Blayne Sucks

Although I haven’t blogged much about sports on this site recently, I feel I compelled to post my thoughts on Tony Dungy’s retirement as Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts. You can read the text of his retirement speech here.

Coach Dungy’s record speaks for itself. Tony Dungy retires with an overall record of 92-33 at Indianapolis, including the playoffs, which makes him the winningest head coach in Colts franchise history. The Colts made the playoffs every year under Dungy, and the Colts have won 12 games each of the last six years, which is an NFL record. In the seven years that he’s been there, the Colts have won 85 regular season games, which is just 1 game short of New England over that same time period.

Tony Dungy is also the winningest head coach in Tampa Bay franchise history with 54 wins. Starting from his position as head coach in Tampa Bay, he is the only coach since the AFL / NFL merger to take a team to the post season 10 straight years. He is the first head coach to defeat all 32 teams in the NFL, the first African American head coach to win a Superbowl, and only the third person to win Superbowls both as a player and as a head coach.

Those are just some of his football accomplishments, but anyone who has followed the Colts knows there’s much more to him than football. Coach Dungy has never been afraid to talk about his faith as a Christian. He has been active in prison ministries and in working with troubled youths. Dungy is well-known for having written Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, & Priorities of a Winning Life, which was a New York Times Best Seller. Quiet Strength describes how he became an elite head coach in a cutthroat league without compromising his ethics. It also dealt with his perseverance in the face of grief over his son James’ suicide in the fall of 2005.

In fact, the success of Quiet Strength may have contributed to his decision to retire at the age of 53. A big part of his reason for stepping down is his desire to make more of an impact off the field, much of which will likely be documented on his website. He has another book, titled Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance set to be released in February of this year. In his retirement speech, he eluded to his desire to spend more time with his family, which certainly also contributed to his decision. His son Eric is a junior in high school and will be visiting college campuses this fall, which has been postulated as another reason for his decision to retire.

Of course, for the Colts, the question remains: what next? The simple answer is that Jim Caldwell, who was announced as the next in line after the season last year, will be the new head coach. Bob Kravitz, who coves the Colts for the Indianapolis Star, believes that it was time for Dungy to go. I’m not sure I can quite get on board with that. I certainly support Dungy in his decision because it really is just that: his decision, but I simply can’t say that I would say the Colts are better off without him.

Kravitz’s argument boils down to two basic points: poor playoff performance and a “coddling, enabling, everything-is-all-right culture,” fostered by the Colts from top to bottom. To the first, I say that any winning record in the playoffs is a good record. Under Dungy, the Colts are 7 and 6 in the playoffs with one Superbowl. There are about 27 other teams in the league that would love to have a record like that. To the second, I say that Kravitz just doesn’t get it. The Colts culture isn’t a coddling or enabling culture at all. It’s just not the insane, thoughtless, cutthroat culture that can be found virtually everywhere else in the NFL. The Colts aren’t just about winning; they are about winning the right way.

Due to two blockbuster trades, the Pacers draft has been a rather confusing mess. The best summary of the draft that I’ve found said this:

When the trades are made official July 9, the Pacers’ will add Rush, Hibbert, Ford, Nesterovic, Baston, Jack, and McRoberts, while they will part ways with O’Neal, Diogu, Bayless, and Jawai — indicating more Pacers will be on their way out in the near future.

When you look at it like that, you can start to compare some of the players on a position by position basis. Let’s start with Diogu and Rush. I think Rush has an amazing upside and would have gone higher in last year’s draft had he not had the ACL injury. I also think that he’s ready to play in the NBA right now. Diogu is another young, athletic player with a lot of upside, and I know a few people who are looking to see big things from him in the near future. Diogu is also a bit taller than Rush and is more of a forward than a 2-guard. Rush may be able to play both positions.

Advantage: Rush

Next let’s look at O’Neal and Hibbert. It’s hard to lose a six-time All Star that still has a lot left in the tank, but O’Neal has big contract that would limit the team’s ability to bring in new talent. The question here really is can Hibbert fill O’Neal’s shoes? I think Hibbert is a beast. I don’t think he’ll every be the player O’Neal was on offense, but he has a good chance at being better than O’Neal on defense. At 7′2″ Hibbert has a few inches on O’Neal and Hibbert’s shot blocking ability at Georgetown was something to behold. Although O’Neal is an excellent defender, I like Hibbert’s prospects in this area. If you compare the players straight-up, O’Neal wins. Still, I think the reason this is a “win” for the Pacers is that they were able to get rid of O’Neal’s contract.

