Headaches cause time out

I am not posting currently due to cascading migraine headaches. Will resume when medication allows me to concentrate.

Bill Belichick says "No Mas!" but Brandon Jennings says "More, please!"

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There are plenty of old saws in sports. Tom Hanks said, "There's no crying in baseball!" but when Roberto Clemente's plane went down there were tears in baseball. When the Angel's young hurler Nick Adenhart was killed you can be sure crying took place. Leo Durocher said, "Nice guys finish last" but is there any doubt that Tony Dungy is a nice guy? Does he have a Super Bowl ring?

Sports fans will remember the famous rematch between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran back in 1980 if they are of my generation, the fight in which Duran gave up. He was quoted as saying, "No mas" by the reporters at the scene, although some sources (including Duran) insist that Duran was just trying to say that his tummy was hurting too much. In any event, he gave up. It took Duran years to live that moment down. Because, like Knute Rockne would tell his boys, you never give up!

Never give up! It is a truism that applies across the sports world, the world of business, the game of life, you name it. You cannot win if you are not competing. If someone beats you, you may have lost but you are not a loser if you fight to the bitter end. Former Canadian heavyweight champion George Chuvalo is still a hero in Canada and to many old-time fight fans because he was never knocked down. Not by Ali, nor Frazier, nor Foreman, nope, not one time. He lost decisions and even had a referee declare a TKO a couple of times but he never quit and was never knocked off his feet in 93 professional bouts.

Belichick gave up with about five and one half minutes to go in the game against the Saints. My son and I were watching it and both of us were absolutely stunned when Brady, Welker and Moss were taken out of the game. Are you kidding me? Would Peyton Manning and Jim Caldwell give up down three scores and over five minutes to go? Would Drew Brees and Sean Payton? Heck, would Lovie Smith and Jay Cutler do it? I think not. I have never seen a team in the NFL give up with so much time on the clock. I do not believe the Patriots were a beaten team but apparently they had a humiliated coach who could not take it anymore. Has he forgotten that it is about the team and not the coach?

Post-game commentators Matt Millen and Steve Young both expressed amazement and wonder at the Belichick "No Mas" albeit briefly, probably partly out of respect to fellow commentator and former Patriot Teddy Bruschi. But no amount of humble pie as expressed in words by Belichick after the game will erase the feeling his players had to be feeling when their coach gave up on them. I mean, last week he basically told the defense that he did not believe they could stop Peyton Manning and the Colts and then against the Saints he just told the entire team that they were not capable of winning. I caught a glimpse of Wes Welker's face right after the terms of surrender had been offered. Angry would be a mild description. I am indeed sorry for the warriors on that Patriots roster. They have been dissed and they have been betrayed. What comes next?

Frankly everyone who has read my columns knows I do not care for Belichick but how in the world can a team and a fan base stomach the cowardice of his actions on Monday Night Football before a national audience? Does he think he needs to do something incredibly drastic to motivate his team by giving them a "I'll show this idiot coach!" frame of mind? Or is he just not able to deal with being beaten after years of ruling the NFL roost? Did something happen to Bill Belichick after that undefeated team lost to the admittedly inferior Giants? If you have it figured out, tell me please!

~

The New York Knicks have to be kicking themselves. Brandon Jennings is a baller, correction, a BALLER! Name five rookies better, let alone ten. No? Can you name one? Hmmm.

Brandon Jennings has been awesome for the Milwaukee Bucks this year, as predicted by Draft Express and a few sharp bloggers (The Painted Area, for one). Perhaps Scott Skiles deserves a bit of credit as well? Skiles, lest we forget, was a darned good point guard who led his high school team (Plymouth) to the Indiana State Championship (I remember watching the game on the boob tube in fact), was an All-American guard at Spartan Dog University and then a pretty good pro guard at the NBA level for ten years (and holder of the record for assists for a single game with thirty) before entering the coaching arena. Skiles knows a thing or two about playing point guard. I have to believe he has made Jennings a special project.

The success of Jennings underscores the fact that they play a pretty good game of hoops in Europe, too. The best Euro teams are better than the best American college teams and the sooner NBA scouts and GMs figure that out, the better for their draft records. There is no doubt Ricky Rubio will be a very good NBA player once he decides to come over. There is also no doubt that some players will prefer to enjoy the game and the money over there and never bother to try the NBA even if courted. Minnesota is beginning to understand that the entire world does not worship at the feet of David Stern.

Do I think the NBA is the best league going? Yes, of course. Most of the best talent plays here, the rules are pretty sensible, the exposure is the best in the world and the game is the best in the world. But I am saying that there are good ballers in other countries and some very good leagues elsewhere so it isn't like the NBA is the only game around. The NFL may be the best football league but you have to admit that there are some good players in the CFL and that league is also entertaining. A lot of people around the world prefer futbol (soccer) to either of these games anyway. US-based leagues are good leagues but the futbol (soccer) played here pales in comparison to what a team like Manchester United will usually represent. It is a big and diverse world. More NBA players will decide to play in Europe. More high schoolers will opt to try their hands at pro ball overseas ala Jennings rather than play one year at a University and then jump into the NBA. The one year after high school rule isn't working, David Stern, time to rethink!

