You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2008.
I admit it, I am a fan of more than one football team. It seems that this is sacrilegious in the sports world but there it is. My husband and son tell me over and over that this cannot be so but I argue that this is still a free country and inasmuch, I can like whatever and whomever I want. And although they try, I do not let them tell me it cannot be done. I say, not true! I am living proof! Anything’s possible!
I love Bunny Tracks ice-cream. It is my absolute favorite that you can buy at the store. Now if I go to Cold Stone Creamery, I love my very own mixture and it is my absolute favorite there. If I go to Dairy Queen I love a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate, my absolute favorite there. So, if I can love three different ice-creams why can I not love three different football teams?
I grew up in New England and so I am a Patriots fan, no question there. My brothers are both Dallas fans and they got me hooked during the 70’s, the years with Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett and Drew Pearson. I also lived in the Jacksonville, Florida area for many years and we were season ticket holders of the Jacksonville Jaguars until we moved back up north. So, I am a Pats/Dallas/Jaguars fan and I feel I have every right and reason to be. I only run into a problem when these teams play each other, I just don’t take sides at all. I find it gives me a very unique perspective on the game and for a change, I can be objective.
Why do people think you must be pigeon holed into having only one team? I suppose if you don’t move around much you might like only one team but what happens when your college team players go off to the pros? I like Boston College so when Doug Flutie went to play for San Diego of course I rooted for them. I like Brett Favre, he’s a cutie and so I root for Green Bay. One of my daughters graduated with Travis Taylor, the other daughter graduated with Adrian Peterson so how can I not root these kids on also?
I laugh at the people on the message boards, throwing barbs back and forth across the Internet. When you are a fan of both teams, it all seems very ridiculous and for the most part ludicrous. So I say, in this free country I live in – Go Pats, Cowboys and Jags!!!!
I am once again reminded of how something innocent can be turned into something ugly, a friendly celebration amongst co-workers turned into a gross miscarriage of justice, namely, the taunting penalty in the National Football League. The taunting rule states that “an unsportsmanlike conduct foul will be called when two or more players engage in prolonged, excessive, premeditated, or choreographed celebrations.” Does anyone else find this penalty in the NFL beyond ridiculous? Give me a break, these are not 10 year old children out there who need to be taught the meaning of fair-play and sportsmanship. These are men, getting paid a heck of a lot of money to beat the crap out of one another once a week and the NFL is penalizing them for jumping around and slapping one another on the behind? You have got to be kidding! There are a lot of penalties out there – most of them are pretty good ideas. We shouldn’t be intentionally trying to physically hurt guys out there. But taunting is a 15-yard penalty – the same penalty as a chop block, roughing the passer, roughing the kicker, illegal low block, and unnecessary roughness, not to mention the infamous facemask rule. The rest of these penalties are put into place to protect the most valuable assets of the National Football League, namely the players. The Taunting rule protects what, their delicate dispositions? Have you ever seen these guys? These guys are massive and the language they throw around would make a sailor blush I am afraid. Who decided this was a good idea? Who in the NFL thought up this ridiculous rule? These are not college kids playing for “free” for institutions of higher education. I know in college they have the “excessive celebration” rule, which can even penalize a team if the crowd gets overzealous (that is another ridiculous rule but that is for another time) but come on, this is the NFL after all. Why is this rule even in the book? What is the benefit? Is this an attempt at political correctness in a sport that permanently injures and cripples more players than practically any other sport? I don’t see anything wrong with celebrating a job well done, any other profession would welcome their enthusiasm, and here they are penalized for it! You have invented a rule to slap the knuckles of adults and it makes the NFL look like a playground bully or a catholic nun, take your pick. Note to the NFL – leave the character molding to the coaches of the young and let the big boys play the game. Boys will be boys after all.
With friends like these who needs enemies? In a real life Weekend At Bernie’s moment, two men dressed their deceased pal, propped him into a chair and wheeled him to a check cashing company in an effort to cash his Social Security check. Yes, this is a true story and no, I am not kidding you. Could you really make this stuff up?
Imagine the scenario if you will. A man discovers one morning that his roommate of 15 years is unresponsive. At some point he decides rather than phoning 911 to obtain some medical assistance for his so-called friend, that it is a far better idea instead to cash the man’s social security check. He enlists the help of another friend and after forging the man’s signature to the check, the pair head to Pay-O-Matic Check Cashing. For obvious reasons (don’t we wish all companies this diligent?), the two men are told that the check’s owner would have to appear himself to cash the check. Now another scheme is hatched in their warped minds. They return to the apartment and dress the still unresponsive roommate, place him into a desk chair and proceed to wheel him through the streets of New York, back towards the Pay-O-Matic. Granted, these two men are allegedly longtime heroine users and perhaps their sense of reality is slightly skewed but don’t you think they should have realized two important facts – one, that the man was dead and two, that wheeling him through the busy city streets of New York might attract some attention? Duh!
As it turns out, attention they did get, mainly from a detective eating in a nearby restaurant. He noticed right away that the man in the chair was deceased but at first he thought it was some kind of joke. When he went outside and confronted the men, the roommate of the deceased told the detective that he was cashing his friend’s check, that his friend needed his check cashed. Now I don’t know about you, but I am pretty sure that money isn’t required to get through any pearly gates and even if it is, a mere $255 is probably not going to cut it, especially when the deceased was well known as a lifelong hustler. But I could be wrong on that count.
Anyway, the men were arrested and charged with attempted forgery, among other things. I wish I could serve on that jury; some trials are just more interesting than others. However, I think this particular case will probably either end up with guilty pleas all around or will ultimately be dismissed.
I don’t know what happened to the man in the chair.
January and a new year is upon us. We have returned all the unwanted Christmas gifts, spent our gift cards, toasted in the New Year and eaten our sauerkraut. We have taken long looks into our mirrors and made our New Years resolutions to be better, stronger, healthier and skinnier. We have vowed to stop smoking, stop drinking, start eating healthy, and spend more time with our kids and spouses and will possibly strive to achieve these goals a million times in the next 12 months, always with the same old resolve to improve ourselves and our lives. But how many of us can actually live up to our own expectations of ourselves? Do we not set ourselves up for failure by setting unachievable ideals of what we should be, how much money we should make, and what we should look like? Do we set ourselves up for disappointment, as we can almost certainly never hope to attain such lofty aspirations? I say, lower your expectations, avoid the guilt and disappointment, and forget about unattainable ridiculous resolutions. Make your resolutions with a clear head, not after you have been drinking for hours on New Years Eve and have no idea what you are saying!
I for one am making the same resolutions I made last year, exactly. Be happy, lose those last 20 pounds, exercise more, and write, write, write. And even though I am making the same resolutions, I am not depressed or dismayed because the fact is, is that I did manage to keep those resolutions last year (for the most part) and am okay with that. I actually did lose 10 of those last 20 pounds this past year but I managed to find them once more during the holiday binge-o-fest. I did exercise more this last year and now I am a much stronger and healthier person who can jog 3 miles, 3 times a week. And I did write this past year, finishing my first novel even if it will never win critical acclaim. So I think as I start this New Year, that although my resolutions are the same as they were last year I am still better off. I am still here, still kicking and that has to amount to something. So my number 1 resolution this year will still be to be happy and I know that the rest will fall into place. Happy New Year!!!!
