A common complaint...

In recent years, I swear that one thing I hear announcers talk about when I watch football is how tackling is a lost art.

Players are more concerned with the kill-shot - the highlight reel shot that gets them their fifteen seconds of fame on ESPN. They drop their heads, lower their shoulders, and smack the crap out of the ball-carrier. Sometimes they knock the guy down, sometimes they don't. Either way, it almost always seems to make ESPN.

It seems like there's only a handful of teams left that have reputations as sound tacklers - where it tends to be unusual for a wide receiver or a running back to get extra yards after first contact, because the defender actually wraps the guy with the ball. During Friday's exhibition between Tampa Bay and New England, I saw Patriots corner Randall Gay make a text book tackle of one of the Buc's wide outs - helmet on hip, left arm around waist, right around leg. It was how coaches should be teaching kids on the Pop Warner level.

As for why you see less and less of this - well, it could be because players now are what "Concrete" Charlie Bednarick describes as, "pussycats." The last of the 60-minute men, the true two-way players, Bednarick put the emphasis on, "pussy," when he made that statement.

Or it could be because of the following, as reported today in Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback Column at Sports Illustrated -

Speaking of ESPN, a great note from Ed Werder before the Cowboys-Colts
preseason opener -- the first tackle Dallas made in the game would be their
first full-contact tackle of the summer, because Wade Phillips hadn't had the
team in any full-contact situations yet. Amazing in this day and age that
full-speed tackling is very rarely practiced in camps around the league. Even in
tradition-loving places like Pittsburgh (one practice), Buffalo (two practices)
and Chicago (two practices), I saw zero put-'em-on-the-ground tackling drills or
full-contact tackling.

It's a wonder that tackling isn't worse.

In honor of Friday the 13th - 13 Thoughts...

1. Halfway house - The Yankees won last night to get to .500 with a 43-43 record. Right now, at ten games behind the Red Sox, they are halfway between first place and last. The Devil Rays are 20 games back.

With 76 games left the Yankees would have to go 47-29 just to get to 90 wins and 52-24 to get to the commonly acknowledged number of 95 for a legit shot at the post-season. That's a .618 winning percentage from now until the end of the season.

To put it a different way - on a team where the starting pitching has accounted for 30 of the team's 43 wins and 30 of the team's losses, the Yankees need their starting pitching to come up with quality starts in three out of every five starts, bare minimum, and enough offense to win those starts. Is there anyone who doesn't have pinstripes seared into their minds that believes the Yankees can do this?

2. Smells like...desperation - The Yankees gave Alex Rodriguez an ultimatum...promise not to opt out of your contract and we'll work out an extension with you. If you don't, we won't be part of the off-season A-Rod sweepstakes. Yeah, I wouldn't have accepted that either.

In essence, the Yankees have told one of the few bright spots in their otherwise moribund season to give up all negotiating leverage. The bottom line is that the Yankees were willing to pay more while Texas was picking up part of the tab and they're not so sure they want to spend gobs o cash on their third baseman.

Unfortunately, they're over a barrel. They have no one in the minors, and right now their other option would be to overpay for Mike Lowell if the Sox don't extend him. Who else will be on the market this winter that the Yanks would be interested in?

3. Fed up - I have been cycling since I was in high school. When I say cycling, I'm talking water bottles, Trek, Cannondale, Biancchi, spandex, and the Tour De France.

I have even followed le Tour with more than a passing interest in a number of years, but this year there's a bad taste in my mouth. That bad taste has to do with the Tour, and the last three American winners which make up, in toto, half the winners of the last 20 Tours - Greg LeMond (2 X's, three if you go back 21 years), Lance Armstrong (7 X's), Floyd Landis (once).

LeMond, who to this day, had one of the greatest single days in the history of sports when he came from almost two minutes down in the final time-trial in 1986 to beat Laurent Fignon of France seems to have his own agenda. Armstrong and Landis have both faced doping allegations - Armstrong from teammates that had nothing to gain by outing him, and Landis with a failed test during last year's Tour.

