Tag: sports

Bucknell is back to the Big Dance:

The ultimate bracket buster is back in the NCAA tournament: Bucknell. Yes, Bucknell – the team that stunned Kansas six years ago in the first round of the NCAAs. Mike Muscala scored 18 points and the Bison shut down Lafayette in the second half of a 72-57 victory Friday to win the Patriot League championship and the conference’s automatic bid.

Bring on the #1 seeds! The funny thing is that I ran into a Georgetown player who played in the 1987 NCAA tournament a few years ago in Italy. He described the Bucknell team they had beaten in the first round as “little white guys, but tough little white guys” who hung with them longer than the Hoyas had expected. So, here is to hoping for a third first-round upset this spring.

The NFLPA turns down the proffered deal:

Unfortunately, the players’ union has notified our office that at 4pm ET it had “decertified” and is walking away from mediation and collective bargaining, presumably to initiate the antitrust litigation it has been threatening to file. In an effort to get a fair agreement now, the clubs offered a deal that would have had no adverse financial impact upon veteran players in the early years and would meet the players’ financial demands in the latter years.

The union left a very good deal on the table. It included an offer to narrow the player compensation gap that existed in the negotiations by splitting the difference; guarantee reallocation of savings from first-round rookies to veterans and retirees without negatively affecting compensation for rounds 2-7; ensure no compensation reduction for veterans; implement new year-round health and safety rules; retain the current 16-4 season format for at least two years with any subsequent changes subject to the approval of the league and union; and establish a new legacy fund for retired players ($82 million contributed by the owners over the next two years).

I’m mostly with the owners on this one, for all that I hate their greedy, parasitical dependence on public stadiums. About the only shareholders with a worse deal than NFL owners are the banks, who pay out more in salaries and bonuses than they make in profits. While I don’t think that going to an 18-game season makes any sense at all, I am completely against the NFLPA’s attempt to turn the NFL into Premier League Football where Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal are able to spend 3x more on players than their opponents.

UPDATE: As expected, the NFL has responded by locking out the players.

This is your open Super Bowl thread. I expect to see the Packers by 10. The Steelers are banged up, Troy Polamalu is less than 100 percent, and if the Packers can keep Rodgers in the game, he should be able to pick apart the Steeler’s secondary on turf. If the Steel Curtain knocks Rodgers out of the game, they will probably win, but I don’t think they’ll be able to do it.

And E-Trade for the best commercial.

So I went skiing today. And while I don’t completely object to the idea of putting helmets on little kids since they sometimes get going and don’t know how to stop, it is astonishing to see how many adults and teenagers wear them now. It’s ridiculous. I started skiing when I was three and I don’t recall seeing or even hearing of anyone ever impaling their skull on a tree branch.

And another thing. Those short, fat skis that everyone uses nowadays. It’s the Alpine equivalent of people walking around wearing clown shoes with suits. They supposedly make it easier to ski, but when I tried them I found it far too irritating to have to keep my skis apart. So, often I’m the only one on the mountain with what I consider to be proper skis. I suppose I’d feel like a dinosaur if everyone else didn’t look like such retarded clowns.

It’s been interesting to read all of the stories about the supposedly bitter Packers-Bears rivalry. It all sounds rather manufactured, whereas if this had been Packers-Vikes, everyone would be at Def-Con 5. You see, having married a Wisconsinite, I’m not exactly unfamiliar with Packers fans. And while the Bears, with their storied NFL history and legendary Hall of Fame players, are no doubt deeply respected by both Vikings fans and Packers fans alike, I don’t think I’ve ever known a single Packers fan to be more obsessed with the Bears than they are with the Vikings, even though the Bears have been to two more Super Bowls than the Vikings since the end of the 1970s. And on sites like ProFootballTalk, Packers fans are CONSTANTLY sniping at the Vikings, never at the Bears.

For example, is there even a single pejorative term they habitually use to describe the Bears? I could give you a comprehensive list of the ones that are used to describe the Vikings, starting with Vi-Queens and working down from there. (They are a clever lot, aren’t they.) In fact, I tend to suspect that even the claim the Bears are the Packers’ primary divisional rivals is one that is manufactured in a futile attempt to get under the skin of Vikings fans. Which, of course, is useless, since Vikings fans don’t usually care much what Packers fans do or think, except to be amused by them when they get suicidal over losing to the Vikes. (Packers fans put this down to our supposedly fair-weather nature, when it’s just down to actually having other entertainment options than obsessing over who will be the third-string right tackle… in June.)

The strangest thing was the way Packers fans thought we were lording it over them last year when Favre decided to play in purple. This wasn’t the case at all; they still care about him far more than we ever did even when he was winning games for us. It wasn’t Favre that particularly excited us so much as the fact that The Tarvaris Jackson Experiment wasn’t behind center.

