Boston Beatdown: This is Boston Not LA

I had originally planned on starting this with the new year, and using Refrigerator Heaven as a tie in with the winter Classic, but I'm about as consistent a blogger as the Bruins are a hockey team or the Celtics a basketball team.

Anyway welcome to the new Weekly Segment where I use a classic Boston Hardcore song to tell the tale of this week in Boston Sports.  A wonderful blog-gag if, unlike the B's and C's, I execute it consistently.

HOLY SHIT!  Two teams from LA come into Boston, make our boys their bitches and plant that giant A-hole LA flag in our Garden claiming it as their own.  Green Card?  no thanks we are in EAST LA!  (Or hollywood east, anyway.)


Apparently LA really has it's own flag.

And that ugly thing sits in our faces as proof how bad this season of promise is going for both our winter Squads.  Well you know what they say,

You dance the same and dress the same
Won't be long (till) you are the same
You look the same you act the same
There's nothing new and you're to blame

And thus sums up the play of the Bruins and the Celtics.  Let me describe this past month.  I put my stepson to bed at 9, and then turn on whichever team is playing only to watch them lose.  The difference is that the B's had the decency to be down when I turned the game on, while the C's seem incapable of holding any lead, even double digits in the fourth quarter!

Of course both teams have trouble with scoring and of course both teams will be in the middle of trade rumors.  The B's have a better chance of adding fire power at a decent price.  The C's however have an issue, no one worth trading.  KG would be worth trading but he's injured.  RayRay is channeling his best John Stark, and that leaves Pierce and Rondo.  Pierce is a nearly washed up swing man that isn't going to draw people to the stadium, help your team win, attract a big free agent, or last a full season before getting traded again as a 6th man to contender next year.  And Rondo is your franchise right now.  Without him this team goes no where near the playoffs.   Red could pull off that magic trick and trade Pierce and a bench guy for someone good enough to get them over the top, then trade back for Pierce in a year or two as a sixth man.  But Drunken Danny Ainge is not Red.  I say sit KG until he's healthy and if that is not until next year, then we'll win or lose without him.  Better to learn how to win without him now than come playoff time like last year.

For the Bruins it really is just a matter of being willing to do nothing at the trade deadline.  Kovalchuk is out there, but the question is price, and Atlanta being dumb and not letting any potential suitor talk contract extension with him!  A sign trade is worth much more to Atlanta than just a trade.  I know the Bruins need scoring, badly, but like the Celtics injuries have murdered them this year.  I'm not saying a healthy B's team is the best option, but it's better than nuking what's been built for a rental.   I want Ilya, as much as any Bruins fan, and have no problems paying him.  I just don't want to trade away the franchise and pay for him.

You look the same you play the same
Won't be long til you are the same
You hurt the same you lose the same
There's nothing new when scorings the game.


Put some points up on the board guys.

Let's keep the NFL and College Football different.

Please re-read the tile and then I will explain.

I do not want the NFL and College Football to be the same.  They are fundamentally different games and to me that is beautiful.  I do not want College Football to become the NFL's minor league.  It would RUIN everything there is to love about the College game.  That and I don't want the NFL to become a water-down kids version of the game.

We'll keep this down to two big issues, even though the examples of the line blurring are almost endless.  Overtime and The Bowl Championship Series.


OT:  The NFL has the purest form of Overtime in sports.  It's rules have been in place, largely untouched, for over 50 years.  And those who fear the Doomsday SuperBowl settled in Overtime forget that the very first Sudden Death Overtime in NFL history was in a Championship Game.

And College football has probably the most ridiculous and unjustifiable Overtime's there is.  You know how much you hate the BCS?  I hate college overtime 10x more than that.  Honestly.

But I do not want College Football to adapt the NFL OT rules.  It is not right for College.  The rules should be different.  I kind of like the Tie, but I know that is a dirty word, because most sports fans cannot handle something so complex.  (OR they really do want to kiss their sister's and are uncomfortable with ties because of that.)  What should college do?  Have their silly shoutout, but limit it to only 2 chances.  After that, a tie.  Or just play 7 minutes of ball and let it happen as it happens, again max it out to 2 OT's unless it's a Conference Championship game or a Bowl Game.

