I can watch football in Sunday night again.

Kief lost his weekend gig.

This is not letting me cut-and-paste. NBC had no comment whether or not Olberman being a race-baiting SOB was a reason for letting him go. I don't care about the reason, but now I can watch Football Night in America and keep my dinner down.

Super Bowl quick hits

So this is what the feminazis were wetting themselves over?

I knew the Saints had this when they went onside to start the second half and got the ball. That took kugeln.

The Saints became the first team to lose to the Buccaneers and win the Super Bowl in the same season.
Does Sean Payton look like country singer Kenny Chesney?

Confession: Thirty years ago I owned a Tshirt that said, "I'd Walk Over You To See The Who".

additions from the 'fly - True story: at the end of the first quarter I asked everyone at our Super Bowl bash, "What are the odds that they blow this lead the way the Broncos coughed it up against the Redskins?"

I thought the goal-line stand would be the key sequence in the game.  Instead the key sequence came when the Saints held the Colts to three-and-out, forced the punt, and kicked the field goal at the end of the half.  Had they kicked the short field goal instead, they would have been giving the Colts the ball back at the 25 or so with two timeouts and 1:35 or so on the clock - in other words, they may have been looking at 17-6 instead of 10-6 at the half.  And then with the onside kick they were saying pretty clearly that they weren't rolling over in awe of Indy.

Halftime - Is it really that hard to get a current act to do this?  Was Jimi Hendrix too dead to return their calls?  The Who were doing farewell tours back when the NFL had TWO franchises in Los Angeles.  Sure, the music sounded all right, but when you've got a full backing band of young folks you don't need Townsend to do all that much - except hit the notes during his measly three lines in Baba O'Reilly.  Couldn't even do that.  And of course Daltry didn't even try to go above middle C, if that.  It was pretty rough.  At this point I'd rather see Doctor Who do the halftime show, at least they get a new one of him every five years.

Pick Six!  And the best part of it was the return of the Classic Manning Face.  It's amazing.  None of us doubted for a second that the Colts were tying the game: that's how clutch Peyton's been since finally defeating the Patriots in the playoffs in 2005.  That INT may have been the worst pass he's thrown in five years.  Are we sure that Brett Favre didn't sneak onto the field in a Manning jersey for that play?  Manning was bright red - it was like he'd gone to Miami Beach at halftime and gotten sunburned.  Incredible turn of events.

Huge party on Bourbon Street after the final gun.  I wonder if they even knew the score, or if they'd just been partying since Thursday.

Overall, one of the better games, especially after the early deficit where it looked as if New Orleans had started Mardi Gras early.  Things really picked up after that.

Is this why you're a Giants fan, Fly?

Before Tim Tebow, there were these guys.

This is really over the top. Gloria Steinem would burst a blood vessel if she saw this.

The real standings

Weird weekend. The Chiefs, Lions, and Raiders all won yesterday. I feel like I woke up in 1993.

The NHL's "real standings" this week -

Not quite as illegible as last time. Trying to make the picture bigger just blurs everything. My HTML-fu is weak, and I can't get a table to look like anything but an affront to statistics everywhere. The dumb thing is, the table looks amazing in Excel, but I can't just dump the spreadsheet page to the web... or, to be more precise, *I* can't just dump the thing on here. A skilled person could. Hope I can find one before next week, but there's that Thanksgiving thing... you know, the one everyone seemed to skip this year to get right from Halloween to the high holy shopping season.

Rush, one more time.

I'm going to try and keep this short, because I'm trying to think happy thoughts and not use any of those words that I picked up in Germany that Frau Fineberg never taught us at Absegami High.

Rush website has a full compilation.

Checketts approached Rush as a partner in buying the Rams. Rush warned him that this would happen. Checketts said he could deal with it. Well, Checketts couldn't.

The One's fingerprints are on this. The NFL Players Union head is DeMaurice Smith, who used to work for the current attorney general and was on his lordship's transition team.

But this was just a dry run for next year. The labor agreement between the players union and the NFL expires in 2010, and the owners are thinking about locking out the players as leverage. On the players side will be Revvums Jesse & Al, the Congressional Black Caucus and The One. What has transpired was a test to see if the owners can be mau-maued. Take a look at General Motors Mr. Goodell. That's your future.

