Why We Play the Games

Supposedly Chelsea have already won the 2014-2015 Barclay's Premier League title. Supposedly fans from Manchester, North London, and Liverpool needn't bother draping themselves in their assorted reds and sky blues, since doing so would insinuate they have a chance at claiming the title next May. Supposedly the loss of 2013/14 PFA Player of the Year, Luis Suarez, will be far too much for a young yet still attack-minded Liverpool side to overcome. Supposedly Louis Van Gaal has no where near a title-winning defense to compliment his powerful but at times injury-prone front line at Manchester United. Supposedly Arsenal still aren't ready to take their strong form of mid-seasons past into March or April, when every point seems that much more important. Supposedly Manchester City haven't strengthened enough during a summer where they've seen so many of their rivals do just that.

Well, supposedly I'm the only one who thinks that all of these assumptions being made on the outlook of the new season need to be quashed immediately.

Last September, football magazine FourFourTwo ran with a cover photo depicting the six managers (looking suspiciously slim I might add) of the six top clubs in England for its annual Barclay's Premier League season preview, proclaiming 2013-2014 "The Year of the Boss".

While the magazine questioned which man would become the new "Don" of the Premier League, following the retirement of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, one year later we are yet to find that man. Despite Manuel Pellegrini's title success in his debut season at Manchester City, it was achieved in not so convincing fashion after late season stumbles from Chelsea and Liverpool. Regardless of Liverpool's brief return to the top of the table and their free scoring ways of old (and we're talking like 70's and 80's old), Brendan Rodgers watched his team unravel when it mattered most. Arsene Wenger managed to fling a rather irritating monkey off his club's back after a decade of no silverware by winning the FA Cup, yet Arsenal's Premier League run floundered much more unconvincingly months before the finish line. We all saw the season Manchester United had under David Moyes' not-so-fantastic watch, which has led many to predict a return to the contention now that a proven, silverware winning manager has been placed in charge (but frankly Louis Van Gaal would have to name Tom Cleverly his captain, bench Robin Van Persie, and watch his team wrack up disappointing results all while snacking on a packet of Cheetos to come anywhere near close to how despised his predecessor became).

After a year of searching for one the league's top managers to take sole possession of the void left by Ferguson, there was seemingly only one man and one club who sat poised to assert their dominance over their competitors in the upcoming season. Jose Mourinho and his Chelsea squad, though left trophy-less at the season's end last May, seem to be the one team that made strides forward during the summer transfer period while their competitors supposedly slipped up or failed to address their own weaknesses. The acquisitions of Felipe Luis, Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, and Didier Drogba, coupled with the steady shedding of dead weight and past their prime club legends David Luiz, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Demba Ba, and Samuel Eto'o has left Chelsea as the winners of Summer 2014, and according to the media and public opinion, the 2014-2015 Barclays Premier League winners.


......But that's why we play the games.


Any 38 game season can be easily compared to a marathon. You think you know exactly how much of a long, difficult and drawn out war it is, until about mile 10 (in this case, late November) when you realize "Holy shit I've still got 16 miles left to go in this thing." I mean, if you know me you'll know I've obviously never run a marathon before, but that's how I imagine it going (except for me this inner dialogue would probably occur a bit earlier.....like around mile two). Regardless of this widely recognized truth, prognosticators seem to have crowned Chelsea champions before the first meaningful kick of a football. While I certainly hope they're correct, the realistic side of me knows that every season has far too many twists, turns, and mountains to climb to warrant looking at a team sheet and simply deeming one team the best. The intangible factors that can propel the league's minnows to overachieve and drag some of it's giants down to the middle of the table can strike at anytime. Chelsea themselves are one horror tackle like this....

.....from losing the one man who can capitalize on all those glorious chances Eden Hazard and co. can conjure up and being left with Fernando Torres (no comment) and Didier Drogba (who can hardly play 90 minutes of football anymore at his age). These scenarios exist for every club, whether they're clubs clawing for survival or billionaire owned super teams who can afford to spend more on one player than most clubs can spend in one transfer period.

We live in a world where news and people's opinions on that news are presented to us on social media and other media outlets. We are constantly bombarded with so much information that we and those working in the media jump to conclusions prematurely in order to be the first to make predictions for the world to hear. If media pundits and bloggers are the first to predict Chelsea will win the title and it happens then we all feel this validates them as a journalist, whether they know the tactics of exactly how Chelsea did it or not.

