I Guess

     I do not gamble on games. I tried it once in Las Vegas over 25 years ago and it was on baseball. I did not win. After that misadventure, I never thought about doing it again. Despite my cousin's husband in California pestering me when it comes to betting on NFL football when he is in Nevada.

     Odds makers in Vegas know what they are doing. They are playing with house money and they make the odds with scientific precision based on mathematical principles. Given that I became a trial lawyer  as a profession, math was not my strong suit. Thus, bucking the odds like gamblers do, would be a foolish pursuit.

     I do not play fantasy sports. I find that the drafting and studying of rosters each week is too demanding for me. Why invest money like that based upon a player's performance, which is subject to too many variables. I leave my gambling like that to the stock market with the advice of professionals who have studied so many trends and corporations that their predictions are much more likely to lead to success than figuring out if Brandon Marshall will have a great day versus the Cleveland Browns or if Bryce Harper is truly the center fielder I want for my team given his sub-par 2016 season.

     Only rarely have I had the opportunity to participate in a Super Bowl pool. Those are based on number combinations for quarters, half time and the end of the game. I did not do too well there. Like a lottery, it is mere chance. I play the Mega Millions lottery for the sheer ridiculousness of believing that if I was to be lucky, it would be a huge financial windfall. I think the best I have done is win $10.00. My parents once won $1,000.00 which led to a nice day at Monmouth Park where the New Jersey lottery picked a winner of a $1,000,000.00.  It was not my family. 

     I have participated in NCAA Tournament basketball pools. I once finished third. Predicting the outcome of 65 games involving squads that can catch fire at any given time is a very difficult exercise. Since now I do not have access to a pool (besides they are technically illegal) and I scrupulously avoid the lure of CBS Sports, ESPN and other "sanctioned" pools, I make my selections for fun. Usually, by the end of the full first round I have routinely mistakenly picked the outcome of 6 to 7 games, one of them being the play-in games. 

     So my investment in gambling on games is a no odds pool that I jointly play with my daughter on NFL games. For 17 weeks, we try to figure out who is more adept and gives us hope that we picked correctly. The first couple of weeks are a crapshoot--how well a team can do based upon supposed experts feel for the team coming out of training camp or coming off of the prior year makes predicting the winners of 16 games nearly impossible. Who would have thought that the Jets would lose to the Bengals at home in Week 1, after a near miss for the playoffs last season? Could we know how good New England was going to be minus Tom Brady for four games as a result of his Deflategate suspension? 

     The first 3-4 weeks involves a lot of luck or the happenstance of a critical injury to a player, thereby dooming a team. Yet who could have foreseen the poor starts the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers had? That the Cleveland Browns weren't going to win a game until Week 16? Or that the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers, the latter in the last Super Bowl, would have crummy years? Who foresaw the Miami Dolphins making a concerted late run to a Wild Card berth? And the Philadelphia Eagles would start out red hot only to falter badly and fall out of playoff contention behind a promising rookie quarterback? With so many teams just above .500 and contending for the playoffs, it is hard to decide who to support on a weekly basis. 

     Last year we collectively won once. This season we were on the precipice of a possible winning weekend dependent upon the tiebreaker--how many total points would be scored in a Monday Night contest. We did not win. It is hard enough trying to get to a position of being in contention for winning the pool in any given week--figuring out how many points will be scored is even more unpredictable. 

     Here we are in Week 16. We started off with defying the odds that the New York Giants, who had a 99.8% chance of making the playoffs before the Thursday night game with the Eagles, would lose to the sub-.500 Philadelphia team. But the game was at Lincoln Financial Field, the Giants are much better at home than on the road and the Eagles had not been swept by the Giants in many years. Logic dictated to me to go with Philly.

     While there were many close contests this weekend, there were only a couple of upsets. Somehow I saw the Browns, at home, beating the San Diego Chargers; no team really loses all of their games in a season just as much as it is so rare to go undefeated during the regular season.  The Jaguars surprised me at home; then again could I have known that Tennessee star QB Marcus Mariota would break his leg? I went with the Chicago Bears at home despite their mediocre record, based on the prior week's close game versus the red hot Packers and a hunch that the Washington Redskins were overrated. Blew that one badly. Plus I gave the Seattle Seahawks way too much credit at home versus Arizona, but then again it was a meaningless game because Seattle was not going to do much to improve its stock from being the NFC West champs. 

     I have the feeling we are in the running for the weekly prize (which I have no idea what amount that is) based upon tonight's game between the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. While the game means more to the Lions, even they would be playing the Packers next week at home for the NFC crown no matter what tonight's outcome is. Yet Dallas, who has only lost to twice to the Giants is our pick--they have only lost at home once this year, and that was by one point to New York on Week 1. 

     There you have it--my semi-educated prognosticating of NFL games. It is fun although somewhat addictive. Maybe we will win tonight. If not, there is next weekend, which may have nothing at stake for anyone other than Green Bay and the Lions nest Sunday night. My prediction is that game will go down to the wire. Whichever team I choose as my winner, after all, will only be based on a guess. 

                                                           Bowling

     For those aficionados of the Professional Bowlers Association Tour, this article is not for you. Then again, for those entranced with the present College Bowl system as it now stands including a four team playoff, then this also may not be agreeable to you.

     In 2016, there are a grand total of 41 bowl games slated from December 17 through January 2, 2018. Two of those games, the Peach Bowl, held in Atlanta, and the Fiesta Bowl, located in Glendale, Arizona, are hosts to the two semi-finals games for the College Football Playoff. On January 9, 2018, the winners emerging from the aforementioned two bowls will meet in Tampa, Florida for the National Championship.

     41 games in 17 days, largely because there are no contest held on Christmas Day in deference to religion (although the National Football League has scheduled a game and the National Basketball Association has games starting at noon into the night), and none on January 1 to allow the NFL to complete its regular season. That means 82 of 128 schools registered to play in the Football Bowl Subdivision are playing in the post-season.

     By comparison, there are 125 schools in the Football Championship Subdivision who only permit 24 teams to qualify for an actual single-elimination tournament overseen by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, known commonly as March Madness, is capped at 68 teams while drawing from a body of 347 colleges and universities. Division III, comprised of smaller schools in terms of enrollment, has nearly 250 football-playing members and has managed nicely to have a playoff which starts after all schools complete their 10 regular season matchups in November and ended on December 16.

     So why is there such a glaring, disparate percentage of FBS schools permitted to play in bowl games? Money drives the bus here. FBS schools have seen their schedules increase from 8 to 9 to 10 and now 12 regular season tilts. In most every FBS college, the main source of revenue comes from the football program. It is also the most visible symbol of the school, due to the oversaturation of games televised regionally or nationally. Alumni support is keyed directly to the success of the football team; the better the team, more money comes into the school from the alums.

     The costs of maintaining football teams and their palaces--training facilities with all the newest bells and whistles, dorms and stadiums--runs into the millions of dollars. Scholarships cost plenty, too. Thus given the economics of the sport, it is nearly vital for a team to make the post-season in order to generate necessary revenue for not just football but to operate Federally-mandated Title IX women's sports too.  

     As a result we get games in multiple locales, some in warm weather, others in colder climates. If there is a sponsor or a local Chamber of Commerce looking to advertise their town and ESPN/ABC, CBS or FOX is willing to shell out the dough, then there will be a game. How many times has the University of New Mexico hosted a game in chilly Albuquerque--no less this time against the University of Texas-San Antonio with its gaudy 6-6 record? Or that New Orleans Bowl, involving two 6-6 teams, Southern Mississippi and Louisiana-Lafayette? I am willing to bet that the bettors in Las Vegas do not get too excited. The hometown Las Vegas Bowl generated more excitement and more betting too as the two teams, San Diego State and Houston ONLY had 3 losses. A total of 12 teams had .500 records. Three teams had sub.500 records and mad the post-season largely due to having acceptable graduation for its teams. Acceptable? Mediocre? Really?

     Some of the big programs are seeing their elite stars now opt not to play in a bowl game in order to avoid injury in a meaningless contest and thus hurt their marketability to the NFL. Do the schools care about jeopardizing the futures of young men who now are practicing beginning in August and playing 13 games to line conference and athletic department coffers?

     I find that the whole bowl landscape has spun out of control. When I was younger there were the four New Year's Day bowl games without corporate sponsorships--Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Rose. They all were held during the day. The Sun Bowl in El Paso existed, as did the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville. The predecessor to the Citrus Bowl was the Tangerine Bowl and that was for smaller schools from 1947 until 1968.

     Seemingly games appear in markets that should never have a game. Do we really need a Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium? The Military Bowl in Annapolis, Maryland on December 27 is a barn burner. The Quick Lane Bowl indoors in Detroit's Ford Field is a must; do players desire spending a week in a nearly bankrupt city? While Nassau in the Bahamas beckons with its bowl game, we even now can justify playing outside of the United State for its Popeye's Bahamas Bowl coincidentally owned by ESPN Events, Inc.
   
     Miami, New Orleans, San Diego, Orlando, Atlanta, Tampa and Dallas have the need to twice enrich their coffers as well as their partners, which includes the particular affiliated conferences and the associated teams. I get that these events are worth millions to the local economy from the legions of fans who travel to see their alma mater play. Still, many bowls suffer from mediocre attendance and they survive because of the television contract and the sponsorships.

