July 9, 2005, a man by the name of Adam Greenberg realized his dream and made his major league debut.  He was called on by manager Dusty Baker to pinch hit in the 9^th inning in Florida against the Marlins.  The scrappy lefty settles into the box against Marlin’s pitcher Valerido de los Santos.  First pitch is a 92 MPH fastball…bang…right off Greenberg’s head.  He immediately went to the ground holding his head as the fastball hit hard enough to knock his helmet clean off.  He was removed from the game and taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion.  For the next year and a half he suffered from blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, and many other post-concussion syndromes, causing his baseball career to be put on hold.  Since then he has played for several minor league teams and independent ball.  He recently played sparingly for team Israel in the WBC qualifying tournament, but at age 31, no franchise will give Greenberg a realistic shot at making a team.

That is until a filmmaker and huge baseball fan created a campaign for Greenberg called One At Bat.  He started a website, petition, made t-shirts and posters, and created a 5 minute video to spread the word.  The goal was to get Greenberg a shot with the Cubs again, but ultimately, make Greenberg’s career last longer than just one pitch.  Well…he succeeded.  Greenberg was not signed by the Cubs, but the team on the other side of the lines on that night Greenberg realized his dream of playing big league ball, and immediately had his dream ripped away, has signed him.  Yes, the Miami Marlins have signed Greenberg to a one day contract.  He will be given a pinch hit at-bat in the Marlin game next Tuesday, October 2^nd against the Mets and knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.  Whether he strikes out, walks, gets a base hit, or takes one deep, it does not matter, because 7 years, 2 months, and 24 days after Greenberg’s career both began and ended, he gets to realize his dream one more time.

Man, I am really starting to enjoy this whole devil’s advocate thing when arguing in favor of the replacement officials. I still stand by my assertion that the NFL’s regular officials are no better than shambolic as a whole. They suck. They are too old, slow, and inconsistent. Sure, they get most false start and offside calls right, but when it comes down to it, nobody is ever really happy with them. I have to admit, though, Monday night’s finish was pretty… interesting.

I’m not going to disrespect any reader by insinuating that the end of Monday’s game between Seattle and Green Bay was handled correctly. Admittedly, it did look like Seattle got away with two pretty obvious offensive pass interference penalties. On the other hand, the regular refs call offensive PI so infrequently anyway, what’s the fuss about? On any change of pace, or direction route, the receiver often pushes off on the cornerback with impunity. It’s only when the infraction is so glaring that it’s practically impossible to ignore that they call offensive PI.

But let’s talk about the final play for a second. Can we stop making a villain out of Golden Tate? Sure, it appeared that MD Jennings was first to the ball and came down with an interception. Then, Tate may or may not have ended up with partial possession? I dunno, hard to tell. But is what Tate did any different than what goes on at the bottom of a pile after someone fumbles? Is it? The guy who ends up “recovering” the fumble is not always the first guy to have it, guaranteed. There is a fight for that ball under that pile, and if Tate did anything but fight as hard as he could to gain possession of that ball from Jennings, he didn’t do enough for his team. Can we agree on that? Good.

What a terrific job done by the replacement officials!  They are really starting to come around! And no, of course I’m not serious. But, that being said, it bears mentioning the following, which I have already mentioned before. They’re really not doing any worse than the regulars. Sure, they’ve had some embarrassing and highly publicized gaffes. The thing is, when these guys screw up, everyone is all over it, blowing it out of proportion and making it front page news. When the regular guys screwed up, it was just… well, a human screw up.

Let’s take last night’s game between New England and Baltimore. Early on, there was some rough play and after-the-whistle activity that wasn’t called. That was a mistake, but not necessarily one that isn’t overcomeable. Late on, there were two critical plays: a Joe Flacco bomb down the side line in which the Pats were called for pass interference inside their own ten, and the game winning field goal which was extraordinarily close to the upright, but called good.  The refs got both calls right. Nothing they did in this game affected the outcome the wrong way. But nobody is talking about that.

