So this past week I went silent...I haven't posted a blog since last Monday Moaning...I did little on Twitter or Facebook...Just needed a bit of a break...Plus it's been busy here...These couple weeks are busy at the Fish House, so I've been trying to get more sleep instead of being up until 2:00AM and then getting up with the kids at 6:30AM...
Then there's getting ready for Christmas...And we had a birthday last week...It's already been a year since this picture was taken of my baby girl laying on my chest the night she was born...
Now look at here swinging in the cool December air...
Here she is busting a move with Frosty the Snowman...
Sometimes blogging just has to take a backseat to shit like that...Now let's get into some sports...We'll start with the shitty Browns...Yeah, they lost again Sunday, in OT to Arizona...Whatever...I want to talk about how Mike Holmgren has been doing his job as President of the Browns...For guy making nearly 10 million dollars a year, he really sucks...Twice he has addressed the media this year...Both times after the media and fans have raised their voices about where is this guy, what is he doing, and why is he on radio shows in Seattle instead of Cleveland...
In his press conference last week he informed us that "NO ONE" on the Browns medical staff, or coaching staff knew that Colt McCoy had his brain caved in by James Harrison..."No One saw him get hit in the head." How is it that the Browns staff are the only people on Earth who didn't see that hit!?! I guess they all have their heads up their asses!
Then Fatty Holmgren got pissy with the media for questioning him, and what he's doing...Earlier that day, long time Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Bud Shaw took Holmgren to task, saying that it doesn't matter who's in charge, "it's business as usual." He also eluded to what many of us think...Fatty is just collecting a check...And that was mild compared to what some of the radio guys were saying...So fatty got pissed at the media and said, "You're either with us, or you're not, so remember that when you come looking for extra playoff tickets."
WHAT!?! How the fuck is this guy talking about playoffs!?! This team is so far from that it's unreal...And you know what Fatty...It's the media's job to question you...And true fans should question you...True fans get pissed after watching a team suck year after year...No one is going to kneel down and kiss your ring...Why? Because you didn't win it here fat fuck!
-So how about those Packers...My pal Ryan has been harping on me all year to write up some love for his Packers...So I was watching them play the Chiefs Sunday, and planning on hyping a perfect season...But then, I noticed after every play that a guy made a first down, he was doing that stupid, hand gesture, showing he did his job...I already hated the Clay Matthews Jr. sack celebration, so now I was getting annoyed, and rooting against them...I didn't actually think the Chiefs would hold on, but damn...They D'ed up big time...Kept Rogers uncomfortable all day, and their offense just kept plugging away at that weak Packers defense...And the '72 Dolphins rejoiced!
- Then there was Jesus Tebow...Now last time I checked the Scripture, Jesus was the son of God...Tebow, I may give the Holy Spirit...But Sunday he, and his Broncos teammates, saw God...Tom fucking Brady...He's gotta be the closest thing to the almighty...All he does his shine up his Super Bowl rings, and MVP's...Sling it like a cock-strong, mother fucker...Win...And speaking of cock-strong, he created life with not only a hot actress, but also his super model wife...Shit, he sounds like the Holy Trinity to me!
Yeah, it's nice to see Tebow, Denver, and the Tebow followers, get a dose of reality! If your boy Timmy is such a miracle worker, and has the ear of God, then why is he wasting his time with Football...Go cure Cancer with your magical powers!
-Christmas time means something else besides, shopping, and gifts, and parties...It means here comes the non-stop 3 week parade of College Football Bowl Games...This week we get into the madness with plenty of average teams going at it to make a few extra bucks...I'm dogging on them, but I'll be watching a bit of Florida Int. vs. Marshall on Tuesday night...
-Now with it being Christmas time, we here a lot of the same old songs...And I love the classics, but I thought I'd share a few from one of my favorite bands...You don't think of Pearl Jam as a Christmas tune band, bu they do some good ones...Some unique tunes...I hope you enjoy...
