Like many out there, I found yesterday’s SuperBowl, number LIII, a complete bore. In fact, I only watched the first half and when it was done decided there was no point in watching more.
As a Dolphin fan, I’m no fan of the Patriots, but reading up on their win yesterday one can’t help but feel they are and remain a next level team, one that seems to have cracked the code to Football.
So congrats to them for that!
Now then: The game still sucked.
It was dull and, inexplicably, so too were the SuperBowl ads.
Even people who aren’t huge Football fans (like my wife), might watch the SuperBowl to catch the ads. They’re often incredibly creative, funny -sometimes quite hilarious!- and original.
Not so this year.
Few of the ads stick to may mind… there was a Budweiser ad which was really a Game of Thrones ad, or was it a combo Budweiser/Games of Thrones ad? I don’t know, but it wasn’t all that humorous.
There was a Jason Bateman as an elevator operator ad which was for some online car buying company… I think… that did nothing for me.
In fact, the only ad I kinda liked was the one featuring the NFL banquet where a football falls from the cake and the veterans and current players there go to town.
At least that ad had me cracking up.
Otherwise…
A Postscript: There were many who also knocked the Maroon 5 half-time show. Not a fan of the band and didn’t bother to see it (again, I was gone when half-time began), but looks like it was par for the course.
Found this article regarding the upcoming Superbowl half-time show, and the fact that they have Maroon 5 performing but the band is having a hard time getting anyone else to play with them (the article was written by Randall Colburn and presented on avclub.com)…
The upshot of the article, if you’re too lazy to click on it, is that while Maroon 5 has committed to playing at the upcoming SuperBowl Half-time show, it appears many artists are boycotting the event and/or are not interested in performing because of the way the NFL treated -and is still treating- Colin Kaepernick.
If you’re unfamiliar with that whole saga, basically Mr. Kaepernick took a “knee” on the sidelines during the National Anthem played before each game’s beginning. He was protesting the way African Americans are treated in the US and the way some are harassed or much, much worse by the police and the criminal justice system.
I never had a problem with the protest. It was peaceful and it addressed something that should, IMHO, be addressed. However, many on the “right” viewed this as being disrespectful to the flag and Mr. Kaepernick was eventually let go from his team and to date hasn’t had any football team look into hiring him, even though he is still a young and accomplished quarterback.
The fact that music acts are potentially boycotting the SuperBowl’s Half-Time show while team owners -some whose teams desperately could use a quarterback like Mr. Kaepernick- have been completely silent regarding hiring him shows to some extent the divide in this country.
Powerful/successful music acts can certainly choose not to have anything to do with the SuperBowl while on the other side team owners worry that if they hire Mr. Kaepernick they may face protests or worse from their fans and others. Like it or not -and I do not- Mr. Kaepernick has become something of a lightning rod in these times and I can sympathize with owners who are hesitant to hire him while, simultaneously and perhaps more than a little hypocritically (after all, its not my money), wish some brave owner would go against the grain and freaking hire him already.
Ah well. In a way, this is one of those Greek-like dramas that may never be resolved in any meaningful way.
After an unexpectedly stormy Labor Day weekend due to what became Tropical Storm Gordon (take care up there in the coast!), we turn our attention to what is for me the biggest love/hate relationship I have:
Football.
I like the game. Quite a bit. It’s emotional, draining, perplexing, and surprisingly strategic given it is also a show of force/speed.
On the other hand, a part of me notes that its a brutal game that is proving itself to be more than just something that wears and tears athlete’s bodies: It hurts their brain as well and, I do feel, in time this sport will face a reconning in this respect, and who knows if it will survive.
Having said all that, I first became a fan of the sport during Dan Marino’s first year with the Dolphins (don’t look that year up… I beg you, I’m that old!) and have been a Dolphin fan ever since.
