Obligatory Super Bowl XLIII (That’s 43) Post

Whew!  Fortunately Mike Tomlin and the Steelers were able to beat the Chargers (and more importantly Norv Turner) handily and end the possibility of a Chargers – Cardinals Super Bowl.  I earlier confessed I’ve got a glass of Haterade out for the Cardinals, but that’s nothing compared to the 50 gallon drum of Haterade I have for any Norv Turner coached team.

We got a nice round of Conference Championship games eight days ago.  The NFC Championship featured a match-up of contenders for not just the Giants’ NFC title, but also the 2007-8 Giants’ role as plucky upstarts on a roll.  Ultimately, the Arizona nee’ Phoenix previously St. Louis and before that Chicago Cardinals as the disrespected, limping Champion of the rotten NFC West and making their first Championship game appearance in sixty years, prevailed over the hot Wild Card Philadelphia Eagles, led by their talented but often failing QB and HC combo, making their fourth Championship Game appearance in five years.  Final score Cardinals 32 Eagles 25.  Highlight here was the lethal sharp performance of the Kurt “It’s like I took off 2002-06 to rest” Warner to Larry Fitzgerald combination.  Warner’s bizarre and inspirational road to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH continues with a third Super Bowl apperance.  Fitzgerald started the season as the slightly better half of Arizona’s super WR duo (with the disgruntled Anquan Boldin) but has broken away as the best, having broken playoff receiving records (mostly Jerry Rice’s) for receiving yardage, receptions and TDs.

The AFC Championship game featured a more definitive favorite in the AFC North Champion Pittsburgh Steelers taking on their division rivals and runner-up the Baltimore Ravens.  The Steelers 23-14 victory featured the Steeler defense bringing Joe Flacco’s magic run as the first rookie QB to win two playoff games to an end.  Admittedly, Flacco’s postseason numbers were pretty grim even in victory over the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans, but the Steelers made him look like a rookie, with three INTs, two to SS Troy Polamalu.  The game’s other notable moments were a terrible roughing the punter penalty against the Ravens and the brutal tackle by Steeler FS Ryan Clark on Ravens RB Willis McGahee.

On the penalty, Steeler P Mitch Berger had slipped and fell after punting the ball, and on the way down brushed against Ravens’ TE Daniel Wilcox.  As P often do, he rolled bounced away from the contact, hoping the draw a penalty.  Strangely, the Steelers got the fifteen yard “Roughing” penalty as opposed to the more plausible “Running into the Punter” for five yards.  Fortunately the Steelers failed to score, depriving Sports Talk radio hosts and sports bloggers nationwide of one more topic to grind on.  As for the tackle, McGahee caught a swing pass and was hit by Clark, knocking both men out.   Clark eventually got up and walked off the field while McGahee was carted off, but left the hospital the day after.   Clark, who was noted during his Redskins tenure for his intelligence and cover skills, not hitting ability, came in with his shoulder on to knock the ball out of McGahee’s arms.  McGahee lowered his head to try to get under the hit, but instead his head met Clark’s shoulder.

It’s but Day One of Super Bowl Hype Week and nothing goofy has happened yet.  The Steelers are the Steelers.  Even when they have maniacs on the team, those guys don’t do anything to embarass the team.   On the Cards side, hopes that Edgerrin James would recall whining about his role the week before the  Wildcard game, or that Anquan Boldin would elaborate on his supposed early, huffy departure from the locker room after the Championship Game were dashed as neither did anything of the sort during the serious sports media interviews today.  I think tomorrow is the general, “open” media day happens, when the sports journalists sit back and report on the various publicity stunt lunatics dispatched by radio shows and entertainment programs harrass the athletes and coaches with truly random questions.

I’m going to make a completely illogical prediction and give the wacky Cardinals the win over the better Steelers team.  Really, the facts tell me Pittsburgh should smash the Cardinals, but I’m feeling capricious in making this guess.

