One line to fool them all – 10.5.15

Sports talk is frequently used as a common language but it’s far from universal. If you’re someone who doesn’t follow or even understand sports, you can find yourself at a disadvantage in common small-talk situations like in an elevator, waiting for a bus, sitting at a bar, or around the proverbial water cooler at work. Even if you are a sports fan, it’s impossible to watch everything and know everything. To help in these situations, we provide lines to use when engaged in a conversation about all of the high profile sporting events of the day, plus explanations of what they mean.

NFL Football

New York Jets 27 vs. Miami Dolphins 14 in London

Line: The Philbin watch is on.

What it means: Joe Philbin is the Miami Dolphins head coach. Although by the time you’re reading this, he could be their former coach. Rumors were flying last week that if the Dolphins lost their game in London against the Jets, the team may fire Philbin. They lost. Fans are watching to see if he gets fired.

New York Giants 24 at Buffalo Bills 10

Line: Live by the Rex, die by the Rex.

What it means: When the Buffalo Bills got off to a hot start this season, new head coach Rex Ryan got a lot of the credit. He’s known for being a defensive mastermind and someone who players absolutely love playing for. His teams are also known for getting a little too amped up, which sometimes — maybe always — leads them into taking too many penalties and making other mistakes. That was the story today in the Bills game against the Giants. In the last two weeks, they’ve taken 31 penalties for 275 yards. Eeek.

Carolina Panthers 37 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23

Line: Pump the breaks on crowning the undefeated Panthers. Their opponents are a combined 3-12.

What it means: After four wins in the first four games of the season, Panthers fans are feeling pretty good about their team. As they should. But it’s not like they’ve played a very difficult schedule. The four teams they’ve played so far this year have won only three games combined and lost 12. So, perhaps we should wait and see for a few more weeks before we declare the Panthers to be a great team.

Oakland Raiders 20 at Chicago Bears 22

Line: There’s life in Chicago!

What it means: Bears fans weren’t expecting very much from their team this year, but after starting the season with three losses in three weeks, they were nearing a catatonic state. To have been beaten at home by the up-and-coming-but-still-lowly Oakland Raiders might have pushed some Bears fans over the edge. The Bears victory doesn’t suggest any sort of reawakening in Chicago, not even of a salvaging type, but it will provide some momentary solace.

Kansas City Chiefs 21 at Cincinnati Bengals 36

Line: Okay, now I’m convinced — Andy Dalton has turned the corner.

What it means: Bengals quarterback, Andy Dalton, has been known for playing well in the regular season and then terribly in the playoffs. That dichotomy is the primary factor in his being dismissed from any conversation about the best quarterbacks, or even the very, very good quarterbacks in the league. He won’t truly get a chance to change his reputation until he wins in the playoffs but his superb play in the first four games of this season, leading his team to an undefeated record, should make some impact.

Houston Texans 21 at Atlanta Falcons 48

Line: This never would have happened if J.J. Watt was alive.

What it means: J.J. Watt, the phenomenal Texans defensive lineman is, of course, alive. But it’s hard to believe that his team allowed 48 points, even to a high-powered offensive team like the Falcons. This game wasn’t even as close as the score suggests. The Texans scored all 21 of their points in the fourth quarter, when the game was already basically over.

Jacksonville Jaguars 13 at Indianapolis Colts 16

Line: 40 year-old Matt Hasselbeck lead the Colts to an overtime victory. There’s hope for us yet!

What it means: Colts fans could have been forgiven for feeling frightened by the prospect of playing a game without their star quarterback Andrew Luck. They shouldn’t have worried. 40 year-old backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who most people probably thought had been out of the league for a handful of years already, started the game and played well enough for the team to win in overtime.

Philadelphia Eagles 20 at Washington Redskins 23

Line: The whole NFC East is a mess. What a disaster.

What it means: The NFC East with these two teams, the New York Giants, and Dallas Cowboys, is the most famous and infamous division in football. With all four teams in major cities (and television markets) they draw the biggest audiences and attract the most attention. That’s why it’s a little funny and maybe a little schadenfreude-esque when the division is bad. This year, all four teams seem bad.

Cleveland Browns 27 at San Diego Chargers 30

Line: God hates Cleveland.

What it means: The Browns are the hard-luck story of the NFL. No matter what they do right, they seem to do something bigger and more important wrong. Today, it was an offside penalty in the last second that gave the Chargers a second chance to kick a game winning field goal after their first attempt missed. That’s real Cleveland Browns football!

Minnesota Vikings 20 at Denver Broncos 23

Line:  These might be the two best defenses in the league.

What it means: Let everyone else talk about offensive stars like Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning and Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. You can show yourself to be a true football fan by pointing out that the Vikings defense intercepted Peyton Manning twice and the Broncos defense sacked Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater seven (that’s an absurdly high number of sacks) times!

Green Bay Packers 17 at San Francisco 49ers 3

Line: The Packers didn’t do much, but they didn’t need to do very much. The 49ers [your choice of derogatory but not vulgar or bigoted term]!

What it means: The Packers are a truly excellent team. The 49ers are not. There wasn’t much more too this game.

St. Louis Rams 24 at Arizona Cardinals 22

Line: If the Rams could play half as well against everyone else as they do within their division, they’d be a playoff team.

What it means: The Rams have a funny habit of playing much better against the other three teams in their division – the Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks, and San Francisco 49ers – than anyone else. So far this year, they’re 2-0 against the Seahawks and Cardinals – both of which are more well-regarded than the Rams – and 0-2 against everyone else. It’s a small sample size, but it continues a pattern from previous seasons.

Dallas Cowboys 20 at New Orleans Saints 26

Line: Brandon Weeden looked like Tony Romo but Drew Brees looked like Drew Brees. Advantage, Saints.

What it means: The Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback, Tony Romo, is out for the next month with a broken collarbone. Backup quarterback Brandon Weeden played so well at times in this game that you’d be forgiven for thinking he actually was Tony Romo. Alas for Cowboys fans, Saints quarterback Drew Brees, whose play this year had so far been below his own standards and who was suffering from a bruised rotator cuff, looked like his old self. This was an exciting game and it went into overtime where a long pass from Brees to running back C.J. Spiller, ended it decisively in favor of the Saints.

How to plan for the week of Oct 5 – 11, 2015

If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.

This does not include MLB baseball games. There are so many of those every day that another approach is needed. That approach is our special Daily MLB Forecast. Same deal, for the most part, with NFL football games. For those, see our NFL Forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: We’ll all be able to take a breath during the day and recover from this past weekend’s sports excesses. In the evening, the NFL returns with a compelling game between the Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks. Both teams seem to be tumbling backwards this year and it’s always interesting to see who can stop their fall and start climbing again and how they do it.

Tuesday: Major League Baseball’s playoffs get started today with a one-game wildcard game in the American League. A lot of people are opposed to the existence of these games. It seems cruel to end a team’s playoff run, after a 162 game regular season, with a single defeat. It sure pumps up the drama though, there’s no denying that. At the same time, the WNBA finals get serious with game two between the Minnesota Lynx and Indiana Fever.

