A Stay At Home Dad

The old men of Dartmouth football circa 1991 had a reunion this weekend. I’d been trying to come up with some kind of original take on it, but, frankly, I’m drawing a blank.

The obvious stuff is that it was great to see everyone. I was but a sophomore on the team so I was surprised that I was remembered so well by everyone. I was actually a little embarrassed that I whiffed on some names- but I remembered all the faces. They hadn’t actually changed much in the nearly 20 years since we last gathered at our alma mater.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before… Brett Favre is playing his last season.

Unless someone dangles several million in front of his nose and promises that all this team needs is his services to get to the Super Bowl. Or he, you know, just changes his mind.

Again.

My previous post about Cam Newton started the wheels turning a bit. I wonder if there isn’t a market for a football league for high schoolers that are only interested in football?

The idea is based on the assumption that no high schooler can jump directly to the pros. Depending on position, they need at least another year of maturity and experience playing against players of equal talent. Right now, college football has a monopoly on these players. The competitive nature of the business leads to a lot of shady dealing.

So really, what’s needed, is a league that caters to grooming high school standouts for a potential life as a professional. For starters, the league would pay the player a modest salary, perhaps based on years in the league and with some performance bonuses. The league would teach players what to expect as a professional and how to deal with sports agents. I think some money management classes might also be useful. The league would allow any player to enroll in the draft at any time, but should probably provide guidance on a per-player basis. For instance, a first-year standout might be tempted to jump and could ask about the pros and cons of his choice.

I don’t think the league should be a place where professional veterans should land, unless as a coach or something. Remember, we’re talking about catering to young players who need more time to mature into a potential professional.

One thing this league avoids is direct competition with the NFL. By setting it up as a stop-off point for young players, it’s basically a feeder league. Another benefit is it drains the NCAA of the players who are there only to play football. Now that they have a place to go, theoretically we don’t have any more cheating scandals and pay-to-play scandals.

No idea as to financial viability. Although with the amount of money the NCAA makes off these kids now, I’ve got to believe that something is there. Speaking of the NCAA, I’m sure they’d be none to pleased with the formation of such a league and would bring everything they had to bear and make it fail.

Anyway, that the rough idea. Any takers?

I’ve just been catching up a bit on the whole Cam Newton affair. In a nutshell, his services were perceived to be of such value that he and his father decided to sell them to the highest collegiate bidder. Auburn won, and has been winning ever since.

Having watched this sort of stuff for years now, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that the world would be a better place without “college” football. I think universities and colleges should disband the teams. I think that either the NFL should create a farm-system, or another league should form that caters to high schoolers.

I’m tired of the hypocrisy of college football. Sending kids to “school” to get an education because they play a sport well is a fantasy. These kids aren’t there to get an education. They are there to learn how to play football and stake their future on the chance that they’ll be a pro in a few years. If I give the NCAA the benefit of the doubt- then they have basically proven themselves incompetent stewards of college football. Completely incapable of reigning this sort of behavior in. If I don’t give them the benefit of the doubt then they are complicit and benefiting to the tune of millions of dollars off these kids. Either way, the NCAA doesn’t cover themselves in glory.

Let’s just drop the charade altogether. I don’t think a high schooler can possibly play pro-football. But they can go to a farm league where an organization teaches them how to play and prepares them for that life. Perhaps they can even draw a nominal salary of some sort in addition to other perks like meals and training facilities and the like. At the least, we won’t have to insult our intelligence that they are there for anything else.

The Cowboys hit new lows last night and the rumor mill is in high gear, speculating on when Wade Phillips will get canned. The guys at PFT have been leading the charge for awhile now. The reasoning here is simple, and even Troy Aikman has weighed in along the same lines: Phillips doesn’t exercise enough discipline over the team to make sure they’re getting the effort required to win.

If these remarks from Polamalu are accurate, I’d say he just doesn’t get it. As a matter of fact, his comments could easily be spun to make him look like a dirty player. I’ve watched replays from the weekend that got all of this rolling and in all cases, I’d say the defensive player was headhunting. Further, as far as his teammate Harrison is concerned, I’d say that poor tackling technique was being used.

No one is telling defensive players not to hit. What’s pretty clearly being communicated is that defensive players shouldn’t be using their heads as a weapon and they shouldn’t be targeting opposing players heads as the contact point. The NFL certainly bears some blame here because they were pretty lax about enforcing calls like “spearing” in the first place.

But that doesn’t mean they are trying to turn the game into soccer. Polamalu isn’t doing himself any favors and, as I stated about his teammate Harrison, if he’s as good as he and all his fans say he is, he should be able to adjust pretty easily to not leading with his helmet when making contact. Heck, he can even look to a play that Harrison was penalized on this past weekend as an example. The call was for a late hit, not because he hit Drew Brees too hard or because he led with his helmet.

Frankly, I think he needs to quit whining and just play the game.

Took in quite a bit of it this weekend, both college and pro. I’ll start with college.

First, Penn St actually looked like a decent squad against Michigan. Michigan obviously has a good QB there, but I think they’re head coach is in over his head. He’s used to outscoring over-matched opponents. When coaching at Michigan, he’s not going to over-match anyone. That means he needs to field a defense and he clearly can’t. My guess is Michigan fans are longing for the “miserable” days of Lloyd Carr.

Oregon has a heckuva offense. I watched them against USC and they were really something. I picked it up at 32-29 USC ahead early in the 3rd. Oregon scored on their next 3 drives, pretty much exhausting USC with that “blur” offense. I’m not convinced it’s the offense itself so much as they’ve got a lot of good players at all of the skill positions, and a solid offensive line. My guess is that personnel makes any offensive system look good. I don’t know if they are the best team in the country, but as of now I’d love to see them go up against Auburn, or whoever is the best in the SEC.

Switching to the pro’s, Pittsburgh impressed me last night. Frankly, I thought they were more hype than not prior to last night’s game. But they really do have a good defense. When Roethlisberger gets his game legs back, they’re going to be even tougher to beat. As for New Orleans, I was really impressed with their defense. Anyone counting them out in the NFC is making a mistake.

I know the Cowboys have finally descended to “outright embarrassment” but the Vikings have got to be nipping at their heels for that honor. Remember, they went out and basically begged Favre to come back. You can bet that won’t happen again. In fact, my guess Favre is pretty much playing himself into permanent retirement this year. No team is going to go after him this offseason.

While on the subject, these are 2 teams loaded with talent. Normally, teams like that are good for .500 records and everyone commenting on why they’re merely under-performing. The ‘Boy’s and Vikings have 3 wins between them- and one of those was a game between each other! I can’t recall 2 teams with as much talent as they’ve got being this bad. Ever.

I still think the Jets are the team to beat, but now I’d say Pittsburgh is up there. New Orleans is probably a top ten team now, but they’re the only NFC team I’d put in that class. The AFC is still holding all the aces. With the halfway point of the season approaching, the wheat will start to separate from the chaff now.