San Diego Chargers: What is goin' on there?

I'm keeping tabs on some football today, essentially procrastinating the taking of the laundry to the laundromat. The 12-1 Tennessee Titans had something to play for this week: a win and a Steelers loss gained them home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They lost. The Chargers, on kind of the opposite end of the scale at 8-5, trailed the Kansas City Chiefs through almost the whole game. They took a one point lead with :36 left. That's really unacceptable.

Jeff Fisher's job is not in jeopardy. Norv Turner's, though, absolutely has to be. I wondered why they made that hire in the first place, since the Chargers should have been very familiar with Turner when he was with the hated Raiduhs. Since the Chargers probably won't make the playoffs with one of the highest powered teams in quite a while, his job and most of his staff will have to go. Ron Rivera may be able to stay; I guess that'll depend on how much management likes him. The question then becomes: who's going to replace Turner?

I'm lovin' it. Thuh Raiduhs...suck again!

I'm on my way to bed to get enough sleep to be able to make it all the way through work tomorrow, but I've been watching Monday Night Foo'bah this evening; Thuh Raiduhs vs Denver.

I'm not a particular fan of Denver, since they're in the same division as my beloved Chargers. However, I'm a fan of whoever is playing Thuh Raiduhs. Denver is giving out a beatdown big time. When last I checked, it's 24-0 with 8:23 left in the 3rd. This will very likely get even uglier than it already has...and I'm all for it.

I'm just glad that Alice Davis has decided to continue with Thuh Raiduh's Commitment to Excrement. Thanks, Big Al, for not being able to leave foo'bah to the professionals. It's guaranteeing that Thuh Raiduhs are gonna suck for the foreseeable future...which, of course, I'm all about!!

Arthur Blank a racist!??!

Arthur Blank on Monday Night Football made the comment that if Mike Vick eats "fried chicken and french fries" in prison, he won't be in shape to come back and play foo'ball. Apparently, Arthur Blank is a racist for picking fried chicken and fries as the bad-for-you foods that Mike Vick can eat.

Hey, America! I gots news for your dumb asses! White folk like some KFC, too! I bet if you wait long enough, you could see some Crackahs, some Messicans, and some Ornamentals at KFC, gettin' a bucket and fries. This is a non-story. Leave Arthur Blank alone. He didn't do anything wrong. If this is enough to get your race baiting radar tweaked, you are a damn fool and need to get a thicker skin, and grow the hell up.

Football today: I guess this is why they play the games!

Because I'm relatively local to Nashville (Oak Grove is an hour from everywhere, but its still relatively local to Nashville), I got to watch my beloved Chargers against my adopted Titans. The best thing that can be said about that game is that it was seriously hard hitting. They were really going at it. However, for 3 quarters, and for 3 quarters of the last quarter, the Chargers couldn't do anything. The blocking for LT wasn't there, Rivers looked horrible, and nothing good was happening. Then all of a sudden, I guess they realized the game was on the line, and they mounted a couple drives with a couple defensive stands. Long story short, LT pulled off his typical amazingness and went to the house. Game over in OT, and the Chargers would have clinched their division, believe it or not, if Denver had lost. They won big, but I still think the Chargers will win their division again. Norv Turner is not off the hot seat.

New England, on the other hand, looked quite good against a Steeler team that looked good. NE got ahead, and stayed ahead, again. The Steelers, though, are gonna make some noise in the playoffs. The game was closer than the score makes it appear.

Are the Cardinals ever not gonna suck? It doesn't seem to matter who they get, who the coach is, who they're playing....it doesn't seem to matter. They lose. Year after year. I just don't understand it. Clue me in if you know why, because they seem to be much worse year after year than they should be.

What now for Terrell Owens?

This is an interesting time for football fans. I suppose that, since there's no football this weekend, changes are what must be the entertainment of the day. Now that Bill Parcells has called it quits, the news seem to care an aweful lot about what TO has to say about it. What I wanna know is, what's Jerry Jones gonna do now? He's the one who figured that a known PITA in TO would be able to be kept in check with the known hardness of Parcells. I never got the feeling that Coach was all that thrilled to have TO anyway, and now that they may end of with less of a disciplinarian at head coach in Big D, things could go the way of the past several seasons of TO in a hurry.

