NFL

GB, KC, I, and LV

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

What did 61,946 people do all together on January 15th, 1967?  If you said they watched live from their wooden bench seats in the Los Angeles Coliseum as the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-14 in the very first Super Bowl played you were right.

A lot has changed since the first and this season’s upcoming Super Bowl LV (that’s 55), and a lot hasn’t.

It was the smallest crowd in SB history.  Leave it to uninterested Californians, even back then, to set the low mark.  But, we digress.

It was also played three weeks earlier than the date (Feb 7, 2021) that the final two teams will play LV.  Never forget that more games mean more money.  And acutely, more playoff games mean way more TV money.

No teams had bye weeks back then.  If you made the playoffs, you played off that next week.  And, only four teams in total made the playoffs.  The NFC had 15 teams while the AFC had nine.  This was prior to the next year’s major realignment.

Today 32 teams compete in two conferences that each has 16 teams.  And, for the first time ever, 14 teams (7 from each conference) will advance.

Importantly, the best regular-season record from each will have a one-week bye.  And, with one week remaining, who is in the driver’s seat for the one seed and that very valuable week of rest?  Why it’s the NFC Green Bay Packers and the AFC Kansas City Chiefs.

Maybe not so much has changed after all.  Or, maybe it has.

The popular saying that “defense wins championships” might be a bit dated.  It turns out that scoring points, and lots of them, attract even more viewers than ever.  And more viewers mean more money.  So, over the last 55 years time and again, the NFL has changed old rules and created new ones that provide the offense with a more distinct advantage by the year.

Now, if you throw in a quarterback or two that can buy more time with his feet, run for a first down when pressured, and still throw a tight spiral through a tight window, you’ve got points and points.

And Green Bay and Kansas City had just that in Bart Starr and Len Dawson.  In fact, they still do and a whole lot more.  They have the likely first and second-place finishers for the league MVP trophy in Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes.

Rodgers is a young 37 years old and seeking a second Super Bowl win.  He’s on a shortlist of the best QB’s to play in the last 15 years.  Mahomes is a mature 25 years young and is seeking his second consecutive Super Bowl win.  The QB list of the now and the future begins with his name.

Rodgers runs when he has to, while Mahomes runs when he wants to.  Both can break the hearts of a defense that forces a difficult third down and has done everything right.  That is until it hasn’t.

Green Bay can clinch the bye with a win over Chicago this week.  Kansas City already has.  The route to 55 will go through cold KC and colder GB.

Somewhere up there Vince Lombardi and Hank Stram are looking down and smiling about what might be yet to come.

And LA can relax.   After 55 years a pandemic will restrict the number of fans to far fewer than 61,946 in Tampa.

 

Fourth and Long

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

When the NFL calendar turns to mid-December the season is all but lost for those that have lost way more often than they have won.  Desperation, despair, depression, and disgust are all prevalent on the teams that won’t be present during the playoffs.  It’s fourth and very long.  We sample five Hail Marys and the like below.

