Jim McMahon: My Memory's Gone

Jim McMahon at the 25th reunion of the 1985 Bear team;


 

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Cowboys next coach

Not too soon, is it?

The Balimore Sun's Mike Preston proposes an interesting choice:

Cowboys should hire Brian Billick

Preston makes a good case.

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Cowboys In Training Camp Mode

So Wade Phillips is putting the Cowboys back into training camp mode. What exactly does this mean?

Are they going to run out and sign 30 undrafted free agents? Are they going to hold two-a-days in the middle of November? How about a Friday night exhibition with Stephen F. Austin.

I can hardly wait for this.

[/popcorn]

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To My Friends In Dallas

I thought you guys could use a little help.

The mind is a strange thing, men.

We must begin by asking it...

..."What is losing?"

Losing is a disease...

...as contagious as polio.

Losing is a disease...

...as contagious as syphilis.

Losing is a disease...

...as contagious as bubonic plague...

... attacking one...

... but infecting all.

But curable.

Now, I want you to imagine...

...you are on a ship at sea...

...on a vast...

...gently rocking.

Gently rocking.

Gently rocking.

Gently rocking.

Hope that helps!

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Monday Tidbits - Week 8

Changing the format of this thing a bit cause this week just played out the strangeness of the NFL. Here are some random thoughts on the parity, and the craziness, we're seeing.

- The Oakland Raiders, a combined 31-87 their past 118 prior games, have just won two games in a row on the road by a combined score of 92-17. I don't particularly care if those two games were against the two worst teams in the NFL (and the Seahawks, while not great, are certainly not in that category). If you're beating two teams on the road 92-17, you're not a bad football team.

- The Miami Dolphins are 4-0 on the road and 0-3 at home.

- The 0-7 Bills have gone on the road and taken two 2-loss teams to overtime in consecutive weeks.

- The Bucs and Seahawks are a combined 9-5, but have been outscored by their opponents by a combined 44 points.

- The Lions and Chargers are a combined 5-10, but have outscored their opponents by a combined 54 points.

- Three teams that had draft picks in the top six in April are leading or tied for the lead in their divisions.

- Five division winners from last year are currently third or fourth in their divisions right now.

- Two days ago the consensus "best teams in the NFL" (according to most pundits) just lost yesterday by a combined 29-10.

- There is only a single team with less than two losses and only three teams with less than two wins.

Strap in folks, it's gonna be a wild ride in the second half of the season!

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Fire Brian Kelly

Since Patrick introduced me to the Brian Kelly resume I've been an interested follower in his career arc. Back when it looked like ND would hire him, I was hoping he wouldn't go, more due to my Penn State bias and therefore disdain for the Fighting Irish. But he's a brilliant coach, ND would have been stupid not to throw everything they had to get him, and Kelly realistically would have been stupid not to take the job.

My opinion changed in an instant this week, when student videographer Declan Sullivan died while filming practice for the Irish.

A few things dig into the heart of this matter for me. Perhaps I'm just a naive football fan that doesn't really know how these things work. But right now, I have trouble seeing the blame for this whole thing being placed at anyone's feet other than Kelly, with the possible exception of Jack Swarbrick - ND's AD - holding an equal share of it.

Let's start with the conditions. Swarbrick went on record with strong overtures that there was no reason to think the conditions were dangerous enough for Sullivan to be up in the lift.

In an Oct. 28 media briefing, University Athletics Director Jack Swarbrick described the weather conditions as normal at the time he crossed the field just moments before the incident. He said that “practice was normal” and “plays were being conducted with no difficulty.” Then, he added, he “experienced a pretty extraordinary burst of wind … things started flying by me that had otherwise been stationary through the practice.”

However, this appears to be in direct contrast with tweets that Sullivan made prior to practice.

"Gusts of wind up to 60 mph well today will be fun at work … I guess I've lived long enough."

As if that's not enough, he apparently tweeted while in the lift, prior to the horrific accident, that the conditions were "terrifying." It's probably logical to assume that 20 feet off the ground is no so different from ground level that Swarbrick was feeling a light breeze while Sullivan was staving off a cyclone.

