SportsGirl

Every year, the college coaching carousel begins to make another spin around the park. Some coaches hop off, or are pushed off depending on the school, and some hop on to take a ride. Every year I think, man that’s a lot of coaching changes, but seriously, this year there seems to be an inordinate amount of changes being made. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has read this blog before that the change I’m most interested in is the vacancy in Ann Arbor, MI.

It’s been reported that LSU has granted Les Miles permission to interview with U of M after the SEC Championship game this weekend. It’s also being said that LSU will hold their own set of talks with Miles to convince him to stay put in Baton Rouge. Personally, I hope he ends up making the move north. With the lack of success that Nick Saban is having at ‘Bama (which I don’t entirely blame on him in his first season) I think it’s become clear that, while Saban is a good coach, maybe he wasn’t the only reason LSU found success. I think Miles could bring some needed passion back into U of M football, though I think anyone could do that after Lloyd Carr. Nothing against Carr, I just think he had lost his spark. Probably stayed on a season too long, maybe two. So reviving the excitement around that program hopefully won’t prove too arduous a task for his successor.

One thing you know Miles learned from watching Saban flounder in the press is that Miles has NOT denied that he’s interested in the Michigan job. Smart man. Judging by the fact that there’s a clause in his current contract that explicitly lists U of M as the one school he cannot leave to go coach lest he want to pay a $1.25 mil buyout, it sounds like LSU must have known that the Michigan job was one that would always be on Miles’ radar.  

On a separate note, I feel the need to reiterate my growing excitement over tonight’s contest between Green Bay and Dallas. As predicted, I have heard countless details about the comparison between Favre and Romo and how everyone respects the hell out of Favre, yada, yada, yada. Enough with the chit chat. I am ready for the game. I think it’s going to be a close, high-scoring game, but I really think Dallas will come out on top. Not because I’m a homer, which I am quickly becoming when it pertains to the Boys, but because I just think Dallas has the better team. I think Marion Barber will have a phenomenal game and I’m betting on at least two touchdowns thrown to TO. Final score? Green Bay 31, Dallas 38. Here’s hoping I’m right!

This year, I’ve got a lot to be thankful about, in terms of sports. The BCS title of #1 seems to be a curse more than a blessing, the way it’s been passed from team to team to team. The Patriots are 11-0 on the season and I believe locked up the AFC East division with Buffalo losing today. The Peyton Manning “Priceless Pep Talk” commercials from Master Card continue to make me laugh. And the Cowboys have not-so-quietly achieved their best start in franchise history at this point in the season. I say not-so-quitely as a jab at all the sports talking heads that like to say things like “Seattle has quietly taken the lead in their division”, like that’s some sort of indication that Seattle is actually good this year. Really that’s more of an indication that they’re in a crappy division because, for goodness sake, a team like Seattle is tops!

But Seattle is not the point today. Today, the Boys are the point. I’d love to discuss the Thanksgiving day game between the Jets and the Cowboys, but that would take up all of about 2 words–Boys win. That’s all you need to know. It was a one-sided contest, as it should have been, where Terrance Newman returned an interception for a touchdown and Romo had a decent game. I know most would say he didn’t have a great game, but to say that would almost be to forget that last year, Jerry Jones was mad that Romo was getting playing time ahead of Drew Bledsoe. So I won’t go that far…

And that’s really the story on the Jets game. And I, like most, am already setting my DVR to record what should be an excellent match-up on Thursday night between the Packers and the Cowboys. I’m guessing that there will be clip after quote after sound-bite of Tony Romo confessing how much he admires Brett Favre and how he grew up loving the Packers. This will likely get spun into the “Past vs. Future” game between the quarterbacks. The gunslinger veteran vs. the gritty newbie. I just think it will be good football. The two offenses are ranked #1 and #2 in the NFC, with the edge going to the Cowboys. The Boys have a better defense, but the Packers aren’t too far down there. And I think this will be the NFC version of the Patriots-Colts game with similar stakes. Homefield advantage, mental advantage, etc.

