Anti-Martyball?

Marty Schottenheimer had a new trick this season, a trick that would silence the Martyball critics and lead his team to playoff victory. Schottenheimer is known for becoming too conservative with play calling once his team gets to the playoffs. This season, however, Marty handed the play calling to his offensive coordinator, even during the regular season.

The difference was immediately noticeable. LaDanian Tomlinson broke several records as the play calls took the handcuffs off of him and the rest of the team. Even on nights when the dominant defense collapsed, the supercharged offensive found a way to win.

Enter Week Two of the playoffs. This is the time when old Marty would call conservative plays and ruin the game. Instead, the play calling was perhaps too gutsy, and probably lost the game for San Diego. A few examples:

Going for it on 4th and 11: In what realm does this make sense? I understand the Chargers were at that tricky spot where punting isn't a great option, but 4th and 11? It wasn't even 4th and 7, to show that the offense had made SOME progress: they had three downs to get progress and they LOST a yard.

The possession right after the Patriots tied the game: First down: Tomlinson, 6 yards. Second and Third downs: Incomplete pass. Conservative Marty would have run the ball two more times, and with the NFL MVP as your running back, you can't really blame him. If the Patriots had been able to stop LT--and that's a very big if--you say good effort by the Pats and move along. No one would criticize Marty for trying to use his best player to get the first down and move the ball. Instead, the Anti-Marty calls for two pass plays that STOP THE CLOCK and punt the ball away. Boo.

On the other hand, there were some player errors that come back to nerves or training, and that is a reflection on Marty (specifically, Parker trying to grab the muffed punt instead of fall on it). Brady's third INT that got them a new set of downs was a very strange situation, but all that needed to happen was for the player to either swat the ball away, or hold onto it. In both these situations, the conservative play--falling on the ball, swatting it away--would have been the better play.

Still, look at the two playcalling situations--the non-field goal, and the two passing calls on the last possession--and this game came down to two non-conservative calls that cost the Chargers the game.

Sometimes a little Marty goes a long way. But more importantly:

Just give the ball to LaDanian. Especially when you need the big play.

State of the Gamer: Final Fantasy III (DS)

Christmas came, and I received two Final Fantasy games: FF3 (Nintendo DS) and FF5 (GBA). Since FF3 was only my second game for the DS, I played that one first.

SquareEnix recreated an old 2D Japanese-only classic into a 3D stylus-enabled adventure. Since I mentioned it: the stylus. Again, this is only my second DS game, but the use of the stylus in this game is pretty... useful. I could easily see somebody using the stylus for the entire game. However, it's not required, and the basic controls still function the same way as any FF game.

The 3D feature is nice. It appeared a bit blocky at first, but still preferable to the normal 2D stuff. Plus, it probably looks better than an FF7 port would.

The game has a WiFi feature that allows you to send mail to other FF3 players as well as NPCs in the game. All of these are required to open up some of the games secrets. The only frustrating thing about this are that you have to start mailing early, or you may find yourself tinkering with your DS clock to overcome the "1 mailing per hour" rule. Also, the button for the spacebar is NOT on the same page with the alphabet, but fortunately no one sends real messages to each other--they just post their Friend Code on a website and send nearly blank messages to get the unlocks. On the other hand, the game allows you to send weapons to your friends as well, though only at a certain point, and only the master weapons and armors. Still, pretty nifty function!

The story is good, if not choppy, but I can't really complain about this since it is only the third installment. The story is much more involved and much better than FF1 (and I haven't touched FF2, despite having it on PSone and GBA).

The gameplay is really intriguing. Your character can take on around 20 jobs, meaning you have the ultimate freedom to choose whatever you want for your characters. I took one character to Job level 99 Thief... and then realized there is only one worthwhile thing to steal in the entire game, and I probably wasn't going to use it. The variety is great and adds to replayability.

My biggest complaint is that the characters are not very personalized. Because they can have any job, you never get a sense of what they REALLY are. Great for playability, bad for character development. But worse than all of that... the first character you control is a dude who looks like a chick. Maybe this is to make up for the fact that there is only one female playable character, but I wish they had simply made it two girls and two guys, rather than two guys, one girl and "Pat."

Overall, this game is a lot of fun. Beyond what I have already mentioned, I especially enjoyed three different types of airships and the limitations imposed on each. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy, this is a must-have. But aren't they all? (Remember, Mystic Quest, just like Rocky V, DID NOT HAPPEN).

Bill Simmons on McGwire and the Hall of Fame

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070103

Great article.

Darrent Williams and Ebay

If you are a Broncos fan, or an avid reader of ESPN.com, you are likely aware that CB Darrent Williams died in a drive-by shooting on New Year's Eve, hours after losing to the 49ers in overtime and missing the playoffs.

Before his passing, a search of Darrent Williams on Ebay yielded maybe five entries, all jersey cards for very little money. Afterwards? Six pages of memorabilia.

There are (at least) three reasons why this is bothersome:

1. Darrent Williams only means something to Broncos fans. He doesn't have the universal appeal of a Reggie White, where non-Eagles/Packers/Panthers fans also love the player. The Ebayers are not providing a service--making jerseys available to those outside of Denver--they are simply making a buck. I understand both sets of Ebayers are interested in the money and NOT in providing a service, but our attitude about it is different (see below).

2. The violent nature of Darrent Williams's death makes the Ebayers more like vultures than when an athlete dies of natural causes. When Reggie White died, Ebay was flooded with his memorabilia as well. But Reggie was out of football four years, and health-related deaths are easier to understand (though potentially just as surprising and tragic). Our attitude is different. With Reggie, it was a feeling of loss and sympathy, but with Darrent we have those plus anger and frustration, maybe insecurity. Then we see someone hawking his stuff, and it's not the same. It's opportunistic and disgusting, especially because...

3. Darrent Williams's memorabilia is not going to be worth anything ten years from now, while Reggie White's definitely will be. So sellers are targetting emotional buyers right now and selling them a product that will only go down in value. Of course, plenty of sellers do this all the time, but in those instances, the reason for the increased demand in the product is not caused by a homicide.

The selling is OK, it's the gouging that is atrocious. Of course, if the price is too high, no one will buy. Is this a sick of example of "the market working itself out?" Maybe.