Keep Your Forks

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Jim Tunney Ed.D

TunneySide of Sports - Keep Your Forks!On the TunneySide of Sports January 18, 2021 #831 Up next… Keep Your Forks

After further review… It’s an American tradition that’s part of our folklore. After mom or grandma planned, prepared, cooked and served the big family dinner on Sunday afternoon, and while the dishes were being cleared, she would say, “Keep your forks!” To all those crowded around the table that meant, yum, somethin’s good a-comin’! Some might visualize it as pie a la mode, or chocolate cake, but whatever lay ahead, it was gonna be good!

After our horrendous 2020 year, with massive COVID-19 illnesses and deaths and with our normal lifestyle uprooted, can we look forward to an improved 2021? Perhaps the Cleveland Browns and maybe the Buffalo Bills are willing to keep their forks close at hand. Both had their forks ready to go in 2020 and did very well. Both made the NFL playoffs where they hadn’t been for a long time. Their fans could see it coming during this convoluted 2020 season what with the virus raising its ugly head from time-to-time and teams not knowing who would be healthy to play on any given Sunday.

Then, too, some teams who were projected to be playing in Super Bowl LV next month didn’t even make the playoffs. Are their fans already writing-them-off for the 2021 season or just hoping for a successful NFL draft in April?

I can’t help thinking of Herm Edwards’ attitude when his New York Jets in 2002 went 1-3 in October. Edwards was facing a questioning room full of frustrated reporters (is there any other kind?) who were challenging their coach if he was going to write this season off.  Coach Edwards fumed as he responded, “You play to win the game.”

“Hello? You play to win the game! That’s the great thing about sports, you play to win! I don’t care if you don’t have any wins, you play to win! If you’re telling me it doesn’t matter, get out, ’cause it does matter!” His response was emphatic. It’s a central belief of his, through his playing and coaching career, and in his personal life as well. Edwards, after tenures at New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs, has just finished two successful seasons as head coach at Arizona State University, where his Sun Devils were able to only play four games, winning two. This year ASU is pre-season ranked in the top 25 of the NCAA with their Sun Devil forks in hand.

Will you keep your fork handy for an improved 2021?

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Jim Tunney Bobblehead

Jim’s bobblehead is now on sale during January for $25 and each of his ‘On the TunneySide of Sports’ books listed at $20 (tax and shipping are free) are now on sale for $15.

Please send checks to Jim Tunney Youth Foundation (501c3) P.O. Box 1440 Pebble Beach, CA 93953.

Be safe!

See the website for products.

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Armed Forces Brawl

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Jim Tunney Ed.D

On the TunneySide of Sports January 11, 2021 #830 Up next… Armed Forces Brawl

After further review… If you have followed the trend of  TunneySide of Sports, you have undoubtedly noticed that “conversations” between opponents is not recommended – as my father would advise, sometimes admonish. The tag-along of those conversations often rolled into “trash talk” which would more than often lead to pushing and shoving and soon a fight would break out.

That is what I saw happen at the end of that Armed Forces Bowl game.

Perhaps that game on December 30, 2020, should be called the Armed Forces Brawl since the game between Tulsa University and Mississippi State University ended in a full-blown brawl! It is reported that trash talk between players of both teams started before the game and continued throughout. The Mississippi State Bulldogs defeated the Tulsa Hurricanes  28-26. I guess the names Bulldogs and Golden Hurricanes (formerly Tornadoes) were appropriate monikers in such a brawl. However, it’s been my experience that this is not the way college football was designed.

As I watched the replay of that brawl, I saw, perhaps, 75 – 100 players throwing punches, kicking and pushing their opponents – after the game was over. These combatants were on the field and sidelines. Among that melee were 8-10 shirtless men who had obviously come onto the field from the stands. Coaches and some officials were attempting to stop the fisticuffs but not being very effective. Having refereed games where this occurred, you just have to let it play itself out. Did it ever occur to players how little damage can be done with helmets on?

