*Now* things get exciting….crap

I’m a Chicago Bulls fan.  Have been since the 7th grade; the Artis Gilmore days….I have never passed up an opportunity to watch them play–even in the lean years (like now).  All Chicago sports teams (except the Cubs) have my support.

 

Living in Phoenix for 10 years, I gained an appreciation for their teams (except the Cardinals who should never even exist).  I am a Diamondbacks fan since their inaugural season and root for them cuz they are National League and don’t play my beloved White Sox.  I’m ambivalent about the Coyotes, but watched them play when my buddy Rod Fournier would come to town when the RedWings came.  The Phoenix Suns were great to watch.  I like Nash, I like Stoudamire, I like the General Manager(hihi)…I rooted for them cuz it was the hometown team. 

 

I have now moved to Seattle.  I don’t like the Seahawks, nor the Sonics, nor the Mariners…and can’t believe a town only a few hours away from the Canadian border doesn’t have a hockey team.  Don’t get that at ALL.  And now that I’ve moved–the SuperBowl is played there.  Now that I’ve moved–SHAQ comes to town.  Things happen in threes…good grief…what’s next?

And that is impressive because…….???

I see this headline on ESPN:

 

Giants’ staggering win over Patriots watched by record 97.5 million

 

NEW YORK — The 97.5 million viewers who saw the New York Giants’ last-minute win over the New England Patriots made it the most-watched Super Bowl ever and second biggest event in American television history.

 

 

 

Wow!  97.5 million!  *ALMOST* 10% of how many watched the World Cup!  Oh, and that thing about "second biggest event in American Television history"…UNIVISION is headquartered in Miami, FL, which makes it AMERICAN and broadcast the World Cup every day which had OVER 100 million watching  PER DAY. 

 

What they should have said was, "Watched by Americans".

 

Shame on you ESPN…you also post results of the WC and should know better.  tsk tsk.

WRONG! Super Bowl sour grapes.

On speaking about the Super Bowl….

 

"Tonight doesn’t take away from anything we have done over the course of the season.  We had a great year. It’s just unfortunate that tonight turned out the way it did."

-New England quarterback Tom Brady

 

Sorry, Brady.  If the loss had been ANY TIME but *NOW*, your statement would be correct.  It was well documented that a perfect regular season means NOTHING if you were to lose the Super Bowl.  No asterisks by "Undefeated"…(If SI or ESPN does this….grrr) The "undefeated" season INCLUDES postseason.  The 1972 Dolphins were UNBLEMISHED.  UNTOUCHED. SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS.

 

You are effectively one step BELOW the Chicago Bears of 1986, who also had ONE loss but WON the Super Bowl (oh yeah spanking the Pats 42-10).

 

It’s all about the finish.  You have to get the ring to get respect.

 

 

You don’t meet a legend every day…

As I get on the plane in Dallas heading back home to Seattle, I notice an older gentleman to my right sitting across the aisle from me.  He is wearing a black hat with a clover on it with the number 6 on it.  I start thinking to myself, "This guy looks like….."  I look down at his legs to see if I’m dreaming and sure enough this guy must be almost 7 feet tall.  I start freaking out because I’ve met several celebrities but no one as big as this (physically or historically).  I’m not kidding…this guy is probably one of the most prominent sports figures there is.  Just to give you an idea; he has more championship rings than ANY athlete.  Bar NONE. Wilt Chamberlain might have more points, but he only has 2 rings.  Bill has 11.  yeah, exactly; and in 13 seasons.

I ask him if I can get a picture of him after we land and he declines.  I apologize for bothering him and says, "It’s OK".  I immediately flash back to 2005 when I met on the pane a lesser player (Charles Barkley)who also declined.  These guys must SERIOUSLY be mugged for photos for them to be so adamant about not being photographed with an admirer.  It would seem, though, that Mr. Russell who has been out of circulation for years would be a little more accommodating. 

Part of me wanted to get my webcam out and just snap a pic and put it up here–but I want to be nice about it.  It’s not every day that you meet a legend.

I quickly discovered that I didn’t have to battle with my feelings.  The guy sitting in front of him sneaks a camera pic of him.  As we were getting off the plane, I give him my card with cell phone number and ask him to "share the wealth".  He winks at me and says, "No problem!"

It was funny watching the people come on to the plane.  I could immediately tell who was a sports fan:  the ones that stared at him.  To a couple of guys that stared and glanced over at me, I nodded and said "Yup."  They grinned and said "I thought so!"

Well…at least we beat the Packers!

With a dismal record of 6-9, the Chicago Bears are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.  Every win is for pride and every loss, well..means nothing.

 

The Bears mauled the Cheeseheads 35 – 7 yesterday at Soldier Field under conditions that we Chicagoans like to refer to as "Bear weather".  Thing is, it is usually an advantage over teams from the West Coast (like SanFran, or Los Angeles, or San Diego) and not so much against teams like Minnesota or Green Bay.  But, Brett Favre actually claimed it was the worst he had seen in 17 years!  Ok….

Looking at the stats…don’t make too much sense to me.

 

Team Stat Comparison

              

1st Downs
13                           14

Total Yards
          274                        240

Passing
          149                        101

Rushing
         125                         139

Penalties
        1-10                         6-30

3rd Down Conversions
       3-12                          6-15

4th Down Conversions
       1-3                            2-3

Turnovers
         2                              0

Possession
     26:27                        33:33

 

With the above stats, one would think that the score would be closer.  the only thing are the 2 turnovers by GB.  Both resulted in TDs.  The franchise player of the year Brian Urlacher even got his first TD on an interception, and rejoiced exceedingly in the end zone.  He’s having a GREAT CHRISTMAS!!

