Super Bowl L

I started watching the National Football League obsessively as a sixth grader in 1975 (at the same time I was listening to David Bowie, The Eagles and Jefferson Starship on AM radio). That year, the powerhouse team trying to repeat as Super Bowl Champions was the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh was fortunate to host the 1975 AFC Championship because had the game been played in temperate Oakland the Raiders would likely have won and then been the ones to pummel the Cinderella Cowboys in Super Bowl X. As it turned out, playing on a field of iced green concrete in temperatures below 20 °F, the Steelers survived 16-10. I watched the game by myself at my grandmother's apartment in Mountain View not far from Moffett Airfield.

Today's Super Bowl, Super Bowl L, the golden anniversary, takes place at Levi's Stadium, about ten miles and 40 years from where I sat alone as kid watching the Raiders and Steelers beat the shit out of each other.

Times have certainly changed. The thing that snaps right out of the YouTube above is the human scale of the game. Money doesn't pulsate from the screen as it does now. Three Rivers Stadium looks like something you might find in Kazakhstan or Balochistan. And the fans aren't all decked out in pricey franchise bling. Solidly working class, yes. It is Pittsburgh after all. You don't see a lot of obesity. And on the field there is plenty of athleticism on display. Note in the first offensive series of the game how fast Oakland linebacker Phil Villapiano is in shooting into the backfield to drop Franco Harris for a loss. Also, look at how quickly and crisply the offense comes set in its formation. Why don't we ever see two running backs lined behind quarterback anymore? This is the way teams ran the ball in 1975. Now whenever there are two running backs in the game at the same time, unless it is one of the few teams like the NFC Champion Panthers who can run the read-option, it is in the I formation, and the fullback, usually some 250-lb. former lineman, is obviously there only to block. In 1975 both running backs lined up three of four yards behind the quarterback and were parallel or roughly parallel to one another, making it harder for the defense to read who was going to get the ball.

Looking at the video of the 1975 AFC Championship Game, which was played in January 1976, the conclusion that I draw is that while we might be wealthier in toto as a nation -- there is certainly more money in the financial system now than then -- it has come at the expense of the working class and equality in this country. Are we better off now with all our bright shiny lights and digital whistles or then, at the outset of the neoliberalism, when there was less inequality and more humanity?

I started on this 1975 AFC Championship jag because I have been thinking about Ken Stabler. In the run up to today's Super Bowl there was a story this past week about how Ken Stabler, the Raiders quarterback in the 1975 AFC Championship who would go on to win the Super Bowl the following year, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.). He died last summer and his brain has since been dissected and studied and the results announced. That's what caused the bad press, like Ken Belson's "Roger Goodell Insists Football Is Safe: ‘There’s Risk in Life’," for the National Football League in its gala week leading up to the big game:

It was disclosed this week that two football greats, quarterbacks Ken Stabler and Earl Morrall, were the latest of dozens of players found to have had a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head hits.

Yet N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, when peppered with questions about player safety on the Friday before Super Bowl 50, gave one of his most earnest endorsements of the safety of the game.

Most of his comments echoed previous statements: that the league is changing its rules to reduce risks, has adopted new equipment and technology, and is spending millions of dollars on research.

But near the end of a 45-minute question-and-answer session with reporters, Goodell seemed exasperated. When asked whether it was safe for young people to play football, Goodell said that he was glad he was able to play tackle football for nine years before college.

“If I had a son, I’d love to have him play the game of football,” Goodell, a father of two daughters, added. “There’s risk in life. There’s risk in sitting on the couch.”

Goodell’s comments came amid a renewed focus on whether football was too dangerous. By the N.F.L.’s own account, the number of diagnosed concussions rose by 31.6 percent this season over last season. Several former players have posthumously been found to have had the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., including Stabler, Morrall and Tyler Sash, a former Giant who died at 27. At least seven high school football players died last year. 

When asked about these statistics, Goodell often focuses on what the N.F.L. is doing to make the game safer. He bristled at the suggestion that more N.F.L. players were retiring because they were worried that extending their careers could increase their risks of brain damage.

