Showing posts with label New York Jets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Jets. Show all posts

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Insufferable, butt-kissing Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross seems willing to repudiate own fans, give up '15 home game vs Jets and play it in London for slight hypothetical possibility of landing Super Bowl. Someday. Maybe. With the right breaks

ICYMI: Butt-kissing Dolphins owner Stephen Ross perfectly willing to repudiate own fans, give up '15 home game vs Jets and play it in London for slight hypothetical possibility of landing Super Bowl. Someday. Maybe. 
With the right breaks.




Miami Dolphins In Depth blog
Bad idea: Dolphins yield Jets home game in '15,
Armando Salguero,
November 7, 2014 9:24 a.m
  
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2014/11/i-like-the-idea-of-the-nfl-playing-games-in-london-i-even-like-the-idea-of-the-miami-dolphins-occassionally-doing-their-leag.html

There are many positive and negative things I'll never forget about my time living and working in the Washington D.C. area from 1988-2003.
One of those was that regardless of whether the Redskins were Super Bowl Champs, a very competitive team or just plain mediocre-to-awful -the Richie Pettibon years!- there was never any doubt in the mind of anyone I knew that the team genuinely was THE focus of the community's
hopes and dreams every Fall.

Just like you've heard/read/watched for decades back when CBS used to do NFC games and you could predict that before a big game against the Giants, we'd see a segment lauding Redskins fans and making the point that they had a direct connection with their fans that most NFL cities never have. (And still don't have.)
But it's true.



You didn't have to take a poll when I was living there to know that the Redskins genuinely were THE glue that held the community together, regardless of race, gender, political party, ideology or economic class.
I saw that for myself for years in tangible ways that even the South Florida I grew-up in during the Dolphins' heady era of dominance in the 1970's could never possibly replicate.

I know because I saw I witnessed it everyday in the Fall and Winter when I was on the Metro train on my way into work in the morning, esp. on Monday mornings after big Redskin wins or Friday afternoons before big games, and looked at the faces of the other commuters around me.
And even though I'd lived in Chicago when the Bears won the title in the mid-1980's, and knew well of their decades of suffering, especially when I was at IU, it was even more tangible than what I saw every morning in the Fall when I'd board an El train in Evanston down to The Loop.

It was noticeable at the hot dog stand on K Street with a Redskins pennant flying above it that played the Redskins fight song on an endless loop on their boombox on Friday afternoons. 
Noticeable precisely because it didn't surprise you,
You simply took it in stride.



Noticeable, too, at the CVS on Eye Street near the NY Times' Washington bureau, where I'd frequently run into the MPAA's Jack Valenti heading there mid-afternoon to solve a sugar or caffeine fix.
And while that weekend's weather forecast was always somewhat iffy, what wasn't iffy was knowing that once you walked into that CVS, that 99% of the employees had on a Redskin cap or skullcap.
You could take that to the bank!

So, that said, in 2007 when the Dolphins gave up a VERY RARE Dolphins home game against the NY Giants -the Giants being the team the Dolphins have played THE LEAST in the team's existence, with just 5 games prior to that one in 42 years- in order to appease the NFL execs on Park Avenue and play the game in London, like many Dophin fans, I watched the game with more than a little anger, since every single legit Dolphins fan my age or older -esp. ones like me who were actually from South Florida- knew EXACTLY what that home game represented.
A very rare opportunity: completely squandered.

And also understood what a major customer slap in the face that decision was to Dolphin fans, given the unique history and peculiar demographics of South Florida.
To Dolphin fans who had already been stuck with a listless, punchless team for many years at that point, it felt like once again a decision had been made NOT for what was best for the team or for the fans but for... something else.
Once again stabbed in the back, even as we nursed our cold beers and chowed down on finger foods and pizza throughout South Florida.

Well, Friday's blog post by the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero suggests that clueless, disconnected-to-reality Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has really learned nothing at all from history...
It looks like decisions are once again being made NOT for the benefit of the team that's on the field or for the fans in the stands but for something else entirely.
For his benefit.

Do you honestly think the Baltimore Ravens would give up a home game against the Steelers so that Baltimore maybe, perhaps, someday, possibly host the Super Bowl? 
Or that the Seattle Seahawks would give up a home game against the S.F. Forty Niners for the same remote possiblity? Nope.
Neither do I.

The prescient statue dedicated to FDR outside The National Archives' entrance on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington is very much to the point: "The past is prologue."
For most people, but apparently not Stephen Ross.

His insufferable ownership is just another burden for true Dolphin fans to bear who've already had to endure so many other indignities and embarrassments the past 15 years. 

