The Sports Curmudgeon

Aaron Judge did it. Against the Texas Rangers, he hit his 62^nd home run for the 2022 season passing Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs which has been the AL record for 61 seasons.  Judge is 30 years old and will be a free agent this winter; who will open the bidding for his services in 2023 and beyond at 5 years and $250M?  Could happen…

Two days ago, I wondered if fans in Texas would show up in greater numbers than expected hoping to see Judge break the record.  Before the Yankees arrived for this final series of the year, the Rangers average attendance was 24,538; yesterday, a total of 38,882 fans turned out for the game.  Given that the Yankees had clinched their division a while back and that the Rangers were 38 games behind their division leader, the game itself had no implications at all.  Normally, one would have expected a crowd below the average for the rest of the season.

The fact that attendance was about 60% above average must be attributed to Judge and his pursuit of the AL home run record.  Congratulations to Aaron Judge …

The joint NFL/NFLPA investigation into what happened to Tua Tagovailoa and into their concussion protocols has gotten to the point that investigators are about to interview Tua himself.  According to a report this morning:

• “Others involved in the case already have been interviewed.”

This all sounds good; investigators are proceeding at a reasonable pace; they have deferred talking with Tua early on allowing his head to clear a bit as he remains in the regimen of the existing concussion protocol; the league and the union are keeping reporters up to date on progress and status of the investigation.  There is, however, a discordant note here.

Recall that the independent neurological consultant who supposedly saw Tua at halftime of the game against the Bills was “fired” over last weekend before this joint investigation got underway.  His “firing” came because the union withdrew their acceptance of that person and these independent neurological consultants need to be accepted by both the league and the union.  That seemed at the time to be a tad hasty and smelled of scapegoating.  The league and the union did not make that situation any better by a joint statement released over the weekend.  According to that statement the NFL and the NFLPA:

“ … share a strong appreciation for the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants who contribute their time and expertise to our game solely to advance player safety.”

If I were a “neurotrauma expert” – – which I am not – – I think I would be looking to lend my time and expertise in some other venue where my overseers with no neurotrauma expertise might not fire me before conducting their investigation to see what happened.

Moving on …  The college football game of coaching musical chairs has gotten an unusually early start this season with five Power 5 jobs already up for grabs.

1. Arizona St.
2. Colorado
3. Georgia Tech
4. Nebraska
5. Wisconsin

The presence of Colorado on that list is interesting because the coach just fired there, Karl Dorrell, was hired late in one of those hiring cycles because the incumbent Colorado coach, Mel Tucker, bolted to take an attractive contract at Michigan St.  Last year, Michigan St. upped the ante and gave Tucker an extension for 10 years and $95M.  That seemed to make sense last year; Sparty had an 11-2 record in 2021.  That contract extension seems to have lost some of its luster in 2022; Michigan St. is 2-3 to date in 2022 and those two wins came over Western Michigan and Akron indicating that Michigan St. could be a big deal in the MAC – – but Michigan St. plays in the Big-10.  The Spartans three losses against teams from conferences that matter have all been by double-digits and this week Ohio St. comes to East Lansing for a game as a 27-point road favorite.

From a purely economic standpoint, Tucker is in no danger of being fired even if Ohio St. wins 103-0 this week.  Eating nine of those years on the contract extension works out to more than $80M and that is comfortable cushion for Mel Tucker’s coaching position.

Interestingly, there is another college football coach who was rewarded in 2021 with a contract extension reported to be 10 years and $95M.  That would be Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.  There is a boatload of “booster money” available for the Aggies football program so the announcement of that extension raised an eyebrow or two but did not engender shock and awe by any means.  Coming into 2022, there were great expectations for the Aggies; they had several “Top-Ten recruiting classes” at the school and many thought they had the best recruiting class of all for this year.

• [Aside:  Ratings of high school players is mysterious at best and phony at worst.  Remember that Tom Brady was a “zero-stars” prospect coming out of high school.]

The Aggies have done better so far in 2022 than Sparty; the Aggies are 3-2 and only one victory was against a cupcake opponent.  Nevertheless, the two losses came at the hands of schools that are “not supposed to beat elite teams”; Appalachian St. and Mississippi St. seem not to have known their role as overmatched opponents in the presence of Texas A&M.  Like Michigan St., the Aggies have a stern test this weekend when they visit Alabama and find the Tide as a 24-point favorite.  Alabama may be without the services of its Heisman Trophy QB, Bryce Young who left last week’s game with a “sprained shoulder” and is considered day-to-day for this weekend’s game.  The worst outcome for the Aggies would be to lose badly even if Alabama plays with its backup QB, Jalen Milroe.

Texas A&M was a Top 5 team in the preseason polls; as of this week, they have not only dropped out of both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, but they are also way down in the list of “Others receiving votes”:

• In the AP Poll, the Aggies got significantly fewer votes than Illinois, Tulane and James Madison.
• In the Coaches Poll, the Aggies trail Minnesota, James Madison and Maryland.

There is a boatload of “booster money” available to the Texas A&M football program, but probably not enough to put the axe to a coach who still has more than $80M left in his deal…

Finally, having spent some time today suggesting that some football coaches have been “overpaid”, let me close with this observation by Woody Allen:

“What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists?  In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.”

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

 

 

A common feature on sports pages and sports Internet sites are lists of “Coaches on a Hot Seat”.  I take part in that sort of soothsaying in my preseason football rants at the college and NFL levels.  In addition to providing a way to “fill space”/”produce content”, preparing such lists makes one check records and stats and do some analytical thinking about the sport.

Last week, the Pittsburgh Steelers changed QBs at halftime.  Mitchell Trubisky had been named the Steelers’ starting QB at the end of training camp but three-and-a-half games later he was on the bench checking out the plays on his own personal Microsoft tablet.  And that got me to thinking about “Quarterbacks on a Hot Seat” because I do not think that Trubisky was in a unique position in the whole of the NFL.  So, let me present here my thinking about quarterbacks in the NFL who are on varying degrees of “Hot Seats” as we enter the second quarter of the 2022 NFL regular season.

First there are the QBs on a Blazing Hot Seat:

• Jacoby Brisset (Browns):  He is simply a placeholder as the starting QB for the Browns until Deshaun  Watson is back from his suspension and is deemed to be “in football shape” and ready to play.  About 50 nanoseconds after those three conditions obtain, Jacoby Brisset is out of a job.
• Baker Mayfield (Panthers):  After the Panthers were unsuccessful in trading for Deshaun Watson, they acquired Mayfield as an “upgrade” from Sam Darnold.  I have been a Darnold fan since his sophomore year at USC – – but even I have to admit that he has been a flop with the Jets and a flop with the Panthers.  But in four games this year, it is not clear too me that Baker Mayfield is much – if any – of a big step up from Sam Darnold.  There is nothing “on the bench” that poses a significant threat to Mayfield’s job right now, but the coach there is on a hot seat himself and may choose to change QBs just as a way to provide some cooling moments to his tortured derriere.
• Mitchell Trubisky (Steelers):  He has already been pulled for half a game and his 2022 stats are mediocre at best.  In 3.5 games, his completion percentage is below 60%; he has thrown 2 TDs and 2 INTs; his average yards per pass attempt is 5.6.  It is Trubisky’s 6^th season in the NFL and time is running out for teams to consider him a “late bloomer” who deserves patience and grooming to be a team’s answer at the QB position.

Let me add a category here of QBs where “Other Factors” cool their seat a bit.  In this category, there are circumstances that make the player a bit more secure in their position than might be the case absent those circumstances.

• Marcus Mariota (Falcons):  This is his eighth year in the NFL, and he has never quite lived up to being the second overall pick in 2015.  At first, there were “durability issues”; but in reality, his issues are performance based.  Viewed dispassionately, Marcus Mariota is a solid back-up QB and not a franchise QB.  His seat is cooled a bit by the fact that the guy behind him on the depth chart – – Desmond Ridder – – is a rookie from Cincy who may some day be ready for NFL action, but that time is not in October 2022 unless he is thrown into action out of necessity.  If the Falcons are not in the playoff hunt late in 2022 – – as is most likely – – there should be a severe temptation for Coach Smith to find out how well Ridder has assimilated whatever they have given him in practice time.  But until then…
• Kenny Pickett (Steelers):  He is the guy who replaced Mitchell Trubisky last week and he was a first-round pick for the Steelers this year setting the bar for expectations high.  In his first 30 minutes of play, Pickett ran for 2 TDs (Yay!) and he also threw 3 INTs (WTF?);  but he is the “new kid on the block” and gets some deference for that plus the Steelers’ fans and brass both know that the alternative is Trubisky – – and how would that work out?  My guess is that Pickett gets most if not all of 2022 and much of 2023 with the NFL version of a “Hall Pass” to show what he’s got.
• Geno Smith (Seahawks):  Simply stated, the alternative to Smith on the bench is Drew Lock.  Choosing between Smith and Lock is like trying to figure out the difference between oatmeal and porridge.
• Carson Wentz (Commanders):  He needs to play well – – significantly better than he has shown so far this year – – if he is going to be a starting QB next year anywhere in the league.  He is safe for now in Washington because the team used his backup, Taylor Heinicke, as the starting QB last year and they know how that story ends.
• Zach Wilson (Jets):  As a high draft pick last year, much is expected of Wilson in NYC which means his seat will never be truly “cold” until he leads the Jets on a deep playoff run – and that is not happening this season.  Moreover, he has suffered injuries both last year and this year that have limited his availability on Sundays.  The Jets’ fans – – and the Jets’ organization too – – are not known for “patience” and/or “playing the long game”.  However, Wilson’s seat is still only marginally warm here because the backup on the roster is Joe Flacco and the fans know – as do the folks in the Jets’ hierarchy – that the 2022 version of Joe Flacco is as a short-term backup and nothing else.  Wilson is the guy for the “Green people” in NYC for the rest of 2022.

