Year: 2015

The new Beckham mesmerizing America

Chris McGlynn Football, NFL ,

In the early 2000s, the United States saw soccer superstar David Beckham leave the English Premier League and venture into Major League Soccer. This spawned a huge uptick in soccer interest across the country. This was the big name player on the world stage choosing the MLS as his new home. Beckham retired some years ago from soccer but there is a new Beckham taking America by storm from East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The world was introduced to Odell Cornelious Beckham Jr. a few weeks ago on Sunday Night Football. The Giants took on the division rival Cowboys at MetLife Stadium that night. Beckham started just his seventh career NFL game in New Jersey and he made a name for himself with just one play. You can hear NBC commentator Cris Collinsworth say in the broadcast that it may have been the greatest catch that he had ever seen. Twitter exploded. ESPN had a field day. Athletes all over the US reacted. Little did we know that it wasn’t even the best we would see of the Giants rookie we would see this year.

The Giants would lose that game to Dallas but no one seemed to care. Beckham had already been producing well. Three weeks before that Cowboys game, against Indianapolis, the LSU product racked up the incredible catch with an 8-catch 156-yard performance. Then against Seattle two weeks before the Dallas game, matched up with one of the best cover corners in the league in Richard Sherman, Beckham registered 7 catches for 108 yards. And in San Francisco, the talented rookie had 6 grabs for 93 more yards. After Beckham’s unreal catch against Dallas he had a solid week against Jacksonville with 7 catches and 90 yards before exploding again for 11 receptions and 130 yards against Tennessee just last week.

Today, Beckham returned to New Jersey to take on rival Washington. He dominated the entire day with 12 grabs for 143 yards and three touchdowns. Odell’s athleticism and massive hands have been too much for defensive backs to handle week in and week out. Beckham has made Eli Manning look like a much better quarterback over the past 9 weeks that he has been playing, coming down with a number of ridiculous jump balls.

The collective body of work has already thrown Beckham into the Pro Bowl conversation with only ten games played. The Offensive Rookie of the Year award will likely go to either the Giants wideout or Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans. Numbers do not fully cover how incredible Beckham has been but they are still impressive. In his very short career, he has racked up 71 catches for 972 yards and 9 touchdowns. That is usually a pretty good rookie season for a lot of rookies. What is even more impressive is that those 71 catches come on just 84 targets. That is an unbelievable ratio, especially when looking at the rest of the league. Before today’s games, Roddy White and Kelvin Benjamin have the same number of catches (59) on 85 and 110 targets respectively. Beckham only had 69 targets.

This kid from LSU is exciting to watch and Giants fans have to be excited for his potential. It is a very small sample size but Beckham has exceled without having a full offseason under his belt. I am not going to say that everyone should expect this same production next season because receivers are often susceptible to that sophomore slump. But Beckham should be a top-5 receiver year in year out if he continues to play like he has this season. You have to wonder too how dangerous this Giants passing attack could be if Victor Cruz was healthy and drawing coverage from Beckham as well. The point is, don’t be surprised when this guy is dominating secondarys over the next couple of years barring injury. Beckham might turn out to be the best of this outstanding rookie wide receiver class. Only time will tell.

What does the Alex Poythress injury mean for Kentucky?

Chris McGlynn Basketball, NCAAM

Thursday brought some terrible news to the number one ranked Wildcats. The team learned that junior forward Alex Poythress was lost for the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Poythress sustained the injury without contact in practice on Thursday will shooting a lay-up. It will go down as a freak injury for Kentucky’s oldest starter. The question is can Kentucky shake off this injury and continue to play as the best team in the nation?

It will be a tough task but my initial thought is no. Poythress was a valuable cog in the system John Calipari runs which features two different lines of players that Coach Cal rotates in throughout the game. The two usually get mostly equal playing time. So when looking at Poythress’ numbers, it doesn’t look like Kentucky is missing much with him gone. The forward was only averaging 5.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. When you factor in that he was only playing about half of every game, those numbers start to count a bit more. That becomes a chunk of that platoon’s effectiveness. This blow to the starting line hurts more than the numbers will show.

