I know this may not come as a shock to everyone who reads this blog on a regular basis, but I have a complaint. I know I have previously stated I don't really care about the NFL schedule release, and that is still true. I don't care about sitting down and wasting my day trying to figure out who has the advantage in a game 6 months away or who is playing who and when. I think it is pointless because so many things change from year to year. There is nothing wrong with looking at the schedule and trying to get an overall picture, but analyzing it seems like a waste of time. It may look like the Dolphins have the toughest schedule but they could very well end up playing one of the easiest schedules. Parity is tricky like that. Having said that, I am still nervous that my favorite team has the second hardest strength of schedule to the Dolphins, but I am not concerned enough to really give a shit about it to the point I am going to break down the schedule this early. Everyone else feel free to do it though.
There is one thing I do care about with the schedule though, and that is the schedule of nationally televised football games on Sunday and Monday night. On Sunday and Monday night, those games are the only football games that are on television to watch, so I prefer to see a good mix of teams on those games since I don't get a chance to see every team but I at least don't want to see the same damn team every week. I realize successful teams are going to be on MNF and Sunday Night Football more often, and I can accept that, because they won the most games last year and they deserve to play in front of a large audience. I don't really care if my favorite team is on MNF, I really don't, I just want to be able to watch the game...It IS always fun when they are on national television because when they were on MNF this year I went out and bought good beer (Saranac...ok, maybe not great, great beer but definitely a step above my usual) and watched the game at home with great anticipation. My loved one fortunately was able to sit in a sky box at the game and there was not enough tickets for me to go...and even this did not bring me down (though her constantly texting me and telling me how loud it was and "did you know when a ball hits the goal posts it makes a loud thump?" and "we get free beer" did make extremely jealous). My rambling point is that it is nice to get a Monday Night Football game because everything looks better. The television seems brighter and clearer, the city cleans itself up for its big night, and it is a chance for your favorite team to kick the ass of another team on national television. Basically, great teams deserve to be on national television. Not so great teams don't generally make it but I enjoy seeing them as well...assuming it will be a good game.
Which brings me to this. The Dallas Cowboys, the same team with ZERO playoff wins since 1996 and the team that did not even make the fucking playoffs last year, get 6 nationally televised games this year. I don't give a crap they are opening a new stadium, I don't care that they are a big draw, and I even care less that every redneck in my local area likes them. If you don't make the playoffs, you don't deserve to have 37.5% of your games nationally televised. It's that simple for me. I get so tired of the NFL, ESPN, and FOX shoving this group of dysfunctional losers down my fucking throat. I absolutely hate them. I hate them for their 90's party mentality that was covered very well in Jeff Pearlman's "Boys Will Be Boys" book and I hate them for the fact if Tony Romo sneezes Ed Werder is on the scene with his mid-80's mustache and constant updates on whether Romo's cold is going to prevent him from throwing 2 or 3 interceptions in the second half of a crucial game. Cowboys fans also happen to believe anything that comes out of the mouth of the MSM...partially because the MSM covers them so much it probably seems like they are just an extension of the local media in Dallas. Two years ago the Sporting News had a graph that showed which team had the greatest chances of winning the Super Bowl and the Cowboys were #1 in the NFC. These Cowboys fans hung this graph in their office, like it was the Bible or some other important document that was based on any type of arguable fact. It was a computer model...but to them, this meant their team was the best team in the NFC. Why? The media said so. 5 months later the Cowboys lost their second consecutive home playoff game.
So I think it is more of a co-dependent relationship the Dallas Cowboys and the MSM (or ESPN) have. They continue to televise their games and the Cowboys will continue to make headlines to pump up ratings. ESPN did an interview with Jerry Jones on the 20th anniversary of him buying the team. They would not do that for any other team I can think of. Bottom line, the Cowboys do not deserve 6 nationally televised games and I am pissed off they are going to get shoved down my throat again this year. First off, no NFL team deserves to be nationally televised 6 times in one year (without counting playoff games), and second, if there was a team that deserved it then it is not the 2009 Dallas Cowboys. I just think, what if in another sport 38% of a team's games were nationally televised on a supposedly neutral sports network? That would just seem crazy. Maybe it happens and I don't know about it, but national television games in the NFL are a prize successful teams should get for having a good year in the previous year and to feature exciting matchups between teams in primetime. Dallas did not have a successful year last year and every single one of their games is not an exciting matchup simply because they are involved. They should not get six games nationally televised.
