More Draft Thoughts & Other Stuff

What was up with the tight ends? New England, Baltimore, Houston, St. Louis and Seattle all took two tight ends in the draft. Cincinnati took only one, but he was the first tight end taken. Even though he didn't play his senior year because of an injury. Sounds like a good drafting strategy.

A couple of Canadian jerkasses in California may be in some trouble. After Canada beat the US in Olympic hockey, they thought it would be a good prank to take down an American flag and replace it with a Canadian one. The problem? They also tore up the American flag and buried it. Oh, and the flag has been flying as a memorial to people who died in the 9/11 attacks. Guess they didn't have time to stop by the local veterans cemetery and piss on their graves too. To be honest, I'm pretty strong on the First Amendment so I oppose flag desecration laws. With one caveat. It better be your own flag. Since it was someone else's (and was up as a memorial), I say throw the book at them. Then deport their Canuck asses. If they can't respect the country that immigrated to, throw them the hell out.

The recent suspension of Ben Roethlisberger made character a big theme for the shows. Now, I'm a Steelers fan, but not much of a Roethlisberger fan. I've long believed him to be stupid, and I don't really think he's improved much as a quarterback. In fact, I think the Steelers two recent Super Bowls wins were in spite of him. So, if Pittsburgh wanted to trade him, no problem here. Still, I think his six game suspension was BS. Do I think Roethlisberger is completely innocent? Not really. He seems pretty sleazy and a dick to boot. However, the NFL is asking for trouble when it suspends someone who was never arrested or charged with a crime. For one, it creates a precedent. Where do you draw the line on whether an accusation is credible? Or where do you draw the line on what is worthy of a penalty? Should it just be an accused crime? What about a fraud accusation? Chad Johnson once got sued for offering a car for raffle and then keeping it. Is that enough now? We can all debate what happened in the Roethlisberger case, but without charges even being pressed, you can't say he is anything more than a jerk. Which brings us to problem number two. Consistency. Guess who else is being sued for sexual assault after prosecutors declined to press charges? Eric Foster. Who is he? Unknown defensive tackle with the Colts who will not be disciplined by the team for anything. Now the league may do something but I doubt it. He's not high profile. That brings a problem because the league and union are in contract negotiations with fear of a lockout looming. With an arbitrary system of discipline at work here, I have a feeling this system could become part of those negotiations.

Ah, Kim Kardashian. She's getting some grief for picking up a cat by the scruff of it's neck. PETA is outraged. Now the ASPCA says you can hold a cat like that but says she's setting a bad example for people who may not hold a cat correctly. That makes absolutely no sense to say she shouldn't hold a cat appropriately because it will encourage people to hold them inappropriately. This is why cat's should just be raised to feed cows. Personally, until I read the article itself, I didn't notice the cat. Kardashian has big boobs.

Was so cute to see Mel Kiper and Todd McShay get into a big argument over Dan LeFevour out of Central Michigan. To be honest, I see little difference between LeFevour who went in the sixth round and Tebow who went in the first. Except LeFevour was more productive. Now you could argue that Central Michigan played an easier schedule than Florida. Of course, Tebow had Florida players helping him versus Central Michigan ones. The Florida team with nine players drafted versus the CMU team with two.

Oh those silly Japanese. With their edible massage oil. In cola flavoring.

Hey, a Tiki Barber sighting. The ex-football player was supposed to be the big multi-media guy after his career was over. Which started well as he had gigs on Fox New, the Today show and NBC's crappy Sunday night football show. Then he slid onto MSNBC's Olympic coverage and then Yahoo's Olympic coverage. I think he's a bit player on the Today show now. I can't really remember seeing him on anything. And I never really understood why anyone thought he'd would do well at it. As a player, he was a pretentious ass. And he looks like Skeletor. And the genius left the Giants the offseason before they won the Super Bowl. But his timing is still bad. A man who once bitched about his dad leaving the family has left his wife for 23 year old woman. While his wife was 8 months pregnant with twins. Oh, and he previously got his girlfriend an internship at NBC. Good luck finding someone wanting to hire you now, you dumbass.