     The biggest bowls and the CPP Championship max out with $18 million payouts. While that is obscene itself, that is what the market bears. Promising a recruit the chance to play for something big is only limited to a handful of games with more established reputations in the bigger markets. While it is novel to play on the blue carpet in Boise, Idaho, try selling to a kid that your above .500 squad who may have finished in the middle of the pack of its conference gets to play for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl trophy.

     I do not mean to diminish the efforts of those involved and dedicated to their bowls. It is just that there are too many games without the pizazz that should accompany a really successful season.

     It is my opinion that the major conferences need to cut back on the needless home games against lesser schools to fatten their resume as insurance for a tough season and institute a playoff like the FBS universities have. Notwithstanding the opposition from noted academics like former Ohio State University President Gordon Gee, presently the head of West Virginia University, whose reticence to a playoff was legendary, laughingly in the names of the students and academics,  whereupon only a handful of schools would find their way into the final four.

     I say take 16 bowls and make them into the championship. Situate them in areas where schools can readily play first round games without enormous travel. Four rounds would determine a champion, one which can be crowned in a big game in early January.  Then reserve another 16 games for those teams who reach a certain cutoff number of wins--let's day 8 victories in 11 games--as a reward for a nice season. This would permit some of the present sites to remain viable. Plus no site should host two games.

     To me this is a workable solution to an untenable situation. If their brethren in the FCS and Division II and Division II can make it work, then there is no reason this cannot succeed at the highest level.

     Until this happens, count me out of watching North Texas and Army tagle in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Or Mississippi State and Miami of Ohio meet in the mausoleum know as Tropicana Field, home to the Rays for baseball but very ill-suited for football games.

     You can do better, institutions of higher learning. Use your collective heads in the NCAA and reach a realistic answer for the plethora of meaningless games which fill up dead time on the airwaves. The public, the players and the cities deserve better.

   
                 

                                                        Catholics versus Criminals

     Last night ESPN aired the aforementioned in its 30 for 30 series. The focus was on the 1980's football rivalry between the University of Miami Hurricanes and the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish, with the emphasis on how the T shirt with the slogan which captured many people's imagination and flashed so much anger came about.

     Patrick Creadon, a Notre Dame alumnus who was a student during the heyday of the games between the two bitter foes, told the story from a decidedly Notre Dame perspective. He chronicled the story of how hostile the games were, stemming from the Miami successes under Coach Jimmy Johnson, which included a National Championship in 1987. To Creadon, the genesis of such hatred came from the 1985 game in Miami's Orange Bowl Stadium.

     Gerry Faust had campaigned long and hard to become the Coach of Notre Dame. An Ohio high school coach with a legion of great teams on that level, he could not win enough games to satisfy the rabid Notre Dame fans who expected championships every season.

     Faust decided to resign--not be fired--before the contest versus Miami. The team had quit on him, but there was still pride on the line.

     Johnson, a star at Arkansas as an undergrad where he became close with teammate Jerry Jones who owns the Dallas Cowboys, had worked his way up the coaching ranks as a valued assistant at his alma mater, then the University of Pittsburgh prior to becoming the head coach at Oklahoma State University. Compiling wins at Oklahoma State with a no nonsense brand of football, he was handed the reigns of the Miami program.

     Miami had established a counter culture approach to football, as Howard Schnellenberger, Johnson's predecessor as head coach, had recruited inner city kids from South Florida with an attitude. Some of those kids went on to commit crimes. That, to the pious alums of the white, preppy elite of Notre Dame, was heinous. Johnson continued the recruiting theme that Schnellenberger had utilized to reap tremendous success on the field.

     And he taught his team to never stop putting the hammer to the floor. Which is why he stomped on Notre Dame and Faust in his last futile game. Which enraged a whole lot of Irish players and partisans.

     One subplot to this was that Creadon had 2 friends who were diehard Irish fans and Notre Dame students,, Joe Frederick and childhood chum Pat Walsh. They also interacted with some of the key players for Notre Dame, including the quarterback, Tony Rice, who was a Proposition 48 qualifier and had to bring his grades up during his freshman year before he became eligible to play. Thus the message that everyone knew everyone, including the Yale transfer Pat Eilers--that's right--a transfer from one America's top schools who actually walked on to Coach Lou Holtz's squad and who was instrumental in the notorious 1988 game.

     Then there was this whole Johnson-Holtz scenario. Johnson had been a top assistant at Arkansas under his mentor, Frank Broyles. When Broyles stepped down, it was all but assumed that Johnson was going to be the next head coach. Surprisingly, Holtz was brought into Fayetteville to assume control; Johnson wanted no part of that and he left for Pitt. While civil at the surface, the two men clearly did not like each other.

     Thus, when Johnson was running over teams at full steam, Holtz was rebuilding Notre Dame. He was starting off recruiting young men he wanted to have the pedigree necessary to win. As such, when he recruited Rice, he got into trouble with then Chancellor Theodore Hester and was reprimanded for promising a scholarship to someone who had not even taken the SAT. Hester magnanimously still honored the scholarship.

     Such was the prelude to the 1988 contest at South Bend. Miami was peeved that it was only ranked 8th at the start of the season after winning the national title. And they took it out on their opponents. Notre Dame played a rugged schedule and started to win games they had been previously losing. Both moved up in the polls as the fall progressed until they were ranked number 1 and 4 when they collided on a warm October day.

     Creadon's friend Walsh had built a small, illicit underground empire selling Notre Dame tshirts which the bookstore and in effect the school wanted no part of. This violated the school's rule of no business enterprises on campus as well as trademark and copyright infringement laws. He and Frederick came up with the logo of Catholics vs Criminals and the shirts sold like a wildfire grows. So much so that $36,000 was made by his friend on game day sales. However, Pat Walsh had been forewarned that continued tshirt selling would have significant consequences. So, notwithstanding that dire forecast and having invested some money that he needed to recoup, he nonetheless went ahead, even selling the shirts on campus near the stadium.  This cost Pat Walsh his childhood quest, to walk on as a member of Digger Phelps' Notre Dame basketball squad, which he had just made as a senior. As the documentary so succinctly captured, Phelps questioned why selling tshirts was worth more than  a place on the basketball team?

     The rivalry was so intense among the players that the tshirts only ramped up the rabid nature of the Irish faithful. From the clips of interviews of former players, the distaste for the rival was bitter and hostile. Before the kickoff, there was a rumble between the teams. The game was hard-fought and with many mood swings based on scoring. Steve Walsh, the Miami quarterback, spoke of the emotionality of the event. He also suffered a cut on the chin chasing after a Notre Dame player who had intercepted his pass and was trying to score. Holtz so fired up his team that he said he wanted a piece of Jimmy Johnson after the game ( to which he revealed that he would have gotten his ass kicked). In terms of Catholics versus Criminals, Steve Walsh reminded us that there may have been as many Catholics on his team as there were at Notre Dame.

     It all came down to a tale of conversions. First, Notre Dame going for and making a 2 point conversion using that little-used Yale transfer Eilers who Holtz was impressed with from his initial encounter at practice as well as his moxie in telling a doubtful Holtz that he did not transfer from Yale not to play football. Then Miami running back Cleveland Gary  seemingly broke the plane of the goal line only to have been ruled to have fumbled before crossing the line, thereby denying the Hurricanes the chance to win the game.

     Notre Dame exacted revenge for its seniors and absolution in defeating Miami. Miami still cries foul on the conversion. The bitterness of the rivalry, so exemplified in the alleged divergence between the two schools in their football teams philosophies, led to the halting of the series for a long period of time.

     So what do we come away with from this 30 for 30 episode? That the world that these two teams and their fans dwelled in in 1988 was screwed up as captured by Creadon. The emotionality that QB Walsh had noted was perverse in its universal application involving both schools. Football was beyond normalcy. Or was football the real normalcy among the Notre Dame fans and led to its sanctification as well as its banality? That so much was invested on all fronts that a rivalry needed to be discontinued so as to regain sanity? That the insanity provoked radicalness and racial stereotyping? An absence of morality cloaked in feigned elitist fidelity?And one boy was so caught up in his own world that he lost out on the thing he cherished most?

     So who were the Catholics and who were the Criminals? I think that they existed on both sides and to the detriment of all. And the fact is, it is not surprising in this day, that the tshirt still resonates among Notre Dame fans while it is vilified by those int was intended for--Miami players of the past and present. Because, in the end, both sides were and still are wrong about the game and its overtones.

   

   

                                                                An Athlete's Time

     I have been an athlete. I played college baseball. Post-graduate, I weight lifted, jogged, ran, sprinted, played tennis (predominantly singles), basketball, did elliptical, walked, hiked, bicycled (indoors and outdoors), swam. I played softball. And on the day before my 42nd birthday, I played my final baseball game against 21 year olds and younger.

     As I write this, I am 66 years old. I have endured a myriad of injuries related to sports leading to multiple surgeries since 1989, including 4 to my right shoulder. The last one has not healed like I wanted and the pain is only lightened by a recent cortisone shot. Presently I cannot go to the gym, reducing me to 3 miles of walking on a cold and windy early December day at the local track.

     I was weight lifting, biking and running only a couple of weeks ago. My body was in fairly good shape. I had even played tennis a couple of times, the first serious attempts at the sport since a foot injury followed by shoulder discomfort. After swimming for the first time in over a year and then doing weights the next day, all of sudden there was irritation and pain  near the surgical site. I thought this would never happen again.

