Sports Reporters are Insane

I am not a Brady Quinn hater. In fact, I like him. Notre Dame is my second favorite college football team. But Brady Quinn has done nothing in the NFL and is already being proclaimed the future of the NFL by Fox Sports. Their article is entitled, "Is Future Now?" I had to stop reading the article because it frustrated me so much. The writer suggests that the Cleveland Browns may have a quarterback controversy now that Brady Quinn played so well in last night's pre-season game against the Detroit Lions. I have three responses to this article: 1) it was the Detroit Lions; 2) it was the third and fourth string players playing prevent defense for the Lions; and 3) it was the Detroit Lions.

I'm not a Lions hater either. I love the Lions, but their reputation is well deserved. Many of the guys on the field playing defense for the Lions against Quinn will never see action in a regular season game. What he did last night was not that impressive.

My biggest concern, as a Brady Quinn fan, is that if they put him in as a starter in the third exhibition game, which is generally the game teams test their starters for at least a full half of football, they are going to retard the development of a potentially very good quarterback. The Lions did this with Joey Harrington. I've seen it countless other times. He should not be starting; he should not be donned, "The Future" of anything yet.

Many sports reporters these days, are insane. How many times do you see hype for unproven guys before they do a thing on the field? I'm surprised it is Fox reporters. Their regular news reporters seem to be among the best at reporting news. The Brady Quinn story is not a headline story. It is a back page story at best. The bigger story in the Lions - Browns game, was that the Detroit Lions actually won a football game. Granted, it is a pre-season game, but it is a much bigger story than Brady Quinn completing several short passes against the fourth-string defense of a terrible team playing prevent defense in the last quarter of a pre-season game. This would be like a gym teacher getting front page coverage for beating his 3rd graders in a game of dodgeball. It's not news. Drop the hype!

Eastern Conference Good Guys

The Detroit Pistons are my team. I wanted them to succeed for so many reasons. The most appealing feature of the Pistons to me is that there are no superstars and yet they are good. I appreciate how hard they have to work to be good. But in the end, they are just good, not great. Many fans don't really get it, but the Pistons are over-achievers. They really shouldn't have gotten as far as they did.

I have never been terribly impressed with Flip Saunders. When he was hired I wrote that I'd give him a chance. I gave him a chance and I think he is a good coach but not a great coach. I don't think he is entirely to blame for the Pistons failing to win the Eastern Conference Championship, but I think he failed to inspire the players to rise up and to continue to over-achieve. It looked like the players stopped listening to him. I find it incredibly hard to believe that Flip would instruct the team to stand outside on the perimeter and to rush their shots. I find it incredibly hard to believe that Flip instructed the team to stop rebounding. I find it incredibly hard to believe that Flip instructed the team to stop playing defense the way they played all season. I find it more likely that he failed to inspire them to try to be great. I do blame him for a few things. I really wonder why Nazr Mohammed was playing in this last game. I didn't even realize that Mohammed was on the team anymore. I don't think I've seen him play, or heard his name mentioned since Chris Webber joined the team.

There are probably going to be many Sheed haters out there, but for the most part, he was the only Piston who really came to play. I would have loved to see him post up more, but he worked so hard while the rest of his team seemed to coast through the games. RIP wasn't constantly in motion like I am used to seeing. Chris Webber looked like he was 50 years old. Chauncey....where was Chauncey? I didn't see Chauncey. I

The guy I feel for the most is Antonio McDyess. He wanted to win so badly. I really wanted them to win for him.

I trust Joe Dumars to do what is right with this team. He has done an amazing job and very well may be the best GM in sports. I realize he made one of the biggest mistakes ever in drafting Darko and still think he is the best. I do think it is time for a new coach and a new player or two. I don't think it is time to blow the team up but I think a big trade or a new free agent or two, while giving one of the guys, such as Sheed, Billups, or RIP a new opportunity elsewhere may freshen things up.

LeBron James is a great player with potential to be of the greatest ever. I like LeBron. When he was in his senior year of high school and was being hyped as the next Jordan I had serious doubts. I thought he was just a man among boys and that he would really struggle when he joined the NBA and played with other grown men. I was wrong. He really has incredible talent. I wish him the best. Go Cleveland!

Wednesdays With Jesus

Today was a good day. I worked hard. I got a ton of things done. I was able to go to Mass and receive Jesus, my Savior. What a joy it is to be able to go to Mass in the middle of each week. The kids were pretty distracting. I guess they don't appreciate it yet. Someday they will.

Basketball practice was somewhat disappointing. The boys were really sloppy and not trying to run the offense the way we taught them. They don't think about what they are doing. To their credit, they are very hard workers and really want to play the right way. I just wish I could get them to think the game out more. Regardless, they are much improved from last year and I see them trying hard and I respect that.

Lions, Wolverines, and Irish

Great weekend. Michigan beat Wisconsin 27-13. Chad Henne played a great game. It's great to see him playing the way he was expected to play after his freshman season. Mike Hart was amazing. For a rather small running back, he is quite powerful. Mario Manningham was spectacular, and is emerging as the star receiver Michigan needs. Notre Dame beat Michigan State 40-37 in an amazing game that I would love to watch again sometime. Michigan State jumped out to an early lead and looked like they were going to crush Notre Dame. Notre Dame is my 2nd favorite team but I honestly don't see why Brady Quinn is a Heisman Trophy candidate. He isn't that great of a QB. Sure, he makes some great plays, but he also made a ton of boneheaded plays, too.

