An Actual Mailbag

Got an interesting email from Al Fama, an Eagles fan unfortunately stuck in Ohio.  It's tough living in those places where there's more than one team in your area, because then the local stations have all these weird rules about "primary" markets and "secondary" markets, which really boils down to the fact that you're going to end up getting a crappy local game on Fox and a crappy local game on CBS, rather than just one lousy game a week.

So, Al, I hope you have DirecTV.  (Although not for their laughably decaying customer service, but that's another story.)

Anyway, here's his question:

How do you feel about the NFL officiating in recent years?

I heard an ESPN blogger interviewed about the NBA referee scandal and he mentioned that it was more of a question of 'When something like this was going to happen?' instead of 'How could something like this have happened?'

He then went onto elaborate that the NBA refereeing has progressively gotten worse over the years, and that many of the 'good' referees were retiring and they were not being replaced by the same quality.

This got me thinking about the NFL. I can distinctly remember saying, 'This has got to be the worse refereeing I've seen...' for two years straight.  Now each time I've made these statements I was watching an Eagles game and I tend to yell at the TV and make rash statements, but I watch football with my wife who is very knowledgeable about the game, and she keeps me honest. During these times she has greed with me.

First of all, you're a lucky guy, Al.  When I start screaming at the TV my wife is far more likely to hop up and say, "Well, guess it's time for me to take the dog for a walk."

In regards to your question, I think it's unquestionably true that the NBA has the worst officiating of any major sport not involving Italian soccer teams.  Yes, basketball is the toughest sport to officiate, but in recent years that's just become an excuse.  It's what the league says when people complain: "Hey look, these guys are really big and fast, what can we do?"

The core problem for basketball is that the game diverged from the rulebook many years ago and now there's nothing left but gray area.  In basketball, any physical contact that is initiated by a player and results in an advantage is supposed to be a foul.  (In football that's called "blocking.")  If you watch old games from the 50s, you'll see a sport that looks nothing like the current game.  Players avoided each other and if they bumped, it was a foul.

What that means is that practically every single player interaction on the floor is a judgment call.  And for way too long, the NBA hasn't cared a whit about the consistency of those judgments.

Unfortunately, the league is now in a really bad position.  Remember the number one complaint about the 2006 playoffs?  It was all about offensive players -- particularly Dwyane Wade -- initiating contact as they drove to the basket, bowling defenders out of the way and frequently getting calls in their favor on top of it.

But then what was the number one officiating complaint in the 2007 playoffs (other than overall crappiness)?  It was the incessant flopping (or drawing of legitimate charges) by defenders, who waited until the last possible second to slide under an approaching offensive player before flying backwards like they'd been shot. 

Now you're stuck.  If you want to crack down on flopping, you have to give the offensive players more leeway.  But then you're going to be giving Lebron, Dwyane, Paul Pierce and all those guys even greater opportunity to turn basketball into football as they go barreling down the lane looking for contact. 

What's the solution?  Well, it's going to be painful.  If the league is going to fix the contact situation, it's going to have to crack down on the running back swingmen in the league.  In the short-term, that's going to lead to FlopFest 2008.  It won't be pretty for a few months.  But then the players will adjust and stop jumping into each other, and once that happens things will get back to normal, and then the League can pass the Varejao Rule (tm) that allows refs (or the league office) to provide stiffer punishments for guys who incessantly Horry their way to calls.

