The Bowl System Isn't Going Anywhere

I noticed something a bit comical the other day, in regard to bowl trophies.

I think they are getting bigger. And way more fancy.

Take a look at that honker next to Mike Gundy at the Fiesta Bowl. Wow. Makes you think that game was the most important game in the history of tackle football.

And won't that sucker look pretty in the OSU trophy case!

Which is really the point. Bowls are doing everything they can to perpetuate the current system, and if that means crafting 50 pound slabs of granite and metal to impart false importance for the Capital One Bowl, then so be it.

Someday when somebody says "let's get rid of all of this" then someone else will look in their school trophy case and let out a Homer like whine: "Buuuttt.. what about the trophies.... awwwww..."

Despite tepid ticket sales for once "prestige" bowls like the Sugar (see last night's upper deck shots) and even more ludicrous empty seats for the garbage bowls, I don't think we're any closer to a Division 1 playoff now than we have been for the last 20 years.

Put aside the MERITS of a playoff vs. the "current system", for lack of a better overall term that encompasses the regular season, the bowls, and the BCS structure.

This is not an argument of "what is better?" This is an analysis of "is there momentum for change?"

I just don't see it.

Sure, schools can and do LOSE money on bowl trips (UConn lost almost $2 million on last year's Orange Bowl trip). Sure, it's getting harder and harder to fill these games up. Sure the coaches SAY they want a playoff. Sure, the media still blare their horns of outrage in hopes of at least a "Plus One" format.

But none of that matters.

Not until ESPN decides it doesn't want to be in the business of running, televising and promoting almost every single one of the post season bowl games. This year, ESPN/ABC televised or outright owned 33 of the 35 bowls. Eventually, Fox (Cotton Bowl) and CBS (Sun Bowl) will wake up and say: "What the hell are we doing here?" And drop out.

So it works for ESPN.

And it works for AD's who can go home and brag about being in/winning the (Insert Bowl Here) Bowl and say "put that in the media guide!"

It works for coaches who may SAY they want a playoff, but really like the security of bonuses for getting into a bowl of some sort (and hey, 70 teams do!) They love the relatively consequence-free nature of winning or losing a single game detached from the season by a full month plus the holidays.

It works for the players who like the $600 worth of Playstations and Oakley sunglasses they get, plus a week in a strange city and one more fun football game that all of their friends and family can watch on TV.

It works for the corporate sponsors, who to date, have never left a single bowl game standing at the altar without somebody willing to pony up some cash to slap their name on the title.

And it certainly works for every BCS member school, who do not need to share their financial spoils with the Ball State's of the college football world. The BCS is a clumsily constructed cartel, but a cartel nonetheless. And so they reward their own, as you saw by the Michigan vs. Virginia Tech "inside job" at the Sugar Bowl.

I'm not saying there aren't pressure points to the current system.

I'm just saying everyone thought Castro's regime would have fallen by now, and well, can you rent a vacation condo in Havana today, in 2012?

I'd recommend you don't get all hoarse yelling about "the system" because it won't do you any good. I don't even think organizing attendance boycotts of the games will do the trick. These games just need to be shown on TV to make sense to the "powers that be." If they need to digitally insert some fake fans, then we'll have that technology in a few years anyway.

LSU -1 on Monday night against Alabama.

See you there.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

More comically over-crafted Bowl trophies for your enjoyment...

"I Put My Reputation On These Guys"

Mike Shanahan, please hand in your reputation.

From Dan Steinberg in the DC Sports Bog:

“I believe in the guys,” Mike Shanahan said in July, when asked about John Beck and Rex Grossman. “I believe in ‘em. And I’ve been doing this for a long time. And I put my reputation on these guys that they can play.”  

“I believe in both these quarterbacks,” Mike Shanahan said in November. “And I’ve got to give them the right supporting cast. That’s my job, and I’m going to give them the right supporting cast, but both guys will get the job done.”  

Well, the job is now done, as it were, allowing us to total up some final 2011 statistics. Rex Grossman had 20 interceptions. John Beck had 4 interceptions. Grossman lost 5 fumbles. Beck lost 1 fumble. That’s a combined 30 turnovers for the two quarterbacks Mike Shanahan put his reputation on.

For comparison sake, that's the most turnovers since Heath, Gus, and Friesz in 1994 (34). It's more than Shane, Danny and Patrick (26 in 2002). Even more than Gus and Hoss (27 in 1997).

Hell, Campbell and Colllins in TWO seasons combined only had 28 total, from 2007 through the end of 2008.

But geez, who could have seen that coming? I mean, who?! ZOMG! Rex Grossman? Turnover prone? If only there was some FILM on this guy!

Recall how Rex got here. Shanny's eager young silver spoon Lombardi-in-waiting, Kyle, was roommates on the road with Rex as the Houston Texans' back-up. They must have spent countless nights in the hotel room trading under-the-blanket farts and giggles while impressing each other with their knowledge of red-right-flank-zoom-toggle-65-jet-smoke plays.

So Rex came with the boy and stayed for two years like that stoner friend of your roommate who just won't go away. Eating your food. Clogging your toilets, making a lot of un-funny jokes while you tried to watch TV.

And now, well, looks like Shanny Sr. is gonna have to hunker down and try to figger out this whole QB thing all over again.

But don't worry. He KNOWS the quarterback position. Said as much this year after the Redskins 3-1 start.

