By Todd Williams

Surprising news out of Watertown yesterday as it was reported the five of their players have been kicked off the team for a training rules violation.

Word is that they are members of the junior class, something that should be verified this weekend in the RCJ as they make a swing west of the Missouri for a double header.

What may have been equally surprising is that Watertown has a no-tolerance policy when it comes to violations of its activities code. Generally, most schools have a graduated scale of punishments for rules violations (academic or training). Some of the more strict schools will have a six-week probation on first offense, followed by a year probation on a second violation.

Of course, I’d be in favor of more of an old-school punishment Herb Brooks style, such as a one week  suspension followed by a week of practices consisting of say, 40, jayhawks for the entire team each day. The lessons from such punishment would be legion and likely to stick with the individual players (their teammates being the primary enforcers of such measures).

Now, being someone who wheezed after four or five set of lines, heaven knows I wouldn’t have approved of such measures in my youth. But the lesson of immediate banishment might lead to a lesson learned, but it also allows the offenders to continue in whatever behaviors (academic, behaviorial, etc.) that landed them in the mess and it still punishes the team more.

By Todd Williams

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll be watching just to see if New England can finally put a sock in Don Shula’s endless defense of the Dolphins’ 1972 perfect season.

In fact, the game could be a good one. New England has been known to put on a good show in the big game, even if this year will be sans hometown hero Adam Viniatieri.

The part that will likely be unsufferable is the run-up to the Super Bowl. Even in years where both contestants are from areas that aren’t the self-proclaimed mecca of all sports journalism as the East Coast, the two-weekly layoff between the championship games and the Super Bowl is kind of like trying to watch “Gone With The Wind” in a single sitting — it’s all fine entertainment, just way too long.

And when we viewers in the great, unexplored expanse known in the geography books as the Great Plains Desert are told how much more important the big game is with these two teams versus teams such as Dallas or Green Bay or basically anywhere else, well, it gets easier to tune out.

Sound bitter. You bet.

Still, I’ll be there with everyone else on Feb. 3, watching the big game. I’ll just have the sound turned down throughout the pre-game.

But not the half-time show. Me loves the Tom Petty.

By Todd Williams

The announcement of Adolph Shepardson’s resignation as head football coach at Sturgis was a surprise, I think, to most.

The young Shepardson will be getting married and moving to the East Coast. Cograts!

The good thing about Shepardson’s departure is that he made it early enough in the calendar year to find an able replacement. The bad news is: coaches like Shepardson are hard to find. The young, irrepressible Shepardson not only averted a nation loss-streak win with his inspirational coaching, he created faith in a team and resurrected a program that had moved on well past life-support for the better part of a decade. Not only did he get a group of young men to believe in bringing back a winning traditon back to Sturgis, he got the entire community behind him.

In the season before the Scoopers earned their first win in the new millenium, one couldn’t find a more enthusiastic crowd than the Scoopers faithful. They packed the stands for their home games, despite the fact they failed to win a game that season. It says a lot about the town, and it says a lot about the coach.

Hopefully, the Scoopers can continue to build on the foundation that Shepardson and his assistants have built.

By Todd Williams

On the eve of the BCS Bowl Championship game between LSU and Ohio State, there has never been a better time to make the case for a NCAA playoff system.

Understand, I am one of those rare football fans who actually enjoy the BCS system. I love the arguments between fans and sportswriters as to who is the best team in the nation. A few years ago, when there were three major conference undefeated teams, I relished in Auburn fans howl as they were kept out of the championship game. I loved it when USC took a share of the title even when they didn’t play in the game that was to decide the championship.

But this year, there hasn’t been much of a howl at all. It has been an exceptional season where No. 1 and No. 2 teams fell with great regularity, so much so, that as we approach Monday night’s game, we have a two-loss team battling against a one-loss team from a no playoff conference vying for what the BCS folks are calling the championship game. But how many people can be convinced of that.

It’s just hard to get excited about a game that crowns a relatively unconvincing champion. And that is what a playoff would bring.

Hey, I spent a good part of the day on Sunday watching two teams I generally loathe — the mistake prone and overrated New York Giants against a typically boring Tampa Bay Buccaneer team. Still, I watched most of the game knowing that, although unlikely, the winner (the Giants) could catch fire and go on to take the national title (by winning the Super Bowl). OK, it isn’t all that likely, but at least it’s possible.

Better yet, the NCAA’s own season-ending basketball tournament shows the value in playing it out until the end. The most memorable of years have come when underdogs (North Carolina State or Villanova, anyone?) have come through to become unprobable champions. Football would be better for it.

One can only hope that the lackluster lineup of bowls and their results this season will result in enough revenue shortfall in television ratings that sponsors and college presidents alike will at least consider the prospects of a playoff system. Until then, we’ll be left arguing the merits of a Georgia or West Virginia challenge to the national championship.

Ish!

That was the text message I received after Sunday’s Vikings-Broncos game from Journal staff writer Ryan Woodard.I’m not one to blame the coach directly, but for once, I can’t disagree.

If, at the beginning of the season , you would have told me the Vikes were to go 8-8, I’d say it would have been a miracle. But along the way this season, the offensive line gelled, Adrian Peterson turned out to be the best pure runner Minnesota has ever had in the backfield, and the defensive line and linebackers remained relatively solid.In the end, they sent seven players to the Pro Bowl, second-highest in the NFC.

So how do they go to 8-8?

First, you have to keep Peterson out of the game as much as possible. That’s hard to do when he’s the leading rusher in the conference and second in touchdowns, but Vikings’ Coach Brad Childress had the steely resolve to do it. As he said after the Cowboys game, “He (Peterson) needs to learn how to fit in.”If I were the Zigmaster Wilf, I would have fired him minutes after that statement was made.It isn’t only that Childress sat the teams’ most talented player far too much; when AP was in the game, the imagination in using him was spectacular. When he’s in the game, it’s run right or run left about 80 percent of the time; 19 percent of the time it was a play action pass; the other 1 percent was the incredibly rare screen passes, ugly reverses and fumbled exchanges.

The Vikes two sets — the obvious run set and the slightly less obvious play action set — was cracked by those defensive stalwarts San Francisco 49 ers, and Childress’ response — get AP out of the game so they can’t key on him. Y’know, don’t use him as a diversion; that would be wasting a perfectly good opportunity to run right!

OK, I digress, but like I said, seven Pro Bowlers + eight victories still equals one thing in my book: Meet Brian Billick, the new Vikings head coach.

Hey, a guy can dream.  

– Todd Williams