- 08:07 AM
- 05/19/13
| Member since: | January 12, 2004 |
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| Last visit: | May 18, 2013 |
dfleming has posted 19 links and 1309 comments to SportsFilter and 3 links and 159 comments to the Locker Room and 1 column.
Gary Bettman: Players locked out September 15th if no deal is reached: Would a second lockout in a decade be disastrous for hockey or for Bettman?
posted by dfleming to hockey at 03:23 PM on August 09 - 7 comments
According to Forbes' Fab 40: Tiger Woods still has the richest brand among athletes...and still by a very wide margin. The Yankees surpassed Man U as the richest team brand and the most valuable overall brand in sports is the Super Bowl. No word on whether the BAR (brand above replacement) advanced stats were used in this analysis.
posted by dfleming to golf at 06:38 AM on October 05 - 0 comments
'Thank God It Just Popped Back In': Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo gruesomely dislocated his elbow with 7 minutes left in the third quarter Saturday night against the Miami Heat and was taken to the locker room. He returned and one-armed the entire fourth quarter of the crucial 97-81 win, bringing the series to 2-1 Heat.
posted by dfleming to basketball at 01:44 PM on May 08 - 9 comments
Memphis come back from 16 down, win in OT: Zach Randolph's 21pt/21reb performance has the upstart Grizz up 2-1 over the Thunder.
posted by dfleming to basketball at 08:55 PM on May 07 - 3 comments
Mike Kelly: of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was relieved of his duties as coach yesterday. It turns out, he's not very good on or off the field.
posted by dfleming to football at 08:54 AM on December 18 - 4 comments
For what it's worth, I have no idea if Buchholz is loading the ball or not.
See that's the thing - nobody really has an idea until a review is done. If the hitters who are facing it don't think it's out of the ordinary, then I can't say I do either. Calling for a ball to be checked is a no-downside move for any coach and yet it still hasn't been done.
I heard some of Morris' calls for the Twins - the guy absolutely loves himself, and is evolving into one of those "in my day baseball was better" types. His personal crusade to fix the game himself is not terribly surprising - I suspect he's got a "nobody else cares the way I care" kind of mental streak going on.
posted by dfleming at 04:41 PM on May 03
It's a classic results-oriented suspension - the hit on Eller was a lot less a direct target for the head than Ference, but because Eller hit the ice and there was blood everywhere, the NHL tries to protect its reputation as doing something about violence by punishing Gyrba more.
If the NHL wants to outlaw hits on defenceless players, it should just do that - but the system they have now sits a guy who aimed at the head less than one who incidentally hit it - and that's not going to achieve very good results.
posted by dfleming at 04:32 PM on May 03
That is a thing of beauty. Those guys are having a ball. Rally car drivers do have life figured out.
posted by dfleming at 10:17 AM on May 03
Zach Lowe has another great piece on the NBA and the increasing value of wing players who can score and defend since the change in the illegal defense rule.
That really is a fantastic article. Thanks for sharing.
posted by dfleming at 11:06 AM on May 02
I agree with what you said, but anonymous, totally unsourced reports on ESPN's ticker last night said at least one team had contacted him about playing a role other than QB and he turned them down.
And if that's true, I take back what I said - to play a true unsung hero kind of role, you have to be able to handle that you're not the show.
If he's still living under the notion that there's a full-time QB job for him out there, he's going to need to come to terms or just disappear.
That probably means the Patriots sign him tomorrow.
If it's a non-guaranteed contract, there's really nothing to lose - maybe he can't catch a pass, maybe he doesn't like to block, maybe he's put on weight and is slow. The Pats are probably the one team (due to their "don't tell anyone about anything ever" policy) who can starve a media frenzy, although I also don't think that there's a scenario you could sell Brady where he's not on the field - so I don't see how he'd fit and have a better skill-set at one position than anyone else.
He's probably bound for the Arena league, in part because any team in their right mind signs him to sell tickets, regardless of what he does on the field. The CFL makes no sense.
posted by dfleming at 04:32 PM on April 30
I just don't see offenses putting the effort into what you're describing unless the results were huge, and I don't think they would be.
