Long time readers know that I am not above suggesting that major sports leagues shrink. Teams in cities that aren’t large enough to support a franchise; where the owners mismanage the team and/or anger the local government and fans; and places that refuse to submit to civic blackmail by building the team a new stadium on the backs of taxpayers. We can talk about the reason(s), but I have been for the longest time suggesting that the NFL put the Jacksonville Jaguars out of our/their collective misery.
While Jacksonville is the most populous city in Florida at nearly 1,000,000 residents which would suggest that there’s a big enough fan base, and we are talking about the football mad South, fans get tired of bad drafts, bad football and little hope. Why else would it always be a Jacksonville home game when the NFL played a game in London? Because they would draw more in London that at home. (However, one would think that the Brits would recognize bad football and stay home, but whatever.)
The Jaguars have been an embarrassment for years. Except for a surprising 10-6 record in 2017, Jacksonville hasn’t won more than 6 games in a season since 2010. Since Tom Coughlin was fired as Head Coach after the 2002 season, Jack Del Rio did a decent job but bad drafts and busts at quarterback doomed him.
My age-old line is that sports teams are in the sales business: they are selling wins, or the hope that wins are on the way. Jacksonville has not been able to sell all of its tickets before the pandemic. Games were blacked out down there, unheard of in the rest of the league. An injection of hope was required which usually means spending lots of money, and this past week, the Jaguars hit a PR at least home run, signing college champion Urban Meyer to be Head Coach. Meyer won NCA National Championships at Florida and at Ohio State, but stepped away at both schools over “medical issues” which also interestingly came as problems arose: in Florida, it was potential violations; at Ohio State, it involved his continued support of an assistant coach who Meyer knew was beating his wife.
The pro game is made for Urban Meyer – issues that he had in recruiting are irrelevant. There are no NCAA rules to worry about. I’m sure that Meyer will have significant say in personnel decisions, and he will make as much if not more than his salary in college. The biggest question is his longevity. Meyer’s teams have never been losers, never been below .500; now, he is going into a situation where the team could be losing, and losing big and for awhile. Yes, the Jaguars have the number 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, which means Trevor Lawrence Is there for the picking (although Meyer may have a relationship with Justin Fields from Ohio State). Either way, with potential improvement at the QB position, certainly expectations will be high. What if the team is still losing in 2022 or 2023? Urban Meyer quit both college positions because of stress caused by not being able to wind down his Type A personality, and that was with winning teams. What will losing do to his system?
I admit that I no longer believe that the Jaguars are a team that should be dissolved or move away from Jacksonville, at least for 4-5 years. Will Meyer see success over that period or will the team drive him back to the NCAA or the broadcast booth?

It is very hard being a Chicago Bear fan, especially this season. After overpaying for journeyman QB Nick Foles to push Mitchell Trubisky, the team went 5-1 in their first six games, but all could see that this was a mirage. The defense has never returned to 2018 domination, and if a Lions running back didn’t drop a pass in the end zone at the end of the game, the Bears would have started out 0-1.
During the streak, Trubisky got benched for Foles after throwing a horrible pick against the Falcons and Foles showed his streaky-ness to win that game, and lead to a couple more come-from-behind wins. Then came the six-game losing streak: Foles was ineffectual, the offense was nonexistent, the defense at times looked indifferent. It appeared that the time had come that every fan loves and hates – back up the truck and clean house.
The NFL schedule gods then shone on the Bears -three consecutive wins against poor defenses put the Bears back into playoff contention, needing only a win over the hated Green Bay Packers or a loss by Arizona to make it to the postseason. The Bears were able to stay close with the Packers for 3 quarters yesterday before falling short in the 4th quarter (although a dropped touchdown pass in the third quarter leading to a defensive stop could have really opened the flood gates). Minutes before the Bears loss, the Cardinals lost to the L.A. Rams, allowing the Bears to back into the playoffs.
Once again, here’s the quandary – do you wish for the Bears to make the playoffs or do you want them to tank (like the Eagles did – more on that in the next post) to get a better draft pick? If they make the playoffs, they will play a vastly better team, in this case, the 2 seed, the New Orleans Saints (although it should be said that the Bears hung tough against the Saints during the season, losing in OT). As the most glaring weakness of the Bears remains, as it has for decades, at the quarterback position, playoffs or not, the Bears won’t have a high enough draft pick to get one of the best college QBs, which leaves us in the same position, betting on potential which has done us so well in the past.
Now, instead of a full or even partial house cleaning, it appears that all of the Three Stooges will be back. GM Ryan Pace, who’s middle to late round draft successes cannot overshadow the utter failures in the early rounds of his 6-year tenure in the job. Chief failure was trading up for Trubisky – if the 49ers had taken him, maybe the Bears would have considered Deshawn Watson or Patrick Mahomes? What could have been done with those extra draft picks that the one move up would have brought the Bears? There was lots of sentiment to fire Head Coach Matt Nagy, the offensive guru whose offense became boring and predictable? And of course, the boo birds were especially cruel on Trubisky, who still looks like a deer staring into headlights on and off the field.