  1. Texan’s safety Justin Reid is done for the season after suffering a hand injury in Sunday’s 36-7 loss to the Chicago Bears, a source confirmed to ESPN on Monday.  Their number one cornerback Bradley Roby was suspended for the final five games of the season for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances. Cornerback Gareon Conley has been on injured reserve all season, and they were without cornerbacks Phillip Gaines and rookie John Reid because of injuries.   When a secondary can make Mitch Trubisky look good you’ve got problems.  And, the Texans at 4-9 have plenty of problems.
  2. As he prepares for the final three games of the season — and perhaps his New York Jets career — Sam Darnold said Monday that he still envisions himself as the franchise’s long-term solution at quarterback.  Of course, he does.  His agent told him to say just that.  The 0-13 Jets envision yet another fresh start.  And, it’s one without Darnold at QB and Gase as the head coach.
  3.  Gardner Minshew is back as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ starting quarterback.The Jaguars (1-12) have lost 12 games in a row, and coach Doug Marrone said he’s going to do whatever it takes to snap that streak and win the remaining three games.  Pride is good, isn’t it?  Minshew got plenty of praise at the end of last year and the first game of this one.  In between that, he hasn’t gotten much.  Mike Glennon and Jake Luton have started all of the games in between.  Who and who?
  4. The Eagles have a 109 million dollar problem.  They benched quarterback Carson Wentz last week after his season-long struggles. Jalen Hurts ran for over one hundred yards in his first career start and threw well enough to beat a very good New Orleans defense to earn a second start over the $109 million dollar man. Wentz is a former first-round pick and rumors have it that he’s been disenfranchised with the franchise ever since they chose Hurts in round two this past spring.  Should we say that the move they made hurts his feelings?  Ahem.
  5.  And, how ’bout dem Cowboys?  On a day when Stephen Jones said head coach Mike McCarthy will return in 2021, defensive coordinator Mike Nolan said he has not given thought to his future as the Cowboys’ defense has struggled this season, allowing the most points and rushing yards in the NFL so far. “I just take it a day at a time anyway,” he said. “I’d prefer not to answer the question just because it’s not what’s on my mind.”  Picking Cee Dee Lamb in round one looks like that Cadillac in the driveway when you needed a few Ford trucks upfront on D.   Steve and Jerry got caught up trying to keep up with the Joneses when the defensive side of the ball was in great need.  Now, Nolan will be the sacrificial lamb for the pick of Lamb and other personnel moves gone wrong for the franchise.  Remember, in Dallas, the Joneses are never wrong.

The good news for most of the above is that they’ll be put out of their misery in a few short weeks.

The bad news for future picks for some of the teams above is that the endless cycle of mediocrity will continue.

Lions, Turkeys, and Culture

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Week 13 for the NFL is upon us.  Thirteen’s a lucky number and the NFL has been/was lucky to have this pandemic year schedule of theirs roll along for the most part uninterrupted by that damn thing that we can’t see, but certainly can feel.

With everyone walking on eggshells the season is anything but normal due to the virus.  But on the field, some franchises remind us weekly of who they’ve been, who they are, and who they’ll likely continue to be.

It began normally enough on Thanksgiving Day with a Houston Texans 41-25 rout over the perennial doormat Detroit Lions.  The Lions have looked like turkeys forever really.

It ended, strangely enough, yesterday with a Wednesday mid-afternoon game that Pittsburgh won over Baltimore 19-13.  That game was originally scheduled for turkey day night.  Covid-19 hit the Ravens team again and again and again causing it to move and move and move again.  That Pittsburgh won is normal too.  They’re 12-0 this year.

The Detroit listless loss was the final nail in Head Coach Matt Patrica’s coffin. That’s normal too.  No word on whether he had to turn that pencil from behind his ear into Human Resources on the way out of the door, but we digress.  The Lions have had 17 head coaches come and go since Super Bowl I in 1967.  And, the Lions have participated in exactly zero of said Super Bowls.

The Pittsburgh win had Head Coach Mike Tomlin fuming afterward.  He’s seen better.  In fact, he’s been the HC for 219 and counting of them and won 144. That’s 67%, or two out of every three if you’re using a #2 Patricia pencil and scoring at home, but we digress again.  The Steelers have had only four coaches in the Super Bowl era.  The Steelers have appeared in eight of them and won the most (tied with NE) with six Lombardi Trophies.

Detroit has won 344 games in the modern era (since 1966) while Pittsburgh has won 490.

You see the picture crystal clear by now, don’t you?

So with league rules designed to make it hard for a good team to remain that way and for a bad team to have a hand up in improving how can one franchise be so abysmal and one exemplary?  After all, the strength of schedules, draft order, revenue sharing, and salary caps are structured in a way to make the league as competitive as possible.  This isn’t the NY Yankees payroll v the Oakland A’s.

It’s leadership.  And leadership establishes culture, doesn’t it?  The Rooney family exudes class and has people who want to work for them.  They spot talent and know value like most no other.

The Ford family?  Apparently not so much.  No head coach of the Lions since 1957 has gone on in the NFL to get a second head coaching stint.  None.  We hope Particia took a note (written in pencil of course) of that before he accepted the gig.   So the slogan went, Ford has a better idea!  Not really.

