Is Roethlisberger really the "ultimate team player"?

At ESPN.com, John Clayton engages in question-begging...

Credit Roethlisberger with being courageous and for being the ultimate team player by staying on the field with an injury that would sideline most players.

Here's the question that he begs - is a one-legged Ben Roethlisberger actually better than a two-legged Charlie Batch? Or is he actually demonstrating that he's the ultimate "me-first" player, gathering plaudits and accolades for being tough and "courageous" while hurting his team? After all, if he doesn't go out and play quarterback, they don't forfeit - they don't automatically lose or go home for the season. The next guy in line goes out to play, and the next guy in line is an actual real live professional NFL quarterback. Obviously, if he were better than a two-legged Roethlisberger, he'd be the starter, not the backup, but equally obviously, the team is paying him money to play quarterback in the event that Roethlisberger gets hurt. Well, Roethlisberger's hurt. And, since he got hurt, bad.

Of course, it's Mike Tomlin's decision, in the end. But praising Roethlisberger for being "the ultimate team player," means assuming that a) the team has a better chance with Roethlisberger hurt than Batch healthy and b) no other NFL QB would be willing to play with a bad ankle sprain. Both assumptions are questionable at best.

Stymied in his attempt to take over health care, will President Obama attempt to take over College Football next?

Because there isn't anything more important for them to be doing...

The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.

In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

"Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.

...

Weich made note of the fact that President Barack Obama, before he was sworn in, had stated his preference for a playoff system. In 2008, Obama said he was going to "to throw my weight around a little bit" to nudge college football toward a playoff system, a point that Hatch stressed when he urged Obama last fall to ask the department to investigate the BCS.

New England 25 - Buffalo 24

Odds and ends in the immediate aftermath...

• The rust showed. Tom Brady's played 7 minutes of competitive football in the last 19 months, and the rust showed. As the game went on, he started to get comfortable. I was very surprised, though, when they said that he'd broken his personal record for completions in a game. He finished up at 39/53 for 378 yards, 2 TD, 1 pick and an 97.83 passer rating.



• I thought that the Wilfork roughing the passer call was either a bad call or the result of a poorly conceived and worded rule. His helmet was at the QB midsection, it was a clean wrap and tackle.



• I didn't care much for the Thomas roughing the passer call, either. He didn't slam Edwards to the ground, he pulled him back toward himself.



• The Schobel pick-6 was a great play by Schobel. It was also a dreadful play on Brady's part, because he was looking right there and threw it anyway, and not high enough.



• It didn't show on the scoreboard, but the Patriots dominated that game, and could easily have blown the Bills out. The Patriots punted one (1) time in the game. They missed on 4th down twice. They missed a field goal. They gave the Bills 7 points on the interception. New England won the time-of-possession battle 37:08 to 22:52. They won the yardage battle, 441-276. They had more first downs, 28-17.



• The defense gave up two long drives, and it felt at times as if they just couldn't get off the field. That was not a strictly accurate perception, as Buffalo was only 4 of 10 on third downs.

This certainly didn't look like a team headed to 16-0 again, but they're starting out at 1-0, and that's all they could really accomplish today. The important thing was coming out with the win, and that's what they did.

Mixed blessings

I'm not sure which of the enumerated powers of the Federal Government justifies this:

The political football that is the Bowl Championship Series lands in Congress this week as lawmakers examine whether the system for awarding a national championship is fair...

Several lawmakers are pushing bills on the BCS. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, for example, has sponsored legislation that would prevent the NCAA from calling a college football game a "national championship" unless it results from a playoff system...President Barack Obama has said he would prefer an eight-team playoff system.

Because, you know, they don't have anything more important¹ to be working on...





¹ - This is almost a prototypical mixed emotions situation. On the one hand, this is an outrageous usurpation of authority to which Congress has no legitimate claim, there's no philosophical justification for Federal intervention in this issue, and the country certainly faces issues which ought be higher on the priority lists of our elected representatives than the BCS. On the other hand, they're doing less damage when they're grandstanding on issues like this rather than economic issues.

NFL - week 4 wrapup

Week 4 in the NFL...

• The Patriots didn't play and I saw little football. Consequently, I've got not much to say about this weekend's games.



• Saw a little bit of the Broncos-Chiefs game. Denver could not stop the running game. And they couldn't move the ball against the Chiefs defense. And another potential 0-16 season goes by the boards. What I cannot be sure of, yet, is whether this makes me feel better about the Patriots week one win against KC, or worse about the Broncos. Or both.



• OK, the Washington-Dallas game was a good game. And I'm convinced that the Cowboys are not a serious threat to win the Super Bowl. Somewhere along the line, Romo will throw a Favre, Phillips will go for it when he shouldn't or punt when he should go for it, they'll burn timeouts, take a dumb penalty, mismanage the clock, and lose in the playoffs to a team that everyone thinks they should hammer.



• The Rams fire Scott Linehan. See Titanic - deck chairs, rearranging of. Certainly, there's no good case to be made that he should keep the job, but one hopes that someone has, you know, an actual plan to improve things rather than a sudden inspiration - "Hey, let's fire the coach! That'll make everything better!



• And the Lions fire Matt Millen. Which is actually a shock. When someone who should have been fired four years ago (and three years ago and two years ago and one year ago) still has his job, you begin to think that there's some invisible reason that he's keeping it, and he'll never lose it.



• Before Sunday, I would have guessed that Romeo Crennel's job was in greater danger than Marvin Lewis'. I would not guess that today.



• Evidence that you should be listening carefully to what I say:
  
  

  San Diego at Oakland - "Here's a rivalry game. Traditional divisional rivals in the AL West. Pretty good team at the home of pretty bad team. Pretty good team wins handily and covers the spread."




• Evidence that you should be listening carefully to what I say (and betting the opposite):
  
  

  Denver at Kansas City - "Here's a rivalry game. Traditional divisional rivals in the AL West. Pretty good team at the home of pretty bad team. Pretty good team wins handily and covers the spread."




• For the week:
  Winners: 8-5
  ATS: 8-5-0



• For the season:
  Winners: 39-21
  ATS: 34-25-1

Top NFL story of the day

I'll have some NFL and Patriots thoughts tomorrow, but today, I just want to say that my thoughts and prayers (and hopefully those of all NFL fans) are with Buffalo tight-end Kevin Everett. I don't expect that he'll ever play again, but I hope that he'll recover to walk and live a normal life.

NFL picks, week 1

Having decided that what the world needs, more than anything else (1), is another NFL picks column filled with witticisms (2), written by someone who a) isn't witty (3) and b) doesn't know anything about the NFL (4), I proudly (5) present the following:

Thursday night:
New Orleans (+6) at Indianapolis - Saints vs. Sinners Colts - That was a first, right? No one's ever started their New Orleans commentary that way, I bet. Hey, I warned you up front that this would be lame - I'm not giving you're money back. Anyway, Indianapolis will raise their Super Bowl flag, and immediately start throwing the ball. New Orleans will try to keep the Colts offense by running, but it won't work out that way - Indianapolis won't stop the run well enough to sustain the Saints' drives. Reggie Bush breaks off at least 5 runs of more than 30 yards, and the Saints win a tight, defensive struggle (both defenses will struggle) 45-42.
Sunday:
Philadelphia (-2 1/2) at Green Bay - Here's the prop bet that I want to see - which is higher, the number of series for McNabb before going down with an injury, or interceptions thrown by Favre? I'm betting (6) the latter, and the Eagles win.
Kansas City at Houston (-3) - Houston's got a new QB. While that generally takes acclimation time, it's a better situation to be in than the Chiefs', who don't have one at all. Texans win.
Denver at Buffalo (+3 1/2) - I don't like Buffalo. I don't like Denver even more.
Pittsburgh (-3 1/2) at Cleveland - I like Romeo Crennel. I don't really dislike the Cleveland Browns. I really dislike the Pittsburgh Steelers. But they're the better team, right now.
Carolina at St. Louis (pick 'em) - Carolina was last year's trendy Super Bowl pick in many quarters. Carolina is this year's trendy Super Bowl pick in many quarters. They didn't win it last year, they won't win it this year. Rams.
Atlanta (+3) at Minnesota - New coach. New quarterback. Turmoil swirling as the franchise superstar awaits his sentencing in 3 months. There's absolutely no reason to pick Atlanta here. Given that I'm picking the Falcons, you'd think that the next sentence would start with "But..." or "What many are missing..." Nope. There's no reason to pick Atlanta here.
New England (-7) at NY Jets - No Seymour. No Harrison. Moss hasn't played in a month. Last year's leading receiver was cut this week and signed by the opposition. No one knows Belichick as well as Mangini. Yadda yadda yadda. I always pick the Patriots, but I'd pick them this week even if I didn't always pick them. This is a far better team, and they'll win comfortably. Not a blowout, and they may not cover, but they'll win comfortably in a game that never feels as close as it looks on the scoreboard.
Miami at Washington (-2 1/2) - Generally, I'll be picking both of these teams to lose. As that's not an option this week, I'll go with the 'Skins, since they've at least got a coach.
Tennessee (+7) at Jacksonville - Jacksonville's not good enough to be a seven-point favorite over anyone.
Chicago at San Diego (-6) - Here's the question - is San Diego suffering enough from the coaching chaos to fall to 0-2 after they lose to New England next week? I'm thinking not. (I expect lots of "irresistible force vs. immovable object" commentary on this game, but not from me, no sir.) Therefore, I must think that San Diego wins this one handily enough. Compelling logic, n'est-ce pas?
Tampa Bay at Seattle (-7) - Holmgren wins this round in the battle of overrated coaches.
Detroit (+1 1/2) at Oakland - All the points in this game will be scored with Oakland's defense and Detroit's offense on the field. Can the Oakland 'D' outscore the Detroit 'O'? Not inconceivable, but not the way to bet.
Sunday night:
NY Giants (+7) at Dallas - Four hours after the overrated coaches battle in Seattle, the overrated quarterbacks take the field in Dallas. How brilliant does that draft day trade for Eli Manning look for the Giants right now? That's right, it doesn't. So why am I picking them? Tom Coughlin over Wade Phillips.
Monday night:
Baltimore at Cincinnati (-3) - Cincinnati makes it through the opening weekend with not a single player arrested, and celebrates by beating the Ravens in a low-scoring affair, 17-13.
Arizona at San Francisco (-3) - Some year, Arizona will start off 1-0. Not this one.





1 - There are, obviously, a great many things that the world needs more. But it is one of the top 20 (maybe 30) things that the world needed that I was capable of producing in 25 minutes at lunch-time today.
2 - "Witticisms" is a euphemism here for "comments that are intended to be funny, but are mostly, instead, cringe-inducingly lame."
3 - Well, there was that one time in high school...
4 - But I can read the schedule, and find out where the games are being played.
5 - This is a product of the self-esteem movement. Yes, you too can be "proud" of unfunny, lame commentary. At the very least, I'm not being paid for this. Compare and contrast with what shows up in your newspaper every Friday, produced by "professional" journalists.
6 - Figuratively - I have no literal money on any of these games.