2015: Rose Bowl plot and characters

In 2015 Dear Sports Fan will be previewing the biggest sporting event of the year in each of the 50 states in the United States plus the district of Columbia. Follow along with us on our interactive 2015 map.

California — The Rose Bowl

College Football — January 1, 2015 — Oregon Ducks vs. Florida State Seminoles, 5 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The Rose Bowl is a college football game with a long history and an exciting present. It has traditionally been played on New Year’s Day and this year is no different. What is different this year is that it will be one of two games playing the role of semifinal games in the new college football playoff system. The winner of the Rose Bowl will go on to play in a National Championship game later in January. This is the first time in recent history that a team could play more than once during “bowl season” and it’s widely seen as either a great innovation, an obvious solution that college football should have adopted years ago, or just another symptom of college football’s never ending slide into hypocrisy and greed. However you see it in the big picture, in the small picture, it’s a prospectively exciting football game. Let’s talk about the plot and learn the characters.

What’s the plot?

This game is likely to be cast as everything that’s bad about college football vs. everything that’s good. The Florida State Seminoles are playing the role of the bad guys here. Why? Well, let’s see. You start out with a racially questionable nickname (although the relationship with the existing Seminole tribe is one area where the college seems to have excelled) add a quarterback who has been arrested but not indicted on sexual assault charges and whose less serious behavior seems evidently dumb from other incidents (he was arrested for shoplifting crab-legs and suspended for shouting a purportedly amusing, sexually charged vulgar phrase) then mix in an New York Times expose on how the football program has warped the justice system over many years and you’ve got exactly the recipe for a team that most people would be happy rooting against. As a bonus, Florida State has won their last 27 games and last year’s national championship. Everyone likes a winner, just not this one. The Oregon Ducks are not necessarily an ideal candidate to play the good guys, but they will be viewed that way just because they are opposing Florida State. The Ducks came to prominence over the last fifteen years thanks to an extremely close relationship with Nike, whose headquarters are near the school. Before they were a good team, they were just the team that seemed to have an infinite number of infinitely bright uniforms. Then, as they got good, they became known for being coach Chip Kelly’s masterpiece of revolutionary, faced paced football. Even though Kelly has moved on to the NFL, the team’s image remains the same — an exciting offensive team that doesn’t quite have enough power to win the biggest games.

Who are the characters?

Jameis Winston — Winston is the quarterback of the Florida State Seminoles. He is the one who has been arrested for sexual assault. I know people are innocent until proven guilty in this country (although that’s a legal rule, not a blogging rule) but I’m more likely to think O.J. Simpson was truly innocent (he’s covering for his son!) than feel good about rooting for Winston. I think this is a pretty wide-spread belief (not the O.J. part) and that says moderately good things about our country. Winston has also never lost a college football game, and if he wins his last two this season before turning pro, he should probably be considered one of the best five players in college football history. Ouch. Marcus Mariota — As long as Mariota can get through the month without shredding his knees, he will be the first pick of next year’s NFL draft. He’s the prototypical modern quarterback. He’s tall (6’4″), fast (sub 4.5 seconds for the 40 yard dash, which is faster than you can imagine), and a good decision maker. If were were better than terrible at identifying good NFL quarterbacks, Mariota would be a sure thing. He’s also a senior, playing his third year for the Oregon Ducks (he sat out his freshman year.) When he won the Heisman trophy this year, he became the first Hawaiian born player to ever get that honor given to the best college football player each year. Mark Helfrich — Who? Right, that’s the point. Even sports fans don’t know who Mark Helfrich is. He’s the head coach of the Oregon Ducks. Reading this excellent article about him by Michael Weinreb in Grantland makes me feel like maybe the whole good vs. bad plot is actually legitimate. Here’s a few tidbits about Helfrich. He grew up in Oregon and loved the Ducks as a kid, even when they were terrible. He played college quarterback for Southern Oregon and later as a pro in Austria during the NFL’s flirtation with developing a minor league in Europe. Instead of screaming and yelling, like many coaches do during the game, he is “thorough and utterly prepared and calm on the sideline, an intellectual at heart who happens to be a football coach.”

