Well, hope everyone has a good New Year's.
No TOL tomorrow, I think we'll all still be asleep and then watching college football.
* Don Banks at SI.com said Dhani Jones deserved a nod for the Pro Bowl.
I think the biggest thing Jones brings is his leadership. I'm working on a story about Rashad Jeanty and talked to Brandon Johnson (writer's tip -- if you're writing about any Bengal, go talk to Brandon Johnson) but he spent as much time talking about Jones and linebackers coach Jeff FitzGerald.
Johnson said Jones is able to read a defense, get in position himself and reposition everyone else (and communicate that) all within the 15 seconds they have. He said Jones is the guy who really gets the defense started. The amount of respect those guys have for him is unreal.
I worry sometimes about him in coverage, especially with the Bengals current crop of safeties, it seems to leave a big whole in the middle of their pass defense for tight ends and slot receivers. That said, everything else he's done has been huge. Check out Scott Priestle's story on Jones from last month if you missed it.
* Every week, the local NFL writers get the coach from the opposing team and a player on a conference call. Rex Ryan was good this week, and Mark Sanchez wasn't bad. Each week we usually request a player or three to the Bengals' PR director and hte Jets see who will want to do it or can do it. This week it was Sanchez. The writers from the team the Bengals are playing pretty much always pick the same guy -- Chad Ochocinco.
And, well, there's a reason. Not only does he love it, so do the writers. He rises to the occasion. Even when Chad is pretty boring with the local media, he always seems to take it to a new level with an audience who hasn't heard all his material. At least one New York writer blogged that Chad's Wednesday conference call may have been "the single greatest conference call of all time." See for yourself.
* Chad makes Darren Rovell's list of most influential sports Tweeters. No real surprise there.
* The Washington Post takes a closer look at what an uncapped year in 2010 would mean or the NFL.
* I'm nervous about the last week in the NFL -- not because of the playoffs, but it's a Super Bowl of sorts for me. BoDog.com asked writers from around the country to participate in a season-long picks contest with the winners getting donations for the charity of their choice. The prizes were $250 per weekly winner and $5,000 for the overall winner and $2,500 for the second-place winner. With one week to go, I'm tied for second. That $2,500 would mean a lot for the Greater Ohio Boxer Rescue. That's where I got my best friend, Brutus, my boxer who turns 3 today. He's a silly guy, but I love him and the $2,500 would be huge for a bunch of dogs.
* Carl of Aqua Teen Hunger Force isn't a big fan of the Bearcats, Bengals, Reds and Musketeers, I guess.
* The Humanitarian Bowl -- exactly why I'll never complain about "too many bowl games."
* I know some will hate this stat, but it is interesting -- the SEC is not only 5-0 in the BCS title game during the BCS era, but also 5-0 against the spread. I had a back-and-forth email (which I thought was friendly, but it got nasty from the other side) with a columnist about the SEC. He had some comment about the ACC's No. 2 team beating the No. 5 team from the SEC East and how it proved the SEC sucked and his whole point in his email was not that he really believed that, he just wanted to get a reaction and I proved his point... or something. Good god, that's what I hated about talk radio, I never wanted to be the guy to say something I don't believe just to get a reaction. I hate that. And I respected the guy I emailed thinking he didn't do that. Sad. I hate that kind of talk about sports -- the black/white stuff without any thought of the complexities underneath. Ugh. Sorry, random tangent, but isn't that how your favorite conversations usually go? That just got under my skin and bugged me a little -- probably more than it should have.
* Speaking of not black/white or plus/minus or left/right -- I still don't think the entire Mike Leach story is out. I did find the reaction of the Texas Tech players interesting, though. Somehow I wonder if it'd be this big if it hadn't been the son of someone employed by ESPN.
* When people complain about Hall of Fame voters, I think they're complaining about Bill Conlan. And if they just said Conlan's name instead of lumping all the voters together, they'd be right.
I think my ballot would be something like Ken Davidoff's. But again, I don't have a ballot, so I haven't done the research and homework I would do if I did.
But as much as people complain about baseball's Hall of Fame voting -- it's a million times better than the closed-door, old-boys network NFL voting, where 32 writers get in a room and argue and have a minimum number of people to elect. That's why we talk about the Baseball Hall of Fame year-round and the place in Canton on the day it's announced and the day of enshrinement.
* Aaron Harang received the worst run support of any pitcher in baseball last year.
* A's pitcher Justin Duchscherer talks about his battles with depression after resigning with Oakland. I have to applaud guys like Duchscherer and Joey Votto who are doing what they can to remove the stigma of depression. I'm impressed by their courage.
* I'm saddened by the demise of the sports section of the Washington Times. Their baseball writer, Mark Zuckerman writes a nice farewell.
* I'll be sending letters (really, letters?) with Negro Leagues stamps this year. Really cool.
* Frank Rudy, who invented the Air part of Nike, died at 84.
