February 14, 2008
Peyton Manning's hilarious United Way spoof
Don't know why football is such a ripe area for satire, as I blogged on twice recently -- Cute football videos and Ask Michael Wilbon? Not! -- but here's another classic from Saturday Night Live:
I think this video captures why Peyton Manning is all over the airways and Tom Brady is not ... Manning has a great Q (likeability) rating, Brady for all his ostensible humility and team-first attitude seems to be a guy all about supermodel girlfriends and getting off stage as quickly as possible after a game.
I missed until now that The Onion has been having a field day with anti-Patriots sentiment:
Patriots Proud Of Defeating Whoever That Last Team Was
FOXBOROUGH, MA—Patriots quarterback Tom Brady diplomatically emphasized that defeating whoever it was they had just played gave him and his teammates a great sense of accomplishment during his post-game press conference Sunday. "It's always very satisfying to get out there and get a win against…against those guys," Brady said, adding that it was a mistake to take those other guys for granted as they were capable of making a few plays. "They definitely had some sort of game plan, and they were running around fairly fast out there. We overcame a lot to triumph over, uh, you know, them." According to Brady, the Patriots still need to correct a number of mistakes during the week's practices, execute better, and prepare for that one team they have to defeat next.
And here's a classic:
Patriots' Season Perfect For Rest Of Nation
FOXBOROUGH, MA—As the once-invincible, still-insufferable Patriots attempt to come to grips with their 17-14 Super Bowl loss to the Giants, the death of their dream to go undefeated, and the possible end of their dynasty, almost every other person in America is reveling in what they consider the perfect ending to New England's season."I just couldn't imagine a better ending to the Patriots odyssey," said Simon Williams, a Kansas City-area football fan who usually watches the college game but found himself caught up in the Patriots' sheer loathsomeness during the season. "The utter lack of humility they displayed alongside an equal lack of any joy in the game, that toad of a coach, and that cologne-ad quarterback… If they have to act that badly while playing that well, you really want to see them fail in the biggest way possible. Thank God almighty, that's what we got."
- posted by jbelliveau at 8:48 AM in Parodies
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February 6, 2008
Cute football videos
Thanks to Cousin Laura in Bosstown for this one, which football historians will enjoy, on the Reebok site: click here.
My favorite moments are at 0:25, 0:53, 1:40-1:50 and 3:08. And I won't spoil them!
February 4, 2008
NFC East rules! best Super Bowl ever
Congratulations to the Giants for their gutsy win in the Super Bowl last night.
Lamont's get-together involving cousins and friends to watch the game broke, surprisingly, 5-2 in terms of rooting preferences in favor of the supposed underdog Giants. By game's end, family friend John was kicking himself that he hadn't put $500 on the 12-1/2 point underdogs.
We all agreed the spread was crazy, treating the Giants like no-accounts that had no business being there, even after they had beaten Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay on the road.
I am also picking up from neighbors a unanimous backing of the Giants, for a gamut of reasons, including a feeling the Ravens got jobbed by the zebras in their match vs. the Patriots.
For me, it was NFC East pride, where we hate-but-know the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles, and realize that our teams are battle-tested within their own conference, which sent three (!) out of its four teams into the postseason this year.
The most stunning moment for me was David Tyree's fourth-quarter catch, shown in part below, when he grabbed the ball in the air behind his head and bought it safely pressed against his helmet, cradled carefully above the turf to avoid an incompletion.
Cousin Michael, rooting for the Patriots, shook his head and had to admit, "I think that's the best catch I've ever seen."
This may be the second Immaculate Reception in Super Bowl history.
The catch began with some of the wildest football theater in a long time -- Eli Manning's improbable escape of a certain sack to get free and lob the ball to Tyree.
Just before, unheard-of Giants rookie tight end Kevin Boss (who?) got free for a long reception, and just after, Plaxico Burress, who ate the Packers for dinner two weeks ago, caught the go-ahead touchdown, where he was so wide open the only question was could he get a case of nerves and drop the ball. Fox showed a fabulous piece of tape showing Manning and Burress practicing the exact winning play prior to the game.
Joel Achenbach writes about "The Catch That Replaces The Catch:"
I've wasted a lot of my life watching football and can't recall ever seeing a greater catch. Sure, there have been circus catches before, including receivers catching the ball behind the back of a defender. We've seen one-handed catches galore. But this was on the biggest stage in the final minute of a game wiith his team trailing. And head to head with The Catch, this one was better. Eli Manning had to elude a more violent pass rush than Montana -- Manning almost went under, but tore himself away and managed to toss that prayer downfield. And although both Clark and Tyree had to make leaping grabs, by comparison Clark's catch was schoolyard stuff, something you'd see in flag football. Tyree's practically caught the ball with the back of his neck and his shoulder blades.
And the AP has an entire story on the "New" Catch here.
YouTube has a fantastic clip here: Here's another photo:
It was obvious to Michael and Lamont, rooting for the Pats, that Coach Belicheck erred in the first half going for it on fourth down unsuccessfully -- instead of trying a field goal. Brady had been under pressure all game and it should have been clearer that this was not going to be a Patriots' pointfest.
Lamont feels this coaching error cost the Pats a tie at the end of regulation. "My team won! I just won a dollar from your father. To think that there were two Mannings in two years" (winning as Super Bowl quarterbacks). She mentioned seeing an interview crediting father Archie Manning and brother Peyton with Eli's development. I read today ("Once more, a Manning puts the M in MVP") however that Archie credits his wife with his sons' gridiron prowess: "Manning pulled what Brady used to do in the fourth quarter," Mom continued. How did she rate this Super Bowl? "The most exciting one -- really -- even compared to the ones the Redskins were in." I have to agree, based on the heroics and theater on the final Giants drive. P.S. Lamont considers the Patriots to in truth have had a 17-2 season, considering the Ravens to have beaten them during their controversial visit to Baltimore Dec. 3. Congrats to the no-names on the Giants -- Boss and Tyree and Strahan's less glamorous defensive teammates -- for putting on a rare Super Bowl that is a struggle down to the wire vs. a blowout. Hats off to the Redskins' rivals, whom I cannot recall ever rooting for before, and let's have some respect for has to be the NFL's strongest division in terms of coaching talent. Good for Tom Coughlin righting himself after his rocky finish in Jacksonville and rocky start in New York to sell his players on a vision of success. And watch for the Redskins to make a move on Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spangnuolo for Washington's head coaching vacancy after his brilliant plan that saw pressure roaring down on Brady all night long. PS Update on Michael Wilbon, whom I blogged about here -- he suffered a heart attack, I would guess linked to the stress of the post-Sean Taylor backlash in part, and writes a humble and insightful column on people he's attacked in print have treated him in kindly now that he is in distress: A Life-Changing Turn of Events.
While the blogosophere has hammered Wilbon for the particulars of this remark -- both his timing and his facts were w-a-a-a-ay off -- no one takes him to the woodshed better than the sports parodists at Kissing Suzy Kolber, in this column, Ask Michael Wilbon!
This reminds of this laugh-out-loud sports parody: Washington Redskins' long snapper Ethan Albright's profane purported rebuttal to John Madden at being rated the lowest of all the players on Madden '07: Ethan Albright Strikes Back. I've reproduced it with a few strategic earmuffs emoticons:
Finally, as embarrassingly in the tank for Joe Gibbs as was my recent blog entry -- it might as well have been titled "How Joe Gibbs Saved My Marriage" -- apparently I am restrained compared to some fans of the coach, who believe Gibbs is both Jesus and want polygamy legalized so they can marry him. Blogger Patty Nixx writes:
Wilbon's Post columnist buddy Mike Wise about nails all our hyperbole in this column when he notes that Gibbs was welcomed on his return four years with a rapture and "fanfare befitting George Patton and, well, Gandhi."