To his defense, Nagy did not lose the team during the six game losing streak and in light of a very unusual pandemic season, maybe deserves another year. The same, unfortunately, can be said for Trubisky. Who can the Bears bring in who would be better? Foles is painfully inconsistent and the Bears owe him big money for next year. The free agent field is not strong and would cost even more money. Not being able to take Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields in the draft means that they might have to gamble again on Mack Jones or Kyle Trask. Considering the amount of time to groom a rookie QB, plus the Bears’ history in developing QBs (about as successful as the lawsuits to overturn election results have been for the last month) makes the NFL situation about as bright as midnight.

You never see a team admit to tanking. Even if it’s obvious that this is the team’s strategy, you hardly ever see it blatantly, and never in the middle of a season or worse, a game. Of course, we saw the White Sox engage in the famous “white flag” trade, shredding the pitching staff in August while only being 3 games behind first place Cleveland. The Sox fielded some bad teams over the past five years prior to 2020 because of tanking. Of course, things are much better for the South Siders now.
Locally, the worst tanking were the Cubs, from 2010 to 2014. Now former President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein led years of charging top dollar for the ambience and sunshine of Wrigley Field over actual wins until they built the team and won a World Series. Like many teams, keeping the Still, cost-cutting measures by the white supremacists owners of the Chicago Cubs has led to the trade of the team’s ace pitcher Yu Darvish, with more to come. Neither of these happened in game however…
The final weekend of the NFL season was everything the owners and networks would want – several games where playoff berths and seedings were on the line. For the NFC (L)East, it has been obvious that whoever won this division would be below .500. The Cowboys, Eagles, Giants and Washington were all mediocre at best for most of the season, but better play in the second half had three teams vying for the playoffs: the Washington Football Team, who got the playoff spot with a win over the Eagles; and the Cowboys, whose final game against the Giants would determine who would get the playoff spot if the Eagles beat Washington.
However, the Eagles’ saw the writing on the wall – if they beat Washington, they would have the ninth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, but if they lost, they would have the number 6 pick. So, they put together a organized plan to tank the game. First, they put out their list of inactive players for the game and there were a number of veterans and starters who were healthy-scratched. This move certainly would have given them a much better chance to beat Washington.
According to Sports Illustrated, a second case can be made when the Eagles rolled rookie QB Jalen Hurts out on a fourth-and-four against one of the best defenses in football to try and score, in lieu of kicking a game-tying field goal with two minutes to play in the third quarter. Yes, momentum was on their side, but there is an equally valid argument to take the points to tie the game. It was much more obvious when Eagle Head Coach Doug Pederson pulled a seemingly healthy, effective Jalen Hurts from the football game to insert bench warming Nate Sudfeld to come in and lose the game. It was at this point that it went from something worth the league pooh-poohing to something that deserves to be investigated and penalized.
Maybe the Eagles would have lost anyway, but what about the players who give up their bodies every week; who are supposed to give it their all every play? What about the fans, who whether in person or not, root for their team no matter what, especially in a sports-mad town like Philadelphia? Most pissed, were, of course, the Giants, who knew they needed help to get into the playoffs, but for the team to rollover like a happy puppy was wrong and maddening.
I think that the only way to send a message to the Eagles is for the NFL to move the teams currently with the 7th through 9th picks up and put the Eagles right back at number 9. That would send a message bigger then money (which the owners have in spades). I don’t know if the league should force the Eagles to surrender other lower round picks, but to have the tank not work would certainly send a message to the team and the rest of the league. Of course, Commissioner Roger Goodell, who has as much courage as a Republican Senator won’t do anything other than maybe a fine.
I have a feeling that the Eagles may want to be wary of the Giants next season – they may have long memories.

Surprising as it is with games canceled and postponed, the college football season is over, and the teams playing in the College Football Playoff have been picked and there’s absolutely no surprise: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame, the last one entering after getting routed in the ACC Championship Game by Clemson. Of course, there is controversy with two of the four teams.
Starting with ND Coach Brian Kelly who was lobbying to be in the playoffs almost before this game was over. Yes, Notre Dame did beat Clemson when they were ranked number 1 and beating North Carolina who were ranked 17th when beaten. Of course, there’s the BS Tradition, George Gipp, Knute Rockne crap that is many decades ago; the pompous alums that think that Notre Dame should be in a playoff even if they were 2-10; and the fans who couldn’t get into ND if all they had to do is spell the name of the school and we spotted them the N-O-T-R-E. Yes, they are a draw, both for fans in the stands (any other year) and on television, but the team that got their clock cleaned Saturday by Trevor Lawrence, who didn’t play in the first ND/Clemson game, probably shouldn’t be there. Keep Reading as to who I think should be there.
