The rant of all sports rants volume 1

So after last night’s debacle I got back to my room and halfway sarcastically, halfway serious, wondered out loud to myself “When does hockey season start to take away these bad football games,” It took me a second to realize that oh wait, hockey’s in a lockout. Football is a joke, hockey is locked out, I still don’t trust the NBA, and Baseball is well… baseball. The fall of the American sport has begun.

And let me just add in the caveat that no this isn’t centered around the fact that the two in-season Boston teams are doing pretty bad and this is just me pining for the days of winning 8 titles in 11 years. Think about it, if that was the case, I would’ve written this yesterday, because honestly if Tyler Warner’s kick was no good, then how could that Ravens kick be good?

Anyway, let’s look at this ridiculous mess that’s being made. The NFL is out of control. Goodell has been promoted from commissioner to czar of the NFL in the last couple years. Honestly it depends on really where you want to start the timeline at. I could be a really jerk and argue spygate and everything that happened with there, but I’ll keep it out to not have to deal with that argument again. I’ve seen some today argue that he rigged the super bowl the year the Saints won it because the city needed the win. I don’t completely agree though, because if that were true then why not instead make the Saint’s win the NFC championship game in Reggie Bush’s rookie year and play the Colts that year? Unless that year they were dead set on Peyton getting his ring, which is just even more crazy but a story for a day of conspiracy theories, although this isn’t going to be the last we hear of our good buddy Peyton.

I think I’ll start the timeline a little later, just to shorten the argument. I think I’ll start with the Pittsburgh-Miami game a couple years ago with the whole “Did Roethelisberger score or not?” debacle that most people point to as the catalyst to the idea that all scoring plays are automatically challenged. Up to that point it was a great example of the NFL at its finest, being reactive, not proactive. Little did everyone know that at the same time there was a bigger problem brewing.

The owners knew that a lockout was impending. Everyone and their dog knew a lockout was impending. What did everyone do though? Sit around and stare at all the zeroes being added to the end of bank accounts. The whole season was on eggshells. They had ample opportunity to solve this problem before it started, but insisted on waiting until after the season. It wasn’t affecting the number of viewers so therefore it wasn’t affecting the bottom line, so to the owners, why bother?

Then the lockout finally came. No football. The offseason was in complete disarray. Free agents couldn’t sign with new teams with means the draft was an even bigger crapshoot since you couldn’t really draft for need unless you were either 100 percent sure or were drafting for a future need (i.e. Patriots taking Nate Solder because Matt Light wasn’t for long). The draft also provided a small glimmer of hope. On the Friday after the first round the lockout had seemed to have been lifted at least temporarily. The light at the end of the tunnel was close. Teams were bringing in their first round picks to do all the normal first round pick celebrating and such. Then out of nowhere a complete reversal happened. The lockout was back. Players weren’t to be at the facilities, which created a problem for these rookies. It gave us the first lasting memory of the lockout with Cam Newton, who less than 24 hours ago was anointed the newest number one overall pick, was sprinting through hallways of Panthers headquarters trying to get out before causing the Panthers any trouble, but also, get out with a playbook so he can study it.

That summer dragged on and on and on. Every day it was another mention of something getting cancelled. First it was OTAs which weren’t really a huge deal at the time. Then the Hall of Fame game. For a year involving some of the most prestigious guys ever getting into the Hall of Fame game. Then Myra Kraft died, that created a whole new atmosphere and Robert Kraft stepped forward and decided that him and Jeff Saturday were not going to let this season die.

It may not have died, but the damage had already been done. Mini-camps were drastically shortened, practically overlapping with preseason games. Rookies who already had a steep learning curve had an even steeper. But the season went on, in a jumbled mess, and it almost didn’t over a few tiny issues.

There were two big complaints about what the lockout had done for the game. The first was the shape of the players. They weren’t allowed team activities so they were forced to work out on their own, which many players didn’t. There were reports every day though of Drew Brees’s massive practices he was running that started things off, then teams like the Patriots, Packers, Falcons, and even the Mark Sanchez-led Jets started doing similar activities. Team activities weren’t limited to just practices though. We also learned the value of a medical staff and trainers thanks to one neck surgery that ultimately led to the a disastrous standoff between NFL icon and coach/ownership, the (at least temporary) fall of a major dynasty, and the most catchy phrase of the whole season in “Suck for Luck”.  

The Peyton Manning saga was one of the big overlooked stories of the summer of the lockout, back then because of everyone focusing more on the labor negotiations, and now because everyone more fondly remembers part 2 of the saga from this year, but it may be the one that lasts in our memory longer than even this lockout did. In the 2000s there was no bigger rivalry in at least the NFL, in my opinion all of sports, than Patriots vs. Colts. We got a Patriots-Colts game every year, and in most years two and they were always meaningful because both teams were the class of the league. It wasn’t even a rivalry based on hate like say the Patriots and the other Manning, or the Patriots and Mark Sanchez’s white pants. It was one of those kinda awesome mutual respect type of rivalries. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will always be linked. They are the two best quarterbacks of our generation always in this epic struggle to be on top. Patriots-Colts produced great memories like Ty Law’s three interceptions in the playoffs, and ones I’d like to forget, dumb AFC Championship… Due to the lockout essentially wiping out Manning’s year and consequentially his Colt’s career there are no more of these games, I’m stuck with convincing myself that Patriots-Ravens is an okay substitute.

So yeah, the NFL isn’t exactly on a great path. With the real refs it helps a little but it may be too little too late. I’ll cover the other three sports later and oh how I can’t wait for hockey.