The Problem: Roger Goodell is pansy. A narcissist. A megalomaniac. A hypocrite. Players and coaches are hollering about player safety being at risk. Newsflash, it’s football. Player safety is always at risk. However, if you’re saying that the players might be taking liberties with the replacement referees and playing dirty in a way they think they can get away with, that is the easiest fix in the world. Make an announcement. All 15 yard penalties will be sent to the league office for review. If it’s deemed that the play was intentionally dirty, both the player and head coach will be subject to a $100,000 fine. Done.

But Torsten, you say. What about all the calls the refs are missing? Well, if you are a team president or coach or GM, and you think the other team has taken liberties with your players, send video to the league office for review. If it’s deemed that the play, flagged or unflagged, was intentionally dirty, both player and coach are subject to a $100,000 fine.

See where I’m going with this? You can take it further and tack on suspensions. Or how about this? Take a Scarlet Letter approach and make multiple offenders wear a big red D on their helmets so the refs know who to keep an eye on.

Regardless of what you do, stop blaming the refs entirely. Until Goodell shows some backbone, nothing is gonna get better.

Homer Corner: Speaking of football and dirty hits, here’s a way coaches can help. Even though Jeff Fisher has gotten the reputation of being a dirty coach and advocating dirty play, even he had to cringe at Mario Haggan’s completely unnecessary personal foul on the Chicago Bears punter on Sunday. It cost the Rams a defensive stop, and led to a Chicago field goal. If Fisher really is intent on turning this franchise around, cutting Haggan on the spot would have been a good start. Right there. On the field. Clean out your locker, son. You’re done. Haggan is an okay player, but not a star. Clearly, he’s also a moron. Cut him.

More on Fisher and how he is quickly showing that he is merely pedestrian as a coach (still a huge upgrade over the previous regime) and how the exact opposite is being seen in New Orleans. For now, back to my day job.

In 2002, a 16 year old football star at powerhouse Long Beach Poly was accused of raping a classmate.  At the age of 16, this boy was tried as an adult, and at the advice of his lawyer, pleaded no contest to avoid life behind bars.  This boy grew into manhood behind bars, 5 years and 2 months later he was released on parole, trying to start his life, but registered as a sex offender and donned a tracking ankle monitor.  Then, earlier this year, his accuser came forward and admitted to fabricating the accusation of rape, and the judge threw out all charges and convictions, officially giving 26 year old Brain Banks his freedom. 

This offseason, Banks was worked out by the Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, and Washington Redskins, however he was signed by none of them.  Banks was not able to finish his high school career, play in college, despite being recruited by many of the top programs in the country, or realize his NFL dream.  However, today it has been announced he has been signed by the UFL squad Las Vegas Locomotives.  He will play linebacker for the Locomotives, and will play in his first competitive football game in 10 years.

Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg, spent time in prison, and came back to the NFL.  Michael Vick ran a dog fighting ring, spent time in prison, and is a starting NFL quarterback again.  Every day players are arrested for DUI or marijuana possession, and are allowed to return to the game they play for a living.  Too often players are starting fights at strip clubs, being found with loads of unregistered weapons, or letting members of their entourage take the fall for murder (Jayson Williams and Ray Lewis).  And all these people are allowed back to their sport.  Even Josh Lueke has been welcomed back to baseball after blatantly lying to police and eventually pleading to a lesser charge after anal raping a women he met at a bar.

Brian Banks deserves this opportunity more than most.  He deserves to accomplish his dream.  He deserves to start for Las Vegas, he deserves to perform well, and he deserves to be given a shot on an NFL roster.  A kid had his life ripped from him at the hands of lies.  I came across this story too late to donate to his kickstarter account where he raised money to film a documentary to tell his story.  I, for one, will be a person that finds his documentary when it comes out (a current ETA of March 2013), but in the meantime, I will be following his career and rooting for him.  You can follow his progress and the progress of his documentary at his website, www.brianbanks.org.

Hard Knocks, The Immaculate Reception, The Autumn Wind, Football Follies, NFL Game of the Week, on field microphones, overhead camera, and countless more.  These are the things introduced to us by NFL Films, a company founded by a father and son combo of Ed and Steve Sabol.  They brought film making concepts to the sports world.  Famous film makers, such as Ron Howard, have been influenced by NFL Films.  The only camera that captured Franco Harris scoop up the ball on the Immaculate Reception was a NFL Films camera.  Yesterday we lost one of the true innovators in sports and film, Steve Sabol passed after an 18 month battle of brain cancer.