To no tangible change for the better

Sunday, December 30, 2012

NFL's East Coast/Cowboys Bias may be crushed Sunday night, which would be sweet justice for NFL fans! If Redskins beat Cowboys, strong chance no team from 5 of U.S.'s Top 6 TV markets will make NFL playoffs: No NY, no LA (not even Chargers!), no Chicago, no Philly, no Dallas. Plus, we'll finally be free of analysis of Romo & Roethlisberger's angst! Hooray!!!

NFL's East Coast/Cowboys Bias may be crushed Sunday night, which would be sweet justice for NFL fans! If Redskins beat Cowboys, strong chance no team from 5 of U.S.'s Top 6 TV markets will make NFL playoffs: No NY, no LA (not even Chargers!), no Chicago, no Philly, no Dallas. Plus, we'll finally be free of analysis of Romo & Roethlisberger's angst! Hooray!!!

It's all up to the Redskins to make this reality come true Sunday night when they host the Cowboys in a battle for the NFC Eastern Division title that I believe may well be a Redskin rout by the middle of the third quarter, a result that should lead to the Cowboys making major changes that are long overdue, including a change at head coach.

If the Redskins win Sunday night, the only team from a Top 6 U.S. TV market will be the San Francisco 49ers, at number six.
http://www.stationindex.com/tv/tv-markets

That will mean that what seems like the majority of the teams that the NFL and Madison Avenue have foisted upon us this past season via nationally-televised Sunday Night, Monday Night and Thursday Night football ballgames will be completely absent from the playoffs: Cowboys, Giants and Jets. Buh-bye!

For the Cowboys, this absence will mean that the following is now true: the Cowboys have won one playoff game in the past 16 years.

Now say it over to yourself and ask yourself whether this self-evident fact will prevent the NFL and Madison Avenue from force-feeding the Cowboys down America's throat next year on the tube?
No, more likely, they will front-load many of those Cowboys games at the beginning of the season and cross their fingers to get some games at the end of the season on the flex schedule.

As I've written here before, one of the few conspiracy theories in America that is actually TRUE is that the NFL props-up the Cowboys in ways that it doesn't seem to for any other team.

At one point in this past season I had figured out that over half of the Cowboy 16 regular season games had been on national TV broadcasts, and with the flex schedule going into effect for Sunday night's Redskins, I believe that makes either 8 or 9 Cowboys games out of 16 that will have been nationally-televised.
Why so much pushing for such a mediocre team?

A few years ago, ESPN commentator and NFL Hall of Fame QB Steve Young succinctly tore into the Dolphins and the Vikings organizations as THE most over-rated NFL teams of the past 10 -or 15?- years.
To that he could have added the Jerry Jones Cowboys of the 21st Century.

No, contrary to what is said perpetually on ESPN, especially by Jon Gruden, the Cowboys are NOT one of the most-talented teams in the league, they are one of the most under-performing.

As a matter of fact, as far as most NFL fans are concerned, the Cowboys and Giants don't need to always have one of their two games be a nationally-televised game, or even rate a 4:15 p.m. Sunday kickoff.
It's not the 1990's anymore, capisce?

An exciting team on the rise like the Seattle Seahawks needs to be on national TV more and I don't mean 1 p.m. Eastern kickoffs against the Dolphins, either.

But don't kid yourself.
The Cowboys will be on more national TV broadcasts next year than the Seahawks even if Seattle gets to the Super Bowl. Even if they win it.
Rest assured, the powers-that-be at NFL HQ will see to it.

NFL Odds & Ends

When he was still head coach at Texas Tech, I used to wonder what a brilliant mind like offensive-minded coach Mike Leach would do if given the keys to the Cowboys, the Chargers, Jets, Bucs or the Ravens, five perpetually under-performing NFL teams, none of whom have made the Super Bowl despite having had numerous opportunities before collapsing. 

I still wonder about that now that Leach is at Washington State, but only re the Ravens.

My January 6, 2009 post on Leach going to the Bucs was titled, 
So THAT'S why newspapers are dying? BORING!; Jon Gruden must go!

As someone with a few Ravens t-shirts and jackets in my bedroom closet and who's rooted for the Ravens since they moved to Baltimore -and who came this close to becoming a Ravens season ticket holder that first year when I lived in Arlington County, VA- while it might be heresy for some to hear, while I think he's a good coach, I believe John Harbaugh's era at Baltimore could and should come to an end if they lose in the playoffs against either the Colts or the Bengals. 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/ravens-insider/bal-updated-ravens-nfl-playoff-scenarios-20121224,0,345461.story
At home. 
Mercifully.

They no longer have the number and caliber of defensive playmakers to mask his bad coaching decisions:

Ravens Have Underperformed During John Harbaugh’s Tenure
By Zach Wilt
ttp://baltimoresportsreport.com/ravens-overvalue-john-harbaugh-35505.html


Bloomberg News
Oakland Pays $17 Million for NFL Raiders as Cops Fired
By Darrell Preston & Aaron Kuriloff - Dec 20, 2012 5:58 PM ET

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Halfway thru 2011 NFL season, TV's East Coast bias in scheduling Sunday & Monday Night Football games, esp for Cowboys, Jets & Giants, is clear to see


clevelandthundercat video: A Browns Fan's Reaction To Today's Game Against Houston
Brilliant!

