Posted on January 18th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
The following isn’t hindsight. My wife can vouch for me, because I said it aloud as soon as Aaron Rodgers completed his remarkable, insanely athletic pass for a 41-yard touchdown on the final play of regulation against Arizona.
The thought leaped to mind instantly: “Green Bay should go for two.”
Arizona’s defense was reeling, shell-shocked after yielding the Hail Mary and a 60-yard completion on fourth-and-20 a few plays earlier. The Packers trailed by one point with no time on the clock. Coach Mike McCarthy faced a crucial decision: Convert the two-point conversion and win the game, or kick the extra-point and see what happens with the coin flip.
It should’ve been an easy choice.
But football coaches have been “playing it safe” since the advent of leather helmets. The book says it’s better to head into overtime than risk everything on one snap from the opponent’s 2-yard line. A prodigious amount of testicular fortitude is required to buck conventional wisdom and open yourself to scathing criticism. If McCarthy went for two and failed, he’d never hear the end of it.
That makes no sense, but it’s true. Conversely, very little has been mentioned about his decision to play for the tie. Virtually all of the postgame discussion has centered on overtime’s format, which kept Rodgers on the sideline as Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald gained all 80 yards on the game-ending touchdown drive.
“It comes down to a coin flip sometimes after a long hard-fought game,” Rodgers told reporters after the game, “back and forth, bizarre plays made by both teams, and unfortunately it comes down to that.”
What’s unfortunate is McCarthy’s failure to seize the moment. His team was an underdog on the road. The fact that only one point separated Green Bay and Arizona after Rodgers’ final heave was miraculous. Cardinals coach Bruce Arians’ hyper-aggressiveness on the previous series had aided the Packers, giving them about 35 extra seconds for their final drive. All McCarthy had to do was dial up a successful two-point conversion and the Packers would be headed to Carolina.
And get this: Despite all the flack he would’ve taken if the play failed, going for two in that situation gave McCarthy a better chance of winning!
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Posted on January 13th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
From Madison Avenue to Capitol Hill and from network headquarters to mayors’ offices, the National Football League is accustomed to getting its way. The line in “Concussion” was absolutely true: The NFL owns a day of the week.
It has stakes in Mondays and Thursdays, too, plus select Saturdays.
All of that power can go to a league’s head, making it feel invincible and impervious. Such entities believe they can do what they want, when they want and how they want, going through the motions of negotiating, building consensus and working in good faith.
But whenever necessary, the billionaires’ club breaks out enough brass knuckles and lead pipes to make Jimmy Hoffa smile from his end-zone crypt in Jersey. Or, it slaps unruly subjects in the face and sweet-talks them into remaining loyal, like the dynamics between supervisors and employees in the world’s oldest profession.
St. Louis went to bed Tuesday night as a scorned lover. The Rams are headed back to Los Angeles, from whence they came in 1995. That indignity makes St. Louis a two-time loser, previously dumped by the Cardinals in 1988.
A lesson in karma? St. Louis had no problem playing a role in Los Angeles’ heartbreak two decades ago. Jilted partners welcoming another city’s former mate is part of the NFL.
Arizona opened it arms for the Cardinals. When the Colts slipped out in the middle of the night in 1984, Baltimore used its charm to seduce the Browns from Cleveland. Nashville agreed to lie down with Houston’s Oilers in 1997. Los Angles took in the Raiders in 1982 but watched them return home to Oakland in 1995.
St. Louis grieves the loss of its (putrid) NFL franchise but the relationship didn’t have to end this way. The Chargers and Raiders had a deal to leave for L.A. and share a stadium in Carson, Calif., which would’ve left the Rams as odd team out. Unfortunately for St. Louis fans, Rams owner Stan Kroenke is better at league politics and has stronger supporters than Raiders owner Mark Davis, who’s still paying for the sins of his father.
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Posted on January 11th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
Bowl season – capped by Monday’s College Football Playoff championship – and March Madness – which ends with the Final Four in April – always bring two colors to mind: green and black.