Owens is known more for his antics than his performance level these days. I've never seen TO drop as many easy passes that the rest of the top receivers in the League wouldn't as he did in the 06-07 season. He became totally mediocre. Unintimidating. Unspectacular. Unimpressive. Maybe we should change his name from TO to UN. UN is still a talented receiver, but is he worth the effort anymore? He's not great now. He's not at the top of the game. He's not playing like Mushin Muhammed anymore, who seems to be rising to the challenge of a championship season. If the game's on the line, who ya gonna go to? Chances are, UN isn't at the top of your list anymore.

Here's the bottom line now. UN has become-or perhaps 'was the prototype for'-David Boston. Talented, but a big pain in the tuckus to deal with. And much like Boston, he had a chance to "fix" his career. Boston decided to be a jerk instead of a professional in San Diego, and is a nobody now. UN thinks so much of himself, apparently, that even when he spends most of a season under the radar, he can't do it as a matter of course. He appears to be UNable to just be a quiet professional. Do we hear of these kinds of antics from Reggie Wayne? The aforementioned Muhammed? TJ Houshmandzadeh (I hadda put that name in here!)? Keenan McCardell? A huge list of others? No, we hear it from two.

Ocho Cinco is almost as full of antics as UN is. And while he may lead his team in stats, he doesn't lead the league, especially in the most important catagory: wins and championships. Here's probably the lesson to be learned here: take your stupid little games elsewhere. They're only mildly entertaining for a short while, and they get old fast. Especially when your team isn't winning a championship. There's a lot of room in the league for expressionism, but celebrating first downs and basic tackles is getting old. Its what you're supposed to do as a pro football player on every play. Its time to take a page from Antonio Gates and LT: act like you've done it before. That's the definition of professionalism.

Its time for UN to go. He's more work than he's worth anymore. Its time that the league to start realizing that some guys just aren't worth the trouble and quit hiring them, especially for the stupid money they keep throwing at them. If they were to do that, since this is a copycat league, their problems would be reduced. If a player knows he can't be a jerk, he won't be. Or he won't be working.

Al just doesn't get it

Al Davis has fired Art Shell as head coach. That's another coach out in Oakland, and the number is so high now that I suspect no coach that takes that lousy job plans to be there more than two years, and one is more realistic. Raiduh Fan is looking in the wrong direction if they think the coach is the problem.

The Raiduhs have a long and glorious history of hiring dirt bags and malcontents. Character matters, and the Raiduhs have very little of it. Randy Moss is their big play guy, and he's known to give up on plays. They spent tons of money on Robert Gallery, and the record that the Raiduhs set for sacks ran over him most of the time. Tatoos and long hair don't make for a good offensive lineman, I guess.

They've continued their long, long history of being the most penalized team in the league. They've got an ingrained culture of cheating, which is what penalties really are, that is always there regardless of who the coach is. That makes me wonder: why is it that regardless of who the coach is, they still commit a rediculous number of stupid, stupid penalties every single game? The answer should be obvious enough for the coaches who are in contention for the job to say, "I have the job? No, that's OK. I'm good."

Its pretty clear that the reason that they go through coaches like poop through a goose, and the reason they've got such a nice long history of cheating and penalties is Alice. It appears that Davis can't stay out of the operations of the team. There's no other reason that penalty yards should mount year after year after year, regardless of who's coaching, unless Alice encourages it. You want this team to win? No you don't. If you did, you'd leave the coaching to the team and quit hiring dirt bags.

Here's the bottom line: as long as Al Davis owns the Raiders, they're gonna suck. I'm good with that. Must be a lot of fun to be a Raider organization employee watching the Chargers dominate the AFC. Sucks to be you, boys.

Thanks for giving us crappy bowl games, BCS.

Unbelieveable. Florida vs. Ohio St. for the national championship? Are you kidding? Just give the trophy to OSU. The Gators stand no chance whatsoever of beating the Buckeyes. They're gonna get pounded, badly. Nice going, BCS.

