Football

Football by Chuck Klosterman

Football is the most popular sport in the United States. It dominates the TV ratings. The USA vs. Belgium world cup soccer game was the top rated non-NFL sports broadcast, and didn't come close to NFL playoff ratings. It was even behind two Thanksgiving day broadcasts. The Super bowl is always the most popular TV broadcast. Even Canadians are more likely to watch the super bowl than the Canadian Football Grey Cup Championship. The "defects" of football work to its advantage. There is intense action and then a lot of time to figure out what happened. The full game cannot be played casually. The "casual" versions like flag football are fundamentally different.

Football's great popularity is sowing the seeds of its downfall. College football is professionalizing, reducing the strong attachments that students would have to their team. At the lower levels, the dangers are driving parents away from letting their kids play. Outside the south, high school football has become less important. Football is dominating casual fans, but not producing new die hards. It is a conservative bastion in a liberalizing world. People will eventually lose interest and move on to something else. Horse racing was once an extremely popular spectator sport. Today, it is shadow of itself with a few niche events remaining. In the past horses were part of everyone's regular life. Not so anymore. Other dangers could impact football. A death on the field remains a possibility. Sports gambling is helping to increase interest now, but could also create issues. Professional football only surpassed baseball in the 1960s as the most popular American sport. Today, soccer is closing the gap among youth. How much longer will football dominate?

Fantasy League

This is a lot like his other books. Kid overcomes hardships and has all sorts of great things happen in the world. Kid's sports team wins the championship. And just for drama, some big medical thing is involved. I guess when you write for the young crowd, you can get away with just recycling the same story over and over again. (Is this the boys version of the Rainbow Fairies?)

The discards are undefeated

Andy Reid had one of the best records as a Philadelphia Eagles coach. He had one bad season (that happened to be when his son died.) He was promptly canned.
Alex Smith was a #1 draft pick who suffered through a number of different coaches and coordinators. He finally found a good coach in Jim Harbaugh and was having a career season. He had a concussion, his backup played great, and he lost his starting job.
Both these two ended up in Kansas City where they are now off to a 3-0 season. The Eagles with their hot-shot coach are 1-2. The 49ers are currently 1-1.
In his games, Alex Smith has not been a "hot shot" player that single-handedly wins games. However, he is great game manager who does not lose games. His skill is just what a great defensive team. (San Francisco, alas, lost to Seattle, thanks in part to 3 interceptions and a lost fumble. Perhaps with Smith and his "game management", the 49ers would have handled that game.)
I've never been a Kansas City fan, but now it is nice to see the "discards" succeed. They already have a better record than last season, and are the "feel good" story of the season. (The 49ers have a DUI in addition to the loss.)

Stanford football

Stanford took care of business, winning the first game at San Jose State in decisive fashion. However, we'll have to see how good San Jose is with the new coach. If they are as good as last season, this might have been a great Stanford victory. If they are back in "old" SJSU form, then maybe not so good.

What scares me more is some of the predictions. A few prognosticators have Stanford pegged as national champion. So much for the underdog roll. Stanford has the type of team that could beat anybody. The problem is, it is also the team that could lose to just about anybody. The Cardinal probably have the best chance of unseated an SEC team to win the final BCS championship. However, they have to get there first.

So far this season, we have already seen that odd things can happen. Each week, a top 25 team from the Pac-12 has been clobbered by an underdog. We saw a bunch of FCS teams beat up their opponents. Virginia beats BYU in the first game, seemingly setting the tone for the season. However, BYU turns around and clobbers Texas, while Virginia gets annihilated by Oregon. USC gets beaten by Washington State in a defensive struggle. Florida and Georgia both lose to ACC teams. I think we'll need a few more weeks to even begin to sort things out. Lets just hope the cardinal can make it.

As for pro football, the (Jim) Harbaugh connections did well this weekend. Former Stanford QB Andrew Luck won with the Indianapolis Colts. Former 49ers QB Alex Smith one with Kansas City. And of course, the 49ers won. It looks like he is quite the groomer of quarterbacks.

Good athlete, bad athlete

A former Stanford football player stopped a runaway bus in San Francisco. Frank Primus happened to be on his way to his position as a surgical resident when he jumped into action. Meanwhile, a former Florida (and now former New England Patriots) football player, Aaron Hernandez was charged for murder. Some players have a good plan for life after football, while others still haven't learned to live a life during football.

We have seen plenty of football players acting like thugs. However, we also see cases of thugs finally growing up. (See Cam Newton returning to Auburn to take classes towards his degree.) The current lawsuit seeking compensation for former players should be a wakeup call for the NCAA and college football in general. They have often treated the players as true semi-professionals. This is a disservice both to the universities and the players. College should be a time of learning and self-discovery. When teams forget the person behind the player, we get antics like that of Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M. He's a great player, but all his juvenile activities are out in the public eye. Where is the university to educate him? Most students get a chance to be an idiot in front of just their facebook friends. He gets to do it in front of the entire world.

Some football players go on to become doctors or Rhode Scholars. They may have come in with these goals and used the experience to their advantage. Others come in with only a desire to become an all-pro in the NFL. These guys are the ones that could most benefit from the life lessons in college. Whether they make it pro or not, a good education could help them in their future. If colleges fail to do this, they are really nothing more than minor leagues.

college football working right?

Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson are all rookie quarterbacks in the NFL. Luck has lead his team to a huge turnaround and a playoff appearance. Wilson is currently one of the hottest QBs and has helped push his team to the playoffs. RGIII is a rookie Pro-bowler who has his team on the cusp of the playoffs.

They are all hot-shot quarterbacks that have outplayed many of the veteran quarterbacks they have faced.

They also stayed in school longer than they had to. Luck was already considered to be the number one draft prospect before he decided to come back to finish his degree at Stanford.

Wilson and RGIII both graduated from college in three years. They both opted to stick around for graduate school rather than enter the NFL draft.

We can consider these three to be the anti-Cam Newton. They were taking full advantage of the education that could be provided in college. Rather than simply go there to play football, they were attending class also. Perhaps college football is really something more than a minor league for the NFL.

Short memories in the NFL

In the 2007 season, Brett Favre led the Green Bay Packers within a game of the Super Bowl and was selected for the pro-bowl. After the season he announced his retirement and seemed to be going out in glory. (Only a possible trip to the super bowl could bring him back.)

Michael Vick on the other hand was in a legal and financial mess. He was suspended indefinitely without pay. He lost his endorsements, and he was facing charges of dogfighting. His football days seemed over.

My how things have changed since then. While Vick made a fool of himself before going to prison, he has shaped up his public persona since incarceration. He eased back in to the NFL with a relatively small contract. He accepted the backup role and gradually eased himself back to the NFL. He seemed contrite. When the starter was injured this season, Vick had a chance to shine. Since then he has been on fire, and mentioned as one of the top MVP candidates.

Favre on the other hand seemed to retire after every season. He came across as a snooty and vindictive in public, hurting his reputation among Packer fans. His performance had its positives, but also plenty of negatives. His reputation suffered a hit with allegations of inappropriate behavior.

Vick has used his performance to help rehabilitate his image, while Favre has gradually tarnished his. Vick has shown that one can actually recover from the "death penalty" of a prison sentence. (Though it seems ironic that while there have been plenty of personal crimes and even deaths linked to NFL players the strongest conviction is for dog fighting...) Will his positive image remain, or will he return to his crass behavior once it is overshadowed by his performance?

We'll see how short the memories really are in the NFL.