Monday, December 05, 2005
Random Weekend Sports Observations...
Gotta love that parity thing.
Hunch: USC beats Texas by at least ten points in The Rose Bowl. Why? Well, USC destroyed a fairly good UCLA team on Saturday -- with the reigning (though not for long) Heisman Trophy winner having a bad game. Texas winning depends on the Longhorns taking out Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and "other" running back Lendale White. USC winning depends -- partly -- on the Trojans taking out Vince Young. What's more likely?
2) National Football League: The teams with (or tied) for the best records after twelve weeks are Indianapolis (12-0), Cincinnatti (9-3) and Chicago (9-3). For what it's worth, all three teams have African-American head coaches (including the Bears' Lovie Smith).
(And, yes, the Jets' Herman Edwards proves that mediocrity is an equal opportunity employer. Arizona's Dennis Green and Cleveland's Romeo Crennell are the other two.)
What does it mean? Not necessarily a whole lot, but given that just a few years ago, the NFL only had one black head coach, the success that these teams are having -- and the record total of six black coaches is a sign of some major progress. The ideal, of course, is that we reach a point when no one notices race when a coach is fired or hired. That moment may not be hear yet, the NFL appears heading in the right direction.
On a related note, Kansas State hires Virginia's offensive coordinator Ron Prince to become its head coach. Prince becomes one of four black head coaches in Division 1-A college football (including UCLA's Karl Dorrell, who was on the wrong end of that 66-19 pasting by USC).
UPDATE: Ah, got to learn to go with my first instinct! I originally listed Seattle as having one of the top four NFL records -- and that three of the four top teams had black coaches. Somehow, when I wrote that, I gave the Seahawks one more loss than they had. Well, obviously, Monday night's game showed just how impressive the 10-2 Seahawks (coached by Mike Holmgren) really are. Of course, the Giants should have beaten them a week ago...
UPDATE II/CORRECTION: Oh, of course, this is actually Bears coach Lovie Smith's second year -- despite what I originally wrote above! Thanks everyone who pointed that out. This is the last time in a while that I will be doing any football blogging...
Um, EXCEPT to to say that everyone should get off Tony Dungy's back on whether he should rest is starters once the Colt's clinch the division and home field advantage through the playoffs. How about waiting until it actually happens before everybody gets on their "he'd better force all of his players on the field." In short, Dungy should coach in a directly contrary way to the instincts that have helped him direct the Colt's greatest season in decades? So, the rules that say you protect your players in order to win a championship should be sacrificed for "perfection"? And if they finish 16-0 and Peyton Manning rips up his shoulder with 20 minutes to go in the sixteenth game, thus dooming their playoff chances?
Real smart.
Grrr....
(Okay! No more football blogging this week.)
