Football – Regular Guy

Time for a Trip

brian — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:23:35 +0000

I approached my wife with a little trepidation. I don’t know why.

I should have no worries asking her about the fun things I want to do. We understand that parts of our personality differ so we might each want to strike out on our own at times.

This works out for me both ways. I get to run off and have my fun, and I don’t have to go see “Les Miserables” and things like that.

But, this time, I had some concerns. So I just asked the question and hoped nothing bad would happen.

“Do you mind if I plan a trip to Vegas for myself to cash in my winning ticket?”

She looked at me funny for a second before saying something I never expected to hear.

“What winning ticket?”

Let me go back in time for a bit. My wife had a chance to go to Vegas last spring for work. She took a few minutes out of her schedule to go to the sportsbook to make a special purchase.

For most of the last seven months, the $10 ticket on the Ravens to win the Super Bowl sat among a pile of papers in our computer room. When Baltimore used an improbably touchdown pass in its upset win of Denver a month or so ago, I made sure to find the ticket and put it in a prominent place.

I didn’t truly expect to win the bet when I had Maria buy the ticket. I hoped my team would win the Super Bowl. I wanted my team to win the Super Bowl. But I couldn’t get my hopes up too much until the big game approached.

Now I have a trip to Las Vegas to plan. Once she remembered buying the ticket, I got full blessing to go. The payout won’t pay for the whole thing, but I can stretch those dollars if I don’t aim too high.

Besides, the last time I traveled to Sin City, I booked a low-cost room and ended up staying in a two-story penthouse suite because some nice person at the front desk took pity on me for some reason. Sure, the place didn’t have the greatest air conditioning (this was in July), and some of the furnishings may have pre-dated my birth, but I scored a penthouse suite with no real effort.

Maybe my lucky streak will continue. Maybe I will cash in my ticket and turn that into a huge windfall. Maybe I will get upgraded to another nice room.

In reality, however, the end of my five-year absence from adult Disneyland will probably result in staying up too late, eating too many rich foods and a fair to middling gambling record.

That doesn’t matter to me, however. Regardless of what happens, I will know that I paid for part of the trip on one bet I made, a bet which I had to wait more than half a year to win. That’s why I deserve this trip more than anything.

At the very least, I can place another $10 on the Ravens for next year and cross my fingers.

Budweiser Steals Idea for Commercial

brian — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:10:25 +0000

I don’t have a huge problem with Budweiser like some people do. Sure, I now prefer other beers to the “King of Beers,” but I had my days of loyal Bud drinking.

I also don’t get too bothered when some art form gets a commercial use. If I hear a favorite song or artist in a commercial, well, that’s just how the world works.

But a commercial Budweiser filmed in Canada for airing during the Super Bowl up there (yes, they do special commercials in Canada for an American football game) has me at odds with both of those two sentences.

The commercial below shows how a “flash mob” turned a rec league hockey game into a time to remember for the players on both teams. The popular hockey blog Puck Daddy posted some info about the story behind the commercial shoot.

The problem is, Budweiser didn’t have “an ingenious idea” as Greg Wyshynski wrote in the blog post. They just recycled an idea which Improv Everywhere did almost four years ago, just at a Little League baseball game. And IE didn’t have to pretend they were filming a documentary to pull off the stunt – they just did it. They also didn’t have to pay actors to be in the crowd. They used their ready cadre of “agents.” Read the story behind the “mission.”

But, wait. Improv Everywhere actually stole this idea … from themselves. The idea first came alive in 2004 with the “Best Gig Ever.” That night, IE found an unknown band and filled their Sunday evening concert with rabid fans.

One friend has already called me a Grinch on this, but it’s undeniable. I know people ~~steal~~ get inspiration all the time from other creative types, but this is pretty blatant and to pass it off as something that they just came up with themselves for the biggest commercial day on television is just pretty sad. I’m glad the players on those teams got to experience it, but they were merely tools for Budweiser to sell more beer. The band and the kids in the IE missions really just benefited from people trying to have fun and make someone’s experience special. So is Bud’s attempt to profit the “ingenious idea?”

Are You Ready for Some Football?

brian — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:34:41 +0000

I love this time of year. Not just because the weather usually starts to cool off, and I can start planning my fall television viewing schedule. I love this time of year because it’s football season.

