Stuff I Saw On YouTube: Michael Jackson

Probably because it’s the biggest celebrity death of my adult life, for some reason I feel the need to write something about Michael Jackson. Unless you count his jeri-curled influence on the look of 1980’s NFL players, Jackson’s one NFL connection was his halftime show performance at Super Bowl XXVII. I personally found it to be underwhelming—ultra-choreographed, over-rehearsed, lip-synched, and “show-bizzy”—though it was probably the kind of show Jackson fans expected at that point. Ironically, he didn’t know it then but playing that halftime show proved to be good timing because the allegations of child abuse that surfaced shortly thereafter undoubtedly would have put an end to the NFL’s interest in him. The stigma of that plus his ever-changing face and skin color, odd marriages, bizarre behavior and changing musical tastes soon turned him from King of Pop into America’s most well-known freak show. The public turned on him for good. Like I said, I wanted to write something about Michael Jackson but the only two observations I have to offer about the man are pretty mundane: (1) He was as talented an all-around performer as anyone we’ve ever seen; and (2) He was an incredibly sick man in every possible sense of that word.

In all the media talk following his death, the performance clip shown and talked about more than any other was Jackson’s performance of “Billie Jean” from that Motown 25th Anniversary Special. That performance proved to be the second-to-last step in his ascent to Elvis/Beatles level mega-stardom (The Path: (1) Off The Wall album; (2) Thriller album; (3) “Billie Jean” video breaks MTV’s black artist blacklist; (4) Motown Special; (5) “Thriller” video). The Motown Special clip unwrapped Jackson’s post-Thriller onstage self for the general public for the first time. It’s all there (except for the crotch tugging)--the dramatic pauses and gestures, the hat business, the Moonwalk. But to my mind this live performance clip from a 1977 episode of the Jackson’s Variety Show posted on You Tube impresses more.

Here, with his brothers, Jackson sings their old Jackson 5 hit “The Love You Save”. As a full-grown man Jackson can no longer hit the impossibly high notes he did as a 12-year old boy so he now sings it in his lower register and gives a tough, gritty vocal performance (a la the bridge on “Billie Jean”). Remember, in the Motown Special clip (as at the Super Bowl) he lip-synchs so you get no sense of his live vocal ability. In this clip you hear him singing great while dancing flat-out at the same time. And not with the precision Vegas-style moves of the Motown 25th or Super Bowl performances. Instead he’s all over the stage, propelling himself James Brown-like in all directions with a whole series of spins, slides and shuffles. His feet never stop moving. It sure looks spontaneous. Marlon and Jackie are up there with him and sometimes Michael joins their choreographed dance moves and sometimes he doesn’t (Marlon spectacularly blows whatever they rehearsed at the start anyway). He’s all up in their camera shots even when it’s Marlon’s turn to sing. But it doesn’t matter. It all works because Michael’s feeling it! He’s a force of nature. He’s getting pumped up with the music and doing whatever it takes to get the audience pumped up too. Michael’s not playing the part of the master showman here, he’s simply giving it everything he’s got because he can’t stand the thought that even one person in that whole damn audience might leave disappointed. It may not be the cultural watershed the Motown Special was but it’s a far purer demonstration of his talent. Just compare it to this (early 90’s) concert clip of him singing “The Love You Save”. Whether due to Jackson’s notorious perfectionism, his preference for spectacle and showmanship, or the simple loss of youthful energy, all the juice is sadly drained out of the song.

In the end, all the unanswered questions about Michael Jackson complicate feelings about his passing. Better to remember him as he was before his pathologies manifested themselves in plastic surgeries and twisted behavior. While simple chronology made discussion of the unsavory aspects of his life unavoidable, for the most part what coverage I saw mainly adhered to the “never speak ill of the dead” credo. Yet a classic awkward moment came when Larry King Live presented us with an “exclusive, inside look” at the interior of Jackson’s now stripped bare home at Neverland. After exciting descriptions of artwork and furniture that we unfortunately could no longer see, we got a look at a massive upstairs closet with a “secret” area in the corner of it. No doubt many viewers wondered exactly what kind of activities might have taken place in that secret space.

For once the media got something right in comparing Jackson’s popularity to that of Elvis Presley and the Beatles (and hence coverage of his death also prompted comparisons to Lennon’s and Presley’s). For most of the 1980’s Jackson’s music and image were seemingly everywhere, penetrating the public consciousness deeply and inescapably. The quality of the music’s a matter of taste but given that he crossed racial and cultural boundaries in a way the Beatles or Elvis never could, you could well argue Michael Jackson achieved a kind of universality unrivalled by any entertainer ever.

