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11/30/2017

Schiano and Eli...two huge debacles

[Posted Wed. a.m.]

NFL Quiz: Name the only three to intercept 70 passes in their careers.  Answer below.

College Football...new CFP Ranking

No surprises....

1. Clemson 11-1
2. Auburn 10-2
3. Oklahoma 11-1
4. Wisconsin 12-0
5. Alabama 11-1
6. Georgia 11-1
7. Miami 10-1
8. Ohio State 10-2
9. Penn State 10-2
10. USC 10-2
11. TCU 10-2
12. Stanford 9-3
14. UCF 11-0
20. Memphis 10-1

There is no doubt that the winners of the next two are ‘In’:

Miami vs. Clemson; Auburn vs. Georgia

And we know that if Wisconsin beats Ohio State, and Oklahoma defeats TCU in their conference finals, they are also in.

So the chaos we want comes with an Ohio State and/or TCU win.  The only thing that’s important from the above ranking is that Alabama, not playing this weekend, sits in the 5-spot, so OSU and TCU would be matched up against ‘Bama in terms of the Selection Committee.

Personally, I agree with Ken P. who said a while ago that no way TCU gets in with a win over the Sooners.

But....how Ohio State or TCU pull off their upsets, should that come to pass, is hugely important.  Ohio State mauling Wisconsin, or TCU blasting OU would definitely be a factor for the committee.

Anyway, sit back and enjoy the games.  UCF and Memphis for the AAC and the Group of Five, New Year’s Six bowl bid could easily be the best of them all.  Overall, though, what a group of games we have, with everything on the line.

--The Greg Schiano Debacle

As I was going to post Sunday, the Schiano tale was unfolding.  What a black eye for Tennessee and how it was handled.

After Tennessee’s first eight-loss season in history, on Nov. 12 coach Butch Jones (34-27 over five seasons) was fired, a day after the team lost to Missouri 50-17, to finish an inexcusable 0-8 in conference play.

So Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano was tabbed Sunday, and then within hours, the move to hire him was rescinded by the school.

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer spoke out on Schiano’s behalf.

“Greg’s been a close friend for 20-plus years,” Meyer said. “He’s an elite person, elite father, elite husband, and that carries over to how he handles his players. Excellent coach, excellent person.”

The complaints stemmed from Schiano’s background as an assistant at Penn State during Jerry Sandusky’s tenure as the Nittany Lions’ defensive coordinator; Sandusky now serving 30 to 60 years in prison for his conviction on 45 counts of sexual abuse.

Tennessee athletic director John Currie issued a statement Monday acknowledging Schiano was a leading candidate for the coaching vacancy without explaining why the two sides parted ways.

Currie said Tennessee “carefully interviewed and vetted” Schiano and that the former Rutgers and NFL coach “received the highest recommendations.”

Schiano tweeted in 2016 that he never saw abuse or had any reason to suspect it while working at Penn State.  He worked for late head coach Joe Paterno from 1990 to ’95, starting as a graduate assistant and then as defensive backs coach.

Anthony Lubrano, a trustee at Penn State since 2012, said in a statement Monday that Schiano “had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal.”

“To impugn Mr. Schiano’s character based on hearsay alone is irresponsible and unfair,” Lubrano said in the statement.

“It is disappointing that University of Tennessee officials have been influenced by the voices [and keyboards] of a grossly uninformed social media mob.  Had they sought to understand the truth of the matter, and stood firm in their offer, they would have seen firsthand the benefits of hiring a man of high integrity and strong character.”

Chuck Culpepper / Washington Post

“In the ancient, sacred American tenets, there’s a handy sliding scale of morality, including categories such as ’12-0 morality’ and ‘6-6 morality,’ that can help us process kerfuffles such as that big one Sunday in Tennessee....

“Twelve-and-oh morality is a looser, more understanding morality.  If a football coach has gone 12-0 or has shown a capacity to go 12-0, that coach can help himself to a wider array of sins, actual or alleged. A dreadful personality can be translated fluidly as necessary intensity. If this morality had a credo, it might be: You get the wins now; we’ll think up the rationalizations later.

“Six-and-six morality allows for indignation and even punishment for sins....

A 6-6 coach must always behave better than a 12-0 coach....

Tennessee, which went 62-63 over the past 10 seasons but doesn’t think it should have, thought it might hire Greg Schiano, who once went 68-67 at Rutgers. Going 68-67 at Rutgers is, of course, one of the great football achievements of the past 100 years, if not one of the great achievements in the history of mankind. It just did not resonate sexiness for droves of Tennessee fans and trickles of craven Tennessee politicians who tweeted, protested and tweet-protested.

“Handily, Schiano’s name had turned up in former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary’s deposition in a 2015 civil suit about the monster Penn State case, wherein McQueary said assistant Tom Bradley described Schiano as ‘white as a ghost’ in the early 1990s because he ‘just saw Jerry [Sandusky] doing something to a boy in a shower.’  Bradley and Schiano denied this exchange or any knowledge of impropriety by Sandusky, who would reach prison in 2012 on 45 counts of various crimes related to child rape.

“When Tennessee went to hire Schiano, the defensive coordinator at Ohio State, the people responded with ample and successful toxicity – Tennessee backed off – while providing a swell glimpse at (some) time-honored tenets.

“If you viewed the prospect as a 12-0 type of coach...and you really wanted him, you could opt for the reasonable hearsay defense....

“If you viewed the prospect as a 6-6 type of coach who did not know the Southeastern Conference and had flopped in the NFL, and you really didn’t want him, you could opt for the reasonable no-Sandusky tack....

“Whichever way, the Tennessee case had a power-to-the-people element that managed to be charming, daunting and chilling. Charming: Power to the people! Daunting: Is it going to get harder and harder for universities to hire a coach? Chilling: In the art of hiring coaches, fans are uncommonly lousy....

“Maybe Tennessee should pursue Bill Belichick.

“As fans continue to overrate the importance of the moment of a hire, it’s worth remembering the long-raucous Los Angeles Times sports letters-to-the-editor page upon the hiring of that supposedly boring retread Pete Carroll in December 2000, and the spite and vitriol that hiring stoked before Carroll erected a dynasty.

“It’s also worth remembering that, in the fall of 2008, Terry Don Phillips crisscrossed the country looking for a coach who would light up his program and thrill his fans....He settled on the 39-year-old interim who had been coaching his program while he flew around, an interim who had gone a decent 4-2, an interim with no prior head-coaching experience and without even any coordinator experience.  He could pay that interim about 43 percent less than he was paying the predecessor...

“ ‘I can say this now, but I would have done this job for free,’ the newly minted coach added. Phillips “way overpaid.’

“This Dabo Swinney, a coach of extraordinary skill, reigns as the coach of the defending national champion these days, having appeared in two straight and riveting national-title games.  His Clemson program is a marvel of rarefied stability.”

Joe Drape / New York Times

“Schiano’s hiring had leaked before it was announced, and the decision was swiftly pilloried because Schiano had allegedly – and this is a whopper of an allegedly – failed to report sexual assault while an assistant coach at Penn State under Joe Paterno and alongside the convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky.

“ ‘SCHIANO COVERED UP CHILD RAPE AT PENN STATE,’ was painted on The Rock, a campus landmark and a sort of predigital town square.

Elected officials, of course, got involved on Twitter and in statements to reporters.

“ ‘The head football coach at the University of Tennessee is the highest-paid state employee,’ said Jeremy Faison, a state representative.  ‘They’re the face of our state. We don’t need a man who has that type of potential reproach in their life as the highest-paid state employee. It’s egregious to the people and it’s wrong to the taxpayers.’....

