It’s Second Dallas Day! #HttC #Commanders

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It’s Dallas day, part duex, so let me remind you of something important.

Hail and Happy Thanksgiving!

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It’s Dallas Day! #HttC #Commanders

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It’s Dallas day, so let me remind you of something important.

Hail and Happy Thanksgiving!

Follow me on Twitter @mmadork

Our Chance to Shine! #SuperBowl #NFL #football

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This is America’s chance to shine!

Did I mention I’m a lacrosse fan?

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The Fix Is In! #SuperBowl #NFL #football

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The fix is in! Or at least, so say Cincinnati fans. The horrendous officiating in the AFC Championship game has Ohioans (some of them) claiming that there’s a fix. This is a remarkably stupid idea – I’ll get to a better explanation in a bit – but let’s entertain the theory to see if it makes sense. Let’s start with a list of the teams that made the Super Bowl and their records in the big game.

Eagles (1-1-?)
Chiefs (1-1-?)
Rams (1-1)
Bengals (0-1)
Buccaneers (2-0)
49ers (0-2)
Patriots (5-3)
Falcons (0-1)
Broncos (1-1)
Panthers (0-2)
Seahawks (1-1)
Ravens (1-0)
Giants (2-0)
Packers (1-0)
Steelers (2-0)
Saints (1-0)
Colts (1-1)
Cardinals (0-1)
Bears (0-1)
Raiders (0-1)

For the 2002 season (thus starting with the 2003 Super Bowl), the NFL expanded to 32 teams. As you can see above, since and including that year, as well as this year, only 20 (62.5%) of those teams have reached the Super Bowl. That means that 12 teams agreed to fix games despite never getting their shot at the Super Bowl. Either that, or 12 teams were outvoted but felt compelled to keep their mouths shut because they were still part of a vote to fix games.

But if everything is predetermined, then getting one’s shot at the Super Bowl is meaningless. They were chosen either to win or lose it. This means that seven of 20 teams agreed to always lose, with five of them getting only one appearance. Why would they vote for this scheme? And what the hell did New England do to get so many of them. I get needing to mix things up so that the fix has some semblance of randomness, but 8/20 Super Bowls (9/21 if you go back one more year) seems a bit unfair to the 0-1 teams, or even the 1-0 teams.

Oh, wait a second. I know. It’s all about the money. Follow the money, and you’ll see why these teams voted the way they did, right? Well, no. Here’s a list of the most valuable franchises in the NFL according to Forbes (as of August 22, 2022).

Dallas Cowboys
New England Patriots
Los Angeles Rams
New York Giants
Chicago Bears
Washington Commanders
New York Jets
San Francisco 49ers
Las Vegas Raiders
Philadelphia Eagles
Houston Texans
Denver Broncos

Why would the most valuable franchise agree to choke every year in the playoffs? Does Jerry Jones seem like the kind of guy who’d strike that deal? Does Dan Snyder seem like that guy? The Commanders are number 6 on the list. And what the hell is going on with the Jets? Seven winning records in those 20 years (none since 2015), with a 42% winning percentage, and only four seasons in which they made the playoffs. The Houston Texans come in as the 11th most valuable franchise, and they’ve been to the playoffs in only 6 seasons (no road wins), and also have a 42% winning percentage overall. Meanwhile, the Chiefs (#23) and Buccaneers (#24) have two of the last three Super Bowl wins, and the Chiefs are headed to their third in four years.

Here’s another alternative theory: You could say that, as the new guys on the block, Houston had to accept a dry spell for the first 20 years, but that ignores the disastrous decades the Jets, Commanders, Dolphins, etc. have had, while also ignoring that fellow newbies, the Carolina Panthers (25th most valuable), have gotten there twice. Sure, the Saints may have been given a Super Bowl in the wake of hurricane Katrina, but then why haven’t the Browns gotten a feel-good, post-NFL-return Super Bowl appearance?

Also note that New England may not have been a valuable franchise until they got their run that began before 2002 – I can’t find data going back that far – which calls into question why they’d be given this honor in the first place if it were all about the money.

