Monthly Archives: September 2017
NFL vs. Trump: both sides are wrong
I have had it up to here with National Football League players refusing to stand for the Star-Spangled Banner prior to games.
I have had it with Donald Trump bitching about NFL players who don’t stand for the Star-Spangled Banner
I have had it with the media highlighting the protests.
Just go away already.
I watch football to get away from the stress of the everyday world. The United States of America has enough problems worrying about Kim-Jong Un, who has no compulsion about killing millions of people with a nuclear weapon, whether they be in another country or his own. His father, Kim-Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim-Il Sung, didn’t have any problems killing milions of Koreans becuase they didn’t subscribe to their worldview.
I want to watch FOOTBALL when I turn on an NFL game. FOOTBALL. I don’t want to hear about Malcolm Jenkins giving the Black Powe Salute, I don’t want to hear so and so too a knee, I don’t want to hear about the Seahawks and Titans choosng to remain in the locker room during the playing of the national anthem, and I don’t want to hear about Collin Kaepernick’s protests.
Also, I’ve had it with people making excuses for why Kaepernick doesn’t have a job with an NFL team right now. He is not good enough to play quarterback in the NFL. Period. His skill set probably translates better to the Canadian Football League, where the field is longer and wider, there are 12 players on the field, and receivers can gain a running start by going in forward motion prior to the snap. A lot of quarterbacks similar to Kaepernick who couldn’t make it in the NFL have thrived in the CFL. Condredge Holloway, the first black quarterback in the Southeastern Conference for Tennessee in the early 1970s, is a lot like Kaepernick—athletic, not the strongest arm, but dangerous in the open field.
Trump made the comment that NFL players who do not stand for the national anthem should be fired—if not fired, then suspended without pay—was a little harsh. I believe the flag of the United States of America deserves the utmost respect and people should stand at attention when the national anthem is played, but the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows for freedom of speech, and that includes protesting the flag. We do not want to become North Korea.
On the other hand, NFL players are paid quite handsomely to play a game. I believe that once a player puts on a uniform whether it be in practice or a game, it is work, and he should be held to the rules and regulations of the worplace, the NFL. If players wish to PEACEFULLY on their own time, more power to them. But once they are in uniform, they are there to do a job.
I barely watched the NFL last Sunday. I did not watch any of the early games, which was partly to protest the fact the Fox affiliate in Wichita insisted on showing the Giants-Eagles game instead of Falcons-Lions. The reasoning of the station was that becuase the Giants and Eagles are in the NFC East, they felt it was important to show the game, as it would afect Cowboys fans, who are many in southern Kansas. PLEASE.
I watched a few minutes of Chiefs-Chargers, but once Kansas City led 14-0, I tuned out. Did not watch one snap of Raiders-Redskins Sunday night nor Cowboys-Cardinals Monday night. I watched a few plays of the Bears-Packers game on Amazon Prime last night, but that’s it.
I’m not missing the NFL that much. Not really.
More of this BS OT
The Iowa-Iowa State game is in overtime.
FUCK ME HARD.
God I hate overtime in college and high school football.
No, check that. I don’t hate overtime in college and high school football.
I DESPISE IT.
In case you have been living under a rock, college football games which end tied after four quarters use a tiebreaker where each team has a possession beginning from the opponents’ 25-yard line.
There is one man to blame for this bullshit format.
His name is Brice Durbin.
In 1971, Durbin, then Executive Director of the Kansas State High School Activities Association, came up with an idea to break ties on the field, rather than determine the team which advanced in case of a tied postseason game (notice I did not say “win” the game, because the game actually ended TIED) using statistics.
At the time, the first statistical criteria to determine the team which advanced was first downs. If that was tied, then it was the team which had the greater number of penetrations inside the opponents’ 20-yard line (the “red zone”). If that were tied, then the winner would be determined by a coin toss. Fortunately, no games needed the coin toss.
Durbin came up with a tiebreaker where each team would receive possession at the opponents’ 10-yard line, first down and goal. The team which had more points at the end of the overtime period (similar to an inning of baseball) won. If it were still tied, the game would go on (and on and on) until one team had more points.
The 10-yard line? Give me a break. You want to talk about tilting the playing field. Asking a defense to stop a team from making two and a half yards per play for four plays is way too much. Any offense which can’t average three yards a play isn’t worth a damn, either.
Even worse, the KSHSAA format precludes a defensive touchdown. So let’s see here…a defender intercepts a pass and has nothing but open field to the other end zone. Instead of rewarding the defender with a game-winning touchdown, you’re going to reward the team that turned the ball over by giving them a chance to stop the opponent? What the heck?
