Archive for November, 2005

I have all the respect in the world for the job Lorenzo Romar has done at UW, esp. since he used to coach at my alma mater and I have never before been impressed with him as a coach. How he suddenly got smart and became a good coach is beyond me, but full props for what he’s done in Seattle.

That said, the papers today (Weds.) have some stories talking about his uncertainty over continuing the UW-Gonzaga series. In and of itself, that would stink. But his reasoning is beyond me:

“One thing that certainly helps is if we can be successful,” he said. “If one side is successful and the other isn’t, it’s not much of a rivalry.”

Romar added that his comments were aimed at his own program.

So the message, if I understand correctly, is … We don’t want to play Gonzaga if we’re not a good team. For real? Is that the message you want to get across to young men? “Hey guys, when the going gets tough, let’s make our schedule easier!” Nice one, LoRo.

Isn’t this getting fun? Now the NFL has issued a statement denying that they apologized to the Seahawks about the missed calls on Sunday, and also saying that neither call was wrong.

You have to follow along here. They’re refuting the wire service article posted on NFL.com and elsewhere. But, that article never claims that the league apologized. The article says

“…practically speaking, teams usually get nothing more than a “sorry” if the league agrees with a coach’s contention…”

That’s different from saying the NFL apologized to the Seahawks. Danny O’Neil’s article in the P-I also never claims outright the league said “sorry,” but he does compare the league’s contact with Mike Holmgren to saying sorry.

The NFL denial also says the officiating department never discussed the Amani Toomer TD catch. It makes no such claim about the Shockey TD, which is another way of saying that’s what the league and the Hawks talked about.

In the end, if there’s an issue to be made here, it’s that the league almost seems to be calling Holmgren a liar. Because their denial contradicts Holmgren’s statement in the wire service story…

“I had a conversation with the league, and there were mistakes that were made, which we felt at the time….”

and also contradicts all the info. Danny O’Neil used in his story, which presumably came from Holmgren, too.

Bottom line: I can’t see Holmgren or the Seahawks making a big stink about this. They have way more important things to worry about than a contradictory denial from the NFL about officiating mistakes.

Oh, yeah. Ben’s comment on Sunday’s game recap reminded me of the article I saw in the TC Herald this morning, which is also covered by Danny O’Neil in the P-I. Namely – the NFL called the Hawks to admit the officials were wrong on the two questionable Giants’ TDs.

The league contacted the Seahawks on Monday, and said both of the Giants’ touchdown catches should have been overturned. Jeremy Shockey didn’t get both feet down on his second-quarter catch before Marquand Manuel knocked the ball free, and Amani Toomer didn’t get both feet in-bounds on his fourth-quarter touchdown that allowed the Giants to tie the score with 1:59 left.

Fate is certainly smiling on Seattle, because these same errors have happened in years past — in games the Hawks went on to lose. Not this year. Not yet.

So I’m watching NFL Network late last night (in between plays on Madden ‘06) and I see on their scroller that the Hawks-Giants game is one of their “Game of the Week” games*. It’ll be featured on Thursday at 6 pm PT — if you’ve never seen it, be sure to watch. It’s a highlight show using those incredible NFL Films cameras with all the great sideline shots and sideline audio that you’ve seen before. I was hoping the Hawks-Cowboys game would be G-O-W that week, but they picked something else.

And I thought the Cowboys game was a thriller. This one … holy !$@#%!, that was unbelievable. Where do you even begin?

I’ll start with the Seahawk fans. Give yourself credit for this one. When you’re loud enough to cause 11 false start penalties, that’s big time volume. Makes you smile just imagining the Hawks having home field advantage through the playoffs. When they weren’t backing up on yellow flags, the Giants offense had little trouble moving the ball — 490 net yards is proof. So those 114 penalty yards were huge.

Next … the Shockey TD was not a TD. How on earth do you not reverse that call?

Next … Tiki Barber’s long run in OT … did anyone else see him clow down and coast out of bounds once he got into what he thought was field goal range? What if he had kept running hard and tried to fight off Andre Dyson rather than go OB at the Hawks’ 31-yard-line? Maybe he gets another 5-10 yards and Feely doesn’t come up short on the FG….

Next … Lofa Tatupu and Marcus Trufant both played well, especially making some solid, open field tackles.

Next … Great to see Holmgren go for it on 4th down late in the game, when Alexander’s TD made it 21-13. I was afraid he was about to get all conservative and take the three points. And even better was his Time Out call in the OT which led to the officials’ reversal of the Shockey catch-and-fumble.

The win is great, but there are plenty of things not to be happy about — things I thought the Hawks had cured this season. Giving up a ton of yards is on the top of that list. Shockey and Burress had no trouble getting open, and Tiki Barber had a big day on the ground. Hasselbeck also seemed unsure of himself from the 2nd quarter on. That INT was a brainfart just like the old days. Can’t make dumb mistakes like that. Shaun Alexander didn’t run with any aggression until the 2nd half. The offense as a whole seemed to play not to lose, rather than to win, in the OT. There will be plenty of things for the Seahawks to continue working on, no matter how great it was to pull out a win like this.

