The Screaming Viking

Traditionally, Bottineau doesn’t have a very good football team.  I credit that to the kids that play exclusively hockey or basketball and forgo football.  I don’t think that’s the best idea, in BFE ND the odds of you getting a scholarship is pretty slim, and pro can’t even be a thought.  I think it makes for a better athlete in any single sport if the athlete plays multiple sports.  Football can be a great sport for helping foot work and being more physical for basketball players, the cardio and “in shape” aspect can’t be ignored for any sport that comes after.  It’s the athlete and the parent’s choice if they play of course..and this is the same thing we struggled with when I was in school.  If all the guys had played that could have…we’d have a better chance at being a better team at the very least.

This year Bottineau did quite well, they went 8-1 and took the second seed in the region for playoff ball.  The game they lost was by a field goal at the end in really bad weather…so even in that game they were competitive.  Being the 2nd seed, they got to host the first game of the playoffs…they faced Wahpeton.  Looking at the difference between the teams warming up…Wahpeton had quite a size advantage.  Their linemen looked like they were going to walk all over us.  We have fast guys at all positions, but, especially this time of year, there is no substitute for size and pounding the ball down the middle.  Our backs looked to be a bit bigger than theirs, and our boys are fast.  The one position we have had an advantage over everyone we’ve played is at running back.  We have two guys back there with great size and speed.

Bottineau received the ball in the beginning and went 3 and out…it didn’t look good.  Wahpeton took the ball, ate up about 10 min worth of clock and drove down the other end of the field.  They got called back inside the 10 for a hold…but it didn’t matter as they punched the ball in.  After that, I don’t remember quite how the scoring went.  There are a couple of key plays though that ended up blowing the game wide open.  The first was an uncalled late hit.  One of our guys, I don’t remember if it was the QB, was down…clearly down…and one of there guys comes in and pounds him in the back.  It was the kind of hit that a player in the NFL would be writing a check for.  The crowd erupted.  The ref was right there…no flag.  Our man wasn’t injured…but it was still something that could have been flagged.  Honestly, I don’t much care about late hits…I didn’t see it as a huge deal at the time.  If this had been the only call that was blatantly missed it wouldn’t be a big deal, but it was one of a few that turned the tide.

The next missed call was huge.  They broke around the outside and our contain man was held bigger than life.  It was one of those shoulder turning type holds that you just can’t miss.  This was our outside contain man, so they were able to bounce outside and got a 40ish yard td run.  Maybe he would have made the tackle, maybe not…but it was a hold, the ref was right there and no flag.  Our head football coach is usually a cool customer, there have been close games through the season and he doesn’t react too much to bad calls…but this time he went ape shit.  It was to the point of being restrained he was going so nuts.  It was good to see tbh.

The next missed call was the game…there wasn’t going to be a way for the boys to recover after this.  We’re on their 2ish yard line.  Our back swings out to the crowd side, stretches out and crosses the goal line/fumbles.  Now the ref was right there so they should have the best view of the call.  The fans (including myself) thought he was in, then fumbled.  The refs confer…nope, fumble before the goal line, they recover.  I thought it was the wrong call, the crowd went ape….clearly everyone thought it was the wrong call.  Wether it was or not, who really knows.  Up to this point, they had that 1 holding penalty called (we had maybe 2?).  After the refs set them at the 20, they start calling procedure penalties on them like crazy.  They finally managed to run 3 plays and had to punt.  I could see how they might have jumped once…twice…but several in a row?  It doesn’t make sense.  It is that set of calls that makes me believe that the refs also thought they screwed up on the td/fumble call.  They kick to us…we start our series, off sides call.  Maybe they came with a rash of penalties…but it seemed like a bunch of make up calls to me.

Later on there was another swing around the outside/hold type call that was missed.  One of our players was giving the ref hell about it…tbh, it was late in the game and didn’t much matter.

In all fairness without the penalty calls (or with them I guess) Wahpeton still had the better looking team.  Football, esp at the high school level, is a game of momentum.  Maybe we could have come out on top but in all honesty they looked sharper than we did today.  They ran a 1/2 back pass that left us in the dust.

We had a good year though, it would have been nice to keep it going.

Is this for real?

NCAA to Justice Department: Ask BCS about playoff, not us

There are two aspects of this that are utterly ridiculous.  Why is the justice department involved in a college playoff debate?  And the NCAA throwing up it’s hands and saying we’re not in control of one of our big money draws?  Seriously?

Clearly the justice department is involved because the members are fiercely loyal to their schools and they want to have a shot at a national title…and money.  I have no idea what the numbers are for the various bowl games and what the money would be if they were abolished in favor of a playoff of some sort…but it’s quite a bit.  Depending on what direction things are going…money goes to different pockets as well.

Clearly the NCAA is stalling the gov “investigation” (or whatever they want to call it).  I’m all about that…I don’t think the gov has any business sticking it’s nose into sports of any kind, college or pro…steroids or not, point shaving, betting…I don’t care.  There should be no legal remedies for any of these “problems”.  It should be up to these leagues (companies) to take care of the problem themselves…period.

I’m all for a playoff and legit championship game in d1 football.  I don’t like the way their seasons get played…they have 2 maybe 3 legit games and then you have something like “the corn huskers of nebraska taking on the lumberjacks of bottineau”.  Those games are ridiculous.

link

WASHINGTON (AP) — The NCAA is telling the Justice Department that its questions about the lack of a playoff system for college football are best directed to another group – the Bowl Championship Series.

NCAA President Mark Emmert, responding to a pointed letter from the department, said his organization has no role in the BCS, other than licensing bowl games. He added that without direction from its member colleges and universities, “there is no directive for the (NCAA) to establish a playoff.”

In a letter to Emmert this month, the department’s antitrust chief, Christine Varney, said there were “serious questions” about whether the BCS complies with antitrust laws.

Emmert said that questions about the current system “can best be answered” by the BCS.

I am officially dun with the NFL..that’s not to say I won’t watch another game…some days there isn’t anything else to do and nothing else on.  I just won’t care about the games anymore.  I won’t follow the bears like some rabid fanatic, but I will get in the 19 club at the stadium and bet on the games.  I don’t think that’s being a fan, that’s just trying to win a few bucks.

There have been a plethora of things that have been turning me off on professional sports, and to some extent college as well.  One of the most aggravating is the bombardment of advertising.  There are so many commercial breaks, in game sponsors, 1/2 time sponsors, league sponsors etc that it’s getting a little sickening to watch.  I would gladly pay some money (not sure how much per league) to watch the game with no commercials, to not see a billboard right in line with the T.V. camera that changes sponsors at a given interval.  One might think you can go see a game live and not have these issues, but it’s more comfortable to watch my big ol’ T.V. than it is to squeeze my tush into a seat at a stadium…plus the view from the T.V. is usually better.  The bombardment of advertising is something that has turned me off from most all sporting events outside of teams I directly follow.

The lockout and labor strife is turning me off of the game.  If they do get a deal done, I don’t think it’s going to be until guys have missed a few checks.  The players will need to feel the financial pinch before they cave.  The owners will need to feel a financial pinch before they cave.  For that to happen this needs to be a long labor dispute.  What is the quality of the games going to be like if they do come back this year?  Even if they only miss all of the off season programs and some of training camp, the first hand full of games are going to really suck.  They usually don’t start clicking till week 3 or so on a normal year.  Beyond that, I feel that both sides should have been able to amicably come to an agreement on how to split revenue before this point.  I’m not going to say (like I’ve heard from a lot of people) “OMG 9 billion?  billionaires against millionaires!”  It doesn’t matter what your income is or how much money is to be split up between owners and labor, there is still going to be a bit of give and take.  For the most part, people expand their lifestyle to fit their income.  It’s pretty ignorant to think that because someone makes a “large” amount of money they should be just fine not making that money for awhile.  They have set up their lifestyle to expect that money to keep rolling in.  The wisdom of this can be questioned to hell and back, but that’s a different discussion.  The fact is both the players and the owners depend on that level of income.  I’ve read quite a bit about the problems between labor and management, and I do think management wanted to put the squeeze on labor and never had intended to give them a deal.  I expect they intended to make labor feel the financial sting so they would be more pliable.  I don’t like that at all.  I also think that if owners want more money they should have to justify why they need more money.  Although I’m not sure the players should have unfettered access to the owners books.  It should be up to the league to be auditing the expenses of each team and cutting out the “crap” expenses.  Flights charged to the team that are not for team business…ect.  I also don’t like how each side is saying they are “thinking of the fans!”  Stop talking to fans like they are children.  We get what it’s about, both sides need to give.

And the final straw…the thing that pushed me over the edge…the new “proposed” definitions of defenseless players:

Rules defining a defenseless player will be expanded and now will include eight categories:

• A quarterback in the act of throwing;

• A receiver trying to catch a pass;

• A runner already in the grasp of tacklers and having his forward progress stopped;

• A player fielding a punt or a kickoff;

• A kicker or punter during the kick;

• A quarterback at any time after change of possession;

• A receiver who receives a blind-side block;

• A player already on the ground.

A qb in the act of throwing?  What kind of sense does that make?  It seems like the competition committee expect 300+ lb linemen to be able to stop instantly.  If a lineman is falling towards the qb or about to hit him all it takes is for a smart qb to hurry up and start throwing…boom 15 yards.  This rule could be abused pretty hardcore by the qb’s in the league.  I would expect the next step to be “can’t hit him from behind!”  I’m surprised that didn’t come first actually.

A receiver trying to catch a pass…at what point is someone trying to catch a pass? and have actually caught the pass so you can hit them?  The idea of rocking the receiver is to knock the pass away from him, suddenly we have to all take a time out so he can catch it then we can play again?

A runner with forward progress stopped…why hasn’t the whistle blown?  We see this all the time actually, and I’ve been complaining about it for years.  A runner is stopped and just beginning to move backwards.  The whistle should be blown and the play stopped, instead the ref’s let it go for just a little longer than it should, just enough to give the runner a chance to break free.  I agree that he’s in a defenseless situation..but the solution to it is not to expect the players to judge when forward progress has stopped, it’s for the officials to blow that whistle so the players know the play is over.

A player fielding a punk or kickoff…this is already a penalty, why does it need to be eligible for a suspension?

A kicker or punter during a kick…they aren’t wearing pads?  You can’t go all out to block a kick?  Again this is already a penalty, why does it need a suspension.  I’d like the see the stats on these kinds of penalties during the year, and a review of how many were actually deemed malicious.

A qb after change of possession…alright, we can see the purpose of this rule.  After a fumble or a pick it’s standard practice to try and lay out the qb with a “block” certainly that shouldn’t be allowed, but if you can’t hit them at all…I assume they also cannot tackle the ball carrier.

A receiver getting blocked blind sided and a player on the ground…yeah, I’d be alright with either of those…lets expand that to anyone that receives a blind sided block though.

Unnecessary roughness already takes care of all these and any future situations quite nicely.  It’s a penalty that’s been on the books for…50 years now?  Start using it and fine/suspend guys according to that.  These rules are designed to help the offense and boost the scoring in games.  If they were really concerned about player safety they would mandate the more padded helmets (whatever aaron rodgers wore after concussion 2 or 3 this year) and they would outlaw cut blocking.

Proposing these rules doesn’t necessarily mean they will take hold, but there is a pretty good chance over the next few years they (or something like them) will.  I watch the NFL for big hits and defensive plays (either a product of me being a bears fan or why I’m a bears fan), rules like the ones above are targeted squarely at the defense.  What about the 1/2 back plowing through the line with his head down…what about chop blocks?  Nothing to protect defensive players.  Why not every block in the back…why just receivers?

I might catch a bears game when nothing else is on…but the packers/vikings?  nope…not that I’ll walk out of the room if it’s on, I just don’t really care.  I won’t -have- to make it home to see the bears, I won’t tivo the games…I’ll just see it if I see it.  I doubt I’m going to jump in fantasy leagues this year either.  DUN.

Prep sports is where it’s at.  No ads, no fights over money…just people playing cause they want to play.  I’m down with that.

A QB?  An article that came across my rss feed says the bears are looking for a developmental passer.  Not simply looking…but working out guys.  I would hope this is misdirection and subterfuge by the bears in relation to their draft picks.  But seeing where they pick I can’t imagine why they think it might be necessary.  I must say, with the current heads of the bears draft room…this is exactly the type of attitude I would expect them to have.  Ignore the real problems and look for solutions in areas where they don’t have too much of a problem.

I wasn’t a fan of what it cost to bring Cutler to the bears.  I think, give the proper tutelage, he could be a pretty good QB…but he was not worth the price they paid to get him.  Look at the past couple of seasons Kyle Orton has had and tell me Cutler is head and shoulders above him.  If you are in any way objective you cannot.  We saw cutler kinda suck during the NFC championship game this past year.  It may have been a product of the bears D putting them in a hole right off the bat…but cutler played pretty poorly in the first half.  There may have been some questioning the injury, but to really get a feel for how the guy played you can’t take a single game.  His overall body of work last year was pretty good.  We also say Heinne perform very well in a high pressure situation.  Since that’s really all we have to judge the guy on I can’t see why the bears wouldn’t go in to next season with him as their #2 guy.  Maybe he has to put a little time in if cutler is injured for a quarter/game…whatever.  That little snippet showed that maybe he can handle it.  At the very least he should have the opportunity to show he is a solid #2 guy and work his way into maybe a #1 somewhere.

The bears have been horrendous at evaluating QB talent.  It seems like every regime that has come in to chicago can spot good defensive talent in every position, finds good running backs/tight ends and lineman…but not a one of them has been able to find a decent QB**.  I hope the bears put their effort into addressing their real trouble spot, offensive line, instead of worrying about another development QB…they can’t develop a QB anyway.

**note:  I don’t consider cutler a -bad- QB, it’s what the bears gave up for him that makes the overall trade/cutler a very bad value IMO