…. is back!
Thursday’s game was great (especially since the Saints won) and the Monday doubleheader will be even better, but there’s nothing like National Football League games on Sunday.
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I’m honestly shocked, particularly that the vote was so one-sided — 28-4.
From the link:
The NFL owners voted to change an element in the overtime rule, giving the team that loses the coin toss at the start of overtime to get a possession if the coin-toss winning team scores a field goal with the first possession.
The proposal passed 28-4. As it is written, the rules change applies just for the postseason, but the owners also decided to discuss adopting the changes for the regular season at their next meeting, in May in Dallas.
The Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals voted against the proposal.
The competition committee recommended the change in a vote of 6-2, and commissioner Roger Goodell supported the plan. He was able to secure enough votes to get the proposal passed on Tuesday, a day before the expected Wednesday vote.
The reason for the change was the increased accuracy of kickers since 1993. In 1994, the NFL moved kickoffs from the 35 to the 30, which created better field position for the teams that won the coin toss and received the kickoffs.
Statistics examined by the committee showed that since 1994, teams winning the coin toss win the game 59.8 percent of the time. The team that loses the toss wins the game 38.5 percent in that 15-year span.
So (expletive) what.
And why is ESPN breathlessly reporting on this non-story?
From the link:
The NFL Network accidentally aired a vulgarity yelled by Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels as he chastised his players on the sideline of their Thanksgiving night game against the New York Giants.
Coming out of a commercial break following a series of false starts near the goal line that resulted in Denver settling for a field goal, the NFL Network showed a clip of McDaniels, who yelled at his players: “All we’re trying to do is win a (expletive) game!”
… is stupid, outdated and very counterproductive.
For this reason alone, if nothing else.
Bill Simmons today from the second link:
Prediction VI: Blackouts of home games will become the signature media story of the 2009 season. You’ll hear way too much about it. Here’s my take: This isn’t about the economy. It’s about the fact that it’s more fun to stay home and watch football than it is to sit in crappy seats to watch any team ranging from “lousy” to “mediocre.” It just is. For many fan bases, here are the two choices every Sunday:
Door No. 1 (more expensive): Traffic, parking, long walk to stadium, lousy seats, lifeless state-of-the-art arena, TV timeouts, dead crowds, drunk/bitter fans, more TV timeouts, hiked-up concession prices, PDAs with jammed signals as you’re searching for scores, even more TV timeouts, long walk to car, even more traffic.
Door No. 2 (less expensive): Sofa, NFL package, HD, fantasy scores online, remote control toggling, gambling, access to scores, seven straight hours of football, cell phone calls, beer and food in fridge, no traffic.
I can see going through Door No. 1 once a year just to remind yourself that going to an NFL game sucks. But eight times a year? Unless you had good seats, or unless this was your only excuse to get out of your house and get plastered, why would you? It’s a blue-collar sport with white-collar ticket prices. This blackout trend would have happened whether the economy was suffering or not.
I love the NFL, but I’m usually not terribly excited by the preseason. For some reason this year is different. I watched the bulk of the Hall of Fame game, a notorious snoozer, and I’m watching preseason ball tonight. I think I’m ready for the NFL this year.
Mike Vick signed with Philly today, Donte Stallworth is out for at least this year with a conduct susupension and every team has some sort of interesting/exciting/perplexing training camp news cooking right now.
I can’t wait for the September 10 kickoff between the Steelers and the Titans.
I love pro football. Almost all my sports blogging is on pro football. But — the moniker “no fun league” for NFL is all too fitting. The league is too ready to crack down on players for public relations reasons and far too draconian in its business dealings.
Now the no fun league wants to codify a lower court precedent with a Supreme Court ruling? I doubt the court takes the case and if it does I hope the NFL gets shot down. Sadly the Roberts court — which I had some hope for — might actually take a bullshit case like this.
From the second link:
In the legal equivalent of running up the score, the NFL is going to the U.S. Supreme Court in search of a bigger victory in an antitrust tussle over team merchandise than it already won from a lower court.The Supreme Court could decide as early as Monday whether it will hear the case, which involves American Needle Inc.’s challenge to the league’s exclusive contract for selling headwear such as caps and hats with team logos on them.
American Needle of Buffalo Grove, Ill., also is urging a high court review. Football team owners hope the Supreme Court will issue a broader decision that would insulate the NFL against what they contend are costly, frivolous antitrust lawsuits.
At the heart of the matter is whether the NFL’s teams constitute 32 distinct businesses or a single entity that can act collectively without violating antitrust law.
