celebrating super bowl week in color

Both teams participating in Super Bowl are now in Dallas, TX.  Meanwhile, back in Madison, WI, the state's Capitol dome is being illuminated green and gold for the Green Bay Packers this week.

Normally the Capitol dome is white, but has been particular colors to raise awareness to certain events, like red for National Heart Month, among other causes.

One of the best known colors in support for sports teams is the Empire State Building in New York City.  There is an interesting webpage called http://whatcoloristheempirestatebuilding.com/ that shows a picture of what the Empire State Building will look like every night of the year.

In looking at the date of February 6, the Empire State Building will also be commemorating the Super Bowl participants by having split colors for each the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers.

who gets to wear what numbers

So my wife asked me how they determine the numbers players wear in football.  I came across this handy chart to help explain it all.

Each NFL team consists of 53 players, although only 45 players can dress up per game.

So let's go through an example.  NFL teams normally carry 3 quarterbacks on their rosters, meaning they don't need to have a lot of numbers made available, but those quarterbacks have to pick from the same set of numbers that K (Kickers) and P (Punters) have to pick from.  So it is five position players get their pick of the numbers from 1-19.

Sometimes there can be an issue where NFL teams have retired numbers that are no longer available for players to wear.  The Chicago Bears have retired numbers 51 and 56, meaning they may not have enough numbers for all their LB (linebackers) during certain seasons.

In rare instances, the NFL will allow players to wear numbers outside of the range assigned for the player.

an interesting place for a game

On 11/11/11/, Michigan State and North Carolina will play a men's college basketball game on the deck of an aircraft carrier in San Diego.  This date commemorates Armistice Day.

To play basketball on an aircraft carrier, they would need space for a court, which is 94' x 50'.  The length of an aircraft carrier is slightly longer than 1,000 feet.

So why would the North Carolina and Michigan State want to do this?  For one, it would be incredible publicity, kind of like when hockey teams play outdoor games in college football stadiums and draw huge crowds.

Also, since this will likely be the first college basketball for each of these teams for the 2011-12 season, a loss in a publicity stunt type of game is unlikely to affect either of these teams ability to make it into the NCAA college basketball tournament field of 65 teams.

how to get into the big game

Cowboys Stadium, the host of Super Bowl 45

All you ever hear about is how expensive it is to buy Super Bowl tickets off of StubHub, a website where fans resell tickets to each other.  These tickets normally go for many thousands of dollars more than the face value of a ticket, which is between $600 and $1,200 this year.

So who actually gets tickets at face value?

About 75% of the tickets are distributed through the individual NFL teams.  In this year, each the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers each receive 17.5% of the total tickets (over 16,000 tickets per team).  The teams are then free to run a random lottery amongst their ticket holders for the right to purchase Super Bowl tickets.

The home team, the Dallas Cowboys receive 5% of the tickets, and the remaining 29 NFL teams get the remaining 35% of the tickets.  Each team runs their own lottery system to see who gets the right to purchase these tickets.

The last 25% of the tickets are made available to the NFL charities, corporate sponsor, and other interests.

If you aren't able to get into the stadium, you may purchase a ticket to watch the game outside on a big screen for $200.

what's the line?

So Green Bay is favored by 2.5 points to win Super Bowl 45 over the Pittsburgh Steelers.  So what does this 2.5 mean?

When you make a bet on a game, Las Vegas sports books, places where you can make legal wagers on games, will handicap the game so both teams will be equal.  In this instance, the oddsmakers think that Green Bay is the better team, but to make the game more equal in the bettors books, they are giving Pittsburgh 2.5 points to start the game, while Green Bay is stuck at zero.

If the final score of the Super Bowl is Green Bay 27, Pittsburgh 24, Green Bay will have covered the spread having won the handicapped game 27 to 26.5, meaning all who bet on Green Bay wins their bets.  If Green Bay only wins the Super Bowl by 2 points, or even loses the game, then those who put money on Pittsburgh would win.

Today, the line is Green Bay by 2.5 points, but if many more people bet on Green Bay and less on Pittsburgh, the oddmakers could redo the line to make Green Bay a 3 or 4 point favorite to draw in more bets on Pittsburgh.  Their whole goal is to get equal money betting on each side of the game.

The only place to bet legally on the Super Bowl is at a Nevada sports book.

who gets to score a touchdown, and who normally doesn't

My wife was amazed to see 330+ pounder BJ Raji waltz into the endzone on Sunday afternoon on an interception return.  Upon learning that it was his first touchdown, she wondered why he's never scored before

BJ Raji's job with the Green Bay Packers is to play defensive lineman.  This means he's normally lined up at the line of scrimmage directly across from the offense.  In most instances, since he is normally quite close the the quarterback, it would be incredibly difficult to catch a football that is coming at him at 40 mph.

In almost all instances on Sunday, Raji's job was to pressure the quarterback or tackle a running back.  On the play in which Raji scored a touchdown, he faked a rush on the quarterback, but then dropped back into coverage against a Bears wide receiver.  Raji found himself directly in line with where the Bear's quarterback Caleb Hanie was trying to throw the ball.  Raji made the catch, and since he outweighed the only person who could catch him, Bears quarterback Hanie by over 100 lbs, he knew he would make it to the end zone.

Perhaps Raji will score another touchdown in his NFL career, but it isn't likely to be bigger than this one.

