Thursday, February 25, 2010

Which Prank Call On Sportscenter Is Best?

For only the 2nd time in nearly 30 years, ESPN has been pranked live on the air during Sportscenter. Neither is the fault of the anchors, but both will live on in infamy. The blame goes to the producer for not confirming their live guests on the phone, but both delight me to no end. My favorite part, after he gets embarrassed, he says "Hi Youtube."



Here is the original and an all-time classic.

With the 6th pick in the NFL draft, the Seattle Seahawks select....



I wanted to get this out for Seahawks fans before the NFL world descends on the combine in Indianapolis. While I do enjoy the combine and believe it does have importance in the draft process, the testing results are intensely overblown. The most important part of the combine these days are the face to face interviews. Gathering the top prospects in the country, having them parade around in their underwear, and then running them through a series of physical tests is outdated. With the athletic performance clinics most of today's top players attend, prospects are excelling at the 40-yard dash, broad jump, and three cone drill like never before.

Here are the important parts of the combine, in order of relevance:
1. The chance for your team Doctor to exam a players past injuries
2. The chance to sit across the table from a prospect and gauge whether they truly love football or not (Ask the Raiders and Jamarcus Russell if this is important)
3. The chance to go Indy's best steakhouses

As you can see, that is not a very big list. If you want to find out if a player has got the game to play on Sunday's, I have a novel idea. WATCH HIS COLLEGE GAME TAP. If Derious Heyward-Bey ran a 4.5 instead of a 4.3, he would have been a 3rd rounder.

With that said, I have made up my mind on who I would like the Seattle Seahawks to select with the #6 pick (granted this player is available). Two Words: Boomer Sooner

While the Offensive Line is the Hawks most pressing need for next year, the upgrading of the quarterback position is the most pressing need for the franchise. Matt Hasselback is certainly not getting any younger, and where are the Hawks going to get their next franchise signal caller. Free agency, trade, or a late round pick? Look at the Super Bowl, you are not winning big in the current NFL unless you have a big time quarterback.

What makes me like Sam Bradford? Its not his physical ability or 40 time, or wonderlic score. Sam Bradford has the completely unmeasurable "IT" factor. I have heard him in interviews on the radio 3 times in the last couple of weeks, and he just has it. The same way, Matt Ryan did two years ago and Mark Sanchez last year. Heck, Bradford is a scratch golfer and averaged 20 points a game in high school basketball. He has got the physical tools, the accuracy and the poise, but it wasn't until I heard him speak that I wanted him to be a Seahawk. What is "it?"

You can't describe it, you either have it or you don't.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Minding My Own Business....

The other day I was out in the front yard doing yard work when, what appeared to be, a dad and his daughter rode by. Now most of you might think they were just riding bikes but actually only the dad was riding a bike his 10-13 year old daughter was riding a Segway. This tells you a little bit about the area of Willow Glen. Not only do people have the $5K+ to drop on a Segway they ride em around the neighborhood for "exercise".

Anyway, in their honor I thought I'd post this video:



This was one of my favorites but there are a ton on Youtube. This ought to kill about 30 minutes of your day. You're welcome.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Not exactly a Wally Pip Situation

While this may be akin to a snake charmer laughing when he see's someone else get bitten, there are few things I love more than watching on-air mishaps on Local TV news. Considering I used to be a part time sports anchor and have over 400, live play-by-play broadcasts under my belt, I should have sympathy and understanding for these fellow journalists. Instead, I am find myself with a sore stomach from all of the laughing.

Which of these two classic Sports Reports is Worse???
Matt Lorch

Brian Collins


My answer might surprise you. I am going to go with Matt Lorch, since he seems to be trying way to hard and his wardrobe is just a tad to nice to Quincy, IL. Plus, I find he has a striking resemblance to Dan Cortez of MTV Sports fame. Brian Collins was a last minute fill-in and fully aware of the train wreck unfolding before him.

One final side note, I just googled KHQA, the station Matt Lorch is is performing on. I actually applied for a job at this station in 2005, and NEVER heard back. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Oregon Spring Football Practice to be held in Prison

There are few teams in all of sports I dislike more than the University of Nike in Eugene. The Oregon Ducks quite simply have the best owner in all of sports. Better than George Steinbrenner, Mark Cuban, Robert Craft, and Paul Allen. The difference between Phil Knight and the others, is that Phil Knight owns a state funded university. Simply put, Knight has donated close to a billion dollars to the University of Oregon since the mid-90's. The last three athletic directors have been hand picked by Knight personally, including current AD, Mike Belloti.

