View My Seats

At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

Photo Credit for Header: Alex Foucre-Stimes

Aaron Rodgers And His Turtleneck Are Very Excited

by

And now for your Wild Card Weekend box score w/words AND pictures.

Seattle Seahawks 41 New Orleans Saints 36

Beast Mode is back! I asked my buddy Casey, a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan, what he thought about Marshawn Lynch’s game breaking run against the Saints to which he responded, “why didn’t he ever do that for us”. (The city of Buffalo just can’t catch a break.) I’m no football expert but even a fool could see that the Saints secondary was going to have a hard time defending Bengie Molina legging out an infield single let alone trying to cover those Seattle receivers.

view of Qwest Field courtesy of @Scrubs24

New York Jets 17 Indianapolis Colts 16

Jets survive, thanks in part to Jim Caldwell and his ongoing love affair with the timeout. Peyton Manning’s reaction to the ill advised clock stoppage was priceless. New York now heads to New England to take on the Patriots next Sunday in what will be the rubber match between two division rivals. VMS contributor Dave, a Jets fan, believes the line should be Patriots (-42). Gotta love the optimism.

view of Lucas Oil Stadium courtesy of @janesports

Baltimore Ravens 30 Kansas City Chiefs 7

Clearly the Chiefs weren’t quite ready for their closeup.  I hadn’t seen KC play all year and therefore had no real idea what to expect when they took the field against the Ravens.  A few observations: 1) Todd Haley doesn’t inspire much confidence.  2) Jamaal Charles is a top 3 fantasy pick next season. 3) Was I right about Charlie Weis sandbagging the play calling?

view of Arrowhead Stadium courtesy of @chad_or_vez23

Green Bay 21 Philadelphia 16

Packers should be scoring more points. What’s missing? QB can make every throw. Running game is picking up positive yardage on most carries. Should we blame the coach?  Recently, fans have loved giving McCarthy a hard time for his poor clock management.  One thing is for certain, he’s no Jim Caldwell. Lastly, did anyone else catch Joe Buck making a fat joke about Andy Reid during the 4th quarter of the Fox telecast?

view of Lincoln Financial Field courtesy of @Aaron_Nagler

“Grab a Beer. Don’t Cost Nothing”

by

So as it turns out, Qwest Field, and the Seattle Seahawks, have been doing what most fans have already assumed which is overcharging for alcohol at stadium concession stands.

I don’t have all that much sympathy for the fan who is spending $7.50 on a domestic beer.  At those prices you are getting what you deserve. Most people know that stadium beers are a rip-off to begin with which is why so many football fans tailgate/drink too much before heading into the stadium.

Here’s an idea, if you wanted to satisfy the fans demand for booze while at the same time cut down on public intoxication/drunk driving, why not charge LESS for a beer? Think about it like this, if I’m going to a football game and I know that the beer at the concessions stand costs me less money than at a package store, I am going to wait to buy until I get into the stadium.  I am also going to make sure to get to my seat nice and early, which has been a problem for a lot of NFL teams this season (see: NY Jets) who have kicked-off in front half empty stadiums, presumably because people are still out drinking in the parking lots.

So under this proposal, stadiums sell a higher volume of beer (because it’s cheaper) WHILE lowering the risk of drunk driving/other debaucherous parking lot behavior (because fans are no longer stuffing their cars full of Bud Light pounders).

Pie in the sky? Perhaps. But consumers are no longer going to allow themselves to be taken advantage of by stadium concessions. Or will they…

Share your views.

view of Coors Events Center courtesy of @Mediamum

Cotton Bowl Has Me Cross-Eyed

by

Someone want to tell me why the Cotton Bowl isn’t a part of the BCS?  Does the Orange Bowl have a better tradition? No. Is Glendale a better destination than Dallas?  Didn’t think so? So what gives? Just one more thing I don’t understand about the current bowl system.

By the way, when you watch a game from Cowboy Stadium how can you not be distracted by that ENORMOUS television screen? It looks like an alien spacecraft hovering above the 50 yard line just waiting to attack its prey. If I were a player, I would be petrified that that thing was going to fall from the sky and crush every single one of us on the field. Probably one more reason why I never became a professional athlete.

view of the Cotton Bowl courtesy of @Chase_Cusack

NFL Playoff Picks: GoDaddy Please Go Away!

by

Thankfully the NFL playoffs are upon us because I couldn’t take many more nights of the Under Armour High School All American Bowl.

SEATTLE (+10) over New Orleans: Strange things happen at Qwest Field (see Charlie Whitehurst leading team to division title last week). The home of the “12 Man” has a way of stirring the echoes of Seattle’s past.  When the great Walter Jones raises the flag before the game tomorrow, the crowd will respond and give their ‘hawks a distinct home field advantage.  New Orleans is the much better team, but they’re pretty banged up and 10 points is a lot of points for a road team to cover on the road in the playoffs.

New York Jets (+2.5) over INDIANAPOLIS: I fully expect the Jets to go into Indy and avenge their loss to the Colts in the 2010 AFC Championship game.  I watched some of Colts/Titans game last Sunday, a must win for Indy, and came away totally underwhelmed by the Colts.  Maybe if Peyton Manning hadn’t tried to kill Austin Collie a few weeks back I would feel better about the Colts chances Saturday evening. As a Patriot fan, getting rid of Indy, one of the two teams along with Baltimore who “matchup” well against New England, is just fine by me.

Baltimore (-3) over KANSAS CITY: Charlie Weis announcing that he’s leaving as the Chiefs OC to take over the same position for the Florida Gators next season has had an immediate impact on the way fans perceive the current situation in Kansas City.  How can his decision to leave NOT impact his ability to call plays? For all we know, during the game vs the Ravens Sunday afternoon he will be up in the booth diagramming screen option plays for the Gators big showdown with Alabama next fall (Roll Tide).

Green Bay (-2.5) over PHILADELPHIA: I swore I wasn’t going to be one of those people who jumped on the Packers late season bandwagon. But, Michael Vick is clearly hurt, and the Green Bay offense, led by the underrated(?) Aaron Rodgers, will put up a ton of points against an over-matched Philadelphia defense.  It’s also important to note that there is a chance of severe weather rolling through the northeast Friday night into Saturday which could very well cause Governor Ed Rendell to have an aneurysm as he reflects on all the pain and anguish that the Eagles/Vikings postponement caused him a few weeks back.

Share your views.

view of the GoDaddy.com Bowl courtesy of @bigdee163

Igloos Aren’t Just For Eskimos

by

At some point, if the NHL wants to increase its popularity it’s going to have to do one of three things:

1)Move all regular season and playoff games outside.  Casual sports fans love outdoor hockey (just check the ratings for the most recent Winter Classic). Hockey purists/players love it because they all learned how to skate on the frozen waterways of Eastern Saskatchewan.

2) Contract and/or relocate 3-4 current franchises.  Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Miami, Nashville should become Winnepeg, Quebec, Hamilton, and Hartford (I live in CT so I would love nothing more than a return of “The Whale”).

3) Partner with HBO for a 24/7 style behind the scenes documentary on the 2011 playoffs.  The “24/7: Road to the Winter Classic” was exceptional television.  It was able to humanize the sport and its players better than any previous interview or retrospective.  I especially liked the scene in the series finale where Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury gave us his best Denis Lemieux impression.

Ultimately, television contracts drive professional sports and unless the NHL can alter its current deal (I heard somewhere that it may be expiring soon anyway) it could be sometime before the sport emerges as the Great Global Game once again.

Share your views.

view of the Consol Energy Center courtesy of @PDPHollie