Who’s going to win?

Oregon is actually favored by nine points. I take this to mean two things. First, that Vegas thinks Oregon is a little better than Florida State. And second, that Vegas thinks way more people want to bet on the good guys than the bad guys. I think Oregon will win but I fear Florida State might.

What is sportsmanship? When is it appropriate?

Mirriam Webster defines sportsmanship as “fair play, respect for opponents, and polite behavior by someone who is competing in a sport or other competition”. Sportsmanship is an interesting concept. In some ways, it’s like obscenity according to the Supreme Court. When faced with trying to “categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters” you sometimes just have to say that you “know it when you see it.” We all know, of course, that this type of definition is not good enough. Different people view different things as obscene or not obscene and the same holds true with sportsmanship. I grew up playing soccer, just like lots of other people, but I gravitated towards playing defense and over time turned into someone who stayed in the starting lineup despite being slower than most of the other players by doing the little treacherous things, like knowing exactly how long I could hold a player’s shirt before I would get called for it and understanding exactly where to place my body so that an opposing player would stumble over it without attracting attention. I thought that type of infringement was breaking the rules but not breaking the ethic of the game. In other words, I thought I was still showing good sportsmanship. An attacking player would be more likely to try to draw a foul by taking a dive or feigning injury. I always thought that was bad sportsmanship but now that I view soccer as an observer and not a participant, I can see how people might have varying opinions. Sportsmanship is an important concept because it defines the cultural (as opposed to rule-based) norms of a game but it is hard to define and varies from sport to sport and participant to participant. In the past couple weeks, I’ve read a few articles on the topic of sportsmanship that I enjoyed and would love to share with you. I think they create a compelling conflict within and between sports.

Sportsmanship Captured at NCAA Cross Country Championships

by Alison Wade for Runner’s World

This article represents almost a control case for our investigation of sportsmanship. It’s a classic human interest story that lauds athletes who stop and sacrifice themselves to help an injured or disabled competitor. It’s actually more balanced than most, in that it points out that there is an NCAA rule against helping another athlete and by doing so, excuses some of the other runners in a video of the incident who did not stop to assist the falling runner. Still, there is no criticism of two women who do stop to help the fallen runner, quite the contrary.

“It does not surprise me at all that Kate would do that. She is all about team and loves the sport,” wrote Minnesota coach Sarah Hopkins in an email to Newswire. “She saw someone struggling and tried to lend an arm to get her to the end. This was her first national meet, and I am sure that somewhere in her head she thought how awful it would feel to not finish, so wanted to keep anyone from feeling that.”

Is Competitiveness Poor Sportsmanship?

by Sarah Barker for Deadspin

In this article, Sarah Barker discusses several incidents including the one described in the previous article and asks a few important questions: Could media (social and traditional) be driving athletes to help each other even at the cost of their own disqualification to their team’s detriment? Why does it seem like women are disproportionately in the news for showing this type of sportsmanship? Barker, a runner herself, gives us the benefit of her own experience to answer these questions as well as sharing answers from some of the runners and cross-country coaches she reached out to.

Sportsmanship has been a way to ensure that no one goes too far to win, that individual competitiveness doesn’t pass into the realm of cheating or impeding other runners. It’s been about fairness and honoring the efforts of all competitors, but has not, in the past, gone so far as to sacrifice one’s own result to help another runner.   Spectating at a girls’ high school cross country race in the early 2000s, a competitor collapsed right in front of me. Though apparently uninjured, she lay on the grass, sobbing, as scores of runners streamed by. I must say, it felt cruel not to reach out and help her up, but as I bent toward her, a race official appeared and warned me she’d be disqualified if I did so. Some of the other runners urged her on as they passed by, but no one stopped. Eventually, she pulled herself up and carried on. That was just one of several such instances at the same meet.