For the sake of symmetry, there are QBs where “Other Factors” add to the heat on the seat:

• Derek Carr (Raiders):  He is on my list completely due to “Other Factors”; simply stated, Raiders’ fans are terribly myopic when it comes to the team’s QB.  Far too many Raiders’ fans think anyone who dons a silver and black jersey and lines up under center must be a Super Bowl winner or he is a guy to be run out of town on a rail.  This is Carr’s  9^th year as the Raiders’ QB and – you will not be surprised to read here – the Raiders have not won a Super Bowl in that time span.  Most Raiders’ fans might not want to hear that Carr is the best starting QB for the franchise since Jim Plunkett in the early 1980s – – but there is a case to be made for that assertion.
• Daniel Jones (Giants):  This is Jones’ 4^th year in the NFL; he has a new coach who is supposedly a “QB Development Guru” which sounds like a good thing – – except – – Jones’ back-up, Tyrod Taylor, played for the “QB Guru” at Buffalo and is well known to the “Guru”.  The Giants are 3-1 this morning with Jones as the starter; that kind of performance will keep him solidly in the starting position.  But what happens if the Giants lose 3 or 4 in a row …?
• Matt Ryan (Colts):  He also does not belong on a list like this – – but here he is.  This is Ryan’s 14^th year in the NFL; he has been to the Super Bowl; he has been to the Pro Bowl 3 times and was an All-Pro once.  At age 37, he is not likely to raise his game much beyond where it is now.  And that makes him subject to seat warmth in Indy because that franchise has been franticly casting about looking for its “franchise QB” ever since Andrew Luck abruptly retired in 2018.  Since then, the Colts have traded for and used for one year, Jacoby Brisset, Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz and now Matt Ryan.  If history is any indicator, the Colts will seriously consider Joe Flabeetz for the job either this year or next.
• Ryan Tannehill (Titans):  Like Marcus Mariota above, Tannehill has a high draft pick from this year’s Draft sitting on the bench behind him.  The difference here is that Malik Willis was a standout in the exhibition season and already saw some action in a blowout loss to the Bills earlier this season.  The Titans lead the AFC South today; so long as that is the case – or if they are only a game behind the division leader – Tannehill is the starting QB.  But if not, there could be a drumbeat that starts to “see what the kid’s got” …

I have twelve QBs on my list here; that is more than one-third of the starters in the NFL.  I think it was Jerry Glanville who said that NFL stood for “Not For Long” and many of these QBs could be subject to that descriptor in the next year or so.

Finally, here is an observation by Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times about another NFL QB – – one whose seat is comfy cozy:

“The Bengals’ Joe Burrow, sidelined at training camp after an appendectomy, was seen accompanying his teammates doing 40-yard windsprints — on a golf cart.

“It gives a whole new meaning to ‘rollout quarterback.’”

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

 

 

As is customary in these parts, we take a moment on this day every year to remember Broderick Crawford…

The Phillies ended an 11-year streak of missing the playoffs this year clinching a wild card slot in the NL Playoffs over the weekend.  Meanwhile, late last week, the Mariners ended a 20-year streak of missing the playoffs by securing their presence in the AL Playoffs.  Both teams struggled early in the season.  The Phillies changed managers after about 50 games and had two hot streaks in July and August that got them where they are now.  Likewise, the Mariners looked out of it until about July 4^th and then things fell into place for them.

Meanwhile, the Yankees have 3 more games on their schedule in the regular season and Aaron Judge only needs 1 more home run to break Roger Maris’ AL home run record of 61 blasts in a season.  The Yankees end with a split double header today and a final game tomorrow against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, TX.  So far this year, the Rangers have averaged 24,538 fans per game; it will be interesting to see if they draw significantly larger crowds for this last series as people there might want to “see history being made”.

Speaking of baseball, I ran into a former colleague while on a quest to restock my wine cellar; we chatted for a while, and he told me that he had run across a baseball stat he found astonishing:

• For his career – one which ran from 1939 through 1960 minus three years in the midst of WW II – Ted Williams had an OBP of .496 in games played in Fenway Park.

My first reaction was that it would take me far more time and energy than I was wiling to expend to verify that number and my second reaction was that even for Williams who was the best pure hitter I ever saw play, that was amazing.  Think about it, over a span of 19 seasons in about 1400 home games, Williams would have come to bat approximately 5000 times.  That stat says he would have been on base for half of those plate appearances.  WOW !

My top-of-the-head calculation made me a bit incredulous, so I went to baseball-reference.com to check some numbers and – as the song says – “ … Now I’m a believer”.  Here are some career stats for Ted Williams that I found there:

• Plate Appearances = 9792  My  guess of 5000 home plate appearances is reasonable.
• Career OBP = .482  Not unreasonable to believe he was slightly better at home.

Just for a little sauce on those stats above, Williams’ career OBP of .482 is an all-time record for MLB.  A major contributor to that OBP record is the fact that in his career Williams drew a walk on 2021 of those plate appearances and only 258 of those walks were intentional.

Switching gears …  In last night’s NFL game between the Niners and the Rams, the game was interrupted briefly by a fan who ran onto the field carrying a pink smoke bomb.  Naturally, the security guards were in hot pursuit, but the “fan” was running free near the Rams’ bench on the sideline.  At that point, Rams’ linebacker Bobby Wagner took a few steps onto the field and knocked the fan to the ground allowing the gendarmes to apprehend the fan and remove him from the stadium.  I was watching the Manning-cast at that point, and they showed a replay of the fan and the tackle there; I don’t know if that was shown on the main broadcast feed with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

For those of us of a certain age – – that age being really old – – this brought back memories of a Baltimore Colts’ linebacker, Mike Curtis, who played for the Colts in the late 60s through the mid-70s.  Curtis was not nearly as ferocious as Dick Butkus of that same era, but just so you can get a feeling for Curtis, his nickname among his teammates was “Mad Dog”.

In a Colts game, Curtis and the Colts’ defense was on the field; the ball had been spotted and the offensive team was in the huddle calling their play.  A fan ran onto the field and grabbed the ball that had been placed by the officials and started to run off with it;  Unfortunately for him, he ran in the direction of Mike Curtis who absolutely unloaded on the guy ending his attempted run to glory. Take a moment and Google “Mike Curtis tackles fan” for several links to video coverage of that incident along with written descriptions of the “event”.

I recall reading an account at the time where someone asked Curtis why he did what he did.  Curtis’ response was along the lines of:

• That guy was breaking a municipal ordinance and I decided to enforce the law.

Last night, Bobby Wagner channeled his inner Mike Curtis.  Good on you, Bobby Wagner…

Finally, earlier this year, Mike Trout had hit a home run in 7 consecutive games for the Angels and was seeking to tie the MLB record of 8 consecutive games.  He failed to hit a home run in that eighth game and here is how Dwight Perry described that situation in the Seattle Times:

“Angels star Mike Trout, trying to homer in a record-tying eighth straight game, instead flew out three times and walked.

“Apparently the creel limit for Trout is seven.”

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

 

 

I have purposely waited several days to comment on what happened last Thursday night in the Dolphins/Bengals game.  Of course, I am referring to Tua Tagovailoa being carted off the field after being slammed to the ground – in a perfectly legal tackle – and demonstrating a neurological response that is often very serious.  He was taken to a local hospital in Cincy, and it was announced after the game that he had been released and that he would fly back to Miami with the team.

That was a scary situation, one that was guaranteed to generate commentary about the brutality of football and the dangers associated with concussions sustained in the process of playing football.  That would not be news; that song has been atop the hit parade of sports commentary for years now.  The situation last Thursday had an important new ingredient.  Just 4 days before Thursday’s need for hospitalization, Tua had another incident in the first half of the Dolphins earlier game against the Bills where he hit his head on the ground and then stumbled/wobbled when he got to his feet after the play.  He was taken out of the game and into the locker room for the concussion protocol.  The conclusion then was that he suffered a back injury; that caused the stumbling/wobbling; he was cleared to play, and he returned to the game in the second half.

That prior incident made last Thursday’s injury different and there was a tsunami of accusatory commentary that flowed from it.  The general flow of the commentary followed this line of thinking:

• Tua was concussed in the game against the Bills 4 days prior to Thursday’s event; that was “proven” by his stumbling/wobbling.
• The league and union have negotiated a concussion protocol which should have kept Tua out of last Thursday’s game against the Bengals – – but he played in that game.
• Ergo, that shows a callous disregard for player safety by the team and the league, and someone has to be “accountable” for such a situation.

