This past week the New Orleans Hornets announced that in the 2013 season they will change their name to the Pelicans. Wow, as the segment on Saturday Night Live goes, really, New Orleans?
At least for the next season, the Charlotte Bobcats, Washington Wizards, and Toronto Raptors won't be the only laughing stocks of the NBA. Unless they actually train a pelican to fly around the stadium like they do with hawks. That would be cool.
It doesn't matter if the name is actually to pay homage to the state bird. It just isn't a good name for a NBA team. Maybe back in the day it would work. Who would pick Celtics as a good name for a team either? But they are a famous legendary team, so we don't mind.
If this is a ploy to get the team into the news, it has worked. But to get your team in the news, start winning games. They already have the No. 1 pick in Anthony Davis. They need to get into the news by their play, not by a name change. Come on New Orleans.
I love the NFL. It is one of the most exciting sports to watch, and I almost always find myself wanting more. But if I were asked if there was a rule that I would change, it would be this.
In college football, in the final minutes of each half, the clock is stopped when a first down is achieved, allowing the chain gang to reset their marker and for the referee to spot the ball. In the NFL however, this is not the case.
How many of you have been watching a game, it is in the final seconds, and a team is trying to get in position to kick a field goal? They have no timeouts, and they launch a pass down the middle to an open receiver. The receiver is unable to get out of bounds, the defense is guarding the sideline. So, he is tackled in the middle of the field.
If the clock would have been stopped, the team would have had a field goal try from a reasonable distance. But the team had no chance to run up in time to spike the ball before the clock ran out.
In a league that in recent years has made advances to make football more offensive friendly, this is the next step. Give teams the ability to call a play that can get them into field goal range or in range for a Hail Mary without having to have a timeout. This basically dooms a team trying to make a comeback. The defense can just guard the sideline and the end zone, and as long as one person can tackle, they will win.
The fans would definitely be more excited for this, instead of watching a seemingly endless debacle of laterals to offensive lineman that have never touched a football in their NFL career. The NFL has made great advancements from the college game, but taking this rule from college would be beneficial to the game.
This week on sports radio, I have heard a lot of
debate about whether the San Francisco 49ers should start Colin Kaepernick or
stick with Alex Smith. Well, the Niners have decided to start Kaepernick, which
is a travesty.
Kaepernick had one good game. But Alex Smith led
your team to the NFC championship game last year. The Niners defense had enough
presence by itself to win the game last week. Kaepernick was unable to lead the
Niners to a win over the Rams, who are a less superior team than the Bears.
The radio station went on to say that Alex Smith
could not win in a shoot out, that he wasn't able to keep up with teams that
can score at will. How quick they forget the NFC divisional game where Alex
Smith led his Niners over the Saints in a shoot out, 36-32. This week is a
rematch of the game where Alex Smith played his best football. Put him in.
Jim Harbaugh stayed with Smith last year. Even two
weeks ago he defended Smith after he had been struggling. It seems like that was
a lot of gobble gobble turkey from a jive turkey gobbler.
Alex Smith deserves better than this. He deserves to
start as long as he is able to lead the Niners to victory, which he still can.
Don't do this to him again.
Something happened this last week that hadn't happened in four years. I'm not talking about the presidential election. I am talking about a tie game in the NFL. The San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Rams ended 75 minutes of play this past Sunday with the score of 24-24. This is the first tie in the NFL since the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cincinnati Bengals did it on Nov. 16, 2008.
The NFL is America's game. It has taken over that spot from baseball. Yet nothing could seem less American than ending a game in a tie. Sitting there on Sunday, watching this game end, it left a sour taste in my mouth. Ties just don't sit well with me. Something deep within most of us is the desire to have a winner and a loser.
There are no winners in a tie game, pun intended. Both teams leave the field with disappointment, maybe even more so than if they would have lost. The fans leave the game unsatisfied. The division and playoff standings are thrown all out of whack. I can't think of one good thing.
"I sure don't like it," said Rams defensive end Chris Long. "I think everybody on the field would have liked to have gone back out and just settled it. That's the rule right now, so it is what it is."
Most professional sports don't allow ties in a game. The NHL just recently changed its rules about ties in the 2005 season. Now games have shootouts to determine the winner. The longest NBA game ever played was on Jan. 6, 1951, where the Indianapolis Olympians won in 6 OT against the Rochester Royals. The longest professional baseball game was played in 1981, with the Minor League Pawtucket Red Sox beating the Rochester Red Wings 3-2 in 33 innings. The game lasted a staggering 8 hours, 25 minutes. Major League Soccer is the only other major sport in the U.S. to allow ties.