The NFL is the premiere television product in the United States, really the only guaranteed "take it to the bank" eyeball draw left in our culture. As Mark Leibovich reports in "Roger Goodell’s Unstoppable Football Machine":

Put it on TV, and people will watch; put it on a jersey, they will wear it. The N.F.L.’s total revenue in 2015 ($12.4 billion) is nearly double that of a decade earlier ($6.6 billion). The price of television ads during the Super Bowl has increased by more than 75 percent over the last decade. This year’s conference championship games set yet another viewership record for the league: 53.3 million people watched the A.F.C. game on CBS; 45.7 million watched the N.F.C. game on Fox. Goodell talks constantly about ‘‘growing the pie,’’ finding new revenue streams and ways to make the N.F.L. a ‘‘year-round’’ experience rather than just during fall and winter. He has said he wants the N.F.L. to achieve $25 billion in gross revenue by 2027. No league is as relentless when it comes to growth and making cash for its billionaire cartel. It’s reminiscent of a shark that will die if it doesn’t keep moving and ripping little fish to shreds.

The NFL has made changes to try to reduce the number of concussions. But the tendency of the rule changes has been to enhance the overall speed of the game, which increases the impact of collisions. So there hasn't been any big bonanza of reduced injuries.

A lot of commentators compare the NFL to boxing, a blood sport that was enormously popular at one time only to sputter into irrelevance. But boxing's demise had nothing to do with its brutality. Look at the popularity of mixed martial arts today. Boxing lost its broad popularity because all its big fights went behind a paywall. If the NFL gets so greedy that it shunts more of its games away from broadcast TV, then something similar could happen I suppose; that combined with a loss of talent from parents preventing their children from participating in the sport.

In any event, the National Football League is who we are in the United States. And in 1975 it was also who we were. Today in Super Bowl L I like the Carolina Panthers. For the Broncos to win Peyton Manning would have to play a perfect game, matched by a perfect game by the Denver defense. I see no miracles today. It is Cam Newton's year.

NFL Week 18: Wild Card Playoff Round

My biggest disappointment going into the weekend is that I will not be able to watch the Cardinals-Panthers game. Why? I don't have cable; I use digital rabbit ears. So if it is not on broadcast TV, I don't see it. Unless I go out to a bar. I did that once for one game of the 1998 World Cup, and I regretted it. I sat at the bar on a Saturday morning and tried to watch Italy vs. Norway while on either side drunks pestered me. They were like noisy children competing for attention, criticizing my interest in soccer as un-American.

Since the National Football League receives an antitrust exemption from the federal government, the principal advantage of which is that it allows team owners to bargain collectively with the television networks, a proviso should be added to the exemption that mandates all playoff games must appear on broadcast television.

This is the first NFL playoff game to appear exclusively on a cable channel. My fear is that this move means that the NFL will go the way of the NBA and Major League Baseball, leagues where most of the playoff games appear only on cable. I have written my Congressman.

As for the games of the wildcard round, here are my picks:

Cardinals at Panthers: Vegas has lost confidence in the miracle workings of Bruce Arians. Carolina is a six-and-a-half-point favorite at home, equal to the margin granted to Cowboys over the Lions. I am not a Cam Newton fan, but his play has improved as the Panthers have gone on an end-of-season tear. He has thrown only one interception in the last three games. I have yet to see the rejuvenated Panthers play. The last full game I saw is when Seattle beat them in week 8, and then Carolina was a team in free fall. I have seen the Cardinals play recently. And with Ryan Lindley at the helm, they are a team in free fall. Take the Panthers.

Ravens at Steelers: This is a tough one. The Vegas line is Steelers by 3. It is hard to go against Pittsburgh at home, but Le'Veon Bell is out. The Ravens get Haloti Ngata back from his Adderall suspension. Plus, I like Justin Forsett. Possibly Roethlisberger could win this game with his arm. Look what Philip Rivers did to Baltimore. Nonetheless, take the Ravens.

