Coffee taste like mud? Sure, it was just ground this morning. Notes, quotes and goats for a Sunday morning:
It seems that when Robert Saleh isn’t coaching the Jets, he spends too much time watching football on TV. Here’s what he had to say, last week, about not playing RB James Robinson against the Bears:
“James’ story is not over, obviously; I said that after our game.
“It’s just a matter of getting north and south, and not every run is going to be perfect, not every run is going to the house, and just sticking his foot in the ground getting vertical as quickly as possible and exploding through the line of scrimmage.”
Yikes! He has been invaded by Mike Mayock!
Vanderbilt University, prestigious “Harvard of the South,” has lately had some ugly episodes with its coaches.
Wednesday in a loss at Virginia Commonwealth, and as seen on CBS Sports Network, basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse, during an unrestrained vulgar rant toward the refs, was hit with two technicals, and thus was ejected.
He then had to be escorted from the court by an armed police officer or security guard.
Last month, assistant Vandy football coach Dan Jackson was temporarily suspended after publicly supporting Kanye “Ye” West’s hate-filled lunatic ravings about Jewish conspiracies against blacks. Jackson, before apologizing, claimed, good grief, that West is “two steps ahead of everyone.”
Geno Auriemma’s Connecticut women’s basketball team has joined the win-at-all-costs Berlitz Club this season. Recruits are from Canada, Croatia, France, Hungary and Portugal. Wonder if he let any know that they may have a game-long view from the bench during blowout wins.
He did, however, allow one sub five minutes in a 98-39 win over Northeastern (two starters played more than 30 minutes in that one), and two subs got three minutes in a 78-50 win over Duke, in which four starters played at least 33 minutes.
How many on Auriemma’s roster are from Connecticut? Zero. But he only does what the college allows, his annual player cruelty included.
I’m still convinced that directors of televised sports work from the wrong place. Instead of operating from a broadcast truck or control room, detached from the here-and-now of games, they belong in the same places as assistant football coaches, just above the action in the press box level, from where they can better call their shots for us.
Last Saturday, for example, late in the third quarter Auburn trailed at Alabama, 42-21. Last gasp time for Auburn, going for it on fourth-and-1. As the crowd noise rose to reflect the circumstance, CBS, as if we didn’t know why the crowd was responding, cut to three — three! — consecutive crowd shots.
It seems inconceivable that a director, working with the field just below him or her, would choose such a moment to focus on the crowd rather than show Auburn heading to the line as the crowd spoke for itself.
From a truck or a room down the hallway, it’s easier to miss a flag, a post-play hassle, an off-the-ball foul, the outfield alignment, an off-the-play injury and a coach on the sideline hollering for a time out than it is if you’re seated just above live play.
As a matter of applied sense, I’d rather the announcers be sequestered from the live view of a game rather than TV directors.
So for all the “End Racism” virtue-messaging Roger Goodell’s NFL shoves in our faces, from end zone signage to backs-of-helmets, Sunday, Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, who feels he’s grossly underpaid at $23.5 million per, tweeted a vulgar homophobic return message to some Ravens “fan” logical folks would have ignored, after losing to the 3-7 Jaguars.
So what did “It Takes All Of Us,” “Choose Love” and “Inspire Change” Goodell do about this? Nothing, at least not publicly, the first-class phony.
Reds and Fox NFL announcer Thom Brennaman spoke a tamer homosexual slur when he thought he was off the air, apologized profusely, but his career instantly vanished just the same.
Sunday, as Jackson’s Ravens lost in Jacksonville, they activated veteran WR DeSean Jackson, who two years ago suffered no punishment from Goodell’s office after he disseminated twisted, bogus Adolph Hitler and Louis Farrakhan propaganda — “facts” — condemning Jews.
None of Goodell’s pandering business, I guess.
Why doesn’t The Garden by now just install a bedroom, shower and kitchenette for Kenny Albert?
Friday night, he subbed in for Sam Rosen on TV for Senators-Rangers. Saturday afternoon, he called MSG TV’s Mavericks-Knicks. Saturday night, it was MSG TV for Blackhawks-Rangers. Finally, Sunday afternoon he will be calling Commanders-Giants on Fox.
Four games, three sports, in under three days. He should’ve never listened to his old man.
While we recognize that FIFA, as soccer’s governing body — and a body worthy of body-shaming — busies itself making dubious deals, the game, even at the World Cup level, suffers from inactivity. For example, it takes far too long to take free kicks and corner kicks. Play ball!
By the way, while Qatari men, in their white robes and headdress, have been seen en-masse at World Cup matches, why no Qatari women? Not allowed out? Qatar, an oppressive Islamic theocracy, was FIFA’s highly suspect idea.
And so far from Fox, not a word about the thousands of imported Third World slave-wage workers, housed in squalor, hundreds of whom died building Qatar’s World Cup stadiums and facilities.
As Jets fans should know by now, never get too high. The decisive Mike White-led win over the Bears last Sunday came with caveats.
For starters, the offensive game plan made some practical sense from the start. Nibble, nibble passes, then strike deep — all against a depleted defense.
And that TE C.J. Uzomah, a pretty good receiver while with the Bengals, was included to the tune of three catches, was eye-catching. He was skunked in the previous week’s loss to the Patriots, and had mostly been ignored before that.
It’s also well worth recalling that Chicago’s defensive backs were pulled from here, there and everywhere, virtual strangers in emergency duty. White could not have asked for better.
Finally, the Bears’ double-threat QB Justin Fields was out.
In other words, the Vikings in Minnesota this Sunday ain’t the same as those Bears in Jersey last Sunday.
Hey, network stat grinders! What do the Lions, Cardinals, Falcons and Browns have in common, other than losing records? Give up?
All are in the top 10 of “telltale” Red Zone TD success rates. The Lions (4-7) are No. 2 of 32! What’s the chance you’ll see that in a graphic Sunday?
In view of Gaylord Perry’s legacy as a spit-baller, will his pallbearers choose to wear gloves or just use rosin bags and/or pine tar?
We also lost AFL San Diego Chargers QB John Hadl. Fans of a certain age — as in 65-plus — still recall Hadl bombing away, NBC’s Charlie Jones with the calls.
Doze were da daze. As the door in old Tigers Stadium read, “Visitors Clubhouse, No Visitors.”
