There's something special about Fall...Especially when you live in a part of the country that experiences all the seasons...And there is nothing like Fall...The smell in the air...The sound of marching bands, football fans, and referee's whistles...The crispness in the evening air...And the colors...How I love the colors of fall...The way the green leaves morph into amazing shades of red, orange, yellow, browns, and even some purple...Of all the seasons, Fall is my favorite...
But there has been a new color that has been filling our visions of Fall...Yes, I'm talking about Pink...
That color men were always too cool, or too tough to wear...Now we see our modern day gladiators wearing it all October...Why do they wear it? To raise awareness for Breast Cancer...A truly great cause...I love breasts, and I hate cancer...Here's a stat that I'm pulling out of my ass...So I'll put it this way...I would guess that at least 80% of all of us, have known a friend, family member, classmate, or co-worker who has battled, or died from cancer...I lost 2 grandparents, an uncle, and a number of friends to cancer...So this may sound odd...And it may offend people...But I'm sick of my Octobers being filled with all this Pink...
Okay, that pink isn't bad! But I think we're all pretty aware that cancer, including breast cancer, is out there...And I respect the players, and owners that donate money to cancer foundations and research...But some of this month of pink seems like grandstanding to me...Some 'Look at me, I care' shit...Yes, I'm synical...But I am what I am...
I was at the local high school game Friday night, and look at our team in their Blue and Yellow, with hot pink mixed in...It doesn't look good...And part of me was proud that no one on the visiting team had a speck of pink on...By the way they destroyed us...Or team is winless so far, and possibly has the worst coaching staff ever...8 times the last two weeks, they had only 10 guys on the field...4 times with 12...Sorry, back to the Pink...
I was watching the Browns game Sunday, and thought, 'my God, That hot pink does not work with those beautiful Fall colors of Brown and Orange...It just clashes'...The Browns by the way, jumped out to a 14-0 against the Giants...And then they fell apart, and got their asses kicked...I knew I shouldn't have watched that crap!
Oh, yes, Pink...
And what happened to the days when leagues were sticklers about uniforms...Remember, every player had to wear the same color shoes...Remember Peyton Manning getting find because he wore black high-tops to honor Johnny Unitas...Terry Francona was inspected to make sure he was wearing a jersey under his wind-breaker...All the sudden, these wacky uniform rules are thrown out the window, so our warriors can put on pink shoes, and gloves, and sleeves, and wrist-bands, and wave pink towels...I don't get it...
And all cancers suck...All cancers are evil...But why so much love for breast cancer...A whole month...Like I said, I love breasts...I think that's what it is...It's sexism...Prostate cancer gets one weekend from MLB, where everyone wears powder blue wrist-bands...Why don't we have month of Brown, for asshole cancer? Why not a month of Amber, for liver cancer...Or a month of Nicotene Stain for lung cancer? I'm all for supporting those with breast cancer...I've sent my check...But I want the pink out of my sports...I want my Fall colors back...Lets keep the pink where it belongs...
Between the ladies legs!
There is no doubt in my mind that there are people who are reading this, that are pissed right now...And some may want to bash me...I just want you to know, as that is happening, I'm thinking, 'Dance puppets, dance!'
If I haven't pissed you off...Check out this week's College Football WRAP_UP...The BCS rankings are looking like they may get tricky after a few favorites went down this week...
The last week I was pretty much absent...Last Monday the baby had to have her dental surgery...She had been grinding her teeth, and busted her 4 top, front teeth...They put her under to do the work...She came out of it okay, and after a couple hours she was back to herself...But Tuesday morning around 5:00 AM she spiked a high fever, puked, and her face was swelling...By the afternoon I was taking her to the ER as her top lip, and whole right side of her face was swollen...She was starting to get what looke like a black eye...And her top gum was so swollen, you could barely see her teeth...
It was figured that she had an infection...They got her on an anti-biotic right away, and Benadryl in case it was an allergic reaction to something...Also we were alternating Motrin and Tylenol every 4 hours...She was in so much discomfort, she was asking for ice packs...By Wednesday the swelling was starting to calm down, and we could actually spot the infection in her gum...Her sleep patterns were all screwed up...I would guess because of all the drugs going through her, along with she was napping on and off all day for a couple days...The week was tough, and draining, and expensive...But she's doing well now, and we worked in some swing time Saturday....
