Baltimore Sports Report » Opinion

A Pro Bowl Gripe With A Plan

Dave Gilmore — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:21:54 +0000

The only thing more obsolete than the NFL Pro Bowl is complaining about the NFL Pro Bowl. Fans have been tired of the former for years and have now just given up on the latter and simply stopped watching. Making the Pro Bowl the NFL’s black sheep event is warranted for all the usual reasons people list.

There may have been a time when the NFL needed the Pro Bowl. That time is not 2012. I’m not propsing that it be tweaked, moved or reinvent it. The NFL needs to cut bait and simply can the Pro Bowl as we know it. So what does the league do the week before or the week after the Super Bowl? Tap the one asset the NFL has where there is any headroom for growth: new talent. College football all-star games are already suffering from “bowl sprawl,” with five major games in January. The future NFL star is the lowest-hanging fruit the NFL could possibly ask for.

Imagine if the NFL (with the cooperation of the NFLPA, which already stages a college all-star game), put on a top-flight all star game in Hawaii or Florida featuring the best draft-eligible players. The NFL Draft and Combine grow larger every year and this would be a great opportunity for NFL fans not immersed in the college game become familiar with their future NFL stars. Who wouldn’t watch that? It’s a slam-dunk. Roger Goodell, earn your extension and make this happen.

The current set of college all-star games (the Casino Del Sol College All-Star Game, the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, the East-West Shrine Game, the Battle of Florida, and the Senior Bowl), provide postseason exhibitions of more college talent than the NFL can handle. Over 500 players will be showcased in these games, with the top talent largely skewing toward the Senior Bowl. Only 254 players will be drafted in April, with another couple hundred undrafted free agents signed shortly thereafter, many of which will not participate in these all-star games. Rather than capitalizing on college football’s popularity, these bowl games dilute the talent out among separate events without any direct NFL connections to be made in the presentation or viewing experience.

The Senior Bowl, though, is currently broadcast on the NFL Network, making my dreams for a Pro Bowl replacement event somewhat closer to a reality. While the NFL is certainly a partner in the event, it doesn’t yet have the NFL “stamp.” Obviously the big hurdle would be combining the best draft-declared underclassmen and the seniors into a single game. People want to see first and second rounders play against first and second rounders. The current college all-star system doesn’t help college football, as those fans are already in frenzy about the coaching carousel and next year’s recruiting class. The hardcore NFL fans who don’t have a horse in the college race are immersed in the NFL playoffs and often miss the under-promoted college all-star events. The only segment they currently cater to are the draftniks and hybrid football fans like myself. If they decided to make a move on a true college all-star event/future NFL showcase, the league could fill in the one gap of the year-long pro football narrative the league currently orchestrates.

The biggest problems with staging a pro all-star game are competition, incentive to participate, and fan experience. If you look at the competition aspect, most all-star games face this conundrum. It’s hard to make something more competitive that has very little reward and very high risk for players. Football especially is a sport that does not lend itself to a relaxed, showy style of play. The perception of the NBA is that the players don’t try exceptionally hard to play defense in the first place in the regular season, so their all-star event is actually an improvement on the regular season product. The NHL and Major League Baseball have the problem of staging a mid-year event, meaning that no matter what the incentive (even if it’s home-field in the World Series), players are not going to sell out their bodies to make a play. With the likelihood of injury in even a casual NFL game, I doubt owners or players would ever consent to a mid-season event. The small sample size of eight or nine games would also make selecting all-stars even more pointless than it is after 41 or 81 games.

Major League Soccer probably has the most intriguing format in pulling together a league-wide all-star team and challenging an international power like Chelsea FC in a friendly. Sadly, a team of worldwide all-stars would be futile against a team of the NFL’s best. The bottom line is, no amount of money or stakes is going to make the NFL stars show up and play harder in a postseason exhibition game.

Taking away the Pro Bowl might seem like a slight against recognizing players (and cheerleaders?) who have performed exceptionally this season. It also deprives them of a free trip to Miami or Hawai’i. Listen, if you are a Pro Bowl-level player and can’t spring for a week in Hawai’i, you need to fire your money manager. As far as recognition goes, nothing drives me more crazy when evaluating the career of a player than counting up the number of Pro Bowls or All-Star games they went to. In the case of All-Star games, you’re essentially compiling a list of the best first-half players and in Pro Bowl recognition, you’re including the bevy of replacement players who step in when the first selections are injured, bow out, or in recent years make it to the Super Bowl.

Removing the empty recognition that comes to Pro Bowlers would then allow the NFL to shine a light more appropriately on its true end-of-season awards. Most fans miss the boat on even noticing these, unless one of their hometown players is up for a major one or they get an email from the team. College football has shown that awards and events surrounding them can be a big deal in the dead space of the sporting year. Why would the NFL not shift the focus on to the award races, put on a proper awards show, and really make the guys who made the All-Pro teams (not the Pro Bowl teams) feel special for their achievements?