Maybe – – I said maybe – – all of that is perfectly correct.  And maybe not…

Let me begin here by saying that I have no specific expertise in neurology or neuroscience.  Let me also humbly suggest that few if any of the commentators on ESPN or FOX Sports or in newspapers/magazines around the country who followed that line of thinking in their comments last Friday and Saturday have any specific expertise in neurology or neuroscience.  There is a danger here of falling into a logical trap known as Post hoc ergo propter hoc.  That translates to:

• After that, therefore, because of that.
• Example:  If every morning at 8:00 AM, I go out to the curb in front of my home and stomp my feet three times on the ground, I can claim that because I do that, I keep elephants from coming into my neighborhood.  I do that every day; no one ever sees any elephants; so of course, my morning ritual works perfectly.

Here is the issue.  Tua was taken to the locker room in the game against the Bills and we presume he was examined under the NFL/NFLPA concussion protocol.  We don’t know that, but we assume that took place.  There is the first potential flaw in that line of righteous indignation commentary.  If Tua told the trainers/team doctors and the “independent neurological consultant” that he hurt his back and that is why he was stumbling/wobbling, perhaps he was not examined for a concussion.  Maybe he was allowed to play in the second half because he and any/all of the medics who saw him in the locker room thought he had a back injury not a head injury.

That scenario is possible but not probable.  The reason I say that is that the Dolphins claim that Tua was tested for concussion symptoms on the days leading up to the Thursday night game.  If there were no concerns about that kind of injury, why all the testing?  Again, I do not know the answers here, but there is ambiguity that causes me to think there was some sort of concern by someone involved in that locker room examination that Tua may have been concussed.

The reaction of the NFLPA was – in my opinion – way over the top.  They accused the league and the team of putting Tua in harm’s way and that the protocols were violated and they would take every legal action to right this wrong and so on and so on.  Of course, that was the stance they took; that is what unions do because that is what unions are created to do.  But there is an atonal sound in the union’s song here on several counts:

• The morning after Tua’s second injury – – the one last Thursday night that landed him in the hospital in Cincy – when the union was most strident, no one in NFLPA HQs at the time knew what happened in the locker room examination four days prior to the Thursday incident.  At that point they did not know enough to make such declarative and accusative statements.  [Remember, all of the union’s accusations may turn out to be correct, but last Friday morning, they could not have known them to be true.  Better to be lucky than smart?]
• It is possible Tua was not examined for a concussion at all.
• It is possible that he was examined and found not to have suffered a concussion.  And if this is what happened in the first incident, then having him play in the second half against the Bills and starting the game against the Bengals would seem to be a logical outcome.
• It is also possible that Tua was examined for a concussion and was suspected to have suffered a concussion, but he characterized the problem as a back injury and the examiners “looked the other way” and cleared him to return to the field.

I submit that the conclusions one might draw from those possibilities above are very different and the actions one might take once it is clear what happened would be very different as well.  However, such information was not available last Friday or Saturday – – and is not known even now after Tua’s second injury.  To be clear, I do not know if the injury in the Bills game was a concussion or a back injury – – or both.  Nor can I say that I know whether the two incidents are related.

As I understand it – – and I have no expertise in neurology or neuroscience – – concussions are diagnosed with a brain scan using X-Ray tomography to determine if there has been bleeding or swelling of the brain.  I do not know this, but I am reasonably confident that there are no such diagnostic instruments in every NFL locker room at every NFL venue.  So, I am confident in thinking that even if Tua were examined under the existing protocol, the diagnosis of concussion/no concussion would have to be less than perfect because the medical folks involved in his examination would not have a brain scan in their possession to examine as part of their diagnosis.

That uncertainty in such a diagnosis leads folks to rave about the inadequacy of the concussion protocols in place and how they need to be improved.  That is the story here; that is the story that should have been front and center last week not jeremiads about the callous disregard for humankind that was on display last Thursday night.  The need for improvement also points out everyone who needs to be “held accountable” because:

• The existing protocol – the one everyone now considers to be insufficient – exists because it was agreed to by the NFL and by the NFLPA.  [By the way, I suspect that none of the execs on either side of the bargaining table that set up the existing protocol had significant expertise in neurology or neuroscience.]
• The ”independent neurological consultant” who was there for the game against the Bills has been “fired” by the NFLPA.  What happened is that (s)he had previously been accepted as one to fill out that role by both the league and the union, but the union now chose not to accept him/her as fit to discharge such responsibilities.  Given the uncertainties that existed at the time of the union’s “firing” of the “independent neurological consultant”, that smells like a rush to judgment to me.

There is an “investigation” ongoing about what exactly happened in that locker room in Miami during the Dolphins/Bills game.  The NFL has promised “transparency” with regard to the results of that “investigation” but suffice it to say that “transparency” and “NFL investigations” are not exactly normal bedfellows.  However, until I know what happened there, I cannot assign blame, nor can I assume evil intent on the part of anyone involved here.

• If Tua passed the existing protocol in that locker room, the Thursday night incident was horrible but unavoidable under the existing rules.
• If there were any “shortcuts” taken in his locker room examination or if there were any data purposely overlooked in that examination that led to Tua being cleared when that was a questionable conclusion, that would be a totally different set of circumstances.

The missing data in all this involves the actions of the people who examined Tua in the middle of the Bills game who decided that he had not suffered a concussion and therefore was eligible to return to the game.  If and when that information becomes publicly known, that will signal the time for analysis and/or criticism – – and perhaps some apologies from those who “shot from the hip” last Friday and Saturday.  If indeed such apologies are necessary, I shall not hold my breath awaiting them.   What I await is the transparency promised by the NFL – and the NFLPA – about the findings of their joint investigation.  I shall not hold my breath awaiting that either.

The outrage expressed proximal to last Thursday’s injury was not confined to the sports pages.  You guessed it; politicians jumped into the fray feet first.  Bill Pascrell is a member of the US House of Representatives from New Jersey, and he Tweeted last Friday:

“I want to know how the hell he (Tua) was on the field last night.”

The Congressman went on to say that this raises questions about the NFL’s commitment to player safety and about how much progress has been made on that front.  In response to that sort of political outrage, I would respond along these lines:

• The NFL and the NFLPA have jointly negotiated the existing protocols.  If those protocols are insufficient in your view, both the league and the union are “guilty” of being insufficient in your view.
• If you – and the rest of your Congressional colleagues – know of improvements in the protocol that would be acceptable to both the NFL and the NFLPA, why have you not shared them with the league and the union?
• If you – and the rest of your Congressional colleagues – are as ignorant as I am of neurology and neurological science, why not wait until all the facts of the matter are uncovered?

I think the most important questions for the NFL and the NFLPA to analyze as they move forward to create a new and better concussion protocol are these:

1. While it is impossible to protect someone from himself, how can we better protect NFL players who may have suffered a concussion should they seek to circumvent such a diagnosis which would prevent them from getting back on the field?
2. What level of “invasion of privacy” is acceptable to record for examination all of the testing and interactions done in accordance with the new and improved concussion protocol to assure no shortcuts are taken and to assure that the examination is carried out by a person with specific neurological/neuroscience expertise?

Finally, the general reaction to seeing Tua carted off the field last Thursday night brought to mind this statement made by Aristotle about 2500 years ago:

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

I think too many folks accepted a thought because they entertained it…

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

 

 

When I was a kid, the Howdy Doody Show was must-see TV.  It began with Buffalo Bob asking the kids in the peanut gallery, “What time is it?”  The answer was always a feisty, “It’s Howdy Doody time!”

That was about 70 years ago so let me bring that up to date here.  What time is it?

• It’s Football Friday time!

As usual, I begin with a review of last week’s Six-Pack.

• College:  Last week = 2-1-0             Season = 6-5-0
• NFL:  Last week = 1-1-1                    Season = 4-4-2
• Money Line Parlays:  Last week = 1-2    Season = 3-6
• Parlay Profit/Loss:  Last week = minus-$97      Season = minus-$216

            Paraphrasing Tony Kornheiser at the end of every PTI episode, I’ll try and do better the next time…

 

College Football Commentary:

 

The Linfield College Wildcats had last weekend off.  Their record for 2022 stands at 2-0 as they pursue another winning season in football – – something they have accomplished in every season since 1956.  Tomorrow they will open their Northwest Conference season hosting the Loggers from Puget Sound University.  Go Wildcats!

A third college football coach from my list of Coaches on a Hot Seat found himself out of a job before October 1^st this year.  Georgia Tech fired head coach Geoff Collins and went further up the hierarchy in the Athletic Department and fired the AD too.  I do not seek to revel in the accuracy of my predictions here and I can assure you that I placed no hex on any of the coaches on my list.

Georgia Tech is 1-3 this season and Collins complete record at Tech was a less-than-gaudy 10-28.  When Collins came to Tech, one of his “objectives” was to recruit heavily in the Atlanta area and to “keep local kids at home”; that was a sensible strategy because there are good players in the Atlanta area.  Here’s the problem:

• Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Clemson are close by Atlanta.
• Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Clemson are bigger football schools than Georgia Tech.
• Georgia Tech historically has had higher academic admission standards than those other 4 schools.

I am not sure that Geoff Collins – – or any other coach – – would be able to recruit Atlanta significantly more successfully than he did.  I wonder if the administrators at Georgia Tech have an over-inflated view of where their school stands regarding the football pecking order in 2022 …

I was having a conversation with a friend about college football and I said that the USC/Utah game looked like it would determine the winner of the PAC-12 South Division.  My friend reminded me that the PAC-12 had ditched the Division format for football and that the PAC-12 Championship Game would feature the two teams with the best conference records.  I had forgotten that tid-bit.  So, that USC/Utah game is still going to be an important one for the conference – – but it might also be a preview of the PAC-12 Championship game.  Same goes for Washington/Oregon…

Hurricane Ian has been ravaging Florida and continues to be a meteorological pain in the ass.  It has already caused several college football games in Florida to have been altered either in the date of the game or the venue for the game.  Moreover, as the storm makes its way northward, it could provide for some monsoon-like conditions in the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland where there are plenty of games on tap.