So the fact that I have this game to look forward to is what I’m thankful for. This, and the fact that TO was actually quoted as having said that it’s ok that he didn’t continue his recent 100-yard receiving streak because the most important thing is that the team won. What?! Seriously? And I thought Bill Belichick was the only coach in the league known for taming the savage beast. Wade Phillips may have given me a new reason to like him. Or really maybe the credit goes to Tony Romo and the Cowboys overall record. Maybe I’m still ok with my quiet dislike/distrust for Wade.

I’m jones-ing today for some good football. I was traveling yesterday so I did not get watch as much football as I was hoping. The game I did watch was the Texans versus the Saints, which was good because the Texans won. But bad because both teams are not what I would call great so the football itself wasn’t all that watchable, save for the Ron Dayne resurgence that I have been waiting for. Then I was in transit to the airport for most of the Cowboys game so I had to listen to it on the radio. I had forgotten how enjoyable it can be to simply listen to a game on the radio. It’s been about 6 years since I had to listen to a game instead of watch and there is a certain attractive quality to “seeing” the game that way. The only thing that ruined it for me was Dan Reeves being one of the broadcasters. Terrible commentator and half the time I can’t understand a word he’s uttering! The few plays I did actually get to watch were the plays in the sequence that led Wade Phillips to call for a 50-some odd yard field goal attempt in the first quarter on the first drive. Seriously, Wade, are you that confident now that you’ll pull a stunt like that? That was like toying with the other team. “Hey, if we miss and turn the ball over around mid-field? No big deal. We’ve got this one in the bag”. Now, I am all for that kind of confidence when deserved. And I think the Boys are on a roll and are probably only going to be seriously challenged when they meet Green Bay in the NFC Championship game. But that seemed like a stupid call. And the Redskins scored on the ensuing possession, most likely because they had a short field!

The one pleasant spot last night was when I powered my phone on, after landing in Dallas again, I got a text message from the ESPN mobile service letting me know the Cowboys beat the Redskins 28-23. That was nice. Knew the outcome before stepping off the plane. Lovely! But there was one problem I had with that game. Isn’t Cowboys-Redskins supposed to be on Thanksgiving day? Isn’t that written in stone somewhere around the ”Do unto others as they would do unto you?” kind of thing? It’s like Packers-Lions. I don’t care if both teams suck, I want to see that game on Thanksgiving day. And I want to see John Madden passing out the turducken after the game. It just needs to be that way. Can someone work on that?

So I’m gearing up for a great week of extended football viewing. Lots of games spread across lots of days. My version of heaven!

Today is a day of shame. Today was the contest between Michigan and Ohio State. This is a game we, as U of M fans, live for each year. Don’t get me wrong, the bowl games are great. But the Ohio State game is equally important, maybe more important in a crappy season where you know the bowl bid won’t be a good one. I knew that OSU would be favored this year. Heck, they have been for the last 5 years. But in this type of rivalry, it doesn’t matter how you’ve played all season. You always have a chance. Or maybe not, as the Michigan players seemed to prove today.

It was an ugly game from the beginning. Cold, rainy, and altogether unpleasant looking. Early in the game OSU quarterback Todd Boeckmann dropped the ball with no one even pressuring him so I was hoping maybe the weather would affect them more than it did us. But really neither team could get any offense going. Mike Hart and Chad Henne played, though I can’t help but wonder if Henne hurt their chances of getting a win more than he helped. What absolutely killed the Wolverines though is Mario Manningham’s multiple dropped passes. But I can’t peg the entire loss on him. Michigan’s defense apparently doesn’t realize that when you go to tackle someone, the goal is to bring them down to the ground! They seem to want to just bump their guy and hope he loses his footing and falls. Forget wrapping your arms around a guy and dragging him down to the ground; today the players seemed more concerned with trying to be Bob freakin Sanders and they just wanted to hit their man and hope they stunned him. Note to U of M defenders: you’re not Bob Sanders! That guy knows how to follow through on a tackle. And if he hits you in the middle of the field, you can be darn sure you’ll drop to the ground. So between the defense forgetting their sole purpose on the field and the offense never finding a rhythm, it was a tough game to watch. The final score was 14-3, Ohio State. Hence the reason I feel shame today. I was even heckled as I headed to the movies later in the day, trying to erase the bad memory of the game. Some guy told us he was sorry for what Michigan endured today, then said Go Bucks! as he was walking away. And all I could do was shake my head because he had every right to do that. I freakin’ hate bragging rights when I don’t own them.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s ashamed of today’s outcome. Lloyd Carr has scheduled a press conference for Monday and is expected to announce his retirement. So the speculation will swirl about who his replacement will be. Les Miles? Urban Myer? Perhaps Cam Cameron, who would probably accept a position at Notre Dame rather than staying with the Dolphins. It will remain to be seen.