Now this isn’t the kind of mania which results in viewing and dissection of NFL pre-season games or arguments over who should be ranked where in the college football polls. I find both of those exercises pointless.

That doesn’t mean I’m not excited to root for the Ravens or Penn State. I plan on wasting a lot of Saturday and Sunday afternoons following both teams, but I have something else in store which excites me even more.

I’m covering high school football again for The York Daily Record/Sunday News. This might not sound like earth-shattering news or have some great effect on most people, but it’s something which really gets me jazzed. I’m not afraid to say I love high school football.

Sure, the money I make covering games helps, but I’m not running out to cover a bunch of other sports each week just for the money. I do this in my spare time so my interest in the sport makes a tremendous difference.

Football gets a nod because it’s a pretty regimented activity. The games happen at pretty much the same time every week (with the exception of a few schools who play Saturdays). I have a system which works well for me as far as keeping the statistics I need. To top it all off, I have run into few, if any, coaches in York and Adams county who make me second-guess my decision to give up my Friday nights to cover games, and I like the people at the paper I freelance for.

Maybe all of this works because I didn’t have a “Friday Night Lights” experience in high school. I went to an all-boys Jesuit school which played its games on Friday or Saturday afternoons. There was some social element, but nothing like Friday nights in Pennsylvania.

I can’t help feeding off the energy at most games. I don’t necessarily root for or against anyone, but I find myself really invested in hoping that everyone just does the best they can. If that happens, there’s nothing like talking to a teenager who has just done something spectacular in front of a big crowd.

That’s why I’ll give up pretty much all my Friday nights this fall (and a few Saturdays). Plus I get to go into a newsroom (the place in this world where I feel most comfortable) and feel that energy, but that attraction is a different topic for a different day.

Going Bowling and Having Fun

brian — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:48:21 +0000

Last night, the matchups for this season’s college football bowl games were announced. The schedule includes 35 games, culminating with the national championship game between Auburn and Oregon. Like every other year, much hue and cry has developed over the number of games and the quality of teams playing.

Over at the popular sports blog Deadspin, Barry Pechesky decried the current system in a piece where he pointed out that his alma mater, Temple, finished just out of the bowl picture. He doesn’t rip the way things are too much. He just seems to think it’s overkill.

I vaguely remember a Bowl Game, capital B capital G, meaning something, though it might just be a legend passed down by my grandfather. These days it takes just six wins to become bowl eligible, and only five against FBS schools. There are 35 bowls, with openings for 70 teams — well over half the number of schools playing football at that level. That makes the NBA look stingy in the number of teams it lets make the playoffs.

The last word jumped out at me and made me realize I had to write about this topic. How can he compare the number of teams in the playoffs, a system which determines a champion, with how many teams get the chance to play in a bowl? The whole reason we have so many bowls is because the NCAA has implicitly made them irrelevant by refusing to consider a playoff.

Think about it. If teams had to fight and claw to get into an eight or 16-team tournament bracket, do you think the ones who failed would want to pack up to play in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg Bowl as a consolation? Yep, you read that right. The word bowl is in the title twice. The bowls have no relevance if the NCAA allows a true champion, even though I do think the games could serve as a consolation prize outside of a playoff. I don’t think that will happen if there is a playoff, which isn’t coming anytime soon so, until then, who really cares if 70 teams go to bowls?

The current system doesn’t hurt anyone, outside of the deserving schools kept from getting a primo spot in the BCS because of it unfair rules, but that’s another story. Most of the bowls simply exist for the players, the rabid fans and the egos of the organizations which run them. Why take away that fun just because some guy who writes for a newspaper or blog thinks it’s silly to have 7-5 South Florida play 6-6 Clemson in Charlotte at noon on New Year’s Eve?

In the rush to declare what is right and what must be and how the perfect sports world exist, we often forget that sports are fun. So why take away the opportunity for some college players to travel somewhere nice after exams, get some free stuff and have fun playing one more game? Just because it won’t determine the national champion doesn’t mean people can’t enjoy the game for what it is.

Besides, if you seriously have a beef with anyone because Kentucky and East Carolina and Middle Tennessee and Illinois get to play one more game after going 6-6, you might want to consider stepping back from the TV. It’s just a game.

