Jack | The Sports Curmudgeon

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels …

The story about the Boston Celtics suspending their coach , Ime Udoka, for an entire season broke late last week. I purposely chose not to comment on it then for two reasons:

It did not fit with the Football Friday format that was queued up
I knew that I did not know enough about “the issues” here from the initial reporting.

Point #2 above pertained to almost all other commentators late last week, but it did not seem to deter many of them from jumping into the matter with both feet. Since the first reports, we have had a press conference featuring the Celtics’ President of Basketball Operations and its majority owner explaining what the outcome here is. And even with that event and questioning at that event, we still do not really know what kicked this snowball over the cliff.

What we know is that Udoka admitted to having a “consensual intimate relationship” with a woman who is associated with the Celtics in some unexplained role. We are told he – and presumably the woman – were told to cut it out and Udoka says that he did. The woman also said that Udoka made “unwanted and threatening remarks” at some point in this saga. And for that, Ime Udoka will not coach the Boston Celtics for the upcoming NBA season.

I suspect we do not know the entirety of this matter even now. The basis for my suspicion here is that this punishment seems awfully severe for a “crime” that seems to be almost commonplace in modern workplaces. Office romances and trysts are not so rare that they are headline grabbing events and they are certainly not – in general – criminal events. And remember, what happened within the Celtics was labelled as “improper, intimate and consensual”. Therefore, I prefer to let this story simmer on the back-burner until I know a lot more facts about how we got from Udoka coaching the Celtics to the NBA Finals last year to getting himself suspended.

However, there is one aspect of this situation and the reporting/commentating that surrounded it. Ime Udoka is a Black male; that is a fact. However, that fact is not sufficient for a knee-jerk response to cast a racial overtone onto the matter. Let me say this clearly:

I do not know if there is any element of racism at work here and I suspect that the commentators who rushed to include racism in this story do not know either.
It is possible that this action is totally racially motivated by craven racists in the Celtics’ organization; it is also possible that race has nothing to do with this matter.

And spare me please form the protestations that this story has gotten more coverage than it would have if Udoka had been a White male. Really? Are you trying to tell me that when Urban Meyer (clearly Caucasian) was caught on tape dancing with a young woman – not his wife – in an Ohio nightclub last year that the story was buried? Have you forgotten the amount of coverage given to Rex Ryan and his wife (both Caucasians) and their foot-fetishism? In addition, I seem to recall a bit of coverage when Phil Jackson (certifiably Caucasian) and Jeanne Buss were “an item” while he was coaching the Lakers.

I know that Udoka has been severely sanctioned here and it will not surprise me even a little bit if he “resigns” from his position with the Celtics during the course of his suspension. But until I know a lot more about what happened and what transpired in the organization after whatever happened became known to people other than the parties in flagrante delicto, I will reserve judgement related to the rectitude of the punishment and/or any racist element that may or may not obtain.

Let me switch gears here and focus on another scandalous topic that involves a prominent sports figure. The Brett Favre/Southern Mississippi Volleyball venue epic has taken a dark turn. Since the start of the investigation in Mississippi into the misuse and misappropriation of monies intended for welfare recipients, Favre maintained that he was unaware of any improprieties and/or malevolent intentions; he was simply doing what he can do in Mississippi and that is to lend his name and his fame to a cause. Since I knew of no evidence to the contrary, I was prepared to take him at his word.

In the last week or so, however, reports have surfaced that Favre likely knew that what he was involved with and what he was doing was improper if not illegal. According to reports, in one text message exchange between Favre and the Governor at the time of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, Favre specifically wanted to know if anything about his involvement in the matter could become public. The then Governor assured him it would not be revealed because they do not make that sort of detailed information public. Ooops…

Favre has admitted that he received money he should not have received because he agreed to return it. There should be no attempt to put any nuance on the fact that he received money that he should not have. The far more troublesome part of this story is this exacta:

It seems that Favre knew he was doing something wrong – – AND – –
What he was doing involved diverting funds away from genuinely needy people in one of the poorest States in the country in order to build a volleyball venue at his alma mater where his daughter was a volleyball player.

If you do not regard that kind of behavior as cringeworthy, I would suggest that you are far too deeply immersed in athletic idolatry. This situation is a whole lot worse than “bad optics”…

Finally, you know that you have done something stupid when you become part of a headline at The Onion:

“Brett Favre defends use of state welfare money to build shelter for homeless volleyballs.”

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

Football Friday 9/23/22

For years, Hank Williams, Jr, would ask everyone, “Are you ready for some football?” The answer always was, “Of course we are, if we weren’t, we would not have tuned in to hear you.”

Analogously, I had better be ready for a Football Friday here simply because it is football season and today is Friday. So, off we go…

Did I hear someone inquire about the results from last week’s Six-Pack?

Against the Spread/Totals: College = 2-0-0 Season to date = 4-4-0

NFL = 2-1-1 Season to date = 3-3-1

Money Line Parlays: Last week = 0-2 Loss of $200

Season to date = 2-4 Net loss = $119

College Football Commentary:

The Linfield College Wildcats extended their season record to 2-0 last week on Homecoming Weekend. The Wildcats beat the University of Redlands Bulldogs 21-3. That concludes the out-of-conference scheduling for Linfield; their next 7 games between this weekend and November 12^th will all be against Northwest Conference teams. This week, the Loggers of the University of Puget Sound come to McMinnville, OR to take on the Wildcats. The Loggers have a 1-2 record so far in 2022. Go Wildcats!

The college football season is only 4 weeks old; there are 131 teams that compete in Division 1-A football, and one might look at the results so far and wonder if “parity” is coming to college football. If I have counted correctly, there are 33 undefeated teams – – about 25% of the field which is to be expected at this point in the season because far too many schools have scheduled nothing but patsies up to this point. Now that conference games will begin to dominate the schedule, some of those apparently gaudy records will have to play one another and the list of “undefeateds” will shrink.

One example this week where two teams arrive at the kickoff with 3-0 records is the Kansas/Duke game. That’s right; both teams are undefeated in 2022. I wonder what the Las Vegas odds on that happening were back in July…?

Kansas has scored 159 points in 3 games
Duke has allowed 51 points in 3 games
Should be interesting…

However, it is at the other end of the spectrum that I am a bit surprised. Again, if I have counted correctly, there are only 6 teams out of the 131 Division 1-A schools that are winless going into the last week of September. Those six teams are:

Buffalo
Colorado
Colorado St.
Georgia St.
Navy
New Mexico St.

There were two firings in the coaching ranks this week. Arizona St. parted company with Herm Edwards after the Sun Devils lost at home to Eastern Michigan. Edwards had an overall winning record at Arizona State (26-20) but there are supposedly significant NCAA investigations looming there. Given the potential for NCAA trouble and a loss to a MAC team at home, it was more than the folks in charge there could accommodate.

[Aside: Back in August, I did a College Football Preview rant. In that rant I had 5 coaches on a hot seat for 2022. Two of those five – – Scott Frost and Herm Edwards – – are gone even before the calendar flips to October.]

After Nebraska fired Scott Frost, it named Mickey Joseph as the interim head coach for the rest of 2022. One of the frustrations with Scott Frost’s teams is that they lost about 90% of the one-score games they played; Mickey Joseph had no such problem in his first encounter; the Huskers lost to Oklahoma by 5 TDs. So, what comes out of that mess?

Nebraska fired its defensive coordinator, Erik Chinander.
Lest you think that is some kind of over-reaction, consider that the Huskers’ defense gave up more than 1200 yards to its last two opponents, Oklahoma and Georgia Southern.

Brad Dickson – formerly with the Omaha World-Herald, had this Tweet about the coaching situation at Nebraska:

“The last four Husker coaches were all fired within one year of receiving a contract extension. That’s when you know your school is a mess. ‘We’re extending your contract…no, wait, you’re fired!’”

Here is an overview of action last week in college football; I’ll start with that Oklahoma/Nebraska game:

Oklahoma 49 Nebraska 14: The Huskers scored in the first two minutes of the game, but Oklahoma ran up 580 yards on offense and dominated the game. Best thing to say about the Nebraska effort here was that they presented a balanced offense:

Yards passing = 164 yards
Yards rushing = 163 yards

Southern Illinois 31 Northwestern 24: After a comeback win over Nebraska to start the season, Northwestern has not shown well. They lost to Duke at home by 8 points and now have lost to a Division 1-AA (Missouri Valley Conference) team at home by a TD. Looks like it could be a long season coming up in Evanston, IL.

Army 49 Villanova 10: Army had lost its first two games; what it needed was a confidence builder and Division 1-AA Villanova provided it here. Army had ZERO yards passing and only attempted one pass in the game. However, on the ground the Cadets ran up 472 yards of offense on 55 carries using a total of 12 different ball carriers. Army had 9 possessions in the game and scored a TD on 7 of those possessions.

Georgia 48 So Carolina 7: Congratulations to South Carolina. They scored a TD against Georgia. The Bulldogs had not given up a TD in its first two games; the TD here came in the final minute of the game, so Georgia’s defense went 179 minutes without allowing a TD.

Notre Dame 24 Cal 17: Cal led 10-7 at the half and 17-14 at the end of three quarters, but the Irish pulled it out in the fourth quarter for Marcus Freeman’s first win as the head coach there. The game was dead even on the stat sheet:

Total offense: Notre Dame = 297 yards Cal = 296 yards
First downs: Notre Dame = 16 Cal = 18

UCLA 32 So Alabama 31: Not a good look for the PAC-12. Yes, Sun Belt teams have pulled some major upsets this year, but the Sun Belt Conference should not be mistaken for the highest level of college football. This was another even game on the stat sheet:

Total offense: UCLA = 428 yards S. Alabama = 396 yards
First downs: UCLA = 23 S. Alabama = 22
Penalties: UCLA = 4 S. Alabama = 4
Turnovers: UCLA = 2 S. Alabama = 2

Attendance was only 29,344 for this game. The Bruins really need to up the quality of their out-of-conference home games to avoid having the crowd in the Rose Bowl rattle around like a bee-bee in a boxcar.

Oregon 41 BYU 20: This was a big win for the PAC-12 against a ranked opponent who was undefeated coming to the game. It is not quite enough to erase the memory of Oregon’s opening game debacle, but it makes West Coast Football a bit more respectable.

Washington 39 Michigan St. 28: Here is another big win for the PAC-12; the Huskies dominated the game rolling up 503 yards of offense. Washington led 36-14 at the start of the 4^th quarter; some “garbage time” movement by the Spartans made the score look more respectable. The Spartans entered the game ranked #11 in the country; that changed significantly after this result; the CBSSports.com poll for example now has Michigan State ranked 34^th in the nation.

Minnesota 49 Colorado 7: This was an embarrassing loss for the PAC-12. Minnesota is not the class of the Big-10, but it wiped the floor with this PAC-12 doormat. The Buffaloes have a carryover problem from last season; they just can’t score; the offense stinks. In 3 games this year, Colorado has scored a total of 30 points. Last season, they averaged 18.8 points per game and that ranked them 121^st in the nation out of 130 teams.

Ole Miss 42 Ga Tech 0: This game was a complete drubbing. The Rebels had 542 yards of offense while holding the Yellow Jackets to 214 yards. Ole Miss gained 2.5 yards for every yard on offense by Ga Tech. On the Jackets’ first possession trailing 7-0, they ran three plays and then had their punt blocked leading to a short field for the Rebels and a 14-0 deficit in about the first four minutes of the game. Then things got worse…

Penn St. 41 Auburn 12: The game was in Auburn and that result cannot make an already antsy set of fans and boosters at Auburn any happier. Auburn turned the ball over 4 times in the game. The Nittany Lion’s defense held Auburn RB, Tank Bigsby to only 39 yards rushing on 9 carries.

Appalachian St. 32 Troy 28: The Mountaineers suffered a bit of a letdown in the game as is to be expected after beating Texas A&M last week and losing to UNC by only 2 points two weeks ago. To win this game, the Mountaineers needed a 50+ yard TD pass completion on the final play of the game to secure the victory.

Kansas 48 Houston 30: Kansas is now 3-0 and Houston is 1-2. Man, did I ever overestimate Houston in the pre-season… Houston led 14-0 at one point but then surrendered 28 straight points to the Jayhawks. Kansas ran the ball for 280 yards in this game. This is the first time since 2009 that Kansas is 3-0 and the first time since 2007 that they won back to back road games.

Bowling Green 34 Marshall 31 (OT): Marshall – – like Appalachian St. – – had a letdown this week after a big upset over Notre Dame last week. Marshall outgained Bowling Green 577 yards to 377 yards in the game but the Thundering Herd also turned the ball over twice in the game. More like the Blundering Herd …???

Virginia 16 Old Dominion 14: Virginia dominated the stats gaining 513 yards on offense compared to 324 for Old Dominion. Three Cavaliers’ turnovers kept the game close, and it took a last-minute rally and a field goal as time expired for Virginia to come out on top.

Texas A&M 17 Miami 9: This was a good game if you like defensive football where every possession matters. Miami won the stat sheet but never got to the end zone and went 3 of 5 on field goal attempts.

Fla St. 35 Louisville 31: The Seminoles are 3-0 after their backup QB, Tate Rodemaker, led them from behind to win the game. Rodemaker came into the game due to an injury late in the first half and led three long TD drives to secure the game; three Louisville turnovers did not help the Cardinals’ cause.