Advantage: O’Neal

Last, let’s look at the point guards, Bayless and Ford. Bayless was predicted as a top 5 pick in the NBA draft, but fell all the way to 11th. It’s obvious that the Pacers are moving away from young potential and towards older, more mature proven talent, so I can see why they would be willing to trade Bayless to a team that wanted a top 5 talent at a bargain price. Of course, Ford is arguably also top 5 talent, but he has been plagued by injuries. It’s obvious that Ford has the skills to play the point guard position at a high level, and he has certainly lacked a consistent team environment throughout his NBA career. I think personally the only way to compare these players is to pick which you would rather have: a highly rated prospect or a injury-plagued proven talent. I think Ford’s injuries have been pretty fluky and I think that at the time they were both drafted Ford had the higher ceiling.

Advantage: Ford

Of course, that leaves the rest of the players in this deal. I think the Pacers picked up competent bench players in Nesterovic and Jack, but I don’t know anything about Baston or Jawai. I think McRoberts should have stayed at Duke for at least one more year to develop a finishing move in the paint and show some ability to avoid collapsing under pressure. Really, the rest of these players are not all that impressive nor are they the focus of the trades.

On the whole, I think the Pacers made out pretty well. I also think that the size and scope of the trades will be an excellent referendum on the quality of Pacers Head Coach Jim O’Brien. He has a bunch of pretty good players, which appear to have been selected just for his style of play and which have been touted as NBA-ready. If he can’t make serious improvements in the next year or two, expect him to be feeling the heat.

It has been a statement week for the Purdue Men’s Basketball team, which has had back-to-back wins against two top ten teams. They have won their last ten games and sit atop the Big Ten Conference. Their latest victims have been Wisconsin, who had won their last 16 home conference games, and Michigan State, a veteran team with big expectations.

These two games had distinctly different flavors. The Wisconsin game was a masterful offensive performance against one of college basketball’s toughest defensive teams. The Boilers were 8 for 19 from three point range and shot better than 50% from the floor. The Michigan State game was a defensive showcase against a team with veteran ball handlers. The Boiler defense forced 17 turnovers and held Michigan State’s starters to 32 points for the game.

Over a month ago, there was an ESPN column that cited the three best teams in the Big Ten as Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan State. Next week Purdue will play Indiana in what promises to be the best rivalry matchup since the Keady – Knight years. Will Purdue manage to beat all of the Big Ten’s “best” teams in a 10 day span? I know I’ll be watching.

To the New England Patriots: Sorry about your legacy guys. Have fun in the off season. And don’t worry about the cheating thing. I’m sure Goodell will appease Arlen Specter while the Giants are out celebrating their win. Hey, maybe Tiki Barber will commiserate with you.

One of the reasons why I like sports, and football in particular, is that they are readily analogous to life. Over the football season, you can see life lessons in action and have an opportunity to learn from them. More importantly, it is easier to talk about football problems than real life problems from time to time. In real life, some topics become so sensitive that we can’t talk about them without bending over backwards to achieve a level of political correctness which ends up distracting us from resolving the deeper issues. This happens less often in sports or fiction.

The most amazing story in football this week has to be Kevin Everett’s seemingly astounding progress in recovering from a devastating neck injury. Life can throw difficulties like this your way from time to time. Car accidents with serious injuries and deaths happen every day. Seeing that people can handle these problems is both encouraging and inspiring.

Of course, there are also other injuries that happen as a result of football. I can’t say that I’ve ever been so passionate about football that I would get into a physical altercation about it. However, the analogy holds even in this extremely weird case. These folks had far more in common than they had differences. They both liked football. They both apparently liked the same bar. How many times does the human race fight over the tiny ways in which we differ?

The 2007 Football Season is upon us. Both the Colts and Boilermakers have gotten out of the gate with solid wins under their belts. Purdue beat Toledo last Saturday and will be playing Eastern Illinois tomorrow. I watched most of this game with a few friends, but we left before Dorien Bryant’s 91 yard kickoff return for a touchdown. He’s a burner that gives Purdue a legitimate threat to score any time he gets the ball. With an experienced quarterback and a solid offensive line, I’m looking forward to the season.

The Colts stole the show last night with a season opener against the New Orleans Saints. It was really cool to see the pre-game celebration in Indianapolis for the Colts Super Bowl victory, but seeing that all the changes on defense didn’t seem to affect them too badly was even more cool. I really didn’t expect them to hold New Orleans to 10 points. We’ll have to see how much of that was Indy’s defense and how much of that was first game miscues from New Orleans’ offense.

It’s such a wonderful feeling to get back to football.

This could be bad, bad news. Glenn has been an outstanding offensive lineman for years for the Colts. He went to the Pro Bowl last year. He’s been there for Manning’s entire professional career. Although my friends and I have joked that he’s always good for at least one false start per game, he’s a legit 330+ pound dude that protects Manning’s blind side at an elite level. Now there’s a chance that he could retire with a year left on his contract right before training came, and the Colts don’t have anyone lined up to replace him.

[Edited to add: It looks official now. However, this does kinda make the choice to trade up and draft Ugoh at this years NFL Draft seem a bit more prescient. If you recall, I was a bit confused about that move.]