Will Brandon Jennnings Laugh Last? I guess the author of The Painted Area is laughing with him.

~

Back to football. I am lowering Hines Ward in my internal ranking system...no, actually he is plummeting like a lead balloon! First, the NFL players name him the dirtiest player in the NFL. Second, I see a few film clips of Ward absolutely blowing up defenders far away from the play and the network primary cameras and realize that the officials haven't been watching him too closely, either. Third, he basically calls Ben Roethlisberger a coward and a quitter for not playing against the Ravens. Are you kidding me? A guy who stands there and takes multiple hits game after game trying to make winning plays, who has helped put two Super Bowl rings on Ward's finger, who came back from a life-threatening vehicular accident to the gladiator ring that is the NFL, Hines was calling him out?

Mike Tomlin let the public know that the team would take care of this internally and Hines issued an apology to Big Ben a day later. After all, Roethlisberger wanted to play but his symptoms were such that the team doctor ordered him not to play. Not only that, his replacement, Dennis Dixon, didn't play all that badly all things considered. The running game did not help him that much and the defense didn't stop the Ravens enough and Pittsburgh lost.

I bet you that Coach Tomlin took Ward aside, chewed him out in private and then told him to take care of business in public. A good coach knows how to handle this kind of idiocy and it made both Tomlin and Ben look pretty good but it is another strike against Ward. That smiling face is not fooling me anymore. Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes...they don't tell the truth!

By the way, did you catch Roethlisberger talking to Dixon as the game was ending? You could read his lips as the camera focused on them as he said, "I'm proud of you, man!" He may not be the best quarterback in the NFL but he is a heck of a leader. Get in line, Hines!

~

Who is the most valuable player in the NFL? Here is my short list:

• Drew Brees
• Peyton Manning
• Brett Favre
• Chris Johnson

Who did I miss?

Under The Radar – Areas of Responsibility

There is a defensive end that plays for the Chicago Bears, Mark Anderson, who made a huge splash as a fifth round draft choice in his rookie season in 2006 with twelve sacks and four fumbles forced. All the Bears fans were enamored with their new star. That he has never been even a shadow of the player that he was as a rookie since that season can be attributed partly to a knee injury but the real problem for Mr. Anderson was one of responsibility. Anderson became enamored with sacks to the point that he ignored his other responsibilities, thus he was vulnerable to trap blocks and often lost contain on his end of the field, leading to opposing offenses taking advantage, leading to his being benched. Those who have played football know that each player has an area of responsibility and for a defense to work properly that area of responsibility must be job one. Great players make plays while covering their responsibility. Bad players ignore their responsibility to make plays. When bad players ignore their first job, good offensive players take advantage and often touchdowns result.

Mark Anderson became sack-greedy and opposing teams made adjustments to take advantage and then the former rookie sensation found himself not only benched but fighting for his spot on the roster. These days he is part of the Bear’s defensive line rotation and coming into Sunday's action had 1.5 sacks for the season…and 20 total tackles in ten games. Those numbers are better than his totals for the entire 2008-9 season. Anderson has discovered the secret of doing job one first and, in doing so has been shown to be an ordinary defensive lineman. But ordinary has been enough to get him reps on the field for the Bears, which illustrates that injuries have taken a toll on the Chicago defense. Anderson will be a free agent for the 2010 season and it is not likely the Bears will be hungry to re-sign him.

Anderson’s story is typical in the NFL. The lure of making the big play causes linebackers to fill the wrong gap, defensive backs to bite on the first move, defensive ends to be caught inside on a sweep and so on. The casual fan may not even notice that these things have happened in some cases, but coaches will know and replay the same blown assignment in the film room over and over and over. Fans will certainly notice when a quarterback tries to force a throw into coverage and gets picked off or when a running back leaves the ball out away from his body while trying to make a move and gets the ball stripped away.

So we consider the sad case of Charlie Weis. In retrospect, Weis failed to meet his responsibilities from the very beginning with the Fighting Irish because he accepted the head coaching job while still working as the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. He continued to work for New England until the very late end of the Patriot’s season and it turns out that the first recruiting class for Weis at Notre Dame was a great disappointment. Weis did manage to go 19-6 with the players left behind by Ty Willingham but once he had to depend primarily on his own recruits the Irish became a .500 team and that first terrible class is a big part of the problem. Would Weis have won a national championship with Brady Quinn if that first class had been a great one and young talent would have filled in the holes on the defensive side of the ball? Would a championship have boosted recruiting to the point the program would have continued to purr along? We will never know.