Even though - and I do hate to keep bringing this up - he did NOT know that McNabb was finished. And even though he did NOT think Andy Dalton was worth a shot in the 2nd round (would have required a minor trade-up). And even though he somehow did not, or maybe still DOES not see the dripping suckitude of his two guys on the roster right now, don't worry.

He's got this shit. Okay? Sit tight.

I got snookered this year into banging my pots and pans loudly on radio for John Beck.

"He can't be worse" I said.

He was.

Oh.... my... GOD. He was worse.

In start #2, Beck set the Redskins record for being sacked with 10 takedowns. Astute analysts however, assured us that "only" six of those were "his fault."

So often when Beck played, the look inside his facemask on closeups betrayed the great lie of his brief journeyman career: he's an IMPOSTOR!

He's the Frank Abagnale Jr. of NFL QB's.

He was smart enough and eager enough to know the playbook backward and forward. He worked hard. He looked really SHARP in practice, and even in pre-season games.

Then when the bullets started flying, he was scared shitless. Even HE knew deep down, that he's no NFL caliber QB. Not even a backup!

Just watch. His career is over. The Shanaclan were the last true believers. And now that's over too.

After getting sacked those 10 times in Buffalo, the coaches urged him to "dump the ball off" more against the Niners.

He did. A total of 14 times alone to rookie RB Roy Helu, which .... waaiiiitttt for iiiiitttttt... SET ANOTHER REDSKINS record!

It eclipsed the former mark set by HOF'er Art Monk, who once caught 13 for 205 against the Bengals in 1985. Helu's 14, by the way, was for a piddling 105 yards, which makes that juice "not worth the squeezin'" as they say.

Couldn't be a nicer guy, that John Beck.

Impostor.

I wish him well.

So now, drafting in the 6-hole, they have no shot at Luck or Griffin. Barkley is off the board. Jones may go back to school. He also might suck. All the others are not rated high enough to take at the 6 spot, even if you really do like a guy like Weeden or Moore.

But you need somebody. You need somebody like Snooki needs a good Italian boy with low standards.

You need to get somebody in the pipeline, at least. You need somebody to start Week 1, at most.

You have Matt Flynn starring the possible sequel to The Matt Cassel Story. Or, was that the Scott Mitchell Chronicles? I get them mixed up all the time.

What if you throw big dollars at Flynn and he GOES SOMEWHERE ELSE, because now even Dan Snyder's money is like confederate currency?

Do you trade up to get Griffin, and mortgage another #1 and a #2? Would he fit the magical Shanahan "system." Do you get nuts and rebuild the Colts for 10 years with a Hershel Walker like play for Luck?

Do you take a possibly broken down old nag in Peyton Manning and watch the #18's fly off the store shelves, win or lose?

You can't do nothing, though. You did that last year. Didn't quite work out. Doing nothing is now, not an option. These two "practice seasons" for the $7 million a year former Super Bowl winning coach are over.

Shanny's former 5-year plan, is down to a one year plan.

The ol' Crimson Fox has got a quota to meet this coming year. And the winning number is 8.

Sucker For Sports Montages

One of the best self-gifted purchases I made this Christmas, was a little thing called a Hauppauge HD PVR.

For years, I thought there was NO WAY you could "yoink" HD footage off your cable/satellite box and record for your archives.

I was wrong.

Mind you, this is something the networks and studios fear more than Britney Spears fears sit-ups. Because in theory, once you YOINK a pristine 1080p (or even 720p) piece of content (movie, football game, music video) you could then - in theory - email that to the entire world, and they could then save, copy, burn to DVD, sell distribute to anyone in the world with perhaps nothing more than the click of a button.

It's the same dynamic as the ol' Napster tsunami that effectively destroyed the record industry and brought on the age of legalized downloads via iTunes and others.

But for legality sake, this device is sold legally and supported by the company. And it works GREAT! Because if you are like me, and just want to save and archive little nuggets of entertainment you have already purchased via your cable/satellite company, then you are free to do so.

And stretching my digital rights just a little bit, I am now uploading a few such items to YouTube and linking to them via this webpage. That puts me in a gray area, where I could get a notice from rightsholder to take it down, or eventually be blocked by YouTube itself.

But crikey, every time I post something I know is not my personal content, I see 20 or more others with the same thing. So, whatever.

I 'm not making a red nickel off any of this stuff, I just like to share cool video content.

The content I am a sucker for, are sports montages like the one above from HBO's Excellent 24/7 Winter Classic series. I appreciate every little edit, music choice, and camera angle in these 2-3 minute pieces that I am sure took weeks for a top notch video editor to assemble and massage into perfection.

But for years, YouTube had such CRAPPY definition to their videos, it was pointless to even put them up there. Hell, I remember when ALL YouTube videos were a blocky and pixelated mess due to inadequate bandwith issues and primitive compression codecs for video.

Well my friends, we are in a new age.

Now, Czabe can YOINK these little juicy nuggets and post away in glorious 720p (okay, not "glorious" but let's just say "delicious" 720p) and we'll just hope the internet killjoys don't start making things very "un-fun."

So in addition to the Winter Classic montage above, I have the following short form videos up right now as well. Two yummy intros to last year's Super Bowl of the Packers and Steelers, plus the NFL Top 10 list show where the #1 "Worst" Free Agent signing was dubbed: "Anyone to the Redskins!"

Ohhhh... dagger!

So sit back and enjoy. More to follow in 2012.....