After the jump, this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack)…
Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
TMQ Watch: January 9, 2024.
Tuesday, January 9th, 2024Skulls for the skull throne!
Tuesday, January 9th, 2024Continuing with the NFL firings theme: Mike Vrabel out as coach of the Tennessee Titans.
But they missed the playoffs in 2022 and 2023, and it is being reported that their was friction between Vrabel and team owner Amy Adams Strunk.
Blood! Blood in the streets!
Monday, January 8th, 2024This is your Monday morning after the end of the NFL season firings thread.
From the “Damn! You didn’t even wait to get him in the house!” department: Arthur Smith was fired last night as head coach of the Falcons. 21-30 over three seasons, 7-10 this year. ESPN.
Ron Rivera out as coach of the Washington Commanders. 26-40-1 over four years, 4-13 this season. ESPN.
Scott Fitterer out as general manager of the Carolina Panthers, who already fired their head coach. 14-37 over three seasons, and Carolina finished 2-15 this year. ESPN.
Mote updates later if there are any.
Edited to add: the NYPost is reporting that special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and offensive line coach Bobby Johnson have been fired from the NY Football Giants. Additionally, Don “Wink” Martindale has “resigned” as defensive coordinator.
Edited to add 1/9: late on Monday, Jacksonville fired defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and a whole bunch of other folks:
TMQ Watch: January 2, 2024.
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024Welcome to the exciting future world of 2024! Which looks a lot like 2023. Except a university is missing a president. Hey, you know who would make a good president for Harvard?
After the jump, this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack)…
Obit watch: January 2, 2024.
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024It was a busy weekend, so I’m playing obit catch-up here. Administratively, I plan to get TMQ Watch up at some point during the day.
Tom Wilkinson. THR. IMDB.
This has been pretty well covered, but I did want to make an observation. When I was at St. Ed’s, for my “Film and Literature” class, we had to watch “In the Bedroom” and read Andre Dubus’s “Killings”. I thought “Bedroom” was a pretty terrific movie: both Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek give career peak performances. If you have not seen it, I commend it to your attention.
(The Dubus story is good, too.)
Shecky Greene, comedian. THR. IMDB.
…
Although never known as the most decorous of comedians, Mr. Greene made news in the comedy world in 2014 when he stormed out of a Friars Club event in Manhattan and announced that he was resigning from the club after his fellow comedian Gilbert Gottfried did material that Mr. Greene, who had been scheduled to speak, found offensive.
“He got dirtier and dirtier,” Mr. Greene told a radio interviewer, without providing details, “so I got up and I said, ‘That’s it.’”
Cale Yarborough, one of the NASCAR greats.
Loser update.
Friday, December 29th, 2023I think everyone knows that I am not a basketball fan.
However, I am compelled to note that the Detroit Pistons are setting records.
They lost their 28th consecutive game last night. This ties the record for longest NBA losing streak, and sets the record for longest losing streak in a single season.
(Philadelphia lost 28 consecutive games, but that was across the 2014 and 2015 seasons.)
Their next game is on Saturday against Toronto: ESPN currently has Toronto as a 70-30 favorite.
Detroit is currently 2-29, for a .065 winning percentage.
TMQ Watch: December 19, 2023.
Tuesday, December 19th, 2023TMQ: It’s money time in the NFL
What does that even mean? And why does TMQ feel compelled to start off with horse racing metaphors?
After the jump, this week’s TMQ (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack)…
Filibusted.
Monday, December 18th, 2023D.J. Smith fired as coach of the Ottawa Senators. Also out: assistant coach Davis Payne.
Five seasons as coach. I don’t have a full record, but the team hasn’t made the playoffs at all under Smith “…with their strongest finish coming last season when they went 39-35-8 but finished six points behind the Florida Panthers for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.”
The other problem is that the team is completely screwed up. “restricted free agent forward” Shane Pinto is sitting out a 41-game suspension for gambling on sports.
Christmas! In December!
Friday, December 15th, 2023And I got an early Christmas present. Really, more like two early Christmas stocking stuffers, but it is the thought that counts.
The worthless LA Chargers got stomped by the Las Vegas Raiders last night, 63-21.
And I guess pretty much as a direct result of that (though everyone was saying it was coming, I think the timeline was accelerated), Brandon Staley is out as head coach. Tom Telesco is out as general manager, too.
ESPN. Since I prefer to link to local coverage when I can, here’s an archived version of the story from the LAT, but I know some folks may not be able to read that. (It hasn’t made it in the Wayback Machine yet.)
Staley’s teams finished 24-24 in the regular season and made one playoff appearance. In his first year in 2021, the Chargers were eliminated from postseason contention on the final snap of the regular season.
The defeat at Las Vegas was a record-setter, the Chargers surrendering an all-time high in points for a game. Also, no Chargers team ever had trailed by 42 points at halftime.
You know what I say: shut the franchise down, throw all the players out of the NFL, reduce all of their facilities to rubble, plow the rubble into the earth, and sow the ground with salt so nothing ever grows there again.
Can’t get no antidote for blues…
Wednesday, December 13th, 2023Craig Berube out as coach of the St. Louis Blues. ESPN link for those who are having problems with archive services.
He was 206-132-44 over about six seasons, and his team won the Stanley Cup in 2019. The team is 13-14-1 so far this season.
TMQ Watch: December 12, 2023.
Tuesday, December 12th, 2023A brief musical interlude:
With that out of the way, this week’s TMQ (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack) after the jump…
TMQ watch update.
Monday, December 11th, 2023We wanted to get these two links up ahead of this week’s TMQ Watch, as they reference things that were discussed in last week’s TMQ (and the associated TMQ Watch):
1. “NFL officiating crew under scrutiny after missed calls”
2. “Mahomes, Reid criticize offside call that negated Kelce lateral TD”
It isn’t like we’re Switfies, or generally biased in favor of KC, though we are biased against Buffalo (which, we guess, is pretty much the same thing). Nor did we see the game. But, yes, this seems kind of like ticky-tacky officiating.