Sunday, November 05, 2006

Takes that may or may not be those of some person named Doyle

• While watching the Washington-Dallas morning game, I am amazed that with 5:15 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Redskins have to call a timeout on fourth down to figure out a play. They are in no-man's land, so going into third down, the coaches have to know that there's a good chance that they'll be facing a ... oh, forget that noise! Instead, Washington comes out after the break and punts from the 42. Ball dribbles between the legs of a Redskins player on the 1-yard-line, touchback, net 22-yard-punt. Dallas has not taken the field as I write this, and I promise I won't revise it after the game is over. I am guaranteeing a Dallas victory right now.

• Louisville will beat Ohio State in the BCS National Championship game.

• Of course they won't. But I wanted to see what it felt like to be Justin, constantly saying ridiculous things.

• OK, so the Cowboys just punted after incomplete pass, incomplete pass, and short completion on third down. I lied; Dallas is not winning this game. Neither of these teams are winning this game. I think Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells should be doing commercials for stem cell research, because they both forgot how to coach football.

• I considered making an entire blog post about this subject, but I figure it's easy enough to truncate my take: It is reprehensible that Willie Tuitama is playing football this season. I've discussed this a few times with Ryan, who knows more about the situation than anyone that isn't on the team, and he's given me no reason to change my mind (since he agrees with me, he doesn't exactly make the best devil's advocate).

Concussions are still the last great unknown frontier of sports-related injuries. And I have a feeling that concrete answers as to what exactly an athlete risks when playing through or after them aren't forthcoming any time soon. Frankly, the anecdotal evidence we have suggests there is no possibility for a concrete answer. So, there's nothing to prove that Tuitama is any better off waiting until next season to play again. But just because you can't prove something beyond a shadow of a doubt doesn't necessarily mean the opposite is true. And that's why Willie should be sitting for the rest of the year.

It also bears mentioning that I don't feel this way because the season is "lost," though it doesn't hurt. I do think it bears mentioning that if coaches weren't losing their jobs right now at UA, this probably wouldn't be happening. And that's sickening.

• I have never quite seen an ending to a football game like the one I just witnessed between Dallas and Washington. Beyond the mutual ineptitude of Parcells and Gibbs, for the first time I can remember each team had an opportunity to kick the game-winning field goal on consecutive downs. Of course, Washington got the second of the two, and made the kick, which makes me look like an idiot for my earlier prediction. But being an idiot is the life I chose.

I know there's more that's been on my mind lately, but I can't think of it right now. I'll update it as things occur to me.

- Diesel

4 comments:

St said...

• Of course they won't. But I wanted to see what it felt like to be Justin, constantly saying ridiculous things."

Yes, I say ridiculous things. After all, I'm the one who said the following:

Exhibit A: "Jake Peavy is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball!"

Exhibit B: "Major league pitchers don't change their approach according to the hitter or the count."

On a side note, don't worry about Willie. It would pretty much be impossible to make that kid any dumber.

Diesel said...

You have once again managed to manipulate "quotes" of mine to misrepresent what I was saying.

A: After the season I said that (which was last season) there was a strong argument to be made that Jake Peavy was the best pitcher in baseball. Except for that Johan guy. But not even close to as outlandish as you're making it sound.

B: What I said was, "Major League pitchers don't change their approach according to the situation." What I meant, clearly, was that with 2 baserunners on in the ninth inning, they're still going to try and get a guy out as best they can. They will essentially pitch the same as they would were it the second inning with no one on. A pitcher's goal is get outs. Each pitcher has a finite number of strategies at his disposal that can help him toward that goal. The idea that a pitcher can somehow use something (or lose something) in pressure situations that was (un)available in earlier non-pressure situations is laughable to me.

But, hey, that's why you decided to pursue fiction writing. And why I decided to pursue ... accounting.

b said...

Ohio State in the BCS title game?

Lidicurous....

b said...

I'm not looking at Ryan here, but how come nobody (major) has written about the staggering number of concussions this year in football story? It seems to be far more than I can ever recall.