A prophetic moment in the Notre Dame-Stanford game: Jimmy Claussen, now a veteran quarterback, was faced with a fourth and one. He called for the quarterback sneak, snapped the ball with one second left on the clock and followed his left guard for two yards and a sure first down. But no, Charlie Weis had called a time out, fearful that Claussen would not get the snap off in time. That the Irish would subsequently make the first down anyway eludes the point – Weis did not trust Claussen with the responsibility to make the right play and it might have been a disastrous mistake. Jimmy Claussen would finish completing 23 of 30 passes for five touchdowns in a loss. It is almost certain Claussen will not come back for another year under Weis and in fact my sources say that he will leave under almost any circumstance and that Golden Tate, the star receiver/runner, will go with him to the NFL. A new coach probably will not be capable of convincing these star ballplayers to remain in school, but a new coach could recruit well and coach well and bring the program back. Now it is on Notre Dame to make a quick, decisive move to bring in a great young coach immediately if not sooner.

Charlie Weis began his career with Notre Dame by not fulfilling his responsibilities and ends it with a team that had a tendency to fail to be responsible or disciplined on defense. Weis has not been fired at the moment that this piece is being written but surely his exit is a done deal. Surely the Notre Dame family has had enough? It takes much more than a good man to lead a football team, even though that is a fine quality in a football coach, it takes someone who can handle the responsibility, be disciplined and teach that discipline to others. In the name of the Peter Principle, it appears that Weis was promoted to one level above his pay grade. He may well make some team a very good offensive coordinator. We now know that he is not up to the task of being a head football coach.

They say Charlie could wind up in Buffalo as the offensive coordinator there and, if so, he would press to have Brady Quinn obtained from Cleveland to run the offense. Now that would be an odd kind of sequel, yes? But if Mike Shanahan accepts a job offer in Buffalo, is there any chance at all that Weis winds up working for him? It would make more sense to see Charlie wind up back in New England some day. For now, he will probably enjoy a nice six million dollar vacation.

~

How do the Houston Texans go up on the Indianapolis Colts 17-0 and lose the game 35-27? How does that Colts team keep coming back? Could it be that the change from Dungy to Caldwell was just second verse, same as the first? James Caldwell has now set a record for consecutive victories for a rookie coach beginning his career in the NFL. One tends to give Peyton Manning most of the credit for the string of victories. Naturally one has to acknowledge the great performances of veteran players like Mathis and Wayne and Clark and Freeney and so on. But you then realize that there are many new faces on this Colts team. The Colts had to start two rookie cornerbacks against the Texans. Pierre Garcon is starting where Marvin Harrison used to be. Austin Collie is playing the role of Anthony Gonzalez. The machine just keeps on rolling on. It seems that no situation is able to intimidate Peyton Manning. It doubtless is of great help that his offensive coordinator, Tom Moore, is still hanging around. Moore is the only coordinator Manning has known in his entire career. That kind of continuity has helped the Colts adjust to new personnel and injuries. Nevertheless the new head coach has to be credited to some degree for the relentless determination characteristic of his team.

Speaking of rumors, Mike Martz is rumored to be coming to Chicago as the new offensive coordinator, replacing Ron Turner. As a Bear fan, I have to say that this move cannot happen too soon. There are personnel upgrades needed on the offensive line for sure, but I think that the Ron Turner offense is part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Martz has something of a mad scientist reputation but let's not forget that he has orchestrated a couple of the greatest offenses in NFL history. Jay Cutler may not look to good right now but give him some time to throw and a running game and I think that all the Bear's passing records would fall.

Oh well, if you play fantasy football it had to be a tough week if you had both Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner as your quarterbacks. I have one team that got burned by Warner's sudden inability to play this week and there was no opportunity to make changes. So I am quite unhappy about the loss of my quarterback and the almost certain loss of the game. I know, it is only fantasy but when you compete you want to win, whether it be real basketball, fantasy football or pinochle, right?

I suppose that Arizona and Pittsburgh were a bit hampered as well, seeing as how the options were Matt Leinert and Dennis Dixon, respectively. Now Leinert has been a disappointment but he does have experience, while Dixon has thrown one pass in his NFL career. So one might expect both 'Zona and 'Burgh to go down, right? Well, Tennessee managed to beat Arizona on the last play of the game. Vince Young versus Matt Leinert, hmm, sounds kind of familiar. Has something like this happened before? Yeah, well Young outplayed Leinert and the game proved once again that Kurt Warner is the engine that drives the Cardinal car and once he retires it does not appear that Matt Leinert is the guy with the horsepower to replace him. After all, the Cardinals don't have a great running game, whereas Tennessee has Chris Johnson on their side. Is Johnson a viable MVP candidate on a team with a record of 5-6? I think he is. Would the Titans have beaten the Cardinals with Warner at the helm? Probably not. But Tennessee was probably due for some good luck after some of the difficulties they dealt with early in the campaign.

