NFL

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- Sports

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

We know you like ten nuggets.  We hope you like hash.  It’s how the ten nuggets are served today.  The sports world was a bit of everything over the last 48 hours. So we have a lot of leftovers.  We sling some below.

  1.  Dustin Johnson took full advantage of soft greens at Augusta and won The Masters in rare wire to wire form.  Finishing with a 4-under 68 in Round 4, Johnson set a 72-hole scoring record of 20 under, the lowest score to par in the history.  Twenty-one under would have been the lowest to par total in any majors in their collective histories.  In his interview afterward, he could barely speak.  It’s a must-watch.  It speaks volumes about why we love competition, hard work, and inner success.
  2. His two closest competitors by mid-third round and through the final one weren’t named DeChambeau, McIlroy, Koepka, Thomas, Rahm, Rose, Casey, Woods, nor Mickelson.  If you think that watered down the crown, think again.  The golfing world officially introduced us to Sungjae Im and Cameron Thomas.
  3. Im won The Honda Classic earlier this year, is all of 22 years old, and hits the ball down the middle EVERY time he tees it up.  His short game is flawless as well.  With ball-striking like that the world-rated 25th player is here to stay.
  4. Smith hails from Down Under.  He’s an interesting character.  He isn’t built like a Koepka.  He doesn’t talk like a Thomas.  He doesn’t dress like a Speith.  He somehow made pars from the woods, the parking lot, and the hot dog stand.  He’s a breath of fresh air.  Oh, and along the walk all over the hallowed grounds, he became the first player in the history of The Masters to shoot sub 70 in all four rounds.  The 49th highest-rated player is here to stay as well.
  5. There wasn’t a top 25 matchup in all of college football Saturday.  That didn’t stop the theater though.  The best/worst of all came late Saturday.  It certainly appeared to the naked eye that the Oregon St. Beavers had a first down, not once but twice, in a crucial spot at the end of their PAC 12 matchup with Washington.  Two bad spots later, the momentum swung.  If you want to dig deeper, there is a bigger mess behind the scenes in the PAC 12 season exposed by this article.
  6. On Friday COVID-19 times forced the cancellation of the California at Arizona State game and the Utah at UCLA game both scheduled for Saturday.  Later that afternoon the PAC 12 scheduled the two “healthy teams” Cal and UCLA to square off on Sunday. Yes, Sunday.  UCLA dominated the game 34-10.  Did anyone see it?  Anyone?  Still, it’s better to have played than not.  It was an aggressive move from a conference that was very reluctant to start the season at all.

  7. Michigan fans are trying to reconcile how a team that was ranked in the preseason is now 1-3 for the first time since 1967 after suffering its largest home loss in 85 years.  Wisconsin worked them 49-11. Head coach Jim Harbaugh, who is 10-9 in his last 19 games, couldn’t really pinpoint how it happened.  But he did concede that Michigan is lousy.  “Not in a good place as a football team,” he said.  Cerebral he is that Harbaugh guy.  It looks like another worn-out welcome for the quirky former QB.

  8. Penn St is arguably worse. They suffered their fourth loss in four games this one to a Nebraska team who entered the game winless and having scored only 30 points total in two games.  The Cornhuskers put 27 on Penn St. by halftime and 30 in all in their win with a first-time starter at QB.  Directionless is the Nittany Lion team this fall.  A recent recruiting article states that they only have one of the top ten recruits from Pennsylvania from 2018-9 on their squad.  Perhaps, void of talent is the Nittany Lion team this fall?
  9. South Carolina decided to put the worst behind them.  Will Muschamp was bought out as HC for the Gamecocks.  His once proud D surrendered 59 to Ole Miss in their latest loss and the administration and the money that runs SC said sayonara.   Muschamp was once named head coach in waiting behind Mack Brown at Texas.  He decided that he didn’t want to wait and bolted to Florida.  He was not ready for an HC job then.  He was run out of there and is still owed six million from that buyout.   South Carolina thought differently.  Now they think again.   Muschamp wins the Charlie Weis Award for having two universities paying him buyout money at the same time.
  10.  However, we turn to the NFL for the worst of all.  The NFC East’s four teams now stand collectively at 10-26-1.  That’s a 28% winning percentage.  Eight of their wins, and therefore, eight of their losses have come against each other.  That puts their out of division record at, wait for it, 2-18-1.  That’s a 10% winning percentage.  Perhaps we should say that’s a 90% losing percentage.  Historically bad doesn’t accurately describe the worst of the worst.

