A REAL RANT
Here are just some things that I have been thinking about in the sports world over the past few days.
*Tim Hardaway made some comments about former NBAer John Amaechi, who revealed to the public last week that he was gay. In those comments, Hardaway said things like, “You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people,” and “I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States.” First things first. Hey Tim, just so you know, the United States is part of the world in case you missed that day in geography class. Now, for the serious issue at hand. You are exactly right; certain people should not be in our world, but they are not people like John Amaechi, they are the bigots like yourself. Just think if everyone all through history thought the same way Hardaway thinks, he wouldn’t have to worry about sharing a lockerroom with gays, because HE wouldn’t be in it, and people like Jackie Robinson would have never been given a chance.
*By the way, don’t you thing John Amaechi could have come up with a better name for his book revealing his sexual preference than Man in the Middle? That had comedians everywhere waiting with punch lines.
*Bobby Knight was reprimanded today by Big XII officials for being critical of a call in a double overtime loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday. He called the call, “horrendous,” and “maybe as bad a call as I’ve ever seen.” Seeing the play and call as it happened on Saturday and thinking the same thing that Knight said in his post-game press conference got me wondering. Why are referees so protected? Why don’t they have to speak to the media to explain what they saw and why they made certain calls? In this instance, the ref clearly made a terrible call, and possibly changed the outcome of the game, yet nothing is done to him? I have a lot of respect for officials in all sports and I feel that they make the right call 99.8% of the time, but every once in a while, they mess up. Why should the player or coach or administrator get in trouble for being critical or commenting about the situation? All I’m asking for is a post-game press conference for the officials. I think it would help if they had to answer some questions about their performance every game, too.
*March Madness seems to have set-in a little early. Sure, you had Top 10 teams losing at home this week like Pitt, Texas A&M and North Carolina, but that is just the beginning. Going into this week, there were 6 teams that were “on the bubble” for the NCAA tournament, and that are in an all new territory this time of year. Can you imagine an NCAA Tournament without the likes of Arizona, UCONN, Duke, Michigan State, Syracuse or Texas Tech? Ok, you got me with the Texas Tech. So let me say it this way. Can you imagine a March without Lute Olson, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Calhoun, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim or Bob Knight pacing the sidelines? All of these coaches and their teams have struggled in the new year. Bob Knight had lost 5 in a row, something he hadn’t done since 1971, before upseting #6 Texas A&M on Tuesday. Coach K and the Dukies had lost 4 in a row and dropped out of the ESPN/coaches poll for the first time since its inception before winning at #21 Boston College last night. Jim Calhoun is breaking in a young bunch at Connecticut this season, and the Big East has not been kind to them. They had lost 6 of 8 and 9 of their last 13 before beating Seton Hall last night. Arizona started 12-1 and is 5-6 since, Syracuse had lost 4 of 5 before winning their last two and Michigan State had lost 4 in a row before a win against rival Michiagn Tuesday night. So all these teams are now back on the winning track, but it is a track they need to stay on if they want to be playing in March. It sure would be an odd tournament without these coaches and teams on the sidelines.
*A cool story to follow that I wanted to pass along. Jon Lester, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox is back pitching again this spring after going through a tough offseason. Lester’s season ended last August 23rd after a start in Anaheim. It was then that he was diagnosed as having anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Lester went through six rounds of chemotherapy, the final one December 21st, and reported to Red Sox camp cancer-free.
*The Daytona 500 will start off the NASCAR season Sunday. The week leading up to this Daytona 500 has had a little more action and excitement than in years past though, with 5 different crew chiefs being suspended from the race due to their cars not meeting NASCAR regulations. Four of the racers who were penalized were Matt Kenseth, who finished second at Daytona last year, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs, but you have really got to give it to the 5th driver. Michael Waltrip and his team were hit with the toughest penalty. When these guys cheat, they really cheat. While the other racers were penalized for using irregular bolts in their cars or for improperly installing wind ducts, Waltrip's team was penalized for having a foreign substance in his car. That substance? JET FUEL. No truth to the the rumor that the song "Danger Zone" from the Top Gun soundtrack was playing in the garage when the team was busted.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
One Game Doesn't Make a Season
ONE GAME DOESN’T MAKE A SEASON
Pitt was thoroughly dismantled tonight by a very well coached and athletic Louisville basketball team. Every once in a while, a team has these games where they just didn’t seem to have shown up or played with a lack of energy. All teams have these games, not just bad teams, all teams. Tonight, Pitt had one of these games. The thing that amazed me about tonight’s game was not the outcome, but the reaction from the fans afterwards. Now, I know that I live in a city that sets its standards high for its teams and that hates losing, but after listening to the Pitt post-game show with Greg Linnelli, I realized one more thing, this city doesn’t know the first thing about basketball.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE CALLS THAT I HEARD TONIGHT.
Caller #1: Well, here we go again, Jamie Dixon just can’t win the big game. Wait a minute, since when was Louisville in the middle of February a big game?? And secondly, how is Bill Cowher doing? How about Jim Boeheim? They are some coaches that couldn’t win the “big game” either. Heck, I’d rather not win the big game as a coach if that is what it takes to be put in the same sentence as those two Hall of Fame coaches.
Caller #2: This team is overrated; they are the same Pitt team we have seen in the past, and they will be out of the NCAA Tournament in Sweet 16 again this year. Ok, they MIGHT be overrated, I think I can give you that. But to complain about getting to the sweet sixteen is just plain stupid. I realize that every team and their fans ideally would like to cut down the nets at the Final Four, but let’s be realistic. There are 336 schools that play division 1 basketball. Only 65 (19.3%) even make it into the NCAA tournament, and when you take into consideration that of those 65, 32 of them are the conference winner, that leaves just 33 (9.8%) spots for the best teams in the country to battle over just to make it into the tournament. Of those 65 teams, 49 of them lose in the first weekend, allowing only 16 (4.7%) to advance to the 2nd week of the tournament. How can Pitt fans be disappointed by consistently being in this top-tier for the past 6-7 years?
