I maintain to this day that the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a quarter century plus of watching hockey is Mario Lemieux’s comeback in 2000-01.
Le Magnifique took a three year hiatus from the game, returned during the heart of the appalling dead puck era and promptly tallied 76 points in 43 games. That remarkable average of 1.77 points per game extrapolates to a 145 point season; assuming you could suspend disbelief enough to think Lemieux could ever suit up for all 82 games.
Taken in context of the era, the scoring championship was won that year by Jaromir Jagr, who just happened to be Lemieux’s line-mate with 121 points. The highest scoring player not sharing a locker room with Big 66 was Joe Sakic with 118 points. No other player scored more than 96.
And I left out the part about Lemieux scoring three points in his first game back including setting up a goal in the game’s opening minute. Which is to say in the immortal words of Marc Liverant, he was back to making a mockery of the game…on his first shift.
It is blatantly unfair to measure Sidney Crosby’s comeback against such lofty standards. At least that’s what I told myself as Emily and I entered the new energy barn last Monday night. As indescribably exciting as it was to luck in to attending that game (and I assure you it was just that), I told myself all the way to faceoff that there was no conceivable way that Crosby could match Lemieux’s prowess and to keep my expectations in check.
So much for that theory.
Crosby did not just match Lemieux’s performance, he beat it; four points to three. That included two breathtakingly spectacular goals, the first of which was as impressive as any I’ve seen in the NHL this season. Even more impressive, Crosby was far and away the best player on the ice, a surface he was sharing with the rejuvenated Geno Malkin and the Islanders lost wunderkind John Tavares. It was eerily similar to Lemieux doing the same thing that magical December night in 2000 while sharing the ice with Jagr.
Which is to say the game, heck the event was frighteningly reminiscent of the Mario’s return. It started with a positively electric atmosphere, one completely disproportionate to an early season week night game. It ended with an identical 5 to 0 Penguin rout. It was one of those rare sporting events that you simply did not want to end.
There were differences as well. Crosby’s unexcused absence was 11 months, in comparison to Lemieux’s 3.5 years. In addition, Lemieux was retired which means his conditioning was likely “suspect“ (and I’m being charitable) during his time off. Crosby in contrast has been skating hard for months and dominating practices while waiting for “clearance for contact.”
Morover, Le Magnifique returned against a Toronto team that ultimately earned a playoff spot. Crosby returned against a team that might miss the post season if it were relegated to the ECHL. The Leafs started a borderline hall of famer in goal in Curtis Joseph, the Islanders started 4th stringer Anders Nilsson.
[As an aside, did anybody else find it funny that on a stage of this magnitude the Isles choose to start Nilsson rather than their $65 Million supposed franchise goaltender Rick DiPietro? Enjoy writing those checks for another decade…party on Garth (Snow)!]
Given those differences I can afford Mario the slight edge on impressive comebacks; with the caveat that I am quite literally splitting hairs to make that assessment. At the end of the day we are still talking about a brilliant four point performance that most players dare not dream of. Even that does not fully reflect Crosby’s dominance; his mastery of the faceoff circle or how many scoring chances he created. It was other worldly or dare I say Lemieux-esque.
When Crosby suffered his concussion(s) last season he was putting on the most dominant offensive performance the NHL had witnessed since that fabulous Lemieux comeback season. And when he returned to the ice on Monday night, he picked up right where he left off. That in and of itself is perhaps the most amazing part of the story. If I went that long without typing I would lose 20% of my speed.
For a more realistic comparison consider Jordan Staal struggling throughout last season to regain form after an 8 month absence. I expected Crosby would find his game faster than Staal but I still thought it would take some time. It took one shift.
It continued on Friday night when Crosby added three points against overwhelmed Ottawa and showed a renewed feistiness as well. Even his scoreless performance against St’Louis resulted in a tying goal with him on the ice.
The truth of the matter is this; Crosby is right now exactly what he was supposed to be when he entered the league. Not just the best player in the game bar none but one of the truly great players to ever play. Statistically it may be a tad early to make that assessment. Realistically it is not. We got previews of this ability in both the 2009 playoffs against Washington and the first part of last season. Watching him now after ten months in the post-concussion wilderness merely reinforces the obvious.
Keep in mind that Crosby can be measured almost every night against Malkin, who has resumed his place as one of the most dominant offensive forces in the game. Malkin’s return alone spurred the Penguins beyond where they were last spring when consistently hard work rarely translated in to goals. That’s the same Malkin who for my money out performed Sid in both 2007-08 and 2008-09 (an opinion which is permanently archived in writing through the miracle of the internet…for better or for worse).
Those days are now behind us. Malkin is a truly elite hockey player; Crosby is just one step better. For reference, think Lemieux versus Steve Yzerman when both were in their heyday.
What’s truly amazing about Crosby is he continues to improve while many other superstars around him plateau of even fade. Is there anybody outside the 301 area code for example that still thinks Alex Ovechkin is Sid’s equal, let alone the better player? And keep in mind that Sid remains eminently coachable while the great 8 is, in the definition of irony, cursing out Bruce Boudreau.
I still consider Lemieux the most supremely dominant hockey player I’ve ever seen. I remain reluctant to suggest any current player as his equal. As recently as the start of last season I considered any such comparisons utter blasphemy.
I’m not quite ready to renege on that position, but Sid the Kid is putting a real dent in my convictions.
There is unfortunately one other comparison to Lemieux that we cannot ignore. Just as we lived in perpetual fear of Mario’s balky back, we will fear future Crosby concussions. We will swallow hard and hold our collective breath every time he takes a rough hit. We will seize up in terror when the David Backus’ of the world take a swipe at Crosby’s cranium. Those concerns will be multiplied when and if Sid signs what figures to be a 7 year plus deal for $10 Million a year; before July of 2013.
So be it. Such things are out of our control. We can no more control Sid’s health than Nilsson can stop his high speed backhand roof job. We just have to hope that Crosby like many others (Ben Roethlisberger for example) can shake the concussion issues and remain dominant and healthy. I always felt that Lemieux’s health issues cheated the Pens out of several more Stanley Cups. I hope the same is not true of Sid. The Penguins are a very good team without him. They are very likely the best team in the NHL with him.
There is a lot of hockey to be played between now and June. And as we learned last season, a lot of things can happen in that span, for better or for worse. There are no guarantees that the Pens will carry the cup in June just because Sid the Kid is back in the line-up.
No guarantees…but the odds look a whole lot better.
ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY PENGUIN…BLESSED BE THE PENGUIN, FOR IT IS GOOD.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
A Sad and Shocking End
This cannot be how it ends. And yet it is.
One sick, depraved human being has taken down an icon, bringing a proud university to its knees in the process.
Not alone of course; he had several unwilling accomplices. Whatever you may feel about the Penn State administration right now I can guarantee this; none of them wanted to be in this position. If they covered for Jerry Sandusky for whatever reason; to save the school or to save him, I assure you it was not by choice. It was because right or wrong, and it’s most likely wrong, they felt they had to.
To what extent Joseph Vincent Paterno was involved in that collaboration remains a mystery. It may never be fully understood. And it’s now irrelevant. The die has been cast and barring a dramatic change in facts or circumstances, he will be deemed fully complicit in these horrific events.
A significant majority believe that Paterno, either through negligent inaction or a conspiracy to defraud enabled a horrific scandal with devastating consequences. A small minority believe he is a high powered scapegoat, served up to satisfy public bloodlust. I honestly don’t know what to believe.
I cannot recall an event that has shaken my core convictions to this degree.
I do not expect those who are not part of the Penn State family to understand our grief. How can I expect others to understand it when I can't explain it myself? All I know is what I felt when the announcement was made official, profound sadness.
This is a DEVASTATING time for all of us in the Penn State community.
It’s not the act of JoePa's firing in and of itself that saddens me. It’s what it represents. This surreal nightmare is now undeniable on every level. Until this week any notion of Penn State football without Paterno was inconceivable, let along Paterno being fired. That it happened and happened so suddenly crystalizes on every level the monumental nature of this scandal.
Many have called JoePa's dismissal the end of an era. You cannot fathom how inadequate that description is to the events at hand.
You must understand Penn State is a massive extended family. Our family has hundreds of thousands of members. It stretches across years and decades and thousands of miles. We are incredibly broad and diverse, different in so many ways. The one thing that binds us is an undying love of The Pennsylvania State University. And yes part of that is represented in our love and respect for Penn State football.
Understand this, whatever you may think of him right now, Joe Paterno was the patriarch of our family. He was quite literally the physical embodiment of this place we hold so sacred. His termination represents a spiritual death to our family, to our school, and to our beliefs. For that we mourn.
We mourn for the man we knew, and we mourn in fear of the man we may not have known.
We mourn for the destruction of a great man and that man’s reputation. We mourn the systematic annihilation of six decades of our history.
And we mourn our fear that perhaps the great man was not so great after all. At least not when it mattered the most.
Do not interpret our grief as an endorsement of his action or lack thereof. We all understand that gravity of this situation. I have opinions on Paterno’s culpability but I’m unwilling to share them. For one thing I don’t trust my feelings and convictions. I’m not sure I can see clearly through my emotions or bias. For another, I quite literally dread the next development that might make things worse.
Part of me cannot fathom that 60 plus years of dedicated service to one university is being wiped away. That’s 60 plus years, a lifetime of coaching, teaching, and mentoring young men. Some coaches are associated with a school or program. Joe Paterno literally is Penn State football. He is the universal constant for every Penn Stater past and present.
The other part of me cannot fathom that he may have played some role, however peripheral in these horrific crimes. He neither perpetrated nor witnesses these acts. And to whatever extent he enabled them he was not alone. It does not matter. Anyone involved in this appalling tragedy must be held accountable.
In my perfect world a man with a six decade track record of excellence would have been given the benefit of the doubt. We would have allowed for due process, for ALL of the facts to be known before such drastic action was taken.
Alas that was not realistic. I knew by Tuesday that JoePa would never coach another game. This scandal became too big, too fast. His position became untenable as did so many others. I knew this with absolute certainty.
And still I cried when the announcement was made. The raw emotion of the moment was more powerful than I ever expected. Even now I can’t grasp the non-stop “Paterno fired” headline that’s living in perpetuity on cable TV.
Jerry Sandusky is the ultimate bad guy here. Everyone who suffers for this does so ultimately because of him. Others made bad decisions, horrible perhaps but he and only he committed these heinous crimes. I will never back off of that belief.
That does not absolve the actions of our leaders. We entrusted them with something we hold sacred and they betrayed that trust. Their actions and decisions have brought shame to the entire Penn State community. Any and all who were involved must pay with nothing less than their jobs. If that includes Joe Paterno then so be it.
It’s just so hard to believe.
Let me be clear on this point, we are NOT the victims here. The kids that Sandusky abused AND ONLY those kids deserve your thoughts, sympathy and prayers. The entire Penn State community however is collateral damage.
The damage to the university is incalculable; as is the pain and sadness felt by its students and alumni. We’ve been stripped of our dignity, turned in to a nationwide object of scorn and ridicule. Hundreds of thousands are suffering because of the heinous actions of one man, and the subsequent action or inaction of several others.
We suffer twice, once for the kids and once for our school. And we suffer in silence. Nobody wants to hear our pain. Our betrayal pales in comparison to the betrayal of those kids, and we all know it. If we suffer out loud we are called apologists, enablers, or worse. We are not any of those things; just hurt, confused, and profoundly sad.
We cannot defend the indefensible; nor have we tried. It is stunning how many lives have been negatively affected by the actions of one deeply disturbed human being.
I don’t know that we will ever fully come to grips with that. And frankly we're not ready to do so. Right now we are dealing with profound changes to our reality; a reality we've taken as a given our entire lives.
It’s ironic that so many of us were calling for Paterno’s retirement before this happened. There was endless debate as to whether he stayed too long. Many felt, in spite of all he had done, that it was time for the Paterno era to end.
None of us wanted it to end like this.
One sick, depraved human being has taken down an icon, bringing a proud university to its knees in the process.
Not alone of course; he had several unwilling accomplices. Whatever you may feel about the Penn State administration right now I can guarantee this; none of them wanted to be in this position. If they covered for Jerry Sandusky for whatever reason; to save the school or to save him, I assure you it was not by choice. It was because right or wrong, and it’s most likely wrong, they felt they had to.
To what extent Joseph Vincent Paterno was involved in that collaboration remains a mystery. It may never be fully understood. And it’s now irrelevant. The die has been cast and barring a dramatic change in facts or circumstances, he will be deemed fully complicit in these horrific events.
A significant majority believe that Paterno, either through negligent inaction or a conspiracy to defraud enabled a horrific scandal with devastating consequences. A small minority believe he is a high powered scapegoat, served up to satisfy public bloodlust. I honestly don’t know what to believe.
I cannot recall an event that has shaken my core convictions to this degree.
I do not expect those who are not part of the Penn State family to understand our grief. How can I expect others to understand it when I can't explain it myself? All I know is what I felt when the announcement was made official, profound sadness.
This is a DEVASTATING time for all of us in the Penn State community.
It’s not the act of JoePa's firing in and of itself that saddens me. It’s what it represents. This surreal nightmare is now undeniable on every level. Until this week any notion of Penn State football without Paterno was inconceivable, let along Paterno being fired. That it happened and happened so suddenly crystalizes on every level the monumental nature of this scandal.
Many have called JoePa's dismissal the end of an era. You cannot fathom how inadequate that description is to the events at hand.
You must understand Penn State is a massive extended family. Our family has hundreds of thousands of members. It stretches across years and decades and thousands of miles. We are incredibly broad and diverse, different in so many ways. The one thing that binds us is an undying love of The Pennsylvania State University. And yes part of that is represented in our love and respect for Penn State football.
Understand this, whatever you may think of him right now, Joe Paterno was the patriarch of our family. He was quite literally the physical embodiment of this place we hold so sacred. His termination represents a spiritual death to our family, to our school, and to our beliefs. For that we mourn.
We mourn for the man we knew, and we mourn in fear of the man we may not have known.
We mourn for the destruction of a great man and that man’s reputation. We mourn the systematic annihilation of six decades of our history.
And we mourn our fear that perhaps the great man was not so great after all. At least not when it mattered the most.
Do not interpret our grief as an endorsement of his action or lack thereof. We all understand that gravity of this situation. I have opinions on Paterno’s culpability but I’m unwilling to share them. For one thing I don’t trust my feelings and convictions. I’m not sure I can see clearly through my emotions or bias. For another, I quite literally dread the next development that might make things worse.
Part of me cannot fathom that 60 plus years of dedicated service to one university is being wiped away. That’s 60 plus years, a lifetime of coaching, teaching, and mentoring young men. Some coaches are associated with a school or program. Joe Paterno literally is Penn State football. He is the universal constant for every Penn Stater past and present.
The other part of me cannot fathom that he may have played some role, however peripheral in these horrific crimes. He neither perpetrated nor witnesses these acts. And to whatever extent he enabled them he was not alone. It does not matter. Anyone involved in this appalling tragedy must be held accountable.
In my perfect world a man with a six decade track record of excellence would have been given the benefit of the doubt. We would have allowed for due process, for ALL of the facts to be known before such drastic action was taken.
Alas that was not realistic. I knew by Tuesday that JoePa would never coach another game. This scandal became too big, too fast. His position became untenable as did so many others. I knew this with absolute certainty.
And still I cried when the announcement was made. The raw emotion of the moment was more powerful than I ever expected. Even now I can’t grasp the non-stop “Paterno fired” headline that’s living in perpetuity on cable TV.
Jerry Sandusky is the ultimate bad guy here. Everyone who suffers for this does so ultimately because of him. Others made bad decisions, horrible perhaps but he and only he committed these heinous crimes. I will never back off of that belief.
That does not absolve the actions of our leaders. We entrusted them with something we hold sacred and they betrayed that trust. Their actions and decisions have brought shame to the entire Penn State community. Any and all who were involved must pay with nothing less than their jobs. If that includes Joe Paterno then so be it.
It’s just so hard to believe.
Let me be clear on this point, we are NOT the victims here. The kids that Sandusky abused AND ONLY those kids deserve your thoughts, sympathy and prayers. The entire Penn State community however is collateral damage.
The damage to the university is incalculable; as is the pain and sadness felt by its students and alumni. We’ve been stripped of our dignity, turned in to a nationwide object of scorn and ridicule. Hundreds of thousands are suffering because of the heinous actions of one man, and the subsequent action or inaction of several others.
We suffer twice, once for the kids and once for our school. And we suffer in silence. Nobody wants to hear our pain. Our betrayal pales in comparison to the betrayal of those kids, and we all know it. If we suffer out loud we are called apologists, enablers, or worse. We are not any of those things; just hurt, confused, and profoundly sad.
We cannot defend the indefensible; nor have we tried. It is stunning how many lives have been negatively affected by the actions of one deeply disturbed human being.
I don’t know that we will ever fully come to grips with that. And frankly we're not ready to do so. Right now we are dealing with profound changes to our reality; a reality we've taken as a given our entire lives.
