Oklahoma State football: Gundy won’t coach special teams
Mike Gundy looked at us like we each had three noses when he was asked if he would start coaching the OSU kicking units.
The loss of Joe DeForest to West Virginia left three big holes: recruiting in Houston, defensive backs coach, special teams coordinator. The first and last of those figure to be the most difficult to replace.
Some had speculated that Gundy might coaching the special teams himself. Uh, don’t count on it.
“Are you crazy?” Gundy said. “I had enough of it (criticism) as offensive coordinator. Do I want them on me for punt block?”
Gundy said, “I’m not smart enough to coach special teams.”
Over 11 seasons, DeForest built a reputation of excellent kicking units, from the kickers and punters themselves to returners.
Of course, DeForest also will be missed in the Houston area. The Cowboys signed three Greater Houston players on Wednesday — offensive lineman Paul Lewis from Galena Park North Shore, defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah from Houston George Bush and wide receiver Blake Webb from The Woodlands. OSU also signed two players from just outside the Houston area — offensive lineman Chris Grisbhy from Clute, via Blinn Junior College, and wide receiver Jhajuan Seales from Port Arthur Memorial.
“It’s never smooth when you lose a guy like Joe,” Gundy said. “We divided some guys up. Certainly we’ll miss Joe. Wish him the best.”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Power Lunch: Chat with Berry Tramel
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Oklahoma football: Stoops brothers tag-team in Florida
The departure of coaches Brent Venables and Willie Martinez hurt the Sooners’ recruiting efforts with some prospects, but the addition of Mike Stoops to the staff didn’t seem to hurt. OU finished strong by signing most of the players whose destination was undetermined, including the signature of St. Petersburg, Fla., cornerback Gary Simon.
The Stoops brothers took a recruiting trip to Florida. They visited Simon and linebacker Eric Striker of Seffner, Fla. Both signed with OU. They also went to the home of Tampa receiver Nelson Agholor, but Bob Stoops decided not to have Mike join the visit. “”He doesn’t know you,” Bob told Mike. “He’ll think we want him to play defensive back.”
“He sent me off to the bar,” Mike Stoops said. “I went to the golf course. Watched the Golf Channel and had lunch.”
Turns out, Mike joining in couldn’t have hurt. Agholor signed with Southern Cal. “Two out of three’s not bad,” Mike Stoops said.
Mike Stoops said the transition to recruiting for OU after eight years away was “easy … position coaches are important, but Oklahoma is Oklahoma. This is one of the premier places, and Bob is one of the premier coaches. Those pieces aren’t going to change. This is a place you can win championships.”
Bob Stoops said his brother had an “excellent impact” on recruiting but that too much is made of individual coaches’ recruiting. “We all recruit; your program recruits. All our guys hustle. Mike has a great reputation of his time here and at Arizona.”
Bob Stoops also said that new linebackers coach Tim Kish — Mike Stoops’ defensive coordinator at Arizona — did a good job recruiting.
OSU coach Mike Gundy said he hasn’t filled the void on his staff left by the departure of Joe DeForest because he wants to devote the right amount of time to the decision. Bob Stoops said he didn’t hire Kish to meet some recruiting deadlines, but because he knew Kish was who he wanted to hire.
“Tim has an excellent track record and experience,” Stoops said. But Stoops said it was good that Kish was able to get on the road the last week or so. “I figured him having an opportunity to meet with Eric Striker (OU’s lone linebacker recruit) would be a positive in the end.”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Oklahoma State football: Uniforms a topic in recruiting
At his recruiting press conference Wednesday, I asked Mike Gundy if the signing of Jeremiah Tshimanga meant that Nike had been contacted about reducing the font size for the names on the backs of the jersey. I went for the laugh and mostly got it from the 400 or so Cowboy fans assembled. Much appreciated.
