Tuesday Morning Thoughts: Friday Night Lights

It's all about Smash.

Completely and totally random.

1. I don’t know what’s up with me, but I’ve been watching all the awards shows. Sunday was the Grammy’s, which has to be the worst display of music I’ve seen in a while. It’s karaoke night mixed with high school variety/talent show. Of course there is still some good music—I like Cold Play and even some of the rap—fan of TI and old-school, non-crazy Kanye. Hate, hate Kid Rock, Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers and all the country music. But what’s even more absurd is the forced combo acts. The Stevie Wonder and Jonas Brothers combo made me want to go deaf. The Miley Cyrus and cute blond girl combo made me laugh. Although, it was cool seeing David Grohl on drums with Paul McCartney. But, I could do without all the collaborations. I couldn’t understand one line of the Jay-Z, Kanye, TI, MIA Performance. Oh yeah, and did I mention that the Jonas Brothers make me want to tear my ears out?

2. The absolute best (from a comedic standpoint) was the Miley Cyrus and random country/blond emo girl combination. Miley’s facial expressions are priceless. She looks like she’s taking crap when she sings. And this makes me laugh. Also, why would anyone allow her to sing next to the above mentioned country blond girl. The blond girl actually had talent and made Miley look like an amateur. Which I guess is watch she really is. Well, at least she’s paid like a professional.

3. No real sporting events to talk about. I don’t care about the hype of Kobe/Lebron. If I wanted to watch basketball players hog the ball and show off, I’d go watch East Bank Club pickup games during lunch. I’m just not that interested for some reason. I still have some football hangover that I need to get over. With the combine, free agency and draft coming up—that may be difficult.

4. Although I did watch Bulls vs. Kings on Saturday night (Loser!!!). It’s clear the Bulls are actually an okay team if they run a pro-offense. With movement, Deng, Tyrus, Noah and Rose get off quality shots. But, once they start going to the high pick and roll and dribble, dribble offense (think Gordon and Hinrich), they lose games. Del Negro’s play calling forcing the pick and roll at the end of regulation lost the Bulls the game against the Kings. Everyone, besides Rose, was watching and doing nothing on offense during the last few minutes. From Black, please stop using the high pick and roll. It will save your job.

5. They play something called college basketball in Indiana. My alma mater, Indiana, is simply not that good. Although, I can’t wait for March Madness.

6. Turn away- futbol thought….. Arsenal tied 0-0 away at Tottenham. This is what you do when football isn’t on anymore. You get up at 7am on Saturday morning and walk over to Fado to watch a 7:25am game. It was splendid though (Corned beef, eggs, potatoes and tea). Anyway, Arsenal is not playing well. I don’t think Arshavin will make things any different in the standings. At least Chelsea is having its own problems. Now all we need is C. Ronaldo to break a hip.

7. Friday Night Lights almost made me cry. Smash’s last minute conversation with Coach Taylor was emotional to say the least. If you’ve never watched FNL- do yourself a favor and watch the first three episodes of this year. By the end episode 2, you’ll thank me. Best show on TV that will likely get cancelled.

8. FNL will get canceled and yet implausible shows like these will live on… Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, the Mentalist, Life on Mars, the Closer with those annoying promos of Kara Sedgwick, Desperate Housewives, something called Fringe… you get the picture. Sorry, but Heroes and Lost suck too.

9. Bill Simmons’ pod casts are actually not that bad. Some are actually intriguing and very enjoyable- like the one with the dude from Mad Men.

10. Michael Phelp’s smoked weed. And I don’t care.

Extra Random Thoughts

11. Vegas Baby, Vegas.

12. Christina Hendricks has two of these? Answer here.

13. Is this Danica Patrick thing still going on? It must be on its last legs because she starred in those GoDaddy commercials. Nope... She's in SI Swimsuit again. She is trying, really, really hard to show us her body. I have to applaud the effort. But, someone should tell her that men are just not that into her.

14. It’s basically spring outside right now and it makes me happy.

15. Amare Stoudemire makes me scared. Not in a “oh my god, he strikes fear into opposing teams” way, but scary in the sense that if the Bulls get him he will suck and continue to not play defense.

This Made me Cry

I don't know why, but this made me laugh uncontrollably with tears of joy. Watch at least until 1:23.

Captain Steroid: A-Rod was on the Juice, yet Bud Selig still has a Job.

ESPN and other outlets confirm that the face of baseball, Alex Rodriguez took steroids during this 2003 MVP run. See ESPN's story here.

All I can say is thank god I don't like baseball. Another example of the sport (especially its commissioner) letting down the fans.

