Why Nova Winning Is Good For Everyone, Especially You

Last night was pure magic. Electric. The greatest finish to a college basketball game, if not any level of game, ever witnessed by human eyeballs. 

I don’t care who you are, last night was the best possible result for every sports fan. Literally everyone (Except current UNC players) And yes, I’m including grads of Temple, St. Joe’s, Drexel and even fans of the Tar Heels. Some of you will try to disagree with that and I’m here to tell you why you shouldn’t. Before you get all defensive, hear me out, because you will miss an otherwise perfect sports moment with all that unfettered disdain. 

There are a few default reactions to those that live in Philly or went to a “rival” school. I’ve seen countless Facebook posts from St. Joe’s grads and Temple grads alike that would “never cheer for Nova, no matter what.” They tried to compare it to a Flyers fan cheering for the Penguins in the Stanley cup or Michigan cheering for the hated buckeyes. I, for one, am a fan of exaggerated metaphors to attempt to prove a point, but this one couldn’t be more off base. 

Those references are programs of equal footing that have a history of beating and hating each other. They’ve been on the biggest stage time and time again. You can choose to take offense if you’d like Hawks and Owls, but Nova is the premiere basketball team in Philly who has been to the top. Until you start beating them regularly and getting to as many final four’s as them, it’s not worth pretending like you are equal and have any history that rivals that of Mich V. OSU, USC v. UCLA, UNC v. Duke, Auburn v. Alabama, and the list goes on…But that’s not even the main point I would use to demonstrate why the other Philly Schools should embrace the Nova victory. You may hate the entity of Nova and what they stand for. That’s fine. You may hate losing to them or seeing them succeed in general. I get that. But what you shouldn’t forget, is that they ARE you. They represent you whether you like it or not. They represent the little schools. They represent Philly. They represent the Temple’s, St. Joe’s, UPenn’s, Drexel’s, Philly U’s, La Salle’s and every other small school in the country that dream’s of slaying the giant. Pretending that’s not true is just plain fantasy. I’m not taking credit away from any accomplishment the other Philly School’s have had, and they’ve had a lot, but this isn’t about Nova being better than them. It’s about Nova representing how every little school in the area can indeed rise to the challenge by defeating college basketball royalty. Forget “we are all just a kid from somewhere.” We are mostly all just a little kid from somewhere and this one was for the little guys. 

Again, you can think that Nova kids are different than you, but they really aren’t. There’s a joke about how St. Joe’s students are kids who couldn’t get into Nova. But there’s also a joke about how Nova kids are kids who couldn’t get into U Penn! So the cycle always continues and isn’t worth doing that exercise because they are all good schools, so that’s not even a factor. But sports wise, you are all kids who aren’t at a major D-1 program that has multiple titles under your name. You are hoping and praying that one day you could beat the likes of a Kansas or Kentucky. Heck, a regular season win would do, but the run that Nova made through the Tourney was one of the toughest roads to win a championship ever. That’s a fact. And that should be lauded whoever you are if you consider yourself a sports fan. Villanova just gave a platform for every small school to speak from. To feel like they can belong at the big dance and can start putting down the cinderella labels. 

Forget the fact you may on-goingly dislike Nova as an entity. This year’s TEAM is hard to dislike. The gritty efforts of a 4-year senior in Ryan Archidiacono who gave up being a PG so that Brunson would join the squad and slid to the 2. From the motumbo meets greg oden meets joel embid like player of Ochefu who literally mopped his own floor before setting the screen on the final play. His goofiness for such a big player with post presence is the epitome of this roster. The work ethic. The execution. The personality. The “attitude,” as they say. The likes of Phil Booth hitting numerous clutch shots and scoring 20 of the bench in the biggest game of his life. The missed free throw by Kris Jenkins that almost cost them and the redemption he felt by making the game winning shot. That play was scripted to perfection. How many times does that last play end up a heave from half court and you wonder why YOUR team wasn’t able to execute better? Well OUR team finally did…and it was amazing. It felt like the Phillies in ’08, but bigger since it seemed less likely they could win. 