But Gundy said learning some of the pronunciations is “a little scary,” considering OSU signed Victor Irokansi, Emmanuel Ogbah, Dominic Ramacher, Jhajuan Seales and Jeremiah Tshimanga. Gundy said as far as he’s concerned, Tshimanga’s new nickname is “JT.”
And in all seriousness, I asked Gundy if the new Nike uniforms, which certainly drew national attention during the 2011 season.
“Sadly enough, yes,” Gundy said. “Truthfully, recruiting is very entertaining. As a coach, you go in, you’ve got everything lined up that you want to say. I might talk 45 minutes and never mention football. I’ll talk about developing as a man and education and what you’re going to be doing in 10 years.
“You can have a speech ready, and you can go in a home, fire it out for about 15 minutes, and you get stopped by a parent. ‘You changing your uniforms or are you going to wear what you had last year?’”
Gundy said the Californians that OSU recruited particularly were curious about the uniforms. “It was a huge hit out there with those guys,” Gundy said. “They’re fired up about the uniforms.”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Blake Griffin dunk: Remember when it was against the rules?
Blake Griffin’s dunk-of-the-year Monday night against the Thunder has spawned all kinds of discussion about basketball’s most popular play. Including our man Darnell Mayberry discussing exactly what constitutes a dunk. His very interesting blog can be read here:
Basically, RFD says that if your hands don’t hit the rim, it’s not a dunk. If your hands hit the rim, it’s a dunk. Seems solid to me. But it made me think about the evolution of the dunk rule. You remember when college basketball disallowed the dunk? The great image of those days was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Bill Walton rising above the rim and dropping the ball through, careful not to touch the iron.
The no-dunking rule was a marketing anvil. It painted college basketball as a regressive sport. The rule was instituted in 1967 and wasn’t changed until 1976. 1976 was a watershed year in college hoops. It was the season that signaled the end of the UCLA dynasty — Indiana went unbeaten and won the NCAA championship, and UCLA didn’t win again until 1995. A few years later, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson came along, and college hoops was off and running.
The dunk rule wasn’t the spark that launched college basketball, but it was indicative of the new thinking in college basketball. The old ways were gone. New thinking, new ideas carried the day. Some of college basketball’s most famous teams came from that era, defined by what they did at the rim. Louisville’s Doctors of Dunk. Houston’s Phi Slama Jama. Jim Valvano running around crazy, looking for someone to hug, because Lorenzo Charles dunked at the buzzer.
To imagine college basketball today without the dunk is like imagining college basketball played by guys in short shorts. It’s silly. You could sell 21st-century fans on games played on Mars before you could sell them on games without dunks.
But I have one question. Are we certain that college basketball had it wrong from 1967 through 1976? Not from a marketing standpoint, but from a basketball standpoint.
Is dunking fair? Defenders can’t touch the rim or even the net. It’s goaltending if they do. But a certain offensive player — the guy with the ball — can touch the rim. The dunk is basically a suspension of a long-existing rule.
In the same way that Jabbar (as Lew Alcindor) provoked a rule change (no dunking), Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M in the 1940s provoked a rule. Goaltending. The rim became neutral territory. A veritable Switzerland. Stay away from it. Can’t touch a shot on its way down, and can’t touch the rim or the ball when it’s on the rim. It’s a great rule. It’s a rule that has to exist, for the game to continue in any form of sanity.
And yet, that rule is suspended in the name of marketing. Dunks, which by definition are offensive goaltending, which by definition are someone with their hand on the rim or their hand on the ball while it’s on the rim, are allowed.
I’m not arguing to go back. It would be a marketing disaster, in college and the NBA. Fans have come to expect dunks. Fans have come to demands dunks. Dunks are much like the extra step on layups. They’ve become part of the game, in the name of offense, and to change things would disrupt the cosmos too much. An entire cottage industry within the NBA exists on dunking.
The Dunk Doctors are in the NBA now, not on college campuses, and dunks A’s popularity are a reason for the NBA’s popularity of the last 30 years. Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, LeBron James. Generation after generation of stars have soared through the air, thrown down the ball and lit up NBA box offices. You don’t go messing with that cash cow.
