EW’s Famous Football Trash Talk* – What The Puck Edition
Are you ready for some football? Hot damn, I am. And guess what, there really is football to talk about. And lots of other things too, but let’s start off with the gridiron. Hey, did you notice that the asterisk is still in the title? Of course it is, because Spygate is the gift that keeps on giving for the New England Patriots. Thank god that FISA stuff seems to be wrapping up, because the ole Scottish Haggis is gonna be needing the legislative time and resources to question Matt Walsh and get to the bottom of Belichick’s torture tapes.
Alright, lets get down to business. The 2008 NFL Entry Draft is beginning as this post is going up. Michigan offensive lineman Jake Long has already been signed by the Fish, and Howie Long’s spawn is reportedly set to be taken at number two by the Rams. Then the crapshoot begins. What needs does your team have, who do you like to fill them, and what else is up on the pigskin front? I understand the Patriots are torn between this guy and this guy.
Don’t tell Marcy, but there are actually sports other than football. In fact, I understand that, up in Canada, they play something called hockey; and not just any hockey understand you, they are currently in Playoff Hockey for the cherished Stanley Cup. The Cup has to be the coolest trophy in all of sports, every winning player gets his name etched onto it for eternity. And it goes fun places during the year as each player on the winning team gets to cart it around wherever he wants. I hear tell it goes to a lot of pubs, and a few cathouses too. I don’t know diddly squat about hockey, but in honor of our fine feathered friends in the Great White North, Ishmael, Skdadl, and all the others, I thought we ought to give a shout out to Stanley Cup Playoffs, thus the "What The Puck" part of the title to this post.
Due to the surprising response I got the last time, I will also trot out F1 for your consideration. This weekend is Round four of the circus, the Spanish GP from Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Kimi Raikkonen is on pole, having beaten out Fernando Alonso in literally the last second of qualifying. Catalunya is a nice circuit, should make for an excellent race. Heh, you know America is one screwed up place when Max Mosely’s Nazi torture fantasy with hookers gets more press than, you know, the President of the United States actually torturing people. Go figure.
Last, but most certainly not least, I want to note yesterday’s announcement that there was a putative appearance of the Wackiest Ships in the Iranian Navy and Filipino Monkey. Of course, the US government already has twenty different takes on the incident. Pretty much the only time our bozos can keep a story straight is when they are ginning up propaganda for their Rent-A-Generals. The video attached to this post is in honor of my two favorite monkeys, The Filipino and The Boosh (technically a chimpanzee I guess). Do check out the video, it is pretty cool. Monkey Man by the one and only Rolling Stones.
Lastly, EW is going to be up with an important post on the Michigan Clusterfuck and her rational solution thereto. I think it is going to be double posted both here and at FDL. At any rate, there is going to be a full court press to get some publicity and national press on the post, so chip in, sign the petition and spread the word. However, because it is important to the cause, use this thread for any "Off Topic" discussions etc. so that she can keep that thread clean and on point.
Hey bmaz – did you see my comment that I had a Bode Miller sighting this week?
Also – what’s the over/under on Dbacks margin of victory today? Game currently underway on Fox…
I don’t know what the over was, but it is looking better…
Hey 4 runs! I’m happy. And yeah, Owings already has a hit and a run scored.
Bode was playing in the Celebrity Tour Golf Classic here, hosted by Stan Humphries. We finagled a couple of tickets to the fundraiser auction/cocktail party (free beer and food)! I didn’t have a beer with him, but he was having a great time – buying stuff in the auction and hanging out with some female friends…
I got a little mixed up. I thought it was settled that Michigan and Florida don’t get seated until Obama is the candidate. Obama wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan, Clinton signed an agreement and they do have a contracts course at Yale.
Or if this is football trashtalk, I can see cheerleader tryouts (mostly women as far as I can tell) on different NFL web sites, but I don’t want to tread into mysogyny territory. I’m sure there are male cheerleaders many places, just not in the NFL thankfully.
I did hear that the Falcons used their 3rd pick to get Boston College’s quaterback Matt Ryan over LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, and that even though crazily IMHO Arthur Blank actually reversed himself and said Mike Vick could return after playing touch BOP football, if he did, how would they put him at quaterback with the cap? And I don’t like seeing a serial dog killer in the NFL–I’d rather literally see Hannibal Lecter and other serial killers round out the
team.
