It’s been a very busy couple of weeks, for several
reasons, and as a result I’ve missed a few sports topics that I wanted to post
about. Some thoughts on these topics are
below:
Gruden,
RGIII, and Snyder
The signs of organizational disarray are obvious,
and one such signal is the moving scapegoat.
I refer to the practice of finding a different scapegoat each week. For the Skins this year, everyone seems to
have been that guy at one time or another.
Griffin, Cousins, Gruden, and Allen have all had their spots in the
limelight. Eventually, though,
prevailing wisdom wants a bigger fish to fry, so they look at the owner. If you haven’t read Bill Simmons’ piece
on Dan Snyder, please do so. His points
are all valid, and he has a fairly good sense of how the typical Skins fan
feels. Snyder is a problem, has been a
problem, and will continue to create issues for this team as long as he owns
them.
One such potential problem would be firing Jay
Gruden after this year. A second
straight 8-game losing streak to finish a season is not a favorable outcome. His work with the quarterbacks, an alleged strength
prior to the year, has not been up to snuff either. And now it appears his relationship with Griffin
is so bad that the town won’t hold them both next season. And Snyder may side with his quarterback.
Firing Gruden, however, will do absolutely zilch to
help this team. Sure the quarterbacks have
been bad, but isn’t it possible that Griffin et. al. are just having difficulty
transitioning? Griffin has played a
grand total of seven games under Jay Gruden.
The argument for keeping Griffin hinges on the fact that he will get
better, and it is more likely that he will improve under a system he’s familiar
with now (Gruden’s) rather than some other coach.
It seems to me that Griffin defenders want to focus
on the pitiful amount of games he’s played this year as a sign that he may
still be the answer…we just don’t know yet.
Personally, I think Griffin is not the answer. But it’s clear also that the “either Gruden
or Griffin has to go” mentality is really a false choice if you want to keep
Griffin. If you do, introducing him to a
whole new offense has significant risks, and the team is close to the point
where it must decide whether to keep Griffin long term. It makes more sense to do so after seeing him
with two seasons in an offensive scheme, rather than a snap judgment after one.
This also doesn’t account for the terrible defense
that has done neither gentleman any favors, nor for the sheer idiocy of firing
a coach after one year in favor of a quarterback who hasn’t performed since
Mitt Romney ran for president. (Note: If
Gruden does get fired, how long before we accept the Griffin might be a
coach-killer?)
In the end, the Skins should keep Gruden. That doesn’t require they keep Griffin as
well, but if they can somehow keep both of them, it will benefit everyone more
than firing the coach and keeping RGIII.
College
Football Playoff
I will reiterate my previously posted point that the
playoff was always going be something wonderful, no matter what. It was also going to create pandemonium and
hurt feelings.
In the end, I think Ohio State likely loses to either
Baylor and TCU on a neutral field 7 of 10 times. But, I think they certainly were deserving of
their place, and the fans of the Frogs and Bears should ask the Big 12 to find
two more teams right now. Ten team
leagues are prevented by NCAA rules from having a conference championship game,
and the 59-0 drubbing the Buckeyes put on Wisconsin in the conference championship put them over the top. While I would not agree they are therefore
better than the Horned Frogs or Bears, I think Ohio State was a deserving
entrant.
Brief aside: I found this whole thing somewhat
interesting, mainly because the top three Big 12 teams this year were not
traditional powerhouses. By way of a
hypothetical, do you think Texas or Oklahoma would have been kept out of the
playoff if they had Baylor or TCU’s resume?
Impossible to know, obviously, but I can’t imagine someone didn’t think
subconsciously “wow, an Ohio State-Alabama matchup would be SICK! And who would watch ‘Bama-Baylor?” I don’t mean to damn the process, but human
bias is now part of the equation. I
wonder if the traditional programs may get a boost as a result.
NHL
Mumps
This is a bizarre story, but the NHL has a mumps
problem. Mumps is a virus that causes
severe swelling of the salivary glands and, in extreme cases, can cause
sterility problems for men. Twenty
NHLers have been diagnosed this year, with the most important happening on
Monday when Sidney Crosby announced he had mumps. The last time he had an injury (a concussion
that was labeled “mild” and led to a yearlong break from hockey) the NHL
quickly adopted new protocols to prevent and monitor concussion-like
symptoms. I would expect something
similar will happen, and it likely already has.
Crosby’s case, however, has exposed issues with how
certain NHL teams respond to this. He
was held out of some morning skates last week due to “flu-like symptoms”, but
then played the games, despite looking like this. While I sympathize that teams may not know
enough about mumps or how to stop it, guys with symptoms should definitely not
be playing games. They start sharing
water bottles on the bench, and all of a sudden that stuff is spreading. That Crosby went out there and played despite
this not being a new phenomenon across the league is utterly absurd. Here’s hoping no one else on the Penguins
catches it.
Bad
Move Pettine
Much of the next bit is totally 20/20 hindsight, but
Johnny Manziel was a mashup of Ryan
Leaf and Freddie Kruger in his first start last week. It is infuriating that I can’t say I foresaw
this, since I didn’t post about it before the start, but I was so unsurprised
by how bad he was. Mainly because if
there’s one guy out there who doesn’t fit the traditional (and time-tested)
mold of an NFL QB, it’s Manziel. He
moves all over the place and loves throwing into tight coverages, and now he
doesn’t have the towering Mike Evans to help him out. It’s a bad move by the Browns, and isn’t
going to work out well for them.
A-Rod
The gift that keeps on giving for sports nuts is
A-Rod. Even if baseball isn’t your
thing, he might be the most reviled athlete in the U.S. these days. He is back in the news, as the media reports
he will try to be the full-time third baseman again. An inconvenient truth is that the Yanks
signed Chase Headley for four years last week, meaning A-Rod will have
competition. And Brian Cashman, the GM,
says he expects Rodriguez to be a full-time designated hitter.
Personally, I’d like to take an under/over bet on
how many pounds he will gain as a result of sitting on the bench so much. 
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