Within my lengthy post Tuesday about Peter Schweizer's hot new book titled "Throw Them All Out," about insider trading and crony capitalism on Capitol Hill,
I included a pithy and accurate secondary comment regarding what I called the "NFL/Madison Avenue nexus."

That is to say, the guiding hand at NFL HQ that causes the schedule-makers to force Cowboy, Jet and Giant football games down the country's throat before the holidays, in order to maximize the TV network's ratings, even if those particular games are crummy match-ups by the time they roll around -or worse- are of little general interest outside of certain East Coast area codes in and around the island of Manhattan.

Well, perhaps as a testament to how much some of you recall from what I right -or my ability to mention something here that's of interest to me that you find yourself in agreement with- I've received quite a few short emails from readers and NFL fans around the world who seconded my motion -and then some.

The general consensus for the past forty years among serious NFL fans I know and columnists I trust is that for the TV networks, the best scenario has always seemed to be having the Cowboys as a good team and playing at home or on the road against an East Coast city, regardless of how good the Cowboys actually are that year, since New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Atlanta are large markets.
(Obviously, you already know that they are all NFC and Fox-TV markets.)

In fact, more than any other team, it's been noticeable to even the most novice fan that even when the Cowboys are mediocre to average, as usual, the NFL has scheduled them for late season national games at times on Saturdays or Sundays that more-deserving teams should be paying at, almost as if the NFL marketing folks are closet Cowboy fans with their thumb on the scales.

Most NFL fans I believe could tolerate the schedule-makers giving the benefit of the doubt to the Steelers or the Patriots, as nobody ever thinks both teams will be bad in the very same year, but last I checked, the Cowboys haven't played in the NFC Championship since 1995, 16 years ago, yet they are forever the fair-haired favorites at NFL HQ.

That appearance and the simple facts that one can deduce from simply examining the schedule in even a cursory fashion, hardly seems to matter to the NFL, since the schedule this year once again seems to be set-up with the NFL's firmly hoping for the Cowboys to be good down the stretch.
But when has that hope become a reality the past few years?

For the Cowboys, December has been the month of giving -giving away ballgames they should've won.

The proof of that isn't just what we have already observed this year, but the fact that once again, the Cowboys are scheduled to host one of three late afternoon post-4 p.m. games on Christmas Eve Day, against... yes, an East Coast team, the Eagles.

For the record, the other two games are San Diego at Detroit and San Francisco at Seattle.
Seriously, which game do you think will be on local TV where you live that Saturday afternoon?

Now as we all know, there are supposedly limits on how often NFL teams can appear on Sunday or Monday Night Football, but for most fans, it rarely seems that way in practice, does it?
No, it seems that Mark Sanchez, Tony Romo and Eli Manning & Company are shoved down our throats at every single opportunity, and are always featured as pre-game or halftime interviews, despite the fact that we all have seen enough to know that they are not exactly sparkling conversationalists.

And, not surprisingly, given the common sense of most of you readers, some of those emails I received suggested that I print the entire NBC Sunday Night/ESPN Monday Night football lineup, plus the Thursday NFL Network schedule -which starts tonight with a Jets game!- so you can see for yourself whether or not it shows that East Coast bias, coupled with the Cowboy/Jet/Giant bias we've all come to expect from the NFL and the NY-based TV networks; with table scraps thrown to the rest of the country.

This year, for example, is a perfect example of what I was saying about the NFL schedule-makers loading-up for TV ratings sake.
It was a good month -four weeks- before there was a single Sunday night or Monday night football game that DIDN'T include either the Cowboys, Jets or Giants, who as of today, Thursday morning, have a combined record of 16-11.

Thru the first 12 weeks of the NFL season, there is NEVER more than ONE WEEK going by without an appearance on a Sunday, Monday or Thursday night game of the Cowboys, Giants or Jets.
How do you reconcile that?

In fact, if you look at the schedule for the first twelve weeks of NBC's Sunday night game, the farthest west they go is Kansas City, which will be two Sundays from now.
Not exactly a cross-country tour of America's love affair with the NFL.

Below, I'm going to highlight these three teams nationally-televised games on Saturdays, Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night, and let you see whatever you want to see. Perhaps it'll be a pattern.
That's what I see.