I finally was granted minutes ago a one-on-one interview with noted Redskins fan and Washington mood bellweather Mary G. Belliveau, my mother, who gives permission to quote her in my blog.
In this interview, she channels her late brother Robert F. Williams Jr., a long-time basketball coach in suburban Boston, in her understanding of sports:
"Coach Joe Gibbs, oh my goodness, we will miss him. Well I can understand why he retired, he gave 1,000 percent for four years, and I don't know if he could see the light at the end of the tunnel with Collins or not. He had a few moments of the spotlight and a few moments of hope, and an awful lot of of downers. What I remember about all the four years is the dropped footballs, I'm sorry to say, as a spectator. I don't know what he could do about it.
"There were some valiant efforts, some fellows who never stopped trying, there are some you wonder what they're doing there.
"He's such a wonderful person to have around anyway, he and Danny were matched, like the one before, Jack Kent Cooke, they were kind of matched."
Well that about says it. Here is a nice Washington Post graphic of bizarre problems and miscues that dogged the Gibbs II era -- Mom is on the money in her impression.
Now we'll just sit back and see if the 'Skins hire Bill Cowher, promote Gregg Williams, or go with Plan C. Maybe get some big receivers who can hang on to the ball along with a new coach.
Ours is a mixed marriage. Not in the superficial sense that my husband is black, and I white; that he is younger and I am older; that he is a Protestant and moderate-to-liberal and I, Catholic and moderate-to-conservative — though all these things are quite true. No, ours is a mixed marriage in a far more significant sense: He loved the old Baltimore Colts and now the Ravens. I, even more passionately, breathe for the Washington Redskins. We make our home in Ravens territory. From our Fells Point roof deck in Baltimore, we can see the upper ramparts of the stadium where Ray Lewis imposes his will to win on the random events of sporting contests and on the lesser talent of his teammates. Yet on our roof deck also arrive the signals of Washington’s Channel 5, captured by a powerful antenna pointed southwest for Redskins’ broadcasts. This year around Christmas, we had one of those typical holiday disagreements, one involving getting ready for a breakfast for his family. I know that Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome affects my winter mood, but in the bumbling era of Redskins Coach Steve Spurrier, a second malady dogged me: Football Affective Disorder Syndrome. After our subsequent making up, we stood in the sun under the skylights of our bedroom on the last Saturday afternoon of 2003. “You know,” I told Lamont, as my teddy bear in a burgundy-and-gold uniform bore witness, “if the Redskins did better, it would certainly help our marriage.” He thought and eventually replied, in the spirit of "South Park’s" Eric Cartman weighing two very closely balanced propositions, “Hmm, better Redskins? Marriage? Redskins? Marriage?” We laughed. In the movie Diner, a fan screens his fiancée on her knowledge of Baltimore Colts trivia. In modern Washington, the situation might be reversed, given a knowledgeable female fan base. My 76-year-old mother in a Washington suburb and I watched the ‘Skins via long-distance telephone. The ringing had been constant during the scoring of the good years. Now, with fourth-quarter collapses the rule, the phone often stood silent after the first half. Anthropologists could have a field day analyzing why so many Washington women attended games, in marked contrast to, say, the male-dominated demographics of a Latin American soccer match. D.C. had a concentration of influential females who seemed to gravitate towards the corridors of power and sport alike. And under Coach Joe Gibbs’ leadership from 1981 to 1993, the uniquely felon-free team had been quite friendly towards family values ... heck, a famous video clip showed the coach praying on his knees during a playoff game. This went over big with Mom, who never forgave Gibbs’ successor, Norv Turner, for audible-ing a wordy dirty on the sidelines as the team slid to mediocrity. If the Redskins did better, it would certainly help our marriage. The truth of my remark hung in the air of our bedroom. My subconscious had sent a vital telegram to my waking mind. Eleven mornings later, Mom related the latest: Gibbs was returning as head coach of the Redskins. I asked Mom how she felt. “Euphoria,” she said simply. The Sports page of the Washington Post reported that the paper’s printers had cheered louder at the news than at the capture of Saddam Hussein. I reassessed my life. The past decade seemed to me one where I had had ups and downs, and maybe taken the downs too hard. Something had hung over me, perhaps a woman’s hormonal odyssey through her 40s. Now, I suspect that the real problem all along had been the absence of Joe Gibbs. The Messiah had felt called to NASCAR. A huge region of 5 million fans paid the costly psychological toll. The Redskins had been so consistently excellent and entertaining, no one handled their post-Gibbs fall well. A memory returned. I had been scheduled to work at the Baltimore Sun the night of the 1988 Super Bowl. I was one of three Washingtonians to ask for the night off, which was granted by our boss, to each of our's undying gratitude. Our family had gathered at my parents’ in Rockville to watch the contest. A nephew, then a toddler, shrieked with joy, tearing around holding aloft a corduroy burgundy mini-football. Adults high fived. My California brother-in-law was barraged for supporting the Broncos as the Redskins piled on one, two, three, four, five touchdowns in the second quarter. Had a people ever been happier? In 2000, after the Ravens’ Super Bowl victory, Lamont, my now-grown nephew, Matt, and I boogied in the streets of our neighborhood, Fells Point, jammed with cars honking or abandoned by dancing drivers. Neighbors said they saw us on TV. After coming on the field with a war dance, Ray Lewis had crushed our enemies, driving them backwards with the football. But Ray-Ray’s ability to collect heads for a team that could stymie others and even win at times on a few field goals simply was not the same as watching a decade of Gibbs’ quarterbacks sling arrows to Heaven and vindicate the tribal soul of a national capital that united around just one symbol, its football team. Happiness overcame me. Our coach had returned. Our mixed marriage will draw greater strength from having, let’s hope, two teams in every postseason. I'll set up a big TV and a little TV to watch both games at once, with the Redskins on the big one.
.........................
I'm struck on rereading this by how maudlin yet honest it is. I really did feel this at the time and have to conclude that some things are truly unshakeable, including D.C.'s gratitude to Coach Joe. And yes, maybe I am as ridiculous as a Da Bears Superfan. I think Lamont definitely benefitted from having a less irate spouse during football season the last four years.
I watched the Super Bowl with my husband and his brother and cousins yesterday. All were rooting for the Chicago Bears except for myself and a family friend, Josh, who is also a native of the Washington, D.C., area and a Redskins fan. It's a bit sad to see Baltimoreans who still carry such a grudge against the Colts being in Indianapolis. Sure, it's understandable that Irsay's removal of the Colts was an outrage, but time heals all wounds, especially now that Baltimore has the Ravens. (As D.C. natives recovered a bit when the Nationals finally arrived to replace the Senators.) Baltimoreans are missing out on the great story of Peyton Manning as an MVP quarterback and the fact that the Colts have been fun to watch for ages. Josh and I could enjoy Indy's comeback after the Bears struck first, knowing that the Colts have offense to burn, are confident when needing to come back (see their game against New England two weeks ago), and have achieved something quite rare -- finding their defensive form during the playoffs (see their game against the Ravens three weeks ago). Kudos also to Prince for the best halftime show ever and appearing to actually perform live. Can we make him the permanent Super Bowl entertainment? He's got an extensive songbook and did quite nicely on his covers of "All Along the Watchtower" and "Proud Mary." Part 1 of Prince's act appears below, followed by Parts 2, 3 and 4. Read more in the New York Times: A Noncontroversial Prince, Just the Way the N.F.L. Likes Him *** P.S. Elsewhere in the news today: Another story about Ocean City in the winter, this time in the Baltimore Sun: In Ocean City, the off-season is in. I wrote a much earlier article on this topic for the Washington Post, back in 1995: Beach, with blanket: Ocean City in the winter. The Washington Post revisited this topic in 2006. The Barbaro saga reminds me of a very tough interval we had after we got a diagnosis of our cat Oliver's illness ("Goodbye to a fine grey boy"), in conjunction with murky guidance on how to proceed from the two vets involved. You could basically look at the next three months as a waste of thousands of dollars to nobody's benefit, or ... You could say we gave Oliver medical treatments that gave him at least a chance of recovery, and moments where he continued to be a happy part of our clan, sitting contentedly on the arm of one of our chairs as we watched DVDs. Barbaro's owners were in a similar boat. They knew, as we also sensed in our more trivial situation, that Barbaro had very little chance of surviving. But with some hope extended by the vets, they were not ready to say goodbye without at least giving their Thoroughbred a chance to heal. I had the same decision to make with Oliver when he was sick and I took him to the Chesapeake Veterinary Referral Center. As I wrote at the time, after receiving a whopping great price estimate for our cat's care from a tech: After an expensive four days of treatment, Ollie came home and required very intensive nursing, through which he was a willing, docile and winning patient. As I wrote: He began to prowl around and to chase Casey in a way he had not done in years. I put his old collar and bell on him to kept track of him during his recuperation. He would jingle from the kitchen, and I would call out from my office, "Ollie, watcha doin'.""I give their mother all the credit. I call her the great equalizer. She's calm, she never gets upset, she always makes good decisions. I think that's carried over to them."