Bill Parcells is a mentor to this day for Sean Payton.   Payton proudly called and told Parcells that he got his first HC job, that with the inept New Orleans Saints franchise in 2005.  Parcells quipped, “well if you don’t fix the losing culture down there, you’ll be looking for your second one in three years.”

The Saints lacked what Pittsburgh has always had.

The Lions are still looking for it.

 

 

After Further Review- AFC North

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Did the new NFL playoff expanded format for 2020 and beyond slip right by you?

The NFL changed its highly approved of, very fair, and long-standing playoff tradition.  It’s the first playoff format change since 1990.

John Madden used to say that December football was different than the months prior.  He said it’s because good teams turn up the effort and solidify their playoff spots or division championships, while average to bad teams play out the string.

Seven teams out of 16 in each conference now make the postseason tourney.  With five or six games left, the possibilities are numerous.

As Thanksgiving approaches, we decided to take a few days this week and next to take a team by team look at each division to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

That series continues today with a look at the AFC North.

The Past

– Pittsburgh is one of, if not the model franchise in the NFL and for that matter all of sports.  One family has owned it for its existence.  The Steelers have had only three head coaches (Noll, Cowher, and Tomlin) since 1969.  They have won six Super Bowls in the modern era tied with the NE Patriots.  Their eight appearances are second only to New England’s 11.

– The Baltimore Ravens (once they moved from Cleveland) have been worthy adversaries to the Steelers for the last twenty years.  Ozzie Newsome is on the shortlist of best GM/ Presidents in the NFL.  They know defensive talent when they see it and they know how to deploy it.

– Cincinnati has had spurts, but has cheap minded ownership hence a nonsustainable model for winning.  Cleveland has been Cleveland.

The Outlook

–  The outlook prior to the season had Baltimore as the frontrunner coming off of their strong 2019 season and returning Lamar Jackson and most all of the pieces of a good to real good D.

– Pittsburgh is always good (see above), but questions about Ben Rothlisberger’s age and health, a continual transition at the skill positions, and at times a leaky D made them a bit of a question mark.

– Cleveland has been assembling talent over the last few years, but had yet to pull it together.  It’s hard to change a multi-decade culture.

– Cincinnatti lacked talent from top to bottom and gave up on Andy Dalton after years of mediocrity at the position.  They had the first pick in last years’ draft for a reason.

The Present

2020 AFC North Standings
TEAM W L T PCT PF PA
Pittsburgh 9 0 0 1.000 271 171
Baltimore 6 3 0 .667 244 165
Cleveland 6 3 0 .667 216 244
Cincinnati 2 6 1 .278 204 250

 

– Raise your hand if you had the Steelers as the lone undefeated team in the NFL a week prior to Thanksgiving.  They’re an average offense statistically, but they’re ranked third overall in team defense, first in special teams, first in third-down conversions on offense, third in turnovers allowed, and second in penalty yards against.  There are a lot of ways to win a game and the Steelers exploit that.

– Raven’s fans might be disappointed sitting at 6-3.  While the division might be out of reach, the losses are to the Chiefs, the Steelers in a close one, and to a desperate at home New England team last week.  The defense is, as it always is, darn good giving up only 18 ppg and ranks first in all of the NFL in overall defensive metrics.

– Browns fans might be ecstatic sitting at 6-3.  But scoring 216 points while giving up 244 is a telling stat.  Their six wins came against Cincinnati (twice) Washington, Dallas, Houston, and Indy (the lone quality win).  Their offense has been held to six points by the Ravens and the Raiders, and to seven by the Steelers.

– Cincinnati isn’t good enough to win many games, and they haven’t.  Jimmies and Joes usually beat x’s and o’s. And Cincinnatti only has one Joe worth mentioning and that is Joe Burrow.  He needs an offensive line and soon and he’ll be able to will them to more victories.  And Cincy needs plenty more Jimmies on D.

The Prediction(s)

– The Steelers will lose somewhere along the way.  Don Shula, RIP, will smile from above. The Ravens visit on Thanksgiving night.  But very often a front runner like this 9-0 team is destined for the number one seed and a deep playoff run.  We’re calling the Steelers 14-2, North Division Champions, and the number one AFC seed.  But, we think they’ll fall a bit shy of yet another Super Bowl appearance.