The Indianapolis Colts have signed Dwight Freeney to a record contract and not one that requires him to sing. The contract is 6 years for 72 million, including 30 million in signing bonuses. John Clayton reports that as a result he will only count 5.75 million against the salary cap the next two years. The contract also means that the Colts won’t have to use their franchise tag on him, which raises the question whom will they use the franchise tag on?

Personally, I think the contract is a good move. I rate Freeney as the second best defensive end in the league with Julius Peppers the best. Since he’s signed early, the Colts can avoid the one-upmanship that might take place when other free agents at defensive end are signed. More importantly, he is the backbone of the defensive line. He fits perfectly into the style of defense the Colts play. I also think that contracts in the NFL are only really important for the first few years. It seems that they change with some regularity beyond that.

Despite all the preparations, it appears that the Dallas bid won the right to host the 2011 Superbowl. Although, I understand that there is a strong football tradition in Dallas and in Texas in general, I don’t think that a football tradition really matters much when it comes to the Superbowl, which is less and less about football and more and more about parties, media days, and advertising. The bottom line is that the NFL’s decision was based entirely on money and had virtually nothing to do with football, which truly bothers me as a fan.

Though, perhaps I should also be upset with the media. They lambasted the NFL’s decision to reward smaller markets like Jacksonville and northern markets like Detroit who have recently hosted Superbowls. Today on ESPN’s FirstTake, Skip Bayless claimed that the Superbowl should be a ‘reward’ for the players and said that as such it should be played in San Diego, Miami, New Orleans, or Honolulu.

Personally, I think that’s what the Pro Bowl is for and that the Superbowl should be a reward for the fans. Maybe I’m just biased since I’m not a part of the media elite that gets to go to the Superbowl every year. As a reward for the fans, I think it is important to make it accessible to the fans. This should mean that it goes to new cities as often as it has been over the last several years. Of course, Dallas has never hosted a Superbowl, so I can’t really be too upset on this criteria.

However, the one thing that really bothers me is that smaller markets have a lot of trouble building stadiums that can compete with larger markets. For example, the new Lucas Oil Stadium will cost $675 million and would be able to seat roughly 70,000 for a Superbowl. However, the new Dallas Stadium is now estimated to cost $1 billion and will be expandable to roughly 100,000 seats for a Superbowl. That’s 30,000 more seats at 500-1,000 bucks per occupant. This sort of disparity makes it very difficult for a smaller markets to build new stadiums. In fact, I would be willing to bet that Indy would never have been financially able to build this stadium without their pull in hosting NCAA Final Fours.

This is seriously detrimental to the league as a whole. Although the NFL can adopt revenue-sharing policies, it is almost certainly impossible to properly compensate the NFL cities for the lost revenue from a Superbowl. This revenue is commonly used in discussions as to how a city can help pay for a new stadium. Over the course of that one weekend, millions of dollars would flow through the city.

Every time a small market tries to build a stadium and uses the promise of hosting a Superbowl, but then fails to deliver on that promise the chances of that team’s owner pushing for a move to a larger media market increase. While this might make good business sense, it is devastating to the fans. Anyone from Indy or Baltimore should be particularly aware of just how possible this reality is, particularly with Los Angeles in the perpetual hunt for an NFL franchise.

Overall though, the NFL has done well in the past with regard to these decisions, but it remains to be seen how the small market – large market battle plays out under Goodell. Houston, Jacksonville, Detroit and Arizona have all built new stadiums and been able to host a Superbowl within a decade after building them. Kansas City and Indianapolis are the two small market teams hoping to host a Superbowl in their new stadiums in the coming decade, but I think it’s safe to say that as their stadiums get older it will be harder and harder for them to win the bid. The next four years will see Arizona (1st), Tampa Bay (4th), Miami (9th), and Dallas (1st) host the Superbowl. There are certainly those who want to see the interests of the small market protected, but I think the reality is (ironically) best stated in an article from the Dallas Morning News, which said:

But is there enough support from the small markets to deny North Texas? The winning bid requires 75 percent of the vote. After two ballots, the low vote-getter is eliminated. After three ballots, a fourth ballot would require just a simple majority.

There are 32 votes. Most of the NFL owners are successful businessmen. When money talks, they listen – and no one in the NFL talks money better than Jerry Jones.

The Colts selections are in! It appears that they are pleased with the results. As a fan though, I have to admit that I’m a bit puzzled. I went into the draft thinking the two spots we needed to fill first were at corner and linebacker because of the loss of Jason David and Cato June. However, we ended up drafting a wide receiver and an offensive lineman first.

I suppose I can understand getting a wide receiver if you think he’s the best player out there, but I don’t understand trading two picks to get into the second round and grab an offensive lineman. A friend of mine explained to me that Tarik Glenn is an Unrestricted Free Agent after this year, which explains the need a little bit more to me, but I am still a bit confused because the move seemed extreme to me. I guess I can’t complain. I mean, we did just win the Superbowl and all.