i realized that most of my favorite postseason moments this year have been from the NFC teams... odd. well, what else would it have been? matt cassel throwing an interception in the chiefs playoff game? i don't think so. but it's not time for "i'm not ok with that" yet so let's get on with the good stuff.
highlight #1: marshawn lynch's amazing td run for the seahawks! i watched this happening live and i was like "oh wow. oh my gosh, he's still going! Oh NO HE DIDN'T! HE JUST PUSHED THAT GUY RIGHT DOWN! OH MY GOSH!!!! WOW!!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" or something like that. the crappy thing about being the sports genius that i am is that i knew immediately this was an amazing moment in sports, but i didn't blog about it immediately, and then within 2 hours it was ALL OVER THE PLACE, and here i am a month later writing about that one awesome thing that happened that one time. great. still worth another look-see if you ask me.
highlight #2: this is just one measly example of why i chose to root for the packers during the superbowl... because aaron rodgers is the kind of quarterback that i love to watch... gritty, hard-nosed, takes a tackle head on, and doesn't play "scared" when he has already had 2 concussions this season. i don't know if that's just stupid or if it's the smartest thing ever! when you play scared, you get hurt. so what does rodgers do? dives for a rushing td headfirst against the bears in the NFC championship, that's what! note the mini-weight belt celebration at the end. also, i always enjoy a rushing td where the carrier stretches out over the pylon... it's such smart play to use every inch of the field, the entire width, to stretch the defense. check out how deep he runs for this play to develop before he turns for the end zone. i just think it's brilliant.
highlight #3: big fella does a little dance. becomes an instant classic. if this isn't one of my favorite things of all times i don't know what is. no need for explanation, it is what it is...pure awesomeness.
i will not show any highlights from the super bowl. i was glad that the packers won, i've been a packers fan since reggie white, which i realize is still pretty recent history, but i was a kid when his career started so it's where my memory of loving the packers begins. you know, for the same reasons that i like how rodgers plays i find it REALLY hard not to like how ben roethlisberger plays too, but he's just not a very likable person. from a pure sports perspective, though, i would still probably prefer rodgers over big ben because he takes his risks on the field and not in life.
ok, now on to what i'm not ok with this week and that is bill self. i've always held that, while i will never be able to bring myself to root for ku and the fans drive me insane (except holly, she's just great and completely rational in her fandom and she's about the only person that i'm allowed to watch sports with because she won't judge me when i have to say some words), i've always had great respect for bill self as a coach and a person. well, he has been on a slight downward trend in my heart for the past month with how he has chosen to handle, or not handle, the mario little situation and the hot-headed morris twins. first of all, 4 weeks or so ago mario little was arrested for assaulting 4 people. within a few weeks he was back on the court. not only was he back on the court but his playing time mysteriously seemed to increase! not only this, but last week he was on the court scoring 17 points and being named player of the game against rival MU. well, i am simply dumbfounded. a month ago, when self was questioned about the incident of assault, he was defensive and even slightly disrespectful to the female member of the training staff that was assaulted by mario little, saying she wasn't "part of the team, oh but she was 3 weeks ago, oh but she's busy with classes now so she's not working with the team at this time (semantics, bill!), oh but there's no proof she was his girlfriend, but, but, but..." i was irritated at the time, but i thought i would just ignore this irritation because people are misunderstood in the press all the time and maybe bill was just still a little stunned by the news that one of his veteran players just assaulted 4 people. so i cut bill a break. but to see little's minutes go up and to see him getting the recognition and the applause from the fans, and the hoopla... ick. just ick.
so, in that same game, the mizzou game, markieff morris had a flagrant foul for a -not-really-a-punch-kind-of-a-shove directed at the face of an MU player. the broadcasters thought he maybe should have been ejected, i don't know, could go either way. i thought at the very least that he should not have gone back in the game, yet he did. what's more, self didn't even seem to have a problem with morris' dirty play. he didn't yell, didn't glare, didn't seem even all that frustrated that one of his star players almost got ejected and got an unnecessary foul called against him. no, self did not even say a word to markieff about it. not only was it just plain bad sportsmanship on markieff's part, but it's also extremely selfish and completely without regard for his own team! as one of the best players, in a rivalry game that was still a game at the time, you can't afford to risk being ejected! you can't afford to risk sitting the rest of the game. you need to be available for your team and you're not available when you hit a player in the face and get ejected or sit the bench...but wait. he didn't get ejected. and he didn't sit the bench. so i guess it really wasn't selfish play after all, because he must have known that bill wouldn't have the stones to sit him in a big game. yeah i said it. so then i thought, maybe bill just didn't see the not-quite-a-punch-kind-of-a-shove hit. maybe he didn't know how bad it was. maybe he'll watch the tape later and he'll address this in a press conference later this week. maybe he'll suspend morris for a game. i mean they're facing ISU in their next game, they can afford to teach markieff a lesson in that game. surely he'll take this seriously. there have been too many problems with the morris twins crossing the line from aggression to just flat out losing their tempers for self not to treat this with seriousness. i mean, surely he values his integrity as a coach more than he values beating ISU by 50 points. right? RIGHT? well, if you can't tell, i was typing with a very sarcastic tone there. because bill's only response this week was to say that people shouldn't be worried about it, that it looks worse than it really is (REALLY bill?? can you say that it "looks" worse when it has happened more than once in a season? when it has become a bit of a pattern? can you really say that?), and that it's being "addressed." then he went on to sing the praises of the morris twins and how much they've matured. eh???
look, i'm fine with the fact that self may not want to put everything out there in the public eye. i guess. and really, i don't have a MAJOR problem with any one specific event, it's more a problem with the cumulative non-addressing of things, the collective ignoring of things, if you will. because i'm watching my team, my coach, frank martin, get blasted for being tough, for being a disciplinarian, and for having players leave his program because they are too poo-poo-pants to cope with having to share the spotlight and not getting enough playing time. so yeah, i have problem with people NOT having a problem with bill self for doing nothing and i have a problem with people HAVING a problem with frank martin doing SOMEthing. i'm not going to make any snap judgments about self because i've respected him for longer than i've not respected him. but, the recent events are a bit of a crimson flag to me.
p.s. and by the way, freddy asprilla, what the crumb do you expect to happen to your precious playing time when you played like crap every time you were in the game??? really.
p.p.s. you will recall that last year when the doo-doo-diaper ku football and basketball players got into a fight on campus over some gross girl, it was hefty mangino that did nothing of consequence to discipline his team while self came home from the recruiting trail to hold team meetings and discipline his players for their stupidity. so here we are a year later and...
p.p.p.s. i would like to congratulate myself for using words like "poo" and "doo" and "crumb" instead of the more passionate language that i would typically use when i'm not self-editing.
No comments:
Post a Comment