This race-baiting crap really gets the Sisko angry. Think happy thoughts.

Quarterbacks, Black and White

I was talking with a guy at a bus stop about the travails of the hapless Bucs when the recent QB change came up. He said to me, "I have nothing against black quarterbacks, but starting Byron Leftwich was a mistake."

I found this amusing for two reasons. 1) It's been a long time since the concept of a black quarterback was an issue. 2) The guy who felt I needed to know that he had nothing against black QBs was himself black.

I run into this guy all the time. I may have a chance for a follow-up.

If your curious, all three of Tampa Bay's QBs are black.

The Bucs secondary was thin anyway...(Update)

.....before safety Tanard Jackson got suspended by the NFL for getting high.

Jackson will miss the first four games of the regular season without pay after an unspecified violation of the league's substances of abuse policy, leaving the Bucs without a two-year starter and one of the defense's most feared hitters. The penalty will cost Jackson $108,235 in salary.

Also. this doesn't help either.

A Tampa Bay Buccaneers player is accused of resisting arrest without violence and simple battery.

Cornerback Aqib Talib, 23, posted $300 bail this morning and was released from the Pinellas County jail after he was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol. Both charges are misdemeanors.

The police report said that there was " an indication of alcohol influence". Really?

My big brother, the Chief, is a Jaguar season tix holder. I will be joining him Saturday night in Jacksonville to watch those Buccaneers who aren't getting high or beating on cabbies.

Update: Local sports talk is presenting the theory that the cabbie may be trying to cash in on this - that he may be trying to take advantage of a rich, sobriety-deprived athlete.

Jon Gruden

Just another Saturday in a park in Tampa. Some youngsters are playing flag football and we got our picture taken with one of the coaches.

Yes, that is former Buc coach Jon Gruden in the center of the photo. Last fall it would have cost you $75 to see him coach football, today you can see him coach 12-year-olds for free. And he had that offense cooking. If the Bucs had scored as much as these kids did, Coach Gruden would still be working on Sundays.

Coincidentally, half our church music team is in this picture. Let's make introductions: The laundry bag with legs and the straw hat is me, male melody. The young lady next to me is Sandra, female alto harmony. BTW, Sandra is a real singer; I just pretend to be Steve Walsh. Then Coach Gruden and Tim, the guitar player who was in his own room with headphones.

The youngster in the black shirt is Christian, who played on the opposing team. Christian's mother is taking this photo. I'm sure as soon as Christian's mom sees this she will email me the name of the youngster in the green shirt.

BTW, it was May 2nd and hotter than Gehenna out there.

The most expensive marijuana in America...

…is the joint former UF Gator Percy Harvin smoked before the NFL combine. Add concerns about his durability and his Wonderlic score, Percy drops down to the 22nd pick in the draft. I hope it was good weed, because I’m guessing it cost him $20 million.

Here in Buccaneer land, the peasants are revolting over the Bucs first pick. Our worst fears (that our new head coach had a man crush on K-State QB Josh Freeman) were realized. The name Bucs fans are comparing this pick to is that Hall-of-Famer Trent Dlifer.


Not that there is anything wrong with the fourth-best QB in a conference that played no defense, but it would have been nice to pick up a badly needed DE or LB (they picked a DE later, but they missed some really good ones to go with Freeman.

As seen on Facebook

And now, as seen on SportsCenter - a Philadelphia Eagles day employee got himself sacked via his online activities.

A couple of weeks ago the Eagles bade goodbye to safety Bryan Dawkins. Day employee Dan Leone wasn't happy about that, and went to his Facebook page to grouse. Now, a public dig on one's employer is probably unwise anyway, but in the infamous words of Robert Downey Jr, he went "full retard" - as in, that's what he called the Eagles. They bounced him for it.

Dan has just learned why so many choose a nom de cyber out here in the WWW. On the bright side, now he can blog about the Iggles to his heart's content. On the downside - he's 32 years old and got himself fired via Facebook, which is kind of lame. (Hopefully this was a sideline and not his actual factual full-time work, since 8-10 workdays a year is hardly enough unless one is actually lining up besides Dawkins.)

