Quotulatiousness

September 5, 2012

Our conflicted feelings about athletes “juicing”

Filed under: Football, Health, Science, Sports — Tags: — Nicholas @ 08:13

In a sport that most people don’t care about unless a local player is doing well internationally (competitive cycling, for example), a scandal over performance enhancing drugs is a good opportunity to make noises about the “purity of the sport” and demand major sanctions against those who cheat. However, as Jim Souhan points out at the Star Tribune, we’re rather good at turning a blind eye to the same thing in sports we care more about:

The advent of the NFL season will provide a respite from sports riddled with performance-enhancing drugs, such as baseball and cycling.

If you can read that sentence without laughing, you are one naive fan.

We know many baseball players cheated in the ’90s and early 2000s, and we know some cheat today. For every Melky Cabrera who gets caught there must be dozens, if not hundreds, who are smart enough to avoid testing positive in a system that is easy to beat.

We know cyclists cheat. The evidence is overwhelming. When Lance Armstrong pretended to take a principled stand by abandoning his legal fight to defend himself, he was avoiding facing public testimony by a squadron of former teammates. Now another former teammate, Tyler Hamilton, has written a book in which he details his own, and Armstrong’s, cheating, and other former Armstrong associates are speaking openly about his PED use.

[. . .]

If Armstrong could avoid testing positive for PEDs while winning the Tour de France seven times, what does that tell us about the National Football League, a sport filled with the biggest, strongest, fastest and most explosive athletes in our society?

That’s right: The NFL must be stuffed with performance enhancers.

The difference is that we don’t care.

September 3, 2012

Vikings 53-man roster

Filed under: Football — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 11:15

It’s been tough tracking the last few names on the roster, as the names at the bottom of the depth chart have been subject to changes as other teams’ players hit the waiver wire. At this time, the Vikings still haven’t finalized their practice squad, still having two open spots to fill Just after I posted this, the Vikings added Kevin Murphy (OL) and Ernest Owusu (DL) to their practice squad roster. This is the roster as of Monday morning:

Position Starter(s) Backups Notes
OL Matt Kalil (R), Charlie Johnson, John Sullivan, Brandon Fusco, Phil Loadholt Geoff Schwartz, Joe Berger, Mark Asper DeMarcus Love, injured reserve
QB Christian Ponder Joe Webb, McLeod Bethel-Thompson Sage Rosenfels, waived
TE Kyle Rudolph John Carlson, Rhett Ellison (R), Alan Reisner  
RB Adrian Peterson Toby Gerhart, Matt Asiata  
FB Jerome Felton    
WR Percy Harvin, Jerome Simpson** Michael Jenkins, Stephen Burton, Jarius Wright (R), Devon Aromashodu  
DL Jared Allen, Kevin Williams, Letroy Guion, Brian Robison Everson Griffen, D’Aundre Reed, Christian Ballard, Fred Evans  
LB Erin Henderson, Jasper Brinkley, Chad Greenway Marvin Mitchell, Tyrone McKenzie, Audie Cole (R), Larry Dean  
CB Chris Cook, Antoine Winfield Marcus Sherels, Brandon Burton, Josh Robinson (R), A.J. Jefferson***  
S Harrison Smith (R), Mistral Raymond Jamarca Sanford, Andrew Sendejo, Robert Blanton (R)  
P Chris Kluwe N/A  
K Chris Walsh (R) N/A  
LS Cullen Loeffler N/A  
Practice Squad Jordan Todman (RB), Bobby Felder (CB), Chase Baker (DT), Tyler Holmes (G), Tori Gurley (WR), Chris Summers (WR), Kevin Murphy (OL), Ernest Owusu (DL)    

* Claimed off waivers from Buffalo.
** Suspended for the first three games of the season: doesn’t count against roster until after that.
*** Acquired in trade with Arizona on Saturday.