It’s ironic that so many of us were calling for Paterno’s retirement before this happened. There was endless debate as to whether he stayed too long. Many felt, in spite of all he had done, that it was time for the Paterno era to end.
None of us wanted it to end like this.
Monday, November 7, 2011
The End of the Innocence in Happy Valley
Ask me what were the best years of my life, at least to the point where my beloved wife walked down the aisle at our wedding and I will answer without a moment’s hesitation. The four years I spent at the Pennsylvania State University.
It may sound like a cliché to call college the best years of my life but I don’t care. It was. That’s no slight to any other part of my childhood. It’s simply in deference to how much I enjoyed those four years in the place we affectionately call Happy Valley.
College is first and foremost about education but it’s so much more than that. It’s about growing up, establishing your independence and discovering who you really are as a person. It’s about having the freedom to believe unequivocally in your dreams and ideals, before such ideals are stripped from you by the harsh realities of life. It’s about the stunning metamorphosis from child to adult.
To me there was no better place for this than Happy Valley.
When I left Penn State I did so with more than a diploma. I left with a lifetime supply of experiences, memories and friends. I left with an emotional attachment that defies simple description. In those four years the University and everything it represents became more than just my Alma mater. It became part of my heart and my soul. Penn State does not define me, but it’s absolutely part of my identity. One need only inventory my clothing to understand that.
That is why I was so determined to bring my wife there last summer; cost and time commitment be damned. I wanted her to see at least once, what was so critically important to me.
To me, it was the last innocent place on earth; untouched by the noise, traffic, politics, or corruption of life. And right now that innocence is shattered, irrevocably I fear.
I never defined my Penn State experience by our football team; or by our legendary coach Joe Paterno. That was a part of it; one of many to be sure. At the same time, as I got further and further from my college years, in time and distance the football team and Paterno were the most tangible symbols I could cling to. And whether we like it or not, that team and that coach represent and define us nationally.
For as long as I can remember, that was something to be truly proud of. Sadly I doubt that will ever be the case again.
What transpired at Penn State in the last 72 hours to 13 years is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. It involves (allegedly) a sick sexual deviant who for reasons only he can explain performed repeated acts that would disgust any sane person. It likely involves to some degree a cover up and thus the enabling of these horrific acts. Exactly how deep that cover up goes and who is ultimately involved is beyond the scope of my knowledge. And for purposes of this blog, it’s irrelevant.
Those who are responsible will pay; at minimum with their jobs, at maximum with their freedom. Jerry Sandusky will likely spend the rest of his life as a guest of the state of Pennsylvania. That is the minimum he deserves for the lives he has (allegedly) ruined. And in the end, that’s going to be a long list.
The list will include countless young men; likely far more than is reported and far more than we will ever know. It will include university personnel who dedicated significant portions of their lives to the betterment of the school. It involves Mike McQueary who undoubtedly wanted no part of this. And it very well may include the legendary coach who devoted 60 plus years of his life to that school; 60 plus years to coaching and mentoring young men.
For that I will very much mourn. In the end, Joe Paterno’s legacy may die at the hands of a man he trusted for over 30 years. It will not matter that he was neither the perpetrator of nor witness to these horrific events. He will be viewed as an enabler ostensibly because he was deemed to have not done enough to prevent it.
I hope and pray that is not the case. Not out of some misguided sense of loyalty to Paterno or Penn State mind you. I hope this because I simply do not want to believe a man who did so much good, a man who is literally the embodiment of Penn State University was in any way responsible for this.
Sadly with each passing news story my doubts grow stronger.
A lot will happen in the next few weeks, months, and years. I don’t think any of us can even begin to imagine the breadth of it. A University and its football program that has operated with unparalleled consistency for 45 some years will likely be torn apart brick by brick and rebuilt from scratch. It’s the only thing that can be done.
This is about more than that though. This is about the death of something I hold precious and dear in my heart. This is in some ways the death of a part of me. Call that over dramatization or extreme hyperbole if you like but it’s my truth. I doubt I’m alone amongst Penn State alumni.
This is a place that I love, my Alma mater; an institution that is rightfully an immense source of pride in my life. And it has suddenly become an object of nationwide scorn and ridicule. It’s about a school that has done so much for so many for so long being painted with a broad brush because of the heinous actions of a select few.
It’s about the words “for the glory of old state,” which have always meant so much to me now being used as a punch line.
And yes to some very small degree it’s about football. Understand that is the least important thing in this tragedy. At the same time it’s something that connects tens of thousands of alumni over five decades. I’ve always taken Penn State’s football history as a given. More than that, I took its future as a given. Now I’m not sure there is a future. I'm not sure I can even watch the Nebraska game this Saturday.
I would hope even the most cynical observers can understand how painful this is to us as alumni. So much so that I cannot read the endless barrage of news stories or even draft this blog without a tear in my eyes. I’m overwhelmed with so many conflicting emotions. And worst of all, I honestly don’t trust my own instincts and convictions to evaluate what's happening.
Like most PSU alums, I’m going through the four stages of grief on this. Right now I’m on the back edge of stage one, denial, at least in regards to JoePa. I want so much to believe he’s not the bad guy in this. I want to believe I will wake up tomorrow and find this was all just an awful nightmare.
The second stage is supposed to be anger but I fear that I’ll hit depression first. I’m not a trained psychologist so I honestly don’t know if you are required to hit these stages in order. I just know how I feel. I don’t foresee acceptance and hope in the near future, not on this issue.
I understand that some might read this and infer a lack of perspective on my part. I assure you this is not the case. I understand with absolute certainty here that the greatest victims are these children. And I can assure you my sadness and grief mirrors the magnitude of the event. Life offers far greater tragedies than the spiritual death of a university and the reputation of its football coach. Trust me I understand this.
That does not diminish my sadness today. Nowhere is it written that we cannot mourn a loss, simply because there are other losses of greater magnitude. Loss is loss, hurt is hurt. I can fully appreciate the gravity of Sandusky’s alleged offenses while mourning the collateral damage to my beloved Alma mater. Such emotions are not mutually exclusive.
The last 72 hours have been awful. I doubt the next few weeks, months, or even years will be much better. Honestly I don’t know what will transpire, but I know what has so far. It’s the end of the innocence in Happy Valley. Perhaps the end of my innocence as well
It may sound like a cliché to call college the best years of my life but I don’t care. It was. That’s no slight to any other part of my childhood. It’s simply in deference to how much I enjoyed those four years in the place we affectionately call Happy Valley.
College is first and foremost about education but it’s so much more than that. It’s about growing up, establishing your independence and discovering who you really are as a person. It’s about having the freedom to believe unequivocally in your dreams and ideals, before such ideals are stripped from you by the harsh realities of life. It’s about the stunning metamorphosis from child to adult.
To me there was no better place for this than Happy Valley.
When I left Penn State I did so with more than a diploma. I left with a lifetime supply of experiences, memories and friends. I left with an emotional attachment that defies simple description. In those four years the University and everything it represents became more than just my Alma mater. It became part of my heart and my soul. Penn State does not define me, but it’s absolutely part of my identity. One need only inventory my clothing to understand that.
That is why I was so determined to bring my wife there last summer; cost and time commitment be damned. I wanted her to see at least once, what was so critically important to me.
To me, it was the last innocent place on earth; untouched by the noise, traffic, politics, or corruption of life. And right now that innocence is shattered, irrevocably I fear.
I never defined my Penn State experience by our football team; or by our legendary coach Joe Paterno. That was a part of it; one of many to be sure. At the same time, as I got further and further from my college years, in time and distance the football team and Paterno were the most tangible symbols I could cling to. And whether we like it or not, that team and that coach represent and define us nationally.
For as long as I can remember, that was something to be truly proud of. Sadly I doubt that will ever be the case again.
What transpired at Penn State in the last 72 hours to 13 years is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. It involves (allegedly) a sick sexual deviant who for reasons only he can explain performed repeated acts that would disgust any sane person. It likely involves to some degree a cover up and thus the enabling of these horrific acts. Exactly how deep that cover up goes and who is ultimately involved is beyond the scope of my knowledge. And for purposes of this blog, it’s irrelevant.
Those who are responsible will pay; at minimum with their jobs, at maximum with their freedom. Jerry Sandusky will likely spend the rest of his life as a guest of the state of Pennsylvania. That is the minimum he deserves for the lives he has (allegedly) ruined. And in the end, that’s going to be a long list.
The list will include countless young men; likely far more than is reported and far more than we will ever know. It will include university personnel who dedicated significant portions of their lives to the betterment of the school. It involves Mike McQueary who undoubtedly wanted no part of this. And it very well may include the legendary coach who devoted 60 plus years of his life to that school; 60 plus years to coaching and mentoring young men.
For that I will very much mourn. In the end, Joe Paterno’s legacy may die at the hands of a man he trusted for over 30 years. It will not matter that he was neither the perpetrator of nor witness to these horrific events. He will be viewed as an enabler ostensibly because he was deemed to have not done enough to prevent it.
I hope and pray that is not the case. Not out of some misguided sense of loyalty to Paterno or Penn State mind you. I hope this because I simply do not want to believe a man who did so much good, a man who is literally the embodiment of Penn State University was in any way responsible for this.
Sadly with each passing news story my doubts grow stronger.
A lot will happen in the next few weeks, months, and years. I don’t think any of us can even begin to imagine the breadth of it. A University and its football program that has operated with unparalleled consistency for 45 some years will likely be torn apart brick by brick and rebuilt from scratch. It’s the only thing that can be done.
This is about more than that though. This is about the death of something I hold precious and dear in my heart. This is in some ways the death of a part of me. Call that over dramatization or extreme hyperbole if you like but it’s my truth. I doubt I’m alone amongst Penn State alumni.
This is a place that I love, my Alma mater; an institution that is rightfully an immense source of pride in my life. And it has suddenly become an object of nationwide scorn and ridicule. It’s about a school that has done so much for so many for so long being painted with a broad brush because of the heinous actions of a select few.
It’s about the words “for the glory of old state,” which have always meant so much to me now being used as a punch line.
And yes to some very small degree it’s about football. Understand that is the least important thing in this tragedy. At the same time it’s something that connects tens of thousands of alumni over five decades. I’ve always taken Penn State’s football history as a given. More than that, I took its future as a given. Now I’m not sure there is a future. I'm not sure I can even watch the Nebraska game this Saturday.
I would hope even the most cynical observers can understand how painful this is to us as alumni. So much so that I cannot read the endless barrage of news stories or even draft this blog without a tear in my eyes. I’m overwhelmed with so many conflicting emotions. And worst of all, I honestly don’t trust my own instincts and convictions to evaluate what's happening.
Like most PSU alums, I’m going through the four stages of grief on this. Right now I’m on the back edge of stage one, denial, at least in regards to JoePa. I want so much to believe he’s not the bad guy in this. I want to believe I will wake up tomorrow and find this was all just an awful nightmare.
The second stage is supposed to be anger but I fear that I’ll hit depression first. I’m not a trained psychologist so I honestly don’t know if you are required to hit these stages in order. I just know how I feel. I don’t foresee acceptance and hope in the near future, not on this issue.
I understand that some might read this and infer a lack of perspective on my part. I assure you this is not the case. I understand with absolute certainty here that the greatest victims are these children. And I can assure you my sadness and grief mirrors the magnitude of the event. Life offers far greater tragedies than the spiritual death of a university and the reputation of its football coach. Trust me I understand this.
That does not diminish my sadness today. Nowhere is it written that we cannot mourn a loss, simply because there are other losses of greater magnitude. Loss is loss, hurt is hurt. I can fully appreciate the gravity of Sandusky’s alleged offenses while mourning the collateral damage to my beloved Alma mater. Such emotions are not mutually exclusive.
The last 72 hours have been awful. I doubt the next few weeks, months, or even years will be much better. Honestly I don’t know what will transpire, but I know what has so far. It’s the end of the innocence in Happy Valley. Perhaps the end of my innocence as well
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Why I hate the Ravens...
Hate is a strong word, one I use with much trepidation in any situation. With that preface I say this without any doubt, I hate the Baltimore Ravens.
In other news, the sun came up in this morning.
Which is to say that my hatred for the Ravens ranks fairly high on the obvious meter. It correlates somewhere along the lines of The Tea Party and Barrack Obama’s domestic policies.
And without getting too much in to mathematic proofs here (unless Weet requires it), there is a somewhat geometric concept in play here; i.e. as long as the sun continues to come up, I will continue to hate the Baltimore Ravens. I would wager a fair some of money that most of the Steeler Nation feels pretty much the same way.
My disdain for the Ravens has grown consistently since the Rat Birds somehow won the Super Bowl in 2000 and reached its apex on Sunday September 11, 2011. I thought I hated the Ravens before my wife and I endured three hours of grotesque personal abuse at M&T Bank Stadium. Now I can say (for both of us), I truly despise them.
On the field the Ravens pounded and embarrassed the Steelers that day. It was in every way shape and form one of the ugliest Steeler losses I can remember, the magnitude increased given the opponent.
One could argue we should not care. After all, what is one regular season loss compared to the litany of crucial victories the Steelers have pulled off in this series? What is one regular season loss compared to three times knocking Baltimore from the playoffs; twice on the way to the Super Bowl? What’s one regular season loss compared to watching Ray Lewis go from screaming and strutting in the pregame to slumping off the field in defeat?
Logically, it’s nothing.
Alas recency bias is an exceptionally powerful force in sports, even more so when you endure three hours of emotional debauchery in the stands. For the record, I’ve attended Steeler and Penguin road games in eight different cities; always clad in black and gold, and NEVER, I repeat NEVER, encountered fan behavior half as vile a what Emily and I endured in Baltimore.
Did I expect it to be a tough environment? Of course. Did I expect a purported adult human being to repeatedly scream the f word right in my face because I was wearing black and gold? Honestly no. And that was the high point of the Raven’s crowd.
I’m a bit ashamed to admit that both Emily and I changed out of our Steeler gear before boarding public transportation outside the stadium. Honestly, and I’m not exaggerating this, we did it out of fear for our safety. Some would call this an intelligent decision and no big deal. To me, it’s akin to Charlton Heston’s famous proclamation that “Bill Clinton can have my gun when he rips it from my cold dead hand.”
It was that ugly boys and girls. And yes I’m angry.
It takes zero additional incentive for me to get amped for the Ravens mind you; but I’ll have plenty in reserve. I’ve always felt it enough for the Black and Gold to beat Baltimore. On Sunday I’m hoping for a “scrape Joe Flacco of the turf” style humiliation.
I’m expecting that the Steelers feel the same way.
Under ordinary circumstances I would fear a letdown this weekend. It’s perfectly understandable coming off the Steelers first victory over Tom Brady in seven years. If this week’s opponent were Kansas City, San Francisco or even the surprising Bungles, I would be genuinely concerned.
Given the Steelers rivalry with Baltimore; combined with what happened eight weeks ago, I see little reason to fear. I’m especially comforted when Mike Tomlin starts his press conference with “Its Ravens week.”
It’s a fascinating comparison, the Steelers’ rivalries with Baltimore versus New England. There is a visceral hatred that exists between the Steelers and the Rat Birds. In contrast, with New England it’s more about knocking those arrogant SOBs down a peg or two. The irony is that New England is the only team in the NFL that forces the Steelers to abandon their identity to beat them. In contrast, the Ravens amplify it.
Go figure the Black and Gold seem to own Baltimore while struggling to beat New England. The Ravens, by virtue of their Steeler like approach to football, are the perfect opponent for Pittsburgh. Simply put, you can’t out Steeler the Steelers. The Ravens like it tough and ugly. The Steelers have always been tougher and uglier…in a beautiful way of course.
With the notable exception of eight weeks ago. I’m still perplexed as to what happened that day. To be that flat against their hated rival; in the most hatred fill rivalry in all of professional sports was simply inexcusable.
I’m confident that the players and their coaches are well aware of that; and have not forgotten.
Which is to say that the Steelers; a team that rarely lacks in motivation, heart, or determination, should have a surplus of all on Sunday night. This is not just about one critical win in the standings, it’s about organization pride. This is about saying that nobody slaps around the Pittsburgh Steelers and gets away with it. NOBODY! Least of all the Baltimore Ravens.
The Steelers were as focused and motivated as I’ve ever seen them against the Brady bunch last Sunday. They should be even more so this week.
Notwithstanding the emotional element (which I ‘m clearly struggling to avoid) this is bar none biggest game of the season. As much as I hate the Ravens, they have to be considered a dangerous opponent. It’s hard to conceive of them losing more than two games other than the Steeler game. A Steeler win opens up a legitimate path to another division title. A Ravens all but assures the arduous wild card route for the Black and Gold.
That’s not an impossible mission mind you. We’ve seen both for better and for worse since 2005 that a wild card team can win the Super Bowl. All things being equal however, I’ll take my chances with home field advantage and a first round bye. There is an excellent chance of a Steelers/Ravens playoff battle in January and we’ve seen home field advantage be a crucial factor in both match-ups.
