The Sports Curmudgeon

The month of June has not been kind to MLB managers named “Joe”.  Yesterday I commented on the Phillies “moving on” from Joe Girardi; yesterday, the Angels relieved Joe Maddon of his managerial duties.  The Angels hit a terrible stretch recently; after starting the season 21-11 and being only a game out of first place in the AL West, the Angels have gone 6-18 since then including having lost their last 12 games in a row.

As was the case with Girardi and the Phillies, much of this is not the manager’s fault.  The team’s last loss was a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Red Sox.  Managers are like starting pitchers, they will not win any games where their team scores no runs…

Switching gears dramatically, I want to talk today about the Deshaun Watson situation.  For the last year or so, the litany has been that he stood accused by 22 female massage therapists of sexual assault and improper behavior(s).  Over the last two weeks, that number of accusers has grown to an even two dozen.  Watson missed all of 2021 as the NFL proceeded to “investigate” the situation; in the off-season, the Texans traded Watson to the Browns for a ton of high and middle round draft picks over a three-year period; and then, the Browns gave him a fully guaranteed contract worth as much as $230M.

Before I get into my own view of the matter, let me tell  you where I stand based on what I have read and heard about all of this:

• The DA in Houston has investigated and has chosen not to bring criminal charges against Watson.  Does that mean Watson never did anything wrong?  Absolutely not.  He is innocent in the eyes of the law – – but that has no bearing on what he may have actually done here.
• Do I believe that all 24 women are giving full and accurate accounts of what happened between Watson and them?  Might there be a “gold-digger or two” in the mix there?  Very possible – – but without a court proceeding where testimony will be given under oath, the best anyone can do is to deal with a gut reaction here.
• Conversely, do I believe that all 24 women are lying through their teeth and that Deshaun Watson is a victim of their lies and slander?   Highly unlikely – – but without a court proceeding where testimony will be given under oath, the best anyone can do is to deal with a gut reaction here.

At some point soon, the NFL – in the person of Roger Goodell – will have to take whatever information their investigation turns up and add it to the things that are in the public record in all of these matters and use all of that to decide if Deshaun Watson deserves a suspension and if so for how long.  And that brings me to a rhetorical question:

• Should the MLB handling of the sexual assault allegations against Trevor Bauer be any sort of yardstick for the NFL in the Deshaun Watson matter?

Two women had accused Bauer of sexual assault when MLB Commish Rob Manfred suspended Bauer for 2  full seasons.  Subsequent to that decision a third woman came forth with additional allegations, but those “new ones” were presumably unknown to MLB as its suspension decision was constructed.  Watson now faces 24 accusers and there is some similarity also in the fact that many of the allegations convey lurid details of what happened or did not happen.  One of the adages of jurisprudence – – and parenting ironically – – is that the punishment should fit the crime.  Remember, there is no actual “crime” here; the existence of a “crime” can only be determined in a court of law by a jury of the accused’s peers.  Nonetheless, many people might be looking for “parity” here.

Roger Goodell is in a delicate position.  He suffered plenty of ill will and scorn for his leniency in the Ray Rice Incident – – but on the other hand, the NFL has precedent on the books of only a half-season suspension for vehicular homicide by a player.  Compare that to the recently handed down suspension of one full season to Calvin Ridley who bet $1500 on some parlays of NFL games when he was on the IL.

If Goodell only suspends Watson for 8 or 9 games, women’s rights activists will shriek that he has been too lenient once again.  I can hear it now:

• Twenty-four incidents of sexual assault is only half as bad as a $1500 parlay bet on NFL games.
• Run this man out of town on a rail after you tar and feather him…

Absent any sort of criminal charges and findings by a court in any/all of those criminal charges, the NFL is going to do whatever it does under the aura of Public Relations – – and if there is a way for the NFL to come out looking good in that light, it is surely not clear to me.  Roger Goodell’s critics – – and there are legions of them out there – – complain that he is making north of $40M and needs to be “tougher on crime” both for miscreant players and skeezy owners who engage in their own version(s) of slimeball behaviors.  All I can say, is that Roger Goodell is going to earn his money trying to navigate his way through this PR minefield.

Since I posed a rhetorical question above, let me try a second one today:

• In what other field of endeavor might one be engaged where you have two dozen women who accuse you publicly and specifically of sexually assaulting them and where the “consequences” to you are to continue in your field of endeavor with a huge raise?

I can only think of three such occupations:

1. Rock Star/Rapper
2. Professional Athlete
3. Elected politician

Finally, the Denver Broncos are up for sale; according to the latest reports, Rob Walton will be the winner of the bidding war for the team and that he will pay $4.5B for the franchise.  Shed no tears, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates Walton’s net worth to be $57.9B.  However, I wonder if Messr. Walton has done sufficient due diligence here:

• Has he learned that the players on his team – and all the players involved in the league – are represented by a union? 
• If so, why is he still interested in buying the team?

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

 

 

The Phillies fired their manager, Joe Girardi, last week.  I was not all that surprised to read that news since the Phillies put a team on the field this year that had an Opening Day payroll north of $200M and when Girardi was shown the door, the team was 22-29 for the season and 5-12 in their previous 17 games.  Notwithstanding that less-than-stellar recent performance, I am not so sure that Joe Girardi is the only culprit responsible for those disappointments.