They represent the vast sums of money being raked in and the vast majority of athletes being raked over.
Increasingly, the annual climaxes for intercollegiate revenue sports unleash streams of debate on what’s right and what’s fair. Colleges, athletic departments and administrators are experiencing exponential growth in income and salaries, while the football and basketball players who produce the wealth largely operate under the quaint “student-athlete” model crafted in the mid-1950s.
Alabama’s Bear Bryant was 15 years away from integrating his football team (beating LSU and Ole Miss by one season) back then. Adolph Rupp was 10 years away from leading his Kentucky Wildcats against a Texas Western squad that had five black starters and changed the face of college basketball.
Back then, college sports was all white, with very little green. The situation has flipped in the half-century since, and justifiying the status quo has become increasingly difficult. I once resided on the other side of the argument, believing that a scholarship was fair compensation for the football and basketball players who generate billions of dollars. I contended that developing a system for compensation would be too difficult and messy, too hard to decide who gets what and why.
But the money grew to the point where my continued defense of the longstanding arrangement became impossible. The situation is morally repulsive. Here’s how Donald Yee puts it in a recent op-ed published in The Washington Post:
“Most fans of college football and basketball go along with the pretense, looking past the fact that the NCAA makes nearly $1 billion a year from unpaid labor,” writes Yee, a sports agent whose clients include New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton.
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Posted on January 10th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
LANDOVER, Md – The 2015 NFL season has ended for Washington. But it was quite a start.
The games are over, but they represented a new beginning in Ashburn. Players and coaches don’t like to accept such consolation prizes after a loss. But no matter what happened in Sunday’s game against Green Bay – which the Packers won, 35-18 – there would be no reason for dropped heads in lockeroom.
“I’m very proud of these guys, and it’s still a sick feeling any time you lose a game at the end of the year, no matter when it is,” Washington coach Jay Gruden said. “With the opportunities that we had out there today, it makes you ill. But with the guys battling the way they did, I’m very proud of the guys and I like the future of this football team.”
There’s no shame in losing a playoff contest against an MVP-winning quarterback such as Aaron Rodgers. He hadn’t looked like himself for most of the season but regained his form when it mattered most, after the Packers fell behind, 11-0.
There’s no disgrace in being out-smarted by a Super Bowl winning coach such as Mike McCarthy. Green Bay lost four of five games during one stretch and closed the regular season with back-to-back defeats, but McCarthy had his team ready for red-hot Washington. He called the right plays and exploited the right match-ups as the Packers rallied for 17 unanswered points before halftime.
When Kirk Cousins came out for the first drive after intermission and engineered a five-play, 73-yard touchdown drive – scoring on a perfectly executed quarterback draw to recapture the lead – there was a sense of more to come. But it never materialized.
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Posted on January 7th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
“Started from the bottom now we’re here
Started from the bottom now my whole team [bleeping] here”
Virtually every year this century, at least one NFL team could’ve blasted Drake’s popular rap song throughout the locker room at season’s end. I wouldn’t be surprised if commissioner Roger Goodell, who began working for the league as an administrative intern in 1982, hums the tune each time he walks into his office.
Finishing last in one season doesn’t preclude teams from finishing atop the division 12 months later. The NFL credo of “any given Sunday” can be extended to “any given year.” You never know which team will execute the worst-to-first turnaround, but chances are great we’ll see at least one.
Beginning with the 2001 Chicago Bears, 22 teams have gone from cellar-dweller to division champ in one season. The feat failed to materialize only twice in the last 15 years, 2002 and 2014. Even more amazing are the multiple reversals of fortune that occurred within the same season.
Chicago, Tampa Bay and the New York Giants pulled it off in 2005. Baltimore, New Orleans and Philadelphia did likewise in 2006. In fact, more than one team has made the journey in seven of the 15 seasons since 2001.
Granted, NFL teams only have to leap-frog three division opponents (compared to four in MLB, five in the NBA and a minimum of six in the NHL). And all NFL worst-to-firsts aren’t created equal. But it goes to show that cities like Washington can keep hope alive against all logical expectations and sometimes be rewarded.
