RANDOMIZATION: 11/05/07

A bit later in the day than usual, but oh, well. I have a few quick-hit thoughts.

Bye weeks suck. Best wishes to UMD freshman D Evan Oberg, who was injured during practice last week. He'll be out until January, from the sounds of it. Hopefully, the fact that he suffered a lower-body injury won't set him too far back as far as conditioning goes, and he'll make a quick return to the lineup once he's healthy. But the future is bright for Oberg, so let's get him healthy first.

Speaking of hockey...the Gophers are 0-4 in the WCHA. This has not happened since, well, ever. And I doubt that anyone around the league will be singing songs of sympathy for UMTC. Minnesota hasn't finished outside the top five in the league since 1997-1998, when Doug Woog was still the coach. That was also the last time they missed the Final Five. They're due.

Also, as a reminder, I'll be with the Bulldogs in Colorado Springs starting on Thursday. Colorado College should present the toughest test UMD has faced so far (no offense to Denver). With CC playing on Olympic ice out there, the weekend should be quite interesting. I'll be there for a preview later this week, and more stuff from our road trip during the weekend.

Skipping CDGate? This might be the stupidest thing ever. Apparently, the Patriots whined complained to the NFL about what they alleged was piped-in crowd noise at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis Sunday. The allegation appeared to originate from this particular sequence (I first saw the video at Awful Announcing):



It's not normal for me to be able to call upon experience working in radio. But this isn't a "skipping CD", as stated by some moron in the media or with the Patriots.

My first clue? The audio was nowhere to be found on Westwood One's national radio broadcast, which I was listening to at the time.

It sounds nothing like a skipping CD, really. It sounds more like feedback, which is what CBS seems to believe it was.

Seems like a few moonbats in Patriots Nation tried a bit too hard to get some controversy at the expense of their rival in Indianapolis. Try harder. This is just dumb, and it's a greater waste of time than most of the crap that came out about this game.

Hoops! College basketball is underway. Some teams are beating the crap out of lower-division teams in exhibition games. Others, like Michigan State, are losing overtime games to lower-division teams. Minnesota students are already chanting Tubby's name, and all he did was lead them past Minnesota State.

I'm too busy to get into serious team previews, but Blue Ribbon did a bang-up job on all of Division I. You can read their work on ESPN.com ($).

What I will tell you: Despite the loss to Grand Valley State, Michigan State will be a player in the Big Ten. Despite the loss of Alando Tucker, so will Wisconsin. Despite the fact that their biggest star is their head coach, the Gophers will make the postseason. I love this Indiana team, though I still don't know if Kelvin Sampson can get them to the Final Four.

Outside the Big Ten, I expect North Carolina to have a quality team. I think UCLA is going to be very good. I don't know what will happen in the Big East, but I look at Marquette as being a contender.

Basically, I don't know. Same as college football.

NFL FOOTBALL '07: WEEK NINE PICKS

There are 14 games on the NFL schedule this weekend, but if you listen to ESPN/FOX/CBS/NFL Network, there is only one.

Sadly, that's how the media works now. A game that is undeniably big, but will be rendered virtually meaningless when the two meet in the AFC Championship Game, is getting all the attention of the NFL "experts". Then, in January, you'll hear these "experts" talking nonstop about how they learned so much about the teams when they met in November. These words will be uttered just in time for both teams to do something completely different in their playoff matchup, and that will be followed by nonstop credit and "darling" status being given to the head coach of the winning team.

If the January winner is different than the November winner, we'll hear excuses made why they "came up short in Week Nine". The reality is that these players are going to treat this like any other game. Sure, there is a rivalry here, and there are some neat storylines, but compared to what we'll see in January, this is a pre-season game.

It'll be a really good pre-season game, but that's all it is.

My analysis of this game?

OMG PEYTON MANNING OMG TOM BRADY OMG BELICHICK GENIUS OMG DUNGY CLASSY OMG PEYTON MANNING FUNNY COMMERCIALS OMG TOM BRADY BABE MAGNET DREAMY OMG RANDY MOSS IS BACK OMG JOSEPH ADDAI EDGERRIN WHO? OMG REGGIE WAYNE OMG BOB SANDERS IS SHORT OMG BOB SANDERS IS GOOD ANYWAY OMG HOW DO THOSE LINEBACKERS DO IT THEY'RE ALL OLD? OMG RODNEY HARRISON NOT BAD FOR A CHEATER OMG TOM BRADY TD RECORD OMG RUN UP THE SCORE OMG PEYTON MANNING CALLS HIS OWN PLAYS OMG TONY DUNGY RELIGION OMG BILL BELICHICK CUTOFF HOODY SLEEVES

Note that I've avoided the whole "running up the score" topic this week. It's not that I don't think New England is running up the score, and it's not that I'm comfortable with the idea. However, I'm not comfortable with trying to tell a team when enough is enough. I am relatively certain that 38-0 in the fourth quarter is a good place to stop throwing the ball all over the field with the starters, but I still think that New England's behavior is dumb because of the risk involved. As was finally discussed this week (note that the "experts" never figure things out until most of us have already beaten the topic to death), the risk that one guy on the other team will snap and try to take out Brady exists when you keep throwing in 38-0 games, and it's not a risk worth taking.

