This Sunday the whole country will come to a standstill while two great athletic powers face off in a game of unparalleled importance; yes, I’m talking about the Ohio State v. Minnesota basketball game, as the 23-0 Buckeyes take on the 18th ranked Golden Gophers for Big Ten supremacy. Oh yeah, there is a football game later on Sunday. I’m going with the Stillers, primarily because they just seem to know how to win the big one. I expect a close game and a decent amount of scoring. Let’s say 27-24.
Speaking of football, Chilly Joe sent me a link to one of Bill Maher’s rants that was good for a laugh. His premise is that the NFL is the most competitive and popular professional sport because the owners have embraced socialism as their business model from day one. You may not like Maher – I often wish I could reach out and smack him one myself – but read the piece and see if he isn’t right. You can find it here.
You remember Chatty Cathy? Well the latest talking toy has just hit the shops. It is a talking Muslim doll complete with burka. Nobody knows what she says because no one has the balls to pull the cord. I’m not going to credit the person who sent that one to me as they lack 24/7 personal protection.
You know what is really annoying and ubiquitous watching the network coverage from Egypt and the winter storms bombarding the U.S.? It’s the way TV anchors thank every field correspondent at the end of their reports, like they were volunteers working in leper colonies. Is it that they feel guilty sitting in a warm studio getting paid millions for reading the news, or just another example of how in America everyone expects a trophy in recognition of each bowel movement? Every time I go to McDonalds I expect the counterperson to turn and thank the grill cook for preparing my Big Mac.
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7 comments:
Agreed. Bill Maher can rattle my chain. I took his Real Time off my DVR programer. I can only take so much hubris, even if I share POV. But I too like his take on pro football's level playing field in spite of accepted wealth redistribution. Kind of makes you wonder why the Yankees keep Brian Cashman as GM.
Dennis, I was on WFAN this weekend talking about this very subject. In fact I've been talking to people about this for years! This is why baseball trumps football by a mile! I hate the NFL!! Bring on Yankees/Red Sox and some good old capitalism, baby!!!!!!!
It's funny. George Carlin used to do a very funny routine about how football was for military/corporate/capitalist-types while baseball was the game of the common man and hippies (an odd combination). It turns out the opposite is true.
Sure bring on the Yanks and Sox -- the teams with all the money. Us Indian fans have had to watch our team trade away 3 Cy Young winners because they couldn't pay them. On the other hand, solcialism in football has not helped the Browns.
Maher really nailed it here. But I still have become more of a baseball fan and less of a football fan (with the exception of college football - go Bucs!) over time.
Jerry Seinfeld once did a riff on professional sports, talking about players, coaches and entire teams moving from city to city. His final line was wondering what the fans could identify with over the long haul. Ending with something like "Basically we're rooting for the clothes." as the uniforms are there year after year.
I was raised as a die-hard Browns fan. But then Modell (that bastard) took them to Baltimore and I've never really been able to get that enthused since. When then mayor Mike White bragged that even though we would have to get an expansion team "we are keeping our name and our colors", all I could think of was we'd be rooting for the clothes.
I like the Steelers as well. Although they do think it's their divine rite to be in this game.
I read the Maher rant ( it's much better if you don't have to listen to that tool. This guy makes Keith Olberman appear self-effacing).
As for the McDonald's observation, they'd do that in Cananada.
jreebel, I too follow baseball [perhaps not as much as others on this blog] not football.
Baseball is arcane, perhaps anachronistic, while football is certainly more complex. Baseball is more suited to my personality. The sports I participate in are individual efforts rather than part of an overall choreography. I suffer in my efforts at competition. My competition has to suffer as much as I do if they are to prevail. It is an embrace of masochism with an endorphin rush. Life is a struggle.
Also, football is a bit too martial for my disposition. It covers some of the same turf that gladiators did in ancient Rome.
Maher compares NFL to Obama-style socialism, but it's really more Stalinist in nature. The commish is Stalin; the owners are the oligarchs. The players just happen to be the millionaire proletariat. The training camps are like gulags, and the players survive only 3-1/2 on average. You can substitute steroids for vodka.
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