Week 9 TV Schedule

Here are the TV maps for week 9 of the NFL:
FOX
CBS at noon
CBS at 3:00pm

Games that will be televised in the Iowa City area:
Noon: Arizona at Minnesota, FOX
Miami at Baltimore, CBS
3pm: Kansas City at Oakland, CBS

Maps via The 506.

Mid-Season Awards

Many fantasy football owners are now hitting the home stretch in their push towards the fantasy playoffs – if they’re lucky enough to be in such a position. With half of the season in the books, it’s time to see which players have rewarded their owners and which players have left owners wishing for more.        

Mid-season MVP: Phillip Rivers – In a world that is all about numbers, Rivers has given his owners plenty of them. Despite his team’s 3-5 record, Rivers has been phenomenal. Through eight games, the Chargers’ quarterback has thrown for 2,649 yards. That is the highest total for any quarterback through the first eight games in a season in NFL history. Should Rivers keep such a pace, he would break Dan Marino’s record for most passing yards in a single season. Rivers is set for 5,298, while Marino threw for 5,084 with the Dolphins in 1984.

 Perhaps the most impressive part of Rivers performance through the first half of the season has been who he hasn’t thrown the ball to. His top wide-out, Vincent Jackson, has been a hold-out thus far. Fellow wide receiver Malcom Floyd seemed to have picked up the slack, but he has been sidelined since injuring his hamstring in week six. Yet Rivers hasn’t missed a beat. San Diego’s signal caller has thrown for two straight 300-yard games, totaling five for the year. He has also thrown 15 touchdowns, including six multi-TD efforts. That ties him with Drew Brees for first in the NFL for such performances. 

Honorable mention: Kyle Orton – Five 300-yard games so far leading to a career year, but Rivers just a smidge better (15 touchdowns to Orton’s 12).   

Mid-season Breakout Player of the Year: Arian Foster – Entering this season, many fantasy ‘experts’ pegged Foster as one of the biggest sleepers at the running back position due to his late season success last year. But few could have predicted the fantasy gold he has proven to be.

In the season opener against divisional rival Indianapolis, Foster ran for 233 yards and three touchdowns.

He hasn’t slowed down since. For the season, he is averaging just over 140 yards-from-scrimmage (yfs) per game. In fact, he has failed to crack 100 yfs in only one game this year. Heading into week nine, Foster ranks second in the NFL in rushing yards (737) and is tied for second with seven rushing touchdowns. His 245 receiving yards ranks sixth among running backs. And most importantly to fantasy owners, he is the highest scoring fantasy running back in most standard-scoring leagues.

Honorable mention: Brandon Lloyd – Leads the NFL with 878 receiving yards (already a career record), but lacks the week-to-week consistency with three single-digit fantasy-point outings.

Mid-season Disappointment of the Year: Larry Fitzgerald – No one has missed Kurt Warner in Arizona more than Fitzgerald. Given the fact many owners had to spend a second round draft pick — if not a first round pick — to land the Cardinals wide receiver, the production hasn’t matched the draft day expectations.

After eight weeks of action, Fitzgerald’s 403 receiving yards ranked 25^th among wide receivers. The seventh year veteran has yet to record a 100-yard receiving game through the first half of the season, something he has failed to do for the first time since his 2004 rookie campaign. On top of that, his total of four receiving touchdowns seems more impressive than it really is. Fitzgerald caught two touchdown passes in week eight against Tampa Bay, thus doubling his season output in one game. It was the first time he had reached the end zone since week three. But Fitzgerald’s lack of production can’t all be blamed on the quarterback play of Derek Anderson and Max Hall. Fitzgerald’s current average of 2.8 yards after the catch would be a career low if the season ended today.

(Not so) honorable mention: Maurice Jones-Drew – Rushing totals are solid (645 yards ranks eighth), but only one rushing touchdown from a top-5 overall pick.