Caller #3: Jamie Dixon always seems to get outcoached by all the big name coaches, like Rick Pitino. Really, is that why he has the highest winning percentage of any coach in Big East history? Or maybe that is why he has 10 wins against the Big East’s best coaches, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Rick Pitino, in less than four seasons. It is probably also why he will become one of the top 15 fastest head coaches in NCAA history to get to 100 wins (he needs 2 more). I agree he can’t coach a lick.
Caller #4: Pitt always seems to fall short of their expectations. Well, who puts the high expectations on this team? The media and the fans!!!! Think about this, Jamie Dixon has the top team in the Big East this year, he had the runner-up in the conference tournament last year and he continues to have them among the elite in the country every year since he stepped in for Ben Howland. He has done all of that with basically a bunch of nobodies. The coaches I have mentioned before, Boeheim, Calhoun and Pitino, they don’t recruit kids, they select them. On Pitt's roster this season, only 4 players were considered 4-star recruits (out of 5 stars) coming out of high school, the rest were lower. 3 of those 4 are sophomores. Levon Kendall did not have another scholarship offer when he chose Pitt. Antonio Graves chose Pitt over Charlotte, Bowling Green and Rutgers. As a high school senior, Aaron Gray had only one other offer from Rutgers. That group is the seniors on this team. The juniors aren’t much better. Mike Cook transferred to Pitt after selecting East Carolina over Rhode Island out of high school, and Ronald Ramon had offers from just St. Bonaventure and George Mason. Dixon has taken these kids that nobody wanted and made them pretty good. It isn’t like Dixon is working with blue-chip recruits; he isn’t working with ANY, yet he still manages to win games at the highest level. Are the high expectations good for a program to have? You bet, but you can’t then criticize them when they don’t reach lofty goals. Especially when you realize that this group of players have been over-achievers from the day they arrived in Oakland.
I turned off the radio after that one. I had enough.
I still believe that Pitt has a very talented and good basketball team, and I still think that they could make some noise and maybe even put together a magical run in March. But lets just take it easy after they lose one game. The last team to go undefeated for an entire season was Indiana in 1976. TEAMS LOSE GAMES, and I fully expect Pitt to lose 1, 2, maybe even 3 more this season. Does that make them a disappointment or a failure? Depends on who you ask. One tip, you may want to avoid asking that question on a public forum, like on a post game call-in show after a loss that does end their season.
Pitt was thoroughly dismantled tonight by a very well coached and athletic Louisville basketball team. Every once in a while, a team has these games where they just didn’t seem to have shown up or played with a lack of energy. All teams have these games, not just bad teams, all teams. Tonight, Pitt had one of these games. The thing that amazed me about tonight’s game was not the outcome, but the reaction from the fans afterwards. Now, I know that I live in a city that sets its standards high for its teams and that hates losing, but after listening to the Pitt post-game show with Greg Linnelli, I realized one more thing, this city doesn’t know the first thing about basketball.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE CALLS THAT I HEARD TONIGHT.
Caller #1: Well, here we go again, Jamie Dixon just can’t win the big game. Wait a minute, since when was Louisville in the middle of February a big game?? And secondly, how is Bill Cowher doing? How about Jim Boeheim? They are some coaches that couldn’t win the “big game” either. Heck, I’d rather not win the big game as a coach if that is what it takes to be put in the same sentence as those two Hall of Fame coaches.
Caller #2: This team is overrated; they are the same Pitt team we have seen in the past, and they will be out of the NCAA Tournament in Sweet 16 again this year. Ok, they MIGHT be overrated, I think I can give you that. But to complain about getting to the sweet sixteen is just plain stupid. I realize that every team and their fans ideally would like to cut down the nets at the Final Four, but let’s be realistic. There are 336 schools that play division 1 basketball. Only 65 (19.3%) even make it into the NCAA tournament, and when you take into consideration that of those 65, 32 of them are the conference winner, that leaves just 33 (9.8%) spots for the best teams in the country to battle over just to make it into the tournament. Of those 65 teams, 49 of them lose in the first weekend, allowing only 16 (4.7%) to advance to the 2nd week of the tournament. How can Pitt fans be disappointed by consistently being in this top-tier for the past 6-7 years?
Caller #3: Jamie Dixon always seems to get outcoached by all the big name coaches, like Rick Pitino. Really, is that why he has the highest winning percentage of any coach in Big East history? Or maybe that is why he has 10 wins against the Big East’s best coaches, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Rick Pitino, in less than four seasons. It is probably also why he will become one of the top 15 fastest head coaches in NCAA history to get to 100 wins (he needs 2 more). I agree he can’t coach a lick.
Caller #4: Pitt always seems to fall short of their expectations. Well, who puts the high expectations on this team? The media and the fans!!!! Think about this, Jamie Dixon has the top team in the Big East this year, he had the runner-up in the conference tournament last year and he continues to have them among the elite in the country every year since he stepped in for Ben Howland. He has done all of that with basically a bunch of nobodies. The coaches I have mentioned before, Boeheim, Calhoun and Pitino, they don’t recruit kids, they select them. On Pitt's roster this season, only 4 players were considered 4-star recruits (out of 5 stars) coming out of high school, the rest were lower. 3 of those 4 are sophomores. Levon Kendall did not have another scholarship offer when he chose Pitt. Antonio Graves chose Pitt over Charlotte, Bowling Green and Rutgers. As a high school senior, Aaron Gray had only one other offer from Rutgers. That group is the seniors on this team. The juniors aren’t much better. Mike Cook transferred to Pitt after selecting East Carolina over Rhode Island out of high school, and Ronald Ramon had offers from just St. Bonaventure and George Mason. Dixon has taken these kids that nobody wanted and made them pretty good. It isn’t like Dixon is working with blue-chip recruits; he isn’t working with ANY, yet he still manages to win games at the highest level. Are the high expectations good for a program to have? You bet, but you can’t then criticize them when they don’t reach lofty goals. Especially when you realize that this group of players have been over-achievers from the day they arrived in Oakland.
