Yes, I Am A Sick Man

I have it bad. I'm a sucker for the NFL and my favorite team, the Atlanta Falcons. Unfortunately, they've been terrible more than they've been good. They've been in existence since the 60s an never had 2 consecutive winning seasons.

I think liking a bad team is one of the reasons I developed a rare sickness, an unnamed ailment that forces me to be interested in the NFL Draft. I'll watch it in its entirety. Yeah, that's right, I will watch a bunch of guys on ESPN and NFL Network announce who was picked ten minutes apart for 32 teams and 7 rounds, so we're talking spending an entire day to see the first two rounds then a second day to see the last 5 rounds. I even look forward to the draft and have it marked on my calendar. Luckily, as the draft goes on, the time between picks decreases, so the pace picks up, but it's going to be two full days of this.

I won't lie to you, unless you are really into it, this stuff is dull as watching an aquarium for 8 hours. I can't explain it. I know I can see the results online after the draft is over, but I like the event. It's like the Super Bowl for bad teams. It's the one time every year that even the Lions can smile and think they had a great day. I also participate in several draft contests where you try to predict which team will draft which player in hopes of winning some money or a jersey. The only problem is, I make better picks than the professionals so I never win. Good luck to any of you armchair quarterbacks and my condolences to the football widows out there. Now tell the kids to be quiet, the Falcons are on the clock.

Edit: I did fail to mention that my wife watches it with me. The bug has gotten to her too in recent years. She even plays fantasy football. I'm pretty lucky like that.

 

Karma Is Real, Just Ask Kelvin Sampson

Kelvin Sampson, the former Sooners and Indiana Hoosiers coach that caused the NCAA to come down hard on both teams for recruiting violations was hired by the Milwaukee Bucs. Unfortunately for them, Kelvin could not keep his mouth shut and complained that his 5 year suspension from the NCAA was unjust and appealed it, according to ESPN in an article published on January 28.

That's when the Bucs found out about karma. They were in playoff contention, but after his appeal was filed they lost Michael Redd for the season and the following week Andrew Bogut went down for the season, too. As if losing two starters for the year wasn't enough, they lost Luke Ridnour for 4 weeks after a practice injury on Friday when he was attacked by a teammate's jersey. So, three of his best players went down in the past two weeks. You have to wonder if they will have anybody left by the end of the month. I just wonder why anybody would think hiring Sampson was a good idea. I guess you get what's coming to you if you do.

Sources:
http://rumorsandrants.com/2009/02/instant-karmas-gonna-get-you.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3863881

 

NFL Lawyers Run Amok

I just don't get what the NFL is doing with putting time restrictions on television stations showing highlights and interviews from games and not allowing the words "Super Bowl" or "Super Sunday" to be used in marketing.  It seems to me they are hurting their own product by limiting exposure in areas that might reach fringe or even non-fans.  I know they want to have control of their products and try to generate more revenues from these decisions, but I think they are hurting themselves in the long run by making the sport less relevant to people that are not already fans.

With the Super Bowl (I'm not marketing anything with it, so I can use it) coming this weekend, I just don't get why they don't want to allow a pizza company to advertise that you should call ahead to get your pizza for the Super Bowl.  It's a free advertisement that also suggests that you should be watching the game this weekend because everybody else is.  How can that not be good for the NFL?  The tickets are already too expensive for most families, especially with the down economy.  You would think that they would love trying to draw new viewers to watch the games, and the Super Bowl is probably the best way to hook new fans.  I just think it's silly.

Sources:
Station Web Sites Miss NFL Highlights
Off the Team: NFL's infringement suit contends Coors is not a player.

 

Student Athletes, There Is No Such Thing

Per an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, which should come as no surprise, there is a big gap in SAT scores for athletes vs. non-athletes at NCAA schools.  In fact, many schools go through great lengths to admit some of these "students."  Some interesting lines from the article:

More than half of scholarship athletes at the University of Georgia, Clemson University, UCLA, Rutgers University, Texas A&M University and Louisiana State University were special admits. 

The biggest gap between football players and students as a whole occurred at the University of Florida, where players scored 346 points lower than the school’s overall student body. That’s larger than the difference in scores between typical students at the University of Georgia and Harvard University.

The University of Oklahoma and the University of Florida, whose football teams play Jan. 8 for the national championship, ranked near the bottom in standardized test scores. Florida’s freshman football classes of 2002-04 ranked 50th in average score out of 53 schools for which football SAT averages were available, and Oklahoma’s freshman football classes of 2001-03 ranked 42nd. Florida’s football players ranked last in average high school GPA, at 2.54. The average for all football players in the study was 2.93.

Source: http://www.ajc.com/services/content/sports/stories/2008/12/28/acadmain_1228_3DOT.html  

BCS Championship and Thom Brennaman

First, congratulations to Florida. They played better and deserved to win the title last night. However, FOX botched the broadcast with the awful announcing, but don't just take my word for it. Thom Brennaman gushed over Tim Tebow all night long, including such zingers as:
"If you're fortunate to spend 5 or 20 minutes around Tim Tebow, you're better for it."

It was so awful, that someone has apparently taken it upon themselves to update his Wikipedia page with the following entry(click for larger view):

There have been a ton of edits to the page today, here is a link to them. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thom_Brennaman&action=history  

Blue Wave Is On A Roll

Really Seattle, after seeing this video, you did deserve to lose the Sonics/Thunder. This video is really so bad it's scary.


