Worthless College Football and Meaningless NFL Week 17
Welp, here we are. Thanks to a giant jerk like Mark Emmert, and his likewise toadies in the NCAA, college bowl games have been made meaningless so that a doped up, fake, “final four” can occupy two of the four biggest “bowl games” and a third can, impliedly, produce a so called “champion”.
What a joke. it is a bastardization of everything that was ever good about college football. Like a glory whoring Donald Trump, ESPN sucks all the oxygen out of the entire endeavor, and in so doing, makes it all impossible to care about. What a shitshow. Alabama beat Washington, and, as we speak, Clemson is up 10-0 on the Urban Meyer Criminal Dockets, errr, Buckeyes here in Phoenix. The Big Toaster, that is regularly crazy for Cardinals games, look deader than a doornail. Sad!
Whatever. It is really hard to care. The only thing I hope for is that Mark Emmert finishes his life in prison for his sins. And has Roger Goodell as a forever eternity cell mate. Now that would be “justice”.
Okay, on to the pros.
The, by a light year, best week 17 NFL game is between the Green Bay Cheese Packers and the Deetroit Kittehs. The game is in Motown. It is for the NFC Norske Division Championship. May even get the attention of Ms. Wheeler. Fatty Matty versus the Discount Doublecheck. Not in Lambeau, but in the home of Joe Louis’ fist. I am picking the…..Kittehs!
Other than Pats at Dolfish, there are really not even any other games that matter, and that is only for the guarantee of home field advantage in the AFC. Guess you could put Raiders at Donkos and Chefs at Bolts in there, but it seems like fake news to try. Also, too, Tony Romo may play. Yey.
Music this week is by Chicago Transit Authority. Apparently CNN is doing some doc-u-thingy about the band. You can laugh now, but in their early heyday, Chicago kicked serious ass. I can still remember where I was the split second I heard Terry Kath had died. Yeah, he was really that good of a guitar player. Chicago went on to have a lot of chart topping hits after Terry Kath, but they were never the same again. Look at his guitar playing on 25x6x4. Incredible.
Happy new years.
What things were “good about college football” that are not still good today? I agree that the multitude of bowl games has rendered any one game meaningless today. But, that’s just new, bad stuff; it hasn’t taken anything that was good and ruined it–bowl games per se never have been meaningful (PAC-8 vs. Big Ten meant … what?) And college football is still fun to watch, a bunch of kids running around on the lawn as we did before we grew older and wiser.
Welp. Gonna be Alabama and Clemson again.
Will the Tigers have enough extra offense to roll back the Tide this time?
bmaz,
Many thanks for the post and, as always, inspired musical choice.
Michigan grad and pro-football Hall-of-Fame reporter Bob McGinn weighs in “‘Electric’ finale pits Packers, Lions.”
http://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/mcginn/2016/12/31/mcginn-electric-finale-pits-packers-lions/95998800/
On January 9 hope both Bama and Clemson lose.
On a sad note, William Christopher (Father Mulcahy of M*A*S*H) has died, and thus ends 2016. His character was one of my favorites—someone who was mild-mannered and retiring but still so respected that others would (almost) always listen and pay heed. He plied his trade under difficult circumstances but never gave up.. My favorite line of his occurred when he came upon a situation that he apparently felt deserved a bit more solemnity, and attempted to upbraid the others with but one word, said perhaps in jest but perhaps not: “Jocularity!” You won’t find a classier man.
And Go Lions! Cheeseheads? Had enough of them; we don’t need no stinkin’ cheeseheads.
ESPN has the worst announcers ever. It’s like they can’t bear a second of silence and have to tell you stuff any normal fan knows about the game. They insist on showing replays of their favorite plays all throughout the game, so you get to see the same play 5 times, often with additional commentary like: he’s sure fast. I watched several games with the sound off, only checking in on some penalties and close calls, and it was much better that way. Also, no commercials.
The bowl games were fun once upon a time. The alums cared about winning, and would support the team wherever it went, Now, there are empty seats everywhere, and the student body is almost completely absent. What happened?
I think, as said above, there are just WAY too many bowl games now and the playoff system has taken the lustre off the non-playoff bowls. I would rather have the old system of yesteryear.
It’s “democracy in action”. In the old days, only a handful of teams, from only a handful of conferences, got to play bowl games. Those teams, and their fans, were ”the elite”; everyone else was the great unwashed. I know that WE all watched those “elite” games, but did the fans of all the other schools really care about those games? Now, with this new system, many more teams and many more fans have a chance at their day in the sun, a chance to say “I achieved this!” You would deny them that? There’s no reason we can’t watch the teams and games that we like, and enjoy them, while still allowing others to do that also. Maybe we’re just pissed off that the common people are enjoying things that we used to have exclusively for ourselves.
Yes, I absolutely would. There are bad teams that don’t even have a winning record playing in bowl games. It is completely absurd.
In 1996 there were 18 bowl games. This year there are 44. That is just insane.
44 oh my LOL. I use to watch a bowl game or 2 back when they meant something and I didn’t attend college. I just wanted any Calif. team to win.