Jay Wright defeated Roy Williams. Don’t you understand the significance of that? If you were so mad at Nova, that you jumped over to the UNC bandwagon, then shame on you. Roy has coached at Kansas and UNC. Hardly the likes of the small schools around there. He has had nothing but Mcdonald’s all-americans and success. He has titles already. I can understand Duke never cheering for UNC no matter what because they are counting titles together. But Temple not cheering for Nova and acting like it’s the same as Duke is ridiculous. You are all counting together the times when David can truly slay Goliath. The collective count is growing and you don’t have to live on the main line to take part. Oh and stop it with the “Nova isn’t Philly.” When Kansas wins a title, the WHOLE STATE takes joy and credit. I think a few miles outside a city that invited Nova to the Big 5 will be just fine. Leave pretension for New England Fans. Heck, they count a ton of states. 

There’s a chance your hatred for Nova caused you to miss out on one of the biggest and coolest moments in college basketball. If you were caught up in the anti-Nova wave, you didn’t get to appreciate one of the greatest college basketball games ever played. You don’t have to jump up and down and buy a Nova hat, but I still remember to this day, the Texas V. USC football final in ’05. Appreciating sports greatness and incredible games is all a part of the fun and I hope for your sports sake, you didn’t miss it. 

Moving on to the other aspect of this. Nova defeating UNC not only catalogs the redemption of the ghost travel called back in ’05, but again, it represents little schools from A-10, the Big East, the MAC, the American Conference, and all the others, being champions. We are used to the same programs winning it, year in and year out. It’s annoying as hell. Baseball has the Yankees. College basketball has like 7 yankees. The finale of this game will go down as the greatest ending maybe ever. The only thing that could have topped it was if the Butler half-court shot went in to defeat Duke a few years ago. 

UNC fans will be upset for a while. But only because Paige made the circus shot. Without that, the defeat is easier to take. Without the greatest 3-point shooting night of their life, UNC would not have been close to hanging with Nova. Which is amazing considering how much more talented of a team they have. UNC’s tears will dry when they remember all the championships they have already. (Recent might I add) They are in the hunt every year and will get over this quickly. When they do, they will applaud the game that it was and I believe, will feel genuinely happy for Nova. 

Lastly, it was great for college basketball. You can say it was a down year all you want. But we had two worthy champions out there and the best finish we could ask for. Two clutch last second shots that were unreal. But a court full of upper class-men. Not a one-and-done-player in the bunch. 4 starting seniors among the two and numerous players who will be there until their own senior year. It was beautiful to watch in this world of Kentucky’s and pitstops in college ball with fake classes. Wait, did I just say that and not bring up UNC? Weird. Anyway, it was great to watch college basketball be as it should be. Like when it was…1985.

It’s impossible to love sports and not love what happened last night. Regardless of which side of the fence you were on, you will remember that shot and where you were. It will be on ESPN tourney highlights next to Jimmy V for the rest of your life. Sports normally provides some typical endings. This one was beyond magical.

We are all cats today.

Don’t fight it. Embrace it. It feels way better…I promise.

The NBA is tricking us

The past three days in the NBA have been fun, huh? buzzer beaters and close series? What more could you ask for?

Well, take a closer look. It’s largely window dressing. Two of the buzzer beaters were bank shots. and not good looking ones.

D Rose took a horrible fade away 3 with man in his face causing him to chuck it too hard. It goes in and that thug has the balls to walk away flat lined as if nothing happened. You can only have that response if you shot a dagger. Not when you made it despite yourself. Remember when Tiger woods chipped in from just off the green in 2008 when he air mailed it? he covered his face with his hat with a giant smile as if to say ‘whoops, didn’t mean to do that and that kinda worked out’ THAT would have been the only acceptable response from that punk, D Rose. What a dislikable character. There sure is a lot of hate going on in sports between Mayweather, D Rose, Tom Brady and Bryce Harper, huh?

Paul Pierce might of made a bank, buzzer beater, but he traveled his face off before he did. Not like a close one. Not like the NBA style ‘we’ll give you a benefit of the doubt’ travel, a full on, shifted his pivot foot 360 degrees with an extra pitter patter before he shot. Insane to give him that shot. I don’t care if you are a veteran. That’s like saying old people should drive their age because the speed limit no longer applies to them. grow up.

Lebron knocked down the only stone-cold-killer shot of them all. BUT, that game was so poorly officiated, they called a BS Tech on JR smith after he got his head ripped off which gave the bulls a free point. that means the Lebron shot didn’t need to happen. They also called him for 3 offensive fouls, 2 of which were bogus. The give D Rose any foul that involves someone within 15 feet of him because they are afraid of his knee getting hurt again.

