Tag Archives: Super Bowl

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What's wrong with Chiefs?

I am OK with changing the name of the Washington Redskins.

Who, after all, ever uses that term other than in a derogatory context? The name ought to change.

Now comes this bit of conjecture: Will the Kansas City Chiefs’ name also come under attack?

I hope not.

http://msn.foxsports.com/kansas-city/story/redskins-indians-will-native-americans-target-the-chiefs-next-062514

Given that I’m not a Native American — even though I was born in the United States to first-generation Americans — perhaps I don’t get what’s so objectionable about the name “Chiefs.”

I’ll concede that the Chiefs long have been one of my favorite pro football teams. I was delighted beyond belief over their dismantling of the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth Super Bowl ever played. But I digress.

To this white man’s way of thinking, “Chiefs” shouldn’t be seen as offensive to Native Americans. By definition, the term identifies the leader of a Native American community. He is the most exalted member of that community and is treated with utmost respect, even reverence.

“Redskins” is another matter altogether. Let’s stop there. Leave the Chiefs’ name alone.

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Clues to Bronco Super Bowl collapse revealed

I have discovered the reason for the shocking collapse this past Sunday by the Denver Broncos at the Super Bowl.

Get set for this stunner.

It’s the Sports Illustrated jinx. The jinx did in the Broncos, just as certainly as it has torpedoed other teams and individual athletes over many decades of the vaunted sports magazine’s publication.

You know about the SI jinx, yes? It’s known as the kiss of proverbial death for any team or individual athlete who graces the cover prior to a big sporting event. You’re on the cover and you’re bound to lose. The jinx is infamous in sports and media circles.

The Broncos were featured on SI’s cover not once prior to The Big Game, but twice, for criminy sakes!

The Jan. 27 edition featured full-page photo of future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. This was SI’s Super Bowl preview edition. I cannot recall how the magazine called the game. Doesn’t matter. The Seahawks came to play, while the Denver Broncos, well, didn’t.

Then we had the previous week’s SI cover. Who do you suppose graced that page? None other than Denver wide receiver Wes Welker, the Texas Tech University standout who played several seasons for the New England Patriots before joining Manning and the Broncos this year.

It was as if SI wanted to ensure that they doomed the Broncos by putting them on the cover on consecutive weeks prior to the Super Bowl.

What’s most amazing of all is that I haven’t heard much — if any — mention of this phenomenon biting the Broncos in the backside.

I think I’ve scored a scoop.

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Loudmouth O’Reilly makes news

One of the many things I dislike about contemporary broadcast “journalism” is when the so-called journalist becomes the newsmaker.

Such was the case prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday when Fox News loudmouth Bill O’Reilly interviewed Barack Obama — and tried to steal the thunder from the president of the United States.

As he has done before when the men have met, O’Reilly interrupted the president repeatedly. He cut him off. He wouldn’t allow him to answer questions, many of which were excellent and pointed.

I don’t mind one bit journalists digging hard for answers to questions that linger out here in Viewer Land. I do mind, though, when journalists seek — by virtue of their outsized personality and ego — to become part of the story.

That ain’t their job.

Their job is to ask questions, to collect answers and to allow consumers of the news and analysis to decide for ourselves what we believe to be correct or incorrect. This consumer, me, cares not one bit what the interviewer thinks about anything. Just ask the questions and get the heck out of the way.

Once again, O’Reilly demonstrated that news and entertainment have melded into some new form that — in my view — is hard to watch.

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Hope for thrilling game goes ‘poof’ on first snap

Well, I watched most of the Super Bowl, managed to skip the halftime show because I don’t particularly like Bruno Mars or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I had hoped for a thriller, thinking in advance the Seattle Seahawks’ defense would win the day over the high-powered Denver Broncos’ offense. I guess I was half right.

Seattle’s defense was all that it was billed as being: tough, relentless, opportunistic, aggressive … what am I missing here?

I didn’t expect the Seahawks’ offense to be so strong.

Maybe the omen was delivered on the game’s first play from scrimmage, when the Denver center snapped the ball over Peyton Manning’s head, resulting in a safety for Seattle, and setting a record for the quickest score in Super Bowl history.

So, you might be wondering: What does a shellacking like this do to Peyton Manning’s place as one of the greatest pro quarterbacks in history? Not a single thing, as the announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (no slouch himself as a QB) pointed out.

Manning will go down as a Top Five quarterback when his career is over.

Agreed. Dan Marino’s failure to win a Super Bowl didn’t diminish his standing as an all-timer. Besides, Manning’s already won one of those Lombardi trophies, back when he played for the Indy Colts.

The Super Bowl has produced a number of thrillers over the years. This one didn’t make the grade.

Too bad. Hey, maybe next year?

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Immovable object vs. irresistable force

First, allow me to state the obvious: Football and baseball are vastly different sports, requiring dramatically different skills from those who participate in them.

Now let me declare one similarity: It is that teams with great offensive weaponry can be defeated by teams with great defensive skill.

One baseball axiom holds true, which is that “Good pitching usually beats good hitting any day.” I’ve seen it over many years watching baseball games. The 1963 World Series is my favorite example, when the powerhouse New York Yankees were shut down by the Los Angeles Dodgers; the Yanks had Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris swinging big bats, while the Dodgers had Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale throwing heat from the mound. LA won in four straight.

