I was only going to make a passing mention of the Oklahoma/Oregon game last weekend in Mythical Picks later this week. Clearly, Oklahoma was jobbed by the on-field officials and by the incompetence of the replay official - who allegedly only had a 14-inch TV monitor to view replays. I don't read minds and so I don't know if these PAC-10 officials skewed the results toward the PAC-10 team in the game; I don't know if any of the officials were down on Oregon on the money-line in Vegas; importantly, at this point, neither does anyone else. So, all I wanted to say was that these guys are really bad at what they do and the PAC-10 really needs to go out and find officials with a higher level of competence.
But I can't leave it at that because of David Boren. He is the president of Oklahoma University and a former US Senator from Oklahoma and the former Governor of Oklahoma. He went off like a firecracker after this game and wrote a letter demanding that the loss be expunged from the Sooners' record and that the incompetent officials be suspended for the rest of the season. He called the officiating errors that led to the Sooners' loss an "outrageous injustice".
Please recall that Dr. Myles Brand said that it was going to be the university presidents who would rein in the out-of-control athletic departments and bring NCAA sports back into the mainstream mission of the universities. Now we have yet another example of a university president so deep in the folds of the bloated athletic department that you couldn't find him without a search party. Boren used to be a member of the US Senate, which likes to think of itself as the world's greatest deliberative body - that's merely a polite way of saying they take six months to figure out if it's raining and another six months debating whether or not to open an umbrella. Obviously, Boren has forgotten all those "deliberative skills" or he would not have fired off such a nonsensical and emotionally driven letter. Oh, and by the way, the outcome here was a loss in a football game. Calling that an "outrageous injustice" is nonsensical hyperbole.
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Memo to President Boren: Let me identify for you two "outrageous injustices":
1. The fact that in not-so-distant times past, Oklahoma University denied admission to certain people on the basis of their skin color.
2. The fact that the clearly incompetent replay official has received death threats from OU fans.
The Denver Broncos have had an interesting opening to their season. They have a 1-1 record but their defense has yet to allow a touchdown. Of course, their offense hasn't exactly lit it up this season. Last Sunday they hit an interesting football exacta; they did not give up a touchdown and they didn't commit a single penalty. Nonetheless, they only beat KC 9-6 last weekend and the KC defense is not going to make anyone harken back to the days of the Steel Curtain. Fans in Denver are already calling for rookie Jay Cutler to replace Jake Plummer and one of the arguments made to support that move is that Mike Shannahan allegedly "dialed back" the offense last week to try to reduce the number of "mistake opportunities" that Plummer might experience. Let's suppose that's true for a moment - even though I can't prove it one way or the other. Just think how much further the offense will need to be "dialed back" to reduce the number of "mistake opportunities" for a rookie quarterback. It might bring a smile to Woody Hayes up there in the Celestial Football League.
I mentioned yesterday that Duante Culpepper and the Miami Dolphins were in a tailspin and that some fans were booing Sunday and calling for Joey Harrington. Jason Whitlock of the KC Star has held for a while that Culpepper will not be a huge success in Miami because Culpepper's success as a QB has had as much to do with his former association with Randy Moss as it had to do with Culpepper's innate talent. I thought that was a bit overstated, but Whitlock is looking more and more as if he's on target here. The Dolphins had a bad run of luck with quarterbacks whose names began with the letter "F" - Frerotte, Feeley, Fiedler. Getting Culpepper - with a "C" - , maybe they hoped to move up from "failing" to "average" at the QB position. Based on a small sample of two games, maybe that's all they are going to get - average.
The fans who must be chuckling to themselves at the moment are in Minnesota. Culpepper made a pain in the neck of himself with regard to ownership there and forced his way out of town. Even so, the Vikes are 2-0 this season while the Dolphins are 0-2. I don't know if that situation will continue to obtain all season long; but at the moment, the Fans in Purple can snicker in the direction of the People for Aquatic Mammals.
Some folks like "power rankings" that list teams from top to bottom in various leagues. I like to focus on impotence rankings; that's what curmudgeons do. So, here are my Bottom Ten NFL teams at the moment:
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10 - Washington Redskins: Their offense has been miserable; if it scores less than 27 points next week, everyone on the offense should be docked a paycheck.
9 - Buffalo Bills: I'm just not convinced they're any good.
8 - Kansas City: Without Trent Green this team is in a world of hurt.
7 - Cleveland Browns: 29th ranked offense and 30th ranked defense.
6 - Green Bay Packers: Hey, at least they scored 27 points in a single game this year.
5 - Houston Texans: When Ron Dayne and Samkon Gado are the choices for "featured running back", prospects are dim.
4 - Miami Dolphins: Losing at home to Buffalo …
3 - Tampa Bay Bucs: Haven't seen the end zone yet and gave up over 300 yards rushing last week on defense.
2 - Detroit Lions: Have scored 13 points in two games with a Mike Martz offense.
1 - Oakland Raiders: Averaging 175 yards on offense per game and 3 points a game. The worst at the moment by a comfortable margin.
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"Is Rod Smart wearing a t-shirt that says 'HE CUT ME'?"
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