So, if there is a fix, there are a ton of losers that are part of that fix, and that seems unlikely. Besides, having at least been to a Super Bowl in the past 20 years, the Bengals ownership is one of the teams that likely voted for it, so they don’t get to complain about how it turns out. The real answer is this: The officials are humans, and as humans, they have stupid, cognitive biases. You see this in all sports. A referee staring right at Lebron James as he takes three steps without dribbling and then resumes dribbling calls neither violation. Why? “Because it’s Lebron James. He’s so good, he’d never travel, so I refuse to acknowledge he did.” The Patriots have benefited from this for decades. All great teams and players do. That doesn’t diminish the fact that they’re great, but it certainly helps them become greater.

The NFL (et al.) should acknowledge this and be more willing to admit errors to the public. With YouTube and other platforms available to everyone, you can’t hide it, and trying to hide it just feeds the notion that it’s intentional. Of course, Vegas loves this conspiracy theory.

Fix your shit, “pro” leagues.

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My Capitals (and Hockey) Anniversary #Washington #Capitals #RockTheRed #ALLCAPS @Capitals

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Today, January 13, 2023, at 7:00 PM EST, was the 45th anniversary of my first in-person Washington Capitals game (I was 9 years old). It was a 2-2 tie against the Minnesota North Stars, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

“How long is this game, dad?”
“60 minutes.”
“But the first period is 20 minutes?”
“Well, yeah. Hockey has three periods.”
“What?! Everyone has two or three ‘periods.’ Hockey has three?”
“Yep.”

I was already fascinated by the fact that they were playing on ice. Three periods? I loved that unique aspect to the game. I instantly realized that this would give teams an even greater home field advantage. They could go in the direction they wanted more times than the other team. In football (wind speed), that could be huge.

The game ended in a tie, and despite knowing that you could have ties in football, they were rare. Here, it seemed like that was a relatively ordinary thing, and it was. I asked,

“A tie?! You can have ties?!”
“Sure.”
“Well, how do they determine who has the best winning percentage?”
“It doesn’t work that way. They use points, and teams get one point for a tie.”
“Points?!?! They have points?!?!”

The ways in which hockey was unique just kept getting better for a budding intellectual like me. And I was so happy with my game program.

Hockey is life.

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Chris Cooley Chipping Away at Dan Snyder @thecooleyzone @kevinsheehanDC @SheehanPodcast @team980 @SethDavisHoops @shayne_kress @SirPsychoT @Commanders #NFL #Washington #Commanders #DanSnyder #JustSellTheTeam #football

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Washington football legend, Chris Cooley, was on Kevin Sheehan’s radio show Wednesday morning. He was discussing his selection by the fans as one of the greatest 90 players in franchise history. The team plans to have a ceremony this Sunday to honor these players and the franchise. Cooley has declined to be involved.

I don’t have any interest in doing this. I’m very appreciative of being voted in and I’m very appreciative of my time when I was there with [Washington]. At this point, I don’t have a lot of desire to be involved with the Washington Commanders.

Let’s read between the lines. Cooley probably wants to be there, and this is his once chance to do this. If he doesn’t show up, the opportunity is lost forever. What Cooley is doing is what I’m doing and what you should be doing, but because he has a high profile, he could actually accomplish some good.

The Commanders are a joke and have been a joke for quite some time. This despite completely different players, coaches, and even front office personnel. The more things change, the more things stay the same. There’s been only one constant during this nightmare: Dan Snyder. I shouldn’t need to lecture anyone on how embarrassing he is, but let’s just list a few things:

• History of losing (158-216-1 as of today, which isn’t even 60%).
• History of a hostile working environment.
• The lowest-rated stadium in the NFL.
• Dumping sewage on fans (and I’m not talking about the team’s performance).
• Unsafe railings.
• Earned the hatred of his fellow NFL owners.

So, how do we fix this? Do we rely on the owners to oust him? I wouldn’t. I have no faith that they’re going to do anything but talk about it. No, we must fix this, and we must do this by convincing Snyder himself, despite is arrogance and stubbornness, that he doesn’t want the team anymore. We must not attend games or buy merchandise. Now, it’s true that the team’s attendance has dropped to 31st in the league, but that’s not good enough. Too many Washington fans still attend, each of them wearing new gear that they recently purchased.

