Good luck trying to analyze college football
With its awkward scheduling challenges and increasing disruptions (at last count, more than 80 FBS games canceled or postponed), it’s a fool’s errand trying to analyze the college football season, much less take it seriously. The season moves on as idle entertainment sometimes worth watching, if not savoring.
Big foots: The 59-yard field goal from Detroit’s Matt Prater to beat Washington on Sunday came to rest in the protective netting at least 10 feet off the ground. Might have been good from 70. But it wasn’t even the longest of the day, after Seattle’s Jason Myers connected from 61.
Expect more accurate boomers as kickers become the Bryson DeChambeaus of football. Going into Thursday night’s game, there were 71 successful field goals from 50 yards or longer this season.
Broken ribs
on each side of his body and a collapsed lung. Was Drew Brees sacked or was his car T-boned?
No thanks: Grandma’s sweet potato casserole and collard greens haven’t given Thanksgiving Day revelers as much gas over the years as the Detroit Lions. Why must the NFL subject football-loving Americans to a Lions game — this year against the anemic Texans — each and every turkey day? Tradition? The only tradition worth recognizing here is the one that outlaws cruel and unusual punishment.
Unrealistic: I get the part about the NCAA moving its entire men’s basketball tournament to Indianapolis. But in March? Dream on.
Hoop du jour: For the first time in 20 years, no Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky or Kansas players were drafted in the NBA lottery.
Oddity: Nineteen-year-old Patrick Williams, the Bulls’ pick at No. 4, did not break into the starting five at Florida
State and averaged nine points a game. He was picked for his potential and, at 6-feet-8, long wingspan. The landscape has dramatically changed since the days when a high pick wasn’t greeted with the question, “Who?”
Fun fact: Since 2016, Florida State has had more NBA first-rounders (five) than NFL first-rounders (three).
Uh oh: On TV, many of the family and friends’ draft celebrations looked like potential spreader events.
TV timeout: It’s no great surprise that viewership for the Masters’ final round was way down. That’s been happening to most sports. What catches your attention, though, is that this was the lowest Masters ratings since the black-andwhite days of 1957 when not every American home had a TV set.
Revisiting: Now that it’s just been learned by the league, the Bucs and all of us that ticking time bomb Antonio Brown destroyed a security camera and verbally attacked a guard at his gated Florida community shortly before signing with Tampa Bay, what’s the NFL’s move?
Keep in mind that Brown is coming off a suspension after pleading no contest to burglary and battery charges. For the sake of whatever integrity the league purports to have, at the very least Brown needs another timeout, doesn’t he?
Still to go: The 9-0 Steelers have capitalized on a pretty easy schedule. Pittsburgh still has to play the Jags, Ravens, Washington Football Team, Bills, Bengals, Colts and Browns. In addition to the Ravens rematch, the toughest Steelers test may be the Dec. 13 Sunday night game at Buffalo.
Standing tall: I don’t hear his name mentioned prominently as an MVP candidate, but Ben Roethlisberger completes as many clutch throws under duress as any quarterback today.
Done: Speculation that Robinson Cano might possess Hall of Fame credentials ends abruptly with his one-year PED suspension.
The way it is: South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp is fired, with a $13 million buyout; Wichita State basketball coach Gregg Marshall resigns in the wake of allegations of physical and verbal abuse of players, with a $7.75 million parting gift. It’s been a profitable few days for losers.