To that end, the circumstances are frighteningly similar to last year. The Steelers put themselves in a must win position by losing to Baltimore at home in week 4. That set-up a must win rematch; one the Steelers ultimately pulled out in brilliantly ugly fashion. The Ravens controlled most of the game only to follow the age old script of a critical Flacco turnover, converted to a score by Raven killer Troy Polamalu.
It was classic Steelers/Ravens in every detail, right down to the final result.
One could argue that Baltimore is the perfect rival for the Steelers; a team that brings out the best in the Black and Gold yet always falls short when it matters most. And on some level, buried deep within my subconscious, I have a begrudging respect for the Rat Birds on field success. Such thoughts however are blinded by the raw emotion inspired by this rivalry; especially given what transpired eight weeks ago. In short, my brain may respect the Ravens success; my heart hates them too much to listen or care.
Logically I know that victory, by any means and any score is what matters here. Emotionally I want more, something along the lines of ground Raven paste. When the Ravens confront you they are the enemy…and the enemy deserves no mercy. Or something like that from what I recall.
Victory is all that matters, but for once victory alone is not enough.
HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO !!!
In other news, the sun came up in this morning.
Which is to say that my hatred for the Ravens ranks fairly high on the obvious meter. It correlates somewhere along the lines of The Tea Party and Barrack Obama’s domestic policies.
And without getting too much in to mathematic proofs here (unless Weet requires it), there is a somewhat geometric concept in play here; i.e. as long as the sun continues to come up, I will continue to hate the Baltimore Ravens. I would wager a fair some of money that most of the Steeler Nation feels pretty much the same way.
My disdain for the Ravens has grown consistently since the Rat Birds somehow won the Super Bowl in 2000 and reached its apex on Sunday September 11, 2011. I thought I hated the Ravens before my wife and I endured three hours of grotesque personal abuse at M&T Bank Stadium. Now I can say (for both of us), I truly despise them.
On the field the Ravens pounded and embarrassed the Steelers that day. It was in every way shape and form one of the ugliest Steeler losses I can remember, the magnitude increased given the opponent.
One could argue we should not care. After all, what is one regular season loss compared to the litany of crucial victories the Steelers have pulled off in this series? What is one regular season loss compared to three times knocking Baltimore from the playoffs; twice on the way to the Super Bowl? What’s one regular season loss compared to watching Ray Lewis go from screaming and strutting in the pregame to slumping off the field in defeat?
Logically, it’s nothing.
Alas recency bias is an exceptionally powerful force in sports, even more so when you endure three hours of emotional debauchery in the stands. For the record, I’ve attended Steeler and Penguin road games in eight different cities; always clad in black and gold, and NEVER, I repeat NEVER, encountered fan behavior half as vile a what Emily and I endured in Baltimore.
Did I expect it to be a tough environment? Of course. Did I expect a purported adult human being to repeatedly scream the f word right in my face because I was wearing black and gold? Honestly no. And that was the high point of the Raven’s crowd.
I’m a bit ashamed to admit that both Emily and I changed out of our Steeler gear before boarding public transportation outside the stadium. Honestly, and I’m not exaggerating this, we did it out of fear for our safety. Some would call this an intelligent decision and no big deal. To me, it’s akin to Charlton Heston’s famous proclamation that “Bill Clinton can have my gun when he rips it from my cold dead hand.”
It was that ugly boys and girls. And yes I’m angry.
It takes zero additional incentive for me to get amped for the Ravens mind you; but I’ll have plenty in reserve. I’ve always felt it enough for the Black and Gold to beat Baltimore. On Sunday I’m hoping for a “scrape Joe Flacco of the turf” style humiliation.
I’m expecting that the Steelers feel the same way.
Under ordinary circumstances I would fear a letdown this weekend. It’s perfectly understandable coming off the Steelers first victory over Tom Brady in seven years. If this week’s opponent were Kansas City, San Francisco or even the surprising Bungles, I would be genuinely concerned.
Given the Steelers rivalry with Baltimore; combined with what happened eight weeks ago, I see little reason to fear. I’m especially comforted when Mike Tomlin starts his press conference with “Its Ravens week.”
It’s a fascinating comparison, the Steelers’ rivalries with Baltimore versus New England. There is a visceral hatred that exists between the Steelers and the Rat Birds. In contrast, with New England it’s more about knocking those arrogant SOBs down a peg or two. The irony is that New England is the only team in the NFL that forces the Steelers to abandon their identity to beat them. In contrast, the Ravens amplify it.
Go figure the Black and Gold seem to own Baltimore while struggling to beat New England. The Ravens, by virtue of their Steeler like approach to football, are the perfect opponent for Pittsburgh. Simply put, you can’t out Steeler the Steelers. The Ravens like it tough and ugly. The Steelers have always been tougher and uglier…in a beautiful way of course.
With the notable exception of eight weeks ago. I’m still perplexed as to what happened that day. To be that flat against their hated rival; in the most hatred fill rivalry in all of professional sports was simply inexcusable.
I’m confident that the players and their coaches are well aware of that; and have not forgotten.
Which is to say that the Steelers; a team that rarely lacks in motivation, heart, or determination, should have a surplus of all on Sunday night. This is not just about one critical win in the standings, it’s about organization pride. This is about saying that nobody slaps around the Pittsburgh Steelers and gets away with it. NOBODY! Least of all the Baltimore Ravens.
The Steelers were as focused and motivated as I’ve ever seen them against the Brady bunch last Sunday. They should be even more so this week.
Notwithstanding the emotional element (which I ‘m clearly struggling to avoid) this is bar none biggest game of the season. As much as I hate the Ravens, they have to be considered a dangerous opponent. It’s hard to conceive of them losing more than two games other than the Steeler game. A Steeler win opens up a legitimate path to another division title. A Ravens all but assures the arduous wild card route for the Black and Gold.
That’s not an impossible mission mind you. We’ve seen both for better and for worse since 2005 that a wild card team can win the Super Bowl. All things being equal however, I’ll take my chances with home field advantage and a first round bye. There is an excellent chance of a Steelers/Ravens playoff battle in January and we’ve seen home field advantage be a crucial factor in both match-ups.
To that end, the circumstances are frighteningly similar to last year. The Steelers put themselves in a must win position by losing to Baltimore at home in week 4. That set-up a must win rematch; one the Steelers ultimately pulled out in brilliantly ugly fashion. The Ravens controlled most of the game only to follow the age old script of a critical Flacco turnover, converted to a score by Raven killer Troy Polamalu.
It was classic Steelers/Ravens in every detail, right down to the final result.
One could argue that Baltimore is the perfect rival for the Steelers; a team that brings out the best in the Black and Gold yet always falls short when it matters most. And on some level, buried deep within my subconscious, I have a begrudging respect for the Rat Birds on field success. Such thoughts however are blinded by the raw emotion inspired by this rivalry; especially given what transpired eight weeks ago. In short, my brain may respect the Ravens success; my heart hates them too much to listen or care.
Logically I know that victory, by any means and any score is what matters here. Emotionally I want more, something along the lines of ground Raven paste. When the Ravens confront you they are the enemy…and the enemy deserves no mercy. Or something like that from what I recall.
Victory is all that matters, but for once victory alone is not enough.
HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO !!!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Steelers’ Offense Sticks it to New England, Just as Planned
There truly are not many feelings in sports better than sticking it to the New England Patriots.
There is a smug arrogance about that Pats that defies description. It permeats virtually every player and coach in the organization. The trail of arrogance and ego starts with their condescending, know it all head coach and filters down through their condescending pretty boy quarterback. I respect Bill Belichick’s success as a coach. I respect Tom Brady’s brilliance on the field. And I truly cannot stand either one of them.
They don’t inspire quite the visceral hatred of say the Baltimore Ravens, but they’re definitely a close second.
Even as I know that next week’s game with Baltimore is the most important of the season, I’m downright giddy about yesterday’s result. They don’t hand out the Lombardi trophy in late October mind you but understand this; there are moments in sports truly worth savoring that do not involving winning a championship.
Yes it’s childish, yes it’s petty, yes it’s vindictive. So be it. Watching Brady and Belicheat slump off the field in defeat is worth a little premature celebration. Especially knowing how this victory was accomplished.
For the first time in a decade, the Steelers clearly and unequivocally out schemed, out coached, and out played the Patriots with Brady behind center.
The Steelers’ performance was eerily reminiscent of their playoff victory in Indianapolis in January 2006. That was the last time the Black and Gold went so out of character in a victory. It was also the last time they so thoroughly out played and out coached an elite opponent.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are built first and foremost with defense. They hire defensive minded head coaches and focus the greater percentage of their cap space and draft choices on the defensive side of the ball. The defense dictates games and the offense plays an important but often complimentary role. That’s Pittsburgh Steeler football and it has been for four decades.
Well, four decades with a few notable exceptions, such as yesterday.
Yesterday the Pittsburgh Steelers changed their identity, by necessity. It was the offense that dictated and controlled the game. Not only that, they did it almost entirely by throwing the football. The Steelers controlled the entire game with a high percentage passing attack that ground up yards and clock with equal proficiency.
In so doing, they exposed the obvious weakness of the New England defense, its inability to stop the pass. And they took out New England’s greatest strength, Brady’s pinpoint passing. I don’t care how good a QB Giselle’s husband may be, he can’t win football games standing on the sideline.
This is my 32nd year of watching Pittsburgh Steeler football and I cannot ever remember a game plan like this for a full game. Even that famous game in Indy where the Steelers went airborne for 30 minutes and then settled back in to running in the second half. More than that, the Steeler defense that day dictated the game to Peyton Manning. Yesterday’s defensive performance was solid, but very much complimentary.
To be clear, I’m not dismissing the defense in any way. This was bar none the best game plan Dick Lebeau has ever engineered against Brady. The Steelers got in the face of his wide receivers and did not allow Mr. Bundchen the easy completions of prior years. That’s a tribute to Ike Taylor, Troy Polamalu and a secondary that is considerably improved in 2011.
It’s also a credit to the substantially improved defensive line play, a wake up from Lamar Woodley, and a much needed shuffling out of aging players in the last four weeks.
On merit alone, the Steelers finally stopped Brady; finally stopped him from exploiting the obvious mismatch he presents to the typical Lebeau scheme. In so doing they validated a group that has been shockingly steady this season while rarely imposing its will on opponents.
At the same time, I cannot fathom this much success if Brady had the ball for 30 minutes instead of 20, especially given Woodley’s 4th quarter injury. We saw this on New England’s last touchdown drive where Brady went right back to slicing the Steeler D. Ask yourself this question. If Brady gets the ball back with two minutes left and at least one time out, are you confident in a Steeler win?
Simply put, the most effective scheme the Steelers used to stop Brady was to keep him on the sidelines gnashing his teeth. There is nothing wrong with that. As noted above, its brilliant total football strategy and solid execution, lead part and parcel by Ben Roethlisberger.
I continue to fight the dreaded and ignorant “game manager” characterization of Big Ben. I’ve come to resent even more those who say, “It’s not pretty but he finds a way to win.” Both labels unfairly demean the accomplishments of one of the truly great and truly under-appreciated quarterbacks of this generation.
On Sunday, Ben was brilliant and effective, and everything else his critics claim he cannot be. Excepting one truly awful interception, he played a tremendous football game. The Steelers ran a New England offensive game plan against New England. It worked because Big Ben out played Brady and made it work. Somehow I don’t see this game plan with Neil O’Donnell, Kordell Stewart or Phillip Rivers behind center.
He did not do it alone of course. He was helped by and offensive line that has improved ten-fold in the last four games. It’s amazing what a difference Max Starks has made since his return. He was helped by a young core of receivers that has matured brilliantly before our eyes. And let’s not forget Heath Miller whose great start today was reminiscent of that playoff game in Indy. Miller’s best effort of the year, hands down.
At the same time, kudos to Mike Tomlin for clearly out coaching Belicheat. Credit to the far too often maligned Bruce Arians for putting in place a great game plan. It’s not easy for a leopard to change its spots but the Steelers did it with shocking ease on Sunday.
Sadly we get less than a week to savor this victory. As great as this game was, Sunday night’s battle with the Ravens is the game of the season, a true must win. As is so often the case, this game will dictate the Steelers ultimate post season path. A victory makes home field advantage and a first round bye a realistic course. A loss almost certainly requires the arduous wild card route in January.
It seems almost unfair for the Steelers to run this schedule gauntlet; to face their two most hated rivals in back to back games. Not to mention the surprisingly improved Bungles before the bye.
Such is life. If there is one team in sports that can overcome this it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers. The standard is the standard as coach Tomlin says, regardless of the opponent(s). Beyond that, the Steelers should be pretty frosted about their horrific performance on opening day against Baltimore. Avenging that embarrassment should bring added levels of motivation, focus, and determination to a team that does not lack these traits to begin with.
For now, let’s savor a tremendous victory; one that showcased the talent, heart, and brilliance of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Let’s enjoy truly sticking it to Brady and Belicheat for once. The Ravens can wait…at least a few days.
HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO !!!
There is a smug arrogance about that Pats that defies description. It permeats virtually every player and coach in the organization. The trail of arrogance and ego starts with their condescending, know it all head coach and filters down through their condescending pretty boy quarterback. I respect Bill Belichick’s success as a coach. I respect Tom Brady’s brilliance on the field. And I truly cannot stand either one of them.
They don’t inspire quite the visceral hatred of say the Baltimore Ravens, but they’re definitely a close second.
Even as I know that next week’s game with Baltimore is the most important of the season, I’m downright giddy about yesterday’s result. They don’t hand out the Lombardi trophy in late October mind you but understand this; there are moments in sports truly worth savoring that do not involving winning a championship.
Yes it’s childish, yes it’s petty, yes it’s vindictive. So be it. Watching Brady and Belicheat slump off the field in defeat is worth a little premature celebration. Especially knowing how this victory was accomplished.
For the first time in a decade, the Steelers clearly and unequivocally out schemed, out coached, and out played the Patriots with Brady behind center.
The Steelers’ performance was eerily reminiscent of their playoff victory in Indianapolis in January 2006. That was the last time the Black and Gold went so out of character in a victory. It was also the last time they so thoroughly out played and out coached an elite opponent.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are built first and foremost with defense. They hire defensive minded head coaches and focus the greater percentage of their cap space and draft choices on the defensive side of the ball. The defense dictates games and the offense plays an important but often complimentary role. That’s Pittsburgh Steeler football and it has been for four decades.
Well, four decades with a few notable exceptions, such as yesterday.
Yesterday the Pittsburgh Steelers changed their identity, by necessity. It was the offense that dictated and controlled the game. Not only that, they did it almost entirely by throwing the football. The Steelers controlled the entire game with a high percentage passing attack that ground up yards and clock with equal proficiency.
In so doing, they exposed the obvious weakness of the New England defense, its inability to stop the pass. And they took out New England’s greatest strength, Brady’s pinpoint passing. I don’t care how good a QB Giselle’s husband may be, he can’t win football games standing on the sideline.
This is my 32nd year of watching Pittsburgh Steeler football and I cannot ever remember a game plan like this for a full game. Even that famous game in Indy where the Steelers went airborne for 30 minutes and then settled back in to running in the second half. More than that, the Steeler defense that day dictated the game to Peyton Manning. Yesterday’s defensive performance was solid, but very much complimentary.
To be clear, I’m not dismissing the defense in any way. This was bar none the best game plan Dick Lebeau has ever engineered against Brady. The Steelers got in the face of his wide receivers and did not allow Mr. Bundchen the easy completions of prior years. That’s a tribute to Ike Taylor, Troy Polamalu and a secondary that is considerably improved in 2011.
It’s also a credit to the substantially improved defensive line play, a wake up from Lamar Woodley, and a much needed shuffling out of aging players in the last four weeks.
On merit alone, the Steelers finally stopped Brady; finally stopped him from exploiting the obvious mismatch he presents to the typical Lebeau scheme. In so doing they validated a group that has been shockingly steady this season while rarely imposing its will on opponents.
At the same time, I cannot fathom this much success if Brady had the ball for 30 minutes instead of 20, especially given Woodley’s 4th quarter injury. We saw this on New England’s last touchdown drive where Brady went right back to slicing the Steeler D. Ask yourself this question. If Brady gets the ball back with two minutes left and at least one time out, are you confident in a Steeler win?
Simply put, the most effective scheme the Steelers used to stop Brady was to keep him on the sidelines gnashing his teeth. There is nothing wrong with that. As noted above, its brilliant total football strategy and solid execution, lead part and parcel by Ben Roethlisberger.
I continue to fight the dreaded and ignorant “game manager” characterization of Big Ben. I’ve come to resent even more those who say, “It’s not pretty but he finds a way to win.” Both labels unfairly demean the accomplishments of one of the truly great and truly under-appreciated quarterbacks of this generation.
