Category: Football

It would appear.

It looks like it’s a 4-team playoff of some sort, meaning it’s almost certain that only teams from big conferences will be going. Likely, Notre Dame will also get some kind of bid if they’re in the top 5 or something, though that’s just speculation on my part. No actual details have been released and the proposed first year would be the 2014 season.

This isn’t about the teams, it’s about the Benjamins:

ACC commissioner John Swofford said the commissioners have agreed on the principals of how the increased TV revenue will be distributed among the participating conferences. Industry sources have indicated a four-team playoff might be worth as much as $400 million to $500 million annually.

I still say it’s a mistake.

Brian Banks, the football player recently exonerated of rape charges he’d already served 5 years in jail for, has convinced some teams to give him a tryout. He’s 25 now, so physically he should be capable. Who knows where his skill level is at though. Either way, best of luck to him.

This story is horrendous. The kicker being that the (now) woman wanted to “help” him clear his name, but didn’t want to give up the money from the settlement. How magnanimous of her. Good luck on getting him his time in jail back.

Read this and weep.

I’ve never liked the idea of college playoffs. Not out of any sense of an homage to tradition. Rather, I don’t think it will solve the problem its backers say it will: determining an undisputed National Champion in college football. My bottom line is college football is too matchup oriented, the season too short, and too many teams are competing for the title. As far as I’m concerned there is no solution.

Which is why I think the original premise of the bowl games, a reward for teams who performed well during the season, is what the bowl games should go back to. Of course, I suffer from no delusions that convince me it will happen. “Forward progress” and all that.

What the whole National Championship angle is about is money. Money for the NCAA. Money for coaches. Money for participating schools. Money for AD’s and other administrators.

But no money for the kids that provide all the entertainment. There was a time when the argument about the value of the education and the scholarship persuaded me otherwise. But no longer. Nor does the argument that “they’ll be playing on Sunday’s.” For the vast majority of college football players, that’s flat out untrue. There are over 100 division I-A colleges, many with rosters over 100 players strong. There are 30 NFL teams all that talent goes to. Clearly, the vast majority of players will lose out. But they still contribute to those games we watch on Saturday afternoons and evenings.

The more stuff like this I see, the more hostile I become to the notion of big time college football.

Since I’d written something similar in spirit a while back, I thought I’d link this article at the Daily Caller. Unlike my ridiculous idea, this guy tries to leverage the current college football infrastructure, which is probably a deliberate thing on his part. That makes it more plausible than my own scenario.

That said, word arrives this week that the USFL is returning. Never heard of the USFL? It was a Spring league back in the 80’s and lasted right up to the point where they decided to compete directly with the NFL by becoming a Fall/ Winter league. It was where Jim Kelly, Hershel Walker, Reggie White and Earnest Byner, among other future NFL stars, got their start.

So why am I bringing all these up in a single post? Well, “the end of football” isn’t coming anytime soon. But, with the increased focus on head injuries and the cash strapped schools that supply college football, it’s not impossible to imagine a future where state legislatures decide that a sport like football has no place at an “institute of higher learning.” So couple that with the timing of the reincarnated USFL and I’m wondering if we don’t have the makings of a hedge against the possible elimination of college football programs. In other words, the USFL becomes a farm-system for the NFL. It will be interesting to see where this updated USFL gets its talent from.

Note this would also solve the whole idiotic “college playoff” debate, a not insignificant bonus.

It should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: this is all purely speculative on my part. But if it does happen, remember: YOU READ IT HERE FIRST!!!

It appears that Junior Seau’s suicide has sparked a rash of renewed interest on the topic of “The End of Football.” John Gruber links to an article at Grantland and an older piece in the New Yorker. Of the two, the New Yorker piece is by far the more interesting, talking about incidents of head trauma in boxing and football. Mainly football. The Grantland piece basically says the that football will eventually be sued into oblivion. I’ve also seen other blog posts discussing the general topic of football eventually becoming extinct.

Certainly it’s plausible. As a parent, reading the above linked article about head trauma, it certainly gives me pause. The boy had become much more interested in football this past year. Really, the first time he’d shown any interest in it. He’s asked a lot of questions about playing football and, if I were to guess right now, he expects the opportunity to play some day. Assuming there’s a program available, he’ll get his chance.

