November 25, 2017
NO PUNCTUALITY HERE
No, this newsletter is not going out 2 days late because Jon just stopped eating his Thanksgiving meal
That accounted for only one day of the delay!!… Seriously, some major computer issues set us back, in conjunction with a thriving EBay business (the good news of all of this!)
Special thanks to Denham Springs politician extraordinaire (come the fall?) Brian Ross, owner of OK Computers, for putting up with Jon’s 5 gazillion questions, many of them asked after business hours on a holiday weekend, and getting the computer working at the Jon Fine Estates
And, apologies for our tardiness with this issue… as you reed Scott and Dennis’ columns, please realize that they were intended to “go to print” on early Thursday morning. Fortunately, I don’t think that any of what they have written has been rendered obsolete by virtue of our running their columns late… Thank you.
A BELATED
HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!!!!!
GET ARRESTED
ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, our EBay store, sells media guides. programs and baseball cards. Please visit JonFineProductions.com and click on icon to get to the store. Check out a full array of New Orleans Saints media guides and LSU media guides and programs and publications from much of the entire sports world. Over 3,000 publications listed.
ON AIR NEXT THURSDAY TONIGHT
SportsCentral will air, this upcoming week (Thursday), 5pm on Central First Facebook Page
See more information just below.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
THURSDAY: SPORTSCENTRAL: 5pm—6pm: Central First Facebook Page… … Les Bueche, Sid Edwards, Frank Fresina
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
Sunday wasn’t, “Who dat,” it was “Stole dat!” Yes, the similarities to ‘09 were striking, and amazingly on the same day that Robert Meachum led the “Who dat” chant. Seemingly, it doesn’t matter the players or the coaches, when the Saints play the Redskins, the Redskins control the game.
In fact, the Skins seemed to be in the Saints huddle at times calling the right defense versus trick plays and anticipating many of the Saints signature screens. You can say the Saints were “outcoached.” That is not an insult to Sean Payton. It doesn’t even mean the Saints coaches did a poor job. The fact is, if you coach for a substantial period of time, you are going to get “outcoached.” The last time the Saints played in New England, Payton and his staff “outcoached” Belichick and his staff. Guess what. Tom Brady took the Patriots down the field at the end and won the game.
Sunday’s win was one of those Saints fans will remember for a long time. Thank goodness the Saints signed Coby Fleener this week (I am joking of course, but geez, where has he been?).
Once the thrill of the victory subsided, though, I remember some of the ways the Saints were exposed to be down 15 with three minutes to go.
First, the injuries are starting to pile up. Klein, Vaccarro, and Lattimore are the Saints best linebacker, safety, and cornerback respectively. I think we saw why Lattimore is the Defensive MVP of the league after what happened once he went down.
Now that Okafor is out for the year the Saints have to replace someone who has made teams pay for doubling Cam Jordan. I don’t think Okafor can be replaced with one player, and this will be a huge loss for the defense.
Second, the run game is still great, but having to drive 8-10 plays to score is very tough. The Saints need to find some explosive plays on offense, which is odd considering the run game has been so good. You would think the Saints would be able to hit some big passes off play action.
Third, the defense has to get back to forcing turnovers. The Redskins showed how tough it is to slow down an offense with a quality quarterback. The Saints have been fortunate to avoid the best quarterbacks in the league this year. Against Brady, Stafford, and Cousins, the Saints have been picked apart. The saving grace against Stafford were the turnovers. Against Cousins, it was a few fortunate penalties. Against Brady, it was that the game ended.
Even though LSU won by 20, the Tigers were pretty fortunate as well. Tennessee gift wrapped a few scores. LSU’s pass defense was underwhelming against an unimpressive passing team in terrible weather conditions. Maybe all of that goes to show that LSU is pretty good. Maybe it also goes to show that Tennessee is pretty bad.
If I am Texas A&M, I am definitely going to throw some fades and see how LSU’s defensive backs hold up. On defense, I would expect A&M to do what Arkansas and Tennessee have done the past two weeks. Keep the ball in front, and sell out to stop the jet sweeps. It is pretty clear that LSU cannot make teams pay with play action and passes behind the linebackers, so why not sell out?
LSU fans should be on alert for this regular season finale. Texas A&M will apparently fire Sumlin, but keep a couple things in mind. The Aggies had UCLA beat before losing their starting quarterback. If they had beaten UCLA, Texas A&M would have the same record as LSU right now despite playing most of the year with a true freshman quarterback. It is reasonable to think LSU would have a worse record than Texas A&M if Brennan had been the starter from week 2 through week 8.
Furthermore, the two teams in the SEC that have come the closest to beating Alabama are the two teams playing in Tiger Stadium Saturday Night.
The Tiger have taken care of business since losing to Bama, but they have not improved. LSU will need to improve to end the season with a win.
HEY REF
Since we’re getting closer and closer to the CHRISTMAS holiday season and CHRISTMAS will be here in just a couple weeks I thought I’d let those important people (Those that read my column) a chance to “Ask the REF”! I know some will agree with my answers and some, maybe the majority, will also disagree with me. But I don’t do this each week to make friends. And I’m not going to make friends with some of my views so I’ll ask you to respect what I write as I respect your views and opinions.
