The NFL, and football in general, still gets away with anything in the public’s forgiving eyes; but other sports, namely baseball, are held to far more scrupulous standards, especially by the media.I like Dan Wetzel, but he sadly joined the mainstream media big time Monday with his attack on baseball front and center at Yahoo sports. Where was his attack when the refs blew the Super Bowl in February? Not allowed, I’m sure.
I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that, like in politics, the media sets the agenda in the world.
As some on talk radio have dared to mention, while the story of NFL’s top defensive player testing positive for steroids is buried somewhere deep in most websites, Wetzel’s column is where no one can miss it. The poll is hilarious too as it was up last night before Wetzel’s column and 80% voted Rogers did not cheat. Now, 51% think he did. Wetzel might make a fine lawyer.
What did Dan and others want Selig, Larussa or Palermo to do? Stop the game for a DNA test and a detailed search of Rogers’ locker? Please. He was not cheating. Even the man who pushed over a cameraman last spring is not that foolish. Kenny also threw seven shutout innings afterwards, so Dan and others should be honest, objective journalists, and stop looking for ways to bash baseball and instead properly publicize Shawn Merriman as you would if the likes of Ryan Howard were caught “using.” The Larussa/Leyland “friends” angle is so weak as well.
I’m also still looking for the story about MLB’s new collective bargaining agreement being settled through 2011 in record time. Since August of 1994, any good news for baseball is no news to much of the sports media.
I napped during much of the Colts-Redskins game yesterday. Can you say injury, timeout, punt, timeout, touchdown, time out, kick off, timeout? And the NFL players are out of control with their wild celebrations after ordinary catches and tackles. Totally impossible to enjoy a game even on TV. But we like NFL guys, so nothing will change. Not even their drug policies.
Now then, aside from all the other shortcomings fans and media ignore, it amazes me how football fans are so myopically in love with their sport that they turn a blind eye to the continuously abysmal officiating each weekend. I suppose that the aforementioned super bowl being stolen from a team and a petition to the NFL signed by more than 10,000 fans criticising the outgoing commissioner and other “big wigs,” imploring them to hire full time, competent refs, was not sufficient to rectify this travesty.
Meanwhile, baseball umpires this postseason, WITHOUT replays, continue to make the correct calls or overturn incorrect ones.
But football fans are football fans. They’re often too drunk or inherently uninterested in any game they aren’t wagering on (or have fantasy guys in) to care. Gosh, when on line gambling exits stage left, what will happen to these men?
A friend who likes all sports but prefers baseball best summarized when he noted that baseball is best for two reasons:
1- competent umpiring
2- it is untimed – thus, stupid rules like the 2:00 and the clock stopping in the last 5:00 if a player is in bounds when it is above 37 degrees in Duluth, etc…
There’s also the incessant commercials, lack of action and immense mid-week and offseason coverage (especially the draft) of the NFL that kills and amazes me. I used to denounce the NBA, but I now see I was criticising the wrong sport. Hey fellas, did you hear that three more NFL players (aside from Merriman) were suspended for drug use this week? Nope, because it’s not even worthy of talk show conversation somehow.
Football just does nothing for me anymore. Next to baseball, college hoops has always been my favorite sport and college football, well geez, it’s college football. There’s no bigger fraud of a sport that we buy into. Comparing the two sports postseasons is the best, simple example.
Then again, D 1-AA football gets it as does D-2, D-3 and the NAIA. Thus, they are excused. D-1 college pigskin is a fraud and I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can take it seriously when their team can end the year winning and winning, hot and hot, and then…end their season. If you don’t get it, wait for this year. Wait to see who loses the Ohio State-Michigan game (which really is the national title game, but that does not matter). The NCAA got lucky last year.
It’s too bad though, as like collegiate hoops, NCAA pigskin is far more exciting to watch than pro, but at least the best teams prevail in pro.