There are still teams who run the Wildcat from time to time - despite the fact it isn't a high impact scheme. A number of teams every year struggle to put up points conventionally, so it's not like gimmicks are a non-starter.
From the outside, it doesn't seem like New York really made a go of trying to build a Tebow profile - but a more creative offensive coordinator might have a role for him. Outside of the Jets locker room, I don't think anyone thought Greg McElroy was a more game-ready quarterback than Tebow, yet they used him.
I think about occasional gimmicks like Mike Vrabel playing TE on goal-line situations - smart teams can find a way to design plays around a unique skill-set. I don't see Tebow as a star, but another weapon to force defences to spread their attention a little wider in preparation? That's not a bad thing to add if he's in the mindset not to just be a QB.
posted by dfleming at 08:00 AM on April 30
I read one analysis that says Tebow's problem is that he is highly skilled, but no one of his skills is good enough to fill a position in the NFL that uses that particular skill.
It seems more likely that the skill-set he intends to use (throwing the ball primarily) is not the same one that teams may be interested in.
A hybrid FB/TE, special teams guy, who could occasionally throw a pass would be an interesting asset to have. Kind of like a wildcat+ scenario where you could run two-back sets with no quarterback, where he could:
- Go in motion to block at the line of scrimmage for another back to run Wildcat;
- Hand the ball off to another runner and lead block;
- Run with the ball himself;
- Throw the ball out of the pocket;
- Read/option and run the kind of broken plays that he thrived on in Denver.
It would be nighmarish to have to scheme for that a few times a game. He'd just have to agree that it's his best suited role and not as a starting QB.
posted by dfleming at 06:50 PM on April 29
You can also ask Mike Wallace. Nice start to your Dolphins career - the team needing to distance itself from you publicly.
posted by dfleming at 05:18 PM on April 29
Awesome. Hope this has a cascading effect.
posted by dfleming at 02:21 PM on April 29
The NBA has a real opportunity here to become the truly progressive major sport in North America - if a suite of superstars comes out and supports Jason, it'd be a real step forward and would put pressure on other sports and stars to do the same.
Courageous guy.
posted by dfleming at 01:53 PM on April 29
Oh, still here? Unless I missed something in my totally cursory glance at the article or I'm not seeing something in your comment, there's no adjustment for the number of players/ games/ etc.
From the article:
Previous studies have shown that football has nearly twice the injury rate as the next most popular sport, basketball.
Rate implies that it's not just about volume.
posted by dfleming at 03:32 PM on April 25
Samuel Dalembert expresses an interest in signing with one of the teams in his current playoff series, but not the one you'd expect.
posted by dfleming at 11:39 AM on April 23
I get where he was trying to go, but he was totally stupid about building his analogy.
Cooke getting nominated is a farce - the guy was likely one dirty hit away from at least a year away from the game - or a lifetime ban if the NHL was really worried about its image. He saw the writing on the wall.
So I don't really applaud Cooke for changing his game - it was a product of survival. Sean Avery didn't evolve and he disappeared. Cooke was always an effective hockey player and 19 goals is not so far out of his existing production (he scored 15 twice and his team is stacked with offensive talent) that I see anything other than the occasional nasty hit has changed. He's still an effective hustle guy.
Ron Harris, who by all accounts hit Bill Masterton cleanly, 35 years later was still haunted by it. I haven't seen Cooke interviewed much lately, but I wonder how he feels about the Savard hit today - he didn't kill him, but by all accounts his whole life is different. It would've been nice (and maybe it happened but I didn't see it) to have seen a mea culpa not only from him, but from the NHL for their failure to protect Savard, before he got the inspirational NHL award.
posted by dfleming at 02:14 PM on April 22
I can't believe Madden outlived him. RIP.
posted by dfleming at 08:25 PM on April 16
SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle
Joey Crawford doing his hothead thing tossed Chris Paul and Zach Randolph last night after the game was more or less over.