Clemson 42 - Pitt 10

There was to be no repeat of Pitt's stunning 2016 upset of undefeated Clemson in last night's ACC Championship Game.  When Clemson running back Travis Etienne was sprung for a 75 yard touchdown run on the first play of the game, followed by Pitt going three and out on their first series, which included a couple of penalties and a sack, the outcome was pretty much known.  Pitt is not in the same class as Clemson and this was anything but a fair fight, as indicated by the eventual final score of 42-10.

So, let's not dwell on the game itself, and instead ponder just where Pitt is right now, football-wise.

A few years ago, amid some coaching turmoil (Wannstedt?Haywood? Graham?  Who can remember?), someone asked me just what, as a fan, would you want from Pitt.   After thinking about it, I came up with the following thoughts.....

1. No, I don't want Pitt to become a football factory like Alabama, Ohio State, or any of a couple of dozen others you can name.  I like it that Pitt seems to think that the University's purpose is to, you know, educate people. (Full disclosure:  I am just a fan of Pitt's sports teams.  I did not graduate from or attend Pitt.  Nor do I give Pitt any money, other than the money for my season football tickets.)
2. As a fan, I would like to go into any given football season with a reasonable expectation that the team will be competitive in its conference and have a reasonable chance to win more games than it loses.
3. Play in a bowl game every year, and play in a higher level bowl game every third or fourth year.
4. I would like to see Pitt compete regularly for its conference championship, and maybe even win it once every four or five years or so.
5. Maybe, possibly see the team catch lightning in bottle every other generation or so, be ranked in the Top Ten and maybe, possibly complete for a spot in the CFP.

And what has happened in the four years of the Pat Narduzzi Era?   Pitt has gone 8-5, 8-5, 5-7, and 7-6.  They will play in some mid-level Bowl again this year and will finish either 8-6 or 7-7.   Certainly not spectacular, but the team has been competitive within the ACC, and has won more than its lost.  When I have gone to Pitt football games over the last four seasons, more often than not, I have been entertained. 

More significantly, I think, the 2018 Pitt team was different than the earlier three Narduzzi teams in that the team got better as the season went along, and, yes, I say that even though I am well aware of that horrendous egg that they laid in Miami to close out the regular season.   I mean, after that loss to North Carolina (and just why can't HCPN beat the Tar Heels?), who among us ever saw Pitt winning the ACC Coastal Division?

Also, despite the one-sidedness of the game, Pitt was playing in the ACC Conference Championship Game last night.  That is not an insignificant achievement.  (See Point #4 above!!)  So, all things considered, I think that reasonable people should be happy with the course that Pitt is on, football-wise.  As for me, all things being equal, I look forward to renewing my football tickets for 2019.  Although, I would like to see perhaps nine or ten wins in Year Five under HCPN.

In conclusion, I am going to dwell on one aspect of last night's game.  Pitt takes the second half kick-off with a touch back.  They come to the line, are completely unprepared to run a play, are in danger of being penalized for delay of the game, and have to take a timeout to avoid the penalty.  They burn a timeout with 15:00 on the clock in the third quarter.  How does something like that happen?  Who is responsible for something like that?  I mean what were they talking about in the locker room at halftime that could have led up to such a foul-up?  Crap like that drives me nuts!

Quite A Football Weekend for Pittsburgh

The weekend of October 6-7 could have been a disastrous one for fans of Pittsburgh's two football teams. Pitt was 2-3,  was coming off of a loss to a bad North Carolina team, and was about to face 4-1 nationally ranked Syracuse.  The Steelers were 1-2-1, playing lousy and were about to play a 1-3 Atlanta Falcons team that desperately needed to win a game. A loss for either team that weekend could have sent the respective seasons into a tailspin from which it might have been hard to recover.  

We know what happened that weekend and what has happened since.  Both teams have combined to go 11-1 since then and the loss was a near upset of still undefeated Notre Dame by Pitt.  It's been a nice seven weeks.

Let's start with today's highly improbable win for the Steelers over the Jax Jaguars.

Jacksonville led 9-0 at the half and pushed it to 16-0 in the third quarter.   The Steelers defense could not get off the field in the first half as the Jags and Leonard Fournette ran roughshod over them.  Only the fact that Blake Bortles stinks and could not get into the end zone, prevented this from being a blow out.  The Steelers offense was worse.  Ben Roethlisberger threw three interceptions.  James Conner couldn't run.  Deep into the third quarter the Steelers had made only six first downs, and three of them came on Jacksonville penalties.

