XIV. Only Interesting to Moi

1. SPORTING PLAYOFFS
Chicago Fire eliminated... from getting first place in the east. The Fire is 13th on the combined table and that has only happened just now (3 games left).

1a. William Hesmer made a funny when he commented on the MLS playoff format, "..instead of it taking 5 seconds to say 'we are in 5th and need to get into 4th' - it takes 30 seconds to explain how you get in."

1b. The NHL is struggling with conferences / divisions / playoffs as well. They kept Columbus in the West. That ensures a poor record. I see that Detroit and Nashville are in the West as well.

1c. NFL doesn't necessarily get it all right, but they get the game time stuff right. Sunday afternoon? Fall? Game is on TV.

1d. Finally, MLB. They are looking at splitting it in to two conferences and scrap divisions. If they go then expect the rest of the domestic sports to follow.

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2. BUCKEYES
When I went to bed they were winning by a couple touchdowns. Woke up and caught up on the twitter feed. Reading the events that way was like watching that part in every war movie when the audience and characters know there just isn't anyone coming back from that last mission, but they gotta go.

Strange out here in Buckland these days. Scandal, bad team, questionable coaching and a rotten Athletic Director.

What this area thinks they need is some gritty vet to turn around, face the camera, pump his shotgun with one hand and say, 'come on you apes, you want to live forever?!!' just as the forgotten 80s metal song blares. Roll credits.

A: It's not going to happen.
B: it's not the right thing for the University.

Take you medicine, OSU. The sooner you do? The sooner you can get epic movie music.

2a. I've been paying close attention to OSU Coach Luke Fickell, not only because he looks a little like my brother but because he is around my age. He is certainly getting a crash course in, well, whatever coaching the football team of the largest university on the planet is. I don't know what you call that title. The position Fickell holds is too big for anyone. Because of the fans, it has become a mystical/shaman position that can only be filled by a mythical legend. King Arthur? Odin? Woody Hayes?

Because of Fickell's age I also find myself playing the "what would i do in that situation" game. I've come to the conclusion that there is nothing he can do, really. He was on Tressell's staff and knows too many dirty little things that could destroy his future career.

So, advice for Mr. Fickell:
- is roll out the school pride,
- prepare the fans for a long 2nd half of season
- say some good things about Woody
- Announce you are a one yr steward for the university, winning comes 2nd
- get your young family the hell out of dodge before the new year.

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3. FIFA, GEARS, MW3, UNCHARTED
What I'll be playing the rest of this year.

3a. FIFA 12 is very fun.

3b. Fitting in Gears of War 3. Not as good as 2, but okay for what it is and better then the other future/space soldiers/shoot stuff/ games.

3c. Modern Warfare 3. Because having kids yell at you gets me though the Ohio winter and it looks like the next Ghost Recon is stalling.

3d. Uncharted 3. The first two were a couple of the best games I've ever played.

3e. Betcha Luke Fickell doesn't have time for video games right now. But he may next year if he doesn't GET. OUTTA. DODGE.

XII. Only interesting to me...

1. March Madness
It's that time of year. Good. But I haven't been watching much college bb this year. In fact, my college bb cup has been rather empty since I've been up here in Ohio. But every time March rolls around I get all pumped up.

1a. It's an interesting feeling to sit down and watch a couple basketball games. It feels like... like... going outside and noticing your car isn't frozen in ice and snow. Now that's a good feeling.

1b. Sports Reference online now has extensive college basketball stats. Today is "selection Sunday" so I'll be digging into them to help fill out my bracket. Of course I will be giving the "mascot" bracket to a friend of mine to fill out at well. She just pits the mascots against each other in a fight in the wild. She has beaten my bracket about 5 years running.

2. Stoke City, F.A. Cup
On right now. Can't find it live so following the "match cast" 1-1 right now. I really think Stoke is going for broke on the F.A. Cup this year. They have their A team in. Anyone familiar with the brutal Premier League schedule knows that this takes planning weeks out to make this happen. Good to see Sorensen in goal. I hope it pays off.

