Can Steve Nash Resist the Curse?

 

Steve Nash, Will He Beat the Odds?

The phrase “those who can, do; those that can’t, teach” is often used to point fun at teachers. With some minor word twisting, it can be applicable to some coaches, too, in that “those who can do, often can’t teach.”

Three out of the four NBA teams that have reached this year’s respective Conference Finals (LA Lakers, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat) and possibly all four teams (if the Denver Nuggets are able to win their series against the LA Clippers) are governed by head coaches who had zero NBA playing experience. Yet, the Brooklyn Nets, a team that is looking to have an inspiring 2021 campaign with the likes of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, decided to hire Steve Nash, an NBA Hall of Fame point guard.

Nash is a highly intelligent and skilled player. He created the “run and gun” Phoenix Suns which helped them reach the Western Conference Finals, named a seven-time NBA All-Star, and even led the Canadian National Team to earning silver and bronze medals in several international tournaments. Nash also was hired by the Golden State Warriors as a part-time consultant during two of their NBA Championship runs. Despite all these accolades, Nash has yet to serve in any meaningful coaching capacity.  So, placing him as the promising Brooklyn Nets’ head coach is analogous to throwing a child in the twelve-foot end of a swimming pool before teaching him how to swim in the three foot end.

History is not on Nash’s side either. Sixteen people have become NBA head coaches without any prior coaching experience.

Year	Team	Coach	Seasons	W	L	PCT	Playoff appearances	Series won
2020	BRK	Steve Nash	?	?	?	?	?	?
2014	NYK	Derek Fisher	2	40	96	29%	0	0
2014	GSW	Steve Kerr	6	337	138	71%	5	18
2013	BRK	Jason Kidd	1	44	38	54%	1	1
2011	GSW	Mark Jackson	3	121	109	53%	2	1
2008	CHI	Vinny Del Negro	2	82	82	50%	2	0
2005	MIN	Kevin McHale	1	19	12	61%	0	0
2000	IND	Isiah Thomas	3	131	115	53%	3	0
1999	ORL	Doc Rivers	5	171	168	50%	3	0
1997	IND	Larry Bird	3	147	67	69%	3	7
1995	BOS	M.L. Carr	2	48	116	29%	0	0
1994	LAL	Magic Johnson	1	5	11	31%	0	0
1993	DAL	Quinn Buckner	1	13	69	16%	0	0
1992	DEN	Dan Issel	3	96	102	48%	1	1
1987	PHO	Dick Van Arsdale	1	14	12	54%	0	0
1980	SDC	Paul Silas	3	78	168	32%	0	0

 

The average winning percentage for these sixteen coaches is a subpar 43.75%. And though it is hard to fathom that Nash will have the paltry coaching records that his  colleagues Fisher and Buckner experienced, it’s even harder to suppress the expectations, especially in a city like New York who irrationally considers all their teams to be championship contenders, that Nash will reach heights similar to Bird or Kerr. The CornerCube believes that Nash will reach Bird’s average, but not reach the winning percentage of Steve Kerr.

Derek Fisher, Possibly Puzzled on Why He Took The Knicks Job

The reason for this is because of the psychological theory called, “the curse of expertise.” In L. Jon Wertheim’s and Sam Sommers’ book called, This is Your Brain on Sports, they summarize this psychological theory (in sports terms) as, “the better we get at a task, the worse we often become at articulating what we’re doing. So it is that the Great Ones often . . . struggle to communicate what has always come naturally to them.” People forget that “being an expert at doing something doesn’t always translate into being an expert at explaining how to do it.” Experts, in this case great players, see and mentally organize the world differently than others – they have greater visual skills/anticipatory skills/motor skills – but have difficulty realizing that they are actually experiencing these skills. In other words, experts can’t share with others these skills because the expert themselves don’t realize fully these skills.

