So, that's what they're really saying

It's the weekend before the Super Bowl so that, unfortunately, means no football. To the good, however, it also means we won't have to hear about your fantasy football team.


To that end, we're hitting the easy button and posting Bad Lip Reading's take on the 2014 NFL season.


Enjoy.







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If one has to spend that much time thinking about it...

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We weren’t really paying attention when that now news-cycle infamous Old Spice commercial ran during the Chargers-Bengals game but made sure we locked–in on it when it ran later in the afternoon during the Niners-Packers game. We watched it again on YouTube today after reading Allah Pundit’s take on it, here.


Here it is, in its 60 second wild card weekend ad spot glory:









AP never really settles on anything definitive with respect to the motive behind the ad nor, more importantly, the target audience and we were frankly at a loss as to what was the deal with the freakiness of it all until AP wrote the following:

The look of the ad is oddly timeless, too. There’s really nothing here to suggest we’re in 2014 instead of, say, 1985; the hairstyles and clothes in the high-school cafeteria seem outdated. That detail would be lost on an 18-year-old but a fortysomething mom might recognize it from her own youth.

Well, bingo. Not fortysomething moms rather 40 something men and Dads.


We fall smack dab into that market demo and as young lads growing up in our pre-teens and early teens we do indeed remember seeing Old Spice ads during NFL broadcasts and thinking to ourselves: well, there’s a rakish gentleman in a captain’s hat and country club blazer at the helm of a sail boat at half-time of this NFL game… this Old Spice must be a thing.


Subsequent to that, and for whatever reason, it seemed that Old Spice became branded as an “old man’s” product (seriously, if we are talking target demos, who the heck was yacht boy’s target demographic?) and now some 30-35 years later, Old Spice is attempting to reconnect with average, white, middle-aged, middle-class Joe that had discarded it during the 90s and 2000s with an odd-ball nostalgia piece replete with the clingy, stalking Mommy figures of our nightmares. Works every time.


Hey, listen, that’s the best we could come up with. If you've got a better explanation, we'd love to hear it.

NFL Wildcard Weekend Open Thread

Two great weekends of NFL football back-to-back starting this afternoon. Wildcard weekend followed by division playoff weekend next Saturday and Sunday when unfortunately we will be out of pocket and at sea for trials.


So who do we like? In order of game starts:


Take the Colts at home giving 1-1/2 points against the Kansas City Chiefs. The progression of quarterback Andrew Luck and the Colts team will take its next step this afternoon.


Later this evening, we like the Eagles giving 3 points at home to the visiting Saints. The cold won’t effect “Shady” McCoy from going off against that porous Saints run defense. Don’t like Dome teams in these sort of extreme weather elements.

Tomorrow’s games:


We like the Chargers getting 7 points on the road against Cincy. Look for a steady diet of running backs Ryan Mathews and Danny Woodhead and Philip Rivers’ short passing game to keep the Cincy offense off the field. Ball control won them the most impressive road victory of the NFL season in November against the Broncos and it will prevail again against the Bengals.

Sunday afternoon, take the Niners giving 3 points at Green Bay. Weather folks are calling for blustery conditions with temps that could plunge as low as 25 below. Though a west coast club, Niners are built to handle these conditions. Similar to the San Diego/Cincy game, look for the Niners ground game to chew clock and wear down the Green Bay run defense and for the Niner's defense to be running down hill all game long frustrating Aaron Rodgers and the Packer offense..



Good luck, everybody!

What we saw and learned yesterday

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The Denver Broncos prevailed 28-20 in a game that boiled down to Peyton Manning vs. the Charger secondary and that worked out pretty much as one would expect.


That secondary is brutal. We're thinking Eric Weddle has attained Pro Bowl status only because he stands out as merely serviceable amongst the abjectly miserable play of his teammates on the backend of the Bolt defense.


One thing we do know about Peyton Manning watching him all these years and that is he does not like pressure in his face and the Charger defense was far too passive in the first half in not dialing up blitzes and thus exposing a secondary that cannot cover and cannot tackle.


The pass rush gained some traction in the second half but it was too little too late as the Chargers settling for field goals (one of which was missed) while the Broncos scored touchdowns in the first half proved too much for the Chargers' comeback bid to overcome in the second half.





Two teams at 6-3, one that we’re worried about and one that we are not. The Colts got crushed in St. Louis by the Rams, 38-8. Burn the game film. Throw it out. The NFL has become a match-up league and what was witnessed was a dominant Rams defensive front bullying a shaky Colt offensive line. Nothing more, nothing less. Andrew Luck remains one of the best QBs in the game and yesterday’s aberration does nothing to change that. Next.


The 6-3 Niners lost in ugly fashion to the resurgent Carolina Panthers yesterday afternoon out on the Coast. Check out some of these numbers for San Fran: Total net yards: 151. 3rd down efficiency: 2/13. Passing yards: 46. 46. Colin Kaepernick, one of the most mobile quarterbacks in the league today, was sacked six times. Despite the close score, 10-9, and taking into account the expectations for this team, this has to be one of the worst losses of the Jim Harbaugh era.


We won’t profess to know what’s going on with Kaepernick and that offense but they better get it figured out quickly, because… it is with great anticipation that we are looking forward to the Niners travelling to New Orleans to take on the red hot Saints and their greatly-improved defense under 1st-year defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan and which will be the featured afternoon game on Fox next Sunday.