Sadly, once coach Don Shula left and Marino retired (another very long time ago), the Dolphins have been stuck in a mediocre cycle. They usually win just enough games to get a mid-first round pick, but are never quite awful enough (though there was that one year) to get some really good picks. And when they do pick, it seems like the football Gods are against them and the people they pick may be OK or terrible, but rarely really, really great. Of course, there are exceptions, but it is what it is.
So with Football season about to begin, one looks at the prognosticators and, if you’re a Dolphin fan, you check out the Dolphin’s place compared to all other teams for this year and, if you’re on CNN’s Bleacher Report you find…
Mike Freeman offers the following article at BleacherReport.com regarding the new NFL policy regarding players kneeling during the National Anthem. Based on the article’s title, I dare you to guess where he stands on this issue:
The bottom line is this: After a year of Trump jawing about how players who kneel during the National Anthem are somehow “disrespecting” the American flag (they are not), the NFL, under fearless leader Roger Goodell (how does he keep his job?!) decided they would fine any team whose players kneel during the Anthem.
Yep. That’ll solve everything.
Sigh.
I understand some people feel it is disrespectful to kneel during the Anthem. Fine. But if you can remove your angst about that visual for one second, consider why these people are doing this. Perhaps, with just a little empathy, you may come to realize their actions are rooted in a very just cause and, further, their actions are the definition of benign and *gasp* peaceful. I mean, I could understand the angst if the players dropped their pants and mooned the cameras or gave the ol’ “one gun salute” during the Anthem, but they are not doing that.
You are bothered by the actions because you’ve allowed yourself to be bothered by them.
I used to really, really love watching professional Football. Nowadays, with article after article about the extent of damage playing this sport causes to player’s brains, the bizarre rules and rule changes, the way the league muffed domestic abuse, and now this…
…well, if the NFL fears losing viewers, they might want to look within. From my perspective -and mine alone!- they’re already doing a great job at it all by their lonesome.
One of the Winter Olympics sports that is laughed off by many -but not me!- is Curling.
I genuinely like the sport, which involves players launching a “rock” on ice which slides to the opposite end of the field and in a target area. Here are some examples of what are considered the best Curling shots of the past year…
As I said, I really like the sport, which people far more eloquent than I have described as “chess on ice”. It is. The sport, which does not demand a very high level of athleticism, except for when you’re sweeping, nonetheless requires a steady hand, a good eye, and plenty of mental skills.
When the Winter Olympics started, the first Curling events we saw were the mixed doubles, which involves a smaller team playing. In the mixed doubles, a man and woman competing against another couple. One of the earlier matches we saw involved this couple:
They are Anastasia Bryzgalova and Aleksandr Krushelnitckii, a husband and wife team from Russia. They are, if I may say so myself, a very handsome couple. With their looks they could both, IMHO, easily be movie stars.
The married couple would wind up winning the Bronze Medal in Mixed Curling but, dark clouds have appeared on the horizon…
Russian players during the 2018 Winter Olympics are forbidden, because of the current doping scandal enveloping these players, from stating they represent Russia. Instead, they are there are “Olympic Athletes from Russia” and are forbidden, if they win, from having their anthem played or from wearing any clothing which depicts the Russian flag (hence the reason these two above have fairly bland black outfits with equally bland white lettering stating who they are).
Anyway, Mr. Krushelnitckii, after winning the Bronze Medal, was found to perhaps have been doping. Mark Trevelyan and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber for Reuters (and appearing on Huffingtonpost.com) wrote the following article regarding this new controversy…
I have to say, this is something of a heartbreaking story. Again, we’re talking about CURLING here, a sport that really doesn’t require a superb physique or long term physical exertion, which makes me wonder if maybe Mr. Krushelnitckii was perhaps given this drug for some other reason and wasn’t aware it was a banned substance.
I know, I know: I could very well be superbly naive about the whole thing, too.
