Posted on December 20th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
LANDOVER, Md. – Prognostications aren’t worth much and you don’t have to be an “expert” to make one. That said, there were a couple of consensus thoughts regarding Washington as the NFL season began.
For starters, the team wasn’t expected to be very good. Most predictions fell between five and six wins. That forecast has proved a bit low after Sunday’s 35-25 victory against Buffalo. Washington improved to 7-7 and maintained its division lead in the NFC East. Shockingly, a win against Philadelphia on Saturday would clinch the title and ensure one more game this season at FedEx Field.
But the other thing most everyone agreed on was the question mark under center. The belief was any success surely would come on the strength of Alfred Morris and Matt Jones running behind an improved line coach by Bill Callahan. When Kirk Cousins supplanted Robert Griffin III at quarterback, conventional wisdom held that the less Washington relied on passing, the better the team would fare.
Nothing positive would result from Cousins throwing 30-plus times per game.
But as things have unfolded, that theory carried less weight than Dallas being a Super Bowl contender. It turns out that Washington can do just fine with Cousins slinging the ball. He threw for his sixth 300-yard game of the season Sunday (surprisingly, a team record), crisply leading the offense to touchdowns on its first three possessions.
“I don’t think anybody ever cringed when he dropped back, except maybe you guys,” defensive back DeAngelo Hall said, refuting a notion that early-season anxiety rose in direct proportion to Cousins’ pass attempts. “We have supreme confidence in him and feel like – with the weapons we have – we can be dangerous.
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Posted on December 17th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Wearing a black lace leotard and black stilettos, staring into the camera like the boss she is, Serena Williams sits on a throne with her legs to the side, the right one propped on the chair’s arm. That’s the fill-in-the-blank – powerful, provocative, puzzling, perturbing – Sports Illustrated cover photo that announced her as the magazine’s 2015 Sportsperson of the Year.
As with everything concerning Williams, this has caused a stir. End-of-year lists and rankings are natural starting points for conversation and debate. But most of the hullabaloo in this case arises because Williams elicits such strong feelings, positive and negative, among sports fans.
The other factor is SI listed a horse among 12 candidates in online balloting and the thoroughbred ran away with the readers’ vote.
Forty-seven percent of the voters selected Triple Crown-winner American Pharaoh as the one who “embodied the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement this year.” The Kansas City Royals came in second place with 29 percent of the vote, followed by soccer star Lionel Messi in third place with 6 percent of the vote. Williams was next-to-last with less than 1 percent of the vote; only track star Usain Bolt fared worse.
Horse lovers were furious. “Once again, Thoroughbred horse racing has been denied by mainstream sports media,” editor Brian Zipse wrote on the Horse Racing Nation blog. “Despite an overwhelming victory in the fan vote by American Pharaoh, maybe this sad announcement should come as no real surprise.”
What’s sad is the fact we’re having this discussion. American Pharaoh shouldn’t be in the mix for sportsperson of the year any more than, say, J.J. Watt should be a contender for horse of the year.
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Posted on December 15th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Those who dislike Cam Newton have their reasons. His bright-white smile – as flawless as the Carolina Panthers’ 13-0 record – is a good place to start.
Misery loves company and Newton clearly would ruin the best pity party. The quarterback’s effervescence as he runs roughshod over the league gets on some folks’ nerves. If his smile is “fake,” as was infamously alleged in a scouting report ahead of the 2011 draft, Newton should be up for an Oscar as well as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award.
Then there are his touchdown celebrations. Calling them “dances” would be an injustice. They’re more like elaborate productions, some of which last 12 seconds, seemingly broken into stanzas. Even some fans who don’t have a problem with rump-shaking in the end zone might agree that Newton’s choreography can run a bit too long.
His college days also cause some resentment, especially among rabid fans of the Southeastern Conference, where football is king, emperor and grand pooh-bah. Newton spent two years as a little-used reserve at the University of Florida before allegations of theft accompanied his departure. He later transferred to Auburn University – about 110 miles south of Birmingham, Ala. – where he was investigated for receiving improper benefits but won the 2010 Heisman Trophy and led the Tigers to a national championship in his one and only season there.
At 26, he’s rich and famous, blessed with good looks, light feet and a rocket arm. His bookshelf contains an NFL Rookie of the Year trophy in addition to the Heisman. Talk that he might need room for an MVP trophy apparently is too much for some detractors, leading to a multitude of recent headlines like “Why Cam Newton Isn’t the NFL MVP” (Rolling Stone), “Cam Newton Isn’t the NFL MVP and it’s Not Even Close” (USA Today) and “Cam Newton Should Not be in MVP Discussion” (Sports Illustrated).