On Sunday, Ben was brilliant and effective, and everything else his critics claim he cannot be. Excepting one truly awful interception, he played a tremendous football game. The Steelers ran a New England offensive game plan against New England. It worked because Big Ben out played Brady and made it work. Somehow I don’t see this game plan with Neil O’Donnell, Kordell Stewart or Phillip Rivers behind center.
He did not do it alone of course. He was helped by and offensive line that has improved ten-fold in the last four games. It’s amazing what a difference Max Starks has made since his return. He was helped by a young core of receivers that has matured brilliantly before our eyes. And let’s not forget Heath Miller whose great start today was reminiscent of that playoff game in Indy. Miller’s best effort of the year, hands down.
At the same time, kudos to Mike Tomlin for clearly out coaching Belicheat. Credit to the far too often maligned Bruce Arians for putting in place a great game plan. It’s not easy for a leopard to change its spots but the Steelers did it with shocking ease on Sunday.
Sadly we get less than a week to savor this victory. As great as this game was, Sunday night’s battle with the Ravens is the game of the season, a true must win. As is so often the case, this game will dictate the Steelers ultimate post season path. A victory makes home field advantage and a first round bye a realistic course. A loss almost certainly requires the arduous wild card route in January.
It seems almost unfair for the Steelers to run this schedule gauntlet; to face their two most hated rivals in back to back games. Not to mention the surprisingly improved Bungles before the bye.
Such is life. If there is one team in sports that can overcome this it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers. The standard is the standard as coach Tomlin says, regardless of the opponent(s). Beyond that, the Steelers should be pretty frosted about their horrific performance on opening day against Baltimore. Avenging that embarrassment should bring added levels of motivation, focus, and determination to a team that does not lack these traits to begin with.
For now, let’s savor a tremendous victory; one that showcased the talent, heart, and brilliance of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Let’s enjoy truly sticking it to Brady and Belicheat for once. The Ravens can wait…at least a few days.
HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO !!!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Chicago’s Shame – The Disgraceful Treatment of Steve Bartman
This Tuesday night, ESPN will present one of its 30 for 30 documentaries covering what I consider the most shameful and disgraceful event in recent sports history. The moment an ordinary Chicago baseball fan bore the full brunt of his team’s horrific playoff collapse.
Trust me I’ll be tuned in. I’ll be fascinated to see if ESPN attempts to humanize or exploit the story. My fervent hope is the former, my considered fear the latter.
In three decades as a sports fan, I cannot remember an on the field event that sickened me as much as the Steve Bartman debacle. It involves a despicable and frightening lack of perspective and class by everybody involved; the Chicago Cubs, the city of Chicago, the fans and the media.
Each played a role in nearly destroying the life of an everyday citizen and fan; a person whose only crime was deflecting a foul ball in a critical moment. A foul ball that probably though not definitely would have otherwise been caught by Moises Alou.
And he was not alone. Several other fans reached for that ball; Bartman just happened to be the unlucky SOB who made contact. I beg you all to make note of that should you watch the documentary. It was an instinctive reaction that nearly every fan would have; and it was a fluke. All of which seemed irrelevant in the subsequent witch hunt.
It should have been left at that. The Cubs were still leading game 6 of the NLCS 3 to 0, still five outs away from their first World Series in nearly 60 years. The game and the series were still very much in their control.
Instead they collapsed, and the fan became a convenient scapegoat for a second rate organization with a dreadful history of failure. Not to mention an underachieving group of players and an enabling manager that were subsequently exposed for a disturbing lack of character.
After the Bartman tip, the team imploded. Starting pitcher Mark Prior was working on fumes thanks to blatant and moronic overuse by his do nothing manager Dusty Baker. The bullpen was not good enough to bail him out. And on top of that, the teams’ $6 Million dollar all field, no hit shortstop tanked a routine double play grounder that would have put this entire story to rest.
Even with all of that, the Cubs had another chance in game 7. They lost that game as well, looking defeated before they even took the field. And with that loss evaporated their best chance in two decades to end a century long streak of championship futility.
Baker and his players should have taken the full blame for what was an epic collapse. They did not. The fans and the media jumped on the fan angle, and the Cubs happily went along for the ride. Some like Baker directly blamed Bartman. Others did so tacitly by refusing to dismiss the idea on site for what it was; patently ridiculous.
I remember watching Baker’s postgame press conference. When asked about Bartman’s interference he muttered something about, “we would like our fans to be smarter than that.” The minute I saw that, I knew Bartman was fried in Chicago. I knew the fans and media would jump all over it (though I did not expect the local gossip rag to publish his name address, and employer).
Can you imagine Bill Cowher blaming a fan for a Steelers’ collapse? Remember how he handled the disgusting miscarriage of officiating justice that was the overturned Troy Polamalu interception in the playoffs at Indy. In the most critical moment, under the greatest of pressure he told his defense; WHATEVER HAPPENS, WE JUST PLAY. And after the game he refused to blame the officials for the horrendous call.
That’s what leaders do. That’s what people with character do. Dusty Baker sat in the clubhouse chomping a toothpick while his team disintegrated, then delegated responsibility to a fan. And I don’t recall anybody associated with the Cubs, not one player, coach or management representative publically attempt to defuse the situation.
It only got worse from there. Chicago fans and media turned on Bartman, using the same myopic scapegoating previously applied to the likes of Bill Buckner and Scott Norwood. What happened to Buckner was also disgraceful; nobody ever mentions that the Red Sox choked away a two run lead BEFORE HIS ERROR, but at least he was a paid professional. His job included dealing with such criticism, deserved or not and he was well compensated for it. However unfair it was, Buckner signed on for what he got.
Steve Bartman did not.
Even worse, the Chicago media, led by the insufferable Jay Marriotti started a witch hunt that lasted for years. The national media jumped on board though only in fits and starts. Marriotti found a way to impugn Bartman in writing with regular frequency. He simply refused to let the non-story die even when Bartman, through his deafening public silence made it abundantly clear he wanted nothing to do with it.
That’s the same Jay Marriotti whose resignation from the Chicago Sun Times was one of the most celebrated events in Chicago sports history; by fans and colleagues alike.
Over the next few years we learned the truth about the Cubs. They were not a dynasty in the making derailed by the careless act of an unlucky fan. They were in fact a team dreadfully lacking in character or accountability. The initial symptom was Alou’s three year old girl temper tantrum on national TV after the tipped ball. What followed was a steady collapse, first over two playoff games and then over three years where the team degenerated bit by bit.
Prior and Kerry Wood’s arms nearly fell off from blatant overuse by Baker. That includes Dusty’s mind numbing decision to leave Prior in game two for 130 pitches (including batting him in the 7th inning)…WITH A TEN RUN LEAD. Every think Prior might have gotten through that infamous 8th inning if Baker had let the bullpen deal with a double digit lead say 30 pitches earlier? One might even speculate that he would not have been out of baseball two years later.
The Sammy Sosa myth was subsequently obliterated as well. He went from lovable home run hero to steroid blow up doll and locker room parasite. The Cubs ran him out of Chicago and erased him from memory, even releasing Zapruder film like footage of him bailing on the team the next year. Several other players lead by Alou started threatening the team’s announcers, including former Cy Young winner Steve Stone, for obvious and accurate criticism of their increasingly miserable play. During this time Baker continued to publically support them at all turns, refusing to enforce even a hint of accountability.
And let’s not forget a young Carlos Zambrano was the number three starter on that club. We know now that Big Z and his budding psychosis were headed for much bigger calamities.
In short, the next three years exposed the 2003 Cubs as a phony; a fraud. The team had great talent; but lacked the heart, character, integrity or leadership necessary to win a championship. When faced with the slightest bit of adversity they crumbled on and off the field.
In the immediate aftermath of a crushing defeat and without visibility to the future most could not see that. Not the organization, the media, and certainly not the fans. Most could not see beyond another cruel blow to America’s most tortured fan base. And willingly or not, almost everyone turned a blind eye to millionaire athletes and coaches happily offloading responsibility for their failure on an unsuspecting fan.
Even worse, many fans and media members actively participated. It was sickening on every level.
There are absolutely no heroes or good guys here. Not one. Nobody had the courage or integrity to publically defend Bartman from a pathetic baseball inquisition. What was done to him was disgraceful and indefensible on any level. And as ESPN will prove for better or for worse Tuesday night, it’s still happening eight years later.
Everyone involved owes Steve Bartman a heartfelt apology, starting with the Chicago Cubs. Sadly, I doubt it will ever be delivered.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Crosby’s Concussion Clouds Pens Future
Okay, this Sidney Crosby concussion problem is officially scary business.
I first discussed my concerns over Crosby’s cranium the week before the Super Bowl. At the time I felt that Penguin fans and the Pittsburgh media were soft peddling a potentially serious concern.
http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/crosbys-concussion-overshadows-steelers.html
Two months later I argued my case that Sid should not play again in the 2010-11 season; even though his absence was the knockout blow to the team’s championship hopes.
http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/short-term-pain-for-long-term-gain.html
Well here we are nearly eight months beyond Crosby’s unfortunate collision with Victor Hedman and the Penguins’ current savior is still having concussion issues. It goes beyond stating the obvious that this is a significant concern.
Let me start off by saying my position today is no different than it was last March. Simply stated, under no circumstances should Sidney Crosby appear in an NHL game until he is 100% symptom free, and for a measurable period of time. If this means Crosby is off the ice until calendar 2012, so be it. If it means he pulls a Peter Forsberg and plays only in the playoffs (assuming the Pens make it without him), so be it. If it means he misses the entire season…GULP…well you get the point.
This is not Aaron Asham we are talking about. Sidney Crosby is the franchise, plain and simple. It may sound callous and cold but life will go on at the Energy Barn if Asham suffers another concussion. Another blow to Crosby could derail the Penguin franchise for years.
Consider the long-term implications which have been overshadowed by the short-term concerns about his health and return. Crosby has two years left on his current five year contract. Sometime before that expires, the Penguins are going to have to extend him his next deal. I have no idea what it will be but a reasonable estimate starts at 7 years, $70 Million. If Sid is healthy and dominating the game, as he is uniquely cable of doing, that’s a bargain price.
Imagine however if Sid signs that contract and then spends those seven years missing 20 or more games per year because of concussions. Imagine if his effectiveness slowly wanes a la Eric Lindros turning him from league poster child to marginal offensive player; at $10 million per annum. Can you imagine the damage that would do to the franchise?
And it’s a frighteningly realistic scenario; one that we endured throughout the 1990s with Mario Lemieux’s back (and other assorted ailments). I will go to my grave believing that a healthy Lemieux in 1993 equals an easy run to a third consecutive cup. You’ll never convince me that injury and fatigue did not weigh him down in that post season. Who knows how many cups Mario would have lifted if not for his frequent injury sabbaticals.
Right now I have concerns that Sid’s head may become Mario’s back of the 2010s. That’s bad enough at face value; even worse when you consider the financial impact overall and against the cap. Which means the Penguins have to consider what was once incomprehensible; trading Sidney Crosby before his contract expires.
I’ll give you a moment to process that before you projectile vomit.
Such an idea was utter blasphemy before January 1, 2011. Eight months and two concussions later it’s a realistic consideration. Simply put, if the Penguins’ organization determines that it can not manage the risk of Sid’s health and an eight figure, long-term contract, they must deal him; and they must do so before its too late.
For the record, the Steelers may very well have the same dilemma with Troy Polamalu in the summer of 2013, which a subject for another blog.
To be clear, I’m not talking about the Jaromir Jagr and Alexie Kovalev yard sale frauds that Craig Patrick perpetrated in the early 2000s. I’m talking about a legitimate return of top players and prospects to support an otherwise solid nucleus. You simply cannot allow Sidney Crosby to walk out of the Burgh for nothing when his contract expires; voluntarily or due to injury concerns. That scenario is as damaging to the Pens as the one I described above.
Of course trading Crosby is the nuclear option. It goes without saying that I hope it NEVER comes to pass. We all watched Crosby’s “Lemieux-like” dominance last season and we all want that to continue for another decade plus. Before the winter classic, there was little reason to doubt that it would.
The Pens are legitimate cup contenders pretty much any year a healthy Crosby is in their line-up. Sid the Kid is that rare franchise superstar who combines top shelf talent with a Michael Jordan like drive to dominate and win. I have very high expectations for a rejuvenated and focused Evgeni Malkin this season but let’s be honest; Geno does not have Sid’s singular focus and six sigma drive to improve. Few athletes do. Few humans do.
Which means the Penguins’ primary objective is to get Crosby healthy, no matter how long it takes. We want Crosby to take the Patrice Bergeron path to returning; not the Marc Savard, Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya path. I never much cared for Lindros but the concussion based demolition of his career was truly unfortunate. It was predicated in large part by the refusal of both he and his employer to recognize and address the severity of his injury. For Crosby’s career to follow that path to ruin would be, strictly in a sports sense, a tragedy.
It is critical the Penguins do everything possible to prevent that, including obstructing Sid’s return if they do not believe he’s ready. Given the propensity of hockey players to ignore pain and injury that may be easier said than done. I doubt for example that Lemieux’s doctors gleefully endorsed the idea of him returning to the line-up the day of his last cancer treatment in 1993.
That does not absolve the Penguins of their responsibility to protect their most important asset, even if it means another lost season. The Penguins can make the playoffs without Sid, given a return to health and dominance of Malkin, but they cannot win the Cup without him. That’s a harsh reality but it’s a small price to pay if it ultimately leads to another decade of Crosby dominance in the Burgh.
The question is where do they draw the line. At what point does this issue become serious enough for the team to consider the nuclear option? At what point is the best player of this era more valuable for his trade value than his on ice contribution? Lest you scoff at this notion remember that none other than Wayne Gretzky was traded in his prime. The Gretzky deal was never about improving the Edmonton Oilers; it was the best attempt to salvage an untenable financial situation.
And for the record, Edmonton won a cup without Gretzky; in part due to the players they received in that deal. They remained competitive for several more years even while playing at a significant financial disadvantage.
None of which should be interpreted as my endorsement of the nuclear option. I remain staunchly vested in the Crosby full recovery option, uncertainty and all. My belief will be even stronger if the NHL makes a sincere effort to eliminate headshots; rather than continuing its Neanderthal view of the issue. The league’s insistence on impotent punishments for head shots last year was nothing less than a tacit endorsement of the resulting carnage.
In the end however it’s not about me or any other Penguin fan. It’s about the organization balancing the implicit uncertainty of a brain injury with the financial realities of modern sports. It’s about understanding how tenuous an athletic career can be, even for a dominant superstar. It’s about accepting what nine months ago was unfathomable, trading the superstar who resuscitated the franchise when he arrived in 2005.
I truly hope it never comes to that. Right now there are no guarantees.
I first discussed my concerns over Crosby’s cranium the week before the Super Bowl. At the time I felt that Penguin fans and the Pittsburgh media were soft peddling a potentially serious concern.
http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/crosbys-concussion-overshadows-steelers.html
Two months later I argued my case that Sid should not play again in the 2010-11 season; even though his absence was the knockout blow to the team’s championship hopes.
http://habersp0rtsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/short-term-pain-for-long-term-gain.html
Well here we are nearly eight months beyond Crosby’s unfortunate collision with Victor Hedman and the Penguins’ current savior is still having concussion issues. It goes beyond stating the obvious that this is a significant concern.
Let me start off by saying my position today is no different than it was last March. Simply stated, under no circumstances should Sidney Crosby appear in an NHL game until he is 100% symptom free, and for a measurable period of time. If this means Crosby is off the ice until calendar 2012, so be it. If it means he pulls a Peter Forsberg and plays only in the playoffs (assuming the Pens make it without him), so be it. If it means he misses the entire season…GULP…well you get the point.
This is not Aaron Asham we are talking about. Sidney Crosby is the franchise, plain and simple. It may sound callous and cold but life will go on at the Energy Barn if Asham suffers another concussion. Another blow to Crosby could derail the Penguin franchise for years.
Consider the long-term implications which have been overshadowed by the short-term concerns about his health and return. Crosby has two years left on his current five year contract. Sometime before that expires, the Penguins are going to have to extend him his next deal. I have no idea what it will be but a reasonable estimate starts at 7 years, $70 Million. If Sid is healthy and dominating the game, as he is uniquely cable of doing, that’s a bargain price.
Imagine however if Sid signs that contract and then spends those seven years missing 20 or more games per year because of concussions. Imagine if his effectiveness slowly wanes a la Eric Lindros turning him from league poster child to marginal offensive player; at $10 million per annum. Can you imagine the damage that would do to the franchise?
And it’s a frighteningly realistic scenario; one that we endured throughout the 1990s with Mario Lemieux’s back (and other assorted ailments). I will go to my grave believing that a healthy Lemieux in 1993 equals an easy run to a third consecutive cup. You’ll never convince me that injury and fatigue did not weigh him down in that post season. Who knows how many cups Mario would have lifted if not for his frequent injury sabbaticals.