3. Columbus Blue Jackets.
Not going to make the playoffs again this year. They are celebrating 10 years. Only one playoff appearance. Got to go to a game last week and sit on the Club Level. Loge Level to be exact. It was a great time. Never seen any sporting event like that before. I could get use to it.

1a.1. Time of year weather gets all wonky in Columbus. In the 40s one day... car covered in ice the next. Yesterday is was around 50. I opened my windows.

4. FIFA 11 Career Mode.
I've taken the Northampton Town Cobblers up to the Champions League as a Player / Manager. Having a great time doing it. Making transfers, shuffling line ups. Also learning a lot about how the business side works, even if it may be on a remedial level. It's a good feature. After it is all said and done I'll probably do a larger write up on it. Wish list of sorts. I'm earning it. Playing every game.

5. OSU not going away
The lawyer that leaked the information to Coach Tressel is now making the rounds in the media. The long this goes on, the more it reminds me of the NC State stuff that got Jim Valvano ousted way back in the late 80s. I was a kid then, but remember it well. No internet back then, so it was a book that lead to the Valvano resigning. A crappy book written by Peter Golenbock with the help of a former punk kid manager (an others looking for a quick buck).

5a. Good first hand account of things HERE by John Feinstein.

5b. I was going to NC State basketball camps during that time. I remember the near rock star status of Jim Valvano the first years I attended them. The camp was packed, people would come and sit in the stands just waiting for Valvano and watch him speak to us. My age group had enough kids to have a league! I remember we played a couple games a day and my team lost every game during the week. The last day we had an all day tournament and we won that sucker. Jim Valvano himself noticed this feat and came down to talk to us about it. He said that we were the kind of team he loved. Underdog. I still have the ribbon I won from that day. I get emotional just thinking about it.

It was probably one of the most exciting events in my life being there. I attended after Valvano resigned too. I remember the place being dead. Not even enough kids in my age group to get a game of 5 on 5. It must have been around 1991. The year that NC State hit rock bottom with their basketball program.

This event is why I get concerned about the future of the OSU program.

2a. Stoke....

F.A. Cup WIN. off to Wembley for the final four! wow! It's been 39 years since that for the club?!

XI. Only Interesting to Me

1. Dirk Kuyt!

Takes down Manchester United. Liverpool was dominate most of the game and Nani is a punk. It's pretty amazing when Liverpool decides to put on the pressure. The game was played in Man U's half most of the game.

2. Update on The Jimmer

Still doing his thing. The powers that be at BYU suspended his go too guy last week for premarital sex though. Being that the team is mostly just Jimmer... they will do just fine.

2a. BYU got lots of respect for the suspension of Davies from the media. I saw that they let him cut down part of the net after winning the conference, but he will have such a hard time recovering from this. It was interesting to see the story develop in the news. It went from "BYU gains respect" to "Davies suspended for "relations"" to "What is the BYU Honor Code" to "The honor code includes whaaaa and comes from whaaaa?" to, well, where we are now. Which is; just drop the whole thing.

3. MK Dons FC logo sucks.

Played this team in my career stuff in FIFA. I wanted to beat the snot out of them because of their logo.

4. 45 degrees yesterday.

Snow and ice this morning. OHIO.

5. Dang it Stoke

Are you going for the FA cup and only the Cup? You need to be careful. You aren't that far from the bottom. Snap out of it! You are making me nervous. The way you are playing right now makes me believe that you have no business in the EPL.

So there.

X. Only Interesting to Me

1. Guus Hiddink, soccer guru on the move again.

He is always on the move. He is soccer nation building now in Turkey. In 2002 he was in S. Korea. Turkey played S. Korea in a friendly the other day. Sort of like he was playing himself. 0-0.

1a. Watching Lazio play Brescia... messy.

Hey! It's a solo man in the both. Same poor guy that pretends to be at the games calling all the nPower League 2 highlights. Haha! This guy is everywhere!

2a. He just pimped himself on the air, he is also a musician. Max Patrick.

2. Bonduel, WI news reads about as easily as one of my posts.

"Workshops seek to improve economic literacy"
Feb. 4, 2011 8:38 p.m. Comments University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Professor Emeritus Mark Schug is trying to attack a problem that has been plaguing the country for years - one that he says may have placed Americans right in the middle of the economic crisis: financial illiteracy.

