Posts: 12

1. All's Well That Ends!

   03.Feb.08, 22:06 EST
   
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   The N.Y. Giants won, and that's good.  They deserved to win, won the war up front with the big guys.  New England's offensive line couldn't get the job done . . . the Giants played well and won . . . and thank God, the season is over and there's no more football for awhile.  All along I've thought the undefeated season for the Pats was a fluke, since they played poorly enough to lose several times.  Tonight, they got outplayed and outcoached . . . and finally lost.  And they lost to the boring Giants, the team that's no fun to watch play, unless you like watching a winner. 
   
   All is well that ends, right? 
   
   D. Paz, 2/4/08
   
   

2. The NFL Playoffs

   14.Jan.08, 19:16 EST
   
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   Wow!  I'm impressed with the play of professional football teams during the playoffs so far.  You couldn't ask for better games in terms of excietment, and that's rare for professional football where standardization is the name of the game.  Pro teams are businesses, and they're run like businesses, and it's not smart to be too much of a risk taker in business - right?  Well, that's what common sense would tell you, but that's not what happens sometimes.  It's good for the viewer when risky business is the name of the game.
   
   You can always count on the New York Giants to be boring on offense, but they played a helluva defensive game yesterday and beat the Cowboys.  I watched the second half of that game, was amazed as the ass-kicking they laid on Dallas.  The line play was a mismatch, since the Dallas offensive line decided to go on vacation the second half.  Romo got rattled, and New York managed to dodge a bullet at the end and win the game.  My guess is that Green Bay will kick their ass next week, but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. 
   
   The New England game was the best.  Jacksonville played excellent ball, almost pulled it off . . . but all that does is show how good the Pats really are.  Green Bay wobbled around and beat another good team in the snow . . . not pretty but still a good win.  And it was exciting.  Then San Diego beat Indianapolis in a close one, another exciting game.  I figure the New England vs. San Diego game will be better than the Super Bowl, and I won't be surprised if the patriots lose.  The leaky defense worries me, and San Diego  has people who can put pressure on Brady.
   
   But wouldn't it be great if we had a Super Bowl with New England facing off against Green Bay?  Damn, that's almost too good to be possible, right?  You'd have the two best quarterbacks in the league, maybe of the modern era, playing against each other . . . and a young team versus a veteran team . . . and with two teams on the field that don't mind taking risks.  That would be good, real good.
   
   But what about a Super Bowl with San Diego playing New York?  Or San Diego vs. Green Bay?  Or New England vs. New York?  Not as juicy as the Green Bay/New England match-up . . . but those match-ups show some promise.  All in all, it looks like a good finish for professional football this year.  With a lackluster college season just behind us, football fans needed a boost.  I'm a cynic when it comes to football, but I know good when I see it.  And the past few weekends have been good for pro football.
   
   D. Paz, 1/14/08

3. BCS Stinks . . . But LSU Came Off Smelling Like A Rose

   10.Jan.08, 08:13 EST
   
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   Are we there yet?  Is football about over for awhile? 
   
   I sure hope so 'cause I'm sick of it.  I'm sick of having it hog television time, hearing sports announcers on television drone on about the wonders of football, and . . . well, and just everything about the sport.  College football stinks, especially the BCS, but LSU came off smelling like a rose when they beat Ohio State.  Are they the best football team in the land?  Maybe, but you'll never convince Kansas, Southern Cal, Missouri, and West Virginia of that.  You'll never convince me either, but the championship game was played and LSU won . . . so now it's time to shut up about it.  Like my mama always said, all's well that ends. 
   
   And then there professional football, and the upcoming Super Bowl.  I'd like to see New England win it all 'cause I like seeing records broken or tied.  I'm not that much of a fan of any professional team, so I don't really care who wins.  I've always liked Green Bay, so I should pull for them, and I live in Texas, so I should favor the Cowboys.  But I don't care much who wins.  I think there's a real good chance New England will play either Dallas or Green Bay in the Super Bowl, but that's iffy.  And if it turns out to be a couple of real surprise teams, that's fine with me. 
   
   All's well that ends.
   
