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Friday TIME: US | UK WEATHER: US | UK HOME THE NEIGHBORHOOD "Life in the UK" American Groups Essential Contacts Money Education Driving WHAT'S ON US Group Events Diary Dates Music Live FEATURES Politics blog SPORTS Features Sideline blog NFL Draft THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE ONLINE |
SIDELINE ARCHIVE Unnecessary Hits To The Pocket / Upset: BYU October 17, 2008 Romo's Pause / Seattle Seahawks October 15, 2008 Weekend Prep: Red River and More October 10, 2008 College Football's 'Crossroads' Weekend October 9, 2008 Gramatical Error October 7, 2008 Turning The Page September 30, 2008 So Cal 'Quizzed — But Who Will Answer? September 26, 2008 3rd Tuesday Panic Button / Forté Yard Dash September 23, 2008 Two and Oh; Oh and Two September 22, 2008 No More NCAAffeine September 11, 2008 Week 1 College Football September 6, 2008 How To Spell Heisman / Chad Ocho Cinco September 1, 2008 Why the Favre story STILL won't go away August 18, 2008 Olympic Notes / Ricky's Still Relevant August 14, 2008 Committee Meetings August 9, 2008 Let the QB Battles Begin August 8, 2008 Slinging The Slinger — More Favre August 6, 2008 Welcome to the 2008 season July 28, 2008 Plus One May 27, 2008 Draft: The Morning After April 28, 2008 Draft: Thinking the Unthinkable April 25, 2008 Draft: Ready For The Long Haul April 23, 2008 Sofa–bound Sport April 16, 2008 Post–Winter Wonderland April 11, 2008 Six Impossible Things February 4, 2008 Brady's Misdirection Play February 3, 2008 Colorful Language January 23, 2008 Let the Romo–bashing begin: Dallas lost January 14, 2008 Bowl Bites: The Wrap January 10, 2008 All About The Coaches January 1, 2008 Bowl Bites 3 and A Communication Breakdown December 29, 2007 Bowl Bites 2 December 27, 2007 Bowl Bites 1 December 23, 2007 The Empty Chair - Coach Situations Vacant December 22, 2007 For Some, The Playoffs Are Now December 15, 2007 A Certain Lack Of Welcome December 13, 2007 Unrelated Notes November 29, 2007 Two Thanksgiving thoughts November 22, 2007 Halftime: NFC November 9, 2007 Halftime: AFC November 8, 2007 London, Part 2 / A Tale of Two Chads / A Game of Intimidation November 4, 2007 Damp Squib / Other London Notes October 29, 2007 Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em / Dolphins – The Aftermath October 23, 2007 The Dolphins Did What? October 18, 2007 Notes on the Defenses October 13, 2007 Habits to be Broken October 12, 2007 Overtime October 13, 2007 This Week's Starters October 6, 2007: USF: Covering The Spread / Fantastic Football September 27, 2007: Grossman: The Final Act? / McNabb, the Epilogue September 24, 2007: Eagles QB in Slight Controversy September 21, 2007: Leftwich's Parting Gift to Jacksonville? / Boos cruise September 18, 2007: Notre Dame M.I.A. September 16, 2007: Looking Beyond NFL Wk. 1 September 12, 2007: Best Hope For Heisman September 10, 2007: Coaching Hot Seats / AP Poll Feeling ’Appy September 7, 2007: The NFL’s Prime Cuts September 5, 2007: Michigan Falls to Killer Apps September 3, 2007: Look Out Couch / The Taint's On You, Bud September 1, 2007: |
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SPORTS SIDELINE 
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale London, Part 2 With a long pause since the last ‘Sideline’, this entry becomes something of a weekly round-up (still, at least I’ve spared you the week-long speculation and hype on the subject of Colts versus Patriots). To begin with, the second installment of closing thoughts from the London game: Now that I’ve had a chance to watch the game again from the rain-free comfort of my own couch, I can see a little better the way the turf was pulling away under the cleats of players, apparently detaching itself from the underlying layer. If the coaching staff make such a report back to Commissioner Goodell, that would presumably be a mark against Wembley stadium for the future. At the very least, the resultant lack of traction would explain the sogginess of the offenses on the night. Another observation regarding this first of the ‘International Series’ is that, aside from scheduling games in North America, such as in Mexico City or