A Classic Oldie

Facebook users beware...

We don't have a Facebook account, but tons of you do. You need to be careful!

In the words of Joe Namath, "I wanna kiss you!"

Look at the passion in Erin's Roy's eyes.

Hmm...very interesting

Yahoo came out with its listing of the Top 50 Sports Announcers. Great fodder for debate. Some initial thoughts...

1. Howard Cosell as #1?!? We can live with that.

2. John Madden should not be #2. No specialist (football, in his case) should be that high.

3. Our Man Splint, Brent Musburger, comes in at #3. Great to Brent getting some love!

4. Al Michaels is #4, which is fine. Keith Jackson coming in at #7 is too low. We'd go Cosell, Brent, Jackson and then Michaels.

5. Nice to see Don Criqui on the list (#45). He is always overlooked.

6. People too high? How about Dick Vitale (#12) and Bryant Gumbel (#26).

7. Finally, how did Phyllis George (#29) and Tom Hammond (#46) even make the list?!?

Thoughts on Duke & Wake

We missed the first half, but caught all of the second half of last night's Duke-Wake Forest tilt that saw Wake score at the buzzer to win, 70-68. Some quickies:

Wake is frigging tough! They have good guard play (though star Jeff Teague had an off night), size, athleticism and a solid bench.

Give us more Al-Faroug Aminu! The Future Pro logged 15 and 10, along with 2 blocks. His athleticism makes him NBA ready right now.

No one will say this for fear of being racist, but Duke has no athletes! Other than Gerald Henderson, they get out-quicked and out-jumped at every position on a constant basis. Coach K is still burning mad from having William Avery and Corey Maggette jump to the NBA against his advice. As a result, he no longer goes for the one-and-done high school phenoms. Congrats, coach. Now all your kids stay. And none of them (save Henderson) are NBA prospects.

That fact not withstanding, Duke forward Kyle Singler is a very nice player! He tallied 22 and 12 last night. The problem is that when the immortal Jon Scheyer struggles (1-7 on threes), Duke has trouble getting points from anyone not named Singler or Henderson.

Dick Vitale has long been criticized for being a Duke apologist. And when Duke made its late game comeback last night (coming back from 13 down), he couldn't stop saying how tough and gritty the Duke kids were. Yet, when Wake scored at the buzzer, he was strangely silent. For over 20 seconds, he said N-O-T-H-I-N-G! In fact, we thought maybe he had made his way onto the court for a post game interview. But no, he was still sitting court side with partner Mike Patrick. When Vitale finally did speak, it was, of course, to commend the Dukies on their comeback.

The obligatory snow storm video

Let's wedge it...

M-I-K-E!!!

You knew this was coming...

Dan Shaughnessy rips into Tom Brady for being a wimp!

(And we totally agree with him. In fact, we beat him to the punch 24 hours ago.)

Beanie Wells to the Eagles?!?

Yeah, we'd be OK with that. For sure. Click here!

Hmm...

First, Tom Brady started wearing a chain wallet (can the black T-shirt be far behind?!?). Now, he's on the cover of the Boston Herald getting cozy with his woman (Gisele Bundchen) at a 5-star resort in Mexico.

Where we never tire of this one...

Jose Canseco "defeats" Danny Partridge in "boxing"

20 years ago, Jose was a handsome guy.

Now, he's just plain GROSS.

Sunday Morning Thoughts...

1. Elton Brand returns! The 76ers beat the Knicks, 116-110, and EB#42 had 6 points, 3 boards and 2 blocks in 13 minutes off the bench. However, upon closer inspection it is fascinating to note that his +/- differential was a -8, meaning the Sixers were outscored by 8 points while he was on the floor. And the man we love to criticize, Samuel Dalembert (17 boards), led the team with a +21. (For what it's worth, every Sixer reserve had a negative number, while all the Knick scrubs had positive ones.)

2. We got our first look at UConn! They went into the hostile Joyce Center last night outlasted Notre Dame, 69-61, without playing all that well. The Huskies were atrocious from the foul line (15-30) and a ho-hum 33 percent from three point land. However, they got huge games from Hasheem Thabeet (11 boards and 5 blocks) and Brookline, MA native Jeff Adrien (12 points and 19 boards). Is third ranked UConn Final Four bound?!? Not if starting guards Jerome Dyson and A.J. Price keep shooting 9-24 in Big Games.