After the events of the day the Titans still have vague hopes of a playoff berth in their future, if they can run the table for the rest of the season. Had they lost, that would have pretty well closed the door. In the case of Arizona, they still lead their division and a quick return by Warner probably gets them to the finish on top in a weak NFC West. For the Cardinals their next opponent, the Vikings, may take them out even if Warner does return. But Tennessee may be in real trouble no matter what, since Indianapolis provides the next challenge and no one has managed to beat the Colts yet.

Tonight Pittsburgh will play Baltimore. This is being posted in advance, but frankly Pittsburgh would have had a decent shot at taking the Ravens down and putting distance between them and their rival in the division race. But with an untested Dixon at quarterback the Ravens will be favored to win and thus bring both teams to a 6-5 record. The bad news for both teams, though, is that Cincinnati already took care of business by thumping the Browns by a 16-7 score and so they are looking very good at 8-3. This means that by losing Big Ben, Pittsburgh may also lose their best chance to return to defend their NFL title by winning the division and may wind up playing for a wild card berth. Life is hard in the Not For Long league.

~

Like the NFL, NBA players have to play a team game. There are systems for both offense and defense that players must learn and adhere to in order for the team to be successful. The NBA does have a flow that is lightning fast compared to the NFL and the players cannot be expected to be as regimented. Sometimes it all just comes down to playing basketball, like running a fast break or taking advantage of a mismatch in the post. Most of the time there is a plan behind it all that the coach has installed for the season, a philosophy and a style on both offense and defense and all sorts of individual plays. Some offenses like the Princeton or the Triple Post are a coherent offensive philosophy, and some teams instead have a series of specified plays that most often involve screen/rolls and pops and post-ups. Most defenses have basic systems in place for switching and dealing with screens and protecting the weak side.

In most cases a pass is more effective than a dribble as I have stated over and over. So many times the difference between a good team and a great team is making one more pass. How many times have you see a team make three passes to get an open shot on the perimeter and that player, rather than shooting, makes one more pass to an even more open teammate who buries the jumper? Good teams do not keep track of who takes the shots, they simply work to get good shots and snatch up loose balls and rebounds. If any one is surprised to find that there are teams like Phoenix and Sacramento and Oklahoma City who are winning more than expected, tune in and watch them play. These are all teams who will make the extra pass and scrap for the loose balls and the rebounds. All three of them have stars but you don't see any big egos insisting on a certain number of touches and shots and taking lots of "heat checks."

Taking those thoughts to their logical conclusions, one can see why teams have been reluctant to sign Allen Iverson. Iverson insists that he must be not only a starter but a star. He cannot imagine that his great talents have abated in any way and cannot imagine taking a supporting role on a quality team. AI was certainly a great star in his prime, throwing his relatively small body into the land of the giants time after time to take mediocre teams beyond their expected finishes and even threaten to win a championship without a great deal of help. No one doubted that Iverson had the heart of a lion and the quickness of a mongoose. But now his primary problem is having the attitude of a prima donna. Iverson coming off the bench as a sixth man for Cleveland, for instance, would possibly give the LeBrons the push they need to get over the Laker hump. But Iverson cannot see himself as a part of a winner unless he is one of the biggest parts. So for now he sits at home, waiting for a team with injury issues to guarantee him a starting spot. Kind of a bitter end for one of the best of his time.

For now, the Lakers are playing team ball and winning games. Does anyone have more talent than this Laker team? One wonders when all those star athletes begin to chafe at the one-for-all, share-and-share-alike system that is still giving Kobe a lot of shots while dampening the numbers of guys like Lamar Odom. Truly this kind of situation is why having the best talent does not guarantee ultimate success. Phil Jackson has to preside over a large number of players who must subjugate their individual games to his system for the greater good of the team.

Doc Rivers beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals two years ago even though his team was probably a bit less talented. Doc Rivers may not be a great coach. However, there is no question that he got all the players on the same page during that season. Last year, having lost Kevin Garnett, the Celtics were not able to defend their title. This year they absolutely have less talent than the Lakers but we know they are all on the same page in terms of teamwork. Therefore it is possible that a healthy Celtics team could defeat a superior Lakers team if that Lakers team is not absolutely committed to team above self. That is assuming that they can overcome teams like Cleveland and Orlando, among others, on the way to center stage.

We knew when the season began that the Lakers and the Celtics and the Cavaliers and the Magic had the talent to make it to the finals. We knew there would be some teams like the Trail Blazers or Nuggets or the Hawks that would take a step up. Yet now we see the Mavericks taking a big step forward even without Josh Howard. We see that the Suns are far better without Shaq. It is too early to identify who is going to provide the roadblocks to a matchup of giants.

Who is going to finish way behind, however, is all too apparent. Kurt Rambis was hired to install the Triple Post Offense in Minnesota and right now their 1-15 record reflects one heck of a learning curve in the road. Hopefully Minnesota knows what they are doing and that Rambis will get a chance to get everyone on the same page. It is unlikely the Timberwolves will be much of a threat to anyone until their second year running that offense. They don't have any Jordans or Pippens to fall back upon.

