Grounded

Some random thoughts while waiting for the plumber…

For better or worse, it says something about the reputation of USC quarterbacks and/or Norm Chow’s tutelage that New England's back-up QB, Matt Cassell, who will be starting in place of the injured Tom Brady for the remainder of the season (torn ACL right knee), has not started a game since… high school. This would include riding the bench behind Heisman trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart while at USC.

And speaking of Norm Chow… you can be pretty certain that the Vince Young experience is just not going to work out if he didn’t appear to make any progress under Norm Chow. Young, the Tennessee Titan QB, had 2 Interceptions and threw for only 110 yards before going down with a left knee sprain in the 4th quarter in yesterday’s 17-10 win over Jacksonville. This was preceded by boos directed at Young as he appeared to be reluctant to come into the game for the Titan's offensive possession.

Norm Chow (whose list of protégés over the past quarter century reads like a who’s-who of collegiate quarterbacks: Steve Young, Robbie Boscoe, Ty Detmer, Philip Rivers, Palmer and Leinart) was the Titan O-Con for the ’05-’07 seasons and had the opportunity to coach-up Young in Young’s first two years in the League before moving on to be UCLA’s O-Con. That things didn’t click and Chow was reportedly frustrated with Young’s inability to pick-up the fundamentals of the passing game speaks volumes about either Chow or Young. We know to whom we are giving the benefit of the doubt.

Nice little Tropical Storm “Ike” tracking site, here, courtesy Justin.

Republicans get “bounced” in wake of Sarah Palin selection and last week’s RNCC. McCain 49% , Suit 44%.

We know we give quite a bit of grief to Obama supporters for their swooning over his superior teleprompter reading skills so we’ll be happy to take some grief for admitting we still get chills watching the end of McCain’s acceptance speech where he plowed through the applause, not pausing for effect, bringing home what was a very personal-journey accounting of his life and political career. “Nothing’s inevitable… We’re Americans!” Loved it.

The “money” is putting quite a bit of stock in Ohio State’s lackluster performance against Ohio University on Saturday and USC’s demolishing of Virginia two Saturday’s ago. Trojans open as 10-1/2 point favorites against OSU in the “Game of the Year”. We’re not biting…. yet.

Plumber’s here. Hey, we got the new basin in and plumbed-up ourselves only to realize we’ve got a serious blockage on our hands that our manual snake is not dealing with too well. As Dirty Harry said, “A man’s gotta know his limitations” and we certainly know ours.