Posts
By Rick Morris
(NOTE: This is generally the case, but it bears mention especially this week -- rankings are taking into account injuries that teams suffer, i.e. the Bears' running game without Benson and the Lynch injury for the Bills).
MUTANT SUPER-TEAM
1. New England
CERTAIN PLAYOFF TEAMS
2. Dallas
3. Green Bay
4. Indianapolis
5. Jacksonville
6. Pittsburgh
POSSIBLE PLAYOFF TEAMS
7. Seattle
8. Tampa Bay
9. San Diego
10. Cleveland
11. Tennessee
12. New Orleans
13. Philadelphia
14. Arizona
15. Detroit
16. Denver
17. Houston
18. Chicago
19. Washington
20. Buffalo
21. Minnesota
THE DREGS
22. Cincinnati
23. Buffalo
24. Carolina
25. Baltimore
26. Kansas City
27. St. Louis
28. San Francisco
29. Oakland
30. New York Jets
31. Atlanta
32. Miami
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Jim Tressel's next bee-yotch will be Les Miles
By Rick Morris
Any Michigan fan will tell you that the process of rationalizing losses to Jim Tressel is painful though necessary because of the repetitive nature of those results (every year since 2001 except '03). Fortunately, the Wolverines' leading coaching candidate comes ready to spin any ugly occurrence!
Les Miles actually bragged in a press conference that his team did not lose in regulation this season! Unfortunately, for Coach Les "Results Relative to Talent and Expectations" Miles, the NCAA engages in the goofy habit of counting ALL game results in the won-loss columns -- even the games that stretch into one or more overtime periods. Imagine that!
Buckeye fans probably thought that nobody could be more entertaining-in-a-surly-way in defeat than the departing Coach Lloyd Cooper. But apparently the real comedy will enter the OSU-Michigan rivalry in the coming years when the new whiny underachiever for That School Up North starts dropping his excuses for the continuing domination of The Sweatervest.
Any Michigan fan will tell you that the process of rationalizing losses to Jim Tressel is painful though necessary because of the repetitive nature of those results (every year since 2001 except '03). Fortunately, the Wolverines' leading coaching candidate comes ready to spin any ugly occurrence!
Les Miles actually bragged in a press conference that his team did not lose in regulation this season! Unfortunately, for Coach Les "Results Relative to Talent and Expectations" Miles, the NCAA engages in the goofy habit of counting ALL game results in the won-loss columns -- even the games that stretch into one or more overtime periods. Imagine that!
Buckeye fans probably thought that nobody could be more entertaining-in-a-surly-way in defeat than the departing Coach Lloyd Cooper. But apparently the real comedy will enter the OSU-Michigan rivalry in the coming years when the new whiny underachiever for That School Up North starts dropping his excuses for the continuing domination of The Sweatervest.
Sorry Larry Dolan, facts are facts
By Rick Morris
The success of the Cleveland Indians in 2007 has obscured, in the minds of many, the fact that the organization has put greater emphasis on its bottom line than winning on the field. Fans have waited in vain for the team to make it somewhere into the middle of the bell curve since Mark Shapiro and Company instituted the payroll slash-and-burn in 2002.
We always make mention on FDH programming of the fact that analysts can speak with the most knowledge about situations closest to home. Therefore, I can speak with more authority on Cleveland sports than on any other market because I have observed it up-close my entire life. Nevertheless, it's always nice to be reinforced by something noticed by an observer of the national scene. Such was the case with this column by our friend Russ Cohen of Sportsology. As he notes, the correlation between payroll and World Series titles is undeniably strong. The Tribe obviously has a strong core in place, but as previously noted here, it wasn't nearly strong enough to beat Boston minus a strong overachieving scenario. A few impact moves are still necessary to give this team a legitimate chance at a world championship. The Dolans must change their policy and give the go-ahead for at least a mid-level payroll in order to maintain credibility with non-homers moving into 2008.
The success of the Cleveland Indians in 2007 has obscured, in the minds of many, the fact that the organization has put greater emphasis on its bottom line than winning on the field. Fans have waited in vain for the team to make it somewhere into the middle of the bell curve since Mark Shapiro and Company instituted the payroll slash-and-burn in 2002.
We always make mention on FDH programming of the fact that analysts can speak with the most knowledge about situations closest to home. Therefore, I can speak with more authority on Cleveland sports than on any other market because I have observed it up-close my entire life. Nevertheless, it's always nice to be reinforced by something noticed by an observer of the national scene. Such was the case with this column by our friend Russ Cohen of Sportsology. As he notes, the correlation between payroll and World Series titles is undeniably strong. The Tribe obviously has a strong core in place, but as previously noted here, it wasn't nearly strong enough to beat Boston minus a strong overachieving scenario. A few impact moves are still necessary to give this team a legitimate chance at a world championship. The Dolans must change their policy and give the go-ahead for at least a mid-level payroll in order to maintain credibility with non-homers moving into 2008.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Ron Paul trumps Huckabee on rasslers
By Rick Morris
Forget Nature Boy Ric Flair's endorsement of Mike Huckabee for president. I'm far more impressed with Ron Paul's procurement of the blessing of pro wrestler and onetime horror film star Glen Jacobs (aka Kane). After all, if there's one thing that could trump the comedic value of Naitch doing his "kiss-stealing, wheeling and dealing" schtick in the form of a Huck commercial, it would be the sight of a bald seven-foot guy doing a monster gimmick preaching the gold standard, Austrian economics, the Tenth Amendment and international isolationism -- in a menacing growl, of course!
Forget Nature Boy Ric Flair's endorsement of Mike Huckabee for president. I'm far more impressed with Ron Paul's procurement of the blessing of pro wrestler and onetime horror film star Glen Jacobs (aka Kane). After all, if there's one thing that could trump the comedic value of Naitch doing his "kiss-stealing, wheeling and dealing" schtick in the form of a Huck commercial, it would be the sight of a bald seven-foot guy doing a monster gimmick preaching the gold standard, Austrian economics, the Tenth Amendment and international isolationism -- in a menacing growl, of course!
Many happy (WWE) returns
By Rick Morris
First, in October, it was Shawn Michaels. Then, after a long viral video campaign, last week it was Chris Jericho. Sunday night at Survivor Series it was Edge. Then, last night, it was Ric Flair. In a few weeks, it will be Bobby Lashley.
In each case, "it" is a returning superstar and previous main eventer being counted on to help revive the business. At a time when the WWE is facing Congressional hearings about its sham of a "wellness" program and when it is trying to shake the overall black cloud that has hovered since the Benoit family tragedy of the summer, these stars are being seen internally as key to a hoped-for reversal of fortune. In all likelihood, this is simply an extension of the delusions of grandeur that have persisted since the company self-destructed and killed the last wrestling boom in 2001 with the botched Austin turn and the fizzled Invasion (a missed opportunity that was the biggest self-inflicted wound in the industry's history).
The reason? Simple -- star power counts for nothing if it is not used properly. A sane, focused organization would be staggering these returns, pointing to WrestleMania 24 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando as a culmination of the creative efforts. But in Vinny Mac's world, everything gets hot-shotted immediately and WrestleMania be damned. Apparently the plan will be to scribble the matches on a cocktail napkin in mid-March the same as always instead of employing a several-month build.
Think of the matches we're going to be seeing soon that should be held off for when they could matter much more: Jericho/Orton, Undertaker/Edge, Lashley/Kennedy. The hot-shotting of these returning stars (many of whom are coming back far ahead of the estimated recovery times for their injuries and who may be doing so unwisely) will have a poor effect on the business when the company tries in vain to find them fresh and compelling WrestleMania matches in a few months.
Here's a final bleak thought for those still hoping that the WWE can bring about another boom with business as usual: at the end of RAW on Monday night, WWE Champion Randy Orton was in the ring with Ric Flair. Three autumns ago, Orton was the champion and at odds with Flair and Jericho, albeit in opposite face/heel roles. For the incompetent creative crew employed by the McMahons, truly, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
First, in October, it was Shawn Michaels. Then, after a long viral video campaign, last week it was Chris Jericho. Sunday night at Survivor Series it was Edge. Then, last night, it was Ric Flair. In a few weeks, it will be Bobby Lashley.
In each case, "it" is a returning superstar and previous main eventer being counted on to help revive the business. At a time when the WWE is facing Congressional hearings about its sham of a "wellness" program and when it is trying to shake the overall black cloud that has hovered since the Benoit family tragedy of the summer, these stars are being seen internally as key to a hoped-for reversal of fortune. In all likelihood, this is simply an extension of the delusions of grandeur that have persisted since the company self-destructed and killed the last wrestling boom in 2001 with the botched Austin turn and the fizzled Invasion (a missed opportunity that was the biggest self-inflicted wound in the industry's history).
The reason? Simple -- star power counts for nothing if it is not used properly. A sane, focused organization would be staggering these returns, pointing to WrestleMania 24 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando as a culmination of the creative efforts. But in Vinny Mac's world, everything gets hot-shotted immediately and WrestleMania be damned. Apparently the plan will be to scribble the matches on a cocktail napkin in mid-March the same as always instead of employing a several-month build.
Think of the matches we're going to be seeing soon that should be held off for when they could matter much more: Jericho/Orton, Undertaker/Edge, Lashley/Kennedy. The hot-shotting of these returning stars (many of whom are coming back far ahead of the estimated recovery times for their injuries and who may be doing so unwisely) will have a poor effect on the business when the company tries in vain to find them fresh and compelling WrestleMania matches in a few months.
Here's a final bleak thought for those still hoping that the WWE can bring about another boom with business as usual: at the end of RAW on Monday night, WWE Champion Randy Orton was in the ring with Ric Flair. Three autumns ago, Orton was the champion and at odds with Flair and Jericho, albeit in opposite face/heel roles. For the incompetent creative crew employed by the McMahons, truly, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
RIP Sean Taylor
By Rick Morris
FDH sends its thoughts and prayers to Sean Taylor, his family, friends and teammates.
Honestly, I had two thoughts when I heard about the shooting on Monday morning:
1. Not having heard about Taylor's attitude adjustment in the last year or two, I wondered if this might be connected to consequences about his lifestyle. Having read sorrowful accounts from his teammates about how he had turned his life and attitude around, I feel badly for my thoughts at the time.
2. What was he doing at his Miami home? Even if Joe Gibbs had given the Redskins the day off on Monday, aren't these players supposed to stay at least roughly in the area? I think most people would think it to be awfully lenient for players to travel to the four corners of the earth as long as they were back at practice on Wednesday. I'm not raising this point to blame anyone in the Washington organization, merely to indicate my initial surprise that he could have been so far away from his in-season home at the time of this tragedy.
A subsequent thought that I had was reinforced by this Jemele Hill column on ESPN's Page 2. Now, I should mention right off the bat that Ms. Hill is not generally my cup of tea -- and I'm being restrained in that description because of the serious nature of this column and subject matter. Her style of race-baiting is something I find reprehensible. I agree with my colleague Burrell Jackson when he stated on the last Lounge program that he hates race-baiting from both sides (which is not to suggest that he is going to reciprocally agree with every statement I make here!). But she makes the point in her column that the leading cause of death for black males between the ages of 15 and 24 is homicide. Practitioners of the race card such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton love to point out how blacks are incarcerated in vast disproportion to their representation in the population. But guess what? They also suffer from crime, most definitely including violent crime, in vast disproportion to the population.
As is her wont, Ms. Hill then veers completely off the rails by playing the race card and suggesting that white America is somehow to blame for this, or doesn't care, or whatever her "point" may have been. Of course, the fact that race hustlers like her treat ANY discussion of crime or law and order as a coded appeal to racism undermines her case completely. It's hard to get white America to care about the problem as much as you'd like if you figuratively slap a Klan hood on someone for merely being concerned about crime levels.
Her initial point was right, however. Sean Taylor's murder was part and parcel of a crime virus that is devastating the young black male population. Unlike her, however, I have an idea about how to address it. We will hear much talk in the days, weeks and months to come from pro athletes wanting to make a difference in the aftermath of this tragedy and to try to leverage something good from it. If they simply live up to their social obligations as role models, they'll succeed in doing just that:
^ Those who glorify thug culture (such as Carmelo Anthony participating in a "Stop Snitching" campaign or PacMan Jones with every act of immature entitlement that makes up his pathetic life) should stop immediately.
^ A "Sean Taylor Campaign" to urge legislatures and the judiciary towards concrete steps towards zero tolerance for violent crime would be a fitting tribute.
It's way past time for the richly paid athletes of our society to recognize their responsibilities to the community. Kids idolize them and politicians can be moved by them if they mobilize in the right way. Above all, it's time for some focus. If we get serious about locking up violent criminals, stop thinking that law and order is a bad thing in this country and stop navel-gazing about the percentages of black males in prison, then we can address the point of Jemele Hill and start saving the lives of young black males and everyone for that matter. I should point out that I am in favor of rooting out whatever racial double standards do account for the disproportionate black prison population as I believe in racial fairness across the board. But in general, less sympathy for criminals and more for victims and potential victims is the jolt in the shorts that society needs.
The only way to really honor Sean Taylor is through positive action.
FDH sends its thoughts and prayers to Sean Taylor, his family, friends and teammates.
Honestly, I had two thoughts when I heard about the shooting on Monday morning:
1. Not having heard about Taylor's attitude adjustment in the last year or two, I wondered if this might be connected to consequences about his lifestyle. Having read sorrowful accounts from his teammates about how he had turned his life and attitude around, I feel badly for my thoughts at the time.
2. What was he doing at his Miami home? Even if Joe Gibbs had given the Redskins the day off on Monday, aren't these players supposed to stay at least roughly in the area? I think most people would think it to be awfully lenient for players to travel to the four corners of the earth as long as they were back at practice on Wednesday. I'm not raising this point to blame anyone in the Washington organization, merely to indicate my initial surprise that he could have been so far away from his in-season home at the time of this tragedy.
A subsequent thought that I had was reinforced by this Jemele Hill column on ESPN's Page 2. Now, I should mention right off the bat that Ms. Hill is not generally my cup of tea -- and I'm being restrained in that description because of the serious nature of this column and subject matter. Her style of race-baiting is something I find reprehensible. I agree with my colleague Burrell Jackson when he stated on the last Lounge program that he hates race-baiting from both sides (which is not to suggest that he is going to reciprocally agree with every statement I make here!). But she makes the point in her column that the leading cause of death for black males between the ages of 15 and 24 is homicide. Practitioners of the race card such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton love to point out how blacks are incarcerated in vast disproportion to their representation in the population. But guess what? They also suffer from crime, most definitely including violent crime, in vast disproportion to the population.
As is her wont, Ms. Hill then veers completely off the rails by playing the race card and suggesting that white America is somehow to blame for this, or doesn't care, or whatever her "point" may have been. Of course, the fact that race hustlers like her treat ANY discussion of crime or law and order as a coded appeal to racism undermines her case completely. It's hard to get white America to care about the problem as much as you'd like if you figuratively slap a Klan hood on someone for merely being concerned about crime levels.
Her initial point was right, however. Sean Taylor's murder was part and parcel of a crime virus that is devastating the young black male population. Unlike her, however, I have an idea about how to address it. We will hear much talk in the days, weeks and months to come from pro athletes wanting to make a difference in the aftermath of this tragedy and to try to leverage something good from it. If they simply live up to their social obligations as role models, they'll succeed in doing just that:
^ Those who glorify thug culture (such as Carmelo Anthony participating in a "Stop Snitching" campaign or PacMan Jones with every act of immature entitlement that makes up his pathetic life) should stop immediately.
^ A "Sean Taylor Campaign" to urge legislatures and the judiciary towards concrete steps towards zero tolerance for violent crime would be a fitting tribute.
It's way past time for the richly paid athletes of our society to recognize their responsibilities to the community. Kids idolize them and politicians can be moved by them if they mobilize in the right way. Above all, it's time for some focus. If we get serious about locking up violent criminals, stop thinking that law and order is a bad thing in this country and stop navel-gazing about the percentages of black males in prison, then we can address the point of Jemele Hill and start saving the lives of young black males and everyone for that matter. I should point out that I am in favor of rooting out whatever racial double standards do account for the disproportionate black prison population as I believe in racial fairness across the board. But in general, less sympathy for criminals and more for victims and potential victims is the jolt in the shorts that society needs.
The only way to really honor Sean Taylor is through positive action.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Top college football coaching jobs
By Rick Morris
While watching college football with the family over the holidays, I got into a conversation with my brother about which coaching jobs were on the top tier. We were talking about this because:
A) College football is the only sport my brother follows in-depth (as a Notre Dame grad).
and
B) This topic is really in the news a lot, with openings at (so far) Michigan, Texas A&M and Nebraska.
So here we have for you the FDH Top Two Tiers of College Football Coaching Jobs, each listed alphabetically. To be on the top tier, the program must have great fan interest, the prestige of a long successful history and at least some semblance of recent success (with BCS bowl berths as one determinant). The top tier was a consensus of the opinions of my brother and myself; the second tier I wrote afterwards.
TOP TIER
^ Alabama (barely clinging to their spot on this tier with their troubles of recent years)
^ Florida
^ Florida State (they're down now, but there will be insane interest in the job when the old man leaves)
^ Miami
^ Michigan
^ Nebraska (see Alabama)
^ Notre Dame (as long as they have a network TV deal, they're on this tier regardless of anything else)
^ Ohio State
^ Oklahoma
^ Penn State (see Florida State)
^ Texas
^ USC
SECOND TIER
^ Arkansas (realistically towards the bottom of the tier)
^ Auburn (if Tuberville leaves for A&M, it's a lateral move aside from the money -- see below)
^ Clemson
^ Georgia
^ LSU (at the top of this tier, but no, Delusional Tiger Fan, a half-decade of relative success does not yet erase the last few decades and put you on the top tier!)
^ Michigan State
^ Tennessee
^ Texas A&M
^ West Virginia (stepping up to keep Rich Rodriguez from taking the 'Bama job showed that the program has grown enough financially to justify being rated here)
^ Wisconsin (Barry Alvarez goes down as one of the all-time greats for getting the Badger program to this level)
While watching college football with the family over the holidays, I got into a conversation with my brother about which coaching jobs were on the top tier. We were talking about this because:
A) College football is the only sport my brother follows in-depth (as a Notre Dame grad).
and
B) This topic is really in the news a lot, with openings at (so far) Michigan, Texas A&M and Nebraska.
So here we have for you the FDH Top Two Tiers of College Football Coaching Jobs, each listed alphabetically. To be on the top tier, the program must have great fan interest, the prestige of a long successful history and at least some semblance of recent success (with BCS bowl berths as one determinant). The top tier was a consensus of the opinions of my brother and myself; the second tier I wrote afterwards.
TOP TIER
^ Alabama (barely clinging to their spot on this tier with their troubles of recent years)
^ Florida
^ Florida State (they're down now, but there will be insane interest in the job when the old man leaves)
^ Miami
^ Michigan
^ Nebraska (see Alabama)
^ Notre Dame (as long as they have a network TV deal, they're on this tier regardless of anything else)
^ Ohio State
^ Oklahoma
^ Penn State (see Florida State)
^ Texas
^ USC
SECOND TIER
^ Arkansas (realistically towards the bottom of the tier)
^ Auburn (if Tuberville leaves for A&M, it's a lateral move aside from the money -- see below)
^ Clemson
^ Georgia
^ LSU (at the top of this tier, but no, Delusional Tiger Fan, a half-decade of relative success does not yet erase the last few decades and put you on the top tier!)
^ Michigan State
^ Tennessee
^ Texas A&M
^ West Virginia (stepping up to keep Rich Rodriguez from taking the 'Bama job showed that the program has grown enough financially to justify being rated here)
^ Wisconsin (Barry Alvarez goes down as one of the all-time greats for getting the Badger program to this level)
Friday, November 23, 2007
The real “Black Quarterback Syndrome”
By Rick Morris
The ridiculous heat that Vince Young has taken this week seems to dictate that we spell out for you one more time what really constitutes the “Black Quarterback Syndrome.”