Mistakenly, in 2009, the NFL decided that people weren’t watching the Pro Bowl because after the Super Bowl they were just “done with football.” So, instead of watching apathetic players lope through a cupcake game the week after the Super Bowl, the league’s solution was to give us apathetic players loping through a cupcake game the week . . . wait for it . . . before the Super Bowl. Oh, and if that doesn’t get you hot and bothered, you’ll love this: the players from the two best teams won’t be there! Clearly, there are problems with this solution.

The NFL is rightfully lauded as the most tightly-run, streamlined sports organization on the planet. Everything the league does is on-message, unwavering, and calculated. Except for this fiasco. The NFL is as efficient a corporate monoculture as Apple. Now imagine if Apple released a portable CD player every January. It simply does not fit in the NFL’s current mission (ostensibly to promote the hell out of itself).

What would fit the mission is giving NFL fans a chance to see their future heroes play in an NFL event. The top players are already participating in college all-star games with sponsors, agents, scouts and media. Why not bring it under the NFL’s efficient marketing and money-making wing?

Dave Gilmore lives in Baltimore and writes “The Win Column” for Baltimore Sports Report and will begin writing a video game blog for b in February. Find him on Twitter @dave_gilmore.

The Dark Side of Signing Day

Weston Bruner — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:30:10 +0000

The players deserve the pageantry, because the schools take control as soon as its over.

Saturday morning- growing up that meant superhero cartoons with my siblings and staying in my pajamas as long as possible. Years later it meant something was horribly wrong, since I was never awake by noon on Saturday. Now it appears it means a new timeslot for this column, joining Lindsey for your weekend BSR content. So grab a bowl of cereal, try to ignore how much less appealing Batman, and X-Men cartoons are now than they were 20 years ago and enjoy Broken Bat’s move to Saturday!

By this time next week we will have hit college football’s signing day, the most overhyped ESPN-manufactured event since, well, every NFL Draft and “The Decision.” Thousands of college kids will announce and sign their letters of intent, and committing themselves in writing to attend that particular university. Well, at least to try to attend that university. You see, the university is in no way bound to honor that letter of intent if it turns out they don’t have enough scholarships to offer to all the players they signed. You would think that the head coaches would know how many scholarships they have and only agree to have that many players, but, well, math isn’t quite their strong suit I suppose. I won’t beat a dead horse too much on this farce of oversigning, since other sites have it covered pretty well.

However, there is one part of the letter of intent itself that makes it more insidious than merely one-sided. The scholarship is only offered on a one-year basis, and must be renewed each year by the team. If a player isn’t performing on the field, even if he has incredible grades and is a model citizen, the coaches can elect not to give the player the scholarship, often the lone means for these athletes to attend college. They must find another school willing to take them or try to afford the rest on their own. Now, this doesn’t happen to most athletes, but simply the fact that it happens to any athletes should make our skin crawl as we shell out hundreds of dollars a year for tickets, gear, and television packages to support programs that are academically-based in name only. The only side committing to anything lasting is the athlete, who must sit out a year if he chooses to transfer (unless he is going to an FCS program).

As Taylor Branch pointed out in his brilliant piece in The Atlantic, there is a simple solution: allow universities to offer longer scholarships. Suppose Toledo was willing to commit to a player for four years and Ohio State could only commit to two years- certainly that would weigh on a player when he saw the depth chart and the likelihood he could be seen as expendable and dumped from the team for some arbitrary offense or imagined injury to free up a spot in a couple years. Of course allowances would be made to remove a player who was failing or did something particularly heinous, but in general it would force universities to make the same commitment to their players that the players make to them.

An open market would not change the landscape much in the recruiting process after a few years I imagine, as most schools would simply get on board with a maxed-out four or five year scholarship, but at least student-athletes would be secure in knowing they will be given the opportunity to complete their degree at the university they have chosen, regardless of whether the coaches had a better prospect at the position down the line.

Signing Day has gotten more coverage every year, as millions of fans wait with bated breath to hear what a 17-year-old has decided to do with the four playing years he probably has left after being barraged by fans, fast-talking coaches and shady middlemen. Most top prospects have already taken their decision to LeBron-esque heights, and you know what, they should have their fun. They have been given pretty much all the control in picking their school and in some way or another they have earned it. They should enjoy all the pageantry, games and momentous anticipation of their decision, because as soon as they sign their letter, that control flips completely.

What If The Orioles Signed Prince Fielder?

Zach Wilt — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:30:30 +0000

If I were setting odds in Vegas, I’d say the Orioles chances of landing Prince Fielder are about 100:1. But after witnessing the heartbreak that the Ravens just endured in New England, I have to have something to wish before September.

Just as Lloyd Christmas found hope in his one in a million shot of landing Mary Swanson — or Samsonite — I too have to take Prince’s last remaining hours as a free agent and wonder what the next 5-10 years would be like with him in a cartoon bird hat.

More than anything I wish to see the Orioles turn the ship around and put a winning product on the field. I long for meaningful September baseball — and not just the kind where the O’s send the Sox (and their fans from Delaware and Virginia) home disappointed. I don’t see those days in the near future, but some Orioles buzz would be generated if Dan Duquette could bring Prince Fielder to Baltimore.

