- The whole Islam v. Denmark cartoon dustup. Here are the cartoons in case you haven't seen them. Call me vulgar, but I even find the seventh one down kinda funny. I guess this is Islam's "Piss Christ" moment. (Please don't click that last link if you are easily offended. You have been warned.) Do I think that the publication of these cartoons was a bad idea? Yeah, I do. Do I think that the protests against Denmark are also bad ideas? Yep. So, I score this 0-0 so far. Wake me when either side makes a bold move.
- The flap over the officiating in the Super Bowl. My friend, Blogging Ref, has a good breakdown of the particulars, if you're interested. I'm not. The only comment I have is that the NFL had better do something to address the public's lack of confidence in NFL officiating. Making the refs full time is not a bad idea, and yes, BR, they can ref in Europe if the NFL will pay them to do so.
- The new Majority Leader in Congress, John Boehner (whose last name I will deliberately mispronounce because it makes me laugh). Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
oh i could give a straight-up goddamn
Things that the rest of the world is hewing and crying about that I could not give a fig about:
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5 comments:
The thing I have found interesting on the Denmark cartoon thing is that certain extremist clerics were distributing cartoons that were MUCH worse (some involving bestiality and the like) along with the ones that were actually published. It seems they wanted to ensure that even the non-hard-liners were offended.
If regular NFL officials blog in Europe for NFL Europe (which, for starters, is a mathematical impossibility, since there are 32 NFL teams and 6 NFL Europe teams), where would up and coming officials earn their stripes? There's a world of difference between college and the NFL, and NFL Europe provides a nice intermediate step.
Perhaps it's time for "minor league football". Or maybe some affiliation with the CFL. There's gotta be a way to get the refs more game time, don't you think?
Maybe we should ask the Nazi. Perhaps he might have a suggestion... ;-)
What do the baseball umpires do from October-March? They are paid full time....come to think of it, some of them are a bit suspect, too. No, full time pay won't improve much of anything.
Accountability is the answer...discipline for ref teams or individual refs that consistently make bad calls, and the NFL offices need to admit it more when calls are blown, there is a perception that the NFL defends its refs at almost all costs, right or wrong.
Some mode of consistency as far as the types and numbers of flags thrown per game is needed. I realize you can't regulate when each specific flag is thrown, but there needs to be consistency between refing teams on what is and isn't a penalty and on how games will be called in general. Some ref teams throw a lot of flags, some relatively few (as I demostrated with the stats on TRP's blog a while ago). The rules are too damn complicated, even the coaches and players have problems with them...as do the officials on occasion. To the officials credit, they usually 'pow wow' and make up their minds, but this also raises the eyebrows of fans.
Very difficult to require a 10-flag average for each crew at the end of the season. Will crews that are a little ahead start letting stuff go? Crews that are behind start making stuff up? Bad idea.
What NFL officials need is thorough in-house review, and playoff officiating assignments determined by merit based on regular season performance.
They have it.
I'd like more talk from the NFL about the calls du jour, pro and con (and it'll be mostly pro...see my blog for the NFL's and Jim Tunney's clear explanations of the six most controversial calls in the SB).
If you go to any game deciding the refs suck, they will. But if you're at a pro game, you're watching the best of the best. They know more than we do. They must be innocent until proven guilty. This, of course, will never happen with an official.
"Rule #1: You will take shit."
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