One of my Christmas gifts this year was a nifty coffee table book on the X-Men that ends with a brief bio and description of Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin aka Colossus. As a kid, I read X-Men intensely and found Colossus to be one of the more boring characters developed in the group of fictional mutants. At the same time, there were a number of things about the Colossus of my youth that were admirable -- character qualities that stood out. Colossus was young, strong, disciplined; a reluctant warrior. He might bore, but he could never be a heel; he was without a plausible dark side.
I was thinking about Colossus as I watched Georgetown dominate UConn to kick off the Big East conference schedule on Monday night. The win over the Huskies came after a fairly impressive drubbing of an undisciplined Florida International Union team. The victory reflected a young, coalescing squad that could challenge any team in the Big East. The UConn match, however, exceeded expectations. Georgetown's young team was physical, disciplined, and motivated. And, all the while, the Hoyas are a likable team that will be continually underappreciated because of the Princeton offense. Greg Monroe is the perfect player for the team to form around. Monroe was fearless matching up with Hasheem Thabeet and following Monroe's lead, Thabeet's seven blocks did little to rattle Georgetown -- a sentiment that culminated in DaJuan Summers' confident attacks of the basket late in the second half. The upcoming five game stretch will be the crucible in which this season's team is either forged or broken. Home against a Pitt team that hasn't really been challenged in their undefeated run thus far (although Rutgers played Pitt pretty close yesterday); then to South Bend to take on a mercurial Notre Dame; then home for back to back games against Providence and Syracuse; and then down to Cameron Indoor Stadium to renew rivalries with the second-best team in the ACC. Young, strong, disciplined, reluctant warriors: the Big East's Colossus. Bring 'em on.
One other note: Although he only played six minutes, Jason Clark continues to show that there may be some serious talent on the Hoyas bench. We went to watch Clark play last year in the Catholic High School championship at American University and there was little about that game that prepared me for what Clark has become in G'town's scheme: Clark seems to have effortlessly slid into PE2's role as a defensive disruptor, a hustling player that fills passing lanes, flashes out in transition, and shows enough offensive competence to require attention from opposing defenses. He is my favorite player to watch on the team, for much the same reasons that I loved watching Patrick Ewing Jr. play.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Sunday, December 21, 2008
The week that was...
It is difficult for me to imagine how bad things are going for Charlton at the moment. It is even more difficult to imagine how things are going to be turned around at The Valley this season. The current tailspin is not what I anticipated, but it must be a hell of a lot worse for people who have spent a lot more time invested in the team than I. For the first time, I am embarrassed to call myself a supporter, not because the team is no good, but because I have no reason to lay claim to the agony that this must be causing most "real" supporters.
In any event, I was able to listen to the first half of Saturday's match before having to leave for Georgetown's game against Mount St. Mary's. I was unprepared for the sour reports awaiting me of another disappointing day for the Addicks.
The Hoyas were not impressive in their matchup against Mt. St. Mary's, but they ultimately escaped unscathed. It is still difficult to predict how this particular squad will fare in Big East play, but they have performed much better than I had anticipated when the season began. JTIII appears to have settled on an eight-man rotation, with freshman Jason Clark one of the first off the bench, followed by Julian Vaughn and Omar Wattad (leading to unfortunate chants of "Let's Get Wattaded" from the bored preppies in our section). Henry Sims and Nikita Mescheriakov saw some playing time in Saturday's game, but neither improved on one of two of Georgetown's glaring flaws: free throw shooting and defensive rebounding. The most troubling aspect of the last game was how much the Hoyas big men got moved around by a clearly inferior team in the post. Also troubling is how the free throw shooting appears to be deteriorating further rather than improving. DaJuan Summers had the worst game that I've ever seen him play in a Georgetown uniform. One more tune-up before conference play: Tuesday night versus Florida International Union.