From the article, fellow Russian Curler Viktoria Moiseeva, who believes Krushelnitsky is innocent, stated: With us it’s not faster, higher, stronger; it’s about being more accurate. I can’t imagine what kind of drugs you could use in curling … so it’s very hard to believe.
Well, there is the sweeping itself and, who knows, maybe Mr. Krushelnitckii had some problem with his shoulder(s) and used the drug to help get over that particular injury.
Who the hell knows.
Regardless, its a damn shame. The two were not only a very attractive couple, they were easy to root for as they played their game smoothly and with grace during the times I watched them.
Look, I’m a Dolphin fan. Can’t help it. First got into Football the year Dan Marino became quarterback. It was quite a wild ride following his career. He was easily one of the best, perhaps THE best quarterback ever… certainly the best to not win a SuperBowl (which, alas, is the way so many judge a football player’s legacy).
And he was great in a time when the rules weren’t quite as nice toward receivers.
Year after year the Dolphins were SuperBowl contenders, though unfortunately they only would go with Marino to one SuperBowl and lose it to Montana and the 49ers.
Still, each year was nonetheless a thrill and there was never a doubt we’d make it to the playoffs and would always feel there was a chance to make it to the big game.
Since Marino’s retirement, the Dolphins have sunk into what is essentially a frustrating mediocrity. With a one year exception (that I can recall), they’re never outright horrible yet have not been good enough to consider a strong post season/playoff team. Sure they’ve made it to the playoffs here and there, but any realistic fan knew they would be lucky to make it out of the first round of the playoffs and into the second, much less beyond that.
We’ve had so many seasons ending with between 6 and 9 wins and not all that much more, and a big part of their failure is in finding a quarterback who is anywhere near as skilled as Marino was.
Which, in a way, brings us to the latest SuperBowl, wherein New England QB, and quite possibly the best QB ever, Tom Brady, played one hell of a game and had the best stats of any QB in any SuperBowl ever… and yet his team lost to the Eagles.
Nonetheless, New England under Tom Brady have won 5 SuperBowls and made it to several others which they lost.
And its looking like perhaps we’re seeing the end of that run.
Why?
Coaches are leaving the team. Several free agents are about to leave. Some may retire. There are rumors the team’s coach, Bill Belichick, and Tom Brady aren’t quite seeing eye to eye. That perhaps there’s further pressure going on with the team’s owner, Robert Kraft.
Further, Tom Brady, as brilliant as his performance was in this SuperBowl, is going to be a year older. He’s 40 now, which is a very old age for a football player. Sadly, there have been excellent players who, suddenly, no longer are as good as they were. Their speed, their endurance, whatever, drops just a little, but its enough to turn them from an excellent player to one that no longer is good enough to continue on the team.
I’m not saying this is the case with Brady. He may come back and do fine.
But what about the rest of the team?
In Dolphin coach Don Shula’s last year, he was given carte blanche to make a SuperBowl run. He loaded the team up with previous first round picks and the team… didn’t do all that well. Afterwards, the players spread out to the winds and the team began its drop, hastened by Marino leaving.
While New England didn’t go the route of Don Shula’s last year, I get vibes from that NE team that they’re in a similar situation. As I said above, coaches are leaving. Players are leaving. Perhaps the coach might be leaving.
NE has had a fairy tale ride these past many years, having a team that has excelled more than any other.
That ride may be reaching its end and, like my Dolphins, hard times may be around the corner.
Those who even casually follow sports must know of golfer Tiger Woods.
He seemed to come out of nowhere, a golf protege -or savant- who even in his last rookie tournament (playing against a fellow named Steve Scott) looked absolutely electric.
He would turn pro and prove a formidable golfer, winning tournaments at a pace that suggested he might, when all was said and done, break the records held by golf great Jack Nicklaus.
But a decade ago all that fell by the wayside.
In an era where baseball players were scrutinized for their use of “banned” substances such as steroids, a little seen -much less remembered- article noted that one of the main Doctors known to prescribe steroids to baseball athletes also had Mr. Woods among his clients.
