Sports' Rants
This Page Last Updated 25-May-1998
Commentaries of 1997
Congratulations to the Men's Hockey Team of the Czech Republic.
Congratulations also to Gianpiero Moretti, Didier Theys, Mauro Baldi and the
Momo Ferrari team for their victory at both the 24 Hours at Daytona and the
12 Hours of Sebring. Ferarri sweeps the Florida spring.
Update 1/16/98:
Kansas State Football
The Kansas State football Wildcats had another good season finishing at 11-1. The one loss was a drubbing by co-National Champion Nebraska. This was a game which was lost emotionally early after a roughing the kicker penalty on a Nebraska punt led to the Cornhuskers' second touchdown. It was apparent that it was all downhill from there. But the season ended with an Alliance Bowl bid and a convincing win over Syracuse in the Fiesta Bowl. Excluding a 12 point letdown in the last 2 minutes of the first half, K-State dominated their Big Least opponent.
The NFL
Bill Parcells had a successful season with the Jets, but lost the last game of the season to keep him out of the playoffs and cost him the Coach of the Year honors.
The Patriots had an up and down season plagued by injuries and character issues. The Pats' first round draft pick, Chris Canty out of Kansas State, had been questioned at the beginning of the season as being a slow dwarf, who would never make it in the NFL. By the end of the season Canty was making contributions in the Pats' Dime Package, but still had a lot to learn about playing NFL zone coverages.
As questions surfaced about Drew Bledsoe's character and determination, it was nice to see one of the Pats' old quarterbacks, K-State alum Steve Grogan, resurface to provide commentary. As one of the last quarterbacks to call his own game in the NFL and generally an all-around class act, I am befuddled why no team has picked him to work with a young quarterback.
The Kansas City Chiefs had another great regular season, only to waste it in the playoffs. Unfortunately I did not record my statements from before the season or I might be able to make some money off of this type of commentary. The moves during the last off-season by the Chiefs were the wrong ones. Acquiring another ex-49er quarterback was a bad move. Grbac is not the Super Bowl quarterback of now or the future. Also releasing Neil Smith and Dan Saleamua was not the way to shake up the defense. The one person that should have been released is Marty Schottenheimer. Why? For not being a big game coach, who believes that a system will win a Super Bowl. Bzzzt. Players win Super Bowls and a system must adjust to best utilize the available talents. Secondly for supporting a system of importing mediocre quarterback talent and being unwilling to develop a young quarterback or take a chance on a non-West Coast quarterback. Brett Favre was not a West Coast quarterback at Atlanta or in the SEC, but he seems to be doing okay now. Neither Notre Dame nor BYU fields a West Coast offense, yet Montana and Young seem to have done all right in the pros. So if not Elvis, then who should have been in the house for KC? My choice would be Danny McManus. As a product of Florida State, the man is a throwing quarterback. As quarterback of the Edmonton Eskimos he has been extremely successful leading his team to the Grey Cup two years ago and the Western Conference finals this year. Perhaps his quarterback rating isn't as high as fellow-CFL quarterback Doug Flutie, but McManus is bigger and fits the pocket quarterback mentality of the West Coast offense. Plus the most important factor is that video tape of the Grey Cup game will show McManus playing in a blizzard in short sleeves and throwing 30 and 40 yard passes with accuracy. Playoff winners in the NFL have to have that capability or have home field advantage in Miami or San Diego.
With the rumors circulating about Doug Flutie jumping back to the NFL to play with Buffalo, let me say that a Flutie-led F-(nee K-)Gun offense would be a lot of fun to watch. He may not be tall, but if left in a spread sandlot offense Flutie can make things happen.
Formula One Racing
Now to the Formula One silly season....
The two big topics for this off-season are Michael Schumacher's antics at the European Grand Prix and the new car and tire specifications for the 1998 season. First I was appalled at the intentional contact by Schumacher. But it wasn't the first time that this maneuver had been performed in F1, so Schumacher should not be singled out for this. Also no mention has been made of Schumacher's Ferrari obviously losing it just prior to the contact. After coming out of the pits, it seemed as if Schumacher could not get back up to speed, which I guess was a gear box failure. Losing a Driver's Championship due to mechanical failure is also bad for the sport. And simply stated given the state of Schumacher's car, I could have made the pass at that corner. Villeneuve is neither a great driver or a champion as his driving in Japan demonstrated.
I am also appalled that the FIA would allow a driver under suspension to drive and then cancel his points, as happened with Villeneuve at Japan. To allow a suspended driver to affect a race by driving is rediculous. A driver under suspension should be allowed to race pending appeal, but should not have a race that they drove in serve as the suspension. This can only work in two-party win-loss sports.
I applaud the FIA for the new regulations in F1 this year. Of course a driver such as Villeneuve will oppose them, since it means that races may depend more on driving skill than upon having the best car. One of the major critiques my NASCAR-loving friends have against F1 is the lack of real racing. It may require more skill to drive road courses, but F1 lacked any real driver duels during the year. The new grooved tires will require a harder compound rubber. This means that the rubber bb's that accumulate from the softer Goodyear slicks will disappear and racing outside of "the groove" will once again be possible. This, along with the narrower cars, will make it easier to pass and hopefully allow for some more exciting driving in 1998. But I also think that the FIA should seriously consider revamping the scoring for Formula 1 towards the Winston Cup scoring. The final results should still be the most important, but consistency for an entire race should be rewarded and DNFs should be punished.
NASCAR Winston Cup
As for NASCAR, 1998 signals the era of the team domination of the sport. Hopefully NASCAR will not succumb to the dollars from these teams and squeeze out the one car garages that built NASCAR. This is one area where NASCAR can learn from the FIA and mandate that teams can race no more than two cars, which should reduce the budget competition for smaller teams.