There’s only one team in the world I favour over England, and they just saved themselves from elimination with this effort:
H/T to David Akin for the link.
June 23, 2011
June 16, 2011
Welcome to Vancouver. Please ignore the rioters
Lord Stanley’s Cup won’t be coming back to Canada this year, but as Brian Hutchison points out, that’s only one of the losses sustained by Vancouver last night:
The season ends, and the worst does come to pass. Vancouver, you have lost. Twice. But the game hardly matters now, does it? The score? Who cares? As I write this, my eyes are stinging, my is throat sore, having breathed in some sort of dispersal chemical that police deployed — in desperation, and perhaps too late. There could be some residual effect from having inhaled acrid, toxic smoke from burning cars, exploding cars, destroyed by lunatics still running crazy on the city’s downtown streets.
Blood in our streets. I saw people on the ground, bleeding. Shattered glass everywhere. Police cars set alight. Major bridges are now closed, preventing public access into the downtown core. Transit is plugged up, there’s no way out. More police and fire crews are arriving, from the suburbs, but again, it seems too late.
And as I write this, the sun has just set. Vancouver, what a disgrace.
Update: A Tumblr page posting photos of the rioters and looters:
The National Post has more photos of the aftermath.
Update: Joey “Accordion Guy” deVilla points out that one of these riots is not like the others. Oh, and a commentary on the most famous photo of the riots (so far).
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May 27, 2011
Badminton: moving against the tide
If they’d wanted to be sure that the sport got more media attention, they sure chose an effective way to do it:
In an attempt to revive flagging interest in women’s badminton as the 2012 London Olympics approach, officials governing the sport have decided that its female athletes need to appear more, how to put it, womanly.
To create a more “attractive presentation,” the Badminton World Federation has decreed that women must wear skirts or dresses to play at the elite level, beginning Wednesday. Many now compete in shorts or tracksuit pants. The dress code would make female players appear more feminine and appealing to fans and corporate sponsors, officials said.
The rule has been roundly criticized as sexist, a hindrance to performance and offensive to Muslim women who play the sport in large numbers in Asian countries. Implementation has already been delayed by a month. Athletes’ representatives said they would seek to have the dress code scrapped, possibly as early as Saturday at a meeting of the world’s badminton-playing nations in Qingdao, China.
“This is a blatant attempt to sexualize women,” said Janice Forsyth, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario. “It is amazing. You’d think at some point, somebody would have said: ‘Wait a minute. What are we doing?’ ”
There are about 85 players at my badminton club. Only two women regularly wear skirts to play. Despite this ruling, I doubt that many of our players will choose to switch.
May 5, 2011
May 1, 2011
More about Christian Ponder
Some highly complimentary things about the Vikings’ new quarterback from Sid Hartman:
Greg Hudson, as good a defensive coordinator as the Gophers have ever had and who has the same role at Florida State, describes Vikings first-round draft choice Christian Ponder as the next Roger Staubach.
Staubach, the great Cowboys quarterback, was Hudson’s idol as he grew up, and so the Gophers defensive coordinator from 2002 to ’04 is paying the young man a huge compliment. Hudson said Ponder gave him headaches during Seminoles practices last year.
“I’m not telling you that he is [Staubach] right now, but he has the attributes to be a Roger Staubach-type of player,” said Hudson, who went to Florida State to work with head coach Jimbo Fisher after five years at East Carolina with Skip Holtz. “… Roger Staubach was my idol growing up in Cincinnati, that’s where [Staubach] is from. Christian Ponder could have been a Navy graduate [as Staubach was], high academic, very educated. Christian just has a lot of the attributes that Roger Staubach had.”
Hudson said the injuries that Ponder has suffered primarily have been self-inflicted because of how hard he played.
“The kid, at some point, just like [Jets coach] Rex Ryan got mad at [quarterback Mark] Sanchez for not learning how to slide. Christian Ponder’s got to learn how to protect himself. He plays quarterback like he’s a linebacker,” Hudson said.
[. . .]