This is why I'm not going to make a prediction as to who will win the Premier League, the Champions League, or any of the trophies up for grabs this season. Yes, Chelsea significantly strengthened their squad not only in places of need, but in depth as well, adding players who've won trophies and know what the toil of a league-winning season is like. But Manchester City have just as much claim to a trophy they've become accustomed to fighting for until the last day and command a squad with far more diversity in attacking options than any I've seen in a while. Liverpool have spent their Suarez cash well by acquiring a slew of players rife with potential, experience, and talent. Just because they haven't brought in a household name like a Cesc Fabregas doesn't mean their signings lack the relative experience and talent to help them build on a frightening (for myself and City fans at least) campaign. While the gripes with Arsenal and Manchester United are understandable, I refuse to truly count out two managers of the stature of Arsene Wenger and Louis Van Gaal, both armed with talented squads and the resources to build upon them should they need to in January.

We play the games for a reason. So lets sit back, stop trying to let everyone know how right we are, and just ENJOY the end-to-end drama that is the Barclay's Premier League.

This One's for All the Marbles

Here we are. Thursday, June 20th 2013. For the first time since the Lakers and Celtics gave us an unspectacular contest three years ago, we have a Game 7 in NBA Finals.

While technically a Game 7 in the world's premier basketball league should be considered the pinnacle of professional basketball, in actuality they rarely feel that way when we come upon one. After experiencing six games between the same two teams, rehashing each individual match up over and over again, and having useless facts like "Gary Neal's dad is watching at home" thrown at us multiple times by ESPN announcer Mike Breen, the lead up to game 7 has really felt more like a sigh of relief than a two day stretch filled with anticipation. In other sports we have two weeks of analysts and reporters building up the Super Bowl, in NCAA Men's Basketball we have a week of previews to the Final Four and possible Championship match ups, and in Baseball or Hockey, the majority of the country waits until game 7 of the World Series or Stanley Cup to even bother caring about the sport (apart from the real fans of the various regions of course).

Game 7 is the final game in a series of blowouts (aside from Games one and six), leading to a real lack of anticipation in relation to the meaning of the event. There have been few memorable heroic moments for your average fan to hang his or her hat on apart from Ray Allen's game tying three pointer in the dying moments of game 6, yet I'm here to inform the average fan of magnitude of tonight's event. If you aren't in front of a Television to witness (No Lebron reference intended) game 7 at 9 pm, eastern standard time, then you should be viewed as equivalent to someone who chose not to watch the Super Bowl. 

Depending on the outcome, tonight marks the culmination of one NBA all time great's career or the crowning achievement of the other's. The two athletes I speak of are of course Tim Duncan and Lebron James. Polar opposites when it comes to playing style and even lifestyle. Duncan has been the consummate pro and model of consistency during his 16 year NBA career. After spending four years honing his game in college at Wake Forest he emerged as the number one pick of the Spurs in the 1997 NBA Draft and almost immediately found success thanks to his excellent fundamentals (I'm still bewildered as to how the "Big Fundamental" never caught on as his nickname), calm demeanor, and of course his elite role players. Timmy has known nothing but success throughout his career, winning championships in his second, sixth, eighth, and tenth NBA seasons, the last of which came against a young Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007.

Meanwhile Lebron, as many of you may already know, was deemed the next Michael Jordan and "the King" ever since his sophomore year of high school and has gone about attempting to emulate MJ's style and charisma on and off the basketball court ever since. Though Lebron has obviously achieved All-Time Great status among the pantheon of NBA greats, no one would ever associate him with the term "winner". Despite his four MVPs, countless All Star appearances, and last year's triumph over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals, status of "winner" has eluded Lebron throughout his career. He has been a player known as well for his highlight dunks, assists, and blocks...

as he is for his fun loving, jokester personality...

As "boring" as Tim Duncan has been throughout his career, Lebron James has been as exciting and thought provoking, but without the same championship success, losing in his first two NBA Finals appearances. Yet tonight could either change 10 years of criticism and public opinion on the much-debated topic that is  Lebron James' career, or it could reinforce Duncan's status as one of the greatest winners in professional sports history. Win, and Lebron deals Duncan his first defeat in an NBA Finals, topples the greatest all around team in the NBA, silences his "Can't Come Through in the Clutch" critics, and puts himself on a list including among others Russell, Havlicek, Larry, Magic, Kareem, Hakeem, Kobe, and of course Tim Duncan, of players who won game sevens against future Hall of Famers. Lose, and Lebron cements his status as the great player who couldn't quite shoulder the load and come through in the clutch when it mattered most. Understandably, if Lebron completes the apex of his career with four or five championships,  many might forget this game seven. However, basketball purists will always look to tonight when inevitably the argument is made that Lebron's achievement's bested Jordan's and claim "Jordan never would have let his team lose, no matter the opponent."

