Note: Posted Wed. a.m. Getting a new computer system today…it’s chaos! So I didn’t get to some topics I wanted to cover.
Washington Redskins Quiz: Name the five to throw at least 100 TD passes in their ‘Skins career. Answer below.
Of course it’s all about the replacement referees. The first week, I think we can all agree they were OK…not great…but few major incidents that stood out.
This past week, however, it was a far different story and part of the reason has to be that players and coaches realized what they could get away with. I only watched the first two Jets and Giants games, plus a smattering of the other Thursday, Sunday, and Monday night national contests, but it was clear. The replacements are beyond awful and particularly in the secondary, players are getting away with murder, or at least egregious cases of holding.
“Exposing replacement official Brian Stropolo as an apparent out-of-the-closet New Orleans Saints fan two hours before he was going to work the Saints game yesterday, makes fans wonder.
“How many other replacement officials might be pulling for particular teams or players?
“If not for some late-breaking information from what the NFL calls a ‘credible source’ that exposed Stropolo as a fan, the NFL came dangerously close to putting a rah-rah replacement official on the field at Bank of America stadium.
“Minutes after Stropolo was yanked from the Saints game against the Carolina Panthers, Ray Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president for football operations, told USA TODAY Sports that the league ‘erred on the side of caution’ in replacing Stropolo, a side judge, with alternate Tim Keene.
“But this was damage control. It should have never come to a last-minute sub for a sub.
“Incredibly, Anderson said, pending further review, Stropolo won’t be fired – even though Stropolo had an ethical duty to reveal his loyalty and didn’t, especially when assigned to a Saints game.
“For the cover-up alone, Stropolo must be canned by the league….
“Understandably, Stropolo didn’t know – as a Division III referee – that one day he would be officiating NFL games. But he should’ve had the good sense, when he got the job, to edit his Facebook page and come clean to the NFL about his love of the Saints. Now his judgment is in serious question….
“When asked about replacement officials, Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Richard Seymour said he was more concerned about an official who might be a Peyton Manning fan, for instance, than about missed calls or safety issues.
“In a normal season, a group of NFL referees taking a few minutes under the lights of ‘Monday Night Football’ to figure out where a ball should be placed after a defensive holding penalty would be amusing. But with replacement officials making scenes like that one too common and sometimes struggling with the rules of the game, the amusement has begun to fade.
“ ‘Honestly, it’s embarrassing,’ Mike Tirico, an ESPN announcer, said in the second quarter of Monday’s game between Denver and Atlanta. ‘The command and control of this game is gone.’
[Ed. Tirico later had the apt comparison of the replacements being like substitute school teachers, there to be taken advantage of.]
“Two weeks into the regular season, with the NFL’s lockout of its officials going strong, replacement officials have awarded a team an extra timeout in a close game, ruled multiple incomplete passes as fumbles, missed an array of pass-interference and unnecessary-roughness calls, and in one game took six minutes to review a play that they subsequently determined was not reviewable….
“In a recent radio interview, Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy suggested that the replacements might be approaching the game as supporters rather than officials. ‘I’ll be honest, they’re like fans,’ McCoy said. ‘One of the refs was talking about his fantasy team, like ‘McCoy, come on, I need you for my fantasy.’’”
The NFL maintains, “The current officials have made great strides and are performing admirably under unprecedented scrutiny and great pressure.”
That may have been the case in Week One. By Week Two, the preceding statement became ludicrous.
Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan said of the team’s loss at St. Louis, “I’ve never been in a situation where you feel that there is going to be an explosion on the field. You’re hoping that doesn’t happen. It was very close to losing control.”
After the Ravens lost to the Eagles on a critical touchdown catch negated by an offensive pass interference call, Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco said: “The NFL and everyone always talks about the integrity of the game and things like that, and I think this is right along those lines. Not to say that these guys are doing a bad job, but the fact that we don’t have the normal guys out there is a little crazy.”
Steve Sabol, RIP
When you think of Great Americans, those who made an impact in all fields of life, including our pursuit of happiness, it is not a stretch at all to put Steve Sabol and his father in the Top 100 for their work at NFL Films.
Seriously, put your favorite 10-12 presidents on the list, including Founding Fathers, Neil Armstrong, Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein, a few authors, musicians, Billy Graham, Rachel Carson, Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson,…I mean you come up with 100 in the purest sense…men and women who made this country a better place and, very importantly, more fun.
