Note: I said I’d put something together…so this comes to you at noon ET, New Year’s Day.
Playoff Weather Update
Sat. 4:35 pm ET…Kansas City at Indianapolis…indoors…blows
Sat. 8:10 pm ET…New Orleans at Philadelphia…32 degrees, no precip…drat!
Sun. 1:05 pm ET…San Diego at Cincinnati…41, rain/snow…I told you this forecast would deteriorate.
Sun. 4:40 pm ET…San Francisco at Green Bay…9, but partly cloudy….we need some flurries.
Black Monday in the NFL coaching profession started Sunday night when the Cleveland Browns fired Rob Chudzinski after just one year. The Browns, 4-12 this season, have been 4-12 or 5-11 each of the last six…the very definition of suckdom.
As for Shanahan, what a soap opera in Washington going back to the Robert Griffin III debacle in the playoffs last year, the only postseason game in Shanahan’s four years as he went 24-40.
“As Mike Shanahan exits, as the team he trashed ends its worst season in 52 years, a question remains: Can you kill the Deadskins?
“Washington’s National Football League ghouls have been mostly irrelevant, with the league’s sixth-worst record over the last 22 years. They just finished a 3-13 season, tying their worst record since 1961 and getting outscored by 144 points, their worst margin since that year. Is there no penalty?
“Can this farcical franchise continue to rule Washington no matter how bad it is, no matter how much of an embarrassment it is to the city and its fans? If this tacky tabloid year doesn’t start a process of modest disengagement, of fan grieving, what would it take?
“What Washington has endured for 14-plus years of the Daniel Snyder era is a morbid laboratory experiment in mass alienation of football affection.
“It’s a cruel, interminable process but – eventually, in every city, in every sport and in every era – it has its effect. In the end, the bad owner breaks a piece of his city’s heart. It’s never fatal. Not even close. Some new enthusiasm replaces the old. But it hurts….
“Even amid the national mockery of the Snyder period, the last month of Shanahan’s four years as coach holds a unique place. Some other D.C. pro coach may have damaged his reputation more in his leaving and done as much to harm his team as he departed. No, that’s wrong. Shanahan wins.
“He arrived with a reputation for being slick and nasty when things went bad. Now we know what that’s like. Ever since the team’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 7, the first of a season-ending eight-game losing streak, it’s been every Shanahan for himself. You can’t prove he tried to make the Redskins’ life so hot, in a burning house that he may have helped set ablaze, that he and son Kyle Shanahan would both get fired and both get paid – $7 million to one and $1.5 million to the other. But one Washington sports executive said, ‘For two months he’s used the whole fire-me playbook.’…
“At least the Shanahans didn’t throw confetti as they left.
Meanwhile, don’t feel too sorry for Chudzinski as he is still owed $10.5 million.
Regarding Schiano, he started off 6-4 last season, but then lost 17 of his next 22; 11-21 in two seasons. As former coach Jim Fassel said on WFAN Monday, Schiano isn’t made for today’s players.
For his part, Schwartz had four losing seasons in five at Detroit, including a blown season this year after a 6-3 start. Overall he went 29-51 and reached the postseason in 2011.
And regarding the Vikings’ Leslie Frazier, he finished 21-33-1 in three-plus seasons, including 10-6 in 2012, but the team was 5-10-1 this season as the defense gave up 480 points, the most in football.
–For the Giants, Tom Coughlin is coming back. Co-owner John Mara said after the team finished 7-9, “We’re not going to make sweeping changes. Stability is important. It’s one of the reasons we’ve had some success here.”
But the Giants have now missed the playoffs four of the past five years and they were outscored by 89 points this season after losing their first six. I’d say some changes have to be made and it is expected offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride will be let go.
As for the 67-year-old Coughlin, next season would be his 11th. He’s 90-70 with two Super Bowl titles.
–Meanwhile as for the other team occupying MetLife Stadium and its coaching situation, the Jets’ Rex Ryan will reportedly be granted a one-year extension beyond his current deal that runs through 2014.