Hudson said he had seen all the top quarterbacks, including the ones taken ahead of Ponder, on film, and he is sure the Vikings got the best QB in the draft.
“Here’s the thing, Christian Ponder is made for the NFL game,” Hudson said. “His mentality, his physical attributes, the kid’s mindset is made for the NFL game. That’s what separates him. He is prepared for the NFL in our offense, pro-style.
“We didn’t have great wide receivers. We had good, not great. He had to make things happen. His passing percentage was down because kids couldn’t run routes right.”
Hudson is confident that Ponder could start as a rookie.
“I think one because he can handle it physically, but No. 2 he can handle it mentally over other kids,” Hudson said. “You can’t evaluate based on the team’s record. Because if you look at Troy Aikman and [Peyton] Manning, they both had losing records their first year as [NFL] starters. But they were able to run the offense. Ponder will be able to run the offense. He’ll have to take his rookie growing pains, but man, I’d put the saddle on him and ride him all the way.
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Vikings finish draft with 10 new players
After having only two picks over the first two days of the draft, the Vikings were much busier on the final day of the draft:
- Round 4 (106th pick overall) — Christian Ballard, Defensive lineman, Iowa.
With the Vikings’ Kevin Williams potentially facing a four-game suspension (and Pat Williams now a free agent), Ballard will have a chance to showcase his abilities early in the season. He was initially projected as a second round pick, but he slid down to the fourth round due to a reported failed drug test. - Round 5 (139th pick overall) — Brandon Burton, Cornerback, Utah.
Cornerback is definitely a position that needs bolstering: Griffin and Cook both ended last season on injured reserve, and Winfield (while still a great player) is nearing the end of his career. Burton may push Asher Allen for a roster spot, although he has a reputation for a soft playing style according to Pro Football Weekly. - Round 6 (168th pick overall) — DeMarcus Love, Offensive tackle/guard, Arkansas.
Another player who may have a chance to work his way into the starting line-up. Protecting the quarterback is always important, but with either Joe Webb or Christian Ponder under centre, it becomes that much more necessary. According to Chip Scoggins, his versatility along the line is probably why the Vikings chose to draft him. - Round 6 (170th pick overall) — Mistral Raymond, Defensive back, South Florida.
Safety is another area in need of more depth. Raymond could push the incumbent players, or even displace one of them with a strong showing in training camp. Raymond has had a tough time in his family life over the last few years. - Round 6 (172nd pick overall) — Brandon Fusco, Center/guard, Slippery Rock.
Another versatile offensive line player can always find a roster spot. Sullivan played injured for most of last season, so having a backup centre who can also play other line positions is great for depth. Judd Zulgad believes he’s going to end up on the practice squad this season. - Round 6 (200th pick overall) — Ross Homan, Linebacker, Ohio State.
The Vikings may lose outside linebacker Ben Leber to free agency (once that starts), so having another linebacker in camp is a need they address with this pick. - Round 7 (215th pick overall) — D’Aundre Reed, Defensive end, Arizona.
Another position that may be opening due to free agency loss. Judd Zulgad isn’t too impressed: “All I can think is the Vikings are either convinced Griffen is going to get his act together, they are planning on starting Robison at left end or they are convinced we’re going to play under the 2010 CBA and Edwards will be back because if that’s the case he will be a restricted free agent. Reed looks like a practice squad guy to me.” - Round 7 (236th pick overall) — Stephen Burton, Wide receiver, West Texas A&M.
With Sidney Rice potentially leaving in free agency, the Vikings have a need for another receiver. Brief write-up on Burton here.
Unlike in previous years, where the draft is immediately followed by teams signing lots of undrafted free agents, the NFL’s labour situation prevents that until the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is in place (or the courts rule in a way to allow free agency to begin).
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April 30, 2011
Vikings take TE Kyle Rudolph with 2nd round pick
I didn’t expect the Vikings to pick a tight end until much later in the draft (if at all, given all their other needs), but according to Judd Zulgad, they picked the best player rather than drafting for need:
The Vikings were accused of reaching by some on Thursday night when they selected quarterback Christian Ponder with the 12th pick in the first round of the NFL draft. The selection seemed to run contrary to the team’s long-standing philosophy of taking the best player available.
