Under Pressure Archives - David Seigerman

Tanks For Nothing

December 16, 2014 by David Seigerman Leave a Comment

Already it was the season that wouldn’t die. Leave it to the Jets to make the unwatchable interminable.

Only the Jets could take the final second of play in a meaningless game late in a lost season and turn it into 17 breathless seconds of slow-motion train wreck.

The Jets were up by five when the Titans took the game’s final snap on their own 42-yard line. A short completion to Dexter McCluster, an immediate shovel pass back to Nate Washington, his backwards run and across-the-field throwback to Charlie Whitehurst later and Tennessee was in business. Whitehurst crossed midfield and in full stride lateraled to Delanie Walker, who appeared to have a clear path to the end zone.

The Inaugural Hauk Award

December 12, 2014 by David Seigerman 4 Comments

Noted baseball spiritualist and teacher of beginning composition at Alamance Junior College Annie Savoy said it best.

“The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness.”

And so, as we round third on the 2014 calendar and head for home, we must acknowledge that the world indeed is made for Jets quarterback Geno Smith.

Earlier this week, Smith claimed that he has seen in his performance “flashes of being a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback,” an assessment reported by Newsday that promptly elicited the largest collective spit-take in recorded history. Smith’s statement was more than the single-funniest line uttered during the Rex Ryan Era. It was downright prize-worthy.

A Playoff Field of Dreams

December 7, 2014 by David Seigerman 2 Comments

“Who’s in?”

For four months, that’s all we’ve heard from the College Football Playofffs. But the selection of the four-team field for the first college football championship tournament never was about that.

The question should have been, Who’s out?

Because four seats at the table was never going to be enough in a world where the number of so-called power conferences is five. Eight was always going to be the right number, and this first step in the right direction wasn’t quite big enough.

The Big Question

November 9, 2014 by David Seigerman 3 Comments

Today, we had The Talk.

Not the talk, though I suspect that one’s coming soon enough with my fifth-grade daughter.

No, the other talk. The one that has elbowed its way to the top of the menu of hot-button conversational topics, at least for parents of third-grade boys. At least around here.

I knew it was coming. Still, I was blindsided when it did.

My Jeter Moment

September 27, 2014 by AuthorBytes NetOps 1 Comment

It took 20 years, but I finally have my Derek Jeter moment.

For me, the legacy of the Yankees captain will not be the walkoff home run he hit off Byung-Hyun Kim in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, though I was in the building when the clock struck midnight and Jeter was crowned Mr. November for all time.

It certainly won’t be the relay throw that cut down Timo Perez to end the sixth inning of the first game of the Subway Series in 2000 (in fact, that may be my least favorite Jeter moment, as it can be argued the Mets never recovered from that missed opportunity).