Update 6/29/09 — The big court is going to hear the case.
From the link:
In taking a case involving the National Football League’s exclusive licensing deal for sports merchandise, the Supreme Court could go beyond caps and give leagues more leeway in areas such as team relocation, legal scholars said Monday.”A broad ruling in favor of the NFL could rewrite almost all of sports antitrust law,” said Gabe Feldman, associate law professor and director of the Sports Law Program at Tulane University in New Orleans.
This announcement will spawn all sorts of comments. Madden had many fans and just as many, or more, very vocal detractors. At least detractors of his recent vintage work. I’ll miss him. Always enjoyable, if not fairly predictable. Sports broadcasting is a little diminished today.
Of course his cash cow — the Madden franchise with EA Sports — will go on. At least I hope so.
From the link:
John Madden is retiring from football announcing, where his enthusiastic, down-to-earth style made him one of sports’ most popular broadcasters for three decades.
The Hall of Fame coach spent the last three seasons on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” His final telecast was the Super Bowl in February.
“You know at some point you have to do this — I got to that point,” Madden said on his Bay Area radio show Thursday. “The thing that made it hard is not because I’m second guessing, ‘Is it the right decision?’ But I enjoyed it so damn much.
“I enjoyed the game and the players and the coaches and the film and the travel and everything.”
Cris Collinsworth will replace Madden, moving over from the network’s studio show, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol said. Collinsworth filled in when Madden took a game off last October.
Ebersol called Madden “absolutely the best sports broadcaster who ever lived.”
The game was beaten down with atrocious officiating for three and half quarters, then a real football game appeared.
The end was fun.
The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings 26-14 in a spirited game. Maybe too spirited looking at some of the hits delivered by the Eagles defense. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants ask the league to watch Brian Dawkins penchant for helmet-to-helmet contact very closely next week.
That said, Philly looks like the charmed team right now. Not great, but good and they seem to have all the breaks falling their way. You can’t discount that in the playoffs. Just ask New York last year.
Here’s next weeks matchups:
NFC
Eagles at Giants
Cardinals at Panthers
AFC
Chargers at Pittsburgh
Ravens at Titans
The Baltimore Ravens advance over the Miami Dolphins 29-9. The game featured five turnovers by the Fins, but it’s fair to say the errors were not unforced.
Baltimore played a methodical, and solid, game.
Overtime thriller and the San Diego Chargers beat the Indianapolis Colts 23-17. Affirming last year’s playoff win and an amazing story given how San Diego’s season played out
In a battle-of-the-birds, the Arizona Cardinals win their first home playoff game in some sixty-odd years 30-24 over the Atlanta Falcons.
I’m going to admit to floating around during the game and not really watching the every play, but from what I saw the Cards overcame both the Falcons and the guys in black and white for a bit there.
Congrats to Arizona.
And what a year it was. We had a historic election that will place the first black president in the White House. Even if you take away that extraordinary fact, the whole election cycle was just wild, full of twists and turns.
We’re also in historic territory with the global economy. Who knows how this thing will shake out, but what’s going on is unprecedented.
And looking toward the coming year, NFL playoffs are about to begin — without the Dallas Cowboys or the New England Patriots, but with the Miami Dolphins. Whew. And the coaching carousel is already in full swing.
I extend my wishes for a wonderful 2009 for everyone.
Wow. This is going to be one crazy offseason.
From the link:
He was known as a genius, a mastermind and, yes, a Super Bowl champion. Shockingly, though, Mike Shanahan has a new title: unemployed coach.
Shanahan became the latest and most stunning victim of the NFL coaching purge, fired Tuesday by the Denver Broncos after a late-season collapse knocked the team out of the playoffs for the third straight year.
Shanahan became the fourth coach to be fired this week, joining Eric Mangini, Rod Marinelli and Romeo Crennel, after going 24-24 over the last three seasons, including three straight losses in 2008 that turned a three-game division lead to an 8-8 record.
“After giving this careful consideration, I have concluded that a change in our football operations is in the best interests of the Denver Broncos,” owner Pat Bowlen said.
First to get the axe are Crennel, Marinelli and surprisingly, Mangini.
From the link:
Lofty expectations did in Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel, as their teams’ seasons crumbled from high hopes to demoralizing finishes.
Little was expected of the Detroit Lions, though nor was the worst season in NFL history. That cost Rod Marinelli his job, too.
”You can’t go 0-16 and expect to keep your job,” Marinelli said.