So that's the NBA.  In comparison, the NFL looks fine, although I absolutely think the officiating has gotten worse in the past few seasons for a few reasons:

1. Instant replay.  Because some calls are challenge-able and some are not, and some might look bad if they were a bit off, the refs are no longer as decisive as they once were.  You can almost see the gears turning during one of their little post-play huddles as they all noodle which call would -- if wrong -- be most easily overturned.  They also take forever to blow their whistles at the end of plays just in case the ball squirts out. 
2. Stupid rules.  The illegal contact in the secondary rule is way too strict.  The refs call it correctly -- it's not their fault that it was "reemphasized" -- but the balance is off.  The same thing is true with contact to the quarterback.  They're football players, not ballerinas.  Patting one of them on the head shouldn't result in a 15-yard penalty, especially when you maimed the guy in front of you to get to him.
3. New League directives.  Look, you don't get this kind of rapid and sudden change in enforcement without the League doing something to make it happen.  The League absolutely told refs to be more lenient with holding calls, and we saw the results on the field.  There were any number of occasions last season when pass rushers were deterred in their efforts to get to the quarterback by methods that would not have been remotely legal in previous years.

The real problem with that last bit is that players quickly adapt to these sorts of changes.  If you're an offensive lineman who can get away with a little bit more holding, you're not going to last unless you start doing a little bit more holding.  It will be up to the League this year to make sure this doesn't continue to spiral downhill.

With that said, I still think the NFL refs are the best in the business.  The League has very stringent evaluation procedures and because there are so many zebras on the field at one time, someone usually has a pretty good look at the play.

And while instant replay has made the officiating somewhat worse overall -- I believe -- it has unquestionably fixed the problem of serious, game-changing mistakes being made without any recourse.  One fixed spot during the two-minute warning of a close game is a lot more important than some hesitant whistle-blowing the rest of the time.

With that said, there's only one real truth about next season's officiating.  Every fan will feel like his team got screwed by the refs.

Especially since -- for the Eagles -- it will no doubt be true.

Apologies for the Outage

Evidently some sort of TypePad issue.  Apparently it's now resolved.

Also, I'm on the road this week but may have a chance to finally get something up later this afternoon.  Come training camp, however, it's on.

Yes, I am also frightened by the defense

Solid pre-training camp piece this morning about the questions facing the Birds' defense coming into camp. While a couple of the bullets are probably a shade too dramatic (will they really cut a Darren Howard?), I actually think the overall tone is pretty dead-on.

We all love talking about 5's knee, but scoring points wasn't a problem last year, and I doubt it'll be a problem so long as that offensive line stays fit (full disclosure: I think the Birds' line is the strongest part of the team right now). The defense will be the issue for this team. The front seven is dicey at best right now, and certainly isn't a group that's used to playing together. At least four of the seven starters will be different than the team that finished the 2006 season.

Expect more posts/ anxiety on this topic from me.

Link:
10 questions facing defense [Phillyburbs.com]

Redlasso is back (and ready to sign)

Good news for all the out-of-market Eagles fans (like me): Redlasso is back and running on the Eagles' site.

Redlasso is this nifty little service that collects a bunch of Eagles-related videos from the local and national TV press (CN8, Daily News Live, the local network affiliates, and ESPN) and publishes them as web video. I don't see much of an ad model, and I'm not sure how they're paying for this stuff, but hey, it's a bubble and we should all enjoy it. Viva the Electric Internets!

Personally, I was a little worried Redlasso's future with the Eagles when the Birds' site pulled down the links as part of the resdesign. Guess that was just a bump in the road. This is a killer service and I'm psyched it's back.  Essentially, Redlasso means I can watch 15 minutes of Eagles video content every single day.  Future of content distribution, it's great to meet you!

Link:
Redlasso On PhiladelphiaEagles.com
Redlasso Home Page

Donovan ’ s going to do what Donovan wants to do

Noted Birds blathermonkey Mark Eckel of the Trenton Times (and I mean "blathermonkey" in the kindest possible way) thinks it's only 50-50 that Donovan starts the opener against the Packers on September 9th.

His reasoning is that (1) McNabb has yet to give a firm commitment that he'll play that day and (2) that McNabb's recent off-the-reservation behavior (hiring -- gasp! -- his own PR guy and doing interviews --hiss! -- away from the Novacare Complex) suggest that there's discord brewing between 5 and Andy Reid. Eckel thinks that Reid and the organEYEzation will pressure 5 to play, and that 5 will be looking out for 5.