I hope this post didn't piss too many people off...Although I think it will...But that's okay if you got pissed...if I can draw an emotion out of a reader, then it's good...I hope some people got a laugh out of it...Or at least you got some good looking ladies in pink to look at...If none of those, well, we've always got next week...
Well this weekend, was my birthday weekend...My birthday fell on Sunday, so I consider the whole weekend as my birthday...And it was a good time...Saturday afternoon Mrs. Beeze and I went to Cleveland's historic, West Side Market for lunch, and to load up on some food...You can get anything there...Great butchers, bakers, and pasta makers...Great local produce, at great prices...And after a few beers, I was ready to find some hipsters to punch...Oh how the hipsters love the Ohio City area...
We got 5 red peppers, and 6 green peppers for $3...You can't beat that...And those, along with some meat we got, lead to my Sunday birthday dinner...My fucking awesome (if I do say so myself) Stuffed Peppers...
The rest of Saturday I spent catching up on COLLEGE_FOOTBALL...That and Mrs. Beeze giving me my favorite birthday present...No, not the 1976 Fender Starcaster I wanted...
Sunday I took the kids to the park, while the wife did some shopping for the Little Beeze's B-day, which is Tuesday...Then she baked a cake for us to have after my awesome Stuffed Peppers...Then I got my gift from the kids...They got me a swear jar...These little smart-ass, shits! Couple of ball-busters! The boy better watch it, or I'm taking his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back to Toys-R-Us...
So in sports, the big story was the replacement refs screwing the pooch during the Monday Night Football game between Green Bay and Seattle...Now I was rooting for Seattle, if for no other reason than to screw with my buddy Ryan...But there were some really bad calls in this game, along with some bad no calls...But then came the Hail Mary at the end...And holy shit balls, the sports world went crazy...I thought the call was wrong, but it was made, and the replay officials stood by it...But then our buddy Mo posted this LINK on Facebook and I'm willing to buy into it possibly, if for no other reason then I was pissed about all the people who were shitting on Golden Tate and company for celebrating the win...A win is a win, and you're happy when you get one, especially after a hard-fought game, like that one...
And Packers fans, who were so upset, and felt they had a win stolen from them...Watch the game again...The Seahawks defense kicked your Packers ass all over the field...Green Bay's defense showed up, but the offense was crap...They got owned by Seattle...No one is entitled to wins...They're earned, and if you really watched that game, you didn't earn it Green Bay! Yeah, my Packer Backer friends are gonna have something to say about that!
The replacement refs sucked through their brief stint in the NFL...And I was just about ready to stop tuning into the NFL...Then the league came out and backed up the refs TD call from Monday night, which at that point I was firmly planted in the they got it wrong camp...And hours later they were trying their best to hammer out a deal with the real refs, to get them out on the field for Thursday nights game...I'm sorry, but right then, what little credibility the league had, was lost in my eyes...
So Thursday night, I didn't watch one second of the Browns and Ravens game...And let me tell you this...It was wonderful...It's amazing what not watching the Browns will do for your mental well-being...The wife and I popped on a few episodes of "Arrested Development" on Netflix, bumped uglies, and she went to bed...Then I watched my fellow Browns fans be miserable once again on Twitter and Facebook...And there I sat, grinning from ear to ear...No stress...No frustration...I mean you go into a Browns game expecting them to blow, but if you don't watch it, you haven't invested/wasted any time into it...I may have to stick to this strategy, because at this point, it wouldn't surprise me if the Browns end up with that perfect 0-16 record...
In other NFL news, the Patriots got their shit together and beat the Bills Sunday 52-28 with two backs gaining 100 yards each on the ground, and Tom Brady, looking like Tom Brady...
The 49ers shutout the Jets 34-0 as Sanchez looked like crap again...And yes, the cries and chants for the savior, Tebow have started...
The Arizona Cardinals are undefeated...That just doesn't sound right...But I mean they did play the Dolphins Sunday...The Cards should be worried that it took OT to beat the 'Phins...