Of all the scenarios discussed, the liability angle seems the most likely to bring about the end of football as we know it. In particular, I can see a concerted effort backed by medical research that results in high school football slowly being eliminated. Followed by the college game. At that point, assuming football maintains it’s current form, the NFL will have to sink money into some kind of farm system. When that happens, the quality of play will drop off because the money will be drying up and the top athletes will no longer want to play football. Perhaps it swings back to baseball. Or maybe US soccer gets a big shot in the arm.

Mind you, I’m not predicting that end. I’m just saying it won’t surprise me. As a society, we’ve become extremely risk averse. In particular, our intellectual leaders (aka: pundits of all stripes) don’t have much tolerance for it. The safe thing to do is not play football. And really, who could argue?

But if that day were to come to pass, it will be a sorry day. What football players do, at the college and especially the pro level, is not something that just anyone can do. Sure, hitting is a part of the game (BTW- I refuse to use the word “violent’ regarding football. Violence is senseless, chaotic and brutal. Violence is getting beaten on the street, or worse. Football is not violent.) But it’s only part of the game. Watch a running back follow his blockers down the field reading the blocks and seeing his lanes; watch a quarterback throw a 35 yard laser on a deep crossing pattern to a receiver perfectly in stride; watch a defensive lineman charge full speed 10 yards upfield, and then turn around and spring in the other direction and still make a tackle, all in less than 4 seconds. That stuff isn’t just luck. It isn’t something that can be duplicated by a bunch of guys playing touch football.

Football players aren’t just ordinary people. They’re men who have committed themselves to something and made themselves the very best at what they do. Sure, a bunch of guys can go out on a Saturday and play flag football. Someone might even do something noteworthy, like make a long run or catch a pass. Maybe that guy gets bragging rights for the weekend. But he pales in comparison to the guys we watch on Saturday and Sunday. That weekend hero can’t even get on the same field as those guys.

There’s glory waiting for the athlete that chooses to go there, where lesser beings fear to tread. As long as they continue to do so, people will watch them if only to see how far he can make it, to be amazed at what can be. They’ll watch just based on the slimmest of hopes that they’ll see something they’ve never seen before, be it a big hit, a one handed grab, or a winning touchdown as time expires.

Yes, there’s a price to be paid. But it’s the athlete’s choice, not the pundits and their medical studies.

This bit of football news is everywhere, so no links, but the reports are that Junior Seau committed suicide earlier today. By all accounts, he was a great locker room guy, player and teammate. He was also divorced, so he obviously had some family issues, and I was also reminded of his strange incident a few years back where he supposedly fell asleep while driving and drove off the road. So while he was by all accounts a great NFL player, his life after football was somewhat more muddled.

It’s certainly a sad day for his family, friends and fans. It’s also a waste that someone with so much energy and capability couldn’t find a worthy pursuit to channel his personal resources towards. So while he can certainly be held up as a model for how to play football, he falls short of the mark when it comes to how to live a life. That’s a shame.

Via ESPN, it looks like the NFL may scrap the Pro Bowl.

This has to be the biggest no-brainer in the history of football. Personally, I can’t even remember the last time I watched a Pro Bowl for longer than it took to recognize that’s what what was on and then flip the channel. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one, seeing as they moved the game to the week before the Super Bowl in an attempt to boost viewership of the game.

The players will surely love it, since it’s one less game for them to get beat up in or risk injury in. The owners ought to love it for similar reasons. And as I said, it’s doubtful the fans will even notice it’s gone.

Where exactly is the downside?

A while back, I wrote a quick item wondering about the possibility of soft shelled helmets replacing hard shelled helmets. Mainly, I was just wondering aloud about it and also the possibility of a combined shoulder-pad helmet design. The ideas being either:

1. A better dampening effect on the energy transmission to the head via the soft shelled helmet, or

2. A means of transferring the energy to the body so the head doesn’t take all of the energy from the blow via the combined helmet-shoulder pad design.

After all this time, I got a comment to that post which was basically a form of spamming; however, it was actually on topic to the post so I allowed the comment to remain. I’ll even to the commenter a favor by posting the website he provided right here: Game Breaker Helmets.