Eckel generally knows his dirt on the Eagles, but I'll have to disagree on this one. McNabb hasn't committed to playing because there's no reason to commit. It's just a headline and even more bogus early pressure. Plenty of time for that nonsense come training camp. As for the discord with the front office, I mean, sure. Maybe there's something there. But all things considered (given previous off-season dramas), it doesn't really register.

I think McNabb will start the opener.

Link:
NJ.com's Mark Eckel Isn't Sure McNabb Is Healthy [CN8 via RedLasso]

Dhani Jones passive-aggressively whinges about being small, ineffective

As Birds news is a little slow the week before training camp (yes yes, Abiamiri and Ilaoa signed yesterday, got it), I thought it was worth a quickie post in re: a segment from NFL Network from a couple weeks back, in which bowtied former Eagles linebacker Dhani Jones chatted with Rich Eisen about the upcoming Eagles season.

Admittedly, I was never that into Dhani Jones. He just wasn't a good enough player to justify that level of smugness. Also, he was small and bad at tackling. This wouldd have been okay if he was super-sweet at pass coverage, but he was pretty inconsistent there as well. So. That really doesn't leave much.

Anyhoo, he had a few interesting things to say about the Birds, and by "interesting" I mean "passive-aggressive thinly disguised barbs about his former teammates":

On Donovan McNabb's knee...
"It definitely takes a year."

On QB A.J. Feeley and whether he has the confidence of the guys in the locker room...
"He definitely has the confidence of the guys in the front office."

What's the team's biggest need?
Dhani talked about stopping the run, noted that Broderick Bunkley was no good last year, and pointed some fingers at the front four as being more important than the linebackers. "Linebackers can't make plays if the offensive linemen get to the linebackers...if you have 350 pounds against 220 pounds there's only so many times you can rebound and make the play."

Uh-huh.

So, to review, Dhani doesn't think McNabb will be back to full health until at least November, thinks the team doesn't respect Feeley (is Dhani jealous of Heather Mitts?), and made it very clear that the Birds' problems against the run were all the rookie's fault. Yup. It had nothing to do with you being undersized and generally wimpy. That's probably why the Eagles will replace two out of three starters at linebacker this year. Andy Reid probably agrees with you, Dhani.

Link:
NFL Network: Countdown To Camp [PhiladelphiaEagles.com: Click on NFL Network, it should be the first one]

Will this team come together … and when?

There’s no question this is one of the most talented Eagles’ teams in the Andy Reid era. Guys like Westbrook, McNabb (if he’s healthy), LJ, Reggie, Lito and the Big Three in the middle of the offensive line are all at or nearing their peaks. Vets like Kearse and Dawk still seem to have plenty of gas in the tank. And the last few drafts have yielded loads of young talent with names like Cole, Bloom, Gocong and Hunt.

There are still plenty of question marks (which this article does a good job enumerating), but in most cases the possible answers are “vastly improved” or “only as good as last year.” Since these guys weren’t exactly chumps last season, that’s a good position to be in.

The great thing about the way the Eagles have built this team is that there’s no obvious window for success. Other than McNabb, there’s no one person whose retirement makes you think, “Well, that’s probably it for awhile.”

The downside of all this reshuffling is that this isn’t a veteran squad. There’s a veteran core, but that’s not the same thing.

What this means is that fans shouldn’t expect a repeat of the 2004 season, when the team came flying out of the blocks and took the league by storm right away. We’re definitely going to see some growing pains this season, especially early as the teams breaks in a handful of new starters. What we have to hope is that those early season tumbles are more of the “they shouldn’t have struggled so much in that win today” variety. As opposed to the “how in the world did they manage to lose the game, divisional lead and Jevon Kearse all at the same time” variety…

A little adversity isn’t even a bad thing. I’d love to see some of these young guys put into positions where they have to execute under pressure before we get to the playoffs. That which doesn’t result in blowing a game to a guy named Bruce Gradkowski only makes them stronger.

