Ricky Williams checks in

Ricky Williams made it to the practice field at the Argos' Erindale College training camp this morning, which is a good thing. Another helping of yesterday’s unveiling of Ricky as philosopher savant and gridiron Mother Teresa and I’d be reaching for the barf bag:

CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR

Ricky Williams: New ball game.

Keith Pelley, team president: “We all know Ricky Williams is special on the field but what I’ve learned in the last couple of days is that Ricky Williams is more special off the field. Working side by side with the legendary Mike Clemons, I can categorically foresee how influential these two men can be to Toronto’s youth.”

Pinball Clemons: “I’ve personally given this considerable consideration and unequivocally understand my personal position. This, however, did not satisfy my concerns for our League and our fans. That is, until I met Ricky Williams. He is quite literally one of the kindest and most thoughtful persons I have ever spent time with. He is a kindred spirit, a man after my own heart, whose articulated desire is to serve others. Interestingly enough, I haven’t said anything about his physical talents because it is Ricky Williams the man that is most impressive."

Pelley again, on whether Williams, who will apparently be tested 10 times a month by an NFL official, will be subject to a “zero tolerance” policy on any positive drug test (his teammates, full time members of a league that has no drug testing, face no such policing): "No. That would be totally hypocritical of what the Argonauts stand for."

Williams, on his new number 27: "This is a more positive outlook on life than I've had in the past and I wanted to initiate with No. 27, which is a positive number.”

So there you are. This is an example of “what the Argos stand for” to Pelley, Pinball and the rest, and it’s balance + thought = completion for Williams, a keen believer in numerology.

Geez. This is a football player. He's come from a difficult background, from all accounts. He's different, perhaps even unique - how many players have walked away from millions of dollars to go smoke dope in a tent halfway around the world, then come back on another drug suspension, owing $8.6 million to his team, and child support on three children from three relationships, with another on the way?

There's almost no risk here from the Argos' point of view, save perhaps a complete and utter, Anthony Davislike flop. It's Williams, hightly motivated, taking all the chances: One season trying to salvage his career and reputation, avoid the local hydroponics, come out of it in one piece and, having overrode the Dolphins' objections to come up here, be back in Miami come the end of the year.

Good luck to him, and to the Argos. One thing, though. As others before him have found, this league is much tougher than it seems. Didn't hear any of that yesterday, but I suspect Williams knows about it now.

Some Flutie questions

Leftovers and talking points out of yesterday's news of Doug Flutie's retirement:

Start with Stephen Brunt's assessment in the Globe:

Through some of the roughest years for the grand old game, with the league's very existence hanging in the balance, the combination of his brain, his skills, and the rules and culture of Canadian football proved to be a match made in heaven.
Argue the fine points all you like, but who, really, was ever better?

It's a fair question, and two other names come immediately to mind: Warren Moon and Damon Allen. Even though those two won more Grey Cup titles, I'll take Flutie for the skill set he brought to this more improvisational, wide-open game. There's never been a better fit.

Mark Kreidler is asking whether Flutie belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (and while we're on the subject, perhaps Flutie's entire pro oeuvre might be deemed worthy someday by Profootballreference.com):

Who gave the NFL the keys to the executive washroom in Canton? Where on the building does it say "Pro Football Hall of Fame, a Mark Goodson/Paul Tagliabue Production?"
Doug Flutie might have no more business rushing the steps of the place than Paul Crewe, but I'll tell you what: Flutie had one startling, statistics-grabbing, championship-winning, scramble-matic career in pro football. He just didn't do the best of it in the NFL.

Kriedler isn't the only one asking the HoF question, PFT also making the case for Flutie: "Flutie's unique path, and extreme success, are the kinds of thing that should be inspiring kids with an interest in the sport long after we're all taking a permanent nap in a pine box."

And over at the Wages of Wins, a look at Flutie's second coming to the NFL by the numbers leads to this conclusion:

Would Flutie had performed at this level for twenty-one years had the NFL not engaged in size discrimination? We will never know. The data tells us, though, that he was an above average quarterback when given a chance. And perhaps this teaches a lesson the NFL should heed: Size isn’t always everything.