The Nets have several positives on their side. The first is that they have two all-stars, in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, to help alleviate any of Nash’s growing pains. Luke Walton, an interim head coach for the Golden State Warriors, could directly credit Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson with making him look like a Hall of Fame NBA coach (it wouldn’t be until Walton was hired the subsequent season by the Lakers to realize his true coaching value). The second positive is that Nash is a willing participant and willing to overcome the curse of expertise. First, Nash can use data to help determine which coaching concepts provide the best results and, second, is that Nash has had time to reflect and (possibly) take notes on what he struggled with in basketball prior to becoming great. This way of thinking forces the expert to have to think about what they did to overcome their past difficulties. Unfortunately, the best method for an expert to overcome the curse is to shadow a coach or in laymen’s terms – have prior coaching experience.

CAN HE BE STOPPED?

MOVE OVER DC POLITICIANS, DAN SNYDER IS DC'S TOP CREEP

By: Kris Mead

"King" Daniel Marc Snyder

Despite its ability to subvert the NFL Draft to an online forum, revert team meetings to Zoom meetings, limit the number of fans, if any, into stadiums and prevent NFL preseason games from being played, the Coronavirus lacked the power to prevent Daniel Snyder, the Washington Football Team’s owner, from notching one more hole in his pervert belt.

Snyder has come under scrutiny after the Washington Post reported that Snyder requested  a private video be produced for him  containing the “good bits” of the Washington Football Team’s 2008 cheerleader video, chronicling their swim suit calendar photo shoot. The “good bits” were moments when cheerleaders’ nipples were inadvertently exposed “as the women shifted positions or adjusted props.” It should go without saying that none of the cheerleaders gave their consent nor did any of the cheerleaders know that a “good bits” video was being made for Snyder and his upper crust henchmen to drool over. It’s not too farfetched to imagine that Snyder would hit “pause” the moment a cheerleader’s sand covered breast slipped out from under the beads covering her nipple, while a grin creeped over his smudgy, pompous face, as he slowly exhaled, eased back in his leather office chair and placed his feet up on his oak desk, knowing that he, Daniel Snyder, was king. How could anyone stop him?

Past history has shown that unless Daniel Snyder is found guilty or admits to any crime, the NFL will refuse to do anything. Only twice in recent history has the NFL come down on an owner. The last time was in 2014 when Colts’ owner, Jim Irsay, pleaded guilty to driving impaired and received a “six game” suspension and $500,000 fine. In 1999 49ers owner, Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., was suspended from the team for a year and fined after pleading guilty for failing to report a felony.

Daniel Snyder’s likelihood of pleading or being found guilty of a crime of voyeurism is extremely low. This is because the crime is typically hard to prove and very few statistics exist to help rectify the rate of prosecutions, which lends to the idea that voyeurism is hardly prosecuted.  

Former Washington Football Club Employees 
Who Have Alleged Sexual Harassment During 
Their Employment Under Daniel Snyder and His
Team

In turn, Roger Goodell, and the other thirty-one owners have decided that the best course of action is to wait for the results of an internal investigation, initiated and funded by the Washington Football Team. It’s an understatement to say that Roger Goodell has again done too little against one of the “lords” of his realm. Roger Goodell, without any consent from the other owners, can suspend Daniel Snyder and/or fine Snyder up to $500,000. It would seem only right to temporarily suspend Daniel Snyder as an independent internal investigation, hired by the league, not hired by the very actors who are to be investigated, thoroughly produces an accurate report of what actually occurred in the upper echelon of FedExField.

If common sense isn’t enough for Roger Goodell to act prudently, it may be the fact that his league is vastly behind the times. As more police murders are captured on video and more citizens are demanding change, the NFL sits there in an awkward position of supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, yet also being on the side of the suppressor when the league unilaterally black balled Colin Kaepernick out of the NFL. The league now has the opportunity to take a stance against sexual harassment and promote female empowerment by uniting as one against an owner who has repeatedly shown total disregard for women, minorities and proper decency to fellow humans.

The NBA united to dispense of the racist Los Angeles Clippers owner, Donald Sterling. Just recently Dell Roy Hansen, the owner of the Major League Soccer club, Real Salt Lake, has agreed to sell the team after Major League Soccer stated it would begin an investigation (note, it isn’t Hansen or his team conducting their own investigation into themselves) into Hansen’s alleged arrogant statements concerning his team’s postponement of a game, in protest against police brutality.

Why is it so hard for Roger Goodell to do the same?