Girardi has managed in MLB for all or part of 14 seasons.  His record in 2058 games is 1123-935 which is hardly what one would call shabby.  So, the first thing that comes to my mind is that I doubt that Joe Girardi just got a whole lot stupider over the last winter.  And then I look at the players and the roster…

The Phillies’ bullpen is threadbare – to be kind.  There are three big names out there in the bullpen, Jeurys Familia, Brad Hand and Corey Knebel.  The problem is that all three of them are on the downward arc of their MLB careers AND none of the three is having what you would call a season that harkens back to their halcyon days coming out of the bullpen.  Basically, the Phillies go into the 8^th and 9^th inning of virtually every game knowing that no lead they have is a mortal lock to carry the day.

And that point brings me to the next issue I have with the firing of Joe Girardi.  The Phillies have a new GM this year – – Dave Dombrowski – – who arrives with significant credentials as a savvy “baseball guy”.  Yes, I know that trying to retool a team in one offseason is a daunting task, but I want to pose this simple question:

• How can one assemble an Opening Day roster whose payroll costs equal $221.7M and have nothing of value in the bullpen?

Another source of the Phillies’ underperformance must be the production of three young players for whom there were high hopes:

1. Alec Bohm:  He finished second in voting for Rookie of the year in 2020.  He has never been much of a fielder, but the idea was that his bat would make up for those shortcomings.  In 2022 so far, his is batting .271 with an OPS of .701.  Those numbers are down significantly from his “almost-Rookie of the Year” stats in 2020.  Oh, by the way, if he has improved his fielding abilities since that season, it is not immediately obvious to the casual fan…
2. Mickey Moniak:  The Phillies drafted him in the first round of the 2016 Draft and it took him 4 years to make it to the major leagues.  This was supposed to be his “big improvement year” but a hand injury has put the kibosh on those hopes.  His record to date is too small a sample to be reliable, but just consider that as of this morning his career OPS is a miserable .419.
3. Bryson Stott:  He was the Phillies first round draft pick in 2019 and coming out of Spring Training the Phillies kept him on the roster because of his potential.  As of this morning, he is batting .159 and has an OPS of .471.

I have a difficult time pinning the blame for those miserable performances on Joe Girardi and it does seem intuitively obvious to me that if two of those three young guys were hitting .290 things might be different offensively for the Phillies.  Maybe they could have built some impenetrable leads in the 8^th and 9^th innings of games with a bit more productivity there?

We shall see if the team responds positively under a new boss man – – and if it does and if the Phillies somehow make the playoffs even with that miserable bullpen – – I wonder how many commentators will fall for the highly possible situation where leadership from the bench was irrelevant to the team’s performance.  In philosophy class, this sort of situation was known as the “Post hoc ergo propter hoc Fallacy”.  The most common example of this fallacy is:

• A rooster crows every morning.
• Then the sun comes up.
• Therefore, the rooster causes the sun to rise.

Even if you did not take Astronomy 1 in college, I suspect that  you can see the fallacy of that argumentation.  Causality is difficult to establish with great accuracy and assuredness so the fate of the Phillies’ season rests not with their new manager as opposed to their old one; the fate of their season depends on the bullpen improving a whole lot and on those three young players noted above to live up to – – or come close to living up to – – the expectations of them.

Moving on …  The NFL has lost two long-term fixtures to retirement in the past two weeks.  Frank Gore and Ryan Fitzpatrick are calling it quits.  Gore played RB for all or part of 16 seasons in the NFL; he ran the ball 3735 times and caught 484 passes; he was named to the Pro Bowl 5 times.  He took a lot of punishment in those games and offensive plays.

Ryan Fitzpatrick came to the NFL from that huge northeastern football factory – – Harvard University.  He played in all or part of 17 NFL seasons for 9 different teams.  Over his much-traveled career, Fitzpatrick threw for 34,990 yards and 223 TDs with only 169 INTs.

I don’t know what kind of pension these men qualify for, but whatever it is, they earned every dime.

Finally, here is an interesting question posed by humorist Brad Dickson:

“Due to supply chain issues Harley Davidson is stopping production effective immediately. Oh, no, now how will middle aged, paunchy men compensate for their receding hairlines?”

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

 

 

A little more than 50 years ago, Bobbie Gentry informed all of us that June 3^rd was the day Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.  [Aside:  Check out this link; it makes me wonder why that was even a minor  problem for Billy Joe.]  But anyhow … there are a couple of recent sports news items that are music to my ears here in 2022…

The first harmonious news item is that the NFL is seriously reviewing the continuation of the Pro Bowl.  Hallelujah!  Will wonders never cease…?  Here is the reality of the Pro Bowl:

• Top shelf players invent ways to avoid participation in these games; second tier players seemingly have to resort to an alien abduction to generate sufficient cover for them to miss the game.
• Then, after the REAL All Pro players have opted out, a bunch of NFL goombahs take the field and play the game at half-speed – – I am being generous here – – with the prime directive to be that no one gets hurt in the game.