The other side of this issue is the crybaby movement that wants to change the NFL overtime.  I cannot explain how angry I get whenever I hear someone talk about this.  And I get angrier when they used the Fox News (blatantly false) stat: Half of Overtimes are won on the first possession by the team that won the coin toss.  The truth is that happens less than one third of the time.  What really happens in games that go to OT is that both teams had their chance to win it in regulation and blew it.  Then when it gets to OT and you can't force a punt, I can't feel bad for your team.  Football has three parts to it: Offense, Defense, and Special Teams.  To lose in OT on the first possession means two out of those three failed to perform well enough for you to get the ball back.  I think this is fair.  I honestly believe that those who want a change in the NFL OT hate football.  They don't get it, and I'd rather they did not watch it, if they aren't going to get it.


BCS: Everyone wants a playoff in College Football.  But no one wants to think about what will happen to the game if there is one.  Everyone is obsessed with the end result and don't care about what gets destroyed to get that result.  Let's look at what the NFL has had to do to make it's Playoff system work and see if we really want College football to go down that road.

The NFL Schedule is setup with one obsession, Tie Breakers.  Tie Breakers dictate every aspect of the NFL schedule.  Remember the 2008 Big 12 South Fiasco?  Imagine the NCAA stepping in and dictating scheduling to every team in Div 1A to ensure that in a future situation like this that have enough tie breaking possibilities to get a fair outcome.

And look at the results of these tie-breakers and this NFL Playoff set-up.  The 2008 New England Patriots went 11-5, and were left out of the playoffs.  Two 9-7 teams and an 8-8 squad went in.  Imagine an NCAA Football tournament that lets in  8-4 Sun Belt, MAC, and Conference USA Champions but leaves out a third place SEC team that went 10-2, and was the only team to beat the SEC Champion.  Is that really fair?  Is it more fair than what we have now?  Right now that team gets left out, but the justification is that they lost that second game.  Had they not lost that second game they would have played for their Conference Championship and had a chance.  The regular season matters, tough shit.    How is it justified with a playoff?  It can't be.  Fair is a dangerous word that I hate when talking about sports. After High School, I do not want to hear the word fair when talking about sports.  The NFL has 14 of the each teams 16 games set in stone into the foreseeable future, because of tie-breakers.  Is this what we want with College Football?  Sorry non-conference rivalry, the NCAA has other plans.....


The key is keep them different!  The games are fundamentally different and that is a good thing.  College Football dies if it becomes just a minor league for the NFL.  No one cares about Minor leagues.  Only the passions of Baseball and Hockey can keep minor leagues alive in America.  No other sport can fully support it.

College Football and the NFL are different games, and I like it that way.  I am positive that when looked at rationally from this statement you agree with me.  But the nit-picking Fair Police are winning the argument, and if they sway the people in charge, they could ruin both games.

BCS Defender: The Magical AP Poll!

We have our first victim.  The first person to think magically taking X number of teams in a tournament is better than what we have now.  In order to show you that this is not the case, I will treat his draw with the same fairness and attention to detail that haters treat the BCS.


From the Chronicles of Scott:

I took the liberty to whip up a quick and very basic eight-team bracket:

1 Alabama vs. 8 Ohio State

3 TCU vs. 6 Boise State

2 Texas vs. 7 Oregon

4 Cincinnati vs. 5 Florida

And his methodology:

It features the top 8 teams according to the last AP Poll. Apologies to Georgia Tech and Iowa, but you lose out. My plan only has room for eight teams. Better luck next year.

