Football Is Back... Almost

Hilariously, I unleash the most hatred on my beloved Chicago Cubs last Thursday and they manage to scrape together their first 3-game win steak of the season over the weekend.  They still aren't good.  Trying winning 20 in a row and maybe they'll make "Moneyball 2: The Jim Hendry Story."  That would be about as good as the movie that Vince pitched the his buddies on the premier episode of "Entourage" last night.  What a terrible episode, right?  If I wanted to see dysfunctional relationships with no drinking or partying, I'd watch home videos of my parents circa 2002.  Things better pick up, HBO.  But I digress...

I had a few shows this weekend, but those occurred with little or no incident.  There was some Mexican with a long braided ponytail that told me to "play cooler songs" but since I wanted him to "have a cooler haircut" I didn't end up paying much attention to him.  Instead, let's briefly mention a few stories from the sporting world that I'm less than educated on, but still want to rant anyway. 

Ohio State looks like they may get off with little or no NCAA sanctions.  I rarely bring up the Buckeyes because the subject of College Football is simply out of my wheelhouse.  There are probably intricacies from both stories, but as a casual observer, I have a hard time figuring out how USC got raked over the coals while OSU escapes with what amounts to be a ruler slap on the wrist by a Catholic school nun. 

USC got in trouble and Pete Carroll resigned.  OSU got in trouble and Jim Tressel resigned.  Call it a push.

Thanks to cheating and bad reffing, JT's tenure was not a complete waste.

USC's majority of rule breaking came through Reggie Bush.  To my understanding, OSU's rule breaking was mostly due to Terrell Pryor, but also due to multiple issues with other players getting improper tattoo and car benefits.  If nothing else, Pryor left school and now may not be eligible for the NFL's supplemental draft.  This seems like a poor chance to take and that if there was less wrong-doing, Pryor would have elected to stay at OSU.  Reggie Bush was on the way out to the NFL because he was the best damn player in College Football.  Pryor left because he broke too many rules to allow further investigation.  Seems like OSU could be more in the wrong there. 

I know there are probably hundreds or thousands of pages of documents that I'm not willing to read to fully understand both cases.  Why?  Because I honestly am not invested in College Football at all.  I have no loyalty to any major College Football program.  If there is a dirty program out there who wants to pay me to become a fan, I would definitely listen.  I now only use College Football as a time passing distraction on Saturdays to get to NFL Sundays.  Speaking of which...

It looks like the NFL Lockout is over.  I give the Lockout an D- because it dominated ESPN and other sports media outlets needlessly.  Last Thursday was the final straw for me.  When the owners tried to pull a fast one and get everyone on board with their agreement and turn fans against the players for not approving it immediately.  Guess what?  Fans are not on either side.  They are on the side of getting a deal done. 

The only reason I give the Lockout as a whole a D- and not an F, was because it also kept Brett Favre's name out of the news.  Of course, now that the Lockout is almost over, rumors have surfaced of Favre returning to football and playing for the Eagles.  Awesome.  The Bears play the Eagles this year, so maybe we can get Corey Wootton vs. Favre Round 2. 

Yes, please.

Someone almost needs to order a hit on Favre to make sure he doesn't resurface.  What are the actors from "The Sopranos" doing?  They don't seem all that busy these days.  Maybe they could help and give themselves some street cred at the same time.  

I'm anxious to get on with the NFL season.  I'm slightly disappointed that the Hall Of Fame Game was canceled because this was the one year that the Bears were actually involved, but it probably doesn't matter.  One series by the starters and a virtual two hand touch game afterwards is not a huge loss. 


There's my football rant for the weekend.  It's too bad that there can't be a College Football Lockout.  I might enjoy that much more than an NFL Lockout.  It would probably just consist of players from USC, OSU, and the SEC holding out for more merchandise to sell off in their free time.