Hockey

For about three hours and change, everyone in America seemed to have a unified interest in Hockey.  That's a pretty impressive feat for what is easily the country's least popular sport.  It proved that the sport itself is watchable and entertaining; because if people only cared about the outcome we could have just as easily waited for the SportsCenter recap;  especially considering there was an NBA double header airing opposite the hockey game.  With sports being such a major commodity in our country, I'll never understand how a major sports association can be treated like the ugly step sister for years.  I know no sport will ever reach the overall popularity of the NFL nor will any sport reach the fever pitch of March Madness, but it'll be interesting to see if hockey can ever generate the kind of fanfare it had for those three hours during the gold medal game this past weekend.

This Whole Tiger Woods Bru-Hah-Hah

Now that I've had about a week or so to digest this "Tiger press conference" thing, I've got some thoughts about it I'd like to get out of my system.  First of all, I'd like to go on record by saying I seriously do not give a shit how many women he's slept with, how long he's been cheating, or any of that.  His life is not my business.  What he eats doesn't make me shit.  Insert more witty cliche's if you like.  That said, I think both sides of the equation dropped the ball here.  And I'll explain why.

Why Tiger dropped the ball: Dude, you are a billionaire athelete, you are arguably (but not really, everyone knows) the greatest golfer to ever live. Why are you explaining yourself to anyone other than your wife?  Yea I know you're a public figure, but things like this are only as big as you allow them to be.  If you and your wife had came before a camera the day after the crash and just been like "look, everything is cool", you woulda had the freedom to fix this, in private, however you saw fit.  The media and public hounded you because you  kept it a secret.  Three months of secracy brought on the perceived need for this "press conference".  You brought this on yourself, dude.

Why the media/public dropped the ball:  Let's be real with ourselves.  Are our lives that boring and meaningless that we have to make a huge deal of Tiger's life?  This can be applied to the personal life of any public figure but it seemed to go into overdrive with this Tiger thing.  The age we're living in makes information almost inescapable, but between news articles, news segments, blog pieces, etc, everyone on the planet had something to say about Tiger and how wrong he was.  Sad part is, the people who are so busy judging him are probably guilty of the same sins, if not worse.  Unless you've somehow managed to live a perfect life, you have no right to say what Tiger did was wrong.  It's not your business anyway.  Let he and his wife work this out. 

All things considered, I hope Tiger is able to return to the sport and continue his prominent career.  His image may be shot, but who cares about image anyway?  Image is overrated because it's 100% dependent on what others think.  If he's satisfied with his own life and has the respect of those who matter, some shitfaced, know it all blogger should mean nothing.  Live your life, Eldrick.  You're human just like the rest of us. 

Tiger Woods Is Gonna Say Sorry Tomorrow

Terrible PR move, Tiger.  Fire your publicist right now.  Do you have any clue how much of a waste of time this is?  Dude, it's been like 3 months.  This ship has sailed.  Your public opinion has already dwindled to the point where people probably feel more compassion for Gilbert Arenas right now. GILBERT FUCKING ARENAS HAS A BIGGER SUPPORT SYSTEM THAN YOU!  And you're gonna hold a press conference to apologize?  Unless you drop some kind of monumental Jedi mind trick on us all, you're wasting your breath.  Just get back to kicking everyone else's ass on the golf course.  You hoe-ing days are old news.

What The FUCK Happened To The Slam Dunk Contest?

I am currently in the middle of a Lost marathon.  I'm really late to the party and have been watching episode after episode in order to get caught up to the current season.  Yesterday (Saturday, Feb 13) I found myself finishing up season 2.  Towards the tail end I realized it was time for the slam dunk contest so I was faced with an interesting dilemma: continue watching Lost and miss out on some entertaining dunks or turn the channel and lose ground on my catch up marathon.  Eventually, I caved and switched to TNT and you will not believe the level of disappointment I had when I saw the first round.  I saw a collection of normal ass, "in game" dunks and was immediately sick to my stomach.  The past three years have been full of creativity: Dwight Howard's Superman, Nate jumping over people, Josh Smiths sticker, Blowing out the cupcake, etc. There was NONE of that this year.  What is going on?  The only explanation I can think of is that this was planned by all involved to try and get LeBron, Kobe, Vince, etc interested to do next years.  Because that's about the only thing that can save the contest.  It was so awful this year that no one at all will care next year.  Terrible.