September 1, 2012

Vikings part with veteran quarterback Sage Rosenfels

Filed under: Football — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 10:52

The cut-down to a 53-man roster is never easy, but the most surprising cut for the Vikings yesterday was the decision to waive Sage Rosenfels (who will receive half a million dollars in compensation, due to the contract he signed before the season began). Most of the other cuts were at least somewhat predictable, based on the last couple of pre-season games. Christopher Gates at the Daily Norseman explains the process of cut-down, the waiver wire, and assembling the practice squad:

Every player that was cut on Friday that is not a “vested veteran” is subject to the waiver process. A “vested veteran” is a player that has accumulated four or more seasons worth of experience in the National Football League. The Vikings released four such players on Friday … cornerback Chris Carr, defensive end Jeff Charleston, safety Eric Frampton, and quarterback Sage Rosenfels. Those four players, due to their status as vested veterans, automatically become unrestricted free agents and can sign with any team they wish immediately. Everyone else that was cut on Friday is subject to the waiver process.

The waiver priority list is still based on records from the 2011 season, and will be until after Week 3 of the regular season. As a result, the Vikings sit third on the waiver priority list, behind only the Indianapolis Colts (who are at #1) and the St. Louis Rams. This basically means that if the Colts want a player, they get him. If the Rams want a player, they get him as long as the Colts don’t claim him as well. The Vikings, as a result, can get any player they want that the Colts or Rams don’t put a claim on.

Waiver claims have to be in by 11 AM Central time on Saturday, at which point we will find out which teams have been awarded which player(s). From there, teams can start building their practice squads.

Dan Weiderer at the Star Tribune has more on the particular moves the Vikings made on Friday, including a trade for an Arizona cornerback:

In all, 20 players were let go. The major surprises were the releases of veteran quarterback Sage Rosenfels and cornerback Chris Carr. Manny Arceneaux was also waived, the only receiver let go.

And late Friday, word surfaced that the Vikings traded with the Arizona Cardinals for third-year cornerback A.J. Jefferson, meaning another cut was imminent.

Rosenfels’ exit will give the Vikings a chance to take a much longer look at rocket- armed 24-year-old quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson. Terminating Rosenfels’ vested veteran contract will be expensive — he was guaranteed $500,000 in base salary when he re-signed in March. It also means — at least for now — that the Vikings will have to go without a veteran presence in their quarterback stable, with the trio of Christian Ponder, Joe Webb and Bethel-Thompson having an average age of 25.

I had a table of the final roster prepared, but I think I’ll wait until the waiver wire activity plays out before posting it… players who “made the cut” yesterday may still be waived to make room for someone signed off the waiver wire.

August 26, 2012

Vikings cut 15 players

Filed under: Football — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 08:15

NFL teams have to cut down their numbers to 53 before the start of the regular season. This is done in two stages, after the third preseason game, teams are only allowed to have 75 players on their roster (down from 90 allowed up to that point). The final cut down comes after the last preseason game. At the Star Tribune, Mark Craig has the list of players waived in the first cut:

Here are the players who were released today. Eleven of them are undrafted rookies:

Bridger Buche.............. G...................... R....... Eastern Michigan
Derrick Coleman............ RB..................... R................... UCLA
Grant Cook................. G...................... R............... Arkansas
Solomon Elimimian.......... LB..................... 1................. Hawaii
Corey Gatewood............. DB..................... R............... Stanford
Levi Horn.................. T...................... 2................ Montana
Anthony Jacobs............. DE..................... R.............. Minnesota
Kamar Jorden............... WR..................... R.......... Bowling Green
A.J. Love.................. WR..................... R.......... South Florida
Tyler Nielsen.............. LB..................... R................... Iowa
Ernest Owusu............... DE..................... R............. California
Tydreke Powell............. DT..................... R......... North Carolina
Chris Stroud............... CB..................... R... Webber International
Kerry Taylor............... WR..................... 1.......... Arizona State
Bryan Walters.............. WR..................... 2................ Cornell

Craig says there were “no surprises”, but a few of these players were certainly mentioned multiple times in the press coverage of training camp, especially Elmimian, Taylor, and Walters. This is probably a useful caution not to put too much stock in training camp reports: the reporters have to file stories — preferably interesting stories — so they’re looking for different things than the coaches are.

