Thursday, July 16, 2015
The Lie Against Genetically Modified Organisms
Slate recently admitted what the Reason Foundation has long shown - that genetically modified foods are no threat to anyone.
The Lie of Solar Power
Solar panels have sprouted like weeds, and it's because government is forcing them on people instead of allowing better more traditional energy sources to flourish.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Greece's New Plan More Austere
The Referendum Was a Disaster for the Greek Left and exposes yet again the stupidity of Greek politics; it also showcases the weaknesses of the recent bailout, the third in five years for Greece.
"In the end the lender always gets his due no matter how the borrower votes."
Obama Strikes a Deal—With Qassem Suleimani
Obama's negotiations were mostly about rewarding one of Iran's worst terrorists, the head of its Quds Force because he actually thinks the Iranians - one of the causes of the Mideast war - can be his substitute for "boots on the ground," even though they're not, and real boots on the ground were manifestly successful.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Why Krugman Lies About Obamacare
Paul Krugman has emerged as the most stubbornly dishonest defender of Obamacare, an entitlement taken to be repaired 51 times and which needs Obama to cook its books to be portrayed as a success.
NASCAR's Rules Debates Go On At Kentucky And Beyond
The Quaker State 400 at Kentucky saw NASCAR's renewal of the 5 And 5 Rule make its 2015 debut, and this low downforce package will return at the Southern 500 at Darlington. Several drivers were waxing enthusiastic about the racing at Kentucky and NASCAR was pleased as well. Some of the racing at Kentucky was indeed good.
The epic Erik Jones-Kasey Kahne sidedraft battle in May 2015 at Charlotte posted here is meant to illustrate the continuing rules exploration that the sport is undergoing as NASCAR will debut a high downforce package later this season, with the Pure Michigan 400 seeing a 9-inch spoiler with wicker, a two-inch airdam clearance, and 43-inch radiator pan, changes expected to increase drag on the cars and which appear influenced not only by racing as shown in the above-posted Truck race - where the Trucks make more downforce than the cars and have put on numerous spirited battles for first on intermediate tracks - but also by the high-downforce package Indycar used at Fontana which made for more drag and with the resultant draft exploded to an Indycar-record 80 lead changes among 14 drivers.
The dynamic of low downforce vs. high downforce has been a running one forever, and the 5 And 5 Rule's return at Kentucky is worth exploring given the history of NASCAR's war against downforce - it has not been a positive history. The 5 And 5 Rule debuted in October 1993 at Charlotte and Atlanta and was intended to cut speeds by making drivers lift for the corners more; it didn't happen, instead the leaders became all but unpassable, and the rule was dropped after 1993.
It was brought back for the entirety of 1998 for the same reason, and also on the theory that reducing downforce would neutralize aeropush that was becoming a burgeoning problem for racing. Again, it didn't happen - the 1998 season saw a very competitive race at the 600 at Charlotte but overall passing was made harder. John Darby took over the NASCAR garage and in 2004 the 5&5 Rule was brought back again; during Darby's reign NASCAR saw downforce cuts, numerous sway bar changes, and in the end the racing never became that good outside of the plate tracks.
Kentucky certainly saw some good racing, but given the history of the 5 And 5 Rule I can't be that optimistic that it will work. For Darlington a softer tire is slated to be used, but we've seen that before as well, and it misses the larger point about tires - the best races we've seen away from the plate tracks have been where the drivers seemed better able to lean on the tires the way they could on bias-ply tires - and we continue to see examples of such with bias-shod racecars in the K&N Series and the Modifieds; in the last few seasons we've seen four-abreast for the front at Iowa Speedway with the K&N cars that looked like old-school Michigan International Speedway.
Softer tires sound like a good idea but it's not necessarily better to need to get four tires on stops; we've certainly seen good racing where some drivers did not get fresh tires, and economically it is better to see what the late Bob Newton said during 1989 Speedweeks - "Someday teams will see they don't need ten sets of tires to win the Daytona 500."
The continuing rules exploration campaign is not new to NASCAR, but what it shows of late is that NASCAR actually seems to be better understanding of the minutae of what the racing is doing compared to the recent past, and we certainly want better racing - not every race can reach 80 lead changes or even 40, but it isn't unreasonable to want 40-plus lead change races on tracks that history has shown are more than suited to see it.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Friday, July 10, 2015
NFL Countdown 2015
Roger Goodell's recent comment to CNBC about a potential decision on the Tom Brady appeal before training camps merely reminds us that the countdown to the 2015 season is still on and the NFL will soon renew acquaintances. So a quick comment on the 32 teams seems appropriate before training camps start -
AFC:
New England Patriots - Always the Patriots, it seems. It used to be Only the Patriots in the bad old days of Sullivan meddling, Victor Kiam's botch of the Lisa Olsen fiasco, Irving Fryar's bar fights and car crashes, Dick MacPherson's joyous hugging of players, and the feud between Bill Parcells and Bob Kraft. But few remember that MacPherson began the slow climb of the worst team ever toward respectability and that Kraft turned out to be right about Parcells, so the recent dynasty had something to build in when it started. That dynasty has been such that even losing Tom Brady to injury didn't prevent a new, raw-boned quarterback from winning eleven games while learning on the fly, so even if Brady doesn't see the field until Week 5 the depth of this team seems more than enough - much as the 2010 Steelers went 3-1 in Ben Roethlisberger's league-imposed absence. Much has been said about the secondary, as though two-and-a-half years of directly witnessing Aqib Talib, Darrelle Revis, and Brandon Browner will not produce lessons on how to play the Belichick defensive system to the secondary players left. We also seem to insist on forgetting how Belichick never misses star players who walk.
Until we see otherwise, the Patriots winning 12 games or more and contending for the Superbowl is a lock.
New York Jets - Geno Smith by every account I can find is on his last legs as a quarterback and I'm confident the quarterback controversy will be between Ryan Fitzpatrick and Bryce Petty. The rookie is considered a development project and more than one expert I've read considers him someone to keep an eye on down the road. The Jets defense has been ranked highly, even though it hasn't truly beaten good offenses (they allowed 30 or more points six times last season); they loaded up on corners in reuniting Revis and Antonio "Honorary 19 Kids And Counting Cast Member" Cromartie, and as one anonymous scout I've read put it, it says a lot about Dee Milliner being demoted to fourth corner. New coach Todd Bowles seems more professional than Rex Ryan, but the jump from coordinator to head coach is big, especially as Bowles seemed to be good but not great as a coordinator. Plus, it's the Jets.
Buffalo Bills - Rex Ryan has brought his arrogance to Buffalo and while the fanbase seems to be liking it so far, there is no quarterback on the horizon there that instills confidence, with the scuttlebutt about Matt Cassel I've heard being quite negative on his chances there. Ryan's Jets tenure was marked by lack of discipline, lack of preparation, and weakness at situational football; he got away with it for three seasons, had a minor renaissance in 2013, then collapsed in 2014. And the first thing the Bills staff has done? Its O-line coach gets arrested for a beachside brawl.
Miami Dolphins - They've committed to Ryan Tannehill and overlooked is the Dolphins actually improved on offense from 2013 and also improved in points scored to their highest ranking at such since 2001. On defense the Dolphins got Ndamukong Suh, and the idea is obvious - attack Tom Brady. Only problem - King Kong Suh has been largely irrelevant against Brady in two career meetings. Overall the Dolphins have never shown the killer instinct needed, especially late in the season, under Joe Philbin and Tannehill, and at times owner Stephen Ross between public commentaries and elsewhere has looked amateurish. 8-8 looked likely again.
Baltimore Ravens
- After winning the Superbowl in 2012, the Ravens in effect blew up their roster to pay Joe Flacco. Somewhat surprisingly it hasn't really hurt them, and 2014 was a nice rebound season ending in the bitter playoff shootout at Foxboro. It says a lot about Flacco and also Ozzie Newsome that the Ravens seem another playoff lock, even with the AFC North as deep as it was in 2014.
Cincinnati Bengals - Stuck in the high-end middle is what the Bengals are. Marvin Lewis has shown he can make a very good regular season team, and Bill and Duke Tobin put the lie to past criticism of the Bengals' front office. But with all that, they are always behind the 8-ball come playoff time. Each playoff game, Andy Dalton has been outclassed, sometimes glaringly, and it's another game of Prove It for the Bengals; they nonetheless have come an extremely long way from the dark days.
Cleveland Browns - Once 7-4, the Browns lost their quarterback, then Johnny Manziel came in and proved atrocious. Nonetheless that 7-9 season provided some blocks to build on; better leadership is needed on the roster, but at least now the Browns can legitimately say there's something to start building on. Even so they still have some last-place division finishes to endure before progress becomes clear.
Pittsburgh Steelers - They surprisingly won the division last year but got embarrassed at home by the Ravens in the playoffs, a sign both that the AFC North is the deepest division in the league and also that the Steelers still have some holes to fill, notably ability to handle playoff football - they've now lost three straight postseason games. Ben Roethlisberger remains one of the elite quarterbacks, albeit one that can be beaten, and beaten badly. The defense has become the issue with Dick Lebeau going to the hated Titans and the overall unit under construction.
Houston Texans - Bill O'Brien showed he is someone on the rise in getting the Texans to 9-7 last year. Now he has to build on that, but Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer don't look like the answer at quarterback and the fact remains the Texans beat only one quality opponent (Buffalo) last year. The star here is JJ Watt and the defense, but that defense still hasn't really figured out Andrew Luck, and the rest of the AFC South may be better than last year.
Indianapolis Colts - Now comes the hard question - have they plateaued? They've won 36 games in the Andrew Luck era but are 0-4 against the Patriots by ever-widening margins, were only 6-6 against quality foes last year, and their coach suddenly doesn't seem like a lock to stay, though I doubt he gets canned. That they've been stuck at 11-5 for three straight years is not necessarily a good sign for advancing another level even with three playoff wins the last two years. Another 11-win season seems a lock, but then what?
Jacksonville Jaguars - Blake Bortles has been in one of the league's weakest situations with the struggling Jaguars, a team with just 14 wins since cutting David Garrard and making what proved a colossal mistake in playing Blaine Gabbert. There appears to be stability at the top, but improving in the wins remains a necessity from a unit that was abysmal across the board.
Tennessee Titans - It may have been the worst possible first impression Ken Whisenhunt could make. Refusal to commit to Jake Locker wound up dooming the season after a Week One win, injury to Locker thanks to a headhunting Browns squad and abysmal play by Charlie Whitehurst led to Zach Mettenberger's debut well before he was ready, a complete lack of playmaking from a defense reported to be completely confused by a new scheme, and it all added up to 2-14, a disturbing reminder of the 2-14 season twenty years earlier that spelled the end of the Houston Oilers. The Titans rebuffed reported trade offer to draft Marcus Mariota, and the early scuttlebutt has been strikingly positive, and they need Mariota to give them real playmaking. They've won just 30 games this decade so far and it should have been a lot more; Mariota and company have that opportunity.
Denver Broncos - Gary Kubiak is now in, but the expected improvement in defense for 2014 never happened, and Peyton Manning's reputation for playoff failure and cold-weather struggle only got reinforced. Wade Phillips takes over on defense and that's not a good sign given his failures as a coach over the years. In an AFC West that didn't get better from 2013 the Broncos are seeming locks to win the division again, but after that they haven't proven they can go anywhere.
