Ever since season two I've been completely hooked by Idol, and at this point I can;t bear the idea of not putting my two cents in after every show. I was a little disappointed tonight to see that Paul Kim was voted out. He was one of my early favorites, not necessarily to win the competition, but I enjoyed his performances. Maybe people were put off by the fact that he didn't wear shoes, and admittedly his song selection wasn't great, but he had a great voice and should have made the final twelve. As for the other three, I can't really complain, I didn't think much of any of them, I would've rather seen Antonella Barba go home than Nicole Tranquillo, I think she just picked a bad song and had enough talent to stay around. The highlight of the show for me was that Simon acted like a dick to the very end, throwing one last shot at Rudy after he'd been voted off. The lowlight was Fantasia's performance, not that there's anything wrong with her, but I'm definitely not the intended audience.
Enough about Idol, there were a bunch of little things in the sports world I wanted to mention. A big night in the NBA, Dwyane Wade dislocated his shoulder and should be out for about 6 weeks. He'll back in time for the playoffs, but right now the heat are very much in danger of finishing on the outside looking in. It was tough to watch Wade start crying on the sideline and then to see him rolled off in a wheelchair seemed like a bit much for a shoulder injury. The real highlight of the night for me was when Shaq dunked on Mutombo then wagged the finger in his face, the refs gave him a technical, but it was probably worth it, Mutombo has probably wagged his finger over a thousand times, and Shaq may have even been a victim before. The only other noteworthy event was the lack of trades before today's deadline. I guess Andrew Bynum is too much to ask in return for one of the best point guards of all-time. I don;t know if Kidd would've made the Lakers a champion, but I think they're rating Bynum too highly.
A mixed bag of news for the Patriots fans, Adalius Thomas will be available as a free agent, and the Pats could definitely use him. He'd fit right into their style, unfortunately he'll probably be getting huge offers due to the raised salary cap and the lack of other free agents. The really bad news for the Pats is that Chad Jackson has a torn ACL and it's just another sign pointing to Jackson being a huge bust.
Last note today, good luck to one of my favorite baseball players of the last ten years, the mighty El Guapo is making a comeback. Rich Garces signed with the Nashua Pride in hopes of making it back to the bigs, if nothing else it should sell a few tickets for the Pride.
That's all I've got for today.
-Bender Out
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Tribute to DJ
Like everyone else I was in shock when I heard the news today that Dennis Johnson had collapsed and died today. He was only 52 years old, and it makes me extra sad because DJ was always such a nice and fun guy in interviews. Not that I really know, but he always struck me as a nice guy in addition to being a great basketball player. And as the brief tributes began to pour in, I was shocked to find out that DJ was not in the Hall-of-Fame. To me it just reveals the lack of understanding out there about who really is a great basketball player. Larry Bird said DJ was the best he ever played with, which is not an empty compliment when you think of how many great players were on the Celtics in the 80s. He was also the best player on that championship Sonics team in the late 70s, he won the finals MVP in 1979. He did all the the little things that added up to wins, he was one of the best defensive players of his era, and always did a great job matching up with Magic in those great Lakers/Celtics battles in the mid-80s. He had a great understanding of the game and he had a knack for coming through in the clutch, as best exemplified by his role in the greatest play in the history of the NBA, Bird's steal against the Pistons. Sure Bird made an amazing steal, but it wouldn't meant much if DJ hadn't made a heads up play to cut down the lane and then finished it off over a Joe Dumars. (Take a look on youtube). DJ was always clutch for the Celtics in those days, I can never remember him not coming through. As Ric Bucher said today on ESPN, it was typical of DJ to be helping a player learning some of the little things in the game at the time of his death. DJ was a former head coach briefly for the Clippers in the NBA, and had been an assistant with The Celtics before that, and some people in his position may have been too proud to work in the D-league, but Dennis was never the type to shy away from hard work, and that was what made him one the finest and most underrated players of his era. Hopefully DJ will be put into the Hall-of-Fame soon, but I just wish he had been able to enjoy the honor and be there to accept it.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
American Idol: Day 2
I've been having fun with the beginning of the live American Idol episodes, but I have to begin with a crazy story. Tommy "The Duke" Morrison, claiming that he never really was HIV positive. This story just doesn;t make any sense, no matter what the truith is. Morrison retired ten years ago due to a positive test for HIV, but now he says it was a false positive. Wouldn't you take a second test just to make sure? If it really was a doctor's mistake, wouldn;t he be unleashing a nasty lawsuit against his doctors? If he really was and is carrying the HIV virus, how could he get doctors in Arizona to say that tests now show he has no signs of it? This is not the end of the story, they really need to answer these questions in the future. The biggest question is, why would Tommy Gunn get back in the ring now? He was a mediocre boxer ten years ago, and there's no reason that should be any different now, in fact he should be a step or two lower on the totem poll, to the point where medocrity is something he could strive for. There's even a chance that his return bout goes so poorly, that no one will care what the truth is in this case.
Onto entertainment, which is usually more upbeat, but tonight I have sad news. Tomorrow night is the final episode of the OC. I know many of you are shocked to hear that this show was even still on the air, but it was, and it will be for one more night. The show never delivered on its initial promise, it could have been something much more, but sadly it burned out faster than Dawson's Creek. Perhaps if they had concentrated on Rachel Bilson more, put in some plotlines where she hung out in a bikini for a whole summer's worth of episodes, but alas, it's all too little too let. I'm actually glad it's finally being put to rest mercifully, I found everything after the first six episodes to be unwatchable, there was buzz about a hot lesbian relationship and some other racy storylines but it never had the magic of Bevery Hills 90210 and will be forgotten much sooner.
Ok, now for my favorite guilty pleasure, trying to decide who is the hottest girl on this year's edition of American Idol. Well unfortunately, this year my rooting interst will have to based on talent. There are certainly no Carrie Underwoods or Kelly Picklers in this crowd. I watched closely, hoping to find a diamond in the rough and the best I could come up with were Haley Scarnato, who has the same body as the post-idol Katherine McPhee and Nicole Tranquillo who looked good right up to the point where she started making ridiculous faces when she started singing. The worst news is that these two girls, along with the mildly attractive Antonella Barba and Alainna Alexander, will be gone soon. I lump those last two girls together for no other reason than they blend together in my mind, and I'm completely unimpressed. All hope is not lost, if Sabrina Sloan or Amy Krebs starts dressing sluttier, they could be darkhorses over time. They would have to be counting on "hottest girl at the party" factor. You know, the interesting phenomenon where a guy will convince himself that a mildly attractive girl is really hot due to the fact that there are no other decent looking girls around. But the most likely scenario is that I'll have to root for one of the girls who isn;t really attractive but is very likable and talented as well. The three most likable contestants were the girls that had that "gee shucks" factor. They were very unassuming and they got they based on their voices as opposed to their "star factor." The three women in this category are Leslie Hunt, Jordina Sparks and Melinda Doolittle. Hunt is goofy and likeable , she's a dog-walker by day, and the most unassuming contestant this year, she sang Natural Woman, and her voice sounded good, (worth noting, her brother Mike stood up and cheered loudly.) Sparks is this years young girl contestant, and she's sweet and sings pleasing songs, but will eventually lose out because of her lack of understanding of the songs. And Doolittle is a great singer who could win if she can get over the idea in her head that she isn;t a star. The most impressive performance was Lakisha Jones, who stands alone as the favorite right now, she sang the song from Dreamgirls and managed to put Jennifer Hudson to shame. But I'm not one for hopping on the bandwagon, so as of now I'm rooting For Melinda Doolittle.
