Tag: sports

This may sound wildly, even ludicrously hypocritical. No doubt people will assume it is because I am a diehard Vikings fan who wants the team to remain in Minnesota. But that actually has nothing to do with it. I readily concede the following:

1. It is ridiculous for an indebted state to give millions of dollars to a billionaire.
2. The new stadium will not boost the state’s economy in the slightest
3. The new stadium will not save any jobs or maintain the tax base in any significant manner
4. It is not fair for non-NFL fans to subsidize the entertainment preferences of others
5. The stadium will cost more than is estimated and the state will be saddled with the cost overruns

So, why should they do it anyhow? Because I know Minnesota. If they stand firm and let the Vikings leave for Los Angeles – a profoundly stupid move on the NFL’s part, since no matter what team goes there will end up moving eventually – they will end up spend three to five times more to lure a new team to the area. See: Lakers-Timberwolves and North Stars-Wild. Moreover, the new team will contribute nothing to the stadium cost because the stadium will have to be built before the team is courted. So it’s not a choice between stupidly spending $400-$750 million now or not spending that money, it’s a choice between stupidly spending $400-$750 million now and stupidly spending $1.5-$4 billion a few years from now. This doesn’t mean I support public expenditure on team stadiums. I don’t. I think the NFL ownership restrictions are a shameless scam and the Green Bay Packers have an ideal ownership model that is a proven success both on and off the field.

But I’m also cognizant of the reality that there is no chance that the same politicians who have been talking bravely about standing up the NFL will not turn around and be shamelessly kowtowing before it if they lose the team. They’ve done it before and they will do it again. They’ve already built stadiums for the Timberwolves, the Wild, the Twins, and the football Gophers, none of whom enjoy the support that the Vikings do. So, it’s vastly preferable that they just get it over with now, when it’s going to cost less and the team will pay some of the expense.

As it happens, a modified stadium bill has passed both the House and the Senate. So, as I’ve assumed all along, it looks as if they’re going to go ahead and agree to pay for it now that they have drawn out the process as long as they could manage.

Former pro football great and Oceanside sports legend Junior Seau has committed suicide, found at his beachfront home with a gunshot wound to the chest, according to multiple sources.

WTH? That’s the sum total of my reaction, except to note that the man could play the game.

I’m quite happy with the Kalil (OT) pick, as well as the trade that helped them pick up some extra picks late in the draft. Both Smith (S) and Robinson (CB) appear to be sensible picks at positions of dire need, since the Vikes have a pair of decent cornerbacks that weren’t able to stay on the field last year. Safety has been a problem for years, so here’s hoping Smith works out. I do NOT understand the Jarius Wright pick, as he’s another short receiver in the Percy Harvin slot receiver mode. Since they’ve already got Harvin, I don’t see how Wright makes sense. And a FB in the fourth round? Seriously? It makes more sense for the Vikes and their running-heavy offense than for most teams that don’t even use FB much, but still, it seems hard to believe there weren’t any more pressing holes to fill. The second receiver picked, Childs, makes more sense given his 6’3″ height.

All in all, it looks like a pretty good draft, with the potential to be an excellent one if it gives Minnesota even an average secondary to pair with a very good defensive line and if the new lineman and receivers help Ponder develop from “rookie with real promise” to “borderline elite NFL quarterback”. His first-year performance was particularly impressive in light of how he spent good parts of it on the run.

Now it’s more annoying than ever that the Vikings fumbled away the NFC championship to this gang of lying bozos:

Williams’ speech, delivered less than two months before the Saints’ bounty scandal became public, was revealed to Yahoo! Sports by Pamphilon, who had access to various team functions for much of the 2011 season.

Pamphilon, who directed the critically acclaimed “Run Ricky Run” documentary for ESPN, is working on a project featuring former Saints special teams ace Steve Gleason, who is suffering from ALS. Pamphilon has released an audio recording of the profanity-laced speech (also obtained and listened to by Yahoo! Sports) on his website and said he believes “there’s no doubt at all” that Williams put a bounty on Smith in the meeting.

Said Pamphilon: “At one point Williams says, ‘We hit [expletive] Smith right there’ – then he points under his chin [and continues] – ‘remember me.’ Then he rubs his thumb against his index and middle fingers – the cash sign – and says, ‘I got the first one. I got the first one. Go get it. Go lay that [expletive] out.’

It’s now clear that the Saints merit the harsh penalty they received from the NFL Commissioner. If Payton was wise, he’d withdraw his appeal at once. And the fact that the Saints organization is now attempting to feign outrage over the way in which Pamphilon exposed their continued lies is simply despicable.