Kansas City Chiefs - The Chiefs improved in wins over quality opponents in 2014 by winning four such games, against Seattle and New England and sweeping San Diego, but overall the Chiefs slipped in Andy Reid's second season and are stuck right now with a quarterback in Alex Smith who did better than expected from 2011 onward but whose ceiling is too low. It's too much right now to think the Chiefs can reach 11 wins again or reach the playoffs again.
Oakland Raiders - With one foot supposedly out the door for Los Angeles, the Raiders haven't been expected to do anything on the field for ten years now. But in Derek Carr and Khalil Mack the consensus is the Raiders have two solid players to build around. For the first time in a long time the scuttlebutt is the Raiders actually have a program, though it will take time to develop it.
San Diego Chargers - Are they one foot out the door for LA? By all accounts the answer seems to be yes, and it explains why Philip Rivers has refused to sign a new contract with the Chargers. Rivers' best days may be behind him and one wonders if he should have been traded to Tennessee and his former coach; the ugly loss to a batch of backups in Kansas City in the season finale showcased the Chargers to no longer be a playoff contender.
NFC:
Dallas Cowboys - They had a far better season than anyone could have hoped for in 2014, but they haven't truly shown maturity enough to be taken seriously. Tony Romo played smarter football than expected and for once the Cowboys' playoff failure can't really be blamed there. But bad reputations never get disproven outside of John Elway in 1997-8, and Romo isn't someone to feel confident in. The Cowboys also have a possible headache in Dez Bryant, though a new contract may be worked out before camp.
New York Giants - They won a Superbowl yet even with that the last five years have been a steady erosion of the Giants under Tom Coughlin. The pattern for most of his tenure had been fast starts and second-half collapses; recently the starts have been bad and the bleeding was never really contained. Eli Manning remains the ultimate enigma - a two-time Superbowl champ who can't get the Giants better otherwise. The stat that best personifies the ugliness of the Giants - 1-9 against quality foes last year including yet another season sweep by the Eagles.
Philadelphia Eagles
- What cost the Eagles the 2014 season? Only one person - Mark Sanchez. Forced to start halfway through, Mr. Buttfumble exploded early, then as the season went on he lost four of his last seven starts just as he did with the Jets. Sanchez is still there and the Eagles are taking a chance with former Ram Sam Bradford and also signed Tim Tebow while also jettisoning numerous players - and getting an earful about it from several of them - as Chip Kelly now has full personnel control. When healthy Bradford played well, and Kelly has shown he can get something out of his players. It's nonetheless a big If right now.
Washington Redskins - The Deadskins have committed to Robert Griffin III, but RGIII regressed and also got injured, and the Skins have worked on the O-line in response. One can't feel confidence here, even though Jay Gruden is a better coach than the disaster of his first season was.
Chicago Bears - John Fox is a proven team-builder with Carolina and Denver, and one can't visualize him keeping Jay Cutler long. Cutler is a strong-armed stiff with no football acumen; at a position that requires high IQ, Cutler is a dolt. Backup Jimmy Clausen certainly is no alternative, having been a complete failure with Fox in Carolina in 2010, but there is no scenario where Cutler stays the starter. Look for 2015 to be a transition year.
Detroit Lions - New coaches instilled more professionalism into a team with great talent but which failed because it freelanced too much and didn't stop hitting after the whistle. The next step now awaits. Matthew Stafford played by the coaches' own admission too conservatively in cutting down on INTs; now he needs to bring back some of the reckless quality and hone it to become stronger. He also needs to overcome a fatal obstacle - inability to beat quality opponents, as his playoff loss in Dallas makes him 0-18 in road games against quality foes.
Green Bay Packers - The Packers keep winning the NFC North but the last four years under Aaron Rodgers they've won just two playoff games and Rodgers continues to be a failure when he has to stage any significant comeback - his win over the NY Jets was only his second comeback win after trailing by more than one score (the 2012 win over Detroit is the other) where former backup Matt Flynn staged three such comebacks in 2013 alone. The loss in Buffalo was especially illustrative - after the Bills went up by nine, Rodgers led a field goal drive, got the ball back, and promptly gagged up the game-ending safety. Under pressure Rodgers has shown no credible ability to handle it. He also remains incapable of beating the Seahawks after failing to do so twice in 2014, even with a 16-0 lead.
Minnesota Vikings - The bad news is they failed to beat a single quality foe, the only team in the league without a quality win all year. The good news is they now seem to have a program in place with Teddy Bridgewater and despite the fiasco of Adrian Peterson. They're definitely well ahead of where they were just four years ago, so needing more time to become a contender is not a shock.
Atlanta Falcons - They cleaned house after going 6-10, but the problems that led to going 10-22 since back-to-back blown playoff leads in 2012 may not be gone. They still have Matt Ryan, but Ryan is a proven big-game failure and their defense has been abysmal of late. In a weak division last year the Falcons were just another team and don't look any better.
Carolina Panthers - This is the best team of the NFC South and should not finish with a losing record as they did last year. Cam Newton showed his grit by winning despite being under siege all season and he became the first Panther since Jake Delhomme to win a playoff game. They may not break 11 wins but 10 should be enough to win the division.
New Orleans Saints - Even with Drew Brees the Saints regressed in 2014, failing repeatedly to step up with the season on the line, and one is a little iffy about New Orleans' ability to rebound between cap complications, poor coaching (why Rob Ryan is still on that staff is puzzling), and lack of sufficient clutch play from Brees.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Only one question is here - will Jameis Winston become a capable NFL quarterback? Numerous opinions are that he won't because of maturity issues that may not be going away with camp a few weeks away and overrated play - one Football Outsiders analysis ranked Winston as having a nearly 70% chance of being a bust. The Bucs were certain going into the draft he would be their man, and he has some excellent perimeter people to throw the ball to; we also have recent history of an NFC South quarterback considered a flop entering the season who proved everyone wrong - Cam Newton. There is another issue percolating, and that's Lovie Smith, who was only mediocre with the Bears and never got their offense going all that well.
Arizona Cardinals - They did far better than anyone expected until Carson Palmer was lost for the season. Now we see if they can become close to elite with a healthy Palmer; Palmer's ceiling isn't as high as it needs to be, and that's going to remain a strike against the Cards. Bruce Arians, though, has been nothing but a transformational figure; once the butt of ridicule, the Cardinals are fully a contender, to a level they didn't reach even in the Kurt Warner period.
St. Louis Rams - They have Nick Foles, now they need to actually step up after slowly eroding in three years under Jeff Fisher. The team is no longer the youngest in the league; now their core has to live up with hitting their prime.
San Francisco 49ers - The signs were clear that Jim Harbaugh had burned everyone out, so now the Niners proceed with a former assistant and a huge question at quarterback. Colin Kaepernick regressed horribly in 2014 and has gone to a QB facility in Arizona, and also has worked out with ex-Niners killer Kurt Warner, to where Vernon Davis has said, "He looks like a totally different guy." The O-line was in disarray in 2014 - and one can't help but think Jonathan Martin had something to do with it after his controversy in Miami the year before. Martin is now gone and the Niners seem to want to run the ball more now, though who will do it is a bit of a puzzle with Frank Gore gone.
Seattle Seahawks - Now the questions rage - will Russell Wilson stay in 2016? The contract fight is suddenly an issue with a Seahawks team whose cap management may not be as good as people thought. The popular face of the team is still Marshawn Lynch, but overlooked in the Superbowl XLIX controversy is Lynch was pretty well neutralized by the Patriots until the final Seattle drive and even then did not show enough explosiveness to feel he would have scored from the 1. They're still the best bet in the West and I'm picking a Carolina-Seattle NFC Title fight.
Of course it's all subject to change once camps start and preseason sorts out.
AFC:
New England Patriots - Always the Patriots, it seems. It used to be Only the Patriots in the bad old days of Sullivan meddling, Victor Kiam's botch of the Lisa Olsen fiasco, Irving Fryar's bar fights and car crashes, Dick MacPherson's joyous hugging of players, and the feud between Bill Parcells and Bob Kraft. But few remember that MacPherson began the slow climb of the worst team ever toward respectability and that Kraft turned out to be right about Parcells, so the recent dynasty had something to build in when it started. That dynasty has been such that even losing Tom Brady to injury didn't prevent a new, raw-boned quarterback from winning eleven games while learning on the fly, so even if Brady doesn't see the field until Week 5 the depth of this team seems more than enough - much as the 2010 Steelers went 3-1 in Ben Roethlisberger's league-imposed absence. Much has been said about the secondary, as though two-and-a-half years of directly witnessing Aqib Talib, Darrelle Revis, and Brandon Browner will not produce lessons on how to play the Belichick defensive system to the secondary players left. We also seem to insist on forgetting how Belichick never misses star players who walk.
Until we see otherwise, the Patriots winning 12 games or more and contending for the Superbowl is a lock.
New York Jets - Geno Smith by every account I can find is on his last legs as a quarterback and I'm confident the quarterback controversy will be between Ryan Fitzpatrick and Bryce Petty. The rookie is considered a development project and more than one expert I've read considers him someone to keep an eye on down the road. The Jets defense has been ranked highly, even though it hasn't truly beaten good offenses (they allowed 30 or more points six times last season); they loaded up on corners in reuniting Revis and Antonio "Honorary 19 Kids And Counting Cast Member" Cromartie, and as one anonymous scout I've read put it, it says a lot about Dee Milliner being demoted to fourth corner. New coach Todd Bowles seems more professional than Rex Ryan, but the jump from coordinator to head coach is big, especially as Bowles seemed to be good but not great as a coordinator. Plus, it's the Jets.
Buffalo Bills - Rex Ryan has brought his arrogance to Buffalo and while the fanbase seems to be liking it so far, there is no quarterback on the horizon there that instills confidence, with the scuttlebutt about Matt Cassel I've heard being quite negative on his chances there. Ryan's Jets tenure was marked by lack of discipline, lack of preparation, and weakness at situational football; he got away with it for three seasons, had a minor renaissance in 2013, then collapsed in 2014. And the first thing the Bills staff has done? Its O-line coach gets arrested for a beachside brawl.
Miami Dolphins - They've committed to Ryan Tannehill and overlooked is the Dolphins actually improved on offense from 2013 and also improved in points scored to their highest ranking at such since 2001. On defense the Dolphins got Ndamukong Suh, and the idea is obvious - attack Tom Brady. Only problem - King Kong Suh has been largely irrelevant against Brady in two career meetings. Overall the Dolphins have never shown the killer instinct needed, especially late in the season, under Joe Philbin and Tannehill, and at times owner Stephen Ross between public commentaries and elsewhere has looked amateurish. 8-8 looked likely again.
Baltimore Ravens
- After winning the Superbowl in 2012, the Ravens in effect blew up their roster to pay Joe Flacco. Somewhat surprisingly it hasn't really hurt them, and 2014 was a nice rebound season ending in the bitter playoff shootout at Foxboro. It says a lot about Flacco and also Ozzie Newsome that the Ravens seem another playoff lock, even with the AFC North as deep as it was in 2014.