Michigan plays USC in the Rose Bowl? At least USC is gonna get their ass kicked at home in front of their fair weather fans. Michigan is clearly the second best team in the country, and they have to play #5 instead of playing LSU, which would be a much better game. C'mon, let's get serious: Michigan lost only to OSU, who was ranked #1 at the time, by a field goal. Florida lost to Auburn. USC lost to two unranked teams, the second being UCLA when they had a chance to cement their position. SC is gonna get chewed up big time by Michigan, just like the Gators are gonna get mud stomped by OSU. If there was anything else to do during that holiday week, I wouldn't bother watching, but since its the end of the foo'bah season, I'm going to have to...cursing that worthless BCS abortion the whole time.

I can't believe it.

Thuh Raidahs won again? What is the world coming to? They have a winning streak now. That sucks. At least some good came from sports this week:

• The near-interminable torture that is baseball season has ended. Too bad they're gonna do it again next year.
• The Bears destroyed the Niners. Apparently the bye week came at a good time for them.
• The Chargers whipped the Rams pretty good, although they made it an entertaining game. Still no definitive word on what's gonna happen with Shawne Merriman. Seems to be a given that he'll be out four games.
• Basketball season starts on Tuesday. That can't get here soon enough. My Lakers won't take the title this year, but they should be competitive.
  

• Jimmy Johnson is within striking distance of the Nextel Cup with three races to go. Jeff Gordon is probably out of it, being a little over 140 points back, but he's in sixth or seventh place. That means most everybody above him still has a legit shot at it. That's pretty interesting racing.

Not a total loss...although that's what I wish the Raiduhs would have done this year.

who'd a thunk it

I can't believe it. I thought I'd had it all figured out, but apparently, I don't know anything. It seemed so clear, so obvious. Alas, t'was not.

The Raiders aren't the worst team in the NFL...this week. That dubious honor goes to the Hapless Arizona Cardinals. After getting eaten alive last week by Chicago, getting Thuh Raiduhs seemed to be tailor made for the Hapless Cards. You get your head handed to you in the last game, the best thing you can have is the worst team in the League coming in the next week. Turns out The Hapless Cardinals can't keep a child out of the kitchen, much less keep Thuh Raiduhs out of the end zone. They gave Commitment to Excrement 22 points!

I was really hoping that JOakland would be defeated all season long. Now the Hapless Cardinals have ruined that for me. It could have been the perfect season. It could have been great. Now its not. Thanks a lot, Hapless Cards. I'll remember this one for a long time.

On top of that, San Diego lost to KC, and my Bears didn't play. Michigan won again, and for some reason, Noter Damn is still ranked. I don't get that one. They squeak by the teams they should beat, and got destroyed from the first minute to the last against Michigan. They should be number 100, not number 10. I'm confident, though, that they won't be in the top 15 by the end of the season. That's a blog entry for another time.

anticipated anticipation

So there I am this past Friday, slaving over a hot lighter, burning off extra threads on some pouches at work. The guy who used to be my boss before I started in the manufacturing division comes over and says "How late do you think you'll be on Tuesday morning?" I thought for a bit, and said "Well, if the game runs long, ya better plan on an extra hour". Our production manager asked why I'd be late, so he said "Chargers/Raiders on Monday Night Football in the late game." That game is scheduled to end at about midnight:30 or so. I'm gonna have to stay up and watch it (unless its a blow out) because 1) Its the Chargers/Raiders, and I have to see it live for the best effect, and B) I don't have TiVo.

I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this game. There's a couple reasons for it: I'm a San Diego guy at heart, and have been for 25 years or so. I love that city, from the killer Messican food to ultra fresh seafood, to the Mardi Gras Cafe on Midway Dr. In addition, the weather is awesome, the wimminz is beeee-youtiful and the poeple are pretty fantastic, too. Because I have a strong link to San Diego to this day, following the SD sports teams when I can is a way to make me feel just a bit less homesick...or at least, missing carne asada nachos with sour cream and cheese a little less.

But there's more. Being a Charger fan means that I hate the Raiders. I detest Alice Davis and all that he stands for. Except for part of a decade when they employed a guy I knew from my church, Lincoln Kennedy I wanted them to lose every game. The hard part was that I wanted my bro to succeed (he did) and get paid (he did) and stay healthy (thank God, he did) but I still wanted, vehemently and strenuously, to lose every game and lose big. Now that he's retired, I can do that in good concience. I don't care what they do, as long as they lose. Hey, Alice, get down there on the sideline and coach. Get in Art Schell's way and cause more losses. Its the best thing you can do for fans of real sports teams.

