Is it just me, or is this the week where everyone finally felt optimistic enough to say, yep – we’re going to be playing football this fall?
On Monday, the governors of the three biggest states flat-out said pro sports are welcome to start up again, provided it’s without fans. Notre Dame put out a definitive schedule for in-person, fall semester classes. And the SEC is on the brink of allowing athletes to come back for workouts as soon as June 1.
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It’s starting to feel like The Summer of Sports Coming Back. (We think. Fingers crossed.) But we’ll always remember this interminable spring when a 10-part documentary served as our primary sports substitute.
Hey Stewart. While I’ve always preferred college sports over pro, I was absolutely riveted by “The Last Dance.” What were your top takeaways from the series? And while certain college football personalities/schools/topics (Barry Switzer, Urban Meyer, the U, formation of the BCS, etc.) would make for a great Last Dance-type series, is there really anything in college football history that would resonate so deeply with so many as the Jordan-led Bulls did? — Scott S, Cobleskill, N.Y.
I watched the whole series. I wasn’t necessarily as enamored with it as some — perhaps because I was a teenage Knicks fan in the ’90s who hated Jordan and the Bulls — but the last two episodes in particular were remarkable. When do we ever get such an intimate behind-the-scenes window into such a significant sports moment?
My top takeaways, in no particular order:
- Michael Jordan may be the last universally revered superstar. Today’s media environment is too divisive. There’s a prominent sports TV personality whose entire schtick is calling LeBron James overrated. Tom Brady is respected but largely reviled outside of New England, Michigan and now Tampa. But MJ, for all his flaws, is even more widely admired today than he was then.
- I’m not sure I appreciated just how mundane so much of a professional athlete’s life is. How many shots did we see of MJ sitting in a quiet room waiting for the game to start, or Phil Jackson lugging an overnight bag onto the bus for yet another road trip, or Scottie Pippen getting his back treated? It’s not always about 20,000 screaming fans.
- Contrary to what I and many others long assumed, NBA coaches don’t just roll the ball out at practice and let the players do their thing. You could tell Phil spent a lot of time on strategy, in-game play calls, etc. And that the players depended on them.
- Media inside baseball, but Ahmad Rashad had wayyyy too close a relationship with MJ to be NBC’s supposedly neutral sideline reporter. Did he even bother talking to the other team? Would you trust him if you were the other team?
- Finally, it’s amazing to consider how many ’90s NBA stars’ legacies were affected one way or the other by Jordan’s decisions. Hakeem Olajuwon will always be known as a two-time champion because of when MJ decided to play baseball. Gary Payton, Karl Malone, John Stockton and Reggie Miller were themselves among the all-time greats but did not catch the same break.
As for college football-inspired documentary ideas, again, you’d be hard-pressed to find a subject as beloved as Michael Jordan. You name the coach or player recently — Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, Tim Tebow, Johnny Manziel, Baker Mayfield — and we’ve found a way to polarize them.
But if you could go back in time and film all the behind-the-scenes footage, you could make a pretty epic series on the 2005 USC team with Pete Carroll, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. From the insane, Greatest Team of All-Time talk that began even before the season, to the sideline and locker room conversations around the Bush Push game, to all of Carroll’s various pranks and the Hollywood hangers-on — all of it culminating in the dramatic Rose Bowl loss to Texas? And we’d be in the locker room afterwards? Amazing.
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That season unwittingly became a Last Dance of its own, as Carroll’s own attempt at a threepeat fell short, and he never made it back to a title game after that.
A show about last year’s LSU team would be highly compelling as well, especially if you could rewind (as Last Dance did throughout) to, say, the 2011 Alabama title game shutout Les Miles’ firing, Joe Burrow’s arrival, etc., for full context. Maybe someone had a cell-phone camera out on the infamous Burrow recruiting visit when Ed Orgeron made the restaurant go out and buy some crawfish?
Actually, I take it back. Coach O would come out of it as revered as MJ.
It seems to me that we are starting to get back to somewhat normal around the country. With that said, I’m not sure 85,000-plus crowds jammed together are going to happen in September. Has there been any thought to 35,000 or so spread out around the stadium so at least some fans could cheer in person? I have to think every other row and checkerboard spread could somewhat work. — Evan G.
Sure. Lots of schools like Georgia and South Carolina are working through various models for how to hold a socially distanced sporting event. I’ve seen lots of references to reduced capacity, spaced-out seating, cashless concession stands and contactless ticket entry, among other things.