General observations on the show, it drives me crazy when the performers song songs that I don;t know or they try their own arrangement of a famous song. Save that for the later rounds, these two types of performances would strike me as the best way to get yourself eliminated early on. Also, I've long suspected that they line up the performances based on how well they do in rehearsals, and after tonight there's no doubt in my mind. Are you going to tell me that it's just a coincidence that the girl who was by far the best was last on the show? It'll become more and more clear as the season goes on if you hadn;t noticed it already in the past.
The real star of this show is definitely Simon Cowell. He makes this show what it is. Not just with his analysis which everyone seems to think is mean spirited but is probably the most honest thing coming form any of the judges, but more for his "bad-guy" personality. Sometimes it reminds me of watching wrestling, I half expect him to turn to the audience and start shouting "shut up" while he covers his ears. It really is great entertainment, tonight's highlight was when he claimed Ryan Seacrest was trying to hit on one of the women, and Seacrest didn;t know how to react. On one hand, it was a nice way to combat the gay rumors, but on the other hand he's supposed to fight with Simon. Seacrest decided not to shout back, "Don't you know I'm gay you idiot?" Instead he didn;t respond.
On a final note in the world of sports. Maceo Baston had a nasty dunk for the Pacers tonight. I bring this up not because I'm all about nasty dunks, but because I had no idea that Baston was still around. It's been over ten years since he was trying to become part of the new Fab Five at michigan, that's a long time for someone to still be grinding it out without ever really making it in the NBA, anyway, good for him.
As Always
-Bender Out
Trade Talking
Trade deadlines are a funny thing, in some ways they are the most exciting part of the season, but in other ways, nothing ever happens. Every year there are huge names thrown out there in trade rumors, and then the deadline comes and goes without anything close to a blockbuster deal. Of course there are exceptions, a few years ago Gary Payton got traded for Ray Allen, but other years the biggest name was Scott Brooks. So right now we're hearing huge names, (Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Pau Gasol, Mike Bibby, even Keving Garnett,) but my money is on no big deals. The main reason is that unlike baseball, there is much better value in trading a star during the off-season as opposed to mid-season. Most of the offers these teams will get will involve draft picks, and they want to be sure that those draft picks are as high in June as they think they'll be now. The only guys who make any sense to be traded now are Kidd and Carter. Kidd because of his marital troubles off the court and Carter because his contract is up at the end of the year. The problem is that no teams are willing to risk giving up good players in return, because they don't want to mess too much with their chemistry that has them succesful to this point. The Lakers are rumored to be offering Jordan Farmar, Kwame Brown and Chris Mihm for Kidd. I can't imagine that New Jersey could get at all excited about that group, especially since the key piece coming their way would be Farmar and the Nets already have a rookie poiunt guard they're high on in Marcus Williams. I hope I'm wrong and all the aforementioned stars are traded in the next day, but history says we won't be so lucky.
That's enough sports for today, I wanted to give some initial thoughts on the first night of the American Idol live competitions. It was the twelve guys last night, and there really weren't too many highlights from a singing perspective. The most notable things were the beat box kid who just sang a normal song, and the asian guy who decided not to wear any shoes. I wasn't really a fan of the no shoes thing, but I like the way he sings, hopefully he'll be around for a while. Thoughts about the competition in general are that a lot of people are going for style over substance. I guess this is the Taylor Hicks factor, they're intentionally angling to be very likable and quirky to make up for a lack of pure talent. Taylor was not the most talented contestant last year but he felt the music, danced poorly and he had gray hair, all of which got him a lot of votes. This year's most obvious Taylor Hicks impersonation is being made by a kid named Chris Sligh. Sligh looks lack Jack Osbourne but has a good enough voice and is trying to ooze personality. In his pre-show interview he basically stated that his strategy was to stand out in ways other than singing, which while it is a good strategy, should never be stated on the show. Also worthy of noting is how overhyped this kid Sundance Head has proven to be. He's gotten a lot of camera time, and he's got personality, but it seems like every performance is worse than the one before. He probably won;t get voted off right away because he is unique, but if there is any justice he won;t make it to the final twelve.
As for the show in general, the best part last night was the battle of the divas. Ryan Seacrest vs. Simon Cowell in an insult war, which is kinda fun because they both deserve it. I'm expecting an impromptu edition of "Yo Momma" to break out before the end of the season, complete with guest appearance by Fes himself, Wilmer Valderrama.
I am an unapologetic fan of these reality/competition shows, going back to watching Starsearch in my youth. That's half the reason I'm pumped for the new season of Dancing with the Stars. There aren't any really sexy ladies a la Stacy Keibler, but I was happy to see Ian Ziering on the list for this season. The world needs more Steve Sanders, I've always been a fan of his since he became my first ever celebrity sighting outside of The Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill, he and Luke Perry were out one of those insane celebrity appearances they were doing when 90210 first got on the air. Their combined age at the time of that sighting, a youthful 80 years old.
That's all for today.
-Bender Out
That's enough sports for today, I wanted to give some initial thoughts on the first night of the American Idol live competitions. It was the twelve guys last night, and there really weren't too many highlights from a singing perspective. The most notable things were the beat box kid who just sang a normal song, and the asian guy who decided not to wear any shoes. I wasn't really a fan of the no shoes thing, but I like the way he sings, hopefully he'll be around for a while. Thoughts about the competition in general are that a lot of people are going for style over substance. I guess this is the Taylor Hicks factor, they're intentionally angling to be very likable and quirky to make up for a lack of pure talent. Taylor was not the most talented contestant last year but he felt the music, danced poorly and he had gray hair, all of which got him a lot of votes. This year's most obvious Taylor Hicks impersonation is being made by a kid named Chris Sligh. Sligh looks lack Jack Osbourne but has a good enough voice and is trying to ooze personality. In his pre-show interview he basically stated that his strategy was to stand out in ways other than singing, which while it is a good strategy, should never be stated on the show. Also worthy of noting is how overhyped this kid Sundance Head has proven to be. He's gotten a lot of camera time, and he's got personality, but it seems like every performance is worse than the one before. He probably won;t get voted off right away because he is unique, but if there is any justice he won;t make it to the final twelve.