Over his “memorabilia episode.” Minimum of nine years and maybe even up 33 years.
From the ESPN link:
A broken O.J. Simpson was sentenced Friday to at least nine years in prison and as many as 33 years for a hotel armed robbery after a judge rejected his apology and said, “It was much more than stupidity.”
The 61-year-old football Hall of Famer stood shackled and stone-faced when Judge Jackie Glass quickly rattled off his punishment soon after he made a rambling, five-minute plea for leniency, choking back tears as he told her: “I didn’t want to steal anything from anyone. … I’m sorry, sorry.”
Simpson said he was simply trying to retrieve sports memorabilia and other mementos, including his first wife’s wedding ring, from two dealers when he stormed a Las Vegas hotel room on Sept. 13, 2007.
As a friend of mine mentioned today, New York gun laws are draconian. The New York Giant reciever is looking at some real time behind bars for this little escapade.
I’m guessing the time in the clink will be a career-ender for Plax.
From the link:
In what prosecutors called “a strong case,” Burress faces a mandatory sentence of 3 ½ years in state prison, with a maximum of 15 years, on each count. Benjamin Brafman, Burress’s lawyers, said Burress planned to plead not guilty to both charges.
Burress remained silent through the proceedings and did not talk to reporters Monday. Brafman, who told reporters that he would not talk about specifics of the case, said that he hoped prosecutors would let the investigations of the matter play out before moving ahead with the matter.
After an excellent weekend of NFL action, including a great Monday Night Football game tonight, here’s a football-related press release from today.
The release:
FOOTBALL HELMET SHIELDS CAN PROTECT AGAINST A KICK IN THE FACE
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers have determined that the two most popular brands of football helmet faceshields can withstand a hit equivalent to a kick in the face and provide that protection without disrupting players’ vision.
The eye specialists at Ohio State University used an air cannon to hurl baseballs at the plastic faceshields. The impact was designed to mimic the force of a kick to the face, considered the riskiest way to sustain an eye injury in football.
The shields maintained their structural integrity after baseballs were propelled at the faceshields at velocities of up to 218 feet per second, or nearly 150 miles per hour. Measures of optical quality also showed that the curved, plastic shields do not add any corrections or distortions to players’ vision.
The faceshields’ protective potential bolsters an argument favoring mandatory use of the shields for college-age football players and younger, said Gregory Good, professor of clinical optometry at Ohio State and a coauthor of the study. Collegiate programs currently do not mandate their use.
“I think this would be a good idea not only from a collegiate standpoint, but all the way down to peewee football, especially for players with good vision in only one eye,” Good said. “Players in the pros can make their own decisions, but it would be helpful to have coaches and managers on board to convince kids in high school and younger kids especially to wear faceshields. At that age, kids typically don’t have enough experience to make a decision about safety on their own.”
The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Optometry.
The study tested the two most popular collegiate and professional football helmet faceshields by manufacturers Oakley, based in Foothills Ranch, Calif., and Nike, based in Beaverton, Oregon. The companies donated faceshields for use in the study. The average cost is $45 to $50 per shield.
The researchers conducted the air cannon work at ICS Laboratories in Brunswick, Ohio. Good completed the study with Kathryn Baker, Deborah Grzybowski, William McLaughlin and Steven Katz of Ohio State’s Department of Ophthalmology; Aaron Zimmerman of Ohio State’s College of Optometry; and Dale Pfriem of ICS Laboratories.
Because no current performance standard exists for football helmet faceshields, the researchers used the air cannon testing method that is already approved to assess face protectors for baseball and lacrosse. The American Society for Testing and Materials sets the requirements for face and eye protection used in numerous sports.
In the study, 10 football visors from each company were struck once at numerous velocities. Two visors from each company were hit three times to evaluate the effects of repeated blows. Other faceshields were struck once in sub-freezing temperatures. None of the faceshields broke under any of the impact conditions.
The highest velocity equated to an impact force of about 2,500 Newtons, or 562 pounds of force. Previous research has reported a maximum kicking motion impact of 2,439 Newtons, or 548 pounds of force, in soccer.
The researchers determined that new football faceshields hold up solidly to high-velocity impact, but whether that strength is maintained over the duration of one or more football seasons is open to debate and is part of continuing research.
The researchers also analyzed various qualities of the curved plastic that might affect vision – such as light distribution, hazing or a prismatic effect that changes the direction of light. The shields exceeded standards related to these measures.
“Both brands are of high optical quality, and both hold up to high-velocity impact,” Good said.