The something happened in the fourth quarter.  The Steelers defense came alive, and realized that that was Blake Bortles and not Joe Montana at QB against them.  A Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown pass clicked for a 78 yard TD pass in the third quarter, but Ben was still struggling.  It wasn't until there was 2:28 left in the game that a Ben-to-Vance McDonald TD pass put the score at 16-13.  The defense forced its fourth consecutive three-and-out, and the Steelers got the ball at their own 32 with 1:42 remaining.   Nine plays later.....

Ben Scores with :05 left;

Steelers Win!!

....and the Steelers had an amazing and highly improbable 20-16 win.

I have written countless times in this space that "You are never  - never! - out of a game with Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback."  He proved that today yet again, and in game where for the first three quarters, he was just plain awful.

Steelers now at 7-2-1 and hold a two and a half game lead over both the Ravens and Bengals in the AFC North.

Meanwhile, down in Winston-Salem, NC yesterday, Pitt overcame a 10-6 half-time deficit to Wake Forest by scoring 28 second half points and handily defeating Wake, 34-13.  It was Pitt's fifth straight ACC win, moved them to 7-4 overall, 6-1 in the ACC, and more importantly, clinched the ACC Coastal Division.  In two weeks, they will play Clemson for the ACC Championship, and who besides Pat Narduzzi and the players themselves saw that coming after being pasted by Penn State and Central Florida, and losing to North Carolina?  

Pitt did something that good teams do: They improved and got better as the season progressed.  Good for the players and good for the coaches who made it happen.

Clemson is undefeated and ranked second in the nation.  They will be heavily favored to beat Pitt in the championship game.  In fact, it will be the exact same scenario as it was two years ago when Pitt went into Clemson and, uh, defeated them.   It happened once; it can happen again.

Yeah, a good weekend to be a football fan in Pittsburgh!

Are You Ready For Some Football (Observations)?

It has been 23 days (I looked it up) since The Grandstander has made any serious commentary on football, so it's time to catch up.  Since I last checked in....

• The Steelers kicked the collective asses of the Cleveland Browns and took revenge upon their earlier defeat at the hands of the Ravens, by beating them in Baltimore.  The score of the Ravens game would indicate a close contest, but the Steelers pretty much had that one in control from start to finish.  They have now won four straight games and sit in first place in the AFC North at 5-2-1.  The second half of the schedule won't be easy as it includes games against the Panthers, Chargers, Patriots, Jags, Saints, and the rematch with the Bengals.
• James Conner has made people forget Le'Veon Bell, who has to fish or cut bait by, I believe, next Tuesday.  That is the subject of a whole 'nother post, which I will probably write up as soon as we know whatever the hell it is he decides to do.

• As it stands, though, if I were voting for Steelers MVP today, I would probably vote for Ben Roethlisberger, but James Conner would not be far behind.
• After that win over the Browns, we all know what happened.  The Brownies fired Had Coach Hue "Mr. 3-36-1" Jackson.  This marks the sixth consecutive Browns HC who has been handed the paper key following the second game of the season against the Steelers (all Browns losses, of course).  SIX TIMES this has happened.  In an ESPN interview a few days later, Jackson blamed the whole thing on Baker Mayfield!  The man is totally delusional.

"What, me worry?"

