The two sides of giving.

First, let me share this heartwarming story from Yahoo Sports:

Young Brandon Jacobs fan gets his $3.36 back, plus bounce house time with his hero

By MJD

Remember the adorable little New York Giants fan named Joe who sent the contents of his piggy bank to Brandon Jacobs because "money" was the reason that Jacobs had to leave the Giants? The young fellow got his money back this week, hand-delivered by Jacobs, along with a signed Giants helmet and a bouncy, memorable afternoon with his favorite football player.

Jacobs told Matt Barrow of the Sacramento Bee that he and his son took Joe and his brother out to a bounce house for the afternoon and had a blast.

"It was just us in the whole place and we were just going room to room - just bouncing and flipping all over the place, hitting each other with balls, sweating, our shirts filthy. We were just dirty, stinky boys, you know?"

Added Joe's mom, Julie:

"He told me he really wanted to get out there with the kids. [...] He really wanted to enjoy it, and he did. It was amazing."

I love a story that ends with warm fuzzies all around. It was a sweet act by the child to send Jacobs his piggy bank money, and it was sweet of Jacobs to make sure the little guy knew that the gesture was appreciated. Jacobs is even pulling inspiration from the whole thing to get him motivated for the season.

"I'm at a point in my career when people have stopped believing in me and not believing that I can still play. But that's not the case. Joe believes in me, gave me a lot of confidence and a lot of want-to. And I'm ready to go. I can't wait until the season starts."

Not only did he take the little fan, but his little brother, along with his own son, and the four of them had the place all to themselves.  Jacobs also gave the boy a signed Giants helmet and $5.00 (not just the $3.36 he sent) to refill his piggy bank.   It's rare to hear this kind of class from anyone, and I wish Jacobs the best with the Niners.

image courtesy Brandon Jacobs

The other side of the coin comes to us from that paragon of vitrue, Barack Obama. From BarackObama.com:



Got a birthday, anniversary, or wedding coming up?
Let your friends know how important this election is to you—register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift. It’s a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it’s a gift that we can all appreciate—and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl.
Setting up and sharing your registry page is easy—so get started today.


If you're saying to yourself, "C'mon, Chris, Obama can't POSSIBLY be this crass", just go here.  Sign up at the OER now- it's the gift that keeps on taking!

And guess what?  I'm published on Yahoo!  See my poem about the misconceptions of Independence Day at http://voices.yahoo.com/the-true-independence-day-11486302.html.  Go now! I get paid for this!  And it's pretty good, too!

The super game

No, not that one… although I will have some comments here in a bit.  My boys from Yaroslavl were at home in front of the usual packed house of 8,900 to face Dynamo Balashika, whom as I said earlier is not a real strong team.

The boys almost put it away in the first minute of the game. Dmitry Maltsev scored in a scramble just 26 seconds from the opening face-off, his 4th of the year; and off the face-off from that, two quick passes had Daniil Yerdakov out at the edge of the circle and he blasted one past beleaguered goalie Dmitry Voloshin for his fourth goal with Lokomotiv and 15th on the year, and it was 2-0 before the first minute was out.  Things settled down, relatively, until Emil Galimov scored his 8th, rolling nearly the length of the rink at 6:12 to make it 3-0; Forty-five seconds later, Oleg Yashin scored on a breakaway for his 10th of the year and a 4-0 margin.  Needless to say, at this point we bid farewell to Mr. Voloshin and greeted Alexandr Cherepenin in the Dynamo goal.  The period ended the same, with Lokomotiv scoring on 4 of 13 shots in the period- all 4 goals on just 5 shots against poor Voroshin.

In the second stanza, we upped the margin to 5-0 at 2:11 on a Rafael Akhmetov score, his 5th, on a power play.  But then with Lokomotiv a man down, Maxim Erokhin got a PP goal to put Dynamo on the board.  Then things suddenly got dicey;  Nikita Lohzkin was screened on a shot by Dmitry Goldenkov that made it 5-2, and then  Daniil Romantsev lost a pass out front and  Ivan Ivanov slammed it home to cut the margin to 5-3.  Dynamo had 16 second period shots, and what looked like a rout suddenly got scary…

…Until the third period.  Dynamo found itself getting just 5 shots on goal in the third, and Daniil Apelkov netted his 2nd with just 7 seconds left, and the boys had a 6-3 win.

After the game coach Vorobiev was interviewed.  One of the q/as was as follows:
Can I say that in VHL "Locomotive" can play at least on par with any competitor? - you can say anything. Another thing - as it happens. One game can beat any opponent, due to a crazy mood, for example, or luck. Also, any meeting can be and play - what if the opponent goalkeeper before the game something to eat. On what the team is able to show playoff games. Only they will answer the question - Does the team matured, we became man ...

The boys are off till Sunday, when they draw Kazzinc-Torpedo, with Donbass one of 2 non-Russian teams in the VHL.  The game will be played at Torpedo’s home in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, and elsewhere in the interview Vorobiev mentioned that the long road trip earlier in the year Left both goalies with “butterfly”.  The interviewer grilled him on bringing up a certain hot goaltender from the youth team, but Vorobiev said that it had been discussed and decided against.  Several times, in fact, as the interviewer seemed unwilling to let it go.  But this is my fourth season following Russian hockey, and one thing I learned early was that in Russian, goaltender and scapegoat tend to be interchangeable.

Next, my brief comments on the Giants’ SB win.  Once again, the officiating embarrassed itself in places.  The midfield official that looked right at that Patriot pass interference in the fourth and held his peace, if I were king of the world would have been immediately escorted from the stadium.  I thought Tom Coughlin was going to fly through the air after him!  Second, KC bugged me all day about Eli being a hall of famer.  I told him at the beginning of his late TD drive, “If he can get a TD here, I’ll agree with you.”  When Eli got them the TD, I said, “Okay, I said it, I’ll stand by it.”  Finally, my postgame post on Facebook- “Now New England goes from being ‘the team that won 4 super Bowls’ to ‘the team that got beat by Eli twice.’”

Congrats to Fumble, winner of Most Valuable Pup at Puppy Bowl VIII yesterday!  The best part of any Super Bowl Sunday is the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.

Finally, and totally unrelated to sports in any way (except extreeeeeeeemly tenuously), I give you this late-breaking news story:

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (CN) - A college student claims he was injured when a fraternity member in a "drunken stupor" decided "that it would be a good idea to shoot bottle rockets out of his anus," and did so, "but instead of launching, the bottle rocket blew up in the defendant's rectum, and this startled the plaintiff and caused him to jump back," and fall off the fraternity's deck.
Louis Helmburg III sued The Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity Inc., of Huntington, West Virginia, and Travis Hughes, a fraternity member, in Cabell County Court.
Helmburg claims - in a statement it would be difficult to deny - that "firing bottle rockets out of one's own anus constitutes an 'ultra-hazardous' activity," which exposes both defendants to strict liability.
Okay, the lawsuit is breaking, the incident happened last May.  Get your education at the U of West Virginia, where scientific tests have conclusively proven that “firing bottle rockets out of one's own anus constitutes an 'ultra-hazardous' activity”.

