Laugh, Laugh at Old Notre Dame

We still have the Basketball tournament, a summer of Tiger Woods golf, a long-drawn-out baseball season, and 7 months till the college football season...but it's never to early to start making fun of Notre Dame

"Has anyone ever said to you that you've got a bad case of the mondays?"

Here's the difference between college basketball and college football. Saturday night, Tennessee went into the undefeated #1 team's place, upset them, ended their 47 home-game winning streak, ended their perfect season, and made their own claim for #1. Sure it was exciting and somewhat surreal as a Tennessee fan (I can promise you that I never EVER thought I would see this day), but it really is a big "so what". It means absolutely nothing right now. Now if they had done something like that in Football, I would have run through the streets in excitement and called everyone I knew blasting rocky top. But the end of the football season is so pathetically boring and pointless, it is nothing but a bunch of yawns. if you lose a bowl game - who really cares; if you win a bowl game - whoohoo, your Outback bowl champs...what does that mean? But the end of the college basketball season is a month of excitement and thrills, everygame matters - nothing is boring - and it all has a point.

So what do we do to make the college basketball season more exciting? The only reason I am really into the season is b/c I have a team to be excited about. That may be the only pull for any fan right now.

A Short Analysis of the Season

The tournament should be very exciting this year, because there really is no "team to beat". There doesn't seem to be 1 team that is head & shoulders above everyone else. There are about 8 really good teams, but none of those are unbeatable.

- Tennessee is solid, but the SEC really is weak. I honestly can't figure out what has happened to Ole Miss?

- I think North Carolina will make the most noise from the ACC, Puke is over-rated, they live and die too much by the 3. (Is Mike "Shashefsky"s team the Notre Dame of the basketball world)

- Kansas has gotten all the hype, but I think Texas is the best team from the Big 12 - they have really been off everyone's radar (I guess when you lose the best player in the country, that tends to happen), but I'd have my eye on Kansas State in the tournament - probably as a 4 or 5 seed - but Beasely is so dominant, he could be like Carmello Anthony was for the Cuse' in 03.

- UCLA will flop in the tournament, I don't know - just a hunch. O.J. Mayo will lose in the 2nd round and will be handed a cell phone as soon as the game is over, which will be his limo driver waiting to take him to the Laker's after game party.

- Memphis is good, I'll be shocked if they don't get to the finals.

Does anyone watch alot of college basketball season? Thoughts on it? Thoughts about the concept of 'bracketology'??

Chills

There is nothing like hearing or seeing something from your childhood and then being whisked back to the enjoyment and thrill of it. I'm pretty sure watching this preview caused the hairs on my arm to stand. Only a few things in life guarantee chills for me. One of them is hearing Shooter in Hoosiers say, "Son, kick their butts." Hope you enjoy.

Writer's Strike

The writer’s strike is over. The good probably outweighs the bad, although it could be debatable considering the shows that will resume. Let’s weigh out the pros and cons.

Con
-The Academy Awards will now go on. Which means we get the privilege of hearing Celebrities espouse their political views. And that makes a lot of sense on two levels. First of all, they are actors, which immediately legitimizes their political knowledge. Secondly, it’s a Movie awards ceremony, which again is a perfectly logical platform for political speeches. I can only hope they brag about going completely green again.
- Grey’s Anatomy – no explanation needed here. The longer this show stays off air, the better for everyone
- Desperate Housewives (See above)
- Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, CSI Everything Else, Cold Case, Without a Trace, NCIS – All these shows are the same…how many different spin-offs can you have? Every episode seems to have the exact same plotline followed by a shocking conclusion that reveals the criminal wasn’t who you first thought. Could have fooled me that the writer’s strike affected these shows. Seemed to me it was still on ever hour of the day. Then again, every episode is the same so re-runs look the same as the new shows.
- The Tonight Show and the Late Show – With or without writers, Letterman and Leno are about the same in the humor department. In my opinion, Conan O’Brien far exceeds both of these men.