As for the show in general, the best part last night was the battle of the divas. Ryan Seacrest vs. Simon Cowell in an insult war, which is kinda fun because they both deserve it. I'm expecting an impromptu edition of "Yo Momma" to break out before the end of the season, complete with guest appearance by Fes himself, Wilmer Valderrama.
I am an unapologetic fan of these reality/competition shows, going back to watching Starsearch in my youth. That's half the reason I'm pumped for the new season of Dancing with the Stars. There aren't any really sexy ladies a la Stacy Keibler, but I was happy to see Ian Ziering on the list for this season. The world needs more Steve Sanders, I've always been a fan of his since he became my first ever celebrity sighting outside of The Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill, he and Luke Perry were out one of those insane celebrity appearances they were doing when 90210 first got on the air. Their combined age at the time of that sighting, a youthful 80 years old.
That's all for today.
-Bender Out
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Weird Scenes Inside the Courtroom
Today saw one of the most bizarre situations ever in a high profile court case. During the Charlie Weis malpractice lawsuit this morning, a juror passed out and the doctors on trial quickly came to his aid, as a result it was declared a mistrial. The best news is that everyone is all right. It'll be interesting to see if they can reach a settlement given that both sides know how a trial would go at this point, and their legal fees have to be going through the roof. Not to mention that if the new trial were scheduled during football season, Weis wouldn't be too excited to fly to Boston mid-week for the trial. The biggest positive to come out of this situation from my perspective is that the public will see the risks of ghastric bypass surgery. It was starting to become so mainstream that some people were treating it like it was getting cosmetic surgery, it was the new liposuction. In many ways, Weis is lucky to be alive, and his health is not what it would've been had he never gotten the procedure. My hope is that this will be a cautionary tale for all those considering this surgery, it should only be a last resort.
-Bender Out
Monday, February 19, 2007
Oh Britney
Well it's official, Britney Spears really did shave her head this weekend. I was actually worried about this kinda thing, white America is copying me, they've seen how damn good my shorn head looks and it has led to this. Damn me! Why do I have to look so damn good with a shaved head.
Seriously though, Britney is not in a good place. When she initially broke up with K-Fed we all had great hope that the old Brit was back. But since then it's been one bad turn after another, the partying, the pantyless pictures, the passing out. And this recent development is the most bizarre. It's starting to become obvious that Britney's problems are more than just those of a young rich girl partying a bit too much. I hope she can get things back together, but until I'll just have to try and remember the good times, when Brit was the hottest girl going and we could convince ourselves that she was a saint in her spare time.
Other crazy gossip going on today involves Bridget Moynihan's shocking revelation that she's pregnant with Tom Brady's love child. I was listening to sports radio here in Boston (http://www.weei.com), let me tell you the local ladies women have turned on their fellow Bay-Stater, calling her many names stopping just short of calling her a "wicked big whore." I guess hell hath no fury as a 200 pound woman in a Patriots hoodie., and Boston has a bunch of them. My favorite take on this issue was over on espn.com, where Jemele Hill credited Brady, along with the great Matt Leinart with blazing a new trail for white QBs in the NFL. It's a fun read, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/070219
The most important thing is that Tom and Bridget handle this situation properly, and by that of course I mean a trip to the Maury Povich show. Tom, don;t take her word for it until Maury says those fateful words, "Tom, you are the father." (Note to any Saturday Night Live employees, if this isn;t a sketch next week, I'll be very disappointed.)
Ok, that's it for today.
-Bender Out
Saturday, February 17, 2007
All-Star Blogging
It's All-Star weekend in the NBA so I wanted to throw out a lot of Basketball thoughts that have been on my mind.
First I just had to follow up on the Tim Hardaway comments about hating gay people. I'm glad that Tim was willing to speak his mind, because there were some people trying to pretend that the only reason that there haven't been openly gay players before was a personal choice not to announce it to the public. Well no, between Hardaway's comments and what Amaechi wrote in his book about Jerry Sloan I think we have a better understanding why no active players have come out. So as glad as I am that Hardaway spoke his mind, I'm even more glad that the NBA has fired his ass.
Another criticism I've heard a lot lately is that Amaechi's book is just a money grab, where John is cashing in on his homosexuality, and while I don;t know for sure that he isn;t just cashing in I would argue that there's at least a chance that some young gay athlete will be helped by reading his story. Sure he wants to get paid, just as much as anyone who's ever published a book before him, but I'd say that just about anyone thinks their story is worth telling. One of the more ironic things about this criticism is that two of the people I've seen criticize him are always busy trying to sell their own books. (Unfortunately neither Bill nor Michael read my blog, but if you see them you could call them out on this.)
Ok, I've said my piece on that, onto other happier news. Scottie Pippen wants to make a comeback, and while I think this is an awful idea, it does give me an excuse to make my argument about Pip becoming the most underrated player of all-time. The main reasons to me are simple, a lot of people enjoy the revisionist idea that Jordan was a one man team, forgetting that at times Pippen may have been the second best player in the league, not just the second best player on the Bulls. Second was that Pippen's weakest point was scoring, which is the most basic thing for fans to identify. Pippen was the real point guard on those Bulls teams, not BJ Armstrong or John Paxson and definitely not MJ. Also Pip was one of the best defensive players to ever play the game. He was the perfect complement for Jordan and I think the fact that they fit together so seemlesslyl is one reason why people don;t appreciate what he brought to the last great dynasty in pro sports. In summation, don't come back Scottie, it will just make more people forget how great you really were. He looked to be in good shape, but he's a lot skinnier than he ever was, he may have lost 20 pounds of muscle since his last season.
I've already heard a bunch of people criticizing this year's slam dunk contest, and I do agree that it's not what it used to be. That being said some of the criticisms have been way off base. Some complain about the fact that Kobe, Lebron and VC weren;t participating. Belive me, this is not the issue, there's a simple reason they didn't compete, mainly, they wouldn;t win. They should open up the competition more, and have more penalties for guys missing their dunks, (for the second year in a row Nate Robinson made a mockery of the rules.) All that being said, Gerald Green is the best dunker in the league right now, and his dunks were nice in this year's competition. Dunkers reach their peak right around 20 years old, and Gerald probably could've done more with a couple more attempts.