All might be guilty of something, and it's possible that none are guilty of anything. Let's face it, if the Tour really wanted to clean up the sport, they wouldn't rely on an incompetent lab, and they certainly wouldn't let the rag of a newspaper, L'Equipe, have access to "anonymous" test samples in order to discredit riders. And all this is just a tip of the disorganized iceberg that is the mess the Tour has going, and it makes it hard to take anything that the Tour officials claim as being the truth since the newspaper appears to have an agenda - and treating the riders fairly does not seem to be part of that agenda.

4. Depth Charges - Listening to ESPN Radio's Sports Bash on the way home yesterday, the host made an interesting...and accurate point about the Red Sox this year. Last year the team had a better record and the team had "better balance."

It's hard to argue that the line-up was better last year - Nixon was better last year than Drew has been this year, shortstop has been a down-grade, and both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz have been scuffling at the plate. However, Varitek is having a better season, as is Youkilis, Mike Lowell, and even Coco Crisp, not to mention Pedroia has been an upgrade at second.

The real key, however, has been that last season the team didn't weather injuries to the pitching particularly well, and other than Jonathan Papelbon, had a pretty mediocre bullpen. This season Okajima and DelCarmen have been spectacular on a Papelbon-like level, and others like Kyle Snyder and Brendan Donnelly have been solid. To top it off, the Sox have starters ready for the Pawtucket to Boston express a-la Kasson Gabbard for whenever the Curt Schillings of the world are done.

It's unlikely that the Sox will experience a late-season skid like last year when inning-eater Tim Wakefield went down with a rib injury.

5. The Boomer and Moss- David Wells recent suspension getting him in the news reminded me of what I thought when the Sox signed him. I realized that when I heard the Patriots had traded for Moss, that I emotionally had the same reaction...I really hate this guy, did my team really need him that badly?

6. Just a couple of weeks - While I am a Red Sox lifer, I have to admit, I am first and foremost a football fan. I was that guy watching NFL Europa. I am happy to remind everyone - pads get strapped on for two-a-days in just about two weeks.

7. Predictions - I don't generally like to do preseason predictions, except for in the NFL. However, I did some for bitterfans.com and predicted that the Brewers would finish in first in the NL Central. While they have struggled of late, the team still holds a 4.5 game lead in the division after the All-Star break, and has a legitimate shot of winning what's a fairly weak division.

In all honesty, the Brew-crew was my dark-horse pick. I'm just as surprised as anybody else.

8. Of human Bond-age - Will some pitcher just bean this man already? Nobody outside of San Francisco or ESPN's Connecticut campus wants to see the non-stop Bonds coverage by ESPN.

And on that note, ESPN and their on-air personalities should be ashamed for taking Hank Aaron to task over his choice to not attend the grotesque charade that is Bonds' pursuit of Aaron's record. If anyone has earned the right to do something for his own reasons, it's Aaron, and who the Hell are we to question him? For that matter - why should Bud Selig be present? If the man thinks Bonds cheated, isn't that then just sending the message that he continues to condone the cheating in the sport.

Maybe it is a little disingenuous of him to turn his back on Bonds after years of turning a blind eye to the problem, but wouldn't it be worse if after committing to cleaning up the game he did something that could be construed as condoning one of the league's biggest cheaters?

9. Meet me in St. Louis - I've seen championship teams take a dive following their championship season, and heard all the questions that accompanied the fall, but this one is amusing to me. People are talking like St. Louis has had the precipitous fall from last year, but this team went 83-78 - the third worst record in the history of the sport for a play-off team.

What we had was a team that got hot for the post-season. Think long and hard about the fact that they got quality starts out of Jeff "Let's Throw Some Batting Practice Every Fifth Day" Weaver in the post-season, and then tell me whether or not they were the best team, or just the best at the right time.

This right now is no surprise to me.

10. Hey baby, what's your sign - Can anyone out there tell me what's going on with ESPN and the sexual harassment suits? Anyone?

Who wants to place bets on how long it will be before Isaiah Thomas works there?

