Football "exchange program"?

Cam Newton of the NFL's Carolina Panthers is in Melbourne, Australia, this week as part of his sponsorship deal with Gatorade, apparently - one article called it part of a "football exchange program", which confuses me, TBH. For reasons unclear to us, he's latched on to Chris Newman of the AFL's Richmond Tigers, the stellar defenseman who recently passed the 250-game plateau. 

"We've got the same initials...the same number on our back: uno; and, you know, the same swag," Newton said in this piece on afl.com.au's Footy Feed. (Go towards the five minute mark or so.) Newton is probably one of the minority of NFL players with the all-around athleticism to be able to play the Australian game well, and the video piece shows him in a Richmond jumper learning the fine points of footy kicking style.

In particular, it was interesting to watch the star NFL player evaluate the Australian version of the game:

Newton said he had never watched a game of AFL before attending the Collingwood-Hawthorn game at the MCG on Friday night and then the Tigers' clash with Greater Western Sydney on Saturday. 

"It's an extremely physical game," Newton said. 

"In our sport, they're constantly putting things on you to protect you. In this sport, they're taking things away.

"All they're wearing is a tank top and a pair of boxers (boxer shorts) and going out there and giving it all they have which makes them courageous."

What makes college football unique?

ESPN's Chris Low has a short piece in today's ESPN.com opinion page that reminds us what a great game the college version of American football continues to be, and names ten things that make college football unique, which he hopes never change.

No such list is comprehensive, of course, and his inclusion of (for example) OU and Texas at the Cotton Bowl demands by inference that we also include the World's Largest Cocktail Party (Georgia/Florida), the Alabama/Auburn game, and for that matter on-campus rivalries that were in peril during the realignment rage: OSU/Michigan, Cal/Stanford, Harvard/Yale, the Apple Cup, the Civil War, the Border War, USC/UCLA, and so on and so forth.

His inclusion of the Rose Bowl view implies the other iconic stadia - the large (Michigan's "Big House", Notre Dame and Touchdown Jesus, etc.) and the small (even seen BSU's blue turf at a game? There's no bigger home field advantage in the game). 

His inclusion of marching bands - a personal favorite of mine, having taught them for thirty years - should also include the cheerleaders and yell leaders; the pre-game ceremonies that are unique to each team (running through the tunnel of fans or band members or whomever); the stadium announcers who never saw a penalty against the home team they agreed with in their lives, and so forth!

The live mascots are a blast! But what about the Sooner Schooner racing across the field? The Nebraska bouncing Husker Boy? Stanford's living tree-with-sunglasses? Too many cool ones to mention them all!

And, of course, by invoking Clemson's touching of the rock, you implicitly name every such team tradition of 253 division 1 schools and the other 500 or so lower division programs across the country. Everyone has them - no matter your team, you can name one or two, I'm sure. You don't think there's such things in the NFL, do you? In the cookie-cutter stadiums of old, in the PC entertainment packages and sideline showgirls and non-existent team traditions because they all work for Roger Goodell in the end? When we root for an NFL team, too often we're really rooting for laundry these days...but we're all loyal to our alma mater college (and high school, for that matter!), and so are the players. 

On the other hand, if you think OUR football versions are violent...

...consider "calcio storico", a 16th century form of violence...er, football, using 27 men on a team and...

Well, take a look:



 

 

 

....holy catfish...

 
 

A couple of interesting retirements in Australian Rules...

Brent Reilly, longtime Adelaide Crow who recently passed his 200th game, is retiring amidst his recovery from a horrible skull fracture in a training accident back in February. His doctor has advised him never to play contact sports again with the danger of recurrence to his skull, and for obvious reasons he's agreed. One of the great aspects of Aussie Rules is the "manliness" of playing without helmet or padding - but sometimes casualties occur. Interestingly, more injuries seem to happen with American style football, because of the protective gear - you don't see Aussie players leading with their heads, for example, or hitting each other as hard as the linemen do in the NFL. Rarely have any retired footy players had trouble with concussion or head injury issues for those reasons. Still, it's hard to see someone like Brent Reilly have to retire early because of something like this.

On the other hand, here's a different reason for an early retirement that I've almost never heard of in the NFL - only the legendary Pat Tillman comes to mind...

Kane Cornes, fast approaching his 300th game at Port Adelaide (a huge milestone!), has decided to retire immediately following that game on May 23rd. The reason? He's been offered a position as a firefighter for the city of Adelaide.

Picture Shaquille O'Neal actually following through on his thought to become a Miami undercover cop, and you've got an idea what this means in Australia. 

Cornes is about to be the only player in Port Adelaide's history to play 300 AFL games, a testament to his durability and ability...and yet, he's ready to step aside now, just because it's a convenient time to start his firefighter training. (He also doesn't want to risk any more injuries in advance of his retirement, although he's been remarkably durable over his 3oo games.)