Meanwhile, LSU won their game, quite handily I might add and Oregon lost theirs. (Note to self…retract your statement in your earlier post where you said Oregon was a better team than LSU) Kansas won, and so did Missouri and as I’m typing this, Oklahoma is getting their butt whooped by Texas Tech, so it looks like the BCS will rank Kansas #2 and Missouri will likely move up to #3. Since those two teams play each other next week, it should be an interesting match up to look forward to. And this hot potato game of contending for the National Championship will continue until the regular season is over. I know the Big Ten won’t represent their conference there, so my support swings to the Big Twelve, since that’s the region I live in. And that leaves me with three words to close this post. Rock. Chalk. Jayhawk, baby. Ok, that was four…

For anyone who has read any of my previous posts, it’s not a secret that I love the Patriots. So it should come as no surprise that I have to weigh in on their pursuit of the perfect season. So many people hate them this season, while I feel more inspired than ever to cheer them on and do so loudly. Love the column posted by my favorite sports writer Bill Simmons where he discusses his unbridled passion for rooting the Pats on even when they’re running up the score on someone. Yes, I know, it’s unsportsman-like, and according to Gregg Easterbrook, the Patriots have no right to be upset that so many people are questioning their ability to win. Sorry, Mr. Easterbrook, but I completely disagree with your Good vs. Evil depiction of the Colts-Pats match-up. Yes, the Patriots were found to have illegally taped the other team’s signals in the Jets game. And yes, I know you believe in some big grassy knoll theory that they’ve been doing this for years, are still doing it, and will probably have secret intel on the outcome of the up-coming elections for President. I, on the other hand, think that they got caught illegally videotaping the Jets sideline and were in possession of materials that weren’t going to be of use to the team until they sat down and reviewed them, so truly there was no competitive advantage gained. Not that I condone or excuse what they did, and I’m not going to get into the “they’re not the only team using this type of tactic” argument, but seriously. We’re talking about them having this material in a game that they were winning without it and the tapes were destroyed before they could use them to game plan for the next meeting with the Jets.

So I don’t view the Patriots as evil. I don’t view them as good either. Great, would be more like it. Dominant. In your face, even. And I love every minute of it. So much of the discussion about this team has been about whether or not they’ll actually pursue the perfect season. Or if they’ll play it safe if they’ve locked up everything for the playoffs, which it seems likely they will. I say they’ll pursue the perfect season, but not because they want the record. They want to win every game just like every team does. And the argument goes something like “once home-field advantage throughout is locked up, why not rest your key guys to make sure they’re fresh for the post season?”. To not rest your guys would be arrogant, unsportsman-like even, or so the argument goes. I would suggest that there’s evidence that the opposite is true. That by resting your guys, or by altering your normal routine in a dramatic way, you’d be ultimately hurting your chances of reaching your ultimate goal, which is without question a win in the Super Bowl.

Look at the last two World Series. One team had their LCS wrapped up well in advance of their eventual competition. The team that finished the LCS early went on to lose the World Series, in ugly fashion I might add. It’s like my dad always says about being in law school. The kids that got straight A’s in college never did as well in law school because they weren’t used to having to work for it. The kids that got B’s and C’s in college did great in law school because they knew how to apply themselves. They already had a routine down of how to juggle all the priorities and get their study time in, etc. It’s the same concept in sports.