At least there is some justice that the Clips are taking it to the godlike James Harden. Memphis and Golden state is like a battle of the teddy bears. don’t they just both look so cute!! Ha.

If you look closely, you will see an NBA playoffs, featuring Paul Pierce, Mike Conley, Jeff Teague and JR Smith. That’s not exactly compelling television.

Even the strongest Lebron haters are cheering for his success as its the only thing that will keep you watching in the finals. Because Wizards – Grizzlies Final will get the same rating as a re-run of Lost season 4.

Why we all won’t be watching boxing again

Sure, I couldn’t name you a fight of this magnitude since Tyson – Holyfield. But I’ve read plenty about all three bouts between Ali and Frazer. I’m an all around sports fan, so this particular fight got me excited and I couldn’t wait.

The plot lines were juicy. Good versus Evil. Women abuser versus world changer. The match everybody wanted for 5 years…which was part of the problem because we wanted it 5 years ago. That yearning faded over time just like both of their boxing abilities.

I’m not here to whine about the fight being a let down. I’m here to explain why this fight was the epitome of why boxing has ended and why no one cares about it.

People love knock-outs, so when there isn’t one, inevitably, the fight has to be a let down. Though that was a factor Saturday Night, it wasn’t the only reason people felt that way. Nobody outside of the ‘judges’ knows enough about boxing to understand the scoring system, but it certainly felt off. Pac was controlling the fight for most of it, and yet mayweather kept getting all the credit for great defense. But here’s the thing: Defense wins championships is a football phrase. and defense can be exciting in football as with other team sports. But it blows in boxing. it reeks of being a coward. Tyson would never have been caught dead being praised for defense more than his desire to ravage an opponent to the ground.

People expected a fight and they got a boxing match. Problem is that people forgot what boxing is. Because MMA has dominated the culture. However, even when you study up on boxing, you realize that boxing isn’t even boxing anymore. The fights of old were heavy weights trying to kill each other. No Big fight you research ever had the boxers content with a judges score. It seams that is Mayweather’s game, which makes him a coward.

He was arrogant enough to boast with 10 seconds left in a fight where he was not offensive for more than 2 punches the whole time. What a prick. I feel like gloating is reserved for those who knock people out. His ego is so large, it makes his small man’s disease look small. That’s not a boxer I feel comfortable crowning the greatest of an era. If we have to say that, then what a despicable era.

Every time Pac started gaining control, Floyd would hug him. cowardly. Everytime they wrapped up, floyd would punch at Pac’s kidney. Cowardly. Every time the round ended, he would give a look at Pac before arrogantly turning back to his corner as if he just did anything that round. Cowardly.

I can’t believe he’s got the balls to boast about being the best with that performance. I don’t care what the stats say. I didn’t see him land more punches, but even if they did, the eye test doesn’t lie, he was playing it safe. and it got the best of him a few times. not enough to get knocked out because his whole damn game plan was to not get knocked out. this is the only sport that rewards that. every place else you play not to lose, you generally lose. But in boxing, you get crowned the champ. who has time for that anymore? who has $100 to shell out for a sport that rewards that?

here’s my bigger issue. he got like $200 million for fighting. just for agreeing to show up. he didn’t have to do anything to earn it other than show up. there wasn’t a winner take all pool, which would make boxing better. There wasn’t a mandate to go more rounds until something interesting happens. Nothing. that’s an incredibly poor way to manage a sport and create motivation and I say the word poor loosely.

If they, whoever they are, want to save boxing, you HAVE to limit the money to winners or have some sort of ratio where the winner gets more. you also have to at least box 15 rounds like the heavy weights used to (still do? don’t know) and there should NEVER be a winner crowned in a match with 0 knockdowns. they should call it a tie or be forced into over time. who wouldn’t stay up to watch unlimited rounds until there was a knockdown? you have to create some sort of incentive otherwise, what would the motivation be for them? Because there isn’t any right now. And that’s what’s killing the sport and rewarding D-bags like Floyd.

Well they killed my motivation to ever care about the sport as well. On to Women’s MMA where a ‘technical good fight’ is never acceptable enough.

