only average 181 yards per game passing so the Raiders need to make the Bills throw the ball if they want to win here.

The Colts visit the Bengals this week and the Bengals are 10.5-point favorites.  This is the Dog-Breath Game of the Week.  The Colts stink; the Bengals just don’t stink as much.  Just for perspective, if I were in a hospital bed and could not reach the TV remote and this was what was on the TV in my room, I would probably watch it rather than going to sleep in the middle of the afternoon.  Other than that…

The Pats host the Chargers this week and both teams are riding 3-game winning streaks.  The Total Line for this game is 48 points; it opened at 49 points; I think that is way too low.  The Pats are 7-point favorites this morning; that line opened at 5 points and jumped to this level very quickly.

The Texans visit the Seahawks this week and the Seahawks are 5.5-point favorites.  This is another of the good games on the card for the weekend.  Texans’ rookie QB, Deshaun Watson face a top-shelf NFL defense here.  The Texans got OT, Duane Brown, back on the active roster this week when Brown ended his holdout seeking a renegotiated contract; the question now is whether he is in “football shape”.  Seahawks’ QB, Russell Wilson had a “breakout game” last week throwing for 334 yards and 3 TDs.  The question here is simple; is that a bad omen for the rest of the NFC teams or was that simply a performance against the woebegone Giants?

The Skins host the Cowboys in a rivalry game that was listed as “Pick ‘em” to start the week but now has the Cowboys as 2-point favorites.  The Cowboys have the slightly better offense statistically; the Skins have the slightly better defense statistically.  Forget that; this is a rivalry games and the stats don’t mean much.  Here is what I think is the key to the game:

1. The Skins’ defense has had more than a little trouble covering tight ends over the middle this year.  The Skins’ safeties are “big hitters” but they do not excel in coverage; the Skins’ linebackers do not cover well either.
2. Jason Witten is coming to town.
3. Uh-oh …

The Lions host the Steelers in the Sunday Nite Game and the Steelers are 3-point favorites.  Let’s go through the issues and the contradictions involved here.  The Lions are much better at home than on the road; the Steelers are also much better at home than on the road; this game is in Detroit.  The Steelers have more talent on offense and the Steelers have the #2 rated defense in the NFL trailing on the Broncos by 0.2 yards per game.  Matthew Stafford “struggles in prime time”; this game is on Sunday nite.  The Steelers often play with no passion against non-conference opponents; the Lions are ‘in the other conference”.

The Broncos visit the Chiefs in the Monday nite game and the Broncos find themselves as 7-point underdogs.  The Chiefs sit atop the AFC West despite losing their last 2 games; they do not want to lose a third game in a row especially to another division foe.  Last week the Chiefs gave up 500+ yards to the Raiders and they surrendered a 9-point lead at the start of the 4^th quarter.  Meanwhile, teams seem to have decided that the way to deal with the Broncos is to load up to stop the run and to force Trevor Siemian to beat them with his arm.  It seems to be working because after an offensive explosion yielding all of 21 points in Week 1, the Broncos have not scored more than 17 points in any game.  Two weeks ago, the Broncos lost to the Giants 23-10 and last week they were shut out by the Chargers 21-0.  The Total Line for this game is 43 points; it might take a defensive score somewhere during the game to take this game over that number.

Finally, since I mentioned the long trips for the Raiders and the Niners to games this week, consider this comment on team travel from Scott Ostler in the SF Chronicle:

“I’ll sympathize with the amount of miles a team has to fly in a season as soon as they start flying commercial and sitting in coach, where the meal is a bag of stuff vacuumed off the floor in first class, the coffee is ‘Prison Reject,’ and you always get a middle seat between two sumo wrestlers, in uniform.”

Ain’t that the truth …

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

 

 

Antoine “Fats” Domino died yesterday at the age of 89.  He was one of my favorite musical performers when I was a kid.  Some brief thoughts:

• Arriving at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter says:  I Hear You Knockin’
• My reaction to news of his death:  Ain’t That A Shame
• Where to bury him:  On Blueberry Hill

Rest in peace, “Fats” Domino …

People complain about “pace of play” in baseball.  Sometimes, MLB games drag on for seeming eternity; so, I get the complaints and often agree with them.  Not last night…  Game 2 of the World Series was more than 4 hours long and none of it was bothersome.