I didn't really pay too close attention to the dunk contest because I was watching BC vs. UNC over on ESPN. A crushing loss for the Eagles, who are doing their best despite the loss of the best defensive player in all of college basketball. I've really enjoyed the Jared Dudley era at Boston College. He was a last minute addition to the team his freshman year after big recruit Dan Coleman decided to go to Minnesota at the last minute. I guess sometimes it's better to be lucky than good if you're a college basketball coach. During last night's game Dudley made one of the greatest steals I've ever seen, it was right out of the Larry Bird playbook, he faked as if he was going back on D, then quickly jumped back and stole the ball, if Tyrese Rice had done a better Dennis Johnson imitation it may have been the sportscenter play of the day. Dudley missed some key shots down the stretch but that doesn;t happen very often, I don;t know if dudley will be drafted this June, but I'm sure that he'll be a role player in the NBA and have a long career because he does all the little things, and while stiffs like Roy Hibbert and Aaron Gray get a lot of ink about their pro potential, Dudley will be a better pro than either of them.
Speaking of Roy Hibbert, I watched G-town play Villanova, and it was a perfect reflection of the type of basketball that ruined the Big East back in the early 90s. As Jim Carrey might've said "I guess they were playing prison rules." When they get bounced in the first weekend of the tournament and whine about how the officials called them too tight on some nickel-dime fouls, remember that they should know better by now. The only Big East team who looks like they'll do well come March are the Louisville Cardinals, just when I was ready to write off little Ricky he goes and pulls something like this, and completely redeems himself. I'll never be a Pitino fan, he's as much a reason as anyone that the Celtics are still so awful, but he's a good college coach, hard to dispute that.
That's about all I have for today, exceopt maybe a parting shot at Tyler Hansborough, some people say he's hard-nosed and blue collar, but I think he's a cheap shot artist who plays dirty. I hope he enjoys his career at UNC because I don;t envision nearly as much success in the NBA as has been predicted.
And now, that's all I've got for now. I'll be back soon, maybe to discuss my final verdict on Danny Ainge and call for his firing before he blows a big opportunity for the C's this summer.
-Bender out.
First I just had to follow up on the Tim Hardaway comments about hating gay people. I'm glad that Tim was willing to speak his mind, because there were some people trying to pretend that the only reason that there haven't been openly gay players before was a personal choice not to announce it to the public. Well no, between Hardaway's comments and what Amaechi wrote in his book about Jerry Sloan I think we have a better understanding why no active players have come out. So as glad as I am that Hardaway spoke his mind, I'm even more glad that the NBA has fired his ass.
Another criticism I've heard a lot lately is that Amaechi's book is just a money grab, where John is cashing in on his homosexuality, and while I don;t know for sure that he isn;t just cashing in I would argue that there's at least a chance that some young gay athlete will be helped by reading his story. Sure he wants to get paid, just as much as anyone who's ever published a book before him, but I'd say that just about anyone thinks their story is worth telling. One of the more ironic things about this criticism is that two of the people I've seen criticize him are always busy trying to sell their own books. (Unfortunately neither Bill nor Michael read my blog, but if you see them you could call them out on this.)
Ok, I've said my piece on that, onto other happier news. Scottie Pippen wants to make a comeback, and while I think this is an awful idea, it does give me an excuse to make my argument about Pip becoming the most underrated player of all-time. The main reasons to me are simple, a lot of people enjoy the revisionist idea that Jordan was a one man team, forgetting that at times Pippen may have been the second best player in the league, not just the second best player on the Bulls. Second was that Pippen's weakest point was scoring, which is the most basic thing for fans to identify. Pippen was the real point guard on those Bulls teams, not BJ Armstrong or John Paxson and definitely not MJ. Also Pip was one of the best defensive players to ever play the game. He was the perfect complement for Jordan and I think the fact that they fit together so seemlesslyl is one reason why people don;t appreciate what he brought to the last great dynasty in pro sports. In summation, don't come back Scottie, it will just make more people forget how great you really were. He looked to be in good shape, but he's a lot skinnier than he ever was, he may have lost 20 pounds of muscle since his last season.
I've already heard a bunch of people criticizing this year's slam dunk contest, and I do agree that it's not what it used to be. That being said some of the criticisms have been way off base. Some complain about the fact that Kobe, Lebron and VC weren;t participating. Belive me, this is not the issue, there's a simple reason they didn't compete, mainly, they wouldn;t win. They should open up the competition more, and have more penalties for guys missing their dunks, (for the second year in a row Nate Robinson made a mockery of the rules.) All that being said, Gerald Green is the best dunker in the league right now, and his dunks were nice in this year's competition. Dunkers reach their peak right around 20 years old, and Gerald probably could've done more with a couple more attempts.
I didn't really pay too close attention to the dunk contest because I was watching BC vs. UNC over on ESPN. A crushing loss for the Eagles, who are doing their best despite the loss of the best defensive player in all of college basketball. I've really enjoyed the Jared Dudley era at Boston College. He was a last minute addition to the team his freshman year after big recruit Dan Coleman decided to go to Minnesota at the last minute. I guess sometimes it's better to be lucky than good if you're a college basketball coach. During last night's game Dudley made one of the greatest steals I've ever seen, it was right out of the Larry Bird playbook, he faked as if he was going back on D, then quickly jumped back and stole the ball, if Tyrese Rice had done a better Dennis Johnson imitation it may have been the sportscenter play of the day. Dudley missed some key shots down the stretch but that doesn;t happen very often, I don;t know if dudley will be drafted this June, but I'm sure that he'll be a role player in the NBA and have a long career because he does all the little things, and while stiffs like Roy Hibbert and Aaron Gray get a lot of ink about their pro potential, Dudley will be a better pro than either of them.
Speaking of Roy Hibbert, I watched G-town play Villanova, and it was a perfect reflection of the type of basketball that ruined the Big East back in the early 90s. As Jim Carrey might've said "I guess they were playing prison rules." When they get bounced in the first weekend of the tournament and whine about how the officials called them too tight on some nickel-dime fouls, remember that they should know better by now. The only Big East team who looks like they'll do well come March are the Louisville Cardinals, just when I was ready to write off little Ricky he goes and pulls something like this, and completely redeems himself. I'll never be a Pitino fan, he's as much a reason as anyone that the Celtics are still so awful, but he's a good college coach, hard to dispute that.
That's about all I have for today, exceopt maybe a parting shot at Tyler Hansborough, some people say he's hard-nosed and blue collar, but I think he's a cheap shot artist who plays dirty. I hope he enjoys his career at UNC because I don;t envision nearly as much success in the NBA as has been predicted.
And now, that's all I've got for now. I'll be back soon, maybe to discuss my final verdict on Danny Ainge and call for his firing before he blows a big opportunity for the C's this summer.
-Bender out.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Lotsa Opining
Just a lot of things I wanted to put my two cents in on.
