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!

Stop Thursday Night Football!

Yes it's that time of year again where the NFL pisses on everyone that plays fantasy football by forcing us to update our rosters before most injury reports are out!  I've ranted elsewhere and will link to it once that site updates the post.  But for now, just sign my petition if you want Thursday Night Football to end!

Be sure to update your fantasy team and be sure to play fair every Wednesday night for the rest of the season!  This is a plague caused by the NFL, do not take it out on your fellow Fantasy Team Owners.  Solidarity my brothers, solidarity!

BCS Defender: 4 quick points

It's the first Saturday in November, last month of the season, and I just wanted to point out four quick things about the BCS, and how things would be if we had a playoff.  People don't want to think about how a playoff would change things.  They only think about the last game of the season, they disregard the rest of the season, and that is the real tragedy of those who hate the BCS.  It is not perfect, but it does have a value, the regular season.  And that value would be thrown away the moment we have a playoff.

1) With a win over LSU, Alabama clinches the their division title, insuring a spot in the SEC title game.  In a playoff system their season would be done if they beat LSU today.  They would get their SEC title game shot and if they won that they would be in the playoff.  It would render meaningless an entire month of their season.

2) If Duke wins out they will play in the ACC title game, yes the FOOTBALL ACC Title game.  If they win that, in a playoff world, they would be in the playoffs.  DUKE!!!!

3) Right now looking at every game played, what was the biggest this season?  Oregon-Boise St.  That non-conference, first week of the season game stands as the most important game so far this season.  We did not know it then, because the regular season got to play itself, we can look back and say wow!  Boise St, if they win out will get their national championship chance because of that game.  Yes, I said will.  As crappy as the Big 12 is this year, the odds are very very good that there will not be both an undefeated Big 12 and an undefeated SEC champion.  The BCS has allowed us to enjoy the regular season and placed real value on regular season games in deciding how the season will end.  In a playoff the Oregon-Boise St game would not matter.  Both teams would win their conference and that would be it.

4) It's 1:05 and Northwestern is up on Iowa.  This is BCS busting right here!  Northwestern's entire season is made if they win this game and ruin Iowa's season.  In a Playoff world, Iowa still holds the tie breakers int he conference and losing this game would not cost them a playoff spot.  If Northwestern wins, think about the reaction of that team and it's fans and tell me you want to rob them of that.  Tell them how much you hate the BCS, and that you would rob them the joy of their upset and the joy of ruining Iowa's season because you'd rather see a playoff.

Tweetting back Sunday!

So last week, I had a couple friends on try complain about football season and football tweets, yet we had zero trending topics that had anything to do with football.  This needs to change, this weekend.

Tags to use:
#NFL
#Cheerleader
#INT
#Fumble
#Holding
#TD
#Fumble
#Sack
#GusJohnsonBigPlayOragasm
#FG
#OT
#Overturned
#ReturnTD
6 letter code for the game you're wtaching, home team second
#ATLNE
#PITCIN
#WASDET
#GBSTL
#SFMIN
#NYGTB
#CLEBAL
#JACHOU
#CHISEA
#NOBUF
#DENOAK
#MIASD

Now I will be happy to have one of these up there for most of Sunday, but I want Football to own the trending topics.  I also want way more than 2 people to complain about football this Sunday!

Respect the Enemy: Jerry Jones

There is too much hatred in fandom and on blogs these days.  So I am going to do my own part to keep my hatred and anger in check.  Each week I will take out the time to give credit and respect to people in sports I hate.

Jerry Jones

This fat arrogant Texan scumbag has done something very smart.  Smarter than I thought he could be.  His refusal to fire Wade Phillips is the best thing he could have done for his young quarterback.

Every year we hear the debate in the NFL about whether or not to start the rookie QB.  The argument misses the point. The most important thing a team can do for a young QB is keep him in the same system.  That is why the Patriots refused to change things after Weiss left, they wanted Brady to stay in the same system, even after doing all that he had done.   Too many QB's careers have been ruined by coaches getting fired.  Fortunately for fans the NFL has learned this lesson even if the talking have yet to admit it.

So kudos to Jerry Jones for being smart with Romo and letting him develop under one system.  The Coaching carousel has many victims, and QB's are usually the biggest ones.  So even if Romo never wins a playoff game, he will be a worthwhile starter in the NFL for years to come, because Jerry Jones did it right.

BCS Defender: Nextel Cup

We follow Golf's fiasco with the place they got their idea from NASCAR.  I have already expressed my views on NASCAR without resorting to the use of stereotypes, even though the stereotypes are very strong case on their own.

Let's give NASCAR credit for realizing they had a problem, half their season was rendered meaningless, and that is not good for any competition based business.  So they at least had a real need for something, despite the history.  Just Like College Football, and like college football it's not perfect.

Most Championship format go through numerous revisions in the early years.  NASCAR made a small miscalculation by minimizing the importance of Winning races!  I am so glad they fixed that with the Matt Kenseth Rule.  That fixed the winning races problem decisively!  Until there was another issue with Matt, this time putting Kasey Kahne in 10th place despite winning the most races in 2006.  So the fixed for sure this time, that is until this year when the guy who won the most races finished 13 and out of the chase.  They'll fix it again, next year.  The third time is a charm!

Quick aside about winning because someone is going to yell about the number of games won, but in college football not all wins are equal but in NASCAR they are.  You race a similar 43 car field each week, and the top 20 guys are always there.  This is not Golf or Tennis where the top players pick and choose their tournaments and take half the season off.  In NASCAR you race every week.    In College football there are major scheduling discrepancies and it sucks that the big teams from the small conferences don't get the tough games they'd like too, but that has nothing to do with the BCS.  A Playoff won't fix this issue, it will make it worse.  More schools will want fluff schedules to increase their chances of going undefeated.  Compare that to right now when a school like Ohio St benefits each and every year because they schedule a bit time opponent early in the season.  They care about their strength of schedule, and win or lose that game they get respect at the end because they had the guts to schedule it.  In NASCAR a win is a win, in college football this not the case.

So beyond punishing the winners of races, the Sprint Cup is a corporate whore.  But to be fair, NASCAR's trophy has always been for sale.  But with all the history and tradition of NASCAR, you'd think they could come up with a better name for their trophy.  Maybe the Rum Runner cup?  Or the Duke Boy's Cup?

The other issue that makes the Sprint Cup worse than the BCS is the complexity.  Cry about polls, cry about computers, but explain to me the Point System and then explain to me the different point system they use for the Chase. And then explain why they use different point systems.  and then tell me why they don't just work off a money list like Golf used to?  He who has the most amount of money in giant checks wins!  Hate the BCS all you want, it can be explained to someone that knows nothing about football.  No I cannot explain each and every computer model, but I explain their purpose and how they balance out the emotional reactions of the human polls.

Finally was arrive at the lawsuit issue.  A fan sued NASCAR to get a playoff race at his local track.  It messed everything up, including the guys life.    This is what will happen to college football if the courts or congress get involved.  Let the sport sort itself out or disaster will befall all involved.

So the BCS is better than NASCAR because it can be explained easier, has a trophy that is not solely about corporate sponsorship, actually rewards teams for winning, and respects and rewards regular season performance.