Amazing.

Here's a wild scheduling idea...and the AFL may just adopt it!

The Australian Footy League plays a 22-game season, with an 18-team league. That means you play 17 teams, and five of those teams, you play twice. Currently the AFL has a system of weighting where you take the final order from last year, and you divide it into three tiers of six (teams #1-6, #7-12, and #13-18). For those five duplicate games, each team plays three teams within its OWN tier, and one team each from the other two tiers, the idea being to keep the schedule as competitive as possible (and it has the additional advantage/disadvantage of giving teams which finish lower on the ladder a slightly easier schedule than those higher up). The duplicate games under this system always allowed for a second matchup of intra-city games (Brisbane/Gold Coast, Adelaide/Port Adelaide, etc.), and other rivalry games (Carlton/Collingwood, etc.), which may or may not help with equalization but kept fan interest high.

Well, there's now a move to change that system, and it's a change that I simply can't imagine American football putting up with (for reasons you'll see in a moment):

During the first seventeen games, each team would play every other team once, a pure round-robin. After seventeen games, the top six would be set. So would the middle six, and the bottom six. Then, the last five games would be a round robin within the groups of six. So, the top six would play for positioning within the first six finals spots, the middle six would fight for finals' spots seven and eight, and the bottom six would slug it out for draft positioning. Every game would connect two teams of relatively equal strength. This is being called the "17-5" model, for obvious reasons, and it seems fairly straightforward. BUT, you wouldn't know in advance what games you were going to get those last five rounds of the season - can you imagine U.S. television networks and football franchises going nuts over that? They scream about the "flex game" on Sunday nights - imagine if you didn't even know which weeks you had HOME games? (Although, I suppose that might be fixable...I can think of some unfixable problems, though...)

Another possibility is simply going to divisions or conference setups - maybe you start with three conferences, and they play each other twice and everyone else once, and you know ahead of time who your five duplicate opponents are. For ex., put the four western clubs from Perth and Adelaide in with, say, Western and Geelong? Then, take your four eastern clubs in Sydney and greater Brisbane, and add in, say, St. Kilda and Richmond? Finally, you leave the other six Melbourne clubs together, probably the ones with the most tradition together - Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Melbourne, North Melbourne, and Hawthorn. If you don't like my combinations, change them. I'm just making an example.

Personally, I like the conference idea better, but I would still place them in one large, eighteen team ladder. I'm very intrigued by the "17-5" model, but it feels a tad...I was going to say "unfair", but it probably isn't. "Weird"? Unusual, certainly, as I don't know of any other league who's ever done this. Nothing against trying something unusual, right? The AFL has tinkered with its playoff system so many times it's unfathomable - in fact, it's hard to believe they've kept this top 4-biased set-up for twenty years now! Why couldn't they try this next year?

So, how many teams SHOULD be in the playoffs?

It's a question the administrators of every sports league must consider: what's the "best" number of teams to put in the knockout round for our league championship?

For the NBA and the NHL, as well as the college basketball world, the strategy has long been to put in a ton of teams, as many as can be comfortably included, in search of the best TOURNAMENT they can create. Because the two pro leagues play series at each round, it prevents the longshots from advancing unless they're really hot for a LONG time. (For the 68-team NCAA basketball tourney, the "best" team RARELY wins. But the winner usually comes from the top ten or fifteen, at least.)

For Major League Baseball and the NFL, a much lower percentage of the league is invited into the post-season. (For about a decade, by comparison, 16 of the NHL's 21 teams were in the playoffs, so teams winning 30-40% of their games regularly made the playoffs, and the 82-game season was effectively meaningless.) The NFL includes 12 out of its 32 teams; MLB, 10 out of 30. That means that with very rare exceptions (we're looking at YOU, NFC South!), the teams that make the post-season "deserves" to be there in the sense that they have winning records, and that they've shown that there's at least a chance that they could win the whole thing. (In contrast, no #16 team in the men's NCAAs has ever won even a single game in the tournament! Talk about undeserving! And they want to expand the playoffs? Please....) In both pro football and baseball, the last-seeded team has won the whole thing, and recently, too. (See: Steelers, Pittsburgh; Giants, San Francisco.) Most observers think this percentage is about right, if a lack of call for 'playoff reform' is an indicator. (FCS football, as well as Divisions 2 and 3, have similar arrangements.)

FBS football, however, has always been contrary. 

