The Lunacy of James Harrison

May 18, 2009May 23, 2010Danny Vinik Leave a comment

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison says that he is going to skip the champion Steelers’ trip to the White House. Harrison doesn’t mention any political reason or scheduling conflict that prevents him from going. He just says, “I don’t feel it’s that big a deal to me”.

Seriously James? A chance to meet the President of the United States, one of the most powerful men in the world. A chance to forever have a picture with the first African-American President in the United State and to show that picture to your grand kids. A chance to put meager football players in comparison with the real world and the real problems beyond football. And you’re passing it all up.

James Harrison just doesn’t think it’s important though.

The fact that championship teams always meet and get a picture with the President has always confused me. What makes them deserve that? The answer I’ve come to is that it puts sports in perspective. Players are looked upon as larger-than-life heroes wherever they go. Place them next to President Obama though and they shrink to normal human beings. Continue reading “The Lunacy of James Harrison” →

Who Cares About The NFL Draft

April 25, 2009May 23, 2010Danny Vinik Leave a comment

Less than 90 minutes from now, the NFL Draft will get under way with the Detroit Lions selecting QB Matthew Stafford with the #1 overall pick. For the next five hours, ESPN will broadcast every pick of the first two rounds. Then, Sunday morning, they will broadcast ANOTHER eight hours of draft coverage. Just five hours of coverage would be overkill, and ESPN is showing 13.

To be fair, I don’t consider myself much of a football fan. Yea, I’ll watch all my Patriots’ games and know the team fairly well, but in terms of teams I care about, they are down on the list. I still can’t figure out who can watch 13 hours of NFL Draft coverage without killing themselves though.

No other sport has that kind of coverage for an event in which NOTHING is determined. You barely hear anything about the MLB and NHL drafts. The NBA Draft has the closest thing to the kind of coverage that the NFL Draft has, but that is because one player on an NBA team can make much more of a difference than one player on an NFL team.

Think about that in terms of numbers. Five players are on the court at one time in the NBA. If you can significantly improve one of those players in the draft, then you have just improved your team by 10-20%. In football, there are eleven players on offensive and a different eleven for defense. That’s 22 players, so significantly improving one player via the draft only improves your team by 5-10%. Continue reading “Who Cares About The NFL Draft” →

Problems with Plaxico

April 7, 2009May 23, 2010Danny Vinik Leave a comment

Plaxico Bur plaxico-burress ress, what is wrong with you? Just listen to this statement:

In the last month, Burress has received 5 traffic violations in Florida while he is under arrest in New York for carrying an unregistered firearm after shooting himself in the leg.

Wow. He is without an NFL team after the New York Giants cut him last week and yet he continues to act immaturely. In his most recent traffic stop, Burress cursed out the officer, told him that he knew the sheriff personally and swore at the arresting officer multiple times.

Plaxico Burress, what is wrong with you?

As your NFL career hangs in the balance, all you are doing is making it harder and harder for you to return to the NFL. You are trying to avoid jail time for a charge that carries a three and a half year sentence. Your lawyers are working constantly, appealing to the district attorney for a plea bargain that keeps you out of prison. How exactly are these traffic violations going to help? How is cursing out a police officer, who was doing his job, going to help? Continue reading “Problems with Plaxico” →