Oh wow. Conan O'Brien has landed on TBS. Yawn. The late night wars are the silliest news stories out there. These guys average a 1 rating if they're lucky. Which is why I don't watch any of them. But what I like about the story is how George Lopez was okay with O'Brien coming on board and willing to move to midnight. Well, George Lopez can't even beat out reruns of his old TV show on Nick at Night. I'm not sure how much leverage he has.

Here was an odd story. Florida State safety Myron Rolle's passion for football was questioned which may have caused him to drop in the draft. Why was it questioned? Oh right, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and spent his senior year in Oxford. Granted, I might also question it if he had spent his senior season backpacking around Europe, but this is a once in a lifetime chance. He can have a nice NFL career and go onto regular post-graduate work, but they won't hold open a Rhodes Scholarship. Here's where it gets plain stupid. Rolle drops to the sixth round because of this. Yet, Mike Williams out of Syracuse was picked in the fourth round. All he did was quit on his team last year. Literally. Gee, whose dedication is more questionable?

Here's a story to warm your heart. A woman is seven months pregnant, but has the time to interact with people in the old neighborhood. By stabbing three of them. I think my favorite part of the story is that she "fled the scene in a Porsche SUV". What all the fine criminals are driving.

Myron Rolle skipped his senior year of football to go to Oxford. Scott Sicko is skipping any chance at an NFL career to get his graduate degree in history. Now, I think he's foolish because he could try the NFL and then go back to school. But if this analyst is right and he is only skipping the NFL because he didn't have the prestige of being drafted, he's probably better off. If he's only concerned about being drafted and not making a team, I'd have to question his passion for football.

Sometimes you just wonder what planet people come from. Some Muslims attending Trinity University are want the words "Our Lord" removed from the diplomas. Not "Our Lord" as part of a prayer. Just "In The Year Of Our Lord". Are you kidding me? And it's not like they are forcing the students to go to church. It's called Trinity University. As in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? That alone should tell you that there is a Christian heritage to it. What's their next plan? Have the school change its name?

I do love the draft grades. Granted even the ones who give them out will say you can't really grade a draft for a few years. But you get the funny ones like how everyone seems to like Seattle's draft because Russell Okung, Earl Thomas and Golden Tate were taken at spots later than expected. So, how do you credit the team for sitting there and waiting for the teams ahead of them to pass on better players?

There's an owl in England that's afraid of heights. Chickenshit.

Lots of trades went down during the draft. Instead of drafting running backs, the Seahawks traded for Leon Washington and Lendale White. One coming off an injury and one fat. But the big trade was Washington sending Jason Campbell to the Raiders. Mostly likely to replace Jamarcus Russell. Although, he'd need to carry a jockey on his back to truly replace him. But who knew Russell would be a bust. Besides me. To be honest, the trade seems odd to me even with that. Campbell is mediocre so he's ten times better than Russell. What's odd is the Raiders are fixated on a deep passing game. Campbell doesn't throw deep. Genius. Raiders. Synonymous.

I was fairly interested when I heard there was a Sandra Bullock sex tape. Well, very interested. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Then I heard about the alleged contents of the tape. Yeah, not so interested anymore.

NFL Draft (1st Three Rounds) & Some Other Stuff

Our long national nightmare ended with the 25th pick in the first round when Tim Tebow was drafted by the Denver Broncos. I kid. Apparently, I'm one of the few people who doesn't either love or hate him. I don't think he's the end-all/be-all of nice people. He's kind of hokey and gets a little full of himself (but if I was a great college quarterback, I'd probably be a lot worse). But some people absolutely hate him on a personal level. They portray him as holier than thou and a hypocrite about his religious faith. Not sure why. So what if he gives thanks to God for his ability. I find that better than nick-naming oneself "Prime Time". And I certainly don't think his faith is for show. He's at a big party school with people trying to play "Gotcha" on him without any stories coming out about him. Hell, he's the guy who was pissed off that girls would ask him to pose for a picture with them and try to pull their shirts up. How terrible. Girls wanting to flash you. Actually, Tebow is a jerk to complain about that.