"IF CHRIS COOLEY AIN'T BLEEDING BURGUNDY AND GOLD FOR LIFE THEN HE CAN KEEP HIS ASS IN WYOMING!!! WE OFF TO TAKING COMMAND!!! #HTTC" pic.twitter.com/lnm6o1XCxm

— Kevin Sheehan is God (@SheehanIsGod) October 20, 2022

Unfortunately, I have no faith in you either. It’s apparent that many of you are just as stubborn as Snyder and far dumber. You insist that I’m not the real fan because I’m abandoning the team. In fact, you’re not the real fan because you won’t punish the team for abandoning you.

The irony is completely lost on these idiots.

But at least some of you get it.

Chris Cooley is awesome https://t.co/2RZq1aQyT3

— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) October 20, 2022

Holy shit. Good for Chris Cooley. https://t.co/IjE2gRontG

— Shayne Kress (@shayne_kress) October 20, 2022

I always liked Chris Cooley, like him even more now https://t.co/pQrgOrDxMb

— Sir Psycho T (@SirPsychoT) October 20, 2022

This brings me back to Chris Cooley. I’m not in his head, so I don’t speak for his motives. I can just speculate as to the effects of his words and actions. As an alumnus of the team, not only is Dan Snyder personally disappointed knowing that Cooley is rejecting the honor because its value is outweighed by the detriment of associating himself with Dan Snyder, but it’s also a public embarrassment. This may be the final straw needed to push Snyder to sell the team.

So, imagine this: All the merchandise still on the shelf; all the fans in the stadium rooting for the visiting team; Eagles, Cowboys, and Giants fans having their own sewage dumped on them because Snyder can’t get a new stadium deal; all the revenue drying up; and the alumni of the team refusing to participate in official events. That, and only that, will drive Snyder to sell the team and give us any hope of returning to the glory days. Let’s hope Cooley is the first of many.

Thank you, Chris, for doing your part to clean up this mess despite what it costs you.

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The NFL Doubles Down on Stupid @TroyVincentSr @nfl @usfl @XFL2023 #NFL #USFL #XFL #football

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Troy Vincent is an idiot working for an idiotic league. The NFL’s vice president of football operations went on ESPN this morning and insulted the intelligence of every fan of the game. Sometimes that’s an effective strategy — some fans are legitimately stupid or uncaring as long as they get the product they want — but that’s not going to work this time. There are two general points he made. First, he stated that the league stands behind the controversial “roughing the passer” calls we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks. Second, he stated that these calls didn’t result from pressure the league placed on the referees between weeks. Neither are true.

The Rule

The rule itself states, among other things, that

Roughing will be called if, in the Referee’s judgment, a pass rusher clearly should have known that the ball had already left the passer’s hand before contact was made.

When tackling a passer who is in a defenseless posture (e.g., during or just after throwing a pass), a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight. Instead, the defensive player must strive to wrap up the passer with the defensive player’s arms and not land on the passer with all or most of his body weight.

(Emphasis added.)

Let’s start with the Grady Jarrett tackle against Tom Brady. First, it’s clear Jarrett landed with almost none of his weight on Brady. Instead, he placed Brady on top of him, and as he continued to roll over top of Brady, he lost almost all contact with Brady. Second, this shouldn’t matter. Brady was not in a “defenseless posture.” The result of the bogus flag was a loss for Atlanta, so the consequences were serious.

The Chris Jones call is even worse even though it didn’t cost the Chiefs the game. Chris Jones became the ball carrier when he stripped the ball from Derrick Carr. He wasn’t tackling anyone, and Carr wasn’t a passer at that point. Jones’ momentum naturally carried him forward and downward. Did he have an obligation to fumble the ball in order to brace himself to avoid falling on Carr? Hell, in other circumstances, you would expect Carr to be pulling Jones down onto himself to tackle him (though that didn’t happen here). If Carr is pulling Jones down, is that still a foul? How could Jones avoid that? This is insane, and we all know it.

In fact, these calls are both so crazy that I didn’t need to rehash them. I just wanted to make the videos readily available in case you wanted to review them. We’re all assuming I’m correct about this. This post is about the league’s response, so let’s move on.

