NFL Regular Season Recap and other sports observations

Fall Semester in grad school can be a pretty heady undertaking, and it pretty much claimed Young Swole. I apologize for the lack of content on GDB, but i'm hopeful that i will be able to provide the cutting insight that the millions of readers demand. With that apology, I reflect on the recently completed NFL regular season and other significant events unfolding in the sports universe....

THE DEATH OF HYPE

ESPN tried vainly to stuff aggravating stories like the Dallas Cowboys and Brett Favre down our throats all fall, and to the enjoyment of sane people across our country, both crashed and burned worse than the Hindenberg. First off we have the Cowboys, with their choke-artist quarterback, much-maligned reciever and the rest of the crew. I can't remember such a mediocre team being covered so closely, and I don't think a failure so rife with blame to be dispersed has ever been directed in the wrong directions. Recent days have seen TV commentators (Cris Carter) basically calling for Terrell Owens to be murdered while much greater problems have been largely ignored. Tony Romo continues to be excused of his pathetic play, mostly because he tries hard and bangs a girl that fat sportswriters jerk off to. Jerry Jones has recieved some blame for putting together a bunch of mercenaries and meddling with his coaches, but this has mostly been excused because he really wants to win badly, as if others didn't. Finally Pac Man Jones is made a laughinstock for his Sunday performance, as if he was responsible for Romo and Barber's fumbles and the entire defensive ineptitude. Bottom line here, everyone deserves equal blame, and to lump in entirely on loud black men while excusing white teammates screams of racism.

Onto Favre, who was made the biggest story of the season by ESPN in late summer when he signed with the Jets. He was awful on Sunday, throwing two of the dumbest picks i've ever seen. No one is more responsible for the Jets collapse than him, as evidenced by his 2td to 9int ratio in December. Yet his poor play has been largely excused because he was supposedly injured (as if no one else plays hurt) and that he was "curageous" to try and play in new york. Now we have to endure another offseason of will-he or won't-he when it comes to retirement. If his play is any indicator, then ol' Brett should just hang up his wranglers and go back to nowheresville Mississippi where he belongs.

OTHER BIG STORIES

- The biggest tragedy of the NFL season occurred late in the Tampa-Oakland game. It wasn't the ugly collapse by the Buccaneers against the hapless Raiders, no it was that Cadillac Williams got injured again. Last year, Williams tore a patella tendon in his right knee which doctors thought would end his career. Miraculously, Cadillac returned to the Bucs late in the season and was a big contributor for a team that suffered through injuries from Ernest Graham and Warrick Dunn. However, in the 4th quarter of Sunday's game, Cadillac tore the patella tendon in his left knee, and is looking at another career threatening situation. I've always loved the way Cadillac has run the ball way back to his Auburn days, and its heartbreaking that the same devastasting injury could happen to the same guy again. I just hope that he doesn't go the way of players like Willie Davis and Yatil Green and never make it back.

- All the NFL numbskull commentators aren't mentioning him, but Ed Reed would be my MVP this season. Reed was always a great player, but he has been simply dominant on defense this year for the Ravens. Every week it seems he's returning a TD for a touchdown or making a huge play on defense. His emotional contribution is arguably larger than any other player in the league as well, Reed is the identity of the Ravens and he has helped make them one of the most dangerous teams in the playoffs. My second place would be Peyton Manning, 3rd place Chad Pennington

- As a Lions fan, all i can really do is shake my head in embarrasment. Unlike the Dolphins and Falcons, i have no hope in the Lions actually turning this around. They are sadly mismanaged and do not have the intellectual capability to even acknowledge that they are clueless. There is literally no hope for this franchise. Whoever they draft will be wasted because they can't find good enough coaches. The coaches they do hire are either inept or lazy. I honestly don't even think they will win a game next year either. There are no good young players on this team and no rookie is going to be able to make that much of a difference. its sad to see the franchise this damn bad, but what's even sadder is they will continue to be this awful for a lot longer.

- I am convinced this is the year of Lebron. Silence me with that KG competitor talk, no one has had a greater will to win since MJ than Lebron. Plus he actually has decent teammates around him this year, which will lead him to his first of many NBA titles. Lock it in right now, he will be Sports Illustrated's sportsman of the year in 2009, unless Tiger comes back and sweeps the majors.