But just remember what the dunk is, at the core. A suspension of the rules. An exception to the accepted order of the game.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Oklahoma State football: 2011 Cowboys produced quite a feat
For the Wednesday Oklahoman, I wrote about OSU playing Eli Manning in the Cotton Bowl eight years ago. You can read that column here.
Reminiscing about Manning reminded me that he wasn’t the first Manning quarterback to play against the Cowboys. On Sept. 30, 1995, in Bob Simmons’ fifth game as OSU’s head coach, Tennessee trounced the Cowboys 31-0. Peyton Manning, a Volunteer sophomore, completed 17 of 25 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns.
So the Cowboys in their history are 0-for-Mannings. But they were 2-0 this season against highest-status quarterbacks. The Cowboys beat the eventual Heisman Trophy winner (Baylor’s Robert Griffin) and beat the presumptive overall No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft (Stanford’s Andrew Luck).
A reader asked me if that has ever happened. Good question, I thought, so I looked it up. And the answer is yes. Actually more often than you might think.
I went back 50 years. In the ’50s, the Heisman was a big deal, but the NFL Draft was not. The overall No. 1 pick was not necessarily the best prospect. So I figured 1960 was a good place to start. Here’s what I found.
* 2008 Florida. Those Gators beat Georgia’s Matthew Stafford (No. 1 in the 2009 draft) and OU’s Sam B Bradford (Heisman) in the national title game.
* 2006 Florida. Those Gators also won the national title, beating LSU’s JaMarcus Russell (No. 1 pick) in the regular season, then Ohio State’s Troy Smith (Heisman) in the national title game.
* 2003 LSU. Those Tigers also won the national title (I’m detecting a trend). They beat Ole Miss’ Eli Manning (No. 1) in the regular season, then OU’s Jason White (Heisman) in the Sugar Bowl.
* 2000 Miami. Those Hurricanes won two huge regular-season showdowns, beating Virginia Tech’s Michael Vick (No. 1) and Florida State’s Chris Weinke (Heisman).
* 1999 Michigan. Those Wolverines beat Penn State’s Courtney Brown (No. 1) and Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne (Heisman), both in the regular season. Of course, it’s not quite as sexy to beat a No. 1 overall pick who isn’t a quarterback. Every previously-mentioned player was a QB. But Brown was a defensive end and Dayne a tailback.
* 1984 West Virginia. Those Mountaineers were nothing special; they finished 8-4 and beat TCU in the Bluebonnet Bowl. But West Virginia beat Boston College’s Doug Flutie (Heisman) and Virginia Tech’s Bruce Smith (No. 1). Smith, a defensive end, became one of the all-time great NFL players.
* 1963 Texas. Those Longhorns won the national title, beating Texas Tech receiver Dave Parks (No. 1) and Navy quarterback Roger Staubach (Heisman).
So there are seven cases of sweeping both the No. 1 overall pick and the Heisman Trophy. That’s good company for the 2011 Cowboys. Now, this doesn’t count when the same player achieved both honors (it’s happened 11 times since 1959 – Auburn QB Cam Newton in 2010-11, USC QB Carson Palmer in 2002-03, Miami QB Vinny Testaverde in 1986-87, Auburn tailback Bo Jackson in 1985-86, South Carolina tailback George Rogers in 1980-81, Texas tailback Earl Campbell in 1977-78, Stanford quarterback Jim Plunkett in 1970-71, USC tailback O.J. Simpson in 1968-69, Oregon State QB Terry Baker in 1962-63, Syracuse tailback Ernie Davis in 1961-62 and LSU halfback Billy Cannon in 1959-60. It also doesn’t count 1983 Nebraska, which had the Heisman winner (tailback Mike Rozier) and the No. 1 draft pick (receiver Irving Fryar).