Games of Interest This Week:

Baylor at Iowa St. – 2.5 (45.5): These are two of the better teams in the Big 12. It should be an interesting game.

UMass at Temple – 9.5 (44): These are two bad teams no matter the conference or any other consideration. It will be interesting to see which team is worse than the other.

Notre Dame at UNC – 2 (55.5): The Irish will present UNC with the best defense it has seen so far in 2022. But it must be noted that as of this morning, UNC ranks 6^th in the country in scoring offense averaging 51.3 points per game.

Maryland at Michigan – 17 (64): Both teams are undefeated so far in 2022; you can think of this as a yardstick game for both teams because neither team has played a serious opponent so far – – unless you count SMU as a serious opponent for Maryland.

Georgia Tech at UCF – 20.5 (56.5): Tech coach Geoff Collins was another one of the five “Coaches on a Hot Seat” I named in August. The Yellow Jackets are 1-2 in 2022 with the win coming over Western Carolina (not a big deal). However, in the two loses to Clemson and Ole Miss, Tech has been outscored 83-10.

Minnesota – 3 at Michigan St (50.5): This game is interesting because the spread opened the week with Michigan State as a 2-point favorite.

Clemson – 7 at Wake Forest (55.5): These are two of the better teams in the ACC; both teams are undefeated and both teams are in the Atlantic Division of the ACC.

Wisconsin at Ohio St. – 19 (56.5): The Wisconsin defense has only allowed an average of 8 points per game so far in 2022. The Ohio St. offense had averaged 47.7 points per game. Something’s gotta give here…

Florida at Tennessee – 10.5 (62.5): The Gators already have a conference loss; in the SEC East that is a serious problem. This is the first conference game for the Vols. It is way too early to call this a must-win game for them, but they really do not want to lose it.

Buffalo at Eastern Michigan – 6.5 (60): Why is this game interesting? Buffalo is one of the winless teams in the country. Eastern Michigan just went to Arizona St. and pulled an upset there getting Herm Edwards fired. I doubt either team will play an interesting game next week, but this one might be fun to keep an eye on.

James Madison at Appalachian St. – 7 (59.5): Do not scoff; these are two good football teams.

Iowa – 8.5 at Rutgers (34): That Total Line looks as if it came from a game in the 1950s, but it is real and it is constant across about 10 sportsbooks. Iowa averages 13.4 points per game on offense and it allows only 4.3 points per game on defense. Fortunately, the weather forecast for tomorrow does not call for a downpour or this game might go on forever.

Duke at Kansas – 7.5 (65): A titanic inter-conference battle of undefeated teams… Of course this is a game of interest…

UCLA – 21 at Colorado (57): The problem with the Buffaloes is very simple. They do not score points. As of this morning Colorado ranks 129^th in the country in scoring offense with 10 points per game. I don’t think UCLA is a juggernaut, but Colorado looks to me to be the worst team in the PAC-12 by a bunch; give me the Bruins to win and cover even on the road; put it in the Six-Pack

Hawaii at New Mexico St. – 4.5 (53): These are two bad teams – – and perhaps both are very bad teams. The Aggies are dead last in the nation in scoring offense averaging a meager 8 points per game. Their level of ineptitude will be tested this week because the Hawaii defense is similarly bad yielding 45.5 points per game to rank 130^th out of 131 teams. This is probably The Worst College Football Game of the Week.

Utah – 15.5 at Arizona St. (53.5): The “new guy” at Arizona St. gets a baptism of fire with Utah coming to town. As of this morning, the Utes are ranked 13^th or 14^th in the country depending on which poll you prefer.

USC – 5.5 at Oregon St. (70): USC averages 50.7 points per game and Oregon St. averages 45.7 points per game. This could be exciting… I am not ready to crown USC as the team to beat in the PAC-12, but I think they are much better this year than in recent years; give me the Trojans to win and cover on the road; put it in the Six-Pack

Oregon – 6.5 at Washington St (57): If Oregon hopes to be “relevant” at the end of the season, it must not lose another game…

K-State at Oklahoma – 12.5 (53): K-State is much better at home than it is on the road and Oklahoma looks as if they are pretty good despite the defection of their coach and starting QB from last year.

Vandy at Alabama – 41 (65): The schedule algorithm for the SEC made this game a necessity. It is easy to point a finger at Alabama for scheduling cupcakes, but this one does not count…

TCU – 2 at SMU (70): This is one of the most under-rated rivalry games in the country, The two schools are only about 30 miles apart in the Dallas/Fort Worth corridor and bragging rights in that part of the world are most important.

Arkansas at Texas A&M – 2.5 (48): I think this is the College Football Game of the Week. Neither team has a conference loss so far in 2022 but the Aggies have that loss to Appalachian St. on their ledger, so they have little margin for error down the road. I think the wrong team is favored here; give me the Razorbacks plus the points; put it in the Six-Pack.

UNLV – 2.5 at Utah St. (62): UNLV is 2-1 this year which is more games than they won all of last year. Nonetheless, they are road favorites here…??? Very interesting.

NFL Commentary:

People have not let go of the strange decision made by Broncos’ coach Nathanial Hackett at the end of the Week 1 game against the Seahawks. He chose to go for a game-winning field goal from 64 yards in the final minute of the game instead of trying for a first down on 4^th and 5. He explained that his plan all along was to “get to the 46 yardline and kick from there”. Here may be why people will not let go of criticizing that “strategery”:

Since 1961 – the year of the birth of the AFL – teams have tried field goals of 64 yards or longer a total of 41 times.
Those gigantic attempts have been successful 2 times; that is a success rate of 4.9% [Hat tip to Yahoo Sports for these stats]
And that was his choice when it came to a play call?

Granted the first Thursday Night Football game streamed over Amazon Prime was a top-shelf game; the Chiefs and Chargers would draw a large audience just about anywhere. But I am still impressed by the numbers here; Nielsen says that 13 million people streamed the game. That number is a little more than twice the audience that last year’s inaugural Thursday night game drew on NFL Network.

About 10 days ago, I ran across this stat and did not make a note where I found it:

Kyle Shanahan’s record with Jimmy G as his QB = 24-9
Kyle Shanahan’s record with “Someone else” as his QB = 8-28.

Last weekend Trey Lance started the game but exited in the first half, so Jimmy G took over. I don’t know where to put that game in those stats above, but it does not matter. The fact is that the Niners – — and Kyle Shanahan – – have been far more successful with Jimmy G under center. Yet, there is a constant effort out there to get rid of him.

It is far too early in the NFL season to make Super Bowl projections but if you let your mind wander, you can come up with some interesting situations. I got a note from #2 son earlier this week with an interesting perspective on two NFL fanbases:

“Our nation simply doesn’t possess the infrastructure or domestic security systems necessary to handle a Bills/Eagles Super Bowl.”

I said in my pre-season analysis that Frank Reich was on a hot seat this year if things went south for the Colts. Well, the team is 0-1-1 early in the season and that loss was a shutout pitched by the Jags. Jim Irsay is not exactly a model of patience; the Colts need a significant change in vector heading and they need it quickly. The Colts were supposed to contend for – – and probably win – – the AFC South Division this year. As of today, they own a loss to the Jags and have earned a tie with the Texans – both of them division opponents.

Amon-Ra St. Brown was a fourth round draft pick; last weekend, he tied an NFL record with his eighth consecutive game with eight or more pass receptions, tying Antonio Brown and Michael Thomas. Moreover, he is the only player in NFL history ever to have six consecutive games with eight or more receptions plus a receiving touchdown. Last weekend, St. Brown had nine receptions for 119 yards and two touchdowns against the Commanders.

Giants 19 Panthers 16: The game was close from start to finish. At the start of the 4^th quarter the score was 13-13; every possession mattered. The stat sheet was equally balanced:

Total Offense for Giants = 265 yards
Total Offense for Panthers = 275 yards

Giants’ kicker Graham Gano hit two field goals from 50+ yards here; that was a big difference in the game.

Jags 24 Colts 0: This was the 8^th consecutive loss for the Colts against the Jags in Jax. Are they allergic to something in the water there? The Colts managed only 218 yards on offense in the game and only ran the ball for 54 yards on 13 tries. The Colts only ran 48 offensive plays in the game. The fact that Matt Ryan tossed 3 INTs and was sacked 5 times did not help much at all.

Dolphins 42 Ravens 38: At the start of the 4^th quarter, the Ravens led 35-14 – – and lost the game. That is not easy to do but it seems that “come from ahead losing” was the order of the day in the NFL last week. Here are the Ravens’ possessions in the 4^th quarter:

5 plays and a TURNOVER ON DOWNS
3 plays and a PUNT
6 plays and a FIELD GOAL
4 plays and END OF GAME

Meanwhile, the Dolphins scored TDs on their final 4 possessions to win the game.
Tua Tagovailoa had this stat line for the day:

36 of 50 for 469 yards with 6 TDs and 2 INTs

BTW, do not try to pin this loss on Lamar Jackson in any way. He threw for 300 yards and ran for another 100 yards in the game. This one belongs on the Ravens’ defense.

Jets 31 Browns 30: Here is another come from ahead loss last weekend. Setting the stage, the Browns led the game 30-17 with 2 minutes and 2 seconds left to play – – AND – – the reason it was not 31-17 is that the Browns’ kicker missed a PAT on the TD that was scored with 2:02 left in the game. Here is what followed:

Joe Flacco to Corey Davis for 66 yards and a TD with 1:22 to play; PAT is good.
Jets recover an onside kick but have no timeouts left.
Joe Flacco to Garrett Wilson for 15 yards and a TD with 0:22 to play; PAT is good.

Honestly, I thought only the Lions could lose that way…

Here is a stat I ran across at CBSSports.com that puts this performance by the Browns in historical perspective:

NFL teams had won the last 2,229 consecutive games when leading by at least 13 points in the final 2 minutes.
Last team to lose in those circumstances? The Browns back in 2001.

And here is one more stat from the Washington Post:

Joe Flacco is 18-3 as a starting QB against the Browns in his career.

Cardinals 29 Raiders 23 (OT): Yet one more come from ahead loss from last weekend… The Raiders seemingly had this game in hand 23-7 at the end of the third quarter. The Cards had the ball twice in the 4^th quarter and produced 2 TDs with a 2-point conversion at the end of both scores to send the game to OT. The Raiders also had two 4^th quarter possessions producing 8 plays, 14 yards, 2 punts and less than 4 minutes time of possession. Arizona won the OT coin toss but gave the ball away on downs; the Raiders drove to within field goal range when Hunter Renfrow fumbled, and it was picked up as a “Scoop and Score” for 69 yards and a Cards’ win.

Honestly, I thought only the Lions could lose that way.

Lions 36 Commanders 27: Speaking of the Lions , they have scored 71 points in their first two games in 2022. The Lions dominated the first half of their game last weekend and led 22-0 at the intermission. Here is the result of the Commanders’ possessions in the first half:

3 plays and a PUNT
3 plays and a PUNT
2 plays and a SAFETY
3 plays and a PUNT
3 plays and a PUNT
6 plays and a PUNT
6 plays and a PUNT
1 play and END OF FIRST HALF

The total offense on those 8 first-half possessions was 39 yards. Washington media decided to put a lot of blame on the Commanders’ defense for “faltering” in the game. Let me be clear, the Commander’s defense played a not-very-good game but the blame for this loss belongs squarely on the Commanders’ offense for that first half showing.

Rams 31 Falcons 27: This score is deceptively close; the Rams led this one 28-10 at the end of the third quarter. The Falcons played hard for the entirety of the game; give them credit for that. The potential for a great irony existed in this game. The Falcons trailed 28-3 with about 10 minutes to play in the third quarter. Falcons’ fans remember what that game situation has led to in the past – – and the Falcons came within 4 points of overcoming that deficit. Had they tied the game and won in OT it might have been the greatest cleansing of a stain in the history of sports.

Bucs 20 Saints 10: The score at the end of 3 periods was 3-3. Then Tom Brady hit a 28-yard TD pass to put the Bucs up 10-3. The Saints’ offense in the 4^th quarter imploded; Jameis Winston threw 3 INTs – – including a Pick-Six – – in the 4^th quarter and the Saints lost a fumble on another possession in the 4^th quarter.

Niners 27 Seahawks 7: The Niners dominated on the field and on the stat sheet; they outgained the Seahawks by 157 yards. Geno Smith reverted to playing like Geno Smith in the game and the Seahawks’ rushing attack offered no real assistance gaining a total of 36 yards on 14 carries in the game. The only score by the Seahawks came as a result of a blocked 20-yard field goal attempt that turned into a “Scoop and Score”.

Cowboys 20 Bengals 17: It’s official. The Bengals are suffering from “Super Bowl Loser Syndrome”. They spent money on the OL in the offseason to better protect Joe Burrow this year. Well, in this game that improved OL gave up 6 sacks. Here is something else that is “official” and equally surprising:

Cooper Rush is 2-0 as a starting QB in the NFL over his 5-year NFL career.

The Bengals trailed 17-3 at halftime but rallied to tie the game late in the 4^th quarter. The Cowboys got the ball at their own 35 with 57 seconds to play. Six plays later they hit a 50-yard game winning field goal leaving 3 seconds on the clock. Almost a come from ahead loss but narrowly averted.

