Archive for February, 2008

At first glance it sounds crazy. I mean a sportswriter taking over a professional team. We’re just supposed to be guys full of hot air, right. I mean, we’re just talking heads that don’t have to worry about out our opinions because no one ever really calls us on them.

But Bill Simmons of ESPN.com wants to change that. I’ve been reading The Sports Guy since I was in college. He’s written about days when he only had eight readers in a day back at Digital City Boston back on AOL. I’m pretty sure I was one of those eight, and probably refreshed the page a couple of times.

So Simmons wants to take over the Milwaukee Bucks, and he’s written a column about it over at the worldwide leader’s web site. We should probably just look at it as a gag, but what the heck, let’s take it seriously.

The Bucks are one of those franchises that kind of serve as a space filler on the shelf at the grocery store. The Celtics, the Lakers, the Cavs, the Spurs, those are the items every one picks up immediately off the shelf, like Doritos. The Bucks, they’re sorta like Utz Chips. Sure they’re there, and we know some people like them, but they don’t really matter.

Bucks fans have it tough. The team hasn’t mattered in two decades. The Brewers, well they’re awful too. They don’t have an NHL team in Milwaukee. The city’s most beloved team is the Packers, and they reside in Green Bay.

The Bucks management should actually consider this. First of all, it’d be a huge story. ESPN would be all over it, if for no other reason than it is great cross-promotion. The Bucks would be a big story. Reporters all over the nation would question the Bucks’ sanity, but you know what, they’d be talking about the Bucks. When was the last time the Bucks were a leadoff item on PTI? Have they ever?

This needs to happen. Personally I’ll miss spending so much time reading his columns, and mailbags, but it’s a sacrifice that I’d be willing to make for the man to live out his dream, and for the Bucks’ fans to get what they’re starting to clamor for.

Hey, crazier things have worked out.

Okay, because it’s a Thursday I don’t have time to really blog a ton today. But, I’m glad to be back on the interweb. It’s been about three weeks since the blog died some hi-tech unexplainable death, and try as we did, we couldn’t get it back up and running. During that time Roger Clemens went before congress, the Red Sox signed Bartolo Colon, the Celtics looked horrible and then great again, the Bruins were the Bruins, and there’s been tons and tons of high school stuff going on.

So, we’ll get back to it all very soon, most likely Friday I’ll come up with something. I’ve had a couple of ideas I’ve been throwing around in my head, but since the blog hasn’t worked, they’ve come and gone and been replaced. We’ll see what happens.

But, it’s just nice to be back. I’m sure at least one person missed wasting a few minutes here. I know I’ve missed filling the space.

You probably have seen the “Perfect” Reebok ad that ran after the Super Bowl. Well, this is the one that should have won, you know, if the Patriots had just held on at the end and all.

I heard you Barnstable fans.

Yup, early in the first period, the writer somehow became part of the story, at least in a small part as the fans from BHS began to chant my name. I’ll admit it, I got a chuckle from it. Better they chant my name than what they were chanting at Kennedy Ice Arena a few weeks back, words I can’t write here. Rob Duca, my buddy from the Cape Cod Times, thought it was pretty funny too. He also told me that he had started a column on the same subject I wrote about a few weeks back, but never finished it. We both felt that the fans that night crossed the line.

And, I’ve got to say something about the BHS fans, they were much classier this time around. The same, though, I can’t say for some Falmouth fans.

For the most part both sides were well-behaved. They witnessed a fantastic hockey game and were into it from the start.

A few things from the Falmouth side bothered me. There’s a good chance that some BHS fans said an improper word or two too, but from my vantage point I can’t hear them as well, but I can easily hear the Falmouth fans from the press box.

There really is no reason to call the players on the ice that play for the other teams bad names. It sounds very grade schoolish, but really name-calling is pretty stupid. And, let me tell you, the only reason that any of these kids are being called bad words is because they happen to live in and play for Barnstable. If they lived in the greater Falmouth area, and wore maroon jerseys, they’d be a friend and rooted for. It’s all about geography that makes someone a wimp?