I turned off the radio after that one. I had enough.
I still believe that Pitt has a very talented and good basketball team, and I still think that they could make some noise and maybe even put together a magical run in March. But lets just take it easy after they lose one game. The last team to go undefeated for an entire season was Indiana in 1976. TEAMS LOSE GAMES, and I fully expect Pitt to lose 1, 2, maybe even 3 more this season. Does that make them a disappointment or a failure? Depends on who you ask. One tip, you may want to avoid asking that question on a public forum, like on a post game call-in show after a loss that does end their season.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Best DAYS of Your Life
The Best DAYS of Your Life
This is the time of year that every sports fan can look forward to. At this point of the year, everything is still in front of the fans of EVERY sport. Take a look at the upcoming schedule that is a must for all sports fans:
4 Days until Pitchers and Catchers Report to Spring Training: That means in 5 days, the Pirates will start working out in preparations for the 2007 season AND from the day they start camp until at least April 2nd, they will not be in last place.
6 Days until the Daytona 500: The Daytona 500 ends what has to be the shortest off-season of any sport. The NASCAR season ended November 19th last season and now, less than three months later, they are back, ready to start another season. At least the three months are the prime hunting seasons, which gives those NASCAR fans something to do during the off-season.
28 – 32- 50 Days until MARCH MADNESS: To be exact it is 28 days until Selection Sunday, 32 days until the real games begin, sorry that play-in game doesn’t cut it, (SIDE NOTE: Does anyone else think the play-in game would be more exciting if it were the last two bubble teams that are playing for an at-large bid?) and 50 days until we crown a NCAA Champion for the 2007 season. I would have said crown a NEW champion, but the way that Florida is playing, I think I’m better off just to say crown a champion. At this point, you probably know if your team is close or not to getting into the tournament, and now it is just a fight for survival and positioning until the seedings are released Sunday March 11th.
50 Days until Opening Day of Major League Baseball: I’m not counting the 1 game that is being played on Sunday night that kicks off the season. It doesn’t count for two reasons. First, it is on the schedule ONLY for television purposes, and second, every other team in the Majors opens the next day.
51 Days until the Pirates are eliminated from playoff contention: Okay, this year they made some improvements to their team, so maybe this is a little early to eliminate them, but then again, Major League Baseball didn’t make any changes to it’s salary structure, so yeah, 51 days until the Buccos are out of the playoff race.
53 Days until the Golf season starts: I know. I know. Lefty just won at Pebble this weekend, but the golf season doesn’t really start until you see “Amen Corner,” or “the Bridge,” or the azaleas and hear Jim Nance over that soft piano say the words, “Welcome to the Masters.”
59 Days until the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin: At the beginning of the season, people were debating on whether the Penguins could make the playoffs this season, being so young. Now it’s not a question of will they be in it, it is a matter of how long they will stay. Heck, after the game last night, the Toronto head coach said that the Penguins are the best team in hockey right now. Who could argue that? 11-0-2 in the past 13 is pretty impressive. They are my new favorite team, have you heard??
69 Days until the NBA Playoffs begin: You know the NBA, that league after college basketball? This is the time of year it actually gets exciting. It is just a shame that the league is so screwed up that more teams make the playoffs (16) than miss it (13). Something needs to be done about that. Unfortunately, I think the only way they will change it is to add more teams, just what we need.
76 Days until the NFL Draft: On these days, people all over this great country will sit on their couches and watch for hours on end to see well-dressed, soon-to-be-millionaires wait in a room together before their fate is decided for them. This year, these players will be dreaming and hoping to be that #1 overall selection, but all that dreaming and hoping will end quickly when they realize that the Raiders have the first pick.
Well, there you have it, your sports calendar for the next 76 days. Remember, right now everything is still in front of you and your favorite team. Right now, there is still hope and your team doesn’t stink. Well, unless you are a Penn State hoops fan; then there is no hope and your team really does stink. But don’t worry, the Blue-White game is right around the corner.
This is the time of year that every sports fan can look forward to. At this point of the year, everything is still in front of the fans of EVERY sport. Take a look at the upcoming schedule that is a must for all sports fans:
4 Days until Pitchers and Catchers Report to Spring Training: That means in 5 days, the Pirates will start working out in preparations for the 2007 season AND from the day they start camp until at least April 2nd, they will not be in last place.
6 Days until the Daytona 500: The Daytona 500 ends what has to be the shortest off-season of any sport. The NASCAR season ended November 19th last season and now, less than three months later, they are back, ready to start another season. At least the three months are the prime hunting seasons, which gives those NASCAR fans something to do during the off-season.
28 – 32- 50 Days until MARCH MADNESS: To be exact it is 28 days until Selection Sunday, 32 days until the real games begin, sorry that play-in game doesn’t cut it, (SIDE NOTE: Does anyone else think the play-in game would be more exciting if it were the last two bubble teams that are playing for an at-large bid?) and 50 days until we crown a NCAA Champion for the 2007 season. I would have said crown a NEW champion, but the way that Florida is playing, I think I’m better off just to say crown a champion. At this point, you probably know if your team is close or not to getting into the tournament, and now it is just a fight for survival and positioning until the seedings are released Sunday March 11th.
50 Days until Opening Day of Major League Baseball: I’m not counting the 1 game that is being played on Sunday night that kicks off the season. It doesn’t count for two reasons. First, it is on the schedule ONLY for television purposes, and second, every other team in the Majors opens the next day.
51 Days until the Pirates are eliminated from playoff contention: Okay, this year they made some improvements to their team, so maybe this is a little early to eliminate them, but then again, Major League Baseball didn’t make any changes to it’s salary structure, so yeah, 51 days until the Buccos are out of the playoff race.
53 Days until the Golf season starts: I know. I know. Lefty just won at Pebble this weekend, but the golf season doesn’t really start until you see “Amen Corner,” or “the Bridge,” or the azaleas and hear Jim Nance over that soft piano say the words, “Welcome to the Masters.”