On a side note: How in the world does Bud Selig have a job? How do you let this happen to a sport, without having a clue of what was going on? Selig was either complicit in this activity (likely) or ignorant (reckless). Baseball has turned into the East German Swim team. No one's more to blame then Bud Selig. Yet, he got paid over $18 Million this past year. See this story here.
Not to go all conspiracy theory here, but it sounds like Bud knew and the owners are paying him for it.

Bobby Knight… Please go to Georgia!

Supposedly in America, we appreciate people with strong moral character. People who act politely, help the elderly woman across the street, and open doors. Think about the most respected people you know. What are their characteristics? They are loyal, dignified, kind, giving, loving, and otherwise completely not full of themselves. Now read this list of Bobby Knight digressions.

1999 - Knight attacks another diner in a restaurant parking lot after the diner accuses him of making a racial comment (inside the restaurant) about blacks. Knight put a choke hold on the other man, leaving marks on his throat. Charges were never filed.

1997 - Player C. Jason Collier leaves the team citing Knights constant verbal abuse. A column in the Indianapolis Star the next day, suggests Knight should quit.

1997 - After a home loss to Purdue, Knight is heard chewing out an empty locker room.

1993 - Knight kicks his own son, Patrick, during a game with Notre Dame and receives a one game suspension.

1988 - Knight tells Connie Chung, "If rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it." He later claimed his comment was out of context. One has to ask, what type of context could he possibly have used that would have justified such a comment?

1987 - The university was fined $10,000 and Knight received a reprimand for banging his fist on a scorer's table during a game with LSU in an NCAA Regional Tournament.

1985 - Knight throws a chair across court during a game with Purdue and is suspended for one game.

1983 - In Philadelphia, Knight shoves an LSU fan into a garbage can during a scuffle at the NCAA finals.

1979 - Knight threw a student newspaper photographer into some bushes because the student took his picture while he was having an argument with a bicyclist about the right-of-way. (P.S. thank Ken Kreps whoever you are).

This list doesn’t include the reasons for his firing at Indiana, namely: Choking IU player Neil Reed during a practice; and grabbing and berating an IU student by their arm after the student yelled, “Hey Knight, what’s up?” Or his physical beating of the Texas Tech player above.

Yet despite all of these transgressions (and countless others not listed here), ESPN and its peers continually display Knight as a man of honor, integrity and an example of a fine human being. Mike and Mike in the Morning praise him like he’s Mother Theresa. And don’t even get me started on Dick Vitale. And yes, maybe Knight is a saint behind closed doors. But, in the public, he is a hypocritical ass, with the moral integrity of Bernard Madoff.

I should say that I have no personal ties to Indiana, so I don’t really appreciate the early Bob Knight years with the championships. However, I did attend college at Indiana at the end of the 90’s. I came from Chicago after witnessing the greatest basketball team ever (the Jordan Bulls) and tried to embrace the prestigious Indiana basketball program. Instead, I encountered a pompous, egotistical coach that put out below average basketball teams. When Knight got a technical foul for his childish antics, Assembly Hall seemed to be at it loudest- A sad and miserable image on a historic program.

Inexplicably, it appears that Bobby Knight may coach again. Somehow Georgia doesn’t care about Knight’s past. We look at players like Plaxico Burress and Terrell Owens and rightfully disdain their improper behavior. These players get fined, suspended and possibly thrown in jail in Burress’ case. Yet, Bobby Knight with even worse behavior is made to be a saint. Didn’t he accidentally shoot someone while hunting (or maybe that was just Cheney)? Honestly, isn't this story much worse than Plaxico's?

So I say go ahead Georgia, hire Bobby Knight. At least I won’t have to hear his rude ass on the radio or ESPN TV anymore.

FYI. Arshavin joins Arsenal

Not that anyone here would care, but Russian International Andrey Arshavin has joined my beloved club, Arsenal today. Link.
Now I hope they can actually win some games.

Here's a clip. You've got to at least watch the excellent Russian English at the beginning of this clip. Oh and definitely mute the music.

Tuesday Morning Thoughts: the Super Bowl Hype

Don’t believe the hype. Eddie Vedder once said, “you hear a song that's a great song; play it a million times…..you never want to hear it again...” The Super Bowl is no song, but every year you get the feeling that you’ve heard that tune before. Whether it’s the lame player stories, 2 week long injury updates, and what seems like an army of men and women reporters and commentators dissecting every, nook and cranny of the game. What happened to just enjoying a football game for 3 hours?

1. Don’t get me wrong, the Super Bowl is great. It makes the World Series look like a game of pick up hoops at Lifetime Fitness. Outside of the World Cup final, there is no more important sporting event. But what makes it so special? I argue that it’s the play and nothing more.

