I don't truly rage about many things, but this is one of them. At the end of the season opener for the Detroit Lions last Sunday, Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson appeared to make what would be the game-winning (or at least last minute lead restoring) touchdown catch.
So, apparently the rules for making a catch in the endzone are different from anywhere else on the field. If that catch were made anywhere else on the field, it would have been ruled a complete pass. Johnson doesn't bobble the football, gets two feet down, and gets his butt down. A long string of loud obscenities filled the apartment that Sunday afternoon.
They resumed when I found this:
The receiver's possession seems tenuous, at best, yet the two-point conversion is awarded. It's also worth noting that in both cases, the referee in the best position to make the call on the field was overruled. At least in the Super Bowl clip, that referee's ruling on the field was the one under dispute. In the Lions' game, the referee who signalled the touchdown was overruled on-field by some other schmuck before the video review.
I really don't want to buy into the conspiracy theory of the downtrodden Lions getting unfavorable calls from a haughty NFL front office. However, I'll play Glenn Beck (distasteful, I know) and ask the question: would this happen to Peyton Manning in Indianapolis or Tom Brady in New England?
Western society these days seems to run on two things: petroleum and cynicism. Before everyone stops reading and thinks that I have been replaced by a Thomas Friedman clone - I am not going to talk about American foreign or energy policy. The last ten years of American (Canadian, too, I suppose) sports are my concern. More precisely, how the cynicism of today's society, usually reserved for American foreign and energy policy, has infected the greatest bastion of hope, elation and small miracles.
As a fair warning to the readers, I am going to link to a story that, sadly, deals with Tiger Woods' recent public relations problem. Once again, some stupid journalism provides easy fodder for my blog.
I really hope sports fans don't remember the 2000-2009 period for this ridiculous runaway tabloid story. If I want to remember something unfortunate from this sporting era, how about the NHL deciding to unceremoniously fall on its sword, again, or the Detroit Lions receiving their karmic dues for destroying the career of possibly the best running back to ever play the game. Here is a short list of undeniably amazing sports stories from 2000-2009:
- 2004 AL Pennant series - Michael Phelps @ 2008 Olympic Games - 2006 Rose Bowl game - Pat Tillman - 2006 World Cup Final - Lance Armstrong - This:
-This:
Note: I may hate the hockey shootout, but remember, we're talking about cynicism in sports, not hypocrisy.
I will be among the first to say that humanity didn't start the 21st century very well. It comes as no surprise that the news and opinions are laced with cynicism. What a shame that a sports fan has allowed his cynicism to cloud his view of all the truly great experiences we've shared these last ten years.
Besides, every good sports cynic knows that the baseball steroid saga is the best story of the decade.
The commercials were occasionally amusing. The allegedly 3-D commercials were sadly lacking 3-D quality (yes, I was wearing 3-D glasses and I accept the consequences), but the new Star Trek trailer was nice. Speaking of which, this year's Super Bowl had an extraordinarily high proportion of movie trailers. Unfortunately, one of those was for The Fast and the Furious.
Well, at least the game was good. I'm glad that Roethlisberger didn't get the MVP (Kurt Warner was incredible in the second half). I was stunned by one statistic: all three of Arizona's wide receivers (Fitzgerald, Boldin and Breaston) had over 1,000 receiving yards this season.
This past weekend (plus Monday), I experienced the highs and lows that our modern entertainment industry could deliver.
I'm going to start with the particular event that really got my blood boiling: the 2009 NHL "All-Star" Game. For the first time ever, I did not watch any NHL "All-Star" coverage or even bother watch the highlights (perhaps lowlights would be the better word to use). This game has turned into a commercial farce which is surpassed only by the almighty BCS bowl games. Fans, players, and franchises really don't care about it anymore.
The first signs that trouble was around the corner began appearing at around the New Year when the starting lineups were announced. Remember that starting lineups are determined by votes cast by fans. I'll list the 12 players and their respective teams.
Eastern Conference
Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh Alexei Kovalev - Montreal Andrei Markov - Montreal Mike Komisarek - Montreal Carey Price - Montreal
Western Conference
Patrick Kane - Chicago Jonathan Toews - Chicago Ryan Getzlaf - Anaheim Brian Campbell - Chicago Scott Niedermayer - Anaheim Jean-Sebastian Giguere - Anaheim
You don't need to be a hockey fan to see the problem here. For the hockey fans that are out there, you have to shake your head. Where is league goal scoring leader Alex Ovechkin of Washington? Where are the players from the league leading franchises: San Jose, Boston, or Detroit? If the playoffs were to start today, Anaheim would barely qualify in their 8th place spot and Pittsburgh would miss the playoffs with their pitiful 11-11-2 home record.