And in what had to be a heart-breaker for B-Dub, the Falcons squeaked out a 30-28 comeback win against the Panthers...Sorry pal, I know that one hurt...
And, am I the only one shocked to see the Vikings are 3-1, while the Lions are 1-3, after their conference match up Sunday, which the Vikings won 20-13...Before the season started I expected those records to be flipped...I gotta figure the Packers and Bears are starting to take notice of the Vikings now...
And I thought they only played Hockey and drank until they puked up at the University of New Hampshire...
Then this weekend I found out that they play football there, and that they can put up some points...I held this out of my WRAP_UP yesterday, because I thought the little guys should get some love all on their own...
In a CAA matchup, the Wildcats of UNH headed to Old Dominion for an epic, no defense allowed battle...At halftime, UNH had a 40-24 lead...But there was no way that Old Dominion was going to lay down...Lead by their Quarterback, Taylor Heinicke, who passed for 730 yards of the teams 824 yards, and 5 TD's, the Monarchs fought back, and with just over 3 minutes left in the game, it was tied 61-61...Heinicke also added a TD and 61 yards on the ground...
And Wildcats fans thought their QB, Andy Vailas was having a good day 336 yards and 5TD's...He also added 80 yards and another TD on the ground...UNH had a much more balanced attack, as they also put up 389 yards rushing, lead by Nico Steriti, who had 201 and 2 TD's...
But with limited time left, the Monarchs still had enough fight in them to get off a 25 yard game winning field goal with 41 seconds left...Old Dominion 64...New Hampshire 61...Crazy College Football Fun people...It's not all just about the big schools...Here's the highlights...
This week, the Cleveland Browns sucked ass big time...Losing 24-14 to the Buffalo Bills...Last week Trent Richardson looked good...This week, he looked like crap, gaining 27 yards on 12 carries...Normally, I would never say this, but I was lucky to not have to sit through watching this whole game...Instead we had to take the kids to a birthday party at Chuck-e-Cheese...Oh, fuck that place...I'm not sure which is more torturous...Watching the Browns, or being at Chuck-e-Cheese...
Next the Browns go to Baltimore for a Thursday night game against the Ravens...The ratings are gonna suck for this one, except in Baltimore, where they'll love watching the old Browns destroy the new Browns...Sorry my fellow Clevelanders, but the season is done already folks...2 games with the Ravens and Steelers, and one more with Cincy...It doesn't even matter who else is on the schedule, that shit is tough enough...
Hey, have you guys seen the video of New York sports radio douche, Mike Francesa falling asleep on the air...It's clear as day, and he continues to deny he was dozing off...
What a douchebag!
I don't have much else right now...Just happy have the wife back home...The kids are happy too...Especially Molly who has been extra clingy with Mom this weekend...
I'm going to close with a video from a new band from England, called The Milk...These guys have some soul...And this song features one of my favorite actors, who along with his show "Luther" got screwed at the Emmys...
The past couple of years when I've written about the #11 Notre Dame/ #18Michigan game, I've found myself writing about the incredible performances put on by Michigan QB, Denard Robinson...Well, not this time...Once again the Notre Dame defense played a great game...And just like last week, the Defense was lead by Manti Te'o...Te'o had 2 of the 4 interceptions that Robinson threw...Robinson made it clear that he's Michigan best running back, gaining 90 yards on the ground...But I'm not sure if he's their best QB....
The Notre Dame offense didn't make things easy on the defense, as Everrett Golson threw 2 interceptions in his own end of the field, early in the game...But the Irish defense kept Michigan off the board until the 4th quarter, giving up just two field goals...Golson was yanked, for the second time this year for Tommy Rees...While Rees kept the mistakes to a minimum, the offense was pretty conservative, relying on the defense's strong play, and holding on for a 13-6 victory...
I hated seeing Golson looking so dejected on the sidelines...The kid has great talent, and you don't want him to lose his confidence...Coach Kelly said after the game, that Everrett Golson is still their guy, and from time to time, they will look for Rees to get them through a tough spot...I'm not going to bitch right now...They're winning...And whatever gets you the win is okay with me...