3. Spring getting here in Ohio.

I know we've got a few weeks left, but in the 40s yesterday! That's 40 degrees warmer then the previous day.
4. Follow up on Super Bowl Crowd Theory

Medians were close in both point total (52 vs. 56) and point difference (hit, 6 points). The "crowd" also picked the winner. Interesting. Nice work "crowd", Vegas loves ya.

5. Stoke; Cleanest team in league!

Yes, really! they are. They commit less fouls then anyone. 278 on the year. Roughest team in the EPL? Wigan 370 fouls.

5a. Foul difference.

The diff between fouls given to fouls taken. Bolton has given 77 more then taken. It's funny because they are the least fouled team. The most picked on team? The leagues punching bag? Hotspur. They have taken 65 more fouls suffered then given.

Stoke again, has suffered the 2nd least amount of fouls. Maybe other teams are scared. Man U suffers the least amount.

5b. Frequency of fouls in a game? One every four minutes.

Only here do you get that stat!

6. Most productive offensive players in the league based on goals and assists per game played?

Weighted; 5 pts for a goal, 3 pts for assist

1: Berbatov (4.4)
2: Tevez*
3. Van Persie*
4: Van der Vaart
5: Nani
6: Carroll
7: Rooney
8: Walcott
9: Drogba
0: Cahill (2.7)

* players averaging over 1 goal or assist per game played.

7. I've got more, but I'll leave that for another post!

IX: Only Interesting to Me

Grab your coffee or, if you prefer, favorite 'non-hot' Sunday morning drink, and relax. Time for things only interesting to me.

1. Bonduel, Wisconsin.
Pictured: Bonduel in the Summer.
How the heck I wound out looking up the history of this town? Oh, Yahoo news. An old German Bible was found there. A 1640 copy of Martin Luther's original translation so only about 100 years after Luther's death. According to Bonduel history it was founded by (German) Jesuits in the late 19th century. Could the Jesuits (Catholic) brought the bible with them? Didn't Luther teach that salvation is not earned by good deeds but received only as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus as redeemer from sin?! What happened to the Jesuits?? I smell scandal in Bonduel! Maybe we need to dig deeper into Bondeul history to discover where their split with the Catholic faith came from:

"Bonduel takes its name from Reverend F. Bonduel, who was a priest from Green Bay. The legend is that after providing missionary services to local Native Americans, the village was named after him. There is also a legend about how the "Bears" name came about. It is that one day while the Reverend was making his rounds, someone attacked him. However, two bears came to the defense of the helpless man, scaring the attacker away. It is said that after this time, the bears followed him no matter where he went, protecting him from any harm."

It always goes back to a guy being protected by two bears doesn't it?

2. Other video games I played this year.
Sitting on my coffee table is a little stack of PS3 games I got in 2010 a couple of which I didn't mention in my game of the year post. Namely, Just Cause 2, MLB: The Show and... Naughty Bear. Bears again! That game is one of those "so bad it's good".

2a. Just Cause 2 is a really fun game. It's like an action movie that you can direct yourself. Climb in a helicopter, take it up as far as you can go, crash it into a military base atop a tall snowy mountain and para shoot out down to a boat next to a tropical village... rinse and repeat.

3. Playoff Football.
Dang it Ravens. You just created another legion of B.I.R.G.s. for the Steelers. That's from a study done back in the 70s about bandwagon fans. Basking In Reflective Glory. Notice in the table picture that UM fans actually support their team win or loose. OSU fans disappear.

3a. Dome team Atlanta Falcons get blown out. Woohoo! Watching the Green Bay packers playing in that awful, sterile visual environment was painful. Booooo domed teams. BOOOOOOOOOO.

4. Movies needing time to soak.
Picked up a couple movies recently to watch and try and figure out if they are really good or just good at the time in the theater. Pans Labyrinth; Good. Up; Not so good. Unfortunately I saw this is washed out 3-D first. Gave it another chance and think it's good, but not great. I did discover it is very pretty though. 3-D. Boooooo.