The NFL has tried some heroic measures to save the game; it used to be the week after the Super Bowl – – but even hardcore fans did not care enough to become invested then.  The NFL moved the game to the dead weekend between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl – – but that focused even less attention of the Pro Bowl spectacle.

The league has tried moving the game around from Hawaii to Arizona to Orlando.  The league has tried to include a skills competition.  None of that concocted stuff has amounted to a pinch of horsesh*it; because TV ratings have continued to decline to the point where the NFL pundits recognize that they have a “loser” on their hand.  In case you had not realized it, “loser” is not an image that is palatable to the NFL.

There are so many things that ware wrong with the Pro Bowl that the single best decision that the league could make is to put a silver bullet through its head while simultaneously driving a wooden stake through its heart.  Fans have stopped watching a glorified two-hand-touch game to the point where the NFL prefers never to have to acknowledge such low ratings.

There is a window of opportunity for the NFL here:

• The 2021 Pro Bowl game was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  There was no huge hue-and-cry among NFL fans; people with hugely differing views on the pandemic seemed to be more than just OK with killing the Pro Bowl Game that year.
• There is a potential sore point here with the NFLPA; lots of players have incentives in their contracts that pay real money if the player is selected to the Pro Bowl.  The union is not likely to give those clauses up because of dwindling fan interest and lower TV ratings.
• What the NFL needs to to do is to establish a “voting/selection” procedure so that “Pro Bowl Players” can be recognized and rewarded via their contracts.  But if there no game for those selectees to play in, then everyone wins including the fans.

Some have said that if the NFL were to cancel the Pro Bowl entirely, they would need to come up with another TV presence that would take its place.  I do not necessarily subscribe to that point of view – – but if that becomes a stumbling block on the road to getting rid of a disastrously stupid TV event, let me offer one suggestion:

• Why not pit AFC “All Pros” against NFC “All Pros” in a competition involving the 10 track and field decathlon events.  Make the prize money a winner take all situation.
• Enforce the contract clauses for players not to be paid for being selected; make payment of the incentive clauses contingent on participating in the “Pro Bowl event”.

OK, so maybe I was a bit too aspirational there.  So let me come back to Planet Earth a bit here and mention one other sports story of the moment that is music to my ears.  Canadian Football League negotiators along with CFLPA representatives hammered out a new CBA – – and this one was indeed ratified by both the league owners and the players at large.  The CFL season will begin on schedule on 9 June – – which is next week.

It seems that a major sticking point in the previous agreement that was voted down by the players en masse had to do with the CFL’s rule about “player ratio”.  When I read reports on how the old CBA proposal was voted down and how the new one was approved, I must confess that I do not have the historical CFL perspective to recognize how and why this was a deal-breaker.  My understanding is that the new agreement assures that every team in every game will have 7 Canadian players who are starters but starting next year one of those players could be a nationalized Canadian who may have been born in the US.  Moreover, CFL teams that play the “most Canadians” at the end of the season will be given extra second round draft picks for the subsequent season.

Obviously, these issues are significant to the parties at the negotiating table even if they seem rather blasé to me.  I defer, however, to folks who know the history of Canadian football much better than I do.  I will only say that my preference would be for the CFL owners and for the CFLPA to work together to assure that CFL Football remains a distinct product as compared to the NFL or United States major college football.

Canadian football is a game of its own and in that uniqueness lies its attraction.  Before anyone asks me if I would choose to watch/follow the CFL instead of the NFL or the major college football conferences, let me say that is a false choice.  I can spend lots of time and memory units on US football at its top levels AND I can also appreciate and enjoy CFL football games on TV.  The choice here should not be “either/or” because I believe it should be “both/and”.

Finally, today’s theme has been music – be it popular records or music to my ears – and so I shall close here with these two observations about music by George Bernard Shaw:

“The chief objection to playing wind instruments is that it prolongs the life of the player.”

And …

“Let a short Act of Parliament be passed, placing all street musicians outside the protections of the law so that any citizen may assail them with stones, sticks, knives, pistols, or bombs without incurring any penalties.”

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

 

 

The NFL manages the sports calendar in the US like no other entity.  It has manufactured ways to capture media attention during its off-season that keeps the league front and center in the sports news feed.  Consider…

• After the Super Bowl there is the “dark period” where free-agents-to-be are only allowed to negotiate with their current team.  [Wink-wink…]
• Then comes “real free agency” – – except for guys who will probably be cut after June 1^st.
• By that time the NFL Draft has come over the horizon leading to 3 bazillion mock drafts per week.
• Post-Draft, the NFL teases the release of its schedule drawing that simple act out over about 3 days.
• OTAs and minicamps happen in late May and early June.
• In mid-July teams go to training camp – – and they’re off and running…

I want to consider the NFL schedule as a whole today.  I will not try to anoint any team as having the “easiest” or the “hardest” schedule because such calculations based on last year’s record are – – to be polite – – flawed.  Given all the player movement via trades and free agency – let alone the results of the draft – every team is different this year as compared to last year.  Nor will I try to figure out which teams will log the most air miles traveling to and from their games.  I look at the overall schedule and just make observations that come to mind.