–I’m really shocked how well Chip Kelly handled his first season at Philadelphia, especially after the 1-3 and 3-5 start. 4-12 to 10-6 is pretty good. He was a mystery man at Oregon. Not one to seek the spotlight. But clearly he knows how to his motivate players and Kelly obviously handled the whole Riley Cooper situation masterfully.
Up next…New Orleans, which is 8-0 and averaging 34.0 points per game, but 3-5 and scoring just 17.8 points per game on the road. Drew Brees threw 27 TDs and just three interceptions at home, but his respective split was 12 and nine on the road. And Brees has never won a road playoff game.
–Interesting point by the Wall Street Journal’s Kevin Clark, who doesn’t like the way mediocrity is often rewarded when it comes to the wild-card selections.
“Here’s the problem: Putting mediocrity in the playoffs, as the current playoff structure does, is a bad idea. In the NFL over the past decade, nearly 50% of regular season games have been decided by seven points or fewer. Yet in the last two years, only two of eight wild-card games have been within one score. Since 2005, you are 35% more likely to see a close one-score game between two teams randomly matched up in the regular season than a matchup between two first-round playoff teams, who are allegedly among the best the NFL has to offer.
“There are many more injustices, of course. In the first round of the playoffs this weekend, the Green Bay Packers, who went 8-7-1, get to host the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers (12-4). The New Orleans Saints (11-5) will travel to play the Philadelphia Eagles (10-6). The (outdated) reason? The Saints and 49ers didn’t win their division.”
The NFL has strongly hinted it will add more playoff teams, “But simply adding teams and keeping the seeding system the way it is will only complicate an already muddled process.”
Actually, I think Green Bay should automatically host a playoff game no matter what their record is, just so the rest of us can sit back and watch football in the cold, preferably with a howling snowstorm to boot.
—One mediocre team that perhaps should have gotten into the playoffs after all is Pittsburgh, which the NFL had to admit was screwed by a missed penalty call in the San Diego / Kansas City game.
Chiefs kicker Ryan Succop of course missed a 41-yard field goal with four seconds left in regulation that would have eliminated the Chargers and given the Steelers the last wild-card slot. Instead, San Diego wins 27-24 in OT and moves on.
But, the Chargers should have been flagged for an illegal formation prior to Succwad’s attempt, a 5-yard penalty that would have meant he would be attempting a 36-yarder. Chances are he makes it.
Needless to say, the Steelers weren’t happy when they learned of the officials’ screw-up.
—Denver scored a record 606 points this season, 37.9 ppg, but in the Super Bowl era, only one team in the top ten all-time in this category, the 1999 St. Louis Rams, won the Big One, and they ranked 10th in the period at 32.9 points per game. No. 2 on the list, the 2007 New England Patriots (36.8 per game) remained unbeaten until Super Bowl XLII, where they were upset 17-14 by the Giants. [Michael Salfino / Wall Street Journal]
Meanwhile, after some questions about a play in Peyton Manning’s final game and whether or not he had broken Drew Brees’ passing yardage mark of 5,476 by a single yard, aside from upping the TD pass record to 55, it was ruled Manning had indeed finished with 5,477. One camera angle had a 7-yard pass looking like a lateral, which would make it a running play, but the league’s record-keepers decided it was a pass and the record is Manning’s.
–Reports still have Penn State’s Bill O’Brien taking the Houston Texans’ coaching job. He served on Bill Belichick’s staff from 2007 until 2012.
College Football
–After a slew of awful games on New Year’s Eve, including Boston College laying an egg against Arizona 42-19, as Andre Williams was held to 75 yards on 26 carries with a ‘long’ of just seven, some of us with no party plans (I haven’t been to a New Year’s party in decades) were praying Texas A&M-Duke would at least be entertaining for a half.
Holy cow, it turned out to be a thriller right to the end. First, Duke ran roughshod over A&M for five touchdowns on its first five possessions and before you knew it, it was 38-17 at half. A stunner. I emailed a Duke friend at the game, Ken P., saying, “I don’t believe what I just saw!” His reply, “Me too!”