Woody Paige has started speaking in tongues. That is what Dexter Fowler will do to you I guess.
How you gonna keep Dexter Fowler down on the farm after he's seen LoDo?
I have no idea what LoDo is. I want to make very clear the idea of the Rockies not playing Dexter Fowler right now is absolutely insane. I think Dexter Fowler should play a lot of games for the Rockies in centerfield. We all love Ryan Spillborghs, if only because he has a last name I can't spell, but he doesn't have quite the ceiling of Dexter Fowler.
You can tell that Woody Paige had writer's block because this whole article is just Woody using slang wanting Clint Hurdle to put Dexter Fowler in the starting lineup and on the field for the Rockies. He could have summed up what he was trying to say with, "Dexter Fowler is clearly ready for the major leagues as shown by his numbers in the minor leagues and how he has performed at the MLB level this year. I think he should be the everyday centerfielder for the Colorado Rockies. Dex is Next for the Rox."
That would have summed up the entire article...but that would not meet the word count.
What to do? So he decides to piss me off.
How you gonna keep the X-factor down on the farm after he's played in old Yankee Stadium, the Hawaiian League, the Futures All- Star Game, the Olympics and Casper?
That shows he has ability but really means nothing in the overall context of whether he should be the starting centerfielder for the Rockies.
How you gonna keep the switch-hitting center fielder down on the farm after he shook hands with the ex-president in Beijing?
A lot of people have shaken hands with the ex-President. This does not help support the argument for him to play consistently for the Rockies.
How you gonna keep the five-tool carpenter down on the farm after he paused at the plate in his first game as a starter in 2009 to smile at his parents in the stands, then laser his first major-league home run?
Smiling at his parents=not criteria for being a starter. Hitting a homerun=criteria for being a starter.
I think Woody Paige has his finger pretty close to the pulse of the Denver sports scene, so I will not knock him for some things, but his articles many times seem like an 8 year old boy wrote them in his spare time. Even the worst blogger would never write shit like Paige puts out.
How you gonna keep 'im down on the farm after he's seen everything but Par-ree?
See? I have no idea what this means but it doesn't mean Fowler should be the starter in my opinion.
How you gonna keep Fowler out of the everyday lineup after he reached base five times in eight platings (three hits and two walks), drove in two runs, stole a base, caught every ball in center and is hitting .375?
Are these actual factual numbers that Fowler has accumulated? Now these numbers are great proof perhaps he needs to be manning the spacious corners of the Rockies field trying to chase down one of the many long fly balls the pitching staff is going to give up this year. I can get behind this.
Only Fowler, who didn't play, is undefeated among Rox position players. He's 2-0 as a starter, 3-0 overall.
I am pretty sure Fowler did not win those games by himself. For pitchers it is possible to count up how many games a team has won with them starting and have some valid argument for their worth, but with position players it doesn't work as well. That would go back to the old "Scott Brosius is better than A-Rod" argument because the Yankees were successful in the World Series with Brosius and haven't been with A-Rod. Woody should know better than to put numbers like this up.
Dex. AmbiDexterity. Dexciting. Dexponential. Dexhilarating. Dextraordinary?
(I will not stab myself in the eyes with this pen in my left hand, I will not stab myself in the eyes with this pen in my left hand, I will not stab myself in the eyes with this pen in my left hand...)
Dextra, Dextra, read all about him.
Fucking write about him and quit writing gibberish and then I could actually read about him.
The Dex will be the best switch-hitting — or any kind of hitting and fielding — center fielder in Rockies history.
Got milk? Got pressure?
Got milk? That doesn't even make sense. Why do I always feel like I am reading the paper of an 8 year old class clown when I read Woody's columns? Can't his editors have this conversation with him:
(Woody's editor pops in 14 Advil before calling Woody) "Woody, we are dropping the 'Got Milk' comment in your latest article on Dexter Fowler. It really makes no sense."