For a short time, it appeared as if this would be labeled the “Groundhog Day Game”.  Game 1 provided a 3-1 score where the winning margin was a two-run homer by the second guy in the Dodgers’ batting order in the bottom of the sixth inning.  That happened again in Game 2; and given the effectiveness of the Dodgers’ bullpen, it appeared as if the only way it would not come to pass would be if the Dodgers added to their score.  Instead, the Astros rallied to tie the game in the ninth inning; the Astros took a 2-run lead in the 10^th; the Dodgers tied the game in the bottom of the 10^th; the Astros took another 2-run lead in the 11^th inning; and the Dodgers could only muster a single run in the bottom of the 11^th.  Final score was 7-6; the Series is tied at 1 game apiece; the teams get a day off to travel to Houston and watching Game 2 was four-plus hours well spent.

I have said that many managers tend to over-manage in the playoffs and I really think that Dave Roberts did that last night.  Dodgers’ starter, Rich Hill, threw four solid innings striking out 7 batters and allowing only 1 run; I cannot find his pitch count in the box score, but I recall glancing at the screen graphic in the fourth inning and it was in the mid-50s; for some reason, Roberts pulled him and went to the bullpen to start the fifth inning.  I cannot find any report that Hill was injured or that he needed treatment of any sort; so, I chalk that up to over-managing.

Now that he has retired from network play-by-play activities, Brent Mussberger hosts a radio program from Las Vegas that focuses on sports betting/gambling.  He is an outspoken supporter of changing the Federal law that prohibits sports betting in all but a handful of states and delegating the authority to decide on legalization to the various states.  Obviously, he and I agree on that issue almost completely.  I read a report of an interview with Mussberger that had an interesting tidbit in it.  According to him, the sportsbooks in Las Vegas took in a larger handle on college football games than they did on the NFL games last weekend.

As I read that, my first reaction was to shrug my shoulders.  After all, on a typical weekend, there are about 60 college games on the card calling for action and there are never more than 16 NFL games; last weekend, there were only 14 NFL games.  However, again according to Mussberger, this is the first weekend that has happened.

That ought to make one stop and think; wagering on football games has been a major industry in Las Vegas since the “invention” of the point spread.  Wikipedia says that a math teacher named Charles McNeil was the person who “invented” the point spread in the 1940s.  I was not sentient then; so, I cannot confirm or deny that assertion.  My point is that football wagering is not something that started as recently as the 15 minutes of fame bestowed on Linda Tripp.  [Google is your friend …]

This datum is surely not conclusive of any hypothesis but it makes me wonder about the NFL.  The Grand Canyon was formed by erosion, pebble-by-pebble; grain of sand-by-grain of sand over eons.  Erosion is almost impossible to observe in real time; it can only be seen by comparison over long periods of time.  And I wonder if this datum is one slightly visible moment of erosion of the NFL’s dominance.  Consider:

• NFL live attendance is down in most cities.  Even “good” teams/”successful” teams play games in front of empty seats.  That was rarely the case 10 years ago.  I can offer up a half-dozen reasons why this is the case in 2017 and I will acknowledge that this datum is inconclusive about almost anything.
• NFL TV ratings are stagnant at best and down in most comparisons.  For the immediate term, this is a bigger problem for the five networks that carry NFL games.  Four of those networks – FOX, CBS, NBC and ESPN – have contracts that pay the NFL a fixed sum to air the games.  If ratings drop, they do not get the same fees from advertisers and their bottom lines suffer.  However, over the long term, declining ratings can lead to declining TV rights’ fees and that would be a big deal for the NFL.
• People threaten boycotts related to the NFL.  Some want to boycott the games because they are put off by the “anthem protests”; others want to boycott games because of the league’s “insufficient” sensitivity to domestic violence issues; others want to boycott games because … [fill in the blanks here].  Boycotts rarely work but if people successfully boycott even one sponsor of NFL games and drive sales figures down significantly – and keep them down for a while – that would be a game-changer.

Now add to all those individually insignificant happenings a “downturn” in the gambling handle for NFL games.  That datum might indicate two things and neither is very good for the NFL:

1. It could mean that people are losing interest in the NFL overall.  The league would never admit it, but a significant portion of the league’s growth and popularity is due to the fact that people bet on the games – – thanks to Charles McNeil and his point spreads.
2. It could mean an acceleration in the deterioration of TV ratings because for many people who live on the West Coast, the major reason to tune in to see a game between the Dolphins and the Jags is because they have “a little something riding on the game”.

I am NOT suggesting that the NFL is in trouble or that it is doomed.  I am saying that the NFL is going through a rough patch in 2017 with regard to growing the league toward its stated objective of $25B in revenue in 2025.

Finally, here is a comment from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald:

“I watched some of the North American Wife Carrying Championships.  That way when curling comes to Omaha next month it won’t seem quite so silly.”

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