     Instead, I look at my age and condition and wonder--is my time of being a gym rat over? As hard as I have worked, the countless hours of rehab and therapy--have I reached the end of the line as an athlete?

     I have done a great job of staying inside of a 34-36 inch waist for the last few years. But my weight has increased corresponding to my exercising or lack thereof. I feel bloated and heavier when I do not make it to the gym or run; undoubtedly some of this is psychological.

     With my current shoulder condition, I just want to return to normal activities--like typing this blog--without pain. Of course, there is the return to sports--will it happen or am I destined to be a walker for the remainder of my life?

     I look at so many professional athletes as they got older and how out of shape they appear to be. Contrastingly, I look at the number of men and women running at my age or older, or the ones playing tennis in the morning as part of their retirements. I know I am envious as I long thought that I would be one of them--so much so that I figured this last surgery would make the dream a reality and I would be swimming, hitting hard ground strokes and jogging merrily around the track. Not so fast.

     Am I resigned to the fact that my days of competition and self-regulation in the gym are over? Even with a vastly different diet, will I turn into another fat ex-jock?

     I recognize that my situation is nothing compared to so many others who have far worse conditions than I do.  Their plights are almost unimaginable.

     Which is why I complain about my shoulder and the attendant pain--I am not quite ready to cede my ability to stay in shape. But if I can no longer swim, play tennis or run without it hurting, then I look no further than in the mirror to say that I will be the best walker I can be for as long as I can walk comfortably.

     Then and only then will I have stopped being the athlete.  You can take away the tennis court or the gym but where there is a spirit to live this life to the fullest, then count me in.

                                                      Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

     As always, I had a lot to be thankful for this year. My wife and I spent the extended weekend in Pittsburgh with our daughter who is working on a feature film being shot in town (No details as I would get shot by my daughter but the stars are big time). A fine restaurant meal for us this year (a big shout out to Lidia's who did a first rate job in food and atmosphere) started the weekend right for us. We gorged ourselves on Hibachi, pizza, Thai, chicken piccata to name a few items.

     But the real gorging occurred with the number of games on television starting Thursday. Coupled with my following Rutgers hoops eking out a come-from-behind 77-75 win @ the RAC over Hartford on Friday to go 6-0 and the Facebook posting of Highland Park, NJ H.S. trouncing arch-rival Metuchen on Turkey Day, it was a cornucopia of sports to delight any palate.

     Vikings-Lions started the binge watching; it continued with the Washington-Dallas affair; and was ended by the non-traditional rivalry of the Steelers and the Colts in Indianapolis. Additionally, I saw the Giants in Cleveland; New England overcoming my New York Jets (again); Carolina-Oakland bonus coverage and Kansas City topping Denver. Throw in tonight's Green Bay contest with the Eagles in Philadelphia, that's 8 National Football League games out of 16 played or 50%.

     The 5 college games I took in for more than a fleeting moment were Rutgers-Maryland (why, I asked myself?); The colossal Michigan-Ohio State rivalry thriller; Michigan State traveling to Happy Valley to take on Penn State; a glance or two at the grudge match known as Auburn and Alabama; and the local game which ended in a basketball score--Pitt thumping the Syracuse Orangemen. Factor in some Houston-Memphis on the hotel screen--that is 6 games in total.

     The only basketball I took in was some of Charlotte playing the Knicks at Madison Square Garden; a D-League game in Delaware; and Iowa State playing Gonzaga in a battle of ranked teams. I did check on Franklin and Marshall rebounding from a stinging to loss to Gettysburg against Lebanon Valley College in Annville on Sunday.

     Then there was the National Hockey League. I saw Calgary visit the Boston Garden to play the Bruins along with the Rangers left New York to defeat the Flyers in Philadelphia. But I actually went to newly-renamed PPG Paints Arena where my New Jersey Devils lost a heartbreaker to the Pittsburgh Penguins first on a goal by all-world Sidney Crosby with :14 left in regulation, then to be beaten 1-0 in the shootout.

     Let me recap--8 NFL games; 6 college football games; 3 hoops contests; and 3 more hockey games including 1 in person. That's a total of 20 games in 5 days. With only 1 of them tonight.

     I am glad that I ate our sumptuous meal on Thursday in the midst of the Redskins-Cowboys tiff. By the time last evening was over, I was unsure if it was pass the meat (whatever we were eating) or hand me the remote. Fortunately I take antacids, because I would necessarily require such for an acute disease of sports televisionitis.

     Yes, I have plenty to be thankful for. How come the Utah Jazz is finishing its match with the Timberwolves in Minneapolis? Isn't Golden State on NBA TV at 10:30? Or must I wait until RU plays at Miami on Wednesday? Please serve me some more pumpkin pie...

                                                                    Football finis

     With the conclusion of yesterday's 152nd edition of the Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry, held in balmy mid-60 degree temperatures at Fisher Field on the latter's campus in Easton, Pennsylvania, my 2016 football season came to an end. I have bequeathed my 2 remaining night games with the New York Jets to my son. The advent of today's chilly and windy weather secured that, although the Jets losing record thus far was a major factor in my decision not to freeze my tail off at Met Life Stadium in December.

     Sure I will watch games, both college and pro, Jets games included. I will not be sorry to wee woeful Rutgers end its moribund season next week in College Park, Maryland against the Maryland Terrapins; I gave up on the Scarlet Knights last night at halftime when it was only a 9-0 deficit. That ballooned into a 39-0 rout. And my alma mater, Franklin and Marshall College, lost a game it had led in the fourth quarter, to Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania yesterday in something called the Centennial-MAC Bowl, an amalgam between the 2 conferences for the highest finishers not selected to play in the Division III playoffs.

     So I am done with sitting in the stands for football. I saw one high school consolation game, one F&M contest, two Lafayette home games and one Jets tilt. My record for the season was 4-1, the lone loss coming from Lafayette at the hands of the bitter rivals, the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.

     Now I can nap if I want to. Skip games entirely. Or watch as I see fit. On my HD television in the comfort of my den. I might miss the camaraderie of the Lafayette tailgates. And certainly a warmer Autumn to enhance the viewing. But I will not have to put the gloves,thermals, five layers of clothing, hand, feet and other body warmers to sit outside this year. Which will not be missed at all.

     I guess that I have become a warm weather fan. Unfortunately, I live in a cold weather climate. Notwithstanding global warming. At age 66, some concessions must be made to sanity. For at least this season, I have opted for no more football games for this season. A wise choice indeed.

     Besides, I have so many Rutgers games to attend; an F&M game or two; and maybe some others along the way until and through the NCAA tournament conclusion. RU is winning, F&M is nationally-ranked in Division III. The airwaves are jammed with games (even a relative by marriage  is broadcasting on CBS Sports Network from the Virgin Islands).  Non-stop hoops. Without even mentioning that Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant with the Golden State Warriors are TV favorites. Of the nation as well as me.

     Have no sympathy for me now that I have given up freezing at football games for the year. Surely have even less sympathy for me now that I am in hoops heaven. It is only a bridge until Major League Baseball starts again in March with games that count. Not just the Hot Stove trades and free agent acquisitions and Spring Training. They go hand-in-hand with the obsession to watch basketball games.

     After all, Cubs manager Joe Maddon, a Lafayette player in his younger years, passed 10 feet from me in the stands at the game yesterday. That was when I knew it was time to stop football for this year--baseball had already encroached upon me during a football game. Swish.

                                                        Rutgers, The State University

     I have loyalty to a number of New York-based professional teams in the four major sports. I have New York Jets season tickets--this is my 40th season. I had New York Rangers season tickets for 11 years. Additionally, I have had partial shares of New Jersey Devils tickets. My main pro team remains the New York Yankees. On a lesser scale, I watch with interest, the New York Mets. The New York Knicks and the now Brooklyn Nets only provide momentary allegiance. And the New York Giants I do not root against unless they play the Jets.

     Outside of my loyalty to my undergraduate school, Franklin and Marshall College where I played some varsity baseball and compiled football statistics in the late 1960's and early 1970's, my greatest alliance is with the teams of Rutgers University.

     Growing up across the Raritan River from Rutgers' New Brunswick campus and situated adjacent to the Piscataway fields, it was a natural for a sports geek like me to drift to Rutgers sports. That persistence remains today, over 50 years after I saw my first RU lacrosse match versus Princeton and from my first RU hoops game at the College Avenue gym in 1965. It is is intoxicating and beguiling, sometimes playing out like a Greek tragedy. A psychologist might have a field day investigating what drives me to remain a Rutgers fan.

     I have seen the aforementioned lacrosse; softball; tennis; track; wrestling; swimming; crew; field hockey and golf. There aren't too many other sports which I have not attended.

     The bigger sports are where my heart lies--football; men's basketball and baseball. Within that grouping, there is not much of a pecking order. I enjoy baseball on the spring days when I can bring my own chair and lounge outside the outfield fences and watch some quality Division I athletes, some of who will play Major League Baseball.