Then there’s Ohio State, who have had more rules bent for them than Trump in school as a kid. The Big Ten wanted them in the mix, despite having a rule that you had to play six games to be eligible for the championship. Covid made them cancel 3 of the original season, which isn’t their fault, and they should have been ineligible, but honestly, OSU has a better chance against Alabama than Indiana or, yes friends, Northwestern would have. At the risk of being called a Big Ten “homer” I have two points to make about Ohio State and both involve the Big Ten Championship Game. Ohio State had 22 players including 4-5 starters who couldn’t play due to Covid protocols. Second, Trey Sermon who played because the starter, Master Teague, was one of the players ineligible, rushed for a school record 331 yards after only rushing for 330 yards all season. I many ways, they benched an entire offensive and defensive unit and still beat Northwestern. I don’t like that the conference pulled all stops out to make Ohio State eligible, but they belong.
Of course, I do despise Notre Dame, always have, always will and as a result I am against them being in the playoff and hope that Clemson beats them again worse than they did last weekend. Many make the argument that Texas A&M belongs but they have three losses. The playoff committee had the chance to take another undefeated team, either Cincinnati or Coastal Carolina, both of whom were undefeated this season. The Cinderella story of it, the novelty, the fact that this may be the one opportunity for one of these teams and these players to participate in the playoffs. Maybe they would get killed against Alabama, but Northwestern was a 20 point underdog (and would have been a bigger dog if OSU had their full compliment of players), but NU led for the entire first half before getting worn down by the Ohio State running game. You let them play the games, not take the easy way out and set up the playoff with the same teams that were the top four teams in all polls all season. Cincinnati will play Georgia in the Peach Bowl January 1. Coastal Carolina will play Liberty in something called the Care Bowl in Orlando on Boxing Day, but wouldn’t it have been interesting to see them in the big game?
It’s 2020, the strangest, saddest, year in recent history. Wouldn’t it have been apropos to have a small conference school go into the playoff?

For the past several weeks, it seems like many sports teams and leagues are paying their penance to Native and African-Americans. It started with the Washington Football Team over the summer; this week, it transferred to Cleveland, who announced that after 2021, they would be dropping the Indians nickname. Not immediately since they haven’t moved quickly to come up with an alternative or go with the Washington example.
This sets the stage for other teams with Native American nicknames to make their own decisions. The Atlanta Braves have been silent on the issue, meaning that nothing changes for now. Locally here, there is a lot of conversation about the Blackhawks. Most people believe that it is only a matter of time before the Braves and Blackhawks change. The Blackhawks made news this week because they were announcing that there’s no plan to change the name. For their part, the team has tried to say that they have been respectful to the Blackhawk name: local, historic tribe, no “tomahawk chops,” some public meetings with representatives of the lineage. Once again yesterday, Danny Wirtz, who was named the team’s permanent CEO at this week’s press announcement. I admit that I do love the name and Indian head logo, but I don’t have the right to decide how people in that tribe feel about the logo.
As a hockey fan, I have more immediate issues to deal with like the structure of the team. Team management has been a state of flux for a couple of years. First the team fired Coach Joel Quenneville in what most outsiders consider the end of a power struggle between the coach and GM Stan Bowman. The hiring of the youngest coach in the league Jeremy Collison; the first season was not good because it took much of the season to instill his system. It was marginally better this season, but the team decided to part ways with President John McDonough. McDonough was an architect of the turnaround of the franchise and the three Stanley Cup Championships, but his dictatorial style and the poor performance of the team was his downfall.
The team was limping along when the NHL season ended due to the pandemic, the Blackhawks were on the outside of the playoffs looking in and honestly, deserved to. The NHL expanded the playoffs to allow the Blackhawks in, which was a purely positive PR money move. In the playoffs, the Hawks knocked off Edmonton in the play in series before getting routed in the first official round against Vegas. That the team showed a lot of poise in the playoffs, which may have saved Bowman’s and Colliton’s jobs, but the off season caused consternation when Bowman traded Brandon Saad to division rivals Colorado and two-time Stanley Cup Champion Corey Crawford leave for New Jersey in free agency despite a great postseason and giving Bowman a hometown discount.
One thing that was left over from McDonough’s tenure is a flair for PR, After losing two fan favorites from the Cup years, Wirtz and Bowman uncharacteristically met with superstars Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith to sell they leadership plan. They also met with the press, issuing statements to the fans to trust them. All those fans were still calling for Bowman’s head were not convinced; neither have I. My take has been that while Bowman has done a fairly good job in drafting and acquiring forwards. He has been mediocre on decisions in goal, but the presence of Crawford made it much less crucial. Bowman’s failure has been on the blue line. Deteriorating play from the aging Keith and Seabrook, inconsistent play from the drafted players, failure for older free agent rentals. As a result, the goaltenders have faced the most shots and quality chances in the league the last couple of years.