I heard some bad words coming out of the FHS side of the stands, and it made me cringe. I came out against the Red Raiders’ faithful’s actions a few weeks ago, and you know what, while it wasn’t as bad as Kennedy, some of the fans in the Falmouth Ice Arena stands should be ashamed of themselves as well.

You might think you’re cheering on your friends, but you’re really just being obnoxious. It’s one thing to openly root for your side, but a whole other thing to just scream out random mean-spirited phrases at the other side.

And, let’s get one thing straight, shall we. Regardless of who you are rooting for, all of those kids on the ice are probably a lot tougher than you are. They’re the ones with the guts to lace up their skates and play a hard-hitting game against the other side. The fans are behind plexiglass and netting, and the only chance they have of getting injured is by slipping on the bleachers.

I grew up in Falmouth, and have always rooted against Barnstable in everything. It’s like rooting against the Yankees I guess. It’s just ingrained in you from a young age. However, that doesn’t mean that they’re the enemy.

I’ll admit it in this space. I have several good friends that attended Barnstable High School. Sure we like to give eachother a hard time about our high school affiliations, but we don’t hate eachother. We don’t pick fights with one another. We rib eachother, for sure, but that’s it.

Seriously, how could you say anything but good things about players like Kyle Phelan and Jake Adams after what they did on Wednesday night. Phelan scored a hat trick for BHS, with two of the prettiest goals I’ve seen in a while. Adams stopped 38 FHS shots, and kept his team in the game on a night that I felt like the Clippers pretty much dominated and should have won. But, these games are apparently meant to be ties, and so it is.

You’ll forgive me for taking a few days to get my head together. It’s not been a fun couple of days here in New England.

Monday felt like someone close to the family had died. I don’t mean to be melodramatic, but you had to be here to understand. I even dressed in black that day, it just felt appropriate. The whole region was bummed out.

I laughed at a news story Monday night on the local news that showed about 500 fans that headed over to Gillette Stadium to greet the Patriots. They were all so cheery, and were doling out the “wait til next year” mantra. Well, I’m just not in the mood for cheer and fun concerning the team just yet. Next year they’ll be on a mission, but there are no guarantees in life, there just aren’t. You have to win those games when you have the opportunity, then and there.

Sunday was just a cluster(something). Not only did the game drive me nuts, but the wife and I were fighting throughout the game, basically because I get a bit too into things and she’s a little too casual for my liking in those matters. She doesn’t quite understand why I would rather watch the game from an isolated bunker with no one around. It’s not about fun, it’s about the game. I definitely take it too seriously, but I’m betting that I’m not the only one, of that I’m certain. I could certainly sit at a Super Bowl party and enjoy myself, if the Pats weren’t involved. If there are two random teams playing, I could handle that and have a blast. But, when my team’s involved, that means I’m involved.

Of course, the result ended up ruining my night, and then, as you’d expect, Dewey The Wonderdog added to the fun. He’d been barking for a while, but I had taken him out several times throughout the game. But, I never took him out long enough for him to do the whole job.

I came downstairs at 11 PM to find a HUGE “present” on the dining room floor. So, not only did I feel crapped on by the Super Bowl’s result, but then I had the feeling hit again thanks to the dog. Not good times.

There’s just no other way to describe how I’m feeling right now.

I’m not shocked. The Giants were good, and I knew that before the game started. To say I was shocked would be to say that the Patriots were so much better than the Giants that they didn’t belong on the same field. That’s just not the case, the Giants we knew would be tough.

Stunned sums it up. I never thought that the Patriots would lose the game, never. I knew it would be a close game early in the first quarter. I predicted a Pats win, a big one, but I knew that wasn’t happening after the first 10 minutes, but I thought that the Pats would find a way.

And, it looked like they had.

Late in the fourth, down 10-7, Brady took the ball down the field with ease and scored the go-ahead touchdown, like he’s done his whole career. Randy Moss got open, he beat his man, and touchdown Pats.

Throughout the whole game I’d been nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. My heart was racing in the second half. I tried to take my pulse, but lost count, it was running too quick to keep up with. Despite eating a big plate of nachos, I’m sure that I lose weight tonight.