Right now I have concerns that Sid’s head may become Mario’s back of the 2010s. That’s bad enough at face value; even worse when you consider the financial impact overall and against the cap. Which means the Penguins have to consider what was once incomprehensible; trading Sidney Crosby before his contract expires.
I’ll give you a moment to process that before you projectile vomit.
Such an idea was utter blasphemy before January 1, 2011. Eight months and two concussions later it’s a realistic consideration. Simply put, if the Penguins’ organization determines that it can not manage the risk of Sid’s health and an eight figure, long-term contract, they must deal him; and they must do so before its too late.
For the record, the Steelers may very well have the same dilemma with Troy Polamalu in the summer of 2013, which a subject for another blog.
To be clear, I’m not talking about the Jaromir Jagr and Alexie Kovalev yard sale frauds that Craig Patrick perpetrated in the early 2000s. I’m talking about a legitimate return of top players and prospects to support an otherwise solid nucleus. You simply cannot allow Sidney Crosby to walk out of the Burgh for nothing when his contract expires; voluntarily or due to injury concerns. That scenario is as damaging to the Pens as the one I described above.
Of course trading Crosby is the nuclear option. It goes without saying that I hope it NEVER comes to pass. We all watched Crosby’s “Lemieux-like” dominance last season and we all want that to continue for another decade plus. Before the winter classic, there was little reason to doubt that it would.
The Pens are legitimate cup contenders pretty much any year a healthy Crosby is in their line-up. Sid the Kid is that rare franchise superstar who combines top shelf talent with a Michael Jordan like drive to dominate and win. I have very high expectations for a rejuvenated and focused Evgeni Malkin this season but let’s be honest; Geno does not have Sid’s singular focus and six sigma drive to improve. Few athletes do. Few humans do.
Which means the Penguins’ primary objective is to get Crosby healthy, no matter how long it takes. We want Crosby to take the Patrice Bergeron path to returning; not the Marc Savard, Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya path. I never much cared for Lindros but the concussion based demolition of his career was truly unfortunate. It was predicated in large part by the refusal of both he and his employer to recognize and address the severity of his injury. For Crosby’s career to follow that path to ruin would be, strictly in a sports sense, a tragedy.
It is critical the Penguins do everything possible to prevent that, including obstructing Sid’s return if they do not believe he’s ready. Given the propensity of hockey players to ignore pain and injury that may be easier said than done. I doubt for example that Lemieux’s doctors gleefully endorsed the idea of him returning to the line-up the day of his last cancer treatment in 1993.
That does not absolve the Penguins of their responsibility to protect their most important asset, even if it means another lost season. The Penguins can make the playoffs without Sid, given a return to health and dominance of Malkin, but they cannot win the Cup without him. That’s a harsh reality but it’s a small price to pay if it ultimately leads to another decade of Crosby dominance in the Burgh.
The question is where do they draw the line. At what point does this issue become serious enough for the team to consider the nuclear option? At what point is the best player of this era more valuable for his trade value than his on ice contribution? Lest you scoff at this notion remember that none other than Wayne Gretzky was traded in his prime. The Gretzky deal was never about improving the Edmonton Oilers; it was the best attempt to salvage an untenable financial situation.
And for the record, Edmonton won a cup without Gretzky; in part due to the players they received in that deal. They remained competitive for several more years even while playing at a significant financial disadvantage.
None of which should be interpreted as my endorsement of the nuclear option. I remain staunchly vested in the Crosby full recovery option, uncertainty and all. My belief will be even stronger if the NHL makes a sincere effort to eliminate headshots; rather than continuing its Neanderthal view of the issue. The league’s insistence on impotent punishments for head shots last year was nothing less than a tacit endorsement of the resulting carnage.
In the end however it’s not about me or any other Penguin fan. It’s about the organization balancing the implicit uncertainty of a brain injury with the financial realities of modern sports. It’s about understanding how tenuous an athletic career can be, even for a dominant superstar. It’s about accepting what nine months ago was unfathomable, trading the superstar who resuscitated the franchise when he arrived in 2005.
I truly hope it never comes to that. Right now there are no guarantees.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Going “Big Z” on the Sports Deadzone
We have a saying here in the windy city that a person went “Big Z” on someone. This is in deference to (or fear of) Cubs’ lunatic fringe pitcher Carlos Zambrano and essentially means the person to some degree lost their mind, freaked out, had a meltdown, and possibly beat the crap out somebody. Better stated, they reenacted the last five years of Zambrano in Chicago.
After Big Z’s latest meltdown and childish threat to retire last week it appears the Cubs have FINALLY had enough. I guess $90 Million buys a lot of forgiveness given that the Cubs have repeatedly overlooked (among other things) Zambrano's remarkable inconsistency, beating up his catcher, selling out his teammates, and freaking out at opposing players, coaches, and umpires. Bailing on his teammates in the middle of a game was the final straw. This should not surprise anybody who lived through the tumultuous end of the Sammy Sosa, Flintstones vitamin era in Chicago. The Cubs actually released Zapruder film like coverage of Sosa in the parking lot during his final game in Chicago.
The shame of it is that during those rare times when Zambrano is lucid and focused, he’s an exceptionally good pitcher. He appeared to be on the verge of Cy Young caliber stardom before signing his massive contract and he even after that tossed a no hitter in 2008. Alas, such greatness is far too rare and completely eclipsed by his over the top public meltdowns (and subsequent hollow apologies).
Zambrano is a locker room parasite who feeds on the extremely limited supply of positive energy at Wrigley field. Regardless of whether Cubs fans have any faith in their management team, the reality is that no meaningful rebuilding can occur on the north side until Zambrano is vanquished from the clubhouse. We can’t even guarantee that will occur given that he’s professed his love for Chicago and filed a grievance against the Cubs for suspending him. Unreal.
Jim Hendry has done less with more than virtually any general manager in sports. His record of player procurement is abysmal, especially given the budget he has to work with. Sadly his one area of expertise appears to be moving out malcontents with supposedly untradeable contracts. Here’s hoping the man who found homes for Sosa and Milton Bradley can do the same for Zambrano.
With that, I go Big Z on some other random topics in the heart of the summer sports dead zone:
• Forgive me if I’m not exactly shocked by the Yahoo story detailing rampant corruption at the University of Miami. Gee, the solid citizens of the U were given improper benefits including money, cars, alcohol, strippers, and prostitutes. What next, violence in maximum security prisons? Partisan dysfunction in congress? The Pirates finishing below 500? Yah, stop the press.
• Sadly, the Miami story is becoming the norm in big time college athletics. Powerhouse programs at USC and Ohio State (not to mention weaklings like North Carolina) are either on probation or facing serious allegations. As I sit here right now I’ll give you 2 to 1 odds that Auburn’s National Championship is vacated within five years. In fact, given the budding scandal at Oregon they might just pretend the whole BCS title game never happened. The unfortunate truth is that big time college football has become a cesspool of corruption. Worse yet, what we do not know is probably a lot worse than what we do.
• I admit I do not have a ready made solution to address corruption in college athletics but it would help if the NCAA stopped enabling egregious violations, let alone actually punishing them. I just read an article that stated the Sugar Bowl folks insisted Terrell Pryor and his accomplices play in their $20 Million New Year’s exhibition in order to, and I love this choice of language, protect the “integrity” of the contest. Sadly it was only slightly worse than Auburn starting their $180,000 amateur quarterback after the NCAA willingly buried its head in the sand. I’m dating myself here but the NCAA compliance officers remind me of the Bartles and James wine cooler guys from those late 80s commercials.
• As much as I believe that it’s long past time for Joe Paterno to retire, I often wonder if Penn State’s recent struggles are more because of JoePa’s age or because we don’t have alumni boosters that chaperone recruits to strip clubs. If it’s the latter, i.e., if Penn State has fallen in stature because they refuse to cheat, it makes it virtually impossible for me to watch college football anymore. Hopefully Pat Fitzgerald can address this after JoePa retires in three to five more years.
• Why do I feel like I’m the only person in the Steeler Nation who is genuinely concerned about the age of the defense? If Aaron Smith is in the line-up on opening day, the team will have eight starters on the plus side of 30. That may be young in public accounting but its ancient in the National Football League. As brilliant as the defense was in 2008 and 2010, there were notable signs of aging, primarily their inability to stop teams in the fourth quarter. I think that’s why Tomlin and Lebeau switched to that horrific prevent in the AFC title game that nearly caused me to Big Z my flat screen.
• Bill Bellicheat is not, as commonly postulated a genius but he is willing to think outside the football box. For years I’ve questioned why teams even attempt to run the football against the Steelers, given the utter futility of the effort. Belicheat to his credit abandoned established football dogma and never did. The Patriots regularly shred the Steelers’ defense with a quick strike passing game while making only token efforts on the ground. Green Bay used this same game plan in the Super Bowl as did Drew Brees and even Mark Sanchez last year.
The good news for the Black and Gold is you need a hall of fame caliber quarterback to execute this strategy. The bad news is that several such quarterbacks potentially stand between the Steelers and another Lombardi Trophy.
• I know the preseason does not mean squat but I could swear I saw Rex Grossman tearing up the Steelers’ defense last Friday night.
• Rick Reilly jumped the shark as a columnist about five years ago but he nailed it this week in ripping the Cincy Bungles and their cheap, curmudgeon owner Mike Brown. What does it tell you that Carson Palmer would forfeit $45 Million rather than play football for the Bungles? Brown has been running a pathetic and cheap organization for decades. He basically told his coach Marvin Lewis to kiss of when Lewis demanded the Bungles spend money and modernize. And this hypocritical oaf has the gall to suggest that Palmer reneged on his commitment to the team? How many players have the Bengals cut while they were under “contractual commitments?”
Even if you 100% agree with Brown and think Palmer is the NFL’s Big Z, riddle me this; would a good owner force a fading star player to retire out of spite or pawn him off for high draft choices to improve the club? Watch Brown do nothing and you’ll have your answer.
• As we sit here today I have no idea whether Sidney Crosby will be in the line-up on opening night. I refuse to make any assumptions based on rampant and irresponsible media speculation. I will say that if he’s not ready to go then he should stay on the sidelines until he is. The Pens made a monumental gaffe in allowing their franchise superstar to play after the Steckel hit. I was convinced he has a concussion when I saw it live and more so when 24/7 replayed it. The only positive here is that the Pens realized their mistake and resisted the temptation to rush him back for the playoffs. Crosby is the franchise and he’s two years away from being a free agent. Given that, I’m okay with exercising a tad more patience than they did with Aaron Asham.
• Sometimes when I need a cheap smile or laugh I remind myself that they worship hockey in Vancouver and Roberto Luongo is under contract until 2047.
• Only 24 days until the Steelers open their season in Baltimore and the sports dead zone mercifully ends. Looking forward to seeing James Harrison and the boys go Big Z on Joe Flacco!
After Big Z’s latest meltdown and childish threat to retire last week it appears the Cubs have FINALLY had enough. I guess $90 Million buys a lot of forgiveness given that the Cubs have repeatedly overlooked (among other things) Zambrano's remarkable inconsistency, beating up his catcher, selling out his teammates, and freaking out at opposing players, coaches, and umpires. Bailing on his teammates in the middle of a game was the final straw. This should not surprise anybody who lived through the tumultuous end of the Sammy Sosa, Flintstones vitamin era in Chicago. The Cubs actually released Zapruder film like coverage of Sosa in the parking lot during his final game in Chicago.
The shame of it is that during those rare times when Zambrano is lucid and focused, he’s an exceptionally good pitcher. He appeared to be on the verge of Cy Young caliber stardom before signing his massive contract and he even after that tossed a no hitter in 2008. Alas, such greatness is far too rare and completely eclipsed by his over the top public meltdowns (and subsequent hollow apologies).
Zambrano is a locker room parasite who feeds on the extremely limited supply of positive energy at Wrigley field. Regardless of whether Cubs fans have any faith in their management team, the reality is that no meaningful rebuilding can occur on the north side until Zambrano is vanquished from the clubhouse. We can’t even guarantee that will occur given that he’s professed his love for Chicago and filed a grievance against the Cubs for suspending him. Unreal.
Jim Hendry has done less with more than virtually any general manager in sports. His record of player procurement is abysmal, especially given the budget he has to work with. Sadly his one area of expertise appears to be moving out malcontents with supposedly untradeable contracts. Here’s hoping the man who found homes for Sosa and Milton Bradley can do the same for Zambrano.
With that, I go Big Z on some other random topics in the heart of the summer sports dead zone:
• Forgive me if I’m not exactly shocked by the Yahoo story detailing rampant corruption at the University of Miami. Gee, the solid citizens of the U were given improper benefits including money, cars, alcohol, strippers, and prostitutes. What next, violence in maximum security prisons? Partisan dysfunction in congress? The Pirates finishing below 500? Yah, stop the press.
• Sadly, the Miami story is becoming the norm in big time college athletics. Powerhouse programs at USC and Ohio State (not to mention weaklings like North Carolina) are either on probation or facing serious allegations. As I sit here right now I’ll give you 2 to 1 odds that Auburn’s National Championship is vacated within five years. In fact, given the budding scandal at Oregon they might just pretend the whole BCS title game never happened. The unfortunate truth is that big time college football has become a cesspool of corruption. Worse yet, what we do not know is probably a lot worse than what we do.
• I admit I do not have a ready made solution to address corruption in college athletics but it would help if the NCAA stopped enabling egregious violations, let alone actually punishing them. I just read an article that stated the Sugar Bowl folks insisted Terrell Pryor and his accomplices play in their $20 Million New Year’s exhibition in order to, and I love this choice of language, protect the “integrity” of the contest. Sadly it was only slightly worse than Auburn starting their $180,000 amateur quarterback after the NCAA willingly buried its head in the sand. I’m dating myself here but the NCAA compliance officers remind me of the Bartles and James wine cooler guys from those late 80s commercials.
• As much as I believe that it’s long past time for Joe Paterno to retire, I often wonder if Penn State’s recent struggles are more because of JoePa’s age or because we don’t have alumni boosters that chaperone recruits to strip clubs. If it’s the latter, i.e., if Penn State has fallen in stature because they refuse to cheat, it makes it virtually impossible for me to watch college football anymore. Hopefully Pat Fitzgerald can address this after JoePa retires in three to five more years.
• Why do I feel like I’m the only person in the Steeler Nation who is genuinely concerned about the age of the defense? If Aaron Smith is in the line-up on opening day, the team will have eight starters on the plus side of 30. That may be young in public accounting but its ancient in the National Football League. As brilliant as the defense was in 2008 and 2010, there were notable signs of aging, primarily their inability to stop teams in the fourth quarter. I think that’s why Tomlin and Lebeau switched to that horrific prevent in the AFC title game that nearly caused me to Big Z my flat screen.
• Bill Bellicheat is not, as commonly postulated a genius but he is willing to think outside the football box. For years I’ve questioned why teams even attempt to run the football against the Steelers, given the utter futility of the effort. Belicheat to his credit abandoned established football dogma and never did. The Patriots regularly shred the Steelers’ defense with a quick strike passing game while making only token efforts on the ground. Green Bay used this same game plan in the Super Bowl as did Drew Brees and even Mark Sanchez last year.
The good news for the Black and Gold is you need a hall of fame caliber quarterback to execute this strategy. The bad news is that several such quarterbacks potentially stand between the Steelers and another Lombardi Trophy.
• I know the preseason does not mean squat but I could swear I saw Rex Grossman tearing up the Steelers’ defense last Friday night.
• Rick Reilly jumped the shark as a columnist about five years ago but he nailed it this week in ripping the Cincy Bungles and their cheap, curmudgeon owner Mike Brown. What does it tell you that Carson Palmer would forfeit $45 Million rather than play football for the Bungles? Brown has been running a pathetic and cheap organization for decades. He basically told his coach Marvin Lewis to kiss of when Lewis demanded the Bungles spend money and modernize. And this hypocritical oaf has the gall to suggest that Palmer reneged on his commitment to the team? How many players have the Bengals cut while they were under “contractual commitments?”
Even if you 100% agree with Brown and think Palmer is the NFL’s Big Z, riddle me this; would a good owner force a fading star player to retire out of spite or pawn him off for high draft choices to improve the club? Watch Brown do nothing and you’ll have your answer.
• As we sit here today I have no idea whether Sidney Crosby will be in the line-up on opening night. I refuse to make any assumptions based on rampant and irresponsible media speculation. I will say that if he’s not ready to go then he should stay on the sidelines until he is. The Pens made a monumental gaffe in allowing their franchise superstar to play after the Steckel hit. I was convinced he has a concussion when I saw it live and more so when 24/7 replayed it. The only positive here is that the Pens realized their mistake and resisted the temptation to rush him back for the playoffs. Crosby is the franchise and he’s two years away from being a free agent. Given that, I’m okay with exercising a tad more patience than they did with Aaron Asham.
• Sometimes when I need a cheap smile or laugh I remind myself that they worship hockey in Vancouver and Roberto Luongo is under contract until 2047.