The NFL will claim that after extensively reviewing the Washington Football Team’s internal investigation there was some behavior found to be unacceptable in the workplace, and that the team has assured the league that it will take steps to remedy these issues. No follow-up will happen, no punishment directed at Snyder – the figure who has reigned over the team’s “unacceptable workplace behavior”- and the NFL won’t have to worry about Snyder for sixty days when another lewd action ekes itself out of Snyder’s castle.

The NFL, its owners, and Goodell preside over the most aggressive sport in America, yet quiver when they are tasked with having to issue discipline against one of their own.  The NFL takes great pride in supporting breast cancer awareness. They should invest that same energy and platform  into an equally just cause - ending sexual harassment.

Mississippi's Mistake

The Magnolia State also known as The Hospitality State is known for what? According to the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit healthcare foundation, Mississippi is ranked last among all states for health care. With that said, Mississippi does rank first in obesity with 35.2% of its citizens able to make that claim. If you aren’t sold on Mississippi after those two little factoids, here are two more – it has the second highest unemployment rate (5.6%) and the lowest per capita personal income ($35,444). What else does Mississippi have? Well, it has this little college football rivalry called, The Egg Bowl.

The Egg Bowl, or its more formal name, “The Battle for the Golden Egg”, is a college football rivalry between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Ole Miss (The University of Mississippi) Rebels (yes, Ole Miss’ team is named after the traitorous, racist, and losing, side of the American Civil War). The game is the tenth longest uninterrupted college football rivalry, dating back to their first meeting in 1901. Although neither team has ever been anything close to remarkable, the third world country that is Mississippi has provided America with entertainment.

In just the last three meetings there has been either a full out brawl or some sort of unsportsmanlike conduct penalty due to a player finding his inner “Old Yeller” and acting as though he is pissing on the field. The most recent meeting, 2019, has been given the beautiful title of “The Piss, the Miss and the Double Dismiss.” Ole Miss was behind Mississippi State 21-14 and only nine seconds remained in the game. Ole Miss receiver, Elijah Moore, caught a touchdown pass, but after the score he was assessed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for pretending to act like a dog urinating in the endzone. In turn, the Ole Miss kicker was forced to kick a 35-yard extra point, rather than a typical 20-yard extra point. The kicker missed the extra point and Mississippi State won 21-20. The “double dismiss” part comes into play because both head coaches would be fired at the end of the season. Ole Miss’ head coach was fired due to his lack of a heartfelt apology about his player inexplicitly pretending to urinate on the field and also the fact that he went 15-21 in three seasons with the Rebels. Mississippi State fired its coach after they lost their bowl game because of “off-field issues.” Ironically the Old Yeller urinating reenactment was not the first time that either Ole Miss’ head coach or the Egg Bowl had witnessed.

 In 2017 Ole Miss’ wide receiver and now Seattle Seahawk wide receiver, D.J. Metcalf, mimicked the Mississippi’s State’s mascot, a bulldog, by pretending to urinate like a dog on the field. In that latter case, the Ole Miss head coach didn’t give a lackluster apology because he didn’t give any apology. Finally, though the 2018 Egg Bowl lacked canine urinations, it made up with the fact that there was an entire bench clearing brawl between the two teams. The referees ejected three Mississippi State players and one Ole Miss player and were so confused that every other player was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (if a player receives two in one game, that player is ejected from the contest). This brawl would go down as “The Egg Brawl.”

The vacancies at these two wilting Magnolian institutions of higher learning and dubious historic pride should’ve been a moment in which each university could hire a head coach who would instill discipline, a sense of respect, and ingrain the  ideals of good sportsmanship. However, the two biggest schools in Mississippi continued their state’s trend and made the wrong choices.

