By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Opening.
Day.
The words in concert unleash a flood of emotions.
They’re comforting and reassuring. They’re thrilling and exhilarating. They’re full of new hope for old dreams and new life for dead teams.
This is one aspect of baseball – spring training is another – that remains virtually unspoiled and unsoiled. No matter how much damage MLB has inflicted over the years with civic extortion, inflated statistics, silly labor disputes, tiny ballparks, laughable drug policies, runaway salaries, shrinking strike zones, irresponsible owners and late-night World Series, all seems right again when Game 1 of 162 arrives.
The Nationals start their season Thursday in Cincinnati. Along with the Reds, they will have plenty of company across the country. For the first time since 1968, Opening Day features a full slate. All 30 teams are in action, playing on the earliest start date for domestic games in history.
Washington’s outlook is as rosy as it’s been the last six years, four of which featured National League East titles. Dave Martinez has a loaded roster to direct as a rookie manager and he isn’t shying from the pressure. “From day one I told them,” Martinez said, via The Washington Post. “I said, ‘Hey, we’re going to play the last game of the World Series and win. That’s what our expectations are.’”
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Earlier this month, the Wizards were among a few teams yet to suffer a three-game losing streak this season, despite missing John Wall for 26 contests at that point.
Now, with Wall nearing a return, Washington has endured its second three-game skid in three weeks. The team had dropped from fourth to sixth in the fight for playoff position, with the Milwaukee Bucks and “60 Minutes” star Giannis Antetokounmpo breathing down its neck.
And, oh yeah: The San Antonio Spurs visit Capital One Arena Tuesday.
You might notice a difference in the level of competition compared to Sunday’s opponent, the New York Knicks. But there’s no telling if the Wizards will see the difference. The Knicks came to D.C. with nothing to play for and nothing to lose, but they left with a 101-97 victory and a measure of vindication for former Wizards guard Trey Burke.
“I don’t want to make it about me,” Burke told reporters after scoring 19 points in his first start in three years. “We won the game and that’s the biggest thing.”
The Knicks improved to 20 games under .500, reminding us that the Wizards have struggled at times with sup-par teams. Washington’s record against teams below the break-even mark is 19-11, worst among the Eastern Conference’s top 10 teams.
Slogging through the schedule in late January before the All-Star break is one thing. Failing to play inspired basketball down the stretch with the playoffs looming is something else altogether.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
First, an admission.
My father isn’t a legendary figure in sports broadcasting history. I didn’t build a Hall of Fame career as an NFL general manager or a Super Bowl champion. I have no stake in any Silicon Valley investment firms.
Nonetheless, I think we need another football league like cable TV needs another channel.
Others, like folks in the aforementioned categories, disagree.
Three fledgling enterprises are now on the clock, including the Alliance of American Football, announced Tuesday. It joins the upcoming revival of Vince McMahon’s XFL, and a new development league being started by agent Don Yee, who represents New England QB Tom Brady.
The AAF, which plans to start playing a week after Super Bowl 53 next February, is helmed by television and movie producer Charlie Ebersol, and longtime NFL executive Bill Polian. Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu is among the former NFL players involved (Hines Ward and Justin Tuck are others).
For 96 hours, the federal probe faded into the background, joining the so-called criminal offenses at its core. Instead of focusing on impermissible benefits, we feasted on unadulterated basketball, where names on the front or back of jerseys didn’t matter.
Mind you, nothing about the sport’s underbelly has changed. The same infrastructure, abuses and economic forces remain in play. The number of teams have been whittled from 68 to 16, but the NCAA’s issues haven’t undergone a similar reduction.
But no one wants to think about such problems at these moments, not after a region’s top four seeds failed to reach the Sweet 16. That’s an unprecedented occurrence.
Concerns also can wait when an UMBC beats a Virginia, becoming the first No. 16-seed to topple a No.1.
(Note/rant: Turns out that it happened once before, Harvard women over Stanford. I understand that some women’s basketball fans get in their feelings every March as their tourney operates in the shadows. But no slight was intended when virtually everyone reported that UMBC made history. Most of us didn’t know about the Harvard women and most of us – no offense – don’t care because it’s irrelevant to men’s basketball. Just like men’s hoops is irrelevant to the women’s version.)
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
There has never been a bad time to be the quarterback.
From pee wees to the pros, they enjoy a certain cachet that’s unattainable at other positions. QBs are the most scrutinized and criticized, but that’s a small price to pay for the prestige and extensive package of off-field benefits.
But as good as life has been, NFL quarterbacks have never had it better than now.
From the rule book to their checkbooks, everything is trending in signal-callers’ favor.
The league for years has tilted toward offense, especially passers. Their receivers are freer to move about the field. Offensive linemen have more leeway in providing protection. Pass rushers are restricted in how and when they can deliver hits in the pocket.
QBs play what’s commonly referred to as “The Most Important Position in Sports,” which can lead teams to go a little crazy. For instance, Chicago signed Mike Glennon to a three-year, $45 million deal last year. That’s one of the best examples of overpaying a purely pedestrian passer.