– The Ravens are tough to gauge.  Playing from ahead they are one tough team.  If they trail can Lamar and company win one big one when they need to do so?  They have the Browns, Bengals, Cowboys, Football Team, and the Giants left along with the Titans and the Steelers.  11-5 (our bet) seems like a lock and 12-4 is possible.  Will they be the highest rated wild card seed come January?  From there?  We see one wild card win, then a loss.

–  We’ll fade the Browns.  The only game that we see as an outright win left is the Jets.  The other six, Jaguars and Giants included, will be tough for them.  And, the lockerroom is only a match light away from a dumpster fire.  We see 8-8 for the Browns and another cold winter on Lake Erie.

– The Bengals will “scrap you for a ball” as one Lester Miles used to say about some other Bengals.  They just don’t have enough scrappers.  If Burrow remains upright through December we see a 2-1 run through Washington, Dallas, and the NY Giants.  They’s bow to the Steelers, Ravens, and Miami.  Week 16 is at Houston, and given that mess, we’d call it a toss-up.  Mark us down for 5-10-1 and mark the Bengals down for better things ahead in 2021 and 2022.

 

Abby will weigh in with her picks tomorrow.

But a road trip for the BBR staff to NOLA could make the writing cloudy to nonexistent Monday and Tuesday.

 

After Further Review- AFC East

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Did the new NFL playoff expanded format for 2020 and beyond slip right by you?

The NFL changed its highly approved of, very fair, and long-standing playoff tradition.  It’s the first playoff format change since 1990.

John Madden used to say that December football was different than the months prior.  He said it’s because good teams turn up the effort and solidify their playoff spots or division championships, while average to bad teams play out the string.

Seven teams out of 16 in each conference now make the postseason tourney.  With five or six games left, the possibilities are numerous.

As Thanksgiving approaches, we decided to take a few days this week and next to take a team by team look at each division to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

That series begins today with a look at the AFC East.

The Past

-No it’s not true that the division was renamed this year the AFC East as it was formerly known as the New England Patriots Playground.

-New England won the division 17 of nineteen years since 2001.  Bill Belichick and Tom Brady broke numerous records as a paired coach and QB.

The Outlook

– With Brady long gone the division appeared wide open (except for the dreadful Jets) for the taking in 2020.

-The Bills have been slowly but steadily improving, earning a wild card spot in 2017 and 2019 by building a nice team with a developing Josh Allen at QB.

-Miami traded everything not nailed down two years ago for future assets as well as last year to build from the ground up.  It beats being directionless and some parts were thought to be in place.

The Present

2020 AFC East Standings
TEAM W L T   PCT   PF PA
Buffalo 7 3 0 .700 272 265
Miami 6 3 0 .667 251 182
New England 4 5 0 .444 189 211
New York 0 9 0 .000 121 268

 

– The division is indeed wide open (except for the very dreadful Jets) with New England struggling.  Cam Newton is no Tom Brady.  The recent past two drafts for NE have been short on picks and shorter on developed talent.

–  The Bills enter the bye week with a slim 1/2 game lead, but feel like they are playing catch up.  They had the Sunday game in hand until the Cardinal’s Kyler Murray threw a prayer with seconds remaining and DeAndre Hopkins answered it.  Their D isn’t what it was even just last year, but is showing some tenacity on third downs and creating turnovers.

–  Here come the Dolphins! Five weeks into the season their number one draft pick Tua Tagovailoa hadn’t been under center for one snap.  A week later he entered for mop-up duty against the (have we called them dreadful enough) Jets.  He took the reins during the bye week.  Fast forward three weeks and Tua is three and ohhh so energetic as a starter.  A 1-3 Dolphins September is suddenly a 6-3 season to date after running off five straight wins.  One win was against a good Cardinals team that just delivered on the Hail Mary v Buffalo.