- The college bowls are in full swing, and they have been very good so far. Unfortunately it looks like the big bowls could all be letdowns, thanks to the mismatches created by the greed of the BCS and college presidents. If anyone thinks Penn State, Ohio State or Utah actually has a chance in the bowl game, then they need to get some smelling salts.

Coming up in Future Days: Young Swole's NFL All-Pro Team, The perfect solution for a BCS playoff, BCS Bowl Predictions, Australian Open Preview, Young Swole's Life Observations

The NFL - Where Crime Happens

When I was a kid I lived in a very small town. We had a weekly newspaper that kept up with the goings-on in the town and one of the best parts was the police blotter that was included. Usually there were only about 4 items a week, but I always hoped some huge crime had happened or someone I knew had gotten arrested so that things would get exciting around our parts. Well as I'm realizing over the past few months, if our little town back in Connecticut can have a weekly police blotter for such things as speeding tickets and petty theft, than the NFL should too for all the arrests that occur on a nearly daily basis.

Brandon Marshall, a wide reciever for the Denver Broncos, was arrested for the third time this year yesterday for hitting his girlfriend. In other news, grass is green (except in Athens, go drought!!). Last week another wide reciever, Javon Walker, had his ass whooped in Vegas after apparently spraying a crowd with champagne. Cedric Benson has been arrested twice for DUI charges. Jevon Kearse got a DUI arrest last week. The list of players goes on and on. I'm even going to argue that this current NFL is the most crime-infested league in the history of American sports, and yet somehow the league is as teflon as ever. Television ratings continue to be high and the popularity of the sport is easily number 1 even if every team seems to have multiple players arrested during a typical offseason.

While the crimes committed by players in the NFL players are both terrible and embarrasing, they are not even considered to be a 'thug' league by society in general. Actually, college football is thought to be much more crime-ridden than the pro's even though that assumption is absolutely false. While players do get arrested on college teams, it should be considered that college teams have many more players therefore making crime more likely simply by sheer number. Secondly, it should be remembered that college players are, surprise suprise, college age. I know for a fact that I did some stupid shit in college that probably could have been arrested for, and I bet you every journalist or TV commentator that rags on thuggish college kids could say the same. The thing about NFL players is that they are grown ass men. I'm almost 25 now and i've cut out a lot of the stupid things in my life, why shouldn't NFL players be able to?

Another league that is commonly referred to as a "thug league" is the NBA. If you never actually watched a game, you'd think that every player in the league is a rapper wannabe who spends times with hoodlums and smokes weed. In reality, the NBA is filled with great people, black and white mind you, who have done a lot to clean up the image of the league while being highly active in charity and outreach events. Two examples of this include the league-wide effort to rebuild New Orleans during the All-Star weekend, and Stephon Marbury creating his own basketball shoe to be sold for 15$ so inner city kids could affort them. And yet these two events are spun in a way by our society so that potential crime at all-star weekend is a bigger story, and that Marbury is a selfish punk who only cares about himself, despite the fact that he's created his affordable shoe line and has donated over a million dollars to New York Public Schools.

As is usually the case, there are a lot of people to blame for this situation. Here's who should be taken to task, and what they are doing wrong:

1. The entire NFL. Its bad enough for the players and coaches in the NFL to do so many stupid things to get arrested, but its even worse for such a popular and succesful league to let this culture of violence be allowed to exist. Sure Roger Goodell played to the PR set pretty well by crucifying Michael Vick, and I guess he's done a fair job of suspending players with a criminal history, but its still pretty obvious that his own players don't fear his suspension policy. Its not stopping these guys from driving drunk, beating up their wives, being involved in drugs and possibly committing murders, so obviously something else has to be done. First of all, Goodell should make it clear that NO crime can be permitted, and if you do something stupid you are out of the league for good. If I got arrested, my employer would fire me tomorrow and it would be extremely hard for me ever to get a decent job again. So tell me why an NFL player should be any different, because he can catch a ball? Or because he's fat? The league should make it known that if you want to do stupid stuff, you don't belong. I really doubt Chicago would miss Cedric Benson, or the Broncos would miss Brandon Marshall in the long run.