Broncos 16 Texans 9: This game leads to an important question:

Did I overrate the Broncos, or did I underrate the Texans – – or both?

The Broncos’ offense has been disappointing at best even with Russell Wilson at the helm. Granted it is only two games, but the offense has managed to put only 16 points on the board in both games. Really? Meanwhile the Texans’ roster is a bunch of no-names, but they have hung in twice against seemingly much better opponents. The Broncos won the game despite this stat line from Russell Wilson:

14 of 31 for 219 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. Meh!

The Broncos were plagued with delay of game penalties and in the 4^th quarter the hometown fans took to chanting the time on the play clock loud enough to be heard on the TV audio of the game.

Pats 17 Steelers 14: The Pats outgained the Steelers by 133 yards; usually that leads to a victory by more than a field goal. The biggest stat difference in the game was yards per pass attempt. The Pats gained 7.2 yards per attempt and the Steelers gained only 4.2 yards per attempt – – and the teams tried about the same number of pass plays in the game. If you want to try to characterize this win by the Pats, perhaps the label “businesslike” is appropriate.

Packers 27 Bears 10: Obviously, Aaron Rodgers has not sold his majority ownership shares in the Chicago Bears; he still owns them. The Packers gained 211 yards passing and 203 yards rushing in a dominating win here. The Bears’ young QB, Justin Fields, had a very bad night; the Bears net offense passing for the game was 48 yards; that is not a typo. The Bears got a TD on their first possession of the game and then the offense went into hibernation; their next first down – – not a touchdown but a first down – – came in the middle of the third quarter.

NFL Games this Week:

The Browns beat the Steelers last night. The best thing about the game was that it was close for most of the game such that every possession was important. Having said that, this game was not exciting; the best player on the field was Browns’ RB Nick Chubb.

Ravens – 2.5 at Pats (44): Is Lamar Jackson hurt or not? Will he play? If you do not know the answer to that question, do not bet on this game…

Bills – 5.5 at Dolphins (53): This must be the Game of the Week. Both teams are undefeated; it is a division game; both teams have looked very impressive to date. The Bills will play this one minus three starters on defense so I see this game as an offensive explosion as the Bills seek to keep pace with a Dolphins offense that should have success on its own. I like this game to go OVER; put it in the Six-Pack.

Bengals – 6 at Jets (45): I know it is only Week 3, but this looks to me to be a must-win game for the Bengals or their season will be toast. The Bengals have lost two games by 3 points each, but the opposition was not elite in either game. The Jets are hardly elite either – – notwithstanding Joe Flacco pinning that label on himself in days past. I am tempted by the OVER in this game but will resist that temptation.

Saints – 3 at Panthers (41): The Panthers have to be desperate at this point and the Saints showed last week how they can melt-down almost as if on cue. Do not bet on this tame…

Lions at Vikes – 6 (52): The Vikes looked great in Week 1 against the Packers at home; then they laid a giant egg last week against the Eagles on the road. The Lions have been a scoring machine so far this year – – and they give up points in bunches as well. I like this game to go OVER; put it in the Six-Pack.

Chiefs – 5.5 at Colts (50.5): Frank Reich and the Colts cannot afford to start the season 0-2-1 – – but the schedule maker decided that this was the week for the Chiefs to visit Indy.

Raiders – 2 at Titans (45.5): Both teams need a win no matter how they get one. As noted above, the Raiders lost last week in a dramatic collapse; the Titans lost to the Bills on MNF so badly that they pulled starting QB, Ryan Tannehill, in the 3^rd quarter and threw rookie QB, Malik Willis to the wolves. A win for the Titans here could set them up for a season turnaround. After the Raiders, here is the Titans’ upcoming schedule:

At Colts
At Commanders
Vs Colts
At Texans

That is a pretty cushy month of October…

Eagles – 6.5 at Commanders (47.5): The Eagles played an almost flawless game last week beating the Vikes and making Justin Jefferson look like a mere mortal in the process. If they carry over that level of play, this will be a blowout – – but I don’t think the Eagles are yet ready to play to that level consistently.

Texans at Bears – 3 (39.5): This is the Dog-Breath Game of the Week. About the only interesting angle on the game is that you might want to call it a “Lovie Smith Revenge Game”. My guess is that no one outside Lovie Smith’s nuclear family will tune in to the game for that reason.

Jags at Chargers – 6.5 (46.5): Justin Herbert is dealing with a “broken rib cartilage”. Until and unless you know what his status is and until you see him play with however they accommodate his injury, this is a game to avoid at the betting kiosk.

Packers at Bucs “pick ‘em” (42): If back in June when folks were analyzing the 2022 NFL schedule you had suggested that the Packers/Bucs game in Week 3 would have a Total Line of 42 points, you would have been taken off for a drug test. Well, here we are … and the line makes perfect sense:

The Bucs’ defense is very strong and should make Aaron Rodgers and company struggle to score.
The Bucs’ offense will be without Mike Evans and both Chris Godwin and Julio Jones did not practice on Wednesday. The Bucs went and signed Cole Beasley off the free agent market for this game.

Falcons at Seahawks – 1 (42): This game got a moment’s consideration as the Dog-Breath Game of the Week but the rancid odor that will emanate from Soldier Field took this game out of contention quickly. The idea of watching Marcus Mariota match wits with Geno Smith is less appealing than a three-day-old chamber pot.

Rams – 3 at Cards (48): Kyler Murray was spectacular in the 4^th quarter last week against the Raiders, but these guys are the Rams, and they have better players on defense. I like the Rams to win and cover on the road in this game; put it in the Six-Pack.

(Sun Nite) Niners – 1.5 at Broncos (44.5): The spread opened with Broncos favored by 2.5 points; that is a big swing. Fans in Denver will be looking for more than 16 points from the Broncos’ offense this week and if they do not get it, they could “lose their sh*t” on national TV. The problem is that the Niners’ defense is really good and might be able to hold the Broncos in check even if that offense were hitting on all cylinders.

(Mon Nite) Cowboys at Giants – 1 (38.5): This is an important division game; there are plenty of good reasons to watch it – – but I cannot think of even one good reason to bet on two teams that are as flawed as these two. Questions:

Can Cooper Rush make it three wins in a row and keep his record undefeated for his career?
Can Daniel Jones actually win three games in a row?

Tune in to find out…

So, let me review the Six- Pack:

UCLA – 21 over Colorado
USC – 5.5 over Oregon St.
Arkansas + 2 against Texas A&M
Bills/Dolphins OVER 53
Lions/Vikes OVER 52
Rams – 3 over Cards.

And just for fun, here are three Money Line parlays:

Rams@ minus-180 / Niners @ minus-125 $100 wager = $180 profit
Texans @ +125 / Chiefs 2 minus-240 $100 wager = $219 profit
USC @ minus-245 / Oregon @ minus 245 $100 wager = $103 profit

Finally, it has been too long since I closed with a comment from H. L Mencken:

“Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.”

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

The End Of The Robert Sarver Saga?

Yesterday afternoon reports surfaced that beleaguered Phoenix Suns owner, Robert Sarver, had “begun the process to sell the team.” My reaction went along these lines:

Good. Once this is accomplished that story can be put to rest for all time. I have heard/read all I ever need to about Robert Sarver.

My grandfather – – in times of minor travail – – often said that we should ‘Thank God for small favors.” To me, Sarver’s announcement seemed like a “small favor”, and I was more than happy to tip my hat at the opportunity to move on. But that sentiment was not widely adopted by the community of sports commentators.

First, the statement issued by Sarver was parsed and of course when you parse almost any public statement related to a situation such as Sarver’s there will be atonal segments.

Sarver says he is a “man of faith”. Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t; if he wants to stake out that position for himself, that is fine with me. That was not fine with lots of others.
Sarver said he thought the punishment he was given was severe and that it would give him time to reflect and to put him on the “path to atonement”. Dozens of people reacted to that as if he had advocated drowning puppies; how dare he assume he could ever atone.
The list goes on …

Second, the speculation began as to whether this was Sarver’s idea or if he was nudged in that direction behind the scenes by others in the NBA or possibly in the NBA’s “corporate partner world”. For me, the important thing is that he sells the team and moseys off to a status of “non-person” in the sports world. If that was his decision it is fine with me; if he was nudged – or even pushed – to make that decision, that is equally fine with me.

And finally, that public revelation awakened the dozing “Daniel-Snyder-is-a-slimeball” contingent leading to comments pointing out parallels in the alleged behaviors of Sarver and Snyder and the different outcomes – to date – in the two situations. I doubt that I need to explain how feckless I think all those commentaries were and are.

Take a deep breath everyone. When Robert Sarver sells the Phoenix Suns – – and the Mercury too – – he is going to make a lot of money on the deal. That fact is NOT a cue for everyone to be outraged again; it is simply a fact. Here is another simple fact. Once he sells the team, he will no longer have his plaything; it will have been taken from him. If you find Sarver’s behavior loathsome, take his loss of his plaything as the consequence of his loathsomeness, smile at such a consequence and then proceed to erase your memory banks of Robert Sarver. Why keep him in mind?

Before I leave this topic – hopefully once and for all – there was one other line of reaction that I thought was interesting but not one that could easily be put to a test. That reaction went along these lines:

There was a behind the scenes reaction by players and agents letting Sarver know that the Suns would not be a destination for free agents and that Suns’ players would be looking to move on and play elsewhere. In other words, his team was destined to suck.

Once again, maybe that happened and maybe it didn’t. But what I found interesting with that alleged scenario is that it requires me to believe that players and agents would be willing to work against their own financial interest. If the Suns were to be “off limits” for free agents, that declaration removes one bidder for players’ services. In economic terms, that reduces the demand for the services of free agent players and when demand is reduced, so is price in a rational free market. Unfortunately, there is no way to test that assertion of applied pressure from players/agents – – but that part of the reaction to the Sarver announcement yesterday was much more interesting to me than other reactions.

Moving on … Several weeks ago, I posed the possibility here of Paul Goldschmidt winning the Triple Crown in the NL. That feat has not been accomplished in the “senior circuit” in about 90 years; it would have been a cool thing. Alas, it now appears as if that status is out of reach; Goldschmidt ranks second in the NL in batting average and in RBIs and is fourth in the NL in home runs. However, all is not lost because:

Aaron Judge is currently leading the AL in all three categories. There may be a Triple Crown winner this year after all.

I have been overly focused on Judge’s home run status in the past month or so as he stalks Roger Maris’ record of 61 “clean home runs” – – a record that has stood for 61 years ironically. But Judge has been on a tear recently with more than just home runs; he has hit over .420 for the month of September and he now enjoys the following status as of this morning:

He leads the AL in home runs by 23 blasts.
He leads the AL in RBIs by 13 runs batted in.
He leads the AL in batting average by .001.

For the next couple of weeks, Judge’s home run chase will be the stuff of headlines. I doubt one could avoid following that story without retreating to a monastery in the Himalayas. However, there is reason to focus on the agate section of your sports page too; that is where the progress – or lack thereof – toward an AL Triple Crown can be followed.

Finally, with Rosh Hashanah coming this weekend, let me close with this item from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Kosher: Food that conforms to Jewish nutritional laws which were handed down by God in order that the Chosen People would never experience flavor.”

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

A Tale Of Two Coaches …

When Nebraska fired coach Scott Frost about 2 weeks ago, there were rumors/reports that Urban Meyer might be Nebraska’s target as a replacement. Those things seem to have been more rumor than report because the current position of the Nebraska athletic department is that they are not going to pursue Meyer for the job. Fine; take them at their word for that; but there is still space to fill in newspapers and websites, so the field is wide open for speculation and rumor-mongering.

Personally, I find the speculation that Deion Sanders would be the guy for Nebraska to hire to turn their program around and return it to national prominence is an interesting situation. I find it interesting on several levels.

First is the assumption that Sanders’ stature in the Hall of Fame and as a double-sport athlete would allow him to bring top-shelf recruits to Nebraska. In my lifetime, I believe I have spent 4 days in Lincoln, NE; that was sufficient for me. Let me just say that there are other places where I would want to spend 3 or 4 years of my life; so, if Nebraska can get a coach with sufficient personal cachet to overcome some of its “bucolic-ness”, that would be a good thing for recruiting. And there is at least one indicator that Sanders has some traction in that dimension.

Deion Sanders is the head coach at Jackson State University, an HBCU that plays in the SWAC with opponents there like Grambling and Southern and Florida A&M. Sanders got a “5-Star Recruit” – – for whatever that is worth – – to pass on schools like Alabama and Florida and the like to come to Jackson State and play for Sanders. That is not a feather in Sanders’ cap; that is worthy of a “Recruiting Trophy”.

Sanders took the job with no coaching experience but has gone 14-3 in his short tenure there. Is that because he has been a successful recruiter playing against opponents who are “recruiting-impaired”? Or is Sanders a great teacher in addition to being a competent recruiter? Or could it both of the above?

Second, let me imagine for a moment that Nebraska decides to contact Sanders’ agent about moving from Jackson, MI to Lincoln, NE. Their pitch cannot purely be money; Sanders is hardly destitute. Their pitch could be that this is a chance to take over a program that used to be a national powerhouse so there is prestige associated with returning it to that state of glory. The only problem is that if Sanders wanted that sort of challenge, he might keep his eye on his alma mater – – Florida St. – – where he might just have a chance to try that same sort of thing.

