Dear Sports Fan - Page 77 of 133 - An advice column for people who live with people who live for sports

Sports Forecast for Thursday, December 18, 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:

NHL Hockey — St. Louis Blues at Los Angeles Kings, 10:30 p.m. ET on regional cable.
NBA Basketball – New York Knicks at Chicago Bulls, 8 p.m. ET on TNT.
NBA Basketball – Oklahoma City Thunder at Golden State Warriors, 10:30 p.m. ET on TNT.
NCAA Basketball – University of Connecticut vs. Duke in East Rutherford, NJ, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
NFL Football – Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars, 8:25 p.m. ET on NFL Network (but do not watch this game.)

For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.

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

The top ten Christmas or holiday gifts for a sports fan

The Friday after Thanksgiving is infamously the first day of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday, as it’s called, is a time for sales of questionable worth and dangerous hordes of stampeding shoppers. The whole phenomenon is a funny one though, because by and large, the only people I know who actually get their holiday shopping done before the last minute are all people I would classify as being the least likely to riot over reduced-price electronics. Most of my friends are just rounding into shopping form now, with plenty of gifts left to buy before the 25th. Their motto (our motto, I suppose I should say,) is “if you leave it until the last minute, it only takes a minute.” Here are the top ten sports related gifts that I’ve reviewed over the last couple years. All are guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of the sports fan in your life!

Bob Ryan’s Scribe

Bob Ryan is one of the best known and most respected sports writers in the country. He started as an intern at the Boston Globe in 1968 and retired from full-time work there in 2012 after 44 years as a beat writer and columnist. He is a Boston sports writer, through and through — never bothering to adopt the feigned objective neutrality of many journalists in sports. Although he is “retired” now, he remains almost as prolific as he ever has been and this book is proof of that.

Stadium prints

We’re always on the look-out for tasteful ways to represent beloved sports teams in home decor. Items that fit this bill are worth their weight in, well, not gold at current prices, but aluminum at least. They give the sports fan in the household a way to express pride and love while simultaneously giving their family, partner, or housemates a chance to express their own tasteful sense of home propriety. The large selection of colorful stadium prints from City Prints fits the bill on every detail.

30 for 30 sports documentary box set

ESPN and Bill Simmons’ series of sports documentaries, released under the 30 for 30 brand name, have been home to many of the best sports documentaries of the last several years. Their model of targeting filmmakers from outside of the sports media conglomerate and then asking them to work on a subject of their choosing has produced some very interesting pieces. My favorites (Once Brothers, The Two Escobars, and June 17, 1994) from the series are all included in the box set of twelve films.

NBA player art

Baseball is the sport of the trading card but that leaves some very interesting niches for other sports to fill in. Seattle-based illustrator Matthew Hollister decided to create player artwork for every basketball player in the NBA. He displays and sells these funky and attractive prints at his site, EveryPlayerInTheLeague.

The Stanley Cup of popcorn

This gift should be a perennial on every top ten list of gifts ever written. It’s hard to beat the combination of the Stanley Cup, the greatest and most desired trophy in all of sports, with the equally desirable delicious goodness of home-popped popcorn!

Baseballism shirts

The holidays are the perfect time to invest in some stylish, clever baseball apparel for yourself or for the baseball fan in your life. Baseballism is a great place to find baseball apparel that looks and feels good. Their style plays on the traditional aspects of baseball without taking on the conventional and a slightly ugly characteristics of old-school baseball uniforms.

The Blind Side

A best selling book and Hollywood movie, Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side remains a classic and incredibly contemporary. On top of being a touching story and a great tactical history of football, The Blind Side, is an insightful, challenging book about America, one that has incisive insight into this fall’s cultural issues.

Baseball stadium prints

Not only are these minimalist baseball stadium prints by S. Preston great presents but they’re also a good defense against the fan in your life buying a regular sports poster to remember the season by; one that you will not want hung in your living room. A gift of one of these prints says, “I like how big of a fan you are and I support your team” without saying “let’s turn our house into a locker room.”

Rep your school this holiday season

For fans of college sports, December is not just the holiday season, it’s also the time when college football enters into its postseason bowl games and when college basketball starts its regular season in earnest. It’s a great time to pick up something sports related as a gift for yourself or the college sports fan in your life. Here’s a selection of college sports gifts that range the gamut from useful to kitschy.