The Road to the Unaccept-a-Bowl

Yesterday’s NFL Divisional Playoff games, as well as today’s NFC game between Philadelphia and New York, have seen victories by the all the visiting teams.  A single road victory playoffs isn’t in of itself surprising; having so many in the same season is.  However a closer look at the Baltimore Ravens – Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles – New York Giants match-ups makes those upsets less surprising.  The Giants had been sputtering a bit down the stretch, while the Eagles were, with the weird exception of their sleepy 10-3  defeat by the Washington Redskins, hot and lucky to close the 2008 season.  Only the margin of victory (12 points, as Bad Eli Manning returned to the Meadowlands after being away all year) is really suprising.  The Titans and Ravens are fairly similar squads; ferocious defense, run-heavy offense and good special teams.  Games between those kinds of teams tend to be close.  That Baltimore does this with a rookie QB and HC is surprising, but having the classically dangerous Raven defense knock Titans RB Chris Johnson out of the game helps a lot.

The outlier for me this weekend (so far) is the Arizona Cardinals 33-13 beat-down of the Carolina Panthers.  I knew of only two football pundits, USA Today’s Jim Corbett and ESPN’s Keyshawn Johnson, who picked the Cardinals.  I was among the many who considered the Cardinals frauds.  They won a pathetic NFC West with a mere 9-7 record.  They used a pass-heavy but run-incompetent offense, always a risky balance for the post-season.  Their two December losses were ass-whoopings by playoff contenders: 35-14 from the Minnesota Vikings (whom I also considered frauds) and 47-7 from the New England Patriots.

What the Cardinals had going best for them was their lethal passing offense and a defense that was pretty good at generating turnovers, if not so good against the run.  This was a bad situation against the Carolina Panthers.  The 2008 Panthers were a typical Carolina playoff team: good pair of RBs, solid defense, QB-play a bit above Strangleball levels.  Offensively, the strength of the DeAngelo Williams – Jonathan Stewart RB combination compensated for a rather yo-yo-like season from QB Jake Delhomme.  Typifying this was Delhomme’s performance against the Cardinals going into the Panthers’ bye week (20-28-248-2TD-0INT, 1 fumble) and his game after the bye versus the anarchic Oakland Raiders (7-27-72-1TD-4INT) which the Panthers won anyway.  Furthermore, the Cardinals had some comically bad record playing on the East coast of the USA.  All this pointed to a methodical 20-6 beating by the Panthers.

Saturday night, however, the Cardinals defense used its’ ball-hawking (cardinaling?) skills and got Delhomme to put up a game much like the Raider game, (17-34-205-1TD-5INT, 1 fumble) on the way to victory.  This combined with the Eagles 23-11 defeat of the defending Super Bowl champions has lead to the unthinkable (for anyone not a blind Cards homer or bizarre contrarian) NFC Championship game in Glendale, Arizona.  I’m picking the Eagles; I’ve got my glass of NFC Playoff Haterade out for the Cardinals and haven’t been convinced to pour it down the drain.

Over in the AFC we could have a similar scenario should the San Diego Chargers (and more unacceptable, Norv Turner) beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and host the AFC Championship game against the Ravens.  The Chargers also won their crappy conference with a 9-7 record.  They also slid down the stretch, but did so in November.  They went 4-0 in December, strangely eeking out a 22-21 over the Arena League-quality Kansas City Chiefs but otherwise pounding their opponents.  They took advantage of a 1-3 December by the Denver Broncos, culminating with the Chargers crushing the Broncos 52-21 at the end of the season for the AFC West title.   Rather unlike the Cardinals, they have a balanced offense and, on paper, good RBs.  However, LaDanian Tomlinson is likely at the end of his superstar years in the NFL and I’m unsold on Darren Sproles as a full-time back.  Sure, Sproles was a starter in college, ran the ball a lot and was good.  Yet that was college; some of the defenders Sproles faced in the Big-12 are in the NFL, but they’re now working with the best guys over the last ten years from every college in the U.S. and Canada.

Getting back to the point, the Chargers were my AFC Fraud team, mostly due to my Norv Turner hatred, but managed to beat the previously surging Indianapolis Colts on the road last week.  Now I’m envisioning a Super Bowl with my two remaining Fraud teams (with the Vikings early and proper dismissal from the playoffs) playing for the Lombardi Trophy.  In abstract, it actually could be a good game, but this hypothetical Unaccept-a-Bowl will likely pass the previous Tampa Super Bowl, joyless Super Bowl XXXV, as the one I mostly ignore.  At least watching the horrifyingly awesome 2000 Ravens defense maul the Giants was a bit entertaining, as was the awkward feeling of Ray Lewis winning MVP.

