Time to change the celebration rule

Watching the ref watching the player after a touchdown to make sure he doesn't celebrate too much is funny-Adventures in Officiating: Scoring on a pick-six against Oakland, Brandon Flowers of Kansas City briefly put his foot on the ball and flexed his muscles. He was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for "using the football as a prop." Celebration penalties have become ridiculous. Taunting should be penalized, but what's wrong with celebrating? The game is, at heart, entertainment. There is no reason players should not entertain the audience by dancing after a score. Plus, the rule is enforced inconsistently. In the Rams at Dallas contest, Dez Bryant used the ball as a prop to celebrate a touchdown, and there was no yellow. The only way to make enforcement of the celebration rule consistent would be to penalize any show of emotion following a touchdown. That, of course, would be silly. If consistent enforcement of a rule would be silly, the rule is silly.

Who comes up with these movies,nothing to go watch

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I Coulda Been a Computer: The new flick "Real Steel" posits that robots replace people in prizefighting. Presumably, in the tradition of feel-good boxing films, the hero robot, Atom, will be a 1-to-100 underdog against an unbeatable champion. Then by winning, he will gain the affection of a pretty girl robot.

Obviously "willing suspension of disbelief" is required for a movie like this. What seems striking about "Real Steel" is not the implausible premise, but that the action is supposed to occur in 2020. In this flick, just nine years from now, not only will gigantic fighting robots be common in American cities -- Hugh Jackman will find the parts for Atom by scrounging through a junkyard, because well before the year 2020, gigantic used robots are already being tossed out as trash.

As TMQ has noted, Hollywood tends to assume technological advances happening too soon to be probable. The movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," released in 1968, had Pan Am commercial flights to orbit in the year 2001. "Blade Runner," released in 1982, was set in 2019, and depicted super-advanced cyborgs plus colonization of planets in other star systems. "I, Robot," released in 2004, was set in 2035 and had armies of super-strong sentient, clairvoyant robots. Maybe there someday will be boxing robots that trash-talk with each other during weigh-ins. But it's not going to happen in nine years.

Oh those Eagles

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It’s official: The Eagles (1-4) are in major trouble. They have lost four straight. Their run defense is still woeful. They committed five turnovers Sunday. What would have been a great comeback for the Eagles fell short when Michael Vick threw his fourth interception on the Eagles’ final drive with less than two minutes to play. The interception was not Vick’s fault. His pass ricocheted off the hands of Eagles receiver Jason Avant and Bills corner Drayton Florence into the arms of Bills linebacker Nick Barnett.

However, all the Eagles—Vick, the coaches and all the players—deserve blame for a season that is coming unglued. The Eagles’ final error was almost comical. On fourth-and-1, with 1:23 left to play, the Bills coaxed Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker into jumping offside, allowing the Bills to maintain possession and run out the clock. It's an embarrassing mistake in what has been an embarrassing season for the Eagles.

Coach Andy Reid was desperate enough to call for an onside kick to start the second half, with his team already trailing 21-7. These are indeed desperate times for the Eagles.

Halladay gets no run support in a 1-0 loss

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PHILADELPHIA -- There had been so much hope and excitement in February, when the Phillies assembled their rotation for the ages in a once-in-a-lifetime news conference at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fla.

The 2011 team could have been the greatest in franchise history.

But a once-promising season ended in crushing disappointment Friday night when the Phillies lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park, 1-0. The ending was a startling contrast to those joyous moments in Spring Training: Ryan Howard collapsing to the ground as he made the final out of the season, likely tearing his left Achilles tendon; and Roy Halladay, sitting at his locker for more than 20 minutes after the game before slowly removing his uniform for the final time.

Heartbreak. Disappointment. How could this have happened?

"The hard part is you think about all the hard work you put in over the course of the year, all the anticipation, all the excitement," Halladay said. "You have two days leading up to the game today, knowing how big the game is going to be. All of a sudden that kind of dissipates. It's tough. It's hard to have it end like that. You always want to finish happy."

The Phillies -- who finished the regular season with a franchise-record 102 wins and the best record in baseball -- not only failed to win the World Series, they failed to advance past the first round of the postseason for the first time since 2007.

Halladay deserved better. He allowed six hits, one run, one walk and struck out seven in eight innings. He pitched brilliantly.

The Cardinals scored their only run in the first inning. Halladay allowed a leadoff triple to Rafael Furcal, which has been Halladay's glaring statistical anomaly this season. Leadoff hitters in the first inning hit .484 (16-for-33) with one walk against him. Furcal might have caught a break on the play when center fielder Shane Victorino appeared to miss the cutoff man. If Victorino had hit his mark, Furcal might have been thrown out at third base, although manager Charlie Manuel was not convinced it was possible.