My Philly Tour Weekend

My cousin from Atlanta came up to visit me for the first time in 18 years, so needless to say, I wanted to leave him with a great impression of Philly. The south must know how awesome we are. It felt like a great weekend to document for anyone who needs to jam in a lot of philly things in 48 hours.

DAY 1: FRIDAY

Redd arrived at my work on 1 South Broad at 6:30pm. We walked to 1 Tippling Place for the best old fashioned’s in the city. From there, we got dinner at Village Whiskey for one of the best burger’s in town. Next, Beer Flip’s at Dandelion. Roofdeck martini’s and appetizers at Continental after that. It was time to cross over broad again and we went to Frankie Bradley’s for an eclectic bar and a beer. We went to pick up our stuff at my office and took a ping-pong break for an hour. The gf was off to bed, while Redd and I biked to 2nd and spring garden for a house party of a co-worker. Sight of the night was seeing my drunken copywriter bud dancing in between two lesbians while one of the girls still had her bike helmet attached to her fanny back. We took an uber to an already closed beer garden, forcing our last drink to be at National Mechanics on 3rd and Market, which is people watching at its finest around 1 am. Back home to bed from there.

DAY 2: SATURDAY

We somehow woke up at 9 am to get get ready for a jam-packed day. We started with a bike ride to Spread Bagels for breakfast sandwhiches in rittenhouse square. We had to follow that up with hot and fresh Federal Donuts because why not? We stopped at a bottle shop for a quick beer before walking to the Franklin Institute to see ‘The Art of the Brick,’ an art exhibit completely made out of lego’s. Once we got through all the astounding ‘block pieces,’ we headed off to Reading Terminal market for ice cream and general musings. Next up, the Ashton Cigar bar for stoagies and the best gin on the planet, Beefeaters burroughs reserve. On the rocks with an orange peel is all you need. We weaved our way through some sort of festival where every human loses perception of their surroundings and doesn’t know how to walk in public. Anywho, we walked to Varga Bar for the best dang wings in the city. (see a trend of best of’s yet?) after a hell or high watermelon canned beer, we moseyed over to Bob and Barbara’s for a classic, city special. a few slices of much needed pizza later, we got on the subway and headed towards South Philly, Xfinity live to be specific, for the ‘fight of the century.’ We had a $60 ticket for open bar during the fight which turned out to be Clippers game 7 win, two other fights we never heard of, and then FINALLY, the actually fight. Which wasn’t even a fight. it was a dancing and hugging and trying not to lose match, but whatever, was still fun. We subwayed it back and then walked to my place, promptly saving a solo girl from walking on south street alone, and then retiring to bed for much needed rest.

DAY 3: SUNDAY

Somehow again, woke up around 9 and biked ourselves to my favorite brunch spot, Green Eggs Cafe. We were a bit gluttoness / indecisive with our menu selections as we got 3 entrees to share between the two of us. super terrible health decision, but fantastic inner-fat kid decision. We somehow managed to get on bikes again and since the broad street race just ended, we were able to bike from south philly past city hall on empty streets. it was amazing. We biked all the way to the Barnes Foundation where we swiftly took advantage of the ‘first sunday of the month being free deal.’ there was a delay in when we could go in, so we took a nap in comfy chairs waiting for our time. That was a must-needed activity. Once we got in, we discovered how awesome this collection really was. Much more interesting than a typical museum, these ‘ensembles’ were truly impressive. I can’t believe he bought that much art back then and can’t imagine how much it’s worth today! We headed to Kite and Key for mimosa’s after that while we watched the Hawks playoff game. Then, to Jack’s Firehouse for drinks in the open air. We spent 3 bike stations looking for bikes and finally found one at broad and spring garden. We had to book it home with a quick pitstop at WaWa given they don’t have those in ATL. We made it home with enough time to eat, enjoy some corona’s and enjoy golden state’s greatness.

All in all, it was a jam-packed weekend with lots of things to do, drinks to have, eats to eat, bikes to ride, and soon to be, sleep to catch-up on. Great weekend, cuz! I think we captured the essence of philly as well as the need to save money for next two weeks to make up for it 😉

Next time, we tour Atlanta.

Catholics are sinners

Cheating is still a sin, right? Hard to keep up with all the catholic rule changes, but if it is, then yes, catholic schools right here in PA are absolute sinners.