Multiple Super Bowl Winning QB's Face Off

If we’re lucky, the 2009 NFL postseason may feature something NFL fans have not seen in almost a quarter of a century. When Ben Roethlisberger bested Kurt Warner in Super Bowl XLII, he, not Warner, joined the pantheon of quarterbacks who’ve won multiple Super Bowl rings. Big Ben made it an even ten. Here they are:

1) Bart Starr (1966, 1967)
2) Bob Griese (1972, 1973)
3) Terry Bradshaw (1974, 1975, 1978, 1979)
4) Roger Staubach (1971, 1977)
5) Jim Plunkett (1980, 1983)
6) Joe Montana (1981, 1984, 1988, 1989)
7) Troy Aikman (1992, 1993, 1995)
8) John Elway (1997, 1998)
9) Tom Brady (2001, 2003, 2004)
10) Ben Roethlisberger (2005, 2008).

But even rarer than the number of QB’s on that list is the number of matchups between any of those guys after having won multiple rings. On the Football Guys Message Board a poster named The Jerk, with a little help from other smart guy (wink wink), produced a complete list of those occurrences which PI will now reproduce here:

1) November 14, 1976: Miami 3 @ Pittsburgh 14
(Griese 2, Bradshaw 2)

2) November 5, 1978: Dallas 16 @ 23 Miami
(Staubach 2, Griese 2)

3) January 21, 1979/Super Bowl XIII: Pittsburgh 35/Dallas 31
(Bradshaw 2, Staubach 2)

4) October 28, 1979: Dallas 3 @ Pittsburgh 14
(Staubach 2, Bradshaw 3)

5) December 30, 1979/Divisional Playoffs: Miami 14 @ Pittsburgh 34
(Griese 2, Bradshaw 3)

6) September 22, 1985: San Francisco 34 @ LA Raiders 10
(Montana 2, Plunkett 2)

As you can see the NFL hasn’t seen a matchup between multiple Super Bowl winning quarterbacks since 1985. Since Starr retired before Griese won a second Super Bowl, no opportunity existed for a matchup of multiple ring-bearers until after Bradshaw won his second in 1975. And that historic matchup took place the very next year, with Bradshaw coming out on top. Staubach winning his second Super Bowl in 1977 made the 1978 and 1979 seasons the only two seasons in NFL history where three multiple Super Bowl winning QB’s were all taking snaps at the same time. From November 5, 1978 through December 30, 1979, a little more than a year, the NFL presented four separate games featuring two of these three men facing off against each other. Though it briefly seemed like a common occurrence, we’ve only had one more matchup of QB’s who’ve won two or more Super Bowls, the 1985 Montana-Plunkett battle. Why? Mainly because there just haven’t been the opportunities. Staubach and Griese retired after the 1979 and 1980 seasons respectively. Bradshaw followed suit after the 1983 season, just as Plunkett capped that year by winning his second Super Bowl. Montana joined Plunkett as a two-time winner in 1984 and the two faced off in their historic matchup the very next season. And that’s been it.

Plunkett, an old veteran, only had one more season left in him and Montana went almost the rest of his career as the league’s only multiple Super Bowl winner. Of course he won two more himself so that meant fewer opportunities for somebody else to win two. And nobody did until seven long years later: Troy Aikman in 1993. Unfortunately, he and Montana played in different conferences in 1994, Joe’s last season. So only a Chiefs-Cowboys Super Bowl in 1994 could have brought us a seventh multiple ring matchup. But it was not to be. John Elway won his second ring in 1998but he decided to hang it up after that season and Aikman followed suit a year later.

So the NFL went the longest it ever has without any QB’s playing who’d won at least two Super Bowls. The four-year drought ended after Tom Brady won his second Super Bowl in 2003. But he had no similar QB to battle against until now. The Patriots and Steelers do not play each other in the regular season in 2009, so any matchup between Brady and Roethlisberger will have to happen in the postseason. Hopefully it will. But if it doesn’t, both QB’s are young enough to make at least one more game between them a likely event.

