Bagels & Biscuits

Do you prefer bagels and cream cheese or biscuits and gravy? Football on Saturdays or Sundays? Big 10 or SEC? The Braves or the Yankees? You know what? It doesn't matter. You can have it all right here.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

An unsatisfying end

In a world where people are judged every day, most football fans would probably assess Bill Parcells' career and say it peaked 16 years ago. They would be right.

It's always sad to see an accomplished figure tarnish his legacy, unless you happen to be someone who embraces schadenfreude. So watching Parcells wince, frown and at times offer surprisingly wan expressions during his forgettable four-year tenure as coach of the Dallas Cowboys wasn't exactly fun. Parcells didn't ride off into the sunset when he announced he was walking away from the NFL again this week. He limped.

Thirty years from now, people will look back at what Parcells accomplished and they will likely consider him to be a great coach. But they will also see the diminishing returns his teams produced as he went job-hopping . Two championships with the New York Giants. A conference title with the New England Patriots. An AFC Championship Game appearance with the New York Jets. And finally zero playoff victories with Dallas.

Parcells' only true failure came at his last stop. Up until his tenure with the Cowboys, he was known as an expert driver — the man you wanted behind the wheel. He had built a reputation for guiding teams to new heights even if that didn't always mean he could bring home the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

But in Dallas he was unable to turn around and revitalize America's Team. A franchise that seemed to have lost its way still isn't headed in the right direction now that Parcells has up and left.

And for once, Parcells wasn't hailed as a savior when he announced his "retirement" on Monday. He was seen as just a coach with a big name who couldn't get the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl.

It's not the storybook ending we had all hoped it would be. In some ways, you wish the latest chapter wasn't written in the first place. It certainly didn't have to be. Parcells could have been remembered not as a mercenary who ultimately failed to replicate the level of success he achieved in his first campaign but as a loyal general for the only franchise where he won the biggest prize.

To this day, the most indelible image taken from Parcells' career remains a pack of Giants players carrying him off the field at Tampa Stadium following New York's 20-19 upset of the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. The victory in that game would be the defining moment in his career. Relying on a backup quarterback and a merciless defense, he somehow figured out a way to overcome the Bills and their prolific K-Fun, no-huddle offense.

At 49, he was regarded as perhaps the best coach in the game. He seemed destined to lead New York to several more championships. But he left the Giants in May 1991, five months after beating the Bills. Sixteen years later, Parcells still has the same number of Super Bowl titles to his credit he had when he walked away from the Giants.

Parcells will still be considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of the NFL. But even he must wonder if it could have turned out better. After all, nobody wants to go out at the bottom.

Photo Sources: msnbc.com., cnnsi.com

Monday, January 22, 2007

Can we now give Manning his due?

A year later than many expected it would happen, Peyton Manning finally peeled the monkey off his back. In front of a raucous crowd at the RCA Dome on Sunday, Indianapolis' star quarterback exorcised the demons that had been haunting him by leading the Colts to a thrilling 38-34 comeback victory over the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.

It was sweet vindication for Manning, who will now make his long-awaited appearance in the Super Bowl after being perceived as a choke artist for much of his playing career.

Flash back 12 months and Manning was receiving heat from the media for criticizing his teammates after a 21-18 loss to Pittsburgh in the divisional round of the playoffs. Frustrated after the Steelers harassed him for much of the afternoon, Manning said there were protection problems. And there very well might have been.

But the attack dogs were out. Manning was targeted as the fall guy for Indianapolis' latest disappointment. There was no way he was going to avoid being blamed for this collapse — not after the Colts began the year 13-0 and seemed destined for the Super Bowl. So the media blitzed him. Manning was accused of finger-pointing and throwing his teammates under the bus. He was called a whiner. He was labeled a poor leader.

Now the same people who lambasted him not too long ago will likely be lauding him. They should. Manning is the Colts. There is no franchise that is more heavily dependent on a player than Indianapolis. He calls the plays at the line, makes split-second decisions and runs the most explosive offense in the NFL.

This season, Manning didn't have running back Edgerrin James alongside him for the first time in six years after James signed as a free agent with the Arizona Cardinals.No big deal. Insert Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai into the lineup and the Colts don't skip a beat.