While I believe the Nike connection is incredibly unfair, especially when promising football recruits are promised sports marketing jobs at Nike after graduation, most of my ill-will, is directed at the obnoxious fan base. As a fan of other Pac-10 schools, I have personally attended two games at Autzen stadium, one time when I was about 10 years old. Because I was wearing the wrong colored shirt, I was cursed at, berated, and physically threatened...AS A 6th GRADER.

Oregon's recent spat of legal trouble however slows their rise Pac-10 supremacy, at least temporarily. While LaMichael James is an amazing running back, he can be replaced by another of their stable of blazing fast ball carriers. As long as Jeramiah Masoli stays out of jail, the Ducks will be heavily favored to make a 2nd straight Rose Bowl appearance.

The most ironic part of the Masoli story (that he allegadely stole two laptops from a fraternity), is that athletes are given free Mac Books, that are laser engraved with that annoying O.


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I have wanted to post for a few days now, but then life got in the way

I have been delayed a bit in recent days. I have wanted to share my thoughts on Pac-10 expansion, Larry Ellison possibly buying the Warriors, and Dan Dibley, however being a dad got in the way.

To make a long story short, the best part of being a dad:
And the worst part of being a dad, every time my little man gets sick, I inevitably become sick two days later. I got knocked out Sunday night and all day Monday.

I will leave you with this tremendous interview of Chris Farely on the Tonight Show.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Steve Nash Loves Denim

While this does not have much to offer sportswise, it is a great commerical featuring Steve Nash.

I am not a huge NBA fan, but I am a huge Jim Rome fan and the last couple of days have featured a great many "clone skirmish's", betweeen American listeners, and our round bacon loving friends to the north. The funniest thing I heard today, "Why do Canadians wear so much denim, beacause they own so much denim." Honestly, if you google "Canadian Tuxedo" you will get a ton of images of people dressed in denim head to toe.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Who Dat....

It has taken me a couple of days to completely digest what transpired on Sunday evening. While I respected and admired Drew Brees and Sean Peyton beforehand, they have both entered a different stratosphere now that they are Super Bowl Champs.

While there is no doubt that the Saints were the best team on the field, I have heard many different takes on the game sealing interception thrown by Peyton Manning. While I will be the first to agree it was not Manning's best throw, in my opinion, that INT was at least 50% Reggie Wayne's fault. He totally quit on the route if he had been where he was suppose to be (the Colts run a precision passing attack) Porter still might have intercepted the pass, but Wayne would have tackled him immediately.

Beyond the actual game, I must say it is great for New Orleans. Back when Hurricane Katrina devestated the entire region, I had a daily sports talk show in the Monterey/Salinas area. At the time, I thought the Saints were a hopless cause. How would the Saints repair the Super Dome? Who would fill the much needed luxury boxes, which corporations would not move their headquarters out of the Delta? And most importantly, why would a free agen go to the Saints?
Much credit needs to be given to Paul Tagliabue, I know he took heat for making the Saints play a home game in New Jersey, but he sternly told Saints owner Tom Benson he would stay put. The NFL helped pay for the repairs, and Sean Peyton brought in Drew Brees......and the rest is history.

While there are many scenes of celebration from the Big Easy, I think this video of Drew Brees teaching bar patrons his pre-game chant is pretty cool.

Friday, February 5, 2010

"Are we on? I don't believe you....."


After working in the Television news industry for nearly four years, there are few things in life I enjoy watching more than a broadcaster doing something stupid and not realizing they are on camera.

While this is rather harmless it does remind me of my producing days doing the morning news at a local station. The anchors would basically show up 5 minutes before the newscast, not read the scripts, and then do their makeup the entire time they were off camera.

Finding and posting embarrassing clips of broadcasters will be a staple of this blog, I hope you enjoy.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

I'm a Willow Glen Dad and I like sports....

I know what you're thinking: "Great, another reject with a blog that thinks his opinions matter". Yup, that's pretty much it. What makes me qualified to write about sports? Absolutely nothing. I don't work in sports, I don't have any insider knowledge and I never laced them up (unless high school golf counts). I do like sports, watch a lot of sports and I have pretty strong (and perhaps educated) opinions about the sports I like. Thanks to the internet, and more specifically the ability to create a blog in 25 seconds, I can write about sports and there's really nothing anyone can do about it.

So, on with the sports.
You'll find out more about my sports allegiances as I write but I'll rank my sports in level of enjoyment for you. From the big 4 (if hockey even counts as big anymore) I'd rank them pro baseball, pro football, college football, college basketball, hockey and pro basketball. I'll watch other sports as well (especially golf) but my sports brain mostly concentrates on the big 4. Living in San Jose I've caught a bit of "Sharks Fever" and my love for hockey has grown over the past 2 years. This year it make overtake my love for college basketball (it kind of already has considering I've watched more hockey than college basketball) but we'll see how that goes once tournament time comes.
The NCAA tournament is probably my favorite sporting event of the year. Every year I get together with my brother for the first weekend of the tournament. For a few years we went to the closest arena that had 1st and 2nd round games. It was a great time but it got a little expensive. So, lately we've been just getting together, taking Thursday and Friday off, locking ourselves in a room with beer and junk food and watching as many of the 48 games as we can. We usually have our regional game on the main TV plus 2 laptops running games as well (by the way I love the NCAA for broadcasting all it's games online for free). It's like my second Christmas and Santa may be adding more presents under the tree.

This week the NCAA met to discuss expanding the tournament. Apparently there are 347 division 1 basketball teams and everyone wants to figure out how more teams can get in on some tournament action (thus get in on some of that tournament money). Does this mean I'll have to take off the entire week now to catch the entire tourney? Will I now gain 20 lbs instead of 10? I'm intrigued. However I think expansion is a bad idea.

Some have suggested taking it up to 68 and playing 4 play-in games instead of 1. If that's what happens the NCAA is just making a joke of itself. The only people who watch the play-in game are degenerate gamblers, parents of the players too cheap to go to the game and maybe students from the universities playing. Who cares who wins so they can lose to the number one overall seed in the tournament? When they release the brackets after Selection Sunday you fill it out before they even play the play-in game. No one says "I'm not picking yet because I want to know who Kansas is playing from the play-in game".

Another idea has been expanding the tournament to 96 teams (basically absorbing the NIT). Do we really need more teams with 10+ losses than we already have? Do you remember who won the NIT last year? I don't. I had to look it up. Turns out it was the basketball power that is Penn State and they beat Baylor. Would the tournament have been better with those teams in it? Maybe a game or two, but neither of these teams was going anywhere. I understand that over 50% of all D1 college football teams make it to the post season but football also has D1AA (or whatever they call it now). Why can't basketball adopt the same structure and have two tournaments? If they really want to add more competitive teams to the tourney why not get rid of the rule that allows the .500 team, that got hot at the end of the season and won their conference tournament (against superior teams that aren't going to let their star players get hurt before the big dance), to get an automatic bid into tournament of 64? If the conference tournament brings in big money then still have them but make the teams have a better than .500 record to play in it. This would at least open up 4-5 slots a year for teams that probably deserve to be in the tournament.

The only reason that I want to see more teams in the tournament is to potentially extend the 4 days of bliss that is the first weekend. Overall I think it's a bad idea. 64 (I mean 65) just feels like enough teams and extending it will probably just dilute the talent in the tournament that much more. However, if they do expand the tournament, I'll still watch the entire first weekend, even if it means taking a full week off of work.

Thanks for reading.

Stumbling Home ......

Three cheers to the brand spanking new Rookies Sports bar on Meridian..http//www.rookieslodge.com/ As Bogey once said, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

The Snow Cap last night was delicious, the servers friendly, and best of all, all of the TV's are flat screens. We hardly even noticed the best game on TV last night was the Kansas vs Colorado basketball game.

While maybe a block or two farther than I would prefer, I have a feeling that my posse (yes I actually have one) will be making the walk down Hamilton often. What a great way to burn off the extra calories from a pitcher or two.

I say during march madness we have a Snuggie brakcet buster night with all of the willow glen dads.




Monday, February 1, 2010

My Football Withdrawl Face


Even though I am excited for the Super Bowl, I will be more excited for the NFL Draft and spring football throughout the NCAA. The Super Bowl is just too long and the game atmosphere is weak. With that said, IS IT SUNDAY YET!

First Post

Well, here I go. My first foray into blogging, let my voice be heard!