As bad as that one was, this one is even worse:
 

OKC Thunder Basketball

I live in Oklahoma City, and we recently inherited the Thunder (formerly the Seattle Supersonics.)  I was pretty disappointed with the name and the logo when they were announced, but it is a big thing to have a professional team here.  My wife knew I was a fan of the Phoenix Suns from when I lived in Arizona, so she bought me tickets to yesterday's Thunder-Suns matchup.  I have to say, I was impressed with our fans.  They were into the game and it got pretty loud, with a nearly-full arena.  Unfortunately, the Thunder choked the game away, allowing the Suns to come back in the 4th period and hit the winning 3-pointer with less than a minute left on the clock.

That said, the presentation was very amateurish.  It felt like I was watching an Arena Football game.  I like Arena Football, but I expected more from a NBA team.  The stadium announcer was very mediocre, though it was rare that I could even understand what he was saying, due to the poor sound system.  The timeout/halftime shows were weak and the stadium music was also pretty weak.  If this city really intends to be a pro town, we really have to present ourselves as such, in every possible way.  Otherwise, we should just stick to the Yard Dawgz.  

Too Funny

Timberlake
by bsap11

 

Turner the Burner (More Like Earl Campbell in This Clip)

It's no secret that I love my Atlanta Falcons.  This clip is from Sunday's game.  Our new halfback, Michael Turner drags the Chiefs defender about 8 yards before he lets go.
http://replay-re-cutter.nfl.com/Clip.aspx?key=9AB39F5BB5632F3B  

We Need to Hire Him at My Office

 

With Friends Like These...

I really have concerns for this guy's well-being.  Apparently, Vince Young is thin-skinned, if not mentally ill in some fashion.  He was the third pick in the NFL draft a couple years ago, and recently admitted that the stress had him considering retirement following his rookie season.  This is followed up by refusing to return to the field on Sunday after fans booed him following an interception.  The coach consulted (or argued, depending on the source) with him and he ended up playing until he was hurt later in the game.

This story got even more bizarre early this week when he left his home in a "distressed" state with a gun (which turned out to be unloaded) and without his cellphone, causing his friends/family to call the Titans coach.  It's unclear if they thought he meant to go to confront the coach or if they thought he might be able to find Vince easier than they could.  In any event, the coach called the police to help find him, and they finally contacted him at his friend's home.  They ended up meeting in the middle of the night at the practice facility with the police, who determined he was okay.  Somewhere in all this, he also missed his appointment to have a MRI done to determine the extent of his injury.

To top all of this craziness off, his mother is now defending him publicly, which is only making him look worse.  Her comments come of that Vince is spoiled and has been pampered to the point that he cannot take even a small amount of criticism. 

"What would you think, if you were tired of being ridiculed and persecuted and talked about and not being treated very well, what would you do? What kind of decision would you make?" Felicia Young said "He may not want to deal with it (all), but you have to get to that point before you make that decision first.

"But we're not talking about football right now. We're talking about what would make him happy, and that is the most important thing."

Felicia Young said they are going to give her son some space.

"It is hard, all he is going through right now. He's hurting inside and out," she told the newspaper.

"But he will be fine if people are prayerful and help my baby boy out. He is a young man. He just needs a lot of love and support."

I really hope for him that he gets his life straightened out, and if he does have any psychological issues, that they are resolved soon.  It is sad to see a guy waste his career over being booed.

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/10970809

 

Play of the Night!

I'm still chuckling at this "tackle" by Laron Landry. Ouch! Great stuff.

It's bad enough to be on Sportscenter with a bad tackle, but he also got stepped on. I can imagine Jim Zorn, the Redskins coach, at practice: "Now guys, this is not how we want to tackle a 250 pound running back..."  

NFL Starts Tonight, But the Entertainment Has Already Begun

Adding fire to Detroit's already unsavory reputation regarding crime is none other than former Oklahoma State RB Tatum Bell.  Tatum played for the Lions, until recently, that is.  Apparently, when the Lions brought in Rudi Johnson from the Bengals to replace him, Tatum took out his frustration in being cut by stealing Rudi's luggage and stashing them with a girlfriend.  The Lions checked their surveillance cameras and found that it was Tatum that took the luggage and he agreed to return it. 
Source

If that wasn't weird enough, Chad Johnson, one of the NFL's best WRs decided to have his name legally changed to "Ocho Cinco".  Here's to you Chad Ocho Cinco, nobody else wants to call you that, but you keep things interesting in Cincinnati even when the rest of your team can't.
Source

 

Thunder?

Here in Oklahoma City, the big news today was the unveiling of the NBA team's new logo and colors.  All I can say is that it was very unimpressive.  The name itself is pretty weak.  I was hoping for Mustangs, Bison, or Outlaws as a nod to the state itself and would lend themselves to good logo designs.  Instead, they picked Thunder, and give us this monstrosity as the logo.

Seriously, that's the most bland and uninspired design I've seen for a long time.  It looks like it belongs in the WNBA or Arena football.  And the colors?  Yuck.  Sorry, I'll support the team, but I doubt I'm going to buy a hat with that on it.