• A lot of people laughed at the beginning of the season when Head Coach Pat Narduzzi said that Pitt would be playing for the ACC Championship.  That thought was especially hilarious after Pitt got pasted by Penn State and Central Florida and lost to a bad North Carolina team.  Since then, though, Pitt almost beat Notre Dame, and have run off three straight ACC wins, sits at 4-1 and are in first place in the ACC Coastal Division.  Win out against Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and Miami, and guess what?  They will be playing in the ACC Championship Game.  At the beginning of October, I'd have given you long odds that they would be in this position with three games remaining in the season.
• Remember after the Pitt-Penn State game when I said that I would sure like to see James Franklin get dealt a big heaping helping dose of humility at some point.  Michigan 42 - Penn State 7.  Thank you, Jim Harbaugh, who, it must be said, could stand to be dealt some humility himself, but that's college football coaches for you.
• Were you like me and looking forward to watching the Alabama - LSU game last week, a game where all keen observers of the sport said that Alabama would be tested and might well lose to the third ranked Tigers?  29-0 Alabama, and the game wasn't as close as the score indicated.  Don't want to hear about LSU anymore.  Their coach Ed Orgeron, by the way, appears to be certifiably insane just from watching him on the sidelines.
• Back to the pros, throughout the season, I have been posting on Facebook a Top Four, College Football Playoff-Style, ranking for the NFL.  As of this week, it looks like this: 1. Chiefs 2. Saints 3. Patriots 4. Rams.  Other teams are knocking at the door (Steelers, Chargers, Texans, Panthers among others), but right now, those four teams have separated themselves from the rest of the NFL pack.  It will never end up that way, but for right now, does anyone disagree?
• On the Sunday Night Football game, the Packers won the coin toss and deferred, thus kicking off and giving the ball the Tom Brady and the Patriots to begin the game.  Did you watch that one?  If you did, you saw Brady and the Pats march down the field and score in ten plays and less than two and one-half minutes.  The Packer defenders were gassed and sucking wind on THE FIRST DRIVE OF THE GAME.  Why would a team choose to give the ball to Tom Brady to start a game?  You're just asking to have your heads handed to you on a platter when you do that.

• Speaking of the Patriots, did you notice Bill Belichick during that game?  On a Sunday when every coach and player in the league was wearing those olive drab military style sweatshirts and hoodies on the sidelines, Coach Bill was out there in his blue Patriots hoodie.  As much as everyone outside of New England is supposed to despise Coach Bill, there is something about his way of giving the NFL Suits on Park Avenue the middle finger every chance he gets that makes me admire him in a perverse sort of way.

Why Coaches Make The Big Bucks

Well, that was a valiant effort by the Pitt Panthers who almost beat undefeated and fifth ranked Notre Dame at South Bend yesterday, but, alas and alack, fell short in the end and lost, 19-14. For the second week in a row, Pat Narduzzi demonstrated the decisions that head coaches have to make that can be hailed as brilliant when they work and, when they fail, can lead to the boiling of tar and gathering of feathers when they do not.  

You will recall that last week, in the closing minutes against Syracuse and trailing by three points, Narduzzi elected to have Pitt run the ball and not throw a single pass as the clock ticked down.  This strategy enabled Pitt to get in position to attempt a game tying field goal, which was successful, and the Panthers went on to win overtime.   The HC stated that he didn't want to risk allowing Syracuse's strong pass rush to sack the quarterback or, even worse, force a turnover.  The strategy worked, but could you have imagined the howling that would have taken place if it backfired?

Well, sure you can, because yesterday against the Irish, HCPN had another coaching decision to make.  After leading for most of the game, Notre Dame took a 19-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter.  Pitt did get the ball back and with about four plus minutes remaining, they faced a critical fourth-and-five situation.  He sent out the punt unit, and then attempted to execute a fake punt, using a third string quarterback wearing a numbered jersey that was not even listed on the roster.  The play not only didn't work, it exploded in Pitt's faces like one of the Three Stooges' exploding cigars.  It was bizarre and ridiculous and any other negative adjective you might want to apply to it, and Narduzzi is getting roasted for it, but, hey, if it would have worked.....

Both Narduzzi and Pitt fans aren't going to like this, but that fake punt call ties Coach 'Duzz at the hip with Penn State's James Franklin due to that bizarre fourth-and-five play call that he made against Ohio State two weeks ago in a game that was lost after PSU led for much of it. So Narduzzi and Franklin now have something else in common besides engaging in juvenile Tweeting Contests.

Two other comments on the Pitt game.

1. Call me naive, but can or should the ethics of sending a kid out in a fake jersey to execute, or in this case, not execute, a fake punt be questioned?   Not exactly above board, if you ask me, but, then again, this is big time football in the NCAA we are talking about here.
2. Pitt did manage to  score in the second half when Maurice French ran the opening kickoff back 99 yards for a touchdown, but after that, bupkis from the Panther offense.  Pitt's continuing inability to score points in the second halves of games this year is bizarre.

And speaking of Penn State, they lose a heart breaker when Michigan State scores in the final thirty seconds of the game to win 21-17.  This pretty much dashes any hope for the Lions to play for the Big Ten Championship and/or get into a first tier, New Year's Day bowl game.  Like I said two weeks ago in this space, I don't root for Penn State to lose, but I'm not heartbroken when I see James Franklin not win.

