Rants

Just to distract from the beauty of the NFL playoffs here are a couple of Flea Flicker rants. The first actually involves one of today's games.

Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh should not be playing for the Detroit Lions today against the Dallas Cowboys. Suh has been doing stupid shit on NFL playing fields since he was drafted in 2010. His intention has always been to injure opposing players. His preferred method of inflicting injury is stomping on players. Usually when they are on the ground and defenseless. His most recent offense was last Sunday in the season finale against the Green Bay Packers. Suh stomped on the leg of quarterback Aaron Rodgers twice. Twice! The fact that he did it twice was a pretty good indication that the act was intentional. He wasn't caught on the field by the officials but he was certainly caught after the fact by everyone. Suh was suspended for the Lions following game. That just happened to be today's Wild Card playoff game against the Cowboys. Suh appealed the punishment. He said that he couldn't feel Rodgers' leg because it was so cold that day. Right? That's one of the most idiotic comments made by a football player and a lot of idiotic comments have been made by football players. Ted Cottrell heard Suh's appeal. In a stunning judgement, Cottrell overturned the suspension. It was stunning because Cottrell didn't believe that Suh accidentally stomped on Rodgers leg. He didn't believe Suh's bullshit excuse. If the stomp was intentional so was the intent to injure. Suh is a huge, strong 300+ lb football player. Rodgers is lucky that his leg wasn't snapped. Cottrell, did fine Suh $70,000 but the idiot is clear to play today. Cottrell felt that the entire Lions franchise shouldn't be punished for the actions of one player. This is probably the part of Cottrell's ridiculous judgement that bothers me the most. Suh has repeatedly stomped, kicked, and kneed opposing players in his already too long, five-year career. The Lions clearly care little about controlling their out-of-control football player. Beyond that, Suh isn't alone. Lions center Dominic Raiola has been partaking in the same sort of extracurriculars even longer than Suh. Raiola was even suspended for the Packers game in which Suh stomped on Rodgers for stomping on the leg of Chicago Bears defensive tackle Ego Ferguson. Suh and the Lions should be punished. Suh shouldn't play today. He probably shouldn't play for a while. Neither the player nor the team has shown any interest in ceasing their ridiculous ways.

The second rant is over the media that covers the San Francisco 49ers.

The local media didn't respond well to the departure of head coach Jim Harbaugh. The media spent much of the past week roasting general manager Trent Baalke and CEO Jed York. No one should have been surprised that Harbaugh is no longer the 49ers head coach. The split had been building for about two years. In fact, the media played a significant role in creating that split. For two years, the local, and national, media have been bombarding Harbaugh, Baalke, York, and the 49ers players with redundant questions about possible issues in the front office, locker room and huddle. Every single day, "Has Harbaugh lost the locker room?" "Do Harbaugh and Baalke get along?" "Is Harbaugh going to be traded?" Who wants to work in an environment like that? If there wasn't a problem in the hallways of 49ers headquarters, the media sure planted one. If the media had allowed the various 49ers personalities to simply do their jobs, I wonder if Harbaugh would still be working for the 49ers.

I've come to find that the media can ask some mind-numbing questions. While Brad Childress was still coaching the Minnesota Vikings, I once heard him asked ten identical questions phrased ten different ways about whether Brett Favre would be playing for the team. He answered the first one. There was no reason to ask the next nine. No one gets that time back. The media claims that they are doing their job. They claim that they are providing information for their readers. They really aren't. Their job is to report the news. Their job is not to create the news. Their job is not to stir up drama. The bay area media spent all season flaming the flames of the Harbaugh-Baalke relationship. I would have preferred to read much more interesting reports about rookie linebackers Aaron Lynch and Chris Borland adjusting nicely to the NFL. Football instead of soap opera. That's what I always say.

One more. I already miss Sundays without Minnesota Vikings football. Eight more months with this hole.