I love democracy as much as the next person, but if the Bush years or the BCS did not reveal the shortcomings of democracy, then this certainly must. Thankfully, the remainder of the roster is filled by the NHL with the intention of making sure that every franchise is represented.
Detroit was very poorly represented in the game as a result of Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk (the only two Redwings to make the roster) removed themselves from the festivities in order to recover from injuries. The NHL made an 11th hour appeal to other Redwings stars like Marian Hossa and Brian Rafalski who did not make the roster. Unsurprisingly, these guys made the selfish choice of spending time with family and friends during the only extended break in the long and grueling NHL schedule. So, for the first time that I can remember, the reigning league champion was not represented in the "All-star" weekend.
In order to add salt to the wound, the NHL and Gary Bettman, in all their infinite and just wisdom, decided to suspend Lidstrom and Datsyuk for one game. If the game of hockey is in the sad shape that it is then how does suspending two star players from the model NHL franchise help? Clinging to a dead tradition that serves no purpose other than delivering stale 12-11 shootout games to the hosting city's fans and corporate sponsors is truly baffling.
In other hockey news, Michigan and Michigan State played over the weekend and then this happened...
Any respect that I hold for Michigan State athletics is quickly slipping away. Sure Michigan State is bad this year and they've been victimized by Michigan all season long, but that does not justify this ugly and shameful incident. Both Michigan State players, Conboy and Tropp have been suspended for the remainder of the season. In my opinion, those suspensions are not enough. The rest of Michigan State's season is meaningless, they aren't going to win the CCHA or go to the NCAA tournament (on a side note: hmm, another college championship determined on the ice/field and not by voters). These players should miss next season and perhaps they should be simply banned from playing in the NCAA.
The good news is that the Michigan player is going to be OK and back on the ice next weekend.
Moving away from hockey, I went to go see Defiance last weekend. I thought it was a fantastic movie and I would recommend that everyone go see it or put it at the top of your Netflix queue when the DVD is released. Most importantly, it made me forget about the disappointing Valkyrie. Apart from the story, to which I had never been exposed, my favorite aspect of the film was the sound. So often these days movies are heavily doctored and butchered in post-production, but Defiance had a very real and organic quality to the sound design. For me, the guns sounded rich and authentic and I doubt anyone will disagree if you see the film in a theatre.
On Sunday, I finally got around to watching a recording of last week's The Office. For the first time since I started watching that show, I felt depressed and empty. Apart from a few amusing moments, the overall episode was a huge disappointment. The Micheal/Dwight adventure was really depressing and the intra-office Hilary Swank hotness panel was uninspired and boring. If I want to be depressed, I'll watch BattlestarGalactica. I watch The Office to see an entertaining story and have a good laugh. At least BattlestarGalactica made me want to watch again next week.
Anyway, of late I have rarely taken the time to post on my blog twice in one week, but I came across something on the interwebs that I had to mention.
For about six months now I have been visiting Tom's Games, the gaming and movie portion of the Tom's Hardware site. On Wednesday, they announced that they will stop doing video game and movie commentary. In its place, they will have a "cutting edge site designed to deliver the latest in online games." What a shame.
Now, I occasionally play online flash games like almost everyone, but this is a shameful step. Tom's Games offered interesting and insightful commentary, opinions and reviews. However, their greatest asset was the distinct lack of fanboy-ism that permeates that particular sector of the internet. They had an deep appreciation for the PC game platform, but did not let that cloud their judgement of console games. Lastly, the discussion forums are usually civil, another rare thing for this neighborhood of the internet.
Now Tom's Games is going concern itself with the lowest common denominator of the gaming world. These are cheap, simple, mindless games that are trumped by only the great World of Warcraft in amount of lost productivity.
The two editors-in-chief of Tom's Games, Rob Wright and Travis Meacham, wrote a letter to their readers which can be read here. If you are so inclined, take a look at their weekly video series, Second Take; it was one of my favorite internet video series.
A dark day for quality gaming journalism, indeed.
