It is Super Bowl week and I couldn’t be less excited and just to annoy me ESPN.com’s Page2 is running a blog this week by none other than… Chuck Klosterman! (btw, am I the first person to write website.com’s? Can websites show ownership over another website? Am I breaking some sort of English grammar rule or are we going to look back on this and say VFLOAB was the first to correctly show a .com can show ownership over…) Anyway, back to Chuck Klosterman… I think I like Chuck, but I also think I don’t like Chuck. I really enjoyed half of “Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs”, and I found the other half boring and page upon page of ‘everything that is popular sucks’ crap which gets old quickly. His other various articles and the such I’ve either loved or hated… there is no middle ground when it comes to Chuck Klosterman and me. But I’ve got to say, good start here from him with the XL Blog (plus anything that gets Simmons away from the Super Bowl is probably a good thing. As he even admitted today, he couldn’t say anything that he’s already said and need I remind anyone that his Super Bowl blog last year sucked).
But I can’t just sit here and pretend I hate the Super Bowl because I don’t. I’m just sick of it… if that makes any sense. But to try and get myself in the mood and last Saturday being the 20th anniversary of my first memory (that’s right the first memory I can date and place is the Challenger explosion), and this being the 20th anniversary of Super Bowl XX let’s recap the last 19 Super Bowls from the memory of Bobby Otter (for a list of the games go here)!
Super Bowl XX – I don’t remember a thing, but I’m sure I did the “Super Bowl Shuffle” and in case you were wondering I also own the DVD.
Super Bowl XXI – Ummm… no memory.
Super Bowl XXII – I remember this one because I went to my dad’s friend was having a Super Bowl party. I don’t think I really watched the game, but I remember the food, Brio train, and the fact that the ‘Skins were killing the Broncos.
Super Bowl XXIII – Watched this one at my house with the fam and my uncle. I have nothing to add besides that it was a good game. (I’m sorry, this sucks so far doesn’t it?)
Super Bowl XXIV – Wow, a lot happened here. The game stunk, but I remember being asked if I wanted to go to see Back to the Future III with my sister and babysitter and declining the invitation because of the game and… squares! This was the first time I had heard or seen squares. I don’t think I fully understood the beauty of squares, but I knew it well enough to know that a cheap Niner score at the end of one of the quarters cost me money.
Super Bowl XXV – Honestly, I really don’t remember this game. I should, but I don’t have any memories of it.
Super Bowl XXVI – Once again, no good memory of this game. I remember Mark Rypien that year though… but that’s it. I should make something up shouldn’t I?
Super Bowl XXVII – Was this the one where Don Beebe made Leon Lett look like a fool? Even though the Cowboys were winning by 900 points that’s all anyone remembers about this game… why is that? I was probably at my house for the record.
Super Bowl XXVIII – I think the entire nation was sick of the Bills by this point but could anyone bring themselves to root for the Cowboys? It is still today it’s weird to see them lose four in a row. I just remember being happy that Thurman Thomas lost his helmet… I was a vengeful kid at times.
Super Bowl XXIX – Looking back this game was one of those ‘I’m growing up moments’ days in my life. I went to a Super Bowl Party at a buddy of mines place. He had a bunch of us over and we watched the horrible game while eating chips and drinking soda. To be honest, none of us knew what we were doing. Your first Super Bowl Party is sort of like a first kiss… you have no clue what you’re doing, but you like it, not because of who you’re kissing (usually) but because you’re kissing. But there we were, a bunch of 13 year old kids in a basement watching the Super Bowl. History would do the rest… (BTW, the kid who hosted this party, Dave, should have been my first gambling buddy (I’m still looking for one in fact). Back in 6th grade we would sit in class and pick lines and also rank our top 25 in college football. But we went to different high schools and I lost touch with him… until like two months ago when the powers of Facebook brought us back together… of course he’s in Chicago and I’m in DC… anyway the moral is we were both robbed of years of what I assume would have been gambling and gambling stories and it bums me out a little… there’s still time though)
Super Bowl XXX – Another SB, another party, another basement… everyone was rooting for the Steelers in this game. I’m still surprised the Steelers didn’t win because I swear the entire country was trying to will them to victory. It didn’t happen, but we tried. Anyway, this was probably the last Super Bowl party before half our friends would start to go insane. In fact, I’d love to get everyone that went to this SB Party back together and find out what happened to them… you know one guy would be married, another guy would either be in jail or have done time, three of them would be too high to show, four of ‘em would get high during the game, two of them would be drunks, five of them wouldn’t come because their girlfriends wouldn’t let them, three would be in law school, and the other four guys would be like me… that would be an awkward party. The only thing more awkward would be a party of all your ex-girlfriends.
Super Bowl XXXI – As I said, I went to a different high school than pretty much everyone else in the town I grew up in. The school I went to (St. Ignatius if anyone cares) is far from the ‘Dale so hanging out with people from high school was out of the question unless my ‘rents would drive me. Plus most kids at Ignatius could careless about sports, so I ended up… you know what, I don’t know where I watched this game. I was probably alone at my house… that was the same week that SI did a story on Teemu Selanne which I thought was cool.
Super Bowl XXXII – I remember this game because… I was on the phone the whole game. Ouch… I know. 1998 was not a good year for me I was fully under the influence of girls and I’m pretty sure there was some sort of drama that I found myself in. The Packers lost at least…
Super Bowl XXXIII – Luckily I was so dramaed out by the end of 1998 that I pretty much swore off drama… and I’ve done a good job not getting caught up in bs. Anyway… I’m sure I went to someone’s house for the game. I just don’t remember. (This was a good idea when I thought of it earlier, I swear. It seemed cool and interesting… oh well…)
Super Bowl XXXIV – I remember this one because I was being all depressy and wanted to watch it alone in my basement. For some reason I was bored by it all and decided to drive around Chicago for an hour and a half in the middle of the game listening to it on the radio. I did make it back for the great ending. But I’m almost ashamed about these last four SBs… I should be like my Man Card wasn’t revoked.
Super Bowl XXXV – On the list of “Things You Never Forget” along with First Kiss, First Super Bowl Party, and First Time You Watched “Karate Kid: Part III” is First College Super Bowl Party… we had no clue what to do, I’m serious. There was at least seven of us in one small dorm room trying to sit comfortably watching the game, there was beer, but not a lot of it. One of the priests actually watched half the game with us and bought us pizza (wow does that sound BAD in today’s world. Yet in 2001 it was some how not kinky). Anyway, if the Giants did not play in this Super Bowl, I think the media wouldn’t have covered it… but this was the height of the RAY LEWIS ERA which I sort of miss even though he’s still playing.
Super Bowl XXXVI – One of my buddies is from Boston and I think he found out the Pats were in this game when we told him five minutes before the game… his dad was there too and watched the game with us in the dorms which was really cool because he bought us pizza. This was also right after 9/11 so the whole Patriot angle was being played to death and U2 put on a fantastic halftime show. But what I remember the most is being a raving lunatic about how bad of a coach Mike Martz was in this game… remember this? He refused to give the ball to Marshall Faulk. I mean refused to hand the ball off to him… and it pissed me off so much (also the Pats defensive players openly jumping the Rams receivers was a just a bit annoying). But it led to the Pats winning, the amazing Tom Brady story, and the winning team that I think we all agree is the 1988 Dodgers of the NFL, aka the Worst Championship Team Ever.
Super Bowl XXXVII - I was in London and all the people I went with were still friends at this point. We bought tickets to the one place that we knew would have the game on TV dropping way too much money for crappy food and a bad seat to watch a game at 2 in the morning... the game was a blow out and we didn't stay for the end. I lost 10 quid to one roomie since I took the Raiders and gave him like four points on top of it...
- Super Bowl XXXVIII - The first half was a bit of a dud. I won the first quarter square (0-0), but still managed to lose money over all. We had a keg or two and someone had a deep fryer and a few guys just sat outside and cooked turkeys and wings for us all night long (btw, I think that sums up college better than anything else "Someone had a deep fryer." There will be no other time in my life when someone will just have a deep fryer laying around) . The game also gave us more ‘great moments in college’ material since we had jerririgged a TV to work out of the back of some one's SUV... and yes that meant we had beer, electricity, a running car, and a deep fryer all within ten feet of each other). I had a good seat on the couch with 30 other people and probably got half drunk and ate a lot of food... Probably my favorite Super Bowl because of the entire situation.
Super Bowl XXXIX – The old roomie’s brother flew in to watch the game with the roomie (they’re both Philly guys)... that Saturday they watched about 10 hours of old Eagle games at my parents house while we drank the fridge. I was sick of the Birds before the game even began… (though it did lead to one of the most important decisions of my life. Before Game One of the World Series, I was talking to the old roomie and he asked me how I was getting ready for the game. I told him I was going to watch Sox games that I had DVRed over the year… and he pauses and says, “Don’t do that. That’s what we did before the Super Bowl and the Eagles lost remember.” Knowing he had just made a fantastic point, I didn’t watch those DVRed games and the Sox went on to win the World Series. I often wonder what would have happened if I had watched those games…) Anyway… I knew that for Sunday I would have to be half loaded to even be able to tolerate three Philly fans... I was drunk by the second quarter text messaging everyone random stuff while watching the game (my favorite was SOUTH SIDE when ever McNabb did something good, which if you remember was some what often until the 4th quarter), picked up Bibs and Ribs for everyone, and rooted for the Birds just because I knew it would make so many people happy (plus we had just started reaching “My God, the Red Sox winning was the worst thing to happen to this country since 9/11, Bush, and the Iraq War!” point and I don’t think anyone could tolerate another Boston team winning). After the Birds lost I quickly lost my place as 'most intoxicated person in the room'.
A few interesting stories, and I’m beginning to wonder what this weekend will bring? But this has done the trick, I’m now sort of excited for the game. So much so that I’m thinking about makin’ some chili for the game. Will I do it? We’ll just have to wait and see.
27.1.06
A Bizarre (and Bad) 'Victory' for Democracy
Okay… the fall out from Hamas’ victory yesterday continues. Israel has already said that they will not work with the new government, which of course is their right. The United States, I still think, has to at least speak with Hamas until they do something stupid. They were, after all, democratically elected (btw, how do you think this news went down in the White House? Were people upset? Happy and saying things like ‘the democracy strikes again!’ ‘This is a great day for democracy!’?? How did W take the news? EvilDick? Was the CIA called immediately? Did we send doctors to Israel to check up on Sharon? Were the Joint Chiefs summoned for an emergency meeting? I want to know what happened). Anyway, Hamas’ election does put the White House in a bit of a bind at the moment. They pretty much have to have an open policy towards them… until Hamas does something stupid or wrong. And that should probably happen quickly.
The election of Hamas is not a good thing; I think we can all agree to that. Does it offer the chance for Hamas to actually governor and get out of the terrorist business? Sure. But as this Op-Ed points out, that’s highly unlikely. All we can hope for now, it that things in the Holy Land can remain peaceful. A war or any sort of increased conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians would not be a good thing in terms of the peace process (obviously) but also stability in the region. The areas pretty crazy as it is, and Hamas’ victory only makes it more difficult. I hope this can end well for everyone, but it seems like this might be the beginning of a long, painful mess.
Oh yeah, can we just confirm Alito please? The faster this gets done the better since the longer this drags out the more likely the Democrats will really Chicago Cub this up. So let’s just get this to a vote and get it over with. Is Alito perfect? Of course not. But it’s not like he’s not qualified for the job. He’s no John Roberts, but then again Roberts may have been the perfect candidate (someone that even the left likes even though they won’t admit it (that of course will probably change by the end of the year, but for now, eh)). So let's get him on the bench and see what he's made of.... oh this stuff about Scalia is pretty damning. The idea of judges and justices taking gifts and trips smells fishy. I’m actually surprised that there isn’t more on the books prohibiting this sort of behavior. Bribe judges would appear to be easier and more direct than bribing elected officials. Hopefully something is done about it quickly.
I have some more on the wiretap survey that was released and Frank Thomas but they’ll just have to wait until tomorrow… if I get around to it.
The election of Hamas is not a good thing; I think we can all agree to that. Does it offer the chance for Hamas to actually governor and get out of the terrorist business? Sure. But as this Op-Ed points out, that’s highly unlikely. All we can hope for now, it that things in the Holy Land can remain peaceful. A war or any sort of increased conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians would not be a good thing in terms of the peace process (obviously) but also stability in the region. The areas pretty crazy as it is, and Hamas’ victory only makes it more difficult. I hope this can end well for everyone, but it seems like this might be the beginning of a long, painful mess.
Oh yeah, can we just confirm Alito please? The faster this gets done the better since the longer this drags out the more likely the Democrats will really Chicago Cub this up. So let’s just get this to a vote and get it over with. Is Alito perfect? Of course not. But it’s not like he’s not qualified for the job. He’s no John Roberts, but then again Roberts may have been the perfect candidate (someone that even the left likes even though they won’t admit it (that of course will probably change by the end of the year, but for now, eh)). So let's get him on the bench and see what he's made of.... oh this stuff about Scalia is pretty damning. The idea of judges and justices taking gifts and trips smells fishy. I’m actually surprised that there isn’t more on the books prohibiting this sort of behavior. Bribe judges would appear to be easier and more direct than bribing elected officials. Hopefully something is done about it quickly.
I have some more on the wiretap survey that was released and Frank Thomas but they’ll just have to wait until tomorrow… if I get around to it.
26.1.06
Busy Day!
We’re going to get to sports in a second ‘cus a lot caught our eye today… but first this caught my eye in the Economist:
All 32 economies tracked each week by The Economist grew in 2005, for the second year running. In every previous year since the 1970s, at least one emerging economy suffered a recession, if not a severe financial crisis. In the past three years, their growth has averaged more than 6%, compared with 2.4% in rich economies. The IMF forecasts that in the next five years they will roll along at just under 6%, twice as fast as developed economies. Extrapolation is risky, but if this relative pace were sustained, in 20 years' time emerging economies would account for two-thirds of global output. Is this likely?