The problem with this sort of speculation is that at some point in the logical chain, one must assume something about Deion Sanders, or one must pretend to be able to read his mind. Sanders is on the record more than a few times that he wants to use his fame and his talents to elevate Jackson State’s football program and as a consequence of that elevation to make the other HBCUs in the SWAC to do the same thereby elevating the athletic profile of multiple HBCUs. Is all that just coach-speak or is that one of Sanders’ core beliefs? I have no idea – – and probably Deion Sanders is the only human on earth who does know.

I find the speculation here interesting because Deion Sanders is an interesting character in the sports world, and he is young enough that he will remain on the scene for a long time – – if he chooses to do so. Having exactly no objective insight into this matter, my guess is that Deion Sanders will not be the next head football coach at Nebraska. But if the Florida St. job came open and the AD there came calling…???

I want to talk about another football coach today; Kyle Shanahan is the head coach of the Niners – – a team that some folks believe will be the NFC representative in the Super Bowl in February 2023. Last weekend, the Niners lost their anointed starting QB, Trey Lance, to a broken ankle; he will be out for all of the 2022 season. Fortunately for Niner fans, the team did not trade or jettison Jimmy G in the offseason so the team can employ the person who was THE most qualified backup QB in the NFL until the point last weekend where he was no longer a backup QB in the NFL.

Much of the commentary surrounding the Niners’ QB situation has focused on the potential for a seamless transition for the team since Jimmy G took the team to the NFC Championship Game last season and came within 4 points of making it to the Super Bowl. The other popular “angle” for this story is speculation about how good Trey Lance actually is as a prospective NFL QB. This would have been his second season with the team and his first as the starter after the team spent a lot of draft capital to move up and take him overall #3 in the 2021 Draft.

However, from my viewpoint here in Curmudgeon Central, I see a darker element of this situation. I see a repeat of a young QB playing in Shanahan’s offense who gets severely injured. I know; football is a violent game and injuries happen; but this one is eerie for me.

About 10 years ago, Kyle Shanahan was the Offensive Coordinator for the Washington team under its former moniker; his prodigy QB was RG3 and Shanahan devised an offense that featured a lot of RG3 running the football – – until he injured his leg. Then, playing on that bad leg and on a field that was not worthy of hosting a high school game, Shanahan continued to call for RG3 to run the ball until the QB’s knee screamed “No Mas!” I am not insinuating that Shanahan was responsible for RG3’s injury; I am saying that his play calling was an element that led to the injury.

Fast forward to 2022 with Trey Lance as Shanahan’s wunderkind . I watched the play that put Lance on the cart headed to the locker room. It was in the first half of a game against the Seahawks and the screen graphic said the Niners were ahead 3-0; the down and distance situation was 2^nd and 8. The play looked to me to be a designed QB run between the tackles which is the sort of thing that shortened the career of even a much larger QB, Cam Newton. This was not a call in a tense situation where fakery might leave the defense vulnerable to a running play “up the middle”; this was a play that gained about four or five yards and put the starting QB out for the season.

[Aside: I recall Lance injuring a knee in a game last season and I believe it too happened on a designed QB run. I have not gone to try to find video of that play because I am way too lazy to go to that much effort – – so I could be wrong about the play that incurred the injury.]

As noted above, Niners’ fans must be happy to have Jimmy G on the roster and under center for the team. Now, what they must hope for is the Kyle Shanahan does not try to use Garoppolo as a short yardage back more than once in a long while over the next 15 games. The reason I say that is that the backup to Jimmy G on the roster now is Brock Purdy – a 7^th round pick in April of this year who has never taken a snap in an NFL game. And the Niners have reportedly held workouts with other free agent QBs such as:

Garrett Gilbert
Mike Glennon
AJ McCarron

If anyone in that trio is “The Answer”, I am at a loss to figure out what the question was.

Just wondering here … Since Coach Shanahan loves to call for his QB to run the ball, does Colin Kaepernick still reside in the Bay Area?

Finally, here is an observation from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Yankees reliever Greg Weissert threw a two-hitter in his big-league debut.

“Well, sort of. He plunked A’s batters with his first two pitches.”

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

Over The Top Hyperbole…

As the early Monday night game was going on the air, the camera focused on Derrick Henry walking through the stadium tunnel presumably toward the field. Play-by-play guy, Steve Levy, had the audio and was using the time and the visual image to praise Henry and to portend his impact on the game viewers were about to see. In his enthusiasm, Levy went just a bit “above and beyond”; I did not record what he said so this is a paraphrase:

There is no running back like him in the league and maybe there has never been a running back like him in the history of the NFL.

Allow me, just for a moment here, to channel my inner Keith Jackson and say to Messr. Levy:

“Whoa Nellie!”

I have no issue with the first part of Levy’s pronouncement; Derrick Henry is unlike any other running back playing in the NFL in 2022. In addition, I will stipulate that he is outstanding in what he does and would have been successful in any NFL era you might want to identify. However, the part about no player in history being like Derrick Henry? That is not simply an exaggeration; that is just silly. For starters let me offer 3 examples of a power runner who was also very fast and who carried a huge portion of their team’s offense:

Jim Brown
Earl Campbell
Marion Motley

Feel free to add to that list. Feel free to add Derrick Henry’s name to that list of players who are already in the Hall of Fame because if Henry continues on his career arc, he too will find himself enshrined in Canton. However, do not feel free to try to convince me that Derrick Henry sits in a category of his own that no one else is fit to join him there.

Moving on… If you have followed these rants for any length of time, you know that I do not appreciate the delays and the interruptions caused by “instant” replays. They serve a very useful purpose when they show sufficiently clearly the rectitude of calls on the field – – or not. That is their benefit; the benefit is real. But they take far too long to adjudicate; in some cases, they are the sporting equivalent of a filibuster. Now, having said all of that, I am advocating for adding a new category of NFL coachs’ challenge to the menu. I do not want to change how many challenges a coach will have but I want the following issue to be reviewable:

Did the offense get its play under way before the play clock reached zero?

Just last weekend, I saw at least a half dozen plays in various games where the offense was clearly and obviously late in snapping the ball. I understand the explanation given by former officials who lend their expertise to broadcasts about the mechanics for the officials and how those mechanics might lead to errors in such calls. However, if the call was challengeable at the choosing of the coach of the defensive team, some of those calls might be correctable.

And for the record, that is a replay that ought to be adjudicated in seconds after the video is cued up for review. There would not nearly be time for the networks to “go to commercial” while that challenge is adjudicated.

Switching sports … Reports say that the NBA and the NBPA are in negotiation to amend the CBA in a way that will allow players who are 18 years old – or older – to be eligible for the NBA Draft. If that becomes a fact, high school players could go directly to the NBA as was the case between the 1970s and 2005 when the NBA and the union imposed an age limit for players in the league. That decision by the NBA and the NBPA created the “One and Done Era” in college basketball. Maybe it is time to create a new era…

If this change is made, the result will be a reduction of star players at the college level. So what? There are more than 350 Division 1 college basketball teams; in any year, maybe 50 players will choose to seek Draft status in the NBA or choose to go to the G-League instead of to college. That is not a tidal shift for college basketball; in fact, it might not even be a ripple.

I am not sure this is a negative for college basketball at all. If all the “basketball prodigies” take their talents directly to the NBA, college basketball might tilt back toward times when college teams had a core roster that played together for multiple seasons and grew together and got better together. The wide-open transfer portal will work in opposition to that potential gain for college teams, but at least the absence of guys on the team who have no intention of ever playing past Year One will change the dynamic a bit.

I really enjoy college basketball; I prefer watching college basketball to NBA basketball even acknowledging the vast difference in talent on display in those two very different presentations. Some folks who are similarly college basketball afficionados think this new rule threatens the sport of college basketball. I disagree. If there is a threat to college basketball in the rules that structure the game, I think the “transfer portal” is a much more serious threat to the game and the integrity of the game than a potential change to the NBA’s age eligibility. With the emergence of NIL payments and the Wild West nature of the transfer portal, please do not try to tell me that player “tampering” does not occur. That is the existential threat to college basketball – not the fact that a few dozen potentially great players might take a different path to professional basketball.

Finally, here is an observation by Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times:

“Iowa State has suspended its men’s hockey club the next academic year after an investigation found the club engaged alcohol abuse and personal humiliation of rookie members.

“In other words, 525,600 minutes for hazing.”

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

Monday Morning Meanderings…

The sport of tennis is losing another of its great players; Roger Federer announced last week that he is retiring from competitive tennis. I am not going to pretend to know enough about tennis and about Federer’s game to make any sort of pronouncements here. What I know is that when I watched him play in major tournaments, I liked to watch him play. Part of my enjoyment came from his obvious skill; another important part came from the fact that he played the game without histrionics. I never got the impression that he was doing anything out there simply to draw attention to himself; he seemed to play the game just because it was a game he liked to play, and he played it really well.

I have no idea if any of the young players coming up in the world of professional tennis has a similar demeanor and similar on-court poise as Roger Federer had; it would be very good for the sport itself if that were the case.

Moving on … For months now, there has been an annoying buzz in the background regarding the involvement of Brett Favre in a scheme to divert funds intended for poor folks in Mississippi to the construction of a volleyball facility at Southern Mississippi where Favre went to school and where his daughter was a member of the volleyball team. Favre was evidently given a million dollars for some sort of appearances he was supposed to make but never did and he returned that money when this investigation uncovered such activity. At that point, I shrugged my shoulders, and my interest level was pretty low. I am no longer shocked to learn that public funds are not always spent on things that are in the public interest nor on things that were intended by the legislators who appropriated those funds. Early on in this story, I figured that Favre was simply lending his name and his fame to an enterprise he thought was above board but that various misdeeds were being manipulated by others.

Last week this story took a turn toward the sordid. According to a report from NBC:

“Newly released text messages from NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre show he was much more involved than previously known in pushing for millions of federal welfare dollars to be diverted from helping poor families to instead pay for a new volleyball facility at the school where his daughter played the sport.

“The messages, released in a court filing this week, also reveal that Favre sought reassurances from a nonprofit executive that the public would never learn he was seeking millions of dollars in grants that ultimately came from the Mississippi welfare agency.”

My reaction to the original story was that it was a “terrible optic”, but that Favre was not in on the scam. Now, I have to wonder if maybe this is a case of much more than a “terrible optic”. Evidently, the set of events involving Favre is only a minor part of the investigation going on related to misappropriated funds. The FBI is involved and already the State of Mississippi has filed civil suits against 38 people related to $78M of welfare funds that were not delivered to welfare recipients. Moreover, the investigation now also involves the former Governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant. What a mess…

The final item this morning will assuredly shore up my “curmudgeon cred”… There seems to be an insatiable need for folks to engage in virtue-signaling. Often, such signaling occurs around happenings that are symbolic at best and/or are transparently nonsense. In other cases, the individuals or institutions that succumb to virtue-signaling have done something positive; but cannot just let that positive contributions/accomplishment stand alone and be recognized for what it is – – a positive accomplishment.

That latter situation seems to have taken center stage at Clemson University recently. The Clemson Athletic Department “partnered with” – – Lord, I hate that phrase; “partner” is a noun and not a verb – – an organization, KultureCity and is now:

“ … the first collegiate program in the nation to be sensory-certified in all venues, ensuring all the programs and events that those venues host are sensory-inclusive.”

I was not clear on what it meant for a venue to be “sensory inclusive” and how one achieved such a status, so I read on in a public statement released by the university. Here is what I learned:

“Clemson will ‘promote an accommodating and positive experience for all guests and fans with a sensory issue that visits athletic events at Clemson University.’

“Memorial Stadium, Historic Riggs Field, Littlejohn Coliseum, Jervey Gym, Doug Kingsmore Stadium, and McWhorter Stadium will all carry the certification and will have available sensory bags with noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools, verbal cue cards, strobe-reduction glasses and weighted lap pads at guest services stands for guests attending events in Clemson athletic venues.”

I have no problem with Clemson or any other school or professional team working to make their events positive experiences for a wide range of fans. Somehow, this one seems to me to be a minor wrinkle in the overall athletic fabric; but if there are ways to accommodate a solution here, then kudos to folks who implement such accommodations. But seriously:

Is a formal public statement necessary?
Was there any organized or staunch opposition to doing any of this?
Is this on a par with desegregating the water fountains in those venues?
If the answer to the three queries above is “No”, then why do you give in to the temptation to virtue-signal? Go and “partner with” Nike and “Just Do It.”

I wonder what the next “Inclusivity Initiative” might be. Perhaps they can make all their venues “Incontinence-Inclusive”. Why not? There is a segment of society out there who cannot enjoy a sporting event without potential significant personal embarrassment; should we not work to include them too?

Finally, let me close today with a statement about the concessions at athletic venues from Scott Ostler of the SF Chronicle:

“If there are five or more people in line at a beer stand, everyone in line gets free beer. Hire more damn vendors. If we want to stand in line, we’ll go to Disneyland or the DMV.”

Hear! Hear!!! Shouldn’t we also be inclusive for the thirst-impaired fans…?