And you can't say enough about Manti Te'o...Two weeks in a row, after dealing with the deaths of his grandmother and his girlfriend, there he is, leading his team...Playing great football...He hasn't made an INT during his time at Notre Dame...He now has 3 in the last 2 games...Watch this kid play people...Come April, he'll be a first round pick!
Who wants highlights? I do!
Now if you like College Football like I do...Then Saturday night is your kind of night...Beside Notre Dam and Michigan in prime-time...You also had Florida State playing Clemson, and Kansas State visiting Oklahoma both in Prim-time...Oh, and Auburn facing LSU...Good stuff...
Lets start at Auburn...I'm so sick of people talking about how great #2 LSU is...So far they have played nobodies, and have blown them out...And stupid LSU fan thinks they're the shit...Well, this is how great they are...The beat Auburn 12-10...That's right, not 49-10...12-10...1-3 Auburn, had LSU sweating bullets...And that 1 win was an OT win against ULM...Let me just say this LSU fans...Your team better knuckle up for next weeks game against Towson...
Now, I have to talk about #15 Kansas State going to face #6 Oklahoma...This game was a hard-hitting battle...Now when I did my pre-season predictions, I said Oklahoma would win the Big-12, but I warned people about Kansas State, who gets no respect, and I had K-State QB Collin Klein as a Heisman sleeper...Well, the Wildcats didn't disappoint...They went into a hostile environment...Played tough defense, and gritty offense and managed to upset the Sooners 24-19...The biggest thing that kept the Sooners from winning was 3 turnovers...Almost 4, but one was overturned by review...Also 4-10 on third downs makes life hard too...
Klein's numbers weren't outstanding, only passing for 149 yards, and rushing for 79 and a TD...But he did what his team needed, as K-State beat Oklahoma in time of possession by almost ten minutes, and didn't turn the ball over...
Then there was #10 Clemson at #4 Florida State, in a huge ACC match up...I had picked Clemson to win the ACC, and I was liking what I was seeing early in this game...Their offense was looking good, finishing with 426 total yards, and 37 points, seems like a good day at the office...But the Seminoles turned it on in the late in the third quarter, racking up a total of 667 yards and putting 49 points on the board...It became clear as the game went on, that FSU had too much depth, size and strength, took the lead, and wore Clemson out...
Saturday afternoon, there was another good game...Two PAC-12 teams that have been surprising people...Oregon State at #19 UCLA...This game was about offense, and two QB's who can sling it...UCLA's Brett Hundley who passed for 372 of their 444 total yards...And Oregon State's Sean Mannion threw for 379 of their 501 total yards...Surprisingly, it wasn't a 49-45 game...Oregon State pulled out the victory and their second upset of the year, winning 27-20...
There was another PAC-12 game that many of us were looking forward to, as #22 Arizona visited #3 Oregon...Everyone knows about Oregon's awful, constantly changing uniforms, and their high-powered offense...But after Arizona beat up on Oklahoma State, people started taking them seriously...Well, looks like they need to go back to the drawing board, as Oregon has spent the evening showing people that they are the class of the PAC-12, destroying Arizona 49-0...
In the SEC I was looking forward to the Missouri / #7 South Carolina game...While Missouri is 2-2 (0-2 in the SEC) they've played hard, and stayed in games...And let's be honest, you never really know what's going to happen with Steve Spurrier and his Gamecocks...Well, let's put it this way...Missouri is having a rough first season in the SEC, as South Carolina beat them 31-10, and it didn't even seem that close...
Now I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but it's really getting under my skin...So far this season, ESPN/ABC has televised every one of Penn State's games...Has it become ESPN's personal crusade to keep Penn State slightly relevant while they are under NCAA sanctions?
Is it just that they want to keep a spotlight on the child rape that took place there? I'm not getting that...They sure love showing the blue ribbons...Hey dummies, blue ribbons don't fix the lives that have been ruined by what happened there, and what was covered up there...And ESPN likes showing the dumb-ass fans/students/alumni that still have their undying loyalty to Joe Paterno, and feel he was wronged, and that they are the victims...I truly hate that place...But I really hate ESPN/ABC for continuously putting them on the air...Oh, PSU won 24-13 over Temple, if anyone cared...Burn in hell!