5. Stoke Win!
Higginbotham! Stoke again proving some of the modern thoughts about possession wrong. 35% in another win? Yes. Also, good to see Holden out there for Bolton.

5a. Tevez is a beast.

5b. Watching the Liverpool / Everton game now. Liverpool is attack, attack, ATTACK! good.

5c. Opps. Opened them up. 2 quick goals from Everton.

VIII. Only Interesting To Me

1. Happy Boxing Day

2. Soccernomics is a great book
A friend got me this for Christmas, maybe he read my in depth objective mathematical analysis of the World Cup? I doubt it. I wish I picked it up when it came out early this year before the WC so I am a year late on this book, but well worth the read now. It looks at soccer from a broad view, but also digs into the EPL a great deal. I read about half of it last night, couldn't put it down.

2a. Another book I was digging into is Lean Thinking
Until Soccernomics came along. The "bible" for anyone in manufacturing that I had yet to read.

2b. Impulsed bought The Bible last night.
By The Bible, I mean the 1611 King James version with the Apocrypha. I have not had a copy since I moved to Ohio. Looking forward to getting it in the mail. Sorry Amazon employees that had to work today. I had to work as well though. So thar.

3. 2010 is hath neareth an end.
Therefore, verily I say unto you, a game of this year of our Lord needeth to be made. Doest thou beleiveith the dearth of such in this year? Ok.

4. Jim Tressel
There are rumblings of OSU coach Tressel leaving after the bowl game already. Chicagonow.com is reporting that two sources have said as much. More on that in another post.

5. My beenie weenie dip today includes queso blanco dip with roadhouse chili for the Brownies game. We'll see how that goes. My relationship analysis based on history, experience and weenie density is telling me with high probability that it will result in a nap.

VII. Only Interesting To Me

1. Tron Legacy and Daft Punk
Tron is visual representation of what goes on in my computer. Daft Punk is musicalistical representation of the same. They are made for each other. Derezzed video. Musicalistical is not a word. Olivia Wilde stops the show at the end of the video. To save you search... American blue blood, a hoity toity NY family; married to a real Italian Blue Blood prince.

2. Metrodome roof collapsed**** (deflated) under 2 ft of snow
It is just a inflatable thing made of, like, Teflon. Pull that sucker out and play with out it. An outdoor game in Minnesota is what the football gods command! Oh, and speaking of those football gods; this thing is sort of surreal because a lot of things are converging all at once. Favre's streak, bringing Favre to the Vikings to help get a new stadium built, and the near end of Favre's career.

2a. Best headline so far: "Metrodome Roof Collapsed, Just Like The Dreams Of The Vikings Fans It Shelters"

2b. AND OH MY... There is video. Actually scary.

3. Winter is here in Ohio as well
-5 with wind chill tonight. It's a winter wonderland now, I'll add photos below.

4. A brand new 1984 Buick GNX
This happens to be one of those proverbial dream cars for me. The thing is a beast and a new on still sits for sale. Check the story here.

5. My Brownies not on TV today?? BOOOOOOOOOO

3a.
That's a pick of Helltown Beer HQ.

Almost looks like black and white photos, but they are not.

VI. Only Interesting to Me

1. Writers that write for "real" sports websites referencing their own tweets.
"During the game, I tweeted that Boise's D-line (Billy Winn, Ryan Winterswyk, Chase Baker and Shea McClellin) is the best in the country." Thanks Stewart Mandel over at Sports Illustrated. Why stop now Stew, go for the gold... make a tweet about your reference to your own tweet on si.com ON si.com.

2. More Ohio State football.
Terrelle Pryor is frustratingly inconsistent and even though he has all the tattoos he will probably never see a snap in the NFL as a quarterback.

3. Manchester United has yet to loose a game in the Premier League. Stoke wins again!

4. The TSA.
Gettin' aggressive out there guys. I had a moment flying out to NH. That "don't touch my junk, man" moment. I'm an easy target I guess. I didn't understand because I went through the metal detector pants falling down with no shoes on and my government issued drivers license, cell phone and dignity far away from me in a tote. In Columbus you don't get a lot of non-white travelers so as I sat putting my shoes back on I looked back for another 30 something white guy traveling on his own back at the gate... he was pulled too. As the circus applicant TSA worker was feeling his groin, we made eye contact. We had a moment.

