Logic and Football

All none football fans might as well just skip this post.

I’m sitting here anticipating another big Buckeye loss to USC tonight. Yep, I’ve become that pessimistic. If we somehow win, I’ll be super excited and surprised. If we lose, I’ll see it coming and won’t be overly disappointed. So, here I am in my basement, watching Michigan v. Notre Dame and thinking football.

So here are my thoughts on a rule in football. I think the dumbest rule change I’ve seen in a few years was last year when the NFL and college both changed all face-masking penalties to a mandatory personal foul 15 yard penalty. Both leagues said that they changed the rule in order to protect players, but I think this is the most illogical thing they could have done. Sure, it sounds good, but let’s think about this for a minute.

Before last year there were two separate penalties for face-masking. A five yard penalty was given for minor infractions, and a fifteen yard penalty was given for more severe infractions. The referees had to make a judgment call. Now the minor infractions are done away with. From what I understand, the minor penalties were given for face-masking infractions that met two criteria: 1. The grabbing of the facemask was accidental/incidental (sometimes a defender accidentally makes contact with the runner’s facemask in the course of tackling him) and 2. The defender released the facemask as soon as he makes contact. So, if a defender accidentally grabbed a facemask in the course of tackling a runner but let go of the facemask immediately, his team was given a 5 yard penalty instead of a 15 yard penalty.

Doing away with the 5 yard penalty does not protect players. I would argue that it actually endangers them more. Here’s why. By definition, criteria #1 cannot be avoided since it is accidental. Increasing the penalty for something that occurs unintentionally should have no effect on how often the accidental contact occurs, and thus, not make the game any safer for the one whose facemask is grabbed. And now that all facemask penalties are given the major 15 yard penalty there is no reason for a defender to quickly let go of a facemask, even if he grabs in accidentally. He might as well finish tackling the runner by trying to rip his head off. Once one touches the facemask, why let go? Therefore the rule change actually gives a player more reason to hold onto the facemask for longer, putting more players in danger.

Perhaps the only other argument to change the rule is to take the judgment call away from the refs, but 90% of the calls the refs make are judgment calls.

Michigan just beat Notre Dame….bummer…not that Notre Dame lost, just that Michigan won. That makes my day even worse if the Buckeyes lose. Oh well, still got the Steelers.

Victory in Defeat

I have a good friend in Minnesota who is a big sports fan and loves the Minnesota Vikings, but as a Vikings fan it hasn’t always been easy. A few years ago, the Vikings had the best record in the NFC and were highly favored over the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship game. The winner would have to go on to face the Denver Broncos the previous year’s Super Bowl champs. My friend told me that he secretly wanted the Falcons to beat the Vikings, because he figured the Vikings were going to break his heart again if they made the Super Bowl, and he didn’t want them to become the first team in the NFL to lose 5 Super Bowls. Now, that my friends is true pessimism and cynicism. When he told me this, I laughed. How could any true fan secretly hope that their team loses the big game? Well…now I might understand.

My beloved Buckeyes have played in the past two National Title games and has lost them both. The media has been brutal on the Buckeyes. I’ve heard them referred to as the Buffalo Bills of college football, despite the fact that they won the National Title game back in 2002. Over the past 2 years they only lost 3 games, they just happen to be really big games. Anyway, Saturday, the Buckeyes lost a close game to Penn State, assuring that they have no chance of playing in this year’s title game. I cheered for them throughout the whole game, but at the end, I had to breathe a sigh of relief and say, ‘at least we won’t lose three straight national titles.’ So, Tom, if you’re out there, I feel your pain, buddy.

A Tough Loss

Well, all my fellow Buckeyes are in mourning tonight after a disappointing loss to Illinois in The Shoe. I keep telling myself that sports would get boring if all my teams won every week. Oh well, there’s always next year.

On a more cheery note, I heard a quote tonight that I thought was great. We were watching the movie Almost Famous and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character says, “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.” How true that is….

3rd Place Ain’t Bad

I’m not much of a baseball fan (I grew up a Pittsburgh Pirate’s fan, so you can understand my lack of interest), but the Cleveland Indians just fell one game short of making the World Series. In doing so they ruined my prediction that they would lose in the World Series and complete a full year of Ohio teams finishing in 2nd place in nearly every major sporting event. The only exception would have been a 2nd place in the Super Bowl, but let’s be realistic, the Browns and the Bengals make that feat pretty much impossible.

Even though the Indians finished in 3rd place, they didn’t let their fans off of the hook. Their collapse in the ALCS with a 3-1 series once again raised the hopes of Ohio sports fan, only to break their hearts in the end.

Well…the Buckeye’s football team is once again #1….knock on wood….

We're #2!

A few years ago, a friend of mine found some 30 year old paraphernalia from Circleville Bible College. One of the items he found was a sign with the college’s old sports slogan. The slogan read: “We’re #2!” The implication was that “We’re #2 because God is #1.” I think it was the cheesiest slogan I have ever heard….but now I’m not so sure.

Perhaps all Ohio sports teams should adopt “We’re #2” as their official motto, not because God’s #1 and Ohio is #2, but because Ohio teams are finishing second in everything in this year. We’re putting together the greatest string of silver metals in the history of sports. The Buckeye’s football team was shellacked by Florida in the National Championship game in January. A few months later their basketball team was beaten handily by Florida in the basketball National Championship. Then, just last week, the Cleveland Cavaliers were swept by the Spurs in the NBA finals. If the Cleveland Indians can somehow manage to lose the World Series this fall, 2007 should mark Ohio as the greatest runner-up in the history of sports, and I think that’s something to cheer about. So, here’s to you Ohio, you may not be the best, but your pretty darn close.

Winning...Isn't Everything?

Why do I watch sports? Sports is one of the only areas in my life where I allow myself to be emotionally unguarded. I’m normally a fairly reasonable person, but when I watch the Buckeyes, I admittedly turn into a biased, emotional nutcase. I know that ultimately, sports really don’t matter, and I think that’s why its fun for me. With that said….the Buckeyes are killin’ me this year! First, we had probably the greatest regular season for football that we’d ever had. We went into the national title game against Florida as heavy favorites, and we got SMOKED. That may have been the worst game I have ever watched.
Now, in the midst of basketball season, we are the #1 team in the country. We should have lost to last week to Xavier in the second round of the NCAA tournament, but Ron Lewis hit a miracle shot at the buzzer to put us into overtime. The Buckeyes pulled out the victory, and I nearly had a heart attack. In tonight’s game against Tennessee, we were down by 20 points with one second left in the first half. I thought the game was over, but we came all the way back to take the lead late in the game. The game was tense and went down to the wire. The Buckeyes were up by 1 point with 6.5 seconds left. Tennessee had the ball and drove down the court. They shot the ball at the buzzer……and Greg Oden blocked the shot!!! I can’t take much more of this…