And this is the same reason why I’m not bothered when the Pats seem to run up the score. What would you have them do? Stop calling effective plays in favor of allowing their opponent the opportunity to come back and make it a close game? In a league where San Diego can give up almost 500 yards of offense to Minnesota one week and then next week they can pick off Peyton Manning 6 times, I’m not going to try to figure out which teams I can afford to slack off against, and which I can’t. And isn’t that almost more offensive and insulting to a team? “Hey, I know you suck and we’re up 20 points in the first quarter, so I’m just gonna put the ship on autopilot right now and let my guys cruise. You’ve got no chance of winning this thing!” Are you supposed to tell your defense to stop trying to make plays? Or to stop pass rushing quite as effectively just so your offense stays on the sidelines a little longer?

This is why I’m all for what the Patriots are doing right now. You play to win each game. Not to shame your opponents, but to play your best each week for 60 minutes. To give anything less would be disrespectful to the sport and the other teams. And you keep pressing ahead even when you’ve locked everything up because you play to win every game. No one wants to be rusty when the Super Bowl rolls around. And let’s face it, the chances of your guys being “fresh” because they didn’t play for 3 weeks versus being plain ol’ rusty are slim. So I say pursue that perfect season oh proud Patriots. Not to shove it in peoples’ faces, though you know a little bit of that is ok with me because people are blowing this camera-gate thing way out of proportion, but because that’s the way you play the game. To win.

Here it is, another Monday, and we are getting set to wrap up Week 10 in the NFL. I can’t say that I’m particularly jazzed for tonight’s match-up between the 49′ers and the Seahawks, but hey, it’s football, so I’ll be watching. My condolences go out to Mike Nolan and his family at the loss of his father, and hats off to Mike for deciding to coach tonight’s game, even while coping with the grief. I know it will be said a million times tonight, so let me be one of the first, that it’s probably a decision his dad would support.

I stayed up and watched the entire San Diego/Indy game. Most people probably quit in the first half, thinking it was a sloppy, one-sided game. And it was. I’m not going to say that Indy had no business coming that close to winning the game because I actually think the opposite is true; San Diego had no business beating the Colts. It shouldn’t have even been a contest! The Chargers are not the better team. They played better than the Colts last night, but they are not the better team. They are the team that allowed one rookie phenom to gain almost 300 yards by himself against their defense last week. They are the team whose quarterback barely managed 100 yards passing in victory last night, even with a weapon like Antonio Gates at his disposal. So all the talk about Indy “not deserving” to get a win last night is bull to me. They absolutely deserved a win and I’m still shaking my head that they didn’t get it!

One interesting note that I observed while watching the NFL games yesterday. During the Dallas-NY game, one of the Dallas defenders got flagged for unsportsman-like conduct for after he taunted the Giant he had just tackled. I thought it was a little ticky-tacky, but whatever. Just make your tackles and move on and quit jawing on the field. Then I’m watching the Chargers game and Marques Harris makes a tackle and proceeds to literally do a back-flip on the field like he’s going for the Gold at the Olympics. Was there a flag? Nah. You know, to possibly have a slight bit of consistency throughout the officiating crews would be nice. Maybe too much to ask for? Especially when we have things like “inadvertent whistles” happening that can truly affect the outcome of the game. A big thumbs-up to Clint Sessions for knowing what the ref apparently missed–that the ball never hit the ground on that 4th quarter almost-incomplete pass by Rivers and that it was a live football ready to be run back the other way for a touchdown. You could argue that this botched whistle blowing by the officials severely impacted the game. Because with the ball on the SD 7 yard line instead of on their own 20 yard line is a completely different scenario for the Colts. And really if you think about it, Sessions may have run a little harder in that last section of field to try to score if he hadn’t been hearing all the whistles blowing, signaling that the play was dead when it wasn’t. Even Al Michaels was commenting “This is all for show, of course, as the call on the field is that it was an incomplete pass”. Um, no Al, it wasn’t.