Let’s hope Kelly Herndon isn’t hurt too bad. Let’s hope Tony Siragusa never calls another Seahawks game.

Link: NFL.com Recap

Game ball: Joe Jurevicius was THE MAN today. 8 catches, 137 yards, 2 TDs. Get this: all 8 of his catches today were either a first down or a touchdown. On the other side of the ball, that Osi Umenyiora dude was terrific. I’ve never seen anyone make Walter Jones look that bad.

Play of the game: MattHass’s 38-yard strike to DJ Hackett in the OT. The offense had been playing something that looked like the old four corners thing in college basketball, just sitting on the ball and not trying anything downfield. I’m yelling at the TV — “throw the ball downfield, stop playing it safe” and they did. Finally.

Next up: Monday night at Philly. Without Donovan McNabb and T.O., the Eagles are not nearly as scary as they were 3-4 weeks ago when we started talking about this game. It’s a game the Hawks should win. But it won’t be easy. Not in Philadelphia on a Monday night.

I was telling my son this about a week ago: This is probably the best football season I’ve ever lived through*. Both of my favorite teams are having great years: Notre Dame and the Seahawks. I cannot wait each week for the weekend — Saturdays are great, and Sundays even better. I’m getting ZERO fall yardwork done. Running errands? Heh. Only in the morning if the Irish or Hawks are playing later.

Among a great many more important things, I’m thankful for this incredible football season. Let’s hope it lasts through January.

The Boston Herald says today that Manny Ramirez woke up one day recently and decided he wouldn’t mind playing for the Mariners. And writer Michael Silverman responsibly points out that “Ramirez has been known to change his mind and that his current desire to be traded could cool altogether.”

For their part, the M’s sound like the high school nerd who suddenly gets asked to the prom by the hottest girl in school.

A Mariners source said last night that the club has not been focused on Ramirez but trying to obtain a left-handed slugger to complement righties Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson.

In other words, “Wow. Really? Us? Ummmmmmm … (stammers) … ummmmmmmmm … okay. I guess.”

“Not in a million years” is my gut reaction to this, no matter how great it would be to have his bat in the lineup (who cares what side of the plate he hits from). Money will get in the way — how much other salary would the M’s have to shed if they take him on and still hope to find some starting pitching? Too much. And then there’s the recent edict from management that they’re looking for leaders, guys with good character. Manny doesn’t quite fit that description. He’s like baseball’s Randy Moss — amazing talent, but takes some plays off and his head isn’t always there. Still, could you resist the allure if the opportunity moves closer to reality?

Another slow waltz between the city of Portland and Major League Baseball appears to be starting, though it’s anyone’s guess if the two sides will even make it to the dance floor.

John Hunt reports in the Oregonian today that the Florida Marlins are willing to relocate, and Portland wants them. The article lays it all out nicely – it may come to nothing, if Florida and Miami officials can come up with a way to keep the team there. But as a baseball fan who would love another big league team out here, I’ll be rooting against the folks in the sunshine state.

And by now you’ve read or heard about the Mariners’ signing of Japanese catcher Kenji Johjima. And I’m guessing most of you, like me, have no clue if the guy can catch in the big leagues, no clue if he’s worth $5.5 million a year, etc.

But keep this in mind: He cannot be worse than the motley crew of catchers the M’s trotted out in 2005. Right? Right.

All the focus is — and will be — about the language barrier. (You mean no one remembers Ron Fairly’s Rules of Pitching? How hard can it be to go out to the mound and say “Throw strikes” and “Keep the ball down”?) Anyway … more so than the language barrier, to me at least, is that Johjima knows nothing, or very little, about the hitters in the big leagues. Even guys down in the minors get to watch big league games and are familiar with big league hitters from just being here. Not Johjima. He will need to be a quick learner.

If you missed the Gonzaga vs. Michigan State game tonight on ESPN, you missed what has to be considered one of the all-time great college basketball games. It was an odd situation, though, because the game was in Hawaii in a small gym where only a small percentage of the crowd were Bulldog or Spartan supporters. So it didn’t have the same anxiety and tension from the crowd that you’d get during March Madness. But on the floor, the play was as scintillating as you could ever hope for — whether November or March.

Oh, cool – I just went looking for some stats from the game, and found Jim O’Connell’s AP recap:

The rest of college basketball has all season to try and match this one.

Adam Morrison set a tournament record with 43 points and No. 8 Gonzaga beat No. 12 Michigan State 109-106 in triple overtime Tuesday night in the semifinals of the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

If the game was played in March instead of late November, it would have gone down as one of the sport’s classics. It still should.

If you missed the game, be sure to read O’Connell’s story. Adam Morrison was out of this world. (I know … big surprise hearing me say that!) Maurice Ager from MSU almost matched him shot-for-shot in the 2nd half and the OTs. At one point, the two teams combined to hit 39 straight free throws after halftime.

This was basketball excellence, and I am SO ready for the rest of the college hoops season…..