11. 20,000 Leagues under the Seahawks - Anyone out there know what the over-under is that Vegas is putting on the two new professional football leagues that are supposed to start up over the next couple of years? With the United Football League already attracting investors such as Mark Cuban, and the fact that they are looking to play ball in the Fall, my money is on the UFL to be the one to show any sort of longevity.

You know...get into the second half.

12. Tennis anyone - Wimbledon has come and gone and the most I saw were some highlights of matches featuring the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, and Daniella Hantuchova. All told, I watched less than ten minutes of tennis.

Growing up I used to watch Wimbledon and Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova. I even watched when it was Michael Chang, Ivan Lendl, and Boris Becker.

It occurred to me that I couldn't name a single men's player on the current tour without some sort of hint. Yup, I'm one of pro tennis' lost viewers. Oh well.

13. Better for some sports - Throughout the years, Hollywood has often looked to sports to provide storylines. There have been so many sports movies that they are sometimes considered their own genre. I have addressed the movies before, but what I have never asked here is why some sports seem to generate better movies than others?

For example, cycling has produced the classic Breaking Away and the well received Flying Scotsman, but it has also given us American Flyers and little else. Football has given us Remember the Titans, North Dallas 40, and the original Longest Yard but it has also given us Necessary Roughness and Little Giants.

I put it to you, my readers - other than baseball (Field of Dreams, The Natural, The Bad News Bears, Bull Durham, A Soldier's Story, Bang the Drum Slowly, Major League, Eight Men Out, Fear Strikes Out, and Cobb off the top of my head), can anyone come up with a top ten of movies for any given sport? Football? Basketball? Hockey?

Or at least explain to me why sports like basketball end up with more films like Juwanna Mann and Air Bud, than like Hoosiers?

A Case for the Hall of Fame

I know a losing battle when I take it on. I write to raise awareness regarding Genarlow Wilson - check here for the update on what's going on with Wilson - and now I'm starting a campaign for Drew Bledsoe's induction to the Hall of Fame, knowing full-well that for whatever reason, sports columnists around the country are down on him in spite of a body of work that rivals most of the quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame.

Let's start with Sports Illustrated columnist and Massachusetts resident Don Banks (with whom I often find myself in agreement) and his recent column in which he says Bledsoe is "not even close" to a Hall of Famer...

Banks primarily argues the following

consider this overview nugget that in my mind clearly defines Bledsoe's legacy: As a starting quarterback, Bledsoe saw three organizations give up on him: New England, Buffalo and Dallas. That's nearly unparalleled among Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

Twenty-six-year NFL veteran George Blanda lost starting jobs in Chicago and Houston, but his memorable stint in Oakland was primarily as a kicker and backup quarterback. The newly enshrined Warren Moon -- himself a borderline Hall of Fame candidate in the eyes of many -- saw Houston, Minnesota and Seattle replace him as a starter, but his Hall candidacy was aided immeasurably by both his six record-setting seasons in the CFL and his pioneering role as the game's first star black quarterback.

Bledsoe has no such historical niche to hang his Hall candidacy on.

So, in his own argument he points out two other HoF QB's who lost jobs to other quarterbacks. Only one of the two others, however, could be considered a casualty of the salary cap era as Bledsoe was. When Bledsoe was released from the Bills he hadn't been beaten out by JP Losman, he was more expensive and the Bills felt that Losman's scrambling ability behind their suspect offensive line gave them a better chance in spite of the fact that he was unable to outplay Bledsoe for the starter's roll. Additionally, when in New England, Belichick opted to stay with the hot-hand in Brady when Bledsoe came back from a devastating injury.

With the time missed and the nature of the injury, a coach would have to wonder about the ability of his quarterback to take a full 60 minute beating. Also not the first time in history that a future HoF QB languished on the bench behind the hot-handed back-up.

Banks other major arguments -

Bledsoe's career 57.2 completion percentage ranks behind all but one of the recent Hall of Fame quarterbacks who competed in his era, among them Steve Young (64.3), Joe Montana (63.2), Troy Aikman (61.5), Jim Kelly (60.1), Dan Marino (59.4), and Moon (58.4). Bledsoe is ahead of only John Elway (56.9). He's last in that group in quarterback rating (77.1), yards per pass attempt (6.64), and second-to-last in touchdown percentage (his 3.74 beats only Aikman's 3.50).