Lastly, can anyone believe the utter apologist mentality and excuses for the dearth punishments given by former Clinton staffer and current “U” president/educrat, Donna Shalala over the atrocious brawl Saturday night? No expulsions, just excuses, as she focused on winning football games not being a leader. I’m sure the AD told her precisely what to do, not to do, say and not to say. She didn’t even want to see the video. Can you imagine a lawyer, jury and police chief saying that? Even the NY Times condemned this unprofessional act!
That says something. When baseball ends, let hoops begin. Football is a waste of my time on many fronts.
24 replies on “Hey- We Like NFL guys!”
Not exactly an offensive coordinator… The fact Shawne Merriman got cold busted is testament to the quality of testing in the NFL. Football and steroids were once synonymous. I live and die with the Steelers, but even I will admit the Steel Curtain was saturated with steroids. Merriman is of the highest profile and he will be the high profile example. Evidently its “Lights Out” for Merriman and possibly the Chargers season. The NFL learned the lessons MLB deals with today. Now I know where Merriman got his moniker” Lights Out” because I’m confident no one is home.
not exactly an "example" the NFL will suspend him for 4 games. I believe track and field athletes get suspended for 2 years on a first offense. The NFL is doing something but the fact is they need man/beasts like Merriman to make the game better. Watching merriman play is unbelievable. I couldn’t believe how much better he was than the Raiders entire team.
ridiculous If you don’t like the NFL or college football, then you don’t like the sport at all. For one thing, not liking a sport because of officiating is wrong. The NFL is unbelievably hard to officiate. You’re standing on the field with a constant threat of injury and have to watch for numerous penalties. In baseball, it’s a relatively easy call. Strike or ball. Foul or fair. The NFL officials are actually good compared with the refs at the high school level. And you critisize a sport for “lack of action” while touting a sport that has 15-second pauses for no reason. Baseball is great, but it is the king of non-action. And by the way, a four-game suspension for an NFL player is roughly equal to baseball’s 50-game suspension.
lol how about you try and call a fair MLB stike/ball game?
you’re rediculous The Astros ended the season winning and winning, and ended their season.
Do you not realize your points do not hold through?
Ha! is that all you guys could get? 10,000 signatures?? How many people watched that game/have access to the internet?
As much as I love the games of baseball and football, I can’t apolgize for them and I won’t even try. You can find a million things wrong with them or you can just enjoy the goddam games you watch and ignore the ones you don’t. It’s your money and your TV, chief. Bashing one sport to build up another just sucks and is a shitty argument.
And I think the NFL Competition Committee eliminated the 37 Degrees in Duluth Rule in 2003. It’s Fargo now.
ok I’m not saying it’s easy, but try to make an accurate pass interference call while on the run.
I think what he’s saying is… that the media gives football a free pass in pointing out its weaknesses, whereas it attacks baseball. I think he is completely correct. If we were as scutinizing of football as we are of baseball, it would probably be a better sport
You see what had happened was.. The NFL reigns supreme as the dominant sport in America. To say football gets a free pass is hyperbole. Didn’t Shawne”Lights Out” Merriman make news on every media outlet just days ago? The intense scrutiny on baseball primarily focuses on steroids and only exists due to MLB’s unwillingness to acknowledge the problem for years. The NFL realized long ago steroids had to go and put a rigorous testing regimen in place.
Etc
If this was a baseball player, the “talking heads” and scribes would use the steroids issue to rant on baseball and its effect on society at-large the state of the game, and speak in terms of “how dare these players cheat and set a bad example for our youth!”
The NFL marketing and PR department have done a bang-up job keeping the kibosh on this problem. I guess baseball’s issue is that their people are not slick enough to do the same (as if they should be penalized for trying to address it head-on in the media)
rIdiculous “The Astros ended the season winning and winning, and ended their season.”
Uh, and they went. 500.
College teams go 11-0 and their season ends. College football at the D-1 level is a fraud and they are too afraid to do anything because the bowls are all about money.