As I post this, it is halftime and the Steelers are up 14-10 over the Chargers.  Go Mike Tomlin and the gang!

Not a Total Loss

Only the world’s most poorly updated football (American-style) blog would have its’ first post in months be, on the day of the BCS Championship Game and a couple days before Round Two of the NFL playoffs, about the Arena Football League.

So middle of last month the Arena Football League announced the 2009 season would be suspended. The backstory was that the owners couldn’t agree on bringing in an additional investment group for the league. If I would dig around some, like maybe in the comment boards at Arena Fan or something, I’d try to find out what’s going on, at least in the fan rumor mill. It was fishy when long-time commissioner David Baker resigned a couple days before the Arena Bowl in July of 2008. I doubt it was so he could concentrate on negotiating a contract for his son Sam, a first-round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons.

I’m quite annoyed by this development. I’ve just moved to New York and was looking forward to spending the odd Spring weekend riding the LIRR out to Uniondale and watching the New York Dragons. However, things aren’t a total loss. The Arena League’s developmental league, af2, is still in business! Hard to believe the penny-ante league originally built out of the corpses of the original Xtreme Football League (not to be confused with the sadly departed XFL) and the Indoor Football League, running in mid-to-small-sized American cities would keep going while it’s parent shut down. Then again costs are a lot lower for them. I just need to see which one of my friends I can convince to go to Albany with me to catch the “rebranded” Firebirds, nee’ Conquest.

Less Than Epic Fail… and Stamps win.

I really hoped to blog about the obscure football (compared to the NFL and NCAA I-A/Bowl Championship Watchamahooseits Subdivision) leagues that I followed. Unfortunately, well for this blog, I’m no longer a twenty-something goober willing to invest far too much time to watch the Division III Playoffs or keep track of goings on in the Arena League. The fact that I used to do such things, and remember it, has some limited value as a party trick and as I result I know more than the average American football fan on the street. However, I’m not up to that task anymore, not without money, and no one is likely to pay me to stay up to speed on whether the Tennessee Valley Vipers are getting a new arena. Note: that was a hypothetical. I’m not paying any attention to the Vipers, I have no idea if there is anything happening with their playing home. Though I see they won the Arena Cup (af2 Championship) this past summer.

Barring some weird change where I care about obscure football again enough to check in on it more than every couple of months, the best I can do is look back and issue a “oh hey, how about that?”

So here’s my first mea cupla, coming from the “I like you, I just don’t love you” Canadian Football League. The 2008 Grey Cup was a week ago, 23 November in Montreal. The West Division champion Calgary Stampeders, beat the hometown Alouettes representing the CFL’s East Division, 22-14. Stampeders QB Henry Burris, not quite six years removed from his pathetic appearance as a late season emergency starter for the NFL’s Chicago Bears, was the game MVP.

I only watched the game highlights and it’s hard to say much from them. Burris looked excellent; he’s had six years to get better and is going against the CFLs not quite as ferocious talent. This was the first time I’ve seen longtime CFL QB Anthony Calvillo. Maybe he’s playing hurt, but his arm strength looked bad in this game. Apparently the game had the second highest attendance ever for a Grey Cup at 66,308. Jermeaine Copeland, who I thought would develop into a good NFL receiver, but has instead bounced around NFL Europe, the XFL and finally in the CFL, had a respectable 7 catches for 53 yards for the Stampeders. And there we go….

Speed

Against my better judgment I decided to watch Michigan-Ohio State 2008 over lunch at the Irish pub that serves as my general purpose sports bar. The result was as expected, but my dismal opinion of this year’s Wolverines kept me from getting depressed about it. As the Buckeyes pulled ahead to 21-7, I took the opportunity to take in the other games on at the time. Once upon a time, it would have been unthinkable for me not to fully lock myself into a Michigan-Ohio State football game. Of course once upon a time, the University of Michigan wouldn’t get beat by both Northwestern University and the University of Akron in the same year.

