Week 15 In NFL Provides Interesting Matchups
As we head toward the end of the NFL season, Week 15 provides some interesting matchups that could give us a clear picture on playoff seedings and who will make it to the Super Bowl Tournament. Let's take a look at what is on tap for us this afternoon:
Indianapolis at Houston: The 9-4 Colts head to Houston to take on the reeling Texans. The Texans are coming off a 42-14 beat down by the Patriots on Monday night. This once proud defense has given up 120 points in their last 4 games. The Colts have a 2 game lead over the Bengals and Steelers in the wild card race. The Texans are smarting and are returning home. Would be shocked if the Texans don't win this one.
Denver at Baltimore: The Broncos are flying high with a 10-3 record as they head into Baltimore to take on the Ravens. The Ravens are on a two game losing streak and are fortunate that the Bengals and Steelers have failed to capitalize on their problems. The Broncos have won 8 in a row. If the Ravens are going to be a factor in the AFC Playoffs they need to start to play better football. A Raven victory would give them the tiebreaker for seeding purposes with the Broncos. Tough to go with Joe Flacco over Peyton Manning. This is going to be a good one to watch.
NY Giants at Atlanta: The Giants roll into the Georgia Dome to take on the NFC leading Falcons. The Falcons are coming off a loss to the Panthers. When you look at the Falcons schedule, the best team they have played was Denver and that was in Week 1. Washington and Dallas are the only other teams with a winning record, each at 7-6. Clearly, the Giants will be the best team they have faced all year. The Giants need a win to maintain their lead in the NFC East. They need this one more than the Falcons.
Green Bay at Chicago: One of the oldest rivalries in all of sports is renewed at Soldier Field this afternoon. These two teams really dislike each other as evidenced by the back in forth comments all week between the players of both teams. The Bears are reeling big time having lost 4 of their last 5 games. Lovie Smith is under fire and a loss today could put the Bears playoff spot in jeopardy. The Packers have won 7 out of their last 8 games. This is a must win for Chicago.
Pittsburgh at Dallas: Both of these teams are 7-6 and fighting for their playoff lives. With Big Ben back last week, the Steelers were embarrassed at home by San Diego. They have lost 3 out of their last 4 games. Dallas has won two in a row and 4 out of their last 5 games. Cincinnati has already won this week so the Steelers need this game to stay tied with their AFC North rival. The Cowboys need a win to stay within striking distance of Chicago and Seattle. Two desperate teams for a win, should be a good one.
San Francisco at New England: The Niners D against the Patriots Offense. This could be a good one. It will be a great test for San Francisco as they head to Foxboro going against a Patriots team that is on a 7 game winning streak. Houston came into Foxboro last week and were spanked and sent home. Will the Niners fold in New England in prime time or will they prove to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender?
It's weeks like this one that makes the Sunday Ticket worth having. Sit back and enjoy.
Just End The Misery Now Bettman
It is more evident to me as each day passes that Emperor Gary Bettman wants to break the NHLPA. A week ago, it appeared that the two sides were close to making a deal. Optimism was running wild as fans believed that the season would start on Christmas Day. Then Thursday hit and the roof caved in. As we have come to find out, the league made an offer to increase the revenue pool, make the term of the CBA ten years and limit the term of contracts to 5 years. The players came back with 8 years for the CBA and 6 years for contract length. Emperor Bettman lost it. You see it was a whole package and if the players didn't accept everything the league offered then there was no deal.
So let me see if I understand this: the parties are good with the revenue share and two years separate them on the term of the CBA and term of individual contracts is separated by a year. If Bettman and the militant hard-line owners really wanted the season to start, this thing could get settled by next week. The reality is that they hate Donald Fehr and they are incensed that the players are standing united.
What really infuriates me is that it was the teams that offered 10 and 12 year contracts to players this past summer. Now they want to blow up these contracts as this is "the hill that we will die on." Fehr was right when he said last Thursday that the parties were close. The Emperor couldn't handle that and lost it. So now he is going to show Fehr and the players who is boss by going to court and filing an unfair labor practice against the players.
Bettman's conduct throughout this has been awful. He has tried to discredit Fehr and it is clear that the little bully can't stand it that Fehr has the stones to stand up to him. Bettman has made this personal and as a result it will be difficult for him to give up anything. As a result, the Emperor needs to have the guts to come before the world and shut down the 2012-2013 season, 8 years after he shut down the 2004-2005 season. It is clear that the Emperor wants to destroy the NHLPA and Fehr. He could careless about the game. If he did we would have a deal. Have some guts Gary and put us all out of our misery.