So how's this have anything to do with Kelly? I put the responsibility at the feet of the guy who's driving the practices and ultimately responsible for everything going on around them. While I doubt it went so far as a cartoonish scene where Sullivan was on his knees, tearfully begging not to be sent up on the lift while a half-man-half-ogre Kelly screamed at him to get on that lift before he ate his unborn children; it's almost impossible for me to believe the head coach isn't responsible for the decision to leave the kid up there in conditions in which he never should have been.

I'm sure there's a lot more to the story. Is Kelly an expert at what conditions are safe for lifts and what aren't? I'm sure he's not. Did Kelly tell the kid he had to go up in the lift that day? I have no idea. But ultimately he's responsible for what's going on in practice. If there was a hurricane out there and he sent his kids out to practice and one of them died because of it, would he be getting a pass? No way.

So why should he get one here?

This is a tragedy that shouldn't be forgiven. There's no reason to have sent that kid up there in those conditions. And if Kelly himself didn't know any better then it's his job to make sure he's surrounded by people that can inform him so that he does. Directly or indirectly, he put that kid in mortal danger. And as such, he should bear responsibility for the consequences of those actions.

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Jerry Jones: Kitna Still Has It

Let's just hope that "it" isn't catching.

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Romo's guts

I've made fun of Romo (not necessarily here, but certainly to others). What a candy-@$$. What a nancy-boy. What a slacker. Dude's a pretty boy who doesn't care and can't win.

Flip to around 1:50 in this video. It's made me about 180 on him...

"Did he catch the pass?"

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Announcer succumbs to sense of inevitability

Is it cool to announce what's going to happen, before it actually happens? Journalists usually avoid that. Though perhaps football announcers stretch the term "journalists".

In the Ravens-Bills game this past weekend, the winless Bills were leading the whole first half, but by the start of the 3rd Q things were breaking the Ravens way. The Ravens had a couple of important replay calls go their way at the end of the first half – correct calls, but the kind of thing that can take the wind out of your sails, if you're the other team. Then Baltimore got a late TD to close out the half, then on the first play from scrimmage Ed Reed gets an interception. This is the next play.

Don Criqui is an old, old pro: he must have felt a strong sense of inevitability about the way things were going. Listen to exactly when he calls the touchdown, in this clip:


(You can see a nicer, full quality video at NFL.com, here.)

Criqui obviously sees the whole play develop very early. Here is the text of Criqui's call:

“Wide open, and Ravens take the lead. Anquan Boldin makes it look easy.”

Criqui says the word “Ravens” as Flacco delivers the ball. That's a 44 yard pass! You would think there's a lot that could happen on a 44-yd pass. The ball could be overthrown. There could be a gust of wind. The receiver could trip. The defender, even a Bills defender, could miraculously make up ground. Whatever.

But no. Criqui was feelin it. He calls the Ravens taking the lead as Flacco throws it, and he times the rest of it so he says the word “makes” just as Boldin catches it. Criqui says these words while the ball is in the air:

“...take the lead. Anquan Boldin...”

So it comes out as, “Anquan Boldin [pause] makes it look easy.”

No, Don Criqui. You make it look easy.

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Kind Of Gloomy

Bradie James with the understatement of the day award.

"It's kind of gloomy, I wouldn't say devastating, but it's a big blow. Don't get it twisted. You don't lose a guy like that and expect that you're going to win them all."

Yeah. Kind of. Your team just went to 1-5 and lost its starting quarterback for half a season. But buck up little camper, if it's only kind of gloomy that means that it's mostly bright and sunny, right?

And then Tony Romo backs up James' statement with the overstatement of the day.

We're lucky to have Jon, he's had a lot of success in the league. He's had some really, really great seasons. He's going to step in and he's going to do a great job for this football team. We're going to rally around Jon.

Gosh. You think Romo is in fear of losing his job? Is Romo really the Wally Pipp to Jon Kitna's Lou Gherig?

Yeah, I get the 'put a brave face on things' thing. Bald faced lying isn't brave facing though, it's just lying. This is a team with no running game, no offensive line, no quarterback, no linebackers and no defensive secondary. Oh yeah, their kicking game kind of sucks too.

But the stadium ... hey look! Unicorn!

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