Volvo Ocean Race: Sportsmanship on the High Seas

by Aaron Kuriloff for the Wall Street Journal

This is a similar article to the first one. It absolutely praises the sailers who went off course during a race to their own detriment to provide assistance to a competitor’s boat who ran aground and was in distress. [The article is worth going to, even if you don’t read it, for the crazy video that captures the power of the ship running aground on a reef as well as the amazingly calm demeanor of the crew as they respond to mitigate the damage.] What I find most interesting about the way the author writes about this, is how clearly he describes the cultural clarity within sailing of going to a competitor’s aid. It seems obvious to me from reading this article, that no one involved with sailing would ever write an article arguing against doing so like TK did in the context of running. A basic rule of the sport and of the Volvo race: Never leave a competitor in danger… “There’s a code amongst thieves out there,” said Ken Read, who skippered PUMA Ocean Racing’s il Mostro team to a second-place finish in the 2008-09 Volvo. “One minute you’re trying to beat the guy at all costs, the next you’re his life raft.”

What happened on Monday, December 29, 2014?

  1. Everyone got fired: The day after the last regular season game in the NFL is unofficially known as Black Monday because it’s a day when many teams, whose owners feel they underperformed, fire their coaches and general managers. Yesterday the Chicago Bears and New York Jets fired their coach and GM, the Atlanta Falcons fired their coach, and the San Francisco 49ers and their coach, Jim Harbaugh, “mutually agreed” to part ways.
    Line: I flip flop between real sympathy for those fired and indignation that I should feel any sympathy for people making millions of dollars who will easily find other high-paying jobs.
  2. Two duds and a gem: Of the three college football bowl games yesterday, two were lopsided duds: Clemson beat Oklahoma 40-6 in the Russell Athletic Bowl and Arkansas beat Texas 31-7 in the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl. Only the Liberty Bowl between Texas A&M vs. West Virginia was a good game. Texas A&M narrowly edged West Virginia 45-37 thanks to a big day from their freshman quarterback, Kyle Allen. West Virginia almost won despite their quarterback having even less experience. How can you have less experience than a freshman? You could be like Skyler Howard, who (according to ESPN) was “making his second career start in place of Clint Trickett, who announced Friday he was giving up football because of multiple concussions.”
    Line: College football shootouts are so much fun to watch but they make me feel a little dirty.
  3. Liverpool crushes Swansea: Liverpool beat Swansea 4-1 yesterday in the only game on the British Premier League schedule. This victory vaults Liverpool up from 10th place, all the way to… 8th place. But really, the victory was actually kind of a big deal. Liverpool was all over Swansea, who had been ranked ahead of them. They even scored one of those fluky goals where an attacker leaped at the goalie as he was kicking the ball up-field and it actually bounced off the attackers back and went right into the goal.
    Line: This victory puts Liverpool in striking distance as the first half of the season ends.
  4. Wizards prove themselves: I said yesterday on the daily Dear Sports Fan Sports Forecast that the game between the Wizards and the Rockets was a good chance for the Wizards to prove themselves as a championship caliber basketball team. They did just that by beating the Rockets in a close, one-point game, 104-103. The Wizards fired on cylinders young and old. 21 year-old Bradley Beal led them with 33 points and 37 year-old Paul Pierce did his share with 21.
    Line: Looks like the Wizards are for real!

Sports Forecast for Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Here’s what’s going on:

In today’s segment, I covered:

  • NCAA Basketball – Maryland at Michigan State, 5 p.m. ET on ESPN.
  • NCAA Football – Notre Dame vs. LSU in the Music City Bowl, 3 p.m. ET on ESPN.
  • NHL Hockey — St. Louis Blues at Nashville Predators, 8 p.m. ET on regional cable.
  • NBA Basketball – Brooklyn Nets at Chicago Bulls, 8 p.m. ET on regional cable.

For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.

You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link.

Music by Jesse Fischer.

