The Penn State situation and sports talk radio

These are the moments when sports radio hosts make their most meaningful contributions. During certain mundane stretches of the calendar year, shows struggle to fill the time and often recycle story lines fans are tired of hearing about. One familiar example would be all the recent talk about the merits of Tim Tebow as a quarterback. This turns some people off of the medium, but serious and troubling stories like the Penn State scandal call for the type of informed commentary provided on certain shows.

I listened to Dan Patrick and Jim Rome this morning, and both of their takes helped me process a truly upsetting situation. It makes me angry and frankly I don't know how to talk about it yet. Two hosts with chops like Patrick and Rome can focus that collective anger into the larger arc of the story as they give their own opinions. This gives us different ways to think about the issue.

It's not that they tell us how to feel, but they help us make sense of the different strands of the story so that we can decide how we feel.

Image: audreyjm529

Want to be an NFL owner?

Whenever the Green Bay Packers allow for fans to buy shares of their team later this month, I'll be one of the first fans to do it. As an avid NFL fan I view this as a really cool once in a lifetime fan experience. Even though my loyalties still run blue and orange, I'll suck up my pride and shine in some green and gold. As a shareholder, I'll be able to join in on special tours of Lambeau Field, the Packer's locker room, and have the ability to vote on team decisions.

Even though I'll probably never get to have a drink with other NFL owners, or fly on Mark Cuban's jet, I'll be able to say I'm a part owner of and NFL team.

Fantasy football week 10: Booms & busts

Here is a look at some solid dark horse picks for week 10 and also some high profile players that might not have the best game. If you're struggling to find viable options week to week you might find some booms hidden among the stars.

Quarterbacks

Boom: Mark Sanchez. Going up against the worst defense in the league will open up the playbook for the passing game. With a healthy Plaxico Burress, Sanchez has another weapon down field if he keeps his gun locked up.

Bust: Matt Shaub. It looks as though the Houston Texans will be satisfied running against Tampa Bay. Arian Foster and Ben Tate should see most of the action and yards.

Running Backs

Boom: Reggie Bush. Without the weight of the Heisman or Kim Kardashian, look for Reggie Bush to run wild on Washington. The Dolphins will use Bush in the rushing and passing game as they look to relieve Matt Moore of defensive pressure.

Bust: Fred Jackson. Was last week a sign of things to come? It is in week 10 against the 11th best rushing defense of Dallas.

Wide Receivers

Boom: Jacoby Ford. Who's that? Does he work on cars? The Raiders explosive receiver is capable of breaking a big play at anytime. Compare him to a smaller Julio Jones. Carson Palmer will learn from his mistakes in practice and look for him to come out throwing against division rival San Diego. If you need a 3rd WR or a flex player he's a great pick up. (Reminder: Raiders and Chargers play Thursday night!)

Bust: Mike Wallace. Hard to go against Leon Hall if he draws that match up. Pittsburgh has Antonio Brown all the way down to Jerricho Cotchery for Roethlisberger to throw to if Hall blankets Wallace.

Tight Ends

Boom: Brandon Pettigrew. Chicago's D against TE's is pretty terrible partially because of the cover 2 and Pettigrew's big body over the linebackers. Stafford will target Pettigrew down the field as his second big target next to Calvin Johnson.

Bust: Owen Daniels. With an Andre Johnson return looming and a run first offensive transformation, Daniels won't get as many looks this week.

Kickers

Boom: Matt Bryant. Look for a shootout between these two teams in an important game for both clubs. Indoor kickers always look better this time of the year.

Bust: David Akers. He's been on fire but a rainy forecast for the rest of the week and temperatures in the 50's might make for a sloppy field come Sunday.

Defenses

Boom: Jacksonville. Going up against the Colts, Jacksonville should be the recipient of many sacks, turnovers, and maybe a pick 6. Look for them to paint Curtis all over the turf.

Bust: Cincinnati. Pittsburgh has been putting up some good offensive numbers. With a pass happy offense featuring Hines Ward, Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown, and Emmanuel Sanders, Cincy will have a hard time covering the field. Don't forget about Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman who make a good duo out of the backfield.

Check back on Friday for my last minute booms!

The Chicago Bears' Extra Motiviation

People say that when a tragic event happens it brings people together as a whole. The Chicago Bears at 4-3 are fighting to remain a contender in the NFC playoffs. With the recent passing of Pro Bowl linebacker Brian Urlacher's mother, the event created a team unity that has brought the whole team closer. In a recent interview Urlacher reflected with ESPN's Rachel Nichols about how much his mother meant to his career. It's good to see teammates do what teammates should do and this show of companionship echoes the unity of the Bears defense.

The Bears are on a two game winning streak and look to continue their new found purpose on Monday night at Philly against the 3-4 Eagles.