But then “Johnny Football,” Johnny Manziel, had his way with the Blue Devils in the second half, the A&M defense finally made a few stops, and A&M preceded to win 52-48, as Manziel rides off into the sunset (and the NFL draft) with another performance for the ages. 30 of 38, 382 yards, four touchdown passes, no interceptions, plus 73 yards rushing and another score, including a few more all-time highlight reel plays.
But it was the A&M defense that ensured victory with two late picks of Duke QB Anthony Boone, one returned for the deciding touchdown with 3:30 left.
For the record, Duke outgained A&M, 661-541, but the Aggies didn’t turn the ball over.
–On Monday, I watched Texas-Oregon from a bar nearby and it was nice to see Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota back in mid-season form as he gained 386 total yards, including 133 running on 15 carries; seemingly recovered from the knee injury that was a big reason for the Ducks’ losses in November to Stanford and Arizona. He’ll be the odds-on favorite for the Heisman next year as he returns for his junior campaign.
Mack Brown’s career at Texas ended with a 30-7 loss.
—UCLA has its program headed in the right direction and with redshirt sophomore quarterback Brett Hundley they looked like a potential national title contender next season, finishing on a high note New Year’s Eve, a 42-12 pasting of Virginia Tech to go to 10-3.
But, sadly it seems for Bruins fans, Hundley had way too good a game and now there is serious doubt he will stick around another year. He threw for 226 yards and two touchdowns, with no interceptions, and ran for 161 on just ten carries, including an 86-yarder for a score and a spectacular 7-yard TD effort when it appeared he was sacked. But as the L.A. Times’ Bill Plaschke wrote, “Then he wasn’t.”
So now UCLA can only wait for Hundley’s decision and I’m guessing he goes out rather than supply Marcus Mariota with competition for the Heisman.
–With Clemson-Ohio State and FSU-Auburn left, the ACC is 1-6 in bowl games, the only win being North Carolina’s 39-17 effort over Cincinnati.
Speaking of Carolina football, the New York Times’ Sarah Lyall has a damning piece on the program that made the front page of today’s edition. Such as:
“In the summer of 2011, 19 undergraduates at the University of North Carolina signed up for a lecture course called AFAM 280: Blacks in North Carolina. The professor was Julius Nyang’oro, an internationally respected scholar and longtime chairman of the African and Afro-American studies department.
“It is doubtful the students learned much about blacks, North Carolina or anything else, though they received grades for papers they supposedly turned in and Mr. Nyang’oro, the instructor, was paid $12,000. University and law-enforcement officials say AFAM 280 never met. One of dozens of courses in the department that officials say were taught incompletely or not at all, AFAM 280 is the focus of a criminal indictment against Mr. Nyang’oro that was issued last month.
“Eighteen of the 19 students enrolled in the class were members of the North Carolina football team (the other was a former member), reportedly steered there by academic advisers who saw their roles as helping athletes maintain high enough grades to remain eligible to play.”
Pathetic. The investigation began with reporting in The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., beginning in 2011, and it continues to get worse.
Nyang’oro, as Sarah Lyall wrote, still “has not explained himself,” while being accused in the reports of “teaching dozens of barely existent or questionably led classes and presiding over a department in which grades were illicitly changed, professors’ signatures forged and athletes routinely enrolled in laughably lax classes.”
Michael Schumacher
Formula One’s greatest driver, at least until Sebastian Vettel wins a few more, remains in stable but critical condition following his skiing accident in France. Schumacher, 44, had seven world titles in his career, with a record 91 wins. Next up on the list is Alain Prost at 51.
Kelley McMillan of the New York Times had a piece on skiing and helmet use, doctors saying had Schumacher not been wearing one he would have died instantly. Despite the fact more skiers and snowboarders in the United States, for example, are wearing helmets – 70 percent of all participants, triple the number from 2003 – “there has been no reduction in the number of snow-sports-related fatalities or brain injuries in the United States, according to the National Ski Areas Association.
“Experts ascribe that seemingly implausible correlation to the inability of helmets to prevent serious head injuries like Schumacher’s and to the fact that more skiers and snowboarders are engaging in risky behaviors: skiing faster, jumping higher and riding out of bounds.”