Though serious eye injuries in football are relatively rare, the researchers mentioned the case of Orlando Brown of the Cleveland Browns, whose eye was inadvertently hit by a referee’s thrown penalty flag during a game in 1999. He missed several seasons after the injury.
A summary of National Electronic Injury Surveillance System data shows that about one-third of football-related eye injuries documented between 2002 and 2006 were caused by the football itself and almost one-fifth were from finger pokes. The data do not specify whether these injuries occurred during organized games or “street” play. Other data also show in 2000, U.S. emergency rooms treated an estimated 40,000 sports-related eye injuries.
And more than 10 years ago, the sports safety committees of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Ophthalmologyissued a report recommending that football helmets be equipped with a polycarbonate faceshield for face and eye protection. They were responding to a 1993 report by Prevent Blindness America indicating that football was the fifth-greatest contributor to sports-related eye injuries in patients younger than 25.
Good said that rather than trying to judge players’ susceptibility to eye injuries, the researchers focused on outlining the potential benefits that faceshields would provide.
But they know there is more to the story. They are following up by surveying football and equipment managers at about 120 collegiate programs in the United States to gauge player use of and attitudes about helmet faceshields. The researchers also have exposed new faceshields to three hours of sunlight per day this autumn and will retest their impact resistance after a season’s worth of exposure to see if the radiation affects the faceshields’ durability.
“We noticed the older faceshields we used in a pilot study didn’t hold up as well, and we believe it could be because of exposure to radiation, at least in part,” Good said.
None of the researchers has any financial arrangement with the companies that donated study materials.
#
Yesterday was devastating day personnel-wise for the Dallas Cowboys.
The big news is Tony Romo’s pinkie, but lost in the mix is a 2-4 week loss of rookie sensation running back/kick returner, Felix Jones, and maybe even more painful in ways is the loss for the season of underrated punter, Mat McBriar
Ouch all around. We’ll see how the team regroups after a rough week on the PR front, disheveled play on the field and now bitten hard by the injury bug.
I almost blogged about this last night with the conceit Giant’s fans probably collectively had their hearts in their mouths.
Well, the other shoe did drop and Osi is done for the season. A thinned D-line is now essentially depleted.
From the link:
Umenyiora was hurt in the second quarter of Saturday’s preseason game against the New York Jets, but early indications were that there was no ligament damage.
However, an MRI Sunday found a torn lateral meniscus, Dr. Russell Warren told the team. The two-time Pro Bowl choice will have surgery Tuesday and be sidelined for the season.
The loss is a major one for the Super Bowl champions in the wake of the retirement of seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan a few months ago.
Dallas over Houston in the annual preseason battle for the Texas NFL Governor’s Cup.
NFL training camps are cranking up all over, and the Cowboys are no exception. If you’re reading my blog you can likely manage to find all sorts of opinion and facts about your team.
For Cowboys fans, here’s some worthwhile links:
— The official Dallas Morning News blog
— DMN columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor’s blog
— the excellent Blogging The Boys
— and something for everyone, the also excellent AOL NFL FanHouse
And now, let professional football begin once again …
Here’s a great column penned by Frank Luksa, longtime Dallas Cowboys beat writer for Metroplex papers. He covers tales from training camps past.
From the link:
Precisely
On his first day as the Cowboys’ receivers coach, the meticulous Raymond Berry demonstrated how to run a sideline route to rookies. Berry made his usual precise numbers of steps, cut toward the sideline and landed — 1 foot out of bounds.
“The field is too narrow, Tom,” he announced to Coach Landry.
“No, Raymond,” Landry said, “we’ve been out here forever.”
This was the sixth year the Cowboys had practiced on the same field without complaint, yet Berry instinctively found it out of line.
“Either the hashmarks aren’t right or the field is too narrow,” the former Baltimore Colts star receiver insisted. Landry shrugged, called for a tape measure, and field dimensions were plotted to the exact inch.
Berry’s sense of precision was validated. The field was 11 inches too narrow.
You’re going to be hostage to the whims of Brett Favre all summer.
Update: Hate to say told you so, but this soap opera is just getting started.
From the second sentence, second link:
Indeed, the Packers’ chaotic ride has played out in front of a national audience at a time when most NFL teams are on hiatus. The opening of training camp is usually a time of fresh starts, new beginnings and clean slates. But Packers players will report Sunday to St. Norbert’s College amid a national firestorm that threatens to engulf their season the same way it consumed their summer.