Wednesday: It’s hockey season again! Let me repeat: it’s hockey season again! I love hockey. If you want to know why, and why many people love hockey, read my post on the topic. The first nationally televised game of the season is the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks playing against the New York Rangers, who lost in the semifinals last year. It should be a good game but more importantly, it signals the return of hockey! All that said, I can’t really recommend watching it over the MLB’s National League wildcard game which starts at the same time.

Thursday: The European Championships are considered by some people to be an equal or even a superior tournament to the World Cup. How could it be better? Because of the geographic distribution of teams in the World Cup, some feel that the European only field is actually deeper with more skilled teams than the World Cup whose Asian, African, and North American representatives rarely make it past the first knockout round. The next European Championships will be in the summer of 2016 but its qualifying tournament has already begun. Watch Ireland try to upset Germany today. Later on, switch over to the first games of baseball’s divisional series. Or, if you prefer America’s new past-time to its old or future ones, watch a divisional NFL game between the Colts and Texans.

Friday: Date night!

Saturday: Of all the college football on this Saturday, my favorite game to watch will be Navy vs Notre Dame. Navy is such a joy to watch. They play football using a mostly antiquated but still surprisingly effective offensive system called the triple option. This involves running the ball on nearly every play. To make up for the loss of surprise over whether they’ll run or pass, they set up two or three different players who look like they’re going to carry the ball. If the defense guesses wrong, they’ll pay for it. At night, there’s one of the biggest non-World Cup men’s international soccer games in memory. The United States and Mexico play in a one-game playoff to decide who qualifies for the next Confederations Cup. This international tournament is important because its held in the spot of the next World Cup (Russia) the year before the World Cup. It provides an opportunity for something close to a dress rehearsal and is perceived as providing a big advantage for the teams that qualify. This only adds fuel to the always simmering fire of the U.S. vs. Mexico men’s soccer rivalry.

Sunday: The NFL eclipses everything else on most Sundays during the fall. That’s true this Sunday but there are a few other events to keep your eye on. If you’re a golf fan at all, you should check in on the final round of the Presidents Cup. The baseball playoffs, with one game on in the evening, offer a reasonable alternative to football. European championships qualifying soccer and Game Three of the WNBA finals are also strong contenders.

Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.

Pitch that game: NFL Week 4, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.

In this episode, I pitch you, the listener, all 14 of the NFL games this weekend, on Sunday October 4 and Monday October 5. If you want to know which games will be available on your TV this weekend, check out 506 Sports NFL. If you need help figuring out how to make sense out of what you see there, use my explanation of how to use 506 Sports NFL here.

Enjoy the show!

Sunday, October 4, 2015 9:30 a.m. ET

New York Jets at Miami Dolphins

This game is novel just for its location and time. It’s in London and because of that, it starts at 9:30 a.m. ET. This makes a very civilized way to start the day if you’re on the East Coast. Sit down with your breakfast and morning paper or head out for bottomless Bloody Marys and brunch! Either way, it’s kind of fun to watch football in the morning. Of course, if you’re on the West Coast, this game becomes something else entirely. If you wake up at 6 a.m. to watch the Jets play the Dolphins, you’ve got a serious problem. As for the game itself, no team has been more disappointing this year than the Dolphins. The word trickling through cyberspace is that the players don’t like their coach, Joe Philbin. If the team loses today, he could get fired on Monday.

Sunday, October 4, 2015 1 p.m. ET

New York Giants at Buffalo Bills

Bills fans and even just generally pro-Bills observers are waiting to exhale once they get a sign that these promising Bills are different from other years. The Bills often get off to fast starts only to wilt. This year seems different. This team beat the Colts and Dolphins, two teams we thought were good but that have not played well yet this season. The Bills only loss was to the Patriots, who seem like they might not lose a game this year. If this version of the Bills is really good, they’ll beat the Giants and you’ll hear a lot of exhalations of relief around the country.

Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston is probably hoping his career will turn into the kind of redemption story that Cam Newton’s has. Both were maligned for “character flaws” coming into the league. The difference is — Cam Newton’s character flaws were over whether he and his family had been paid for his college football career. Winston’s? Winston’s are over the likely sexual assault in his past. Different stories with, I hope, different endings. It may not make you want to watch the game, but I’m going to keep bringing it up and rooting for the Buccaneers to lose until Winston is out of the league.

Oakland Raiders at Chicago Bears

Similar to the Giants vs. Bills game, this game should provide final confirmation of an up-and-coming team’s legitimacy. The problem with the Raiders seeking legitimacy from beating the Bears is that the Bears may actually be too bad to provide any feedback at all. The Chicago Bears are such a mess this year that their general manager started trading players to other teams for future draft picks. That kind of thing happens frequently in other sports but almost never in the NFL, especially not after three weeks. This puts the Raiders in an awkward position. No one will pat them on the back if they beat Chicago but people will certainly make fun of them if they don’t.

Kansas City Chiefs at Cincinnati Bengals

Kansas City has been enjoying a minor sports renaissance over the past few years. For the Chiefs, it started with the arrival of coach Andy Reid from Philadelphia and quarterback Alex Smith from San Francisco. It may be over. Last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers had all the signs of a team that’s about to cycle through a vicious cycle of blame. The way that works in football is that the quarterback gets blamed first and then the coach and then the general manager. Quarterback Alex Smith will be the first to go and perhaps he should be. His play last week had people scrambling to their computers to see who the team’s backup quarterback was. Another clunker this week and we might all get to know Chase Daniel, college star at Missouri and long-time New Orleans Saints backup, very very well.

Houston Texans at Atlanta Falcons

The plot of this game should be all about the matchup between the incredible Falcons offense and the impenetrable Texans defense. Those units are certainly where the star power on both sides is. Alas, the Texans defense haven’t really shown much impenetrability this year as the team’s 1-2 record reflects. It’s probably safe to assume the Falcons, who have been great on offense, will score some points on the Texans. That pushes the pivotal element of the story over to the other side of the ball where a struggling Houston offense that may improve with the return of their leading rusher, Arian Foster, faces a young Falcons defense that is likely to improve as the season goes on.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Indianapolis Colts

This game could be the most meaningful game of the weekend. The Jaguars are a relatively new franchise, only about 20 years old, and for almost all of their existence they’ve been tortured by the Indianapolis Colts. First the Colts had Peyton Manning, a near unbeatable quarterback, and then, as soon as he left, they got Andrew Luck, another near unbeatable quarterback. In that time, the Jaguars have cycled through many, many quarterbacks, most of whom turned out to be… uh… eminently beatable. The Jaguars franchise, except for a brief blip in the late 1990s, have been a laughingstock — an example of futility. Well, this year, they have been showing signs of earning respectability at least. If the Jaguars could beat the Colts, which seems unlikely but possible to me, it would be a potentially franchise changing win, at least in how people view the Jaguars.

Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins

This game has a variety of interesting sub-plots. First – Philadelphia’s coach, Chip Kelly, and their press department, seem to have decided this week not to refer to the Washington Redskins by their name. This is a hot-button issue because many people, including a majority of Redskins fans, I believe, think the name is racist and should be changed. Washington’s team owner disagrees and so far has refused to consider it. Second – there may be a hurricane hitting the East Coast just as this game begins. Football prognosticators often warn that bad weather doesn’t change a game as much as one would think but I don’t think a hurricane fits into that description. From my perspective, there’s nothing better than watching football in bad weather… from my couch. As for the stakes of the game, they’re pretty big. With the other two teams in the Eagles and Redskins’ division struggling, it seems like an 8-8 record might get a team into the playoff. When you’re expecting so few wins in a division, it magnifies every victory, especially one like this where a victory for you means a defeat for another team in the division.

Sunday, October 4, 2015 4:05 or 4:25 p.m. ET

Cleveland Browns at San Diego Chargers

One of the greatest fallacies in sports is that the better the teams involved, the better the game will be. It’s simply not true. Sometimes you have two great teams that play each other and it’s completely boring. That won’t be a problem in this game. These two teams are bad. But they’re interestingly bad. The Chargers have a very good quarterback in Phillip Rivers but literally four of their starting five offensive linemen didn’t practice on Friday because they’re all injured. A great quarterback can be made to look pedestrian if he plays behind a bad offensive line. Rivers might just look like he’s scrambling for his life. The Browns on the other hand… well, basically their entire team reportedly isn’t happy with their coaches decision to go with the, perhaps more competent, but certainly less exciting quarterback on their roster, Josh McCown instead of Johhny Manziel. As long as McCown is in the game, the Browns are aiming for a solid B-. With Manziel, they’ll either get an A or an F with no in between. Who knows, perhaps Manziel will get a shot in this game — it will certainly be interesting to watch if he does.

Minnesota Vikings at Denver Broncos

The Broncos defense, one of the best, if not the best in the league, will present Vikings sophomore quarterback Teddy Bridgewater with his biggest test yet. I enjoyed watching Bridgewater in college — he has a calm, in control way about him that’s easy to root for, so I hope he passes the test with flying colors. As for the Broncos side of the ball, this is the fourth time we get to see quarterback Peyton Manning play for coach Gary Kubiak. Manning has spent most of his career in charge of every element of what his offense is doing. That’s unique in today’s NFL. This season, he’s had to adjust to a coach who wants to do their own thing on offense and has the support of management to make it happen. It’s been totally fascinating to watch the offense evolve each week as the theoretically collaborative power struggle between coach and quarterback continues. My guess is that they’ll find a happy and winning middle ground.

Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers

If you want to see evidence of the great influence a coach has in the NFL, look no farther than the dramatic change in the plot of a matchup between these two teams. Just a few years ago, the 49ers were the team that frustrated the Packers like no other. The 49ers traveled to Lambeau Field in Green Bay and knocked the Packers out of the playoffs. 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the next big thing – a player with limitless potential. Now the 49ers are 1-2 and people are openly wondering whether the team will bother to pick up Kaepernick’s option for next season. Meanwhile, the Packers remain one of the most stable and successful teams in the league. There’s very little doubt about the outcome of this game but very little doesn’t mean none. It’ll be worth watching, even just for the visual spectacle of seeing the 49ers traditional red and gold opposite the Packers even more traditional green and yellow.

St. Louis Rams at Arizona Cardinals

Virtually no one thinks the Rams have much of a shot in this game. The Cardinals have burst out of the gate this season and look like one of the best three teams in the league. They’re undefeated and tough to play at home in Arizona. The Rams, on the other hand, are 1-2 and looking classically shabby, like the Rams often do. I won’t deny any of that… but I just have a feeling that we could be missing the boat on this one. The Rams often play well in divisional games, which this one is, no matter how bad they are and how good their divisional opponent is. For evidence, we need look no farther than their Week One victory over the Seattle Seahawks. The Rams are also best at exploiting what the Cardinals are worst at. The Rams have a scarily good defensive line and the Cardinals are ever so slightly questionable on offensive line. The Cardinals would never do this, but if I were them, I’d be tempted to pull injury plagued and essential quarterback Carson Palmer out of the game at the least provocation.

Sunday, October 4, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

Dallas Cowboys at New Orleans Saints

This is not what the NFL schedulers had in mind when they put this game on national television. They couldn’t imagine that the Cowboys would be without their best two players on offense or that the Saints would be winless on the year. On the other hand those losses amplify the importance of this game. It’s virtually a playoff game for the Saints and in Week Four, that is actually about as compelling as a scheduler could imagine. Talk about tripping into success. Nice job NFL schedulers!

Monday, October 5, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

Detroit Lions at Seattle Seahawks

This game seems like a tough sell. An 0-3 team playing a 1-2 team? Ugh. Forget about the records though and it has all the component needed for an exciting game. The Detroit Lions have one of the most fantastic offensive players in NFL history in wide receiver Calvin Johnson. 6’5″ tall and as fast as a gazelle, he’s a potent weapon. Standing across from him on virtually every play will be Richard Sherman, the leader of a daunting Seattle Seahawks defense, and himself one of the most smotheringly frustrating-to-play against defensive players in the league. That one on one matchup, best against best, will be worth the price of admission. Okay, just looked at StubHub and the cheapest seats available are around $160. So, maybe not worth that, but worth turning your TV on and watching, for sure.

What's up with the 2015 NWSL championship game?

The 2015 NWSL championship game between the Seattle Reign and FC Kansas City is tonight, Thursday, October 1 at 9:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. Here’s everything you need to know about the game.

What’s the plot?

This is not just a single elimination championship game, it’s also a rematch. These two teams met last year in the 2014 NWSL Championship game, which FC Kansas City won 2-1. The Reign came back better than ever this year and have been at the top of the standings basically all year. During the 20 game regular season, the Reign only lost three games. They won 13 of the other 17, tying the other four. This record put them head and shoulders above the rest of the league. Of the other eight teams, not a single one was able to break double-digits and win even ten games. FC Kansas City came in third place this year, the lowest showing ever for this freakishly consistent team, but did have the second highest tally of wins with nine.

Both teams are built around strong defensive play. Both teams have excellent goalies and strong, cohesive defensive units. Of the eight defenders in the NWSL honored by being selected to the league’s Best XI or Second XI (imaginary starting lineups voted on by NWSL journalists, club officials, and players), a whopping six of them will be playing in this game, three from each team. It’s from the midfield up that the teams start to differ. The Reign’s offense is driven by an overwhelmingly talented group of individual stars in the midfield who have found a wonderful balance playing together. FC Kansas City is a more traditional offensive team built around a wonderful partnership between a playmaking midfielder and an opportunistic striker.