• Only 24 days until the Steelers open their season in Baltimore and the sports dead zone mercifully ends. Looking forward to seeing James Harrison and the boys go Big Z on Joe Flacco!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Winners Win, Losers Blame the Ref…Usually
I have been preaching the title of this blog as my personal sports gospel for as long as I can remember.
And there is a reason, I truly believe it. I remember that every time Bruce Boudreau opens up a post playoff loss news conference with, “I don’t want to sound like I’m whining about the officiating but…”
Think back to the 2006 Super Bowl between the Steelers and Seattle. Remember that three weeks before Mike Holmgren destroyed every shred of credibility he ever had, by blaming the refs for Seattle’s loss,, Bill Cowher’s team overcame perhaps the worst miscarriage of officiating justice in NFL history to beat Indianapolis.
It’s easy to blame the refs; whether because of one egregiously bad miss or a series of questionable calls against. It’s also a cop out. The simple fact is that officials are part of the game and rarely are they ultimately responsible for a team losing a game.
RARELY.
I have to admit that once in awhile a situation comes up that challenges our sensibilities as sports fans and my convictions on this issue. Such an incident occurred last night in Atlanta for the suddenly believable Pittsburgh Pirates.
Let’s put it out there plain and simple, the Pirates got screwed. There is no way around it. I have not seen a call that bad at home plate since Frank Drevin/Enrico Polazzo was calling balls and strikes in “The Naked Gun.” To have it happen in the bottom of the 19th inning, after nearly 7 hours of baseball is virtually inexcusable.
I’m willing to concede in writing what most people probably are thinking, the umpire may have had enough. He probably made up his mind, perhaps without even realizing it, that any close play at the plate was going to be called safe. Umpires are human; even they want to go home after 7 hours of baseball.
That does not make it right.
Only once have I readily conceded that the officials stole a game from a team. That was my sophomore year at Penn State, when our newly minted Big 10 basketball team took on number 1 ranked Indiana. The Nittany Lions had the game won in overtime when the refs in explicably called a phantom foul on the blue and white; when it fact the Hoosiers had committed a blatant game ending foul themselves.
I blamed the refs for two reasons. First the talent disparity at the time was so great that it literally took a perfect effort for Penn State to compete. Second, the timing of the call was so horrendous, coming in the final seconds of overtime that its effects were impossible to ignore. Either factor on its own is insufficient; in aggregate they allowed me to abandon my principles that one time.
The Pirates score one of out two; the horrendous timing of the call. As for the talent discrepancy; its there but certainly not to the 1992 Penn State degree.
In the end all we have is our principles and our beliefs. And while I can understand why any and every Pirate fan who was awake at 2am would want to throw a shoe through their television, I’m not conceding mine. Winners win, losers blame the…ump.
Yes it was an awful call, an embarrassing display of officiating that should embolden the desperate cries for baseball to adopt some form of replay. I’m not denying that. Was it any worse than Troy Polamalu clearly intercepting Peyton Manning with 5 minutes left in a playoff game, the refs calling it right on the field and then overturning it on review; after indisputable evidence that the call was correct?
Before you say it is, would you feel that way if Indy had come back to win (which they nearly did) and the Steelers were now up to 32 years without a Super Bowl title? That might very well have happened if the Steelers lost that game. It could have been a Sid Bream style, franchise crushing loss. It nearly was.
The answer of course, is no.
Listen I’m rooting for the battling Buccos. It would be a great story for this team to go directly from the depths of irrelevancy to a division title. I’m also far more dispassionate than your typical Kapper, Disque, or Filoni.
So dispassionately I can say this, the Pirates had ten innings to score ONE RUN and could not do it.
That’s the core of my belief about not blaming the refs. If you put yourself in a position where the officials can take it from you, they just might. And when you don’t score a run for ten innings (actually 15), you’ve put yourself in that position. Is it so inconceivable that a physically and mentally exhausted home plate umpire would make a horrendous call at 2:00AM? Of course not, so don’t give him the chance.
And the point is that this lack of scoring is not a one night issue. The Pirates’ offense is not very good. They appear from this outsider’s perspective to be winning primarily with pitching, defense, and heart. That’s a great story but probably not one that is sustainable. We saw a great example of that last night.
Quite frankly it’s the exact same reason the Penguins could not beat Tampa without Crosby and Malkin. At some point when you can’t score, you can’t win.
The Pirates need more hitting. Whether they can get it is anybody’s guess. I personally would not mortgage the future of the franchise on a rent-a-player, especially a mediocre one like Carlos Pena. At the same time, the Pirates window is so short that one can understand why they might panic in to such a move given the first glimmer of hope since Bush the first was president.
Ultimately that’s a question for better baseball minds than myself.
The bigger question is how do Clint Hurdle’s boys deal with this loss? Rarely does one regular season game make a huge difference but this is very possibly an exception. This loss can be a focal point for the remainder of the season. For Pirate fans of my generation, think Howard Johnson’s infamous home run off Jim Gott in 1988 that derailed what was to that point a similarly brilliant, overachieving team.
I always worry about teams that lose ridiculously long games. I remember the Pens losing that five overtime epic to Philly in 2000 and pretty much packing in the series after that. I remember the Craps doing the same thing after Peter Nedved and Kenny Wregget put them away in four overtimes in 1996.
If this young Pirate team is looking for an excuse to take their foot off the gas, this would certainly be it. On the other hand, this could also be the moment that galvanizes them. This could be their us against the world, nobody believed in us moment. I’m not suggesting Hurdle put up a poster of the umpire in the dressing room a la Lou Brown and Rachel Phelps in “Major League.” I am suggesting that maybe some veteran player can stand up and announce a la Jake Taylor, “there is only one thing to do…win the whole bleeping thing.”
Adversity reveals character; from the manager on down. And losses like this certainly create adversity. It will be interesting to see how Hurdle deals with this. Does he shrink and whine like Boudreau does or does he lead like Cowher and tell his team, “Whatever happens we just play. We control what we can control.” More important, does he rally his young team around the cause?
That includes the general manager who has a chance to truly prove his salt by adding much needed hitting without giving away the store. Maybe Neil Huntington should call Ray Shero and ask how he traded spare parts and never will be prospects for that Slovakian winger who later fled to Detroit.
Regardless, that’s tomorrow’s problem. Today it’s about moving on. It’s about getting past a truly ugly call and an ugly loss, in Atlanta of all places. It’s about showing the depth of inner character that great teams must have, no matter how devastating last night’s loss was. It’s about remembering that true champions some how, some way overcome bad officiating. No matter how hard that is to do.
And there is a reason, I truly believe it. I remember that every time Bruce Boudreau opens up a post playoff loss news conference with, “I don’t want to sound like I’m whining about the officiating but…”
Think back to the 2006 Super Bowl between the Steelers and Seattle. Remember that three weeks before Mike Holmgren destroyed every shred of credibility he ever had, by blaming the refs for Seattle’s loss,, Bill Cowher’s team overcame perhaps the worst miscarriage of officiating justice in NFL history to beat Indianapolis.
It’s easy to blame the refs; whether because of one egregiously bad miss or a series of questionable calls against. It’s also a cop out. The simple fact is that officials are part of the game and rarely are they ultimately responsible for a team losing a game.
RARELY.
I have to admit that once in awhile a situation comes up that challenges our sensibilities as sports fans and my convictions on this issue. Such an incident occurred last night in Atlanta for the suddenly believable Pittsburgh Pirates.
Let’s put it out there plain and simple, the Pirates got screwed. There is no way around it. I have not seen a call that bad at home plate since Frank Drevin/Enrico Polazzo was calling balls and strikes in “The Naked Gun.” To have it happen in the bottom of the 19th inning, after nearly 7 hours of baseball is virtually inexcusable.
I’m willing to concede in writing what most people probably are thinking, the umpire may have had enough. He probably made up his mind, perhaps without even realizing it, that any close play at the plate was going to be called safe. Umpires are human; even they want to go home after 7 hours of baseball.
That does not make it right.
Only once have I readily conceded that the officials stole a game from a team. That was my sophomore year at Penn State, when our newly minted Big 10 basketball team took on number 1 ranked Indiana. The Nittany Lions had the game won in overtime when the refs in explicably called a phantom foul on the blue and white; when it fact the Hoosiers had committed a blatant game ending foul themselves.
I blamed the refs for two reasons. First the talent disparity at the time was so great that it literally took a perfect effort for Penn State to compete. Second, the timing of the call was so horrendous, coming in the final seconds of overtime that its effects were impossible to ignore. Either factor on its own is insufficient; in aggregate they allowed me to abandon my principles that one time.
The Pirates score one of out two; the horrendous timing of the call. As for the talent discrepancy; its there but certainly not to the 1992 Penn State degree.
In the end all we have is our principles and our beliefs. And while I can understand why any and every Pirate fan who was awake at 2am would want to throw a shoe through their television, I’m not conceding mine. Winners win, losers blame the…ump.
Yes it was an awful call, an embarrassing display of officiating that should embolden the desperate cries for baseball to adopt some form of replay. I’m not denying that. Was it any worse than Troy Polamalu clearly intercepting Peyton Manning with 5 minutes left in a playoff game, the refs calling it right on the field and then overturning it on review; after indisputable evidence that the call was correct?
Before you say it is, would you feel that way if Indy had come back to win (which they nearly did) and the Steelers were now up to 32 years without a Super Bowl title? That might very well have happened if the Steelers lost that game. It could have been a Sid Bream style, franchise crushing loss. It nearly was.
The answer of course, is no.
Listen I’m rooting for the battling Buccos. It would be a great story for this team to go directly from the depths of irrelevancy to a division title. I’m also far more dispassionate than your typical Kapper, Disque, or Filoni.
So dispassionately I can say this, the Pirates had ten innings to score ONE RUN and could not do it.
That’s the core of my belief about not blaming the refs. If you put yourself in a position where the officials can take it from you, they just might. And when you don’t score a run for ten innings (actually 15), you’ve put yourself in that position. Is it so inconceivable that a physically and mentally exhausted home plate umpire would make a horrendous call at 2:00AM? Of course not, so don’t give him the chance.
And the point is that this lack of scoring is not a one night issue. The Pirates’ offense is not very good. They appear from this outsider’s perspective to be winning primarily with pitching, defense, and heart. That’s a great story but probably not one that is sustainable. We saw a great example of that last night.
Quite frankly it’s the exact same reason the Penguins could not beat Tampa without Crosby and Malkin. At some point when you can’t score, you can’t win.
The Pirates need more hitting. Whether they can get it is anybody’s guess. I personally would not mortgage the future of the franchise on a rent-a-player, especially a mediocre one like Carlos Pena. At the same time, the Pirates window is so short that one can understand why they might panic in to such a move given the first glimmer of hope since Bush the first was president.
Ultimately that’s a question for better baseball minds than myself.
The bigger question is how do Clint Hurdle’s boys deal with this loss? Rarely does one regular season game make a huge difference but this is very possibly an exception. This loss can be a focal point for the remainder of the season. For Pirate fans of my generation, think Howard Johnson’s infamous home run off Jim Gott in 1988 that derailed what was to that point a similarly brilliant, overachieving team.
I always worry about teams that lose ridiculously long games. I remember the Pens losing that five overtime epic to Philly in 2000 and pretty much packing in the series after that. I remember the Craps doing the same thing after Peter Nedved and Kenny Wregget put them away in four overtimes in 1996.
If this young Pirate team is looking for an excuse to take their foot off the gas, this would certainly be it. On the other hand, this could also be the moment that galvanizes them. This could be their us against the world, nobody believed in us moment. I’m not suggesting Hurdle put up a poster of the umpire in the dressing room a la Lou Brown and Rachel Phelps in “Major League.” I am suggesting that maybe some veteran player can stand up and announce a la Jake Taylor, “there is only one thing to do…win the whole bleeping thing.”
Adversity reveals character; from the manager on down. And losses like this certainly create adversity. It will be interesting to see how Hurdle deals with this. Does he shrink and whine like Boudreau does or does he lead like Cowher and tell his team, “Whatever happens we just play. We control what we can control.” More important, does he rally his young team around the cause?
That includes the general manager who has a chance to truly prove his salt by adding much needed hitting without giving away the store. Maybe Neil Huntington should call Ray Shero and ask how he traded spare parts and never will be prospects for that Slovakian winger who later fled to Detroit.
Regardless, that’s tomorrow’s problem. Today it’s about moving on. It’s about getting past a truly ugly call and an ugly loss, in Atlanta of all places. It’s about showing the depth of inner character that great teams must have, no matter how devastating last night’s loss was. It’s about remembering that true champions some how, some way overcome bad officiating. No matter how hard that is to do.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Turning up the Hate on Jaromir Jagr
Well so much for that whole, why I think the Penguins should sign Jaromir Jagr blog last week.
I spent 1,200 words detailing how Jagr could help the Penguins on the ice and how his return might heal a decade’s worth of wounds off of it. I described my long held and unchanged belief that the treatment of Jagr since he left the Burgh has been truly disappointing. I referred to it as “a blight on an otherwise terrific fan base.”
Given what transpired last Friday afternoon, that decade will now be remembered as “the good old days.”
Before that, Jagr was disliked by most of the Penguin populace. He has now graduated to utterly detested. In truth, I’m not even sure that sentiment captures the degree of venom and hatred launched at the former Penguin superstar since his ill fated decision to sign with the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad. To quote a Facebook post from one of the best hockey fans I know, “He’s dead to me now.”
As my wife Emily so perfectly retorted, “I guess Marian Hossa does not seem so bad anymore.”
For the record, I think what Hossa did to the Penguins in 2008 was far worse than what Jagr did last weekend. Hossa and his teammates barely had time to clean out their lockers before Maid Marian bolted to the team that beat them in the Stanley Cup finals. His departure nearly swung the balance of power to the Pens biggest championship obstacle. By contrast, the 39 year old Jagr’s last meaningful game as a Penguin came before there was wireless internet.
I am in no way defending Jagr and believe me I’m not happy with his chosen destination. Still I can’t help but think that that the overbearing emotion here is clouding the real story. At face value, this is simply an unrestricted free agent, eleven years removed from his last game in a Penguin uniform electing to sign with a team that offered him 65% more money. If you replaced the name Jaromir Jagr with say Peter Forsberg, would that seem so awful?
To me this outpouring of unbridled hatred is not really about Jagr’s actions last week. This is about a fan base that already hates him being given a perfect opportunity to hate him even more.
Alas, it’s fairly clear that I’m in the minority here. Better stated, I’m in the republicans running against Richard Daley in Chicago minority.
Given the tenuous olive branch that Penguin fans were extending, I’m not sure Jagr could have survived signing anywhere other than the new igloo. The fact that he chose Philadelphia just blew the whole mess up to epic levels. Keep in mind however that since he left the Burgh, Jagr has played for the Craps and Rangers; two teams that are not exactly on the typical Penguin fan’s Christmas card list.
Jagr has turned Penguin fans in to jilted lovers; so blinded with emotion and rage that the actual facts of the situation have become immaterial. Yes we are angry that Jagr “appeared” to string us along and that he signed with our mortal enemy. I can understand that to some degree. I’m still not sure this qualifies a player eleven years removed from his Pittsburgh career for Barry Bonds treatment.
Which frankly is irrelevant since that’s exactly what he’s going to get…and worse? Jagr’s first visit to the Energy Barn in December figures to rank with Cliff Stoudt’s infamous USFL return in 1983 as the most venomous sporting event in the history of the Burgh. With all due respect to the winter classic, they might have to play the game at Heinz Field to accommodate the demand from irate Penguin fans.
Most of the current anger towards Jagr stems from his quote a few years back suggesting he would take the league minimum salary to play for Lemieux and the Penguins again. More than one fan or member of the esteemed Pittsburgh media has referenced that quote and suggested they would not be nearly so angry if he did not go back on his word .
You can argue that a person should honor thier word and I will not disagree. We certainly have enough experience with Jagr; not too mention other athletes and celebrities to know that this is often not the case. I’m sorry but I did not believe it when he said it any more than I do now. To me it’s no more relevant than the infamous and badly overplayed “dying alive” comment which while upsetting and stupid, did come while Jagr was leading the NHL in scoring.
Honestly, do we care more about the mindless dribble that spews from Jagr’s mouth or what he does (or did) on the ice? To me it’s the latter by a mile.
I’m also not sure about this concept of Jagr stringing the Penguins along. Ray Shero basically dropped in to Michael Corleone mode noting this was strictly business and he has no emotional attachment to it. Shero moved on to his plan B which was Steve Sullivan and that was that. I’m fairly sure that Shero and his Hall of Fame boss were more peeved than they let on publically but it’s not like the Pens missed out on Brad Richards…or even Radim Vrbata because of Jagr. Jaromir took his talents to South Philly and life moved on at the Consol.
As far as I’m concerned, nothing has changed except that the Pens missed out on a good free agent. Life goes on with Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury, I can happily deal with that. For whatever reason, I am nowhere near as angry about this as most other Penguin fans. Perhaps because as much as I thought he could help the Penguins this season, I wrote him off emotionally while Ben Roethlisberger was a sophomore in college.