Update 7/28/08: Looks like Gene Wojciechowski at ESPN.com just submarined Packers’ GM Ted Thompson:
Thompson isn’t interested in putting the best product on the field. If he were, he’d let Aaron Rodgers, his handpicked successor to Favre, compete for the starting position. Sure, there’d be off-the-charts media and fan scrutiny. Isn’t that part of it?
If Rodgers can’t handle the pressure of Favre’s presence and open competition for the job in July, what makes you think he can handle the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in December? But Thompson doesn’t want the best man to win. He wants his man to win. So no quarterback bake-off.
My $0.02, not that have any reason for an opinion other than it’s fun to have one here, is the Packers really shit the bed in this process. If they honestly wanted Favre to stay retired, and it seems that is the case, and they have no spot for him at camp or on the team, he should be given his release.
If they want value for the QB, they ought to at least demonstrate they value the QB by allowing him to compete for the starting position. I think the public reaction to this has wavered up until yesterday. Favre has the upper hand at this point.
Thompson gambled and lost miserably, and will likely lose his job under a crescendo of boos at Lambeau as soon as Rogers coughs up a handful of winnable games early in the season because he will. That’s what first-year QBs do, they find a way to turn a win into a loss because the situation is a bit too much.
Update 7/31/08 — If the Packers brass is actually attempting to bribe Favre into staying retired, they have drifted into loony-toon land. Thompson should be fired if this is the case, and there is no longer any argument on who is trashing Favre’s relationship with the team. Maybe long term if the top management isn’t immediately removed.
From the link:
WTMJ television in Milwaukee reported that the team offered Favre in the neighborhood of $20 million over several years to stay retired. The Green Bay Press-Gazette reported on its Web site that the team offered Favre “a substantial salary” to stay away. Both reports cited sources close to Favre. But signs still point to the quarterback reporting to Packers camp.
Starting price a mere $3 million.
From the WSJ link:
The Super Bowl has always been a tough ticket, but now NBC is telling advertisers it will cost them $3 million just to get into the game — for 30 seconds.
NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., plans to announce next week that $3 million will be the entry price for a commercial at the 2009 Super Bowl. While individual slots have sold at that level before, it’s never been the starting point for negotiations for the dozens of 30-second ads sold for the game. It represents a price increase of more than 10%, roughly double the usual annual rise.
Bill Belicheck offered the most lawyered-up explanation of taping, or not, the 2002 Super Bowl Rams’ pre-game walk-through.
This is from the AP piece published at ESPN.com, and linked above:
BOSTON — Patriots Coach Bill Belichick has denied suggestions by a former employee that his club taped St. Louis‘s walk-through before the 2002 Super Bowl.
Belichick told The Boston Globe that in his entire coaching career, he has never seen recordings of another team’s practice before playing that team.
Man. He’s never seen recordings of a practice before playing a team. Did any of his coaches see these tapes? He certainly didn’t say the tapes don’t exist, or that the Patriots didn’t use them in some fashion. And isn’t recording other team’s practices verboten regardless when those recordings are utilized?
If these allegations are true, Belicheck ought to be banned from the NFL for life.
This pussy-foot denial makes me tend to believe Belicheat’s doing a total CYA and deserves everything Goodell hands out. If Goodell has the cojones for it. My respect for the NFL’s front office has fallen by bounds and leaps this season.
(Find part one here.)
A new anti-concussion football helmet? Don’t see this decidedly uncool model making it in the NFL.
Link goes to Paul Lukas’ Uni Watch column at ESPN. Check out his blog here.
Maybe that title should read, “HBO stupidly dumps Inside the NFL.”
I didn’t get around to watching HBO’s season ending “Inside the NFL” until tonight. The show has been around for 31 years and has always been a must-see during the season. Interesting, and fun, insight from the various hosts over the years.
In the season finale first aired Wednesday it was announced HBO is not renewing the show for next year. Unbelievable.
Inside the NFL — gone, but not forgotten.
HBO, bonehead move. Hey NFL Network, this is your big opportunity to add a true establishment to the roster.
David Kirkpatrick 
Mistake-free NFL commentary at CBS …
… wait, not so fast.
Not sure who it was, but on the Texans at Green Bay game in a late game recap announced a touchdown pass from Brett Favre to Donald Driver? I thought Favre plays for the New York Jets now. Where’s Aaron Rogers?
And on the game winning field goal from the Houston Texans? According to the announcer the kicker, Kris Brown, didn’t make the three-pointer. Instead he announced Matt Schaub, the QB, kicked the field goal.
Drinking in the booth much?