That being said: I can’t imagine any governor or public health official signing off on mass gatherings anytime soon. Right now, we’re just dipping our toes into re-opening places like stores and restaurants with a few dozen or so people. How are we going to get from that to 35,000 in the next three-plus months with no imminent vaccine or treatment? Even if you take all those well-intentioned measures above, those 35,000 people still have to get from the parking lot to the stadium, and through often cramped concourses to their seats. You could have insanely long concession stand lines. And then arguably the most vexing challenge of all — public bathrooms. I’m not kidding. One of the many things I’ve learned during all this is that toilet flushers are basically high-powered virus spreaders (a little PSA: Put the lid down before flushing).
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We’ve heard it again and again, but large spectator events are going to be among the very last things to reopen, and with good reason. They are “biological bombs.” It would only take small handful of asymptomatic individuals getting a little over-excited after a touchdown and running around screaming and hugging people to touch off a wave of secondary infections. Then those people go about their lives, unwittingly infecting their family members, their neighbors, a worker at the Wendy’s drive-through, etc., and soon enough you’ve got a full-blown community outbreak. Will a university really feel comfortable taking that risk and becoming stigmatized as a “super spreader” for the sake of lost ticket revenue?
I do have two ideas, though, to salvage the fan experience. One, if universities truly feel comfortable welcoming back students, then they might as well let them attend the games. They’re at a higher risk inside their dorms (which I liken to cruise ships on land) than they are at an outdoor stadium. Plus you’d have the ability to test them a day or two beforehand. More radically, though, I say just open the stadium to anyone that wants to come — so long as they sign something requiring them to then quarantine themselves for 14 days afterward.
Hey Stew, I’m a college football fan in California who follows recruiting pretty closely. What do you make of the exodus of the top West recruits to the likes of Alabama, LSU, Clemson, Ohio State and others? It used to be top talent for the most part stayed home, now they are all playing elsewhere. Do you see this trend continuing? How do Pac-12 teams keep more players home? — James C., San Marcos, Calif.
It’s not all that surprising given how much the College Football Playoff now dwarfs every other aspect of the sport. The top recruits want to go somewhere they feel they can compete regularly for CFP berths and national championships. The schools you mentioned have proven they can do just that. The Pac-12, for the most part has not. Especially given it’s now been four years since the conference’s last CFP team (2016 Washington). That may as well be a lifetime ago to recruits in the Class of 2021 (who were in eighth grade at the time).
Of course, it doesn’t help that the California schools — particularly USC — have struggled so much recently. It used to be a given that most of the top kids in Southern California would choose either USC or UCLA, with Oregon, Washington and Stanford getting their share from the state as well. In 2012, 17 of the top 20 California kids on 247Sports’ composite rankings signed with Pac-12 schools. In 2016, 13 of the top 25 signed with USC or UCLA. In 2020, however, just five of the top 10 stayed in the Pac-12, and, most stunningly, just one of the top 25 picked either the Trojans or Bruins.
But there are initial signs the 2021 class will reverse that trend, starting with the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit, California defensive end Korey Foreman. He recently decommitted from Clemson and is expected to pick USC. The Trojans already have commits from seven of the top 20 California players, with several others seen as strong leans. And Oregon, who had supplanted USC as the Pac-12’s top recruiting program since Mario Cristobal took over, has commits from seven four-stars, six of whom live in the Pac-12 footprint.
I’ve discussed this here before, but the coronavirus crisis may actually benefit Pac-12 schools, as more players like Foreman, and their families, may want to stay closer to home. And that may not be a one-year thing, either. But to keep it going for the long-term, it’s pretty simple: Win. Make Playoff appearances. Prove that you don’t have to relocate to South Carolina or Alabama to have those experiences.
Do you think running backs will have a great advantage next season since linemen will need to be 6 feet apart? — Paul Barnett
Unreal. Yet another rule change that favors the offense.
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Stewart. The Athletic ranked 1995 Nebraska as the most dominant team in the past 50 years of college football. I had forgotten how incredible that team was running the option. Why don’t more Group of 5 and lower-level Power 5 teams use the option playbook? If the service academies can do it, why don’t others? — KC, Phoenix
Beats me. I get why the modern-day Nebraskas want nothing to do with it. Their fans don’t want to watch it, and elite recruits want nothing to do with it. Remember when then-Arizona star QB Khail Tate openly sabotaged the school’s pursuit of Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo? Notice how Georgia Tech went from signing recruiting classes in the 40s and 50s nationally under Paul Johnson to 27th in Geoff Collins’ first full cycle last winter.