The New York Knicks are playing out the string as DLee and the Harringtons while waiting for the free agent class of 2010 to hopefully transform them into championship contenders. This season will be painful but at least most of the games feature a lot of scoring so fantasy basketball players look forward to seeing the Knicks on the schedule of their players if nothing else.

New Jersey had mercy on Lawrence Frank and fired him before he officially presided over the worst start in the history of the NBA. One more loss ties the record and two sets a new one. The Nets have had all sorts of injury problems and of course they were in full rebuilding mode anyway, so Frank really had no chance to do much winning. Someone else gets to suffer for awhile now. Assistant coach Tom Barrise will preside over game seventeen and then either GM Kiki Vandeweghe will have the joy of coaching the players he has accumulated or another coach will bear the burden. No decision has been made there but frankly (oops, a pun) I think that firing the coach was actually a kindness.

Perhaps the most surprising development of the season is the rookie situation. Slam-dunk favorite for ROY honors (darn, another pun) was supposedly Blake Griffin of the Clippers, who has yet to officially so much as bounce a ball in NBA action. Meanwhile, the guy who ran off to Europe and was dissed as a bad draft pick by Milwaukee, Brandon Jennings, looks like he will be running away with the award. Jennings was compared by one well-known sports site to Allen Iverson as a kind of successor to the little quick guy with the big game title, which makes you wonder how to view Chris Paul and whether a Jennings can be considered a little guy in a league that employs five foot five inches of Earl Boykins? But I digress, Jennings has proven to be a better shooter and far more NBA-ready than the majority of the scouts had thought. He is not just a rookie star, he is a star, already the best player on the Bucks (sorry about that Michael Redd) and a good candidate for the All-Star game on merit. Is there any other rookie having this kind of impact?

One last thing, is there any doubt that Danny Granger is one of the ten best players in the NBA? Of course in the fantasy basketball world he is somewhere in the vicinity of number five on most draft lists, but where does he belong in the real world? Opinions?

A version of this story is posted at the Fantasy Lounge!

Under The Radar by Kimbal Binder

Smart coach, dumb coach, Glad coach, glum coach.

I am a fan of the underdog. Sure, I have my favorite teams but otherwise I like rooting for the guy who isn’t supposed to win. Therefore I rooted for the Phillies against the Yankees. I root for anybody but the Lakers. I root for anyone other than the Patriots. Fair warning, the fact that the Pat’s head coach is an arrogant jerk whose personal morality resembles that of a stray mongrel let loose in a kennel of puppies means that I root against the Patriots even more than I root against the-huh-huh Yankees or Kobe and the Philtones. So I am all for columns lambasting Bill Belichick, I simply think that most of them are misdirected.

The news media have beat on Bill Belichick like a drum for the decision to try to convert a fourth down on the wrong side of the New England thirty yard line with just over two minutes to go. Announcers, my brain and zillions of fans were incredulous when he went for it. The subsequent failure led to the final touchdown in an epic 35-34 defeat of the Patriots by Peyton Manning and the Colts. Oddly enough, stat-heads around the internet world pointed out that the statistically correct decision was to go for the first down, thus making Belichick the smart coach who made the right choice in spite of conventional wisdom.

Much was made of the fact that the head coach of the Patriots doesn’t care about the fans or the news media or anything other than winning. His decision to go for it was aggressive and unpopular, which is a fastball right down the middle of the man’s attitude. So math tells us that the Patriots were more likely to win by going for that fourth down than they were to win if they punted the ball to the Colts. Check it out; it is true…but so what?

The math may be on Bill’s side, so let’s not call him stupid for making the call based on math. Let’s make this about people. When the Patriots went for it on fourth down against all conventional logic, Bill Belichick may want to say he was showing his belief in Tom Brady and his offense. But the players see it as fear of Peyton Manning and a lack of confidence in his defense. Football is played by people, not robots, and Belichick may have lost his team with that call.

Overbearing martinet-types like Belichick will have much of their team buffaloed and either in awe or fear of him. But the ones who think for themselves and are not drinking the BB Kool-Aid understood the truth. Peyton Manning scares Belichick. Belichick does not trust his defense. For some of his players, he will never quite be the same coach. The camera caught Tom Brady looking over at his coach just as the Colts were preparing to score and, for an instant, a look of molten hot fierce anger or hatred flashed in Tom Brady’s eyes as he looked towards Belichick. He caught himself and hid the look and later showed up in a hastily donned shirt and tie to repeat the party line. But I think Brady thinks his coach is responsible for the loss. Tom Brady would have punted.

