Posted on November 15th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
Of Washington’s four finalists in the National League’s major award categories, Trea Turner was the least-likely to win but arguably had the greatest impact.
It helps when you arrive largely as a mystery to opponents, who know little besides the fact you have blazing speed. It helps when you play only 73 games – about half the amount Daniel Murphy played – avoiding some inevitable slumps or, worse, injuries. And it helps when you deliver exactly what the team wanted when it called you up for good on July 10, sparking the offense from atop the lineup.
Turner had no shot at winning the NL Rookie of the Year award, which fittingly went to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ strapping shortstop, Corey Seager. He easily beat the Nationals’ center fielder for the honor, based on playing a full slate (157 games) and producing one of the league’s best all-around seasons.
But Turner’s inclusion among the finalists reflects the brilliance of his half-season. Even though he was stuck in the minors for the first three months, Turner led all rookies in triples (eight) and stolen bases (33), while finishing among the Top 10 in runs (53), hits (105), batting average (342), on-base percentage (.370) and slugging percentage (.567).
Don’t bother projecting what those numbers could look like over a full campaign. That practice – like the stat line he might’ve produced – is insane.
If Seager hadn’t been so dominant this season, Turner would have a better argument to be the winner. His selection wouldn’t have set a precedent, either. San Francisco Giants first baseman Willie McCovey was a unanimous NL ROY selection in 1959, despite playing a mere 52 games. Another short-timer this New York Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez, received strong consideration for AL ROY after playing just 53 games.
Turner didn’t come away with the trophy Monday, but he played a key role in general manager Mike Rizzo’s unofficial award for “Heist of the Century.” By acquiring Turner and right-hander Joe Ross for Steven Souza and minor-league lefty Travis Ott, Rizzo endeared himself to Nats fans and provided the team with a pair of building blocks moving forward.
While Ross’ contribution will be as a back-of-the-rotation starter or intriguing trade chip, Turner’s roster spot is cemented even as his position remains fluid. He’ll definitely bat leadoff when manager Dusty Baker fills out the lineup, but that’s the only certainty.
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Posted on November 14th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
LANDOVER, Md. – The real issue isn’t whether Washington’s glass is half full or half empty. Because no matter your perspective, the fact is there’s space for more.
More improvement in the red zone. More get-off-the-field stops. More focus, more consistency, more dominance.
There’s a better question to ask about the Skins: What’s keeping them from the brim of their potential? Sunday’s 26-20 victory against the Minnesota Vikings beats the alternative, but it doesn’t provide any answers.
“We just have to try to put a complete game together,” safety Will Blackmon said after Washington went up by two touchdowns, fell behind at halftime and rallied to win. “I don’t know if we’re doing it for ratings, but when we have a team down, we have to take advantage and finish them off.”
We wouldn’t know how to react if that happened. Coach Jay Gruden said every game would come down to the wire and this team seems intent on proving him right.
Washington opened with 159 yards and two touchdowns on its first two possessions, while Minnesota countered with 27 yards and two punts. But that wasn’t the beginning of a trend – unless you mean the Skins’ tendency to make each outing a white-knuckle affair.
If only they could bottle those high-efficiency periods, such as four scores on four second-half possessions (not counting the victory-formation knee to end the game). Such as the defense holding Minnesota scoreless … aside from a five-minute and 39-second span just before intermission.
The letdown was eerily similar to Week 6, when Washington dominated Philadelphia in the first half yet enjoyed a slim lead, thanks to yielding touchdowns on a kickoff and interception return. It’s all part of a disquieting pattern appears to be unavoidable.
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Posted on November 10th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
The family of Junior Seau didn’t get a ring and gold jacket when the star linebacker was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year. Neither did the family of former Los Angeles Rams great Les Richter (inducted in 2011) or any other player who was enshrined after death.
That includes the family of legendary Raiders quarterback and 2016 HOF inductee Ken Stabler. But they became a cause celebre last week when the Hall of Fame held a ring ceremony at halftime of the Bears-Vikings game. In response to a fan who wondered about Stabler’s jewelry, Kendra Stabler-Moyes tweeted: “Sadly, my Dad goes not get a ring.”
Former Raiders CEO Amy Trask tweeted her disbelief, which led Stabler-Moyes to add another nugget: “Yes, seriously,” she tweeted. “No jacket, no ring. My Dad deserves it, dead or alive! He gave so much to the game we all love.”
Yes he did. I was never a Raiders fan but I loved “The Snake,” who died from complications of colon cancer last year. The way he played and personified Oakland’s outlaw image in the ‘70s was very cool to a boy 3,000 miles away in Brooklyn. Stabler, Fred Blietnikoff, Cliff Branch and Mark van Eeghen are characters in some of my earliest and most-indelible NFL memories.
Raider Nation sprang into action upon learning of the Hall’s longstanding policy, which we’ll address momentarily. In a tweet with the image of a Stabler trading card, coach Jack Del Rio implored: “Do the right thing!!” Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks weighed in as well: “No football HOF ring for The Snake’s family? That ain’t right,” he tweeted. “Throw deep, Baby.”
