Andrew Keatt's Blog

A Plea to Bring Pro Football to Annapolis

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/sports/football/24league.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

For those too lazy to read the link, here's the gist of it: A Connecticut based entrepreneur has conceived of a spring football league that will augment, rather than compete with, the NFL. Playing in college stadiums in reasonably populated areas, the teams will be composed of accomplished college players who were on the fringe of making the NFL. Unlike past start-ups, this league will encourage the NFL to scout its players as a secondary pool of talent. Scheduled to launch next January, the league would initially consist of 8 teams (3 of which have already been founded, locations not yet disclosed).

This league is a bit different than other start-ups like the XFL, USFL, and CFL. Those leagues all planned to compete with the mother league, an unrealistic prospect at best. Now that the NFL's own farm system, NFL Europe, has officially failed, there may be a void that the "United National Football League" can occupy.

The stadia (impressed with my use of the archaic plural of stadium?) will never sell-out. People don't like spending money for third-tier talent, and they probably never will. If the league proves to be a fertile ground for talent, however, the NFL could subsidize the costs to keep the league afloat until they build their own niche. Minor league baseball parks everywhere have learned that $2 tickets and $1 hot dogs bring families to the stadium, even if most of the kids on the diamond will never progress past single-A. If teams develop that sort of atmosphere while also sending one or two players into the league each year, they might have a chance. But they need to be in the right cities.

And Annapolis would be absolutely perfect.

Mid-sized population? Check. Disposable income? Check. Local tourist attractions that could supplement the stadium experience? Check. More importantly, the city's proximity to two professional football teams would allow it to operate as an ideal short-order farm team for both franchises. Comment below if you think I'm getting carried away, but I think this is a pretty good idea.

Other cities that would work in my fantasy planning of this new league:

Newark, NJ- Equidistance from the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, and New York Jets and positioned to take advantage of the nation's wealthiest state (even if Newark itself is a bit of a slum these days), this is another mid-market city with ideal geographical placement. They can play in Rutgers Stadium.�

New Haven, CT- They might compete with Newark for the NY teams' attentions, but with two pro teams that shouldn't be a problem. They can also feed to the Buffalo Bills and the vile scum of the NFL, the New England Patriots. They can play at Yale.�

Columbus, OH- The city bleeds scarlet and grey, but what if the franchise made a commitment to bringing in ex-Buckeyes? It's becoming a huge city, but they're unlikely to ever get an NFL team since it wouldn't be able to compete with Ohio State. This team wouldn't have that problem. Both the Cincinatti Bengals and Cleveland Browns are a short trip away. They can play at Ohio State's stadium, The Horseshoe.�

Greenville, NC- Smack-dab between Atlanta and Charlotte (homes of the Falcons and Panthers, respectively) lays this, once again, mid-sized college town. East Carolina University's stadium would make a perfect home.�

Morgantown, WV- This team would mainly feed to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but could also contribute to nearby Philadelphia and Cincinatti without much conflict. This is a football-crazed town (for West Viginia University), with a good-sized population and not much spring competition.�

Gainesville, FL- This city splits the difference between the home sites of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars and offers football to the loyal faithful of the Florida Gators during the off-season.�

Providence, RI- The last city was a tough decision. Though potentially over-exposing the league to the northeast, I think the strategy will work because the region has the people and money to make two teams work. They can play at Brown University and feed to both New York teams, as well as the Patriots and Bills.�

You'll notice a heavy East Coast bias here. To begin with, the league should be concentrated in one area to reduce travel costs, build rivalries, maximize advertising and sponsorship possibilities, and develop a captive audience.�

So what do you think? Any reason to suspect Annapolis is a good place for a franchise in this most likely ill-fated league?

Thanks a Lot, Earth

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I tried to go to Washington D.C.'s Earth Day Celebration this weekend. The Green Apple Music Festival, a free event in eight cities,featured an impressive lineup of music including The Roots, Government Mule, Umphrey's McGee, and Toots and the Maytals. The festival also included a slate of activists, comedians, and elected officials who I'm sure had a great deal of eye-opening remarks planned (since when do prosperous persons standing behind pedestals say anything else?)

As it turned out, the Earth wouldn't cooperate with the party, as the skies unleashed monsoon conditions that only a maniac would sit through to watch a concert. To anyone who made it to the show through the relentless sheets of rain/ground shaking thunder: kudos. You clearly have more sincere interests in both music and global sustainability than I do.�

My day came to an end only two blocks into my walk to the mall. A cotton sweatshirt doesn't do much to keep you dry, apparently.�

��

Smart People Have Problems, Too

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

When reading a review of an independent film, you're as likely to read the word 'pretentious' as you are to read the word 'explosive' in a review of a summer blockbuster. For increasingly popular independent releases frequented by graduate students at single-screen theaters, lazy reviewers just can't resist the pretentious accusation. (Which is, in itself, a bit pretentious, isn't it?)