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

Football Friday 9/16/22

About a hundred years ago, George Gershwin penned these song lyrics:

“I got rhythm

I got music

I got my man

Who could ask for anything more? …”

Well, I have no rhythm and all the musical talents of a foghorn, but I do recognize and respond to a 7-day periodicity that leads to the next iteration of Football Friday. So, here we go. As always, I begin with a review of last week’s Six-Pack.

Against the spread/Totals:

Last week: College: 1-2-0 NFL: 1-2-0
Season to date: College: 2-4-0 NFL: 1-2-0

Money Line Parlays:

Last Week: 2-0 “Profit/Loss” +$281
Season to date: 2-2 “Profit/Loss” +$81

I need to put a footnote on last week’s Money Line Parlay results. One of the three team parlays had a tie game on the wager. The way sportsbooks handle such a situation is to assume that game never happened so if the rest of the ticket was a winner – – as it was last week – – the payout is calculated as if it were a 2-team parlay with the team odds as stated on the ticket. That happened last week with the Money Line Parlay of Eagles/Colts/Saints. The Colts’ game was a tie; the Eagles and Saints won their games.

College Football Commentary:

The Linfield College Wildcats had last week off as they prepared to host the University of Redlands Bulldogs as Homecoming opponents tomorrow. The Bulldogs bring a record of 0-2 to the kickoff but those two losses came by a total of 8 points. These teams met last year in out-of-conference action and Linfield won handily 51-10 as the visiting team. Go Wildcats!

Kansas is 2-0 this year; who had that back in July? Moreover, one of the wins came against a real team in Division 1-A – – West Virginia – – and Kansas has scored 111 points in those two wins. Let me put this in perspective for you:

Ever since Kansas fired Mark Mangino as the head football coach in 2009, the Jayhawks have not won more than 3 games in any season.
In that timespan, the Jayhawks have had 2 winless seasons and 2 seasons with only 1 victory.
Their record under 5 coaches from 2009-2021 is 23-118-0.
Starting this year at 2-0 is a big deal in Lawrence, KS.

When head coaches move around on the college coaching carousel, lots of folks pay lots of attention. I want to point out two defensive coordinators who “changed jobs” in this offseason and they seem to have had a significant positive effect on their new teams in the first couple of weeks:

Jim Knowles: The Ohio State Buckeyes hired him away from Oklahoma State back in January. Last year, the Ohio State defense was clearly the weak link in the chain at Columbus and Knowles had achieved significant improvements in the Oklahoma State defense over the previous 4 seasons in Stillwater. Acknowledging the small sample size, it is clear so far that the Ohio State defense is much improved over what I saw last year. In two games, the Buckeye’s defense has only allowed a total of 22 points.
Gary Patterson: Last year in mid-season, Patterson was the head coach at TCU when he and TCU “mutually agreed to go in different directions” . Patterson had been the head coach there since 2000 and had compiled a 181-79 record in that time. His teams went to a bowl game 17 times including an appearance in both the Fiesta Bowl and the Rose Bowl. Patterson’s teams emphasized defense; his teams did not play many games where both teams went north of 50 points. Technically, he is the “Assistant to the Head Coach” at Texas these days but if you watch on the sidelines, he is the guy working with the defense for the Longhorns. The Texas defense has been a mess for several seasons now; with Patterson on board, the Longhorns held Alabama to 20 points last week and almost upset the team ranked #1 in the country at the time.

College football has already had one coach at a major school fired. The University of Nebraska fired Scott Frost after the Huskers lost to Georgia Southern 45-42 last week. Here is how badly the folks in charge in Lincoln, NE wanted to get rid of Scott Frost:

According to reports, the amount of money it would take to buy him out of the rest of his contract would drop by more than $6M on October 1, 2022.
There are two games (one tomorrow and another on 1 October 2022) between now and the time when the athletic department could save $6M.
They opted to fire Scott Frost anyway.

[Aside: Scott Frost is the leader in the clubhouse to win the Thomas Wolfe Award for 2022 demonstrating that indeed, “You Can’t Go Home Again”.]

Here are some results from last week’s games – – a week where top teams either lost outright or did not cover:

Ohio State 45 Arkansas St. 12: The Buckeyes have a very good team in 2022 and as noted above, their defense is now pulling its weight.

Iowa St. 10 Iowa 7: There is good news and bad news for the Hawkeyes’ offense here:

Good news: They scored a TD this week
Bad news: Their total offense in the game was 150 yards.

Alabama 20 Texas 19: The Texas defense almost pulled this one out for the Longhorns. What Alabama does not have this year that it has had in abundance in the last 4 or 5 years is a speed receiver on the outside that demands deep coverage help. The NFL is littered with such players – not counting Henry Ruggs II who is suspended from the NFL for off-field issues and who may be the fastest of that corps of Alabama speed burners.

Ole Miss 59 Central Arkansas 3: At the start of the 4^th quarter the score was 52-0. Central Arkansas drove to the Ole Miss 13-yardline – – and chose to kick a 30-yard field goal. I wonder how the coaches explain that decision to their offensive unit…

Arkansas 44 South Carolina 30: The Razorbacks look pretty good to me this year. Granted, they are in the SEC West so it is difficult to project them as a force majeure, but they could be a tough out for teams down the line.

Kentucky 26 Florida 16: The Gators were shut out in the second half of this game; the Kentucky defense was very good last week. A Pick-Six late in the 3^rd quarter put the Wildcats on top to stay.

Appalachian St. 17 Texas A&M 14: This was the upset of the day. According to a report I read, Appalachian St. got $1.1M to come to College Station to play this game; the idea was for the Aggies to win that home game and generate excitement among its passionate fans. So, the Mountaineers just took the money and the game too. This was a real win for Appalachian St.:

Total Offense: Appalachian St. 315 yards – – Texas A&M 186 yards
First downs: Appalachian St. 22 – – Texas A&M 9
Third down conversions: Appalachian St. 9 of 20 – – Texas A&M 2 of 8

Wake Forest 45 Vandy 25: The trajectory for a Vanderbilt undefeated season [eyeroll here] came to a screeching halt last week. This was a butt-stomping…

Tennessee 34 Pitt 27 (OT): You expect an OT game to be a close contest on the stat sheet and this game does not disappoint:

Total Offense: Tennessee 416 yards – – Pitt 415 yards.

Duke 31 Northwestern 23: The Blue Devils are 2-0 on the season. Their projected win total for the year was 3 wins; I said in my college football preview that I liked the OVER there. We shall see…

UNC 35 Georgia State 28: The Tar Heels are 3-0 to start this season and they have won those 3 games on offense. So far, the Heels have given up 113 points in 3 games; most teams that give up 38 points per game are not on the list of undefeated teams.

Marshall 26 Notre Dame 21: This game was not a fluke, Marshall out played and out hit Notre Dame for four quarters of football. The Irish are 0-2 under new head coach, Marcus Freeman and the Irish schedule is not a cakewalk from here on out. The Irish are 0-3 under Freeman since he coached the team as it lost in the Fiesta Bowl last year. Freeman is not on a hot seat just now, but the folks who pull the strings in South Bend will likely be most attentive to this week’s game against an undefeated albeit mediocre Cal team in South Bend.

Washington St. 17 Wisconsin 14: The home field in Wisconsin is a significant home field advantage. The fact that the Cougars went there and came out with a win could be a significant factor for the PAC-12 in terms of its perceived strength as a conference. Wisconsin only had 4 possessions in the second half of the game; here are the outcomes of those possessions:

3 plays and a PUNT
11 plays and a MISSED FG
14 plays (41 yards) and an INT
2 plays and a LOST FUMBLE

USC 41 Stanford 28: So. Cal had this game in hand at the end of the 3^rd quarter leading 41-14. There was not a lot of defense here, the teams combined to rack up 946 yards of total offense. There were 57 first downs in the game!

Mississippi St 39 Arizona 17: I had this game as an OVER 57.5 last week – – the line dropped to 56.5 at game time. Note the total points is 56… Then, check the stats to find out that Mississippi State missed a point after touchdown in the game. It would not have made my Six-Pack selection good, but it would have made a big difference for bettors who took the OVER proximal to game time.

College Football Games of Interest:

UConn at Michigan – 48.5 (60): After hosting a miserable Hawaii team last week Michigan now welcomes another patsy to Ann Arbor. Clearly, there is no shame in the scheduling department at Michigan. The Wolverines did not cover a 52.5 point spread last week; let’s see what they do here.

Rutgers – 18.5 at Temple (44): Rutgers enters the game at 2-0. Temple won last week over Division 1-AA, Lafayette.

Georgia – 28.5 over South Carolina (55): The Georgia defense is awfully good again this year. They pitched a shutout against Samford last week.

Oklahoma – 11 at Nebraska (64.5): The spread opened at 14.5 points has dropped earlier in the week. Perhaps bettors think the Huskers will rally under new coaching leadership?

Old Dominion at Virginia – 9 (54): The Cavaliers disappointed in last week’s Six-Pack and seemed to abandon its wide-open pass offense against Illinois. Old Dominion shocked Va Tech two weeks ago in Blacksburg. Should be an interesting game…

South Alabama at UCLA – 15.5 (59): The Bruins have averaged 45 points per game in the first two games of the season. The Jaguars scored 31 points in the first half last week against a bad Central Michigan defense. I think this game will produce a lot of offense and big plays; I like the game to go OVER; put it in the Six-Pack.

Cal at Notre Dame – 11.5 (41): These lines show little faith in the Notre Dame offense. If they are going to win by 11.5 points that means they should only score 27 points against a mediocre defense …

Penn St. – 3 at Auburn (48): All I can say is that Auburn’s home field is a big advantage for the Auburn team.

Vandy at Northern Illinois – 2 (59.5): A week ago, Vandy was undefeated. This week they are a 2-point underdog to a MAC team. Sic transit gloria mundi …

BYU at Oregon – 3.5 (58): This game lost some of its preseason luster when Oregon was steamrolled by Georgia two weeks ago.

Kansas at Houston – 8.5 (58): Kansas is 2-0; Houston had a Top 20 pre-season ranking. What gives here?

La-Monroe at Alabama – 49 (61.5): ‘Bama only scored 20 points last week at Texas. They might exceed that score in the first quarter here…

Mississippi St. – 2.5 at LSU (54): I do not understand these lines at all. If you made me guess what the lines would be, I would have said LSU -3 at home with a total of 60.

Michigan St. at Washington – 3 (56): An important game for the PAC-12’s reputation nationally.

Nevada at Iowa – 24 (40): This line says a ton about the perception of the Nevada defense. Iowa has scored a total of 14 points – – and one TD – – in two full games and they are more than a 3 TD favorite here. Supporting that idea that Iowa might score a bit this week is last week’s performance by Nevada. They lost to Incarnate Word by a score of 55-41.

Miami at Texas A&M – 6.5 (45): I call this the College Game of the Week. Miami is rebuilding its program quickly and the Aggies cannot afford to lose another game at home. I will definitely be tuned in for this one.

San Diego St. at Utah – 20.5 (48): After a disappointing loss to Florida in the opener, Utah went home and crushed Southern Utah 73-7. The Aztecs beat Utah last year in triple OT; so, this is sort of a revenge game for the Utes. San Diego won 12 games last year with a strong running attack and a very good defense – – but neither aspect of that sort of play has shown up this year. I like Utah to keep winning big to try to “repair” its national image. I’ll take Utah and lay the points here; put it in the Six-Pack.

NFL Commentary:

There was a lot of sloppy football on display in Week 1 and conventional wisdom has it that the lack of playing time for starters in the Exhibition Season is the cause of the sloppiness. Let me assume that statement is absolutely correct; that makes the Exhibition Games even worse than they are. They are meaningless; they do not give the “real players” the reps they need to be efficient/effective in Week 1; they inflict injuries on players who never really had a chance to make the team just so the owners can make a bit more money and the networks can sell a little more ad time. Shameful…

Every team seemed to partake of the “unpreparedness waters” last Sunday. There were fourteen games then; eight were one-score games and 5 games were decided by a total of 4 points including a tie-game. As was the case last season, the Packers – – and Aaron Rodgers – – looked amateurish in Week 1. Rodgers was visibly upset with his receives on more than a handful of botched catches and/or patterns; he did not demonstrate unconditional love for his teammates on that day.

Sean Payton is on TV as of this morning but after the egg that the Cowboys’ offense laid on Sunday Night Football, I have to believe that Jerry Jones is loosening up the fingers on his writing hand to put an offer on a piece of paper and slide it across a table to Payton’s agent. According to reports, Bill Belichick was the highest paid coach last year making $12M. I suspect that Jerry Jones is beginning to think about how big a gap he wants to put between Belichick’s annual salary and the one he is about to offer to Sean Payton.

With the thumb injury to Dak Prescott, the Cowboys will turn to Cooper Rush to hold the fort until Prescott is ready to come back. There was speculation that the Cowboys would try to trade for the niners’ backup, Jimmy Garoppolo, but I think that is not going to happen for 2 reasons:

The Niners may need to play Jimmy G given how poorly Trey Lance played last week in what was admittedly terrible weather conditions.
Jimmy G has a no-trade clause. Why would he waive it to go to a team that will sit him down the minute Dak Prescott is healthy? He is on the bench in SF so going to the Cowboys is not much different…

Sometimes it is interesting to compare statistical results with the “Eyeball Test”. So, for last week consider:

The NFC QB with the highest QB Rating was – – Geno Smith. The Seahawks’ passing offense was 177 yards and he threw for 31 yards in the second half of the game. Really?
Geno Smith’s QB Rating was 7.5 points higher than Josh Allen’s QB Rating. Allen threw for 297 yards and 3 TDs. Really?
Geno Smith’s QB Rating was 19.2 points higher than Russell Wilson’s QB Rating. Wilson threw for 340 yards and a TD. Really?