Ole Miss elected to hire the ever elusive and highly scandalous, Lane Kiffin, as its newest head coach. Kiffin has the unenviable knack for picking fights with the people who have hired him. Kiffin’s first head coaching job, one year with the Oakland Raiders, ended disastrously. Not only was his team uninspiring on the field with a record of 4-12, but when Oakland’s owner asked Kiffin to resign, Kiffin refused. Raiders owner, Al Davis, would then fire Kiffin over the phone for cause.  After an ugly arbitration it was discovered that Kiffin could be fired for cause (i.e. Kiffin would not receive the $2.6 million left on his Oakland contract) due to making excuses and outright lies while with the Raiders. Ironically, being fired over the phone would be Kiffin’s least embarrassing method of dischargement. In Kiffin’s last year as the head coach of USC (2010-2013) he was fired basically on the tarmac of LAX, after his team returned from a dismal loss at the hands of the sclerotic Arizona State Sun Devils. The level of audacity required for a university’s athletic director and president to ask their head football coach, in front of his entire team, to exit the team bus at 3am and go to a remote office at the airport where he was told he was no longer employed, is afforded to only the lowest of the low scumbags. It appears Kiffin is the lowest of the low. It’s not too far removed to argue that a coach who was fired over the phone and then, in a separate coaching job, in front of his entire team, must have an arsenal of repugnant personality traits.

Another unique “Kiffin trait” is his talent at jumping ship. Kiffin abruptly left after one year coaching the University of Tennessee (2009) to take the job at USC (most likely because of money but he did coach as an assistant when USC was in their prime in the early to mid-2000’s). Although Kiffin’s tenure at Tennessee was uninspiring, going 7-6, he created such an uproar due to his sudden abandonment that students started setting fire to the campus. Two attributes should be discerned from this event. The first is that Lane resembles “The Titanic” movie’s Cal Hockley, Rose’s fiancé and complete douche, when Cal quickly finds a lost child in order to get himself on board one of the few remaining lifeboats. The other is the realization of how low Tennessee Volunteers’ football has tumbled to be willing to burn the campus because an average coach left. Arson is only viable in certain situations (1) executing the Russian’s scorched earth policy in their war against Napoleon and (2) if a college’s hall of fame head coach takes the head coaching job of said universities’ arch rival. Neither of those events happened here and, with all due respect, Tennessee dodged a bullet by losing Lane.

Kiffin’s last, but not least, irreputable talent is his knack for running his mouth. His “talented” rhetoric came in his short time with the Volunteers. In the first instance, Kiffin made a statement in which he claimed that then Florida head coach, Urban Meyer, was breaking NCAA recruiting rules by calling a recruit while that recruit was visiting another campus. Kiffin went even further and stated the recruit’s name – Nu’Keese Richardson. Kiffin, by naming the recruit, broke SEC recruiting rules by which recruits could not be mentioned by name by coaches. Further, the SEC publicly reprimanded Kiffin, and Kiffin was forced to give a public apology to the Florida athletic director and Urban Meyer. Later Kiffin would put his foot in his mouth when, in an attempt to cause wide receiver recruit Alshon Jeffrey not to choose to play for the University of South Carolina, he stated that all the players who go to the University of South Carolina end up pumping gas the rest of their lives. Alshon Jeffreys would go on to be an NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver and a Super Bowl champion.

 

Mike Leach, Mississippi State’s new head coach, doesn’t have the brash controversies or senseless departures like Kiffin, but what he doesn’t lack is the need to be noticed. Leach should be credited with inventing the “air-raid” offense which spawned popularity of the “spread offense” throughout college football. As head coach he was also able to turnaround two lackluster programs – Texas Tech and Washington State.

For all Leach’s wizardry regarding offensive efficiency and scoring ability, he seems to go braindead when it comes to defense.  His Washington State teams (2012 thru 2018) only twice finished in the top half of the PAC-12 conference in terms of overall defense. In 2019, Leach’s last year as WSU’s head coach, the team finished third to last in overall defense. It is no surprise that Leach was unable to ever win the PAC-12.

In some respects, it appears Leach’s offensive ingenuity and being one of the few college football coaches to possess a JD, gives Leach a warrant to be outspoken. Some of these comments are quite funny, like when Leach was asked by a reporter for wedding advice. On the other hand, and in the climate of fake-news, led by President Trump himself, the media’s relishing of Leach’s outspokenness has inspired him to believe whatever he says is holy. For instance, upon President Trump’s acquittal, Leach tweeted at 3a.m. (similar to the typical time that Trump goes on Twitter rants), “As an a American, does ANYONE, REALLY want Mitt Romney on their side?!” Leach is referencing to how Romney was the sole Republican senator to vote for Trump’s removal.  Leach would continue a litany of grammatically incorrect tweets about his dislike for Romney. In a December interview Leach stated, “I haven’t followed it [Trump’s impeachment] too closely, but it’s clearly political. That doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.” Leach should also understand that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to question whether his 3 a.m. incoherent political twitter rant was alcohol fueled.