Florida State canceled classes for this week and will closed the entire campus for Thursday and Friday as storm precautions.  Demonstrating the importance of football at Florida State, announced that it is:

“ … confident that we will be able to safely host Saturday’s football game against Wake Forest at its scheduled kickoff time.”

I hope the powers that be at Florida State are correct in their confidence with the most important word in that statement being “safely”.

Let me turn to some games from last weekend:

Baylor 31  Iowa St. 24:   This result leaves both teams with overall records of 3-1 but it is a conference loss for Iowa St., and it leaves Baylor without a conference loss  This win by Baylor potentially sets up some interesting and important Big-12 games down the line.  The game was close on the scoreboard and on the stat sheet; Baylor outgained Iowa St. by all of 10 yards in the game.  Two turnovers and 8 penalties by Iowa St. did the Cyclones in.

K-State 41  Oklahoma 34:  This game also sets up some big time interesting and important games for the Big 12 down the road.  The Sooners have a conference loss already and probably cannot afford another one if they want to be part of the Big-12 Championship Game.  The two teams combined for 1059 yards on offense and a total of 54 first downs in the game.

Texas Tech 37  Texas 34 (OT):  The Longhorns fall to 2-2 for the season and this is a conference loss for the team.  This sort of effort is either a significant let-down from the way Texas handled its business against Alabama three weeks ago – – or maybe Alabama is not the juggernaut we are used to seeing come out of Tuscaloosa.  My inclination is to see this as a let-down.  The stakes in the Texas/Oklahoma game are always big but this year they are VERY big.

TCU 42  SMU 34:  Bragging rights tilt toward Fort Worth in this rivalry game for 2022.  Two turnovers by SMU did not help their cause.

Buffalo 50  E. Michigan 31:  This was Buffalo’s first win of the year; E. Michigan was the team that went to play Arizona St. in the desert two weeks ago and beat the Sun Devils in their home stadium and caused them to fire Herm Edwards.

Clemson 51  Wake Forest 45 (OT):  This game was a back-and-forth game that Clemson dominated on the stat sheet.  The Tigers produced 112 more  yards on offense in the game; that normally does not indicate a game that went into OT.  Clemson was 16 for 23 on third down conversions for the game.

Notre Dame 45  UNC 32:    The Irish dominated the stat sheet gaining 209 more yards on offense than the Tar Heels.  UNC led 14-7 at one point but the Irish then put 31 unanswered points on the scoreboard.

Florida St. 44  BC 14:  The Seminoles improved their season record to 4-0.  This was as easy win; Florida St. led 31-0 at halftime.

Middle Tennessee 45  Miami (31:  The Hurricanes were ranked 25^th in the country at keck-off; that is no longer the case.  According to the CBSSports.com ranking of all 131 teams in Division 1-A college football, Miami has been “demoted” to #56 this week.  This result was no fluke; Middle Tennessee had 507 yards of offense for the day and never trailed in the game.  Miami ran the ball 38 times in the game and only managed to gain 68 yards; that is 1.8 yards per carry.  Yuck!

NC State 41  UConn 10:  The Wolfpack remains undefeated at 4-0; no surprise there.  State produced 492 yards on offense and held UConn to only 160 yards for the day – – only 39 yards passing.  NC State did not punt the ball for the entire game.

Georgia 39  Kent St. 22:  The story here is that Georgia gave up 22 points.  They had only given up 10 points in the three games leading up to this one.

Auburn 17  Missouri 14 (OT):  Auburn led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and had to wait until OT before it could put any more points on the board.  The winning play was when an Missouri player fumbled the ball on his way to the end zone in OT and an Auburn player recovered it in the end zone to preserve the victory.  Auburn had kicked a field goal in their first possession in the OT.

Tennessee 38  Florida 33:  The Vols remain unbeaten for 2022; the Gators’ record drops to 2-2.  There was not a lot of defense on display here; the two teams racked up a combined 1169 yards on offense for the day.  Florida QB, Anthony Richardson threw for 453 yards and 2 TDs in the game, but he also threw an INT and lost a fumble in the Red Zone in the 4^th quarter of this game.

Texas A&M 23  Arkansas 21:  The Aggies returned a fumble for 97 yards in this game; that was the play that won the game even though it happened in the first half.  Arkansas had a chance to win the game with a 42-yard field goal – – but the doink was loud and clear on the attempt.

Alabama 55  Vandy 3:  There is nothing surprising about this result nor is there a great surprise on the stat sheet – – unless you are surprised that the Bama defense held Vandy to 14 yards rushing and a total offense of only 129 yards for the game.

Michigan 34  Maryland 27:  Michigan has better athletes, but Maryland refused to give in.  This was one of the more enjoyable games I have watched so far this year.  Michigan RB, Blake Corum carried the ball 30 times for 243  yards and 2 TDs in the game.  Each team was penalized only once in the game.

Iowa 27  Rutgers 10:  This represents a scoreboard extravaganza by the Hawkeyes even allowing for the defensive unit scoring a TD on a scoop and score in the first half.  This loss was a bit embarrassing for Rutgers because it was the 20^th consecutive home loss to a conference opponent for the Scarlet Knights.  That is a Big-10 record the team would prefer not to hold…

Minnesota 34  Michigan St. 7:  The Spartans’ lone score came in the final minutes of the game after the outcome had been decided about 30 minutes prior.  The Gophers more than doubled Michigan State’s offensive output for the day.

Ohio St. 52  Wisconsin 21:  I am not surprised that Ohio St. won the game, but I did think the Badgers’ defense would keep the game a bit closer than this.

Miami (OH) 17  Northwestern 14:  I suggested last week that it might be a long season for fans in Evanston.  Here they just lost to a MAC team.  Not good at all…

UCLA 45  Colorado 17:  This was an offensive explosion for  Colorado – – but it was not nearly enough.  The Bruins outgained the Buffaloes by 206 yards in the game.  Colorado is winless this year and the easy part of its schedule seems to be in the rear-view mirror.

Oregon 44 Washington St. 41:  Oregon scored 29 points in the 4^th quarter here to eke out a victory on the road.  The Ducks had 625 yards on offense for the day – – 209 more than the Cougars – – but it still took late game heroics to go home with a win.

Cal 49  Arizona 31:  This was another “defense-deficient game”.  Total offense for the two teams on the day was 1151 yards.  Cal RB, Jaydn Ott gained 274 yards rushing on the day – – and 3 TDs to boot.

Temple 28  UMass 0:  Temple is not very good, but they are good enough to shut out and dominate UMass leading one to wonder why UMass plays Division 1-A football.

James Madison 32  Appalachian St.  28:  Madison is undefeated this year.  I want you to know; James Madison is a good football team; it might well be the best team in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  In Week 1 this year, James Madison boat raced Middle Tennessee St 44-7; that is the same team that beat Miami this week.  James Madison is GOOD.

Western Kentucky 73  Florida International 0:  This was an epic beatdown.  W. Kentucky racked up 692 yards on offense while FIU only managed to gain 187 yards for the day.  Yowza!

Kansas 35  Duke 27:  Kansas is 4-0 for the season and might – – maybe? – be relevant in the Big-12 for the first time in more than a decade.  Kansas has not had a 4-0 record for the last 13 seasons.

I saved the Kansas/Duke game for the end of the review of last week’s games because already there are commentaries out there wondering if Kansas can keep hold of its second-year coach, Lance Leipold.  His is not a household name but he did enjoy lots of success in Division 1-AA football during his career.  While his record in his first year at Kansas was not good (2-10) one of those wins was over Texas; for success-starved Kansas fans, that was a moment of euphoria.

Now in his second year, Leipold has the Jayhawks undefeated in 4 games.  There are already 3 relatively high-profile openings for a hot coaching prospect (Arizona St. Georgia Tech and Nebraska) and there will surely be others at the end of the season.  Leipold deflects any sort of talk about himself and his future as you would expect; he points to the success of the Kansas offense under his offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and urges reporters not to mention the Kansas offense lest Kotelnicki be lured away to higher paying offensive coordinator positions.

• [People at Kansas refer to Kotelnicki as “Coach K” since he has a difficult name to spell and pronounce and it also has 10 letters in it – – much like the basketball coach with the same moniker.]

Kansas needs only two more wins to be bowl eligible this year.  Assuming the Jayhawks get an invitation to one of the myriad bowl games; it will be their first appearance in one for more than a decade.  If that happens, I suspect that one of two things will happen:

• He – – along with “Coach K” – – will get generous contract extensions at Kansas – OR –
• He – – along with “Coach K” – – will be plying their trade elsewhere in 2023.

 

College Football Games of Interest This Week:

 

Northwestern at Penn St. – 25 (51):  Penn St. is not known as an offensive juggernaut, but they do have a pair or running backs who can dominate a game.  Northwestern has looked awful ever since beating Nebraska in Dublin Ireland to open the season.  Nevertheless, I would be leery of laying that many points…

Wake Forest at Florida St. – 7 (64):  My temptation here would be to take this game to go OVER if I knew that the field would be dry and the track fast.  But with the weather conditions in Florida being less than perfect for the days leading up to this game, I’ll pass.

