I had a weird moment today watching the UCLA-Oregon game. The Ducks have this running back with super quick feet. It seriously looked like he was playing Dance Dance Revolution out there as a he juked and avoided two, three, even four Bruin defenders at a time. He tore up UCLA in the second half and was a big part of the victory.
After one of this guy's impressive runs, the announcers were talking about him. One of them said something like "I wouldn't say put him in the tall cotton just yet". I'd never heard this saying before or anything like it. My buddy and were perplexed, to say the least. The player in question is African American, and putting two and two we came up with "What the hell?".
I tried looking up the term later, and all I got was that "tall cotton" refers to a time a plenty (ie. when the cotton crop grows tall). I guess it sorta made sense (maybe? or not?) if he was saying that the player himself is not yet "the tall cotton" on account of his limited playing time. But that just sounds weird, and it doesn't make a lot of sense given the way the sentence was constructed.
I'm not trying to make something out of this, and I seriously doubt the announcer meant anything negative by his comment. I'm just struggling to figure out what he meant.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Roster Math: QBs
We have 3 slots filled, and the next three are almost as easy.
QBs Philip Rivers, Mike Volek, and Charlie Whitehurst will in all likelihood fill the 3 QB spots this year.
Rivers is obviously locked in to a roster spot. It's now his offense and his team.
Volek is the 3 million dollar a year player who the Chargers hope never has to actually play. In case Rivers goes down for part of the year, the Chargers are betting that the Volektricity will be able to keep them going. The only reason, barring injury, why I could see him not making the team is if they determine that his play has fallen off dramatically, so much that it no longer warrants his price tag as a backup. I don't know of any evidence of that.
Whitehurst was a 3rd round draft pick with 4 years experience learning and practicing in the Chargers' system. He has no competition in camp for the 3rd QB spot. The team didn't even bring in a 4th QB as a camp arm (its reported that David Binn is filling his time by throwing to receivers in practice).
Whitehurst's only danger of being cut would come from the team deciding that the extra roster spot would be better suited for a player at another position. I doubt this happens, since risk of having only 2 QBs likely outweighs the reward of keeping another backup elsewhere. If they were to go that direction and one or both of the other two QBs were to go down, the Chargers would then likely have to scramble to bring in some currently unemployed QB as a backup or, heaven forbid, the starter. While we can't say just how good Whitehurst would be if pressed into service in a meaningful game, I think its safe to say that, with his 4 years of coaching and knowledge of the system, he would be preferable to someone who couldn't find work on any other NFL roster and had to scramble to learn the system.
This scenario is admittedly far fetched. The reality is that the Chargers QB depth chart will look as its looked the last 3 years: Rivers, Volek, Whitehurst.
That's 3 more roster spots accounted for, leaving 47.
QBs Philip Rivers, Mike Volek, and Charlie Whitehurst will in all likelihood fill the 3 QB spots this year.
Rivers is obviously locked in to a roster spot. It's now his offense and his team.
Volek is the 3 million dollar a year player who the Chargers hope never has to actually play. In case Rivers goes down for part of the year, the Chargers are betting that the Volektricity will be able to keep them going. The only reason, barring injury, why I could see him not making the team is if they determine that his play has fallen off dramatically, so much that it no longer warrants his price tag as a backup. I don't know of any evidence of that.
Whitehurst was a 3rd round draft pick with 4 years experience learning and practicing in the Chargers' system. He has no competition in camp for the 3rd QB spot. The team didn't even bring in a 4th QB as a camp arm (its reported that David Binn is filling his time by throwing to receivers in practice).
Whitehurst's only danger of being cut would come from the team deciding that the extra roster spot would be better suited for a player at another position. I doubt this happens, since risk of having only 2 QBs likely outweighs the reward of keeping another backup elsewhere. If they were to go that direction and one or both of the other two QBs were to go down, the Chargers would then likely have to scramble to bring in some currently unemployed QB as a backup or, heaven forbid, the starter. While we can't say just how good Whitehurst would be if pressed into service in a meaningful game, I think its safe to say that, with his 4 years of coaching and knowledge of the system, he would be preferable to someone who couldn't find work on any other NFL roster and had to scramble to learn the system.
This scenario is admittedly far fetched. The reality is that the Chargers QB depth chart will look as its looked the last 3 years: Rivers, Volek, Whitehurst.
That's 3 more roster spots accounted for, leaving 47.
Roster Math: Part 1
Fact: Football is wonderful. Amazing. Sustaining. A life giving seasonal rain in this harsh desert of existence we call life.
Sadly, not everything about football is positive and fun. The excitement of training camp is now in the air all across our nation, bringing with it the giddy anticipation of a new season just over the horizon. Looming unspoken among this excitement is the reality that professional football is still a business, one which requires cold and ruthless decisions to be made every year.
Cuts. 53 spots, that's all you get in the NFL. Arrange them however you like, but it has to add up to 53. Excesses of depth and talent at certain positions are often trimmed out in order to make roster spots available for inferior but necessary talent at others. Like most NFL team the Chargers face this dilemma every year. In recent years the cold hard arithmetic of building has forced them to part ways with many talented players, often veterans. Many of these players end up signing with and even starting and starring for rival NFL teams. In most cases I think the Bolts would have been happy to keep them, but the roster spots simply weren't there.