Raiders owner Mark Davis told ESPN he was working behind the scenes to have the policy lifted. “No way I should have my dad’s ring and Bruce Allen doesn’t have his dad’s,” Davis said. “No way I should have my dad’s ring and Junior Seau’s family doesn’t have his. Same with Dick Stanfell’s family, and Kenny’s family. The guys earned it and their families should get to enjoy it,” he said. “This is an injustice that has to be rectified.”
But I’m not convinced the Hall is wrong for its stance, reiterated Tuesday in a statement.
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Posted on November 7th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
Folks at the Big Ten must be asleep on the job, their dreams filled with dollar signs whirling like a slot machine. Administrators clearly aren’t paying attention to what’s happening in real life, which should jolt them awake in a cold sweat.
The NFL’s TV ratings are cratering. Saturation coverage has led to viewer apathy. Overexposure has created indifference. More than enough has become too much.
So what do geniuses at the Big Ten decide? That NOW is the perfect time to expand the TV contract and play six football games per season on Fridays. With its new deal, announced last week, the Big Ten meets a non-existent demand and stomps on high school football.
Once-sacred “Friday Night Lights” were off-limits for decades, but increasingly have ceded territory to intercollegiate competition. There were 53 college games on that night in 2014. There are 65 scheduled for this year.
First it was smaller leagues such as the Mid-American, Sun Belt and Conference West. With fewer chances to be seen by large audiences, those conferences willingly served as programming fodder on a night synonymous with prep football. Excluded from most viewing windows on Saturdays, FCS schools don’t have a better option to get in front of viewers.
But the Big Ten isn’t hurting for eyeballs. It’s just falling in line with other greedy Power Five conferences encroaching on TGIF (only the SEC has abstained, making it truly holier-than-thou).
High school football hasn’t ground to a halt in other places and it surely won’t cease in the Midwest.
However, just like the NFL’s ill-conceived assault on our Thursday nights, the Big Ten money grab on Friday is totally unnecessary. It’s a bad look, too.
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Posted on November 3rd, 2016
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
The NFL has never demonstrated an honest-to-goodness concern about the safety and well-being of its laborers. It hid the danger of concussions for years, while also pumping buckets of painkillers into the workforce. The only thing that matters is the players’ availability to suit up – as often as possible for as long as they’re effective.
But commissioner Roger Goodell & Co. can’t say that. They have to give the impression that the NFL is family. The concerned parents sit in offices, fretting over the rambunctious youngsters running around the field. And like all good parents know, rules are one-way only: “Do as we say, not as we do.”
Washington’s star left tackle, Trent Williams, was suspended for marijuana at the end of the 2011 season. He was suspended again on Tuesday, reportedly for missing a drug test. He’ll miss the next four games during a crucial stretch against Minnesota, Green Bay, Dallas and Arizona.
I don’t know if Williams currently uses marijuana, which remains banned by the NFL. But for argument’s sake, let’s say he does use it, indulging consistently to play through painful injuries. Let’s say his reputation for toughness and dependability is a direct result of consuming cannabis.
You know how the league responds? “Just say no … and take this, instead.”
The NFL doesn’t have a problem with drug use; the problem is players who use drugs that the league doesn’t approve and peddle.
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Posted on October 31st, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
When it comes to nicknames and logos involving Native Americans, sports franchises in Washington and Cleveland are each other’s worst half.
Washington’s NFL team uses a downright slur for its nickname, but the logo is a relatively realistic depiction of what’s presumably a proud warrior. It suggests dignity, grace and strength, a stark contrast to the term that accompanies it.
Conversely, the Cleveland Indians’ nickname is much less objectionable on face value if, for some inexplicable reason, you’re hellbent on using Native Americans as mascots. However, the Indians’ Chief Wahoo is utterly abominable and deplorable.
Racist images don’t come any better than this vile cartoon, red-faced and wide-eyed with an outrageously toothy grin and big nose. It’s a shucking-and-grinning, Sambo-like mockery of this country’s indigenous people.
Envision similar imagery for the Cleveland Africans. Picture the Cleveland Asians or Cleveland Hispanics. How about the Cleveland Jews? Pick the most blatant, stereotypical characteristics, slap on a stupid, buck-toothed smile and you’re in business.
You don’t have to be a member of the group to realize the symbol is offensive. You don’t even have to imagine how it must feel, though that helps.
You just need half a brain, half a heart and a pinch of common sense.
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Posted on October 27th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
The NFL said it learned a lesson after the Ray Rice case. Now we know what the league was talking about.
The takeaway didn’t involve domestic violence and how best to address it; the focus was damage control and how best to manage it.
Even with that shallow goal, the NFL is failing miserably. That’s why kicker Josh Brown received a one-game suspension in August for violating the personal conduct policy, instead of getting the “mandatory” six-game suspension for violating the domestic violence policy.
The New York Giants cut Brown on Tuesday after the recent release of police documents that contained admissions that he abused his then-wife. Just like that, the NFL’s stance on batterers is exposed as fraudulent PR optics.