Hey, Giants and Redskins fans, yes, the bad news is that you are both 3-6. The good news, of course, is that you are in the most hapless division in football where you are only one game back in the loss column from being tied for first place with the Cowboys and Eagles at 5-5.


And speaking of the Eagles…. Stat of the Week: The Eagles are 4-1 when running back LeSean McCoy gets 20 or more carries a game and obviously, 1-4 when he does not. C’mon, Coach Kelly, get Shady the rock.






There is no God:


The Ravens prevailed in OT against the Bengals, 20-17, after perfectly executing the Hail Mary at the end of regulation in yesterday’s game.









Oh, wait.

Baltimore defense, this is not the tip drill… you knock the ball down…. down…. down!

Those are the types of moments that most likely lop off years from NFL head coaches’ life expectancy.





Poor ol’ ESPN gets stuck with another turkey for Monday Night Football with Miam vs. Tampa Bay. We’re so over the Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin controversy but given there will be nothing happening on the field worth talking about, we fully expect the World Wide Leader to flog that mule for all it’s worth before, during and after tonight’s telecast.





Power rankings:

1. Seattle Seahawks

2. New Orleans Saints

3. Kansas City Chiefs

4. New England Patriots

5. Denver Broncos

Team we're putting on notice:

The Cincinnati Bengals. They’ve dropped two straight and are currently 6-4 and 1-1/2 games up in the very mediocre AFC North. They get a bye after travelling to Cleveland next week. These guys were one of our favorites to win the AFC Championship and though we aren’t jumping off the bandwagon it’s time put together a run. Recent history has told us that the Super Bowl champion is a hot team at the end of the regular season and the Bengals have a very manageable schedule over their last six games so it’s time to get things cranked up down the stretch.




That's all, gang. Thanks!

What we saw yesterday

The end of that Pats-Saints game yesterday… it was like watching a James Bond movie. Who didn’t think the Saints had wrapped things up when, with a 4 point lead, they played extremely conservative on their final possession going 3 and out and after punting to the Pats, left Tom Brady and company but 1:15, no timeouts and 70 yards to drive for the win?



Big mistake. Should’ve left him with only 1:05 and maybe 75 yards as Brady connected with wide out Kenbrell Thompkins with 5 seconds left for the stunning 30-27 victory.


What were the Saints thinking? Well, they were thinking they had won if the pre-mature celebrations on the sideline were any indication. They had a chance to put Brady and the Pats away but they left them totally unnecessary daylight. They could’ve snuffed out that team with one shot to the base of the skull but they opted instead for sharks with lasers.







You know our whine: not down with the unbalanced schedule where, depending upon the week, there will be 9-10 morning games and merely 2-4 afternoon games (West Coast times). Well, we think we’ve figured it out. If the NFL can continue delivering on that one nationally-televised feature matchup in the afternoon like they’ve done the past two weeks with Broncos-Cowboys last week and Saints-Patriots yesterday, we’ll dial back on the complaining. Commissioner Goodell, you magnificent bastard, we read your book!



Don’t blame Chip Kelly or more precisely Chip Kelly’s offense for their uneven start at 3-3. They have the #1 rushing offense in the league and the #4 offense overall and are second only to the Denver Broncos in yards/play (6.7 vs. 6.6). As you would expect this conversation to be turning, they are near the bottom of the NFL (30 out of 32) in total team defense. Nick Foles, filling in for an injured Michael Vick, had 3 touchdowns while LeSean McCoy had 116 yards rushing and continues to lead the league in rushing while the Eagles handled the Buccaneers yesterday 31-20.



Memo to the Detroit Lions: keep Reggie Bush heavily involved in the offense both rushing and receiving and good things will happen. In games Reggie has played, they are 3-2. In the 3 wins, Bush has averaged 166 yards/game from scrimmage rushing and receiving combined and in the 2 losses that figure plummets to 69. And not surprisingly, the Lion offense has averaged 35 points/game in those 3 victories against 15 in the losses. A small sample size to be sure but the delta between his production in wins and losses is too great to dismiss. Lions dispatched the Browns 31-17 yesterday.



Texans fans booing an injured Matt Schaub (ankle) as he was being assisted off the field was deplorable. And just to make sure those jerks didn’t forget about Schaub, Texan back-up QB, T.J. Yeats came in and promptly threw a pick-six. Screw you, Texan fans. Oh, and you got rolled by the Rams, 38-13. Screw you.



The Redskins RG III looked about as active and dynamic as we’ve seen him this year throwing for 246 yards and rushing 9 times for 77 yards. Unfortunately, the Cowboys Dwayne Harris decided to go nuts in the return game last night returning a punt 86 yards for a touch and setting up another short TD drive for the ‘Boys with a 90 yard kick return in a 31-16 victory for Dallas. Besides Skins fans, do you know who hates Dwayne Harris? Tony Romo fantasy owners, that’s who. Sorry, Corey O.




This may be the golden age of the quarterback but we were witness to some absolutely atrocious decision-making as well from the league’s glamour spot. Matt Cassell, Chad Henne, Brandon Weeden and Tyrelle Pryor… we’re looking at you.



