The Strange Case of Dez Bryant: Is the NCAA bullying the Cowboys?

Dez Bryant lost his appeal to the NCAA Infractions Committee and therefore will not be able to play football with the OSU Cowboys for the rest of the season.

From the outside looking in, a full season suspension does not seem to fit the crime that was committed.

As anybody knows by now, Bryant was guilty of not telling the truth about visiting with Deion Sanders.  Apparently, Dez Bryant visited Deion’s camp and/or home and worked out with Sanders once or twice.  When questioned about his relations with Deion by the NCAA, Bryant apparently got scared because he thought he was in trouble and lied to the committee.

There are two things that are wrong about this story at first glance.  First, athletes are given information about the  types of contact with professionals in the sports world that would jeopardize their amateur status, so it’s unclear why Bryant didn’t have this information or did not understand it.  Second, hanging out with Deion Sanders is not an NCAA violation by itself.

Those discrepancies lead me to wonder about potential deals or activities that occurred behind the scenes that Bryant didn’t want to divulge.   There have been rumors that Sanders and agent Eugene Parker have some kind of under-the-table deal where Sanders funnels future NFL players to Parker.  Everyone denies it, of course, but it’s not hard to connect the dots between players that Deion has “mentored” and Parker’s recent clients.  Whatever the case may be, you wonder what may have gone on between Bryant and Sanders that would put the fear of the NCAA gods into him.

To their credit, the NCAA provides material to both agents and schools (and coaches, and players) regarding what is and is not acceptable regarding student-athlete and agent contact.  And it’s the kind of thing that many coaches include in playbooks with team rules.  So there’s no excuse for not knowing about this.  However, this may be a red herring in this case.  The idiocy of the NCAA rules is that there doesn’t need to have been a high-dollar conspiracy behind the scenes to potentially get Bryant in trouble.  If Deion did something as innocuous as buying Bryant a sandwich for lunch, that could be a violation depending on how they define Deion’s relationship with Dez.  Maybe Deion paid for the plane ticket and had Bryant picked up at the airport in a personal limo.  Again, seemingly innocuous but potentially a violation since Bryant could be seen as receiving extra benefits that other students would not be afforded, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Life after the NFL is tough for some guys.

However, nothing has come out regarding even possible infractions.  So all we have is a story of some poor kid getting called into the principal’s office and not wanting to get everyone in trouble, so he lies.  Telling a fib is clearly not the right thing to do, but does it warrant ending a kid’s college career?  Why is the NCAA being so harsh?

After the jump, I’ll explore the other angle to this strange story: the NCAA protection racket.

Old Mo McSwagger: The Failure of TV Football “Analysts”

Who doesn’t love a good sports cliché?

Well, me for one.  And I would guess most knowledgeable fans get sick of hearing so-called experts make pronouncements about “Old Mo” or whether a team has “swagger.”  Primarily because we recognize these as empty phrases that substitute for actual analysis.  What the talking head  is really saying is: “I have nothing intelligent to say about this team (or game).”

This is a subject that has been hashed out repeatedly on the blogosphere and it’s an easy target.  It’s a piñata that’s easy to take some swings at when you want to fill up some blog space.

However, I’m bringing it up again because of an interesting conversation I had with an ex-athlete regarding these phrases.

Before I get to that, let me also recognize that there is a psychological aspect to sports.  Indeed, as the competition level increases, some coaches will tell you that the mental aspect of the game takes on greater importance.  So seemingly wishy-washy concepts such as “swagger” aren’t entirely devoid of merit if we accept that what is being discussed, in that case, is confidence.  Confidence is an important and powerful tool in all walks of life.  In sports, it can be the difference between performing well under pressure or failing.  It can also be the key to performing consistently.  The confident athlete does not fret about what they are doing, they go out there and simply perform.  And if they have talent and have prepared well up to that point (i.e., coaching, practice, etc.) then they are more likely than not to perform successfully.

That being said, “swagger” is often thrown around not as a shorthand for the confidence level of athletes but as a catchphrase for why athletes and even teams don’t win games.  And that’s where I part with its use in sports discussion.  Swagger never won a game.  Confidence alone never won a game.  Losing control of your pitches in late innings, missing a key block on a 3rd down play late in the fourth quarter, double faulting in the third set, taking an off-balance low percentage shot in the game…those are the kinds of scenarios that might contribute to losing.  Performance, execution, and a little bit of luck.

Aaron Rodgers could be described as having “swagger.”  However, that gets him nowhere when he’s fleeing for his life from the Vikings defensive line.  Swagger and a $1.10 will get him a McDouble at McDonalds, even if he is Mr. McSwagger himself.

While we are on the subject of football.  Momentum is also one of those potentially empty phrases thrown around to “explain” events unfolding in a game when the analyst doesn’t really understand why one team is performing at a higher level all of a sudden.  As with swagger, though, football is an emotional sport and there is something to be said for the physiological effects of the shot of adrenaline that a player gets when making or witnessing a big play.  Therefore, the concept of momentum, the emotional swings that are experienced during a game and their effect on players, should probably not be discounted altogether.  What is fallacious is the blanket use of the term to try and describe why a team wins or loses.

After the jump, I’ll get into a new empty phrase that’s become a pet peeve of mine and what it really means.

Tony Romo turns over a new cap…er, leaf?

RETURN OF THE JEDI?

When I wrote my blog about Tony Romo and Dallas Cowboy fan expectations more than a month ago, I never expected for it to actually have such a big influence.