On a brighter note, the Red Wings completely annihilated the San Jose Sharks tonight! For those that haven't been following hockey as closely as I, San Jose has a very good team this year. A little over 30 games into the season, San Jose had lost only 3 games in regulation and were among the top 10 teams in nearly all the major statistical categories. They are on pace to break league records for number of wins and points in a single season. The Wings are hardly having a bad season, but the sheer brilliance of the San Jose squad makes the great Wings team look a bit tarnished. This was definitely a big statement game for the Wings.
Anyone who appreciates sports (at least the way I do) recognizes the magical times of the year when certain schedules converge:
March-April: NCAA Basketball Tournament, MLB Season Openers October: NCAA Football mid-season, NHL season begins, no NBA until end of the month Late December-Early January: compelling NFL games, NCAA Football bowl games (hopefully future playoff games), more NHL games including the Winter Classic
Ice Hockey is the most under-rated sport in America. It's fast, physical, entertaining and the athletes are, for the most part, not overpaid children like those littering the other major sports. Unfortunately, the NHL is a sick business. League revenues have been declining for years, labor disputes have ended multiple season over the past 20 years and the only place to watch a hockey game on TV is the Versus channel or local sports channels if you live in the right place. Fortunately, the source of these problems is easy to point out.
Gary Bettman is the current commissioner of the NHL. He has presided over the decline of one of North America's great professional sports leagues. I won't even go into the heretical rule changes that he has allowed to pass (most meant to compensate for his biggest blunders). His first big blunder was failing to completely resolve the labor dispute during the 1995 lockout half-season. Nine years later, the NHL lost an entire season because management and the NHLPA could not agree upon a salary cap. The two parties were within $10 million of each other, but they decided to lose a season instead. The NHLPA ended up being the biggest losers in the deal since the post-lockout deal was the worst deal offered.
After the 2004-05 lockout season, the sport lost sponsors, TV coverage (yes, ESPN used to cover the NHL and even had a dedicated analysis show), and fans.
However, before the Lost Season, Mr. Bettman decided to expand the league into untested southern markets through awarding franchises and relocating franchises out of traditional hockey markets. Minnesota, Quebec City and Winnipeg all lost franchises. New franchises were given or moved to Dallas, Phoenix, Raleigh, Tampa Bay, Anaheim (stupid Disney), Ft. Lauderdale, Nashville, and Atlanta.
Currently, most of these southern teams are in financial trouble. 30 teams seems like a good number for a professional sports league, but, in the current state of affairs, all of these teams are hurting league revenues and diluting the talent on the ice. The best solution for this problem is a league contraction and franchise relocation. It just so happens that I have a plan.
Franchises to fold or move:
Tampa Bay Lightning Florida Panthers Nashville Predators Carolina Hurricanes Atlanta Thrashers Phoenix Coyotes Columbus Blue Jackets
New Franchises:
To be honest, I'm not sure where to put new franchises. They should be in Canada at the very least. For the sake of argument, we'll put a franchise in Winnipeg and another in Quebec City.
I'm not terribly pleased with the extra team in the Eastern Conference, but New Jersey could be on the cutting block. I also feel sad about leaving an Original Six team, Chicago, alone in the West, but it's their own fault for being on central time.
As the title of this post would have you believe, I am still alive. I had a bunch of family over for the holiday weekend and between the food and Rock Band (one of my guitars partially broke) I had little time to blog. For those who are concerned, I think one of my brothers-in-law was a bit over-zealous with his strumming and the down-strum detector died. However, this brought upon a fascinating new discovery! I was playing the bass part of a song with up-strumming only on Hard (yeah, I am a badass) and when the song was over, I received the "Authentic Strummer" tag under my completion percentage. One of my brothers-in-law, who is actually a guitarist in a band, informed me that the game wasn't lying, then I recalled watching jazz bassists and rock bass players plucking the strings when they played. Rock Band: Fun and Educational as long as you don't play alone or "sing" a Beastie Boys song.
I don't have anything in particular to talk about, so I'll just point out some great stuff on the internet that everyone should look at this week.
The first is for fans of Valve's Half-life games. The official trailer for Black Mesa was released over the weekend! Black Mesa is a top-to-bottom remake of the first Half-life game using the Source engine that powered Half-life 2, Portal and Left 4 Dead. What makes this all the more interesting is that Valve has nothing to do with this game (except for the inspiration and developer tools). You can visit the developers here and view the trailer below!