So now I'm watching one of the worst teams in the NFL - the Greenbay Packers - destroy my Detroit Lions. The Detroit Lions never cease to amaze me with the creative ways they find to lose games. I can't believe team President, Matt Millen, is allowed to remain the President of the Lions. The past three years he drafted wide receivers despite having a poor QB and a terrible offensive line. I would love to see someone take over the Lions who understands that good teams are built upon the backs of the offensive and defensive lines. If I could be President of the Lions I would buy the best lines money could buy. If you have amazing lines the rest of the team will play better even if the rest of the team is just average. Case and point: Emmit Smith. Emmit was not a special running back. He was average. But the o-line of the cowboys made him much better than he was. I can only imagine what Barry Sanders could have done had he had the o-line Emmit had.

I want some good music to listen to but don't really hear anything out there that is impressing me. Any suggestions?

Cloudy Day Today

Random thought of the day: I wonder how many times the average person says the word, "trapezoid" in his/her lifetime.

Previous random thought of the day... "Poisonous elephants!"

Please Make Comcast Go Away!

I just want to be able to watch my sports and a movie now and then. Ok, so I admit I enjoy watching an occasional Seinfeld or Law and Order rerun too. But I cannot watch any of this because Comcast is horrible and should cease to exist.

After talking to a few "customer representatives" (laugh)I am convinced that Comcast hires the most unhelpful and probably unqualified people they can hire to keep wages low. I called seeking help. I was told that they could send a signal to my cable box to see what the problem is. They told me that my cable box is responding and that nothing appears to be wrong. Despite telling them repeatedly that I get a message that the channel will be available shortly for entire days at a time they are convinced that there is nothing wrong. They offered to send one of their technicians (who I'm convinced have no clue what they are doing as it took many MONTHS for them to fix my last problem) in about a MONTH to my house. I asked if I could exchange my cable box for a new one, which they agreed to.

I unhooked my cable box and headed over to Comcast only to find that even though they are a monopoly and I have no alternatives, and because they do not seem to care about customers, they close on Saturdays at noon. I had to wait until the next day I had time to go to Comcast which was this past Friday. I went to Comcast and stood in an amazingly long line while 3 "customer service reps" worked at a SNAIL's pace and one other who chatted on the phone even though the line was enormous. I waited in line FOREVER until it was my turn to be "served."

I was greeted unenthusiastically and SLOWLY given a new cable box. It took ten minutes for the "customer service rep" to look up my account on the computer, type in that I was getting a new cable box, and reach into a box for a new cable box and then hand it to me. Ten minutes may not seem like much but COME ON!!!! Ten minutes for that???

I got home, hooked up my cable box according to the instructions, which were copied onto xerox paper quite poorly and therefore, difficult to read. I turned on the TV, followed the instructions for turning on my cable service and got the same message I was getting with the old box. My TV downstairs works fine so its not in the line. I have no idea what the problem is. When the technician comes...in about a month, I doubt he will figure this out too. So I'll probably wait many months like I did with the previous problem only to run into something new.

If your city is considering Comcast as its cable provider I urge you to protest. If they insist on having Comcast, go with satellite. Comcast is nothing but problems and they provide no help. Additionally they lied to me numerous times so they are unethical. I've asked numerous time to speak to a supervisor or "someone in charge" only to be told that there are no supervisors for me to talk to. I find it hard to believe that in a company as large as Comcast that there are no supervisors or people in charge. I was told that a "more experienced technician" would come out to my place after MONTHS of problems and he did not show up. Stay tuned to the saga of Comcast: The Corrupt Cable Company. I'm sure I'll have more to tell as Comcast never ceases to amaze me with their incompetance.

All I have to say is that when I move I'll be saying goodbye and good riddance to Comcast and hello to Direct TV. And if one of you Comcast employees who "are not in charge" stumble upon my blog and are surprisingly disappointed by what you are reading, I'd be more than happy to write better things upon the following conditions:

1. Give me credit for having gone close to a year with really bad cable service.
2. Fix my problem.
3. Develop a way for me to talk to someone who is "in charge" when your useless
"customer service reps" are doing the usual.
4. Develop a way for me to get through to the useless "customer service reps" in
less than a half hour.
5. Change your policy so that instead of having your useless "customer service
reps" say, "I'm sorry you are having problems sir, please hold" they say, "we
will take care of your problem promptly or we will refund your money."
6. Treat your customers like customers instead of prisoners.
7. Give me equipment that works.
8. Give me instructions from the equipment that wasn't copied on wrinkled,
smudged, scrap paper so I can actually read them.
8. Hire employees who can actually work at a reasonable pace and not sit on the
phone chatting while the line grows to epic proportions.
9. If 1-8 are not possible, go out of business and let a company who actually
wants to provide quality cable tv services take your business.

Thanks

Head On, Apply Directly to the Forehead

Has anyone seen (or heard) these commercials for headache pain where the lady says, "Head on! Apply directly to the forehead!" over and over again? I pray to God that you haven't. I've heard it way too many times. Upon hearing this commercial I have a half-hearted desire to apply a gun to my forehead...head on. I will never buy this product. I will mock and ridicule anyone I know who ever buys this product until I make them cry. The commercial is horrible and should cease to exist.