Cincinnati Bengals - Stuck in the high-end middle is what the Bengals are. Marvin Lewis has shown he can make a very good regular season team, and Bill and Duke Tobin put the lie to past criticism of the Bengals' front office. But with all that, they are always behind the 8-ball come playoff time. Each playoff game, Andy Dalton has been outclassed, sometimes glaringly, and it's another game of Prove It for the Bengals; they nonetheless have come an extremely long way from the dark days.
Cleveland Browns - Once 7-4, the Browns lost their quarterback, then Johnny Manziel came in and proved atrocious. Nonetheless that 7-9 season provided some blocks to build on; better leadership is needed on the roster, but at least now the Browns can legitimately say there's something to start building on. Even so they still have some last-place division finishes to endure before progress becomes clear.
Pittsburgh Steelers - They surprisingly won the division last year but got embarrassed at home by the Ravens in the playoffs, a sign both that the AFC North is the deepest division in the league and also that the Steelers still have some holes to fill, notably ability to handle playoff football - they've now lost three straight postseason games. Ben Roethlisberger remains one of the elite quarterbacks, albeit one that can be beaten, and beaten badly. The defense has become the issue with Dick Lebeau going to the hated Titans and the overall unit under construction.
Houston Texans - Bill O'Brien showed he is someone on the rise in getting the Texans to 9-7 last year. Now he has to build on that, but Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer don't look like the answer at quarterback and the fact remains the Texans beat only one quality opponent (Buffalo) last year. The star here is JJ Watt and the defense, but that defense still hasn't really figured out Andrew Luck, and the rest of the AFC South may be better than last year.
Indianapolis Colts - Now comes the hard question - have they plateaued? They've won 36 games in the Andrew Luck era but are 0-4 against the Patriots by ever-widening margins, were only 6-6 against quality foes last year, and their coach suddenly doesn't seem like a lock to stay, though I doubt he gets canned. That they've been stuck at 11-5 for three straight years is not necessarily a good sign for advancing another level even with three playoff wins the last two years. Another 11-win season seems a lock, but then what?
Jacksonville Jaguars - Blake Bortles has been in one of the league's weakest situations with the struggling Jaguars, a team with just 14 wins since cutting David Garrard and making what proved a colossal mistake in playing Blaine Gabbert. There appears to be stability at the top, but improving in the wins remains a necessity from a unit that was abysmal across the board.
Tennessee Titans - It may have been the worst possible first impression Ken Whisenhunt could make. Refusal to commit to Jake Locker wound up dooming the season after a Week One win, injury to Locker thanks to a headhunting Browns squad and abysmal play by Charlie Whitehurst led to Zach Mettenberger's debut well before he was ready, a complete lack of playmaking from a defense reported to be completely confused by a new scheme, and it all added up to 2-14, a disturbing reminder of the 2-14 season twenty years earlier that spelled the end of the Houston Oilers. The Titans rebuffed reported trade offer to draft Marcus Mariota, and the early scuttlebutt has been strikingly positive, and they need Mariota to give them real playmaking. They've won just 30 games this decade so far and it should have been a lot more; Mariota and company have that opportunity.
Denver Broncos - Gary Kubiak is now in, but the expected improvement in defense for 2014 never happened, and Peyton Manning's reputation for playoff failure and cold-weather struggle only got reinforced. Wade Phillips takes over on defense and that's not a good sign given his failures as a coach over the years. In an AFC West that didn't get better from 2013 the Broncos are seeming locks to win the division again, but after that they haven't proven they can go anywhere.
Kansas City Chiefs - The Chiefs improved in wins over quality opponents in 2014 by winning four such games, against Seattle and New England and sweeping San Diego, but overall the Chiefs slipped in Andy Reid's second season and are stuck right now with a quarterback in Alex Smith who did better than expected from 2011 onward but whose ceiling is too low. It's too much right now to think the Chiefs can reach 11 wins again or reach the playoffs again.
Oakland Raiders - With one foot supposedly out the door for Los Angeles, the Raiders haven't been expected to do anything on the field for ten years now. But in Derek Carr and Khalil Mack the consensus is the Raiders have two solid players to build around. For the first time in a long time the scuttlebutt is the Raiders actually have a program, though it will take time to develop it.
San Diego Chargers - Are they one foot out the door for LA? By all accounts the answer seems to be yes, and it explains why Philip Rivers has refused to sign a new contract with the Chargers. Rivers' best days may be behind him and one wonders if he should have been traded to Tennessee and his former coach; the ugly loss to a batch of backups in Kansas City in the season finale showcased the Chargers to no longer be a playoff contender.
NFC:
Dallas Cowboys - They had a far better season than anyone could have hoped for in 2014, but they haven't truly shown maturity enough to be taken seriously. Tony Romo played smarter football than expected and for once the Cowboys' playoff failure can't really be blamed there. But bad reputations never get disproven outside of John Elway in 1997-8, and Romo isn't someone to feel confident in. The Cowboys also have a possible headache in Dez Bryant, though a new contract may be worked out before camp.
New York Giants - They won a Superbowl yet even with that the last five years have been a steady erosion of the Giants under Tom Coughlin. The pattern for most of his tenure had been fast starts and second-half collapses; recently the starts have been bad and the bleeding was never really contained. Eli Manning remains the ultimate enigma - a two-time Superbowl champ who can't get the Giants better otherwise. The stat that best personifies the ugliness of the Giants - 1-9 against quality foes last year including yet another season sweep by the Eagles.
Philadelphia Eagles
- What cost the Eagles the 2014 season? Only one person - Mark Sanchez. Forced to start halfway through, Mr. Buttfumble exploded early, then as the season went on he lost four of his last seven starts just as he did with the Jets. Sanchez is still there and the Eagles are taking a chance with former Ram Sam Bradford and also signed Tim Tebow while also jettisoning numerous players - and getting an earful about it from several of them - as Chip Kelly now has full personnel control. When healthy Bradford played well, and Kelly has shown he can get something out of his players. It's nonetheless a big If right now.
Washington Redskins - The Deadskins have committed to Robert Griffin III, but RGIII regressed and also got injured, and the Skins have worked on the O-line in response. One can't feel confidence here, even though Jay Gruden is a better coach than the disaster of his first season was.
Chicago Bears - John Fox is a proven team-builder with Carolina and Denver, and one can't visualize him keeping Jay Cutler long. Cutler is a strong-armed stiff with no football acumen; at a position that requires high IQ, Cutler is a dolt. Backup Jimmy Clausen certainly is no alternative, having been a complete failure with Fox in Carolina in 2010, but there is no scenario where Cutler stays the starter. Look for 2015 to be a transition year.
Detroit Lions - New coaches instilled more professionalism into a team with great talent but which failed because it freelanced too much and didn't stop hitting after the whistle. The next step now awaits. Matthew Stafford played by the coaches' own admission too conservatively in cutting down on INTs; now he needs to bring back some of the reckless quality and hone it to become stronger. He also needs to overcome a fatal obstacle - inability to beat quality opponents, as his playoff loss in Dallas makes him 0-18 in road games against quality foes.
Green Bay Packers - The Packers keep winning the NFC North but the last four years under Aaron Rodgers they've won just two playoff games and Rodgers continues to be a failure when he has to stage any significant comeback - his win over the NY Jets was only his second comeback win after trailing by more than one score (the 2012 win over Detroit is the other) where former backup Matt Flynn staged three such comebacks in 2013 alone. The loss in Buffalo was especially illustrative - after the Bills went up by nine, Rodgers led a field goal drive, got the ball back, and promptly gagged up the game-ending safety. Under pressure Rodgers has shown no credible ability to handle it. He also remains incapable of beating the Seahawks after failing to do so twice in 2014, even with a 16-0 lead.
Minnesota Vikings - The bad news is they failed to beat a single quality foe, the only team in the league without a quality win all year. The good news is they now seem to have a program in place with Teddy Bridgewater and despite the fiasco of Adrian Peterson. They're definitely well ahead of where they were just four years ago, so needing more time to become a contender is not a shock.
Atlanta Falcons - They cleaned house after going 6-10, but the problems that led to going 10-22 since back-to-back blown playoff leads in 2012 may not be gone. They still have Matt Ryan, but Ryan is a proven big-game failure and their defense has been abysmal of late. In a weak division last year the Falcons were just another team and don't look any better.
Carolina Panthers - This is the best team of the NFC South and should not finish with a losing record as they did last year. Cam Newton showed his grit by winning despite being under siege all season and he became the first Panther since Jake Delhomme to win a playoff game. They may not break 11 wins but 10 should be enough to win the division.
New Orleans Saints - Even with Drew Brees the Saints regressed in 2014, failing repeatedly to step up with the season on the line, and one is a little iffy about New Orleans' ability to rebound between cap complications, poor coaching (why Rob Ryan is still on that staff is puzzling), and lack of sufficient clutch play from Brees.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Only one question is here - will Jameis Winston become a capable NFL quarterback? Numerous opinions are that he won't because of maturity issues that may not be going away with camp a few weeks away and overrated play - one Football Outsiders analysis ranked Winston as having a nearly 70% chance of being a bust. The Bucs were certain going into the draft he would be their man, and he has some excellent perimeter people to throw the ball to; we also have recent history of an NFC South quarterback considered a flop entering the season who proved everyone wrong - Cam Newton. There is another issue percolating, and that's Lovie Smith, who was only mediocre with the Bears and never got their offense going all that well.
Arizona Cardinals - They did far better than anyone expected until Carson Palmer was lost for the season. Now we see if they can become close to elite with a healthy Palmer; Palmer's ceiling isn't as high as it needs to be, and that's going to remain a strike against the Cards. Bruce Arians, though, has been nothing but a transformational figure; once the butt of ridicule, the Cardinals are fully a contender, to a level they didn't reach even in the Kurt Warner period.
St. Louis Rams - They have Nick Foles, now they need to actually step up after slowly eroding in three years under Jeff Fisher. The team is no longer the youngest in the league; now their core has to live up with hitting their prime.
San Francisco 49ers - The signs were clear that Jim Harbaugh had burned everyone out, so now the Niners proceed with a former assistant and a huge question at quarterback. Colin Kaepernick regressed horribly in 2014 and has gone to a QB facility in Arizona, and also has worked out with ex-Niners killer Kurt Warner, to where Vernon Davis has said, "He looks like a totally different guy." The O-line was in disarray in 2014 - and one can't help but think Jonathan Martin had something to do with it after his controversy in Miami the year before. Martin is now gone and the Niners seem to want to run the ball more now, though who will do it is a bit of a puzzle with Frank Gore gone.
Seattle Seahawks - Now the questions rage - will Russell Wilson stay in 2016? The contract fight is suddenly an issue with a Seahawks team whose cap management may not be as good as people thought. The popular face of the team is still Marshawn Lynch, but overlooked in the Superbowl XLIX controversy is Lynch was pretty well neutralized by the Patriots until the final Seattle drive and even then did not show enough explosiveness to feel he would have scored from the 1. They're still the best bet in the West and I'm picking a Carolina-Seattle NFC Title fight.
Of course it's all subject to change once camps start and preseason sorts out.
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Monday, July 06, 2015
My Big Fat Greek Economic Crisis
A look at Greece's bankruptcy and angles to it that appear to have been overlooked.
