The times, they are a changing

What has happened to all the loud mouth receivers in the NFL?
Randy Moss everyone’s favorite boisterous juice entrepreneur, has stopped running his mouth and instead has been running his touchdown total up to point where he might pass Jerry Rice’s single season record of 22 touchdowns in the strike shortened season of 1987.
Terrell Owens, a man who nobody in the NFL has been able to shut up, is apparently happy catching touchdowns from Tony Romo and no longer feels the need to belittle all of his quarterbacks, teammates, and coaches. Hey I don’t know how Tony Romo is keeping T.O.’s mouth shut but for the sake of all of us I hope he keeps at it.
Then there’s Ocho Cinco. Chad Johnson, Mr. Touchdown celebration himself has said that he is putting his touchdown celebrations on hold until his 3-7 Bengals start winning again. No racing against horses, no Hall of Fame jackets, no nothing until the team starts putting some W’s on the schedule.
The irony in all this is that while Rice (who’s widely considered the greatest receiver of all time) was not one to show-boat, his modern day successor; the Colts Marvin Harrison, has spent most of the year riding the bench due to a knee injury.
It seems as though there are plenty of people willing to take his place, and I’m not quite sure why. It could be that these receivers saw how mild mannered Calvin Johnson has been treated by the media even though he is only half way through his first professional season.
It also could be that they just got tired of being consistently attacked by the media, and just decided that it was time to let their playing do the talking.
My theory is that Moss and Owens are happy because they are getting the ball. They are scoring a lot and their team is winning (in part) because of it. Their childish egos have been fed for now, and they can let their game show the entire world how great they are.
As for Chad Johnson, I have always thought highly of him and respected him for never calling out his teammates, or coaching staff. I believe all of his motives were simply to have fun and make the fans laugh while he was at it. Sure, he has a big ego, but I am very impressed by his willingness to put all of that aside as a motivator to himself and his team to start winning again.
Personally, while I am sorry to see Chad Johnson’s touchdown celebrations end, I am very happy that T.O. and Moss have shut up for the time being. If anything this year has shown us that above all else winning is what makes the game fun for these guys. When they are having fun they are at their best both personally and professionally. For the league’s sake lets hope all three continue (or in Chad Johnson’s instance begin) to have fun for a long time to come.

Baseball's gone bananas

What has happened to major league baseball?
In a span of 48 hours, three of baseball’s biggest stars made headlines and not for petty things such as disputes with coaches, etc.
In the last week, Alex Rodriguez has come to the New York Yankees to renegotiate a contract. Barry Bonds was finally indicted on federal counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, and Derek Jeter has been accused of tax fraud.
Alex Rodriguez’ willingness to renegotiate with the Yankees is significant for a few reasons. First A-Rod walked away from his old contract with the Yankees and now the fact that he is negotiating a new one makes him look like your typical money hoarding, greedy sports player. Most of us already knew A-Rod was a greedy player. Otherwise he would have taken a pay cut all those years in Texas to give him a better chance to win. This is just proof.
Secondly, Rodriguez went back to the Yankees against the wishes of his super-agent Scott Boras. Boras told teams that they would need to make a $350 million bid, just to get a meeting with A-Rod. Now it looks as though Rodriguez is going to be “settling” for $275 million. For years teams have wondered about the validity of Boras’ “mystery suitor.” The irony is that it took one of his own players to call him on it.
Bonds’ indictment is strange to me for the simple reason that I cannot understand why it took the federal grand jury four years to indict him. The only explanation for this is that somebody must have rolled over on Bonds.
It has been said that in order to have any chance to prove a person perjured in the courtroom there must be either two people willing to testify against him or one person and a document to back him up. I have long been a Bonds supporter, because even if he did take steroids, (and I believe he did) many of his competitors were doping as well and baseball had no testing policy so they have to sleep in the bed that they made.
However, if Bonds’ is found guilty of perjuring to the court about his knowledge of his steroid use, it will be damning for his Hall of Fame chances and the way his career is remembered.
Bonds has wanted his day in court for a long time, and now he will get it. If he is acquitted of this, he will be a first ballot Hall of Famer and all his records will become much more legit.
The most shocking of all is the Jeter incident. Jeter has been accused of not paying his New York City or New York State taxes from 2001-2003. Jeter claims he is a resident of Tampa Florida, (which has no state income tax) not New York, which he claims explains why he filed for non-residency income tax returns to the state from 2001-2003. The State claims that Jeter is simply using his Florida home as his main address as a way to avoid income tax.
Look I don’t know who’s right here, but I know this. Jeter is beloved in New York and all of America. If this turns out to be nothing then people will forget it ever happened and Jeter can go back to being Mr. Yankee and one of the faces of Baseball.
However, if this sticks, it could be very damaging to Jeter’s carefully constructed reputation. Jeter would never be looked at the same by fans or media, and his honest hardworking reputation would be severely tarnished.
Personally I don’t think it will stick, but you know what? They way the last few day have gone in the baseball world, it wouldn’t surprise me if it stuck like glue.

Too much hype ruined Pats vs Colts

The higher the expectations, the tougher they are to meet.
We had been hearing about the game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts since what seemed like the beginning of the season.
It was called Super Bowl XLI½, The greatest regular season game ever, and just about anything else the media types could think of.
There’s only problem with generating that much hype for a sporting event: it rarely IF EVER lives up to the hype. Personally when the game ended and Tom Brady had taken his final knee, I was disappointed.
Granted it was a terrific game. At times both offenses proved they could move the ball. There were moments where both defenses stepped up as well. And yes, there was the comeback that is necessary for all great games.
That’s what it was; a great game, but it was not the greatest game I’d ever seen. Not even close. As a result when the game was over I felt cheated.
That’s the problem with the 24 hour media coverage. ESPN and other outlets pumped this game up to a point where it was going to be impossible for the actual game to meet its expectations.
That is what happened, and it is unfortunate. It’s not fair to the Patriots or the Colts, but most importantly, it wasn’t fair to the fans.
Twenty years ago this game would have gotten coverage, but fans would have been able to breathe and make their own judgments about this game. Fans would have seen this game for what it was; an exceptional game between two teams, neither of which have any glaring weaknesses.
Instead fans were forced to hold this game to an unfair and unattainable standard. In the future I hope the media will avoid over analyzing the game and allow the teams and the players to determine how the game will measure up over time.
How a game is billed means nothing if it doesn’t live up to the hype. The media should make sure it doesn’t drive that hype to unattainable heights.