Sports books for children

How better to pass on the gift of sports than to give a young sports fan a book that will spark their imagination and inspire them? Two of my childhood favorites, Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars by Walter Brooks and Ice Magic by Matt Christopher are joined by three wonderful baseball books, Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates, You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!, and You Never Heard of Willie Mays?! by Jonah Winter.

Bonus: Who’s on first?

Holiday time is classics time in many households. It’s the perfect time to slip back into the wonderful nostalgia and legitimately great entertainment of the mid-twentieth century, back when men were real men, women were real women, and comedians were really funny. Whether it’s an introduction or a reprise for the fiftieth time, watching or listening to Abbott and Costello’s classic Who’s on First comedy bit is a great time. Celebrate the genius of their humor with this selection of Who’s on First memorabilia.

Sports Forecast for Wednesday, December 17, 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:

Capital One Cup Soccer — Liverpool at AFC Bournemouth, 2:45 p.m. on beIN sports.
NHL Hockey — Boston Bruins at Minnesota Wild, 8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
NBA Basketball – Brooklyn Nets at Toronto Raptors, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
NBA Basketball – Houston Rockets at Denver Nuggets, 10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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.

What happened Tuesday, December 16, 2014?

Golden State loses, finally: After winning 16 games in a row, the Golden State Warriors finally lost an NBA basketball game. The game was to the Memphis Grizzlies and they lost 105-98. The Grizzlies are like a photo-negative of the Warriors. The Grizzlies are all about their big men who play near the basket and the Warriors are a team whose best players are little dudes who shoot well from the outside.
Line: I guess the streak had to end sometime. It’s still impressive though.
If the Blues don’t get you: The St. Louis Blues are a prototypical young, talented team that’s just waiting to break through and win the Stanley Cup. Last night they beat the Stanley Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings, 5-2. The game was 2-1 in favor of the Kings after two periods but the Blues absolutely exploded in the third period with four unanswered goals, two of them on the power play.
Line: The Blues have the talent to win it all, games like this will help get them the experience needed.
Down goes Southampton: One of the great things about British soccer is that there are a few tournaments throughout the year that pit the teams from the top league, the Premiere League, against what should be inferior teams from lower leagues. The Capital One Cup, commonly called the League Cup, is one of those tournaments. It’s a single elimination deal with the 20 Premiere League teams and 72 teams from the Football League which is the next league down. This kind of competition is inconceivable in the United States, but it seems like a lot of fun. Yesterday, a Football League team, Sheffield United, beat a Premiere League team, Southampton 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the tournament!
Line: Sheffield United beating Southampton is like if the Durham Bulls beat the Baltimore Orioles.

Week 15 NFL One Liners

Green Bay Packers 13, at Buffalo Bills 21

Buffalo’s defense did something virtually no one has been able to do this year: make Packers QB Aaron Rodgers look bad.
Line: Buffalo’s defense is legit. If only they had a decent quarterback!

Jacksonville Jaguars, 12 at Baltimore Ravens 20

Baltimore made it harder than it had to be – but ultimately their defense was too much for Jaguars rookie quarterback Blake Bortles.
Line: Baltimore sure wins ugly – and Blake Bortles looks like he may be a bust, too.

Cleveland Browns 0, at Cincinnati Bengals 30

Polarizing Browns rookie Johnny Manziel was absolutely terrible – he gave the ball away and couldn’t get the offense going at all, meaning long-suffering Cleveland fans will have to go another year without making the playoffs.
Line: Johnny Football just led the Browns right out of the playoffs.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 17 at Carolina Panthers 19

This game is all about how bad the NFC south – which both teams play in – is this year. Carolina won and has a record of 5-8-1. They are currently leading that division.
Line: I mean, does someone actually HAVE to win the NFC South?

Houston Texans 10, at Indianapolis Colts 17

This was a battle between two of the rising stars in the league – Colts QB Andrew Luck and Texans defensive lineman JJ Watt – with the division title on the line. Luck threw two touchdowns to bring the Colts back in the second half and the Texans couldn’t do anything on offense all day.
Line: Luck looked shaky, but he came through when it counted – like he always does.

Oakland Raiders 13, at Kansas City Chiefs 31

The Chiefs won the latest game in this traditional rivalry – which has faded a bit because the Raiders frankly stink – by taking advantage of Oakland’s mistakes and not making any of their own.
Line: Remember when this rivalry used to matter? Is Oakland ever going to be good again?

Miami Dolphins 13, at New England Patriots 41

New England’s offense was too much for a Miami team that blew them out the first week of the season. Tom Brady was…well…Tom Brady, and the Pats clinched their 375^th AFC East title in a row.
Line: Brady looks as good as he ever has – I don’t see who’s going to keep them out of the Super Bowl if he keeps playing like this.