Frustration At The Firecracker 400
Daytona racing has a history of enormous competition, but when it goes wrong it becomes incredibly maddening and at time scary. The 2015 Firecracker 400, coming a week after the amazing MAVTV 500 Indycar race at Fontana, showcased some of the same issues as Fontana but also other issues specific to NASCAR.
Observations from the ugliest Firecracker 400 in years -
* - The cars regularly broke 202 MPH, and once again nothing good can really come from 200 MPH, though Indycars are far safer at 200 than stockers. The idea that Indycars somehow lose something when the power is restricted to 200 MPH or that NASCAR loses something with restriction to 190 is baffling, especially when in 2001 the entire sport openly acknowledged - Rusty Wallace gave it specific utterance at that time and has repeated it since - that 194 MPH is the cut-off point for keeping the cars on the ground.
The complaint about restrictor plate racing will come up again, as usual ignoring vicious melees at non-plate tracks, such as the Watkins Glen series of melees including last year's Ryan Newman-Michael McDowell melee, bad crashes at Charlotte over the years, and so forth (Indycar has this same myopia about the lethality of crashes in its "plate" races as opposed to melees on its street circuits, crashes that usually out-do superspeedway wrecks as we saw with Dario Franchitti and more recently with RC Erenson in the Indy Lights race at Toronto).
Worth nothing for context is that this past Friday at Stafford Speedway, CT there was a huge crash in the SK Modified race that took out the leaders (notably Ryan Preece) and there have been numerous such incidents in a Stafford season where the racing has been unusually competitive.
As relatively uncompetitive as this Firecracker was, it was still superior racing to most non-plate races, and as with the California Indy 500 at Fontana it showcased that the sport needs pack racing - albiet to a point. The real issue for NASCAR is Brian France's ridiculous opposition to push-drafting - it stopped the blocking that has become more of a problem in racing of late, and it created more outright passing than anything else can; push-drafting would have opened up far more in the way of passing and thus opened up the competition level above what it was here, and this was even more true with the Firecracker 250 for the Xfinity Series, where uncompetitive racing and resultant frustration led to melees that left the finishers all with weak racecars.
80 lead changes, seen at Fontana, is a lot better than the 22 seen in this Firecracker.
* - The real cause of the Dillon crash was Kevin Harvick, and he's done this before, notably last year's above-mentioned Newman-McDowell crash at the Glen. Harvick has led over 1,200 laps but hasn't cashed in that much on winning.
* - The Hendrick cars have the season pretty much to themselves. There is no non-Hendrick challenge anywhere outside of Stewart-Haas Racing, and the only challenger there is Harvick. Kurt Busch has surged since coming back so he can still offer some challenge. Outside of him, the rest of the field is racing for fifth at best - only seven of seventeen races have been won by someone other than a Hendrick or Harvick/Kurt Busch Chevrolet.
The upshot of the Austin Dillon crash is it is an illustration of his career - racing for nothing and hitting the wall.
* - Aggravation at Chevrolet's dominance has been a long-standing gripe within NASCAR dating to the 1960s and surging with the 1970s comeback of the Bowtie Brigade, and it appears Chevy's success is driving away other brands in other series, with Indycar potentially losing Honda after Chevrolet returned to the series only a few short seasons ago. Sanctioning bodies need to rethink whether Chevrolet is as good for their series as they might think - certainly racing needs a lot more success from non-Chevrolets such as Honda and Toyota and (call this a subtle lobby all you want) any comeback Dodge might contemplate.
* - The worst of the non-Chevrolet lot is Ford. When Penske Racing is off - and it's been curiously off outside of two wins this season - then the brand has nothing. Roush Fenway Racing is worse than an also-ran, it is a cancer now, between failures at engineering and a driver roster inferior to some of Roush's customer cars. It is no accident that once again Richard Petty's #43 looked stronger than the Roush cars, and it may be Petty needs to switch manufacturers and thus not be dragged down further by the Roush alliance.
* - With all this, the potential for a first-time winner this year looks strikingly weak. Nobody with Roush or RCR looks like they know which way is up, and even with some respectable darkhorse runs at Daytona nothing developed to indicate anyone can seize a first-time win. If anything, some of the drivers tagged for future potential are only getting worse, notably Danica Patrick. Kyle Larson curiously does not seem to be taking any next step, and that's it as far as drivers who might get a first win.
*- Interesting off-the-track point is made by longtime NASCAR writer Mike Mulhern. The talk of a franchise system in NASCAR comes after a $1 billion deal by Nike for the NBA, and it leads him to ask a question worth pondering - "Could NASCAR do a deal like that without franchising?" Stay tuned there.
So what's next? Kentucky for NASCAR, Milwaukee for Indycar, and the sport has to plug on and try to get something better.
Thursday, July 02, 2015
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
Puerto Rico, Deadbeat Dump
Puerto Rico is $70 billion in debt - thanks to profligate spending and the ponzi schemes known as pensions - and refuses to be accountable for it.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
What's the Matter with Greece?
What's the Matter with Greece? It has done nothing but blow its money away since 1829 and is "a crony-capitalist emerging country." In short it is a waste of money.
The Supreme Court Punches EPA
The Supreme Court shot down proposed EPA meddling in the coal industry. The EPA's ineptitude was also shown in its campaign against mercury.
Israel's Former Ambassador Tells The Truth About Obama
A new memoir by Israel's former ambassador lays out the dirty details of the maliciousness and incompetence of the Obama regime and its support for enemy states.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
California Indy 500 - The Classic Nobody Saw Yet Nobody Can Forget
Indycar returned to California Speedway and the result was history for this form of racing. The most competitive race in Indycar history exploded, as the lead changed hands 80 times among 14 drivers, beating the previous record set in the California 500 in 2001 when there were 73 lead changes.
Yet the aftermath illustrated the stupidity that has reduced Indycar racing to irrelevance, as driver Will Power and Penske Racing honcho Tim Cindric griped about the enormity of passing and the frequent four-abreast battles by invoking the death of Dan Wheldon to argue against pack racing - and once again ignoring non-pack melees of greater violence such as what transpired at Toronto earlier this year in the Indy Lights race as well as Dario Franchitti's disaster on a street course that ended his career. Dan Wheldon's death had nothing to do with pack racing and Cindric and Will Power should know better. Running over 200 MPH instead of 190 is more relevant to safety than pack racing - and for whatever it is worth the cars seemed curiously slow in this race.
Racing is about lead changes, and nothing else - you go for the lead, you take the lead, and if you lose the lead you take it back. That's been the reality of racing forever. And 80 lead changes - only the fourth race in history after three Talladega thrillers in the 2010-11 to reach that number - is racing as it SHOULD be. So what the California Indy 500 showed is a racecar package that worked to perfection - a package Indycar needs to use for Pocono in late August; the stronger the draft, the better.
It also illustrated the need to incentivize going for the lead - most laps led should always pay more to the driver since that is a huge performance gauge.
If there is a safety concern here, it's in the abysmal state of the surface at Fontana. The cars clearly weren't as comfortable as they should have been the whole race and it appeared some of the crashes might have been prevented by a better surface. Fontana needs to be repaved even more now than before, and the "character" argument about racetracks doesn't mean anything.
The sad part is it was a classic race that no one actually saw - the crowd at Fontana was almost nonexistent, an interesting comment with the NFL trying to secure a temporary home for a team for 2016 on the myth that there are actual fans in the LA area. Indycar's decline in popularity has been long term and it needs racing this exciting to regain popularity.
Some other takes on this amazing 500 -
* It was a superb day for AJ Foyt's team as Takuma Sato led 31 laps and sliced into the fight for the win, rallying when he got squeezed to the apron and lost his momentum, before getting into the Lap 241 crash. Jack Hawksworth's tenth salvaged something that should have been more for Supertex.
* What does Ed Carpenter have to do to win? Once again Carpenter was in the thick of things and once again it led to nothing.
* Rahal Letterman's win broke the duopoly that's developed between Penske and Ganassi, a duopoly that appears to be leaving Michael Andretti's outfit behind. It was also the eighth different winner in Indycar this year.
* Eight cars got tires under yellow after the Power-Sato crash, but the way the draft was working it might not have mattered.
So ended the classic that nobody saw but nobody should forget.
Yet the aftermath illustrated the stupidity that has reduced Indycar racing to irrelevance, as driver Will Power and Penske Racing honcho Tim Cindric griped about the enormity of passing and the frequent four-abreast battles by invoking the death of Dan Wheldon to argue against pack racing - and once again ignoring non-pack melees of greater violence such as what transpired at Toronto earlier this year in the Indy Lights race as well as Dario Franchitti's disaster on a street course that ended his career. Dan Wheldon's death had nothing to do with pack racing and Cindric and Will Power should know better. Running over 200 MPH instead of 190 is more relevant to safety than pack racing - and for whatever it is worth the cars seemed curiously slow in this race.
Racing is about lead changes, and nothing else - you go for the lead, you take the lead, and if you lose the lead you take it back. That's been the reality of racing forever. And 80 lead changes - only the fourth race in history after three Talladega thrillers in the 2010-11 to reach that number - is racing as it SHOULD be. So what the California Indy 500 showed is a racecar package that worked to perfection - a package Indycar needs to use for Pocono in late August; the stronger the draft, the better.
It also illustrated the need to incentivize going for the lead - most laps led should always pay more to the driver since that is a huge performance gauge.
If there is a safety concern here, it's in the abysmal state of the surface at Fontana. The cars clearly weren't as comfortable as they should have been the whole race and it appeared some of the crashes might have been prevented by a better surface. Fontana needs to be repaved even more now than before, and the "character" argument about racetracks doesn't mean anything.
The sad part is it was a classic race that no one actually saw - the crowd at Fontana was almost nonexistent, an interesting comment with the NFL trying to secure a temporary home for a team for 2016 on the myth that there are actual fans in the LA area. Indycar's decline in popularity has been long term and it needs racing this exciting to regain popularity.
Some other takes on this amazing 500 -
* It was a superb day for AJ Foyt's team as Takuma Sato led 31 laps and sliced into the fight for the win, rallying when he got squeezed to the apron and lost his momentum, before getting into the Lap 241 crash. Jack Hawksworth's tenth salvaged something that should have been more for Supertex.
* What does Ed Carpenter have to do to win? Once again Carpenter was in the thick of things and once again it led to nothing.
* Rahal Letterman's win broke the duopoly that's developed between Penske and Ganassi, a duopoly that appears to be leaving Michael Andretti's outfit behind. It was also the eighth different winner in Indycar this year.
* Eight cars got tires under yellow after the Power-Sato crash, but the way the draft was working it might not have mattered.
So ended the classic that nobody saw but nobody should forget.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Patriots Derangement Syndrome
NOTE: Originally published May 20, it has been updated on July 28:
The decision by Robert Kraft not to continue fighting against the NFL over huge draft and monetary penalties imposed after the Ted Wells report on allegation of tampering with footballs won't lay to rest the hatred that has long existed toward his football team. Kraft's reasoning not to continue fighting stems from fear of long-term damage to the game by pressing the issue, this even though objectively speaking Kraft is correct. It is disappointing that Kraft has done this but understandable.