January 10, 2008
Ask Michael Wilbon? Not!
I suspect Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon, self-anointed as omniscient and "never surprised," got banned from writing columns about the Redskins for a while after he posted the following about Sean Taylor in a chat as the Redskins safety was dying:
I've known guys like Taylor all my life, grew up with some. They still have shades of gray and shouldn't be painted in black and white ... I know how I feel about Taylor, and this latest news isn't surprising in the least, not to me. Whether this incident is or isn't random, Taylor grew up in a violent world, embraced it, claimed it, loved to run in it and refused to divorce himself from it. He ain't the first and won't be the last. We have no idea what happened, or if what we know now will be revised later. It's sad, yes, but hardly surprising.
Though what Wilbon said was true of Taylor until age 22 -- no one in the organization seemed to find him especially likeable until his daughter was born, and he only grew up the last two years of his life -- it goes too far to say he "embraced" and "claimed" a violent world anymore by the time he was 24.
Bob T., Bethesda: Hi Mike, I’m a big fan. I just wanted to get your most recent thoughts on Sean Taylor’s death. Has your perspective changed at all in recent days?
Read it all here.
Am I jealous that I didn't write this myself? Yes. Am I surprised that a blog with the inspired name of Kissing Suzy Kolber has this caliber of parody? No.
Michael Wilbon: What a stupid question. I’m a journalist, okay? I stand by what I wrote. Is his death sad? Yes. Did it surprise me? Not in the least. Not any aspect of it at all. Not even the time it occurred, which was early morning. Now I knew Sean a little bit. Not a lot. Just a little bit. And I can tell you, that bad elements WERE a part of his life at some point. Maybe not anymore. But they were there. So don’t bring that junk about me having to change my perspective. Okay?
An inebriated Joe Namath leans in to try to kiss a ducking Suzy Kolber, announcing, "I want to kiss you. I couldn't care less about the team struggling." See the full YouTube video here, including the announcers' inane reaction, "Joe's just a happy guy!" ... "Isn't he!"
Albright even responded to the letter in this Post interview:
Even with the rating he probably would have remained anonymous were it not for a profanity-filled letter to NBC Sports analyst John Madden, who helped EA Sports develop the game. The letter carried Albright's name on the bottom with the signature line "Rot in Hell" that made its way around the Internet. He did not write the letter and admits that when he first saw it, "I laughed my butt off."
Update Jan. 26, 2008: Ethan Albright has been added to the Pro Bowl, reports Redskins Insiders' Jason La Canfora, prompting a witty comment from micmoliver, "Wonder if this will increase his rating on Madden?"I have to say that I have matured and blossomed into quite a gal. The first time Joe Gibbs retired, I climbed under a desk and wept like a turtle. This time, my phone rang at 6am and I figured either someone was dead or Joe Gibbs had retired so I approached the phone like a cougar hunting a bunny, took the news like an adult, and reached for some Xanax...like an adult. Joe has earned the right to do whatever he wants. He is Jesus in burgandy and gold. Ergo, if he wants to leave to spend time with his family, that's ok.......but if I see him out and about, he had better be covered with grandkids and cousins and doing family stuff or my new found maturity may decrease.
She noted earlier during the Redskins' winning streak:
If anyone trash talks the above man, Joe Gibbs, they'll have to go through me. This man is a saint and after the way he's held the team together through Sean Taylor's murder, injuries, and all the heart breaking losses this year, win, lose, or draw, he is the man. If polygamy were legal in the state of Virginia, I would get down on my knee and offer both him and his lovely wife my hand in marriage. I think I speak for many in Redskin Nation when I say, "I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Joe". I actually declared my football season over about a month ago out of frustration. Now, Joe's leadership and Sean's guidance from above has had me drunkingly prancing about on Sundays again the last few weeks. At this point, when I look at Joe Gibbs, I see him wearing a robe and sandals with a beard and long hair turning water into wine. In fact, next time I see him, I shall simply hand him a jug of water, tell him I'm planning a cocktail party but I'm broke, so please do your thing. Help out a sister!
Patty goes on to note, "I think every traffic circle in D.C. should have a bronze statue of him and I'd kiss the feet of the statue at every opportunity."
January 8, 2008
Joe Gibbs returns -- a true story
Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs at his resignation press conference, with team owner Dan Snyder standing behind him.
Gibbs with Sean Taylor during a press conference after Taylor signed his contract on July 27, 2004. The Washington Post reported that Gibbs and Taylor formed a bond over the years, making Taylor's death in 2007 that much harder for the coach and the team.Joe Gibbs returns -- a true story
Jan. 8, 2004
December 25, 2007
The Redskins, Dan Snyder, mojo and female football fans
Well if this photo in the Washington Post doesn't bring back memories of the glory years of the Fun Bunch, as Clinton Portis celebrates a score Sunday night against the Vikings: 
I went to my last professional football game this month. My son and I braved frigid, remote FedEx Field to see our beloved Chicago Bears, the fallen Super Bowl champions, humiliated 24-16 by the struggling Washington Redskins. It wasn't the depth of our despair that will keep us away from football stadiums for good but the depravity of the fans.
I suppose depravity is a strong word. But what better describes drunken adult men, egged on by other grown beer-swillers, belly-shouting the most spectacular obscenities imaginable as they stand next to a 13-year-old boy? Every play was a competition to produce a more vile insult or a different suggestion about which Bear body part might be stuffed up which orifice. When the Redskins scored their first touchdown, four young women -- I'm guessing they were in high school -- turned around and did a little stripper's dance that made my son blush as I cringed. Even putting aside their ages, it was too cold to bare flesh.
While this kind of behavior is probably pretty typical of many NFL games, and actually tame compared to what can go on at a Ravens game (let alone the old Baltimore Colts, with the brawls in the stands), it really isn't what Redskins football was historically about -- which was having great and knowledgeable fans whose language wouldn't scorch the ears of the teams' many female and kid fans.I agree down the line with what he said. In fact, I was thinking about writing a "I second that motion" letter. We gave up our club-seat contract because of all of the obnoxious and potentially dangerous drunks. I read the column hurriedly, but I'm fairly certain that he and his son sat in the club-seat section. The fans are much, much better in any other section of the stadium. I've tried them all.
December 22, 2007
Congratulations Lamont on your blog!
Lamont is over the moon at being tapped to write a soccer blog at the Baltimore Sun. 
February 5, 2007
Congratulations to the Colts
January 30, 2007
A long goodbye for Barbaro
Barbaro feisty before running the Kentucky Derby, above, and triumphant after, below.
She left me alone in the room with Ollie. He seemed perked up by his surroundings, curious and engaged in his gentle way. "Do you think we should try this?" I asked him, rubbing his ears.