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Posted on January 4th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
The thing that baffled me the most was their certainty, their staunch and steadfast belief that Kirk Cousins was a bum, period. Critics looked past his glimpses of excessive competence and downplayed his paucity of meaningful experience, concluding that Cousins’ NFL destiny was as a clipboard-holder, at best.
I wasn’t positive Cousins could take his skill-set, overcome his habit for bad interceptions and become a bona fide starting quarterback. But I definitely thought it was possible and wanted to find out. Robert Griffin III’s performance through the preseason only confirmed my belief that Cousins deserved a shot and gave Washington the best chance to win.
Coach Jay Gruden clearly was correct in naming Cousins as the starter. It’s safe to say Washington has its quarterback of the future. He’s the one who led the NFL in completion percentage and threw 23 touchdowns against three interceptions in the final 10 games. During the four-game winning streak that clinched the NFC East, he threw 12 touchdowns and one pick.
I suppose skeptics still exist, needing to see more than one exemplary season. They can point to fools’ gold such as Matt Cassel and wonder if Cousins fits the profile. Cassel was a New England backup for three years before Tom Brady went down with a season-ending injury in the 2008 opener.
Cassel threw for 3,693 yards and 21 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. The Patriots packaged him and linebacker Mike Vrabel in a trade with Kansas City, netting a second-round pick they used on defensive back Patrick Chung. Cassel was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2010 but has been overwhelming disappointing since he left New England. His career quarterback rating is 79.3, which ranks 70tth among passers with at least 1,500 attempts.
We could spend the rest of our lives trying to break the code for quarterback predictions, sorting the Cassels and Scott Mitchells from the Bradys and the Kurt Warners. The stakes are such that teams willingly spend multiple first-round picks to find “the one.”
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Posted on December 31st, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Before we close the book on 2015 and ring in the new year, it’s time to check off some items on my “TIDU List” – Things I Don’t Understand:
*HOW JAY GRUDEN COULD TREAT THE DALLAS GAME LIKE THE FOURTH EXHIBITION.
“Rest the starters” sounds good when you’re playoff-bound with only an inconsequential regular-season finale ahead. But Gruden doesn’t have the ability to sit Washington’s first-stringers as if Sunday was the preseason finale. “There are only seven guys we can keep inactive,” he told reporters Wednesday. Besides, he’s wants to keep the momentum going.
Playing the Cowboys offers enough incentive to win, no matter who sits out.
*WHY ANYONE IS SURPRISED THAT ANOTHER SUITOR WENT AFTER AROLDIS CHAPMAN.
The NYC Council Speaker said she’s “very disturbed” by the Yankees’ acquisition of the All-Star closer under investigation for domestic violence. Melissa Mark-Viverito accused the team of “condoning this kind of violence,” allegations that Chapman assaulted his girlfriend and fired eight gunshots in his garage. The Nationals ended their pursuit in response.
The Yankees are just gracious, willing to build character in a 27-year-old with a 100 mph fastball.
*HOW CHIP KELLY WORE OUT HIS WELCOME IN PHILADELPHIA SO QUICKLY.
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Posted on December 29th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Being falsely accused can create a visceral feeling unlike any other, an instinctual reaction that roars the very moment untruths about you reach you. I can only imagine how much worse the experience is when you’re a public figure and falsehoods spread across the world in a matter of minutes.
From that day forward, your story includes an unwanted page. Subsequent proof that the allegations were bogus don’t rewind the tape or erase the memory. Over time, some folks grow fuzzy on whether claims were true. Others simply believe they were accurate, no matter how evidence to the contrary was presented.
Then there are those who never believe anything negative about a beloved celebrity. They contend that the women are lying, the police are crooked, the informants are untrustworthy, the prosecutors are biased or the sources have ulterior motives. To true believers, there’s always a good reason to discount damaging charges.
At least until an accused party drops his vehement defense and finally fesses up (see: Lance Armstrong).