New Visa ad

SRO seats at this year's Super Bowl: $267

Club seats on the 50 yard line: $11,950

Catered corner suite: $239,950

Rex and mark watching the game from Biggie's Clam Bar: PRICELESS!!!!

More January junk

It may be just me, but 2011 isn't holding out much promise of being a good year. Added to our problems with the old car and lack of work (which is to continue at least Monday for Laurie), My son KC got fired because A) Steak and Shake is too cheap to have a manager on third shift; B) as a result, one of the third shifters decided to cull from the till; C) without enough help on their busy nights, even the honest workers had a lot of 'deletes' on their registers; D) management, instead of EVER counselling the workers about their 'deletes', waited instead for the engineer-less train to go off the tracks- which of course it did; and E) given that all of the above made it impossible for management to tell who were white hats and who were black hats, fired the lot of them- saying that if you had 'deletes' on your register, you MUST be stealing.

(Note to my readers: I've already informed S&S what I thought of their practices. I'm not an organizer of boycotts, but I told them I'd not be back. If you think about it the next time you consider stopping at S&S, do me a favor- blow yer horn, wave a finger of your choice at them, and drive away for another day.)

So now KC is looking for work despite the fact that often he was the only one working FOR them. Oh, well, with management like that, it won't be the last time. During the week, a former neighbor of mine had a streak that included A) finding out the hat from his favorite football team that he ordered 3 weeks ago was sold out; B) his microwave blew up; C) his trip to this week's Komet game was an OT loss; and D) the aforementioned favorite team got clocked by Da Bears this afternoon. Sports was also bad news for KC; each and every playoff game he picked has went the other way, including the embarrassing losses by his pre-season Super Bowl picks, Atlanta and Baltimore.

Now an old friend gives me her latest: As last year wound down, much of her husband's family ended up in the hospital (actually in the same hospital for a period; inconvenient since they were two sets of steps, or exes, however you want to look at it). One passed away; another, who had gone home, passed out in church this morning and is right back in. In the meantime, her father got a pretty severe back injury; was put into a home for OT to get back in shape- but now his insurance says that's good enough, send him home- as of tonight- and she'll have to come up from her home north of Indy to the Summit City to stay with him a while. Nice job on the health care, Obama!!!

(Note to readers: I know you can't blame it on him yet, but I haven't picked on him in a while; yes, Charlotte, I was kidding.)

In the meantime, KC posted a quote from his significant other on facebook last night: to the effect of I could talk the Pope into doing something bad with my way with words. I'd much rather be able to talk people (are you listening, Joshua?) into doing right; I seem to have a hard enough time listening to my own good conscience. In the last few weeks, just looking at FB, I've seen someone I don't know feel like giving up because some dude left his key and split; a young girl I know constantly dealing with heartache of people she cares for crapping on her; and an old friend who is dealing with some manner of emotional abuse. I wish I had words for any of them; but what do you say? When you're in those situations, even "I care" sounds phony- especially if you're not close. I only wish I was as good with words as Ashley thinks... or better yet, with actions. I feel like all I can really do is pray, and hope that Jesus has a "hug" for them.

And on top of that, now the JETS are taking the wood to New England. Far from me to root for the Pats, but EVERYBODY hates the Jets.

I guess though, if you can still look at sports when things are going bad, it can't be THAT bad.

Nice thing about that game was a very satisfying (for me) stretch early on. Play #1, Brady gets picked off, then gets juked out of his jockstrap. And still, the Jet defender got caught before he scored. Play #2, rb Shaun Greene trips over Sanchez's foot and loses yards. Play #3, the Jet blocking Vince Wilfork loses him, and in trying to catch him, runs into the other RB, L.T., and Wilfork tags him for a loss. Play #4, an anomalous good play for the Jets, a three yard gain. Play#5, kicker Nick Folk misses an easy FG. Play#6, Brady gets sacked. Play #7, a good gain turns into a first down when the Jets get called on a face mask penalty. Good times. Go Steelers!!!

January junk

Or, an alliterative way of saying Bits and Pisses. Well, I got to go back to work today, not so Laurie. I got to be a guest packer in the blow-fill dept., which consisted of blowing bits of fuzz off just filled pillows and throwing each flavor in one box; once these boxes were filled, put them in the actual display packages with the right side of the law label up, all upcs facing one direction, doing bits of building the boxes and labelling them when needed, and trimming unruly strings. The main bright spot was I got my chance to see how well the new car does in winter slop (answer, quite well) as well as how it does going home on good road (answer, going 80 feels just as smooth as going 45- a good thing within caution).



My sister Jen Schible turns 59 today!!! Happy birthday, Pete!!!



The continuing story of the facebook page shows us with 3 count 'em three likers so far! Thank you very much. I'll try to make it as rewarding an experience as ... as... well, as rewarding as reading a nitwit like me can be.



I had a comment by anonymous on the first fb post "another retarded idea". They ask,

"retarded doesn't mean stupid. I don't get why you used it here."

Well, anon, it's like this. First off, unlike other cultural buzzwords such as "gay" and the "n" word, it can be used in a non-derogatory sense. It means in essence to be held back to a lower level by some means or for some reason. Unconvinced of its wisdom, I held it to a lower level of esteem than other far better ideas. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to use in this sense; where "gay" I would not use on this site because of its derogatory nature (though I will and do use it in informal conversation because of my opinion of not so much the sin of homosexuality but the activists that want to flaunt it as if there going to gain "converts" to something they claim is "not a choice"); nor would I use the "n" word here, even though to me its definition is "not ambitious enough to work, ambitious enough to commit crimes" As you can see, this can and should apply to people of any race, but is too tied to one (whether from history or from example) to divorce it from race. Once again though, I am wont to use it in private conversations when discussing those who fit the definition.

Secondly, if you look under the windmill on the blog home you see the phrase, "and pc be hanged." If anyone needs to feel offended by my use of this word, be offended because you are a true believer of pc and I am a heretic.

So, Jim Harbaugh is happily ensconced in San Fran, leaving the UM alumni "Jim or bust" clique out in the cold and the rest of them happy to have in Brady Hoke an alumnus, at any rate. The winner in this whole situation, though, is Les Miles. His flirtation with the job was more than enough to scare LSU into giving him that BIIIIG new contract. And Pitt , who took Miami of Ohio's coach when they decided to give Dave Wannestadt the bum's rush (can't argue with that move) and then fired him when he celebrated by smacking his baby-momma around, have ripped off their second mid-major of the off season by stealing Tulsa's coach. Not that I wish bad on anyone, but it would be amusing to see them stumble onto a reason to fire this guy without a game played too, and watch 'em go crawling back to that bum Dave. Speaking of bums, that's pro'ly how Miami coach Tony Sparano felt after owner Stephen Ross and GM Jeff Ireland (remember him? He's the one who during last years draft interview asked Dez Bryant how his mom liked being a ho) fell all over themselves to apologize for "how they handled" their flirtation with the aforementioned Mr. Harbaugh. When original owner of the Dolphins Joe Robbie died in 1990, organizational class died with him.