To riff off our boy Max, mild props to the Jacksonville Jaguars and their 35-19 loss to the Denver Broncos. The NFL is relentless and unforgiving. It’s a brutal league that features some of the biggest and fastest human beings on the face of the planet. There are no such things as moral victories in this league. Having said all that, good on the Jaguars who came in as the biggest betting underdogs (26-1/2 points) in league history and decided that they weren’t just going to roll over on the home turf of arguably the league’s best team. Hearing how the Broncos were basically going to name their score against the worst team in the league looked like it just might have struck that pride chord in the minds of men who violently throw their bodies around for 4, 6, 8..? years in order to make a living. They came in and competed and made things interesting for a hot minute in the 3rd quarter which is something we never thought we would say about a 16 point loss in the NFL. So, thank you Jaguars for not sucking to a degree we all thought you probably would.



OK, gang, that’s it for today.

And where a talk show host returns to that tired old saw of the NFL and income redistribution

Here's Bill Maher explaining why football is superior to baseball and is generally the most excellent thing ever because of socialism or something.


(please advance to the 1:55 mark to get pass the creepy-ass misogynist's potty mouth but where you will still get to hear a gay slur.)







We're not economists nor statisticians but were not quite sure that making your case for "sharing the wealth" can be made pointing to a model that consists of a mere 32 entities. The NFL operates in a highly controlled environment where all 32 franchises are engaged in the exact same business. To compare the NFL to a complex, diverse and varied economy consisting of hundreds of millions of people is to compare apples to oranges.



Besides, how else would you split revenue from a national television contract except equally among all 32 teams? Baseball is completely different in that the majority of the TV revenue generated is on a regional basis as teams are allowed to go out and cut their own deals. Again apples and orange.



Likening the NFL's revenue sharing model to socialism is similar to comparing Saudi Arabia to socialism. Sure the Saudi citizens receive generous social services and straight cash payments but it's all because of one thing: raping Mother Gaia similar to how the NFL has cleverly manipulated and exploited a gullible public. Yep. Socialism did not make the NFL the monster that it is today - it was shrewd marketing, promoting the "brand" and exploiting a blood-thirsty American public on the violence of professional football. Oh, that and NFL owners extorting this national passion for football in the form of getting the public to pay for their team's personal revenue deluge: publicly-financed stadiums. That's not spreading the wealth, that's being a robber-baron through the ballot box.




Fact: virtually all revenue generated at and by the stadium belongs solely to the ownership group of that team. We're talking parking, concessions, food and beverage and of course ticket sales, personal seat licenses and the biggie, the luxury box fees. The owners get to keep all that jack. They don't have to share any of that.



You know what else is more important to the NFL's success than this silly notion of revenue sharing? Anti-trust exemption. That's right. There's no competition for the NFL now is there? There's no Sports Clips to Super Cuts in the retail chain hair-cutting business. The NFL can pretty much run their business operation any damn way they see fit without fear of reprisal, recrimination or... competition. They have cornered the market on professional football and everyone is completely OK with this dominant monopoly. Again, we'd obviously be more willing to split up a fraction of all that jack we were rolling in if we knew the fix was in. Do you think Bill Maher would be willing to pool and split equally his salary with 31 other comedians or talk show hosts? We'd certainly be willing to pool our salary with that of Bill Maher. Think he'd be down for that? No, he probably wouldn't.



"The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field"* is not socialism. It's an iconic phrase in the American lexicon because former commissioner Pete Rozelle had the foresight to put Ed Sabol and his fledgling Jersey-based film production outfit (NFL Films) at the tip of the league's marketing spear. If you are over the age 40, a big reason why you love the NFL is precisely because NFL Films made the game and its players seem larger than life. If you love football, you drift off to sleep at night picturing close-up shots of tight spirals in slow-motion spinning through an Autumn Sunday afternoon or breath vapor coming from players on the bench on a frigid December game day, images provided courtesy NFL Films. This is not socialism. This is shrewd marketing that has established and promoted an image with such a broad swath of the American public, it is now firmly entrenched as Culture in America. This is infinitely more important than how the NFL splits up its T.V. revenue.



Maher would have you believe that this wealth redistribution model has led to a veritable free-for-all every-body-has-a-shot-at-the-Super Bowl scenario in the NFL. The facts tell a different story. Over the past dozen years or so, the AFC play-off picture has been dominated by four teams: the Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. And do you know why those teams have been consistently good to great over the years? Hint: it's not because of how the NFL splits its television revenue. It's because those 4 franchises have had stable leadership at the top that has made sound personnel decisions plus good to great play at the quarterback position. That's the formula for success in today's NFL: smart management and a franchise quarterback. (The NFC is a bit more of a mixed bag but the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants have mirrored their AFC counterparts as how to operate your NFL franchise.



For all this talk of parity, franchises like Jacksonville, Cleveland and Buffalo don't have an ice cube's chance in hell of making it to the Super Bowl. It isn't a revenue thing - it's a management thing. (Cleveland has a real opportunity to make it to the playoffs this year. Perhaps not coincidentally, they had a complete front office overhaul in the off-season with a change in ownership which merely re-enforces the point we made above about having a management team that knows what the hell they are doing).



To wit, you just can't throw money at free agency and expect your football team to click. Baseball is different. You can get away with cobbling together a roster of All-Stars and expect to win. The Philadelphia Eagles and their "dream team" experiment of last year is proof of football being an entirely different animal from baseball. As baseball is an ensemble of individual performances, chemistry and teamwork are decidedly more important to football than they are to baseball.



One of our favorite quotes of all time came from the former and recently deceased Baltimore Oriole manager, Earl Weaver, when he was asked about team chemistry. Weaver waived off the notion with, "Team chemistry? Team chemistry is a 3-run homer".