The latest case in the court of public opinion is NFL legend Peyton Manning, who vehemently denies an Al Jazeera report that he used human growth hormone as part of his recovery from neck surgery in 2011. According to the weekend report, performance-enhancing drugs have been used by several other athletes, including Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, but combined they don’t have the same cultural impact as an accusation against Manning.
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Posted on December 24th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
The nation’s leading scorer in NCAA Division I men’s hoops plays in the hotbed affectionately known as “the DMV” (District-Maryland-Virginia), home to nearly a dozen programs in liberal definitions of “Washington area.”
But he doesn’t attend Maryland or Georgetown. He’s not at George Mason, American or George Washington. Stretching the boundaries south to schools like Virginia and Norfolk State, or north to Loyola and Towson, won’t lead you to him, either.
You’ll find junior James “J-Byrd” Daniel III and his 28.4 points-per-game average at Howard University, where coach Kevin Nickelberry recruited him to anchor a major rebuilding project.
Three years later, the Bison are on schedule. Their 16-16 record last season snapped a streak of seven consecutive 20-loss campaigns. Daniel scored a season-low 19 points in Tuesday night’s loss at Central Michigan, but Howard still has a winning mark at 7-6.
“Unfortunately for the last couple of games more of the load has been on James with so many guys out,” Nickelberry said, referring to injured starters James Miller and Marcel Boyd. Opponents can put more focus on Daniel, who scored 39 against William & Mary, 38 against Radford and 30 in the season-opener at UMass.
“It’s probably going to make him a little better,” Nickelberry said. “You watch him and think he’s senior, but he’s just 12 games into his junior year.”
Daniel, a wispy 5-foot-11, 165-pounder from Hampton, Va., made his presence known immediately by leading all Division I freshmen in scoring (21 ppg). His averaged dipped to 16.7 ppg as a sophomore, with his 3-point field-goal percentage falling precipitously, from .394 to .286.
He returned this year determined to improve his pull-up jumper and decision-making on the pick-and-roll. Nickelberry also wanted Daniel to use his speed and help the team play more up-tempo. More importantly, Daniel came back at all, instead of transferring for more publicity at bigger schools that were interested.
“It’s just the bond I have with the coaches and this team, “Daniel said. “I could tell we were going to have a good group if we stick together. I just really felt we could be special.”
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Posted on December 22nd, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
There is no dispute that the NFL employs double standards, inequities that have proven to be quite profitable. They cater to the majority of fans who prefer scintillating offense opposed to suffocating defense. The crowds gathered in stadiums, sports bars and living rooms want to see teams march down the field or cover it in huge chunks, via long, beautiful passes.
Quarterbacks are bubble-wrapped in protective measures to keep them upright and in throwing position. Linemen routinely get away with holding to give passers more time in the pocket. And wide receivers, who can run unencumbered after five yards, have mastered pick plays better than the Philadelphia Sixers.
Defensive players are in the way, bad guys out to spoil our enjoyment of exciting scoring plays. We don’t mind if they put up some resistance but eventually we want points hung on the scoreboard, preferably through highlight-worthy action that’s routine for players like Odell Beckham Jr.
The Giants’ second-year receiver is the youngest player to grace the cover of a Madden video game. It shows him making a spectacular, one-handed grab like the catch against Dallas that vaulted him to national acclaim last season. Beckham has been a huge star ever since, arguably the league’s most marketable non-quarterback. The numbers support his status as a premier target, especially compared to another high-profile receiver in the NFC East.
In 26 career games, Beckham has eclipsed 140 receiving yards nine times; the Cowboys’ Dez Bryant has surpassed 140 yards receiving eight times in 84 career games.
But regardless of Beckham’s – or any offensive star’s – value in attracting eyeballs, the NFL must look after all players’ safety, no matter which side they play. And I’m certain the outcome would’ve been different in Sunday’s New York-Carolina game if Josh Norman hit Beckham in the head instead of vice versa. There would’ve been an ejection.
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