So while the Big Shame Game was becoming a laugh fest for the Buckeyes and their fans, I watched West Virginia vs. Louisville and Harvard vs. Yale on the neighboring televisions. I always knew that the average on-field speed of the players increased with the level of the program. However it was surprising to see this difference simultaneously. Only some of the guys playing in West Virginia vs. Louisville (both just above average I-A schools) would be fast enough to start for Ohio State or (even this year’s) Michigan, though Rich Rodriguez wishes he could have brought Pat White and the Mountaineer OL to Ann Arbor. Moving over to the next television set, likely nobody playing in Harvard vs. Yale (Harvard is #19 in the I-AA poll right now, though I generally consider the Ivy League in the lower half of I-AA schools) had the speed to start for West Virginia or Louisville. Also evident was a marked difference in QB arm strength. While there are many examples of various gun-armed wonders playing outside of the NCAA’s I-A/BCS schools, in general the speed rules apply here as well: Bigger School, Higher Pass Velocity.

Other Notes from the “All Your Bowls Are Belong to Tressel” Game:
As both a true freshman and a running QB, Terrelle Pryor is a typically sloppy passer. He’s a very smooth runner for a guy his size, but a ways off from being even Troy Smith, let alone Michael Vick or Vince Young.

While I didn’t like how he ended up with the big office at Schembechler Hall or the way the Michigan offense has failed to adapt to his spread option, the rumbling about arranging a buyout for Rich Rodriguez is foolish. I would think this level of change can only be fairly judged after three years.

Brandon Minor looks promising as a RB. I’m not smart enough to figure out of his skills are appropriate for a RB in a spread option.

Speaking of Michigan RBs, I haven’t been paying close enough attention as to why Sam McGuffie lost the starting RB job to Minor and has steadily seen his playing time decrease. I couldn’t find any indication he was hurt, so maybe he hit a “Freshman Wall” or Rodriguez had to discipline him? I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these high school phenoms who become internet sensations need some humbling in college.

I was looking to set up some kind of joke about The Ohio State University team being dependent on the relatives of public figures, but RB Chris Wells ruined it by not being the brother of his back-up Maurice Wells or previous Buckeye RB Jonathan Wells. Chris Wells was coached in High School by Ted Ginn, Sr, but I can’t do anything with that.

Ohio State WR Brian Robiskie, son of veteran NFL assistant (and two time interim HC) Terry Robiskie had a down year. I had some hopes he might end up in the NFL, and with his height (6′3″ allegedly) and heritage (coaches’ sons are considered to be disciplined and have football smarts) he still might, but probably not as high as he could have had Pryor not taken such a big role in the Buckeye offense.

I’ve watched only minimal college football this year, so I can’t personally say what kind of season Ohio State LB James Laurinaitis, son of veteran professional wrestler John “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis has had. However ESPN.com/Scouts Inc. still has him listed as the 23rd best player on it’s draft board. Buckeye CB Malcom Jenkins (sigh… not the brother of former Ohio State CB/WR and Atlanta Falcons WR Michael Jenkins) is listed as 5th best player on that board.

Halfway remembered

It’s been two and a half months since my last post.  I’ve relocated to Brooklyn, NY, where the radio in my apartment, on my wrist or in my office delivers WFAN, and a lesser extent ESPN 1050 on a continual basis.  Now that we’ve reached the halfway point for the NFL season and the three-quarters point for the NCAA BCS/Division I-A season lets take a quick look at my favorite squads:

James Madison University Dukes (8-1, 6-0 in CAA) – The Dukes have been ranked #1 in FCS/Division I-AA for like seven weeks in a row.  They’ve snowplowed a good number of their opponents; QB Rodney Landers is now a legitimate Payton Award hopeful and S Rodney Landers a legitimate Buchanan Award hopeful.

Washington Redskins – After being hopelessly confused in the season opener against the Giants, Jim Zorn has largely figured out how to be a NFL head coach.  He got the team playing over its’ head and in second place in the vicious 2008 NFC East.  My years of barstool and couch-based experience tell me that running a West-coast offense with two short WRs shouldn’t work at all, but here it is working.  RB Clinton Portis is having his best post-Denver year.  QB Jason Campbell still looks confused at times, like he’s thinking a bit too much, but overall has been very efficient.  All this despite a shaky punting situation (rookie Durant Brooks proved to be worse than the embittered Derrick Frost, now ex-Seahawk Ryan Plackemeier has the job) and a mere ten sacks (poster boy Jason Taylor has only one) by the defense.   I won’t be surprised if these good times don’t last, but I hope they do.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers – The Bucs are treading water in the game, if sloppy NFC South.  Earnest Graham has been a steady featured RB, with Carnell WIlliams nowhere in sight.  Jon Gruden created a little bit of QB drama early in the season, resting Jeff Garcia in weeks 2-4 for Brian Greise, before benching Greise for Garcia in week 5.  Healthy and perhaps disciplined by Gruden, Garcia has been in good form.  The defense is still very good, rookie CB Aqib Talib has 3 INTs, DE Gaines Adams has 2 INTs and 4 sacks.  Though at this moment they’re losing to the not quite CFL talent level Kansas City Chiefs.