* Sick of end-of-the decade lists? You're not alone.
* How Isreal's airport security works.
No TOL tomorrow, I think we'll all still be asleep and then watching college football.
* Don Banks at SI.com said Dhani Jones deserved a nod for the Pro Bowl.
I think the biggest thing Jones brings is his leadership. I'm working on a story about Rashad Jeanty and talked to Brandon Johnson (writer's tip -- if you're writing about any Bengal, go talk to Brandon Johnson) but he spent as much time talking about Jones and linebackers coach Jeff FitzGerald.
Johnson said Jones is able to read a defense, get in position himself and reposition everyone else (and communicate that) all within the 15 seconds they have. He said Jones is the guy who really gets the defense started. The amount of respect those guys have for him is unreal.
I worry sometimes about him in coverage, especially with the Bengals current crop of safeties, it seems to leave a big whole in the middle of their pass defense for tight ends and slot receivers. That said, everything else he's done has been huge. Check out Scott Priestle's story on Jones from last month if you missed it.
* Every week, the local NFL writers get the coach from the opposing team and a player on a conference call. Rex Ryan was good this week, and Mark Sanchez wasn't bad. Each week we usually request a player or three to the Bengals' PR director and hte Jets see who will want to do it or can do it. This week it was Sanchez. The writers from the team the Bengals are playing pretty much always pick the same guy -- Chad Ochocinco.
And, well, there's a reason. Not only does he love it, so do the writers. He rises to the occasion. Even when Chad is pretty boring with the local media, he always seems to take it to a new level with an audience who hasn't heard all his material. At least one New York writer blogged that Chad's Wednesday conference call may have been "the single greatest conference call of all time." See for yourself.
* Chad makes Darren Rovell's list of most influential sports Tweeters. No real surprise there.
* The Washington Post takes a closer look at what an uncapped year in 2010 would mean or the NFL.
* I'm nervous about the last week in the NFL -- not because of the playoffs, but it's a Super Bowl of sorts for me. BoDog.com asked writers from around the country to participate in a season-long picks contest with the winners getting donations for the charity of their choice. The prizes were $250 per weekly winner and $5,000 for the overall winner and $2,500 for the second-place winner. With one week to go, I'm tied for second. That $2,500 would mean a lot for the Greater Ohio Boxer Rescue. That's where I got my best friend, Brutus, my boxer who turns 3 today. He's a silly guy, but I love him and the $2,500 would be huge for a bunch of dogs.
* Carl of Aqua Teen Hunger Force isn't a big fan of the Bearcats, Bengals, Reds and Musketeers, I guess.
* The Humanitarian Bowl -- exactly why I'll never complain about "too many bowl games."
* I know some will hate this stat, but it is interesting -- the SEC is not only 5-0 in the BCS title game during the BCS era, but also 5-0 against the spread. I had a back-and-forth email (which I thought was friendly, but it got nasty from the other side) with a columnist about the SEC. He had some comment about the ACC's No. 2 team beating the No. 5 team from the SEC East and how it proved the SEC sucked and his whole point in his email was not that he really believed that, he just wanted to get a reaction and I proved his point... or something. Good god, that's what I hated about talk radio, I never wanted to be the guy to say something I don't believe just to get a reaction. I hate that. And I respected the guy I emailed thinking he didn't do that. Sad. I hate that kind of talk about sports -- the black/white stuff without any thought of the complexities underneath. Ugh. Sorry, random tangent, but isn't that how your favorite conversations usually go? That just got under my skin and bugged me a little -- probably more than it should have.
* Speaking of not black/white or plus/minus or left/right -- I still don't think the entire Mike Leach story is out. I did find the reaction of the Texas Tech players interesting, though. Somehow I wonder if it'd be this big if it hadn't been the son of someone employed by ESPN.
* When people complain about Hall of Fame voters, I think they're complaining about Bill Conlan. And if they just said Conlan's name instead of lumping all the voters together, they'd be right.
I think my ballot would be something like Ken Davidoff's. But again, I don't have a ballot, so I haven't done the research and homework I would do if I did.
But as much as people complain about baseball's Hall of Fame voting -- it's a million times better than the closed-door, old-boys network NFL voting, where 32 writers get in a room and argue and have a minimum number of people to elect. That's why we talk about the Baseball Hall of Fame year-round and the place in Canton on the day it's announced and the day of enshrinement.
* Aaron Harang received the worst run support of any pitcher in baseball last year.
* A's pitcher Justin Duchscherer talks about his battles with depression after resigning with Oakland. I have to applaud guys like Duchscherer and Joey Votto who are doing what they can to remove the stigma of depression. I'm impressed by their courage.
* I'm saddened by the demise of the sports section of the Washington Times. Their baseball writer, Mark Zuckerman writes a nice farewell.
* I'll be sending letters (really, letters?) with Negro Leagues stamps this year. Really cool.