Oh, and I guess my thought about not giving nutbags air time isn't a worldwide thought. From T6news:

After receiving an offer to be on a nationally syndicated radio talk show, Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church won't picket the funerals of any of the six victims of Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., after all, a church spokeswoman said Wednesday afternoon.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a church spokeswoman, said the pickets had been called off after radio talk show host Mike Gallagher offered to have her on his radio program Monday.
Phelps-Roper said the decision boiled down to the church being able to communicate its message with as wide an audience as possible. She said Gallagher's radio audience is estimated to be about 10 million people.

Gallagher, from what I hear, is to the right of Rush Limbaugh, and I'm sure that broadcast will be a real knee-slapper.

The church had sparked outrage earlier this week when it announced it would protest the Thursday funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was one of six people killed during Saturday's shooting spree that also wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
However, that protest was called off in exchange for the church being given airtime on two radio stations -- KXXT-AM, a 50,000-watt station in the Phoenix suburb of Tolleson, Ariz., and Canadian station CFNY-FM, 102.1 "The Edge" in Toronto.
Phelps-Roper was interviewed on the Dean Blundell Show on the Canadian station on Tuesday and is to be interviewed again on the show Thursday.

Blundell, from what I can determine, is like a "Bob and Tom" show with even less good taste. Shirley will either be highly insulted or feel right at home, depending on how warped a sense of humour she has.

She also is to be a guest on "The Steve Sanchez Show" on Saturday morning on KXXT-AM.
Upon hearing of the church's plans to protest at the funerals of the Tucson shooting victims, some residents of the Arizona city began to organize efforts to shield mourners from the picketers.
As for trading picketing at funerals for radio airtime, Phelps-Roper said, "It's always a question of where can you put the words in the most ears."
This isn't the first time Westboro Baptist Church has traded picketing at a funeral for radio airtime.
In October 2006, the church cancelled plans to protest at the funerals of five Amish girls who were executed in their Pennsylvania school in exchange for an hour of airtime on Gallagher's radio show.
Phelps-Roper said the church also cancelled plans to protest at Virginia Tech after a gunman killed 32 people in a massacre in April 2007 for airtime on Gallagher's show.

When does being "all things to all men" bleed into prostituting your message, Shirley?

Phelps-Roper will be a guest on "The Steve Sanchez Show," a live call-in program that airs from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturdays Topeka time on KXXT-AM radio, which serves Phoenix and the surrounding area.
On Wednesday, Sanchez said he had Phelps-Roper on his program in October before she hung up on him after he challenged her views from a scriptural viewpoint during their chat.
For Saturday's show, he said, he would avoid going "down that road" again and would allow Phelps-Roper to have a "platform" for her viewpoints during 30 minutes of airtime, though he said there would be plenty of "disclaimers" and that he would "moderate" the discussion.
Calls from listeners also may be included during the half-hour segment, which is to run from 9:15 to 9:45 a.m. Topeka time.

That would be 11:15-11:45 our time here in beautiful Fort Wayne, dudes.

Sanchez said the show is heard in several major U.S. cities in addition to Phoenix, and also can be heard live online by logging onto his website, www.thestevesanchezshow.com.
Sanchez said he came up with the idea to offer Phelps-Roper the airtime in exchange for not protesting at the girl's funeral on Tuesday night.
He said he called Phelps-Roper and initially requested that the Westboro church not picket at any of the funerals from Saturday's shooting. However, Sanchez said, Phelps-Roper refused to stay completely away and the two sides agreed that the church wouldn't protest the girl's funeral.
Sanchez said he called Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Tuesday night to inform her the church had agreed to stay away from Thursday's funeral.
Sanchez said that as a Christian, he disagreed with Phelps-Roper's viewpoints, but was willing to give her 30 minutes of airtime to keep the Westboro church away from the girl's funeral.
"Of course she wants her platform," Sanchez said. "I looked at it this way: I'm a grown man, and I can stand 30 minutes of her."

You sure? I've seen grown men puke from just drinking beer.

Meanwhile, a team of four other Westboro Baptist Church members on Friday will be in Washington, D.C., to picket the memorial service for Richard Holbrooke, who was special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan before his death in December.
Margie Phelps said she and three other church members would picket Holbrooke's memorial service at the Kennedy Center , as well as protest at American University and an Islamic center in Washington, D.C.
"It never takes but three or four people to handle one of these things," Phelps said. "There's always people available if we need them. It's just managing the resources the Lord gave us."
Another group of Westboro picketers are to go this weekend to Los Angeles, where they will picket the Golden Globes Awards ceremony.

The Golden Globes? WTF???

Okay, I think I'm done offending and informing for one evening. Gottsa go ta work tomorrow, y'know? (note to Bob G's neighbors- that's what the neighbors you don't like do during the day).

The latest retarded idea

I am trying to set up a TAW page on facebook. This is only a test.

And it is a test which apparently worked. I say apparently because we had one of those "internet explorer has encountered a problem and needs to shut down" moments when I think I sent out invitations to our facebook friends. When I attempted to try again, the faces of those I sent to are "grayed out", but I won't know for sure unless one of these lovely people did get it, did come to TAW, and will puh-lease send a comment saying so.

Anyhow, I'd be taking a nap by now but when I called work and got the bad news of "don't come in tomorrow", I asked if Madame Plant Mgr. would call and let us know if dipping into next summer's vacation week money might be possible and am waiting approximately 22 more minutes for a response. On the bright side, I'll be able to stay up and watch Oregon gaily stampede all over Auburn tonight without worry of that "stayed up too late" feeling.

Speaking of Football, here's an update on the NHFFL's Commissioner's cup race. For those not up to speed, this is just keeping track of our fantasy leagues' point totals through the Super Bowl- aka something to do once our fantasy season is over. Each of us- myself, Laurie, KC, and Shenan, has 3 teams in the league. For those now up to speed and don't want to be, I think I'm done for the day- scroll past the numbers to make sure. For those still with me: the B2s are done (as in all their players are out) with 28 points. The Clock BBQs have 4 left and 37; Rhinos, 2 left and 43; Buzz, 3 left and 47; the world champion KCAs, one left and 48 (I won last year so why be a pig); Rangers, 5 left and 49; T-Cubs, 4 left and 51; SVA, seven count em left and 55; Beagles, 3 left and 58; Angels, 3 left and 60; in second, the Elks, 6 left and 80; and still in the lead with 5 left and 96, the State Ducks.

Okay, fooey on Lisa, I'm going to bed.

Another Day At Home (Sigh...)