2015 in the United States of Sports: Interactive

For the last week or two, I’ve been slowly adding features to the 2015 in the United States of Sports feature. First I designed a map and offered a free paper or .pdf copy in exchange for an email subscription. That deal is still going, by the way! Then I added a table showing all 51 (with Washington D.C.) events in a table view in order of date. This is an easier, albeit less beautiful, way of perusing the sporting events. Over my holiday vacation last week, I worked on my newest addition to the map, which I am releasing in this post. It’s an interactive Google map that looks just like the original map, but it’s interactive! Click on each of the states to see its event, date, and sport. As I preview all 51 events over the next year, I will add a link to the post in this interactive map. This  interactive map will slowly become your guide to the biggest sporting events in each state during 2015!

Here’s the map:

Just watch out, unlike on the original, I was unable to transplant Alaska and Hawaii into the missing Mexican mainland. They are in their geo-normative positions in the interactive map.

The deal — get a free copy

If you’d like a paper or .pdf copy of the map, please subscribe to our email list and I will mail you one.


 

More to come

Keep your eyes peeled to this channel — by the end of New Year’s Day, three (three!) states’ biggest sporting event of 2015 will be in the rear-view mirror. I’ll have a preview of the Rose Bowl (California), Sugar Bowl (Louisiana), and Winter Classic (Washington D.C.) written and added to the interactive map by the time the ball drops on New Year’s Eve!

Thanks for reading,
Ezra Fischer

Sports Forecast for Monday, December 29, 2014

Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Here’s what’s going on:

In today’s segment, I covered:

  • NCAA Football – Texas A&M vs. West Virginia in the Liberty Bowl, 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.
  • British Premier League — Swansea City at Liverpool, 3 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
  • NHL Hockey — Detroit Red Wings at Boston Bruins, 7:00 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
  • NBA Basketball – Washington Wizards at Houston Rockets, 8 p.m. ET on regional cable.

For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.

You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link.

Music by Jesse Fischer.

Week 17 NFL One Liners

On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by Google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:

Week 17

Sunday, December 28, at 1:00 p.m. ET

Buffalo Bills 17, at New England Patriots 9 

Winning football games is hard and tiring and bruising. The Patriots had no need to win this game because no combination of results this weekend could have kept them from being the top team in the AFC and guaranteed to host all of the games they play in the playoffs until the Super Bowl.
Line: The Patriots didn’t need it, so they didn’t win it.

Cleveland Browns 10, at Baltimore Ravens 20

The Ravens needed to win this game and have a couple other things happen in the early games to make the playoffs. While they were winning the game, the other couple things happened. They’re in!
Line: The Ravens needed some help to get into the playoffs but what they could control (beating the Browns,) they did control.

Chicago Bears 9, at Minnesota Vikings 13

What a lost season from the Chicago Bears. They were expected to make the playoffs and instead, they only won five games. The Vikings can feel moderately good about themselves. They won seven games this year while mostly playing a rookie quarterback.
Line: There’s be hope today in Minnesota but the same can’t be said for Chicago.

Dallas Cowboys 44, at Washington Redskins 17

The Cowboys wanted to win this game in order to better their playoff seed. Still, you get the feeling that even if they hadn’t wanted to win, they might have won anyway. That’s how deeply depressing this season was for Washington.
Line: Hey, if you’re feeling sad about the end of the NFL regular season, just think — at least it means no more watching the Redskins!

Jacksonville Jaguars 17, at Houston Texans 23

The Texans are this year’s hard-luck team. They’re going to just miss out on the playoffs, but you have to wonder what would have been if they hadn’t been forced to go down to their third quarterback… when their first two weren’t that good to start out with!
Line: I feel bad for the Texans — I wish they could have snuck into the playoffs.

Indianapolis Colts 27, at Tennessee Titans 10

The Colts didn’t really have any reason to win this game, but after losing so badly last week, this must have felt somewhat cathartic. The Titans wanted to lose to try to get the first pick in next year’s draft, but unfortunately for them, Tampa Bay lost also to clinch that first pick for themselves.
Line: Meaningless victory for the Colts.

San Diego Chargers 7, at Kansas City Chiefs 19

By beating the San Diego Chargers, the Kansas City Chiefs knocked them out of the playoffs. Too bad for the Chiefs that the Ravens were simultaneously knocking them out of the playoffs.
Line: Talk about bitter-sweet victories. No one watching this game ended up happy.