John Facenda had the incredible voice, but those incredible poems he recited…written by Steve.  If you are like me, you grew up before the 3-4 hour pregame show on Sundays, but you were so excited to watch football you got up at 7 AM itching to watch it.  You turned on ESPN and there he was, in a little room, sitting in a chair you see in many hotel lobbies, the Lombardi Trophy behind him, and old Packers helmet, a few other pieces of NFL memorabilia, Steve Sabol was talking football.  Whether it be about the first Super Bowl, or the games last week, or the funny way the ball bounces in Football Follies, NFL Films Presents was always there early Sunday morning.  I learned the history of the game, as introduced by Steve Sabol and narrated by John Facenda or Harry Kalas.

I remember the offbeat look at Jerry Glanville, or the giant cockroaches on the field in Dallas, or the slightly out of focus view of Franco Harris catching the ball just before it touches the ground, or Chris Carter saying to a defender, “Pray you can still play when you are my age”.  All of those, were thanks to the incredible vision of Steve Sabol.  I could go on and on, but why don’t I just leave you with his words, best remembered being delivered by the deep, smoky, syrupy voice of John Facenda, but to me, the best poem ever written.

The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously.
His face is weatherbeaten
He wears a hooded sash
With a silver hat about his head
And a bristling black mustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold.
The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He’ll knock you ’round and upside down
And laugh when he’s conquered and won.

RIP Steve Sabol

According to Major League Baseball, apparently overt bigotry isn’t nearly as big of a deal as trying to gain a competitive edge by boosting testosterone, arguing vehemently with an umpire, or drilling an opposing batter in the backside with a fastball. At least, that’s the message one can take from the three game suspension handed to Toronto Blue Jays shortstop, Yunel Escobar for having the words “tu ere maricon” on his eye black. Translated to English, the words mean “you are a faggot.”

Every year for the last…oh, God only knows how long, journalists have been predicting that “this is the year an active professional athlete comes out of the closet.” Never mind that these journalists apparently don’t do their research, since Toronto Impact midfielder, David Testo already has. Digressing, I guess one can make the argument that MLS soccer is not nearly as high in profile as baseball, soccer, basketball, and to a certain degree, hockey. Still, this latest series of events with Escobar and his suspension, if you can even call it a suspension, is a prime example of why it’s unlikely an active athlete in a high profile professional sport will come out. The primary reason, one would have to assume, for a gay athlete to stay closeted would be fear of violence and ridicule. And by failing to lay the hammer down on Escobar, MLB has essentially made the statement that it’s not that big of a deal to be a bigot.

If you try to give yourself an artificial edge by boosting your testosterone, you get a 50 game ban for a first offense… unless of course your name is Ryan Braun, which is a whole other pile of bullcrap we have already covered here. If you vehemently argue with an umpire over a call, even if you are in the right, you face a suspension of greater than three games, especially if you make contact with said umpire, intentional or otherwise. If you make statements to the media regarding the umpiring, you face a suspension around the three games Escobar got for his slur.

I’ll say it again, I just don’t see it happening. I don’t see a gay athlete coming out. And it’s not just MLB’s lack of authoritative smack down on Escobar, or simply Escobar’s bigotry itself. People exactly like me are part of the problem too. I am a baseball guy, through and through. I am blue collar, honest but flawed, a huge believe in fairness across the board, and usually vote on the Democratic side, if only because the politicians making up the GOB can only be described as fools. I am vocally in favor of gay marriage, civil and domestic equality for all races, sexual orientations, and gender across the board. And I loudly and crudely call out bigots and racists. But not that long ago, I jokingly called a friend of mine a pole smoker. Though not to the level of faggot, that’s also a gay slur. My friend isn’t gay, and I didn’t intend to offend anyone with my comment. I made it without thinking. So yeah, people like me are part of the problem. People use slurs, ranging from the ignorant or slightly uncouth, to the downright vulgar without really having any ill intent. It isn’t right, but it happens. What a God damned hypocrite I am, preaching against the offense while being a part of the problem.