   D. Paz, 1/10/08

4. Another Bowl Ass-Kicking for OU

   03.Jan.08, 00:41 EST
   
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   I lived in Oklahoma for 30 years and love the state.  If my kids and grandkids didn't live here in Texas, I'd be back in Oklahoma where folks know how to say, "remarkable!" instead of "No shit?"  But I'm not in Oklahoma, and right now that's a good thing.  I don't have to listen to all my OU fan friends throw out excuses about why the sooners turned up short in another bowl game - way short.
   
   One thing about the sooners, when they lose, they lose big.  LSU made them look like lackies in a national championship game a few years back, and so did Southern Cal.  Oh, they snuck in there and beat FSU on defense one year, but that was back when OU had a defense.  It's been some time since they could brag about being able to shut down good teams.  Let's face it, fellow sooner fans - when it comes to winning the big ones, we suck!  Oh, we get lucky sometimes, like we did this year against Missouri.  I'm still trying to figure out how they beat the tigers . . . twice. 
   
   I'm not disappointed because I recognized OU's weaknesses quite some time ago.  After watching them beat Tulsa on television, I predicted they'd lose four games this year.  Well, I mised it by one, but I knew they'd lose some games because they were lacking in some important departments - defense being one of them.  They had good ends, good linebackers, lousy backs on defense.  They played well on occasion, but over all, they were mediocre.  And the offensive line, the highly touted one?  A disappointment.  The fat boys up front just didn't play well this year, at least not in games that counted. 
   
   Considering their limitations, the sooners had a highly successful year.  I'd give them a B- for their year.  They did win the conference, and that came as a helluva surprise to me.  But they got whupped by a couple of teams that lost a lot of games . . . and they got totally erased tonight by West Virginia.  And yeah, I know they are young and all that.  Will a year make that much difference in these guys, or do OU recruiters need to go shopping for some guys who can get the job done?  I don't know, but one thing's for sure.  The guys they put out there tonight sure didn't get it done, and neither did the coaches. 
   
   Sometimes football is like a blind date in that you get a loser now and then.  But if you go out with that same person again, they're not likely to get any better looking or more fun the second time around.  It's not likely, but they just might . . . right?
   
   D. Paz, 1/2/08
   

5. Drug Testing Athletes

   25.Dec.07, 23:04 EST
   
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   I'm sick of hearing about drug testing athletes.  You can't watch ESPN these days without having to listen to some coverage of drugs in athletics, about some player who flunked his drug test.  What they do to drug abusing athletes doesn't upset me, regardless of how stiff the penalty is . . . as long as they're fair about it.  By fair, I mean consistent.
   
   Anyone who teaches college is forced to deal with NCAA policies about grades and all that.  College rodeo has the toughest grade policy because it requires a student athlete to carry a grade point of 2.0, or a C average.  I don't know what NCAA rules are now, but back in the 90's they were softer than those for rodeo.  And I always felt like they were unfair.  Yeah, I know, what's unfair about requiring a C average?  Nothing . . . as long as you don't single out athletes for that requirement.  Are you going to disqualify other students from extracurricular activities for not have a certain grade point average?  I understand the rule for national rules, uniform rules, because if left to individual schools to decide who's eligible and who isn't, they'd cheat their asses off.  All I'm saying is that singling out an athlete for special requirement is just as unfair as granting them special privileges. 
   
   But what about drugs?  Well, let's take professional baseball for example, since they're the ones getting so much publicity about steriod use.  Put plainly, baseball's testing for performance enhancing drugs is a farce, nothing like the NFL has.  As far as I'm concerned, they can stop testing altogether.  I could care less what they take to enhance their performance, kill pain, or allow them an edge.  As long as it's available to everyone, then it's fair.  And then I see where Congress is considering holding hearing again, thinking maybe they'll pass legislation about drugs in althletics.  Again, it's all a joke. 
   