One last point. Let’s all take the opportunity over the next few weeks to pack up the campsite and move the tents a little further from the ledge. A 1-2 start while the team gels and McNabb gets back to form wouldn’t be the end of the world. Nor would it be cause to start calling for A.J. Feeley.

Remember, it’s a long season and it’s about peaking for the playoffs. Give these guys some time.

Bounty Bowl is now in Beta

After a fair amount of fiddling with the design of the site, including-but-not-limited-to fooling around with the fonts, graphics and ads, I think it's safe to say that BountyBowl is now officially in beta.

That's right. Beta. BETA.

This just means that the design part of the setup is pretty complete. I'm sure I'll fiddle with it a bit more, but I think this is pretty much what the site will look like for the next couple months (as a general rule: expect more ads, not fewer ads).

I think the beta thing goes well with the fact that we are now four (4) days away from the start of training camp. The goal is to have our "official" launch on Friday, to coincide with training camp. We're currently "on track" for said launch.

Go Birds. More soon.

Sports and Gambling

Interesting new angles on the Vick dogfighting story are becoming harder to find, but last night I read something, somewhere that suggested Vick's biggest problem with the league could be the connection between the alleged dogfighting and the gambling that occurred at those events.  The thinking is that Goodell couldn't come down hard on Vick for the primary issue, since the new personal conduct policy is really meant to apply only to repeat offenders, but that the gambling thing is something he could be all over.

This writer -- whose name or location I now can't remember at all -- even went so far as to suggest that Vick's now known ties to gambling activities call into question his well-documented inconsistency on the field.  It seemed like a bit of a stretch, but this morning I just read this:

Reports: FBI probes allegations NBA ref bet on games he worked

The FBI is reportedly investigating an NBA referee who was allegedly betting on basketball games, including games he worked in the past two seasons.

The New York Post first reported Friday that the year-long investigation is focusing on allegations that the referee bet on games and was making calls that affected the point spread on games. The newspaper reported that according to sources, an arrest of the referee was imminent and that NBA Commissioner David Stern is aware of the investigation.

[WHAT FOLLOWS IS PURE SPECULATION] 
Wouldn't it be just like David Stern to suspend a referee (say Joey Crawford) for a seemingly minor offense (perhaps a vendetta against one of the league's best players) in order to cover up the fact that he was actually suspending him due to a far more serious investigation?
[/SPECULATION -- WHICH WAS PROVEN WRONG IN HINDSIGHT]

Sometimes I wonder a bit about the newfound "polite" status of gambling in our society.  Obviously, I don't have a problem with gambling, as any number of friends, blackjack dealers and hapless tourists could attest.  But I'm also of the opinion that these things are better when they're kept in the box.  Casinos in Atlantic City?  Fine.  Casinos in Philadelphia?  Not so much. 

That ship has sailed, however.  Gambling is everywhere now.  And it's starting to get awfully close to the sports world, with ESPN showing so much card-playing programming that the "P" might as well stand for poker.

On the one hand, players make so much money these days that it's hard to see how something like the Black Sox scandal could be repeated.  On the other hand, gambling has become so pervasive and so accepted that I'm not sure the lines are as bright or as clear as they used to be.  That could be a problem. 

The question would then be: is it a strike zone problem (fixed before things really got out of hand) or a steroids problem (permanent damage done)?

Playin ’ With the Boys

Cue up the Kenny Loggins and log on to philadelphiaeagles.com for some hot bare-chested Iggles action! Dunavin and the boys are in Arizona for their pre-camp bonding slumber party at Chez McNabb. Looks like the recently released Cheerleader Calendar may have some competition, though we can all be thankful that the video stopped short of a beach volleyball montage.

[Also, can I say things like "Wow, Donovan looked strong and it seemed like he was planting on that right leg just fine"?]

I'm gonna take a shower.

Link:
McNabb and Recievers Work Out In Arizona [PhiladelphiaEagles.com]