Remember, less than twenty-five years ago, there WAS no true "post-season" in major college football. They relied on polls of newspapermen and coaches to name their champion, resulting in split championships, violent disagreements, and yearly controversy. The junkies of the game would say that those arguments were precisely what made the game so exciting. But reason began to make inroads in 1992, after two straight split national championships, and the "Bowl Coalition" and then the "Bowl Alliance" made some half-hearted attempts to match the top two teams in a bowl game. With the realization that...well, that there was more money to be made by joining rather than fighting, the Rose Bowl joined in 1998 to create the Bowl Championship Series (running out of names!), which used various, ever changing criteria to choose "the two best teams" to meet in a championship game. Now, it was (sort of) decided on the field.

Yeah, but...

Now, of course, we have a four team tournament, still with no more definitive criteria than "the four best teams" as selected by a room full of experts, to decide the national title. Purists will tell you that the small number of entrants makes every game of the season, and guarantees that they will have a deserving champion. Others, of equally honorable motives, say it should be eight or even sixteen teams in said playoff. (Still others of a different bent notice the potential money to be made from more playoff games...) And, of course, there are a few old-timers who want to turn the clock back and count votes. Who's right? 

Who knows? Depends on your taste. Do you want the playoffs to reward the SEASON'S best team? Or the best at the END of the season? Or are you more interested in having an EXCITING post-season?  It's hard to argue that there's a problem going to eight or sixteen when the FCS (with the same kind of college kids and about the same number of teams involved) invites TWENTY-FOUR teams into the postseason successfully. By percentage, since the basketball folks take about one-fifth of their clientele (68 of 320-something), 24 out of 128 would be about right. (But old-timers would have conniption fits!)

In the end, it's whatever you prefer. It's what the PURPOSE of the postseason is for you. We have our own preferences, but frankly, it's not that terrible to have a variety as you move from sport to sport! And it could be WORSE, purists! Wasn't it Indiana who used to allow EVERY basketball team into the state high school playoffs, all in one big bracket? How about one big ten-round football tournament with all 759 four-year college teams involved, from FBS through NAIA? Or even an eight-round event with just the 252 division 1 teams (and we can add the top three D2 teams and the D3 champion to round up to a perfect 256!)!

Pick your poison.

How did we fail to report on the GREY CUP?

Somehow, in the midst of all the action south of the 49th parallel, we missed the opportunity to celebrate the Calgary Stampeders 20-16 victory over the Hamilton Ti-Cats Sunday in Vancouver, BC!

Calgary jumped out to a 20-3 lead and held on as Hamilton had a punt return for a TD called back on a holding penalty within the last sixty seconds of the game that would have won the championship for them in their second straight trip to the big game. 

Pat Steinberg also has a great column that gives some good insights into the game, including a piece on quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, one of the great names in football, who had a tremendous game. Remember, in the CFL, with just three downs, the wide field and the liberal motion rules, passing is twice as important as rushing when you compare it to the American brand of the game. The leading runner piled up a massive 25 yards. ELEVEN receivers totaled more than that in the game.

Here are the highlights from the 102nd Grey Cup!

Reposting the AFL Comparison page WITH LINKS to each of the individual articles. (You're welcome.)

Over the course of the next week or two, we'll share with you American football lovers each of the eighteen AFL teams, and who the best professional club in American sports is. This will give you a basis of comparison to understand the dynamics of Australian Footy teams, and perhaps how to choose your new favorite Aussie club to root for!

Here's a preview of how the teams line up with their American counterparts...

The ADELAIDE Crows = the New York Knicks (of the NBA) - link here! 
The BRISBANE Lions = the Los Angeles Lakers (of the NBA) - link here! 
The CARLTON Blues = the Chicago Bears (of the NFL) - link to Carlton here! 
The COLLINGWOOD Magpies = the New York Yankees (of MLB) - link here! 
The ESSENDON Bombers = the Oakland Athletics (of MLB) - link to Essendon here! 
The FREMANTLE Dockers = the New Jersey Devils (of the NHL) - link here! 
The GEELONG Cats = the New England Patriots (of the NFL) - link here! 
The GOLD COAST Suns = the Cleveland Cavaliers (of the NBA) - link here! 
The GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY Giants = the Minnesota Timberwolves (of the NBA) - link to GWS here! 
The HAWTHORN Hawks = the San Antonio Spurs (of the NBA) - link here!
The MELBOURNE Demons = the Oakland Raiders (of the NFL) - link here! 
The NORTH MELBOURNE Kangaroos = The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (of MLB) - link! 
The PORT ADELAIDE Power = the Seattle Seahawks (of the NFL) - link!
The RICHMOND Tigers = the San Diego Chargers (of the NFL) - link to Richmond here! 
The ST. KILDA Saints = the New York Jets (of the NFL) - link here! 
The SYDNEY Swans = the Boston Red Sox (of MLB) - link to Sydney Swans here! 
The WEST COAST Eagles = the Dallas Cowboys (of the NFL) - link here! 
The WESTERN Bulldogs = the Sacramento Kings (of the NBA) - link here! 