Well, the good news is that the car is home once more. The bad news is that we still have no work, and we don't go back till Monday. Nice for vacation, bad for wallet. Looking into a possible trade up, but probably down payments will put it off for right now.
Took a walk today in that lovely light snow this morning. We took the camera in case anything both interesting and capturable came along (it didn't), although we did see the red fox again, and Scrappy had a meeting with a Scottie (which, being a male, didn't go real well).
Hearing more and more about Jim Harbaugh to Miami. Gotta make Sparano feel real good that owner Stephen Ross et al are flying to the coast with reports saying they're going to offer him approximately twice what the 49ers are. At least Rich Rodriguez got the privilege of knowing that he was going to get fired even though Michigan knew they'd never get Harbaugh. Gotta love that statement in the chancelloor's press conf when he said no, he wouldn't be forming a committee to search for a replacement because he had plenty of people giving him advice. IOW, he was quite aware of the alumni breathing down his neck, chanting, "We told you not to hire an outsider...", and was confident they would make his life a living hell unless he hired someone they approved of without having to form a committee to expedite it.
Finally, a shout out to the Baseball HOF for FINALLY putting Bert Blylevin in. Remembering Bert reminded me of the biggest trade I ever saw, in December of '77. Texas was at the heart of this 4 team deal that sent Bert to Pittsburgh, where he would have his typical year in 1978- 14-10, 3.03 ERA. He would rack up 34 wins in Pittsburgh in 3 seasons, moving on to Minnesota, Cleveland, and California to pile up 148 more. Texas also shed themselves of: Tommy Boggs, a pitcher who ended up with a 20-44 career record; Adrian Devine, a pitcher coming off an 11-6 year but only went 7-7 the next 3 seasons; Eddie Miller, an OF who played only 6 games the next year, but went on to have some small success as a pinch runner, all to Atlanta; and Tom Grieve, an outfielder who was much better known later on as Texas' GM, and a player to be named, to the Mets. For Texas' grab bag, the Braves gave up Wille Montanez to the Mets. Willie was a capable OF who gave the Mets his last good season in 1978, .256 BA with 17 HRs and 96 RBI. The player to be named the Mets got was OF Ken Henderson, who had left his best years behind him in San Fran and the south side of Chicago and lasted just 7 games in New York before inflicting his eroding talents on Cincinnati. For all of that value, the Mets sent Jon Matlack to Texas, where he had one of the best years in his 8 years in the majors- 15-13 with a 2.27 ERA; and John Milner to Pittsburgh, where he put up 6 HRs and 38 RBIs the next year and chipped in 16 HRs and 60 RBIs to the "Fam-il-ee" World Series champs of 1979. To finish things off, the Pirates received from the Rangers minor league SS Nelson Norman and 1B Al Oliver, who also became a big cog in the "Fam-il-ee", hitting over .300 in each of his 4 years in Pittsburgh and notching 117 RBI in 1980. So on balance, Texas made out like bandits and so did the Pirates, while the Mets gave up on Matlack (who had had one of his worst years in 1977) a year too soon and the Braves got no more than they could've scraped out of their own double-A team. Oliver and Blylevin are the only ones to have had any lasting success after the deal.
That's hindsight, though. I still remember my excitement when Dick Defay announced the trade on the "sports today with Dick Defay" (subbing for "the gateway to sports with Hilliard Gates"). Ah, Memories.

Bits and Pisses

First of all, if you have looked at the last post and followed the comments, you know that we have, as Gambit of the X-Men once said, been "up dat creek" this week. But we've had a trio of angels who have come down from heaven to help or to offer help, and we should be "car"ed sometime tomorrow. Which is a very good thing, seeing's as we are again in the calm before the storm at work. Calm? We're in the Horse Latitudes tomorrow and possibly Thursday, at about as miserable a time as we could find. Mary, Jack, KC- God bless you.



On the subject, I had an opportunity to work with a gentleman on the shipping dock today who told me he was from Guatemala. He first asked where we were from (an honest question since the plant is in Kendallville and most of the workforce are Ft. Wayne commuters) and then offered his situation. I mentioned to him that we sponsor a boy in Guatemala; we've done so almost 10 years now. He got somewhat emotional, and in his broken but understandable English said, "God bless the people who do this. God bless the people that do this." I guess we can never really know what such an act means until we see the faces of those who live it. And all of those people that say, "I'd like to do this someday" need to give themselves the incredible reward of doing it NOW.



Moving on, My son says on his blog that I really made him eat crow when TCU topped Wisconsin New Years Day. He says, "TCU is my dad's small town team- Boise State is mine." I say, Boise, TCU, Utah- anyone who can suitably make the BCS fatcats look like EEdiots is fine with me. I thought TCU would win because Wisconsin is a lumbering rushing team that had never seen a defense as fast as TCU. And their O is good enough to keep Wisconsin from getting a lead, which draws away from the time that lumbering running game can beat on the d-line. I'd just like to see Arkansas knock off Ohio State tonight so that the Big Ten has to wake up tomorrow wondering how Illinois became the conference's only bowl winner.



So, Mangini is out, as I predicted. Del Rio and Marvin Lewis got their extensions. Miami has joined the teams sniffing around Jim Harbaugh. And, oh yeah, two women have scuttled out of the woodwork to file suit against the Jets and their former shutterbug QB Brett Favre. Y'know, I'd take this more serious if a) in a 20-some year NFL career, these accusations of the photogenic Mr. Favre weren't concentrated in one season- the one in New York; b) as the Jets said, not only is this the first time in the 2+ years since it allegedly occurred that it has been mentioned, but it is the only time the team was contacted about it. Until real, tangible evidence/ a confession comes out on this issue, I'm forced to believe that all of this just proves there are 3 times as many golddiggers in NYC as in the upper Midwest.



And some good news for Bobby G.- Godzilla has just captured Khoosra. Further details pending.

Why aren't you at work?

Because someone has to get the car fixed. Our 2002 Taurus did what 2002 Tauruses are allegedly good at- having a coil spring break and take out a tire. I'd read that this model had stuff like that happen, and when Laurie called me outside to fix the flat, it took very little time to see what happened. Of course on Sunday, of course when no one is open to take care of it, but thank God in the parking lot rather than while driving. So after about an hour of fussing over the next step, I got hold of a co-worker who could take Laurie in this a.m. so ONE of us didn't have to lose 2 days pay (today plus holiday).



In the meanwhile, I finally decided to go ahead and start Commissioner's cup '11, where I take total scores of our fantasy teams and add 'em up through the super bowl. Here at the start, the Ducks have the lead at 79, followed by the Elks at63, the Beagles at 47, Angels and T-Cubs at 40, KCAs and Rhinos at 39, Rangers at 34, SVA at 32, Clock BBQs at 27, Buzz at 25, and the B2s at 18.



In other football, it's that time of year to discover who your coach next year will be. Yesterday's results left Tennessee's Jeff Fisher, Oakland's Tom Cable, the Dolphins' Tony Sparano, Cincy's Marvin Lewis, and Cleveland's Eric Mangini in doubt. The Giant's man of the perpetual WTF face, Tom Coughlin, got told yesterday he's safe; the Vike's Leslie Frazier got told the interim tag is gone, and probably so did the Cowboy's Jason Garrett. Not so in San Fran and Denver, where both teams are rumoured to be in the Jim Harbaugh sweepstakes, along with the U of Michigan. John Fox got told coming in that he was done after his Carolina Panthers played (if you can call it that) Sunday. He can go home and wait by the phone. My hope is that Miami keeps Sparano; I fail to see how it was his fault that management failed to comprehend the lemon-hood of QB Chad Henne and WR Brandon Marshall. We need a quality QB, a deep threat that will actually catch a ball on occasion, and the next generation RB to phase out Ronnie Brown; not a new coach. I would be perplexed as to why the Raiders would dump Cable (since they've seemingly gotten past his sticky character issues), but the Raiders can be like that. One would think it would be a gimmie that a coach with a 4-12 record and a contract that's up would be gone (sorry, Marvin; you were just too tolerant of thugs and thuggery); and it can also be assumed now that Mike Holmgren can say, "Okay, I gave him (Mangini) a chance; now to pick my guy," he will do so. Coughlin I really like, and am glad the Giants kept him. Their WRs were hampered enough that go-to guy devolved onto TE Kevin (I only make good plays right after Chris bitches about me) Boss, which in turn changed Eli Manning from a 14-INT QB to a 25-INT one. And Fisher I would have fired two years ago if I was Bud Adams, but I never did like him.



