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Opinion: Jim Riley | |||||||||||
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Plenty of turkeys to go around It's Thanksgiving and that means turkeys. While there is always plenty to be grateful for if we take the time to stop and look, here are a few things that make it tough to be a sports fan these days: -- College football's idiotic bowl system Until a true playoff is put into place to determine the best teams in the country, the system is, and forever shall be, a joke. A 32-team playoff would only take five weeks from start to finish for two teams, considerably less for the vast majority of the rest. It would be easy to have an eight- or nine-game season for traditional conference games and then start the playoffs. Much like the NCAA basketball tournaments, there would still be great debate over the "bubble" teams that made it in and those that were left out, but at least there would be one true champion when the season was over instead of all the useless argument that goes on now. -- Capricious pass interference penalties Is there some way we can all agree on what it is, and, more importantly, what it isn't? Right now, at all levels of football, it is called differently. While there will always be different interpretations of the rules, there don't seem to be any when it comes to pass interference unless a defensive back gets caught with a fistful of jersey. -- The Seattle Seahawks The coach/general manager experiment, not to mention Mike Holmgren, needs to be terminated. The Seahawks have more talent than their record indicates. It's now reached the point that when they do play well, it just makes all the bad games even more mysterious. Question: If Holmgren stays and could only have one job, which one would you want him to keep? -- The Portland Trail Blazers The Blazers are an embarrassment to the NBA. How many seasons in a row will Rasheed Wallace lead the league in technicals (it's three and counting) before the team realizes he might have a problem? Worse yet, it surrounds him with other players of questionable character and then acts surprised when the team MVP is a bail bondsman. -- The Seattle Mariners The Mariners have had it so good for so long we all tend to forget just how bad the "crowds" used to be at the Kingdome. Before Lou Piniella arrived, there were many who were completely convinced that Seattle would never be a decent baseball town. Now, with Piniella off to join the storied franchise that is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, it would be very easy for the Mariners to fall back to where they were before everything changed in 1995. -- The PGA Tour Nobody sucks up sponsorship dollars like the PGA Tour. With 48 tournaments scheduled next year, most will have all the urgency of Friday afternoon lineup at the bank. Worse yet, commissioner Tim Finchem actually believes PGA Tour players are underpaid even though 23 earned more than $2 million this year, 61 pocketed more than $1 million and 198 more earned in excess of $100,000. Tiger Woods is nearing $7 million in earnings for 2002, and that only includes the money won in "official" events. -- The Tri-City Dust Devils This franchise will never be stable as long as Portland Family Entertainment remains the owner. As of this moment, the team has one employee and has been without a general manager since Brian Sandy left in August. Wonder how many tickets it is selling this holiday season? Please, no whining about the lack of attendance next summer. | ||||||||||
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