As we progress through each club and its American doppelganger, we hope you'll come to understand more about the particular teams that represent the great sport of footy in Australia and around the world. Before the season starts next March, you'll get a firm background in the sport - and we'll provide content on the AFL page to help novices understand the sport.

AFL Comparison #18: the Western Bulldogs

Last one! Your assignment NOW will be to go through all eighteen teams (click the label "comparisons" to weed down to these articles) and choose your new favorite (or several favorites, if that's easier!). Thanks for reading!

The Western Bulldogs are simply "west" of Melbourne, not of the rest of Australia... they're over a thousand miles east of the "West Coast Eagles". The "Western" Bulldogs are only nineteen seasons old, having been formed in 1996 out of the remnants of the Footscray and Fitzroy teams, which date back to the 1920's; officially, their records are inherited from Footscray, and their minor league team is still there.

Western is what most would call an "afterthought" team - ask a footy fan to name the eighteen teams in the league, and only a diehard Doggie fan would think to remember them in the first five names coming from their mouths. But every once in awhile they make noise - champions in 1954 (as Footscray), top four team in 2008-2010 - and they're rarely bad enough to be a laughing stock (in their nineteen years of existence, Western has only one "wooden spoon" for last place, back in '03).

With superstar teenager Tom Boyd coming on board, plus stud rookie Marcus Bontempelli and a host of up and coming talent, Western might be a force to reckon with in the near future. We say "might be" because we've thought this before, with nothing to show in the end.

Their American counterpart: the Sacramento Kings

The Kings had one glory period in their thirty year history in California's capitol city: right about 2001-2 (pictured above), when they were the best team in the NBA and got knocked out of the playoffs in a seven-game Western Conference Finals series that many think was one of the five best playoff series in history, replete with possible ref cheating, massive comebacks, overtimes, drama on and off the court, and of course some of the most spectacular basketball you'll ever see. Otherwise, the Kings loll about in the bottom third of the league, usually earning themselves about the #6 or #7 draft choice, who'll play for them for a couple of years before injuring himself and leaving the game or leaving via free agency or trade to a team that actually knows how to use him.

The Kings have a long and travelled history, leaving Rochester for Cincinnati for Kansas City for Omaha (sort of) for Sacramento for Seattle good, they hope. (Western hasn't travelled that much, but footy clubs don't.) The only other thing that was really significant about the purple jersey of the Sacramento Kings was the way Marisa Miller sort of wore it in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue one year (and that's not ever quite accurate, since there's no fabric involved; it's body paint.)

AFL Comparison #17: West Coast Eagles

The West Coast Eagles are not a founding member of the VFL, or even the AFL, but they've been a very important part over the last twenty years, winning titles in 2006, 1994, and 1992, just their sixth year of existence. They're known as a bold franchise, out on the western edge of the Australian continent (away from the "civilized" southeastern region with the majority of people in it), one that plays with assertiveness and confidence. Their stars are often BIG stars: Nic Natanui, Dean Cox, and this year's Brownlow medalist, Matt Priddis.

Lately, though, they've fallen on comparatively hard times, always (it seems) just out of the playoffs. It seems as if they're always somewhere around .500 at the end of the year. This year, they had a chance to make the final eight on the last Saturday of the season, were it not for Richmond's massive upset of the Swans the night before that knocked them above the Eagles' 11-11 record (the one they reached by beating Gold Coast that Saturday) and into finals.

Who does that remind you of?

Their American counterpart: the Dallas Cowboys

Tony Romo, Dez Bryant, DeMarco Murray...great players, all. And yet...and yet. The Cowboys have finished the season at 8-8 for three consecutive years.

But this is the year! (This is a recorded announcement, as we've said that every year for a decade....)

The Cowboys, long lauded as "America's team", haven't pushed that moniker in a number of years, and it's been sixteen years since they've won a playoff game. But they're still one of the most beloved/most hated teams in the competition. They have a long history of success, even without being one of the original teams (even in the old AMERICAN Football League, the AFL that merged with the NFL after four Super Bowls split 2-2). 

The Dallas Cowboys and West Coast Eagles have one other trait in common, one that perfectly encapsulates their importance: Their leagues are more interesting and popular whenever they're competitive. (And it sure does look like this year's one of those for Dallas; let's hope the left coast Eagles have the same success. 

AFL Comparison #16: the Sydney Swans

Ah, yes, the immovable object, the irresistible force that IS the mighty Sydney Swans... except that they ended up being moved and resisted with ridiculous ease by the eventual repeating champs, the Hawthorn Hawks, in the Grand Final they were expected to win. The Swans have been looked at recently as trying to buy their way to a championship, most recently pulling off the most amazing silent free agent courting in the history of sports itself.