So, instead of pushing him out, Wirtz, who is no longer the interim CEO, they split the President’s job in two, and instead of giving him his walking papers, Bowman is now President for Hockey Operations as well as GM. The question is whether he deserves it.
There is a positive here however; the President of Business Operations is Jaime Faulkner. Ms. Faulkner has spent the last seven years as CEO for E15, an analytics company. She is expected to be responsible for ”advancing the fan experience and business model while generating new revenue” In other words, keep the money flowing. Needless to say, she is the first woman to lead the Blackhawks. That is something to be happy about. Now, let’s see about hockey, hopefully starting in mid-January.

Earlier this week, I asked why it’s taken so long for teams to rid themselves of Native American nicknames. In the case of Cleveland, Owner Pete Dolan said that he more seriously thought of changing the name after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police and the resulting protests. One must wonder if this is the reason that Major League Baseball decided to consider the Negro Leagues as major leagues?
MLB issued a statement that the statistics and records of the six Negro League of over 3,400 players including Hall of Famers like Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, and Monte Irvin who did play in the desegregated major leagues, along with icons like Josh Gibson who never had that opportunity. MLB will be working with the Elias Sports Bureau to review statistics and figure out how to incorporate the statistics into the rest of the major league stats. As a result, Willie Mays will add some hits to his statistics; Monte Irvin’s lifetime batting average should climb to over .300, and Paige will probably add approximately 150 victories.
There are a number of issues with this; I’ll start with the simplest – the statistics themselves. Unlike Major League Baseball which kept good records, records of the Negro Leagues were often incomplete or nonexistent. I am happy hat Elias will be involved as they are quite excellent as archivists. My other question is why MLB is cutting off records after 1946? Yes, the Negro Leagues’ popularity declined once Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby made the majors, but it’s not like the teams suddenly hired a lot of African-Americans. The influx of Black players in the majors was a trickle. Teams usually had 1 or 2 players per teams with the Boston Red Sox not integrating until 1967. Why are they not including the records up to the end of the Negro Leagues, which was about 1960?
The bigger questions are of course why didn’t they do this before and why now? The Leagues were omitted when a Special Commission on Baseball Records identified six “major leagues” in 1969. It seems that this was just another slight that Black players had to endure. With the large number of Black players in the 1970s and 1980s and as a lot of the Negro stars were still alive, why didn’t they start working on incorporating the records back then?
It is more ironic that this step is made as African-American participation has declined since hitting highs of over 18% in the 1980s compared with the current rate of 7.8%. Was it the overall Floyd/Black Lives Matter effect or was it something else?
Overall, this is a nice gesture, but I think it is definitely too little too late.

There is something about success that leads to losing coaches and staff to other teams. Northwestern has not really had that problem – under Pat Fitzgerald, despite a historic level of success, coaches stayed a long time. It was only after the public and media outcry complaining about the woeful offensive scheme hat led to the former Offensive Coordinator Mick McCall being fired.
Over the past week, it was announced that there were two important members of the athletic administration who were leaving. First, Athletic Director Jim Phillips announced that he was leaving to become the Commissioner of the ACC. Last year, Phillips was expected to be the front runner to becoming the Big Ten Commissioner as long-time commissioner Jim Delaney was retiring. Instead, Kevin Warren was hired.
In Evanston, Phillips was mostly known for not wearing a coat at football games. No matter the weather, Phillips could be seen in suit pants, dress shirt and tie. As it turned out, we season ticket holders were not surprised that Phillips was wearing UnderArmour under his shirt. UnderArmour is a sponsor of Northwestern, so I guess he got the thermal underwear for free.
While Phillips has done a very good job in his 13-year stint, I would say that the more critical loss to the football program will be the retirement of Defense Coordinator Mike Hankwitz. I have long said that the best, most important thing that Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald did before he coached a game was to snap up Hankwitz, when he was surprisingly fired at Wisconsin. After coming to Evanston, the defense improved, and every year, the defense has generally played well. Some years, like 2020, the defense was really a standout unit. Other years, the defense has not been as good, mainly from injuries and inexperienced players after graduations.
Honestly, Fitzgerald is a marvelous recruiter but a mediocre game day coach; the Offensive Coordinator position has improved substantially with the hiring of Mike Bajakian. The one constant has been Hankwitz whose teams could get outplayed, but never outhustled or having a poor scheme. He has been the master of making adjustments between plays and halves.
I wish both these men good luck in their new positive and in retirement. Both men can be proud of their accomplishments.