Jack Del Rio told Maurice Jones-Drew to kneel at the one yard line rather than score late in the eventual Jacksonville victory over the Jets 24-22. Now, that MJD sacrificed a chance at a touchdown late in the game for the sake of his team is admirable. He didn’t pout or complain. So Del Rio took time off the clock and then had Josh Scobee kick a 21-yard field goal with just three seconds on the clock as the play began. THAT WAS NOT SMART! So the field goal was like an extra point, guess what, I saw an extra point blocked on Sunday and a very short field goal was botched in another game when the snapper and holder were off-time and a kick was not even tried. Those were just the games I watched. How stupid would Coach Del Rio look if that snap had been bad, or the hold fumbled, or a lineman had blocked the kick? You think he would want that touchdown then? The fact is that Del Rio was no smarter than Bungalow Bill, just luckier because his ill-planned ploy actually worked!

How is it that lifetime coaching mediocrity Dick Jauron lasted for three seasons in Buffalo before being fired? Why was he hired in the first place? Didn’t he already show the world that head coach was at least one step too high on the ladder? It seems unlikely that a Mike Shanahan would want to step into a losing atmosphere with a cancer (Terrell Owens) and about 200 inches of snow a year. But why not give a young up-and-coming talent a shot at the job? Heck, wouldn’t the Notre Dame job be better than coaching in Buffalo?



Biggest puzzle - why is Eric Mangini still employed? Watching the Brown’s offense this Sunday was like watching a high school team go up against the pros. Cleveland did not challenge the Ravens deep at all, so Baltimore loaded up for a twenty yard defense and swarmed the running game and hounded Brady Quinn. I cannot imagine that the youngsters on the team can be learning anything worthwhile in this scenario. With such terrible coaching and some questionable personnel, the Browns may not win another game this season despite a hard-hitting and professional defense. It seems that Mangini has managed to blame both of his quarterbacks and his general manager for a bad start but he simply does not have an endless supply of scapegoats.

Oakland has some talent but the coaching situation looks pretty sad there as well. I keep waiting to find out that Tom Cable has been revealed to be the Zodiac Killer just to see how Oakland and the NFL explain it all away and keep him on the job.

Guess who is still undefeated as of Thursday? New Orleans and Indianapolis. In this brave new world of passing offenses, the teams are led by the two best quarterbacks, arguably, in Drew Brees and Peyton Manning. Odd that the underrated and undersized Brees and the classic tall pocket passer with the family pedigree both manage to produce the same basic results. Sean Payton and Jim Caldwell truly have coaches on the field. By the way, how strange is it that a guy with a college record of 26 and 63 was hand picked by Tony Dungy to succeed him and it is working? Crawford has a long record of working the offensive side of the ball as an assistant coach. He is buttressed by a large staff, some of whom are Indy fixtures who unretired such as Howard Mudd and Tom Moore, Sr. If either Sean Payton or Jim Caldwell wins, it will be another victory for those who are willing to be smart and creative in hiring head coaches.

Mike Tomlin won a Super Bowl as a very young coach. Josh McDaniel is coaching a guy he attended high school with, of all things! Recycling the Jaurons over again is a loser play. Either lure a proven winner like a Shanahan or find a bright successful assistant who has accomplished things such as Mike Singletary and give them a chance to prove themselves!

NBA – Mike Miller is such a puzzling player. If you take time to watch him you will see a guy who is always moving the ball in the right way, making the right moves without the ball, spotting up for open shots, setting picks, giving guys the ball in good spots, hustling for the rebound, etc. But he almost never looks for his shot and he never goes out of his way to set himself up. Not one bit of Captain Jack-It-Up in Miller. He reminds me of a college guy playing with his younger brother and the brother’s friends, trying to let them be the stars and just filling in the blanks for everyone else. He would be a huge success on a championship quality team, people would notice him and he would help the team win. But he has spent his career on losers and teams with lots of me-first types and he has been satisfied to feed them the rock and take the random open jumper or drive to the hole occasionally when the defense relaxes. I want him on MY team!

Fire Ed Hochuli

For the last couple of years the Ed Hochuli crew has made a series of spectacular mistakes that have cost wins for some teams and given wins to others. Ask the San Diego Chargers. The Bears versus Cardinals game of November 8th is the latest example. By making bad pass interference and holding calls against Chicago and for Arizona (or failing to call obvious infractions) the officials largely decided to award the game to Arizona.

Whether the Hochuli crew simply dislikes some teams or is completely incompetent or whether something more sinister is going on is unclear but it is time for the NFL to eliminate some officials for cause. Is it Hochuli himself that is the problem or did the NFL give him the worst crew in hopes his massive guns would eliminate complaints?

If the Bears-Cardinals game had neutral and competent officiating, would the Bears have taken control of the game by the start of the fourth quarter? We will never know. But now that we have seen the entire game play out, we could see that it was a game that the Bears had a shot at turning around and taking over had the officials simply been basically competent. If you figure that the officials cost the Bears 14 points and gave the Cardinals 10, then Chicago would have a win in their pockets right now. Instead it was a 41-21 victory for Arizona after the Bears closed to within 13 points.