So what is the solution? That is the tricky part. You could adapt the college format, but most experts agree that it would not work well in professional football. You could go to a second 15 minute period, keeping sudden death. Or, one that I read a few days ago, a kickout, the equivalent of a shootout with field goals. The truth is, I don't know what would work best. I would assume that going to another overtime and the first to score wins would be the best policy. Do what you do to decide a playoff game.
A legitimate concern is player safety. Football is a very grueling sport, and player safety should be taken into account. But keeping things the way they are is frustrating, both to the fans and the players and coaches. Mind you, it doesn't happen very often, only 5 times in the last 15 years.
Please, NFL, get rid of ties. Oh, I just thought of something good. Although it frustrates us to see a tie, it saves us the frustration of watching yet another quarter after one team couldn't score a single point in 15 minutes of overtime.
Sports have the power to bring people together. Just look at the Olympics and you can see the evidence of that. I was glued to my television every night of the summer Olympics and was left wanting more. Just seeing athletes competing with everything they’ve got and wearing their home colors is truly inspiring.
Sports can help us forget our problems. For a few hours we can see a battle fought on a field or a court, and rest from our own troubles and cares. They can bring families and communities together.
One of the many examples came this last Sunday in the Meadowlands. New York City and the surrounding areas were flooded by the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Many people were without power and had their homes flooded. They came to get some relief, at least for a few hours.
“We need this,” said Giants fan Courtney Davis before the game against the Pittsburg Steelers.
Although the game ended in a loss for the home team, it provided some excitement in dire circumstances.
We can take a look back to the effects the New Orleans Saints had on the morale of its citizens after the devastating Hurricane Katrina. It gave the displaced and maybe even homeless people of that city something to cheer for.
This is one of the many reasons that I love sports. It can unite people almost better than anything I have seen. As we saw this Tuesday, America is very divided on what direction they want the country to go. But one thing that most agree on is that sports are awesome.
Although we can’t always agree on which team to root for, we can always agree on the game. This is more than we can say about election results.
So, be a sports fan. You don't have to understand the game. You don't have to have a team. Just enjoy watching athletes giving their all and enjoy the comradery that comes with cheering for human achievement.
Is
it just me, or did it feel like we were watching the Longest Yard this Sunday
in Pittsburg? The Steelers looked like they were dressed in prison uniforms.
I
just don’t understand why teams use the throwback uniforms. Most times there
was a reason why the jerseys were changed in the first place. Yet, each year,
it is a tradition. I don’t know if it is because they want to sell more jerseys
or if it is a tribute to older teams. Or it might be to disorient the opposing
team. The latter worked against me this Sunday.
"There's
a reason these jerseys were from 1932..... it's 2012 now though, so send them
back!!! lol," tweeted James Harrison, linebacker for the Steelers.
To
list some of the worst, you have the Steelers’ bumblebee jersey, the Tampa Bay
creamsicle orange, and the blue Green Bay Packer jerseys with brown pants.
Yet
there are some that work, the powder blue Chargers uniform, and the old
Patriots uniform. These are better than either of their current uniforms.
If
it works, use them. Even change the jersey. But if it doesn’t work, spare the
eyes of the players and the fans. If they want to bring them out again, thrown
them back.
In
our current society, we tend to downplay or even forget what our leaders do for
us. We take them for granted. With all the flaws we see in our leaders, we are
rare to see the good things that they do. But if we are ever without one, we
see exactly what they do, and how much they are needed.
Recently
in the NFL, we have seen teams lose their leader, or have a leader emerge.
Whether it is a coach or a player, they can have immediate impacts, for good or
bad.
Coaching,
even in the pros, is important. We all saw what happened to the New Orleans
Saints at the start of this season. They were absolutely lost. They had lost
Sean Payton, and had a new defensive coordinator. All this with the fact that
their leader on the field, Drew Brees, was sitting out in a contract dispute.
If further evidence is needed, we can look at the 49ers under Jim Harbaugh.
They went from the laughing stock of the NFC to a championship contender in
just one year. A similar trend, though less dramatic, is the play of the St.
Louis Rams under Coach Jeff Fisher. The Rams have already won more games than
last year. And let’s not forget Wade Phillips as the defensive coordinator of
the Texans. The Texans had one of the worst defenses in the league a few years
ago. Now they are one of the top defenses. One leader can make a difference.
The
last couple of weeks have shown us just how much certain players help a team.
Last week we saw the Texans get hammered by the Green Bay Packers. They had
just lost their defensive leader, Brian Cushing, the week earlier on a vicious
hit. The Texans looked lost on defense. Then this week they came back with a
vengeance, beating the Ravens by 30 points. J.J. Watt stepped up as the leader
of that defense and they got back on track.
The
Ravens had similar ills this week after losing their defensive leader Ray Lewis
for the season. The Ravens got manhandled by the Texans, and they looked
absolutely lost on both sides of the ball. We'll have to see how they respond
after this week.