“On Monday, Anthony Lubrano, a trustee at Penn State since 2012, said in a statement that Schiano ‘had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal.’

“ ‘Any stories about his involvement are completely uncorroborated and without basis in fact,’ Lubrano said.  ‘To impugn Mr. Schiano’s character based on hearsay alone is irresponsible and unfair.’

“Tennessee’s athletic director, John Currie, too, issued a strong defense of Schiano that was strange in light of the fact Currie caved to public pressure and didn’t go through with Schiano’s hire....

“Mark Dominik, the former general manager of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, pinpointed the real reason Schiano was so objectionable to the Volunteer faithful: He hadn’t won enough.

“As head coach of the Bucs in 2012 and 2013, Schiano was 11-21.  In 11 seasons as Rutgers’ head coach, he went 68-67.  His six winning seasons at Rutgers and six bowl appearances may have passed muster at the University of New Jersey....

“But Old Rocky Top needs and wants better.”

Zach Braziller / New York Post

In a matter of hours, Schiano landed an SEC head-coaching job, had his name dragged through the mud...and lost that job....

“On Sunday evening, ESPN reported Tennessee had backed out of  a memorandum of understanding with Schiano, an unprecedented move...

“State Rep. Eddie Smith tweeted ‘a Greg Schiano hire would be anathema to all that our University and our community stand for.’ Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Faison said: ‘We don’t need a man who has that type of potential reproach in their life as the highest-paid state employee.”

“Suddenly, Tennessee athletics is the face of morality, a school that agreed to a $2.48 million settlement of a federal lawsuit after a group of women sued the university for how it handled allegations of sexual assault by its student-athletes.”

Steve Politi / NJ.com (Star-Ledger)

Eric LeGrand was telling a story he had told countless times before, about the devastating football collision that left him paralyzed and the man who helped guide him out of the unthinkable darkness.

“ ‘I know the man. I played under him. I saw the man after my injury,’ LeGrand said on Sunday night. ‘He told me when he recruited me that he treats all of his players like family.

“ ‘And after my injury....’

“He paused. LeGrand knew I had heard – and written – this story before.  Greg Schiano had become a second father to LeGrand when he was paralyzed from the shoulders down after making a tackle in 2010, driving an hour each night after practice to sit bedside during his recovery and make sure his injured player ‘had the best care in the world.’

“LeGrand wanted to call Schiano on Sunday night as the disaster unfolded in Tennessee, wanted to find something to say to lift his spirits, but he figured it was useless. The hate-filled mob had gotten to the former Rutgers coach already, taking a  snippet of courtroom testimony that amounts to nothing more than hearsay in the Jerry Sandusky case and  using it to ruin a man’s reputation and maybe his career.

“That’s the likely outcome of this Tennessee saga. What school is going to hire Schiano now after seeing the reaction in Knoxville? What athletic director is going to risk a scene like this, with fans protesting on campus, and outraged state congressmen demanding answers, and condemnation from the White House press secretary herself?

“ ‘Schiano covered up child rape at Penn State,’ somebody spray painted on a giant rock on campus. Twitter exploded with fury at anyone who even attempted to point out the facts in this case, because let’s face it, this is 2017 and those don’t matter anymore....

“Is it possible that Schiano witnessed Sandusky and a boy in a shower?  Yes. But this was absolutely not proven in a court of law, and what McQueary said amounts to nothing more than hearsay.

“People who spoke to Schiano in the weeks after that deposition was unsealed in 2016  recount a similar conversation, with Schiano insisting that, had he witnessed anything close to this, he would have put Sandusky through a wall. This fits with his personality.

“But the Tennessee mob had seized on the headline from that story, and Schiano had gone from signing a memorandum of understanding to become the Volunteers head football coach at 2 pm to a social-media punching bag before dinnertime. Tennessee, predictably, backed down....

If Schiano was a hot-shot coach headed for the national playoff, you really think those Tennessee fans are spray painting that rock?  You think Clay Travis, the backward-thinking professional blowhard in SEC country, is really tweeting out the Tennessee athletic director’s cell phone number to the mob if Schiano was head coach of a top-10 team right now?  Of course not. The sad reality is that character should be the one thing we can agree on when it comes to Schiano.  He wasn’t a perfect coach by any means, but he took the worst college football program in the country and built something Rutgers fans could take pride in, on and off the field.

“He might drive you crazy for three hours on Saturday, but in those 11 years he spent in Piscataway, he poured his life into turning that program into a family.

“ ‘He made sure I had the best of everything,’ LeGrand told me Sunday night. ‘My life was on the line. They want to take him down because of hearsay? It just shows you where the world is going.’”

--Meanwhile, as expected (after I posted), Texas A&M fired Kevin Sumlin after a 7-5 season, following three consecutive 8-5 marks. After going 11-2 in his first season, final AP ranking of 5, he ended up 51-26 at the school.

A big problem was that after an initial 6-2 record in the SEC, Sumlin went 4-4 four times and 3-5 once in conference and that’s not getting it done, especially per athletic director Scott Woodward, who added: “Kevin made us a better all-around football program and led our program with dignity and character. He’s a first-class person.”

Now, it’s rumored Sumlin is in line for the Arizona State job (Herm Edwards also reportedly interviewed for it), while A&M pursues Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher.

NFL

--The 2-9 Giants dropped a bombshell Tuesday afternoon, announcing that Eli Manning would not start, ending a 210-game regular-season streak, second-longest by a quarterback in NFL history.  Manning had started every game since Nov. 21, 2004.

The Giants offered Eli a chance to start to keep his streak going, but he declined.  Instead, Geno Smith will start, and Davis Webb is expected to play as well; giving the team time to evaluate the two heading into a crucial offseason, and with a top 3 draft pick in all probability, certainly a top 5.

Manning said when told he could continue to start while Geno and Webb are given an opportunity, “My feeling is that if you are going to play the other guys, play them. Starting just to keep the streak going and knowing you won’t finish the game and have a chance to win it is pointless to me, and it tarnishes the streak.  Like I always have, I will be ready to play if and when I am needed. I will help Geno and Davis prepare to play as well as they possibly can.”

So Eli is handling it in a classy way, while this is clearly the end of the road for him as a Giant. As of today, I think everyone would be shocked if he returned next season.

But while we all know the Giants should at least give their other QBs a look, the way it was handled Tuesday was dreadful.

Steve Serby / New York Post

For his entire football life as a Giant, his champion football life and arguably Hall of Fame football life, Eli Manning has worn No. 10 as proudly as anyone has worn blue, as proudly as Frank Gifford and Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor and Michael Strahan.

“He should now waive his no-trade clause and Escape From New York and finish out his last days in a place where he can find the happiness he deserves, because this is no longer the place, where he can play for a head coach he deserves, because Ben McAdoo is not that head coach.

“Tom Coughlin, you have Manning’s number.  Rescue him!  You need him again, and now he needs you again.

“One of the saddest sights you will ever see will be Sunday in Oakland, where Eli Manning will stand on the sidelines as the backup watching someone else – GENO SMITH – quarterback his team.

“Wellington Mara did not step in for Phil Simms when George Young and Dan Reeves made him a salary-cap casualty, and apparently John Mara will sit by idly and allow this to stand.

“And so this will be McAdoo’s legacy – the man who forced Manning to selflessly step aside and end his remarkable 210-game ironman streak.

“And his Giants career.

“Remember The Fumble?  That one happened on the field.

“This one happened inside the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.

“This is the Giants Buttfumble.