Rumor has it that the Orioles are at least interested in baseball’s hottest remaining free agent. Duquette didn’t deny his interest in Fielder at Orioles fanfest on Saturday and his cousin, Jim, confirmed that the O’s are “definitely in on” him.

Being an Orioles fan, I’ve trained myself not to get excited about news like this, let us never forget the Orioles interest in Mark Teixeira just three off seasons ago.

But the AFC Championship loss has me feeling more gloomy than the Baltimore weather and I have to wonder what Prince would do for Baltimore.

Orioles optimists (and nothing against you guys, I used to be one) say that the timing is wrong for Prince Fielder. What would he really bring to a team with so many holes? — Wouldn’t the Orioles have to WAY overspend to bring him to Baltimore? — Shouldn’t their focus be on improving the rotation and building depth in the minor leagues?

These are all valid questions, but ones that can easily be answered. Prince would put butts in seats at Camden Yards and improve television ratings for a team whose fan base continues to decline. Let’s not forget that the Orioles share a television network with the Washington Nationals, a team on the rise with young stars and a solid core that could contend for the playoffs if things go their way. Meanwhile the O’s, who own said network, remain in last place without a glimmer of hope in baseball’s toughest division. Fielder may not give the Orioles a wild card berth, but he gives them credibility to their fan base, proof that the team is willing to spend money and will certainly be an enticing piece to woo free agents after this season.

Yes, the Orioles would have to way overspend to bring in Fielder. This is an argument I’ve never understood from a fan’s perspective. I’m not paying Prince, tickets at Camden Yards aren’t outrageous and MASN is doing just fine. Who cares if ownership overspends?

The Nationals were laughed out of the 2011 Winter Meetings for signing Jayson Werth to a 7-year, $126 million deal. It was way too much for a guy that is complimented by lineup protection. But with the booming power of Michael Morse and some solid pitching, Washington won 80 games and now are rumored to be the number one (or two depending on the reporter) contender for Fielder. They added an ace in Gio Gonzalez to pitch in front of one of baseball’s biggest stars, Stephen Strasburg, and their ownership proved to agents, baseball analysts and most importantly their fan base that winning is their number one priority.

Andy MacPhail’s plan in Baltimore hasn’t panned out. That’s evident in the struggles of Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, Brad Bergesen and which ever other young pitcher(s) you want to lump in that group. But if some of these guys click in 2012 and the Orioles pick up the slack with some power from the heart of their order, suddenly things don’t look so grim. The Orioles scored more runs (708), hit more home runs (191) and hit for a higher team average (.257) than the Tampa Bay Rays did last season. But the Rays won 22 more games. That’s the power of pitching.

Baltimore’s team ERA (4.89) was last in all of baseball, Tampa Bay’s (3.58) was tied for seventh (with Washington coincidentally enough).

Prince doesn’t help in the ERA category, but he makes free agent pitchers easier to entice during the offseason. He also will help to win more 5-4, 6-5, 7-6 type ball games. That’s worked for the Texas Rangers the past two years hasn’t it?

I’m not saying it’s going to happen. I recognize the odds, I’m lived through the disappointment. I’m merely pointing out that there’s motivation for the Orioles to add one of baseball’s biggest stars to their roster. You want to rebuild? Why not start with Fielder?

Zach Wilt is the Founding Editor of BaltimoreSportsReport.com. You can follow him on Twitter @zamwi or send him an email: zach@baltimoresportsreport.com.

The Billy Cundiff Rorschach Test

Dave Gilmore — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:00:05 +0000

It’s been an emotional 48 hours. Let’s call it a “cooling off period.” If you said anything bananas on Facebook or Twitter or to an entire room full of your friends, so be it. All is forgiven, tensions were running high, after all. It was an abnormally stressful situation in perhaps the biggest game in a decade for Baltimore Ravens fans.

Now that the cooling off period is over, and you’ve perhaps retracted or rethought some of the things you said or wrote, how do you feel towards Billy Cundiff? If you’re not experiencing something nearing “empathy” by now, that’s a problem.

I’m not saying you can’t be frustrated or wring your hands over the should-haves and what-ifs. That’s natural when you’re so invested in a cause that fails, especially one you have no direct control over. However at this point, the deconstruction of the Ravens 23-20 loss needs to be about the game and the playoff run in its entirety, not a single play (which happened to be the last play of the season).

Billy Cundiff did as we all should and will do in life: he tried and failed. There is literally no reason for Cundiff to have not given his best effort under the circumstances. Things could’ve gone down differently. A timeout could’ve been burned, a catch could have been made, a block could’ve been sealed just a bit longer – nobody is faultless on an NFL Sunday. Nobody. AFC Championship games included.

So ruling out the fact that Cundiff didn’t try and make the kick, what are we left with? The answer is that we are forced to confront our own doubts, fears, failures, and fallibility. If you’re screaming at Billy Cundiff still a day or two later, Google mapping Lee Evans’ home or a deranged Niners “fan” sending death threats to Kyle Williams via Twitter, you have a lot more going on than fandom.