Following the 2013 finals, when Hawthorn's star forward Lance "Buddy" Franklin (the biggest name in Aussie Rules, pictured above at right) was about to become a free agent, there was a non-stop. LeBron-like pursuit of the rumor mill as to whether he would stay with the champion Hawks, or jump to the GWS Giants, based outside of Sydney, who while not currently a contended would allow him a free rein as a player to dominate, and perhaps the opportunity to do what Gary Ablett Jr. is trying to do at Gold Coast: build a premier from the ground up. Which choice would Buddy take? The world was watching.

As they watched, on the first day of actual signing, Sydney swooped down and signed Franklin to a nine-year, TEN million dollar (AU) contract, an insane amount of money in the AFL and an even MORE insane length of contract for a 28 year old player. But the amazing-est part, if we can use that non-word, was that they'd worked this deal out over the course of over a YEAR, and absolutely nobody knew that Sydney was a player in the Buddy Franklin sweepstakes.Especially not GWS - Greater Western Sydney - who lost their chance at instant credibility to their cross-region, already established rival, who was now the prohibitive favorite to win the 2014 title. (And they would've won it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids! No...wait. Wrong thing. They would have won it if they hadn't met Hawthorn on such a vintage Hawthorn playing day, and if they'd played at least slightly better than a "string of witches hats in a training drill", which is the name for the traffic cones we use in the States for slalom courses. Seriously. They were absolutely terrible in the second quarter in particular.) It's going to be interesting to see what happens next year to the team which is perceived as being SO rich that they had to be BANNED FROM TRADING this fall because the league office (read: the other teams!) thought their "cost of living allowance" (provided to its players because living in Sydney for an Aussie is like living in downtown SF for an American - expensive!) gave them a "competitive advantage".

All of this is ironic because Sydney, in years past (before their 2005 championship), the Sydney club had not won a title since 1933, the longest drought in footy, and generally they RAILED against the advantage all the Melbourne clubs held because their salaries went farther than those paid in the most expensive city in Australia.

The irony is inescapable.

Their American counterpart: the Boston Red Sox

The drought for the Red Sox was even LONGER - back to 1918! But in 2004, the Red Sox did the seemingly impossible: they came back from 3-0 down to the Yankees (and extra innings in game 4!) to win the AL pennant 4 games to 3, and then they swept the Cardinals to win the first World Series title for Boston in 86 years.

The ironic part is that while they complained of the Babe Ruth "curse" (they traded their star young pitcher, Babe Ruth, for a pile of spare parts and some cash), especially with the evil empire Yankees just down the road in New York, they actually became the Yankees/North, spending lots of money on free agents like they could never have done under the old Yawkey family umbrella. They beat the Yankees by becoming the Yankees. And Sydney did some of the same things: by spending, they got the talent that won that almost mythical 2005 title, and then repeated in 2012 (and are once again one of the two betting favorites with Hawthorn for next year's title).

AFL Comparison #15: St. Kilda Saints

Saint Kilda is a mess. But what else is new? One of the original Melbourne teams, they were also the original "whipping boy" for early footy teams of the late 19th century, losing games by ridiculous scores like 59-2 and 94-3 in that first "official" season of the Victorian Football League (they went 0-14 that first year). They've had only marginal success over the years, winning exactly one premiership over their 117 seasons of footy, back in 1966, when (after finishing second to Collingwood during the regular "home-and-away" season AND losing to them in the prelims, the Saints made their way back through to the Grand Final, where they managed to defeat Collingwood by one point, 74-73. 

They've had more recent chances, most famously in 2010, when they actually tied Collingwood in the Grand Final at 68, only to lose the replay of the game a week later by 56 points (no such thing as "overtime" I guess, even when 100,016 people pay big money to see a champion crowned... 

Nowadays, the Saints have rapidly fallen on hard times yet again, dropping all the way to the "wooden spoon" this year for the worst record in the AFL (actually tied with Melbourne, but their scoring percentage was worse, which is very important in footy!). Beyond that, they're not even sure where they want to be based: a new facility in Belvedere Park, their old home back down the road in the Linton St Oval, or their training and admin facility in Seaford; plus having Wellington, New Zealand, as their "home away from home", where they're contractually obligated (and more than willing) to play two games a year as a 'home' team.

Who in the United States sporting world is that screwed up?

Their American counterpart: the New York Jets

Ah, the glorious New York Jets!  Home of Mark Sanchez and the "butt fumble", home of the quiet and refined coach Rex Ryan, home of the glorious championship history that is...er... well, actually, they've only one one title, back in 1969, but because of Broadway Joe Namath's prediction and antics (and, frankly, the overconfidence of the Baltimore Colts, the NFL champ forced to play the upstart AFL Jets in Super Bowl III), it's remembered. Oh, BOY, is it remembered!

