http://www.sportsfilter.com/user/TheQatarian New links and comments. en-us http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Wordzilla/0.58 10 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12483/brewers-fire-ned-yost With 12 games to go in the season, the Brewers attempt to stop their meltdown by firing the manager. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:50:46 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12483/brewers-fire-ned-yost#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.12483 sports baseball, 12483 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12429/video-olympic-taekwondo-competitor-kicks Angel Matos, a Cuban taekwondo competitor, kicked the referee in the face after being disqualified at the Olympics. The competitor and his coach are likely to be banned for life. <a href="http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0823_sd_tkm_au_l1783&channelcode=sporttk">See the video</a> Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:18:21 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12429/video-olympic-taekwondo-competitor-kicks#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.12429 sports olympics, 12429 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9982/george-carlin-late-sports-authority Mourning the passing of the ultimate arbiter in the &quot;Is it a sport or not?&quot; debate. Also reference his famous <a href="http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor7.shtml">comparison between baseball and football</a>. Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:09:51 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9982/george-carlin-late-sports-authority#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9982 sports culture, 9982 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9722/ncaa-hockey-brackets-revealed The field of 16 is set for the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship, with a field determined by the six conference tournament champions and the <a href="http://www.uscho.com/rankings/pwr.php">PairWise rankings</a>. Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:01:12 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9722/ncaa-hockey-brackets-revealed#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9722 sports hockey, 9722 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9591/bob-knight-resigns from Texas Tech in midseason after 902 career wins. Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:03:11 -0500 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9591/bob-knight-resigns#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9591 sports basketball, 9591 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9481/meat-ineptitude-sandwich Tubby Smith's predecessor and successor are both making him look good. Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:53:07 -0500 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9481/meat-ineptitude-sandwich#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9481 sports basketball, 9481 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12144/flag-play Was that really cheating? (The following is less of a thought piece than it is a light rant. Sometimes, you just have to get something off your mind.)<p> Is there anything more frustrating as a football fan than watching your team get penalized for something that really doesn’t seem to matter that much? It happens a lot. This isn’t about bad calls, but about bad rules.<p> It is my personal opinion that a team should only be assessed a yardage penalty if one of these four conditions are met:<p> 1) A player/team gets an unfair advantage (offsides, holding, etc.)<br> 2) A player does something that has a high risk of injury (chop blocks, clipping, etc.)<br> 3) A player/team does something to improperly disrupt the flow of play (delay of game)<br> 4) A player/coach makes physical contact or argues excessively with an official<p> Every sport has justifiable penalties for these sorts of transgressions, whether it means free throws, sitting in the penalty box, or being ejected from the game. Football, however, goes beyond these bounds and penalizes teams for reasons that don’t fit any of the above; things that qualify more as technicalities than cheating. Though there are more, three particular penalites come to mind: <p> <b>False start.</b> There isn’t much that looks sillier on the football field than when an offensive lineman flinches slightly, and a bunch of defensive players simply point at him to try to get a penalty called.<p> I am not suggesting that all false start penalties should be abolished. There are, however, far too many for my liking. If a lineman jumps out of his crouch and starts trying to block a guy before the play starts, that’s perfectly legitimate. The “flinch-and-point” scenario, however, should not result in a penalty. No advantage was gained, and nobody has ever been injured due to a false start that I can recall.<p> So let’s establish a new rule for false starts: If an offensive player lifts his hand or moves his feet, or if the center moves the ball, it’s a penalty. Otherwise, it’s ignored. Defensive linemen should simply watch the ball instead of the linemen to determine when to go.<p> <b>Illegal formation.</b> This one may just be me, but the most baffling rule on the books in my eyes is the number of players the offensive team has to have on the line of scrimmage. There’s little that’s more frustrating than watching your team run off a big play, only to have it called back because there were only six men on the line. It’s frustrating because of its complete irrelevance to the play most of the time.<p> While I’m one of those who would be perfectly content to let everyone aside from the center line up wherever they felt like, I recognize that this would be too difficult for defenses to deal with. I also understand the reasoning behind the linemen needing to be up close to the ball, as this affects the difficulty of pass-blocking. Beyond that, I say let the eligible receivers line up as they please. If they want to be 5 yards back from the line, fine. If they all want to be on the same side of the ball, give it a go.<p> <b>Excessive celebration.</b> This penalty has evolved over the years in an attempt to set an example for younger viewers. And it’s working really well, isn’t it? (Hope your sarcasm detector is working.)<p> Look, I like the players who get to the end zone and “act like they’ve been there before”. And watching linebackers who celebrate after tackling a running back who just gained 15 yards is stupid. Some players’ TD celebrations are silly and the game can do without them. That being said, such antics do not qualify in any of the four conditions above and should not result in yardage penalties. This is a bigger problem in college than in the pros, where so many officials are so ridiculously strict where they might as well be penalizing the player (and the team...and its fans...) for “being happy”.<p> I could go on, but the point has been made. Let's penalize cheating and dangerous actions, but let's filter out what doesn't really matter. Your mileage may vary, of course. Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:31:37 -0500 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12144/flag-play#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.12144 sports commentary, 12144 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12140/ok-go Some college coaching departures are different than others In the past 12 months, the subjects of Nick Saban and Bobby Petrino have been the source of great outrage among fans of pro and college football. The disdain has practically universal for everyone outside of Alabama and Arkansas. But even cases such as Rich Rodriguez going from West Virginia to Michigan cause some consternation from fans of the jilted team and others. "He has a contract!" they scream, and wonder why no one bothers to hold them to those contracts.