NC State at Clemson – 7 (42.5):  Here is another game that could be weather-impacted.  The Wolfpack is 4-0 for the season but there is only Texas Tech might be considered a “quality win”.  This is their first real test for 2022 – – and the Wolfpack has Florida St. coming to visit next weekend.  It is litmus test time…

Ga Tech at Pitt – 22 (49):  The oddsmakers do not think the coaching change at Tech is going to make a big difference here.

Michigan St. at Maryland – 8.5 (60):  Maryland is no longer the doormat it has been in the Big 10; it is not “championship caliber” but they have talent, and they play hard.  Michigan St. is a mess; the record stands at 2-2 but those two wins were over weak opposition and the two losses against good teams were decisive ones.

Virginia at Duke – 3 (51):  Really?

VA Tech at UNC – 9 (53):  This is another game I would want to take as an OVER if I knew the field conditions were “proper”.

Navy at Air Force – 14 (38):  Navy is struggling again this year; Air Force looked strong against Nevada last week.  Service academy games tend to be very low scoring games because of the rivalry factor and because the element of surprise from the teams’ offenses is lacking.  I will check my local TV schedule to see if this game is on in this area because it should be interesting to watch.

Oklahoma St. at Baylor – 2 (56):  The Cowboys are 3-0 for the season but this is their first Big-12 conference game.  Baylor is 3-1 but its loss was in an out-of-conference game.  This game matters…

Iowa St. – 3 at Kansas (59):  Iowa St. lost a conference game last week and does not want to have a second black mark on its record this early in the season.  As noted above, Kansas is the Cinderella story of the year to date.

UMass at E. Michigan – 20 (53.5):  E. Michigan is 2-2 so far and their season has been a yo-yo to date.  The Eagles beat Arizona St. on the road; that is a good win.  The Eagles also lost to La-Lafayette and to Buffalo; those are bad losses.  Notwithstanding any of that, they are 20-point favorites in this game…

Oregon St. at Utah – 10.5 (54.5):  This is an important game in the PAC-12.

Florida International at New Mexico St. – 14.5 (55):  These are two bad teams.  FIU lost last week 73-0 while the Aggies beat Hawaii for their first win of the year.  And by the way, beating Hawaii is not much of a feather in one’s cap…

Colorado at Arizona – 17.5 (56.5):  Arizona is a mediocre football team; Colorado is winless and bad.  The reason Colorado is winless is that they do not score; the Buffaloes average only 11.8 points per game putting them at 129^th in the country out of 131 teams.

Kentucky at Ole Miss – 7 (54):  Both teams have looked impressive so far in 2022.  This should be a good game.

Texas Tech at K-State – 7.5 (56):  Tech surprised Texas last week and K-State surprised Oklahoma last week.  Both teams should be ready for this game.

Texas A&M at Mississippi St. – 4 (45):  The Aggies have underachieved expectations so far this year, but I wonder if they are not the better team here.  State had trouble on offense against LSU and the A&M defense is of the same caliber.  I think the wrong team is favored here so I’ll take the Aggies on the road plus the points; put it in the Six-Pack.

Oklahoma – 6.5 at TCU (70):  The Sooners cannot afford another conference loss …

Michigan – 10.5 at Iowa (42.5):  I think this is the College Game of the Week.  It should be a slugfest featuring defense  by both sides.   Michigan averages 50 points per game this year while Iowa only scores 17 points per game.  However, Iowa leads the nation in scoring defense only giving up only 5.8 points per game.

LSU – 8.5 at Auburn (46):  There are unhappy boosters at Auburn who do not like the coach nor the AD there.  A bad loss at home will push a lot of the wrong buttons…

Alabama – 17 at Arkansas (61):  Arkansas is a good team; even for Alabama, that is a  lot of points to lay on the road against a good team…

Georgia – 28.5 at Missouri (54.5):  Mizzou is not a good team; even so, laying more than 4 TDs on the road in a conference game can cause a lot of agita …

Bowling Green – 9.5 at Akron (51):  These are two bad MAC teams…

Georgia St. at Army – 8 (54):  Georgia St. is one of the winless teams at 0-4 as of today but they have lost to 2 good teams and another decent team.  Army has been Meh!  I have a hunch that Georgia St. can get off the schneid here, so I am happy to take them plus 8 points; put it in the Six-Pack.

 

NFL Commentary:

 

            Given the sloppy play in evidence in far too many of the early season games this year, my conclusion is that the NFL Exhibition Season is even more worthless than it has been recently.  The anointed starters for various teams play only a few snaps – if at all – in any of those exhibition games; the idea is to avoid injuries to starting players and that makes perfect sense.  The consequence of those logical coaching decisions is sloppy play and “not being on the same page” for the first 3 or 4 games of the regular season.

Football is a choreographed sport; Almost all the time, a play is successful when 11 players work in unison to achieve the goal for that play.  Linemen block; runners run to a spot where – presumably – there will not be a defender; all of this is done with timing and precision equivalent to the staging done by the Radio City Rockettes for their Christmas extravaganza.

Choreography is not taught in a classroom or by film study; it is taught on a stage or on a football field with repetition after repetition performed by a stable cast of characters.  At least the Exhibition Season used to get starters time together to hone their choreography; now teams just throw cannon fodder out there in the exhibition season and the owners collect exorbitant ticket prices for those false games.

Thursday Night Football has been streamed by Amazon Prime video for two weeks now; the audience for the first telecast was set at 11 million by Nielsen.  Some folks opined that the number was inflated by the game the NFL offered up as the first streaming spectacle – – Chiefs/Chargers.  So, what happened in the second streaming spectacle last week with the Browns and Steelers?  Nielsen says that audience was 12.5 million viewers.

Understand that the “average NFL regular season game” draws about 16 million viewers but those games are on cable TV which is in a lot more homes than Amazon Prime Video.  So, some observers wonder if the NFL “made a mistake” in signing an 11-year deal with the streaming service; my sense is just the opposite; the NFL has created another viable outlet for its games meaning more competition for its broadcast rights down the road.

In addition, Amazon seems to be a major beneficiary  here too.  I read a report that said Amazon sold more new Amazon Prime memberships on the day of that first streaming event than it had done on any day in the history of Amazon Prime memberships.  This deal appears to be a classic win-win:

• The NFL has expanded the number of bidders for its rights fees – – all the while collecting about $1B per year from Amazon in the process.
• Amazon has grown a core element of its business – – its delivery service – – faster than it ever did in the past.

Patrick Mahomes and Eric Bieniemy got into a spat at halftime of last week’s loss by the Chiefs and Andy Reid had to intervene; surely you have seen the video of that a dozen times by now.  Now, recall that last year LeSean McCoy expressed displeasure with Bieniemy saying there is a reason why Bieniemy never gets a head coaching position.  Andy Reid also stepped up to try to put that matter aside.  Next winter there will likely be a drumbeat for Eric Bieniemy to be a hot NFL head coaching prospect; if he does not get one of those jobs, remember these two incidents.

Rhetorical question for your consideration:

• Did I – and plenty of other commentators – overestimate how much better the AFC was going to be this year relative to the NFC?
• So far, the record in interconference games is NFC 6 and AFC 4.

Here is a quick tour around the league regarding last week’s games:

Ravens 37  Pats  26:  Lamar Jackson gained 100 yards rushing for the second game in a row.  Oh, and by the way, he also threw for 4 TDs in this game.  Compare that performance with Pats’ QB Mac Jones in the same game; Jones threw 3 INTs.  Bad news for the Pats going forward is that Jones limped off the field with what looked like a significant ankle/foot injury late in the game.  Backup QBs on the Pats’ roster are Brian Hoyer (a certified fossil) and Bailey Zappe (how long until he gets the nickname, “Zappity-do-dah”?)

Dolphins 21  Bills 19:  In case you had not noticed, the Dolphins are the only undefeated team in the AFC today.  I heard a stat on SportsCenter that the Bills are now 0-7 in one-score games in this year plus last year combined.  Considering that the Bills only lost 7 games last year – 6 in the regular season and 1 in the playoffs – that can be interpreted in two ways:

• The Bills are really good and no one “blows them out”.
• The Bills yield to the pressure of close games and fold at the end.

You make the call.

Last week, the Bills managed a total of 3 points in the second half of this game; this week they only scored 17 points on offense.  The victory here is doubly blessed for the Dolphins because winning erases the embarrassment of committing the “butt-punt” where the Dolphins’ punter punted the ball directly into the backside of his blocker leading to a safety.  Had they lost the game, that play would take its place aside Mark Sanchez’ infamous “butt-fumble” in NFL lore.

Sorry but I can’t resist:

• As a result of the “butt-punt” the ball went out the rear of the end zone.  Of course it did…

Bengals 27  Jets 12:  For the first time in 2022, Joe Burrow looked like he did in 2021.  Given some time to throw, he was 23 of 36 for 275 yards passing with 3 TDs and no INTs.  The Bengals’ defense showed up too sacking Joe Flacco 4 times and forcing 4 turnovers in the game.