Back in June, Don Mattingly, the L.A. Dodger manager was in danger of losing his job. Enter Yasiel Puig who has become the most physically explosive player in the game and Hanley Ramirez coming off the DL and say hello to an ensuing 50-8 record and a play-off berth. Don Mattingly is still no coaching genius. Yasiel Puig's seeming aloofness can, in our mind, be simply chalked up to the fact that his English is extremely poor. That's right: perhaps the Dodgers' best player cannot even talk to a majority of his teammates. How's that for chemistry? And let's not forget the fact that last year's massive mid-season trade between the Dodgers and the Red Sox was beneficial to both teams.



Take in that paragraph above and give us a comparable scenario in the NFL. You can't. To try to compare baseball and football in terms of how money is spent and player personnel decisions proves you know nothing about either baseball or football.



Is the revenue sharing of the T.V. contracts an element of the NFL's parity and overall success. Sure. It's an element. Just that but it is in no way close to being as important as Maher wants to make it and who is using the NFL to try to make an over-arching point about income re-distribution in America and failing miserably while doing it.


Stick to making gross, sexist cracks about conservative women, Maher. It suits you better.




Side note: the screed about keeping kids out of crappy schools was rich. Conservatives and libertarians have been at the forefront of school reform: charter schools, school choice, some... any degree of teacher accountability - a laundry list of ideas to break from the obviously failed status quo. These reform efforts have been opposed at every turn by an unholy alliance of teacher unions and big city Democratic pols.



* Yes, we are aware John Fecenda never uttered these actual words which makes the marketing genius of the NFL that much more impressive.

What we learned this weekend

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One college football observation to start off with…

The Tennessee Volunteers keep finding new and interesting ways to blow 4th quarter leads, though, Saturday’s choke job against Georgia was of the pretty standard just-let-the-other-team-drive-down-the-field-and-score variety.



We were wrong about the New York Giants. Cannot believe just how horrible this team is right now. They lost by 15 to a bad Eagles team playing with it’s back-up quarterback for more than half the game.



The Chargers, in one game, went from “teases” to “not a good team”. You cannot lose to the Raiders by 10 points and expect people to take you seriously.



We were wrong about Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts. We thought the emotion of #ChuckStrong and seven 4th quarter come-from-behind victories last year was a bit of an aberration and that things would level off in 2013. Numbers and statistics aside, Andrew Luck is playing about as well as any QB in the league right now and the Colts have now handled the two most physical teams in the league in the Niners and the Seahawks.



So, Chip Kelly wanted Michael Vick to run more on Sunday. Michael Vick ran. Michael Vick pulled a hammy. Coach Kelly, this is Michael Vick and that’s what you learned this weekend.



Can’t get a bead on the Niners. Yes, they beat up the Texans on Sunday night but the Texans are an absolute mess right now as Matt Schaub is suddenly afraid of his own shadow. Colin Kaepernick merely managed the game last night. He had 14 yards rushing and take away the 74 yard pass, catch and run he had to Vernon Davis, he amassed 39 yards passing otherwise. He’s definitely not the dynamic presence he was as recently as the first game of the season.



That Bronco-Cowboy game yesterday afternoon was as entertaining a regular season game as we can remember. And Tony Romo will always be Tony Romo.



If the League insists on front-loading the Sunday schedule so that there are only 2 or 3 games in the afternoon, we do take comfort in the fact that at least one of those games that are televised have been really good games. Niners-Packers (Week 1), Chargers-Cowboys (Week 4) and yesterday’s Broncos-‘Boys immediately come to mind.


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Photo image of the day

Alternate headline: It’s come to this


Over the years, when we told you one of the dangers of the new federal health care law would be that it would infringe into parts of your life you never thought imaginable, you may have doubted us.


At the time, it was all in the abstract as the new healthcare law and its effects would not come into full effect until Jan. 1, 2014.


For you sports fans, maybe it started sinking in when Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, falsely asserted that she was in active and enthusiastic negotiations with the NFL in running ObamaCare ads to inform the public about the new healthcare law. Fortunately, the NFL did not want to have any part of this political hot potato and denied Sebelius’s happy talk and with it any hopes of being Team O’s patsies and thus keeping the holy day of the week reserved for God, family, friends and football.


From a personal standpoint, our contention hit home last week while reading the latest issue of the WestCoaster SD, a fine monthly periodical documenting the craft beer industry in San Diego. While flipping through the pages, we came across the following:

That’s right, ladies and gentleman… a publication dedicated to a beverage that is said to be proof that God loves us and which we faithfully read as a matter of education, enjoyment and, yes, as escapism cannot even elude the grasp of the ever-expanding tentacles of this horrible, miserable and wretched damn ruinous piece of legislation.


If it can happen to us, it will happen to you.



Don’t ever say we didn’t tell you so.

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And where David Axelrod tweet-whines that they were unable to co-opt the NFL

Obviously, we're having a lot of fun with this. The NFL has summarily rebuffed the Obama administration's effort to recruit them in order to promote the roll-out of ObamaCare, however they still haven't received any official or un-official thumbs-down from the NBA, NHL, MLB and... librarians?


It was learned, during the wooing process that two Republican Senators sent a letter to the league urging them to not co-operate with the administration.


From CNN:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn advised the NFL that it would not be a smart move.

"Given the divisiveness and persistent unpopularity of the health care [law], it is difficult to understand why an organization like yours would risk damaging its inclusive and apolitical brand by lending its name to its promotion," they wrote in a letter.

