Week 15 Hangover - Love/Hate

Today’s post is going to be a little shorter because I didn’t get much time to watch any of the games yesterday. The reason? The biggest hate of the week: Airtran Airways. Airtran is more of a nightmare than Jay Cutler having the ball when it matters. They’re worse than a combination of Brittany Murphy and prescription drugs. (Too soon? RIP Brittany – I actually enjoyed you in Clueless, 8 mile and Just Married).

Saturday afternoon after finishing some last minute Christmas shopping and doing some ice skating with the wife, get home and start packing while the snow flakes start to get bigger. Check on the Sunday morning flight back to Wisconsin…….cancelled. Hate. The 1-2 feet of snow covering the northeast caused more than 12,000 flights to be cancelled. Click around on my options, and the only option is buy a ticket on Tuesday night and pay an extra $900 for our two flights. Tried calling and waited 6 hours on hold without ever getting through. My cordless land line phone battery died while waiting. Instead, we drove 13.5 hours back to Wisconsin.

So the HATE OF THE WEEK: Airtran.

LOVE

- Seeing the diva in Favre taking over. Coach Childress tried to bench him on Sunday night and Favre whined and basically told him he wasn’t coming out of the game. Carmelo Anthony and Rashard Lewis get blasted as being terrible characters when they disobey their coaches, yet Lord Favre can get away with whatever he wants. Think Minnesota is rethinking that contract extension they gave Chilly? We always knew he was a bad coach and would do something to cost the Vikings. We didn’t know it would be an incredibly stupid decision to try and take one of the game’s all-time warriors out of a 1 point game in the third quarter. Who’s driving this team? Wait, we know Chilly is the driver…..but not the one in charge.

- Well at least Jerome Harrison removed Jim Brown from the Browns record book for best individual game. The guy went for 286 yards and 3 TDs. Maybe Cleveland is making a late play to be the 12th team in the Big Ten?

- The AFC playoff picture is extremely jumbled, which should make for many more games with meaning in the final two weeks of the season. All of the 7-7 teams are alive, especially with the Broncos proving that they are very capable of ending the season 8-8. With the Dolphins, Jets and Jaguars all losing, it’s going to be an interesting run for the AFC wildcard spots.

HATE

- The state of Pennsylvania. Not just because of the disheartening Packers loss. (side note: it’s time for Mason Crosby to pull a “Reverse JP Lossman” and move to the UFL) What a strange decision by Mike Tomlin to attempt the on-side kick, but thankfully the Packers decided to go into a prevent defense with a bevy of cornerbacks that stink – yes, I’m talking to you Tramon Williams, Jarrett Bush and Josh Bell. In addition to that game that was tough to swallow, I had to drive through the entire state yesterday to get from New York to Wisconsin. It was horrendously boring and not much to see, even with driving through the Poconos Mountains.

- The way the Redskins are handling their front office and coaching situation is a joke. They had Bruce Allen moving into the office before Vinny Cerrato even had a chance to get out of the building. Now they’re talking to Mike Shanahan about their coaching job…..before they fire Jim Zorn.

- Did I mention that I hate Airtran? Yeah, I covered that already.

Hitting the Links

Cliff Lee was an absolute monster last night. Could he have been any calmer? Dude silenced the Yankee bats with 10 strikeouts, showed complete indifference catching that pop-up, and then grabbed a grounder behind his back just for fun.

Mike Leach is not impressed with the “talent” in Lubbock. And he even went as far as blaming the Red Raiders loss on his team’s “fat little girlfriends.” Awesome. Although judging by this picture, I guess none of the football players are dating anyone from the dance team or the cheerleading squad.

This is a story that puts sports in perspective a little bit – Ryan Clark of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Clark has a blood disorder that attacks his organs at high altitudes. It happened twice in the past, including in 2007, when he had to have his spleen removed and lost 40 pounds after a game in Denver. The Steelers are back in Denver this week. Why would he even consider playing? Even if the doctors clear him, is it really worth the risk?

Is Chase Utley auditioning for a cameo on Vampire Diaries? I mean, I know the whole vampire thing is all the rage right now with True Blood, Vampire Diaries, and the Vampire’s Assistant, but still. What is with the awkward, slicked-back thing he has going on? At first I thought it was just wet, sweaty hair, but seeing him in the cold at Yankees Stadium with that same plastic hair helmet, it’s obvious it’s on purpose. And it’s not good.

The Redskins have banned their “fans” from bringing signs into the stadium. Just another signal that the entire franchise is a mess. Remember the proud maroon and gold franchise when they were winning with Joe Gibbs, John Riggins, Doug Williams, Timmy Smith, Art Monk, Ricky Sanders and Gary Clark? What a fall from grace. If I were a Skins fan, I’d prefer to have a funny sign blocking my view than have to watch Sherm Lewis calling “B-71” and “G-18” instead of football plays.

Seriously – think we’ve taken the whole PC thing a little too far? Penn State is the latest place where people are over-sensitive and ridiculous.

Jimmy Kimmel slapped Sabrina the Teenage Witch around after she got booted from Dancing with the Stars.



I’m not a journalist, and I don’t pretend to be one. But if this is what you cover, do you actually put “journalist” on your resume? Your job is to report on what the First Lady is wearing? Who cares? And what kind of description is “swirly printed?” I’m not saying………… I’m just saying.

It’s a rough time to be a sports fan in Charlotte. The Panthers are going to stick with Jake Delhomme at quarterback despite the fact that he’s thrown 18 INTs in his past 7 games. This guy thinks he should keep his starting job and get a chance at atonement. Really? Wasn’t this season supposed to be his chance to atone for his game against Arizona last year? So at least Charlotte sports fans can turn to the Bobcats for the start of the NBA season. Uh-oh. The Bobcats put up 59 points, an NBA record low for an opening game in the shot clock era, in getting smoked by the Celtics. When does college basketball start??