University of Michigan Wolverines (2-7, 1-4 Big Ten) – My hazy memories tell me that HCs with radically different systems unsuited for the present roster usually go one of two ways in college football: Overachievement or flaming disaster.  Michigan under Rich Rodriguez is going with the latter for 2008.  Given the shady circumstances of Rodriguez recruitment by Michigan, the results look like just desserts for both the Wolverines and their coach.  Anyway, Michigan is guaranteed their first losing season in like 40 years and their 33 year bowl attendance streak is broken.  They’ve even made ESPN’s Bottom 10 list.  Again.

On the upside, RBs Brandon Minor (from Richmond!) and Sam “One of them YouTube stars” McGuffie have looked good.  McGuffie’s got that Warrick Dunn thing going.

Not Too Good

Long time since the last post. No writings on Brett Favre, the Packers and the Jets, Jason Taylor to the Redskins, Rich Rodriguez settling with West Virginia, the start of the Canadian Football League season, the end of the Arena League season including the Arena Bowl nor even the useful for hype only pre-season College football rankings.

What can I say? I’m preparing for a Microsoft Certification, looking for work and getting ready to move from the D.C. ‘burbs to New York. I’m still following everything, but I’m awfully slow on writing about it.

All of Your D.C. Sports Talk Radio Are Belong to Danny

An interesting era in the admittedly paltry history of Washington D.C. sports talk radio began at the top of this month. Red Zebra Broadcasting, founded by Redskins principal owner Snyder and minority owner Dwight Schar, took ownership of Sports Talk 980. This marks likely the first time a U.S. sports franchise owner has had a monopoly of their market’s tacky fun sports talk radio.

Back in June, radio broadcasting and billboards giant Clear Channel Communications sold its’ three D.C. area AM radio stations to Red Zebra. The package of stations were a pair of news/talk stations running mostly syndicated programming, WTNT 570AM and WWDC 1260AM, and WTEM 980AM, aka Sports Talk 980. Prior to the acquisition, which still awaits FCC approval, Red Zebra’s D.C. holdings consisted of the three Redskins Radio stations, WXTR 730-AM, WWXT 92.7-FM, and WWXX 94.3-FM.

Those three notoriously low-powered stations (briefly marketed as “Triple-X ESPN Radio”) currently broadcast syndicated ESPN radio programming, their sole weekday local content consisting of the PM drive-time “John Riggins Show.” Previously, the stations broadcast the one-hour “Redskins Lunch” at noon with former SportsTalk 980 beat-reporter Bram Weinstein and Redskins Vice-President/radio play-by-play voice Larry Michael, as well as sporadic evening and weekend specials hosted by either Weinstein or Riggins’ side-kicks Gary Braun and Kevin Sheehan. Following Weinstein’s departure for a television anchor job at ESPNews this Spring, the “Redskins Lunch” has been replaced by the third hour of ESPN Radio’s often unlistenable “Colin Cowherd Show.” Michael still does a one-hour show of team media highlights which airs on regional cable TV channel MASN (itself owned by Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos) in the afternoon slot where a tape-delayed version of “Redskins Lunch” used to air.

This story yesterday in the Washington Post Style section, sketches out the near-term plan for Redskins Radio. Additoinally, Dave Hughes, proprietor of local broadcasting news and rumor site DCRTV.com, has posted the schedule for the newly-dubbed ESPN980. All four stations will broadcast the same programming.