Vikes 28  Lions 24:  The Lions led 24-14 at the start of the 4^th quarter and coughed up a hairball in the final 15 minutes of this game.  The Lions had the ball 4 times in the 4^th quarter; here are the results:

• 4 plays and a PUNT
• 10 plays and a TURNOVER ON DOWNS
• 5 plays and a MISSED FG
• 5 plays and an INT

That is a classic come from ahead loss; that is why people say things like “Lions gonna Lion!”  While the Lions were imploding in the final quarter, the Vikes scored two TDs to win the game.  Kirk Cousins was 9 of 12 for 125 yards in that 4^th quarter alone.

Bears 23  Texans 20:  The Bears won this game with a field goal in the final minute; the team that made the last mistake lost because that field goal was set up by an INT thrown by Texans’ QB, Davis Mills with a minute left in the game.  The Bears’ offense was “spotty” in the game.  The running attack was fine led by Khalil Herbert who gained 157 yards by himself.  However, Justin Fields threw 2 INTs and amassed a total of only 106 yards passing for the day.

Colts 20  Chiefs 17:   The Chiefs’ running game was non-existent; Patrick Mahomes was the team’s leading rusher with 26 yards in the game.   Moreover, there did not seem to be “peace in the valley” between Mahomes and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy as the teams went to the locker room for halftime (see above).  The game winning drive by the Colts in the 4^th quarter comprised of 16 plays lasted 8 minutes and covered 78 yards.  Chris Jones was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty AFTER Matt Ryan was sacked on a third-down play giving the Colts a first down they did not earn.

Titans 24  Raiders 22:  The Titans led 24-10 at the half getting TDs on their first three possessions in the game – – and then scored nothing in the second half.  In the final 5 minutes of the game, the Titans’ defense recorded an INT in the end zone, and it foiled a two-point conversion attempt that would have tied the game.  The Raiders have the worst record in the AFC at 0-3; even the sorry-assed Texans are “better” at 0-2-1.  Making things worse for Raiders’ fans is that those 3 losses came by a total of 13 points.  In this game the Raiders were 1 of 12 on third-down conversions; that just stinks.  Just wondering:

• Does anyone in the Raiders’ Front Office still have Rich Bisaccia’s phone number in their contacts list?

Panthers 22  Saints 14:  If Jekyll/Hyde quarterbacking is your thing, this was the game for you.  Baker Mayfield and Jameis Winston had you on the edge of your seat for 60 minutes of football.  Mayfield was 12 of 25 for 170 yards and a TD.  That TD pass covered 67 yards, so he gained only 103 yards through the air for the rest of the day.  Winston was far more prolific going 25 of 41 for 353  yards and a TD plus 2 INTs.  The Saints dominated the stat sheet but turned the ball over 3 times in the game to find a way to lose.

Eagles 24  Commanders 8:  In case you had not noticed, the Eagles are the only undefeated team in the NFC this morning.  In my pre-season NFL predictions, I had this to say about the Commanders:

‘The worst thing to happen to the team over the offseason was losing perennial Pro Bowl G, Brandon Scherff, to free agency.”

The Commanders’ OL is marginal in terms of raw talent; Scherff was the best player there by a good margin and was also a team  leader.  Last week, the Commanders’ OL allowed Commanders’ QB Carson Wentz to be sacked 9 times.  The Commanders only gained 240 yards on offense for the day and at least 150 of those yards came late in the game when the Eagles’ defense was playing soft coverage to run out the clock.  Jalen Hurts had another spectacular game completing 22 of 35 passes for 340 yards with 3 touchdowns and zero interceptions.  Devonta Smith also had a huge game here catching 8 passes for 169 yards and 1 TD.

Jags 38  Chargers 10:  With this win, Doug Pederson has won as many games as the Jags head coach as Urban Meyer did last year, and it only took him until the last week of September to do it.  Would I be wrong to think that the Jags are undergoing “Urban Renewal” this season?

The Jags are in the lead in the AFC South; their two wins have been solid defensive performances – – a shutout against the Colts two weeks ago and this game holding the Chargers to 10 points.  The biggest change from last year to this seems to be the play of Trevor Lawrence; he is confident and poised in the passing game and that could not have been said last season.

One other note here … Justin Herbert’s rib injury does limit his game.  The Chargers are going to struggle until he is healed, and I have no idea how long that will take.  And along that line, can someone explain to me why an injured Justin Herbert was still in this game in the final minutes when the Chargers trailed by 4 TDs?

Falcons 27  Seahawks 23:  The Falcons are not a good team so wining this game on the road against a team that enjoys a real home field advantage is a positive sign.   Cordarrelle Patterson gained 141 yards rushing and scored a TD to lead the Falcons’ offense here.  The Seahawks outgained the Falcons, but the Falcons offense was efficient averaging 7.1 yards per offensive snap.

Packers 14  Bucs 12:  The first two times the Packers had the ball in this game, they drove the field scoring 2 TDs and amassing 146 yards on offense.  After that, here are the Packers’ possessions in the game:

• 6 plays and a LOST FUMBLE
• 3 plays and a PUNT
• 4 plays and a PUNT
• 3 plays and a PUNT
• 3 plays and an INT
• 4 plays and PUNT
• 3 plays and a PUNT
• 4 plays and a PUNT
• 8 plays and a PUNT
• 1 play leading to END OF GAME

Total offense on those 10 subsequent possessions was 149 yards.  And the Packers WON this game…!  Before one jumps to the conclusion that Tom Brady is losing it when he cannot get his team more than 12 points in a game, please remember that his top 3 pass catchers did not play even a single snap in this game.

Rams 20  Cards 12:  The Rams’ defense is very good so the fact that the Cards outgained the Rams on the stat sheet is something positive for the Cards.  However, they never did get into the end zone in the game despite two visits to the Red Zone.  Kyler Murray was 37 of 58 in the game for 314 yards with no INTs or TDs.

Broncos 11  Niners 10:  Either this game was the best defensive showing by two teams ever or this game was offensive ineptitude on display from start to finish.  The only saving grace in the game was that it never was a two-score game, so every possession mattered.  Not that either offense did much of anything when they were in possession of the ball.  The difference in the game was a safety scored by the Broncos when Jimmy G managed to drop back in his end zone and step out of the back line on his own.  The Niners led 7-5 at the start of the 4^th quarter and had the ball 3 times in the 4^th quarter; here is what they did on those 3 possessions:

• 4 plays and a PUNT
• 5 plays and an INT
• 2 plays and a LOST FUMBLE

Here is something that rarely happens in an NFL game:

• The Niners’ defense forced eight “three-and-outs” in the game AND the Niners lost that game!

Browns 29  Steelers 17:  Simply stated, Mitchell Trubisky is not the answer at QB for the Steelers.  End of discussion…

Cowboys 23  Giants 16:  This game was either two really good defenses or two really mediocre offenses.  In the end, the Cowboys’ defense was better than the Giants’ defense.

 

NFL Games This Week:

 

The wrinkles in the mid-season NFL schedule start this week as we have the first “London Game” of the season.  The Vikes and the Saints will play there in a neutral venue for both teams.  If your cable system gets NFL Network, you can see the game there starting at 9:30 AM on Sunday morning.

Last night, the Bengals beat the Dolphins 27-15.  The Bengals’ running game looked anemic, but Joe Burrow was able to muster enough offense to keep the game under control.  Tua Tagovailoa was taken off the field on a stretcher in the second quarter with what looked like a severe head/neck injury, but late reports said he would be discharged from a Cincy hospital and would return to Miami with the team.

For this weekend…

(London Game) Vikes – 2.5 vs Saints (42.5):  The Saints will play with the mercurial Jameis Winston at QB; Winston is enigmatic when he is healthy – – and he is not fully healthy for this game.  On the other side of the field, Dalvin Cook is listed as questionable.  Best thing to do with this game is to tune in and admire the beautiful London venue – – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – – for the game.

Titans at Colts – 4 (42.5):  This is an important AFC South game, and it sets up a rematch for these teams just three weeks down the road.  Both teams have a running back who can control the game; the two defensive units will need to bear up under significant pressure from the opponents run game.  In the passing game, I think more of Matt Ryan than I do of Ryan Tannehill – – but I do not trust either team here enough to pick for them or against them.

Bears at Giants – 3 (39): At the beginning of the week, this game was a “pick ‘em” game and the line moved to the Giants.  After watching the Giants’ game against the Cowboys on MNF last week, I have no idea why the line moved at all – – let alone in the direction of the Giants.  Both teams are 2-1 for now; neither team is particularly good.  In fact, even with both teams bringing a winning record to the kickoff, this is my Dog-Breath Game of the Week.

Bills – 3 at Ravens (51):  The Bills were stymied last week against the Dolphins in sweltering heat; that won’t happen this week in Baltimore, but the field might be soggy after Hurricane Ian’s remnants pass through the area on Friday and Saturday.  On a fast track, I love this game to go OVER – – but what kind of track will there be…???  I am going to trust the grounds crew and the field drainage system to provide something better than a bog for the game.  Give me the OVER here; put it in the Six-Pack.

Chargers – 5 at Texans (44):  The Chargers lost OT Rashawn Slater (for the season) last week and Joey Bosa left the game with a groin injury that needs surgery.  And remember, Justin Herbert is playing with a broken rib cartilage.  With everyone healthy, the Chargers would be a double-digit favorite here; who knows how they will play in their current condition?

