Super Monday and 14th Street

Since I don’t feel like writing a flowing sweeping work of art on the Super Bowl and my weekend… I’m just jotting down notes and then I’ll expand my thoughts from there…

How did the Seahawks not win?
I’m still trying to figure this out. Didn’t they seem like the better team for most of the game yesterday? Certainly seemed that way to me since they were able to move the ball up and down the field and actually seemed to be doing something out on the field. Pittsburgh had three big plays… and that’s it. Parker’s 75-yard touchdown run, the trick play to Ward for the touchdown, and the pick as Seattle was driving in the 4th. That’s it. That’s all the Steelers did, yet some how had 21 points to Seattle’s 10. I know you can argue that the Seahawks didn’t have the big plays that Steelers made but it wasn’t that cut and dry. Weird, weird game, but I know why Seattle didn’t have more than 10 points because…

The fix was in…
There is no other way to explain the refs last night. None. Someone from Vegas called the NFL and said do this or we’ll no longer allow people to gamble on games and end fantasy football as we know it. What else explains the refs giving every questionable call to the Steelers or making up holds and pass interference calls on Seattle? The fix had to be in. Things got so bad, that when the refs ruled that Hasselbeck had fumbled on the play in the 4th and Seattle challenged it, ABC must have called the NFL and refs screaming and yelling about how no one would be watching if this call stood. I know we were going to turn the game off if the refs didn’t over turn the call… which of course they did and subjected us to another hour of bad football! It was like Groundhog Day!

Anyway by my count, there were seven bad calls or non calls that all went against Seattle two holding calls (one on Stevens catch that took them to the Steelers one and then on Peter Warrick’s punt return), Stevens fumble (odds are that ball goes out of bounce 20 yards up field helping Seattle), Big Ben’s non TD (no way he was in), Hasslebeck’s tackle (this call is just outrageous), Jackson’s pass interference in the end zone (this was and will be the first and only time that an offensive player will be flagged for barely touching the defender) and when Porter horse-collar tackled Alexander and the refs didn’t throw a flag. Just the holding on Stevens catch and Jackson’s non-TD would have been a 10 point swing and guess what… 10 plus 10 is 20… and who knows what happens at that point.

As I said before here, I think there is some sort of Vegas and NFL consperciy going on as it is now. And it’s not as far fetched as it may seem since this shit goes on all the time in Europe with football. In fact just today the Belgium athorities announced they were looking into rigged games and last year Germany was rocked by match fixing scandles. In other words, to say “That would never happen here!” is far off the mark. I could happen here.

But the NFL needs to watch it, the NBA suffered and still suffers from bogus reffing and it affects how people view the game. Many turn their TVs off. If this goes on for three more years, people will start doing that with the NFL.

Was the game was boring?
I’m not sure. It had my attention for most of the night so I’m going to say no. It wasn’t a good game, but you always had the feeling that Seattle would just explode at some point for a big quarter. It never happened but the hope was there until the very end.

But back to it being a pretty bland and blah game… I just heard that Jerramy Stevens dropped his spoon at breakfast this morning. Roethlisberger did not play well. As it’s been noted, Randle El might have been the best QB on the field last night. I would have said Hasselbeck was better but what the hell was up with those two minute drills at the end of the first and second half? You could blame the second half two minute drill on Andy Reid, I mean Mike Holmgren. But the first half? Why did he turn into Peyon Manning during that ‘drill’? I couldn’t believe my eyes. Why is it every team in the NFL runs near perfect two minute drills in the regular season, but the moment the playoffs start they forget what to do? Just weird.

And finally, Shaun Alexander meet Alex Rodrigiuez.

Commercials…
Overall… they weren’t that good. Then again they’re never very good and tend to be just as hyped as the game itself. (What I’m getting at is that you could probably script the Super Bowl Sunday at this point… it’s the same thing every year and the only thing that changes are the teams. Same stories, same hype, same type of commercials and so on and so fourth, it’s like the day itself has become a parody of our entire nation). Just a few thongs on the commercials:
The Good:
(Watch them here)
Secret Fridge - Good, not great, saved by the “The Magical Fridge is Back!” line, other than that anytime guys are praying to a wall that may turn into a fridge full of Bud Lite… you’re gonna lose me. But good idea at least.
Ameriquest – Doctor – Most overrated commercial, but sort of funny.
MacGyver – Best commercial in my opinion. Little pop culture, funny, creative, not overtly violent or sexual (I know I sound like a conservative! But seriously, when did liberals become blood loving sexaholics? Because Rush Limbaugh said so?)
World Baseball Classic – I’m a sucker okay.
Fed-Ex – Sure it was violent, but it was so well done and so out of left field.