Steve Sabol, in combination with his father, Ed, deserves to be considered in this vein. Steve died of brain cancer at the age of 69 on Tuesday.
When Steve’s father founded NFL Films in 1964, Steve was at his side and they soon introduced a series of innovations, including slow-motion replay, while hiring the “Voice of God,” John Facenda, for the solemn voiceovers.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said of Steve Sabol’s passing, “(He) was the creative genius behind the remarkable work of NFL Films. Steve’s passion for football was matched by his incredible talent and energy. Steve’s legacy will be part of the NFL forever.”
Steve Sabol received 35 Emmys for writing, cinematography, editing, directing and producing; more than anyone else has ever earned in as many categories.
As San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York said, “His work humanized the players, coaches and people who have made the National Football League so great.”
Reverse angle replays, locker room speeches, highlights set to music…all the work of Ed and Steve Sabol. Someone had to be first. They were. As Douglas Martin of the New York Times wrote:
“Steve Sabol…created the images and sounds (the NFL) became famous for: a kicked football floating end-over-end or a pigskin bullet spiraling in slow motion; a row of bruised and dirtied gladiators hunkering on the sideline; the crunch of bodies brawling at the line of scrimmage or colliding in the open field.”
Ed Sabol, 96, survives his son. It was Ed who persuaded Pete Rozelle, commissioner of the NFL, to hire his nascent production company to film the 1962 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers, despite having zero experience beyond filming his son’s high school football games. Three years later, Ed persuaded the NFL to buy his company. Steve and Ed would run it.
In 2008, Ed Sabol said, “I may have started it, but (Steve) has been the engineer behind it. He comes up with these great ideas and is a great student of the game.”
The NFL is part of the very fabric of America. Just look at the impact of one single event, the Super Bowl.
Ball Bits
–ALERT: Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera is staring down a triple crown thru Tuesday’s play.
Home runs: Josh Hamilton 42; Cabrera and Encarnacion 40
—Playoff Races
Yanks 83-63
Baltimore 84-64
Chicago 81-66
Detroit 78-69…3
Texas 87-60
Oakland 84-63…3
A.L. Wild Card
Yanks —
Baltimore —
Oakland —
Los Angeles…3
Detroit…5.5
In the N.L., were it not for the wild card there would be zero excitement, barring another Atlanta collapse.
Atlanta 85-64 —
St. Louis 78-70 —
Los Angeles 76-71…1.5
Milwaukee 75-72…2.5
Pittsburgh 74-73…3.5
–As the New York Times’ Benjamin Hoffman reports, unless the Angels’ Mike Trout gets his legs moving, for just the second season since 1963, baseball won’t have a player with 50 steals. As I go to post, after Tuesday’s action, Trout has 46 but has slowed down big time, while in the N.L., Michael Bourn of Atlanta is at 39. The only other year since ’63 without a 50-steal player was 2002.
Meanwhile, Hoffman muses about the Reds’ minor league shortstop sensation, Billy Hamilton, who stole a professional baseball record 155 bases this year. At both Class A and AA, Hamilton did have an on-base percentage over .400, which is excellent, but once he was elevated to AA, his success rate stealing was 76.1% (51 of 67).
In the old days, that would be acceptable at the big league level. But Hamilton would be dealing with major leaguers who have much better pick-off moves than the pitchers he faced at A and AA and let’s assume he loses a bit of an edge.
So it will be interesting. It’s the OBP, I’m guessing, that will determine whether he makes it, and how long he sticks.
It’s just that the game has changed. Mike Trout has been successful a phenomenal 91% of the time, but that’s historic. Most teams wouldn’t accept less than 80% if base-stealing is a major part of one’s game as it is with Hamilton.
–I was tempted to put this in the form of a quiz, and I should have, but who is leading the N.L. in RBIs?
Why it’s Chase Headley of the Padres. Chase who? Heck, until just a few weeks ago I had no idea he was that high up on the list. Thru Tuesday, he has 28 homers and a leading 104 RBI. [Ryan Braun tied him at 104 on Tuesday.]
In 2009 and 2010, Headley’s numbers in 156 and 161 games, respectively, were just 12-64 and 11-58. [He only had 4 homers and 44 RBI in 113 games in 2011.]
Hmmm….hmmm…[your editor is contemplating just how this could be as he quaffs a Coors Light]…hmmm… PEDs? Maybe that’s not fair, but of course, anytime a player makes this kind of progression, one must be suspect.