Toronto, Miami and New York relocating to London is about as EASY a shift of venue as the NFL can expect. If the teams use the time zone or the travel time as an excuse for a poor demonstration of the NFL product, how much worse will it be when a team from the Pacific or Mountain time zones has to go to Tokyo, or Sydney? And there's also the issue of language. London speaks English, generally. Frankfurt less so. Beijing hardly at all. New York to London represents a challenge of accent and local peculiarities only, while negotiating Roman traffic or Parisian shrugs would be a far greater test for whistle–stop football players. Lastly, there’s the suggestion that teams might take it in turns to be involved in the International Series, sharing the logistic inconvenience around. But the way I hear it, a good number of NFL teams – about a third – are contracted for 8 games at their home stadia. So some teams would sure get to sidestep participation. Of course, the NFL could extend the season to 17 games, with 8 home, 8 on the road, and 1 more around the globe, but there’d probably be the players union to talk to about that, or perhaps a shortening of the pre-season. The International Series may yet raise more widespread issues than whether teams get caught up in the London traffic. A Tale of Two Chads Personnel gossip of the past week has focused quite heavily on two Chads – Pennington and Johnson – and their futures with the Jets and Bengals respectively. Maybe these are both cases of media frenzy, or of personnel departments with itchy trigger fingers, but I find both stories faintly perplexing, because neither team really needs to be jettisoning these players. In the case of Chad Pennington, this has felt like an inevitability. The media vultures have been circling the Jets QB for a while, and now they finally get what they wanted: Kellen Winslow. In fact, they got him last week, when he stepped in for Pennington in the closing minutes of the Bills game ...and promptly threw two picks. Hmm, yeah, that's much better. Pennington remains the fourth most accurate QB in the league this year, while the Jets have the 24th-ranked rush attack, and the 29th–ranked defense. The QB change solves nothing. To some extent, however, Pennington's history of brittleness meant the clock was always ticking on his tenure with the Jets. There's a faint logic there, even if the timing seems more desperate than sensible. In the case of rumors suggesting the Bengals will part with wide receiver Chad Johnson in the offseason, there would seem to be a case of mistaken identity underway. ‘Ocho Cinco’ is not T.O. Chad Johnson might sometimes like to caricature himself, be confident/arrogant (depending on your point of view), and in all other ways be thoroughly entertaining, but he’s never yet blown up a locker room, never before demanded a trade to a team of his choosing, never undermined his quarterback. He is, however, second in the league in receiving yards, and is the most dangerous weapon on the league’s no.5 offense. And despite the numerous Cincinnati players to have off-field problems, Johnson upsets league conservatives, but has yet to trouble the forces of law and order. He's the sort of player the Bengals need desperately. The Bengals are ranked 31st - next to last - in defense, by the way. A Game of Intimidation Sorry, but I’m going to have to mention the Patriots after all. Specifically, the charge that they are ‘running up the score’. You know what? They are. I’m just a little perplexed what the crime is - hurting opponents’ feelings? Oh, please! The NFL likes to think the teams have parity, and the Patriots are proving how dominant they are despite it. If that upsets their opponents, who cares. These are professionals, not college amateurs. These guys are paid huge sums of money to be intimidating, to be merciless, to take their superior size or speed and physically overwhelm their opposition. Football is a haven for bullies, and there’s nothing fair about that. Some of those bullies wear pads. But some of them carry clip boards and wear headphones. And sooner or later, there’s always a bigger bully. |
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