The best part is that he's got himself one bad, bad football team. The Raiders, once again, are going nowhere. They're going to be the cellar dwellers, which is great. The Chargers will make the playoffs, barring too many injuries. They should be steadily improving over the next couple years, too. The Raiders, as long as Alice owns them, are going no where and staying there. They'll be the source for the maps to nowhere. They'll be able to act as guides. The Browns will probably be there, too, to spread the work load.

After all this, all I gotta say is, I'm gonna look pretty bad if the Raiders win somehow. They say the sun shines on even a blind dog's butt some days. I'm not sure what that means, other than that its supposed to connotate "luck". At any rate, here's to seeing the first game of a lot of losing by the Raiders for the forseeable future. Its a continuation of the past couple seasons, after all.

whats wrong with with athletes?

Saturday (and Sunday, Monday, generally Tuesday, Wednesday during basketball season, and always Thursdays, with a lot of Fridays in there, too, not counting Pay Per Views) are generally pretty darn good sports days. Last I looked, Texas was gettin' pretty much stomped, and Tony Stewart had been cut out of the chase. Michigan won big. The WNBA is finally done so I don't have to worry about seeing that trainwreck any longer. If I wanted to see hoops with 4" vertical leaps I'd go down to the Y and watch the kids run.

But amongst all this great sport action are reports of athletes screwing up. David Boston got cut. No reason given, but I'm sure its the same reason that got him traded from every other team he's been on. T.O. is getting into the same crap he was doing in Philly, which got him sent packin' from there. On The Ultimate Fighter, Jeremy Jackson got himself thrown out of the house-and the whole competition-which ends his shot at getting paid and getting a title shot.

I don't claim to be all that mentally tough, but I have decent amount of it. I'm not an athlete anymore, but there are still things I do well that get me paid. So what I don't understand is how supposed professionals can just throw away the one thing that sets them up for life.

A pro athlete generally has about a ten year career, if things go their way and they don't have career ending injuries. That's a pretty lucky guy that gets to do it for that long, and doing it any longer than that is really, really special. I still don't understand how it is The Rocket is still pitching at the level that he is. He's certainly making the most of his ability. Why is it so dang hard to put the idiocy behind ya to get your job done and make it possible to set yourself up for life?

If you're going to just HAVE to act the fool, why can't you wait until your career is done and the world doesn't care so much if you're an moron anymore? What's so difficult about that? I understand playing hurt and I understand that to do those jobs means that you have a lot of pressure and pain. However, you chose to do it! I really don't get it.

To punctuate the point, let me explain what Jeremy Jackson did to get booted off the show. For a change of pace, the fighters were taken to the local Y to do some swimming, play some basketball...whatever they wanted to do to break up the routine of going to the same gym and doing the same training. Jackson met a lifeguard there, and to make a long-ish story short, he arranged for her to meet him at the house. The rules are: no leaving the house without authorization (which means "go to the gym for training and fights, and go to the hospital if its required") and no guests. What does he do? He jumps over the back fence-seen on camera, of course-to meet up with this girl for one night. This was two weeks into the six week time in the house. He gets booted off the show for it. The kicker here is that for the past several months, he's been living out of his car. His rationalization? "I just wanted to spend some time with someone female. The house is all guys." All he had to do was last four more weeks. Now it'll be one heck of a long time before he gets any shot at the UFC, and he'll probably never be back there again. All because he lacked the fortitude to hold out just six weeks.

Somebody please put the world on a platter for me for a decade. I've been working my butt off since 1986, and the world still isn't mine. If I can put myself into projects that don't pay as much as pro sports do, and still work on 'em for years at a time. I guess I simply don't understand how someone can have a perishable talent, and either lacks the mental toughness or will to take advantage of it. All ya gotta do is show up, put the work in, and get it done. Save being a jerk or whatever else your problem is for later. It just makes the rest of us mad to see you blow it when we know the same chance isn't squandered on everyone else.