HOME ABOUT US CONTACT US SUBSCRIBE ADVERTISE SITE MAP
|
|
HOME ABOUT US CONTACT US SUBSCRIBE ADVERTISE SITE MAP |
|
|
 |
|
Wednesday 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 Santa's Sackings January 01, 2009 Ready for the Turkey November 27, 2008 Making it to the Big Dance November 26, 2008 Brighter Days Ahead for Chargers? November 5, 2008 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: |
|
SPORTS SIDELINE 
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale Unnecessary Hits To The Pocket Everywhere I look at the moment, players seem to be getting penalized for pointless things — 'late hits' you have to watch in slo–mo to perceive as late, end zone celebrations after having the egotistical audacity to have scored and given the ticket–buyers what they want. That sort of numptyism decreed by pencil–necks in suits I've come to expect, but now it seems that nearly every instance is being coupled with a monetary fine. "It's starting to cost too much money to come to work for these guys" commented Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, after receiver Hines Ward was fined $15k for the second straight week for 'unnecessary roughness'. Well, I reckon Hines probably still earns enough to come to work, but Ward wasn't even flagged on those plays at the time. Yesterday, Joey Porter of the Miami Dolphins was fined $10k for second–guessing referee Ed Hochuli after the game (holy cow, sports columnists and Chargers fans must owe enough to bail out the banks by now). I can only guess this stuff all goes towards some Christmas bonus for NFL staff. Financial crisis? Not when you can generate this sort of cash. What I want to know is, if NFL players and coaches aren't allowed to second–guess the referees, why are faceless NFL bureaucrats allowed to do it? Because surely that's what they're doing when a referee doesn't throw a flag on a play, but the paperwork posse decide they can demand $15k a pop for a play that passed for legal at the time. And this is on a wide receiver? Not some crazed linebacker, not a defensive end, not some assassin–like safety, but a receiver! Just how soft do the NFL want football played? And it isn't just football. This past week I watched (okay, mostly fast–forwarded) another Formula One motor race to witness drive–through penalties for contact incidents some of which wouldn't have raised an eyebrow in the days of Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher, but which today seem to require intervention with metronomic regularity. And as usual, after the race, there was an enquiry. Yawn. Really, who IS running these sports? Presumably people who've never suited up. To those people, I offer this message: We, the fans want YOU to back off. Not the players, not the drivers — YOU. We watch football because it makes us go 'ooh' when somebody gets hit, 'aah' when somebody lights up his opponent, and laugh when they do the rumba in the endzone. We like seeing somebody knocked silly, we enjoy watching million–dollar cars smashed to smithereens against a tire wall. We still want the drivers to step out of the car, and the football players to bounce back up like nothing happened, and yes, that might not be realistic of us. But don't dolly down contact sports, or preach about 'safety' like it's the biggest concern in a sport where people drive at 180 miles an hour. And don't pick the pockets of our heroes for more in a month than some fans earn in a year. That's not sport, that's tax. Upset: BYU (...and sports writers) I admit it, I was rooting for an opportunity to really bash the BCS. Brigham Young wouldn't have been just another smaller–conference team cruelly snubbed despite an unbeaten record, they would have been a former National Champion proving that they no longer had the opportunity to compete for such an honor. It would have been the latest damning indictment that the BCS is elite to the point of subdividing the Bowl Subdivision into two tiers — those that are genuinely allowed to compete for the National Championship, and those that are merely given lip service. Etc, etc, wah wah wah. Well, TCU blew up that opportunity. The Horned Frogs jumped up Thursday night and slapped No.9 BYU silly, defeating their conference foes to the tune of 32–7. That proves the strength of the Mountain West Conference overall — a case that has been made throughout this season — but blunted the weapon BCS haters were hoping would slay the beast. Not that the upset was that unlikely. TCU are a ranked team themselves in one poll, with just one loss (to Oklahoma), and the game was played on Thursday night, the time when all ranked teams should quake in their boots. Now BYU can join West Virginia and USC as big–name mid–week victims. Well, they were 'big–name' just for a moment there. At No.9, but not that many votes from No.4, they had been in position to make a run at the national title. So much for that. Now, with USC already bounced back to No.4 even with one loss, 5–1 Oklahoma ranked four spots ahead of an unbeaten Oklahoma State team that's still unranked, and four Big 12 teams ranked in the top 12, is there any way that the likes of No.13 Utah or No.16 Boise State can get into those two top spots? It's just not enough now to be wowed by the appearance of a non–'Big 6' team in a BCS bowl game. We've seen that. We've even seen the mid–major conferences beat the big boys once they've been allowed to play on the same field as them. Utah shellacked Pittsburgh 35–7 in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and Boise State topped Oklahoma 43–42 in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. But those weren't National Championship games, and when Utah and Boise State finished those seasons 12–0, they didn't get any national title. With seven one–loss teams still ranked ahead of them at the mid–way mark, and with BYU unlikely to be a rung on the ladder of respect once they fall below Utah, it's hard to see the Utes being more than a BCS–bruiser. I guess I could hope for that, and build myself up for a pro–playoff rant when they're snubbed in favor of a 1–loss team. Then again, they've got a Thursday night game against TCU down the road. At this rate, I could end up leaning on Penn State as my 'cruelly snubbed' unbeaten. At least Penn State don't play any games on Thursdays. |
  |