Tag: sports

VPFL 2009 Championship

73 Alamo City Spartans
54 Judean Front

Congratulations to Clay, whose Alamo City Spartans continued the VPFL tradition of upsetting the regular season champions and claimed the 4th VPFL title.

As for the NFL, I do not understand the coaching decisions on the part of Caldwell and Childress. I thought the decision of the Colts to stupidly throw away their opportunity to go 16-0 was totally ridiculous and will contribute to their being upset in the playoffs. The Vikings are suffering from overly conservative play calling, a mysterious offensive line meltdown, and defensive injuries to Pat Williams, EJ Henderson, and Antoine Winfield; our star cornerback is clearly still a little off his game after returning from his six-week injury. They could certainly use that bye week, but it looks as if they probably threw that away too.

I’m not sure which was dumber, the predictable first-half playcalling – I called one third-down play-action rollout that the Bears defensive coordinator obviously expected as well – or Ben Leber’s continuous inability to understand the concept of containment. AD’s overtime fumble and Longwell’s blocked PAT both hurt, but neither would have mattered if Leber hadn’t made exactly the same mistake he made last week against Carolina and simply held his position to the ballcarrier’s left instead of attempting to dive in wildly and make the tackle before his four teammates who had the running back pinned to the front and right did. The result was that instead of a loss of two followed by a fourth-down punt, Leber gave Forte a first down that led directly to a field goal. But the worst decision was the one to kick the tying PAT with 20 seconds left instead of going for two. The Viking special teams had been terrible all night, the Bear defense was reeling, and it was a perfect time to put them away. It was a horrendous call by Childress and it reminded me of an equally bad decision by Denny Green to play for overtime against a heavily favored Dallas team. In both cases, the overtime result was the same. The Vikings lost.

Right now, Philadelphia and San Diego look like the teams of destiny. Of course, this probably means that they are the only two playoff teams we can be certain we will not see in the Super Bowl.

VPFL Playoffs first round

52 Judean Front (10-4)
42 Bane Silvers (7-6-1)

102 Alamo City Spartans (10-4)
69 Mounds View Meerkats (8-6)

Ah well. Another year, another first-round exit. I can’t say I’m too surprised, but it’s a bit annoying to again lose while outscoring both teams in the other side of the bracket. And no one can argue that the Front and the Spartans have been the two teams to beat this year; the failure to get any serious production out of Clinton Portis, Greg Jennings, and Matt Forte really hurt me, as did the mid-season collapse of the New York Giants defense.

VP-AFL

116.70 AZ Hammeroids (8-6)
114.65 Lesbian Dorito Night (9-5)

122.65 The Thunder (8-6)
99.10 Brave Sir Robins (10-4)

Two big upsets in the Alumni league, as blog favorites Lesbian Dorito Night complete their late-season collapse and Brave Sir Robins end their season in classic Meerkats 08 manner. Here’s hoping that the Vikes don’t follow suit today; we need that first-round bye.

VPFL Playoffs Round One

Judean Front (10-4)
Bane Silvers (7-6-1)

Alamo City Spartans (10-4)
Mounds View Meerkats (8-6)

It looks like another one-and-out for the Meerkats, although that’s less disappointing this year. Getting no performance out of two of my three keepers – Clinton Portis and Greg Jennings – and making a terrible blunder by picking up Mario Manningham instead of Steve Smith (NYG) left me scrabbling to fill my roster from week to week. With every starter but one playing on the road and the Spartans up 30-7 already thanks to early points from MJD and Miles Austin, I’m just hoping to keep it halfway respectable. Besides, everyone would be disappointed to miss the big showdown between the Spartans and the Front.

The Saints have blown their perfect season, I expect the Colts will next week. I’m just hoping the Saints drop another one while the Vikes win out and claim home-field advantage.

VPFL Week 14

64 Mounds View Meerkats (8-5)
50 Judean Front (10-3)

71 Masonville Marauders
61 Alamo City Spartans (9-4)

78 Valders Valkyries (6-7)
61 Winston Reverends (6-7)

89 Burns Redbeards (4-9)
58 Black Mouth Curs (5-8)

56 Bane Silvers (7-6)
41 Greenfield Grizzlies (4-9)

The Meerkats are in the playoffs for the third year out of four, but I have to say that they have never looked less likely to win it all. The Piranha of the Serengeti are stumbling toward the finish, with copious injuries and possibly the weakest collection of WRs in the league. Still, it was a big win last week over the powerful Judean Front; this week’s question is whether to start Percy Harvin or not. Rookies tend to wear down during the final four games, after all.