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Posted on December 15th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Cleveland guard J.R. Smith is disappointed that the Golden State Warriors finally lost. He wanted them to remain undefeated entering their game against the Cavaliers on Christmas Day. At least he had a reasonable chance. Had Golden State survived the seventh game of a grueling road trip and handled business in three contests at home, Cleveland would’ve rolled into Oracle Arena to face a 28-0 Warriors team.
That was much more probable than my impossible dream scenario for Feb. 3, when Washington hosts the defending NBA champions. Now, after the 108-95 defeat Saturday night at Milwaukee, Golden State’s best record for its lone trip to Verizon Center would be is 47-1.
We knew the streak had to end at some point, most certainly before February. But it was fun to imagine Golden State chasing down the 2012-13 Miami Heat, who won 27 consecutive games, and then the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, who hold the record with 33 wins in a row. Those milestones have faded from view but the biggie – the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls record of 72 wins in a season – remains a distinct possibility.
Since the NBA limits each team’s’ number of appearances on national TV, maybe some Warriors games can air on the History Channel. The network would enjoy boffo ratings and could justify the decision as part of its mission, arguing that we’ve never seen a phenomenon quite like Steph Curry & Co.
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Posted on December 9th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Do we really want athletes and coaches to be candid when microphones are in their face and pens are scribbling every word? Do we detest the tired clichés and canned answers that we hear coming before a question is completed? Do we actually want unfiltered honesty in the participants’ thoughts on what really happened out there?
We talk a good game. But sometimes it seems like Jack Nicholson should channel Colonel Jessup and shout in our face: “You can’t handle the truth!”
Pure veracity can make us uncomfortable, causing us to squirm mentally as process unordinary responses. Conversely, we don’t think twice when hearing the type of replies that Crash Davis gave Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham.
“Clichés are your friends,” the veteran told the rookie. “‘We gotta play ‘em one day at time. … ‘I’m just happy to be here; hope I can help the ball club. … I just wanna give it my best shot and, the good Lord willing, things will work out.’”
When LaLoosh complained that the answers are boring, Davis said “that’s the point.”
Seeing little upside in going off-script, most athletes stay within the safety zone of mundane comments. When a few do venture out, they rarely point a finger at the strategists, leaving that time-honored practice to fans and media. But a pair of star halfbacks – the Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson and Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott – broke that taboo recently, giving all of us something to talk about.
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Posted on December 8th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
LANDOVER, Md. – The majority of Monday night’s football game between Dallas and Washington, was a microcosm of a few well-established themes.
The home team continued to struggle attempting to play well in back-to-back games. The visitors continued to look lost with their star quarterback nursing a broken collar bone. The officials continued to make themselves a way-too-visible part of the game.
And the NFC East continued to resemble an ugly pile-up involving four dilapidated jalopies on a highway full of potholes.
Then the fourth quarter began and something that resembled a good, exciting football game emerged. The late flurry of action resulted in a lead change, a tie, another lead change, a tie with 44 seconds remaining and finally – unfortunately for the hosts – one last lead change with nine seconds left.
Dan Bailey’s 54-yard field goal gave Dallas a 19-16 victory, costing Washington an opportunity at sole possession of first place in the NFL’s sorriest division.
The contest ended the way it felt for most of the evening, a downer. Fans were worked up entering the game, a nationally-televised matchup against the hated rival, with much at stake for a change. But the product was buzzkill for three quarters, reminding everyone that these teams, like their division mates, are far from must-see TV.
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Posted on December 7th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Cam Newton makes some folks irrational. They are so blinded by preconceived and post-conceived notions of the Carolina quarterback, they make nonsensical statements and mean-spirited decisions.
Consider what happened Sunday in the Panthers’ 41-38 victory against New Orleans. After rifling a 13-yard touchdown to Ted Ginn Jr., Newton runs to the end zone. He virtually begs the ref for the ball because – as everyone who watches football knows – Newton likes to give them to children in the stands.
The ref looks at Newton, turns away dismissively and tosses the ball, leaving his hand extended like the follow-through on a shot (or offensive gesture). Then he struts away as if he proved anything besides the fact he’s a jerk. Newton can’t believe it but the scene gets worse. He runs toward the “ball boy” – a balding, middle-aged man with a gut – and asks him for the ball. Incredibly, this lowly sideline assistant balks and tries to play keep away, believing he has more authority than the starting QB. Exasperated, Newton snatches it from his hand, runs back to the end zone and hands it to a little girl in a Panthers jersey.
It was one thing when Packers’ defensive end Julius Peppers last month threw a ball aside disdainfully to prevent Newton from doing his thing. (As on Sunday, Newton retrieved it and made a little boy happy). But I can’t imagine a ref and ball boy being that rude if, say, Tom Brady or Russell Wilson asked for the pigskin.