Further, “A 2012 Western Michigan University School of Medicine study on head injuries among skiers and snowboarders in the United States found that the number of head injuries increased 60 percent in a six-year period, from 9,308 in 2004 to 14,947 in 2010, even as helmet use increased by an almost identical percentage over the same period. A March 2013 study by the University of Washington concluded that the number of snow-sports-related head injuries among youths and adolescents increased 250 percent from 1996 to 2010.”
AP Men’s Basketball Top Ten
1. Arizona 13-0 (60 first-place votes)
2. Syracuse 12-0 (5)
3. Ohio State 13-0
4. Wisconsin 13-0
5. Michigan State 11-1
6. Oklahoma State 11-1
7. Duke 10-2
8. Wichita State 13-0
9. Baylor 10-1
10. Oregon 12-0
21. San Diego State 10-1
So why didn’t I go with Oregon or SDSU again? SDSU has one of its classic transfers, Josh Davis from Tulane, who has been a horse inside.
As for my “Pick to Click,” VCU, at 11-3 they didn’t receive one vote in the AP poll. But it’s almost time for A-10 play and if they distinguish themselves there, they’ll be back in the hunt.
–I have to make note of San Diego State’s win over St. Katherine the other day, 118-35. St. Katherine? Never heard of it. Turns out it’s a Christian school in San Diego County that is fielding a hoops team for the first time this year. The St. Katherine Firebirds.
Well, the Firebirds were a bit overmatched against the Aztecs, shooting 15 of 68 from the field, including 3 of 38 from three-point range.
–And in a bigger rout, Southern University broke the all-divisions record held by Seton Hall in taking a 44-0 lead on Monday in a 116-12 victory over Champion Baptist College.
Southern coach Roman Banks said, “We were preparing for league play and already had planned to change defenses throughout the game. It’s not as if we pressed the entire game. We weren’t trying to embarrass anyone.”
Back in 1998, Seton Hall scored the first 34 points against Kean College.
Champion Baptist, located in Hot Springs, Ark., finished 3-for-44 from the field, 5 of 17 from the foul line, with 27 turnovers and one assist.
–Big loss for Louisville as coach Rick Pitino was forced to dismiss junior forward Chane Behanan from the team for another violation of university policy. The 6’6” forward was a key member of the national championship squad and was averaging 8.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game this season. Pitino said “away from the lines he just did not do the right things… It sets our basketball team back immensely.”
–We note the passing of former Michigan and Iowa State coach Johnny Orr, 86. Orr was highly popular among his players and after going 209-113 at Michigan, he resurrected an Iowa State team that hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in 40 years before his 1984-85 squad earned a bid. At Iowa State he was 218-200 and is the winningest coach at both schools. Iowans adored the guy to his last day.
At Michigan Orr was national coach of the year in 1976 and 1977, losing to Indiana in the ’76 NCAA title game.
Ball Bits
“A white Mercedes allegedly traveling 110 mph has flattened the Dodgers with the organization’s most frightening, frustrating truth.
“The richest team in baseball cannot buy the safety, security or even the simple undivided attention of its most popular player.
“Yasiel Puig continues to careen toward calamity and there doesn’t seem to be anything anybody can, or will, do about it.
“For the second time this year, Puig has been charged with reckless driving, after his arrest Saturday on an Everglades-choked stretch of South Florida highway known as Alligator Alley. Puig was allegedly traveling 110 mph in a 70-mph zone, a startling pace even on a flat stretch of road built for speed.
“Puig has now been clocked at least 40 mph over the speed limit twice this year. He was allegedly going 97 mph in a 50-mph zone in Chattanooga, Tenn., in April, resulting in charges that were eventually dismissed when he agreed to perform community service. The arrests fit into a pattern of reckless living exhibited by the 23-year-old outfielder – both on the field and off – since he defected from Cuba and signed a $42 million contract two summers ago….
“In response, the Dodgers simply swallow hard, if only because they’re not sure what else they can do….
“So breaths will remain held, the Dodgers silently rooting that in the 110-mph race of his life, Yasiel Puig will grow up before he blows up.”
Can’t say I would know this except Craig Muder of the Baseball Hall of Fame put out a piece stating this fact.
