What an unbelievable week of football – From the Steelers big win on Thursday night to the overrated Chargers slipping by lowly Oakland on Monday night and all the games in between.
The #1 thing on my mind today is how “sissified” our culture has become. We are so politically correct it makes me want to puke! And sports have been affected as much as anything. First you have the ridiculous deal of shaking hands before a game – are you serious? So, the coach gives a pre-game speech and says, “lets go out there and kill them!!!” you fly out of the locker room, onto the field jumping around and then… you line up and shake hands with the other team? Pathetic. Why not have the linemen hug each other before every play. And what about this helmet to helmet crap? A defensive player makes a great hit and here come the penalty flags. I know, I know… we want to protect the players. Let’s just put dresses on the offensive players too.
I love what Mike Tomlin had to say before the Steelers 1st game this season; when asked about the game with the Titans Tomlin replied, “This is a violent sport and whoever is more violent will win!” THAT’S BIG LEAGUE! My brother used to have a quote on his door of Vince Lombardi that said “dancing is a contact sport; football is a hitting sport”. Where has that mentality gone? I’m surprised we even keep score anymore. And to show just how bad it’s gotten, a high school game in my hometown of Norman Oklahoma was cancelled Friday night after one period. Why you might ask? Because there was lighting 10 miles away. And although the lightning never actually made it to Norman, the game was cancelled. They discussed rescheduling it for Saturday, but it was expected to rain all day Saturday too, so they cancelled the game (BTW, no lighting on Saturday). Are you kidding me? We’re now cancelling high school football games because of rain?
George Halas and Vince Lombardi are rolling over in their graves.
Look, before you all start sending me emails let me state for the record that I’m all for ‘Love your Neighbor’ and I’m all for good sportsmanship, but the game is about winning – it’s a competition – dominating your opponent! If you want to shake their hand AFTER the game go for it, but the rest of it is all fake! And if you’ve listened to me you know I hate fake!
Random Thoughts:
Traber blog: 9/7/09: …They still have a bunch of really good offenses to try to stop, but hey, they beat an SEC power and remain in the top 10. Let’s see if they can slow down Houston (who by the way will throw the ball).
As you can see from my blog last week I wasn’t ready to jump on the band wagon for the OSU defense. Some others did – I won’t name names – but then again they know nothing about football. Until OSU can prove that they can either get to the quarterback or cover five receivers at a time they will never slow down a spread offense. Although it would be really nice if they had nine Georgia’s left, the fact of the matter is that they don’t; everyone else will throw the ball. As I’ve said for the last two weeks, I’m convinced that Zac Robinson is hurt and they need to figure out how to get him back to 100%. This could still be a monumental season for OSU, but both their offense and defense will have to get better.
Nice scrimmage in Norman. I could have thrown for 250 yards at my age against Idaho State. But we learned some things: Landry Jones has a chance to be a really nice player, Demarco Murray might be back, Broyles has a chance to be a star and the offensive line can hear the snap count. Tulsa is good; should be a good test and maybe a closer game than some think.
Hey Bears fans – still happy with Jay Cutler? Talent wise the dude is awesome; but he’s a loser, as he showed us Sunday night. As I predicted when the trade was made he won’t win any more games than Orton would have. Think it was a coincidence what happened with Denver and Cincinnati? I think not! Karma baby!
For those of you who pick the Chargers – every single year – nice performance against Oakland! Yes, they won, but they are getting old. Once again the AFC will come down to the Steelers and New England. But hey Charger fans – at least you’re going to win your division.
Traber Blog 8/31/09: To Lou Holtz: You’re picking Notre Dame to go undefeated and be “upset” by Florida. The upset, Lou, is your “homer” pick doesn’t go all the way – what a joke!
Hey Lou, you should be fired for such “homerism”. Hail to Michigan!
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Be real Traber- the ratings are all about the signal, and that the animal poached off most of the best talent from the competition, and then hardly ever let it on the air in favor of melonheaded schtick that got old a decade and a half back, along with the phoney carpetbagger accents. All things being equal, you’d get smoked by a real journalist such as Tramel, Rhode, Carey perhaps, and it seems you know it since you were afraid to take a vacation this summer. Intelligent sports talk in OKC looks forward to summer vacations.
Knew this guy talked loudly for a reason, insecurity syndrome, anyone?
http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3428
Zeros of Birdland
Presenting the Most Useless Orioles of All Time
Jim Traber, first base/DH, 1984, 1986, 1988-’89
Everybody knew this: Jim Traber, circa 1988, was nothing like Eddie Murray. Murray was from Los Angeles; Traber was a local boy from Columbia. Murray was self-possessed and aloof; Traber was puppy-dog affable. Murray was an 11-year veteran; Traber was fresh up from the minors.
Oh, and Murray was black and Traber was white. Not that anybody noticed that, did they? They just loved Traber for being Traber. He saw his first real major-leagueaction in 1986, during Murray’s first and only stint on the O’s disabled list. Covering for the moody All-Star, he smacked 13 homers in a 65-game hitch, and sang the national anthem to boot. As the franchise crumbled in ‘88 and Murray’s relationship with the city soured, the memory of that idyll tugged at everyone.
And so, after the season Murray got shipped to the L.A. Dodgers for hot shortstop prospect Juan Bell–and Traber, who’d hit only 10 homers in ‘88, inherited his job. Then, finally, everybody noticed the other difference between Murray and Traber: Murray was a future Hall of Famer, and Traber was a sub-.240 hitter. After a month and a half, Randy Milligan had displaced him at first base. He closed the year on an 0-for-22 skid, and the O’s sold his contract to Japan’s Kintetsu Buffaloes.
Murray? Murray hit 20 homers with the Dodgers in ‘89, then 26 the next year. He kept on hitting through the ’90s, till he joined Willie Mays and Hank Aaron as the only players with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. The 500th homer came in an Orioles uniform, in a return tour in 1996 at age 40. The bitterness had faded since ‘88. But the years between were gone forever.
Unless AD is in the backfied, when a coach calls a run between the tackles he not thinking about scoring from 70 yds out, a 3.5 yd gain is considered a success, rather it’s a play to set up others in the game plan, like a boxer ponding the body to set up the upper cut to the sweet spot. Switzer annoyed many fans always pounding the fullback early with not great success often, but the King knew what he’s doing. Make them respect the inside run.
Egad, it were 31-nil at half, who cares if Brown got more carries. Think the fondness for Brown is his care of the ball, not that Murray is horrible in this area, though he’s had some memorable ones like the fumble in Lubbock that led to Sam becoming Batman, just Brown cherishes the rock like the crown jewells. Bob likey. Also, don’t know if aware, Murray has some injury issues during his college career.
It’s funny how you get on here and rip Jim everytime he writes something. He’s obviously doing his job and if you don’t agree with his opinions you cry. It cracks me up. But hey, by you writing these comments and listening to his show your helping his job security so I’m sure he thanks you. I personally enjoy how he’s not afraid to say what he thinks.