A Weeks Worth of Ranting

OK, so I'm done mourning the Patriots loss last week. I had to get into my first weekend without any pro football since the summer, and today I concentrated on basketball, more specifically the BC-Duke game. This is another team that BC would've handled if Sean Williams had been on the team, but sans the best defensive player in college basketball, BC got handled pretty easily. The truth is that no one really gets a fair shake when they play in Cameron Indoor Arena, Coach K has some sort of mind control over the officials. This mind control was most evident when he told the official that they really needed a ten minute break because one of their players had hyper-extended his knee. He waved his hand at the ref and said, "We don't need to take him off the court yet." Obi-Wan Kenobi would've been proud. And just so you don;t think I'm a heartless bastard, the first time I had an identical injury I appreciated all the other players in the pick-up game for actually stopping while one of them actually helped me off the court. This wasn;t the only odd situation in the game, by my count Josh McRoberts commited nine fouls, but the refs would go out of their way to call some guard on the periphery of the play for the foul McRoberts commited. I want to come clean and say that I hate Duke, almost always have, if you discount the games when I rooted for them during the Jay Williams era, I've been steadily rooting against them since the Tommy Amaker/Mark Alarie years. Every game they get every call, but that doesn;t stop that douchebag Mike Krzyzewski from arguing the ten times per game that a call doesn;t go their way. I guess thats why the Sean Williams thing makes me so mad, BC really could've smacked Duke around with Williams in the middle. One last note about the game, Duke's players all tend to be the most overrated in the country, but the king of this is point guard Greg Paulus. Paulus made the biggest mistake of his life choosing basketball over football, he was All-American in both sports, he was in fact the top QB recruit in the country. He might want to contact the football coach about playing next year, because I'm not sure there's any room for him on the coaching staff. Steve Wojciechowski and Chris Collins already have those coaching spots filled, and every year that goes by it becomes more clear to me that Johnny Dawkins will never be a successful college coach. Maybe Paulus is listening to all the Duke suck-ups who claim he's a great popint guard, but being outplayed by fellow sophomre Tyrese Rice does not bode well for his future.

I have a lot more venom for Duke but I can;t imagine anyone would be willing to read more right now, especially not my six loyal readers, so I'll move on. The only other sporting event I paid attention to this weekend was the Senior Bowl. I enjoyed watching the game pretending I have a clue about scouting for an NFL team and I would decide exactly who I want the Pats to draft this year, the answer btw is Patrick Willis inside linebacker from Ole Miss, I liked what I saw, and I now have a guy as my target for the team. My stamp of approval means that he could get drafted anywhere from the top 5 down through Mr. irrelevant, because I really have no clue, in fact it may actually be a bad sign if the Pats end up drafting him, because I damn near threw a party when they drafted Andy Katzenmoyer in the 90s. Anyway this is the second to last football game where the players care until next September, it was bittersweet. Can;t wait til the draft so I can predict that the Pats will win the Super Bowl next year.

I actually did follow one other sports story this weekend, Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player of all-time winning the Australian Open. I know I said I'd only followed the two sporting events, so I guess that makes me a liar don;t it? Federer is such a dominant force, nothing would please me more than him winning the Grand Slam this year, it's a long shot mainly because playing on clay is almost a different sport than on grass or hardcourt. I'd really love watching Federer beat Nadal this year, Nadal is very inlikable from my perspective. The main point is, for all the talk we hear about Tiger Woods, you might want to watch the most dominant athlete in any sport next time there's a tennis tournament on TV.

The Red Sox might be acquiring Todd Helton, and I have mixed feelings about it. Helton has a huge contract that doesn;t expire until he's 39, and even though the Rockies would be picking up half of it, it's clear that Helton is on the decline. This contract could become an anchor dragging them down in a couple years, if not sooner. As for Helton's actual ability, there are so many questions, he played in Colorado and his power numbers have taken a nose-dive since the league started steroid testing. Aside from those factors the move just feels wrong, it feels kinda like one of those moces that has done in the Yankees the last few years, going out and acquiring a big name while giving up on young players and character guys (in this case it would be Mike Lowell.) Even if Helton does perform, the move could end up not working out in the long run.

One last sports note, I'm tickled by the debacle that is the Cowboys coaching search. When are these overly involved owners gonna realize that they are actually hurting the value of their franchises? Jerry Jones is joining Al Davis and Daniel Snyder as the biggest meddlers in football. The Cowboys seem to have a choice between Jason Garrett and Norv Turner. Turner might actually be able to coach, but I think the jury is out at best, and Garrett is a complete unkown who probably isn;t ready. Why are these the best options? Mainly because of Jones and his favorite acquisition of the last year TO. No one wants to coach Owens and similarly they don;t really want to work for the type of owner that would bring TO in.

OK, that's all for now, I'll give my Oscar Nomination opinions sometime soon, maybe even make my predictions. But for now...

-Bender Out