The local Sports Talk 980 programming stays intact, but Steve Czaban’s morning nationally syndicated morning show is out. “First Team on Fox” broadcast from the 980 studios and syndicated nationally by Fox, will be replaced on the local airwaves by ESPN’s somewhat dull “Mike and Mike in the Morning.” Dan Patrick’s mediocre syndicated show is out, and Colin Cowherd is in from 10AM-12PM. Rick “Doc” Walker’s show, which presently airs between 9-11AM on weekdays, will shift to a 12-2PM slot, taking Colin Cowherd’s final hour. The “John Thompson Show with Al Koken and Brian Mitchell” gets compressed an hour to run 2-4PM and “The Sports Reporters” hosted by Czaban and Sports Talk 980 founding personality Andy Pollin (a.k.a. “Andy Polley” from his frequent stints as Tony Kornheiser’s Senior Radio side-kick) stays in the 4-6PM slot. The balance of the day, currently filled out by Fox Sports Radio’s annoying carnival barkers (with the exception of Reston boy done good Andrew Siciliano) will now be filled by ESPN Radio’s gimmicky twits, with the exception of the audio re-air of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon’s PTI show.

I was busy yesterday afternoon and didn’t hear if Riggins was live on air. Redskins Radio ran a taped “Best of Show” today. It is a bit of a shame Riggins’ show is gone as he is very entertaining, though a bit clunky as a talk-show personality. Hughes writes that Riggins will retain an on-air role on gamedays for Redskins Radio, though that was a separate post from the “official” ESPN980 line-up, so it may not come to pass.

One of the early episodes of the Riggins’ show featured him with guest co-host Dexter Manley in a fun pairing of the two most charismatic and eccentric Gibbs I era Redskins. I imagine the idea was to use Riggins’ name to draw listeners while Braun and Sheehan helped him find his way as on-air talent, the way Koken and Walker guided Thompson at Sports Talk 980 about ten years ago. Despite his struggles as a host and ratings draw, I hope Riggins does continue at Redskins Radio. He may be more effective in smaller doses.

The practical upshot of the deal is it will be easier to listen to the Redskins on the radio, even if the old “turn down the TV, turn on the radio” trick doesn’t work because of the differing signal feed delays between the TV and radio broadcasts. During daylight hours, 980 has good all-around the metropolitan D.C. area signal strength, though it gets shaky in the evenings. The existing Redskins Radio stations are so low-powered they regularly broadcast promotional spots reminding listeners which station has the best signal strength in a particular area. During 2006, the first year of “Redskins State Radio”, the team secured special permission from the NFL to make the internet stream of the broadcast available for free to compensate for these problems. During the 2007 season, the team cut a deal with Clear Channel to broadcast the games on very easy to tune into WBIG 100.3FM. Outside the D.C. area, Red Zebra has been steadily buying a variety of radio stations in Virginia, with the probable goal of trying to own a substantial number of stations in the Redskins listening market.

Back to Sports Talk 980/ESPN980, it would be an exaggeration to say the station is a major force in the D.C. area sports consciousness. The station is not comparable with peers like WEEI in Boston, WFAN in New York or WYSP in Philadelphia. This is a so-so sports town, dominated by a wide, passionate and shallow Redskins fandom, in whose shadow vocal but modest-sized congregations of NHL, NCAA men’s hoops, NBA, MLB and MLS fans grouse. Sports Talk 980’s Redskins work caters to the middling-sized niche of hardcore Redskins fans who can name players beyond Jason Campbell, the late Sean Taylor, Clinton Portis, Chris Cooley and whatever guy they met at at the grocery store. As the team has been an expensive medicority recently, the station has unsurprisingly become a magnet for the most disgruntled of the hardcore Redskins fans.

Many of these same fans called the station as the new broke in early June, voicing concerns that the station would be turned into an all-day version of “Redskins Lunch” where Weinstein used to offer nominal criticism of the team only to be shouted down by Michaels’ unapologetic cheerleading. They want to continue to have an on-air place to complain about the team and have hosts not just agree with criticism of the team, but to help lead it. I suspect that Sports Talk 980’s existence and Joe Gibbs seeming discomfort with the station (his coach’s show was hosted there during the first year of his return) there helped spur Snyder’s creation of the in-house Redskins Radio network. While Riggins, Sheehan and Braun did criticize the Redskins while on Redskins Radio, the criticism lacked the humor and edge all three men showed while at Sports Talk 980. I’m not as worked up about the situation as those who called in, I will find it sad if the Redskins are (again) incompetent this season and there is no Sports Talk station in town engaged in hyperbolic criticism. This kind of talk takes the edge off of bad football. The next best option for potential malcontent Redskins fans is the (formerly Sports) Junkies on WJFK 106.7FM. The guys run a slightly atypical raunchy morning show, but true to their heritage as a cable access “sports bar” talk show, they talk sports more effectively and convincingly than the usual general-purpose morning radio personality.