Pro
-The Office – best show on tv. Thursday nights at the Sorgenfrei house have been a little slower without Dwight Shrute and his antics. Rumor has it that 3-4 episodes were already 90% done so it will be returning quickly.
-House – I think it is one of the best shows on TV. The acting by Hugh Laurie, (Dr. Gregory House) is top notch. You would never know he was British, the first time I heard his real accent, my jaw dropped. Gregory House is one of the premier special cases doctors in the country. All cases that no one else can figure out come to him and his team.
What makes House work is the characters. Dr. House though a genius, is a miserable, lonely, atheist and for lack of a better term an all-around jerk House’s quirks combined with the hospital setting provide humorous dialogue and pressing ethic and religious issues. I highly recommend the show and am glad it will be returning.
-Less Reality TV – hopefully more written shows will necessarily subtract the number of reality shows.
-Cavemen might be dead – what a horrible idea for a show…did it ever have its premier?
-Lost – Can’t say I’ve ever watched it, but from people’s reaction…it’s gotta be a good thing.
-Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – might have salvaged it. My love of Terminator II spilled over into the new show. Not the greatest show on earth by any means, but watching robots throw each other through walls never seems to get old.
-24 – The writer’s strike forced it into next season, hopefully that will end up being a very good thing. It will give them more time to make up for the past two seasons and write a quality script.

Well after a short analysis, I’m thinking the writer’s strike should have lasted a few more months….at least until after the Oscars. Here’s to another Oscar awards show that will be completely Green.
The Wall Street Journal last week reported “to wit, trendy climate-change policies like ethanol and other bio-fuels are actually worse for the environment than fossil fuels.” How about that…nice work guys.

Putting out an APB for titles and characters...

If this isn't the script for Will Ferrell's next movie, I'll be deeply dissapointed. A big-time Athlete who loves himself, comes across as charitable and influential, but doomed to his own anger-driven ego. A big-time baseball player from Texas who juiced up to prolong his overdue retirement, b/c he was so full of himself he couldn't imagine himself anywhere but in the spotlight, yet ironically this same ego drags him into a congressional hearing where he procedes to "set the record straight". And when it is overwhelmingly obvious he has been found a liar, he procedes to leave capital hill saying "boy..we sure told dem' didn't we boys". The climactic scene would be the Clemens Character charging the desk in rage threating to "open up a can" on somebody. Of course when everything goes down bad, Debby will leave for the now rich McNamee. It's just too perfect.

Nominations for Movie Titles:
- "Flex, Lies, and Audiotape"
- "Who Framed Roger Clemens?"
- "I'm Gonna MRI Your Ass!


Nominations for Clemen's Character: I would of course love Will Ferrell, but maybe he should just direct this film. My front-runner would be "David Puddy"....but only if he sits in the hearings with the blank stare he had on the plane with Elaine.













>

Nomination for McNamee's Character: Adam Sandler comes to mind with his ability to solidly impersonate the true NY accent.

Nominations for Clemen's Wife: This has to be some chick who is attractive, but definitely is a bit scarry. Maybe Helga from American Gladiators or that blonde gal who was a trainer on "the biggest loser".

Nominations for Chairman Waxman: Is that guy one of the funniest looking people you've ever seen? Not an exact look-a-like, but the short bald guy from "The Princess Bride" would be perfect. Can't you see him questioning Clemens while slobbering all over the desk.

Nominations for Andy Pettite: Ben Affleck, I think it would be funny to see him have a can opened up on him after he narked on Clemens. Also, it would be great to see him have to wear Yankees gear.

...We can read ESPN or C-Span for a true analysis of this event, but here we just need some more ideas for this movie.

A Giant Hole

I’m going to bet you that there are some sorrowful New York Giants out there. That might seem a little odd considering that every media outlet is glowing over and celebrating the accomplishment of the G-men. Of course, winning the Super Bowl is a legitimate occasion for celebration (see previous blog). You will find few more blogs celebrating the Giants victory (errrr Patriots loss) more than Sweet Emotion. It was one of the greatest Super Bowls of my lifetime.

With that being said, I’m willing to suggest that some of the New York Giants players and fans woke up on Monday morning with an empty sadness. And that emptiness has been echoing throughout the week. It might echo ever so quietly, or it might hit like a ton of bricks. However, there is something sobering about finally obtaining that “thing” which you thought would finally bring fulfillment and happiness. Because when you obtain it, it does not do that which you thought it would. On the other side of the realization, is sometimes a dark and depressing reality.

Few of us have ever really gotten that “thing”, so we have never felt the emptiness of it. Listen to someone who has been there.