Vincent focused on the phrase, “in the Referee’s judgment,” to justify all the nonsense we’ve seen. That certainly justifies not firing the referees — the NFL has placed them in a tough spot, after all — but it doesn’t justify the calls. A reasonable mind cannot find roughing on these plays. There’s a footnote at the bottom of the rule that states, “When in doubt about a roughness call or potentially dangerous tactic against the quarterback, the Referee should always call roughing the passer.” However, as broad as that discretion is, none of these situations leave anyone with an IQ over 25 with any doubt. The rule clearly wasn’t violated in either case, and even those that have never read the rule know that. Since Tua Tagovailoa’s injury, a clear trend has emerged with roughing the passer that hasn’t been there in all our decades of watching football.

Pressure on the Referees

Bad calls are part of the game, but as I said above, we see a clear trend that started with a scary injury to Tua Tagovailoa in week 4. In week 3, Tagovailoa was allowed to return to the game against Buffalo after a less severe, but still bad, head injury left him impaired. The doctor on duty was relieved of his position for allowing that. The rule hadn’t changed over the four intervening days, but how it’s been applied clearly has. Are you telling me that, after firing the doctor and hearing all the criticism in the press, this league didn’t send an internal memo or otherwise tell the referees to interpret the rule differently? Why yes, that’s exactly what Vincent is telling me, and you, and anyone else that he thinks is dumb enough to believe it (i.e., everyone that watches the NFL).

Monopoly

The NFL holds a well-earned monopoly on professional football in America. That could change. Sure, the USFL tried and failed before, as did the XFL, but the NFL’s recent miscues could be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. If the league will lie even about obvious things, what else are they hiding? Are all the owners secretly monsters?

Fans are fed up, and if the USFL and XFL make the right moves, they could siphon off some serious talent from the ranks of the NCAA. We could be seeing the beginning of the dismantling of that monopoly. The NFL better be more careful.

Fix your shit, NFL.

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Acme #MichaelJordan #GOAT #language

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As a language nerd, I subscribe to two “word of the day” newsletters, one from Dictionary.com and one from Word Genius. Monday’s word of the day from Word Genius was “acme.” I found the image interesting.

You know how they say, “If you looked up ugly in a dictionary, your picture would be in it”? Well, Michael Jordon holds that honor (in a good way).

Just an observation.

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Premier Lacrosse League Has Some Work to Do @PremierLacrosse @AnishESPN @TerpsMLax @qstor2 #PLL #PremierLacrosse #Maryland #Terps #Lacrosse

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As a graduate of the University of Maryland, I’m a rabid college lacrosse fan, so with the PLL striking a deal with ESPN, of course I’m giving it a shot. It’s a great sport, but as with boxing, i can be turned away from a great sport by a terrible industry. Here are the good and bad so far.

No regional representation. The most glaring issue I have with the league is that the teams aren’t tied to a location. The Chaos are just the Chaos, not the Washington Chaos. This is a major issue with the USFL, but unlike the USFL, the PLL surrenders to this notion. They don’t even bother to assign fake regional affiliations to the teams. Why not? Who should I decide to support? I can’t simply support former Terps players because they play for different teams. I can be happy that Matt Rambo scores a goal, but do I really care whether his team (the Whipsnakes) beats Logan Wisnauskas’s team (the Chrome)? On the other hand, the Whipsnakes sure have a ton of Terps on their roster, so maybe I should root for them (for now), but the Atlas have none, so those guys can rot.

The graphics are inconsistent and sporadic. Sometimes I know who just made a great play. Sometimes I know where that player went to school. I should always have all of that information, especially when a player scores, but also when anything important was going on. As I said, with no regional ties, the only thing I have to root for is former Terps doing well and former rivals of the Terps shitting the bed. It’s not much, but it’s something, and yet I don’t always get that. This is critical for a new league (or at least one finally being broadcast on a major network) in order to make necessary progress.

A Scorpion? The logo for the Chaos is a scorpion. What do scorpions have to do with chaos? If they can’t come up with a logo representing chaos, then they shouldn’t call the team the Chaos. What is this, indoor soccer?

Team mascots. Let’s keep going with that. The Chrome? Again, is this indoor soccer? And what’s the deal with the Atlas? Their mascot is a bull. The only connection I can find between “Atlas” and “bull” is the Atlas video game. Even if that video game is the reason for the mascot, cows and bulls are just background animals. If there’s another connection between Atlas and bulls, I can’t find it. Perhaps the team should explain that on their website.

