Tag: sports

This is your weekly NFL open thread. Sorry for the delay.

We know one thing for certain. The Vikings will STAY UNDEFEATED!

And the Vikings shoot to make it five straight against Houston. This is the weekly NFL open thread.

Okay, now this is going to sound crazy, but rest assured, it has NOTHING to do with my being a Vikings fan. A friend who shall go unnamed subscribes to the scripted theory of the NFL, by which he means that the probable outcome of the season is more or less determined in advance.

It doesn’t always hold up, of course, due to the unpredictable elements of the game, but he points out that there are observable primary, secondary, and tertiary narratives. And here’s where it gets interesting: for the first time, I’m picking up a narrative that suggests the Vikings are scripted to win the Super Bowl this year.

One example, and far from the most egregious:

The play of their defense has been the biggest on-field factor in their success, which should sound like a familiar formula to those with memories long enough to remember how the Broncos fueled their run to the Super Bowl last season. One member of that Broncos team is now in Minnesota and running back Ronnie Hillman has found more links the two clubs than a standout defense.


“The big thing is the camaraderie,” Hillman said, via the Pioneer Press. “This team plays for each other, and that’s the biggest part. This team has the same brotherhood — these guys treat each other like family the exact same [as in Denver], and that’s what you need to have a championship team. I saw it here right away, how these guys treat each other with respect and without excuses — they’re accountable for what they do, and that’s definitely a good trait to have as a whole. The guys are cool.”


There’s a lot of time between Week Five and the Super Bowl for those comparisons to grow stronger or prove to be superficial, but the Vikings have already shown an ability to overcome adverse developments that they’ll need to go the distance.


I picked up on this after watching their Week Two win and hearing the announcers go on and on about a very different game than the one I’d just watched.

Was apparently the 2015 season:

The NFL has been sacked for a loss. Once considered immune to the audience erosion plaguing the television industry, ratings for the National Football League have tumbled through the first four weeks of the season.

TV networks have bet heavily on sports in general, and the NFL in particular, because of the must-see value of their content. While more viewers are watching commercial-free streaming services like Netflix or recording shows on DVRs and skipping the ads, sports is still primarily watched live, making it valuable to advertisers.

Combined, ESPN, Fox, NBC and CBS are spending an average of $5 billion a year for football rights through 2021. The games not only score big ratings and ad sales, but are crucial platforms to promote other programming.

So far this season, viewership on those networks is down about 10% from last season, according to Nielsen, with steeper declines for prime-time games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday. The drop has caught advertisers and rights holders off guard and left them scrambling to find a cause.

All of the discussions about “a cause” for the NFL’s declining rating are somewhat missing the point. There is no single factor. It is undeniable that the quality of the product has declined, or that the relentless focus on making the passing game easier has imbalanced the level of competition between the QB-haves and the QB-have nots. It’s undeniable that the incessant politics, most of which is at least irritating to the core audience, has caused some people to stop watching. And it’s obvious that Hispanics are considerably less interested in the sport than the whites they have been demographically replacing while fantasy football has changed the way many fans watch the game. The fact that 8 years of economic depression means people have less average disposable income certainly hasn’t helped.

But the chief culprit, in my opinion, is overexposure. A Monday night game used to be a big deal. Adding Sunday night football and Thursday night football means there is insufficient recovery time to begin anticipating the next game. And the move from a 14-game season to a 17-game season means that there is too much football for too long a time, with too many injuries.

Here is my prescription for restoring football to its former glory.

• Reduce the 17-week, 16-game season to 15 weeks, with 14 games.
• Ban all politics by players and the league. No more flags on helmets, pink cleats, or protests. If the league can discipline a player for wearing the wrong color wristband, it can do so for failing to stand at attention, Bud Grant-style, for the anthem. Black helmet stickers for one game to honor a deceased player, coach, or owner are acceptable.
• Cut down on the number of flags, particularly those that nullify a big play without having directly affected it. And get rid of instant replay. It’s only made matters worse, to the extent that no one even knows what a catch is anymore.
• Stop emphasizing the pass. 500-yard passing games are flag football and BYU, not the NFL. Pass interference is 10 yards, automatic first down.
• Encourage more white players by adopting standard, race-neutral 2-game bans for an arrest, 4 more games for a conviction. Teams will tend to prefer the more law-abiding marginal white players over the more athletic marginal black players because the former will be able to stay on the field.
• No more wild card teams. Win the division, make the playoffs. Two rounds and the Super Bowl will end playoff fatigue.