In fact, they do better. Surprising, you may say. Not really. For Manning, it was only a matter of time before he got a chance to play on the biggest of stages. He's just that good. To offer a little perspective, Michael Jordan didn't lead the Chicago Bulls to the NBA Finals until his seventh season in the league.

Manning is in his ninth year as a professional. The fact that he didn't make it to the Super Bowl until now shouldn't be an indictment on his career. These things take time, after all.

For some reason, though, Manning has been held to a different standard than other athletes. While sympathy always seemed to be extended to former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino for his team's playoff disappointments, Manning has been skewered when the Colts have suffered setbacks in the postseason. That's interesting, because Marino played in the AFC when it was proven to be inferior to the more competitive NFC. Manning, meanwhile, is playing in an era when the AFC has been the dominant conference.

But the media won't hesitate to criticize Manning when he fails. Now that he has succeeded hopefully they will shower him with praise. It's well-deserved, after all.

Photo Source: manningpassingacademy.com.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Who's In and Who's Out: Inaugural Edition

Welcome to the first posting of which teams will be making the NCAA Tournament come March and which will be left at home.

I plan to update this on a regular basis (hopefully weekly). Just a few notes before we begin. The field is determined based on what is happening right now, as if the Tournament selection was today. I am not projecting what teams will be doing in the future. Because of that, teams that are in first place in their respective conferences get the automatic bids. In the case of a tie between two teams, the team that has performed better overall to this point in the season gets the nod.

Let’s start with conferences that will absolutely be getting only one bid (these teams need to maintain their spots at the top to make the dance):

America East: Vermont
Atlantic Sun: East Tennessee State
Big Sky: Idaho State
Big South: Winthrop
Big West: Long Beach State
Ivy: Pennsylvania
Metro Atlantic Athletic: Loyola (Md.)
Mid Continent: Oral Roberts
Mid-America: Toledo
Mid-Eastern Athletic: Delaware State
Northeast: Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley: Austin Peay
Patriot: Holy Cross
Southern: Davidson
Southland: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Southwest Athletic: Texas Southern
Sunbelt: South Alabama

Now there are four conferences that are almost certainly only one bid conferences, assuming the team at the top of the standings now wins the conference tournament. Potential at-large teams will have to root like hell for these four teams, because if they don’t get their conferences automatic bids, they are likely to steal coveted at-large spots.

Conference USA: Memphis
Horizon: Butler
West Coast: Gonzaga
Western Athletic: Nevada

Now for the rest of the conferences (total current bids in parenthesis):

Atlantic 10 (1):
In – Rhode Island (automatic bid)
On the Cusp – Xavier, Massachusetts
Long Climb Ahead – George Washington

Atlantic Coast Conference (8):
In – Boston College (automatic bid), North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Maryland
On the Cusp – None
Long Climb Ahead – Virginia

Big 12 (5):
In – Texas A&M (automatic bid), Kansas, Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma State
On the Cusp – Kansas State
Long Climb Ahead – Oklahoma

Big East (7):
In – Pittsburgh (automatic bid), Syracuse, Notre Dame, Marquette, Georgetown, West Virginia, Providence
On the Cusp – Connecticut
Long Climb Ahead – Louisville, Seton Hall, DePaul, Villanova

Big Ten (4):
In – Wisconsin (automatic bid), Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State
On the Cusp – Michigan, Illinois
Long Climb Ahead – Purdue, Iowa

Colonial Athletic (2):
In – Virginia Commonwealth, Hofstra
On the Cusp – Drexel
Long Climb Ahead – None

Missouri Valley (4):
In – Northern Iowa (automatic bid), Southern Illinois, Creighton, Missouri State
On the Cusp – None
Long Climb Ahead – Bradley

Mountain West (2):
In – Air Force (automatic bid), UNLV
On the Cusp – None
Long Climb Ahead – Colorado State, San Diego State, BYU

Pacific-10 (5):
In – Oregon (automatic bid), UCLA, Washington State, USC, Arizona
On the Cusp – Stanford
Long Road Ahead – California, Washington

Southeastern (6):
In – Florida (automatic bid), Kentucky, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Tennessee
On the Cusp – Georgia
Long Road Ahead – Vanderbilt, Mississippi State

Final Four In: Maryland, Florida State, Missouri State, Creighton
First Four Out: Xavier, Michigan, Drexel, Stanford

What team did I miss? What team doesn’t deserve to be on the list? We want to know what you think. Post your comments below.