Rambling Like School Girls

Well, since I couldn't really decide what to write about today, here are the thoughts going through my head.

We will really see next season if Belichick is the genius a lot of people think he is, as he is losing Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel. He supposedly delegated a lot of responsibility to them. Part of greatness is surrounding yourself with greatness, so let's see how he replaces them.

I will be unable to bring you coverage of the Badger/Hawkeye game on Wednesday as I will be playing volleyball and will be taping the Duke/UNC game to watch when I am done. My early picks are Wisconsin and UNC.

The best part of the Patriots win on Sunday was the fact they didn't play very well. They played well enough to win, but Philly should have been up by at least 2 scores going into halftime, the way their defense was playing, and the way the Patriots were playing. In the end, the Patriots simply willed their way to victory. The worst part of the victory as everyone has pointed out already was the "wing flapping". I thought it was funny the first time, then it got old, quickly.

The commercials were quite disappointing. I was planning on writing a commentary about the commercials after the game, but they just weren't that good. Sure, Eva Longoria made an appearance, but I only remember three of the spots today: Obviously the one with the Pepsi truck, the guy making spaghetti and spilling sauce on the cat, and the commercial with the actor troops coming home and being applauded and thanked. Other than that, the commercials weren't very good at all. Where was Terry Tate?

If the Patriots are in the Super Bowl again next year, do you think Vegas will just put the line at 3 instead of 7 like this year, because all of the Patriots' victories have been by 3?

Gaddis, you really went out on a limb there to state Ike Diogu is one of the most important players to his team in the country. All he does for Arizona State is lead the team in points, rebounds, blocks, and free throw percentage.

Instead of waiting until tomorrow to say it; Syracuse will not make the Final Four with the way they shoot free throws. They just can't get it done shooting 65% from the line. Look for the updated Final Four tomorrow.

If you were paid to watch the Pro Bowl and couldn't ever change the channel, would you watch it?

The worst thing about the Super Bowl is that now all there is to watch in professional sports is the NBA.

Pitchers and catchers report in 7 days; opening day is only 54 days away. By the way, I am not confident at all in the Cubs this season. I will obviously hope for the best and cheer for them, but I am going back on my early predictions and hoping for 83 wins this season, instead of expecting 90-100.

I can't believe Vince Carter is starting in the NBA All-Star game. This may be one of the reasons I don't like the NBA. A selfish player who admitted quitting on his team, who has also missed 25 games this season is an All-Star starter? Whatever.

What really bothers me about Digger Phelps is that the pregame, halftime, or postgame broadcast of a college game on ESPN cannot go by without him mentioning some stat which happened during his tenure as the Notre Dame head coach (1972-1991). Sure, he is the winningest coach in ND history with 393 victories, led his team to the NCAA tournament 14 times, made it to the Final Four in 1978, and ended the historic UCLA winning streak, but do we need to hear about it every broadcast? Notre Dame hasn't been relevant on the basketball scene (or football for that matter) since the last millenium. Last night we were able to hear how spectacular it was when his team knocked off Virginia the last time a team came into Notre Dame undefeated after 20 games. Anyway, I hate it.

Instead of sports programs trying to hire attractive sideline reporters (which I was all for a few years ago with Melissa Stark), I think many of us are getting sick of them (for the most part) not having anything to tell us. I am now more in favor of hiring someone who can think on their own and not simply report only what the producer is telling them to report, or what they planned to talk about before the game. We need info on gameplan changes, injuries, what's going on in the crowd, how the team is feeling on the sideline, etc.. I look mainly at Suzy Kolber and Pam Oliver for these missed opportunities, as they are two of the more prominent reporters in the NFL. Kolber simply reports on what she put together before the game and doesn't add anything to the broadcast by doing this. She rarely reports on anything going on during the game. Same with Pam Oliver, she is a little better at reporting injuries and things, but I just don't like her style. Am I the only one who thinks like this?

For those of you who actually have jobs and can't watch Around the Horn on a daily basis, let me just tell you that everytime Woody Paige speaks, I want to impale myself on something. I usually can't understand what he is saying, his arguments aren't usually concise or to a point, he yells everything he says, and I rarely find myself agreeing with anything he says. I know some people like him, otherwise he wouldn't be on the show anymore, but I can't watch him anymore.

Speaking of ATH, if there were a "Royal Rumble" style fight between the panelists, who do you think would win? If Reali was in the fight, I'd say he wins, otherwise, I have to go with Tim Cowlishaw or J.A. Adande. Cowlishaw just seems tough and Adande is just smooth when he's on the show, he'd probably go "Suger Ray" on everybody.

I really have too much time on my hands.

Finally, my short review of Friday Night Lights. I thought the movie was excellent. For those of you who have already seen it, much of this will just be review, and for those who haven't, don't worry, I'm not ruining anything, I can't really, since it all happened already. Tim McGraw was outstanding as the quintessential overbearing- pushy- can't let go of high school, football player dad. The way his character pushed his son to be a better player, wouldn't accept anything but perfection from his son, and shoved his own championship ring in his son's face painted a picture of just how ugly parents can be if they don't allow their children to live their own life in sports. Billy Bob Thornton was very convincing as a high school football coach, his lines, his delivery, the way he held himself, everything, great performance. The football action was about 95% realistic (the only play I can remember not being realistic was in the championship game when one of the Odessa players seems to fly like Superman for about 8 yards before landing on the Carter quarterback), whereas in Varsity Blues, the percentage was more like half. One of the reasons the action looked so real is because some of it was, as the film makers decided to tape some actual Texas high school football games and just change the numbers on the jerseys in editing. The assistant coaches were also actual Odessa-Permian assistant coaches. Using the real-life characters in the movie made it that much better. Even though the Odessa-Permian/ Dallas-Carter game was really in the state semi-finals, and not in the championship game, the movie was still outstanding. There wasn't anything about it I didn't like. If you havne't seen it, you should. Watch the performances of McGraw and Thornton. You will feel heartbreak for Boobie Miles as you know he won't have anything without football, you feel sympathy for Mike Winchell having to deal with his mother's problems as well as the pressure of leading a team which is expected to win the state title, you will feel relieved as Don and Charles Billingsley seem to connect at the end of the movie, and you will feel saddened as this team doesn't reach its ultimate goal. For those of you who have seen it; you know exactly what I am talking about.


-Until next time...