• The NFL did not mess around with the three games it selected to happen on Christmas Day.  Packers/Dolphins early on, followed by Broncos/Rams in the late afternoon slot and Bucs/Cardinals at night is a potent lineup.  The NBA TV ratings for Christmas Day are going to take a hit in 2022.
• Someone in the scheduling department decided to have some fun with the early season schedule this year.  In the first four weeks, the Jets will play all four of the AFC North teams.  Not to be outdone, in those same first four weeks, the Ravens will play all four of the AFC East teams.  Accidentally?  You make the call…
• There is a doubleheader on Monday Night Football in Week 2.  Titans and Bills will kick off at 7:15 PM (EST) and then the Vikes/Eagles will start at 8:30 PM (EST).
• Flex scheduling for Sunday Night Football games begins in Week 5 this year instead of in mid-November.  The only Sunday Night game after Week 4 that is set in concrete is Bucs/Cards on Christmas night.
• The Chiefs schedule for the first half of the season looks daunting – – at Cards, vs Chargers, at Colts, at Bucs, vs Raiders, vs Bills, at Niners, vs Titans.  After that stretch of 8 games, the Chiefs get to host the Jags…
• The Washington Commanders play at the Giants in Week 13; then the Commanders have their BYE Week in Week 14; upon their return to action in Week 15, the Commanders opponent will be the Giants again this time at home.
• The Falcons look like a team ready to rebuild and the schedule maker did them no favors.  The Falcons are going to be  underdogs in their first 7 games until they face the Panthers at home on October 30^th.
• The Giants early season schedule in interesting.  They open on the road at the Titans; then they get three home games in a row before a road game in London followed by another home game when they get back from London.
• Most Thursday games will be televised by Amazon Prime Video and the NFL had given their new “broadcast partner” an interesting mix of games.  Pairings such as Chargers/Chiefs, Steelers/Browns, Ravens/Bucs and Bills/Pats look to be choice morsels.  Those offerings stand in contrast with Commanders/Bears, Falcons/Panthers and Jags/Jets.
• There is a regular season game in Munich, Germany this year.  The Seahawks will play the Bucs there in Week 10; this is the first regular season game ever played in Germany.
• The Chiefs, Eagles and Packers will all have three road games in a row this season.  The Chiefs will play at the Bengals, Broncos and Texans in early December.  The Eagles will play at the Giants, Bears and Cowboys in mid-December.  The Packers will play at the Commanders, Bills and Lions starting in late October.

Even though I was trying to take a synoptic view of the NFL schedule, there are five individual games that caught my eye:

1. Broncos at Seahawks on September 12.  It is the Monday Night Football game for Week 1.  Fans will not have to wait at all to see Russell Wilson’s return to Seattle.
2. Chiefs at Bucs on October 2.  There is no matchup of last year’s Super Bowl participants this year – – so fans will have to settle for this game that pairs the two teams that played in the Super Bowl in 2020.
3. Commanders at Colts on October 30.  Carson Wentz  returns to Indianapolis…
4. Cowboys at Packers on November 13.  Coach Mike McCarthy returns to Green Bay…
5. Bucs at Falcons in Week 17 (dates not yet fixed).  Could this be Tom Brady’s final regular season NFL game given that he has a $35M per year broadcasting gig waiting for him if it is…?

Finally, having mentioned Tom Brady’s possible retirement at age 45, let me close with this observation by H. L. Mencken about people in their 40s:

“The best years are the forties; after fifty a man begins to deteriorate, but in the forties, he is at the maximum of his villainy.”

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

 

 

I have mentioned before that #1 son lives in Dublin, Ireland with his wife and our grandson who is now 14.  I refer to him as The FOG which is shorthand for the First and Only Grandson.  The Fog follows European football and the team he supports in the English Premier League – – football is not nearly as big a deal in Ireland as it is in other parts of Europe – – is Arsenal.  For Christmas in 2020, his parents gave him the gift of a trip to London to see an Arsenal game.  COVID-19 travel restrictions obviated that travel and so the gift naturally carried over.

In the intervening year, The FOG became more interested in – and more proficient at – tennis; that led his carryover Christmas present to morph into a trip to Paris to see some of the French Open tennis tournament there.  I asked him to be the “Sports Curmudgeon Exclusive Correspondent” and give me some reports on the matches he saw.

As luck would have it, his first match of the day allowed him to see the #1 ranked woman in the world, Iga Swaitek against Danka Kovinic.  Here is his report:

“The first set was dominated by the more experienced Swiatek who dictated the tempo of the game, only occasionally showing flashes of weakness when Kovinic would use her superior strength to blaze a forehand past the experienced Pole. The second set though was a different story, Kovinic came out guns blazing and managed to grab a break on Swiatek’s mere second service game. The Montenegrin was playing impressive tennis and she looked on course to win the second set if she could just keep up the high level of intensity which was forcing her opponent to fire long over the baseline, an issue addressed by Swiatek in her post match interview. Sadly, this success was short lived and the world number one managed to break back and subsequently hold her service to level the score 3-3 in the set. They would go on to trade game for game until the score would come to 5-5. This is where Swiatek would grab the critical second break she needed to pull ahead and after an easy service victory she won the match in straight sets. Swaitek has yet to lose a set this week, but this is the closest she has come to losing that streak.”