2. TV Media. Not only does the media have a very visible love affair with the NFL, but it also has a pretty obvious bias towards the NBA and other sports. When a football player gets arrested, it usually draws a few murmors from the sports stations and a blurb on the bottom line of those news channels, but rarely is the story more deeply covered unless a station is forced to. This is because many major networks are in bed with the NFL and it would be bad business for them to draw a negative light towards the sport that pays the most bills. You think ESPN is going to hype up NFL crime the same way it does other sports, when it relies of Monday Night Football for so much revenue. And do you think GE, which owns NBC, is going to dedicate time to its networks to criticize the NFL when its trying to entice casual viewers to watch its Sunday Night Football telecasts? On the opposite end of the spectrum, any little news that comes out of the NBA is made into a huge deal. Carmelo Anthony has pretty much been vilified for a DUI arrest, which while stupid and dangerous is no different than what happens in other sports constantly. Shaq's apparent freestyle about Kobe is not just a story about two spoiled men with immense ego's, yet has to be something more about the thug rapper culture that permeates in the NBA. And events such as fights between teams like the Nuggets and Knicks are blown out of proportion to be an indictment of the entire league and its African-American players despite the fact that the same sort of event is glorified in sports like baseball and hockey, and worshiped as competitive fire in the NFL. With a double standard so evident in coverage, it's pretty obvious that public perception is trying to force people to like one sport more than another. Its pretty dumb for people to believe this crap, but I guess I wouldn't have a third group to blame if they didn't.

3. Our stupid society. While this last point could go on forever, I'll try to sum up this point in how it relates to this specific topic by saying that its time for people to try to form their own opinions and understandings based on their own experiences than by assuming that what someone else says is true. If I had a friend tell me that the Waffle House was the greatest resturant in the world and I believed him at face value, my own opinion on Waffle House would be invalidated because I never experienced their food enough to agree or disagree with his claim. Only by going to Waffle House and realizing that it is in fact the shittiest resturant in the world do I have the requisite evidence to not only question my friend's opinion but to support my own opinion. In the same way, we live in a society in which we are told what to think by others, instead of being encouraged to form our own individual opinions. And if what we are told plays into our pre-conceived notions of black men and their pursuits in life, than all the more better. 99% percent of casual American sports fans think Allen Iverson is a complete thug riding around smoking weed and slapping bitches, yet none of them have actually met him and gotten to know who he truly is. Iverson may in fact be exactly that, but it is unfair and wrong to assume anything about someone you really have no idea about. Yet because America seems to still fear black people so much, they eat up the idea that players in the NBA are threats to them, and that white NFL superstars like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are better people who we can feel safe in giving our adoration to, even though we know just as much about their true character as we do about Carmelo Anthony or Ron Artest. Racism is old, outdated and completely uneccesary, and it makes me embarrased that the majority of our society still uses it to form narrow-minded opinions of people and cultures they are simply too lazy and ignorant to try and better understand.

Tonight is the NBA Draft. One of the top prospects, Michael Beasley, is reported to be dropping because of "character issues". Among these character issues are that he is immature, and that he may not be totally dedicated to basketball. The evidence used to support this claim is that he carried around 4 cell phones in college, pulled a prank on a teacher once and attended 6 different high schools. What is failed to be mentioned is that Beasley is only 19 years old and that as a college superstar in a small town in Kansas, he was probably the center of attention anywhere he went. And I'd be willing to guess that there were other important factors playing into him moving around so much in high school than simply that he was immature. All of these indictments against Beasley not only further drive pre-conceived notions of NBA players and the sport in general, but also plants the seeds for opinion to be formed on Beasley based on racial stereotypes before the kid (19 is still a kid folks) has even bounced a basketball in the pro's once. So now if Beasley fails to win 10 NBA Titles or become the next Tim Duncan, its because he's lazy and immature instead of being that is simply not good enough to be what people expected him to be. I guess people can be critical of Beasley to a point, and the NBA isn't exactly the most wholesome organization of the face of the planet, but its situations like these that sum of the point i'm trying to make perfectly. In the NFL you can literally get away with murder, in the NBA you can't have more than one cell phone. Hopefully people will turn down Bill O'Reilly, Nancy Grace or the talking heads on ESPN long enough to realize the existence of this dichotomy, but then again this is America, where double-standards are about as common as high gas prices.