First Flaw:  The AP is Magically good and right, and never ever gets things wrong.  This fallacy exists solely because the AP withdrew the use of it's college football poll from the BCS equation.  This leads those who hate to think that someday the AP will ride in like a knight in shinning armor and save college football by choosing a different team #1 after the bowls.  Guys, this won't ever happen.  And not because of some media bias toward the BCS, but because the BCS sets it up to be impossible.  This year it won't happen because of the Cincy - Florida Sugar Bowl.  If Cincy wins that game there will be 3 undefeated teams, and the AP voters who dislike the BCS won;t be able to focus on the winner of the Boise St - TCU Fiesta Bowl.   If Florida wins, some Tim Tebow worshiping idiot will give them a first place vote.  And in any year the BCS game is the toughest match-up so the winner of that game cannot be ignored, even in spite.  No one would have beaten a tougher opponent than the winner of the BCS Championship Game.

Second Flaw:  Half of all people that hate the BCS, complain about the Polls, either computer or human depending upon what they think is wrong at that moment.  But somehow, the AP is Magically Delicious and is never ever wrong!  Guess what?  The difference between the AP top 8 and the BCS top 8 is that the rankings of TCU and Cincy are flipped.  If we expand to an 16 team field, there is only a 1 team difference and only 3 other schools are flipped around.  So between the BCS top 16 and the AP top 16 they each have one team in that the other does not.  IT'S MAGIC!  Never mind the other issue of complaining about polls then basing everything on a poll.  Winning a conference is irrelevant in this model and finishing in the Top 8 of the AP is the only goal.  This is worse than the BCS because their are seasons where their would be exactly ZERO teams in from non-BCS conferences AND years were there are BCS conferences left out.  Let's take a look back and see how this would have played out over the last 3 seasons.

2008: No Boise St.  Sure they missed out on the BCS too, but this is suppoosed to be more fair than the BCS, not just as unfair.  Oh and the BCS Top 8 had the same exact teams in it.  With 1 and 2 being the same 2 teams!

2007:  No Hawaii.  Wow, Hawaii at least got into the BCS.  In an 8 team AP only tournament they would not get a chance.  Wow, this is even less fair than the BCS!  Again same top 2 teams!  And agian, same exact field of 8.

2006:  Wow, the story of the 2006 College Football Season, Boise St, would be left out.  Again, less fair.  Again the same top 2, and only one glaring difference in the Top 8.  And who gets that one spot according to the All-Powerful, All-Knowing, Infaliible AP Poll?  Oklahoma.  Spot the Irony!  Proving my point that any playoff format will only serve to give more chances to the elite schools / conferences.

Third Flaw: Cincinatti.  How is this fair in any way you look at it?  They lost their Coach.  Playing them is an unfair advantage, one that would go to Florida.  Again, this is fair?  This is better?  You cannot stop the Coaching Carousel.  Unless you want the NCAA to have tampering rules, and keep teams from hiring coaches until the last game has been played?  Rules like NFL has.  Because without these rules, a playoff would lead to disaster.  This is a problem that has nothing to do with the BCS.   But one that will blow up in our face if we just blindly jump into a playoff without first looking at things rationally.


Fourth Flaw: Less teams.  I will stress the genius of the BCS again with respect to the 10 team field.  Any Fair Police argument for a tournament that includes a field smaller than 10 teams can be pounced upon by people like me, as less fair.  I know, more teams get a chance at winning it all, but the money is spread around less evenly, which means the proposed system is more difficult to get implemented.   And then there is the argument from the other direction, that no way should Oregon or Ohio St get a chance at a title.  They've already lost twice and the regular season needs to count for something.


I understand the desire for something simple and straightforward, but college football will never fit into that box.  I understand this and actually like it.    My goal for these articles is not get people to like the BCS, but to get people to think rationally about things, and to make them understand there are other issues with college football that a playoff would not fix.

BCS Defender: Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Do you hear that?!?!?  That is the sound of millions of BCS haters desperately trying to justify their positions.  But this year they cannot.  The two best schools are playing, and both being undefeated means no one can complain about that game.  So the first tears were shed over the TCU  v Boise St Fiesta Bowl.  And this is a vile conspiracy to keep TCU or Boise St from embarrassing a BCS conference team.  Or it's a corrupt decision to make sure the season ends with as few undefeated teams as possible!  Or the reality is that it is a compelling game.  Every year at this time we hear about how none of the other games are compelling, this year you get one and it's a criminal decision that should be looked at by congress!