When Brady hit Moss, I let out a primal scream. Finally I felt like I could breathe.

The Giants, though, took that breath away.

Eli Manning did it. I don’t know how he did it, but he did. How he eluded that sack and found David Tyree over the middle I don’t know. How Tyree held on to the ball is a bigger mystery. In a sane world, that ball falls incomplete, but the Giants were meant to win this game. They were meant to ruin the perfect season.

All week they were very confident, bordering on cocky. But they knew something that we didn’t. That defense came to play. Plax Burress might have caught the touchdown. Eli might have thrown it. But, the defense won it. Michael Strahan, Osi and the crew earned it.

As a sports fan, I can appreciate what they did tonight. Story-wise, the Giants wrote a great story. They were huge underdogs, and they showed a lot of heart and talent and got the job done. They earned it.

As a Patriots fan, I’m disappointed. I would trade any of the 18 previous wins for one on Super Bowl Sunday.

This is hard to take as a fan. You can certainly second guess Bellichick somewhat. I don’t understand why they didn’t kick the field goal in the third quarter. There was still over six minutes left to play in the quarter, and it would have been a 48-yarder. True Steve Gastkowski can be inconsistent, but it makes more sense doing that than going for it on fourth-and-13. If the kick is good, it’s a 10-3 lead.

I’m no rocket scientist, but they lost by three.

It’s just a sad day for Patriot Nation. I don’t know what else to say.

I’m still stunned.

Thankfully it’s almost here. Just a few more days and the hype all comes to an end, the speculation concludes, the hyperbole goes away and it’ll just be a football game between the Patriots and the Giants for the championship of the National Football League.

No more stories about Tom Brady’s foot. No more stories about Plaxico Burress’s prediction. No more “aw shucks” Eli stuff. No more Michael Strahan features.

Just football.

You see, that’s the biggest problem with the Super Bowl, it becomes about everything else other than the game. With 14 days between games, and the mass media needing to fill columns, web pages and time blocks, every detail about this game has been analyzed ad nauseum. Seriously, at this point there isn’t an angle that hasn’t been hashed out over and over and over again.

I was trying to figure out what I wanted to say about the Super Bowl, and prior to this writing sat down and watched a movie with the family. After last night’s debacle, we went for a Disney movie, and wouldn’t you know it, it was a football picture, “The Gameplan” with The Rock starring as the quarterback of the “Boston Rebels.” He finds out he has a daughter at the start of the season and grows up as a person as he leads his team to the championship game against — are you ready for this — New York.

As for the movie, it was okay. The Rock is hardly a great thespian, but he’s entertaining in his own right and the little girl was adorable. As far as movies go, it was about as predictable as they come. By the midpoint I could have gone to bed and I certainly would not have tossed and turned wondering what had happened. The saving grace, though, was some low brow comedy, and the fact that Boston beat New York.

In that sense, I expect fully that life will imitate “art” this weekend, although the chances of a 10-7 final score with Tom Brady coming out of the locker room to save the day with 63 seconds to go are slight. (sidebar, The Rock — who simply can’t pull off the look of a QB — comes out of the tunnel and jogs out on the field and then basks in the cheers. Of course, there’s no flag for delay of game. I’ll just have to suspend belief on that one and we’ll pretend that the network had gone to commercial).

These Patriots are not going to lose the Super Bowl. I have heard countless pundits give reason after reason that the underdog Giants are going to shock the world. I wonder if those are the same people that thought that the 1986 Pats had a prayer against the Bears back in Super Bowl XX. That Patriots team that year caught fire and won the road, just like the Giants. Tony Eason didn’t throw an interception throughout the playoffs, until the Super Bowl, just like Eli Manning.

I seem to remember the final score being something like 46-10 Bears.

That Chicago team was one of the greatest in the history of the NFL. They had a dominant run through the regular season, going 15-1, and then finished things off with a Super Bowl championship. That’s what great teams do, they finish the job in the big game.

That’s what the Patriots are going to do this weekend. I won’t be so bold as to predict a 46-10 shellacking, but I like Brady and Co.’s chances.

Patriots 41, Giants 17