Over the next two months, Ollie became restored, and then he began to seem better than new. Now I kept him strictly on Royal Canin S/O. His coat for the first time in his life grew glossy and thick. He lost a few pounds and seemed more active. All in all, he had a vibrant renaissance.
When Oliver got sick the second time, he was out of reprieves. In hindsight, we bought him a long goodbye instead of a wrenching brief one.
Barbaro's owners similarly were within their rights to give the champ at least a chance of recovery. In his final months, Barbaro appeared to enjoy some happy moments nickering at mares in the next pasture, signaling to his nurses when he needed a rest by shaking his sling, and making friends with a Swiss cow named Mocha in the next pasture at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center.
Some wonderful commentary:
Diminished Body, Persevering Spirit: Nurturing Medical Staff Keeps Barbaro Alive by John Scheinman
Barbaro, The Heart In the Winner's Circle by Jane Smiley
A 'Bottomless' Heart by Sally Jenkins
Barbaro's final moments came not in shock on a track during a race, but in his stall after months of visits from his owners, his trainer, his jockey, the vet and devoted nurses. It was a gentler road for a noble animal. His owners detected in him a powerful will to heal. Despite his will and determination, he just couldn't overcome the frailty that is a Thoroughbred's ankle.
A Swiss cow named Mocha tries to give Barbaro a kiss as head surgeon Dr. Dean Richardson walks him.
- posted by jbelliveau at 2:17 PM in Sports
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January 2, 2007
The high price paid by NFL players
Now that I'm in my 50s, my body gives me a lot more argument than it used to. After rolling a roof coating on my deck last summer, a pinched nerve in my left armpit and elbow had me in agony. MRIs revealed problems with some of my neck vertebrae, and a chiropractor counseled rest, ice and gentle exercise.
Now when I watch NFL players getting hammered in mid-air, and falling awkwardly, or drilling others helmet-first, I realize with my newfound appreciation of the complexity of the spine and the nervous sytem, that they shouldn't really be doing all that! If rolling a brush on a roof in 90 degrees is bad, how risky is helicoptering to the ground after a hit by a toned man weighing in excess of 300 lbs.?
On Sunday, Tiki Barber (photo, right) was interviewed after his last regular-season game as a Giant. Of course, the commentators made much of the fact that he has gone from an average running back to a superlative one, based on adding 40 lbs. of muscle via weight training.
They made more of the fact that he was retiring with "three or four more good seasons left in him."
In the Nov. 13 Sports Illustrated, Rick Reilly has a nice column, A Barber Who Won't Cut It Close, on the criticisms of Barber.
In America, you do not quit at the top. You do not quit when you're the leading rusher in the NFL. You do not quit when there's millions left on the table. But Tiki Barber, a 31-year-old Giants running back, is retiring at the end of this season, his 10th in pro football -- and the country wants to sue.
The column goes on to take us down memory lane with some veteran NFL Hall of Famers who wake up in the middle of the night, plagued by assorted pains. Reilly describes how Earl Campbell, the OIlers RB, had to be helped out of a golf cart at a speaking engagement, how Jim Plunkett, Jim Otto and Paul Krause are virtual cripples. Here's the story on Dan Dierdorf:
Meet Dan Dierdorf. Lineman, Cardinals, 13 seasons, also in the Hall. Uses a cane when he walks, if you can call what he does walking. Blocking with his head first has left him two inches shorter than he was in college. He's already got two artificial hips, and he's planning to have a second knee replacement. His ankle needs fusing.
Reilly quotes Barber's critics, who say he is quitting, not retiring. He notes:
Tiki Barber has his money, his memories and most of his cartilage. What he doesn't seem to have is the right to live his own life."When I get home from work," says Barber, "my [two- and four-year-old] kids
come running at me. They make me get on my knees, and we play tackle football. On replacement knees, that's not happening. I saw this video of O.J. Simpson once, and his kids came running at him and he couldn't even pick them up. So I can see that if I play three or four more years, like everybody wants me to, that could be me. But when I'm 50 years old, and I'm having trouble just getting down the stairs, will they be cheering for me then?
Good for Tiki. Other players should realize that they are very lucky, and not just granted a strong constitution, if they are not cripples at the end of their NFL career.
- posted by jbelliveau at 6:51 PM in Sports
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June 13, 2006
U.S. loss in the World Cup
Shortly before the United States started its game vs. the Czech Republic yesterday, I told Lamont, "I don't have a lot of confidence in this team."
What was my pessimism based on? A few stray wisps and tendrils and impressions:
- Anemic U.S. performances in friendlies leading up to the World Cup.
- Hearing that the Czech Republic was formidable.
- Even to an extent the Nike commercial featuring former French star Eric Cantona, where he says in fractured English, "America, the world no longer looks forward to playing you." Well, he speaks over highlight films of the U.S. playing, and while Landon Donovan is shown scoring various goals, he looks like a pixie. Granted, a very skilled pixie, but not one able to take on tall Central or Eastern European rivals.
Well, the United States got spanked 3-0 and looked dreadful. Watching the game, I said, "There's a lot of tall, skilled, fearsome, committed U.S. players, and they are all in the NBA."
An e-mail arrived from my friend Mark Moran in Thailand:
God, the carnage. We have NO offense. Brings me back to the 70's and 80's when I played and the US was a joke. Or maybe the Czech Republic is that good. Back to the drawing boards. Those guys were just on a whole other level.Italy? Geez. Someone get a gun and get it over with.
We need a playmaker/striker...
I replied, "YES why oh why didn't they take Taylor Twellman (Univ Md star who would at least have run and attacked ???)?" Now that I think about it, Freddy Adu might do better than the group we have over in Germany now.
Then I remembered, Lamont did a fantastic graphic for the Baltimore Sun showing how the U.S. had a height disadvantage against the Czechs. (See below.) No one else in the entire world of sports media correctly forecast this problem, as I can tell. Take a look:
On the field, it was dramatic to see how tiny the United States looked. It looked worse on TV than the graphic even depicts. DeMarcus Beasley, Donovan, Steve Cherundolo, Claudio Reyna, Bobby Convey -- tiny, tiny, tiny.
Mark Moran wrote me back:
Great graphic, and yes, the physical build was not a point lost on me as I perused the waiflike characters on our side. Beasley looks like he's 12 years old. I just don't understand how we can't yield at least one cocky bad ass striker out of the tens of thousands of kids playing little league in the US. That Eddie Johnson dude seemed like he was the only one who wanted a piece of the action. Let's rally around him and light a fire under his ass.You know, I think that until a great striker gets all the hype that football, basketball, and baseball premadonnas get, we'll forever field teams that perform like the current one.
Well, I'm going to watch now for a great upset somewhere in this tournament before the final game because Brazil is certain to win in the end. That Ronaldino guy was a marvel to watch the last time I saw him.
Supposedly U.S. Coach Bruce Arenas will shake up his lineup before Saturday's game vs. Italy (see the Washington Post, Changes Ahead for U.S. Team Lineup, Arena Says), but his comments don't sound very specific. I think he is as stunned as his players, and that's not good.
We need a little more Avery Johnson here. The Dallas Mavericks coach gets in front of the media after every game (even the blowouts) and announces, "We are not satisfied," and then makes some brilliant changes to nullify his opponent. U.S. soccer could use similar leadership -- and some NBA big bodies to boot.
- posted by jbelliveau at 5:57 PM in Sports
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May 16, 2006
The Italian soccer scandal
The soccer scandal engulfing Juventus, Italy's finest team, will come as no great shock to anyone who has read 
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe Mcginniss.
If memory serves, the plucky Castel di Sangro team throws a game to help another team advance to a higher league in exchange for money. The fixing is open -- the owner comes to the fixed game to supervise matters and fixes his beady eyes on the players. The Castel goalkeeper flubs easy saves, and the Castel midfielders open with a pass to their opponent.