59 Days until the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin: At the beginning of the season, people were debating on whether the Penguins could make the playoffs this season, being so young. Now it’s not a question of will they be in it, it is a matter of how long they will stay. Heck, after the game last night, the Toronto head coach said that the Penguins are the best team in hockey right now. Who could argue that? 11-0-2 in the past 13 is pretty impressive. They are my new favorite team, have you heard??
69 Days until the NBA Playoffs begin: You know the NBA, that league after college basketball? This is the time of year it actually gets exciting. It is just a shame that the league is so screwed up that more teams make the playoffs (16) than miss it (13). Something needs to be done about that. Unfortunately, I think the only way they will change it is to add more teams, just what we need.
76 Days until the NFL Draft: On these days, people all over this great country will sit on their couches and watch for hours on end to see well-dressed, soon-to-be-millionaires wait in a room together before their fate is decided for them. This year, these players will be dreaming and hoping to be that #1 overall selection, but all that dreaming and hoping will end quickly when they realize that the Raiders have the first pick.
Well, there you have it, your sports calendar for the next 76 days. Remember, right now everything is still in front of you and your favorite team. Right now, there is still hope and your team doesn’t stink. Well, unless you are a Penn State hoops fan; then there is no hope and your team really does stink. But don’t worry, the Blue-White game is right around the corner.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
A New Game in Town
So it has been eight full days since the last time that the Pitt basketball team has played, and during those eight days, I have had to come up with ways to entertain myself. It has been hard, but during that span I came across this new type of activity or game, you may even call it a sport. The more I watched it, the more entertaining it became. So let me fill you in on this new thing.
When I first saw this game being played, I thought that it must be something new, something the kids came up with due to this recent cold weather. Why else would anyone make up some game that is SUPPOSED to be played on ice?
Anyway, in this new game, everyone on the sheet of ice has a stick - kind of dangerous if you ask me - and the goal is to use these sticks to guide a piece of rubber into nets that are set-up on each end of the playing surface. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Once you get almost all the way to the net, you have to hit the piece of rubber, which is called a PUCK by us people in the know, past a person wearing tons of pillows, or something of the sort, who is taking up most of the net.
So during this eight day lay off, I noticed that this game was on television quite a bit, and I was able to learn a lot about it. Like its name: HOCKEY. I also learned that many cities around the world have teams that play this game. In the North America, the best teams belong in a league called the NHL, or National Hockey League (makes sense). Pittsburgh even has one of these teams!!! As luck would have it, my buddy Gulish called me tonight and offered me a ticket to go see this Pittsburgh team play in person. I had to jump at that opportunity, this new game suddenly seems to be the rave of Pittsburgh, so I wanted to make sure that I was one of the first to take part in watching these games live. Gulish told me to meet him at Gate 3 of the Mellon Arena for the game. Oh no, I thought to myself, the Mellon Arena, what did I get myself into? The only things that go on in that old building are bad concerts, bad basketball played by the Pittsburgh Explosion, and graduation ceremonies for universities that don’t have anywhere else to hold them (Point Park).
As I walked to our seats (center ice, 6 rows back), I realized what an event this was. I was joined by 16,807 of my closest friends to take in this hockey game.
I really didn’t understand all that much of the game, all the rules and strategy which I like to know for games, but I managed to follow it pretty well, I think. As it turns out, the Penguins, the team name for the Pittsburgh team, is pretty good, and based on the programs they gave me, they have a lot of really good young players. I even overheard some old guy next to me saying that the one player on the team is the best in the entire world. He is probably exaggerating a little bit.
Anyway, the Pittsburgh team beat the Nashville team 4-1 and the Nashville team is the best in the league, so I guess they did pretty well. I just wanted to update everyone on this new crazy game going around. Like I said, the name is HOCKEY, and the Pittsburgh Penguins is the local team. You should try to check them out soon before it is something that everyone is talking about. It is pretty entertaining stuff, too.
Let’s see college basketball ends in early April; I wonder when this NHL thing ends. I’m kinda looking forward to watching it again.
When I first saw this game being played, I thought that it must be something new, something the kids came up with due to this recent cold weather. Why else would anyone make up some game that is SUPPOSED to be played on ice?
Anyway, in this new game, everyone on the sheet of ice has a stick - kind of dangerous if you ask me - and the goal is to use these sticks to guide a piece of rubber into nets that are set-up on each end of the playing surface. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Once you get almost all the way to the net, you have to hit the piece of rubber, which is called a PUCK by us people in the know, past a person wearing tons of pillows, or something of the sort, who is taking up most of the net.
So during this eight day lay off, I noticed that this game was on television quite a bit, and I was able to learn a lot about it. Like its name: HOCKEY. I also learned that many cities around the world have teams that play this game. In the North America, the best teams belong in a league called the NHL, or National Hockey League (makes sense). Pittsburgh even has one of these teams!!! As luck would have it, my buddy Gulish called me tonight and offered me a ticket to go see this Pittsburgh team play in person. I had to jump at that opportunity, this new game suddenly seems to be the rave of Pittsburgh, so I wanted to make sure that I was one of the first to take part in watching these games live. Gulish told me to meet him at Gate 3 of the Mellon Arena for the game. Oh no, I thought to myself, the Mellon Arena, what did I get myself into? The only things that go on in that old building are bad concerts, bad basketball played by the Pittsburgh Explosion, and graduation ceremonies for universities that don’t have anywhere else to hold them (Point Park).
As I walked to our seats (center ice, 6 rows back), I realized what an event this was. I was joined by 16,807 of my closest friends to take in this hockey game.
I really didn’t understand all that much of the game, all the rules and strategy which I like to know for games, but I managed to follow it pretty well, I think. As it turns out, the Penguins, the team name for the Pittsburgh team, is pretty good, and based on the programs they gave me, they have a lot of really good young players. I even overheard some old guy next to me saying that the one player on the team is the best in the entire world. He is probably exaggerating a little bit.