It is a sickening betrayal of a champion who has been The Pride of the Giants.”

Steve Politi / NJ.com

“The first reaction to the headline on the press release was utter confusion. ‘Geno Smith to Start at QB on Sunday,’ the subject line read, and that first thought that popped into my brain was this:

“When did the Giants trade Geno Smith?

“They did not trade him, of course, and of all the ways that the Eli Manning Era with the Giants could have ended – and, make no mistake, there is no coming back from this moment for this franchise and its quarterback – who could have possibly foreseen something like this?

“He isn’t going out because of an injury, or with a parade through lower Manhattan, or because he decided to retire when his contract ran out in two years. He isn’t even stepping aside gracefully to make way for the next franchise quarterback to take his place.

“I mean, Geno Smith?  The Giants are benching Eli Manning to start Geno #$@! Smith?! 

“This is a disgraceful way to handle a franchise great, and a moment that speaks to utter dysfunction that has swallowed this team whole.  If you wanted to make a case that Manning was part of this team’s problems and that the team needs to find his replacement, you’ll get no argument from me. I made it on Monday.

“But if you’re going to replace him with anybody, it should be rookie Davis Webb.  He at least has a shot at being part of the future of this franchise. I would joke that the Giants have become the Jets, but at least the other team in East Rutherford saw enough of Smith to say, ‘Thanks but no thanks.’

“The Giants are benching a two-time Super Bowl MVP for a quarterback who has almost twice as many turnovers (52) as touchdown passes (28) in his career, one who hasn’t started an NFL game since Nov. 1, 2015. It’s outrageous, and the Giants didn’t even have the decency to make him inactive for the game this week in Oakland. He’ll be Smith’s backup.

“ ‘This is so much bigger than Eli Manning,’ Kurt Warner, the last quarterback not named Manning to start for the Giants, said on the NFL Network.  ‘This is about an entire organization that has gone sideways.’”

I first heard the shocking news around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, driving around town, listening to WFAN’s Mike Francesa, who is leaving the station in two weeks.  It’s moments like these that Francesa shines, and the station will miss him bigly.

Francesa had been handed a notice and moments later went off.

“You’re playing guys who drop every ball in sight,” Francesa said of the Giants ramshackle receiving corps since losing Odell Beckham, Brandon Marshall and, at times, Sterling Shepard. ‘You haven’t disciplined a damn player all year. And you’re gonna blame this now on your quarterback? At 2-9? What a gutless move.”

And the elevation of Smith, of all people?

“We haven’t seen a game plan all year from this guy!’ Francesa said of McAdoo.  ‘Since he’s been the head coach the Giants have never scored 30 points EVER!  And now you’re gonna tell me that your plan is to go to Geno Smith? That’s the game plan that’s gonna beat the Raiders this week?!  You gotta be kidding me!  You can’t run this clown out of town fast enough.’

And....

“(GM) Jerry Reese’s career is built on Eli Manning! His success in those two games is the only reason that Jerry Reese has got a career here! He doesn’t have a career because of how he’s drafted here, he has a career because he won two Super Bowls, won by Eli Manning!  Without that, Jerry Reese is unemployed!  It’s built on his back!”

And....

“They knew he would not want to tarnish his streak. They told Eli, ‘You can play, but we’re going to pull you.’  What if [they’re] winning the game and [he’s] playing well?  You going to pull him?  What if you’re winning the game?  You’re going to pull him anyway? Why would you tell this guy who has been your QB since 2004, through every possible situation, has 210 games, has won 110 regular-season games, has won another eight [postseason games], has won two Super Bowls...you’re going to tell him, ‘I’m pulling you at the half no matter what’s going on?’ That’s how you’re going to treat him?

“You’re a clueless second-year coach, and that’s what you’re going to tell your quarterback? That’s what he deserves in the 12th game of a disastrous season?  He deserves that it gets dumped on him?  You have the gall to get up there and say your best chance to win is with Geno Smith or with a player who has never played before – against a quarterback who has thrown for 50,000 yards?....

“And you’re telling me that with five games left in this miserable season...after he sat here yesterday and said, ‘We’re going to work hard. I’m going to do my part. I’m going to help this team. We’re going to try to win every game we can. We care. We care about people’s jobs. We care about the reflection. We’re going to go out and play hard. Because I’m a football player and I love it.’  He told you that at 2-9, he didn’t say, ‘You know what? We have to get better coaching.’....

“He didn’t do that, even though he’s been here since 2004. And he’s been a star forever in this town. He didn’t do it to them, but they turned and did it to him.”

There is so much to this story.  Some of the critics of the move are somewhat disingenuous because everyone in this area has agreed the Giants needed to look at Davis Webb to see what they have for the future.  But Geno Smith?

And everyone knows there is a better way to handle this with Eli.  He is no longer an All-Pro, but he’s in the top half of quarterbacks in the league, with amazing durability.  He can still play, and lead a team to more wins than losses in the right situation, and there are a number of playoff bound teams who could use him now.

What hurts a lot of folks (and you know I’m not a Giants fan) is that Eli has been very loyal to the New York area. He loves it here.  [Heck, he lives about eight blocks from me...though I’ve never seen him in town.]

To be continued....

--The NFL announced two-game suspensions for Denver Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib and Oakland Raiders wide receiver Michael Crabtree.  According to ESPN.com and a website Football Zebras that researches such things, only seven times in NFL history since 1920 did players receive a multigame suspension based on an on-field incident.

[Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict is one of the seven cases, suspended three games in consecutive seasons for hits on defenseless players and a blindside block, respectively.]

--Sunday night, your “Bar Chat Pick to Click” Pittsburgh Steelers ran their record to 9-2 with a 31-28 win over the Packers (5-6); Ben Roethlisberger throwing for 351 yards and four touchdowns, while All-World receiver Antonio Brown had 10 catches for 169 yards and two scores. With 1,195 yard receiving on the season already, Brown just notched his fifth straight at over 1,000.

Brett Hundley played well in defeat for Green Bay, 17/26, 245, 3-0, 134.3.

College Basketball Review

AP Poll (Nov. 27...records thru 11/26)

1. Duke 8-0
2. Kansas 5-0
3. Michigan State 5-1
4. Villanova 6-0
5. Notre Dame 6-0....wow
6. Florida 5-1
7. Kentucky 6-1
8. Wichita State 4-1
9. Texas A&M 6-0
10. Miami 5-0
13. North Carolina 5-1
18. Virginia 6-0

*Seton Hall would be 26, if you carried out the votes. Arizona tumbled from No. 2 to 30!

Sunday, in two late games at the PK 80 Invitational, Duke beat Florida 87-84 (Marvin Bagley III with 30 points, 15 rebounds), and Michigan State whipped North Carolina 63-45, which is why the Tar Heels dropped out of the Top Ten.

--Hey, Wake Forest beat previously 6-0 Illinois on Tuesday night, 80-73, in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. That’s a positive step forward, the Deacs now 3-4 after an historically dreadful start.

--UCLA coach Steve Alford indicated Tuesday that the length of the suspension being served by his three freshmen, including LiAngelo Ball, is to be determined soon, and that he would have input in the decision by the school’s office of student conduct.  But he acknowledged he didn’t know what the timetable for a final call is.  The players are missing a seventh game when the Bruins play tonight against Cal State Bakersfield at Pauley Pavilion.

The players are barred from practice but can use the workout facilities.

NBA

--So here I just said how much I was enjoying watching the Knicks this season, but on Monday at the Garden, they truly sucked and the fans booed them loudly in a 103-91 loss to the Blazers.  As the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro said, “they deserved every serenade, every raspberry, every Bronx cheer. They were dreadful and they heard about it plenty.”

