Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

NBA fails again

No team should be allowed to win by fouling to prevent the winning score in any sport.

Both teams in game six played well at times and played poorly at times... San Antonio made a huge mistake in the 4th quarter by getting away from the inside game... when a player is having a horrible game, turning the ball over eight times, he should not be the player trying to control the ball in the last few minutes... sitting the best player and rebounder for the last plays of the game was very foolish and gave Miami the opportunity to tie the game in regulation... Miami showed they were not kings or god as the media likes to portray them... every one of them showed nerves and lack of discipline... comparing them to any great team or any great player is way too premature... they backed into the win...

Worst of all... with 1.8 seconds to play in overtime an obvious foul prevented San Antonio from scoring what would have been the winning basket... that foul was obvious to the announcers and very obvious on the replay... allowing a team to win by breaking the rules makes the win and the game meaningless...

San Antonio gave the game away and may not have deserved the win, but Miami did not win the game... the referees gave the win to Miami by allowing Miami to physically and illegally prevent the winning shot... that is not how a championship should be decided... just when i thought the nba could not fail any worse, it did tonight...

If the NBA does not own up to this referee error that decided the game, the NBA fails... if the media ignores this referee error that decided the game, the media fails...

There are bad calls and fouls missed throughout any game... there are fouls called when they shouldn't be during any game... no one can expect referees to be perfect... but this bottom line is simple...

No team should be allowed to win a championship by fouling, by breaking the rules of the game, in the last moments of the game...

Monday, February 4, 2013

the nfl fails again

they started the season with ridiculous referees making ridiculous calls that decided the outcome of games... and they finished the season with questionable referees (how do they choose the officials - and was it done fairly and by the rules?... really?... how much was front office politics involved?... evidence suggests too much) influencing the outcome of the superbowl... if professional sports is to have any integrity at all, it is serious enough to repeat - questionable management of games should not decide games, no less directly influence the outcome of the superbowl... it is sad that an organization that earns billions a year cannot get it right...

Bias? Maybe. Inconsistency that influenced the outcome? Yes. Further loss of integrity and enjoyment of the game? Yes. Did the refs call the same fouls differently at different times? Yes. Did the 49ers coach make some poor calls that ultimately gave away opportunities to win? Yes. Did the refs ignore an offensive pass interference penalty that prevented an easy interception by SF? Yes. Did the referee leniency allow more interference with the offenses than it should have? Yes. Did that effect the ball possession? Yes. Did that effect the score? Probably. Did a Baltimore player push a referee during the game and have no penalty called? Yes.

Here's a question I will leave for further video review (and you) to answer... Was there a missed Baltimore facemask penalty before the first 49er fumble? I think so, but the CBS avoidance of controversy made sure that was not looked at. Media wimpiness and bias is just as sad as league of referee bias.

The fact is that poor play calling inside the 20 yard line cost the 49ers the superbowl - the bad calls would have made it easier to win, but SF blew it by calling the wrong plays at the wrong times... on at least two scoring series in the red zone during the game, the 49er coach made the wrong calls... ignoring the 49er strengths and wanting their inexperienced quarterback to suddenly make plays that veterans find challenging was the wrong call... fades to the same wide receiver over and over (is crabtree their only receiver?... no) when they did not have a dominant wide receiver who could make a spectacular catch and when their quarterback was only playing his seventh start was the wrong call... not going with a formation (pistol) and play set that was averaging 8 yards per play was the wrong call... the 49ers inexperience showed throughout the game but they could have overcome it with the right play calls...

on the other hand, the refs seemed baltimore biased most of the game... the most obvious example is that the same grabbing of a receiver called pass interference on the 49ers that lead to a ravens touchdown earlier in the game was overlooked when baltimore did it and the fact that one of those overlooks was a potential winning touchdown for the 49ers showed the bias of referees decided the game than the talent of the players... the fact is, the 49ers coach called the wrong plays and probably did not deserve to win based on the poor play calls in critical situations, especially then, and the poor execution in that situation (the pass was not well thrown, but it was a holding penalty that was not called... so the ravens win is tainted, the integrity of officials is tainted, the integrity of the nfl is tainted, and the integrity of the superbowl is tainted... and cbs is a joke when it comes to sports... the announcers defending the refs are wimps, but it's cbs, the worst sports broadcasters in the business (though nbc and fox are not far behind) and they typically do everything they can to spin the facts to avoid controversy and support the nfl even when the officials or nfl are/is obviously wrong...

once again, very disappointed by the supposedly professional sports...

on yet another hand, i won my fantasy survival football league because i picked baltimore to win the superbowl... so if you think my perspective is sour grapes, think again... the bad play calls by the 49er coach and the bias calls by the refs actually helped me win my game... my disappointment is not because i was rooting for the 49ers or against baltimore... my disappointment is because the referees showed bias at key moments in the game and their bias helped decide the game... san francisco might not have deserved to win based on mistakes and key bad play calls, but they did deserve a fair shake from the referees and they did not get that...

I would like to take the NFL more seriously and believe the best team always wins, but I don't. From my perspective it's a crap shoot with refs and politics influencing the outcomes of games as much as the players on the field.