In addition to the NFL, the letter was sent to the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Professional Golf Association and the chairman and chief executive officer of NASCAR.

Stating the obvious as well as just making good business sense didn't sit too well with the President's former top advisor, David Axelrod who took to Twitter rail against these threats and intimidation?

Now threats and intimidation? Appalling how far congressional Rs are willing to go to try and impede success of ACA

We got into the blow-back game:

http://t.co/V1WGUh3zms @davidaxelrod as a Chicago machine type, do u realize how ridiculous yr whining about threats & intimidation sounds?

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) June 30, 2013

http://t.co/V1WGUh3zms @davidaxelrod do you remember when Sebelius threatened to ban ins. companies from exchanges for higher rates? I do.

— Dean R. Riehm (@deanriehm) June 30, 2013

Here's Sebelius from back in September of 2010:

President Barack Obama's top health official on Thursday warned the insurance industry that the administration won't tolerate blaming premium hikes on the new health overhaul law.

"There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to the insurance lobby.

"Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections," Sebelius said. She warned that bad actors may be excluded from new health insurance markets that will open in 2014 under the law. They'd lose out on a big pool of customers, as many as 30 million people nationwide.

Mr. Axelrod, that fits the very definition of what you are falsely accusing the Republican Senators of.




Recall, as well, the, ahem, solicitation effort Sebelius has recently undertaken to raise funds for ObamaCare roll-out programs; funds from the very businesses her department regulates.

WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, has solicited sizable donations from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and H&R Block, the tax preparation service, as part of a multimillion-dollar campaign to ensure the success of President Obama’s health care law, administration officials said Sunday, even as a leading Senate Republican raised questions about the legality of her efforts.

Even if she is on legal standing, the optics of this just horrible.


You were all warned, however. We warned that ObamaCare becoming law would only further politicize parts of our lives that had not ever been exposed to the wretchedness of politics and recent events are bearing that out.


All that we have foreseen is coming to pass.

Good news: Sundays to remain sacred

This past week, we noted with much consternation that the federal government and specifically the Department of Health and Human Services were in contact with the NFL concerning "educating" the public about the federal health care law, aka ObamaCare. To what degree and extent was this contact? We'll let the head of the HHS explain:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday she is in talks with the NFL to help promote new options under ObamaCare.

Sebelius said the football league has been "very actively and enthusiastically engaged" in discussions about a partnership to encourage people to enroll in newly available insurance plans.

"We're having active discussions right now with a variety of sports affiliates" about both paid advertising and partnerships to encourage enrollment, Sebelius told reporters.

Now, despite the fact, we imagined this push to come in the form of bland and benign PSAs on Sundays... and Mondays... and Thursdays... we were nevertheless disturbed by the potential of politicizing the holy day on the calendar week.

You can imagine our delight, then, when we found out yesterday the NFL declined this invitation to pimp this miserable piece of legislation.


From the NFL league offices via the Washington Examiner:

We have responded to the letters we received from members of Congress to inform them we currently have no plans to engage in this area and have had no substantive contact with the administration about PPACA’s implementation.

(italics, ours)


It is duly noted that this strikes an entirely different tone than Sebelius's "active and enthusiastic" description of goings-ons.


Needless to say, this was absolutely the right call by the NFL. Putting aside for a moment that we were glad the League did not roll over and play stoolie for the administration, say you were a liberal during a conservative president's push for privatizing social security? You would rightly despise PSAs on Sunday afternoon attempting to educate you on where you could go on-line to invest 10% of your Social Security account.

Much of the beauty of sports is that, for the most part, it leaves politics at the door. Yes, it is escapism from the day-to-day assault we now get from the state of modern politics.


Sunday is a day of worship and for asking God to grant peace and tranquility to our lives. It is also a day of fellowship where we gather around the grill and 52" set with family and friends. Politics doesn't have any part in any of the above and we thank the NFL for their help in maintaining that.



Exit observation(s): Curious if Sebelius essentially lying through her teeth had the NFL heading to the exits and wording their statement the way they did in that they were in no way shape or form going to be patsies for the administration. Probably should have dialed in back a notch or two, eh, Kathy?


It speaks to a combination of desperation and hubris that Team O thought they were going to get away with this.

About last night

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We apparently just missed it as we were getting in the door when last night's half-time show on NBC during the Cowboys-Eagles was just wrapping up, but here's Bob Costas's little anti-gun rant we're sure you've either seen or heard about in the context of the Kansas City Chief's Jovon Belcher's murder-suicide:







Don't know if the nation could've soldiered on last night without Costas unburdening himself Whitlock's half-baked pieties and pronouncements.

And we most definitely do not know for sure if both Belcher and his girlfriend would be alive if Belcher did not have a gun.



But Costas was certainly within his right to say what he did and we are perfectly within our right to post the following:

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Rivalry Week: NFL style

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Thanksgiving weekend is homecoming weekend as many people are returning home for the first time in months from school or perhaps a job that has displaced them from family and loved ones. For college football, it's also rivalry weekend as the Michigans and Ohio States and Notre Dames and USCs of the collegiate gridiron world renew hostilities.