Kansas first used it in 1971, but no other state (smartly) adopted it for many years.
In 1972, a Louisiana Class AAAA semifinal between Monroe Neville and New Orleans Brother Martin (my alma mater) ended 0-0. The Tigers and Crusaders were also tied in first downs (9-9) and penetrations (1-1).
Louisiana High School Athletic Association Commissioner Frank Spruiell suggested to the coaches, Neville’s Charlie Brown and Martin’s Bobby Conlin, to flip a coin to determine the winner. Brown and Conlin told Spruiell to get bent. Spruiell then suggested a “sudden death” version of the KSHSAA overtime, where one team would take possession at the 10. If it scored, that team won. If it didn’t, the defensive team would have won. Brown and Conlin said no to that too.
The next day, the LHSAA executive committee told Neville and Martin to play again the following Tuesday in Alexandria. The Tigers won 8-0, then defeated Bossier City Airline three days later in Monroe for the championship.
Eventually, Louisiana and the National Federation of State High School Associations codified the KSHSAA overtime into the rule book.
The NCAA would adopt a modified version of the KSHSAA overtime for its playoffs at all levels except the top level in the late 1970s. The differences were the series started at the 25; teams could make first downs (the only way to make a first down under the NFHS rule was on a defensive penalty which carried an automatic first down, and there are very few of those in the rules); and the defense could score on a turnover.
Texas and Massachusetts, which play under college rules, finally adopted the NCAA overtime in the 1990s. Previously, Texas used first downs and penetrations to determine the team which advanced if there were a tie in a playoff game–EXCEPT in the finals. If a championship game were tied, the teams were declared “co-champions”. This was the case for Georgia championship games into the 21st century.
In 1995, the NCAA extended overtime to bowl games at the I-A (major college, now Football Bowl Subdivision) level, and in 1996, it came to the regular season. After numerous games went several overtimes, the NCAA added a new rule in 1997 stating a team had to attempt a 2-point conversion beginning with the third overtime.
The National Federation now allows states to modify the KSHSAA format. Missouri starts from the 25-yard line, except it does not allow the defense to score, nor does it require a team to go for two starting in the third overtime. Louisiana still starts from the 10, but it now requires teams to go for two starting with the third OT. Oregon allows the defense to score with a turnover.
I have seen way, way, way too many people on social media demand the NFL adopt the college format. They’re smoking some powerful crack. The 1985 Bears defense would have a hell of a time stopping an offense from scoring from 25 yards out.
I don’t care. I still despise it college overtime. It’s terrible. Unless a team has a godawful kicker, they are in field goal range to start the possession. And again, a team needs to make three yards per play to make a first down. Three yards per play over nine plays is a touchdown unless my math is faulty.
High school overtime REALLY turns my stomach.
I don’t see what the problem is with leaving a tied game tied. If colleges and high schools insist on breaking ties, limit it to the postseason (which means only conference championship games and College Football Playoff semifinals and finals in FBS), then use sudden death. And REAL sudden death, not the crap the NFL has now adopted.
Or better yet, adopt a system similar to association football, where there are two periods of equal time (5, 6 or 7 minutes), and the game is over after the periods are played. If the score is still tied, then it becomes sudden death.
Iowa won 44-41 in case you’re curious.
All hail the fat man!
The Kansas Jayhawks kick off what figures to be their ninth consecutive losing football season tonight when they face patsy Southeast Missouri State in Lawrence. Nothing like opening your season with a challenging opponent, right David Beaty?
Beaty, entering his third season as Jayhawks coach, was once an assistant to the man who led Kansas to its last winning season.
A man who will be inducted into the University of Kansas (don’t get me started about how KU appears on nearly every piece of apparel for the Jayhawks, but the official title of the school is the University of Kansas; it’s that way at Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma, too) Athletics Hall of Fame.
A man whom I despise. A man whom I have absolutely zero respect for. A man whose mere image gets me riled up.
Let me put it this way: if I had a choice of being on a deserted island with this man and former President Obama, I’m choosing Barack every time.
Mark Mangino.
Mangino coached the Jayhawks from 2002-09. He guided Kansas football to arguably its most successful season in its mostly wretched history, leading the 2007 Jayhawks to a 12-1 record and victory over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. That victory fully eradicated the memories of the Orange Bowl following the 1968 season, the one where Kansas, led by John Riggins and Bobby Douglass, appeared to defeat 10-0 Penn State 14-13, only to be called for having at least 12 players (some accounts report as many as 14 Jayhawks on the field) during the Nittany Lions’ 2-point conversion attempt after their second touchdown. Penn State didn’t blow its gift, and converted for a 15-14 victory.