The most basic SVU-watching armchair psychologists know lack of empathy is a problem. It can suggest several things in a person, be it a warning sign of antisocial personality disorder, or more commonly narcissistic personality disorder. In short, to still be “angry” at Billy Cundiff or anyone directly who tried and failed on Sunday, suggests a potential lack of ability to connect with the emotions of other humans. I have one acquaintance who I follow on Facebook. We don’t interact much these days, but it doesn’t take long to glean that this person clearly suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. His reaction to Cundiff’s failure was and continues to be predictable and frankly, a little chilling.

In addition to these cataloged emotional disorders, there is the other simple possibility of projection. It’s extremely cliche’, but too often true that if your neck is red and there’s a vein the size of an Esskay on your forehead, the Ravens missing out on the Super Bowl might not be the only traumatic thing going on in your life. I suppose if screaming at football men on the television is your way to manage those feelings, I can’t really stop you.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there isn’t a 1:1 correlation of lambasting Billy Cundiff and having a mental illness or traumatic stress. Maybe you’re just caught up in the fervor and detached from the reality of the situation (like telling an insensitive joke after tragedy). Maybe you seek attention or acceptance by making publicly over-the-top statements about what you would do in the situation. Maybe you’re just angry, and need hyperbole to fully realize your anger in words.

It’s very easy to say “it’s just a game.” You and I as somewhat mentally sound individuals understand this on some level. Perhaps it will take a few of our fellow Ravens fans longer to admit than than others. Ultimately, most fans are refreshingly empathetic to the Cundiffs of the world. After the cooling off period, most people I know have come to their senses and gotten on with their lives, lamenting this NFL season and looking forward to the next.

Look at Billy Cundiff. Look at Lee Evans. Look at Kyle Williams, Bill Buckner, Scott Norwood, Steve Bartman, or Chris Webber. What do you see? How does it make you feel? If you can, please let go. It’s better for everyone involved. If not, I ask with all sincerity, please seek professional help.

Dave Gilmore lives in Baltimore and writes “The Win Column” for Baltimore Sports Report. He is currently working on a novel about college football. Find him on Twitter @dave_gilmore or visit his web site at davegilmorejr.com

Ravens Report Card: Breaking down the Ravens 23-20 loss to the Patriots

Matt Lund — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:57:24 +0000

In a match-up of two teams with very contrasting styles of play, the AFC’s #2 seeded Baltimore Ravens traveled north to take on the #1 seed New England Patriots for the AFC Championship.

The Ravens played the role of spoiler before, handing the Patriots a 33-14 loss at Gillette Stadium in the 2009 wild card playoffs, but that particular match-up was different than this one.

The Patriots didn’t have a young duo of TE’s in Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. They also didn’t have Wes Welker, who was injured during the Patriots playoff run that year.

Still that did not faze the Ravens as they confused and frustrated Patriots QB Tom Brady in the game, much like they did in 2009. The Ravens defense picked off Brady twice and sacked him once.

The Ravens had an offensive and defensive game plan that on most afternoons contributes to a Ravens victory. Despite that however, it came down to the right foot of kicker Billy Cundiff to tie the game and send it to overtime when Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal wide left giving the Patriots the 23-20 victory and an AFC Championship in front of the home crowd.

Grading the Ravens 23-20 loss to the Patriots

Quarterback: A

Joe Flacco has heard the criticism all season. Ripped by the media and by Ed Reed this past week, he showed today that he can win and beat the best of the best at any given time.

The rushing attack sets up everything in this offense, but coming into this game, Flacco needed to make some throws to give the Ravens a chance to beat the Patriots. He did just that, getting out of the pocket to extend some plays, like the touchdown throw to TE Dennis Pitta when the Patriots had everyone else covered in the red zone.

Flacco made some throws in tight spaces that were right on the money on that same drive, connecting with WR’s Lee Evans and Anquan Boldin for gains of 20 and 37 yards respectively. He felt pressure, moved around and bought time, looking almost like his QB counterpart Tom Brady, stepping up or to his left and right to make throws.

He also had his head-scratching moment of the day when he threw a crucial 4th quarter interception on a drive that the Ravens ran the football effectively and moved down field. Flacco inexplicably threw into double coverage, and at least two other Patriot defenders were also in the area, ending the drive where the Ravens desperately needed points.

Still, this was a game that quieted the critics of Flacco because as the running game faltered, he drove the Ravens down field. This game is something to build on for next season.

Running Backs: C

The running game never really got into a good groove, even as the coaching staff mixed in backup RB Ricky Williams. The amount of running though did help to set-up the play action passing which was key in this game.

Ray Rice ran the ball 21 times for just 67 yards, while also catching a pass for 11 yards. Williams ran for 22 yards on six carries.

FB Vonta Leach was his usual bulldozing self, getting into the Patriots LB’s on numerous occasions with some good blocks.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: B+

This group played very well and was in complete rhythm all day with Joe Flacco. Even when passes from Flacco were under thrown, they were being caught. Anquan Boldin had a monster game catching six passes for 101 yards, including a key 29-yard catch on a 3rd and 1 that put the Ravens in position to tie or win the game in the 4th.