Well at least on paper that solves a quaterback problem for the Falcons, but I could write a big book on #1 draft picks for the Falcons that turned out to be trash once they actually got onto the field in the NFL. Then there was the quaterback Jerry Glanville never liked because he partied every night on Peachtree street. Glanville called him up in at Mississippi the off season to tell him he was fired, and he said “You mean you interrupted my fucking beer and catfish dinner to tell me something like that?”
And what became of that guy after Glanville “finished him.” I saw him the other night on Dave Letterman in his jeans–they call him Brett Favre. How’d that turn out? Well he traded Farvre for a first round pick in 1992 Tony Brown, a running back. Brown was out of the NFL in 3 years, and cosmically Farvre stayed a little longer but the number 3 looms–he won 3 MVPs.
Yeah, saw that. Way cool; did you have a beer with him? I dunno on the Snakes and Friars. I tell you what though, the guy pitching for the Dbacks can flat out freaking hit. Big time. Had a game against Atlanta last year where he went 4 for 5 at the plate, including two home runs, scoring four times, and knocking in six runs. He is so good at hitting, that they have toyed with the idea of playing him at first base some when he isn’t pitching just to get his bat in the lineup.
Massey and Thaler wrote a very interesting paper on the economics of the NFL draft. There’s an early version of the paper (without tables or figures) one can read. The main concluions: players selected earlier, on average, at better than those selected later (which confirms that, at least on average, teams know what they are doing draft-wise); players selected earlier, though better, command too much excess salary relative to their excess skill; the best skill / cost ratio comes somewhere around draft position 40; teams economically discount future draft picks at an annual rate of about 173%.
The last two really tell you a lot about why Bill Belichick is always trading high-round picks this year for passels of second round draft picks in the coming years…
bmaz – talking of F1, did you hear that Max Mosley has a ‘discipline’ problem. If not, I will find the link. In the meantime, I thought you might like this. Too bad they don’t race like that anymore
With regard to hockey, of the 8 teams left, the Montreal Canadiens are the only Canadian team left. We (Winnipeg) lost our team to some hockey hot-bed in Arizona – they are about as successful now as they were then.
Incidentally, I found the F1 video at the Guardian website. Each week they have a selection of classic U-tube videos, lots of cricket and soccer, which probably won’t interest you too much but a lot of other good stuff as well.
There is a link on the Mosely story in the post above. Thanks for the video; Senna was unbelievable.
Well, that was fun. I have to go back and read most of it over again.
But I saw the puck-word. And it’s true that the Cup is cool; the way they keep adding to it is cool. I will start to pay a bit of attention about now, but I have to tell you, bmaz, and I know this is childish, but I am a bit bitter about hockey. When I was ten, I was trying to learn hockey with the guys on the neighbourhood rink. One night I took a hit from a stick between the eyes, fell down, and bled all over the rink. That led to a new rule: no girls on the rink, eh? So I’m bitter. I know that things are different for girls now, but I’m still bitter. They let me play baseball (well, very soft softball), so I do baseball.
I mainly can’t do any kind of football either, although my husband was a rugby player in his Scottish youth — skinny guy, too. Did you know that our national game here is actually lacrosse? Now, there is a cool game, also sometimes a little violent, but they have those groovy sticks or crosses. Not much lacrosse on TV, though, even here.
and for visual aid this classic south park clip, where ’stand & deliver’ meets the cheatin’ new england pats (or how cartman teaches inner city kids to get ahead by cheating like white people):
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/165712/
and go sharks!!
AZ picked up a cornerback with the name Cromartie…
Owings final line before spraining his ankle: 3-3, 1 RBI, 2 runs scored. Unbelievable.
They ain’t cheap hits either; he whacks the shit out of the ball.
Montréal has been going nuts for the last two months. Close to first place in their division, or in first place, the media and fans were going utterly nuts.
The Canadiens, with Carbonneau as coach are in a reconstruction phase, all the experts were predicting that they were going to miss the series…
The first series against Boston started off well, but then, complacency almost did them in, they won the series in seven grueling games.
Their first against Philly was a squeeker, that was won in the first minute of ot. Price, a young goaly, is really the star who’s keeping the canadien winning.
I’m no sport fans, so, I really don’t care about these playoffs. Meanwhile, downtown was savaged by the fans after the ultimate win with boston. Police presence has been increased ten fold since.
