The Pessimist Is Strong In Me. Go Birds.

I am not expecting the Eagles to win.

Yes I know the storylines of hope.

I just don't trust them.

Tampa doesn't have a complete complement of receivers and will be reintroducing a multitude of players coming back from Covid-19 and injury.

The Eagles can run the ball and keep the ball away from Tom Brady.

They have a tough and opportunistic defense, especially on the front line, where they have one of the best interior defensive lineman in the league in Fletcher Cox.

It's the NFL and anything can happen.

Yet, I just can't imagine it with this squad, and my history of watching and rooting for the game.

Tampa Bay, depleted as they might be, has perhaps the best minds in terms of understanding football and putting a team in the best play to win.  I think Tampa will be slowed, but I suspect they will have the right plays called more often than not to put their remaining stars and players in excellent position.  Even if you haven't heard of half the players catching passes from Tom Brady today, I suspect by Monday one them will be a new name to know going forward.

On the flipside, when the Eagles have the ball I can only realistically see a few occasional splash plays off of play action, or if Tampa Bay moves to a prevent style of defense once getting a lead.

Running in the playoffs, when the other team knows you don't have a consistent passing game is nearly impossible.

Right now the Eagles offense is dependent on some sort of effectiveness from a rushing attack that features multiple backs and big plays from its receiving group, and realistically, I just can't see it happening against a pretty stout Tampa Bay defense.

Still, I won't be able to tear my eyes from the screen this afternoon because at the end of the day, in one football game, you still gotta believe that anything can happen.

Go Birds.

College Football Is Officially Broken. How A National Championship Has Become A Regional Sport

I didn't watch a play of the National Championship.  I didn't care anymore.  

It might seem bizarre to not watch the final game of the season.  The championship that is the end all prize.  Yet I couldn't feign even the slightest interest in the game.

This is the second consecutive year in which that was the case.

I am told that Alabama and Georgia had legendary teams.  Both squads full of athletic prodigies that had been the most sought after prizes of their respective classes.  I am sure that the football being played was nearly to the level of a professional game.  Yet for all the promise of greatness that was to be on my screen, I had no interest in watching.

I had no interest because the system continues to work against parody, against equity and against the spirit of competition.

Alabama, as well as a few other SEC teams have been gaming the system, and they've been doing it for nearly 2 decades.

The open secret?  The SEC has better bag men than everyone else, and are institutions that only care about having the best football programs in the country and the money it brings.

Alabama of course is the best at it.  Perhaps no school has a history of cheating both on and off the record like Alabama.  The result?  A monopoly like we've never seen on the top football talent in America.  

Alabama is winning at a rate that begs the question: just what exactly has occurred that so many football prospects are heading to one school to prepare them for the next level and have damned the rest of the college landscape to an eternal second place?

The answer seems to simply be Nick Saban and Alabama are in bed with the NCAA to such an absurd degree that Alabama can do no wrong.  In fact, by advertising for AFLAC, one of the NCAA's major corporate sponsors, it makes sense for the NCAA to protect people like Saban.

No one is concerned about the academic standards at Alabama or the majors the athletes choose.  They care about winning football games.  They care about getting their kids to the league and how they play there.  They are what College Football is.  A corrupt institution proudly out in front in first place, even if they aren't today's technical champion (Congrats, Georgia).

The ratings from the game have come in, and while they were up from last year's Covid-19 re-tread of Alabama vs Clemson, they are clearly still lagging compared to what it could be.  The reason?  A re-match was held due to the argument that Georgia's resume was better than Notre Dame's and that both teams had the best argument for the final spot.

No one wants rematches in College Football if it can be helped, and but the fact that the system dumped that scenario onto the public was not what was going to be sold.

ESPN, who has a deal specific with both the SEC and the NCAA CFP, has a vested interest in pushing two SEC schools for its own ratings and brand value.

But the sport is worse for it.

Former fans of the National game such as myself are fatigued by a sport that no longer celebrates even the idea of the student-athlete and instead has prided itself on becoming another shining beacon of winner-take-all ethos.

To fix it we need people who care less about stacking up money and championships by rigging a system, and more about promoting an equitable system that works for the common good. 

We can talk about adding teams to a playoff, standardizing the amount of conference games or even if there should be salary cap for this new amateur/minor/major league hybrid, but at the end of the day the sport is run by people, and if those people choose to act corruptly, then the sport will become corrupt no matter what system is put in place.

The NCAA needs new stewardship and a crackdown on what is going on in college sports today or at the very least, transparency.  Millions of dollars are just flying around in pursuit of championships and ego. 

It needs to be reigned in.

Penn State Will Need Giants To Reach It's Goals

Penn State's most visible team, and what has become its most visible season, ended January 1st in perhaps the most unceremonious way possible.  In the face of opt-outs and injuries, a depleted Penn State roster was relatively game for the contest, but to think that the bowl carried any real fervor would be a disservice to what I watched last Saturday.

While the team had some sparks, including what seemed like a more effective running attack, miscues in the passing game led to an underwhelming offensive performance, and ultimately, the inability to comeback against a quality Arkansas team.

I won't bother with the numbers and specifics of the game, but I do think we need to address what I found a bit lacking in that moment, and what I think needs to be the focal point going forward.

Leadership.

It felt like the team felt rudderless, that it didn't have a full sense of identity or collectiveness.  Instead it was an assortment of individuals trying to do their best to push forward to next year. 

I don't think anything I watched left me feeling bad, but it did leave me wanting more.

College Football is going through its biggest changes in years, and maybe ever.  As players attain more autonomy over their decisions, there appears to be a growing sentiment that leaving current situations for something else is going to be the new norm.

Penn State is no stranger to opt-outs and transfers.  They've had their fair share over the past decade or so, beginning with an unprecedented sanctions against the team stemming from the Sandusky scandal.
They then had to build itself up again by selling its culture as being one of family and of growth, and while it has been largely successful in delivering on those promises, we are now at the point where people around the program feel they are capable of more. 

There isn't a shortage of talent or effort from my point of view.  I think James Franklin has done one of the best coaching jobs in the country over the past 8 years at  Penn State.  The number of players Penn State is preparing and sending to the NFL appears to be increasing, all the while maintaining the high academic and character standards that have long been a staple for the program.

So what is missing, as Franklin once alluded to, is the next steps made within a program to take it to one more level.  Can the team become closer?  Can they drive each other even further?  Can they hold each other accountable while still maintaining a love for one another?

Over the past Summer, I had the pleasure of listening to John Amechi's audiobook "The Promises Of Giants", a book specifically addressing the lack of leadership overall in society and how to become a leader yourself.

One of the things that sticks out like a sore thumb to me as much now as it did then, is John's acute insight into the psyche of the mind which reveals how difficult it can be to move from a status quo to a different state.

Penn State needs to evolve from its status quo, and it will need leadership from every class, from every position group, every coach, and yes, even every fan.

If we are honest about it, we all believe we are capable of more.  We have been talking about doing more for years, and while I understand that the past two years have had some pretty extreme mitigating circumstances, we are at the point where the players that are here, came AFTER the Big Ten championship and were expecting to get one of their own.  That they might one day hold that National Championship and be responsible for transformative change within the hierarchy of the sport.

That is the goal.

To get there will require the will of Giants.