New York Jets 37, at Miami Dolphins 24

Playing the day after reports surfaced that Jets head coach Rex Ryan had already cleaned his office out in the expectation of being fired, the Jets finally looked good on offense.
Line: Ha! Maybe Rex Ryan was so busy cleaning out his office that he didn’t have time to ruin the offensive game plan.

New Orleans Saints 23, at Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20

The Saints counter-intuitively helped a division rival by beating the Buccaneers today and therefore ensuring that they will pick first in next year’s NFL draft. The draft is no sure thing, but the Buccaneers fans are happier today than the Saints fans.
Line: It’s a hard call — do you try to lose to keep a rival from getting the first pick?

Philadelphia Eagles 34, at New York Giants 26

The season ends for these teams the way it’s been all along. The Eagles are marginally better than the Giants, but neither are good enough to compete with the best in the NFL.
Line: The tri-state area gets shut out from the playoffs.

SUNDAY, December 28, AT 4:05 and 4:25 P.M. ET

Carolina Panthers 34, at Atlanta Falcons 3

Well, that wasn’t close. The Panthers beat the Falcons to win the NFC South and clinch a playoff spot. Despite having a losing record, the Panthers look like a dangerous team. They’ve won their last four games and because they are a division winner, they’ll get to host their first playoff game.
Line: Wouldn’t it just be so typical of the NFL if the Panthers made a run in this year’s playoffs?

Oakland Raiders 14, at Denver Broncos 47

The Broncos left nothing up to chance when it came to making sure they got a bye week.
Line: Peyton Manning wanted to rest up. Or maybe just film some more commercials!

Detroit Lions 20, at Green Bay Packers 30

Aaron Rodgers gave the Packers fans a scare when he went down (while throwing a touch down, mind you,) grabbing his calf. He’ll have an extra week to rest and recuperate thanks to this victory over the Lions which clinched a first round bye in the playoffs.
Line: Aaron Rodgers is remarkable.

Arizona Cardinals 17,  at San Francisco 49ers 20

The Cardinals are struggling mightily and valiantly to win games with their third quarterback starting. It’s not working.
Line: I know they’ll probably lose, but I can’t help but root for the Cardinals in the playoffs.

St. Louis Rams 6, at Seattle Seahawks 20

The Seahawks clinched the number one seed in their conference, and (like the Patriots in theirs) home field throughout the playoffs.
Line: The poor Rams — so decent and so trapped in a division with way better than decent teams.

SUNDAY, December 21, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

Cincinnati Bengals 17, at Pittsburgh Steelers 27

By winning this game, the Steelers won their division and will now host the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the playoffs. By losing, the Bengals need to travel to Indianapolis in the first round. It’s not clear to me that there’s that much of a competitive advantage to hosting Baltimore over traveling to Indianapolis. It’s certainly not worth losing your best offensive player for, which is exactly what happened to both teams. Steelers running back, Le’veon Bell left the game with a knee injury and Bengals wide receiver, A.J. Green, left with a possible concussion.
Line: In this case, I don’t think the playoff seeding was worth the collateral damage.

What happened on Sunday, December 28, 2014?

  1. The last Sunday of the NFL regular season: That’s right, it’s all over but the shouting… and the playoffs. The shouting and the playoffs begin this coming weekend. Until then, the sports world will be buzzing with talk about the NFL season. For all your football talking needs, check out our last 2014 regular season edition of our NFL One Liner recaps.
  2. Gridlock at the top of the Premier League: You could easily be forgiven for thinking that yesterday might have been a dynamic day for the standings in British Soccer’s Premier League. Instead, the first place team (Chelsea) played the fourth place team (Southampton) and… tied. The second place team (Manchester City) could have taken advantage of that by beating up on the second to last place team (Burnley) but they… tied. And the third place team (Manchester United) would have moved up as well if it could have beaten the seventh place team (Tottenham Hotspur) but they… tied. Gah!
    Line: Well, they are British soccer teams, maybe they were just being polite to one another?
  3. Time for change in Cleveland?: The Cleveland Cavaliers lost badly (103-80) to the Detroit Pistons in Cleveland yesterday. This is notable because the Pistons are among the worst teams in the NBA and the Cavaliers were supposed to be a super team built around the greatest player in this era of NBA history, LeBron James. The Cavaliers have a fine record (18-12) but I wonder if at some point, the embarrassing performance will lead to their coach getting fired.
    Line: It feels like coach David Blatt’s rope gets shorter and shorter with every bad loss.