Torrey Smith tied the game at 16 in the 3rd quarter with his 29-yard touchdown catch and run and finished with 82 yards receiving. Smith had a very nice game and showcased his outstanding speed. He had to come back to a ball under thrown by Flacco that turned into a 42-yard catch, the longest of the day for the Ravens.

Lee Evans emerged in this game for the Ravens, catching three passes for 39 yards, but had a ball stripped from him in the end zone that would have given the Ravens the lead late in the 4th quarter.

TE Dennis Pitta stepped up in this one, hauling in a six-yard touchdown catch and finishing the day with 41 yards receiving. He’s got very good hands and is a strong, strong kid. TE Ed Dickson caught two passes for 23 yards, but drops plagued him again in this one.

Offensive Line: C

The offensive line struggled early in this game, getting beat on a three-man rush by the Patriots on Mark Anderson’s sack in the 1st quarter. Flacco will help this grade though, because he made plays with his feet getting out of the ever-collapsing pocket. Tackle Michael Oher briefly left the game with an ankle injury, but Patriots DT Vince Wilfork had his number all game.

Defensive Line: D-

I said last week that this group needed to step up in order for the Ravens to win this game. They helped to limit Tom Brady, but struggled to contain the Patriots rushing attack which ran for 96 yards. Haloti Ngata and Terrence Cody weren’t factors in this game. A healthy Ngata might have helped, but he was nursing an injury most of the season.

Linebackers: C

This group was quite disappointing in such a big game for the team. Terrell Suggs’s much-hyped match-up with Tom Brady was a non-factor, as he collected just five tackles and zero sacks. Suggs had zero sacks in both postseason games for the Ravens.

Ray Lewis finished with 12 tackles, but a lot of those were in coverage tackling Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski. Just a really quiet effort by these guys, as they got close to Brady but not enough to totally disrupt his game. Paul Kruger had the only sack for the Ravens.

Secondary: B+

The group gave up 239 yards through the air, but CB Lardarius Webb played very well, finishing with six tackles and an acrobatic interception in the 1st half. Safety Bernard Pollard had a solid game with 12 tackles total and deflecting a pass in the end zone that CB Jimmy Smith picked off.

They stayed close to the Patriots receivers, not allowing anything on the back end and tackled pretty well. The pressure they put on the receivers threw off the timing with Brady and his group.

Special Teams: C

Punter Sam Koch averaged nearly 44 yards on his four punts, but the kickoff return yardage given up was far too great in this game. Kicker Billy Cundiff hit field goals from 20 and 39-yards respectively, but the biggest one of them all, the 32-yard field goal to tie the game with 11 seconds left, went wide left.

Coaching: B+

A complete job by the coaching staff for this game. John Harbaugh had his men ready to play in this game. Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron went to some roll-outs and play action passes for Flacco that worked well, that kept the Patriots defense off-balance. The defense as a whole unit had Tom Brady out of rhythm in the game, never quite getting that head full of steam and that kept the Ravens in the game.

Final Take

This one’s going to hurt for a while. The Ravens were the better overall team on this day but the Patriots are three-time Super Bowl champions, and they again found their way to the Super Bowl.

Its always tough when all game competitors fight tooth and nail with their opponent only to have one play do them in. In this game, there were two plays that fans will take from this game. A big turning point in the game being the fumble by kick returner Danny Woodhead that the Ravens recovered but only ended up getting a field goal instead of a TD. A touchdown there drastically changes the outlook of the game.

What’s frustrating is the Ravens outplayed the Patriots in almost every facet. Joe Flacco outplayed Tom Brady in this ballgame. Brady did not throw a touchdown, the first time in 36 games he failed to do so. Flacco threw for 2 TD’s and finished with a 95.4 passer rating.

The Ravens outgained the Patriots 398 to 330 and won the time of possession by nearly seven minutes. They outgained the Patriots in rushing yards and won the turnover battle, turning the ball over just once.

All those crucial stats and the ebb and flow of the game all come down to one play, one kick, millions of emotions running through the minds of fans and that indelibly will be the play that everyone remembers from this game.

The AFC Championship loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers took a good while to flush from the minds of fans, but I have to feel that this loss will sting just a little more.

You start to look back at all the variables of the season. Ray Lewis and Ed Reed in the homestretch of their careers, a perfect regular season home-record and a first-round playoff bye. Beating the hated Pittsburgh Steelers twice and then seeing them lose in their playoff game. The stars seemed to be aligning.

But it wasn’t to be.

It’s something Ravens fans should cherish and use to look forward to next season. You don’t know if or when they’ll have another opportunity to get back. One thing is for certain, Ravens players and coaches will be motivated to get back out on the field and show why they are one of the upper-echelon teams in the NFL.