Irony alert - after this story, the SportsCenter I saw ran an ad with the ubiquitous Billy Mays for their ESPN360 service. "Now you can watch sports right from your computer! The secret is in the Internet connection!" It was a funny spot, but it's odd that a story about a guy getting fired for online activity gives way to an advert where people say "Sports at work is a lot better than work at work!"

Good story on this from Kevin at Barry Melrose Rocks, normally a hockey blog, but hey - it's good to branch out. (Great picture, too... I love how the guy is posing with a keyboard, all serious. It looks like an album cover: This is my axe, and this is my music! )

Homegrown success story

When I was taking journo classes back at ol' RU I had a classmate, a big kid named Tim, was a backup tight end on the football team - smart guy, good egg.

Tim is about to be named the Athletic Director at Rutgers University. I, on the other hand, get to be named things I can't repeat on a family blog every time I ref a game. Life's funny that way.

Still, I like my life and I'm grateful for how things are going thus far. Congrats to Tim Pernetti, and good luck.

Tony Dungy

Let me make my biases and prejudices clear. If this were written by some politician or activist I wouldn't give it the time of day. But if Coach Dungy is saying it, then I am paying attention.

With the progress that has been made in terms of diversity in politics, in other collegiate sports and in professional football - Edwards, Smith and Tomlin all got top jobs in the NFL ( and so did you, Coach Dungy -Spider) - why is college football hiring so far behind? At a seminar last spring in Indianapolis with other NFL and college head coaches and university athletic directors, I asked that very question, and was enlightened by the responses of those directors. The biggest factor, they said, was the involvement of other people associated with the universities. It was not just the president and the athletic director who made the hiring decisions - alumni and boosters were involved, and the presidents often felt pressure to hire coaches the boosters would support.

That appears to be the biggest difference between the NFL and the NCAA in hiring practices. While a university president may have to appease alumni, Dan Rooney, the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, can hire someone like Tomlin without having to consult anyone else.

Coach Dungy is being too kind. Boosters and alumni help pay the salary of the head coach, so they have a great influence. What I appreciate about the coach is that he isn't advocating gummint intervention or regulation, but the same kind of approach he uses with the All Pro Dads program. Guys know what's right, he encourages and maybe shames them a little into doing it.

The Tuskegee Airmen were a squadron of black fighter pilots back in WW2. Their mission was to escort bombers on sorties over Germany and protect them from Nazi fighter planes. They were the last choice for bomber squadrons because of prejudice. That is until it was noticed that every bomber that went out under their care made it back home. The Germans were a little fraidy-scared of them. They were even given a name by the Deutschers, die Schwartzvogeln (the Blackbirds). The Tuskegee Airman became the unit of choice for bombers, not because of any epiphany of tolerance, but because these guys gave you the best chance of making it back in one piece.

One day boosters and alumni will learn this lesson. I don't know how many 3-8 seasons it will take before they decide to hire someone who can win ballgames, but eventually they will learn this lesson.

I Was Wrong

Kurt Warner Super Bowl XXXIV: “Thank you Jesus!”

Dan Rooney Super Bowl XLIII: "I would just like to thank President Obama and all the Steelers nation for supporting us through the years,"

It was good to know that at least one Messiah was going to be thanked at the end of the game.

I passed near the stadium about three hours before kickoff. I saw Steelers fans with signs begging for tickets. Good luck with that guys. Nearby I saw about twenty Guardian Angels, a first for Tampa.

But let’s get back to where I was wrong. NBC managed to restrain themselves from kickoff to final whistle their love for the Obamessiah. The late promo for Matt Lauer’s presidential interview “The president will have home field advantage” got chuckles from those watching with me, as in, "so that makes Matt Lauer a cheerleader?". NBC had no control over Dan Rooney’s remarks.

Springsteen decided to shut up and sing (with apologies to Laura Ingraham) rather than preach the evils of the last eight years. I appreciate that.

I also appreciate that fact that the game held my attention for four quarters. I was stationed in Germany during the Super Bowl that the Bears won in the mid 1980’s. When that game got out of hand, so did a barracks full of drunk GIs.

But since we are all sober now, I am interested in this non-drinking drinking game that the Nightfly's gang played.

Your Super Bowl kind-of recap

(Or, you could just view the short and excellent version from Kurt Snibbe...)