Neither team was challenged very much in their semifinal matches. Although the Washington Spirit were able to hold the Reign to a 0-0 tie for the first three quarters of their match, this was mostly thanks to an incredible effort on the part of their goalie. The Spirit never really threatened to score and eventually the Reign broke through their bunker. Once they scored once, they just started scoring, and it was 3-0 when the game ended. FC Kansas City also won their semifinal by that same score. They jumped on the Chicago Red Stars early, thanks to an unforgivable blunder by the Red Stars keeper. This changed the dynamic of the game and ended whatever chance the Red Stars might have had to play the game on their terms. Kansas City never let up and won in comfortable fashion.

The Seattle Reign are looking for revenge for last year’s championship loss to Kansas City and simultaneously expecting a coronation after being the best team in the league all season. FC Kansas City will be playing for their teammate, Lauren Holiday, who is retiring after today’s game. She wants to go out with a victory and her teammates want her too even more.

Who are the players we know from the U.S. women’s national team?

The Seattle Reign have two familiar faces:

  • Hope Solo, who prowls the Reign’s goal with exactly the same amount of authority as she does the USWNT’s.
  • Megan Rapinoe, who unlike many of her teammates, plays virtually the same role on her club team as she did on the national team. This is vital for the Reign because Rapinoe is at her best when she’s essentially a supremely talented freelancer on one side of the midfield. Forcing Rapinoe into a more central (literally and figuratively) role reduces her impact on the game, so it’s good for Seattle that they don’t need to do this.

FC Kansas City has four players from the USWNT:

  • Becky Sauerbrunn, the rock of the national team’s defense, is the same unflappable power for FC Kansas City. She won the NWSL’s Defensive Player of the Year award for the third time in a row this year. Since this is the third season of the NWSL’s existence, that means no one else has ever won it. They should just name the award after her and get it over with.
  • Amy Rodriguez was a complementary player on the national team but she’s a star for FC Kansas City. She is their Alex Morgan, their number nine, (even though she wears number eight on her jersey.) She’s the best bet to score for Kansas City in this game.
  • Lauren Holiday will be playing her last game of professional soccer today. It’s somewhat fitting that she goes out playing for her club team rather than the national team because, at least in recent years, only with her club team has she been able to play soccer the way she wants. Her best position is the one Carli Lloyd plays at the national team level – central attacking midfielder. Holiday is only a hair behind Lloyd at this position, but that hair was enough to push her into a less comfortable position during the World Cup. If you’ve only seen her play in recent national team games, you’ll be surprised at how dominant she can be.
  • Heather O’Reilly only played in one game during the 2015 World Cup but she should start this game for the Kansas City team. She’s a capable and veteran midfielder.

Who are some other players worth knowing about?

On the Seattle Reign:

  • Kim Little is considered the best player in the world not to make the World Cup. There’s a contingent of people who would claim she’s the best player in the world, period. The Scottish attacking midfielder will certainly be the most dangerous player on the field in this game. She can score from virtually any spot on the field and she’s not afraid to run by or around defenders as well.
  • Jess Fishlock is another player who suffers because Great Britain competes in soccer tournaments in its component nations. Since she is Welsh, that means she has an uphill battle to qualify for the World Cup or Olympics. Fishlock is a strong two-way midfielder whose play stands out on the field even though she is sometimes confused for Megan Rapinoe because of her hairstyle.
  • Merritt Mathias played in last year’s final for FC Kansas City. A striker on a midfield dominant team, she does the often thankless task of harrying opposing defenders and opening up space for her teammates with long, tiring runs.

On FC Kansas City

  • Nicole Barnhardt was Hope Solo’s backup goalie for many years before being overtaken by two younger goalkeepers in the lead-up to the 2015 World Cup. At the age of 33, she truly has not lost a step. Her presence on the field virtually negates the advantage in goal that Seattle usually has.
  • Jen Buczkowski hopes to be the answer to Kim Little. Buczkowski is a shut-down defensive midfielder who will shadow Little all over the field. She’ll look to frustrate Little by denying her the ball and punish her with professional fouls when she gets it. Much of FC Kansas City’s hopes rest on how well Buczowski can perform this monumental task.

What happened last time?

FC Kansas City won thanks to goals resulting from two incredible combinations between midfielder Lauren Holiday and striker Amy Rodriguez.

Look at the angle Rodriguez chooses to run into space between defenders without going offside. Holiday does a great job getting her the ball but Rodriguez should get the lion’s share of credit for this goal.

The second goal involves the same two players but is a different story. Lauren Holiday breaks off just an insane series of brilliant dribbling moves to create this goal. Watch her slalom between defenders before dropping the ball for Rodriguez to easily slot into the net.

Seattle fought back, and did eventually score, but it was too little, too late to catch FC Kansas City.

What else can I learn about the game?

Read Liviu Bird’s championship preview for Sports Illustrated’s Planet Futbol and Lauren Barker’s similar but even more comprehensive article for SB Nation. Graham Hays has five key things to watch for in the game, which he shares with us on ESPNW. Equalizer Soccer brings us a blog post by goaltender Hope Solo in which she describes and thanks each of her Seattle Reign teammates. Finally, listen to Five Thirty Eight’s Hot Takedown podcast. They bring on soccer fan and expert Alison McCann to talk about the current state and future potential of the NWSL.

What’s going to happen this time?

First of all, it’s going to be a great game. Most NWSL matches frankly don’t reach the heights of a World Cup match, but this one will. These two teams are packed with talent and have played together for longer than most national teams get to. They are supremely determined to win. My guess is that this is a scoreless game going into the 75th minute of play. At that point, with the tension ratcheted up as far as it can go and player’s legs starting to get tired, it will come down to which team makes the first mistake and which team can capitalize on it. FC Kansas City and the Holiday to Rodriguez combination is great, but the Reign simply has more options; more ways to score and win. The Seattle Reign comes out on top, 1-0.

One Thing: Aaron Rodgers meta NFL master

The Green Bay Packers won their game last night against the Kansas City Chiefs 38 to 28. A 10 point victory is not considered a blow-out in the NFL but this game in particular was more conclusive than most 10 point wins. It was the way that the Packers beat the Chiefs that was so impressive. It looked like they were playing football an a whole other level than the Chiefs were — almost like they were playing a different game. They were. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is playing at such a high level that it sometimes seems like he’s playing at a different level than everyone else. While everyone else is playing football, he’s playing meta-football. There were three plays, when the Packers were on offense, that stuck out as examples of this.


One thing is a series of posts that examine a small part of a sporting event to explain and explore its meaning in a way that’s accessible to sports fans and laypeople alike.


