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Another Wednesday, another NFL Power Ranking Day, and the results are in:
Indianapolis is good, despite a complete lack of flair or Manning-esque
offensive stats. #1 on
ESPN, with Dr.
Z at CNNSI, and also with Rick Ballou over at
Sporting News; only Fox sticks with Pittsburgh and sends the Colts tumbling
down to #4. This is doubtlessly something to do with a funky new computerized
ranking system that Fox is employing – BCS controversy anybody? – which allows
them to write almost unspeakable things like “The Cincinnati Bengals have been
the best team in the NFL through three weeks…” Admittedly, the Bengals jump
across the board; Dr. Z keeps them at 7, and it’s the lowest around. And in the
race to the bottom … it’s … Houston, by a nose, which scores #32 at ESPN and Dr.
Z. Compu-Fox, on the other hand, discovers the Niners, statistically, with
nowhere to go but up.
For as much controversy as official rankings cause in college football –
and as dubious their role is in informing NCAA tourney seeding – is it odd to
anybody else that we persist in crafting “power rankings” for professional
sports? The assumption is that “standings” don’t represent actual skill levels.
As a ‘Skins fan, though, I like standings – right now – because just at this
very moment we’re winning
the NFC East. I can’t wait for a decade from now, when, instead of undoing
the ridiculous BCS system, we’ve instead started casting the Superbowl with Dr.
Z’s two top January faves.
Needless to say, at this rate, the Jets won’t even be around in January.
The lead item on yesterday’s PTI, the rapidly-dimishing number of Jets
quarterbacks has both Tony & Mike convinced that their season is over. The
rankings seem to agree; the Jets fall across the board, at least five places,
and sit (generously, if you ask SMW) between 17-20. On ESPN.com, Michael Smith
is not
as worried, suggesting that third-stringer Brooks “Bollinger won't win games
for the Jets, but he won't lose them either.” Meanwhile, ever-savvy Herm Edwards
avoids all kinds of interesting questions on SportsCenter, not quite denying potential
deals for Patrick Ramsey before the team signed Testaverde, and not quite
denying speculation that Pennington’s just done. SMW gladly acknowledges that
capturing Herm-cadence in print is near-impossible, and any
“play-to-win-the-game” jokes will be left to Tony & Mike.
In
other NFL News, SMW was pleased to see a show of fan support for the Madden
Muter, Michael Rosenberg’s imaginary technology by which lucky sports fans
might be able to watch Monday Night Football, with theme music, and without Mr.
Home Depot’s “booming” lunacy. Support for the Madden Muter, combined with the
ever-dominant popularity of his video
game franchise, has SMW noticing: apparently we prefer Madden repeating
himself in canned-speech format to what he can invent when left to his own
devices. Postscript: in a survey of Free Press readers, Rosenberg discovered two
other prominent wishes: more cheerleaders, less Lions. Hard to blame
them.
Why do we obsess with the Yanks and Sox? Because we do. That seems to be
the only answer available. In Boston, Jackie MacMullan admits that
Schilling just can’t perform like he did last year. Of course, that’s not
exactly saying much, and maybe the man just
deserves a year off. Click there for Stan McNeal’s blog at Sporting News,
more evidence that editors everywhere are running Sox headlines on columns that
actually wander all around the sport. Similarly, Bull Pennings at Sportsline
does the same thing, stating the
Schilling-obvious. Later, he joins in the Atlanta-is-great party, and SMW
can’t wait until the same writers start the Atlanta-is-overrated chant after my
boys fold to Houston.
Finally, in Sports Guy Land, the
interview with Chuck Klosterman continues. The editors’ tags advertise this
segment of the conversation as somehow concerning Face/Off, but again there’s
more going on: Simmons gets stuck trying to defend his own journalistic
philosophy, and Klosterman goes on the offensive against blogs and media sources
which have cut themselves off from the “real world.” Is he attacking our beloved
Sports Guy? Is he attacking SMW? Should anybody be so silly as to mistake ESPN’s
sports universe for the “real world”? Klosterman loves that sports are an
instant resource of commonality and conversation – perhaps he spends more than
his fair share of time at the airport Chili’s. But SMW thinks that Chris Berman
is just as real as Randy Moss, and probably more recognizable. So if “media” are
something that report on the “real world,” why can’t SMW join up? Regardless,
the Sports-Guy-Respect-o-Meter stays at a solid 6.0, if only because Klosterman
makes it surely more interesting than it will be when he leaves. |
Daily Digest 