If a tree falls in the forest...

In an era of overwhelming sensationalism in television medium, Young Swole finds it shocking that one of the most high-profile athletes stands accused of serious violations and crimes and yet is being ignored.

Two years ago Reggie Bush was on top of the world. He was one of the most electrifying college athletes we had seen in years and was poised to make millions of dollars in the NFL. Since then, a lot has gone wrong though. He hasn't lived up to the hype in New Orleans despite being surrounded by some of the greatest offensive weapons in the entire league, but more damaging are the off the field concerns that have been raised. For years, many skeptics have wondered if USC could build such a powerful football program in a clean way, and while it was hard to find a crack in the Trojan Program, the Achilles heel (pun intended) may in fact turn out to be the face of the USC dynasty in the 2000's, Reggie Bush himself.

Bush is accused of borrowing money from people like Lloyd Lake, an ex gang member who became a sports agent, while playing at USC. Lake is believed to have financed a car for Bush and home for his family, which if true would violate NCAA rules. To make the case even more serious, Lake is now suing Bush because he claims Bush has not paid him back despite making millions of dollars a year. While this is a very serious deal, it unfortunately isn't even the biggest story. What makes the entire situation so shocking is how the overwhelming majority of sports media has chosen to ignore it.

For the past few years, ESPN has degenerated before our eyes into a daily tabloid of sports drama, instead of a reputable source of sports information. Their habit is to choose a controversial team or player, and cover them so extensively that they run the story into the ground before they choose another candidate to feed on for the next rating cycle. Players like Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and Barry Bonds and teams like the New York Yankees are beaten into our collective psyche like a bad catchy song. It seems like the developing Reggie Bush saga would have ESPN executives licking their chops as they see it as an opportunity to fill up another 3 months of programming. Yet if you turn on ESPN you will never hear a mention of the case. Lip service is paid to the fact that Bush's bodyguards threatened Lake's life at a hearing last month, or that Bush didn't show up at a mandatory court appearance yesterday, or even that USC is investigating Bush's financial background and may forfeit victories and championships. In a story that seems like a much bigger deal than most of the other garbage we hear about daily (The Best Highlight of All time for example), why is ESPN almost entirely ignoring it, when it seems so quick to jump on the bandwagon of every sensational sports story that exists?

Here are 3 quick reasons why ESPN is ignoring it:

1. USC was ESPN's glory program for college football. 2 years ago, their talking heads were saying USC was the best football team in the history of college sports before they even won a title (which they promptly lost to Texas). This year they severely overrated the Trojans at the beginning of the year again, and then constantly rated them as the best team at the end of the season despite being no more impressive than many other teams around the nation. This coverage included fawning over the accomplishments of Bush which while impressive, have to be looked at harshly in hindsight if Lake's allegations are true. To bury Bush's career, ESPN is effectively burying all the hype they put into the USC program, which would make them look foolish.

2. Reggie Bush has carefully crafted an image as a clean-cut athlete that fans can look up to. ESPN is quick to bury athletes they deem controversial like a TO, who hasn't done anything near what Bush is accused of. The fact that they play favorites is bad enough (just look at their coverage of Brett Favre and the Patriots last football season), but to not treat all players fairly in the wake of recent and enlightening events is frankly a disservice to ESPN's viewership.

3. Most importantly, Reggie Bush's attorney is a man named David Cornwell. ESPN viewers may remember him as the legal authority then turned to when the Bonds and Vick fiascos were ongoing. Now Cornwell is the man orchestrating the possibly criminal acts that Bush is undertaking, all while still being considered a respectable legal authority in the eyes of ESPN. This entire relationship screams of a conflict of interest. Simply because a person has been on your tv channel before does not mean he should be above the law, and above the judgment of those with the power to do so. By protecting Cornwell, and thus his client Bush, ESPN is stunting the legal process, and also proving highly hypocritical in its reporting and opinion-forming.