3. It's about time OU got some love on Friday Night Lights! Friday night's show revealed that brooding superstar/womanizer/drunk Tim Riggins is being recruited by Oklahoma. For sure, the Sooners could have used his nasty size and speed from the one yard line against The Male Cheerleader's Gators in the championship game. Of course, judging by next week's scenes, it looks like Riggins will be off the team and in the slammer.

4. We're experimenting with the whole Twitter thing! If Steven Levy pimps it, then we will certainly try it. Who knows? We may one day make ours public and let people "follow" us. To get Levy's take on the whole thing, click here. And how crazy is it that in these woeful economic times we live in, Facebook offered to buy Twitter for...wait for it...$500 million?!?

5. Speaking of techo things, our latest download to the ever-wonderful-iTouch is the BCS Championship game between the Gators and Sooners! Not that we can stomach watching it (yet), but just the fact that we can now watch it anywhere is comforting.

6. Nothing about Erin Andrews to report! However, we did unearth this pic of her. Always a good thing, of course.

7. We all know that Chase Utley will be ready by Opening Day!

8. The Playmaker Played us in Madden on the PS3 last week! He wanted to create the Super Bowl, so he took the Steelers and we had the Cards. Final score?!? Steelers 24 Carinals 20. Oh, by the way, we had Party Boy Matt "Where the Women @" Leinart running the show for us.

9. Cool feature on espn.com, as they have ranked all 106 players from next Sunday's Super Bowl! Numero uno?!? The (alleged) Girl Friend Beater, Larry Fitzgerald. Number 106?!? Some guy for the Cardinals named Elliot Vallejo. Kurt Warner and The Hamburgler are numbers four and five, respectively.

This is frigging brilliant!

What a great picture of Hussein (and others)...

Coolidge leaving Carver High for NBA?!?

Thursday Odds & Ends...

1. Tony Romo has been a popular topic lately. But what's mind boggling is this: Has anyone considered for even a minute that he's simply not that good of a player?!? Compound that with the fact that he doesn't wow people with his work ethic and you end up being an average to mediocre player. In the words of The Tuna, you are what you are.

2. Your Philadelphia 76ers have been white hot lately, winning 7 of their last 10 games. And here comes Elton Brand, set to return this weekend from a bum shoulder. Will the team go back to struggling, like it did when Brand was playing?!? Will Brand get moved to center, in place of the inept Samuel Dalembert?!? We would opt for the position change. As Our Man Colin Cowherd says, "That's better than buying smokes and malt liquor." By the way, we're fine if Our Guy Ed Stefanski wants to move point guard Andre Miller before next month's trade deadline. Miller has given no given no indication that he wants to resign with Philly, thus giving food to the long held belief that he wants to return to the west coast.

3. The minute the college football season ends, everyone releases next season's top 25 and/or teams-to-watch list. CBSsports.com came out with its edition last Friday. It's 1. Florida 2. Oklahoma 3. Texas 4. Alabama 5. Virginia Tech. The top three are a given. Alabama and Vah-Tek have issues on offense. It's not an original thought, but we feel having any pre-season list without Southern Cal in the top five is, well, stupid. True, Coach Pete lost a lot on defense (9 starters). But he is hell-bent on getting back to the title game without quarterback Mark Sanchez. Sanchez, for those of you asleep at the computer, went against Coach Pete's advice and wishes and bolted for the NFL. For perhaps the first time ever, Carroll came out and publicly flogged one of his players. He would like nothing more than to kick ass next year with Mitch Mustain (and his mom) calling the signals.

Last Night's Dinner...

Mustard crusted pork loin with Caesar salad.

Your New President

Inauguration Day

President Bush looking at a binder on how to keep the country safe.

President Bush hugging Candy Pierson after her son, Marine Corporal Jordan S. Pierson, was presented with the Purple Heart for serving in Iraq.

Osama and Obama

President Obama promoting smoking.

How to put a disappointing loss behind us, 2.0

Watch the Phillies win Game 5 and clinch the World Series on our iTouch! (Downloaded for a mere $1.95!)

How to put a disappointing loss behind us, 1.0

Build a kick-ass fire...

Thoughts on the Eagles

1. You can win with Donovan McNabb as your QB...but he won't win it for you by himself. We love listening to Troy Aikman do Eagles games. You can tell he watches McNabb and wants so badly to say, "How can an NFL starting QB throw a pass like that or make such stupid decisions?!?" Of course, Aikman is too smart to be so blunt. But the fact is McNabb can look awesome one play and on the very next play look like some loser from the Pop Warner team. He is good enough to win with -- one of the top 10 QBS, but he can't do it by himself. The fact that Fat Andy and Loser Laurie simply refuse to surround him with talent gives #5 the smallest of margins for error. Throw in often abysmal play calling and you're in a tough spot.

