On football and psychology

This is priceless.

Via: Cheap Talk

We was robbed!

Referee admits blown calls affected the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Like we didn't know that? But it is nice to have some honesty about it.

Hat tip: Ken Troske

On Peyton Manning

As instapundit would say, heh.

Super Bowl

Dan Drezner says most of what I wanted to say about the commercials in his post. They were remarkably disappointing. He fails to mention the whole portfolio of stupid Doritos commercials. We agree on Coke and Simpsons - that was probably my favorite of the evening. And we agree about the self-criticizing Audi commercial, which appeared to say that you should buy an Audi because it is green and you want to please the greens because they are fascists. A winning formula? I am guessing not.

I laughed hardest at what I think was a local commercial for Metro PCS featuring the two Indian (as in from India) guys doing a "tech talk" show and, for reasons unclear, a German man dressied in Lederhosen providing a dunce cap to the caller trapped in a bad cell phone contract.

I would be a bit less hard on the Who than Drezner. Their voices have not held up so well with age but man can they still play and, as with William Shatner, they get points for so obviously having a good time.

Oh, and there was a football game too, and New Orleans won. Good for Drew Brees, who has gotten a lot better since his Purdue team lost to Washington in the 2001 Rose Bowl.

Seahawks coaching change

Jim Mora is out of a job as Seattle Seahawks head coach.

That was fast!

I can remember when he was on the market last time reading a lot of people who said he should replace Tyrone Willingham at Washington and that he would be the football savior of all football saviors. Evidently not, though he is a good coach and if he wants to stay in Seattle, where he is from, then UW should try to find something for him to do.

And why would Pete Carroll take the Seahawks job and leave USC? The extra $$ at the margin can't mean much and he fits so well in LA.

The NFL at 2

I keep the kid stuff to a minimum on here as that is not the main point of the blog but I did like this exchange today with my two-year-old daughter:

ECONDAUGHTER (spotting NFL on the computer screen via the Slingbox): Football daddy!

ECONJEFF: Yes, football.

ECONDAUGHTER: Where are the dancing ladies?

There is something to the idea that kids help one see the world through fresh eyes.

Evidence-based high school football

Football innovation, in this case skipping the punts and maxing out on on-side kickoffs, in Arkansas, all based on research, including some by David Romer at Berkeley.

Innovation in sports

Cool story here about a high school football coach who read the rules and developed a clever new formation with two quarterbacks and lots of eligible receivers.

Hat tip: the agitator

Wise words from Don James

This Seattle Times story is full of wise words from former Husky coach Don James. For readers not in Seattle, Don was the coach during the glory days of Washington football, a period that included my undergraduate years from 1980-1985, a national championship and multiple Rose Bowl victories over Michigan.

I would emphasize two points. First, the non-league schedules are crazy. There should not be three top 20 non-league teams on anyone's schedule. I would also not go completely the other way, which is what Michigan does other than its annual game with Notre Dame (which was an easy win last year but usually is not), and schedule only very weak times like Eastern Michigan. One really tough team and a couple of teams that are good enough to provide a real challenge but not in the top 20, say Purdue or Maryland, seems optimal to me.

Second, I think Don is right that Ty is a good coach with good assistants and some great young talent. His head should not be on the chopping block this year if he only gets five wins, given the schedule and the youth on the team at a lot of positions.

Who was in charge of this?

Bad news on the Coach Rodriguez lawsuit front.

Some folks must have given and gotten some very poor legal advice if paying all $4 million is the outcome here.

Addendum: This was on the front page of the Ann Arbor News today above the fold. Who says this is not a company town?

Hat tip: Dan Black, who mentioned something about this being unlikely to happen at Chicago

How the Wildcats beat the Wolverines

It always has struck me watching games that the signalling schemes were a ripe target for clever opponents. Apparently I am correct.

Hat tip: Seattle Times Husky football blog by Bob Condotta

Some wise thoughts on Michigan football

The long description of the blog above promises discussion of college football among many other things but as yet none has been provided. The Ann Arbor News published a nice piece today by one of my colleagues in the law school (whom I have not met yet).

Its basic point is "chill out dudes" which I think is the right course. College football is here, it is fun and even if some ideal system we might design if setting up a higher education system anew might not include it in its present form, such speculations are pretty much irrelevant to what to do at the present time.