There's no doubt that

.... the option "Sherman" would have been a huge favorite had I been offering betting on who would win my most recent poll. But I have to admit that I was surprised to see how easily he ran away with it. Only two of the ballots cast were not for Jeff and poor Elaina didn't get a single vote. (Maybe she really does have better things to do in Blacksburg than read this garbage....) Amanda is on record saying that she would read the blog more often but claims she doesn't know the URL. (Such a liar....) But the people clearly don't believe Jeff when he says he has better things to do than read the blog. Sorry, bro - You're not fooling anyone.

I have a few thoughts about about yesterday's NFL action (They are almost all negative), some college basketball comments (Ditto) and I'll at least try to throw in some of the typical Hoffy, Jorgie, Ed, etc.... nonsense. I haven't blogged in a while because the last one was so well received I wanted to leave it up there for as long as possible.

Okay, that's bullshit. I just didn't feeling like doing one. Until now.


* The #1 problem I had with yesterday's NFL slate was that they were all just really, really crappy games. The Detroit Lions are barely an NFL team. From a competitive standpoint, the game was over about midway through the 1st quarter. I was up in time for the start of the game, thanks in part to a phone call from people on the East Coast who still don't understand the concept of time zones, and I tried to watch the game from the start. It was so bad that I literally gave up on it during the 1st quarter and tried to go back to sleep. (That would not have happened if I had action on the game.)

The Lions were completely manhandled at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball yesterday. They will have 3 of the first 33 picks in next April's draft and the only chance they have of being even remotely competitive in 2009 would be to use all of those picks on linemen. Look at what Bill Parcells did with the Dolphins: He drafted an offensive tackle 1st overall, a defensive end with the first pick in the second round and brought in a handful of other linemen through free agency. The Lions should at least attempt to do something similar. What will they do? Reach for a QB who isn't worthy of being the 1st overall pick just because they need one. (See: Smith, Alex.)

* The Titans-Lions game was crap but the Dallas game was just completely unwatchable for me. Joe Buck's shameless fawning over Tony Romo is beyond nauseating at this point. "Romo spins away from the defender and makes the pass! Complete!! Wow what a play by Romo!! Okay, that will bring up second and eight." I'll never forget a comment by Buck during last season's Redskins-Cowboys game in Dallas. The Redskins blitzed and Romo had to back up quickly and spin away from a linebacker to avoid a sack. It was a relatively athletic move and if he had just turned and thrown the ball out of bounds it would have been a good play. Instead he spun around and without even looking down the field he heaved it deep towards Terrell Owens. Unfortunately, there were three Redskins waiting down there and the ball landed in the hands of one of them, a good 5 yards short of Owens. It honestly looked like a throw one might make in a game of 500.

Buck's response: "Great play by Romo to get it down there."

Down there to who? To the Redskins?

If you had to point to one reason why Romo became such a big star it's probably because FOX insists on broadcasting every Dallas game on national TV, with a broadcast team of Buck and Aikman and Joe kissing Romo's ass throughout the game no matter how many terrible, boneheaded plays he makes. And people like Austin completely buy into the notion that this guy is somehow a great player because when he lobs the ball in the general vicinity of Owens or Jason Witten they come down with it. Maybe the Cowboys offense looked so good the last two games because Romo is "Back" or maybe, just maybe it's because the 49ers and Seahawks are a combined 5-18 this year. Hard to say.

* I made an effort to watch the Cardinals-Eagles game for NFL SuperFan Ed Salmons who flew across the United States just to attend an NFL game in person on a national holiday. That is true commitment to a sport he loves. Unfortunately, the Arizona Cardinals defense didn't make the trip with him. It really sucks that crummy teams like the Cardinals and Broncos and whoever wins the clusterfuck that is the NFC North will all be hosting postseason games this year while good teams from the NFC East and NFC South will be squeezed out. My favorite thing about the Eagles game was that the team told all of its fans that it was going to be a "Blackout" game and that they should all wear black. I didn't realize it was their homecoming game. Let's assume it lead to an exchange between Ed and his wife along the lines of:

Ed: Okay, I'm leaving to go watch this garbage game!

Mrs. Ed: Wait, Ed. Did you remember to wear a black shirt?

Ed: What? No. Why?

Mrs. Ed: They are having a "Blackout" tonight. All the fans are supposed to wear black.

Ed: Racist.

Mrs. Ed: What?

Ed: Nevermind.

Mrs. Ed: I laid out a black shirt for you. Didn't you see it?

(Ed hesitates as he contemplates going upstairs to change into a black shirt so that he will fit in with all of his Philadelphia brethren.)

Mrs. Ed: Ed?

Ed: (As he puts on the shirt) I hate this stupid league.

Mrs. Ed: Don't forget to wear a jacket, honey. It's going to be cold out there.

Ed: It's a luxury suite. I'm sure it's heated. I just hope they have plenty of Zima.... I gotta go. The limo's here.


By the way, I did notice a few scattered boos during the game last night, even as the Eagles were rolling to an easy win. What a great sports town.

* I really have no problem with the guy but I'm pretty sure that Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl is a scumbag. He's always got a shiteating grin on his face. He's always bringing in "Transfers" from other schools. And let's not forget about that picture of him hanging out with the voluptuous Erin Andrews. I know he's a complete scumbag and he's trying to trick us all into thinking he's a fun and quirky guy by doing ridiculous stunts. I'm on to this guy and I want all 4 of you to be on to him, too.

* It would have been nice to spend Thanksgiving with my family like many of you. Or to spend it watching my favorite sport in person, the way Ed did. I took another approach. After watching hours of terrible football games (And forcing out a late night degenerate college basketball bet on Baylor) I hit the town with The Hoff. I know he's been compared to Matt Damon's character in The Departed and Don Cheadle's character in Boogie Nights in this space before, but the character he most closely resembles is really Dustin Hoffman's Rainman.

After we bet Baylor, Scott sat down to watch the game as one of the Providence kids made a goofy shot. I cursed and Scott asked me, "Wait, what do we have again?" Later that night, while watching the Nuggets-Hornets game at a bar, a kid made a shot and The H didn't even know which team was which despite the game being in the 4th quarter and him having made a bet on it sufficient enough to move the line. The guy is amazing.

He won both bets, by the way. But he seemed happiest when he noticed that the line moved 5 cents following his Nuggets bets. The Rainman.

Anyways, I never thought I'd experience a Thanksgiving night that featured games of pool at 2 AM with a stripper who was crammed into an outfit that didn't quite fit her. We had to pay for the games and buy her $8 shots at the bar and in exchange we could watch her spill out of her costume while she bent over to make a shot. No matter what either one of us says, we both took it too seriously and we both lost to the crazy bitch anyways. When I got home this morning, I realized that I really don't have much to be thankful for if that's how I'm spending a national holiday.


Trivia Question for Friday: Name 5 of the assistant coaches from the 1992 Green Bay Packers that went on to become NFL head coaches.

** Last Friday's Answer: I really have no idea. I was trying to look that up for Ed the other day and I couldn't find it and I was hoping someone else would do it for me if I posted it in the blog. Ross may very well be right but for now I'm going to go with Ed's theory that no such rules are in place and if that ever actually happened we'd see panic levels that would make Sherman on a Tuesday afternoon look like a cool customer.


I guess I'll watch Giants-Redskins on Sunday morning. Even though the Skins defense is dealing with numerous injuries to key guys and my brother is bringing his jinx girlfriend to the game. I hate sports.


Enjoy the game.