<p> Well, it’s not quite so black and white. Let’s pose the following question: How many coaches in Division 1-A college football (or college basketball, for that matter) currently have less than 2 years remaining on their contracts? Answer: very few. Why? Because if a school lets a coach go to the last year of his contract, it raises speculation that a coaching change is imminent, and it cripples recruiting. Schools have to keep coaches locked up for longer than they probably want to convey stability.<p> Second question: When Les Miles emphatically says, "I’m the coach at LSU," and people question whether he really means it or not, what exactly is he supposed to say in that situation? As the head coach of a group of young men who have talent but not necessarily the ability to filter out distractions, Miles has to do whatever he can to get that thought out of their minds so that they can focus on the game at hand. In Miles’ case, he actually meant what he said, but other coaches have been held to the fire for going back on their word. But the truth is, at the time, they had little other choice.<p> And finally, is it fair to keep someone from wanting to move up in the world? Most people in the working world would go to another company if it meant a bump in pay and a better position. Why should college coaches be any different? <p> Of course, there have to be some standards. Why are the cases of Saban and Petrino so maddening while cases like Rodriguez are not so appalling? In an attempt to try to write down the "unwritten rules", let’s try to establish the following three standards for when it’s OK for a coach to move on:<p> 1. Put in your time.<p> If a coach has been with a school for enough years to bring some success to a program, then decides it is time to move on, few people will have a problem with that. On the other hand, if a coach is keeping his eye out for a higher-paying job the minute he signs the contract with his current employer, that is a fine way to anger people. Guideline? At least let one of your recruiting classes graduate before leaving.<p> 2. Don’t screw the NFL.<p> The pro ranks are a totally different world than the college ranks. Pro players are better equipped for dealing with distractions than college players, so it isn’t necessary to give lying rah-rah speeches that are going to be proven false later. Also, head coaches are often allowed to go to the last year or two of their contracts, because “recruiting” isn’t based solely on the head coach: attracting free agents requires a quality organization from top to bottom, and even more importantly, salary-cap space and a willingness to use it. So if a pro team signs a coach to a long-term contract, they expect him to be there. The need to "convey stability" as mentioned above isn’t nearly as important. Many college coaches who enter the pro ranks don’t get that, much to the chagrin of owners such as Wayne Huizenga and Arthur Blank.<p> 3. Move up in the world.<p> Most people will not get on a coach who "outgrows" his current program and moves on to bigger and better places. Leaving West Virginia for Michigan is a step up (sorry, Mountaineer fans). Similarly, few complained when Urban Meyer left Utah for Florida. If, on the other hand, Tommy Tuberville had left Auburn for Texas A&M, that would widely have been considered a lateral move and appear greedy, especially because he didn’t appear to be in any danger of being canned at Auburn. An exception here is if it looks like you’re facing severe job pressure, in which case most of the fans aren’t going to be that upset by the coach leaving, anyway. An example of this would be Tubby Smith leaving Kentucky for Minnesota.<p> If we establish these three standards as the "unwritten rules" for when it’s OK for a college coach to move on, then Rodriguez played by the rules. He gave many good years to West Virginia, and moved on to a better program. Nick Saban and Bobby Petrino, on the other hand, have now had three jobs in less than two years, tried to play college games at a pro level, and ended up at a level no better than where they started, except much richer. That’s much easier to dislike.<p> As always, your mileage may vary. But it’s something to think about. Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:03:39 -0500 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/12140/ok-go#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.12140 sports commentary, 12140 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9339/mlb-pitcher-kennedy-dead Joe Kennedy, 28-year-old pitcher who played for Oakland, Arizona and Toronto this past season, collapsed and died Friday morning. Cause of death currently unknown. Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:53:02 -0500 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9339/mlb-pitcher-kennedy-dead#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9339 sports baseball, 9339 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9221/curse-curtis-leskanic Is this the year the Red Sox break the agonizing 36-month-long curse? Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:23:05 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/9221/curse-curtis-leskanic#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.9221 sports baseball, 9221 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8950/bill-walsh-traded-angels Bill Walsh, legendary coach of the San Francisco 49ers, joins the list of sports names to pass away in recent days. He was 75. Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:34:20 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8950/bill-walsh-traded-angels#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.8950 sports football, 8950 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8936/wake-forest-coach-skip-prosser-dead Prosser collapsed while jogging, according to the <i>Winston-Salem Journal</i>. Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:43:01 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8936/wake-forest-coach-skip-prosser-dead#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.8936 sports basketball, 8936 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8830/so-long-shooter Rod &quot;Shooter&quot; Beck, former closer for the Cubs and Giants (as well as other teams), dies at 38. Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:09:16 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8830/so-long-shooter#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.8830 sports baseball, 8830 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8595/bubble-trouble Torii Hunter nearly gets himself in three years' worth of trouble over four bottles of champagne. Tue, 24 Apr 2007 21:08:56 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8595/bubble-trouble#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.8595 sports baseball, 8595 http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8450/tubby-fills-gopher-hole ...Tubby Smith leaves Kentucky for Minnesota. Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:33:25 -0400 TheQatarian http://www.sportsfilter.com/news/8450/tubby-fills-gopher-hole#discuss tag:sportsfilter.com,2002:weblog.8450 sports basketball, 8450