One of the arguments often heard about reining in head injuries is to remove the helmets from the game altogether. It’s a nice counter argument, but there have been studies done comparing incidents of head injuries between rugby players and football players and the results are a head-shot (yes, bad pun) to the counter argument: rugby players have a higher rate of concussion incidents than football players. So no helmets is not the answer.

So for hee-hee-ha-ha’s , I did a little research about the transition from leather helmets to hard shell helmets. In a, uh, nutshell, it was basically arbitrary. A guy by the name of John Riddell started making them in the 40’s because the leather helmets got soaked and brittle and generally not liked much. The hard-shell design allowed for team advertising with logo’s to boot. Football has been using the same basic design ever since.

I have no doubt that directly comparing soft shell helmets to hard shell helmets in controlled lab experiments would leave soft shell helmets wanting. But, I think actual use could achieve an important side-effect: modifying the way the game is played. Players would not be able to lead with the head as they do now, thereby reducing head and neck injuries in the long run. Plus, according to the link site I linked above, the helmets can be screened with team logos, so we don’t have to lose our fancy helmet artwork.

What would be nice is to see some kind of research about these soft shell helmets so that a more compelling case can be made for them. (Perhaps our commenter from above has something like that?) Of course, it might cut against them as well, but if the decision to use hard shell helmets way back when was arbitrary, then it can’t hurt to give the alternative a look and have the discussion now.

I don’t have a link at the moment, but it looks like the Minnesota Vikings ownership is not getting a lot of love from Minnesota politicians at the moment. Public funding for a new stadium was shot down within the past couple of days.

I recall one of the lines I read was from a city council member who asked the Vikings representatives something to the effect “In these tough economic times, why should we be asking the taxpayers to give money to a billionaire?” I think that hits the nail dead in the head.

Now, when I read stuff like this, frankly it pisses me off a bit. Mainly for the fact that it’s so blind to the realities of the situation. See the above paragraph.

If owners are willing to exploit football fans to this degree, then the only thing that will set them back in line is for fans to tell them to go bilk some other city. Because the owners have made it clear that they’re more than happy to stay in town while everyone ponies up big bucks for their seat, when it comes time to give a little back they find out it’s a one-way street.

I enjoy football as much as anyone, but I’ve never liked the idea of taxpayer funded stadiums and facilities. NFL owners are billionaires. They can afford to spend some of it to make their own facilities.

Well, it’s all over now. Manning goes to Denver. At this point, I think it’s safe to conclude that Manning is not at 100% because if he were, we would be seeing videos of his throwing. That said, it has to be close enough, like 95%-ish, that the Broncos are willing to pay him a lot of money to throw the rock for them. Of course, Manning’s QB prowess will be the story of the NFL for the first few weeks of the new season.

While on the topic, I’ll throw my hat in the ring with people who disagree with Manning “accepting” getting the number ’18’ jersey unretired by the Broncos so he could wear it. In particular, when Manning says he has a lot of respect for what it means to have a number retired for a team, then he should know that, quite frankly, the number is off limits. Frankly, it’s a classless move on his part, even if the other guy said he’d be ‘honored’ to have Manning wear the jersey. As others have noted, what else is the guy going to say? I’ll add only that the honor should be Manning’s, not Tripucka’s- I don’t care how assured of a spot in Canton Manning has.

WOW

Roger Goodell did not muck around with the whole Saints bounty thing. I’ve just been reading a bit about it and I’m pretty sure most of these are firsts. The most surprising thing is that Sean Payton is gonged for the 2012 season. Even though I’d been following the story and it was pretty clear that Payton was in the know, I figured his punishment would be closer to wrist slap material.

Though I guess this is consistent with how Goodell has dealt with discipline in the league, both with players and management or coaches. He slapped the Patriots hard for the whole Spygate thing a few years back. He’s been tough with players for in season violations regarding illegal hits. Now, he’s continued with the coaches for the Saints.

I wonder if this will be enough to discourage the use of a bounty system. It seems absurd that something like that would even be necessary in the NFL, where winning is prized above all else. I mean, what more incentive do these guys need? As long as the whistleblower is protected, I suppose the risk will now be significant for any team that chooses to go there. (I’ve read about Jeremy Shockey being fingered as the whistleblower, but there’s been some pushback about that, so for now I’m assuming that the true whistleblower is still anonymous.)