A bunch of teams have played both the eventual Heisman winner and the eventual No. 1 overall pick. They just haven’t beaten both.
And we’ve had several matchups of the eventual Heisman winner against the eventual No. 1 pick.
* 2007: Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long (No. 1) beat Florida quarterback Tim Tebow (Heisman).
* 1991: Washington defensive tackle Steve Emtman (No. 1) beat Michigan flanker Desmond Howard (Heisman) in the Rose Bowl.
* 1990: Brigham Young quarterback Ty Detmer (Heisman) beat Miami defensive tackle Russell Maryland (No. 1).
* 1967: USC offensive tackle Ron Yary (No. 1) beat UCLA quarterback Gary Beban (Heisman).
A few other interesting things.
In 2004, no one beat either the Heisman winner (USC quarterback Matt Leinart) or the No. 1 pick (Utah’s Alex Smith). Both were undefeated. And the same thing happened in 1973, with Penn State tailback John Cappelletti (Heisman) and Tennessee State defensive end Ed Too Tall Jones (No. 1).
In 2001, Colorado somehow beat Nebraska (and Heisman winner Eric Crouch) but lost to Fresno State (and eventual No. 1 David Carr).
In 1992, lowly Temple somehow ended up playing both Heisman winner (Miami QB Gino Torretta) and eventual No. 1 (Washington State QB Drew Bledsoe) even though both opponents were from a different part of the country. But in 1984, Temple played both from the same region (BC’s Flutie and Virginia Tech’s Smith).
The same conference has produced both the Heisman winner and the overall No. 1 twice: Penn State’s Brown and Wisconsin’s Dayne in 1999, and USC’s Yary and UCLA’s Beban in 1967.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Oklahoma football: Landry Jones breaks no new ground with ESPN
Landry Jones went on ESPN’s College Football Live last week, and it made me feel good. Jones was no more revealing with the ESPN crew than he is with us back here in Oklahoma. The Sooner quarterback is nothing if not bland.
Which is part of what exasperates OU fans so much. They want their quarterback to be fiery and emotional and a rah-rah leader. The tall, quiet types don’t get people as excited.
But you’ve got to hand it to Jones. He’s not plastic. He’s not a fraud. He is what he is.
You can view Jones video here:
Jones’ decision to return for a fifth year in Norman certainly is great news for the Sooners, even if some are anxious – and idiotic — to see new blood running the OU offense.
I thought it would be 50-50 on Jones returning, but the idea that it’s always about money doesn’t wash with a guy like Jones. He really is different. He has different values, a different mindset.
Remember the old notion that the one thing money can’t buy is your senior in college? That’s true. Some guys don’t belong on a campus, some guys have grown tired of a campus and some guys thrive and enjoy a campus. If you’re in the latter category, I’d think long and hard about leaving early for the NFL. Life gets here soon enough.
Anyway, Jones is not any more fired up or downcast than he ever was when addressing the media last season.
He answered questions about replacing Ryan Broyles, OU’s disappointing finish to the 2011 season, how much the Belldozer helped, his relationship with Blake Bell and where the Sooners fit in the big picture.
No new ground is broken. But it should be comforting that when anyone talks to the Oklahoma quarterback for the next 11 months, they’ll be talking to Landry Jones.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Sefolosha missed
No one can doubt Thabo Sefolosha’s value to the Thunder. Not after the Clipper massacre Monday night. Sefolosha missed the game with a foot injury, and the Clippers waltzed to a 112-100 victory that was notable for the Thunder’s total lack of defense.
The Clippers made 45 of 80 shots (56.2 percent). They made 13 of 25 3-pointers (52 percent). They made eight of 10 dunks (yep, De’Andre Jordan missed two). You let a good-shooting team take 25 mostly-open 3-pointers and 10 dunks, and you’ll get beat every time.
Chris Paul, who took only three of the 3-pointers and none of the dunks, was the chief instigator, running the Clippers with amazing efficiency. CP3 darted in and out of the lane for lobs and kick-outs to open sharpshooters Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups.
