Thursday, August 30, 2007

it's not the starters

i have to keep telling myself this or i'm going to scream watching the chiefs. omg!!! i think i could go out and throw better than terrall has done. or croyle for that matter. neither one of them could hit the broad side of a barn tonight. i know they aren't throwing to the first team guys either, but these guys are pros, they should be able to throw the ball and catch the ball. oh yeah and get the stinkin ball through the uprights.

i was really happy to see one of my mizzou boys playing great, despite the fact that the announcer can't say his name. ekwerekwu, was awesome for the tigers and i'm hoping the same will be true for the chiefs. really excited that we have donnie edwards back where he belongs. i can't wait to get to watch him play again. and to think he does it all with no practice. that's right, he's that good with no practice. he can't practice, he's allergic to the grass. i think someone forgot to tell him that football is commonly played on grass. that is why regardless of the temp he is covered from head to toe.

lets just hope and pray that when the ball is kicked on the 9th in houston that our first string shows up to play. and lets hope that none of them get hurt because what we saw in the preseason was horrible. i know the games don't count, and that the bears and colts were 1-7 in the preseason last year. it doesn't matter, we still looked horrible. i hope they leave it all behind them.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

are you ready for some football????

in a little over 21 hours the college football season kicks off on espn. i can't wait. i love football. my favorite will always be baseball, but i love football games. so much energy and excitement, especially at the college level. my tigers play saturday and we are on tv, so i will be watching that.

the thing about college football is the energy radiates through the stadium. the traditions for each school vary, but the energy is the same. excitement from the players and the fans is outrageous. you could be at the shoe(ohio st) or one of 100,000+ at the big house(university of michigan) and the energy you would feel would be like nothing else. maybe it's because the boys are playing for pride, not a big paycheck, although for a few that will come soon enough. for those that know they will never make it to the nfl, they play with everything they have and you can see it. with every tackle, every touchdown, you can see the excitement they have in their eyes. they are living their dream. the dream to play before 100,000+ screaming fans. that doesn't happen in the nfl. the redskins can hold 80,000, but when was the last time they sold out 80,000? besides the excitement at an nfl stadium is not the excitement at a college stadium. college kids love saturdays for many reasons. one being football.

the only bad thing about college football is the bcs. whoever came up with that is not a football fan. figure out a true playoff system so there is a true champion. boise state deserved it last year, but because they didn't have the rankings for difficulty of schedule or something equally as dumb they didn't get it. i don't care how "difficult" a schedule is, you still have to go out and play 60 minutes of football and end up with more points than the other guy. you still have to stop their offense and hope their defense is sleeping when you are on the field. you still have to get a number in the w column, not the l column. boise state came out and fought like crazy against oklahoma to get a win in overtime in the fiesta bowl. oklahoma is from a major conference and according to the bcs should have beat boise state. it didn't happen that way. boise state was the only team to go undefeated and didn't even get a share of the champion title. nope they finished 4th. they won in my opinion the best bowl game of the year and did it with style and a little bit of luck. who can forget the statue of liberty play, that they pulled off with perfection. and then they added a little romance when ian johnson got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend(now wife) on national tv.

of course it's easy to sit here and come up with what seem to be better ideas, i don't have to actually plan the thing. i'm sure they are working on something better and when they do i know there will still be people complaining about it. college football fans are fierce and loyal fans. it takes a lot to get a person to change his loyalty. it's not like we follow a favorite player, they leave in 4 years or less anyway. we are loyal to the school and in turn the team. regardless of the system, we will be watching, just as we did before the bcs. and this weekend all across america people won't be out enjoying the unofficial end to summer, they will be celebrating the unofficial beginning of fall with the college game day crew at virginia tech and then glued to the tv the rest of the day. they will be watching regardless of who's playing because in the end it just might count for your team.

Monday, August 27, 2007

we need more carl edwards'


the sports world needs more guys like carl edwards. now i'm not a big nascar fan, i can name the major players and the major races, but it's not something i watch like i watch football, baseball, etc. however, i am a big carl edwards fan. not only is the guy easy on the eyes and a hometown boy, but he's a good guy. he's a little flashy with his backflip off his car when he wins a race, but it's no big deal. yesterday, only 14 hours after his big win in bristol he came home to columbia to hold a bike benefit for a childhood friend who was injured in a mountain bike accident. his friend sam russell was paralyzed after the accident in june. carl held a bike ride in columbia. during the 3 hour event he took the time to spend time riding with every person who came to the event. he posed for photographs, hung out with the fans and raised a lot of money to help his friend. i'm sure all the females at the event loved the look he sported. just goes to show there are a few good guys in sports. it's time to focus on these guys and not on the pacman jones and michael vick's of the sporting world.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

why this blog

i decided to do this here so i can write more about sports. my other blog was called sports watchin' scrapper, but it very rarely was about either, sports watching or scrapping so i changed the name of it and decided this could be about sports. anyone who knows me knows i have a major passion for sports. this is what this blog will be about. basically it's my own column. it will cover baseball, football, soccer, basketball(mostly college, some nba), maybe a little hockey and whatever sports stuff i feel like.

my first topic, what else but michael vick. not so much him, but what others are discussing in reference to him. being the fan i am i read espn.com several times a day, i listen to espn radio and i read the sports page before anything else in the paper, so i am pretty well educated on what people are saying. can someone please explain to me why so many people are saying things like "why shouldn't vick be allowed to play after his prison term is done? jamal lewis and ray lewis are still playing and what they did was just as bad." makes sense right? the biggest reason, roger goodell. he wasn't in charge when those 2 were punished. paul tagliabue was the man in charge then. i honestly believe had goodell been the man then, we most likely wouldn't be watching them on sunday's or they would have been sitting at home watching the games with the rest of us for a few seasons. goodell would not have slapped them on the hand like tagliabue did. that's not him. that's why the nfl will be a bunch of good ole boys real soon and i for one am thankful.

i've also read a lot that it's because he is black that the media is making such a big deal out of this. no it has nothing to do with that, it has to do with his character, just like martin luther king jr said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." he is being judged by the content of his character. just the same way don imus was. he was judged for a comment, albeit a stupid comment, but a comment none the less. i don't agree with what he said, but had he been a black guy it would have been okay. michael vick is being judged for what he did. he was involved in horrible acts against dogs and he ran a gambling ring. if pete rose, who hurt only himself and his family can be banned for life from baseball than michael vick should be banned for life from football. no he didn't bet on football(at least that we know of), but he did gamble, which in the way he gambled is illeagal.

if he is banned for life from football he isn't being deprived of any job in the world. it is a privilege to be a quarterback in the nfl. walk onto any high school football field on a friday night and you will find lots of boys who have that dream, only a select few will make it. he had his chance and he blew. no one did it for him, he did it. he needs to accept that and move on. go back to college and finish his degree and go make something else of himself. then and only then will the average sports fan see him as anything other than guilty of running a dog fighting ring.