Anyway, the Pittsburgh team beat the Nashville team 4-1 and the Nashville team is the best in the league, so I guess they did pretty well. I just wanted to update everyone on this new crazy game going around. Like I said, the name is HOCKEY, and the Pittsburgh Penguins is the local team. You should try to check them out soon before it is something that everyone is talking about. It is pretty entertaining stuff, too.
Let’s see college basketball ends in early April; I wonder when this NHL thing ends. I’m kinda looking forward to watching it again.
Super Bowl Forty- BLAH!
THIS WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FEBRUARY 4, 2007
Super Bowl Forty- BLAH!
Every year after all the hype and all the pre game coverage and all the post game coverage, the same thing happens, everyone stops and says, “Wow, that Super Bowl was terrible.”
Well let me be the first to say so this year. Eights turnovers, four field goals and two non-offensive touchdowns, and these are the two best teams the NFL could come up with??? Last year was a pretty boring game too, but at least last year there was a story to be blown way out of hand, with Jerome Bettis returning home for his only Super Bowl appearance. That led to Jeremy Stevens starting trash talk with Joey Porter and it was fun. This year, the talk was about the first two black African-American head coaches coaching in the Super Bowl, and if that guy from all the commercials can win “the big game.” No trash-talking, nothing. Listening to the media day cover you would think that these were the two best teams to ever play the game of football. Not even close.
Super Bowl XLI consisted of 7 hours of pre game coverage between ESPN and CBS, only to then have CBS present the 30 minute Kickoff Show. What in the hell were we just watching on CBS for the past 240 minutes? Oh and that kickoff show. Let’s do away with all that garbage. I mean they had a circus, on the football field before the game. I know that these fans paid big bucks for their tickets and due to security issues they were encouraged to get into the stadium early, but does that mean that the rest of the country has to watch Barnum and Bailey too? Plus is the best thing for a wet turf 30 minutes before kickoff really to have people dancing and doing circus routines? Now, I like Cirque de Soleli, but there is a time and place for it, and the Super Bowl isn’t either. While we are on that topic, PRINCE at halftime?!?! Come on, I thought the NFL wanted to do away with the raunchy/sex driven halftime shows and then they go and ask this guy? The over/under for the football game was 48, the over/under for crotch grabs by Prince during halftime was 61. They might as well have brought back Janet and Justin. Next year maybe they will just have some little high school band from the Glendale, AZ area perform. It would last 15 minutes and then everyone could get back to watching the game. We can hope, can’t we?
Oh yeah, the game. Well, the first quarter was exciting. And yes, Rex Grossman DID deserve all the criticism that he got for the past 13 days leading up to the game.
Heck the commercials were even weak this year. There were a few that I’m sure did well, the Blockbuster On-line with the mouse and Rock, Paper, Scissors for the last Bud Light, and a few for Doritos, but other than those nothing really jumped out at me.
When it comes down to it, I’m glad the Colts won. I’m glad Tony Dungy won. And I’m glad that Peyton Manning won. It was a shame that the weather was as bad as it was, but I also think that weather is part of the game and from time to time you will have bad weather. It was the first Super Bowl to have any rainfall, so 1 out of 41 isn’t bad.
The Colts won, the Colts dominated, just as many people thought. The game wasn’t very exciting, just as many people, EXCEPT the television suits, thought. Just once I would like a big-time sporting event to go off as just that, a sporting event, not a show. Enough with the SportsCenters from South Beach and every other show and station possible having someone live at the Super Bowl. I swear as I was scanning through the channels this week I saw Dr. Phil sitting on a beach chair wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sun-block on his nose giving group therapy sessions. Who cares?
Here’s to Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, AZ next year to being normal. We can hope, can’t we?
Super Bowl Forty- BLAH!
Every year after all the hype and all the pre game coverage and all the post game coverage, the same thing happens, everyone stops and says, “Wow, that Super Bowl was terrible.”
Well let me be the first to say so this year. Eights turnovers, four field goals and two non-offensive touchdowns, and these are the two best teams the NFL could come up with??? Last year was a pretty boring game too, but at least last year there was a story to be blown way out of hand, with Jerome Bettis returning home for his only Super Bowl appearance. That led to Jeremy Stevens starting trash talk with Joey Porter and it was fun. This year, the talk was about the first two black African-American head coaches coaching in the Super Bowl, and if that guy from all the commercials can win “the big game.” No trash-talking, nothing. Listening to the media day cover you would think that these were the two best teams to ever play the game of football. Not even close.
Super Bowl XLI consisted of 7 hours of pre game coverage between ESPN and CBS, only to then have CBS present the 30 minute Kickoff Show. What in the hell were we just watching on CBS for the past 240 minutes? Oh and that kickoff show. Let’s do away with all that garbage. I mean they had a circus, on the football field before the game. I know that these fans paid big bucks for their tickets and due to security issues they were encouraged to get into the stadium early, but does that mean that the rest of the country has to watch Barnum and Bailey too? Plus is the best thing for a wet turf 30 minutes before kickoff really to have people dancing and doing circus routines? Now, I like Cirque de Soleli, but there is a time and place for it, and the Super Bowl isn’t either. While we are on that topic, PRINCE at halftime?!?! Come on, I thought the NFL wanted to do away with the raunchy/sex driven halftime shows and then they go and ask this guy? The over/under for the football game was 48, the over/under for crotch grabs by Prince during halftime was 61. They might as well have brought back Janet and Justin. Next year maybe they will just have some little high school band from the Glendale, AZ area perform. It would last 15 minutes and then everyone could get back to watching the game. We can hope, can’t we?
Oh yeah, the game. Well, the first quarter was exciting. And yes, Rex Grossman DID deserve all the criticism that he got for the past 13 days leading up to the game.
Heck the commercials were even weak this year. There were a few that I’m sure did well, the Blockbuster On-line with the mouse and Rock, Paper, Scissors for the last Bud Light, and a few for Doritos, but other than those nothing really jumped out at me.
When it comes down to it, I’m glad the Colts won. I’m glad Tony Dungy won. And I’m glad that Peyton Manning won. It was a shame that the weather was as bad as it was, but I also think that weather is part of the game and from time to time you will have bad weather. It was the first Super Bowl to have any rainfall, so 1 out of 41 isn’t bad.