Civil rights is a bit beyond the scope of our humble blog here. But there is a societal issue involved as well. A straight white guy can participate in an activity that exhibits pride in his heritage and he is immediately branded a racist. However, a gay man can drench himself in artificial flamboyance under the guise of being proud to be gay and it’s not a problem. A black man can speak using atrocious grammar that would shock and appall any English teacher but it’s okay because he’s gangsta. It makes no sense. People who behave in that manner, though they have every right to, make the every day gay or black guy cringe. The efforts of those who have shed blood, sweat and tears in the good fight for civil equality across the board are minimized as a result. The fight for tolerance is a losing one as a direct result. There’s an incongruence.

Apologists in the Latino community will say that Escobar didn’t mean anything negative. There are non-offensive ways to interpret being called a faggot. They made the same argument when Liverpool’s star striker Luis Suarez, who is from Uruguay, after he racially abused Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. This too is a bunch of crap. Escobar and Suarez are both bigots. Plain and simple. Ignorance of socially acceptable behavior is not an excuse, and it’s time that flim flam is called what it is.

Anyway, I know I’m rambling. One last point. For my day job, I work in marketing for an insurance company. If I showed up to work with the word faggot visible anywhere on my person, I will be summarily fired, as I should be. Escobar, however, gets three games. Essentially 1% of the workdays he has during the year. Would it have been an overreaction to suspend him for… say 50 games? Would it? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t have argued.  

Lazy Journalism, Revisited:

Way way back, we wrote a piece on lazy journalism and how reprensible we think it is. People’s reputations are at stake so it’s of tantamount importance to do your due diligence and get your facts right. That said, sometimes it’s just infuriating. If you’re a sports journalist, you have one of the easiest jobs in the world. Sure, you have some primadonna egos that come with pro athletes to deal with. But in many cases, you aren’t just covering your favorite sports. You are covering your favorite TEAMS! Who wouldn’t want that job!?

The Offense: Taking the easy way out

Right now in sports journalism, there is no easier task than crapping out an article that criticizes the NFL’s replacement refs. Just highlight some mistakes that were made in this weekend’s game your team was in and how it cost them dearly, or nearly cost them, or could have gotten someone hurt, or whatever grievance you can concoct. Here’s the problem. The replacement refs are actually BETTER than the NFL referees that are currently locked out/on strike/not working/good riddance. That’s right. Better. Are they making mistakes? Sure they are. Are some of them costly? Well, yes. Here’s the thing. The NFL referees made exactly the same mistakes, just as many if not more, and don’t care. But because they’ve been around a while, if they blow a call that impacts a game, it’s practically a footnote. Ed Hochuli and his crew missed a pass interference call in the fourth quarter that could have changed the game, yada yada yada… but if a replacement official misses a call, it’s front page, headline news; in the paper the next morning, or on the internet immediately. “Replacement refs botch critical call in Team A’s loss to Team B.” It’s ludicrous.

Part of the Problem:

NFL officials are an arrogant bunch. They work in a situation where they make good livings for what amounts to less than a part time job. Do they have a legitimate beef with the NFL? Well, sort of. Of course, every working individual should want to move upward and forward in their careers. So should they receive increased pay? Yeah, bump their pay up commensurately with cost of living since the last CBA. Should some get more? Sure, give better raises to the referees that rate highest in accuracy. Create a committee that would take the best refs and make their jobs full time. That’s one way to address one of the biggest issues the refs union currently has. Offer better health insurance? Why not!!! But whatever you do, NFL, do not cave. The referees, for the most part, are already a narcissistic and arrogant brood with very little motivation to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. This is something that the replacement refs do have.

The Solution: Have the replacement refs’ backs

One thing you can say in a critical light about the replacement refs is that they are non-commital in some cases, and seem afraid to make a mistake, so they don’t throw a flag. This is too simple. Roger Goodell needs to come out with a statement that unequivocally supports them, telling them not to be afraid. If you see a foul or infraction, throw the damn flag. If you get one wrong, it’s okay. The real refs get more wrong than they do right. Offer the ones that perform the best a job as a real ref, taking the place of some of the more poorly performing regular refs. Isn’t that the way it is with the players? A backup comes in, outperforms the starter and stays there. I admit to copping out here, but look at the Dodgers. Juan Uribe comes in to play third and sucks. All other replacements tried also suck or get hurt. Along comes Luis Cruz, plays excellently, and gets the full time gig (for now). Seriously, what is the problem here? Exactly, there isn’t one.