Stuff I Saw On YouTube: Spock's Brain

Regardless of whatever merit Past Interference might have for the few worthies reading it, PI admits it has not posted nearly enough original content to even warrant its pathetically tiny readership. To hopefully help in improving the frequency of posting until football season starts, PI hereby inaugurates a new non-football related feature: Stuff I Saw On YouTube. Let’s kick things off with a little Star Trek related material. The original series remains my favorite show of all time. But even the great TV series have their share of bad episodes and if you want to argue “Spock’s Brain” was the worst of them all you won’t get any argument from me.

A quick synopsis: A hot but childlike woman steals Spock’s brain and bring it back to her world so that the brain can power the supercomputer that runs her civilization (consisting of a lot of hot childlike women). Kirk figures out where her planet is, gets Spock’s brain back, has Dr. McCoy reattach it, and teaches the hot childlike women how to run their own society without a controlling brain. Yes, a terrible episode. But what makes it a legendarily terrible episode are two additional plot developments. First, McCoy and Scotty rig up some sort of preposterous device that McCoy uses to make Spock’s brainless body walk and move. Second, from the planet’s supercomputer McCoy gains the knowledge to enable him to reattach Spock’s brain. However, McCoy begins to forget that knowledge as the operation drags on. Solution? Why he reattaches the speech center of Spock’s brain so Spock, while still on the operating table, can instruct McCoy on how to finish it up! Now I have no idea if the writer of the episode intended it all to be treated as camp (the camp craze sparked by the Batman TV show was still going strong), but clearly doing so is the only way to wring any enjoyment out of it.

Until recently.

Almost 40 years later somebody figured out a way to turn this episode into a masterpiece of entertainment. A guy named Mike Carano turned the episode into a play he produced for the stage and by simply recreating the episode ridiculous word-for-ridiculous word with actors perfectly impersonating the original cast, “Spock’s Brain” becomes a masterpiece of comedy. I’d pay good money to see this.

News story on the show plus clips
First scene

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII

Another cockeyed take on a great Super Bowl

Super Bowl XXXVI. Simultaneously a replay of and the mirror image of Super Bowl XXXIV. (Just rearrange the Roman numerals). Both games featured an explosive, heavily favored Rams struggling to put points on the board and terrific game-tying comebacks trumped by game-winning plays that ended with no time left on the clock. But of course in Super Bowl XXXIV the Rams blew a big lead but won anyway while in Super Bowl XXXVI they overcame a big deficit but gave up a game-winning field goal and wasted the comeback.

Now I enjoy watching a great game (and it was a great game) and a big upset as much as anybody, but while this is certainly a candidate for the best Super Bowl ever, a few things about the game have bothered me for years. First, it’s harder to root for an upset when you have no reason to dislike the favorite. And all of the Rams’ big stars, Warner, Faulk, Holt and Bruce, seemed to be genuinely nice guys. No T.O.’s or Ocho Cinco’s to hate. But that’s a minor point. What made the Rams interesting (to non-Rams fans) was that explosive offense. In an era where more and more teams were moving towards the boring West Coast Offense the Rams defiantly stuck with the vertical passing game, executed it brilliantly, and racked up lots of wins and passing yardage. In starting their own championship run while short-circuiting a potential Rams dynasty in the process, the Patriots somewhat discredited the concept of building a championship offense around the downfield passing game (they tried to make amends in 2007 and blew it!)

That’s the aesthetic stuff. What bothered me the most about the game was the feeling that the Patriots hadn’t won the game as much as the Rams lost it. Until that final drive New England had done virtually nothing offensively. A Rams turnover set up every score: a pick six, another INT leading to FG, and fumble to set up a short TD drive. Plus, the Rams drove into NE territory a few times and came up empty. The Rams dominated all the stats: total yards; time of possession; yards per play but the three turnovers proved to be the great equalizer. Note that in the four biggest games for the Greatest Show On Turf, the Super Bowls and NFC title games of 1999 and 2001, the Rams won three of four but nearly went 0-4. All the games were close and the Rams caught some big breaks in the ones they won. For whatever reason the Rams failed to play dominating football in big games whether they played the Patriots or somebody else. Warner played particularly poorly in Super Bowl XXXVI.

I guess what I’m getting it here is that ideally the greatest Super Bowl would feature both teams playing at a very high level and in Super Bowl XXXVI we didn't really get that. I don’t want to deny the Patriots credit for slowing up the Rams offense but the Rams’ poor play in other big games and Warner’s sudden decline (it took him eight years to regain anything like the form of his MVP years) indicates to me that the Rams offense just played well below par. As I wrote previously the Rams’ offense blew lots of opportunities in Super Bowl XXXIV as well but at least they didn’t turn it over so the Titans “earned” all their scores on long drives. The Titans impressed more in a losing effort than New England did in winning. Plus, the finish of Super Bowl XXXIV was slightly more exciting. So given that the games played in oddly similar fashion and that I find the earlier game to be the greater one, Super Bowl XXXVI isn’t the greatest ever.