     Football is integral to Rutgers. The first ever intercollegiate game was between the Scarlet Knights and the Princeton Tigers in 1869, an affair won by RU. Fortunately, I attended the first game big time power Army marched in at the then Rutgers Stadium. I used to ride my bike and then scale the fences while in high school to see Colgate, Lafayette, Lehigh, Columbia play the mostly genial hosts. I knew Head Coach John Bateman through his sons who went to Highland Park High School like me. My favorite HPHS footballer, Richie Policastro played @ RU, leading them to a victory at Rutgers Stadium over Princeton on the 100th anniversary of their first game, and before a national television audience which permitted me to view the game in Lancaster, PA. Throughout the 1970's and into the 1990's, I followed RU at a distance as they morphed from a Middle Atlantic Conference University Division school into playing some of the tougher teams in the nation--Alabama under legendary Paul " Bear" Bryant, who barely won at Giants Stadium against the Knights; Tennessee; Auburn; Florida; Penn State, Texas. There was the undefeated season in 1976 and a bowl game called the Garden State Bowl in Giants Stadium  in 1979 (a loss to Arizona State).

     Rutgers went though a litany of coaches after Frank Burns had achieved a modicum of success. As the competition level ramped up, so did the losses--big losses. West Virginia, Miami, Boston College all regularly trounced RU in the Big East Conference. More competitive games ensued at times with Pitt, Virginia Tech, Temple and the University of Connecticut. Until no nonsense Greg Schiano showed up on the Banks.

     Schiano recruited and developed talent. Many players went on to play in the National Football League. At times, the RU teams under Schiano were good. Sometimes not so much. He spearheaded the stadium expansion to its 52,000 seat capacity with lights for night games on TV. And he almost won the Big East and a trip to the Orange Bowl with his 2006 team but for a drop in the end zone of a perfect pass on a cold West Virginia night.  I was there to see Notre Dame come to Piscataway--Notre Dame, college football elite!! I too was there when RU upset no. 2 Louisville on a November night when the stands emptied onto the field before a national ESPN audience. And then he left for the NFL.

     RU is now in the Big Ten Conference. Where they regularly play the likes of powerhouses Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State. This is not the Big East of yore. Nor the the American Athletic Conference where Rutgers resided until joining the big boys. No more U Conn, Temple, South Florida.

     While New Jersey is a fertile base for recruiting, the football talent migrates away from Piscataway. Which leaves RU at a decided disadvantage. The scores reflect the dichotomy between the haves and have nots--RU was blown out by a subpar Michigan State squad in East Lansing on Saturday. They looked horrible.

     Pundits say that RU may not be competitive until full revenues kick in from the Big Ten in 2021. Until then, the struggles will abound. The recruiting should get better. Some of the games will become more competitive. The facilities will be enhanced. And I will go to High Point Solutions Stadium when invited and dutifully watch on television, hoping for those miracles that Greg Schiano (in a twist of fate, he is currently the defensive coordinator at Ohio State replacing the former coordinator, Chris Ash, now RU's head man). Simply because it is Rutgers, my state university, and my RU ties go back to my youth.


     Such fervor is good even if the football teams have not produced as I would have liked. Except to say that I get the most crazed when it comes to RU basketball. My ardor for the Knights extends back to the old College Avenue gym where I saw them play for the first time in 1966. I grew up in the realm of Bobby Lloyd and Jim Valvano--two of the greatest guards EVER to play for RU, who along with a talented bunch took the Knights to Madison Square Garden and a third place finish in the 1968 National Invitational Tournament after a tough loss to the Walt Frazier-led and eventual champion Southern Illinois Salukis. I trekked to New york to see them play; I emulated Lloyd's free throws and Valvano's tougher than nails defense. I was smitten with Scarlet Fever.

     Success was such at Rutgers under Tom Young, with a great team led by many future NBA players ending up in the Final Four in Philadelphia. A legendary team. Rutgers maintained a fairly high level of continuity into the early 1990's when in the Atlantic 10 Conference. But who could have predicted that the 1991 NCAA-qualifying team would be the last to represent Rutgers in the tournament?

     I have had a partial subscription for Rutgers basketball for a number of years. I like the environment at the Rutgers Athletic Center. The quality of the opponents from the Big East Conference included luminaries like Syracuse, Georgetown, Louisville, St. John's, UConn to name a few. RU had marginal success with the talent they could scrape together--almost all of the five star recruits avoided the RAC as their home floor. Coaches came and went; some with a little success, others clothed in scandalous conduct. Miraculous runs in the Big East tournament and three point bombs from Quincy Douby were all RU could really muster.

     Now in the Big Ten and yet with another new coach, RU has to play a different set of national powers--Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue and Maryland for openers. With the resounding win against a rebuilding Drexel five and a coach who had great success at Stony Brook, perhaps the Scarlet Knights are perched on the precipice of becoming players in the conference, winning more regularly versus the Penn States and Nebraskas while scoring some victories over the more proficient ones.

     Rutgers has joined the prestigious Big Ten Conference for the glory that it brings athletically and academically. RU has the academic thing down pat. Now it is time for the school to measure up against its sister schools--even before full revenue-sharing kicks in.

     Such is the dream of a man in his mid-60's who has endured more than enough athletic failure rooting for his New York Jets while doggedly sticking with his hometown college who has gone from the entertaining if not successful football games of the 1960's to the major conference football and basketball of the 2010's. The alumni want wins; so do I. We wish upon wish that the new basketball coach can survive and thrive. That better days must be out there after the possibility of a winless conference schedule in 2016. I painfully watched Michigan State pile on RU on Saturday. Sunday there was hope with the win over Drexel.

     Such is the life of the Rutgers fan I have always been. I hope someone is listening to me up high--not in the upper reaches of High Point Solutions Stadium nor the 300 level of the RAC--I am more than ready in my retirement for many more enjoyable days (and nights) with my Knights. Win a championship and I might even learn the entire alma mater...

                                                 Ask Me If I Really Care?

     Last week, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. They were the favorites, handling a game but undermanned Cleveland Indians squad in a pivotal Game 7 which took an extra inning to determine the ultimate outcome. The contest itself was a highly over-managed affair where the moves of Joe Maddon of the Cubs and Terry Francona of the Indians threatened to derail a great battle while concurrently creating superb theater.

     Much of the drama had to do with the Cubs not having won the World Series crown in 108 years, BEFORE venerable Wrigley Field, the ivy-walled palace the North Siders inhabit, was even built. The Cubbies, dubbed the loveable losers for their lack of appearances in the Series let alone in the playoffs, were most everyone's darling. Heck, they had a supposed hex laid upon them by the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, a local Chicago establishment, who foolishly attempted to bring a billy goat with him into Wrigley Field for the 1945 Series, the last time Chicago had represented the National League in the Fall Classic.

     Then there was the Cleveland team, the American League champs. While the Tribe had been in the 1997 Series, their last championship was merely in 1948. They, too, like the Cubs, had a rich history of losing seasons. In fact, Cleveland has had a lot of losing until this year when the Lebron James-led Cavaliers themselves won an epic Game 7 of the NBA Finals in Oakland against the defending champs, the Golden State Warriors who had set the regular season record for wins. This was the franchise which was mocked in film by the classic Major League movies and Charlie Sheen's bespectacled, myopic character, Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn. Plus the Browns, who had won the last Cleveland championship in 1964, had moved to Baltimore and won as the Ravens; the current expansion Cleveland Browns team has yet to win a contest this season. More ineptitude.

     Emboldened by the Cavs' dramatic win and the fact that the Republican National Convention was held on the shore of Lake Erie, the Indians faithful were exuberantly believing it was their time, not that of Cubs fans. Even with Lebron perched in a box at Progressive Field, his karma could not undo the vibes surrounding the Cubs and their fans. Perhaps denying Sheen a reprise of his movie role to throw out the ceremonial first pitch might have reversed the fortunes--a fact we will never know for sure.

     Alas, the Indians were denied and the Cubs were victorious. All throughout were were enveloped by stories of Cubs fans young and old, of villain Steve Bartman who went to catch a foul ball rather allowing it to drop into the waiting glove of Moises Alou and would have extinguished the Florida Marlins rally in 2003 in the League Championship Series. There were dogs, cats, centenarians, babies and everyone and everything in between which personified fandom loyalty. That steady stream culminated in the victory parade and rally attended by a throng estimated to be 5 million people--one of the largest gatherings anywhere, EVER.

     I am positive that Cubs fans are contiuing to exalt in the aura of the historic win. That is their choice, for which I do not offer judgement. Notwithstanding that I am a proud New York Yankees fan whose team, despite last winning the title in 2009 and having accumulated 28 World Series crowns, I have my own opinion of the ongoing celebration by Cubs fans. It is borne out of loyalty to other teams in other sports.

   
     I root for a number of professional franchises. The New Jersey Devils, one of 3 local National Hockey League franchises and who I currently watch, have won a couple of Stanley Cups in the last 30 years. My New York Knicks have last won a National Basketball Association finals in 1972-73; the Brooklyn nee New Jersey Nets have NEVER won an NBA Finals. So be it. I am not factoring in Rutgers Men's Basketball--no NCAA Tournament spot since 1991, let alone only 1 Final Four appearance way back in 1976.

     No, my considerable lack of empathy for the Cubs (or Indians fans for that matter) supporters is laid directly at the feet of the most inept National Football League team I have been a season ticket holder since 1977--the New York Jets. One Super Bowl slot, one Championship in 1969 whereby the now defunct American Football League ineers somehow on the exploits of  brash quarterback Joe Willie Namath ended up upsetting the vaunted Baltimore Colts.

     Nothing to show for it since then. A couple of American Football Conference championship games. Neither played at home. For my 40 years of allegiance, I have nunca. Nada. Zippo. Zero. Average or worse seasons are the norm with this group. Coaches and General Managers come and go. Players too.  But the outcomes are predictable.