The Hive SB Hoedown is always great fun. Friends, endless food products, and the non-drinking Drinking Card Game, handing out points based on the events of the game. (The cards are copyrighted and everything; my Ladybug knows a bunch of very inventive folks.) This year we have some wildcards - new location, the Official Puppy, and the Arizona Cardinals.

Opening question - why coldn't Pittsburgh have worn their black uniforms anyway? The Scarlet and the Black on the same field... it would have been an interesting look. I think more of these games should be color vs. color when possible.

Real pre-game conversation: Bob Costas yields to Mike Holmgren, who yields to Tony Dungy. "Is this the studio crew of people who should be coaching NFL teams?" a buddy asks. Then they cut to Matt Millen. "Never mind."

(edit - forgot Matt Lauer with President Obama. Yeesh. Do you think Lauer's the one who brought those roses on the table? "Signed, a Secret Admirer.")

In whatever uniform, Pttisburgh looks really good to start out. And they should have gone for it on fourth down from the one-foot line. Even if they don't get in, what are the Cards going to do? They're not running against that front seven.

Cards give it back, the Steelers shove their way into the endzone, 10-0. It could get ugly, but the Cards shake off the rust and get within 10-7.

First Steelers punt of the day... and soon, a big turnover. This is ridiculous. The Steelers could be winning this by a LOT more, but they may wind up down at the half. (Incidentally, one of my SB boxes is Steelers 0, Cards 4, so if they do score here, at least I'm winning a little something something.) As a long-term plan, the Cardinals' strategy - play listlessly, dodge bullet after bullet, ignore their best player, win - is kind of terrible.

WHOA - INT

WHOA

There isn't a font large enough to describe how loudly everyone is yelling. The Official Puppy, who has handled everything very well so far, is trying to hide under the coffee table. Harrison's INT return may be the greatest Super Bowl play I've ever seen - right up there with last year's Helmet Catch, Don Beebe stripping Leon Lett, and Jeff Hostetler somehow not fumbling when Bruce Smith tackled him by his right wrist in his own end zone. (Huge underrated play, btw - that should have been a fumble and TD, and a 17-3 lead instead of just 12-3.)

Incredible runback, incredible blocking the whole way.

They're reviewing the play. I think it should stand. "After further review, that was completely awesome - touchdown!" Well, he doesn't say it that way, but that should absolutely be in the rule book. The score counts. Twelve people are handing in "defensive TD" and other high-scoring, rare cards for the NDDCG. And amazingly, I also have the Steelers 7 - Cards 7 box, so I win a little something something anyway. So, yeah - best Super Bowl play I've ever seen.

Now it's Broooooce - but first, some weird 3-d promos. None of us have the glasses. I'm grateful that they've improved the process so the picture looks reasonably normal without the glasses, though we can all tell which shots are specifically to make the audience duck when things fly off the screen at them. The Pixar movie "Up" looks like a lot of fun.

OK, now it's Broooooce. Maybe I'm an idiot, but he really doesn't sound all that good. He's stopping to take a breath in the middle of every line he sings. I understand that this song is from the 70's and he's almost old enough to pitch for the Mets, but really.

Yikes. He just slid across the stage and crotch-first into a camera. Thank GOD they're not broadcasting in 3-d right now.

OK, so snippets of 10th Avenue Freeze Out, Born to Run, the new whatever Dream thing, and Glory Days. No surprises at all. He's also sounding a bit better as the show goes on, maybe he's warming up. It must be fun to be able to take a breath by letting your audience sing the choruses for you.

The fake ref thing was incredibly dumb. I'm actually disappointed it isn't really that English guy who streaks at big sporting events. (I suppose he's already used up his ref's disguise from the Oakland/Tampa SB.) But no sliding into the camera, sir, wherever you are. Thank you.

Quick talk with the Spider, who is five miles from the host stadium as we speak. I tell him about the Holmgren/Dungy/Millen thing. Spider's reply - "Well, Matt's probably thinking 'I should have hired Dungy when I had the chance.'" Maybe neither of them would have been sitting there.

Second half, and James Harrison is apparently still tired from his INT/TD return - Arizona starts to run effectively. No points, however, and it's 20-7 into the fourth. That's when the Cardinals finally wake up: and not surprisingly, it coincides with finally working the ball to their absolute best player, Larry Fitzgerald. Touchdown, 20-14. (Gee, those four extra points from the first drive would look good right about now, huh?)

