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SportsGumbo.net Newsletter
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THIS WEEK’S BROADCASTING SCHEDULE
MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM: SPORTSGUMBO/MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK (sports talk shows)
Internet: SportsGumbo.net
Radio: KKAY, 1590AM, River Parishes/Baton Rouge…ESPN, 1560AM, New Orleans..
KEZM, 1310AM, Lake Charles—Jon Fine, Olin Berthelot
(see FINE IDEAS for important programming change)
THURSDAY, 7PM—8PM: THE High School Sports Show (from Fox’s Pizza Den)
Internet: SportsGumbo.net Radio: The Score, 1210AM, BR—Jon Fine, Robbie Harrison, Steve Johnson, Chris Ledoux
FRIDAY, 7PM: Denham Springs HS vs. Catholic HS
TUESDAY, 7PM: Denham Springs HS at Zachary HS
Internet: SportsGumbo.net Radio: The Score,1210AM, BR—Jon Fine, Jim McChristian
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FINE IDEAS
By Jon Fine, Producer, SportsGumbo.net
Rome wasn’t built in a day. But 43 years? Wonder if any Romans were heard to say “Who Dat” way back in the day?!
The play was far from masterful—turnovers, almost turnovers, penalties galore—but in what clearly is the greatest game in team history, the Saints NFC Championship 31-28 overtime victory over the Minnesota Vikings, propelling them to the Super Bowl, will also go down as one of the most dramatic and memorable games in the history of the NFL.
When you consider that the largest lead in the game was 7 points, the game went into overtime, the Saints first-ever and Brett Favre’s possible last-ever Super Bowl appearance was riding on the outcome, Minnesota having a great chance to win it in the last minute of regulation, a 40 year old battered and bruised Brett Favre persevering in perhaps his final NFL game, this is an all-time classic.
With the Saints going to the Super Bowl, it also elevates the Saints week 11 Monday Night Football victory over the Patriots (see FINE IDEAS, 12/3, archived at SPORTSGUMBO.NET, click Newsletters) into legendary regular season status. It also makes a game the Saints didn’t even play in—the week 15 Chicago Bears improbable victory over the Vikings (see FINE IDEAS, 12/30) one of the most critical victories in Saints history.—If Sunday’s NFC Championship was played in Minnesota, there’s a real good chance the Who Dats season ends short of a Super Bowl appearance.
I don’t buy into the Saints being vastly outplayed and being lucky to win the NFC championship game, as some have professed. Sure, they were the beneficiary of 5 Vikings turnovers, but most were caused by the Saints defense, not, to use tennis terminology, unforced errors. Also, how about the 3 times the Vikings put the ball on the ground and recovered? (Yes, the Saints did that twice, too.) I was astounded to see the final stats—first downs, overall yardage (which doesn’t even include penalty yardage, in which the Vikings had a pronounced advantage) were one-sided in the Vikings favor. In watching the game, though, I thought it was pretty evenly played. And, do remember, turnovers, especially forced by a hard-hitting defense, are very much a part of football.
Were the Football Gods on the Saints side? To a certain extent, yes. I don’t think there was anything the Saints (or the Dome crowd) did to cause Minnesota to have 12 players in the huddle in the last minute of regulation. Winning the overtime coin toss was huge. 50-50 plays (and subsequent instant replay reviews) went in the Saints favor in the extra session. Yet, one way to look at it is that there were 2 overtimes—the Vikings last possession in regulation and the Saints first possession in the actual overtime. The Vikings did not make enough plays/the Saints made some defensive plays at the end of regulation. The opposite in overtime. Saints win! And, after 42+ years, with much neglect, why shouldn’t the Football Gods give a little love to the Who Dats?
If you’re Minnesota, I think you look back at the last minute of play in regulation. I’m not a big fan of second guessing coaching strategy. Yet, how in the world, with one of the all-time great and clutch quarterbacks in the history of the game, you run the ball twice, to try to improve on your chances of a 51 yard field goal—as good as Ryan Longwell is—is beyond me. Yet, if you’re a Vikings fan, I think you can live with running the ball in that situation. You can live with Favre’s interception. You can live with Longwell missing a 51 yard field goal if it had come to that. I believe what you will lose sleep over and will remember the rest of your life is never having a chance of kicking this 51 yard field goal. This was largely due to an egregious coaching error.—After a time-out, somehow you have 12 men in the huddle.
If the Saints would have lost this game at the end of regulation, Sean Payton’s time-out strategy, or lack thereof, would have had to be scrutinized. Payton called time-out inside 2 minutes with Minnesota still having possession of the ball and facing 3rd and 8. The Vikings converted and continued their drive. This, for all intent and purposes, gave Minnesota an extra play or conserved their last time-out, which would have come in handy had Favre completed his last pass. In such a situation, if you are Payton, you have to make sure your team has possession of the ball before conserving time. And, this, to quote Les Miles, was not an “inadvertent coaching decision”. Payton goofed at the end of the first half in a similar situation. Of course, there was the requisite frivolous red flag challenge that Payton made as well.