Seahawks at Lions – 4 (48):  Both teams lost last week and did not look good doing so.  The Lions’ offense this year has been pretty good; the Seahawks’ defense this year has been pretty bad.  I think that is the matchup that will decide the game.  I am not sure I believe that I like the Lions to win and cover here, but I do; I’ll take the Lions and lay the points; put it in the Six-Pack.

Jets at Steelers – 3 (41.5):  This game was a serious contender for Dog-Breath Game of the Week; neither team is very good and neither team is particularly exciting to watch.

Jags at Eagles – 7 (45):This is the best game of the afternoon on Sunday by a wide margin.  The fundamental issue here is very simple:

• Can the Jags’ defense – – which has been very good over the last two weeks – – stop/contain the Eagles’ offense – – which has been very good for all three games of this season?

Much too much will be made of this being some sort of “Revenge Game” for Doug Pederson returning to Philly; at most, that will be a minor factor in the game once the opening kickoff happens.  I do not like the Jags enough to take them to win outright here at Money Line odds of +230, but I do like them to keep the game close.  Give me the Jags plus the points on the road; put it in the Six-Pack.

Commanders at Cowboys – 3 (41.5):  The Cowboys’ defensive Front 7 must be excited for this game.  I’m sure all of them have bonus clauses for things like sacks and pressures and QB hits and tackles for loss; given how the Commanders’ OL played last week, there should be plenty of those stats to go around.  I think the Cowboys are the better team on both offense and defense and they are at home; I’ll take the Cowboys to win and cover; put it in the Six-Pack.

Browns – 1 at Falcons (47):  The Falcons’ offense showed signs of life last week against the Seahawks, but I wonder if the Falcons’ defense can handle the running tandem of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt.

Cards at Panthers – 1.5 (43.5):  The Cards should have an exciting dare-devil offense if you believe all the hype about the chemistry between Kyler Murray and coach Kliff Kingsbury.  The only problem is that the Cards have no such exciting/explosive offense.  The Panthers, meanwhile, won their first game of the season last week, but that ought not indicate to you that this is a good team on a resurgence.  Watch this game only if you must; neither team is that good.

Broncos at Raiders – 2.5 (45.5):  I know this game will happen on 1 October, but this is a must-win for the Raiders lest they dig themselves into a hole in the AFC West that they cannot climb out of.  The Broncos’ offense has “struggled” – – to be polite – – in the first three games.  By now they ought to have their act together sufficiently to deal with a Raider’s defense that is “good-but-nothing-special”.  The biggest challenge for the Raiders here will be for the OL to hold its own against an aggressive Front-7 for the Broncos; to say the Raiders’ OL has been spotty so far this year is to be highly diplomatic.  Far too many uncertainties here to make a selection for the game…

Pats at Packers – 9.5 (40):  Looks as if Mac Jones cannot play this week meaning Brian Hoyer will be the Pats’ QB.  The Packers’ defense is not the best in the league – – but it is better than average and that spells a LONG day for the Pats.  The game is close enough to a double-digit spread in an NFL game for me to hate it.  Watch the game because it should provide interesting moves and countermoves made by Aaron Rodgers against Bill Belichick’s defense.  But do not wager on this game.

(Sun Nite) Chiefs at Bucs “pick ‘em” (46):  This is the Game of the Week.  The NFL has chosen to play the game in Tampa rather than relocate it to Minneapolis where the field will be vacant due to the Vikings playing in London.  Both teams lost last week and both teams had sluggish offensive showings last week.  Mike Evans will be back for the Bucs; is that enough to tilt the field in favor of the Bucs?

(Mon Nite) Rams at Niners – 2.5 (42):  The Niners seem to play the Rams very tough in the regular season; this is the regular season.  However, the Niners will be without Trent Williams at left tackle and Williams is a mainstay on that OL.  Neither team can afford a loss here; it should be a great game to watch.

So, let me review the Six-Pack:

1. Texas A&M +4 against Mississippi St.
2. Georgia St. +8 against Army
3. Cowboys – 3 over Commanders
4. Jags +7 against Eagles
5. Bills/Ravens OVER 51
6. Lions – 4 over Seahawks

            And here are two Money Line Parlays offered up for fun.  The basis for profit projections here is an imaginary $100 wager on each of the Money Line Parlays:

• Wisconsin @ minus-270/Washington St. @ minus 185/Oklahoma @ minus -250  $196 profit if successful.
• Cowboys @ minus-170/Steelers @ minus-170  $152 profit if successful.

Finally, let me close today with this item from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“And from the Sometimes These Stories Write Themselves file comes word that Doug Ramsey faces felony battery charges for allegedly biting a man’s nose in a parking garage after the Arkansas-Missouri State football game.

“The accused carnivore is a top executive at Beyond Meat, a plant-based food company.”

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

 

 

Congratulations to Aaron Judge on his 61^st home run of the 2022 MLB season.  I said here about 2 months ago that if he hits 62 or more home runs, I will consider that he is the proper MLB record holder for home runs in a single season.  The Yankees have 7 games left to play…

One other baseball note this morning …  I have a question for all Chicago White Sox fans:

• So, how are things working out with Tony LaRussa managing your guys?

That was a very bad idea even before it ever popped up in Sox owner, Jerry Reinsdorf’s consciousness.

Moving on ….  The NFL has traditionally strived for “parity”.  Former NFL Commissioner, Bert Bell said, “On any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team.”  That is almost a mantra for the league.  The standings so far this season adhere to that maxim.  There are only two teams at 3-0 as we head into October; there is only one team that is 0-3.  The rest are bunched up in the middle – – ignoring the tie game which showed on that day two teams were equally capable or futile depending on whether you took the points or laid the points.

College football, on the other hand, has never sought or tried to pretend that there is parity among the major schools that field football teams.  College football has always been a game of “Haves” and “Have Nots”.  But that history might be changing slightly thanks to the transfer portal that has been created.  It is only a slight exaggeration to say that every college athlete – in any sport but I am only considering football here – is a free agent every year.  Therefore, a very good player at “Perennial Powerhouse U”, who is relegated to the bench because there are two excellent players ahead of him on the roster, can choose to go anywhere he can be confident of a starting job.  In that way, “Traditional Doormat College” gets access to talent they would not have had before the days of an unfettered transfer portal.

This player choice/mobility is good for ‘parity”, but it makes the players appear as mercenaries and that may not be beneficial for college football as an institution in the long run.  Rather than focusing on what might be a problem down the road, look at the “parity benefit” that seems to have happened this year.  There are 131 schools playing Division 1-A college football this year.  We have not yet reached October and only 3 of those schools have failed to win a game so far.  Those three are:

1. Colorado
2. Colorado State
3. Georgia State

Granted, some of the teams that have won one game to date will end the season with only that one victory on their ledger; but my sense is that at the end of September in years past there were far more winless teams floating around out there.  Maybe a dozen or so at this time of the year?  As Peter, Paul and Mary once sang:

“For the times, they are a-changing…”

Next up …  The NCAA ceded control over college football to the various conferences about 25 years ago.  It maintains a façade of regulation in the form of eligibility criteria and rules governing recruiting, but the NCAA is about as competent as Inspector Clouseau in its oversight roles.  The measure of the NCAA’s incompetency in those sorts of roles is clearly demonstrated in a sport where the NCAA maintains direct control – – men’s college basketball.  The NCAA has been investigating Memphis University and coach Penny Hardaway for allegedly providing “improper benefits” to a recruit for the last several  years.  This week the Independent Accountability Resolution Panel (IARP) reached a conclusion in this matter.  Please ignore the fact that the NCAA member institutions have recently voted to get rid of the IARP entirely and focus on the IARP’s decision alone.  If you do that, you might understand why the IARP was voted out of existence.

The panel found:

• Coach Penny Hardaway did indeed provide “impermissible benefits” to players including recruit, James Wiseman.
• The provision of those “impermissible benefits” were not, however, major violations.
• Memphis will pay a trivial fine; it will vacate a few wins because it used players who were ineligible – – due to having received “impermissible benefits” – – and it will be “on probation” for two years.
• There will be no “postseason ban”; Memphis can continue to participate in March Madness should they win an automatic bid or should they be seeded by the Selection Committee.
• Coach Hardaway will not even suffer a tongue-lashing – – notwithstanding the finding that he provided the “impermissible benefits” to players (note the plural noun here).

It seems to me that the folks at the NCAA and the folks on the IARP investigative team failed to finish reading Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment.  There is a crime that was committed; in the novel, the perpetrator suffers punishment; in the Memphis case, there is no punishment.

If the “impermissible benefits” provided here were nothing but the equivalent of a jay-walking ticket, maybe someone can tell me why they are “on the books” in the first place?

Finally, here is a cogent observation by Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Ireland’s Ceola McGowan, 31, who just won the women’s title at the World Double Bit Axe Throwing Championships, is also an avid pole-dancer.

“Now THAT’s a modern biathlon the Olympics should consider.”

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

 

 

The folks who make and market Guinness Stout have an ad campaign that uses the slogan:

“Good things come to those who wait…”

Indeed, waiting for a bartender to draw a perfect pint of Guinness is a rewarding experience when one has a thirst.  In addition this morning, there is another blessing that has been dispensed to those of us who have been patiently waiting:

• The NFL has pulled the plug on the Pro Bowl!

            Hallelujah!  Can I get an AMEN!  This is even better than waiting on a perfect pint of Guinness – – something that I have been known to do on more than one occasion.