Anyway, I know this sort of thing isn't going away. It's sad.

5. The White Album and Tron
On iTunes. My favorite album. Listening now. Another great album? Any Daft Punk album. They are doing the soundtrack for the new Tron movie. If you haven't seen the original Tron in a while... watch it.

6. Avatar in the FernGully
It's been said a million times now, but Avatar is a better version of the FernGully. Even in the special features section of my Blu-ray they reference the FernGully. I had no expectations for Avatar. I have expectations of James Cameron and he didn't disappoint. I have a James Cameron story. When I was working at Staples as an esteemed copy center clerk I met a guy who sold Mr. Cameron 10 Humvee's. "For what?" I asked... thinking it was for some movie. "To play paintball" was the response I got. Story over.

Another thing on my mind during the movie was the perceived slight people wrote about concerning the Marines in the movie. While the name "Marines" is called out often I felt there was nothing to make me say it took shots at them. In fact it was quite the opposite in a lot of ways. For those paying attention... Marines are here to be the tip of the spear. They are trained to kill other people. Turn them loose and they will do just that. I'm sorry if you bump into me and I say that and burst your bubble. They are trained to do that so I can sit here and write. Be glad these guys are on our team. Also, for those paying attention, Mr. Cameron's brother is a Marine who served multiple times in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm going to say that a lot of the best lines in the movie come from him.

"I became a Marine for the hardship. Told myself that I can pass any test a man can pass. All I ever wanted was a single thing worth fighting for."

V. Only Interesting to me

1. "The Drive" The new one.
Not the one that knocked the Browns out of 1987 the playoffs. The one I just saw were the Jets had the ball for 11 minutes straight and didn't score. Believeland.

2. Shoot the Hinges
Sometimes I hear the phase "average age of gamers" and how it seems to go up each year. It's because most gamers started playing the NES and Sega Master system at age 10. Now they are are having kids. Time to scrap that phase. That said. Folks playing games are wiser as well. With that we are starting to see major holes these ultra hyped games that get written / designed by 2 year school C- 20 somethings and reviewed by the same who have never been to college. Click on that link to watch a 15 minute video of a guy playing Call of Duty: Black Ops... and never firing a shot. That is a short film. Not a game getting some of the best reviews of the year.

Anyway, shoot the hinges comes from THIS.

2a. Mass Effect 2
Sitting on my coffee table, ready to go.

3.eHarmony?
yes. no. yes. no. Probably no? Not sure anyone is looking for a guy who works all the time, plays video games often and only hangs out with friends on Monday night to watch football. Oh, and takes good care of my cat.

3a. Also, I know everything about unicorns.

4. Whatever point I make here... will be used as justification for why I have to look at eHarmony.

5. Most productive player on the Brewmasters
Just finished a 34 grueling match season against all of Budesliga 2nd division. Some may say that is crazy. I say, HBU earned their stripes. Most productive? Stevens with .67 goals and assists per game (18 games). Highest average match rating? Matt Wood. 7.6 (28 games).

6. Stoke City
Up the ladder they go!! Back up to 10th.

7. It doesn't matter where the truth comes from.

IV. Only Interesting to Me

1. One Man's Sasquatch is another Man's Chewbacca.

2. Johnny Reb was retired in 2006
After four years nobody noticed, Ole Miss finally decided on a suitable replacement. A Black Bear. I don't get bent out of shape about this stuff. The bear is fine. I liked that Reb was prowling the sidelines, I reckon. But the mascot politically correct thing just keeps marching on and on. It's a mascot, folks. How can some people get upset with the Redskins saying it is derogatory and offensive and then the same people take Johnny Reb seriously. Wouldn't those people want to keep Johnny because it, by the same reasoning, makes a joke out a southern redneck? Shouldn't Mississippians been offended by ole Johnny? Just my two cents.

3. Found a really bad logo today:


Feast your eyes on that! Anyway, I'm mentioning it because winter is coming here to Ohio.