Washington Redskins 13, at New York Giants 24

One of two truly meaningless and painful games to watch this week. Controversial Redskins QB Robert Griffin III was not as bad as he had been, but ultimately exciting Giants rookie Odell Beckham Jr won the suffix battle by scoring three touchdowns.
Line: Beckham’s practically unstoppable – when Victor Cruz gets back next year the Giants will have one of the most exciting receiver combos in the league.

Pittsburgh Steelers, 27 at Atlanta Falcons 20

Pittsburgh built a lead on the arm of Ben Roethlisberger and the legs of rookie RB Le’veon Bell and withstood Atlanta’s late comeback attempt. Both of these teams still have a chance at the playoffs.
Line: Big Ben wouldn’t let the Steelers lose – Atlanta didn’t look great, but they may still win the NFC South.

Denver Broncos, 22 at San Diego Chargers 10

Peyton Manning was sick and hurt, but he did just enough – along with some smothering defense – to lead the Broncos past their divisional rival Chargers. They clinched a spot in the playoffs – meanwhile, the Chargers are all but eliminated.
Line: Peyton’s not looking great, but he’s got enough to give them a chance, especially with that defense playing the way they are.

New York Jets, 16 at Tennessee Titans 11

The second meaningless game that was painful to watch – more painful to watch than Redskins-Giants. It’s best not to discuss this one, even if you’re asked.
Line: [shake head].

Minnesota Vikings, 14 at Detroit Lions 16

Detroit came from behind to win this game, helped by two interceptions thrown by Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater. The Lions kicked the game winning field goal with a few minutes left and kept their playoff hopes alive.
Line: The Lions could still get in, but I’m not sure they deserve to after seeing this game.

San Francisco 49ers, 7 at Seattle Seahawks 17

San Francisco’s disappointing year continued as they’re eliminated from playoff contention – done in by Seattle’s defense and their own mistakes. As the Niners swoon continues (they may lose their head coach, John Harbaugh, this offseason), the Seahawks seem to be returning to the style and level of play that won them a Super Bowl.
Line: I don’t know what happened with the Niners, but I think Harbaugh’s gone.

Dallas Cowboys 38, at Philadelphia Eagles 27

Dallas looked like they were going to run away with this game, opening up a 21 point lead – Philly stormed back but ultimately had no answer for Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, who caught three touchdowns. For once, the Cowboys didn’t choke in an important game. They’re now in the driver’s seat in the NFC East.
Line: I never would’ve thought Romo would be the one to come up big – but then, he was playing against Mark Sanchez.

Stumbling to the end… the NFL in 2014

The story of the year in sports has been the downfall of the NFL’s institutional standing at a time when it is still close to its pinnacle in popularity if not expanding. The NFL and the sports media companies that cover it have dealt with some serious issues this year, from domestic abuse all the way to child abuse with lots of other abuses between. At every step of the way, they/we have proven to be rigid, self-impressed, and unable to adequately or elegantly meet the challenges it faces. This year-long travail continued in the news this week with three new stories covering the poor treatment of NFL cheerleaders, a fan who finds himself unable to be a fan anymore, and some insight from ESPN’s ombudsman on his way out of the position.

Buffalo Bills Cheerleaders’ Routine: No Wages and No Respect

by Michael Powell for the New York Times

Mark Bittman wrote an op-ed in the New York Times yesterday where he argued that all of our issues from police brutality to minimum wage to climate change are all connected and should be confronted that way. I imagine he would draw a direct line from the casual and incomprehensible abuse of power between the NFL and its cheerleading teams to the other high-profile social issues of our times. For myself, I can say that I simply do not understand the NFL’s treatment of its cheer squads from a financial perspective. Paying and treating them fairly would have no negative impact on NFL teams’ bottom lines. It would be like a single drop escaping from a bucket the size of Rhode Island.

The National Football League, that $10 billion “nonprofit” business, is the occasionally repulsive gift that keeps on giving. An all-American empire, the N.F.L. is structured with various and many principalities and emirates, and fixers who cushion the leadership from the unsightly details of league business as usual.

The team’s contractor handed the women a contract and a personnel code, and told them to sign on the spot. The team dictated everything from the color of their hair to how they handled their menstrual cycle.

The contractor required they visit a sponsor who was a plastic surgeon. He offered a small discount if they opted for breast augmentation and other services. Larger breasts, however, were not a condition of nonpaid employment.