Like the Saints, a recent flirt with not only competence but quality fell by the wayside, and they're now 1-6 and sinking fast as the Patriots start to remember who they are. Like the Saints, they live off their one title from the sixties. Like the Saints, they're not even sure where they're from (what part of New York state is the Meadowlands in, again?), and like the Saints, they have revered stars who fail to achieve on their team.

Don't bet on which team will win a title first. You won't live that long to collect...

AFL Comparison #14: Richmond Tigers

The Richmond Tigers, despite making the 2013 playoffs for the first time in twelve years and having a budding roster of talent that boded well for the coming '14 season, went 3-10 over the first thirteen games of the twenty-two game season, dropping all the way to the very bottom of the ladder (tied with St. Kilda) in July. Counted for dead, the Tiger faithful were counting the dead men walking that they were going to go after when the season ended.

However, they got a couple of key players healthy, played a few easier teams to start the stretch, and somehow managed to win the last nine games of their season, including a do-or-die victory against Sydney AT Sydney that absolutely nobody gave them any chance to win on the last Saturday of the season. Then they got into the playoffs and won a game against Essendon before the clock struck midnight, the chariot turned into a pumpkin, and the team fell on their tailbones against a Port Adelaide team that scored fifty points on them in the first quarter alone en route to an eleven-goal rout that left the Tigers with more questions than they'd started the season with.

So, if they've got that much talent, why can't they win?

Their American counterpart: the San Diego Chargers

The Chargers of the NFL started life in LA, didn't like it, moved south to San Diego, and have teased their fans ever since - amazingly, three years ago, they found a way to be the #1 rated offense, the #1 rated defense, and STILL not make the playoffs! (Special teams and penalties play a large part in this story.) Like the Tigers, they have no history of titles, but lost and LOTS of potential! Like the Tigers, they set records, but don't win the games that should go with them. Like the Tigers, the Chargers have been known to fold in the most critical situations. Don't count on an NFL title, San Diego... Don't count on an AFL title either, Richmond supporters.

Your weekly Canadian update!

Calgary clinched the best record in the CFL, sitting at 13-2 after an easy win at Winnipeg Saturday, and most likely will be awaiting their biggest challenge from the Edmonton Eskimos, who came from behind to beat third-place (and fading) Saskatchewan in Regina, 24-19. Meanwhile, the East is led by Hamilton and Montreal, both still a game under .500 but both winners this weekend to move a game clear of the Toronto Argos at 7-8. (Montreal defeated those Argonauts in Toronto, while Hamilton had the virtual bye playing newbie Ottawa at home and winning 16-6.) 

By the way, Americans, the CFL does what you've been griping for all these years! There are theoretically three playoff teams from each division (#2 hosts #3, and then the winner travels next week to #1 for a shot at the finals). However, IF the #4 team in one division has a better record than the #3 team in the other division...they get to take the #3 team's place in the other division's playoffs! As it stands right now, Saskatchewan would go to Edmonton as the 3-meets-2 matchup in the West, winner goes to Calgary for the Western crown. But in the East, because all the teams are below .500 (and British Columbia isn't), it would be the BC Lions who would serve as the #3 team going into Montreal, the winner to face Hamilton for the Eastern crown! I'd wager the NBA West fans would LOVE that! There have been years that NFC fans OR AFC fans would have paid hard cash for that to happen down here as well!

AFL Comparison #13: North Melbourne Kangaroos

The Kangaroos can be somewhat - er - schizophrenic at times. One week, they can beat the best teams in the world (despite finishing only sixth, they defeated every team in the top eight this season, and made it to the second to last week of the season...) or be bloody awful (...only to be annihilated by the Swans in a performance that left fans thinking (A) the Swans would win the Grand Final in a cakewalk - they didn't - and (B) who are these imposters in the Kangaroo uniforms, mate? The 'Roos also lost to many of the bottom of the ladder teams, sometimes badly. 

With stars like Brent Harvey, North should never have those kind of lapses. So in looking for a counterpart, finding a team that does that sort of thing regularly is tough - the Kangaroos went a stretch of five consecutive games in the middle of the season when they defeated a "better" team, then lost to a "worse" one the next week. Hmmmm....

Their American counterpart: the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) 

(See? The Angels can't even decide where they live.)

The Angels are another team that will look like world beaters one week, and then like a farm team the next. With stars like Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, and so many others, you'd think they'd never get in such a large slump that they couldn't find someone to pick up the slack - and yet, we see it all the time with the LAAoA. All the talent money can buy...and yet it's the Kansas City Royals in the World Series. Must really sting, doesn't it, Angels fans?...