That it won't win him any support anywhere merely reinforces the reality of another wave of derangement that exists in the world - Patriots Derangement Syndrome.
In the history of sports hated dynasties are fairly common, though in the NFL one struggles to recall national hatred of the Lombardi-era Packers or the Noll/Bradshaw-era Steelers or the Walsh/Siefert/Mariucci-era 49ers. While the Oakland Raiders and their three Superbowls in the 1976-83 period earned a share of hatred due to dirty play on the field and dirty dealings by Al Davis off it, the long-standing poor play of the Raiders made them a joke rather than someone to genuinely hate.
The only two clubs to earn national hatred have been the Patriots of the Belichick era and the Dallas Cowboys. Pronounced America's Team by NFL Films in their recap of Dallas' 1978 season, the Cowboys earned respect by twenty straight playoff seasons and the undisputed class of Roger Staubach and Tom Landry, but there was also a dislike of the team due to their national popularity. When the Cowboys faltered after 1985 the hatred melted away, but returned with the surge to Superbowl success of Jimmy Johnson and the flamboyance of new owner Jerry Jones and players such as Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Nate Newton, and Charles Haley. The 1995 Superbowl season was especially contentious as drug addiction, sexual misconduct, and ever-escalating arrogance led to ever-escalating condemnation of the team - ironically illustrated when Deion Sanders called out the media over its criticism of Barry Switzer's 4th down attempt against the Eagles, a counterattack that rallied the team to its third Superbowl of the decade. When the 1996 Cowboys collapsed to the Carolina Panthers in the playoffs, the hostility showed when Nate Newton openly blamed the media for Dallas' loss, a reference to the accusation, soon proven false, of a gang rape by Irvin and several others.
*****
But national derangement against the Patriots has gone beyond Cowboys hatred, beginning with New England's 2001 Superbowl surge; even today condemnation proceeds about New England's playoff win over the Raiders despite the objective reality of the correctness of an incomplete "tuck" call. Complaints about the Patriots' physical play against the Rams began once Superbowl XXXVI was won, complaints that ignored that teams promptly used those same tactics to completely neutralize the Rams in 2002 to where Kurt Warner's career effectively ended by that October and the Rams deteriorated into irrelevance by the end of 2004.
The hatred continued with constant mocking of Tom Brady's game. "Dink and dunk" is the never-ending gripe; "he had to rely on his kicker" is also repeated against all evidence (and ignoring such instances as Joe Montana's first Superbowl win against the Bengals where the 49ers needed to kick four field goals). That Brady plays smart football - taking what the defense gives him and not trying to make something happen that cannot - wasn't "sexy" enough; that he played methodical football instead of trying to make it up as he goes - something other quarterbacks with more impressive volume stats tended to do - also aggravated a lot of fans.
The hatred extended to Bill Belichick, whose monotone press conferences have long grated reporters feeling themselves more important than they are and whose system has refused to rely on Name players or high draft picks but instead focuses on undrafted players, free agents, and depth, to where turnover of the roster is frequent and Brady has won Superbowls plus two additional AFC titles with what amounts to five different rosters. Criticism of trading Deion Branch in 2006 is curiously still prevalent in some fan and media circles despite the fact his immediate replacement, Reche Caldwell, was a better player, staying on the field where Branch frequently got knocked out and posting the same numbers (60 yards per game) in non-Superbowl playoff games as Branch; Branch's lack of production in Seattle illustrated his overrated quality.
A curious case of refusing to understand Belichick's approach to roster construction is the 2009 draft where the Patriots have been criticized for refusing to draft Clay Matthews, who went to the Packers, instead trading down and collecting several players; they flipped one pick to get Julian Edelman in the seventh round that year, and it's proven a better investment than the overrated Matthews.
The media and the league office's misconduct about sideline videotaping in 2007 transmuted Patriot Derangement Syndrome into a genuine syndrome; the media and new commissioner Roger Goodell misread the league rulebook, thinking sideline taping of opposing coaches is a violation of NFL rules even though it wasn't. It began a pattern of Goodell's tenure as commissioner of always being unprepared, acting as a bully (which helps explain why Kraft decided not to continue the fight, as Goodell's stubbornness and his own derangement (Matt Chatham has noted Goodell has constantly rewritten the rules to cover his own ass) makes him get his pound of flesh even when he loses; Goodell's passive-aggressive backstabbing of Kraft in his presser the day after Kraft's illustrated this also), and always being caught by surprise, and it also continued the Mainstream Sports Media's pattern of inaccurate or grossly incomplete coverage of such issues (notably Ray Rice, with seemingly no one outside of the AP noticing Rice had told the truth to everyone about the fight that initially got him a two-game suspension).
It accelerated with the tail-chasing embarrassment that has been the investigation in allegation of football tampering, an investigation that produced ZERO evidence that any tampering ever happened yet smeared Tom Brady (via Goodell's predetermined verdict) and two ball attendants based on treating irrelevant text messaging - and assuming the refusal to turn over his cellphone to an investigation that couldn't control itself constituted some kind of crime by Brady - as something other than heresay.
Suddenly attacking the Patriots had become a headline story on national news (though articles by notable writers such as Sally Jenkins, Dan le Betard, and Dan Wetzel suggest the Mainstream Sports Media is starting to get it about what really happened) and even in books such as the "untold" story of Spygate on the Amazon website, and countering with the facts has been drowned out by the rage for blood. That people are tired of the same team winning every year is a natural reaction; as a league fan I've wanted teams that have struggled of recent to become winners again (notably the Titans, one of a handful of worthy opponents the Patriots have faced in Superbowl runs, as well as Houston - yes i catch myself calling them the Oilers - the Vikings, the Panthers - the best team that didn't win the Superbowl - the Lions, etc.), and it is curious that overlooked in the interregnum between Patriots Superbowl titles, seven other teams (the Steelers and NY Giants twice, the Colts, the Saints, the Packers, the Ravens, and the Seahawks) won the Superbowl. That the condemnation maliciously ignores the facts is what is wrong.
The Patriots revolutionized roster construction philosophy for the league and built a sustainable model for championship success; they've elevated the game to a level Lombardi, Bill Walsh, etc. could never reach. And it is curious that the Seahawks have lately become the butt of online belittlement over their popularity, critics mocking it as somehow phony despite all evidence to the contrary.
It may be the price of success. Derangement, though, goes beyond reason. The Patriots changed the game for the better; they defined it up - the critics need to stop defining it down.
POSTSCRIPT - the AEI's examination of Deflategate further shows Goodell to be a liar. And further implicating Goodell to be a liar is evidence further proving Sally Jenkins' point that Goodell was shopping for justification to punish success and promote parity - with an interesting take comparing it to the media smear campaign against Richard Nixon - while Jenkins laid out a realistic way out for Goodell. Goodell alas ignored the right thing to do and upheld his suspension based on Brady "destroying his cellphone," this even though the league had already obtained all the phone records and text messages it sought between Brady and John Jazstremski while there was no communication with ball attendant Jim McNally - the NFLPA also noted Goodell changing the rules to cover his own ass. So the league's position remains a crock and called out as such by the NFLPA.
The decision by Robert Kraft not to continue fighting against the NFL over huge draft and monetary penalties imposed after the Ted Wells report on allegation of tampering with footballs won't lay to rest the hatred that has long existed toward his football team. Kraft's reasoning not to continue fighting stems from fear of long-term damage to the game by pressing the issue, this even though objectively speaking Kraft is correct. It is disappointing that Kraft has done this but understandable.
That it won't win him any support anywhere merely reinforces the reality of another wave of derangement that exists in the world - Patriots Derangement Syndrome.
In the history of sports hated dynasties are fairly common, though in the NFL one struggles to recall national hatred of the Lombardi-era Packers or the Noll/Bradshaw-era Steelers or the Walsh/Siefert/Mariucci-era 49ers. While the Oakland Raiders and their three Superbowls in the 1976-83 period earned a share of hatred due to dirty play on the field and dirty dealings by Al Davis off it, the long-standing poor play of the Raiders made them a joke rather than someone to genuinely hate.
The only two clubs to earn national hatred have been the Patriots of the Belichick era and the Dallas Cowboys. Pronounced America's Team by NFL Films in their recap of Dallas' 1978 season, the Cowboys earned respect by twenty straight playoff seasons and the undisputed class of Roger Staubach and Tom Landry, but there was also a dislike of the team due to their national popularity. When the Cowboys faltered after 1985 the hatred melted away, but returned with the surge to Superbowl success of Jimmy Johnson and the flamboyance of new owner Jerry Jones and players such as Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Nate Newton, and Charles Haley. The 1995 Superbowl season was especially contentious as drug addiction, sexual misconduct, and ever-escalating arrogance led to ever-escalating condemnation of the team - ironically illustrated when Deion Sanders called out the media over its criticism of Barry Switzer's 4th down attempt against the Eagles, a counterattack that rallied the team to its third Superbowl of the decade. When the 1996 Cowboys collapsed to the Carolina Panthers in the playoffs, the hostility showed when Nate Newton openly blamed the media for Dallas' loss, a reference to the accusation, soon proven false, of a gang rape by Irvin and several others.
*****
But national derangement against the Patriots has gone beyond Cowboys hatred, beginning with New England's 2001 Superbowl surge; even today condemnation proceeds about New England's playoff win over the Raiders despite the objective reality of the correctness of an incomplete "tuck" call. Complaints about the Patriots' physical play against the Rams began once Superbowl XXXVI was won, complaints that ignored that teams promptly used those same tactics to completely neutralize the Rams in 2002 to where Kurt Warner's career effectively ended by that October and the Rams deteriorated into irrelevance by the end of 2004.
The hatred continued with constant mocking of Tom Brady's game. "Dink and dunk" is the never-ending gripe; "he had to rely on his kicker" is also repeated against all evidence (and ignoring such instances as Joe Montana's first Superbowl win against the Bengals where the 49ers needed to kick four field goals). That Brady plays smart football - taking what the defense gives him and not trying to make something happen that cannot - wasn't "sexy" enough; that he played methodical football instead of trying to make it up as he goes - something other quarterbacks with more impressive volume stats tended to do - also aggravated a lot of fans.
The hatred extended to Bill Belichick, whose monotone press conferences have long grated reporters feeling themselves more important than they are and whose system has refused to rely on Name players or high draft picks but instead focuses on undrafted players, free agents, and depth, to where turnover of the roster is frequent and Brady has won Superbowls plus two additional AFC titles with what amounts to five different rosters. Criticism of trading Deion Branch in 2006 is curiously still prevalent in some fan and media circles despite the fact his immediate replacement, Reche Caldwell, was a better player, staying on the field where Branch frequently got knocked out and posting the same numbers (60 yards per game) in non-Superbowl playoff games as Branch; Branch's lack of production in Seattle illustrated his overrated quality.
A curious case of refusing to understand Belichick's approach to roster construction is the 2009 draft where the Patriots have been criticized for refusing to draft Clay Matthews, who went to the Packers, instead trading down and collecting several players; they flipped one pick to get Julian Edelman in the seventh round that year, and it's proven a better investment than the overrated Matthews.
