Last week’s Daytona 500 was both exceptional and extremely ordinary. As the premier event on the NASCAR calendar, every Daytona 500 is exceptional, as this race is considered the “Great American Race”. Some of the things that made last weekend’s race exceptional:
The 50th. Last weekends race was the fiftieth Daytona 500. The fiftieth of anything is special, whether it’s a birthday, a wedding anniversary, or a stock car race. If you don’t think the fiftieth is special, check back with me in eight years when the NFL holds it’s fiftieth Super Bowl. They will make a HUGE deal out of that one football game, so this race was special just for that reason alone.
The introduction of past winners. The tribute NASCAR paid to past winners was special. Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, and Richard Petty were among the legends recognized by NASCAR before the race. It was even cool to see Richard Petty wave the green flag to start the race.
The pre-race concert. OK, Maybe the concert didn’t seem exceptional, I mean, so what if Chubby Checker was lip syncing, he’s what, 75, 80? I’m surprised he wasn’t singing from a prescription motorized scooter. What else could we expect from NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl? Did you think they wouldn’t have a special pre-race event?
Ryan Newman winning the race. Newman’s win automatically makes him the answer to a trivia question. When anyone asks who won the 50th Daytona 500, you won’t have to think very hard to answer them. It does seem strange, I must admit, to think that his name will be mentioned in the same breath as that of Waltrip, Yarborough, Petty and Earnhardt.
Here, also, are some of the things that made the Daytona 500 extremely ordinary, and some of these things should never happen again, as far as I’m concerned.
Jeff Hammond and Chris Meyers should never, never ever, sing on my TV again. Neither of them could carry a tune in a dump truck, and that song from “Grease” was only sang because of the racing element in the lyrics. I wish they had been lip syncing instead of Chubby.
The Gopher-cam. If you’re going to have an infield, ground level camera, someone should be assigned to come out and clean the lens every other lap or so. I personally would rather see an elevated camera put at the inside of the turns to get a “birds eye view” if you will, of the field as they make the turn. The NFL and NBA have been using elevated cameras for several years now, and it has made the television experience of their games better. I think NASCAR would definitely enhance their telecasts with a similar positioned camera.
The Gopher-cam graphics. Every time the director asked for the gopher-cam shot a cartoon gopher popped up and made some cheesy face gesture. The first time it was kind of cute and funny, but after the fourth or fifth time it was just irritating.
Uneventful racing. The whole first half of the race there were no cautions, not that cautions are good, but it does make for interesting race scenarios, what with the “lucky dog” and all. Maybe it’s because Daytona is a Super Speedway where the cars can run 3 and 4 wide, or maybe it’s due to the “car of tomorrow” and with it’s similar setups from one race team to another there’s just not much of an advantage to be had and it makes all the drivers equal to a certain extent. For whatever reason, the first half of the race is best described, in my opinion as boring.
Jeff Burton losing the lead. OK, This is more personal for me as Burton is my NASCAR favorite. His lead of nine laps vanished on the restart after the last caution with 5 laps to go. On the restart Burton was pulled into the middle of the pack like a swimmer pulled into the undertow at the beach. Of course, as the only RCR driver in the top 5 at the time, he had no teammate close to help him out.
So, there are my reasons why the Daytona 500 was both exceptional and ordinary, both exciting and boring, both an adrenaline rush and a deep letdown (see #5 above). However, that’s the nature of every sport, and NASCAR is no different in that respect, and that also is why NASCAR is the great sport it is, and we’ll all witness these things again as the schedule moves from Daytona to California.
With the Super Bowl on Sunday, the NFL season will come to an end (oh sure, there's the Pro Bowl, but even the most novice fan knows that that's not REAL football), the NBA is amost to the All Star break, and there's NASCAR in a few weeks, so there's a lot going on in sports right now. With the new year though, we also have the PGA season going on, and that has put me, at least for the moment, in a golf state of mind. Tiger is tearing up the course in Dubai, and then there's the FBR in Scottsdale. Regarding golf, here is a post I put on another site a few months ago. Every word is true. No names were changed because there are no innocent. After reading this you'll know why my fantasy golf team (on another site) is named "1More3WoodTreed".
It was a blustery fall day, with the wind varying between a soft cool breeze to the occasional gusts that would take the hat off your head. It’s been said that we only have two seasons in South Texas, summer and February, but that particular October day there was a definite chill in the air.