Just imagine if the indie-release in question is called Smart People, centers around the tribulations of a misanthropic English-lit professor, his poem-writing son and perfect-SAT-scoring daughter, and stars Juno's sharp tongued Ellen Page. The only thing that could make a reviewer's job any easier would be a guest appearance by Wes Anderson and a soundtrack by Bright Eyes.

But for all the heady vocabulary and intellectual banter going nowhere in particular, Smart People does plenty of things well. An ensemble cast featuring Dennis Quaid as the out of touch professor, Sarah Jessica Parker as his enamored physician, Thomas Haden Church as a deadbeat adopted brother, and Page, the (surprise, surprise) wise-beyond-her-years daughter, play off each other well and bring life to characters that could easily feel generic. Haden Church and Page, in particular, display great chemistry and comedic timing in a relationship that is probably the movie's strong point.

Smart People is a bit like the overly introspective friend you had in college. It may spend too much time ruminating on the big questions and not enough living in the moment, but it's ultimately smart, engaging, and often funny and self-deprecating. The movie has a great deal in common with one of my favorites, the criminally underappreciated Wonder Boys (2000). The two movies are similar in setting (suburban Pittsburgh), story (college English professor and his dysfunctional family put the pieces together), and theme (smart people have problems, too). While Wonder Boys is a much better movie, Smart People makes for an able contemporary.

At one point, a character takes exception with the comments Quaid (as professor Wetherhold) jots on her course thesis. The paper rambles, he says, and lacks organization. While that may be true, the ex-student argues, the thesis is quite strong. It's hard to imagine writer Mark Poirier creating this dialogue without a twinge of self-recognition.�

Review: The Newseum

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I can't say I ever thought to myself "boy, Washington, D.C. really needs another museum. Tourists have nothing to do in that city. I can't believe someone isn't tackling this issue." But, thanks to non-profit operation Freedom Forum, the "Newseum" now occupies the void that I never recognized in D.C.'s museum fleet to begin with.

Gracing the facade of the Newseum's Pennsylvania Ave. location is a 100-some-foot, 50-ton marble tablet of the oft-quoted First Amendment. Inside, the museum has spared no expense, with flat screen TVs, interactive touch screen monitors, and 23 hours of educational footage presented in a hip, if not self-congratulatory manner.

Pieces of the Berlin Wall, covered in political protest on one side and sidewalk-clean on the other, highlight a basement exhibit dedicated to the idea that the Wall between East and West Berlin succeeded in keeping everything out of Communist Berlin, except for the flow of information.

An exhibit on the coverage of September 11 includes September 12 front pages from newspapers around the globe in the shadow of a piece of the World Trade Center. The highlight of the exhibit, however, might be the possessions of William Biggart, the only journalist murdered that day. His camera and its charred tubes of film provide the solemn realization that September 11 was so long ago that Biggart wasn't using a digital camera.

The First Amendment Gallery provides ample information on the freedoms offered in those 45 words, as well as challenges to and judgments of those freedoms in recent years. Set to the genre- and era-straddling tunes of Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, and Kanye West, an extremely well-done video featuring excerpts from Brian Williams, 2 Live Crew, and Senators of all states and stances plays behind the exhibit.

Then there's the Journalists Memorial, a glass wall featuring etchings of the names of every journalist to die while newsgathering, listed by year. Ominously, the names of those killed in 2007 precede seven empty blocks.

On the top floor, the Newseum features something particularly unique to museums: an exhibit that changes entirely every morning. Front pages from more than 80 international newspapers, printed that morning, juxtapose what readers and writers in different markets consider newsworthy. On the day of the media preview, the New York Times, Washington Post and every international broadsheet displayed focused on the ongoing Olympic protests for Tibetan freedom; the NCAA champion Kansas Jayhawks and a competitor in American Idol dominated USA Today. It's a testament to the subjectivity in news coverage that, on a random Tuesday in April, the variety of front-page coverage in newspapers throughout the world could vary so greatly. This should be a fascinating exhibit, even on the slowest of news days, which should keep the Newseum fresh for repeat visits.
The Newseum wears an expensive price tag: $20 adults, $18 seniors, $13 youths and free to children under 6. Opening day (April 11) is free to all. Whatever the price, the Newseum is more than worthy of an afternoon trip to the nation's capital. It's worth mentioning that, if you examine your taxes, the Smithsonian's "free entry" is a bit misleading.