July 31, 2015
IT’S TOO LATE
Carole King was prophetic in 1971 (Miss King, please send all royalties, present, future and retroactive to Jon Fine Productions’ top assistant, William Cashinsky III. Nah. Just make it out to his nickname, Cash.) Big Bidness took JF out of town. Sorry for any imposition for us being late, once again. We’ll be back on schedule next week.
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SPORTSCENTRAL
SportsCentral aired tonight! Schedule information is just below
Hope you joined co-hosts Steve Johnson and Sid Edwards and their guests. Scheduled to appear were CHS assistant football coach Matt Edwards and players Andrew Harris and Kyle Kepper.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, August 6: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral… with Sid Edwards and Steve Johnson
WUBR, 910AM (CBS Sports Radio) Baton Rouge
PelicanSportsTV.com
App: search WUBR… from Coach’s
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Saturday, August 1: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, August 3: 8AM—10AM: The Locker Room with John Goodman and Jim Gazzolo
WE THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR UTMOST TO PATRONIZE SPONSORS OF OUR PROGRAMMING. THIS HELPS US TREMENDOUSLY IN SUSTAINING OUR WEEKLY LINE-UP AND WILL ASSIST US IN ADDING MORE PROGRAMS IN THE FUTURE. KINDLY MAKE AN EFFORT TO LET SPONSORS KNOW YOU HEARD THEIR BUSINESS MENTIONED ON OUR BROADCAST(S).
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
Last mailbag session as we bid farewell to July and welcome August.
Q: Scott, any thoughts on the MLB trade deadline?
A: Nope.
Q: Scott, you talked about the Women’s soccer team a few weeks ago, how about the Men and their loss to Jamaica?
A: These questions must be from my soccer groupies. Seriously though, upsets happen. Unless the U. S. Men are in danger of losing their spot in the World Cup, it doesn’t really hit home to me. There are just too many “Cups” for me to keep up with in soccer.
Q: Scott, there was a bunch of LSU baseball news this week. Any thoughts before we turn attention completely to football?
A: Sure, I think the 2016 Tigers will be anchored by their pitching and will go as far as the inexperienced bats can take them. Very similar to how the 2015 Tigers were carried by the bats and the young pitchers held up until Omaha.
As a result, it was great news this week that LSU was able to add Valek as an experienced left handed pitcher. I think LSU could have its deepest starting pitching rotation in years with Lange, Latz, and Poche on the weekend and Valek with McKay during the midweek. That would leave a slew of good arms for long and short relief.
But, just like this year with the pitching staff, it is difficult to see the lineup taking shape and holding up with so many new players in those roles. I would feel this way even if Zardon and Byrd had not transferred. In my mind, guys that can hit can hit. Consequently, I am just as concerned about a returning player that had a low batting average as an incoming freshman with no experience.
Q: I know you don’t want to talk football yet, but maybe I can entice you with football talk beyond just Louisiana. I think the NFC South is a really weak division, what do you think?
A: It was a weak division last year when you look at the records of the teams and the fact that a losing record won the division. But, how long ago was it that Seattle won the NFC West with a 7-9 record? 2010. The next year the 49ers won 13 games. In 2012, the 49ers and Seahawks won 11 games. In 2013, it was clearly the best division in football.
My point is that people are usually a year behind the trend in the NFL because change happens so fast. The NFC South was terrible last year. That was last year, and it doesn’t mean it will be terrible again.
Everyone says the NFL is a quarterback league. Assuming that is true, I think the starting quarterbacks in the NFC South (Brees, Newton, Ryan, and Winston) are the best set of any division in football with the AFC North (Roethlisberger, Flacco, Dalton, and????) and the NFC North (Rodgers, Stafford, Cutler, Bridgewater) tied for second.
The NFC West turned it around when the 49ers and Seahawks had a couple of good drafts on defense and got their quarterbacks. The NFC South has their quarterbacks. Who knows for sure which teams had the best drafts? But if was some of the teams in the NFC South, then the division may improve quickly.
Q: I know the Saints talk is supposed to wait till next week, but maybe this can be the transition to August. I can’t believe the Saints blew it on Junior Gallette. Don’t you think the Saints are headed for trouble?
A: Good NFL teams are always a play away from trouble because everyone is in trouble if they lose their starting quarterback. So as long as we have Brees, we have a shot.
Obviously, cutting Gallette and eating his guaranteed money is bad. Yet, it was just as likely that he would have been suspended by the league for some time this year and his pectoral injury may have prevented him from playing well. For all those forecasting doom and gloom for the Saints, remember that the Saints had a talented team last year that went 7-9. The Saints went 7-9 with Jimmy Graham, Junior Gallette, and Kenny Stills. I would be much more concerned if they had come back this year with the same team in tow. Again, the Saints were talented last year, yet they were on the wrong side of the fine line between winning and losing in the NFL.