Two of the three meta-plays from last night were offensive plays that resulted in penalties called on the Chiefs for having too many men on the field when the ball was snapped. When the offense snaps the ball, signaling the start of that play, each team is only allowed to have 11 players on the field. This is rarely a problem. Football players are pretty good at counting! The fact that it happened twice yesterday isn’t due to any deficiency on the part of the Chiefs but rather an intentional act of trickery by Rodgers. When the defense makes a substitution, one player runs onto the field while another player runs off to their team’s sideline. This isn’t an inconsiderable distance, especially when the play is starting on the far side of the field from where the defensive team’s bench is. Defensive players have been doing this for most of their lives though, and they have a good internal clock which tells them how much time they have to exit the field before the snap. What they’re not accounting for is Rodgers’ meta game. Rodgers notices when an opposing defensive player, particularly a bigger, slower lineman is substituting, and then rushes his team to the line and tries to snap the ball immediately. He speeds up the offensive process so that he can start the play before that defensive player makes it off the field.

This benefits his team in three ways: one straightforward, one sneaky, and one demoralizing. The straightforward advantage is that the refs will call a penalty on the defensive team, in this case the Chiefs. The penalty moves the ball five yards down the field, after which the Packers get to start their offensive play again. The penalty doesn’t automatically give the Packers a first down, but if moving those five yards would have otherwise, the penalty yardage will. The sneaky benefit is that this foul call doesn’t take effect immediately. The play will continue and at the end of it, the Packers get to choose whether they want the five yard penalty or the result of the play. Because Rodgers knows he can retroactively make that choice, he’s going to use the “free play” to try to advance the ball as far as possible in one play. It gives him the freedom to take a risk he might not ordinarily take, like throwing the ball into the end zone even if his targeted receiver is well covered, because he knows that if the other team does something great, like intercept the ball, the Packers can just choose to accept the penalty and the other team’s great play will be wiped away. (For advanced readers, note that 12 men on the field IS a reviewable call, so even if the refs miss it, the Packers will still have a good chance of backing the play out if they need to.) The third and lasting benefit is to frustrate and demoralize the opposing team. It’s hard enough to play against a team that’s as great as the Packers but it’s even harder to play against a quarterback who is masterfully manipulating the rules of football against you.

The other meta play from last night’s game is a similar trick that Rodgers plays. In this one, he tricks the opposing defense to come across the line of scrimmage before the center snaps the ball. Called “drawing the other team offside,” this is a common tactic that quarterbacks try but few are as good at it as Rodgers is. Check out the video of a touchdown that the Packers scored on the “free play” resulting from Rodgers’ tricky meta-game. The player to watch is number 91 in white and red. His name is Tamba Hali and a he’s one of the most fearsome pass rushers in the league. When he jumps offside, he not only gives the Packers a free play, with which Rodgers is liberated to throw the ball into the end-zone with no possible negative consequences, but, when he realizes he’s been caught offside and bamboozled, he stops briefly. This natural human reaction adds to the benefit of the play to the Packers. Not only do they have a consequence-free play but they get to run it with a half-ineffective Tamba Hali!

Thanks for reading. I’ll keep my eye out for more interesting plays to write about.
Ezra Fischer

How to plan for the week of Sept 28 – Oct 4, 2015

If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.

This does not include MLB baseball games. There are so many of those every day that another approach is needed. That approach is our special Daily MLB Forecast. Same deal, for the most part, with NFL football games. For those, see our NFL Forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: Football rules the day. Spend the morning talking about the weekend’s NFL action. Spend the afternoon enjoying a mid-table British Premier League soccer match between Everton and West Brom. Spend the evening watching an excellent NFL football game, the last of the weekend, between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs.

Tuesday: The UEFA Champions League match between Barcelona and Beyer Leverkusen will be the first Barcelona has played since losing its star player, its heart and soul, Lionel Messi. This may actually make it a more interesting game to watch, both because it should give Beyer Leverkusen a better chance of winning, but also because it gives us a chance to see how Barcelona plays without Messi. In the evening, its game three of the Eastern Conference finals between the WNBA’s New York Liberty and Indiana Fever. Since the WNBA plays best two out of three game series in their playoffs, this is a single elimination game with a finals berth on the line.

Wednesday: The Italian soccer team Juventus is having a funny year. Runners up in last year’s Champions League, you would expect that they are one of the top teams in the world. This doesn’t seem to be true. They’re way down in the Italian Serie A standings. A win against the Spanish side, Sevilla, may give them some confidence to take back to domestic league play. As the weather gets colder, baseball fans start thinking about the playoffs. Today’s featured game, between the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates, could easily be a preview of an upcoming playoff matchup.

Thursday: The NFL has made a strong bid to own Thursday nights, and this week’s game between the rival Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers should be a physical, intriguing game. The Ravens are without a win so far this year and the Steelers will be without their quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, because of a knee injury. Nonetheless, the biggest game of the night is in the NWSL. It’s the championship game on Fox Sports 1 between FC Kansas City and Seattle Reign FC. This is a rematch of last year’s title game, which Kansas City won 2-1. It will feature a slew of players we saw in the World Cup, including Americans Becky Sauerbrunn, Amy Rodriguez, Heather O’Reilly, and Lauren Holiday, as well as Australian international, Katrina Gorry on Kansas City and USA goalie Hope Solo and midfielder Megan Rapinoe on Seattle. My guess is that Seattle wins this one. They’ve looked near-unbeatable for most of the season.

Friday: Date night! Relive your college days with a college volleyball rivalry between Duke and UNC on ESPN U at 6 p.m. ET and then get all prepped up for an Ivy League soccer game between Princeton and Columbia at 7 p.m.

Saturday: There’s a slew of good college football games between top 25 ranked teams, the biggest of which may be a newly vulnerable-looking Alabama vs. Georgia. We also have a somewhat parallel game in British soccer between up-and-coming Southampton, and a similarly vulnerable former champion, Chelsea. The most exciting match of the day isn’t in either form of football, it’s in Rubgy where England plays Australia in the Rugby World Cup. If you’re in the Boston area, come watch it with the Dear Sports Fan Viewing Party Meetup group and me!!

Sunday: An American football game invades London to start today’s sporting schedule. For perhaps (?) the first time, the NFL has sent a divisional game to England. The Miami Dolphins and New York Jets are both coming off disappointing losses and will both be determined to win in London before taking the next week off. In British British football, Arsenal vs. Manchester City is about as big of a game as you could get. Combine these two events with the first game of the WNBA finals, the AAA 400 in NASCAR, and a West Coast MLS showdown between Los Angeles and Seattle, and we’ve got another excellent and full Sunday of sports.

Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.

One line to fool them all – 9.28.15

Sports talk is frequently used as a common language but it’s far from universal. If you’re someone who doesn’t follow or even understand sports, you can find yourself at a disadvantage in common small-talk situations like in an elevator, waiting for a bus, sitting at a bar, or around the proverbial water cooler at work. Even if you are a sports fan, it’s impossible to watch everything and know everything. To help in these situations, we provide lines to use when engaged in a conversation about all of the high profile sporting events of the day, plus explanations of what they mean.

NFL Football

Cincinnati Bengals 28 at Baltimore Ravens 24

Line: Win the Raven, nevermore.