Trash talk is not uncommon in all sports. The basis, if there is one, is that trash talk diverts the opponents’ focus from their real purpose – thus causing a distraction. Having played the game of golf for some 20 years, I found that some golfers love trash talking. It may surprise you, but it’s fairly common knowledge among professional golfers that Tiger is a big trash-talker.

Yes, that Tiger – as in Tiger Woods. I watched a recent father-son tournament with Tiger and his son Charlie where it was reported on-air that Tiger is teaching Charlie to trash talk as he does. It’s hard to believe that a father would teach his 6-year-old son to do that. Trash talking will not help you drive the ball further down the fairway or sink a 12-foot putt.

Will you maintain some civility and respect for your opponents?

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Jim Tunney Bobblehead

Jim’s bobblehead is now on sale during January for $25 and each of his ‘On the TunneySide of Sports’ books listed at $20 (tax and shipping are free) are now on sale for $15.

Please send checks to Jim Tunney Youth Foundation (501c3) P.O. Box 1440 Pebble Beach, CA 93953.

Be safe!

See the website for products.

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Remembering Don Shula

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Jim Tunney Ed.D

In this photo posted to Twitter by Don Shula in 2012, the Hall of Fame coach is watching the Olympics on TV with his friend Jim Tunney in Pebble Beach. (Courtesy Don Shula)

On the TunneySide of Sports January 4, 2021 #829 Up next… Remembering Don Shula

‘Records are made to be broken’ goes the old saw. In the NFL, receivers, quarterbacks, and running backs continue to re-establish marks in the record books. In the coaching ranks, records in today’s game seem to do the same. Except one!

Coach Don Shula’s 347 NFL victories will never be broken. Shula was a head coach in the NFL for 33 years. While it may be possible, it is highly unlikely in today’s coaching climate.

Shula didn’t start out his professional coaching career to be the winningest coach of all time, he started with just winning the next game. His first NFL victory as head coach was with the  Baltimore Colts in 1963. He was 33 years old. However, in 1965 Shula lost an NFL Conference Champion game to Vince Lombardi and his Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field. Legend has it that he lost that game because of an official’s wrong call. That official was me!

With only a few minutes to go in the 4th quarter and the Colts ahead 10-7, the Packers set up for a field goal attempt. Don Chandler, Green Bay’s straight-on placekicker, kicked a high one that sliced right high above the right upright. The field judge standing under that upright post signaled it “good” which tied the game at 10. In overtime Chandler again kicked a winner — Packers won 13-10. The next year the NFL increased the length of that post from 10 feet above the crossbar to 20 feet. Shula called that the Tunney Extension!

When Shula moved on to be the head coach of the Miami Dolphins in 1970, it took only his second season (1971) for him to take the Dolphins to the Super Bowl (VI vs the Dallas Cowboys). The Dolphins had a well-balanced offense with QB Bob Griese, great running backs Larry Czonka and Jim Kiick as well as two outstanding wide receivers in Paul Warfield and Howard Twilley, The Dolphins lost 24-3. I was the referee in that Super Bowl.

That loss inspired Shula, as legend has it, to give this post-game speech to his defeated Dolphins. “Gentlemen,” he said in the locker room after that game, “Today, we start next season to play in and win Super Bowl VII.” Not only did the Dolphins play in Super Bowl VII and defeat the Washington Redskins 14-7 but set an undefeated season win-record of 17 straight wins. That record of 17 wins and no losses still stands today – 47 years later.

Shula coached teams that played in 6 Super Bowls a record at that time winning two—VII and VIII. Coach, as everyone called him, died May 4, 2020. He would have been 91 today – January 4th.

After Shula and I both retired we became close friends and traveled together giving speeches on cruise ships as well as having weekly lunches and going to Mass on Saturdays. I miss him.

Will you recognize Coach Don Shula as one who rose to the top of his profession?

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Jim Tunney Dean of NFL Referees

Stories like the above can be found in Jim’s books. They can be purchased via Pay Pal or sending a check to Jim Tunney Youth Foundation (501c3) P.O. Box 1440 Pebble Beach, Ca. 93953. All payments sent to this address are deductible.

See the website for products.

Thank you! Stay healthy and safe and we wish you and yours health and prosperity in the New Year.

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