The media and the league office's misconduct about sideline videotaping in 2007 transmuted Patriot Derangement Syndrome into a genuine syndrome; the media and new commissioner Roger Goodell misread the league rulebook, thinking sideline taping of opposing coaches is a violation of NFL rules even though it wasn't. It began a pattern of Goodell's tenure as commissioner of always being unprepared, acting as a bully (which helps explain why Kraft decided not to continue the fight, as Goodell's stubbornness and his own derangement (Matt Chatham has noted Goodell has constantly rewritten the rules to cover his own ass) makes him get his pound of flesh even when he loses; Goodell's passive-aggressive backstabbing of Kraft in his presser the day after Kraft's illustrated this also), and always being caught by surprise, and it also continued the Mainstream Sports Media's pattern of inaccurate or grossly incomplete coverage of such issues (notably Ray Rice, with seemingly no one outside of the AP noticing Rice had told the truth to everyone about the fight that initially got him a two-game suspension).
It accelerated with the tail-chasing embarrassment that has been the investigation in allegation of football tampering, an investigation that produced ZERO evidence that any tampering ever happened yet smeared Tom Brady (via Goodell's predetermined verdict) and two ball attendants based on treating irrelevant text messaging - and assuming the refusal to turn over his cellphone to an investigation that couldn't control itself constituted some kind of crime by Brady - as something other than heresay.
Suddenly attacking the Patriots had become a headline story on national news (though articles by notable writers such as Sally Jenkins, Dan le Betard, and Dan Wetzel suggest the Mainstream Sports Media is starting to get it about what really happened) and even in books such as the "untold" story of Spygate on the Amazon website, and countering with the facts has been drowned out by the rage for blood. That people are tired of the same team winning every year is a natural reaction; as a league fan I've wanted teams that have struggled of recent to become winners again (notably the Titans, one of a handful of worthy opponents the Patriots have faced in Superbowl runs, as well as Houston - yes i catch myself calling them the Oilers - the Vikings, the Panthers - the best team that didn't win the Superbowl - the Lions, etc.), and it is curious that overlooked in the interregnum between Patriots Superbowl titles, seven other teams (the Steelers and NY Giants twice, the Colts, the Saints, the Packers, the Ravens, and the Seahawks) won the Superbowl. That the condemnation maliciously ignores the facts is what is wrong.
The Patriots revolutionized roster construction philosophy for the league and built a sustainable model for championship success; they've elevated the game to a level Lombardi, Bill Walsh, etc. could never reach. And it is curious that the Seahawks have lately become the butt of online belittlement over their popularity, critics mocking it as somehow phony despite all evidence to the contrary.
It may be the price of success. Derangement, though, goes beyond reason. The Patriots changed the game for the better; they defined it up - the critics need to stop defining it down.
POSTSCRIPT - the AEI's examination of Deflategate further shows Goodell to be a liar. And further implicating Goodell to be a liar is evidence further proving Sally Jenkins' point that Goodell was shopping for justification to punish success and promote parity - with an interesting take comparing it to the media smear campaign against Richard Nixon - while Jenkins laid out a realistic way out for Goodell. Goodell alas ignored the right thing to do and upheld his suspension based on Brady "destroying his cellphone," this even though the league had already obtained all the phone records and text messages it sought between Brady and John Jazstremski while there was no communication with ball attendant Jim McNally - the NFLPA also noted Goodell changing the rules to cover his own ass. So the league's position remains a crock and called out as such by the NFLPA.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
War On The Non-Threat
The Confederate Flag is no threat to anyone, but liberals in their inhumanity don't like the truth.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Monday, June 22, 2015
White Paper On Reforming Regulation
Presented is the link to a White Paper on reforming regulation and its necessity to bolster the economy.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Government Again Fails At Technology
The government fails at information technology like it does almost everything else it meddles in.
California Tries To Kill Uber
Unable to leave success alone, California again succumbs to the sickness of regulation.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
When Public Schools Become Oppressors
Public schools are seen as cohesion for larger society. The problem is objectively they aren't - they instead are bastions of repression, division, and/or foolishness.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Monday, June 15, 2015
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Debunking Free Trade Myths
Nine Myths about the Pacific trade deal get debunked.
Worth looking at also is this look at why some conservatives oppose the Pacific trade deal.
Worth looking at also is this look at why some conservatives oppose the Pacific trade deal.
Right To Work Now Law in Wisconsin
Decades of union thuggery led to right to work, and Wisconsin shows it anew.
Tuesday, June 09, 2015
Obama Throws A Fit About King Vs Burwell
Barack Obama can't win on facts so he pounds the table to distract from the fact - shown by two previous court rulings - that Obama breaks the law with Obamacare.
Monday, June 08, 2015
What Does Love Have To Do With Gay Marriage?
The misuse of a Supreme Court precedent comes from the support of gay marriage.
The Obamacare Subsidies Myth And Reality
The King vs. Burwell case against Obamacare has gotten much coverage about how people ostensibly will lose subsidies; left ignored is that people are paying inflated prices and NOT getting subsidies.
Sunday, June 07, 2015
Pocono And The Seesaw Of Martin Truex Jr
He's not a first-time winner, but Martin Truex Jr's win at Pocono carries the flavor of being a debut win. A career that has been going for over ten years is an odd way to become something of an overnight sensation, but racing has a way of working out that way.
That NASCAR has finally seen a small team break through, and do so by leading the most laps for four straight races, is a head-shaking development that for now leaves one wondering if it becomes a trend the sport has not seen for over ten years. Certainly the reality of teams winning where their engines are controlled by another team instead of being built in-house was on display yet again, a striking change from years past when customer cars that won would see their engine supply cut or cut off by their supplier, as happened to Bob Whitcomb and Joe Gibbs when they ran Hendrick Motorsports engines in the 1990s and began outwinning Hendrick's own cars.
Where the New Jersey native first began establishing something was in the old Busch North tour, where he ran for three and change seasons, 2000-3. He won five races in his family-owned #56 Chevrolet and had some good dicing with Busch North ace Brad Leighton in a few races. After four seasons he moved south. He established a friendship with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and was signed to drive one of Junior's Busch Series cars, winning two titles and graduating to DEI's Winston Cup effort, where he won the Mason-Dixon 400 at Dover. Though he placed in the top ten with some frequency he wasn't following up the Dover win, and four seasons with Michael Waltrip's Toyota effort saw a surprising Sears Point win, but overall Truex was getting lost in the Winston Cup shuffle.
When Waltrip in effect disbanded the #56, Truex was able to sign with the #78 Furniture Row team and bring his pit crew with him for 2014, a car that had been driven to competitive respect by Kurt Busch as he strove to reestablish a NASCAR career amid running off-track and on-track controversy. Mediocre results for the #78 under Truex seemed to confirm there was nothing he could offer competitively to the small outfit, but that has changed.
The rumor has a second team being established here, and suddenly it's not a reach to say this team is on to something.
Truex's Pocono win climaxed a curious weekend there as complaints about a serious issue of buckling asphalt in the Tunnel Turn opened the weekend, yet a plethora of late crashes all occurred in Turn One. Some of the restarts saw some three-abreast action, and it proved a curiously unfulfilling weekend for Hendrick Motorsports as well as Stewart-Haas Racing; Kevin Harvick was hyped as the overwhelming favorite going in, and never had anything for Truex once things got going.
The weekend was also a continuation of a curious meeting at Dover between Brian France and several drivers over numerous issues, which got addressed by Jimmie Johnson and also by France. So far nothing of substance has come out of such meetings, but it is certainly interesting to see such back-and-forth.
So it goes with the Michigan 400 coming up.
That NASCAR has finally seen a small team break through, and do so by leading the most laps for four straight races, is a head-shaking development that for now leaves one wondering if it becomes a trend the sport has not seen for over ten years. Certainly the reality of teams winning where their engines are controlled by another team instead of being built in-house was on display yet again, a striking change from years past when customer cars that won would see their engine supply cut or cut off by their supplier, as happened to Bob Whitcomb and Joe Gibbs when they ran Hendrick Motorsports engines in the 1990s and began outwinning Hendrick's own cars.
Where the New Jersey native first began establishing something was in the old Busch North tour, where he ran for three and change seasons, 2000-3. He won five races in his family-owned #56 Chevrolet and had some good dicing with Busch North ace Brad Leighton in a few races. After four seasons he moved south. He established a friendship with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and was signed to drive one of Junior's Busch Series cars, winning two titles and graduating to DEI's Winston Cup effort, where he won the Mason-Dixon 400 at Dover. Though he placed in the top ten with some frequency he wasn't following up the Dover win, and four seasons with Michael Waltrip's Toyota effort saw a surprising Sears Point win, but overall Truex was getting lost in the Winston Cup shuffle.
When Waltrip in effect disbanded the #56, Truex was able to sign with the #78 Furniture Row team and bring his pit crew with him for 2014, a car that had been driven to competitive respect by Kurt Busch as he strove to reestablish a NASCAR career amid running off-track and on-track controversy. Mediocre results for the #78 under Truex seemed to confirm there was nothing he could offer competitively to the small outfit, but that has changed.
The rumor has a second team being established here, and suddenly it's not a reach to say this team is on to something.
Truex's Pocono win climaxed a curious weekend there as complaints about a serious issue of buckling asphalt in the Tunnel Turn opened the weekend, yet a plethora of late crashes all occurred in Turn One. Some of the restarts saw some three-abreast action, and it proved a curiously unfulfilling weekend for Hendrick Motorsports as well as Stewart-Haas Racing; Kevin Harvick was hyped as the overwhelming favorite going in, and never had anything for Truex once things got going.
The weekend was also a continuation of a curious meeting at Dover between Brian France and several drivers over numerous issues, which got addressed by Jimmie Johnson and also by France. So far nothing of substance has come out of such meetings, but it is certainly interesting to see such back-and-forth.
So it goes with the Michigan 400 coming up.
Thursday, June 04, 2015
Dodd-Frank Failed
The Dodd-Frank law was supposed to be the solution to bank failures - and it's been exposed as a failure.
Tuesday, June 02, 2015
Monday, June 01, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Reform Regulation
The debt grows and the economy needs to grow out of it by eliminating or reforming government regulations.
The Case Against Science
The belief that science is accurate is a mistaken one. Science often is not as accurate as people think.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Friday, May 22, 2015
Correcting Revisionist History About Iraq
The recent setback in Iraq dates to Obama's 2011 decision to quit.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Charlotte And NASCAR's Never-Ending Rules Dilemma
Note: originially published May 16, this has been updated on June 13:
The NC 200 for the Trucks at Charlotte began as a thoroughly forgettable rout by Erik Jones, the latest young phenom out of Joe Gibbs Racing's orbit. Driving one of teammate Kyle Busch's Toyotas, Jones qualified second but started last (he missed the drivers meeting) with polesitter Kasey Kahne (sent back there for unapproved changes), in a Dale Junior Chevrolet. It took Jones all of 26 laps to make a mockery of the Truck Series' competitive depth and he led 79 laps, but a yellow in the final 30 laps set up the finest battle NASCAR has seen on a non-plate track in years, as Kahne sidedrafted to Jones and the two fought nose to nose for lap after lap, interrupted by two more yellows. The green-white-checker finish was the wildest finish in years as Jones and Kahne sidedrafted and both crossed up noticeably before Kahne got him by inches.