First off, the Grammys, the worst of the three major awards shows these days. The Grammys should be the best of what I call the three majors (along with the Emmys and the Oscars.) It lends itself to being a great show, it's all about music, there should be great acts one after the other, with a few awards handed out, but they blow it every year. The Dixie Chicks managed to win more awards than they sold copies of their album, they don't even really have an udience outside of the self-important famous bush-haters out there. I know for a fact that a lot of bands hate Bush, but they actually make better music to boot. As for the performances, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the bigger they try to make these things, the more they fail, maybe next year they can just get more great bands performing great songs, like The Red Hot Chili Peppers doing Snow. I liked the idea of the Police re-uniting but it didn;t quite capture my imagination, if you want to make a huge splash try to get ABBA back together next year and have them sing a medley of Fernando, Waterloo and whatever else they like. As far as the great JT goes, he kicks ass, but next time he should just do a great version of one of his songs and not try to give the greatest performance ever. The bottom line is that I feel like I'm a bit too old to enjoy music like I used to, and somehow I feel like the people behind the Grammys are way too old for me. Also it seems like they're trying to please everyone with these performances, and a lot of times when you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one.
While I'm on the subject of JT, is that new song What Goes Around another shot at Britney? I fully appreciate it if it is, I'm a very spiteful guy myself, definitely a holder of grudges and in a similar position I'd be laughing at Brit too. I feel like it's gotten to the point where I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I enjoy his music, is this what it was like for Michael back in the 80s? Maybe JT's next album will be like the new Thriller (doubtful, but it would be sweet.)
Loosely tied into JT is the fact that Saturday Night Live has been putting their best skits this season on Youtube. A stroke of genius if you ask me, now there is a lot more talk about how funny SNL has been lately. A year ago when "Lazy Sunday" came out, there was a lot of talk but nothing close to the talk about "Dick in a Box" and I have to point to the fact that it was a lot more readily available online. I also like how SNL has embraced the previously recorded shorts, which were actually a staple in the early years, the previously recorded skits have been the funniest recently.
I know I had wondered if I'd be able to get right back into Lost when it started up again, the answer is definitely "yes." Only two episodes into the second half of the season and I'm already dying for more. Not to ruin it for anyone who hasn;t watched but they've basically hinted that two more characters will be written off in the near future. And while it's disappointing that they might get rid of more characters, it adds a lot to their stories in the process.
I've been a big fan of Elizabeth Mitchell since she joined the Lost cast and in my research about her online I've found that she was actually involved in a lesbian love scene with Angelina Jolie. Apparently in the unrated version of GIA, they have a good time together, I refused to check it out because I'me very anti-Angelina and I'm a man of principle. In other Lesbian movie scene news there is apparently a kiss between Bridget Moynihan and Heather Graham out there as well. For the record, it may seem that I frequent some sort of website that would keep track of such lesbian scenes, and I want to state unequivocally, that yes, I do frequent such websites.
One last entertainment story I wanted to to comment on, I read that Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise will be starring in a movie together called Hardy Men. It's based on a grown-up version of the Hardy Boys, the old crime solvers who everyone loved, aside from Encyclopedia Brown of course. I like to make fun of Tom Cruise as much as anyone, but if they can recapture any of the magice from the old Tom Crooz skit that aired during the MTV movie awards a few years back, this movie will be a riot. And who knows, if it really is that great, maybe I'll start forgiving Tom for infecting Katie Holmes with crazy.
Just had to comment on the Marty Schottenheimer situation out in San Diego. AJ Smith has just made a huge mistake. Of all sports, Football is the one where coaching is most important, and if the Chargers really think that their team won;t miss a beat with all new coaches they're in for a rude awakening. I don't think it's a coincidence that Schottenheimer has had dominant defenses headlined by outside linebackers. This is not to say that Shawn Merriman was completely a creation of Schottenheimer, but he won;t be quite as dominant next year. For all the crap that Schottenheimer has taken recently, he was still one of the top five coaches in the current NFL, and they certtainly aren;t going to find someone as good as him out there right now after everyone has already taken other jobs.
Thats all for tonight, I'll be back soon to give you my favorites on American dol soon.
-Bender Out
First off, the Grammys, the worst of the three major awards shows these days. The Grammys should be the best of what I call the three majors (along with the Emmys and the Oscars.) It lends itself to being a great show, it's all about music, there should be great acts one after the other, with a few awards handed out, but they blow it every year. The Dixie Chicks managed to win more awards than they sold copies of their album, they don't even really have an udience outside of the self-important famous bush-haters out there. I know for a fact that a lot of bands hate Bush, but they actually make better music to boot. As for the performances, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the bigger they try to make these things, the more they fail, maybe next year they can just get more great bands performing great songs, like The Red Hot Chili Peppers doing Snow. I liked the idea of the Police re-uniting but it didn;t quite capture my imagination, if you want to make a huge splash try to get ABBA back together next year and have them sing a medley of Fernando, Waterloo and whatever else they like. As far as the great JT goes, he kicks ass, but next time he should just do a great version of one of his songs and not try to give the greatest performance ever. The bottom line is that I feel like I'm a bit too old to enjoy music like I used to, and somehow I feel like the people behind the Grammys are way too old for me. Also it seems like they're trying to please everyone with these performances, and a lot of times when you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one.
While I'm on the subject of JT, is that new song What Goes Around another shot at Britney? I fully appreciate it if it is, I'm a very spiteful guy myself, definitely a holder of grudges and in a similar position I'd be laughing at Brit too. I feel like it's gotten to the point where I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I enjoy his music, is this what it was like for Michael back in the 80s? Maybe JT's next album will be like the new Thriller (doubtful, but it would be sweet.)
Loosely tied into JT is the fact that Saturday Night Live has been putting their best skits this season on Youtube. A stroke of genius if you ask me, now there is a lot more talk about how funny SNL has been lately. A year ago when "Lazy Sunday" came out, there was a lot of talk but nothing close to the talk about "Dick in a Box" and I have to point to the fact that it was a lot more readily available online. I also like how SNL has embraced the previously recorded shorts, which were actually a staple in the early years, the previously recorded skits have been the funniest recently.
I know I had wondered if I'd be able to get right back into Lost when it started up again, the answer is definitely "yes." Only two episodes into the second half of the season and I'm already dying for more. Not to ruin it for anyone who hasn;t watched but they've basically hinted that two more characters will be written off in the near future. And while it's disappointing that they might get rid of more characters, it adds a lot to their stories in the process.
I've been a big fan of Elizabeth Mitchell since she joined the Lost cast and in my research about her online I've found that she was actually involved in a lesbian love scene with Angelina Jolie. Apparently in the unrated version of GIA, they have a good time together, I refused to check it out because I'me very anti-Angelina and I'm a man of principle. In other Lesbian movie scene news there is apparently a kiss between Bridget Moynihan and Heather Graham out there as well. For the record, it may seem that I frequent some sort of website that would keep track of such lesbian scenes, and I want to state unequivocally, that yes, I do frequent such websites.