Monday Musings

• After Sunday’s loss to the New England Patriots, Randy Moss told media members in a press conference that he’ll no longer be talking to them for the rest of the season. Well now, Moss will get his wish. The Vikings waived the outspoken wide receiver today. At least Moss will avoid having to pay the $25,000 fine for not talking to the media. Although it would have been wonderful hearing Moss tell everyone on a weekly basis that he would be paying with “straight cash, homie.”
• In what may have been one of the strangest reasons for benching a player in NFL history, Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan said that Donovan McNabb was pulled due to “cardiovascular endurance” issues. Down six to the Lions, Shanahan brought in Rex Grossman to run the 2-minute drill. This ensued:
  video via SB Nation

  That play contained everything that is right with the NFL: a defensive lineman show boating the instant he touches the football from 10 yards out of the end zone, a rookie (Ndamukong Suh) staring down a veteran (Santana Moss) for actually giving effort on play many would have given up on and, oh, Rex Grossman was under center. McNabb’s lack of “cardiovascular endurance” has never been so appreciated before.

•  Although the NFL season is only half over, the two best runs of the 2010 campaign may have both happened yesterday. One came from a not-so-surprising source, Chris Johnson. Although the play officially went for 29 yards, Johnson may have ran double that in total. Saving the best for last, LaGarrette Blount gave fans a reason to remember him other than as the former Oregon Duck who punched a Boise State player in the jaw. The play speaks for itself:
  
  video via SB Nation

   

Reaction to Vincent article

1. In Vincent’s study, what are the primary factors he uses to gauge whether media coverage of the genders is equitable?

The primary factors Vincent uses are the quality and quantity of stories about women’s sports in relation to men’s sports. Another factor Vincent mentions is where the stories appear in a newspaper: on the front page, in the sports section, etc. In current coverage, according to Vincent, women and female athletics are being “marginalized.” In Vincent’s ideal world, there would be equal number of stories of equal length for both men’s and women’s sports in the sports section of newspapers.

2. What are some of the conclusions and inferences of the study?

One of the conclusions Vincent reaches has to do with women athletes as role models. He says that media influences the public’s thoughts and ideas (which is true), and this includes sports media. The continual portrayal of female athletes in the media as moms first or by putting more worth on their sexuality rather than athletic accomplishments is a problem. Vincent writes: “…it is important that young school girls are able to identify with sporting role models who are determined, powerful, independent, and strong female athletes who are valued by society without having to deal with a host of socially constructed stereotypes, based on rigidly defined gender roles.”

3. Are his recommendations realistic?

I don’t think many of his recommendations are realistic. I feel part of the answer lies in his own article: “Political economy scholars claim newspapers are driven by the financial considerations of circulation and advertising revenue. To meet their financial objectives, newspapers generally try to attract the largest and most affluent readership possible.”

Money talks. And, fair or not, most of the time that means putting more emphasis on covering male sports than female sports. This is not to say that sports sections should completely ignore female athletics; they shouldn’t. Professional male leagues, namely the NFL, NBA and MLB, dominate culture too much to not consistently have them on the front pages of sports sections across the country.

One recommendation I do find reasonable is how women are portrayed. Media should stick to reporting what happens on the field. I agree with what  Vincent said about men never being portrayed as father figures. If you’re not going to talk about men in a patriarchal manner, then women should be covered in the same sense.

Monday Musings

• BREAKING NEWS!!! An optometrist from Chicago told local reporters today that test results show Jay Cutler is color blind. This may explain why Cutler confused Deangelo Hall for Devin Hester yesterday not once, twice or even three times. Hall tied an NFL record for most interceptions in a single game by one player with four INTs yesterday in Chicago. Hall had this to say about Cutler’s performance:
  

 
Yeah, you could say that. “Just putting it up there” would be a pretty accurate description, especially for the third and fourth interception. And you got to love Cutler’s response. It was straight out of the ‘Rex Grossman – Yeah, I throw interceptions. So what?’ playbook. Cutler is right to a degree. He shouldn’t shy away from Hall; he’s a competitor. Unless he is going to continue throwing Johnny Knox’s way, who appeared to lose all interest on that third pick.

And what did Mcnabb think of his counterpart’s performance?

photo via Getty Images

 

• The Oakland Raiders won yesterday by scoring 59 points. I’m not even going to tell you how many points Denver scored. They didn’t show up. And you just know this guy couldn’t get enough yesterday, watching Darren McFadden play like the first round draft choice the Raiders picked him to be.

 

• Brad Childress may be facing a fine after his comments Sunday night. The first 1:30 of this video is probably one of better post game segments of the 2010 season so far. “50 writers in this room. You may be drunk too.” Good stuff from coach Childress.