The following is not necessarily a new idea but we are going to keep hammering away at it until it does become reality. If it works for college football, why not the NFL where the league can take advantage of some natural inter-conference geographic rivalries that already are and rivalries-to-be in a annual renewal of these matchups on Thanksgiving weekend:

•Oakland Raiders v. San Francisco 49ers
•NY Giants v. NY York Jets
•Houston Texans v. Dallas Cowboys
•Kansas City Chiefs v. St. Louis Rams
•Washington Redskins v. Baltimore Ravens
•Philadelphia Eagles v. Pittsburgh Steelers
•San Diego Chargers v. Arizona Cardinals
•Jacksonville Jaguars v. Atlanta Falcons
•Tampa Bay Buccaneers v. Miami Dolphins
•Carolina Panthers v. Tennessee Titans
•Cincinnati Bengals v. Cleveland Browns (This is the only in-conference match-up but it’s one that’s gotta be. Call it the Paul Brown Bowl)

And in a happy and unintended consequence, two of the left over teams are the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots. These two recently-minted rivals can be matched up each year as well, leaving only 8 teams out of the party for the near-future.

We urge NFL commish, Roger Goodell to make this happen. Now that the NFL has flexibility in the televised games later in the season, put the most attractive match-ups on your prime time games on Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights. It makes sense, it would be a lot of fun and it would create a huge amount of buzz upon which the NFL could capitalize.

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Quickies

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A round-up of news items, columns, articles and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.



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Work prevented us from attending one of the many "Stand Up for Religious Freedom" rallies that were held around the country on Friday.

One who did, Dawn Wildman of the Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition had this to say:

Today I attended one of the 140 Stand Up for Religious Freedom rallies. This one took place in San Diego, CA , where over 2000 people exercised their First Amendment right in all its forms. They stood up against the HHS mandate that flies in the face of their religious beliefs. They held a peaceful assembly of citizens seeking redress of the federal government due to this latest assault on the US Constitution. For those that are a little fuzzy on the First Amendment this is it in its entirety:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So while Congress did not actually make the HHS mandate which forces religious affiliates as employers to pay for and give their employees free contraception, it is still the government under the tutelage of Secretary Sebilius who is demanding that religious organizations facilitate this law. Many speakers referenced this mandate as a “conscience tax” and I couldn’t agree more.

Here's B-Daddy of The Liberator Today:

I was struck by how impassioned both the speakers and participants were. The President's policies are uniting people of faith against him. The speakers all spoke of the importance of freedom and conscience to the proper functioning of government. They spoke of the continued assault on religious liberty. They spoke of the laughable accounting shell game of the administration: "Religious associations don't have to pay for birth control, only their insurers will be required to provide that." My personal estimate was that about 700 people turned up. We got honks of support throughout the rally.

“Religious freedom is not a gift from politicians: It is a gift from God,” said Bishop Flores. “Today’s debate is not about the access to contraceptives…it is about the federal government forcing the Church to act against its teachings”.

And Leslie of Temple of Mut has a very comprehensive round-up here to which she adds:

Our opponents must be very worried. They sense they have “awakened a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve”. The elite media reports I am reviewing, with the jaundiced eye of a recovering reporter, are going out of their way to minimize this unification of religious faiths across this country in standing behind the Catholic Church in its defiance to implement the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate to offer contraceptive/abortion/sterilization coverage in health plans.

For those of you in the tea party/freedom coalition movement who are either pining for or conversely running away from any social issues, relax! This issue is perfect. An authoritative and overreaching government mandating goods and services provisions upon a private entity and which also happens to violate the fundamental religious conscience of a religious entity. What are we missing?

If you wanted an issue over which to beat the head of a dreadful administration and which also helps define your guiding principles, it doesn't get any more basic and fundamental than the 1st amendment, gang, so let's have at it and pull no punches!





And speaking of dreadful... similar to his Skip Gates the police acted stupidly remarks, the President can't help putting his foot in his mouth whenever he goes off-script and away from the teleprompter.

President Barack Obama weighed in Friday on the shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, calling it a national tragedy — and saying that the young man reminded him of his own children.

"When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids," Obama said in the Rose Garden. "I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this. And that everybody pull together."

Obama has come under fire from some black leaders for failing to comment on a case that has become a major national story — and brought thousands of Americans into the streets for demonstrations calling for the arrest of Martin's shooter. One black leader even wondered why Obama called a Georgetown student who was attacked by Rush Limbaugh but not Martin's family. Obama's comments Friday represent the first time the president has addressed the growing controversy.


"My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon,"
Obama said. "All of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves."

That's his main message? Bizarre yet entirely predictable. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen: when asked to offer some commentary and perspective on the shooting, he serves up one of the most self-serving and narcissitic statements we have ever heard. Gawd, this guy is a piece of work.






And from the Nice Try Department, the President running away as fast as he can from Solyndra:

"Obviously we wish Solyndra hadn't gone bankrupt. Part of the reason they did was the Chinese were subsidizing their solar industry and flooding the market in ways Solyndra couldn't compete. But understand, this was not our program per se."

-- President Obama talking to National Public Radio's "Marketplace."

President Obama is on a swing-state campaign blitz this week, looking to stifle voter anger over high energy prices. While the White House is casting the trip as an effort to lay out Obama's vision for future energy abundance, much of the message is aimed at reducing the supply of blame.

And how does that square with reality? From FactCheck.org:

President Obama exaggerated when defending his administration’s approval of a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, a now-defunct solar company.