There are 10 new head coaches in the NFL this season. In first appearances, those new guys had their teams go 6-3-1 which should be encouraging to at least 6 NFL fanbases. The fanbase that must be the most unhappy this week is the Broncos; “Orange Nation”. Coach Hackett’s decision to run down the clock and try a 64-yard field goal instead of going for it on 4^th and 5 is mind-boggling. I thought Payton Manning was going to have a cerebral hemorrhage as that clock was counting down to the time-out taken by the Broncos.

In last week’s games …

Seahawks 17 Broncos 16: The Broncos fumbled and lost the ball twice inside the Seahawks’ 2-yardline in the game. The contest should never have come down to that stupid 64-yard field goal attempt…

Ravens 24 Jets 9: The Ravens did not impress in the way they won this game. The Jets were just awful. The Ravens usually produce some solid rushing stats; last week their leading rusher was Kenyan Drake who gained all of 31 yards on 11 carries. Jets’ coach Robert Saleh says he is “taking receipts” for all those who are mocking the Jets. I think the Jets are better than they were last year but take a receipt from me today for saying the Jets were horrible last week.

[Aside: He better lease a storage locker to keep all those receipts in one place; they are not going to fit in his office.]

Browns 26 Panthers 24: That makes 8 losses in a row for the Panthers going back to last year. Maybe now that they have the “Baker Mayfield Revenge Game” out of the way, the Panthers can get down to a more normal state of preparation.

Colts 20 Texans 20: When Gene Mauch managed the Phillies, he said that splitting a doubleheader was like kissing your sister through a screen door. I guess that applies to an NFL game that ends in a tie as well…

Commanders 28 Jags 22: The Jags led 22-14 with about 12 minutes left in the game. On their final two possessions, the Jags went:

4 plays and a PUNT
4 plays and an INT.

Meanwhile, the Jags’ defense gave up two TD passes (49 yards and 24 yards) in those remaining minutes to secure the loss.

Dolphins 20 Pats 7: All during Training Camp and the Exhibition Season, folks focused on the fact that bill Belichick did not name an offensive coordinator and that he must have some deep dark master plan that he was about spring on the league come Week 1. Well, if he has a master plan, it sure did not work well last week. The Pats need to worry significantly about this failure in Week 1:

Their pass receivers were not getting any separation on short passes or long passes. Mac Jones may be an accurate passer, but he is not a magician.

Saints 27 Falcons 26: It was another come from ahead loss for the Falcons who led the game 23-10 when the 4^th quarter started.

Eagles 38 Lions 35: After one week, the Eagles lead the NFC in total offense having racked up 455 yards in this game. However, they also gave up 355 yards on defense.

Steelers 23 Bengals 20 (OT): It took a blocked PAT buy Steelers DB, Minkah Fitzpatrick to put the game into OT. Fitzpatrick also had a Pick-Six earlier in the game. The Steelers have lost TJ Watt to a pectoral muscle injury, but they say he will not need season-ending surgery. If/when Watt returns at close to his all-Pro form, the Steelers’ defense will be formidable indeed.

Bears 19 Niners 10: Yes, it was one game and most assuredly, the playing conditions were horrible with standing water all over the field. And yes, in those adverse conditions, Trey Lance was terrible at QB in his first game as “The Guy” in SF. This week’s game at home against the Seahawks is a big game for the team and for Trey Lance…

Vikings 23 Packers 7: As noted above, the Packers’ offense was discombobulated last week, and Aaron Rodgers was not happy about it. In addition to having to find rapport with young receivers, Rodgers needs to worry about his OL which was overwhelmed for much of the game last week.

Chiefs 44 Cards 21: Basically, the Cards were a no-show at home in the opener. Patrick Mahomes was 30 of 39 for 360 yards and 5 TDs with zero INTs.

Chargers 24 Raiders 19: The Raiders’ OL was much worse than a mere “mess”; they need to buy the “Flex Seal Family of Products” to patch all those leaks.

Giants 21 Titans 20: Saquon Barkley carried the ball 18 times for 164 yards and a TD. He also caught 6 passes for 30 yards. Not a bad day at the office…

Bucs 19 Cowboys 3: Mike McCarthy is an “offensive coach”; the Cowboys’ offense last week was somewhere between rancid and fetid. Total Cowboys’ offense was 244 yards. But that does not tell the whole story. After an opening drive that produced a field goal, here is the Dallas offense for the rest of the game:

3 plays and a PUNT
3 plays and a PUNT
3 plays and an INT
5 plays and a PUNT
1 play to end the half
5 plays and a PUNT
9 plays and a TURNOVER ON DOWNS
3 plays and a PUNT
11 plays and a TURNOVER ON DOWNS
8 plays and a TURNOVER ON DOWNS.

Meanwhile, the Bucs should not be overconfident here. Micah Parsons spent more time in the Bucs’ backfield than some of the Bucs’ RBs. The Bucs’ OL was not good last week.

NFL Games This Week:

Last night the Chiefs beat the Chargers in KC by a field goal in a very entertaining game. Last year, the Bills played the Chiefs in KC in early October. After that game, I wrote that I thought Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes where the two most fun QBs to watch in the NFL – – not necessarily the two best but the two most fun to watch. I would now like to have the same privilege as is afforded to members of the US Congress and I would like to revise and extend my remarks:

I think Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert are the three most fun to watch QBs in the NFL.

The Chargers had to play without WR Keenan Allen last night, so they turned to Mike Williams to be the #1 WR. Williams caught 8 passes for 113 yards and a TD. Not bad for a “sub”… A 99-yard Pick-Six by the Chiefs provided the margin of victory here.

Dolphins at Ravens – 3.5 (44.5): The Dolphins’ defense is for real, but their 20 points scored last week might be a tad misleading about the Dolphins’ offense. The team had s strip sack for a TD. The Ravens are a better team than the Pats and this game is in Baltimore.

Jets at Browns – 7 (39.5): The Jets shut down the Ravens’ running attack last week (see above). The Ravens had Lamar Jackson to pick up the slack. If they Jets can contain the Browns’ running game, the Browns will have to rely on Jacoby Brissett who is not nearly Lamar Jackson. Shop this line because the spread varies from 6.5 to 7.5 at various sportsbooks. I like the Jets plus the points here; put it in the Six-Pack.

Commanders at Lions – 1 (48): I have no idea why the Lions are favored here, and I do not trust either team in terms of consistency. However, I do believe that both offenses can dominate the other defense, so I’ll take the game to go OVER; put it in the Six-Pack.

Colts – 3.5 at Jags (45.5): The Colts are not a great road team, but they produced 517 yards of offense in their tie-game with the Texans last week. The Jags gave up 390 yards on offense last week – – but I am queasy about this game. I wanted to put it in the Six-Pack, but I will not.

Bucs – 2.5 at Saints (44.5): Since joining the Bucs, Tom Brady is 0-4 against the Saints in the regular season. Both teams won last week; neither team was impressive in doing so.

Panthers at Giants – 2.5 (43): Yes, the Giants won last week and the Panthers lost. Having said that, the only impressive performance by either team was Saquon Barkley. This is my Dog-Breath Game of the Week.

Pats – 3 at Steelers (40.5): Both teams struggled on offense last week – – and that is being polite about it. Losing TJ Watt is a big deal here but given the way the Steelers’ DBs cover, I don’t think Mac Jones will have many easy pitch-and-catch opportunities here. I like the Steelers plus the points at home; put it in the Six Pack.

Falcons at Rams – 10 (46.5): The Rams need to win because they are going to be in a tough divisional race down the road; the Falcons put up a fight against the Saints last week, but I think they are over-matched here.

Seahawks at Niners – 9 (41): The Niners need to win because they are going to be in a tough divisional race down the road; Trey Lance had better be 200% better than he was last week in the Niners’ home opener this year.

Bengals – 7 at Cowboys (42): The Cowboys will probably have to run the ball really well to win and I don’t think they can do that. Micah Parsons may have 4 sacks in the game, but I don’t expect Joe Burrow to throw a bunch of INTs. Give me the Bengals to win and cover even on the road; put it in the Six-Pack.

Texans at Broncos – 10 (45): Yes, the Texans are not good, and the Broncos will not fumble at the goal line twice in this game. But I hate double-digit spreads in NFL games, so I’ll pass…

Cards at Raiders – 5 (51.5): It is awfully early to call this a “must win” for both teams – – but it feels that way to me. Both teams were disappointing last week to say the very least.

(Sun Nite) Bears at Packers – 10 (41.5): The Packers are the better team, but it is not as if they are without “issues”. Yes, Aaron Rodgers “owns” the Bears. No, I will not make a selection in this double-digit spread game…

(Mon Nite) Titans at Bills – 10 (48): The only double-digit spread on the card this week that tempts me even a little bit is this one and I would lean toward taking the points with the Titans. But I have the Six-Pack full already so this one must go by the wayside.

(Mon Nite) Vikes at Eagles – 2 (50.5): I am not sure why the Eagles are favored in this game other than it is in Philly.

So, let me review the Six-Pack:

UCLA/South Alabama OVER 59
Utah – 20.5 over San Diego State
Steelers +3 against Pats
Jets +7 against Browns
Commanders/Lions OVER 48
Bengals – 7 over Cowboys

And here are two Money Line parlays just for fun:

Steelers @ +120 and Saints @ +120 $100 wager wins $384.
Vikes @ +115 and Bills @ – 470 and Bengals @ – 340. $100 wager wins $237

Finally, Dwight Perry had this item in the Seattle Times two weeks ago – – before Scott Frost got fired at Nebraska:

“Comedy writer Brad Dickson, on the Cornhuskers rallying from a 7-7 halftime tie to beat North Dakota: ‘Nebraska served notice (they) are slightly better than the second-best team in North Dakota. … OK, that doesn’t sound as impressive as I thought.’”

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

Changes Coming ?

Sometimes, sports fans become so immersed in their fandom and their focus on some aspect of a sport or an event that they neglect the rest of the world around them. Given the fanaticism that attaches to the FIFA World Cup, there is the potential for such oblivious behavior to manifest itself come November in Qatar. And that could be most unpleasant.

Qatar is a nation dominated by Islam which does not approve of alcohol consumption; in fact, there are laws against it except under extremely specific circumstances and venues. Beer will be allowed in some limited manner for fans of these World Cup games, but there are restrictions on where and when the beer may be purchased and consumed. And recently, the authorities in Qatar warned fans planning to see the World Cup games in Qatar not to try to smuggle alcohol into the country in their luggage. According to an ESPN.com report:

“Fans travelling to the 2022 World Cup will not be able to take alcohol for personal consumption into Qatar, with the head of the country’s safety and security committee saying that ‘specific measures’ are in place to take action against anyone attempting to smuggle liquor in their luggage.

“Although alcohol is strictly restricted in Qatar — drinking in public can lead to fines of up to 3,000 riyal (£720) or prison sentences up to six months — it can be purchased inside hotels, and the supreme committee in charge of the tournament has agreed to make beer — provided by World Cup sponsor Budweiser — available at stadiums and in fan zones during the World Cup, which begins on Nov. 20.”

I think the statement by the “head of the country’s safety and security committee” related to “special measures” should be taken by fans visiting Qatar as a promise and not as a threat. Sadly, I suspect that there will be fans who ignore this warning and will thereby find themselves in an undesirable situation.

Moving along … The University of Nebraska obviously recognizes that payments to athletes is no longer verboten, and it seems as if the administrators there are busy finding ways to create new ways to funnel money to players. According to a report on KETV – the local ABC station in Lincoln, NE – athletes at the University of Nebraska can earn money by passing the courses they are enrolled in. Here is the essence of the report:

“Starting this fall, UNL scholarship athletes will be awarded money each semester for passing grades, maxing at $5,980 a year. It’s an effort to reward them for academic efforts in a trend that’s spreading throughout college athletics.

“UNL athletes have the potential to graduate with more than $25,000 in cash, now available legally thanks to a court ruling last year. The University’s compliance office calls it an “academic incentive.” UNL’s incentive program is among the most generous in the Big 10 Conference.

“UNL leaders said they recognize that being a student athlete is an “overtime” job and they should be rewarded for their achievements in the classroom.”

Frankly, this action will do more in terms of making the “student-athlete” a reality than any of the bloviating issued by the NCAA over the past 50-75 years.

Next up … Often, change is accompanied by unintended consequences and sometimes those unintended consequences are not particularly helpful. I think the whole issue of “name/image/likeness” payments to college athletes is an example here. Of course, an athlete should be able to benefit from someone else’s use of their name, image or likeness (NIL) for the profit of someone else; payments in that realm make perfect sense. However, opening that door has led to some – dare I say – perverted constructs whereby money is paid to people to play college sports at a specific institution.