Go Raiders and just maybe some changes coming to the 9ers. We won’t know if the 9ers changes will be good or not.
Right?? I mean 44 is simply nuts.
Why does it bother you so much? Honestly–what is the problem with there being other games, that you personally don’t want to watch? Just ignore those other games, and watch the ones that mean something to you. Like the old Rose Bowl–PAC-8 vs. Big Ten–that meant something, right? Uh, what was that, by the way? All the old games were, were a handful of games between big time, powerful schools. Little schools could not compete. The hell with the small schools. Just fucking ignore them. Why can’t you do that?
Couple of news and notes:
1) The Cardinals are really clicking the last few weeks. Shame they will not be in the playoffs, but they burned that with early season malaise.
2) The Raiders have fallen off a cliff. Not only is Derek Carr done for the year, the lost Matt McGloin today and had to go to Michigan State rookie Connor Cook. Cook may actually have the stuff for a future in the NFL, but not like this heading into the playoffs. Not that McGloin was looking that good before his injury, but Oakland needs at least two functioning QB’s to start the playoffs, which they will now do from a wildcard slot instead of the easy division champ slot they looked destined for a couple of weeks ago. The KC Chefs will get that slot now.
3) Pats looked good today, and seem awfully healthy heading into the playoffs with the number one seed in the AFC.
4) The Giants were barely trying today, and the Skins still came out flat and fell short. Ugly effort by the Washington Football Franchise.
5) The Packers and Lions are both in the playoffs now. Tonight’s game will still be for the Norske Division Championship and a home game though, and that is still important. Can’t wait, anybody seen Miss Kitteh?!?
You’re welcome, Rev!
Ouch!!
Sigh, the ‘Skins record ,8-7-1, perfectly describes the team this year. Funny that the first back to back winning seasons in two decades can feel so bad. Cousins was back to his old self with two interceptions, missed throws and lack of red zone production while breaking and rebreaking every team QB stat. Go figure. That’ll fuel the off season drama. There’s so much to pick on it’s hard to know where to start. Defensive and Offensive coordinators seem like a good place. It ain’t all lack of football player talent. Only really good news is we’ve heard almost nothing from owner Dan Snyder in the last two years. If that continues there’s hope for the future. It may be it takes more than two years to recover from his decades of clueless mismanagement.
Well, look at it this way: Skins were right there in playoff hunt until the last minute. The Cards finished 7-8-1 and were eliminated two weeks ago. And, yet, they finished on a serious roll and with the number 2 defense and number 9 offense in the NFL. And it is no joke to say that if they simply had a different long snapper and punter, they are probably 11-5 and well into the playoffs, indeed NFC West Champs.
But that is how it is in the NFL. For all the work and hype, a few individual plays make all the difference in the world. Next year!
You’re right. It could have been a lot worse, and for the Cards it was.
“What ifs” are the road to hell. If Hopkins had not gaffed a couple of field goals, after a remarkable string of successes, the ‘Skins would have been 10-6. Of if Cousins had been just marginally better in the red zone, or fewer injuries at safety, or, or, or…
You’re right, the NFL is what it is, and the difference between winning and losing is a very few plays. With rare exceptions those guys are incredible athletes which makes the inevitable lapses more consequential.
On to next year, we’ll see what happens in rebuilding year 3. I’m betting that once again the ‘Skins Super Bowl bandwagon will be out and getting tuned up by the 4th of July. I’ll be tickled if they have a clearly winning season. Three in a row is a trend.
Oh yes, and the Blount Object of the Pats thinks the player named Suh is a dirty bastard.
44 is too many? Then what’s the right number? And why?
28.
Because as little as 20 years ago, there were 18. Okay, some more made sense, but going up to 44 does not.
28.
Ah, the Balkanization of the bowl system. Bmaz is right, with 44 bowls, there’s no such thing as several games of “national significance”, just The One Game anointed by the System. And with that One Important Game more often than not pitting the future refrigerator repairmen of two Blue State behemoths against one another, there’s nothing for the cognoscenti to do but whine that the smart kids from their alma maters are being deprived of a meaningful chance at glory by squeaking out a surprising win in a game preordained to have no meaning. Hard to stay interested in that. Maybe Mr. Trump could devote a big slice of his wondrous “I know a lot about [X]” to Making the Football Playoff System Great Again? At worst, that might keep him away from Social Security, voting rights and any number of other things he’s lining up in his sights; at best, SEC Football might just prove to be the Third Rail of his demographic base and there could be a groundswell riding him out of office. You gotta have hope.
Am I the ONLY fan rooting for Western Michigan in the Cotton Bowl today?
Is there no one from, say, GRAND RAPIDS around and available??
The new and improved cotton bowl is on Monday?
I guess there isn’t enough weekends for 44 bowl games. I wonder are there night bowl games also?
The 9ers clean house and Chip K. now collecting $$$$ from philly and 9er world. I wonder if the yorks can make the problem worst?
WOW looking at the news the Rose Bowl was played and it not even News Years. I’m not a fan of southern Cal but Thanks USC.