To people like Dan LeBatard of the Miami Herald, who are complaining about "overreaction" on the part of other commentators regarding the Miami/Florida International brawl last weekend, please tell me what would have happened if physics majors from the rival schools had created this scene. Instead of swinging helmets at each other, they could have used tasers on each other. Instead of stomping on one another, they could have probed each other with slide rules. Might there not have been some intervention by the local gendarmes in such a situation? The problem with the "overreaction" by commentators is that there has been a complete lack of rational reaction by the coaches, the athletic departments and the school administrations.
Miami players like to say that they are from "The U". Sadly, these days, "The U" seems to stand for "The Undisciplined" or even "The Unlawful".
In case you are wondering where the NCAA honchos are in all of this and what they might do about it, here's their contribution. They have said they would be willing to work with schools and/or conferences to develop a policy that would limit on-field violence. Here's a policy that might work. Throw the hoodlums in jail and don't let them play any more NCAA football - - ever. I won't even charge the NCAA a consulting fee for that one.
Since I'm on the subject of college football, there were two huge upsets last weekend. Indiana was a 20-point underdog against Iowa; the Hawkeyes had BCS aspirations this year. Indiana won the game outright 31-28. If there is even a shred of consolation for Iowa here, at least the game was in Bloomington. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt was a 14-point underdog against Georgia; the game was in Athens; it was homecoming for the Bulldogs. Vandy won the game outright 24-22. I can't find any consolation for Georgia fans here.
Georgia has now lost two games in a row and both have been at home. Their impotent offense is the reason. Georgia ranks 88th in Division 1-A in terms of offensive output; in four games this year, they have gained less than 300 yards on offense. The Georgia schedule shows upcoming games against Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech; one consistent theme among those three opponents is that all three opponents have better than average defenses. That's not the end of the less than totally wonderful outlook for the Bulldogs. Suddenly, the Georgia defense, which had led the nation in scoring defense just a couple of weeks ago, has now yielded 51 points in the last 5 quarters of football - and four of those quarters were against perennial football juggernaut, Vanderbilt. To clarify for those keeping score at home, that's not good.
On New Year's Day, FOX Sports will telecast the Cotton Bowl from Dallas. Pat Summerall will be doing the play-by-play for the game. Is Tom Brookshier busy that day? That would be a trip down memory lane…
Is it possible that the Toronto Raptors are ahead of the curve? After all, it's become pretty obvious that teams of foreign-born players can - and lately do - beat teams made up of US-born NBA players. So maybe the way to win in the NBA is to stack your team with non-US players… The Raptors seem to be doing that. Just a glance at their roster shows:
-
Andrea Bargnani from Italy
Jose Calderon from Spain
Jorge Garbajosa from Spain
Rasho Nesterovic from Slovenia
Uros Slokar from Slovenia
Pape Sow from Senegal
Things are not looking good for MLB when it comes to TV ratings. The playoffs so far this year have ratings down almost 30% as compared to last year. And even in the game where the Tigers eliminated the Yankees, the rating was only 4.4 on a Saturday afternoon on FOX. The next afternoon, FOX scored a 13.9 rating for the Eagles/Cowboys NFL game. That ratings difference represents approximately 10.5 million TV sets. There is talk that FOX will cede all of the games for the first round of the playoffs to TBS next season and won't televist any playoff games until the League Championship Series.
The good news for MLB with regard to TV ratings is that last weekend's NASCAR race did not beat out the Mets/Cardinals game. Had that happened, MLB would have needed spin doctors wound up like gyroscopes to try to explain it away.
So far this season, every NFL game has been a sell-out; that's the first time in league history all of the games have been sold out for the first six weeks of the season; no game has been blacked out in a home viewing area. This weekend should provide a stern test to that streak when the Arizona Cardinals - fresh off their gag-o-rama game against the Bears on MNF - journey to Oakland to play the hapless Raiders. Would you actually go to see that game if you had free tickets? I wouldn't.
As if the Detroit Lions don't stink enough, DT, Shaun Rogers, has just received a four game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance. Rogers is actually a very good player who gets overlooked because he is surrounded by players who are not good at all. I know that someone somewhere will find a way to blame this on Matt Millen…
On the public service announcement front, I noticed that Friday 13 October was International Skeptics Day. I was waiting to see the press release from whatever organization was in charge of all this; I figured it would say something like, "All the participants in the ceremonies figure that nothing important will come of this…" But the press release hasn't shown up in any of the places I've gone looking.
Meanwhile, October is National Family Sexuality Month; and it is also National Pajama Month; and simultaneously, it is National Toilet Tank Repair Month. Is it possible that this business of having "months" for various things gotten just a bit out of hand?
Finally, an observation from Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle:
-
"I have two audiotapes here, and I defy you to tell me which is which: Maria Shrapova hitting tennis balls and James Brown plucking out his nose hairs."
<< Back to the Recent Rants Index
= Archives = Pros = Scores = Contact =