It was just last Wednesday the Knicks had a great win at home against Toronto, but then they lost Enes Kanter to back spasms, Kristaps Porzingis for a game, and they’ve looked bad the last three to slide to 10-10.

Suddenly, the Knicks are at a tipping point.  They can finish .500 and be relevant all season, or they could tumble to 35-47, especially with the looming 16 of 20 games on the road stretch I wrote of the other day.

--The Los Angeles Clippers were dealt a big blow as star forward Blake Griffin suffered a knee injury that will keep him out at least two months in Monday’s 120-115 win over the Lakers.

--The Memphis Grizzlies fired head coach David Fizdale after just 19 games, Memphis a disappointing 7-12 and with an eight-game losing streak.  But Fizdale was in just his second year, having taken the Grizzlies to the playoffs last season at 43-39.

The trigger seems to have been the benching of All-Star center Marc Gasol in the fourth quarter of a 98-88 loss to the Nets Sunday night.

Fizdale had been a successful assistant coach in Miami, winning two championships with the team led by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, so LeBron and Wade took to Twitter to question the firing.

“I need answers!!! WTF,” Wade wrote.

“I need some answers,” James reiterated in a tweet of his own.  “Feels like my man was a fall guy.”

Memphis was off to a 5-1 start, but over a week ago, star point guard Mike Conley was sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury, and Fizdale had said he wasn’t expecting him back “anytime soon.”

Gasol is clearly a key here, saying he took the benching “personally,” even though Fizdale said it was “nothing against him.”

Assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff was promoted to interim head coach on Monday.

--Speaking of LeBron, he was ejected for the first time on Tuesday night in the Cavs’ 108-97 win over Miami.  Good.

Cavs coach Tyronn Lue did not protest referee Kane Fitzgerald’s decision to toss James.

“Yup,” Lue said.  “Should have got thrown out.  Yup...”

NCAA Men’s / Women’s Soccer Championships

The men are down to the Elite Eight, games Friday and Saturday.

1 Wake Forest v. 9 Stanford...rematch of last year’s final...ugh...Wake losing on PKs

5 Akron v. 4 Louisville

3 North Carolina v. Fordham!

7 Michigan State v. 2 Indiana

Fordham is the story thus far, to say the least.  After an opening round win in a tossup against St. Francis (Brooklyn), the Rams beat 11 Virginia and 6 Duke.

As Ronald Reagan would have said of my favorite Jesuits, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’  [Some of us of a certain age remember way back in the 1960s/early 70s, watching terrific local basketball games on what turned out to be the first cable operation, Fordham vs. Manhattan, St. John’s vs. St. Peters...Niagara vs. St. Bonaventure (Calvin Murphy vs. Bob Lanier)....it’s how we developed our love of the game...]

On the women’s side, they are down to their Final Four, the semis on Friday in Orlando.

Stanford vs. South Carolina and Duke vs. UCLA

--NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Rankings (Nov. 27)

1. Denver
2. St. Cloud State
3. Clarkson
4. Notre Dame
5. Cornell
6. North Dakota
7. Minnesota
8. Minnesota State
9. Providence
10. Western Michigan
15. Boston College
17. Colgate

MLB

Things will heat up with the upcoming Winter Baseball Meetings, on both the free agent and trade front, and there remains one big central question...where is Giancarlo Stanton ending up?  Will the Marlins be forced to retain him one more year (as if this is a bad thing), even as Derek Jeter and the new ownership maintain they want to unload him, and the $295 million remaining on his contract to pare the payroll?

So Stanton gave the Marlins a list of teams he would go to, having a no-trade clause, and no surprise the Dodgers would be first choice, Stanton having grown up in Los Angeles and the Dodgers being a World Series contender for years to come it would seem.  [Kershaw, Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger, for starters.]

Miami, though, is attempting to maximize what it would get in return, aside from the other team picking up the lion’s share of the contract, in terms of prospects, for example.

Which means gaining leverage, and in this regard under Stanton’s reported list, the Marlins could pin the Dodgers against the Giants, for example, the latter very much wanting Stanton.  Or Red Sox vs. Yankees.  Or Cubs vs. Cardinals.  More next time.

Stuff

--All eyes on Tiger Woods, starting tomorrow, as he tees off in the Hero World Challenge, an 18-player event benefiting his charity.  It’s all about whether he can make it through the weekend pain free.  Fingers crossed for the guy.

--Freakin’ Tottenham lost a mid-week Premier League game Tuesday to Leicester 2-1.  In PL play they are suddenly in freefall. [Manchester United beat Watford 4-2...more games today.]

--There was a piece in Army Times on the history of pay in the military throughout American history.  For example, $13 was the monthly pay for a Union private for the bulk of the Civil War - $2 more than a Confederate private.

Back in May 1778, the Continental Congress authorized an $80 one-time bonus for enlisted troops who would stay in uniform until the end of the ongoing war with England.

And I didn’t realize that Medal of Honor recipients receive a monthly stipend, as approved by Congress in 1916 and updated a few times since. Today they receive about $1,300 a month.

And how much did it cost to build Fort Knox, completed in December 1936 to be the nation’s bullion depository?  $560,000.

--Yikes.  From the New York Times: “More than a hundred reindeer were killed in a single four-day period by freight trains rolling through Norway, prompting an outcry for the national railway to do more to protect animals.

“In all, 110 reindeer were killed when eight freight trains plowed into herds on the tracks last week,” 65 in one single accident.

It’s estimated that since 2010, 200 to 600 reindeer have been in train-related accidents each year. #ReindeerMatter #Rudolph

--Grammy nominations were released Tuesday, the Grammys being Jan. 28 at Madison Square Garden, so I’ll just cite a few categories.

Album of the Year

--“Awaken, My Love!” – Childish Gambino
--“4:44” – Jay-Z
--“Damn.” – Kendrick Lamar
--“Melodrama” – Lorde
--“24K Magic” – Bruno Mars....Go Bruno!

Country album

--“Cosmic Hallelujah” – Kenny Chesney
--“Heart Break” – Lady Antebellum
--“The Breaker” – Little Big Town
--“Life Changes” – Thomas Rhett
--“From a Room: Volume 1” – Chris Stapleton

Country solo performance

--“Body Like a Back Road” – Sam Hunt...terrific tune
--“Losing You” – Alison Krauss
--“Tin Man” – Miranda Lambert
--“I Could Use a Love Song” – Maren Morris...awesome
--“Either Way” – Chris Stapleton

Top 3 songs for the week 11/30/63:  #1 “I’m Leaving It Up To You” (Dale & Grace)  #2 “Dominique” (The Singing Nun) #3 “Washington Square” (The Village Stompers)...and...#4 Sugar Shack” (Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs)  #5 “It’s All Right” (The Impressions)  #6 “She’s A Fool” (Lesley Gore...immensely underrated artist...)  #7 “Everybody” (Tommy Roe)  #8 “Deep Purple” (Nino Tempo & April Stevens)  #9 “(Down At) Papa Joe’s” (The Dixiebelles)  #10 “Bossa Nova Baby” (Elvis Presley...yes, rock and roll was just casually going about its business...few knew what was about to hit them in less than ten weeks’ time... “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!!!”)

NFL Quiz Answer: Three with 70 career interceptions.

Paul Krause, 81 (1964-79)
Emlen Tunnel, 79 (1948-61)
Rod Woodson, 71 (1987-2003)

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

 



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Bar Chat

11/30/2017

Schiano and Eli...two huge debacles

[Posted Wed. a.m.]

