I have a question

And this is one of those questions that I can't just google and get the answer. So maybe one of you smarter Frappe-heads can give me an answer.

I just finished watching the Monday Night Football game between Chicago and Green Bay (which was a great game, by the way). In overtime, the Bears got the ball inside field goal range. They opted to kick a field goal on third down - something many teams do in this situation. The explanation always given is that in case there is a bad snap, the holder could down the ball, or throw it away, and then the team could kick again on fourth down.

My question is this: has this strategy every ended up paying off for any team, ever? Has the holder ever had the quickness of mind to abort the attempt on third down, giving his team another chance to kick on fourth down? I see this strategy employed all the time but I never actually see the safety net get used.

Some might say that it doesn't hurt to kick on third down, so it doesn't matter how rarely it pays off, but I disagree. The one thing I do see happen rather frequently is a team settle for a game winning field goal attempt at the end of a game, when they suddenly shut down their offense as soon as they get within their kicker's range, only to see the kicker shank one. It seems like that third down play would be better used in going for a first down, or even a few extra yards, rather than using it as a safety net that you'll never actually use.

Justice comes to the AFC West

Justice comes to the AFC west next week when Denver and San Diego meet with the division championship on the line. Remember what happened the last time these two teams met? You might not, but I can guarantee you the San Diego Chargers remember it.

No matter which side of the Broncos-Chargers rivalry you sit on, you have to admit that that was one of the most unjust outcomes in NFL history. When referee Ed Hochuli is resorting to emailing apologies to San Diego fans, you know something must have gone terribly wrong.

But every now and again, these sorts of things right themselves. In this case, that involved Denver losing two straight and San Diego winning 3 straight to set up next week's match up.

Even though I don't have a significant rooting interest between these two teams, the rivalry between Phillip Rivers and Jay Cutler is one of my favorite in sports right now. It dates back to this game last year, when Phillip Rivers inexplicably taunted Jay Cutler from the sidelines. I think I love this rivalry because I do not understand it. It is inexplicable as to why two players who are never on the field at the same time would develop such a hatred for each other. I also don't understand how two grown men wearing helmets can embody such typical playground caricatures - Rivers being the bully and Cutler being the mop-haired dufus who can't even hold on to a football, (seriously, have you watched this video?).

Home, Home On The Web

As the typical dudes we are, we came up with every possible reason to keep from committing.

But after 3 1/2 years, this lil experiment finally has a permanent (as long as we pay our bills) home on the internet.

You can now dial us up at http://www.thesportsfrappe.com/.

The beautiful thing is that our little Frapper Babies won't have to do anything. We know you're lazier than KnowledgeDroppings on robitussin.

No need to change your links, or dial us up any other way. If you are partial to the old Blogger address, it will automatically forward you to our new home. Which by the way, is very spacious.

And filled with spam.

Grab A Cup And Enjoy!

Denial Of The Fittest

Welcome back to the T.O. Channel, All Selfishness.....All Of The Time.

The latest saga comes after tonight's big victory against the New York Giants in the Sunday night game.

The much anticipated follow up to the soap opera/reality series that has been the Cowboys all week had everyone watching to see how the ball would be distributed. Reportedly, T.O. went SubversiveTheory and complained that QB Tony Romo had "secret" meetings with TE Jason Witten, believing there was a conspiracy to keep the ball away from him. It's reported that he and other WR's Patrick Crayton and Roy Williams went to Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett to discuss the distribution of the ball.

Tonight saw the ball distributed to old and new weapons, including T.O., who was unceremoniously booed after missing his first pass that bounced out of his hands that had big play potential. Looks like Dallas Fan has turned.

Marion Barber tried to show he had heart to combat Dallas owner Jerry Jones' comments doubting that he did, but was ineffective due to a persistent toe injury. 3rd string rookie RB Tashard Choice stepped up and performed though. Dallas Fan liked that.

Dallas Fan also liked the fact that even though the New York Giants treated Tony Romo like a tackling dummy, they came out with a solid win 20-8.

There was the obligatory sideline shot of Witten, Owens, and Romo yukking it up like they planned on having dinner together after the game.

Our modern day poet John Madden likes to say "winning is a deodorant". And all the players of this week's drama are walking around whistling like that Old Spice sailor dude.

T.O. being T.O. though had to not let the sleeping dog lie though at the post game presser. He kicked the mutt by attacking the reporter that broke the team's tumultuous condition, ESPN's Ed Werder. He described Werder's report as "lies".