It is no secret that Leach is a friend and fan of Donald Trump. It is also no secret that Leach has only coached in conservative portions of the United States – Lubbock (TX), Spokane (WA), and now, Starksville (MS) – so Leach may be trying to drum up support from the local population (a “when in Rome” mentality).

The Cornercube is excited for the 2020 Egg Bowl. Not because it will be meaningful to the nation, but because it will be filled with idiotic, unspeakable, and seamlessly reckless football.  Both schools needed coaches who would instill discipline, but instead chose coaches who love themselves more than the schools that they coach. Both coaches, Kiffin and Leach, have made themselves famous not because of their college dynasties (they don’t have any), nor their inspiring conference championships (they have not won any Power 5 conference championships) but because they know how to make headlines, albeit the wrong way. At best they will coach their teams from being the dumpster fires of the SEC to becoming the mediocre, unpredictable, teams both coaches tend to inspire. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and LSU will continue to reign the SEC. Mississippi State and Ole Miss will be like the state they represent – out of shape, underperforming, misguided and purposelessly existing.  

"Titan" Your Jock Straps, The 2020 Corner Cube NFL Team of The Year Award Is Out!

Americans love awards because we love winners. We have rankings for everything. Literally BuzzFeed keeps on churning because of its endless amounts of rankings and left of center news articles that pull the heart strings of every millennial (ranking the best frozen pizzas, ranking every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Just look at the amount of country music award shows (country music! The stuff that your racist uncle jams to when he is on his 12^th can of Busch Light and going 80 down “some ‘ol backroad” in his Ford F-150): Academy of Country Music Awards, CMA Awards, American Country Countdown Awards, and the CMT Music Awards. But none of these, not in popularity, not in reverence, not in bragging rights amount to the callosal weight that The CornerCube NFL Team of The Year Award (usually referred to as simply, CCNTOTYA. It just rolls right off the tongue!) provides.

The CCNFLTOTYA uses the same requirements as the inaugural awards, the CCNTOTYA (or The Cornercube NBA Team of The Year Award) to be initially considered for being bequeathed this decoration:

1. Team must have made the playoffs;
2. A team must have won more games in the current year’s regular season than the previous year’s regular season and;
3. If the team’s regular season record is unchanged between the current and previous year, then it must have a better postseason standing than in the previous year.

2020 CCNFLTOTYA Finalists (Based Upon the Initial Requirements)
AFC	NFC
Baltimore Ravens	San Francisco 49ers
Kansas City Chiefs	Green Bay Packers
New England Patriots	New Orleans Saints
Houston Texans	Philadelphia Eagles
Buffalo Bills	Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans	Minnesota Vikings

 

So, the initial criteria only chipped away three teams, which means the decision comes down to the intuitive knowledge that rests in the minds of your correspondents at The Conercube home office (we didn’t pay the internet bill this month. So, let’s hope we can pump this blog out before Spectrum catches up to us).

The next step is to eliminate those teams that, yes, by the letter of the law they have improved, but they don’t deserve to hoist the 2020 CCNFLTOTYA. We can call this group the “well duh” group. It’s not that they aren’t great, because these teams are but it’s just that no one should be falling over in his chair at the feats that these teams accomplished. For instance, New England did improve their regular season record compared to the previous year, and with a less prolific team. However, they still had Tom Brady and Bill Belichick running the show and please don’t forget they are the defending Super Bowl Champions. Saying that they deserve the award after winning the previous year’s Super Bowl is all too simple and furthermore, America expected them to do well this year.