Now we just have word that this happens at higher levels in Serie A, Italy's top soccer league. The allegations include goal-fixing, illegal betting and even a kidnapping.
As Lamont e-mailed me --
Surprise, Surprise!! Italian Serie A hit by a huge scandal. 4 Clubs (Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorantina, all demoted at least once since 1980 for cheating and corruption, and Lazio Mussolini's favorite club) involved, Referees involved, players involved!!! If only the U.S. could play THEM first and not Czech Rep.
As Lamont points out, the United States plays Italy in its World Cup group, so the scandal has implications for our team, especially if the Italian national team, or individual players under investigation, is either demoralized, distracted, or conversely fired up, as a result of this scandal.
You can read details on EPSN.com or at the Washington Post.
***
Here are some of Lamont's predictions for the United States in the World Cup:
Model #1. The 1990 world cup model
Has anyone bothered to notice that our group is almost the same as 1990 (Czechoslovakia, Italy , Austria) First of all its a bit suspect that we got nearly the same grouping again 16 years later, what are the chances. Second, we are much improved and our opponents are comparatively weaker, ie the Italians are NOT the home team and the Czechs are without the Slovaks. In theory the Austrians faced tougher opposition to qualify than the Ghanaians did. Ghana has not done well since qualifying.
The results?
Based on 1990... back then we lost 5-0, the Czechs who like most smaller European teams that peak in the Euro will dissappoint at the world Cup may win 1-0.
Italy scraped by with a 1-0 win way back then will lose 1-0 or 2-1 as the U.S. is better suited to defeat shorter Latin/style teams.
Ghana will play brilliantly for 70 minutes, then collapse allowing 2-3 goals.
We top our group, and make it to the Semi-finals for the first time.
Mexico will make an early exit leading to large riots in Mexico. In Los Angeles another day without and Immigrant is declared in resentment at the results. NBA replaces soccer as the top sport south of the border.
Model #2. The 2002 World Cup model:
In spite of our lofty position in the world rankings, the U.S. still has no respect as a soccer power. Following the pattern of 2002, Czech, like the arrogant Portuguese, will get the surprise of their life when McBride, Johnson and Lewis score on them. An own goal by Frankie Hejuk or Ben Olsen will make it look closer.
We will have a close tie with the Italians who will complain that they were cheated out of every offside shot they put into our net, they threaten to boycott future FIFA events (but change their minds when the world lets out a celebratory cheer).
Then Ghana, yet to win a game, will rip us a new one, beating us 3-0. We will only get to face Brazil when doesn't agree to ta gentlemen's draw (right, now you know I'm dreaming) and elimiunates Czech. Brazil beats us 1-0 in the second round having gotten away with a hand-ball on the line.
(Another favorable model the U.S. Brazil July 4th, 1994-if only Ernie Stewart had a left foot we'd have won 2-1. So using that model, U.S. wins 2-1 but Landon Donovan is hospitalized with a head injury)
No need for a model, I expect this...
The U.S. will play to the jeers and whistles of home crowds except for the game against Ghana where legions of right-wing Europeans in anger at middle eastern Muslims will make ape noises at confused West Africans.
Model #3, The "I hope its not 1998" model.
Czech will beat us 1-0 like our preveious overrated Balkan opponents (Yugoslavia), Italy will win and Ghana will sneak by us 2-1. McBride will get our only goal and Arena will be fired when the disgraced team returns. MLS attendence will drop and ESPN reporters will openly dance in glee as they can ignore U.S. soccer for yet another 4 years.
- posted by jbelliveau at 11:41 AM in Sports
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April 7, 2006
One more look at "The Shot"
Here's a funny series on "The Shot" from the Maryland-Duke women's final Tuesday -- Make sure you look at all three:
(1) Maryland freshman Kristi Toliver watches as a tough three ties the game with 6 seconds left:
(2) Maryland fans react to winning the game, taking to the streets:
(3) Dookies react in Durham:
- posted by jbelliveau at 3:04 PM in Sports
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April 6, 2006
Continued rejoicing for Maryland's NCAA victory
Take a look at the picture at the right, from the Washington Post.
This may be the shot that changed a sport.
I'm not kidding, either. Look at Kristi Toliver's ice-water in the veins three-pointer over a 6-foot-7 Duke player, with 6 seconds left, to send the Maryland-Duke game into overtime.
She's got game.
This beats anything in the men's NCAA Final Four this year.
What wonderful aesthetics -- Toliver elevated, brave and fearless, sunk the shot with perfect mechanics, and not by lucky accident, but by will and determination to avoid losing. This was not second best, some pale imitation of the men's game, but the real deal for sports fans.
Fortunately, ratings were way up for the women's final this year, and what a game viewers saw.
At right, see a picture of the reaction to Toliver's shot. People watching around the country shared similar amazement to that of Toliver and her euphoric teammates. "Unbelievable!" my soccer buddy Deb C. e-mailed me.
The Baltimore Sun's David Steele writes, in "Once barely relevant, UM women now inspire revelry from students" (April 6, 2006), of how far the women's game has come in a generation:
If you do see the games from then, it's like watching black-and-white film of the NBA of Bob Cousy's era. The quantum leap in athleticism, skill and depth of the talent pool in the past 20 years or so, is astonishing. Debate the legitimacy of the dunks Tennessee's Candace Parker pulled off earlier in the tournament if you like. But the play, from beginning to end, that Kristi Toliver made to send the final into overtime was phenomenal by any standards, and should silence at least a few more doubts about how good the sport is.Both Toliver and Parker are freshmen, by the way. There's more of this to come.
NOTE: The game will be repeated tonight at 9 p.m. on ESPN Classic (Baltimore cable channel 6).
People are still digesting the implications. For one, Maryland's men's program suddenly looks exposed for what it is: Truly failed recruiting after the 2002 national championship. See my earlier blog entry, A Maryland fan watches the NCAAs, as well as the Baltimore Sun's Rick Maese, "To avoid men's blueprint, Frese will build off title" (April 6, 2006):
[Maryland men's Coach Gary] Williams didn't capitalize on two great basketball teams because of troubles recruiting, an area which happens to be [Maryland women's Coach Brenda] Frese's forte. You can't win a title and wait by the telephone.Last week in Boston, each of Frese's players was asked at some point the main reason she chose Maryland. None said the teammates. None mentioned Comcast Center. None pointed to the school's academics. The personal relationship established with Frese, each told reporters.
My husband Lamont cautions against turning too quickly on Gary Williams, who after all, bought a championship four years ago.
He also provided the viewpoint of a once-skeptical male in a comment on my blog yesterday. It's such a good comment that I am pulling into my own blog here for better visibility. From Lamont:
I'm not ready to declare a 180 degree turn on my view of women's basketball. After torturing myself on WNBA for 3 years and giving up on it I'll need more to start watching the sport. Maryland's NCAA win was what I call "A good game."At first I sat there because after playing midfield for 90 minutes with no sub I was too exhausted to move. I groaned at first, only consoling myself that if I could sit through the 40-year old Virgin I could handle this. But as Maryland fought back and Toliver put in numerous 3-pointers, I was impressed.
As they closed the gap in spite of Duke responding with their own 3-pointers there was no way I was going to move. From watching, I could tell it was going to come down to one shot, and with the ball in Toliver's hands I was thinking she could be the best female ball player I've ever seen. The over-time was just as interesting.
I am still a bit reserved about women's basketball, most of them still shoot from the hip instead of over the head, making it easy to block their shots, and though I find the preoccupation with dunking in the men's game annoying, I still like the power game at the right moments.
I also liked the Maryland coach, looked like a cross between Gates McFadden and Lisa Kudrow, excited and into the game would wander onto the court cheering and coaching. Good passion.
I was pleased that they called a foul when Wilson used her shoulder to floor a Maryland player (I wish they'd call that on Shaq istead of making bogus rules to contain him) But I think that basketball refs are among the worst in the world, so there are always calls that revolt me.
