Not much push for 18 games: Even though Americans like watching football far more than any other sport, they don’t necessarily want a longer NFL season. An Associated Press–Knowledge Networks poll released today shows only lukewarm backing at best for a switch from 16 to 18 regular-season games, one of the NFL’s key—and easiest-to-understand—proposals in its labor negotiations with the players union. Of everyone surveyed, 27% strongly favor or somewhat favor adding two regular-season games and dropping two preseason games. When the group is narrowed to those identifying themselves as NFL fans, support for the change rises to a total of 45%, yet 18% strongly favor it. And that’s despite data that shows football clearly is king: Of everyone surveyed, 41% call it their favorite sport to watch, more than triple the 13% who choose baseball. Basketball is nearly as popular as baseball, with 12% claiming it the favorite.
Ready for next year’s Signing Day: LSU brought in a strong class on National Signing Day Wednesday, and the football team is already working on 2012. Toshiro Davis, a defensive end from Shreveport-Woodlawn, says he called LSU coach Les Miles and pledged to become a Tiger in 2012, reports The Times-Picayune. Davis is the third high school junior to verbally commit to LSU, joining Avery Johnson of Pompano Beach, Fla., a wide receiver and younger brother of LSU All-American Patrick Peterson, and Trey Granier, a middle linebacker from Thibodaux High.
Battle between defensive gurus: Every so often, Dom Capers pulls out the humongous, handwritten playbook from his first year as a defensive coordinator in the NFL. He likes showing it to younger coaches to emphasize how much more labor went into designing plays before such things became computerized. Dick LeBeau remembers that exact playbook quite well, too. “I was the guy that had to draw it,” he says, chuckling. That’s only the beginning of the tale about an important document in recent NFL history and the close relationship between the defensive signal-callers who will be matching wits in the Super Bowl, LeBeau for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Capers for the Green Bay Packers. Both born and raised in small towns in southern Ohio, they became friends in the mid-1980s, when they were coaching defensive backs on different NFL teams and often scouting the same college players. They became colleagues in 1992, when Bill Cowher became coach of the Steelers and hired them on his inaugural staff, Capers as defensive coordinator and LeBeau in charge of the secondary. Capers and LeBeau lived together for six months, spending most of their time building that playbook. “I think history has proven that we had some good ideas,” LeBeau says. Just look at what their clubs did this season. The Steelers allowed the fewest points in the NFL (232, or 14.5 per game), and the Packers were a close second (240, or 15.0 per game). This is the first Super Bowl in 28 years pitting the top two defenses from the regular season, a surprising tidbit considering all the talk that defenses win championships.
Leaving New York: Andy Pettitte, the veteran left-handed pitcher with the New York Yankees, is set to announce his retirement Friday, reports ESPNewYork.com. Pettitte, who was born in Baton Rouge, pitched for 16 seasons with the Yankees and Houston Astros. He won 240 games and lost 138 and has the second-most career wins of any Yankee pitcher. Pettitte holds the record for most postseason wins by a pitcher at 19 and was a key member of the pitching rotation for five Yankee teams that won the World Series. Pettite, 38, earned an All Star appearance in the 2010 season, but sustained a groin injury that caused him to miss two months. He finished the year 11-3 with a 3.28 ERA.