Bledsoe is also near the back of the pack of his peers when it comes to winning. His 98-96 career record as a starter is about as middle of the road as you can get. He went to just one Super Bowl as a starter, throwing four interceptions in New England's loss to Green Bay in that championship game a decade ago, and led a team to the playoffs as its No. 1 quarterback just four times in 14 years (going 3-4 in those games). That pales next to the postseason exploits of QBs such as Montana, Aikman, Elway, Young, Kelly and Marino.

So, he's behind in a couple of the statistical categories that Banks chooses to list, but even so is still ahead of Elway and Aikman in two of those listed. He cites the starting record of 98-96 (and a playoff record of 3-4, but is 4-4 if you count the relief appearance in 2001), but if win-loss is so relevant, then why is Joe Namath in? Namath had a losing record...by a lot, and less than pedestrian statistics. Here's the comparison -

Namath - 77-108-3 27,663 yds.140 games.173 TD/220 INTs. 50.1 % cmplt. 65.6 rating

Bledsoe - 98-96 44,611 yds.194 games.251 TD/206 INTs. 57.2% cmplt. 77.1 rating

Sure, Namath played in a different era, but even then throwing more interceptions than touchdowns and having a losing record I can't imagine was considered a good thing.

Don't tell me that a Super Bowl ring is a prerequisite, or is playing big in the big games otherwise Warren Moon, Jim Kelly, Dan Fouts, and Fran Tarkenton wouldn't be in. Hell, Fouts and Moon never even made it to the Super Bowl - so what got them in? Impressive statistics.

What's are the major statistics that are supposed to be the tell-all for great QB's? Completion percentage and TD/INT ratio.

And yes, most of the above have better completion percentages, but Bledsoe is better than several in regards to the TD to INT ratio - including better than Aikman who seems to be universally hailed as the best QB of the 1990's. Bledsoe tossed 1.22 touchdowns for every interception. Aikman? 1.17 (165/141 in 165 games). Additionally, Bledsoe threw for more per game than Aikman (1.3 per game as opposed to 1) with what most would consider lesser talent for most of his career. Who was Bledsoe's Michael Irvin?

For all of the knocks on Bledsoe in regards to bad decision making, proportionately he gave the ball to the opponent less than Aikman. Hall of Famer Dan Fouts, who thrived in the same Ernie Zampese developed system that Bledsoe did early in his career also has a poorer ratio of TDs to INTs - 254 TD/242 INTs, or 1.05 TD's for every interception thrown.

Also, consider the following - Bledsoe is one of only five quarterbacks in the history of the NFL to throw for more than 3,000 yards in at least nine seasons (Warren Moon 9, Dan Marino 13, Brett Favre 15, and Peyton Manning 9)

Bledsoe is fifth all-time in completions. Three of the four quarterbacks ahead of him are already in the Hall, the other is Brett Favre. He's fifth in pass attempts, seventh in yards and thirteenth in TD's.

He had two defining moments - one the relief appearance in the playoff game in Pittsburgh, the other? Two come from behind wins with a quarter-inch pin sticking out of the index finger of his throwing hand to propel the Patriots into the post-season. Yes, he didn't have a great Super Bowl against the Packers in 1996, but who would have with the blocking he was (or wasn't) getting from Max Lane who was getting schooled by HoFer Reggie White?

The bottom line - either Bledsoe belongs in, or there are a whole lot of guys in the Hall who don't belong. Enjoy retirement big guy.

My God, we Red Sox fans are now officially Moonies...

I've heard that Baseball is a religion, and more so for some than others. People will often bring up Red Sox and Cubs fans, Yankees and Indians (but they never address those small cults on the West Coast...just kidding). But the following is a little too much, even for me -

According to the Sports Illustrated Web sites' "This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse" weekly feature, the current sign is this -

"Ben Affleck will narrate a DVD series that prepares infants and pre-school children to become Red Sox fans."

