Clemson beat Alabama last night to capture the NCAA College Football Playoff National Championship. (The Tide got rolled.) Actually, it was this morning before the game ended. Apparently it was “a game for the ages,” but one of those ages isn’t 52, because I was fast asleep well before the fourth quarter, which featured four lead changes, and three touchdowns in the final five minutes of play. The winning score came with a single tick left on the game clock… at about 12:25 a.m. In other words, the most exciting parts of the title game happened when most sane people who live east of the Rockies were snoozing.
The game kicked off at 8:19 Eastern time. And college football games used to take about three hours. But now, pretty much any and every play is subject to video review, which is nearly as much fun as watching paint dry. Throw in the requisite injury time-outs, a long halftime and a few extra commercial breaks (broadcast rights ain’t cheap) and you’ve got yourself a sixty-minute game that took more than four hours to conclude.
In their never-ending quest for better ratings, TV networks will pick game times that suit their needs, not the desires of the fans. But in the DVR/internet age, I think more and more fans will skip all the hoopla, catch up on their beauty sleep and catch the five-minute highlights the next day.
Shaving four hours off your total viewing time? Now that’s the stuff that dreams are made of.
This isn’t a picture of me… my skin mask has more of a lavender hue to it.
My favorite NFL team is the Oakland Raiders. Because when you spend your formative years (ages 6-17) in Arkansas, there’s no mandatory geographic alliance to any particular team. The Raiders were on TV a lot back then, because they were really good. I liked their logo and team colors (what other reason do you need when you’re six?).
And their players were an odd collection of rejects, castoffs and misfits. I could relate to that too.
The Raiders have been pretty darn horrible over the last decade and a half (and that’s putting it nicely). No winning seasons. 10 seasons with 11 or more losses.
But I’ve stuck with them through it all. Because I’m not a quitter… although I’ve certainly been tempted.
This year the Raiders turned the corner and have been good again. They’ve had some great draft choices and made a few smart free agent acquisitions over the past few years, and those moves have paid off. This year they clinched a playoff berth more than a week ago with a win over the San Diego Chargers. First trip to the playoffs since 2002.
Then this past Sunday, playing at home against the Indianapolis Colts, up 33-14 in the 4th quarter, their young team captain/MVP-candidate quarterback Derek Carr was sacked (first time he was touched by the Colts all game) and suffered a broken fibula.
(Carr was one of three NFL players to have a broken fibula on Sunday… bad things happen in threes apparently.) Just like that, the Raiders went from dream season to nightmare, from Super Bowl contender to also-ran.
The Raiders’ defense is pretty suspect, and it’s doubtful they would’ve gone all the way this year. But the fickle finger of fate has given Raider fans the finger once again. The autumn wind is a pirate, but apparently God is a Patriots fan.
Good news for long-suffering Cubs fans: the Billy Goat Curse is no more.
Bad news for fans of every other MLB team: The Cubs have a great nucleus of young position players, great pitching and a fantastic manger… so the Billy Goat Curse has been replaced by a new curse: The Curse of the Obnoxious Cub Fans.
Vin Scully will call his final baseball game today, after 67 years behind the microphone for the Brooklyn/L.A. Dodgers. He is, without any doubt, the best baseball broadcaster ever, and second place isn’t even in the same universe. He did games on TV, but radio is where he really was at his most brilliant… he could paint a picture of the action and draw you into the game like no one else. Because it was never about Vin – as it often is with today’s ego-driven broadcasters – it was always about the game.
When he was on TV, he knew that the video could tell more of the story, and didn’t feel compelled to fill up the air with drivel. Probably his most famous call was Kirk Gibson’s home run in the World Series, and his line “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!” is classic. But watch and you’ll see how Vin sets up the confrontation between the MVP pitcher and the hobbled batter so brilliantly. And note that Vin is silent for a full minute after he calls the homer, allowing the magic of the moment to shine through.
Yesterday during college football games, not one, but two runners let go of the ball before they crossed the goal line. Because apparently style points count more than six points.
Here’s Oklahoma’s Joe Mixon at the end of a kickoff return:
Luckily for Mixon, the play wasn’t reviewed and he got credit for a touchdown.
And here’s Cal’s Vic Enwere against Texas, late in the game with Cal up by a touchdown.
He got lucky too. He didn’t get credit for a touchdown, but the ball was blown dead so the Texas player who picked it up couldn’t run it back the other way for a tying score.
Here’s another pet peeve of mine, in college and pro football: players running alongside the guy about to score, instead of turning around and blocking someone. Here you see three ‘Bama players joining a pigskin posse on a 75-yard interception return, yet none of the non-runners turned around to get in the way of the Ole Miss player, who nearly prevented the score.
I was sorry to hear about the passing of longtime ESPN sportscaster John Saunders. Not just because he seemed like a really nice guy, but also because he was one of the few “worldwide leader” ESPN personalities that didn’t have copious amounts of smugness, smarm and/or shtick.
He was just an old school broadcaster who came across as relatable and reliable. They are few and far between these days.
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