If Brady ever gets hurt pulling such a stunt, I'm convinced that people will label Belichick an "idiot" for doing what he has been doing. However, since Brady is still healthy, Belichick is still a genius.

As for the game, have you been watching the Patriots? Granted, Indy's (by far) the best team New England has faced, but the path of destruction they've left so far is historic in its proportions. And they're not losing this game. Talk to me in January. My son has hockey practice on Sunday afternoon, and I'll miss a good chunk of this game. I have a feeling the one they play in January will mean a bit more, and I'll make more of an effort to watch.
The pick: New England

I'm not going to dog every other game on the schedule, because there are some good matchups on the slate.

By the way, I almost forgot:
Last week: 9-4
Season: 78-42

Carolina at Tennessee: David Carr likely starts for Carolina, and that would be a guaranteed loss if you didn't think about it. However, when you do think about it, you realize that Tennessee can't throw much, either. This will come down to the two old cliches of football games: defense and turnovers. Since "turnovers" are involved, I'll go ahead and pick against Carr's team.
The pick: Tennessee

Green Bay at Kansas City: I know I run the risk of turning into a cocky fanboy Bill Simmons type, but as long as the oddsmakers are picking against the Packers, I have another reason to firmly stand in their corner. Favre is playing well, the run game has a shot with Ryan Grant (I like him a bit, as he seems to have a good grasp of the system, and he doesn't miss chunks of playing time with cramps), and the defense makes plays when they need to be made. Stuff like that Cutler fumble Monday night (the one that was forced by one of Cutler's linemen) makes me think that Lady Luck is hanging out with the Packers for some reason, but I'm not going to turn that down.
The pick: Green Bay

Dallas at Philadelphia: Philly showed some life last week. After a horrifically tough loss to Chicago, they got off the mat and beat the Vikings. But Minnesota moved the ball well at times, and Dallas' pass defense isn't nearly that bad. The TO stuff is pretty much over now. He's basically just like every other opponent in that Philly fans hate him.
The pick: Dallas

Other games (Home team in CAPS)
Arizona over TAMPA BAY
BUFFALO over Cincinnati
Denver over DETROIT
NEW ORLEANS over Jacksonville
San Diego over MINNESOTA
ATLANTA over San Francisco
Washington over N.Y. JETS
CLEVELAND over Seattle
OAKLAND over Houston
PITTSBURGH over Baltimore

NFL FOOTBALL '07: WEEK THREE PICKS

I'm so glad this Patriots thing is over.

(It's over, right?)

The only thing more annoying than the blowhards talking about how Belichick shouldn't get in the Hall of Fame or asking if the Patriots did this stuff in the Super Bowl (that's you, Mariotti) had to be the senseless idiocy of New England fans.

Why is it that people compelled to defend someone in a story like this always feel the need to use the term "media-created" to describe the story.

Sorry, Pats fans. Bill Belichick created this story. Did the media always handle it properly? No. But it wouldn't have been a discussion piece of any kind had Belichick not cheated.

Also silly are those blaming Jets coach Eric Mangini. Fine. Shouldn't have snitched on his former boss. But how stupid was it of Belichick to pull that stunt against a coach that he knew was aware of the practice, three days after a league memo reminding teams not to do it? That's brazen, arrogant, and trumps anything Mangini did to break an "unwritten code".

Anyway, I'm glad that we appear to be moving on. I wish I could be excited about more than one game this weekend, but the Chargers-Packers game is the only compelling one. Maybe Frisco-Pittsburgh or Indy-Houston, but the latter lost luster with word that Texans WR Andre Johnson would miss the game with a knee injury.

Hopefully, this ends up like Week 2, which I wasn't terribly excited for but turned out very entertaining.

Last week: 11-5
Season: 22-10

San Diego at Green Bay: I'm trying not to get too giddy about this 2-0 start. The Packers have looked okay on defense, but were not sharp in that department for much of the Giants game. If they cover Antonio Gates like they covered Jeremy Shockey, they're screwed. Gates will have a field day if the Packers aren't physical with him at the line of scrimmage.

While LaDainian Tomlinson is a concern, the Packers can neutralize him with a cornerback. The Chargers aren't deep at wide receiver, so coordinator Bob Sanders can be creative with his matchups to keep Tomlinson in check in the passing game. The Packers do have to tighten up against the run, but San Diego has yet to run well so far this year.

For Green Bay, it's going to be all about copying as much of New England's blueprint as they can. The Packers need to take some shots deep to keep the defense from cramming the box, and they need to spread out the defense to neutralize (a bit) San Diego's dangerous linebackers.

What will hurt Green Bay is the inept running game. What will hurt the Chargers is Norv Turner.