So while this Bush story is not going away any time soon, and in all likelihood will only grow more important in the coming months, it may be ignored on one of the most important sports media outlets in the world. Bush may be guilty or innocent, the legal process will surely find that out, but we can already safely say that ESPN is guilty of biased reporting in what may turn out to be a more serious case than all of the sensationalized garbage they have thrust upon America over the last few years.

The Official GDB NFC Wild Card Preview

Wild Card Weekend has arrived folks. While I always am excited for the NFL Playoffs, it also reminds me of how few football games left we have in the season. But lets save that for another today, because we have some serious football to break down.

Washington @ Seattle, 430 PM Saturday

How Washington got here: No team has overcome as much as the Skins have. Besides the unspeakable tragedy of Sean Taylor's death, they have also had to overcome the loss of the Young Bull (Jason Campbell) to a knee injury and some buffoonish coaching decisions by Joe Gibbs that cost the team some victories. Despite all this turmoil, the Redskins rallied behind Wolverine never-was Todd Collins and ripped off four straight wins to reach the playoffs. I'd try to give reasons for why this late season surge happened, but that would be as effective as trying to understand how Roy Williams made another Pro Bowl.

How Seattle got here: Because the Seahawks played in the worst division in football, they had time to overcome early injuries to key players, and the general ineffectiveness of the running game. Once they opened up the offense and let Matt Hasselbeck take charge, the Hawks really got rolling. Now they appear to be a dangerous team, loaded with offensive playmakers as well as an underrated defense led by the excellent Julian Peterson and Patrick Kerney.

3 Strengths of Washington:
1. Clinton Portis has been the team's MVP. These last four week's he has looked like he did back in Denver, which is allowing the Skins to control the ball, the clock and the flow of the game.
2. Washington's run defense has become much better as well lately. They were able to shut down Brandon Jacobs and All Day Peterson in games they absolutely had to win. If they can shut down those guys, why can't they do the same to Shaun Alexander?
3. Washington's will to win may be unsurpassed in these playoffs. No team is playing for more than these Skins. You can see it every time Clinton Portis takes a hand-off, or every time the defense makes a big play, no one is playing with more intensity than this team as they try to honor the death of their fallen teammate.

3 Strengths of Seattle:
1. Home Field Advantage. The crowd in Seattle gets hella rowdy, and the Seahawks feed off of them as good as any team in the entire NFL, especially their opportunistic defense.
2. Matt Hasselbeck is a very good quarterback. He may not get the hype of a Brady or Manning, but he is very capable of leading his team on a playoff run. He does not make many mistakes, and knows the offense like the back of his hand.
3. The experience of the Seahawks. This team knows how to win playoff games. While they have been inconsistent in the regular season, they usually play their best when it counts, especially at Qwest Field.

3 Weaknesses of Washington:
1. Todd Collins. OK he's had a nice run. But his success has basically been a consequence of the efforts of Portis and the running game. I doubt he has the talent to bring the Redskins back on the road if they fall behind and can't use that running game.
2. The Secondary. Seattle spreads the ball out all over. The Redskins are without Carlos Rogers and of course Sean Taylor. Sean Springs can only cover one man, which leaves Matt Hasselbeck's 2nd and 3rd options with great advantages over any one the Skins match them up with.
3. Fatigue. It took a ton of effort for the Skins to reach where they have. It seems natural to have a letdown with them knowing they have made the big dance. Lets see if they can maintain the intensity in a hostile environment on the road.

3 Weaknesses of Seattle:
1. The running game. The team really took off when Mike Holmgren basically said screw it to the running game and let Hasselbeck run the team. It may have not hurt them so far, but they will need a running game to rely on at some point, and i doubt it will be there.
2. Inconsistency. One week they look unstoppable, next week they are letting a crappy team run all over them. While they should be firing on all cylinders, its not out of the realm of possibility that they shit the bed in a big game.
3. Special teams. I included this because Josh Brown thinks he is a badass for tackling a Falcon last week on a kickoff return. Memo to Josh Brown, as long as you kick field goals, you are a pussy. Go play with your leg warmers jackass.