I must say, I was crabby watching the first half of the Cowboys game. Too many penalties, not enough catches, not enough explosive running from Barber, etc. And FYI, to Patrick Crayton. When you’re freakin’ untouched by a defender and you’re streaking towards the end zone? Cross the bleeping line into the end zone before you set that ball down. That is hardly a novel concept. You know what, if you want to make a statement by firmly placing the ball on the turf once you’ve scored, fine. But people who want to showboat and high-step it into the end zone, holding the ball out in front of them as they clown around or who want to not cross into the end zone, just extend the ball across the plane and then plant it into the turf? Give me a break. Even when you’re on my team, I’m rooting for you to botch the play and end up getting the ball stripped or have the officials review and tell you the ball didn’t actually break the plane. I am a fan of end zone dances and celebrations. I think it’s a shame that Ocho Cinco can’t perform his any more, though I guess he’d have to score a touch down for my disappointment to really count. But only after you’ve run into the end zone, ball tucked firmly in your arm should you make your “I’m awesome” statement. Is that so hard? Please.

A look ahead to next week reveals that announcers and analysts are already trying to create some hype behind a New England/Buffalo game that, by all accounts, should be a fairly one-sided contest. Wait, wasn’t that what last night’s game was supposed to be? In the NFL today, you just can’t keep it straight on which team is supposed to be crushing which.

Well, I’m a day late, but as promised here is a little college football talk. I’m thoroughly unhappy with the BCS rankings as of this week. I am only focusing on the BCS for this column because it’s the only ranking system that really matters in the end. But truly, my discontent somewhat lies in the general concept of the rankings.

I think this all goes back to the pre-season rankings and the importance placed on them. All of the analysts get together before the season, before a single meaningful snap has occurred, and they rank who they think is going to be good for the upcoming season. I understand that watching teams practice and scrimmage can offer some insight into what they might look like when facing actual opponents. But until the season starts, how can you postulate accurately on who will be good? Look at my beloved Wolverines pre-season ranking. They started the season as the #5 team in the AP rank. As happy as it made me to see that, it looked farcical after the contest with Appalachian State. Even more so after the rout by Oregon…So now Michigan is being punished when compared to other 2-loss teams because they were beaten by an unranked Division I-AA team. I do understand the ramifications of this happening to a traditional powerhouse team like U of M, but if they had started the season at a lower ranking, it probably wouldn’t have quite the impact that it has now. So that leads me to my main contention and that is I’m not sure we should rank college teams, in any ranking system, until at least 6 games into the season.

This is one thing that the BCS gets right. But consider that the BCS formula includes the AP ranking that begins before the season, and once again pre-season rank becomes a factor. Take LSU and Oregon. You could probably land on either side of the fence of the argument over which team is better. My money says Oregon, having watched them both play. LSU has needed last-second victories in too many games for me to believe they’re the #2 team in the country. I suppose this is as appropriate a time as any to state that I believe strongly in margin of victory as a factor in ranking teams. This is one reason why it doesn’t bother me that the Patriots continue to thump their opponents by such a large margin instead of sending in second-string players in the second half. Beating a team by 3 points or 6 points as time is expiring, especially when that team is not ranked, doesn’t impress me. Now, I know, I wrote earlier about the great comeback win that BC engineered over Virginia Tech so you’re probably thinking I sound like a giant hippocrate at this point. But if you re-read that entry, nowhere did I say that BC should have maintained their #2 ranking simply because they won. It took two scores in the final 4 minutes of the game to win but for the first 44 minutes of that contest, BC was dominated. That’s not a hallmark of a #2 team. I’m not saying you can’t trail your opponent at any point in a game and still be considered top-tier, I’m just saying LSU has let too many teams hang around too long for me to give them the edge over Oregon.

I propose that we eliminate pre-season rankings altogether. Let the season start, let the teams start playing their games. Let’s see how they look a few weeks into it. Then, let the BCS formula kick in, and at that point, if the AP ranking is a factor, no biggie. Because the pre-season, artificial ranking has been removed and it’s a clean slate at that point. I just don’t like to see teams have inflated rankings because they were good last season. It’s the same reason I nearly steered my car into on-coming traffic this morning when I heard Phil Simms on Mike and Mike saying that San Diego is one of only a few remaining teams that could challenge Indy or New England. San Diego. Really? The same San Diego that gave up 500+ yards to the Minnesota Vikings? Or maybe the same San Diego that doesn’t remember that LaDainian Tomlinson is one of the greatest players in football right now…They’re a team that could challenge the Pats or the Colts? Pittsburgh I’ll give you. Not San Diego.