Fave Five: Five Reasons Why The Ravens Actually Do Have a Chance To Beat The Patriots

Lindsey — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:43:18 +0000

Here’s what I’ve gathered in the past week from the national media: Baltimore is a terrible place to live, Joe Flacco completely sucks at playing quarterback in the NFL, and the Ravens have no chance to beat the Patriots. For one thing, I love living in Baltimore and, contrary to popular belief, I don’t have to duck to avoid being hit by stray bullets every five minutes. Another thing – Joe Flacco doesn’t have the stats of Drew Brees or the arm of Aaron Rodgers. But where are Drew Brees’ stats? Closed until next season. And Aaron Rodgers’ arm is resting on the armrest of his sofa while he watches the championship games on his plasma tv (sorry, Aaron). As for the Ravens having no chance of beating the Patriots… let’s just take a break from the Ravens-hate field day and look at a few facts, shall we? :

5) Let me just get this one out of the way. Sunday is Ray Rice’s 25th birthday. Nothing says “Happy Birthday Lil Ray” like a trip to the Super Bowl. This team loves Ray Rice. You’ve seen them win a crucial game for their coach on a special day, they’re bound to do it again for Ray.

4) Now we’ll get a little technical. Tom Brady’s past two QB ratings against the Ravens? 69.5 and 49.1. He also whined a lot. Last time Joe Flacco played the Pats? 119.3. (Side note: And remember that time the Ravens beat the Pats 33-14 in ’10? That was the game where Joe had that hip contusion, only went 4/10, and didn’t whine about it.)

3) Baltimore ranks first in the NFL for postseason interceptions (32 since 2000). Also in first? Baltimore’s interception return yards (552). In 2010′s playoff game in New England, the Ravens intercepted Brady three times. See also: Lardarius Webb/Ed Reed.

2) Ever hear that saying, “Defense wins championships?” The Pats are ranked 31st in the league in total defense. The Ravens are ranked 3rd.

1) The Patriots had a piece-of-cake schedule this year, only playing TWO playoff teams who finished the regular season with a winning record (including the 8-8 Broncos in their only other postseason game). Those two teams were the Steelers and the Giants. Guess what? They lost both games. The Ravens played 7 games against playoff teams (including the postseason) and won every last one. (Before you call me out – the Ravens did lose to the Titans, who finished 9-7, but they did not make it to the postseason.)

So if you’re one of the five people on the planet who picked the Ravens to win this Sunday, I salute you. If you picked the Patriots, that’s fine too – just make sure next time not to rule out the underdog. It’s going to be a close one, no doubt, and the Ravens definitely have their work cut out for them. But I have a feeling the football world is going to be taken by surprise on this one. Stay warm if you’re in New England, stay alive if you’re in Baltimore, watch the tv closely (for once) if you happen to be elsewhere. Go Ravens!

Are you on Tumblr? Follow the BSR Tumblr for more of Lindsey’s opinions, daily round-ups, fan interactions, photos, and more. Follow her on Twitter @lindseyyok.

Terps Assistant Suspended 2 Games

Gregg Cobert — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:35:30 +0000

Typically, assistant coaches do not end up making coverage here at BSR unless your name is Cam Cameron or you make a knuckle-headed decision. Dalonte Hill committed the latter. Hill, one of the assistant coaches on the Terps bench, will not be on the bench the next two games after getting arrested for suspicion of DUI. The crazy part is that this is the second time Hill has been suspended. The same incident occurred in January 2008 when he was an assistant at Kansas State.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident just in College Park as Pat Forde points out in his Forde Minutes. It is amusing reading about Fran McCaffery’s chair tossing and how it doesn’t even come close to being the benchmark for the Big 10.

Dalonte Hill is an excellent recruiter as he was the man who was able to recruit Michael Beasley to Kansas State due to his DC Assault roots. However, it feels coaches say one thing to their players and then not follow it themselves. The double standard is amazing. Coaches are supposed to teach young men life lessons that hopefully extend beyond sports, but with misconduct, it shows the double standard. If a player were to be arrested for suspicion of DUI, I don’t think the punishment would be 2 games. Errors in judgment do occur for everyone but for repeat offenders clearly they did not learn from their initial punishment.

However, the bottom line is this. As long as coaches get wins or score the big recruits, they will still be able to find gainful employment. However, please don’t call yourselves teachers because it just confuses your pupils.

Idol’s Tyler to sing National Anthem before AFC Title game, links to both teams intriguing

Matt Lund — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:50:02 +0000

Legendary lead singer of Aerosmith and current American Idol judge Steven Tyler will sing the national anthem before the Ravens and New England Patriots square off on Sunday at Gillette Stadium for the AFC Championship.

This isn’t Tyler’s first time at the rodeo however, as he has sung the national anthem before some pretty big-time events including the Indianapolis 500 and the 2010 Boston Bruins season-opener.

But there are ties to Boston for both he and the band and Tyler himself is no stranger to the New England Patriots. The links and ironies are so many, that it feels like the movie “Six Degrees of Separation“, only we’re not just discussing people.

Tyler moved to Boston from Yonkers, N.Y. in 1970 and the band eventually became known as “The Bad Boys from Boston”.

But it doesn’t stop there.