     The 2016 side sits at a measly 3 wins coupled with 6 losses. The playoffs are almost out of sight. Somehow yesterday they managed to snatch defeat from victory by a player going offsides on a kickoff and drawing a 5 yard penalty after taking the lead, only to have the Miami Dolphins player return the ensuing kickoff 96 yards without much of a touch to win the game.

     These are my Jets. Whether it is the Butt fumble by quarterback Mark Sanchez versus the New England Patriots, a sack in the AFC title game or just another flat game in another losing season,  this is my lot.

     Understandably, I am increasingly unhappy as I grow older, wondering if I will see a Super Bowl visit, not a win, in the next 4 years when I have reached age 70?  The odds bode against such happening. Unless in a dream-like scenario, owner Woody Johnson in a rage of desperation can snare winning team builder Theo Epstein from the Cubs, Ivy League-educated and with a law degree earned in his spare time while working and learning the ropes with the San Diego Padres. Although he is baseball man, I am willing to wager that his grasp of what a franchise should be trumps what those who currently run the Jets have, even if Theo has a decided lack of NFL experience.

     Some might argue that the Jets do not possess the longest streak in the NFL without a league championship (Arizona Cardinals--68 seasons), so the position would be that I cannot trivialize the Detroit Lions, San Diego Chargers, Buffalo Bills, Atlanta Falcons nor Minnesota Vikings and the aforementioned Browns fans who have suffered even longer with their droughts. Thirteen teams have not won a Super Bowl, four of them expansion teams.  A number of them have at least won their respective conferences.

     My response to that is akin to the Cubs and Indians fans (or for that matter the Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres who have not won the World Series)--I don't care about your plight. Mine is dire enough. I have no sympathy for the Toronto Maple Leafs fans post-1967-68 nor do I feel  much for the St. Louis Blues fans who have not won a Stanley Cup. No pity for the Sacramento Kings fans who go back 65 years to the 1951 Rochester Royals championship team. So to with the Atlanta Hawks who last won while in St. Louis in 1958; and the Phoenix Suns who have NEVER won a title in 48 seasons.

     Cumulatively, all the teams mentioned are serial losers. It is just that mine is among the worst and the losing is not going to end real soon. The time I invest in the Jets along with the astronomical prices for season tickets are in direct disproportion to the aggregate wins and titles. While we may be in lockstep with a lot of other similarly situated franchises in the four major professional sports, I derive no solace from their misery. Nor can I empathize with the Cubs fans and have any degree of happiness for them.

     When, perhaps make that if, the Jets win, maybe I will be a more magnanimous winner. Until then, I am a lousy, sore loser. Sorry Cubs fans, no love from me on this one. And stop getting giddy believing that you have a dynasty. You have won 1 World Series in 108 years. The Jets, like a lot of others, didn't win again. Do not compare yourselves with the New England Patriots or the Yankees, Boston Celtics or Montreal Canadiens who have own the most crowns in their leagues. Be content with 1 win after the hex and over a century.

     I sure would be.

Buyers of Sellers? Dynasty Crumbling...

                                             Buyers or Sellers? Dynasty Crumbling....

     As I sit here on this mid-July night, aimlessly watching the first place Baltimore Orioles, hardly a juggernaut, play the 46-46 New York Yankees in the second game of a four game series in the Bronx. The Yankees are a team in flux, and tonight, they have Nathan Eovaldi, himself a hard-throwing erratic enigma, pitching thereby epitomizing their stature. For now, the game is scoreless in the second inning, but the truth is that it is only a matter of time before the Yanks do nothing or self-destruct.

     The team sits in fourth place, 7.5 games behind Baltimore and a full 5 games behind third place Toronto. As to the Wild Card position in the American League, they are 6 games behind the Boston Red Sox and 5 behind the Blue Jays, but including those two squads, they have 6 opponents to overcome. And they are 12-19 against the AL East teams.

     There are some very bright spots. Shortstop Didi Gregorius and outfielder and designated hitter Carlos Beltran are hitting nearly .300. Beltran is an All-Star this year and a potential Hall of Fame player based upon a superb career as a switch hitter with some pop in his bat. Beltran is 39 years old and in the final year of his contract; he has slowed down considerably and is regularly replaced for defense in late innings.

     Four pitchers excel. Starter Masahiro Tanaka has justified his large contract. Then there are the 3 relievers who blow away batters--Dellin Betances, a young fireballer with an awesome curve who comes into the game usually in the 7th inning; Andrew Miller, a hard throwing lefthander with a wicked slider covers the 8th inning; and  Aroldis Chapman, capable of throwing his heater upwards of 105 m.p.h., closes the games for the Yankees. This trio normally pitches lights out.

    But that is it for this team. Aged Alex Rodriguez cannot play the field and his .218 average is unacceptable--the only solace is to watch his quest for 700 or more home runs. Sure fielding and former power hitting Mark Teixeira is beset with injuries and his average is even lower--.181. Chase Headley is a pedestrian switch hitting third baseman. Starlin Castro as second base is young and has promise. Speedy Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury have continued to underperform in the outfield and at bat. Brian McCann does hit home runs and frame pitches, but cannot throw out runners attempting to steal; his backup Austin Romine can hit some and catch, but he is a backup. There is little offense. More at home than on the road.

     The remainder of the starting pitching is inconsistent. Ivan Nova is the best of the lot, and he was originally slotted for the bullpen. Highly paid C. C. Sabathia is older and is past his prime; his consistently good days are in his rear view mirror. Michael Pineda has youth and promise, but it comes fleetingly and he is prone to giving up home runs. The remainder of the bullpen largely consists of fill ins going and coming from Triple A.

     So what should management do with this team as the trade deadline looms. There is a lot of interest from other teams for Betances, Miller, Chapman and Beltran.  However, can this team contend? While they have lost a series to Boston to start the second half of the season, they have this series and an interleague series with the top-rated team in MLB, the San Francisco Giants, this coming weekend, before embarking on a road trip to Houston to play the young and hungry Astros then moving onto St. Petersburg, FL to play the Rays who have one of the worst records in baseball. Including tonight, the Yankees have 12 games left to show that they are capable of making a move to contend in some fashion.

      Minor league help is minimal. Catching prospect Gary Sanchez is not quite ready and powerful outfielder Aaron Judge is currently out with a knee injury. First baseman Greg Bird, who filled in admirably for Teixeira last season, is out for the season after labrum surgery. Young pitcher Luis Severino was demoted early this season and appears not to be recalled soon.

     What if the Yankee pitching stabilizes and hitters start to come alive? Are they realistically a contender? Should they trade to improve their chances to win now?

     Most people say they aren't that good and this will not eventuate. Yet high management and ownership is unwilling yet to concede this might happen.

     If that is the case, they should carefully deconstruct this team. If there is interest for much of the roster, they should consider trades that will embellish the team for next season and years beyond--in essence, become much younger. Do not give away the store, but responsibly replenish the roster in key areas of pitching and the outfield. Buy out A-Rod's contract if possible; he serves little use for the team if he cannot be traded to someone who sees value in him. If tossing in the towel means attendance suffers, then this must be undertaken if the Yankees are to be back in the midst of the fight for the playoffs starting with next season.

     Then there is the question of the baseball leadership. I think that manager Joe Girardi over manages with his top pitchers, but that is due to a lack of hitting and pitching which dies not make more than 5 innings too many times. He should be retained. My wife thinks that pitching coach Larry Rothschild might need to go--I don't know if he is to be entirely blamed for the pitching problems. General Manager Brian Cashman has been in New York for 18 years--is it time to blame him for long-term contracts that extended too far and a barren minor league system? Maybe. What he does around the trade deadline might seal his fate.

     One thing for sure--the end of July is going to be the most exciting part of a rather desultory season thus far. For a proud franchise, this is humbling.

   


   

   

Is It Kevin Durant's Fault?

                                                        Is It Kevin Durant's Fault?

     Let's start with I am biased here. I wanted the Golden State Warriors to win the 2015-16 NBA Championship. I wanted validation for 73 wins. I like Steph Curry. I like Klay Thompson. I like Draymond Green. I like Anthony Iguodala. I even like Andrew Bogut and Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa. I rooted for Mo Speights and Harrison Barnes. I pulled for Steve Kerr and his travails to returning as Head Coach. So Cleveland and its fans have that long-sought banner. More power to LeBron James. Kyrie Irving was the difference maker. Let J.R. Smith keep his shirt on.

     But it is a new season already, notwithstanding that the Rio Olympics are on the horizon. Free agency has struck in its immaculate earnesty. Trades have abounded. The New York Knicks, my erstwhile favorite team with just 2 championships to show for all its tenure in the NBA, went out and made themselves better. Even the Brooklyn Nets, the ancestor of the New Jersey Nets, went into the market and swooped out with Jeremy Lin whose Knicks success (Linsanity!) still makes him a cult hero in these environs.

     No, the name of the game is to get better. To build upon success. To put yourself in a posture to contend and even win a championship (or two). This might even happen someday to the Philadelphia 76'ers, the masters of woefulness in recent memory with such dismal records despite having solid draft positions.

     The salary cap numbers are out of sight. $94 million. That's absurd. Very good players like the aforementioned Harrison Barnes receive ungodly sums of money for multiple years to sign with a new team--in this case it is the Houston Rockets who have unlocked their vault. Certain Hall of Fame players like Dewayne Wade are playing the free agent market to secure 2 or 3 more years beyond their prime either from unrealistic suitors like the Denver Nuggets or to leverage and pressure the Miami Heat, his only team, to capitulate and give him loads of cash for loyalty. Tell me, did that work out for A-Rod and the New York Yankees?