Retiring Greats, Released, Partial Attendees

I suspect the timing is linked to ensure maximum salary cap benefits, but two more likely future Pro Football Hall of Famers retired this week.  First Giants DE Michael Strahan retired on Tuesday.  Most recently remembered for an embarrassing public divorce, wishy-washiness on retirement last year and his somewhat dubious breaking (with fellow 2008 retiree Brett Fav-re’s help) of Mark Gastineau’s single season sack record, I had to stop and remember what a great general-purpose DE Strahan was.  He was a great pass rusher and an excellent run-stopper from the LDE spot, which usually is a run-stoppers only position.   As a Redskins fan I’m glad to see him go, though when healthy Jon Jansen usually did a very good job of neutralizaing Strahan.

Then Ravens LT Jonathan Ogden retired yesterday.  He was one of the four great LTs who entered the NFL in the mid-1990s, those being Ogden, Tony Boselli, Orlando Pace and Walter Jones.  Oddly, one of the things I remember about Ogden was a crappy commercial he did for a local no-name insurance company.  I was baffled that the only commercial I would see with one of the NFL’s greatest players involved him dancing around a convertible with a community college dance troup while he talked about how Gebco insurance would give you a chance when other companies wouldn’t.  Then I remembered the only TV commercial Redskins LT Joe Jacoby had during his playing days, a similarily sub-amateur production for Theatervision projection televisions (very fancy for the 1980s) and realized this is the OL’s lot in endorsements.

Less likely for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, barring a spectacular comeback, is now former Bears RB Cedric Benson.  Benson got arrested on land this time, for driving a car under the influence.  Unsurprisingly, Benson was waived by the Bears and no one tried to claim his rights as he is still in legal trouble, could subsequently be suspended by the NFL and has been pretty awful on the field.  I still expect him in Oakland once his legal issues, which I think he has a decent chance of winning, are completed.

If there is a sign of how replaceable the RB position is in the NFL it’s the list of former regular-duty starters looking for work: Benson, Shaun Alexander (I thought the Saints were going to sign him?), Travis Henry, Kevin Jones and perhaps soon LaMont Jordan.  For now, the Bears RB hopes are to be pinned on the Other Adrian Peterson and Senior Bowl standout Matt Forte from Tulane.

Also released is former Browns C LeCharles Bentley.  Bentley, who played at Ohio State and was born in Cleveland, signed a big deal in 2006 with the Browns to come back from New Orleans.  He suffered a brutal tendon injury on the first day of Browns training camp that year and subsequently got a nasty staph infection which has sidelined him until Browns mini-camp this year.  To hear USA Today’s Larry Weisman tell the story, Bentley arrived at camp, was surprised that he wasn’t listed as the starter on the depth chart after two years out with serious medical issues and asked for his release.  The Browns obliged him.  Despite his injury problems, he also missed a bunch of time with injuries in New Orleans, Bentley should find work again soon. 

Not-so-optional Organized Team Activities and Mini-camps continue.  A rather long list of guys have been doing these partial hold-outs where they show up but don’t do drills, mostly to protest their contracts.  If anybody is doing this to protest the quasi-mandatory nature of OTAs, good for them.  The notable dissenters include Bengals WR Chad Johnson, Bears LB Brian Urlacher, Giants WR Plaxico Burress, Giants TE Jeremy Shockey and Bills OT Jason Peters.  On the reverse of it, the Raiders told RB LaMont Jordan not to practice when he showed up at their mini-camp.

Ugggh.

Good thing I don’t do this for a living. In the intervening weeks between my snarky Cedric Benson – Eric Steinbach Boating While Intoxicated post, all kinds of bloggable football stories came out, as well as some stuff from before that I didn’t get around to blogging.  If I were serious about this, I’d blog it in nearly real-time, but really, this is just an excuse to keep my writing skills busy for my own enjoyment.