I have to admit, I’m just a little bit concerned about the Vikes. I’m not worried… but I am concerned. A strong performance against the Bengals today would be very encouraging.

VPFL week 12

97 Judean Front (10-2)
25 Valders Valkyries (5-7)

48 Alamo City Spartans (9-3)
44 Burns Redbeards (3-9)

79 Mounds View Meerkats (7-5)
64 Masonville Marauders (5-7)

79 Winston Reverends (6-6)
69 Bane Silvers (6-6)

59 Black Mouth Curs (5-7)
50 Greenfield Grizzlies (4-8)

VP-AFL

98.85 South Plains Storm (5-6)
81.80 Lesbian Dorito Night (8-3)

112.55 Lambs (3-8)
79.25 Brave Sir Robins (7-4)

145.30 COS Paper Tigers (4-7)
101.10 Village Valkyries (6-5)

115.85 Ocean Sprayer (6-5)
113.50 Cranberry Bogs (5-6)

116.45 Supernaut’s Jihad (5-6)
114.45 The Choking Thunder (6-5)

I can’t wait

To see what the Sports Guy has to say about this column arguing for women playing in the NBA one day:

5 reasons to believe a woman will play in the NBA

• David Stern thinks it will happen. On Tuesday in the conference room outside his NBA office in Manhattan, I asked the commissioner whether we’ll see a woman playing in his league someday.

“Sure,” he said matter-of-factly. “I think that’s well within the range of probability.”

Speaking as a former NCAA D1 sprinter and martial artist, my opinion is that the Chicago Bears will start five women on the offensive line at the same time a woman wins a spot in the regular rotation of an NBA team. People understand that women are weaker, but they never seem to grasp that women are incredibly slow compared to men. And it’s not top speed where the difference is greatest, but quickness and acceleration.

Throw in the lack of durability, especially related to the female ACL, and there is no chance of this happening. One can’t rule out a woman making an NBA roster; if the Basketball Godfather elects to go a particularly stupid marketing route then I wouldn’t be surprised to see mandated female players. The truly interesting aspect to this article is the way it reveals the asinine extent to which male public figures are willing to go in order to be politically correct.

Digging deeper

Malcolm Gladwell simply isn’t smart enough to know when it’s time to throw in the towel:

First, the editorial in question made a number of other arguments that, I think, most observers would agree fall on one end of the nature-nurture continuum: that all IQ tests measure the same thing, that heredity is more important that environment in determining it, that group differences are relatively unaffected by schooling or socioeconomic factors. It also said that the IQs of different races cluster at different points, with the average IQ of blacks falling about a standard deviation lower than that of whites, and that these differences show no sign of converging over time.

Actually, first should have been Gladwell admitting that his statement about there being “no connection” between NFL draft order and quarterback performance is completely, utterly and provably false. But let’s summarize the points Gladwell makes in his continuing attempt to steer the discussion away from his egregious blunder by attacking “Stephen” Pinker. (The man’s name is actually Steven Pinker – you’d think Gladwell could get it straight by his second letter addressing Pinker’s criticism.)

1. Something Gladwell thinks about what most people would agree about an article. Who cares what Gladwell thinks about what people would agree with or not? And what does this old editorial have to do with Gladwell’s hypothesis about NFL quarterbacks anyhow? Irrelevant.

2. Only one-third of the editorial board signed the statement. BFD, especially since Gladwell doesn’t know the others “declined” to sign it, he only knows they didn’t sign it. Conclusion unsupported by facts.

3. The editorial appeared in the Wall Street Journal! Well, then it must be false, right? Genetic fallacy. And still irrelevant.

4. 14 of 52 signatories had received funding from an organization that Gladwell doesn’t like. Genetic fallacy #2. And, yes, still irrelevant.