They go on to say that it is likely, but there are some worries and things to watch for, mainly the United States economy. American consumers cannot continue to spend more than they earn much longer (then again we’ve been hearing that for a while now, but odds are at some point US consumers will have to pull in the reigns on the credit card and checkbooks).
But back to the point of the above quote, this is all good news - great news in fact. Economic growth in the developing world will only bring more people out of poverty and into healthier social and economic situations. And hopefully this will lead to equality, peace, justice, better education and health care, more stability in politics and government, and liberty for all. And we, as members of the ‘developed’ world shouldn’t be afraid of the economic rises of these areas. They can only help us if we do no resist their economic rise.
Hamas surprising victory today in the Palestinian elections has turned the Middle East (the Holy Land especially) on its head. Personally, I’m not sure this is necessarily a bad thing - a legitimate, democratically elected Hamas is a scary thought, don’t get me wrong. But this may actually bring peace, or at the very least distract Hamas. Now that they are in charge of the government they’re the ones that will be making the decisions, yes a scary thought, but they will now also be held accountable for what goes on; for the government and it’s ‘citizens’. They can no longer put all their energy into aggression towards Israel. Of course this can also signal an eventual military conflict or consolidation of power by Hamas. Time will tell.
The important thing at this point is for Israel and the United States to at least talk with the new Hamas lead government [both countries have refused to talk to Hamas in the past]. Hamas was democratically elected, and while the result was not wanted by either government, those are the results. To ignore the new government because it is not the government that Israel or the US desires would not only be hypocritical (Bush has promoted democracy to such a degree that to turn his back now would cause him to lose all legitimacy in the region and world), but it would also weaken the US position in the region. If working for peace is the goal, then we should continue to work for peace. And if mistakes are to be made, let Hamas make mistakes. It’s a tough spot, no one is going to deny that, but there are a lot of smart people in the US government and I’m sure they’ll be able to work at something.
And a final note, remember Sharon and what transpired over time after his election. Sharon was by no means a dove or one who was seeking non-aggressive means relations with the Palestinians. Eventually Sharon began to use peaceful means and backed down from some previous positions. While we are not and probably will never be in favor of the ‘security barrier’ (i.e. The Berlin Wall in the West Bank), Sharon’s decision to remove Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip was the beginning of what people hoped would be an eventual Palestinian state. Obviously, Sharon’s health problems have left things in Israel murky, but the ‘Hawk’ Sharon turned out to be much less of the ‘Hawk’ everyone thought he was going to be.
The most underrated sporting event, in the eyes of VFLOAB, is the Australian Open. Played at the beginning of the New Year, it’s the first big event of the year in sports (well besides the NFL playoffs but whatever) and because it’s in Australia it actually works perfectly in terms of watching the games on TV live. Last year was the first year that we here at VFLOAB really got into the Open and while we haven’t watched it enough this year, we’ve been following it and turning in from time to time.
While VFLOAB favorite Maria Sharapova lost last night (or rather today even though we watched it last night) to Justine Henin-Hardenne (good name btw), we’re still going to be watching since the Aussie Open features… Chris Fowler and Brad Gilbert! It’s hard not to love Fowler; he does a great job on Gameday and just seems to have a great life (college football and then travel around the world covering tennis… how great is that?) But it’s Gilbert, who has to be seen to be believed, who makes tennis on ESPN so enjoyable. He really has no peers in the announcing world. One second he’s cracking jokes so bad that they don’t make sense, then is analysis the match, and then saying something so bizarre that Fowler either complete ignores him or openly mocks him. It’s just great TV.
Here’s a list of the top ten most hated athletes in sports and to be honest no real surprises. The only guy that didn’t make the list that you figure might have was Ron Artest, but some times the guys who are nuts are good teammates since they’ll go out of their way to back you up. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski came in at #9, and might be the classic ‘guy who everyone hates when he’s not on your team.’ Ball hog Kobe comes in at #5. But what we’re most happy to see is Curt Schilling coming in at #4. Schilling is the biggest fraud in sports and the article raises the question that we’ve been harping at for a while now… that the ‘bloody’ sock was all staged. That’s right; neither we nor many on the Diamondbacks believe that Schilling was bleeding at all, that it was done all for the cameras. [Note: Bill Simmons did an interview with Schilling today which we may have comments on later... let's just say Simmons went out of his way to kiss Schilling's ass and Schilling tries to be humble, but it's easy to see right though that when he takes ever single question and makes it about him. What a phony.]
And finally some sad news. Carlos Martinez, former White Sox from 1988-1990, passed away this week. Martinez was nothing special as a player, but he was a member of that 1989 White Sox team, one of the worst teams ever put out on a baseball field. Martinez, who had no power, played a lot of third and first base for the Sox back in the day which just goes to show how bad that 1989 team was (Ivan Calderon (may he rest in peace also) lead the 1989 Sox with 14 home runs, which has to be some sort of record. 14 home runs!). He will be remembered and missed. Rest in peace, Carlos.
All 32 economies tracked each week by The Economist grew in 2005, for the second year running. In every previous year since the 1970s, at least one emerging economy suffered a recession, if not a severe financial crisis. In the past three years, their growth has averaged more than 6%, compared with 2.4% in rich economies. The IMF forecasts that in the next five years they will roll along at just under 6%, twice as fast as developed economies. Extrapolation is risky, but if this relative pace were sustained, in 20 years' time emerging economies would account for two-thirds of global output. Is this likely?
They go on to say that it is likely, but there are some worries and things to watch for, mainly the United States economy. American consumers cannot continue to spend more than they earn much longer (then again we’ve been hearing that for a while now, but odds are at some point US consumers will have to pull in the reigns on the credit card and checkbooks).
But back to the point of the above quote, this is all good news - great news in fact. Economic growth in the developing world will only bring more people out of poverty and into healthier social and economic situations. And hopefully this will lead to equality, peace, justice, better education and health care, more stability in politics and government, and liberty for all. And we, as members of the ‘developed’ world shouldn’t be afraid of the economic rises of these areas. They can only help us if we do no resist their economic rise.
Hamas surprising victory today in the Palestinian elections has turned the Middle East (the Holy Land especially) on its head. Personally, I’m not sure this is necessarily a bad thing - a legitimate, democratically elected Hamas is a scary thought, don’t get me wrong. But this may actually bring peace, or at the very least distract Hamas. Now that they are in charge of the government they’re the ones that will be making the decisions, yes a scary thought, but they will now also be held accountable for what goes on; for the government and it’s ‘citizens’. They can no longer put all their energy into aggression towards Israel. Of course this can also signal an eventual military conflict or consolidation of power by Hamas. Time will tell.
The important thing at this point is for Israel and the United States to at least talk with the new Hamas lead government [both countries have refused to talk to Hamas in the past]. Hamas was democratically elected, and while the result was not wanted by either government, those are the results. To ignore the new government because it is not the government that Israel or the US desires would not only be hypocritical (Bush has promoted democracy to such a degree that to turn his back now would cause him to lose all legitimacy in the region and world), but it would also weaken the US position in the region. If working for peace is the goal, then we should continue to work for peace. And if mistakes are to be made, let Hamas make mistakes. It’s a tough spot, no one is going to deny that, but there are a lot of smart people in the US government and I’m sure they’ll be able to work at something.
And a final note, remember Sharon and what transpired over time after his election. Sharon was by no means a dove or one who was seeking non-aggressive means relations with the Palestinians. Eventually Sharon began to use peaceful means and backed down from some previous positions. While we are not and probably will never be in favor of the ‘security barrier’ (i.e. The Berlin Wall in the West Bank), Sharon’s decision to remove Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip was the beginning of what people hoped would be an eventual Palestinian state. Obviously, Sharon’s health problems have left things in Israel murky, but the ‘Hawk’ Sharon turned out to be much less of the ‘Hawk’ everyone thought he was going to be.
The most underrated sporting event, in the eyes of VFLOAB, is the Australian Open. Played at the beginning of the New Year, it’s the first big event of the year in sports (well besides the NFL playoffs but whatever) and because it’s in Australia it actually works perfectly in terms of watching the games on TV live. Last year was the first year that we here at VFLOAB really got into the Open and while we haven’t watched it enough this year, we’ve been following it and turning in from time to time.
While VFLOAB favorite Maria Sharapova lost last night (or rather today even though we watched it last night) to Justine Henin-Hardenne (good name btw), we’re still going to be watching since the Aussie Open features… Chris Fowler and Brad Gilbert! It’s hard not to love Fowler; he does a great job on Gameday and just seems to have a great life (college football and then travel around the world covering tennis… how great is that?) But it’s Gilbert, who has to be seen to be believed, who makes tennis on ESPN so enjoyable. He really has no peers in the announcing world. One second he’s cracking jokes so bad that they don’t make sense, then is analysis the match, and then saying something so bizarre that Fowler either complete ignores him or openly mocks him. It’s just great TV.Here’s a list of the top ten most hated athletes in sports and to be honest no real surprises. The only guy that didn’t make the list that you figure might have was Ron Artest, but some times the guys who are nuts are good teammates since they’ll go out of their way to back you up. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski came in at #9, and might be the classic ‘guy who everyone hates when he’s not on your team.’ Ball hog Kobe comes in at #5. But what we’re most happy to see is Curt Schilling coming in at #4. Schilling is the biggest fraud in sports and the article raises the question that we’ve been harping at for a while now… that the ‘bloody’ sock was all staged. That’s right; neither we nor many on the Diamondbacks believe that Schilling was bleeding at all, that it was done all for the cameras. [Note: Bill Simmons did an interview with Schilling today which we may have comments on later... let's just say Simmons went out of his way to kiss Schilling's ass and Schilling tries to be humble, but it's easy to see right though that when he takes ever single question and makes it about him. What a phony.]
And finally some sad news. Carlos Martinez, former White Sox from 1988-1990, passed away this week. Martinez was nothing special as a player, but he was a member of that 1989 White Sox team, one of the worst teams ever put out on a baseball field. Martinez, who had no power, played a lot of third and first base for the Sox back in the day which just goes to show how bad that 1989 team was (Ivan Calderon (may he rest in peace also) lead the 1989 Sox with 14 home runs, which has to be some sort of record. 14 home runs!). He will be remembered and missed. Rest in peace, Carlos.
25.1.06
2008 Presidental Election
About a year ago today, Nero took his second oath of office as President of the United States of America. What that really means is that we are now officially 25% of the way though Bush’s second term (Yay!) and he’ll be a lame duck in about a years time as it is anyway. (Btw, I’m not sure any President has had a worst first year of a term… maybe Hoover).
So in honor of the fact that three years from today we should have a new President I’m going to have some fun with it (I say should because Dick Chaney is the Vice President and I think we can all agree that Chaney is an evil, evil man)!!! Isn’t that fun? I basically made a list of people who want to run, are going to run, or I want them to run for President and dived them into three camps: People I’d vote for, People I might vote for depending on how things go, and People that would never vote for or move to London or something (btw, has anyone done a story on all those rich lefties from the City and Cali moving to London? How is that going for them? Did they actually move? And if so where do they live in London? Or did they go to Paris or Toronto or Vancouver instead?)
Okay, let’s do this.
People that I would never vote for and if for some reason the GOP and Dems picked these people to face off against each other I would end up moving to Europe or somewhere else cool instead…
* George Allen – Sen of Virginia - He’s my senator too, but please, what does this guy have to offer?
* Mike Huckabee - Governor of Arkansas… the only way this guy could ever be redeeming is if he turned out to be the GOP Bill Clinton, in other words he was a closest Democrat on a GOP ticket. I’ll tell you one thing he and Bill have in common though… they both like the fast food; though Huckabee just lost like 50 pounds so maybe he cut it out of his diet. (You know what on second thought, I’m moving to the maybes just because I’d love to write Mike HEARTS Huckabees for four years).
* Mitt Romney – Not only does he have a stupid name, he’s a GOPer from Massachusetts so his odds of getting the nod are about as likely as the Cubs winning a World Series).
* Rudy Giuliani – Please, seriously, please don’t run Rudy. The guy would create a Rudy Giuliani TV channel just so he could be on TV all the time. While I think we can all agree that he was fantastic during and after 9/11, he’s also a camera whore and I’ll never be able to get beyond that.
* Hillary Clinton – Does anyone ever like her at this point? She’s hated on the right for no reason, and now the left hates her guts because she’s further to the right than her husband.
* Jeb Bush – The only think worse for this country than a Dick Chaney Dictatorship would be a Jeb Bush vs Hilary Clinton election. This would be the final straw for the US Constitution and me. I’m not kidding, if this were to happen, I’d find a way to gank the Constitution and take it to some place like, oh Argentina or Brazil, and say “Here guys, this should work like butter for a good 250 years.” And we’d all be happy and I’d have five beautiful women on each arm and then credits would role.
* Bill Frist – Senator from Virginia and Senate Majority Leader… talk about a flip flopper, Frist makes Kerry seem like a pair of Dutch wooden shoes. He took some outrageous stances when he first got the job as Majority Leader, and even though he’s backed down a bit, he pretty much came across like the prick that he probably is.
* Condoleezza Rice – Secretary of State… When Nero nabbed her as Secretary of State, I had my doubts, but Condi has out preformed herself, so kudos to here there. But President? Please. Would anyone be able to take her that seriously? While her Jesuit education gives her points in my book (and probably the reason she’s not an utter disaster), I just can’t see her being anything other than a mat to walk all over.
* John Kerry – It’s a shame that politics isn’t more like sports sometimes. Just imagine if there was General Manager of each party and they sort of managed everything. Can you imagine how a Kerry and GM of the Dems meeting would go? How horrified would the GM of the Dems be? What would he do to stop him from running? Would the GM of the Dems start running those Swift Boat adds again?