All I can do is answer the easy questions with as much honesty as I do with the tough ones. So with that out of the way let me pass along a quick reminder that all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law! And with what many colleges and professional football teams are putting on the field many more writers should include that little warning each and every time they start to pen a so called authentic, honest report of the facts. It’s very sad to see so many schools having to put aside huge amounts of cash to defend their athletes.
So question one asked of me was a simple “How do you compare today’s players with those you watched as you were growing up”? Without a doubt today’s players are much bigger, stronger and quicker while containing more drugs in their bodies than your local Walgreens. I will not blame the sporting world entirely because drugs and drug use has always been a part of every contact sport on this planet. It’s a fact that far too many kids are getting hooked on these prescribed legal drugs by universities putting wins before a player’s health. So, there shouldn’t be any reason to debate that fact anymore. Many of these so called “stars” come hooked on drugs long before they make it to the playing field. It’s a very sad situation in sports that these 18/19 year olds start their collegiate careers higher and higher. But what’s my number one complaint iis the fact that schools put their bottom lines above their players health simply because they need them money makers today and then just say “TO HELL WITH THEM AFTER 2 OR 3 YEARS”!
And what could possibly be the number two question I’m being asked this week? “What’s Hey Ref’s take about NFL players kneeling down on the sidelines during the National Anthem”? Without a doubt I’m sickened as I’m told what’s going on before any given game in the NFL. I’ve got to take the word of a friend of these pitiful actions since I don’t watch the NFL or collegiate football games anymore.
These unprofessional professional players are nothing more than millionaire hypocrites. The guy who started this crap was adopted and raised by a white family that provided him a lifestyle of never knowing what it’s like to “WANT” anything. He’s like the vast majority of NFL players raking in millions and millions of dollars each and every season that do nothing to right the massive wrongs they see in our country.
They cling to this fairytale belief that giving out T-shirts and hosting football camps for elementary and high school players is doing something to improve these kid’s lives. It’s that old fashion saying that goes something like: “if you feed a man; he eats for a day. If you teach a man how to fish; he eats every day”.
I’d also like to refresh memories of another old saying “Time heals all wounds”. I use it when I saw attendance figures given of 65,000 or 72,000 or 58,000 fans attending last week’s games. So many people gave the impression they were offended by the actions of players sitting or on one knee during the National Anthem. But it’s pretty obvious NFL fans have forgiven the players and its back to business as usual.
And just yesterday I was again asked “Do you think the NCAA should expand the football playoffs”? As I’ve written many times I’m not a fan of any playoff in Div. 1 football. My reason is very simple; playing even one extra down exposes players to injury and some will be serious injuries. But that (injury) isn’t even in the equation when we’re talking mega millions of dollars being paid out by the TV networks to cash starved universities. The playoff system I fear is here to stay but there needs to be a better way of picking the schools that’ll have the opportunity to play for a national title. And because of that simple fact I’ve got to admit I am very much in favor of expanding the number of schools from 4 to 8.
Those eight teams should be in a separate bracket so all of the bowl games will be as they were intended to be and that is a reward to the players that worked so have a successful season. At least that’s what they were before TV contacts and sponsors poured billions of dollars into the numerous conferences across the country hoping to land “THE” game. And of course that’ll do nothing for the players but will continue what I say is modern day slavery by not giving the players the biggest piece of the money pie.
In the wild world of billion dollar sports a player must be the one to make the final decision on how he’ll protect his health and ability to make a living and support his family. Many players have families, children and many more come from poor families. Being able to garner a professional contract worth millions is the culmination of a lifelong plan that’s years in the making to this new generation of million dollar athletes. I have to agree and support 1,000% any player that decides to protect a very valuable asset and that is his health.
Like so many things in this money hungry world the only thing that matters is “What can you do for me today”? So I say with all my support that I hope many more players will not suit up for one last game. To the player it as certain as death and taxes; a bowl game is not worth losing a career over or one’s health. I say more power to those guys that know what they want and have a plan on being able to be self-sufficient. I raise my glass to those players who’ll be able give back to the ones that sacrificed so much for them.
I’ll wrap up this pre-Christmas column by THANKING all those that say they enjoy my column. Please send in questions as I sometime get to writing too much and can’t fit in more of the questions you want me to answer. To everyone have a great and MERRY CHRISTMAS. To my Jewish family and friends I too hope and wish y’all a very HAPPY HANUKKAH.
Till next week…
DENHAM SPRINGS HS FOOTBALL RADIO BROADCASTS ARE A JON FINE PRODUCTION ON FAMILY RADIO, 91.9 FM, BATON ROUGE and JonFineProductions.com.
OUR EBAY STORE, ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, SELLS SPORTS PUBLICATIONS. YOU CAN LINK TO IT BY VISITING JonFineProductions.com.
JON IS PROUD TO WORK AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE FOR SPORTSRADIO-1310-KEZM-LAKE CHARLES
AND WORKS AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE FOR SPORTSCENTRAL ON THE CENTRAL NOW FACEBOOK PAGE.