In Jay We Trust; well, some of us anyway

First appeared on September 23rd
in The Lebanon Reporter

Have you ever regretted buying something and spent days or weeks looking for the receipt just so you could return it? After tossing four interceptions in his first game, one has to wonder how much time the Bears ownership spent scouring their offices, emptying drawers, turning over couch cushions and looking under mattresses for Jay Cutler’s receipt. After such an embarrassing opener against their arch rivals, just how close was ownership to making that dreaded trip back to the store to shamelessly grovel, “I can’t find the receipt- but I only used it once.”
As ugly as week one was, week two didn’t start much better for the man most in Chicago had dubbed the greatest quarterback in Bear’s franchise history before he had even taken a snap. Of course nobody in their right mind, present company included, would dare compare Kyle Orton to Dan Marino, but I’m sure even Orton could have gotten more than the 8 yards passing Cutler had in the first quarter against Pittsburgh Sunday. In fact after just five quarters of football, one has to wonder how many Bears fans were thinking the same thing but collectively waiting for Kanye West to storm the stage, steal the microphone and announce to the world that he loves Jay Cutler but Kyle Orton was better.
This isn’t meant to be an exercise in Cutler bashing it’s just the hype that surrounded his trade from Denver was so ubiquitous all summer it’s simply human nature to wonder how warranted it was. For never before have we seen the media whipped into such a frenzied hype over one player switching teams; OK you’re right Brett, please forgive us for forgetting about you momentarily.
But with the Blackhawks coming so close to a Stanley Cup last season and both the Sox and Cubs fading, the city of Chicago is suddenly hungry for a title. With this in mind Cutler becomes more than just another off season acquisition. He becomes the great white hope for Chicago sports fans everywhere.
Forget the 4 interceptions from week 1 and the 8 yards passing in Sunday’s first quarter, Cutler seemingly has larger issues. Not only are the words Super Bowl and his name being printed in the same sentence on a near constant basis, but he must also find a way to fill a pair of shoes that have went unworn for the duration of my lifetime; those of the first Chicago Bear superstar quarterback.
Luckily for Cutler, he was able to make something of the final three quarters Sunday. And, after watching years of Orton and Rex Grossman battling each other for control of the clipboard, it would appear Cutler will make the Bears a much better football team. This being said, Cutler wasn’t a media darling in Denver and, if things don’t go well early on, the Chicago media will likely make Denver feel like a ghost town.
Can Cutler deliver a title as well as become the superstar everyone assumes he will be? The Hall of Fame, NFL legend status and a lifetime free pass from parking tickets in Chicago all hinge on whether he can deliver a title and become the quarterback Chicago hungers for.
In the end, it will all fall on Cutler’s head. Literally. Does he have the head it takes to be a consistent quarterback, or more importantly for his position, a leader? Too often it’s been his bottom lip we’ve seen when things get tough and for him to deliver both a title and become a superstar, Cutler will need more than simply a rocket arm.

Weis or Rodriguez? Is the lesser of two evils really any better?

First appeared on September 16th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

Willing and able football coach in his prime seeks BCS school looking for impressive resume. Must be willing to overlook mixed results. Qualifications include 14 years of coaching experience at the NFL level with four Super Bowl rings. References include two Hall of Fame coaches. Call the Notre Dame Athletic office and leave a message for Jose.
With his team’s loss to Michigan, Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis (Tuna Jr.) may have sealed his fate; again. Saturday was more than a game. It was a moment in which the beleaguered coach sought to snatch his career from the jowls of termination. And just when it appeared his talented receivers and silky smooth quarterback with the west coast hair would pull through, there was Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez (Rich-Rod) bungling things in the same awkward and familiar way only Rich-Rod can.
Two once proud men. Both with hooks firmly in their mouths as their fan base and boosters reel them in. Both fighting for their coaching lives and reputations as 100,000 strong in the Brick House Saturday tried their best to do the loyal fan gig, but all along failing in masking their confusion. Most were surely unsure of what they wanted more- their own coach to fail so the fire-him-now drama would continue, or Weis to have another nail driven into his coffin.
I mean seriously, when your own players are complaining they’re working too hard, it goes a long way in saying Rich-Rod has problems of his own. And still, despite this, he somehow found a way to wriggle away from the hungry jaws of Tuna Jr. It’s no surprise really, we’ve seen Rich-Rod wriggle his way out of tight places before. It might actually do more to explain just how bad things have gotten for Weis. In the end it was Rich Rod who was able to snap his line and live to fight another week while Tuna Jr. appears to be one game closer to finding himself on the stringer.
Since Charlie Weis came to South Bend the phrase “the once proud program” has passed over the tongues of commentators and fans alike far more than “Luck of the Irish” or anything else the Golden Domers of old cling to. Whether you point to the most losses in a single season in Notre Dame history (9 in 2007), the billboard funded by former players heckling Weis or the two passes called late in the game against Michigan, slowly but surely the boosters and the University are beginning to find more and more line on their reels.
Who knows why these things happen. With only a handful of games each season and a postseason system so illogical it appears to have been organized by three chickens and a Black Headed Spider Monkey, college football can be brutal on coaches. Somewhere along the way Weis failed at endearing himself to the media (or winning enough games whichever works). He doesn’t say the right things and he doesn’t use the same tired catch phrases the press expects to hear regularly.
Weis doesn’t even attempt the painted smile; you know the same painted on smile every coach musters whether he’s won, lost or just had a house burn down. Most likely this is a byproduct of spending so much time with two of his mentors, Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells (the Tuna). For this, Weis may be one step closer to paying the ultimate price. The point is Weis is out of favor, he’s out of excuses and he’s one week closer to being out of both time and chances.

Now that Indiana University has built it, will they come?