So, sports journalists, how about instead of taking the easy way out and taking aim at an all-too-easy target, man/woman up and write something real and back it up with some actual analysis. Please and thank you.

30 years ago, in a much much different sporting landscape, something happened in the NFL that never happened before and will never happen again.  A man by the name of Mark Moseley won the NFL MVP. Not only is he the only future Director of Franchising for Five Guys to win the MVP, he is the only kicker in NFL history to win MVP.  Yup, I said kicker.  You know, that position you have to fill in at the end of the fantasy football draft just because some Nancy back in the beginning decided a guy on the field less than 10 snaps a game should determine your fantasy football highs and lows.  A kicker, just like the one that blew the game for the Patriots today.  Last season David Akers set the record for most field goals kicked in a single season, with a number nobody cares about because it was set by a kicker.  Earlier this year, the very same guy kicked a 63 yard field goal, to tie the longest ever kicked…and it wasn’t even a top 10 play of the week.  But just 30 short years ago, a kicker won NFL MVP.

1982 was a strike shortened season of only 9 games, Moseley was 20/21 with a grand total of zero coming from greater than 50 yards.  In just 9 games Dan Fouts threw for over 2,800 yards and amassed 17 touchdown passes while averaging over 320 passing yards per game.  Marcus Allen had double digit rushing touchdowns, and Tony Dorsett lives in infamy as this was the season he broke a 99 yard touchdown run.  Wes Chandler in San Diego caught for over 1,000 yards and 9 touchdowns.  These were all on pace to have seasons worthy of MVP consideration in today’s NFL, much less back in 1982.

Instead a man that had a 95% field goal rate, best in the league by almost 4%, got the MVP.  And don’t try to add a perfect PAT, since he wasn’t even in the top 10 in PAT attempts or makes that season.  Moseley was a member of the Super Bowl Champion Washington Redskins that year, but in a single game scenario, where a kicker could arguably be considered MVP, John Riggins took home the Super Bowl MVP award.  So, the next time you belly up for some burgers and fries at your friendly neighborhood Five Guys, go ahead, tell the story about the companies Director of Franchising, the most unlikely MVP in sports history.

 

Well, you can’t really fire owners… so maybe I should have titled this something else. But with multiple reports surfacing that the Los Angeles Dodgers have reached a multi-year contract extension with GM, Ned Colletti. Colletti has been in the news a lot recently, with all the high profile acquisitions recently made by the Dodgers. It’s clearly premature to say one way or the other whether all of these moves are either booms, busts, or somewhere between. But if the reports of Colletti’s extension are accurate, it bears looking at whether he has earned it.

The Guggenheim group is clearly willing to spend money. But as John Henry can certainly tell you, building a winning club is about more than throwing money around. There has to be a plan. And who knows, maybe there is one.

The Argument For Colletti: Clearly, he wants to win. He cares. And he does not shy away from the media. It would have been easy for him at any time during his tenure under disgraced former owner, Frank McCourt, to gripe about lack of funds to build a competitive club while McCourt essentially swindled the city of Los Angeles for the better part of a decade. So he took his limited budget and tried to fill holes with servicable veterans, leaning on superstars Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw to keep the team respectable. When new ownership took over this year, and having coffers that were once again overflowing, he pilfered megastar shortstop Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins for a nominal cost in the large scheme of things, agreeing to take on the remainder of Ramirez’ big contract. Ramirez has been great since joining the Dodgers, justifying the trade. He also gambled and won that former all star closer, Brandon League was not a one year wonder, and with a little mechanical help could rediscover his old self. This allowed him to trade up and coming reliever, Josh Lindblom for Shane Victorino for help at the lead off spot and in left field. Victorino is declining and has been average at best, but that’s a monstrous improvement over the platoon of Juan Rivera and Tony Gwynn Jr. Also, Victorino goes free agent after this season so there’s no financial commitment for the future. Finally, there was the totally under-the-radar signing of Mark Ellis, who despite a life-threatening leg injury early in the year, has been super steady.