Bad:
Save Yourself – Bears mauling humans and other humans allowing it over Bud Lite isn’t that cool.
Touch Football – D-U-M-B
Friendly Skies – When will the easy sex joke die? They’ve become the “why did the chicken cross the road” in my book. Everyone and anyone can make a cheap and easy sex joke… so if you really are funny, don’t.
Every Movie Add – Pretty self explanatory. Not that they’re bad, it just doesn’t fit the mood.
Whopperettes – How you can waste the King on something like that I’ll never know
Godaddy.com – Booooooo!
Diet Pepsi – I think Pepsi cost themselves drinkers here. “Brown and bubbly”? Who thinks and approved this?
Every Car Commercial Ever – Car commercials suck on a normal day, I don’t think there has ever been a good car commercial. So airing a car commercial during the Super Bowl only makes the lamer since they TRY to be cool and interesting.

Injustice
I watched “Injustice” on Friday night before going out and I’ve got to say… I liked it. Sure it’s over the top and melodramatic, but it’s a TV show! It was interesting enough, had enough beautiful people, I could half believe it, and the acting was fine enough. Not that I’m going to become a regular or anything, but in terms of sitting around with a guy or two and pre-gaming it got the job done.

14th Street
I found myself at a bad pizza joint with a few friends at 2 in the morning on Sunday after a night at the Black Cat (thus I was around 14th and U in NW in DC)… SO as we were waiting for them to make our disgusting pizza, we were looking at a map of DC. For some reason we’re talking about the White House and I casually mentioned that the White House is the largest single public housing unit in the nation. That inspired the Bud drinking Howard student to pipe up, “Yo man, don’t be talkin’ about politics on 14th Street. You just don’t know what’s goin’ on or who’s around here is listening… so just don’t talk about politics on 14th Street.”

Floored I casually said, “I’m just sayin’, nothing more than that, just sayin’ what it is.”

“Look man, I’m just sayin’ too, don’t come in here talking about politics, it just isn’t cool. You’ve got people getting kicked out of public housing all around here.”

All which is true. 14th and U is under going the effects of gentrification as we speak. For the most part, poor blacks are being moved to the suburbs or other public housing units in the DC area to make room for yuppie whites and their bars. Places are being closed down to make room for Starbucks, show rooms, and somewhat hip cafes (and I use hip loosely this being DC and all). Now I realize all this, I know it’s going on and have seen the area change a bit in the last few months. So I’m not foreign to the subject. But of course, I’m pretty sure the guy missed my point.

That, of course would be ironic, but I’m not totally sure what he was trying to get across to me (we talked for another minute or so before we went our separate ways on some what good terms I might add). He was sensitive to the entire public housing, gentrification, liberal whites moving into the area deal… and rightly so. Unfortunately it’s a shitty way to deal with problems that society or governments can’t or don’t want to fix (for bigger, more violent, and grander example just check out the Middle East since the Europeans created the state of Israel). No one is debating this (at one point I even told him that I’m not foreign to this being from the South Side of Chicago; he said, “Then you know what’s going on because you’ve seen it with Cabrini-Green.” I bit my lip and decided not to point out to him that it was on the North Side).

So what was my point? That the White House is the largest single public housing unit in the United States, nothing more and nothing less. What was his point? Don’t be a white liberal saying you hate Bush and then backing plans to move people with established roots in a neighborhood that might be a bit blighted, but people still live here. You’re not solving any problems by doing so, just hoping that it will go a way and that whoever you’re passing your problems on too will figure it out. Outtasight, outtamind doesn’t work; and remember that and whom you’re around when you’re saying anything.

In other words, he thought I was signifying (I can only assume). I’ll take it as a complement (that is kind of cool if he thought that). Or he thought I was an ignorant MF who was sprouting off some fact on the wrong street in DC and thus didn’t realize the signification of my statement, which wasn’t the case. But that’s how powerful language can be. If I had said that on 18th street, no one would have given a shit.