Uniform Tradition? – Forgetaboutit!!
Call me old school. Call me a dinosaur. Call me whatever you want but what happened to uniform tradition??? Does it always have to be about the almighty dollar?? Last night I flipped over to the PAC-12 championship game and I had to do a double take. I determined that UCLA was on the field but who were they playing all dressed in black? It was the Stanford Cardinal. What a joke and a disgrace. I was expecting to see the traditional cardinal red jerseys with the white helmet and red S on the side. Instead I saw a team all dressed in black with black helmets. Looked like something out of a video game.
Stanford is not the only school that has thrown tradition out the window. A week ago when UCLA and Stanford met, I was appalled at the UCLA uniforms. Gone were the powder blue jerseys with gold pants. Instead we had blue jerseys and blue pants. The UCLA football uniforms were different and classy. This new version made them look like a bunch of blueberries.
I have always found the matching jerseys and pants to be disgusting. Moreover, if you have something that sets you apart, that is a symbol of your school or team why mess with it. That's why I give the Yankees, Red Sox, Notre Dame, USC and the Dodgers kudos for not succumbing to the marketing geniuses who want to screw with tradition. The real jerks are the people who go out and buy these god awful new jerseys. If people wouldn't buy them, they wouldn't try to sell them. That's why you will never see me buy an orange Cleveland Browns jersey. Not only are they ugly but they are a disgrace to the tradition of the team. There has been some talk of the Browns possibly changing their uniforms. If that happens I'm not going to be a happy camper.
The Big East Is Dead
Back in 1979, a new basketball conference was born called the Big East which was comprised of St. John's, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, Boston College and UCONN. Villanova joined in 1980 and Pittsburgh joined in 1982. For those of you in Western New York, Niagara University was approached to join but declined as these were all schools that the Purple Eagles played back in the day.
The Big East soon became one of the premier basketball conferences in the country. In 1984, Georgetown won the national championship by defeating Houston in the NCAA Finals. In 1985, Villanova, Georgetown and St. John's all advanced to the NCAA Final Four with Villanova pulling off the upset by defeating the defending champs. Big East basketball took a back seat to nobody.
But the Big East is a shell of what it was as this once basketball conference turned into a football controlled one which led to many defections. Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Boston College are gone or will be gone by next season. The conference has been left to pick up schools like Tulane, Fresno State, etc. The all-eastern big city school basketball dominated conference is no more. That's why the whole thing needs to be blown up.
The Big East needs to go back to its roots by forming a conference that would be basketball schools only. How about Villanova, DePaul, Xavier, Marquette, Seton Hall, Providence, and Georgetown. Maybe see if you can poach Lasalle, Manhattan, Siena and how about St. Bonaventure and/or Niagara. A basketball only conference that would tie in Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Buffalo. It could work.
The demise of the Big East falls in line with the end of the Southwest Conference, the creation of the BIG 12 and additional teams added to the ACC and BIG 10. All of this has happened because of the almighty dollar. Forget about traditional rivalries. They are a thing of the past. Now it's all about television contracts and tie ins to the bowl games and the BCS. What a shame.
Notre Dame Proves They Are Number One
Last night at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish proved they belong in the BCS Championship Game by defeating the the University of Southern California 22-13. The score was not indicative of how close this game was as Notre Dame dominated the game. The only thing that kept it close was Notre Dame's inability to close the deal several times down in the red zone, which they will need to do against either Alabama or Georgia.
What we saw last night , and for that matter all season long, is a team that relies on its defense to stop their opponent and an offense that can pound away at their opposition to close the game out. That's what happened last night. Up 16-10, the Irish offense ran the ball down the Trojans' throats with Theo Riddick being the main man. Notre Dame had to settle for a field goal and took the lead 19-10. USC was not ready to quit as a long pass to Marquise Lee brought the ball down to the ND 2 yard line. After 2 pass interference calls, USC tried running the ball 3 times and 3 times the Notre Dame defense denied them from scoring. Then an incomplete pass ended it for USC. The Irish took the ball on their own one yard line and Riddick rushed for 15 yards and got them out of harm's way. The game was over.
Defense wins championships and Notre Dame's is arguably one of the best in the land. The offense can be punishing and Everett Golson has developed into a good quarterback. They have the ingredients of a championship team and on January 7th we'll find out if they can close the deal.
Wake Up The Echoes
Tonight the number one team in the nation, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, will take on an old rival to ensure their first trip to the BCS Championship Game. A year ago, many around the nation were proclaiming that this storied football program would never reach the heights achieved by Lou Holtz, Ara Parseghian, Frank Leahy and Knute Rockne. Well, this current edition of the Irish have other ideas.
Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis all tried to restore the luster of the Golden Dome but to no avail. But Brian Kelly, a winner at every place he has coached, is 60 minutes away from "shaking down the thunder from the sky." This game against USC will not be easy. Interestingly enough, the last time Notre Dame visited Los Angeles they won 20-16 as Matt Barkley was injured. It was the Irish's first victory over the Trojans since October 20, 2001 at South Bend. Similarly to 2010, Barkley is out for tonight's game forcing USC to start a redshirt freshman, Max Wittek. This will be Wittek's first college start and the brash freshman has proclaimed that the Trojans are going to win this game.
Notre Dame is like the Yankees: you either love them or you hate them. The haters are already saying that the Irish don't deserve to play for the national title. That they should have lost to Pittsburgh. That Stanford should have won their game against the Irish. To the haters I say: sour grapes!! As a Notre Dame fan, I kept on waiting for the wheels to fall off. When they visited Norman, Oklahoma I expected the Sooners to roll. That didn't happen. When the Pitt game was going into overtime, I had a sick feeling that they were going to blow it like they have in the recent past. Even entering the game against Boston College, I was nervous. But this team is different than those in the recent past.
College football is better when traditional powers like Notre Dame are contending for a title. The Irish have a national following. A victory tonight will most certainly ensure that this year's BCS title game will be the most watched in history all because this private school from South Bend, Indiana will be playing in it. It will certainly be watched more than if two SEC teams are playing in Miami on January 7, 2013. Here's hoping that whether "the odds be great or small, old Notre Dame will win over all."
If Bettman Were President
One of the biggest stories in the news today is the impending deadline of fiscal disaster if the President and the Congress can't come up with a deal. Can you imagine if Emperor Gary Bettman was President??? He would have convened a meeting with Speaker John Boehner and told him we are raising taxes on everyone, not cutting any entitlement programs and Congress will relinquish its right to question anything. Boehner of course would reject this ultimatum and then President Bettman would call for a two week moratorium on any further negotiations.
The above scenario may seem ridiculous but it is exactly what is happening with the NHL-NHLPA negotiations. Some fans like to place blame on both sides. You will get some who say that the players are getting paid well and should just be happy they are playing a game and earning great money. But these positions neglect the following:
1.) The owners are the ones who give out outrageous long-term contracts. Right up until the league announced there was going to be a lock out, teams were signing players to multiple year contracts.
2.) Bettman put forward a take it or leave it proposal on the first day of negotiations setting the tone for distrust among the players.
3.) The players have agreed to go down from a 57-43 split to a 50-50 split of the revenue. All they are wanting are current contracts honored. They have proposed a gradual phase-in of the reduction. Remember the players in 2004-2005 took a pay cut.
4.) In my opinion, it is the players who came up with the most creative proposal to achieve fiscal stability by proposing a revenue sharing plan which would see big market teams helping out small market teams.
5.) The players in the last contract gave in on a salary cap, changes in eligibility for free agency, a salary roll back (reduction) and salary arbitration.
Emperor Bettman is leading the league to disaster. Fans are getting outraged. Sponsors are not happy. And in spite of all of this, Emperor Bettman has called for a two week moratorium on negotiations. It's a slap in the face to the fans, the people who work at the arenas, the tavern and restaurant owners near the arenas, the owners & employees of sports apparel stores and the parking lot attendants. But as far as the Emperor is concerned, let them all eat cake.
How Bout Those Knicks!!!
The 1969-70 NBA season was when I began to give a damn about the NBA. You see that was the year that the NY Knickerbockers won the NBA title. The team's starting 5 was Willis Reed at center (when centers mattered), forwards Dave DeBusschere & Bill Bradley and Walt "Clyde" Frazier & Dick Barnett at guard. With Phil Jackson and Cazzie Russell coming off the bench, the Knicks went on to knock off the heavily favored LA Lakers who were led by Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. In fact, if memory serves me well the clinching game at MSG, with Reed badly limping to start the game, was the first one ever in prime time on television.
Those were great days and my following of the Knicks was interrupted by the Larry Bird Celtics but I came back with the Patrick Ewing-led team. But after Ewing and Company were gone, my interest in the Knicks evaporated. In fact, my interest in the NBA was pretty much gone. With Emperor Bettman's cancelling of NHL games, I have started to watch the Knicks again and it has been highly entertaining.
