America’s White Boy would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas. I hope everyone is enjoying NBA basketball while your children are playing with their gifts. I’m sure the children’s favorite white boy, Santa, brought them plenty of gifts to keep them occupied so you can watch some amazing NBA action today.
What did Santa bring to you?
Christmas Eve isn’t much of a sports hotbed this year. The only game on in all four major sports is the Hawaii Bowl. This year’s Hawaii Bowl is getting a lot more attention than the usual match-up since Notre Dame is traveling to Hawaii to take on the Hawaii Warriors in essentially a home game for the islands. No matter the outcome of the game, Notre Dame football will be headed in a new direction.
If Notre Dame wins the game, they will finally erase the stigma of have a 15-year winless bowl game streak. A win against Hawaii would help Notre Dame escape back-to-back losing seasons and 7-6 would actually seem like a nice season overall for this young Irish team. A win to cap off the season will help rejuvenate the rabid Irish fanbase and give them some juice going into the off-season. They haven’t felt good ending a season since Raghib Ismail and Rick Mirer wore the golden helmets.
If Notre Dame loses, Weis’s seat will get hotter, I know he has gotten the thumbs up from the athletic director, but a beating by Hawaii could change his mind. It could put a damper on recruiting and the overall feel of Notre Dame going into next season. If Jimmy Clausen has a bad game, you have to think that they will look for an open competition going into spring. He will be a junior and needs to keep getting better, since Weis’s offense relies heavily on the quarterback. Dayne Crist could be a decent option if they grow sour of Clausen.
If Notre Dame hopes to win this game, Clausen will have to protect the ball and get the ball into the hands of his receivers. Notre Dame’s receivers are quite elusive in the open field. Golden Tate and Michael Floyd need huge games for them to beat the Warriors.
The Hawaii Bowl line started out with Hawaii favored by two points, but as of today, the line moved and now the Irish is favored by two. I do think the Irish will win this game, but if Hawaii scores more than 24 points, the Irish probably won’t be able to keep up. The score needs to be low and Clausen can’t throw more than one interception. Let’s hope that Weis doesn’t shoot himself in the leg and start going deep early in the first quarter.
It took long enough, but the Yankees got their man. Mark Teixeira will sign an 8-year deal worth $180 million dollars. That is $22.5 million a year for a man who has been the last two years’ trading deadline prize. This deal will shore up the 28-year old for the prime of his career. With the signings of C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, it looks like the Yankees are back to buying their way to the World Series.
The Red Sox, Orioles, and the Nationals were the only other teams left in the bidding war after the Angels pulled out earlier this week. As of yesterday, it didn’t even look like the Yankees were in the mix for Teixeira, but money talks and the Yankees threw too much on the table for anyone to resist. New York will now try to move either Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Xavier Nady, or the newly acquired, Nick Swisher.
The Yankees are opening up a new stadium and look like they are wanting to bless the new ground with not one World Series championship, but a string of championships with the years attached to these monster deals this off-season. I’m waiting for the Red Sox to make their move, I don’t know what could trump these moves the Evil Empire has made the last month. The Red Sox will have to sign Jesus of Nazareth.
As a consolation prize for not signing Teixeira, the Nationals signed Corey Patterson. I can’t even imagine trying to explain that move to their fanbase.
After A Week One loss to the New York Giants, everyone was calling for Jim Zorn’s head. The Redskins looked bad and their offense couldn’t even run an average 2-minute offense. Then somehow the Redskins go on a hot streak and win a few games in a row and suddenly Zorn is a lifesaver. Well, it didn’t take long for the Redskins to fall back to Earth. They were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention and now the village people are calling for Zorn’s head again. If Daniel Snyder was smart, he would listen to the village.
Vinny Cerrato, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, said Monday that Jim Zorn will return next season. This doesn’t seem like a Dan Snyder move to me. Is this the same man who basically has a blank check when it comes to the Redskins? Has the economy hurt Snyder?
He has coaches like Mike Holmgren, Josh McDaniels, and Bill Cowher just waiting out there for the picking and he’s not doubling down. You have Bill Cowher, who has a home on the East Coast (North Carolina area), which isn’t a great distance from the nation’s capital. There are arguments for and against bringing in a new coach, but you can clearly see the upside on bringing in an elite head coach, not a guy that you got last second after all the other coaches you interviewed didn’t seem interested.
I know the fans of the Redskins think Jason Campbell could be the quarterback of the future. Does he have the skills to win a game with his arm? I’m not sold and if you bring in Josh McDaniels, he would bring Matt Cassel with him. You have a pretty good tandem with a head-start on learning the offense. Clinton Portis has a few years left on him, but the Redskins are in need of an elite, prototypical receiver. Receivers like Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle-El are more possession receivers that lack size.
Redskins fans need to write letters, text, or contact Dan Snyder in some way to get him to explore the idea of getting in an experience coach to lead this team. The Redskins are just a couple of pieces of away from being in the top-tier of the NFC, they just need the leadership to guide them.
I guess when you’re going “defeated” all year, your job has a 0% chance of going past this week, and you’ve been slung through the mud since Week 1, you don’t have much of a sense of humor. Rob Parker, a columnist for the Detroit News, made a joke during a post-game press conference about Detroit’s defensive coordinator. It usually wouldn’t make national headlines, but this joke made fun of the coach’s wife and son-in-law.
The defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions is Joe Barry, the son-in-law of coach Rod Marinelli. Parker has been a critic of Barry’s all season. He asked “On a light note, do you wish your daughter would have married a better defensive coordinator?”. Apparently, Parker didn’t mean it as a personal attack, he actually meant to lighten up a down moment during the press conference. Marinelli didn’t like the question and after many attempts by Parker to apologize to the coach, Marinelli will not accept.
FOX Post-game show aired the clip of Parker’s question and Terry Bradshaw called Parker a “disgrace to his profession.” I think that is a little strong coming from Bradshaw, who’s press credentials are colored in crayon.
The only disgrace Rob Parker has done to his profession is appearing on ESPN’s “1st and 10” with Skip Bayless. Other than that occasional lapse in judgment, Parker is an amazing journalist and hopefully this story will blow over once the Lions go 0-16.
I have written about Skip Bayless in the past and my opinion of him has not changed. I think he’s overly-opinionated, takes stands on issues that is purposely against the minority, and he’s a pompous jerk. This week we are “lucky” to have Stephen A. Smith as Skip’s opponent on ESPN’s 1st and 10. Having Stephen A. and Skip on the same show is like having the Iron Sheik vs. Nikita Koloff going against each other. Sorry to reference an old-school WWF reference to describe the scenario, but it fits. I don’t like either of these guys and I really want Skip and Stephen A. end up hitting each other with a steel chair.
Today’s episode was insane. Skip screamed for the first 15 minutes and then tagged Stephen A. in and he screamed for the rest of the show. I can’t imagine these guys eating dinner with each other, they would have to put them in their own food and give each other riot masks to protect themselves against flying spit. The highlight of the show was when they got in a heated argument against and for Brett Favre in New York. I will DV-R the episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday in hopes of Stephen A. finally pulling out a folding table and sending Skip through it via Powerbomb.
Here is an old clip of the two going at it, I hope it gives you an idea of how insane it is to have both of these guys on the same show. You may need earplugs, the decibels alone could do some ear damage.
After a very competitive game, “Big Fat” Lendale White decided to perform some towel abuse on the sideline. This abuse wasn’t the kind Jerry Tarkanian used to perform as the coach of UNLV, White took a “Terrible Towel” and stomped on it. If you don’t know what a “Terrible Towel” is, it’s the yellow towels that Steeler fans have been throwing around in the stands for decades. It is Pittsburgh’s version of the “Homer Hanky” or “Rally Monkey.”
After the game Bill Cowher was fuming that Keith Bullock and Lendale White decided to disgrace the towel. Of couse he said that because he is still a Pittsburgh homer. I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I’m sure Towelie would not approve.
Here is the video of Lendale White doing the Tennesse Waltz all over a Terrible Towel.
Not everyone can have the last name ‘Jordan’ or ‘Chamberlain’, some of us have to go through life with a pretty ridiculous name. Most of these names are pretty rough to grow up with, but some are names you wish you may have, especially if you are named something bland like Joe Smith or Bobby Roberts.
Once again this year the lesser-known Division I teams make up the majority of the list, keep up the good recruiting work.
Woody Payne – G – Detroit
Scoop Jardine – G – Syracuse
Cashmere Wright – G – Cincinnati
Idong Ibok – C – Michigan State
Pawel Kielbasa – F – Chicago State
Chop Tang – F – Wisconsin-Green Bay
Hyman Taylor – C – San Francisco
Beloved Rogers – G – Oral Roberts
Chief Kickingstallionsims – C – Alabama State
King Cannon – F – Central Arkansas
Picasso Simmons – G – Murray State
Tweety Carter – G – Baylor
Lex Mongo – G – Massachusetts
Ookie Clayton – G – Tennessee-Martin
and of course…
Lil’ Romeo – G – USC
After a rough day of college football and non-competitive college basketball games, I am stuck with the Browns/Bengals game on my television. These teams are two of the worst teams to watch since 50% of each of their teams are on injured reserve. Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson (Ocho Cinco), Kellen Winslow, and about thirty other players are not going to play in this game. This leaves me with watching a Ken Dorsey vs. Ryan Fitzpatrick match-up.
I want to have fun while watching this game, so these are the things that are going to keep me interested.
– Drink every time Braylon Edwards drops a ball.
– Over/Under 2 minutes into the game that they start talking about next season for both of these teams.
– Over/Under 4 times, that the announcers talk about Ken Dorsey’s college career.
– Count the amount of people with bags over their heads vs. the idiots without any shirts on
– The Bengals should have less points than people in the team with felony charges
– Realize that Romeo Crennel outweighs most of his offensive linemen
– Laugh repeatedly when the announcers describe the history of this rivalry and try to make it sound watchable.
I’m not sure if I will be able to make it through this game, this might be my last post. If I don’t make it, I hereby bequeath this blog to my roommate.
I am a big Batman fan and I’m basically interested in news about any comic book character that is going to appear in a movie. I am a fan of the movies that feature X-Men, Iron Man, the new Hulk, and many others. I loved “The Dark Knight” and I’m excited about the next movie in the franchise. They have recently announced who they cast to play The Riddler in the next Batman movie. The man who is set to play The Riddler is Eddie Murphy…say what?! Really? This guy?
This guy?
This guy?
The guy who wore this?
The guy who made this movie?!
Okay, so that guy is going to be this guy?!
Okay, I give up. I really don’t know where they are going with this at all. I know that Heath Ledger wasn’t the normal casting for the Joker and he hit it out of the park, but this seems like they didn’t even try. I hope Eddie Murphy proves me wrong, but at this point I expect the casting for the Penguin to be played by Yao Ming.
After a long week of looking at Excel spreadsheets and dealing with office politics, I needed a nice day of watching sports and eating junk food. I was looking forward to today since around this time of years there are great college basketball games and the college bowl seasons begins. I was very encouraged by the college basketball games, but extremely sad about the bowl games taking place today. First off let’s talk about the lackluster bowl games of the day.
Eagle Bank Bowl – Wake Forest vs. Navy – I’ve never heard of Eagle Bank and probably won’t after today. I predicted that Wake Forest would win this game and it wasn’t really much of a game. I turned away from the game after the first quarter.
New Mexico Bowl – Fresno State vs. Colorado State – This is a pretty sad name for the game, I guess the state of New Mexico needed to put their name on a Bowl game to boost tourism. I can’t think of one reason why I would want to visit New Mexico, even after I used wikipedia and google.
MagicJack St. Petersburg Bowl – South Florida vs. Memphis – First, MagicJack is a product that you see advertised around 2:30am on Sunday nights. You plug it in your computer and you suddenly have a landline phone, this product will be gone by this time next year. Secondly, this game was played at Tropicana Field, probably the worst place to play a baseball game and now probably the worst place to play a football game. I watched the first half of this game and kids were hitting the turf and coming away with knee injuries ever 5 minutes. The highlight of the game was the sideline reporting work of Rob Stone. I’ll take a dude sideline reporter instead of Erin Andrews if he brings the funny. Do you think George Selvie is a solid NFL prospect or just a product of playing B talent on a year-round basis? Just curious, discuss this with friends.
Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl – BYU vs. Arizona – This game hasn’t came on yet, but I will predict a blowout by BYU. Also, it has been snowing in Las Vegas, so sadly there will not be any showgirls on the sidelines.
After seeing those Bowl games, I instantly went to look at the college basketball schedule and same some gems. I thought that this day would be saved by some college hoops, but as of 6:30pm, it has been very bad. (Note: I didn’t get the Michigan State vs. Texas game in my region)
Duke vs. Xavier – This was supposed to be a marquee match-up with the number six team facing the number seven team in the country. Either Duke is the real deal or Xavier is horrible. This wasn’t even a game, I started watching the next game.
Minnesota vs. Louisville – This game was one of the best of the day. Louisville came into the game ranked #9 and Minnesota was undefeated, but haven’t played any elite teams. I like to think that this game was the battle of the ex-Kentucky coaches. I wanted to see Ralph Sampson’s kid, but he doesn’t play a lot, but the way Minnesota played, they didn’t really need him. It was a good game and both of these teams should have solid seasons.
Davidson vs. Purdue – I’m a big Stephen Curry fan, but maybe a bigger Sonya Curry fan, just kidding. I started this blog about the time that Curry was going off in the NCAA tournament last year. I haven’t had the chance to see him play this year and I was excited to see him play against Purdue…my excitement ended with a 21-0 Purdue run to begin the game. Davidson looked like a team undeserving of the hype and Purdue looked like a team finally “getting it.”
UConn vs. Gonzaga – I actually wasn’t supposed to get this game, but since the Davidson/Purdue game was a blow-out, they switched over to this game of a game. My favorite announcer, Gus Johnson, was on the mic and throwing down some memorable lines. He blamed the officials for being “overly-officious,” if that’s even a word, and he said that one of the players was a pitching prospect for the “Kansas City Chiefs,” clearly Gus Johnson doesn’t broadcast baseball. This game turned out to be the kind of game that I was waiting for all day. Gonzaga had the advantage throughout the game, but Jim Calhoun worked his magic and got the line-up in the game that got them back in it. After A.J. Price blew it on the free-throw line (I found out that he’s only a 37% free throw shooter, that’s worse than Shaq and Chris Dudley), he made an amazing 3-pointer to force the game into overtime. I need to find this moment on YouTube, because Gus Johnson blew a load. UConn dominated in overtime and they won the game, which was surprised me, the game was in Seattle and the Huskies had issues even getting there.
Memphis vs. Syracuse – I am watching this game now and it is a good one. I actually wanted to watch this game to see Tyreke Evans. He was supposed to go to Kentucky, but decided on Memphis. Memphis misses Derrick Rose and Joey Dorsey, but they are loaded with young talent again this season. These teams should both have decent seasons and make the NCAA tourney easily.
Oklahoma vs. VCU – This is the late game of the day, I want to see Eric Maynor and Blake Griffin, they are both going to be playing in the NBA next year. Griffin will most likely be a top three pick and Maynor will playing in the NBA somewhere, but his draft stock is still to be determined. Maynor has turned it up against talented teams and first made a name for himself a couple seasons ago in the NCAA tournament against Duke. VCU has a good team this year with a win against Kentucky under their belt. Oklahoma was my pre-season pick to make the Final Four this season, they probably won’t win it all with North Carolina looking unbeatable, but they will have a memorable season.
Since I do not have the NFL Network I will be unable to watch the Dallas Cowboys vs. Baltimore Ravens game. It will probably be a good game and I hope Tony Romo and Jason Witten have monster games, my fantasy football championship depends on it. I will probably end up watching some NHL hockey, the Columbus Blue Jackets play at the Phoenix Coyotes, I hope the Columbus BJs play well(something that I call them and hope it catches on). Here is to a weak Saturday of sports to all my fellow couch potatoes.
Plaxico Burress’ PSA on Gun Safety