2. Let’s start out with the commercials. Okay, for a period of 2-3 years and about 5 to 10 years ago, SB commercials were pretty imaginative. But now, it’s this forced, got to go crazy to stand out, junk that increasingly dishes out diminishing returns every year. Although, that Audi commercials was fantastic.

3. Worse, isn’t it crazy that some people watch the SB just for the commercials? This means that people voluntarily take time to watch advertising. Somehow the rules of Tivo or DVR go out the window on SB Sunday. Taking out 3 million dollars for a SB advertisement seems ridiculous, except when you understand that a lot of people (I’m talking to you- loser who never played sports growing up) watch the game for the commercials.

4. At some point, all the ESPN shows, commentary, radio talk, Sport Centers, NFL Lives create such an enormous expectation on the game that makes it impossible for the game to live up to the hype. It’s a lot like the friend who tells you how awesome Batman the Dark Knight was. And then you read the critical reviews that claim it’s the best movie of the year, the best Batman ever. It’s too much. Of course by the time I see it, I think it’s completely overrated and about 3 hours too long. What do you expect, with all the hype I would have felt the same way about Godfather 2. Anyway, the hype creates impossible expectations.

5. Except, somehow, football and the NFL in particular (we can’t lump that lame excuse for a post-season in college-football to be included here) lives up to the hype. Sunday’s game was terrific, even if I could care less who won. But here’s the point. I avoided each and every pre-game show for 2 weeks prior to the game. Also, I convinced myself that the game would suck. Sort of how like New Year ’s Eve sucks. And guess what? It worked. Never mind that I was watching an Arizona team that went 8-8 in the regular season or an incomplete Steelers team that couldn’t run the ball (if the Steelers could run the ball they would have killed Arizona). It didn’t matter. I relaxed my frame of reference and just watched football. In the 4th quarter I ended up the edge of my coach, screaming and letting out phrases like “Oh my god. Larry Fitzgerald is a beast! Holly shit, that Harrison guy is dominating Gandy. I can’t believe I just saw that? How did Holmes catch that? Poor Warner..” You get the point.

6. So a day later I call one of my friends ( a girl), and she explains how she had an all-girl SB party at her house. I mistakenly go into how great a game it was. She responds, “yeah, but I felt so sorry for Larry Fitzgerald and his dad. I really wanted him to win. Oh and that story about …… (sorry, I stopped listening). But this is what drives me crazy. ESPN, NBC, Etc., are actually adding value with all the pre-game hype, commercials, and lame story lines. It brings people who otherwise would never follow the game to the TV. Girls are throwing girl-only parties for a sporting event. Things like this simply don’t happen outside of SB Sunday.

7. So what’s the point. Well, as you can seek I don’t have one. Well… maybe…. If you’re a true NFL fan, do yourself a favor. Lock yourself up for the 2 weeks prior to the SB, convince yourself that the game will be boring, and pay no attention to the pre-game, commercials or half-time show. In the end, you’ll find yourself actually enjoying football for 3 hours.

More random thoughts……………

8. I don’t know how Larry Fritzgerald’s dad stayed calm in the reporter’s booth when Larry Jr. scored his TDs. Either he’s a closet Steelers fan or he died.

9. Maybe Kurt Warner is a Hall of Famer. He sure looked like one for most of the game. But, I’m still not totally sold. Five years from now, will we still remember his play during this game? (P.S. Random tangent—How Richard Dent is not in the HOF, but Tripplet and Derrick Thomas are HOFs, completely baffles my mind).

10. Speaking of HOF. Larry Fitzgerald looks like an HOF to me. I don’t need statistics to back it up. You just need eyes and a TV to understand.

Superbowl Shows how far Bears Really are.

During his season-ending press conference, Lovie Smith pronounced that the 9-7 Bears were close to becoming a championship contending team. Watching the Cardinals and Steelers, one can only come to the following conclusion: As Samuel Jackson would say, " the Bears are not in the same ball park, not even in the same motha &%!#$* league, not even in the same motha !$%# sport" as the Steelers or Cardinals.

Defense still means a lot as evidenced by Pittsburgh being able to force turnovers in key possessions and containing the Cardinals for most the game. But, Larry Fritgerald single handedly made the Steelers defense look, well, Cardinal like.

The Cardinals have Fritgerald, Boldin, Breaston, and decent options at running back, not to mention Kurt Warner who looked great last night. The Steelers have the great defense, but also have Ben Rothlesberger, Hines Ward, and the MVP Santonio Holmes. It seems that offense does matter in the NFL. Especially at the WR and QB position.

Unlike the championship contenders, the Bears don't have the WRs or QBs to make it happen. The Bears are playing JV football-- the Championship was played between two varsity teams. Sorry, Lovie but we aren't close. We aren't even in the same league.