In anticipation of our 2009 Charger season (and to kill some time until it gets here), I've decided to post some thoughts about what direction I think the Chargers are likely to go in building their roster for this year. Given the complexity and wordiness required by this topic this will be a multi part series. All predictions here are based on the assumption that no players endure a serious injury during the preseason. I have a fairly strong grasp of the main roster but know very little about the Undrafted Free Agents or practice squad players. That ignorance may hurt my predictions, but given the strength of the roster already I doubt more than one guy makes the jump from camp fodder to the 53 man squad (again, barring injury).
Lets start with the easy positions: Special teams.
Nate Kaeding, Mike Scifres, David Binn.
All among the best, if not the best, at their position. All under contract for the foreseeable future. Unless some other position player learns to long snap as well as Binn (highly doubtful), all three are locked in with their roster spots as secure as anyone on the team.
That's 3 down. 50 spots left.
Sadly, not everything about football is positive and fun. The excitement of training camp is now in the air all across our nation, bringing with it the giddy anticipation of a new season just over the horizon. Looming unspoken among this excitement is the reality that professional football is still a business, one which requires cold and ruthless decisions to be made every year.
Cuts. 53 spots, that's all you get in the NFL. Arrange them however you like, but it has to add up to 53. Excesses of depth and talent at certain positions are often trimmed out in order to make roster spots available for inferior but necessary talent at others. Like most NFL team the Chargers face this dilemma every year. In recent years the cold hard arithmetic of building has forced them to part ways with many talented players, often veterans. Many of these players end up signing with and even starting and starring for rival NFL teams. In most cases I think the Bolts would have been happy to keep them, but the roster spots simply weren't there.
In anticipation of our 2009 Charger season (and to kill some time until it gets here), I've decided to post some thoughts about what direction I think the Chargers are likely to go in building their roster for this year. Given the complexity and wordiness required by this topic this will be a multi part series. All predictions here are based on the assumption that no players endure a serious injury during the preseason. I have a fairly strong grasp of the main roster but know very little about the Undrafted Free Agents or practice squad players. That ignorance may hurt my predictions, but given the strength of the roster already I doubt more than one guy makes the jump from camp fodder to the 53 man squad (again, barring injury).
Lets start with the easy positions: Special teams.
Nate Kaeding, Mike Scifres, David Binn.
All among the best, if not the best, at their position. All under contract for the foreseeable future. Unless some other position player learns to long snap as well as Binn (highly doubtful), all three are locked in with their roster spots as secure as anyone on the team.
That's 3 down. 50 spots left.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Happy Birthday, Mr. President!
Our illustrious supreme leader turned 48 today (in Earth years). White House press room fixture Helen Thomas was also celebrating her birthday (89 and still kicking!) and so our President behaved in a manner befitting his Messianic nature by thinking of others first on his special day.
I wonder if he baked those himself. He's probably busy, so maybe he just frosted them. It would have been a really cool way for the President to show up the nutbags opposed to health care reform if he had joked about Ms. Thomas "rationing" out the cupcakes. I can only imagine the insane frothing which would have resulted.
I wonder if he baked those himself. He's probably busy, so maybe he just frosted them. It would have been a really cool way for the President to show up the nutbags opposed to health care reform if he had joked about Ms. Thomas "rationing" out the cupcakes. I can only imagine the insane frothing which would have resulted.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Meatheads
The gym I go to is serves a community of mostly college students, graduate students, faculty and staff. One would think that this collection of high quality grey matter would be able to understand simple instructions and concepts, even for things unfamiliar to many of the brainy set, such as going to the gym. One would be wrong in this assumption.
Almost every time I go to workout I am confronted by at least one example of some piece of gym equipment being misused or abused, or someone exercising in an incorrect manner. The latter is more understandable than the former, given how much bad information and misinformation is out there regarding exercise.
Nevertheless, you would think that just by watching someone else do a proper workout you would pick up a few things. Yet almost every day I see someone butchering that simplest of weight exercises, the bench press. Earth to gym people: its not a bench press if you only bring it down three inches and then push it back up. It doesn't make you stronger if you lift your hips and bow your back like you're trying to do yoga on the bench. Lie flat on your back, bring it down to your chest, push it back up. Its just about the simplest exercise you can do.
When you're down with your bench press, maybe you'll want to do some curls or shoulder presses. That's all good. Now when you're done with that, do everyone a big favor and put the weights back on the correct rack. Preferably side by side, without taking up the middle two of the four open spaces on the rack.
To be fair, these are mild complaints. My biggest gym peeve is the flat out abuse of the exercise bike foot straps. They are clearly labeled with and "R" and an "L". They don't work if you put the L where the R is supposed to go, or vice versa. They don't look right, they don't feel right. They just get bent out of shape and eventually ripped apart. I would say that this is why we can't have nice things, but the stupid straps aren't even nice! I've long since given up using them because they were always ripped up and never available.