* Al Gore – I think Gore is going to run. I’m serious. I really think he’s going to run, and he’s going to start off all loose and ready for the fight but less wooden. But he won’t have enough support and he’ll lose it and some debate or event. He’ll be up there at the podium looking out at a crowd of fifteen people and just say “F#*@ it. Serious people, I should be RETIRING right now. I shouldn’t be running for President. But that twit from Texas, who isn’t even from Texas, had to get his brother to throw some votes to the bottom of the Everglades, and now look at me! LOOK AT ME! I’M STANDING IN FRONT OF 13 PEOPLE IN PEORIA, ILLINOIS! SCREW THIS!!” I feel for Al Gore sometimes. I look at him and say; man it must really suck to be you. You were ( close to being President. Instead you had to sit around for and watch Nero attempt to run the world into the ground. What a bummer. We should be happy that Gore hasn’t become a junkie to be honest. Hell, we should all be happy Gore didn’t blow his brains out.
* Evan Bayh – Sen. from Indiana… Hey look, it’s a privileged white male from Indiana whose dad was an actual Senator and watched his son ride his coat tails. It would never work. No way. Please, a dumbass as President and whose father was a pretty powerful man. It could never happen in this country.
People who I can stand, enjoy watching on TV, and even if everything worked out for them I could maybe vote for:
* Joe Biden – Senator from Delaware… I like Joe. I really do. He’s charismatic. He seems interesting and the kind of guy that may have shot gunned a beer in the last year. Plus he’s Catholic (got to root for the home team) and always has something to say. Plus he’s been running for President since May of 2004, he didn’t even wait for Kerry to lose. He started up the machine just in case and I admire that ambition.
* John Edwards – Who knows what Edwards is doing right now, to be honest I haven’t read a ton on him since he and Kerry lost. But the little I have seen and read it appears that he’s lay low, building a message, and getting ready to set out an actual Democratic agenda. We’ll have to wait and see though. This is John Edwards who we’re talking about, the same John Edwards that disappeared from August 2004 until election night.
* Mark Warner – Former Gov. from Virginia… Not to be shallow, but I don’t Warner has the look at the end of the day. But he’s an intriguing candidate if nothing else. He seems like too cute of a choice though for the Democrats.
* Wesley Clark – With a little polish and a better message, Clark could do this.
* Bill Richardson – Governor from New Mexico… I’m starting to get sick of him… plus any guy that lies about playing minor league baseball loses points in my book.
* John McCain – In the end, he’s probably a much better Senator than President. He’s too hawish and I wish he’d turn down an interview request once in a while. Seriously, I’m sure if you really wanted you could call McCain’s office and say “I’m so and so from NBC…” and he’d agree to meet you and do an interview. Plus he’s like 72 and it looks like you could peel his skin off.
Okay, now, if the election was held tomorrow, and I could vote for anyone…
1) Russ Feingold – Senator from Wisconsin… He was the only person to vote against the Patriot Act. That’s big points in my book. Plus he’s not a lame ass and has done a decent job trying to fill Wellstone’s shoes a little bit (and yes I know they were both in the Senate together). He’s a ‘Sconie which is always cool and he stands for something. The left.
2) Chuck Hagel – Senator from Nebraska… whenever I see or hear Chuck Hagel, I always agree with him. I always find myself saying, this might be the only guy in DC to actually have a brain. He doesn’t take a party line position, he takes a rational position (like Feingold), he’s done his home work, he looks back at his own experiences and this countries, and sure he’s conservative, but I’d rather have a guy who’s a bit conservative and does the right thing than these morons that toe the party line and listen to every poll ever created. And before anyone says “That’s George Bush!”… George Bush does the wrong thing. Sure he ‘sticks to his guns’ the only problem is that Bush’s guns are usually completely wrong and totally off. So there. And back to Hagel, he once hit on an ex-girlfriend, so if he’s elected that’s four years of pick up lines and stories right there.
3) Barack Obama – Senator from Illinois… he still needs to pay his dues, but he’s off to a great start. He stands up and says something every once in a while, he’s got ideas, it appears that he works, and while it’s only been a year it was a good rookie year. He’s probably looking at 2012 to run, but I still like him.
So there you go. That’s the list. This is all subject to change since we’ve got something like 34 months until Election Day… but I can’t wait. Seriously, I can’t wait. If nothing else, Bush will be gone, right?
So in honor of the fact that three years from today we should have a new President I’m going to have some fun with it (I say should because Dick Chaney is the Vice President and I think we can all agree that Chaney is an evil, evil man)!!! Isn’t that fun? I basically made a list of people who want to run, are going to run, or I want them to run for President and dived them into three camps: People I’d vote for, People I might vote for depending on how things go, and People that would never vote for or move to London or something (btw, has anyone done a story on all those rich lefties from the City and Cali moving to London? How is that going for them? Did they actually move? And if so where do they live in London? Or did they go to Paris or Toronto or Vancouver instead?)
Okay, let’s do this.
People that I would never vote for and if for some reason the GOP and Dems picked these people to face off against each other I would end up moving to Europe or somewhere else cool instead…
* George Allen – Sen of Virginia - He’s my senator too, but please, what does this guy have to offer?
* Mike Huckabee - Governor of Arkansas… the only way this guy could ever be redeeming is if he turned out to be the GOP Bill Clinton, in other words he was a closest Democrat on a GOP ticket. I’ll tell you one thing he and Bill have in common though… they both like the fast food; though Huckabee just lost like 50 pounds so maybe he cut it out of his diet. (You know what on second thought, I’m moving to the maybes just because I’d love to write Mike HEARTS Huckabees for four years).
* Mitt Romney – Not only does he have a stupid name, he’s a GOPer from Massachusetts so his odds of getting the nod are about as likely as the Cubs winning a World Series).
* Rudy Giuliani – Please, seriously, please don’t run Rudy. The guy would create a Rudy Giuliani TV channel just so he could be on TV all the time. While I think we can all agree that he was fantastic during and after 9/11, he’s also a camera whore and I’ll never be able to get beyond that.
* Hillary Clinton – Does anyone ever like her at this point? She’s hated on the right for no reason, and now the left hates her guts because she’s further to the right than her husband.
* Jeb Bush – The only think worse for this country than a Dick Chaney Dictatorship would be a Jeb Bush vs Hilary Clinton election. This would be the final straw for the US Constitution and me. I’m not kidding, if this were to happen, I’d find a way to gank the Constitution and take it to some place like, oh Argentina or Brazil, and say “Here guys, this should work like butter for a good 250 years.” And we’d all be happy and I’d have five beautiful women on each arm and then credits would role.
* Bill Frist – Senator from Virginia and Senate Majority Leader… talk about a flip flopper, Frist makes Kerry seem like a pair of Dutch wooden shoes. He took some outrageous stances when he first got the job as Majority Leader, and even though he’s backed down a bit, he pretty much came across like the prick that he probably is.
* Condoleezza Rice – Secretary of State… When Nero nabbed her as Secretary of State, I had my doubts, but Condi has out preformed herself, so kudos to here there. But President? Please. Would anyone be able to take her that seriously? While her Jesuit education gives her points in my book (and probably the reason she’s not an utter disaster), I just can’t see her being anything other than a mat to walk all over.
* John Kerry – It’s a shame that politics isn’t more like sports sometimes. Just imagine if there was General Manager of each party and they sort of managed everything. Can you imagine how a Kerry and GM of the Dems meeting would go? How horrified would the GM of the Dems be? What would he do to stop him from running? Would the GM of the Dems start running those Swift Boat adds again?
* Al Gore – I think Gore is going to run. I’m serious. I really think he’s going to run, and he’s going to start off all loose and ready for the fight but less wooden. But he won’t have enough support and he’ll lose it and some debate or event. He’ll be up there at the podium looking out at a crowd of fifteen people and just say “F#*@ it. Serious people, I should be RETIRING right now. I shouldn’t be running for President. But that twit from Texas, who isn’t even from Texas, had to get his brother to throw some votes to the bottom of the Everglades, and now look at me! LOOK AT ME! I’M STANDING IN FRONT OF 13 PEOPLE IN PEORIA, ILLINOIS! SCREW THIS!!” I feel for Al Gore sometimes. I look at him and say; man it must really suck to be you. You were ( close to being President. Instead you had to sit around for and watch Nero attempt to run the world into the ground. What a bummer. We should be happy that Gore hasn’t become a junkie to be honest. Hell, we should all be happy Gore didn’t blow his brains out.
* Evan Bayh – Sen. from Indiana… Hey look, it’s a privileged white male from Indiana whose dad was an actual Senator and watched his son ride his coat tails. It would never work. No way. Please, a dumbass as President and whose father was a pretty powerful man. It could never happen in this country.
People who I can stand, enjoy watching on TV, and even if everything worked out for them I could maybe vote for:
* Joe Biden – Senator from Delaware… I like Joe. I really do. He’s charismatic. He seems interesting and the kind of guy that may have shot gunned a beer in the last year. Plus he’s Catholic (got to root for the home team) and always has something to say. Plus he’s been running for President since May of 2004, he didn’t even wait for Kerry to lose. He started up the machine just in case and I admire that ambition.
* John Edwards – Who knows what Edwards is doing right now, to be honest I haven’t read a ton on him since he and Kerry lost. But the little I have seen and read it appears that he’s lay low, building a message, and getting ready to set out an actual Democratic agenda. We’ll have to wait and see though. This is John Edwards who we’re talking about, the same John Edwards that disappeared from August 2004 until election night.
* Mark Warner – Former Gov. from Virginia… Not to be shallow, but I don’t Warner has the look at the end of the day. But he’s an intriguing candidate if nothing else. He seems like too cute of a choice though for the Democrats.
* Wesley Clark – With a little polish and a better message, Clark could do this.
* Bill Richardson – Governor from New Mexico… I’m starting to get sick of him… plus any guy that lies about playing minor league baseball loses points in my book.
* John McCain – In the end, he’s probably a much better Senator than President. He’s too hawish and I wish he’d turn down an interview request once in a while. Seriously, I’m sure if you really wanted you could call McCain’s office and say “I’m so and so from NBC…” and he’d agree to meet you and do an interview. Plus he’s like 72 and it looks like you could peel his skin off.
Okay, now, if the election was held tomorrow, and I could vote for anyone…
1) Russ Feingold – Senator from Wisconsin… He was the only person to vote against the Patriot Act. That’s big points in my book. Plus he’s not a lame ass and has done a decent job trying to fill Wellstone’s shoes a little bit (and yes I know they were both in the Senate together). He’s a ‘Sconie which is always cool and he stands for something. The left.
2) Chuck Hagel – Senator from Nebraska… whenever I see or hear Chuck Hagel, I always agree with him. I always find myself saying, this might be the only guy in DC to actually have a brain. He doesn’t take a party line position, he takes a rational position (like Feingold), he’s done his home work, he looks back at his own experiences and this countries, and sure he’s conservative, but I’d rather have a guy who’s a bit conservative and does the right thing than these morons that toe the party line and listen to every poll ever created. And before anyone says “That’s George Bush!”… George Bush does the wrong thing. Sure he ‘sticks to his guns’ the only problem is that Bush’s guns are usually completely wrong and totally off. So there. And back to Hagel, he once hit on an ex-girlfriend, so if he’s elected that’s four years of pick up lines and stories right there.
3) Barack Obama – Senator from Illinois… he still needs to pay his dues, but he’s off to a great start. He stands up and says something every once in a while, he’s got ideas, it appears that he works, and while it’s only been a year it was a good rookie year. He’s probably looking at 2012 to run, but I still like him.
So there you go. That’s the list. This is all subject to change since we’ve got something like 34 months until Election Day… but I can’t wait. Seriously, I can’t wait. If nothing else, Bush will be gone, right?
24.1.06
Best Names In Sports
This morning I was reading up on the NFL Draft and can we all just agree that D'Brickashaw Ferguson is the best name in sports? You know what… let’s make a top ten Best Names in Sports list:
10) Rudy Gay (UConn) – His name isn’t that great… but tell me you aren’t excited about reading this headline in the Newspaper come June: “First pick in NBA Draft is Gay”
9) Pops Mensha-Bonsu (George Washington) – This, my friends, is a name. Maybe too much name, but a name.
8) Luther Head (Houston Rockets) – This is a toss up between Head and Dwyane Wade, but I’m going with Head because how often to you meet a guy named Luther? And with a last name like Head on top of it I can’t pass it up. I love Dwyane Wade… but Luther Head, welcome to the list!
7) Thierry Henry (Arsenal) – I could probably have filled this list with football, err soccer, names if I wanted: Ronaldinho, Kaka, Zinedine Zidane, Rafel van der Vaar, Jaap Stam… but Henry get the nod because his name is Thierry Henry… it rhymes (say the name as if you were French… pretty cool eh?) and it just rolls off the tongue like chocolate. Plus Henry is one of the few guys you can say that he’s a great player AND he has a great name.
6) Nick Ferguson (Denver Broncos) – Every time Jim Nantz said his name on Sunday, I couldn’t help but think of Turd Ferguson. I realize I’m 24 years old, but it made me laugh every time partly because it was Nantz saying “Nick Ferguson” and partly because of Burt Reynolds. Jim Nantz just has a way of saying things that brings about humor (and btw could Simms and Nantz have a worse chemistry in the booth? And whose fault is it? You figure Nantz because he appears to be so wooden (the guy seems to have negative personality which is why he’s perfect for golf), but maybe Simms is just a nut case and randomly shouts things and Nantz wants no part of him? I don’t know, just a thought. Let’s ask Billy Packer next time).
5) Coco Crisp (Cleveland Indians, though soon to be on the Red Sox) – I thought he was from the Dominican until about five minutes ago… he’s from LA! This makes his name even better. People put thought into this name. Amazing. Anyway, Coco's name is so great even my mom noticed his name last year at the Sox game, "Hey Bobby, did you know this guy's name is Coco Crisp?! That's funny! Why did his parents name him that?"