The final cuts have to be done by Friday night.

August 19, 2012

Minnesota Vikings to play at Wembley?

Filed under: Britain, Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:58

Don’t panic, Vikings fans … the team isn’t moving. What is being considered is to allow the Vikings to play a couple of “home” games at Wembley Stadium in England while they await the end of construction on their new stadium:

The NFL and Vikings are both reportedly very keen to make this happen. It makes sense for the Vikings because, with the new stadium construction, they’ll have to play away from their real home for up to two years anyway. A couple home games at Wembley, which seats 86,000 for American football, means two fewer home games at temporary residence TCF Bank Stadium, which after upgrades will still be able to accommodate less than 60,000.

Of course the state-side fans might gripe about losing a couple of home games, but if there’s money to be made elsewhere, the Vikings won’t hesitate to follow it (sorry fans). It seems what we have here is a match made in heaven. The NFL wants to make more inroads in the European market, and the Vikings want to make back some of the revenue they’ll be losing by temporarily moving into a much smaller venue. So it seems inevitable that, for awhile at least, the Vikings will become England’s team.

A side-benefit to this would be that it ensures at least two games will be telecast outside the Vikings’ home region: a matter of great interest to this Toronto-area Viking fan.

August 18, 2012

Vikings win convincingly over Buffalo in second preseason game

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 08:56

Unlike last week’s game at San Francisco, where you had to look carefully at the right angle and squint just a bit to see anything positive, the second preseason game had all kinds of positive signs. Here’s Dan Wiederer at the Star Tribune:

For all those Vikings optimists out there, Friday might well have been the perfect night just 23 days before the start of the regular season.

All those empty seats inside Mall of America Field? Hey, at least the stadium was half-full, right?

And for those who did turn out for a hype-free preseason game against the Buffalo Bills, it’s fair to say most left with a feeling this team’s glass may be half-full, too.

The Vikings not only built a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter of what turned out to be a 36-14 victory, but they did so with style, so many young players flashing the signs of promise that the coaching staff has been advertising since training camp began.

Where do we even start? That is, before rookie linebacker Audie Cole became an instant hero with two interception return touchdowns in the final minutes.

Do we begin with receiver Jerome Simpson, who on the game’s fourth play beat rookie Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore on a short slant, then decided to show off his Olympic-style hurdling skills, leaping over safety Jairus Byrd on his way to a 33-yard pick-up?

Or do you start with Toby Gerhart’s continued power and the 30 yards he rushed for on six attempts?

Or is it easiest to circle back to the obvious command shown by second-year quarterback Christian Ponder, who orchestrated an impressive 80-yard touchdown drive to open the game, then tacked on a 50-yard march on the next possession to set up a Blair Walsh field goal?

August 14, 2012

O’Neill: London outdid Beijing in politicizing the Olympics

Filed under: Britain, China, Sports — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 08:22

Brendan O’Neill says that the London Olympics were far more politicized than the Beijing games in 2008:

From the flurry of fanboy commentary that followed Danny Boyle’s am-dram opening ceremony to the insistence that the Games represented the coming to fruition of the post-Diana dream of a new, less stuffy Britain, the urge to politicise the Games has been intense. That the political classes have sought so shamelessly to usher in ‘another kind of Britain’ on the back of the Games speaks volumes about their desperate need for a new national narrative, and their disillusionment with the democratic route to social overhaul.

Normally we frown upon elites that heap their political obsessions on to mass sporting events. We think of Hitler turning the Berlin Games into an advert for Aryan superiority (a vision shot down by Jesse Owens) or of the Beijing opening ceremony’s thousands of fantastically coordinated drummers and boastful history lesson, described by one British hack last week as ‘crypto-fascist’. And yet, Britain’s ostensibly liberal observers thought nothing of turning 2012 into an advert for their own allegedly superior way of life and thinking.