Donovan McNabb implied earlier this year in his crybaby diatribe that black quarterbacks are persecuted more than their white peers and that the racial dynamic involved is just a perpetration of Jim Crow attitudes. Wrong.
Black quarterbacks don’t suffer because of bias against them; they suffer because they are put on too high of a pedestal.
The truism “no man is an island” never seems to be applied to goalies in hockey and quarterbacks in football. Ignorant and emotionally driven fans and analysts refuse to acknowledge the extent to which these players (like everyone else) are dependent on supportive efforts from teammates and coaching philosophies with a chance of success. Goalies Chris Osgood and Curtis Joseph dealt with shameful lack of fan appreciation throughout their tenures in
As such, black quarterbacks are not the only players in sports to suffer scrutiny that may become unfair, although their ups and downs are always considered newsworthy by our modern race-obsessed media. But the predominant reason for their struggles eludes everyone, although the dots are very easy to connect.
We at FDH predicted before the season that Vince Young would have some issues this year with lack of support. Certainly, in a purely statistical sense, we knew that he would not be a great fantasy football value and we had him 14th on our draft board when he showed up 9th on our “experts’ draft board” (an average of other leading industry websites and magazines). The reason?
Arguably the worst wide receiver corps in the league catching his passes.
Sadly, Young fits a pattern in the NFL that stretches back several years. McNabb never had a legitimate #1 wide receiver before Terrell Owens. Mike Vick, although highly inaccurate and a bad citizen, in all fairness had a bunch of scrubs catching his passes. Byron Leftwich never had anyone worth a pitcher of warm spit hauling in his throws after Jimmy Smith retired (although, frankly, that has far more to do with the rank incompetence of the Jacksonville front office when it comes to evaluating wideouts – they have spent high draft picks and free agency money, but they are hopeless in terms of their talent recruitment). Daunte Culpepper never had anyone who wasn’t a waste of protoplasm playing wide receiver with him after Randy Moss left town.
Essentially, because the terms “black quarterback” and “mobile quarterback” have become one and the same in the public mind, and the concept of the mobile quarterback has become revered in the football world, there is the sense that talented black quarterbacks can do no wrong. NFL front offices take this thought process, such as it is, and run with it. Why bother to spend finite resources on great wide receivers, the logic seems to be, when we can put those resources elsewhere and count on our superstar to succeed offensively all by himself?
And this theory gets propagated year in and year out by well-respected and well-paid pro personnel men!
The Vince Young situation is very simple. I’ll break it down for you here. Yes, he may be having some typical second-year issues in which he must counter-adjust to the adjustments that defenses have made to him. But the vast majority of his problems stem from the fact that his wide receiving core is not even Arena League-worthy. Get him some help and he’ll be a top statistical quarterback who makes several Pro Bowls over the course of his career. Leave him with the dregs he’s got now and he’ll continue to be a piñata for uninformed people who want to bury him when he’s got no chance to succeed.
Walk away while you can still walk
By Rick Morris
I’d love to say I’m surprised about this story. I am not, however.
I was very leery of Priest Holmes’ comeback this year because of the circumstances of his injury in 2005. Preliminary doctors’ reports indicated that he would be risking permanent neck damage if he were to come back and get hit again. As is the case with many self-destructive athletes with a sense of denial about their own mortality, he suited up again after sitting out a year.
And now, he has been forced to retire after learning his lesson the hard way.
"The decision to retire came after Holmes suffered three hits in last Sunday's game at Indianapolis that left him with some tingling in his extremities.
Priest Holmes is a class act and was a tremendous player during his prime. He will not be a Hall of Famer because his time as a starter was not nearly long enough, but his most dominant period stands up against anyone’s. I respected him tremendously and still do. And I hoped he’d be smart enough to realize that his health is more important than the game.
He wasn’t.
Hopefully, the damage he sustained recently will not be lasting in nature. And hopefully, others can benefit from his negative example and put their future well-being over one final, futile grasp for glory.
Putin the Czar tries to restart the Cold War
By Rick Morris
As Mad Vlad Putin goes through the motions of the farce called Russian “democracy,” he has demonstrated yet again that his move from president to prime minister will change nothing and he will continue to wield the real power. His latest campaign stunt shows the price the world will pay for the route he has chosen to hang on to power.
The denunciation he made of the West (read:
Putin’s emerging Hitler Youth equivalent has been chronicled here previously and is a vital part of his wicked plan. And the rhetoric about the conspiracies of other nations has been lapped up like vodka by the denizens of this arrogant nation.
If the America-baiting was simply serving as red meat to pacify the people and neutralize internal opposition to the Putin Cult of Personality, it would be bad enough. But Putin is also walking the walk in international affairs, forging agreements with the tyrants of
I will maintain again, though, that the unilateralism of the Bush administration played right into Putin’s hands. Clearly, Putin wanted to go down this path all along, but an American policy of trying to install military bases in former Soviet satellite countries did not help matters. When dealing with an insidious head of state who is acting as a de facto enemy, the
Lllllloyd Carr drives into the sunset
By Rick Morris
Some of the Detroit Red Wings blogs I enjoy reading have a fitting nickname for Detroit Free Press columnist/author/talk show host Mitch Albom: The Delicate Genius. His writing talent and creative abilities are beyond dispute, but he doesn’t have an internal meter to keep his tendencies to become overwrought and maudlin in control. Witness his piece earlier this week bemoaning the circumstances surrounding the departure of
It is quite possible to buy into one of the larger points of Albom’s column: that Carr is a much nicer guy than his gruff public persona would indicate and that he is a rare figure in the sports world with a sense of perspective about the place of his profession. Certainly, Carr’s insight about the worth about sports vis-Ã -vis the rest of the world is refreshing and necessary, especially in a week when a jerk like Nick Saban wallows in self-pity and compares a football loss to 9/11 and
True, Carr’s career coincided with the period in which big money (TV deals, endorsements, sponsorships, alumni organizations, etc.) really ran amok. Point well taken. But to suggest that Carr might be “the last good guy?” What hyperbole. What garbage.
Frankly, one need look no further than
Again, I don’t have a problem with what the main thrust of Albom’s column seems to be. College football has become a lot sillier and more like a circus in the last quarter-century – although some coaches have continued to thrive in this climate without selling their souls. And Carr has probably been one of the good guys in the game and has a record better than many. But Lloyd Carr, when it was all said and done, was unable to be any better or worse than a mirror of what was happening in
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving from the FDH Family
By Rick Morris
On behalf of everyone at FDH, the best from our family to yours this Thanksgiving. We are grateful for much this year (our personal blessings, living in the greatest country in the world, the positive surprises we have received from the Cleveland sports teams many of us root for), but high on the list is the support we have received from the viewers and listeners and now the readers of The FDH Lounge. The show has been a joy for us to produce and we are grateful that it has become one of the most listened-to and viewed on SportsTalkNetwork.com and that this blog has become one of the top one million sites on the Net in its first 90 days of existence according to Alexa traffic numbers. Keep following what we're doing because we're going to continue to get bigger and better each and every day.
On behalf of everyone at FDH, the best from our family to yours this Thanksgiving. We are grateful for much this year (our personal blessings, living in the greatest country in the world, the positive surprises we have received from the Cleveland sports teams many of us root for), but high on the list is the support we have received from the viewers and listeners and now the readers of The FDH Lounge. The show has been a joy for us to produce and we are grateful that it has become one of the most listened-to and viewed on SportsTalkNetwork.com and that this blog has become one of the top one million sites on the Net in its first 90 days of existence according to Alexa traffic numbers. Keep following what we're doing because we're going to continue to get bigger and better each and every day.
NFL power rankings for Week 12
By Rick Morris
MUTANT SUPER-TEAMS
1. New England
VERY GOOD TEAMS CERTAIN TO MAKE PLAYOFFS
2. Dallas
3. Indianapolis (demoted from top tier because of corrosive effects of injuries)
4. Green Bay
5. Jacksonville (wide receivers -- we don't need no stinking wide receivers!!!)
6. Pittsburgh
7. New York Giants (their only losses on the year have been to very good teams)
PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
8. Seattle
9. Tennessee (clean house in the front office if they don't get Vince Young some WRs this offseason!)
10. Tampa Bay
11. Cleveland (defense is apparently overrated!)
12. San Diego (gutless and inconsistent)
13. Denver (see directly above)
14. Washington
15. Arizona
16. Detroit
17. Philadelphia
18. Houston
19. Buffalo
20. New Orleans
21. Chicago
22. Carolina (see Denver and San Diego)
23. Kansas City
24. Baltimore (the schedule will kill them -- and stop crying, Billick!)
THE DREGS
25. Minnesota (quarterback is not an optional position in this here league)
26. Cincinnati
27. New York Jets
28. St. Louis
29. Atlanta
30. Oakland
31. San Francisco (between the NFL slugs and the faltering Cal Golden Bears, the Bay Area is a real hotbed of football these days, eh?)
32. Miami
MUTANT SUPER-TEAMS
1. New England
VERY GOOD TEAMS CERTAIN TO MAKE PLAYOFFS
2. Dallas
3. Indianapolis (demoted from top tier because of corrosive effects of injuries)
4. Green Bay
5. Jacksonville (wide receivers -- we don't need no stinking wide receivers!!!)
6. Pittsburgh
7. New York Giants (their only losses on the year have been to very good teams)
PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
8. Seattle
9. Tennessee (clean house in the front office if they don't get Vince Young some WRs this offseason!)
10. Tampa Bay
11. Cleveland (defense is apparently overrated!)
12. San Diego (gutless and inconsistent)
13. Denver (see directly above)
14. Washington
15. Arizona
16. Detroit
17. Philadelphia
18. Houston
19. Buffalo
20. New Orleans
21. Chicago
22. Carolina (see Denver and San Diego)
23. Kansas City
24. Baltimore (the schedule will kill them -- and stop crying, Billick!)
THE DREGS
25. Minnesota (quarterback is not an optional position in this here league)
26. Cincinnati
27. New York Jets
28. St. Louis
29. Atlanta
30. Oakland
31. San Francisco (between the NFL slugs and the faltering Cal Golden Bears, the Bay Area is a real hotbed of football these days, eh?)
32. Miami
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
For Those Football Fans Who Have the Means...
by Jason Jones
Have you taken the time to realize how far we’ve come, technologically? There once was a time when a married man would have to get up at a decent time and run to Home Depot or replace an axle before getting comfortable in front of the tube for Sunday’s games. Remember when you got the games you got and there was no two ways about it. If you wanted to see Colts v. Patriots but your local affiliate was playing Bills v. Dolphins, you were stuck. What about the announce team. Have you ever felt like CBS or FOX gave you the local high school announcers? How about getting your favorite team regardless of geographical location? Those days, at least for me, are long gone.
Introduce the advent, or at least the internet wide popularity of Fantasy Sports. So much for the early Saturdays spent at the Home Depot shopping for ceiling fans and drywall. That time is reserved for last minute Fantasy Football adjustments. Nowadays pre game analysis is a 4+ hour event. Granted, the analysis is cookie cutter bulls@#t. When you really think about it, the only real difference is that John Madden is not smart enough to disguise his obvious comments as well as ESPN, FOX, and CBS personnel. If you’re anything like me, and fantasy wise not many are, you don’t just have one or two fantasy teams to deal with; you have like 10-20 of them. What can I say? I am a draft whore. So by the time I finally finish investigating ALL of my fantasy teams, the pre game shows are wrapping up. I know this because I tend to finish all of the fantasy preparation about the same time that Frank Caliendo makes fun of Terry Bradshaw and how stupid he is. He also does a killer Jim Rome.
Seems like a good enough morning by the time kickoff comes around, but I have also discovered (a great deal late, mind you) one of technologies best inventions. Edison’s light bulb be damned! It’s not the printing press or even the wheel. And for those who are trying to play spoiler, it’s not even TIVO! It is the Sunday Ticket, and for me I get it from DirecTV. Last season, a colleague of mine who absolutely loves the NFL, looked at me funny when I told him I didn’t have it. “HOW DO YOU LIVE!” Basically, if being a sports fan is a romantic relationship, then NFL Sunday Ticket would be the SEX. Most of you who do not have Sunday Ticket are probably thinking, “big deal, so you get to see all of the games that I don’t care about”. Sure that is a valid point. I did get to see a Peterson-less Minnesota Vikings game or an underwhelming Chargers/Jaguars game. A friend of mine, although a huge Browns fan, he was less than thrilled that he would HAVE TO watch the Browns/Seahawks instead of Colts/Patriots. These are the predicaments you just don’t have with The Ticket. Sure, if that was all it was, I would be enough for me but maybe not for you. Let’s be honest, your cable provider or satellite company don’t just add $5 to your monthly bill. The Ticket is indeed rather expensive. It costs enough that it came down to me deciding between The Ticket or a buffet of tailgate food every week, and I am probably still coming out in the negative. As I said, if that was all, it would be enough for me.
The best part, and for you fantasy fans I hope you are sitting down (I guess it would be weird reading a blog standing up). Especially if you only draft one or two teams. Try to visualize this. With remote in hand, by using a multitude of menu options, a prompt will appear that loosely resembles a small and empty depth chart. No possessions, just empty blocks. There are two of these, aptly named TEAM 1 and TEAM 2. On the left margin is an additional menu with each and every NFL team in alphabetical order. By selecting an NFL team, you will be presented with the option of picking any number of players that correspond to that team. For instance, the Patriots would have: Brady, Moss, Stallworth, Welker, Watson, Maroney, or NE Defense yet players like Assante Samuel or Roosevelt Colvin would not be included. Only players you would universally register as fantasy type players would show up. Let’s get hypothetical. And before you think this team would be impossible, maybe you should be using the FantasyDraftHelp.com method….
QB_Tom Brady
QB_Jon Kitna
RB_Jamal Lewis
RB_Adrian Peterson
WR_Randy Moss
WR_Terrell Owens
WR_Braylon Edwards
TE_Kellen Winslow
K__Shayne Graham
D__Pittsburgh
Had that been your team, and this is the best part. Again as odd as it may sound, please remain seated. Your television gives you up to the minute statistical updates in a sports ticker fashion... Just imagine it. You’re watching the Browns/Ravens game and all of a sudden across the bottom of the screen reads: “TEAM 1, Tom Brady completes a 42 yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss with 4:23 left in the 2nd quarter”. Then 3 minutes later, Shayne Graham field goal attempt is good from 43 yards away. Simultaneously, Derek Anderson connects with Kellen Winslow on a 13 yard pass with 0:16 left in regulation. Have you soiled you drawers yet? Now keep in mind, you get two full rosters. Unlimited position eligibility. If you want 5 QB’s, 1 RB, 3 TE’s, and no WR’s…you can do that. I personally just went through and put in the most commonly owned players for my personal fantasy teams. If the ticker concept isn’t enough to sell you on the importance of watching the NFL this way for the rest of your natural life, there is always the TEAM SCORING. That’s right, by pressing the corresponding colored menu button, your entire roster shows up while the game you are currently watching is in split screen fashion. This will allow you to not only see TD’s, but also carries, pass attempts/completions, INT’s, receptions, etc. You can watch every game (or at least whatever game you choose to watch), with regional pre game shows, and up to the minute fantasy scoring updates that you decide based on players that you care about. So, I reiterate, The NFL Sunday Ticket is the greatest invention in the history of Technology.
Even at this age, my mother often says, “what would you do if you didn’t have the internet or cable”? I present, “how do you live without THE TICKET”? Naturally, the obvious answer is, “The Money”. I acknowledge that the price is something that must be addressed. It really is worth budgeting for. How much do you spend on shoes, suits, food, etc? As a sports fan, I encourage everyone to re-evaluate your budget. The NFL Sunday Ticket will in fact change your Sunday, in an ecstatically positive light. Maybe someday, this will be the only way to watch football. Until then, it is an expense I have no gripes about paying for.
Have you taken the time to realize how far we’ve come, technologically? There once was a time when a married man would have to get up at a decent time and run to Home Depot or replace an axle before getting comfortable in front of the tube for Sunday’s games. Remember when you got the games you got and there was no two ways about it. If you wanted to see Colts v. Patriots but your local affiliate was playing Bills v. Dolphins, you were stuck. What about the announce team. Have you ever felt like CBS or FOX gave you the local high school announcers? How about getting your favorite team regardless of geographical location? Those days, at least for me, are long gone.
Introduce the advent, or at least the internet wide popularity of Fantasy Sports. So much for the early Saturdays spent at the Home Depot shopping for ceiling fans and drywall. That time is reserved for last minute Fantasy Football adjustments. Nowadays pre game analysis is a 4+ hour event. Granted, the analysis is cookie cutter bulls@#t. When you really think about it, the only real difference is that John Madden is not smart enough to disguise his obvious comments as well as ESPN, FOX, and CBS personnel. If you’re anything like me, and fantasy wise not many are, you don’t just have one or two fantasy teams to deal with; you have like 10-20 of them. What can I say? I am a draft whore. So by the time I finally finish investigating ALL of my fantasy teams, the pre game shows are wrapping up. I know this because I tend to finish all of the fantasy preparation about the same time that Frank Caliendo makes fun of Terry Bradshaw and how stupid he is. He also does a killer Jim Rome.
Seems like a good enough morning by the time kickoff comes around, but I have also discovered (a great deal late, mind you) one of technologies best inventions. Edison’s light bulb be damned! It’s not the printing press or even the wheel. And for those who are trying to play spoiler, it’s not even TIVO! It is the Sunday Ticket, and for me I get it from DirecTV. Last season, a colleague of mine who absolutely loves the NFL, looked at me funny when I told him I didn’t have it. “HOW DO YOU LIVE!” Basically, if being a sports fan is a romantic relationship, then NFL Sunday Ticket would be the SEX. Most of you who do not have Sunday Ticket are probably thinking, “big deal, so you get to see all of the games that I don’t care about”. Sure that is a valid point. I did get to see a Peterson-less Minnesota Vikings game or an underwhelming Chargers/Jaguars game. A friend of mine, although a huge Browns fan, he was less than thrilled that he would HAVE TO watch the Browns/Seahawks instead of Colts/Patriots. These are the predicaments you just don’t have with The Ticket. Sure, if that was all it was, I would be enough for me but maybe not for you. Let’s be honest, your cable provider or satellite company don’t just add $5 to your monthly bill. The Ticket is indeed rather expensive. It costs enough that it came down to me deciding between The Ticket or a buffet of tailgate food every week, and I am probably still coming out in the negative. As I said, if that was all, it would be enough for me.
The best part, and for you fantasy fans I hope you are sitting down (I guess it would be weird reading a blog standing up). Especially if you only draft one or two teams. Try to visualize this. With remote in hand, by using a multitude of menu options, a prompt will appear that loosely resembles a small and empty depth chart. No possessions, just empty blocks. There are two of these, aptly named TEAM 1 and TEAM 2. On the left margin is an additional menu with each and every NFL team in alphabetical order. By selecting an NFL team, you will be presented with the option of picking any number of players that correspond to that team. For instance, the Patriots would have: Brady, Moss, Stallworth, Welker, Watson, Maroney, or NE Defense yet players like Assante Samuel or Roosevelt Colvin would not be included. Only players you would universally register as fantasy type players would show up. Let’s get hypothetical. And before you think this team would be impossible, maybe you should be using the FantasyDraftHelp.com method….