NFL Quiz: Name the only three to intercept 70 passes in their careers.  Answer below.

College Football...new CFP Ranking

No surprises....

1. Clemson 11-1
2. Auburn 10-2
3. Oklahoma 11-1
4. Wisconsin 12-0
5. Alabama 11-1
6. Georgia 11-1
7. Miami 10-1
8. Ohio State 10-2
9. Penn State 10-2
10. USC 10-2
11. TCU 10-2
12. Stanford 9-3
14. UCF 11-0
20. Memphis 10-1

There is no doubt that the winners of the next two are ‘In’:

Miami vs. Clemson; Auburn vs. Georgia

And we know that if Wisconsin beats Ohio State, and Oklahoma defeats TCU in their conference finals, they are also in.

So the chaos we want comes with an Ohio State and/or TCU win.  The only thing that’s important from the above ranking is that Alabama, not playing this weekend, sits in the 5-spot, so OSU and TCU would be matched up against ‘Bama in terms of the Selection Committee.

Personally, I agree with Ken P. who said a while ago that no way TCU gets in with a win over the Sooners.

But....how Ohio State or TCU pull off their upsets, should that come to pass, is hugely important.  Ohio State mauling Wisconsin, or TCU blasting OU would definitely be a factor for the committee.

Anyway, sit back and enjoy the games.  UCF and Memphis for the AAC and the Group of Five, New Year’s Six bowl bid could easily be the best of them all.  Overall, though, what a group of games we have, with everything on the line.

--The Greg Schiano Debacle

As I was going to post Sunday, the Schiano tale was unfolding.  What a black eye for Tennessee and how it was handled.

After Tennessee’s first eight-loss season in history, on Nov. 12 coach Butch Jones (34-27 over five seasons) was fired, a day after the team lost to Missouri 50-17, to finish an inexcusable 0-8 in conference play.

So Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano was tabbed Sunday, and then within hours, the move to hire him was rescinded by the school.

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer spoke out on Schiano’s behalf.

“Greg’s been a close friend for 20-plus years,” Meyer said. “He’s an elite person, elite father, elite husband, and that carries over to how he handles his players. Excellent coach, excellent person.”

The complaints stemmed from Schiano’s background as an assistant at Penn State during Jerry Sandusky’s tenure as the Nittany Lions’ defensive coordinator; Sandusky now serving 30 to 60 years in prison for his conviction on 45 counts of sexual abuse.

Tennessee athletic director John Currie issued a statement Monday acknowledging Schiano was a leading candidate for the coaching vacancy without explaining why the two sides parted ways.

Currie said Tennessee “carefully interviewed and vetted” Schiano and that the former Rutgers and NFL coach “received the highest recommendations.”

Schiano tweeted in 2016 that he never saw abuse or had any reason to suspect it while working at Penn State.  He worked for late head coach Joe Paterno from 1990 to ’95, starting as a graduate assistant and then as defensive backs coach.

Anthony Lubrano, a trustee at Penn State since 2012, said in a statement Monday that Schiano “had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal.”

“To impugn Mr. Schiano’s character based on hearsay alone is irresponsible and unfair,” Lubrano said in the statement.

“It is disappointing that University of Tennessee officials have been influenced by the voices [and keyboards] of a grossly uninformed social media mob.  Had they sought to understand the truth of the matter, and stood firm in their offer, they would have seen firsthand the benefits of hiring a man of high integrity and strong character.”

Chuck Culpepper / Washington Post

“In the ancient, sacred American tenets, there’s a handy sliding scale of morality, including categories such as ’12-0 morality’ and ‘6-6 morality,’ that can help us process kerfuffles such as that big one Sunday in Tennessee....

“Twelve-and-oh morality is a looser, more understanding morality.  If a football coach has gone 12-0 or has shown a capacity to go 12-0, that coach can help himself to a wider array of sins, actual or alleged. A dreadful personality can be translated fluidly as necessary intensity. If this morality had a credo, it might be: You get the wins now; we’ll think up the rationalizations later.

“Six-and-six morality allows for indignation and even punishment for sins....

A 6-6 coach must always behave better than a 12-0 coach....

Tennessee, which went 62-63 over the past 10 seasons but doesn’t think it should have, thought it might hire Greg Schiano, who once went 68-67 at Rutgers. Going 68-67 at Rutgers is, of course, one of the great football achievements of the past 100 years, if not one of the great achievements in the history of mankind. It just did not resonate sexiness for droves of Tennessee fans and trickles of craven Tennessee politicians who tweeted, protested and tweet-protested.

“Handily, Schiano’s name had turned up in former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary’s deposition in a 2015 civil suit about the monster Penn State case, wherein McQueary said assistant Tom Bradley described Schiano as ‘white as a ghost’ in the early 1990s because he ‘just saw Jerry [Sandusky] doing something to a boy in a shower.’  Bradley and Schiano denied this exchange or any knowledge of impropriety by Sandusky, who would reach prison in 2012 on 45 counts of various crimes related to child rape.

“When Tennessee went to hire Schiano, the defensive coordinator at Ohio State, the people responded with ample and successful toxicity – Tennessee backed off – while providing a swell glimpse at (some) time-honored tenets.

“If you viewed the prospect as a 12-0 type of coach...and you really wanted him, you could opt for the reasonable hearsay defense....

“If you viewed the prospect as a 6-6 type of coach who did not know the Southeastern Conference and had flopped in the NFL, and you really didn’t want him, you could opt for the reasonable no-Sandusky tack....

“Whichever way, the Tennessee case had a power-to-the-people element that managed to be charming, daunting and chilling. Charming: Power to the people! Daunting: Is it going to get harder and harder for universities to hire a coach? Chilling: In the art of hiring coaches, fans are uncommonly lousy....

“Maybe Tennessee should pursue Bill Belichick.

“As fans continue to overrate the importance of the moment of a hire, it’s worth remembering the long-raucous Los Angeles Times sports letters-to-the-editor page upon the hiring of that supposedly boring retread Pete Carroll in December 2000, and the spite and vitriol that hiring stoked before Carroll erected a dynasty.

“It’s also worth remembering that, in the fall of 2008, Terry Don Phillips crisscrossed the country looking for a coach who would light up his program and thrill his fans....He settled on the 39-year-old interim who had been coaching his program while he flew around, an interim who had gone a decent 4-2, an interim with no prior head-coaching experience and without even any coordinator experience.  He could pay that interim about 43 percent less than he was paying the predecessor...

“ ‘I can say this now, but I would have done this job for free,’ the newly minted coach added. Phillips “way overpaid.’

“This Dabo Swinney, a coach of extraordinary skill, reigns as the coach of the defending national champion these days, having appeared in two straight and riveting national-title games.  His Clemson program is a marvel of rarefied stability.”

Joe Drape / New York Times

“Schiano’s hiring had leaked before it was announced, and the decision was swiftly pilloried because Schiano had allegedly – and this is a whopper of an allegedly – failed to report sexual assault while an assistant coach at Penn State under Joe Paterno and alongside the convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky.

“ ‘SCHIANO COVERED UP CHILD RAPE AT PENN STATE,’ was painted on The Rock, a campus landmark and a sort of predigital town square.

Elected officials, of course, got involved on Twitter and in statements to reporters.

“ ‘The head football coach at the University of Tennessee is the highest-paid state employee,’ said Jeremy Faison, a state representative.  ‘They’re the face of our state. We don’t need a man who has that type of potential reproach in their life as the highest-paid state employee. It’s egregious to the people and it’s wrong to the taxpayers.’....