How to fix those unintended consequences? Well, the Power 5 Commissioners seem to have come up with an idea that I believe is very dangerous. According to SI.com the commissioners sent a letter to two US Senators seeking Congressional legislation to help with regulation in that area. According to the commissioners, boosters for college programs are “inducing” recruits and athletes who have entered the transfer portal to come to the boosters’ schools with “payments inaccurately labeled as NIL”. The commissioners have put forth six “pillars” that are needed to create an orderly marketplace here. Those pillars are:

“Having a national standard allowing all athletes to earn compensation from third parties.
“Prohibiting pay-for-play as well as outlawing booster involvement in recruiting.
“Providing protections for athletes, including assurances that agents ‘are subject to meaningful regulation’.
“Banning third parties or agents from obtaining ‘long term rights’ of an athlete’s NIL.
“Requiring deals commensurate with market rates for NIL activity.
“Requiring athletes to disclose NIL deals to their university.”

That sounds so easy. What might the unintended consequences be if all that were codified into law and US Government regulation and oversight? Well, if I knew the answer there, the consequences would not be unintended… and just for the record, the US Congress is the undisputed champion of creating unintended consequences in the history of mankind.

Finally, here is an example of an unintended consequence that we should not hope ever comes to pass:

If a member of a synchronized swim team drowns, do the other members drown too?

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

Robert Sarver To The Bench…

The big story from yesterday is the fining and the suspension of Robert Sarver – principal owner of the Phoenix Suns – by the NBA for overseeing an unacceptable workplace environment. I will not spend time here itemizing the findings of an extensive NBA sponsored investigation into this matter; you can find those details in dozens of different places.

The punishment for Sarver is that he will be fined $10M and will be suspended from the league – – meaning he cannot be associated with his team – – for one year during which he will have to take part in “treatment/training” in proper workplace behaviors. Two things struck me when I read about that punishment:

This is just about the same thing that the NFL handed down as punishment for Danny Boy Snyder after its investigation into the Washington Commanders’ “toxic workplace culture”.
The NBA did not move to force a sale of the Suns’ franchise even though it very recently reached that level of punishment for a previous owner. Presuming that Sarver completes his “treatment/training” and is appropriately outwardly penitent, he will continue to own his team unless he decides he wants to sell it to someone else.

I want to focus on those two issues today. Regarding the parallelism between the punishments for Sarver and Snyder, I think the similarity is coincidental and not purposeful. I believe the league bylaws for both the NFL and the NBA set $10M as the maximum fine that the league is allowed to levy against an owner or a franchise. That being the case, the conclusion that I draw here is that both leagues found enough “dirt” in their investigations to allow the league to virtue-signal and appear to be as tough as possible on such improprieties.

A Google search says this morning that Sarver has a net worth of $800M. I think that is hugely underestimated simply because if he sold the Suns’ franchise, that transaction would probably net more than $2B; since he owns “about 35%” of the franchise, that asset alone is worth more than $800M. My point is that a $10M fine for him is not nearly crippling to whatever lifestyle he enjoys or seeks to enjoy. As for his banishment from running the team, that really means he cannot be physically present in the team HQs – where he perpetrated those actions that got him punished in the first place – but does not preclude him from any and all contact with other folks who are indeed running the franchise on a day-to-day basis.

In the end, the effect(s) on both Sarver and Snyder are consequential but not harsh. Neither “bad boy owner” is going to lose his favorite toy – – his sports franchise.

And that leads me to this conclusion about why Snyder’s and Sarver’s behavior fell short of the mark that made the NBA choose to kick Donald Sterling to the curb. This is my opinion – and you know what they say about opinions:

Opinions are like armpits; everyone has them; lots of them stink.

I believe that what Sterling did – and it was caught on audio and video recording – was bad for business at the NBA level. I do not think the league gives a fig if a team owner runs his team such that the individual team does not maximize its revenue potential. If all Donald Sterling did was to reduce the live gate revenue for Clippers’ home games, he would probably still be the owner of the team. But that is not all that Sterling did…

His comments and his behaviors toward women and Black people went beyond individual team revenue damage. The NBA has been courting women as a growth area for its fanbase both for the NBA itself and then hopefully as an increased fanbase for the WNBA. Sterling’s behavior toward women would not help that effort even a little bit. However, much worse than that was the potential alienation of part of the Black fanbase the NBA enjoys, and that is important because the NBA TV audience has a large Black representation – – larger than the percentages of the US population as a whole. That is important because the TV audience drives the TV rights fees that the league can charge and that is the biggest revenue stream the league has. Donald Sterling’s behavior(s) might have put some of that revenue stream growth in jeopardy.

[Aside: Do not extrapolate what I said here. Sterling did not put the NBA on the brink of financial ruin. He threatened an important segment of the NBA fanbase that might have reduced potential revenue growth league-wide.]

We do not know the detailed findings of the NFL’s investigation, but we do know from a lengthy report released by the NBA what it found about Sarver’s conduct. What Sarver did was crude and improper and juvenile and stupid and hurtful; it would be difficult to deny any of that. And at the same time, his conduct poses no threat to the league’s revenue growth plans and practices. And so, he will keep his admission credential to the NBA club after he serves his year in Purgatory.

If and/or when the Danny Boy Snyder hijinks ever become public, I suggest you use the yardstick proposed here as a way to understand how and why the NFL decided to punish him in what seems to be a harsh way but does not drop him like a hot rock. Their assessment is that Snyder may not be the poster child for the warm and fuzzy prototypical NFL owner, but he is not costing the NFL any part of its TV audience. And that, folks, is The Bottom Line.

[Aside: If you really want to know what the NFL found in its investigation, you should root for Jon Gruden’s lawsuit regarding the release of his emails that cost him his job with the Raiders to proceed. Absent that event, I doubt that anything in that report will ever see the light of day.]

Finally, if you take the time to go and read about what the NBA found in its investigation of Robert Sarver’s behavior, you might conclude that he should be ashamed of himself. Therefore, I will close today with this definition from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Shame: The realization that nobody else thinks the thing you were caught doing was as wholesome as you thought it was.”

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

Football Friday 9/9/22

Today is obviously a Sesame Street rant brought to you by the letter “F”. Today is the:

First Full-blown Football Friday of the Fall

The college season started in earnest last week presenting the opportunity for an abbreviated Football Friday; now we have the full breadth of football in its active mode so time’s a wasting. Let me put this bus in gear…

The first order of business is to look back as last week’s Not-Quite-A-Six-Pack and the Money Line Parlays. It was not an auspicious start to the season:

College = 1-2-0
Money Line Parlays = 0-2 Imaginary loss on Parlays = $200

The Linfield College Wildcats opened their season about 2200 miles from home taking on the Huntingdon Hawks. The Wildcats won the game 41-34. As a Division III school, Linfield plays a 9-game regular season; this victory in an out-of-conference game is a positive step toward Linfield’s 66^th consecutive winning season in football. The Wildcats have this week off to prepare for a game at home against the University of Redlands Bulldogs on September 17^th.

I got an email from Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times after last week’s abbreviated Football Friday hit the Internet. He took note of my “fascination” with Linfield football and wondered if I was aware of another sports connection there:

“ … Ad Rutschman, the patriarch of Linfield sports, is (a) the grandfather of Orioles rookie catching sensation Adley Rutschman and (b) the only coach in college history at any level to win national championships in two sports, his being football and baseball.”

I was aware that Adley Rutschman’s grandfather – – actually, I thought it was his father – – had been a coach at Linfield but I did not know he had won national championships in two sports. A little research revealed that Ad Rutschman was the head football coach at Linfield from 1968 until 1991 and was one of the coaches who built the string of winning football seasons that Linfield enjoys today.

College Football Commentary

I often criticize powerhouse schools and conferences here for scheduling meaningless cupcake games out of conference. Humorist and culture critic, Brad Dickson took note of Nebraska’s early season schedule in this Tweet:

“Nebraska opens against Northwestern, North Dakota and Georgia Southern. That means three weeks into the season and the Huskers still will not have played a team ranked no. 1 in its own state.”

Nebraska has no choice but to play Northwestern; they are in the same division in the same conference and play each other annually. However, the other two are purely by Nebraska’s choice…

Another school – UCLA – achieved some notoriety last week for one of its scheduling choices. UCLA hosted Bowling Green in the Rose Bowl for its opening game. The Bruins won handily as was expected by any and all people not a blood relative of a member of the Bowling Green team – – but that was not the issue. Here is a stat that the UCLA athletic department did not want to see:

Attendance for the game was the lowest in UCLA football history in the Rose Bowl. Only 27,143 fans bought a ticket for the game, snapping a record that has stood for roughly 30 years. The previous attendance low happened in 1992 when the Bruins only sold 32,513 tix to a game in the Rose Bowl against Oregon State.
The Rose Bowl seats 90,888 people. So, if everyone who bought a ticket showed up, you would expect the stadium to be about 30% full. Please take a few seconds and follow this link to see a picture of the crowd in the stands at the game.
If the stadium is 30% full, lots of people showed up wearing their Harry Potter invisibility cloaks.

Looking at that photo, I would have thought it would have favored Bowling Green – – a MAC team that plays most its games in front of a stadium with attendance filling less than a third of the capacity. It should have been like old home week…

The folks at UCLA might want to strap themselves in for some more embarrassing attendance moments in the coming weeks. UCLA has also scheduled South Alabama and then Alabama State as its next two home games. Those schools ought to be a big draw in the greater LA region.

Granted it is only one week of college football action, but maybe there were a few clear indicators of things to come for the rest of the season:

Georgia lost 15 players to the NFL via the Draft last April. Nonetheless, Georgia opened the season against Oregon – – a Power 5 team that is highly ranked in its conference – – and blew the doors off the Ducks. Maybe Georgia is not as good as last year, but they are going to quite good, thank you.
NC State was touted as a serious contender in the ACC for 2022. Well, if that is to be the case, the Wolfpack is going to have to show a lot more than it did in eking out a 1-point win over East Carolina. ECU gave the game away with a missed PAT, a missed field goal and had a punt blocked resulting in a TD.
LSU is the only team in the SEC with a losing record as of today; the Tigers lost to Florida State 24-23 in the opener when a Seminole player blocked a PAT with no time on the clock in the 4^th quarter that would have sent the game to OT. What makes the LSU record all the more embarrassing is that even Vanderbilt has a winning record at 2-0 at this point in the season.
The PAC-12 lost two games to SEC schools over the weekend. Probably the best showing for a PAC-12 team against a reasonable opponent was Oregon State’s 34-17 win over Boise State. The Beavers dominated here; they forced 5 turnovers on defense, and they had 5 offensive plays of 40 yards or more.

Ohio St. 21 Notre Dame 10: I wondered aloud last week if the Ohio State defense had been fixed in the offseason. Based on the small sample of one game, it looks as if it has; that unit held Notre Dame scoreless in the second half of the game. The defensive stats for the game were impressive. Notre Dame only gained 253 yards on offense and only managed 12 first downs in the game.

Florida 29 Utah 26: This was one of the losses for a PAC-12 team against an SEC team last week, but this was a good showing by Utah. The Utes had a real shot to win the game; trailing 29-26 with a minute and a half left in the game, they drove the field and had the ball second and goal at the Gators’ 6-yardline. At that point it looked as if overtime was the best outcome for the Gators – – until Cam Rising, the Utah QB, threw an INT that ended the game. Close but no cigar…

Georgia 49 Oregon 3: This was the other loss by a PAC-12 team to an SEC school. Oregon is one of the power schools in the PAC-12; that makes this debacle more than just an embarrassment for the school; it is an embarrassment for the conference. Yes, Oregon was a 17-point underdog; so, the expectation was that they would lose the game – – but not by 46 points. Georgia scored a TD on its first 6 possessions of the game; can anyone in Oregon spell d-e-f-e-n-s-e? Georgia was ranked #3 coming into the game behind Alabama and Ohio State; imagine how good those two teams are considered to be.

Arkansas 31 Cincy 24: Keep the “Cincy Cinderella Narrative” on ice for a while in 2022…

Tennessee 59 Ball St. 10: The game was never “close”; the score was 45-0 in the third quarter. Games involving SEC teams against MAC teams often wind up in this sort of situation. Total offense for the Vols was 588 yards.

UNC 63 Appalachian St. 61: Obviously there was not a lot of defense in the game. In the 4^th quarter alone, the teams combined to score a total of 62 points. Total offense in the game was 1216 yards; the teams combined to produce 64 first downs; there were only 3 punts in the game. In that 4^th quarter, I suspect that the field was declared a “Tackle-Free Zone”…

Old Dominion 20 Va Tech 17: I wondered about this game last week marveling that Tech was less than a TD favorite over Old Dominion. Well, the oddsmakers were a lot closer to right than I was; Tech lost outright even though they outgained the Monarchs by 134 yards. Tech also held Old Dominion to 3 of 16 third down conversions and 0 of 2 fourth down conversions – – and they still lost. It might be a long season in Blacksburg…

Duke 30 Temple 0: Total offense for Temple in the game was 179 yards. The passing game for the Owls was 14 for 29 for a total of 114 yards. So, the Owls’ offense was non-existent. The Temple defense performed similarly ineffectively allowing Duke to run up 500 yards on offense. It is definitely going to be a LONG season for Temple. This week, Temple hosts Division 1-AA Lafayette – – a team that only managed to beat Sacred Heart last week 6-0. Temple must not lose this game…

Pitt 38 W. Virginia 31: This is the renewal of a rivalry game known as the Backyard Brawl. The key play here was a Pick Six by the Panthers in the final 3 minutes of the game to provide the margin of victory.

