In college news, TMQ contends that football-factory coaches emphasize winning above all else because there is no reward for academic outcomes. Cory Scott of Ambler, Pa., notes this column by Jay Paterno, the quarterbacks coach at Penn State and Joe’s son, proposing that academic success be added as a factor in the BCS formula. If it were a factor, Jay Paterno finds, Alabama would still be in the title game next month — but facing TCU rather than Texas. Here, Lindsey Luebchow of Yale Law School takes a similar approach with her third annual Academic BCS rankings. Luebchow analyzes the top 25 football schools at season’s end and factors in both graduation numbers and the NCAA’s “academic progress rate.” Looked at this way, with more classroom emphasis than Paterno’s ranking, the BCS Championship Game would pit Penn State against Stanford — while Texas, with horrible academic stats for football, plummets all the way down from No. 2 to No. 25 and an appearance in TMQ’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback Bowl Presented by TMQ.
Paterno and Luebchow are on to something big. The BCS is all about elaborate computer formulas. Football-factory coaches and boosters often claim for the sake of show they care about academics. Make it official — add academic measures to the BCS computer formula! Do this, and within a single year there would be intense focus on classroom performance at every BCS-hopeful school. This isn’t a whimsical idea, it is a perfectly serious and practical idea — if the NCAA and the BCS want to prove they’re not just moving their mouths when they say they care about GPAs and graduation.
Gregg Easterbrook, “TMQ’s ‘Twelve Days of Christmas'”, ESPN Page Two, 2009-12-22
December 23, 2009
QotD: College football and graduation rates
December 21, 2009
Vikings put on terrible performance, get beaten badly by Carolina Panthers
In another late game on Sunday, the Vikings didn’t do anything right. The offensive line was terrible, making it impossible for Adrian Peterson to get any kind of running game going, and putting lots of pressure on Brett Favre. With no running game, the Panthers defensive backs were able to concentrate on stopping the pass — and did. Favre was sacked four times, and Carolina’s Julius Peppers made both Phil Loadholt and Bryant McKinnie look helpless and lost.
If the loss to Arizona was bad (and it was), this was easily much worse. There were no indications that the Vikings cared about this game, and Carolina took the game to them.
The defensive line had nearly as bad a night as the offensive line did, giving up a 100 yard rushing performance for the first time in 36 games. The loss of middle linebacker E.J. Henderson was painfully apparent, as the linebackers were far too frequently caught out of position or, even worse, failing to wrap up on tackles. Steve Smith totally dominated Antoine Winfield, who had a forgettable night.
And, just to complete the night, Brad Childress and Brett Favre got into an argument that the network TV cameras caught:
“Yeah, there was a heated discussion, I guess you would call it,” said Favre, who finished 17 of 27 for 224 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. “We were up 7-6 at the time. No secret, I was getting hit a little bit. I felt the pressure on a lot of plays. We had seven points. So I think everyone in the building was like, ‘They’re not moving the ball, they’re not getting points.’ Brad wanted to go in a different direction and I wanted to stay in the game.
“We were up 7-6. Yeah, it’s not 70-6, but we’re up 7-6. So I said, ‘I’m staying in the game, I’m playing.’ I don’t know if it was exactly to protect me, or we had seven points, I’m not sure. That’s his call. But we talked it out. We didn’t have time, I didn’t have time to sit there and say why or what. My response was, we’ve got to win this ballgame and I want to stay in and do whatever I can. Now, unfortunately, I didn’t do that, but that was my intention.”
Despite losing, the Vikings benefitted from an earlier game where the Steelers beat Green Bay on a last-second TD, which gives the Vikings the NFC North title for the second year in a row.
December 17, 2009
The Tiger Woods affair: the failure of the paparazzi
Kerry Howley says that the biggest disappointment of the whole convoluted Tiger Woods situation has been the embarassing performance of the paparazzi:
It’s not clear to me that the enduring interest in Tiger even needs explanation. For a while there, every time we looked away, a new woman emerged with an even better set of semi-sordid details. The story propelled itself forward. The gift kept on giving.