4. I saw a guy wearing a Colt McCoy Browns Jersey this morning.
It's an ongoing joke with some co-workers because Browns fans here have a hard time investing in a player jersey because no player ever sticks around there. You know what? The Browns beat up on the Super Bowl champs today. Maybe that dude knows something.

5. Jim Valvano once said:
"Everyday you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think, and cry... that's a heck of a day." He said that three months before he passed. Here is a story of a kitten born blind that I can't believe I'm mentioning but I am. Jack Tripper. And he is doing great. If you haven't had anything move your emotions today take a look. Click on his name at your own heart melting peril.

Jack Tripper.

6. Dear smart dumb people,
The same people who ban mascots. If you leave any food out in a dry environment it will not mold. You'll get beef burger jerky and french fry jerky.

A photographer hard up on ideas decided to leave McDonald's food out for a half year and take pictures. People seemed to be all up in arms about how it didn't mold. Anybody who has found a fry in your car knows they don't. You need moisture. That said, news flash... fast food is bad for you. You don't need misguided story from Yahoo news to tell you that. Take it from Helltown. It makes you fat, don't eat it.

3b. Speaking of logos, Cadillac over the years:

III. Only Interesting To Me

1. Buckeyes

The football player kind. The only kind and they rule these parts. They lost last night in a rowdy Camp Randall stadium. Since I mentioned a few weeks back the VT entrance I can't not mention the Wisconsin tradition of playing Jump Around at the end of the 3rd quarter. I like this one for a few reasons: A. Visiting fan filming in awe B. Opposing team joining in. C. 90,000 people. D. Ref is signaling at the end... in time with the song. E! Bucky the Badger dancing F!!! Cheerleaders in full dance routine. G!!!!! God Bless America.

However: If we are going to compare stadium atmosphere let us take a lot at the granddaddy of entrances.


2. Tough loss Stoke.

3. Colt McCoy starting for the first time
The guy was a legend in Texas. He even saved someones life. He's going up against the Steelers as his first time out in the NFL. Someone may need to save his.

4. Redskins on Sunday Night Football in America
Breaking out the Beenie Weenie dip for this one.

4a. Larry's Traditional Beenie Weenie Dip Recipe:
- Thick and Rich Bush's Baked Beans
- Mexican shredded cheese
- Fresh Mozzarella
- Two thinly sliced cheese dogs
- Tostitos cheese queso dip
- Texas Pete hot sauce
(how much of each ingredient you put in is up to you)

- Tostitos Multi-grain Chips

PS: Back to Camp Randall with the same game the lady from ASU was wowed by... from inside the student section (what she was looking at).

II. Only interesting to me

1. Tailgating at Buffalo Bills games.

A longtime Bills fan has been selling bowling ball shots (shot out of the finger hole) and grilling off the hood of his Pinto for near on two decades... until last week when an NFL suit told him "not any more". The NFL is trying to clean up the gameday experience, I get that. NFL games are rated R events on the field and around the stadium. But shutting out this guy in Buffalo isn't necessary. Yeah, yeah, the law and what not. Turns out they wanted to move him away from the stadium altogether but they settled on letting him stay where he was, just sans bowling ball. It's Buffalo man, he is a true fan of that team, leave him be.

Which leads me to...

2. Steelers fan dude.

Ohio gained about a billion Steeler fans a couple years ago when the won the Super Bowl. I don't mind someone jumping on a bandwagon but it is over the top here where I happen to live. I have a trifecta of bars around me so every Sunday in the Fall Mr. and Mrs. Fake Steelers fan pure out on the streets drunk and loud. It's always sort of bothered more then it should, this rooting for a team cause they are good. It is prevalent in all sports I reckon. It isn't the fan whose dad was a fan or someone who moved from PA. It's young Ohio dude who hasn't worked a day in their floppy handshake life. Oh well, it's hard to explain. I guess when you have a little prick you feel like you have to root for a winner? Get off my lawn you punk! You too - ikillyomomma screen name - who kept picking FC Barcelona when I was going with the Columbus Crew on FIFA 10!

3. Finished Red Dead Redemption

A couple weeks ago, but deserves mention. Those guys at San Diego Rockstar pulled off an excellent game.