So that would be that, except then you look at Kentucky’s remaining schedule. The Wildcats only have two games remaining against ranked opponents. Coach Cal’s squad plays a UNC team on Saturday that has been struggling recently to score points. Kentucky has one of the nation’s best defenses and has routinely blown out opponents who cannot find a way to keep pace. The country’s top team then will travel to fourth-ranked Louisville for the battle of Kentucky in late December. That could be the only game Kentucky loses all year in the regular season. After that, they begin SEC play and the SEC does not have a single ranked team outside of the Wildcats. The only other difficult games on this schedule would be in a week against a high-scoring UCLA team or in early February when Kentucky travels to Gainesville to take on Florida. The Gators have lost a couple of close games early in the year but will be tough to beat on its home court.

Looking at this, the loss of Poythress definitely hurts the Wildcats but I still think college basketball’s deepest team will be a top-four team come Selection Sunday in March, earning a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. I think this team is still the safest bet to make the Final Four. I don’t know if Kentucky is all but a lock to win a National Championship anymore. The games coming up in the next two weeks will let us know how well Kentucky can adjust to not having Poythress. I think this team has enough talent to make up for it. Now we just have to wait and see.

Taking the first step

Chris McGlynn Football, NFL, Social Issues , ,

I know I have been talking about this a lot recently but the story continues to develop. Yesterday afternoon the 31 NFL owners (the Green Bay Packers do not have an owner because they are owned by their fans) unanimously agreed to begin implementing a new player conduct policy. It mainly deals with disciplinary actions in cases mostly related to family violence. These are obviously in response to the chaos that ensued with the cases surrounding Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. The policy sets the protocol for how the NFL should respond if another case similar to either of theirs arises in the future. Implementing this policy doesn’t solve everything but it is certainly a start.

The biggest accomplishment of the new policy is weakening NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. It allows for the use of independent investigations and a special counsel who will “oversee the initial discipline” according to ESPN.com. The issue is that the commissioner still plays a role in the appeals process and now permitted to appoint private experts who help with the decision. That is a lot of power for the commissioner to have. It also keeps Goodell involved in the process in general which is not something I am particularly keen on seeing continue after Rice and Peterson were treated with so much leniency.
I say get Goodell out of the question entirely. The NFL commissioner is meant to work for the goal of improving the league as a whole, not playing judge in situations where he does not have the background to handle to problem properly. It seems as though he is desperately clinging on to power that he really should not have been entitled to in the first place. If Goodell really wants to continue serving as commissioner then he needs to have a better understanding of what that means. He cannot be controlling all from his office and slowly making himself untouchable. He is becoming corrupt with this power and seems reluctant to relinquish any of it.

So like I said, this is a good first step. The next step now is getting Goodell out of the equation when it comes to player discipline and moving those issues to an independent third party who can make an informed decision without any influence from anywhere else. Goodell has proven that he can be influenced. After discovering the public and his precious sponsor’s reactions to his light punishment for Rice, Goodell reversed course and went to the other extreme suspending him indefinitely. This is no longer a question of can whether Goodell can handle this responsibility. He can’t and he needs to be replaced in this capacity. If that day does not come in the near future, then it is time for the league to move in a different direction and hire a new commissioner to run the NFL.

Athletes recognizing social issues

Chris McGlynn Basketball, Football, NBA, NFL, Social Issues , ,

Athletes have always been among the most polarizing people on Earth. They have the mostly unwavering attention of the media. Many of them are known in all corners of the world. These past few days, those same athletes, mainly of the NBA and NFL have been testing how influential they can be when stepping outside of the world of sports.

One week ago, a grand jury decided not to indict a police officer for the strangulation of a unarmed black man by the name of Eric Garner. The outrage following the decision has been seen nationwide already before a handful of players took it to the next level. A handful of players from both the NFL and the NBA wore shirts with the words “I Can’t Breathe” emblazoned on them as a response. It started with Derrick Rose this past Saturday night in Chicago, then continued with Reggie Bush Sunday in Detroit even made it to the West Coast with Kobe Bryant and his Lakers teammates donning shirts on Tuesday. The most notable gesture came Monday night in Brooklyn, not far where Garner’s murder took place, when the world’s most polarizing athlete LeBron James walked onto the court sporting an “I Can’t Breathe” shirt. ESPN had a field day with the story (as they do with just about anything James does). LeBron handled every question asked with a level head that displayed his social awareness and his desire to support Garner’s family in this difficult time.

This comes on the heels of a much more controversial sports protest against a major social issue. On November 30, five members came out of the tunnel before a home game with their hands held up in surrender, clearly in reference to the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The act sparked controversy with the St. Louis Police Department and they immediately demanded an apology. To the credit of both the league and the Rams organization, they refused to issue an apology or punish the players in any way. I tend to be very critical of the NFL but I am genuinely proud of the league’s decision to let these players speak their mind without any repercussions.

These also are not just uninformed athletes deciding to get involved. Rose pointed out that some of these athletes can relate to these issues. In an article from Bleacher Report, the Bulls’ guard stated, “I grew up and I saw it every day,” Rose said. “Not killing or anything like that, but I saw the violence every day. Just seeing what can happen. If anything, I’m just trying to change the kids’ minds across the nation and it starts here.”  I am glad that these athletes are taking the time to speak their minds and open up about the world around them. It is rare that we see this side of them because of how genuinely obsessed our nation is with their performance on the court or field.

It may not be much, but it is a start. It presents an uncommon source of spreading social awareness. You do not have to agree with all the statements these athletes are making to recognize the importance of what they are doing. This affects everyone. LeBron said it himself in an interview with ESPN, “It’s not a [Cavaliers] thing; it’s a worldly thing…. As a society we have to do better, we have to be better for one another, no matter what race you are.” That speaks volumes to me about what this means to athletes. Hopefully, we will continue to see more athletes speaking their mind about pressing social issues. Too often, they are relegated to an observer in these cases because of the role they play in representing an organization. I still have hope that this could lead to a positive change as well, but only time with tell.

Goodell nominated for Time’s Person of the Year and I hope he wins

Chris McGlynn Football, NFL, Social Issues

Tuesday brought to the world the news that Time magazine had released its list of candidates for their annual “Person of the Year” distinction. On this 8 person (well not exactly because there are two groups on it) list included NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. I read the headline NBC Sports headline at first and I actually laughed out loud. I figured “Goodell a finalist for Time’s Person of the Year” was just a mock article that someone had written to poke fun at the often-criticized commissioner. But it turns out that it was a legitimate article announcing Goodell’s inclusion. It is definitely time for a second look at this one.

It is not as bad as it sounds believe it or not. Even though the title has a very positive distinction, the award actually goes to the person Time feels has had the most influence on the news over the past year, whether positive or negative. The NBC article goes on to point out that this could be a perfect opportunity for Time to bring up all of the issues surrounding Goodell that have made headlines over the past year.

Now, I have been calling for Goodell’s dismissal or resignation for some time now. This is the same man who botched the handling of Ray Rice’s suspension after a domestic violence scandal, eventually allowing for Rice’s early reinstatement. He failed to act when Adrian Peterson was indicted for beating his son with a switch. He has been wholly ineffective in improving the game of football for the NFL. His so called “major accomplishments” this season regarding rule changes that outline consequences for domestic violence came as a result of lack of protocol when issues arose, not any sort of forward thinking. I would love for Time to pick Goodell and take another shot at shaming the maligned commissioner into stepping down from his position he obviously no longer deserves.

I have some confidence that Goodell could win too. The only way he definitely chalk up a loss is if he was running against FIFA President Sepp Blatter (if you want some context for who he is, watch this video. Some of the language is not appropriate for children but the message is thorough and comprehensive). Goodell is really in consideration with “Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, singer Taylor Swift, Ebola caregivers, and protestors in Ferguson, Missouri” according to NBC Sports. It is a very odd mix of candidates but all of them have made the news in some way or another.

Goodell was certainly in a tough situation that was for the most part new to any commissioner of a major sports league but that does not mean we should pardon Goodell for his shortcomings. I sincerely hope Time puts Goodell in his place and uses this as a means to spark enough controversy to finally enact the change that should have happened months ago.