Terrible idea to punt, I think. Even on fourth and twenty - it's the Super Bowl, you're on the 36 yard line! Even a FG try with Rackers is some sort of idea, to cut the lead to three... a punt will probably wind up in the end zone, and if Pittsburgh adds points the Cards are sunk.

Or, you could down the punt at the one, get a call in the end zone when otherwise it would have been a huge first down for Pittsburgh, and get two points and a free kick. 20-16. Just to update, the Cards strategy NOW is:

play listlessly
dodge bullet after bullet
ignore their best player
commit endless penalties
dodge more bullets
win two big replay challenges
finally start playing offense with ten minutes left
make an odd decision that miraculously pays off
win

And it may work! These guys are really the luckiest team in football right now - a good team, no doubt, and their defense is bringing it after getting smooshed in the first half - but how are they even in position to win this thing? If Pittsburgh gives it up they've got nobody to blame but themselves. Have they even tried to get Parker and the running game going? Or am I just bitter that they didn't hold onto the 0-4 score and I now have no shot at the final, double-sized payoff in the box pool?

Oh, and the Official Puppy just dropped a deuce on the rug in front of a dozen people, so yeah, we're really having a good time. The Steelers are doing the same thing in front of a fully-packed Raymond James Stadium and a billion TV viewers, so it fits.

Fitzgerald takes it to the house... 23-20 Cards. Great play call and great design.

The Steelers have about 2:20 to work with. They start feeding Santonio Holmes, who had come up with the big catch on the safety play. A defender falls down and he takes it to the seven yard line with 50 seconds left. Timeout. They've got the field goal option in their back pocket if they need it... you know, just in case they can't get into the end zone yet again.

Nope. Holmes pulls a toe drag worthy of Najinsky himself, and it's 27-23 Steelers. Incredible catch. In the AFC championship Holmes had a play where the ball popped loose after a long catch, and the Ravens successfully argued that it was an incomplete pass instead of first and goal on the one - this time he snagged the ball and tucked it away as he came down, and held on for dear life. (Although during his celebration he tossed it away - huh??!?!? I would have slept, showered, dressed, and driven my car with that thing tucked under my arm. There's no way I put that football down.)

And yes, they review it. This makes four reviewed calls - three of them on Pittsburgh scores, one on a "fumble" that became an incomplete pass. (It was a good overturned call. Warner hadn't a prayer of completing it but he was clearly tossing it, however feebly.) This comes up when it happens again on the last-gasp power drive, when Warner gets smacked at the very last second and it's called a fumble - and NOT reviewed. Maybe they had to give back the gear after using it so often before? It should have been looked at. It looked like an either/or call to me. The defender hit Warner's hand and the ball, rather than wrapping up his ribs, so his arm wasn't free to move forward in the same fashion. It looked like the ball was on its way out when his arm went forward, so even though the ball popped out in that direction, it could be called a fumble.

I know that Arizonans will be annoyed that it wasn't looked at, and they will feel robbed. Eh.

Verdict - excellent Super Bowl, excellent party. See all y'all next year.

I'm rooting for the Cardinals

This was tough. I have no connection with either team. I was hoping that one of the teams would have a few criminals or wife beaters on it I could root against, but that was lacking.

The fact that I am an angry, right-wing nut factored into my decision of the tiny hook I needed in which to hang my allegiance upon a team.

Here is why I am rooting for the Cardinals. The owner of the Steelers is a "staunch, pro-life Catholic" and lifelong Republican who had never injected himself into politics. That is, until last year's Iowa caucus when he heard the word of the Obamessiah and the scales fell from his eyes:

Yet on January 3, 2008, the night that underdog Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama defeated heavily-favored Hillary Clinton in the Iowa Caucuses, Rooney was watching, and according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, he immediately called his son Jim saying, “This is the greatest speech I’ve seen since John Kennedy.This guy connects with people like no one I’ve seen since John Kennedy. He convinced me that this is more than just a good politician. I want to stand up and say something for this guy. I want to be involved in this.”