Obama referred to Solyndra’s loan at an Oct. 6 press conference as “a loan guarantee program that predates me.” That’s not accurate. It’s true that the Energy Policy Act of 2005 created a loan guarantee program for clean-energy companies developing “innovative technologies.” But Solyndra’s loan guarantee came under another program created by the president’s 2009 stimulus for companies developing “commercially available technologies.”

The president also overstated past Republican support for the program, saying “all of them in the past have been supportive of this loan guarantee program.” Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and some of them even voted against the Energy Policy Act of 2005 at a time when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress.

Independent auditors and even officials within the administration warned Team O that Solyndra was a dog but they cronied ahead anyway with highly favorable interest rates and then shoved their cronies to the front of the bankruptcy line ahead of the tax-payers when the $535 million house of cards came tumbling down.


And you'll love this:

Several key White House offices were involved with the Obama administration’s messaging plans and other preparations as the collapse of the taxpayer-backed solar company Solyndra was imminent, newly released documents show.

The latest White House documents delivered to House Republicans on Friday again highlight the extent to which senior administration officials braced for the fallout as Solyndra – a company President Obama had personally visited – was about to go under.

A White House memo that noted the danger of “imminent bankruptcy” at the end of August 2011 says, “OMB, DPC and NEC have been working with press and OLA to be prepared for this news to break.”

Acronym translation: OMB is the Office of Management and Budget, DPC is the Domestic Policy Council, NEC is the National Economic Council and OLA is the Office of Legal Affairs.

(italics, ours)

Working with the press? We were previously unaware that one of the job descriptions of the 4th estate was to frame a message and provide cover for incompetence if not outright malfeasance in the executive branch. We kind of knew it along along, however, there is still some shock value to see it mentioned in such a casual and matter-of-fact manner.




More media double-standard red meat, this time with respect to gas prices/energy policy:









Column headline of the week:

Why Men Opting-Out Should Make You Angry

Is it us or is there cottage industry within the feminist movement that agitates women to be in a constant state of being pissed-off?




So, who is it that is waging a war against women?

Obamacare contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and employers. Five are especially-harmful for women, be they Moms, singles, or retirees.

The jobs-killing Obamacare law contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and employers. Many of these tax increases fall on families making less than $250,000--a direct violation of candidate Obama's promise not to raise "any form" of taxes on these families. In less than a week, the second anniversary of Obamacare being signed into law will take place. The Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments about the constitutionality of Obamacare next week.

Out of the 20 new or higher taxes in Obamacare, here are the five that most hurt women.

Read about them at the link.





And finally, the way NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was firing off suspensions and fines this past Wednesday as punishment for the New Orleans Saints' participation in Bountygate reminded us of Michael Corleone wacking members of the other crime families in the baptism scene of the God Father I.



Sean Payton. Wack. Mickey Loomis. Blam. Greg Williams. Pop. Joe Vitt. Wham.

More carnage than we've ever seen in one day in the NFL. Lessons learned: don't lie, don't ever lie to Roger Goodell.


OK, gang, that's it. We'll see you all tomorrow.

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Video clip(s) of the day

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If you follow the righty blogosphere with any regularity, you are probably aware of the dust-up concerning the Chrysler commercial featuring Clint Eastwood that aired at half-time of the Super Bowl and which was panned by many on the right for being agitprop for a fourth Bush second Obama term.

We freely admit that when we first saw it, that was not what we were thinking as most likely our thoughts were on the general disgust we feel whenever confronted with evidence of the excrable automotive bailouts. After watching it again (video can be found here) we understand the criticism but as we said, we didn't feel it at the time so we cannot get too uppity about it.

Having said all that, Reason.tv parodies the Chrysler commercial and comes much closer to the truth of the matter with respect to Chrysler and our tax-payer bailout of the same.










A pretty weak year for commercials but this Jim Thorpe to Red Grange to Deacon Dan Towler to Gale Sayers to Rick Upchuch to the current era evolutionary time lapse history of football in America caught our eye.






They forgot the part where defenders can't muss the hair of quarterbacks but overall, yeah, really good commercial.



(Much like how you can never go wrong with featuring primates in your commercial, you can never go wrong with some Ray Charles, either)

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Super Bowl open thread

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No small amount of Charger fans here in town will be rooting for the Pats as they still haven't forgiven Brother Eli Manning for snubbing the Chargers on draft day back in 2004 when he his dad, Archie, said there was no way Eli was going to sign with the Chargers were he drafted by them. Well, they drafted him and then traded him for a draft pick that became Philip Rivers.

Get over it, people. We got over it the day all this went down as people forget that many, ourselves included, thought Rivers to be the better quarterback at the time. And we still do. Yes, Brother Eli will now be appearing in his second Super Bowl to zero for Rivers and though you can lay blame for that at many people's feat, Rivers is not one of them. And an inexplicably bad start this past season, aside, we believe Rivers to be a better quarterback than Eli.

Now, having said all that, take the Giants getting the 3 points against the Patriots. We like the overall health of the G-Men compared to that of the Patriots and the fact that the Giants' passing attack should be able to shred that weak New England secondary.

X-factor: New England establishing a running game against the pin-their-ears-back-and-get-upfield pass rushing of the Giants' four down linemen.



OK, gang. That's it for today. Hope everyone is able to enjoy the big game with family and friends.



Next post: Quickies

Super Saturday, anyone?

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The following is a portion of a post we ran initially 3 years ago on the Sunday between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl and which is now part of our crusade to move the Super Bowl to Saturday evening.