One observation to make is that many cars are harboring a Canadien flag hanging from their window. And as you are driving, you try to give them a wide berth. I don’t know what it is with these hockey fans, but, they are a dangerous bunch… Changing lanes without looking, never, EVER using their flashers, disrespecting the stopping line at corners thus impeding or intimidating pedestrians, and other lunacies.
Well, it’s good for business, I guess… ;-0
I thought that kind of driving was limited to USC fans, Laker fans, and the people who put Christianist symbols on their vehicles.
Religion and sports are the opium for the masses… And they damn well drive like addicts! Hehehehe.
On the car racing front, europeans are laughing their heads off at Mosley’s video where he’s getting humiliated by some dominatrix. Nobody, over there, wants him out of the seat of power.
And Carpentier, a nascar driver from around here, finished eight in the Nationwide race at Talladega. These restrictor plate tracks almost always cause a huge wreck, and today’s race was laden with totalled cars. Those races look like bumper to bumper trafic going 180 miles an hour. Stewart won.
Hey Freepatriot – This Dan Haren dude is great. The Snakes just used him as a pinch hitter in the top of the 11th, and he drew a leadoff walk. Excellent.
Yeah, they play hockey in Canada and it is one of their national sports but what was their first national sport?
Curling? Lacrosse? Beer drinking?
We should ask Quebecois but I bet you’d get at least the status of unofficial Canadian national sport for beer drinking and maybe curling too.
I believe it was Lacrosse. Played it when I was growing up, went to the Quebec games on three occasions. That ball was a killing machine, so heavy.
It’s a great game. Did you enjoy it? I was surprised ice hockey was not Canada’s first national sport… instead it was lacrosse. In fact, only relatively recently did the Canadian government declare ice hockey the other national sport.
Too bad for baseball that both are played in the spring. The kids like the speed and excitement of LAX.
Yeah, it was my favorite team sport. I was defense, and my underhand shot was scary to the point my coaches did not want me to use it on my own goalie during practice. The ball would stay an inch above the floor, broke an opponents ankle, ooooops. I still have my stick on a wall. During the big games, the coach would leave me on the floor all game. The sport that gave me my first two concussions…
Neil@26
Any alcohol will do in Canada, with the winters we have, anything to forget.
As to curling, I was in bed for eighteen months a few years back, and I started to watch curling. Let me tell you(and I’ve already made this joke at FDL), it’s quite exciting when you hear the captain of Canada’s women team, scream to her sweepers: Harrrrd, Harderrrrrrrrrr, HAAAAAAAAAARDERRRRRRRRRRRRR. Hot sport!
Neil@27
It is a fun game if you’re a fast runner, with a low center of gravity. Kudos for the winning season. Nice to dredge up to memories, thanks.
Padres end their misery in 13. So far this year (25 games) the Padres have played 13, 13, 14, and 22 inning games.
I’m not sure this ‘war of attrition’ strategy is the way to go.
Lastly, EW is going to be up with an important post on the Michigan Clusterfuck and her rational solution thereto.I think it is going to be double posted both here and at FDL.
Nope, Bmaz. EW’s thread did not get posted here for reasons that escape me. But I repeated most of your comments and Marcy’s (FDL does not update for me without refreshing) and I responded to them:
Response to EW and Bmaz’s assertions on Michigan here
OT unless you hate oblongball: NYT Mazzetti just up with a report on the latest on Bush exceptionalism re: torture
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04…..nted=print
Might explain the timing of the DODO show & tell on the Israeli bombing of the Syrian toolshed.
Careful there, bmaz.
Can you say “rugby”? Marcy can . . .
Anyone here watch the NFL draft today? I have to admit the NBA has been holding my attention today. Go Celts!
My 8th grade lacrosse team played this morning and won their eighth consecutive game. It’s the end of school vacation week so some of our best players were away; goalie, starting midfielder, starting attack. The rest of the team rose to the occasion. We had 11 kids (10 is the minimu)m, so midfielders ran all game with little substitution. It’s a lot of fun.
Yeah, well, the NBA playoffs are a bit of a sore subject around these parts; the wheels are coming off for the locals. Every year, there is a new “hot team” in the west (this year supposedly the Lakers are the “complete package), and every year Tim Duncan reminds people that the road goes through his territory and he defends it pretty effectively. On paper, the Suns match up very well with the Spurs; unfortunately, the game isn’t played on paper. And to think, you folks up in the Beantown area were jawing about running Ainge out of town; he’s looking better now eh?