On Friday night, the Vikings returned to their usual means of operation and stayed true to their board by selecting Notre Dame tight end Kyle Rudolph in the second round. However, the decision was a bit of a surprise considering that of the Vikings’ many positional needs, tight end didn’t seem to be near the top of the list.
“We felt that he was too good of a player to pass up,” said Rick Spielman, the Vikings vice president of player personnel. “We felt that he has a lot of unique skills as a tight end and we wanted to stay true to our board. That was a situation where there was a player that normally, if he hadn’t had that hamstring injury [last season], we wouldn’t even had a shot to get. We feel that we got great value when we got Kyle.”
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April 29, 2011
QotD: The NFL draft is “The Oscars for Straight Men”
Some comedian once called the NFL Draft “The Oscars for Straight Men,” and there is something to that label. While everyone will “grade” the teams’ drafts, and fans will argue and kibitz about who their team should have drafted, there are no definitive winners or losers. One of the more ridiculous aspects of the day is how every team claims to have gotten the players they wanted or rated highest. Just once, it would be thrilling to hear a general manager come out and say, “Look, we know he’s a reach, but all of the guys we rated highest were picked already, the coach and head scout got into a screaming match, the clock was ticking down and so I flipped a coin. Knowing his pain-in-the-tush agent, he’s probably going to hold out most of training camp, anyway.”
Jim Geraghty, “Why Is the Draft So Engrossing to NFL Fans?”, National Review, 2011-04-29
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The first round of the NFL draft
As I’ve said every year, the NFL draft is not a huge fascination for me because I don’t follow college football. I don’t know enough about any of the players, and after you’ve read two or three mock drafts, you know even less. Once the draft is over, you still won’t know whether your team was a big winner or a big loser in the draft . . . it really does take a few years to put perspective on it.
This year, the Vikings had the 12th pick in the draft and an immediate need for a quarterback, which meant they took Christian Ponder of Florida State. Joe Webb, who was a late-round draft choice last year got the chance to start a couple of games late in the season after Brett Favre was injured. He did fairly well, but he’s not widely considered ready to be a regular starter yet. Ponder will have a good chance to show what he can do in training camp (assuming that the labour situation is resolved fairly soon after the draft).
Here’s Judd Zulgad’s take on the Vikings’ draft choice:
Vikings executive Rick Spielman, coach Leslie Frazier and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave were among the members of the Vikings brass who spent a day-and-a-half with Christian Ponder last month in Tallahassee, Fla., putting the Florida State quarterback through various drills and evaluating his football smarts during a private workout.
“I thought the whole interview went great, the whole process,” Ponder said. “I was impressed by Musgrave and what he was doing on offense [and] Coach Frazier. I’m not sure how interested they were going to be, but I thought the whole process went well.”
[. . .]
While the Vikings could attempt to sign a veteran free agent to play in front of Ponder for a season, there also is the chance he will step in as the team’s starter. Frazier attempted to frame it as if Ponder will be competing with Joe Webb and Rhett Bomar for the job, but that’s a bit hard to believe considering the commitment the Vikings have made.
“I want it to still be an open competition with the guys that are on our roster,” Frazier said. “It will be those three. What happens with free agency? Who knows? We’ll eventually get to that point. But right now it’s a competition between those three and we’ll line up with the best guy when we get ready to line up against the Chargers [on Sept. 11 in the regular-season opener].”
In addition to a quarterback, the team has lots of other needs that could not be addressed in free agency, including both offensive and defensive linemen, linebacker, corner, safety, wide receiver, and tight end.
Update: Jim Souhan thinks that the jeering fans at the Winter Park draft party should give Spielman and Frazier a break:
The inebriated might wind up being right. Ponder might prove too fragile for the NFL and might become one of the many first-round quarterback busts in recent league history.