I spent this last weekend as I usually do come December: with my dad in Hershey PA to watch the high school state football championships. Ever since the vaunted catholic league schools near philly were allowed to join the Piaa, they have made a mockery of traditional high school football and how the system is broken. A system broken in sports? Shocking I know.

This year, archbishop wood won for the third time in four years and st, Joseph prep won back to back years. Talk about a lack of equality.  Should they even feel good about these wins? It’s not even close to a fair fight. Their opponents were public schools. Limited to their geographic region. Limited to athletic people getting married. Staying local, and making babies. Those schools are going up against the mega catholic schools who can recruit the world. Many students live well outside the sphere for which a public school can have a student. This is college football versus high school football and yet we give trophies to the recruiting teams with a competitive advantage.  And I dare not bring up the odd religious fact that most of their students are not even catholic, but once you break moral integrity, why stop right?

until they change the rule that you can’t play aright away when transferring or you have to live within 30 mins of school, the tirades will continue.

And how about this? Your quad A state champion, PA, has 3 losses. Three!!! They started year 0-3. Two games to northern jersey schools who mercy ruled them. All our cheating ways couldn’t compete with the folks born into cheating; people from jersey.

2014: The Worst Year for Refs on Record

Yes, I’m an Eagles Fan and this has some reactionary thoughts based on Sunday’s Game. But, producing a sports podcast also forces me to be a generalist as well. With both those things together, I came up with this post.

The officiating in the Eagles / Seattle game was atrocious. Now, I don’t want this to come across like the typical ‘we got hosed’ homer view on things, because it’s bigger than that. I don’t want to harp on one call because this was no where near a ‘one call decided the game’ situation. At least, not in the way you think…

My biggest beef in the game was the inconsistencies. Early in the game, the refs made the decision to ‘let them play’ a.k.a. let Seattle get away with illegal plays. However, this officiating philosophy DID NOT seem to carry over both ways. On each of the first few drives for the teams, Seattle corners were all over the eagle receivers early, beyond 5 yards, and before the ball got there. On the other end, the eagles were flagged for ticky tack PI and Defense holding calls. That is not OK. You have to either choose to be loose, or choose to be strict. Inconsistency in general is bad. Inconsistency by flagging one team more than the other is inexcusable. You can’t slip into fan mode and give the benefit of doubt to the ‘legion of boom’ just because they are SB champs. Or if you are, you have to give Philly a chance to counter that style.

My main reference point was the pivotal Bradley Fletcher PI call on Doug Baldwin. Even he, after the game, said he was running into Bradley on purpose to get a call because he wasn’t even supposed to be thrown to. First of all, based on how the refs ALREADY decided to call the game, that was NOT PI. I’m so tired of Mike Pereira coming on to the broadcast to simple defend the refs. I’m more tired of announcers constant refusal to ever trash the refs and their calls. This seems like a strange thing to not be allowed to do. They get paid don’t they? So they should be criticized the same amount as the players. Anyway, back to the point, Mike P. was wrong because he was isolating that call and reviewing it from scratch. It wasn’t PI based on what they let Seattle get away with on Philly’s 2nd drive. They got mauled twice and no-calls. AND even still. The ball was under thrown and Baldwin just ran into him with contact. no arms to reach the ball, just a semi-tackle.

The decision to no-call early changed the entire game. I can’t tell you what would of happened otherwise, which is why i’m not saying we were hosed. But, I will tell you with full confidence, that once they changed the game for good, all odds were with Seattle. They made the game unfair for the Eagles and you can’t beat a better team with that kind of officiating. Not only factor, but one that shouldn’t be thrown away so quickly without considering.

A few other examples in the game you say? ok. Allowing Pete Carroll to get a measurement on the 4 play that McCoy got the first down was nuts. it was awarded a 1st. It was obviously a first. you can’t give seattle a breather based on them requesting a spot that isn’t close. That’s not how the game works. Missing the OL running down field on the 2 and 16 pass is inexcusable. That’s not subjective at all and AGAIN, changed the game as they scored on that drive. Philly could of given up a 1st on 3 and 26 as they were bad on 3rd down all day, but you’d like to see that huh? Call on Boykin was also minor. Allowing a Seattle player to stay on the field for a HAND injury is disgraceful. Mainly to the player, but also to the refs. The refs didn’t let sanchez snap ball on multiple occasions for longer than they should have. the play-clock and game clock is running. we have a right to snap it and save time.

