However, here is the problem.  Riding to work yesterday,  I see a lady puffing away in the early morning rush hour in her big ole truck.  She was probably talking on a cell phone as well but that’s a different post.  So I am riding behind her and she is puffing and blowing the smoke out the window.  No big deal really.  But then, as always happens, she tosses half a lit cigarette out the window.  It hits the street and bounces around a couple times and thankfully I get past it without it blowing up my car (sarcasm intended). 

So what is the problem, you ask, beyond tossing a burning piece of trash into the street?  Well, my big problem is why can’t these smokers put these half used cigarettes and butts into their ashtrays?  They seem to like the smoke in their lungs and also in their cars so what is the need to toss it out the window?  Keep it where it belongs – in your car.

Rant away.

The guy started having problems remembering plays, his position, etc.  He finally had to retire and things got even worse – depression, headaches, etc.  Finally he  contacted the union about disability.  They sent him to a doctor who confirmed his injury was football related.  The NFL and the Union then sent him to a 2nd doctor who also confirmed it.  Finally they sent him to a 3rd doctor who did not confirm it and so they denied his benefits.   What????

That was the whole point of the story.  Gene Upshaw of the Union was shown answering a question at a press conference and basically said that if a doctor confirms the disability is football related, the player is paid, no if’s, and’s or but’s.  However, this player was not.

The problem here is that the NFL is making billions per year and yet the league and union can’t pay an injured player’s disability, despite the fact that the first two doctors confirmed it?  They sent him to another doctor and then another apparently looking for a reason to deny the claim.  These guys have more money than just about anybody outside of Bill Gates.  The average career is probably less than 5 years and it’s a shame they can’t treat their retired players better with all the $$$ that are flowing into the league.

Think back just a short time ago.  In my area, regular gasoline was about $2.95 per gallon while mid grade and premium were well over $3.00 per gallon.  Whether you believe it or not, this increase in price did have an effect on the economy and the price stayed up long after supply lines damaged by hurricanes had been brought back to full capacity.  Families at all income levels were talking about cutting back on other things.  Believe it or not, I even heard people filling up Hummers complaining about paying $80 for a tank of gas. 

If you can believe what you read, OPEC basically turns the faucets on and off, increasing or decreasing supply to manipulate prices.  It seems like we are at the mercy of their whims.  Regular gas in my area is now slightly under $2.00 per gallon, about a 33% decrease from the highs.  The peak price of oil was $78.40 per barrel on July 13, 2006.  As of this writing, the price is down to $59.25.  I heard commentary not too long ago that some countries were increasing supply in order to bring the price down in an attempt to keep money out of Iran’s coffers.

Why do we as a nation allow ourselves to be held hostage to this resource?  Why must everyone drive solo to work?  I do it myself, but only about 4 miles.  With a little sacrifice of time, I could carpool most days but I would be inconvenienced a bit.  That is the problem – most people are so ingrained in their behavior with their cars that they cannot or will not be inconvenienced. 

There is a Home Depot and a grocery store on every corner.  Need 1 item?  Hop in the car for a quick trip over.  Forget something?  Hop in and go again.  Our President (or Congress) has not asked the nation as a whole to make any sacrifices in the area of oil dependence.  Why not come on television and ask the following of everyone – figure out how much you spend on gasoline in a month and for ONE MONTH, try to cut it in half.  Let’s say you fill up twice a month at a cost of $60 total.  This covers your commuting, kids activities, shopping, yadda yadda.  How about for ONE MONTH, figure out how to stretch that tank as long as possible.  Carpool, combine trips, telecommute a little if possible.  Just one month on a concerted national effort would be a minimal sacrifice and would send a message to the oil suppliers of the world that we can do it if we want to.  They believe that we are addicted and so far, we have shown no willingness to prove them wrong.  Start a grass roots movement if you can.  Instead of forwarding some joke email, forward a link to this post.

Rant away.

Next stop – the grocery store to pick up a birthday card.  I’m on my way back to work and dash in, make my choice and head for the ‘Express Lane’.  Ten items or less.  What do I see in front of me?  A lady unloading a cart with probably 15-20 items.  I stand with my card in hand and count as she places them on the belt.  EIGHTEEN!  Now again, a minor thing to some but why does this lady think she is soooooo important that she can hold up the express line with her cart full of crap?  As they check her out, there are 3 more people behind me with 2-3 items each.  She then pays with a credit card and signs her slip while the cashier bags her groceries and puts them in the cart.  This lady is in the express lane and needs the cart to get her crap to her car!  WTF? 