Do yourself a favor and look him up on baseballreference.com to refresh your memory on just how great he was, and the kind of career stats he would have put up had he not lost 3 ½ years to the military during World War II. As Craig Muder writes:
“His numbers still seem mythical….
“One season with 63 doubles, another with 183 RBI. And the 1938 campaign where he hit 58 home runs – seriously threatening Babe Ruth’s then-record of 60.”
I forgot Greenberg broke the same wrist twice in the first half of his career yet returned to have the 183 RBI season after the second one, 1937.
Greenberg, who died in 1986, is buried in Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles, should you care to pay your respects.
–The Brooklyn Nets finished 2013 at 10-21, while the Knicks are 9-21. On New Year’s Eve the Nets were totally embarrassed in San Antonio, 113-92. As the New York Daily News’ Stefan Bondy wrote: “The year ended fittingly for the Nets: They were confused and dysfunctional, symbolically quitting in another blowout defeat.
“With 0.2 seconds left after a shot-clock violation, most of the Nets left the court for the locker room believing the game was over. Coach Jason Kidd had to use a timeout just to get five players on the court and finish….while the crowd in San Antonio booed Brooklyn’s predicament.
“The Nets have become the target of ridicule throughout the league, with their astronomical payroll, pitiful record, apathy and their coach on the hot seat just 31 games into his career.”
Stan Van Gundy, during an interview Monday night on the NBC Sports Network, called the Nets a “bush league organization.”
“You can do whatever you want with the coaching situation but it is not going to change the situation with their roster. They just don’t have a lot of options – they don’t have draft picks, they are way over the salary cap. They are probably in the worst situation of any team in the NBA right now.”
Kevin Garnett had another miserable game, just two points in 16 minutes and refused again to talk to the media. That kind of sums up the attitude. He’s just stealing the team’s money.
–This is one of my favorite stories of the year. From Agnes Lovasz / Bloomberg:
“A painting featured on the BBC’s ‘Antiques Roadshow’ television program was revealed to be a genuine work of 17th century Flemish artist Anthony Van Dyck.
“The portrait was bought by Father Jamie MacLeod, who runs a retreat house in the Peak District in northwest England, for 400 pounds ($660). It is now worth an estimated 400,000 pounds, after it underwent cleaning and restoration to determine its origin….
“The identity of the painting as a Van Dyck was suspected by the show’s host, Fiona Bruce, who asked specialists to confirm it, according to the BBC’s website. The Van Dyck portrait was identified after Bruce, who was making a show about the artist with adviser Philip Mould, saw the painting and thought it might be genuine.”
“MacLeod wants to sell the painting and buy new church bells from the proceeds, he told the program.”
–We note the passing of Andy Granatelli, 90. Mr. STP, race driver, promoter, car designer, inducted into the hall of fame at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
J. Douglas Boles, the speedway’s president, said in a statement Sunday:
“Andy leaves a legacy of historic moments that will live forever in Indianapolis 500 lore, including his famous turbine that dominated the 1967 Indianapolis 500, the Lotus 56 of 1968, and giving the great Mario Andretti a kiss on the cheek in Victory Lane after his 1969 win.”
No one alive and following the sport back in ’69, as I was, will ever forget that moment. And in the immediate aftermath it was all about STP. I was 11 years old and sent away for an STP sticker to put on my notebook…that kind of popular.
The thing is, STP was later found to be ineffective, but who cared…it was really all about Granatelli. In less than a decade, with Andy as pitchman, STP’s sales grew from $2 million to $100 million.
Sports Illustrated wrote in 1968, “(The) wondrous campaign represents total involvement of a kind rarely seen in America since the days when peddlers sold their own celery tonic from Conestoga wagons.”
Granatelli wasn’t a bad racer himself and set 400 speed records. When he was 62, he drove a street-legal 1982 Camaro more than 241 mph at a test track, as noted by the L.A. Times’ Steve Chawkins.
Granatelli ended up selling STP to Union Carbide in 1985.
–Lastly, the Beaver is off the All-Species suspended list and re-enters the ASL at No. 14, having served out its time for attacking humans numerous times in 2013.