QB_Tom Brady
QB_Jon Kitna
RB_Jamal Lewis
RB_Adrian Peterson
WR_Randy Moss
WR_Terrell Owens
WR_Braylon Edwards
TE_Kellen Winslow
K__Shayne Graham
D__Pittsburgh
Had that been your team, and this is the best part. Again as odd as it may sound, please remain seated. Your television gives you up to the minute statistical updates in a sports ticker fashion... Just imagine it. You’re watching the Browns/Ravens game and all of a sudden across the bottom of the screen reads: “TEAM 1, Tom Brady completes a 42 yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss with 4:23 left in the 2nd quarter”. Then 3 minutes later, Shayne Graham field goal attempt is good from 43 yards away. Simultaneously, Derek Anderson connects with Kellen Winslow on a 13 yard pass with 0:16 left in regulation. Have you soiled you drawers yet? Now keep in mind, you get two full rosters. Unlimited position eligibility. If you want 5 QB’s, 1 RB, 3 TE’s, and no WR’s…you can do that. I personally just went through and put in the most commonly owned players for my personal fantasy teams. If the ticker concept isn’t enough to sell you on the importance of watching the NFL this way for the rest of your natural life, there is always the TEAM SCORING. That’s right, by pressing the corresponding colored menu button, your entire roster shows up while the game you are currently watching is in split screen fashion. This will allow you to not only see TD’s, but also carries, pass attempts/completions, INT’s, receptions, etc. You can watch every game (or at least whatever game you choose to watch), with regional pre game shows, and up to the minute fantasy scoring updates that you decide based on players that you care about. So, I reiterate, The NFL Sunday Ticket is the greatest invention in the history of Technology.
Even at this age, my mother often says, “what would you do if you didn’t have the internet or cable”? I present, “how do you live without THE TICKET”? Naturally, the obvious answer is, “The Money”. I acknowledge that the price is something that must be addressed. It really is worth budgeting for. How much do you spend on shoes, suits, food, etc? As a sports fan, I encourage everyone to re-evaluate your budget. The NFL Sunday Ticket will in fact change your Sunday, in an ecstatically positive light. Maybe someday, this will be the only way to watch football. Until then, it is an expense I have no gripes about paying for.
Monday, November 19, 2007
When Is It Too Early To Believe?
by Jason Jones
Every real football fan lives and dies with almost every possession; offensive or defensive. With some exception, this season is no different. If for only one season, 2007 will be revered as the season that redefined the word parity. Naturally, we could not get through a season without a couple of favorites on cruise control by week 11. Logically, we could never get through a season without eventually looking back and saying, “Yep, coulda seen that one coming”. We will illustrate that as we move through the current rankings (note: MNF has not been played, thus two teams will have a lower win/loss total). The bold print identifies a better record than expected while italics identifies a worse record than expected.
TIER ONE:
1___New England Patriots__10-0_411 Pts Scored_____157 Pts Allowed
2___Dallas Cowboys_______9-1_324 Pts Scored_____218 Pts Allowed
3___Green Bay Packers_____9-1_259 Pts Scored_____159 Pts Allowed
4___Indianapolis Colts______8-2_278 Pts Scored_____159 Pts Allowed
TIER TWO:
5___Pittsburgh Steelers_____7-3_269 Pts Scored_____145 Pts Allowed
6___Jacksonville Jaguars____7-3_207 Pts Scored_____181 Pts Allowed
7___NY Giants___________7-3_236 Pts Scored_____200 Pts Allowed
TIER THREE:
8___Cleveland Browns______6-4_288 Pts- Scored_____294 Pts Allowed
9___Detroit Lions__________6-4_231 Pts Scored_____232 Pts Allowed
10__Seattle Seahawks_______6-4_221 Pts Scored_____164 Pts Allowed
11__Tampa Bay Buccaneers___6-4_195 Pts Scored_____151 Pts Allowed
12__Tennessee Titans_______6-3_178 Pts Scored_____152 Pts Allowed
TIER FOUR:
13__San Diego Chargers______5-5_229 Pts Scored_____209 Pts Allowed
14__Houston Texans________5-5_226 Pts Scored_____236 Pts Allowed
15__Arizona Cardinals_______5-5_223 Pts Scored_____222 Pts Allowed
16__Philadelphia Eagles______5-5_206 Pts Scored_____187 Pts Allowed
17__Washington Redskins_____5-5_200 Pts Scored_____221 Pts Allowed
18__Buffalo Bills____________5-5_153 Pts Scored_____222 Pts Allowed
TIER FIVE:
19__Denver Broncos_________4-5_153 Pts Scored_____238 Pts Allowed
20__New Orleans Saints______4-6_212 Pts Scored_____246 Pts Allowed
21__Minnesota Vikings_______4-6_195 Pts Scored_____210 Pts Allowed
22__Chicago Bears__________4-6_184 Pts Scored_____217 Pts Allowed
23__Baltimore Ravens_______4-6_168 Pts Scored_____211 Pts Allowed
24__Carolina Panthers_______4-6_167 Pts Scored_____212 Pts Allowed
25__Kansas City Chiefs_______4-6_145 Pts Scored_____186 Pts Allowed
TIER SIX:
26__Cincinnati Bengals_______3-7_246 Pts Scored_____286 Pts Allowed
27__Atlanta Falcons_________3-7_142 Pts Scored_____213 Pts Allowed
28__Oakland Raiders________2-8_180 Pts Scored_____223 Pts Allowed
29__NY Jets______________2-8_178 Pts Scored_____244 Pts Allowed
30__St. Louis Rams_________2-8_149 Pts Scored_____257 Pts Allowed
31__San Francisco 49ers______2-8_113 Pts Scored_____223 Pts Allowed
TIER SEVEN:
32__Miami Dolphins_________0-10_183 Pts Scored_____274 Pts Allowed
The previous was determined by record first then team +/-. Naturally, this is not how things would look if the regular season ended today. Divisions and placement would not permit it. So as we’ve already done by record, let’s see what the playoff landscape would look like if the season were only 10 games long. (And no crying and/or excuses from Mercury Morris, PLEASE!!!)
AFC Playoff Rankings
1_____New England Patriots______1st Rd Bye
2_____Indianapolis Colts_________1st Rd Bye
3_____Pittsburgh Steelers_________vs CLE
4_____San Diego Chargers________vs JAX
5_____Jacksonville Jaguars________vs SD
6_____Cleveland Browns_________vs PIT
NFC Playoff Rankings
1_____Dallas Cowboys__________1st Rd Bye
2_____Green Bay Packers________1st Rd Bye
3_____Seattle Seahawks__________vs DET
4_____Tampa Bay Buccaneers_____vs NYG
5_____New York Giants__________vs TB
6_____Detroit Lions_____________vs SEA
Clearly the AFC is a stronger conference, the Western Conference from the NBA, if you will. Most of the NFL watching world would have put NE and IND straight through to the AFC championship game, which with the exception of one hiccup by Indy, seems logically on track. With the underwhelming play of the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, it seems pretty straight forward to see the Pittsburgh Steelers at the top spot in the AFC North and third overall in record. Now clearly, San Diego is only here because every division MUST be represented. Maybe its because LaDanian Tomlinson has donned a new face mask that looks like something out of a Predator movie, or maybe if A.J. Smith would have listened to the advice from FantasyDraftHelp.com and drafted a top flight WR and not a #2, then its possible there place in this ranking could’ve been better. Jacksonville is that one team that you find in every season, often that team is consistently Jacksonville, who makes it into the playoffs and no one really knows why. C’mon, I know Defense wins championships, but how many Baltimore Ravens circa 2000 can we stomach? The Cleveland Browns are probably the most intriguing addition to this piece. Due to the fact they are my team we will revisit them later. Clearly the anti-Jaguar team of the AFC. With the exception of NE, Cleveland on an average day this season can keep pace with any AFC team on offense. However, they couldn’t keep the Little Giants (starring Rick Moranis and Ed O’Neil) from looking like Jim Brown and Walter Payton running behind the 1990’s Cowboy offensive line.
The NFC is not so gleaming with intrigue. The Dallas Cowboys are exactly what we say in week 1 and 2. What a difference a season without Bill Parcells will do to a team morale and performance. Maybe there was something to Julius Jones’ comments following Parcells departure from the team in the off season. The Packers may be the biggest surprise in all of the NFL this season. Apparently, there IS an NBA moniker that applies to an NFL team…”Never underestimate the impact of one elite player to a teams win total” (Kobe-Lakers, Lebron-Cavs, Garnett-Timberwolves). You can add Brett “Fah-vuh-ruh” Favre. No running game, a bunch of marginal to lame WR’s and a young and quickly developing defense. Not exactly a recipe for a title, but nine wins is nice, regardless. Seattle and Tampa Bay are in the Chargers category. Someone from each division must be represented. Tampa and Seattle are middle of the road teams. Tampa is a former power with an old defense and no legitimate offensive studs (at least the ones that make it through the duration of a season). Seattle is a team on the brink of rebuilding. Alexander has seen his best days, Hasselback is good, the stellar offensive line has been depleted, the WR core is a collection of # 2 and 3 receivers, and the defense is better than average. The Giants have improved themselves in record without changing much of the roster. The 32nd ranked pass defense is improved, but only because Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and the Giants pass rush won’t give a quarterback more than two seconds flat to throw. The Detroit Lions are the Browns of the AFC, a team perpetually in the cellar of the league since their previous golden age ended…ages ago. For Cleveland it was the mid to late 1980’s, for the Lions it was any season with Barry Sanders. Both have enjoyed an offensive explosion. Offensively, Detroit has always had the potential to be scary, defense not so much. The defense is ranked in the top 5 currently. Maybe now, they have the right combination of WR’s and can draft a different position in the first round. Or maybe, it has everything to do with Jon Kitna proclaiming they would win AT LEAST TEN GAMES.
As in many of my entries, a lot of numbers and facts to turn and focus on a smaller detail. Now if you are reading this and are a Patriot, Colts, or Cowboy fan then you won’t be able to relate the rest of this entry. If you are a fan of a team who is doing well this year and generally do, then you have been reading for no other reason than to re-affirm what you already know. For the rest of us, parody in the NFL means the flat line moment is still far away. As a fan of a team who almost never enjoys success as the average non regional fan would describe it, it is AMAZING to be note worthy. Leading off SportsCenter, being in top plays, having more than one player worthy of a Pro Bowl selection, and of course having more wins than losses are all reasons to be happy. If I just described your team then the rest of this is for you. Is a .500 season reason enough to dance in the streets and proclaim a good season? Are you excited if your team “has not been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs” by week 9? Are moral victories the only measuring stick once you realized no one fears your team? Is your team almost always 3 or 4 years away? Does the ball always seem to bounce in the other teams favor? Do you find yourself sitting through 55 minutes of 2+ minute highlights of all of the other team’s performance only to get a box score of your team in the waning seconds of the show? Does it ever feel like your team is IN the league but not PART OF the league? If so, then you understand my enthusiasm for this concept of parity. I have no idea what Patriots fans, Cowboys fans, Chargers fans, Colts fans, Steelers fans, Rams fans, Packers fans, or 49ers fans feel like today. Whether their team has done well or not so well this season, I have no clue what they are going through. I once heard a caller to a St. Louis radio show comment on how, “if things continue on this path, we might not get to another Super Bowl for a decade. Do you realize it’s almost been 10 years since we were in a Super Bowl?” I’m sorry I do not know how that feels. That guy probably committed suicide. I bet his wife left him and his sons grew up a little fruity because his team hasn’t been there in almost 10 years. That must be an unreasonable way to live. Maybe this will help ease the sorrows of a person like that. The last time my team made it to a Championship game, my mother was 7 years away from a driver’s license. Oh and here’s the kicker, it was so long ago it wasn’t even called the Super Bowl. So, I’m sorry if I don’t cry a river for New England, Dallas, San Francisco, or Pittsburgh when they finish a season without hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
This season has been all about Parity. Look, I am in no way, shape, or form a Patriot fan. Before the season started, I had been quoted numerous times as saying, “the commissioner might as well have the trophy engraved to the Patriots before we even get started”. My only hope for them is to go undefeated and consequently shut Mercury Morris and the other demonic ’72 Miami Dolphins the F@#K up. The Colts are a nice franchise, like the face of the team Peyton Manning; the Colts just don’t rub me the wrong way. They win, it’s a good thing, I don’t root for them and I don’t root against them. I hated Dallas in the 90’s, but now they are just nice to watch. F@#K Pittsburgh. Maybe some day, Eli will throw from somewhere other than Peyton’s shadow. For those teams nothing is really all that crazy. For those teams the mean is within their grasp, whether they need to regress or progress to the mean, they are close. Even Green Bay, who is having a phenomenal turnaround from the previous two or three seasons, is not that far removed from elite status. The teams I am truly talking to are the Lions, Bills and Browns. The teams whose players and fans alike are in unchartered waters. The teams who are supposed to be a few years away. The teams who, if a player guaranteed double digit wins, said player would be laughed at relentlessly. The key here is whether the league is truly becoming more and more balanced and parity-filled or if this is just one of those adorations of Sports Law, either way we need to enjoy it. All of my friends and family, who are not avid sports fans, know on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday whether or not my favorite team won or lost. Let’s just say this year has only really provided me with 2 or 3 bad Mondays. This is what sports fans wish for each and every snap. People who are fans of prolific winners may ask why do follow a team that is that bad? This is what the correct answer of that question is. Familiarity breeds contentment. I guarantee, if there were a way to measure this, that a Lion/Bills/Browns fan would enjoy a Super Bowl champion exponentially more so than that of a team who has been there recently. That is no exaggeration….EXPONENTIALLY. I once asked an Eagle fan, if your team went 11-5 in the regular season and locked up a first round bye, what would it be like in the streets of Philadelphia? His response was if two strangers passed wearing Eagles gear they might give the man head nod. At the most, there might be an extended sports segment on the local news. When he inquired what would happen in the city of my team had the same win/loss result occurred, I responded…From non fans to die-hard’s, it would be pandemonium. People would mortgage their homes for playoff tickets. The entire month of December would probably be declared a holiday by the mayor. People wearing the team’s colors would get in free to any place that charges admission. No doubt, there would be car fires, streakers, dancing in the streets, anarchy, and random good deeds by strangers from Carnegie to Lakeside and all the way up and down E. 9th St. That’s the difference.
If you own a Sports Illustrated special hard-bound commemorative issue with your favorite team raising the Lombardi trophy. If you were old enough to drink that last time your team was crowned champion. If you get upset when your team doesn’t win 10+ games, then you go on and enjoy your team’s playoff run. Continue enjoying it as much as winning a hand during a friendly game of poker on boy’s night. If things continue on and teams like the Patriots and Steelers or Cowboys and Packers end up losing during the playoffs you may just be privileged enough to see what a true celebration looks like. I wish a first or second seed team would overlook a wild card team this season. I wish a mother!@#$er would. As much of a travesty it may be for the Super Bowl to not consist of the Patriots v. Cowboys, a Browns v. Lions Super Bowl would be a spectacle of the likes none of us have ever seen. The game could be played in Lawrence, Kansas in the middle of a dust storm and it would still probably be most intense, courageous, and memorable Super Bowl of all time to date. The NFL is the best professional sports league there is, partially due to the parity we’ve been discussing. Partially due to the devotion of its fans or maybe it’s something else completely. Maybe it’s because an old placekicker can hold up an entire city on his shoulders following the most twisted finish to a game ever. Maybe it's watching a rookie running back break an all-time, single-game record. It could be any combination of things. All I know is that as it nears a quarter to 4 am on a Monday morning, and I finish my last adult beverage of the day (and following morning) I have one thing to say. If you are a player, owner, coach, or even fan of the kind of team I have been speaking of…..I SALUTE YOU.
One final thought. A guideline for sanity as it pertains to me, personally. When you are a fan of team deemed not to be “not worth mentioning”, you deal with one shot after another. One disappointment after another. One depressing loss after another. There is only so much a person can take. I always tell myself and others who feel similar to the way I do for their respective team, every bad play, every wrong call, every turnover, every bad thing that happens to contribute to bad play and/or losses…tuck that away. Log it into your memory. Acknowledge it and never forget it. When the pendulum swings back in your favor, and it eventually has to do just that, then and only then will it be worth the wait. Regardless of what happens after this day, the parity of the NFL has reached more teams/fans than it has in quite some time. No longer is parity only between the elite and consistently good teams. Finally, the guys who always seem to be on the outside looking in are forcing their way into the exclusive club with the velvet ropes. And the view is glorious. If your team is in the hunt, enjoy it. Just understand one thing, no matter how you think you feel, there is somebody somewhere who wants it more than you. So cherish the ride.
Every real football fan lives and dies with almost every possession; offensive or defensive. With some exception, this season is no different. If for only one season, 2007 will be revered as the season that redefined the word parity. Naturally, we could not get through a season without a couple of favorites on cruise control by week 11. Logically, we could never get through a season without eventually looking back and saying, “Yep, coulda seen that one coming”. We will illustrate that as we move through the current rankings (note: MNF has not been played, thus two teams will have a lower win/loss total). The bold print identifies a better record than expected while italics identifies a worse record than expected.
TIER ONE:
1___New England Patriots__10-0_411 Pts Scored_____157 Pts Allowed
2___Dallas Cowboys_______9-1_324 Pts Scored_____218 Pts Allowed
3___Green Bay Packers_____9-1_259 Pts Scored_____159 Pts Allowed
4___Indianapolis Colts______8-2_278 Pts Scored_____159 Pts Allowed
TIER TWO:
5___Pittsburgh Steelers_____7-3_269 Pts Scored_____145 Pts Allowed
6___Jacksonville Jaguars____7-3_207 Pts Scored_____181 Pts Allowed
7___NY Giants___________7-3_236 Pts Scored_____200 Pts Allowed
TIER THREE:
8___Cleveland Browns______6-4_288 Pts- Scored_____294 Pts Allowed
9___Detroit Lions__________6-4_231 Pts Scored_____232 Pts Allowed
10__Seattle Seahawks_______6-4_221 Pts Scored_____164 Pts Allowed
11__Tampa Bay Buccaneers___6-4_195 Pts Scored_____151 Pts Allowed
12__Tennessee Titans_______6-3_178 Pts Scored_____152 Pts Allowed
TIER FOUR:
13__San Diego Chargers______5-5_229 Pts Scored_____209 Pts Allowed
14__Houston Texans________5-5_226 Pts Scored_____236 Pts Allowed
15__Arizona Cardinals_______5-5_223 Pts Scored_____222 Pts Allowed
16__Philadelphia Eagles______5-5_206 Pts Scored_____187 Pts Allowed
17__Washington Redskins_____5-5_200 Pts Scored_____221 Pts Allowed
18__Buffalo Bills____________5-5_153 Pts Scored_____222 Pts Allowed
TIER FIVE:
19__Denver Broncos_________4-5_153 Pts Scored_____238 Pts Allowed
20__New Orleans Saints______4-6_212 Pts Scored_____246 Pts Allowed
21__Minnesota Vikings_______4-6_195 Pts Scored_____210 Pts Allowed
22__Chicago Bears__________4-6_184 Pts Scored_____217 Pts Allowed
23__Baltimore Ravens_______4-6_168 Pts Scored_____211 Pts Allowed
24__Carolina Panthers_______4-6_167 Pts Scored_____212 Pts Allowed
25__Kansas City Chiefs_______4-6_145 Pts Scored_____186 Pts Allowed
TIER SIX:
26__Cincinnati Bengals_______3-7_246 Pts Scored_____286 Pts Allowed
27__Atlanta Falcons_________3-7_142 Pts Scored_____213 Pts Allowed
28__Oakland Raiders________2-8_180 Pts Scored_____223 Pts Allowed
29__NY Jets______________2-8_178 Pts Scored_____244 Pts Allowed
30__St. Louis Rams_________2-8_149 Pts Scored_____257 Pts Allowed
31__San Francisco 49ers______2-8_113 Pts Scored_____223 Pts Allowed
TIER SEVEN:
32__Miami Dolphins_________0-10_183 Pts Scored_____274 Pts Allowed
The previous was determined by record first then team +/-. Naturally, this is not how things would look if the regular season ended today. Divisions and placement would not permit it. So as we’ve already done by record, let’s see what the playoff landscape would look like if the season were only 10 games long. (And no crying and/or excuses from Mercury Morris, PLEASE!!!)