What it means: The Baltimore Ravens were actually named after Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, The Raven. This may not completely excuse your mangling of Poe for the purpose of rubbing a little salt in your Baltimore fan friend’s wounds after the Ravens lost their third game in a row, but do it anyway. At 0-3, the playoffs seem like an unlikely possibility at this point for the Ravens, particularly because this most recent loss came at the hands of their divisional opponent, the Cincinnati Bengals, who are 3-0.

New Orleans Saints 22 at Carolina Panthers 27

Line: The Saints almost did it without Brees, but they didn’t quite have enough.

What it means: The New Orleans Saints were one of several teams facing an 0-3 start and one of a few teams playing without their starting quarterback. Virtually no one expected them to be able to play competitively with the Carolina Panthers, much less win, but they were surprisingly good. In the end, the Panthers, with their start quarterback Cam Newton who played extremely well, were too much for the Saints to contend with.

Oakland Raiders 27 at Cleveland Browns 20

Line: Let’s hold up on the parade for the Raiders – their wins have come against the 0-3 Ravens and 1-2 Browns.

What it means: Oakland Raiders fans and unaffiliated football observers might get excited by the Raiders first two-game win streak in more than three seasons. Although it’s never wrong to celebrate, it might be wrong to conclude that the Raiders are a good football team, because their two wins have come against teams that seem not to be very good themselves. With the pitiful Chicago Bears coming up for the Raiders next week, it might be another couple weeks before we find out more about how good the Raiders actually are.

Atlanta Falcons 39 at Dallas Cowboys 28

Line: Don’t think the lesson is that the Cowboys can score with Weeden. The lesson is that the Falcons can’t stop anyone.

What it means: After losing starting quarterback Tony Romo, to a broken collarbone last week, the Dallas Cowboys have been forced to go with backup quarterback Brandon Weeden this week and for the forceable future. Without Romo (and star wide receiver Dez Bryant) many feared the Cowboys wouldn’t have enough skill on offense to play competitively. Some Cowboys fans might be comforted by having watched the team score 28 points in today’s losing effort, but I think that’s more of a reflection of how bad the Falcons defense is than anything about the Cowboys offense with Weeden.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9 at Houston Texans 19

Line: Neither of these teams is going anywhere this season but the Bucs are traveling nowhere faster.

What it means: In honor of Yogi Berra, who died this week, that’s my best Berra-esque comment about this game. The Buccaneers are worse than the Texans but both teams are bad enough that casual fans can stop paying them any attention.

San Diego Chargers 14 at Minnesota Vikings 31

Line: I wonder how much of the Charger’s issue this year is Los Angeles hanging over their heads?

What it means: The San Diego Chargers are one of a few teams that are rumored to be candidates for relocation to Los Angeles after this season. A move could be distracting to any team, but particularly one whose veteran quarterback has vocally opposed the move in the press. Connecting the team’s slow start to the relocation issue is not obvious, so get some football knowledge points by suggesting its possibility.

Jacksonville Jaguars 17 at New England Patriots 51

Line: The way the Patriots are playing, bye week can’t come soon enough for the rest of the league.

What it means: During an NFL season, each team gets one week off. That week, called a bye week, is next week for the New England Patriots. This will come as a relief to the other teams in the league, because the Patriots have been unbelievably good so far this year, winning their first three games easily and scoring 119 points (which is a lot!)

Philadelphia Eagles 24 at New York Jets 17

Line: This game is the classic lesson about jumping to conclusions after the first two weeks.

What it means: Coming into this game, the Philadelphia Eagles were 0-2 and people were already talking about firing the coach. The New York Jets were 2-0 and some of their fans might have quietly Googled this year’s Super Bowl, just to see where it was… just in case. After today’s game, both sides are quietly moderating their early conclusions about their teams.

Pittsburgh Steelers 12 at St. Louis Rams 6

Line: What’s the latest on Big Ben’s knee?

What it means: The Pittsburgh Steelers lost their quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger (nicknamed Big Ben after because of his stature and the existence of the British clock, Big Ben), to a knee injury during this game. The injury happened when a defensive player tripped and slid into Roethlisberger’s legs. There was immediate speculation that Roethlisberger could have a serious injury, which might force him to miss the rest of the season. Although the next round of rumors was more positive, we won’t know for sure until the results of the inevitable MRI are leaked/shared tomorrow.

Indianapolis Colts 35 at Tennessee Titans 33

Line:  Eh. I’m not impressed. Win or not, needing heroics to beat the Titans does not show the Colts in a positive light.

What it means: The Indianapolis Colts have been one of the biggest disappointments so far this year. They avoided a 0-3 start by beating the Tennessee Titans, but if quarterback Andrew Luck and the rest of his team want to restore confidence of their being a clear playoff team, they’ll have to beat a stronger team than the Titans. As disheartening as this weekend’s loss must be for the Titans, this season is all about the development of rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota, and he continued his promising start in this game.

San Francisco 49ers 7 at Arizona Cardinals 47

Line: We have our answer now, the 49ers are terrible.

What it means: The San Francisco 49ers were expected to be awful this year. Then they won their first game in convincing fashion. That confused most people’s ideas about what kind of team they were going to be this year. Even after a loss last week, people weren’t sure. Now, they are. The 49ers are bad, bad, bad.

Buffalo Bills 41 at Miami Dolphins 14

Line: Is there a more disappointing free agent signing than Ndamukong Suh?

What it means: Coming off a promising season last year, the Miami Dolphins made one of the biggest splashes during the offseason by agreeing to a contract with Ndamukong Suh, the controversial but undeniably talented defensive lineman. So far this season, he’s been a bust in Miami. The Dolphins can’t seem to stop anyone on defense, certainly not the Bills today.

Chicago Bears 0 at Seattle Seahawks 26

Line: Oh well. I was cracking up when it was 3-0 halfway through the second quarter, but eventually all good things must come to an end.

What it means: Unless you are a Seattle Seahawks fan, the prospect of a 0-2 Chicago Bears team, playing without their starting quarterback and best wide receiver, coming into Seattle and defeating the desperate 0-2 Seahawks was a hysterically funny one. The Seahawks are a brash bunch whose success over the past few seasons has engendered a lot of envy, so the longer it seemed possible they would fall to 0-3 at the hands of the hapless Bears, the funnier it was.

Denver Broncos 24 at Detroit Lions 12

Line: It may not be pretty, but so far it’s working for the Broncos.

What it means: The Denver Broncos may be the most criticized 3-0 team ever. The problem so far has been that their legendary but ancient quarterback, Peyton Manning, has not looked half as good as he has for the entirety of his career. Despite much hemming and hawing about his age and health, my theory is that this has more to do with he and his new coach, Gary Kubiak, feeling each other out. In this game, the Broncos played most of their offensive plays from a formation called the pistol, which was new to both Manning and Kubiak. As the result shows, their experimentation seems to be leading somewhere good.

Pitch that game: NFL Week 3, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.