But the triple-option absolutely remains a great equalizer that would probably serve a lot of lower-tier programs well. Army was able to take both an Oklahoma team with the future No. 1 pick at quarterback in 2018 and a 2019 Michigan team that produced 10 draft picks to overtime. Navy has competed for titles in the top Group of 5 conference. Georgia Southern coach Chad Lunsford brought back the option and led the program from a 2-10 season one year to 10-3 the next. You would think a whole lot of other Group of 5 teams would want to emulate that success.
It’s a tougher sell at the Power 5 level, despite the fact Georgia Tech won an ACC title (in 2009) and two other division titles (in 2012 and ’14) running Johnson’s flexbone offense. But I said at the time, and still believe today, that Kansas would have been smart to hire someone like Army’s Jeff Monken after it fired David Beaty in late 2018. The Jayhawks have been hampered by such a severe talent disadvantage in the Big 12 for so long now that the option would give them a chance to be more competitive on a weekly basis. But Kansas instead went with Les Miles. And that in itself speaks to why you don’t see more of the option — not flashy enough in today’s game.
Maryland hasn’t had a quarterback drafted since 1991. How excited about Taulia Tagovailoa should Maryland fans be? Is he the four-star brother of Tua who picked Alabama over a number of other SEC schools, or the guy who transferred out after one year and picked Maryland over mostly G5 schools? And does it even matter if Maryland has a good QB, or is there still no hope of being competitive in that division? — Jeremy S.
First of all, that’s a crazy stat about Maryland quarterbacks. I wonder if it’s due to the fact that 27 consecutive Terps QBs have torn their ACLs (or it at least seems like it). Where have you gone, Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich and Neil O’Donnell?
I’d try to temper expectations a bit. Yes, junior Tua was a four-star, but the fact he could barely get on the field even after his brother got hurt last year, and was not considered a serious contender for the job this year, is cause for concern. Alabama had already moved on to a guy who hasn’t even practiced there yet, five-star Bruce Young, as the top competitor to incumbent Mac Jones. Plus, as you mentioned, there wasn’t a line of high-profile suitors once he hit the portal, though it may be that he was set on playing for Tua’s former offensive coordinator, Mike Locksley, all along.
But he doesn’t have to be the next Tua. The hope is he’s an upgrade from Maryland’s quarterbacks before him, and that’s certainly viable. This is a guy who, in two seasons at Thompson High School in Alabama, threw for 7,504 yards and 71 TDs and won a state championship. I assume former Virginia Tech grad transfer Josh Jackson will be the guy again this season, but Taulia will have the opportunity to take over in 2021 and possibly play three seasons. Under Locksley’s tutelage, I could see him becoming the Terps’ most productive quarterback since … Danny O’Brien? Sam Hollenbach? Bueller?
Hey Stew. Is this the year? Is this the year the Huskers get back to a bowl game? Say it’s so!!! — Robert H.
I assume so. The new APR scores came out yesterday, and Nebraska’s 974 should make it one of the first ones in line when they start filling in the 5-7 teams.
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You said in a recent mailbag that no one has the “unilateral authority to tell all of FBS what to do.” In principle, I agree. Should college football have a commissioner? If so, what would have to happen to make that a reality? What kind of authority should that person have? Who would be your candidates? And would you be willing to give up the cushy lifestyle of a journalist to answer the call to service? — Reid V.
It’s not going to happen, but yes, absolutely, college football should have a commissioner. It could really use one right now. There’s no Adam Silver or Rob Manfred to bring together all the various constituents (owners, coaches, players, TV networks) involved in navigating a crisis like the current one. Everyone’s left to figure it out on their own.
In an ideal world, the conferences would be more akin to professional owners, who hold the voting power on big-picture decisions but largely delegate day-to-day operations to the commissioner’s office. They would have no less authority than they do today in determining Playoff format, playing rules, etc., but the commissioner would install a unified approach to officiating, scheduling, disciplinary issues, etc. As it pertains to the pandemic, rather than 10 different conferences all formulating their own return-to-play protocols, the commissioner’s office would devise various models for them to vote on, and whichever one passes, they ALL have to follow it.
Who would be the best candidates? Well, I know of one suddenly out-of-work football commissioner, Oliver Luck, who would be ideal for it. He’s worked both as a college athletic director and NCAA official and is the parent of former college athletes. Nick Saban, whenever he retires, would have the credibility and influence to get things done. Tom Osborne 10 years ago would have been the same. Or a respected former player-turned successful businessperson like Ronnie Lott.
As for me … I don’t know. One of the beauties of my job is I can basically wear a T-shirt and jeans 350 days a year. This strikes me as more of a suit-and-tie deal. Pass.
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
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