Finally, we've been watching Holmes On Homes and Holmes Inspection on HGTV lately- Sunday nights. This guy should be required viewing for all contractors, inspectors, and people looking to remodel. A quote he had last night stuck with me: "Why be in a hurry? To make it ugly?" This guy actually inspires me to do better on my job- albeit inspiring me is like the commercial for "USA Prime Credit" where Lou Holtz calls "Peggy" and tells him he needs to send Lou out a replacement card tomorrow. "Peggy" says, "One Month," to which Lou goes into one of his inspirational talks. "Peggy" stands up and says, "You inspire me! Three weeks."

Thursday Tidbits

Item 1: OT Friday all day. Wallet says Yay! Body says uhhh... Also, we lose our two days off paid for Christmas eve/Christmas. We get Thursday and Friday paid at regular time. I'm not all that upset; when it was announced, I was sure in the minority. A bad day for our supervisor (neither involved nor happy with the situation) to be wearing a "grinch" sweatshirt.



Item 2:Which means that Time machine will either be late Friday or Saturday, depending.



Item 3: The Ass ange/Michael Moore/Oberman thing. Moore tells Oberman that the rape allegations are "Hooey". Oberman gets a good laugh out of it, and then gets run off of twitter by people that think rape sympathisers are Richard Craniums. Moore spends 20k of his hardly earned money to spring Ass ange. (Whatever will Krispy Kreme do this week?) So to sum up, the talking head who can't even follow his media outlet's less than stringent ethical principles gives a forum to the leading proponant of using the freedom of speech that this nation's soldiers die for to bash that nation, and combined they laugh off abuse to women when it is committed by their fellow soldier in America bashing. When these men pass on to their reward, it would ber nice to see them have to ply their respective trades in a world as it would have been if the Communist revolution had actually happened. Can you imagine? Moore would be doing documentaries on how important it is to do and think as the politburo tells you; Ass ange would no doubt have a different idea on how easy it is to do 9 days in prison, as well as leaking something other than secrets or semen; and Keith Oberman would have the most popular heavily-sanitized newsletter in the gulag.



Item 4: Super Bowl XIV is underway, and the KCAs draw first blood on a 58 yard td pass by PHILLIP RIVERS!!!



Item 5: Here's a video that Laurie took, trying to capture Scrappy cuddling with me. What's great is his reaction when he finally sees he's on camera.

And now, it's once again time for America's favorite game...

WHO'S DUMBER!!!!!!

Today's contestant #1 is actually a group, or groups, as well as an individual: Our good friend Julian Ass ange and his obedient wiki-zombies. Let's take a look at some of today's hijinks:

The U.N.'s top human rights official raised the alarm over officials' and corporations' moves to cut off WikiLeaks' funding and starve it of server space -- something she described as a "potentially violating WikiLeaks' right to freedom of expression."

As if the wiki-zombie attack had anything to do with free speech. These "misguided zealots" (in quotations to indicate my efforts at politeness) have no problems with shutting down other people rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They are like all hackers, a mass of self glorifying nitwits, wrapping themselves in a banner of nobility that just doesn't fit. And as if to underscore their complete uselessness, the UN is going to stand up for them. I wonder what would happen if Visa, AmEx, Paypal et al decided to break links with them as well.

Navi Pillay also expressed surprise at the scale of the online attacks that have targeted major American financial players -- in some cases denying access to their websites for hours at a time."It's truly what media would call a cyber-war. It's just astonishing what is happening," Pillay told reporters in Geneva.

Of course she's astonished. I'm sure anyone stupid enough to confuse cyberterrorism with free speech would be astonished at almost anything.

Meanwhile the flow of online support has also sparked some solidarity on the streets. A protest in Australia -- the first of a series planned there and in Britain -- sent about 250 demonstrators into the streets of Brisbane, while in the central Pakistani city of Multan, dozens of people took to the streets to burn U.S. and British flags to protest Assange's detention.

That's our Islamic allies for ya, ready to burn Old Glory anytime someone sneezes (ah... AHHH... AAAAALLAH-CHOOO!!!).

The hackers launched "Operation Payback” Tuesday -- a series of denial of service attacks (DDoS), after various groups blocked funding to the WikiLeaks site.

So our great defenders of free speech's logical response to the situation is to deny others (who may or may not have anything to do with the situation) their free speech rights.

The Swedish government's website was shut down for several hours overnight during a cyber attack, while a website bearing Justice Minister Beatrice Ask's name was set up and visitors were redirected to the WikiLeaks site, Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper reported.

But what would we expect from a group who thinks that the best way to express their dislike of this nation's ideals is to hang thousands of soldiers (who are fighting-really fighting- for their free speech) out to dry.

--------------------------------------------

Contestant #2 is a trifecta- Redskins DL Albert Haynesworth, his agent, and the man who paid him all that money to be an idiot.
First, behold the man.

Simmering all year, the antagonism between Albert Haynesworth and Mike Shanahan finally reached the boiling point Tuesday when the two-time All-Pro defensive lineman was suspended by the Washington Redskins coach without pay for the rest of the season.

Citing a litany of acts that essentially add up to season-long insubordination, the Redskins suspended Haynesworth for ''conduct detrimental to the club'' and told him he's not welcome for the team's final four games - and making it extremely unlikely he will play for the club again.
''Despite the club's numerous attempts to persuade Albert Haynesworth to abide by the terms of his contract, he has repeatedly refused to cooperate with our coaching staff in a variety of ways over an extended period of time,'' Shanahan said in statement released by the team. ''Among other things, he has consistently indicated to our defensive coaches that he refuses to play in our base defense or on first-down or second-down nickel situations. He has also refused to follow the instructions of our coaches both during weekly practices and during actual games as well.
''Yesterday, when Albert was at Redskin Park, he told our general manager Bruce Allen that he (Haynesworth) would no longer speak with me. Although suspending any player is not a decision that a head coach enters into lightly, I believe the situation has reached the point where the club clearly has no alternative.''

Won't follow instructions, won't talk to the boss. How does that play at your job?

On to subcontestant #2:

Allen informed Haynesworth of the suspension, the maximum permitted under the league's collective bargaining agreement. Haynesworth's agent, Chad Speck, said his client will appeal. Speck chided the Redskins for not giving any prior formal notice that Haynesworth's behavior was in question.

How much "formal notice" is needed when something as public as Haynesworth's 2-year long mutiny is at question. Really?

Haynesworth skipped offseason workouts because he didn't want to play nose tackle in the 3-4 defense the new coaches were installing, preferring instead to play in a scheme that would showcase his talent and help achieve his goal of becoming ''the best defense tackle to ever play this game.'' Shanahan told Haynesworth to go find another team, contingent upon giving up a $21 million contract bonus due on April 1.
Haynesworth didn't want to give up that much money, so he stayed on the roster and remained disgruntled. He boycotted a mandatory minicamp, drawing a $10,000 fine and searing comments about being ''selfish'' from defensive captain London Fletcher. He became a league-wide punch line when he needed 10 days to pass a conditioning test at the start of training camp.