The Jills’ subcontractor, Stejon Productions, readily acknowledges that it is a front operation.

The National Football League, as is its practice, has little to say on the question of uncompensated work by these high-profile women. Goodell offered his patented I-know-nothing routine.

“I have no knowledge,” he wrote in an affidavit, of the Jills’ “selection, training, compensation and/or pay practices.”

A contract surfaced that laid out the terms and was signed by Goodell. A league lawyer asserted that Goodell’s signature was affixed by a stamp.

Vijay Seshadri Struggles With Watching Football

by Liz Robbins for the New York Times

Vijay Seshadri is a poet who hurtled into the public consciousness when his poem, The Disappearances was published by the New Yorker in the issue following 9/11. In this small profile, Seshadri expresses feelings of conflict and loss over his Sunday routine which used to consist of football, football, football; no longer.

I feel a little reluctant to tell you what else I do on Sunday. I feel bad about it now. I feel conflicted. Usually in the fall I would watch football. I was a Steelers fan. My parents still live in Pittsburgh and I went to high school there. I always felt like somehow that was one of the things in my life that ennobled me.

So this year has been very bad for me in terms of the normal rhythms of a Sunday. I can’t really comfortably sit down and watch the pregame shows. It’s weird if you’re a sports fan to have all this karmic weight bearing down on this experience that you approached with a certain amount of innocence.

Inside the ESPN Empire

By Chris Laskowski for Slate

Like many enormous companies, ESPN has an ombudsman, someone within the organization but independent from its normal hierarchy who can investigate disputes and, in the case of media organizations, comment publicly on them. Richard Lipsyte has been ESPN’s ombudsman for the last year and a half but has decided to leave the post. On his way out, he gave an interview to Chris Laskowski and Slate magazine. It’s a revealing look inside the sausage machine of sports news and surprisingly (at least to me,) Lipsyte flips the script and puts the majority of blame for the tenor of ESPN’s “see no evil, hear no evil” coverage on its fans.

The tension here isn’t just between ESPN and its business partners in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. It’s between ESPN and its viewers, who mostly don’t seem to care whether the leagues are doing evil.

Lipsyte says he received close to 20,000 emails during his time as ombudsman. Lots of viewers complained about specific on-air issues—why is this person still on the air, or why does ESPN hate my favorite sport, particularly if that favorite sport is hockey. But what really bothered ESPN’s core audience, Lipsyte says, was “the intrusion of what they called societal issues into what was, in a way, kind of a sacred place. People so often come to sports as this sanctuary from the real world, where they can sit in their living room with their family and not be assailed by anything that will upset them.” For some, that upsetting thing was the sight of football player Michael Sam kissing his boyfriend to celebrate being drafted.

Mix and match – the best sports articles of the week

This week’s collection of endorsed articles about sports that are good to read whether you are a sports fan or just sports curious don’t have a real theme. If there is anything that connects them, it’s the idea that greatness, even or maybe especially in sports, comes in all shapes and sizes. From the dominance of an obsessive compulsive quarterback to the rise of an enthusiastic young defensemen to the notoriety of disappearing foam, sports greatness is as fun to describe as it is far ranging.

Preparing for Peyton

by Brandon Flowers for the MMQB

Peyton Manning is a familiar face because of his widespread commercial work (“chicken parm you taste so good” and “cut that meat, cut that meat” are my favorites). In his commercials, Manning comes across as down-to-earth and self effacing. But what is it like to actually be across the field from him, trying to stop him from doing the thing he’s best in the world at. On the field Manning is totally ruthless, effective, and to hear defensive back Brandon Flowers write about the experience, terrifying.

That week felt like we were preparing for battle. You have to be precise in everything you do. You can’t give him even an inch. You have to conduct a flawless game plan.

We thought we had a good one. After studying film, we had this one blitz our coaches drew up that we thought we could drop in. We’d essentially send our whole left side of the defense at him. He wouldn’t see it coming. Well, somehow he did. Nobody jumped or gave any indication we were blitzing. Then right before the play, Peyton checked and threw a quick pass to the left side. Big gain, first down. We weren’t even showing the blitz! I have no idea how he knew.

The Ice Breaker

by Ben McGrath for The New Yorker

P.K. Subban sticks out like a sore thumb on an NHL ice hockey rink. The obvious reason for this is that he is the child of Carribean immigrants and his inherited dark skin is still unusual on hockey teams. Subban has also been criticized and celebrated for sticking out for other reasons — his unabashed enthusiasm and his style of play. The difficulty in writing about him is separating his truly unique person from the stereotypical characteristics that he is imbued with in the eyes of others because of his skin. McGrath tackles this task with grace and insight.

