Sustained success

Or ... the teams I root for create low expectations.

What is the definition of sustained success for a sports team? Winning a title every year seems steep and having consecutive winning seasons seems like a low bar. I’m going to try to determine this sustained success for the sports that I follow.
In college basketball, winning an NCAA tourney game two years in a row feels like success. To make the degree of difficulty higher, let’s go with winning a tournament game three years in a row or getting to the Sweet 16 two years in a row. In Missouri’s case, making the Final Four once ever would be enough.

In college football, making bowl games used to be enough. Now I think the team has to win, but even then beating the number five team in the Big Ten doesn’t seem that great. I think that having a winning record in your conference and winning consecutive bowl games does it. When it comes to Missouri, winning one Big 12 title ever or making a BCS game would be nice.

Baseball’s a little tougher because you have to have a great season to make the playoffs, unless you’re in the crappy AL Central. Making the playoffs in two straight years would be a massive accomplishment. The White Sox winning a title pretty much makes the last decade and the last century “sustained success”. Until 1969, only two teams made any kind of playoffs. Between 1920 and 1982, the White Sox were in the playoffs (mainly just the World Series) once. That’s sustained lack of success. They were in it in 1983 with poor results. The 1993 team flamed out against a great Blue Jays team. 2000 was the embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Wild Card Mariners. 2008 was a quick and painless defeat to the Devil Rays.

2005 stands out as the outlier to all outliers. In 2005 the White Sox went 11-1 in the playoffs, including a crazy four straight complete games. They never had a lead of more than two runs in the “World Series that time forgot”. That’s 11 playoff wins in one year. The 1906 and 1917 teams won four. The 1919 team won three games, impressive when half the team was trying to lose. That’s 11 playoff wins right there. In the other appearances, all losses, they won six games. If the Sox can somehow make the playoffs this year and miraculously beat whatever AL East juggernaut they draw, that has to be success.

In the NFL, it’s hard to win year to year. Making the playoffs one year, but sustaining a postseason-caliber team is very difficult. Just look at the 2009 Titans. As head coach Jeff Fisher’s taken the Titans to the playoffs six times. The 1999/2000 teams, 2002/2003, and 2007/2008 made it to the postseason. That’s kind of weird. Last year there was a golden opportunity to make it three years in a row. The Oilers, bless their hearts, made the playoffs seven straight times from 1987 to 1993. That was before the two wild card teams, don’t forget. They never made an AFC title game. I still can’t believe that.

Could Fisher pull off the three-peat? It looks like the team is transitioning, quite rapidly, from a defense and field goal squad to an offensive team that needs to outscore the opponent because stops are going to be rare. Since the Titans rarely draft the way that prognosticators say, they might shock the world by taking Dez Bryant at 16 when the assumption is that they will go defense.

I think that two straight years with a playoff win is sustained success. Making it three times would be the next level. Winning one Super Bowl (notice a theme here?) would be otherworldly.

The League: Bringing the funny

I have some words for The League. This is the FX show that’s a comedy following some guys who are in a fantasy league. I think I would be the perfect consultant for the show.

It’s a tough show to do because they kind of have to live in an alternative universe. In one episode a guy laments that Antonio Gates scored 40 points against his team. I checked the logs. He has one three touchdown game. I know, I know, you have to write these shows well in advance and they’re shot well before the season starts and there’s no way in Hades that you could get all of the facts right.

I do like that most of the fantasy football types are included. You have the smug champion. You have the guy who doesn’t pay attention but still wins. You have the guy who gets suckered into bad trades all the time. It’s a little weird in that there are five main characters in the league and some out of town auto drafters. I don’t know if you could do a show with 12 different characters like most leagues. And it brings the funny.

Still, in the episode where one owner “trade rapes” the other, couldn’t the guy he got have been someone besides Ronnie Brown? One owner suckers another owner by trading Plaxico Burress for Ronnie Brown. First of all, why would the first guy even have Burress on his team? It's obviously a redraft league. Also, Brown has a season-ending injury every year. Make it for Thomas Jones or someone else who isn't an obvious superstar.

It’s a short season, so you can blast it out on Hulu in about two hours. Speaking of Hulu, why isn’t Justified on there yet? I have Kentucky residents complaining about the accents and the uber violence already.

Zero to hero

I have to shed some light on one of the most unlikely coveted free agents in the NFL. This is a man who I only know from a video game and through last year won the award as the luckiest guy in the league.

He is Charlie Whitehurst. Whitehurst has been the San Diego Chargers’ third-string quarterback since 2006. The Chargers selected him in the third round of the 2006 draft. He played in four games during his rookie season and has not seen the field since. This is a man who has drawn a nice NFL salary to not play and live in San Diego for four years. Yeah, I’d call that fortunate if not out and out lucky.

One interesting stat from Whitehurst’s career is that he has two NFL rushing attempts. One was for a touchdown. It was September 17, 2006 when the Chargers beat the Titans. Ironically, this was also the game in which Vince Young threw his first NFL touchdown pass. Titan QBs went a combined 13-39 in a 40-7 rout. The following week the Titans traded Billy Volek to the Chargers and Whitehurst became third stringer for life.