Our guest for this episode is Corinne Boet-Whitaker, a farmer and instrument and furniture maker. I pitched the five NFL football games available to people in the Boston area during the second weekend of the NFL season on Sunday September 20 and Monday September 21. For my thoughts on the other games, read on below the audio player.

Enjoy the show!

Sunday, September 27, 2015 1 p.m. ET

San Diego Chargers at Minnesota Vikings

Even though the two quarterbacks in this game, Phillip Rivers for the Chargers and Teddy Bridgewater for the Vikings, are on opposite sides of their careers, they’ve played quite similarly so far this year. Each has thrown the majority of their passes quite close to the line of scrimmage. Shorter passes are safer passes. The interpretation for Bridgewater, who is near the start of his career, has been that his coaches are sheltering him from the risks that he’ll learn to take as he grows into the job. Rivers, on the other hand, has spent most of his career slinging the ball all over the place, so this newfound conservatism is puzzling. It doesn’t seem like he’s lost any arm-strength, so maybe it’s simply a tactic that he or the coaches decided would work. I’ll be watching to see which quarterback, if any, gets more aggressive in this game.

Oakland Raiders at Cleveland Browns

Fans of the Raiders and the Browns have been watching their team’s anxiously for the past decade, looking for any signs that they might soon climb out of the NFL’s cellar, where they’ve been stuck for so long. The Raiders are coming off a big win last week over the Baltimore Ravens. The Browns are coming off an equally convincing victory over the Tennessee Titans. One of these teams will take a second step up the basement stairs this weekend. The other will hit their head on the ceiling and fall back down.

Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens are one of several playoff teams from last year that have started this season with two losses. Of those teams, the Ravens are the one that have engendered the least worry among fans and prognosticators. This is because they started with two road games and they have such a stable recent history of winning that it seems inevitable for them to turn things around. All that may be true, but a loss in this game to Cincinnati would really get those alarm bells ringing in Baltimore. A Bengals win is not so far-fetched. The Bengals have played like an elite team so far this year. They have a solid defense, two excellent running backs, and a couple of great pass-catchers in wide receiver A. J. Green and tight end Tyler Eifert. Even their long-mocked quarterback, Andy Dalton, has played like an all-star this season. The Ravens will have to play their best to beat the Bengals.

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers

A loss to the Panthers this weekend could signal the end of an era for the New Orleans Saints. The long-time partnership between coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees seems like it’s on its last legs. Brees has been battered and ineffective so far this season. He’s suffering from a seriously bruised rotator cuff and is questionable to even play in this game. Payton just doesn’t seem like the same kind of innovative coach that he did five years ago. A Saints loss would drop the team to 0-3 and severely damage their chances of salvaging this season. Carolina is always a tough place for the Saints to play — it’s outside and the Panthers have a brutally efficient defense — but it will be even tougher this weekend because Panthers fans and players would like nothing more than to be the camel that broke the football team’s back.

Atlanta Falcons at Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys and Falcons are both 2-0 heading into this game, but the Cowboys seem to have made some kind of deal with the devil for their victories. Each win has come with a long-term injury to one of their best offensive players. Wide receiver Dez Bryant broke his foot in the team’s first victory and quarterback Tony Romo broke his collarbone in the second. If I were a superstitious Cowboys player, I might think twice about trying to win this game. I mean, really, at what cost? All jokes aside, it will be very difficult for the Cowboys to keep winning without their two best offensive players. If any offense could do it, it might be Dallas’ though, since it’s built around one of the strongest offensive lines in football. Even a relatively bad backup quarterback like Brandon Weeden should be able to complete throws if his line can keep all the defenders away from him.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Houston Texans

Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie quarterback and probable rapist Jameis Winston said this week that he was looking forward to playing against Houston Texans fearsome defensive force of nature J. J. Watt. I am looking forward to watching Watt destroy Winston and make him look foolish.

Indianapolis Colts at Tennessee Titans

The Indianapolis Colts are another 0-2 team that was in the playoffs last year. They’ve been physically dominated in their first two games by the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. It’s unclear whether Tennessee has the oomph and the athletes to do the same to them, but if they do, they have a clear blue print to follow. My guess is that the Colts win big in this game but there’s just enough suspense and certainly enough interest for me to want to watch and see how it turns out.

Pittsburgh Steelers at St. Louis Rams

This might be my favorite game this weekend. The Pittsburgh Steelers have looked like one of the best teams in the league this year, thanks to their balanced and dynamic offense. They’ve scored 71 points so far this season!! They’re one of the best teams in the league so far at running the ball and they might be even better passing. The only thing that can slow down their type of offense is exactly where the St. Louis Rams are best — an overwhelming defensive line. The Rams have a trio of defensive linemen, Robert Quinn, Chris Long, and Aaron Donald that basically all need to be double-teamed in order to keep them from tackling the opponent’s quarterback or running back. I am truly looking forward to seeing if the chaos caused by the Rams defense is enough to throw the Steelers off their game.

Philadelphia Eagles at New York Jets

If you judged teams by the number of words written about them during the offseason, the Eagles would be on their way to the Super Bowl and the Jets would be winless. In fact, it looks a little bit like the opposite is true. The Jets have surprised everyone and won their first two games in solid fashion. The Eagles have barely been able to get anything started on defense and have been profoundly vulnerable on offense. The vultures have already started circling around Philidelphia coach, Chip Kelly, and a loss this weekend could conceivably cost him his job.

Sunday, September 20, 2015 4:30 p.m. ET

Chicago Bears at Seattle Seahawks

Yikes. The winless, desperate, and generally pissed off Seattle Seahawks get to host the dysfunctional Chicago Bears. To make things worse for the Bears, their starting quarterback is out with an injured hamstring, so backup Jimmy Clausen will start the game against the Seahawks stellar defense. I guess the benefit of watching this game is that it will probably be decided conclusively in the first five minutes and then you can switch to another game? I will say, if the Bears can keep the game close, each minute that goes by will increase the pressure on the Seahawks tenfold.

How can I tell what NFL football is on TV in my area?

Dear Sports Fan,

How can I tell what NFL football is on TV in my area? Each week there are a whole bunch of games on but I’m never quite sure what I’m going to be able to get at home on my television.

Thanks,
Tracy


Dear Tracy,

The NFL schedule is a tricky beast each week. If you’re a big football fan, like I am, you need to know what’s going to be on television so you can decide whether to stay home and watch, or if the best games aren’t on locally, to go to a bar where they pay to get all the games. If you’re a moderate fan of the NFL, probably the healthiest choice anyway, you need to know what your options are so you can decide what game to watch and know what channel it’s going to be on. If you’re not a fan at all, the information can still be useful if you live with a fan. Luckily, there is an amazing resource for NFL football TV schedules. It’s called 506 Sports! I am a complete and utter fanboy of their coverage of NFL television and probably go to their site four or five times a week during football season. If you become a convert, you can follow the site on Twitter or the site’s creator, JP Kirby.