Once again, the BCS is at the center of a season tainting controversy. Oddly enough, I can't actually blame the BCS for the mess, but the mess definitely exposes the weaknesses of the BCS system. Anyone who follows college football on the internet (save Okla-homers, haha) has undoubtedly read a number of articles condemning the Big 12 tiebreaker methodology. Long story short, Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech were tied for first place in the Big 12 South with a spot in the Big 12 Championship game on the line. The Big 12 rulebook dictates that BCS ranking breaks the tie in the current circumstances. Going into Thursday, Texas was #2 and Oklahoma was #3. On Monday, Oklahoma was #2 and Texas was #3 with both teams winning big. This is where things get bad. Earlier this season, Texas beat Oklahoma, on a neutral site, 45-35.
The claim made by BCS defenders that the regular season serves as a playoff is truly foolish now. The winner of the Big 12 South is a virtual shoe-in for the BCS Championship game. Missouri, the Big 12 North champ, is a mediocre team with little chance of success against Texas, Oklahoma or Texas Tech. Texas beat Oklahoma head-to-head at a neutral site, end of story. If there is any justice in college football, then the regular season playoff victory of Texas over Oklahoma is all that should matter here. However the current state of college football is a greed-driven, farcical fraud perpetrated by the BCS and its delusional advocates in collusion with ruling bodies of the Big 12 and other BCS conferences. If you want to read more, I suggest checking this and this out.
Only one thing will make this more amusing, a Missouri victory on Saturday. Here's a list of potential opponents for the Alabama-Florida victor should this happen:
Texas: failed to win it conference or division, but the most deserving*
USC: lost to Oregon State and plays in the relatively weak Pac 10
Utah: highly questionable strength of schedule
Texas Tech: see Texas, maybe more deserving* than everyone except Oklahoma
Penn State: lost to Iowa and plays in the relatively weak Big 10
Boise State: see Utah
Teams ranked 10-119: unprecedented, dream on
*Texas Tech beat Texas 39-33 at Texas Tech with that tragic dropped interception with 11 seconds to go.
Dear Santa,
I will sacrifice all of my Christmas gifts for the next five years if you will get FBS college football a playoff system this year. I really want an epic 16-team tournament, but I will settle for an 8-team playoff. If you give FBS college football a "plus one" system, a.k.a. bandaid over the chainsaw laceration, then you only get one year of sacrifice.
However, I know that bargaining with you is like bargaining with God, it doesn't work like it does in the movies. I expect to see Prince of Persia for my Xbox under the tree this year. Failure to comply will result in more meaningless letters in the future.
With such a busy news day and an even busier weekend upon us, I thought that another blog post would be appropriate. The veritable flood of news on Friday gives me a fair bit of material to talk about, but there is really only one story that dominated my day: The Game.
The annual grudge-match between Michigan and Ohio State has taken a backseat to other more "important" games this Saturday. Oklahoma-Texas Tech and Penn State-Michigan State might be more fashionable or more loaded with BCS implications, but The Game is always the most interesting game when people least expect it to be.
Michigan has a historically abysmal team at 3-8. Ohio State has a good team that has come up short of expectations at 9-2. In any fair and logical universe, Ohio State wins this game by 20.5 points. Unfortunately, the fair and logical universe is but a distant parallel to the one which we occupy. The best and most memorable games of the series have been won by the underdog. However, the underdog in tomorrow's game has never been so poor. Quite frankly, there are virtually no ways for me to reasonably plot a Michigan victory tomorrow. Michigan can keep the game close, but it would take an epic collapse from Ohio State to push Michigan over the edge.
I dare not make a final score prediction, but I will be surprised if Ohio State covers the spread.
Every year, I am amazed by the emotion that this game brings out. I hate Notre Dame/the Yankees/the Cowboys as much as any other American and Michigan State is always an amusing distraction. Ohio State, though, is in a different league. I maintain a certain degree of respect for Ohio State that Notre Dame could never earn, but at the same time I feel a deep vitriolic loathing of the Buckeyes. I always forget what it feels like a week after and that feeling doesn't return until the Wednesday before the next meeting. I want Michigan to win badly, but this year will require a miracle of 1980 US Olympic Hockey team proportions. I believe in two things: Ohio State sucks and miracles.
Recommended viewing this weekend:
- Michigan-Ohio State game - NOT the new film Twilight. Honestly, a little bit of me dies every time I see media coverage of squealing high schoolers at theatres across the country, not to mention flashbacks of boy bands in the 90s. Here's a great idea. Instead of going out to see an underage, vampiric, love-drama fest, go to your local library and borrow Bram Stoker's Dracula. - Detroit-Tampa Bay football game. Feel free to ignore the game and look for me in the crowd, or, rather, amongst the empty seats.