Penn St. 35 Purdue 31: Penn St. QB, Sean Clifford, threw for 4 TDs in the game and ran for the Lions’ other score. He also threw a Pick Six that gave Purdue a 31-28 lead in the middle of the 4^th quarter. As Job said in the Bible, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away…

Iowa 7 S. Dakota St. 3: This is the odd way to get such a score. Iowa scored a field goal and two safeties; S. Dakota St. kicked a field goal; that was it. Total offense for both teams was a meager 293 yards; there were only 16 first downs in the game by both teams; the teams combined to punt the ball 21 times. The longest drive for S. Dakota St. was 26 yards; the longest drive for Iowa was 57 yards – – and that drive resulted in a lost fumble. Iowa had trouble scoring last season – it ranked 99^th in the country in points per game. Looks as if that situation may still be in place…

Oklahoma St. 58 C. Michigan 44: Giving a MAC team 44 points does not speak well of the Oklahoma St. defense… In fact, C. Michigan outgained Oklahoma State for the game 544 yards to 521 yards.

W. Kentucky 49 Hawaii 17: In its first game, Hawaii gave up 66 points, so I guess this is an improvement?

James Madison 44 Middle Tennessee St. 7: James Madison announced its presence in the Sun Belt Conference with this dominating performance. The Dukes gained 548 yards of offense and held Middle Tennessee St. to only 119 yards of offense. At the half, Middle Tennessee St. only had 24 yards total offense.

Delaware 14 Navy 7: This is not a good omen for Navy fans. With James Madison having moved up to Division 1-A, could Delaware be the CAA team to take over the conference? Villanova might have something to say about that.

Games of Interest this Week

For the record, I will try to avoid listing any games here with spreads over 30 points – – and there are plenty of them this week. The heading here is “Games of Interest” and very few games of that sort are even marginally interesting. There will be a few however…

Duke at Northwestern – 10.5 (58): Both teams are 1-0. Northwestern beat Nebraska two weeks ago in Dublin; Duke beat Temple last week. Neither Nebraska nor Temple is a football juggernaut in 2022 – – but I suspect that Nebraska would wax Temple if they were scheduled against each other.

Alabama – 20 at Texas (65): Has Texas ever been a 3-touchdown underdog at home before? This is the Game of the Week in college football even though it could turn into a rout.

Wake Forest – 12.5 at Vandy (65): Wake’s starting QB has been cleared of a “non-football medical issue” and may be able to play here.

Tennessee – 6 at Pitt (64.5): I think there will be lots of points in this one.

Colorado at Air Force – 17.5 (50): This is not a good look for the Buffaloes as a 3-score underdog to a service academy…

Appalachian St. at Texas A&M – 19 (54.5): You cannot accuse Appalachian State of cupcake scheduling with UNC last week and the Aggies in week two.

Washington St. at Wisconsin – 17.5 (49): The Cougars beat Idaho last week by a TD; Wisconsin is a Top 25 team and enjoys a strong home field advantage. This looks like a problem for Washington St.

Virginia at Illinois – 4.5 (57.5): Illinois had it’s game in hand against Indiana last week and choked the game away 23-20. I think UVA is at least as good as Indiana, so I have no idea why the Illini are favored. I like Virginia to win outright so I will be happy to take them with the points here; put it in the Six-Pack.

Houston at Texas Tech – 3.5 (63.5): Tech’s QB was injured in last week’s game and has been ruled out for this week and possibly next week with an unspecified shoulder problem. Houston disappointed me last week, but I still think they are a good team. So, I’ll go to the well one more time here and take Houston plus the points; put it in the Six-Pack.

Iowa St at Iowa – 3.5 (40.5): Always an interesting rivalry game early in the season. After Iowa had its offense pull a no-show last week, I have no idea what will happen here.

Kentucky at Florida – 6 (51.5): The Gators looked good playing a strong Utah team last week, but Kentucky is no push-over. The Total Line began the week at 54 points and has been dropping slowly all week long.

UMass at Toledo – 29 (47.5): Why even have a football team if you are going to be more than a 4 TD underdog to Toledo?

USC – 8 at Stanford (67): This is the first conference game for USC under Lincoln Riley sandwiched in between two non-conference opponents. Both teams opened the season against meaningless competition.

Arizona St. at Oklahoma St. – 11 (58): Remember, the Cowboys gave up 44 points to a MAC team last week…

Hawaii at Michigan – 52 (68): Yes, the spread here is 52 points. Hawaii looks to be that bad and Michigan – under Jim Harbaugh – is not known to coast once they have a game in hand… In case you were wondering what the Money Line odds for this game are:

Hawaii is +135,000
Michigan is minus-405,000

BC at Va Tech – 2.5 (45.5): The Hokies lost at home to Old Dominion last week and are now favored at home against BC? That is almost blackboard material for BC…

Baylor at BYU – 3.5 (53): Maybe not the two best teams to play this weekend, but this might be one of the best games of the weekend.

Oregon St. – 1 at Fresno St. (61.5): Oregon St. looked good beating Boise St, last week; Fresno St. dominated Cal-Poly last week. Fresno St. is tough at home. The spread opened the week with Fresno St. as a 1.5-point favorite.

Mississippi St. – 10.5 at Arizona (57.5): Arizona beat San Diego State and scored 38 points last week. Mississippi St. under Mike Leach is known for offense and not defense. I think this game will go OVER; put it in the Six-Pack.

NFL Commentary

The real NFL season – – no more Exhibition Games – – began last night with two top teams setting the tone for the season. The schedule maker knew about Von Miller going from the Rams to the Bills as (s)he was making up the schedule, so maybe this opening match-up as a “Revenge Game” was a way to deflect attention from all the spooky stuff that would follow?

The Bills were dominant last night; beating the reigning Super Bowl champs on the champs’ home field by 3 TDs is a big deal. Registering 7 sacks in any game is a big deal; converting on 9 of 10 third down attempts is a big deal. The Bills were far the better team last night. My only caution here is to point out that this is the first of 17 games that each team will play and things will change for both teams as the season moves on. Do not consign the Rams to mediocrity just yet and resist the urge to anoint the Bills as the best team in the history of football anywhere in the galaxy. Having said that:

Damn! The Bills looked spectacular last night.

For those of you who have a devotion to conspiracy theories, look at the NFL opening week schedule and take a look at all the possible “Revenge Games” on the card. How did the schedule maker know about all these moves way back in April/May when the schedule was under construction? Enquiring minds want to know …

The schedule maker was also about as kind as he could have been to the Washington Commanders for the start of the season. The Commanders have the Jags in Week 1 and then the Lions in Week 2. The Jags picked first in the Draft last April and then the Lions picked second. I said in my NFL predictions piece earlier this week that I expected improvement from both teams – – but this is as soft a start as the Commanders could hope for as they ease into what might become the “Carson Wentz Era” – – or not.

Meanwhile the injury bug has already created a blister for the NY Jets. Earlier this week it was announced that QB Zach Wilson will not be able to play in Week 1 and that, in fact, he would be hors de combat for the first four weeks of the season. The Jets announced Joe Flacco as the starter for this week’s opener and coach Robert Saleh told reporters:

“To be honest with you guys … the earliest [Wilson] is gonna be available is Pittsburgh. That’s gonna be the earliest. Now can it change? Sure, I’m always gonna leave that door open. You guys know me, I’m the eternal optimist. But we are gonna make sure that both mind and body are 110 percent and make sure we do right by him, and we feel like, talking to the doctors, it’s gonna be that Pittsburgh week.”

The oddsmakers have played it very cautiously for the first week of the season. There are no spreads greater than 7 points anywhere on the card for the weekend – – and last night’s game carried a spread of 2.5 points.

NFL Games:

Baltimore – 5.5 at Jets (44.5): The spread opened at 5.5 and rose sharply to 7 points after news that Zach Wilson’s injury would have him out of the game; then it settled back to where it started. At the same time, it created a “Revenge Game” where Joe Flacco goes against one of his former teams and his former coach, John Harbaugh.

New Orleans – 5.5 at Atlanta (42.5): The Saints will be enigmatic for most of the season because they will have Jameis Winston at QB. He is the Jekyll and Hyde of QBs; he can throw a team into and out of the same game – – twice. The Saints are the better team here particularly on defense. I hope that Jameis Winston has a decent game and avoids one of his blunderful performances because I am taking the Saints to win and cover on the road; put it in the Six-Pack.

New England at Miami – 3.5 (46.5): The Dolphins enjoy a 3-game win streak against the Pats and there is a ton of hype around Tua and his upgraded offensive counterparts. The Pats continue to project their businesslike approach to games as prescribed by “The Patriot Way” but this team has more question marks than previous teams.

Cleveland at Carolina – 1 (42): The line opened with the Browns favored by 4 points for a reason that I cannot understand. Now the Panthers are favored. This is another “Revenge Game” as Baker Mayfield goes against the Browns. Here is an outlandish stat I ran across:

Since 2004, the Cleveland Browns are 0-16-1 in Week 1 games.

Pittsburgh at Cincy – 6 (44.5): Joe Burrow missed a bunch of training camp as he needed an appendectomy. Is he ready for the start of the season or will there be some rust to shake off? Najee Harris played in the final Exhibition Game for the Steelers because he had missed a lot of time in camp due to a sprained Lisfranc tendon in his foot. Will he be ready for the season opener here?

SF – 7 at Chicago (40.5): There are two competing factors in this game:

This is Trey Lance’s first start as “The Guy” in SF and it is on the road. It is not a good idea to take the Niners and lay a full TD with that being the case.
The Niners are significantly more talented than the Bears. It is not a good idea to take the Bears only getting 7 points with that being the case.

Philly – 4 at Detroit (48.5): I like the Eagles offense against the Lions’ defense in this match-up. I’ll take the Eagles to win and cover on the road; put it in the Six-Pack.

Indy – 7 at Houston (46): The Texans have a new system under a new coach with a young QB who may or may not be a real QB. The Colts always seem to have a new QB; in fact, this is the 5^th year in a row that the Colts have a new starting QB in Game 1. I like the Colts to win and cover even on the road; put it in the Six-Pack.

Jax at Washington – 2.5 (44): The spread here opened at 4 points and has shrunk slowly to this level over the week. This is a “Sort Of Revenge Game” with Carson Wentz taking on his former coach, Doug Pederson from their days in Philly. Another angle here is that the Jags beat the Colts – – with Wentz playing terribly – – in Week 18 last year knocking the colts out of the playoffs and making it important for the Colts to have gotten rid of Wentz. Plenty of mind games at work here…

KC – 6 at Arizona (53.5): If you like offensive football, this game should be high on your list of must-see TV programming.

Las Vegas at Chargers – 3 (52): The Chargers needed to improve their defense from last year and they seem to have done so with the addition of JC Jackson and Kahlil Mack; Jackson will miss this game, but Mack makes the Chargers pass rush significantly better than it was. The Raiders will unveil their new offense under Josh McDaniels.

Green Bay – 1.5 at Minnesota (47) Vikes’ LB, Za’Darius Smith turned this into a “Revenge Game” saying he wanted to sign with the Vikes so he could get back at the Packers twice a season because they did not treat him well in Green Bay. Who knows if that is factual? The question I want answered is this:

How long will it take for the Packers’ offense without Davante Adams in the lineup to function as if he were still in the lineup?

I think this is the NFL Game of the Week.

Giants at Tennessee – 5.5 (43.5): The Titans have been a run-based offense for several years now; the loss of AJ Brown should make them even more run-based. Can the Giants stop that? Meanwhile, the Titans lost their best linebacker, Harold Landry, for the year to a torn ACL. How might the new Giants’ offense under Brian Daboll exploit that?

(Sun Nite) Tampa Bay – 2.5 at Dallas (50.5): Micah Parsons will give folks an idea of how seriously degraded the Bucs’ OL is this year given all of its injuries.

(Mon Nite) Denver – 6.5 at Seattle (44.5): This spread opened at 4 points and has been climbing slowly over the week. This is the biggest “Revenge Game” of the week with Russell Wilson returning to Seattle.

Time to review this week’s Six-Pack

Houston + 3.5 against Texas Tech
Virginia +4.5 against Illinois
Mississippi St./Arizona OVER 57.5
Eagles – 4 over Lions
Saints – 5.5 over Falcons
Colts – 7 over Texans

Here are two Money Line Parlays for the Week:

USC @ minus-300 over Stanford

UNC@ minus-270 over Georgia State

Memphis @ -220 over Navy Imaginary $100 wager wins $166.00

And …

Eagles @ minus-200 over Lions

Saints @ minus-230 over Falcons

Colts @ minus-310 over Texans Imaginary $100 wager wins $185.00

Finally, today began with a reference to Sesame Street. So, let me close with an “inspirational quote” from my favorite Sesame Street character, Oscar the Grouch:

“Just because you’re trash doesn’t mean you can’t do great things. It called ‘garbage can’, not ‘garbage cannot.’”

[Aside: Certainly, you are not surprised to learn that Oscar the Grouch was my favorite Sesame Street character…]

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