This is the weekly open thread to discuss NFL football.

This is the weekly NFL open thread. Skol Vikes!

Although I’m unhappy about AD being out for the season, I’m confident that Asiata and McKinnon can pick up where they left off two years ago. Especially with Bradford at quarterback instead of Cassel.

No doubt all of those championing the right of Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players to disrespect the national anthem will rush out to defend this Major League Baseball player’s right to free speech, right?

The other shoe has dropped in the Steve Clevenger saga: The Seattle Mariners have suspended the injured catcher for the rest of the season because of racially-charged tweets about the Charlotte protests, the Black Lives Matter movement and President Obama.

General manager Jerry Dipoto said in a statement:

“As soon as we became aware of the tweets posted by Steve yesterday we began to examine all of our options in regard to his standing on the team. Today we have informed him that he is suspended for the remainder of the season without pay.”

Clevenger was already on the 60-day disabled list and wasn’t going to play this season anyway. This isn’t about playing time, rather they’re punishing him in his wallet. He’ll now forfeit the remainder of his $516,500 salary for this season. That comes out to about $31,900 for the final 10 games.

This is why the NFL’s position on the Black Lives Matter protesters is so transparently hypocritical. The professional sports leagues don’t respect free speech in the slightest. They regularly crack down on white players while excusing black players anything short of physically beating women and children.

I’d stop watching Major League Baseball in protest, but I don’t watch it anyhow.

Roger Goodell has put his foot in it again because he’s an indecisive coward who always seeks to work around the issue rather than address it directly. A USMC colonel writes a scathing letter to Goodell:

You are complicit in this! You’ll fine players for large and small infractions but you lack the moral courage and respect for our nation and the fallen to put an immediate stop to this. Yes, I know, it’s their 1st Amendment right to behave in such a despicable manner.

What would happen if they came out and disrespected you or the refs publicly?

I observed a player getting a personal foul for twerking in the end zone after scoring. I guess that’s much worse than disrespecting the flag and our National Anthem. Hmmmmm, isn’t it his 1st Amendment right to express himself like an idiot in the end zone?

Why is taunting not allowed yet taunting America is OK? You fine players for wearing 9-11 commemorative shoes yet you allow scum on the sidelines to sit, kneel or pump their pathetic fist in the air. They are so deprived with their multi-million dollar contracts for playing a freaking game!

You condone it all by your refusal to act.

The Marine officer hits the key point. Since the NFL aggressively fines its players for other protected expressions, its failure to do so when the players are openly disrespecting the flag and the national anthem makes them complicit in that disrespect.

Personally, I thought Bud Grant did it right. Line up straight, stand at attention, and provide a good example of discipline and respect for the kids. I was always proud of how the Grant-era Vikings looked in comparison with the slovenly, undisciplined other teams.

There is nothing wrong with what the players are doing, anymore than there was anything wrong with John Randle painting his face or Jim McMahon wearing his headbands. But the NFL’s hypocrisy with regards to the matter is both wrong and contemptible.

The weekly NFL open thread. Sorry for the delay, but I haven’t been paying attention today because the Vikes-Packers are the late game.

I have to say, I love seeing the LOS ANGELES Rams in their traditional blue-and-yellow.

We had a make-up game last night against one of the better teams in our league. It didn’t look promising, as neither of our goalies could make it and we had no substitutes. I don’t think I’ve been that nervous taking the field in the 30 years since the high school state tournament, because for the first time in my entire soccer career, the captain had me playing defense, specifically, left defender.

Fortunately, I knew the other team’s attackers and I’ve been watching Ender play defense for several years now, so I wasn’t completely lost. Their best attacker and leading scorer knows I’m as fast as he is, so he focused his runs on the right, which left me to become the goalie’s primary outlet. This meant that I found myself in a very unfamiliar and unwelcome role, which is essentially that of point guard bringing the ball up to half-court.