4) Teemu Selanne – The number great names in the NHL could make its own list since the NHL consists of French-Canadians (Jean Yeves-LeRox or Jean-Philippe Cote anyone?), Fins (Saku Koivu), and random Canadians (Rod Brind'Amour, anyone named Rod gets an honorable mention (so here’s to you Rod Smith)). But Teemu gets the nod for having a name like Teemu. Teemu. I still think I want to name one of my sons Teemu. Teemu William Otter, or TWO for short. Wouldn’t that be cool if he signed his name 2. Like he’s in 3rd grade and he has to write his name on the top page and he just writes 2… that would be pretty cool. Anyway, Teemu. Great name.
3) Boniface N'Dong (LA Clippers) – I am not making this up. He’s only played seven games this year… but I’m in love. Boniface? You’re kidding me right? The only place Boniface gets dropped is at the Holy See and random Catholic history classes. And then N’Dong on top of it? If I do a list like this again, he’ll move into the number one spot. But since I discovered it about an hour ago, he’s going to have to pay is dues. But I quickly just signed him to my fantasy team… Boniface N’Dong. How great is that?!?!
2) Nook Logan (Detroit Tigers) – The Tigers might have more great names than any other team… Magglio, Placido Polanco, Nook Logan, Omar Infante, Jason Grilli, Wilfredo Ledezma… it’s a silver mine of great names. But Nook Logan gets the nod for having the best baseball name since Dickie Thon (who by the way was on the 1989 Phillies who were, and still probably are, the Best Team of Names until this Tiger team gave them a run for their money. Just look at this fountain of great names: Von Hayes, Tom Herr, Darren Daulton, Lenny Dykstra, Ricky Jordan, Charlie Hayes, Bruce Ruffin, Floyd Youmans, and Juan Samuel; it’s a friggin gold mine).
1) D'Brickashaw Ferguson (Virginia, but soon to be a top five NFL pick) – How, when, where, what inspired his family to name him D’Brickashaw? And if I’m D’Brickashaw Ferguson, I’m dropping the last name and just going by D’Brickashaw the rest of my life. D’Brickashaw… how did this happen? Did a man named Shaw throw a brick? What’s the purpose of the D’? Is this a common name and I’m just not aware of it? Did someone in his family lose a bet? I’m just floored. D’Brickashaw…
We here at VFLOAB have been closet Rilo Kiley fans for a while now (yes eight months is a ‘while’) when an ex turn us on to them. We’ve always imagined the lead singer, Jenny Lewis, to be a cute but not an “Oh My God!” little blonde with a hell of a voice… Well you can imagine our surprise when we saw that she’s actually a hot little red head that stared with Fred Savage in “The Wizard”. Now, we aren’t clearing room on our girl rockers mantel where Kim Deal, Annie, and 20th century Liz Phair resides, but Jenny Lewis (left), along with Kim Gordon, get special mention, and Neko Case is banging at the door.
Remember our goal in life is to drink with Liz Phair and Kim Deal (right) and eventually marry Annie. Though this will probably go though some editing to look something this: drink with Liz Phair and Kim Deal, dance with Jenny Lewis, play shuffle board with Neko Case, and marry Annie. (Note Kim Gordon is probably too hip to hang out with us, and while I would have said the same about Kim Deal, I found this totally random story and realized that I’d have a shot). So there you go, VFLOAB isn’t in love with Jenny Lewis yet, but she is coming to DC in a few weeks and I’m sure we’ll check her out. She released a new solo album today…
Finally, Kobe dropping 81 on Sunday night to go along with two other good NBA games that day, added with Tags stupid comments calling baseball boring and then giving the country two Championship games that couldn’t be more boring and uninteresting, and then a good day of college basketball the day before… and now it’s Tuesday and still no one is talking about the Super Bowl. At this point any conversation about the Super Bowl is forced on top of it. I know, the game isn’t until next Sunday, but usually you get the initial hype, then that fades around Thursday a bit for the weekend, and the picks up Sunday night and carries you on to the game. But there’s been none of that… and maybe it’s me. Outside of the two QBs and maybe three other players on each team, I could careless about the Seahawks or Steelers. The Steelers are a sort of interesting story, team looks flat most of the year, comes out and beats up on the Bears in Week 13 or something and doesn’t look back. Pittsburgh goes nuts (and speaking of Pittsburgh, Steeler fans have to be insane. Any Sunday in the fall it’s a lock that I’ll see ten Steeler jerseys if I venture out of the house. It’s amazing… if Jet fans wore jerseys around as much as Steeler fans they might give them a run for their money).
As for Seattle… they’re 3,000 miles away and the East Cost could careless. I’m always shocked at how little people out east care about anything far from them. Kind of a shame since Seattle is a fantastic city.
I guess my point is that this Super Bowl might not be as hyped as previous Super Bowls… either that or the media is welcoming Kobe’s 81 since it gives them more time to sit on the brutal storylines they feed us during the lead up to the Super Bowl. Take your pick.
10) Rudy Gay (UConn) – His name isn’t that great… but tell me you aren’t excited about reading this headline in the Newspaper come June: “First pick in NBA Draft is Gay”
9) Pops Mensha-Bonsu (George Washington) – This, my friends, is a name. Maybe too much name, but a name.
8) Luther Head (Houston Rockets) – This is a toss up between Head and Dwyane Wade, but I’m going with Head because how often to you meet a guy named Luther? And with a last name like Head on top of it I can’t pass it up. I love Dwyane Wade… but Luther Head, welcome to the list!
7) Thierry Henry (Arsenal) – I could probably have filled this list with football, err soccer, names if I wanted: Ronaldinho, Kaka, Zinedine Zidane, Rafel van der Vaar, Jaap Stam… but Henry get the nod because his name is Thierry Henry… it rhymes (say the name as if you were French… pretty cool eh?) and it just rolls off the tongue like chocolate. Plus Henry is one of the few guys you can say that he’s a great player AND he has a great name.
6) Nick Ferguson (Denver Broncos) – Every time Jim Nantz said his name on Sunday, I couldn’t help but think of Turd Ferguson. I realize I’m 24 years old, but it made me laugh every time partly because it was Nantz saying “Nick Ferguson” and partly because of Burt Reynolds. Jim Nantz just has a way of saying things that brings about humor (and btw could Simms and Nantz have a worse chemistry in the booth? And whose fault is it? You figure Nantz because he appears to be so wooden (the guy seems to have negative personality which is why he’s perfect for golf), but maybe Simms is just a nut case and randomly shouts things and Nantz wants no part of him? I don’t know, just a thought. Let’s ask Billy Packer next time).
5) Coco Crisp (Cleveland Indians, though soon to be on the Red Sox) – I thought he was from the Dominican until about five minutes ago… he’s from LA! This makes his name even better. People put thought into this name. Amazing. Anyway, Coco's name is so great even my mom noticed his name last year at the Sox game, "Hey Bobby, did you know this guy's name is Coco Crisp?! That's funny! Why did his parents name him that?"
4) Teemu Selanne – The number great names in the NHL could make its own list since the NHL consists of French-Canadians (Jean Yeves-LeRox or Jean-Philippe Cote anyone?), Fins (Saku Koivu), and random Canadians (Rod Brind'Amour, anyone named Rod gets an honorable mention (so here’s to you Rod Smith)). But Teemu gets the nod for having a name like Teemu. Teemu. I still think I want to name one of my sons Teemu. Teemu William Otter, or TWO for short. Wouldn’t that be cool if he signed his name 2. Like he’s in 3rd grade and he has to write his name on the top page and he just writes 2… that would be pretty cool. Anyway, Teemu. Great name.
3) Boniface N'Dong (LA Clippers) – I am not making this up. He’s only played seven games this year… but I’m in love. Boniface? You’re kidding me right? The only place Boniface gets dropped is at the Holy See and random Catholic history classes. And then N’Dong on top of it? If I do a list like this again, he’ll move into the number one spot. But since I discovered it about an hour ago, he’s going to have to pay is dues. But I quickly just signed him to my fantasy team… Boniface N’Dong. How great is that?!?!
2) Nook Logan (Detroit Tigers) – The Tigers might have more great names than any other team… Magglio, Placido Polanco, Nook Logan, Omar Infante, Jason Grilli, Wilfredo Ledezma… it’s a silver mine of great names. But Nook Logan gets the nod for having the best baseball name since Dickie Thon (who by the way was on the 1989 Phillies who were, and still probably are, the Best Team of Names until this Tiger team gave them a run for their money. Just look at this fountain of great names: Von Hayes, Tom Herr, Darren Daulton, Lenny Dykstra, Ricky Jordan, Charlie Hayes, Bruce Ruffin, Floyd Youmans, and Juan Samuel; it’s a friggin gold mine).
1) D'Brickashaw Ferguson (Virginia, but soon to be a top five NFL pick) – How, when, where, what inspired his family to name him D’Brickashaw? And if I’m D’Brickashaw Ferguson, I’m dropping the last name and just going by D’Brickashaw the rest of my life. D’Brickashaw… how did this happen? Did a man named Shaw throw a brick? What’s the purpose of the D’? Is this a common name and I’m just not aware of it? Did someone in his family lose a bet? I’m just floored. D’Brickashaw…
We here at VFLOAB have been closet Rilo Kiley fans for a while now (yes eight months is a ‘while’) when an ex turn us on to them. We’ve always imagined the lead singer, Jenny Lewis, to be a cute but not an “Oh My God!” little blonde with a hell of a voice… Well you can imagine our surprise when we saw that she’s actually a hot little red head that stared with Fred Savage in “The Wizard”. Now, we aren’t clearing room on our girl rockers mantel where Kim Deal, Annie, and 20th century Liz Phair resides, but Jenny Lewis (left), along with Kim Gordon, get special mention, and Neko Case is banging at the door.
Remember our goal in life is to drink with Liz Phair and Kim Deal (right) and eventually marry Annie. Though this will probably go though some editing to look something this: drink with Liz Phair and Kim Deal, dance with Jenny Lewis, play shuffle board with Neko Case, and marry Annie. (Note Kim Gordon is probably too hip to hang out with us, and while I would have said the same about Kim Deal, I found this totally random story and realized that I’d have a shot). So there you go, VFLOAB isn’t in love with Jenny Lewis yet, but she is coming to DC in a few weeks and I’m sure we’ll check her out. She released a new solo album today…
Finally, Kobe dropping 81 on Sunday night to go along with two other good NBA games that day, added with Tags stupid comments calling baseball boring and then giving the country two Championship games that couldn’t be more boring and uninteresting, and then a good day of college basketball the day before… and now it’s Tuesday and still no one is talking about the Super Bowl. At this point any conversation about the Super Bowl is forced on top of it. I know, the game isn’t until next Sunday, but usually you get the initial hype, then that fades around Thursday a bit for the weekend, and the picks up Sunday night and carries you on to the game. But there’s been none of that… and maybe it’s me. Outside of the two QBs and maybe three other players on each team, I could careless about the Seahawks or Steelers. The Steelers are a sort of interesting story, team looks flat most of the year, comes out and beats up on the Bears in Week 13 or something and doesn’t look back. Pittsburgh goes nuts (and speaking of Pittsburgh, Steeler fans have to be insane. Any Sunday in the fall it’s a lock that I’ll see ten Steeler jerseys if I venture out of the house. It’s amazing… if Jet fans wore jerseys around as much as Steeler fans they might give them a run for their money).
As for Seattle… they’re 3,000 miles away and the East Cost could careless. I’m always shocked at how little people out east care about anything far from them. Kind of a shame since Seattle is a fantastic city.I guess my point is that this Super Bowl might not be as hyped as previous Super Bowls… either that or the media is welcoming Kobe’s 81 since it gives them more time to sit on the brutal storylines they feed us during the lead up to the Super Bowl. Take your pick.
23.1.06
Mr. Robert Dunst
It’s Monday, and while we do have something some what interesting to write about we aren’t going to do that today because, frankly, we don’t feel like it and we need to do some more research and we’re not into it at the moment…
And instead of boring you with NFL talk… wait before we do that, let’s rip the NFL for a few sentences. Paul Tagliabue said in Sports Illustrated this week something along the lines of ‘baseball is boring it’s like waiting in line at the grocery store.’ Not a good weekend to say that Paul. Those two games yesterday were brutal. I’m not sure they could have been more uninteresting. Serious, just boring games that I didn’t even bother to watch the second half of either game (in fact I didn’t even have the sound on for the Seattle game and didn’t watch after midway though the second quarter). Meanwhile, Kobe goes off for 81 points and the Suns and SuperSonics score about 943 points last night and the NFL gives us two games that I couldn’t find any interest in. But apparently uninteresting games combined with at least 2,488 stoppages and commercials over an almost four hour time frame is ‘fun, interesting, exciting, and can’t miss’. I’ve got news for ya Tags if baseball is boring, the NFL must be used by the CIA as means of torture to gather information from the terrorists. That’s how bad it is right now. Four hours of replays, bad officiating, countless commercials, annoying announcers, and once in a while football. But even then it usually pains in comparison to an NCAA game.
Now we get two weeks of Super Bowl hype when eventually they’ll actually play the game. The game won’t be that good but we’ll all watch because it’s a cultural event more so than a sporting event. It isn’t a game, it’s an event. And as an event and show, it’s fantastic. But from a sport viewing stand point it’s usually a stinker, uninteresting and far too long…
But enough about that already. We here at VFLOAB are bored this morning and we’ve made some executive decisions that we don’t tell enough stories which creates some really boring posts when we reread them two months later… so we’re going to try and spruce things up once in a while. Throw ourselves (and our five readers) a bone. But I don’t really have any interesting stories to tell at the moment (partly because this weekend didn’t provide us with any interesting besides some guy wearing red pants and us doing a power hour, not realizing how intoxicated we were, and me shouting "Milk was a bad choice!" the rest of the night... again nothing too interesting) and reaching back in the memory bank is too tough at the moment… SOOOO we went back to our now second favorite website: this look alike face thingie which takes pictures of your face (or someone else’s) and matches them up with celebrities, something we mentioned a few weeks ago.
