Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

Now that I am bloated from eating too much on Christmas I will just write about something light: sports. Of course sports may create more arguments than politics or religion so I may be making a big mistake here. I am going to go over 3 controversies in sports this year and give my 2 cents worth and then I will make some bowl predictions.

The first controversy is about Serena Williams in the U.S. Open. I thought I wrote about it already but I don't see it in my archive. I must be getting senile. Anyway there are still some sports talk shows where her behavior is debated. There are some who said her behavior was justified due to the fact that the call should not have been made at the end of a close match. That is absurd. I understand that fouls are not called at end of close NBA games and penalties are not called at end of close NHL games. But those calls are subjective and can go either way most of the time. A line call is not subjective even though the referee can make a mistake. If Michael Jordan charges into a defender, the ref can call foul either way or not at all. But if he sees Jordan steps on the end line with the ball in his hand, he has to call it out. If the lineswoman saw Williams step on the line before hitting the serve, she is obligated to call it. I would agree her behavior up to the point where she threaten the lineswoman was no where as bad as McEnroe or Connors in the past. But I don't think McEnroe or Connors ever threatened bodily harm to officials. So I think Williams deserve to be fine more heavily. As far as supensions go, I don't think there was ever a consideration to supsend a star player so forget about that.

Some sports writer with the help of Mathematicians are defending Bill Belichick's decision to go on 4th down against the Colts. Well, I have not seen their formula for this decision so I can't say if it is mathematically sound. But I do know this: No football coach, including Belichick, is smart enough to have done that calculation in his head! He made the decision simply because he had no faith in his defense. Whether he went for it or punted, the odds were in his favor as even the mathematical formula showed the the Patriots had a greater than 70% chance of winning either way. But now his defensive players know that their coach has no confidence in them and that is bad coaching.

I like Many Pacquiao way more than Floyd Mayweather so my opinion is biased. But I think all this talk about Olympic style doping test is nonsense. You don't change the rule for a sport for one event just because one competitor demands it. If this is the case, then every sprinter will demand testing be increased for Usain Bolt, even just to hassle him. I have a friend whose son was on the U.S. field hockey team. He said he would get randomly tested 1 or 2 times a year. So if we go by Olympic rules in 3 months, by random chance Pacquiao may not get tested at all until the urine test after the fight. If Mayweather calls for boxing to change its rule so that testing is more strict for everyone, I am all for that. But to demand the rule be changed suddenly for his opponent because he say so, is arrogant.

Finally I want to point out that the college football reporter for LA Times have predicted that the Big Ten will lose every bowl game this year. I am going out on a limb to say that they will win at least one! O.K I will be more brave and say they will win 4 out of 7. The Big Ten is down (again), so everyone will take them too lightly and on any given day the weaker team, if motivated by slight from others, can pull off the upset. Witness Utah over Alabama, and Boise State over Oklahoma in BCS bowls! The four I think will win for Big Ten? Minnesota over Iowa State is easy. Penn State over LSU. Joe Paterno is a better coach than Les Miles. Witness Miles losing a game this year because he forgot to call timeout. OSU beating Oregon because OSU is improving at end of the season and Oregon does not have the home field advantage like USC had at the Rose Bowl. MSU over Texas Tech. I am not impressed with Tech's defense and I think MSU can slow down their offense. I am afraid Wisconsin, Northwestern and Iowa are overmatched although Georgia Tech may overlook Iowa and they are not that good themselves.

Have a happy holiday, everyone.