Location, location, location. They play at SUNY Albany.

Albany.

I get it. The rent is probably cheap, and they need to play on the cheap right now. But Albany. 😐 There’s something to be said for working within your means, but also something to be said for “go big or go home.” Albany swings the pendulum too far in one direction.

Football field. One thing I hate about the game is that it’s always played on football fields. In all these years of watching, I still haven’t gotten used to multiple sidelines. If arenas can shift between basketball courts and hockey ice, the PLL can reprint the field.

Website. The website could use some work. Not much, but some. Either it’s missing things, or it’s too poorly organized such that I can’t find them. For example, I’d like to see the rules of the game. They appear to have a 2-point line, but it was mentioned only in passing, and I couldn’t verify it via the website. Also, why have a betting page if there are absolutely no betting lines for the game?

The Good

Anish Shroff! The voice of college lacrosse play-by-play is handling PLL broadcasts. It’s an obvious move, but nevertheless a great one. He’s the reason I knew what was going on in the games, but when I had to mute my TV, I was a bit lost.

Location, location, location. Not all games will be in Albany, and some will be at major stadiums. They’re visiting some major cities, including Washington, DC on September 11. I’m going to try to attend.

Competitive game. With 2.7 seconds to go, the Whipsnakes broke the tie and beat the Chaos. That’s what you want to start your season. The Atlas blew out the Redwoods, so that was anticlimactic, but you can’t expect all the games to be close.

Technically clean. As you should expect, the pro game is cleaner than the college game. Being a Terps fan, I’ve seen a lot of really good lacrosse. I saw some mistakes here, but I see the pros doing things the college kids don’t.

The PLL’s season-opening games today are competing with the UFC, USFL (for whatever that’s worth), and MLB. They need to have the good outweigh the bad if they want to carve out a place for themselves.

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The USFL Seems . . . Stupid. @usfl #USFL #football

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I get it. It’s tough starting a league. I also understand that, in a society of over 320,000,000 people, there’s more than enough money for a second (or third) professional football team to succeed. But their launch seems premature.

I watched much of the first game, which was difficult because it was competing with the Capitals-Canadiens game and the UFC fight night. What I saw was reasonably good football considering it’s the first game of a minor league. However, there are a couple of problems.

The first problem is that there are only 8 teams, which means 50% of the teams will make the playoffs. What’s the point of having playoffs? Just have the two best teams play in a championship game. Otherwise, the regular season means nothing. Compare this to the AFL. In 2018, there were only four teams in the league. My hometown team went 2-10, but because everyone got into the playoffs, they had a chance. . . and they won Arena Bowl 31. Unsurprisingly, the league folded after the 2019 season. The whole premise was ridiculous. The USFL isn’t enough of a step up from this.

The second problem is that the teams are assigned to cities/states — Birmingham, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, etc. — but they play all games in Birmingham, AL. In what way do the Michigan Panthers represent the state of Michigan? How do they bring revenue or recognition to the state? How could they possibly expect to foster regional pride even if they win the championship game? Do you actually expect to see a sea of . . . whatever those hideous colors are in the stands in Birmingham?

At least it isn’t the same color used by half the teams.

Hell, the games have no one in the stands today because teams with no ties to Birmingham aren’t worth sitting in the rain to watch.

As far as things I like, there are the overtime rules, and I expect the USFL to experiment in ways that a long-standing league like the NFL is slow to do. Also, I like that there are microphones everywhere, from the players to the coaches to the refs to the league officials. It started as a little distracting, but I got over that very quickly.

I know. It’s a new league, so they’re starting small. Well, they shouldn’t. There’s too much competition today to launch a league without a genuine effort behind it. They should have at least 10 teams so that less than half the teams make the playoffs, and if they’re going to concentrate all the teams on the East Coast, they have no excuse not to play games in other cities. Because they all play in Birmingham, day two’s rain delay held up the entire day’s games by an hour.

The announcers keep harping on player safety as a bizarre form of virtue signaling, thinking this will get everyone on board. It won’t. I expect this first season to be a waste of time and money, and that could bankrupt them before they get a chance to take a legitimate stab at it. That’s a shame. Competition is always good.

Go big or go home.

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