SOOOO we scanned eight pictures of the self and these are the results. The site ranks the ‘look a likeness’ on a percentage scale, the ones bellow received at least 50%. From highest to lowest…
Antonio Banderas [I’m at a loss here… I’m not Spanish and have blonde hair… whatever]
Keanu Reeves [Still at a loss… though I’m probably a better actor]
Colin Farrell (x2) [I don’t agree but… there is a picture of my dad from the late 70s and he looks like Mr. Farrell’s twin and seeing that I’m a product of my father, I’ll give ‘em this]
Leonardo DiCapiro (x2) [I’ll take what I can get at this point]
Kirsten Dunst (x3) [Okay whatever, she is a saucy babe and if nothing else I’ve got a leg up on everyone for the role of Dunst’s evil brother in Spiderman 8.]
Kate Winslet [And it’s Titanic night tonight at the Palace Hotel Ballroom]
Harold Pinter [He won a Nobel Prize people! He’s English! And he’s like 70!]
Mel Gibson [Well we are both Roman Catholic…]
Anthony Kiedis [Despite looking like a junkie for a few years in high school, I was never on smack or in an overrated band]
Ben Affleck [Confirm/Deny: No Talent Ass Clown?]
Michael Ballack [He plays football in Germany]
John Cusack [unfortunately High Fidelity has probably affected my life more than it should have… both the book and movie]
Keith Moon [I think this is my favorite mention, I mean Keith Moon? I have never looked like Keith Moon at any point in my life. Never. I couldn’t be more different than Keith Moon (mainly because I’m not insane, a drunk, or a drummer) But still it’s good to see Keith Moon’s name]
And just to prove that I apparently look like a women - these came up in the 40%s
Martina Hingis [After all, we are both Czech]
Elisha Cuthbert [Yay?]
Rita Hayworth (x2) [Twice! She’s one of the few that doubled up on the list! Rita Hayworth!]
Katherine Hepburn [Unlike Hayworth, she is not mentioned in any White Stripes songs]
So there you go. I apparently look like a woman and I’m okay with that because I eat beef, drink beer, and watch sports. Anyone else get anything good or interesting when doing this?
20.1.06
Snarky
I’ve got nothing today. I woke up and in the shower I was reflecting on the Civil War and the South…. but I’m not at work and I could really careless. Really, I’m sick of it all right now. I’m sick of the South and their Confederate/Taitor statues facing south. I’m sick of them waving the US flag next to the Confederate flag (and for the record the Confederate flag has to be the most Anti-American symbol ever thought of or created). But I don’t feel like making that point in long sentences that just lead to more questions, so that’s all I’m giving. Told you I was snarky right now.I used the restroom today next to a guy on a cell phone... serious. I wish I was making this up, but it’s the truth. This moron was yapping away on a cell phone while taking a wiz. This being Washington, DC, I could see the Democrats and Republicans getting into a ‘war of words’ and ‘stand off’ over an issue like this, “Just how much and where can a person use a cell phone” completely missing the point of course. [And I’m also giving the Dems way too much credit here. The Democratic response would look something like this:
1) What does Bush think about this?
2) How does talking on a cell phone while at a urinal effect the pro-life movement, and then do the opposite.
3) What would Bill Clinton think about this?
4) What does Chaney think about this?
5) Is there any way to get the Supreme Court to rule on this before they would have to do anything or react?
Doesn’t that pretty much sum up the Democrats right now? Bush is a Bum!, Keep Abortion legal, WWBCD?, Chaney Sucks, and can we get a court ruling first?] Anyway, while the idiots and morons are arguing, I think pretty much everyone IN THE WORLD would agree that this guy would probably be better off if he wasn’t able to pro-create. There was no this point to this story for the record.
I’m going to admit it; I like “Fix You” also off of X&Y. Call me cheesy and a romantic, but I like it. And yes, some day Coldplay will actually make a good album that consists of good songs all the way through. You can’t write songs like “Speed of Sound”, “Clocks”, “The Scientist”, and of course “Shiver” without being talented. But until they stop messing around with junk like “Swallowed in the Sea”, “A Rush of Blood to the Head” and lyrics like “My song is love” (which by the way is the worst song lyric in the history of music. It’s so bad that I actually physically gagged when I first heard it) it’s not going to happen. Okay I’m making no sense.
We here at VFLOAB love Tony Kornheiser and listen to his radio show almost every day. Today marked our first public radio performance today when an e-mail of ours was read over the air on The Tony Kornheiser Show. Tony had just had VFLOAB favorite Rachel Nichols of ESPN, never blinking, and bad segment exit line fame on the air to talk about who knows what, I think Antino Davis, but she was in Charlotte (why Charlotte? I don’t know. Maybe the Panthers haven’t left for Seattle? Who knows, but that’s where she was). Anyway here is the e-mail (and btw when someone reads what you wrote on the radio… totally weird):
Tony did you just have the Saucy Babe Rachel Nichols offer to read you ESPN: The Magazine? You're officially now the third luckiest person to walk this Earth and Mr. Mr. Mark Consuelos has to be shaking in his boots. But back to Ms. Nichols, if this happens, can you invite me over? I can pretend to work on the fence or something. Then at some point come in for a break, crack open a Coke, and sit in-between the two of you as she reads the Mag to you in her sunny voice. Then after that we can ride bikes or write long journalistic pieces for old time sakes. To cap off the night, I'll change out of my white, throw on a sweater, and go bowling. I think that would be classic.
And we are talking full credit for this. The Cubans are going to play. So when the US beats them 12-3 in March, you can thank me.
Just when you thought your day was really, really bad. I mean Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day like day, well that's when Chuck Norris comes to save the day. He comes to Fix You. Thank you Chuck. And thank you Conan.
Now for the reason you’re probably not reading… my probably totally incorrect and wrong picks. These playoffs can’t get any worse for me, after a strong 2-0 start on the first Saturday of the season; it’s been all down hill since then. We’re an amazing 1-5 since… maybe we should never have left Chicago. But we still have a chance to finish above .500 if we run the table… and that’s just what we’re going to do. It starts right here.
DENVER (-3) over Pittsburgh
We were almost talked into taking the Steelers, they do have a look about them that makes them seem Super Bowl bound… but then we remembered - Denver has the biggest home field advantage in the NFL. So we’re going with the Broncos, whose defense is playing really well. They just beat the Pats, a team with a better offense than the Steelers, and should be able to move the ball enough to win this game. I doubt it’s going to be a blow out, I expect a tight game with the Broncos doing enough to stay ahead and win.
Broncos – 23; Steelers 17
SEATTLE (+3.5) over Carolina
You know what… I don’t care. I really don’t. I can’t think of any reason to pick either team here. I can’t. The best player in the game is Steve Smith, but Seattle is at home and Matt Hasselbeck looked fantastic in the second half last week willing his team to victory (granted it helped that the ‘Skins can’t move the ball, but work with me). Yet again, this is also one of the few times when the Panthers won’t be wearing the ugliest uniform, and that has to count for something correct? The odds that Sean Alexander will disappear in this game are about 93%, but the Panthers shouldn’t be able to run the ball anyway.
I guess I’m basing this decision on the fact that the Panthers, outside of Steve Smith, looked very average last week against the Bears. If the Seahawks can hold Smith to only 9 catches, 158 yards, and one touchdown they should win. Then again, Steve “Anti-Christ” Smith could just as easily put up 28 catches for 938 yards and three touchdowns… just when Vince Young comes along and makes you say “I’ve seen it all… I’ve seen Michael Jordan, I’ve seen Albert Pujols hit a ball 900 feet, the White Sox win a World Series, and now I’ve seen one football player beat one of the best college football teams ever by himself, well I’ve seen it all. I can’t possibly see anything that will join this list.” Steve Smith comes and standing maybe 5’4” plays like a superhero. There is no other way to describe him.
But I just feel that this is the Seahawks year. And they’re armed with a Jesuit at the helm. And my soon to be #1 rule in life is never bet against the Jesuits.
Seahawks – 27, Panthers - 20
19.1.06
How to Look Stupid and Piss People Off at the Same Time
¿Los gringos no nos dejarán quizá jugar debido a nuestros pantalones rojos, amigo?As a baseball fan, the US government’s actions over the last few months in taking steps to prevent Cuba from participating in the World Baseball Classic is just flat out stupid. And of course it makes this country look bad in the process. All politics aside, the WBC is an international sporting event, it isn’t an economic event. It isn’t a political event. It’s a few baseball games being played in the US and a few other countries around the world.
I’m not sure who’s making this decision, and it’s far too easy to blame Bush or the White House (and to be honest, doing so would be just as stupid since I’m 100% sure the White House has more important things to do right now), but who ever is making this decision, get off your high horse, stop playing politics, stop looking like a hypocritical moron, and let the Cubans play. You’re not doing the US, WBC, or the world any favors by banning them. Not allowing Cuba to play isn’t going to some how magically lead to Castro losing power. In fact it only makes Castro look good. And is that really want we want at this point?
And it’s not like we’ve banned Cuba from playing in previous sporting events. I seem to recall them at 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I seem to recall them playing the Orioles in Camden Yards in 1999. I seem to recall them playing soccer LAST YEAR right here in the United States (and losing to the USA I might add). So where were you then? Why were the Cubans allowed to kick a soccer ball around in 2005 but not hit a baseball in 2006? What thought process leads to this conclusion?
And please, don’t give me this “they might make money of the tournament.” Seriously, who cares? We’ve had an embargo for over 40 years and Castro is still in charge in Cuba. A baseball tournament isn’t going to change anything. Things aren’t going to be changing until Fidel buys the farm. And anyway, this is baseball not Fords or iPods… baseball. [And the Cubans have already offered to dominate any money they make to the Hurricane Katrina fund… it’s like we ask for this stuff sometimes]. So let the Cubans play, don’t make them out to be martyrs (creating martyrs = bad political business). Let the Cubans play and let us beat ‘em up good… because, my gosh!, beating them with baseball bats and gloves sends a lot more of a message than not looking them play at all.
And while I’m on the subject of ripping people and things… Rob Neyer. This guy has been writing stupid stuff for too many years and we’ve got to bring an end to it. [I know I shouldn’t read him, but I just don’t like the guy. I hate his smugness, I hate his stats, I even heard him on the radio once and I couldn’t stand him… I want him out of my life, and if my life is checking ESPN.com, then be gone Rob.]
Anyway, he probably wrote the single dumbest thing I’ve read in years yesterday (I can’t link it, but I’ll give you a taste of it, and if you don’t care about baseball, just skip till you see bold again):
To measure how they really played, we can look at "second-order wins," as seen in the Baseball Prospectus standings. Second-order wins show us how many games each team "should" have won, considering its batting and pitching statistics (except runs scored and allowed).Some of you won't like these next numbers...
Real 2W
Cardinals 100 91
White Sox 99 87
Yankees 95 93
Angels 95 88
Red Sox 95 90
(Indians 93 98)
What? Seriously… what is Neyer talking about? Is he on crack? How many games a team “should have won”? He’s kidding right? Of course he’s serious… he wouldn’t be Rob Neyer if he wasn’t serious. I think he actually believes this shit. But it gets better:
Well, that was easy. We didn't even have to play the 2006 schedule, and five of the six teams are already worse than their 2005 record -- and it's not even Opening Day yet!
And if we're looking for 2005 division winners who seem unlikely to repeat, we've got a couple of prime candidates in the White Sox and the Angels.
So it's come to this for stat-heads? What SHOULD have happened? And what SHOULD have happened in 2005 will effect what will happen in 2006? Are these guys so pissed that three of the past four WS winners were non stat-head teams that they're just making stuff up?
So who SHOULD have won the World Series? This might be the dumbest reasoning in the last 36 months… making predictions on the 2006 on what SHOULD have happened in 2005. It’s like saying Gore should have won in 2000, so therefore I’m voting for Joe Lieberman in 2008 because Lieberman SHOULD have been Vice President in 2000… how stupid is that?
As for the White Sox…. they didn't score a lot of runs last year, and that's what the Statheads/Neyer have a problem with. They hate teams that win one run games (btw Ozzie is 67-38 in one run games over the last two years) and seem to take the NCAA football writers approach of 'it's all about how you win'. I don't think they realize that good teams win one run games because they're good teams. In other words, they have better bullpens and multiple ways to create runs. So when you see a team win 85 games but go something like 14-21 in one run games, that says to me that that team had glaring hole that wasn't addressed (sort of like any Bobby Clarke Flyer team or a hockey team not having a point man on the power play or an NFL team going 9-7 losing two games because of poor special teams).
Is their some 'luck' in one run games? Sure, a funny bounce here or there or a missed call. But there's a lot of skill too (holding runners, turning two, hitting cut off men, moving guys over, taking an extra base... and of course the long ball). Of course most of these ‘stats’ don’t exist and it drives the likes of Neyer nuts… so they go along making stuff up for reasons I’m not sure about. Okay that felt good…
Last baseball comment, Phil Rodgers gives the White Sox some dap. He even offers up this gem on McCarthy: “He stands 6-foot-7 and has the stuff to be the second coming of Jack McDowell -- maybe even Mark Prior without the hype and the monster calves.” Mark “Monster Calves” Prior… I think this might stick. Of all the things on my body that I would want to be described as monster, calves would be about 74th. Anyway, it’s too early to make predictions (but don’t think we’re already forming our predictions) but it’s never too early to start talking about baseball. It’s been almost three months since there’s been baseball on TV and we still have a least another month to go.
And this is for the female readers… I’m here for you remember. Sure I may have some sort interest in this too, but I’m here for my readers. So girls read up, and guys tell your biddies to keep 'em up.
Only The Catholic University of America would hire an assistant coach before hiring a head coach. Amazing but true facts about my alma mater.
It's Vicky Beckham... and she's in Milan! And she's modeling! And if you want to see some of the latest fashion stuff coming out of Milan this week, check out the Guardian’s photo gallery. Something for everyone there… ohhh beautiful people!
18.1.06
Is Iran building WMDs because we're in Iraq?