—Now 4-22 at home since the All-Star break, the Mets can establish a record for the lowest home-field winning percentage in the second half of the season, breaking their own record from 1979 (6-32).
The Mets have also now gone 14 straight games at Citi Field without scoring more than three runs. The all-time mark for such futility is 18, held by the 1915 Yankees.
–In David Wright’s last 78 at-bats, he has zero home runs and 5 RBI. Since July 19, when his average was at .353, he is hitting .241 in 203 ABs. Again, this is a guy the Mets are just expected to hand $20 million per for eight seasons.
–But at least the Mets are leaving Buffalo…their AAA affiliate – for Las Vegas! Buffalo is now going to be the AAA team for Toronto, which makes total sense on a number of levels.
College Football
–OK, boys and girls. This is your Saturday planner. You can take your time getting all your chores done Saturday morning / early Saturday afternoon, but by 3:30 p.m. ET, you must be firmly ensconced in the recliner.
Oregon State at No. 19 UCLA on ABC/ESPN2…I’ll be donning Beaverwear for this one as a hedge in case the Oregon Ducks fall later.
Missouri at No. 7 South Carolina on CBS…mildly interesting to see if Mizzou is competitive, as well as to see how good the Gamecocks can be.
Then between 7:30 and 8:00 ET…all hell breaks loose…make sure you have stocked up on beer and Chex Mix long before this time.
No. 18 Michigan at No. 11 Notre Dame…The Fighting Irish on NBC…can they keep it going?
No. 15 Kansas State at No. 6 Oklahoma on Fox…should be highly entertaining.
No. 10 Clemson at No. 4 Florida State on ABC…Brent and Herbie (that’s the downside)…but on paper this should be one of the top 5-7 games of the entire season …I’ll go with Clemson, 17-14.
But here’s a big issue…No. 22 Arizona at No. 3 Oregon at 10:30 ET?!!! I’m sorry, won’t catch more than the first quarter of this one. I’m very, very old. [I watch SNL online the day after these days.]
–Note to Mark R. In light of the 52-0 drubbing the Deacons absorbed at the hands of the Seminoles last week, and with the 3-0 start your Fighting Irish have gotten off to, the line on the Nov. 17 Wake-Notre Dame contest is now up to 51 ½.
–Steve G., Director of Scouting for College Football Cheerleaders for Bar Chat, has vowed to work hard the rest of the year in this all-important endeavor. Specifically, can anyone beat Oregon’s crew? Cal? USC? North Carolina? [normally strong…going back to when I was in school…] Ole Miss? South Florida?
But Steve admits that when it comes to the NFL, he has a problem…a serious personal issue. He’s paying Direct TV about $20 a week extra to catch his beloved Jacksonville Jaguars! You’ve got to be kidding me! Geezuz. Just when you think you know someone, you find this out.
–Among cities with at least one team in the four major sports, Boston holds the longest streak of having a non-losing season, 20 team seasons, 2007-2012. But with one more loss, the Boston Red Sox will break this historic run. Next best at 19 was Philadelphia, 1978-82, with the ’82 Eagles breaking it.
–OK, it sure looks like I screwed up with my USC, college football prediction, but I’m not crying over it…Go Ducks!
However, I’m already laying it all on the line this coming college basketball season.
Yup, I’m all in with the San Diego State Aztecs, as I was two years ago. Look for the pre-season polls to have them anywhere from about #6 to #15. But there will be no team in the country loaded in the backcourt as they are, and if this freshman forward, Winston Shepard, is as good as advertised, plus if transfers like Dwayne Polee (St. John’s) and JJ O’Brien (Utah) contribute up front, let alone SDSU has the player of the year for 2012-2013, Jamaal Franklin, well, it’s going to be one exciting season.
Heck, the student body already gets it. For the first time ever, every home game is already sold out! Having been to Viejas Arena, spring 2011, I know it’s going to be electric.
Nov. 9…Syracuse vs. SDSU on the USS Midway. Then important out-of-conference games vs. USC (the Aztecs have never beaten them in L.A., where it’s being played) and UCLA.
Yes, you’re going to be so sick of me and the Aztecs this year, I expect to finish the season with just four readers outside San Diego.
Then again, I’m beginning to wonder if Wake Forest’s massive freshmen class could mark the beginning of a turnaround. I sure hope so.
