December 17, 2015
GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR LSU, SAINTS AND BIG SPORTS FAN
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SPORTSCENTRAL
Hosts Steve Johnson and Sid Edwards are scheduled to be joined by CHS wrestlers Austin Gouedy, Kyle Murray and Preston Taylor.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, December 17: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral… with Sid Edwards and Steve Johnson
Radio Amour 91.9 FM, Central
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Saturday, December 19: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, December 21: 8AM—10AM: The Locker Room with John Goodman and Jim Gazzolo
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High School
Ben Simmons, Leonard Fournette, Drew Brees, and Anthony Davis. Great players, wonderful people, high character, and elite players. So why are they not on great teams right now?
Maybe the problem is the old saying that defense wins championships is correct. LSU basketball, the Saints, and the Pelicans have been dreadful on defense this year. Meanwhile, LSU football did not set the world on fire on defense.
On the other hand, maybe the problem is the other old saying that there is no “i” in team. Don’t get me wrong, none of those four players are anywhere near selfish. On the contrary, all four players excel at skills that involve helping their teammates. Instead, I am implying that one player cannot win games on their own.
That leads me to my frustration watching all four play right now, though. Having those four players on your team should make life easier. Let’s look more specifically at each team to see what I mean.
Ben Simmons should open opportunities for his teammates to score easily and shoot a high percentage. Yet, too often the Tigers take shots without allowing Simmons to get involved. Furthermore, at times they stand on the perimeter and watch Simmons play on offense instead of cutting to the goal. Earlier in the year, I wrote that the veterans would need to step up when the young players struggle. The young guards are struggling right now and I think Coach Jones needs to lean heavily on his veterans right now. Especially, when the Tigers are on the road.
As for the Pelicans and Anthony Davis… ditto. The only difference is the Pelicans struggles have been health related instead of youth. The other issue the Pelicans have that is similar to LSU is that you have to go pretty far down on the list of best players on the team before you get to an inside presence. Neither team needs Patrick Ewing inside, but they are desperate for a Horace Grant presence to defend and rebound.
Football is more complicated than basketball because of specialization and roster numbers, but issues remain similar. Logic would say that it should be relatively easy for LSU to be more efficient throwing the ball with so much attention placed on Leonard Fournette. Likewise, it is also logical that the Saints should be able run the ball efficiently with a quarterback like Drew Brees.
In the case of the Saints, I think they have gotten better running the ball over the course of this year. The entire offense has improved as the young receivers have emerged. Still, the Saints have yet to find a deep threat like Meachum, Henderson, or Morgan which would help the run game.
But forget about offense. The Saints will be back in the playoffs when the defense is respectable again. There is hope for next year though. As I have said many times this year, the Saints pulled in a good crop this off season in Davison, Kikaha, Anthony, Breaux, Ellerbe and Swann. Hopefully, the Saints can stay healthier in the secondary next year and pull in another good group along the front seven to improve in the trenches.
LSU football is already respectable on defense, but that isn’t good enough. The Tigers must be dominant. We all know that is the formula under Coach Miles. The LSU offense is what it is and will be what it has been. Elite defenses that dominate for four quarters is what LSU needs to get back into major bowl contention. For that to happen, LSU will have to pull some rabbits out of their hat at linebacker for next year.
ESPN ran an article this week that LSU is wasting their year with Ben Simmons if they have the best college player in years and only make the NIT. It is probably premature to make that conclusion. Nevertheless, the potential exists for LSU football to finish 8-4 this year after finishing 8-5 last year and missing major bowls with Leonard Fournette. The Saints are not making the playoffs with Drew Brees, again. The Pelicans are going to have to go on a tremendous run at some point to make the playoffs with Anthony Davis. None of these team results were what we were looking forward to back in August, and imagining the possibilities with these elite players.
HEY REF
There’s a couple very famous sayings that go something like “There’s a sucker born every minute” and “You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time”. To me these two phrases describe the current and most recent history of the National Football League better known simply as the NFL. Let’s go to those ever all important numbers now that just a few games are left to be played in the 2015 season.
I’m in shock with the poor records and the lack of concern by most of the players and very few of the owners. Why you may ask? It’s shocking to me because out of the 32 teams there are 21 teams with losing records. In the hotly contested NFC East division there isn’t a team with a winning record. Three teams are tied for the lead at 6-7. That boils down to a winning percentage of just.462. In the NFC South where the Saints reside three of the teams are no better than 6-7 with New Orleans just a game behind at 5-8.
That’s just the standings in two of the eight divisions and nobody seems upset with any of it. You’d think the owners would be raising Hell with coaches and the like but really they for the most part are happy at the results. Not the results from the playing field but the one that trumps all others; their bottom lines. That’s the only thing that matters to these new style of businessmen because as long as teams are “in the hunt” for a playoff spot everything is peachy-keen. No need to wonder “Why” because being “in the hunt” translates to full stadiums.
These teams go about daily life, boasting they are the best; no one can come close as they claim to be the best professional football players. Simply put this is supposed to be a league beyond compare. It’s shocking this league generates more than 8 BILLION dollars a year. A large part of those BILLIONS is from TV contracts and memorabilia. That’s a huge sour subject with this writer since the vast majority of NFL memorabilia is made in China just as with the rest of the American marketplace. I say the least, the very least the owners should do is employ American workers to make all the jerseys and the like that fans seem to not get enough of.
The players are for the most part multi-millionaires and just go through the motions of playing the games until they’re in the final year of their current contract. That’s simply because the better the numbers the more an agent can squeeze out of the teams. You’d think with the money being thrown around they’d try to earn a paycheck but the thing killing the won-lost records for most teams is a little thing known as “Guaranteed Money”. For instance Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys signed a $120 million dollar contract a couple years back and more than $60 million is guaranteed. He doesn’t have to play another down and he gets paid.
I don’t understand how in good faith any businessman would not only offer this kind of contract but be happy to sign it. And you shouldn’t even try to measure the ego factor many of these owners have. You’ll have an owner that wants this highest paid player in the league on his payroll. Why would that matter? Simple answer is fans will buy up every seat possible to see this so called “Greatest/Highest Paid” player. And it goes without saying they’ll buy up the all too familiar and expensive memorabilia.
As I’ve written so many times this writer has been priced out of watching a game live since the cheapest tickets alone will set you back some $300 to $500 each. And if you want to sit closer to the action then be ready to fork over $1,000.00 or more for EACH seat.
So fans of the MFL (Mediocre Football League) don’t get upset that your millionaires aren’t worth the money; just be happy they’re “in the hunt” for a playoff berth. As long as the money keeps flowing, the stadiums remain full and the T-shirts keep selling out the owners have no reason to change the product on the field. But my problem with this formula is the little fact everybody is paying more for less and people are happy. So who am I to complain?????
Till next week…
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