Post NFL Depression

Last nights Super Bowl wound up being another exciting close to yet another exciting NFL season.  But now comes the realization that for the next 6+ months, I will be without my favorite sport.  This is easily the saddest, most depressing part of the year for me.  I've still got about 3 months before the NBA season becomes exciting enough to watch on a regular basis (I really only care about the playoffs).  Same can be said for Baseball, which means I won't really give a crap until September at the earliest.  This leaves me with NOTHING.  So sad.  I'll likely be using this extra time on my hands to play X-Box and catch up on past episodes of Lost.

NBA's National Broadcasts Suck

Apparently, the only way to get on a nationally televised NBA game (TNT/ESPN/ABC) is to play against the Cavs, Lakers, Nuggets, or Celtics.  Every time I turn around, those four teams are the ones who are on TV.  And in some cases, against one another.  I get they're the top of the NBA brass, so to speak, but does the NBA have such little faith in the quality of it it's other teams that it doesn't want to broadcast them nationally?  MLB doesn't do this; yea you're gonna see the Yankees and Red Sox alot but that's by design since there are fucking 162 games.  You'll also see the Pirates, Mariners, Royals, Astros or whoever else is playing.  The NBA seems to have no interest in showing the Grizzlies, who are actually performing very well this year.  Nor the Hawks or Bobcats, two more teams  who are performing particularly better than expected.  As a sports fan, I find this troubling.  While I have no issue paying extra money to see out of market NFL games (due to the importance of each game week in and week out), I'm nowhere near willing to do that for an 82 NBA season where teams are likely to hotdog some of the games.  The NBA needs to figure something out.

2009 Jets = 2007 Giants

If you woulda told me, in the beginning of the season, that the New York Jets would be one win away from the Super Bowl, I'd laugh in your face.  But they're one win away from the Super Bowl.  Who'da thunk it!  This is beginning to look alot like the New York Giants Super Bowl run of 2007.  Since my beloved Giants nutted in their panties to finish the season, this is the most I have to root for.  So sorry Peyton, much as I love ya (pause), I'm going for the Jets next Sunday!!

New Jersey Nets [Terrible Teams]

While going 0-82 will probably never happen, the New Jersey Nets are dangerously close to breaking the record for worse NBA team ever. They currently sit at 3-35 and the season is damn near half way through.  That puts them on pace to only win 6 games; 3 less than the worse team ever: The 1972-73 76ers.  I think it is a forgone conclusion the Nets aren't gonna make the playoffs this year, so if I were them I'd go ahead and pack it in for the remainder of the season.  What would be even cooler is if they reach the last game of the year with a 8-72 record and lose via a buzzer beater.  That would be EPIC on so many levels.

The world has already been convinced that you guys suck and are an embarrassment to the league.  Why not make it both official and immortal by going for the record books?

Mark McGwire Used Steroids. [Duh]

Mark McGwire did what Barry Bonds still hasn't done and admitted to using steroids.  In a statement to the press, he says:

I wish I had never touched steroids.  It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.

I can appreciate the gesture in coming clean, although I have a hard time believing he would have done so if not for the fact he's now once again employed by MLB.

In other news, I think I heard Rush Limbaugh admit to not liking Negroes.

Thank You, Colt McCoy, For Wasting Everyone's Time

I mean, dang dude.  Because of your stupid injury, I'm sitting here watching a blowout.  That Gilbert kid didn't stand a chance.  Phillip Rivers once played the AFC title game with one leg and you're leaving the game because your shoulder hurts?  You suck.

Cowboys Fans...

Enjoy this victory now.  Yes, you beat the Saints.  But the Saints are going to the Super Bowl, and y'all aren't.

Sincerely, Stress...the bitter NYG fan.

NBA = Twitter Nazi's

Is the NBA petty enough to monitor the Twitter account of it's players and cross reference the time of their tweets w/ the time their game ended?  Apparently so.  Whoever bagged Jennings for his 100% harmless twitter post needs a fucking life, seriously.

Tiger Woods.

This whole Tiger situation only serves to emphasize how chaos-hungry we are as a society.  As much as Tiger has accomplished in his life (he is the richest and most recognizable athlete, ever), this debacle has given him more media coverage than he's ever gotten; atleast in a 24-48 hour time frame.  Such a shame that someone has to fall from grace for people to pay this much attention.  Not that this will matter next time he kills it at a major and walks away with another title, wife by his side and cashing in another pay day. 

Holyfield Ol' Boxing's Version Of Brett Favre Head Ass...

Raise your hand if you wanna see a 47 year old has been who's lost 7 out of his last 12 fights get back in the ring.  Yea, me neither.  I'm convinced the chick in the picture would knock his ass the fuck out at this point.  Hang it up, Evander; with your corny ass fast food commercial.

NFL Blackouts = Not Wavy

Being an NY Giants fan in a Washington Redskins market, local blackouts aren't really something I've had to deal with.  But seeing a few articles today about the possibility of the Jacksonville Jags suffering from local blackouts this year made me curious.  So I wikipedia'd the whole thing and it left me feeling uneasy.  For those who are unfamiliar, a blackout means the NFL will not broadcast a local game unless the tickets sell out.  So if everyone in Green Bay doesn't go out and fill up Lambeau Field, no one in Green Bay gets to see shit!  There's more to it than that, but it's kind of unsettling that the NFL has that authority.  I get that there are financial/business reasons behind all of this, and I can understand the NFL wanting to cover it's behind.  But there was one stipulation that really ticked me off.

If the blacked-out home game is played on a Sunday afternoon, all local stations inside the 75-mile radius must show a different NFL game during that time slot (the network typically chooses the game). Also, NFL Sunday Ticket cannot offer the game into that area. As stated earlier, the doubleheader network can broadcast only one game into that team's primary market (usually the #1 game), which is also designed to prevent people from opting to watch the other locally televised NFL games instead of going to the local team's game. Again, the secondary markets would still carry a doubleheader. Sometimes, the networks will switch time slots so that the doubleheader network can still show its featured 4:15 game.

Whoa, so wait a minute.  You mean to tell me that an NFL Sunday Ticket game, which I'm paying for out of my own pocket to see, can be blacked out under these stupid rules?  That's complete and utter bullshit.  I may not have purchased a ticket, but I've directly put money in the NFL's (and DirectTV's, too) pockets!  I deserve the right to watch whatever fucking game I want!  I love the NFL dearly.  It's just about the most entertaining sports league in the world as far as I'm concerned.  But I find myself growing more and more sick of the behind their scene business practices.  And this whole blackout thing may become a reality for more and more people as the economy worsens and we fans are unable to throw money away on overpriced tickets.

Thank You, Ricky Rubio, For Wasting Everyone's Time

The NBA draft was months ago, and by now just about everyone has secured the contracts with their draft picks. But Ricky Rubio is above signing with the team who not only drafted him, but finagled their way into a higher draft slot to do so.  Now, The Minnesota Timberwolves are the lucky guys who get to deal with having blown the #5 draft pick on a guy who may or may never even play in the NBA, let alone for THEIR TEAM.  How fucked up is that?  Look kid, I know there were all types of strings and stipulations attached to your potential NBA career, but here's the thing: If you're that fucking unsure about it, dont' throw yourself into the draft and screw up the strategy of potential suitors.  I'm no huge Timberwolves fan so I don't really care, but as a sports fan in general, it kind of angers me that this kid and his handlers were so wreckless in this situation.  Stay in Spain, Rubio.  Favre already fills our need for wishy washy, waffling athletes.

Luke Ramirez Is NOT 13 Years Old

With all the noise being made about that runner being subjected to a gender test, someone needs to run an AGE TEST on this Luke Ramirez kid.  They're claiming he's 13  years old, but he's like 6'2", 200+ lbs (way bigger than I am as a Goddamn 26 year old).  That's a little bit ridiculous.  I saw one clip of him smacking a homerun and dropping his bat like he was Albert Pujols or something.  It doesn't help that the Little League field is clearly smaller than a major league field and this 13 year old is bigger than some major leaguers.  Even if he IS really 13, isn't it a tad unfair to have him batting against pitchers who are half his size?  I personally could care less about the Little League World Series; I was forced to watch it due to ESPN airing it instead of my favorite afternoon lineup.  But something about this kid blasting bombs on a bunch of pre teens doesn't sit right with me.

Michael Crabtree Is A Retard

Michael Crabtree was thought to be one of the best (if not, the best) receiver in the draft this year.  Unfortunately, he wound up dropping to the 10th overall pick and had to wait until after the Oakland Raiders selected Darrius Heyward-Bey to land a team.  In his own mind, not only is Crabtree better than Heyward-Bey (arguably true, but beside the point), but he feels he's better than an overall 10th pick.  So he's currently holding out for a contract that would be suitable for a top five caliber athlete (which he feels  he is).  This is stupid for two reasons: 1) The 49ers are not going to pay you MORE than what the Oakland Raiders paid a receiver who was picked three slots ahead of you and 2) you're effectively ruining your own reputation before it's even created.  You didn't even get to practice in the combine because of an injury.  No team really has a clue if you're NFL ready or not and even in the event that someone wanted to pay you the money you're looking for, who would want to put up with such an egotistical diva?  I know as a GM, I sure as hell wouldn't.  You keep sitting around waiting for that big time contract, loser.  Heyward-Bey (who's not as good as you), will be making more money, making more catches, and making a much better name for himself than you ever will.