Big Ben

I was reading espn.com today, as many people do, and I came across this:



The Headline says, "No Roethlisberger assault, lawyer says"

REALLY??? REALLY ESPN???

You made a headline that states Ben Roethlisberger's attorney denies the allegations against his client. Wow. I'm fully expecting to see a headline next week that says, "LeBron, solid all-around player, teammates say." or "Tiger has hurt his reputation by cheating on his wife, poll says."

And really what is the deal with Ben Roethlisberger? This is the second time now someone has accused him of sexual assault. Obviously it could just be a case of people trying to make a quick buck off of a celebrity, but of all athletes Ben Roethlisberger? Not the first person I would target if I were to try and scam someone out of some money.

Anyway, Roesthlisberger has yet to be even charged with anything. This thing will probably blow over in a month or two. Probably around the time the draft happens.

Mac Wrap

Recently McDonalds has reinvented and repackaged, in a sense, the Big Mac. The Mac Snack Wrap is basically a Big Mac, but spurns the sesame seed bun for a flour tortilla.

Recently the other famous Big Mac, Mark McGwire, admitted to using steroids, in a conscience cleaning effort to reinvent public perception of him. (You like how I tied that in? Sweet huh?)

If you took steroids in the past, come clean with it. No further proof is necessary than a case study of Mark McGwire and public perception. This guy was getting absolutely blasted in the media because of his testimony, and now the first thing that people say when talking about him is, "I'm glad he did it."

And really what did he have to lose?

Another thing is, I think something that gets overlooked in all of this are his chances for the Hall of Fame.

I think it would require the turnover of a LOT of Hall of Fame voters to get Mark McGwire into the Hall of Fame. Before, he had no chance. Now, at least if they do end up relaxing their stance on steroid users, Mark McGwire will be one of the first considered in.

I really hope the rest who used steroids take Mark McGwire's lead so we can all get past this. The statute of limitations for steroids use is supposedly 5-years. I guess that's a uniform time from state to state. As soon as it's safe, holler.

Wake up

As you can tell, I took a break from my blog.

Even though I was only posting a couple of times a week, I was burnt out. I wanted to write solid pieces with factual and/or statistical backing, if possible. This was harder to keep up than I realized, as many times I would write something and then toss it because I realized I said it before or I couldn't really back it with anything. Other times I realized I was rambling and lost my point.

I recently got reinspired to get my blog going again. I used to track to see how often someone went on the site, but I don't really think I'll find that to be as important anymore.

Anyway, I'm going to try a different approach. I'm going to post more frequently but also write less lengthy posts. We'll see how it comes out.

If you stopped reading, I hope you'll come back. If you didn't stop checking, thank you. I hope to reward your patience.

Dwight

Over a river and through the Woods...

I don't support infedelity. I want to make that clear right now. If you make a pledge of faithfulness to a person, you should keep it.

That having been said, as a realist, I can't expect any athlete who is married to remain faithful to his wife. There are so many thousands of really hot women out there who are so attracted to you and want to jump your bones, a man can only say no so many times. Some men have trouble avoiding cheating on their wife with the one or two women who make passes on them. Imagine one or two hot women every few hours.

Let's say you're an alcoholic, but have vowed to give up drinking. If you get your most favorite, delicious, expensive alcohol offered to you every day, how long could you go without giving in? Every man is by nature addicted to women, so if you're a married athlete, there's only 2 foolproof ways to avoid cheating on your wife.
1. "Fix" yourself
2. Get divorced and don't remarry.

Athletes honestly should never get married. They can have baby's mamas, but they really should never get married. Women who hold fidelity in high regard should never marry an athlete. It's really as simple as that.

Yes. I'm making it sound like men have no choice in the matter of staying faithful. Most don't. It's human nature.

I don't think any less of Tiger Woods than I did of Kobe Bryant after his scandal. In fact, I don't know how this wholesome image of Tiger was built up in the first place. For one, the man swears like a sailor when he screws up. Secondly, he is so competitive and such a perfectionist that if I had a child, I would point to Tiger Woods and tell my child, "Now him, Tiger Woods...that's too much. Don't be that crazy." Does being a winner automatically mean you're some perfect human being?

This shouldn't affect Tiger's endorsements, but really who cares? The man is already worth like a billion dollars. Literally. Even if he lost all of his endorsements and never made another penny for the rest of his life, I think he'll pull through.

I, like Tiger, can't wait for this whole thing to blow over so we don't have to talk about things that are neither interesting nor our business.

Lookalike Friday

Sorry guys. I thought long and hard all week, but couldn't come up with anything good. There were a few that I thought of, but couldn't support. I pride myself on being able to come up with solid lookalikes. Hopefully Lookalike Friday will be back next week.

Gobble Gobble

Every Thanksgiving the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys each play a game, but not each other. A couple of years ago, the NFL started playing an additional night game on Thanksgiving.

The Lions have been awful for a few years now, so it begs the question: do you take their Thanksgiving game away from them?

I say absolutely not.

Thanksgiving is a busy day. Family members are running around, things need to be cooked, people talk, so chances are you're going to miss a good portion of the game. Why put a good game on TV if you're going to miss a bunch of it?

Detroit fans are used to losing. Losing isn't fun for them, but they know how to handle it. It won't ruin their Thanksgiving. If you're a Dolphins fan and you watch them lose to the Jets, it's probably going to make your Thanksgiving that much less enjoyable. Why spoil such a great holiday for a lot of fans? Also, if your team happens to be playing the Lions, then you're going to have one of the best Thanksgivings ever. Blowout games are still fun for the fans of the team that wins.

Plus, you never know when the Lions are going to be competitive again. When they do come back, it will be that much more satisfying that they can actually put on a good show.

Normally I'm highly opposed to Thursday football, but for Thanksgiving I don't mind because it's a holiday. Especially because they take the 3 games away from the 10am Sunday slot, not the 1pm, Sunday Night or Monday Night slots. There are too many 10am games on Sunday anyway.

The last thing I will say is this: There are very few pure fans of football anymore. By pure football fans I mean a fan who will watch any game just because they love watching football. Fantasy football has done a lot for the sport, and I contest that it is one of the biggest reasons the NFL is so profitable, but it has also created a primary culture of football fandom where you either root for your favorite team or your fantasy players. Because of this new attitude it honestly doesn't matter if the games are good on Thanksgiving because people will watch it for their fantasy players.

There are many meaningless traditions in sport, but not the Lions and Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

Lookalike Friday 25

Lookalike Friday!!!

Remember when I told you guys that I had no more lookalikes in reserve? Turns out it wasn't true. I have ONE in my back pocket and here it is.

This week we have Phoenix Suns center Robin Lopez. I thought to myself, boy...doesn't he look a lot like...

Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons?