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Green Bay TitleTown MNF Fall Is Here Trash Talk (NFL Week 3)

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Hi there lugnuts, it is time for another edition of Emptywheel’s Famous Trash Talk! I actually would have started this last night, and therefore had it up earlier this morning, but had to go out to dinner and my new iPhone 6S had been delivered and was waiting when I got home. So, you know, I had to play with that and get it set up.

Thing sure is pretty. The experience deteriorated after unboxing it though. Apparently many of the early units shipped with iOS 9 and there is a bug in that OS which cause many users to have their phones freeze up on them during the setup process. I was one of those, and a very frustrated one of those, until I called AT&T help. A lovely chap named Nate helped me through the fix, which literally took about half an hour on the phone guiding me through it all. Nate was great, and now the device is functioning beautifully. It really is a fantastic bit of electronic hardware. Today (if the tracking is accurate), my wife’s will be delivered and we will now know what to do for it too. So, a hassle at first, but pretty wowed by the product in action.

Okay, Trash Talk came, in one sense, a little early this week with my early morning post yesterday on the Patrick Kane alleged rape case in Buffalo. There are a couple of new developments. First, the Erie county DA, Frank Sedita, held a presser yesterday a few hours after I had posted. I was in court and did not see it, but here is, to me at least, the key takeaway via Michael McCann and SI:

Sedita’s revelation was the latest bizarre development in an investigation that now seems less likely than ever to result in the Chicago Blackhawks superstar being charged with any crime.

Sedita said that the bag—which had been identified by the lawyer for Kane’s accuser as proof that key evidence had been tampered with—had actually been given to the accuser’s mother when she accompanied her daughter to the hospital to have a rape test performed. She was the last known person to have the bag, he said, and it was used to store one of her daughter’s garments and not the contents of a rape test kit.

He then showed video to prove that no bag had ever been used to store the kit and to verify that the chain of custody for the evidence has always been secure.

If true, this case is dead. The only question is whether Sedita himself declines to go further, or whether he seeks the imprimatur of submitting it to a grand jury to likely decline to prosecute. McCann seems to believe it will be the former. If there is no positive evidence in the real rape kit, and the chain of custody is as Sedita has consistently stated from the start, then he probably should decline prosecution. Cases without a reasonable likelihood of conviction should not be brought, and they all too often are.

Okay, on to the games. F1 is in Suzuka Japan for the Japanese Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg took pole last night over Mercedes teammate Hamilton, with Bottas, Vettel, Massa and Raikkonen of the Williams and Ferrari teams alternating in P3 through P6. Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat had a nasty crash, but seems to be okay. Suzuka is a great track, this could be a pretty interesting race.

As to the NCAA men, it is such a pitiful week’s schedule of games that the ESPN Game Day folks are holding fort in freaking Tucson, where Rich Rod and Arizona are hosting the UCLA Bruins and their wonder boy true frosh QB Josh Rosen. And hot damn! they have Arizona alum and southern Arizona guy Bob Baffert on the set. Excellent! UCLA looks to be a far better team. But DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER!this is exactly the kind of upset that very often happens down in Tucson when the Cats Bear Down. We shall see, but I take the Cats. The only other game worth squat is USC here against the Sun Devils in Tempe at night on ESPN. I actually have tickets to the game, but not sure I am going to be able to go. Neither the Trojans nor ASU appear to be as solid as was thought before the season started. I’ll take the Devils, but don’t feel good about it at all.

As to the Joes in the Pros, well, of course I am excited about the MNF game between the Chefs and Packers at Lambeau. Seriously, what is better than a rematch of Super Bowl 1 played under the lights on the not yet Frozen Tundra? Doesn’t get any better than that. The Chefs are going to do some cooking this year, but not in Mr. Rodgers’ neighborhood. Take the Pack.

Niners are coming to Phoenix, where the Cardinals are not usually very hospitable. And, shhhh! don’t tell anyone, but the Cards are getting close to having a run game. Not there yet, but getting closer. Bengals at Ravens is a critical game for the Northern Dirty Birds. Bengals looks more solid this year, but then they always do until they don’t (half ass tribute to the great Yogi Berra there). Falcons at the Cowboys will be interesting only because Romo and Dez Bryant are gone. Eagles at Jets interesting because everybody thought the Iggles would be 2-0 and the Jets Jets Jets 0-2 right about now, not the other way around.

Oh well, talk amongst yourselves and, always, rock and roll. Music this week by my new favorite band from down under, Boom! Bap! Pow!