– Never count a Bill Belichick team out.  Repeat.  Never.  For years observers close to the league wondered, Brady aside, how much talent did the Patriots really have? This year they found out.  Not too much.  But.  “Coach said it best — we are a good enough team to be better than what our record kind of displays. We’re just finding that out,” Newton relayed in his weekly interview on sports radio WEEI on Monday morning.  Julian Edelman is nearing full health.  His return should give Cam a very valuable target to add to the up and down offense.  NE can square their record at 5-5 v the woeful Houston Texans this week.  What was the Super Bowl Champion Patriots record after 10 games in 2001, Brady’s first year as a full-time starter?   it was 5-5.

– The Jets are, well, dreadful.  Their record this season speaks for itself.  When you are getting outscored by a 268-121 margin thus far you’re in line for the very first pick of the 2021 draft.  The Jets always pick early, always.  They have question marks from top to bottom in their organization.   You can’t answer the questions at the bottom until you answer the questions at the very top.

The Prediction(s)

– The Buffalo Bills have an easier schedule than the Dolphins and will hold on to win the East at 11-5.  The week off comes at just the right time.  Some physical healing is needed and some mental short term memory loss is as well.  If it’s still up for debate, they host Miami on 12/3, the last regular-season game.  Advantage Bills.

-The surging Dolphins will complete their franchise turnaround a year (at least) earlier than thought and secure a wild card birth at 10-6.  They have three easy (if there is such a thing) games coming up then finish tough (v Chiefs, v Patriots, at Raiders, at Bills.)  Ask the team management now if they would be pleased with 10-6 and a wild card slot.  You bet.

–  The Patriots will continue to win some that you wonder how they did (Belichick game plans like no other) and lose a couple that they wish they hadn’t (is Cam Newton reliable at a high NFL level anymore?) to finish 8-8.

– The Jets’ best chance to win one game this year likely comes this weekend.  They travel three times zones to play the 2-7 Los Angeles Chargers.  The Jets are road dogs by 9.  Vegas has them as a double-digit dog in every other game they have left.  It says here that they will finish a, wait for it, dreadful 0-16.  J-E-T-S.  Jets.  Jets.  Jets!

Next, we tackle the AFC North.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add 1 and the #1 Seed

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Did the new NFL playoff expanded format for 2020 and beyond slip right by you?  BBR is almost embarrassed to admit that it did for us.

In January and February we saw the playoffs and then the Super Bowl.   What we couldn’t see was the virus spreading at the same time.

By March 23rd our collective panic was at a new high while the stock market bottomed at a multi-year low.   With a nation’s eyes fixated on the pandemic a March 31st NFL announcement came and went without much fanfare.

In it, the NFL changed its highly approved of, very fair, and long-standing playoff tradition.  It’s the first playoff format change since 1990.   Why tinker with success?  Money.  More playoff games mean more TV.   More TV means more revenue.

A few pertinent bullet points about the expanded process follow.

-The AFC and NFC will each have seven playoff teams, but just the top seed from each conference will have a first-round bye in the playoffs.

– In wild-card weekend, the other 12 teams will play — the No. 2 seeds will host 7s, the No. 3 seeds will host 6s and the No. 4 seeds will host 5s.

-For this upcoming season, wild-card weekend will have three games on Saturday, Jan. 9, and three games on Sunday, Jan. 10.

John Madden used to say that December football was different than the months prior.  He said that because good teams turn up the effort and solidify their playoff spots or division championships, while average to bad teams play out the string.

With seven teams out of 16 in each conference now making the postseason tourney, late bloomers have a better chance than ever to emerge.  Also, teams that have a better record than other division winners have one more place to fill in an attempt to breakthrough.

And finally, the number one seed has never been more important as it’s the only one with the aforementioned first-round bye to heal those aches and pains of a season of sixteen games.   The other seeds give it their all for the opportunity to travel to face number one.  That’s a big earned advantage for having the best regular-season record.

With five or six games left, the possibilities are numerous.

With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, we decided to take a few days this week and next to take a team by team look at each division to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

That series, barring the unforeseen, begins tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Football

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Tender and tasty mmm, mmm.

Fresh from the oven to your email inbox comes Ten delicious Nuggets.

