Cleveland 41 Kansas City 34

The joy of watching two bad teams play each other.

We Might Need to Stop Using the Term Dog Pile

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a great piece in the New Yorker comparing professional football with dog fighting. Gladwell's point is that dogfighting and football are like because both are predicated on fact that the participants court severe injury to please others. Football players are particularly susceptible to severe long term brian damage. Eventually society deemed dog fighting illegal and abhorrent because the culture at large could no longer stomach getting its entertainment at the price of suffering dogs. Gladwell wants society to look at the immense suffering professional football players go through and wants to consider if our entertainment is worth the suffering of other people.

I find myself torn. I played and continue to like football. However, I have long been aware of the brutal damage the game inflicts on its participants. As the article points out there are few good solutions to stop the brain damage football players endure. The NFL tries to modify its equipment and change its rules to keep its players safe. I applaud this effort and the intent to keep the players safe.

The problem, though, seems to be one of physics. NFL players are bigger and faster then were just a few years ago. When the collide they collide with great force. I once had the opportunity to watch an NFL game from the field, and the speed and violence of the game was frightening to behold. The only way to counter the inherent violence, and the damage it causes, is to shrink and slow down the game. Only by limiting the size and speed of the players can the basic physics of the game be changed.

Blackouts

The depressed economy is also affecting sports.  The NFL believes that up to twelve teams could face blackouts.  A blackout occurs when the home team does not sell all of the tickets for the game and the game is therefore not shown on TV in the home team's city.  Bad and mediocre teams in economically troubled areas (like the Detroit Lions) are having trouble.  More surprising is that teams expected to be contenders like the Miami Dolphins, the Minnesota Vikings, and the San Diego Chargers are also facing the likelihood of having games blacked out.

This news hits a little close to home to me because my hometown team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, face the very real possibility of having all eight games blacked out.  Jacksonville is facing blackouts because the team is not expected to do well, they play in the second smallest market, and the stadium is large due to the demand of the college games played there.

I think the idea of blacking out games, especially during economically troubled times, to be ridiculous.  Since I just bought tickets to an NFL game, I know how expensive even the cheapest tickets are.  To deny people a chance to see their favorite team just because they can't afford tickets in tough economic times seems a sure fire way to guarantee a gradual loss of support.

I also believe that the blackout itself is a bad policy.  It was put in place in the 1970's and it was not until the recent decade that just about every game was a sellout.  Often that sellout came because local TV stations and corporate sponsors bought enough tickets to avoid a sellout.  However, I have been to many games that did not come close to selling out and the threat of blackouts did not bring out a rush of people to see the game.  

Between the ever growing expense of game tickets, and the fact the game is structured to be enjoyed on TV, the experience of watching a game at home often surpasses the experience of watching in person.  At home there is no traffic, or expensive parking, or concessions the overcharge, or the possibility of bad weather.  Given that the at home experience compares nicely with the at the game experience, the best idea is to not punish those who stay at home but to find a way to include them in the league's marketing strategy.  

However, since the NFL is run by the type of greedy bastards who sell directly to ticket scalpers and think that people who can't afford to keep their season ticket contracts in bad economic time need to be sued it is unlikely that NFL will go the route I suggested.

All that being said, for a lot of people who root for bad teams not having to watch their team lose on TV might be a blessing in disguise.

Did You Play Football in High School?

No, I was on the football team.

Here is a video of the Ed White Commanders getting ready for the season. From the 1991 season through the 1993 season I stared at back-up wide receiver for the Commanders. During the time I was on the team we never passed the ball.

Seriously, we never passed the ball. I would check the box score in the Saturday paper and see that Ed White was 6/1o passing the ball for 110 yards and I knew that they must have counted the passes we threw in warm-ups.