Goff carried two interesting notes on his blog recently. First, after the Terps wrapped up their second national championship in four years with a win over North Carolina in an ugly game in a sparsely attended stadium in Frisco, Texas, three of Maryland's underclassmen announced they were leaving the school. The first two (Jeremy Hall and Omar Gonzalez) were not entirely surprising as both Hall and Gonzalez appear to have done everything that they could have in the college game and they should both be able to make an immediate impact professionally, given the right circumstances. The loss of Rodney Wallace, however, is unexpected. Wallace never seemed to enjoy taking on his role as left back and dropping back from midfield. Maryland frequently looked like a team with two left wingers, with Hall and Wallace playing on top of each other, rather than a 4-4-2. And Wallace never seemed to fully commit himself to defending, perhaps based on a conclusion that his career would be in the midfield or on the front line. Wallace was the reason we started going to watch the Terps and picked up season tickets this year, so we're not thrilled to see him go. We hope that he has made his decision based on good counsel and not based on any frustation with his role on the team this year. Whatever else might be said about Rodney, he played hard in every game we attended and he always presented a dynamic offensive threat off the backline for Maryland.
Goff also noted that Stephen Appiah was interested in coming to play in the United States, potentially with DC United. Appiah is a former Accra footballer from Hearts of Oak. We visited the club's training ground when in Ghana and were impressed by how much Appiah overshadows Chelsea's Michael Essien in Ghana's capital. Appiah will not, however, be finding his way to our fair shores. That DC United will not be pursuing Appiah is less disappointing than Charlton's decision to shop fledgling Ghanaian international Chris Dickson without ever having given him an extended shot in the starting XI. I have no idea what goes on at the training ground, but given how poorly Charlton's strikers have performed all season, Dickson's inability to get an extended look is incomprehensible.
In any event, I was able to listen to the first half of Saturday's match before having to leave for Georgetown's game against Mount St. Mary's. I was unprepared for the sour reports awaiting me of another disappointing day for the Addicks.
The Hoyas were not impressive in their matchup against Mt. St. Mary's, but they ultimately escaped unscathed. It is still difficult to predict how this particular squad will fare in Big East play, but they have performed much better than I had anticipated when the season began. JTIII appears to have settled on an eight-man rotation, with freshman Jason Clark one of the first off the bench, followed by Julian Vaughn and Omar Wattad (leading to unfortunate chants of "Let's Get Wattaded" from the bored preppies in our section). Henry Sims and Nikita Mescheriakov saw some playing time in Saturday's game, but neither improved on one of two of Georgetown's glaring flaws: free throw shooting and defensive rebounding. The most troubling aspect of the last game was how much the Hoyas big men got moved around by a clearly inferior team in the post. Also troubling is how the free throw shooting appears to be deteriorating further rather than improving. DaJuan Summers had the worst game that I've ever seen him play in a Georgetown uniform. One more tune-up before conference play: Tuesday night versus Florida International Union.
Goff carried two interesting notes on his blog recently. First, after the Terps wrapped up their second national championship in four years with a win over North Carolina in an ugly game in a sparsely attended stadium in Frisco, Texas, three of Maryland's underclassmen announced they were leaving the school. The first two (Jeremy Hall and Omar Gonzalez) were not entirely surprising as both Hall and Gonzalez appear to have done everything that they could have in the college game and they should both be able to make an immediate impact professionally, given the right circumstances. The loss of Rodney Wallace, however, is unexpected. Wallace never seemed to enjoy taking on his role as left back and dropping back from midfield. Maryland frequently looked like a team with two left wingers, with Hall and Wallace playing on top of each other, rather than a 4-4-2. And Wallace never seemed to fully commit himself to defending, perhaps based on a conclusion that his career would be in the midfield or on the front line. Wallace was the reason we started going to watch the Terps and picked up season tickets this year, so we're not thrilled to see him go. We hope that he has made his decision based on good counsel and not based on any frustation with his role on the team this year. Whatever else might be said about Rodney, he played hard in every game we attended and he always presented a dynamic offensive threat off the backline for Maryland.
Goff also noted that Stephen Appiah was interested in coming to play in the United States, potentially with DC United. Appiah is a former Accra footballer from Hearts of Oak. We visited the club's training ground when in Ghana and were impressed by how much Appiah overshadows Chelsea's Michael Essien in Ghana's capital. Appiah will not, however, be finding his way to our fair shores. That DC United will not be pursuing Appiah is less disappointing than Charlton's decision to shop fledgling Ghanaian international Chris Dickson without ever having given him an extended shot in the starting XI. I have no idea what goes on at the training ground, but given how poorly Charlton's strikers have performed all season, Dickson's inability to get an extended look is incomprehensible.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Centennial II
After missing Georgetown's game against American on Saturday (and Maryland's win over Creighton in the quarterfinal match of the NCAA Soccer Tournament at the same time), I was pumped about tonight's game against Savannah State, even if I could not convince my family to join me. But even heading over to the Verizon Center with this enthusiasm, I was not prepared for how much I would enjoy the 62-point drubbing of a decent (although not good) Tigers team.
