Wednesday, August 25, 2010

08/26 Quickie: Furyk, Revis, Braves

Today's Names to Know: Jim Furyk, 18-game NFL season, Darrelle Revis, Tim Cowlishaw, Braves, Joey Votto, Manny Ramirez, BYU, Ronald Powell, USA Hoops, Josh Kroenke, Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods, Rex Ryan and More.

Jim Furyk oversleeps for pro-am and gets DQ'ed from Barclays tournament with implications on the FedEx Cup standings (and, ultimately, money): I appreciate that the PGA wants to give its pros an incentive not to blow off the sponsor-critical pro-am events, but it is ludicrous that the rules will keep Furyk from this tournament -- to Phil's point, not when half the FedEx Cup field isn't even participating in the tournament. The lesson in all this is, of course, check your cell phone battery twice before relying on it for your wake-up call. Oh, and use the hotel wake-up call system as a redundancy.

About the 18-game NFL season, here's what I don't get: Peter King had a tweet where he said that the 16-game season is brutal enough on the players' bodies; by implication, 18 would just be too much.

Of course, that begs a question going the other direction: If it's so brutal, maybe they should play 14? Or 12? Or, per Gladwell, none at all?

Super Bowl champs play 19 games in a season, presumably with their biggest effort coming in games 17, 18 and 19.

Hard to understand how 20 teams playing 18 games, with the playoff teams playing a few more, will wreck the players any more than 16. And, by the way, fans are all for expanding the schedule.

I'm not suggesting I understand the toll a longer season takes on players' bodies -- although if the owners would pony up a bigger share of league revenue, I suspect that players would be entirely on board.

It's going to happen, whether or not owners vote on it yesterday (they didn't).

More:

*So no Darrelle Revis signing yesterday. If a blogger or online outlet like PFT went on Twitter and claimed something would happen and it didn't, people would scoff and use it as an example of low credibility.

Rather than mock Tim Cowlishaw, I would rather say that: Sources can be wrong; it's a dangerous game to claim locked knowledge on anything; and scoops are overrated anyway. Still: Cowlishaw sure didn't mind the attention he got for making the call; he should be ready to take the backlash -- and that's without defensively saying, "Um, did I mention it could be Wednesday OR Sunday?"

All that said: Hell, I could have tweeted "Darrelle Revis is going to sign! (Eventually.)"

*So the Football Writers Association of America formally stripped USC of its 2004 national title. But they won't do the right thing and elevate Auburn to No. 1. (Why not? And why wouldn't FWAA members insist their leadership do the right thing?)

*You know what's soul-sucking if you're a fan? Being up 10-1, then losing. Ouch, Braves fans.

*Reverse jinx: I open my mailbox and see Joey Votto on the cover of this week's SI -- and last night he had 2 HR in that wild 12-11 Reds win over the Giants, where the Giants came back from being down 10-1 in the 5th to take an 11-10 lead in the 8th, only to lose on a Votto RBI single in the 12th.

*So who's going to get Manny? The White Sox?

*So after all that, BYU is going back to the Mountain West? How disappointing for the rest of us.

(Update: Got an email from reader Brandon, who is all over this stuff and says everyone in BYU country is assuming they will NOT go back to the MWC -- regardless of those earlier reports -- and will go indie, with the potential they end up in the Big 12 eventually.)

*Yes, I heard about the stuff involving Florida's vaunted freshmen defensive ends skipping practice Tuesday. (a) It's overblown. (b) It's a typical blip. (c) This team is going to be better than people think -- and I'd say that a preseason average ranking at No. 4 means most folks aren't sleeping on them to begin with.

*USA Hoops: Greece was no match. The US will roll to gold.

*Nuggets fans, welcome your new main owner: Kroenke scion Josh, who isn't all that much older than the average player on the team.

*"There was never any violence inside or outside our home." -- Elin Nordegren, to People magazine.

*My expectations for Tiger at the Barclay's is about the same as it is for Tiger at any tournament right now: He's not winning, and how bad will he miss?

*I'm not a particularly big Pat Haden fan, but the new USC AD wins some points for trying to guilt Reggie Bush into returning his Heisman.

*"Hard Knocks" Watch: Last night's ep did nothing to dissuade me that if I was an NFL football player, I would really enjoy playing for Rex Ryan (as long as I was, y'know, good).

(Special teams coach Mike Westoff wins the night with his insta-classic curse: "Triple F%$%ing Asian Flu.")

*Love this post from Yahoo about the all-time fantasy football lineup, but to exclude Marques Colston from the TE spot -- even the "honorable mention" group -- is a gross oversight.

(I'm talking about the year when Colston was inadvertently listed -- by Yahoo itself! -- as a TE rather than a WR, and it influenced the league like nothing else in fantasy football history. Wow: Not even as a one-hit wonder?)

*Another must-read: WSJ's Darren Everson on my preseason No. 1 college football team, Boise State.

*I'm late on this, but the "My Wife Knows Everything"/"My Wife Doesn't Know" horse-race ending from Sunday really IS awesome. (h/t Rachel Sklar)

*Don't forget to check out my bonus post from yesterday about how we're living in the golden age of sportswriting.

-- D.S.

1 comment:

SteveB said...

No Dan, "all" fans are not for an 18 game expansion for the NFL regular season. The great thing about NFL weekends is that every game matters. The more they dilute that, the less each game counts. 16 is fine -- no need for regular season fatigue.