Tuesday Morning Thoughts: Media Day

This week's TMTs theme? Media. A Google images search revealed the above photo. Evidently they have something called the Youth Media Awards, which is sponsored by the American Library Association. This person (can't tell if its a boy or girl) has likely been shoved in a locker about 50 times in his young life. But, "congrats here is your YMA award with a statute of a librarian and book on it". You're going places kid! Alright, to the TMTs.

1. I'm starting to like Chris Carter as an analyst. (Note: I hate him as a player, always beating the Bears). He's quickly becoming the Charles Barkley of NFL commentators. He says what's on his mind, sometimes funny, and even thoughtful. He can get a little annoying however and says some shock journalism comments every once in a while, but he's getting better.

2. You know who is not getting any better? Michael Strahan and Tiki Barber. I won't go back into why I think it makes no sense that a former football player should automatically become a great commentator again. But, suffice to say, these guys annoy the hell out of me.

3. In this Sunday's tribune a writer wrote about why Mark Bradley was cut from the Bears. Great article, except that Mark Bradley was cut from the Bears two weeks ago. Honestly. Its Sunday morning I got my coffee and pastry in hand and my paper. Please write something relevant. You don't see Fox News talking about 9-11 after the recent market collapse do you? Oh wait, they do that too.

4. Enough with the f'n fluff pieces. Great, Anthony Adams met his Dad outside of prison for the first time. Ohh, such a cuddly moment. You know ex-prisoner for 20 years and big mean football player. The only thing interesting is that Adam's dad looks like a great 70's TV cop personality.

5. Credit to David Haugh of the Trib. and some random ex-NFL player on the Sun-times dissecting how the final play of the game was Marcus Hamilton's fault and not Mike Brown's (Hamilton is some corner they brought in from the stands on Sunday). Hamilton played up to cover the 5 yard dumb off play, leaving the WR wide open 15 yards behind him. I still think they shouldn't have run the Cover 2 there, but its clear the fault isn't all on Babich.

6. John Madden won't be calling Sunday Night Football next week because he doesn't want to travel cross country in his bus for next week's game (Madden is scared of flying). The guy is over 70 years old and he tours the country like a rock star. How awesome would that be? Sorry honey, I need to travel in my sex bus for 10 weeks this year traveling the country with my homies to call NFL games where I speak a bunch of jibberish. With that being said, I'm happy they are putting Chris Collinsworth in to call the game. Not that it would make me watch it, but because I think he's good.

7. On the other hand, Brian Billick as a game commentator is awful. He has complete diarrhea of the mouth. He just can't stop talking. Its not that his analysis is terrible. Its okay. Its that he constantly talks. Just shut the f up. On that note, I really like the idea of having no commentators call games anymore. Just feed in the game sound (i.e. fan noise and the PA announcer at the game). I think that would be brilliant.

8. Do you also find it annoying that CBS and Fox aren't showing the fantasy stats of other games, during their broadcast of a game? Fox showed zero stats for other games during the Bears game. Why is this? Lets get back to fantasy football basics people. I need to know whether Edj. James is stinking it up another week for me.

9. Another typical story line. "{Insert player name here}, returning to his home town, Chicago, to face off against the Bears, {Player}, went to { X highschool} and has family and friends back home. They are all excited to see him play. {Player} is excited to come back home. He is looking forward to playing before his friends and family." Do sports writers have a template for stories like the one above, similar to the templates lawyers have for contracts?

10. Today on Mike and Mike they had Usi Umenyora (I tried) on the show. He's injured for the year. But, I would be annoyed if I was a Giants fan seeing Usi yapping it up and having a fun time when his team just got spanked last night. Go home and rehab or something. Or at least fake being upset. Worst part, Usi commented, "I think they will bounce back. They know they need to play better". I use "we" when discussing the Bears. Usi uses "they" when discussing the team he plays for. How loyal. I wonder if he only uses "we" when the Giants win.

I wonder if I'll get a Youth Media Award for this?