Sports on Slate

Slate is a pretty darn good website, which has soared in my rankings over the last few months. They do intelligent work and don't pretend at non-partiality. And they've got Christopher Hitchens, whom I like to read even though he once took on "Mother Frickin' Teresa!" as Dennis Miller once exclaimed.

But now and then they venture into the sports realm, usually going counter to popular opinion. The most recent of these columns can be found here, in which Jonathan Chait tells us why he thinks USC isn't as good as everybody else seems to. One thing I think he discounts a little too much is how much the game has changed over the last twenty or so years in terms of not only athleticism (240-pound guys running forty yards in four and a half seconds, for example), but also complexity. No, you could not use this argument to prove that 2005 Temple is the greatest team of all time because they would beat 1901 Michigan, because that assumes that 1901 Michigan could beat any other team in history, and that's not true. He doesn't discount the changes completely, just too much, I think.

By the way, USC could win this game 100-0 (though they won't because the score is currently 9-7 Texas), and I still wouldn't call them the greatest of all time. My choice goes, of course, to 1995 Nebraska, and many others would agree, though that's got nothing to do with my selection. I'm biased because I like Nebraska. Tom Osborne is my favorite coach, and QB Tommie Frazier is my favorite college player of all time. I don't say they are the most complete team ever, because they don't come close in the category of passing offense. But I do think they separate themselves from the rest because they are by far the meanest team I have ever laid eyes on. You have to be mean to play the way they did and get the results they did. Where the rubber meets the road, football is a game of mean, and nobody did mean better than them. They said two things going into every game.

"On offense, we will run the ball to the left, run the ball to the left, and run the ball to the right. We may pass now and then. You won't be able to stop us, because your entire front seven will be knocked on their bottoms by our offensive line and tight ends, and our backfield will run over or around your secondary."

and

"On defense, we will beat the hell out of you with our speed, strength, and scheme. We will man up on your skill guys and send everybody else out to hospitalize your quarterback. You don't particularly stand a chance."

If anyone out there happens to have tape of their games from that year, I'd sure like to see it.