The Baltimore Ravens are another team in a similar position as the Patriots. The emergence of Ravens’ quarterback, Lamar Jackson, has been spectacular (for anyone outside the AFC North, which, because The Cornercube has a bias towards Cleveland, we dislike Baltimore and in turn, due to proxy, dislike Lamar Jackson. Sorry, it’s just politics.) and he broke Michael Vick’s rushing record, it wasn’t like we weren’t expecting this team to be great. In 2018 Jackson took over at quarterback, once starting quarterback and Super Bowl winning quarterback, Joe Flacco, went down due to injury. Jackson was able to finish the season on a 6-1 run and an overall record of 10-6 to not only make the playoffs, but also win the AFC North Division. So again, the turnaround was already expected from the Ravens, especially once they traded Flacco in the offseason which all but assured us that Lamar was their “ride or die.” Are the Ravens a great team? Yes. Is Lamar Jackson a great quarterback? Yes. Should a team who was led by a Heisman winning first round quarterback, and whose division consisted of a 2-win team, a hapless, lackluster ball of poo team (that’d be our Browns!!) and a team that finished the season with a quarterback named “Duck”, really be awarded CCNFLTOTYA? Hell, to the no!

The last team to fall within the “well duh” group is the Green Bay Packers - the team that seems to always win their division. Wait but the Packers missed the playoffs twice in row before this season, that must be an accomplishment. Right? Wrong. In 2017 the Packers missed out on the playoffs because Aaron Rodgers was hurt and in 2018 they missed out because the defense was mediocre, and their offense was literally just Aaron Rodgers (it ranked 22^nd in the run and 9^th in the pass). This year the Packers on offense and defense have done worse. Their offense ranks 18^th in the league (17^th in the past and 15^th in the run) and their defense still holds true at 18, despite falling in both pass defense (14^th) and run defense (23^rd). Not to mention the Packers schedule was not too difficult. They got to play the three-win Lions twice and the hapless Bears twice. Then they got the worst division in football to play (NFC East), and their only marquee win comes against the Kansas City Chiefs who were without their starting quarterback and 2018 NFL MVP, Patrick Mahomes. They lost to the NFC East champions, Philadelphia Eagles and NFC West champions, San Francisco 49ers (badly to the 49ers we might add. 37-8) and then lost a home game at the San Diego Chargers (we refuse to believe they are a Los Angeles team). This team appears to be a paper tiger whose hope is still Aaron Rodgers.

2020 CCNFLTOTYA Finalists (Based Upon the Initial Requirements and the “Well Duh” Group)
AFC	NFC
Baltimore Ravens	San Francisco 49ers
Kansas City Chiefs	Green Bay Packers
New England Patriots	New Orleans Saints
Houston Texans	Philadelphia Eagles
Buffalo Bills	Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans	Minnesota Vikings

 

The Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers are disqualified but for two opposite reasons. The Eagles had to be in the playoffs because they happened to win their division, that is the trash heap called the, NFC East. Yes, they were plagued by injuries, but most other teams were as well. Furthermore, they were plagued by injuries in the worst division in football. They played valiantly in their playoff game against the Seahawks but came up short. There was also that time when their head coach, Doug Pederson, guaranteed that they would go down to Dallas and “win that football game.” It was a laughable moment because it appeared Pederson didn’t realize that no one really cared who won the NFC East because it was  a division that was more of a race to the bottom than a competition to the playoffs. On the opposite end of the spectrum sits the San Francisco 49ers. A team that had to fight and claw to win its division and a win that came down to literally a blade of grass and the end zone. Yet, to see the 49ers do so well isn’t a shock, but rather an expectation. The 49ers were picked to finish second in the NFC West and finished first. With their quarterback fully healthy, their running back fully healthy and a loaded defense (with the addition of Rookie of the Year candidate, Nick Bosa) it was expected they’d make the playoffs barring a dire injury.

However, the Seattle Seahawks were that team who broke expectations and nearly won their division. This would be shocking if The Cornercube forgot that this is a team with a stacked defense and an MVP caliber quarterback, in Russell Wilson. It just wasn’t surprising that two teams (San Francisco and Seattle) came out of this division. The NFC West provided America with the most entertaining football to watch. However, Seattle finished as the fifth seed this year, and did the same last year. It is noted that they did improve their record to 11-5 from the previous year of 10-6. This team, unfortunately, is a Super Bowl caliber team and because of that is at the disadvantage of winning the CCNFLTOTYA.