Which makes me wonder, Chad, to whose benefit Do you work? Your client's happiness or your own big fat commission?

Haynesworth's agent, however, said his client wants to play more and cited several statistics to argue that the Redskins defense has played better when Haynesworth is in the game.
''Albert has repeatedly asked for a bigger role in the defense,'' Speck said. ''He simply wants to play and maximize his contribution to the team. It is unfortunate that he has not been utilized more.''

Which he wouldn't be having a problem with if he was doing what the coaches asked of him. Funny how that works. Finally let's take a brief look at the third leaf of this luckless clover:

The suspension will cost him about $847,000 in salary, a mere trifle amid the $41 million guaranteed in the seven-year contract he signed with the Redskins as a free agent last year after seven seasons with the Tennessee Titans.
The player who infamously said ''You're not going to remember Albert Haynesworth as a bust'' on the day he signed the deal stands to become the biggest bust in Dan Snyder's 11 years as Redskins owner, quite an achievement considering the money overspent on underachievers such as Deion Sanders and Adam Archuleta.
By suspending Haynesworth instead of releasing him, the Redskins keep him from getting what he might have coveted - a chance to play for a contender late in the season. However, it seems almost certain that the Redskins will have to try to trade Haynesworth in the offseason, although his trade value will have plummeted because other teams know Shanahan won't want him back.

Yeah, good job that, Dan. Not to mention that greatest of all hiring decisions, the 2-year reign of unfortunate former coach Jim Zorn.

So, there you have it. I think, though, by the spirit of the game, the Haynesworth Combine win for me; outside of Ms. Pillay at the UN, the first group, to me, are more evil than dumb.

NHFFL playoffs round one.

The KCAs had rebounded from an early deficit on three TDs in about 5 minutes by Michael Turner, Michael Bush, and Pierre Garcon (who must have put a Cowboys jersey on for a play so Peyton (the Cape) Manning could find him) to take a 42-39 lead over the Clock BBQs into Monday night's Jets/Pats matchup. In the mean time, Buzz had been slowly, painfully fighting his way back from a 16-point Thursday deficit and just when he got close, there went Vernon Davis on a 60-something yard reception, and he found himself trailing 42-24 going into Monday Night. But fear not, for Buzz had Ladainian Thomlinson from the Jets, as well as Wes Welker from poor, outmatched New England. And the Clock BBQs only needed one score from a receiver on the league's widely proclaimed best team, that wideout being Santonio Holmes, the man whose hands would surely lift the Lombardi trophy high this coming February. No, KC had no reason to worry about his 2 teams, did he?

Then Jets coach Rex Ryan and Pats boss Bill Belechick, hugged each other a la Todd Haley and Josh McDaniels the day before. And laughed, no doubt because one of them had noted that McDaniels got his well deserved firing earlier that day, and hoping that one of them wouldn't get axed for hugging as well.

And then the J-E-T-S laid one of the most enjoyable eggs in recent sporting history, getting whupped 45-3 as Mark (the Savior) Sanchez threw three interceptions in just 6 third quarter passes. Three, as in all the Jets got was a field goal, and that was after missing one earlier.

Santonio Holmes? Sanchez had him in the endzone late in the game and threw it so far behind him it hit the man covering him in the arm. KCAs 42, Clock BBQs 39.

L.T.? He was thrown to on the next play. Had he caught it, he'd have scored. He seemed to stop dead, as if he thought the pass was going to a receiver in the end zone. It whizzed past his big green letters and hit a New England defender in the gut. However, Wes Welker did manage to score, after one of Sanchez' picks. Rhinos 42, Buzz Lightyears 30.

The KCAs now face Beagles/KCAs III; KCAs won the first 47-21, Scrappy the second, 48-23. These two teams have met in the playoffs once before, in the 2003 division championship, and the KCAs won that one (against Fred, though- Scrappy wasn't born yet) 73-28.

The Rhinos go into the all-Shenan semis against the T-Cubs, who won their meeting earlier this season 41-38. The win against Buzz was the Rhinos first playoff win, after 2 close losses in 2006 and 2007. The T-Cubs have an 11-2 playoff record and their name on the Super Bowl cup 4 times.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't make fun of the Colts for signing Dominick Rhodes for the third time today. The cocky Colts, who thought they could make it through an NFL season with just 3 RBs on the roster have certainly learned a hard lesson. None of those 3 backs have been healthy for very long at a time, and 2 of them (particularly Donald (this sure ain't the Big East) Brown) have been, charitably, less than effective when they simulated healthiness. And now it's back to Rhodes, whose finest personal moment was defecating in an ex-gf's bedroom closet. I probably shouldn't pick on the poor homestaters, particularly since The Cape is mired in a 11 ints, 4 pick-sixes in the last 3 games slump; But what the hey, I've waited for moments like since the Irsays were still contentedly crunching crab cakes in some upscale Chesapeake Bay seafood place, why lay off now?

Don Meredith

Sometimes you just don't know what to say. I can say that there are damn few games that I've ever watched that I didn't sing, "Turn out the lights, the party's over" during. Often prematurely, I wasn't near as good at it as Don was. But as I watched tonight's halftime tribute, and watched Frank Gifford verge on breaking down, and heard Boomer croak through his following voiceover, I too felt that choking in my throat. And for that moment, my plea to God was, "When does this end? When does the dying end?"

I am an adult, though; I know that answer without God responding. I've posted a lot of famous people dying this year. Sparky Anderson. Ernie Harwell. Jimmy Dean. Fess Parker. Tom Bosley. Edwin Newman. Phil Harris. Barbara Billingsley. And there were some closer to home as well, that by and large I've kept to myself. Some of them big parts of life; some of them just flickering images on TV. And some of them both. And I also know that there are more to come. And this is when I feel the saddest for people like my friend Joshua, because I do not know how a person goes on with life when death is the only thing you're sure to accomplish. If I could not turn to my Creator for hope, nothing in life would have meaning. But the sun also rises on all of us, and we all manage somehow to go on.

Still, sometimes it seems you spend half your life collecting the people and memories that keep you warm, and half of life losing them and watching that life get colder by degrees.

God rest you, Don. The party just begins.

3And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,
4and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
5And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new " And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." Rev.21:3-5

A little news and meaningless sports (or is it...)

First off, my opinion on Wiki-leaks and Julian Ass ange. If you have to blackmail the entire world just to keep your website open, you obviously are thought of as a blazing moron outside of your immediate circle and the scumbags like the guy "from a major bank" and the scuzz soldier (who'll hopefully spend the next 35 years or so rotting in a military brig for treason )who leak you your stuff. You'd think one of them might have leaked you a manual on how to have consensual sex where both parties consent. So, Mr. Ass ange, I say to you, go ahead! Release your "insurance files"! Not only will any blood spilled be on your uncaring head, and those of your dip$#it elite, but it will cement your legacy as the biggest unimportant a$$wipe in the history of mankind.