On the defensive side, you are more likely to see a cornerback, whose job is to cover wide receivers score a defensive touchdown.  They have many more opportunities since the football is often thrown in their direction, and if they do catch an interception (or pick up a fumble), they are often the fastest players on the field, and the toughest players to catch and tackle.

What I got in my email inbox today

This was the hot forward of the day in email inboxes in Wisconsin as people get ready for the Packers/Bears match up

I was told it might be a good idea to explain the intricacies of this forward.  The familiar bright colored green look is the color of hunting and fishing licenses in Wisconsin.

The player listed is Clay Matthews, who plays defense for Green Bay.  He is a candidate for NFL Defensive Player of the Year in just his 2nd year as a pro.  Matthews' father and grandfather each played in the NFL.  

The address listed is the address for the Packers home field in Green Bay, Lambeau Field.

To the right are Matthews' statistics for the 2010 regular season.  The 14 quarterback sacks by Matthews was 4th most in the NFL in 2010.

The area that looks like a bar code actually says "GO PACK GO," which is heard commonly at Packer home games.

At the bottom is the name of a famous song by the "Happy Schnapps Combo" called "The Bears Still Suck."  In this tag though, it is simply "da bears still suck."

For the people who are reading this from Illinois, this is strictly informational.  Clearly there has been more activity and trash talk by the fans in this battle than from the players.

The Major League Baseball Arbitration Process

Tuesday evening was the deadline for Major League Baseball teams to exchange arbitration numbers with their respective players.  What does this all mean?

When a player makes it to the Major Leagues, their service time clock starts ticking.  In years 1-3 of their service, major league teams control how much they will pay a player.  The league minimum for the 2011 season is $414,000.  Through years 1-3, a team could pay a player that minimum salary.  Oftentimes though, if the player performs better, teams will pay that player more to keep him happy.

In years 4-6 of major league service, a player is kind of like a free agent in terms of what they are paid.  They are still under the control of the major league team, and the player can agree to any terms they want to, or sign a multi-year contract.  In many cases though, teams take years 4-6 on a year-by-year basis with their players.  For all unsigned players in years 4-6 who have not agreed to a contract, salary numbers were exchanged.  The player and his agent will come forth with what they think is a fair offer for the services of the player for the upcoming year, and the team will come forth with their number (the player's agents salary demands are higher than the team's salary offer).  If a middle ground is not reached in the ensuing weeks, an arbitration panel will choose either the player's demand OR the team's offer of the salary.  These trials can often become contentious because the team can say bad things about a player that is on their team to defend the lower salary offer.

If teams know after year 1 of a player's service that they believe they have a star player, they will many times see if the player will agree to a long-term deal so they don't have to deal with the messy arbitration process.  In less than one year into his major league career, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun signed an 8-year, $45M contract extension.  This gave Braun security, and the Brewers do not have to deal with the arbitration process.

After the 6th year is completed by a major league player, they become an unrestricted free agent and can offer their services to all 30 Major League Baseball teams.

The AFC Championship

The AFC Championship between the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at 5:30 PM is a match up between the team that saved the modern NFL and the team that has won the most modern NFL Championships.

When I speak of the modern NFL, I am talking about the Super Bowl era (think late 60's).  The Super Bowl pits the winner of the National Football Conference ( the NFC) and the American Football Conference (the AFC).

In the 1960s, a group of new football teams formed the American Football League (the AFL).  Their play involved much passing, and was very unlike the run oriented National Football League (the NFL).  Back in the 60's, the NFL was the pre-eminent league.  The AFL was not very well thought of.  Starting in 1967, the winner of the AFL played the winner or the NFL in what was termed the AFL-NFL Championship game.  This continued again in 1968, and each time the NFL team (the Green Bay Packers) trashed whatever the best the AFL could offer up.  Prior to the third match up in 1969, AFL owners had secretly voted that if their team lost again, that they would quit playing these games against the NFL.

Much to everyone's surprise, the AFL did win that third AFL-NFL Championship game when Joe Namath led the New York Jets to a victory over the Baltimore Colts.

That win in 1969 gave the AFL credibility, and led to the merger of the AFL (now called the AFC) and the NFL (now called the NFC), into what is collectively known as the NFL.

The New York Jets, who saved the modern NFL with their victory in what is now called Super Bowl 3, have never been back to that final game.  Meanwhile, no one has won more Super Bowls than the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have won it 6 times.  That is the match up we have early Sunday evening.

The NFC Championship

On Sunday at 2PM CST, for the first time since December of 1941, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears will be playing a playoff game against each other.  These are the two winningest teams in NFL history, with Green Bay having won 12 NFL titles and the Chicago Bears franchise having won 9 NFL titles.

While each of these teams has had very dominant eras in their history, it was always a situation where only one of these great franchises was good, while the other was down.  Take the recent history of the Bears as being dominant in the 1980's (winning a Super Bowl in the 1985 season), while the Packers were very poor from the early 70's until the early 90's.  The Brett Favre era starting in 1992 ushered in a decade and a half of dominance for Green Bay (Super Bowl seasons in 1996 and 1997), but a very poor era for Chicago.

This is the longest running rivalry in the NFL with Chicago having won it 92 times, and Green Bay winning it 83 times.  The two teams have tied 6 times.

On Sunday, this rivalry which started in 1921 will have a very special 182nd meeting, with the winner advancing to Super Bowl 45.