Forget about the bald eagle and the polar bear for a moment. Something is threatening one of the most fundamental creatures in all of sports. Something that’s near and dear to every sports fan’s hearts: Home field advantage.
There was a time when you could go to a game and feel reasonably confident that the hometown club would win. Those days are long over. Take the current state of the NFL, for example. Home teams are a pedestrian 129-111 this season, for a winning percentage of just 53.8%. The eight division leaders have lost a combined 14 home games. As recently as 10 years ago, all of the playoff teams combined (12 at the time) lost just 17 home games.
This past weekend was a prime example of why home field advantage needs to be moved onto the endangered species list. Eleven NFL teams went into the Christmas weekend with the ability to aid their playoff chances with a home win. Those teams went just 3-8. The week before two of this year’s division champs—Seattle and New Orleans—lost at home to teams that won’t be joining them in the playoffs. When San Diego, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and New England take the field this weekend—with potential home playoff games at stake—they may be better off losing.
But this issue is not confined to the NFL. The NBA has a home court problem as well. Currently, home teams in the NBA are winning at a 60% clip, which sounds good when compared to the NFL. But the best home record of any NBA team is 12-2. We’re only 30 games into the season and every single team has lost at home at least twice. In 1985-86, the Celtics lost just one home game all season. When the Bulls won a record 72 games they dropped just two at home. Sure, those were two of the greatest teams in the history of the NBA, but this year’s best team to this point—the Dallas Mavericks—is on pace to lose eight games at home.
And in the NHL…ah, forget it. Wins, losses, overtime losses, shootout losses, wins that are really losses, losses that count as wins—who can figure out the standings in the NHL?
In baseball, the winning percentage of all home teams last season was 54.6%. That translates into an 88-win season, which might not even get you into the playoffs in baseball. What’s even more remarkable is that six of the last nine do-or-die playoff games have been won by the road teams. No wonder home field advantage for the World Series is determined by the All-Star Game. Who really cares where you play? Apparently, no one. Maybe we should change the line in Take Me Out to the Ballgame to: “Root, root, root for the home team, they’ve only got a 50-50 shot at winning the game.”
It should be a rare occasion when the best teams lose at home, should it not? That’s the way it used to be and we liked it. And we’re now conditioned always to expect it.. “It’s tough to beat the Broncos at home,” they say. Really? Is that why they’re 4-3 at home this year? Seattle’s new stadium was specifically designed to be the loudest in the NFL, so that the Seahawks would have a tremendous home field advantage. It’s helped them to a 5-3 record at home this year.
With an incredible 20 teams in the playoff mix entering the final week of the NFL season, it’s tempting to look at which teams are at home this weekend to determine who will win and make the playoffs. But this weekend’s home teams are just 70-42 in front of the local fans. Take out San Diego, Indianapolis, Baltimore, and Chicago—who are 26-2 at home this year—and the remaining 12 hosts are just 44-40 at home. Sounds like those 12 games are closer to toss-ups now, doesn’t it?
Can every professional team make a New Year’s resolution to try harder at home next year? Social change starts in our own backyards, after all. Think globally but act locally.
Picture future generations going to a museum or one of the sports halls of fame. A little child rounds the corner and sees a large still photograph. It depicts hoards of screaming fans with painted faces and signs that read, “Not in our house.” Everyone on the field and in the stands is smiling and hi-fiving.
The young child asks, “Dad, what’s that?”
“Home field advantage,” the father replies. “It doesn’t exist anymore.”
NFL Week 17 Picks
This is it. The last weekend of a crazy NFL season. Between home teams that can't win and underdogs who never lose, I don't know who to pick anymore. I'm taking 7 road teams and 6 underdogs this week.
NY Giants (-2½) over WASHINGTON NEW ORLEANS (+3) over Carolina Cleveland (+4) over HOUSTON DALLAS (-12½) over Detroit Jacksonville (+2½) over KANSAS CITY New England (+3) over TENNESSEE NY JETS (-12½) over Oakland CINCINNATI (-6) over Pittsburgh TAMPA BAY (-3½) over Seattle St. Louis (-2½) over MINNESOTA SAN DIEGO (-13½) over Arizona Atlanta (+9) over PHILADELPHIA BALTIMORE (-9½) over Buffalo Miami (+9) over INDIANAPOLIS DENVER (-10½) over San Francisco CHICAGO (-3) over Green Bay
Throwing Out More Thoughts on Sports, Life, and Whatnot
Sports history if full of icons who were smarter than everyone else around them. We call them geniuses, because they’re usually ahead of their time. They have unparalleled success and are talked about for decades to come. Vince Lombardi was one. Pete Rozelle was another. Bill Belichick is arguably a current example. The world lost one such icon last week: former Celtics president, general manager, and coach, Red Auerbach.
But then there are those who are born too late. Drew Bledsoe, for example. Had he been a quarterback in the ‘70s or early ‘80s, he would have been a no-doubt-about-it Hall of Famer, and he might have even won a championship or two. Instead, he’s a guy who threw for a ton of yards but never had the monstrous success that was expected of him. And because of his awful decision-making, he’s out of a job in Dallas. If the interception he threw before halftime of the Monday nighter against the Giants was the last pass Drew ever throws in the NFL, it’s a horrible way to end a career.
Back to the Celtics for a minute. Did Sebastian Telfair really shoot Fabolous? Did Paul Pierce miss a game because of a paper cut? Do most analysts truly think Boston could be one of the worst teams in the NBA this year? This would all be funny if I were making it all up. We miss you already, Red.