I think overall, I’m in agreement with the penalties and it will be interesting to see what happens to the players. Football is a tough enough game as it is without some clown coming after a player to make a personal buck as part of some clandestine incentive system. It’s actually a little shocking to me the lack of vision on the part of the participating players. Sure, they’re all competing against each other, but they’re all part of the same thing and all those players have similar experiences. So going out there with the intent to hurt someone, when everyone knows that any play could be their last anyway, just seems gratuitous to say the least.

Supposedly, Peyton Manning finally demonstrated he can throw the football again today for John Elway and the Denver Broncos. And what’s more, it went well according to Elway.

BUT WAIT! Did he actually throw? There’s no tape to prove it, only the word of an NFL team official.

There’s always something brewing in the NFL.

I’m not going to begrudge the Broncos wanting to get Peyton Manning, but if there’s any truth in this article related to signing him without seeing him throw, I mean, WOW.

I’ve heard the arguments that “Peyton at 80% is better than most anyone” but I just don’t believe that. Part of what made Manning great is his arm strength. If he can’t make the throws, then it doesn’t matter what his knowledge is. He flat out won’t be able to get the ball there on time. Talk to Chad Pennington about that, or any of a number of other weaker armed QB’s who were otherwise very competent.

Even Peyton Manning.

Although the part of this whole thing that continues to catch my attention is stuff like this:

And Manning will be an unrestricted free agent who can shop himself to any NFL team. If he’s as healthy and prepared for 2012 as the recent reports have suggested, some NFL team is going to get one of the best free agent acquisitions in NFL history.

I continue to have my doubts about this. Even if he’s healthy, what team is going to get him that has a cast of receivers capable of complimenting him? What if he goes to a team with a crappy O-line? What if his arm is only 85% of what is was?

The assumption that he’ll be back and as good as ever is dubious. I’ll fully admit to being wrong if that’s what happens, but it’s hardly the slam dunk most pundits seem to think.

The guys at PFT have a quick blurb this morning about Joe Flacco and his contract negotiations. They’re wondering if he deserves “top 5” money, presumably meaning he’s one of the top 5 QB’s in the league.

It’s rare such questions have straight forward answers, but allow me.

Current QB’s who are better than Joe Flacco, no questions asked:

• Tom Brady
• Aaron Rodgers
• Ben Roethlisberger
• Drew Brees
• Eli Manning

QB’s who are arguably better than Joe Flacco:

• Tony Romo
• Matt Schaub
• Matthew Stafford
• Matt Ryan
• Jay Cutler

If Flacco wins a Super Bowl, as the article suggests, I think that merely vaults him into the top 10 because those other guys haven’t won a Super Bowl yet.

Sorry Joe.

Saw this yesterday and meant to comment on it, but didn’t get the chance. Now I see ESPN has also picked it up, so I’ll take the time to offer some comments.

From what I know about fusion surgeries, they are a stop-gap procedure that is used when all else has failed. The other problem with fusing vertebra is that it doesn’t stop with just 1 surgery, my understanding is it takes 3 or 4 surgeries before things stabilize. Attendant with that is the loss of range of motion and also the loss of strength around that area.

I seriously doubt he’d be able to play at the level everyone is accustomed to. For one, it’s already documented that he’s lost a tremendous amount of throwing strength (He hasn’t been able to throw more than 20 or 30 yards according to one of the above links.) For two, a limited range of motion in his neck means he’d have trouble seeing the field- not necessarily down the field, but certainly in the pocket. For three, he’s no spring-chicken anymore- he’s on the wrong side of 35 now.

Not to mention, if he does play, he’ll likely not get the benefit of the doubt from defenses anymore. He’ll see much more aggressive play from them, especially with blitzing. Sure, he may recognize the blitz is coming, but it’s another thing to make a defense pay for it. Right now, it’s not at all clear he’ll be capable of it. If he proves incapable of handling it because of arm strength or reaction time, or just plain old rustiness from missing a year, then he’ll only get more of the treatment from defenses.