NFL Week 17 Good Cop, Bad Cop Precaps

The NFL season has started but how do you know which games to watch and which to skip? Ask our favorite police duo with their good cop, bad cop precaps of all the matchups in the National Football League this weekend. To see which games will be televised in your area, check out 506sports.com’s essential NFL maps.

Week 17

Sunday, December 28, at 1:00 p.m. ET

Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots

Good cop: The Bills can almost make up for their terrible loss last week that kicked them out of playoff contention by finishing the season with a win in New England!

Bad cop: The Patriots have already clinched home-field advantage throughout the entire playoffs. They don’t need to win this game at all. Knowing Bill Bellichick, they might just spend the game practicing some very avante-garde offensive strategy, just in case.

Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens

Good cop: The Ravens will make the playoffs if they win this game and San Diego loses to Kansas City!

Bad cop: The Browns will make the playoffs when California falls into the ocean.

Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings

Good cop: Of all the meaningless (to playoff qualification or seeding) Week 17 games, this could be the best! It’s two rival teams that are going in opposite directions! 

Bad cop: Yes… Minnesota is struggling to climb out of the dumpster while Chicago is hanging out in the landfill… 

Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins

Good cop: Washington eliminated one divisional rival, the Philadelphia Eagles, last week! This week they have a chance to keep a first round playoff bye away from another divisional rival, the Dallas Cowboys, if they can win this game!

Bad cop: If there’s anything Washington D.C. is good at, it’s ruining the hopes of people throughout the country. Ha.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans

Good cop: The Texans are the longest of long shots to make the playoffs — they have to win and they need the Ravens and Chargers to lose! But they also have the easiest opponent this week! The Jaguars are not good and that’s good for the Houston Texans!

Bad cop: I love how you just managed to say a team was bad, something you’re normally loath to admit, but you still found a way to make that a good thing. The Jaguars are bad and the Texans are not really that much better. They don’t deserve a playoff spot and they won’t get one.

Indianapolis Colts at Tennessee Titans

Good cop: I’m fascinated by this game! Who better for the struggling, yet playoff bound Colts to play than the 2-13 Titans?

Bad cop: Beating a team whose incentives are all lined up for losing won’t prove anything positive about the Colts.

San Diego Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs

Good cop: This is virtually a playoff game! Both teams need to win this game to make the playoffs! The Chargers could get in even if they lose, but if the Chiefs lose, they are out!

Bad cop: Too bad that Chiefs starting quarterback, Alex Smith, is out with a lacerated spleen. It takes a little of the drama away from this game.

New York Jets at Miami Dolphins

Good cop: The Jets have been an entertaining mess for years under head-coach Rex Ryan! This might be the last game of an era!

Bad cop: An era defined by dysfunction and mediocrity? Oh, I can’t wait to watch one last game in THAT era. 

New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Good cop: These two teams have had disappointing seasons but they’ll look to close the year out with a win!

Bad cop: Your lack of cynicism drives me crazy. You think the Buccaneers don’t know they might get the first pick of next year’s draft if they lose? They know. 

Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants

Good cop: Grudge match!

Bad cop: Consolation match.

SUNDAY, December 28, AT 4:05 and 4:25 P.M. ET

Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons

Good cop: This game is for all the marbles in the NFC South! Win and you make the playoffs! Lose and you go home!

Bad cop: Dramatic and ultimately futile. Winning a division and making the playoffs with a losing record is a damn shame.

Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos

Good cop: This may seem like a meaningless game, but it’s not! The Broncos can clinch a bye week with a win and there’s no player who would appreciate a week off more than 38 year-old Peyton Manning!