Hockey, like the country of its birth, has long valued understatement—sometimes comic understatement—and shunned salesmanship… The conformist power of Canadian hockey culture is such that even New Englanders and Swedes, after a few years of inhaling North American Zamboni fumes, will come to adopt a Manitoban prairie lilt, and speak in run-on sentences of cautious optimism.

Subban’s family believes that others have mistaken their beloved P.K.’s boisterous personality for something more sinister. “He is confident,” Maria says. “My son is a different kettle of fish.” He is also an inveterate camera hog, dating to the earliest birthday parties and home videos. I can vouch for his chirping outside the rink, too, turning up the radio at stoplights and drawing wayward looks from other drivers as he shimmies in his seat.

The arrival of a force as disruptive as Subban, in an institution as self-regarding as le Club du Hockey, is as significant, in its way, as Gretzky’s arrival was in Hollywood a quarter-century ago.

That Weird White Spray they Use in Soccer: An Investigation

by Jorge Arangure for Vice Sports

Ever since the World Cup this past summer, I have wondered about the disappearing spray that referees used to mark distances on set pieces. Arangure gives me more information in this article than I had bargained for and it’s very interesting. As with many inventions, the disappearing spray seems to have been the product of convergent evolution, and like many inventions, now seems to be marketed aggressively and simultaneously by multiple get-rich-quick hucksters.

The true star of the 2014 World Cup was a little spray can that referees carried in their pockets and took out during stoppages. At this point, the ref would press down on a nozzle and spray out a foamy residue to draw a line on the grass that players were not supposed to cross.
Then, after only a few moments, the line would magically disappear.

Part of the spray’s popularity lay in that it lived in an almost philosophical universe. It existed and then suddenly it didn’t. It disappeared without leaving a trace of what had come before. And that was the allure. Its existence was never supposed to matter. The spray’s purpose was to mark a time and a place at a certain time and place and then it was supposed to go away forever. Who couldn’t use a magic metaphysical line to divide things every now and then in their everyday life?

NFL Week 15 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 15

Sunday, December 14, at 1:00 p.m. ET

Green Bay Packers at Buffalo Bills

Good cop: The Buffalo fans are consistently among the best in the league! They’re going to find a way to help their team in this must-win game against the mighty Packers!

Bad cop: How? What if one of them transformed the world into a cartoon and then the other 71,856 threw banana peels at Aaron Rodgers? That might work. Maybe.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Baltimore Ravens

Good cop: What luck for the Ravens who are fighting for a playoff spot and their division lead! They play the woeful Jaguars while the Browns and Bengals play each other and the Steelers play the dangerous Falcons!

Bad cop: The “dangerous falcons?” You must be mistaken — the Steelers are playing the Atlanta Falcons football team, not a flock of predatory birds. The football team is not dangerous.

Cleveland Browns at Cincinnati Bengals

Good cop: Finally! Finally, we’ll get to see the most talked about rookie quarterback, Johnny Manziel, start a game for the Cleveland Browns!

Bad cop: Yes… Manziel is so exciting that his coaches waited until their team was basically eliminated from playoff contention to start him. Exciting like a rusty roller coaster is exciting.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers

Good cop: With their quarterback sidelined after a scary looking car accident that luckily ended with only a couple small broken bones in his back, the Panthers turn to journeyman Derek Anderson who beat the Buccaneers earlier this year! Even at 4-8-1, the Panthers’ playoff hopes are still alive!

Bad cop: The only small broken bones are ones other people have. The only hope the Panthers have for the playoffs are mathematical.

Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts

Good cop: The Texans are only game out of a wild card spot and I think this is the week they finally break through their division rivals, Indianapolis Colts! If anyone can outsmart and outbeard Andrew Luck, it’s the Texans erudite wildman Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick!

Bad cop: I don’t care about all that. When it’s December and cold, windy, and snowing across larger parts of the United States, the last thing I want to watch is a mediocre football game inside a dome. I want weather.

Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs

Good cop: Just a month ago, the Chiefs were 7-3 and looked like they could stroll into the playoffs this year! Then they played the winless Raiders on Thursday, lost, lost their next two games, and are on the outside looking in! That Raiders loss really derailed their season and I’m interested to see them get their revenge!