One last entertainment story I wanted to to comment on, I read that Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise will be starring in a movie together called Hardy Men. It's based on a grown-up version of the Hardy Boys, the old crime solvers who everyone loved, aside from Encyclopedia Brown of course. I like to make fun of Tom Cruise as much as anyone, but if they can recapture any of the magice from the old Tom Crooz skit that aired during the MTV movie awards a few years back, this movie will be a riot. And who knows, if it really is that great, maybe I'll start forgiving Tom for infecting Katie Holmes with crazy.
Just had to comment on the Marty Schottenheimer situation out in San Diego. AJ Smith has just made a huge mistake. Of all sports, Football is the one where coaching is most important, and if the Chargers really think that their team won;t miss a beat with all new coaches they're in for a rude awakening. I don't think it's a coincidence that Schottenheimer has had dominant defenses headlined by outside linebackers. This is not to say that Shawn Merriman was completely a creation of Schottenheimer, but he won;t be quite as dominant next year. For all the crap that Schottenheimer has taken recently, he was still one of the top five coaches in the current NFL, and they certtainly aren;t going to find someone as good as him out there right now after everyone has already taken other jobs.
Thats all for tonight, I'll be back soon to give you my favorites on American dol soon.
-Bender Out
Friday, February 09, 2007
Anna Nicole
Just had to weigh in with my thoughts on Anna Nicole Smith. The whole thing just makes me so sad, I was pretty sure it would end like this, but that just makes it all the more tragic. To me this is a different kind of tragedy, it's not tragic in the sense that Anna Nicole would've made the world a better place, or she would've contributed a lot of happiness to her many fans. It's tragic because of the way that fame just swallowed her up and spit her out. She always struck me as a sweet but simple woman, she didn't know how to protect herself from the insanity of fame. She needed people to protect her, but there were too many people coming to her with their own agendas and their bad intentions who wanted to get a piece of her. It was probably a very painful ride for her, she couldn;t fully understand what was happening at all times, and there was no one who could help her out because there were too many people who could make a profit off of her in exchange for sitting back and watching the train wreck. It's fitting that she died in the same week where Britney and Paris were on the cover of Newsweek, they're all part of the same phenomenon, and society applauds them and praises them and enables them for all the wrong reasons. I just wish that someone had been able to help Anna Nicole before it ended like this, she could have just disappeared, gone back and lived a simple life, because even though it's a great song lyric, it isn't true, it's not better to burn out than to fade away.
A couple other things I wanted to comment on, first off, Lebron's comments about John Amaechi. Lebron essentially said that if a gay teammate didn't come out to the team, he couldn;t be trusted. A lot of people were making a big deal out of this, and while it does show a lack of understanding of the situation, I think we should ease up on Lebron. He didn't come out and condemn the homosexual lifestyle and we have to remember he's only 22 years old. Just because Lebron was blessed with tremendous athletic gifts doesn;t mean we should expect him to be worldly or brilliant. I find a lot of other people to be a lot more offensive in this regard, most importantly all the idiots who said (and I'm paraphrasing) "So long as he doesn;t try anything with me, we're cool." For some reason this sounds so ridiculous to me, as if any gay man would really want to sleep with a homophobe. The biggest disappointment in this whole thing was Jerry Sloan who apparantly used gay slurs to describe Amaechi, Sloan is a good coach, but I'll never be a fan from this day forward. Similar to the way that I'm willing to forgive Lebron due to his youth, I'm going to hold Sloan to a higher standard because he's older and is in the position of coach.
One last thing, wanted to admit my announcement of the BC Eagles demise this basketball was season was a bit premature. Still love my Eagles and I hope they can hold onto the spot in the NCAA tournament that they seemingly have all but wrapped up.
Anyway, thats all for now.
-Bender Out
A couple other things I wanted to comment on, first off, Lebron's comments about John Amaechi. Lebron essentially said that if a gay teammate didn't come out to the team, he couldn;t be trusted. A lot of people were making a big deal out of this, and while it does show a lack of understanding of the situation, I think we should ease up on Lebron. He didn't come out and condemn the homosexual lifestyle and we have to remember he's only 22 years old. Just because Lebron was blessed with tremendous athletic gifts doesn;t mean we should expect him to be worldly or brilliant. I find a lot of other people to be a lot more offensive in this regard, most importantly all the idiots who said (and I'm paraphrasing) "So long as he doesn;t try anything with me, we're cool." For some reason this sounds so ridiculous to me, as if any gay man would really want to sleep with a homophobe. The biggest disappointment in this whole thing was Jerry Sloan who apparantly used gay slurs to describe Amaechi, Sloan is a good coach, but I'll never be a fan from this day forward. Similar to the way that I'm willing to forgive Lebron due to his youth, I'm going to hold Sloan to a higher standard because he's older and is in the position of coach.
One last thing, wanted to admit my announcement of the BC Eagles demise this basketball was season was a bit premature. Still love my Eagles and I hope they can hold onto the spot in the NCAA tournament that they seemingly have all but wrapped up.
Anyway, thats all for now.
-Bender Out
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
And now...the aftermath
So we're officially into the most boring sports time of the year, the month or so between the Super Bowl and March Madness. I actually listened to twenty minutes worth of Red Sox closer talk on sports radio today, I think I may already be sick of baseball. So the 2007 edition of the sports abyss will be filled by...John Amaechi, the first openly gay basketball player. Professional sports, the last great bastion of homophobia, (well that and the church.) I guess the next big step is to get a player that anyone has heard of to come out as gay, I'm gonna make the assumption that there is actually a star athlete out there who is gay but just doesn't feel like it is worth it to come out. For Amaechi, coming out is really not that big of a risk, he's retired from basketball and if anything this makes him more of a celebrity. So not only is he a positive role model young gay men, but he gets to sell a book about his experience and apparently continue his career as an entertainer in England. I'm not sure exactly what Amaechi does these days but from what I read he seems like the English equivalent of John Salley. On a side note, watching an interview with amaechi was kinda entertaining, maybe it was because of his english accent, but he came accross as a bit of an intellectual, so I guess that's two barriers he's breaking down, not only the first gay ex-NBA player, but the first intelligent one as well.