World Magazine highlighted the story of Daniel Naulty who pitched 4 years in the big leagues of baseball. He pitched 3 for the Twins before joining the New York Yankees for their championship run. Nault’s deepest despair came immediately following the World Series win. As he was riding home in a limo following the post-game celebration the echo of emptiness began to reverberate, and despair set in. He asked the driver, “is this all there is to life?”

To quote World Magazine “in the following days, that question continued to haunt Naulty. ‘I thought the World Series was going to be God; it was going to be salvation.’ He recalls. ‘And I realized after we won that it wasn’t salvation. It was still in the exact same placed I was two weeks ago, two months ago, or two years ago.”

Or listen to Tom Brady’s words from a 60 Minutes interview and feel the slight tinge of emptiness.

Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think, ‘God, it’s got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn’t, this can’t be, what it’s all cracked up to be.

Jesus tells us in John that He is the bread of God come down from heaven to give life. Indeed, only when our relationship with God is made right by the finished work of Jesus can we experience real life. With Christ as one’s identity and final goal, one can say with Paul, "in whatever situation I am to be content. " The only unshakeable “thing” is the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s why Augustine can say “you made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace till they rest in you.

18 and No!

This was for me, one of the greatest nights in my personal sports history. Right behind Tennesesee's 98 national championship, the Braves beating the Pirates in the 92' NLCS, and maybe the Colts beating the Patriots in the 07' AFC championship. I've honestly cheered for the Giants since Eli's arrival (living in Philadelphia definitely has grown that interest), but the elation I had at the end of the game would not have compared if it had not been the Patriots at the losing end. I never again have to here anything again about a Patriots undefeated season and even more crap about the Patriots being the "best team of all time". But this was so good on so many levels. It's so brilliant that the Patriots 'story book season' had such a "story book ending". Here's what made this so great:

1 - All of the media mockery of Eli Manning is now put to rest. He didn't just show up and ride the wave of his defense (ala Trent Dilfer & Brad Johnson), he was clutch.

2- Tiki Barber is eating some serious crow and watching this realizing that all his team needed in order to win the Super Bowl was for his loud mouth to get out of the locker room and on to morning chick TV. It was also nice to know that Jeremy Shockey had to watch this and had nothing to do with it.

3- The Silent errogance of the Patriots finally caught up to them (Joel pointed this out to me). There's :39 in the Super Bowl, The Patriots decide to cover Plaxico Burress 1 on 1? It's like Coloneal Nathan R. Jessup thinking he just "did his job" and can just go back to his base.

4- Belichick not only lost, but became a more despicable loser than he already was. He walked off the field with a :01 left on the clock and didn't shake anyone's hand. Ha....that was so great.

5 - The Pats "almighty offense" only scored 14 pts, after Tom Brady laughed at the idea they would only score 17...yep, that would have forced overtime.

6 - The Patriots attempted to secure a trademark for "19-0" earlier this week. I smiled when I heard that and thought, "this get's better with every bit of info." One of the all time 'counting your chickens before your eggs hatch' mistakes.

7 - Junior Seau still has not won a Super Bowl ring. That's not really a stat, but it should be.

8 - Tom Brady lost tonight, that's always a good thing. But now he knows the pain of losing a Super Bowl. A guy on Fox Sports Radio called in and screamed how we can put this Brady/Montana comparison to rest, Montana never ever lost a Super Bowl. Brady has. He's not immortal, He's great...but not the best.

9 - We get to shut up the obnoxious city of Boston. The Red Sux have already won, the Celtics are dominating, it would have been unbearable for them to have all three.

10 - This is the best reason, we get to anticipate Bill Simmons having to suck it up and cry about how 'robbed' his team was, and better yet - that his beloved Patriots have had their season ended the last 2 years by the Manning brothers.



Whether you cared or not, this game reminds us why Sports is so great. No one gave the Giants any kind of a shot, no one. Any team can win at any given time, you really never ever know. And you have to just love the unpredictability of sports. I'm now remembering the Packer's run in the mid-90's, wondering how long they would be on top, but after they lost the Super Bowl to the Broncos everyone disbanded and their run ended. Is this the beginning of the end of the Patriots? I hope so. I propose a toast, with the 72' Dolphins, I toast to Eli and the Giants winning the Super Bowl, but even more so to the Patriots and their whining Bill Simons club.....enjoy the losing side for once. Brian and I have been begging the sports gods for this all season. Amen.