The Colts won, the Colts dominated, just as many people thought. The game wasn’t very exciting, just as many people, EXCEPT the television suits, thought. Just once I would like a big-time sporting event to go off as just that, a sporting event, not a show. Enough with the SportsCenters from South Beach and every other show and station possible having someone live at the Super Bowl. I swear as I was scanning through the channels this week I saw Dr. Phil sitting on a beach chair wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sun-block on his nose giving group therapy sessions. Who cares?
Here’s to Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, AZ next year to being normal. We can hope, can’t we?
An Aussie Rules RANT
THIS WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JANUARY 24, 2007
I know, I know, Kevin talking tennis, what is this all about?? Well due to my odd work schedule, which then leads to my even stranger sleeping patterns, I have been watching quite a bit of this years Australian Open. Here are some thoughts based on what I have seen.
* Men’s tennis is terrible!!!!! Yeah it is nice for the Americans watching to have Andy Roddick do well and Mardy Fish surprise a few people before deciding not to show up against Roddick, but come on people!!!! Watching a full men’s tennis tournament is like watching a horror move, you know the bad guy is going to kill some people it is just a matter of where, when and how. Men’s tennis is the same way. Everyone already knows Roger Federer is going to win the tournament, it is just a matter of who he beats, when he beats them, and how badly or impressively he does it. My suggestion to fix this is change the format of these tournaments. Instead of playing a full tournament going through the brackets, once you get to the quarterfinals, everyone remaining gets a shot at Federer. The only catch is that he would have to beat everyone in the same time frame it would take to finish the tournament. By doing this all the fans get to see more of him and it gives every other player on tour a realistic chance of beating the guy. I mean, now if you are lucky enough to be the third guy to face him in a 24-hour span, you may have a shot.
* Women’s tennis is the complete opposite. With the return of Martina Hingis and Serena Williams going into any given tournament there are about 8-12 women that have a chance to win it. Granted, it will still, most likely be one of the big guns, but not all the time. After watching Serena two nights ago and Hingis last night, it is amazing that these women both took a lot of time off, yet are back at this level so quickly. Martina is actually playing a different style now too!! She is playing a much more controlled and mature style, she isn’t playing real aggressive, she is sitting back and waiting for her opponents to make mistakes and once they do she jumps all over them.
* Speaking about women’s tennis, WOW!!!! Now everyone knows Anna Kournikova, you know the newest member on the CW’s Beauty and the Geek (the CW is in the CBS family, I gotta give a little support, you know). She has done more with nothing than just about anyone on the sporting world. Herb Brooks and the Miracle on Ice team is a distant 2nd. The only difference is they won with nothing; she doesn’t win and still gets everything!! Okay, I’m getting off track. We all have seen Maria Sharapova, she is beautiful AND talented (imagine that…). But it looks don’t stop there!!!! It seems the Russians just breed hot tennis players, not always talented, but ALWAYS hot!! While watching Serena two nights ago my dad asks, “who is she playing, another Russian?” The screen quickly cut to a close up of Serena’s opponent Shahar Peer, and I quickly responded, “I’m not sure where she is from, but she must not be Russian.” Shahar is from Israel and looks more like Hootch from the classic Tom Hanks movie Turner and Hootch than anything human that I can think about. Okay, again getting off track. Yeah the Russians have cornered the market on hot Russians, but I have a new favorite. She is not Russian, she is not “hot” I’m going to go with “cute”, and she is not even new, but I’m going to say that I am fan of the new and improved Martina Hingis. She no longer whines and complains, and she has an extremely cute look to her. She may have always had that look to her, but I hated her as a player so I never really paid much attention to her. Should have I guess!!!
Okay, that is all on this Rant. As I prepare myself for the Roddick / Federer semi, I was wondering, will Roddick win more sets than Anna won titles in her career (zero)?? I’m thinking, NO!
I know, I know, Kevin talking tennis, what is this all about?? Well due to my odd work schedule, which then leads to my even stranger sleeping patterns, I have been watching quite a bit of this years Australian Open. Here are some thoughts based on what I have seen.
* Men’s tennis is terrible!!!!! Yeah it is nice for the Americans watching to have Andy Roddick do well and Mardy Fish surprise a few people before deciding not to show up against Roddick, but come on people!!!! Watching a full men’s tennis tournament is like watching a horror move, you know the bad guy is going to kill some people it is just a matter of where, when and how. Men’s tennis is the same way. Everyone already knows Roger Federer is going to win the tournament, it is just a matter of who he beats, when he beats them, and how badly or impressively he does it. My suggestion to fix this is change the format of these tournaments. Instead of playing a full tournament going through the brackets, once you get to the quarterfinals, everyone remaining gets a shot at Federer. The only catch is that he would have to beat everyone in the same time frame it would take to finish the tournament. By doing this all the fans get to see more of him and it gives every other player on tour a realistic chance of beating the guy. I mean, now if you are lucky enough to be the third guy to face him in a 24-hour span, you may have a shot.
* Women’s tennis is the complete opposite. With the return of Martina Hingis and Serena Williams going into any given tournament there are about 8-12 women that have a chance to win it. Granted, it will still, most likely be one of the big guns, but not all the time. After watching Serena two nights ago and Hingis last night, it is amazing that these women both took a lot of time off, yet are back at this level so quickly. Martina is actually playing a different style now too!! She is playing a much more controlled and mature style, she isn’t playing real aggressive, she is sitting back and waiting for her opponents to make mistakes and once they do she jumps all over them.
