Archive for January, 2010
The Super Bowl Disappointment 2010
I can’t bring myself to root for either Superbowl team this year, neither the Saints, nor Colts. The reason why I can’t is because the refs decide the games regardless of actual penalties or plays that have occurred.
My prediction is that the Saints will win the big game this year, only because it supposedly “makes a good story.” It’s a damn shame that we can’t see an untainted NFL game anymore. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia speaking, but I could have sworn that the penalties and decisions handed out in the past weren’t as horrific. There will always be bad calls, and people will always feel you screwed over their team, but it’s not just the bad calls, it’s the blatant IGNORING of illegal hits, and the like that seem to be heightened these days.
I remember reading two things somewhere in a certain diatribe against the NFL: 1. You can call a holding penalty against either side every play in any modern NFL game; and 2. The eye can’t track more than a certain number of moving objects (7 I think), at a time. So of course the Refs are going to miss some calls at times, because of the chaos on the field. All this aside, I still believe there is some sort of an unspoken order to call penalties against the leading team, just to supposedly make the games “better” and keep the scores closer together. Either that or penalties are disproportionately inflated on the leading team, or too soft on the underdogs.
I’m tired of seeing bad calls & questionable rulings endlessly tainting “the sport.” It’s not a “sport” unless the rules get followed, all of them. As of today, there is no way of telling who is the winner or loser in any NFL game, because of biased play-calling and penalties. The unspoken rule of every sport should be “make it as fair as possible.” Calling penalties & plays just to keep scores near parity is abominable!
What kind of credentials do these Referees have? Is it as simple as passing a written certification test? Do they even receive ANY continuing training? They can’t be making enough money each year to ensure they can’t be bribed.
So, I say we need enforceable penalties for the REFS! 3 bad calls in a season and you’re banned from refereeing for 5 years. Maybe more than that should be forgivable, but I’d really, really like to see a statistical analysis of the historic penalty rate per NFL game through the years. What kind of correlations could we draw between penalty frequency, contesting of penalties and calls, and score variance or game outcome? I understand that there are no completely impartial judges anywhere, but where is the accountability?
Do I just misremember? Or were the NFL games of the past more fair? Someone who is a complete sports geek, please get on this soonest. Thanks.
I questioned putting this on my New Media/Design Blog, but decided to post it here because what is more social than sports? Could it be more contentious, mythic, glorious, disappointing, hopeful, crazy, and fun? Maybe if we held those who hold the ultimate powers accountable.
Of course you know, this means NERF WAR!
When my brother and I were growing up, we kind of invented the best game ever, NERF WAR!
Now it wasn’t necessary to have the ultra-expensive nerf GUNS to play this game, any foam football or playground or inflatable ball would do.
Basically, the entire game was running around in the yard pummeling the hell out of each other (and all the other kids) all day.
See, my mom was kind of the neighborhood babysitter, and even the kids she didn’t watch for money were always at our house to play outside. So we always had a stash of balls to choose from.
The rules of the game were simple:
1. You can only use your weapon (ball). No touching, kicking, etc, balls lying on the ground.
2. You can only attack someone who is armed.
3. No ganging up on someone, nor “guarding” their weapon (ball lying on ground) and waiting for them to go to pick it up and then nailing them.
4. Stay in the yard.
With these simple rules in place, we had the most fun ever, running dodging and smacking the hell out of each other with foam/inflatable balls. Nerf footballs were the most versatile of the bunch, but I had my favorite, a medium sized pinkish marbled playball that stung if you threw it hard enough. The blue Nerf Football was also a good choice when I wanted more accuracy, but only one weapon per person.
Anyway, as kids will be kids, I quickly developed this ‘uncanny ability’ or if you want to call it, a destructive aim to (not on purpose, I swear!) nail my brother in the balls. Let me just say that “center mass” was the juiciest target, and maybe I subconsciously left my release a little late.
So the ball would fly true, and smack him right in the cojones, and he’d crumple to the ground with tears forming in his eyes. Then I’d run. Because as soon as he recovered enough, he was after me to chase me down and get some payback, of the hitting kind. So he’d run me down, and I’d cringe/hunch over, knowing what was coming, and he’d THUMP! me right in the back.
Decades later and my brother has three gorgeous kids, which my sister-in-law says are a miracle because of all the hits my brother took to the groin. But could claim I was just killing all the ugly kid making swimmy cells. Seriously, these kids are C-U-T-E.
I kind of want to introduce the kids to the joys of “NERF War” soon, but I think it can wait until I buy a cup.
Spider Jerusalem
I’ve been working on my Spider Jerusalem Quote Page(s), which there’s a list of over to the right. I’m being more discerning on quotes and trying not to just copy descriptions of the action and dialogue in the TPBs. The only thing I have to worry about is a C&D, so I’m trying to limit them a bit and hopefully it will spur interest in the Transmetropolitan comic book series.