I have a relatively small laundry list of things I see and things I think about in sports.
What better place to share it with you readers who I appreciate taking the time each week to indulge me.
You knew there would be an uproar when the college football bowl participants was revealed.
Someone had to be left out in the cold and as it turned out two schools who would be deserving in other years won’t be competing.
Florida State the unbeaten ACC champs will be on the outside looking in. So will Georgia, the defending national champions, who were #1 and had their 29-game winning streak snapped by Alabama.
I happen to agree with the outcome.
Michigan, the undefeated Big Ten champs who whipped Ohio State last week was a sure thing.
So was Washington, who wrapped up a 12-0 regular season beating contender Oregon for the Pac-12 title.
Texas moved to 3rd by virtue of their Big-12 crown and having beaten Alabama on the road. The Longhorns suffered only one loss, but had ‘Bama not whipped Georgia, Texas never would have made it.
Alabama, who many wrote off, especially after the loss to Texas at home, staged a gallant finish and when you knock off the powerful Bulldogs to win the rugged-SEC championship, you are in.
This year should have been next year, when 12 teams, not 4 will duke it out for nationals honors.
But don’t fool yourself. Next year the controversy will surround a team who should have made the final 12.
It doesn’t really end.
So it’ll be Michigan vs. Alabama, a matchup worthy of a national championship final, and Washington vs. Texas in the semi-final.
I understand Florida State’s bitterness.
But when they lost their starting quarterback Jordan Travis to injury after the 11th game and were simply not the same team, despite winding up with an unblemished record.
It is in the bylaws of the selection committee that a key injury is allowed to be considered in choosing the four survivors.
Also, the Seminoles played the 55th toughest schedule, while Alabama had the fifth toughest slate.
That’s another major consideration when you’re matching up the highest level teams.
What has emerged in this NFL season has been two significant factors which won’t go away.
The staggering number of injuries to starting quarterbacks and the weekly disgust with officials calls which, in many cases, have decided the results of games.
We don’t have the space to even begin to get specific, because it’s rampant in so many games, but when I talk of officials’ rulings I am including the non-calls which often are ridiculously obvious.
Most of them center around pass interference, and unnecessary roughness, including roughing the passer.
It is clear, that officials have been emphatically told by the league to protect quarterbacks at all costs.
Many of those calls that I see do not fit into the roughing the passer scenarios.
Ironically, starting quarterbacks have suffered injuries that have put them on the shelf for the remainder of the season, or for a few weeks.
Many backups have come in and performed better than expected. But they are backups for a reason.
Sooner or later their effectiveness evaporates.
It has made it painful to watch so many teams inept when it comes to scoring points and engineering any kind of offense.
The first quarterback to get knocked out for the season was Aaron Rodgers of the Jets.
In what I always thought was an awkward, and ill-advised move to acquire the 39-year old ex-Packer for a “playoff an perhaps championship run”, has now turned into a big tease to cap off the bad move.
Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles-tendon on the fourth play of the opening game of the season, and, after surgery, has been going through the grueling re-hab that accompanies that particularly disabled injury.
Lately, the Jets and even Rodgers, have hinted that he may yet comeback this season, especially if the Jets are in playoff contention.
For one thing, athletes don’t return this soon from that kind of injury. Especially if you’re now 40 years of age.
Secondly, the Jets, at 4-8, would have to pass seven teams to gain the final wild-card spot and make the playoffs.
Why the tease?
Those who follow the game aren’t dumb.
Fast-forward to 2024, and tell me the prospects of a now-40-year old Aaron Rodgers, coming off Achilles surgery, taking a mediocre Jet team anywhere?
Bad gamble for the green and white.
Ban the Tush Push.
That’s what I say.
Before you think I’m gone off my rocker, let me explain.
That’s the name for a play that has become extremely popular in the NFL.
Here’s what it’s all about.
Fourth and one, anywhere on the field, particularly at the goal line.
The call is a quarterback sneak straight ahead for the touchdown.
It used to be that QB’s would leap high over the middle of the line and extend the ball over the goal line for the score.
Or maybe go low and follow the center and guards charging forward.
Now there’s a new and apparently more effective way of getting the job done.
Line up two or three huge linemen behind and on either side of the quarterback and on the snap, push his butt straight ahead moving the stack of bodies forward enough to get the TD.
Actually, the Philadelphia Eagles have made more and better use of this maneuver than anyone else.
They have the best conversion rate in the league 76.5% while no other team in the league has a percentage in the 70’s.
These were the numbers prior to the Eagles last outing against the 49ers. The number goes up to 86.2% when they’re at the goal line.
The league’s competition committee will discuss it in the offseason.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn’t like it.
I’m not a fan of it either.
Despite the fact the play does involve considerable skill, I just believe seeing big bodies pushing and shoving like it’s a rugby scrum doesn’t make for a good visual.
Try to score without help.
Come up with another novel way of getting one yard.
Just one man’s opinion.