Here is The FOG’s commentary on the second match he saw that day:

“The second match of the day on court Phillipe Chatrier was between the Chinese 18-year-old and world number 70 Qinwen Zheng and the French home favourite Alize Cornet. From the offset the atmosphere in Phillipe Chatrier was electric unlike that of the previous game with the French fans cheering on their token athlete. Shouts of “Aller Alize” were coming from all over the arena and were being met with audible reaction, but Zheng didn’t allow this to affect her tennis and she dominated from the very first point which she won easily on the back of a rocket of a serve. The Chinese superstar continued to control the pace and tempo of the play with strong shots coming from both forehand and backhand.

“By the time she jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the back of two breaks it was clear that no amount of support the home fans could give would be able to help their beloved Alize against an opponent of clearly superior skill. Watching this match my mind drew comparisons to a young Serena Williams as Zheng obviously possessed far more athletic ability and strength than her opponent, a strong and accomplished tennis player in her own right. With the exception of a long deuce in the second game Cornet failed to put up much of a fight and the 1^st set ended with a disappointing bagel for the Frenchman.

“The second set started off better with Cornet challenging Zheng’s service in the first game, but once she managed to fend of this crowd-pleasing resurgence the match fell back into its rhythm and after being broken and denied the break herself Cornet retired due to fatigue as the second set was only three games old.”

The third match of the day pitted Gilles Simon against Marin Cilic.  Here is what The FOG had to say about it:

“The third and final match of the day on Phillipe Chatrier that I had the privilege of observing, without access to the night pass, was Marin Cilic facing off against Giles Simon a French tour veteran and wild card entry into this year’s Roland Garros. Simon was obviously the crowd favourite and for understandable reasons as he has been a leader in French tennis since the late 2000s whereas his opponent possessed a higher ranking and was the 20 seed in the tournament. The two had played multiple times before this match the first being in 2007 as they were both experienced members of the ATP tour.

“The first set started as it eventually would continue as Cilic dominated all the early exchanges, only falling into trouble occasionally through his own errors, never losing control of the point. There were a few long deuces in the first set that could have potentially gone Giles’ way and a few times when the chair umpire left his high loft to check the mark, he would rule in favor of Cilic leaving the crowd in anger. Much like the previous game, despite the fact that Simon was outmatched he still held the overwhelming crowd support and every time his hustle and speed would win him a point the crowd would erupt and begin cheering. Despite this support though “Gilous”, as the crowd affectionately nicknamed him, would go on to be bageled in the first set unable to claim victory in even one game.

“The second set however had a different feel. Although Cillic was still the dominant force on the court Simon began to play better and using his superior speed and drop shotting ability he shifted the game from one based around hard groundstrokes to one played at the net. He also possessed better hand skills than his Croatian opponent, so this played into his strengths perfectly. The second set was a great improvement for the Frenchman, but he was unable to win it managing only to win three games.

“The third set began well for Simon, and he won his first service game, but he was hampered by quad tightness as the match went on which would severely limit his ability to play the style which he had been relying on to win him points. As I saw this situation unfold, I pointed out to my mom the marks in the clay which showed clearly where each player was spending the majority of the points. On Cillic’s side the clay around the centre of the court was covered in footprints whereas on the Simon’s side the centre was relatively smooth with either side having been blemished by footprints and slide marks. This shows that Cillic had superior control from the baseline and that he had his opponent on the run for the majority of the points. This dominant display continued for the rest of the final set with the French crowd going into a frenzy every time Simon managed to win a point until Cilic finished the set off with an ace to win 6-0, 6-3, 6-2.”

Now before anyone here decides to accuse me of exploiting child labor for writing today’s piece, the way this happened was that I asked The FOG for a favor, and he graciously agreed to do this.  Moreover, The FOG will return tomorrow with commentary on the UEFA Final game between Liverpool and Real Madrid which – coincidentally – was also in Paris last weekend because the venue was moved out of Russia after the invasion of Ukraine,

Finally, since this is all about the French Open, it seems fitting to close with some words from the French author/philosopher, Voltaire:

“Animals have these advantages over man: they have no theologians to instruct them, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.”

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

 

 

Last weekend marked the end of an era.  After more than 50 years in the sports journalism business, Ray Didinger signed off the air on a sports radio show he and Glen Macnow had done for about 20 years on 94WIP.  If you lived or worked in Philadelphia for any period of time since about 1970 and if you had even a passing interest in sports, you know who Ray Didinger is.  For others who were not in that circumstance, let me present a thumbnail sketch of his career:

• He was a reporter, beat writer and columnist for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin (a paper no longer in existence) and then for the Philadelphia Daily News.
• He was the Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year five times.
• He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH for his coverage of the NFL.
• He was a writer and producer at NFL Films and won four Emmys in the process.
• He is the playwright of a one-act drama Tommy and Me.
• He has been a fixture on Philadelphia TV doing pre-game and post-game programs for Eagles’ games.
• He has been a weekend sports radio host for more than 20 years.

One of his TV shows was Football America.  It was a celebration of football as an element of US society and culture.  It was not about the NFL or college football weekends.  Football America was about how the game of football is an essential part of Americans’ lives well beneath the showcase level of the NFL and major college football.  If you have never seen Football America, do yourself a favor and track it down so you can enjoy it.