Amazingly the women can make their free-throws.
Women's basketball still has a way to go, but that was a good start for me.
WOMEN'S SPORTS I WILL WATCH:
-Women's soccer: Credit Jeannette for twisting my arm, I like it about 90% as much as the men's game overall. The WUSA was better visually than the MLS at times (except when keepers in the 3rd season had trouble reaching midfield with goal kicks).
The team work was more enjoyable than some World Cup teams who fall back too much on showing off individual skills at times.
Do NOT, however, watch the women's game AFTER watching Barcelona, Madrid or Arsenal. You need to watch it first.
-Womens Tennis: I loved it in the late 1990s when Monica, Gabriel and Steffi were playing. Serena and Hingis are very exciting now. More rallies or returns in the women's game. The courts are almost too small for the men's game.
-Beach Volleyball: Whatever... its not just about the outfits and attractive women, I can look at sports illustrated to see that, they are fantastic athletes... who happen to be really attractive in skimpy outfits. I had to laugh during the last Olympics when the networks tried to bury it in the early programming. By the quarter finals they were delaying the broadcasts till 10:30 pm to keep you watching.
-Boxing: In spite of myself, I've been transfixed every time I've seen it. They don't show enough of it.
- posted by jbelliveau at 11:39 AM in Sports
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April 5, 2006
Cheers for the Maryland women's team
I nearly forgot to set a tape for 8:30 p.m. on ESPN last night to catch the NCAA women's basketball final.
But just before going out to Lamont's soccer game I remembered to set the VCR, reminding myself that though I don't follow women's basketball closely, I would watch any match in any sport, from tiddlywinks on up, involving Maryland potentially defeating Duke.
Further, I had read that this group of young women was exceptionally tough in beating North Carolina in what was described as an ugly but determined game. They sounded worth taking a look at. From Sally Jenkins on the semi-final game:
Everything about Maryland's win was ugly, right down to the Terrapins' sagging black socks and shoes, which looked better-suited for playing on pavement. There were hard fouls, loud collisions and sloppy turnovers all over the floor. Even their victory celebration was unsightly: when guard Shay Doron went to the free throw line with just a few seconds to go, a referee had to tell her to tuck her shirt in.This NCAA Final Four semifinal game was often savagely played, brutally coached and badly officiated, but Maryland got the best of a bad situation, 81-70, over North Carolina. The Terrapins won with a hard-nosed brand of basketball, but they hardly cared about how it looked, after advancing to their first championship game in program history.
We came home after Lamont's soccer game and started the tape of the final. Maryland started off misfiring, but coach Brenda Frese called over players and gave them what-for in what seemed firm but positive terms (the picture, from the Washington Post, at right shows her size and guard Shay Doyon's fierce expression). The giant Valkyrie, who seems 6-foot-2 as a guess, definitely invades the personal space of her players but they seem to get the message.
What transpired next was the best game, next to George Mason's upset of U-Conn, in either the men's or women's finals this year. ESPN showed tape of Frese haranguing her charges in the locker room at half time. She said something to the effect of, "They're celebrating, Duke is celebrating, they think they've beaten you." It was the kind of aggressive challenge one rarely imagines being employed by the coach of a female team. (It's often thought that you need to coach women more gently than men.)
But it seemed to work. Out came Maryland's very young (mostly freshman and sophomore) team. They remembered suddenly how to play defense. The Lady Terps battled back from 13 points down, tied the score with a beauty of a fadeway 3-pointer with 6 seconds to go by Kristi Toliver, and pulled away just enough to win in overtime.
It was incomparably more dramatic that Florida's beatdown of UCLA in the men's final Monday. It's a great story -- a young fearless and tough group of females that won every overtime game they played this year. They rated my Redskins dance of happiness for the victory.
As Sally Jenkins wrote:
One team had all the experience, and the other had none. All Maryland had going for it was a bunch of beautifully consciousless kids. "We're too young to know better," Kristi Toliver had said entering this national championship game, and she was right.Too young to know that a freshman point guard isn't supposed to hit a brilliant step-back three-pointer with 6.1 seconds left to force overtime -- and do it against Duke's massive 6-foot-7 center Alison Bales. Too young to know that a 13-point second half deficit is too much to fight back from in a national title game. Too young to know that the Terrapins had no business upsetting the Blue Devils, a more accomplished and mature opponent that had been all but christened the national champions before the ball ever went up.
They also passed the ultimate challenge, the Lamont test. He doesn't hesitate to make fun of anything I am watching or listening to. I was braced for him to mock any lack of athleticism or skill or shooting ability or physical attractiveness. Instead, he watched enthusiastically.
The young women on Maryland's team, sinking soft touch shots unknown to the men's game -- such as the pullup midrange jumper -- gave him no cause for complaints.
Coach Frese wants to increase Maryland's average home attendance of 5,000 next season. Count me among the converted -- I'd love to see this young scrappy group in person.
- posted by jbelliveau at 2:14 PM in Sports
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March 25, 2006
A Maryland fan watches the NCAAs
One aspect of loyalty to a team is, once your team has gone home, picking other teams to root for through the prism of how they relate to your own favorite.
(In this case, Maryland didn't even MAKE the NCAAs, and stunk so bad in the NIT game a week ago they lost at home.)
So I picked four other teams to root for during March Madness:
- Anyone playing against Duke.
- Boston College (now plays in same league as Maryland, and my father graduated from there). Plus, very impressive to watch. Their dismantling of Maryland in the ACC tournament showed a team of great strength and a professional, businesslike approach to the task.
- Georgetown (like Maryland, in greater D.C. area, and I was born at their hospital).
- George Mason (ditto, another greater D.C. area team, and I saw Duran Duran there a year ago). Like Boston College, they seem to be men playing against boys, with their big power-forward duo of Jai Lewis and Will Thomas.
Georgetown and Boston College lost last night. Duke, wondrously, lost Thursday to LSU. But George Mason keeps rollin' along, brushing away Wichita State like a pesky gnat.
From Liz Clarke's article in the Washington Post:
The Patriots' starting lineup consists of five players from Maryland -- three of them seniors -- and none taller than 6 feet 7. At first blush, that gave the edge to Wichita State.
More on the Maryland connection for George Mason, by Mike Wise:
Lamar [Butler]'s father owns Varsity Sports in Marlow Heights. Coached his son's high school team at Oxon Hill in Fort Washington. Been to all but three Mason games -- home and away -- in five years. The man actually had the Patriots in the Washington Region final of his office pool.The rest of the starters are from Maryland, too -- Skinn from Takoma Park, big Jai Lewis from Aberdeen, Thomas from Baltimore and Silver Spring's own Folarin Campbell.
The real point that no one seems to be addressing here is, why is all this Maryland talent NOT PLAYING at Maryland?
This thought first crossed my mind two years ago, watching U-Conn play in the NCAAs (and win the final). The commentators mentioned that forward Josh Boone was from Mount Airy, Md. What? I thought. Why is he at U-Conn. Paging Gary Williams, how did you miss this smart, athletic player?
The core of the Maryland team that won the national championship in 2002 was two homegrown players, Juan Dixon and Lonnie Baxter, with excellent support from Steve Blake (Florida), Drew Nicholas (New York), Chris Wilcox (North Carolina) and Byron Mouton (Louisiana).
Something went wrong after the 2002 team, with recruits both from Maryland and elsewhere.
When Gary recruited in state (Travis Garrison, Chris McCray, Will Bowers, James Gist, Sterling Ledbetter), he got five kids, none of whom seem the brightest bulbs, especially compared to their counterparts at George Mason.
For the out-of-staters, same story. When you look deep into the eyes of a Mike Jones (Dorchester, Mass.) or a Jamar Smith (Sicklerville, N.J.), it looks like nobody's home. Look at a John Gilchrist (Virginia Beach), and you see a nutcase. You don't see the almost palpable intelligence and edge of the players for Boston College, Carolina or George Mason.