Then I get a ‘Sorry about that’ from the cashier.  I don’t really blame the cashier because what’s she gonna do?  Tell Ms. I’m So Important to change checkout lanes? Probably not as that would cause a huge scene.  I could have said something but it was just not the day to get into a squabble at the grocery or make a cashier feel even worse.

How about all you oh-so-important folks get a clue and have some manners and try to fit into society like the rest of us. 

Rant away.

Marty has won 200 regular season games in the NFL and has proven to be a quality head coach. His playoff record, as has been widely publicized, is a dismal 5-13. So what is the problem?

The Chargers were 14-2, the number 1 seed in the AFC, playing at home, and seemed to have things going their way. But they let leads of 14-3 and 21-13 slip away. Now be advised, those other guys, the Patriots, are no slouches. They do have a couple guys named Brady and Belicek on their side. Still, the Chargers had it there for the taking. So what happened?

Well, after New England kicked a field goal to take a 24-21 lead, San Diego got the ball back at their own 29 yard line following the kickoff return. There was 4:36 left in the game at that point.

So here is what they did:
1st and 10 at the SD 29 (4:30 left) Runs MVP Ladanian Tomlinson over right tackle to the 34 for 5 yards.
On 2nd and 5 at the SD 34 (3:53 left) someone calls a pass play which is incomplete to V.Jackson
San Diego calls timeout #2 for some reason. This was key later in the game on their final drive.
So now it’s 3rd and 5 at the SD 34 (3:46 left). They pass again and Rivers’ pass to Eric Parker is incomplete.
So now on 4th and 5 at the SD 34 (3:42 left) they are forced to give the ball up.

San Diego did get the ball back and had the last ditch try for a FG to tie from 54 yards out, which failed. But in my humble opinion, the series just described is where they lost the game and their season.

One word says it all – MVP. Why in the world would you not ride your big dog? One rush for 5 yards and then 2 passes? If you are going to pass, throw LT a screen. If I’m gonna go down, I’m going to do it with the ball in my MVP’s hands. There was plenty of time during that series (as opposed to the final series where they had no choice but to throw down the field). Any time LT touches the ball, it could go the distance. Let the guy do what he’s paid to do, which is not block and not be a decoy. Hell, I’d even have called a halfback pass over what they tried.

This is a rule that every fantasy football participant knows – you go with your studs and don’t look back.

Rant away.

If this report is true, it’s time (long past time actually) for Bud Selig to step up and use the ‘best interests of the game’ clause in his powers and send a message.  As Bonds approaches Aaron’s record, it’s going to be a media circus, without the elephants or any of the fun.  It will just be the clowns.

The fans need to step up as well and quit enabling this industry to get it’s next higher high of the salary and luxury box drug.  Congress needs to strip the anti-trust exemption.  Baseball is not what it used to be.  Listen to some old guys wax nostalgic about the good old days.  It wasn’t perfect but the money in today’s game has lead to the rampant cheating.

The foolish fans that continue to feed money into this industry only perpetuate the greed machine that it has become.  Since the strike, I have probably averaged less than 1 game per season and if I go, it’s only when I’m given tickets.  Yes, I have spent a few dollars on beer at the games. :)  But in general, I opt not to support this industry of greed, cheats, and thugs.  Losing teams raise ticket prices.  Even the so-called good guys of the sport are indicted in this because every time they go to arbitration or come up for a new contract, the greed is too much to stomach.   Guys say stupid things like ‘I have to support my family’ while they are making multi-millions per year.  When is a guy in his upper 30′s (several come to mind), possibly on his 3rd multi-year contract and having already made over 100 million dollars during his career, financially sound enough so that his family can eat?  You also hear guys say ‘It’s not about the money.  I really wanted to stay in (fill in the city name).’  Yet time and again, these guys take the higher contract and move on to a different team/city.  Maybe they were disrespected by their old team, whatever that means. 

Let’s compare a 5 million per year deal with a 6 million per year deal – 20% more on the 2nd deal.  Now using some numbers outside the realm of the baseball stratosphere, let’s say 100k vs. 120k.  If it’s me and I love my city and where I live and work, 20% is not going get me to move to some far away place.  Let’s take that another step and weigh the fact that most of these guys are already financially set so they can probably pick and choose where they want to work and STILL make millions.  Yet 99 times out of 100, they take the higher contract.

Bottom line – it IS about the money.

Rant away.

Just remember. Chicks dig the long ball.

Rant Away.