UPDATE: I should have been on this earlier, but here's a post from Eric McErlain on the topic that's worth a look:

College Football Hall of Fame? You better believe it.
CFL Hall of Fame? Absolutely.
But Canton? I'm afraid not, but something tells me Flutie, who already has achieved more with his 5'8" frame than anyone could ever have imagined, doesn't care all that much. Besides, if he had, he would never have gotten half as far as he did.

A Flutie Moment

With Doug Flutie retiring today, one of sport's most unique and longest-serving athletes is exiting the stage, and there will be memories.

My favourite was in Miami, at a playoff game in early 1999 that ended with Miami's Jimmy Johnson, such a classy guy, stomping on some Flutie Flakes in the Dolphins dressing room.

HANS DERYK/TORONTO STAR

Doug Flutie: Escape artist.

But first, the NFL has a policy where, with five minutes to go in the game, reporters are escorted down to the sidelines, from where at game's end they go down the tunnel to the interview area and locker rooms. (I always took it during my brief time covering the league; a year after this one, I'd get a ringside seat for the Music City Miracle, including peering over referee Phil Luckett's shoulder while he reviewed the replay.)

When we got down there, the Bills were driving for a game-tying score, and Flutie, flushed from the pocket, was suddenly running for his life -- and turned to come straight toward me, standing on the sideline beside the end of the Dolphins' bench area.

I instinctively moved over behind the mountainous Dolphin beside me, peering around him as if he was a shield. It's hard to communicate the level of intensity on an NFL field when you're that close -- the noise, which is all grunts and shouts and screams, about as primal as sports gets, and the speed of it, which is simply breathtaking, along with the size of the linemen. The overall level of violence and mayhem is frightening, thrilling -- and unforgettable.

Flutie somehow eluded two linemen to escape the pocket collapsing around him. A linebacker came up and tried to cut him off at the knees, but he turned his hips sideways and held up the ball slightly like a waiter going through a crowded restaurant, and the hit barely grazed him. He ran out of bounds a few feet away from me, two more Miami players diving for a final smack and one of them getting him but good. He flinched, landed hard with the guy on top of him -- he must've been outweighed by a good 60 pounds -- and bounced straight up and ran back to call the next play from the line. Time was running down. (The Bills would eventually lose in the final seconds on a Flutie fumble, their season ending at the goalline when Miami finally tagged him with the knockout punch and cued Johnson's moment of piling on.)

To me, none of it mattered. It was an ordinary play, but from that vantage point, it was an escape job for the ages: the most memorable three-yard gain I've ever seen. And only one guy in the world was capable of doing it.

NFL Draft: Looking Down On No. 1

At draft time, you take your communiques with a plain of salt, so Houston Texans GM Charlie Casserly's predraft talk yesterday should be approached with caution. But this much seems assured: the Texans will retain the No. 1 pick in this weekend's NFL draft, and they're not taking University of Texas quarterback Vince Young.

Associated Press

Vince Young: Won't take him at No. 1, Texans say.

The news wasn't much of a surprise, but one of the more noteworthy elements from yesterday's Casserly press conference was this bit about the Texans' efforts to trade the top slot:

"We're sitting here today and it's Wednesday at noon and we don't have a trade offer. It's not because we haven't called people. Monday morning I called teams behind us and I won't tell you who I called or where I stopped, but you can obviously figure I called teams immediately behind us and I'm not going to tell you where I stopped and there was no interest. And that was not my first phone call to them; that was just my latest."
(on why there is no interest) "I think you have a combination of things, you have a number of good players and if you're satisfied with the quality of player that you're going to get at your pick, why give up something else? And I think that is what it really comes down to. There are a lot of good players at the top of this draft and there is no one player that people absolutely have to have that is so much better than the player that is going to fall to them that they are willing to make a trade, and I think that is a factor."