And shortly we'll get bombarded with idiots who think they can make brackets that magically make everything look perfect.  But it cannot happen this year.

In a 4 team playoff, who do you leave out, because it's not FAIR to leave a team out that has not lost a game.

In a 6 team playoff, who gets the bye?

In an 8 team playoff, you really think that GaTech, Oregon, or Ohio St, all with 2 losses, deserve a chance at a title?  when they've already chocked in big games?  TWICE!  And who gets stuck playing another undefeated?  Who gets the easy game against a 2 loss team?  And who decides?

10 teams...in the name of FAIRNESS you want to give either Penn St or Iowa yet another chance.  Nothing says fair, or giving the little guy a chance than giving the Big 10 an extra team in the tournament!  Think about that.  Every extra team in a tournament will be a BCS conference school.  If you go to 16 teams, maybe BYU gets added.  So which system is elitist?

The first problem with a playoff is, and always will be, is that it is inflexible.  There is no way  it's going to fit every year.  It will fail as much as the you think the BCS has, and it will fail in ways you have yet to imagine.  Each year yields a different number of teams with 0 or 1 loss.  But Playoff proponents don't care.  They just want their cookie cutter.  Every thing has to be the same size, it's only fair.  

The other problem, which is something that always get complained about with the BCS, is rankings.  This problem does not magically go away with a playoff.  Tournaments need to be drawn some how.  And there is no way a college football tournament would go unseeded.  


There is no good answer to the question: How do we decide who the best team in college football is?  Nothing will work, nothing will be fair.  And the best method is something we will never get to until playoff proponents can accept this fact.  No amount of anger or indignation will make a playoff system better.  I promise you, a playoff will be worse.

I am a Plus One fan myself.  I say go back to the old school bowl alignments, add in the Cotton Bowl, take your 10 BCS teams and have them play, making sure #1 and #2 cannot play.  Then take the top 2, from the 5 winners and play a national championship game a week later.    Even that would not work this season.  No matter how you cut things we'll get 3 deserving teams after the bowls.  

We can't resolve this and come to a reasonable agreement until we really talk about the issues.  Playoff proponents are the Tea Baggers of the sports world, clueless and unwilling to reason.  And probably have the same deep-seated hatred for College Football that the TeaBaggers have for America.

There will be more...stay tuned!

Stop Thursday Night Football: Toronto Edition

Thanksgiving Day football is always allowed.  2-3 games once a year is acceptable.  But man the only interesting thing about this game is the speculation about what the Bills will change their name to when they move to Toronto.  And that, sadly, is the most interesting this about Thursday Night Football so far!  

Let's review:
Matt Millen should be allowed near a football game at any level
I have to make crucial Fantasy Football decisions before the injury reports come out
The match-up sucks!  (loser is officially eliminated from the playoffs!)
Who would watch this game when they could watch Oregon v Oregon St for the Pac-10 title?

Go support the petition, and join my Facebook group.  We have the power NFL fans, and if we don't exercise it now we won't be heard when it really matters (overtime, lockout, etc).

Doug Flutie's Hail Mary: 25 years later

Twenty Five years ago, after following the entire game and making it home to catch most of the 2nd half, the 9 year old me, missed one of the greatest plays in college football history.

In 1984 Boston had 2 things going for it sports wise Larry Bird and Doug Flutie.  It was the last time Boston truly cared about College Football.  Flutie was a local hero, Natick High, and a legit Heisman candidate.  And no one knew that he'd win that trophy on this day when BC lined up against rival Miami, and Flutie would play meet a fellow Heisman hopeful Bernie Kosar.  (really dumb people, like me, just realized that voting for the trophy was already closed before the game, so doug just made the voters look good.  Also did you know Flutie was the first QB to win the award since 1971?  Now it's given by default to the best QB.)