4. Alcohol free lifestyle right now

Made a pact with someone. That's not a underhanded way to say "made a pact with myself" either. That said, it'll do me a lot of good as well. Save for the rude comments about nonsense like poor Steelers fan that come out from not sipping on a 12 year old single malt scotch (or Bulleit Bourbon) to calm the nerves. Jokes aside, it is something I'm taking seriously. Does the body good and makes grocery shopping more interesting. I have a host of new beverages in my fridge like San Pellegrino, Virgils Root Beer, Jones Soda (or Pop, which I've been off of for a couple years) and various forms of fruit juice, I'm sure alcohol will make it's way back (vino maybe), but for now it's off. It means a lot to me to be helping someone.

5. Shawcross is no longer my captain

Drogba has taken the arm band as I was called out (wisely) by the commish in my fantasy soccer league. Expect Drogba to go down with injury! In other fantasy news. The other football kind. I'm still playing with the "good guys" for the 4th year straight. Won me a championship a couple years ago. Almost dead last in the other years, but this year I'll be back on top!

6. Who is Dying Bravely? We Don't Back Down

Only interesting to me

Peter King of Sports Illustrated has a topic buried in his Monday NFL column called "Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me". Love him or hate him his column is excellent. So I'm going to rip him off here and go on talking about things that I find interesting as I settle in Ohio's "gray season" (autumn and winter).

(and most of Spring).

1. JMU beats Virginia Tech in Lane Stadium? Yes!

In the world of college football it doesn't get any more embarrassing then this for the Hokies. I had lots of friends go to VT. I've visited the school a couple times. I like where it is and like that good engineers come from there... I've just never liked their athletic teams or fans. Loud, boastful, arrogant. They are always ranked high to start the season but find ways to drop down like loosing to JMU. Maybe I just don't like them because they were allowed into the ACC. They belong in that dirty conference full of "known for sports only" schools. The Big East.

Another thing I have mixed emotions about is that they enter the stadium to a Metallica's Enter Sandman like some pro wrestler. It seems to be what they are known for these days. Nice work Hokies. This VT tradition dates way back to the year 2000 when a vote was taken. It was Sandman or Welcome to the Jungle. I wish the students choose neither. But, they did.

All that meanness said; the environment this song creates out there in the mountains, especially on a cool and soggy night, has probably made a few opposing players piss their pants (note: no JMU player wet their pants yesterday. **Nor do the blue bloods over at UVA ever soil their britches**). Their entrance has it all. The song is like catnip for Hokies. I have to admit - seeing Virginia's flag run out on the field with tens of thousands of fans going nuts to a backdrop of fire works gives me the duck bites. Sic semper tyrannis!


I like how people spill onto the field. It's one of these things that blurs the line between sporting event and battle field. I know that I shouldn't, but I love that it exists.

2. Ohio State is having trouble with special teams.
2a. Terrelle Pryor is a "weapon" not a QB.

I am expecting the Buckeyes to run the table this year and meet up with a school like Alabama (if they can survive the SEC). Bama is a much better team.

3. "Let's show these northern boys how Southern Boys play football!" - McElroy, Alabama Quarterback before their game against Penn State.

McElroy of Alabama is a Rhodes Scholar applicant, Sigma Alpha Epsilon member, his father is a VP in the Dallas Cowboys organization and he hasn't lost a game he has started since the 8th grade. I stood up when ESPN rolled that quote clip of him stating the above quote. They ended up stomping Penn St in a game where they pulled up in the 3rd quarter (out of respect for Penn State, if I may be so bold).

4. I hope ESPN removes the "crawl" of sports updates at the bottom of the screen during games soon.

It's not necessary. It's a hangover from days before the internet me thinks. Also, while I'm at it employ the "less is more" theory of design with time and score graphics that are ever present at the bottom of the screen. I'm looking forward to the day when I have the option of dropping that and watching a clean feed and only pulling it up when I want it and where I want it. So called on demand statistics during games is where a sport like baseball can be become king again. It'll happen so says I.

**My thoughts on the difference between a Hokie fan and a Wahoo is thus: VT fans feel they have to win. When they don't, they get all pissed off and down. UVA fans? Pretty even win or loose.**