Tomorrow I’m going to delve into the Patriots quest for perfection as there is a wealth of discussion occurring on the subject and I feel the need to weigh in.

I have been told in the past that I’m forbidden from blogging about college football on a Monday. That the NFL trumps college any day, especially on Mondays. And to a certain extent, I agree. Between the Pats-Colts game and the Cowboys-Eagles game, there’s plenty of NFL action to discuss. But for anyone wanting to get my thoughts on the BCS mess that I see brewing this season, tune in tomorrow. I’m not pleased with the ranking of LSU at #2 this week.

For now though, let’s delve into the NFL action, shall we? As I said to my boss, who is a devout Browns fan, did you ever think that the Cleveland Browns would be described as an offensive juggernaut? His response of course was “Uh…no”. Who would think that in Week 9 the Browns would be able to rally from a 21-6 deficit against the Seattle Seahawks, a team that most analysts are far too reluctant to label as mediocre, force over-time and then win?! And that just hours before that, the San Diego defense would give up 296 rushing yards to rookie phenom Adrian Peterson? San Diego having defensive issues while Cleveland out-slugs their opponent offensively? Did I miss the message that yesterday was backwards day in the NFL?

But one thing that was not backwards was the Patriots win over the Colts in a game that lived up to the hype for me, though in a different way than I was expecting. That was a tough game for me to watch. Between the questionable officiating (could NE have gotten slapped with a few more bogus pass interference calls while Indy mugged the NE receivers sans flags?) and Brady having a very un-Brady day, I was a nervous wreck. I don’t have too many deeply-held interests in the games I watch. But New England is one of two teams that I can’t watch lose, with U of M being the other team. I have a growing affinity for the Dallas Cowboys, especially with Romo at the helm which I’ll discuss in a second, but if they lose I’ll get over it. With New England losing, I was not a fun person to be around yesterday. Sure it was exciting when Randy Moss reeled in that sick, one-handed catch in the middle of the field and maintained possession without ever securing the ball with his other hand. That man is a freak of nature. Thank God he’s on our team! But watching Dwight Freeney fly around putting pressure on Brady is not my idea of a good time. It wasn’t until the Pats scored in the 4th to bring the score to 17-20 that I started to feel the color return to my cheeks. I started to remember, hey, we’ve imposed our will on all the other teams we’ve played this season, why not on the Colts? Then the strike to Kevin Faulk came with a few minutes to go in the game and now the color in my cheeks was accompanied by a smile. Albeit a tight-lipped smile, but a smile none-the-less. But it wasn’t until the Patriots stopped the Colts on their final possession and got the ball back with about 2 minutes remaining that I actually relaxed. Even as they took a knee to end the game, I was a little tense. What if something happens and Brady drops the ball before his knee goes down and the Colts recover…you never know these days in the NFL. Stranger things, i.e. Antonio Cromarti returning a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown, have happened!

Still feeling euphoric from the Patriots win, I settled in to watch the Boys versus the Eagles in what I was hoping would be an entertaining Sunday night game. Considering the Cowboys won in decisive fashion, it was entertaining in that regard. But the Eagles got manhandled, starting with their first play from the line of scrimmage, and sloppy football is rarely fun to watch, even when it’s your team benefiting from the mistakes. The eventual score of 35-17 Cowboys tells the tale. Philly could never really get things going on offense. McNabb was picked off twice, and had the above-mentioned fumble on the first play. Their defense didn’t even manage to sack Tony Romo, which was a first for them. And you just sort of knew when the game started that Philly lacked the pizzazz needed to beat the Cowboys coming off a bye week and Romo coming off his monster contract negotiations. A fresh team and an underdog QB who now needs to prove he’s worth the cash his owner just promised to shell out? Unbeatable unless you bring your A+ game.

So the Eagles fell by the wayside, a fate which I’m hoping more Dallas opponents face in the coming weeks. Now I begin my stewing over what will happen if the Super Bowl is a match-up between the Cowboys and the Patriots. No matter where I watch the game, here in Dallas I’ll be a hated spectator rooting for New England, but would get lambasted even more if I played both sides of the fence and said I didn’t care who won. What’s a SportsGirl to do?