AFC Playoff Rankings
1_____New England Patriots______1st Rd Bye
2_____Indianapolis Colts_________1st Rd Bye
3_____Pittsburgh Steelers_________vs CLE
4_____San Diego Chargers________vs JAX
5_____Jacksonville Jaguars________vs SD
6_____Cleveland Browns_________vs PIT
NFC Playoff Rankings
1_____Dallas Cowboys__________1st Rd Bye
2_____Green Bay Packers________1st Rd Bye
3_____Seattle Seahawks__________vs DET
4_____Tampa Bay Buccaneers_____vs NYG
5_____New York Giants__________vs TB
6_____Detroit Lions_____________vs SEA
Clearly the AFC is a stronger conference, the Western Conference from the NBA, if you will. Most of the NFL watching world would have put NE and IND straight through to the AFC championship game, which with the exception of one hiccup by Indy, seems logically on track. With the underwhelming play of the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, it seems pretty straight forward to see the Pittsburgh Steelers at the top spot in the AFC North and third overall in record. Now clearly, San Diego is only here because every division MUST be represented. Maybe its because LaDanian Tomlinson has donned a new face mask that looks like something out of a Predator movie, or maybe if A.J. Smith would have listened to the advice from FantasyDraftHelp.com and drafted a top flight WR and not a #2, then its possible there place in this ranking could’ve been better. Jacksonville is that one team that you find in every season, often that team is consistently Jacksonville, who makes it into the playoffs and no one really knows why. C’mon, I know Defense wins championships, but how many Baltimore Ravens circa 2000 can we stomach? The Cleveland Browns are probably the most intriguing addition to this piece. Due to the fact they are my team we will revisit them later. Clearly the anti-Jaguar team of the AFC. With the exception of NE, Cleveland on an average day this season can keep pace with any AFC team on offense. However, they couldn’t keep the Little Giants (starring Rick Moranis and Ed O’Neil) from looking like Jim Brown and Walter Payton running behind the 1990’s Cowboy offensive line.
The NFC is not so gleaming with intrigue. The Dallas Cowboys are exactly what we say in week 1 and 2. What a difference a season without Bill Parcells will do to a team morale and performance. Maybe there was something to Julius Jones’ comments following Parcells departure from the team in the off season. The Packers may be the biggest surprise in all of the NFL this season. Apparently, there IS an NBA moniker that applies to an NFL team…”Never underestimate the impact of one elite player to a teams win total” (Kobe-Lakers, Lebron-Cavs, Garnett-Timberwolves). You can add Brett “Fah-vuh-ruh” Favre. No running game, a bunch of marginal to lame WR’s and a young and quickly developing defense. Not exactly a recipe for a title, but nine wins is nice, regardless. Seattle and Tampa Bay are in the Chargers category. Someone from each division must be represented. Tampa and Seattle are middle of the road teams. Tampa is a former power with an old defense and no legitimate offensive studs (at least the ones that make it through the duration of a season). Seattle is a team on the brink of rebuilding. Alexander has seen his best days, Hasselback is good, the stellar offensive line has been depleted, the WR core is a collection of # 2 and 3 receivers, and the defense is better than average. The Giants have improved themselves in record without changing much of the roster. The 32nd ranked pass defense is improved, but only because Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and the Giants pass rush won’t give a quarterback more than two seconds flat to throw. The Detroit Lions are the Browns of the AFC, a team perpetually in the cellar of the league since their previous golden age ended…ages ago. For Cleveland it was the mid to late 1980’s, for the Lions it was any season with Barry Sanders. Both have enjoyed an offensive explosion. Offensively, Detroit has always had the potential to be scary, defense not so much. The defense is ranked in the top 5 currently. Maybe now, they have the right combination of WR’s and can draft a different position in the first round. Or maybe, it has everything to do with Jon Kitna proclaiming they would win AT LEAST TEN GAMES.
As in many of my entries, a lot of numbers and facts to turn and focus on a smaller detail. Now if you are reading this and are a Patriot, Colts, or Cowboy fan then you won’t be able to relate the rest of this entry. If you are a fan of a team who is doing well this year and generally do, then you have been reading for no other reason than to re-affirm what you already know. For the rest of us, parody in the NFL means the flat line moment is still far away. As a fan of a team who almost never enjoys success as the average non regional fan would describe it, it is AMAZING to be note worthy. Leading off SportsCenter, being in top plays, having more than one player worthy of a Pro Bowl selection, and of course having more wins than losses are all reasons to be happy. If I just described your team then the rest of this is for you. Is a .500 season reason enough to dance in the streets and proclaim a good season? Are you excited if your team “has not been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs” by week 9? Are moral victories the only measuring stick once you realized no one fears your team? Is your team almost always 3 or 4 years away? Does the ball always seem to bounce in the other teams favor? Do you find yourself sitting through 55 minutes of 2+ minute highlights of all of the other team’s performance only to get a box score of your team in the waning seconds of the show? Does it ever feel like your team is IN the league but not PART OF the league? If so, then you understand my enthusiasm for this concept of parity. I have no idea what Patriots fans, Cowboys fans, Chargers fans, Colts fans, Steelers fans, Rams fans, Packers fans, or 49ers fans feel like today. Whether their team has done well or not so well this season, I have no clue what they are going through. I once heard a caller to a St. Louis radio show comment on how, “if things continue on this path, we might not get to another Super Bowl for a decade. Do you realize it’s almost been 10 years since we were in a Super Bowl?” I’m sorry I do not know how that feels. That guy probably committed suicide. I bet his wife left him and his sons grew up a little fruity because his team hasn’t been there in almost 10 years. That must be an unreasonable way to live. Maybe this will help ease the sorrows of a person like that. The last time my team made it to a Championship game, my mother was 7 years away from a driver’s license. Oh and here’s the kicker, it was so long ago it wasn’t even called the Super Bowl. So, I’m sorry if I don’t cry a river for New England, Dallas, San Francisco, or Pittsburgh when they finish a season without hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
This season has been all about Parity. Look, I am in no way, shape, or form a Patriot fan. Before the season started, I had been quoted numerous times as saying, “the commissioner might as well have the trophy engraved to the Patriots before we even get started”. My only hope for them is to go undefeated and consequently shut Mercury Morris and the other demonic ’72 Miami Dolphins the F@#K up. The Colts are a nice franchise, like the face of the team Peyton Manning; the Colts just don’t rub me the wrong way. They win, it’s a good thing, I don’t root for them and I don’t root against them. I hated Dallas in the 90’s, but now they are just nice to watch. F@#K Pittsburgh. Maybe some day, Eli will throw from somewhere other than Peyton’s shadow. For those teams nothing is really all that crazy. For those teams the mean is within their grasp, whether they need to regress or progress to the mean, they are close. Even Green Bay, who is having a phenomenal turnaround from the previous two or three seasons, is not that far removed from elite status. The teams I am truly talking to are the Lions, Bills and Browns. The teams whose players and fans alike are in unchartered waters. The teams who are supposed to be a few years away. The teams who, if a player guaranteed double digit wins, said player would be laughed at relentlessly. The key here is whether the league is truly becoming more and more balanced and parity-filled or if this is just one of those adorations of Sports Law, either way we need to enjoy it. All of my friends and family, who are not avid sports fans, know on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday whether or not my favorite team won or lost. Let’s just say this year has only really provided me with 2 or 3 bad Mondays. This is what sports fans wish for each and every snap. People who are fans of prolific winners may ask why do follow a team that is that bad? This is what the correct answer of that question is. Familiarity breeds contentment. I guarantee, if there were a way to measure this, that a Lion/Bills/Browns fan would enjoy a Super Bowl champion exponentially more so than that of a team who has been there recently. That is no exaggeration….EXPONENTIALLY. I once asked an Eagle fan, if your team went 11-5 in the regular season and locked up a first round bye, what would it be like in the streets of Philadelphia? His response was if two strangers passed wearing Eagles gear they might give the man head nod. At the most, there might be an extended sports segment on the local news. When he inquired what would happen in the city of my team had the same win/loss result occurred, I responded…From non fans to die-hard’s, it would be pandemonium. People would mortgage their homes for playoff tickets. The entire month of December would probably be declared a holiday by the mayor. People wearing the team’s colors would get in free to any place that charges admission. No doubt, there would be car fires, streakers, dancing in the streets, anarchy, and random good deeds by strangers from Carnegie to Lakeside and all the way up and down E. 9th St. That’s the difference.
If you own a Sports Illustrated special hard-bound commemorative issue with your favorite team raising the Lombardi trophy. If you were old enough to drink that last time your team was crowned champion. If you get upset when your team doesn’t win 10+ games, then you go on and enjoy your team’s playoff run. Continue enjoying it as much as winning a hand during a friendly game of poker on boy’s night. If things continue on and teams like the Patriots and Steelers or Cowboys and Packers end up losing during the playoffs you may just be privileged enough to see what a true celebration looks like. I wish a first or second seed team would overlook a wild card team this season. I wish a mother!@#$er would. As much of a travesty it may be for the Super Bowl to not consist of the Patriots v. Cowboys, a Browns v. Lions Super Bowl would be a spectacle of the likes none of us have ever seen. The game could be played in Lawrence, Kansas in the middle of a dust storm and it would still probably be most intense, courageous, and memorable Super Bowl of all time to date. The NFL is the best professional sports league there is, partially due to the parity we’ve been discussing. Partially due to the devotion of its fans or maybe it’s something else completely. Maybe it’s because an old placekicker can hold up an entire city on his shoulders following the most twisted finish to a game ever. Maybe it's watching a rookie running back break an all-time, single-game record. It could be any combination of things. All I know is that as it nears a quarter to 4 am on a Monday morning, and I finish my last adult beverage of the day (and following morning) I have one thing to say. If you are a player, owner, coach, or even fan of the kind of team I have been speaking of…..I SALUTE YOU.
One final thought. A guideline for sanity as it pertains to me, personally. When you are a fan of team deemed not to be “not worth mentioning”, you deal with one shot after another. One disappointment after another. One depressing loss after another. There is only so much a person can take. I always tell myself and others who feel similar to the way I do for their respective team, every bad play, every wrong call, every turnover, every bad thing that happens to contribute to bad play and/or losses…tuck that away. Log it into your memory. Acknowledge it and never forget it. When the pendulum swings back in your favor, and it eventually has to do just that, then and only then will it be worth the wait. Regardless of what happens after this day, the parity of the NFL has reached more teams/fans than it has in quite some time. No longer is parity only between the elite and consistently good teams. Finally, the guys who always seem to be on the outside looking in are forcing their way into the exclusive club with the velvet ropes. And the view is glorious. If your team is in the hunt, enjoy it. Just understand one thing, no matter how you think you feel, there is somebody somewhere who wants it more than you. So cherish the ride.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
OSU/Michigan liveblogging wrapup
By Rick Morris
On the day that Lloyd Carr probably coached his last game in the OSU/Michigan series, the day had a certain old-school, Woody-and-Bo feel to it.
A year after the two teams met in the most hyped and consequential version of college football's greatest rivalry and exceeded the expectations with one of the greatest games ever, the next edition had a bit less at stake and the game had far less excitement. But the outcome remained the same as Ohio State defeated Michigan 14-3 in what might be Carr's final game at the Big House. If Carr does end up walking off into the sunset, this rivalry will be a tremendous reason why as the nearly unprecedented dominance they achieved over the Buckeyes in the John Cooper era has given way to a 1-6 record against the Scarlet and Gray since Jim Tressel took the helm.
A year ago, the #1 Buckeyes turned back #2 Michigan, 42-39, in an absolute classic to advance to the BCS Title Game and relegate the Wolverines to the Rose Bowl. Today, for two teams on the outside looking in regarding the national title picture, the Rose Bowl was the prize at stake and OSU will play there for the first time since 1997, barring a continuation of the extreme set of dominoes falling at the top of the polls in this crazy year.
Michigan's talented trio on offense of quarterback Chad Henne, running back Mike Hart and offensive tackle Jake Long passed up NFL riches a year ago to return for their senior season and to help the 2007 graduating class to avoid an indignity that Michigan had not suffered in decades: losing four in a row to Ohio State. But they were unsuccessful, owing in large part to Henne and Hart having to play through injuries.
In a game that always features so many playmakers for both teams on both sides of the ball, very few of them stepped up today. The two who did the most were both Buckeyes: Chris Wells with 220 yards and 2 touchdowns on 39 carries and Vernon Gholston serving as a constant presence in the Michigan backfield and coming away with three sacks.
Just as Tressel assumed the head coaching job in Columbus in 2001 in what looked to be a hopeless situation, so too does Carr's likely replacement face a disheartening picture in terms of moving back towards parity in the rivalry. Michigan returned a solid veteran core from 2006, the Buckeyes did not, the game was in Ann Arbor and they blew this chance. Even with some early departures to the NFL, Ohio State will still be more experienced than Michigan next year and the game will be at the Horseshoe, dealing the Wolverines a tough hand in terms of avoiding a half-decade without victory in the series.
On the day that Lloyd Carr probably coached his last game in the OSU/Michigan series, the day had a certain old-school, Woody-and-Bo feel to it.
A year after the two teams met in the most hyped and consequential version of college football's greatest rivalry and exceeded the expectations with one of the greatest games ever, the next edition had a bit less at stake and the game had far less excitement. But the outcome remained the same as Ohio State defeated Michigan 14-3 in what might be Carr's final game at the Big House. If Carr does end up walking off into the sunset, this rivalry will be a tremendous reason why as the nearly unprecedented dominance they achieved over the Buckeyes in the John Cooper era has given way to a 1-6 record against the Scarlet and Gray since Jim Tressel took the helm.
A year ago, the #1 Buckeyes turned back #2 Michigan, 42-39, in an absolute classic to advance to the BCS Title Game and relegate the Wolverines to the Rose Bowl. Today, for two teams on the outside looking in regarding the national title picture, the Rose Bowl was the prize at stake and OSU will play there for the first time since 1997, barring a continuation of the extreme set of dominoes falling at the top of the polls in this crazy year.
Michigan's talented trio on offense of quarterback Chad Henne, running back Mike Hart and offensive tackle Jake Long passed up NFL riches a year ago to return for their senior season and to help the 2007 graduating class to avoid an indignity that Michigan had not suffered in decades: losing four in a row to Ohio State. But they were unsuccessful, owing in large part to Henne and Hart having to play through injuries.
In a game that always features so many playmakers for both teams on both sides of the ball, very few of them stepped up today. The two who did the most were both Buckeyes: Chris Wells with 220 yards and 2 touchdowns on 39 carries and Vernon Gholston serving as a constant presence in the Michigan backfield and coming away with three sacks.
Just as Tressel assumed the head coaching job in Columbus in 2001 in what looked to be a hopeless situation, so too does Carr's likely replacement face a disheartening picture in terms of moving back towards parity in the rivalry. Michigan returned a solid veteran core from 2006, the Buckeyes did not, the game was in Ann Arbor and they blew this chance. Even with some early departures to the NFL, Ohio State will still be more experienced than Michigan next year and the game will be at the Horseshoe, dealing the Wolverines a tough hand in terms of avoiding a half-decade without victory in the series.
OSU/Michigan liveblogging third installment
By Rick Morris
Continuing the parallels with the Wisconsin game of two weeks ago, Ohio State had a lot of success in the third quarter running Beanie Wells right at, over and around the defense. Right after a 65-yard Ray Small punt return touchdown was called back, Wells rumbled in from 62 to provide the signature big play the game had been missing and put his team up 14-3. That remains the current score.
Chad Henne left due to the deteriorating nature of his injuries, but has returned to the sidelines. Mike Hart has still had no impact outside of the team's field goal drive in the first quarter, with 43 yards on 16 carries. Wells, who ripped off a long touchdown run as a backup in last year's game, has in his second Ohio State/Michigan game already surpassed Hart's accomplishments in the rivalry, having put up 169 yards on 25 carries to go with his two touchdowns. Brandon Saine has been in the game, tallying 18 yards on 8 carries, but regrettably is still not being used on screen passes.
The talented wide receivers on both teams haven't done anything, in part due to the weather and the quarterbacks' difficulties in battling it.
Just as Michigan was starting to get some momentum in the early fourth quarter off of a long punt return, Jim Tressel appealed the call on the field and won it as the replay judge ruled that the ball should be spotted 12 yards back. Henne returned for an anticlimactic three-and-out that ABC commentator Kirk Herbstreit correctly said would remind nobody of Willis Reed's heroics. Ray Small just recovered a punt he muffed deep in his own territory and the Buckeyes will now continue running the clock down, leading 14-3.
Continuing the parallels with the Wisconsin game of two weeks ago, Ohio State had a lot of success in the third quarter running Beanie Wells right at, over and around the defense. Right after a 65-yard Ray Small punt return touchdown was called back, Wells rumbled in from 62 to provide the signature big play the game had been missing and put his team up 14-3. That remains the current score.
Chad Henne left due to the deteriorating nature of his injuries, but has returned to the sidelines. Mike Hart has still had no impact outside of the team's field goal drive in the first quarter, with 43 yards on 16 carries. Wells, who ripped off a long touchdown run as a backup in last year's game, has in his second Ohio State/Michigan game already surpassed Hart's accomplishments in the rivalry, having put up 169 yards on 25 carries to go with his two touchdowns. Brandon Saine has been in the game, tallying 18 yards on 8 carries, but regrettably is still not being used on screen passes.
The talented wide receivers on both teams haven't done anything, in part due to the weather and the quarterbacks' difficulties in battling it.
Just as Michigan was starting to get some momentum in the early fourth quarter off of a long punt return, Jim Tressel appealed the call on the field and won it as the replay judge ruled that the ball should be spotted 12 yards back. Henne returned for an anticlimactic three-and-out that ABC commentator Kirk Herbstreit correctly said would remind nobody of Willis Reed's heroics. Ray Small just recovered a punt he muffed deep in his own territory and the Buckeyes will now continue running the clock down, leading 14-3.
OSU/Michigan liveblogging second installment
By Rick Morris
Ohio State just dodged a huge bullet right before halftime. Todd Boeckman, who is inexplicably not wearing gloves in the freezing drizzle of Ann Arbor and who is throwing wobbling ducks left and right, airmailed one to the Michigan secondary during an implementation of the "wishy-washy, sorta-two-minute offense." A 48-yard K.C. Lopata field goal attempt missed, leaving Ohio State on top 7-3 at halftime.
Earlier, the Bucks took the lead with an 8-play, 44-yard TD drive culminating in a Beanie Wells 1-year touchdown run. They executed a nice blend of rushing and short passing on that drive.
The trend mentioned in the previous post of settling into a ball-control game continues. The Ohio State defense has risen up on a number of occasions, first by holding Michigan to a field goal in the first quarter when they were on a drive with a lot of momentum, then by keeping the Wolverines from advancing late in the first half when they took over on a punt return at midfield, then by forcing the Maize and Blue to attempt a long field goal attempt after the interception at the end of the half. Michigan had taken over at the 50 on that punt attempt because of a previous Zoltan Mesko punt to the Ohio State 4. The Buckeyes ran three plays right into the line and punted from their own end zone, setting up the field position that Michigan could not exploit.
Unlike last year's epic battle, this has been a game of almost no big plays, almost no turnovers, very little controversy to this point and not much to identify it so far as a huge rivalry game except the nonstop mouth and gesturing of Mike Hart. At 42 yards on 11 carries and no impact aside from Michigan's field goal drive in the first quarter, he hasn't yet earned the right to his irritating actions today.