There are two options when
finding yourself in a workplace you’re not crazy about.
You can gripe and moan about
the environment, clearly expressing your unhappiness for the duration of you
stay.
Or, you can say all the right
things and present a positive outlook while waiting for your chance to leave.
Some consider the latter an
example of taking the high road.
But critics will accuse you of
being a plastic phony.
Which bring us to Kirk
Cousins. First there was Skins defensive back DeAngelo Hall telling reporters recently
that teammates sensed a lack of commitment and wondered why Cousins rejected
Washington’s long-term offers.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Making prospective employees uncomfortable is a big deal for NFL teams at the Scouting Combine. So here are a few questions that might accomplish that feat without, you know, breaking the law:
“How long have you collected scantily-clad Barbie dolls?”
“Why do you tongue-kiss random strangers’ dogs?
“Where’d you go for that first hook up with coach’s wife?”
I suppose there could be a prospect or two who wonders how the secret was uncovered. But most would shake their heads in bewilderment after the question sunk in. I imagine team officials make a game of comparing the creative ways players say, essentially, “You have me confused with someone else!”
There’s no shortage of crazy things a team can ask. Many of the questions make little sense and have neither right nor wrong answers. The goal simply is to see how players think on their feet, how they respond to the unexpected.
Look, we still talk about Robert Griffin III in Washington, six years after he arrived in Washington and four years after he left.
Using that scale as a guide, I figure Kirk Cousins will remain a topic of discussion locally through 2030.
He might’ve just retired, opening the floodgates on one final wave of commentary. No matter what transpires between now and then, no matter how he fares at his next stop, the rival Cousins camps will be ready for battle.
Either there will be proof that Cousins was a near-elite quarterback during his time here, or evidence will suggest he was merely an above-average starter in Jay Gruden’s high-octane system.
Washington will be proven penny wise and pound foolish for nickel-and-diming a QB it paid $44 million over two years. Or, hindsight will paint the Skins as uncharacteristically shrewd for letting Cousins walk instead of opening the vault for him.
Alex Smith, and Alex Smith’s eventual successor, won’t do anything in D.C. without some of us comparing it to whatever Cousins does – or doesn’t do. Cousins won’t be in burgundy-and-gold anymore, but his game-by-referendum will continue, this time placed side-by-side against his replacement.
I know I’m going on a limb with this prediction, but Cousins’ results will be better if he signs with Minnesota or Denver opposed to the New York Jets or Cleveland.
He easily could take one of the former teams to a conference championship game at the very least, whereas he might never win a postseason contest with the latter pair. Predicting the subsequent talk around this town is easy.
We’ll hear either, A) “Those teams didn’t need a special QB to advance and that’s good because they don’t have one.” Or, B) “There’s never been a QB good enough to overcome those sorry teammates and take them anywhere.”
I suspect we’ll have a hung jury in the end, regardless.
Cousins’ detractors will blame him if his team fails, but they’ll credit everyone except him it succeeds. Cousins’ supporters will declare he would’ve done better in D.C., whether Smith has MVP-caliber seasons or becomes a total bust.
Battle lines were drawn over the last three seasons and talking about Cousins will forever be a no-win, no-lose situation.
He’s moving on, but the argument will stick around.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
March Madness is upon us once again.
And as usual, buzzers aren’t the only things being beat.
It happens every season as college basketball’s big tournament approaches. Topics other than fantastic finishes are talked about at length and run into the ground.
The NCAA’s billions. The players’ non-existent cut. The freshmen-to-NBA pipeline. The academic progress rates.
Keeping the focus on court is more challenging this year as the sport endures an FBI probe that already has led to several firings. More than 20 schools reportedly are implicated and could be impacted by potential rules violations. Revelations of under-the-table economics have increased calls for players to be paid.
Meanwhile, the NCAA talks about sweeping changes as it awaits a report from the Commission on College Basketball. The NBA reportedly is working on a new plan for high school grads to become pros right away and skip the one-year pit stop in college. And folks such as Lebron James, Barack Obama and Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy are criticizing the current set-up.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Can you conceive being without your left hand since childhood? Can you envision the various reactions from classmates, some mean-spirited and perhaps some kind, but all of them curious?
Can you imagine the stares and questions? The taunts and putdowns? The sympathy and pity that was unnecessary, unhelpful and unwanted?
Shaquem Griffin doesn’t have to imagine it. He’s living it.
The linebacker from Central Florida was a late invitee to the NFL Scouting Combine but he left a lasting impression, in the weight room, on the track and at the microphone. Born with a rare birth condition that led to an amputation at age four, Griffin put the focus on what he brings, not what he’s missing.
Sure, he proved himself at UCF where he twice was an all-American Athletic Conference first-team selection, winning the 2016 Defensive Player of the Year award. A captain on last season’s undefeated team, Griffin made plays all over the field and capped his college career with 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks in a Peach Bowl victory against Auburn.
But the NFL was unconvinced. Griffin wasn’t invited to the Combine until after an impressive week at the Senior Bowl, where the hybrid defender saw work on the line, at linebacker and in the secondary.
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