Kansas won its first 11 games of 2007 and rose to #2 in all of the major polls of the time: Associated Press, coaches, Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and Harris Interactive, which replaced the AP as part of the BCS formula in 2005. Ironically for me, my alma mater was #1.
The night before the Jayhawks were to play archrival Missouri in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, LSU lost 50-48 in three overtimes to Arkansas in Baton Rouge. It was the Bayou Bengals’ second triple overtime loss of 2007, having fallen 43-37 at Kentucky on October 13, my 31st birthday.
I don’t like college overtime, period. I think it’s bush league to give a team the ball on the opponents’ 25-yard line and ask the defense to hold up, knowing the offense needs only 10 yards to keep the drive going. I think overtime should be eliminated in all regular season football games, whether it be high school, college or professional. If the most popular sporting league on earth, the English Premier League, lives with draws during its 38-game schedule, why can’t American football? But if the NCAA is going to insist on determining
In my mind, LSU was 10-0-2 after the regular season. I’m saying Kentucky and Arkansas TIED LSU, but the Wildcats and Razorbacks simply scored more touchdowns in the shootout. It’s the same procedure for association football (soccer), where the match is officially recorded as a draw, with the team which scores more in the shootout advancing.
Kansas was poised to move to #1 if it defeated Missouri; instead, the Tigers won 36-28 and took over the top spot, with West Virginia going to #2. The Tigers lost the Big 12 champiosnhip game to Oklahoma, the Mountaineers were shocked by Pittsburgh at home, leaving the door open for Big Ten champion Ohio State, one of two one-loss teams remaining–the other wa Kansas–to play SEC champion LSU, which was 11-2 officially (11-0-2 in my book), in the BCS championship game.
Despite losing to Missouri and not playing in the Big 12 championship game, Kansas received an at-large BCS bid to play in the Orange Bowl against Atlantic Coast Conference champ Virginia Tech. Missouri got bumped down to the Cotton Bowl, which was in its period as a second-tier bowl game, to play Arkansas.
It was revealed Kansas recevied the Orange Bowl bid because athletic director Lew Perkins guaranteed the committee to purchase an absurd number of tickets. It was also hinted he provided the committee with, uh, inducements to pick the Jayhawks instead of the Tigers.
That’s another story for another blog post, which will not be long in coming.
Back to Mangino.
Following Kansas’ unexpected season, he was voted national Coach of the Year by just about every organization, beating out the coach of the national champions, LSU’s Les Miles, Missouri’s Gary Pinkel, Ohio State’s Jim Tressel and Illinois’ Ron Zook, whose Illini beat Ohio State and went to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1983 and only the second time since Dick Butkus led Illinois to the game in 1963.
It figured any man could lead KANSAS, which would win the NCAA men’s basketball championship in April under Bill Self, to a 12-1 record would be first in line for a job at a school which places a higher priority on football, right?
Mark Mangino received exactly ZERO interviews in late 2007 and early 2008 to fill vacancies. And there were vacancies at schools in major conferences.
Lloyd Carr retired at Michigan after 13 seasons. The Wolverines did not place the call from Ann Arbor to Lawrence, instead hiring Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia, who one year earlier agreed to become Alabama’s coach, but pulling out at the last second. Instead, the Crimson Tide hired this guy Nick Saban to replace Mike Shula. We know how that turned out.
West Virginia, which won the Big East in 2007 and has been a top-tier program since Bobby Bowden coached there in the 1970s, would be a step up for Mangino, even if he would step down in conference. The Mountaineers instead promoted assistant Bill Stewart, who coached West Virginia to victory in the Fiesta Bowl over Oklahoma.
Chan Gailey left Georgia Tech to coach the Buffalo Bills. The Yellow Jackets opted for Navy coach Paul Johnson, who returned the Wishbone to the upper level of college football. He’s still there.
Ole Miss fired Ed Orgeron, who drove the Rebels straight into the ground with three horrible seasons. Mangino, who weighed north of 500 pounds then, would have loved eating southern cuisine in Oxford. The Rebels instead hired Houston Nutt, who had burned his bridges at Arkansas after 10 seasons.