   Let's be realistic here.  We're talking about football, baseball, track, cycling, and other high paying sports.  So they take drugs, so what?  How about a national law that requires a really stiff drug test for people working in the health care business all the way from doctors down to the guy who sweeps the floor.  Test 'em all, and make damn sure drugs are not being taken by these people.  How about a law requiring teachers to be drug tested regularly, or how about the same test for people who work in the food industry?  Do you want a druggie teaching your kids, or a coke snorter cooking your food?  How about pilots?   Yeah, let's get them too, along with everyone involved in the criminal justice system.
   
   Drug use is rampant in this country.  Ask any employer about it and he'll tell you how bad it is, and we've got some heavy users out there working in occupations a helluva lot more critical than athletics.  Leave the athletes alone and get on the getting illegal drugs out of hospitals, schools, courthouses, capitol buildings, banks, restuarants, factories, and any other place.  If anything, sports is the least likely place drugs will be damaging to the society in general.
   
   When it gets down to it, only a chickenshit takes drugs.  If you don't have the balls for the occupation you've signed up for without having to constantly reinforce yourself with drugs, you don't deserve the job in the first place.  In fact, you don't really have much claim to anything in life.  But if you're a football player supported by drugs, that's one thing.  If you a doctor doing dope, well . . . that's a different story, don't you think?
   
   And Congress sure ought to have better things to worry about than whether or not some baseball player is doping up to get a few more years out of his career.  Get a grip, and get real.  Do something worthwile with your time . . . for a change.  Come to think of it, we probably should encourage Mark McGuire to run for Congress.  He'd damn sure be an improvement over what's there now.  At least he knows how to win.
   
   D. Paz,  12/25/07

6. Jessica's Fault? Do Whut?

   21.Dec.07, 19:44 EST
   
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   OK, I've tried hard to be a Dallas cowboy fan.  I never have been, but now that I live in Texas, I should be patriotic and become a fan of some team down here.  I like the Spurs in basketball, but I can't find a Texas team I can like in either baseball or football.  And I've tried.  Then the cowboys hired Phillips, and I always loved his dad when he coached Houston.  I like Tony Romo and a few other cowboy players, so this year I gave it the cowboy try and worked at liking them.  And I was doing pretty good until this past weekend when they lost to Philly.  There's no excuse for losing to Philly this year, but I'll be damned if the cowboy fans didn't find one.  They blamed Jessica Simpson, and that did it for me.
   
   Blaming Jessica for the cowboy's loss is like blaming the War in Iraq on Laura Bush.  She seems like a sweet woman who just happens to be married to the world's biggest dumbass (we're talking about Laura now), and besides, she's a long suffering woman who deserves the benefit of a doubt.  Can you imagine how many times she's said the words, "It's upside down, George.  Turn the phone the other way."  But Tony Romo seems like a smart guy, and he's lucky most of the time.  I mean, come on guys, he was lucky enough to end up with Jessica as a girlfriend.  That may be his best thrown pass of the year, and then dim-witted fans actually blame her for a loss.  Some sports writers even blamed her.  Dumbasses. 
   
   I'll admit that Jessica could be a distraction.  She looks good enough to distract a procession of monks on a pilgrimage . . . but that's not what happened to Tony Romo in the loss to the eagles.  He just had a bad game, that's all.  And he wasn't the only cowboy to play poorly.  The entire team had an off day, and they got their asses whupped.  End of story.  Fumbling around for an excuse like blaming a single loss on a girlfriend is foolish, childish, and just plain improper.  Teams lose from time to time.  Get used to it.
   
   And even if Jessica did cause it (a big outside chance at best), then I'd just write it off to a case where a quarterback really got lucky.  You know, like sure enough lucky . . . and in that case, I'd forgive him.  So who cares if the team lost their second game?  They're in the play-offs, so what's the beef?
   And just between me and you, even if I had the Super Bowl coming the next day, and Jessica calls and says she wants to see me that night . . . do you think I'm saying no, I've got an important game to play tomorrow?  Not in this lifetime.
   
   D. Paz,  12/21/07
   
   
   

7. This Blog Post is rated Mature.

8. Missouri's Loss a Loss for Big 12

   02.Dec.07, 00:18 EST
   
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   OK, I was full of shit.  There's no  justice for the bottom budget teams in the Big 12 after all . . . but Missouri's loss is a big loss for the Big 12 Conference in a number of ways.  They won't contend for a national champioship, and that will cost them big bucks.  But . . . they'll get three teams in big bowls, and that's a feather in their cap. 
   