Halladay deserves to win a world series ring

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PHILADELPHIA -- Roy Halladay is a man of few words, not one to divulge much about his anxiety after Lance Berkman hit a towering three-run home run to right field, or his relief when Ryan Howard returned the favor and validated Halladay's effort to keep his team in the game on Saturday.

The day before he pitched the Phillies to an 11-6 victory over the Cardinals in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, Halladay was unsure how to answer a question about respecting a red-hot lineup, yet remaining competitive and attacking.

So Halladay recited Shakespeare: "I came here to bury Caesar, not praise him."

Et tu, Berkman?

The moment Berkman's home run to right field in the first inning led Halladay to spike the rosin bag behind the mound could not have been a greater juxtaposition from Halladay's last appearance in the 2010 NLDS against the Reds. Then, he wrapped his arms around catcher Carlos Ruiz, and teammates danced on Halladay's mound after the veteran right-hander joined the ranks of baseball immortals by throwing the second no-hitter in postseason history.

"I couldn't think of a worse start, really, than putting your team in a hole like that," Halladay said. "You get to this point, you're not going to pack it in. And I feel like sometimes, you get in those situations, you try and do too much, and it continues to get worse."

Said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel: "He was kind of like a Rocky movie. He got mad after he gave up the homer. That ticked him off, and he hung in there, and he got going. But he's special. He's everything that people talk about."

Halladay had a 3.66 ERA in first innings this season. From the second inning on, it was 2.14. After Berkman's home run, Halladay retired 23 of his last 24 batters, allowing only a single by Skip Schumaker in the second and sending down the final 21. Rafael Furcal's left-field flyout to end the eighth was the only ball hit out of the infield after Schumaker's hit.

"If you get three runs in less than nine innings against the guy, you've actually made him do worse than he normally does," Berkman said. "That's how good he is. That's why he's making $22 million a year, and that's why people consider him the best in the game."

Halladay was rewarded. Howard's three-run home run in the Phillies' five-run sixth gave them the lead, and Raul Ibanez capped the big inning with a two-run homer to give Halladay cushion he didn't need.

"I know he's in the room, so I don't want to swell his head too much, but that was huge," Halladay said of Howard. "It's starting to get late in the game, and one swing of the bat, you're up. We were able to add on after that, which made my job a lot easier."

Sox are unraveling

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BOSTON -- Terry Francona's memorable run as manager of the Red Sox, during which he guided the club to its first two World Series championships since 1918, came to an end.

"We met with Terry Francona, Theo Epstein and Ben Cherington Friday morning to discuss the 2011 season, ways to improve the club in the future, and Tito's status," the Red Sox said in a statement. "During the meeting, Tito, Theo and Ben agreed that the Red Sox would benefit from an improved clubhouse culture and higher standards in several areas. Tito said that after eight years here he was frustrated by his difficulty making an impact with the players, that a different voice was needed, and that it was time for him to move on. After taking time to reflect on Tito's sentiments, we agreed that it was best for the Red Sox not to exercise the option years on his contract.

"We have enormous respect, admiration and appreciation for Tito and the job that he did for eight years, including two World Series Championship seasons and five playoff appearances. His poise during the 2004 post-season was a key factor in the greatest comeback in baseball history, and his place in Red Sox history will never be forgotten. We wish him only the best going forward."

The Red Sox had until Oct. 8 to decide whether to exercise the $4.25 million option they held on Francona's contract for 2012.

RedSox may be looking for a new coach

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NEW YORK – These men are hired for these jobs in baseball, to manage ballgames for a few hours a night and try not to do anything so stupid that it gets in the way of the actual baseball players.

For the other 21 hours, well, that”s the hard part.

Following a Thursday press conference (that followed a 7-20 September) in which Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein admitted there were issues with player conditioning and preparation, numerous outlets reported Friday morning that manager Terry Francona would not return for his ninth season in Boston.

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The Red Sox had only six wins in September.
(Getty Images)
If true, Francona would not be fired, technically, but his option for the 2012 season would not be exercised.

Francona met Friday morning with owner John Henry, upper management and Epstein, after which the club released a statement that read, in part, “We all plan on taking some time to process the thoughts expressed in the meeting. There are no immediate plans for an announcement.”

Francona left the meeting without comment for waiting reporters. The statement, the events of September, and the end-of-season debriefing apparently would stand for another news cycle.

Francona and Epstein had sat shoulder-to-shoulder Thursday afternoon in a small room at Fenway Park. Each was bent a little at the neck, each crossed his arms across his chest, each blinked at the table too much.

They were miserable. One, or both, seemed on his way out. For good. That much was clear.

Out there, past the old brick of their ballpark, across the ruins of their season, the New York Yankees – the stinkin” Yankees – were readying for October, like seven other teams.

But not the Red Sox, the $165-million Red Sox, the hugely favored Red Sox, the collapsible Red Sox.