Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- On needing to find something to worry about. I'm not a worrier by nature but I understand this can be a real issue for many.

- Amazon bids on Disney's 22 regional sports networks including the YES Network. This will be a very interesting story to watch unfold.

- 34-years ago today!

- On this day in 1963

- This Farnam Street podcast with Naval Ravikant is worth re-listening to every once and a while.

- Interesting - Universal Quantum Phenomenon found in Strange Metals

- Is there an Alzheimer's vaccine on the horizon?

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- I agree with these proposed changes to NCAA sports. I would add one more though - all revenue from sports is taxable.

- I also agree with these - 10 rules of a Dublin Pub

- Heh heh

- Never noticed this

- Bowe Bergdahl "the Golden Chicken" should be shot

- Fixed State lotteries

- Doug Flutie's touching tribute to his parents who died an hour a part

- Cool - an octopus uses a coconut as armor

ND vs BC

I was going to post something about the latest chapter of the Holy War yesterday but I was kind of busy. You knew last night's game was going to be special starting with yesterday's beautiful sunrise over Fenway.

There were a lot of storylines attached to this game starting with the death of Doug Flutie's parents just an hour apart after 56 years of marriage and Flutie's decision to still call the game for NBC. A moment of silence were held for the elder Flutie's prior to the game. There was the return of native son Brian Kelly who got his football coaching start in nearby Assumption College in Worcester. How about Torii Hunter's son getting to use David Ortiz' locker? There was the story of the Irish trying to remain in the hunt for a berth in the college football playoffs. Then there was the very idea of a college football game at Fenway Park where Boston College had a record of 75-21-5 in 101 previous games at Fenway but were the "visiting team".

All the storylines seemed related and seemed to weave in and out of each other. The last time Boston College payed at Fenway was a 7-0 loss to Holy Cross in 1956. Decades later it was the dominance of Doug Flutie's Eagles team that led Holy Cross to end the Crusaders rivalry against the Eagles. And now another team with a Worcester connection was about to make Boston College 0-2 in their last two Fenway tilts.

You had to know that this was going to be a close game though. Sure the Eagles offense is anemic but their defense is one of the top 5 in the country. Besides this game has historically been close. The last two times these teams met the Irish were 20 and 24 point favorites but the final scores were 21-6 in 2012 and 16-14 in 2011. Boston College was getting 15.5 points last night.

Hope you enjoyed the game as much as I did.

 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Nation's largest insurer may exit Obamacare exchanges because of losses

- My take is Belichick knows real support for the military and the fake stuff probably gets under his skin.

- Am I a bad person for laughing at this?

- My heart goes out to Doug Flutie and his family

- John Bolton makes an excellent point regarding refugees

- Heh heh

- The Jets aren't getting their money's worth out of their secondary. I've said all along that the reason the Patriots did not exercise their option on Revis was because he was no longer worth that sort of money.

- Cool - the billionaire bench player

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Tom Brady is 33-4 (89% winning percentage) when the temperature is below 40 degrees. Aaron Rogers is 16-5 (76% winning percentage). These guys just win in cold weather... Hail Flutie... Yesterday was both Vin Scully's (87) and Mariano Rivera's (45) birthdays. MLB should acknowledge the importance of the birthdays of two of the greatest ambassadors the game has by making their birthday the day when the new Hall of Fame class is announced... Heh heh... So will Colt McCoy replace RGIII in those Subway commercials too?... Matt Damon vs Ben Affleck. I was amused by this more than I should have been... Just a reminder about all those MLB trade rumors columns you read - not one writer had the Josh Donaldson trade from Oakland to Toronto. Take all you read with a grain of salt...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Excellent graphic on Duck Dynasty outrage. As others have pointed out best response to someone really outraged by Duck Dynasty is "Wow - you must really hate Muslims then" and see how they backtrack.

- Netflix getting rid of bunch of titles on January 1st. Check link to see if there is a movie you want to watch before then

- Uncropped version of iconic photo of tank man protester in Tiananmen Square. Wow!

- Tycoon gives away $800 million fortune before jumping to death

- Speaking of Wow! Temporary rules posted at Britain's Richmond Golf Club after German bombs hit course in 1940

- Excellent - Sherlock Holmes now part of public domain

- The Curse of Flutie - hard to argue against it. Though Occam's Razor may just say that this was just evidence that Wade Phillips is awful coach.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The things you learn on the Internet - according to Mental Floss "During the reign of Elizabeth I, swan was a popular feast dish, especially when stuffed with the carcasses of nine other birds." Nine other birds? Makes a Turducken look kind of whimpy in comparison... Joss Whedon offers 10 tips for good writing...  Yesterday was the 28th anniversary of Doug Flutie's "Hail Mary" pass against Miami. For many guys of my generation that's one of the moments where you'll always remember where you were at the time... Interesting stat - in the last 3-years 21 players entered the NBA draft after just 1 year of college and were taken in the first round. Of those 9 (42%) were from Kentucky... In 1953 the US Army had just 20 divisions while the Soviet Union had more than 200. Because the US didn't have to match the manpower of the USSR those men were able to become the backbone of a boom economy for the US. One of the side benefits of our nuclear bomber program... If the Jets put Tim Tebow on waivers - I wonder how many teams would claim him?...

Whither Tim Tebow?

"Who will rid me of this troublesome QB?" John "Henry II" Elway

Supposedly now that Peyton Manning is in hand - the Denver Broncos will trade Tim Tebow possibly as early as this afternoon. Speculation is ripe throughout the Intertubes about where he will end up. Jacksonville? That would seem the natural marketing fit yet the football people there prefer Blaine Gabbert which I don't understand. Sure Gabbert has a slightly higher completion percentage but he throws many more interceptions than Tebow. Miami? Don't know about you but I'd rather have Tebow than Matt Moore.