The BCS is just the BS. All season long I saw Bleacher Report calls the Hogs Pretenders. How our chant is deliciously redneck and the worst chant in football. I heard our fans being bashed and our stadiums left out of any consideration of being a great place to see a game. In short this is the BCS (BS). We know that Arkansas is just redneck and they have an aversion for the state. Sour grapes? Oh yeah, but the same kind of fairness that Herman Cain got. The powers that be pimp NYC.
They pimp USC but they got caught and now serving their temporary penance. All these schools can do wrong and survive. Calapari can outright tell players not to worry about education and yet, he is favored. At least North Carolina programs in basketball can choose to do the right thing with regards to it's signees. Arkansas takes pumpkins and makes pumpkin pie, while the chosen can get their pies already made. Not only that they can get them delivered. Arkansas had a small window of opportunity and blew it. Fans felt good at being #3 but they knew it was conditional since they had to show up or beat LSU. Anything less and they knew the criticisms would start anew. Even when Petrino was yelling across the field, the reporters instinctively jumped on him.
They assumed they knew who he was yelling at and what he said. This is very telling. And now, even Craig James said the Razorbacks were being shafted by the BS. For Arkansas fans, we know the deal. We are not pleased by the double standards and prejudice. But we own you, because inspite of all that, we annoy you by just being around.
When LSU narrowly defeated Alabama, I said that regardless of what my computer ratings said, I would vote Alabama #2 if I were a voter. That continued to be true through last week.
Unlike some, I don’t place a high premium on margin of victory. For example, the Georgia Bulldogs played a hell of a game today, and that was not reflected in the final score.
I do understand the system is set up to allow for some subjectivity though. That subjectivity has favored Alabama thus far. Alabama did not have the borderline victories like Oklahoma St. The Tide’s narrowest win was over Penn St. by 16, and the game wasn’t even that close. The Cowboys appeared lucky that Kansas St. ran out of time (allowing Okie St. to win by 7), and they only beat a mediocre Texas A&M team by a single point.
For Oklahoma St. to lose a game to Iowa St. in similar fashion to the way Alabama lost to LSU was crippling for its BCS-championship-game argument. Obviously, Iowa St. is in a different galaxy from LSU and Alabama as far as depth and talent.
On the other hand, the Cyclones are not much different from Mississippi St., and that was the second-toughest game on the scoreboard for both LSU and Alabama. There wasn’t any late-game drama in either MSU game, and obviously the better teams won, but I question letting approximately one quarter in such a game decide who makes the national-championship game.
I don’t think there should be a uniform rule against a re-match. If the Pokes had lost to Texas A&M or Kansas St., I would be vigorously arguing for Alabama right now over Stanford or Boise St., even though that would be against my interests as an LSU fan.
Back to the resume, looking at the loss gives Alabama a head start once we compare the wins. I’ll put relative wins in major and minor categories. So it’s starts out Alabama 1 and 0, Oklahoma St. 0 and 0, because Alabama has a major win for the better loss.
Continue to game-by-game breakdown, further arguments, and conclusion.
All apologies for my absence. I’ve been trying to move and also very busy at work. Nonetheless, November set another record for most views in a month. I expect December and January may not keep up, but I’m optimistic about next year especially. My goal will be to hit 1000 views in a month at some point in the next year. I was going to write about Oklahoma St. versus Bama as #2, but I’ll address that if Oklahoma St. wins. I can’t see any other reasonable argument taking place.
Greetings from the Hoodwood, where the locals aren’t shooting one another at the Hoodwood Mall over gifts…at least not yet anyway
NBA: The lockout is over!
Staring at the precipice of a season lost and the masses not caring, the NBA went back to the bargaining table and hammered out a deal. To be sure, the owners got the roll back in salaries that they wanted and restrictions on salaries with a stricter luxury tax. The players while not coming back whipped, have taken a serious loss. The 10 year deal can be opted out in 5 but I seriously doubt the players or owners want to take the chance that they did. The NBA will come back a bit scarred and lopsided but they can bank on the goodwill of the wildly entertaining 10-11 season to smooth some of it out. Expect a fan backlash of some sort, but while not the nuclear winter of the NHL’s lost season, or the slow rebuild of MLB’s lost 94 and partial 95, the NBA wont get a free pass like the NFL did. No one lamented the loss of the Hall of Fame Game. Whoever comes out on top in late June 2012 will get knocked as a partial champ, but the pro b-ball game is back and we can get back to seeing Derek Fisher only as the veteran point guard of the Lakers and not head of the union, and we don’t have to see or hear about Billy Hunter (with his bad mini q-tip fro) or see David Stern other than the occasional courtside shot or when he awards the MVP or Championship trophy.