Week 1
Sunday, Sept. 11th Dallas 24 @ NYJ 27
Monday Sept. 12th New England 38 @ Miami 24, Oakland 23 @ Denver 20

Week 2
Sunday Sept. 18th Philadelphia 31 @ Atlanta 35
Monday Sept. 19th, St. Louis 16 @ NY Giants 28

Week 3
Sunday Sept. 25th Pittsburgh 23 @ Indianapolis 20
Monday Sept. 26th Washington 16 @ Dallas 18

Week 4
Sunday Oct. 2nd NY Jets 17 @ Baltimore 34
Monday Oct. 3rd Indianapolis 17 @ Tampa Bay 24

Week 5
Sunday Oct. 9th Green Bay 25 @ Atlanta 14
Monday Oct. 10th Chicago 13 @ Detroit 24

Week 6
Sunday Oct. 16th Minnesota 10 @ Chicago 39
Monday Oct. 17th Miami 6 @ NY Jets 24

Week 7
Sunday Oct. 23rd Indianapolis 7 @ New Orleans 62
Monday Oct. 24th Baltimore 7 @ Jacksonville 12

Week 8
Sunday Oct 30th Dallas 7 @ Philadelphia 34
Monday Oct. 31st San Diego 20 @ Kansas City 23

Week 9
Sunday Nov. 6th Baltimore 23 @ Pittsburgh 20
Monday Nov. 7th Chicago 30 @ Philadelphia 24

Week 10
Sunday Nov. 13th New England 37 @ NY Jets 16
Monday Nov. 14th Minnesota 7 @ Green Bay 45

Week 11
Thursday Nov. 17th NY Jets @ Denver 8:20 PM

Sunday Nov 20th Philadelphia @ NY Giants 8:20 PM
Monday Nov. 21st Kansas City @ New England

Week 12
Thursday Nov. 24th Thanksgiving Day
Green Bay @ Detroit
Miami @ Dallas
San Francisco @ Baltimore, the Harbaugh Bowl

Sunday Nov. 27th Pittsburgh @ Kansas City 8:20 PM
Monday Nov. 28th NY Giants @ New Orleans 8:30 PM

Week 13 is when it gets interesting since though the NFL says that weeks 10-15 and 17 are when the "flexible schedule" kicks in for moving one Sunday afternoon game to Sunday night for NBC's telecast, they weren't/aren't about to abandon the Jets for Week 10 and the Giants for Week 14, were they?

Thursday Dec. 1st Philadelphia @ Seattle 8:20 PM

Sunday Dec. 4th
The two games most likely to be moved are Detroit @ New Orleans tentatively listed for a 1p.m. kickoff and Green Bay at, yes, the NY Giants slated for 4:15 p.m.

Monday Dec. 5th San Diego @ Jacksonville 8:30 PM

Week 14
Thursday Dec. 8th Cleveland @ Pittsburgh 8:20 PM

Sunday, Dec. 11th
What do you know, NBC has tentatively listed the NY Giants at Dallas for Sunday night, though by then, the Cowboys may already be eliminated from playoff contention.
What are the odds that NBC tosses this game?
We know the answer to that, don't we -ZERO chance!

Mon, Dec. 12th St. Louis @ Seattle

Week 15
Thursday Dec. 15th Jacksonville @ Atlanta

Saturday, Dec. 17th Dallas at Tampa Bay 8:20 PM

Sun, Dec. 18th
Tentatively scheduled for Sunday night is Baltimore @ San Diego, but they could drop that if Chargers are out of playoff contention by then -quite likely- and go with Seattle at Chicago, Detroit at Oakland or NY Jets at Philadelphia. Hmm-m...

Monday Dec. 19th Pittsburgh at San Francisco

Week 16, Dec. 22nd-25th, has a condition that weeks 10-17 didn't have -a guarantee.
The NFL guaranteed Chicago at Green Bay on Christmas night to NBC, and there are no night games on Christmas Eve.
See, the NFL really does care about its fans. LOL!

At first glance, the only surprising thing is that the Giants at Jets game was scheduled for 1 p.m. and not 4:15 pm, but then you noodle it thru and you see what the NFL has done for Fox-TV.
It has given them all three teams we've discussed in this blog post on what will likely be a huge viewing day on a day that American families will be, theoretically, together, with the Philadelphia at Dallas game following the battle of the two New Jersey teams.

No chance they were going to have two west coast teams playing in the second game, right?
It would be a real shame if the Giants eliminated the Jets right before Christmas, wouldn't it?

Thursday Dec. 22nd Houston @ Indianapolis 8:20 PM

Sunday, Dec. 25th Chicago @ Green Bay 8:20 PM

Monday Dec. 26th Atlanta @ New Orleans


Week 17
Sunday Jan. 1st
This week, the last regular season weekend, the two games most likely to be moved are the 1 p.m. Baltimore at Cincinnati and Detroit at Green Bay games.
But playing Devil's Advocate, guess who also plays at 1 p.m.?
Yes, Dallas at the NY Giants.

The TV networks would't bypass two possibly crucial games with playoff positions at risk for another collective FU to the rest of the country would they, just to get more NY eyeballs?
You bet they would!