First appeared on September 9th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

When a last second Hail Mary pass landed in the end zone last Thursday night Bill Lynch and the Indiana Hoosiers dodged a huge bullet. Well, as huge as a win over Eastern Kentucky can be that is. It wasn’t the prettiest of wins but at this place in time Lynch can’t afford to be a picky man.
At this point Indiana Football’s future is uncertain. For many years they have been the punch line in a conference struggling for national respect. But alas, for Hoosier fans that is, the winds of change seem to be finally a blowin’. With the completion of the north end zone project Indiana now boasts incredible facilities that should aid in recruiting. These include end zone seating linking the east and west grandstands, a Hall of Champions museum, banquet facilities and film rooms with stadium seating.
Of course football teams tend to do better when they can break tackles and block for teammates. With this in mind, programs are built with proper weight facilities and, call Guinness Book if it makes you feel better, but the world’s largest collegiate weight room now resides in Bloomington, Indiana (25,000 square feet).
The Hoosiers have also shown a commitment to their younger fan base. The south end zone area now includes a knot hole park where kids can play on a replica of the Memorial Stadium field. One thing is clear, Fred Glass, and the rest of the Athletics Department, understand Rome wasn’t built in a day. By adding something as simple as an activity area for kids they ensure the program’s future by sowing a crop of young fans who will want to return to Memorial Stadium with their own children someday.
But for now all signs point to Lynch. He was given the opportunity to build on what Terry Hoeppner started. But a real opportunity is not one or two years. He needs a legitimate chance to recruit the kids he wants. To build his own program and not simply carry on the legacy of another. Just because he struggled to get wins at Ball State doesn’t mean Bill Lynch can’t coach (see Bill Belichick in Cleveland).
The facelift Hoeppner provided and the subsequent bowl his co-pilot (Lynch) helped get the Hoosiers to were both special but Hoosier fans can’t think in terms of bowls right now. Lynch simply needs to show measured progress. This means competing with the Iowa’s and Minnesota’s of the world and handling the Eastern Kentuckys. And by “handling” we don’t mean 19-13.
They will never beat Michigan, Penn State or Ohio State with any regularity (which other Big Ten schools do?) but there is no reason for them to be the eternal conference doormat. Indiana has proven it can be competitive in most every other sport. In fact Indiana athletic programs have won over 24 national titles. With this in mind they should be capable of fielding a more competitive football team.
In the next two years Lynch’s teams need to find themselves in games late against Big Ten opponents. For as far as getting butts in the seats go, there’s a lot to be said for having a chance to win the game you have paid fifty bucks to see. If he’s still squeaking out wins against Eastern Kentucky two years from now then Fred Glass needs to help him find the door. And with a new 138,000 square foot addition, he might literally have to help Lynch find the door. With new facilities and new administration winning at Indiana can no longer be a question of if but when.

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world...for wide receivers anyway

First appeared on September 2nd, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

Pardon my Seinfeld but what’s the deal with wide receivers? Is “Receivers will be self-centered and nonconformist” chiseled somewhere into the ten commandments of football below “Brett Favre Shall Play”? When Denver Bronco Brandon Marshall refuses to do the one thing he is paid for (catch passes) and Terrell Owens takes it upon himself to weigh in on Commissioner Roger Goodell’s suspension of Michael Vick (when virtually none of the other 1600 players in the league felt the need to do so) receivers as a whole once again find themselves on the outside looking in at the real world.
Between fake cell phone calls in the end zone, the demanding of both trades and more touches, Chad Johnson lobbying the league to change his name to a jersey number and Marshall batting practice passes away like an angry toddler, this whole “wide receivers playing the diva” thing has gotten old. Somewhere down the line receivers got it in their heads that fans actually care what they have to say. And somewhere down that same line they forgot that all fans really care about is how many balls they catch on Sundays.
How many times will receivers let their mouths write checks their abilities can’t cash? I’m not sure about you, but if somebody tells me “let’s take this out in the street”, I’m taking a punter with me before a wide receiver. At least punters have to try and tackle somebody once in a while. I mean most receivers don’t even wear thigh pads- so really, how tough could they be?
We probably have only ourselves to blame. After all Hollywood was able to find a focus group somewhere (cave dwellers we can only assume) that agreed giving Terrell Owens his own reality show was a good idea. T.O. at the Laundromat, T.O waiting in the drive through. Really? We can’t even be certain the last time Owens was fully in touch with reality so how can anyone sell his show to people as reality?
Of course it wouldn’t be August if Chad Johnson (or Ocho Cinco if you’re using the SAP button on your newspaper) wasn’t saying he will shatter NFL records again. Of course this year, as with all before, we will discover Johnson is nothing more than one year older (I’m guessing somewhere around week 3).
Even Marvin Harrison, who did nothing for 10 years but put up ridiculous numbers quietly, started getting weird near the end of his days in Indianapolis. And while Colts fans may have chuckled at Reggie Wayne showing up for training camp in a dump truck; one has to wonder how many were quietly sweating over fears Wayne would embrace his new role as “the guy” by promptly losing his mind.
Through fines and suspensions the Commissioner has labored to clean up the NFL’s image. Heck, he even went all Dick Cheney last year by having a secret meeting in an undisclosed location. All of this to polish the shield when simply eliminating the Wide Receiver position probably would have gone a lot further.
This isn’t meant to be an attack on characters. Characters are the ones who help us through the tough work days. But it’s getting to the point now that a wide receiver naturally feels pressure to be the prima donna. And just what do they have to boast about anyway? Last I checked it was quarterbacks like Tom Brady who were dating the supermodels. It’s time for receivers, like the lady who tried to compare President Obama’s policies to those of Hitler, to sit down and shut up.