Honestly I’m more upset about the idea of Max Talbot in orange and black than I am Jagr. I do not blame Max in any way for his decision. The Penguins were clearly moving away from him and he took the best opportunity for long-term security, on and off the ice. I hate the fact that the quintessential Pittsburgh athlete will spend five years plying his trade in Philly, but I completely understand it.
Most (though not all) Penguin fans seem to feel the same way about Talbot’s decision. There seem to be about three of us who feel that way about Jagr; and I’m still waiting for the other two to publicly identify.
I would love for all of my favorite athletes to be good people and solid citizens. I want to genuinely like the people I root for. I’m also a realist. There are a lot of great athletes who are not up for sainthood and frankly there are a lot more who think and act like Jagr than there are like Sidney Crosby or Hines Ward. This point was driven home during the whole Roethlisberger debacle last year.
As a result, I’ve made a compromise with my ideals. If my favorite athletes perform at their best on the field and remain law abiding citizens off of it, I can deal with their other faults and flaws. It’s the same stance I took with Big Ben last year (given no charges or evidence of a crime). For whatever grievances we may have against Jagr, he greatly exceed those qualifications while in the Burgh.
None of that changed last weekend; no matter how disrespectful he was perceived in his actions.
I have numerous reasons to hate the Philadelphia professional hockey club whether or not they suit up number 68. As a result, I see no need to make a special trip to the Burgh just to jeer an old friend. Maybe I will develop that Hossa like disdain for Jagr if he ends up squarely between the Pens and the Stanley Cup next spring but frankly I doubt that will be the case.
It’s fairly clear that Jagr could care less about Pittsburgh, the Penguins, or his legacy here. That’s his prerogative. It’s also obvious that he’s immature, and feels no accountability to his public statements. That’s not exactly breaking news either. He handled this situation as poorly as he did his initial exit from the Burgh. He should have been more upfront about his intentions and more straightforward with his decision. Clearly neither he nor his agent cared to be and for that he deserves a degree of scorn.
I just don’t think it’s this degree.
I spent 1,200 words detailing how Jagr could help the Penguins on the ice and how his return might heal a decade’s worth of wounds off of it. I described my long held and unchanged belief that the treatment of Jagr since he left the Burgh has been truly disappointing. I referred to it as “a blight on an otherwise terrific fan base.”
Given what transpired last Friday afternoon, that decade will now be remembered as “the good old days.”
Before that, Jagr was disliked by most of the Penguin populace. He has now graduated to utterly detested. In truth, I’m not even sure that sentiment captures the degree of venom and hatred launched at the former Penguin superstar since his ill fated decision to sign with the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad. To quote a Facebook post from one of the best hockey fans I know, “He’s dead to me now.”
As my wife Emily so perfectly retorted, “I guess Marian Hossa does not seem so bad anymore.”
For the record, I think what Hossa did to the Penguins in 2008 was far worse than what Jagr did last weekend. Hossa and his teammates barely had time to clean out their lockers before Maid Marian bolted to the team that beat them in the Stanley Cup finals. His departure nearly swung the balance of power to the Pens biggest championship obstacle. By contrast, the 39 year old Jagr’s last meaningful game as a Penguin came before there was wireless internet.
I am in no way defending Jagr and believe me I’m not happy with his chosen destination. Still I can’t help but think that that the overbearing emotion here is clouding the real story. At face value, this is simply an unrestricted free agent, eleven years removed from his last game in a Penguin uniform electing to sign with a team that offered him 65% more money. If you replaced the name Jaromir Jagr with say Peter Forsberg, would that seem so awful?
To me this outpouring of unbridled hatred is not really about Jagr’s actions last week. This is about a fan base that already hates him being given a perfect opportunity to hate him even more.
Alas, it’s fairly clear that I’m in the minority here. Better stated, I’m in the republicans running against Richard Daley in Chicago minority.
Given the tenuous olive branch that Penguin fans were extending, I’m not sure Jagr could have survived signing anywhere other than the new igloo. The fact that he chose Philadelphia just blew the whole mess up to epic levels. Keep in mind however that since he left the Burgh, Jagr has played for the Craps and Rangers; two teams that are not exactly on the typical Penguin fan’s Christmas card list.
Jagr has turned Penguin fans in to jilted lovers; so blinded with emotion and rage that the actual facts of the situation have become immaterial. Yes we are angry that Jagr “appeared” to string us along and that he signed with our mortal enemy. I can understand that to some degree. I’m still not sure this qualifies a player eleven years removed from his Pittsburgh career for Barry Bonds treatment.
Which frankly is irrelevant since that’s exactly what he’s going to get…and worse? Jagr’s first visit to the Energy Barn in December figures to rank with Cliff Stoudt’s infamous USFL return in 1983 as the most venomous sporting event in the history of the Burgh. With all due respect to the winter classic, they might have to play the game at Heinz Field to accommodate the demand from irate Penguin fans.
Most of the current anger towards Jagr stems from his quote a few years back suggesting he would take the league minimum salary to play for Lemieux and the Penguins again. More than one fan or member of the esteemed Pittsburgh media has referenced that quote and suggested they would not be nearly so angry if he did not go back on his word .
You can argue that a person should honor thier word and I will not disagree. We certainly have enough experience with Jagr; not too mention other athletes and celebrities to know that this is often not the case. I’m sorry but I did not believe it when he said it any more than I do now. To me it’s no more relevant than the infamous and badly overplayed “dying alive” comment which while upsetting and stupid, did come while Jagr was leading the NHL in scoring.
Honestly, do we care more about the mindless dribble that spews from Jagr’s mouth or what he does (or did) on the ice? To me it’s the latter by a mile.
I’m also not sure about this concept of Jagr stringing the Penguins along. Ray Shero basically dropped in to Michael Corleone mode noting this was strictly business and he has no emotional attachment to it. Shero moved on to his plan B which was Steve Sullivan and that was that. I’m fairly sure that Shero and his Hall of Fame boss were more peeved than they let on publically but it’s not like the Pens missed out on Brad Richards…or even Radim Vrbata because of Jagr. Jaromir took his talents to South Philly and life moved on at the Consol.
As far as I’m concerned, nothing has changed except that the Pens missed out on a good free agent. Life goes on with Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury, I can happily deal with that. For whatever reason, I am nowhere near as angry about this as most other Penguin fans. Perhaps because as much as I thought he could help the Penguins this season, I wrote him off emotionally while Ben Roethlisberger was a sophomore in college.
Honestly I’m more upset about the idea of Max Talbot in orange and black than I am Jagr. I do not blame Max in any way for his decision. The Penguins were clearly moving away from him and he took the best opportunity for long-term security, on and off the ice. I hate the fact that the quintessential Pittsburgh athlete will spend five years plying his trade in Philly, but I completely understand it.
Most (though not all) Penguin fans seem to feel the same way about Talbot’s decision. There seem to be about three of us who feel that way about Jagr; and I’m still waiting for the other two to publicly identify.
I would love for all of my favorite athletes to be good people and solid citizens. I want to genuinely like the people I root for. I’m also a realist. There are a lot of great athletes who are not up for sainthood and frankly there are a lot more who think and act like Jagr than there are like Sidney Crosby or Hines Ward. This point was driven home during the whole Roethlisberger debacle last year.
As a result, I’ve made a compromise with my ideals. If my favorite athletes perform at their best on the field and remain law abiding citizens off of it, I can deal with their other faults and flaws. It’s the same stance I took with Big Ben last year (given no charges or evidence of a crime). For whatever grievances we may have against Jagr, he greatly exceed those qualifications while in the Burgh.
None of that changed last weekend; no matter how disrespectful he was perceived in his actions.
I have numerous reasons to hate the Philadelphia professional hockey club whether or not they suit up number 68. As a result, I see no need to make a special trip to the Burgh just to jeer an old friend. Maybe I will develop that Hossa like disdain for Jagr if he ends up squarely between the Pens and the Stanley Cup next spring but frankly I doubt that will be the case.
It’s fairly clear that Jagr could care less about Pittsburgh, the Penguins, or his legacy here. That’s his prerogative. It’s also obvious that he’s immature, and feels no accountability to his public statements. That’s not exactly breaking news either. He handled this situation as poorly as he did his initial exit from the Burgh. He should have been more upfront about his intentions and more straightforward with his decision. Clearly neither he nor his agent cared to be and for that he deserves a degree of scorn.
I just don’t think it’s this degree.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
My Case for Jaromir Jagr's Return
All blogged up and nothing to write about it. Thus is the curse of the annual sports dead zone which starts when the Stanley Cup finals conclude and ends on opening Sunday of the NFL season, when or if that occurs.
In the interim we get NHL hot stove talk mixed in with baseball; lots and lots of baseball. If you happen to live in a city where baseball thrives, that’s a palatable situation. If you happen to live in Chicago after growing up in Pittsburgh, well let’s just say I’m praying for a timely end to the NFL’s ludicrous work stoppage.
You think it’s a coincidence this blog has gone from a weekly to a monthly publication since Memorial Day?
Thankfully all hope is not lost; not with specter of Jaromir Jagr’s return to Pittsburgh. That would be 39 year old Jaromir Jagr who has spent the last three years plying his trade in Russia. That’s the same Jagr who for the better part of a decade has been treated with Hossa like disdain by most Penguin fans.
Of course that’s also the Jaromir Jagr who for 15 years was one of the greatest offensive players in NHL history. The same Jagr who was an integral part of two Stanley Cup champions in Pittsburgh; the same Jagr who dominated the NHL in the 90s and kept the Pens afloat as their talent was gradually siphoned off. This is the Jaromir Jagr whose virtuoso brilliance motived me to pen the attached blog entry below two years ago.
http://ahaberman35.livejournal.com/6810.html
And yes that’s the same Jagr who could be moody, pouty, and selfish almost on a whim. The Jagr who was a disaster as captain (though generally ok before that) and alienated most of the Penguin fans base on the way out of the Burgh. The same player who is indirectly responsible for Kris Beech wearing a Penguin uniform.
All of which is to admit that the circumstances of Jagr’s potential return are a fair bit complex.
So let’s simplify it.
First off, forget the past; the good, the bad, and the ugly. For my money Jagr is second only to Mario Lemieux in the annals of Penguin history but that is irrelevant today. The Pens are hoping he can contribute 25 goals or so and breathe life in to their morbid power play. The only relevant question is whether he can do that now; not what he could do in 1995 or did do in 2001.
Which also means forgetting Jagr’s acrimonious departure. It means forgetting the pouting, the dying alive and hardest of all, the carnage that was left behind. It’s water under the bridge now. The Penguins have moved well beyond it as has Jagr. The rest of us should join them.
For the record, I maintain that the treatment of Jagr since he left the Burgh has been disgraceful; a rare blight on an otherwise terrific fan base. Jagr is not a candidate for sainthood but he’s not Barry Bonds either. His departure from Pittsburgh, with little tangible return was inevitable; a point that was reinforced by the Alexie Kovalev deja vu deal two years later. The entire situation could have been handled with more grace on both ends but Jagr has been wrongly cast as the man who torched the Pens franchise. In truth, that ship had already sailed.
Jagr is an all time great Penguin who should be celebrated as such. If returning to Pittsburgh helps bring this about while burying what I consider a shameful part of Penguin history, that’s a nice ancillary benefit.
Second, the Penguins need Jagr; or at least someone with his current skill set. In a painfully thin free agent year where Tyler Kenney is highly sought after; old number 68 is likely their best hope.
Assuming (and praying) for the return to full health of Crosby and Malkin, this is a team with two brilliant centers and nary an elite offensive winger. If that evaluation sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve been regurgitating some variation it for the better part of three years.
Do you ever dream about what Sid the Kid could do with a legitimate 40 goal scorer on his wing. Notwithstanding my well documented issues with Marian Hossa, think back to the results when he and Sid played together in 2008. I’m not saying Jagr can be that good at his age; but he can be a lot better than Pascal Dupuis, Tyler Kennedy or Eric Tangradi. This assumes of course that Jagr does not sign a one year deal with Detroit because “it gives him the best chance to win the Stanley Cup” (oh the humanity).
We have lived through three years where Chris Kunitz was FAR AND AWAY the Penguins’ best offensive winger. Let me repeat that…Chris Kunitz. The guy who went from April to November 2009 without scoring (or at least it seemed that way). And while I applauded and fully endorsed the acquisition of James Neal; it’s hard to be too excited about a guy who scored three goals in his last 50 or so games last season. I’m expecting better this year (worse is hard to comprehend) but l admit my Neal optimism has been tarnished a bit.
Beyond that it’s an eclectic combination of checking line caliber wingers and hopeful but uncertain prospects. For a team that has legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations, that situation is not acceptable. The Pens are too good and have too much upside to be so reliant on the two headed monster.
And I have devoted barely a sentence to discussing the power play; a unit that is disturbingly bad with Malkin and Crosby and flat out unwatchable without them. I have to believe on some level that Jagr could benefit the man advantage. It seems inconceivable he could hurt it. The Pens will not win the Cup if Kris Letang spends another year reprising Mike Eurozione’s role during the early training days of Herb Brooks’ miracle team. AGAIN !!!
To reiterate, the Pens need Jagr and they need him bad.
I’m talking about the Jagr of today, not the Jagr of ten years ago. They need a talented winger with legitimate 25 goal ability regardless of who his center is. They need somebody other than 87 or 71 who can change the game offensively. Even if Neal or Tangradi is the real deal, neither has that ability. And unlike his last few years in the Burgh, Jagr will not be asked to carry the team on the ice or the burden of leadership off it.
Yes there are risks involved but consider that over the last three years Ray Shero out of necessity has played musical chairs with his wingers. If we as Penguin fans were willing to accept and endorse the risks implicit in signing Miro Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, and for the love of all that’s good and holy Alex Ponikarovsky, why not a clearly superior player in the same role? I’m willing to wager that Jagr right now is better than any of those players in their prime. And he’s certainly as good as Bill Guerin was when he arrived in the Burgh.
Please resist comparisons to Kovalev version 2011. That was a desperation acquisition by Shero hoping to catch short-term lightning in a bottle. The Pens would NEVER have made that move with 87 and 71 healthy. Kovy was clearly washed up before he arrived in the Burgh and let’s be honest; even in his prime was not exactly touted for his work ethic. Kovalev at his best was an elite talent; Jagr an elite player.
Obviously the money has to work. If the Dead Wings or Habs wants to offer Jagr $5 Million per there is not much the Pens can do about that. Jagr once said he would take the league minimum to play for Mario Lemieux. That’s more than charitable but I’ll settle for getting him in at $3.5 Million or less. Then we can leave the other roster decisions, including Kennedy and Max Talbot in Shero’s capable hands.
The ball is now in Jaromir’s court; all we can do is wait and hope. Thankfully or sadly, at this time of year there is not much else for sports fans to do.
In the interim we get NHL hot stove talk mixed in with baseball; lots and lots of baseball. If you happen to live in a city where baseball thrives, that’s a palatable situation. If you happen to live in Chicago after growing up in Pittsburgh, well let’s just say I’m praying for a timely end to the NFL’s ludicrous work stoppage.
You think it’s a coincidence this blog has gone from a weekly to a monthly publication since Memorial Day?
Thankfully all hope is not lost; not with specter of Jaromir Jagr’s return to Pittsburgh. That would be 39 year old Jaromir Jagr who has spent the last three years plying his trade in Russia. That’s the same Jagr who for the better part of a decade has been treated with Hossa like disdain by most Penguin fans.
Of course that’s also the Jaromir Jagr who for 15 years was one of the greatest offensive players in NHL history. The same Jagr who was an integral part of two Stanley Cup champions in Pittsburgh; the same Jagr who dominated the NHL in the 90s and kept the Pens afloat as their talent was gradually siphoned off. This is the Jaromir Jagr whose virtuoso brilliance motived me to pen the attached blog entry below two years ago.
http://ahaberman35.livejournal.com/6810.html
And yes that’s the same Jagr who could be moody, pouty, and selfish almost on a whim. The Jagr who was a disaster as captain (though generally ok before that) and alienated most of the Penguin fans base on the way out of the Burgh. The same player who is indirectly responsible for Kris Beech wearing a Penguin uniform.
All of which is to admit that the circumstances of Jagr’s potential return are a fair bit complex.
So let’s simplify it.
First off, forget the past; the good, the bad, and the ugly. For my money Jagr is second only to Mario Lemieux in the annals of Penguin history but that is irrelevant today. The Pens are hoping he can contribute 25 goals or so and breathe life in to their morbid power play. The only relevant question is whether he can do that now; not what he could do in 1995 or did do in 2001.
Which also means forgetting Jagr’s acrimonious departure. It means forgetting the pouting, the dying alive and hardest of all, the carnage that was left behind. It’s water under the bridge now. The Penguins have moved well beyond it as has Jagr. The rest of us should join them.