Since the above should make it clear that any cultural analysis of Tiger tends toward projection of one’s personal anxieties, I’ll refrain from using the universal “we.” I feel let down not by Woods, but by the paparazzi on whom we all depend to keep us abreast of these things. The man was with 11 women over how many years and not so much as a snapshot surfaces? Where were you, X17? Where were your swarming, flashing hordes, your ravenous stalkerazzi instincts? Does any photographer show up anywhere without a knowing tip-off from the entourage? My faith is broken.
December 14, 2009
Vikings back in the Win column, beat Bengals 30-10
If last week’s terrible outing against the Cardinals was a wake-up call, then I think it worked: Minnesota put on a comprehensive display of dominance in all three phases of the game yesterday against Cincinnati. Despite two defensive rookies making their first career starts (middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley and safety Jamarca Sanford), the Bengals had trouble moving the ball (Carson Palmer had his second-worst statistically).
Cornerback Antoine Winfield made his triumphant return to the field after an extended time recovering from a foot injury. He had nine tackles and forced a fumble late in the second quarter, which led to a Viking field goal. He’s still not back 100%, as he dropped an interception and lost Chad Ochocinco on a passing play to give the Bengals their only touchdown of the day. ESPN’s Kevin Seifert was very impressed with Winfield’s performance, saying “Antoine Winfield picked up where he left off as the NFL’s best tackler.”
In the duel of the running backs, the numbers were close with Adrian Peterson logging 97 yards on 26 carries against Cedric Benson’s 16 carries for 96 yards, but Peterson had two touchdowns to set a new scoring record for a Viking running back. Peterson also added 40 yards receiving on 3 passes.
December 8, 2009
Can’t disagree with this, either
Also from today’s TMQ column:
Minnesota boasts about its defensive line, but against Arizona, the front four were getting little pressure on Kurt Warner, so defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier started calling blitzes. The result: Touchdown passes to Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald against the blitz, with safeties nowhere to be seen. But good Arizona defense carried the day. Cardinals leading 24-10 in the third quarter, Minnesota went: Adrian Peterson loss of 5, sack, interception, and TMQ wrote the words “game over” in his notebook. Brett Favre stayed on the field till the final snap despite the fact the hosts led 30-10 with a couple of minutes remaining, which indicates coach Brad Childress is concerned with padding Favre’s stats — a bad sign.
December 7, 2009
Vikings lose to Cardinals, 30-17
In short, it was definitely the worst game the Vikings have played this season, with poor performances in all aspects. The injury bug bit, hard, with Viking players dropping on both sides of the ball, and both Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson having season-worst outings.
The game started well for the Purple, with an early forced fumble giving the Vikings a short field and a quick touchdown (although Brad Childress had to throw a challenge flag after Visanthe Shiancoe was initially ruled out of bounds on the reception). And that was pretty much the high point of the game, with the wheels coming off early in the following series. With backups on the offensive line, there was nowhere to run for Adrian Peterson, and Brett Favre threw two interceptions (and could easily have had four, had Cardinal backs been able to hang on to the ball).
Poor play aside, probably the biggest loss was the season-ending injury to middle linebacker E.J. Henderson:
The silence in the Vikings locker room late Sunday night was all one needed to observe to understand just how painful of loss this team had suffered at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals.
Not only had the Vikings easily played their worst game of the season in a 30-17 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals but they also had lost defensive captain and middle linebacker E.J. Henderson to a fractured femur in his left leg. Players choked up as they attempted to discuss the injury to Henderson.
Coach Brad Childress said Henderson would remain in a Phoenix-area hospital tonight and probably undergo surgery. The severity of Henderson’s situation — the second time he has suffered a season-ending injury in as many years — made the loss almost secondary.