2020 CCNFLTOTYA Finalists
AFC	NFC
Baltimore Ravens	San Francisco 49ers
Kansas City Chiefs	Green Bay Packers
New England Patriots	New Orleans Saints
Houston Texans	Philadelphia Eagles
Buffalo Bills	Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans	Minnesota Vikings

 

The Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills are both disappointments. Both teams looked promising. The Vikings looked promising this year, just as they looked promising in 2018. The Bills, although not picked to do anything substantial this year, became promising as they started to accumulate wins. The issue with the Bills is that although they made the playoffs and nearly beat the Houston Texans in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, they failed to have any notable wins. The two that Booger McFarland and Joe Tessitore cited during the wild card game broadcast were against Dallas and the Steelers. However, the Steelers were led by a quarterback with the name of “Duck” and Dallas, unknown to us at the time the Bills played but known to us now, were nothing more than a flash of greatness. The Buffalo Bills needed to be a team that the greats fear and they couldn’t put fear into anyone. In some instances, like against the Browns, the Bills looked like a team trying to lose (which they did) than a team trying to win. In the second half of the wild card game the Bills looked atrocious. Josh Allen was a world beater in the first half only to leave his brain behind when coming out of the locker room to start the second half. For instance, when Josh Allen ridiculously and inexcusably, lateraled a ball to the sideline only for it to  thankfully be batted out of bounds by his teammate, whose brain was still intact (this will be blogged about more in depth because, it’s just too good not to).

The Vikings are a team that every year is picked to win its division and claims to have the pieces to win a Super Bowl. It was predicted that Minnesota was a Super Bowl caliber team when Kirk Cousins signed his fully guaranteed contract back in 2018. Kirk Cousins they said, was the missing piece. However, Kirk finally won his first post-season game last week and Mike Zimmer appears to have kept his job in Minnesota. The CCNFLTOTYA is not presented to a team who is celebrating because their quarterback won his first playoff game after failing to win any primetime games, let alone his division. This team was picked to go 11-5 and win its division. They failed to accomplish both of these goals’ expectations. No award for you Minnesota.

The Tennessee Titans are the 2020 CCNFLTOTYA Winners! Congrats! They were picked to land third in the AFC South and fail to make the playoffs. It even appeared that way until during Week 6 the Titans’ second year head coach, Mike Vrabel, replaced starting quarterback, Marcus Mariota, with cast away, and former Dolphins’ quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, for help. No matter that Tennessee lost the Week 6 game, since Week 7, and Tannehill under center, the Titans have averaged 2.43 points per drive (6^th) and 28.2 points per game (2^nd). With running back Derrick Henry controlling the line of scrimmage and dominating games and becoming the back that was expected when he came out of Alabama, the Titans are a force to be reckoned with. They knocked off the defending Super Bowl champions by relying on their tight defense and managing the clock by relying on Henry in the run game. A team with a young coach, players who were either forgotten or assumed to be busts has surprised America, and by doing so has received the 2020 CCNFLTOTYA!

 

Morals Have Become the Exception, Not the Rule. Sad.

The NFL Pro Bowl, an event that routinely bores fans as much as watching the 1978 Best Picture Winner, The Deer Hunter. Not only does the Pro Bowl lack any sort of meaning but what it generally lacks in entertainment value it makes up for in aberration. This year’s Pro Bowl may actually come with some entertainment value, albeit off the gridiron, as the NFL has once again thrown morality to the wind.

Unbeknownst to The Cornercube the NFL, apparently, selects “honorary captains” at the Pro Bowl for each team (NFC Team and AFC Team). This year the NFL selected as one of its four “honorary captains” former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, Michael Vick. Although Michael Vick revolutionized the NFL by being the first quarterback to rush for over 1,000 yards in a single season (a feat that wouldn’t be broken until, ironically, this year by the Raven’s quarterback, Lamar Jackson), Michael Vick is also remembered as being a felon for his role in running a dogfighting ring in which he abused, tortured and even killed dogs who did not perform well in fights. Once Vick finished serving his 18-month federal prison sentence he would return to the NFL in 2009, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets, and Pittsburgh Steelers and eventually retiring in 2017. Vick is now a football analyst for FOX.