Arkansas will certainly take a chance on Mangino, right? The Razorbacks are the only team in the Natural State (I don’t count Arkansas State, being so close to Tennessee and Missouri, plus being minor league for most of it existence), and Mangino would be the highest paid and most powerful person in the state, since Frank Broyles was set to finally retire as athletic director after almost 50 years in Fayetteville as football coach and AD.
Broyles’ successor, Jeff Long, instead plucked Bobby Petrino from the Atlanta Falcons. Petrino, who coached Louisville for four seaosns prior to taking the Falcons’ job in early 2007, resigned after a Monday Night Football loss to the Saints, leaving a typed note in each player’s locker. Twenty-four hours after the game ended, Petrino was in Fayetteville, “calling the hogs” with the Arkansas cheerleaders and numerous big-money boosters, which there are a lot of in Arkansas.
Petrino is a scumbag, too. One step above Mangino. One VERY SMALL step.
Why would Mangino not get a single interview after such a successful season?
It wasn’t because of his morbid obesity, which had to be a serious concern for KU officials, even if they would not say so publicly.
It was because he was one of the biggest ASSHOLES to ever roam a college sideline.
Yelling and screaming is a way of life for coaches in all sports in all levels. It is the preferred method of fommunication for football coaches, who believe the higher the decibel level, the more effective the message is. Tony Dungy, who hardly ever raised his voice, would beg to differ, but most of the great coaches yelled and screamed their way to the top, save Tom Osborne and Darrell Royal, who presented low-key images to the press, but probably did their fair share of vocalizing behind closed doors.
Mark Mangino is a world-class screamer.
But there was a problem with his screaming as big as Mangino’s waistline.
He was a sadistic bully.
Mangino had the one of the highest turnover rates of assistant coaches of any program. Nick Saban has been known to burn through assistants at a rapid rate because he works them to death and is so demanding those coaches often feel like they are trapped at the bottom of the ocean in a vacuum with no air hole.
Mangino was much worse than that.
When a player made a mistake, not only did the player feel Mangino’s wrath, but often his position coach did, too.
This was the big reason Bill Young, who was Mangino’s defensive coordinator in 2007, left the Jayhawks after that season to coach at Miami,, which at the time was sloghing through mediocrity under Randy Shannon.
Mangino was just as cruel to his players.
In 2003, it was reported Mangino made a KU player do tortuous bear crawls on the artifical surface of Memorial Stadium, where the temperature on the field was in excess of 150 degrees. The player ended up with burns and lost skin on his hands.
Following the Orange Bowl, starting linebacker Joe Mortensen went home after suffering a knee inury in the game, isntead of retruning immediately to Lawrence to rehabilitate the injury. Mangino punished Mortensen for three months by subjecting him to harsh conditioning, drills which led him to tear ligaments in the same knee.
Mangino’s verbal barbs were just as bad as his physical ones.
Reportedly when a player was charged with underage drinking, he said that player would one day be “drinking from a brown paper bag in Oakland under a bridge”.
He asked another player if “he wanted to be a lawyer or an alcoholic like his father”.
And the worst of all was when he told a player whose brother was injured by gunfire in St. Louis that he could “go back to the ‘hood and get shot with his homies”.
Bear Bryant would rise from his grave and kick Mangino in his family jewels if he could. Nick Saban might join him.
It’s one thing to scream. It is crossing the line when you get personal.
Mangino got personal.
Yet it took Lew Perkins until November 2009, when Kansas was in the midst of a seven-game losing streak which would drop it from 5-0 to 5-7, that Perkins began to investigate.
Mangino, who was owed a $6 million buyout if he were fired, refused to step down, claiming he did nothing wrong.
Faced with lawsuits and a revolt, Perkins negiotiated a settlement, paying Mangino $3 million to quietly resign.
Kansas fans went nuclear.
Most loved Mangino and claimed he as a victim. Lew Perkins was called every epithet you could think of.
I’m sorry, but Mangino got what he richly deserved. Mangino can go fuck himself.
I have no pity whatsoever for the Jayhawks. I find it quite amusing they are so horrnedous. It is karma for hiring that fat piece of shit and for buying the Orange Bowl bid.
Tonight, Mangino will be inducted into such company as Riggins, Douglass, Gale Sayers Phog Allen, Danny Manning and the man who invented basketball himself, Dr. James Naismith.
And guess what? Many are pushing for a bronze statue of Mangino outside Memorial Stadium.
John McEnroe said it best: YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS.
Congratulations, Jayhawks. You have disgraced yourselves. Just don’t disgrace yourselves more by even considering a statue for this disgrace of a homo sapiens.
Foots Prints 