For those of you wandering around this morning in a daze after coming to the realization that for the first time in nearly 5 months, there is no football being played today, please consider this a fix… a feeble fix but hopefully a fix nonetheless. The crusaders at the American Mustache Institute (AMI) are campaigning for a move of the Super Bowl from Sunday to Saturday. They make their case here a strong one.

Really, there is no reason to not play the Super Bowl on Saturday evening as a prime-time event. There is nothing sacred about Sunday… rather there is nothing sacred about playing NFL football on Sunday. That horse got out of the barn over 35 years ago when Monday Night Football appeared on the scene. And now with football on Thursday and Saturday nights in the regular season and playoffs, the purist argument is rendered moot.

When was the last time you hosted or even went to a party on Sunday? Since the Super Bowl has become such a nation-wide social event with people of every socio-economic stripe hosting Super Bowl parties, rescheduling this consumer-America high holiday to Saturday makes more and more sense.

Throw in the absentee and loss-of-productivity arguments from Hangover Monday and guilt-free binge drinking becomes yet one more reason to make this happen.

Super Saturday, A Salute to Excess: Losing none of the alliterative corporate punch.

People, standing together we can make this happen. Let's do it!

Championship Sunday open thread

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Strangest doggone thing we've seen this year: A high-powered offense that is centered around not just a tight end but two of them - both second year guys, Rob Gronkowski out of Arizona and Aaron Hernandez of Florida. They combined for 24 TDs, 170 receptions and 2,200 yards receiving. Ridiculous, huh?

Having said that, we like the Ravens getting 7-1/2 against the Pats at home in Foxboro. Call it a hunch but there have basically been 4 teams that have dominated the AFC for the past decade or so (Pats, Steelers, Colts and Ravens) and we just feel that possibly it's the Ravens turn to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time in 11 years.





In the late game, we think the Niners magic carpet ride finally comes to an end. Take the Giants getting 2-1/2 on the road in San Francisco. No one is playing better on both sides of the ball right now so look for the G-men to return to the Super Bowl after a four year absence.

Niner QB, Alex Smith, really came into his own this year under first year coach Jim Harbaugh. It was gratifying to see as we saw Smith play in high school alongside Reggie Bush at Helix High down the road from us here in San Diego.

NFL Division Playoff Sunday open thread

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We like the dogs again...


Take Houston getting the 7-1/2 on the road at the Baltimore Ravens.


And in the night cap, take who has been the sexy pick for the outright upset, the New York Giants and the 7-1/2 against the home favorites, Green Bay Packers.




Next post: Quickies

NFL Division Playoff Saturday Open Thread: the if it's good enough for George Washington edition

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First game: The Saints are just a different team outdoors. Look for the tough-minded Niners not to be rattled in their first playoff appearance in years: Take the Niners getting 3-1/2 at home this afternoon at 1:30 PST.


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And as for this guy...

... don't know what all the fuss is about.




Folks in these here American parts have been doing it for years with some degree of success.

Having said that, Bronco safety Brian Dawkins is out and no one has been able to stop what has been the most productive tight end season in the history of the NFL in the two-headed beast that is the Pats' Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Still, we like the Broncos getting 13-1/2 points against the Patriots in Foxboro later on this evening.

Got Tebow?

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Our blog-buddy Harrison over at Capitol Commentary gives his take on the Tim Tebow phenomena. He's not a big fan of Tebowing though he uses solid Scripturally-based logic to make his case.

In his post, he called us out specifically for our thoughts on the matter for which we obliged. The following is our edited-up comment:

We have zero issues with Tebow and his Tebowing. In reality, sports figures have been Tebowing and praising God in interviews for years now.

A confluence of circumstances have led to this: an overtly spiritual young man (who actually appears to walk the talk) and absolutely the most improbable, absurd, and fun! sports runs that we have ever witnessed. These week-after-week Indiana Jones-like cliff hangers defy all logic and conventional wisdom.

If Tebow remained buried at #4 on the depth chart, all this, of course, would be a non-issue. But head coach John Fox and general manager, John Elway bowed to popular pressure knowing that there was no way in hell heck that this Heisman Trophy winner with the atrocious mechanics and unconventional style would succeed in the NFL: Put him out there, watch him flail, bench him for good and get on with business. Well, well, well.

Early in the run, it was priceless to see Elway up in the luxury box gritting his teeth and grimacing as if to say, "Damn Dang, this kid is actually going to pull this thing out, again."

Our advise to opposing players (and for everyone else out there) who take issue with Tebow getting too Jesus-y: Keep him and his Bronco teammates out of the endzone in the last two minutes of the game and in overtime which appears to be the only time the Broncos score.

Full disclosure: We are Charger fans… but still can’t help but having our ever-lovin’ brains blown away by this guy’s performances every week.

P.S. Tebow was mic’ed up for last week’s game against the Bears. When he was praying during the game-winning field goal, he was essentially desiring to give glory to God win OR lose.

Now, this might not represent the most noble logic but another reason why we're just enjoying the heck out of this ride is, of course, because Tebow is cheezing off all the right people.

Here's liberal tool, Bill Press, illustrating perfectly, our point.





For those of you in Placentia, California, "S-T-F-U" translates to "Shut the f#@k up".

Just some more of that new civility we've been hearing so much about.

And for Press to become so exorcised and agitated over someone who merely plays professional football and is of absolutely zero consequence to Press's life, we won't have to waste a whole lot of time wondering who is the real disgrace and embarrassment here.