Bengals at Colts: The Vegas line is Colts by three-and-a-half points. Even though A.J. Green is out and the Bengals don't win in postseason, I'm going out on a limb here to say Cincinnati will triumph. I like the Bengals defense and their running game with Jeremy Hill; also, Andy Dalton running the read-option. The Colts have not impressed me this season.

Lions at Cowboys: Dallas could be playing the best football in the league right now. The Cowboys are an offensive juggernaut. Everyone is peaking: Romo, Witten, Murray, Bryant, Beasley. There is a possibility for an upset here though. Detroit's fearsome defensive line could knock Romo out of the game. Dallas will counter by running the ball with Murray or going with the quick dump off pass to Lance Dunbar and Cole Beasley. On defense, the Cowboys will devote all their attention to Golden Tate and Calvin Johnson, daring the Lions to beat them with Joique Bell. I would like to see Detroit win this game, but I don't see that happening on Sunday. Take Dallas.

NFL Week Eight: Carson Palmer Stands Tall

Week Eight began well with the home-team Broncos notching a solid win over injury-weakened San Diego. With no running game to speak of, Philip Rivers was unable to mount sustained drives, as he did last year when the 'Bolts traveled to the Mile High City.

This was the last Thursday night NFL game to appear on nationwide broadcast television for the remainder of the season; tonight the Thursday night platform reverts back to the NFL Network. For eight weeks the "unwashed" of the nation like myself who have no cable and choose not to frequent bars basked in the television's glow every evening on Thursday. I despised Phil Simms when he quarterbacked Parcells' Giants, the bête noire of every self-respecting 49ers fan at the time, but I must say he is by far the best analyst on television today. I'm going to miss these Thursday night CBS broadcasts.

Denver looks formidable: a strong defense, Ronnie Hillman developing as a potent ground-gainer, topped off by what is easily the NFL's top passing attack of Peyton Manning throwing to Emmanuel Sanders, Julius Thomas, and Demaryius Thomas. I think the Broncos offense can be stopped by the right defense, as the Seahawks proved last year. The problem for other teams around the league is that defense does not exist midpoint of the season.

The Cardinals D looked stout enough against the Philadelphia Eagles. But the difference in that game was the quarterback position. Nick Foles' numbers, 36 completions in 62 attempts for 411 yards and 2 TDs, surpassed Carson Palmer's 20 for 42, 329 yards and 2 TDs, but the Raiders castoff impressed me to no end. He stood tall in the pocket and never appeared rattled by the Eagles pass rush. You could tell he was seeing the entire field, and of course his game-winning bomb to rookie speedster John Brown was a thing of perfection.

NFL Week Eight Sunday began for me at 6:30 AM with the Fox telecast of the Lions-Falcons game from London's Wembley Stadium. Golden Tate had a huge game, helping the Lions overcome a 21-point halftime deficit to defeat the freefalling Falcons. If the Seahawks had a do-over I'm sure they would keep Golden Tate and deal Percy Harvin prior to the beginning of the season, though the rumor that Tate carried on a tryst with Russell Wilson's wife that culminated in the pair's divorce likely would have made the plucky wideout's departure inevitable.

Game #2 for me on Sunday was Seattle vs.Carolina. The Seahawks finally ran into a team more snake-bit than themselves; plus, the defense finally, in the fourth quarter, found its pass rush. A cocky Cam Newton, cocky in the first half despite the inability to hit paydirt -- he ridiculously celebrated every chickenshit first down he scrambled for -- was not cocky by game's end. Seattle tallied a necessary win when Wilson, overcoming numerous mistakes -- a fumble, a pick, missing a wide-open Cooper Helfet for a touchdown -- connected on a pretty pass to Luke Willson, who actually held onto the ball this time, for the game winner.

Now Seattle has a chance to regroup with Oakland in town on Sunday. The Raiders dominated the Seahawks in the final preseason game. So this isn't the walkover that Vegas' 15-point spread says it is. Still, with a win on Sunday, and another win at home next week against the Giants, Pete Carroll will have bailed out his leaky, listing vessel and gotten back on course.