The best race in years comes amid the never-ending rules dilemma NASCAR faces as it prepares for 2016's rule package, a source of friction among drivers and seemingly everyone else as Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, and Tony Stewart have been vocally critical of NASCAR's 2015 package of reduced horsepower and reduced downforce, a package whose weaknesses were on display yet again in the subsequent All Star Race at Charlotte where there was almost nothing in the way of passing and Denny Hamlin stopped a rally by Kevin Harvick by making Harvick's Chevy run in his Toyota's dirty air, which in effect pushed back Harvick's car.
The Trucks make the discussion more interesting because they also have less horsepower, more drag, and pretty much the same downforce, and the last few seasons they have seen some spirited battles for first on intermediate tracks, notably Kansas in 2013 and 2014 as well as recent years at Homestead and Atlanta. "If you're wide open and not lifting, I don't know how you're going to get around that car in front of you," said Bowyer a few weeks ago, while NASCAR's Steve O'Donnell vowed not to "make change for the sake of change."
The whole idea that "Our sport is based on guys manhandling the cars" (Edwards) and "we've gone father and father away from that because of all the knowledge, engineering, and dependence on aero" would sound true except that people seem to continue ignoring that dependence on aero has never been a new concept - running wide open on intermediate tracks wasn't uncommon in the Petty-Pearson-Cale-Allison-Isaac era; there was controversy in 1976 when NASCAR went to smaller carbs six races into that season and drivers reported going flat out at Atlanta in the first race with them; as late as 1995-6 Charlotte famously saw racing in the All Star Race and the 600 where drivers were so surprised at how effective the draft had become again that it became a lengthy talking point on the telecasts (see see 10:05 of this clip as an example).
The Truck 200 at Charlotte again illustrates how all the talk can obscure that solutions are simpler than one might think.
UPDATE: NASCAR will fast-track a further reduction in downforce later in 2015.
The NC 200 for the Trucks at Charlotte began as a thoroughly forgettable rout by Erik Jones, the latest young phenom out of Joe Gibbs Racing's orbit. Driving one of teammate Kyle Busch's Toyotas, Jones qualified second but started last (he missed the drivers meeting) with polesitter Kasey Kahne (sent back there for unapproved changes), in a Dale Junior Chevrolet. It took Jones all of 26 laps to make a mockery of the Truck Series' competitive depth and he led 79 laps, but a yellow in the final 30 laps set up the finest battle NASCAR has seen on a non-plate track in years, as Kahne sidedrafted to Jones and the two fought nose to nose for lap after lap, interrupted by two more yellows. The green-white-checker finish was the wildest finish in years as Jones and Kahne sidedrafted and both crossed up noticeably before Kahne got him by inches.
The best race in years comes amid the never-ending rules dilemma NASCAR faces as it prepares for 2016's rule package, a source of friction among drivers and seemingly everyone else as Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, and Tony Stewart have been vocally critical of NASCAR's 2015 package of reduced horsepower and reduced downforce, a package whose weaknesses were on display yet again in the subsequent All Star Race at Charlotte where there was almost nothing in the way of passing and Denny Hamlin stopped a rally by Kevin Harvick by making Harvick's Chevy run in his Toyota's dirty air, which in effect pushed back Harvick's car.
The Trucks make the discussion more interesting because they also have less horsepower, more drag, and pretty much the same downforce, and the last few seasons they have seen some spirited battles for first on intermediate tracks, notably Kansas in 2013 and 2014 as well as recent years at Homestead and Atlanta. "If you're wide open and not lifting, I don't know how you're going to get around that car in front of you," said Bowyer a few weeks ago, while NASCAR's Steve O'Donnell vowed not to "make change for the sake of change."
The whole idea that "Our sport is based on guys manhandling the cars" (Edwards) and "we've gone father and father away from that because of all the knowledge, engineering, and dependence on aero" would sound true except that people seem to continue ignoring that dependence on aero has never been a new concept - running wide open on intermediate tracks wasn't uncommon in the Petty-Pearson-Cale-Allison-Isaac era; there was controversy in 1976 when NASCAR went to smaller carbs six races into that season and drivers reported going flat out at Atlanta in the first race with them; as late as 1995-6 Charlotte famously saw racing in the All Star Race and the 600 where drivers were so surprised at how effective the draft had become again that it became a lengthy talking point on the telecasts (see see 10:05 of this clip as an example).
The Truck 200 at Charlotte again illustrates how all the talk can obscure that solutions are simpler than one might think.
UPDATE: NASCAR will fast-track a further reduction in downforce later in 2015.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
German Green Power Failure
Germany's wind and solar power industries have been a complete failure at their job.
Thursday, May 07, 2015
NFL Punishing Success And Promoting Parity Still
Originally published May 7, this piece has been updated on June 12, on June 19, and again on July 29:
The new Ted Wells report on "Deflategate" is out and as with his hit job in favor of Jonathan Martin, the more one reads it the less credible it gets. The first response came from Brady's agent Don Yee, and initial reaction suggests Brady will not accept whatever punishment Roger Goodell may hand down.
Given Roger Goodell and Ted Wells' history, he shouldn't.
The Wells report's conclusion uses the term "more probable than not," lawyerspeak for tacit admission that the case he was trying to make is not supported by evidence. This is in keeping with Wells' approach to his attack on Richie Incognito at the behest of Jonathan Martin, further illustrated by Wells' disregard of what referee Walt Anderson said about how the gauge he used for measuring football PSI showed no evidence of tampering. Yee notes Wells all but ignored Brady's testimony to him, which was an issue earlier in the investigation where there was media speculation about whether investigators even spoke with Brady. There is also the angle where the league ostensibly is angry because Brady didn't turn over his cellphone to investigators - something Stephen Gostkowski also did, and which the league had no right to ask them to do to begin with.
And the premise of the investigation - illegal tampering with footballs during a game, this despite the physical impossibility of such (a fact nowhere credibly disputed in the Wells report), to go with the forgotten January 2007 NFL rule change that allows quarterbacks to customize their footballs - is slipshod to start with. The only real evidence the piece has is text messaging between two ball attendants; nowhere does the piece show any rule was broken by anyone, and it basically takes ordinary football-customizing - universal in the game - and presents it as a conspiracy.
It's been in keeping with Roger Goodell's maliciously ignorant approach to the game over which he lords (further reflected in a grossly inaccurate letter from NFL VP David Gardi to the Patriots on January 19). Spygate happened because Bill Belichick showed up Goodell on what his own rulebook says, and Goodell reacted as a thin-skinned bully fearing for his legitimacy to hold his job as commissioner would do - he reacted violently and got his pound of flesh. He reacted this way again against the New Orleans Saints in Bountygate, treating a legitimate player practice - side bets for clean hits - as an assassination program, in the process ignoring more questionable hits at that time by the Tennessee Titans, which at least earned some public protest as opposed to the wholly manufactured crisis hitting the Saints. Here Saints players fought back - and won; even so Goodell got a pound of flesh by smearing and suspending coach Sean Payton.
That the entire controversy is about punishing success and promoting parity - as Spygate was - shows in that the report not only shows Goodell's never-ending insincerity and amateurism, it is basically a gift to the Indianapolis Colts, who made the first protest and have reacted as losers do - self-servingly moralizing about a team they can't beat, and basically haven't since the 1970 merger. New England's history with the Colts has been wholly one-sided since the Colts moved to Indianapolis, and it's been best illustrated whenever Patriot-Colt playoff meetings sandwich between meetings with tougher opponents - 2003 famously saw co-MVPs Steve McNair's Titans and Peyton Manning's Colts come to Foxboro for the playoffs after rip-roaring regular-season games; McNair played like an MVP coming up a dropped Drew Bennett catch short, while Manning played like Ryan Leaf and got embarrassed. 2014 then saw it again as John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens fought it out and lost 35-31, while the Colts were summarily dismissed 45-7.
The Wells report's credibility started deteriorating as soon as it admitted Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft were not guilty of anything - that should have set skepticism going right away to what it did conclude. But it's about punishing success - other teams don't want to define success up, as the Patriots have done. They want to define it down and use Goodell and Wells as their hatchet men.
POSTSCRIPT: The league handed down a four-game suspension for Brady, and fined the Patriots $1 million and two draft picks, this despite officially exonerating the team and coach Bill Belichick. Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive VP, said in his official letter, that Brady did not cooperate with investigators, a fact already refuted by writer Jerry Thornton. There is also the issue of NFL Officiating VP Dean Blandino, who lied about his knowledge of the scandal.
AEI - which debunked the Bountygate smear against the Saints - has provided a lengthy analysis supporting Brady. Sally Jenkins in May first refuted the league's argument about Brady's cellphone - which further discredits Goodell's unctuous verbiage about Brady "destroying" his phone and then shows how the AEI analysis further paints Roger Goodell to be a liar. Further proving the league to be frauds is what Ted Wells told Brady about his cellphone - "Keep the phone...you give me documents that are responsive to this investigation." In short Goodell's position on Brady's cellphone is a crock and as such the NFLPA has appealed Brady's suspension.
The new Ted Wells report on "Deflategate" is out and as with his hit job in favor of Jonathan Martin, the more one reads it the less credible it gets. The first response came from Brady's agent Don Yee, and initial reaction suggests Brady will not accept whatever punishment Roger Goodell may hand down.
Given Roger Goodell and Ted Wells' history, he shouldn't.
The Wells report's conclusion uses the term "more probable than not," lawyerspeak for tacit admission that the case he was trying to make is not supported by evidence. This is in keeping with Wells' approach to his attack on Richie Incognito at the behest of Jonathan Martin, further illustrated by Wells' disregard of what referee Walt Anderson said about how the gauge he used for measuring football PSI showed no evidence of tampering. Yee notes Wells all but ignored Brady's testimony to him, which was an issue earlier in the investigation where there was media speculation about whether investigators even spoke with Brady. There is also the angle where the league ostensibly is angry because Brady didn't turn over his cellphone to investigators - something Stephen Gostkowski also did, and which the league had no right to ask them to do to begin with.
And the premise of the investigation - illegal tampering with footballs during a game, this despite the physical impossibility of such (a fact nowhere credibly disputed in the Wells report), to go with the forgotten January 2007 NFL rule change that allows quarterbacks to customize their footballs - is slipshod to start with. The only real evidence the piece has is text messaging between two ball attendants; nowhere does the piece show any rule was broken by anyone, and it basically takes ordinary football-customizing - universal in the game - and presents it as a conspiracy.
It's been in keeping with Roger Goodell's maliciously ignorant approach to the game over which he lords (further reflected in a grossly inaccurate letter from NFL VP David Gardi to the Patriots on January 19). Spygate happened because Bill Belichick showed up Goodell on what his own rulebook says, and Goodell reacted as a thin-skinned bully fearing for his legitimacy to hold his job as commissioner would do - he reacted violently and got his pound of flesh. He reacted this way again against the New Orleans Saints in Bountygate, treating a legitimate player practice - side bets for clean hits - as an assassination program, in the process ignoring more questionable hits at that time by the Tennessee Titans, which at least earned some public protest as opposed to the wholly manufactured crisis hitting the Saints. Here Saints players fought back - and won; even so Goodell got a pound of flesh by smearing and suspending coach Sean Payton.