According to Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, “He’s been a loyal, good Pats fan.” Tyler has even performed the national anthem once before a Patriots regular season game in 1999. The opponent that day? The Indianapolis Colts, the home site being in Indianapolis, host of Super Bowl XLVI.

New England went on to win that game, but Ravens fans are hoping that this little “good luck charm” doesn’t send the Patriots onto the Super Bowl. Instead hoping he’ll be just the luck to get the Ravens to Indy.

Ready to have your mind blown again? The halftime performer for the Ravens Super Bowl XXXV win in 2001? You guessed it, Steven Tyler and Aerosmith.

Combating the force that is Idol judge Steven Tyler, the Ravens will have a force of their own, announcing that Orioles legend and Hall of Fame shortstop, Cal Ripken will be the honorary captain on field for the Ravens during the coin toss.

‘Rip’ was a good luck charm once before, being a guest of Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti during the Ravens 33-14 trouncing of the Patriots in the 2009 wild-card playoff game in New England.

Not only will the national stage be big with a huge viewing audience, there will be some pretty iconic stars on hand in the building as well.

Let’s just hope for one day, Tyler’s favorite color is “purple.”

Boras to Blame if Fielder Fails to Cash In As Suitors Dwindle

Weston Bruner — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:27:14 +0000

Well it looks like I am delayed today, which means that at least there will be some fresh sports content between Friday at

Fielder isn't the only one swinging for the fences and hoping not to strike out.

noon and Monday morning. However, I am not the only one procrastinating- Prince Fielder is still on the market and while the Orioles are most certainly not in the running for his services (even Washington is more competitive and there is no doubt they would back up the Brinks truck for him) he will have a significant role in some team’s long-term future. Personally I am rooting for him to join the Rangers, a team that would seemingly be strung as far as they can go after their Yu Darvish signing, but Tom Verducci has a very compelling idea of how they could go after him by offering him an opt-out after three years. Regardless, this is another example of Scott Boras taking a big risk and hoping it pays off.

There is a reason why star players tend to be signed by the time people are making Spring Training flight reservations. For one, teams aren’t going to wait forever in the hopes of getting that one free agent, so uncommitted payroll dries up quickly once the buying begins. There will be a few initial signings to set the market and then players will move around that. Boras has known Fielder’s price for a while, but he didn’t become a superagent by taking the market value for his players. He is the kind of agent who sets his own price and dares the team not to sign his player- which is great, unless the team moves on.

Look at what happened with Ryan Madsen. The Phillies may or may not have offered Madsen a four-year, $44 million extension, which blew up as Boras held out for more. Instead the Phillies broke the bank on Jonathan Papelbon while Madsen was left scrounging for a one-year deal with Cincinnati. Just a couple years ago he talked a big game for Johnny Damon, getting an allegedly $14 million offer from the Yankees. When Boras wanted more, Damon wound up signing with Tampa Bay for $5.25 million on a one-year deal. This type of brinksmanship comes with definite risks, because if the player waits too long then suddenly he is at the mercy of a market where teams have satisfied all or most of their needs without their services.

Fortunately for Fielder, he has at least one team more than willing to spend for him. The Nationals, desperate for more television viewers and attendance, would almost guarantee at least a $180 million, 8-year deal a la Mark Teixeira. He would get them exactly what they want in terms of hype and be a great battery-mate for Bryce Harper. Perhaps the very presence of the Nationals allows Boras to leave Fielder dangling and hope for more. But if Washington is smart they will recognize that there aren’t too many teams who are desperate enough for a first baseman with a great bat and mediocre defense, despite being an All-Star player.

First basemen are easy to find, and the aging, bargain basement power-hitting first baseman/DH is almost a cliché. If a team isn’t really hurting for a game-changer they may easily be content in late January to just sign a one-year stop-gap and hold off on the franchise-altering moves. There is a major question as to whether Texas would even be inclined to add payroll even if they could afford it in 2012, given the commitments made (or need to be made) to Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre, and others. If Texas can’t come close to offering a competitive deal to Fielder then what is to stop Washington from offering a sub-par deal except to keep Fielder happy long into the contract.

At the end of the day, Fielder is too good not to get nine figures, but players who aren’t quite at that level may want to think twice before they put their faith in a boom or bust agent like Boras. He is the best in the business for what he can get, but he may be the riskiest for what he passes up.

Cam Cameron Vs. The Angry Mob

Dave Gilmore — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:00:45 +0000

A sparse chant of “let Joe throw!” echoes down from a small cadre of fans in purple camo pants sitting in the 200-level. From the same corner of M&T Bank Stadium, a season ticket holder shouts in a hoarse Dundalk pitch “let Rice run the f$#%ing ball!” Their dissonance melds into a single cacophony that breezes in the general direction of Malcolm “Cam” Cameron. The Ravens offensive coordinator hears none of this. He glances up at the game clock. 5:54 remains in the third quarter. It is Christmas Even 2011, and the Ravens have just stretched their lead over the Cleveland Browns to 20-0. Nobody seems pleased.