If not for a great defensive play by UCLA against USC, the Gators would have in all likelihood been watching the game last night.  The problem with that is not even that a team as deserving as the next guy would have been sitting at home but that they would have been excluded by ‘voting’.   There is just something inherently wrong with a system where coaches have to lobby to get into a game and some guys choose to do it and some don’t.  This just should not be an election, a popularity contest, or based on television exposure (how many of the voters watch these teams week in and week out?).  What is this, American Idol?  Why don’t we set up 800 numbers and text message systems and give fans 2 hours to vote after the completion of the regular season?  Remember fans, you are voting to include your team in the championship game, not send them home.

Isn’t there also something wrong with a team going 50 days between games?  I think the Buckeyes might agree with that at this point.  Did they lose their edge?  Who knows.

In a perfect world (at least that of the playoff proponents), here’s how I would do it.  I’m sure there are other ideas or flaws in my system but we have to start somewhere.

1.  The season is 10 games.  If you are a BCS conference, you MUST have a conference championship game as your 11th game.

2.A. The 6 BCS conferences get 6 playoff spots.  6 at-large teams get in based on some formula similar to what we have now.  12 spots total (if #13 gets hosed, so be it).  In this scenario, the screwed teams, if you want to call them that, would have been Arkansas (#12) and West Virginia (#13).  Although being #14, Wake gets in based on winning the ACC.  Much more preferable than say, screwing a 13-0 Auburn team or a USC team ranked #1 in both polls, wouldn’t you say?  Top 4 get byes.  In this scenario, the maximum games a team would play is 15 games, the same as the other college football divisions.

2.B. Some say 12 is too many.  Hey, I’m flexible.  Let’s go with 8.  Under this scenario, the 6 BCS conference champions get 6 bids.  2 at large bids would be based on BCS rankings as they exist today.  Under this scenario, we handle the ‘every week is a playoff’ scenario.  Win your conference or you’re out.  Some have said under a playoff, teams like Ohio State and Texas won’t play each other anymore.  Well, you better not schedule too many creampuffs because if you slip up and lose your conference you may not get a second chance. 

3.  The playoffs start the second week of December, which would have been December 9th this year. 

4.  Games rotate through the biggest bowls year to year.  Efforts are made to do regional matchups where possible.  It doesn’t really matter if one year the Sugar Bowl plays a week before New Year’s.  With all the movement of bowl dates already, there is no tradition lost.

The bowls would still be the bowls, with just a little tweaking.  All other teams could still go to the multitude of other bowls, such as the Ronco Set It and Forget It Bowl or the Real Estate Late Night Infomercial Bowl.  No one is saying take those bowls away.  They will be exactly the same as they are now.

The regular season is still going to matter.  If you lose your last game, you may not get in the conference championship.  If you are going for an at large bid and you lose, you may drop too far to get in.

I’ve read arguments recently about how you can’t match the excitement of Boise vs. Oklahoma, etc.  Imagine if they played the same game and it was loser go home, winner advance to the title game.  Rachets up the old excitement level a bit, doesn’t it?  I’ve also seen the argument regarding how teams like USC got to celebrate their win as opposed to getting ready to play another game in a playoff.  Hmm.  Kind of like a team might celebrate winning their basketball regional and heading to the final four the next weekend?

There would still be some flaws but in my opinion, this would be light years more favorable than what we have now.  The bottom line is I just don’t understand why it’s good for every other division of college football (not to mention high schools all over the country) but not the big boys?  Those other universities travel for playoff games.  They have students who go to class.  What is the thing that makes the systems so different in the end?

Here is something to ponder.  Which will we see first – a playoff system or Nick Saban fulfill a contract?

Rant away.

Suffice it to say, this pseudo championship system has been an utter disaster.  Just a short while ago, as we wound down toward the final weekend of the college regular season, the University of Southern California was the supposed designated #2, provided they didn’t lose to UCLA.  They were being annoited as #2 ahead of other contenders – the Florida Gators and the Michigan Wolverines.  Well, lo and behold, the Trojans could not deliver and went down to the Bruins. 

So then the debate became Florida or Michigan.  The Gators won the SEC title game over Arkansas while Michigan sat idle, the possible victim of a conference with no championship game and also a regular season completed earlier.  Idiots blathered on (present company excluded of course) about who should get to play Ohio State.  Let’s look at the ‘body of work’, some said. Holy crap, how I hate that term.  It’s right next to the ultra annoying ‘trickeration’.  No, let’s look at who has the toughest conference.  No, let’s look at who only lost to the #1 team.  No, let’s look at who saved what should be counted as a loss anyway by blocking a last second field goal.  Can anyone say ‘this system sucks’?

So we are mostly through the bowl games with the bogus title game to come on Monday night. Let’s take a look at the big games.

1. Southern Cal routs Michigan. Where are the whiners now about how Michigan got robbed? So maybe they weren’t too motivated for their consolation prize. But according to the talking heads, the Grandaddy Of Them All, the Rose Bowl, is supposed to be motivation enough. Apparently not, or maybe they just weren’t as good as advertised.

2. Boise State defeats Oklahoma in a thriller for the ages. Undefeated Boise State will move how high in the polls? Not to #1, even if Ohio State loses. I think the Associated Press voters should opt to make a point about how silly the BCS is and vote for Boise State. They deserve a share of the title, no matter what happens on in that other game.

3. LSU CRUSHES Notre Dame. How many more times do we have to watch these overrated clowns in a BCS bowl? Every top team they played this year destroyed them. They could have just as easily lost 5 or 6 games this year and yet they continue to be granted favored status. Who does Notre Dame have pictures of? They have lost 9 bowl games in a row and have not won a bowl game since 1993. Since 2000, the Irish have not been closer than 17 points in any of their bowl games. Take away their favored status and if they want to play with the big boys, they should join a conference.

So what have we learned here?  Let’s dissect all the ridiculous arguments against a Division 1 college football playoff.

The college presidents argued that there were just too many games required to have a playoff. I guess that the ‘too many’ definition does not include that 12th game that was added to most schedules or those conference championships that keep popping up. The only reason for doing that is the almighty dollar. An extra home game means more in the coffers. A championship game means big bucks.

The media talking heads keep saying ‘Every week matters’ and ‘Every week is a playoff’. Ummm, no. Florida lost a game and still is in the title game. If every week was a playoff, that loss would have eliminated them. The same was true of USC.  It took a SECOND loss to eliminate them.  Michigan lost their LAST regular season game and still was being touted as the likely opponent until seemingly smarter voters prevailed.

The playoff naysayers like to say the debate makes college football unique. It is truly unique in that respect, being the only major sport without a playoff. If you believe the presidents then the student athletes in other football divisions apparently are not important enough to be allowed that time off for whatever it is they need it for. Maybe the presidents are admitting that those other student athletes are more intelligent and thus do not need that time off for finals. At this point it’s hard to decipher what they mean.

And finally, we come to the ‘Bowl Tradition’ argument. Is that the same tradition that now has something like ‘American Port-A-Potty’ in the name of every bowl game? If tradition were that important, the games would not have been whored out to the highest bidder. The same tradition that keeps adding games so that every 6-6 team has somewhere to go over the holidays?

The fans need to take control of this situation and boycott the bowl games for a season. It would be fun to hear Brent Musberger describe the scene. “You are looking live at a nearly empty Orange Bowl.” That would probably never happen as I believe the networks would prohibit their camera crews from showing it. It would be a little disheartening for a few teams to play in empty stadiums but they should realize they would be taking one for the team, so to speak. One season of empty stadiums and you could bet the folks in charge of this fiasco would find a way to get a playoff done in record time. All the bogus arguments would magically disappear.

Let’s hope the Boise States continue crashing the party until someone gets this thing right.  Read the post Gator’s Victory Aftermath post.

Rant away.

There are several problems with this.  Folks like this kid, gambling with other people’s money under the guise of ‘investing’ artificially drove up the prices on homes in this country by speculating on them, much in the same way that the stock market zoomed to unprecedented heights in 2000, only to come crashing down.  Many think the same thing will happen to housing prices.  In the meantime, many gamblers/flippers are going to get caught in the mousetrap.

The lending system that allows this type of borrowing by someone with no job is equally to blame.  The piper will be paid, it’s just a question of who will pay.  Future home buyers?  Lenders themselves through eating bad loans and being forced to shut their doors?  Everyone in the U.S. through higher interest rates or government bailouts?  Who pays for all the impending bankruptcies?

Many of the flippers failed to realize the carrying costs of a piece of real estate that you cannot sell to anyone and cannot rent for enough to cover the monthly expenses, if you can rent them at all.  When there is no bigger fool behind you,  guess who is the fool then?  Last one holding the bag.

Casey Serin may just be the poster boy for this era of flipping/speculating/gambling gone bad.  His blog and the subsequent media attention has spawned several anti-casey and parody sites, one of which is the aptly named Iamnotfacingforeclosure.com .

INVESTORS who buy run down properties and then improve them with sweat equity and some of their own cash create value and deserve to be rewarded for their hard work.  However, the GAMBLERS who do little more than sign loan papers and then plant a ’For Sale’ sign in the front yard do so at their own risk.  Poke a stick at a snake and it may bite you.  Something needs to be changed in the system when someone with no job, no income, and no documentation can buy properties so easily and get themselves into such a mess that everyone else may have to bail them out.

Rant away.