I first met Ray Didinger in about 1970 when he was starting his career as a sportswriter.  It was clear from the beginning that he was a gifted writer and those awards mentioned above demonstrate that others have recognized his talents and abilities.  What sets Ray Didinger apart is that he combines great talent with authenticity.  Ray Didinger is one of the nicest, most genuine human beings on the planet.  There is not a milligram of conceit or deceit in him.

I heard of his plans to retire as of Memorial Day weekend about a month ago.  My email response to the friend who gave me that news began with this comment:

• Damn – – sports radio just got a whole lot dumber.

His weekend radio program was something you had to hear if you were in the Philadelphia listening area because he approached the program calmly and rationally.  Need I remind anyone that such is not the hallmark of sports radio programming.  There was no ranting and raving; there were few if any ‘hot takes”; the program was three hours of analytical discussion about sports between two men who are obviously friends in addition to being co-hosts of a radio program.  Every time I listened to the show, I felt that I came away from it just a tad smarter than I was when I tuned in.

A couple of years ago, Ray Didinger published a memoir titled, Finished Business.  Whenever I learn that a sportswriter I have followed has put together a memoir, I make it a point to read it.  My two favorite sports memoirs had been:

• Over Time by Frank Deford
• Gloves Off by Lowell Cohn

Those two exceptional books are now joined by Finished Business; it is a great book and an easy read.

Often in the world of sports a coach or manager finds himself being nudged out of his position but instead of being fired, that beleaguered coach/manager chooses to resign – – often giving the rationale that he “wants to spend time with his family”.  That excuse has almost become a cliché and I say “almost” because that is exactly what Ray Didinger said was a key element of his decision to retire from sports journalism.  The difference in this case is that anyone who has followed Ray Didinger over the past 50 years or so takes that statement at face value and knows it to be the case.  Remember, there is not a milligram of deceit in the man.

Oh, by the way, there is one hole in Ray Didinger’s résumé that he might choose to fill during his retirement  years.  He has been a journalist, author, screenwriter, playwright, radio host and TV personality – – but he has not yet published an anthology of poetry.  Over to you, Ray…

Bonne chance, Ray Didinger.  Thank you for many hours of enjoyment and enlightenment over five decades.  Stay well…

 

 

I had a recent sports related experience of falling down a rabbit hole and it all began with a casual chat at a social gathering.  Someone who is only the most casual of sports fans said that he saw a photograph of Red Grange and that Grange was not wearing a face mask back in the 1930s.  He wanted to know if I knew when facemasks became part of NFL football.  I said that I did and proceeded to tell him the following facts:

1. The facemask was “invented” in the 1950s supposedly by Cleveland Browns’ coach Paul Brown.
2. The first facemasks were made of plastic.
3. Today, players are required to wear facemasks from a set of designs approved by the league.
4. There was a player in the 1950s who was so adept at grabbing a facemask and pulling an opponent to the ground that the NFL introduced the “facemask penalty” if it was done to any player not carrying the ball.  Today, the rule applies to grabbing the face mask of any opponent.

There you have a simple, straightforward conversation held over a glass of wine that then proceeded on to some other topic that I cannot recall at the moment.  But I did make a mental note of that fourth item on the list.  That “player in the 1950s” who caused the rule change was “Night Train” Lane, but I realized that I had no idea where he went to college or how he got the nickname, “Night Train”.  So, Google got a workout…

Dick “Night Train” Lane attended Scottsbluff Junior College in Nebraska.  Learning that made me feel good about not associating Lane with one of the blueblood football college programs.  He began his career with the LA Rams as an undrafted free agent; even the scouts for NFL teams at the time did not pay close attention to Scottsbluff Junior College.  The way he came to the attention of the Rams was by walking into the Rams’ office with clippings of newspaper reports about his time in college and asking for a tryout.  They gave him one and signed him to a rookie deal.

Now, I was hooked…  Remember “Night Train” Lane was named as a Top 100 player in the NFL all time; and I knew he did not finish his career with the Rams – – so, what happened?  Turns out that Lane’s rookie year was 1952 and in his rookie year he set an NFL record that stands today, 70 years later.

• In a 12-game regular season, “Night Train” Lane intercepted 14 passes.
• The NFL season has expanded to 14 games and then to 16 games and as of last year to 17 games.  No matter; 14 INTs in a season is still the record.

While gathering that information, I also learned that “Night Train” did more than get the rule changed about facemask grabbing.  He also used to tackle runners with a  clothesline tackle aimed at the head and neck which was perfectly legal and came to be known as a “Night Train Necktie”.  That too was ruled out of the NFL game.

For reasons I did not learn, Lane was traded from the Rams to the Chicago Cardinals and then from the Cardinals to the Detroit Lions.  He played through the 1965 season and recorded a total of 68 INTs placing him fourth on the all-time list for career interceptions.