But this is one of those moments when it might be best to invest a little hope in the Vikings’ brain trust, because there is no greater thrill for the modern-day sports fan than to watch the development of a good, young quarterback, and there is no better template for winning than a coach and a young quarterback growing into their jobs together.
Let’s skip the usual draft-day analysis. It doesn’t matter whether the draft experts think the Vikings reached. Or think there were better quarterbacks available than Ponder. Or think there were better players at other positions available at No. 12.
Draft experts and NFL teams alike are often wrong, not because of a lack of due diligence but because projecting young quarterbacks is an inherently risky business.
[. . .]
What we know is this: Vikings coach Leslie Frazier was desperate to draft a quarterback who could lead his team, and he seemed very happy at the lectern late Thursday night.
Why not? This is a day for hope, and Ponder gives Vikings fans reason to do so.
The consensus: He’s smart, diligent and tough. His injuries gave his detractors reason to question him; the Vikings say they liked his toughness in trying to overcome them.
What we know for sure is that Frazier has tied his future to Ponder. So has personnel boss Spielman.
If Ponder develops into a star, Frazier and Spielman will be here a while. If he proves to be a bust, Zygi Wilf probably will be hiring a new personnel guru and coach within three years.
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April 26, 2011
Urban mountain biking – Valparaiso, Chile
VCA 2010 RACE RUN from changoman on Vimeo.
H/T to Cycling Tips Blog (and to Roger Henry, who provided the link).
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April 8, 2011
Swearing in soccer? Gasp! Shock! Horror!
Duleep Allirajah wonders how the Football Association has managed to avoid hearing what soccer players say on the pitch until now:
Rooney swore? So f***ing what
Those fretting over the footballer’s anglo-saxon turn of phrase have clearly never been to a match before.
Wayne Rooney’s angry outburst was curious. What did it mean? Who was he addressing? In appearing to pick a fight with a TV camera, it immediately struck me as an homage to Robert De Niro’s famous ‘You talking to me?’ scene in Taxi Driver. But maybe I’m reading too much into it.
In a statement issued by his club, the player said: ‘Emotions were running high, and on reflection my heat-of-the-moment reaction was inappropriate. It was not aimed at anyone in particular.’ Maybe he was railing against his inner demons. Maybe there is no deeper meaning. Maybe it was a release of pent-up frustration after months of domestic strife and poor goal-scoring form.
But enough of my speculative interpretation, it’s the Football Association’s response that we should really be bothered about. The FA has banned Rooney for two matches for using ‘offensive, insulting and/or abusive language’. You don’t need to be a lipreader to work out that footballers swear quite a lot; every Saturday you’ll find them effing and blinding like proverbial troopers. But while disciplinary action for abusing match officials is nothing new, a ban for swearing per se is quite unprecedented.
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April 7, 2011
Health clubs’ real goal is “helping us to lose weight around the middle of our wallets”
I’ve never really been able to get into the idea of joining a health club — the few times I’ve tried, the interest hasn’t gone beyond the “free trial” period. I find exercise for the sake of exercise to be not just boring but actively repellant. What little exercise I get, outside the minimal physical efforts required of a modern technical writer are on the badminton court once or twice a week, or doing SCA rapier fencing. Those are both interesting enough to keep me coming back (in spite of my admitted lack of expertise in either).
I’m not alone in this, as Daniel Duane helps to illustrate:
Not that I haven’t wasted time at the gym like everybody else, sweating dutifully three times a week, “working my core,” throwing in the odd after-work jog. A few years ago, newly neck-deep in what Anthony Quinn describes in Zorba the Greek as “Wife, children, house…the full catastrophe,” I signed a 10-page membership contract at a corporate-franchise gym, hired my first personal trainer, and became yet another sucker for all the half-baked, largely spurious non-advice cobbled together from doctors, newspapers, magazines, infomercials, websites, government health agencies, and, especially, from the organs of our wonderful $19 billion fitness industry, whose real knack lies in helping us to lose weight around the middle of our wallets. Not that all of these people are lying, but here’s what I’ve learned: Their goals are only marginally related to real fitness — goals like reducing the statistical incidence of heart disease across the entire American population, or keeping you moving through the gym so you won’t crowd the gear, or limiting the likelihood that you’ll get hurt and sue.