As we all know by now, thanks to careful planning by Scott Boras, Alex Rodriguez has opted out of his contract in New York. That means he’s ready to entertain offers from the highest bidder, and you know the price tag won’t be cheap. Among all the talk about the potential suitors that may enter the negotiations for A-Rod’s services, an interesting discussion arose on Mike and Mike the other morning. The discussion involved wondering if the timing of A-Rod’s contract announcement would hurt his brand value and whether or not he was one of the most universally hated athletes in all of sports. Their general consensus was that yes, he has reached that hated status reserved for the likes of Barry Bonds.

I found the topic an interesting one because it touched on an issue I brought up in regards to Michael Vick, especially as it pertains to his contract total. The guys were posing the question of why he would be reviled when he hasn’t really done much to draw the ire of the fans. Especially in comparison to some of the “troubled” athletes we, as a collective fan base, have managed to embrace, blemishes and all. One of the talking points Mike and Mike kept going back to was the size of A-Rod’s contract as a factor in the dislike that surrounds him. Their contention was that the average fan basically just thinks he is a greedy SOB that should be happy with the money the Yanks are shelling out to him and that collecting that pay check means he should somehow do more than contribute 50+ homers and 150+ RBI’s. And as the guys were debating the validity of this emotion from the fans, I started thinking more about the supply and demand concept that really drives every contract negotiation in every sport. I can understand how, at face value, the general public cannot understand someone spurning a $27 mil/year contract in favor of perhaps making more money somewhere else. It’s ludicrous, right? Most of us working schmucks would do what he does for $100K per season. So what’s wrong with a person who can’t just be grateful for what they’re receiving? Makes me hate them too!

But one of the Mikes, and I believe it was Golic, brought up a great point that really hits at the heart of the economic concepts in play here. They said, imagine if you make $40K a year on your job. And in casual conversation you come to find out that a competitor in your industry is willing to offer you $48K a year to come and do the exact same job you’re doing currently. Sure, there would be certain factors that would likely play into your thought process, such as are there intangibles at your current place of employment that are worth more than money to you. But for most of us, the chance to earn that extra pay check is worth the risks of leaving the familiar. And would any of us feel guilty for taking the extra cash? No! Because we all think the services we provide our employers are worth every penny we’re receiving. Supply and demand. What we’re supplying our employers with is met with “x” amount of demand and there’s a market rate that translates into a paycheck associated with that demand. It’s the same thing for A-Rod. His agent, while being many things, is not completely business-inept. Scott Boras is quite savvy if you ask me. He would not advise his client to opt out of the size of contract he had with the Yankees if Boras did not feel reasonably certain that there would be a high level of interest from other teams at contract terms more favorable than A-Rod’s current terms. Meaning Boras knew that other employers in a highly competitive industry might be willing to offer this employee more money for equal services. We, the average working men, cannot grasp this concept because we would never turn down the possibility to earn even $1 mil, let alone multiple millions, hence the reason we loathe A-Rod. But the concept is the same.

The only other thing working against A-Rod that I see is that he generally just doesn’t really have a personality. Derek Jeter is Derek Jeter. He’s lively, charming, enjoys going out, etc. He is the face of the franchise in NY. Other beloved athletes have noticeable personalities. Michael Jordan was known for his obsession with winning and competition. He had that great smile. The list goes on. A-Rod? He seems flat. Blah. Lifeless. Boring, even. So couple that with the fact that he makes a gazillion dollars, and the end result is that the American population basically hates him.

Now, please don’t take this to be my defense of Alex Rodriguez. Personally, I know his stats but saw first hand in Texas how it’s not enough to elevate a team onto his shoulders. And the truly great athletes are able to do that. And in turn, I don’t begrudge them their golden contracts. I just think if people really took a second to think about his situation in their own terms, they’d see that they may not make a decision all that different from the one A-Rod made. And truly, when it comes down to it, if he lands on your team? You’ll be cheering him on.