Studs and Duds
By John White
Free agency is winding down to a crawl now. Honestly, there’s really nothing going on in Charlotte. The Carolina Panthers, the team I’m supposed to be writing about have given me little news.
So, while brainstorming today of ways that I can avoid boring the life out of our valued readers, I came up with an idea. (Whether it’s a good idea or not is another story for another day and, frankly, it’s up to you to decide if it’s good or if it sucks.)
The best title I could come up with was “Studs and Duds.” A simple little idea that brings to you, our valued readers (yes, I will probably say that about a dozen more times before I’m done) some of the big and not so big stories around the NFL or anywhere my internet surfing might take me. Something we can do once a week provided you don’t tell me you hate it. So, holla! Let us know what you think.
Now, it’s on with the show and our first ever installment of “Studs and Duds!” (Seriously, if you can think of a better name, please let me know.)
Studs
Brett Favre retired and made it all official and cried a river today while doing it.
I know I wasn’t exactly as kind as I should have been the other day when I first spoke of Brett’s retirement. Honestly, the media types have had their lips puckered up to Brett for years. That tends to wear on a fan who simply isn’t a fan of that player’s team.But I have to admit that Brett Favre was my kind of player. He played with the kind of passion that is missing from so many of today’s paycheck players. He’s a man’s man. He even got to appear on screen with Cameron Freaking Diaz! What man can’t respect that?
I’m honestly going to miss watching Brett Favre play. I wasn’t always rooting for his team but I was always in awe of how he played even if the announcers spent too much time kissing both his buttocks.
Steve Largent did it. Bill Bradley did it. Jack Kemp did it. Many others have done it including Tom Osborne and J.C. Watts. Now Kevin Johnson wants to do it.
Johnson is running for public office. He has thrown his hat into the Sacramento mayoral race. He’s even taking on a three-term incumbent. That takes…um…ball skills!
He even sounds like a politician…“We need a change in the city and I believe we need a change now,” Johnson said. “As I went out the last month and talked to people around the city, folks have said to me they believe city government is nonresponsive, tired, uninspired and bureaucratic. They want something different in Sacramento. (They’re) clamoring for change.”
We wish you well, Kevin. Go show ’em a point guard can shoot from the hip, pass a budget and defend the city from crime. (I tried to come up with a few more b-ball cliches but couldn’t.)
March Madness
is just around the corner. I’m aware that where I live things are about to become insane again. Here in North Carolina it’s like a ghost town when
UNC
and
Duke
play. During the
ACC Tourney
it’s even quieter in town.I just hope that our valued
Cat Crave
readers will still visit. Come back! Come back!
The
NASCAR
season is now officially underway! Oh, did you think it started in
Daytona
?
Nope!It starts when a driver has points taken away and a crew chief is suspended for a few races. DING! We have a winner!Driver
Carl Edwards
did his backflip off the side of his car like he always does after winning that Turn Left Often 500 in
Las Vegas
. Then NASCAR inspected his car and found that some doo-hickey was out of whack.For the offense Edwards had to give back 100 points. What was so strange about it was that NASCAR basically said, “You won the race but you didn’t win the race.” He gets to keep the trophy but not the points for the win.
Somebody please let Roger Goodell get a shot at handing out racing fines, please!
The
Raiders
are spending money! Like
big
money!
Crazy
coin!
Huge
amounts of dead
presidents!Quick math for you (math ain’t my strong suit so don’t sue me if I get the numbers wrong):
Javon Walker – $55 million
Tommy Kelly – $50.5 million
Gibril Wilson – $39 million
TOTAL: $144.5 million
CHA-CHING!!!!
Comcast
and
Time Warner
want to make the
NFL Network
part of a package of channels apparently nobody wants. Maybe they want to lump the network in with the Dirt Network and the Toe Jam Channel.Now,
Roger Goodell
wants to take his toys and go home.He’s complaining to Congress. Yes! Congress!”The two largest cable companies use their bottleneck power to control access,” Goodell told the House telecommunications subcommittee.Goodell wants the legislators “to encourage” the
FCC
to consider complaints from independent programmers. None of the lawmakers are doing it. He thinks the cable systems are making more room for channels they hold a stake in.
The problem with that is that the NFL already has its antitrust exemption from lawmakers. Plus, the big boys in New York have already cozied up to DirecTV for the NFL Sunday Ticket.
I’m a football fan and I want to see my team. But the league has seen to it that I have to pay to see them play if I live outside of the viewing area for that team. And I have to have a dish to see it.
Further, the NFL has their rules around what I can see and can’t see. This whole rule of theirs about not allowing competing games to be aired opposite of the home team is stupid anyway.
Goodell wants the cable systems to put his network in with channels like ESPN and The History Channel. Does he think they will?
The NFL Network has been charging the cable operators too much for the service, they have exclusivity with DirecTV, they can operate outside of anti-trust laws, they keep fans from having the option of turning the channel to another game on Sundays yet they seem to think that their is some conspiracy against their network.
Mr. Goodell, if you want someone to take you seriously on this you should stop trying to act like a victim. You’ve forced a lot of fans to spend a lot of money to watch your games. Now it might be time that you took a back seat for a little while.
Finally, we want to thank the guys over at Shutdown Corner for including Cat Crave in today’s edition! In this article, the guy’s at Yahoo’s blog gave us a link! Yahoo! indeed!!Thanks for showing some love, guys!