You’re excused.  Put your plate in the sink.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Hopefully, you haven’t lost your sense of taste or smell.  Covid-19 can do that and worse to a human as you know.  We’re taking ten nuggets out of the oven this AM for you.  The disease has interrupted our fun as sports fans all over again and is unfortunately interspersed in the conversation below.

  1.  Notre Dame inserted itself squarely into the FBS playoff race conversation with its double-overtime thrilling win over Clemson in South Bend Saturday night.  There’s still work to do, but the two teams now appear on a collision course to meet again in the ACC Championship game.  Did you even know that Notre Dame joined the ACC for this season?  Covid times basically forced their hand as it’s regularly scheduled opponents were iffy on starting a season back then.
  2. Dabo Swinney, post-game, played the role of Dabo Swinney quite well.  “We’re 7-1,” coach Swinney said after the loss to Notre Dame. “Nobody was handing out a trophy tonight. Nobody was rolling a stage out there tonight. We got a ways to go. We have a lot of guys that have grown and learned a lot from this year. It’s obviously been challenging on everyone.”  His nasally whining, holier than thou, poor us, and we have work to do attitude is challenging on a lot of college football fans.
  3. The SEC has canceled three games this week due to cases sprouting up on teams and the inevitable tracing that knocks those immediately around the infected out for a bit too.  Gone are the games pitting Auburn v. Mississippi St., Texas A&M v. Tennessee, and Alabama v. LSU.  When and/or if they will be made up is up in the air.  The postponed games are piling up, and the SEC Championship Game is coming up, so some games may not get rescheduled at all.
  4. If you’re a competitor or a dyed in the wool fan, you’re disappointed in the cancellations.  If you’re a fan of Mississippi St., Tennessee, or LSU you might secretly be breathing a sigh of relief.  Miss St. started 1-0 with a big upset (at least we thought it was then) at LSU and faded very fast.  Tennessee started 2-0 and has slid to the point where they want Jeremy Pruitt to volunteer to no longer be the Volunteers coach.  LSU started poorly, leveled off briefly, then forgot to show up for its game two weeks ago v Auburn.
  5. A few other games for this weekend have also been postponed.  And, a few are teetering on the proverbial brink as well.  The season is wobbling.  Can it forge its way through?  The college game is tricky.  You can’t bubble them.  You think you can, but you can’t keep them from friends, bars, nor parties.
  6. The PAC 12 just started.  In hindsight, why did they wait?  They said it was for a lack of quick results in the then testing.  Now that we have quick response testing, we only find out faster what we already knew.  People will continue to spread this thing around until there is a vaccine in widespread distribution.  We have our fingers crossed Pfizer.
  7.  “Hello friends,” says Jim Nance.  Live from the Augusta National Golf Course tomorrow is The Masters on CBS.  It was postponed from its usual early April start.  They avoided the first wave of the disease and walked headlong into the second one with this date.  No fans (the club calls them patrons) will be allowed onto the Holy Grail of golf courses.  Former champion Sergio Garica won’t be allowed in either.  He announced that he tested positive for you know what earlier this week.
  8.  The laid back Wednesday traditional nine-hole par-three tourney is a no go today.  One of its trademarks is for the pros to attempt to skip a ball across the water on one of the par threes.  Jon Rahm, currently ranked no. 2 in the world decided to honor the tradition while practicing on the regular course yesterday.  How did he do?  If you haven’t seen it, you must.  It’s right here.
  9.  In the NFL the Pittsburgh Steelers reached the halfway point at a perfect 8-0.  Along the way they beat the Titans and the Ravens in back to back road games to get to that clean record.  No small feat.  But the AFC is loaded with good teams and the best record is far from secured this early.  KC is loaded and shows no signs of a Super Bowl hangover.  Baltimore has a strong D and a QB who can change a game by himself.  Tennessee has a tough run game and a solid D.  Buffalo is winning in different ways which is always a good sign.  And, don’t look now, but here comes Tua and the Miami Dolphins.
  10. New Orleans is the flavor of the week in the NFC.  They did to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay team on Sunday night what Tom Brady and the New England team used to do to the Jets twice a year.  The NFC has several good teams, but will they have a great one by regular season’s end?  Green Bay fits the mold of good, but not great.  Seattle can’t stop anyone.  Arizona is interesting but likely a year away.  Chicago thinks they’re good, but they aren’t.  The Rams are 5-3 but they’ve only beaten up on the woeful NFC East thus far.  Don’t look now, but the Vikings might have righted their ship (see what we did there?).