Cedar Creek golf course is one of the more challenging municipal courses in the San Antonio area. The regulars know to rent a cart because the hilly terrain can be physically draining, especially if your walking.
Me and three business associates had agreed to play eighteen holes on that Saturday morning, so I had secured a tee time and two carts the day before.
We met at the clubhouse around noon, which would give us ample time to visit the driving range as our tee time was not until 1:18.
Now, what I am about to relate to you, much to my embarrassment, actually happened.
None of our foursome are any threat to the PGA, although my friend Billy did attend Texas State (Southwest Texas State as it was known then) on a golf scholarship. Billy is a great guy, quite simply goodness personified. In fact I’ve only seen him mad once, and that was at himself on a golf course, for hitting what he considered a bad shot, but one the other three of us would have gladly claimed as our own.
Cedar Creek’s number nine is a par five, 515 yards from the whites, and features several small bunkers and a slightly elevated tee box. About 90-100 yards from the green the hole crosses a small babbling brook, about 2-3 feet wide.
Number eight had seen me reach the green and hole out ahead of my buddies so the number 9 honors were mine. I calmly eyed the hole from the back of the tee box. Walked up to my teed Spalding ball, took my stance, and after a practice swing, pulled my driver back slowly.
Now, every round of golf, as far as I’m concerned, features at least one, sometimes two shots that, when you strike the ball, it just feels right. You know before you lift your head that Tiger Woods himself would be glad to put his name on that stroke. My number 9 tee shot was just that way. The club hitting the ball made a sharp cracking sound that resonated off the adjacent canyon walls like a rifle shot. I lifted my head slowly to find my ball in mid-flight at the apex of a trajectory that dropped in the absolute middle of the fairway about 230 yards down hole. After a heavy sigh that I’m sure must have seemed thick with arrogance, I stated after compliments from the other three, “I’ll take it”.
After the other three players hit their tee shots we each found our golf balls, and agreed on the hitting order for the second shots. My drive was farthest, so my second shot would be made after the other three attempted theirs.
My second shot would not be quite as impressive as my first. I chose my fairway wood, a black Spalding #3 (I would later describe this over the after round beers as ‘Flying too close to the sun’) for this shot. When I brought the 3 wood down to meet the ball it sounded like a melon being smashed by a claw hammer. I had topped the ball, causing it to travel about 15 yards to the right and land with a thud in one of the small bunkers to the right of the fairway. Here’s the mother of all humbling moments for any golfer. My third shot. Still with my 3 wood in hand (I know, the WRONG club), I stood proudly over my ball in that bunker and took my third swing. I topped the ball again and it trickled out just over the lip of the bunker and came to an abrupt halt. The ball seemed to look back at me and laugh. Totally disgusted with myself by this point, I threw my hands up. Now remember, this is October, and the trees had very few leaves on them. After I threw my hands up, I heard a distinct clack, clackity, clack sound. I looked up to see my 3 wood perched across the limbs of a small post oak tree that stood sentry over the bunker I had tried to hit from.
My buddies are rolling with laughter. This is not the worst part yet. Like I had good sense, I took my putter and tried to knock the 3 wood out of the tree. You guessed it. I now have 2 golf clubs treed.
I don’t get to play a lot of golf, what with family responsibilities, work, and other things, not to mention the cost involved. So I play golf more like Tony or even Martha Stewart than Payne Stewart. More like Ickey Woods than Tiger Woods. But that won’t stop me from playing.
I don't remember what my score was that day, or which of us "won", but they say the goal in golf is to shoot your age. If that’s true I’ll be hell on wheels when I’m 106.
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws”- Plato
As with most civilized societies, laws exist to maintain order. Every state, province, and municipality worth visiting on vacation has rules, regulations and ordinances that are on the books for the population to coexist peacefully. Some are good and some regrettably are bad. There are two states in the contiguous 48 (I won’t list them here) where it is actually legal for humans to have sex with animals. I know this because I can read. Which makes me cringe when I think that someone had to actually propose that type of legislation, and a majority of the voters passed the referendum.
Whether good or bad, some laws have been accepted into being without the passage of legislation. These “unwritten laws” are rooted in common sense and accepted as the proper code of conduct. They advise us through such pertinent information that discretion is the better part of tugging on the cape of certain super heroes, spitting into the wind, and eating yellow snow.