What Casserly doesn't talk about is money -- the added cost of signing the No. 1 pick and whether or not it's a good place to be in the first place -- as well as the exhaustive yet uncertain process of assessing talent. Fans cheer No. 1 picks and put the saviour tag on them each year, but in an article in the May issue of the Atlantic, Allen Barra looks at the draft and draws some intriguing conclusions (subscription required), while Matthew Quirk, in an accompanying sidebar, cites a recent academic study and pulls out a telling stat:

In any given season over his first five years, a first-round draft pick is almost as likely to not start a single game (8 per cent) or fail out of the league (8 per cent) as he is to go to the Pro Bowl (9 per cent).
What Massey and Thaler found was that, in terms of performance (games started, Pro Bowl selections, etc.) per dollar, the top draft pick is actually the worst choice in the first round.

As for why the flops flop, Barra looks beyond the players themselves and to the sidelines, putting some of the blame on coaches:

"I'm often surprised," says three-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Walsh, "at how seldom a coach's ability to motivate isn't considered when analyzing a player's success or failure. A lot of guys who you see go bust their first time around in the NHL do end up fulfilling their early expectations, but with different teams and different coaches. The trick for a really smart coach is to make his players see how smart he is without destroying their confidence in their own intelligence."
The NFL may be focusing their efforts in the wrong place. Maybe tests should be designed to grade coaches - they're the ones who have to mold a disparate group of young men into a team.

Coaching by the computer

Now this is something that comes as no surprise, given the rise of computer-based statistical analysis in baseball and football: a scientist at the University of Indiana and two business partners have developed a computer model designed to take the guesswork out of NFL coaching decisions:

ZEUS is designed to do what a coach needs to do during a game but can't -- calculate the consequences of a decision before he calls the next play. Accept the penalty or decline it? Challenge the official's call or not? Go for it on fourth down or punt? Go for one extra point or two after the touchdown?
(snip)

"The core model replicates, with amazing accuracy, the play-calling and statistical outputs of typical NFL teams," Bower said. ZEUS can also be customized for the offense and defense of a particular NFL team and its opponent. Then, with the capability of performing more than a million game simulations in a matter of seconds, it can assess critical play choices on their relative merits.

So what's a fan to do when the computer-coach's play call fails, despite being statistically the right move? Of course: Fire the computer!
(Link from Robot Wisdom)

Red Storey, 1918-2006

Red Storey was one of those Canadian originals who went through a number of different sporting phases in his life, from football to hockey referee to raconteur.

CP FILE PHOTO

Red Storey: All-round sportsman.

I remember him at a hockey banquet when I was quite young, telling stories and always laughing. To me, a Canadian kid reared on the lore of the Rocket Richard riots and epic football finals at Varsity Stadium, he was a larger than life figure, a link back to those times, and with better stories to tell than the ones in the books I was reading.

So I was taken a little aback this morning with the CP obit run in The Star and many other newspapers this morning -- at least this part:

In one 1938 game, Storey came off the bench in the fourth quarter and rushed for three touchdowns and 102 yards in a comeback win over Winnipeg.

One 1938 game? That was actually the 1938 Grey Cup, and the single most electrifying performance in the long history of that great game.

Storey's three touchdowns in a single Grey Cup game are a record since equalled by Jackie Parker (1956) and Tommy Scott (1980; Ross Craig of Hamilton also had three TDs in the 1913 final, and Storey and Craig share the record for rushing TDs in a Grey Cup) -- but none of them put together the concentrated burst Storey managed.

As the Star's Red Burnett noted in the sportswriting parlance of the day:

When the flame-thatched youth decided to rise and shine Argos were trailing 7 to 6 and the greater majority of the 18,846 paying customers very glum, while Winnipeg Blue Bombers' supporters were flushed with the joy of expected triumph.
Mr. Storey soon changed all that by turning in one of the greatest 15 minutes of football toting over seen on the Varsity or any other gridiron. All the 20-year-old lad, who tears along with the speed of a sprinter and the power of an elephant, did was chalk up three touchdowns and make the other possible as the brilliant Argo machine staged a thrilling 24-point rally to snatch victory from the hungry clutches of the Winnipeg gridders to retain their Canadian crown.

For a link to a pdf file of the Star's coverage of Storey's performance for the ages via Pages of the Past, click here.

Farewell, Red. Thanks for the stories.

