THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

And Joe Theismann!

When you said language issues, I thought you meant “convert” instead of “point after touchdown.”

I still call it a convert (or conversion) for the NFL.  After all, they call it a two-point conversion.  Why not call it a convert for the one-point conversion?

I was reading about Warren Moon.  They wanted to convert him to a tight end or a line backer or some sh!t like that, because he was Black.  Hard to believe.  He won all those Grey Cups, and it took so long for the NFL to get their hands on him.  If he were born 20 years later, his story would have been much different.  Lucky for us Canadians, bad for him.

Old white men.  If women were in charge, I don’t think race would have been an issue.

I have a theory that, because the NFL doesn’t have minor leagues, there are lots and lots of players out of football who would be NFL stars if they only had a chance to prove themselves.

For instance, I find it hard to believe that Pinball Clemons wasn’t good enough to play in the NFL.  A friend said that the American field is too small for his style of play, but I’m not convinced.

I also wonder about Doug Flutie ... what would he have done if he had played his CFL years in the NFL?  What made Warren Moon and Jeff Garcia good enough for the NFL, but not Flutie?

NFL owners and GMs are even more biased against small people than Blacks.

I disagree with the notion that women were/are less racist than men - what’s your basis for saying this?  I’m not trying to be a pain in the ass, just curious.  The gender-stereotyper in me would say that men are more competitive than women and would therefore be more likely break their (racist) morals in the name of winning.  I suppose the stereotypical argument for women is that their compassion somehow would allow them to see the inner workings of a Moon and realize he is truly talented at QB.

Tango, I agree with you about the short-person bias (of course, I’m 5’6” so I’m likely biased here).  It’s really annoying in hockey, because unlike in baseball, where teams are going on the whole Moneyball “we’re not selling jeans” thing and can isolate the stats of the player… hockey is still pretty subjective in evaluation.

Btw - I used to date a BC girl, and a few years ago she brought me to a bunch of BC home football game.  Literally, more than half of the people at the games with BC jerseys were wearing Flutie’s number, as opposed to any current player.  So you can say Canada has Flutie, but Boston had him first and hasn’t let him go yet

I suppose I have no basis, other than a belief that women are generally more compassionate.  But I suppose I’m biased, since the women closest to me gave birth to me or married me.  The men closest to me don’t approach that level of compassion.

I just don’t see white women organizing other white women to hold sticks and rocks and pelt black women.  I can see them do it to prostitutes though (but no way would a man do that!).  The need for violence and slavery must be different between men and women, and I see white men targetting Blacks as an inferior group far more than white women would. 

Hopefully PizzaCutter will come here and tell me that my gut instincts are correct.