The tone was set by Labour MP and historian Tristram Hunt, who described Boyle’s opening ceremony as the ‘march past’ — that is, victory parade — of his side in the Culture Wars. The ceremony was proof, said Hunt, that ‘the left took victory in the Culture Wars’, and moreover that a New Britain was being born: if the Queen’s Jubilee celebrated a ‘staid and nostalgic national identity’, this ceremony ‘offered an attractively contradictory, complicated, and above all creative conception of these Isles of Wonder’.

There has since been a concerted effort to turn the ‘bonkers’ opening ceremony into a new national narrative. Somewhat defensively, the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland insists that it is ‘not just Guardian types’ who are exalting in the new political vision provided by both the ceremony and the multicultural message of the Games that followed — the whole nation is, apparently, recognising that ‘we have glimpsed another kind of Britain’, and that we should ‘love the country we have become — informal, mixed, quirky — rather than the one we used to be… reactionary’.

August 11, 2012

Vikings defence crumbles in San Francisco

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:50

The first preseason game is out of the way and it wasn’t pretty. Both the Vikings and 49ers rested some of their starters, and the starters who played generally only stayed in the game for a series or two.

Most accounts agree that the Vikings’ offensive starters did well except for a rash of drops that cut short the first couple of drives. Christian Ponder’s decision-making was better than last year, not trying to force the ball into coverage and being willing to throw the ball away when nothing developed. The offensive line apparently held up well, giving Ponder time to get past his first read and making the most of what opportunities were offered. Blair Walsh scored all the Vikings points (two field goals), and got the ball deep enough on kickoff to keep San Francisco from any big returns.

(more…)

August 9, 2012

Cam Cole: FIFA launches “Captain Renault-style” investigation

Filed under: Cancon, Media, Soccer, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 00:03

Now that we’ve all had a bit of time to calm down about the awful officiating in the Canada vs USA women’s soccer game, Cam Cole explains why FIFA should penalize the Canadian team for their intemperate comments:

On a magnificently warm, sunny Wednesday at the pristine playing fields of Warwick University, all was forgiven if not forgotten by the Canadian women.

Word spread quickly that FIFA, the sports governing body, had determined that its investigation into the bitter post-game remarks by the losing side needed more time and … well, had basically decided to bury the whole thing and maybe one day suspend the star of Canada’s team, Burnaby’s Christine Sinclair, at some future date — like for a couple of friendlies she hadn’t planned to play anyway.

To say coach John Herdman was relieved to have his best player available for Thursday’s bronze medal match against France — to say nothing of the thunder to Sinclair’s lightning, the equally vocal Melissa Tancredi — is a considerable understatement.

[. . .]

And let’s face it, the Canadians were out of order by almost any sport’s standards in the volume and toxicity of their remarks about the Norwegian referee.

If they had merely said she was blind as a platypus and ought to be carrying a white cane and have a guide dog to help her navigate the field, they’d have been well within the bounds of fair comment.

It was when Sinclair accused Pedersen of having decided the result before the first ball was kicked, and when Tancredi suggested that the referee slept in Team USA jammies, that matters crossed the line from acceptable criticism to slander.

Ineptitude is one thing, bias quite another.

So FIFA took matters under advisement, and launched the kind of thorough investigation that Claude Rains launched when Humphrey Bogart shot the German general at the end of Casablanca.

Of course, I must point out that Cole is absolutely wrong here: it was Major Strasser who was shot, not a German general.

August 3, 2012

Did the Olympic badminton tournament format lead directly to four teams being ejected?

Filed under: Britain, Sports — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 14:57

Scott Page and Simon Wilkie contend that the real responsibility for four badminton pairs being tossed out of the London Olympics should fall on the tournament organizers, not the players or their coaches:

Why though did teams try to lose? And specifically, why four teams? The answer lies in the organization of the Olympic tournament and provides an illustration of the importance of a field of economics known as mechanism design.

Here’s how the Olympics set up the tournament. In the “round robin” phase, the 16 teams were divided into four pools, each team playing all three other teams in its pool. The top two finishers in each pool would then advance to a playoff.