Despite NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell’s claims that Vick, since being released from prison, has been an advocate for animal rights issues, many Animal Rights Activists are petitioning the NFL to remove Vick as an honorary captain at the Pro Bowl. In fact, one such activist group has gained over 560,000 signatures seeking Vick’s removal. As cbsnews.com reported, the petition stated, “[t]o honor a man who had zero regard for animals is unacceptable and I would like your help to make sure he is NOT honored at the 2020 NFL Pro Bowl.” On the other hand, Rodger Goodell believes that Vick has “paid a heavy price” and that because Vick has worked with animals’ rights groups, such as the Humane Society, he has been accountable for and learned from his mistakes and therefore should be named an honorary captain.

The issue with this whole disagreement is the very fact that it seems confusing how a former NFL player becomes an “honorary captain.” The NFL gives very little indication regarding the requirements to become an honorary captain and just provides a brief synopsis of the honorary captains’ role. The role of an honorary captain is to be a “mentor” to the Pro Bowl players. First, the idea that professional athletes need mentors on the sideline for a game that means absolutely nothing, is ridiculous. If the “honorary captain” was solely named due to his ability on the field, then the animal rights activists’ argument is moot, since they are missing the purpose of the captain. However, the fact that the NFL specifically stated that the “honorary captains” will be acting as “mentors” provides some sort of moral stature that players (again, professional athletes, not some high school team) should look up to.

The NFL has a yearly award called, The Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. This award is presented to a player for his volunteer and charity work, as well as excellence on the field. This award is not new and has been presented since 1970, when Johnny Unitas became the inaugural winner (prior to 1999 the award was simply called, NFL Man of the Year Award). In turn, the NFL has a plethora of players to choose from who are both upstanding citizens and excellent players. Therefore, these players could both be deserving of the title of “honorary captain” and act as legitimate “mentors” to the Pro Bowl Players.

The NFL, as it always does, has placed itself in this moral gymnastics’ dilemma, in which instead of just giving in, they hold their ground and defend their moral ambiguity. Goodell seems to be reasoning that because Vick has turned his life around and done good, that he deserves to represent the NFL and be a mentor. That’s fine, but some past bad actions, no matter the time or recourse done to mitigate the damages, simply preclude the actor from reaching certain milestones.

However, society has either become all too forgivable or simply desensitized by egregious actions. The latter seems to be holding truer than the former. For instance, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in his high school and college years, was accused of sexually assaulting women and one such victim even testified during his Senate nomination hearing to such egregious behavior. The Senate, even with hearing quite convincing testimony, ruled that these past actions will have no bearing on Kavanaugh’s ability to be an impartial and fair judge, a judge who will rule on women’s rights matters, such as abortion.  Then, of course, the Commander in Chief, Donald Trump, can payoff porn stars for sex, brag about “grabbing women by the pussy”,  make fun of a journalist with a disability, call White Supremacists “good people”, disavow all Hispanic migrants as “rapists”, bribe a foreign power for personal political gain and consistently refuse to follow and uphold the rule of law (i.e. the Constitution), still has half of America saying (ironically after coming out of church), “that’s our guy!” Then of course there is the Republican Senate, which should be held liable for their willful negligence in failing to uphold the Constitution and check the President’s abuses.

So, if you are appalled by the fact that Michael Vick is named an “honorary captain”, open your eyes. America, and the world, have fallen into this frightening sense in which character, morals, sacrifice and a good heart are sidelined, while the preference for amorality, fear, anger, selfishness, and a lack of sincerity prevail.

The Cornercube believes that Michael Vick has learned from his terrible actions. However, The Cornercube does not believe that Michael Vick should represent the NFL after embarrassing it so terribly. Goodell shouldn’t be celebrating Vick’s ability to act rationally or morally, Goodell, like the rest of us, should have simply required it. Holding someone to a simple level of morality, especially someone who will hold a great deal of power, shouldn’t be hard for society to do, it should come naturally.