   I've been an OU fan for some time, even though I think they spend far too much on sports.   But if you'r gonna compete, you might as well go whole hog, right?  And, I'll go on record as saying that after their performance tonight, they deserve to be in the national championship game against Ohio State.  When it gets right down to it, nobody deserves to win a national championship.  Ohio State only beat four good teams all year long.  LSU had an iffy year, and Georgia didn't even win their division of the SEC.  Kansas only lost one game, but they started the year with four straight cupcakes.  Souther Cal lost two games, didn't distinguish themselves until late in the season.  Va. Tech lost twice, once big, and didn't exactly run over people.  And West Va. got  beat by Pitt.  And we're going to pick a national champion from that bunch?
   
   OU has a weak defensive secondary and an under achieving offensive line, but their two losses were by just a few points . . . and they only played a couple of cupcakes.  They beat some good teams, as many as anybody did, and in a highly competetive conference.  I'd say they deserve to be national champs as much as anyone . . . or they at least should play for it against another undeserving team.
   
   The BCS is bullshit, but that fits the entire college football scene.  We make too much of it, spend too much time and money on it, and get back far less than we pay for.  For all the money spent, the effort expended, the hype and ceremony given to it, we should get more.  Put plainly, in terms of output in relation to expenditure, it's a big rip-off.  But I don't worry much about it.  We've got national elections coming up, and candidates running for the presidency will spend close to a billion bucks.  And will we get our money's worth there?  I don't know about you, but football works better for me.
   
   PMC, 12/02/07

9. Low Budget, High Output . . . and a New Fan!

   25.Nov.07, 13:45 EST
   
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   I watched Missouri beat Kansas last night, remembering all the while that two teams with the lowest football budgets in the Big 12 Conference were slugging it out for the north division championship.  Next week Missouri will go against Oklahoma in San Antonio for the conference championship.  I've been an OU fan for a long time, but this year, I'm pulling for Missouri . . . and for several reasons.
   
   OU represents everything bad about college football.  It pays the football coaches far too much, spends too much, and is more show than they are go.  They had a good year, and they even beat Missouri at home earlier in the season.  I watched that game on television, didn't think then that the best team won, and now find myself hoping Missouri kicks their ass when the meet again next week.  If that happens, justice will be done.
   
   And, I'm pulling for Missouri because they've got a legitimate chance of winning the national championship . . . and OU doesn't.  They blew it by looking like a bus load of stumble bums against Tech two games back.  Wouldn't it be great if the Big 12's lowest budget football program ended up winning the conference and even the national championship?  I'm sure they wouldn't want that honor because I'm sure they'll be asking for more money after this season . . . but that's down the road, not right now.  For the moment, the low budget advocates can point a finger and say, "You see, you can be a winner without spending a lot of unnecessary money."
   
   Yeah, I just became a Missouri fan . . . at least for the time being.  Go tigers!
   
   PMC, 11/25/07

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11. This Blog Post is rated Mature.

12. Football, A Passing Fancy

    15.Nov.07, 14:14 EST
    
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    I didn't think I'd ever live to say  this, but here it comes:  I don't give a shit about football anymore.  In fact, I don't really give a shit about most sports now that I've seasoned into an old fart.  And you see, right there is the word - season.  We're so damn in love with sports in this country that we've even designated entire seasons of the year to them - like with football season, which we're right in the middle of.  Notre Dame has only won a single game, and that's something that should make me happy (never liked 'em) . . . but I don't give a shit.  Ole Miss, where I once worked on a doctorate, is a disaster on the field, and again, I don't give a shit.  Mississippi State is doing better, where I got two degrees, and still I don't give a shit.  And the biggie for me - OU beat Texas, and I could care less.  
    