Georgetown may get thrashed Saturday by Memphis and they might not yet be ready to run with the big dogs when the conference season begins on December 29 with a visit to Hartford, but this is a fun team to watch grow. People much smarter than me note that the Princeton offense can be run at any speed and JTII has a very young team running that offense at mach speed.
With only three upper classmen -- Jansen, Sapp (seniors), and Summers (junior) -- it is difficult to tell what the team's ceiling is, but it has got to be pretty high. Greg Monroe, Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, Jason Clark, Henry Sims, Julian Vaughn, Omar Wattad, and Nikita Mescheriakov are certainly improving as the young season has progressed. Tonight they decimated a team that was simply outclassed, but any pity that one might have for Hoya alum Horace Broadnax's Tigers gave way to awe at the precision of the offense run by JTIII's players and their disciplined defense.
Georgetown may get thrashed Saturday by Memphis and they might not yet be ready to run with the big dogs when the conference season begins on December 29 with a visit to Hartford, but this is a fun team to watch grow. People much smarter than me note that the Princeton offense can be run at any speed and JTII has a very young team running that offense at mach speed.
With only three upper classmen -- Jansen, Sapp (seniors), and Summers (junior) -- it is difficult to tell what the team's ceiling is, but it has got to be pretty high. Greg Monroe, Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, Jason Clark, Henry Sims, Julian Vaughn, Omar Wattad, and Nikita Mescheriakov are certainly improving as the young season has progressed. Tonight they decimated a team that was simply outclassed, but any pity that one might have for Hoya alum Horace Broadnax's Tigers gave way to awe at the precision of the offense run by JTIII's players and their disciplined defense.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Coaching Matters
There are hard reminders that coaching, in fact, matters. Witness, for example, tonight's embarrassment of the Chicago Bears in Minneapolis. In particular, witness a first and goal from inside the two play call following a long Matt Forte scamper that involved a play action pass to the right side and a third and goal play call from the half yard line that could have been predicted by anyone who pays any attention to the Bears season thus far: fullback dive. Or, witness the defensive play calling -- in particular, a third and four, where the front eight sell out, but the design is for the defensive ends to stunt inside (with one of the defensive ends being the extremely non-speedy Israel Idonije). Or witness a team that had penalties called for an illegal formation and twelve men on the field during key moments of the game.
And then, of course, there are bittersweet reminders that coaching matters, today exemplified by the matchup of JTIII's Hoyas versus Gary Williams' Terps in the third place game of the Old Spice Classic. Thompson's Georgetown simply demolished the Univeristy of Maryland early tonight and the twenty-seven point margin of victory leaves the false impression that the game was much closer than it actually was. Here, JTIII spent his time telling a sideline reporter that, regardless of a significant lead at the end of the first half, Gtown needed to improve on rebounding and that the key was improving and getting better for later on in the season, while Gary Williams screamed obscenities at his players and the referees (earning a technical that should have been called much, much earlier in the game). Georgetown and Maryland will not meet during the regular season not just because the Hoyas would win four out of every five games, but because Georgetown, for the foreseeable future, simply outclasses Maryland in nearly every aspect of a basketball game. And that cannot be good for recruiting in College Park.
Finally, there are those unequivocally sweet reminders that coaching matters, most recently demonstrated to me by Sasho Cirvoski in Saturday's 2-1 revenge win over Cal in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. When the season began, I had a tough time understanding why Jeremy Hall was starting at left wing while Rodney Wallace wallowed at left back. Wallace, I thought, was more dynamic, more dangerous on the ball and a more potent threat to score. I was wrong. Maryland's second goal, the one that would end up proving to be the game winner, was a thing of majestic beauty -- a high shot that looked cursed to find its way towards the Crew in the stands behind goal that, instead, dipped sharply into the net. Hall placed the ball beautifully and sent yet another warning of the dangers of leaving him any space near the goal box -- Jeremy's amassed seven goals in his last ten games and validated all of the faith that Cirvoski has showed in him throughout the season. Maryland will have to beat Creighton at home next Saturday in order to advance to the final four.