(Woody thinking of something to write behind him on his blackboard for ATH) "Come on! That's good stuff. Dex is the Bext player for the Rockies. If there was every a Rockies player who deserved a milk mustache, it was Dexter Fowler. They should put the ad in Outdoor Living magazine and we can reach a whole new audience. 'Dex is Next. Got Milk' I can see this as a multi-level platform advertising campaign."
(Woody's editor begins chopping up 14 more Advil and putting them intravenously into his blood stream) "Woody, it still doesn't make sense. Sorry, it is gone." (Hangs up phone angrily)
(Woody begins tearing up)
Fowler was a prep All-America right-handed hitter at Milton (Ga.) High School on the state baseball champions in 2004. However, baseball is not the school's strongest activity. Milton has won every state lacrosse championship, and the boys and girls tennis teams and the gymnastic teams have won multiple state titles. The Milton debate team won a state title, and the theater department was second in state competition. Milton is one of the top academic schools in Georgia.
As if there was any doubt Woody is trying to pump up the word count, we just got a complete background on other sports Dexter Fowler's high school excelled at. Was there no room to give us the average SAT scores for the students or how many free throws the school's head janitor can make in a row?
The Rockies have gotten rid of Willy Ta- veras, Cory Sullivan, Choo Freeman, Jeff Salazar and, finally, Scott Podsednik because Dex was coming
It could have also had something to do with the fact every single of one of those players is in no way qualified to be an everyday centerfielder or even an everyday player. I would hope the Rockies got rid of them because of that reason mostly and not just because Dexter Fowler could play some centerfield this year.
. . . and quick as you can find a restaurant by looking in Dex.
Is Woody drunk? I don't even get this sentence. I feel like I am editing this column and if I was this sentence would get a big red question mark beside it. If someone else gets it, please inform me of what I am missing.
In the home opener Friday, playing in front of the largest crowd of his life, Fowler again started and went 2-for-4.
Spilborghs said Fowler could become one of the best center fielders in baseball.
Fowler did hit .154 last year when he got called up and quite possibly he is being used sparingly to get him used to hitting major league pitching...or maybe Clint Hurdle is an idiot. Either Woody is getting overly excited for good reason and Clint Hurdle should realize Fowler is the best CF on the Rockies roster or the Rockies are smart in not getting Fowler exposed early and keeping his confidence up. Either way, I would appreciate it if Woody wrote an article that made sense and I could understand it.
But, as Hurdle will learn, the Rockies' optimum lineup, offensively and defensively, has Spilborghs in left and Fowler in the center of attention.
Agreed, but for right now maybe the best thing for Fowler right now is to sit the bench every once in a while and work on playing at the major league level. I remember a time when Woody thought Ryan Spillborghs and Seth Smith could replicate Matt Holliday's production. So he doesn't always know what he is talking about. Mostly, I want him to just write normally and not write random rhyming shit.
The Dex and the Rox go together.
Like that.
13 comments:
"in Dex" = index? Maybe? That's as much effort as I'm willing to put into it.
I can see Woody pumping out his columns in the first 15 minutes of his day so that he can spend the rest of the time coming up with things to write on his chalkboard. Even better, I can see him arguing with his editors about that because being on ATH is getting the Post more exposure.
I don't really like it when my team is on MNF. The start time is so late, for one. Also, I really prefer the Fox 2nd-4th string announcers. The "top" announcing teams always seem to have too much other crap going on, and rarely do a good job of actually calling the game. Announcers need to tell me what's going on down on the field (ie. down & distance, who made plays, when I can't tell right off), and the obligatory football guy in the booth needs to fill me in with something I may not have known or wouldn't have picked up. But the prime-time games, and the Buck-Aikman games, are geared towards the lowest common denominator. It's just frustrating to listen to sometimes.
Wish you had gotten to Peter King's Tuesday column. A few people wrote in complaining about the players whining about "only" making $30K a week during the playoffs. That just makes me ill. The players whining about it, not the people complaining about PK defending it, I mean.