Bad cop: “My name is Alex Smith, you defeated my football team, prepare to lose.” Not exactly the thing legends are made of.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots

Good cop: It’s another divisional revenge game! The Patriots don’t really need to win this game, but that’s never stopped Brady and Bellichick for looking to destroy a team that beat them the last time they played!

Bad cop: Brady, Bellichick, Brady, Bellichick. I’m getting bored with those two. Can we swap them out for the characters from True Detective? Then you’d have an interesting football team — okay Gronkowski, on this play I want you to run a flat circle and then I’ll throw you the ball…

Washington Redskins at New York Giants

Good cop: HEY! After this game, we’ll only have to se– I mean get to see these teams two more times!

Bad cop: [quietly nods]

Pittsburgh Steelers at Atlanta Falcons

Good cop: Ben Roethlisberger has thrown for six touchdowns in two games this year! I expect he’ll come close to that again this Sunday against the Falcons “pass defense!”

Bad cop: [quietly nods proudly]

SUNDAY, December 14, AT 4:05 and 4:25 P.M. ET

Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers

Good cop: Doesn’t it seem like the Broncos always have to go through the Chargers on their way through the playoffs?!!

Bad cop: Yep — and they always beat them, every time, so where’s the drama?

New York Jets at Tennessee Titans

Good cop: It’s the only head to head matchup this week among the five teams tied at the bottom of the schedule at 2-11! Whoever wins this game gets bragging rights!

Bad cop: And loses an important chance to grab the first overall draft pick next year.

Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions

Good cop: Don’t sleep on the Vikings! They’ve won their last two games and are sneaking closer and closer to .500! Not bad for quarterback Teddy Bridgewater’s first year!

Bad cop: I would never sleep on a Viking. Too spiky.

San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks

Good cop: A rematch of the Thanksgiving night game! A rematch of last year’s NFC Championship!

Bad cop: Since last year’s NFC Championship, the 49ers are 7-6. Since Thanksgiving, they’ve lost to the Raiders. Not interested.

SUNDAY, December 14, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles

Good cop: I’m basically speechless! A division rivalry! Both teams are 9-4! Drama! Action!

Bad cop: Expectations lead to disappointment.

MONDAY, December 15, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

New Orleans Saints at Chicago Bears

Good cop: It’s a matchup between two of the most surprising teams of the season!

Bad cop: Yep — even I have been surprised at how terrible these teams are.

Sports Forecast for Friday, December 12, 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:

NHL Hockey — Los Angeles Kings at Montreal Canadiens, 7:30 p.m. ET on regional cable.
NBA Basketball – Portland Trailblazers at Chicago Bulls, 7 p.m. ET on TNT.
NBA Basketball – Los Angeles Lakers at San Antonio Spurs, 9:30 p.m. ET on TNT.
NCAA Basketball – Iowa State Cyclones at Iowa Hawkeyes, 8 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network.
And more!

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.

What happened on Thursday, December 11, 2014?

Football game mercifully ends, one team wins: Even though it’s not statistically true, it’s become normal for people to complain about the low quality of Thursday Night football games. The argument is that there’s not enough time for coaches to plan or players to recover from the last game. Those arguments were bolstered by last night’s dreadfully played game between the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals won 12-6 which is exactly the score you might expect when two teams with good defenses and incompetent offenses play each other.
Line: The Cardinals lost another starting quarterback last night. By the time they limp into the playoffs, they’ll not just be limping, they’ll be in a walking boot, on crutches.
LeBron is human, Cavaliers lose: One of the strongest signs of LeBron James’ dominance is that it’s hard to remember him ever being injured. Oh, sure, there was that little issue with cramps in last year’s playoffs, but everyone gets cramps. It’s pretty amazing that someone who is 6’8″ and plays at something between 250 and 280 lbs can run and jump as hard as him for so long and not suffer some kind of real injury. We were reminded of this last night when he sat out the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder because of some knee soreness. The Cavaliers without James lost handily, 103-94.
Line: I can’t ever remember LeBron actually being injured, can you?
Harden loves overtime: It’s almost as if James Harden, who was traded to the Houston Rockets from the Oklahoma City Thunder in a move that has been pilloried by the basketball intelligentsia, knew he was going to be on TV after his old teammates and wanted to remind everyone that he’s still a great player in his own right. He scored 44 points, ten of them in five minutes of overtime, to help his team beat the Sacramento Kings, 113-109.
Line: Harden just said, “Remember me? I’m still here!”