“On Monday, Anthony Lubrano, a trustee at Penn State since 2012, said in a statement that Schiano ‘had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal.’

“ ‘Any stories about his involvement are completely uncorroborated and without basis in fact,’ Lubrano said.  ‘To impugn Mr. Schiano’s character based on hearsay alone is irresponsible and unfair.’

“Tennessee’s athletic director, John Currie, too, issued a strong defense of Schiano that was strange in light of the fact Currie caved to public pressure and didn’t go through with Schiano’s hire....

“Mark Dominik, the former general manager of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, pinpointed the real reason Schiano was so objectionable to the Volunteer faithful: He hadn’t won enough.

“As head coach of the Bucs in 2012 and 2013, Schiano was 11-21.  In 11 seasons as Rutgers’ head coach, he went 68-67.  His six winning seasons at Rutgers and six bowl appearances may have passed muster at the University of New Jersey....

“But Old Rocky Top needs and wants better.”

Zach Braziller / New York Post

In a matter of hours, Schiano landed an SEC head-coaching job, had his name dragged through the mud...and lost that job....

“On Sunday evening, ESPN reported Tennessee had backed out of  a memorandum of understanding with Schiano, an unprecedented move...

“State Rep. Eddie Smith tweeted ‘a Greg Schiano hire would be anathema to all that our University and our community stand for.’ Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Faison said: ‘We don’t need a man who has that type of potential reproach in their life as the highest-paid state employee.”

“Suddenly, Tennessee athletics is the face of morality, a school that agreed to a $2.48 million settlement of a federal lawsuit after a group of women sued the university for how it handled allegations of sexual assault by its student-athletes.”

Steve Politi / NJ.com (Star-Ledger)

Eric LeGrand was telling a story he had told countless times before, about the devastating football collision that left him paralyzed and the man who helped guide him out of the unthinkable darkness.

“ ‘I know the man. I played under him. I saw the man after my injury,’ LeGrand said on Sunday night. ‘He told me when he recruited me that he treats all of his players like family.

“ ‘And after my injury....’

“He paused. LeGrand knew I had heard – and written – this story before.  Greg Schiano had become a second father to LeGrand when he was paralyzed from the shoulders down after making a tackle in 2010, driving an hour each night after practice to sit bedside during his recovery and make sure his injured player ‘had the best care in the world.’

“LeGrand wanted to call Schiano on Sunday night as the disaster unfolded in Tennessee, wanted to find something to say to lift his spirits, but he figured it was useless. The hate-filled mob had gotten to the former Rutgers coach already, taking a  snippet of courtroom testimony that amounts to nothing more than hearsay in the Jerry Sandusky case and  using it to ruin a man’s reputation and maybe his career.

“That’s the likely outcome of this Tennessee saga. What school is going to hire Schiano now after seeing the reaction in Knoxville? What athletic director is going to risk a scene like this, with fans protesting on campus, and outraged state congressmen demanding answers, and condemnation from the White House press secretary herself?

“ ‘Schiano covered up child rape at Penn State,’ somebody spray painted on a giant rock on campus. Twitter exploded with fury at anyone who even attempted to point out the facts in this case, because let’s face it, this is 2017 and those don’t matter anymore....

“Is it possible that Schiano witnessed Sandusky and a boy in a shower?  Yes. But this was absolutely not proven in a court of law, and what McQueary said amounts to nothing more than hearsay.

“People who spoke to Schiano in the weeks after that deposition was unsealed in 2016  recount a similar conversation, with Schiano insisting that, had he witnessed anything close to this, he would have put Sandusky through a wall. This fits with his personality.

“But the Tennessee mob had seized on the headline from that story, and Schiano had gone from signing a memorandum of understanding to become the Volunteers head football coach at 2 pm to a social-media punching bag before dinnertime. Tennessee, predictably, backed down....

If Schiano was a hot-shot coach headed for the national playoff, you really think those Tennessee fans are spray painting that rock?  You think Clay Travis, the backward-thinking professional blowhard in SEC country, is really tweeting out the Tennessee athletic director’s cell phone number to the mob if Schiano was head coach of a top-10 team right now?  Of course not. The sad reality is that character should be the one thing we can agree on when it comes to Schiano.  He wasn’t a perfect coach by any means, but he took the worst college football program in the country and built something Rutgers fans could take pride in, on and off the field.

“He might drive you crazy for three hours on Saturday, but in those 11 years he spent in Piscataway, he poured his life into turning that program into a family.

“ ‘He made sure I had the best of everything,’ LeGrand told me Sunday night. ‘My life was on the line. They want to take him down because of hearsay? It just shows you where the world is going.’”

--Meanwhile, as expected (after I posted), Texas A&M fired Kevin Sumlin after a 7-5 season, following three consecutive 8-5 marks. After going 11-2 in his first season, final AP ranking of 5, he ended up 51-26 at the school.

A big problem was that after an initial 6-2 record in the SEC, Sumlin went 4-4 four times and 3-5 once in conference and that’s not getting it done, especially per athletic director Scott Woodward, who added: “Kevin made us a better all-around football program and led our program with dignity and character. He’s a first-class person.”

Now, it’s rumored Sumlin is in line for the Arizona State job (Herm Edwards also reportedly interviewed for it), while A&M pursues Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher.

NFL

--The 2-9 Giants dropped a bombshell Tuesday afternoon, announcing that Eli Manning would not start, ending a 210-game regular-season streak, second-longest by a quarterback in NFL history.  Manning had started every game since Nov. 21, 2004.

The Giants offered Eli a chance to start to keep his streak going, but he declined.  Instead, Geno Smith will start, and Davis Webb is expected to play as well; giving the team time to evaluate the two heading into a crucial offseason, and with a top 3 draft pick in all probability, certainly a top 5.

Manning said when told he could continue to start while Geno and Webb are given an opportunity, “My feeling is that if you are going to play the other guys, play them. Starting just to keep the streak going and knowing you won’t finish the game and have a chance to win it is pointless to me, and it tarnishes the streak.  Like I always have, I will be ready to play if and when I am needed. I will help Geno and Davis prepare to play as well as they possibly can.”

So Eli is handling it in a classy way, while this is clearly the end of the road for him as a Giant. As of today, I think everyone would be shocked if he returned next season.

But while we all know the Giants should at least give their other QBs a look, the way it was handled Tuesday was dreadful.

Steve Serby / New York Post

For his entire football life as a Giant, his champion football life and arguably Hall of Fame football life, Eli Manning has worn No. 10 as proudly as anyone has worn blue, as proudly as Frank Gifford and Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor and Michael Strahan.

“He should now waive his no-trade clause and Escape From New York and finish out his last days in a place where he can find the happiness he deserves, because this is no longer the place, where he can play for a head coach he deserves, because Ben McAdoo is not that head coach.

“Tom Coughlin, you have Manning’s number.  Rescue him!  You need him again, and now he needs you again.

“One of the saddest sights you will ever see will be Sunday in Oakland, where Eli Manning will stand on the sidelines as the backup watching someone else – GENO SMITH – quarterback his team.

“Wellington Mara did not step in for Phil Simms when George Young and Dan Reeves made him a salary-cap casualty, and apparently John Mara will sit by idly and allow this to stand.

“And so this will be McAdoo’s legacy – the man who forced Manning to selflessly step aside and end his remarkable 210-game ironman streak.

“And his Giants career.

“Remember The Fumble?  That one happened on the field.

“This one happened inside the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.

“This is the Giants Buttfumble.