BCS…set in stone?
The latest mess in the BCS has me all sorts of annoyed, LSU is the #1 team. No one is disputing or arguing that especially the way they spotted #3 Arkansas a 14-0 lead and roared (pun intended) back with a 41-3 blitz to win going away. Though I doubt Les Miles will be getting any kind of Christmas Card from Hogs coach Bobby Petrino after kicking a late field goal for the final margin. But Bama is the #2 team despite the one loss which was that epically boring OT game with LSU. The way people are talking even if LSU somehow loses to Georgia, Saturday in Atlanta, they will still be the #1 team. Bama will get to the national championship and have 6 weeks rest before. Though they aren’t SEC champs or even SEC West Champs. Oklahoma State screwed itself by getting upset by Iowa State on the 18th. Stanford has 11 wins but lost to Oregon and isn’t even playing in the Pac-12 title game. Oregon beat Stanford and is in the Pac-12 title game but fell to USC who absolutely hammered UCLA who will be the Pac-12 South Champs and have the right to got to Eugene and hammered again. Va. Tech took a loss to Clemson so they wont get any further than the Orange Bowl. Houston is unbeaten but aren’t taken seriously as a Non-AQ and of course no one in the Big East is anywhere close to being legit.
Columbus: Getting an Urban Renewal?
THE Ohio State University hasn’t been this humble since 1999…hmmm the last time they got a major coaching change and a year later after their last humble season they made , Well Buckeye Nation got its man. The worst and I mean worst kept secret in college football was that Urban Meyer was coming to Ohio State. Meyer kept offering weak denials, but with the Bucks struggling to a 6-6 record it was all but a wrap. Poor Luke Fickell got put into a situation where he had unrealistic expectations from the masses, following an extremely popular coach and a national championship winning coach lurking just off stage right. Now the masses from the 614 and Buckeye Nation will be looking for a national title within the next 3-5 years. They are outraged that Michigan broke the 7 year spell and Ol Urb wont have a honeymoon for long if he loses next November.
Brady and the Pats: AFC Dark Horse?
When the Pats lost to the Steelers and the Giants in back to back weeks the talk was all over, the Pats were finished. Belichick is getting old, he wont listen to anyone. Brady isn’t what he used to be…etc, etc, ad infinitum. To paraphrase an old Sting song “Hate to say it, I hate to say it…its probably them.” The Pats have rebounded by smashing the Jets and Chiefs in primetime tilts then spotting the Eagles 10 points then roaring back in a manner so convincing, Philly fan is calling for their coach’s ouster. The Pats are 8-3 and could realistically win out. With the AFC North still anyones to take, the AFC South Texans going through QB’s like newspaper and the AFC West still a tossup. You might just look up the day after New Years and see the Pats with the #1 seed.
Tebow & Romo: Will Bandit feel the love?
Hell no. In spite of the Broncos OT win at San Diego led by the irrepressible Tebow who had more rushing attempts in a game than any QB since the merger…that’s since 1970 boys and girls. In spite of Romo’s late drive to nip the Dolphins on Thanksgiving, I refuse to buy in. One of the barbers where I get faded is telling everyone that the Pokes are legit and I need to get on the bandwagon. As Ive said time and again, I don’t dislike Romo. I think he’s a nice kid with some skills but I think that he gets way too much love when the Pokes win. To be honest, that game should have been a blowout. I really don’t give a shit that the Dolphins had come in on a 3 game win streak, they are playing out the string. Everyone wants to say the Pokes are so good, why are they struggling to beat teams like the Seahwaks, Dolphins and Redskins? Why did they play the Pats and get beat? Why did they meltdown against the Jets? Yes, Yes I know the Cowboys went to San Francisco and beat the Niners but no one thought much of that then.
Tebow (long sigh) I keep saying that someone is going to expose him. I get the feeling that it will be the Pats here in a couple of weeks. But until then, Tebow will continue to polarize the football world. Again, I don’t dislike the kid. Other than what he did to my beloved alma mater in the Sugar Bowl. But he has no game. I still cannot believe that John Fox has scrapped his offense, shipped a serviceable Kyle Orton out and has basically went back to a college option offense. The worse thing about it is that defenses look off kilter trying to defend it. Tebow and the Broncos went from sad sack to serious in a heartbeat. Now 6-5 they are a game behind the Raiders. I still think that Tebow will get exposed soon, but when? The Pokes are another team that I think will get exposed, but you cant be sure of when that will be. It might not be till January.
Colts: Bad horse repeating history?
Are the Colts really that bad? I mean, I can remember when the Colts weren’t the NFL elite. When they were the warmup act to the Pacers and that wasn’t much. The Colts had a spark here and there in 87 and 94-95 but were never a legit playoff team since moving to Indy. I remember Marshall Faulk being traded to the Rams in 98 and thinking damn, he went from bad to worse. Faulk obviously was all that and made the Rams really good. But the Colts were a joke till they got Peyton Manning. I remember the Packers Eugene Robinson screaming at his teammates in Super Bowl 32, “These are the Indianapolis Colts!!!” Venting his disdain for the Broncos who were beating them to the punch, he was trying to compare the Broncos to a weak Colts team that had handed the Packers 3rd loss that season. The Colts are 0-11 and are looking like they will match the 2008 Detroit Lions for futility. The Colts just look bad and remind me of some really bad Bengals teams from the 90s and early 2000s, no effort find a way to lose games and you know that they will blow it. The Colts are all but assured of winning (?) the Andrew Luck sweepstakes and getting the Stanford prodigy, or will Luck do like a fellow Stanford alum did the Colts nearly 30 years ago? Want to win a bet with an uneducated football fan. Ask him what year did the Broncos draft John Elway. If he says 1983, tell him he’s wrong and watch him raise holy hell. The Broncos didn’t draft John Elway. The then Baltimore Colts did. The Colts who went 0-8-1 in the strike shortened 82 season had the first pick and Elway told the Colts that he wouldn’t play for them. Sort of like Eli Manning but Elway had a real out, he had played baseball for two summers in the minor leagues for the Yankees. Elway had talent, he was drafted ahead of some guy named Tony Gwynn… The Colts capitulated and traded Elway to the Broncos for QB Mark Herrmann, and the Broncos 1st round pick in the 1983 draft and 84 draft. Do you think that Luck might do the same thing???
Phat Dap/Head Slap
Phat Dap
Brad Meester gets mad dap from the hoodwood…watch this clip
You got to have a hard hard heart not to feel good seeing this.
Head Slap
I’d be greatly amiss if I didn’t take Ndomakung Suh to task for his idiotic play against the Packers. Suh repeatedly slammed Packers offensive lineman to the ground and then back stomped on him when finally pulled away. Suh got kicked out of the game, as expected. Suh was at first unapologetic about his actions saying that the folks had saw it wrong. Uhhhh, what? Suh then tried to backtrack and was contrite but you can be damn sure that the NFL aint going to buy that bill of goods. Suh is likely going to be suspended a couple games, the Lions will fine him and the NFL will too. This is a sad way for a promising Lions team to be labeled. Suh can be a fierce hard hitting player but being dirty is just plain stupid. Look at hard hitters like Mike Singletary, Dick Butkus, and Ronnie Lott. Some of the most feared defensive players but always between the whistles. Hard but clean. Even Lawrence Taylor while one of the hardest hitters in the game was for the most part clean. His hit on Joe Theismann was rightly regarded as a freak play and he was the first to motion for the sideline when Theismann’s gruesome injury was seen. Suh will make himself a caricature of himself if he doesn’t change his mentality.
Seahawks-Eagles pick on Thursday, Until Next Post Fellow Sports Fans!