It’s hump day morning.  Soon it’ll be downhill from here.

 

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.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Yesterday’s rant about Hunter Biden and all that is wrong with that story left you hungry.  We understand.  Politics is getting harder on the stomach by the day.

We have your nuggets.  They’re a day late and were nearly a few nuggets short.  Deadlines are troublesome when your staff shows up late.

As usual, they’re randomly presented, but cooked just right.

  1.  Did you see what Tennessee Head Coach Mike Vrabel did late in the game v the Houston Texans Sunday?  He purposely sent a 12th man onto the field while on defense to draw a penalty.  It was 2nd and 1 and the clock had reached 3:30 left in the fourth quarter.  The high probability that the Texans, leading 30-29, would get a first down on that or the 3rd down play meant the clock or his timeouts could be drawn down significantly.  He conceded the first down, saved a timeout or two, and saved 45 or more seconds.  Scroll to the bottom of this article to see it unfold.
  2. The Texans went on to score but left the Titans enough time and timeouts to tie the game in regulation with a very late touchdown.  In overtime the Titans won the coin toss, drove the length of the field, and won the game.  It’s a Bill Belichick type of move from a Bill Belichick disciple.  Expect the ever-active NFL rules committee to take action this offseason somehow to prevent this in the future.  It’s called the NFL.  It’s called the No Fun League, where creative thinking is discouraged at times.
  3. The Dak-less Dallas Cowboys looked below average with backup Andy Dalton leading them last MNF evening.  It might be a long road ahead for a team that was picked to win the NFC East by most.  They fell to 2-4.  The East is bad.  Correction, the East is very bad.  The Cowboys remain on top of the division at 2-4.  That’s no typo.  The Washington Football Team, the Philadelphia Phootball Eagles, and the New York Football Giants each have one win to show in six tries.
  4.  Who’s undefeated after six weeks?  Seattle, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh are.  Front runners in the NFL rarely fade.  It’ll be interesting in late December if these three are still on a shortlist vying for home-field advantage throughout.  It says here that they will be.  Baltimore and Kansas City might have a bit to say about that in the AFC, and Green Bay might as well in the NFC.  Sorry Chicago fans, they won’t but will contend for a nice seed at this pace.  The Bear D is good.  The Bear O is bad.  Did somebody just ask, “what about Tom Brady and Tampa?”  Nah.
  5. The Big 10 rolls out the pigskin this weekend.  Welcome back.  They’ve been missed.  More football is better than less.  And, Clemson and Alabama need someone to keep them company at the top.  It’s lonely up there.  It’s very lonely up there.  Sure, Notre Dame is undefeated.  Does anyone really think that they are on the aforementioned two teams’ level?  THE Ohio St might well be.  When the PAC 12 resumes, which we presume will be before 2024, maybe even Oregon can join a conversation.
  6. When Oklahoma St and Texas A&M are ranked 6th and 7th respectively you can tell football isn’t playing with a full deck nor to a full house.  2020.
  7. The World Series starts tonight.  Will you be watching?  The matchup is very interesting.  Tampa is a small, small media market,  LA is the second largest.  Tampa Bay’s payroll is 28th out of 32 teams.  Los Angeles pays 2nd best trailing only the NY Yankees.  The Rays are +175, the Dodgers are -215.
  8. The Rays have four current or former All-Stars with five total appearances.  The Dodgers have 12 players combining to make 26 appearances.
  9. The Dodgers acquired Mookie Betts in the offseason and the list of better nonpitching players in the game is very short.  The Rays acquired Randy Arozarena.  He was an obscure rookie outfielder in the Cardinals organization.  In 2019 he spent 1/2 a year in AA and half a year in AAA.  Arozerena was the MVP of the ALCS.  He’s been a house on fire in the playoffs to date.
  10. Do you miss the NBA already?  LeBron got his damn respect winning the Finals just a week ago yesterday with the LA Lakers.  The season resumes on January 18th of 2021.  It’s only 12 weeks away.  You can make it.