It is a sickening betrayal of a champion who has been The Pride of the Giants.”

Steve Politi / NJ.com

“The first reaction to the headline on the press release was utter confusion. ‘Geno Smith to Start at QB on Sunday,’ the subject line read, and that first thought that popped into my brain was this:

“When did the Giants trade Geno Smith?

“They did not trade him, of course, and of all the ways that the Eli Manning Era with the Giants could have ended – and, make no mistake, there is no coming back from this moment for this franchise and its quarterback – who could have possibly foreseen something like this?

“He isn’t going out because of an injury, or with a parade through lower Manhattan, or because he decided to retire when his contract ran out in two years. He isn’t even stepping aside gracefully to make way for the next franchise quarterback to take his place.

“I mean, Geno Smith?  The Giants are benching Eli Manning to start Geno #$@! Smith?! 

“This is a disgraceful way to handle a franchise great, and a moment that speaks to utter dysfunction that has swallowed this team whole.  If you wanted to make a case that Manning was part of this team’s problems and that the team needs to find his replacement, you’ll get no argument from me. I made it on Monday.

“But if you’re going to replace him with anybody, it should be rookie Davis Webb.  He at least has a shot at being part of the future of this franchise. I would joke that the Giants have become the Jets, but at least the other team in East Rutherford saw enough of Smith to say, ‘Thanks but no thanks.’

“The Giants are benching a two-time Super Bowl MVP for a quarterback who has almost twice as many turnovers (52) as touchdown passes (28) in his career, one who hasn’t started an NFL game since Nov. 1, 2015. It’s outrageous, and the Giants didn’t even have the decency to make him inactive for the game this week in Oakland. He’ll be Smith’s backup.

“ ‘This is so much bigger than Eli Manning,’ Kurt Warner, the last quarterback not named Manning to start for the Giants, said on the NFL Network.  ‘This is about an entire organization that has gone sideways.’”

I first heard the shocking news around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, driving around town, listening to WFAN’s Mike Francesa, who is leaving the station in two weeks.  It’s moments like these that Francesa shines, and the station will miss him bigly.

Francesa had been handed a notice and moments later went off.

“You’re playing guys who drop every ball in sight,” Francesa said of the Giants ramshackle receiving corps since losing Odell Beckham, Brandon Marshall and, at times, Sterling Shepard. ‘You haven’t disciplined a damn player all year. And you’re gonna blame this now on your quarterback? At 2-9? What a gutless move.”

And the elevation of Smith, of all people?

“We haven’t seen a game plan all year from this guy!’ Francesa said of McAdoo.  ‘Since he’s been the head coach the Giants have never scored 30 points EVER!  And now you’re gonna tell me that your plan is to go to Geno Smith? That’s the game plan that’s gonna beat the Raiders this week?!  You gotta be kidding me!  You can’t run this clown out of town fast enough.’

And....

“(GM) Jerry Reese’s career is built on Eli Manning! His success in those two games is the only reason that Jerry Reese has got a career here! He doesn’t have a career because of how he’s drafted here, he has a career because he won two Super Bowls, won by Eli Manning!  Without that, Jerry Reese is unemployed!  It’s built on his back!”

And....

“They knew he would not want to tarnish his streak. They told Eli, ‘You can play, but we’re going to pull you.’  What if [they’re] winning the game and [he’s] playing well?  You going to pull him?  What if you’re winning the game?  You’re going to pull him anyway? Why would you tell this guy who has been your QB since 2004, through every possible situation, has 210 games, has won 110 regular-season games, has won another eight [postseason games], has won two Super Bowls...you’re going to tell him, ‘I’m pulling you at the half no matter what’s going on?’ That’s how you’re going to treat him?

“You’re a clueless second-year coach, and that’s what you’re going to tell your quarterback? That’s what he deserves in the 12th game of a disastrous season?  He deserves that it gets dumped on him?  You have the gall to get up there and say your best chance to win is with Geno Smith or with a player who has never played before – against a quarterback who has thrown for 50,000 yards?....

“And you’re telling me that with five games left in this miserable season...after he sat here yesterday and said, ‘We’re going to work hard. I’m going to do my part. I’m going to help this team. We’re going to try to win every game we can. We care. We care about people’s jobs. We care about the reflection. We’re going to go out and play hard. Because I’m a football player and I love it.’  He told you that at 2-9, he didn’t say, ‘You know what? We have to get better coaching.’....

“He didn’t do that, even though he’s been here since 2004. And he’s been a star forever in this town. He didn’t do it to them, but they turned and did it to him.”

There is so much to this story.  Some of the critics of the move are somewhat disingenuous because everyone in this area has agreed the Giants needed to look at Davis Webb to see what they have for the future.  But Geno Smith?

And everyone knows there is a better way to handle this with Eli.  He is no longer an All-Pro, but he’s in the top half of quarterbacks in the league, with amazing durability.  He can still play, and lead a team to more wins than losses in the right situation, and there are a number of playoff bound teams who could use him now.

What hurts a lot of folks (and you know I’m not a Giants fan) is that Eli has been very loyal to the New York area. He loves it here.  [Heck, he lives about eight blocks from me...though I’ve never seen him in town.]

To be continued....

--The NFL announced two-game suspensions for Denver Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib and Oakland Raiders wide receiver Michael Crabtree.  According to ESPN.com and a website Football Zebras that researches such things, only seven times in NFL history since 1920 did players receive a multigame suspension based on an on-field incident.

[Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict is one of the seven cases, suspended three games in consecutive seasons for hits on defenseless players and a blindside block, respectively.]

--Sunday night, your “Bar Chat Pick to Click” Pittsburgh Steelers ran their record to 9-2 with a 31-28 win over the Packers (5-6); Ben Roethlisberger throwing for 351 yards and four touchdowns, while All-World receiver Antonio Brown had 10 catches for 169 yards and two scores. With 1,195 yard receiving on the season already, Brown just notched his fifth straight at over 1,000.

Brett Hundley played well in defeat for Green Bay, 17/26, 245, 3-0, 134.3.

College Basketball Review

AP Poll (Nov. 27...records thru 11/26)

1. Duke 8-0
2. Kansas 5-0
3. Michigan State 5-1
4. Villanova 6-0
5. Notre Dame 6-0....wow
6. Florida 5-1
7. Kentucky 6-1
8. Wichita State 4-1
9. Texas A&M 6-0
10. Miami 5-0
13. North Carolina 5-1
18. Virginia 6-0

*Seton Hall would be 26, if you carried out the votes. Arizona tumbled from No. 2 to 30!

Sunday, in two late games at the PK 80 Invitational, Duke beat Florida 87-84 (Marvin Bagley III with 30 points, 15 rebounds), and Michigan State whipped North Carolina 63-45, which is why the Tar Heels dropped out of the Top Ten.

--Hey, Wake Forest beat previously 6-0 Illinois on Tuesday night, 80-73, in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. That’s a positive step forward, the Deacs now 3-4 after an historically dreadful start.

--UCLA coach Steve Alford indicated Tuesday that the length of the suspension being served by his three freshmen, including LiAngelo Ball, is to be determined soon, and that he would have input in the decision by the school’s office of student conduct.  But he acknowledged he didn’t know what the timetable for a final call is.  The players are missing a seventh game when the Bruins play tonight against Cal State Bakersfield at Pauley Pavilion.

The players are barred from practice but can use the workout facilities.

NBA

--So here I just said how much I was enjoying watching the Knicks this season, but on Monday at the Garden, they truly sucked and the fans booed them loudly in a 103-91 loss to the Blazers.  As the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro said, “they deserved every serenade, every raspberry, every Bronx cheer. They were dreadful and they heard about it plenty.”