* Frank Rudy, who invented the Air part of Nike, died at 84.
* Sick of end-of-the decade lists? You're not alone.
* How Isreal's airport security works.
I always used to get into the SEC vs the world arguments all the time, and it's just not worth it. True they've had success in the big one and I have felt that at the top they are much stronger than other conferences. But the people who say South Carolina, or UK or Auburn would go to the Big 10 and dominate just piss me off. Overall, you can't discuss college football with SEC fans. There are reasonable fans like you, but I've found most to resort childish name calling and screaming in my face when I call out their teams. I defend my team, but even if Ohio State would've won the 2 championship games against Florida and LSU, people would still say well they played such an easy schedule and our boys were just tired from playing that tough SEC schedule.
My frustration grows when I hear ESPN announcers mention how SEC Speed kills, when they are doing a game involving UK or Mississippi State. I hate hearing an ignorant fan whose team isn't good chant SEC as a point of pride. Cheering for 12 schools is idiotic. I chant O-H-I-O because that's the only team I care about. I don't care about history and us against the world. The civil war ended over 140 years ago. Cheer for you school and not the conference. Sorry, I go on a tangent with this stuff too! lol. I just like to look at teams and say they do play football and pretty good football north of the Mason Dixon line and west of Louisianna
it's not about the civil war, it's about after the civil war. it's a long, involved thing.
a certain person i talked about called me a racist because i like an sec school
where the speed is different isn't at the speed positions, but the defensive line. the big, fast guys at the dtackle position is where it makes a difference.
of course, the biggest, fastest, baddest guy is the nebraska guy
To me, the baseball hall of fame is the highest honor in sports. It's by far the hardest HOF to get into, and most prestigious. The NFL hall of fame is a joke. Andre Dawson was a great player, and there is no denying that fact. However, he probably won't make the hall of fame and that's fine with me. If you had a NFL player with a similar career, who had great years, and a really good career, he would be a lock for the NFL hall of fame.
I like the fact that you have to be someone really special to get into baseball's hall of fame. I like the fact that in a given year no one maybe inducted. It preserves the integrity of the hall to not allow someone to get in one year if there's no one deserving. Baseball's hall of fame is a national landmark, and a vacation destination for a lot of people. I don't know the same can be said for Canton Ohio, or the basketball hall of fame. I hope the preserve that tradition forever, but it does seem that people are more willing to allow a guy like Fred McGriff in than they would have 20 years ago. Not saying it'd be a tradgedy if he got in, but I don't like the idea of giving him a nod because he had good stats and he was a nice guy. I'd rather have elite stats and an asshole like Ty Cobb, to preserve the integrity of the hall.
I understand the speed has more to do with the big men, but UK or Mississiippi State would be where they are in any conference. I look at the Big 10 and could honestly say UK would finish about the same 5 or 6th in the Big 10.
2 guys will kick eachother's ass because one is a fan of Tennessee and the other is Alabama's fan. At a game or debating they'll hurt eachother, but by God if Tennessee is playing UCLA all every idiot will be chanting is SEC SEC. It's just stupid.
Calling you a racist for being an SEC fan? What an idiot. Suh is a bad ass. He says there's a younger lineman for Nebraska who is going to be as good or better than him.
I've been to Israel once and can definitely attest to the relative comfort I felt in comparision to the threat of danger around me.
However, I think the key to their effective security system is the same reason ours fails so miserably: the vigilance of the security guards. Over in Israel, guards take great pride in their work because of the threat of constant danger. Everytime I pass through airport security here, security personnel seem uninterested, to say the least.
Yeah, but the Israeli security screeners are probably paid more than 12 bucks an hour to get a job in security. If you pay people to act serious and do the correct job they will. You want to hire someone and train the correctly and pay them to do the job right, they will. I don't think it has anything to do with Israelis having pride as opposed to Americans.
Also, doesn't pretty much every Israeli serve in the military? So they all have this training. Every citizen can identify funny behavior. I'm not saying American airports won't be able to get that way, but here you have to pay to get quality. When you pay 12 an hour for it, it'll be a joke.
Also, I worked for an airline post 9/11. My entrance to work was me swiping my id badge and putting in a code, to go through an unsecured turnstyle. I could bring a backpack with me that no one ever checked. The real kicker was when I would fly. I could go through my entrance to work, and just show up at the gate ready to go, carry on in hand. I've said all along, I could have run a pretty lucrative drug business if I could get people at other airports to work with me. Until they make employees go through security, to me, airport security will always be a joke.
now that you mention it…
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091231/NEWS0103/91231008/CVG+terminal+evacuated
(sorry for the enquirer link)
On a lighter note, regarding the ATHF link, the writers can't even spell Cincinnati right. The video reminded me of this a-hole from Jersey who told me Cincinnati was irrelevant ... which may or not be true, but, at least Cincinnati is not NYC's armpit.