Whew.  Deadlines.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Football

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Ok, ok.  You’re hungry for some Monday nuggets.  The kitchen opened a bit late while practicing social distancing, but into the grease we go.  Buffet style is so out of style, COVID -19 concerns you know.  We break that trend below.

  1.  The Houston Texans fired a coach/GM last Monday.  Yesterday, they played pretty well for interim coach Romeo Crennel against the visiting Jacksonville Jags and won their first game of 2020.  They’re 1-4 as the schedule gets easier than it started.  Yesterday, after their 5th loss without a win the Atlanta Falcons fired their coach and GM as well.  In Houston that was one person, in Atlanta that was Dan Quinn and Thomas Dimitroff.
  2. Quinn came to the Falcons four-plus years ago from his DC position in Seattle.  He immediately installed a mean and opportunistic defense.  It finished 2017, his year one, as the statistically rated 8th best in the NFL.  Unfortunately, it also finished year one blowing a 28-3 Super Bowl lead to the NE Patriots.  In subsequent years it finished 25th and 23rd.  After five games this year it’s been shredded game and time again.  It’s tied for dead last.  Worse, they’re 25 million over the projected cap for 2021 and that’s before any COVID-related cap reductions rumored to slow the payroll roll in the NFL.
  3.  New York and New York join the lowly Falcons as the only other teams that have yet to post a victory in the NFL this year.  Those Jets are some bad.  The Giants are pretty bad, too.  They grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory yesterday.  Back up QB Andy Dalton lead a last-second drive for Dallas including a 38-yard pass just prior to the game-winning Cowboys filed goal.
  4. Dalton finished the game because Dak Prescott didn’t.  If you missed why consider yourself among the lucky ones.  Officially, the Cowboys announced that Prescott suffered a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle, which means the bone penetrated his skin as part of the injury.  Unofficially, they didn’t announce that when Giant Logan Ryan tackled Prescott on a designed QB draw his foot came out of the pile still attached to his body but facing the wrong way relative to the rest of his leg.  You might not want to watch, but if you must, it’s right here.
  5. If you don’t need smelling salts from that video and if you’re a Seattle Seahawks fan you might want to invest in a box.  They’ve won 14 of their last 16 one-possession games going back into last season.  No other NFL team has played in more than 10 and none have won more than eight, save the Seahawks.  Russell Wilson was gold again down the stretch.  He led a 94-yard game-winning drive while converting two fourth downs along the way to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.  This time Minnesota was the last second victim, falling 27-26 at the sound of the final gun.
  6.  There isn’t a better 1-4 team in the league than Minnesota, but as Bill Parcels says, “you are what your record says you are.”  And at 1-4 the Vikings are staring up at all of their North Division foes.  The good news is that they are only 0-1 in the division.  The ground can be made up. The bad news is that their usually fine defense has surrendered 152 points.  Only the Cowboys and Giants are worse.
  7. Don’t look now, but there is a team coming together out west in a new town and in a new stadium.  And it can score points in bunches.  The formerly Oakland, now Las Vegas Raiders put 40 points up on their longtime division rival and reigning SB champion Kansas City Chiefs last evening.  Only Seattle, and Dallas, and Cleveland (yes Cleveland) have scored more.  NFL insiders have snickered for two full years as Mike Mayock and Jon Gruden have assembled a team built a bit differently than conventional wisdom tries to dictate.  Snicker away.  Their D is lacking, but their confidence in their direction isn’t.
  8.  Turning to the NCAA, when a Nick Saban Alabama defense and an LSU defense gives up 48 and 44 points on a given Saturday, one must ask, “is defense dead in NCAA football?”  In 2011, those teams met twice.  In the regular season LSU won in Tuscaloosa 9-6.  In the then BCS Championship game the Tide shut LSU out 21-0.  That’s 36 points scored by four teams in two games.  Saturday, four teams in two games, Alabama v Ole Miss, and Missouri v LSU combined to score exactly 200 points in their two games.
  9. Has the game changed that much in one decade?  The answer in a word is, yes.  The RPO, running QB’s, dual-threat QB’s, spread concepts, four and five wides, and matchup mismatches have given the offense the upper hand.  If you throw in a few overtime games to boot, betting the over has been all over the money.  Maybe the Pac 12 and Big 12 were just ahead of their time.
  10.  And, finally, LeBron, Anthony Davis, and a few other Lakers won the franchise’s 17th NBA title last evening.  Impressive.  It’s LeBron’s fourth NBA title and with them, he’s captured 4 MVPs in the final as well.  Impressive times four.  And, he wants his damn respect.  Someday he might get it.

