Tag Archives: football

Monday Musings: December 6, 2010

Early December is a great time of year for me, despite the cold of the winter wasteland I now call home. Football is in full swing, baseball’s hot stove season is roiling, and the world of politics typically reaches its messy and convoluted pinnacle. This year has not been a disappointment. The time referred to as silly season by NASCAR fans is living up to its billing as the lines between politics, reality TV, and sports blur ever more.

Politics

President Obama appointed a commission to examine our national debt and annual deficits (allegedly), and they have rendered their verdict: kill Social Security by a thousand cuts. The causes of the debt are no more mysterious than the real reasons for the conclusions of the Deficit Commission; the Rational Middle has explored them many times, as has economist Dean Baker. Our accelerating medical costs, the wars in the Middle East, and the tax shortfalls of the recession are the reasons for the debt. Wall Street’s desire to get its greedy hands on an additional $2 trillion annually (which it will use to generate billions of dollars in fees, regardless of actual performance) is the reason for the so-called deficit hawks; killing Social Security accomplishes that Wall Street goal. Any who question the motives should ask this question; why would a deficit reduction commission propose more tax cuts? The technical term for that kind of a move is ass-backwards.

Television

The Hasselhoff family is getting a “reality” TV show. That is all.

Sports

Once again we have arrived at the “bowl season” where college football excellence is redefined as mediocrity. There is NO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP at the highest level of college football…there never has been one either. We were told, many years ago, that no playoff could exist because it would require too many games; Oregon has played 12 games and Auburn 13…college teams used to play 11 before the bowl games. Speaking of bowl games, there are 35 this year, meaning that 70 of 120 or so teams are playing in the “postseason”. Speaking of mediocrity, Auburn’s Cam Newton was ruled eligible to play (as a student-athlete) because he is only a serial cheater in the classroom…his Dad is the NCAA’s principle villain for acting as Newton’s agent (allegedly). Phew…that was close; just so long as the kid didn’t get paid for playing ball; those pesky academics are really besides the point.

In a world of Hasselhoff TV and the NCAA Junior NFL, the Rational Middle is listening…

Nate On Sports: Big Ten Expansion Talk

This is fun stuff.

For those of you unaware, the Big Ten Conference has already announced its intentions to “explore the possibility” of expanding conference membership to 12, 14, or possibly even 16 teams. An advisory board has been hired and is exploring several possibilities (i.e. schools that could possibly be a good fit in the Big Ten.)

That’s really all we know right now. It seems like there are different pieces of “information” leaking out every day with regards to the new additions to the conference. Over a month ago, Pitt was supposedly a done deal, a couple weeks later it was on good authority that UConn was in, and recently there have been rumblings that Nebraska, Missouri, Rutgers, and Notre Dame were all extended offers, and that three of the four (with, you guessed it, Notre Dame being the holdout) were virtual locks to accept.

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The Bull Crap Series

The BCS, or bowl championship series, is upon us again. Every year, the big money schools in the big money conferences go through the exercise of mirror-worship and player exploitation, and every year their media apologists are ready to explain why it is good for sports.

Bull crap! Thirty years ago, when there were a handful of big bowls laced with tradition and meaning, a Division I playoff for college football was a difficult concept for many to swallow. Today that tradition is largely gone, but supporters of the old paradigm remain committed to the place of prestige that their favorite schools hold in the minds of sports fans. Today the BCS, Heisman Trophy, and TV networks in bed with college ball, are committed to ensuring the preeminence of schools from the elite conferences. The Heisman, supposedly given annually to the “best player in college football”, is actually awarded to the ‘most statistically sexy player on a winning BCS-eligible team whose school has effectively promoted him’. If that sounds like a mouthful, then the sentence does its job.

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The N.o F.un L.eague

Once upon a time, when Pete Rozelle was still commissioner, there was a brash young QB named Jim McMahon. McMahon came into the league after a college career that saw him rewrite the records (in a number of ways) at his university, the conservative BYU. As the QB of the Chicago Bears, he was the leader and chief troublemaker of a fun-loving but tough team on its way to a Superbowl. Of his habits, McMahon’s penchant for headbands that advertised products or displayed messages was probably his least dangerous. Rozelle saw the use of the headband to advertise as a breach in the NFL’s exclusive control over media partners and “official products”, and promptly ordered the young QB to cease and desist.

At the next game, McMahon wore a headband labeled “Rozelle”. The commissioner simply laughed and remarked, “nice gag”. That, as they say, was then. The NFL really is becoming the no fun league, and its executives seem to be on a mission to use up all of the football watching public’s good will. The rational middle is…really struggling to be rational.

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Do We Need A Lawyer For Everything?

A quick post today on some good news; Coach David Stinson was acquitted on charges of reckless homicide and wanton endangerment. The Kentucky high school coach was charged after one of his players, 15 year old Max Gilpin, collapsed during wind sprints and died later in the week. If the jury had found him guilty, the verdict would have represented another brick in the wall being constructed by some in society between children and sport. More and more, parents are demanding that youth coaches who are mostly volunteer or low paid high school folks, spend money from their own pocket or time stolen from their own families to provide services beyond teaching the game.More and more, parents are also demanding that children be allowed to play sports without risk; in the minds of many, children coached by responsible people are never injured or at risk of trauma.

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