Not much was made of the report -and I would quickly note there is no evidence that I know of pointing to Mr. Woods’ performance on the links being enhanced- because not too long afterwards Tiger Woods had his infamous car accident and, subsequently, his personal dirty laundry was revealed to the entire world.
The married Tiger Woods, it turned out, was far from a faithful husband and the car accident, whose details to this day remain murky, had a blow-up with his then wife and then drove off only to have his car crash.
With the marriage in trouble, stories of his many, many affairs came to light. Mr. Woods would publicly apologize for his actions and subsequently divorce. His ex-wife, its been reported, made some $700 million off the divorce. The golden golfer was suddenly in a very dark place and his game, to add insult to injury, was suddenly gone.
Since that time, Mr. Woods hasn’t won a single tournament and the thought that he might come (ahem) roaring back seems more fantasy than reality nowadays.
Especially after what happened this week.
Mr. Woods was found out cold in his Mercedes in his secluded neighborhood. Two of the car’s tires were flat and he had crashed the vehicle. When police arrived, he was awoken and, it was thought, he was drunk. He wasn’t, as it would turn out, but he claimed his actions were the result of a bad reaction to prescription drugs he’s taking to deal with the latest operation he had on his back.
Today, police released footage of the actual event, and if you want to see it, it’s here. It’s not pretty and I have no great desire to show it here.
I point all this out because, other than perhaps O. J. Simpson, I don’t believe the public has witnessed a star athlete fall so far and so hard.
Though I’m hardly the world’s biggest golf fan, I did enjoy watching Mr. Woods play in his prime. He was a fierce competitor and clearly focused like a laser on his play. There were tournaments I remember where he was down by several shots on the last few holes yet it was clear he still had a shot to win the tournament.
I don’t relish seeing what’s become of him.
While he may indeed have suffered a bad reaction to a prescription medication, its very alarming he seems to have no one around him to stop him from driving when he’s so very clearly impaired.
I suspect the Tiger Woods of old, the world-class golfer all the other golfers feared, will likely never return.
I know I’m just a blogger out in the weeds whose opinion is only his own, but I do hope that Tiger Woods, the man, can get those demons out of his head. At 41 years of age, he’s still a very young man and he’s got plenty of life to lead.
You know, I’ve been away these past three days and it feels like I’ve missed just about everything that happened this busy weekend.
What, you say Saturday Night Live had a Trump related skit that was hilarious but didn’t feature Alec Baldwin as President Trump?! Come on, man, that’s not possi–
Oh my. That is hilarious. So funny that I’m sure if there was an Alec Baldwin President Trump skit, it must not have been that goo–
I stand corrected. Keep it up guys and gals.
******
On Sunday we had this little sport event over here on our side of the pond (and within the borders of our country) which we call the Super Bowl. It featured the surprising Atlanta Falcons, whom pretty much everyone hoped would win, against the (boo! hiss!) New England Patriots.
I’ve mentioned it before but when I was young, I didn’t really care to watch sports. It was really boring to me. Sometime shortly after starting my first year in a University, I slowly began to appreciate sports. Eventually, I became a sports fanatic, though my interests are most certainly local.
I’ve mentioned before how I saw, on TV, almost every single game played by the then Florida Marlins (They’re now called the Miami Marlins) back in 1997 for what turned out to be their first Championship series. There was no way going into the season to think they’d make it to the playoffs, much less with the Championship, yet they did and I’ll be damned if I missed even five games of that season, so devoted was I to watching.
By that point, however, I watched the Florida Panthers, I watched the Miami Heat. And of course I watched the Miami Dolphins, my gateway drug team.
You would think after such a magical year of viewership, culminating in “my” team getting the ultimate prize, I’d become a full-fledged MEGA-fan.
This was not to be.
While I had great fun watching “my” team through that year, after the glow of the ultimate win faded away, I thought back to all those hours I spent watching the games and realized how incredibly lucky I was to see a season end this year…and how very, very, very unlikely it was I’d have that chance again.