Get back to work!

Ten Piece Nuggets-Football, Baseball and a PS

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Significant technical difficulties this AM at the world headquarters of BBR leads to a first.  You’ve been put on a diet.  Less than ten nuggets might be served below in hopes that we can beat the deadline to post.  Enjoy and shed some weight at the same time.

  1. Deep in The Heart of Texas starts with “the stars at night are big and bright.”  Maybe so.  But they aren’t shining on football in the state that brought you Friday Night Lights.  This past weekend the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Texas Longhorns, and Texas A&M Aggies all spit the bit.  Three of their games weren’t even competitive.   The Longhorns coughed up a fumble from point-blank range late in the fourth quarter to grab defeat from the jaws of victory v TCU.
  2. The Cowboys at 1-3 are only 1/2 game out of first in the woeful East Division of the NFC though.  Philadelphia, thanks to a late road comeback over the 49ers, is at the top at 1-2-1.  The division has the Washington Football Team at 1-3.  The name change didn’t help.  And, the NY Football Giants are 0-4.  That’s a smooth 3-12-1 combined.
  3.  The Texans are 0-4.  Bill O’Brien added GM duties in the offseason to his head coaching position.  He’s as stubborn as a steer headed to slaughter.  He is also the only head coach with such a duel role in the NFL we believe.  He bloated the Texans payroll to $225 million, highest in the league.  Their porous defense has surrendered 126 points through four games.  Only three teams have surrendered more as the season hits the quarter pole.  The Lions (127) and Jets (131) have surrendered more.  But, the absolute worst you wonder?  How bout them Cowboys at 146?
  4.  Tom Herman was the hottest name in NCAA coaching circles four years ago.  Texas threw big money at him.  He’s 1-3 versus in-state TCU and has lost 20 games and counting in 3.25 years.  His agent used LSU to broker a bigger deal with Texas.  LSU “settled” on Ed Orgeron.  In Austin, it’s “pew.”  In Baton Rouge, it’s “whew!”
  5. Texas A&M watched Johnny Football Mansiel run past Alabama eight years ago and thought Kevin Sumlin had something to do with it.  They tore up his old contract and guaranteed him $25 million over the next five years.  Three years later they ate that remaining $10 million.  Undeterred, they guaranteed Jimbo $75 million over the next ten years.  Fisher is a disciple of Nick Saban.  Fisher is 0-3 vs. his mentor now.  Saturday, Saban’s Bama team beat Jimbo’s A&M team 52-24.  In 2019 it was Bama 47-28 and in 2018 it was 45-23.  Seventy-five million doesn’t buy as much as it did previously it seems.
  6. Tom Herman and Jimbo Fisher have combined to take home about $45 million combined so far from the two public Texas universities.   They are still owed another $73 million guaranteed.  Who says you can’t throw bad money after bad money?
  7.  How is your betting going in this season that is but almost never was?  On Saturday college football underdogs went 23-7 v the spread.  Home underdogs were 10-2.  For the season underdogs are now 61.5% against the spread.  Take the points.
  8. A great NFL in-game bet is to take whoever the Detroit Lions are playing when the Lions roar ahead by 10 points or more.  Yesterday they led the N.O. Saints 14-0 five minutes into the game.  By halftime they trailed 28-14.  The Lions have now lost six consecutive games in which they led at one point by 10+.  It’s the longest such streak in NFL history.  This comes from a team that has never won a Super Bowl ever either.  Jeez.
  9. Joe Burrow became the first rookie ever to throw for 300 or more yards in three consecutive games.  He led the previously winless Cincinnatti Bengals to their first victory of the season.   Afterwards, in the Bengals locker room, he was presented with the game ball.  Burrow said the game ball is going back in the ball bag.  He consistently told his LSU teammates game after game in last year’s 15-0 championship run that they had bigger fish to fry as well.  It’s early, but it looks like Cincinnati hit on the first pick of it all.
  10. The MLB division level playoffs begin today.  Every series has bad blood between its opponents.  Oakland hates Houston and knew they were cheating all along in 2019.  The TB Rays and the NY Yankees played beanball recently and Rays’ manager Kevin Cash thinks the Yankees staff fails to police it’s pitching staff.  The Dodgers and Padres don’t like all of the posing each does after taters leave the yard.  And the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins have had their own rendition of beanball this year.  Let the gamesmanship and games begin.