Photo credit: (Nam Y. Huh / AP)

Check this out: The night Les Miles was boring

Now up on Kane Sports: The night Les Miles was boring

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Friday tidbits 11/4/11

A Quote

A Lions player had this to say about playing against Timothy Richard last Sunday:

“Can you believe ’15’? Come on – that’s embarrassing. I mean, it’s a joke. We knew all week that if we brought any kind of defensive pressure, he couldn’t do anything. In the second half it got boring out there. We were like, ‘Come on – that’s your quarterback? Seriously?’ ”

It is hard to blame any Lion for taking pleasure in temporarily derailing Tebowmania. They heard about it all week and some commentators even called this a "must-see" game just because of Tebow's inexplicable run at the end of the Dolphins game. In that situation, who wouldn't want to destroy him to make a point? 

As for them saying they were bored...For now let's hope they were just twisting the knife a little bit after the fact. But if the Raiders are winning by so much this Sunday that they can belittle the Broncos franchise this way afterwards, then management's hand might be forced again. But, you know, this time it would be for actual football reasons...

A Photo

Click this link to check out a photograph of Terrell Owens and J.J. Stokes on a tandem bicycle. Go ahead and read that sentence again. I'll wait...OK, that joke tells itself right? Let's move on.

A Video

Bryant Gumbel concluded his show Real Sports recently with these thoughts on the NBA lockout:

Remember that time Hank Williams, Jr. compared President Obama to Hitler? I do. There's a reason that bothered people and cost him his spot as the opener for Monday Night Football. You just can't say that. The holocaust is a singularly horrific event and there will (hopefully) never be anything that can be compared to it intelligently. It was an insensitive, unintelligent and ineffective use of hyperbole. Some horrible historical events or concepts need to be left alone and not employed for the sake of argument. Ever. 

This is the same thing. He very well might have a valid point when he says David Stern is contributing to the problem. He could have made that point quite effectively without making a comparison to slavery. You know why people have little patience with lockouts? Because each side will come out on the other side making millions of dollars. And Gumbel actually compared that to slavery?

Bryant Gumbel might be a "serious journalist" but that does not afford this type of moronic comparison any more substance or validity, and he should be embarrassed that he made it. 

A Bonus Video!

Here's that Hank Williams, Jr clip. He might have said something stupid, but boy does he look goooood....

He makes a great point. With the country this shape is in we all have to pick sides.

A Tweet

@AndrewSiciliano: CU coach Jon Embree after Matt Barkley's 6 TD's: "That's why he needs to leave next year. That's why he needs to go."

Does anybody else think that certain members of Broncos nation think he needs to go because he'll look great in the orange and blue? I bet some of them do.

An Announcement

I have started another site: it's a solo act (and named accordingly). It is not replacing Warning Track Power by any means; it will be just have slighty different content. Please do check it out, tell your friends, share with the world!: http://www.haydenwilliam.com/

As for Warning Track Power, it is still alive and kicking, even if it didn't seem that way for a while. We are going to ever-so-slighty expand our scope to include some discussions of pop culture (mainly certain television shows and video games). In the coming weeks, you can look forward to an extensive Entourage series review by Ryan Douglas Presley, a look at the NFC North by David Schaffner, and a fresh and interesting take on just what the heck is happening with the Oakland Raiders by Michael Mason. Stay tuned!

A Prediction...

...or two. 1. LSU over Alabama because for all the talk about 'Bama's defense being historically great, I agree with what Scott Van Pelt said about LSU's defense at the beginning of the season: they move so fast that they look like extra-terrestrials. 2. Steelers over Ravens BIG, because Big Ben is hot and Joe Flacco is bad.

A Bonus Prediction!

Tim Tebow will complete fewer than 14 passes Sunday...and he'll be the best quarterback in the game (Carson Palmer, ladies and gentlemen!). The Broncos will trip over themselves and win a tight, ugly game, which means we all get another week of Tebowmania. Enjoy!

Links

David Schoenfield argues for two of this year's baseball Hall of Fame candidates. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/18243/santo-minoso-deserve-hall-of-fame

Peter King picks all of the week 9 NFL action http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/11/03/week.9/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_wr_a2

Andy Staples on the importance of the Alabama v. LSU game http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/andy_staples/11/04/lsu-alabama-game-of-century/index.html?sct=cf_t13_a2

Friday tidbits 10/7/11

Different than usual, but getting back into the swing of things.

A Quote

Alex Rodriguez after the Yankees lost to the Tigers in game 5 of the ALDS, a game in which he had two key strikeouts:

"I have a lot of work to do for me personally...Obviously I have to get my health back in order. I know exactly what I have to do to help this team get back to the top."

The buzz among fans and writers after another disappointing playoff showing by ARod is that he might have reached the point of no return with Yankees fans. Now they feel overwhelmed and oppressed by the prospect of the dark cloud that is his contract looming over their organization for the next 5 years.