We’re not innocent. Too many of us drift into health clubs with only the vaguest of notions about why we’re actually there — notions like maybe losing a little weight, somehow looking like the young Brad Pitt in Fight Club, or just heeding a doctor’s orders. Vague goals beget vague methods; the unfocused mind is the vulnerable mind, deeply susceptible to bullshit. So we sign our sorry names on the elliptical-machine waiting list — starting with a little “cardio,” like somebody said you’re supposed to — and then spend our allotted 30 minutes in front of a TV mounted a regulation seven to 10 feet away, because lawyers have told gym owners that seven to 10 feet minimizes the likelihood that we’ll crane our necks, lose our balance, and face-plant on the apparatus. After that, if we’ve got any remaining willpower, we lie flat on the floor, contract a few stomach muscles with tragic optimism, and then we “work each body part” before hitting the shower.
Even in my minimal-exercise routine, I’ve often been told to start with some stretches. Uh, no, apparently I shouldn’t do that:
How many times have you been told to start with a little stretching? Yet multiple studies of pre-workout stretching demonstrate that it actually raises your likelihood of injury and lowers your subsequent performance. Turns out muscles that aren’t warmed up don’t really stretch anyway, and tugging on them just firms up their resistance to a wider range of motion. In fact, limbering up even has a slackening effect on your muscles, reducing their stability and the amount of power and strength they’ll generate.
On the economic incentives of health club owners:
Commercial health clubs need about 10 times as many members as their facilities can handle, so designing them for athletes, or even aspiring athletes, makes no sense. Fitness fanatics work out too much, making every potential new member think, Nah, this place looks too crowded for me. The winning marketing strategy, according to Recreation Management Magazine, a health club–industry trade rag, focuses strictly on luring in the “out-of-shape public,” meaning all of those people whose doctors have told them, “About 20 minutes three times a week,” who won’t come often if ever, and who definitely won’t join unless everything looks easy, available, and safe. The entire gym, from soup to nuts, has been designed around getting suckers to sign up, and then getting them mildly, vaguely exercised every once in a long while, and then getting them out the door.
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April 4, 2011
Tweet of the day: Charlie Sheen
Faux John Madden: Charlie Sheen has bombed in Chicago and Detroit. All that’s left is for him to bomb in Green Bay and he’s duplicated the Vikings season.
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April 1, 2011
Rating Vikings drafts in the last decade
Bleacher Report ranks the 2000-2009 drafts for Minnesota:
- 2007: Adrian Peterson, Sidney Rice, Marcus McCauley, Brian Robison, Aundrae Allison, Rufus Alexander, Tyler Thigpen, Chandler Williams. Without a doubt, the best draft of the decade: Adrian Peterson by himself would make it, but add in Sidney Rice and Brian Robison and this was an excellent draft. Thigpen might have been a contributor, but he was grabbed off waivers and never played a game for the Vikings.
- 2006: Chad Greenway, Cedric Griffin, Ryan Cook, Tavaris Jackson, Ray Edwards, Greg Blue. A very good draft, by anyone’s standards. Both Greenway and Edwards have been great contributors, while Cedric Griffin has been very good when not battling injury. Jackson showed flashes of brilliance at QB, but never could beat the consistency problem.
- 2003: Kevin Williams, E.J. Henderson, Nate Burleson, Onterrio Smith, Eddie Johnson, Michael Nattiel, Keenan Howry. Williams and Henderson were great draft choices. Burleson and Smith were good contributors, but Burleson was lured away to Seattle, while Smith left the league after the “Whizzinator” incident.
- 2009: Percy Harvin, Phil Loadhalt, Asher Allen, Jasper Brinkley, Jamarca Sanford. It’s too soon to make a permanent judgement about such a recent draft, but Harvin and Loadholt were both major contributors in their rookie seasons, while the others have been good in backup or situational roles.