I played it very conservatively at first, passing the ball to the closest unmarked midfielder; if there wasn’t one, I just passed it inside to the sweeper. That worked well, and for the first 20 minutes, we didn’t permit any good chances and I only made one mistake when I had no unmarked options and made a dumb pass in between two of our midfielders instead of putting it right on the feet of the better midfielder and allowing him to try to beat his man.

One of our starting defenders showed up late, so once he was ready I took myself out of the game with some relief. It was a solid 20 minutes, though, and I’d realized that from the back, I could see the lanes which the other team’s defense was leaving for our attackers and wings. I even made two long passes past the defense which created decent chances for us, although their keeper kept the ball out of the net.

Ironically, I’d only been out for 30 seconds when they scored their first goal. Then they scored a second one a few minutes later, and the captain put me back in at my traditional position of attacker. We managed to get a goal back, then promptly gave up a third right before halftime, which was frustrating.

I was a little shocked at halftime when the captain moved me back to right defender, especially since that’s where all three of their goals had come. It struck me as a fairly solid recipe for disaster, but I figured that we were already down 3-1, so how much worse could it get? So, I assured him I was happy to play wherever I was told and did my best to try not to look too nervous.

Now, I was under strict orders not to dribble around or try to beat anyone with the ball. One of the huge problems with putting midfielders on defense is that they frequently, and stupidly, try to beat the fastest players on the field, the attackers, and often end up losing the ball and leaving the defense in a very vulnerable position. That being said, when the attackers put on pressure, it is sometimes necessary to do something to avoid blindly kicking the ball up the field to no one. The safest thing, of course, is to take the ball outside, where one can simply kick it out if necessary, thereby giving up the ball, but also giving the defense time to get set.

About one minute in, a long ball rolled to our goalie, who passed it to me, at which point it became apparent that they were going to play pressure, as one attacker cut off my inside pass to the sweeper, while the left wing rushed me. However, as basketball fans know, speed beats pressure. So, I just pushed the ball outside and up the field, beating the wing, which left open space all the way up to the middle of the field. I brought the ball up, spotted our center mid open, sent him the ball, which he one-touched to our best attacker, who hit the ball on his first touch. Bang-Bang-Bang-Goal. 3-2.

We fought our way back into the game and actually managed to take the lead, 4-3, but their leading scorer beat our offsides trap –  he didn’t really, he was two steps off, but the ref was at a bad angle to see it – and managed to somehow get a step on our sweeper and slide the ball past our stand-in keeper. That was disappointing, but 4-4 was a very good result considering we were playing 12 against 18 and without a proper goalie.

And after the game, the captain told me “that was really good, no more attacker for you”. Which I doubt is entirely true; I’m still the fourth-best attacker on the team and I expect I’ll be moved up front when needed from time to time. But I already knew something had changed when our longtime starter on right defense was ready to come back in towards the end of the game, I automatically moved up to take the place of the right wing who was going out, and the captain ordered me to stay back at right defender while he put the defender on the wing in front of me.

The truth is that I’m only 80 percent as good as the average defender when it comes to defense. I’m weak in the air, I’m not very tall, I can’t take the ball away from anyone, I don’t win enough 50-50 balls, and I need to be more disciplined about holding the offsides line. My speed and strength somewhat make up for those deficiencies, but I’m still decidedly below-average. However, when it comes to assisting the attack, I’m probably 150 percent as good as the average defender, maybe even more. I can see the lanes where I would want the ball myself, and more importantly, I can deliver them there. Two of our four goals came actions that started with my long passes, and I dropped in a high cross that really should have been a third. So, I can see why the captain is reconsidering how to use me, and I’m no longer terrified by the prospect even though I prefer to play in my traditional position up front.

This team doesn’t play to my strengths as an attacker anyhow, so it would probably benefit the team to move me back. I have no idea if I’ll end up starting on defense, or if I’ll start on the wing, come out to recover, then move back to defense in the second half when the starters need a break. I’m not concerned either way; I’ll play wherever they want me to play. If you can’t be a star, the next best thing is to be a utility player capable of playing multiple positions. And I suspect that adding outside defender to my existing repertoire of attacker/outside midfielder will grant me another two or three more years of effective playing time.