The only other sports news around Boston these days is the Celtics tanking so they can get either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. And recently there has been a big push to look at Durant as the true gem of next years draft class, which I find to be completely ridiculous. Durant is a lot more polished than Oden at this point, but in the long run, Oden will be the much bigger star. I've heard a lot of comparisons between durant and Kevin Garnett or Tracy McGrady. First off, Garnett is about 4 inches taller than Durant and for that reason alone is a totally different player, the McGrady comparison is actually a lot closer size-wise but T-Mac is more explosive, has a better handle and is a lot smoother in his moves. The two players who I think are much better comparisons for Durant are Jonathan Bender and Gerald Green. I think Green could be just as dominant against the weak NCAA competition. Jonathan Bender, another player who was actually bigger than durant was dominant against lesser talent but never quite made it work in the NBA and he eventually had to retire due to back issues, but he was every bit as good as durant when he was playing. So memo to Danny Ainge and all the Durant backers out there, it's nice that your boy is performing well in college but the NBA is a totally different game, and Greg Oden will be twice the player that Kevin durant is in the NBA.
So thats all i have to say about sports, but I wanted to mention a few things about TV shows that are currently coming back into full swing. I've always secretly been a fan of American Idol, I enjoy watching the tryouts where a bunch of egotards get put in their place because they don;t really have talent. But this year the show has gone out of control, they've almost stopped showing the tryouts of the actual singers and just show the really bad ones while Simon makes fun of them and Randy laughs. I enjoy it as much as anyone, but there comes a time where you have to remember what the actual point of the show is, that point being finding hot chicks who can sing so I can vote for them. All that being said, a couple of highlights from the losers this year, the skinny gay kid from New york who previously tried out for So You Think You Can Dance. I''m not sure if this kid was for real or not, but seeing him get rejected was the funniest part of this season. My second favorite was the weird kid from LA who had learned to sing by watching a DVD put out by Paula and Randy, he had apparently invented his own style that sounded like he was editing his voice in the studio, I might be willing to buy a full album by that kid. Sadly the open tryouts are over, but soon I'll decide who the hottest chick in the competition is, and I'll try to use this blog to get everyone to vote for her. Perhaps if I had tried harder last year Kelly Pickler would've beaten Katherine McPhee in the final instead of that gray haired guy in the Ford commercials.
The other big news on TV is the return of Lost. It's been moved to 10 o'clock because Idol is too powerful for even Lost to overcome, but the result is the finest night of television since the height of NBCs thursday nights in the late 80s and into the 90s. Between Friday Night Lights, American Idol and Lost you have three of the top shows on TV back to back to back. Friday Night Lights has been the best surprise so far this season, usually shows like this blow their whole load in the first few episodes, trying to make too much happen too quickly, but so far the show has been consistent and realistic. It has everything I like in my TV, realistic plots, hot chicks and that's it. So back to Lost, I'm not sure if this mid year hiatus is a good strategy, when these shows go away completely for that long, it's hard to get back into them. I'll have to see how this goes, I've been able to get back into Heroes, but I still think they'd be better off with a few interspersed re-runs as opposed to no Lost for 3 months.
Well I'm off to watch TV
-Bender Out
The only other sports news around Boston these days is the Celtics tanking so they can get either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. And recently there has been a big push to look at Durant as the true gem of next years draft class, which I find to be completely ridiculous. Durant is a lot more polished than Oden at this point, but in the long run, Oden will be the much bigger star. I've heard a lot of comparisons between durant and Kevin Garnett or Tracy McGrady. First off, Garnett is about 4 inches taller than Durant and for that reason alone is a totally different player, the McGrady comparison is actually a lot closer size-wise but T-Mac is more explosive, has a better handle and is a lot smoother in his moves. The two players who I think are much better comparisons for Durant are Jonathan Bender and Gerald Green. I think Green could be just as dominant against the weak NCAA competition. Jonathan Bender, another player who was actually bigger than durant was dominant against lesser talent but never quite made it work in the NBA and he eventually had to retire due to back issues, but he was every bit as good as durant when he was playing. So memo to Danny Ainge and all the Durant backers out there, it's nice that your boy is performing well in college but the NBA is a totally different game, and Greg Oden will be twice the player that Kevin durant is in the NBA.
So thats all i have to say about sports, but I wanted to mention a few things about TV shows that are currently coming back into full swing. I've always secretly been a fan of American Idol, I enjoy watching the tryouts where a bunch of egotards get put in their place because they don;t really have talent. But this year the show has gone out of control, they've almost stopped showing the tryouts of the actual singers and just show the really bad ones while Simon makes fun of them and Randy laughs. I enjoy it as much as anyone, but there comes a time where you have to remember what the actual point of the show is, that point being finding hot chicks who can sing so I can vote for them. All that being said, a couple of highlights from the losers this year, the skinny gay kid from New york who previously tried out for So You Think You Can Dance. I''m not sure if this kid was for real or not, but seeing him get rejected was the funniest part of this season. My second favorite was the weird kid from LA who had learned to sing by watching a DVD put out by Paula and Randy, he had apparently invented his own style that sounded like he was editing his voice in the studio, I might be willing to buy a full album by that kid. Sadly the open tryouts are over, but soon I'll decide who the hottest chick in the competition is, and I'll try to use this blog to get everyone to vote for her. Perhaps if I had tried harder last year Kelly Pickler would've beaten Katherine McPhee in the final instead of that gray haired guy in the Ford commercials.
The other big news on TV is the return of Lost. It's been moved to 10 o'clock because Idol is too powerful for even Lost to overcome, but the result is the finest night of television since the height of NBCs thursday nights in the late 80s and into the 90s. Between Friday Night Lights, American Idol and Lost you have three of the top shows on TV back to back to back. Friday Night Lights has been the best surprise so far this season, usually shows like this blow their whole load in the first few episodes, trying to make too much happen too quickly, but so far the show has been consistent and realistic. It has everything I like in my TV, realistic plots, hot chicks and that's it. So back to Lost, I'm not sure if this mid year hiatus is a good strategy, when these shows go away completely for that long, it's hard to get back into them. I'll have to see how this goes, I've been able to get back into Heroes, but I still think they'd be better off with a few interspersed re-runs as opposed to no Lost for 3 months.
Well I'm off to watch TV
-Bender Out
Monday, February 05, 2007
Not So Super
I don;t exactly why I couldn;t get into the Super Bowl last night, I can think of many reasons that may have caused it but I can;t pinpoint just one. There's the obvious letdown involved with the Patriots being so close, but not adding to their dynasty. But it was more than that, I think deep down I knew that the Bears didn;t stand a chance. And when you start with a premise where you more or less know the outcome, a sloppy game that delivers the expected result really isn;t going to excite. Basically everything after the initial kick-off return seemed to be part of a slow steady unexciting win for The Colts. So my recap of the game, awesome opening kick-off return, a sloppy but intriguing first half, a haltime show I really enjoyed and then a boring dreadful second half where the Bears seemed overmatched on every level.