After pool play, the tournament becomes single elimination (also known as “win or go home,” with the lone exception that the semi-final losers would compete for the bronze medal). This single elimination portion would pit the winner of one pool against the runner-up in another pool. The winners and runners up were matched up in such a way that no two teams from the same pool would play in the first round.

The best teams advance, and by coming in first in your division, you play a runner up from another pool — an expected weaker team in the knockout round of eight. Not only does this make sense, it’s a tried and tested institution that has stood the test of time, from little league to the FIFA World Cup.

They offer some alternatives to the existing tournament format that might work better. On the players themselves, I see the point that Page and Wilkie are making, but I still agree with the BWF decision to sanction the players. For that matter, I’d support my local badminton club in this kind of decision in a local tournament. To have gotten away with what these teams attempted to do, they’d at least have to pretend to be seriously playing. I’ve seen better acting by seven-year-olds.

August 1, 2012

Badminton in the headlines, but not in a good way

Filed under: Britain, China, Sports — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:53

It’s not a sport that generally attracts a lot of attention during the Olympics, but several Badminton players are accused of deliberately losing games to secure better match-ups in the elimination round:

China’s Olympic sports delegation has begun an investigation into allegations two badminton players “deliberately lost” their match, state media say.

Doubles players Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli are among eight players charged by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) with “not using one’s best efforts to win”.

Four players from South Korea and two from Indonesia have also been charged.

Some of the players said they were saving energy. Reports say they wanted to lose to secure an easier draw.

It may not be a technical violation of the rules to “take it easy” in a non-critical game, but it does sound as if these particular players didn’t even bother to make it look like they were competing.

The match between the top-seeded Chinese duo and South Koreans Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na came under scrutiny after the longest rally in their game lasted four shots.

Match referee Thorsten Berg came on court at one point to warn the players, who also appeared to make deliberate errors.

Both pairs were already through to the quarter-finals.

The Chinese duo lost, meaning — Xinhua noted — that if both Chinese pairs continue to do well, they will not meet until the final.

Update: The IOC Badminton World Federation (BWF) brings out the ban hammer:

EIGHT female badminton players have been sent home from the Olympics, disqualified by the sport’s world federation after throwing matches in a case condemned by London Games boss Sebastian Coe as “depressing” and “unacceptable”.

A disciplinary hearing held this morning, which Australia’s badminton coach made a submission to, found that four players from South Korea, two from Indonesia and the competition’s top seeds from China deliberately tried to lose their qualifying matches in an attempt to manipulate their draws.

The four sets of doubles teams were charged after matches on Tuesday littered with basic errors. Accused by badminton’s international governing body of “conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport”, they were ultimately found guilty of trying to lose with the motive of improving their positions for the knockout stages.

The spectators who attended the matches on Tuesday night will not be offered refunds by the London organizers, according to the BBC:

Update, the second: I couldn’t find any actual footage of the match in question until CTV posted it (not embeddable, unfortunately). It’s amazingly bad. The audience absolutely deserve a full refund.

July 31, 2012

QotD: The crony capitalist Olympics

Filed under: Britain, Government, Politics, Quotations, Sports — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:17

The Olympics are a giant exercise in sports socialism — or crony capitalism, if you prefer — where the profits are privatized and the costs socialized. The games never pay for themselves because they are designed not to. That’s because the International Olympic Committee (an opaque “nongovernmental” bureaucracy made up of fat cats from various countries) pockets most of the revenue from sponsorships and media rights (allegedly to promote global sports), requiring the host country to pay the bulk of the costs. Among the very few times the games haven’t left a city swimming in red ink was after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, when voters, having learned from Montreal’s experience, barred the use of public funds, forcing the IOC to use existing facilities and pick up most of the tab for new ones.

Even that’s far from fair. If anything, the Olympics should be compensating the host city for the hassle and inconvenience, not the other way around. The only reason they don’t is because the Cold War once stirred retrograde nationalistic passions, blinding the world to the ass-backwardness of the existing arrangement. Londoners are signaling that this can’t go on.

