selfish teams

As the NFL draft finally approaches this weekend, newspaper reporters have been doing their best to create stories about potential trades and any other potential dramas.

To take the Philadelphia Eagles as an example, two recent articles are worth highlighting.

First, there’s the news that veteran cornerback Sheldon Brown wants a trade because the Eagles are (predictably) refusing to re-open Brown’s contract in light of his play in recent years.  In the course of the article, Brown tells the reporter that the contract dispute “might” affect his play this coming season (if he’s not traded, or better paid).

Second, there’s the non-story about whether veteran Eagles lineman Shawn Andrews might be upset (or, the autor suggests, clinically depressed) because his contract doesn’t match up as well as did in light of recent acquisitions by the Eagles (of higher-paid offensive linemen).  Eagles Team President Joe Banner tells the reporter that it’s necessary to be mindful of a team’s relative pay structure, but that it can’t be an overwhelming concern.

Third, Brown clarifies his position to say that “it’s not about the money” while Banner rhetorically asks if it’s not about the money, then what is it about? Uh, we’d like to be on the wall when these two next talk but we figure that Brown is using his salary as a measure of his standing relative to the pay that other cornerbacks are paid… while Banner prefers to think he made a good deal signing Brown to a long-term deal a few years ago.

We’re doubtful that Brown will be traded this weekend, but we’re confident that these kinds of concerns about salaries within a team and across teams (within positions) will be around for a long time (independent of whether the actual salaries are six figures, seven figures, eight figures, …).

So, unsurprisingly enough, the professional basketball team that’s affiliated with the University of North Carolina (UNC) steamrolled their way to another NCAA championship.

Still, they were exposed to a Michigan State team in the final game that would have created countless stories relating the hoops contest to news, politics, and business if they somehow pulled the upset.

For starters, we would wager a couple bucks that filmmaker Michael Moore was working on an email to his distribution list (of tens of thousands) that would have (a) celebrated a Michigan State win and (b) made connections between the win and various actions relating to the auto industry in Moore’s (and MSU’s) home state.

This wager wouldn’t be based simply on random guesswork; instead, anyone who’s seen Moore through the years (e.g., on TV or film) knows that he frequently wears the Michigan State “S” hat with his blue jeans and gear.

Likewise, if you’re a regular reader of the Traverse City Record-Eagle, then you’ve already seen this story about Moore’s Traverse City film festival in which the filmmaker-entrepreneur opened up a theater screen for Saturday’s game against UConn.

In fact, Moore shared the opinion — to reporter Art Bukowski — that “The state of Michigan needs this right now more than anything; a little sliver of joy and happiness.”

We suppose that Moore and MSU fans should take solace that they made it as far as they did in the tournament.

And, we’d like to think that they’d join calls for UNC to get a shot at playing any interested squad from the NBA since we gotta think that UNC would have a good chance.

Celebrity gossip mills have two-way relationships with their “prey.”

To be clear: if celebrities didn’t have gossip mills talking about them, then… they wouldn’t really be celebrities.

If, though, gossip mills didn’t have celebrities to talk about, then… there wouldn’t be gossip mills about anything with sufficiently broad interest to justify a commercial television program.

This two-way relationship was strikingly clear in a video clip that gossip “producer” TMZ recently “published” in which professional “wrestler” Chris Jericho basically goes about promoting the upcoming pay-per-view Wrestlemania contest.

You can see the clip online and make your own assessment.

For our take, though, it sure as heck looks like a thinly-disguised press conference that TMZ decided to promote.

We figure that maybe this is an indication of the lengths to which people and companies need to go to sell something like Wrestlemania (in today’s economic environment); however, we also accept the possibility that it was a “slow ‘news’” day for the folks over at TMZ, ….

Well, as expected, an All-Catholic Final Four is not going to happen; however, there is still a chance that one half of the Final Four will be comprised by teams from Catholic institutions.

Specifically, Villanova and Xavier are continuing onward in the East regional where they are joined by Duke and Pitt (i.e., their respective opponents in the Round of 16)…

While, in the South regional, Gonzaga would need to beat UNC and the winner of Oklahoma v. Syracuse to make it to Detroit (for the Final Four).

We, uh, obviously don’t know who’s going to win any of these games, but… we figured that we’d further develop our focus on the extent to which men’s basketball teams from Catholic colleges and universities do (or don’t) perform extra-ordinarily — and disproportionately — well.

We’ll also keep special eyes on how the (Catholic) Villanova squad does against the Blue Devils from Duke.

It could happen.

In fact, just as we reported last year about the disproportionate success that Catholic schools tend to have when it comes to basketball… it’s possible that this year’s Final Four is comprised exclusively by squads from Catholic universities.

To look at the numbers, there are seven Catholic universities whose teams are now in the big dance, and they are scattered across the regions:

• Xavier (4 seed, East);
• Villanova (3 seed, East);
• Gonzaga (4 seed, South);
• Marquette (6 seed, West);
• Boston College (7 seed, Midwest);
• Dayton (11 seed, Midwest); and,
• Siena (9 seed, Midwest).

As a tally, this means that 7 of the 63 non-play-in teams are Catholic schools, which runs to a percentage of 11.

Do we think this is going to happen?  That this year’s Final Four will be All-Catholic?

Probably not, but… we do expect that with millions of people completing brackets this week… that there will undoubtedly be lots of people (hundreds of thousands?) whose religious allegiances will influence their picks.