Grantland’s game diary for the second leg of the Milan-Barca quarterfinal:

Brian: Sometimes I watch a bit of play that just knocks me over the head with WHAT A WEIRD TEAM BARCELONA IS. They just won that penalty by bypassing a couple of completely plausible shots in order to stroke the ball around in the area like they were playing a very casual game of hot potato. They were literally trying NOT to pass the ball into the back of the net, and now it’s 1-0.

If you’re the heads-up display in the Barca-player visual-software interface, how do you decide when to light up for “shoot”? There are like nine floating circles that have to converge, at which point the software runs an algorithm that determines whether the resulting shot would be beautiful.

Three things struck me most about watching Barca effortlessly beat the Rossoneri. First, it’s like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. They don’t just make the pass instead of taking the shot, they make another pass, and sometimes a third, before taking the shot, and sometimes this all takes place inside the opposing box. I’ve never seen anything like it. They don’t so much waste opportunities as blatantly ignore them.

Second, they press frighteningly well. I would estimate that at least one-third, and possibly as much as one-half, of Milan’s attempts to clear the ball were intercepted or otherwise failed. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the Milan defense was playing back on its heels in full, catenaccio from the start, but no sooner did they take the ball away than they lost it, usually in their own half of the field.

Third, Barca stretches the field horizontally better than any team I’ve ever seen. There was always a winger on the far side of the ball, but instead of crossing the balls in the air, the wingers would push the ball inside, force the defender to commit, then a) try to beat him, b) pass off to Messi, or c) pass off to the central midfielder coming up in support. Their entire game is played on the ground, which makes sense given that their front six appear to average about 5’6″. They just keep passing and slashing and pressing until the defense cracks, then instead of shooting, pass three more times for good measure, before finally deigning to make an attempt on goal.

I would have been more annoyed by the two penalties awarded Barca were it not for the fact that the fouls were legitimate, and at least the first time, the ball should have already been in the net twice over by the time the foul occurred. The final score was 3-1, but it could just as easily have been 6-1. That’s not to say Barca is invulnerable, as neither their defense nor their keeper impressed me. A big, fast team with the benefit of a laissez faire referee could beat them, assuming they didn’t run out of steam chasing the little guys around.

Surprisingly, an unemployed black coach believes that professional football teams should have to interview black coaches before even thinking about who they want to hire:

Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice was seated next to Edwards on the SportsCenter set when the subject came up, and Rice questioned whether any minority candidate would agree to interview for the Saints’ interim head coaching job. All indications out of New Orleans are that if the Saints go outside the franchise for an interim head coach, they’re going to hire Parcells. And that means any minority candidate they interview would know in advance that the purpose of the interview is to satisfy the letter of the Rooney Rule, even after they’ve already violated the spirit of the Rooney Rule.

“I know for me, I would not want to go do an interview if I’m not going to get that job,” Rice said.

Edwards added that the Saints have already, by reaching out to Parcells but not reaching out to any minorities, indicated that they’re going to go after the coach they want and not broaden their coaching search to include minority candidates, which the Rooney Rule is designed to make teams do.

“They’re making a mockery of the rule right now,” Edwards said.

Given that there are far too many black players in the NFL compared to their percentage of the American population, why isn’t there a Rooney Rule for players? Why isn’t the NFL addressing the problem of insufficient Asians and women on the football field? I think the Saints ought to comply with the rule by bringing in a drug-addled Negro crack whore and interviewing her before hiring Bill Parcells, thus complying with the rule while treating it with all the seriousness that it deserves.

It’s because he understands that the real game that matters isn’t on the football field. After the upset playoff victory over the Steelers, Rick Reilly confesses that despite his initial doubts, he has become a believer:

Remember last week, when the world was pulling its hair out in the hour after Tebow had stunned the Pittsburgh Steelers with an 80-yard OT touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas in the playoffs? And Twitter was exploding with 9,420 tweets about Tebow per second? When an ESPN poll was naming him the most popular athlete in America?

Tebow was spending that hour talking to 16-year-old Bailey Knaub about her 73 surgeries so far and what TV shows she likes.

“Here he’d just played the game of his life,” recalls Bailey’s mother, Kathy, of Loveland, Colo., “and the first thing he does after his press conference is come find Bailey and ask, ‘Did you get anything to eat?’ He acted like what he’d just done wasn’t anything, like it was all about Bailey.”

More than that, Tebow kept corralling people into the room for Bailey to meet. Hey, Demaryius, come in here a minute. Hey, Mr. Elway. Hey, Coach Fox. Even though sometimes-fatal Wegener’s granulomatosis has left Bailey with only one lung, the attention took her breath away.

“It was the best day of my life,” she emailed. “It was a bright star among very gloomy and difficult days. Tim Tebow gave me the greatest gift I could ever imagine. He gave me the strength for the future. I know now that I can face any obstacle placed in front of me. Tim taught me to never give up because at the end of the day, today might seem bleak but it can’t rain forever and tomorrow is a new day, with new promises.”