It seems that Mr. Rooney drank that special Kmiec Kool-Aid made especially for pro-life people who have lost their minds.

NBC will include a Matt Lauer makeout session with the President in its pregame show. This is a network that flacked global warming propaganda for a full week on it's entertainment programs. Do you think they will resist preach the gospel of their lord before the largest audience they will ever have? I predict that they will mention Obama no less than three times between kickoff and final whistle.

I want to hear Kurt Warner scream, "Thank you, Jesus!" I am rooting for the Cards. My reasons are stupid and childish and irrational. But it is what it is.

The Worldwide Sleeper

So, what does ESPN do to celebrate last night's NHL All-Star Game? I'll tell you what they didn't do - they didn't put a link to the story on their home page. Not a thing. Also, as of 6:00 this evening, they didn't have a link to the game recap on their NHL page, either.

I can kind of understand if they ignored the game on the general page; they do that sort of thing a lot. But I fail to see how they could ignore the NHL All-Star Game on their NHL home page. Would the Pro-Bowl not even be on the NFL page? (Their "top story" is from the ever-vigilant Scott Burnside, on the top tradeable players before the deadline, and it's good work, but the deadline is about seven weeks away.) Today's NHL.com home page is nothing but the All-Star Game.

Adding to the list of goofs, there's this photo gallery, billed as "the big moments from the past ten [Super Bowl] games." There are exactly TWO pictures of actual game play in those ten pictures - as many as there are of fans. Really, a halftime fireworks display is the big moment from SB 39? Brian Billick's Gatorade Shower was more important than the Giants INT runback that was negated by a bogus penalty? (Huge moment - totally changed the game.) A pre-game picture of a bunch of helmets on the sideline "foreshadows the importance of David Tyree's catch against his lid." Well - HOW ABOUT YOU SHOW THE PICTURE OF THE CATCH INSTEAD OF FORESHADOWING IT?

I mean, it can't be that hard, can it? It's not like they don't have any available pictures from the most widely-covered single-day sports events on Earth.

Dungy vs. Gruden

Tony Dungy with the Bucs 1996-2001

6 seasons 56 wins 46 losses Made the playoffs 4 times. Loss in 1999 NFC Championship game.

Jon Gruden with the Bucs 2002-2008

7 seasons 55 wins 52 losses Made the playoffs 3 times. Won Super Bowl his first season. 2 playoff games since (2005, 2007) lost both of them.

So why does Gruden still have his job?

0 for December

A guy on the radio said that the last time a team went 8-3 and didn't make the playoffs was 1982.

Well, the Bucs went 9-3, and then 0 for December, giving up 17 unanswered points to a Raider team that had nothing to play for.

Is Jon Gruden coming back? I wonder if the defense, without Monte Kiffen to play for next year, laid down the last three games to get Gruden fired?

Go Iggles!

Little Decalon is going to Hawaii!

Seven-year old Decalon told his teacher that he was going to Hawaii!

Little Decalon goes to Hawaii every February. That's because his daddy is Buccaneer eternal Pro Bowler Derrick Brooks.

I know little Decalon's teacher. She is a wonderful Christian lady. Fly, what is it about those schoolteachers?

Thank You, Donovan McNabb!

For the Bucs to make the playoffs, it may come down to the sixth tiebreaker between the Falcons and the Bucs.

Which could bring them to the sixth tiebreaker: the crapshoot known as strength of schedule.

In this case, you add up the records of all your opponents, wins or losses. Since 14 of their opponents are common and since Seattle and St. Louis would have the same record in this scenario, then it would come down to the difference between Tampa Bay playing Dallas and Atlanta playing Philadelphia.

Again, this tiebreaker presupposes Dallas is 11-5. And the best record the Eagles could have is 10-5-1. So that means the Bucs would win the tiebreaker against Atlanta because of Philadelphia's 13-13 game against the Bengals, the NFL's first tie in six years.

Of course this assumes the Bucs don't tank in their last two home games. It's a bit of a soap opera here. We have a perfectly capable receiver (Joey Galloway) who was inexplicably inactivated on Sunday. And I hope that Coach Gruden is more faithful to his wife than he is to his quarterback.

Not to mention that the great wizard of defense, Monte the Pewter, will be off to the U of Tennessee to join his kid at season's end.