Two points about this. It shows a subtle difference between baseball and football fans when it comes to labeling star players who "can't win the big one." Alex Rodriguez dealt with that issue until the Yankees won the World Series in 2009. Peyton Manning, to take one example from the NFL, wore that label until the Colts won the Super Bowl in 2007. This bought Manning a type of free pass, because he "proved he can win the big one." Even after the Colts lost to the Saints in the 2009 Super Bowl, nobody questioned Peyton Manning's greatness. The expiration date on Alex Rodriguez's pass, if it ever existed, apparently has already expired.

Which brings me to Yankees fans. I get the feeling that they think they are more justified than the rest of us when they gripe about their underachieving players. Why? Because of how much money those players make. "We're paying A.J. Burnett over 70 million dollars for that?!?" Or: "ARod, the least intimidating 30 million dollar man ever."

Yet it's the ability to overpay these players that makes Yankees fans so smug in the first place. Think about when you're a fan of a middle to small market team like the Marlins or the Indians or the Rockies and you have a hot young player. More than likely you have heard this statement from a Yankees fan: "Yea, he's really good. He'll look great in the pinstripes." The not so subtle implication is that the Yankees can pay them what your team can't once he hits free agency. But then it's those same ludicrous contracts that make you so mad at those players once they are on your team?

I know that Yankees and Red Sox fans always accuse us of jealousy when we say we don't like them. Part of it is jealousy, but part of it is junk like this.

A Video

I chose this classic because it is Warning Track Power's own Ryan Presley's birthday. So this is a present to him and another attempt to goad him into yelling at somebody today: I'M A MAN! I'M TWENTY SIX!

A Photo

Click this link for a great photo of John Daly and John Daly, Jr., working on their games and wearing some outstanding attire. 

A Tweet

@BMcCarthy32: @keithlaw can you still brag about having an iPad? That's like bragging about having an iPhone at this point

Friend of the blog (we'd like to think) Brandon McCarthy made this cyber crack in response to somebody accusing ESPN's Keith Law of bragging about his iPad. This upset his tweeps (for some reason), and they grew increasingly more upset about the use of the word "luxury" and accused him of being out of touch because of how much money he makes as a professional athlete. Eventually this led to a sports blog called something like "Epic Sports Fail" dedicating a post to Brandon being a rich ass hole. 

OK. My interest in this sequence of events actually has little or nothing to do with the fact that I know Brandon and really like him.

All of us who write a sports blog are dealing with the same core question: What can I do to stand out? As I have written about before, it becomes a gnawing issue. You have to decide the real reason you want to do this. If you really want to write about sports, and that is your number one priority, then you have to be comfortable with putting a lot of thought into a post and getting 3 views. Because you most likely won't get noticed for a long time, if ever. You can still keep your love of sports as the driving force for your blog and try your best to produce something unique and interesting. You can take comfort in the fact that you put real genuine thought into what you wrote, even if you do not become the next Bill Simmons. That's what I always try to remember.

The easiest way to get attention online is to produce inflammatory posts that insult people. You take minimal evidence and turn it into a larger claim. It's sheer and utter laziness. In fact, it relies on the "lazy logic of opinion" (gosh I hope some of my literature classmates read this). What do I mean? If somebody eats one bad piece of cheese and then turns that into a definitive and final judgment on cheese (ALL CHEESE IS BAD), we are not persuaded by their opinion, right? That's what I see in what this guy directed at Brandon.

Brandon wrote a tweet that can be interpreted as elitist. Therefore he must be a rich jerk. I'll copy and paste some other tweets and write a short character assassination. Never mind the fact I actually know nothing about him or the kind of person he really is. This is solid gold.

Brandon responded on Twitter and now this blogger has the traffic he wanted in the first place. That's why I am refusing to link this blog (google it if you want. it should be on about page 6 after all the other domains with EPIC FAIL in their name). Here's the problem: people see thoughtless lazy work like theirs and then associate it with all sports blogs. This is another application of the lazy logic of opinion, but I'm not here to insult readers. In fact I do not blame anybody that stays away from our blogs once they have that expectation. Therefore a blog that actually strives to do something interesting, something that takes real thought and effort, is never really given a chance by anybody other than the writer's friends and mother.

By being lazy and taking the shortcut to page views, more often than not, they ruin it for the rest of us.

Links

Peter King takes a look at this weekend's NFL action http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/10/07/game-plan-week-5/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t12_a3

Jonah Keri recaps the Tigers game 5 victory over the Yankees http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/5871/tigers-topple-the-evil-empire

I'll link this one again. Check out Roger Angell's blog. Seriously.Especially with the MLB playoffs happening right now. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/old-sport/