But I still think Denver was dumb to take him that high. His biggest attribute according to the pundits who liked him was his leadership, but Tom Jackson put it best when he said how important is that leadership if he can't get on the field. I'm not saying that Tebow can't become a good NFL quarterback, but the NFL is kind of a bad place to learn how to pass the ball accurately. And he wasn't that accurate. He had a good completion percentage, but one reason was that he wouldn't throw anything but a safe pass. Too often he would take off and run. Not fast like Michael Vick, but through defenders. Which worked at Florida. Too bad NFL teams are full of linebackers who are as big as college linemen and as fast as college safeties. Trying to run through them will get him killed. No one questions his work ethic so he could certainly work his way into being a decent quarterback. But you don't use a first round pick on a development quarterback. You pay them too much money without expectation that he'll start.

The most seriously twisted story of the month. Larry King is getting his 28th divorce (give or take a few). Because he may have been banging his sister-in-law. Now he could be losing some of his homes. Even worse? The sister-in-law is denying it. By stating she considered she thinks of King "like a father" (ouch). Apparently a father who buys her hundreds of thousand of dollars worth of gifts just for having sex with him.

After the Tebow watch, we got the fun of waiting for Jimmy Clausen of Notre Dame to be drafted. I'm not sold on him either. One of the pluses listed for Clausen was that he had a fiery personality and wanted the ball in the fourth quarter. Yeah? Must have wanted to suck the rest of the game. He had a losing record as a starter.

Okay. Maybe Steven Seagal possibly hiring sex slaves is a little more twisted than the Larry King story. Although at least he was paying them. And they were Russian. What else was he supposed to do with them? And now ex-wife Kelly LeBrock (who may or may not have been in other movies besides Weird Science) is piling on. She plans to tell all about him in a book soon. But won't say anything now because of their children (it's always about the damned children). I guess she's afraid the children would be devastated to find out their Dad is a pervert. But would be okay finding that out as long as Mom makes a buck off of it.

First pick Sam Bradford became almost an afterthought as they kept waiting for Tebow and Clausen to get picked. A lot of guys don't like him because of the system he played in. Which is a concern because his receivers were open a lot (although they must have stopped being open when Bradford got hurt last year since his backup sucked). Still, every time I watched him play, I thought he was really good at getting the ball right where the receiver needed it. For reasons I don't understand, scouts and pundits underrate accuracy in the NFL. They love the big arm even though the Jamarcus Russells can't hit squat with their big arm, but guys like Matt Hasselbeck and Jeff Garcia have success for years because they can hit moving targets all day. Does that mean Bradford will have a great career. Beats me. Mainly because something is going to beat him. He's going to a horrid Rams team and will likely be thrown into the starting lineup from day one.

I read the Obamas were going to be on American Idol (since I'm not even sure what day the show airs, I must have missed it). Good for them. They're hardly ever on TV.

I wasn't surprised Colt McCoy went as late as he did. I think of the first four quarterbacks taken, he may have the best career. Especially if the Browns decide to use up what's left of Jake Delhomme next year to take a beating while they rebuild the whole team. Someone on the broadcast (can't remember who) had a good point. Said Mike Holmgren was of the mindset that if someone wasn't an elite quarterback, you could wait until later while you fill needs. So, if you think the next Peyton Manning is there, take them in the first round. But you can wait on the next Matt Hasselbeck. And you can win with a Hasselbeck. But who knows, you might get the next Drew Brees who had the same knock on him (height) that McCoy has. Didn't seem to hurt him last year.

Man, stories keep getting weirder and weirder. Some guy who became an internet millionaire (and obviously bankrupt later) was arrested for a animal sex operation in Washington. What is it with that state? He was found because he became buddies with a another guy into doing it with horses. I'm pretty jaded and not a lot surprises me anymore. But when I go to the part about them having to euthanize mice.......................that did it.

Tyson Alualu was the first showing of my pet peeve - The Reach. Everyone says the Jags could have traded back and still got him. Yeah? What if no one wants the 10th pick? Who do you trade with? Sorry but I'm still not buying this belief that you don't take someone with the 10th pick if everyone thinks they should be drafted in the 20s or later. If Jacksonville needed a defensive tackle and thought he was worth a first round pick, take him with the 10th if you can't get a deal.

Some deputy sheriff in Colorado is in trouble for using his stun gun on 30 students at a high school jobs fair. At their request. Several students were burned by it with one going to the hospital. Which reinforces my belief that high school kids are stupid. After the first couple of people got burns from it, why would anyone else be stupid enough to think they wouldn't?

Oh, here's a great story from the draft. Southern Cal DB Taylor Mays is pissed at former coach (now Seattle coache) Pete Carroll for not drafting him in the first round. I guess. How stupid of Carroll for taking the second best safety instead of some guy whose production never matched up with his athletic ability. Why did Mays think Carroll was dishonest with him about what to do with the draft? Because Carroll told him his tackling was fine and he would be okay. Uh-huh. I don't see where Carroll said he was a first round lock or anything like that. Moron apparently thinks being drafted in the second round is some kind of free-fall. Hey, genius, safeties rarely get drafted in the first round. Being drafted in the second round is being okay.

Don't want any women getting too excited, but they just found a lizard in the Philippines. It has two penises. Or is that penii? Spell checker says penii is not a word so I guess it's penises. I like that the article stresses that "males" have them. Were they worried some readers would assume the female lizards also have double penises? What would I do with two penises? Besides a career in adult cinema. Probably be better coordinated with my left hand.

Don't really like the new Thursday/Friday/Saturday draft format. Just three rounds over the first two days? And with the second and third round on Friday, the first pick was at 6. Just too early. I like two long days of drafting.

Woman almost kills boyfriend with really large boobs. That is all.

More College Hoops & Other Stuff

Well, as stated before, having Duke in the title game against Butler means you have the good versus evil. The expensive private university versus..........well another expensive private university. Of course, only one team is the overachiever. Duke started the season ranked 9th in the country so they were expected to be a top team. But Butler started the season ranked way behind Duke...........at 11th. Hmmm. The David versus Goliath narrative is struggling. But a look at the past title games, Butler will be unique whether they win or lose. All because of football. If Butler does win, it will be the first time since UNLV in 1990 that a school from a non-BCS conference has won the basketball title. But if they don't, they'll be the first team from a non-BCS conference to lose the title game since.........well, since Memphis two years ago. And Utah in '98. And UNLV in 1991. While there have been some mid-major conference teams in the title game, they still played Division I-A football. You have to go back to 1989 when Seton Hall lost the title game to find a participant that didn't play division I-A football. And Villanova (1985) and Georgetown (1984) were the last winners not to play football at the top division. But all three of those were from the Big East as non-football members. You have to go all the way back to 1979 when Indiana State to find a non-Big East team playing Division I-AA or lower in the title game. You have to go back a couple of years before with Independent Marquette to actually find a one who did it.

A giant isopod. A two and a half foot long rolypoly found on the side of an oil rigs submarine. Rather disgusting looking creature. Wonder what it tastes like.

I don't have any real problem with Apple products. Granted I probably won't buy an iMac or MacBook. Pay too much for the brand. But I grew up on an Apple IIc. I like my iPod. I'm even considering an iPhone. So I don't really have anything against Apple. But the iPad is flat stupid. Spending $500 for an oversized iPod Touch. Outside of having a larger screen for watching clips, what can you do on it that you can't do on an iPhone? Except have to carry it under your arm instead of in belt clipped carrying case. It certainly can't replace a laptop for me because I need a real keyboard. Yet, here we go again with Apple nerds standing in line to get it. I'm not sure which is more pathetic. The nine year old kid who spent his $500 in savings (how does a nine year old save that kind of money) or the one who dressed in an iPad costume.

Oh, and I'm rooting for Duke over Butler. Not because I think they'll win although I do. Butler has been winning because of defense. Mainly, they've been causing boatloads of turnovers. That probably won't be the case with Duke who was top 20 in fewest turnovers. Of Butler's previous five tourney opponents, only UTEP (134th) and Michigan St (198th) even cracked the top 200. And I'm not rooting for Duke because it will piss off UK fans. That's just a fringe benefit. I'm just rooting for Duke because Nolan Smith's father Derek Smith was a key member of the 1980 Louisville championship team.

Oh wow. Dubai has put a British couple in jail for public kissing. As I mentioned before, it shouldn't be surprising. And shows one of the reasons that Dubai may have had a financial meltdown back in the fall. Yes, they had overbuilt their real estate and infrastructure (their version of economic stimulus), but Dubai's leaders were driven to be a financial and tourism hub. And they had some success with it, but in the long run, who would want to do business there if you could get arrested after having a business lunch? And tourism? Sounds like a party town to me.

Kim Kardashian was apparently dumped by Reggie Bush because his mother was "uncomfortable" about her sex tape with that crappy rapper. Has his mother actually seen the tape? It wasn't very good. In fact, Kardashian should be embarrassed by it. As noted before, she laid there like a cold fish.

Fuddy duddy time at the tournament. Usually you just have whiny reporters making a big deal about graduation rates of the NCAA teams. But this year we get an idiot bureaucrat. Actually, the top education bureaucrat who is also an idiot. Should there be some connection between college athletics and actual academics? Sure. Make them meet certain standards to get in. Make them maintain certain standards. But everyone knows the point of college isn't really for learning stuff as much as it is for getting a job. Basketball players have a limited window of earning opportunity. If they leave early to play pro basketball, then college has done its duty. Enhanced their earning potential. And many basketball players enhance their visibility to pro teams during the tournament so banning today's players (who may be on target to graduate) would actually hurt them. Does it make sense to punish today's players over something recruits from nine years ago did? Besides, basketball players are a minuscule part of the college population. Should the federal government be worrying about that small a sample? What's next? Demanding that the marching band maintain a certain level of graduation in order to perform at games? Why stop at extra-curricular activities? The federal government gives grants to universities all the time. Why not make those grants dependent on the school's graduation rate? Seems only fair to me.

Let's take a look at New Jersey. Some kid got on the speaker system at a Wal-mart and told all black people to leave. Tacky prank for sure. Except in this town where it is considered a criminal case of "harassment and bias intimidation." Want some better news? The local police department put all their detectives on the case. That's 13 police detectives trying to find a 16 year old kid playing a prank. Oh, and they're trying to get phone records to trace a phone call where someone else called and asked the store employees to tell blacks to get out. Even though the store didn't, the police are going to waste time going thru all that. Are you kidding me? This is New Jersey. Are they trying to tell me that there's not enough crime in that state? If I was a taxpayer in that town, I'd be demanding to know why a 13 member detective squad was so underutilized that they could all work on solving a teenager's prank.

Oh goody. Apparently the NCAA is strongly considering expanding the NCAA men's basketball tournament from 65 teams to 96. What a stupid idea. It's a joke that there is even that 65th team. I said last year that it was stupid to have a play-in game just to keep an extra big conference team. Now they want to stick another 31 teams in? More mediocre teams from major conferences? Just to have another round? And how is that going to affect the seeding? They want to seed each region 1-24 and give 1-8 a bye while 9-24 play each other. Which is a screw job for the 9-12 seeds. Because there isn't that much difference between them and the 7 and 8 or even down to the 5 seeds. In fact, the 9, 10, 11 and 12 seeds went 8-8 against the 8, 7, 6 and 5 seeds. Yet, 5-8 will get a bye. The biggest crap is the 8 seed versus a 9. Since seeding began, the 9 seed actually has a winning record over the 8. Yet, in the future, the historical winning spot will be forced to play an extra game. Brilliant.

Ah, Jesse James. I guess he decided that Tiger Woods' affair stories were too tame so he decided to cheat on Sandra Bullock. With multiple partners. Even worse, they're rather nasty looking. And the first may be a Nazi. But as we get up to 11 potential mistresses, a picture surfaces of him in a Nazi hat giving a Nazi salute. Woods has nothing on this guy. At least he can tell his wife, "Hey, don't be too hard on me. At least I never had unprotected sex with a tattoo worker named Skittles in an orgy." But really, who is surprised by this? The guy is a biker. His last wife was a porn star. Slumming in the gutter with skanks is not a shocker.

But I don't care that much about the whole story. Except for one thing, Gloria Allred is representing one of the mistresses. As I pointed out in a case where she represented one of Woods' conquests, Allred has lost a lot of credibility. Actually, she had none with me. I've always found her to be a dumb bitch. But at least at one point, she tried to pretend she was some kind of civil rights attorney. Although suing a store over gender specific toy sections tells me that she's a grandstander who is willing to waste the court's time and money while trivializing real discrimination just to get on the news. But now she's the attorney specializing in representing the "Other Woman" in celebrity adultery cases so everyone can see she's just a sanctimonious media hound with little or no principles.

What would the Vikings think? Iceland is banning all strip clubs.