Now, about today’s Big Game, the Super Bowl. The Denver Broncos possess the NFL’s top offense. The Seattle Seahawks own the league’s best defense. One is irresistible, the other is immovable.

I am now venturing into something about which I know nothing, but the laws of physics seem to suggest — to me at least — that the immovable object is harder to move than it is to shut down the irresistible force.

It pains to me say this, given that I’m a long-time American Football Conference fan — going back to the days of the old American Football League, of which Denver was a founding franchise — but I’m thinking the Seahawks have the edge here.

My friends might say, “Oh, sure, but you’re from the Pacific Northwest. You’re going to root from the team from that part of the country.” Hold on. I grew up in Portland and there existed then — and perhaps it remains — a huge civic rivalry between the cities. Portlanders think little of Seattleites. We see the Queen City as snobby and full of itself. Seattle residents look down their noses at Portland, even though the Rose City has become every bit as cosmopolitan and trendy as Seattle.

But I’m thinking now, just a few hours before kickoff, that the immovable object is going to dig itself in and hold the irresistible force to perhaps just a couple of touchdowns.

Final score? Please, don’t hold me to this. Let’s try 20-17, Seattle.

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Turns out Sherman isn’t such a punk after all

One week from The Big Game — aka the Super Bowl — and I’m feeling a bit embarrassed by my first reaction to a sideline rant by one of the game’s bigger stars.

Seattle Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman made a great play at the end of the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers. The Seahawks won the game, after which commentator Erin Andrews asked Sherman to comment about his team’s big win.

Sherman then launched into a tirade against 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree, against whom he made the big play. He woofed and hollered all kinds of smack against Crabtree. Andrews cut the interview short.

My thought then was: Who is this clown?

It turns out Richard Sherman is quite the young man.

The New York Times article attached to this blog post notes that (a) Sherman graduated second in his class at Dominguez High School in Compton, Calif. and (b) received a football scholarship to attend Stanford University and (c) earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and is now working on his master’s degree.

My bad for thinking ill of the young man.

Did he behave like a gentleman, a sportsman in that sideline interview? No. He got caught up in the moment, I suppose, of his team winning a game that puts them into the biggest game of the year. Adrenaline can make one say and do amazing things, which appears to be the case here.

His personal story, though, is compelling. Sherman came from a tough neighborhood. He could have fallen into the gang life. He could have made a wrong turn at many points along the way. He appears to have made many correct decisions.

Do I want this young man’s team to win the Super Bowl? Fat chance. I remain an AFC fan and will be pulling for the Denver Broncos.

I do feel better, now, for coming clean on my false first impression of a man who’s achieved many good things in his young life.

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Super Bowl played in the cold, snow, rain … whatever

Two weeks from today two professional football teams are going to play the Super Bowl in an outdoor stadium.

No big deal, right? Yes, except that this particular stadium is in New Jersey, where it gets pretty cold in the winter. Make that very cold.

I should add that the place is known to get a good bit of snow, rain, hail, sleet, slush, high wind … am I missing anything?

I don’t worry about the teams and the athletes. The football players get paid a lot of money to play a game that occasionally gets played outdoors in the snow, such as in Green Bay, Cincy, Cleveland, Denver, Chicago, Buffalo, Foxboro and, oh yeah, New Jersey. It gets nasty as well in Seattle, but the culprit there usually is rain and wind.

OK, I so worry little about the athletes.

What’s going to happen, though, to the halftime show that has become as big an attraction to some as the game itself? Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are slated to headline the halftime extravaganza. I’m not much of a fan of either of those acts, but if the snow/sleet/wind disrupt the game, doesn’t it stand to reason that the halftime show is going to suffer as well?

http://fansided.com/2014/01/11/super-bowl-halftime-show-2014-red-hot-chili-peppers-confirmed/

What would they do if they can’t perform?

Woe it will be to the Super Bowl and to the brain trust that decided to stage the Biggest Game of the Year outdoors in the Snow Belt.

Let’s all pray for good weather, OK?

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How ’bout them ’72 Dolphins?

It’s a little late, but it ought to be welcome nevertheless.

President Obama is bringing one of the NFL’s most storied teams to the White House for a decidedly belated congratulatory visit. The 1972 Miami Dolphins are coming to town to be honored in a ceremony that should have occurred oh, about four decades ago.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/20/obama_to_give_72_dolphins_a_belated_salute_119645.html

The president at the time of the Dolphins’ historic season — in which they went 17-0, capping it off with a 14-7 win in the Super Bowl over the Washington Redskins — was Richard Nixon. He was vacationing in Florida and professed to be a Dolphins fan. He also had told Redskins coach George Allen that he was rooting for them to win the big game.

One other thing might have kept the president from inviting the Dolphins to the White House. Nixon was fresh off his smashing 1972 re-election victory, but was facing increasing scrutiny over the “third-rate burglary” that occurred the previous June at the Watergate Hotel.

President Nixon had other things on his mind, I reckon, and couldn’t be bothered with saluting the Miami Dolphins’ history-making season.

Barack Obama also is a big sports fan and isn’t bashful about bringing in sports teams or individual athletes to be honored.

I’m quite happy to see him honor the Dolphins. Forty years is a little late, but I’m sure this band of aging former athletes and coaches will enjoy the spotlight once again.