SportsFilter: Sports Community Weblog

an update to a previous thread. not content to offer an homage of tmq reader submissions, football outsiders is now the official (temporary) home of tuesday morning quarterback.


"it was like playing on a soft natural grass pitch, easy to stop sharply and shoot or cross the ball at speed. i'd have happily played on it for hours non-stop..." curtis fleming - middlesbrough fc & republic of ireland international soccer player

the dallas cowboys are the first nfl installation. for us amateurs, you can try it out at several different locations. has anyone played or seen this surface?


while countless booth personalities languished behind madden/summerall for decades at cbs and fox, troy only had to wait a year.

sorry fellow cowboy fans, but it looks like summerall really is going to announce most of the cowboys games. sigh.


nfl, usfl, wfl and more. pro, college and semi! every year, every team, every logo. get yer helmets!


texas tech (15-3) rips the number six rated oklahoma sooners at home, 92-79, avenging a blowout loss in norman two weeks ago. bobby knight has turned the red raiders into winners. can he keep it together and make lubbock, texas a perennial college hoops powerhouse?


kareem abdul-jabbar lands head-coaching postition for the oklahoma storm. flyover country gets a rare opportunity to see a living legend.


Comments

Dillon skipped the first voluntary minicamp under Lewis, and was the only regular to show up late for training camp. Lewis has urged him to talk to the media regularly, but has been rebuffed. from here. just what the cowboys need, a talented, lazy, malcontent. give me troy hambrick, anyday. he might not get 100 yards a game, but he'll stick his helmet on a linebacker to pick up the blitz, or block for the fullback, or do whatever the heck is neccessary for the team to be successful.

interestingly, esera has duet with singer suzy k available. i'm glad he was able to finally talk about his real self. but i can't imagine anyone being able to come out while currenting playing, and still being able to keep their job in the nfl.

where's george teague when you need him?

here's a rundown of some of the newer surfaces being used in the nfl. and this is a very nice pdf showing how it is constructed.

1: he's wrong about limiting instant replay. but only because it should be eliminated entirely. horrible, gutwrenching and incorrect calls are part what makes sports great. 2: the extra point is just fine. now the nfl allows teams to try for a two-pointer, there isn't an real argument. 3: the solution isn't quite right, but the problem is very real. i have a solution in mind, but i'm saving it for a column. (yea, right) 4. the sudden death format is perfect. i can't agree with corpse about the college rule. for pete's sake, they line up on the 25 and the points they score count in the record book. total and complete bs. they should give the winner of a college overtime 1 official point. 5: i used to care a little, but now i don't. 6: i never cared and still don't. 7: what problem is he trying to solve here? i don't get it. if more long field goal attempts are what you want, reverse the rule so the defense takes over from the line of scrimmage instead of the spot of the kick, when one is missed. 8: this just lets me identify who the real idiots are. hint: stopping a runner after a 7 yard gain on 1st down, and then pounding your chest at your sideline is one way. 9: i'd rather see the owners down there, than up in their luxury box. heck, maybe one of them will get a knee rolled up on when a play drifts out of bounds. 10: that's what college football, especially the smaller schools, is for. go see northeast [your state here] tech play next weekend. you'll probably enjoy it. i thought salmacis ideas were much better. not for the nfl, mind you. but i could easily see a pro league of some sort adopt those ideas.

the texans had 5 rookies starting on offense. including the qb. the dallas defense mostly handled them, but didn't force the texans into many mistakes, and gave up several crucial, big plays. against 5, sometimes 6, rookies. but it wasn't the dallas defense that lost the game. the offense was, in a word, pathetic. the o-line, supposedly a strength of the team, got beaten consistently, including giving up a sack for a safety with the game on the line. when carter had time to throw, he was just as likely to throw it to the texans as his own guys. of carter's 17 incompletions, 12 of them were touched by the defense. aaron glenn seemed like he could have had 4 or 5 interceptions all by himself if he would just hang on to the ball. despite the tough coverage by the corners, the cowboys never attempted to go to the tight end. even worse, dallas never tried to exploit carter's quick feet with a timely draw or scramble. yes, vito, expansion is different now from when tampa bay and seattle came into the league. and carr is now a (and in the future will be a far) better qb than carter. i even think the texans will suprise a few more teams this year. but that doesn't take away from the cowboys performance. this was the the year they thought they would show improvement. maybe even challenge for a playoff position (not my opinion. i was thinking 7-9/8-8) now the cowboys face tennessee, philadelphia, st. louis, and the giants. winning even 1 of those games will be difficult. i'll be cheering each week, but i don't expect anything other than 0-5.

dan patrick argues davis should be in the hall of fame. his comparison to sayers is close, but not convincing for me. davis had an oustanding supporting cast. sayers did not.

historical football stats have (ahem, historically) been very hard to locate. i'm an avid football stat person, a strat-o-matic geek. i found the football reference (which the prospectus links to, awhile back. you can download some raw data there and play around with it. excellent link. and i was trying to save some money this month.

[link]"One answer to why public interest in men's tennis has been on the wane in recent years is an essential and unpretty thugishness about the power-baseline style that's become dominant on the tour. Watch Agassi closely sometime...he's amazingly absent of finesse, with movements that look more like a heavy-metal musician's than an athlete's...what a top PBer really resembles is film of the old Soviet Union putting down a rebellion. It's awesome, but brutally so, with a grinding, faceless quality about its power that renders that power curiously dull and empty." david foster wallace. (originally a magazine article - republished in a supposedly fun thing i'll never do again)

hincandenza: you might want to see this comment at another website for a bit of an explanation. if that is still confusing, try here

wulfgar!: i'm actually very happy the seahawks are returning to the nfc. i was in sixth grade when seattle and tampa joined the league, and i've been a casual fan of both teams (the 'hawks, more so) since. also, i had two gorgeous posters for each team, that were issued that year. i'd appreciate a link if anyone knows where on the web they might be viewed. as for houston, it's all about the qb. they need someone mobile, who can escape a portion of the pounding that will inevitably occur. i'd make that, like aerosmith tickets [ref.], the top priority of the summer. (maybe randall 'pink' floyd is available)

i'm pretty sure tyson is now being managed by skandar akbar. if not, he should be. even if i thought this would be a good fight (lewis will hammer tyson, imho), i wouldn't support it with a dime of my money. sideshows like this are what keep me from supporting the sport. are you listening don king?

thank you chules, for giving me the opportunity to share this story. my first nfl game was the cowboys-steelers game in 1985 (google cache link) i was a poor college student, who could not afford the outrageous $75 and up fee the scalpers were charging outside. after the game had begun, and prices still had not dropped significantly, i became quite discouraged. it was then my buddy bruce and i talked to this guy who offered to get us in the stadium for $40. we had tried and failed to make it into the ou-texas game, where troy aikman led ou to a 14-7 victory [en route to a national championship] the previous day, so we were very keen on making into the stadium. after handing the gentleman our money, and waiting around for a short time, he provided us with a plastic vest and various implements of destruction [i.e. cleaning crew tools]. he walked us through the gates, and up several ramps, then collected the vests and things, turning us loose in texas stadium. the game was a complete sellout, and we could not find any seats that were vacant. we ended up sitting at the very top, on a concrete railing just a little back of last row of seats. but the cowboys managed to win the game, and tony d passed the 10,000 yard mark. money well spent.

"Try throwing this [watermelon] to your [n-word]s. Maybe they can catch this." it hasn't happened quickly, but progress is being made.