In the Rice case, the league was embarrassed into strong action when an elevator video surfaced, video that was sent to the NFL but (allegedly) never received. In the Brown case, the league was embarrassed and prompted to “thoroughly review the additional information and determine next steps” before the Giants acted first.
A thorough review of available evidence in August would’ve determined that a longer ban was appropriate when the one-game suspension was issued for a May 2015 incident.
The NFL spent $2.5 million on a 243-page manifesto entitled “Investigative Report Concerning Footballs Used During the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015.” Commissioner Roger Goodell has an assortment of detectives and former FBI agents on speed dial. The league has enough lawyers to fill out a roster plus two practice squads.
But no one at 345 Park Avenue uncovered enough proof to warrant a six-game suspension, despite Brown having two domestic violence run-ins within a year? No one detected the fire behind the smoke, which included NFL security moving Brown’s ex-wife to a new hotel room after he harassed her at the 2016 Pro Bowl? Goodell & Co. were afraid of overreaching on the stiffer penalty and losing an appeal, based on fear that it lacked sufficient evidence?
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Posted on October 25th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
There are few sure things in life. The sun rising in the east comes to mind. So does water being wet and gravity being a one-way deal.
A new entry was added to the list this year: outrageous comments uttered during the POTUS campaign.
But the phenomena of physics and politics don’t carry over to the world of sports. There, we find that “locks” can be picked, defeated by squads that had no hope according to the vast majority of observers.
Baseball is notorious for crowning champions who weren’t the best team all season. One of the most shocking upsets in any sport happened in 1990, when the defending World Series champ Oakland Athletics – supposedly on the verge of a dynasty – were outscored 22-8 in a four-game sweep by the Cincinnati Reds.
The New England Patriots have been on both sides of a shocker. They upended the St. Louis Rams (14-point favorites) in Super Bowl 36, despite yielding 427 yards to “The Greatest Show on Turf.” The Patriots later were undefeated, 14-point favorites in Super Bowl 42, but the New York Giants scored a pair of touchdowns in the final quarter, the clincher with 35 seconds left in the game.
We don’t have to go back very far for the last jaw-dropper on hardwood. Just last summer, Golden State not only produced the NBA’s best-ever record, they jumped to a 3-1 lead in the Finals. Cleveland and LeBron James were poised for another achy breaky heart, the Cavaliers’ second consecutive against the Warriors. But they rallied.
With the NBA season tipping off on Tuesday, what are the odds that the same finalists meet for the third straight year, an unprecedented NBA trilogy?
I’m going to be conservative: Barring catastrophic injuries, World War III or pneumonic plague, there’s roughly a 99.9 percent chance of another Warriors-Cavs match-up in the Finals.
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Posted on October 19th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
Maybe Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wasn’t simply a jealous hater in March 2014 when he shared his opinion about the NFL expanding its Thursday night TV package.
“Just watch,” Cuban told reporters prior to a Mavericks game. “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way. I’m just telling you, when you’ve got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns on you. That’s rule No.1 of business.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has scoffed at that philosophy. In 2010, he stated that his goal was to grow league revenue from $8.5 billion to $25 billion by the year 2027. Goodell adheres to the playbook of Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas in “Wall Street.”
“Greed – for lack of a better word – is good,” Gekko said. “Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms – greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge – has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
And, quite possibly, the downward spiral of NFL viewership.
There are several reasons for the double-digit dip in TV ratings this season and some – the presidential election, technological advances and modern viewing habits – are beyond the league’s control. But Goodell’s insistence on cramming the schedule with more and more games has to be a factor. Especially when the sport’s quality seems to be eroding.
Providing excessive access to a bad product is a good way to lose customers, already bombarded with free-time options and distractions.
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Posted on October 17th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
I generally agree with the sentiment that a player shouldn’t lose his job due to injury.
But there’s always room for exception when the replacement is exceptional.
Wally Pipp is history’s most famous example. He was the New York Yankees first baseman who sat out a game in 1942 due to a headache. Some guy named Lou Gehrig took his place and never left the lineup, eventually playing a then-record 2,130 consecutive games.
Thus, a new term came into being. The former first baseman was “Pipped” by Gehrig, who enjoyed a Hall of Fame career and was immortalized in “Pride of the Yankees.”
Drew Bledsoe can relate. The No.1 overall pick in 1993, Bledsoe led New England to the Super Bowl in 1996. He was in the prime of his career when he suffered a potentially life-threatening injury during a game against the New York Jets in 2001. A sixth-round draft pick named Tom Brady took his place as starting quarterback and has started ever since, collecting four Super Bowl rings and two league MVP trophies along the way.
Which brings us to Tony Romo and Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys’ former and current starting quarterback, respectively.
Romo is the 36-year-old, brittle veteran who has played just four games since last season, none this year. Prescott is the 23-year-old fresh-faced rookie who has led Dallas to a 5-1 record while compiling the league’s fourth-highest completion percentage and fifth-highest passer rater.
Who’s Dak?
He’s The Future and it started in Week 1.
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