The sequence exemplified the disrespect some have for Newton, merely one of the NFL’s biggest stars and the unquestioned leader of a 12-0 team. He entered the league with a couple of strikes against him in critics’ minds, who couldn’t see past the allegations of theft at Florida and improper benefits at Auburn, the spread-option style and infamously alleged “insincere smile.” And, of course, the end zone dancing, first-down gesturing and Man of Steel mimicking.
Five seasons into his career, Newton still can’t get his due credit, even though he’s the main reason Carolina has won 16 consecutive regular-season games. Some headlines I saw in the weeks leading up to Sunday’s game were mind-boggling:
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Posted on December 2nd, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
At the news conference introducing Dusty Baker as the Nationals manager, someone asked about a certain former slugger possibly joining the staff as hitting coach. “We have not discussed Barry Bonds as a candidate,” general manager Mike Rizzo said. A couple of weeks later, Rick Schu was brought back as the lone holdover from Matt Williams’ staff, joined by new assistant hitting coach Jacque Jones.
Nothing against Schu and Jones, presumably fine gentlemen, but adding Bonds to the mix would’ve been a lot more interesting.
Washington and Nats ownership might be too conservative for such a polarizing figure, at least for his first baseball job since retiring after the 2007 season. Conversely, Miami and Marlins owner Jeff Loria have less aversion to risk and controversy. They see only upside in giving Bonds a shot to transfer some of his prodigious knowledge to willing pupils. According to multiple reports, he’s on the verge of joining Don Mattingly’s staff.
Good for the Marlins. Good for Bonds. Good for baseball.
There’s no reason to let an extraordinary baseball mind waste away if it wants to be engaged in the sport. Lesser talents, equally tainted, have already returned to the game without shame for past steroid use.
Williams, named in the Mitchell Report as an alleged doper, has gone from Arizona to Washington and back to Arizona. Mark McGwire is about to begin his third coaching job, on the Padres’ bench, after stints as hitting coach for the Dodgers and Cardinals. Manny Ramirez is a hitting instructor in the Cubs’ organization. Alex Rodriguez just capped a remarkable comeback season and showed tremendous insight and passion as a postseason broadcaster.
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Posted on November 30th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
On Tuesday, Kobe Bryant visits his hometown for the final time as an NBA player. The Philadelphia Sixers will be on the opposite end of the court, fresh off tying one record for futility and extending another.
Bryant’s Lakers are 2-14 and are primed to let Philadelphia break into the win column after an 0-18 start. Only the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets began a season as poorly as these Sixers, who have lost a remarkable 28 consecutive games. That’s a feat unmatched by any U.S. professional sports franchise ever.
This season aside, Bryant can’t share much about chronic losing with the young Sixers. He has won five NBA titles, two Olympic gold medals, an NBA MVP and been selected to 17 All-Star Games. But he has a wealth of knowledge on being a rich and famous teenage superstar, experience he should discuss with 19-year-old Philly center Jahlil Okafor.
The No. 1 overall pick last summer, Okafor leads all rookies in scoring and minutes per game (17.5 and 33, respectively). He’s third among rookies in rebounds (8.2) and third in blocks (2.34), but he’s tops in disturbing off-court incidents that recently came to light. There was a reported after-hours altercation in Philly, that included a gun pointed at his head; a reported ticket for driving 108 mph on the Ben Franklin Bridge, which has a speed limit of 45 mph; and a reported after-hours street fight in Boston, where he pushed and punched a man (video courtesy of TMZ).
“I hold myself to a higher standard than anyone else ever could and I’m not proud of some of my decisions over the last few months,” Okafor tweeted Sunday. “I own my choices both personally and now publicly. At this point I am cooperating and respecting the process I have to go through.
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Posted on November 29th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
LANDOVER, Va. – NFL players and coaches have made a pact, reached a secret agreement on acceptable language when discussing games publicly. The terms of the accord are clear and rarely broken.
No single contest is worth more than any another. Whether it’s an early-season, mid-season or late-season match-up, doesn’t matter. Each Sunday, Monday, Thursday (and sometimes Saturday) carries equal weight, merely one-16th of the whole, period.
Naturally, we on the outside refuse to play along. When the New York Giants have won five straight against Washington and visit FedEx Field with first place on the line in late November, that’s a big game. Certainly bigger than, say, the Week 3 meeting at MetLife Stadium when the season was just getting underway.
And when Washington responds under those circumstances with one of its best all-around outings, taking a shutout into the fourth quarter and holding on for a 20-14 victory, that performance says something. It make a point and speaks loudly.
“You can say this was a statement game,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “It just felt good to play the way we know we’re capable of as a team. If you want to be blunt about it, we have another statement game next week, followed by another statement game.”
But a team has to start somewhere.
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