The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Sports

  • The Why and How of Tebow-Time with Intro from the Eyebrowistrator

    Two days ago I alluded to a sea change coming to the Eyebrow. I may have been guilty of just a bit of hyperbole, yet what is happening is unprecedented.

    There are now two authors on this blog!

    Everyone welcome Thomas Chapman of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He likes long walks on the beach and puppies and tells me he plans to spend most of his time writing about the NFL. I expect that we’ll see other items of interest as well, occasionally.

    The Eyebrow hasn’t been very sports themed to date ((Go Braves!)), and I think Thomas’ contributions will contribute to the diversity that we like to see. I already know he’ll raise the level of analysis around here.

     

    The why and how of Tebow-time

    If you are a football fan, or even reader of any type of news, you witnessed the phenomenon that is Tim Tebow. Recently, Tebow was traded to the New York Jets.  This doesn’t add up, for two reasons. Why would you trade such a mesmerizing player, and why of all the teams did the Jets trade for him? Let me recap Tebow’s accomplishments before we dive into that.

    The Denver Broncos were 1 and 4 heading into their bye week of the 2011 season. Coach John Fox made a change at quarterback, putting in the 2010 first round draft pick Tim Tebow. He was a star at Florida in his collegiate career where he won a Heisman and national championship, then week seven rolled around where he officially became a starter. Tebow went on to win 7 of the next 8 games in an unorthodox fashion. Tebow would play near awful football for three quarters and then magically become an all-star player in the fourth, winning most games right at end and catching everyone in the football world’s attention. He would make plenty of plays with his arm but what was so outstanding is what he did running the ball. He was like a fullback playing the quarterback position. It was amazing to everyone, except the Broncos GM John Elway. The Broncos won the division and hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild card playoffs. Unbelievably, The Bronco quarterback lit up the Steelers defense and advanced to the next round on an amazing over time play. Tebow and the Broncos would later on lose to the eventual AFC champion Patriots. Denver’s great season came to an end, but they had accomplished so much, digging themselves out of the 1 and 4 hole and making it to the divisional round of the playoffs. And this was all thanks to Tim Tebow. He rejuvenated not only the offense with his leadership but also the defense, which played stellar football in that 8 game stretch. Tebow, in short, is awesome and puts fans in the seats.

    Which brings us to Tim Tebow being traded this offseason. John Elway, the general manager, traded away last year’s starter after bringing in prized free agent Peyton Manning. Of course, Manning is an upgrade at the position. But Manning was also out all last year with a neck injury and is 36 years old. Manning may last 2 or 3 years at best. This obviously means the Broncos want to win now while the long time colt has some gas left in the tank. So why not keep young, up-and-coming Tebow around to learn under Manning?  Well, here’s the thing: John Elway never liked the former Heisman winner. Every General manager wants his guy out there on Sundays, playing his kind of football, and Tim Tebow didn’t fit Elway’s mold. He wasn’t there when the organization drafted him and when he inherited Tim Tebow, he made sure he was a bench player. When John Fox decided to put Tebow in, Elway didn’t think it would work and was just as surprised as America when it did.

    Now in this off season, Elway got his guy. He brought in Peyton and later draft Brock Oswieler out of Arizona State. Now Elway has his current QB and reassurance for the future. No more awful first three quarters, no more heart-retching football games, no more unconventional styles of winning, no more Tim Tebow for John Elway.

    Now, why the Jets? Who knows? New York could have tons of excuses for bringing him in but really, I think it all comes down to popularity. The Jets had an awful season last year, missing the playoffs and having quarterback play that was below average. New York says there is no quarterback controversy, but come on, it’s the Jets. They love having the media talk about them. Rex Ryan predicting super bowl wins every press conference, Bart Scott’s famous “can’t wait!” line in the 2010 playoffs, the locker room drama, so on and so on.

    Overall, Tebow is a rare player and person. Wherever he is, he will make an impact. People want to see him play; they don’t want him on the bench. I predict, at some point this season Tim Tebow will take the starting position form Mark Sanchez and wow us again, but this time for an organization that actually wants some Tebow time.

  • Swimming World Records

    Here’s an interesting perspective on the breaking of World Records in swimming, on SI.com.

    Tim Layden is saying that this is just not exciting, even though it should be. Swimming records have been falling like leaves for the last decade, with the improvements in suit technology and the changes to competition pools. He has a good perspective.

    Edit: Here is a NY Times article talking about technology affecting swimming. At least world record holders in swimming don’t have to worry about whether the tailwind was too high.

  • Argh for the Red Sox

    If you haven’t any interest in baseball, stop now. Don’t read.

    I flipped on game 4 of the ALCS last night, just in time for the first pitch of the top of the fifth inning. Tim Wakefield and his vaunted Knuckle Ball were at the plate for Boston. Chaos ensued.