* Speaking about women’s tennis, WOW!!!! Now everyone knows Anna Kournikova, you know the newest member on the CW’s Beauty and the Geek (the CW is in the CBS family, I gotta give a little support, you know). She has done more with nothing than just about anyone on the sporting world. Herb Brooks and the Miracle on Ice team is a distant 2nd. The only difference is they won with nothing; she doesn’t win and still gets everything!! Okay, I’m getting off track. We all have seen Maria Sharapova, she is beautiful AND talented (imagine that…). But it looks don’t stop there!!!! It seems the Russians just breed hot tennis players, not always talented, but ALWAYS hot!! While watching Serena two nights ago my dad asks, “who is she playing, another Russian?” The screen quickly cut to a close up of Serena’s opponent Shahar Peer, and I quickly responded, “I’m not sure where she is from, but she must not be Russian.” Shahar is from Israel and looks more like Hootch from the classic Tom Hanks movie Turner and Hootch than anything human that I can think about. Okay, again getting off track. Yeah the Russians have cornered the market on hot Russians, but I have a new favorite. She is not Russian, she is not “hot” I’m going to go with “cute”, and she is not even new, but I’m going to say that I am fan of the new and improved Martina Hingis. She no longer whines and complains, and she has an extremely cute look to her. She may have always had that look to her, but I hated her as a player so I never really paid much attention to her. Should have I guess!!!
Okay, that is all on this Rant. As I prepare myself for the Roddick / Federer semi, I was wondering, will Roddick win more sets than Anna won titles in her career (zero)?? I’m thinking, NO!
Another College Football Season in the Books
THIS WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JANUARY 8, 2007
THE BIG (Pre)TEN(d)
Let’s start out with a simple question. What do you get when you take a Midwest football team out of the Midwest?
A LOSS!!!!
As we all know, I love the SEC and always rave about how good they are. In turn, everyone who knows me also knows that I despise the Big Ten. The only good thing to come out the Big Ten was Brian Ingram (Northwestern). So it was no surprise to me, and I’ve been telling anyone that would listen, that the Big Ten would lay an egg in the bowls, including their two golden boys tOSU and Michigan getting trounced. And what do you know, they did. If I only had a bookie. Throw in the grossly overrated Notre Dame and you have the 3 most praised, hyped and oh yeah OVERRATED teams in the nation losing by an average of over 3 TDs each. Can everyone get off of the Big Ten now? It was clear to see how incredibly overrated the conference was this season, yet NOBODY wanted to say it. Everyone wanted tOSU to be the great story and everyone wanted an undefeated champion, but quite honestly they might be the fifth best team in the country.
Looking at their schedules, neither team beat another great team. Everyone points to the Texas win in Austin for the Buckeyes, granted it was a nice win, but last time I checked Vince Young was no longer in Austin, he was busy winning the NFL Rookie of the Year. Texas wasn’t all that great this season and they should that in their bowl game, squeaking by Iowa. A BAD Big Ten team. Here is a little tidbit for you. The Ohio State University beat two teams this season that will finish ranked, one being Michigan, and I think Pete Carroll and USC showed how good they are and the other being Texas. Michigan also beat just 2 teams that will end the season ranked. Wisconsin, which I do feel is a good team, and Notre Dame who has managed to make BCS games the past two seasons without beating a ranked team. Both teams were exposed when they finally lost. First of all they lost to a great team, the first one that either team had played. Secondly they lost to a team that had speed. It is that old saying, “speed kills,” and it did just that to the Big Ten this year, it killed them!
Since we are on the topic of teams being overrated and what not, here is a simply solution STOP THE PRESEASON RANKINGS. Yes I know they sell magazines and newspapers, but they mean nothing and actually hurt teams come November or December. Look at Auburn a few years back or even Rutgers this year, they both started the season so low or not ranked at all that neither school even had a chance to play for the national title o matter what happened. So because we want to act as if we are smarter than we really are, by putting out these ridiculously rankings when in reality nobody has any idea which teams are good and which aren’t, we actually making college football as a whole suffer. Look at Notre Dame this year, #1 in some preseason polls, enough said!! My solution here, rankings don’t come out until AFTER the 1st Saturday of October.
Enough beating up on the Big Ten, the conference has already taken enough beating this bowl season.
A BOWL SEASON in REVIEW
Right here would be a perfect spot for me to point out that the Big East won the Conference Bowl Challenge, by becoming the 1st conference since it started to go undefeated in bowl play, but I won’t. I will actually knock the whole system that we have to watch football under during the holiday season.
Okay, so I will mention the Big East again, but just to prove a point. The Big East wins the conference challenge, does that mean the Big East is the best conference? Of course not, the Big East was about the 3rd best conference this year, but happened to luck into the fact where they played NOBODY during their bowls.
Here is my solution. Yes, Ideally I would say have a playoff, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so lets move on. Lets drop the whole conference affiliation thing for bowls. Forget the fact that the Big East has 6 bowl spots and each game is mapped out where they will play and what conference they will play against. Making everything open to everyone. If the Cotton Bowl wants to offer West Virginia a spot in its bowl, more power to them. The whole purpose of the bowl season is to see good match-ups and to see REALLY how each conference stacks up with the others. The Big East playing the Big XII, twice against the ACC, C-USA and the MAC don’t tell me anything. So open up the bowl season, it allows fans to go to different bowls, it allows players to go to different bowls and it allows match-ups that would attract a better viewing audience. I think that last part may have just awoken some NCAA guys who still don’t think they make enough money throughout this whole process yet.
My final solution for fixing the bowls is simple, PAY THESE KIDS!!!!! The schools, coaches, television station, and the NCAA make so much money off these kids can’t we give them a little something. And I don’t want to hear the fact that they go to school for free, GREAT, so does Betty Sue in the Engineering program, but you don’t see her making the school millions of dollars on a weekly basis. I’m not saying pay them some absurd amount, but how about 1% of the schools profit from their bowl game goes to the players. Something! Anything! Honestly what I would love to see is the NCAA student athlete board decide to boycott bowls until this happened. Do you realize how fast they schools would listen then? These athletes make so much money for each university, they deserve a little in return.