Maryland needs to recruit some thinking players. I hate to cite Duke and its student-athlete model, or the dorky Shane Battier, but at least you see a kind of overall awareness that translates into court smarts when you look at a Battier.
Whereas with Maryland's Chris McCray, he couldn't maintain his academic eligibility even with $12 million of taxpayer-funded help designed expressly to keep him and other Maryland athletes on track for graduation, or at least minimally present for classes.
Juan Dixon has a gritty version of the Battier kind of smarts. Lonnie Baxter seemed to have a different kind of excellence, based on toughness and persistence.
After Maryland won the championship, everyone was giddy about the kind of recruits that the school would now attract. It didn't happen.
Gary needs to take a look at how George Mason flies under the radar with local player recruiting, be less in love with the McDonald's All-Americans, more aware of how much talent is in his home state, and take a good look at the basketball IQs, rather than credentials, of the kids he wants to play at College Park.
Let's get us some smarter players.
PS Isn't it charming how some of the player photos broadcast during the games show them in suits and ties, instead of uniforms? Sends a good message.
March 27 update: Well, well, well, it's the day after George Mason's astounding upset of U-Conn (though maybe not so astounding, the Huskies have always struck me as soft, especially after Maryland's playoff defeat of them in 2002).
And it looks like Maryland's Gary Williams indeed tried to recruit George Mason's Lamar Butler (from Mike Wise today):
Gary Williams contacted him, but Butler felt it was too late in the game."Maryland was my dream school growing up," he said. "Gary Williams talked to my high school coach."
But he ultimately decided, like many of Mason's overlooked kids, "Let me go where I'm wanted and not just be another player on a roster."
Ouch! Maryland really did screw this up.
Oh, and note to the TV announcers on CBS: It's "George Mason," not "Mason." No one knows what you are talking about when you talk about Mason!
- posted by jbelliveau at 10:00 AM in Sports
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June 10, 2004
The Detroit Pistons and defense
What a delight to see one of my sports idols, Bill Russell, pen a column, Victory Begins with Defense, for one of my favorite online sites, OpinionJournal:
I always would rather play in and win a close game with unrelenting defense and a final score of 84-83 than a game where one team scores 120 points and wins by 15. Dunks and great passes are always exciting, and even so-called low-scoring games have their share of them. But nothing compares to the subtle beauty of a winner absolutely taking away the other team's "game."Defense is an action, not a reaction. Great defense attacks an opponent's offense vs. reacting to it.
... Great defensive teams study the offensive patterns of every team and every player they play against. Great defensive teams understand the predictability of their opponents' offensive patterns. All great offensive players are predictable. Still, it's inconceivable that any team can always take away its opponent's first shot option or favorite move or favorite starting offensive position. But in team defense, the core operating principle is to reduce efficiency.
What an eloquent dissection of one of the foundation stones of any successful team.
Can the Detroit Pistons continue to play active, controlling defense against the L.A. Lakers? Certainly.
Will they win the series?
Quite possibly, for the Pistons play an old school, long disappeared version of pro basketball, with a hand in the face of almost every shot. The Pistons are better (but not perfect) at not handing the game to the Lakers, as have other opponents who for years have left Robert Horry, Derek Fisher, Norman Rush and other Laker role players wide open for back-breaking three pointers.
There's been a lot of print analysis of the Piston's theft of the first game on the road in Los Angeles, but the TV commentators said it best, indicating that the Lakers simply are not used to being defended against! What an astounding indictment of the standing around, watching the world go by inactivity of most NBA defenses.
Much has been made of Kobe Bryant's winning shot in game 2, with only two ticks left, and what that will do to the Pistons' psyche. I don't see Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince as anything less than lion hearted, and able to come right back and play hard and without intimidation.
The series will really come down, once again, to how much the referees coddle Shaquille O'Neal, who routinely is allowed about 15 fouls per game, of which maybe four are actually called. We watch Ben Wallace get what looked like a dangerous yanking of his neck in Game 1 by Shaq -- no flagrant called, however.
Larry Bird has apparently called for homegrown, white superstars in the NBA (CNN transcript, scroll down):
I think it's good for a fan base because as we all know, the majority of the fans are white America. And if you just had a couple of white guys in there, you might get them a little excited.
The real issue with this fan is a hunger for the day when the coddled giant, his Laker pretty boy colleagues, and Jack Nicholson and other wrinkled star fans meet their match -- when a bigger, stronger and more athletic center comes along OR when the league and its referees decide to favor somebody other than the Lakers.
- posted by jbelliveau at 12:00 PM in Sports
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April 4, 2004
Duke's out
How poetically apt that Duke's run in the men's NCAA basketball tournament should be cut short by whistle-happy refs who kept Shelden Williams and Shavlik Randoph on the bench with strange foul calls. Shades of what happened to Maryland in their abominable match-up with Duke in 2001, a point noted in this thread on Fark.com. Said Skydog:
There's just soooo much delicious irony seeing Dookies complain about the officiating.
Perhaps surprisingly, it's hard to take much cheer in Duke's misfortune, given the way the umps made the entire game vs. U-Conn into a choppy match. As Michael Wilbon, noted, "A Good Thing, Nearly Spoiled:"
The referees were responsible, directly, for [Emeka Okefor] playing only 22 minutes. U-Conn. suffered through bad calls early. Duke was saddled with its share of ridiculous foul calls late, all of it regrettable. The referees should never, ever, ever be The Story of a game this big. I hate writing about refs because by and large they do such good work. But the zebras cannot be ignored in the retelling and dissecting of this game.There was barely a possession in the second half without a whistle interrupting it. The officials called tacky, nothing little fouls. They whistled fouls that didn't exist, occasionally made calls that suggested total incompetence. They came very close to ruining the game. With eight minutes to go half the people in the Alamodome, some with no rooting interests in Duke or Connecticut whatsoever, began chanting, "Let them play. . . . Let them play!" David Hall, Olandis Poole and Ted Hillary apparently never heard the sentiment that zebras should be seen but not heard.
- posted by jbelliveau at 3:19 PM in Sports
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March 22, 2004
Maryland's season
Back on Jan. 3, I watched the Terrapins play in Comcast Center against little Mount St. Mary's zone defense. There might was well have been an acrylic shield walling off everything within the three-point arc. Whereas the Terps of yore would have piled up a 50-point victory, these "baby Terps" showed no ability to penetrate, even against a minor, non-ACC foe. They won by 33, but even so, they struggled to find half-court points.
Did Syracuse's coach Jim Boeheim see this weakness on video? No doubt, for it remained a problem throughout the season against more widely watched contests. On Saturday vs. Syracuse, this technical deficiency, along with blown foul shots, finally did Maryland in.
Players were further hampered by erratic foul calls, especially the outrageous one called against John Gilchrist when he was pinned by the neck by a huge Syracuse player. Jamar Smith wore a look of disgust after the whistles for just touching his opponents' shirt.
Gary Williams got a wee bit outcoached by his off-season golf buddy. Maryland's coach needed to have players drive the lane, not pass into it (which lead to whole series of interceptions). Williams did have the Terps deny Syracuse guard Gerry McNamara, but that left a lot of slack for Hakim Warrick to exploit. Coaches need to see three steps ahead of a rival, not one.
Nonetheless, the Terrapins played with colossal heart and nearly came back to tie the game. The contrast between the never-say-die Maryland players and North Carolina, which in its game later on Saturday seemed to punk out on coach Roy Williams despite his begging for some effort on defense, was obvious.
Every player on Maryland needs to spend the spring and the summer working on his perimeter and mid-range shots. And Gary Williams needs to scout the junior colleges to find someone who can either run with Gilchrist into the lane or provide some Lonnie Baxter-style heft under the basket.