  1. The BIG 10 returned to action on the NCAA football fields and made us all feel a tad more normal Saturday. Three of their top four teams made positive statements right from the word go.
  2.  Wisconsin kicked things off Friday night with a 45-7 mauling of the not so Fighting Illini.  Freshman QB Graham Mertz (not the great-grandson of Fred and Ethel Mertz) was bold and very good.  He completed 20 of 21 passes with five going for six.  Friday’s fun turned into Saturday’s misery though.  Mertz tested positive for you know what and by BIG10 protocol cannot return to the field for 21 days if a second test confirms the first. Ouch. Could it be a “Saban like” false positive?
  3. THE Ohio St. worked Nebraska 52-17.  Their talent and coaching puts them on a short, shortlist to challenge Alabama and Clemson come January.  Nebraska has a long way to go to join the best of the BIG 10.
  4. Jim Harbaugh shut up the hot seat talk for at least one week.  His Wolverines went into Minnesota and dispatched the Golden Gophers 49-24.  You can “Row the Boat” all you want PJ, but you need bigger and better paddles to compete with the BIG 10 big dogs on a consistent basis.
  5. Penn St. was the lone rust belt surprise falling to a better than most understand Indiana Hoosiers team in an overtime thriller 36-35.  And, while it has nothing to do with the BIG 10 you must watch the quadruple doink Rice field goal overtime thriller.  Did you already see it?  Watch it again.  Crazy.
  6. Does Notre Dame belong in the conversation with THE, Clemson, and Bama?  Pitt thinks so.  The Fighting Irish took the fight to the Panthers in Pitt and cruised to a 45-3 beatdown. We’ll find out soon enough as ND faces Clemson on 11/7.  Does the PAC 12 have any fight in the dog to get a dog in the fight?  We’ll find out soon enough as they FINALLY begin to play on 11/7 as well.
  7. And then there was only one who has won them all so far.  The NFL Pittsburgh team went to Nashville to face a well-coached and tough Tennessee Titan team yesterday.  They held on by a 27-24 score.   With Seattle’s overtime loss to the quietly good 5-2 Arizona Cardinals, Pitt stands as the lone undefeated NFL team after seven weeks of league play and six games for the Steelers.
  8.  You remember the talk about Tom Brady and Drew Brees losing a few MPH’s off of their fastballs? “Not so fast my friend,” Coach Corso would say.  Both play very well yesterday in big wins.  Brady’s team gets Antonio Brown next week while Brees’ team should get Michael Thomas back.  The Bucs and the Saints have distanced themselves from the other two teams in the NFC South.
  9. One of those two teams is the Atlanta Falcons.   They somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for the third time this season.  Matt Stafford and the Lions went 75 yards in the final 64 seconds, played pitch and catch on the game’s final play, and won by one.  Unbelievable.  Falcons owner Arthur Blank stood on the sidelines with a blank expression on his face once more.  He was looking around for someone to fire, but realized that he had fired everyone two weeks ago.
  10.  Point differential is a good indicator of a team’s real strength as a season progresses.  It is simply the total points scored minus points allowed.  It’s kind of a measure of when you win how big do you do so versus when you lose how close are you.  Who has the best differential through seven weeks in the NFL? Nope, it’s not the undefeated Steelers.  It’s the 5-2 TB Bucs with +80.  The Chiefs and Ravens are plus 75.  Pitt is plus 65.
  11. (Lagniappe) By this measure which division is best in all of the fruited plains? It’s by far the NFC West where all four teams are on the plus side.  Seattle (+38) leads the division followed by Arizona (+57).  The Rams and 49ers bring up the rear at still very strong plus 38 and plus 45 respectively.  Their combined differential is an excellent +178.  Their combined w/l record is a robust 18-8.  Conversely, the NFC East is a putrid minus 174 with a combined record of 7-20-1.  Can you spell P U?

It’s work time.

It’s a Dangerous Intersection

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

With so many working from home you’d think the traffic would be far lighter.  But, on the corner of Sports Street and Life Lane, it’s busier than ever.  And once again yesterday, to make matters worse at rush hour, that damn train rolled through as well.

