MSU vs. Michigan

"You Got Nothing!"

You got nothing! That famous line from the motion picture, “The Score” sums up the current predicament of the New York Jets. How in the hell anyone can say that the year Brett Favre spent in New York was worth it is beyond me. Maybe you guys sold some jerseys that one day may be worth something. Maybe it was a great distracting from the New York Knicks. Perhaps you sold more tickets to Jets’ games, but you gave up more than was gained in the process. Stick a pin in that for a moment will you.

For a career which should have ended with imagery like this: 1st Player to win AP (MVP) Award 3 Times, Most Consecutive QB Starts, Most QB Victories, Most Career Touchdown Passes (etcetera, etcetera……..)


Brett Favre left the New York Jets looking like this:

Let’s evaluate that crazy trade shall we. The Green Bay Packers trade Brett Favre to the New York Jets for about a week and one-half bad publicity, gained a few angry fans, and will receive a third round pick in the 2009 draft. The Jets lost a conditional fourth round pick because although Brett started in 80% of the games, the Jets didn’t make it to the Super Bowl. The Jets coach got fired. They lost Chad Pennington to Miami who had the worst season last year and made it into the playoffs. And now, the Jets have no quarterback.

This is what happens when we (fans) make players bigger than the team concept and the game itself. I’m not pondering whether or not Brett’s shoulder will feel better in two months. I could care less if he changes his mind. Come back and play for the Lions. He could certainly help them win at least a game, if the Lion’s offensive line doesn’t get him killed first.

All jokes aside, the best outcome here is to leave in the way that he should have in the beginning with grace. The sun eventually sets for every player whether he wants it to or not. Will he get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Yes. Will fans always love Brett Favre? Yes.

Brett Favre Joke:
A reporter asked Brett for his parting words as he boarded the plane leaving New York. He said in the words of W.C. Fields, "Damn the whole fuckin' world and everyone in it but you, Deanna".

"It ought to be a LAW, son"

Ty Lawson scored a career high 25 points with 21 of those points coming in the second half in UNC's 101-87 victory over the Duke Blue Devils. In his press conference, Coach K acknowldeged that, " Lawson played like a pro tonight." "He played as well as any point guard against us in a long time." I think this pretty much sums up the beat down.

Sidebar: I noticed the University of Oklahoma's coach Bob Stoops at the game. Bob Stoops don't need to be in Durham, North Carolina. He still needs to be thankful for the BCS nod over the University of Texas in addition to his office studying film from that BCS Title Game lost to the Florida Gators. While you were there, Bob, did you chat with Coach Williams, K or better yet Coach Cowher on what a real winner looks like? The nerve of some people.

Baseball's Disgrace

I’ve never been an Alex Rodriquez fan. I don’t like the fact that he plays for my all time favorite sports team. In my opinion, Alex Rodriquez has never felt like a Yankee. He never looked good in the “pinstripes” from the back in the way that Dave Winfield, “Mr. October, Willie Randolph and others looked. You can file that last comment under girl just want to have fun. Meaning, only a woman and real female Yankee fan would get it.

However, all jokes and fun aside, this latest baseball steroid story has brought me out from under, “my indifference rock.” While I have never liked Alex Rodriquez, the lack of integrity disturbs me more. It is my understanding that when these players were screened or tested in 2003 that the results were supposed to be “confidential.” Question, how did Alex Rodriquez’s test result become public? Why did we run to the bias media to ask if A-Rod would become a MLB Hall of Famer? Why was the first instinct to protect the reporter of this story’s source?

Why do we think that Jose Canceso has some how been vindication when he has been allowed, for profit and press mind you, to expose his fellow baseball brethren in the name of capitalism? Jose Canceso or the people who helped him don’t give a damn about baseball, and that’s what makes what he has done all the more sickening. He doesn’t care about the preservation and integrity of America’s past time. He is a self professed cheater. When do self professed cheaters get “air-time?” Jose Canseco is an angry man who wants others to join him in his misery. Question, why do we as Americans feed off of this type of individual and story? What is inherently wrong with us when we think it is okay for one to expose another knowing that none of us are perfect and knowing that the innocent will also be harmed?

I say this to say that A-Rod’s privacy was violated. I do not condone the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports, but the bigger question is why athletes and others take this risk in the first place. Me, you, them have grown up in a culture that places value (both intrinsic and extrinsic) on an individual because of the money they make, their occupation, the person they are sleeping with at the time, their friends and a host of other insane criteria.

To date, I see no one calling for the resignation of Bud Selig, the sanctioning of any owner or calling for a full scale investigation of anyone at the top (the union, agents, and lawyers). All of baseball is guilty. The goal was to save baseball by any means necessary due to the anger brought on by the fans about the strike and the heat of competition felt by the NBA and NFL, which brings me to the next question. Why do we knowingly allow others to destroy themselves in the name of profit, and when it becomes inconvenient, we throw these people under the bus? I was taught that lying is wrong. Lying under oath is even worst. All people who work in baseball take an oath to protect its institution. Let’s indict Bud Selig, the owners, the imperfect media, for years that has been gender and racially bias, who would use any excuse not to celebrate the contributions of a man of color. Yes, I invoked the race card because it has been in the deck that has been stacked against most people of color in America. Read your history, if you got a problem with this statement, and come back to it.

I always ask people who watched baseball, in this so-called steroid or Pete Rose era, where they were when Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro Jose Canseco, Pete Rose and others where making the ultimate sacrifice of their bodies and integrity, for profit, and why did we allowed it, and why we think by punishing them makes where we were when it happened or their baseball contributions any less real.

I was there. We were all there, and we all watched and said nothing. Stop lying! We knew just as a parent knows when their child is in trouble, if they love them and are paying attention. The answer is we didn’t care. We were selfish. Hopeful this drama and the lives a people destroyed will make us get involved and not when we seek fame or profit by doing it, but because we genuinely give a damn about others and what happens to them. All of us could be the next A-Rod. I don’t see this story just having an impact on sports. Anyone can be harmed from any occupation in the name of someone’s revenge or goal to seek fame or that promotion.

...as long as we believe the best is yet to come.

"10"

.....and then there were six. All day, I thought about what I could name this blog entry to celebrate the most storied franchise in all of American sports. I thought about the title "Cardinal Knowledge", but there was only one title to describe what I saw this evening, and it is simply "10." Though it was a complete team effort in the end, there was but one who could claim the title of Super Bowl MVP, and this year it was 10 (Santonio Holmes). With but seconds to go, Rothisberger lead his team down the field to find at the end the perfect 10.

I have been a Steelers fan all of my life. I can not think of a game that had greater significance (Tomlin, youngest coach and African-American) and sixth Lombardi Trophy on the line. This year's festivities did not disappoint. From the pre-game show, the first three points of the game, The Boss's kick-ass halftime performance to the trophy presentation, in the final analysis, it was all Pittsburgh.

The Steelers are still in charge.