Defensive holding was called inconsistently and it effected the outcome of the game. On the last series of the game specifically: Was it a bad play call by the coach? Yes. Was it a poorly executed play by the offense? Yes. But was it also a violation of the rules? Yes. Was it called? No. It was selective penalty calling.

Overall, I think SF play calling in the red zone (more than once) cost them the win but fair calling by the refs and they might have won in spite of the coaching. The sad aspect of of the politics choosing referees and inconsistent calls is that it diminishes the integrity of the game and the respect for the winner.

For the record, I picked Baltimore to win and won my Survival Football league because Baltimore won the Superbowl. So this is not a SF fan's sour grapes. This is a football fan's disappointment with the loss of respect for the league and the loss of integrity of a win.

Monday, August 13, 2012

#NBCFail

complaint in progress... actually it is a tape-delay, but we'll pretend it's live...

the person and/or people in charge of the NBC broadcast of the 2012 Olympics learned nothing from two weeks of harsh criticism and complaints from thousands (at least) of viewers and most of the media critics as the hashtag #NBCFail appears all over the internet... sadly, the error that Twitter made in supporting and even colluding with the #NBCFail failure compounded itself tonight as they blocked the #NBCFail hashtag from showing up as trending in spite of the hundreds of tweets per minute with the #NBCFail tag... #TwitterFail hurts even more as it shows the new boss is the same as the old boss and people are getting fooled again...

the irony of the song lyric reference is excruciating as perhaps the largest exclamation point on the #NBCFail failures was to edit to death the closing ceremonies (editing out Muse, the band that wrote and played the Olympics theme song, among other bands) and almost an hour of the closing ceremony production and finally cutting away just before the finale starring The Who to insert a new #NBCFail sit-com - without commercial interruption (after more than 33% commercials per hour throughout the Olympics, that is insult upon injury) - and pushing the finale off for an hour to midnight on a Sunday night (so even non-internet savvy people, their primary demographic audience perhaps, had to miss the 2012 Olympics finale - getting up for work in the morning, are we?... and each night Ryan Seacrest (who was definitely not cresting this week) was asked how they were doing on the social networks to lead into a segment on how social media was talking about the Olympics and they lied by omission as the dozens of articles and many thousands of complaints were never address #NBCFail...

even the lead commentator for NBC, Bob Costas, acknowledged the issues and validated the complaints tonight as he noted that the next Olympics will be just in a much closer time zone, referencing the complaints over ridiculously alienating (and poorly produced) tape-delays... but like a nightmare that repeats, NBC failed again tonight even bigger than previous nights... the band playing the final song?... The Who... the song?... My Generation.... yeah, and we did get fooled again...

Costas also mentioned that two high ranking NBC sports producers did call this their last Olympics... whether that was their intention before the games or whether the criticism and their poor judgment calls lead to the resignations or retirements is for anyone to speculate)... most Olympics viewers are shuddering to think about the next few Olympics as #NBCFail has exclusive rights to mess up those broadcasts too...

The New York Times agrees, establishment enough for you, #NBCFail producers?

I turned off #NBCFail and missed the fiasco, but it was interesting reading all over the internet... sad that #TwitterFail conspired in the corporate betrayal of consumers... but the bigger they get, the more out of touch they get... history repeats, redundantly... la la la...

and the NY Times was not alone... i'll be back with more as this turns into a rant for other blogs... StarTribune - monkey shine perez hilton just look up (Google for you younger folk... snark at m-m-my generation nyuk nyuk narf... oh, and you'll have to use -zimmerman in your search query or you'll get all the apologies NBC made in their George Zimmerman reporting mess-up... if you don't understand, then google how to use google for advanced searches or boelean searches and you'll be fine... aherm) apology online (especially the past 24 hours) and even Google will prove #NBCFail - it even gets it's own label...

so how was your night? (laughing with me, i hope :)

Friday, June 15, 2012

dey was robbed

okc, that is... too many times the prima donnas on miami get away with fouls that effect the score and it is a shame that the favoritism and bias toward superstars is so blatant... with two points down and 12 seconds to go labron james hacks kevin durant so obviously a blind person would have heard it and called the foul, but three refs miss it and the shot does not go in and instead of shooting two foul shots with a chance to tie at home, the game is over and miami is given a gift...

OKC 1 MIAMI 0 REFs 1

it doesn't matter that miami appeared to dominate the game, that okc was shooting poorly and miami was on fire and had huge leads all game... there were 12 seconds left and it was a 2 point game and one player clearly fouled another player who was going to tie the game... so the serious is still 1-0 in my book with the refs taking one game... the game gets cheaper and more meaningless with every critical last 30 second blown call... and i don't want to hear how challenging it is to be a ref, hire more if three are not enough to get the calls right - with the price of tickets and the millions in tv revenue, they can surely afford enough officials to get the calls right, especially at the end of close games... so is it a deliberate attempt to influence who wins by the nba front office or are the refs corrupt or just incompetent?... either way, it is irresponsible to let bad calls decide championship games...

yeah, i know this is meaningless compared to the stupidity of the injustice and oppressive society explored in the previous entry, but still, these are meaningless complaints after all...

UPDATED 6/18/12
Labron elbowed Harden three times in the last 30 seconds, obvious offensive fouls, and the ref called a foul on Harden giving Miami game three... don't just take my word for it... that makes it:

OKC 1 MIAMI 0 REFs 2