While the recent developments in Iran are not good and extremely dangerous, VFLOAB has to wonder if they would be going though with their uranium enriching testing program if the United States was not in Iraq? The idea of the Americans conquering/over throwing Saddam and then setting up shop in Iraq must scare the crap out of them (imagine if the Chinese invaded Mexico because Fox may have WMDs… okay sure it’s a stretch but work with me people! That’s all I’m askin’). So what does Iran do? They run around and talk up the Europeans then after two years tell them to bug off; they’re going to try and enrich uranium and have been building labs 75 feet underground while this was going on. Not good.
Why now? Why begin to enrich uranium at this point? Is the US military not only being in Iraq, but also using aggressive means to get want they/we wanted part of the reason? Are Iranians scared that the US might try to pull the same stunt in Iran and therefore if they can get their hands on the bomb, they could prevent a US invasion? Prior to the US invasion of Iraq, we had troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, not that much further from Iran. But Iraq was a ‘buffer’ between the American military and Iran. Today that ‘buffer’ is gone. Yet still, seems like a risky chance that the Iranians are taking. First they’re assuming that the US was planning on invading Iran (and if that is/was the case, the US military is a long way away from being able to pull that off unless a draft was called tomorrow) and secondly they’re also assuming that the US/rest of the world would not stop their program by diplomatic or forceful means. In other words, trying to build The Bomb is a huge risk for Iran to undertake… so why take it?
The answer has to be fear right? Of course not necessarily, but US forces are now so close to Iran, that this might have sped up the Iranians “need” for the Bomb. We can’t assume that Iran wouldn’t try to build the Bomb if the US wasn’t involved in the Middle East at all, but the invasion of Iraq specifically seems to have sprung the Iranian government into some sort of action.
And don’t forget that there are also American troops in Afghanistan, so when Iran looks to the west or east they see American forces. I’m sure they think they’re Germany post 1870 unification (how weird that I have to clarify that btw), and with US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, that is their France and Russia.
This of course may just have been the United States strategy all along. Get so close to Iran that you scare them into peace (I would hope, but who really knows). But it looks as if the opposite may be happening.
Of course the horrible ‘fact’ is that we went into Iraq, among other reasons, to prevent the building and use of Weapons of Mass Destruction. And while it’s turned out that Iraq doesn’t and didn’t have any, it may be the case that Iran will. And soon, a matter of months in fact according to the Economist, if something isn’t done quickly. And if they are able to enrich that uranium, well you’ve got to wonder if it would have happened if we never went into Iraq.
This Becker-Posner Blog is usually some of the most interesting stuff we read every week here at VFLOAB. This week Posner leads off by taking on tenure. And he basically argues against continuing the practice, since differently political views and interests appear to be more accepted.
Continuing:
Tenure is no longer needed because of an absence of performance measures. These measures exist in abundance. Quality of teaching is readily measurable by student evaluations, provided care is taken to prevent teachers from courting popularity by easy grading and light assignments and student evaluations are supplemented by faculty observation of the classroom. Quality of research is readily measurable by grants, prizes, and above all by citations to the professor’s scholarly publications, weighted by the quality of the journal in which the citations appear.
It’s an interesting argument, and while we aren’t bowled over by it so much so that we would get rid of the tenure system, it’s something to be considered and debated (which it is on the blog).
For those who don’t know, Gerry Becker is an economist at the University of Chicago (and a fan of the Chicago School naturally) and Richard Posner is a judge and professor at the Law School at U of C. So naturally they tend to be conservative, but their arguments are usually well written and always thought provoking.
Why now? Why begin to enrich uranium at this point? Is the US military not only being in Iraq, but also using aggressive means to get want they/we wanted part of the reason? Are Iranians scared that the US might try to pull the same stunt in Iran and therefore if they can get their hands on the bomb, they could prevent a US invasion? Prior to the US invasion of Iraq, we had troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, not that much further from Iran. But Iraq was a ‘buffer’ between the American military and Iran. Today that ‘buffer’ is gone. Yet still, seems like a risky chance that the Iranians are taking. First they’re assuming that the US was planning on invading Iran (and if that is/was the case, the US military is a long way away from being able to pull that off unless a draft was called tomorrow) and secondly they’re also assuming that the US/rest of the world would not stop their program by diplomatic or forceful means. In other words, trying to build The Bomb is a huge risk for Iran to undertake… so why take it?
The answer has to be fear right? Of course not necessarily, but US forces are now so close to Iran, that this might have sped up the Iranians “need” for the Bomb. We can’t assume that Iran wouldn’t try to build the Bomb if the US wasn’t involved in the Middle East at all, but the invasion of Iraq specifically seems to have sprung the Iranian government into some sort of action.
And don’t forget that there are also American troops in Afghanistan, so when Iran looks to the west or east they see American forces. I’m sure they think they’re Germany post 1870 unification (how weird that I have to clarify that btw), and with US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, that is their France and Russia.
This of course may just have been the United States strategy all along. Get so close to Iran that you scare them into peace (I would hope, but who really knows). But it looks as if the opposite may be happening.
Of course the horrible ‘fact’ is that we went into Iraq, among other reasons, to prevent the building and use of Weapons of Mass Destruction. And while it’s turned out that Iraq doesn’t and didn’t have any, it may be the case that Iran will. And soon, a matter of months in fact according to the Economist, if something isn’t done quickly. And if they are able to enrich that uranium, well you’ve got to wonder if it would have happened if we never went into Iraq.
This Becker-Posner Blog is usually some of the most interesting stuff we read every week here at VFLOAB. This week Posner leads off by taking on tenure. And he basically argues against continuing the practice, since differently political views and interests appear to be more accepted.
Continuing:
Tenure is no longer needed because of an absence of performance measures. These measures exist in abundance. Quality of teaching is readily measurable by student evaluations, provided care is taken to prevent teachers from courting popularity by easy grading and light assignments and student evaluations are supplemented by faculty observation of the classroom. Quality of research is readily measurable by grants, prizes, and above all by citations to the professor’s scholarly publications, weighted by the quality of the journal in which the citations appear.
It’s an interesting argument, and while we aren’t bowled over by it so much so that we would get rid of the tenure system, it’s something to be considered and debated (which it is on the blog).
For those who don’t know, Gerry Becker is an economist at the University of Chicago (and a fan of the Chicago School naturally) and Richard Posner is a judge and professor at the Law School at U of C. So naturally they tend to be conservative, but their arguments are usually well written and always thought provoking.
17.1.06
Cities and Bulls
Listgod.com did it, so we’ll do it too. The 2005 Year in Cities [at least one night must be spent in each]:
VFLOAB:
1) Chicago, IL
2) Alexandria, VA
3) Washington, DC
4) New Haven, CT
5) Rome, Italy
6) Buenos Aries, Argentina
7) Seattle, WA
8) Madison, WI
9) Farmington, CT
10) Fairfield, CT
11) Chadds Ford, PA
Bill Simmons writes today about the Pats losing and mentions the Bulls “heroically fending off the Pacers in the 1998 playoffs…” What? Am I missing something here? The Bulls didn’t heroically fight off the Pacers, they beat them and everyone knew it. Right everyone knew that?
He goes on:
Because no word exists to cover these scenarios, I'm tapping into my inner Don King and proposing "swaggerability," a cross between swagger and invincibility. Over the past three seasons, the beautiful thing about the Patriots wasn't how they kept winning, but how their fans remained absolutely convinced they would win. No matter what the circumstances, no matter how many injuries piled up, we believed Belichick would unearth the perfect plan, Brady would come through and so would Willie, Brown, Vinatieri and everyone else. The reason we believed this was because it kept happening. In other words, they gave us no reason not to believe it.
And Simmons nails it right there. Maybe to the outside observer the Bulls were being fought tooth and nail to the death by the Pacers in 1998, but I remember that Game Seven. I didn’t even watch in fact because I knew the Bulls were going to win. And I wasn’t going to miss out on something to watch the Bulls win. Which is the complete oppiset of what sports is really about… usually you put life on hold, like meeting up with friends, to watch a game because the game will only happen once and you just never know (take Sunday’s Colts/Steelers game for example). But in June of 1998 I knew the Bulls were going to beat the Pacers and go onto the NBA Finals and win the Championship for the sixth time.
But if you never experence that with a team, you never can know that it existed. And there are very few teams that this rings true for, but here’s a quick list:
* Late 1990s Yankees (until Rivera gave up that blooper in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series)
* The Bulls of the 1990s with Jordan
* The Patriots of early part of the 21st century (until this weekend)
* The Oliers in the 1980s, I’m sure the Islanders too
* Those Celtic teams…
* USC (until they lost to Texas)
All these teams left you waiting for them to win… ‘oh they’ll pull this out’ and most of the time they did (in fact the moment when they didn’t changed everything for their fate as Simmons points out; the Yankees have found new ways to lose games since that 9th inning in November of 2001, and I'm sure we'll see from USC now. Pretty much any three year period of college football proves this 'theory').
So it’s just sort of interesting… it’s a feeling that I can’t really explain unless you’ve rooted for these teams at some point. If you lived in these cities when they were at their hight, you’ll also know what I’m talking about. But that feeling of invincability… there was no way a team lead by Michael Jordan would ever lose. None.
Finally, if you’re Irish you’re probably realted to this guy. And therefore I’m probably related to you.
VFLOAB:
1) Chicago, IL
2) Alexandria, VA
3) Washington, DC
4) New Haven, CT
5) Rome, Italy
6) Buenos Aries, Argentina
7) Seattle, WA
8) Madison, WI
9) Farmington, CT
10) Fairfield, CT
11) Chadds Ford, PA
Bill Simmons writes today about the Pats losing and mentions the Bulls “heroically fending off the Pacers in the 1998 playoffs…” What? Am I missing something here? The Bulls didn’t heroically fight off the Pacers, they beat them and everyone knew it. Right everyone knew that?
He goes on:
Because no word exists to cover these scenarios, I'm tapping into my inner Don King and proposing "swaggerability," a cross between swagger and invincibility. Over the past three seasons, the beautiful thing about the Patriots wasn't how they kept winning, but how their fans remained absolutely convinced they would win. No matter what the circumstances, no matter how many injuries piled up, we believed Belichick would unearth the perfect plan, Brady would come through and so would Willie, Brown, Vinatieri and everyone else. The reason we believed this was because it kept happening. In other words, they gave us no reason not to believe it.
And Simmons nails it right there. Maybe to the outside observer the Bulls were being fought tooth and nail to the death by the Pacers in 1998, but I remember that Game Seven. I didn’t even watch in fact because I knew the Bulls were going to win. And I wasn’t going to miss out on something to watch the Bulls win. Which is the complete oppiset of what sports is really about… usually you put life on hold, like meeting up with friends, to watch a game because the game will only happen once and you just never know (take Sunday’s Colts/Steelers game for example). But in June of 1998 I knew the Bulls were going to beat the Pacers and go onto the NBA Finals and win the Championship for the sixth time.
But if you never experence that with a team, you never can know that it existed. And there are very few teams that this rings true for, but here’s a quick list:
* Late 1990s Yankees (until Rivera gave up that blooper in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series)
* The Bulls of the 1990s with Jordan
* The Patriots of early part of the 21st century (until this weekend)
* The Oliers in the 1980s, I’m sure the Islanders too
* Those Celtic teams…
* USC (until they lost to Texas)
All these teams left you waiting for them to win… ‘oh they’ll pull this out’ and most of the time they did (in fact the moment when they didn’t changed everything for their fate as Simmons points out; the Yankees have found new ways to lose games since that 9th inning in November of 2001, and I'm sure we'll see from USC now. Pretty much any three year period of college football proves this 'theory').
So it’s just sort of interesting… it’s a feeling that I can’t really explain unless you’ve rooted for these teams at some point. If you lived in these cities when they were at their hight, you’ll also know what I’m talking about. But that feeling of invincability… there was no way a team lead by Michael Jordan would ever lose. None.
Finally, if you’re Irish you’re probably realted to this guy. And therefore I’m probably related to you.
16.1.06
Martin Luther The King and Bears
Before we move onto the minute by minute report of yesterdays disaster at Soldier Field, we here at VFLOAB would like to remind everyone that today is Martin Luther the King Day and he truly is one the greatest Americans to grace this Earth. While King is a ‘trendy’ guy to list as one’s favorite or most admired persons, he still is probably over looked in the grand scheme of things. I’m not sure people realize how much work King actually put into his life and how his non-violent message is one that we should all, especially the current White House, should embrace. And while we can argue the amount of actual social change that was brought about by all of King’s work, the important thing to remember is King brought this struggle front and center in American life and history. His non-violent message took anyway any sort of bigoted ‘moral high ground’ whites may have tried to use, and King’s desire for justice and equality makes him a hero. While things are far from perfect in this country social, racially, or economically; King was one of the many leader who spoke out about the injustice in this country and his non-violent message and actions are ones that we should still admire today. So today, VFLOAB encourages everyone to not only remember Martin Luther the King today, but also all the other black and white and Hispanic and Asian leaders who have strived for social, racial, and economic change over the years in this country: people like Fred Hampton, Dorothy Day, Caesar Chavez, Malcolm X, Jane Adams, and others today. And also realize that we still have a long way to go to realize the dreams of King and others.
Okay on to yesterday…
Since the running journal/minute by minute report worked so well for the White Sox, I figure I’ll give it go with the Bears too, it being the playoffs at all. When it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right? And if you were to tell me back when the Sox were making their run that the Bears would be hosting a home playoff game in Chicago in January… well I would said something like, “Yeah and Jack Bauer is alive too.” Needless to say I was wrong on both accounts.
4:25pm – We’re coming to you LIVE from Alexandria, VA today for the Bears and Panthers NFC Divisional Playoff game. Right now all we’ve got is some water, but the possibilities of beer, chips, and brats being consumed during this game are extremely high.
4:27 – The Colts just choked (again) losing to the Steelers about five minutes ago and their season is over. It’s now official, the Colts and Peyton Manning are the biggest chokes this side of the A-Rod and the Yankees in the 21st century. How do the Colts lose a game with the fix in? Even the officials couldn’t prevent the Colts from choking. Amazing.
