Cheers and Jeers: Buffs send Big Red packing and the Pats are the worst
Sep 13, 2019, 6:00 AM
Cheers | Buffs Nation’s big win over Big Red
Pardon me. I need to take a second in order to get this out …
Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
Congrats to (Is this really happening?) the University of Colorado (gag) for its big come-from-behind win over Nebraska this past weekend.
As hard as it is to admit, especially after they beat up on my Colorado State Rams over Labor Day weekend, the Buffaloes appear to be on the come up.
And what a fantastic game. The Buffs stormed back from down 17 at halftime to stun the Huskers in overtime.
… Too bad CU fans weren’t there to witness it.
Jeers | Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots
It honestly doesn’t bother me, the cheating stuff — deflated footballs, videotaping sidelines and whatnot. In the grand scheme of things, players and coaches of every era of professional sports have pushed the boundaries of what’s within the rules on the field.
The Patriots’ issue, however, lies with what’s acceptable off the field.
Allegedly contributing to the scourge that is sex trafficking by soliciting a prostitute at a Florida massage parlor. Oh, and don’t forget the murders perpetrated by one of Tom Terrific’s favorite on-field weapons.
The sexual assault allegations levied against Antonio Brown this week are the just latest example that winning isn’t just everything in New England, it’s the only thing that matters.
Cheers | To the Broncos never (hopefully) playing on a baseball field again
In an organization that deals in the billions — billions with a big, fat “B” — how is it conceivable that NFL games are being played in the same area that Oakland A’s players turn double plays?
There were several accounts of Denver Broncos players affected by the substandard playing surface at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum during the final “Monday Night Football” game in the stadium this week.
But hey, at least it’s not an 80-yard field in Winnipeg. Maybe it’s a Raiders thing.
Jeers | Nugget-on-Nugget crime
On Sunday, Denver Nuggets all-star Nikola Jokic lost his temper, as he’s done many times in his budding NBA career.
Playing for his home country of Serbia against Spain in the FIBA World Cup, Jokic took exception to a double-team from center Marc Gasol and, of all people, his Nuggets teammate Juancho Hernangomez.
After a few choice words with the referee, Jokic unceremoniously exited the game with just six points and five rebounds.
Bruh. Relax. This is your teammate, Nikola. Playing in the FIBA World Cup is a nice feather in your cap, but the NBA is your bread and butter.
Don’t go potentially spoiling your team chemistry with a tantrum during an exhibition halfway around the world.
Cheers | The new — and growing — MLB single-season home run mark
Chicks dig the longball. And there have been plenty to admire this season.
In fact, officially more home runs have been hit since late March than any other previous MLB season. Unofficially (despite ESPN’s best efforts), 2019 is the “Year of the Home Run.”
Good. Home runs are fun.
Growing up blissfully ignorant in the steroid era, baseball never looked as good to me as when Big Mac and Sammy were smacking moonshots all across the U.S.
Don’t get me wrong. A good pitchers duel is incredibly entertaining. But so is watching a hitter launch a baseball to outrageous heights and distances.
So, what if the baseballs are juiced? We’re less than a decade removed from the unofficial (despite Wikipedia’s best efforts) “Year of the Pitcher” in 2010. They could stand being taken down a peg or two.
Plus, these things are cyclical. Eventually, people will get bored of dingers and the pendulum will swing back in favor of heroic hurlers.
Jeers | Alabama going all big brother on students
Apparently, the University of Alabama has excellence problem. They’re so good it’s becoming increasingly hard to keep the attention of its students during blowout games against directional schools.
Rough times down Tuscaloosa, I’ll tell ya.
In a new effort to keep Tide fans from rolling out too soon, the school is penalizing students for leaving before the fourth quarter by tracking them through a phone app.
Alabama students use the FanMaker app, facilitated by the Tide Athletics Department, in order to earn points to receive priority ticketing.
Attend the game, get 100 points. Stay an hour, get 100 points. Find the will to make it to the fourth quarter, that’s 250 big ones.
Not only does it make my skin crawl that the university is using a phone app to track its students location at all points during a game, but if the on-field entertainment isn’t … well … entertaining, why punish the consumer?
Plus, college kids being college kids, have already found loopholes in the system, with Greek life pledges proving their worth by holding multiple fraternity members’ phones to game the system.
Gosh, I miss college.