It was November, so my Dad and I had errands to run that day.  We wanted to watch the game, but we had a list to kill first.  So off we went, we get to Lechmere and the score was 7-7, we get to Filene's and the score was 14-14, by the time we made it to Sears it was 21-21 at the half.  Home we went.

The back and forth continued after we got home and Miami went up 45-41 with a minute left to play.  BC moves the ball down around mid field and due to the first down the clock stopped with those now magica 6 seconds left.  I told my dad that is was over and they would never be able to win.  He told me that they could and I should stick around and give them a chance.

I left the room.

He let me leave the room.

My Dad watched me walk out of that room, and off to another TV to watch cartoons or some dumb afternoon movie or some other dumb thing on TV that was not one of the greatest plays in college football history.

Not a minute later my Dad starts screaming and yelling and jumping up and down.  I thought he was faking it to get to me.  He screamed, "I'm not kidding!  We'll being seeing replays of this for the rest of our lives!"  I grudgingly came back into the room, to catch the replay, a replay I will see for the rest of my life.

He did it.  Doug Flutie threw the impossible Hail Mary that is now the cliche Hail Mary replay.

And I missed it.  Because my Dad let me leave the room.  He should have said, "Boy sit your butt down until the clock reads :00 and the ref says the game is over!"  But he did not.  My Dad is an asshole.

But like all good Dad's he was not an a-hole for fun, or randomly, his a-holery fell clearly in the bounds of tough love.

Flash forward to 2001, and the Snow Bowl . (That's the name, sorry Oakland fans, winners get to nickname games, not the losing teams.  Especially losing teams that play excellent Defense for the first 55 minutes of a game, but stop playing D for the last 5 minutes and OT.)   The infamous Raiders-Patriots playoff game, the last game at Foxborough Stadium.  So when the tuck play happened, it looked bad.   I got up, went to the bathroom and then sat my back back down because the game was not over.  And the game really was not over.  I watched Oakland's D just flat out give up.  Forget that play, Oakland gave up 3 points in 3 quarters and then gave up 13 points in 10 minutes.  That is why they lost

Flash Forward again to 2004, this time it's Game 4 of the ALCS, Yankees-Red Sox.  Now I had to work that night and was listening to the game in the car.  I got home just as the A-Rod slapping the ball play happened.  On the Radio the play was not as obvious as it was on TV and I thought he was safe and it was nearly game over.  So I got out of my car and ran upstairs to get in front of the TV.  Where I saw another, albeit minor, miracle happen.

So thanks Dad for being an A-hole that day 25 years ago, no I won't ever forgive or forget and he would not want me to.  But thank you for teaching a valuable lesson, The Game is not over until the refs say it's over!  I continually annoy my wife with this, and she actually likes sports.

To this day the words "Flutie flushed" reverberate through my mind.

Stop Thrsday Night Football: Part 2

Go sign the petition!

I'll say it again, there are not enough quality teams or quality games to have a 3rd feature game each week.  Matt Millen should not be employed.  Our fantasy football teams should not have be set by Thursday evening/afternoon.  And not enough people have access to the NFL Network.

The NFL is watering down it's product and it is starting to turn people off.  Why would you watch this game over your local NHL team or NBA team, or the College Basketball game on ESPN?  If you think about it, you wouldn't unless one of your teams was playing.

A crappy game like tonights epic playoff preview between the 4-5 Miami Dolphins and the 4-5 Carolina Panthers should be buried on Sunday at 1pm.  that way if anything interesting happens we'll get the break in from the studio in NYC/Hollywood and see the play.  The spotlight should not be on this game.

I won't go on my Matt Millan rant, but do you really want to this prick on TV?  In HD!  Knowing he has a job and either you or someone you care about doesn't?

There has to be a better way for the NFL Network to promote itself....Maybe by making the RedZone a regular past of it's Sunday programming!