Top Ten Sports Management Blunders

Well, it was a rough weekend for the NFL. Three of their most compelling (read here marketable) franchises the Patriots, Colts, and Bears all got bounced out of the playoffs. Now the mostly likely Superbowl matchup facing the league is Denver and Seattle. Which, by the way, is the matchup predicted by Uncle Jimbo prior to the playoffs.

I'll be honest, as a Pats fan it was hard to see them lose, but they made a good run with a lot of guys missing time. And they have three rings (I'll go on record here, saying that that's three more than Peyton Manning will ever have). I'm satisfied. My guess is that Colts fan isn't. Boy do they know how to blow the big game or what. Last year it was "We didn't have home field advantage." This year they get to blame it on a kicker. Much like Bills fan who would still beat down Scott Norwood in the Wegmans parking lot, Colts fan will latch onto the 46 yarder that sliced more than a tee-shot from John Daly on a five-day bender. So what's that make Vanderjerk, the "most accurate kicker in NFL history," in pressure kicks? 0 for 1? Let's see, home field, check. 6th seed opponent, check. Playing for coach who lost his son, check. Best (sic) QB in the league, check. Ass-kicked like the bunch of marginally talented players they are, CHECK. Boy, didn't see that one coming.

But that's not why they lost that game. They weren't even in the game. Manning was doing his best impression of Tony Eason collapsing under the pressure, in fact I think he even got a date out of one of those sacks. The offensive line was as confused as Michael Moore with an empty plate at Old Country Buffet and the defense was, well, they were the Indy defense.

What? You think they were in the game? You say they tried a field goal at the end to tie the game. Well, "officially" they were in the game. But, and here is where I go on my rant, the officiating in this game as with all the games this weekend was a nothing short of a steaming pile. There were missed called. Bad calls that needed to go to replay. Good calls that were overturned by replay. Crap was called and not called that made me jump up and scream at the TV when I had no vested interest in the actual outcome of the game.

Let's see, there was the phantom pass interference on Asante Samuel when he was the one getting pushed. The overturned interception by Troy Polamalu. The "touchdown" by Thomas Jones who fumbled the ball at about the 3. The five or six deep-ball pass interference plays where it was appears the officials had their hands in their pants. And the list goes on...

Note to the NFL, when you get serious about officiating and stop leaving the outcome of games in a multi-BILLION dollar business to a bunch of part-time hacks I'll anoint you the official sport of the Universe. Until then you have a flawed product. It goes on Uncle Jimbo's list of top Ten Sports Management Blunders.

Top Ten Sports Management Blunders
10. Letting Mike Tyson in a ring with anyone other than O.J.
9. Lifting the George Steinbrenner suspension
8. Paying NBA players more money than they could make selling crack
7. Paying marginal pitchers like Kyle Farnsworth $2 million a year
6. Not taking care of the steroids issue earlier, and leaving Barry "stick me in the ass" Bonds and all his universal soldier buddies in MLB record books
5. NBA allowing the drafting of high school players
4. The BCS
3. The NHL lockout (NHL...yeah, you know National Hockey League....yeah, the one with the puck)
2. Part-time NFL officials
1. Managing baseball player salaries like fortune 500 CEO salaries