–From Golfweek:
“ ‘I’ve never heard that in my entire life,’ said Garrigus of a loud and disruptive belch that came from a fan just a few feet away at the eighth hole in Round 4 (at Crooked Stick).
“Garrigus was in the middle of his backswing, couldn’t stop and jerked his shot into the water.
“ ‘The guy clearly did it on purpose. I screamed, ‘You can’t wait one second?’’ said Garrigus’ caddie, Brent Henley. ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.’”
[Garrigus survived this incident to make the Tour Championship field this weekend.]
—PGA Tour Money List vs. LPGA Tour
No. 30 on the PGA Tour has earned $2,351,857 in 2012
No. 30 on the LPGA is at $349,435
No. 60 on the PGA Tour has earned $1,283,616
No. 60 on the LPGA is at $145,107
Just my annual missive to parents of female golfers. Steer them into another line of work.
–The Weekly Standard has a terrific piece on Antietam by Geoffrey Norman you can find at weeklystandard.com. Officially, there were 22,719 casualties between both sides. 25% of the Union forces. Over 30% of the Confederates. There were 1,546 Confederate dead, 2,108 Union. Many of the 1,771 missing were dead, and many of the wounded died.
Also, the PBS’ “American Experience” documentary on Civil War war dead, Tuesday, was outstanding. You can catch it online, I’m sure…pbs.org.
–The only new network show I plan on watching, at least initially, is “Nashville.” Why? Aside from the story line, my man Powers Boothe is in it!
–Hey, what happened to Dr. Tendler? You see the new commercials for Restasis? Where is she? We miss you, Dr. Tendler!
–According to Patrick Doyle of Rolling Stone, on Aug. 19 in Paris, the Stones’ began rehearsing “One More Shot,” a newly written song by Keith Richards with a signature riff and Mick Jagger howling, “One more shot / That’s all I got.” “It’s got all this f—ing power,” says producer Don Was. “Everyone was smiling. You can recognize it’s the Rolling Stones from a mile away.”
Good! Grrr!, a 50-song compilation celebrating the Stones’ 50th anniversary, is out Nov. 13 and will have Richards’ new tune plus one from Jagger.
Sources told RS that the Stones will perform two shows at London’s O2 arena and two at Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center. The Stones have yet to comment.
Man, I hope they do more than those shows. Can you imagine what scalpers will do to obtain the tickets and then gouge us schmucks?!
Top 3 songs for the week 9/19/81: #1 “Endless Love” (Diana Ross & Lionel Richie…endless crapola…) #2 “Queen Of Hearts” (Juice Newton…hasn’t aged well…) #3 “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers…just drags on and on and on…)…and…#4 “Urgent” (Foreigner…I always thought it was “virgin”…) #5 “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me” (Ronnie Milsap…kind of self-centered, don’t you think?) #6 “”Who’s Crying Now” (Journey…Mets fans…) #8 “Lady” (Commodores…eh, not awful…) #9 “Step By Step” (Eddie Rabbitt…love Eddie, but not this one…) #10 “Slow Hand” (Pointer Sisters…ughh…if you’re walkin’ around the office hummin’ this one…you should be fired)
Washington Redskins Quiz Answer: 100 TD passes, career.
Sammy Baugh 187
Sonny Jurgensen 179
Joe Theismann 160
Billy Kilmer 103
Mark Rypien 101
And every time you bring up “Slinging Sammy” Baugh, you can’t help but smile. Simply one of the five best football players of all time. Granted, I am not giving this any time at all but I’d put in Don Hutson and Jim Brown…and then you fight over the other two…Gale Sayers didn’t play enough, otherwise he’s there…
Anyway, consider that Baugh was not only the first pure pocket passer according to some, but he picked off 31 passes on defense, including leading the league in interceptions in 1943 with 11, and he remains in the top ten all-time punting! [Even though the ball he was kicking was the weight of an anvil.]
So in Dec. 2008, upon his passing, I wrote some of the following.
Baugh grew up in Sweetwater, Texas, and attended TCU, where as good as his football career was, he actually thought he’d be a major league baseball player. He could fire it.
But he was drafted by the Washington Redskins and played there from 1937 to 1952. From the AP:
“While he was noted for his passing, Baugh was one of the best all-around players of his day. One season he led the league in passing, defensive interceptions and punting. In one game, he threw four touchdown passes and intercepted four passes. He threw six touchdowns in a game – twice – and kicked an 85-yard punt.