AFL Comparison #12: Port Adelaide Power

The Power are the "younger" of the two clubs from the state of South Australia, specifically the seaport region of Adelaide. Though they won a title ten years ago, their recent resurgence is relatively unexpected, founded partly on a stiff defense and partly on their young dynamic stars like Chad Wingard, Robbie Gray, and Jay Schultz. Port went 11-1 to start the 2014 year after a surprising finals run last season, fading towards the end before mounting a spectacular pair of wins in the playoffs. Their run was stopped short by just three points (or if you prefer, one wide-right kick) to the eventual champion Hawthorn Hawks in the penultimate week. Currently, they're a strong third in the futures betting for the 2015 title, behind the two finalists this year (Hawthorn and Sydney).

Their American counterpart: the Seattle Seahawks

Despite their 3-3 start, the 'Hawks still have the fancy of the NFL public, who see their current two-game losing streak as an aberration, not a trend. The Seahawks have some of the same up-and-coming story that Port Adelaide has: defensive minded, young stars in Russell Wilson and Percy Harvin Doug Baldwin and Richard Sherman, and a strong coach with a vibrant personality in Pete Carroll. With the Seahawks coming off their first Super Bowl title in a dominant performance over the Broncos, the Port Adelaide Power undoubtedly hope the same comparative fate awaits them this year!

AFL Comparison #11: Melbourne Demons

The Melbourne footy club, one of the oldest and most esteemed in Australia, has fallen on hard times. Saved from the "wooden spoon" (designating last place) only by the arrival of the two new franchises (particularly GWS) the last few years, the Dees have suffered the twin ignominies of bad management and poor fortune in the draft over the last decade. They've compounded their own woeful reputation by begging for handouts from the league - financial aid and extra draft choices, which has increased their "laughing stock" status recently. For such a storied club, the difficulties are disheartening for fans of the sport.

Their American counterpart: the Oakland Raiders

The legendary owner of the Raiders, the late Al Davis, was a maverick in every sense of the word (except he didn't ride horses, if that's part of the definition!). In his early days, that quality led to innovations that brought him and the Raiders fame and success - in his latter years, it started the team down a bit of a self-destructive path. Now, they inhabi the bottom of the standings, despite the rabid support of "Raider Nation', currently sitting at 0-6. As for the draft woes, we have two and a half words for you: JaMarcus Russell.

For the long-term health of both leagues, here's hoping for a resurgence of both the Demons and the Raiders! 

AFL Comparison #10: Hawthorn Hawks

AFL Grand Final champions in 2013 and 2014, the Hawthorn Hawks have been by most estimations the premier footy franchise in the last decade. Historically, Hawthorn has a strong history of success throughout the decades as well - they are twelve championships in their nine-decade history, especially from 1971 through the early 90's, in which time eight of their premierships occurred. The last two seasons, they suffered injury after injury, and yet found youngsters to step up and hold the fort. Immediately following their 2013 championship, their star forward Lance ("Buddy") Franklin jumped ship to one of their greatest rivals, where Sydney gave him an unprecedented nine-year, ten million dollar contract to take down his old club (and everyone else). Yet, despite making the Swans the heavy favorite in the 2014 Grand Final against the Hawks, and despite the fact that Franklin lived up to his superstar status and played an amazing game, Hawthorn annihilated the Swans, jumping out to a nine-goal lead by halftime and never looking back, winning by over ten goals (137-74). No matter what happens, the Hawthorn "system" seems to hold them above water.

Their American counterpart: the San Antonio Spurs

The Miami Heat were designed to win the title: LeBron James, Chris Bosh, what's left of Dwayne Wade... and yet the Spurs system overcame the transcendent player James. Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals this June was a two-game example of team basketball play at its very finest: against the best player in the world (LeBron), their team passing, scoring, and defense completely overwhelmed the favored Heat and easily won them the title. Similarly, in the AFL Grand Final this September, Hawthorn presented a full-game example of team Aussie Rules play at its very finest: against the best player...well, the best scorer in the world (Franklin), their team passing, scoring, and defense completely overwhelmed the favored Swans and easily won them the title. Franklin marked and scored at will..when he got the ball in the forward portion of the field; unfortunately, the Hawks never let the ball get to the Swans' forward 50. In the second quarter, they went a twenty-minute period without having the ball in their front 50. Unimaginable for a championship level team.

Hawthorn and San Antonio share the characteristics that make them each not only champions now, but champion-caliber for the foreseeable future: lack of individual ego, great coaching, great front office, and a system that puts the team above the individual egos. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are just like Sam Mitchell and Luke Hodge - the leaders work harder than everyone else, setting the example for the team by not placing themselves above the rest of the team. We've got to consider both teams the favorites to repeat in 2015.