Oh, and I'm not any happier with the schedule than you are, BGF. The only differences are that my team gets SF and CHI, while yours gets ARI and MIN. Gack.
You got it! I was thinking a rolo-Dex but that is not where you would find a restaurant, while a in-Dex would be.
Woody amazingly has some credibility with me in regards to the Denver scene but his columns are an exercise in immaturity every single time.
I don't love it when my team is on MNF but it does make for an exciting day at work on Monday because I know the game is coming on and it gives me an excuse to drink on a Monday night. In regards to the announcing teams, you actually have a point there. I don't know how many times they referred to Jason Baker and John Kasay this year by John Baker or Jason Kasay...it got to the point, I just ignored it. Unfortunately boht announcing teams did it, the crappy and the good ones, but I do feel like the crappy ones actually pay attention to the game...but I still like a MNF game. Anything with Troy Aikman and Joe Buck sucks. Buck has gone the way of Bill Simmons for me. His calls are so passionless and it is obvious he doesn't give a shit. You can't be too happy about Atlanta's schedule, it is pretty tough as well.
I did read the MMQB for Tuesday and I was going to do something with it tomorrow, and I still may. I tend to bury those in a 10 Things I Think...I hate I have disappointed you in not featuring it but I wanted to bitch today and I got busy at work...so I made a quick decision. I hate to upset one of our 8 readers.
Peter King is a man who is slightly out of touch with the average normal world. His comment about how it was all "relative" in regard to how much the players get paid for a playoff game was intended to show that the players make less for an important game, but it told me personally that Peter doesn't get that it is also "relative" in that 30K is what some people pull in per year, so the players need to quit bitching.
His comment about the attorney taking a case to the Supreme Court for only $500 was semi-misguided because attorneys will take high profile cases pro bono, so they get paid nothing. Basically there is a chance an attorney would not get paid at all to argue the case to the Supreme Court.
See, that is why I don't look at the schedule because I get depressed. I looked at the Panthers schedule and have them going 6-10 now.
The Panthers always play Arizona and Minnesota. It is so tedious.
Bill Simmons pop culture reference watch:
Lindsay Lohan
Hoosiers
The Room (some old movie, I've never heard of it)
Zach Efron
Quentin Tarantino
Rescue Dawn
David Caruso
the Oscars' "dead person montage"
Heat (he even manages to double it with a "Pantheon of Faces" reference)
Dazed and Confused
Sly and Frank Stallone
Stone Temple Pilots
The Daily Show
Supernanny
24 (he compares each year of Dwyane Wade's career with Jack Bauer's performance in each season of 24. seriously.)
inside jokes/references to absurd ideas he's promoted before: too many to keep track
Thanks for the pop culture watch count, we should do that more often. I would include that in a post but it was not my idea so I am going to steal it from you.
I have not read his article yet, so I haven't determined whether I want to write something about it or not. I always love tackling Simmons, so I may, but I wonder if it is worth it? I am intrigued to see how he got Rescue Dawn and Zach Efron in there though.
the reference is more specifically about some new movie of his (maybe Jimmy Kimmel told him about it! or maybe Disney pressured him to include it somehow, which seems more likely). it took me completely by surprise. it's not a reference a 40 year old man should make, especially in a column targeted to Boston-area frat boys.
that and Rescue Dawn are the only movies he mentions that were made after Bill Clinton's re-election, which is noteworthy somehow.
but I have been interested in keeping track of how many references he makes to pop culture or some previous inside joke of his, just to see how much original material he puts into his work nowadays. he's definitely been coasting ever since he moved out to LA.
Maybe when I do a Bill Simmons column I will include a pop culture count or a running self referential reference count to see how often he does this. I don't want to steal your idea for it but it would be interesting to tally up.
Wow, the only movies he mentions in the past decade are Rescue Dawn and Zach Efron. Maybe Disney did make him include it. Either way, that seems quite a bit out of his target audience, even if Efron was on SNL this past week.
I think California has made him coast a little bit. Maybe there is some other factor that is in play as well, I am not sure.