The
Steelers had lost their defensive machine, Troy Polomalu, and had been
struggling on defense, losing some games that they shouldn’t have. The defense
played well this last week.
The
Packers just lost their defensive leader, Charles Woodson, for six weeks to a
broken collarbone. We will see how the Packers cope with this injury and what
it does to that already shaky defense.
Then
there are the teams with a need for a leader. The big one is the Carolina
Panthers. Their quarterback just went and got his GM fired because he was
whining about the organization and even asked for a suggestion box to help out
the Panthers. More than anything, Cam Newton should keep his mouth shut, and
stop moping on the sidelines. Get out there and do what you can. Use defeat to
bring the team closer together, not tear it apart.
To
end on a good note, we are seeing a rising star and leader take over games and
electrify fans. RGIII has been impressive this year, including his late game
heroics last week in NY. He has provided a spark to a team that was in need of
one. Even though he was beaten in the end by the 4th quarter master, Eli
Manning, we can see that RGIII will be one of the top QBs in the league for
some time to come.
Whatever
sport you play, you need a leader. Someone to take the lead and force others
around them to play better. Someone who will take blame if things go wrong,
even if it doesn’t fall on them. Someone to rally the downtrodden. And if your
leader gets injured, someone else needs to step up. It is an interesting
scenario this coming week as we see how teams handle these losses and who will
come out unscathed.
It
seems at the beginning of every NFL season, there is a specific thing that is
said over and over again. Last year was “elite” quarterbacks. Then came the
debate of who qualifies, sorry Joe Flacco, not yet.
This
year all the talk is about who are the “complete” teams? The
overwhelming standouts are the 49ers and the Texans. Many have even predicted
these two teams as the matchup of Super Bowl XLVII. The definition of a
“complete team” as I have come to understand it is a team that has a balanced
and efficient run and pass attack, and has a good defense.
I
think this is a flawed definition. As we saw last weekend, both of these
“complete” teams were absolutely dominated by none other than the two previous
Super Bowl champs. And how were they beaten? Their opponents turned to their
already proven formula of how to win championships.
The
Giants are notorious for their pass rush and being able to pound the football.
The Giants front men had six sacks against Alex Smith, and caused 3
interceptions because of continued pressure on the quarterback. Ahmad Bradshaw
rushed for 116 yards, the first 100 yard game the 49ers had given up in their
last 23 home games. Eli Manning didn’t make too many mistakes.
For
the Packers, the formula is simple. Protect Aaron Rodgers and good things will
happen. Run the ball respectably. Get good pressure on the quarterback and
cause turnovers. Against a secondary that had given up only 6 touchdowns all
year, Aaron Rodgers doubled that in one game. After giving up only 3 sacks, the
Packers also doubled that.
Both
the Packers and the Giants have been questioned this season. The Giants have
had a few close calls to sub .500 teams and their pass rush simply wasn’t
effective. The Packers had a meltdown last week against Indy and a game stolen
from them from the league in Seattle. Adding to this was the fact that the
offense just wasn’t clicking and the defense wasn’t doing what they do best,
cause turnovers.
But
how could anyone doubt the two former Super Bowl MVP’s? Aaron Rodgers came
under heavy fire this week. What happened to him? Are the Packers losing their
touch? This game was a statement.
“Just
follow behind me,” said Rodgers before the game to his teammates. They followed
him for 6 tds and 338 yards.
After
the game, Rodgers said this to NBC’s Michelle Tafoya, “We’re all just tired of
answering questions about what happened to the Packers, what happened to me. We
haven’t gone anywhere.”
There
are striking similarities in the way that the Packers and the Giants won their
games. It all started with stopping the run. The Giants held Frank Gore to just
36 yards on 8 carries. Although Arian Foster had 2 rushing tds, he was held to
just 29 yards and his lowest yds/carry of his career, just 1.7. Both Alex Smith
and Matt Schaub need their running game to be effective, and both play better
with a lead.
At
the end of the season, be honest, would you rather have Alex Smith or Eli
Manning as your QB? Matt Schaub or Aaron Rodgers? Eli and his 22 4th quarter
comebacks. Rodgers with his clutch, accurate throws. That is who I want at the
helm in January.
So
we circle back. What defines a “complete” team? A team that has a quarterback
that can completely dominate a game. A team who in the face of adversity, when
things aren’t being done right, step up and pick up the slack. A team that
overcomes injuries and has players step up in the big moment. A team that, when
the season is on the line, steps up and performs. A team that hears the doubt
and takes it as fuel for their fire. “It helps when people give me a reason to
have that chip,” said Rodgers after Sunday’s game. As a Packers fan I hope that
it continues and people keep giving the Packers chips to snack on.
If
the going gets tough, remember who is the leader of the team. “Shhh,” said
Rodgers to his critics. Don’t worry, I got this. Remember who I am.