4:29 – What happened to Jimmy Johnson’s hair? Wow it looks horrible. It’s not even that he’s losing it he just looks weird. Wow I wasn’t ready for that.
4:32 – I’m not that superstitious, but right now I’m listening to “Let’s Go, Go White Sox” and “Bear Down Chicago Bears” will be fired up in a second too. Let’s just hope that the powers of the White Sox and October will hold over to the Bears. Hell we even have Joe Buck doing the game. This has to be a good sign right?
4:40 – It’s 42 degrees and some what windy at Soldier Field… I’m a nervous wreck… man I forgot how nerve racking rooting for sport teams can be.
4:41 – The Bears kickoff to the Panthers and return it to the 40. Not good.
4:42 – On the first play the Panthers throw a quick screen to Steve Smith for a one-yard gain. More importantly I’m more scared of Steve Smith than Dick Chaney at this point. He led the league in catches, yards, and touchdowns… yet wasn’t the MVP (go figure) and was probably the MVP of most fantasy leagues.
4:43 – And as I write that, Smith catches the ball wide open and takes it to the house. A flag is thrown but it’s on Charles Tillman, I guess getting pushed and run over by Steve Smith is now a penalty for the D… this sucks. Smith pushed Tillman to the ground (granted Tillman was looking at the backfield so had his back to Smith but he was pushed none the less), and that was why he was wide open. Talk about a bummer. This stinks. I will now drown myself in a toilet.
4:48 – You couldn’t write a worse start. Steve Smith pushes Tillman and goes to the house, Bears O goes three and out, and then Brad Maynard shanks a punt to give the Panthers great field position. I’m going to start drinking.
4:53 – The Panthers thankfully go three and out and the first commercial going into the break is the “This is Budweiser, this is beer” commercial which not only makes me want to drink it also puts me in a good mood. So the Newcastle is open and the night is beginning.
5:00 – DeShawn Foster just got JACKED UP by Chris Harris. That was good, we needed that.
5:08 – On third and five, the Panthers blitz and Grossman throws the ball up, but the good news is that the receiver got pushed and pass interference was called and the drive continues. But talk about scary moments, any time you see a QB throw a ball up off his back foot high into the air, hearts stop.
5:11 – It’s official, Rex Grossman is going to give me a heart attack by the end of the game. He almost just threw a pick…
5:12 – And disaster… Gage catches a screen but fumbles the ball. Julius Peppers picks the ball up and goes the other way for the touchdown. The Bears are going to challenge the play and their only real hope is that Gage’s knee was down. And this is also why I hate the NFL… commercial break! Nothing says annoying like cutting to commercial when a big play or decision is on the line. I’m not that bitter, I swear. I just hate life at the moment.
5:16 – And the refs get that call right. Gage fumbled the ball, but his knee was down (therefore there was never a fumble) so the points get whipped off the board and the Bears keep the ball. There is hope! And hope is a good thing!
5:24 – Brian Urlacher’s speed never ceases to amaze me. He just made a play that probably no one else can make in the NFL today shooting through the middle of the line to make a big tackle.
5:25 – Steve Smith is the anti-Christ. Tillman and Smith both catch the ball on the Bears three, but the tie goes to the offensive player. Shoot me please.
5:29 – The Bears D holds the Panthers to just a field goal. It’s now 10-0 but things could be a lot, lot worse. Steve Smith has to be the anti-Christ. Has to be.
5:34 – Grossman throws another ball up for grabs and again luckily the ball falls harmlessly to the ground. The good thing about the 2005 White Sox was that no one on that team scared me. Sure the fact that Pods couldn’t steal a base in the second half was a bit of a bummer and there was a time when Luis Vizcaino scared me. But by the time the playoffs started there wasn’t one player that I didn’t want to see come into the game. Rex Grossman on the other hand scares me like no other.
5:40 – Wow. How Brian Urlacher just jumped and picked off that ball beats me. Huge play, instead of the Panthers probably getting a field goal, the Bears now have the ball on the Panthers 30. Just a huge play.
5:48 – Foster just fumbled the ball… but it bounces right into his arms and the Panthers continue to march down the field. Bears need a stop. Though a pick going the other way would be cool too.
5:54 – The Panthers kick another field goal and it’s 13-0. The Bears D has already giving up 230 yards (though the two Smith plays account for almost half of that yardage). And I’ve got to say, Oasis is solid band. They’re not the greatest band of all time, but they’re catchy and get the job done. So this is for you Liam, I raise my Newcastle to you (even though you’re a ManCity fan). And why I know that… well I know why I know that, but I shouldn’t.
5:56 – Grossman is 3 for 15 so far today. The Bears have been able to run the ball a bit, but not enough to make me think that ‘it’s only a matter of time’. Grossman is killing me right now, killing me. This must be what it’s like to root for Kerry Wood.
5:58 – And just like that Grossman throws back to back to back completions for 17, 24, and 12 yards. And all of a sudden the Bears are inside the 10!
6:02 – My oh my how did Gage not score there! He catches it on the one and isn’t able to stretch the ball across the goal line, he looked certain to score. It was a nice tackle, but Gage should still have gotten that ball across. So now at the two-minute warning it’s 4th and goal from two feet out out.
6:04 – The Bears go for it and score! 13-6! Andean Peterson reaches to get the ball across the goal line. The extra point is good and it’s 13-7 Panthers. Yeah baby!
6:10 – The crowd is going nuts and back into this game. Finally, I’m no longer bitter, but that does mean I’m nervous again. Nervousness is better than bitterness… so I’ve got that going for me.
6:16 – The Panthers hit a field goal as time expires in the first half and it’s 16-7. The Bears do get the ball and the D can’t be any worse than it was in the first half, so we’ve got that going for us… anyway, halftime and I’m taking a break.
6:33 – Thomas Jones just rolls off a 24 run and the Bears are back in business as the second half begins.
6:37 – Right now Bernard Berrian is one of the few players on the Bears making plays. He had a nice first half, had a big block on Jones’ run before, then just made a nice catch for a first down and now just made a huge catch some how holding on to the ball while getting jacked up on the two of the Panthers. Good start thus far for the Bears in the second half.
6:38 – Touchdown Bears!!! Desmond Clark catches a fade in the end zone for six! The extra point is good and it’s a 16-14 game. And Soldier Field is rocking.
6:42 – It’s the King!!! And he’s dumping Gatorade on Don Schula! Oh the King, you amazing little idea turned commercial that never gets old. I want a King sitcom… he’d just go around as the King for an entire episode as a character of a previous sitcom. For instance one week he’d be Kramer, so everything would be the same (same plot and lines and everything), but they’d juxtapose the King as Kramer. The next week he could be Rachel from “Friends” and Jack Bauer another week. Wouldn’t that be great? And who wouldn’t watch that? Who will the King be this week?!?! And can you image how amazing an episode of The King as Chuck Norris would be? This has to happen. This week the King is… CHUCK NORRIS!!! I’m gitty just thinking about it.
6:47 – As Steve Smith catches another pass, Fox shows Foster on the bench in a lot of pain. It looks like a knee or ankle injury. Although Foster hasn’t had a huge game, he’s keeping the Bears honest. So this might be huge. Then again Steve Smith is the anti-Christ so it probably doesn’t matter.
6:51 – And the first sack of the day goes to the Bears! Delhomme also lost the ball but the Panthers recover (though it looks like he was down anyway). Panthers are forced to punt and the momentum is in the Bears favor.
7:00 – The Panthers complete another short pass over the middle, they’ve been able to get chunks of yards off of screens and dump offs, but they haven’t had a big play since the bomb to Smith when he and Tillman both caught the ball. Then Smith catches his 148th ball of the game for a first down. This guy is not real. It’s like he’s the video game Bo Jackson, Reggie Bush, video game Michael Vick, and Jerry Rice combined right now. It’s not even fun to watch.
7:05 – Steve Smith is some how wide open again (the DB fell) and scores again. He has roughly 232 catches for 1,383 yards, and two touch downs today. I’ll also remind everyone that he’s 5’8”… in other words he’s probably on the juice and pushing off people all the time. There is no way this guy is this good. None. 23-14 Panthers.
7:12 – Grossman and Gage complete a huge pass to convert a third down as the third quarter ends. If Steve Smith wasn’t the anti-Christ on steroids then the Bears would probably be winning this game with ease.
7:15 – Muhsin Muhammad just made a fantastic catch to for a first down and move the Bears inside the Panthers 10. I have no clue what to compare this game to during the White Sox run. My knee jerk reaction is Game Three of the World Series when the Sox went down and then fought back. But for some reason I think this is going to be more like Game Two of the ALCS when the Sox were oh so close to being down 0-2 and the coming back from the dead thanks to a crazy and weird AJ play.
7:21 – Oh no… this could be really bad. Thomas Jones lost the ball and fumbled it out of bounce in the end zone. But there are penalty flags on the play… so who knows what happens… and the Refs just singled touchdown for the Bears! There’s no way that’s going to stand if John Fox challenges this play… and they will. How this plays out I have no clue.
7:26 – The refs come back and reverse the touchdown saying the Panthers should get the ball on the 20, but because of the facemask, the Bears keep the ball and get it first and goal from the three. Phew.
7:27 – Jason McKie runs the ball in for a Bears Touchdown! The extra point is good and the score is now 23-21 Steve Smith. 12:31 left in this game… so not only is this game close but it’s also the best game of the weekend. I like it more when the Bears win big.
7:34 – End around to guess who? That’s right the Anti-Christ and he takes it how ever many yards he took it to the 25 of the Bears. Apparently Steve Smith wants to one up Vince Young today, the only difference is that all they run are screens to him and then once in a while go deep to him. And his performance isn’t as awing since Bears DBs keep falling down. And Vince Young isn’t the Anti-Christ.
7:37 – Touchdown Panthers… this is getting ugly. The Bears D looks lost whenever the Panthers throw the ball forward (they can cover the screen at least)… and the Bears just caught a HUGE break. Kasay missed the extra point and is 29-21 with about eight minutes left in the 4th quarter.
7:43 – The Bears go three and out and now punt the ball back to the Panthers and they’ll start on their own 36. And now comes the biggest series in the game, if the Panthers score this game is probably over. If they’re forced to punt, this game isn’t over yet. If the Bears create a turnover… all bets are off.
7:47 – Bears get the ball back forcing a three and out. While this isn’t the game as Joe Buck just said, it’s still a big series. Deep breathes… I hate this.
7:48 – Thomas Jones just takes off for about a thirty-yard gain on a screen to get the ball around midfield. Oh come on Bears… Let’s do this.
7:53 – And Rex kills me… the dagger has been placed in the gut. Grossman throws one right too Ken Lucas of the Panthers and they take over with 2:27. Of course now Joe Buck points out that the play should never have happened since it should have been a delay of game. This sucks. This just really stinks.
7:57 – Lance Briggs just made a huge play. On second and one, Briggs flies though the line and it’s now 3rd and 5 instead of 3rd and one… or even worse a first down. This next play is the game…
7:58 – On third down the Panthers run and end around to Steve Smith and he’s stopped short and the Bears are still Alive!!! Oh my I can’t take this…
8:00 – The Bears will start on their own 20 with 1:34 left. They have to score a touchdown and convert the two-point conversion to tie the game… Feeling Heart Jumping Out of Chest….
8:02 – Muhammad catches a ball for a first down and Grossman scrambles for five, it’s now third down and five to go from their own 40
8:04 - On 4th down the pass goes incomplete and this game is over… the Panthers win. This stinks.
Final Thoughts:
What a bummer, the Bears D just didn’t show up today which is the real stinker. Though the offensive didn’t play great, their performance (after Grossman was 3 for 15) was pretty good all things considered. Jones ran the ball pretty well and in the second half they were moving the ball up and down the field.
But the defense laid an egg. And that’s what’s the killer about the loss. While Steve Smith played great, the rest of the Panthers didn’t bowl me over. They weren’t able to run the ball all that well until late in the game and their other receivers didn’t make much of an impact in the game. The Panthers were all Steve Smith.
Of course the irony for the Bears was that the home field advantage worked against them. Defensive backs were slipping all over the place (allowing at least one Smith touchdown) and on the last play of the game Muhammad slipped and fell also. The field was in such bad shape that it actually worked against them.
So whatever, there is next year. The offense should be better and while the defense will probably trail off a bit, they’re still pretty young and have some things going for them going into next year. So we’ll see. It was a good season, but this playoff lost hurts. A major bummer, it was a game that the Bears probably should have won. But oh well, at least we’ve got the 2005 Chicago White Sox.
Okay on to yesterday…
Since the running journal/minute by minute report worked so well for the White Sox, I figure I’ll give it go with the Bears too, it being the playoffs at all. When it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right? And if you were to tell me back when the Sox were making their run that the Bears would be hosting a home playoff game in Chicago in January… well I would said something like, “Yeah and Jack Bauer is alive too.” Needless to say I was wrong on both accounts.
4:25pm – We’re coming to you LIVE from Alexandria, VA today for the Bears and Panthers NFC Divisional Playoff game. Right now all we’ve got is some water, but the possibilities of beer, chips, and brats being consumed during this game are extremely high.
4:27 – The Colts just choked (again) losing to the Steelers about five minutes ago and their season is over. It’s now official, the Colts and Peyton Manning are the biggest chokes this side of the A-Rod and the Yankees in the 21st century. How do the Colts lose a game with the fix in? Even the officials couldn’t prevent the Colts from choking. Amazing.
4:29 – What happened to Jimmy Johnson’s hair? Wow it looks horrible. It’s not even that he’s losing it he just looks weird. Wow I wasn’t ready for that.
4:32 – I’m not that superstitious, but right now I’m listening to “Let’s Go, Go White Sox” and “Bear Down Chicago Bears” will be fired up in a second too. Let’s just hope that the powers of the White Sox and October will hold over to the Bears. Hell we even have Joe Buck doing the game. This has to be a good sign right?
4:40 – It’s 42 degrees and some what windy at Soldier Field… I’m a nervous wreck… man I forgot how nerve racking rooting for sport teams can be.