For the record, I maintain that the treatment of Jagr since he left the Burgh has been disgraceful; a rare blight on an otherwise terrific fan base. Jagr is not a candidate for sainthood but he’s not Barry Bonds either. His departure from Pittsburgh, with little tangible return was inevitable; a point that was reinforced by the Alexie Kovalev deja vu deal two years later. The entire situation could have been handled with more grace on both ends but Jagr has been wrongly cast as the man who torched the Pens franchise. In truth, that ship had already sailed.
Jagr is an all time great Penguin who should be celebrated as such. If returning to Pittsburgh helps bring this about while burying what I consider a shameful part of Penguin history, that’s a nice ancillary benefit.
Second, the Penguins need Jagr; or at least someone with his current skill set. In a painfully thin free agent year where Tyler Kenney is highly sought after; old number 68 is likely their best hope.
Assuming (and praying) for the return to full health of Crosby and Malkin, this is a team with two brilliant centers and nary an elite offensive winger. If that evaluation sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve been regurgitating some variation it for the better part of three years.
Do you ever dream about what Sid the Kid could do with a legitimate 40 goal scorer on his wing. Notwithstanding my well documented issues with Marian Hossa, think back to the results when he and Sid played together in 2008. I’m not saying Jagr can be that good at his age; but he can be a lot better than Pascal Dupuis, Tyler Kennedy or Eric Tangradi. This assumes of course that Jagr does not sign a one year deal with Detroit because “it gives him the best chance to win the Stanley Cup” (oh the humanity).
We have lived through three years where Chris Kunitz was FAR AND AWAY the Penguins’ best offensive winger. Let me repeat that…Chris Kunitz. The guy who went from April to November 2009 without scoring (or at least it seemed that way). And while I applauded and fully endorsed the acquisition of James Neal; it’s hard to be too excited about a guy who scored three goals in his last 50 or so games last season. I’m expecting better this year (worse is hard to comprehend) but l admit my Neal optimism has been tarnished a bit.
Beyond that it’s an eclectic combination of checking line caliber wingers and hopeful but uncertain prospects. For a team that has legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations, that situation is not acceptable. The Pens are too good and have too much upside to be so reliant on the two headed monster.
And I have devoted barely a sentence to discussing the power play; a unit that is disturbingly bad with Malkin and Crosby and flat out unwatchable without them. I have to believe on some level that Jagr could benefit the man advantage. It seems inconceivable he could hurt it. The Pens will not win the Cup if Kris Letang spends another year reprising Mike Eurozione’s role during the early training days of Herb Brooks’ miracle team. AGAIN !!!
To reiterate, the Pens need Jagr and they need him bad.
I’m talking about the Jagr of today, not the Jagr of ten years ago. They need a talented winger with legitimate 25 goal ability regardless of who his center is. They need somebody other than 87 or 71 who can change the game offensively. Even if Neal or Tangradi is the real deal, neither has that ability. And unlike his last few years in the Burgh, Jagr will not be asked to carry the team on the ice or the burden of leadership off it.
Yes there are risks involved but consider that over the last three years Ray Shero out of necessity has played musical chairs with his wingers. If we as Penguin fans were willing to accept and endorse the risks implicit in signing Miro Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, and for the love of all that’s good and holy Alex Ponikarovsky, why not a clearly superior player in the same role? I’m willing to wager that Jagr right now is better than any of those players in their prime. And he’s certainly as good as Bill Guerin was when he arrived in the Burgh.
Please resist comparisons to Kovalev version 2011. That was a desperation acquisition by Shero hoping to catch short-term lightning in a bottle. The Pens would NEVER have made that move with 87 and 71 healthy. Kovy was clearly washed up before he arrived in the Burgh and let’s be honest; even in his prime was not exactly touted for his work ethic. Kovalev at his best was an elite talent; Jagr an elite player.
Obviously the money has to work. If the Dead Wings or Habs wants to offer Jagr $5 Million per there is not much the Pens can do about that. Jagr once said he would take the league minimum to play for Mario Lemieux. That’s more than charitable but I’ll settle for getting him in at $3.5 Million or less. Then we can leave the other roster decisions, including Kennedy and Max Talbot in Shero’s capable hands.
The ball is now in Jaromir’s court; all we can do is wait and hope. Thankfully or sadly, at this time of year there is not much else for sports fans to do.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Cry No Tears for the Thrashers
I was mildly surprised to read several scathing articles in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, shredding the NHL for allowing the Thrashers to move to Winnipeg.
To wit, I simply did not think anybody in Atlanta cared enough to even notice.
I can not help but wonder if the Atlanta media is truly incredulous towards losing the Thrashers, or if blasting Gary Bettman just makes for good newspaper copy. Especially when several reader comments bemoan the scarcity of hockey related articles from the writer during say…the Obama administration.
My personal belief is that few tears will be shed for the demise of hockey in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
At the risk of trampling on Atlanta’s sports grave, I think Tuesday was a positive day for the NHL. The league is exiting a large, non traditional market that is at best apathetic and at worst could care less about its product. They are returning to a small Canadian city that lives and dies with the sport. The NHL has not made a move like this in some 30 years; since the last time Atlanta lost a hockey team to Canada. Some believe this move is an aberration. I hope it’s the start of the NHL finally coming to its senses.
I personally do not care for hockey in markets that clearly have no desire to support it. The poster children for this issue are Atlanta, Miami, and Phoenix. I differentiate markets like Carolina, Tampa, and Anaheim which I think have enough support to be successful at some level.
I also think the NHL is bloated at 30 teams. The league’s nine team expansion in the 90s, primarily to non traditional markets was reckless and over ambitious. I was against it from day one and little has changed in the last decade to sway my beliefs. I would just assume move a few clubs back to more supportive markets and I believe that contraction should very much be on the table.
I acknowledge that it is easy to make such bold proclamations with somebody else’s team. I was not so much at peace with the concepts of franchise movement and contraction in the late 1990s when the Penguins were a legitimate contender for either. As an insider, I was well aware of the depth of hockey passion in Pittsburgh that was not always reflected in the team’s attendance at that time. An outsider, especially one with a short memory might easily have scorned Pittsburgh as a failed hockey market place.
Which is not to suggest that moving the Thrashers is a bad thing. Quite the contrary.
Atlanta has now had two bites at the hockey apple and both have failed. I’ve read articles suggesting extenuating circumstances in each case but the reality is, the city for whatever reason has failed to support the team. Blame bad ownership and/or bad teams if you want. Just understand that Atlanta and its fans were given a second shot to support a team and failed to do so.
That is in stark contrast to a Penguins franchise that struggled financially due to their owner selling the team’s future down the river and a horrifically outdated arena that could not generate enough revenue to compensate. We as Penguin fans probably do not truly appreciate the magnitude of Howard Baldwin’s financial carnage in the mid 90s. It’s purely by the grace of Mario Lemieux’s deferred salary that the team survived in the Burgh.
That’s why I’m hesitant to simply dump on Bettman for the Atlanta situation. Bettman certainly has his flaws and they are readily apparent. And he will ultimately have to explain why he’s moved heaven and earth to save the Coyotes in Phoenix while showing little such zeal for Atlanta. At the same time, he was instrumental in keeping the Penguins in Pittsburgh during the ill fated Jim Balsille flirtation. He also protected Buffalo, Ottawa and even Nashville.
Unfortunately the NHL’s actions with Phoenix raised the league’s bar for franchise protection way too high. When they fail to similarly protect Atlanta, Bettman becomes an easy target for sanctimonious media beat downs (and quizzical inquiries from bloggers).
I’m guessing the league’s interest in the Coyotes has more to do with politics and other backroom deals than some altruistic desire to save hockey in Phoenix. When a series of actions make no sense, and the league’s efforts towards the Yotes clearly do not, there are usually alterior motives to which we are not privy.
I sympathize with Atlanta hockey fans; to whatever extent they exist. I’ve said for years that deep down I never expected Mario Lemieux to relocated the Penguins; that does not mean there were not moments of trepidation in the process. It would be completely hypocritical for me to endorse moving a franchise without acknowledging my steadfast opposition and fears when such a possibility existed for the Pens.
Alas the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few. And hockey fans in Atlanta seem to be few and far between. So goes for the rest of the professional teams in that town as well. In spite of being one of the largest cities in the country; Atlanta lags in attendance in all four major professional sports. The Hawks frequently play to friends and family crowds. The Braves had numerous empty seats at playoff games; during a 14 year mini dynasty. Even the Falcons do not regularly sell out.
Let’s be honest, Atlanta losing the Thrashers does not exactly rank with Cleveland losing the Browns or Baltimore losing the Colts. It’s more reminiscent of when the Houston Oilers bolted for Tennessee. Some save the Oilers group organized a rally and as memory serves about 20 people showed up.
For my money, the NHL has gone above and beyond the call of duty to protect its non traditional markets. At some point you have to accept that the plan to some degree is not working.
The issues in Atlanta and Phoenix are obvious and need no further detail in this forum. Sadly they are not unique The Florida Panthers play to embarrassingly low crowds at home and apparently average less than 5,000 fans per game watching them on television. That’s flat out abysmal; a blatant failure that the league should no longer endorse. Those resources are better used to improve struggling markets with a legitimate chance to succeed (i.e., Columbus).
There is an understandable concern that franchise movement and contraction create a bush league perception. Arena football and MLS contract teams; not the four major sports leagues. Keep in mind however that as recently as ten years ago Major League Baseball was seriously considering contraction. And once in awhile its okay for the NHL as whole to take a big hit in order to make a play. The 2005 lockout certainly proved that.
Consider that of the six most recent expansion franchises; only Anaheim has been consistently successful (with Nashville showing bits of hope). Several have been abject failures. Columbus and Atlanta have each made the playoffs just once; failing to win a game. Florida just set an NHL record for most consecutive non playoff seasons. Even Minnesota has struggled.
Enough is enough. It’s time for the league to acknowledge that it grew too fast and too far in the 1990s. Not every market can or should survive. The Thrashers moving to Winnipeg is the first step in facing this reality. It should not be the last..
Let the Yotes and the Panthers go up in smoke. The league would be better off at 28 teams and losing two disinterested markets. And if one or two franchises want to move to better places, so be it. Seattle and Kansas City are open and available in the U.S.; as is Quebec City and Hamilton (theoretically) in Canada.
Sometimes an organization must take a step backward in order to take two steps forward. The NHL is there right now. The league has had enough time to determine which of its markets are viable and which are not. Atlanta failed the test; it should not fail alone.
Appendix: my proposed 28 Team, Four Division Structure:.
Atlantic Division (East) – New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Washington.
Northeast Division (East) – Boston, Buffalo, Carolina, Columbus, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto
Central Division (West) – Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St’Louis, Winnipeg
Pacific Division (West) – Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vancouver
To wit, I simply did not think anybody in Atlanta cared enough to even notice.
I can not help but wonder if the Atlanta media is truly incredulous towards losing the Thrashers, or if blasting Gary Bettman just makes for good newspaper copy. Especially when several reader comments bemoan the scarcity of hockey related articles from the writer during say…the Obama administration.
My personal belief is that few tears will be shed for the demise of hockey in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
At the risk of trampling on Atlanta’s sports grave, I think Tuesday was a positive day for the NHL. The league is exiting a large, non traditional market that is at best apathetic and at worst could care less about its product. They are returning to a small Canadian city that lives and dies with the sport. The NHL has not made a move like this in some 30 years; since the last time Atlanta lost a hockey team to Canada. Some believe this move is an aberration. I hope it’s the start of the NHL finally coming to its senses.
I personally do not care for hockey in markets that clearly have no desire to support it. The poster children for this issue are Atlanta, Miami, and Phoenix. I differentiate markets like Carolina, Tampa, and Anaheim which I think have enough support to be successful at some level.
I also think the NHL is bloated at 30 teams. The league’s nine team expansion in the 90s, primarily to non traditional markets was reckless and over ambitious. I was against it from day one and little has changed in the last decade to sway my beliefs. I would just assume move a few clubs back to more supportive markets and I believe that contraction should very much be on the table.
I acknowledge that it is easy to make such bold proclamations with somebody else’s team. I was not so much at peace with the concepts of franchise movement and contraction in the late 1990s when the Penguins were a legitimate contender for either. As an insider, I was well aware of the depth of hockey passion in Pittsburgh that was not always reflected in the team’s attendance at that time. An outsider, especially one with a short memory might easily have scorned Pittsburgh as a failed hockey market place.
Which is not to suggest that moving the Thrashers is a bad thing. Quite the contrary.
Atlanta has now had two bites at the hockey apple and both have failed. I’ve read articles suggesting extenuating circumstances in each case but the reality is, the city for whatever reason has failed to support the team. Blame bad ownership and/or bad teams if you want. Just understand that Atlanta and its fans were given a second shot to support a team and failed to do so.
That is in stark contrast to a Penguins franchise that struggled financially due to their owner selling the team’s future down the river and a horrifically outdated arena that could not generate enough revenue to compensate. We as Penguin fans probably do not truly appreciate the magnitude of Howard Baldwin’s financial carnage in the mid 90s. It’s purely by the grace of Mario Lemieux’s deferred salary that the team survived in the Burgh.
That’s why I’m hesitant to simply dump on Bettman for the Atlanta situation. Bettman certainly has his flaws and they are readily apparent. And he will ultimately have to explain why he’s moved heaven and earth to save the Coyotes in Phoenix while showing little such zeal for Atlanta. At the same time, he was instrumental in keeping the Penguins in Pittsburgh during the ill fated Jim Balsille flirtation. He also protected Buffalo, Ottawa and even Nashville.
Unfortunately the NHL’s actions with Phoenix raised the league’s bar for franchise protection way too high. When they fail to similarly protect Atlanta, Bettman becomes an easy target for sanctimonious media beat downs (and quizzical inquiries from bloggers).
I’m guessing the league’s interest in the Coyotes has more to do with politics and other backroom deals than some altruistic desire to save hockey in Phoenix. When a series of actions make no sense, and the league’s efforts towards the Yotes clearly do not, there are usually alterior motives to which we are not privy.
I sympathize with Atlanta hockey fans; to whatever extent they exist. I’ve said for years that deep down I never expected Mario Lemieux to relocated the Penguins; that does not mean there were not moments of trepidation in the process. It would be completely hypocritical for me to endorse moving a franchise without acknowledging my steadfast opposition and fears when such a possibility existed for the Pens.
Alas the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few. And hockey fans in Atlanta seem to be few and far between. So goes for the rest of the professional teams in that town as well. In spite of being one of the largest cities in the country; Atlanta lags in attendance in all four major professional sports. The Hawks frequently play to friends and family crowds. The Braves had numerous empty seats at playoff games; during a 14 year mini dynasty. Even the Falcons do not regularly sell out.
Let’s be honest, Atlanta losing the Thrashers does not exactly rank with Cleveland losing the Browns or Baltimore losing the Colts. It’s more reminiscent of when the Houston Oilers bolted for Tennessee. Some save the Oilers group organized a rally and as memory serves about 20 people showed up.
For my money, the NHL has gone above and beyond the call of duty to protect its non traditional markets. At some point you have to accept that the plan to some degree is not working.
The issues in Atlanta and Phoenix are obvious and need no further detail in this forum. Sadly they are not unique The Florida Panthers play to embarrassingly low crowds at home and apparently average less than 5,000 fans per game watching them on television. That’s flat out abysmal; a blatant failure that the league should no longer endorse. Those resources are better used to improve struggling markets with a legitimate chance to succeed (i.e., Columbus).
There is an understandable concern that franchise movement and contraction create a bush league perception. Arena football and MLS contract teams; not the four major sports leagues. Keep in mind however that as recently as ten years ago Major League Baseball was seriously considering contraction. And once in awhile its okay for the NHL as whole to take a big hit in order to make a play. The 2005 lockout certainly proved that.
Consider that of the six most recent expansion franchises; only Anaheim has been consistently successful (with Nashville showing bits of hope). Several have been abject failures. Columbus and Atlanta have each made the playoffs just once; failing to win a game. Florida just set an NHL record for most consecutive non playoff seasons. Even Minnesota has struggled.
Enough is enough. It’s time for the league to acknowledge that it grew too fast and too far in the 1990s. Not every market can or should survive. The Thrashers moving to Winnipeg is the first step in facing this reality. It should not be the last..
Let the Yotes and the Panthers go up in smoke. The league would be better off at 28 teams and losing two disinterested markets. And if one or two franchises want to move to better places, so be it. Seattle and Kansas City are open and available in the U.S.; as is Quebec City and Hamilton (theoretically) in Canada.
Sometimes an organization must take a step backward in order to take two steps forward. The NHL is there right now. The league has had enough time to determine which of its markets are viable and which are not. Atlanta failed the test; it should not fail alone.
Appendix: my proposed 28 Team, Four Division Structure:.
Atlantic Division (East) – New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Washington.
Northeast Division (East) – Boston, Buffalo, Carolina, Columbus, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto
Central Division (West) – Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St’Louis, Winnipeg
Pacific Division (West) – Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vancouver
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