Recommended reading this weekend:
- Aforementioned Bram Stoker's Dracula with conditions - The National Intelligence Council's Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World
The NIC's latest Global Trends assessment is a fascinating projection of international relations, trade and conflict in 2025. Weighing in at 120 pages, it is by no means "light reading," but it is not overloaded with techno-babble or difficult concepts. You can obtain your own personal pdf here.
Great storm clouds billow and broil on the horizon. From the swamps of Florida to the coal mines of Pennsylvania to the oil fields of Texas a great tempest is upon us all. The great national nightmare has returned to haunt the dreams of Americans once more. PLUS, there is an election tomorrow which could prove to be of some interest!
The great disaster which will soon strike our nation has terrorized us for years with visions of dreams unrealized and truths unrevealed. Indeed, the horror of which I write is none other than the Bowl Championship Series of college football. Football is passionately followed by untold millions in America and across the globe (Canada, too). In my opinion, college football fans are the most passionate because of the close ties people develop with the schools they attend. Furthermore, the regional nature of conferences and rivalries brings out a spirit of competition that hearkens back to the days of pre-federal government. That silliness aside, these fans, schools, conferences, leagues and entertainment networks have instituted the most nonsensical and unjust system to determine the best team in the land. Outside of the FBS (formerly known as Division I) denomination of NCAA football teams, champions are decided through a playoff or tournament system. Furthermore, all of the other major college sports (basketball, ice hockey, etc.) also determine national championships through tournaments or playoffs. All of the major professional sports leagues also decide their champions through playoff systems. The BCS system was put into place to assert some form of legitimacy to the random national championship awarded to the winner of one of the major bowl games at the end of the season. Some computers and supposed experts vote on the best 25 teams in the FBS subdivision of NCAA football and the top two teams at the end of the season play each other for the national championship. As a result, the bowl games maintained an air of tradition (which I admit is of some value), the regular season games maintain their importance (also a good thing), the student-athletes get to maintain their focus on studies (*rolls eyes*), and the entertainment networks and corporate sponsors get to fatten their cash cow bowl games through sponsorship and intense controversy. Unfortunately, the victims of this ridiculous system are the legitimacy of any national champion and the fans.
So, back to this impending doom thing. I guess I am over-hyping this whole situation, but I feel the need to fight fire with fire and I don't want to have to do another BCS rant post. This happens every year and it is going to happen once again. More than one team is likely going to be eligible for the national championship game based on a number of factors. These factors, of various legitimacy, include: number of losses, late season losses, quality of schedule, relative conference strength, recent team/conference bowl records, most recent victory (teams that play weeks after others have complete equally lengthy seasons hold significant advantages). In the current situation, rumors are swirling that an undefeated Penn State team could get snubbed by a one loss SEC team, Big 12 team, or, God forbid, USC. Granted, there is still a lot of football left to be played, but the fact that this situation is even remotely possible is unacceptable.
I'll admit that I have my own opinion on the Penn State snub hypothetical. I believe that any undefeated team from one of the BCS conferences is deserving of national championship consideration over ANY one-loss team, regardless of the circumstance. If the BCS is supposed to turn every regular season game into a playoff game equivalent, then one loss is damning evidence of inferiority. This situation is irrefutable simply because it is the nature of this BCS god that we worship before the altar of commercialized football.
The only way to restore common sense and legitimacy to college football is to implement a playoff or tournament. I care little for how it's done, aside from the fact that we would need, at least, an 8-team playoff to preserve the current bowl system.
Here's one potential solution that include all of the FBS conferences.
I would make only one request: create a major bowl game that is held at a northern site. I want to see how SEC, Big 12 and Pac 10 schools deal with a "neutral site" game away from their home stadiums in the balmy south and west. Let's see how the Floridas, USCs and Texases deal with a game at Soldier Field in January.
Yeah, they'll probably have to take down that ski jump for the game.
Update:
Barack Obama just endorsed a college football playoff system on the Monday Night Football halftime show! If that doesn't put some momentum behind the Revolution to Overthrow the BCS, then I doubt anything will. John McCain wants to stop the use of performance-enhancing drugs. A good answer, indeed, but a better one would be to address the third great sin of American sports: the goal line trapezoid in NHL hockey!
