Idiots Write About Sports

It’s official — add AP voters and football coaches to the list of people I loathe.

A couple of post-screwing thoughts:

• If someone can explain to me how a team that comes within a single dropped pass against the No. 1-ranked team in the country of having an undefeated season does not deserve to play in a New Year’s Day bowl while a team that struggled to beat Kansas does, I believe there’s a job in the government crafting foreign policy awaiting you.
• I was driving to the store listening to ESPN Radio, where the host of one of its shows — the one airing at about noon Pacific Time on Sunday — explained that Cal was being left out of the Rose Bowl because Rose Bowl officials had decided Texas was the better team. No, Unnamed ESPN Radio Personality — that’s not actually true. The Bears are being bypassed because the byzantine, self-defeating rules of the BCS demand that they be left out of the mix. Rose Bowl officials are quite adamant that, if they had their druthers, the Bears would be in Pasadena on January 1. My point? Remember the bygone days when a job commenting on sports actually required you to know what the hell you were talking about?
• Since voters apparently decided to punish Cal for not winning convincingly enough — remember, Cal opted to take a knee in the fourth rather than run up the score — what incentive do coaches who aspire to contend for championships have for ever calling off the dogs? Please remember this the next time Mike Lupica, or some like-minded simpleton, gets his knickers in a twist when some power-conference school keeps passing for touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a blowout game.
• Another one of the ESPN Radio hosts — I think it was Merrill Hodge, but I could have been knocked senseless with rage because of the drivel spewed by the Unnamed ESPN Radio Personality — contends that this is why Jeff Tedford needs to move on. The argument, basically, is that if you can’t get people to take your team seriously when it’s the fourth-ranked team in the country, you are never going to get a fair shot. And I hate to admit it, but I think he’s right.

On the bright side, things good always be worse. Jason and I could be fans of Auburn.

Post a comment