Quick facts about the tournament: The elite eight features three ACC teams (Maryland, North Carolina, and 2007 Champion Wake Forest), two Big Ten teams (Northwestern and Indiana), two Big East teams (South Florida and St. John's) and Creighton. Three of the four fourth round matches will be hosted by the ACC teams left, while the fourth will be played on St. John's campus. The three highest seeds have all survived to the Elite Eight (Wake Forest, St. John's, and Maryland, respectively), as did the six, seven, and eight seeds (Indiana, Creighton, and South Florida, respectively), but one of the final four will be either thirteenth-seeded North Carolina or unseeded Northwestern, which took out fifth-seeded Akron, twelfth-seeded Notre Dame and unseeded Loyola (Ill.) to advance to the fourth round.
And then, of course, there are bittersweet reminders that coaching matters, today exemplified by the matchup of JTIII's Hoyas versus Gary Williams' Terps in the third place game of the Old Spice Classic. Thompson's Georgetown simply demolished the Univeristy of Maryland early tonight and the twenty-seven point margin of victory leaves the false impression that the game was much closer than it actually was. Here, JTIII spent his time telling a sideline reporter that, regardless of a significant lead at the end of the first half, Gtown needed to improve on rebounding and that the key was improving and getting better for later on in the season, while Gary Williams screamed obscenities at his players and the referees (earning a technical that should have been called much, much earlier in the game). Georgetown and Maryland will not meet during the regular season not just because the Hoyas would win four out of every five games, but because Georgetown, for the foreseeable future, simply outclasses Maryland in nearly every aspect of a basketball game. And that cannot be good for recruiting in College Park.
Finally, there are those unequivocally sweet reminders that coaching matters, most recently demonstrated to me by Sasho Cirvoski in Saturday's 2-1 revenge win over Cal in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. When the season began, I had a tough time understanding why Jeremy Hall was starting at left wing while Rodney Wallace wallowed at left back. Wallace, I thought, was more dynamic, more dangerous on the ball and a more potent threat to score. I was wrong. Maryland's second goal, the one that would end up proving to be the game winner, was a thing of majestic beauty -- a high shot that looked cursed to find its way towards the Crew in the stands behind goal that, instead, dipped sharply into the net. Hall placed the ball beautifully and sent yet another warning of the dangers of leaving him any space near the goal box -- Jeremy's amassed seven goals in his last ten games and validated all of the faith that Cirvoski has showed in him throughout the season. Maryland will have to beat Creighton at home next Saturday in order to advance to the final four.
Quick facts about the tournament: The elite eight features three ACC teams (Maryland, North Carolina, and 2007 Champion Wake Forest), two Big Ten teams (Northwestern and Indiana), two Big East teams (South Florida and St. John's) and Creighton. Three of the four fourth round matches will be hosted by the ACC teams left, while the fourth will be played on St. John's campus. The three highest seeds have all survived to the Elite Eight (Wake Forest, St. John's, and Maryland, respectively), as did the six, seven, and eight seeds (Indiana, Creighton, and South Florida, respectively), but one of the final four will be either thirteenth-seeded North Carolina or unseeded Northwestern, which took out fifth-seeded Akron, twelfth-seeded Notre Dame and unseeded Loyola (Ill.) to advance to the fourth round.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Frosh
There is something beautiful about the fact that all three of the professional sports teams that I follow in the winter are horrible. I caught portions of both the Lakers and Blazers games lost by the Bulls earlier this week and, wow. Derrick Rose is phenomenal. The rest of the team, not so much. The Bears played to the depths of how bad they are against the Packers, embarrassing Chicago in epic fashion. Nothing, however, can quite match Charlton Athletic in terms of futility: finally, Pardew Out!
But that's ok. Because Georgetown's season has begun and they are a fascinating team. Three freshmen saw substantial playing time in today's blowout win over Drexel. Only two of the major contributors to the team are upperclassmen (Jessie Sapp, senior; DaJuan Summers, junior), making it very difficult to imagine what the team's ceiling will be this year. In two games this season, Greg Monroe has been, by far, the best player on the court. But fellow freshmen (and local recruits) Henry Sims and Jason Clark have also been impressive. The two sophomore guards, Chris Wright and Austin Freeman seem to offer more potential than what they currently display on the court and may improve significantly as the season winds on. With what appears to be a solid seven player rotation, JTIII will nevertheless have to get something out of Julian Vaughn, Nikita Mescheriakov, and Omar Wattad, but that might not be possible and Wattad, in particular, has been overmatched and outclassed against Jacksonville and Drexel.