2. The defense was disappointing yesterday. From Jim Johnson's poor blitz schemes in the first half to the unit's inability to stop the run, that was the worst the D has played in six weeks. After the Eagles took the lead in the fourth, all they needed was one stop. Instead, the Cardinals shoved the ball up the Eagles' ass and violated them Big Time. The linebackers were invisible and DBs Quentin Mikell, Quintin Demps and Sheldon Brown were over-matched all day. (Hopefully, that will be the last we see of Brown in an Eagles' uniform.)

3. As we look to the off-season, a few ideas:

-Do NOT resign Tra Thomas. He was once a very good left tackle. Now he is old with a bad back. And for his lack of effort going after a McNabb fumble yesterday, he should have been punched in the face.

-DO resign Jon Runyan and Brian Dawkins. B-Dawk will probably go for a one year deal before retiring. Age has taken away his skills in the passing game, but he is still effective against the run. And you can't put a dollar amount on his leadership. Runyan will probably want a two year deal. If the numbers are reasonable, it would be wise to bring him back.

- Use every one of the draft picks on offense! They have no fullback. Their O-line needs to be overhauled. And, of course, they still need receivers. Kevin Curtis and DeSean Jackson are fine, and often quite good. But if Jason Avant is your third receiver, you've got problems. Line us up with Avant and Hank Baskett for a foot race and we win and win easily.

You can never have enough snow storm pix & video...

The calm before the storm (during the storm)...

OK, on this Snowy Sunday (six new inches already down, three more to come) we are staying on the couch all day taking 10 girls to the movies today to see Mall Cop, as the culminating activity of The Playmaker's Sister's Birthday 12Three Day Celebration. And yes, we will be home in time for the Eagles-Cardinals game.

Quickies:

1. BIG wins last night by Louisville and UMass, as well as (yet) another loss by Albert's BC Eagles. How great is that?!?

2. It's legal to text/e-mail/Twitter during movies, right?!?

3. Regarding today's Eagles' game, we are quietly confident about today's outcome. And yet, we are clearly playing with House Money. Seriously, the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl?!? This is a team that was left for dead by all less than two months ago. And now they are 60 minutes from the Big Game.

4. Did we miss something?!? Has Larry Fitzgerald already been inducted into the Hall of Fame?!? Good gawd, man, he is so awesome, that he led the Cardinals to...wait for it...9 wins this season. Maybe he could have Bogarted a few more W's if he wasn't so busy (allegedly) getting violent with his girl friend?!?

The 'Ville...

Wow. Clutch free throws down the stretch from a normally poor foul shooting team. Great job by Earl Clark & Terrence Williams.

Saturday Night Special

Wow. Busy two days -- in a good way, thankfully. Yesterday was The Playmaker's Sister's 10 birthday. Armed with chocolate chip cookies (partially dipped in chocolate), she went to school for a half day. Her grandmother then took her out to lunch and to Barnes & Noble for birthday shopping. Then we rolled in and took her to Target for a $40 shopping spree (big spender, no?!?). Once home, we built a kick ass fire and then made tacos for her birthday dinner.

Today, she had a 9:30 basketball game. Her team won, 35-25, and she had four points and two blocks. Two hours later, The Playmaker took the court. His team won, 18-10. He had eight points, too many rebounds to tally and two assists -- one or which was a high school level play. He boarded a miss, dribbled to half court and then through a looping pass to a teammate for a wide open layup. The fact that a seven year old ran a flawless fast is mind blowing.

We tell our students all the time that everyone does some things well. Balling is one of those things for The Playmaker.

Now that we are done thumping our fatherly chest, we are off to the couch to watch the second half of Pitt and Louisville (followed by the 76ers on NBA TV).

Brent: "OU is gonna win it AGAIN!"

Boomer Sooner...

Friday Night Lights Steak

Another Male Cheerleader Picture

Are you FRIGGING serious?!?