Rant #1 done, moving on. I was just looking at the college bowl situation, which was denuded of all suspense by yesterday's wins by Auburn and Oregon. Among the things that caught my eye was that of 35 (yes, 35) bowl games, I saw 7 that I did not recognize. The Military Bowl- which used to be the Eagle Bank Bowl, apparently. The Texas Bowl, which has been played in Houston since 2006, I guess below my personal radar. The Pinstripe Bowl, which is new this year and (not surprisingly) being played in Yankee Stadium, that bastion of football legend. The new Ticket City Bowl, which takes over the old Cotton Bowl site this year since the "Cotton Bowl Classic" moved to Jerry Jones' palace in Arlington. Their matchup is Texas Tech and Northwestern so I wonder if "Ticket City" isn't going to be a better after-the-game name for it. The Godaddy.com Bowl (which isn't a lingerie game featuring Danika Patrick) in Mobile, AL is the former GMAC Bowl, which of course dropped its sponsorship when it became the current Ally Bank. The BBVA Compass Bowl, just down I-65 in Birmingham, used to be the Pappajohns.com bowl before the sponsorship was taken over by BBVA, a Spanish bank whose America subsidiary, Compass, is in Birmingham. And finally the Kraft Fight-Hunger Bowl is the former Emerald Bowl set in the home of fruits and nuts, San Francisco. Also, I note that 35 bowls means 70 teams, out of the 120 in FBS. CBSSports top 70, updated this a.m., includes one losing team (Oregon State), who no doubt gets replaced in the bowl line up by the one team with a winning record that was not in the top 70, #82 Troy. Okay guys, no more bowls, we've got everybody.

On the FCS side of things, I got to watch most of the App State-Western Illinois game. To give you a brief idea, the App State QB at halftime had not thrown a pass but had 177 yards rushing and 2 tds. Final 42-14. App State goes on to play Villanova, who spotted SF Austin a 21-7 1st quarter lead and then outscored them 47-3 the rest of the way. Eastern Washington schnocked SE Missouri State 37-17, and move on to play North Dakota State, whose lead RB scored three times in the last 5 minutes and change, 28 4th quarter points total, to deflate Big Sky champ Montana State 42-17. Delaware gave Lehigh that expected beating (42-20) and move on to play CAA rival New Hampshire. They pasted Bethune-Cookman (who in 2 season ending losses, one of which I watched, looked more like Buffoon-Cookman) 45-14. The final second round bracket is headed by Wofford, who won the day's only close game, 17-14 against Jacksonville State. They draw Georgia Southern next week, after GaSo routed both William AND Mary 31-15. The triple option attack wore down the W&M defense, who gave up over 425 yards on the ground, while the offense was busy scoring no tds.

Finally, I'd like to announce the players on the NHFFL all-star teams. This years game will be a new thing to our league- a three-way game between the Purple, Gold, and Scarlet Divisions. The Purple will feature KCAs Phillip Rivers at qb, Michael Turner and Jahvid Best at RB, Desean Jackson at wr, kicker Rob Bironas, and the Arizona D; Ranger RB Darren McFadden; Beagle RB Maurice Jones-Drew; and SVAs wrs Antonio Gates, Roddy White, and Andre Johnson. The Gold will bring out Clock BBQs qb Drew Brees, rb Matt Forte, and k Sebastian Janikowski; T-Cubs rb Rashard Mendenhall, and wrs Dwayne Bowe, Greg Jennings, and Mike Wallace; B2s rbs Adrian Peterson, Peyton Hillis and NY Giants D; and Elks wr Hakeem Nicks. The Scarlet division has Ducks qb Aaron Rodgers, rb BenJarvis Green-Ellis, wrs Calvin Johnson and Braylon Edwards; Rhinos rb Arian Foster; Angels rb Chris Johnson and k David Akers; and Buzzers rb Knowshon Moreno, wrs Terrell Owens and Jeremy Macklin, and Green Bay D. Akers won the league's scoring championship with 104 points, followed by Janikowski with 99, Dan Carpenter of the Rhinos at 96, Nick Folk of the Elks at 90, Rodgers and Bowe at 87, Bironas and the Ducks' Neil Rackers at 85, Beagle reservist Adam Vinitieri at 84, and Rivers at 83. Foster was the highest rb at 81, tied for 11th.

Football odds and ends

Just looking over the new coaches poll FCS rankings vis-a-vis the playoff bracket, and it is clear that the selection committee pays about as much attention to the poll as I did. The new #1 team, Eastern Washington, got the #5 seed; #2 SF Austin did not get one of the five seeds (though they did get a first round bye); #3 App State got the #1 seed; #4 William AND Mary got the #2 seed; #5 Delaware got the #3 seed; #6 Wofford got a first round bye but no seed; and it was #7 Montana State who grabbed that last remaining seed, the #4.

Considering that Ivy League champ Penn, ranked #13, doesn't accept playoff bids, that means that if the selection committee went by the poll, that the top 21 teams minus Penn would get in. But since they don't, #15 Liberty (who cheesed themselves getting beat by CC two weeks ago), #17 Montana (who cheesed themselves in the Great Divide game loss to Montana State), and #19 Jacksonville and #25 Dayton (who got cheesed because the elitist contingent of the selection committee thinks that a Pioneer League which contained FCS's leading offense is inferior to the Patriot League whose champ lost to the two other playoff teams it played 66-10) get to watch on TV. The other two ranked teams that don't go are #23 Grambling (whose conference plays their own championship game- and besides, are a combined 1-18 over the years in the playoffs) , and the amazingly still-ranked Cal Poly. Mind you, this is a team who had the meltdown against rival UC-Davis two weeks ago, and did not play this week, and WENT UP 3 SPOTS, from 23 to 20! There is obviously a sizable contingent of west coast writers involved in the poll who are ABUSING THEIR OFFICE AND SHOULD BE EXPELLED. This is the main reason I got involved in this in the first place.

Joining the list in these teams' place are Western Illinois (#24), Robert Morris (#28, and an auto qualifier from yet another league that is so obviously superior to the Pioneer League), #22 Georgia Southern, and Big South AQ Coastal Carolina who DID NOT GET A SINGLE VOTE! (nor should they have; at least there is some common sense among the voters.

In the meantime, I'm watching Monday Night Football, and this week's NHFFL report will have a record amount of scoring- with things not over yet, we have TWO (2) teams that have 70+ points and another TWO (2) teams that have 60+ points! We are currently at a league average for the week of 44 points even, and I would assume that is a new league record. Not to mention that we have 3 teams getting beat with 41 points or more.

And finally, congrats to Ziggy Wulf, Minnesota Vikings co-owner, who finally had wisdom fall like manna from heaven upon him and fired coach Brad Childress. I would have fired him when he started making major personnel moves behind my back, but I suppose some people have a higher tolerance for insubordination than others.

Chris' FCS page

I wanted to wait until the tourney bracket was released this morning to do my FCS page this week, and am glad I did. I would have put Jacksonville State (which, by the way, is from Jacksonville, Alabama) at #1, but then they blew a 24-7 lead with under 12 minutes left, giving up 3 80+ yd TD drives in a total of 6:26 to lose to Tennessee Tech 35-24 and almost make me look foolish(er) two weeks running. Instead of just doing my rankings, I'm going to go over the bracket, and weave my rankings and thoughts in.