It was just last Wednesday the Knicks had a great win at home against Toronto, but then they lost Enes Kanter to back spasms, Kristaps Porzingis for a game, and they’ve looked bad the last three to slide to 10-10.

Suddenly, the Knicks are at a tipping point.  They can finish .500 and be relevant all season, or they could tumble to 35-47, especially with the looming 16 of 20 games on the road stretch I wrote of the other day.

--The Los Angeles Clippers were dealt a big blow as star forward Blake Griffin suffered a knee injury that will keep him out at least two months in Monday’s 120-115 win over the Lakers.

--The Memphis Grizzlies fired head coach David Fizdale after just 19 games, Memphis a disappointing 7-12 and with an eight-game losing streak.  But Fizdale was in just his second year, having taken the Grizzlies to the playoffs last season at 43-39.

The trigger seems to have been the benching of All-Star center Marc Gasol in the fourth quarter of a 98-88 loss to the Nets Sunday night.

Fizdale had been a successful assistant coach in Miami, winning two championships with the team led by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, so LeBron and Wade took to Twitter to question the firing.

“I need answers!!! WTF,” Wade wrote.

“I need some answers,” James reiterated in a tweet of his own.  “Feels like my man was a fall guy.”

Memphis was off to a 5-1 start, but over a week ago, star point guard Mike Conley was sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury, and Fizdale had said he wasn’t expecting him back “anytime soon.”

Gasol is clearly a key here, saying he took the benching “personally,” even though Fizdale said it was “nothing against him.”

Assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff was promoted to interim head coach on Monday.

--Speaking of LeBron, he was ejected for the first time on Tuesday night in the Cavs’ 108-97 win over Miami.  Good.

Cavs coach Tyronn Lue did not protest referee Kane Fitzgerald’s decision to toss James.

“Yup,” Lue said.  “Should have got thrown out.  Yup...”

NCAA Men’s / Women’s Soccer Championships

The men are down to the Elite Eight, games Friday and Saturday.

1 Wake Forest v. 9 Stanford...rematch of last year’s final...ugh...Wake losing on PKs

5 Akron v. 4 Louisville

3 North Carolina v. Fordham!

7 Michigan State v. 2 Indiana

Fordham is the story thus far, to say the least.  After an opening round win in a tossup against St. Francis (Brooklyn), the Rams beat 11 Virginia and 6 Duke.

As Ronald Reagan would have said of my favorite Jesuits, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’  [Some of us of a certain age remember way back in the 1960s/early 70s, watching terrific local basketball games on what turned out to be the first cable operation, Fordham vs. Manhattan, St. John’s vs. St. Peters...Niagara vs. St. Bonaventure (Calvin Murphy vs. Bob Lanier)....it’s how we developed our love of the game...]

On the women’s side, they are down to their Final Four, the semis on Friday in Orlando.

Stanford vs. South Carolina and Duke vs. UCLA

--NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Rankings (Nov. 27)

1. Denver
2. St. Cloud State
3. Clarkson
4. Notre Dame
5. Cornell
6. North Dakota
7. Minnesota
8. Minnesota State
9. Providence
10. Western Michigan
15. Boston College
17. Colgate

MLB

Things will heat up with the upcoming Winter Baseball Meetings, on both the free agent and trade front, and there remains one big central question...where is Giancarlo Stanton ending up?  Will the Marlins be forced to retain him one more year (as if this is a bad thing), even as Derek Jeter and the new ownership maintain they want to unload him, and the $295 million remaining on his contract to pare the payroll?

So Stanton gave the Marlins a list of teams he would go to, having a no-trade clause, and no surprise the Dodgers would be first choice, Stanton having grown up in Los Angeles and the Dodgers being a World Series contender for years to come it would seem.  [Kershaw, Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger, for starters.]

Miami, though, is attempting to maximize what it would get in return, aside from the other team picking up the lion’s share of the contract, in terms of prospects, for example.

Which means gaining leverage, and in this regard under Stanton’s reported list, the Marlins could pin the Dodgers against the Giants, for example, the latter very much wanting Stanton.  Or Red Sox vs. Yankees.  Or Cubs vs. Cardinals.  More next time.

Stuff

--All eyes on Tiger Woods, starting tomorrow, as he tees off in the Hero World Challenge, an 18-player event benefiting his charity.  It’s all about whether he can make it through the weekend pain free.  Fingers crossed for the guy.

--Freakin’ Tottenham lost a mid-week Premier League game Tuesday to Leicester 2-1.  In PL play they are suddenly in freefall. [Manchester United beat Watford 4-2...more games today.]

--There was a piece in Army Times on the history of pay in the military throughout American history.  For example, $13 was the monthly pay for a Union private for the bulk of the Civil War - $2 more than a Confederate private.

Back in May 1778, the Continental Congress authorized an $80 one-time bonus for enlisted troops who would stay in uniform until the end of the ongoing war with England.

And I didn’t realize that Medal of Honor recipients receive a monthly stipend, as approved by Congress in 1916 and updated a few times since. Today they receive about $1,300 a month.

And how much did it cost to build Fort Knox, completed in December 1936 to be the nation’s bullion depository?  $560,000.

--Yikes.  From the New York Times: “More than a hundred reindeer were killed in a single four-day period by freight trains rolling through Norway, prompting an outcry for the national railway to do more to protect animals.

“In all, 110 reindeer were killed when eight freight trains plowed into herds on the tracks last week,” 65 in one single accident.

It’s estimated that since 2010, 200 to 600 reindeer have been in train-related accidents each year. #ReindeerMatter #Rudolph

--Grammy nominations were released Tuesday, the Grammys being Jan. 28 at Madison Square Garden, so I’ll just cite a few categories.

Album of the Year

--“Awaken, My Love!” – Childish Gambino
--“4:44” – Jay-Z
--“Damn.” – Kendrick Lamar
--“Melodrama” – Lorde
--“24K Magic” – Bruno Mars....Go Bruno!

Country album

--“Cosmic Hallelujah” – Kenny Chesney
--“Heart Break” – Lady Antebellum
--“The Breaker” – Little Big Town
--“Life Changes” – Thomas Rhett
--“From a Room: Volume 1” – Chris Stapleton

Country solo performance

--“Body Like a Back Road” – Sam Hunt...terrific tune
--“Losing You” – Alison Krauss
--“Tin Man” – Miranda Lambert
--“I Could Use a Love Song” – Maren Morris...awesome
--“Either Way” – Chris Stapleton

Top 3 songs for the week 11/30/63:  #1 “I’m Leaving It Up To You” (Dale & Grace)  #2 “Dominique” (The Singing Nun) #3 “Washington Square” (The Village Stompers)...and...#4 Sugar Shack” (Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs)  #5 “It’s All Right” (The Impressions)  #6 “She’s A Fool” (Lesley Gore...immensely underrated artist...)  #7 “Everybody” (Tommy Roe)  #8 “Deep Purple” (Nino Tempo & April Stevens)  #9 “(Down At) Papa Joe’s” (The Dixiebelles)  #10 “Bossa Nova Baby” (Elvis Presley...yes, rock and roll was just casually going about its business...few knew what was about to hit them in less than ten weeks’ time... “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!!!”)

NFL Quiz Answer: Three with 70 career interceptions.

Paul Krause, 81 (1964-79)
Emlen Tunnel, 79 (1948-61)
Rod Woodson, 71 (1987-2003)

Next Bar Chat, Monday.