We’ve had 7 World Series winners in 7 years. So the national media has reached the conclusion that the age of parity in baseball has finally arrived. I’ve even read arguments that there is more parity in baseball than in the NFL. Heaven forbid anyone let facts get in the way o####ood argument. In the last 7 years, 4 baseball teams finished under .500 each year. Only 1 NFL team has made it 7 straight under .500—the Arizona Cardinals. 3 baseball teams won their division 5 or more times in the last 7 years. 0 NFL teams did that (even though the NFL now has 2 more divisions than baseball has). If this year’s baseball playoffs showed us anything, it’s that any team can win it all once they make the playoffs. And since the difference between the haves and the have nots is as wide as ever in baseball, there are teams with absolutely no chance, while other teams have an annual shot at the title. That’s not parity, my friends.
“By the way, watch out for the Bulls next year. This is a young team on the rise. They’ve got a who’s who of recent college studs—Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, and Luol Deng—and are one solid move away from being dangerous. As a matter of fact, what the heck, I’ll predict they make it to the Eastern Conference Finals next year.” That’s what I wrote in May in my NBA and NHL Playoff Preview. Since then, the Bulls signed Ben Wallace and beat the defending champion Heat by 42 on opening night (in Miami). Hopefully, this makes up for my ridiculously bad baseball predictions.
Can someone explain just what the heck I watched at halftime of Monday Night Football last week? A race between people in giant costumes that resembled the ESPN crew? We’ve come a long way since Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, haven’t we?
Speaking of the new Monday Night Football, it’s not surprising that they’re getting the best ratings in the history of cable television. But what was surprising was what used to be the most-watched program in cable television history: The 1993 debate on the North American Free Trade Agreement between Vice President Al Gore and billionaire and two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot. I don’t even have a joke here.
Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday. And if you live in Connecticut, please vote against Joe Lieberman (I explained why in my last Cleaning Out the Fridge).
As a football fan, you couldn’t ask for anything better than this Sunday night’s Patriots-Colts match-up. As a Patriots fan—especially after last week’s throttling of the Vikings—the thought of knocking off the undefeated Colts and the undefeated Bears in the span of four weeks is off the charts.
I have to go back to the Miami Heat and their home opener. They raised their championship banner to the rafters and then got smoked by 42 points. And it wasn’t even that close. We were told it was the worst opening night loss for a defending NBA champion in history, but I’d argue it was the worst first game loss for a defending champion of any sport in the history of organized competition. Perhaps it was bad karma for choosing Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising as the song played during the banner raising. The Rising is an ode to those who died on September 11. Not exactly sports championship banner-raising material. What on Earth were they thinking?
After three years of eligibility, Van Halen was finally nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. What was the holdup? Van Halen’s first five albums and tours made them one of the most successful bands of their time. Then came the album 1984, which produced four Top 40 hits and the chart-topping Jump. Only Michael Jackson’s Thriller (you’ve heard of that one, right?) was a bigger success that year. Their crossover from rock to pop and the brilliant use of music videos made Van Halen the most-copied band of the time. After David Lee Roth left, the band continued to have commercial success with Sammy Hagar at the helm. From 1986 to 1998, they picked up 11 #1s on Billboard Magazine’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. And they have to wait three years to even get a nomination to the Hall of Fame? The comparable sports comparison would be if George Brett, Ozzie Smith, or Dennis Eckersley retired and didn’t make the Hall of Fame in the first year of eligibility. It’s a crime
In games involving two teams who are currently 4-4 or better, AFC teams are 8-3 against the NFC. It’s another year in which the NFC is the JV to the AFC’s varsity.
Terry Bradshaw told ESPN radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning the other day that the NFL is down in recent years because there “aren’t any stars” like there were when he played. First of all, I can’t understand how Terry still has a job after these comments. His comments were more offensive than Steve Lyons’s comments. Second, he’s completely wrong. Tiki Barber, Tom Brady, Reggie Bush, Peyton Manning, LaDainian Tomlinson, Brian Urlacher, Michael Vick—those are just a few names I came up with off the top of my head (and put in alphabetical order, of course). Third, Terry, I know you were the quarterback of 4 Super Bowl winners. No offense, though, but you weren’t exactly Joe Montana or Tom Brady. Finally, Terry, any time you want to switch jobs, I’m ready. I’ll watch football all day and get paid for it. And apparently I’d enjoy it more than you.
NFL Week 9 Picks
Atlanta (-5½) over DETROIT BALTIMORE (-3) over Cincinnati WASHINGTON (+3) over Dallas Green Bay (+3½) over BUFFALO NY GIANTS (-13) over Houston ST. LOUIS (-2) over Kansas City CHICAGO (-13½) over Miami TAMPA BAY (+1) over New Orleans Tennessee (+9½) over JACKSONVILLE Minnesota (-5) over SAN FRANCISCO SAN DIEGO (-12½) over Cleveland Denver (+3) over PITTSBURGH NEW ENGLAND (-3) over Indianapolis SEATTLE (-7) over Oakland
Darren Kelly got tired of waiting for his ship to come in. A lifelong sports fan, he wants nothing more than for his full-time job to involve watching and writing about sports. To this end, he launched Sports in a Can. There's no money in it...yet. More of his fine writing is available on the Patriots Insider website: http://patrio ts.scout.com.