The pick: Green Bay

Other games (home team in CAPS)
BALTIMORE over Arizona
NEW ENGLAND over Buffalo
Indianapolis over HOUSTON
PHILADELPHIA over Detroit
N.Y. JETS over Miami
KANSAS CITY over Minnesota
PITTSBURGH over San Francisco
TAMPA BAY over St. Louis
SEATTLE over Cincinnati
OAKLAND over Cleveland
DENVER over Jacksonville
Carolina over ATLANTA
WASHINGTON over N.Y. Giants
CHICAGO over Dallas
NEW ORLEANS over Tennessee

PATRIOTGATE? WHAT A STUPID NAME

I know "Belichickgate" doesn't roll off the tongue, and "Videogate" isn't specific enough, but "Patriotgate"?

And does every "scandal" have to have "-gate" on the end of it? I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that the break-in happened in Washington instead of here, because that would be just awkward to explain to the kids.

Anyway, the name might be stupid, but the story was quite interesting. If you didn't hear, and I'm not sure how you could have pulled that off (after all, I was in Green Bay, and I heard even when I wasn't trying), the New England Patriots apparently employed some intern or whatever to videotape the Jets' sideline coaches sending hand signals out onto the field.

The Jets' security team, clearly made aware of this tactic having been used in the past, caught the offending employee, confiscated the camera, and sent it to the league office. The league found enough evidence in that camera to fine the Patriots organization $250,000, take away their first-round pick in next year's draft (second- and third-rounders should a miracle happen and the Patriots miss the playoffs), and the league also slapped the maximum $500,000 fine on head coach Bill Belichick.

Since then, the media has predictably had a field day with this story, and more stories of its ilk have come out. Other teams had experienced strange happenings while playing the Patriots, and none of them thought enough of what happened to inform the league about it. Matt Millen of Detroit said it best when he told Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman, "You never know for sure. And if you don't know it at the time, you don't feel right reporting it later."

To me, this isn't about what happened to other teams. The league needs to look into potential issues involving headsets, because we have heard nothing of these problems at other stadiums. If it's happening at Foxborough and nowhere else, it needs to be looked at very carefully.

What this is about also isn't the legacy of Belichick or Tom Brady or Charlie Weis or Robert Kraft or anyone else with the Patriots. It's not that I don't think anything of these questions. Instead, I don't think they're valid right now. These aren't the issues that you bring up in the week after a story like this breaks. They are the issues that we bring up once we know everything there is to know about the story. We don't know everything right now. In fact, we might not know much of anything.

I'm worried right now about the game's integrity, as is the commissioner. While some may say he didn't act harshly enough, I do think he took a huge step here. The punishment is not a light one, and it comes to one of the league's true signature franchises. I have no problem with it, because only a forfeit would have been more severe (I am not in the camp that believes a suspension of Belichick would have accomplished much, because it wouldn't have), and the Patriots weren't forfeiting a game they won 38-14 even if it was proven that they played with 12 guys on the field on every play.

In looking at what happened, I see a few indisputable points:

• The Patriots violated a league rule.
• The Patriots had been directly warned about this particular rule.
• The Patriots have done this before. If you believe that they just happened to get caught the first time they did something like this, then I'd like some of what you're smoking.
• Jets head coach Eric Mangini had some clue that the Patriots were doing this, likely from his time there as an assistant.
• Mangini should have reported what he knew to the league office long before it came to this.

If you believe this has never happened before, you're crazy. I guess there are some who believe that a person's first drunk-driving arrest signifies the first time they ever drove drunk. But I tend to think that's usually wrong.

Along similar lines, if you believe that this tarnishes the legacy of the franchise all by itself, you're also crazy. I mean, do you honestly think this hurts the legitimacy of every game this team has ever won? Don't you think they would have had the whistle blown on them at some point if it was really that well-known and common of a practice? What does it say about the NFL when a team can do this, possibly for years, and get away with it until one of their former assistant coaches gets the guts to say something?

Listen, I respect the Patriots and Belichick, but the bottom line is that they deliberately and knowingly broke NFL regulations and got caught. The "Everyone else is doing it" line doesn't work. The "We didn't think we were breaking the rules" line doesn't work. Neither does "It's not that big of a deal". If the league asks teams to avoid using a particular brand of tape or glove, and a team gets caught defying the request, it's a big deal. You do what you're asked, and you stop doing what you're asked to stop. It's not a time to try to skate by on "interpretation of the rule". That's an excuse, and a bad one at that.

It's similar to the athlete that says "I didn't know that what I was taking contained a banned substance". The body is a temple for these guys. They know what they're putting in it, and they're lying if they say they don't. They don't eat a bowl of cereal without checking first.

Belichick is in the same mold. If you think for one second that he's authorizing behavior that might be in direct violation of NFL rules without knowing that the league might be mad if they catch it, you're an apologist for the guy. Belichick and his coaches don't do anything without knowing first if it's legal by league rules. For that matter, no self-respecting NFL coach would do that.

Patriots fans, I have some simple advice for you. Your team cheated, and they got caught and punished rather severely for it. The sooner you can deal with these indisputable facts, rather than allowing yourself to get caught up in some PR garbage, the better.

This isn't about the Jets, Mangini, the Chargers, Lions, Bengals, Mike Martz, Tony Dungy, or anyone else not involved with the Patriots. Trying to make it about the "whiners on the outside" only makes your case look weak.

I guarantee that the Patriots organization will handle this aftermath better than their fans do.