We are way past the era of trying to pretend that millionaire athletes are role models or examples of how we should live our lives. Sadly, gifted athletes like Owens build a foundation of lies that, surprise surprise, cannot handle the load when additional spins and lies are placed atop it.

Conversely, when an athlete denies a situation, compromising or not, we can usually assume that the situation occurred. Especially when that situation is labelled a recurrence.

Keep your head on a swivel, y'all.

T.O. - Why should we be surprised?

After three teams, and having the same problem with all three, most of us would start to suspect that we were the real problem.



Not T.O., who is burning down the third locker room of his career. Before this season, I honestly thought that as long as Owens had Tony Romo as quarterback, that things would stay relatively peaceful for him in Dallas. When Romo took over as the starting quarterback in 2006, it made a huge difference in the Cowboys' season, and mainly because the young Romo appeared to force the ball to Owens whenever he could. Not only did it keep the peace, but at the time it appeared to actually work in terms of sparking the offense.

But now Romo is not the naive rookie starter he was then, he is old enough to realize what an asset he has in his tight end Jason Witten. But T.O., on the other hand, has not grown up. And now the rest of us know that what looked like a good quarterback-receiver relationship was really just a season-and-a-half long honeymoon. Even if the Cowboys smooth things over long enough to make a playoff run, we know T.O.'s track record and so we know this relationship will end soon.

If T.O. burns his bridges in Dallas, where else does he have to turn? Oakland?

It doesn't always have to be like that, however. Randy Moss had often been compared to T.O. He had some rocky beginnings in Minnesota, and then went to the football wasteland that is the aforementioned Oakland Raiders - where some accused him of intentionally dropping passes. But I have watched every game Moss has played as a New England Patriot. I honestly believe that he does NOT take any plays off. On a weekly basis, he impresses me by throwing crucial downfield blocks. But most importantly, since Brady's injury, he has stepped into a leadership role as an offensive captain. He has never said an unsupportive word about Matt Cassell - in spite of the fact that Wes Welker gets more balls than Moss does week after week, in spite of the fact that Cassell continually short armed passes to a wide open Moss on deep routes for the entire first half of the season.

Of course, the danger in writing this is that Moss could turn around and prove me wrong next week. He did have assault allegations brought against him during last season's playoffs, but those allegations never panned out, leading me to consider that Moss was telling the truth about the incident. But for the time being, I honestly think Randy Moss has done what T.O. has not
(and probably never will). He has grown up.

The BCS Discussion

Live by the system, die by the system.

It's funny the way this time of year brings about selfishness and bad attitudes.

I'm not talking about mall shoppers that would just as soon run you over to get to the last Nintendo Wii Fit as look at you.

I am talking about the BCS (Bowl Crying System) time of the year, where the system's flaws and shortsightedness are revealed, harvesting a new crop of victims in it's path.

This year, Texas and USC are crying foul with Ball State's loss rendering their whine volume to zero.

I am no lover of the BCS system, but it does the best it can while it hangs around the neck of NCAA football like so much dead weight.

BiCoastal assures me almost every day in the hallways that Obama is going to get us a playoff system, so there is no need to worry.

In the meantime, bust out more lollipops.

Are The Minnesota Vikings Overexposed?

Yes, I've been away for a while and yes, this is the perfect post to jump back into the Frappe with.

So I ask again, do you think the Minnesota Vikings are overexposed?

I do.

And if you saw Fox's post game coverage, then I know you do too.

You see, Fox thought it would be a good idea to cover the locker room after the Vikes' come from behind win today with shots of the owner Zygi Wilf (best owner name btw) giving the game ball to the coach's son who just joined the Marines.

Touching, right?

Live TV in a locker room.........what could possibly go wrong? Nothing that hasn't gone wrong in the past.

Like game winning pass receiver Tight End Visanthe Shiancoe in the raw, in the back of the shot.

Thanks Fox, for that cutting edge coverage. How's the smell-o-vision tests going?

Cover up boys, there's a Fox in the room.

College Game Day - Conference Titles

Florida versus Alabama did not disappoint. It was a great game for three quarters - and in the end, Tim Tebow along with the Florida pass rush were too much for Alabama.

Before the game was even played, there was some discussion that if Florida did in fact win, that they should play Alabama in a rematch for the National Championship. I'm writing this during the Big 12 title game, but regardless of what happens there, let's get one thing straight: the national championship game should NEVER be a rematch of a conference game.