Even now, after 16 years, it is difficult for me to describe what it was like for me to be on the football team and what that experiences means to me. I do know that few things in life have ever heightened my senses the way football did. I can still smell the smoke from the concession stand grill, I can still see smoke and mist rising through a lit up football stadium, I can still feel the coolness of the damp evening grass. I also know that I learned the discipline of being on-time and even early because of the discipline of playing football.

Even though I struggle to describe the experience I do have quite a few memories:

Going undefeated against Lee and Forest and being Westside Champs for all 3 years I was in high school. The senior year victory over Lee was especially sweet; we kicked a field goal in overtime to win, we stole Lee's prize canon after the game, and then we made up t-shirts that said, "Big Blue we own you...and your toys too."

Playing in the Bonos Bowl in my junior year. We defeated local power Bolles in a game played at the old Gator Bowl. We got to use the dressing rooms the college teams used and I can remember Head Coach Dan Disch bragging that he peed where Vince Dooley and Bo Schembechler peed.

One afternoon at practice a college scout showed up. The scout stood off to the side with Coach Disch. The receivers were practicing over by where the scout and Coach Disch were standing. I lined up to ran a pass route near Coach and the scout, and I heard the scout ask Coach Disch, "What about this one?" Disch responded, "He's as slow as Christmas."

I remember playing in my first game. It was about halfway through my junior season. It came at the end of a 17-0 defeat of Sandalwood and I celebrated at the end of that game in ways that I never celebrated again. I found another guy who also played in his first game and we jumped up down in the locker room screaming "We got to play, we got to play."

My last game was the first play-off game in school history and I was choosen to be a team captain. Coach choose four of us who were not stars but who had worked hard and stayed with the team for 3 years. We lost 28-21 to Palatka in the first round. After the game we turned in our gear, and as I walked out of the field house for the last time our safety Donald Velvet stopped me and we hugged. The only thing, and I mean the only thing, Donald and I had in common was we were we both seniors on the football team at Ed White. I walked out of the field house and my football career was over. The next morning I got up and went with my parents down to Lakeland for my first visit of a potential college.

There are so many other memories that I have. I remember the singing and chanting on the bus after a road win. I remember some of the NFL players that I saw like Patrick Sapp, Brian Dawkins, Fred Weary, and Sam Cowert. I know that Cheston Blackshear was the best player I ever played with and that he went on to be a starting offensive guard for the University of Florida. I remember Sam, wearing my jersey around school on gamedays, and pre-game meals at Mr. Gatti's.

I no longer keep up with any of my teammates. As for Coach Disch, he is now the defensive coordinator at the University of Illinois. The current head coach, Coach Gilliam, was my position coach.

If I had it to do over again I don't know if I would make the decision to go out for the team but I do treasure my 3 seasons on the football team.

Super Bowl Predicition

Pittsburgh Steelers: 24

Arizona Cardinals: 13

Hall of Fame with a Bullet

The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced that "Bullet" Bob Hayes made the 2009 Hall of Fame class.  Hayes revolutionized the game of football by introducing the concept of downfield speed into the game.  Offenses began to use speed to move the ball quickly down the field, especially using the long pass, and defenses began to use speed to bottle up offenses.  During his career, Hayes scored 71 touchdowns, accumulated over 7,000 yards receiving, and made 3 pro-bowls.

Besides playing football, Hayes was a 2 two-time gold medal winner at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and set the world record in the 100 meters.  He is the only person to win a gold medal and play for a Super Bowl winner.

Hayes is a native of Jacksonville and played his final season for the San Francisco 49ers and for these reasons The Backbencher celebrates Hayes' election to the Hall of Fame. 

Pro Bowl Move

The NFL announced that it will move the Pro Bowl to Miami and play the game the week before the Super.  They are doing this in the hopes that more people will watch the game.

I think they ought to do away with the game.  Football is too dangerous a game to play the Pro Bowl in the middle of the season and risk an injury to a star player and playing the game 3-4 weeks after most teams have ended the season seems just as silly.

My feeling is the NFL just ought to name an all-pro team and leave it at that.