Lately some unwritten laws have come to my attention that I feel need to be pointed out in writing. Some of these are sports oriented and some are not. Here are a few.
When running smack about your college team’s opponent before a big game, don’t besmirch the patriarch of college coaches. At a pep rally here in San Antonio before last week’s Alamo Bowl, a Yell Leader for the Texas A&M football team remarked that Joe Paterno, Penn State head football coach, who is 81, needed a coffin. Now, most people here know that I’m a Texas A&M fan when it comes to college sports, but even I know that you don’t make fun of Joe Paterno, even if he has been coaching the Nittany Lions since before the earth cooled. Paterno’s coaching legacy is above reproach. Throughout his tenure at Penn State, Paterno’s players have graduated at a rate upwards of 95%, and his teams are always competitive. This Aggie “pom-pom boy” has been tasting his Nikes since the comment was made, and the university apologized early and often as soon as the words left the idiots mouth. As an Aggie fan, I knew the game was lost days before the opening kickoff.
If you’re in the broadcast booth doing an NFL game, try, as difficult as it may be, to NOT show your bias. A few weeks ago the Pittsburgh Steelers were on the road playing a game in New England against the Patriots. Steelers cornerback Anthony Smith made a comment that the press misconstrued (I believe) as a guarantee that Pittsburgh would win the game. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, who called the game for CBS TV, without two brain cells between them apparently, all but displayed their preference for the Patriots to win. Late in the game when the Pats had the game in hand Smith’s name was mentioned as he made a tackle. Nantz, in his irritating, monotone drone, which just seems to drip with the “I’m better than you are” tone in his voice, said that Smith was “the one who ran his mouth” and referred to him as “stupid”. Unprofessional to say the least, and CBS should be ashamed.
If you’ve ever been charged with sexual assault, you probably shouldn’t use the word “violated” when describing the way you felt in your gym shorts. Los Angeles Laker guard Kobe Bryant used that word to describe the way he felt when the NBA made the Lakers wear old school “short” shorts for a recent game. Just a few years removed from a charge of sexual assault in Colorado, Bryant should have been more selective of his words. Which reminds me of a most ironic situation. Does anyone else find it ironic that a song entitled “Back Stabber” was recorded in the seventies by a group named “The O-Jays”?
If you’re going to sing a potentially embarrassing Christmas song, be sure no one is listening. I myself have recently violated this edict. Ever have a song on your mind that you just can’t get rid of, and worse yet, can’t stop singing it to yourself? Imagine the look on my face the other day when my office assistant Julie walked in at just the right time to hear me sing “Santa Baby, I’ve really been a very good girl”. Julie looked at me and said “Wow, all that’s missing is a falsetto voice register and a heel kick”.
One has to be a “person” to have “personality”. My sister used that word once to describe her Chihuahua. Call it a pet peeve of mine, but animals can not have personality. Our pets can be cute and described as cuddly, but they don’t have personality. They have individuality, even character, but not personality.
Here's one WRITTEN law that I would like to see erased from the books: Horse collar tackles are illegal. What a stupid rule this is. Does the NFL want us to believe that no player ever used this type of tackle before the Roy Williams/Terrell Owens incident a few years ago? I played football through junior high and high school and I've used that tackle technique and had it used on me about 1,000 times and I turned out, as 99% of the people who have ever played the game I think, just fine. A ridiculous rule instated because of player's astronomical salaries and owner's and GMs want to protect their investments.
So, the Miami Dolphins are no longer winless. Last Sunday the Dolphins beat the Baltimore Ravens 22-16 in overtime to avoid going 0 for 2007. How did they do it? With a combination of grit and determination, solid football, some friendly breaks from the schedule makers, and good old-fashioned luck.
Every year we hear stories of how the 1972 Dolphins team stands by every week deep into the season to toast the event of the last undefeated team’s first loss. So far this season, thanks to the New England Patriots, they have yet to mark that event, but they must have been cheering on this year’s edition of the Dolphins, who rallied from a ten-point deficit in the third quarter to lead Baltimore 16-13 in the fourth. A determined effort by the Dolphins, who have lost several games this season by three points or less. Some might say this proves they were not quite as bad as their winless record (prior to Sunday) would indicate.