But it did.

Actually, it didn’t, of course.  But it was interesting that the Tony Romo fratboy image controversy really gained steam after I wrote that blog.  Apparently, I wasn’t the only person out there with the view that something seemingly unimportant might actually reveal something deeper about the Cowboy Quarterback’s personality.  Colin Cowherd wrote a very similar argument at about the same time. Scary to think that he and I shared an opinion.

Well, apparently, Tony Romo is listening.

Romo has been spotted wearing his cap forwards these days.  By golly, and the Cowboys have won three straight and Romo hasn’t thrown an interception in three straight games.

Rarely can the blogosphere puff their chests out and proclaim victory over an issue, especially one so seemingly superficial.  Unfortunately, even if I knew that my blog had deeply touched Romo and inspired him to change his fashion stylings, I still wouldn’t buy it.

I’m not buying this.

Why?

The original point wasn’t that the way a player dresses actually affects football games.  The point was that the way Romo carries himself, including his fratboy image, says something deeper about him as a man.  And what makes him tick, separates him from the elite players of the game.  Moreover, there’s no need to dog the guy when he has a bad game, because there’s no reason to expect more from him than what he’s already shown.  The qaurterback that makes incredible plays (like this one) is the same guy that throws three picks in one game or fumbles the snap on a crucial field goal.  There is no new Romo out there waiting to be discovered.  What you see is what you get.

In any case, I get the feeling this is just window dressing.  Just like the way he’s “saying all the right things” this year in press conferences.  No more cocky dismissals of the importance of games like last year, this year Romo is just going to take it one game at a time, keep improving each week, just keep doing what works, and he’s just glad the good Lord gave him the opportunity.  The fact that when he says those things he sounds like a kid trying to remember their lines for the school play shouldn’t give me pause?  Yeah right.  We’ll all know those are throw away lines, but Romo gives one of the least convincing performances I’ve ever seen when he delivers them.

Guys don’t change who they are overnight without some kind of life changing experience.  You know, like summitting Everest, or surviving alone in the jungle for a week, or going to war, or flying solo around the world…Tony has broken up with his girlfriend and divorced TO. *yawn*

So flip the hat, sling the rock, keep practicing those clichés, Romo.  It makes for good theater and in the end I guess that’s all that counts.

Oh wait, it isn’t.  For the Dallas Cowboys, the only thing that counts are Superbowls.

By the way, how’s that Roy Williams trade working out for you?

How to Win in College Football: Playing the percentages

I’ve been doing a series where I take a football cliche or truism and examine how it breaks down in terms of the numbers.  I’m doing this under the common impression that the face of college football has changed due to the proliferation of spread offenses.  I’ve also concentrated on how the spread might affect winning and being one of the most successful teams (i.e., winning at least 10 games and/or the national championship). I found that turnover margin and scoring defense contribute much more to winning than prolific offenses with one or two exceptions.  I also found that the most successful teams are not giving up significantly more points than those from the past thirty years or so.  So it looks like defense still wins you more games than offense and it definitely still wins championships.

Another truism that has been put out there is that in college football teams that are in the top ten in rushing will win 80% or more of their games.  On the other hand, teams in the top ten of passing will only win about 50% of their games.  This is supposed to translate into the type of offensive schemes you want to run and the offensive philosophy you want to have if you want to be a successful coach.

After the jump, we’ll take a closer look at those percentages.

Not to worry, Packer fans

Looking at the faces of Packer fans last night during the game, hearing some commentary from Packer fans this morning, there’s some general dismay about what happened last night.

I don’t blame them.  Their beloved legendary quarterback put on the hated enemy’s colors and proceeded to prove exactly what every Green Bay fan was hoping wasn’t true: the front office pushed him out too soon.  Favre still has a touch of that magic that makes him who he is.

It must have been an entire night of emotional turmoil for Green Bay fans.  Especially as the game wore on and the Vikings made Green Bay look terrible.  It must have felt like Favre was throwing those screaming rocket passes straight to Green Bay fan’s junk.

But, Green Bay fans should not only look at the bright side, but they should feel very encouraged by what they saw last night.

Think about it.  Green Bay was dressing out the water boy’s girlfriend to play on the offensive line last night.  Rodgers was running for his life all night.  Yet, he threw for 384 yards and 2 TDs and pretty much carried that team by himself to within a TD of the Vikings.  Yes, the score got out of hand for a while but consider that the Vikings have a legend at QB, the best running back in the game and the best defensive line in the game.  They were also in front of their home crowd and the whole team was charged up for this contest.

In other words, the deck was stacked against Green Bay and they probably should have gotten blown out by a much larger margin.  But there’s the beauty of what you witnessed last night, Green Bay fan.  Despite everything that went wrong, your quarterback almost lead your team back to tie or win that game in the fourth quarter. Imagine what this guy will be able to do with a little more experience and some pass protection.

So, wipe the tears off, Packer fan, and start dreamin’ about tomorrow.  Because Favre has maybe one, maybe two more years in him.  Aaron Rodgers has six to eight more years in him.  And while Rodgers might never be Favre, he looks like a damn good quarterback.  So let Favre have his last few days of glory, as a Packer fan your glory days are still ahead of you.  Think of this as the messy court hearings that finalize the painful divorce.  Sure it hurts, and you thought your ex-wife was “The One” who you’d live happily ever after with, but perk up because last night at the bar you met a younger, hotter woman and she gave you her phone number.