Ohio State just dodged a huge bullet right before halftime. Todd Boeckman, who is inexplicably not wearing gloves in the freezing drizzle of Ann Arbor and who is throwing wobbling ducks left and right, airmailed one to the Michigan secondary during an implementation of the "wishy-washy, sorta-two-minute offense." A 48-yard K.C. Lopata field goal attempt missed, leaving Ohio State on top 7-3 at halftime.
Earlier, the Bucks took the lead with an 8-play, 44-yard TD drive culminating in a Beanie Wells 1-year touchdown run. They executed a nice blend of rushing and short passing on that drive.
The trend mentioned in the previous post of settling into a ball-control game continues. The Ohio State defense has risen up on a number of occasions, first by holding Michigan to a field goal in the first quarter when they were on a drive with a lot of momentum, then by keeping the Wolverines from advancing late in the first half when they took over on a punt return at midfield, then by forcing the Maize and Blue to attempt a long field goal attempt after the interception at the end of the half. Michigan had taken over at the 50 on that punt attempt because of a previous Zoltan Mesko punt to the Ohio State 4. The Buckeyes ran three plays right into the line and punted from their own end zone, setting up the field position that Michigan could not exploit.
Unlike last year's epic battle, this has been a game of almost no big plays, almost no turnovers, very little controversy to this point and not much to identify it so far as a huge rivalry game except the nonstop mouth and gesturing of Mike Hart. At 42 yards on 11 carries and no impact aside from Michigan's field goal drive in the first quarter, he hasn't yet earned the right to his irritating actions today.
OSU/Michigan liveblogging first installment
By Rick Morris
Through the first quarter, the game has resembled the field position battle that made up the first half of the OSU/Wisconsin clash two weeks ago. The slick turf has caused some difficulties thus far but no turnovers.
Blogger: The FDH Lounge Multimedia Magazine - Edit Post "OSU/Michigan liveblogging first installment"
Michigan used the no-huddle offense to great effect on a 12-play, 49-yard drive to gain the game's only points on a field goal. The OSU defense kicked in to prevent a touchdown, with star defensive lineman Vernon Gholston's sack playing a key role. Pass protection has been an issue for Michigan, somewhat neutralizing the weather-related struggles of the Buckeyes to date. In the early second quarter, Ohio State will take over in Michigan territory after a punt, trailing 3-0.
Through the first quarter, the game has resembled the field position battle that made up the first half of the OSU/Wisconsin clash two weeks ago. The slick turf has caused some difficulties thus far but no turnovers.
Blogger: The FDH Lounge Multimedia Magazine - Edit Post "OSU/Michigan liveblogging first installment"
Michigan used the no-huddle offense to great effect on a 12-play, 49-yard drive to gain the game's only points on a field goal. The OSU defense kicked in to prevent a touchdown, with star defensive lineman Vernon Gholston's sack playing a key role. Pass protection has been an issue for Michigan, somewhat neutralizing the weather-related struggles of the Buckeyes to date. In the early second quarter, Ohio State will take over in Michigan territory after a punt, trailing 3-0.
OSU/Michigan liveblogging pregame
By Rick Morris
We will have liveblogging coverage of the Big Game today in Ann Arbor. Here's the keys to the game for each team:
For Ohio State:
^ Avoid turnovers. The best hope for the underdog in this game is to replicate the damaging turnovers Illinois inflicted on Ohio State last week.
^ Work Brandon Saine into the offense. For all the talk about spicing up the game with Ted Ginn Jr. prototype Ray Small, screen passes to Saine would work even better because they would be so out of character for the Buckeyes. My FDH partner Jason Jones has been screaming for this element all year long, rightfully so.
^ Get Malcolm Jenkins back playing at the level of his potential. He's had a tough November and is facing a hot Mario Manningham, perhaps the best wide receiver in the country. If he has a "Shawn Springs circa 1996 moment" against the Wolverines, his team may not survive.
For Michigan:
^ Have "healthy quality" play from Chad Henne and Mike Hart. If these two play up to the level they did last year, Michigan could well win. Last year, both offenses achieved near-perfect balance, keeping the defenses on their heels the whole way. Ohio State is likely to play a well-balanced offensive game; Michigan must do the same.
^ Channel the emotion of what's likely to be Lloyd Carr's last OSU/Michigan game. 20 years ago, a less talented Buckeye team went into Ann Arbor and shocked their archrivals in Earle Bruce's last game at the helm. Today, a lesser team on paper (especially defense) looks to do the same.
The prediction? With a Rose Bowl berth at stake, an Ohio State team that has been better prepared and usually more talented since 2001 does what it did last year -- match a raised level of play from Michigan and prevail on ability. The Buckeyes go to Pasadena with a 26-20 win.
We will have liveblogging coverage of the Big Game today in Ann Arbor. Here's the keys to the game for each team:
For Ohio State:
^ Avoid turnovers. The best hope for the underdog in this game is to replicate the damaging turnovers Illinois inflicted on Ohio State last week.
^ Work Brandon Saine into the offense. For all the talk about spicing up the game with Ted Ginn Jr. prototype Ray Small, screen passes to Saine would work even better because they would be so out of character for the Buckeyes. My FDH partner Jason Jones has been screaming for this element all year long, rightfully so.
^ Get Malcolm Jenkins back playing at the level of his potential. He's had a tough November and is facing a hot Mario Manningham, perhaps the best wide receiver in the country. If he has a "Shawn Springs circa 1996 moment" against the Wolverines, his team may not survive.
For Michigan:
^ Have "healthy quality" play from Chad Henne and Mike Hart. If these two play up to the level they did last year, Michigan could well win. Last year, both offenses achieved near-perfect balance, keeping the defenses on their heels the whole way. Ohio State is likely to play a well-balanced offensive game; Michigan must do the same.
^ Channel the emotion of what's likely to be Lloyd Carr's last OSU/Michigan game. 20 years ago, a less talented Buckeye team went into Ann Arbor and shocked their archrivals in Earle Bruce's last game at the helm. Today, a lesser team on paper (especially defense) looks to do the same.
The prediction? With a Rose Bowl berth at stake, an Ohio State team that has been better prepared and usually more talented since 2001 does what it did last year -- match a raised level of play from Michigan and prevail on ability. The Buckeyes go to Pasadena with a 26-20 win.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
The myth of CC Sabathia
By Rick Morris
Since the Cy Young Award is based purely on the regular season, it's defensible for the baseball writers to have given the American League honors to CC Sabathia. While I probably would have voted for Josh Beckett, it seems to me a very close call that could have gone either way.
But for the Sabathia homers who claim that he has grown up into an automatic shut-down ace and that the postseason represented an aberration from the level he has reached -- think again.
In response to the inane talking points about CC not winning 20 games SOLELY because of the admittedly poor run support he received, recently on SportsTalkNetwork.com, I cited from memory numerous examples of Sabathia having coughed up leads and costing the team games. Because I don't like to go purely on anecdotal evidence, I went to the trouble of substantiating these examples, courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
^ July 29: He gives up a 1-0 lead to Minnesota, team loses 4-1.
^ August 8: He gives up a 1-0 lead to Chicago, team loses 6-4.
^ August 14: He gives up a 2-0 first-inning lead to Detroit, team loses 6-2.
^ August 19: He gives up a 2-1 lead to Tampa Bay, team loses 4-3.
And all of these examples were within a month! It should be noted that none of the opposing lineups bore any resemblance to the '27 Yankees, either.
Now, not every ace wins every game. But pitchers with the assassin mentality win these games more often than not. Look no further than the same pitching staff. You'd have to manually disembowel Fausto Carmona to affect him mentally, and even then he'd keep coming back at you!
Just keep this in mind when CC's record gets whitewashed by the usual apologists in Cleveland.
Since the Cy Young Award is based purely on the regular season, it's defensible for the baseball writers to have given the American League honors to CC Sabathia. While I probably would have voted for Josh Beckett, it seems to me a very close call that could have gone either way.
But for the Sabathia homers who claim that he has grown up into an automatic shut-down ace and that the postseason represented an aberration from the level he has reached -- think again.
In response to the inane talking points about CC not winning 20 games SOLELY because of the admittedly poor run support he received, recently on SportsTalkNetwork.com, I cited from memory numerous examples of Sabathia having coughed up leads and costing the team games. Because I don't like to go purely on anecdotal evidence, I went to the trouble of substantiating these examples, courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
^ July 29: He gives up a 1-0 lead to Minnesota, team loses 4-1.
^ August 8: He gives up a 1-0 lead to Chicago, team loses 6-4.
^ August 14: He gives up a 2-0 first-inning lead to Detroit, team loses 6-2.
^ August 19: He gives up a 2-1 lead to Tampa Bay, team loses 4-3.
And all of these examples were within a month! It should be noted that none of the opposing lineups bore any resemblance to the '27 Yankees, either.
Now, not every ace wins every game. But pitchers with the assassin mentality win these games more often than not. Look no further than the same pitching staff. You'd have to manually disembowel Fausto Carmona to affect him mentally, and even then he'd keep coming back at you!
Just keep this in mind when CC's record gets whitewashed by the usual apologists in Cleveland.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Expansion and player supply in sports
By Rick Morris
In a recent conversation with FDH analyst Jon Adams, we spoke of the likelihood that the NFL would expand in the coming years rather than relocating an existing team to meet their goal of placing a franchise back in Los Angeles. I mentioned that I could see this happening in tandem with an expansion of the schedule, as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seems to have successfully floated the trial balloon of a 17th game played overseas by every team. Jon rightfully expressed displeasure at the notion of a move to 34 teams accompanying a 17-week schedule, since we can already see how the league's talent base was watered down noticeably by expansion in 1999 and 2002.
Goodell, a sharp operator, is probably pushing the league's global presence at least in part because the league does not have a strong enough global presence long-term to staff the number of teams they want to have. But they are putting the cart before the horse a bit if they intend to expand the league also in the next decade.
Expansion in other sports was initially accompanied by cries that it had come too soon and too dramatically -- and would later trigger calls for contraction. But as the talent pool caught up to the number of jobs available, equilibrium returned in these situations.
In baseball, the 1960s triggered a wave of expansion that continued into 1977, then resumed in 1993 and 1998. While it used to be fashionable to speak of how the game had become watered down, this talking point has become muted, even in terms of pitching. The international expansion of the game has brought players from all corners of Latin America, the Pacific Rim and even a few other corners of the world. Besides, baseball historians from groups such as SABR have disabused thinking people of the notion that players such as Babe Ruth had it harder because they faced only a handful of teams and therefore, the "best of the best on a daily basis." None of those teams included players of color and as such, the greatest players in the world were subdivided into three groups that played against only themselves: the American League, the National League and the Negro Leagues (except for the AL and NL in the All-Star Game and the World Series). But the overall talent level of top players wasn't much different back then if we think beyond Major League Baseball and take the top Negro League teams into consideration. As such, any advantages Babe Ruth may have had in not having to face 13 other AL pitching staffs were negated by not having to face Negro League hurlers.
The winter sports of basketball and hockey likewise faced troubling questions when they expanded rapidly from the late 1980s onward. Both clearly moved far beyond the pool of worthy talent available when they placed franchises far and wide and the NHL in particular faced much criticism for their "Sunbelt Strategy" of putting down roots in sunny markets completely unaccustomed to their product. But those complaints have quieted in recent years, as both have benefited from a global talent pool now available to them. Even traditional hockey fans in Canada inclined to believe that the game was never better and tighter than it was when there were only half as many teams must admit that the lack of players available back then from Iron Curtain countries worked against the advancement of the sport. And in the NBA, the international players have led the charge back towards fundamentals and away from the disturbing drift towards "streetball" and in so doing, have pushed it in the right direction. Proving that a blind squirrel really does find an acorn now and again, ESPN columnist and mighty self-parody Bill Simmons opines this week that the NBA talent level is at its highest point since the early 1990s -- and he's right.
Now, the NFL truly is the biggest and the baddest of the American sports leagues. It seems truly bulletproof in terms of continued viability at this level. But Goodell should ponder the lessons of other sports before deciding to bump the league up to 34 teams. Continued overseas games, while aggravating to many jingoistic, chest-thumping, Neanderthal football fans, are a necessary evil in terms of developing a global talent base. The 17th game on the schedule may prove unavoidable with this being the case. Because football takes such a back seat to soccer internationally (inexplicably, I might add!), the product must be exposed at a micro level to people all over the world so that the league can cultivate young fans who aspire to play on Sundays. While the NHL, NBA and MLB trail the NFL in popularity and clout, at least they can truthfully state that their leagues are fully stocked with players who deserve to be there, thanks to the integration of top talent all over the world. The NFL won't be able to say the same, much less consider further expansion as a viable consideration, until they begin to feature talent from Asia, Europe, Africa and all areas of the world.
In a recent conversation with FDH analyst Jon Adams, we spoke of the likelihood that the NFL would expand in the coming years rather than relocating an existing team to meet their goal of placing a franchise back in Los Angeles. I mentioned that I could see this happening in tandem with an expansion of the schedule, as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seems to have successfully floated the trial balloon of a 17th game played overseas by every team. Jon rightfully expressed displeasure at the notion of a move to 34 teams accompanying a 17-week schedule, since we can already see how the league's talent base was watered down noticeably by expansion in 1999 and 2002.
Goodell, a sharp operator, is probably pushing the league's global presence at least in part because the league does not have a strong enough global presence long-term to staff the number of teams they want to have. But they are putting the cart before the horse a bit if they intend to expand the league also in the next decade.
Expansion in other sports was initially accompanied by cries that it had come too soon and too dramatically -- and would later trigger calls for contraction. But as the talent pool caught up to the number of jobs available, equilibrium returned in these situations.
In baseball, the 1960s triggered a wave of expansion that continued into 1977, then resumed in 1993 and 1998. While it used to be fashionable to speak of how the game had become watered down, this talking point has become muted, even in terms of pitching. The international expansion of the game has brought players from all corners of Latin America, the Pacific Rim and even a few other corners of the world. Besides, baseball historians from groups such as SABR have disabused thinking people of the notion that players such as Babe Ruth had it harder because they faced only a handful of teams and therefore, the "best of the best on a daily basis." None of those teams included players of color and as such, the greatest players in the world were subdivided into three groups that played against only themselves: the American League, the National League and the Negro Leagues (except for the AL and NL in the All-Star Game and the World Series). But the overall talent level of top players wasn't much different back then if we think beyond Major League Baseball and take the top Negro League teams into consideration. As such, any advantages Babe Ruth may have had in not having to face 13 other AL pitching staffs were negated by not having to face Negro League hurlers.
The winter sports of basketball and hockey likewise faced troubling questions when they expanded rapidly from the late 1980s onward. Both clearly moved far beyond the pool of worthy talent available when they placed franchises far and wide and the NHL in particular faced much criticism for their "Sunbelt Strategy" of putting down roots in sunny markets completely unaccustomed to their product. But those complaints have quieted in recent years, as both have benefited from a global talent pool now available to them. Even traditional hockey fans in Canada inclined to believe that the game was never better and tighter than it was when there were only half as many teams must admit that the lack of players available back then from Iron Curtain countries worked against the advancement of the sport. And in the NBA, the international players have led the charge back towards fundamentals and away from the disturbing drift towards "streetball" and in so doing, have pushed it in the right direction. Proving that a blind squirrel really does find an acorn now and again, ESPN columnist and mighty self-parody Bill Simmons opines this week that the NBA talent level is at its highest point since the early 1990s -- and he's right.
Now, the NFL truly is the biggest and the baddest of the American sports leagues. It seems truly bulletproof in terms of continued viability at this level. But Goodell should ponder the lessons of other sports before deciding to bump the league up to 34 teams. Continued overseas games, while aggravating to many jingoistic, chest-thumping, Neanderthal football fans, are a necessary evil in terms of developing a global talent base. The 17th game on the schedule may prove unavoidable with this being the case. Because football takes such a back seat to soccer internationally (inexplicably, I might add!), the product must be exposed at a micro level to people all over the world so that the league can cultivate young fans who aspire to play on Sundays. While the NHL, NBA and MLB trail the NFL in popularity and clout, at least they can truthfully state that their leagues are fully stocked with players who deserve to be there, thanks to the integration of top talent all over the world. The NFL won't be able to say the same, much less consider further expansion as a viable consideration, until they begin to feature talent from Asia, Europe, Africa and all areas of the world.
A Hamas boy band?????
By Rick Morris
Just when you thought you'd seen everything ...
although, come to think of it, swap out lyrics about bombing Jewish mothers and children for stanzas about shooting immigrant storekeepers and it's no different from gangsta rap.
Just when you thought you'd seen everything ...
although, come to think of it, swap out lyrics about bombing Jewish mothers and children for stanzas about shooting immigrant storekeepers and it's no different from gangsta rap.
And I thought I'D go far to prove a point!
By Rick Morris
What's the most extreme thing you've ever done to prove a point? For somebody as stubborn and determined as myself, the process of self-examination on that score could prove a bit unsettling! But fortunately for all of us, there's always somebody ready to come along and make all of our various neuroses a bit more palatable. Such as the gentlemen who DELIBERATELY SHOT HIMSELF WITH A FREAKING NAIL GUN!
What I can't believe most of all is that he did it for free! After all, with "extreme" pro wrestling promotions like Combat Zone catering to the "faces of death" crowd, he could have made some nice blood money for doing it in the ring.
He's hardcore! He's hardcore!
What's the most extreme thing you've ever done to prove a point? For somebody as stubborn and determined as myself, the process of self-examination on that score could prove a bit unsettling! But fortunately for all of us, there's always somebody ready to come along and make all of our various neuroses a bit more palatable. Such as the gentlemen who DELIBERATELY SHOT HIMSELF WITH A FREAKING NAIL GUN!
What I can't believe most of all is that he did it for free! After all, with "extreme" pro wrestling promotions like Combat Zone catering to the "faces of death" crowd, he could have made some nice blood money for doing it in the ring.
He's hardcore! He's hardcore!
Government stealing from us again
By Rick Morris
While Texas Congressman Ron Paul attracts the lion's share of attention for his presidential campaign because of his quasi-isolationist foreign policy positions, it must be remembered that he is also tapping effectively into the public's inherent distrust of politicians of both parties who treat our hard-earned money as their own private treasury. His libertarian positions, although extreme, serve as a pure and refreshing counterpoint to the rampant corruption of both political parties in D.C.
Witness the latest outrages chronicled at EarmarkWatch.org, a new and outstanding website dedicated to shining the light of truth on blatant wastes of federal cash coming out of the swamp on the Potomac. The latest porky delight to be exposed? A handout to a Washington-state glove company inserted into the federal budget by congressmen of both parties from, you guessed it, Washington state! Interestingly, one of the offenders was Jim McDermott, a far-left nutcase who probably doesn't think that anyone in the military deserves a warm pair of gloves or anything else decent in life -- but hey, if there's a chance to placate a potential contributor back home ...
This great new site will have a ton of user-generated content, meaning that it is dependent on citizens to utilize their tools to unearth corrupt earmarks in federal legislation. May I suggest right now that the website owners reserve copious server solely for the excreble Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia? This braying jackass, who is probably the biggest pork abuser in the history of the federal government, proudly waves around a copy of the Constitution wherever he goes while somehow remaining ignorant of the Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Apparently Bobby Byrd bought his copy of the Constitution at the same place he got his white sheets.
While Texas Congressman Ron Paul attracts the lion's share of attention for his presidential campaign because of his quasi-isolationist foreign policy positions, it must be remembered that he is also tapping effectively into the public's inherent distrust of politicians of both parties who treat our hard-earned money as their own private treasury. His libertarian positions, although extreme, serve as a pure and refreshing counterpoint to the rampant corruption of both political parties in D.C.