Crying in my beer (Root)

I have determined that I would rather my team not go to the championship game and lose than not make the playoffs.  At least *then* I could say they SUCKED instead of conceding that they weren’t good enough to win it all.

 

I HATE REX GROSSMAN!!!

 

There–I said it.  I wish they had picked up Brett Favre….then again, someone from Green Bay playing in Chicago….mmmmmmaybe not.

 

Give me ANYBODY!!!!!!!!  PLEEEEEEASE!!!!

 

 

Curse of the Dolphins — Bears get SPANKED

OK, I love my Chicago Bears.  Even when they suck.  I stick my chest out when they win and rant, rave, cuss and froth at the mouth when they lose (or do I have that backwards?)

 

In 1985, en route to the Super Bowl championship, the stars were aligned for the Bears to be the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to go undefeated.  There was one small problem — the quarterback.  Jim McMahon had been injured and the Defense took it upon themselves to will the team to win after win without him, except for the Miami game.

 

Fast forward to 2006, 21 years later.  The Bears have outscored their opponents at home by over 120 points in 7 games and the Defense is reigning supreme in the NFL.  Miami is a lowly 1-6 and they are coming to Soldier Field and were SUPPOSED to receive a boot to the head and have their collective hiney handed to them.  It was the other way around.  The only good thing about the game is that I wasnt there.  I am totally surprised that there weren’t riots in the streets.  Well…if the Bears don’t go on to win it all…I guess it doesn’t really matter.

 

The Day After – FIFA World Cup – analysis and rant

So…my team is going home.

 

Ejected by the Ghanans

 

 

Good on Ghana, hope they don’t get any more embarrassed by Brasil than the USA were by the Czech Republic.  Actually, that probably won’t be possible for a couple of reasons:

 

a) Any team that gets defeated by Brasil is..well…normal.  Brasil is already expected to win.

b) Any team that beats the USA is…well…normal.  The current attitude is that the USA will lose; even by Americans.

 

Which brings me to my current rant:

 

Why is the USA so hypocritical (not Team USA, but the collective citizenship of the United States)?  They expect a winner from a team that they don’t support in a sport they don’t understand.  Football (soccer) fans were harder to find than a needle in a haystack (probably ‘cuz they’re all in Germany) around here.  So when the world stage that is the World Cup comes around, who do the Americans have to root for them at home?  NOBODY.  That’s a damn shame.

 

We have enough immigrants around here that root for their home teams and badmouth the USA; why do Americans do the same? 

 

"Soccer??"  "Who cares??"  "What’s that??"

 

The one sport (besides hockey) that the USA competes in regularly that involves international play and they bag it.  They have audacity to call the World Series the World Series when only American teams play it.  The World Baseball Classic should get the rights to call their tournament the World Series.  It’s a much more comprehensive tournament than the World Series and shows off much more baseball talent.

 

Speaking of talent….I had a conversation (actually the same conversation with a number of people) about one of the reasons why the USA doesn’t support football (soccer):

 

"The best athletes don’t play it"

 

Excuse me??  Excuse me??

 

Didn’t Michael Jordan *attempt* to play Major League Baseball?  Actually he only made it to the minors and *STILL* got cut.  I guess that means the best athletes don’t play baseball (or that MJ isn’t an athlete).  What about Randy Moss?  I haven’t seen him play pro basketball…what’s up with that?  Betcha Mario Lemieux can’t dunk a basketball or run a 4.5-40 either.  Can *any* of the forementioned "athletes" juggle a soccerball past a couple of people and kick it through a goal from 25 yards out?  Doubt it.  (If Mario could use a stick or bat…maybe). 

 

It’s about America.

 

We *MUST* win.  That’s why we don’t play internationally.  Look at hockey.  We have to IMPORT the players because we can’t let *other* countries beat us.  There’ll be hell to pay if they do.  Look at what happened in 1972 Munich.  If we can’t win, we don’t want to play.  Why do you think we have the NFL?  or NBA?  or MLB?  All American, no major international sports.  We can’t handle the truth.  We can’t even put in amateurs in the Olympics any more because we can’t compete.

 

I may be a little odd here, because I think we should NOT participate in a lot of international things, but SPORTS isn’t one of them.

 

Enough of my rant.

 

With more than 5 of Team USA football retiring, we should have some nice talent coming in to replace them.  I think we’ll do better in 2010.  Unfortunately, football (soccer) doesn’t get the backing it should.  I , for one, will do my part.

Monks allowed to watch World Cup!!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/specials/world_cup/2006/06/12/notebook.ap/index.html

 

MONKS CAN WATCH, TOO: The chief of Cambodia’s Buddhist monks is cutting his charges some slack for the duration of the World Cup: They may watch the matches on television, but no cheering or getting excited. And absolutely no betting.

The country’s holy men — more than 90 percent of Cambodia’s 13 million people are Buddhist — normally aren’t supposed to watch television, movies or artistic displays. According to the strictest tenets of Buddhism, they should abstain from pleasurable activity. Gambling is a major no-no.

But monks get as excited as anyone else at the chance to watch soccer’s top stars, and Supreme Patriarch Non Ngeth is willing to make allowances for such a special occasion.

"The monks can watch the games on TV but they may not bet on the games," Non Ngeth told The Associated Press. "So far, I have received some complaints that some monks are betting during this World Cup tournament."

He also says he urged the country’s monks, if they do watch the matches, not to scream or laugh.

"Cheering or screaming while watching TV are acts appropriate for children, monks may not act like that," he said.

Non Ngeth has reason to be concerned about the country’s monks. In recent years, several monks grabbed headlines for fighting with slingshots and petrol bombs at a temple, molesting a boy, beating a man and stealing motorcycles.

USA USA USA!!!!!