Train Wreck?

Even though I’ve been a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers all my life, I’m hoping beyond hope that they do NOT draft Jameis Winston Thursday night with the first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.

I think he’s a bad seed, and I know the Bucs are saying they vetted him, meaning they checked out his background and such.  I have little doubt he’ll be at least an effective NFL quarterback.  However, he won’t be any good to the Bucs if the trouble he’s alleged to have gotten to at FSU follows him to Tampa Bay, or if he fails to show any maturity that he is alleged to have lacked in Tallahassee.  The people who may have protected him there won’t be able to here.

Hopefully, I’m wrong about all of this, but it just has a bad smell to it.  I hope all goes well for all involved, and if the Bucs made another choice, I’d be very pleased with it.

Don’t Talk To Me About Playoffs!

For many years, the corruption that festered in the sport of professional boxing wasn’t exactly an open secret. I’m starting to think College Football isn’t much better, but it’s cozy relationship with a ton of sports networks keeps this from being discussed in boxing’s sphere.

In what universe does it make sense for two teams with one loss to be ranked higher than an undefeated team like Florida State? I get that FSU is the new “evil empire” of college football, but how do you rank an undefeated team THIRD? FSU should be number one until they lose, period. I don’t think they’d match up well with, say Alabama, for one team. But until that game is played, putting them ahead of FSU is a joke.

I will admit that a four team playoff is a step in the right direction, but I’m hoping an eight team playoff isn’t that far away.

Football Blues

I like your product, Roger…I just don’t like you.

It wasn’t a weekend entirely football free, but it may as well have been.

With the Buccaneers playing (if you could call it that) Thursday night in Atlanta, and with my favorite college football team (Notre Dame) not playing this weekend, I watched very little pigskin. I caught the tail end of the FSU-Clemson game (which FSU won in overtime without a QB embroiled in a scandal of his own doing) and that was about it. I watched the Rays games and the playoff contending teams in baseball, and Netflix. I didn’t know until I woke up this morning what happened in the big Seahawks-Broncos Super Bowl rematch game yesterday afternoon, or the Steelers-Panthers game last night.

If you’ve been reading my last few blogs, I think I’m footballed out as a result of the Roger Goodell-Ray Rice scandal. It ripped the scab off of the NFL for me, and the pus is flying everywhere. If a guy gets paid $44,000,000 a year to do a job that poorly, his product shouldn’t be watched or bought.

I found other things to do this weekend. I imagine some of you did too. I don’t know if my quasi-boycott is going to last once baseball season ends in about a month, but as long as the “Jolly Roger” is commissioner, I will do my damnedest to find other things to conquer.

Play Of The Century?

Like many college football fans across the country, I caught the wildest ending to a game I had seen since Doug Flutie beat the Miami Hurricanes 47-45 back in 1984 on a Hail Mary pass.

To set this up for you non-followers of college football: Alabama was three wins away from an unheard of third straight national title, playing their rivals, the Auburn Tigers at their stadium. The score was tied at 28-28 with one second left in regulation time. Alabama had a long field goal attempt of 57 yards on the final play, and what happened was the least likely of outcomes.

Florida State University was the main benefactor of the play, vaulting to the top ranking in the Bowl Championship Series ratings, with undefeated Ohio State University right behind them. For an SEC team to once again win the national championship, they will likely need a loss by either FSU or Ohio State next week in the conference championship round.