I also did the math and realized I had spent and awful lot of hours watching sports when I could have been doing something else.
You know, like writing.
So I dialed it all back. Waaaaaay back.
I still like catching a game here and there, though I’ve for the most part given up completely on Hockey and Baseball. Yeah, I may be a “fair weather” fan, I suppose, as both our Hockey and Baseball teams have seen better days. I barely catch Miami Heat games nowadays and, again, that could be a sign of my fair weather nature.
Yet I do catch the Miami Dolphin games and, of all sports, Football seems to be the one I stick with the most.
Part of the reason is that it doesn’t require quite as big a time investment as the other sports. A Football season lasts 17 weeks and each team plays 16 games (each team has a 1 week “bye”). In theory and if you make it to the playoffs, you may have another 2-3 games to play before its all over, depending on your rankings going into the post season.
Getting back to this Super Bowl, it featured the greatest comeback by a “down” team to win. Of course, that team was the (boo! hiss!) New England Patriots and this article by Drew Magary pretty much explains why…
It encapsulates my feelings as well. You can be a good team, hell, you can be the BEST team ever with the best Quarterback ever and the best Coach ever, and still be reviled for what’s been found out about you. Specifically, your history of cheating. Or, to be more clear, of being caught cheating.
Still, since I’ve become less of a sports fanatic than before (trust me, it is true), I’ve come to the realization that there’s no reason to get so damn emotionally invested in these games.
Sure, I’d love my Dolphins to rise up from the pit they’ve been in for far too many years and finally return to the glory they once possessed, but let’s face it: The Dolphins, and indeed every team in the NFL, is part of a business organization that looks out for their bottom line. They all have high paid athletes whose emotional investment in the games they play is far above and beyond any fans’ investment as they are, you know, actually playing the games.
Further, sports is one of the most cut-throat goal oriented businesses out there. You’re either good or not and the proof is spelled out by the score at the end of the game and your record at the end of the season.
The Patriots are good. My Dolphins, not so much (though after this past year, there’s some hope!).
Though there is no love for the Patriots in me, I caught this article over at Huffington Post and even those most repulsed-by-the-Patriots, those who think Tom Brady should take a long walk on the proverbial short pier, should read this:
I don’t know about you, but if there’s one pleasant thing to glean from the Patriots’ latest Super Bowl win is the thought that it gave Galynn Brady, Tom Brady’s mother, a reason to smile.
Even the most cold-hearted anti-Patriot fan should take a look at this photograph and recognize that it, if nothing else, is reason to be, if not happy for the Patriots, at least feel happy for Galynn.
…so why not have a little fun with the 5 Worst Plays of All Time?
I have to say, as (in)famous as that Garo Yepremian “throw” is, and I will fully grant you it may be the Miami Dolphin fan in me, but how does a botched -and I’ll grant you hilariously panicked/botched- throw following a blocked kick equate to some of the terrible plays presented beforehand?
The infamous “butt fumble” (#5) or the Indianapolis Colt’s bizarre formation (how did the coach, or anyone on the field and playing for Indianapolis for that matter, not see this would be a disaster?!) for my money are far worse plays.
Here is another batch of bad plays, this one from this past season…
Anyway, its Friday and the weekend is within sight. All’s good! 😉
Last night’s Rams vs. 49ers snoozefest was interrupted by some random dude running onto the field and making a fool of himself (as they are wont to do) but what makes this so hilarious is Kevin Harlan’s play by play of the event. The High definition version can be seen here:
Because ESPN and most networks “look away” whenever something like this happens, the High Definition version of this mostly features views of the coaches and not the event itself. Luckily, in this age of cell phone cameras people filmed the event and some very industrious people put the radio announcement and their filming -and some stills- together. It may not look or sound quite as good as what you’ve got above, but its hilarious nonetheless…