That's it for this week...Feel free to add your College Football highlights...See ya Monday!
Wednesday night news broke that Art Modell was gravely ill...I had posted on Facebook when the news broke, "Art Modell is "gravely ill" is the lead local news story...How many Clevelanders first response was a slight grin?"
By morning he was dead...Through the night, and all day Thursday, there were plenty of people admitting to being happy Modell had died...Even those who don't wish death on people, were still glad he had died...Clevelanders take what happened to their Browns very personally...And that's fine...I know I was pissed when Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore...But as time has gone on, and I looked at the whole picture, I don't have that same hate for Art Modell, that most Clevelanders do...Yep, you're about to witness a guy from Cleveland, defend Art Modell's legacy...
Back in the day, The Cleveland Indians sucked...But their owner knew how Cleveland loves it's sports teams...They also knew that city leaders were tired of the "Mistake by the Lake" jokes...So for a couple years, Dick Jacobs kept threatening to move the Indians...The City decided to give Jacobs what he wanted...His own stadium...Completely funded by the public...All Jacobs paid for was the sign that put his name on the place...
The City officials also thought this would be even better if they could get the Cavs to move back to downtown Cleveland, instead of playing in the sticks of Richfield...So they build Gordon Gund's Cavaliers a new arena right next to Jacobs field...Again, Gund, that blind bastard, only paid to put his name on the place...The city was all a buzz about what was dubbed, "The Gateway District"...This shit was going to bring us back!
Modell, who's Browns always sold out the 70,000 plus Municipal Stadium, waited patiently...He had just lost his tenant, the Indians...The Stadium was old, and surely the City would take care of their number one draw...But they didn't...Eventually Modell had to go to the mayor...He never went to the media like Jacobs, and made repeated threats to move...The city officials made it clear that there was no way they could afford to give him a sweet deal, and new home, like they did for the Indians and Cavaliers...Modell, was losing money...No one in Cleveland fought for him or the Browns...He was in debt,and got an offer from football starved Baltimore...We always hear about sports being a business...Well, Modell made the smart business move, and took HIS team to Baltimore...
In 1995 Modell told The Wall Street Journal, "The reason I'm taking so much heat now is every politician is covering his backside for failing to do anything at all. They took me for granted."
Yes they did...It wasn't until news broke that Modell was moving the team to Baltimore, that people finally took action...All the sudden the fans spoke up...Suddenly elected officials were trying to do something...Too little, too late...All this time fans have been pissed at Modell...They've had nothing but hate for him, when really they should have taken that out the mayor, councilmen, and the media, who cried to save the Indians, but didn't say anything about taking care of the Browns until they were already packing up...
And while Art is hated in Cleveland, he deserves the praise he is getting from around the country...He is one of the few key people, who made the NFL what it is today...He Pushed for the NFL/AFL merger, and he and Pete Rozelle were the visionaries that saw that TV was where Football had to go...Modell almost single-handedly strong armed his fellow owners into the first TV contract...Letting them know, that if they really wanted to make the money that they dreamed of, that TV was going to get them there...And then later, it was Modell, who strong armed the Networks into ponying up the BIG money, to put the NFL on their airwaves...You can also thank Art for Monday Night Football....
There are mountains of NFL history that couldn't have been written had it not been for Art Modell...The man belongs in the Hall of Fame...And Cleveland, he also deserves some respect for the countless acts of charity he contributed to during his life in here...
After much talk about the NFL having Modell Honored with a moment of silence before this Sunday's games, The Modell family has asked The Cleveland Browns to not pay him any Honor...The Browns were planning to keep it short, knowing the fan reaction would be bad...This takes any worry off the Browns...But it bothers me that pretty much everyone in the world knows that, a moment of silence to pay respect to one of the men that built the NFL into the monster it is, would be greeted in Browns Stadium with a chorus of boooo's...
This may be odd for a sports blogger to write...But it's just a football team people...There is really so much more to life, then to carry that kind of hate around for all these years.