In other local college football news, undefeated and sixth ranked West Virginia loses to Iowa State, 30-14, and Duquesne defeats Robert Morris, 48-24.  Hey, in that latter game, at least one local team was guaranteed a victory yesterday.

It's now up to the Steelers to salvage the football weekend for all of us locals down in Cincinnati this afternoon.

Pitt Wins; Steelers Need To Win

Therran Coleman's interception in OT

seals the win for Pitt

As we settled into our Heinz Field seats yesterday before 2-3 Pitt took on 4-1 Syracuse, I said to my pal Dan Bonk, "Pitt really, really needs to win this game today."   Over four and one-half hours later, Pitt pulled off a 44-37 overtime win in a game that was sandwiched around a ninety minute weather delay.  That was a first for me at a football game.  Still, it was a fun and highly entertaining game.

Think about it, had the Panthers lost, they would have fallen to 2-4 (1-2 in conference) going into the Notre Dame game at South Bend next week, a game in which ND will be, rightfully, heavily favored.  Then they would have been 2-5, and the season would have been pretty much over insofar as making a bowl game.  Now at 3-3, the path towards six wins and bowl eligibility (if THAT is how you want to define "success" out there in Oakland) becomes a bit more obtainable.  

Winning against Syracuse yesterday didn't necessarily save Pitt's season, but a loss would surely have killed it.

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Similarly, the highly disappointing 1-2-1 Steelers take on an equally disappointing 1-3 Atlanta Falcons squad on the Heinz Field greensward this afternoon in a game that both teams really, really have to win.  Both teams have explosive offenses (that dud against the Ravens last week notwithstanding) and rather inept, so far, defenses.  We could be looking at a 45-42 type of game this afternoon.   Yes, there will still be eleven games remaining, but the team that loses today could very well be kissing their playoff hopes goodbye as a result.

Speaking of that Baltimore game last week, I was unable to watch the game due to the fact that a fallen tree on Rochester Road knocked out the power in our neighborhood.  It was a classic good news/bad news situation.  The Bad News was that I was unable to watch the Steelers-Ravens game, and the Good News was that I was unable to watch the Steelers-Ravens game.

Further bad news was that I was forced to listen to the game on the radio being described by Moe, Larry and Curly, otherwise known as Billy, Tunch, and "Wolf".  Wow, are they God-awful.  I am sure that any random sixteen year  old kid doing play-by-play of his high school team's football game on an Internet streaming broadcast would do at least as good a job as that crew.

Oh well, in about two hours I'll be settling in for this Steelers-Falcons tilt.  In about six hours, we'll know just how meaningful the rest of the Steelers season will be.

Monday, Monday.....

A lot of what I like to call the exigencies of real life have been taking place in The Grandstander's world of late, which has caused what is now a thirteen day hiatus from the keyboard.  Lots to catch up on, but let's confine it the the wide, wide world of sports, shall we.....

STEELERS

I never got around to writing a pre-season preview/prediction post for the Steelers (those exigencies I just mentioned), but if I had I probably would have said that (a) the Steelers would win the AFC North Division, (b) that they would be contenders to reach and win the Super Bowl, and (c) all this would be contingent upon Ben Roethlisberger staying healthy and not all of a sudden playing like a 36 year old guy who is reaching the end of the line.

The season has started and in two games they have blown a 14 point lead in the fourth quarter and were tied by the improved but still lousy Cleve Brownies, a game where Roethlisberger turned the ball over five times, and lost to the Kaycee Chiefs 42-37 in a game where it appeared that the North Allegheny High School defense lined up for the Steelers when the Chiefs had the ball.  On the bright side, Roethlisberger turned in terrific performance, so maybe he ain't done yet.  As for the rest of the team....

Only two games have been played, still lots of time, and blah blah blah, but the overwrought drama that seems to always surround this team looks like it MAY be too much to overcome.  The Le'Veon Bell holdout, the petulance (to use a mild term) of Antonio Brown, the mediocrity (to use another mild term) of the entire defensive corps, the Diva tendencies of Roethlisberger, what appears to be an undisciplined coaching staff.....

It's going to make for an interesting season.  Maybe not a good season, but certainly an interesting one.

