Blog Posts For: February 2009

Sometimes it seems like every aspect of our culture rewards greedy brats. I think that trying to teach children to be respectful adults might actually be a detriment to their adult lives. We bail out a banking industry with billions after that cost millions their retirement portfolio. We offer reality shows to rich kids who do absolutely nothing and put them on covers of magazines. We even reward players who act ridiculously with multi-millionaire contracts.

So this weekend Slumdog Millionaire won an impressive eight Oscars out of ten. That kind of dominance is rare in any field. Few musicians have been able to impress the entire Grammy community, sorry Kanye West. Few presidents have been able to have four uninterrupted years of good feeling and inspirational bipartisanship, sorry President Obama. Few sports teams have been able to have perfect seasons, sorry New England Patriots.

I have been watching this final week with Conan O’Brien before he takes over for Jay Leno at the Tonight Show and was trying to find some great Youtube material for a post. Well, several hours later I came across perhaps the weirdest connection in late night, the Conan-Jon Stewart connection.

Not much happened this time around at the trade deadline as the league has moved on from the Boston Celtics title run in 2008 and has moved onto the practice of making trades in the hopes of acquiring expiring contracts and not talent.

Bucking the general downward trend of the economy, football, as an industry is expanding. Yes, in the next couple of years it looks like fans will have four more leagues to watch. Who knew that professional football would become a beacon for financial hope?

Last weekend my spirit died a little bit as I caved and took my girlfriend to see He’s Just Not That Into You. Here’s the plot summary. The first two acts tell girls that they trick themselves into believing that every man they meet likes them, and then the third act betrays the first two as every female character becomes the exception to the rule.

Gaggles of teenage girls and desperate women were squealing toward the end and I had the urge to jab my plastic straw through my ocular cavity to damage enough of my brain to forget the gruesome two hours I had just witnessed. The only thing I could do was to try and apply the rules from the first two acts of the movie to the sports universe.

It is times like these when the average person is thrust into a life of hardship and they are wading waist deep in corruption that Americans try and return to the simple things in life. Baseball used to be one of those things, but the league is trying America’s patience.

Assuming the rumors are true, Rihanna needs to leave Chris Brown before he goes all Bobby and ruins her career and her emotional well being. It’s too bad that Rihanna missed her performance at the Grammy’s. She could have peered into the future and watched Whitney Houston while she presented Jennifer Hudson’s win for best Debut Album. She looked “clean” if clean meant visibly shaking and talking as if she was trying to restrain herself from screaming into the microphone.

Alex Rodriguez started as the young superstar A-Rod, signed a huge contract with the New York Yankees and became A-Fraud, and now a Sports Illustrated article has painted him as A-Roid. Suddenly the best option to return some sort of honor to the home run record is guilty of using Primobolon and testosterone. Well, I say that we still root for Choke-Rod to come through and hit the 210 home runs needed to surpass Bonds’ 762.

With just about a week until pitchers and catchers report, there is simply an incredible number of free agents still available. This is hardly a groundbreaking observation, but I find the parallels between the deep field of quality players still looking for a contract and the layman who is trying to find work after becoming yet another causality of the economy to be too great to ignore.

Holy Freakin’ Basketball Jebus!!! LeBron James went for 52 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds on Wednesday night in a 107-102 win for the Cleveland Cavaliers over the New York Knicks. He had the most points in a triple double since the days when men’s athletic shorts ended just below the balls and when the circus act known as the ABA merged with the NBA. He proved again that he might be the greatest single force in the league and possibly professional basketball history.

Fashionistas, celebrity news show segment producers, and now a video company are making Jessica Simpson’s latest tour Hell on Earth. Fashion experts (plus wannabe experts working at Kohls) and the E! channel have spent the week talking about the drawbacks of trying to bring back high-waisted jeans from the 1980s, seemingly excessive weight gain, and rumors of an All Pro quarterback boyfriend cheating with the closest skanky blonde chick in every tabloid picture.

Manny Ramirez needs a reality check. He is going to be 37 years old this next season. The economy is killing everyone, including professional sports team. He is going to be 37 years old. He is simply not going to get a four-year deal for $100 million. He is going to be 37 years old. I do not know what Scott Boras is telling him, but not even the big-spending New York Yankees are going to make that kind of an offer.

Many people will remember Super Bowl XLIII for many different things. Pittsburgh Steelers fans will remember the 27-23 win as their NFL-leading sixth Super Bowl title. Arizona Cardinals fans will remember the loss as the crushing end of its Cinderella season. Football fans will remember the game for its fourth quarter heroics. Girlfriends being force to watch the game for the lack of quality commercials. Office workers will remember the game for the one play that could have given them a win in the work squares pool.