The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI

How Does Dyson Not Score?


Super Bowl XXXIV ended with about as great a 4th quarter as we’ve ever seen. A great comeback from a seemingly insurmountable deficit, a go-ahead TD bomb, and the to-date unique feature of a clutch open-field Super Bowl tackle ending the contest. But all that happened in the game’s closing stages. The first half was something else altogether. There never should have been a great fourth quarter. In the first half the Rams drove deep into Titans territory five times but scored only 9 points. Why? They missed one FG attempt, botched the snap on another and Kurt Warner went 0-12 in the red zone. The score should probably have been at least 19-0 at the half, maybe more, and the game would have been over. Instead of putting them away in the first half the Rams played with fire and let the Titans hang around. But St. Louis finally appeared to have slammed the door shut after they scored the game’s first TD halfway through the third quarter to up 16-0. History sad the game was over. The 33 previous Super Bowls had seen exactly one double-digit comeback, and that was only a 10-point first quarter deficit. But somehow the seeming Ram deathblow turned instead into a wakeup call for Tennessee. Three consecutive Titan scoring drives tied the game at 16 with just over two minutes left.

What intrigues me the most about this game are the play calls on the game’s two biggest plays, the final offensive play for each team. Each team’s offensive coordinator called a play that went against all game logic. The Titans’ three scoring drives totaled 7:66, 7:39 and 6:17. These three drives were interspersed with two Rams drives totaling all of103 seconds. So when St. Louis got the ball at their own 27 with 2:12 left to play, you’d have expected them to burn some clock while attempting to advance the ball downfield for the winning score. This would at least prevent the Titans from having any time to work with regulation should they force the Rams to punt. It would also give the exhausted Rams’ defense a little extra rest should the game head to overtime. But Mike Martz rejected this logic. The Rams dominated their opponents in 1999 with their quick-strike vertical game. So why should they abandon it now during the game’s most critical moments? As for leaving Tennessee time should the deep bomb fail, the Titans previous scoring drives all consumed over six minutes of clock. They hadn’t established any ability to score quickly. And how much would a little extra rest mean when the Titans’ offense had been kicking the crap out of your defense for the last quarter-and-a-half? The Rams needed to avoid going to OT at all costs. Taking their chance with the deep pass actually made a certain kind of sense.

After Steve McNair’s brilliantly drove the Titans to the Ram’s 10 with six seconds remaining, the Titans’ options seemed clear enough. With no time outs left they’d have to pass into the end zone to maximize their chances of a second plays should their next pass attempt fall incomplete. But if you call a perfect play the first time you obviously won’t need a second one. Just ask Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr. And the Titans did call the perfect play (“Gun Spear Right Open Zag Firm Silver Right Detroit”). It should have worked. I’ve seen the replay many times over the years and I still think now what I thought as the play unfolded in real time: how did Kevin Dyson not score? McNair hit him perfectly in stride at the 5. He had a ton of momentum and most of the Ram defenders were still in the end zone (expecting the end zone pass that never came). But one person’s incredible superhuman effort trumped the perfect play call. Mike Jones deserved every bit of credit he got for his game-winning tackle. He grabbed and fell on Dyson’s left leg and got his knee down at the one to end the game. Jones never took his eyes off Dyson and so he put himself in position to make the tackle when he saw the ball go to Dyson and didn’t go for a big hit. He just made both a smart and athletic play to seal the championship.

So was it the greatest Super Bowl ever? You can make an argument. The second half provided all kinds of momentum reversals, the biggest Super Bowl comeback ever, two all-time great plays and a contest not decided until the very last second. And the first half, while far less competitive, wasn’t without interest as the Rams kept finding ways to squander scoring opportunities. Two teams of contrasting styles and a near-huge upset. This game’s a contender.


