Friday, September 05, 2003
I was disappointed that Britney and Aretha didn't kiss during the NFL's Kick-Off special tonight.
I've come to the conclusion that the standard camera angle in football is awful - it usually cuts off the entire defensive backfield and receivers from sight during a passing play, so the viewer has no idea what's going on downfield until the ball travels there. As a result, the typical viewer (like me) has no clue about the tactics defenses use in coverage or how receivers run routes.
So we never really get a sense of Jerry Rice's excellence in route-running or Darrell Green's excellence in coverage- we know that Rice must be a great receiver because he's caught so many damn balls in his life, and we know Green was a great cover guy because he was always there to break up the pass, but the television viewer never really sees the great receiver or great defensive back in action. So even diehard football fans don't have a representative mental image of Jerry Rice's greatness -- I can't really picture what is distinctive about him while he's running a route, and that's surely the bulk of what made him arguably the best football player of all time.
And the television commentators aren't very good, either. It's comforting to hear a guy in the booth reminisce about the ball-grabbing and biting that goes on whenever there's a pile-up for a fumble, but I'd like to hear more about the tactical aspects of the game. And offensive players are disproportionately represented in the booth too, so most of the insights we do get are about the quarterback making reads and such - you almost never hear about what kinds of reads the defensive backs or linebackers have to make. More ex-coaches in the booth!
As a result, I don't really know much about how football is played. Nevertheless, I got some tempting spam this morning from sportsbetting.com. No salacious subject heading - it simply read, "NFL Football." And despite not knowing anything about football, I was tempted to try to make some easy money. So I checked it out and saw that the Jets were 3 point underdogs to the Redskins in tonight's game. I figured the Redskins were a good bet. $50 on the Redskins.
Fortunately, I don't have high-speed internet access, for at some point during the 30 seconds it took to load up the "cashier" page, I realized that this was a pursuit of dubious rationality. If I won this bet, I'd bet again and lose in the long-run. If I lost, I'd lose. A losing proposition, it seemed.
The final score was 16-13, so my bet would have tied, an outcome I hadn't considered. ¶ 12:27 AM
I've come to the conclusion that the standard camera angle in football is awful - it usually cuts off the entire defensive backfield and receivers from sight during a passing play, so the viewer has no idea what's going on downfield until the ball travels there. As a result, the typical viewer (like me) has no clue about the tactics defenses use in coverage or how receivers run routes.
So we never really get a sense of Jerry Rice's excellence in route-running or Darrell Green's excellence in coverage- we know that Rice must be a great receiver because he's caught so many damn balls in his life, and we know Green was a great cover guy because he was always there to break up the pass, but the television viewer never really sees the great receiver or great defensive back in action. So even diehard football fans don't have a representative mental image of Jerry Rice's greatness -- I can't really picture what is distinctive about him while he's running a route, and that's surely the bulk of what made him arguably the best football player of all time.
And the television commentators aren't very good, either. It's comforting to hear a guy in the booth reminisce about the ball-grabbing and biting that goes on whenever there's a pile-up for a fumble, but I'd like to hear more about the tactical aspects of the game. And offensive players are disproportionately represented in the booth too, so most of the insights we do get are about the quarterback making reads and such - you almost never hear about what kinds of reads the defensive backs or linebackers have to make. More ex-coaches in the booth!
As a result, I don't really know much about how football is played. Nevertheless, I got some tempting spam this morning from sportsbetting.com. No salacious subject heading - it simply read, "NFL Football." And despite not knowing anything about football, I was tempted to try to make some easy money. So I checked it out and saw that the Jets were 3 point underdogs to the Redskins in tonight's game. I figured the Redskins were a good bet. $50 on the Redskins.
Fortunately, I don't have high-speed internet access, for at some point during the 30 seconds it took to load up the "cashier" page, I realized that this was a pursuit of dubious rationality. If I won this bet, I'd bet again and lose in the long-run. If I lost, I'd lose. A losing proposition, it seemed.
The final score was 16-13, so my bet would have tied, an outcome I hadn't considered. ¶ 12:27 AM