PIRATES

A week ago, with the Pirates sitting at 69-71 with 22 games to play (against the lousy Reds, Royals, and Marlins; 13 against the good Cubs, Cardinals, and Brewers), I went on The Facebook and offered to bet $2 to the first five people who accepted the bet that they would finish below .500.  Four people took me up on it, and here is where that bet stands, eight games later.

The Pirates have gone 5-3 in that stretch (2-0 against the Lousy teams, 3-3 against the Good teams) and are now 74-74.  They have thirteen games remaining (I am guessing that that postponed game against the Marlins, rescheduled for Monday, October 1, will not be replayed) and need to go 7-6 to finish 81-80.  If they go 4-2 against the Lousies, they need only go 3-4 against the Goods to achieve it.

I figure that there is a good chance that I could be out eight bucks once all is said and done.  Tim, Len, Andy, and Ryan, you maybe shouldn't start making definite plans on how to spend your windfall just yet, but maybe you could think about it.

Oh, and I may also be buying Jim Haller's breakfast in October.

On the other hand, here we are sitting on the edge of our seats wondering if the Pirates can win a mere 81 games in a season.  Kind of pathetic, but you take your thrills as a sports fan where you can get 'em, I suppose.

PITT

Pitt now sits at 2-1 (1-0 in conference).  They defeated a Division II (or whatever the NCAA calls these schools these days) team in Albany, were positively pasted by Penn State 51-6, and held on to defeat Georgia Tech 24-19.

The Penn State debacle was disappointing, not only for the magnitude of the point spread, but for the behavior of Pat Narduzzi.  At the beginning of the game, he went apeshit on his captains for incorrectly calling the coin toss, incurred a personal foul penalty for running on to the field to argue with the zebras, and seemed to heap an inordinate amount of blame on his placekick holder and punter for botching a few snaps.  Yep, a missed extra point here, a botched punt there, pretty soon you lose by forty-five points.

Well, the Panthers did seem to shake it off against Georgia Tech, but they did take a 21-0 lead and had to sweat out a GT onside kick at the end of the game.  As guy in the men's room said to me between the third and fourth quarters, Pitt did everything in their power to make sure that Tech made a game out of it.

Also, Pitt has scored 0, 0, and 3 points in the second halves of each of their three games.  What is up with that?

PENN STATE

Penn State is a good team, maybe even a very good team that will probably contend for the Big Ten title and maybe even for a spot in the CFP.  James Franklin is also a good coach, maybe a very good coach, and perhaps a top echelon college football coach, but here is how I am always going to remember him.

In the final minute of the Pitt game, with a 51-6 lead in a driving rainstorm, Penn State fumbled, Pitt recovered, and Franklin challenged the ruling and had the refs review the play.  Again, there was less than a minute to play and PSU was leading by FORTY-FIVE POINTS.  The ruling was upheld, and Franklin put a sour look on his face.  It was move that totally and completely redefined the term "chickenshit".

As a group, there are few people more unlikable that big time college football coaches.  Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Brian Kelly, Dabo Swinney....you know who they are.  You like them when they coach YOUR team, but, objectively speaking, they are hard people to like.

Group photo taken at  recent 

NCAA Football Coaches Convention.

Add James Franklin to the list.   To all my friends and family out there who are Penn State fans, I don't necessarily want to see the Lions lose, but I sure would love to see James Franklin get dealt a big heaping helping of humility somewhere along the line.

ROBERT MORRIS

Yeah, I don't talk much about Robert Morris football on here, and with good reason these past few years.  The Colonials have a new head coach this year, Bernard Clark, who has to rebuild a program that has really been in the dumper these last few years.  They are 1-2, and on Saturday they were pasted by James Madison University, 73-7.  JMU is a powerhouse, but, still, it looks like a tough road ahead for Clark and his Colonials.  It should also be noted that this rout by JMU was led by the quarterback transfer-from-Pitt, Ben DiNucci.  So, good for DiNucci.

Sports Notes - Various Topics

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box, Wide, Wide World of Sports Division.....

The Pittsburgh Pirates had a spectacular month of July, sporting a record of 17-9 that shot them back into playoff contention.  August has not been so kind.  With three games remaining, the August ledger shows them at 8-16.  Fourth place in the Central, 14 games out of first place.  Eight and one-half games out of the Wild Card spot with nine (9!!) teams ahead of them.  With thirty games remaining, they have to go 18-12 just to finish over .500.