    When it comes to pro ball, my giveashitter is sure enough broken.  Who cares?  Not me for sure.  Football can now be officially designated as a passing fancy with me - one that lasted for about 60 years . . . but it's finally over.  My grandson is playing high school football down on the border at a large high school, and I have not been to see him play as of this writing.  His daddy, now coaching down there, is a former all-American college defensive tackle . . . a big dude and still a muscle man in his early forties.  Yeah, lights up the scales about close to 300 and is a long way from fat.  And my grandson seems to have avoided the runt gene in the family.  He's wearing a 15 size shoe, is tall, and has aspirations of being like his daddy . . . and he may get there . . . and I sure wish I cared more about it.  Football.  Yeah, but what makes me happy is having a grandson who loves books, and this kid does love to read.  
    
    Mly grandson (his name is Colton Hamilton) had a big picture of Michael Vick hanging on his wall last year, but now he's decided Vick is a jerk.  He got some encouragement from me with that one, but being a real dog lover is what did it.  I just finished reading Donnell Alexander's article about it being a bad year for black jocks . . . and it has been for sure.  And Donnell is probably right when he says blacks get more scrutiny than whites, but it's not just a racial thing.  It's more a thing of simple math - since they make up almost all the players in the league, they're gonna get the attention.  Whites get less attention because there are less of them, by a wide margin.  It's like throwing darts at a board with a small white bulls-eye, you're chances of hitting it are much less than hitting the bigger colored areas.  Michael Vick got nailed 'cause he's a jerk, plain and simple.  Being white wouldn't have helped him.  He could have been the color of clear water, and they would've nailed his ass.  
    
    Don't think I'm taking issue with Donnell on this one, 'cause I'm not.  He makes some valid points in his article, and anyone who's been up close to sports knows he's mostly on the mark.  Whether it's targeting or just math, race shouldn't be a consideration in sports.  The player with the most talent ought to play - period.  Likewise, the player who screws up off the field ought to get nailed for it, regardless of race.  My grandson plays where there's only a few whites on the entire team, but he's a starter and doing well.  He says there's just one black kid on the starting team, and all the rest are Latinos.  Along the border that's mostly what you will find, the frontierizos, the borderlanders who are mostly of Mexican blood.  
    
    Colton doesn't seem to care one way or another who plays around him, and that's the way it should be.  He doesn't come from a home that teaches racial prejudice.  God only knows there are enough sources for it outside the home, though - and the fields and arenas where sports are played are sure not without it.  I'd like for my grandson to take away from football, or any sport he decides to play, something a lot more worthwhile than set notions about race.  I hope that football becomes a passing fancy with him . . . after he has had a decent relationship with it for some time.  Maybe he'll be a faster learner than his grandpa.
    
    Yeah, I have sure loved football and lots of other sports over they years, but I'm finally over it.  And I wasn't just a casaul observer either.  Football wasn't my game, but rodeo was for a while.  I ended up getting to stand on an awards stage and receive national championship team trophies with my guys on several occasions - in college rodeo, a sport that's every bit as tough and demanding as football.  Not many years ago I sat in my living room one night and watched the PRCA Finals from Las Vegas, and noted with pride that almost half of the bronc riders who'd made it there were young men I had a hand in recruiting.  That's the game in any college sport, the recruiting, and we were good at it.  Most of those young men graduated from the university where I headed up the rodeo program for a while.  Am I proud of that?  Damn right . . . but I don't miss it.  I don't even watch it anymore.  I'm over it now - something that was a lot more to me than a passing fancy.  Football should've been easy to brush aside, but it wasn't.
    
    So what caused me to lose interest in football and most other sports?  Well, it sure as hell wasn't Michael Vick or any other jerk playing the game.  It didn't have anything to do with race or any other social condition or problem.  I just got sick of it.  I just got to where it seemed like a stupid waste of my time.  It's just a game, and my interest in games has changed.  I read more now, and I sure write more.  Writing takes time, as does dealing with people who would like to get your stuff in print.  I'm a real moron when it comes to things like that - dealing with a publisher.  Everytime I play that game, I come away from it thinking, "Shit!  I think maybe I'm qualified to serve in the Bush Administration."  
    
    And speaking of shitty games, now there's one for you.  But we won't go there.  I'm getting over that too.
    
    D. Paz,  10/11/07