Category: Sportsball!

Jerry Jones: slightly human, mostly Faustian

The best thing you will read about Jerry Jones this year. Slightly humanizing, even. What Jerry Jones wants, he cannot have:

I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want to win the next Super Bowl.

The owner of the Dallas Cowboys is his own worst enemy. His general manager, Jerry Jones, is able to make decisions good enough to prevent the team from sinking too far. He is not, however, able to make the decisions needed to return the team to legitimate contender status.

If you somehow made it this far without knowing much about football, let me clarify. Jerry Jones is Jerry Jones. Owner and general manager. Everyone who has watched football for more than a few years knows that Jones’ ego is what prevents him from separating the wildly successful owner Jones from the wildly sub-par manager Jones. And yet: it never happens.

That said, it does sound like somewhat Faustian fun to hang out with Jones, as the ESPN reporter who wrote this piece did. On the one hand, it’s obvious that a billionaire is using his considerable resources to come off as a reasonable, alright dude. On the other hand, he stands on the side of not renaming the Washington football team, so you know that Jones is subtly awful in ways he can’t even begin to wrap his brain around.

Football rules: not hard, even for the defense

The NFL is going through an awkward transition from laissez-faire bloodsport to something…less bloodsport-y. Players-turned analysts often rush to the side of the “victimized” defensive players who are now faced with…rules. It’s pretty dumb, on both sides: It’s not like these players learned different rules in high-school and college. Tackling is the same from age… Continue reading Football rules: not hard, even for the defense

Bill Barnwell on revamping defensive penalties. Pass interference is tough business in the NFL. It’s one of the easiest calls to get wrong on the field (besides the myriad of missed holding calls), but the easiest to fix with a slow-motion camera. It’s too easy for both sides to game it as well. There’s some good ideas in here, but I think just making pass interference calls and non-calls is a simple first step.

What’s the Best Exercise?

But when pressed, he suggested one of the foundations of old-fashioned calisthenics: the burpee, in which you drop to the ground, kick your feet out behind you, pull your feet back in and leap up as high as you can. “It builds muscles. It builds endurance.” He paused. “But it’s hard to imagine most people enjoying” an all-burpees program, “or sticking with it for long.”

I’m having trouble deciding whether I should say good things about burpees. I only do a handful at a time, usually as part of a series of movements. They’re not so bad if you start with just a few and work up from there.

Burpees aside, it’s interesting to see opinions on what the most useful exercise movements are. I’m really glad I don’t need to start doing butterflies though.