But thinking about his facemask tackling made me go back and think about the “invention”/”evolution” of face masks.  Supposedly, in a Browns’ game in the 50s, QB Otto Graham took and elbow to the face in the first half of a game and at halftime coach Paul Brown attached a piece of plastic across the front of Graham’s helmet to keep him from taking another blow to the face.  Plastic facemasks began to find popularity; evidently, Graham was not the only player getting hit in the face.  The problem is that the plastic could break – even shatter – and that posed a threat to players eyes.  So, plastic facemasks were outlawed but metal ones were allowed.

By the early 1960s almost everyone in the NFL wore a facemask.  I recall that Tommy McDonald did not wear a mask and wondered who else chose not to.

• McDonald – a WR – was the last position player not to wear a facemask.
• Jess Richardson – a defensive tackle with the Eagles and Patriots – is considered to be the last lineman to play without a mask.
• Garo Yepremian – a kicker – played into the 1970s without a mask.

[Aside:  Tommy McDonald once took a blow to the face that broke his jaw but did not keep him out of action.  He played the next week with his jaw wired shut – – and without a face mask.]

And last, I did not know how or why Richard Lane got the nickname, “Night Train”.  Frankly, I thought that it might have had some sort of racial implication because Lane was one of the few Black players in the NFL when he started his career in 1952.  Such is not the case; he got the nickname because he loved a popular R&B song called “Night Train”.  In his first training camp with the Rams, his teammate Tom Fears had a copy of the record of that song and when Fears would play it, Lane would dash over to Fears’ room to dance to the music.  Now you know…

Finally, today’s rant is a meandering journey to learn some facts.  The metaphor of going down a rabbit hole is an homage to Lewis Carroll’s tale of Alice in Wonderland.  So, I shall close today with an observation about journeys made by Lewis Carroll:

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

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

 

 

Recently, I wrote about eight starting QBs in the NFL who were high draft picks and who have generally underperformed “expectations”/”hype”.  There is another highly drafted QB who has not nearly underperformed as badly as the ones I listed before but is one who might turn out to be a lot less than what he was expected to become.  I speak here of Kyler Murray who was the #1 overall pick in the 2019 draft out of Oklahoma.

Make no mistake; Murray has been more productive and more exciting in his brief career than the guys on my prior list; nonetheless, I think he might be setting himself up to tarnish his image just as his career reaches a balance point.  Let me give you some of the salient points in Murray’s existing contract – – the thing that has made him unhappy:

• He will make a total of $5.5M this year.  That is below the median for the salary for a starting NFL QB.
• This year will be his fourth year under his “slotted” rookie contract.  Since he was a first round pick, that formulaic contract provides the team with a “fifth year option” – – and that would pay Murray a tidy $29.7M for the 2023 season.
• Murray wants a longer-term deal with LOTS more guaranteed money.  Problem is that the Cards hold all the leverage at the bargaining table.
• Murray has ghosted the Cards on social media and then restored them; he is not taking part in all of the team off-season activities; he is letting the team know publicly that he is not a happy camper.

That fifth-year salary of $29,7M for Murray looks gaudy, but the reality now is that the elite NFL QBs are making north of $40M per season.  Murray wants to drink from that fountain and the Cards are dragging their heels a bit.  Murray’s first three years have been up-and-down – – and even in their “up-mode” they have not necessarily been at the 90^th percentile of QB performance(s).  On top of that, Murray’s game relies heavily on his ability to run and make plays on the run; that style of play means he is open to – not necessarily prone to – injuries from the normal wear and tear that accrues to people running with a football-in-hand in the NFL.  I am not saying Kyler Murray is “fragile”, but his style of play makes his long-term viability more in question than some of his peers.

The Cards hold the high cards for the moment.  The only drastic action Murray might take is to withhold his services until that point in the season in November when he would have to return to the team in order to prevent his contract from tolling,  In doing that, he makes it clear to the other 31 teams that he is not a “team guy” but he is a “me first guy”.  That is not going to help him get him a top-flight contract.

I suspect that the Cards and Murray will find a way to get something done to tamp down this acrimony between now and the end of the 2022 season.  However, unless Murray absolutely lights it up in 2022, I do not see him breaking the bank and holding down the label of highest paid NFL QB even for a brief moment.

Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray are similar QBs in terms of the way they play the game and how they achieve success for themselves and their teams.  Jackson came into the NFL the year before Murray, so he is now playing in his fifth year under that “fifth-year option” contract.  Lamar Jackson will make $23M this season.  And he too wants a long-term deal with a slug of guaranteed money; absent an agreement on a long term deal or a franchise tag, Lamar Jackson will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2022 NFL season.

The last reports I read had the Ravens offering deals that averaged out to $35-37M per year with Jackson rejecting such offers out of hand.  [Aside:  Jackson and his mother are representing him in these negotiations.  He does not use an NFLPA-certified agent to represent him in these talks.] There is no way Jackson is going to sit out most of the 2022 season and giving up $16-18M of that juicy salary for this season.  But he could dig in his heels and stretch this out until the free-agency season of next Winter/Spring.  If that is his preferred avenue, my suspicion is that the Ravens will apply the franchise tag and keep him in Baltimore giving them time to acquire another young QB and starting to groom him.

• [Aside #2:  I am not casting aspersions on either Jackson or his mother here because I know nothing about them outside of Jackson’s exploits on a football field.  However, I do not see other young, successful QBs who wound up in these sorts of standoffs in their option year.  I wonder if an agent – – someone who does this 365 days a year for a living – – would have had an acceptable compromise deal worked out by now.]