Feeling Cleveland

brian — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 21:31:38 +0000

Sports can bring out some less than rational actions. I don’t get it when people turn violent over the outcome of a game, but I can understand how it will twist up all other kinds of emotions. Take last night’s NBA game in Cleveland for example.

LeBron James, in case you have lived under a rock recently, played his first game in Cleveland since he publicly declared he was “taking his talents to South Beach” in order to play for the Miami Heat instead of re-signing with the Cavs. The struggling Heat won, but the crowd rode James for the entire night, directing boos and creative chants at the star.

Some may consider this behavior juvenile, but I can’t cast a stone in the direction of the fans who vented their spleens at that game. You see, I was one of them a long time ago. On September 11, 1983, I went to the now-demolished Memorial Stadium in Baltimore and chanted “Elway Sucks” for what seems like four hours when Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway brought the Denver Broncos to play the Colts, just a few months after refusing to play in my hometown.

I was 15 at the time and went to the game with my oldest brother and my oldest nephew, who was just 8 at the time. I will never forget the gleeful look on his face as he chanted along with the crowd, knowing this was the reward for going out with two uncles instead of his parents.

I didn’t really think of the game until i started watching the Heat-Cavs game and immediately went back in my mind to that afternoon. The post I linked to earlier described the day better than I can. I don’t remember it being hot, but I looked up the weather data, and it was a scorcher.

I’m glad I couldn’t find any video of the game online because I prefer to remember the deafening chant never ending from the time we arrived until the game ended. I don’t want to bring logic and reality into this memory. That’s not why we follow sports sometimes. Just ask the folks in Cleveland.

Clenched

brian — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:02:00 +0000

I participate in a pair of football “survivor” pools. If you are not aware, the premise is to pick one game per week. If your pick wins, you move to the next week. If not, you are out. The trick is that you cannot pick the same team twice so each win means you have fewer and fewer good teams to choose from.

One of my pools is a small one at work. A dozen people started, and I have made it to the final two. That will be a nice little payout if I can win. I will also have bragging rights over a co-worker, which might be even better.

But my second pool has a much different flavor. I got into it through a friend. The entry fee wasn’t big – only $15 – but the field included 98 players. You can do the math to see the winner-take-all prize. I have lasted this long with 21 other people. It’s getting a little exciting.

This past week, I had the Kansas City Chiefs. They were, after all, playing the hapless Buffalo Bills in Kansas City, one of the toughest stadiums in the league for a visiting team. The week before, the same philosophy to pick the Baltimore Ravens, my team, at home over Buffalo. The Ravens needed an overtime field goal to win. The Bills couldn’t come close to beating another home favorite, I told myself.

Wrong. So, so, so wrong.

Sometime close to 5 p.m. on Sunday, I found myself bent at the waist, staring intently at my television as the Chiefs tried to drive down the field in overtime for the winning field goal. Each team had missed on field goal in the extra period. The Bills actually made one, but the Chiefs called timeout just before the kick. I usually hate that move, but it could be a very lucrative turn of events for me since the Bills’ kicker shanked his second try.

I often tell my friends who do not follow sports that I envy them for being able to go through life without having to expend energy worrying about who wins and who loses. That goes triple – or maybe more – for people who don’t participate in some sort of gambling. Then again, it makes for a lot of fun when things work out.

This is exactly why I don’t gamble a lot, however. I could not take that feeling I had late in the game all the time. Now I just need to figure out which team will put me through the ringer this weekend. I might actually have to root for Eli Manning. Money makes you do strange things.

Draft Time?

brian — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:21:05 +0000

I did not realize until a couple of days ago that the NFL Draft starts tonight. Since they start talking about it and arguing over everything before the bowl games, it didn’t seem like the seriousness had risen. Todd McShay and Mel Kiper looked like they hated each other in the split screen yesterday the same way they did in January. I had no idea.

I should feel differently. I love the NFL. I love college football, especially Penn State. The one time when the two come together should fill me with excitement. I should get totally amped to see who the Ravens add and where Nittany Lion players might end up to continue their careers. I even watch the combine sometimes on TV, at least parts of it. Just for fun. Honest. Usually, I care a lot, but not so much this year.

The whole non-stop process is part of the reason. You hear names thrown out as top picks before the college season even ends. Then they get moved around in mock drafts as the combine takes place. Then some more when pro days take place. Then some more as we get closer to the draft.