Whew!  We were able to pile ten high on your plate.

P.S.  The NBA Finals between the LA Lakers and Miami Heat is 2-1 Lakers.  We had to look that one up.  LeBron’s new team is beating one of LeBron’s old teams.

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.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Life

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If you like your sports straight or neat like you like your whiskey, 2020 is producing bad barrels to pour.  Sadly, the two are intertwined far too much.  But, at least you can enjoy the Ten Piece Nuggets below where we give the zaniness to you straight if not neat.

  1.  Joe Biden, months back when asked, said the most important thing that he was looking for in a VP candidate was “the ability to take office on day one.”  It didn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of his own longevity.  Kamala Harris got the job and apparently is taking his concern to heart.  Yesterday on the stump she said, “A Harris administration together with Joe Biden as President of the US will provide 100 billion dollars in low-interest loans and investment to minority business owners.”  Biden’s hiding low and Kamala’s riding high.
  2.  Will the VP candidate, or based on the above the Presidential candidate, take time to visit the two LAPD officers who are recovering from the blatant assassination attempt Saturday?  She visited Blake and his family in Wisconsin and even had effusive praise for him.  Cali’s her home state.  Wisconsin wasn’t around the corner.
  3. Trump visited Kenosha, WI last month and met with law enforcement officials, but not Blake nor his family.  Do you think the battle lines for 11/3 could be drawn any more clearly on the above the law and total disorder front?
  4. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Monday challenged NBA star LeBron James to match the reward money being offered for information on the gunman who ambushed and shot two deputies over the weekend.  Villanueva said the reward money reached $175,000.  “This challenge is to Lebron James. I want you to match that and double that reward,” Villanueva said. “I know you care about law enforcement. You expressed a very interesting statement about your perspective on race relations and on officer-involved shootings and the impact that it has on the African-American community.  “And I appreciated that,” he continued. “But likewise, we need to appreciate that respect for life goes across all professions.”
  5. Speaking of Cali, the record heat forced Governor Newsom to ask for thermostats to be raised or in-home power to be turned off altogether to minimize the widespread brownouts.  You wonder what happens in a year or three when millions more battery operated cars will need recharging in the citizen’s garages.
  6. Today is 49 days or exactly seven weeks till election day.  Do polls mean anything anymore?  If so, President Trump is doing better by 4% points with probable Jewish voters at this moment than how they exit polled in 2016.  He has the support of 30%.  It’s the highest since George Herbert Walker Bush in 1988 for a Republican.  The Jewish community has supported Democratic nominees every four years since Calvin Coolidge.  They are nothing if not very consistent.
  7.  Turning to sports, if you missed it, 54-year-old golfer John Daly announced Sunday that he has bladder cancer.  He’s quite the optimist about his recovery, saying that it was identified early.  BBR identified early on that Daly was one of our staff’s favorite people.  He’s plenty flawed like all of us, but he owns who he is and rarely apologizes for it.  We often say the same about Charles Barkley.  They put the “real” in keeping it real.