All that to say that I’m well aware there are 5-6 other key factors on why Philly lost. Everyone knows there weren’t as good. They needed a perfect game and didn’t get it. But the officiating changed the tables and made a come back that much more impossible and that can’t be allowed to happen.

That got me thinking. Man…how bad of a year have officials had this year? They have gotten involved in so many games and changed the outcome, it seems at an insanely high rate this year. THIS YEAR. Amongst all the changes, and training, and replays, etc. etc. And yet, they seem to be getting worse. Would that be because they are NEVER reprimanded? Fined? Suspended? Or asked to change their ways in any kind? Probably. They are run like weather man. Well, you tried. Keep being paid the same to make the same mistakes because we’ll NEVER do anything about it.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a year in recap:

The worst 2 calls i’ve seen in a game was the PSU v. OSU game where there was NOT an interception, but the replay booth ‘wasn’t given the proper feeds’ so after way to short of an attempt to get those feeds, they let the play call. INSTEAD OF GETTING IT RIGHT. OSU scored a few plays later. Then they missed a delay of game blatantly on the FG try that was 47 yards and he made it. 10 FREE POINTS they gave the better team. Remember what I said about giving better teams the edge in officiating? It’s impossible to come back and sure enough…that’s what makes OSU in the final 4 that much more disgusting as the committee forgot this atrocity.

The Bucs had 12 men on the field versus Bengals a few weeks ago. It wasn’t caught. Only after a timeout used was it reviewed and then determined. nuts.

LSU and A&M game. LSU was offsides clearly, so A&M went deep. it was picked. but free play right? nope. they never actually called it. game over. game decided by no-call.

The ENTIRE Florida v. Florida St game. It’s like it was the seminoles AND zebras VS. the Gators. Numerous calls and no calls that decided that outcome.

Alabama v. LSU may be one of the worst as well. A Personal Foul was called on pushing and shoving. A flop was involved as well. I don’t care if he cursed out the dudes mom and punched in the nads, in THAT SPOT, you can’t throw that flag. It CHANGED the game. Personal fouls should only be thrown when there is an intent to hurt or violation of the rules to an egregious effect. Not a flop following by a push. Bama is now #1 seed after they were given that gift.

Those are just a few of the games altered by refs. There were plenty more.

I don’t understand why officials don’t have stats beyond how many calls they made. Why isn’t there a reviewing committee? Why can’t we see how many calls they get right or wrong? how many over-turns? This would be a great grading mechanism. Something to know if officials should be in the league or NCAA or not. Otherwise, who is deciding that? And how? it’s not public.

And how tired is everyone else of the booth replays, specifically in College, that we all have sorted out on our couch in 5 seconds, but they look at for minutes upon minutes. I may throw up if I hear ‘but it has to be inconclusive’ one more time. I thought we wanted to get it right? If in full-speed they made a judgement call, why can’t they equally make a judgement call with more information and slow-mo? Seems right to me. The default to what was called on field is nuts as it was a harder call to make and is so rarely perfect.

I just want fairness. If I’m not allowed to make that many mistakes at my job, then one that is much more public shouldn’t be able to make them at there’s. Not with so much at stake. Not when justice is so easy to get right when it comes to sports.

But I thought Culture Trumps Talent?

There’s an easy article to write here considering Chip was labeled a genius way to early. But instead of pointing out the play-calling in the red zone all season, or coaching decisions in all the Eagles losses, I think it’s finally time to point out what was the most glaring problem for the Eagles that happened again in the Seattle game. And unfortunately, it’s also tied to a Chip Kelly decision.

Chip cut Desean Jackson last year. Cut him. Didn’t get a single piece in return after he had his best year as a pro. Was he a pain in the butt? No doubt. Was he a terrible blocker? Yup. Was he an issue in the locker room and had no sense of timing when it came to contract talk? Absolutely. BUT, he was a deep threat that stretched out defenses. I’ve waited all year in hopes to ignore this issue and assume Chip was right.