CONTRACTS
The NCAA needs to do something NOW about all these lying, sneaky coaches and schools. If a coach is under contract, he is untouchable. If that coach wants out of his contract to go to another school a punishment needs to be put in place. A strict punishment, and I’m not talking about money, because as I’ve mentioned that is one this that all these schools already have too much of, I mean scholarships. You break a contract by going to another school; you get hit hard on the recruiting trail. My suggestion would be simple, and it would last two years. Year 1, lose ½ of your scholarships (NCAA limits 25 given annually), so you have 13 scholarships instead of 25, and the head coach cannot leave campus to recruit. Year 2, you lose 20% (5) scholarships, and the coach is allowed to recruit. This would do some damage to the product on the field, and that would hit the school in the pocket book, and honestly that is the only thing they care about.
That is all for this lengthy rant, I’ll be back soon with another, basketball talk next time perhaps!!!
THE BIG (Pre)TEN(d)
Let’s start out with a simple question. What do you get when you take a Midwest football team out of the Midwest?
A LOSS!!!!
As we all know, I love the SEC and always rave about how good they are. In turn, everyone who knows me also knows that I despise the Big Ten. The only good thing to come out the Big Ten was Brian Ingram (Northwestern). So it was no surprise to me, and I’ve been telling anyone that would listen, that the Big Ten would lay an egg in the bowls, including their two golden boys tOSU and Michigan getting trounced. And what do you know, they did. If I only had a bookie. Throw in the grossly overrated Notre Dame and you have the 3 most praised, hyped and oh yeah OVERRATED teams in the nation losing by an average of over 3 TDs each. Can everyone get off of the Big Ten now? It was clear to see how incredibly overrated the conference was this season, yet NOBODY wanted to say it. Everyone wanted tOSU to be the great story and everyone wanted an undefeated champion, but quite honestly they might be the fifth best team in the country.
Looking at their schedules, neither team beat another great team. Everyone points to the Texas win in Austin for the Buckeyes, granted it was a nice win, but last time I checked Vince Young was no longer in Austin, he was busy winning the NFL Rookie of the Year. Texas wasn’t all that great this season and they should that in their bowl game, squeaking by Iowa. A BAD Big Ten team. Here is a little tidbit for you. The Ohio State University beat two teams this season that will finish ranked, one being Michigan, and I think Pete Carroll and USC showed how good they are and the other being Texas. Michigan also beat just 2 teams that will end the season ranked. Wisconsin, which I do feel is a good team, and Notre Dame who has managed to make BCS games the past two seasons without beating a ranked team. Both teams were exposed when they finally lost. First of all they lost to a great team, the first one that either team had played. Secondly they lost to a team that had speed. It is that old saying, “speed kills,” and it did just that to the Big Ten this year, it killed them!
Since we are on the topic of teams being overrated and what not, here is a simply solution STOP THE PRESEASON RANKINGS. Yes I know they sell magazines and newspapers, but they mean nothing and actually hurt teams come November or December. Look at Auburn a few years back or even Rutgers this year, they both started the season so low or not ranked at all that neither school even had a chance to play for the national title o matter what happened. So because we want to act as if we are smarter than we really are, by putting out these ridiculously rankings when in reality nobody has any idea which teams are good and which aren’t, we actually making college football as a whole suffer. Look at Notre Dame this year, #1 in some preseason polls, enough said!! My solution here, rankings don’t come out until AFTER the 1st Saturday of October.
Enough beating up on the Big Ten, the conference has already taken enough beating this bowl season.
A BOWL SEASON in REVIEW
Right here would be a perfect spot for me to point out that the Big East won the Conference Bowl Challenge, by becoming the 1st conference since it started to go undefeated in bowl play, but I won’t. I will actually knock the whole system that we have to watch football under during the holiday season.
Okay, so I will mention the Big East again, but just to prove a point. The Big East wins the conference challenge, does that mean the Big East is the best conference? Of course not, the Big East was about the 3rd best conference this year, but happened to luck into the fact where they played NOBODY during their bowls.
Here is my solution. Yes, Ideally I would say have a playoff, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so lets move on. Lets drop the whole conference affiliation thing for bowls. Forget the fact that the Big East has 6 bowl spots and each game is mapped out where they will play and what conference they will play against. Making everything open to everyone. If the Cotton Bowl wants to offer West Virginia a spot in its bowl, more power to them. The whole purpose of the bowl season is to see good match-ups and to see REALLY how each conference stacks up with the others. The Big East playing the Big XII, twice against the ACC, C-USA and the MAC don’t tell me anything. So open up the bowl season, it allows fans to go to different bowls, it allows players to go to different bowls and it allows match-ups that would attract a better viewing audience. I think that last part may have just awoken some NCAA guys who still don’t think they make enough money throughout this whole process yet.
My final solution for fixing the bowls is simple, PAY THESE KIDS!!!!! The schools, coaches, television station, and the NCAA make so much money off these kids can’t we give them a little something. And I don’t want to hear the fact that they go to school for free, GREAT, so does Betty Sue in the Engineering program, but you don’t see her making the school millions of dollars on a weekly basis. I’m not saying pay them some absurd amount, but how about 1% of the schools profit from their bowl game goes to the players. Something! Anything! Honestly what I would love to see is the NCAA student athlete board decide to boycott bowls until this happened. Do you realize how fast they schools would listen then? These athletes make so much money for each university, they deserve a little in return.
CONTRACTS
The NCAA needs to do something NOW about all these lying, sneaky coaches and schools. If a coach is under contract, he is untouchable. If that coach wants out of his contract to go to another school a punishment needs to be put in place. A strict punishment, and I’m not talking about money, because as I’ve mentioned that is one this that all these schools already have too much of, I mean scholarships. You break a contract by going to another school; you get hit hard on the recruiting trail. My suggestion would be simple, and it would last two years. Year 1, lose ½ of your scholarships (NCAA limits 25 given annually), so you have 13 scholarships instead of 25, and the head coach cannot leave campus to recruit. Year 2, you lose 20% (5) scholarships, and the coach is allowed to recruit. This would do some damage to the product on the field, and that would hit the school in the pocket book, and honestly that is the only thing they care about.
That is all for this lengthy rant, I’ll be back soon with another, basketball talk next time perhaps!!!
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