“It’s a horrible injury,” linebacker Ben Leber said as he fought his emotions. “I feel bad for the guy. He has battled through so much.”
December 2, 2009
Tiger’s beat(ing)
I don’t follow professional golf, so what little I knew of Tiger Woods was what the sportscasters managed to get in before I switched channels. I did think that he was an amazing golfer, and that he seemed to be well on his way to becoming the greatest golfer of his time (possibly of all time, depending on the measurement). So the sudden upheaval in his private life came as rather a surprise. According to Charles P. Pierce, there’s lots more surprises likely to be coming:
I can’t say I’m surprised — either by the allegations or by what’s ensued since Friday’s wreck. Back in 1997, one of the worst-kept secrets on the PGA Tour was that Tiger was something of a hound. Everybody knew. Everybody had a story. Occasionally somebody saw it, but nobody wanted to talk about it, except in bar-room whispers late at night. Tiger’s People at the International Management Group visibly got the vapors if you even implied anything about it. However, from that moment on, the marketing cocoon around him became almost impenetrable. The Tiger Woods that was constructed for corporate consumption was spotless and smooth, an edgeless brand easily peddled to sheikhs and shakers. The perfect marriage with the perfect kids slipped so easily into the narrative it seemed he’d been born married.
Anything dissonant was dealt with quickly and mercilessly. Tiger’s caddy, an otherwise unemployable thug named Steve Williams, regularly harassed any spectator whom Williams thought might eventually harsh his man’s mellow. The IMG handlers differed from Williams only in that they were slightly more polite. The golfing press became aware that stories about Tiger’s temper, say, or about his ties to unsavory corporate grifters, would mean the end of access to the only golfer in the world who matters. There is a quick way to tell now which journalists have made this devil’s bargain and which ones haven’t — the ones insisting that this “accident” is somehow “not a story” are the sopranos in the chorus.
But the more impenetrable Tiger’s cocoon was, the more fragile it became. It was increasingly vulnerable to anything that happened that was out of the control of the people who built and sustained it, and the events of last week certainly qualify. Now he’s got one of those major Media Things on his hands, and there is nothing that he, nor IMG, nor the clinging sponsors, nor anyone else can do about it. He is going to be everyone’s breakfast for the foreseeable future. (Among his many headaches, there is absolutely no way that the Enquirer quits on this story. See Edwards, John.) And he’s going to be some kind of punch line for the most of the rest of his public career. There is some historical irony in all that, and not just for myself.
H/T to Matt Welch for the link.
November 30, 2009
2012 Olympic logo not just ugly, but also cartoon porn
One of the least aesthetic Olympic logos ever devised may also be deemed pornographic:
Government zeal in pursuing anyone suspected of harbouring paedophilic tendencies may shortly rebound — with unintended consequences for the 2012 Olympic logo.
Earlier this month, the Coroners & Justice Bill 2009 received the Royal Assent. This Act was another of those portmanteau pieces of legislation for which the current government is famous, mixing up new regulations on the holding of inquests, driving offences, provocation in murder cases and, crucially, a new law making it a criminal offence to be found in possession of an indecent cartoon image of a child.
The horror facing the unpopular Olympics logo is that this is a strict liability offence. If an image is indecent, or held to be so by a jury, it is no good the Olympic Committee claiming that it was not intended as such.
Regular readers will be aware of the controversy that surrounded the current logo since the day it was launched. Critics were not impressed by the £400,000 that had allegedly been shelled out to creative consultancy Wolff Olins to come up with the design. However, it was the logo’s perceived suggestiveness — with many sniggering that it appeared to show Lisa Simpson performing an act of fellatio — that excited internet controversy.
You’ll not that I was careful not to show the offending logo, both for fear of prosecution and because it’s hideous:
[Perry de Havilland]: What does it look like to you? To me it is obvious: a collapsing structure of some sort, perhaps a building at the moment of demolition. The sense of downwards motion towards the bottom of the page is palpable.