The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion

The Return of Jason Taylor

Jason Taylor returns! Less than a year after the Dolphins traded him to the Washington Redskins, the man is back in aqua and orange. Past Interference’s reaction to the 2008 Taylor trade was mixed; I approved of the move, Jeff hated it. But all Dolphin fans agreed it was a sad day to see the greatest defensive player in Miami Dolphins history leave to play for another team. But Taylor is back and his return not only washes away all that bad feeling, perhaps more importantly it sends yet another signal that this franchise has completely turned around under the leadership of Bill Parcells. You may recall the Dolphins received Washington’s 2009 second-round pick in exchange for Taylor, a pick subsequently spent on QB Pat White. In exchange, Washington received Taylor’s services for 2008 and those costly services wound up being nearly nonexistent. Taylor missed half the season with an injury and when he did play he wasn’t much of a factor. And Miami, finishing with their best season in years, certainly didn’t miss him. Now just a year later Taylor’s back as a free agent while costing Miami very little to sign. So essentially Miami got a second-round pick for free. Do you know how incredible that is? For most of this decade the Dolphins were known for trading away valuable draft picks for virtually nothing (see A.J. Feeley, Lamar Gordon). Even if Pat White or Jason Taylor do little in 2009 the team at least won’t have lost anything (and I believe White will in fact make important contributions). It’s just nice to see the Tuna emphatically end the team’s era of trade futility. Plus Jason Taylor’s a Dolphin again. Good times.

Miami Dolphins Draft 2009

I’m not going to offer an idiotic grade to evaluate the Miami Dolphins’ 2009 draft. Miami needed cornerbacks and they drafted cornerbacks. They needed wide receivers and they drafted wide receivers. Vontae Davis and Sean Smith sure seem like good picks to me. They were drafted where they were supposed to be drafted anyway. And Patrick Turner. I know he earned an underachiever label in college but damn, 6’5”, 223! Miami really, really needs a wideout that size who can play. He supposedly lacks speed but Miami’s got a guy with blazing speed right now who hasn’t done a whole lot in his first two seasons. I’ll take size and good hands any day over speed. (Though the whole package would be nice). After last year, Parcells, Ireland and Sparano certainly earned the benefit of the doubt on all personnel decisions so let’s trust the triumvirate that these selections will pan out.

The most intriguing pick is clearly Pat White. Quarterback was the last position you’d expect Miami to go for, especially using their second pick on one. Chad Pennington played like an MVP last year and Miami spent a second-round pick on Chad Henne just a year ago and he hasn’t played a down yet. So the White pick immediately meant two things: (1) John Beck was toast; and (2) White’s going to be running the wildcat. On the second point, teams started figuring out the wildcat as the year went on and they countered it by blitzing. If your RB has got the ball and the defense stuffs the middle, he has to beat them by throwing. Ronnie Brown isn’t really the guy to do that on a consistent basis but Pat White sure could be. If he can catch as well then I’m really looking forward to see this offense in 2009.

As for Beck I suppose I ought to say a few words here. I posted favorably on him awhile back after reading a nice write-up about his drive, desire, and dedication to the game. But it turns out that while those qualities are very important, they aren’t quite as important as things like being able to throw and complete passes on a consistent basis. Playing for the 2007 Miami Dolphins wasn’t exactly the situation a young quarterback could be expected to thrive in but you at least have to see the occasional flash of brilliance here and there. Instead, Dolphin fans just got a lot of turnovers from a guy who looked lost out there. Once when examining Jay Fiedler’s career I noted his problem of not getting any real playing experience until he was in his late 20’s. The late start gave him only a tiny window to improve his play before the inevitable age-related decline of his physical skills. And that’s what happened. Fiedler did improve somewhat after a couple of seasons but he plateaued before ever reaching championship-caliber level. Now 28, Beck’s suddenly in the same boat; if he gets to start now that is (something that’s not going to happen). Miami should never have drafted him if they didn’t plan to start him right away. Beck I think also illustrates a slightly different age-related problem.

Beck became BYU’s starting QB as a freshman…at age 21(!), about the time most college players are graduating (or at least ending their college careers). As a senior, Beck was ranked as the country’s second-best college QB. And he was 26(!), a good five years older or more than most of the guys lining up across from him. So was Beck’s great collegiate performance a result of superior skills and determination? Or did Beck’s age just give him a huge advantage due to his greater physical and emotional maturity and life experience? Probably some combination of the two but still, honestly evaluating Beck as an NFL prospect in 2007 was complicated by his age. Literally, as a mature man against boys how could he not have a leg-up on the competition? Call it the “Chris Weinke problem”. Generally you want to draft guys who play with the poise and skill you’d expect from a much older player. You don’t want to draft an actual older player.