things kevin hates

So there’s this little football game that takes place every year and it’s kind of a big deal and millions of people watch it on TV. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Maybe you just watch for the commercials or the wardrobe malfunctions? It’s the Super Bowl. And this year our beloved Black & Gold Boys are in it, so New Orleans is in a state of giddy delirium. But if you want to go, you pretty much have to pay through the nose, since the powers that be only see fit to distribute a few thousand tickets (at the merely eye-popping price of $800) to actual fans of the two teams involved.

Now, for what it’s worth I want to state that there’s not a chance I’d actually go to the Super Bowl at $800 a ticket plus all the travel expenses involved—that’s a lot of money, and besides, we still have two performances of Footloose this weekend (though we canceled our Sunday show, natch), so I’m a little too busy anyway. So I’m not that personally involved. But I’m sure my parents, lifelong Saints fans—my mother grew up going to games in Tulane Stadium with her father, and even attended a Super Bowl many years ago—would jump at the opportunity. It’s just that when the price goes from $800 to $1400 or $1600 or $1800 that things start getting a little too unaffordable. And it’s utterly ridiculous that out of 76,500 seats only a few go to actual fans getting tickets directly from the teams. The Saints sold 4,600 tickets to season ticket holders who were chosen in a weighted lottery, with the Colts likely offering 6,000 or so to their season ticket holders (I saw that 6k number on a Saints message board but was unable to confirm it). That’s out of something like 13,000-14,000 tickets each of the two teams received. Everything else went out to corporate sponsors, employees, and the like. I realize the NFL is a business* but why do the league and its teams give so few tickets to actual fans? Not to mention that only a third or so of the tickets go to the two teams involved—the majority of tickets go to the NFL and its sponsors and affiliates, or to the other 30 NFL teams. Continue reading ‘super bowl ticket allocations’

People are bashing Bill Belichick’s decision to go for a 1st down on 4th-and-2 from his own 28-yard line. Now, I think Bill Belichick is probably the biggest douchebag ever to coach an NFL team. He strikes me as a brilliant and driven but despicable and classless human being. His petulance every time he loses a big game (as he did last night, or as he did in the Super Bowl against the Giants) is the antithesis of the sportsmanship players and coaches should display.* But there is one decision he made that should be defended: his decision to go for it may have caused an uproar, but it was the right call.

Some people, even ones with Super Bowl rings (including Tony Dungy, former Colts head coach), said that Belichick should have gone with the “percentages.” What a load of crap. The percentages don’t tell you this, not even close. The tired, hackneyed conventional wisdom tells you this. Coaches are far too conservative. As the blog at pro-football-reference.com notes, “If [Faulk] catches the ball [cleanly instead of bobbling it and being knocked back], the Patriots win and he’s the hero. If he drops the ball, Belichick becomes the goat. And that’s why most coaches never go for it in that situation.” When a “gutsy” call goes wrong, they get the blame. When they play it safe, the players get the blame. Continue reading ‘the people who bash Bill Belichick’s 4th-down decision’