". . . and quick as you can find a restaurant by looking in Dex. "
"Dex" is one of those off-brand yellow pages. (dexknows.com) And "Dex" is also part of the guy's name. That's all Woody needs.
Ivn forgot to mention that Bill also has a referance to his new book coming out, like he kinda just through it in there in a section that made no sense.
It's a link to amazon where you can preorder the book, set to be released in Oct I think (I dont really remember the month, not like I plan on getting it). What was funny was there was no discription about the book at all.
I wish I got paid money to make lists up that is based on my thoughts and not actual results. Pierce is not in the top 10, probably not even top 20.
That would be like me making a list and having Rip number 4.
Monty Ashley has come through. I did not know there was an off brand yellow pages called Dex Knows...and yes that is really all Woody Paige needs and a bad pun follows.
I actually went to Bill's blog and it had a link for his book up there, so I followed it to Amazon.com and it said it was coming out in October. I know I am being hypercritical and all, but it has an incredibly similar cover to his previous book. Maybe there was a reason behind that.
Everyone has talked about the Bill Simmons column so much, I feel like I need to check it out. I wish I could get paid to make up things, like how numbers don't show what Paul Pierce has meant to the Celtics, but unfortunately numbers do show what Dwight Howard has meant. I think I may tackle this column.
Though this is outside the realm of my usual posts, I feel an explanation of the excessive Cowboys broadcasts needs to be made. Your crucial flaw in logic is thinking that the NFL cares about anything but money. I have no actual numbers to back this up, just experience, but if you take a random sampling from people in any area of the country (except maybe Philly, New York, and D.C., for obvious reasons) and asked each person who their favorite team was, the answers that would be most frequent would be:
1. Local NFL Team
2. Dallas Cowboys
The NFL and broadcast networks do what they can to maximize broadcast ratings. The bottom line is that Cowboys games always get significantly higher ratings than any other games (except for when the Pats were on their 16-0 quest). If it weren't for the fairness facade that the NFL was trying to erect, the Cowboys would be on national television every week.
In addition, I believe the Cowboys bring in more money for the NFL than any other team thanks to revenue sharing. Because of this, anything that can improve the value of the Cowboys (such as constantly showcasing Jerryworld) increases the revenue for the entire league.
In an ideal world, only the best games with the best teams would be on national TV. However the revenue-obsessed NFL puts the Cowboys on national TV because it increases the value of the league more than any other team (and if I were running a business, I would likely do the same thing). It sucks for non-Cowboys fans, but, sadly it will always be the case.
Disclaimer: I am a Cowboys fan (sorry to break everyone's heart), but I agree with almost everything you say about the rediculous media coverage of them. I hate hearing ESPN talk about the Cowboys as much as the rest of you.
NOOOOOOOOO! Rulebook, say it is not true. Please say it is not true. I really don't like the Cowboys and I think it is really based on how everyone around me who is a Cowboy fan behaves. I hope you are not that way.
Sadly, you are also right. The Dallas Cowboys provide ratings, they provide money to the league and Jerry Jones also brings a lot in revenue sharing. I didn't mean to show such a crucial flaw in my logic and I knew money was a part of it, but I want my MNF to be completely like Communism...or actually maybe pure Capitalism where the best teams get the most exposure and the best of everything. Ok, maybe that is a bad analogy.
I wish money was not a part of it but I know it is. I just get so tired of the NFL showing their games, but I know why they do. They speak two languages in the league office: English and Money.
It does suck for the non-Cowboys fans and it is doesn't bother me that much during the season. The exposure of the Cowboys on ESPN is one of the reasons I can't really pay attention to SportsCenter at all and I think the network is slowly becoming a joke. I can imagine you would get tired of it as well. I want the networks to talk about my team...but not too much. I am hoping some of that will end this year with T.O. being gone.
That being said, I wrote that entire rant and just had a feeling the Cowboys were going to win a playoff game this year. I just have a feeling. It's ok you are a Cowboys fan and I am sorry for anything I may say in haste (hate) about them. You can feel free to slam my teams, I may join you.
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