Player to watch for the Skins:
Undoubtedly Todd Collins. At some point in the game he's going to have to make some plays for them. If he limits his mistakes and makes the Seattle defense respect him, the Skins have a shot. If not, his 15 minutes are up.

Player to watch for the Seahawks:
Shaun Alexander. If he can give the Seahawks any kind of ground game, they have the chance to not only win this game, but make it all the way to the Super Bowl. Its asking a lot of a guy who has looked a lot like Grandpa Simpson running the ball this year, but I still believe he's too good to have forgotten how to run it when it matters.

NY Giants @ Tampa Bay, 1pm Sunday

How the Giants got here: They might as well rename this team the Millenium Force, cause every damn year their season is a total rollercoaster ride. One week the look amazing, the next week they look like the Raiders. Despite the inconsistency, they had enough talent to sneak in thanks to the overall weakness of the NFC.

How Tampa Bay got here: Sounds like the old Tampa teams. Effective and mistake-free offense, and tough defense. They did have a super easy schedule, but they won the games they had to and look dangerous heading into the post-season.

3 Strengths of the Giants:

1. The running game. Even though Tiki Barber is off doing TV and designing fashion, the Giants running game remains formidable. Between the epic colossus known as Brandon Jacobs, the wily veteran Reuben Droughns, and the bastard love-child of Ahmad Rashad and Terry Bradshaw, the Giants have the running game to be successful in the playoffs.

2. The Pass rush. We saw what they could do in the first Eagles game. With ballers like Strahan and Umenyiora coming off the edge, no QB is safe. And with Jeff Garcia being injury prone, it only take one hit for the Bucs to have to rely on Luke McCown.

3. Overcoming Adversity. Every time you want to bury this team, they remind us that they actually have a lot of talent and can win at any time.

3 Strengths of the Bucs:

1. Jon Gruden. He is still a very good coach. We can see this in how he has basically remade the entire team since their super bowl win, but has this year's team playing exactly the way he wants them to.

2. Jeff Garcia. Yeah he is old and weak-wristed, but he is also tough and knows how to run the west coast offense. And he will not make the killer mistake that so many other qb's are prone to.

3. The defense. With old classics like Derrick Brooks and Ronde Barber, and young ballers like Jermaine Phillips and Barrett Ruud, they still know how to intimidate young quarterbacks just like the vintage Bucs defense did.

3 Weaknesses of the Giants:

1. Eli Manning. He embodies the entire team pretty well. One week he looks like a guy worthy of number 1 pick. The next week he throws 4 interceptions against the Vikings and looks more lost than fat guy on the road to diet camp.

2. Offensive playcalling. Despite having a swole running back, noted jackass Kevin Gilbride still tries to make this a finesse, throwing offense. Against a team like the Bucs that could spell disaster.

3. Tom Coughlin. Every good coach outcoaches him when it matters. If i was a Giants fan i'd have no faith in him making the right decision when its needed.

3 Weaknesses of the Bucs:

1. Offensive Line. They have gotten better this year, but they face a huge task this weekend trying to stop the Giants D-Line, and control the time of possession by providing a competent running game.

2. Lack of receiving options. Joey Galloway is still pretty damn good, but when your other receivers are chumps such as Ike Hilliard and Mark Clayton, you know that there isn't much to work with for Air Garcia.

3. Inexperience. This will be the first playoff game for many of the Young Bucs. It may take them time to settle down and find their groove against the more experienced Giants.

Player to watch for the Giants:

Eli Manning. Isnt it about time this guy has his defining moment? Every time he seems to be "getting it", he regresses straight back to mediocrity. If he plays well, the Giants can get the win, if he shits up the joint its straight back to another dissapointing offseason for Big Blue.

Player to watch for the Bucs:

Ernest Graham. This guy has been amazing replacing injured Cadillac Williams. Sunday will be the biggest test of his career however. They cannot beat the Giants solely relying on Jeff Garcia. They need to have a running game to complement him and let them play the way they want to. This responsibility falls on the shoulders of Graham.