Breathtaking. I mean what truly magnificent symbolism. The entire Olympic endeavour has been a massive looting spree with already grotesque cost over-runs (and it is only 2007), so surely something that conjures up images of collapse and disaster is really on the money . . . and speaking of money, at £400,000 (just under $800,000 USD) for the logo, it perfectly sums up the whole ‘Olympic Experience’ for London taxpayers. [. . .]
[James Lileks]: Seriously, what is the matter with people who come up with this? And what is the matter with the people who approved it? Ads that showed the logos have reportedly caused seizures among British epileptics, but I think this thing would make a fossilized femur bone suffer convulsive muscle spasms. If you can’t tell, it’s the year of the London games — 2012. I think it’s also meant to imply a human form — say, a discus thrower, or a runner bursting from the blocks. Whatever it is, it’s an aesthetic catastrophe, and would seem to indicate there’s no one around in the London Games who had the nerve to bark “rubbish, that; try again, and give me a proper logo with some bloody numbers.” I think there’s a point at which people lose the ability to pretend they have any sort of aesthetic criteria, and embrace whatever’s loud and ugly simply because loud and ugly is the style of the times. There’s always a fair amount of coin to be had for dissing the traditionalists, of course; I imagine that if someone submitted a logo with a flag or a bulldog they would have suffered a gentle sneer: still pining for the empire, eh, Smithson. Well, Kipling’s dead. Yes he is. Dig him up, you’ll find Posh Spice’s heel stuck in his heart, the coffin stuffed with I Heart Diana memorial teddy bears.
November 29, 2009
Vikings beat Bears 36-10
For a game I was worried about, it sure didn’t support my anxieties, with Minnesota rolling to a decisive victory at home. Brett Favre was a bare 11 yards short of a career record passing game (he did tie the all-time record for games started by non-kicker/non-punter with former Viking Jim “Iron Man” Marshall at 282):
Favre passed for a season-high 392 yards and three touchdowns, and the Vikings intercepted Cutler twice in a 36-10 victory over the Bears on Sunday.
Favre went 32 for 48 without a turnover and was 10 yards off his career best, throwing touchdowns to Visanthe Shiancoe, Chester Taylor and Percy Harvin, the unflappable rookie who had his best game yet.
The Vikings (10-1) outgained the Bears by a whopping 537 yards to 169 and breezed to their fifth straight win, despite two more fumbles and a pedestrian 85 yards on 25 carries by Adrian Peterson.
His short, late touchdown run put Minnesota over 32 points for the sixth time this season. The Vikings had 31 first downs, the Bears just eight.
Cutler was precise in the short passing game and effective in the no-huddle, keeping the Bears (4-7) in it until late in the second quarter. He was picked off by a diving Cedric Griffin in the end zone. Then on the next possession, E.J. Henderson got his hand on a ball over the middle that Jared Allen jumped up and caught with 57 seconds left in the half.
Adrian Peterson’s fumbles continue to be a concern for the Vikings, although only one of the two in this game caused problems. A player with a reputation for fumbling attracts all kinds of extra attention, and especially for Peterson, who often refuses to go to ground, attempting to gain extra yards after being stopped.
Jared Allen had two sacks and several hurries, while Benny Sapp and Karl Paymah substituted for injured cornerback Antoine Winfield.
November 25, 2009
Zygi Wilf goes guerilla in war for new Vikings facility
Having been rebuffed by state legislators and blackmailed by the Metrodome administrators, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf takes his case on the road:
Making his most expansive comments yet on the need for a new stadium, Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf chastised politicians Tuesday for dodging an issue that “doesn’t serve their political purposes” and said they should not “run away” from a project many Minnesotans want to see happen.
Calling himself not only the owner but the “guardian” of the state’s most popular sports franchise, Wilf posed for pictures with fans clad in Vikings jerseys, autographed footballs and, in general, took on a public persona he has largely avoided as the team’s principal owner.