You know the train by name.  It’s a passenger train outbound to nowhere.  It’s called the Cancel Culture Express.  Except for this time a passenger that The Movement was trying to throw off decided to step right in front of it and dare the engineers to hit him.

If you’re an NFL fan you’ve heard of Luis Moreno, Jr. haven’t you?  He’s with the Carolina Panthers.  He has been for 10 years and counting.  Well.  It’s ten years and counting until yesterday.

No, he doesn’t play linebacker and he doesn’t kneel when the National Anthem is played.  Moreno is a Spanish-language broadcaster for the Carolina Panthers and a darn good one.  He says felt pressured to leave his job because the team is upset that he is a supporter of President Donald Trump.  In our “all-inclusive” society we only are inclusive if you choose to be included in the cause.

Moreno told the Charlotte Observer that he began openly supporting Trump on his personal Twitter account this Spring.  Shortly thereafter he was contacted about his tweets by Eric Fiddleman, the Panthers’ radio and television affiliate manager.  Fiddleman asked Moreno to delete any affiliation with the team from his personal Twitter account.

Fair enough.  The Panthers clearly feel the need to be on the right side of BLM and the NFL office nowadays.  It’s their brand and they should choose their messaging.

But, Fiddleman continued to fiddle.  He reportedly contacted Moreno (who actually is an independent contractor for them, hence even further removed) again in the summer, but this time to tell him to stop his political tweets. “If what they want me to do is stop supporting the president, I’m not gonna do that,” Moreno told Fiddleman.

Moreno further charged that Steven Drummond, the Panthers vice president of communications and external affairs, refused to speak with him about the “issue” of his social media posts and support for Trump.  Ten years of loyalty won’t help you cross the intersection these days when the ole’ Cancel Culture Express is blowing its horn.

“I’m hurt,” Moreno told the paper. “Because this has nothing to do with my performance on-air.  I’m one of the best, and I’ll put myself against anybody in the country when it comes to what I do in Spanish. None of my support for the president was done on any of their social media pages, it was never done on any of the airtime. This was solely on my personal time on my personal accounts.”

Moreno added that he won’t return to work unless the team says he is free to advocate for whomever he supports politically. “I am not OK with them censoring my freedom of speech in support of the president,” he added.

And with that, he put his hand up and stopped the Cancel Culture Express before it ran over him.

“Silly him,” you say.  “He’s the one out of a job,” you say.

It’s rare these days, but refreshing when it happens.  Someone spoke up for common sense, dignity, and most of all freedom of speech.

Moreno was a member of the “silent majority.”

He’s not anymore.  He spoke up.

Bored With It All

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Sir Winston Churchill lived a long and fulfilling 91 years.  He passed away in 1965.  His last words from his last bed were “I’m bored with it all!”  With that said he slipped into a coma.  We have to wonder if Churchill was channeling the year 2020 nearly 55 years ago.

Are you watching sports on TV?  We’re trying.  Churchill’s words keep ringing in our ears.  When we ask ourselves why we think we’re so bored, more than anything, it’s because of what is not ringing in our ears.  We hear no roar, no matter what venue the sport, as there are either zero or very, very few fans in the stands.

Who knew that the in-person fan and his/her participation would have such an effect on the fan watching from home on a comfortable couch chewing on Cheetos? We didn’t.  Did you?

Maybe half seasons, shortened seasons, and start/stop/start seasons have also watered down the interest.  But, the enthusiasm generated in person seems to have a greater effect on those at home than ever imagined. It all seems very flat emanating from the flat screen.

There were a few NCAA football games on TV this past weekend.  Normally there are some blockbuster “kickoff classics” to whet our appetite.  Instead, we saw our military teams and a few others.  Army marched all over Middle Tenessee St. 42-0 while Navy got washed ashore by BYU 55-3.

Trump was accused late last week of not caring for the military.  Doubtful.  But, it sure looked like the Navy didn’t care about football.  They did no live tackling during practices leading up to the debut and did very little live tackling in the debut.  Army cared.

But most of all seeing a very few thousand Army men and women dressed in full fatigues all six feet apart from one another virtually high fiving after each score didn’t inspire.  There were no fans allowed at all in the Navy game.  The resulting silence combined with the utter mismatch was so deafening coming through the TV that this writer dug deep into the Netflix barrel to come up with something/anything more interesting.