Now, there is nothing in football I love more than seeing the Vikings beat the Packers, but I’m actually quite pleased to see two NFC Central (North) teams playing for the NFC Championship, even if I’m vaguely nauseous at the thought of either of them, much less the Steelers, winning another Super Bowl. I don’t know which team I’d rather see win; I tend to prefer the Packers since I like the small town ownership arrangement and honor the memory of the late, great Reggie White. On the other hand, the thought of Jay Cutler, Super Bowl MVP offers serious humor potential. So, I’ll probably just watch and enjoy the game.

And, of course, any Packers fans who wish to articulate the case for the Bears as their primary rivals are certainly free to make their case. But you know, I cannot think of a single time that there was ever a big Monday Night Football party thrown just because the Packers were playing the Bears nor do I ever recall Packers fans wearing their jerseys to work because the Pack was playing Chicago that upcoming weekend.

I very much suspect Jay Cutler is French. He plays quarterback in exactly the manner in which one imagines a nihilist philosopher would. A long touchdown strike to the tight end, a goal line pass thrown directly to the breadbasket of the opposing linebacker, what is the difference, really? Atoms are arranged one way, atoms are arranged another way, none of it has any meaning.

Don’t ask him questions, media wretch. You bore him. How could you not? The hole in the zone, the wafting of grey smoke from a Galoises Blonde, the thin sheen of sweat on the naked buttocks of a so-called “Hollywood” actress, these are all mere ephemeral pleasures. You ask Jay Cutler why he sneers; Jay Cutler asks why you do not shriek at the tedious horror of it all.

I really enjoy watching Baltimore-Pittsburgh games. It’s not the oldest rivalry in the league, but now that the New England-Indianapolis rivalry has faded with the Colts’ decline, it’s the most fun for a non-partisan football fan to watch. I think the Steelers have the advantage because I trust Big Ben at QB more than Flacco, but I don’t actually care who wins.

I hope the Seahawks’ upset of New Orleans yesterday stops all the stupid hand-wringing about seed advantages going to the division winners. Weak divisions and strong divisions are part of football and it is part of what makes the NFL season exciting. The whines of those who think that the teams with the best records should make the playoffs and be seeded in order of their record border on the moronic; they might as well do what the European soccer leagues do, throw out the playoffs altogether and crown the team with the best record the champion.

Destroying division rivalries and ensuring that even more teams are out of the mix weeks before the end of the season in favor of what can only be a childish sense of “fairness” or worse, a numerological fetish, would be ridiculous. There is nothing unfair about it and every team knew what the rules were going in. Who cares if a 7-9 team made it to the playoffs and a few 10-6 teams stayed home? If you want to be guaranteed a spot, win your damn division. Going down this route is a step towards the elimination of the divisions, the conferences, and eventually, the justification for holding a Super Bowl. I dislike the Seahawks intensely and I like Drew Brees, but I am very, very glad that the NFC West champions won their first-round game.

I never liked the expansion of the playoffs to include multiple wild cards and this call to further diminish the meaning of a division championship shows that I was correct to be suspicious of it.

Well, by ESPN standards, anyhow:

The five smartest things I’ve seen from readers this week via comments, Facebook, Twitter and my mailbag.

In a Facebook conversation spurred by a radio appearance, NATE said: “As several NFL guys have pointed out… blowing a top 3 QB pick usually sets a franchise back years. Fisher was able to stave that off for years… but it finally blew up on him.

“In my estimation… the mediocrity of the last 5 years proves that Jeff Fisher is one of the three or four best coaches in the NFL.”

PK says: I think that’s overrating Fisher, but your broad point is a good one.

I never bought into either the Vince Young or the JaMarcus Russell story. In fact, I still don’t buy into Ron Mexico 1.0 or 2.0; running quarterbacks, (as opposed to mobile quarterbacks), hurt you as much as they help you in the long run. And I do think Fisher is a good coach, although I’d consider him more top ten material than top four.

1. Belichick. No question.
2. Sean Payton. Not much history, but what is there is good.
3. Hmmmm… Mike Smith? He’s pretty new. The Ultimate Leader is overrated. Reid is good but flawed and can’t control the clock. McCarthy has promise, but ditto. I’m not convinced about Tomlin yet while Caldwell is Art Shell 3.0 and coasting on the Manning and the Dungy legacy. Haley and Morris have started off well, but it’s just one year. Coughlin is really the only one I can think of that compares favorably to Fisher with a Super Bowl win as well as taking the Jags to the AFC Championship game. Maybe Fisher is top four after all.

You may now return to contemplating the Eschaton.

60 MS Swamp Spartans
47 Bane Sidhe

Congratulations to Clay and the Swamp Spartans, who continued in the time-honored VPFL tradition of knocking off the regular-season leader in the championship game in a surprisingly low-scoring finale. As a prize for winning the league, they will be back to play again next year. Third place was claimed by Greenfield with an 89-60 defeat of the Quixotes.

On the NFL side, if Frazier starts Favre after last week’s performance against the Eagles by Webb, I wouldn’t even think about converting his interim label.