Of course, all of this is independent of the fact that we have no reason (or little reason, at least) to assume that the (majority of) players at these schools practice the religion (in this case, Catholic) that the schools promote, ….

NBC Super Bowl anchor Al Michaels was on Jim Rome earlier this week (as part of the Super Bowl’s radio row) and Michaels emphasized the need to keep things cool and steady until the big game.

Michaels also was clear about how excited he was for kickoff on Sunday.

In the category of “things one doesn’t normally consider”:

It’s an interesting thought-experiment to think about the power that Michaels and his co-host John Madden will wield over the Super Bowl.

Imagine if, unpredictably, one of them suddenly went into a severe depression during the middle of the 1st quarter.

Michaels or Madden would have the power to sink most of the entire United States into confusion, at least, or semi-depression, at most.

Just think.  If either of them decided to unplug their TV personalities… and talk like they talk when they wake up in the morning (to the sound of an alarm clock)… that would probably be deeply unsettling to those of us who are so accustomed not only to them, but to all professional sportscasters who make a living being “on.”

We don’t expect any meltdown in the booth on Sunday, and we figure that’s why they get paid the big bucks.

We do think it’s worth taking a step back, though, to think about the power (and responsibility) that the sportscasters hold… and… “what would happen” if one of them decided to really keep it real.

PhD and NFL are two acronyms that aren’t usually juxtaposed next to each other.

Why are we doing so?

Well, after seeing video replays a couple weeks ago of Jeffrey Lurie (owner, Philadelphia Eagles) “high-fiving” his wife right in her face (instead of her hand)…

We started to wonder about the origins of Lurie’s geekiness.

And… bingo!  As admitted advertised on his website, Lurie earned a PhD — in “social policy” — from Brandeis University.

Hmph.

If the Eagles had made it to the Super Bowl, we figured that this nugget would stand alone as interesting to the blogosphere.

Since the Eagles did not make it to the Super Bowl, though, we searched around and found at least two former players who went ahead to earn doctorate degrees (from accredited universities).

+  Edward Blaine, former Packer and former Eagle, went on to become a scientist who focuses on cardiovascular health;

and…

+  Pellom McDaniels III, former Kansas City Chiefs defender, went on to become a history professor and author of books about sports in American culture.

We’re sure that there are others… maybe especially among older players whose salaries weren’t high enough to fund a person’s retirement after a few years of working.

We’re less than sure, though, that Lurie — with his fancy PhD and everything — has much company among owners.

Of course, if Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones keeps getting younger, maybe he’s got a shot.

Uh, well, if you count sending someone a text message about the game during the game… then… sure, Mr. Mark Wahlberg apparently did live-blog the Iggles and Cardinals’ fight for the NFC championship.

What did Wahlberg say?

To Whom?

Well, he wasn’t using Twitter for the whole world to see; instead, Wahlberg reportedly sent a text message to the former Eagles’ storybook player Vince Papale.

For anyone unfamiliar, Wahlberg played the undersized, local “walk on” Papale in the feel-good movie Invincible

What did he say?

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer reporter who was watching the game with Papale and his friends, Wahlberg sent a note quickly after the Iggles took the lead with a fourth-quarter touchdown by rookie DeSean Jackson.

“Go baby!” was the text.

Part of us wonders whether Wahlberg knew that reporters would be around, or whether he’s a solid fan (regardless of the potential for free press).

Either way, of course, any fan of the Eagles could only celebrate for a bit… since the Cardinals marched down the field to retake the lead and hold onto the win.

All of this starts to make us wonder, next, who will play Kurt Warner in a few years in any Disney recap of his Arena-football, supermarket-working, NFL Super Bowl winning career?

Even though the Phillies won the World Series this past year…

We can’t help but notice the irony that the Arena Football League (AFL) has shut its doors for 2009… just after the Philadelphia franchise (Soul) won its league championship in 2008.

Uh.  We know that the AFL made its announcement a few weeks ago… but we only recently saw a blurb in Sports Illustrated that made us aware of the news.

Like lots of semi-serious/semi-casual fans, we don’t keep tabs on the AFL daily; however, we do notice when they hit bigger streams (like SI).

From those seats, we figure that time will tell whether the AFL ever returns from its “hiatus.”

In the meantime, we suppose that the bright side for Philadelphians is that they can go around saying that the Soul are AFL Champs for a whole second year… before figuring whether or not the team won the last AFL title.

When the Philadelphia Eagles improbably enough… watched other games fall their way… before wiping their feet with the Dallas Cowboys…

it was somewhat reminiscent of the Eagles’ season from two years ago when Jeff Garcia got credit for leading the team (in the wake of McNabb injuries) on a streak into the playoff hunt.

Notably, on Christmas day, Garcia led the Eagles that year to a win against the rival Cowboys in Dallas.

He topped it off by talking straight into the national-network’s camera after the game to say “Merry Christmas Philadelphia!” in a remarkably “personal” way.

Well, since the Eagles needed Garcia’s team to lose on Sunday… before they beat the Cowboys… we can’t help but wonder if any impolite reporters have asked Garcia whether he would acknowledge that he (once again) helped to deliver a very merry christmas season to fans in the Delaware Valley.

In fact, we think that the Eagles might consider sending parts of the “game ball” to Garcia… as well as the Oakland Raiders… who also played a big role in giving the Eagles yet another chance to control their playoff destiny.