I read that email to Tebow, and he was honestly floored….

For the game at Buffalo, it was Charlottesville, Va., blue-chip high school QB Jacob Rainey, who lost his leg after a freak tackle in a scrimmage. Tebow threw three interceptions in that Buffalo game and the Broncos were crushed 40-14.

“He walked in and took a big sigh and said, ‘Well, that didn’t go as planned,'” Rainey remembers. “Where I’m from, people wonder how sincere and genuine he is. But I think he’s the most genuine person I’ve ever met.”

There’s not an ounce of artifice or phoniness or Hollywood in this kid Tebow, and I’ve looked everywhere for it.

How can you not admire that equanimity? “Well, that didn’t go as planned.” The fascinating thing about Tebow, the polarizing thing about Tebow, is that in much the same way as Jesus Christ, the radiance of his actions shines a light upon us and forces us to look ourselves and our own actions in comparison. And we react in different ways. We can be inspired and attempt to go forth and do likewise, we can simply admire him while remaining personally unmoved, or we can react with hatred and anger for the way in which he causes us to lose righteousness in our own eyes.

Tebow matters because our instinctive response to him tells us, and others, an awful lot about our hidden inner characters.

This is why a mere backup quarterback for the New York Jets, not even worthy of so much as a third-round draft pick, commands such attention. It is part of why a team with a chaotic coach and a dysfunctional locker room brought him on board. And whether he replaces the Sanchize for three Wildcat plays a game or as the starter, who isn’t looking forward to the upcoming season, where the success or failure of Peyton Manning in Denver will tell us a lot about whether it was the Denver defense that should have gotten the credit for the Broncos’ unexpected playoff run.

Speaking of Peyton Manning, Peter King provides a detailed chronicle of his decision-making process, which is fascinating in light of his otherwise inexplicable choice of Denver over a stronger San Francisco team.

I’m sure moving to New York City is going to completely reduce Tim Tebow’s media presence:

Mike Klis of the Denver Post reports that the Jets will send the Broncos their fourth-round draft pick. Additionally, the Broncos will send a seventh-round pick to the Jets and receive a sixth-round pick from the Jets.

And in other news, an entire season’s suspension for Sean Payton strikes me as within the realm of reason, but a bit on the heavy side.

Peyton Manning decides to play in Denver:

ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen are reporting that free agent quarterback Peyton Manning has told his agent, Tom Condon, to open contract negotiations with the Denver Broncos.

And barring an “unexpected snag” in contract talks, Schefter and Mort are reporting that Manning will become the next quarterback of the Broncos.

The Broncos will try to trade Tim Tebow.

Like Tiki, I am flabbergasted. Not that the Broncos chose to sign Manning rather than let it ride with The Miracle of Tebow, but that Manning chose Denver over San Francisco. Time will tell, of course, but if his goal was to win one more Super Bowl, I think it’s pretty obvious that San Francisco would have been the more certain bet.

I’d assume Denver will trade Tebow to Jacksonville; if nothing else, he’ll sell plenty of jerseys and tickets.

Mark Kruse of Grantland addresses bracketologists, for varying degrees of “address” that includes “pushing you down and kicking you in the ribs”:

The NCAA tournament is properly rated. Many think it’s one of the best sporting events of the year. That’s what it is. But the whole fill-out-the-brackets thing? TOTALLY OVERRATED. I don’t do it. I won’t do it. Because I want to be able to watch Montana beat Wisconsin or Harvard beat Vanderbilt or South Dakota State beat Baylor, and enjoy that unabashedly, without worrying about whether I “picked” them or not. You “had” Montana? You “had” South Dakota State? No. You didn’t HAVE anything. You don’t deserve to claim even the most peripheral form of ownership. Because it matters to the kids on those teams and their coaches in a way that it doesn’t and shouldn’t and could never matter to you. And because they don’t deserve to be depersonalized into pieces to be so cavalierly “picked” or not “picked” in some annual national gambling exercise. And because they also don’t deserve to be called “bracket busters” if they win. It’s insulting and selfish. The point isn’t that they’ve ruined your chances to win some dumb pool. The point is that they’ve done something unexpected, exhilarating, and empowering, for themselves and the people who know them, love them, and have invested in them. Your “pick” does not count as an investment. You say this gives you a reason to watch and to care? “Picks” make you care about the thing you’ve set up to give you a reason to care about the thing … NOT the thing itself. The thing is the thing. Your brackets are not. At stake in games over the next three weeks: goals, dreams, jobs, futures. That’s not enough for you? An interest based on brackets is an inauthentic interest.

I’m kind of with him on this one. I don’t bother with brackets, I just want to see upsets and Cinderellas and 15 seeds beating 2 seeds.