“ ‘There’s nobody any better than Sam Baugh was in pro football,’ Don Maynard, a fellow West Texas Hall of Famer who played for Baugh, said in a 2002 interview. ‘When I see somebody picking the greatest player around, to me, if they didn’t go both ways, they don’t really deserve to be nominated. I always ask, ‘Well, how’d he do on defense? How was his punting?’’
“When Baugh entered the NFL, the forward pass was so rare that it was unveiled mostly in desperate situations. But Baugh passed any time.
“As a rookie in 1937, Baugh completed a record 81 passes (about seven a game) and led the league with 1,127 yards. At the time, only six passers averaged three completions a game that year. He went on to lead the league in passing six times.
“Baugh still holds the Redskins records for career touchdown passes (187) and completion percentage in a season (70.3). His 31 interceptions on defense are third on the team’s career list. He still owns the league mark for single-season punting average (a stupendous 51.4).”
“Too often the discussion of Greatest QB Ever begins with Joe Montana.
“Occasionally, the pick is one of his contemporaries, John Elway. If somebody closer to 60 years old is in the room there might be some substantive examination of John Unitas. Only if there’s a real student of pro football in the mix will Otto Graham’s name be tossed.
“Hardly ever does the discussion roll back far enough to include Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, the greatest Redskin ever, without question, and almost certainly the first great passing quarterback in pro football history. That’s because Baugh outkicked his coverage, as the old coaches like to say. Baugh lived longer than most of the people who adequately chronicle his extraordinary career. Right now, the 1958 NFL Championship game, a.k.a. ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’ is being celebrated as the beginning of modern professional football.
“Baugh retired six years before that game was played. He retired before games were routinely broadcast on television. You have to be approaching 70 years old to have seen him play for the Washington Redskins, and it almost had to be in person.
“Luckily, Baugh didn’t outkick all his coverage. Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films and probably the smartest, most unbiased football historian anywhere, recalled yesterday in a telephone conversation the very first NFL game he attended.
“ ‘I was 9 years old and my father [Ed Sabol, founder of NFL Films] took me to Shibe Park in Philadelphia to see the Eagles play the Redskins. It was 1951. My dad said: ‘See the man wearing Number 33? That’s Sammy Baugh.’ That’s all he said,’ Steve Sabol said.
“ ‘It was like pointing out the Empire State Building, the Washington Monument or Niagara Falls. ‘That’s Sammy Baugh.’ That’s all that needed to be said to anyone who followed pro football in the 1940s and early 1950s.’
“Sabol isn’t exaggerating one bit. The inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in 1963, included George Halas, Bronko Nagurski, Red Grange, Jim Thorpe, Ernie Nevers, Mel Hein, Curly Lambeau and Don Hutson among 17 charter members. And only Halas and Baugh were selected unanimously. The history of pro football simply cannot be written without the story of Slingin’ Sammy….
“Sabol, in poring over game film through the years, discovered something else about Baugh that was radical in the 1940s. ‘He was the first guy we ever saw on film who passed the ball on first down,’ Sabol said.”
And Sabol points out that while all the great quarterbacks played for great coaches [Montana for Bill Walsh, Unitas for Weeb Ewbank and Don Shula, and Elway for Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan] Baugh played for 10 coaches. “He played for guys who quit in the middle of the season, who were fired in the middle of the season. Ray Flaherty was probably the best coach he played for. He had no continuity. He never had great teams around him.”
Speaking of Ray Flaherty, here is the famous story, the version told by legendary Post sportswriter Shirley Povich, Dec. 10, 1952.
“Coach Ray Flaherty himself used to like to tell the story of his first briefing of Baugh when he was attempting to indoctrinate the slim Texan into the more rugged tactics of pro football. ‘And these receivers in the pro league expect their passers to be good,’ he told Sammy. ‘None of those wild heaves you see the college boys throw. When they go down field, our eligible pass receivers want that ball where they can catch it. They like to be hit right in the eye, understand?’
“To which Baugh, after hearing Flaherty out, was supposed to have replied, ‘Which eye, coach?’”
Sammy Baugh was known to be a recluse and so after his NFL career he retreated to his 7,600-acre West Texas ranch about 95 miles southeast of Lubbock. The Redskins were never successful in luring him back for ceremonies, though his number 33 remains the only uniform the team has ever retired. [Ed. still true…]