When Butler, guarded by Kevin Durant, scored 11 points in the game’s first 6:10, you figured this would be a long night without Thabo and his defense. Switching Sefolosha over to Butler and letting Durant guard Billups wouldn’t have been much better, but at least Sefolosha could have dogged the hot hand.
But as the game wore on, it became clear that Thabo’s real value would have been in trying to guard Paul. That’s tough duty for a 6-foot-5 wingman, trying to stay in front of the NBA’s premeir cat burglar, but Sefolosha offers the best hope for the Thunder. At least Wednesday night. Russell Westbrook’s defense was abysmal, In Westbrook’s, uh, defense, it’s hard for anyone in the league to guard Paul. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and Durant are easier to guard than is Paul.
But Westbrook’s defense was atrocious Wednesday. As bad as Durant’s. Westbrook seemed to be following CP3 as much as he was guarding him. Thabo gives the Thunder another option, at least a different look. Might have made a difference.
And has there ever been a game that more adequately displayed James Harden’s value in coming off the bench? Starting in Thabo’s stead, Harden was a total non-factor. No points until the second quarter. No basket until the fourth quarter, when it was a blowout. It is clear that Harden is much more comfortable coming off the bench, playing a good chunk of the game as the B team’s primary scoring option, rather than playing with Durant and Westbrook as the A team’s third option. In the fourth quarter of games, Harden routinely plays with Westbrook and Durant, and plays well. Maybe he needs to get adjusted to the flow of the game, I don’t know. But he’s clearly lost as a starter.
Not that Thabo’s absence is an excuse for the defeat. Every team is dealing with voids in this densely-scheduled season. You adjust to injuries and move on. But just know Thabo’s defensive versatility is a wonderful asset for the Thunder. OKC was reminded of that against the Clippers, the hard way.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Oklahoma football: Another second-generation player on the way
Sterling Shepard plans to sign a letter of intent on Wednesday to play football for the Sooners. Our gal Jenni Carlson wrote a great column for the Tuesday Oklahoman about Shepard’s legacy. You can read here about Sterling’s heritage. His dad, the late Derrick Shepard, and his uncles, Darrell and Woodie, all played for the Sooners.
The Shepards got me to thinking about father/son combos in OU history. The Sooners have had a ton of brothers, including some great and famous names. Burris. Owens. Andros. Selmon. Bryan. Lashar. Peters. Ray. Phillips. Tabor. There are a bunch more.
But father/son combinations are not as common. Going through the OU letterman list and memory, I found nine Sooner players ever whose father also played for OU. It’s possible I missed some. If I did, let me know. I’ll update the list. But here are the nine I found:
* Kent/Sam Bradford: Kent was a backup offensive lineman who lettered in 1977-78; Sam played a little quarterback a few year ago. Perhaps you’ve heard of him.
* Steve/Mike Owens: Steve won a Heisman Trophy in 1969; Mike never lettered but was a split end on the 1993 and 1994 OU teams.
* John/Brad Reddell: John was a solid end for Bud Wilkinson’s great teams of 1950-52; Brad was Gary Gibbs’ punter in 1989-92.
* Danny/Mark Bradley: Danny was an all-Big Eight quarterback in 1984; Mark was a big-play receiver for Bob Stoops (2003-04) who made the NFL.
* Ron/Patrick Fletcher: Ron was a quarterback in 1964 who threw a 95-yard TD pass in the Gator Bowl, still the longest completion in Sooner history; Patrick was a walkon quarterback who helped produce a stirring comeback against TCU in 1998.
* Jim/Seth Littrell: Jim was the starting fullback on Barry Switzer’s 1974 national title team; Seth was the starting fullback on Stoops’ 2000 national title team.
* Fred/Laenar Nixon: Fred was an exciting receiver/kick returner for Switzer in 1976-79; Laenar was a backup defensive end for Stoops, letting in 2004.