I do credit the Bears team for overcoming the terrible injustices done to them by the officiating in coming back and making a game of it. But in the end, beating two teams at once was well beyond the Chicago team. The Cardinals are a good team that should win their division. The Bears are probably not good enough to make the playoffs anyway. It is a shame that we could not have seen these two teams play a game with fair and neutral officiating to see whether home field advantage would have helped the Bears win the game.

Maybe Ed Hochuli hates the Turner family because Norv Turner raked Hochuli over the coals for the "Fumblegate" call that stole a win from San Diego last season? Hochuli has an earned reputation for bad calls already. A petition to have him fired was begun last year. After watching this game I have signed it.

At the very least, Ed Hochuli and his crew should, after watching the game film, apologize to the Bears and Jay Cutler for their incompetence or malfeasance. Better yet, they should take the advise of Brett Favre:

"Take two weeks off, then quit."

By the way, I had been a big Hochuli fan until last season. His guns and his forthright explanations of plays made him one of my favorite officials. Two years of screwups have changed my point of view. My hope is that the NFL will take a careful look at this crew and reconsider who among them truly belong on the field.

Not Just Black And White

Sometimes things aren’t a matter of black or white, right or wrong, weak or strong. But once, in this country, it WAS about black or white and if you were white, you were the right and you were the strong. Once. The bad old days. Not relevant now, right?

Everybody who knows me knows I despise racism. However, everybody who knows me knows I disapprove of most of the policies proposed by Barack Obama and that I believe he leans so far left he probably requires a gyroscope to stand up straight. But a football player helped me see things in a different light.

THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

Denver’s Brandon Marshall caught an 11-yard touchdown with 1:14 remaining in Thursday's game against the Browns to win the game 34-30 after a 93 yard Jay Cutler-to-Eddie Royal hookup broke a Denver Bronco record while getting the score close. That, plus one or two costly mistakes by Browns tight end Kellen Winslow, a first-half hero when catching the first two touchdown passes of Brady Quinn’s NFL career gave Marshall a chance to be a difference-maker.

When Marshall scored, he reached inside the front of his pants and took out something unidentifiable but fellow wide receiver Brandon Stokley ran up and grabbed Marshall’s hands, holding the young player’s arms down while saying something emphatic and Marshall’s teammates immediately surrounded Marshall as an official ran up to see if the young wide receiver was breaking a rule about including a prop in a touchdown celebration. No see, no harm, no foul.

I observed to my wife and son, watching the game with me, that Marshall had some stupid prop he was about to use and Stokley had just saved the team fifteen yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“Marshall is a good player, but he’s just another showboat like T.O. or Ocho Cinco. If they gave them 15 yards on the kickoff it might’ve cost them the ballgame. What a bonehead.”

“Smart play by Stokley, though.” Said my son, Rob. “I’ve always liked him.”

“Yeah. Maybe he can teach Marshall how to act. He was probably going to write the cornerback a parking ticket or something like that.”

I’m glad I waited to watch the post-game interviews.

You know Brandon Marshall. Big talent, big mouth, big trouble?

They call him “The Beast.” Actually, he calls himself that: "Right now when I sign my signature, I put 'Brandon Marshall #15' and I put 'The Beast' underneath. I'm running with 'The Beast' right now but if the fans vote and they have something better, let's go with the fans." (as told to local television affiliate CBS4)

Brandon Flowers, KC defensive back, once said, "Brandon Marshall is a defensive lineman playing wide receiver. He wants to inflict punishment on you. He wants you to try to tackle him so he can shove you off of him and get more yards."

After a 20-catch rookie season in 2006, Denver Bronco receiver Marshall caught 102 passes for 1325 yards and seven touchdowns. He was branded a star, a Beast! He claimed his goal for 2008 was to catch 140 passes.

But the offseason leading up to this year didn’t go too well. He was horsing around at his home in March and wound up smashing his forearm through a television set and cutting it severely, making it impossible for him to practice until June. Horsing around had not been limited to wrestling with friends and family either. His sometimes-careless-or-idiotic lifestyle led to an NFL suspension that cost him game one of the 2008 season…and it could have been worse.

Quoting ESPN from an August 6th post:

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos will start the season without wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who was suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for three games for violating the league's personal conduct policy.

Marshall was summoned to Goodell's New York offices on July 18 to explain a series of off-the-field misdeeds over the past year, most notably his March 6 arrest on a domestic violence warrant filed by his former girlfriend in Atlanta.

Marshall, who is due in court next month for a drunken driving trial, can have his suspension reduced to two games if he undergoes counseling and abides by other conditions, which the NFL did not specify.

Marshall managed to appeal the suspension down to one game. But he started the season with some doubts about his character to belie his obvious physical talents. Then in Marshall's first game back from suspension, he caught 18 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown to lead Denver to a 39-38 victory over San Diego.

