Stop the Linsanity

With today's news that the Houston Rockets are making a contract offer to Jeremy Lin I think it's time to step back, take a breath, and say something that needs to be said:

The Rocket's off-season is starting to look like a slow-motion car crash.

If you think you've seen this movie before, you're probably correct.  At the beginning of the off-season it was obvious that the Rockets had developed a plan "A".  Make small trades for draft position and picks, and then bundle up Kyle Lowery and a bunch of other stuff in a trade for Dwight Howard.  What they got stuck with (after everything fell through) was Omar Asik and another Darell Morey inspired beg-a-thon to Jeremy Lin.  What's worse, the guy who they thought was going to be their starting point guard, Goran Dragic has said "thanks but no thanks" to what is rumored to be a low-ball offer and is now certainly going to sign elsewhere.

This leaves the Rockets with...well....not much really, again.

As I said previously, you've seen this before from Morey and co.  Remember "plan A" Chris Bosh?

The problem for the Rockets is that there is never a plan B.  And there should be, because Houston is, despite locals protests to the contrary, not a destination city for most athletes. Because of this luring "A-list" free agents is never a done deal.  There are many reasons for this, the least of which is the Summer heat, since most sports (excepting baseball) are off for the Summer so athletes can live wherever they want, I'll just touch on a couple here.

1. Houston is a bad, bad sports town. - I'm sorry, but it just is.Yes the Texans have a broad fan base, but it's not very deep.  And they're the best positioned team in the City. Remember 1/2 full Reliant Stadium when the Texans were missing the playoffs?  How about having to change tailgating policies because people would rather stay outside than go into the stadium?  There's no driving passion for sports in Houston, not as a whole.  Yes, you have a few Texans fans who paint their faces and compete every year for some mythical "Superfan" prize but they are the exception rather than the rule.  Houston will turn out to see a winner, but that's about it, and they're very, very quick to turn on a player if they feel somehow "dissed".

2. Houston has a terrible sports media. - Even worse, it's a sports media that the National media all but ignores.  What this means is that what happens in Houston, from a sports perspective, usually stays in Houston.  Even Yao, who was a marketing success, didn't have near the options that other national athletes have.  While salaries are equal, endorsements in the "destination cities" are certainly going to be much, much higher.

3. Houston's just not that good of a market. - This follows up on the point I made above, the endorsements just aren't going to be there.  A lot of (rightfully) proud Houstonians like to point out that they live in the "4th largest city in the USA" (some would argue 3rd largest right now)  which is true, but it's also the 10th largest media market.  In the world of sports and sports money, that's pretty small change.

The thing is, there's not much that Houston can "do" to change any of this.  Most of the population is imported and has long-standing ties with other teams (I fall in that catagory growing up rooting for Michigan & Oklahoma State in college sports, the 49ers in football -although I did grow up an Astros fan and I'm not a fan of the NBA so there's that- the Red Wings in Hockey the Irish in rugby and the Scots in footy) they may pull for the local teams but they have no real connection to them.  The media is falling all around the country and, for some odd reason, local sports talk really doesn't take off in Houston, especially if the teams are bad. In comparison, you should hear the talk shows when teams in New York, Philly or Chicago are bad.  Do you think the Cubs are not a hot topic on Chicago radio right now?  Meanwhile the Astros are almost a non-entity, treated as a joke when mentioned, almost with a wink and a "yeah, we get it, you don't want to talk about them" nod.

It's bad enough that most of Houston's sports news coverage is of the Rah! Rah! variety, which refuses to address the real problems facing teams, because that leads to fan apathy.  Even though they're not passionate, Houston sports fans (except for most UH & UT-Austin fans that is) are fairly educated and fairly honest with themselves about the states of their programs.  When what's written in ChronBlog doesn't sync up with what fans are seeing on the field, they just tune out.  The resulting silence can be devastating for a team.  Especially a team that's doing poorly.  One can only wonder how long it will be before you can hear a baby cry in Toyota Center during game action?

If next season is as bad as this off-season portends, it could be a very short time until Houston tunes out on the Rockets liked they've tuned out on the Astros.

A football pipe dream.

Reliant to bid for title game of new college football playoff, Joseph Duarte, Chron.com

The city of Houston and Reliant Stadium plan to make a push to host college football's new football championship game, the head of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority said Tuesday night.

"We decided we want to aggressively pursue this opportunity for Houston," said Janis Schmees, the executive director of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. "We want the decision-makers to know Houston is serious about hosting."

Of course they do. And hopefully we can pack thousands hundreds of people onto the toy train and run them up and down 7 miles of line, (maybe even re-opening some of the downtown dance clubs that closed!!) to play a game in a middling stadium, in an isolated part of town with few amenities, possessing a sub-par turf that's typically brown, patchy and slippery.

Or, they could play in larger stadiums with better amenities in either Dallas of Phoenix.

