Month: November 2009

The Afternoon After: All-day football bonanza proves good for the soul

Esoteric 2 Comments

After a one-week respite, let’s get this party started. Hope all had an excellent holiday weekend.

It has a certain charm

Back in the day, before I had a job that caused me to work most Sundays and get up not before 1 in the afternoon, Football Sunday had a tremendous meaning in my week. Namely, it was a day I could completely devote to the supreme American pastime of drinking beer, eating fried foods at a sports bar and immersing myself in an entire day of watching overgrown men crash into each other. I started this tradition in high school – minus, of course, the beer.

Of course, times change. As I said, I generally work on Sundays, and I sometimes get up after the games actually begin. I rarely drink, and it’s even more rare that I eat fried foods. I generally don’t like watching sports with loud fans around me. And it had been several years since I had given over nearly an entire day to watch football.

Until yesterday.

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Thanksgiving football a holiday tradition we can all get behind

Esoteric 1 Comment

Programming note: I realize there was no “The Afternoon After” this week. The reason is simple: I didn’t see any games except for some of the Thursday night Dolphins win over the Panthers, and even that was in a bar, so I didn’t get as much out of it as usual. Especially considering the Patriots-Saints Monday Night game, that’ll be back in business this week.

Somehow, these people appeared to have a better dinner on some table in the parking lot of a stadium than I had in a semi-legitimate house. I do, however, also drink "Fuze" 

Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday, to say the least. I’m not a big eater (though, you know, I’ll have some turkey and stuffing) and don’t generally prefer pies. I just don’t even get it. The only thing we seem to be celebrating in earnest is gluttony; nobody’s sitting there with their gravy-soaked meat discussing the pilgrims or whatever.

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Wherever I may Rome: Young Money making ‘old college try’ obsolete

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Calm before the storm

Ever notice that the same people who are quick to pass judgment based on their own personal bias are nowhere to be found when they’re dead wrong?

I’ve had a lot of practice being wrong, so I have no trouble admitting it, like when I pulled a sheet over Tom Brady’s career a little while back. (And I hope I’m wrong about Coach K!)

In that spirit, where are all those people hiding who declared Brandon Jennings’ foray to Europe to be a horrible idea gone wrong?

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The Afternoon After: Despite scrutinized decision, all good in the hoodie

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I’ll be honest, football took a real back seat for me over the weekend behind boxing and basketball. But let’s give it a go. Consider this one to be “two afternoons after.” As a result, short update this week.

Not only did he lose the game, he lost the hood on his sweatshirt

When someone who’s generally regarded as an unlikable genius makes a decision that simply doesn’t work out, the natural instinct is to jump all over the opportunity to pan him. That’s exactly what happened to Bill Belichick this past Sunday.

I’m here to tell you that I had no problem with his decision to let The Great Brady attempt to complete a two-yard pass to win the game on 4th and 2. I thought it was the right move.

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Change clothes: Marketing, not tradition, drives LeBron’s 6th sense

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Taking No. 6 for a test drive 

And just like that, LeBron James has decided – in his seventh year in the NBA – that he needs to honor Michael Jordan, so he’s switching his number.

I mean, is there anyone that believes that this is his true motivation?

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Demon speeding: Overcoming weakness the key in fight of great intrigue

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Telling: Pacquiao eyes the camera, Cotto eyes Pacquiao

Most everyone has some sort of demon that they carry with them, not necessarily on the surface. These aren’t necessarily Norman Bates-type demons, Exorcist-style demons, but rather things that weigh on us daily that we have to overcome.

On the eve of the biggest fight in the career of both Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, the burdens that the two highly skilled fighters bring with them have become the story.

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The Afternoon After: If Peterson is ‘All-Day,’ CJ is ‘All Year’

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As usual, my thoughts about the weekend’s NFL games based on whatever I saw – I’m cheating by posting this “The Night Of,” but it’ll still be valid tomorrow afternoon.

Objects in the rear-view are actually farther than they appear

I’m in a fantasy football keeper league. Last year, I had the good fortune of drafting Chris Johnson, Matt Forte and Andre Johnson. As such, my partner and I came to a crossroads this year, and long story short, we ended up with Forte, Andre Johnson and Tom Brady.

With every week that goes by, I realize that we let the wrong guy go, which will haunt me for years. Lost in the uncreative media’s need to embrace one guy – namely Adrian Peterson – as the best running back in the NFL is that Chris Johnson is quite possibly better.

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Meet the new king … How will success affect A-Rod now and forever?

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 Top of the World
After the Yankees won the World Series on Wednesday night, Alex Rodriguez spent some time gleefully saying that he was now “just one of the guys.” That he had earned his pinstripes, so to speak.

This, to me, is wishful thinking on A-Rod’s part. His salary, his very public personal life, his… interesting… personality – none of these dictates someone who will simply blend in.

So if he’s not that, what exactly has he become?

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Hate ‘em or love ‘em, Yankees forever the straw that stirs the drink

Esoteric 1 Comment

Sweet vindication -- for what, I'm not sure Say what you will about how they build their team, how they outspend everyone else in the game, about their economic and big-market advantages.

But the Yankees are where it’s at in baseball. And it’s been that way forever.

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