Regardless of how the season unfolds, this certainly an entertaining team to watch. The Hoyas will face their first major test at the Old Spice Classic on Thanksgiving Day with a game against Wichita State. The mini-tournament also features our local Terps, Gonzaga, Siena, Michigan State, Tennessee, and Oklahoma State, of which Gtown will play against two in addition to Wichita State. Agreeing to participate in the Classic explains why, outside of Memphis home and Duke away, the Hoyas' non-conference schedule lacks compelling match ups (Drexel, Savannah State, Mount St. Mary's, Florida International University, Jacksonville, and American do not exactly constitute must see basketball).
But that's ok. Because Georgetown's season has begun and they are a fascinating team. Three freshmen saw substantial playing time in today's blowout win over Drexel. Only two of the major contributors to the team are upperclassmen (Jessie Sapp, senior; DaJuan Summers, junior), making it very difficult to imagine what the team's ceiling will be this year. In two games this season, Greg Monroe has been, by far, the best player on the court. But fellow freshmen (and local recruits) Henry Sims and Jason Clark have also been impressive. The two sophomore guards, Chris Wright and Austin Freeman seem to offer more potential than what they currently display on the court and may improve significantly as the season winds on. With what appears to be a solid seven player rotation, JTIII will nevertheless have to get something out of Julian Vaughn, Nikita Mescheriakov, and Omar Wattad, but that might not be possible and Wattad, in particular, has been overmatched and outclassed against Jacksonville and Drexel.
Regardless of how the season unfolds, this certainly an entertaining team to watch. The Hoyas will face their first major test at the Old Spice Classic on Thanksgiving Day with a game against Wichita State. The mini-tournament also features our local Terps, Gonzaga, Siena, Michigan State, Tennessee, and Oklahoma State, of which Gtown will play against two in addition to Wichita State. Agreeing to participate in the Classic explains why, outside of Memphis home and Duke away, the Hoyas' non-conference schedule lacks compelling match ups (Drexel, Savannah State, Mount St. Mary's, Florida International University, Jacksonville, and American do not exactly constitute must see basketball).
Monday, November 10, 2008
The Sun-Times' Obligatory Idiot Version 1.2
Although back in Chicago, I did not insist on exposing my infant child to the onset of early winter at Soldier Field today and instead took in the Titans-Bears match on television with family.
This is a very bad Bears team. And little of that conclusion is due to the actual players, who are, as a general matter, as talented as any of the players that they line up against. Instead, the poor performance -- exemplified again today -- appears to be the result of a stubborn coaching staff on both sides of the ball that refuses to make adjustments in response to in-game developments or to take responsibility for its own debacles. Yet again, Babich/Smith's pass rush failed to have any impact... every time Collins dropped back he had four to five seconds before even a hint of pressure was applied by the defensive line. Yet again, the inability of the defensive side to adjust led to absurd numbers posted by a subpar quarterback.
On the other side of the ball, more of the same. It looked as if Rex had one opportunity to make a throw that he is comfortable and competent at, a pass he overthrew to Devin Hester by three steps. Other than that, Grossman was repeatedly asked to make throws that are not within his wheelhouse, largely because they are the plays that Ron Turner likes to call. A horizontal passing game, versus the vertical game that Grossman has proven himself in the past to be adept at, was just a silly, bizarre approach largely responsive to Grossman's shaken confidence after the staff failed to challenge the play that resulted in Rex's sole turnover (and should have been reversed).