The Actuality: Colletti has behaved a bit like new royalty, inheriting a powerful position and running roughshod over the townsfolk with a bevvy of new rules and regulations. It’s easy to point to the Ramirez acquisition as shrewd business, but was it? Miami had essentially decided they were going to cut bait with Ramirez and deal him. It can’t take a whole lot of shrewdness when someone wants to trade their all world shortstop for pennies on the dollar when he, chronologically figuring, hasn’t even really reached his prime yet. Add in that the team was desperate for rotation help. Rumors abound that Matt Garza, Ryan Dempster, Cliff Lee, James Shields, and others could be on their way. Not all of them, of course, but keep in mind, someone was needed with Chad Billingsley making his first of two trips to the DL this season. Ted Lilly was already a long term absence. And in this situation, the best he could do was Joe Blanton. Taking nothing from Blanton, he’s the honest sort who shows up and puts in an earnest shift when he’s called upon, and won’t bitch if his spot in the rotation gets skipped. Problem with Blanton is, he’s nearly an exact facsimile of Aaron Harang, except with slightly better command and not as effective of a repertoire. And there’s no way to argue that his performance, which is about what was expected, is any better, or even at the same level, that they would have gotten from a AAA call up like Stephen Fife or John Ely, or giving the durable Jamey Wright a shot.

The Mega Deal: Turn the clock back to 2009, if someone said you could have Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Josh Beckett, with the added bonus of being able to permanently close the gaping black hole of production at first base that James Loney brought annually, and all it would cost you was a few marginal prospects, and one guy (Rubby De la Rosa) with serious potential, what would you say? Of you course you would. But this is 2012, not 2009. Gonzalez is still an elite run producer and good fielder, but his power numbers have shown signs of regression and that doesn’t figure to reverse with time. Carl Crawford was a catastrophic signing for Boston, missing the majority of the last two season with a bad elbow, and playing horribly when actually playing. Beckett is still a fierce competitor, but he is in a self-admitted adjustment period from flame throwing dominator, to a more Greg Maddux like cerebral pitcher. In the unlikely event that he completes the Maddux transition, it will turn out to be good for both player and team. In the more likely outcome, he becomes yet another Aaron Harang. Lastly, assuming that Crawford recovers well enough from Tommy John surgery to play, he blocks 42-million dollar prospect, Yasiel Puig, who defected from Cuba and joined the Blue Crew with the hype of having five big league tools, and being near major league ready. Gonna trade the recently extended Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier? Yeah, didn’t think so. Now what?

The Verdict: If Gonzalez remains a super productive 100+ RBI guy for the next four or five years; if Crawford even approaches his .290, 15 HR, 40 SB, 120 R echelon of a couple years ago; if Beckett reinvents himself as a control pitcher and wins in the region of 13-16 games for the next two years; if all of these things happen, then the trade will be looked at as a huge success for Colletti and the Dodgers. In the far more likely scenario, Gonzales plays well but with a gradual decline in production, Crawford will show the effects of a career-altering surgery and never again reach his all star levels, and Beckett will be servicable… in other words, Aaron Harang. In THIS scenario, Colletti has saddled the Dodgers with 250 million dollars in unmovable payroll, and the team will be mired in mediocrity. After all, how good were the Red Sox with these three guys? Exactly. Why would the Dodgers improve dramatically, apart of course from the jettisoning of perennial disappointment, Loney?

Again, nobody can predict the future. But one thing is for sure, lavishing Colletti with a rich extension before the effectiveness of his roster reconstruction is ludicrous, don’t you think? If you have 15, and the dealer is showing a face card, of course you can make a valid argument for hitting. But would you double down?

So, I’m not going to lie to you and say that this is going to be our next great series of smears. Admittedly, we do lose focus and go back and forth between subject, or worse yet, abandon one right when it starts to get momentum. But at the very least, we’re going to give this one a try.

If you’re a sports fan, you’re a Monday morning quarterback. Plain and simple. If you don’t think you can do the manager/coach/GM/owner’s job better than him, you’re not a real fan. There’s nothing wrong with that. You can call yourself a passive fan… or an observer. But every real fan thinks he can do it better, including Shaun and myself.