Shikha Dalmia, “Why London Is Yawning Over the Olympics: Have Western countries finally outgrown the sports socialism of the Olympic Games?”, Reason, 2012-07-31

July 30, 2012

Pre-season rankings: lies, damned lies, plus statistics

Filed under: Football, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 08:40

Even the most rabid Vikings fan isn’t really expecting a SuperBowl run this year: climbing from a 3-13 season to 8-8 would be a very significant improvement, and an honest fan would say that would be acceptable. Squeaking into the playoffs might be possible, except that the Vikings play in one of the toughest divisions in the NFL, so you’d need to be dangerously optimistic to expect that outcome.

That being said, the Vikings are getting no respect at all from the various pre-season ranking experts in the media. Christopher Gates explains why you shouldn’t pay too much attention to forecasts like the one published recently in Pro Football Weekly:

Ugh, there is so much wrong here, I’m not even sure where to start. . .but I’ll try.

– According to PFW, the Vikings’ defensive line (which tied for the NFL lead in sacks in 2011 and is led by the guy that probably should have been Defensive Player of the Year last season) is just as good as the Vikings’ secondary … a unit that allowed the second-highest passer rating against in NFL history, went nearly ten full games without an interception (setting an NFL record in the process), and allowed more touchdown passes than any team in the league last year. Yep … the same.

– Not only that, but the Vikings’ secondary is (according to PFW) just as good as Green Bay’s secondary. Yes, the Packers allowed the most passing yards in a season in NFL history in 2011 and only allowed five fewer TD passes than Minnesota did (34 to 29). The Packers also intercepted twenty-three more passes than the Vikings did (31 to 8) despite collecting about half as many sacks (50 for Minnesota, 29 for Green Bay) and their passer rating allowed was a full 27 points lower (107.6 for Minnesota, 80.6 for Green Bay). According to Pro Football Weekly? The secondaries are basically interchangeable. Seriously.

– Is Minnesota’s defensive line that much worse than Detroit’s, to the point where the Lions get an A- and the Vikings get the aforementioned C+? I really don’t think so. In fact, until Nick Fairley can become known for something other than personal fouls (in college) and getting arrested (since reaching the NFL), I fail to see where Detroit’s front four is better than Minnesota’s at all. (Sure, I’m biased … but come on.)

July 29, 2012

British army dispatches troops to … fill empty seats at the Olympics?

Filed under: Britain, Military, Sports — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:47

I don’t want to turn the blog into an exercise in mocking the major international sporting event being held in a major English city, but this report from the Guardian can’t be missed:

Soldiers have been drafted in to fill empty seats at the London 2012 Olympics after prime blocks of seating at the Aquatics Centre and gymnastics arena went unused on the first day of competition.

Troops were despatched to the North Greenwich Arena this morning by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog), to take up seats left empty by accredited officials from Olympic and sporting federations, as well as some sponsors and members of the media. More troops, many of whom had their leave cancelled to provide emergency cover after the organisers failed to find enough security guards, will be issued with last-minute invites to take seats in venues when blocks of seats are found to be empty, the games organisers said this morning.

The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said on Saturday the empty seats were “very disappointing” and suggested they could be offered to members of the public. He said the matter was being looked at “very urgently”.

I guess giving the seats to members of the public would be too much of a security risk?

NBC’s Olympic coverage under fire

Filed under: Britain, Media, Sports — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:41

Billy Gallagher at TechCrunch explains why he’s recommending viewers not watch NBC:

Spoiler alert: Phelps and Lochte raced today. The results are all over Twitter. But the race won’t air on TV in America until tonight.

This is 2012, not 1996. NBC has put all of the events live online, provided you have a cable subscription, but won’t have them available recorded online and won’t air many events, including the most high-profile ones, until a primetime tape delay.

This isn’t a new strategy, just a dumb, outdated one.

Sums it up pretty well. We’ve already covered the failings of NBC (and the IOC) fairly extensively, but its a topic that bears repeating. Check out #nbcfail for a live (gasp, what’s that?) stream of people’s frustrations with the peacock network.

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