It’s mind-numbing. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the Ravens are in good shape so I’m not hanging on their pick. Maybe the fact that the Penn State group coming out doesn’t have as much oomph as in past years. I prefer to blame the hype machine.

Not only do we get a dose of McShay and Kiper smugly squaring off on ESPN more than usual, but we now have the first round specially presented on Thursday night with the following six rounds spread out over two days. The NFL thinks it will build excitement, but it has helped kill the anticipation for me. I’ll probably watch less than ever.

Goodbye, Free Time

brian — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:34:45 +0000

A little more than a month ago, I wrote about my disenchantment with the latest version of EA Sports’ college football video game series. I managed to plug away and finish a season with SMU (we went 8-5 or something like that and reached a bowl), then chose to take a job with Syracuse.

I left it at that point without starting a new season because I hit the store the other day and bought FIFA10, the new version of EA’s popular soccer series. I played this game years ago on the computer, but hadn’t jumped back in since I bought the PS2 a couple of years ago.

The disappointment with NCAA10 and this past Tuesday’s release date of FIFA made me change that. I had the perfect way to fill my video game void. After two days of playing, I can say that I made a great decision.

First of all, a game in FIFA (playing 4 minute halves) takes less than 15 minutes. I loaded my season and played a game all while riding the exercise bike last night. A football game took an hour commitment, which just didn’t work sometimes so I wouldn’t even turn on the game at all.

Secondly, the game has so many damn leagues and options, I can’t possibly get bored with it. I am currently playing with Hearts in the Scottish Premier League, but could have easily picked an MLS team or one of many English teams or even a team in freaking Russia. The options are endless.

The last positive is that the game play is just so much nicer than NCAA. The animations aren’t as stilted and predictable. You really feel like they capture the spirit of the sport better than the college football game, which got kind of close four years ago, then stopped trying to improve it.

I can’t wait to start to explore things such as Manager Mode or to create a league or tournament. That sound you heard was my motivation for productivity disappearing. Blame EA Sports.

Shuler Should Shush

brian — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:35:45 +0000

I have lived a long time without legal sports betting near my home. In fact, I have only bet on sports legally in my life. One of my Vegas trips took place in July when there was nothing interesting to bet on. But the other two trips out there, I had a great time watching football games I had bet money on.

Earlier this year, Delaware put a plan in motion to let people bet on sports there. Awesome news, as I have blogged about before. I could drive two or three hours and bet on football and hopefully more. The state has targeted this NFL season to start this effort, pending possible legal action by the NFL and maybe the NCAA. I figured that would pass, and I could make a road trip or two during NFL season.

But Heath Shuler might screw all this up, just like he did with most things related to football. He had a horrible career as an NFL quarterback so he has now decided to leave the same legacy as a Congressman from North Carolina. It’s bad enough that nimrods like Orrin Hatch and Arizona’s Jon Kyl want Congress to stop Delaware from letting us have fun, now a guy who should understand football gets in on the act.

“As a former college and professional football player, I know the real threat that sports betting brings to sports. Sports betting undermines the integrity and teamwork of athletes, coaches, teams and leagues. It threatens to destroy the necessary sense of competition that makes sports great.”

No, Heath, quarterbacks who throw twice as many interceptions as touchdowns destroy the necessary sense of competition that makes sports great. Guys who lose their job to Gus Frerotte undermine teamwork.Guys who hold out for huge money, then end up as one of the worst players at his position in the league damage the integrity of the game.

Delaware wants people to have the chance to bet on sports at three locations, and these guys act like the mob has moved in and will take over the NFL. The league is so powerful, people can’t even call a Super Bowl party a Super Bowl Party. God forbid people find a way to get interested in the games. Just another mistake by Heath Shuler.

Noooooooooooo!

brian — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:10:30 +0000

I just realized something this morning. There are nly seven football games left in the season. College is done – I don’t count the all-star games. There are four NFL playoff games today, two next week, a week off, then the Super Bowl. The Pro Bowl also doesn’t count.

Seven games, then nothing, nada, zip. The only respite will be World Cup qualifying for the U.S. men’s soccer team. They have a friendly this month, then a big match against Mexico on Feb. 11. After that, I have to wait until March Madness starts, then the MLS season in mid-March.

I hope I survive.