  8. “Caddyshack” turned 40 years old this summer. It’s abundantly quotable and features a cast of 1980s comedy titans including Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield.  But Academy Award nominee Michael O’Keefe played the main character, Danny Noonan, a caddy at the fictional Bushwood Country Club.  Last week, O’Keefe wrote an open letter on Golf.com asking to be allowed to return to his caddying craft and be on a bag at Winged Foot this week.  O’Keefe got his wish Monday. He caddied for Danny Balin during practice rounds. O’Keefe even wore a Bushwood CC hat.
  9. Here comes the Tom Brady “can’t play any more stories.”  One week does not a season make.  With no preseason games it’s hard with a new cast assembled to have live bullets coming at you in week one.  In our overreactive media world, who must fill 24 hours everyday, it’s what they do.  And they do it poorly.  Brady is definitely not who he was, but let’s give it a few weeks in Tampa before we are convinced his world is ending shall we?
  10. Here’s more unsolicited advice.  A local respected NFL analyst noted that 12 of 14 teams that won through Sunday had the more mobile quarterback.  He went on to say that you cannot win in the NFL anymore without one.  Dropback passers are so yesterday.  Sure.  Like Brady’s missteps in week one, let’s let the season progress a bit before we head down every rabbit hole that can be written or spoken about.

You’ve been served.

Take a Stand.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The NFL 2020 season kicked off last evening.  But, before it kicked off there was hope that our summer of disease and discontent could turn nicely into fall like a green leaf turned red, yellow, and orange.

Afterall there has been only one positive test in the league for COVID-19 in over 8300 tests to date. Wowza! And, the NFL has not only allowed, but encouraged players and teams to express their concerns against racial inequality and for social justice.  Wowza!

Well, that didn’t go so well.  Prior to the visiting Houston Texans v home Kansas City Chiefs, players from both teams locked arms in unity.  And the fans booed.  Not all of them booed but enough to be heard did so.

Prior to that, the Texans stayed in the locker room for both the National Anthem and for Alicia Keys’ performance of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” otherwise known as the Black Anthem.  The Chiefs stood on the field as a team for both.  So much for unity until their arm locks.

Benjamin Watson is a former NFL player.  He had a very successful stint as a tight end for 15 years in the league and was on the winning NE Patriots team for the Super Bowl in 2005 as well.  He was known as a great teammate, hard worker, intellect, and leader both on and off of the field.

Following the events in Ferguson, Missouri, Watson wrote a Facebook post on the issue of race in America that was “liked” on Facebook more than 850,000 times. The post received national attention.

On November 17, 2015, Watson released a book, Under Our Skin: Getting Real About Race–And Getting Free From the Fears and Frustrations That Divide Us.

Watson took to Twitter last evening. He wrote “Don’t kneel.  Don’t lock arms.  Don’t love each other.  Don’t care about your country.  Don’t seek social justice and equality.  Just play.  Sad.”

And we wonder.   Where did free speech and freedom of expression wander off to in the anything but United States?

It went to a spot that only allows it if you agree with what is being said.  Maybe some fans just want pure sports.  Is it ok for them to express that?

We used to frown upon kneeling for the anthem but recognized the right to do so.  Now we frown upon objecting to kneeling.
The right to kneel or lock arms is equal to the right to boo that very act.  Or it should be.

Did you notice the word “equal” in the last sentence?  It stands for equality.

Well, it used to stand for equality until it was frowned upon to want all to stand for the Anthem.