12/21/24
January 11, 2015
SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
posted by Etrigan at 11:10 AM on January 11, 2015
I guess the Bills wanted a head coach who has experience with a poor offensive team with no quarterback and a good defense. Mission accomplished.
posted by dyams at 11:37 AM on January 11, 2015
I missed the news that Doug Marrone quit. That makes two Bills head coaches in the past 11 years who quit when they were not being forced out and did not have another job elsewhere. The other was Mike Mularkey.
They'd rather not coach at all than lead the Bills.
Can anyone think of other examples where that happened and the coach was not an old guy whose career was winding down?
posted by rcade at 12:26 PM on January 11, 2015
Bobby Petrino jumped ship in Atlanta after 13 games.
Lou Holtz quit the Jets after one season.
Both of them went directly to Arkansas.
Something about the bright lights of Fayetteville must be hard to resist.
posted by beaverboard at 02:53 PM on January 11, 2015
Touching moment of sympathy from the Arsenal fans toward their visitors from Stoke today.
After the Emirates Stadium PA backed up Arsenal's third goal with the announcement that the trains back to Stoke had been cancelled, home fans all began to sing "you're shit and you can't get home."
posted by Mr Bismarck at 03:35 PM on January 11, 2015
Watching the Cowboys lose because of the Calvin Johnson rule was extremely satisfying.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 06:19 PM on January 11, 2015
So next week's conference final games has the early game being played as far west as you can practically get in this country (Seattle) while the late game is being played practically as far to the east as you can be in this country (New England)? I don't get it.
posted by dyams at 07:35 PM on January 11, 2015
Assume a broadcast game runs about three hours even, give or take a few minutes, and with the listed start times as 3:05pm EST for the NFC (Packers at Seahawks) and 6:40pm EST for the AFC (Colts at Patriots).
As it is today, this means the viewing times for watching both games are 12:05pm-6:40pm on the West Coast, and 3:05pm-9:40pm on the East Coast. Locally, Seattle viewers would watch their team from 12:05pm-3:05pm, and locally New England would watch from 6:40pm-9:40pm.
If they'd swapped the start times you'd get 12:05pm PST/3:05pm EST for New England and 3:40pm PST/6:40pm EST for Seattle . This means the viewing times for watching both games are 12:05pm PST-6:40pm on the West Coast, but 3:05pm-9:40pm on the East Coast. Which is the exact same if we switch teams and have the AFC play first on the East Coaat. The difference is that locally, Seattle viewers would watch their team at 3:40pm-6:40pm, and locally New England would watch from 3:05pm-6:40pm.
Other than letting Seattle viewers watch later in the afternoon, and New England viewers watch earlier in the day... it's a wash. However, two teams are in the EST time zone (NE/IND), GB is in CST, and SEA is in PST. So, all things being equal, might as well lean towards the East Coast bias, so one of the big games (NE/IND) is in prime time for both their fan bases, while the other two teams are in that post-brunch sweet spot (12/2pm respectively).
It actually kind of makes sense to me, considering different factors...
posted by hincandenza at 08:18 PM on January 11, 2015
Actually, the times work out well for me. I have a church youth group meeting to attend at 1630, and if the Patriots were on at 1500, I wouldn't be at the meeting. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't have been surprised at a cancellation of the meeting. As it is, I can throw something together for the pot luck supper accompanying the meeting, watch Seattle - Green Bay for a quarter, and then head for the meeting. I will bet someone there is watching the score via his 'phone.
posted by Howard_T at 09:53 PM on January 11, 2015
How to close a USA Today tab on your desktop as quickly as humanly possible:
Scrolling down through "Top Stories" and seeing a headline that reads:
Rex Ryan Hire Would Be Coup For New Bills Owners
(Maybe I should go back. They might have been just talking about a coordinator position.)