4:41 – The Bears kickoff to the Panthers and return it to the 40. Not good.
4:42 – On the first play the Panthers throw a quick screen to Steve Smith for a one-yard gain. More importantly I’m more scared of Steve Smith than Dick Chaney at this point. He led the league in catches, yards, and touchdowns… yet wasn’t the MVP (go figure) and was probably the MVP of most fantasy leagues.
4:43 – And as I write that, Smith catches the ball wide open and takes it to the house. A flag is thrown but it’s on Charles Tillman, I guess getting pushed and run over by Steve Smith is now a penalty for the D… this sucks. Smith pushed Tillman to the ground (granted Tillman was looking at the backfield so had his back to Smith but he was pushed none the less), and that was why he was wide open. Talk about a bummer. This stinks. I will now drown myself in a toilet.
4:48 – You couldn’t write a worse start. Steve Smith pushes Tillman and goes to the house, Bears O goes three and out, and then Brad Maynard shanks a punt to give the Panthers great field position. I’m going to start drinking.
4:53 – The Panthers thankfully go three and out and the first commercial going into the break is the “This is Budweiser, this is beer” commercial which not only makes me want to drink it also puts me in a good mood. So the Newcastle is open and the night is beginning.
5:00 – DeShawn Foster just got JACKED UP by Chris Harris. That was good, we needed that.
5:08 – On third and five, the Panthers blitz and Grossman throws the ball up, but the good news is that the receiver got pushed and pass interference was called and the drive continues. But talk about scary moments, any time you see a QB throw a ball up off his back foot high into the air, hearts stop.
5:11 – It’s official, Rex Grossman is going to give me a heart attack by the end of the game. He almost just threw a pick…
5:12 – And disaster… Gage catches a screen but fumbles the ball. Julius Peppers picks the ball up and goes the other way for the touchdown. The Bears are going to challenge the play and their only real hope is that Gage’s knee was down. And this is also why I hate the NFL… commercial break! Nothing says annoying like cutting to commercial when a big play or decision is on the line. I’m not that bitter, I swear. I just hate life at the moment.
5:16 – And the refs get that call right. Gage fumbled the ball, but his knee was down (therefore there was never a fumble) so the points get whipped off the board and the Bears keep the ball. There is hope! And hope is a good thing!
5:24 – Brian Urlacher’s speed never ceases to amaze me. He just made a play that probably no one else can make in the NFL today shooting through the middle of the line to make a big tackle.
5:25 – Steve Smith is the anti-Christ. Tillman and Smith both catch the ball on the Bears three, but the tie goes to the offensive player. Shoot me please.
5:29 – The Bears D holds the Panthers to just a field goal. It’s now 10-0 but things could be a lot, lot worse. Steve Smith has to be the anti-Christ. Has to be.
5:34 – Grossman throws another ball up for grabs and again luckily the ball falls harmlessly to the ground. The good thing about the 2005 White Sox was that no one on that team scared me. Sure the fact that Pods couldn’t steal a base in the second half was a bit of a bummer and there was a time when Luis Vizcaino scared me. But by the time the playoffs started there wasn’t one player that I didn’t want to see come into the game. Rex Grossman on the other hand scares me like no other.
5:40 – Wow. How Brian Urlacher just jumped and picked off that ball beats me. Huge play, instead of the Panthers probably getting a field goal, the Bears now have the ball on the Panthers 30. Just a huge play.
5:48 – Foster just fumbled the ball… but it bounces right into his arms and the Panthers continue to march down the field. Bears need a stop. Though a pick going the other way would be cool too.
5:54 – The Panthers kick another field goal and it’s 13-0. The Bears D has already giving up 230 yards (though the two Smith plays account for almost half of that yardage). And I’ve got to say, Oasis is solid band. They’re not the greatest band of all time, but they’re catchy and get the job done. So this is for you Liam, I raise my Newcastle to you (even though you’re a ManCity fan). And why I know that… well I know why I know that, but I shouldn’t.
5:56 – Grossman is 3 for 15 so far today. The Bears have been able to run the ball a bit, but not enough to make me think that ‘it’s only a matter of time’. Grossman is killing me right now, killing me. This must be what it’s like to root for Kerry Wood.
5:58 – And just like that Grossman throws back to back to back completions for 17, 24, and 12 yards. And all of a sudden the Bears are inside the 10!
6:02 – My oh my how did Gage not score there! He catches it on the one and isn’t able to stretch the ball across the goal line, he looked certain to score. It was a nice tackle, but Gage should still have gotten that ball across. So now at the two-minute warning it’s 4th and goal from two feet out out.
6:04 – The Bears go for it and score! 13-6! Andean Peterson reaches to get the ball across the goal line. The extra point is good and it’s 13-7 Panthers. Yeah baby!
6:10 – The crowd is going nuts and back into this game. Finally, I’m no longer bitter, but that does mean I’m nervous again. Nervousness is better than bitterness… so I’ve got that going for me.
6:16 – The Panthers hit a field goal as time expires in the first half and it’s 16-7. The Bears do get the ball and the D can’t be any worse than it was in the first half, so we’ve got that going for us… anyway, halftime and I’m taking a break.
6:33 – Thomas Jones just rolls off a 24 run and the Bears are back in business as the second half begins.
6:37 – Right now Bernard Berrian is one of the few players on the Bears making plays. He had a nice first half, had a big block on Jones’ run before, then just made a nice catch for a first down and now just made a huge catch some how holding on to the ball while getting jacked up on the two of the Panthers. Good start thus far for the Bears in the second half.
6:38 – Touchdown Bears!!! Desmond Clark catches a fade in the end zone for six! The extra point is good and it’s a 16-14 game. And Soldier Field is rocking.
6:42 – It’s the King!!! And he’s dumping Gatorade on Don Schula! Oh the King, you amazing little idea turned commercial that never gets old. I want a King sitcom… he’d just go around as the King for an entire episode as a character of a previous sitcom. For instance one week he’d be Kramer, so everything would be the same (same plot and lines and everything), but they’d juxtapose the King as Kramer. The next week he could be Rachel from “Friends” and Jack Bauer another week. Wouldn’t that be great? And who wouldn’t watch that? Who will the King be this week?!?! And can you image how amazing an episode of The King as Chuck Norris would be? This has to happen. This week the King is… CHUCK NORRIS!!! I’m gitty just thinking about it.
6:47 – As Steve Smith catches another pass, Fox shows Foster on the bench in a lot of pain. It looks like a knee or ankle injury. Although Foster hasn’t had a huge game, he’s keeping the Bears honest. So this might be huge. Then again Steve Smith is the anti-Christ so it probably doesn’t matter.
6:51 – And the first sack of the day goes to the Bears! Delhomme also lost the ball but the Panthers recover (though it looks like he was down anyway). Panthers are forced to punt and the momentum is in the Bears favor.
7:00 – The Panthers complete another short pass over the middle, they’ve been able to get chunks of yards off of screens and dump offs, but they haven’t had a big play since the bomb to Smith when he and Tillman both caught the ball. Then Smith catches his 148th ball of the game for a first down. This guy is not real. It’s like he’s the video game Bo Jackson, Reggie Bush, video game Michael Vick, and Jerry Rice combined right now. It’s not even fun to watch.
7:05 – Steve Smith is some how wide open again (the DB fell) and scores again. He has roughly 232 catches for 1,383 yards, and two touch downs today. I’ll also remind everyone that he’s 5’8”… in other words he’s probably on the juice and pushing off people all the time. There is no way this guy is this good. None. 23-14 Panthers.
7:12 – Grossman and Gage complete a huge pass to convert a third down as the third quarter ends. If Steve Smith wasn’t the anti-Christ on steroids then the Bears would probably be winning this game with ease.
7:15 – Muhsin Muhammad just made a fantastic catch to for a first down and move the Bears inside the Panthers 10. I have no clue what to compare this game to during the White Sox run. My knee jerk reaction is Game Three of the World Series when the Sox went down and then fought back. But for some reason I think this is going to be more like Game Two of the ALCS when the Sox were oh so close to being down 0-2 and the coming back from the dead thanks to a crazy and weird AJ play.
7:21 – Oh no… this could be really bad. Thomas Jones lost the ball and fumbled it out of bounce in the end zone. But there are penalty flags on the play… so who knows what happens… and the Refs just singled touchdown for the Bears! There’s no way that’s going to stand if John Fox challenges this play… and they will. How this plays out I have no clue.
7:26 – The refs come back and reverse the touchdown saying the Panthers should get the ball on the 20, but because of the facemask, the Bears keep the ball and get it first and goal from the three. Phew.
7:27 – Jason McKie runs the ball in for a Bears Touchdown! The extra point is good and the score is now 23-21 Steve Smith. 12:31 left in this game… so not only is this game close but it’s also the best game of the weekend. I like it more when the Bears win big.
7:34 – End around to guess who? That’s right the Anti-Christ and he takes it how ever many yards he took it to the 25 of the Bears. Apparently Steve Smith wants to one up Vince Young today, the only difference is that all they run are screens to him and then once in a while go deep to him. And his performance isn’t as awing since Bears DBs keep falling down. And Vince Young isn’t the Anti-Christ.
7:37 – Touchdown Panthers… this is getting ugly. The Bears D looks lost whenever the Panthers throw the ball forward (they can cover the screen at least)… and the Bears just caught a HUGE break. Kasay missed the extra point and is 29-21 with about eight minutes left in the 4th quarter.
7:43 – The Bears go three and out and now punt the ball back to the Panthers and they’ll start on their own 36. And now comes the biggest series in the game, if the Panthers score this game is probably over. If they’re forced to punt, this game isn’t over yet. If the Bears create a turnover… all bets are off.
7:47 – Bears get the ball back forcing a three and out. While this isn’t the game as Joe Buck just said, it’s still a big series. Deep breathes… I hate this.
7:48 – Thomas Jones just takes off for about a thirty-yard gain on a screen to get the ball around midfield. Oh come on Bears… Let’s do this.
7:53 – And Rex kills me… the dagger has been placed in the gut. Grossman throws one right too Ken Lucas of the Panthers and they take over with 2:27. Of course now Joe Buck points out that the play should never have happened since it should have been a delay of game. This sucks. This just really stinks.
7:57 – Lance Briggs just made a huge play. On second and one, Briggs flies though the line and it’s now 3rd and 5 instead of 3rd and one… or even worse a first down. This next play is the game…
7:58 – On third down the Panthers run and end around to Steve Smith and he’s stopped short and the Bears are still Alive!!! Oh my I can’t take this…
8:00 – The Bears will start on their own 20 with 1:34 left. They have to score a touchdown and convert the two-point conversion to tie the game… Feeling Heart Jumping Out of Chest….
8:02 – Muhammad catches a ball for a first down and Grossman scrambles for five, it’s now third down and five to go from their own 40
8:04 - On 4th down the pass goes incomplete and this game is over… the Panthers win. This stinks.
Final Thoughts:
What a bummer, the Bears D just didn’t show up today which is the real stinker. Though the offensive didn’t play great, their performance (after Grossman was 3 for 15) was pretty good all things considered. Jones ran the ball pretty well and in the second half they were moving the ball up and down the field.
But the defense laid an egg. And that’s what’s the killer about the loss. While Steve Smith played great, the rest of the Panthers didn’t bowl me over. They weren’t able to run the ball all that well until late in the game and their other receivers didn’t make much of an impact in the game. The Panthers were all Steve Smith.
Of course the irony for the Bears was that the home field advantage worked against them. Defensive backs were slipping all over the place (allowing at least one Smith touchdown) and on the last play of the game Muhammad slipped and fell also. The field was in such bad shape that it actually worked against them.
So whatever, there is next year. The offense should be better and while the defense will probably trail off a bit, they’re still pretty young and have some things going for them going into next year. So we’ll see. It was a good season, but this playoff lost hurts. A major bummer, it was a game that the Bears probably should have won. But oh well, at least we’ve got the 2005 Chicago White Sox.
14.1.06
A Linky Saturday Morning
La Boca in Buenos Aires, it's got nothing to do with bellow, but we like the pictureInteresting news out of the UK where soon to be Prime Minister (someday right?) Gordon Brown is to propose changing Remembrance Day to British Day and turn it into a 4th of July like celebration. An interesting idea to say the least.
I’m sure the Brits are going to recoil at the thought of this, but the truth is, the Brits are just a patriotic as any other group of people and having a single day to celebrate one being British isn’t the worst idea in the world.
The New LeBron has hit England. Last time it was Wayne Rooney. Now his name is Theo Wolcott, a speedy forward at Southampton and only 16 years old.
Since we can’t make up our minds on Chuck Klosterman, we’re going to offer you two different pieces by the Chuckester, one from the Guardian on his most recent book, the other from ESPN.com on Adam Morrison, Larry Bird, and race. VFLOAB likes the ESPN.com one more, it’s more thought provoking, but Klosterman does actually have a fairly unbiased view of the world… then again, we just wrote that to write it.
Yes we realized that our picks are the exact same as the Sports Guy’s. We both went 2-2 last week. Apparently we’re on the same boat together considering I think I’m the only person (besides Simmons) who likes the ‘Hawks, Pats, Colts, and Bears. Seriously, we were out and talking about the games with a number of people last night and way too many people seem to like the Redskins and the Panthers are, understandably, a big choice too.
And we shouldn’t forget about New Orleans, but it appears we have. The Bush Administration, understandably, wants us to forget about the mess that Katrina left and their slow response to the situation. But that would be unfair to those who lived and live in the Gulf region. The debate now rages on where, how, and what to build (or rebuild) in New Orleans. Time of course will tell, and VFLOAB not being in the area or having talking to anyone from the area doesn’t have any ideas or solutions. (We still think they should rebuild the city as a true 21st century city. Much like what happened when London burned down in 1666 or Chicago in 1879, New Orleans is in an extremely unfortunate yet unique position. Hopefully there are enough people with the foresight to realize what a unique situation they have and apply some of the things we have learned and researched in urban planning and apply them to New Orleans to make it a true unique, progressive, and excellent city).
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