Game #3 was the aforementioned bird bash, Cardinals vs. Eagles. Then it was on to game #4, the Sunday night Packers-Saints match-up. By this time I was on my fourth straight game. I only made it to halftime. The score was tied 16-16. I was convalescing from a lingering flu. The rest and recuperation that such a televisual NFL smorgasbord afforded was welcome.

You can fool yourself and be who you imagine yourself to be. For a spell at least. Then things change. And you're not so strong.

I had not called in sick for five years. So my ego encrusted around being an "iron man." Strong and always showing up to the job and working hard. When I called in sick Monday before last I had to adjust the self-image. Arriving to work the next day I asked myself, "Who am I?" The answer I received was not pleasant. I am a jester, a fool, a clown.

But such is life. The ego is always being amended, buffeted this way and that like a toy boat in the foamy surf. Better not to pay too much attention. Best just to accept that health is the anchor and leave it at that.

NFL Week 3: Seahawks Triumph, Pittsburgh Better Than Anticipated

The point of these posts on the National Football League is something akin to a dream journal. I don't spend a lot of time on them. Very few people read them, fewer even than the other posts on this page. Around mid-season I will shift, as I did last year, to predictions for the coming week. It takes a couple of months of spending every Sunday in front of my small color TV watching the games to get a feel for who is up and who is down.

For instance, the conventional wisdom on the Steelers is that they're rebuilding, and they are not a serious threat to anybody. But based on the Sunday night game, Pittsburgh is not a team to look past on the schedule. LaVeon Bell after dropping weight in the off season looks quicker and stronger than last year. And the defense played well against Carolina. Granted, Cam Newton is playing hurt, but that doesn't explain Pittsburgh's offense moving the ball up and down the field against the celebrated Panthers defense.

Earlier that day I rode the Seahawks roller coaster as hometown Seattle hung on in OT to win their rematch of February's Super Bowl with the Broncos. I shouted at the television when Russell Wilson threw his pick in the 4th quarter and Marshawn Lynch was tackled in the Seahawks end zone for a safety. Peyton Manning lived up to his hype by executing a drive in the last seconds that brought Denver even. But in the end Russell Wilson channeled his inner Joe Montana, something he does better than most if not all NFL quarterbacks, and engineered a game-winning drive in OT following Tarvaris Jackson correctly calling the coin toss and electing to receive the ball.

Really, in the end, watching the NFL on Sunday is an excuse for me to recline on my mattress on the floor. All day. A welcome rest for my legs, a chance to forget and merge with the American hive mind.

NFL Week 16: Go with the Home Teams in the Big Match-Ups

I have to apologize for the generally low quality of my NFL posts. Last year I seemed to have a little bit more mojo working. This year because I sneak them in right before starting work at 9 AM they've been pro forma "picks" of what I deem to be important upcoming games. At least that is what I have been doing for the last couple of months. Prior to that I was providing a rundown of what I thought was the significant action from the prior week.

In any event, apologies, and here comes another rushed set of picks.

There are a lot of big games this Sunday and none is bigger than New Orleans at Carolina with the division on the line. The Saints plastered the Panthers in the Superdome a couple weeks back, exposing the profound weakness in the Carolina offense: Cam Newton has no serious downfield, long-bomb catching receiving threat. With New Orleans on the road the outcome should be reversed. Look for the Panthers offense to dominate the game with its rushing attack. Pick the Panthers.

Other big games include Indianapolis at Kansas City, Arizona at Seattle, Chicago at Philadelphia and New England at Baltimore. I'm going with the home team in each of these match-ups.

The Seahawks pass rush seems a little speedier on home turf. Carson Palmer's immobility will hurt the Cardinals; that, and Rashard Mendenhall is not the type of young, speedy tailback that usually hurts the Seahawks. Assuming there is not some sort of first-ever catastrophic meltdown by Russell Wilson, I am confident that Seattle wins this game and thereby sews up the division not to mention home field throughout the playoffs.