Of course no recap of a Super Bowl would be complete without a review of all the extras that now are as much a part of the spectacle as the game itself. I've always been a mild Prince fan, and he seems closer to being at the top of his game than Paul McCartney or The Rolling Stones were at their halftime show. Aside from U2 at SB XXXVI, Prince gave the best halftime show in recent memory. I'd have enjoyed a medley of his own hits instead of a medley of other peoples hits in the middle, but aside from that he gave a really strong performance, which is even more impressive given the weather and possible threat of Prince being fried with his electric guitar. Unfortunately the commercials didn;t live up to their normal standards. There were a couple highlights, most notably K-Fed showing he had a sense of humor by making fun of himself, this is the most likable that Kevin has ever been. Not only were the ads that they showed not funny, there were no new ads in the established series of ads, such as the office full of monkeys or my personal favorite, the Geico.com cavemen ads. So aside from Prince this was the most disappointing Super Bowl in my memory.
The most disappointing factor of the night for me was The Colts winning. It's certainly not because of Tony Dungy, a total class act who deserves any good fortune that comes his way. I't's not because of Peyton Manning either, while I'm not his biggest fan, he does seem like a nice guy and his commercials (unlike most of those aired last night) consistently make me laugh. I think the real reason that I don;t like the Colts is that douchebag Bill Polian. Polian consistently whines about officials and acts like a jerk behind the scenes during Colts games, but most importantly, I hate the way he put this Colts team together. They're built completely around their offense with defense as an afterthought. Their offensive line is full of high-priced talent most of whom were drafted high, their two wideouts were first rounders and are both among the top paid WRs in football, Dallas Clark was drafted in the first round despite the fact that their offense was already very strong and their defense was very weak, and almost every year they let their best defensive players walk (Mike Peterson, Gary Brackett, David Thornton just to name a few.) It vexes me, it vexes me very greatly, I'm quite vexed right now. The good news is that hopefully in the copycat NFL lots of teams will waste all their salary cap space on offensive stars and the Pats will wisely spend on defense and have 53 good players as opposed to a top heavy roster with glamourous stars, and the Pats will take their rightful place atoop the NFL once again.
One last point before I give up talking about the Super Bowl...Rex Grossman sucks, thats all I have to say about that. Actually not really, I'm going to expound on that. I heard a few analysts try to say that Grossman was not the reason the Bears lost this game, but in reality, if the Bears had a top 15 quarterback they could've very easily won this game. Grossman was a lot worse than his stats may indicate. when you take into account how well all the other surrounding parts were on this Bears team, a mediocre QB could've made this a competetive game. Their running game was strong, the receivers were able to get open, but Grossman threw two awful balls that were intercepted, and two others that should've been easy INTs. But the poor passes weren;t as bad as his ridiculous inability to handle the snap form center. Fumbling once due to the sloppy conditions may have been excusable, but not twice. Chicago is in a very tough spot, they have a very young QB who still someday could become good, but the rest of the team is ready now. If were in charge there I would trade for Matt Schaub and take my chances because they're drafting too low to get a star QB, and aside from Brady Quinn or Jamarcus Russell, no other rookie would stand a chance of leading a top level team. Furthermore Jeff Garcia, the best free agent QB, isn't quite good enough to lead a team to the Super Bowl either. I don;t know what it would take to get Schaub, but it might be worth it for the Bears to ante up so they could have a shot at the big pot come the end of the season.
All Right, the Super Bowl has drained me, until next time
-Bender Out
Of course no recap of a Super Bowl would be complete without a review of all the extras that now are as much a part of the spectacle as the game itself. I've always been a mild Prince fan, and he seems closer to being at the top of his game than Paul McCartney or The Rolling Stones were at their halftime show. Aside from U2 at SB XXXVI, Prince gave the best halftime show in recent memory. I'd have enjoyed a medley of his own hits instead of a medley of other peoples hits in the middle, but aside from that he gave a really strong performance, which is even more impressive given the weather and possible threat of Prince being fried with his electric guitar. Unfortunately the commercials didn;t live up to their normal standards. There were a couple highlights, most notably K-Fed showing he had a sense of humor by making fun of himself, this is the most likable that Kevin has ever been. Not only were the ads that they showed not funny, there were no new ads in the established series of ads, such as the office full of monkeys or my personal favorite, the Geico.com cavemen ads. So aside from Prince this was the most disappointing Super Bowl in my memory.
The most disappointing factor of the night for me was The Colts winning. It's certainly not because of Tony Dungy, a total class act who deserves any good fortune that comes his way. I't's not because of Peyton Manning either, while I'm not his biggest fan, he does seem like a nice guy and his commercials (unlike most of those aired last night) consistently make me laugh. I think the real reason that I don;t like the Colts is that douchebag Bill Polian. Polian consistently whines about officials and acts like a jerk behind the scenes during Colts games, but most importantly, I hate the way he put this Colts team together. They're built completely around their offense with defense as an afterthought. Their offensive line is full of high-priced talent most of whom were drafted high, their two wideouts were first rounders and are both among the top paid WRs in football, Dallas Clark was drafted in the first round despite the fact that their offense was already very strong and their defense was very weak, and almost every year they let their best defensive players walk (Mike Peterson, Gary Brackett, David Thornton just to name a few.) It vexes me, it vexes me very greatly, I'm quite vexed right now. The good news is that hopefully in the copycat NFL lots of teams will waste all their salary cap space on offensive stars and the Pats will wisely spend on defense and have 53 good players as opposed to a top heavy roster with glamourous stars, and the Pats will take their rightful place atoop the NFL once again.
One last point before I give up talking about the Super Bowl...Rex Grossman sucks, thats all I have to say about that. Actually not really, I'm going to expound on that. I heard a few analysts try to say that Grossman was not the reason the Bears lost this game, but in reality, if the Bears had a top 15 quarterback they could've very easily won this game. Grossman was a lot worse than his stats may indicate. when you take into account how well all the other surrounding parts were on this Bears team, a mediocre QB could've made this a competetive game. Their running game was strong, the receivers were able to get open, but Grossman threw two awful balls that were intercepted, and two others that should've been easy INTs. But the poor passes weren;t as bad as his ridiculous inability to handle the snap form center. Fumbling once due to the sloppy conditions may have been excusable, but not twice. Chicago is in a very tough spot, they have a very young QB who still someday could become good, but the rest of the team is ready now. If were in charge there I would trade for Matt Schaub and take my chances because they're drafting too low to get a star QB, and aside from Brady Quinn or Jamarcus Russell, no other rookie would stand a chance of leading a top level team. Furthermore Jeff Garcia, the best free agent QB, isn't quite good enough to lead a team to the Super Bowl either. I don;t know what it would take to get Schaub, but it might be worth it for the Bears to ante up so they could have a shot at the big pot come the end of the season.
All Right, the Super Bowl has drained me, until next time
-Bender Out
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