Manning has nothing left to prove where football is concerned. He’s a lock for a first ballot HOF’er, he’s been MVP of the league multiple times and he’s been to 2 Super Bowls, winning one of them. He’s set numerous passing records and set the standard for quarterback play in the league for many years now. And contra a lot of other opinions, I actually think this past season speaks volumes about Manning’s importance to the Colts. With Manning as QB, defenses couldn’t be aggressive and teams had to game plan how to out score the Colts. Further, the Colt’s defense was built to play with a lead. Take away the points and the leads, and you get what we had last season for the Colts. Defenses could blitz the Colt’s offense and generally be aggressive for the first time in a decade because the threat of Manning burning to the defense was non-existent. The Colts may not have won the Super Bowl last year with Manning, but they likely are a contender and they are certainly better than a 2 win team.

So given his accomplishments and the questionable health status that see-saws between not-so-good and bad, I think Manning should retire. He’s not going to be a Brett Favre- his neck won’t let him. If he does play, I think there’s a serious possibility that he gets hurt and is forced into retirement as a result. The other possible scenario is that he proves to be ineffective due to the physical limitations his neck problems create for him. There may be teams out there willing to pay him to play for them, but they won’t have his best interests at heart. Finally, at 35+, Manning is nearing the end anyway. Without the injury, sure he probably could have played until he hit 40. But I think the neck injury changes the calculation. His time is up, it’s as simple as that.

UPDATE:

I think Colts owner Jim Irsay is thinking this way too (from the ESPN article):

It’s a two-pronged thing. The first is if and when the nerve regenerates and whether it allows him to play at a high level. But I always want Peyton to understand the risk-rewards about playing. We want to make sure he understands the long-term aspects of his health in trying to play.”

Sounds like someone who’s trying to plant a seed in a player’s head. He could be acting out of self-interest- not wanting to worry about playing against Manning. But I think that’s unlikely. Irsay knows what Manning has done for his team, I think he’s being sincere here.

Most of the post SB commentary feels like it has centered on who should be blamed for the Patriots losing. The guys at PFT had a link to one of the dumber commentaries I’ve ever read. I won’t link the actual article because it’s so poorly reasoned it isn’t worth giving it more attention than I’ve given it. (For an idea of it’s content, the author actually tries to argue that Tom Brady doesn’t care about winning. And no, that’s not an exaggeration or misrepresentation of what’s in it.)

After reading the source material, I felt it was a pretty lame thing to be linked to at all and PFT would have better served their readers by ignoring it. But they atoned for it in some measure with another post containing 3 links to some excellent commentaries about the game.

I’ll add that I found them to be excellent because I agree in large part with what’s said. Namely, that luck played a not-insignificant role in determining the winner. Twice the Giants put the ball on the ground: one time the ball bounced back towards Giant players trailing the play, the other time a Patriot player missed grabbing the ball and again the Giants recovered. How many times does that happen? Also, take that catch by Manningham at the end of the game. If the pass isn’t perfect, if the timing isn’t perfect, that’s an incompletion or an interception. You can argue that it took skill to throw that pass, and you’d be right. But Eli Manning isn’t a machine capable of throwing perfect passes on every play. He just happened to get enough right, as did Manningham, for it to be a catch.

Luck being a factor also brings up a second point that the articles touch on: that the Giants were just the better team on that day. Their defense was a little better when it needed to be, forcing a safety on the first play of the game and sacking and pressuring Brady a number of other times. Their offense made a few more plays than the Patriots did as well. They had a running attack that helped keep the Patriots off-balance and they were able to counter the Patriots well executed game plan of taking Victor Cruz out of the game.

There’s the old saying that “Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.” The Giants were both last Sunday. That’s why they won, and that’s why pointing fingers at this or that which the Patriots did or didn’t do misses the point: it was a hard fought game that either team could have won, that’s the way great games go. Actually, it’s what defines great games.

And with that, the clock starts ticking towards next season.

You know, the first 3 times the Patriots won a Super Bowl, I didn’t root for them. Then, for the last 2, they play the Giants and that’s one of maybe 2 teams that could actually make me root for the Patriots.

So naturally, they lose. Both times. I just can’t win with those guys.