Big Kitty Cats On The Prowl & Talking Trash In Detroit Motor City

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[Hi there Kitty Kat fans!! The tigers are tied with the Rangers in the 9th and the Lions coming on soon. Time to Prowl, so Trash has been moved back up to where it can be found – bmaz]

The big cats are on the prowl, and they are growling right on down Woodward Avenue. Los Tigres are Looking For Love and they’re Making Thunderbirds.

And they are not the ever lovely Watertiger kind of kitties either. Nope, these kittehs are big, bad, lean, mean and will Fuck. You. Up.

Detroit Motor City is happenin baybee; seriously happening, and here is hoping there is no Detroit Breakdown.

First on the catwalk are the Tigers. Los Tigres dispatched the evil empire of the NY Yankees. Fittingly, the game, and series, ended with a strikeout by Mighty Casey LeBron Rodriquez, aka “Mr. April”. Congratulations pinstripe pushers, you have 6, count em six, more years of this joy at the low, low price of only $27 million a year. Worry not though, while he has already been through Kate Hudson and Cameron Diaz, you still have the ARoid and Gwyneth Paltrow hookup to look forward to. So you got that going for you, along with you new number one starter, AJ Burnett, after CC Sabathia bails. Red Sawx cognoscenti feast. As to everybody else, ponder whether there is enough Justin Verlander to slow down Josh Hamilton, Michael Young and the Rangers. Say what you will, these are, at this point, the two best teams in the American League.

In the Senior Circuit, my local kids, and they are kids since they are the youngest team in MLB, came up just a bit short tonight against the BrewCrew. Awesome game five, and awesome series. Both teams just had so much personality and good vibe, it was hard to root against either one. But someone had to win, and in extra innings in the win or go home game, Milwaukee did. And Albert Pujols and the Cards shocked the mighty Phillies, in Philly, to make the unlikely advance to the NLCS. This is almost certainly not the NLCS matchup FoxTV hoped for. Too bad, both teams earned it, suck on that Fox.

In the college gridiron type of sporting activity, a couple of has beens like Texas and Oklahoma are playing. If only they both could lose. Then the better and more appealing team, the Boise State Broncos, could move ahead to the rank they deserve in the standings. Especially after dropping 57 points on conference rival Fresno State Friday night. The most exciting team in the country as far as supposed first tier conferences go, the sharp toothed Wisconsin Badgers, have a bye week.

Next on the beautific catwalk are the Deetroit Lions. These too are some slinky cats.

The Chicago Poo Bears are going to mosey into the Lion’s Den at Ford Field, where the Kitties hope to say “Suh you later”. So far, so good, Matt Stafford is still healthy and leading the Lion offense. Stafford’s resume is spotty because of injury, but when healthy, he has clearly demonstrated he is a top-flite quarterback. Javed Best is a nice back, but the Lions might want to invest in another back at some point to insure the future that seems so bright. As good as the Lions’ defense has been so far this season, they have been playing without what many considered the best athlete in the draft, Nick Fairly out of Auburn. Dude has the potential to be another Suh. If he is even close, it is hard to imagine what it will mean to Detroit, and he may make his season debut against Da Bears.

I understand there may be other games of both the student and professional athlete variety, but if they ain’t from Detroit, you will have to supply your own analysis in comments. Because this is Motor City Madness Weekend!

Well, okay, maybe we will get to non-motorcity talk because, if nothing else, there is some shit going down in Suzuka. And if you know squat about F1, you know there is usually wet, and corresponding wild, in Suzuka. That’s just the way it is. Vettel was off pace in practice, but was fast and took pole in qualifying, with Jenson Button of McLaren in P2. Lewis Hamilton hung on for P3 followed by Mass and Alonso in the Ferraris. True to form, qualifying was off schedule due to rain. We will see yet what the conditions are for the actual race, but I have always found the wet to be a good thing at Suzuka as it seems a bit pedestrian of a track without it. The race goes off at 2:00am EST and 11:00pm PST and is being carried in the US by Speed TV. If Vettel finishes anywhere in the points, even with the minimal single point, he clinches the Drivers’ Championship, and that is a pretty safe bet to occur.

As you may have noticed, this is a VERY heavy music Trash post. But, if there is one thing Detroit is known for other than American steel on wheels, it is music. I didn’t roll with the common Motown motif, and I did not fall back on old friends that used to be from Detroit, but now are here in the desert. If you are a music nerd, check out the enantiomer MC5 version of Motor City Is Burning. Not sure exactly what the deal is, but it is clearly, whether intentionally or unintentionally, a reverse print if you look at all the right handed people flipped opposite. Weird. Probably not many people remember the MC5, but they were one of the early foundations of straight up hard rock, and they were dead nuts killer.

So, that is it for the Motown Trash. Burn it down!