We were tipped off about Sam Bradford around mid-afternoon when we got an e-mail from someone in Norman. Offensive tackle Trent Williams had already announced this morning he was staying and, of course, defensive tackle Gerald McCoy had said last week he was coming back.
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Three out of four was better than we could have ever hoped for. It was a given that All-World tight end Jermaine Gresham was gone. A cinch top 15 pick, there was no logical reason for him to come back to Oklahoma.
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And yet while steak tips were on the grill and a fire was in the fire place, our Blackberry buzzed. Another e-mail from Norman. This one was short and sweet. Click here! was all it said.
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And so we did. And got immediately linked to the official OU Athletics web site.
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Holy sheeeeet. Jermaine Gresham had announced he, too, was coming back?!?
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And just like that, we went from 8-4 next year to 12-0 and another shot at the National Championship.
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Hey, Male Cheerleader! We'll see you in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2010.

Tom Brenneman is a DOLT...

"The University ... (pause) ... (another pause) ... out of Oklahoma. Norman, Oklahoma."

You are broadcasting a college football game and you don't know if it's the University of Oklahoma or Oklahoma University?!?

Oklahoma University?!?

NOW tell us the refs didn't have it in for Oklahoma

Pass interference. Leading with your helmet. (And then taunting by some scrub wearing number 84.) Take your pick. Bottom line was this no-call set the tone for the Zebras and their anti-Oklahoma biases.

Monday Morning Thoughts on the Eagles

1. Their defense is, obviously, playing extremely well. It is amazing that no one talks about the job linebackers Stewart Bradley and Chris Gocong have done this year. (Well, Peter King did have Bradley on his All-Pro team...but no one else mentions him.) And other than Troy Aikman, who has given Brodrick Bunkley his due this year?!? They have multiple DBs (none of whom is named Lito Shepperd) who can cover. They get a strong pass rush off the edge (and up the gut from heretofore bonus bust Darren Howard). And no one blitzes better than defensive coordinator Jim Johnson.

2. Winning without Brian Westbrook is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! We'll say it again. The man is not healthy. Not when he catches the ball in space and gets taken down by a linebacker. The days of needing a healthy Westbrook to win are, apparently, gone (knock on wood).

3. That crap Donovan McNabb pulled on the Giants' sideline was, just that -- crap. If T.O. or Ocho Cinco did it, they would be destroyed (destroyed!) in the press.

4. Kevin Curtis, though a different type of player, is becoming the Poor Man's Wes Welker for the Eagles. Good things happen when he touches the ball.

5. Now that Andy Reid and, of course, Cheapskate Owner Jeff Laurie have the Playoff Beard thing going on, we found it comical to see that penny pinching team president Joe Banner's face was smooth and clean yesterday. People in Philly suspect the geeky Banner is incapable of growing facial hair.

6. The two fourth down stops by Mike Patterson will go down in Eagles history as truly HUGE plays. On both, he stood up Alice Manning and then bulldogged her to the turf.

Non-Eagles Quickies:

1. Nice that three days after beating undefeated North Carolina, Coach Albert led his Boston College Eagles to defeat against...wait for it...mighty Harvard! And having lost again last night (at Wake Forest), apparently beating UNC is not that difficult to do. Go get 'em, Albert!

2. Lost in the Eagles' hoopla is the fact the 76ers have won four games in a row, the most impressive of which was yesterday's 15 point win at Atlanta (22-14). Elton Who?!?

Um, no, actually he's NOT!

Andy Reid on Donovan McNabb: "He's the best quarterback in the NFL."

Eagles 23 Giants 11

Hey, Female Loser, you going to get your daddy to have the loss overturned?!?

Mike Patterson: Defensive MVP for his two fourth down stops!

Asante Samuel: All he does is make Big Plays in Big Games!

Wow -- what a surprise...

The Male Cheerleader says he's coming back next season!

(That's what happens when the NFL says, "Hey Male Cheerleader, you'll make a fine fourth round pick!")

A sign of The Times

How bad is the economy?!? How poorly are newspapers faring?!? Well, the New York Times has joined the rest of the fish-wraps. It has, gulp, started running ads on its front page. Note the above ad for CBS on the front page of the NYT's January 5 edition.

Hey, Male Cheerleader...

Hey, Male Cheerleader! Do you teach the kids in the Philippines to taunt their opponent?!?

The Morning After...

When we went to bed last night, errrrrrrrr, this morning around 1:45, we were fine. We expected Oklahoma to lose and they did, 24-14. But they played competitively and their defense was outstanding. The game ended and we could not stand (sit?!?) to watch FOX (and then ESPN) make-out with the person who from this point forward will simply be called The Male Cheerleader. So we DVR'd it for The Playmaker to watch tonight and then relaxed on the couch and watched a re-run of The Office before falling asleep watching The City. Woke up and went up to bed. Not angry. Not depressed. Nothing.