The loss of draft picks due to the bounty situation, Brees’ contract, trading Graham and Stills, and cutting Gallette are not mortal blows. Nevertheless, those situations put a spot light on Brandon Coleman, Seantavius Jones, Stephone Anthony, Hau’oli Kikaha, Delvin Breaux, and others. There are a large number of young players that must be productive immediately, especially considering the productive players that have moved on from New Orleans the last two years. But, more importantly, there are veteran players that must provide leadership as well as productivity.
HEY REF
By Dennis Dearie
Veteran Louisiana High School Referee
“And I’ll see you in court”!!! That’s about as close to what was probably the final thing said between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Tom Brady’s lawyers after they learned the outcome of his appeal in the “Deflategate” scandal. For some unknown reason the commish seems to be standing tall in allowing this farce to continue getting headlines.
If Goodell is trying to make a point in this case I feel its money and time wasted. If this case does make its way into a courtroom the NFL must prove intent. As one of the guys wearing stripes I can tell you that (intent) is probably our overall hardest call. In my 20 plus years of working football games I’ve only threw my flag once in penalizing intent. It happened one night with Broadmoor going against Capital in Memorial Stadium.
On that play Broadmoor was trying to score before the first half was over and started throwing deep. I had a wideout run an out ‘n go and the cornerback bit hard. You remember these plays because they stand out among all the other so-called easy situations we run upon Friday after Friday and I’ve never seen pure terror in a player’s eyes as I did on this particular play.
As I started to ease my way down field I’m taking it a little slower than normal as I’m thinking all along it was going to be a five yarder and then a cut to the sideline and out of bounds to stop the clock. I can admit to each and every one out there the defensive back wasn’t the only one caught with his pants down. As the offensive player cut up the field and headed toward the endzone I saw the soon to be toasted defender’s eyes get big as an Aunt Jemima pancake. All the defender could do was kick the feet out from under the receiver which he did as though it was something he practiced for months.
I dropped my flag next to the players that were both still lying on the ground and I asked “Why’d you do that”? The answered came back as I expected “couldn’t let him score, Ref”! That’s when I heard this thunderous voice coming from the far sideline “Hey Ref, that’s incidental, he didn’t mean to hit him”. Coach Bates was a long time coach in the Baton Rouge area for many years and he was one of the best to get under an official’s skin but I held firm and we walked the yardage off. Two plays later and we closed the first half with neither team scoring.
As I headed to the dressing room Coach Bates wanted a better explanation and I knew no matter what I said he wasn’t going to “buy it”. I did my best to let him know all the facts on the play before I decided it was indeed an intentional act. I also knew he wasn’t buying anything except for a possible apology since he felt I made an extremely huge mistake. He thought for a few seconds and his only response was “And you feel it was indeed intentional”? As we parted ways I told him I had the best view of the play since it was directly in front of me and he was on the opposite sideline”. But more than anything I had his own player admitting to me that he did kick the feet from under the receiver in an attempt to keep Broadmoor from scoring before the half”. But again, if we’d be in a courtroom setting the player could just change his story and proving intent wouldn’t be so easy to prove.
So, getting back to King Goodell, proving “intent” is by far the hardest call to make and get it right. Sure common sense in this case no doubt tells us that Brady either knew before the game started or as soon as he ran the first play. Brady is a multi-million dollar quarterback and has been always played the position. He’s won too many games to count and more than one Super Bowl where he was voted its MVP so no this writer will never believe Brady was unaware of the low pressure in the balls.
But I feel this case won’t be about who’s right and who’s wrong. Instead it’ll come down to what most of them do come down to; Dollars and Cents. Brady will lose nearly $4 million in salary unless Mr. Kraft decides otherwise. I’m sure Brady’s lawyers will argue that football is a team sport and if Brady played with illegal balls then he and every player on the Patriots’ team is also guilty of playing with non-specked footballs and should therefore also be fined.
In a side note ESPN is reporting that there’s just one single ball from the 2014 AFC Championship game that’s owned by someone other than an NFL employee. It was auctioned off for $43,740.00…
The ball is reported to be one that Patriot’s LeGarrette Blount caught for a touchdown in the 3rd qrt. At the end of the day, we must ask ourselves if Brady and the Patriots gained an unfair advantage by using the deflated balls. With a final score of 45 – 7 there can be no denying the balls made absolutely no effect on the final score. Put this matter to bed and let’s start the new season off and not look back on a situation we all know did happen.
Till next week…
DENHAM SPRINGS HS FOOTBALL RADIO BROADCASTS AND THE DRU NETTLES SHOW ARE A JON FINE PRODUCTION. STILL IN ITS FORMATIVE STAGES, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT MEDIA GUIDES, IS OUR FLEDGLING EBAY STORE.
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