For all that the Vikings are the top sports franchise in the state, not everyone in Minnesota is a fan. The habit of other NFL cities — handing out hundreds of millions of tax dollars to provide stadia for “their” teams — has not been a popular topic even before the recession started. The Wilf family is quite rich, perhaps not rich enough to build a new stadium all on their own, but they certainly could be majority owners in a consortium to build one.
The state has more than enough other things to pay attention to, so politicians of all stripes are unwilling to provide public money for a private undertaking . . . and they’re quite right. They were not elected to favour certain groups or individuals and they certainly weren’t elected to force all Minnesotans to support the sports interests of only some Minnesotans.
I don’t really have a dog in this fight, as I’m a long distance Vikings fan and I’ve never set foot in the state. I’d be very sorry to see the team leave, and it might take me a while to adapt to the “Anaheim Vikings” or the “LA Vikings” or the “Toronto Vikings” (maybe less time for that one), but I’m sure I’d eventually cope with it. It’s not like other teams haven’t moved to new cities.
November 23, 2009
NFL to finally address concussion problems
The NFL has been under fire recently for failing to address the serious problems players have had with concussions. A concussion is a potentially serious injury, yet the league has been unwilling to force teams to treat their injured players with due care: a player who has “had his bell rung” is often encouraged to return to play, which drastically increases the chance of further — and more serious — injury. Alan Scharz reports:
[. . .] the league will soon require teams to receive advice from independent neurologists while treating players with brain injuries, several people with knowledge of the plan confirmed Sunday.
For generations, decisions on when players who sustain concussions should return to play have been made by doctors and trainers employed by the team, raising questions of possible conflicts of interest when coaches and owners want players to return more quickly than proper care would suggest.
As scientific studies and anecdotal evidence have found a heightened risk for brain damage, dementia and cognitive decline in retired players, the league has faced barbed criticism from outside experts and, more recently, from Congress over its policies on handling players with concussions.
This is good, not only for current NFL players, but also for college and high school football players, as the professionals set an example to younger players about how to play the game and how to cope with injuries. You can’t just “walk off” a brain injury, and the NFL has to set the precedent of treating concussions as the serious injuries they are. Gregg Easterbrook has been calling for the NFL to show leadership on this issue for quite some time, most recently in his column last week:
The league’s position is that individual clubs set their own medical policies, but that is a transparent cop-out. Most teams will sit a player with a concussion so bad he can’t remember what he had for lunch. But as soon as the player recovers enough to recall the playbook, he may be cleared to resume competition — and may be pressured to do so. Yes, there is an assumption of risk to performing in the NFL, and players know the sport is dangerous. But going on the field with an elbow that hurts is very different from competing with an injured brain. Players recovering from concussions shouldn’t be allowed back on the field until after extended rest. It should not be the player’s decision to make — that is management evading its responsibility, as well as a form of pressure on athletes who are expected to be macho about knowing no fear. The NFL should prohibit concussed players from returning until they have had a mandatory recovery period, or been cleared by neurologists unaffiliated with the league, or both.
This is especially important because NFL behavior sets the tone for college and high school players — and there are 500 of them for each one in the NFL. When high school or college players see NFL athletes rushing back onto the field soon after concussions, or pretending to the trainer to be fine in order to be sent back in, that’s the behavior they emulate. If the NFL instead sent a message that all concussions should be treated seriously and conservatively, college and high school players would imitate that.
In addition to being more careful about treating injured players, the league should also change two pieces of equipment that could help to increase player safety in the area of concussions:
The league should mandate helmets with concussion-reducing designs — the Riddell Speed (successor to the Revo), the Schutt Ion and the Xenith. None are panaceas, but all are likely to lessen concussion incidence or severity. If the NFL set an example by allowing only helmets engineered against concussions, the NCAA and eventually high schools would follow.