The game had been on life support for at least the last decade – and probably the last three decades – but the league must have felt that it would lose some sort of stature within the pro sports community if it did not have its version of an “All-Star Game”.  I have trouble imagining another reason that the NFL kept propping up an event that used to feature an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii for players and families – – and the players found excuses not to go.  There was a time when players used to tackle in the Pro Bowl events; in recent times they did not even block one another let alone tackle.  The Pro Bowl spectcles became such a farce that they brought derision to the NFL, not prestige.

Finally, after years of suggestions that the game be scrapped, the NFL decided to take the leap and kill the Pro Bowl game – – and replace it with something else.  Let me be clear:

• What the NFL proposes to do in place of a Pro Bowl Game may or may not turn out to be even marginally interesting.  We will not know that until we have gone through the experience of the new stuff a time or three.
• Having said that, it is difficult to imagine that what is proposed can be significantly worse than the spectacles of the last few Pro Bowl exhibitions.

Here is an outline of what will replace the Pro Bowl Game according to ESPN.com:

• Instead of a 3-hour travesty of a game, the new event will be called “The Pro Bowl Games”; they will be a weeklong series of events fitting into the two-week dead time between the Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl Game.
• The new Pro Bowl Games will have players from the two conferences engaging in “football and non-football skills challenges over several days.”  As long as the “skills competitions” do not get silly – – like having offensive linemen compete in a sack race – – these events could be entertaining if not meaningful.
• The culmination of these skills competitions will be on the Sunday before the Super Bowl; there will be a flag football game between the NFC and the AFC.  This is a pitch-perfect ending to the new Pro Bowl Games because the old Pro Bowl had devolved into a flag football game minus the flags.

Because of the novelty of seeing accomplished athletes playing what is essentially a kids’ game of flag football, I might actually tune in and watch the event unfold.  That result would stand in stark contrast to the old Pro Bowl Game; I have not watched more than 5 minutes of  Pro Bowl Game for at least the last 25 years.

Whenever something new/different like this is announced, you can expect some PR gobbledygook.  Actually, some of the verbiage associated with this announcement is relatively simple and on-point,  From an NFL exec:

“We think there’s a real opportunity to do something wholly different here and move away from the traditional tackle football game. We decided the goal is to celebrate 88 of the biggest stars in the NFL in a really positive, fun, yet competitive way.”

Another sensible aspect of this new construct is that the NFL has spent time and energy over the past several years supporting and promoting flag football as a youth sports endeavor.  The idea of having real NFL stars playing flag football on TV where kids can see them competing can only broaden the interest of kids and their parents in flag football as a sports endeavor.

The Pro Bowl has been around for 70 years; the first one was in 1951.  When I was growing up, the Pro Bowl was interesting because it allowed me to see players that I had never seen because for part of my maturation, there was only a single local telecast available on Sundays.  I could read about players in California or Green Bay, but I rarely was able to see them.  Moreover, the players in the early days of the Pro Bowl may not have played the game at full speed, but they played a version of the game that was much closer to “real NFL football” than it was to “Flag Football”.

Times have changed since the 1950s and 1970s in myriad ways.  It took the NFL what seems like an epoch to realize that the Pro Bowl was no longer marginally relevant even as a showcase event.  Finally, they recognized what many folks have called for and have begun to evolve toward the “Pro Bowl Games”.

• Good things come to those who wait…

Finally, let me close today with the definition of “competition” from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Competition:  The act of pitting one entity against another in a contest, with an eye toward determining a winner.  The very foundation of a capitalist society, it ensures that those who are willing to work the hardest, sacrifice the most, and rise above those who would challenge their dominance will ultimately be rewarded by soon becoming a delicious meal for worms.”

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

 

 

The 700 Club is a long-running TV magazine program featuring evangelist, Pat Robertson and always presenting news and views that align with its own brand of Christian beliefs.  This program is not particularly interesting to me, but if it satisfies your viewing needs, have at it.

Here in Curmudgeon Central, there is a different “700 Club”; it is the MLB version of that label, and it has a new member as of last week.  Albert Pujols is now the 4^th person in MLB history to hit 700 or more home runs in his career joining Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth.  Baseball has been around for 150 years or so; membership in baseball’s “700 Club” is exclusive indeed.

Moving on …  The Chicago Bears are moving ahead with their plans to leave downtown Chicago and Soldier Field to take up residence in a new stadium complex in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.  The Bears have a purchase agreement to buy 326 acres of land including what used to be Arlington International race track.  The Bears say – for now at least – that their “single focus” is on developing that parcel and moving there.  The current plan calls for a new stadium that will NOT have a retractable roof but is characterized as an “enclosed structure” which implies a dome.  Except the folks leading this initiative refuse to use the word “dome”.

Part of the hype for this new playpen is that the Bears’ owners would hope that the facility would be able to attract top-shelf events other than NFL regular season games such as the Super Bowl and perhaps the CFP Championship Game.  You need not be a meteorologist or a climatologist to know that those two events take place in the late January/early February time frame and that Chicago is not exactly a “tourist destination” at that time of the year.  That means to me there must be a dome – or a much more expensive retractable roof – on any new facility there if it going to be useful for anything other than Bears; home games from about Christmas to April Fool’s Day.  So, this new venue will have to be “enclosed” even if they do not call the enclosure a dome.  Whatever…

For the moment, the Bears say they are not interested in considering anything other than this new facility; there is no “Plan B”, and they are not interested in listening to “Plan B proposals” from the folks in Chicago who manage Soldier Field.  Clearly, that is posturing, and such posturing is perfectly appropriate at this early stage in the planning process when approvals are needed, and some sort of governmental support or funding is essential.  The Bears say they will pay to build the stadium, but they will need governments to fund the infrastructure costs for the development – – roads, sewers, utility costs and the like.

Meanwhile, back in Chicago, the current mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has proposed putting a dome on the existing Soldier Field and upgrading the facility itself.  Absent from any of the highlights of that plan are where the Bears would play their home games while the renovations and dome are being constructed – – but the Bears dealt with that issue back when Soldier Field was last renovated about 20 years ago by playing their home games in Memorial Stadium at Illinois University.

Mayor Lightfoot’s proposed project would cost the City and the State about $2B and she says that even if the Bears move to Arlington Heights, her plan would be to use the renovated Soldier Field to get another NFL team in Chicago proper.  Long ago, the Chicago Cardinals and the Chicago Bears shared the Chicago market; maybe that plan could work again – – if the NFL is interested in abandoning one of its other markets in favor of another “shared city arrangement”.

Let me turn now to another NFL-related issue – – the Niners’ QB situation.  With Trey Lance out for the year with a broken ankle, I think the Niners’ team and coaches and braintrust have to hope for 2 things to happen:

1. Jimmy Garoppolo does not get hurt such that he has to miss multiple games
2. The Niners make the Super Bowl this year.

Regarding point number one above, the Niners’ QB room has 3 inhabitants as of this morning:

• Jimmy Garoppolo
• Brock Purdy
• Kurt Benkert

The Niners have a solid roster and a good defense; but it is not likely that they can withstand having both Lance and Garoppolo “on the shelf” for extended periods of time.  And that brings me to point number two above:

• Garoppolo is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2022 season.  

I think that is an important issue for folks in the Bay Area because Trey Lance – if I have counted correctly – has started a total of 21 football games since he graduated from high school and 17 of them were at the Division 1-AA level of play in college.  Trey Lance may be the reincarnation of Division 1-AA Hall of Famer, Kurt Warner – – or Trey Lance my be the sequel to Carson Wentz whom he followed as the starting QB for North Dakota State.  I am not saying that either Lance or Wentz is a failure; I am saying that neither has shown any reason to believe they are Kurt Warner who played his college football at Northern Iowa.

Let me say this again, I do not have nearly enough information to say that Trey Lance is a bust.  What I can say comfortably is that the only thing he has shown to date is “potential” and the working definition of “potential” is:

• Has not yet accomplished much of anything of note.

The glib response here is that the Niners could re-sign Garoppolo in the offseason.  Yes, they could; but as an unrestricted free agent, Garoppolo will sign where he wants to sign and given the way he was hung out to dry by the Niners in the last offseason, I have to wonder if he would even consider going back there with Lance still in the building.  Obviously, there is a man-crush between Lance and Kyle Shanahan; if you were Garoppolo, would you want to be in the vicinity of that situation.

There are NFL teams that will be shopping for a QB come February 2023; Jimmy G is not a Hall of Fame quality talent out there on the market, but he is a guy who has shown the ability to win games in the NFL when given solid coaching and when surrounded by a competently constructed roster.  I will not be surprised to hear that teams like Carolina, Seattle, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Atlanta and Tampa put calls into Garoppolo’s agent if only to know what it might cost to bring him into their facilities.  If the Niners don’t make it to the Super Bowl this year with Garoppolo, then they had damned well better have been right in trading away what they did to climb in the draft to take Trey Lance because if they were wrong, they will be a while digging out from under the fallout from that decision.

Finally, let me close today with an entry from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Luck:  An intangible series of factors that lead to a good outcome.  By and large, these crazy, unpredictable fortunate circumstances are experienced by people who come from money and connections and not by poor schlubs like you.  Go figure.”

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

 

 

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:

1. It did not fit with the Football Friday format that was queued up
2. 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:

1. It seems that Favre knew he was doing something wrong – – AND – –
2. 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………