     All of a sudden, loyalty to a fan base matters more than ever. This is largely due to LBJ's return to Cleveland to bring home the bacon. Let me repeat myself--his RETURN home to Cleveland. Remember how vilified he was when he went South to join Wade and Chris Bosh in South Florida? No matter how successful he was there?

     So here comes Kevin Durant, one of the 5 best players in the current NBA. A lock as a Hall of Famer. He is a free agent. The betting was that he'd sign again with Oklahoma City for 1 year @ a measly $20 million to enhance his chances next summer for a more lucrative free agency payday.

     In a ludicrous recruitment tour akin to the stupor that free agency is itself, he visits the Los Angeles Clippers. Then he meets with the Golden State Warriors in the Hamptons on Long Island, far removed from his hometown of Washington, D.C. or the rather hot and dry Sooner State, who send their management, coaches, and Durant's good friend, Steph Curry, the reigning M.V.P. And he is swept of his feet by their pitch and their offer.    

     Kevin Durant decides to become a Golden State Warrior. The money is good. But the chance to play with the team-friendliest ball-moving team in the NBA which came within about 1 minute of winning the NBA Championship is an allure which no other team can offer. He does not have to worry over 4th quarter meltdowns by point guard Russell Westbrook, a known ball hog and glory seeker who is great but definitely is not K.D.

     What does Durant not have? An NBA Championship ring. What does this group of Warriors have--a ring and the opportunity, if healthy, to legitimately contend for years to come. GSW has become a sort of NBA Dream Team with 4 players the likes of Durant, Curry, Thompson and Green. Iguodala can go back to being a 6th man coming off the bench. They become the presumptive favorites for the upcoming season. Why wouldn't Durant want to thrive in this kind of environment? He does not have to be the one to carry the team night in and night out. As near as the Thunder had come to the NBA Finals this year and with their 1 prior appearance in the Finals, what would their chances have been this year had he stayed put?

     Fans and writers are up in arms about Durant abandoning OKC. How much does loyalty count these days in any arena--sports or business? Didn't Oklahoma City swoop in and take away the Seattle Super Sonics from the devoted fans of the Pacific Northwest? This is business and Durant was taking care of himself. You didn't see him remotely considering going home to play for the Washington Wizards...

     Free agency happens every year. Fans are jolted. The playing fields of all sports are leveled in different ways and shapes. There isn't this hue and cry anyway when Apple loses an innovative computer scientist to Google, is there? Or when a lawyer gets a better chance for partnership through a headhunter?

     Get over it, Thunder fans. Get ready for some less than stellar teams. Boo K.D. as you wish whenever he plays in Chesapeake Energy Arena. Recognize this, OKC and the rest of the NBA, it isn't Kevin Durant's fault. It is the monster that has been created with the ability to go from team to team while paying astronomical sums of money to--basketball players.  Maybe we can blame this all on LeBron anyway...

                                                                Philadelphia

         I am a New York fan. My bias extends deeply through the core of New York sports. I love the NY sports teams. My slight diversion in major college sports goes to where I grew up--in close proximity to Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, which was small potatoes when I was young but which now has burgeoned into a nationally-known team by way of ESPN and its neophyte membership in the Big 10 Conference.

        Being so New York centric, every other market seemed to be minor or insignificant compared to the New York megalopolis. There were 3 baseball teams when I was a youth, then the present 2. There has been a various number of professional football teams, now again settled with 2 who share the region from a stadium in North Jersey. Two more NBA teams; 2 soccer teams; 3 NHL franchises now with a fourth defunct one in its history. Madison Square Garden was the indoor mecca for basketball-especially with the NYC powerhouse schools of St. John's Manhattan, Fordham and New York University along with the National Invitational Tournament, which still exists today but in its heyday was more prestigious than the NCAA hysteria known currently as "March Madness." MSG also hosted track meets, dog shows and NBA doubleheaders.  Yankee Stadium was where Ruth, Di Maggio, Mantle, Jackson and Jeter made history.

          New York was a city of 8 million and with millions more packed into growing suburbs in New Jersey, Westchester County, on Long Island and in outlying areas. There were television stations galore including the homes of NBC and CBS. So many daily papers including the erudite New York Times ("all the news that's fit to print"). The United Nations was located in Manhattan. Wall Street with the New York Stock Exchange, too.  The Empire State Building and the imposing skylines. Tunnels and bridges to enter Manhattan Island. The best eateries. The biggest park. The best zoo in the world. Everything was magnified. All things seemed to be the best. Nowhere else could compare.

          I disclose the NY state of mind because I have not forsaken my allegiance to my teams. Instead, I am entering the lair of people who actually root for another city's team. The teams from Philadelphia. That city located 90 miles from New York City, separated by New Jersey and accessible by bridges over the Delaware River. The one that New Yorkers visit on occasion for touristy things like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, or the US Mint. The place where their go to food is a cheesesteak from rivals Geno's or Pat's, diagonally across from each other in an odd South Philly feud. A growing skyline shows the new Philadelphia; yet traveling in from any angle the old, row house neighborhoods still are prominent, a testimonial to the working class ethic which permeated Philadelphia long ago.

         Philadelphia is a big city in population--it is the fifth largest city in the US and the Delaware Valley is the fifth largest metropolitan area. its television market is fourth in the nation, after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. It has all of the major amenities that a city should have in terms of a standout university (the University of Pennsylvania), great hospitals and dental schools; it is home to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. There are very well-known art museums. It has a great park too, and a river runs right through its midst. Thee is a very active Navy Yard, a small subway system and it was the hub of many railroads. It had a couple of newspapers too--the Inquirer is very well respected.

       Which is why there is a heated rivalry between fans from both cities. New York snobbery is considered boorish in Philly. Philadelphians are considered to be second class neanderthals by those same New Yorkers. Neither side is getting it right. And hasn't for years.

        My very first exposure to Philadelphia sports came with a trip to old Connie Mack Stadium in North Philadelphia for a July night game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers (2 years removed from being the Brooklyn Dodgers who, along with the New York Giants, abandoned New York for the untapped riches of California) and the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League. Although my loyalties were with the American League Yankees, I was a student of the game and I peppered my father about other teams--the Mets were still three years away from formation; having gone to dental school at Temple University in Philadelphia, he knew of the Phillies and that the stadium was not too far away from the campus. While the Phillies won the game on a Clay Dalrymple HR with Hall of Famer Robin Roberts pitching a gem for the home team, I recall the vitriol emanating from the competing Dodgers and Phillies fans. Boos and words an 8 year old had never heard in such an unending stream. Nonetheless, on my own, I started to follow the Philadelphia sports teams with some greater interest. Because they weren't that far away from my childhood home in Central New Jersey.

        Universally, the Phillies weren't very good. Compared to the Yankees, they hardly ever won. In 1950 the Phils did win, only to succumb to the Yankees in the World Series in four games.  Then in 1964, the Phillies could have actually won the National League except for an epic collapse at the end of the season. Not to say that they haven't had their moments. In 1964, Jim Bunning, later to be the Republican Senator form Kentucky, pitched a perfect game against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium on Father's Day. The Phillies, loaded with Hall of Famers and close to HOF players, excelled in the late 1970's culminating with their first World Series win in 1980.

         The Phillies fortunes took another steep decline until the 2000 decade when a new group of stars took them to the second championship in 2008. All totaled--11 NL East titles; 7 NL pennants; 2 World Series victories. Stark compared to New York standards. The Mets, in existence since 1962, have won 2 World Series.

        I have attended games at Connie Mack Stadium, renamed after the legendary owner of the Philadelphia Athletics (relocated to first Kansas City then Oakland), sterile Veterans Stadium, where the Phillies were a co-tenant with the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, and now Citizen's Bank Park. Sure the fans were rabid. But they booed payers unmercifully. Michael Jack Schmidt (Mike), their best player ever and Richie (Dick) Allen, a prodigious slugger, felt the wrath; Allen had to leave town it was so bad. I never could quite grasp why the boos--for even the best players.

        College football centered around the University of Pennsylvania. Once a power, they now are firmly settled in the Ivy League, with Temple University an up and coming power. Villanova University did have a bit of success but actually abandoned football before reinstating it at the then Division 1-AA level.  But the truth is that when mighty Penn State comes in, Lincoln Financial Stadium sell out. Sure Army and Navy used to draw 100,000 annually to their rivalry but dadly, that too is diminished and at times is not played in Philadelphia. Being fair, New York did have Fordham and New York University and Columbia playing big time football yet they receded into the background with the advent of pro football.

        Speaking of pro football, The New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles have played football seemingly forever. Both have very loyal fan bases. They are ties together on the mysterious fumble that Giants QB Joe Pisarcik inexplicably made at Giants Stadium on a hand off to Larry Csonka instead of running out the clock for a sure Giants victory, only to be scooped up by then Eagles DB Herm Edwards (who later coached the New York Jets and is an ESPN expert/talking head) whereupon he scampered 26 yards to an improbable Philadelphia victory. The similarities end there. Although the Giants went through an enormous drought before winning a Super Bowl, they have won a couple. Philadelphia can point to one appearance and no rings. Even my Jets, whose history of successes is meager, at least garnered one Super Bowl victory in their only appearance--albeit 47 years ago. What those two teams have in common is an abundance of green in their uniforms and that they play each other yearly in the preseason. I have always thought that Eagles fans were natoer and less law-abiding--which is why in Veterans Stadium the authorities had a holding cell area and a magistrate on hand for rowdy, unlawful conduct that seemingly always occurred.