- 2002: Bryant McKinnie, Raonall Smith, Willie Offord, Brian Williams, Ed Ta’amu, Nick Rogers, Chad Beasley. Other than McKinnie, the rest of this draft class fade quickly out of memory.
- 2008: Tyrell Johnson, John David Booty, Letroy Guion, John Sullivan, Jaymar Johnson. The best part of this draft was trading the first-round pick to obtain Jared Allen. Tyrell Johnson and Jaymar Johnson are both still with the team, although neither has really made a name for himself. Guion has played well and should be a bigger contributor this year.
- 2004: Kenechi Udeze, Dontarrious Thomas, Darrion Scott, Nat Dorsey, Mewelde Moore, Rod Davis, Deandre’ Eiland, Jeff Dugan. Moore and Dugan were good picks, but the rest were forgettable. Moore still does good work . . . for the Steelers.
- 2000: Chris Hovan, Fred Robbins, Michael Boireau, Doug Chapman, Antonio Wilson, Tyrone Carter, Troy Walters, Mike Malano, Giles Cole, Lewis Kelly. Hovan was a player who seemed to be a legend in his own mind. Robbins did some good work, but not for the Vikings.
- 2001: Michael Bennett, Willie Howard, Eric Kelly, Shawn Worthen, Cedric James, Patrick Chukwurah, Carey Scott, Brian Crawford. The best that could be said of this draft class was that Michael Bennet, when healthy, could be good. The key words there were “when healthy”.
- 2005: Troy Williamson, Erasmas James, Marcus Johnson, Dustin Fox, Ciatrick Fason, C.J. Mosely, Adrian Ward. A flat-out terrible draft on any level. Two first-round picks, both wasted.
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March 18, 2011
Adrian Peterson changes the tone, but not in a good way
Tom Powers thinks that Adrian Peterson has accomplished what many thought to have been impossible: improving the public view of the NFL owners.
With one slip of the tongue, Adrian Peterson irrevocably has altered public perception with regard to the NFL labor situation. A.P. has accomplished the seemingly impossible: He has made the bad guys look good. Or at least better.
Suddenly, NFL owners, the greediest group of cutthroat, self-indulgent operators since Al Capone’s gang ran roughshod over Chicago, stand in a more favorable public light. And they can wave a disapproving finger at the players and announce to the fans: “Now do you see what we’re dealing with here?”
The other day, Peterson called the owners’ treatment of the players “modern-day slavery.” He was making a lot of sense right up until he uttered those magic words. He had talked about the unmitigated greed of the owners and about how they were trying to wring more money from their employees. Then he made the slavery comparison. Since A.P. is due a base salary of close to $11 million next season, it’s not hard to imagine how all the working stiffs out there viewed those comments.
Because of the impasse, Powers now thinks the best solution is pretty drastic:
It’s too bad because, make no mistake about it, if NFL football goes missing this fall, it’s the owners’ doing and not the players.’ The players are the good guys in these negotiations.
Their careers are short. They get beat up more than any other athletes. They have lingering injuries that hamper them for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, the filthy-rich owners want a bigger percentage of the revenue pie. In fact, they want a big fat slice right off the top.
OK, what’s done is done. Now everybody looks bad. And just like the 1994 negotiations that almost killed baseball, both sides are so busy trying to gouge each other that they are displaying precious little regard for the cash customers who, in reality, fund the whole damn operation. They are the ones who buy the tickets and merchandise. They are the ones who send the TV ratings — and thus the advertising revenue — through the roof.
So now I think the best thing that could possibly happen is for the NFL to disappear for a year. I hope the labor negotiations reach an impasse and the season is canceled. Then maybe reality will set in for all concerned. The mighty need to be humbled. In a year, with luck, they’ll all realize that the sun doesn’t rise and set on their fannies. They’ll realize that everyone survived just fine without them. And then maybe they won’t take it all for granted anymore.
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