Idiots Write About Sports

Bruce Feldman, whom I’ve never heard of before, writes on ESPN.com:

I feel so foolish. I bought into this whole Cal-is-a-powerhouse business…. Cal is like that girl you convinced yourself was so perfect, but then something happened, and suddenly it all became clear…. I think if the Bears could knock off USC, they probably still would not get back into the top 15.

So let me get this straight. First you bought into the media hype that Cal was one of the best teams in the country and somehow Jeff Tedford was going to turn either Nate Longshore or Joe Ayoob into a top-flight NFL prospect. And now that they were beaten by Tennessee, Cal is actually terrible.

Okay, Feldman, I see that you live in a very polar world. Everything either smells like roses, or it smells like crap. I can see you’re that kind of guy. But what about that last sentence of yours? Are you telling me that if Cal beats USC in November to go to, oh, let’s say 10-1 or 9-2, that they’ll be ranked lower than 15th? That’s ridiculous. In that late-November scenario, a first-game loss on the road against Tennessee almost three months before will be forgotten.

And if Cal isn’t 10-1 or 9-2 after the USC game, well, it won’t be the loss at Tennessee that will have knocked Cal down in the rankings. It will be what came afterward.

But, hey, Bruce Feldman isn’t the first person in the media world to take a feast-or-famine approach. There’s very little room for shades of gray when it comes to sports commentators.

That guy knows little about college football, if at all.

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