It begs certain questions like - what will the specials be on the DVD?

Learn to speak like a fan from Southie!
Learn important phrases that will get you immediate acceptance from the other bleacher creatures such as, "I'd nevah sit in the Monstah seats, too many Bahneys sit up theah."
or the ever popular, "Jetah sucks!"

Learn the face of 2004 playoff hero Dave Roberts so that you may fulfill your responsibility as a Sox fan in never allowing him to pay for another meal.

See the Dropkick Murphy's video for "Tessie."

Learn in a painfully long documentary, directed by Ken Burns and narrated by Ben Affleck, why the Sox started playing "Sweet Caroline" during the seventh inning stretch.

See the Red Sox help Dora get to her destination while having to cross the lake filled with the evil Yankees!

DVD interactive features include games to help your child improve their spelling, exposing them to names like Varitek, Okajima, Youkilis, Papelbon, Matsuzaka, and many, many more!

The DVD case is a mock-up courtesy of my wife. The news is real, but the stuff after qualifies as my own sarcastic take on the thing. I'm anxious to hear the titles - I like "Horton Hears a Homer - raising your kid to be a Red Sox fan with Sox-Nation lifer Ben Affleck" or, "All Big Papi's Children."

And Now For Something Completely Different; The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy for our occassional reality check

Good for Mr. Shaughnessy over at the Globe to remind the rest of us sports-obsessed meat-heads that we are often given to too much hyperbole in our descriptions of athletes.

I try as often as possible to avoid calling these people heroes, or even (the popular amongst the athlete set) warriors. Too often we are given to the hyperbole of war in order to describe the action of the games we watch, and it takes a sobering moment of true heroism to remind us that it's just a game.

To say that what we watch are just games, I will admit, is probably going too far in the other direction, but by comparison that is all that sports is - a series of games that we watch for our own entertainment and edification.

It can be more, much more. It can be a sublime expression of determination and man's will to compete and overcome. In the minds of writers like George Plympton and the Hollywood brain trust it can be metaphorical, lyrical, and even social commentary.

I had a lot of time to reflect on these concepts this past weekend as I drove six hours (round trip) to bury the last of my grandfather's siblings. Salvatore Ricci, my mother's uncle, served in the Pacific theater of operations during World War II and received a bronze star, the nation's fourth highest honor, for his actions. He later supported his daughter who marched against the Vietnam War. He was, to say the least, a man that always was trying to make the world a better place and understood that what might be right at one time, might not be right twenty-five years later.

When our professional sports are looked at next to the actions of Boston firefighter Andrew Lee who brushed off talk of heroism as "just his job", former staff sergeant Sal Ricci who never talked about the war and his sacrifices, and former Arizona Cardinals Pat Tillman who left the NFL because serving the country was something he felt he had to do, I can't help but feel that all the hyperbole needs to go out the window. We need to remember that the sports themselves are not the metaphor - just that they are a tool to make the metaphor work.

I often feel that we look on the athletes and raise them up to the mythological stature of Zeus and Hercules because it's easy (as a sports writer I am admittedly one of the worst perpetrators). We all know about Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio. We know they were amongst the best at what they did. We look at them and say, "there walked giants." and we eventually brush aside the war heroes because there is something horrible associated with them - death and destruction, and we don't want to be reminded of our mortality, only of the promise of immortality and war is too dark a place for us to go for our heroes. And that is the grave injustice of our society.

Rogaine Users Take Note...

Insecure bald men everywhere! Rejoice! Tell Rogaine what they can do with their ads that play on your insecurity and take a look at the 20 hottest male athletes as ranked by SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT MODELS...

The following of the Folicly-challenged made the list, with three in the top five and a major cue-ball coming in at number one;

#19, Football player Jason Taylor

#13, Tennis player James Blake

#4, Soccer player Zinedine Zidane

#3, Soccer player Fredrik Ljungberg

#1, Surfer Kelly Slater

For the curious, there are photos of each posted at si.com.