         No less vocal fans were the loyal Flyers hockey fans. Philadelphia won the Stanley Cup with the Broad Street Bullies--a group who could score, play defense and backed down from no one--meaning they'd fight at any time, including warm ups. Management even invoked good luck charm Kate Smith to sing God Bless America in person or on tape. Meanwhile, there are 3 hockey teams in the New York area--the New Jersey Devils have won a couple of Cups, eliminating the Flyers in the process; the Islanders won a number of those Cups and they too eliminated the Flyers on their way to victory. Even the New York Rangers, the epitome of frustrating performances, have more recently won the Stanley Cup even with a 60 years plus span from the last Cup win.

        Basketball always played a pivotal role in both cities sports history. Professional basketball was huge in both locales. Yes, I did say was. The Philadelphia Warriors were my first memory of the NBA in Philly, New York had its Knicks. When the Warriors abandoned Philadelphia for the San Francisco area, the Syracuse Nationals moved into Philadelphia to fill the void. Both franchises had some modest degree of success. My only NBA championship game which I attended was at the Philadelphia Convention Center when the Warriors and 76'ers played. In my younger years, I used to go fairly regularly to the Spectrum to see NBA games, the now defunct home for the city's NBA and NHL teams. Lots of great players on both sides, but now not much to show at all. As bad as the Knicks are, the Sixers set yearly standards for how bad an NBA team can be.

        As I stated earlier, in its day, Madison Square Garden hosted so many collegiate doubleheaders involving the 6-8 local colleges playing amongst themselves and hosting national and regional powers.
Philadelphia countered with its own unique vision of college hoops:  the Big Five. The University of Pennsylvania hosted the games at their arena, the Palestra. Penn, La Salle, St. Joseph's, Temple and Villanova played in their cathedral in heated battles against each other and with teams invading their turf. Seemingly every game was on television. Now the conferences and larger arenas on campus at Temple and Villanova made the Big Five into a lesser light. The games had importance, but not like they used to.

        Which brings me to where we are today. On Monday night, the Villanova Wildcats defeated the University of North Carolina Tar Heels in an epic battle won on a heroic last second shot to capture the NCAA championship for the second time in school history. For all of the limited triumphs that the two cities have gained, this one made it sweeter for Philadelphia. For the few champions who have emerged from either city, this one seemingly out did all of the others in terms of sheer magnitude. A great game involving one of the legendary programs in all of intercollegiate sports, going down to the wire with the outcome determined by a single basket when overtime loomed so ominously.

         For the moment, the New York-Philadelphia rivalry has taken a backstage to a bunch of collegiate basketball players from a tony Catholic school on the suburban Main Line outside of Center City. Millions watched in awe as the final shot swished through the net in a filled football stadium far away in Houston, Texas.  Sports heroes were etched into history on a national stage. More importantly, Philadelphians were given a chance to rejoice for their first time since the Phillies won in 2008 and even more so, for the first basketball title since another even more unlikely group of Villanova Wildcats upset the heavily favored Georgetown Hoyas in 1985.

        I am sure that the celebrations have extended beyond the downtown parade, the campus hysteria and the cancellation of classes on Tuesday, the likely result of one big collective hangover. Sure, the Sixers stink for another season, the Flyers may not make the NHL playoffs again, the Phillies are very young and non-contenders and the Eagles are in coaching turmoil once more. Most Philadelphians will agree that this is true. Nonetheless, the center of the sports world in this country is squarely back in Philadelphia. There is plenty of Brotherly Love to go around. For awhile after this season, too.

       While I rooted for Carolina, I am happy for you, Philadelphia.  It was luck but in the end, as a really good squad won a championship. Your squad. What sayeth you, New York? How about those Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils, Islanders, Giants, Jets, Yankees and particularly the Mets with the high hopes fans have after making it to last year's World Series? Outshined by a college team in the city that you detest?

        Sounds like the rivalry continues. Who is going rise up to win next?

       

Really?

I watched 3 basketball games on February 27, 2016. Two were at the collegiate level. One was a Saturday night prime time telecast involving 2 top NBA squads. 3 games. At 3 different levels. 3 different results. All provoking the question in the title--Really?

First on tap was an afternoon Big 10 Conference tilt between the lowly Rutgers Scarlet Knights and second-division Northwestern on the home floor of Wildcats in Evanston, Illinois. Rutgers has not won a Big Ten game this year nor have they won since a monumental upset of Wisconsin at home last January--the same Wisconsin team, albeit minus its star player, that beat the vaunted University of Kentucky team destined to go undefeated and win the National Championship. There have been some competitive games during that stretch--it took Illinois triple overtime to dispatch the Knights.

Rutgers entered the game minus its 2 top big men due to injury and its top scorer, sidelined by an unspecified violation of team rules. That proved to be the key to this matchup. Rutgers gamely tried but offered little resistance to a hot-shooting Northwestern team who hit three-point field goal after three-point field goal enroute to a 30 point halftime lead, which they never gave up and cruised to a 39 point victory, mercifully not going for the 100 point mark. The Knights looked disorganized and, after awhile, disheartened. A picture of their beleaguered coach, looking sleep worn and frustrated with his team's inability to execute the fundamentals of the offense they practice. This kind of performance, no matter what the reasons--bad chemistry, individual motivation over team goals, lack of key players, still should not come with such a heavy price attached to it. Not at this level. Seeing the final score and having witnessed the massacre, I could only ask myself--Really?

At 7:00 I turned on the computer for the webcast of my alma mater, Franklin and Marshall College, hosting Swarthmore College in the Centennial Conference Tournament championship game on F&M's home floor in Lancaster, PA. These were the top two seeds, the two best teams in the Conference, vying for the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament that goes to the winner. F&M, coached by D III's winningest coach and an almost perennial post-season team, up against Swarthmore, who had never made it to the CC final. The two regular season games were close F&M wins, including the one in Lancaster which resulted in coach Glenn Robinson's 900th career coaching victory. So I was nervous about the game.

The first 20:00 was a blowout. The Diplomats dominated the Garnet from every aspect, leading by an astonishing 50-26 at the half. Yet I had seen some spark coming from Swarthmore at the tail end of the half which gave me pause to think this may not be over.

Swarthmore came out on fire at the outset of the second half and F&M did not. It was a reversal of fortunes. F&M had no answer for the shooting, rebounding and hustle evidenced by the Garnet. The game kept getting closer and closer and I was edgy. Then with a bit over a minute left in the contest, Swarthmore pulled to within one point at 62-61. Somehow, the Diplomats hit just enough baskets and free throws when the Garnet started to foul in order to give them more possessions and a greater chances to tie or lead if F&M did not make its foul shots.

It was a scrappy, determined effort by a Swarthmore team which was missing its top scorer. Sure F&M won at home. But it was far from pretty. Given a lead almost like the one Northwestern had over Rutgers, the Diplomats hung on for a victory that should never had been so close. Was I happy? Yes. Was I elated? No. Just like the game a couple of hours earlier, I again asked myself--Really?

With my wife in tow, we marched to den TV to watch the Golden State Warriors, they of the record-setting win total and defending NBA champions, take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in OKC, a team with two superstars and only 18 losses thus far this season. As soon as I turned on the screen, I saw it was 9-0 in favor of the Thunder. I remarked to my wife that this might be time for the Warriors to lose only their sixth game as opposed to their gaudy 52 wins.

The Thunder were clicking on all cylinders. Their stars, big man and high-scoring Kevin Durant was having a high-scoring night, virtually unstoppable in an array of three point attempts and on shots closer to the basket, while fellow All-Star guard Russell Westbrook was a bull, strong finishes to the hoop along with stifling defense. With that one-two punch and the role players at the top of their game, the Thunder kept thwarting advances by the Warriors and maintained a sizeable enough lead. Through three quarters and into the fourth stanza.

In the third quarter, the reigning Most Valuable Player of the NBA last season and the likely MVP again this season,Stephen Curry, had been kept somewhat in check by the Thunder's switching defense. Given his herculean performances in the three prior games on this elongated 7 game road swing, it seemed inevitable that he, like the Warriors, were destined to have an "off" game. "Off" to Curry meant that he would score below his season's average of 30 plus points per game.

But it was that third quarter which changed the dynamic of the battle. Curry got tangled up with Westbrook on a drive to the basket and turned his left ankle. The Warriors had to foul to stop the game so that they could substitute for him. Curry hobbled to the dressing room. The game's outcome seemed to be preordained. No Curry meant no win this night.

Magically, he reappeared and was immediately reinserted into the game. With a fierce determination, Curry started to take over the game, bombing away behind the three point arc with virtual unerring accuracy. All the work of his cohorts, especially his teammate Draymond Green, who scored little, rebounded and passed like no none and had a halftime profanity-laced tirade which was so loud that the ABC sideline reporter felt compelled to report apparent disharmony to the national TV audience, suddenly mattered.

