news and notes

Item #1: The Gold division wins the 2010 NHFFL All-Pro game. The Gold had 3 rbs and three wrs each get a touchdown to rack up 56 points. 3 T-Cubs (Mendenhall, Bowe, and Wallace), and one each from the division's other tenants; but the star goes to the Clock BBQs Sebastian Janikowski with 4 fgs, 2 of 50+ yds, for 15 points. The Purple come in second with 43, 23 coming from the Arizona D's 23 point Christmas present against Dallas. Jahvid Best, who hadn't scored since his incredible first 2 games of the season, tacked on a 9-pointer as KCAs players scored 37 of the 43. The new Scarlet division limps home with 30, 22 tallied by Aaron Rodgers and his Green Bay D. Thus ends an exciting 2010 season. If you think I was excited to win the Super bowl, how about this: I blew up a copy of my post that day with the headline and picture, and put it on our front door Thursday so when my son and his lady-love came over for Christmas, it was the first thing they saw. It's still out there.

Item #2: Brett Favre pays $50K for impeding the investigation of his improper use of his cell phone. He should have read the fine print: "data and Pee-Pee rates may apply". In the meantime, Jann Sterger's lawyer is whining about the wrist-slapping. I find his opening statement a bit curious.

"My client and I are extremely disappointed, but not surprised, at today’s NFL
announcement that Brett Favre did not violate the NFL “workplace conduct”
policy. While I am not privy to how Mr. Goodell reached such a finding, we
strongly disagree with his conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to
support a violation of the policy. To the contrary, our evidence and the personal
testimony of Ms. Sterger clearly showed a pattern of lewd and offensive behavior
by Mr. Favre that lasted all of the 2008 season. As noted in the NFL’s release,
“there was no evidence to suggest that Sterger engaged in any inappropriate
conduct.” In addition to the offensive messages, there was ample evidence to show
that the sexually explicit photographs were part of Favre’s inappropriate behavior.
Our evidence clearly showed that the photos were sent by Favre."

If this is true, then explain why 1) It took 2 years for the story to come out; 2) at least at the beginning, Sterger was almost as obstructive to the investigation as Favre; and 3) why this is going on in the NFL office and not a courtroom. Personally, I'm a bit skeptical that whatever happened was not encouraged in some way. And not just by Sterger; the whole Rex Ryan's wife's video and Ines Saenz episodes kinda make ya think there's a whole lot of nod-nod-wink-wink things going on in the Jets organization. Kinda ironic in that light that Favre moved from the brothel-like atmosphere of the Jets to the organization that brought us a whole new meaning to the "Love Boat" a few years back.

Item #3: Tucker Carlson, filling in for the apparently temporarily insane Sean Hannity, gives the world his opinion on President Obama's call to the Eagles about Mike Vick:

"I'm a Christian," Carlson quipped mere days after the celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace. "I've made mistakes myself, I believe fervently in second chances, but Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did in a heartless and cruel way. And I think, personally, he should've been executed for that. He wasn't, but the idea that the president of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs? Kind of beyond the pale."

Thank you, Tucker, for your attempt to make the name Christian synonymous with idiot. By the way, we have more than enough nutbags out there doing that. This is like a "who's dumber" except the competition was eliminated beforehand. I grant you, Vick's crime, whether you believe he's paid his debt or not (which I do), was quite heinous. I'm sure many of us suggested that his punishment be meted out by some of the dogs his circle tortured. But in a world where we can barely get people executed for deserving crimes like murder, rape, child molesting, and treason, I tend to think that trying to assign the death penalty to a charge of dogfighting is JUST PLAIN STUPID!

Item#4: Finally, the threatened working our traditional New year's paid holiday has been averted, at least for Laurie and I, along with the sewers who'd had three 12-hr days trying to catch up. Maybe Scrappy will get his New Years wish of a long morning walk.