There's a school of thought that Tebow could work as back-up for an established QB like an Aaron Rogers in Green Bay, maybe a Drew Brees in New Orleans or Tom Brady in New England. Green Bay just lost their backup QB Matt Flynn who signed with Seattle so there seems to be a slot open there. I honestly couldn't tell you who is the backup QB in New Orleans but if Tim Tebow got traded there then everyone would know who the backup was. New England has perhaps the best depth at QB of any team in the NFL. Tom Brady is a God, Brian Hoyer could probably start for half the teams in the league and Ryan Mallett is a cannon-armed diamond in the rough. That said - how about a trade that would send Ochocinco to the Broncos for Tim Tebow? That would solve a problem for both teams. If I'm Bill Belichick I definitely make that offer. Just for the salary cap space it would be worth it (Chad Ochocinco costs them $3 million while Tebow would just be $1 million).

One of the more intriguing rumors is the Jets being interested in Tebow. I wonder if that is the offshoot of all the speculation that the Patriots are interested? How funny would that be if the Jets get goaded into a move just out of fear that Belichick was somehow outmaneuvering them? I would actually like to see Tebow in New York but not with the Jets. How ironic would it be if Tebow ends up as Eli Manning's backup with the Giants? I think that would be great on a cosmic karma scale.

Don't sleep on the very real possibility that the Broncos announce today that they are not trading Tebow but are releasing him instead. They could spin it that they owe it to Tim after everything he did for the team last year to let him decide what team would be best for him to sign with. This would eliminate the embarrassing situation of having to settle for a 5th or 7th round pick for a guy who was your starting QB last year.

If Tebow is released then a whole new set of opportunities open up. How come nobody has mentioned the CFL? Tebow in Canada would be the biggest thing since Doug Flutie played north of the border. It would give Tebow the chance to start at QB and prove that he can do the job just as Flutie had to go to America's Hat to show he could be an NFL QB.  You know the CFL is salivating just at the thought of Tebow.

I still think the Flutie comparison is apt. Looking back - how many NFL teams would have been better off with Flutie than the prototypical NFL QB's they tried while Flutie was up in Canada? When all is said and done - people may think the same thing about Tim Tebow.

So what's God's will for Tim Tebow? We might find out today.

Tebow and Flutie

You had an older coach who inherited his quarterbacks and among the three choices of veteran, overwhelming crowd favorite and former 1st rounder the coach made no bones that he favored the veteran because in his eyes the vet was proven and gave his team the best chance to win. The crowd favorite was even 3rd on the depth chart as the former 1st rounder was held in higher esteem in the coaches eyes. The coach was basically forced to start the overwhelming crowd favorite, however, after stumbling out of the gate with a 1-4 record. It was a situation you could tell the old-time NFLer was not happy with.

You might think the above paragraph was describing the situation in Denver from the past weekend where coach John Fox was basically forced to go with fan-favorite Tim Tebow. The above paragraph was not about the Broncos of today - it was actually describing the situation the New England Patriots were in during the start of the 1988 season.

Coach Raymond Berry had a roster of QB's that included veteran Steve Grogan, highly touted former 1st rounder Tony Eason and also crowd favorite Doug Flutie. A poor start to the season and injuries forced Ray Berry to go with Doug Flutie and the fans went wild. Then Doug Flutie started winning. It wasn't pretty and the stats weren't close to eye-popping but his combination of running and hitting the clutch pass led the sad-sack Patriots to a 6-3 record during his starts. Suddenly the playoffs were in sight and the coach again decided that the veteran Grogan would give his team the best chance to win even though the actual results on the field said otherwise. Of course with Grogan and then Eason playing the Patriots fell short. To this day Raymond Berry is remembered in New England more for screwing over Doug Flutie then for leading the team to the 1986 Super Bowl.

The situation seems eerily similar to today's situation in Denver. You have the coach who inherited the QB situation. You have the veteran (Orton) the crowd favorite (Tebow) and the former 1st rounder who is actually listed 2nd on the depth chart (Quinn). It was too similar not to comment on. I just hope that Tebow is treated better by Fox than Flutie was by Berry.

Bruce Feldman

Good article on the situation at ESPN regarding Bruce Feldman and Craig James.

After reading the article I was left with 3 questions:

1. How can the image conscious people at ESPN be so blinded to the fact that most viewers think of Craig James as a douchebag at this point? Craig James is tarnishing the brand not enhancing it.

2. It will be interesting to see if the ESPN Ombudsman addresses this issue. If not what is the point of having an Ombudsman at all?

3. Did ESPN choose James over Doug Flutie? If so it is not too late to rectify that. Flutie could easily assume James' duties and not a peep would be heard from viewers.

Scott Brown and the Average White Guy Vote

It seems you are allowed to poll every demographic except the "average white guy" vote. Well I took an informal poll this weekend of 20 white guys and two black guys - sorry no women were polled because there was football on all weekend. All but one of the 22 polled plan to vote for Scott Brown because they've had enough. And the one guy who is not voting for Scott Brown won't because Brown is a Republican and he just can't cross that line (for some in Massachusetts that's a family taboo). The really interesting thing is the guy who won't vote for Scott Brown doesn't plan to vote at all. Martha Coakley just isn't worth his effort.

More evidence that Scott Brown has the "average white guy" vote is the fact that Doug Flutie is voting for Scott Brown. Flutie is a life-long Democrat who campaigned hard for Hillary Clinton when she was running for Senate in New York and Flutie was playing for the Buffalo Bills. If the Democratic Party has lost Doug Flutie that's just another piece of evidence that the "average white guy" vote is completely swinging to Scott Brown.

I really wish I could bet on this election because I'd load up on a Scott Brown victory.