Week 7 TV Schedule

Here are the TV maps for week 7 of the NFL:
FOX
CBS at noon
CBS at 3:00pm

Game that will be televised in the Iowa City area are:
Noon: Washington at Chicago, FOX
Jacksonville at Kansas City, CBS
3pm: New England at San Diego, CBS

Maps courtesy of The 506.

Monday Musings

• People of Pittsburgh, “hide your kids, hide your wife,” because Ben Roethlisberger is back. After serving a four game suspension for violating the NFL’s conduct policy (he allegedly raped a woman in Georgia, but no charges were filed), Big Ben took his first snap of the 2010 season. His return couldn’t have come at a better time, as the Steelers played the woeful Browns. Roethlisberger was able to take advantage of the Browns’ less than stout defense, as he threw three touchdowns. It will be interesting to see how Roethlisberger does in the coming weeks. The Steelers travel to Miami and then New Orleans, two teams who have given up the fourth fewest passing touchdowns in the NFL at six a piece.
• In other non-related-but-sexual-in-nature quarterback news from Sunday, Tim Tebow lost his professional touchdown virginity to the Jets. His 5 yard run looked like a design right out of the Florida Gators’ playbook:
  
• Tom Brady gave his best Philip Rivers impression Sunday. After nearly getting sacked by the Ravens’ Haloti Ngata, Brady pounded the ground in frustration:
  
  (video via Kissing Suzy Kolber)

  It is still unclear, however, whether Brady’s frustration stems from the lack of a penalty flag/protection, or from Justin Beiber ripping his hairstyle.

• It is a given in broadcasting – or any type of journalism for that matter – that journalists/broadcasters refer to players by their last name. A few athletes have surpassed this rule due to their accomplishments; Kobe and LeBron come to mind. Yesterday, I had the unfortunate opportunity of listening to a small part of the Bears/Seahawks game on the radio. On numerous occasions, the Bears’ play-by-play announcers, Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer, refered to the Bears quarterback as “Jay.” My own journalistic skills are far from perfect, but this drove me nuts. I realize that team announcers are allowed to bend the rules a bit more than broadcasters for FOX, CBS, etc, but Cutler isn’t even one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL today. I don’t even think there is a quarterback in the NFL now who is known on a first name basis such as Kobe or LeBron, let alone “Jay.” 

Week 6 TV Schedule

Here are the TV maps for your week 6 pleasure:
CBS
FOX at noon
FOX at 3:00pm

Games that will be televised in the Iowa City area are:
Noon: Miami at Green Bay, CBS
Seattle at Chicago, FOX
3pm: Dallas at Minnesota, FOX

Maps courtesy of The 506.

Monday Musings

• Words can’t describe how nice it was to see Todd Collins fully embrace the role that is the Bears’ quarterback position terrible Todd Collins was yesterday. He truly did his best Jay Cutler impersonation, completing six passes to Bears’ receivers and four to Carolina defenders. Some of his throws weren’t even close, such as this one into quadruple coverage. Other times, it would have been better for Collins to cover it up and take a sack. His single digit, 6.3 passer rating sums up his performance against the Panthers rather nicely.
• Ray Rice gets it. If more players were like him, the world would be a much more peaceful place. After rushing for a season-best 133 yards and two touchdowns, Rice addressed his fantasy owners. If he continues to put up numbers like he did against Denver, fantasy owners will certainly cut Rice the slack he is asking for.
• What a day it was to be a defensive linemen in the NFL. On one hand, there were a slew of impressive interceptions, including those by Chicago’s Julius Peppers, Lion’s rookie Ndamukong Suh and Carolina’s Ed Johnson (see above). Had any of these happened any other Sunday, they each would probably be a top play on SportsCenter. Perhaps the most impressive from yesterday was that of Kroy Biermann. His interception and return for a touchdown sealed a 20-10 victory for Atlanta over the Browns.

Week 5 TV Schedule

Here are the TV maps for week 5 NFL action:
FOX
CBS at noon
CBS at 3:00pm

Games that will be televised in the Iowa City area are:
Noon: Green Bay at Washington, FOX
Kansas City at Indianapolis, CBS
3pm: Tennessee at Dallas, CBS

Long live The 506.