The league should mandate double-sided mouthguards — which are much more affordable for high schools than advanced helmets. Boxing has long required double-sided mouthguards, exactly because they reduce concussions.
November 20, 2009
“Yes, I handled the ball but I’m not the referee”
Thierry Henry goes Diego Maradona one better:
The French national team advances to the World Cup on the basis of a “hand of God” assist.
November 16, 2009
Vikings beat Lions in spite of outbreak of penalty-itis
Not a great game by Minnesota yesterday, but fortunately for them they were playing against Detroit, so the penalties didn’t sink them (13 penalties for 91 yards, a season-worst). Coming out of their bye week, the Vikings looked anything but dominant in the first half, giving up far too much ground for a team with hopes of going deep into the playoffs. Of course, a lot of that was due to penalties. Kevin Seifert runs down the good and bad of the game:
Indeed, the Vikings overmatched the Lions in every way Sunday and ultimately overwhelmed them. They are 8-1 and have a three-game lead in the NFC North. This season is rapidly shaping up as a once-in-a-generation combination of opportunity and chance, putting the Vikings on a pretty short list of candidates to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
But lest anyone get too convinced of that destiny, remember this: If Adrian Peterson can get caught from behind, anything can happen.
“He just made a great play,” Peterson said. “Those guys on the other side of the ball, sometimes those guys are fast, too.”
But the second lesson/reminder of Sunday was that Minnesota has the offensive firepower to overcome even a series of similar occurrences. (It helped to be matched against the Lions’ horrid pass defense, which has allowed quarterbacks to complete 71 percent of their passes on the way to a 107.8 rating.)
Minnesota gashed the Lions for 492 total yards, an average of 7.8 yards per play. Five of them went for 40 or more yards. Quarterback Brett Favre passed for 344 yards, receiver Sidney Rice totaled 201 receiving yards and Peterson finished with 133 rushing yards.
I understand the Vikings won’t be playing the Lions’ defense every week, and certainly not in any postseason game. But as they continue to compile elite offensive numbers, the confidence of the players surrounding Favre will only improve.
One of the good things coming out of this game was that the Vikings didn’t suffer any serious injuries, unlike Detroit — it looked like the head coach was going to have to suit up to play in the defensive secondary by the middle of the third quarter. Lions players were dropping all over the field.
Favre continued to spread the ball around, making it much tougher for the defenders to key in on the most likely receiver. Peterson had a good outing, although the highlight reel footage you’ll likely see is him being caught from behind on what would have been a great touchdown run (Detroit’s Phillip Buchanon punched the ball out, which rolled into the endzone for a touchback).
November 8, 2009
Over-exuberant celebrations
Ticker tape? Heck, I’m just going to dump all these financial records out the window to celebrate the World Series:
Auditor Damian Salo attended the Manhattan parade honouring the baseball World Series championships. He tells The New York Post he found all sorts of personal financial documents in the mountains of shredded paper tossed from skyscrapers as the players rode up Broadway.
They included pay stubs, banking data, law firm memos and even some court files.
The founder of one financial firm, Alan Sarroff, says his company reprimanded one “overzealous” employee for throwing records out the window that should have been shredded.
November 5, 2009
How unpopular do you have to be to have fans do this?
ESPN reports that Kansas City Chiefs fans really don’t like Chiefs running back Larry Johnson:
Embattled Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson is 75 yards from becoming the team’s all-time leading rusher.
And some Chiefs fans have a problem with that.
An online petition started by Chiefs fans asks general manager Scott Pioli to deactivate Johnson and keep him on the sideline so he cannot pass Priest Holmes for the team rushing record, or join the team’s Ring of Honor at Arrowhead Stadium.
Holmes holds the Chiefs’ rushing record with 6,070 yards; Johnson currently has 5,996 yards.
“While we are thankful for his service, we feel that Larry has been a black eye on the organization and has no business being mentioned” among the team’s all-time greats, the petition reads.