It may not be fair, but public opinion sometimes fails to live up to our standards of righteous.


Finally, Liam Regan knows absolutely nothing about sports.

A Tale of Two Sophomores

After this weekend's 56-45 home loss to the #8 Clemson Tigers the question still beckons for the Terps. Danny O'Brien or C.J. Brown?

O'Brien, once deemed the savior of Maryland football after his cinderella freshman season, started the season leading the Terps to a big season opening win against Miami only to be benched by new head coach Randy Edsall after two embarrassing losses to West Virginia and Temple which were followed by a sub-par performance in a win over Towson two weeks ago.

The last straw came against Georgia Tech in Atlanta last week when he was replaced by Brown after going 1 for 6 for 17 yards and an interception while Maryland was mired in a 21-3 hole on the road against the #13 team in the country. Brown brought the Terps back with two touchdown scoring drives to make it 21-16 (including a 77 yard run by the elusive quarterback) but was eventually stopped on the final drive of the game.

The performances of the two sophomores has split Maryland fans in half as to whom the starting Quarterback should be. Some believe coach Edsall should stick with O'Brien through his bad stretch stating that his recent run of bad form is a result of trying to understand new offensive coordinator Gary Crowton's complex new system. But wouldn't this be a reason to justify O'Brien's benching, seeing as Brown has had just as much time to adapt to the new system yet has embraced it and played magnificently as a result.

Maybe playing O'Brien is the equivalent of trying to put a square peg in a round hole, when Brown is the round peg that fits perfectly. Brown is just the right quarterback for Crowton's spread option system with his ability not only as a passer (17 for 35, 177 yds, 3 TD's vs Clemson) but as a decision maker and weapon in Crowton's option run game (22 carries, 162 yds, 1 TD vs Clemson). O'Brien, who is purely a pocket passer, may have the tools to succeed in the new offense but not to take it to it's full potential. He would be the right choice in any form of the pro offense but unfortunately for all of those Maryland fans who went out and bought #5 jerseys during the offseason, the Terps are going to be running the new spread option for some time.

The problem is getting the fans on board with their new starting quarterback and convincing them he is the right man for the job. Maryland's new marketing campaign was spearheaded by the wildly popular O'Brien, printing his image on posters all over College Park, declaring him the best quarterback in the ACC, and featuring him on radio shows all offseason. Now C.J. Brown will have to look into the stands at Byrd Stadium on saturdays and see countless #5 jerseys staring right back at him, reminding him of the expectations and who he'll be compared to this season. The only thing that will quell the cheers for O'Brien to be reinstated as the starter is, you guessed it, WINS. Brown is yet to win a game where he has received a majority of the snaps, which though it can be blamed on the Terps porous defense this season, is not going to help him convince the naysayers that he's the right man for the job.

The Terps get another chance to make a statement next weekend when they travel to Tallahassee to play the preseason ACC favorite Florida State Seminoles in a matchup which has lost its luster after poor starts to the season by both teams. This will not diminish the importance of the game for either team, as Maryland looks to salvage any hopes it has for a bowl bid and Florida State tries to right the ship and keep pace with division leaders Clemson and Wake Forest for a place in the ACC championship game. A win in Tallahassee, one of the nation's toughest places to play, on national television would go a long way in convincing C.J. Brown's detractors that Maryland's coaching staff made the right decision in picking him as the starter.

NFL First Bite

Two weeks of NFL football have passed, Fantasy Football is in full swing, and all is right in the world. As usual there have been surprises (e.g. Bills, Lions, Redskins) and disappointments (e.g. Vikings, Chiefs) and though no one can officially be counted out of the playoff race just yet some teams have taken significant steps forward or backward from their ultimate goals. In just two weeks we have witnessed the Baltimore Ravens being crowned Super Bowl contenders in their week one blowout of the Pittsburgh Steelers, only to see them peter out with a lackluster display against the Tennessee Titans the very next week.