Oscar vs. Super

It's been quite a week. First the Oscar nominations, next the Super Bowl.
I'm kind of torn on this. Push me, and I'll pick Super Bowl. Then again, there's nothing like waking up just in time for Best Picture.
The loyal website minions have been polling Star readers on this very thing, and unlike the Bills versus Anyone, or Scorsese vs. the Academy, it's a virtual dead-heat.
Coming right up after the jump it's a blog-off: JABS and Oscars blogger and movie critic Peter Howell, head to head.

Super Bowl webstuff, XX and up

Following on yesterday's party posting, here's your loot bag:

First, big thanks to Carla, who isn't much for the Super Bowl, but still sends along this recipe for volcano chicken chili, along with a recipe tweak and serving suggestion: "I use regular black olives instead of Kalamata and I garnish with avocado instead of scallions.  A cold Creemore or Sleeman's and a chunk of sourdough bread on the side, and you're all set."

Frankly, looking at the rules, this one really scares me, but here it is anyway: From Deadspin (duh!), another Supe drinking game.

Latest "news" -- that's what they call it, anyway -- about the commercials (according to my emails, AOL Canada and Yahoo! Canada will have 'em all up and available for notherners who feel deprived of the latest in flatulent horses.)

A debunking of one of the Supe's most enduring media myths: the Doug Williams question. And while we're on the subject, after going through an exhaustive and lengthy list of nominations, here's my nominee for this week's most ridiculous "news" story: Seahawks escape unhurt after car accident. Gosh, that was a close one.

Old, but okay: the halftime show, sponsored by McSweeney's.

Check out this list of coaches, and pick out the former Argos (hint: they both lost. You're surprised? Answers tomorrow).

*Sigh*. Bring the game on, already.

Super Bowl webstuff, VI thru XIX

Time to plan the Super Bowl party!

This guy crashed our party last year, and scooped all the dough.

First, some tips: "The Super Bowl is the premier event of the entire sports year. Be sure to use the good chip bowl and your finest inflatable furniture."

Next, the guest list. In my house, this is a very big deal.

A recipe for chili. Failing that, directions.

A pregame movie.

A couple of conversation pieces.

A little gambling.

Beer here. Or here. Maybe even a drinking game.

Oh yeah, the game. Hope it's not as dull as this one, don't hold your breath it'll be as good as this one.

Super Bowl webstuff III, IV and V

Got three for you today, as we count it down:

First, from the excellent Prelinger archives, this (Quicktime) video from 30 years ago -- Super Bowl IX 1/2 -- features the very young, pre-SNL pair of Christopher Guest and "Bill (Billy) Murray" trying doughtily to coax some laughs out of NFL and CBS personalities of the day playing a touch football game in Miami just before X was played.

They don't really succeed, but there are some flashes, and not just in a time-capsule sorta way. Witness this exchange between the late Johnny Unitas and Paul Hornung, who was suspended for a season in the 1960s for betting on NFL games:

Hornung: Tell the guys no fair patting on the ass. No fair winking off ... John's betting on the other team again.
Unitas: Nine points! Ha-ha-ha! I took that!
(Snip)
Murray: (Hornung) hasn't changed a bit, though. He told me just before pregame he had $600 bet on his own blue team. As long as he's betting for his team, I think it's for a good cause.

The Supe sideshow has gone from such lo-fi charms to farting horses, Janet Jackson's boob -- and in the second link of the day, Lingerie Bowl III, which must be paying its bills. The near-naked models with the blacking under the eyes are back and the LB has apparently expanded, with Dennis Rodman as commissioner and the girls wearing the uniforms, such as they are, of the Dallas Desire, the Los Angeles Temptation. This is "every man's Super Bowl Sunday fantasy" according to the voiceover, evidently ignoring the presence of Rodman. Kind of makes Phyllis George's protestations of sexism to Billy Murray's sideline questions to be kinda quaint, eh?

But hold that fantasy and wait one bra-snappin' minute, announcer man. Today's final link comes from Outsports, the website that looks at sports including the NFL through a different coloured lens: It's the Gay Super Bowl Party, where patting on the ass, I'd guess, is fair game.