Not to dis the Saints coach though. New Orleans is Payton’s Place (Payton spelled with an A, not Peyton spelled with an E, no matter what the outcome is next week in Miami.). He’s a great coach. He may even be a better GM. Mickey Loomis has the title. Payton, though, is the guy who really built this team, is the one truly responsible for the 53 man roster. Payton is not only the greatest coach in team’s history, he’s their greatest GM. (May Jim Finks, probably nervously pacing and smoking cigarettes in Heaven during the Saints game—against another team he helped build, Minnesota—rest in peace.) And, for that matter, an extraordinary play-caller and right now has to be viewed as New Orleans’ greatest philanthropist/investor (250K of his own salary went to Archie Bunker to ensure the signing of Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams). So what if sometimes he brings back memories of Mike Ditka with some ill-advised strategy/time-management.
How good is Sean Payton? If Payton and the Who Dats were around way back in the day, Rome might have been built in 1 day! Nah, make that 4 years!! If Payton can make the Saints a Super Bowl team in 4 years, building Rome in that time frame would have been a piece of (Mardi Gras) cake!!!
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USA Today recently had 2 ex-LSU players. Alen Faneca and Kevin Mawae, amongst its 5 greatest NFL offensive guards of the last decade. Faneca was recognized as the best…
Do you realize that in what will most likely be his last 2 NFC championship game appearances, Brett Favre was picked off on his last play twice by Louisiana natives? Sunday, it was Port Allen’s Tracy Porter. Three years ago, when the Giants defeated the Packers, it was St. James HS/LSU’s Corey Webster who made the interception....After breaking a knuckle on his hand in a fight with his best friend in the off-season, former LSU great Glen Davis was recently fined 25K by the NBA for exchanging pleasantries with a fan. Now, he has come out and said he no longer wants to be called Big Baby. Well, what do you think about a nickname after his present Boston Celtics teammate—Little Rasheed (Wallace)?...For some of you old-timers, does Tasmin Mitchell on LSU sort of remind you of Marilyn on The Munsters?...My broadcasting partner on Denham games, Jim McChristian, a big Cowboys fan, feigned having trouble correctly pronouncing Brett Favre’s name. Sort of brings back memories of Cameron Diaz in “There’s Something About Mary”. Jim and Cameron share similar Favre articulation problems. No one will confuse their looks…Wonder if the Saints or Colts contacted Rex Ryan for his Super Bowl itinerary that he worked on for his professed Super Bowl Champion Jets?...Enjoyed the Denham Springs HS Football Banquet. Classy production. Sort of surprised they allowed me to attend! Several were shocked that Jim McChristian did not make it. In fact Denham Springs Defensive Coordinator Mark Carroll was astonished, given that a free meal was involved…Three Wise Men or The Three Stooges? We’ll let you make that determination while attending the FCA Variety Show 2010, featuring A Comedy Sketch with Denham football coach Dru Nettles, Mike Todd of Walker and Robbie Mahfouz of Live Oak. 7pm, Saturday Night, Walker Freshmen High Auditorium. Tickets available at Sport-N-Center in Denham Springs.
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20. That’s the magic number of wins that Denham Springs Basketball coach Wynn Wingate has expressed that a team needs to have in order to feel pretty good about its chances of making the playoffs. Denham’s record is presently 16-13*, 2-4 in District, with the second half of District to play.
The 16-13* record has an asterisk next to it not because Coach Wynn is suspected of being on steroids or had anything to do with the Maris/Ruth Home Run record controversy! It’s there because it includes 3 games the Jackets played against schools from Mississippi in a tournament in McComb. The Jackets played very well against some standout competition, but lost all 3 games. To his credit, Coach Wingate includes these games in his team’s record. The Louisiana High School Athletics Association (LHSAA) does not when calculating a team’s overall record for playoff rankings. So, by the LHSAA’s standards, Denham’s record is 16-10.
District games are important because they count as part of your overall record. But, a non-District game (unless it’s against a non-Louisiana team) means just as much as your District game. Mathematically, when determining the field of 32, the LHSAA views all games the same.
So, how does Denham get to 20? Winning their remaining 3 home games are almost a must. The Jackets play 2 teams they defeated on the road in the first round—Walker and Live Oak and one they played to a 2-point game on the road in the first round—Catholic.
If you get these games, you have to win 1 on the road. Scotlandville will be almost impossible. That leaves you with 2 teams that are much improved—Central and Zachary—that both defeated Denham at Grady Hornsby Gymnasium in the first go-round. You beat one of them—along with winning your 3 home games, by no means a certainty—and you get to 20. Up next, Catholic, at home, on Friday night.
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Starting this Monday, February 1, we are changing SportsGumbo to Monday Morning Quarterback. Our program will now air Mondays, 8am—9am, on stations in the Greater Baton Rouge area, New Orleans, Lake Charles and on the Internet (Same outlets as previously. See them listed up top.). Olin Berthelot will be featured on a segment of the program.