Going into last night's game, I wondered how real this Knick undefeated start was. But the fourth quarter last night showed me that this team may indeed be for real. The Knicks were down by 12 midway in the fourth quarter and I'm wondering whether it's time for me to go to bed. I began to rationalize that they can't win every game and they haven't won in San Antonio for years so its not a big deal if they lose. But they came roaring back to take control of the game and win it.
This Knicks team seems for real. Jason Kidd has made a huge difference. His veteran leadership has been a huge factor. Last night, Carmelo Anthony showed that he can contribute even when he is not scoring by playing defense and setting up teammates. And Mike Woodson has been a positive factor as head coach. One wonders how much better this team can be once Amare Stoudmire comes back.
While it is only November, last night's win over the Spurs gives Knick fans reason to have high hopes for this season. It has been a long time since there have been meaningful playoff games played at MSG in late April and May. Could this year be the year that changes?? Maybe. But as long as Emperor Bettman keeps the pucks on ice, I will be along for the ride.
Bettman Has Got To Go
I have never been a Gary Bettman fan. He is arrogant and obnoxious. Moreover, he is not a hockey guy. He is only concerned about maintaining the confidence of enough team owners to keep his job. By my count, two lockouts in the last seven years, which included a lost season in 2004-2005, is the record of failed leadership.
The last lockout was centered on the establishment of a salary cap. The league got that and were poised for prosperity. Out of his own mouth, Bettman proudly announced in June that the NHL had a hugely successful season from an economic standpoint. From a fan standpoint, the contract with NBC Sports provided great TV coverage. The Winter Classic continued to be a New Year's Day event. All of this makes it hard for me to swallow Bettman's poor mouth routine.
On top of this, the summer saw a number of multi-year contracts. When I say multi-year, I'm talking about 10 and 12 year contracts. These are the very contracts that Bettman and Company want to do away with and not honor. Let me ask you, if you had a contract with your employer that says you would make $50,000 a year and he came to you and said, "you know in spite of your good performance and the fact that we are making money, I'm cutting your salary by 10%", would you be happy about that?? Probably not.
The league continues to talk about how small market franchises are struggling. What Bettman & Company will not realize that these so-called small market teams are in cities that have no business having a hockey team. You see another failure of the Bettman era is the ridiculous expansion into markets that don't give a rats ass about hockey. Two teams in Florida, three teams in California, teams in Nashville, Carolina and Phoenix is an invitation for disaster. But you see the crazy expansion allowed Bettman's bosses to make money off of the entry fees that these new teams had to pay upfront in order to have the privilege to play in a league that views its players as the enemy.
I want to believe that this season can be saved. I want to believe that hockey will begin in December. But I have absolutely no faith in Gary Bettman. Let me leave you with one last question: whatever happened to a commissioner who acted in the best interest of the game as opposed to his own best interest??
All-Star Game Is Tonight: Who Cares
There was a time when the Major League Baseball All-Star Game was something special. That is why it was called the Midsummer Classic. Seeing Roberto Clemente face Jim Palmer or Mickey Mantle step in against Bob Gibson was special because unless their teams were in the World Series, you would never see these match-ups. Of course, with interleague play, its quite possible you would have seen Derek Jeter face R.A.Dickey or Joey Votto step in against Justin Verlander this year. So much for being special.
I have not watched all of the All-Star Game for years. To me it means nothing anymore. There was a time when there was a ton of pride playing for your league. Why do you think Pete Rose slams in to Ray Fosse at a play at the plate?? (Fosse was never the same after that collision). Could you see that happening tonight??
With free agency, you could be in the NL tonight and in the AL next season. Case in point: Prince Fielder. You didn't see that before as players stayed with the same team their entire career. There was pride in your league and you wanted to win the game just for that reason.
Of course, Bud Selig has tried to give the players soemthing to play for (and a reason for fans to watch) by giving the league that wins the game home-field advantage in the World Series. What a joke. In a sport with the longest schedule, excellence throughout a 162 game season means nothing. The other sports give the advantage to the team with the best record, with the exception being the Super Bowl which is played on a neutral site. Even the alternating year home-field advantage for the World Series was better that the current farce that Selig has created.
As you can tell, I won't be watching much if any of tonight's game. It really doesn't excite me and the whole home-field gimmick pisses me off. The Midsummer Classic is no more. It's just another exhibition game that has fallen into the same category as the Pro Bowl, NHL & NBA All-Star games. Too Bad.
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By the way, the fans in Kansas City are morons for booing Robbie Cano and cheering every time he didn't hit a home run. Once again, Selig screws things up. Have each league pick who will be in the Home Run Derby.
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