Witness the latest outrages chronicled at EarmarkWatch.org, a new and outstanding website dedicated to shining the light of truth on blatant wastes of federal cash coming out of the swamp on the Potomac. The latest porky delight to be exposed? A handout to a Washington-state glove company inserted into the federal budget by congressmen of both parties from, you guessed it, Washington state! Interestingly, one of the offenders was Jim McDermott, a far-left nutcase who probably doesn't think that anyone in the military deserves a warm pair of gloves or anything else decent in life -- but hey, if there's a chance to placate a potential contributor back home ...
This great new site will have a ton of user-generated content, meaning that it is dependent on citizens to utilize their tools to unearth corrupt earmarks in federal legislation. May I suggest right now that the website owners reserve copious server solely for the excreble Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia? This braying jackass, who is probably the biggest pork abuser in the history of the federal government, proudly waves around a copy of the Constitution wherever he goes while somehow remaining ignorant of the Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Apparently Bobby Byrd bought his copy of the Constitution at the same place he got his white sheets.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Power rankings for NFL Week 11
By Rick Morris
MUTANT FREAK SUPER-TEAMS
1. New England
2. Indianapolis (barely clinging to a spot on this tier after Sunday night)
CERTAIN PLAYOFF TEAMS
3. Dallas
4. Green Bay
5. Pittsburgh
6. New York Giants (only losses on the season are to teams on this tier)
ONLY OTHER TEAMS IN POSITION TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS
7. Tennessee
8. Jacksonville
9. San Diego
10. Seattle
11. Detroit
12. Cleveland (should be a lock -- amazingly easy schedule the rest of the way even though they have the league's worst defense)
13. New Orleans
14. Washington
15. Tampa Bay (imagine how good they'd be without half of their roster in Intensive Care)
16. Buffalo (they're doing it with smoke and mirrors but still winning)
PLAYOFF PRETENDERS
17. Baltimore (with the washed-up McNair and the brutal remaining schedule, they are done)
18. Chicago
19. Carolina (a fraud team -- even if they had a QB, they'd still have no heart)
20. Houston
21. Arizona
22. Philadelphia
23. Denver
24. Kansas City (bad time to switch to Croyle -- not that there's ever a good time to go to him!)
THE DREGS
25. Minnesota (horrible without Peterson)
26. Cincinnati
27. Atlanta
28. San Francisco
29. New York Jets
30. Oakland
31. St. Louis
32. Miami
MUTANT FREAK SUPER-TEAMS
1. New England
2. Indianapolis (barely clinging to a spot on this tier after Sunday night)
CERTAIN PLAYOFF TEAMS
3. Dallas
4. Green Bay
5. Pittsburgh
6. New York Giants (only losses on the season are to teams on this tier)
ONLY OTHER TEAMS IN POSITION TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS
7. Tennessee
8. Jacksonville
9. San Diego
10. Seattle
11. Detroit
12. Cleveland (should be a lock -- amazingly easy schedule the rest of the way even though they have the league's worst defense)
13. New Orleans
14. Washington
15. Tampa Bay (imagine how good they'd be without half of their roster in Intensive Care)
16. Buffalo (they're doing it with smoke and mirrors but still winning)
PLAYOFF PRETENDERS
17. Baltimore (with the washed-up McNair and the brutal remaining schedule, they are done)
18. Chicago
19. Carolina (a fraud team -- even if they had a QB, they'd still have no heart)
20. Houston
21. Arizona
22. Philadelphia
23. Denver
24. Kansas City (bad time to switch to Croyle -- not that there's ever a good time to go to him!)
THE DREGS
25. Minnesota (horrible without Peterson)
26. Cincinnati
27. Atlanta
28. San Francisco
29. New York Jets
30. Oakland
31. St. Louis
32. Miami
Sunday, November 11, 2007
The Presidential Race / NFL Playoff Push
by Jason Jones
Imagine for a moment, if you will, the Presidential nominees in an NFL style playoff run. Mind you, not in the playoffs, but a playoff run. As the landscape of the NFL begins to take shape, we start to realize not every team is worthy of a spot based on the competition ahead of them. The same can be said about the presidential nominees that have no place in this race (namely Ron Paul).
If we are to fairly examine both sides we must create a depth chart or power ranking of both the NFL and the presidential nominees. These are the rankings as I see them:
(Note my opinion does not reflect that of the FDH Lounge, FantasyDraftHelp.com or any of its subsidiaries)
NFL ------ Nominees
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Now for some explanations. Starting with the Nominees side, I am sure most of you are wondering why my power rankings in almost no way mimic that of the American public. Well, in short, people can be very smart, but groups of people are F@#!ing retarded!!! We will revisit this idea later.
- Starting at the top, Fred Thompson is the most well rounded perfect candidate on the docket. Consequently, this is where the first tier ends. If you do not agree you are entitled to your opinion like the stupid people are entitled to reproduce. This piece is not a debate over the candidates, maybe as we get closer we will do just that.
- Second is Rudy Guiliani, I am not especially riveted by this guy; especially when he mentions being in charge during 9-11. I do get the impression that he could do the job. He would be popular. Whether you like it or not, the average American doesn’t really care about the specific nature of the issues, it’s a feel thing. For some strange reason Rudy rubs people the right way.
- Third is John McCain, for those that know me, this one is probably a shock. There is on doubt, saying he has been underwhelming in the debates is a vast a polite understatement. Nixon looked more calm and collected versus JFK in the debate forum. Bottom line, John McCain knows how to play the game. I do not agree with even the vast majority of candidacy to this point, but he could do the job with a veteran savvy. This ends the second tier.
- Fourth is Barack Obama, the first Democrat on the list and believe me if I considered my party bias the first Democrat would probably come in around 9. He is very very green. This is where my confidence that the candidate is competent enough to do the job waivers. Obama is like a great top shelf minor league baseball player. He looks like he can play the part, his record looks good, and he’s confident that he can play with the big boys. Then he gets there and everyone wonders why his .385 batting average doesn’t translate literally to the majors. Some day Obama might be a great politician, but today is not that day. We need to send him back to the senate and let him work out the kinks for a while.
- Fifth is Mike Huckabee. Lets be honest, he just seems like a good guy. Do you remember that story about conservation? The one where he ride his bicycle to the grocery store to conserve on the gas he uses in his environmentally friendly car and his kids laugh at him for it? Do you remember that? I thought, “aw that’s sweet, what nice guy, a little HIPPY-ish for me, but a nice guy”. News flash, it should take more than
- Sixth is Tom Tancredo. First and foremost, Tom we get it. You don’t like foreigners. Maybe its just illegals from
- Seventh is Dennis Kucinich. Not a popular guy. In the Presidential Election ’08 made for tv movie, Kucinich would be played by D.J. Qualls (the skinny kid from Road Trip). Nobody likes creepy to greet you when you’re expecting another spine tingling episode of 24 and get D.J. Qualls addressing the nation. I cannot see Kucinich running the country, but I want to believe he is a good honest man when all is said and done. This concludes the third tier.
- Eighth is Bill Richardson. Let’s not sugar coat it. This is where the bottom falls out. I do not claim to know much about the rest of these with three exceptions. The truth is aside from hearing
- Ninth is Duncan Hunter. At least he is a Republican. He has no chance, which is a major part of this exercise.
- Tenth is Joe Biden. Again, I could see him doing the job. He has said a great deal of things that I do not agree with, but aside from Fred Thompson, there is not going to be a candidate I will agree with 95% of the time.
- Eleventh is Mike Gravel. Again, I have nothing. I have not heard much one way or the other. What I have heard has forced me to change the channel. While watching presidential debates, one must have an alternate channel to click to when the responses get unbearable. I recommend ESPN Classic or the Discovery Channel. Anything that resides on the other end of the spectrum from Politics.
- Twelfth is Chris Dodd. Insert previous statement here. Conclude tier four
- Thirteenth is Ron Paul. Strap in ladies and gentleman this one begins the tri-fecta of doom. Ron Paul is a hack! A phony, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I know he has somewhat of following, but so did Ross Perot. Ron Paul is not only bad for president, he’s bad for politics in general. He doesn’t play by the rules. I get it, Libertarian, Liberal Republican, Left Wing Republican, or whatever you want to call him. He should be running as an independent. At least that way the lobe of the American Human brain that tells us to almost disregard Independents because the math precludes them from winning, he would finally get the attention he deserves. Next to none. He’s is a hippie claiming to be the image that the Republican party should be. Believe me, I am not one to say that a single former President embodies every iota that oozes “Republican”. It just seems to me, if the entire party thinks Ronald Reagan is the Republican party, then Ron Paul is as far away from that as one can be without literally being a Democrat.
- Fourteenth is John Edwards. C’mon, are we serious. John Freaking Edwards. Has there ever been a Nominee that more exemplified the smelly kid who wanted to be cool? He’s the kid at the park who wants to be picked to play in the game and keeps getting passed over for kids who are busy doing other things (like 30 yards away on another part of the park). I also get the impression that if he were to be the next president, he is the kind of guy who would have the angle of, “fine, I’m taking my ball and going home, you guys suck!” Which is not really the attitude you want your president to have when dealing with foreign policy and cabinet meetings.
- Fifteenth is Mitt Romney. I really hope you have your seatbelt on for the next two. Plain and simple. Do not believe this devilish swindler. I bet that if I had a 60 inch High Definition television with all of the HD channels and watched a Republican Debate, I would clearly see the horns poke out through the skin on his forehead. Politically, Mitt Romney is the ANTI-CHRIST. The guy has one general thought process when he wants to get elected in
- Sixteenth is Hillary “Holy F#@K You Can’t Be Serious”
Now that we have addressed all of the candidates, it is time to bring the NFL into this discussion. The problem here is the
So, what does it all mean. All of the previous comes down to one concept. Who belongs and who doesn’t. In the NFL, just because 12 teams make the playoffs, doesn’t mean 12 teams are worthy of being in the playoffs. In the Presidential Race, 16 nominees is unacceptable. If
All in all, just be smart. Just because someone is literally in the race, doesn’t mean they have a legitimate shot at winning or have earned the right to waste your valuable time and energy listening to their s#@t.
Romney = Apocolypse
Ron Paul =
Fred Thompson = Top 10 President in History
Rudy Guiliani = Competent Politician
John McCain = Great Candidate 3, 5, 8 years ago
Pittsburgh Steelers, SuperBowl Champs = The books are cooked in Vegas
Green Bay Packers, SuperBowl Champs = I saw this movie before, it was more realistic in the 1990’s
Just be careful, and remember to think for yourselves. They are politicians after all.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
FDH Lounge Show #20: November 11, 2007
By Rick Morris
The Great American Radio Show on Internet television has turned 20! 20 episodes, that is. The program where nothing is off-topic will bring you another sampling of various intriguing content across the board this Sunday night from 8-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com.
For the first time in our history, we will have a segment airing ahead of the Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries. At 8 PM EDT we will feature a roundtable commemorating the 10th anniversary of the WWE's "Montreal Screwjob" with Russ Cohen of the Wrestleology website and wrestling historians Stephen Laroche and SLAM! Wrestling editor Jon Waldman. After that, we will move on to the Opening Statements and then another presidential race roundtable with the Dignitaries. The contest has taken on many wrinkles since we last convened on the subject (Hillary's debate debacle and the pouncing of her rivals, Romney's growing endorsement list, Brownback's McCain endorsement, Rudy's Robertson endorsement, the Bernie Kerik legal problems, the legal problems of one of Fred Thompson's advisers, etc.).
This segment will proceed into Hour Two for an update on the young hockey season with NHL.com editor John Kreiser. Among other topics, we'll delve into the huge January 1 outdoor game to be contested between Pittsburgh and Buffalo on NBC. After that, we give way to another wonderful FDH Lounge News Nuggets feature. Dog The Bounty Hunter and the Joe Torre migration to L.A. are fair game for the Dignitaries.
In Hour Three, we examine the trend in the niche sports world of recent years involving the addition of playoffs to compete with the NFL and World Series for attention in autumn. NASCAR has held its Chase since 2004 and this year the PGA and NHRA followed suit. What are the pluses and minuses of these developments? We will scrutinize this with new FDH NHRA correspondent Jeff Weber. Then our FDH Lounge Pigskin Report recaps another weekend of college and NFL action.
Join us for all the fun of our 20th show Sunday night! If you want to weigh in and mingle with The Dignitaries, you can call in at 216-881-9600 or toll free nationally and internationally at 866-453-4782 or you can email us at studio@sportstalkcleveland.com . Regardless, tune in and join the fun as The Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge explain your world to you!
The Great American Radio Show on Internet television has turned 20! 20 episodes, that is. The program where nothing is off-topic will bring you another sampling of various intriguing content across the board this Sunday night from 8-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com.
For the first time in our history, we will have a segment airing ahead of the Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries. At 8 PM EDT we will feature a roundtable commemorating the 10th anniversary of the WWE's "Montreal Screwjob" with Russ Cohen of the Wrestleology website and wrestling historians Stephen Laroche and SLAM! Wrestling editor Jon Waldman. After that, we will move on to the Opening Statements and then another presidential race roundtable with the Dignitaries. The contest has taken on many wrinkles since we last convened on the subject (Hillary's debate debacle and the pouncing of her rivals, Romney's growing endorsement list, Brownback's McCain endorsement, Rudy's Robertson endorsement, the Bernie Kerik legal problems, the legal problems of one of Fred Thompson's advisers, etc.).
This segment will proceed into Hour Two for an update on the young hockey season with NHL.com editor John Kreiser. Among other topics, we'll delve into the huge January 1 outdoor game to be contested between Pittsburgh and Buffalo on NBC. After that, we give way to another wonderful FDH Lounge News Nuggets feature. Dog The Bounty Hunter and the Joe Torre migration to L.A. are fair game for the Dignitaries.
In Hour Three, we examine the trend in the niche sports world of recent years involving the addition of playoffs to compete with the NFL and World Series for attention in autumn. NASCAR has held its Chase since 2004 and this year the PGA and NHRA followed suit. What are the pluses and minuses of these developments? We will scrutinize this with new FDH NHRA correspondent Jeff Weber. Then our FDH Lounge Pigskin Report recaps another weekend of college and NFL action.
Join us for all the fun of our 20th show Sunday night! If you want to weigh in and mingle with The Dignitaries, you can call in at 216-881-9600 or toll free nationally and internationally at 866-453-4782 or you can email us at studio@sportstalkcleveland.com . Regardless, tune in and join the fun as The Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge explain your world to you!
When it's obligatory to root against your team
By Rick Morris
As previously bemoaned in this space, the NFL saw fit to victimize the Cleveland market (where I live) by denying us access to Super Bowl 41 1/2 last week. As such, other FantasyDrafthelp.com and SportsTalkNetwork.com luminaries and I were forced to watch the game and the very excellent contest with our Cleveland Browns at Harpo's, an outstanding sports restaurant with the biggest combination of many TVs and large-screen TVs this side of a Las Vegas sports book.
As the Browns were wrapping up an improbable victory, one seemingly destined to be remembered as the turning point away from the misery of their first seven years back in the league, I got into an impromptu debate with my friend Dave Adams. Dave is a gentleman who used to be a part of the old "Reality Check" show on STN with myself and Ron Glasenapp and his brother Jon, who was also present, is a contributor to FDH. In the fun days when we used to do the show together, the struggles of the Browns under Butch Davis were a frequent source of debate. Dave and I had, and have to this day, different ideas on how to show ultimate loyalty to a team.
Dave believes that a fan should always root for his team, no matter what. Even if your brain tells you that the team is on a dead-end path and destined to crash and burn, you should hope against hope that the the team could win games regardless of that.
I don't subscribe to this school of thought at all. In 2003, when it became clear that "Botch" Davis was putting the agenda of pushing Kelly Holcomb ahead of the success of the team, I became one of the first commentators in the Cleveland market to call for his head. For me, it was a frightening case of deja vu, as Bill Belichick was up to similar tricks a decade earlier when he mandated bootlegs for Bernie Kosar so that he could dump him notwithstanding a 2-0 start to the season.
In both instances, I began to root for the team to lose every game so as to end the misery quickly and be able to start over as soon as possible. By 2004, I was calling for Phil Savage's installation as Browns general manager on "Reality Check," a year before the Cleveland organization decided to do just that. While Davis and his stooge Pete Garcia seemed to staff the team with a shoebox that held the names of players Davis had once recruited at the University of Miami, Savage was one of the league's premier personnel experts and a tireless researcher of talent. I opined that the team needed somebody like Savage who operated from a scientific standpoint free from personal agendas and biases that interfered with team success.
To Dave, rooting for the team to lose in the short term for the necessary "enema effect" was disloyal. The concept of being a "fan in exile" for any period of time was, and still is, completely unacceptable to him.
As the Browns were completing the signature victory of their 2007 turnaround, I was motivated at the end to take a victory lap with Dave (proving once and for all that I am the same guy off-air and away from the FDH media family that I am when you see, hear and read me!). After the Pittsburgh debacle in the season opener, Dave cornered me at one of his poker games and asked me if I still thought the team was better off than they were under Davis. I answered firmly that they were, the same sentiment my partner Jason Jones and I were propagating on STN while all around us were panicking. For those who were actually bothering to look, the 2007 roster was light years better than what had been inherited by Savage after the 2004 season. So after the win over Seattle, at a time when the progress of this team could finally no longer be denied, I said to Dave, "See, if the team had listened to me and fired Davis a year or two earlier, look at how much further along we'd be!" Dave, naturally, begged to differ!
It's an interesting debate and unsurprisingly, it's one where I think I'm in the right. Where would Ohio State be if John Cooper hadn't finally hit rock bottom and kept limping along as he had been doing? There would have been no Jim Tressel era, no national championship, no reversal of the domination at the hands of Michigan -- in short, no return to glory. Rooting against one's team should never be done lightly, but I maintain that sometimes it is necessary for the greater good and the ultimate restoration of success down the road.
As previously bemoaned in this space, the NFL saw fit to victimize the Cleveland market (where I live) by denying us access to Super Bowl 41 1/2 last week. As such, other FantasyDrafthelp.com and SportsTalkNetwork.com luminaries and I were forced to watch the game and the very excellent contest with our Cleveland Browns at Harpo's, an outstanding sports restaurant with the biggest combination of many TVs and large-screen TVs this side of a Las Vegas sports book.
As the Browns were wrapping up an improbable victory, one seemingly destined to be remembered as the turning point away from the misery of their first seven years back in the league, I got into an impromptu debate with my friend Dave Adams. Dave is a gentleman who used to be a part of the old "Reality Check" show on STN with myself and Ron Glasenapp and his brother Jon, who was also present, is a contributor to FDH. In the fun days when we used to do the show together, the struggles of the Browns under Butch Davis were a frequent source of debate. Dave and I had, and have to this day, different ideas on how to show ultimate loyalty to a team.
Dave believes that a fan should always root for his team, no matter what. Even if your brain tells you that the team is on a dead-end path and destined to crash and burn, you should hope against hope that the the team could win games regardless of that.
I don't subscribe to this school of thought at all. In 2003, when it became clear that "Botch" Davis was putting the agenda of pushing Kelly Holcomb ahead of the success of the team, I became one of the first commentators in the Cleveland market to call for his head. For me, it was a frightening case of deja vu, as Bill Belichick was up to similar tricks a decade earlier when he mandated bootlegs for Bernie Kosar so that he could dump him notwithstanding a 2-0 start to the season.
In both instances, I began to root for the team to lose every game so as to end the misery quickly and be able to start over as soon as possible. By 2004, I was calling for Phil Savage's installation as Browns general manager on "Reality Check," a year before the Cleveland organization decided to do just that. While Davis and his stooge Pete Garcia seemed to staff the team with a shoebox that held the names of players Davis had once recruited at the University of Miami, Savage was one of the league's premier personnel experts and a tireless researcher of talent. I opined that the team needed somebody like Savage who operated from a scientific standpoint free from personal agendas and biases that interfered with team success.