Even so, in the last two minutes of the the game, the Thunder still kept their lead. But with another Curry trifecta and a bad pass by Durant scooped up by Green on a heady play before the ball went out of bounds to end any Golden State hope, Durant made a colossal error. He fouled Andre Iguodala as Iguodala went to shoot a last second desperation shot to try to tie the game. Iguodala, a seasoned pro, an Olympian and last year's NBA Championship MVP, sank both foul shots despite having only a 60+% seasonal average at the free throw line.
Instead of a Thunder win over the Golden State juggernaut, there would now be a 5 minute overtime session.

That's when Curry made an awe-inspired statement. Dancing and prancing around an array of defenders, he launched three pointer after three pointer, all seemingly touching nothing but net on its way through the hoop. And Durant committed his sixth and final foul early in the overtime period foolishly trying to block a Curry shot. That proved to be game, set and match, although the game's score vacillated back and forth between the two teams until it came down to the end.

Who had the ball as time was rapidly running down and the score tied? Steph Curry of course. No timeout by Coach Kerr. Steph came over midcourt and without hesitation let the ball fly. It's high arc was majestic. The downward flight proved to be the dagger to the OKC heart as it swished through the cords. Nobody shoots like that.

Curry finished with 46 points, more than half obtained after his ankle injury. He shot an amazing 12 for 20 from three point territory. That tied the NBA game record for three pointers made. He also broke his season record for most total three pointers as well as continued his record streak of having made at least one three point goal in each game he has played. You have got to be kidding...

Three games. Three different paths to victory. The final one punctuated by a inhuman performance by a player who may be the best shooter and perhaps the best player to play in the NBA in a contest for the ages. What a day.

Can you blame me if I once more say Really?

                                                        THE Rivalry

        Each college and university has its rivals. Arch enemies to the end. Bitterness and acrimony to the hilt.
Alumni in a froth. Students besides themselves. Television agog over the ratings.

        So many rivals. In-state. Inter-state. Intra-city. Public schools versus public schools. Private schools versus private schools. Catholic schools versus Catholic schools. Public versus private. Public versus Catholic. Private versus Catholic.

        Some are sport specific. Football. Basketball. Women's Basketball. A number of schools have multiple rivalries.

        There are trophies involved. There are mascots taken. There are symbols marred or destroyed. There is storming the field or court after a victory. Riots occur, win or lose.

        I can recite so many. Alabama-Auburn. Army-Navy. Georgia-Florida. Oregon-Oregon State. Stanford-California. UCLA-USC. Harvard-Yale. UConn-Tennessee in Women's Basketball. Smaller schools are no exception, i.e. Amherst-Williams and Hampden-Sydney versus Randolph-Macon come to mind.

       They have their names. The Civil War. The Red River Rivalry. The Bedlam Brawl. The Holy War. Every one has its own unique level of intensity.

       However, thee is one rivalry, at least for me, which captivates me season after season. It is sport-specific. Both teams get a home game out of it and sometimes end up playing each other in a post-season tournament. Television makes a spectacle out of it--a big leap from its formative days when the game was only shown regionally. And the teams are normally, year in and year out, at the top of the sport.

       That rivalry is Duke University playing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Men's Basketball. Or simply-Duke-Carolina. Located only 10.5 miles apart. Duke is a  private, elite academic institution. UNC is a top flight public research university. Students who attend each college differ greatly in their diversity and aspirations.

       To me, there is simply no rivalry which matches the fervor of its games. Packed houses always at the 9, 000 seat barn called Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham and first at Carmichael Arena and now at the gleaming nearly 22,000 seat Dean E. Smith Center, a monument to what the game of basketball means to the UNC faithful and to its legendary coach.

       Media names are big, too. Billy Packer, the long-time network analyst. Dick Vitale, he of the North Jersey bombast. Jay Bilas, a Dukie who actually played in the series, as did Hubert Davis who had a stint at ESPN, the current televisor of the games. Former Duke coach Bucky Waters. Mike Gminski, another Duke player. Their analysis made the event even more colorful. And the play-by-play announcers are legendary--Dick Enberg, Dave O'Brien, Dick Stockton, Tim Brando and my favorite, Jim Thacker who worked for the great C. D. Chesley and Jefferson Pilot Sports.

       Those coaches who have been involved since the start of the intensification of the games in the 1950's are among the giants of the sport. Carolina first had Frank McGuire and his New York pipeline of players, succeeded by Kansan Dean Smith, once the winningest coach at the highest level of play, followed by his longtime assistant Bill Guthridge and then eventually procuring another aide, Roy Williams, a national championship coach at the University of Kansas, itself an epic locale in college basketball . At Duke, Vic Bubas and then Mike Krzyzewski, now the winningest coach who has won Olympic Gold and who is either revered or hated.

        Then the players themselves were of the highest caliber. Michael Jordan. Christian Laettner, Kyrie Irving. Charlie Scott. Phil Ford. James Worthy. Art Heyman. Len Chappell. J.J. Redick. Grant Hill. Charlie Scott, Bobby Hurley. Royalty. Epic players on a big stage.

        Tonight at 9:00 another chapter in the long-storied battles waged by the two very different champions of NCAA Basketball begins. Although it is merely a regular season Atlantic Coast Conference clash, don't tell that to those animated, agitated and seated in the blue of the Smith Center with the millions watching. I will be enjoying it all, now in High-Definition TV, a far cry from Thacker-Packer intonations  in black and white back in my childhood home of Highland Park.

       You can say your rivalry for your school is the best. I cannot disagree. For me, it is Duke-Carolina with rapt attention. Hands down.

     

                                                    The GOLDEN Super Bowl

         The game is in the record books. Denver, behind a stout defense and just enough offense, throttled the vaunted Carolina Panthers and MVP Cam Newton. Peyton Manning won his second Super Bowl. We can stop questioning how good he is given all of his achievements in the pantheon of  NFl quarterbacks.

         Of course the experts dissected the outcome and its myriad of reasons why things turned out the way they did. Thee are as many divergent theories as to why Carolina lost the game as Denver won the game. Then again, we have wildly speculative ideas of alien life on Earth, who should be the 2016 G.O.P. Presidential candidate and who shot JFK.

         The National Football League will tell you that it is all about the game. Yes, it is a championship for the league title, and in this instance, the two top teams in their respective conferences faced each other. So the NFL got that right.

         What the NFL continues to get right is the command that they have over the American conscience through the continued efforts to market a football game into a part of Americana. Let's face it--the Super Bowl is marketing bonanza; pretty unique in that it is simply a football game.

         Last time I looked, despite their ties to the United Way charity and community charitable events, the NFL is a big time money-making conglomerate with tax-exempt status. The Super Bowl is their ultimate merchandising/marketing spectacle, for which nearly half the TV sets in this country are tuned into.

         From a simple game there became extravagant halftime shows lasting now 30 minutes and starring the greatest names in current musical entertainment. No wonder more sets were on the show than the game, even if it was a mere one percentage point more. Each airing network ties new or unique events after the game to rope in more viewers and therefore higher advertising revenues. Considering the rights packages they negotiated with the NFL requires them to make back every last cent and then some while still enriching the League's coffers. Equitable distribution at its finest.

         Speaking of advertising revenue, the Super Bowl is the greatest single money maker for a network for a one day event. Advertisers pay exorbitant fees to market their products, using niches and gags to captivate the audience who hungers for the ad spots more than the game itself. Sorry PuppyMonkeyBaby.

         This parade of commercials is tied to nearly 6 hours of pre-game hype and hysteria leading up to the actual start of the game.  The 30 second airings during the game are even more costly in the hopes that they are memorable enough to sell the desired product.

         We, the American people, susceptible to the NFL's clamor for us to focus on this extravaganza, have mad this event a party date akin to New Year' Eve. The money spent on parties is enormous and has a surreal impact on the local economies.

          Let us not lose sight of who reaps the largest benefits of the game itself first and foremost--the NFL. The players are handsomely compensated to begin with--do I see any tears really shed for Cam Newton despite his subpar performance and post-game childish behavior?  Then there is the licensing aspect--the NFL licenses EVERYTHING. Apparel. Cars, Drinks. The League's haul is gigantic.

          So who loses out here? The hosting municipalities are losers because, in order to get the game, they cede almost all their rights and not adequately repaired for the honor of being the venue. In this instance Santa Clara, California might lose a lot of money in time spent dealing with this spectacle, but the NFL even opted to market this as the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl, headquartering much of its weeklong festivities in San Francisco, which is good distance away from Levi's Stadium. Take that Santa Clara.

         But most of all, it is the fan who loses the most concerning a Super Bowl. The cost of a ticket is stratospheric. Add in the cost of a hotel, plane flight, car, food, etc. and the savings of many people can be shredded.  The NFL gets richer while you get poorer. I wonder how Bernie Sanders feels about that?

         Did I not watch the game? Of course not. Did I go to a party? Nope. Nor did I rush out today and buy a car, eat a Snickers or want to get fuzzy with a marmot. I sat in my cozy den with my wife and took it all in, starting at the late hour of 5:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  Satisfied that I did not submit to lure of the NFL any more than I had to, notwithstanding that I pay a goodly sum annually for New York Jets tickets and have little to show in the way of a return for my investment in terms of Super Bowl appearances let alone victories..

         For the record, I have seen better games. The halftime show was bad. Only a few commercials were noteworthy. Colbert was not worth staying up for. Peyton can have his Budweisers (another bit of self-promotion by the master player sales person) for we do live on the same planet yet not in the same realm.

         Now all I have to get through is the New Hampshire primaries tomorrow night. Cynically I wonder what is at stake there for the NFL and the networks...