AFL Comparison #9: Greater Western Sydney Giants

The longest named team in the Southern Hemisphere (I resisted the temptation to compare them to the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" on name length alone!) is also the youngest team in the AFL, having just finished its third season of competition on the footy pitch. GWS is not only young as a franchise, but its roster is insanely young as well - stocked with draft picks in its formation stages, and adding to it by being winners of the "wooden spoon" in its first two years of existence (the last place finisher), thereby picking up more top draft picks, their lineup averaged an age barely able to drink in celebration of its rare wins (three in the first two years combined!). Their progress was noticeable this year, moving up the ladder two places and winning six games, including a landmark, season-opening victory over its cross-town rival, the 2012 champion Sydney Swans, 99-67. 

The reward for their budding experience during the draft period just concluded? Trade some of it away for more draft picks! Although they did get veteran All-Australian Ryan Griffin in a ransom hostage situation trade with the Western Bulldogs, most of their roster got younger, incredibly, over the last two weeks. What it appears the Giants will end up doing, it seems, is continue to shoot for the future, rather than try to win now.

Their American counterpart: The Minnesota Timberwolves

The classic NBA example of "we're building towards a future we suspect we'll never reach" - they had Kevin Garnett for a decade...and never made the playoffs. They had Kevin Love for six years - and just kept hunting for pieces to put around him without success. They'd draft two star point guards in the same draft...GWS had four star full forwards - in a sport where you really can't play more than three. (That's part of the reason Tom Boyd wanted out - a number one draft pick that wasn't getting any playing time...)

The NBA planted a franchise in Minneapolis, probably out of misplaced guilt for the Lakers leaving forty years earlier (you realized the "Lakers" weren't named after any water feature in LA!). The AFL planted the Giants out in Greater Western Sydney (there had to be a shorter way to name them! We simply call them "GWS" all the time...)because they had this notion that the "greater Sydney" area would support two teams, not just the Swans. So in the three years of GWS, they've averaged less than 10,000 patrons at their home games (double that on the road, and the typical game at the MCG in Melbourne hosts forty to seventy thousand fans. 

Alternate American comparison: Jacksonville Jaguars
Maybe Jacksonville would be a better analogy...why did we need another team in Florida? Because the NFL thought the state would support another team...which is why the Jaguars are constantly the targets of rumors that they're moving (usually to LA, theoretically starving for a team). Here's an idea: let's make the Jaguars the team the NFL bases in London! Why not? They would pronounce the team "Jag-U-are", like the sports car, and give it a whole new feel - 

"What play do you run on fourth and long, coach?" - "Bomb. Play: bomb!" (That' play number 007!)

AFL Comparison #8: Gold Coast Suns

Entering their fifth year as a member of the Australian Football League, the Gold Coast Suns are the second team from the state of Queensland (on the eastern coast - Brisbane is the other one). In their expansion year, as well as year two, they managed a record of 3-19, not unexpected for a pack of youngsters. In 2013, their third year, they raised the bar with an eight-win season, and in 2014, they were headed for their first finals berth in just their fourth year, sporting a record of 7-2 after round ten, and still at 9-6 and firmly within the top eight when, during their round 16 match with Collingwood, star player Gary Ablett Jr. was thrown onto his left shoulder, injuring it sufficiently to require season-ending surgery.

When Gold Coast was forming their initial roster in the summer of 2010, they made a remarkable move to acquire Geelong star Gary Ablett, Jr. (pictured above). Ablett was already a Brownlow medalist in 2009 ("MVP", Americans) and was generally regarded as one of the best midfielders in the game. Over the last four years, Ablett has established himself as the undisputed best footy player in the world, winning the 2013 Brownlow and, amazingly, coming in second for the award this year despite missing the last seven games of a 22-game season! When Ablett went down, so did the Suns: 1-6 over their last seven games, falling to 10-12 and two games short of their first post-season play.

So...a young team with a transcendent superstar player, trying to lead them to heights they've never accomplished. Hmmm...

Their American counterpart: The Cleveland Cavaliers

Who else but LeBron could Ablett be rightfully compared to? LeBron James "came home" to Cleveland this summer to play once again for his hometown team, to bring a championship to Ohio for the first time. And he's surrounded by young talent like Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson. Ablett has a quickly-improving stable of young guns around him as well - Dion Prestia, Harley Bennell, Tom Lynch and Jaeger O'Meara, the Young Gun winner last year as top rookie. 

Without Ablett, the son of legendary Geelong scorer Gary Ablett (Sr.), the Suns are bottom-fodder; with him, they will threaten for a top-4 spot in the AFL in 2015. When LeBron left Cleveland in 2010, they went from the best record in the NBA to a club-record 19-game losing streak the following season. Transcendent players change the game. Both Ablett and James are the very definition of transcendent within their own sport.