To Dave, rooting for the team to lose in the short term for the necessary "enema effect" was disloyal. The concept of being a "fan in exile" for any period of time was, and still is, completely unacceptable to him.
As the Browns were completing the signature victory of their 2007 turnaround, I was motivated at the end to take a victory lap with Dave (proving once and for all that I am the same guy off-air and away from the FDH media family that I am when you see, hear and read me!). After the Pittsburgh debacle in the season opener, Dave cornered me at one of his poker games and asked me if I still thought the team was better off than they were under Davis. I answered firmly that they were, the same sentiment my partner Jason Jones and I were propagating on STN while all around us were panicking. For those who were actually bothering to look, the 2007 roster was light years better than what had been inherited by Savage after the 2004 season. So after the win over Seattle, at a time when the progress of this team could finally no longer be denied, I said to Dave, "See, if the team had listened to me and fired Davis a year or two earlier, look at how much further along we'd be!" Dave, naturally, begged to differ!
It's an interesting debate and unsurprisingly, it's one where I think I'm in the right. Where would Ohio State be if John Cooper hadn't finally hit rock bottom and kept limping along as he had been doing? There would have been no Jim Tressel era, no national championship, no reversal of the domination at the hands of Michigan -- in short, no return to glory. Rooting against one's team should never be done lightly, but I maintain that sometimes it is necessary for the greater good and the ultimate restoration of success down the road.
Pat Robertson's 30 pieces of silver
By Rick Morris
Pat Buchanan's forecast that Rudy Giuliani would try to bridge his differences with social conservatives by buying them off with militarism is paying off -- witness his endorsement by Pat Robertson, one of the big poohbahs of the Social Issues Right since the 1980s. Apparently the willingness to bomb Iran on the drop of a dime transcends every other difference that is supposed to exist between Robertson and the thrice-married drag queen.
Robertson's sellout of the pro-life and traditional marriage community is shameful but not unexpected. For all the rhetoric about leaders of the "far right" in this country, most of them have proven to be phonies and sellouts who want a place at the table far more than they want the advancement of their principles. The best example of all comes from the leadup to the 1996 Republican presidential race, when Bill Clinton was at a low ebb and several candidates with a legitimate conservative pedigree were entering the fray: Buchanan, Phil Gramm, Steve Forbes and Alan Keyes among others. So who did Ralph Reed and other alleged "radical right" potentates line up behind? Good old Mr. Establishment Bob Dole.
For those who have appointed themselves as the leaders and guardians of right-wing thought, viability always trumps every other principle, including integrity and idealism. On the same day Robertson shamed himself by traipsing hat-in-hand to the anti-life frontrunner in the presidential race, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback was putting a period at the end of his campaign by endorsing fellow Senator John McCain. Brownback's effort was doomed when leaders of the so-called "Religious Right" refused to rally to the side of the most consistently pro-life candidate ever to run for president. He wasn't "viable" enough in the polls for them -- in the winter of 2006-07, mind you, when the Howard Dean precedent of 2003 proved that a longshot had plenty of time to catch on -- and they abandoned him to be willfully misled by politicians they know will let them down if elected.
The blogs and message machine on the Left always bemoans the alleged all-powerful influence of the leaders of the "Religious Right." This country should be so lucky. They're a bunch of whimpering, toothless sellouts just like so many other influence-chasers in D.C.
Pat Buchanan's forecast that Rudy Giuliani would try to bridge his differences with social conservatives by buying them off with militarism is paying off -- witness his endorsement by Pat Robertson, one of the big poohbahs of the Social Issues Right since the 1980s. Apparently the willingness to bomb Iran on the drop of a dime transcends every other difference that is supposed to exist between Robertson and the thrice-married drag queen.
Robertson's sellout of the pro-life and traditional marriage community is shameful but not unexpected. For all the rhetoric about leaders of the "far right" in this country, most of them have proven to be phonies and sellouts who want a place at the table far more than they want the advancement of their principles. The best example of all comes from the leadup to the 1996 Republican presidential race, when Bill Clinton was at a low ebb and several candidates with a legitimate conservative pedigree were entering the fray: Buchanan, Phil Gramm, Steve Forbes and Alan Keyes among others. So who did Ralph Reed and other alleged "radical right" potentates line up behind? Good old Mr. Establishment Bob Dole.
For those who have appointed themselves as the leaders and guardians of right-wing thought, viability always trumps every other principle, including integrity and idealism. On the same day Robertson shamed himself by traipsing hat-in-hand to the anti-life frontrunner in the presidential race, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback was putting a period at the end of his campaign by endorsing fellow Senator John McCain. Brownback's effort was doomed when leaders of the so-called "Religious Right" refused to rally to the side of the most consistently pro-life candidate ever to run for president. He wasn't "viable" enough in the polls for them -- in the winter of 2006-07, mind you, when the Howard Dean precedent of 2003 proved that a longshot had plenty of time to catch on -- and they abandoned him to be willfully misled by politicians they know will let them down if elected.
The blogs and message machine on the Left always bemoans the alleged all-powerful influence of the leaders of the "Religious Right." This country should be so lucky. They're a bunch of whimpering, toothless sellouts just like so many other influence-chasers in D.C.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Midseason NFL rankings
By Rick Morris
As with our rankings that we published around the ¼ mark of the NFL season, we will utilize fantasy sports principles here in terms of separating the teams by tier. Just as it was at that point, it remains striking that more than half the league constitutes a vast middle level not separated by much, at least in terms of remaining playoff opportunities. Note by the records of the Steelers and Ravens that this is being published prior to the Week 9 Monday Night Football game.
TOP LEVEL: MUTANT SUPER-TEAMS
1.
2.
SECOND LEVEL: CERTAIN PLAYOFF TEAMS
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
THIRD LEVEL: POTENTIAL PLAYOFF TEAMS, ALL WITH SIGNIFICANT FLAWS
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
FOURTH LEVEL: HORRIBLE FOOTBALL
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
Additionally, to measure the cumulative strength of each division, we added up the above rankings of each team in a division to form a division power number. Keep in mind that the lower the number, the better.
1T. AFC South (37)
1T. NFC East (37)
3. AFC North (60)
4. NFC North (64)
5. NFC South (73)
6T. AFC West (83)
6T. AFC East (83)
8. NFC West (91)
NOTES: Clearly, top-to-bottom, the AFC South and NFC East are by far the deepest divisions in football at the moment. The AFC East is horrible outside of the Patriots, but their strength of schedule this year is still very tough due to also facing the tough AFC North and NFC East. I had forecast the NFC West to be football’s toughest and deepest coming into the season and they are by this measure by far the worst! In my defense, injuries have battered these teams disproportionately relative to other divisions, but I clearly overestimated how far along these young squads were as well. I maintain that the division will be very, very tough by 2008 or 2009. Also, for as much as the AFC has dominated the NFC in Super Bowl play over the last decade as well as interconference games, the public has had it drilled into its collective mind that the American Conference is far superior. Well, when the division totals are added together, the AFC comes out ahead by the slimmest of margins, 263-265. What is the moral of the story that you will not hear anywhere else in the media, at least for months to come? It is that the utter dominance of the Patriots and Colts has hidden the fact that the NFC has pulled very close to parity from top-to-bottom. Now, surely they don’t have a team capable of winning Super Bowl XLII, and perhaps XLIII, but just as we saw in the late 1990s, the tide is turning once again.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: On the occasion of the 100th post here at The FDH Lounge blog, I thank the readers who have catapulted us to a level I did not honestly think we would reach within three months (roughly at the level of the top one million websites on the Internet, according to Alexa.com). We have worked to bring the same diversity of topics you hear and see on The FDH Lounge Internet television program to this blog and we are happy and grateful that you are responding to it as you are.
(Qualified) sympathy for Ron Paul
By Rick Morris
Every presidential election cycle features an unlikely breakthrough candidate who captivates the mainstream with eccentricities that set him apart from the pack. Unlike Howard Dean in 2004 or John McCain in 2000, however, this year’s refugee from obscurity has no chance of even coming close to the nomination. But Texas Congressman Ron Paul has separated himself from the rest of the Republican candidates by taking positions radically different from the rest – and in so doing, he has angered members of this royalist political party whose idea of responsibility is to sit down, shut up, and swallow the pabulum being pushed by the leadership.
Make no mistake – I am not a Paul supporter. Like other members of The FDH Lounge program, I am backing Fred Thompson and see him as the only viable candidate to save our country from further doom. But I harbor some sympathies for some of the Paul positions and certainly for the spirit that animates his candidacy.
Recently the RedState.com website made headlines by taking the extraordinary approach of prohibiting any new Ron Paul supporters from establishing a presence in the community. They are well within their legal rights to do so. Moreover, in light of the annoying tendencies of Paul supporters to spam and perform various Internet acts of harassment on behalf of their candidate, I understand the unwillingness that RedState may have to deal with the antics of a candidate almost universally regarded as “fringe.”
But the RedState folks were incredibly ill-advised in defending their decision by labeling the Ron Paul movement as “liberal.” Ron Paul is a self-described libertarian who takes paleoconservative positions on many foreign policy matters. Now, I must admit, as a self-identified paleoconservative, that Paul seems to go beyond where I and other paleos are at and does seem to advocate liberal foreign policy positions (such as the nature of the disengagement he seeks from the Middle East). My disagreements with him about this are such that they would preclude my support of him for the Republican nomination for president.
However, even if you grant some matters of foreign policy to those questioning Paul, he’s one of the least liberal candidates ever to run for public office. The man is a radical libertarian. Name any aspect of the modern welfare state and he’s against it. He speaks fondly of the gold standard and the reintroduction of principles from the Austrian economic school of thought. The aspects of complete individualism he preaches run so counter to liberal philosophies that the RedState justification stands as one of the more asinine explanations of any decision in this election cycle.
For a Republican Party that sold its soul this decade to try to buy more votes by embracing a boondoggle Medicare prescription drug program, the heinous, dollar-sucking No Child Left Behind, amnesty for illegal immigrants and all forms of corrupt pork barreling, a moral watchdog like Ron Paul serves a vital purpose – even if he does offend the Powers That Be in the GOP who want everyone to sit down and shut up as our Old American Republic yields to the New World Order, piece by piece. When the guardians of conservative purity have more sympathy for the blow-dried power brokers at the RNC than they do the pursuit of sound domestic public policy, they have nobody to blame but themselves for a world ready to embrace Hillary Clinton and empower the wackos at DailyKos.
Pakistan debacle exposes our overreach
By Rick Morris
I wonder how many people heard the news that Pakistan President/General Pervez Musharraf’s seizure of power over the weekend and assumed that he led off his announcement with a little sample from Jay-Z (THIS … IS … STATE OF
Regardless, the move represents a major black eye for the
In justifying the Iraq War, Bush administration officials disparaged the policies of their predecessors (including the president’s father!) over several decades in “tolerating” the repressive regimes of the
Although it’s hard to remember clearly though the fog of our hard times in Iraq over the next two years, George Bush did have some momentary wind at his back as he took his victory lap in early 2005. Iraqi elections had just been held, and the images of jubilant voters waving their ink-stained purple fingers at the camera were compelling. Also at about that time, in a part of the world not far away, the Orange Revolution in
But inevitably, the moment did not last and the world was reminded again why sager minds had resisted the suicidal path of placing Wilsonian democracy above all else that Bush had embraced. Homicidal Hamas won the Palestinian elections and turned the Gaza Strip into even more of a terrorist hub than it had been previously (which really says something!). Iraqis subsequently elected tribal leaders and warlords to their government who, to put it mildly, had no appreciation for the sacrifices our country had laid down for them. The democratic experiment in
Granted, we had no choice but to promote democracy in
Our previous Iraq War FAQ column addressed the crumbling of our military deterrence in the sands of
^ While pronouncing democracy as a vital and non-negotiable concept in our dealings with repressive regimes, we never seriously challenged
^ We talked tough on
^ Now, we have rewarded Musharraf’s backsliding from democracy not with the calm backroom diplomacy that would have been available to us had we not made such a fetish out of imposing complete democracy anywhere as soon as possible but with the impotent whining of a country whose bluff has just been called – and the world noticed.
In its haste to pronounce George W. Bush as the Ronald Reagan of his time, a designation that could have seemed fair for as long as six months after 9/11 but now seems a grotesque insult to the Great Communicator, the American right has embraced the imperial overreach that has so damaged our national interest these past few years. This is largely because the neoconservative wing of the movement has taken hold almost completely in the 2000s and driven out the traditional adherents of the Old Right, who believed that the only relevant question to ever be asked was “does this serve
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Obligatory "Game of the Decade" prediction
By Rick Morris
In just over an hour, the teams engaged in this decade's greatest rivalry will face off in the first-ever meeting of teams both undefeated this late in the season. That makes this game the greatest and most anticipated yet between the teams and explains the hype that we haven't seen in the regular season since the annual Cowboy-49'er tilts of the early and mid-'90s.
I believe that the scoring will be lower than most believe, with the defenses being able to stand tall better than many predict. In the end, I see New England getting by, as this 2007 Patriot squad is on a short list already of the greatest teams of all time -- the 2007 Colts, although superior to their championship team of a year ago and arguably better than many teams to have won a Super Bowl, are not on that super-elevated level. As a lifelong Browns fan, I am chagrined to have to agree on the final score with Bill Cowher. 31-20 Pats.
On another note, the NFL's prohibition against showing games against a home team's broadcasts has never been shown to be more asinine than today. As this map illuminates, the areas around Cleveland and Houston are not able to receive this game on television. While the NHL's broadcast situation is a joke, the NFL's isn't much better if it can't assure the entire country of witnessing the key regular season matchup of our time.
In just over an hour, the teams engaged in this decade's greatest rivalry will face off in the first-ever meeting of teams both undefeated this late in the season. That makes this game the greatest and most anticipated yet between the teams and explains the hype that we haven't seen in the regular season since the annual Cowboy-49'er tilts of the early and mid-'90s.
I believe that the scoring will be lower than most believe, with the defenses being able to stand tall better than many predict. In the end, I see New England getting by, as this 2007 Patriot squad is on a short list already of the greatest teams of all time -- the 2007 Colts, although superior to their championship team of a year ago and arguably better than many teams to have won a Super Bowl, are not on that super-elevated level. As a lifelong Browns fan, I am chagrined to have to agree on the final score with Bill Cowher. 31-20 Pats.
On another note, the NFL's prohibition against showing games against a home team's broadcasts has never been shown to be more asinine than today. As this map illuminates, the areas around Cleveland and Houston are not able to receive this game on television. While the NHL's broadcast situation is a joke, the NFL's isn't much better if it can't assure the entire country of witnessing the key regular season matchup of our time.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
OSU stays #1 in throwback fashion
By Rick Morris
(NOTE: This is a report filed after attending today's Ohio State-Wisconsin game.)
On an afternoon at the Horseshoe in Columbus that saw the unlikelihoods stack on top of one another, higher and higher, it became difficult to determine which was the biggest of all.
Some might have cited Ohio State's defensive collapse early in the third quarter, that, combined with uneven offensive play in the first half, put the 16 1/2 point favorite and the nation's top-ranked team in their first real jeopardy of the season.
Some might have cited a Wisconsin team known for a bruising running game being able to establish the pass far more successfully on this afternoon -- and still winning the time of possession battle.
Some might have cited the spate of poor tackling that inexplicably befell the nation's top defense during the aforementioned critical stretch in the third quarter.
But the most insightful people would have cited the manner in which the Buckeyes mounted their successful and overwhelming comeback: a throwback to the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense of Woody Hayes that featured one of the school's greatest second-half rushing performances ever by sophomore running back Chris Wells.
Wells ran for 144 of his 169 yards and three touchdowns after halftime in a career-defining performance that led #1 Ohio State (10-0, 6-0 in the Big Ten) past Wisconsin, 38-17 (7-3, 3-3) before 105,449 delirious fans at Ohio Stadium. The victory was OSU's 20th in a row in the Big Ten, earning them the all-time conference record for consecutive wins.
It was a classic example of the game being much closer than the score would indicate, as the Buckeyes did not even come back to tie the game until the 2:41 mark of the third quarter, before adding three scores in the final stanza. Before that point, the game seemed destined to go all the way down to the wire.
Ohio State took the opening kickoff and stormed down the field with a seven-play, 75-yard drive that culminated in the first of two Brian Robiskie touchdown receptions on the day. Wisconsin answered with a surprisingly balanced 15-play, 77-yard drive for a field goal. The key play was a shocking fake punt, a 31-yard pass from Ken DeBauche to Paul Standring that provided enough momentum to ensure points on the board. From there, however, both defenses settled into a bend-but-don't-break mold and the only remaining points in the first half came on a 27-yard Ryan Pretorius field goal with six seconds remaining.
And then, amazingly, the Badgers came out firing with a big play offense in the second half that gave them touchdowns on their first two possessions to take a 17-10 lead and back the Buckeyes into their biggest corner of the season thus far. Wells then proceeded to run at and over the Wisconsin defense with equal ruthless efficiency during the course of four Buckeye touchdown drives the rest of the day. The extent to which the team imposed its will physically on Wisconsin was made more apparent by the fact that it did so despite losing the time of possession battle, 27:41-32:19. The Badgers sealed their doom with an unsuccessful, ill-advised and apparently unscripted second attempt at a fake punt from their own 27 trailing 24-17 in the early fourth quarter.
Wells was not alone in his dominance. On a day when the Buckeyes needed their biggest stars to play up to their potential, most did so and many posted career-best performances. Vernon Gholston became the third player in OSU history to record four sacks in a game and fellow defensive anchor James Laurinaitus recorded a career-high 19 tackles. The two Brians at wide receiver stood tall as well, as Robiskie's three-catch, 46-yard effort included two touchdown receptions and Hartline had a career-high seven catches for 95 yards, including a career-best 45-yard reception to set up the field goal before halftime. Quarterback Todd Boeckman was at least solid, with a 17-for-28, 166-yard, two-touchdown performance. Aside from the occasional multi-receiver spread, he ended up executing a very basic offense that only featured one screen pass to Brandon Saine, a seven-yard catch in the second quarter that resulted in a first down.
The Badgers' loss snuffed out any faint hopes of a BCS bowl bid and puts them firmly in the position of hoping for one of the Big Ten bowl slots on January 1. For Ohio State, a resurgent Illinois team awaits next week for the final home game, then the annual clash with archrival Michigan that could conceivably catapult them into the national championship game for a second straight season.
(NOTE: This is a report filed after attending today's Ohio State-Wisconsin game.)
On an afternoon at the Horseshoe in Columbus that saw the unlikelihoods stack on top of one another, higher and higher, it became difficult to determine which was the biggest of all.
Some might have cited Ohio State's defensive collapse early in the third quarter, that, combined with uneven offensive play in the first half, put the 16 1/2 point favorite and the nation's top-ranked team in their first real jeopardy of the season.
Some might have cited a Wisconsin team known for a bruising running game being able to establish the pass far more successfully on this afternoon -- and still winning the time of possession battle.
Some might have cited the spate of poor tackling that inexplicably befell the nation's top defense during the aforementioned critical stretch in the third quarter.
But the most insightful people would have cited the manner in which the Buckeyes mounted their successful and overwhelming comeback: a throwback to the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense of Woody Hayes that featured one of the school's greatest second-half rushing performances ever by sophomore running back Chris Wells.
Wells ran for 144 of his 169 yards and three touchdowns after halftime in a career-defining performance that led #1 Ohio State (10-0, 6-0 in the Big Ten) past Wisconsin, 38-17 (7-3, 3-3) before 105,449 delirious fans at Ohio Stadium. The victory was OSU's 20th in a row in the Big Ten, earning them the all-time conference record for consecutive wins.