* Charles/Kendal Thompson: Charles was the thrilling optioneer who quarterbacked OU to victory in Game of the Century II in 1987 before finding off-field troubles; Kendal just redshirted as a freshman quarterback in 2011.
* Mike/James Winchester: Mike was OU’s punter in 1984-86; James just finished a three-year run as OU’s deep snapper on punts.
So that’s not a long list. But what’s interesting is, the trend is growing. Six of the nine sons come from the Stoops era, and three of those six have played in the last three seasons.
I would rank the Bradleys No. 1. An all-Big Eight quarterback — Danny was the league’s offensive player of the year — and a playmaking flanker on a team that made the national championship game.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
Pro Bowl: How about London?
My brother came up with a good idea. Well, I don’t know if it’s a good idea. But it’s an idea worth considering. Move the Pro Bowl to London.
Here’s the rationale. Looks like we’re stuck with the Pro Bowl. Nobody knows what to do with the NFL’s all-star game. Nobody knows how to turn it into a real game. It’s like an exhibition game, except without young players trying to show someone they can play. For proven players, an exhibition game can only bring the bad news of injury.
So the Pro Bowl becomes a shell of a real football game. Little hard-hitting. Little all-out play. It’s like those three-quarters practices, with players in helmets and shoulder pads, but no football pants.
And it’s a game few want to play. At times Sunday night, the quarterbacks in the game were Andy Dalton and Cam Newton. Nothing against either rookie, who were excellent as first-year quarterbacks. But neither is in the upper half of quarterbacks in their conference. The Super Bowl quarterbacks are ineligible, of course, since they’ve got a game to play and the Pro Bowl futilely was moved to the week before the Super Bowl as a way to increase interest. Then you factor in injuries, which always mount late in the year. And then account for anyone with the good sense to avoid meaningless hits, and the Pro Bowl becomes something less than an all-star game.
Here’s an example of the difference in all-star games. Last year, LaMarcus Aldridge, a thoroughly wonderful player for the Portland TrailBlazers, didn’t make the NBA All-Star Game. Kevin Love didn’t even make it, originally, but was added when Yao Ming was scratched for injury. But there was no room for Aldridge. Meanwhile, Andy Dalton and Cam Newton, thoroughly middle-of-the-road quarterbacks (albeit promising) play in the Pro Bowl.
So what to do with the Pro Bowl?
Well, there’s this London thing. The NFL seems determined to take its game to Merry Old England. The NFL has played regular-season games in London’s Wembley Stadium five straight years: Giants-Dolphins in 2007, Chargers-Saints in 2008, Patriots-Buccaneers in 2009, Broncos-49ers in 2010 and Bears-Buccaneers in 2011. Now, the Rams have agreed to move a home game each of the next three seasons to London.
St. Louis officials are saying that violates the Rams’ lease in their dome, all the while there’s speculation that the Rams are bucking for a move back to Los Angeles.
Getting teams to move games to London is difficult. Stately and/or successful franchises won’t do it. Ends up being struggling franchises like the Bucs. Wonder of wonders that Jacksonville hasn’t gone for it.
So why not move the Pro Bowl to London? I know that Honolulu, the usual home of the Pro Bowl, is an enticement to get reluctant players to participate, but wouldn’t London hold some allure?
I see two problems with London:
1. The product is so bad, it’s not a great marketing tool for the NFL in Europe. A whole lot of fans wouldn’t know they were getting a bad brand of football. But they also wouldn’t become all that attached to the game. You go to Europe to grow the sport, not to make people shrug.
2. The weather isn’t great. The average high temperature for London in January is 43; the average low is 33. It’s often damp. That would be a tough sell for the ballplayers.
But I don’t like the Pro Bowl, and I don’t like NFL games in London. I believe they upset competitive balance. The Rams the next three seasons will have seven home games; everyone else in the NFL will have eight. How fair is that to the St. Louis Sams?
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