In fact, I think this is a very necessary rule tweaking that the BCS should consider: two team from the same conference cannot meet for the championship. For the reason, we need only look back two years ago, the season of 2006. Ohio State and Michigan were ranked numbers one and two for five straight weeks, right up until their end of the season meeting. What many have forgotten is that after Ohio State won the head-to-head match up, plenty of commentators thought they should have a rematch in the national championship - and in fact, Michigan came pretty close, ending up third in the BCS ranking. What we all remember is that Florida embarrassed Ohio state in the big game, complimented by USC's two touchdown victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

The mistake we made then was in overestimating the strength of the Big Ten. We might make the same mistake today, in overestimating the SEC, or even the Big 12 if somehow Texas stays ahead of Florida in the final BCS ranking. I say this even though you've often heard me touting how superior the SEC is on this very blog. The way the college football schedules shapes up year after year, it is incredibly hard to compare one conference to another.

So I'm putting this out there right now: If the national championship game ends up pitting Florida versus Alabama, or Oklahoma versus Texas, I won't be watching.

Okay, putting that issue aside, let me make some other comments on the games today.
Tim Tebow is the man. I just cannot believe the hits he lays on linebackers on a regular basis. In some respects, he reminds me of Vince Young, but the comparison is still not very good since Young was elusive when he ran the ball, and Tebow clearly love to lead with his helmet. It is time to start thinking what kind of pro quarterback he will be. It is so hard to say, for this reason: when was the last time a quarterback from a successful college program has had significant success in the NFL? We might be saying Matt Ryan after this season, but there aren't many quarterbacks drafted in the last decade that would make this list.

Props to Pete Carroll for bringing back some tradition, and having both USC and UCLA wear their home jerseys during tonight's game. See the Trojans in their deep red along side the Bruins blue gave the game a real classic look.

Lay off the Big 12

This is a quick blog to tell you to lay off of all the Big 12 tie-breaker criticism.

Let's review the facts. The Big 12 South's regular season ended with a three-way tie at the top: Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech all finished with 11-1 records. And in head-to-head games between this group of three, all three won one and lost one.

The thing that people are forgetting is that there is absolutely no reasonable way to break a tie like this. When three teams win every game they play except against each other, this throws every favorable tie breaker out the window. And by favorable tie breaker, I'm talking about anything that judges a team by its record (record within division, record against common opponents, etc.).

Anyone who favors Texas in this debate wants to forget about Texas Tech and turn this into a two-way tie, in which case Texas would be the obvious winner since they beat Oklahoma head-to-head. But this argument completely ignores the situation we are in, you can't forget about Texas Tech; sure, they are the obvious odd man out when it comes to discussing which of these three teams is the best, but the very fact we're having this discussion in the first place is because they threw their hat in the ring.

I am honestly making the argument that using the BCS standings in this case IS the best solution. Think about it, what other tie breaker ideas are there? Cumulative points scored? Largest margin of victory in games between the group of three? Choosing some particular points-based stat is completely arbitrary, and besides, the polls take into account some of these statistical arguments anyways.

I've heard it brought up that the SEC has a better tiebreaker in which the BCS standings are used to eliminate one of the teams in the three way tie, after which the remaining two teams are judged by their head-to-head meeting. Is this really that preferable? Why use the BCS to eliminate only one team, and then hand the division over to the lower ranked team of the two remaining? The main reason Texas Tech is ranked seventh compared to Oklahoma's second and Texas's third is that Oklahoma absolutely shellacked Texas Tech, delivering quite an end-of-the-season setback. It would be a little weird if that would end up costing Oklahoma for setting back Texas Tech so definitively.

The real reason people hate this tie breaker (other than Texas fans) is that it involves the BCS, and we all love an extra reason to complain about the BCS. But still, this decision by the Big 12 makes sense in that it gives their conference champion the best chance of also going to the national title game. And by the way, this is one problem that even a real playoff system wouldn't solve - the Big 12 would still need to declare a legitimate champion for seeding purposes, not to mention the fact that an 8 team format wouldn't have room for three schools from the same conference.

So give it a rest, folks. We'll have plenty to argue about after Mizzou knocks off Oklahoma next week. Who is more deserving to play Florida? A one loss Pac 10 winner, a one loss Big 12 loser, or a one loss SEC runner-up? (Sorry, Utah and Penn State, this debate doesn't have room for you.)