What figure recently in the news:
(Previously.)
Let’s just jump right into this week’s column again, shall we?
Something something pink. Something something Bill Belichick. Something something special teams. (Not in TMQ’s column, but WCD notes that the Dolphins fired their special teams coach this morning.)
Recruiting violations continue. The solution? Buy the ESPN Rise Recruiting Guide, with an introduction by TMQ himself, for only $4.95. You could also read TMQ’s “Thousand Word Guide to College Recruiting” for free.
WCD was initially tempted not to even comment on the thousand word guide. Then we were tempted to snark on it. But after reading it, we find that much of the advice is actually excellent; not just for high school athletes who might be recruited to play college sports, but for high school students period.
Okay, Gregg. Heather C. is a good choice.
Sweet and sour plays: St. Louis – Seattle, Chicago – Giants, San Francisco – Atlanta.
Creep. Easterbrook moves closer to dropping Christmas Creep.
TMQ remains the only sports column, to the best of our knowledge, that’s willing to talk about Gliese 581g.
If Jimi Heselden had been walking, he’d be president alive today. “The Segway is the SUV of the sidewalk.”
Offensive linesmen throwing passes and taking handoffs.
Christine O’Donnell is not a witch. We would, however, pay money to see her turn Gregg Easterbrook into a newt.
Jerry Rice, a great football player, or the greatest of all time?
Is ESPN getting better about reporting concussions?
“I prefer my salads defused.”
Jacksonville fooled Indy into thinking they were just going to run out the clock and go into overtime. Indeed, Jacksonville may have fooled themselves into thinking that as well, until Indy called a late timeout.
Consider the case of Larry Coker, fired from Miami because he wasn’t winning by large enough margins. Now he’s building a new program at the University of Texas – San Antonio, and already has teams lining up to schedule his program as a cupcake.
Wacky disclaimer: “The Last Airbender”.
“Trailing Washington 17-6 with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Eagles punted on fourth-and-5 from the Redskins’ 44. TMQ wrote the words ‘game over’ in our notebook.” WCD is amused by this statement, as we were also watching the game at that time, saw that punt, and wrote in our notebook, “TMQ wrote the words ‘game over’ in his notebook.”
TMQ meta-analyzes the NYT analysis of the Baltimore Ravens’ opposition to changing the overtime rules.
Eschewing the punt; how’s that working for you? Plus more on the 3-4 fad.
Texas Lutheran 28, Sul Ross State 11. Saint Scholastica 41, Crown 21.
Reader comments: police escorts, stupid targeted advertising for services you already subscribe to, great nicknames, “this is Tuesday Morning Quarterback, I don’t need a reason”, under-12 tackle football, machismo as a factor in head injuries, trick plays, and the Trojans play in the Coliseum.
The “Single Worst Play of the Season – So Far” returns, with the Lions punting on 4th and 9 from Green Bay’s 37, down by two points late in the 4th quarter. It figures that this would be a preposterous punt.
If TMQ did bring up the O.J. situation with Ralph Wilson, he does not discuss their conversation in this week’s column.
Tune in next week when, if we’re unlucky, Gregg Easterbrook will drag out his autotext about the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
“Top 10 New Foods at the 2010 State Fairs“, by way of No Silence Here.
I confess, the deep-fried cheddar-bacon mashed potatoes on a stick actually look pretty good to me.
On the other hand, the original tornado potato doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but this year’s modification sounds awful. When I think of great tastes that taste great together, my list does not include “potato” and “chocolate”.
And then, of course, there’s the number 1 item on the list, which you may remember from our previous coverage.
Breakdown of the list: two items from the Texas State Fair, three items from the Minnesota State Fair, two from the San Diego County Fair, one from the “San Diego State Fair” (could this be a typo? The link to “My Burning Kitchen” indicates yes), and one each from the Indiana and Wisconsin State Fairs.
Edited to add: Speaking of “My Burning Kitchen”, “deep-fried butter in both garlic and cinnamon sugar flavor“? So not only does deep-fried butter actually exist, it comes in flavors?
“What flavor is it?” “It’s butter, innit. It’s bloody butter, it’s not any bloody flavor!”
Slate has an interesting article on the bizarre saga of Togo’s national soccer team, which apparently did not play in Bahrain last month, and did not lose 3-0.
I know that previous sentence probably doesn’t make any sense. It will once you read the article. Trust me.
I got a little distracted on Friday, and didn’t get a chance to note the passing of Stephen J. Cannell. Both Lee Goldberg and his brother Tod Goldberg have nice appreciations up at their respective blogs, though, and I did want to call attention to those. One thing stood out to me from Tod’s appreciation:
And now the Mets have fired executive vice president and general manager Omar Minaya, and officially announced that Jerry Manuel is not returning in 2011.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, who, as you may recall, went 57-105 this season, have fired manager John Russell.
Not since the mid-1950s have the Pirates been as bad as they were under Russell, who had records of 67-95 in 2008, 62-99 in 2009 and 57-105 this season. Only the 1952 Pirates, who went 42-112, lost more games in baseball’s modern era than Russell’s final team, which was the National League’s worst in batting, pitching and defense.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Buffalo
Detroit
Carolina
San Francisco
Final MLB loser update:
Houston finishes 76-86, with a .469 winning percentage. Not quite Lawrence’s 61-101, but not quite the Chron‘s 81-81 either.
Baltimore, our early favorite, finished 66-96, with a .407 winning percentage.
Arizona finished 65-97, with a .401 winning percentage.
Seattle sort of snuck up on us, finishing 61-101 with a .377 winning percentage.
And Pittsburgh missed grabbing the 110 loss brass ring, but still finished 57-105, with a .352 winning percentage.
..and they succeed, admirably.
“My Generation”, a show I’d never heard of until last night, and which was apparently on ABC, is the second cancellation of the season.
A little bird alerted me to a strange and curious fact: the September 21, 2010 “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” column is missing from ESPN’s web site. The columns from the 14th and 28th are there, along with all the other ones from this season (as far as I can tell).
This is particularly interesting since that was the concussion column. I’m not willing to suggest that there’s anything nefarious going on here yet; it could just be a glitch with ESPN’s website. But it is odd and worthy of note.
Edited to add: Actually, the column is still on ESPN’s website; it just doesn’t show up in the Easterbrook archives, or the Page 2 listing for September 21st, but you can still get to it by clicking on the direct link. That lends more credence to the theory that it’s a website glitch.
Since baseball’s regular season ends Sunday, I’m going to hold off on doing a Friday loser update this week, and plan to do a combined MLB/NFL loser update either Sunday night or early Monday morning.