Four games are featured in the opening round next Saturday. The Contestants:
Western Illinois(7-4)- they rolled Northern Iowa (who already clinched a playoff spot) 30-14 yesterday to get here; they end up15th on my rankings. They lost their big boy game to Purdue by a respectable 31-21 score, and are 2-0 against playoff teams, having also beat North Dakota State 28-16.
Coastal Carolina(6-5) will be their opponent, and they snuck in the hardest way. The Big South bid was between Stony Brook (5-0 in the conference going in), Liberty (my # 9, 4-1) and CC (4-1). With Stony Brook and Liberty playing each other and CC playing sucky Charleston Southern, a three way tie loomed. This would go down to the 4th tie breaker- points allowed in conference games. And here it was Stony Brook (68), Coastal Carolina (103), and Liberty (110). All Stony seemingly had to do is keep Liberty under 39, and hope Charleston So. could manage a couple of field goals. But Liberty won 54-28, and CC won 70-3, and the tiebreaker and the playoff spot went to CC. CC's big boy game was a 31-0 loss to West Virginia, and a 43-26 loss to Georgia Southern was their only match against a playoff team. They had lost to Stony Brook and got whacked by Richmond 41-19- the same Richmond team that William AND Mary beat 41-3 to close out the year. Quite obviously, I never did rank CC.

Robert Morris (8-2) was the automatic qualifier out of another weak Conference (the Northeast); I had them ranked 15th. They are one of 5 playoff teams that did not have a big boy game; they are the only one to play no other playoff teams, although they upset Liberty and lost fairly big to Dayton (10-1, 11th), whose conference (the Pioneer League) got boned by the selection committee.
They face off against North Dakota State (7-4, 21st), whom I thought had no chance of getting in after their season ending 3-0 loss to Missouri State. One thing in their favor was that they are one of only 2 playoff teams to win their big boy game, 6-3 over hapless Kansas. However, they've lost both games against playoff teams (16-9 against Northern Iowa and 28-16 against Western Ill.)

Lehigh (9-2, 24th) is the AQ from another league that doesn't really rate one, the Patriot League. In addition to not having a big boy game, they lost to fellow playoff squads New Hampshire and Villanova by a combined 66-10. They get to meet Northern Iowa (7-4, 19th), who went 1-2 against playoff teams ( the loss to Western Ill., plus the win over North Dakota State and a loss to Stephen F. Austin 22-20). Northern's big boy game was a 27-0 loss to Iowa State.

The final first round tilt features South Carolina State (9-2, 12th) against Georgia Southern (7-4, not currently ranked). SC State lost its BBG to Georgia Tech 41-10, and its only playoff opponent was a 14-0 loss to conference rival Bethune-Cookman. GaSo lost its BBG 13-7 to Navy (which is a darn side better than Notre Dame did) and was 2-1 against playoff teams, winning against Coastal Carolina (43-26) and Appalachian State (21-14) and losing to Wofford (33-31).

The Western Ill./CC winner draws Appalachian State (9-2, #1), the tourney's top seed. The Mountaineers got abbreviated by Florida in their BBG (48-10) yesterday, and split their playoff matchups, losing to GaSo but beating Wofford 43-13. That winner faces the winner of Villanova (7-4, 16th) and Stephen F. Austin (9-2, 10th). 'Nova lost their BBG to MAC powerhouse Temple 31-24; they have played a tourney-highest 4 playoff teams, beating Lehigh and Delaware (yesterday, 28-21 in OT, to get in), and losing to William AND Mary (31-24) and New Hampshire (28-21). SF Austin lost their big boy game to Texas A&M (who by the way, beat #7 Nebraska last night) 48-7, but if not for that collapse for the ages against Texas State a few weeks back, they would have never lost again. Their only playoff team was a 22-20 win over Northern Iowa.

The 5-seed is Eastern Washington (9-2, 13th), and they play SE Missouri State (9-2, 14th) in their second round game. I've always ranked Eastern lower because of the weakness of their schedule, which outside of their BBG ( a 49-24 loss to Nevada and Colin Kapernick) featured only (fellow playoff team) Montana State (who blasted them 30-7) and Montana (who they beat). SEMO, as they're known, lost both their BBG (27-10 to Ball State) and their one playoff team (29-27 to Jacksonville State), although they did manage to rout the same Tennessee Tech team that flattened J-ville State yesterday.

Montana State (9-2, 8th) is the 4-seed and will play the winner of Robert Morris/ ND State. State got nipped in their BBG by Washington State (23-22), and beat rival Montana (7-4, 22nd) to get in, as well as their pasting of Eastern Washington, but like their state rival, got clocked by Northern Arizona 34-7.

Delaware (9-2, 4th) would have been the 1-seed and my number one had they not lost to Villanova yesterday. However, they skipped the BBG and lost to both William AND Mary (17-16) and 'Nova to go 0-2 against playoff competition. They draw the Lehigh/ Northern Iowa winner.

Bethune-Cookman (10-1, 6th) lost their undefeated season yesterday in the Florida Classic to Florida A&M 38-27, but still got the AQ bid. Their conference is problematic; their only playoff match was the 14-0 win over SC State, and they had no BBG. They play New Hampshire (7-4, 2oth) who went 2-1 against playoff teams (the wins against Lehigh and 'Nova and a 13-3 loss to William AND Mary) and had a decent BBG, a 38-16 loss to Pitt. In addition, they had a midseason stretch where they swept Richmond, JMU, and UMass by a combined 84-27, essentially putting all three of them out of the playoffs.

Wofford (9-2, 2nd) faces Jacksonville State (9-2, 7th) in their second round game. Their Terriers split their playoff games, both against conference rivals ( the loss to App State and the win over GaSo), and had no BBG. J-ville State, in addition to the aforementioned meltdown last night, won both their only playoff match (against conference rival SEMO) and their BBG (49-48 in OT against Ole Miss).

Finally, we have the #2 seed, William AND Mary (8-3, 3rd). They played a great BBG against North Carolina which they only lost in the 4th quarter 21-17, and they swept their 3 playoff matches over 'Nova, UNH, and Delaware. They draw the GaSo/SC State winner.

Teams I ranked that don't get a tourney invite include #5 Jacksonville (10-1, 5th) #9 Liberty, #11 Dayton, #17 Penn (whose league doesn't accept invites), #22 Montana, #23 Old Dominion, and #25 UMass (who I thought would get an invite, along with either Jacksonville or Dayton).

My first round picks: Western Illinois will clock CC; I'll give a slight nod to ND State over Robert Morris; Northern Iowa will prove that Lehigh has no business at the table; and GaSo will beat SC Stae in a shootout.
My second round picks: App State cruises over Western; SFA over 'Nova; SEMO upsets Eastern Washington; Montana State blasts ND State; Northern Iowa upsets Delaware; UNH over Bethune-Cookman; J-State over Wofford; W&M over GaSo.
My third round picks: SFA stuns App State; Montana State rolls SEMO; UNH edges Northern Iowa; W&M routs J-State.
My semis picks: SFA over Montana State in a classic shootout; W&M over UNH- again.
Championship: William & Mary in a tight, low scoring game which isn't SFA's forte.