During my Pitch that Game podcast last week, I tried to use 506 Sports’ NFL guide with my guest and we ended up talking for a while about exactly what each chart and map meant and how to best use them to figure out exactly what NFL football is on TV in your area each week. Here is a step by step guide.

The quick explanation for how to tell what NFL football is on TV in your area using 506 Sports

Go to the 506 Sports NFL table. Click on the correct number week to get to a set of maps. Look at your part of the country in each map. You will usually have three options, two on CBS and one on Fox or visa versa. The early game is at 1 p.m. ET. The late game is at 4:05 or 4:30 p.m. ET. To tell what time the game in the map labeled CBS Single or Fox single is, go back to the table.

How to use the 506 Sports NFL table

The first thing you’ll see when you go to 506 Sports’ NFL page is a giant table.

 

506 Sports NFL Table

This table is divided into major horizontal rows that correspond to each week in the NFL season. The weeks are labeled primarily by their number, but there’s also a helpful date which helps you identify which week you want to focus on. The date is the Sunday of the week. To make things a little easier to follow, the table alternates light and medium gray at the week level. Find the current week. We’re in Week 3 right now, so that’s the one we’ll use for our example.

It’s unintuitive, but let’s start with the three columns on the far right of the table. Each one of these columns (with a few exceptions) will have one and only one game in it. That’s because each column corresponds to a day or time when the NFL usually only schedules a single game. The first of these three columns is for the Thursday night game, the middle for the Sunday night game, and the right most for the Monday night game. All of these games are televised nationally. ESPN owns Monday night, NBC, Sunday night, and Thursday is shared by several networks, so the network is included in the box. All of these games start around 8:30 p.m.

Now we’re ready (I hope) to tackle the two columns on the left. These columns are labeled with a network name, not a day of the week. Every game in both columns starts on Sunday afternoon, either at 1 p.m. ET or 4:05 or 4:30 p.m. ET. The 1 p.m. games are referred to as early games and the 4:05/4:30 games are called late games. The early and late time slots are shown as mini-rows within the weekly row. CBS and Fox divide these games between themselves in a complex, hotly negotiated way. Luckily, we don’t need to understand that. What we do need to know are a couple basic principles. The schedule is set up so that ideally, you should be able to see three games on Fox and CBS in your area each Sunday afternoon. The stations alternate weekends so that one weekend Fox will get to show games in both time slots while CBS shows games in only one and the next weekend will be the opposite. The second principle is that each team’s home games should be shown without competition in their area of the country. This second principle can sometimes override the first and limit the options from three to two.

Okay. Now we’re ready to see the maps and figure out exactly what is happening in your part of the country.

How to use the 506 Sports NFL maps

When you click on a week’s number on the 506 Sports NFL table, you get to a page with three maps. This is where the rubber hits the road. Each map corresponds to a channel and time slot. CBS or Fox, early or late. On a weekend when CBS has the double-header, like this one, there will be a CBS Early and a CBS Late map above a third Fox Single map. The schedulers have attempted to show everyone in the country two games on CBS at 1:00 p.m. ET AND 4:05 or 4:30 p.m. ET and one on Fox at either 1 p.m. ET OR 4:05 or 4:30 p.m. ET.

Within each map, the games in that time and channel are shown in a color-coded key below the map and the areas where they will be shown on TV are filled in with the corresponding color on the map. Most of this will probably make geographic sense.

CBS Early

For example, in the top map, the CBS Early map, we see that the New England vs. Miami game will be shown in all of New England and Florida. Likewise, the yellow Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens game will be shown in two little puddles around Cincinnati and Baltimore. Some things make less sense, like the strip of land in Texas which has to suffer through the Oakland Raiders vs. Cleveland Browns game or why most of Oregon gets the Indianapolis Colts vs. Tennessee Titans game. Why? Who knows?

An important color to track on these maps is grey. In the first map, the CBS early map, New York City and its surroundings are grayed out. This means they will not get any early game on CBS, even though CBS is the channel with the double-header that day. When this happens, jump down to the bottom map, the Fox single map, and the reason should become clear. Fox has the rights to the New York Jets vs. Philadelphia Eagles game which, as we know from the table, is an early game. The second principle, that teams’ home games deserve to be shown in their area without competition, takes precedence. The Jets game must be shown on Fox at 1 p.m., so CBS cannot provide an alternative to that market. The same principle applies to the other grey areas on the first map: Dallas, Houston, and Charlotte each host early home games on Fox.

Thanks so much for reading,
Ezra Fischer

Why it's no coincidence that Yogi Berra was a catcher

Famed baseball player, manager, and cultural figure Yogi Berra died last night at the age on 90. There are countless obituaries and remembrances of him today. I’ll list a few of them at the bottom of this piece and I encourage you to spend a few minutes learning more about him. But for Dear Sports Fan, the question I asked myself about Yogi was, “is there some aspect of his story that you need some type of specialized baseball knowledge to appreciate?” The answer is yes. Yogi Berra was a catcher, and given his position as a cultural icon, a source of folk-wisdom and self-deprecating wit, he could really only have been a catcher.

To be a successful catcher, one must be a talented and diligent student of humanity. Someone who doesn’t know baseball might think that the most important qualities for a catcher are strong knees to withstand all the crouching and fast reflexes to be able to field 100 mile per hour pitches. A catcher’s job is much more subtle and complicated than that. Catchers are the primary person responsible for deciding what pitch a pitcher should throw every time he winds up. Most pitchers have a variety of pitches they can execute: a fastball – which generally flies straight, an off-speed pitch, which looks like a fastball but fools the batter by arriving at the plate a beat or two later than he expects, a curveball, which dips dramatically down as it approaches the plate, a slider, which moves down and to one side. Each of these pitches can also be thrown so that they cross the plate at the center of the strike zone, high, low, inside (toward the body of the batter), outside, or outside of the strike zone in any direction as well. The trick to getting a batter out is to literally trick her by choosing a combination of pitch types and locations that she doesn’t expect and cannot react to. A catcher needs to know the tendencies of each batter and be able to read their state of mind as they walk up to bat and throughout the time they’re there. What was the impact of that last fastball thrown low and outside? Will the batter be fooled by a change-up thrown in the same location or are they now expecting us to try that trick? If they’re expecting it, can we fool them by throwing another fastball in the same spot? At the same time, a catcher has to manage his relationship with the pitcher. What is his mind-state? Is he confident? Shaken? Fatigued? Angry? What will motivate him to throw harder? More accurately?

A great catcher possesses an incisive understanding of his teammates, his opponents, and himself. He is a student of humanity. As we know from his many pithy quotes, whether he said them or not, Yogi was one of the best students of humanity ever. It’s no surprise that he was a catcher. It almost had to be that way. If this understanding of the role of a catcher in baseball is new to you, then you may now understand what Yogi meant when he said of baseball, “90 percent of the game is half mental.” Actually, on second thought, you might still not.

To continue to celebrate Yogi’s life, here is a small selection of the many articles and obituaries published this morning: