* Have you seen ESPN trying to make the Super Bowl into a race war?
On the ticker last night, they conducted a “fan poll” seeing whether Cam Newton is disliked because of his race.
A couple days before I saw Newton in a press conference, he says he doesn’t want to talk about race, that he was misunderstood. And the sportswriters won’t stop talking about it!! Why? Isn’t it a big issue?!? Don’t you think there are still stereotypes about black quarterbacks?!? They were really treating him like a child unable to understand how truly important all this stuff is.
Never mind that the “criticism” of Cam Newton is never attached to names of actual people, except one unfortunate women who wrote a letter to a newspaper. Journalists literally imagine criticism, then they literally imagine that this criticism must be about race. I hate these jock sniffing losers. The sports media is like the regular media, just much stupider.
There is a market need for a right wing sports media.
* Christie has been giving Rubio a good old Jersey style beat down. I am no fan of Christie, but he is refreshingly gruff and successfully brought the Establishment’s current candidate down a notch.
* Surgeon delicately yet effectively cut open Snake Oil Salesman, Fat Man nuked Little (bubble) Boy, and Donald can just look on and let his competitors tear each other apart.
* Peyton Manning has looked like a 39 year old quarterback this season, and he knows it. All indications are that this Super Bowl will be his last game.
Thing is, when an athlete gets old, it’s not as if he goes out there and stinks out the joint all season. Rather, he starts having a lot more bad weeks. He’s still capable of throwing for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns. Unfortunately, he’s equally capable of going 8-20 for 120 yards with 3 picks.
That’s where Peyton Manning is now. It’s also where John Elway was in his last season. Old Elway was over the hill, but still capable of playing great games. He had one of his best games ever in that Super Bowl against the Falcons.
Manning may be awful tomorrow, but it’s not at all unlikely that he’ll have one last great game in him and retire a champion, as Elway did.
* The “Unforgivable Camness” meme was so totally contrived and pre-fab that even their own contract radio hosts (ESPN) seemed to be doing it by rote and with mock theatrical concern by the end of the week: “Top of the 2nd hour, a divided nation asks for the umpteenth time whether black QBs should be outlawed” It just shows what happens when you try to construct a 24-hour highlights + filler channel 50% produced & staffed by gay men from the Walt Disney Corporation. I almost miss Olbermann now.
* About half of typical football games are unpredictable – as even Colin Cowherd understands, there are about fifty non-QB guys who make it on to the field who have a one in hundred shot of changing the outcome of the game. That being said, when you talk about QB v QB, you are basically talking about those one third to one half of postseason games where the outcome is decided by Quarterback A and his caddies (the other 10 guys on the field) having a better day than Quarterback B and his caddies. If you are a Broncos fan, you either hope that poor young Peyton has been saving up his best moments for tomorrow, or that this is not a Quarterback A and his caddies versus Quarterback B and his caddies game (Redskins and Ravens and Bucs and Bears(? ) have all won on the let-the-caddies-win-it strategy, and Elway has surprised me before, but I don’t think he has the football wisdom to prepare a team for that strategy). After all he fired Tebow after Tebow showed he knew how to win in the postseason with an otherwise mediocre team.
* Even though, if I were a betting man, I’d definitely put my money on Carolina, they are certainly getting overrated. Hardly anyone adequately accounts for the small sample size and differences in scheduling that complicate NFL analysis. It’s difficult to convey how weak Carolina’s schedule was. Softest in the league, bar none. They played exactly 4 teams with winning records in the regular season, including Houston and Washington, neither or whom would’ve managed their mediocre 9-7 records were they not playing in the two worst divisions in the NFL. And they beat Green Bay the week after they were brutally exposed by Denver and started their massive slide. The Panthers played very well in the playoffs, no doubt about it, but building up the huge leads they did was fluky, with 7 mostly unforced turnovers from Arizona and two huge early plays digging Seattle into an enormous hole. Carolina is the best team of the 3, but the games playing out that lopsidedly was surely anomalous.
People are also surely overestimating how much Newton has improved. Examining his numbers it’s hard not to note that there’s a massive increase in the TD passes while most everything else remains about the same. (He has cut the picks a bit, too.) Did he suddenly develop some magical touchdownability while not changing otherwise? Or is it that Carolina had a very good defense, an incredibly soft schedule and an unsustainably positive turnover ratio that combined with a modest improvement in passing ability to result in a dramatic numerical improvement? It’s much like how Manning had two huge TD seasons where he got 49 and 55, whereas for the overwhelming majority of his career he got somewhere in the high 20s to low 30s. He was better in those seasons than the others, sure, but the difference isn’t nearly as dramatic the TD totals would suggest. It’s just a relatively small number that is more readily influenced by other factors and randomness than most other statistics. I’m confident Newton will regress somewhat next year, at least in terms of TDs and passer ratings, as the increase in the latter was largely a result of the increase in the former. I’d still expect it’ll be his best season yet other than this one, though.
That said, the Denver offense simply stinks. Carolina aren’t the juggernaut they are now being portrayed as, but Denver are shockingly mediocre for a Super Bowl team. They played a fairly tough schedule but virtually everything was a squeaker. Combine this with Dalton breaking his thumb, a bunch of Pats/Steelers injuries, Indy in the toilet and a generally weak AFC and then you have Denver with home field. I can still see them winning. I’d give them maybe a 35% chance, to pick a way too specific number. The defense is really goddamn good, especially when you consider how the offense consistently left them out to dry. Manning has cleaned up the picks the last few games, and had a few quality performances mixed in with the generally abysmal year. Maybe he’ll have another good one tomorrow . . . But probably not.
* You get him off his talking points, and as Christie said, things get ugly. You can see why Cruz went to Harvard, Christie as able to be a federal prosecutor, and Rubio went to a TTT school.
* Forget Peyton vs. Cam, its Wade vs Mike. Wasn’t Wade Phillips today made Assistant Coach of the Year? Beating out Carolina’s Mike Shula?
I expect Peyton to be a better QB during the Superbowl, absent being a big hole early, than Newton. Peyton is suited to Phillips ferocious defense, being a game manager at his age and ability level.
I figure Denver will cover deep, rush Newton, the Panther’s principal running weapon, and try and strip the ball every time, and win more than a few of those opportunities — Newton does not protect the ball well. Then make Newton do the thing he does NOT do well — make the soft pass to the sidelines for a first down; gambling that his inability to make the touch pass as a function of just not practicing it very much will continue in the game under pressure.
The NFL certainly WANTS Newton as the face of the NFL; first off he’s Black and that plays to the PC crowd and a non trivial portion of the White female audience (and that’s just a fact, sadly, see Kardashian, Kim, Trash Princess); but more importantly Newton types are cheap.
Paying a QB like Manning say, $10 million a year for ten years guaranteed or very nearly is expensive (in his prime). Paying a disposable running QB about half that for five years, disposing of him when he does suffer catastrophic knee injuries (Robert Griffin III, Michael Vick, Randall Cunningham, and Donovan McNabb all come to mind) is a lot cheaper.
The only “running” QBs who were successful long term were Warren Moon and Bret Favre, and they were scramblers trying to gain time for one last throw. They didn’t run downhill like Newton does. Newton is a bull now, get back to me in three years when the injuries pile up.
As Coach Brian Billick said, there are not 32 men on the earth who can play QB in the NFL, properly.
Manning’s weaknesses are physical limitations, lack of arm strength to consistently stretch the field. Against that he studies constantly for defensive tendencies and has great focus. Newton is a showboat, has failed to lead comebacks all season, gets distracted, does not study the defense, and relies like many if not most Black athletes on pure athletic ability and not film study and game plans to win matchups.
Yeah Wade Phillips did not work out in the Jerry Jones circus — who has? But I figure he’s learned a thing or two and has the more coachable defense vs. Shula having to dial down Newton, who is liable to be caught showboating by a cagey defense.
Put it this way — Manning has been no doubt studying film of his debacle against Seattle for two years; and film of Carolina’s D for two weeks. Newton has likely been at every single party. We will get an answer if all it takes is raw athleticism of one individual or if football is still a team game not basketball.
* Rubio really is not very bright. He seems to have coasted through his career through looks and affability. You can tell why he hasn’t had any real jobs outside the sponsorship of that billionaire car dealer.
* Jeb! has had his mother campaigning for him in NH, and is having his older brother campaigning for him in SC.
Notice, that he seldom ever has his wife campaigning on her own for him in say, FL or even in NH? Why his mother? He just looks like the “low energy” beta having to have his mommy by his side “please vote for my boy, please, please.”
Another thing: Notice, at each of the debates you seldom see the cameras showing Jeb! with his wife. Wonder why? In other words, you see most of the other candidates with their families and wives prominently displayed. Melania, obviously, you can’t miss her she’s front and center and the cameras always make sure to highlight her. People magazine just did a front page article interviewing her on life with the Donald. A puff piece to be sure, but it does bear asking the question: How come Columba is never prominently displayed with Jeb! on the stage OR that she is never asked direct questions (in English) about the candidate, or even puff pieces about the campaign?
Why is Jeb! hiding her? We see Barbara and W, but not Columba.
Wonder why? Why is Jeb! hiding her? What is ashamed of?
* Kaus called it Marcodammerrung. James Fallows said it was the worst debate performances since Quayle in ’88.
* She’s never on stage with Jeb! post-debate. Columba has not been on stage post-debate, ever. Or the cameras have not seen fit to show and highlight her on stage with Jeb!, whereas most of the other candidates’ wives and immediate families have been shown coming onto the stage area to embrace their spouse candidate, do the group hug w/family for the photographers, etc.
But you never ever see Columba front and center on the stage with Jeb! This leads one to ask: Why? What is Jeb! afraid of? That the press might ask Columba some extended questions in English of which it will only show just how awkward her command of English is? Say what one will, at least Melania has consistently been seen front and center on stage with Donald, sometimes the media does in fact ask her some questions, and as before, she just did an extended interview with People magazine. Say what you will, but one gets the feeling that if asked to, Melania would at least give brief speeches for Trump on the campaign trail for like, five minutes or so before small audiences. On the campaign trail, a wife is an added benefit: she can reach women voters. So why isn’t Jeb! making use of that with Columba?
Have to say that it appears as though this is calculated on Jeb!’s part, namely, that Columba is not considered to be an asset to his campaign whereas his mother and brother are.
From a practical standpoint, it only serves to reinforce the “low energy” barb from Trump, Jeb! has to have his 90+yr old. mommy with him on the campaign trail, rather than have his wife front and center with him by his side and answering some questions from the media like all the other candidates’ wives do; she doesn’t and isn’t to be seen.
Very strange indeed. What is Jeb! afraid that Columba will say? Or rather, is he that much afraid of the way she would have to respond to questions that require extended answers in English?
Why doesn’t Jeb! let Columba make speeches on the campaign trail for him to women’s groups (in English of course)? Wasn’t she first lady of FL when Jeb! was governor? So, she’d be used to making speeches before audiences in English, right? Just seems that Jeb! isn’t making full use of one way to bring in voters that like, 99% of all candidates for president have done for like, a century, namely, have his wife campaign/make speeches of her own for her husband. After all, women vote.
* Christie is auditioning to be Trump’s hatchet man, or Cruz’s if it goes that way. And he did superbly tonight.
Imagine Donald Trump playing the eminence grise who utters occasional witticisms, to Christie’s former supreme federal prosecutor playing the crazy man.
I’d foresee at least a two term Trump administration, and probably a followup one for the VP after that. We could have a different country in eight years.
* I noticed after the debate that Trump was quite friendly with Christie. I am just guessing, but I think they struck a deal. If you noticed, Christie did not attack Trump during the debate. I think Christie is smart enough to read the polls (NH was considered his best shot, and he is lagging rather than leading) and realize that he won’t be getting the nomination and that there is a very good chance Trump will be the nominee. I think the deal is that President Trump will nominate Christie for Attorney General. I thought earlier that there was a chance that Cruz might get that post, but I think Trump got pissed at Cruz’s attacks on him. He went out of his way to make it clear that Cruz won’t be his VP choice (because of the “uncertainty” created by his “Canadian citizenship”). So, in exchange for attacking Rubio, Christie got promised the AG spot. Rubio got exposed as the total lightweight I figured he was back in 2010 when I refused to vote for him for U.S. Senate. Very glib but very shallow.
BTW I am not shallow at all, but I would vote for Trump just so we can have Melania as First Lady. She really is a lovely woman. But then I recently came across a picture of Donald Trump in his mid 30′s to early 40′s, and I was stunned by how handsome he was as a younger man. I guess I just wasn’t paying attention all those years.
* GQ discovered around 1985 that when they put Trump on the cover, newsstand sales shot up.