This year’s weird free agency has changed things. Teams are interested in picking up Whitehurst. Is there any difference between him and a rookie? He’s been in a good offensive system for the four years. He is a QB with a pulse and must be coveted. The Seahawks and Cardinals have shown interest.

The teams must hope that Whitehurst is this generation’s Trent Green. Green was drafted by the Chargers in 1993. He did not get into a game until 1997. In 1998, with Mike Martz as offensive coordinator, Green got his shot. He was going to be the field general for the Best Show on Turf in 1999 but cheap-shot artist Rodney Harrison hit him low in the preseason and ended his season. Green finished with two playoff appearances and two Pro Bowl selections. That’s the high water for Whitehurst.

I remember Whitehurst from the last year I played the EA Sports NCAA football. I had led the Chattanooga Mocs to an impressive 10-1 season. We accepted a Champs Sports Bowl invite against the Clemson Tigers. The QB for Clemson was Whitehurst. He had a rating of 98. He was unstoppable. I must have stopped him once or twice because the Mocs pulled out a tough 38-35 win.

Whitehurst was highly touted after a solid sophomore year. His junior stats were Vince Young in 2007 terrible, seven touchdowns to seventeen interceptions. He was somewhat better as a senior.

It is unusual to see such interest in a guy whose first pass in a regular season game would be his first. I’m sure a deep-digging NFL addict could find his preseason stats and that might show an unseen value in this unknown quantity. Maybe the Titans should reunite him with Young. They are forever linked, after all.

Smacked down

It’s the little things in life that amuse me. I’m on Twitter and generally tweet about sports issues. I try to be a good Twit citizen and re-tweet when possible. For those of you who are not hep to the lingo, that’s when you re-post a comment someone else made. You do this because the comment was good, included a good link, and the person might re-tweet you some day.

Paul Kuharsky is the AFC South blogger for ESPN. His posts are more “just the facts, ma’am” which makes him almost a throwback in today’s sarcasm-soaked world. I follow him on Twitter. I may have retweeted him before. This morning, I did it again.

He posted an article about “predicted” compensatory picks for AFC South teams. The Titans were the big winners, with a theoretical third-rounder for Albert Haynesworth and funny-money seventh-rounders for Eric King, Chris Carr, and Daniel Loper. Note the former Titan gravy train heading to Detroit.

My re-tweet simply read “Titans get four compensatory draft picks (3,7,7,7)” along with his tweet, which stated “Compensatory pick predictions”. I thought that was that.

I got a message a few minutes later. “Dude, are predicted to get. That’s not an NFL announcement. How about some context?” I was taken aback. First it was a guy from a major sports site chatting with me. Second, did I really make a major blunder? Deciding not to be my usual smart-aleck self, I covered my bases with “If Paul Kuharsky thinks I should clarify, I should clarify. Those are predicted compensation picks for the Titans.”

And because I can’t help myself, I replied to him stating “Since I flubbed up a tweet, does that mean ESPN has suspended me for a week?” I thought I’d reference Tony Kornheiser’s recent suspension, in which he probably kept getting paid and watched a lot of The Wire.

I thought that covered it, but to complete the circle nicely, Kuharsky wrote “first time offender, free pass with a warning…”

I’m not saying that it was the greatest dialog, but I enjoyed myself. In the end I realized that my original retweet included his word “predictions”. But I’ve learned recently from How to Win Friends and Influence People that you neither win friends nor influence people by starting an argument.

Free agency ain't free unless you ain't paying

Free agency has started, and the Titans have changed. Look at the guys who wore the captain’s C last year. Kerry Collins will be a backup if not outright released. Craig Hentrich (I know, punters get to be captains?) has retired. Kevin Mawae has been all but pushed out. Kyle Vanden Bosch is the richest blue-collar guy ever. Seriously, you can’t call yourself blue collar if your salary is eight figures. Keith Bulluck is not on the team’s priority list. I may be missing someone.

Due to the tidal wave of restricted free agents, free agency as it has been is dead. When Vanden Bosch and Nate Burleson are the big names signed up in the early hours, there isn’t much “there” there. Julius Peppers will make the most money. He looks like a Bear, which means he’s only in it for the money. Expect some Haynesworth-esque grumbling when the team’s 5-7 in December. A.J. Feeley signing with the Rams was big news, relatively speaking.

The Titans locked up their restricted free agents with surprisingly high tenders. Because Bo Scaife got the franchise tag last year, his tender number was $4.9 million. Whew that’s a lot for a guy who’s average. He’s tendered at a first-round level. Stephen Tulloch, who was the rare defensive player who didn’t regress last year, got the first round tender. Tony Brown, who may sign an extension soon, got a first-round tender. LenDale White, Kevin Vickerson, and Dave Ball got second-round tenders. None of these guys did much of anything last year but I like having personnel consistency in the defensive line.

Every year free agency starts and every year fans get antsy. They act like it’s the end of the world when their team loses players and does not go after the mostly mediocre free agent crop. I think Aaron Kampman would be a good pick up. I won’t go crazy if the Titans don’t sign him.