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At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

Photo Credit for Header: Alex Foucre-Stimes

Under Armour Defeats Nike. Declared BCS Champ.

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For starters, let me thank the NCAA, ESPN, and Tostitos for ruining any chance I had at maintaining a reasonable sleep cycle this week.  That 6am alarm came awfully early this morning.

Now to the game. The upset of the night didn’t take place on the slick grass field of University of Phoenix Stadium.  In fact, few people are surprised Auburn defeated Oregon 22-19 on a last second field goal.  No. The most shocking, unexpected, unpredictable event from the BCS Championship Game was that the Oregon cheerleaders received twice as much air time as their Tiger counterparts.  The ESPN cameras were seemingly fixated on the “Women of Eugene”. My wife was actually the first to catch this “inequality” and went on to say that it was probably because they were wearing “skimpier uniforms”. Whatever the reason, last night the PAC 10 was greater than the SEC in at least one regard.

About that “slick” field.  With the number of times players lost their footing I think it’s safe to say that last night was the final time the BCS will be growing their grass in the state of Oregon.  In the future, any other state will do. Try Vermont, great turf up there.

I made this joke last night, but doesn’t Gene Chizik remind you of a personal trainer? He seems like the sort of man who has over 100 exercises to help you strengthen your core. I also liked how he kept saying “War Eagle” over and over again during his postgame interview.  “War Eagle” has now become my favorite way of answering a question I don’t understand:

Colleague: What sort of information do we include in our TPS reports?

Me: War Eagle.

Colleague: But, aren’t we supposed to be using new cover sheets?

Me: War Eagle.

Hope everyone else enjoyed their BCS experience and that in 3 years Auburn isn’t forced to return their national championship trophy due to major “rules infractions”.

view of University of Phoenix Stadium courtesy of @randallbartlett

Winter Storm Grounds War Eagle

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The Big Game is finally here, so get your corn chips and salsa ready because the College Football playoffs end tonight! (Whoops. Sorry about that. It’s been so long since a CFB game mattered that I just totally forgot there isn’t actually a playoff system. My bad.)

The Auburn Tigers and Oregon Ducks have somehow managed to crack the “Members Only Club” that has, up to now, seemed to only feature the USCs, Floridas, and Ohio States of the world.  Oregon and Auburn will be only the 13th and 14th teams to vie for college football’s national championship when they kick off at the University of Phoenix Stadium tonight.

Much of the protracted pre-game talk has swirled around Auburn’s Heisman-winning behemoth of a quarterback, Cam Newton. (Newton is like a strange cross between Herschel Walker and Ben Roethlisberger minus the whole multiple personality/sexual misconduct thing.)  He has morphed from a ballyhooed junior college (after a brief stop at Florida) signing to an unstoppable, dual-threat, dixie legend. On the other side of the ball is senior DT Nick Fairley, a prodigious talent in his own right.  Recently maligned for some of his questionable tactics in the trenches, Fairley is widely considered the best run stopper in the nation.

On the Nike side of the ball, Oregon sophomore RB LaMichael James, who watched as the door was opened for him last season when then starting RB LeGarrette Blount punched a Boise State player in the face, has swooshed onto the scene this season.  Feet like Barry Sanders and breakaway speed like Chris Johnson, James is the embodiment of the Ducks’ Green Flash offensive attack. If you’re searching for a wild card who might change the game, look no further than Oregon specialists Cliff Harris and Kenjon Barner, who, together create the kind of open field terror that has been haunting Tom Coughlin’s dreams for the past month.

The game itself is being billed as one of the toughest tickets in the history of modern sports, what with two proud schools that travel well, even to the point that StubHub had to shut down resales on its website multiple times this past week because of demand.

In a close contest, with slightly more big game experience, a better coach, and excellent special-teamers, the mighty Ducks knock down the goalposts and hoist the “O”.  VMS Pick: Oregon 34 Auburn 31

view of the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Courtesy of @jcard

Aaron Rodgers And His Turtleneck Are Very Excited

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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”

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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

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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