Sports are supposed to be about excellence in achievement. That seems to be on the wane these days. In lots of youth sports leagues around the country, every kid gets a trophy at the end of they year; the trend it to downplay “winning more games than someone else” in favor or “recognizing participation and personal growth through shared experiences”. If that kind of balderdash were limited to leagues that were organized and run by a bunch of well-meaning but addle headed do-gooders, the sports world would be a lot better off. Alas, that is not the case.
Mediocrity not only exists in sports; it has its own very generous rewards. Ted Lilly is a career .500 pitcher; he’s going to make a guaranteed $10M a year for the next four years. That’s a fat reward for mediocrity, no? More than half the college football teams playing Division 1-A football will participate in bowl games this year; more than half the NHL teams will be in the Stanley Cup playoffs; more than half the teams in the NBA make the playoffs. Two-thirds of the MLS teams make the playoffs and that would be outrageous if anyone even cared that MLS existed let alone held playoffs. It’s hard to look at those situations objectively without concluding that mediocrity carries its own rewards.
And before NFL fans puff up their chests and point out that they have a more “exclusive” guest list for their playoffs, let me remind those NFL fans of Pete Rozelle’s favorite word – - parity. The NFL still trumpets “parity” because it sounds so much better than “mediocrity”. But the fact is that the NFL was built on the “parity”/”mediocrity” business model. Consider that with two weeks to go in the season, 24 of the 32 teams have a mathematical chance to make the playoffs. That’s because there are so few good teams and so many mediocre teams. Allow me a few examples:
The Titans started off with an 0-5 record. They could make the playoffs. They’re 7-7 at the moment.
The Steelers were 2-6 not long ago. They could make the playoffs. They’re 7-7 at the moment.
The Panthers are 6-8 with a four game losing streak and they could still make the playoffs.
The Rams are 2-7 in their last nine games but still have a mathematical shot at the playoffs.
Seven NFC teams – one shy of half the conference – have a record of 7-7 or 6-8.
The schedule works out such that it is possible for 8 NFC teams (half the conference) to wind up with a final record of 8-8. Maybe they should break all those tied records with a tournament where the coaches all play that card game you learned as a kid, Crazy Eights.
Two years ago, the NFC had two teams make the playoffs with 8-8 records; this year, the NFC West champion could be 8-8 and both wild card teams could be 8-8. That is mediocrity however you want to gussie it up.
With all the whoop-de-damn-doo about the Colts’ miserable rushing defense, I wondered if the Colts might be able to set a record for most yards allowed on the ground in a season. A friend who is a stat monster found the record for me when I could not come up with it easily. The answer is that the record is pretty much out of reach. The Colts have allowed 2427 yards rushing through 14 games (173.4 yards per game). In no way is that something to take pride in if you are an Indianapolis Colt, but the record could only be reached if the Colts fielded a Pop Warner League defense for the next two games.
In 1978, the Buffalo Bills allowed 3,228 yards rushing for the season; that’s more than 200 yards per game on average for an entire year. The Colts would have to allow 801 yards rushing in their final two games to tie this record. I think that falls into the realm of the “unpossible”.
The Sixers have found a deal to rid them of Allen Iverson. He will go to Denver and the Sixers will not get back anything close to his real value; such is the reality of trading top-shelf players in the NBA. The Sixers will get Joe Smith who was an overall #1 pick when he came out of college before it became clear that he was really “Joe Average” as a player. Smith’s biggest claim to fame is that he was the guy who was given a “secret” contract sweetener that made the Timberwolves go over the salary cap and the team got caught doing that. The owner and GM had to stay away from the team for a year and they lost a bunch of 1st round picks (three as I recall). All of that for “Joe Average”!
The Sixers also get Andre Miller who is a serviceable point guard who will never be mistaken for an outstanding point guard. They also get Ivan McFarlin, a rookie power forward who has played less than 4 minutes a game in Denver. And they get two first round picks next summer from Denver that should be in the lower half of the first round. Miller can play as long as the Sixers find other people to be the team focus. Smith’s value is that his contract expires this year and they can send him into the world of free agency to see if any other team would want to spend money on him. That will begin to clear some salary cap room and if they can find a way to unload Chris Webber too, they will be in good shape with regard to the cap. If they can’t, Webber is next year’s “expiring contract” and so he may have trade value then. McFarlin is a guy who allows them to have enough folks at a practice to run five players against five players on the court.
The prognosis for the Sixers is simple. They’ve won five games so far this year; they won’t win more than 20 for the season. If they get lucky and are able to draft Greg Oden, they might turn around in a couple of years. If not, then it will be a while until they matter in terms of the NBA power structure.
Meanwhile, Denver gets a scorer to fill in while Carmelo Anthony sits out his month long suspension for the MSG Brawl last weekend. That’s good. But unless the Nuggets have found a way to have two basketballs on the floor simultaneously, I don’t see how Iverson and Anthony are going to co-exist over the long haul. Time will tell.
Speaking of the NBA, I noticed that Adam Morrison, Emeka Okefor and Sean May all play for the Charlotte Bobcats. Too bad the Bobcats have to play in the NBA and can’t enter the March Madness tournament where all three of those guys dominated games. Oh well.
Finally, some individuals’ destiny is reflected in their names. Did you realize that the Deseret Morning News has an outdoors editor and writer named Ray Grass?
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…