But I am less disappointed in the Bears' performance than I am in the mind-numbing continued idiocy of Chicago's sportswriters. The Tribune and Sun-Times reward peevish, small-minded, inflammatory commentary from their columnists in the same way that the Republican party now encourages willfully ignorant, mean-spirited, affected folksiness. Greg Couch's rant pinning blame principally on Rex Grossman for today's loss is fairly representative of the new genre. My bookshelf at home is replete with the works and compilations of great Chicago sportswriters who augmented my love of sports in the city as a child. Now, in the new vein of insufferable judgmental morons like Skip Bayless and Jay Mariotti, I am treated to analysis like that proferred by Couch when simply trying to read about how the coaching staff absolved itself of blame from yet another loss. Focusing on Grossman as the locus for the Titans' win is roughly equivalent to blaming Josh Brolin for how the film "American Gangster" ended up becoming a derivative piece of gangster-genre-film fluff destined to be ignored and forgotten (perhaps this is too forced, but when I think of this year's Bears team, I think of disappointment, and when I think of disappointment, I think of Ridley Scott's "American Gangster"). Gee, Greg, do you think that after Grossman completed the nine-yard pass to Olsen to begin the last drive, he then overruled Turner and called an off-right tackle run for Forte, seeking to run time off the clock rather than secure the tying score? Perhaps Grossman's inability to pressure Kerry Collins explains the 30-41, 289 yard, 2 touchdown performance from the 36-year old quarterback who came into the game having thrown three touchdowns in seven previous starts and who's previous best performance this season amounted to a 199-yard passing effort? And it was Hester's returns and not Maynard's punting (or Turner's playcalling?) that put the Bears' in poor field position throughout the game?
By no stretch of the imagination did Rex have a good game, but singling him out for criticism is stupid, unfair, and cynically intended to incite fans against a player who has already proved his mettle and worth by saving the Bears from a truly embarrassing loss to the Lions at home last week. I don't know what it is going to take to get good sportswriters back to becoming the rule and not the exception in this town, but surely the first step is booting every blowhard angling for face time on ESPN outside city limits.
This is a very bad Bears team. And little of that conclusion is due to the actual players, who are, as a general matter, as talented as any of the players that they line up against. Instead, the poor performance -- exemplified again today -- appears to be the result of a stubborn coaching staff on both sides of the ball that refuses to make adjustments in response to in-game developments or to take responsibility for its own debacles. Yet again, Babich/Smith's pass rush failed to have any impact... every time Collins dropped back he had four to five seconds before even a hint of pressure was applied by the defensive line. Yet again, the inability of the defensive side to adjust led to absurd numbers posted by a subpar quarterback.
On the other side of the ball, more of the same. It looked as if Rex had one opportunity to make a throw that he is comfortable and competent at, a pass he overthrew to Devin Hester by three steps. Other than that, Grossman was repeatedly asked to make throws that are not within his wheelhouse, largely because they are the plays that Ron Turner likes to call. A horizontal passing game, versus the vertical game that Grossman has proven himself in the past to be adept at, was just a silly, bizarre approach largely responsive to Grossman's shaken confidence after the staff failed to challenge the play that resulted in Rex's sole turnover (and should have been reversed).
But I am less disappointed in the Bears' performance than I am in the mind-numbing continued idiocy of Chicago's sportswriters. The Tribune and Sun-Times reward peevish, small-minded, inflammatory commentary from their columnists in the same way that the Republican party now encourages willfully ignorant, mean-spirited, affected folksiness. Greg Couch's rant pinning blame principally on Rex Grossman for today's loss is fairly representative of the new genre. My bookshelf at home is replete with the works and compilations of great Chicago sportswriters who augmented my love of sports in the city as a child. Now, in the new vein of insufferable judgmental morons like Skip Bayless and Jay Mariotti, I am treated to analysis like that proferred by Couch when simply trying to read about how the coaching staff absolved itself of blame from yet another loss. Focusing on Grossman as the locus for the Titans' win is roughly equivalent to blaming Josh Brolin for how the film "American Gangster" ended up becoming a derivative piece of gangster-genre-film fluff destined to be ignored and forgotten (perhaps this is too forced, but when I think of this year's Bears team, I think of disappointment, and when I think of disappointment, I think of Ridley Scott's "American Gangster"). Gee, Greg, do you think that after Grossman completed the nine-yard pass to Olsen to begin the last drive, he then overruled Turner and called an off-right tackle run for Forte, seeking to run time off the clock rather than secure the tying score? Perhaps Grossman's inability to pressure Kerry Collins explains the 30-41, 289 yard, 2 touchdown performance from the 36-year old quarterback who came into the game having thrown three touchdowns in seven previous starts and who's previous best performance this season amounted to a 199-yard passing effort? And it was Hester's returns and not Maynard's punting (or Turner's playcalling?) that put the Bears' in poor field position throughout the game?