Can we? Maybe. But probably not quite to the level we think. That said, it should be universally agreed that certain strategies/moves/personnel decisions should be grounds for immediate firing. Period, end of story. Today, we start with the first.

The Offense: The Prevent Defense

The Concept: A football team deploys 7 or 8 defensive backs to try and keep their opponents from driving down the field in the final two minutes of a half. Theoretically, the offense will be throwing because time is limited. Therefore, they will be playing at least 4 wide receivers. So it makes perfect sense to throw every cornerback and safety on your roster onto the field to defend all those receivers, right? Actually, the only thing a prevent defense has ever prevented is winning. What you are telling your opponent when you line up in a prevent defense is that you want them to score. You don’t want to win. For whatever reason, you are handing them the game, or at the very least, letting them score on that drive.

Why it’s a Fireable Offense: It has never worked. Not once, in the history of football, can anyone point to “successful execution of a prevent defense” as the reason for them winning a game. Therefore, there are no logical grounds to ever deploy it.

Why it Doesn’t Work: There are two main reasons. The first one is, you are virtually guaranteeing that at least two, if not up to four, of the best players on your defense will not be on the field during the game’s most critical times. Most teams during regular downs and times will play about 4 defensive lineman, 3 linebackers, and 4 defensive backs on defense. Their 11 best defensive players, if you will. In a prevent defense, teams will play up to 8 defensive backs (though not usually more than 7) and only 3 defensive lineman. Done. That means, in the most extreme of examples, one of your best defensive linemen and your three best linebackers are not on the field in favor of up to 4 defensive backs that are not good enough to crack the starting line up. Let me repeat this. During the game’s most critical time, one third of your defensive team is made up of players that are not your best. Doesn’t that sound idiotic? But wait, there’s more. The second reason is, it’s virtually impossible to generate any pressure on the quarterback from a prevent defense. Essentially, you are rushing three guys against a five man offensive line and a half back who will hang out next to his QB for several seconds just in case the unlikely event occurs that a rusher gets through the line. He will then chip block the rusher, delaying him from reaching the quarterback long enough for at least one offensivel lineman to recover and reengage blocking him. The back can then leave the backfield, turning himself into a receiving option as well. In the meantime, the quarterback has had up to 10 seconds to find an open receiver, scramble for yards and get out of bounds, or wing the ball into the bench to stop the clock in the unlikely event that the pass defense comprised mostly of non-first stringers has managed to sufficently cover all the receivers. Are you telling me that a quarterback who plays on the professional level cannot find an open receiver in ten seconds? If you are, you’re wrong… and most likely brain damaged. If a team needs to drive, say, 70 yards in the final two minutes of a game, and can average just ten yards for every two plays (remember, the clock stops on an incompletion), and has even one of their three timeouts left, they can do that in 140 seconds. Just over 2 minutes. If all they needed was a field goal, game over. And the reality is, every team can accomplish that standard in way less time with way greater yards per play.

The Latest Offender: The new coach of my beloved Rams, Jeff Fisher. Just judging by how close the Rams kept the high powered Lions shows that they are indeed improved under Fisher. However, he should be fired. The Rams could have won after taking a 3 point lead with less than 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter, but Fisher deployed a prevent defense, allowing the Lions to drive 80 yards in 1 minute and 50 seconds for the winning touchdown. The icing on the cake, the only other time the Lions were able to successfully march down the field ALL GAME against a young and untested Rams defense was at the end of the first half when the Rams were in, you guessed it, a prevent defense.

To conclude, a prevent defense is, in essence, a concession. What owner in their right mind would ever employ a coach who concedes victory? If the answer is “not a single one,” then Jeff Fisher should be fired because he essentially conceded the Lions the game from a position of victory. Could the Lions have driven down the field against a conventional defense? Maybe. Sure. But they handn’t done it all game. Why not sticks with what works.  Will Fisher be fired? Of course not. And he will probably improve the standard of the Rams’ play over the next couple of years as coach. But make no mistake, he’s not a winner. And here is your proof. And yes, I am a Rams fan and I am bitter.