Its gotten so bad that the gym now has its few remaining foot straps at the desk, and you have to ask for them if you want them. You would think that would be a foolproof system, right? The desk gives you an R and an L, and you put them on like so. Ha! Sure enough, today I looked down at the bikes and saw the L and the R reversed on not one bike but two!
Almost every time I go to workout I am confronted by at least one example of some piece of gym equipment being misused or abused, or someone exercising in an incorrect manner. The latter is more understandable than the former, given how much bad information and misinformation is out there regarding exercise.
Nevertheless, you would think that just by watching someone else do a proper workout you would pick up a few things. Yet almost every day I see someone butchering that simplest of weight exercises, the bench press. Earth to gym people: its not a bench press if you only bring it down three inches and then push it back up. It doesn't make you stronger if you lift your hips and bow your back like you're trying to do yoga on the bench. Lie flat on your back, bring it down to your chest, push it back up. Its just about the simplest exercise you can do.
When you're down with your bench press, maybe you'll want to do some curls or shoulder presses. That's all good. Now when you're done with that, do everyone a big favor and put the weights back on the correct rack. Preferably side by side, without taking up the middle two of the four open spaces on the rack.
To be fair, these are mild complaints. My biggest gym peeve is the flat out abuse of the exercise bike foot straps. They are clearly labeled with and "R" and an "L". They don't work if you put the L where the R is supposed to go, or vice versa. They don't look right, they don't feel right. They just get bent out of shape and eventually ripped apart. I would say that this is why we can't have nice things, but the stupid straps aren't even nice! I've long since given up using them because they were always ripped up and never available.
Its gotten so bad that the gym now has its few remaining foot straps at the desk, and you have to ask for them if you want them. You would think that would be a foolproof system, right? The desk gives you an R and an L, and you put them on like so. Ha! Sure enough, today I looked down at the bikes and saw the L and the R reversed on not one bike but two!
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Right Choice
It was forty years ago today that human beings first set foot on the moon. The first moonwalk (or probably more accurately, moon hop) was the culmination of years of effort put into the Apollo Program at a cost of billions of dollars and, tragically, at least 3 human lives. The Program itself was built upon thousands of years of human advancement in science and technology.
The Apollo program ranks with the Manhattan project as the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century, and as one of the greatest of mankind's achievements in age. I think it goes without saying that it represents the best that humanity has to offer in terms of knowledge, ingenuity, and sheer force of will. All too often the skills of mankind have been turned to devious, crass, immoral or inhumane purposes, and what the Apollo program represents, more than just the conquering of a frontier, is what our species can accomplish peacefully and creatively.
Naturally, its easy to point out that the Apollo program was merely an extension of the American military industrial complex, and the entire space race was merely a measuring contest between two rival superpowers who owned the most deadly arsenals in the history of the world. Its also easy to point out how many a select Congressional district was the benefit of NASA largess, something which no doubt helped to push the program forward with such speed and enthusiasm.
These criticisms, while valid, should not overshadow the incredible achievements of NASA and the Apollo program. It was an accomplishment of will and spirit and guts as well as science. President Kennedy's famous speech to Rice University, excerpted here, addressed the goal of a moon landing not as something to hope for or dream about but as something we would do because it was worth doing in itself.
"We choose to go to the moon"
It sounds like hubris or perhaps bluster, and perhaps it is, but its also a reminder of the potential of mankind in those brief moments when we decide to pursue great things.
The Apollo program ranks with the Manhattan project as the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century, and as one of the greatest of mankind's achievements in age. I think it goes without saying that it represents the best that humanity has to offer in terms of knowledge, ingenuity, and sheer force of will. All too often the skills of mankind have been turned to devious, crass, immoral or inhumane purposes, and what the Apollo program represents, more than just the conquering of a frontier, is what our species can accomplish peacefully and creatively.
Naturally, its easy to point out that the Apollo program was merely an extension of the American military industrial complex, and the entire space race was merely a measuring contest between two rival superpowers who owned the most deadly arsenals in the history of the world. Its also easy to point out how many a select Congressional district was the benefit of NASA largess, something which no doubt helped to push the program forward with such speed and enthusiasm.
These criticisms, while valid, should not overshadow the incredible achievements of NASA and the Apollo program. It was an accomplishment of will and spirit and guts as well as science. President Kennedy's famous speech to Rice University, excerpted here, addressed the goal of a moon landing not as something to hope for or dream about but as something we would do because it was worth doing in itself.
"We choose to go to the moon"
It sounds like hubris or perhaps bluster, and perhaps it is, but its also a reminder of the potential of mankind in those brief moments when we decide to pursue great things.
Getting closer
Just one week left.
Till what, you ask?
Oh, like you had to ask. What, you really don't know?
One week till Camp! Oh boy! Camp!
So get out your tent, pack some s'mores, and for god sakes sign your remaining draft picks so they can get in on time!
Till what, you ask?
Oh, like you had to ask. What, you really don't know?
One week till Camp! Oh boy! Camp!
So get out your tent, pack some s'mores, and for god sakes sign your remaining draft picks so they can get in on time!
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