What do you think the answer is going to be?

Sad day for USMNT, but not for Soccer in the US

Once again, Jose de Jesus Ortiz gets it wrong.....

Sad day for soccer when you can watch Mexico for free, but not the US, Jose de Jesus Ortiz, Chron.com

It’s a sad day in America and a definite step back for soccer in the U.S. when fans of the Red, White and Blue can watch Mexico’s World Cup qualifier for free on the same day they must pay to watch the U.S. against Guatemala

Yes, it sucks for the USMNT (who will be playing to a crazy Guatemalan audience but almost no one in the US tonight) but for soccer overall it doesn't even put a ripple in the pond.

More importantly, we can still get Euro 2012 on ESPN. (which, amazingly, Ortiz has not even covered)

When he's not spending his time ripping on (USMNT head coach) Jurgen Klinsmann for not being somehow "American enough" (hint: he's German, and understands what it takes to win at the highest levels) or taking childish pot-shots at MLS' most popular player Ortiz is typically getting it 100% wrong when discussing the beautiful game.

You would think that, in America's 4th largest city and a hotbed for football, the newspaper could get someone to write on the game who at least has a working knowledge of how it's played at the highest levels.


(Hint: the USMNT is NOT competitive at the highest levels, the game against Brazil laid that out fairly clearly)

I give you the death of the B(C)S

Beyond all of the "logical" arguments for ridding College football of the stain that is the bowl system, having a real champion decided on the field and not by a bunch of drooling old men, coaches or SID's being the first, the reason for killing the travesty that is the B(C)S was always going to be financial.


Therefore: I present to you the end of the B(C)S.


Charging the band (the BAND!) full price for tickets is probably one of the worst things I've ever seen. Charging player's families full price (I would give you a discount ticket, but no...full price) is next.

Unlike many pundits however I don't blame the Bowl Committees for what they have done. I blame the NCAA and Major College Football for allowing it to happen. For years the administrations and conferences have had the power and ability to do the right thing for the right reasons. That was never going to happen because of greed. Now they have the chance to do the right thing for selfish reasons. I'm OK with that, provided they end up doing the right thing.


A top 4 playoff system and requiring 7 games to qualify for bowls would do three important things:


1. It would move the determination of the National Champion to the field. I would also stipulate that you have to win your conference championship to be eligible for the National Championship.

2. It would speed the way to 4 super-conferences of 16 teams each. This would be the "new" Division 1 Football. Everyone else could go down and play in Division 1-A, while continuing the FCS (now Division 1b I guess) and their playoff system. Let the jockeying for position begin.

3. Football on New Year's Day could get back to being football on New Year's Day. No Bowl game can be played after that date...period. Any team signing on to play in a bowl game after that date faces fines and punishment.

Of course, this would mean the end of the Big XII, VIII IX X Twelve as we know it. It would also mean the end of the Big East Conference. What would remain would be the Pac-16, the Big-16, The SEC and the ACC. Each with 16 teams, two divisions each. Gone would be the argument that the small schools "deserve a chance". I would argue that a relegation system be put in place so that the bottom three of each division be lowered to Division 1-A, while the top three in affiliated lower conferences be promoted. This would allow small-schools who hire and recruit (see: Boise State, TCU -although they would probably be top tier in any new organization-) correctly to "get a shot" at winning it all. The model already works on a National level, in European League soccer. Think of the excitement teams would have in D-1a that they don't currently have now: A chance for promotion if they finish strong, meaningful games at the end of the season for championships that really matter.


The most important thing is to get rid of the B(C)S, to stop it cold. If the over-billing of LSU is the catalyst for this then I only have one thing to say.

Geaux Tigers!

I can't believe I have to even write this.

I'm only going to say this once.....


Peyton Manning is NOT coming to Houston, period, end of story. Why would he want to have to compete for a starting job with Schaub when there are ones out there he can step right into?

Also, remember this: Cost of living calculators don't mean much when you're in Peyton's income bracket. Miami or San Fran, and my money is on Miami.

Contador Suspended....

You knew this was coming.....

Sports court strips Contador of 2010 Tour title, Graham Dunbar & Paul Logothetis, AP via Chron.com

Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title Monday and banned for two years after sports' highest court found the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day.

I've said on here before that, after the Floyd Landis mess, I'm not believing any athlete's claims of innocence. That includes Lance Armstrong and other high-profile athletes.

While I'm not going to say their guilty until it's ruled on by a court, I'm also not going to buy into whatever their excuse of the day is. Overtraining? Bah. Contaminated meat? Whatever.

In bodybuilding there's an old saying that goes like this: The only people who fail a drug test are those who are stupid enough to fail a drug test.

Let's be honest

It was a boring game, with a pretty exciting last couple of minutes.


I'm biased here, because I think the NY Giants are the most boring team to watch in the NFL. They won, congrats to them. It's on to the NFL draft.