And here’s the thing. I’m not even willing to say he’s wrong for the reasons you think. There’s no way to know what this team would look like with both Desean AND Maclin on the field. Probably, pretty good, but that’s conjecture. And remember, it wasn’t Maclin INSTEAD of Desean. It was just getting rid of Desean. But, we caught him because of the ‘culture’ Chip Kelly was trying to create. I can respect that and was willing to see how it played out and give him the benefit of the doubt.

HERE’S THE PROBLEM THOUGH: We cut Desean so we could pay Riley Cooper #2 receiver money.

It can now, no longer even be debated. Riley Cooper was a terrible decision. He is not worth any of that over-inflated contract. But we aren’t just talking about on-the-field results. He is an off-the-field liability and is NOT helping this team. Back to back weeks, he has infuriated the locker room. He talked about Maclin’s contract. NOT HIS OWN. Maclin’s; and how it impacted Riley even though Maclin is the saving grace of this team. He then went on to blame Sanchez for the under-thrown interception on Sunday saying ‘I didn’t throw the ball.’ What kind of teammate is that? What kind of culture is that? Beyond the fact, he should of made any attempt at that ball and did nothing, you don’t throw your QB under the bus.

Sure, you may like Foles more Cooper, because he threw to you more. But this isn’t UF where you tell your buddy Tebow to throw it to you more and he did. This is the NFL, where you EARN your contracts and playing time with the best talent out there. We kept you around for reasons that make no sense to anyone because you are a ‘good blocker,’ and you have the audacity to mouth off and not be grateful? There couldn’t be a bigger sign of lack of culture to me.

So, if you are going to cut Desean because he didn’t fit the culture. It’s a little hypocritical to keep Riley around when he’s the same problem off the field and 20% of the receiver on the field, on his best day.

Apple is getting antsy about their word. Here’s hoping the ship is righted next year and maybe we’ll get him the blue shirt to match.

The Eagles Super Bowl versus the Seahawks this Weekend

The Eagles play in their first SB since the Pats back in 2005 this upcoming weekend. Ok, so not ‘technically,’ but it might as well be. The Eagles are playing the SB champs who are on a roll, coming into the Linc this Sunday afternoon. Needless to say, the game is huge. Whoever wins, has a fast track to the 2-seed with home field game and a bye.

However, I have to say, I’m not a fan of what I’m hearing on Philly Sports Radio stations. I hate the vibe of the fans right now. Everyone is too afraid of the Seahawks to back their birds. Everyone is looking at the math and how we recently beat Dallas and saying ‘We can lose this one and we’ll definitely beat Dallas to win the division.’ That’s disgusting. What kind of fan are you? is your whole life based on just barely getting by? Do you wish to be mediocre in everything you do? Or just how you want your sports team to be?

It’s a horrendous attitude to me because this is THE game to see where the Eagles are at. Can they compete at the highest level and win a game against a tough opponent at home? Can they prove they belong with the big boys? And we aren’t chomping at the bit to play them and prove that? We are already chalking up a loss and thinking about Dallas? Shame on all of you.

For those of you that are blind enough to only look at numbers and see that a loss to Seattle and win to Dallas means we clinch division aren’t seeing the bigger picture. Really think about that. If we lose to Seattle, it’s over. That solidifies our roll as a 3 seed. Meaning we either play Arizona or Detroit at Home. No biggie there. But, then you have to go play @ Seattle and then @ GB. If we can’t beat Seattle at home, we are NOT beating them in Seattle where it’s the 2nd toughest place to win in the NFL. Oh and what’s the 1st toughest? Only the next place we’d have to play if we were able to stage a miracle: Lambeau. We’ve already seen how we’ve done there. That would be like a .1% chance to pull that off. But, maybe everyone is OK with that. Maybe the next level up from mediocrity is winning ONE home playoff game and then bowing out. It’s progress right? Nope. I don’t see it that way. You have to take the opportunities this league gives you. We wasted one last year against the Saints getting out-couched. We have been out-coached in two game against playoff caliber teams this year already. It CANNOT happen again or NO, there is no progress. This league is for the taking this year. Who knows about next year. so STOP with you justification of losing against Seattle just because we will win the division, which oh by the way, is the 2nd or 3rd worst division in football.

Beyond that, why is no one thinking about what it means for our team if we lose against ANOTHER above-500 team? If we lose and make the playoffs, is anyone here really going to be confident in a team that has 4 losses that were to the ONLY decent teams we played all year? We will of lost to 3 teams in the NFC playoffs…so what makes us think we’d win the second time around? If Philly wants to keep playing the mental game of ‘just have to win the ugly division and you never know what happens in the playoffs’ then so be it. but the NY Giants don’t just happen every year. Those were beyond fluky moments.

