Ripped from the Headlines

This is exactly what it sounds like, I'm going to espn.com right NOW (as I'm writing this)... copying and pasting the top 5 headlines, and giving my thoughts.  Because I need to write something.

Saints' Payton banned 1 year for bounties

Good.  He should be.  And Gregg Williams, who ran the program should be banned for 3 years as well.  I don't care if he isn't with the Saints anymore.  He ran the same program in other places too.  Wish they would have taken a few more draft picks.  You can't allow bonuses for injuring players.  You just can't.

Jets obtain Tebow for two picks

A fourth rounder and a 6th rounder for a guy who can't pass?  -Sounds reasonable to me.
Love, love, love that Tony Sporano wants to run the Wildcat with Tebow.  Love, love, love that they just gave Mark Sanchez a huge extension.  Love, love, love the QB controversy that is going to happen when Sanchez has one of his 3 int's no TD's games.  Love, love, love Rex Ryan and his bluster doing this to his team, and his own quarterback. 

Report: VCU's Smart turns down Illinois offer

Good for Shaka.  Illinois isn't a premiere Big Ten program.  The only way you go there is if you are guaranteed BIG money, up front.  He wasn't.  In fact, Bruce Weber wasn't paid that much more than Shaka is at VCU.  Why go somewhere with a tougher league, higher expectations, and almost the same money?  Makes no sense.

-Also, how cool of a name is Shaka?  I mean, it's just awesome.  If you were a promising high school prospect, wouldn't you get excited if "Shaka Smart" came to your house to recruit you?  I would.

Strasburg to make Nats' Opening Day start

He's opening against the Cubs.  I look forward to watching him completely destroy the Cubs lineup.  And I'm a Cubs fan.  At this point, I'm just a realist, we're in the first stage of the Theo Plan, and we're not gonna contend anytime soon.

Cards' Carpenter to miss opener due to neck

Good.  No one should risk injury, or subject themselves to more pain and/or problems this early in the season.  Particularly if you are the number one starter on the World Series Champs.  Rest up dude, and take it easy.

More Sports... Less Doofus

I was looking over my last several posts, and noticed I've been spending much more time on pop culture than on sports.  This is unforgivable from the self proclaimed "Sports Doofus".  A title I worked long and hard for.

How can I have a sports blog and not talk sports?  Well, pretty easily actually.  I'm not very fired up about anything right now.

So, some topics of interest in the sports world right now... and my thoughts on them.

Jeremy Lin

I'll admit I don't know most of this story.. but I have the gist of it.  Here's what I think.
1.  Good for him.
2.  If people don't shut up about him soon, I'm going to start to dislike him, because I hate bandwagoners.  (Do you hear me teenagers in Celtics jerseys?)
3. Do NOT compare Jeremy Lin to Tim Tebow under any circumstances.  Here's why:

• Jeremy Lin went to college at Harvard, a school without athletic scholarships, and is the first NBA player from there in about eleventy years.  (these numbers are approximate)
• Tim Tebow went to college at Florida, who won two national Championships while he was there (one before he played), and the Heisman trophy.
• Jeremy Lin went undrafted out of college.
• Tim Tebow was a first round draft pick of the Denver Broncos.
• The Knicks colors are orange and blue...
• The Broncos colors are.. ok, you got me.

Oh yeah, I forgot the main difference... Lin shows some talent at his position... Tebow gets cheered for like a disabled kid when he completes a pass.  (See, he can throw!  he completed a pass!) 

Here's how Lin would be like Tebow, he starts, passes the ball worse than any other point guard in the league ( low completion %), leads the league in air balls (poorly thrown balls) and turnovers (poor decision making), runs around the court yelling "na-na boo-boo, can't catch me" and throws in a game winning shot over his left shoulder while falling down and praying, but only after it bounces off the rim, and touches not one, but two defenders hands before being knocked back into the hoop.

The Big East Conference
This is a segment perfect for Saturday Night Live's Weekend update Really?  bit

Really, Big East Conference?

I mean, I know your are losing members like Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC, but really?

Memphis?  Memphis?  Don't get me wrong, Memphis is a great town and a decent enough school, but Memphis?  Memphis isn't in the Eastern Half of Tennessee, BIG EAST Conference.

And Really, Big East Conference... 2 Texas schools?  Really?  Adding SMU and Houston to the Big East is like....  I can't think of anything.... it's not like anything!  They are SMU and Houston!

As new "Football Only" Members - Navy, Boise State, and San Diego State.  Really?

Because the first thing I think of when I picture San Diego, California, all I can think  is Big East Football. 

Boise State?  Really?  Boise State?  Did you try and eat the blue turf or something?  Boise State, in IDAHO, is in the Big East.

How about changing the name of your conference form the Big East, to what it really is, the Big Mess.  I mean, really.

That's about all I got for now.  Tune in to espnU on Saturday to watch my beloved South Dakota State Jackrabbits take on Buffalo in the espn bracketbusters series.

Tebow te-blows.

Dear Denver Broncos Fans,

You got what you wanted.

I hope you are enjoying the results.  The Lions are using words like embarrassing to describe the performance of your "annointed one".

Here's the thing... It bugs me with Tebow fans, it bugs me with fans in general. 

You are a FAN.  Period. 

The guys coaching in this league, they've dedicated their lives to it.  They spend, literally, over 60 hours a week preparing for a game.  They spend weeks of time in training camp going over the playbook, the concepts they are trying to teach, they see every drill of every practice.  And still fans think they know more?

It's insane.  Tebow, I'm sure is a great young man.  Everything I've read about the guy says he's a wonderful human being, a hard worker, and he has a great attitude.  I even respect him for how he's handled himself.  Seems like a good guy.  Seems like the kind of guy you want to succeed, I get that too.

However, here's the thing.  He was drafted by Josh McDaniels, (who critically wounded the Denver Franchise with his horrible drafting) who has this year left and turned Sam Bradford into a terrible player.  The Broncos hired John Fox ( no stranger to qb controversies, or poor qb-ing), who after a few weeks of fall clamp actually had Tebow as the third string quarterback.

So the Broncs go out and stink it up for a few weeks with Kyle Orton (who I admit, leaves alot to be desired) and the Bronco fanbase starts frothing at the mouth for Tebow.  He leads a slight comeback against the chargers to fall short in a relief role.  Then he is named the starter.

In his first start of the season, the Broncos miraculously defeat the Dolphins in OT.  I had a Middle school student pass me in the hallway 3 times last week talking about "Tebow Magic".  The funny thing is, the Dolphins have won exactly 0 games this year, and their best chance to win one was actually provided by none other than Tebow.

So, you are facing the Lions.  Losers of 2 in a row, barely won the two before that, and playing on the road, in your "high altitude", without their best running back (Jahvid Best).  Not to mention playing against Tebow.  They humiliated you. 

I'm not a football coach.  Never have been.  I've never even coached Junior High level football, and if I can see from the couch, that this guy is terrible, he's not very good.

People who claim he needs more time, really need to understand something.  Cam Newton is playing at a much higher level, ran the same offense as Tebow in college (and to be honest, he ran 3 seperate offenses his 3 years of "college"), Timmy spent his entire career in one.  Andy Dalton ran a similar style of offense at TCU and he is also outperforming Tebow.  Another thought, neither Dalton or Cam had an offseason of workouts with their teams, like Tebow did before his rookie season.

I'm not against Tebow either.  I know there are "Tebow-haters" just like there are "Tebow-lovers", I don't count myself among either of those groups.  I just don't think he's very good.  I think the fans are much more embarrassing.  What's the old line from Bill Polian, "If you let the fans make your decisions, soon enough you'll be sitting with them."  Makes sense to me.

The point is this, and it's pretty simple.  Stop acting like "know it alls" and embarassing yourselves.  It's ok to have passion.  It's ok to support your team.  It's ok to want them to win.  It's gotten to the point of ridiculousness, though.  People who haven't even played the sport criticize the coaches.  People who have never coached a sport in their life are making "proclamations" about what their teams should do.

Here's what you should do.  Cheer for your team.  Cheer as hard as you want, wear facepaint if you want to.  Hope, Pray, do anything you want to "help the team win".   Enjoy it when the team wins.  Maybe even tease your friends who cheer for the opponent.  Be disappointed when they lose.  But don't act like you know better.  You don't.  You just don't.

Are you hearing me Charger fans?

Musings on pop culture Friday and FB Weekend

Watched the last four episodes of season 2 of Louie last night.  What an amazing show.  The season actually ended like a month ago, but I had them saved up on the dvr for a night when I could control the television.  What a great program in television for adult men.  Gentlemen, if you're married or were married and have kids, you should really give Louie a shot.  Funny, intelligent, and yet it's serious at the same time.  The Afghanistan episode alone should be "Must See".

I was going to find a clip to post on here, but there are too many too pick from.  Just click on the website above.  There are some full episodes available at the site too.  Great show.

New Band To Me:  the Joy Formidable

After I got done watching Louie, I was flipping around and saw these guys on Letterman.  They really put on an excellent performance.  So, I got out the laptop and looked them up.  Really enjoyed what I heard from them.

Here is there video for "Whirring" which is the song they performed on Letterman.

College Football thoughts for this week:
The Red River Rivalry game is this weekend.  Texas vs Oklahoma.  I know Texas is much improved this year, but I'm taking Oklahoma big time in this one. 

Nebraska gets to play Ohio State this weekend, to try and get over the beatdown that Wisconsin threw on them last week.  Earlier in the season I thought this was a sure Nebraska win, but yikes, they need to fix that defense.

My South Dakota State Jackrabbits will try to end a four game losing streak at Youngstown State this weekend.  While I'm hopeful that this will happen, I'm not very optimistic.  It's been a rough season in Jackrabbit land, and Youngstown is much improved this year.

Also it sounds like TCU is now going to join the Big 12.  I think this is a good move for both TCU and the Big 12 Conference.  However, this probably isn't the best new for the Big East, who are reportedly prepared to go on without TCU.  This would bring them back up to 10 schools, but then word got out that Missouri would really like to join the SEC...  stay tuned to that soap opera... as the Big 12 turns...

Tebowmania
This weekend my San Diego Chargers will travel to Denver to play the Bucking Tebows.  I'm actually hoping he gets to play this weekend.  Mostly because that means the game is a blowout.  But also because he really isn't that good, and all the people that are clamoring for him to play need to get to watch it.  The Chargers defense has been surprisingly good so far this year, except in the New England game.

Speaking of New England, they get to play Mark Sanchez and the Jets this weekend.  Be interesting to see how the Jets respond after the pounding Baltimore put on them last weekend.  If the Jets lose this one, they are 2-3 and on a 3 game losing streak and falling far behind in the playoff race.