Sports this 'n' that

Three weeks into the season, and, well, maybe the NFL should reconsider the rule changes made in the off-season regarding defensive plays on the quarterback.

It's getting so that the team owners are treating each QB (i.e. Eli Manning, Wrangler salesman Drew Brees, State Farm agent Aaron Rodgers) as if they're being ferried to the game in large boxes resembling those of their action figure counterparts. In each game this season Green Bay lineman (and a State Farm agent last year) Clay Matthews, Jr. has been flagged for roughing the passer, each "foul" worse than the last. It's getting so defensive linemen are afraid of going gun-shy.

Now, you and I know who'd benefit from this controversy, and, so far, no one has been flagged for trying to sack Tom Brady of the Patriots, the biggest diva at the QB position. Houston's JJ Watt sacked Manning three times in the Texans' loss to the Giants on Sunday, but there were no roughing calls of the controversial kind. At least, as far as we know, Watt gets it. As was reported last week, former NFL heads of officiating Mike Periera and Dean Blandino, both now with Fox, feel some of the calls are unwarranted, but the jabroni in their old role, Alberto Riveron, doesn't see what they see. His loss. It's going to get worse before it gets better, but the competition committee, which includes New Orleans coach Sean Payton and Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin, along with Giants owner John Mara, will meet via conference call later this week. Pray they come to their senses.
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Soccer is supposed to be played in the rain. I should know. I once played a game in a driving downpour 40 years ago, and of course, I caught a cold as a result. And, yeah, we played on a grass field.

Apparently, Saratoga Springs High doesn't have a turf field, and if that's the case, their field was already a mess, or the athletic department was erring on the side of caution, hence the decision made earlier today to postpone not only the women's tennis match vs. Troy, but the boys' soccer matches (varsity & junior varsity) as well. The soccer match will be rescheduled for Saturday with an 11 am (ET) start. No make-up date has been set for the tennis meet. With sectionals a couple of weeks away, I doubt it'll be made up at all, unless it's for individual sectional seeding.
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One of the last "homer" baseball announcers is saying good-bye.

Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, one of the play-by-play voices of the Chicago White Sox, hung up his microphone for the last time Sunday after a loss to the crosstown Cubs. Harrelson, who started his broadcasting career in Boston in 1975, partnered with Dick Stockton, and, later, Ned Martin, has had two tours in Chicago, and in between, spent some time in the cable booth for the Yankees, and did some NBC games as well. Best known for catchphrases such as "He gone" (after a White Sox pitcher registers a strikeout) and "You can put it on the board-----YES!" (on a White Sox home run), Harrelson was an even bigger homer than, for example, the Cubs' Harry Caray, the Yanks' Phil Rizzuto, and Atlanta's Skip Caray. Each of those teams will still have the 'homer" mentality---the Yankees do on the radio side with the Mr. Magoo of radio, John Sterling---but it won't be the same without Harrelson ranting when things don't go in favor of the ChiSox.

MLB's YouTube channel offers a retrospective.



Yep, he gone.