That the entire controversy is about punishing success and promoting parity - as Spygate was - shows in that the report not only shows Goodell's never-ending insincerity and amateurism, it is basically a gift to the Indianapolis Colts, who made the first protest and have reacted as losers do - self-servingly moralizing about a team they can't beat, and basically haven't since the 1970 merger. New England's history with the Colts has been wholly one-sided since the Colts moved to Indianapolis, and it's been best illustrated whenever Patriot-Colt playoff meetings sandwich between meetings with tougher opponents - 2003 famously saw co-MVPs Steve McNair's Titans and Peyton Manning's Colts come to Foxboro for the playoffs after rip-roaring regular-season games; McNair played like an MVP coming up a dropped Drew Bennett catch short, while Manning played like Ryan Leaf and got embarrassed. 2014 then saw it again as John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens fought it out and lost 35-31, while the Colts were summarily dismissed 45-7.
The Wells report's credibility started deteriorating as soon as it admitted Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft were not guilty of anything - that should have set skepticism going right away to what it did conclude. But it's about punishing success - other teams don't want to define success up, as the Patriots have done. They want to define it down and use Goodell and Wells as their hatchet men.
POSTSCRIPT: The league handed down a four-game suspension for Brady, and fined the Patriots $1 million and two draft picks, this despite officially exonerating the team and coach Bill Belichick. Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive VP, said in his official letter, that Brady did not cooperate with investigators, a fact already refuted by writer Jerry Thornton. There is also the issue of NFL Officiating VP Dean Blandino, who lied about his knowledge of the scandal.
AEI - which debunked the Bountygate smear against the Saints - has provided a lengthy analysis supporting Brady. Sally Jenkins in May first refuted the league's argument about Brady's cellphone - which further discredits Goodell's unctuous verbiage about Brady "destroying" his phone and then shows how the AEI analysis further paints Roger Goodell to be a liar. Further proving the league to be frauds is what Ted Wells told Brady about his cellphone - "Keep the phone...you give me documents that are responsive to this investigation." In short Goodell's position on Brady's cellphone is a crock and as such the NFLPA has appealed Brady's suspension.
Tuesday, May 05, 2015
Sorry, Media, but Hillary is Incompetent
Media proclaim #HillaryMilhousClinton is superbly competent, but the evidence shows exactly the opposite.
Monday, May 04, 2015
Islamics Attack Garland Texas Event
.............and get shot to death as a result, showcasing that protecting free spech requires killing Islamo-Arab imperialism. It also requires shutting people up about hating Islamo-Arab imperialism.
Sunday, May 03, 2015
2015 Winston 500 Shakeups, Winners, And Losers
The Winston 500 - this year debuting Geico sponsorship after thirteen seasons under the aegis of the Aarons lease-to-own retailer store chain - opened with the promise of some of the best racing of the 2015 season. It ended with a popular win by Dale Earnhardt Jr., but it also ended with some oblique criticism of NASCAR's rules package - as old a story as one can find, yet one that remains relevant given that it seemingly doesn't end.
The weekend began with two off-track stories - the announcement that the GoDaddy internet registrar company will withdraw its longtime sponsorship of Danica Patrick, another disturbing sign that NASCAR sponsorship's expense and return are not working to the sport's benefit (and also a subtle indictment of Patrick's value as a sponsor symbol), and then comments from Kevin Harvick advocating a shakeup of the NASCAR schedule - basically yet another forum to advocate adding the Iowa Speedway to the Winston Cup schedule.
That NASCAR has been in need of shaking things up has been true for a long time, and it showed again in the Winston 500. The schedule, though, is the least in need of shaking things up - the only changes that are needed for the schedule are dropping the All Star Race (with Atlanta's 500 being moved into its stead in mid-May), going back to 500-mile distances because they remain fundamentally superior tests of racers and cars, putting start times back to just after 12 PM Eastern/area time instead of 1:30 PM - late start times are a myth pushed by TV networks, mostly ESPN, claiming later start times mean larger audiences; on the contrary what experience has proven is later start times have hurt attendances - and dropping night races, which have accomplished nothing.
Real shaking up for the sport lays in competition areas. For the larger issue of NASCAR, the most immediate change that remains needed is to drop the exclusivity deal with Goodyear and allow Firestone and Hoosier to supply raceteams with tires and engineering help. The objection that "tire wars" are unsafe ignores the lack of improved safety with Goodyear's monopoly and oversells the risk factor when tire competition occurred; the real legacy of tire wars has been upsurges in new and different winning drivers and teams.
*****
There are of course other issues long debated, such as the Chase format and a points system that obstinately refuses to reward what warrant the largest reward - winning and most laps led. They relate to Talladega as well, where the immediate shakeup in need remains tackling the rules myopia of the sanctioning body. Rusty Wallace's oblique on-air criticism of the rules package for the plate tracks to discourage push-drafting rang screamingly true in the weakest Talladega race in ten-plus years, and even rang true in the Xfinity Series Winn Dixie 300 on Saturday; there was noticeable tandem drafting at the end - something noted after July 2014's Firecracker 250 at Daytona - and it produced excellent racing highlighted by the Logano-Almirola-Sadler-Yeley-Dillion push-draft showdown over the race's final quarter, even amid the frequent spoiling of momentum due to numerous yellows - and yet there simply wasn't enough push-drafting. The contrast with the 500 was too graphic to ignore, and it showcased anew that NASCAR really has no business policing against push-drafting, the strongest power to pass that racing can ever see.
For a race just four years removed from blasting past 80 official lead changes to be stuck at 27, and no one able to make any move at the end because the draft simply wasn't going to work, remains an indictment of NASCAR's rules myopia.
*****
The 500's winners were limited to just one team - Hendrick Motorsports. The Junior/Johnson Chevrolets finished 1-2 and Dale Junior thus grabbed his sixth Talladega win and first since 2004, this after Hendrick's cars led nearly 170 laps. It was so one-sided that even excellent finishes by Paul Menard, Ryan Blaney and the Wood Brothers, Martin Truex, Sam Hornish Jr., and the completely unnoticed top-ten of Josh Wise and the Curb Motorsports team registered nothing.
The losers were aplenty, led by Ford. While Sam Hornish finished good, his Richard Petty teammate Aric Almirola had to settle for fifteenth despite a good rally from the early Turn Two melee; it nonetheless was a huge improvement for the #43 after a totally forgettable Speedweeks. That Petty, the Woods, and Curb all had respectable finishes made the dismal finishes of Penske Racing all the more surprising, and made the abysmal runs of the Roush bunch all the worse.
The Toyotas didn't acquit themselves much better. Denny Hamlin led five laps and finished ninth, and his JGR teammates were almost in Witness Protection during the day other than a brief run to the top five by Matt Kenseth and a surprising effort by Carl Edwards that got thrown away at the finish and has produced just one top ten for the #19; one has to wonder again whether signing on Carl Edwards was a good idea to begin with.
RCR, despite two cars in the top ten, didn't have much to write home about with several engine failures, with a pit fire for Ryan Newman tossed in for good measure.
It all added up to the most disappointing weekend of the season so far, coming at the place that's supposed to be better than that.
The weekend began with two off-track stories - the announcement that the GoDaddy internet registrar company will withdraw its longtime sponsorship of Danica Patrick, another disturbing sign that NASCAR sponsorship's expense and return are not working to the sport's benefit (and also a subtle indictment of Patrick's value as a sponsor symbol), and then comments from Kevin Harvick advocating a shakeup of the NASCAR schedule - basically yet another forum to advocate adding the Iowa Speedway to the Winston Cup schedule.
That NASCAR has been in need of shaking things up has been true for a long time, and it showed again in the Winston 500. The schedule, though, is the least in need of shaking things up - the only changes that are needed for the schedule are dropping the All Star Race (with Atlanta's 500 being moved into its stead in mid-May), going back to 500-mile distances because they remain fundamentally superior tests of racers and cars, putting start times back to just after 12 PM Eastern/area time instead of 1:30 PM - late start times are a myth pushed by TV networks, mostly ESPN, claiming later start times mean larger audiences; on the contrary what experience has proven is later start times have hurt attendances - and dropping night races, which have accomplished nothing.
Real shaking up for the sport lays in competition areas. For the larger issue of NASCAR, the most immediate change that remains needed is to drop the exclusivity deal with Goodyear and allow Firestone and Hoosier to supply raceteams with tires and engineering help. The objection that "tire wars" are unsafe ignores the lack of improved safety with Goodyear's monopoly and oversells the risk factor when tire competition occurred; the real legacy of tire wars has been upsurges in new and different winning drivers and teams.
*****
There are of course other issues long debated, such as the Chase format and a points system that obstinately refuses to reward what warrant the largest reward - winning and most laps led. They relate to Talladega as well, where the immediate shakeup in need remains tackling the rules myopia of the sanctioning body. Rusty Wallace's oblique on-air criticism of the rules package for the plate tracks to discourage push-drafting rang screamingly true in the weakest Talladega race in ten-plus years, and even rang true in the Xfinity Series Winn Dixie 300 on Saturday; there was noticeable tandem drafting at the end - something noted after July 2014's Firecracker 250 at Daytona - and it produced excellent racing highlighted by the Logano-Almirola-Sadler-Yeley-Dillion push-draft showdown over the race's final quarter, even amid the frequent spoiling of momentum due to numerous yellows - and yet there simply wasn't enough push-drafting. The contrast with the 500 was too graphic to ignore, and it showcased anew that NASCAR really has no business policing against push-drafting, the strongest power to pass that racing can ever see.
For a race just four years removed from blasting past 80 official lead changes to be stuck at 27, and no one able to make any move at the end because the draft simply wasn't going to work, remains an indictment of NASCAR's rules myopia.
*****
The 500's winners were limited to just one team - Hendrick Motorsports. The Junior/Johnson Chevrolets finished 1-2 and Dale Junior thus grabbed his sixth Talladega win and first since 2004, this after Hendrick's cars led nearly 170 laps. It was so one-sided that even excellent finishes by Paul Menard, Ryan Blaney and the Wood Brothers, Martin Truex, Sam Hornish Jr., and the completely unnoticed top-ten of Josh Wise and the Curb Motorsports team registered nothing.
The losers were aplenty, led by Ford. While Sam Hornish finished good, his Richard Petty teammate Aric Almirola had to settle for fifteenth despite a good rally from the early Turn Two melee; it nonetheless was a huge improvement for the #43 after a totally forgettable Speedweeks. That Petty, the Woods, and Curb all had respectable finishes made the dismal finishes of Penske Racing all the more surprising, and made the abysmal runs of the Roush bunch all the worse.
The Toyotas didn't acquit themselves much better. Denny Hamlin led five laps and finished ninth, and his JGR teammates were almost in Witness Protection during the day other than a brief run to the top five by Matt Kenseth and a surprising effort by Carl Edwards that got thrown away at the finish and has produced just one top ten for the #19; one has to wonder again whether signing on Carl Edwards was a good idea to begin with.
RCR, despite two cars in the top ten, didn't have much to write home about with several engine failures, with a pit fire for Ryan Newman tossed in for good measure.
It all added up to the most disappointing weekend of the season so far, coming at the place that's supposed to be better than that.
Saturday, May 02, 2015
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