It was a classic example of the game being much closer than the score would indicate, as the Buckeyes did not even come back to tie the game until the 2:41 mark of the third quarter, before adding three scores in the final stanza. Before that point, the game seemed destined to go all the way down to the wire.
Ohio State took the opening kickoff and stormed down the field with a seven-play, 75-yard drive that culminated in the first of two Brian Robiskie touchdown receptions on the day. Wisconsin answered with a surprisingly balanced 15-play, 77-yard drive for a field goal. The key play was a shocking fake punt, a 31-yard pass from Ken DeBauche to Paul Standring that provided enough momentum to ensure points on the board. From there, however, both defenses settled into a bend-but-don't-break mold and the only remaining points in the first half came on a 27-yard Ryan Pretorius field goal with six seconds remaining.
And then, amazingly, the Badgers came out firing with a big play offense in the second half that gave them touchdowns on their first two possessions to take a 17-10 lead and back the Buckeyes into their biggest corner of the season thus far. Wells then proceeded to run at and over the Wisconsin defense with equal ruthless efficiency during the course of four Buckeye touchdown drives the rest of the day. The extent to which the team imposed its will physically on Wisconsin was made more apparent by the fact that it did so despite losing the time of possession battle, 27:41-32:19. The Badgers sealed their doom with an unsuccessful, ill-advised and apparently unscripted second attempt at a fake punt from their own 27 trailing 24-17 in the early fourth quarter.
Wells was not alone in his dominance. On a day when the Buckeyes needed their biggest stars to play up to their potential, most did so and many posted career-best performances. Vernon Gholston became the third player in OSU history to record four sacks in a game and fellow defensive anchor James Laurinaitus recorded a career-high 19 tackles. The two Brians at wide receiver stood tall as well, as Robiskie's three-catch, 46-yard effort included two touchdown receptions and Hartline had a career-high seven catches for 95 yards, including a career-best 45-yard reception to set up the field goal before halftime. Quarterback Todd Boeckman was at least solid, with a 17-for-28, 166-yard, two-touchdown performance. Aside from the occasional multi-receiver spread, he ended up executing a very basic offense that only featured one screen pass to Brandon Saine, a seven-yard catch in the second quarter that resulted in a first down.
The Badgers' loss snuffed out any faint hopes of a BCS bowl bid and puts them firmly in the position of hoping for one of the Big Ten bowl slots on January 1. For Ohio State, a resurgent Illinois team awaits next week for the final home game, then the annual clash with archrival Michigan that could conceivably catapult them into the national championship game for a second straight season.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
WWE transitional periods, then and now
By Rick Morris
With the WWE clearly caught up in a transitional period right now, I was curious to check back in the history of the company to determine if we might be able to draw any conclusions about the future success or failure of the company based on present events. I limited my examination to the period coinciding with Vince Junior running the company, because comparing circumstances with a national promotion to the previous regional one would be apples and oranges.
The old WWWF really didn’t feature transitional periods like the ones we’ve grown accustomed to in the modern era, anyway. When Bruno Sammartino captured the WWWF Title from Buddy Rogers on
The next two switches actually had no transitional champions in the mix at all. Superstar Billy Graham started the first long-term heel title run in WWWF history when he ended Bruno’s time on top once and for all on April 30, 1977. His flamboyant run on top, which a subsequent WWE DVD correctly labeled as ahead of its time, ended when the promotion put the strap on the man it had been grooming for the big spot, Bob Backlund on
- THE START OF THE NATIONAL EXPANSION, THE PAY-PER-VIEW ERA AND WHAT WOULD COME TO BE KNOWN AS SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT. This era started with the Iron Sheik’s controversial victory over Backlund on
- THE POST-HOGAN ERA BEGINS AND THE NEW GENERATION IS FORESHADOWED. Hogan dropped the belt to Andre the Giant in 1988 and The Ultimate Warrior in 1990, but his shadow never left the main-event scene, nor did the fact that the promotion was still built around the show-biz, style-over-workrate principles he embodied. And when the smoke eventually cleared, he ended up with the belt again both time. However, business had been falling off from the peak period of the boom, starting in earnest with the Warrior’s run on top in 1990. When the title was held up in December of 1991, to be filled at The Royal Rumble the next month, it seemed inevitable that Hogan would stay in the mix – almost certainly to be wrestling in the main event of WrestleMania VIII against the man who became the new champion, Ric Flair (the acquisition of Flair, who left his old promotion without dropping either the WCW or NWA World Titles in the ring in the summer of 1991 is another story in and of itself – proving that the most cyclical element in wrestling is the tendency to make mistakes, the WWF never put Hogan and Flair in the ring one-on-one on pay-per-view during their time together, wasting the ultimate “Dream Match” and foreshadowing how badly they would screw up the acquisition of WCW itself ten years later). But the eruption of the industry’s first major steroid scandal in the winter of 1992 made the poster child for the bulked-up modern era too hot to handle for the company, so a “retirement match” against Sid Justice was booked for ‘Mania instead. For the next several months, the 1980s direction of the company seemed intact, as Flair and Randy Savage traded the title back and forth and kept the focus on the established names of the era with the Warrior also in the mix. But when Flair suffered an inner-ear injury that necessitated the promotion taking the belt off of him, the direction they chose was very fateful. Young Bret Hart, a second-generation synonymous with the traditional type of pro wrestling that had been around for decades before the boom, won the title from Flair in his home country of Canada on October 12, 1992. While the company would not institute the “New Generation” marketing campaign for almost another two years, in retrospect the transition to that era started on that night up north. The following month, Hart and Shawn Michaels, the two most dominant figures of the “New Generation” era squared off in the main event for the title at Survivor Series and signaled that the focus would be on new names and a new direction. Right about then, the Warrior left, Flair was preparing for his final few months with the company and Hogan was preparing a comeback that fizzled due in equal parts to bad booking and a breakdown in understanding with the company. Hogan did have a title run that started with an infamous impromptu match against new champion Yokozuna at the end of Wretlemania IX and ended with a screwy finish at King of the Ring two months later. Fans long accustomed to seeing the Hulkster avenge every wrong were shocked when he quietly faded from the promotion after the loss due to an inability to come to terms with the company. When Lex Luger turned babyface and adopted the persona of a super-patriot by bodyslamming Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid on July 4, 1993, the similarity of his new character to that of Hogan made it clear to one and all that the King of the 1980s era was dead and the new crop of main eventers would be left to carry on in his place. As such, the transition had been completed. The “New Generation” campaign, officially adopted in 1994 as a marketing counterpoint to WCW’s signings of Hogan and other stars made famous by the WWF, fizzled. Business never approached the heights of the boom and the company floundered as more top stars jumped ship over the next few years.
- THE SECOND NATIONAL BOOM: THE ATTITUDE ERA BEGINS. This is the murkiest transitional era in the history of the company, as the origins were very difficult to trace. For all intents and purposes, however, the
- THE ATTITUDE BOOM GIVES WAY TO THE BRAND
- A REAL ATTEMPT TO BUILD POST-BOOM STARS. By early 2004, fans had lost patience with the floundering lack of direction in both WWE brands. HHH started the Raw-only World Title era by failing to elevate RVD and Kane, then engaged in a surprisingly mediocre feud with old friend Shawn Michaels, a self-indulgent display of backroom power at the hands of Booker T at WrestleMania XIX and lackluster programs with Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash and Goldberg. Smackdown fared somewhat better with Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle at the forefront of the WWE Title picture, but distractions like another ill-fated Hulk Hogan comeback kept the show from reaching its full potential. With Austin having retired after WrestleMania XIX, The Rock coming back much less frequently due to Hollywood commitments and Mick Foley surprisingly staying retired, the company was in dire need of developing new stars. Having hyped the 20th edition of WrestleMania for a full year, the company saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. And they were compelled to make a better effort of it, with the WWE a public entity now and stock prices hanging in the balance throughout their period of stagnation. The transition to the era of new stars began in earnest at the 2004 Royal Rumble when upper-midcard fixture Chris Benoit was elevated with a stirring victory. He ended up on Raw, winning the World Title at Mania. On Smackdown, Eddy Guerrero was tabbed for a promotion to the top of the card, inspiring the wrestling world by capping his comeback from drug issues by capturing the WWE Title at No Way Out and successfully defending it at WrestleMania XX against Kurt Angle. However, the challenges facing the promotion were only just beginning at that point. Mania served as the final WWE match for both Lesnar and Goldberg as two legitimate main eventers quit the scene after one infamous final match. Bradshaw was quickly repackaged on Smackdown as
- THE POST-BENOIT ERA. This is where we’ve been since that horrible weekend in late June 2007 when Chris Benoit shockingly gave in to his demons and slaughtered his wife, son and himself. In the months prior to the tragedy, the company did not necessarily seem on the cusp of a new boom, but it did seem at least somewhat possible. With his rap, movie and commercial ventures, John Cena was earning more notoriety in the mainstream than any other star created since the Attitude days. WrestleMania XXIII, held in a sold-out domed stadium for the first time in four years, earned a good deal of mainstream attention as Donald Trump played a key role in the “Billionaire vs. Billionaire Hair Match” between his and Vince McMahon’s proxies. And the company seemed to moving in a pretty decent direction creatively in the first half of 2007, overcoming an injury to HHH that decimated existing plans for Mania and an Undertaker injury that short-circuited his face vs. face feud with Batista. The company did stub its toe somewhat with an ill-advised “Mr. McMahon death” storyline in which it was depicted that the company chairman’s car was blown up with him in it. Resolution of the storyline was interrupted by the Benoit murder/suicide, which shocked and demoralized a fanbase that had already absorbed many previous tragedies, but nothing this twisted. Benoit’s drug issues caused enormous headaches for the company and exposed massive holes in the company’s alleged enforcement policies. In September, many stars were abruptly suspended for drug use, an unprecedented amount of simultaneous punishment brought down the by company. Embarrassing and potentially threatening Congressional hearings await on the issue of the company’s attitudes on drug use. Other main-event stars have gone down as well, including Lashley and Cena (who walked out of WrestleMania as world champion each of the last three years and surely would have been the man holding up the belt with fireworks going off overhead at WrestleMania XXIV in the Citrus Bowl next spring). McMahon quickly wrapped up the “fake death” storyline of his character, only to substitute a “Mr. McMahon’s illegitimate son” mystery storyline that concluded in the most anticlimactic fashion possible, with a midget wrestler being bestowed the “honor” and the matter being played for laughs instead of mined for potential big-money matches. A series of teaser videos have played on WWE programming recently, seeming to hint at the long-awaited return of former star Chris Jericho, but, to the dismay of fans, he has yet to materialize. This transitional period is the most chaotic we have seen in the modern history of the WWE, which is not completely surprising in that it is the first one to feature three brands (ECW was added to the mix full-time in June 2006, although it bears little in common with the underdog promotion of the 1990s that bore the same name). The company is frantically throwing one idea after another at the wall to see what sticks. This desperation paid off with the Attitude boom, but failed in each of the last two transitional eras. All indications are that their unfocused approach will backfire this time as well.
Decade's most influential people in sports
By Rick Morris
As mentioned there, my companion post about the most influential people in the world during the decade to date was actually inspired by a question I posed to myself about the most influential in sports this decade. I knew who I would slot #1, and it's a name most would never associate with this list in any capacity, but I frankly don't think people can question my logic.
As with the other list, what is most important is impact for today and the future on the sports world. Honorable mention goes to Bill Belichick (most successful coach/personnel figure of the decade), Peyton Manning (king of endorsements), Barry Bonds (most divisive and thought-provoking person of the decade). With the exception of Bonds (who is one of the figures causing such a public backlash to steroids and HGH that baseball might be forced to clean itself), however, none of them have caused significant, long-term changes to the sports landscape.
Working our way up the list ...
5. Dana White. The UFC president has been on an incredible roll of late, acquiring the assets of his main rival Pride in a deal he compared, only half-ridiculously, to the AFL-NFL merger. Also, in 2006, his organization hired away Marc Ratner, the well-respected executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. This was seen, correctly, as a body blow to what has remained of the credibility of boxing. Almost all of the ills of boxing -- from the lack of a consistent TV presence to the diminishing ability to deliver "dream fights" to the proliferation of too many meaningless titles -- have been eliminated by the kingpin of MMA. He has also cleaned up the sport, instituting needed safety rules and bringing thus bringing needed respectability. In terms of entertainment impact, the UFC has supplanted Vince McMahon's tired empire as the top buyrate engine for pay-per-views. While White has much to do to advance MMA to the top tier of American sports, just the fact that he could plausibly do so in the next few years is breathtaking. Plus, with MMA having great success at the expense of boxing, it has played an important historical role in the sports world, because boxing has traditionally been such a huge part of the landscape in America.
4. Dale Earnhardt, Sr. Death transforms superstars into icons: from Elvis to Knute Rockne to James Dean, the immortality of a constant presence in the culture awaits the gifted who perish before their time. Such is the case for "Big E," whose combination of accomplishment and popularity was unrivaled in his sport. With NASCAR benefiting from the asinine circuit split in the American open-wheel universe, a large and unprecedented national TV contract and huge media attention loomed for the 2001 season even before the tragic, season-starting accident at Daytona. But the tragedy in the final turn took everything to a whole new level and was the final impetus in carrying NASCAR to the top tier of American pro sports.
3. Lebron James. LBJ represented the apex of the high school-to-NBA era, which the Association ended in 2006. But that development didn't change his level of influence at all. He was the first hoops star to be documented so heavily at such a young age; to a certain extent Greg Oden and O.J. Mayo followed in his footsteps by having large media attention so long before college. Others will assuredly follow. But recent comments from Mayo and new crosstown rival Kevin Love about emulating James' media strategies have confirmed what has long been suspected: while Lebron grew up wanting to "Be Like Mike," and admittedly hasn't yet got the titles to match "That #23," stars of these generation are embracing as a model "This #23."
2. Tiger Woods. Doubtless most will find it shocking that this global icon is not tops on the list. He certainly is the most dominant athlete of the decade along with his friend Roger Federer in tennis and has public credibility and advertising dollars out the ying-yang. And although his emergence as one of the top two golfers of all time has helped the PGA to reach a new strata financially, he hasn't had the impact across multiple sports that our top person in sports did, albeit unintentionally.
1. Matt Kenseth. This NASCAR driver won the 2003 Winston Cup championship and is a perennial title threat. But he has a relatively low public profile compared to some other drivers on his talent level. How did he earn our top spot? He did so without trying, actually. His dull 2003 slog to the title in a season in which he won only one race but accrued points in a relentless but uninspiring style was the final straw that pushed NASCAR to institute its current Chase for the Championship playoff format. From 2004 on, the final 10 races of the season have served as a playoff for the drivers who qualify in the first 26 events. This has revitalized late-season fan interest, ratings and media attention as desired and led to the adoption of a playoff format by the PGA and NHRA, both in 2007. It is entirely possible that other circuits may adopt some form of a playoff system at some point, perhaps the ATP, WTA or PBA. Speaking of other circuits, the increased success of NASCAR made possible by the Chase has led to significant defections from both major open-wheel circuits in this country and probably sealed the doom of that form of competition as a major force in motorsports. At any rate, the effects of Kenseth's much-derided coast to the championship in 2003 forever changed NASCAR, solidified it as one of the predominant forces on the American sporting landscape, provided one more body-blow to open-wheel racing, and caused other sports to mimic the revolutionary changes in his own. As such, Matt Kenseth is deservedly the most influential figure in American sports thus far this decade.
As mentioned there, my companion post about the most influential people in the world during the decade to date was actually inspired by a question I posed to myself about the most influential in sports this decade. I knew who I would slot #1, and it's a name most would never associate with this list in any capacity, but I frankly don't think people can question my logic.
As with the other list, what is most important is impact for today and the future on the sports world. Honorable mention goes to Bill Belichick (most successful coach/personnel figure of the decade), Peyton Manning (king of endorsements), Barry Bonds (most divisive and thought-provoking person of the decade). With the exception of Bonds (who is one of the figures causing such a public backlash to steroids and HGH that baseball might be forced to clean itself), however, none of them have caused significant, long-term changes to the sports landscape.
Working our way up the list ...
5. Dana White. The UFC president has been on an incredible roll of late, acquiring the assets of his main rival Pride in a deal he compared, only half-ridiculously, to the AFL-NFL merger. Also, in 2006, his organization hired away Marc Ratner, the well-respected executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. This was seen, correctly, as a body blow to what has remained of the credibility of boxing. Almost all of the ills of boxing -- from the lack of a consistent TV presence to the diminishing ability to deliver "dream fights" to the proliferation of too many meaningless titles -- have been eliminated by the kingpin of MMA. He has also cleaned up the sport, instituting needed safety rules and bringing thus bringing needed respectability. In terms of entertainment impact, the UFC has supplanted Vince McMahon's tired empire as the top buyrate engine for pay-per-views. While White has much to do to advance MMA to the top tier of American sports, just the fact that he could plausibly do so in the next few years is breathtaking. Plus, with MMA having great success at the expense of boxing, it has played an important historical role in the sports world, because boxing has traditionally been such a huge part of the landscape in America.
4. Dale Earnhardt, Sr. Death transforms superstars into icons: from Elvis to Knute Rockne to James Dean, the immortality of a constant presence in the culture awaits the gifted who perish before their time. Such is the case for "Big E," whose combination of accomplishment and popularity was unrivaled in his sport. With NASCAR benefiting from the asinine circuit split in the American open-wheel universe, a large and unprecedented national TV contract and huge media attention loomed for the 2001 season even before the tragic, season-starting accident at Daytona. But the tragedy in the final turn took everything to a whole new level and was the final impetus in carrying NASCAR to the top tier of American pro sports.
3. Lebron James. LBJ represented the apex of the high school-to-NBA era, which the Association ended in 2006. But that development didn't change his level of influence at all. He was the first hoops star to be documented so heavily at such a young age; to a certain extent Greg Oden and O.J. Mayo followed in his footsteps by having large media attention so long before college. Others will assuredly follow. But recent comments from Mayo and new crosstown rival Kevin Love about emulating James' media strategies have confirmed what has long been suspected: while Lebron grew up wanting to "Be Like Mike," and admittedly hasn't yet got the titles to match "That #23," stars of these generation are embracing as a model "This #23."
2. Tiger Woods. Doubtless most will find it shocking that this global icon is not tops on the list. He certainly is the most dominant athlete of the decade along with his friend Roger Federer in tennis and has public credibility and advertising dollars out the ying-yang. And although his emergence as one of the top two golfers of all time has helped the PGA to reach a new strata financially, he hasn't had the impact across multiple sports that our top person in sports did, albeit unintentionally.
1. Matt Kenseth. This NASCAR driver won the 2003 Winston Cup championship and is a perennial title threat. But he has a relatively low public profile compared to some other drivers on his talent level. How did he earn our top spot? He did so without trying, actually. His dull 2003 slog to the title in a season in which he won only one race but accrued points in a relentless but uninspiring style was the final straw that pushed NASCAR to institute its current Chase for the Championship playoff format. From 2004 on, the final 10 races of the season have served as a playoff for the drivers who qualify in the first 26 events. This has revitalized late-season fan interest, ratings and media attention as desired and led to the adoption of a playoff format by the PGA and NHRA, both in 2007. It is entirely possible that other circuits may adopt some form of a playoff system at some point, perhaps the ATP, WTA or PBA. Speaking of other circuits, the increased success of NASCAR made possible by the Chase has led to significant defections from both major open-wheel circuits in this country and probably sealed the doom of that form of competition as a major force in motorsports. At any rate, the effects of Kenseth's much-derided coast to the championship in 2003 forever changed NASCAR, solidified it as one of the predominant forces on the American sporting landscape, provided one more body-blow to open-wheel racing, and caused other sports to mimic the revolutionary changes in his own. As such, Matt Kenseth is deservedly the most influential figure in American sports thus far this decade.
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