Those four and a half hour meaningless games all holiday season are soooo fun.
duh duh the bowls are about money. only 6 division 1 (including 1-aa) athletic departments make a profit every year out of more than 300. They cannot do anything about it or else the schools would have to dole out more money for other sports than they already do. the bowl system enables collegiate athletics to survive beyond football and basketball.
And 4 1/2 hours, come on, that’s an extreme exaggeration.
Ok So you admit college football cares more about money than having a system where the best teams win. Quite a sport. Count me out.
The regular season college games, because the clock stops more often than NFL (every first down, etc) are about three and half hours. This is a fact.
The major college bowls games, with all their commercials, the extra long halftime, etc are about four hour and 15 minutes on average. Look it up.
Hoops College hoops games: 120 minutes of non-stop action, best postseason tourney on the planet, including pro sports.
I’ll watch them.
you obviously don’t know about the (stupid) rule changes…
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2006-09-04-time-changes_x.htm
Average length of 3.05 hours now. Not 3.5.
okay “So you admit college football cares more about money than having a system where the best teams win. Quite a sport. Count me out.”
I understand that you do not like college football. I’m stating that this is necessary for the survival of the other 11+ teams at any division 1-a college.
non stop action? The last five minutes of any college hoops game are about 30 minutes of real time.
a few points The only reason the steriods issue is so huge in baseball is because HOF-caliber players are known to have used steroids. Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds are three of the greatest all-time power hitters, and all three cheated. If players like Ray Lewis, Donovan McNabb, or Shaun Alexander were found to have used steroids, imagine the outrage that would be.
And for those saying that football players never get critisized, has anyone ever heard of Terrell Owens? Announcers blast him for talking to his coordinator on the sidelines.
Indeed Did not know of the rule. That’s a GOOD rule. I wonder how the game times have been the past few weeks.
I do like college football. I like it A LOT more than the NFL. It is ten times more exciting. Watching NFL is worse than soccer or auto racing. It is so choreographed and dull. I just think college football needs a playoff system, as we all know, and they won’t get one. Bowl games bring in a ton of money of course, but a 16 team playoff wouldn’t? They couldn’t use the same sponsors?
Owens Milton Bradley, Barry Bonds et al get the same negative media as Owens. Terrell is just ten times as brash. ESPN cancelled “Playmakers” because it told the truth about the NFL. Drug use is rampant. The league knows it and has judicioulsy covered it up. But when more test positive like Merriman, it won’t look good.
Baseball is under more scrutiny not because of those big name players, but because MLB fans, like me, love stats and records and don’t like them to be tainted. If those steroid users weren’t breaking records, no one would care.
2 hrs If the game is close, you might be right, but 98% of the games last two hours. Watch any Big Monday, Super Tuesday et al this season. Games are at 7 EST, then 9 EST like clockwork. It’s a pure pleasure. You can watch two games in the time it takes to watch one college bowl game. And the hoops games actually mean something, too.
my problems with the rule is that it allows teams to run out the clock easier, thus creating less final-minute drives. It’s a good rule so long as it goes off in the final five minutes. That way a team can’t run 25 seconds off before its first play while running out the clock.
Last Five Minutes of a College Hoops Game You must be confusing the college game with the NBA game. The last five minutes of a college game are always compelling theater. There is less time outs called plus there isn’t that stupid automatic inbounds at halfcourt rule.
Precisely You’re right, Trevor. It’s the NBA that now has 3 hr playoff games because of timeouts late. College hoops rules on so many fronts, no better drama especially if you have been to a game in places like Phog Allen, The Pit, Assembly Hall and Pauley like I have. (And yes, football fans, I have been to Boulder, Ann Arbor, College Park and Gainesville for games – no comparison to hoops)
Once baseball is over, football gets bypassed in my house, and we move our sports viewing right to NCAA basketball.