After the weekend was started a few years ago. I then got side tracked and stopped doing it. I am going to bring this back and attempt to make this a weekly column. In this I will give my opinions of what went on over the past week(end) in sports and life in general. If you like it great and if not that is fine too. If you want to get a conversation going leave a reply in the comments or on Facebook. For the purposes of these posts all weeks will start on Monday and end on Sunday. There may be some facts in the posts but for the most part this will be my observations on what went on for the past week.
You may be interested or you may not. It is all the same to me. Just some news and notes.
Twenty Two
The most impressive feat of the week is the Cleveland Indians. A 22 game win streak. That is just amazing. Something that has never happened in the American league. The longest streak in the American League before then was 21 games by the Chicago White Stockings in 1880. The longest streak over all is 26 games by the New York Giants in 1916. The Giants did have a tie in that streak that did not count in the streak or in their standings. Being before all stadiums had lights the game was called due to darkness.
Some people have said that fact nullifies the streak. Maybe but it is all in how you look at it then. It did not count so they did not win or lose. Even the tie did not actually count. So really it is a non issue.
The fact still remains that the Indians 22 game wining streak was a phenomenal achievement. Some of the talking heads are saying that the streak means nothing if the Indians do not win the World Series. Really, something that has not happened in over 100 years. Come on. Of course it has meaning. It it more than likely something that will not happen again in our life times.
Boxing – Why
Hey Boxing here is the deal. You scammed people all through the 80’s and 90’s. Probably even before that. You degraded your sport all in the name of a few more $$$$. Now you are trying to win fans back in some strange ways. You held a side show with a boxer and an MMA fighter. It really went pretty much as many expected. For some reason Several Million people paid you for this. Then you followed that up with what was supposed to be a real fight between two actual boxers. The result? A tie. A Draw. No decision.
For boxing this was the worse case scenario. All that build up and nothing. It was really like it never happened. Those that have some kind of financial interest in Boxing are talking about how great the fight was and how they will absolutely buy the rematch. Boxing has been dead for a while. I see no clear path to bringing it back to life. I have been done with boxing for a long time. Nothing they are doing now will make me change my mind. If anything it confirms that I was correct to abandon boxing.
Now Things are getting Interesting
College football this weekend was pretty interesting. Even though there was a limited number of “prime time” games. By that I don’t mean games that were on in prime time but big match ups. I still believe that the Polls in college sports come out way to soon. After a few games you are starting to see but really can’t tell for sure how good a team is going to be. I really think that after week 4 is when the first poll should come out. But that will never change so we will just deal with it.
The only game this weekend with two ranked teams we the Clemson at Louisville game. It was close till the game started and then it was all Clemson. Lamar Jackson put up some big numbers. That was it. The rest of the Louisville team forgot to show up. Is Clemson really that good this year? Maybe. Hard to tell for sure. There are only two more games on their schedule that could cause them any trouble. September 30th at Virginia Tech and then November 11th home against Florida State. There could be a catch game in there but probably not. They will roll their way into the 4 team playoff again this year.
Alabama played Colorado state. Not really a test for them but you know at least a group of 5 team. Everything else pretty much went as expected. It does look like the basement of the B1G is going to quite a bit ahead of the basement of the SEC. Purdue destroyed Missouri 35 -3. Taking their record to 2 – 1. Not bad for a team that was projected to win 3 or fewer games this year.
The hype for the USC vs Texas game was laughable. I know build up expectations. Texas is no where near the type of team they were 10 years ago in that amazing Rose Bowl game where Vince Young won the BCS game for them. USC is looking to at least be a player again and the game when pretty much as expected.
Other than that there was not much else of note for the weekend. It was a good week of college football.
NASCAR – The Playoffs Started?
NASCAR how far you have fallen. You used to be one of my must watch sports. There has been steady decline in attendance and a steady decline in viewership. It has not helped that the second half of your season is on NBC. Which if you can actually find which one of the NBC channels is carrying the race. The coverage is not top notch. Will not say that it is bad but it is not great. With football on full force now and the baseball playoffs coming up. There is just no time to search the channels to find sub par coverage. The competition for viewers will only get worse with the NBA and NHL starting up. Of course NBC has the NHL coverage to and screws that up just as bad as their NASCAR coverage.
I will check to see who wins the races but my time watching for this year is done.
NFL Week Dos
The NFL is in full swing. To all those out there saying the the Patriots were done and it is time to rebuild… Everyone even the Patriots have a bad week. It looks like all they needed was a match up with the Saints to cure their ills. The Patriots still have their problems and like the Packers they have been hit deep with the injury bug. I will not say the Patriots are done till they do not win the AFC East. That is not going to happen this year. The only team I see having any chance to unseat them this year is the Dolp… Really come on there is no team in the AFC East that is going to take the top spot from the Patriots this year.
What has stayed the same is that Colin Kaepernick does not have a job. While I am sure that this is going to change in the not to distant future. I am not so sure of the ratings decline. The numbers were down last year which was mostly attributed to the election. This year they are also down. Some of this may be because of the major storms in Texas and Florida. But clearly not all of it and probably not most of it. After talking with several people about it. Many people have pointed to the National Anthem protests for a reason to stop watching the NFL.
This is not a scientific study in any way. It is safe to say that at least a portion of the ratings decline is due to the protests. I am all for people speaking their mind. Peaceful protest in any form is much preferred to any type of violent protest. I think that part of the problem is that many people do not understand what the protesters actually want.
I really just don’t want politics and my sports mixed. This I know is not a reasonable request and I will not stop watching because of it. I do want things in this country to get better. I am just not sure that the anthem protest is making the message the protesters actually want to make.
Two weeks in the season is just getting going. There is no way to tell from these two weeks how it will go. Cowboys probably not as good as people at first though they were going to be this year. The Browns, Jets and Bears are as bad as everyone thought they were going to be. So far that is about all we know for sure.
What else was after the weekend
The movie IT is a hit. In just 10 days of being in the theaters it has already crossed the $200 million mark. It has broken the September record for box office take. IT will more likely go on to be the number one R rated movie ever. I have heard good things but have not gone to see it yet.
TV is in a lull but is about to ramp up into the fall schedule over the next few weeks. Fear the Walking Dead is alright but not great. If you are watching this I would love to hear what you think of it.
I found out that Shark Tank is moving from Friday nights to Sunday night. Shark tank was the perfect show for Friday nights and we already have a full load of shows on Sunday. Throw in Football and sorry Shark Tank but because of that move you are the odd show out.
That is all this week for After the Weekend. I will work on refining the format as I continue to put this column out. As usual if you have any questions or comments for after the weekend you can leave them in the comments or join us on Facebook. You can also reach us by filling out the BiglakeSports Contact Us form
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