    7 runs and 30 minutes later, the inning is over and I’m in the depths of misery. What the hell! Why is everyone suddenly hitting that knuckleball? And why do the Sox’s starters have such a shitty ERA in this series? I’m depressed.

    Now they’re looking at the bottom end of a 3-1 series lead. Elimination could come on Thursday, at Cleveland. If the Sox manage to hang on, they’ll come home for a Saturday/Sunday to close out the series, and someone will face Colorado.

    Argh.

  • 2007 Peachtree City Triathlon

    My Bike, post raceI raced my first Triathlon today! The Peachtree City Triathlon is a sprint tri (0.3 mile swim, 13.3 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) and I came in with a time of 1:23:56. This was about 10 minutes faster than what I thought I’d turn in, so I’m very satisfied.

    It was a blast, although the leg I thought I would enjoy the most—the swim—was a chaotic orgy of flying elbows and frog kicks. I got knocked very hard several times, and ended up swimming a zig zag, coming way inside between buoys to avoid other people’s flailing about. The swim sucked. (more…)

  • Track and Field Units of Measure

    I was watching Track and Field last night when a seemingly obvious question came to mind. I say “seemingly” because it has never crossed my mind before.

    Why do we measure running distances (except the marathon) in meters but throwing and jumping distances in feet-inches?

    Of course, this might be a foible of American TV. I was watching NBC after all, and they might assume that while the average American probably knows what a meter is, he or she will be extremely unlikely to know what a centimeter looks like (I may be being cynical, but I doubt it).

    A quick check of Wikipedia, the repository of all human knowledge in its most precise form, shows a listing of world records in feet. Okay, maybe this is a wikipedia thing, measuring things in feet, while the rest of the world sensibly goes with meters.

    Nope. According to the official results from the Sidney Olympics, we measure the Long Jump in feet, to the nearest hundreth. This is screwy. Entirely screwy. Why are we measuring in feet, still? And which foot are we using? I hope it’s the international foot, rather than the American Survey Foot, although the difference between those two is only found in the seventh decimal place (0.3048 meters for an international foot and 0.30480061 meters for a survey foot) so it wouldn’t really matter.

    Ack!

  • Barry Bonds Surpasses Hank Aaron

    Thanks be that Barry Bonds didn’t go through a drought like last week. If he had, he might not have hit his 756th home run untill next week when San Francisco would have been here, in Atlanta, home of Hank Aaron, and previous holder of the Career Home Run record. That would have depressed me. Especially because Hank Aaron beat the previous record here, at Fulton County Stadium. The stadium is gone, but the wall section where his ball went over exists, still.

    Do I care that Barry Bonds probably did steroids? Yes. Do I think it matters? No. The culture in baseball has allowed it to happen, so it boils down to an institutional fault. What this means is that the next time the record is broken, it will be much more exciting.

  • Braves vs. Red Sox

    I have been an Atlanta Braves fan since childhood. My family lived in Florida for nine years, before there were any Florida teams, so we were Braves fans. We then moved to New Hampshire and started rooting for the Red Sox. Then I went to college, bounced around various places, and now am in Atlanta. Go Braves!

    Unfortunately, I married a born and bred Maine-iac who is a die-hard Red Sox fans. This causes issues when they play their interleague games (little issues). I dread the day that the Braves and Red Sox match up in the World Series.

    Thankfully that day seems far away. While the Red Sox are crushing the American League East beneath the weight of the Monster, the Braves have gone rather lackluster since an excellent start. We’re above 0.500 but not by much and if we don’t pick up the pace, we’ll need to win our division because the wildcard isn’t looking too good from this side of the All Star Game.

    However, a Braves/Red Sox series would be pretty cool.

  • Self-Serving Publicity? Or Good-Natured Intentions?

    The University of Georgia has extended a scholarship to a soccer player who may not be able to play. They indicate that despite her medical condition, Caroline Simpson is welcome to come to her freshman year in any capacity.

    I confess that my first thought after reading this article was, “that’s some well-aimed publicity for the school,” but I shouldn’t assume that there were ulterior motives here. From all accounts, Ms. Simpson is an excellent addition to any college soccer team, when she’s on her game, and the chances of her relapsing during college are, while high, still acceptable for a player of her caliber.

    I think it shows enormous grit and gumption for a coach to make a decision like this, in today’s what-have-you-done-for-me-since-breakfast culture, and I applaud him.

  • Freakout!

    RPI managed to snatch a tie from the jaws of victory last night in the annual Big Red Freakout (RPI’s version of homecoming). RPI tied St. Lawrence 3-3.

    Keep in mind I’m talking about college hockey here!

    This lengthens our no-loss streak in the Freakout to 17 games. Go us!

  • Super Bowl Ad

    Thanks to Tom [husband of Steph] for once again demonstrating why NH rocks!

    The winner of the Super Bowl Ad contest is from Portsmouth, NH, and works in Portland, ME, two very nice places to be.

    Check out the pitch for the ad underneath the link.