Then we got up four hours later.

And good gawd, man, we were pissed as sheeeeeet. Still are. In fact, it gets worse by the hour. We'd rather get gang-banged 55-10 to USC (like in 2005) than have to accept the crap that went down last night. The game was there for Oklahoma to take. They downright dominated the first half, but had nothing to show for it at halftime, tied 7-7.

Three stupid plays (two in the first half, one in the second) and one bad coaching call. That's all that separated the Sooners from being National Champions.

Stupid Play #1 Duke Robinson, perhaps the most overrated Sooner in recent memory, was flagged for holding. The play wiped out a first down at the Gators 10 yard line in the opening quarter. How the media can be so clueless on this stiff is mind boggling. Did anyone even notice that Robinson rotated at left guard this year with Brian Simmons?!? How can you be an All-American when you don't even play full time?!? Duke sucks. Duke is a stupid and lazy football player. (We made this point after the loss to texASS and got banned for 72 hours from our favorite OU football web site.) More than anything, OU needed to jump on top first. It needed to gain confidence after six weeks of hearing how they had no chance against the Gators. Robinson's penalty killed (killed!) a golden opportunity.

Stupid Play #2 Sam Bradford, Mr. Heisman, threw an absolute ass-backwards-stupid pass to Manny Johnson on the one yard line with five second left in the first half. Manny was surrounded by a sea of Gators. The ball bounced off his hand, touched the hands of, like, 12 different Gators before finally being intercepted. Even if Johnson had caught the ball, time would have expired, as the Sooners had no timeouts. Eat the ball, son. Or throw it to a receiver in the end zone. But for cripes sake, don't throw short of the end zone. And don't force the ball into triple coverage. 10-7 Sooners at half time is infinitely better than a 7-7 tie.

Stupid Play #3 Juaquin Iglesias let a pass slip out of his hands at the Florida 25 yard line as the Sooners were driving to take the lead in the fourth quarter. Trailing 17-14 with 10 minutes to play, Bradford threw a rope over the middle. Iglesias leaped and made the catch. However, on his way down he allowed Florida's Ahmad Black to strip him of the ball for the interception. Also stripped on the play was Oklahoma's emotional energy. Florida took the ball right down the field and score seven, in what was the only drive all game that The Male Cheerleader truly dominated play. If Iglesias holds onto that ball, things could have been so different. And for the senior Iglesias to go out like he did last night is truly queer (get a dictionary and look it up). He has been a model of consistency during his four years as a starter. Yet his fourth quarter miscue (as well as a dropped bomb in the third quarter) is how Sooner Nation will most likely remember him.

Stupid Coaching Call #1 Kicker Jimmy Stevens has not had a lot of chances for the high scoring Sooners this season -- well, except for extra points, of course. And he has never hit anything close the 49 yarder Bob Stoops called on him to make in the 3rd quarter last night. Facing a 4th and 5 on Florida's 32 yard line, Stoops went for the trey. Of course, Stevens had it rejected by Florida's D and the Legend of Big Game Stoops Woops grew by leaps and bounds.

Three plays and a stupid coaching call.

That's all is was. (Well, and some abysmal officiating in the first quarter. But that's for another post.)

Time to come clean

Oklahoma's offense is better than Florida's offense. But Florida's defense is much better than OU's defense.

No DeMarco Murray...Missing three starters on defense...starting their third string middle linebacker...the fact that Brent Venables is the defensive coordinator.

What does it all mean?!?

Florida 42
Oklahoma 31

Ouch.

Tonight's Game

Why Florida will win...

1. Tim Tebow is the greatest quarterback in the history of the world!

2. Tim Tebow yells at his kick coverage teammates!

3. Tim Tebow cried during his apology for losing to Ole Miss!

4. Even though Tim Tebow does not play defense, Florida's defense is better than Oklahoma's!

5. Erin Andrews likes Tim Tebow!

6. ESPN loves Tim Tebow!

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7. Oklahoma is playing without four starters (three on defense)!

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Why Oklahoma will win...

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1. Oklahoma's offense is the most explosive in the history of the game!

2. Sam Bradford is 10 1,000 times better at passing than Tim Tebow!

3. Jermaine Gresham is a freak!

4. Florida coach Urban Meyer is already eyeing property in South Bend for the 2010 season!