NFL

The Patriots Spygate came and went. Former team video assistant Matt Walsh met with NFL Commisioner Robert Goodell and turned over his videos of various other team’s signals. The Boston Herald retracted its’ earlier story with the insinuations that there was footage of the Rams pre-Super Bowl XXXVI walk-through. Goodell declared that the NFL done enough and would levy no further penalties on the Patriots. The Patriots insisted they got no extra benefit from the illegal footage. Walsh, interviewed by the New York Times and HBO: Real Sports insists the team did get an advantage from the footage. Senator Arlen Spector (PA) wants an independent investigation. I hope nobody’s taxpayer dollars go into that.

Adam “Pac-Man” Jones got traded from the Titans to the Cowboys and a number of pointless stories, including idle speculation about letting him play some WR emerges.

The NFL owners opted out of the current labor agreement with the NFLPA, opening the possibility of 2010 being an salary-cap free year or a lockout year if no new deal is inked. Details here.

The various mini-camps and (Not That) Optional Team Activities are in process. A variety of guys miss part or all of these to protest various contract and job related things. Most amusingly, Redskins rookie TE Fred Davis oversleeps and misses the Sunday portion of mini-camp.

Former Panthers LB Dan Morgan retired. Former Bucs’ RB Michael Pittman signs with the Broncos for a shot at being the 2008 1K Bronco RB. Overhyped Boston College QB Matt Ryan signs bizarrely early for the top QB and number three overall pick with the Falcons.

Saints DE Charles Grant is indicted for involuntary manslaughter after a February bar fight. Grant was stabbed in the neck during the fight.  The Bengals released long-time knucklehead LB Odell Thurman. It seems a bit unfair, supposedly he missed mini-camp to be at his grandmother’s funeral, but he should be able to find work elsewhere.

The Dolphins and Jason Taylor are surly with each other. Taylor finishes, I think second, on Dancing with the Stars.  The Redskins trade a conditional seventh round pick to the Vikings for DE Erasmus James.

Former Bucs OL Tom McHale, who last played with them in 1992, the year I arbitrarily chose Tampa Bay as my ‘B’ team, dies after using Xanax and cocaine.  Steelers rookie RB Rashard Mendenhall gets mugged in Chicago.

Indianapolis gets the Super Bowl XLVI (46).

College

The BCS quietly passed on a limited playoff system.  Yawn.

Clemson gives Terry Bowden a new contract good through 2014.

The West Virginia – Rich Rodriguez legal war goes to mediation.  Should that fail, the case returns to the judge on November 10.

The NCAA approved applications for two badly needed bowl games to take up late December air-time on ESPNU.  They take place in the homes (but not stadiums) of my two favorite NFL teams: The St. Petersburg Bowl (Big East vs. C-USA) at Tropicana Field, home of MLB’s Rays and the Congressional Bowl (Navy vs. ACC), at either RFK Stadium or Nationals Park.

I didn’t think such a thing was possible, but the NCAA actually rejected an application for a bowl in Salt Lake City.

CFL

Marcus Allen’s younger brother, QB Damon Allen, who had been playing in the CFL for like 800 years, announced his retirement.  Much like Steve DeBerg in the NFL, I think Allen played for most teams in the CFL and probably a couple that have gone out of business.

Arena

Huey Lewis and the News are your Saturday Night entertainment for the Arena Bowl XXII.  The league used pink-striped footballs on Mother’s Day, I guess like MLB used pink bats to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research.

In an odd game I actually watched back on like May 1, Philadelphia Soul DB Eddie Moten intercepted Dallas Desperadoes QB/OC Clint Dolezel three times.  Moten’s previous three INT game was also against Dolezel, back in 2006.  IIRC the broadcasters said Moten has eight career INTs against Dolezel.  Dallas should try to trade for Moten.

The Chicago Rush have filmed a This is SportsCenter commercial for their “parent” company, ESPN.  There have actually been a lot of ads featuring Arena League players, only shown during AFL games of course.  It’s like all the African-American only cast ads I see when I watch the Bayou Classic.

af2

Somehow the af2’s National Conference, Southwest Division has become a pool of mediocrity.  That or the teams are really good and killing each other in division play.  The Corpus Christi Sharks (had some 400 lbs. OL on the roster) and Rio Grande Valley Dorados are tied for first place at 4-4, trailed by the Bossier-Shreveport Battlewings (best af2 team name) and Austin Wranglers (which I think used to be an AFL franchise) both at 3-5.  Dreadfully bringing up the rear of the division are the Texas Copperheads at 1-8.  Good work at having played one more game than the rest of the division and losing it anyway.