Bad cop: And no team easier to beat than the Oakland Raiders.

Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers

Good cop: Both teams have clinched a playoff spot but now they play each other for the NFC North division title and playoff positioning!

Bad cop: It’s hard, even for me, to find something bad to say about this game. It’ll probably stink.

Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers

Good cop: Down to their third quarterback, the Cardinals are the most compelling playoff team! I can’t wait to see if they can overcome their quarterback play to make a deep run this year!

Bad cop: I can save you the suspense. They won’t.

St. Louis Rams at Seattle Seahawks

Good cop: It’s such a shame that the Rams are stuck in a division with the Seahawks, Cardinals, and (not this year but for the last few years) the 49ers! Otherwise, they’d probably be a playoff team! They’re not bad!

Bad cop: “They’re not bad.” Heck of a rallying cry.

SUNDAY, December 21, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers

Good cop: The AFC North division, with the Bengals, Steelers, Ravens, and Browns, has been the best division from 1-4 all season! This game will finally decide who the winner is!

Bad cop: Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t really matter though. Both teams are in the playoffs for sure and neither one are likely to get a first round bye.

Old media covers sports in old age

Snarky headline aside, the New York Times and Associated Press really has been on a roll lately with their sports coverage of the elderly. Two recent articles celebrating people whose unique perspective on sports is only partially due to their long experience on our planet. My suspicion is that these two characters would have been interesting subjects for profiles twenty years ago, forty years ago, even seventy five years ago!

A Hole in One for a 103-Year-Old Golfer

by The Associated Press in the New York Times

Gus Andreone, an 103 year-old resident of Sarasota, Florida, recently became the oldest person to hit a hole in one. Two things popped out to me in this short profile. First, in hitting a hole in one, Andreone took the record away from its previous owner, an 102 year old woman. I’d like to know what her story was! Second, I love that Andreone claims to have hit eight holes in one since 1939 and that he seems to fully expect to hit another in his life. Let’s hope he does!

He said he used a driver on the 113-yard 14th hole of the Lakes Course, like he normally does, but then noticed something different. The ball hit the ground about 30 yards from the green and then rolled into the hole, he said.

His golf partners jumped up and down, but Andreone kept his cool.

“I can’t say that I felt any different about one or the other,” he said of his most recent ace. “I just felt another hole in one.”

At 107, a Buffalo Bills Fan Who Sees It All

by Andrea Elliott for the New York Times

There’s so much to love about this profile of Evelyn Elliott, a 107 year old Buffalo Bills fan. It was written by her granddaughter, Andrea Elliott, and Elliott’s love and familiar granddaughterly bemusement come through brilliantly in her writing. Evelyn Elliott, the subject of the piece, is an inspiring woman. Although her first date with the man who eventually became her husband was to a football game, it wasn’t until after he became sick, six months before his death, (and 65 years after their first football date,) that she got into football. Since then, she has been a true fan of the Buffalo Bills and nothing in this article suggests that will change any time soon. The Bills were eliminated from the playoffs last weekend, after this article came out, and I’m sure Elliott is disappointed but I’m equally sure that she will be in her living room to watch them finish out the year against the New England Patriots this coming Sunday. She’s a true fan!

I kept trying to discern what it was about the game that captivated Grandma’s mind. I knew she paid close attention to strategy.

“What do you think happens in the huddle?” I tried.

“They decide what to do,” she sniffed (in the tone of “Are you an idiot or what?”).

I have interviewed militant jihadists, prosecutors, drug dealers and counterterrorism specialists at the Central Intelligence Agency. None of them prepared me for the challenge of extracting personal information from my grandmother.

At the beginning of the third quarter last Sunday, with the score tied, 10-10, I started up with my questions again. She frowned.

“I can’t concentrate when people talk,” she snapped.

Grandma’s spectator style might best be described as Zen. She watches the game closely and calmly, getting neither flustered nor excited. This disposition mirrors her general approach to life.

“I just go with it,” she likes to say. “I take it as it comes. Let the best man win.”