They say the best position to have in a football town is backup quarterback. You get to wear a baseball cap and a pair of headphones and look like you’re listening intently during timeouts. Nobody knows what you might be capable of if called in for duty. Thus, you might be the next Joe Montana. If backup QB is the most desirable job in football, offensive coordinator ranks dead last, just behind the guy responsible for washing Terrence Cody’s jock.

The play-caller is the most important decision-maker in the scope of a single football game. A non-play-calling head coach might make a crucial “go for it on 4th” decision or throw a pivotal challenge flag, but ultimately, everything that leads a team into those situations is dictated by the decisions made by the offensive coordinator. Cam Cameron made 62 decisions on that chilly Christmas Eve afternoon. Every single one of them was questioned. Maybe Cam Cameron deserves to be questioned. To a certain extent, so does every decision maker in pro sports. However, what Cameron endures publicly would make most of us crumble privately. How much of it is warranted, and how much of it is “Mobtown” simply piling on?

At every level of team sports, there are a vociferous group of supporters who think they know better. Every coach, down to the volunteer dad coaching his daughter’s under-8 soccer team, is aware of this. It’s one of those jobs where everyone thinks they know better. Everyone went to school, thus everyone knows how to do a teacher’s job. Everyone’s watched a football game, has beyond a 101-level grip on modern offenses, and thinks they could call better plays. Perhaps they’ve even spent a few dozen hours playing Madden, with similar-but-hardly-authentic playbooks for all 32 NFL teams.

Like most professions, calling NFL plays is much harder than it looks on the Xbox. Take a look at Brian Billick’s playbook (here in full PDF) from the 1998 Minnesota Vikings. It checks in at 278 pages (most NFL teams issue separate playbooks for offense and defense) and features about a dozen different plays per page. Keep in mind that this offense is almost 15 years old. Do you think NFL offenses have gotten more or less complex in the last decade and a half? Now take this document, and imagine you had to author it over the course of a spring. No big deal. Then, teach it to a group of position coaches in a matter of weeks. Then, teach it to thirty guys who barely (or didn’t) graduate college. Once you’ve mopped up those paltry tasks, bring your creation to an NFL field every Sunday and get those thirty guys to execute the thousands of diagrams perfectly from memory, all against an equally determined defensive coordinator and a wrecking crew of NFL defensive players (whose playbook is half as thick).

This is the point where fans will rightly point out that Cam Cameron is well-compensated to perform these tasks as his full-time job. That’s a very fair point. It needs to go both ways, though. If a third of NFL offensive coordinators fail annually in these tasks, how could a guy clocking 50 hours a week in the shipping industry know any better? Clearly, fan frustration has derived from key lapses in third down conversion and seemingly conservative decision-making. Long-time Ravens fans might be so starved for offense, though, that they don’t even know it when they see it. Cameron has called the plays in Baltimore for four seasons. In those years, his Ravens offenses have been in the top five in franchise history in both yards per play and total points scored every single time. Those may not be the standards he is held to, but against his predecessors, Cameron is unequaled. So why does the mob call for his head week in and week out?

The mob will never be happy because the mob doesn’t even know what it wants. The “let Joe throw”/”let Ray run” dichotomy illustrates perfectly the tension of opposites an offensive coordinator faces. This dichotomy is at the forefront of the torches and pitchforks metaphorically surrounding one of the four offensive coordinators remaining in the NFL playoffs. There are plenty of football reasons as to why both philosophies are situationally valid. From a fan’s perspective, the “let Joe throw” bloc derives from the very context in which the Baltimore Ravens exist. Historically, the Ravens have not been a “pass-happy” franchise. The last five Super Bowl champions have thrown more times than they’ve run. In short, the grass always looks greener.

The other side derives from a cultural pervasiveness of the nebulous idea of “smashmouth” football. Announcers and analysts get fired up for passing TDs, but when it comes to controlling the clock at pounding the ball, they speak in all caps. “IN ORDER TO WIN GAMES IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO RUN THE FOOTBALL.” This ethos parlays nicely with Baltimore’s fans that value toughness and simplicity.

Caught in the middle, as always, is Cameron. They screamed at him to run the ball. He called 459 rushing plays this season. Those plays resulted 124.8 yards per game, which was good for 10th in the league. They looked at the top-10 rushing attack, featuring a Pro Bowl feature back, and screamed “let Joe throw!” So, Cameron let Joe throw. He let him throw 542 times, just seven tosses fewer than the franchise record (set by Vinny Testaverde in 1996). So far, Flacco has been good when he’s needed to be, the proof being simply that the quarterback hasn’t played the Ravens out of any meaningful games.

Cam Cameron surely isn’t out to please his critics. His advocates, the few he may have, aren’t his source of motivation either. He’s out to move the football. You can question him, which is your right as a fan. What you can’t do is ask the impossible, which is pleasing two philosophies engulfing the mob of Raven nation on the brink of its third AFC Championship game. Whether he lets Joe throw or lets Ray run, the end will have to justify the means for Cameron.

When half the people disagree with every decision you make and the other half disagree with the one you made immediately prior, you are by definition perpetually wrong.

In the eyes of Mobtown, only two more wins will make Cam Cameron right.