And here is some more good news.  On his weekly radio show on Sunday, Neal Huntington led off with this quote:

"As we look at next year's club, the core of it is this year's club."

How would you like to be a ticket sales rep for that Pirates with THAT as your marketing slogan this off-season?

********

Le'Veon Bell has indicated that he will sign his franchise tag deal with the Steelers and report for practice on Monday, one week before the regular season opener.  All the Steelers players and coaches are saying the right things.  You know, "He's the best...it's just business....we're glad he's back...we need him to get where we want to go"...and blah blah blah.

When this season ends, and Bell goes and collects his pot of free agency gold in 2019, these same players, the ones who have been banging their heads at training camp and in exhibition games will no doubt tell us what they REALLY thought of Bell's hold outs these last two seasons.  You know, like they all told us about what kind of a teammate James Harrison was in his final year with the team after the Steelers canned him.

********

Pitt opens its 2018 football season on Saturday against the mighty Great Danes of Albany University. I am looking forward to being at Heinz Field on Saturday to see Albany collect it's huge paycheck, and to spending another convivial season, my sixth, amongst the members of the ticket group I am in.  That's will always be fun.

As for how is Pitt going to fare this season, I can claim no insight or expertise to make a valid prediction.  However, I do know this: In the three seasons under Head Coach Pat Narduzzi (or HCPN, as he will be known for the remainder off this blogging season), Pitt has gone 8-5, 8-5, 5-7 (0-2 in bowl games; they failed to qualify for a bowl last year, and that's not easy to do in college football these days).  It's time for the Panthers to take that proverbial "next step" under Narduzzi.  Not sure what that means, but it would sure be nice to see Pitt in the race for a slot in the ACC Championship game in November.  HCPN has already predicted that they will be in that game. Can't say that he's shying away from putting himself on the spot.

Oh, and Pitt is relying heavily on sophomore quarterback Kenny Pickett, who as started all of one game in his career.  Granted, that game was a spectacular upset win over a 10-0 (or were they 11-0 at the time?) Miami, and Pickett sure was great in that one.  Still, Pitt is putting  a lot of eggs in the inexperienced Pickett's basket.  I hope it works out.

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On the national scene, you are all familiar with the sordid tale of Urban Meyer and the ridiculous slap on the wrist that Ohio State handed him last week.  This has been written about extensively by many, many talented national sportswriters and commentators,  so I won't restate the story here. Suffice to say, most people, at least most people outside of the state of Ohio, feel that Meyer should have been fired.  I especially like one columnist I read, and I regret that I can't remember who it was, who has renamed the Buckeyes coach "Urban Liar".

Well, at least we know who and what runs the show at THE Ohio State University, and considering their track record over the years with Woody Hayes and Jim Tressel, I guess we shouldn't really be surprised.

As for me, I have decided to effect any own form of protest.  I have decided that I will NOT watch any college football game this season involving Ohio State.  That could include several games of consequence, including games against Penn State and Michigan, and it could also include games in the College Football Playoffs in January.  Although  I would think - hope? - that that CFP Committee would bend over backwards to NOT include Ohio State in that four team set-up, no matter what their record.

Now, I know that little old me sitting in Pittsburgh, PA not watching a given football game or games on a given weekend or weekends will not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but it will make me feel better about myself.  So I have that going for me, which is nice.  (Two classic movie lines referenced in one paragraph!)

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The other big announcement in recent days was confirmation that Tiger Woods will meet Phil Mickelson, head to head, in a $9 million televised golf match over Thanksgiving weekend.  Of course the Nine Large will be coming from someone else's pockets - yours!  Yep, this made for TV event will be available only on a Pay-Per-View basis, probably cost you twenty-five to thirty bucks to watch this event.  

Now I love Tiger and Phil, and they are arguably the two greatest and most important golfers (and in the case of Woods, one of the most important athletes) in this century, but this is pure money grab, worthy only of fading boxers, MMA fighters, and Vince McMahon.  Also, between them, Woods and Mickelson have won exactly one tournament in the last five years.  I don't begrudge anyone making a buck, but guys of their stature should really be above this.  

Now, if they were going to play a skins game for $1,000 a hole OF THEIR OWN MONEY....that I might be willing to watch.