By no stretch of the imagination did Rex have a good game, but singling him out for criticism is stupid, unfair, and cynically intended to incite fans against a player who has already proved his mettle and worth by saving the Bears from a truly embarrassing loss to the Lions at home last week. I don't know what it is going to take to get good sportswriters back to becoming the rule and not the exception in this town, but surely the first step is booting every blowhard angling for face time on ESPN outside city limits.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Momentous
I missed a trip to Chicago earlier today, thereby missing my first trip to the United Center and a fairly impressive win by the Bulls tonight over the Suns. To augment the harm, I also missed Maryland's last regular season home game, their eighth consecutive win, beating the Tar Heels 2 to 1 and secure a #2 seed for the ACC tournament because I was sitting at my office until 10:30 this evening.
Life rolls on...
And this thing happened on Tuesday and I am having some difficulty shaking the effects. Thousands of people from around the world have written some pretty amazing things about what this year's Presidential election meant to them or to the country/world generally. Any comments I might have are undoubtedly derivative and certainly not any more interesting. But at the same time, it meant something to me. As the returns rolled in, I came to the realization that I was more excited about this than the prospect of the Cubs winning the World Series (which is how it should be, of course) and that when Wednesday rolled around this country would be different.
Since a young boy, I've been told that you can make yourself into anything you want to, in this country of endless opportunity. I believed in that shared myth more strongly than I believed in what I was taught each Sunday at mass -- I believed it so much, I won some ridiculous essay contest for my school district in the seventh grade on what the American flag meant to me. And then an experienced reality challenged the idyllic view of what was possible -- la migra stopping me so frequently that I have carried my passport every day from when I was thirteen years old until earlier this year; stuck in remedial classes as a freshman in high school despite being an honors student in junior high because, well, I don't know why; had my achievements in high school and community college that got me into a great college at the age of 16 wiped away by teachers telling me that any admission must be chalked up to affirmative action. Nevertheless, throughout, my faith in the country did not crack, and in two decades I have been able to take advantage of all the opportunities that have been there to take. For me, the promise of the American dream has been unquestionably realized, from the barrio to solid middle class in one generation.
But I've never been wholly convinced that my experience was not aberrational. That somehow or other I slipped through a net that ensnares almost everyone else in the same circumstances. But Tuesday night, while weeping reading the accounts of others as to what the election meant to them, I looked over at my sister who sat next to my wife, and I thought of my daughter and those doubts washed away. This is the country I have always believed in. This is the country that draws people to its shores despite great peril to those who seek to make the sojourn. This is the country that burns the dangerous light of hope in the hearts and minds of those that have little else.
Life rolls on...
And this thing happened on Tuesday and I am having some difficulty shaking the effects. Thousands of people from around the world have written some pretty amazing things about what this year's Presidential election meant to them or to the country/world generally. Any comments I might have are undoubtedly derivative and certainly not any more interesting. But at the same time, it meant something to me. As the returns rolled in, I came to the realization that I was more excited about this than the prospect of the Cubs winning the World Series (which is how it should be, of course) and that when Wednesday rolled around this country would be different.
Since a young boy, I've been told that you can make yourself into anything you want to, in this country of endless opportunity. I believed in that shared myth more strongly than I believed in what I was taught each Sunday at mass -- I believed it so much, I won some ridiculous essay contest for my school district in the seventh grade on what the American flag meant to me. And then an experienced reality challenged the idyllic view of what was possible -- la migra stopping me so frequently that I have carried my passport every day from when I was thirteen years old until earlier this year; stuck in remedial classes as a freshman in high school despite being an honors student in junior high because, well, I don't know why; had my achievements in high school and community college that got me into a great college at the age of 16 wiped away by teachers telling me that any admission must be chalked up to affirmative action. Nevertheless, throughout, my faith in the country did not crack, and in two decades I have been able to take advantage of all the opportunities that have been there to take. For me, the promise of the American dream has been unquestionably realized, from the barrio to solid middle class in one generation.
But I've never been wholly convinced that my experience was not aberrational. That somehow or other I slipped through a net that ensnares almost everyone else in the same circumstances. But Tuesday night, while weeping reading the accounts of others as to what the election meant to them, I looked over at my sister who sat next to my wife, and I thought of my daughter and those doubts washed away. This is the country I have always believed in. This is the country that draws people to its shores despite great peril to those who seek to make the sojourn. This is the country that burns the dangerous light of hope in the hearts and minds of those that have little else.
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