5. I don’t know enough about a 1996 APA report on intelligence to judge if Gladwell’s summary of it is correct or not. But regardless, what does what Gladwell describes as its oppposition to “IQ fundamentalism” have to do with NFL quarterbacks and draft position anyway? All Gladwell has managed to prove proves is how far he is willing to stray from the original subject in attempting to poison the well against Pinker’s correct criticism of his egregious blunder regarding NFL quarterbacks.

However, Steve Sailer insists that there is method to Gladwell’s seeming madness:

[Y]ou’ve got to admit that Gladwell has a point: if people can make more accurate than random predictions about which college quarterbacks will be better than other college quarterbacks, then they can make predictions about more politically incorrect things, too. Thus, Gladwell wages relentless war upon predictions, upon quantitative thinking, upon science, indeed, upon that ultimate evil: knowledge.

It is no surprise that Gladwell is predisposed to attack both knowledge and the scientific fact of inherited intelligence, given how it is eminently clear that the man doesn’t possess a great deal of either.

VPFL Week 11

93 Judean Front (9-2)
35 Winston Reverends (5-6)

93 Alamo City Spartans (8-3)
51 Greenfield Grizzlies (4-7)

71 Bane Silvers (6-5)
48 Black Mouth Curs (4-7)

68 Mounds View Meerkats (6-5)
55 Burns Redbeards (3-8)

82 Masonville Marauders (5-6)
99 Valders Valkyries (5-6)

Vikes are a bit banged up, but this is when having the best backup RB in the league comes in handy. I hope Chilly has the good sense to keep AD on the bench, let him get healthy, and ride Chester Taylor to a win over a collapsing Chicago team.

The Sports Guy suspended… from Twitter

In case you weren’t already convinced that ESPN has gone mad with its market power:

ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons is serving an ESPN-imposed two-week suspension from Twitter, Steve Krakauer writes. ESPN.com editor-in-chief Rob King wrote a blog post on ESPN.com explaining the suspension, saying it was in reference to a recent Simmons tweet regarding WEEI. “We have internal guidelines designed to inform how we discuss the topic of sports media,” King writes. “These guidelines are important us, because they help maintain the credibility with which ESPN operates. No one knows the guidelines better than Bill Simmons, and he customarily works within these standards. . . . Regardless of the provocation, Bill’s communication regarding WEEI fell short of those standards. So we’ve taken appropriate measures.”

I wonder how long it will be before Simmons tells ESPN to take a hike. I suspect the suspension would have involved more than a two-week ban from Twitter if they weren’t afraid of his reaction. By the way, I should probably mention that WND hasn’t suspended me from Facebook, I just don’t find social networking as amenable as blogging.

The funny thing, beyond the intrinsic humor of someone being suspended from Twitter, is that you didn’t even have to click on the Instapundit link – “ESPN COLUMNIST SUSPENDED FROM TWITTER” – to know that it had to be Simmons.

VPFL Week 10

102 Burns Redbeards (3-7)
39 Valders Valkyries (4-6)

72 Judean Front (8-2)
63 Masonville Marauders (5-5)

91 Winston Reverends (5-5)
72 Black Mouth Curs (4-6)

75 Bane Silvers (5-5)
61 Alamo City Spartans (7-3)

52 Greenfield Grizzlies (4-6)
42 Mounds View Meerkats (5-5)

The Meerkats are struggling with the collapse of the NYG defense, so I traded Greg Jennings to Greenfield for Steve Slayton and Larry Johnson. Yes, it’s a desperation move. The big mistake of the season so far? Picking up Mario Manningham when his fellow Giant Steve Smith was available. That one blunder cost me two games so far. Here’s hoping Burns exhausted its point potential for the year last week, and that the Vikes simply put in a solid, workmanlike performance, don’t get anyone hurt, and put the Seahawks away by the end of the third quarter.

VP-AFL

126.25 South Plains Storm (4-6)
112.00 Supernaut’s Jihad (4-6)

93.45 Hetero Frito Pie (5-5)
66.20 Lambs (2-8)

107.15 Lesbian Dorito Night (8-2)
75.15 COS Paper Tigers (3-7)

127.65 Cranberry Bogs (5-5)
79.00 The Thunder (6-4)

106.15 Brave Sir Robins (7-3)
72.85 Village Valkyries (6-4)