The NFL starts this week.  Will it generate any more enthusiasm from the couch?  We’re hopeful, but we’re doubtful.

Let’s hope the year 2020 is bored with it all, too.  It will soon slip into its own coma.  We can hope.

And, let’s hope that the year 2021 is unrelated to and healthier in many ways than the year 2020.

We need fans in the stands.

 

 

Preacher Pete and His Sheep

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Give NFL Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll credit.  He knows how to run through a hole when he sees one and put it all out there.

He just didn’t see fit to call a play to create a hole for his “Beast Mode” running back Marshawn Lynch way back in Super Bowl XLIX in 2015.

You remember, don’t you?  The Seahawks had second-and-goal at the 1 with 26 seconds remaining. Seattle was 1 yard away from securing a second consecutive championship.   But instead of handing the rock the most powerful goal-line runner in football, Carroll called a pass play, causing double-takes on his sideline and in sports bars all over the football-watching world.  New England intercepted the ball, took a knee(not like Kapernick), and won the Super Bowl.

Seattle was left to second guess their coach for a failed call for the ages.  They were still so upset that years later they almost renamed the city CHAZ to erase some of the bad memories, but we digress.

Pete said after the game to let the criticism flow. “I can take a punch,” he said.

And, this past Saturday, after canceling the Seahawks practice in the wake of the Jason Blake shooting he delivered a punch or three as well.  In his comments about why he chose to cancel Saturday’s practice, Carroll made it clear that his goal was to educate “white people” about “racism in America.”

“This is about racism in America that white people don’t know,” Carroll said in a press conference. “And they need to be coached up and they need to be educated about what the heck is going on in this world.”

“White guys came over from Europe,” the coach explained. They had a “great idea” about freedom and equality that has never come to fruition. “And they put together a system of slavery.”  “It’s never gone away. And the really amazing thing that I’ve learned is Black people know the truth. It’s white people that don’t know.”

It’s important to keep the locker room united you know.  Pete saw the hole, and Pete ran his time.   Don’t take our word for it, ask Drew Brees if you need to.

Pete Carroll, a rich white coach, gave America a lecture about its ignorance.  Has Carroll ever exploited black guys on the football field for his benefit?  You know them.  They are the league minimum yearly 500K and often so much more black guys.  We should all be exploited so.

Has Carroll ever exploited soon to be educated (on scholarship money) or rich (on NFL money) college players?  Have you ever heard of Reggie Bush?  Carroll coached at USC, arranged for Bush’s parents to live rent-free in LA for three years, won a national championship, and rode the hell out of Dodge on a Trojan horse before the NCAA dropped the hammer on the program of exploitation.

Has Carroll ever used the Colin Kaepernick saga to his advantage?   Carroll on a June 3rd podcast,  “Kapernick took a stand on something, figuratively took a knee, but he stood up for something he believed in — and what an extraordinary moment it was that he was willing to take.”  We couldn’t hear Carroll audibly back when it happened though as the fire was too hot.

As the riots began last week, Kaepernick jumped to social media to tell rioters that the riots were the “only logical reaction” and that they need to “fight back.”  The next day, Kaepernick offered to pay for the legal fees of any Antifa rioter who gets arrested during the unrest.  On the podcast, Carroll added that Kaepernick’s “mission of what the statement was, such a beautiful” statement.

Carroll said that he regretted not offering Kapernick a contract to play for the Seahawks when he had a chance to do so.  The point is he didn’t. Do you regret not investing in Apple stock in 2000?

Carroll concluded on Saturday, “Let’s step up. No more being quiet. No more being afraid to talk to topics. No more, you know, I might lose my job over this, because I’ve taken a stand here. Screw it.”

Preach Pete.  Do as I say, not as I do.  Sheep.

Brees used Carroll’s logic above.  Abraham Lincoln had more success watching a stage play.

It sounds like Carroll would be wise to finally run with his own advice.

Because in the 2015 Super Bowl and numerous times before and after when it mattered, he chose to pass.

Screw It!