This move was necessitated by business, personal and ego reasons. One day in the future, we hope to get back to a daily sports talk show.
Special thanks to all of the sponsors, listeners/callers, hosts/contributors and stations that have helped us throughout the years.
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WIZARDRY OF OS
By Scott Osborne, Color Commentator of Central HS Football on SportsGumbo.net
I have spoken to a number of people in the Baton Rouge area the last couple of weeks about how thrilling the Saints season and playoff run has been. The more I have spoken to people the more I realize that many people in this area don’t get it. I am not sure I can explain what this Super Bowl journey means to the people from New Orleans, but I will try anyway (since I am from New Orleans).
Many people reading this article are “die hard” LSU fans. The real deal, too. If that is you, think about the Saints this way. When LSU football was bad in the 90s, you still had basketball (at times) and baseball to enjoy and have pride in their success. Rarely has there been a sports year at LSU in the last 43 years that LSU has not enjoyed major success in one sport or another. New Orleans for many years has had only one professional team. So long time Saints fans have lived through the following scenario for LSU fans. Imagine if LSU played only football for the next 43 years, went the next 20 years without a winning record (no basketball or baseball to ease the hard times), and after that made a bowl game at best about every third year. Can you picture how starved you would feel to make the BCS championship game in 2053?!
That scenario is just the beginning because the Saints go beyond sports fans in New Orleans. As a native of New Orleans, I can tell you that New Orleans gets a bad rap. New Orleans is given credit as a party city and little else. The French Quarter is the most recognizable symbol of the city, but is attached to the party label. Similarly, LSU has had a reputation of just being a party school. That reputation detracts from other great features like the beautiful campus, history, and traditions of the school. New Orleans has many similarly wonderful qualities, but the only one that has brought positive attention in the past has been the Superdome. The Superdome dominates the landscape of the city and has brought political conventions, Final Fours, Super Bowls, and other major events to New Orleans. For the Superdome to be a symbol of the tragedies of Katrina would be like the nation seeing Tiger Stadium as a symbol of something wrong about Baton Rouge.
I am sure I could go on, but there is no way for me to make someone understand. I don’t want to give the impression that I expect everyone to feel the way I do about the Saints, New Orleans, and this season. Just realize that it’s special and has a deep meaning to many good people. Who Dat!
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HEY REF
By Dennis Dearie, Veteran Louisiana High School Referee
Charles sent in an email with a pair of questions, (1) Why are the hash-marks on a football field different widths from high school thru to the pros and (2) What consequences are there if a basketball team refuses to continue a game as a protest to what they feel is poor officiating? Let’s take a quick look at the hash-mark question. Inbounds lines (hash marks) served one specific duty. They are used as a reference point for the officials to mark the spot where the next snap will take place only when a runner is downed in a side zone or out of bounds. I agree that all fields should be mark alike. Since today’s players are getting bigger and faster it’s just a matter of time for all governing bodies to come up a consensus and uniform markings for all levels of play. I understand Charles was very upset at the way fouls were being called in the recent L.S.U.- Auburn game. He felt as do all fans of any particular team that sometime games seemed to be called one way. The N.C.A.A. has no tolerance when “protesting” the acts of its officials. There are procedures in place for each conference to handle performances, whether good or bad, by their individual officials. Officials in every sport and at every level are graded by coaches, the commissionaires for that sport and by the schools that employ them. But refusing to send your team out to continue a game after being instructed to do so by an official is only asking for MAJOR TROUBLE!! According to the N.C.A.A. rule book (Rule 4, Sec. 28, Art. 4) failure to resume the game is grounds for the officials to rule a forfeiture to the other team. Just about all sports have this “out” for officials as a last resort. And I do mean as a last resort. I know of no officials that want to rule a game to be forfeited. Even if an official is correct in ruling this way, it puts a mark on his resume’. It doesn’t matter if a school, game or coach deserved the harshest of all penalties. Use the procedures that are in place, never take the law into your own hands. A perfect example of a team that could’ve protested the rulings of an official and not resumed a game was the Minnesota Vikings. N.F.L. owners re-wrote the rule book to keep quarterbacks from being pummeled as was Bret Favre last Sunday in the Superdome. The league will not come out and confirmed that the referee in this game will spend some time “on the carpet” this off-season. No game in recent memory has a team’s quarterback been mauled in the matter that Favre was. It was the Viking’s offensive line that should’ve done a better job of protecting him. It’s a good thing the Saints weren’t playing against Tom Brady. Question for Dennis? E-mail HeyRef@SportsGumbo.net
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SPORTSGUMBO.NET, THE HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS SHOW AND SPORTSGUMBO RADIO/MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK ARE A JON FINE SPORTS PRODUCTION. FOR MORE INFO, PLEASE VISIT WWW.SPORTSGUMBO.NET
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Posted by: admin on Friday, January 29, 2010 - 08:24 AM
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