Every football team worth its game ticket price (an arguable point right there, but a topic for another post) spends countless hours preparing for their next game. It should be noted that I did not see the Miami-Baltimore game, but on at least one play, the Dolphins offensive scheme worked to perfection. Of course, I mean the game winning pass play from Cleo Lemon to Greg Camarillo. Camarillo took the Lemon short pass on a slant route and split two Baltimore defenders on a 64-yard sprint to the end zone. Camarillo’s first ever career touchdown came as he did his best impression of a mechanical rabbit to the Baltimore defense’s greyhounds. Therefore, on that one play, if not the rest of the game, solid game preparation paid off for Miami.
The schedule makers were actually kind to Miami last Sunday. Well, it would at least seem that way, as the Dolphins opponent had a less than respectable 3-10 record before Sunday’s game. The Ravens have not enjoyed success recently, having lost eight games in a row, including Sunday’s futile effort against Miami. The Ravens also lost linebacker Ray Lewis to a dislocated finger and quarterback Kyle Boller (the AFC’s version of Rex Grossman) to a mild concussion. Of course, when the schedule was released last April, no one knew how the season would play out, and each week brings a new and different set of game scenarios, but at least last week, the schedule makers were on Miami’s side.
A famous football coach (Vince Lombardi I believe) once said, “Footballs are shaped weird and they bounce funny”. Miami benefited from at least two lucky bounces and one lucky (for the Dolphins) coaching decision by Baltimore. Matt Stover, the Ravens’ place kicker, missed a 44-yard field goal attempt on Baltimore’s first possession in overtime, and he had a 50-yard attempt blocked by Dolphin defensive end Jason Taylor on the final play of the first half. Miami dodged a bullet when Ravens Coach Brian Billick chose to have Stover kick a field goal rather than try for a touchdown on a fourth and goal play from the Miami one-half yard line. With the Dolphins up 16-13, the field goal tied the game and forced overtime rather than give the Ravens the victory in regulation. Billick’s decision gave the Dolphins a reprieve and another chance to win, which they did.
So Miami is no longer winless thanks to Baltimore’s poor decision, their own offensive supremacy, albeit on one play, and some lucky breaks. Who would have thought this is how they would accomplish their first win after 14 games? Oh well, even a blind squirrel can find one acorn.
Here we are at week 15 of the NFL season, and five of the league’s eight division champions have clinched their titles. Of those that have yet to be decided, the most competitive, arguably, is the AFC North. This division, for all intents and purposes, is a two horse race, with the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers as the thoroughbreds and the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, respectively, as the also ran nags.
The winner of this division may not be decided until after the last weekend of the regular season is over. In fact with Pittsburgh at a 9-4 record and Cleveland at 8-5, only one game separates the two division leaders, and with no common opponents scheduled in the last three weeks of the season, they could end up with identical records, in which case Pittsburgh would be champion, as they hold the tiebreaker, having won both games against the Browns this year.
Cleveland’s remaining schedule includes Buffalo, the Bengals, and San Francisco, with a collective won-loss record of 15-24 (.384). Pittsburgh’s schedule has the Jacksonville Jaguars, St. Louis Rams, and the Ravens, whose won-loss record is only one game better at 16-23 (.410). So with one game difference in the won loss records of both the two teams still in the running for the division title and their collective future competition, the strength of schedule factor is virtually a moot point.
Ironically, both Cleveland and Pittsburgh have one game left against a division opponent, the Browns have the Bengals in week 16, and the Steelers have the Ravens in week 17, both being road games for Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and giving Baltimore and Cincinnati both chances to spoil the party for the teams from the Rock and Roll Capitol and Steel City.
Both the Steelers and Browns face their toughest challenges in terms of remaining opponents this weekend, as Cleveland hosts Buffalo and Pittsburgh hosts Jacksonville. The Jaguars have an excellent chance of beating Pittsburgh, and Cleveland should beat Buffalo, so the two teams could be tied after this weekend’s games have been played.
So, with all the variables, the could happens, and the should happens, taken into consideration, who will win the AFC North? I don’t make predictions, but I will call this a projection. If Cleveland does beat Buffalo and Jacksonville beats Pittsburgh, then I project that the season ends with both teams at 11-5, and the 2007 AFC North champions will be the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Browns will make the playoffs as a Wild Card team.