Meanwhile, Ekene Ibekwe showed flashes of future talent. Nik Caner-Medley, however, has got to find the toughest summer league going if he is going to survive the ACC. Still, next year's team should be something to watch. As the Washington Post quotes Gary Williams:
"We have a history of working in the offseason in this program," Williams said. "That's when our best teams have really gotten better."Next season will be different, for the Terps will be more of a known commodity. The expectations will be right back where they have been for the last 10 years, to win games in the ACC and easily earn a berth the NCAA tournament.
- posted by jbelliveau at 12:07 PM in Sports
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Excruciating boredom ...
... has been the problem with the endings of many of the NCAA tournament games as they became a foul fest. Two seconds of play, a foul or a time out, and a return to the same Burger King, Microsoft, Cialis or pickup truck ad. (The only funny commercial shows a guy in a pickup truck singing Shania Twain's "I Feel Like a Woman" as his friends edge away from him. Maybe he needs some Cialis?) Norman Chad relates:
No game changes its nature more than college basketball in its final stages. For the first 38 minutes, college basketball flies by like the Indy 500; in the last two minutes, it becomes a bumper-car concession. So first we get athletic, graceful, fluid motion up and down the court, then down the stretch we get stoppages piled on top of stoppages.(It's a jolting, out-of-character transformation -- imagine going to an Andre Previn concert in which he plays selections from Brahms, Chopin and Tchaikovsky for a couple of hours, then wraps things up with the Notre Dame fight song and Chop Sticks.)
Say what you will about soccer, but you don't see AC Milan going to the foul line every 20 seconds in the final minutes of a 1-0 match against FC Barcelona.
- posted by jbelliveau at 11:57 AM in Sports
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March seeding madness
Well, after this weekend my bracket showing Maryland beating Gonzaga in the final got slammed into the recycling bin! (What a homer, I know!) What is also noticeable is the lack of blow-out games, even among a lot of the No. 2 vs. No. 15 teams. See Michael Wilbon:
While the elite programs lose their best players early and also miss out on the very top high school kids, UAB has five seniors. Nevada's experienced players (juniors Kevinn Pinkney and Kirk Snyder plus senior Todd Okeson) are simply better than Michigan State's players and it showed Thursday. Only the No. 1 seeds have a decided advantage anymore, and only for one game."Twenty years ago, this never happened," [Syracuse coach Jim] Boeheim said. "If you were an [elite] program, you'd win your first-round game by 20 points, your second by 15, and you'd maybe have a tough game [in the round of 16]. That's not the case now."
Still, those elite programs expect to win. And we expect them to win even though their players aren't much better than those of schools that don't have pedigree. The losses, even the close games, are a reflection of how little separation there is between the top 10 teams and those between 30 and 50.
- posted by jbelliveau at 11:54 AM in Sports
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Bill Walton, pundit
Last night, in a game vs. the Sacramento Kings, Steve Francis reamed out an official after a no-call that left the Houston Rocket playmaker gasping on the floor, having taken an elbow to the groin. ESPN analyst Bill Walton indicated that profanity was part of Francis's outburst and that he will be fined or suspended.
Then Walton put in a bizarre plug for us to read the latest Frank Rich column in the New York Times.
I have no doubt that 99 percent of the viewers had no idea what Walton was talking about. I barely know anything more than that Frank Rich is a darling of my one liberal friend who reads him and that Rich receives a fair share of criticism on conservative Web sites. Imagine then a Venn diagram (those intersecting circles from math, or logic class) showing the universe of NBA TV viewers and those who also read Frank Rich. Maybe a handful of Knicks fans are in both camps?
So thanks to Walton, just now I read Frank Rich for the first time. He ties in Sept. 11, Janet Jackson's breast-baring and Bono's dropping of the adjectival form of the F-bomb. Rich provides usual tired liberal hyperbole and de rigueur Taliban analogy: "Washington's latest crew of Puritan enforcers — in the administration, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission — are all pandering to a censorious Republican political base that is the closest thing America has to its own Taliban."
Apparently Walton meant to indicate that creeping Puritanism would ensnare Steve Francis as well? Who knows?
If you Google on "Bill Walton" and "Frank Rich," you will come up with four instances of Walton praising Rich in his columns for Espn.com and NBA.com.
We all know Walton's a crunchy granola type, but he might be better off keeping his endorsements of a partisan columnist to Walton's own opinion columns rather than his broadcast persona.
- posted by jbelliveau at 11:49 AM in Media
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March 15, 2004
Terps Unbelievable
My very first blog described five problems with the Maryland Terrapins. This team did not seem headed anywhere, except into the same wilderness the once-great Redskins occupied.
Looks like all five problems have been addressed, after the Terrapins stunning negotiation of road to beating the Nos. 3, 2 and 1 seeds in the ACC tournament!
Has any other college basketball team made such an advance through its conference tournament? You can't have a harder road than that.
The team made its foul shots, scored in the paint, played the fast-break correctly, defended the opponents' three much better, and showed a will to improve commensurate with what Maryland needs to be considered a great program.
And Gary Williams clearly made the half-time speech of his career Saturday during their match vs. NC State. The team, down 19, returned with a clear mandate: help John Gilchrist score his way past their opponent.
Everyone first noticed Gilchrist last year as Steve Blake's substitute. He brought frantic, Energizer Bunny energy to the court but didn't always make decisions as well as did Steve.
Well, Gilchrist grew up over the past week. He slams the ball so hard on the dribble the TV nearly shakes, and after he passes the ball, takes an almost comical hop. Now he's channeling that strength and energy into his jump shot, which has become a reliable weapon. He's up in the air, flying, before the defender knows it.
The most surprising wins to me in the tournament were on Friday and Sunday. Friday's opponent, Wake, had beaten Maryland twice this season. So after Maryland upset Wake, it had some momentum against N.C. State on Saturday, whom the Terrapins had split 1-1 with.
On Sunday, Duke had Shelden Williams in the center; how could the Terps' erratic interior expect to compete? Well, victory was sweet, and one gets so sick of Duke's arrogance, Chris Duhon beating his chest ... on the way to defeat! Kudos to Mike Grinnon and Mike Jones, contributing key points in overtime as one player after the other fouled out.
- posted by jbelliveau at 10:53 AM in Sports
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Fuke Duck, or Duck Fuke
Any Duke-haters out there can have a good bit of fun over at the occasionally hilarious Fark.com site, run by Drew Curtis, a Kentucky fan who hates Duke, and thus, running a very Maryland-friendly site. The site got its 15 minutes of fame when it was all over the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident, literally within minutes, way ahead of the media curve.
Yesterday's threads included one here. Sample quote:
my beef against duke is that EVERY year they get ALL the best recruits; being a private school they have all kinds of ca$h to spend on recruting and such; so it's no wonder that they usually put a great team on the floor.that and i got my BS at maryland.
god i hate those stuck-up duke bastidges.
and:
It used to be that some Duke dorks would show up in these threads and try to throw up some resistance...it was funny watching them get their asses handed to them.
On another thread, the little Duke kid crying made the days of many a sentimental fan, including Jeepgirl: "the little kid was very amusing i choked on my drink." TwistedTenacity asked innocently, "I'm confused as to what Fark.com's stance on Duke is. Could someone be so kind as to enlighten me?" Richbob replied, "Sure. Duke sucks. You're welcome."
- posted by jbelliveau at 10:51 AM in Sports
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Terps No. 4 seed in NCAAs
Beating Duke for the ACC tournament win needs to be savored for a few hours, days, weeks or months yet, but for anyone who wants to look ahead at the NCAA tournament, see John Feinstein here. He sees Maryland as capable of beating Syracuse and meeting Stanford. Michael Wilbon, however, sees the Terps as still missing too many free throws to compete effectively, but regardless, "Maryland goes into the tournament one of the very pleasant surprise stories."
- posted by jbelliveau at 10:48 A