There is a ton of hype surrounding the situations of these two QBs and it would not shock me to see more of the drama unfold even as the regular season progresses.  But in the end, I expect both QBs to be with their teams for 2022 and for 2023.  It is not necessarily what either QB wants to happen, but it is a fallout from the contractual structure that has been validated – – even blessed – – by the last two CBAs between the NFL and the NFLPA.

And speaking of formulaic NFL rookie contracts, I wonder how the new Name Image and Likeness deals that college football players can now accept might be factored into some of the new rookie contracts.  Might some of those “NIL Deals” have clauses in them that kicks back something to the payer of the NIL rights in the event that the player moves on to play professional football?  Terra incognita anyone?

Finally, the topic for the day likely involves interactions with the egos of two young NFL QBs; so, let me close with the definition of “Ego” from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Ego:  The part of one’s mind that contains awareness and the sense of one’s own individuality.  Highly developed in actors, models, sports figures, doctors, real estate tycoons, and, God help us, our children.”

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

 

 

I guess the right thing to do today is to tip my hat to an old adage:

“There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip.”

I mentioned last week that the Canadian Football League and its players’ union had reached a tentative agreement on a new CBA and that agreement had ended a brief training camp strike.  That was only half accurate; there indeed was an agreement but ratification by the league’s Board of Governors and the full membership of the union remained to be done.  Apparently, everyone’s optimism – mine included – that the agreement by the negotiators and the endorsement of the agreement by those folks would make ratification a formality.  Evidently it was not because I got an email from Gregg Drinnan late Monday night telling me to stand by because the players voted to reject the new agreement.

I tracked down a report in the Winnipeg Sun on this matter.  According to that report, the sticking point is the ”Canadian ratio”.  This part of the agreement mandates the number of Canadians that must be on the roster and on the field for a game.  I do not pretend to know the history of this negotiating point or the intricacies of how it is counted or enforced, but it seems that the league wanted to deal with “nationalized Americans” as an entity in the compilation of the ratio and the players en masse objected to that activity.

The ray of hope here appears to be that the players do not see this as something that is insurmountable because in the same report in the Winnipeg Sun the story is that the players were willing to return to the practice field while this gets ironed out.  Here is a link to that report for those wanting more information from a far more informed source:

Let me stay with an “international theme” for a moment and point out that the English Premier League (EPL) season is over.  Manchester City was the league champion beating out Liverpool by a single point after the 38-game schedule.  That is an important outcome for “City fans” but the outcome for the teams at the bottom of the EPL Table is more important.  Three teams will be relegated to the second tier of English football next season (The Championship) and the economic impact on those clubs will be enormous.  The relegated teams are:

• Burnley
• Watford
• Norwich City

Obviously, the EPL needs to have three teams ascend from The Championship to maintain the 20 teams playing at the EPL level next year.  The folks in charge have come up with a way to do that that is popular and lucrative.

• The winner of The Championship is automatically “promoted”.  This year that team is Fulham.
• The second-place team in The Championship is also automatically “promoted.  This year that team is Bournemouth.
• The teams that finished 3^rd through 6^th in the Championship play an elimination tournament to see which team  gets the third “promotion”.

The winners in the first round of that tournament are based on the aggregate score in two games – one at each team’s home venue.  The final game is a winner-take-all contest.  This year in the first round, third-place Huddersfield beat sixth-place Luton Town and fourth-place Nottingham Forest beat fifth-place Sheffield United.

• Huddersfield will meet Nottingham Forest in the final game of this tournament on May 29^th.  The winner “goes up” and the loser “stays down”.

As the folks from Monty Python’s Flying Circus used to say:

“And now for something completely different…”

A US Department of Defense contractor suggested that the DoD fund athletic scholarships for tens of thousands of college athletes that would be repaid by mandatory service in the US armed forces and/or civilian agencies.  Think of this as an analog to college ROTC programs but with many more participants and to fill the ranks of the military not just in the officer cadre.  Evidently, this idea has made it to the attention of both civilian and military decision makers in the Pentagon according to a report in Sportico.  The program would not be open to football or basketball players – the idea being that there are plenty of scholarships there.  This idea is aimed at non-revenue sports and suggests a dual benefit:

Benefit to colleges and college athletes is that there will be more money available for non-revenue sports since scholarship funds can be found outside the universities.

Benefit to the military is that it alleviates inefficient recruiting which spends time and money to get recruits who then fail to make it through the physical rigors of basic training.

Obviously, there are a ton of details to be considered here and I would be gob smacked to learn that the NCAA thought this was hunky-dory.  The NCAA rarely thinks that any idea that originates outside of NCAA HQS is worthy of even minor consideration.  However, let me suggest that you follow this link and read the report in Sportico and see if you don’t think there is the germ of a potentially good idea here.

Finally, I will close today with these words from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“When Dallas eclipsed the Suns, it marked the fifth time that a team with Chris Paul on it has blown a 2-0 postseason lead — an NBA record.

“On the bright side, he’s been named an honorary Atlanta Falcon.”

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