Doubters remain. Miami linebacker Joey Porter yapped at him throughout a Denver loss to Miami during which Marshall caught, officially, just two passes for 27 yards although a long touchdown pass from Jay Cutler was called back on an exceedingly dubious penalty. After that week nine game, Joey Porter said this:

"I didn't get inside his head, we just were talkin'. He got in his own head. He was done," Porter said. "He's one of those soft receivers, where he has to have the ball all the time. If he don't get it, he's going to mope and cry. He did it to himself."

Brandon Marshall had a lot on his mind late in Thursday’s game with Cleveland. The Broncos had missed opportunities and he himself had dropped a pass or two and run the wrong routes once or twice and his numbers were unimpressive. His team was behind. Then, even while catching what turned out to be the game-winning pass he nearly made another stupid mistake. After the game he gave an interview to the NFL Network crew and confessed that he had not played a good game overall:

“Man I’m happy now because it was one of those games where I was relying on my team ‘cause I dropped a couple balls…I was out there doing too much, man. That interception was my fault. It was a cover two and I slid in when I shoulda slid out and I screwed Jay a little bit and it was one of those nights for me.”

He talked about his past problems.

“I made a lot of mistakes on and off the field in my three years and …they have meetings with rookies telling them how to stay out of trouble….I poked my head into the rookie meeting and said, man, you guys learn from all the things I been through and don’t do the same things! It’s been a blessing, man, and being accountable, and showing those guys you can do the right thing? It’s just keeping me going.”

The NFL Network crew was chuckling and Marshall was as well. This big, likeable young man wasn’t afraid to blame himself for his mistakes and credit his teammates. What a refreshing point of view in a world of self-centered blame-shifting athletes. Was this the same clown with the DUI and a history of off-field troubles? I could not believe it, how could you not like this guy?

Denver Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall gave credit to his quarterback Jay Cutler for staying with him in the end, to rookie running back Peyton Hillis, to Eddie Royal for getting the team going and called himself out for making mistakes during the game. Still all the while wearing a big smile, being able to say these things after a win rather than a loss.

One of the interviewers, Warren Sapp, soon came to the subject of what the heck was that thing he had pulled out of his pants? Didn’t he realize Brandon Stokley and a few other teammates surrounding him quickly is all that kept him from receiving a fifteen yard penalty that could have cost his team the victory?

Marshall said this:

“It was an historical day for America and when we look at the 44th President, Barack Obama, he inspired me and not just me and my teammates but the nation. I know in the 1968 Olympics two of our black athletes stood on the podium and threw up their Black Panther sign just for black power and liberation. But in my own way I wanted to pay my respect to our nation and the progress we made so I got a white glove painted black half and half. It’s not about black power and it’s not about white and black it’s about USA red, white and blue and I wanted to do it but Stokley came and said it’s too close of a ballgame you might get flagged, so put it back in!”

The announcers, two of them white and three of them black and one black ballplayer, they were all laughing, asking him where he put the glove (threw it away, so look for it 47 times on EBay for $1,000.00 each)! It hit me that I hadn’t thought about them as black and white but simply that one is Deion Sanders and that one is Marshall Faulk and that one is Rich Eisen and so on.

I considered how a member of my generation and a basketball player I really admired, Alex English, told a story about him and his brother getting literally kicked in the rear and chased away from a “white only” drinking fountain in South Carolina, as quoted in the Toronto Star:

"My brother was drinking and this white guy came out and said, `You niggers, what are you doing?' and he just kicked my brother right in his behind. ... We cried, we walked home," said English, 54. "(Tuesday) night, my phone, my sisters, all the people were calling me and crying and saying, `We did it! We did it!'"

I remembered how, over a decade after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier for major league baseball the black players still had to eat in separate diners and stay at separate hotels during spring training down south. Jim Crow lasted long after Abe Lincoln declared slavery to be dead.

How would I feel if it was the other way around and black faces had been on every piece of folding money and black hands at the tiller of the ship of state since the 18th century and now, finally, one of my own had finally arrived? Wouldn’t it say to me and everyone else that America had finally put racism in the past? That there were no longer any second-class citizens? That I belonged as much as anyone else?

I saw Brandon Marshall and listened to him and I saw his color was different and he had tattooing up and down his arms, wearing an earring in each ear and here he was, so much younger than me, so much richer…and I loved the guy! What a cool moment for a young man so happy that his country, by electing Barack Obama, had told him that he truly did belong! I realized that he was just a young kid (compared to me) who had made mistakes, mistakes that had helped humble him and grow him up. He was also still a little boy, yukking it up on national television after a big win and just loving life. Someone you’d want living next door or hanging out at the local gym with you.

Brandon Marshall is like me and I am like Brandon Marshall. Maybe for the first time we all are able to believe we are not black and white and yellow and brown and man and woman so much as we are all people and, in particular, equally valuable Americans. And here I am this white conservative who voted for John McCain and thought McCain was too liberal himself and yet…as I saw the joy on Marshall’s face and heard the sound of his laughter…the thought came to me…maybe four years of Barack Obama is worth it after all.
~
Here is the URL for the Marshall interview: http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80c4773e

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