The defense, which was heralded as being back to its good old impenetrable ways of the early and mid-2000's after its 7 turnover performance and methodical shutting down of the rival Pittsburgh Steelers came out flat against a Tennessee Titans team that (lets be honest) has no where near the same ambitions as the Ravens and was considered altogether a class below in the AFC hierarchy. The Titans, from numerous hours of film study, found the cracks in the defense that could even been seen last week against the Steelers when wide receiver Mike Wallace achieved his lone goal of taking the top off the defense on deep passes, racking up 108 yards against the otherwise solid Baltimore defense. The Titans then proceeded to put pressure on this crack by throwing to star wide receiver Kenny Britt for 9 receptions, 135 yards and touchdown.

Tennessee targeted Britt 13 times, showing their overall intent on offense of whose hands they wanted the ball, meanwhile the Ravens were left focusing on the wrong guy, holding Titans star running back Chris Johnson to 53 yards on 24 carries. That's a 2.2 yards per carry average people. When considering Chris Johnson is an All Pro running back who is one season removed from a 2,000 yard season and runs a 4.24 second 40 yard dash then yea, it's pretty safe to assume the Raven's defensive goal on the day was to contain Johnson. Sadly, the corners who were left with the unenviable task of covering Britt and Titan's 2nd string receiver Nate Washington (7 receptions, 99 yards on 11 targets) one-on-one the whole afternoon couldn't achieve their near impossible mission with NFL veteran Matt Hasselbeck pulling the strings. The result was too many men in the box, Hasselbeck shredding the few players left in the secondary for 358 yards and a touchdown, and a disappointing Raven's loss.

Is the defense entirely to blame for the loss? of course not when your offense puts up a total of 229 yards and turns the ball over 3 times. Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron got away from what worked so well against the Steelers in week one when the Ravens ran the ball 31 times for 170 yards helping to set up the play action pass. This time around, the Ravens offense ran the ball only 17 times for 45 yards and subsequently the passing game faltered under the pressure of having to compensate for the lack of run support. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco went 15 for 32 with 197 yards a touchdown and two costly interceptions, while being pummeled by the Titans blitz all day. It's obvious that this offensive line thrives when the focus is on the run rather then the pass, and the same can be said for Flacco who has always been at his most effective on the play action pass.

As a number of NFL offenses have begun to shy away from the run in an effort to keep the ball in their playmaking quarterback's hands (Packers, Patriots, Saints, etc) the Ravens need to realize that going with the trend would be a disastrous mistake. This team is not built to throw the ball 40+ times a game, while giving the running back the odd hand off here or there. It is built to pound opponents with their workhorse running backs who, given their chances, will eventually take their opportunities while setting up Flacco for play action passes. Swimming against the current is never easy, but if the Ravens want to get to the Indianapolis next february they will have to make it their motto.

Finally, Liam Regan knows absolutely nothing about sports.

You See I Actually Named the Blog that Because.....

So you may be wondering, "Alex, why such a strange blog name? What was your inspiration?" Well that's an excellent question coming from an obviously puzzled group of followers (though I may not currently have many).

I have many influences that have driven me toward the decision of starting my own blog, Bill Simmons of ESPN.com being one (and certainly the biggest) of those. I acknowledged a long, long time ago that I do not possess such a fortunate pair of initials in which to name my blog with, so I've gone with the alter ego angle. When it comes to giving you my analysis on the world of sports as we know it, leave it up to the Axel to give you the spin. Hopefully people will get the whole Axel/Axle reference and how Axles spin.......yea I get it, not the funniest thing you've ever heard.

I am no Bill Simmons, but that still doesn't mean I can't attempt to combine my sports knowledge with my sarcastic sense of humor! My writing style is nowhere near as polished as Mr. Simmons', and I am no where near as witty as he is. But some may detect a sprinkling of his sarcastic tone in my writing, which I promise you is genuine and not forced in the slightest. Being from a middle class background of Irish descent and moving to the United States from London in 1999, sarcasm has always been a part of my every day life and sense of humor. So if there is ever a puzzling statement that may not seem clear to you, I urge you to please shoot me an email so I can either change my diction or explain the point I was trying to make. I don't wish for anyone to take any statement I may make or argue to come off the wrong way.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy reading this blog as much as I hope to enjoy writing it. I'm aiming at publishing at least one article per month, hopefully more, depending on how busy I am with school work, my family, and my A'capella group. But when a hot-button sports topic pops up on espn.com or any other leading sports news site, you can bet I'll be furiously writing a new article or two.

Remember whenever you need the spin, look no further then the Axel. (Hopefully I don't get too much flack for that one......)