Why are we ok with being an OK team with a unique approach? Why don’t we want to be great now? I don’t understand it and I’m not OK.

I predict an upset (or a win as the favorite which they still are by 1 point) as everything is in our corner for this game. Nobody is talking about how they put up 20 points on the road while we put up 37 points at home. they only can run the ball. we are great at stopping the run. they are susceptible to the run and we have 3 running backs. Our D and Special teams is great at scoring. They are traveling cross country. They are being remembered as the same SB team as last year, but they are not. They won 2 games recently and  all of a sudden they are great? They beat diminishing NFC West teams. They lost to KC before that.

Stop being afraid to be great. Start being a fan who rises to the challenge alongside the birds.

fly eagles fly.

 

The Rams and Boycotting

First official sports rant of the new blog order! ha!

By this point, everyone is aware that 5 of the St. Louis Rams ‘protested’ during their last football game. They did the ‘hands up, down shoot’ symbol, also know as put their hands up, in the tunnel before coming out to the field.

For whatever reason, this act has gotten way more attention than I thought it deserved, but so be it. You are welcome to think whatever you’d like about Ferguson and about what these Rams did. Mikey Miss of 97.5 was rather against it as he thought it was a disingenuous act by players who are not actually informed or connected to that community at all. I think he believes this became even more of a race issue than it already was. That the symbol was signifying (in the players minds) that black people get shot by white cops a lot and it’s the white person to blame…always. or something like that.

Now, I’m not even here to rant about that, because it’s a loaded issue full of assumptions and intentions that’s too hard for me to know. I don’t think those players are connected to that community, but I don’t know. They are closest NFL team to that city, but that just feels like protesting for sake of convenience. I’m not sure what support it’s showing. Is it for all black people? Just Ferguson issue? Grander cop v. civillian support? I’m not sure they know. But that’s the thing, we don’t know. Just like we don’t know EXACTLY what happened that night in Ferguson, i don’t know what those players know, so I won’t waste time ranting about it just as uninformed as they might of been.

BUT, here’s the real rant. I heard on the radio this morning that a lady was so upset about the players protesting, that she claimed she would boycott the Rams. That she was so disgusted, she is going to never watch a Rams game again. Then, she took it to another level and said she would never watch any NFL game ever again because of those events.

BINGO. we have our situation worthy of ranting. Soooooooo come again random St. Louis lady? THAT is the issue that pushed you to the bring? Not Ray Rice, Not McDonald, Not Greg Hardy, Not the concussion issues, Not Roger Goddell in general, (not a game. shout out to Iverson) , Not any of those terrible things that are by far worse than a misguided protest?? That’s insane to me. Mainly because of all the bad in the league this year but ESPECIALLY because she was a she. Domestic Violence is at an all time high alert level and the Ray Rice situation has set things back for a few years and has aggravated the tension between male athletes and their female counterparts. But nope. this lady kept watching the NFL and the Rams without much of a fuss.

But the Ferguson protest by her Rams players was too much for her. She is going to boycott the league by never giving them a $ or even her time again. While that begs the question ‘if you boycott a GIANT, do they ever even take notice?’, the bigger question for her is WHY? is it just because nothing matters to her that doesn’t hit close to him? Was it just a racial thing? She was fine with handling domestic abuse, but not racial protests? I’ll never understand what makes certain people tick and why reactions are so crazy sometimes, but this may take the cake.

So here’s to you nameless boycotter. We’ll see how long you last. Because the NFL is everywhere. And they will get you back. It doesn’t matter how bad they mess up. Just like if Tiger starts winning again, all is forgiven and forgotten. If the Rams are in the hunt next year, you’ll be back. If not, then please inform us of the next ridiculous thing you choose to boycott.

Talking About Sports – Rant on NFL Shop Ad

This felt like a good sports rant as well. If you don’t live under a rock, you’ve been watching football and see this atrocious ad. My sports podcast did a parody/rant/anti-tribute/translation to this ad recently and you can listen to that here:

NFL Shop Ad Parody Rant

In case you need the reference to the ad by NFL Shop: