all things come to an end...even road losing streaks
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: The Who - Behind Blue Eyes
Well, while I am still fuming about my Wolverines loss yesterday, I am elated that the Detroit Lions won their opener (I'm serious). And even more impressive, they won on the road, snapping a 24 game road losing streak (an NFL record) that spanned almost 4 years and 3 seasons. The last time the Lions won on the road it was against the Jets back in December of 2000. To put things into perspective here, Clinton was still president and I was a junior in high school. This streak saw two presidents, 3 head coaches, 4 years, and numerous jokes from sports fans across the nation. And the jokes were well deserved. When you go 2-14, 3-13, and 5-11 over three years you deserve to be the laughing stock of the league. Lets go over some classic moments of the streak. Ty Detmer's 7, thats right S-E-V-E-N, interceptions in a road loss (another dubious NFL record held by the Lions). Marty Morningweg's boneheaded decision to DEFER after winning the coin toss to begin overtime. Needless to say the Lions lost. The average margin of defeat was nearly two touchdowns, so you always knew as a Lions fan that whenever they were on the road that we had NO chance in hell to win. But now that era is over...hopefully. Maybe this is the year that Harrington shows everyone that he IS the next great quarterback like some people (me) say he is. Hopefully Charles Rogers didn't rebreak his collarbone (which would REALLy suck) and he can come back to be a dominant reciever along with Roy Williams. And maybe Kevin Jones can get anywhere 4 yards a carry things will be ok. Go Lions Go. Maybe this is the year that they end that 45 year streak of NOT winning the championship. Hopefully.

Why Lloyd Carr should be dipped in honey and thrown into a bear orgy
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Drunken Lullabies-Flogging Molly
If you cut me, there is a good possibilty that I would bleed maize and blue. I love Michigan Wolverine football and all UM sports. That being said, I am about to do something that would seem like blasphemy to any fan. I am calling for the mutiny of our coach Lloyd Carr, or atleast a painful public scrutiny. If anyone watched the Michigan vs. Notre Dame game today, you will understand why I am so upset. Watching that game pained me to the point where I was screaming obsenities at the screen and throwing my UM nerf football all over the place. Going into the game, Michigan were HEAVY favorites. I'm talking two touchdown favorites. And they were playing Notre Dame who is THE biggest and most hated rival of the Wolverines (screw the buckeyes, I mean who really fears a spotted bean?). Notre Dame was ready, I give them credit, for all of the talk about their program not being able to live up to its storied past, they played their hearts out. Michigan however, looked like they were the high school jv team playing their first scrimmage, atleast the offense did. The defense was good enough. There is no excuse for that. Not when you are playing your rival. I don't blame the players. I blame the play-calling, which funnels through Lloyd. The offensive play-calling was unbelievable. It seemed like every series the players were confined by the play. Then a pattern appeared. A run play up the middle...1 yard. Another run up the middle 2 yards. Another run up the middle 1 yard and punt. This is how the ENTIRE second half went. Third and 16? You would think with the most talented reciever core in the WHOLE of college football, you might want to get it into the hands of Braylon Edwards, Jason Avant, or Steve Breaston. Nope. A run up the middle for 3 yards. This happened THREE times. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me thrice its time for a new trick. Problem was, there was no fooling going on. Lloyd fooled NOBODY with the terrible plays he called. If something does not work, you do something else. If your starting running back goes down, you see how his backups do, but if they fail then go to your stud recievers. Otherwise, what the hell good are they? This is not the first time Lloyd has done this. Every year since 2000, Michigan has lost his road opener. Every year before the season starts the fans are told this is the year. The hype about a national title rises and then comes to a sudden and excrutiating halt. Before I blamed the easy scapegoat John Navarre. But he did not deserve it. He was a great QB for UM. I blame Lloyd Carr. Every year you lose that first big game. That is not the players fault. That is the coaches fault. Lloyd and his hardon for running the ball and establishing a run game cost Michigan the game today. Hats off to Notre Dame. I hate the Fighting Irish, and I probably always will but they deserve credit. As for you Lloyd, I hope you realize the errors of your ways. I hope you take a beating in the press. I hope it never stops until you stop making moronic play calls. You failed your team and your fans. All for what? Ego? Some raging bullheaded notion about running the ball? Well maybe when michigan loses 6 games and fails to make a bowl game this year people will loathe you as much as I do right now. Did that sound angry enough?

...AND another thing
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: Violent Femmes-Blister in the Sun
Like any normal guy I watch a rather unhealthy amount of sports on television. Which explains why I was watching ESPN at 3 am a few nights ago. I was watching ESPN outside the lines or something and this debate about Fred Mcgriff was the topic. For those of you that don't know who Fred is let me fill you in. He is the guy with the huge swing and equally huge follow-through. The guy that was on all of those great Atlanta Braves teams of the 90's. He is not the boisterous loudmouthed me-first athelete that america has grown accustomed to over the last 20 years. He is a reserved man. A great teammate. And he has hit 493 homeruns over a very succesful 19 year career. Back to the show. These "experts" were arguing over whether Fred should get into the Hall of Fame. This one writer flat out said no way. The other guy wasn't as sure. The first guy, whom I shall christen "the sports jerk" based his opinion on the fact that "anybody can hit 30 homeruns nowadays". WHO THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS? Has this guy EVER tried to hit a 98mph fastball or a curveball that breaks 2 feet? I'm guessing not. No he prefers to be some high and mighty armchair quarterback and diminish one man's great atheletic accomplishments. Then he unleashes this nugget: 500 homeruns is no longer a great achievement or a benchmark to get into the hall of fame. The rage that this comment sparked inside of me is to great for words. I hate people like this. Granted, more people ARE hitting homeruns today. But answer me this: how many can hit 30-40 per year for the 12-15 years it would take to hit 500? Does anyone want to admit that we are blessed to witness an era with great sluggers? Bonds, Griffey(who I still think is a great player), McGwire, Sosa, Thomas, Thome, Bagwell, Pay-Rod(who should burn in hell) and McGriff and I'm sure that I missed a few. Sure he doesn't crush 50 or 60 in a year. But neither did Hank Aaron. The hardest thing to do in all of sports is to hit a round ball with a round bat squarely. And these guys do it consistently and with more power than most of us could ever fathom. Shame on anyone that questions the difficulty of hitting a homerun or hitting period. I can't believe that idiots like the sports jerk have the power to admit or deny a guy like Fred into the hall of fame. Let the fans vote, make me king and let me do it, do something just get Fred into the hall.

The Intro
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Muse-Blackout
Well, I figured since Ashley and Caleb both have blogs, I might as well be a conformist and create one as well. I will be honest here and admit that this blog has no real purpose or direction except to post my rants and other incoherent thoughts. While I have no desire to emulate Dennis Miller I feel a rant coming on. This one will be about the upcoming election. No not the Miller vs. Budweiser president of beers race (personally I'd pick Kokanee but that would basicly be like voting for Bud) I'm talking about the big shindig that is the Election for President of the United States. On the "left" we have Mr. Wishywashy John Botox Kerry who has the charisma of a stapler...and that is a stretch. On the "right" we have the compassionate conservative himself, the fearless leader, George W. Bush. I swear he has to be the worst public speaker EVER (people shouldn't laugh when the president is trying to be serious in his speeches). Let's start with Kerry. Several months ago, the democrats had a golden opportunity. People were pissed off about everything related to Bush. They could have seemingly nominated a piece of driftwood and still got him into office. Enter John Kerry. The guy is the epitome of a stiff. That and he can't pick a side of the fence to stand on to save his life. I don't care what he did during vietnam. You can't nominate yourself for all of those medals (checked that) and he obviously did some good things or he wouldn't have got them. So that pretty much eliminates the total b.s. propaganda that is the swift boat vets. I think he was a cool person, I mean he did hang out with john lennon...although yoko ono really brings him back down another peg. He obviously is a smart man, I mean he did marry that ketchup lady. But he doesn't really hold a candle to Dean or Edwards. I think Sharpton could do better but thats just because he'd mess with the system. Way to go democratic party, you got John Kerry to battle for the throne. Nice, real nice. Now on to Dubya. I think he is just misunderstood. I mean all his life he has been given everything:money, ranches, baseball teams(rangers suck by the way), a yale education, oil companies, money, drugs, and eventually the presidency. If you were raised in that environment, wouldn't you act like a greedy little child while you were in office? Oh wait thats right, we all aren't billionaires. Can you blame the guy for finishing his dad's business? Or acting in Halliburton's best interests? Nah. I think saddam is a terrible human being, he killed millions of his own people and he was bad for the iraqi people, and we should have taken him out with the U.N.s help, not like the way W. did. Lying is what this man is best at. That and making really bad decisions and sticking by them. I mean if you have watched his news conferences, he and his cabinet lie and dodge questions in a uniform manner, even questions like what did you eat for lunch he lies about. Okay that last bit about lunch was a lie. And I refuse to be like michael moore and make up crap to make my movie more interesting but you could make up something about bush and chances are it would be true. That being said I hear Bush LOVES tha cock. Essentially it comes down to this:consistent changes of opinion vs. consistent lying. Personally I'm voting for the Libertarian candidate. Screw Ralph Nader he's a jerk. And no I don't know who the Libertarian candidate is. But to that I respond by asking do you know that the Libertarian party existed before I mentioned it? That is because the two parties have made it impossible for a third or fourth party to enter into the system. There needs to be more parties to make the system fair and balanced. What can I say, we all need to be like the fox news channel. Seriously though, screw Bush he had his chance. He messed up in SO many ways...just take a gander at our "thriving-job creating economy". He needs to go. Now that this rant is over, feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.