Peterr – Yep, I realized I had a discrepancy with regards to rugby, but what the heck; what good is trash talk if you don’t, you know, talk trash.
The spurs are a tough first round draw for the suns. The suns have the best pure point guard in the league two-time league mvp (a canadian by the by) and the spurs have the best power forward (the big fundamental). I wish they had met in the west finals. You cant expect a longtime celtics fan to cheer for the lakers, can you? the hawks have found their game in the third contest, their first at home.
The Celts are on their way to a loss in Atlanta right now. Hopefully they can win two straight at home and then go on to win.
Rivers is a class act. I wish him well.
Yeah, I’m watching it too. Gotta hand it to the Hawks. Still, better to be a Celtic than a pistons fan, no? This loss will make any Celtics fan wonder if they have it to got to the finals and win.
The odds as you know when you win the first two in the NBA playoffs are huge. My favorite time in the playoffs–Hawks played the Celtics in 1988. My friend got me incredible seats–I sat next to Hollyfield. Rivers was playing for the Hawks and there were a lot of Dominic Wilkins Larry Bird matchups. Rivers played in the NBA Allstar Game that year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxqKLEMTBo4
I watched that game Celtics Hawk game too but I wans’t there for it you lucky guy?
Doc Rivers add a little commentary about that game here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..re=related
Don’t forget ultimate frisbee. Up to 12 hours of sprinting in a weekend–if your team is good enough (which my team rarely was).
lab dancer at 23–i’m convinced it was a slap-down from this-syrian pres puts down bush in a definitive ”you’re worthless” way, then in next day or two, documents were released….i have no doubt this was a bush tantrum, especially since what the syrian pres said was nowhere in the news.
http://ap.google.com/article/A…..AD908E8HO3
=====
and bmaz says–”Thank god that FISA stuff seems to be wrapping up,”
ummmm, no. just another reincarnation.
http://thehill.com/leading-the…..04-24.html
and dems want to add unemployment aid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..eheadlines
so this bill is completely worthless if these things happen, cuz in order to get unemployment aid, fisa will be attached, and to a war supplemental…….if this were a food recipe, my dog wouldn’t eat it.
nothing in bill final yet, just maneuvering.
Oh, come on, you didn’t think I was being serious with that FISA comment now did you?? The Bushies will still be trying to ram immunity through long after the fat lady has quit singing; it is kind of important to them personally.
OT – From yesterday’s WaPo: Iraq War Is Everyone Else’s Fault, Feith Explains
Feith isn’t even fit to be substrate for Soylent Green; he is totally fucking useless.
Synaptic deficiency (brain cells not connecting)?
I actually saw a building under construction where the elevator was, for several days, literally not going to the top. Should have taken a pic of it, for use with guys like Feith.
MD, have you read this?
http://www.thehoya.com/node/16009
Thanks, I hadn’t seen that particular article, but had seen the national media’s coverage of Dougie’s “exit, stage right” from Georgetown.
I got a chuckle out of the Hoya’s listing of his student support:
I wonder if anyone checked to see how many of those “students” were…students. I betcha Dougie got a hold of Paulie Wolfowitz with instructions to “vote early and vote often!” *g*
Jeebus, the Iraq war is a sick and demented undertaking, but here is a pretty cool story in light of the lacrosse talk. Story of Lt. John Fernandez
Please note that Michigan has a very able entry in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Detroit Red Wings. They’re leading their 2nd round series 2-0, don’t be surprised to see them in the finals.
Twitter is an appropriate name methinks….
bmaz, this is really OT, but I was just reading Frank Rich’s piece on McCain and I remembered that when Bill Clinton left office he put a lot of land under US reserve. As I remember, a good bit of it was in Arizona which set off McCain in one of his bitter tirades. I’m wondering if that’s right and, if so, do you have some local information to share? Thanks.
bmaz at 30—lol, no bmaz…but i did ’make me look’ (made you look, psyche!)….just hadn’t heard many mention the latest fisa shell game……so took the ball and ran with it. ha.
and the one where syrian president flips the bird to bush and his merry band of mideast negotiators
http://ap.google.com/article/A…..AD908E8HO3
and then bush releases ’secret documents’ days later….
Bmaz did you see kimi raikkonen won another and leads the points by nine