Category: Random Thoughts

As football season fast approaches, I’m reminded far too often that it simply can’t approach fast enough.  Most NFL diehards are currently dancing a merry jig merely at the sight of their favorite players donning pads and helmets, but I’ll be frank – preseason football is about as exciting as a rousing match of tiddlywinks.  Sure, starters are there for a short spell, but the atrocities that ensue as soon as said starters leave the action is all but a crime against humanity.  17 flags in 10 minutes à la the Giants and Browns?  I’ll pass, thank you.

I feel like ranting.

I know, I don’t normally rant, but nothing irks me in that way for me to write an entire article about it. I don’t care enough that Bob Huggins got fired; really, he should have been. I don’t care enough that Doc Gooden got arrested for DUI. I don’t care enough that Myles Brand is trying to cover up that his searches while he was President at Indiana were inconclusive as to what Bobby Knight did.

Who would have thought? In a world where the French are the neighborhood pansy and always try to stab Americans in the back, some clown with a name of Jean-Marie Leblanc and a magazine by the name of L’Equipe have accused Lance Armstrong of cheating.

SHOCKING!

Q: What did France used to be called?
A: Germany, and then we saved them.

Fessing up to a wrong you’ve committed is unarguably one of the more difficult things we all have to do in life.  You make a mistake, you own up to it, and you learn from the experience.  Or you fabricate a ridiculous lie.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is taking the celebrity high road.  Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in today’s post-steroid era of baseball.

Raffy Palmeiro did not ever use steroids.

Raffy Palmeiro did not ever intentionally use steroids.

Raffy Palmeiro did not ever have sexual relations with that woman.  Er, syringe.  Um, blue pill?  I’m confused.

As a sports fan in the last decade of the ESPN era, we’ve all been assaulted by the astounding quantity of information available to us with the touch of one finger.  If you own a computer – and if you don’t, I’ll go out on a limb and assume you aren’t reading this column – you’re frantically checking up on every score and news tidbit that concerns your favorite squadron more often than Ken Griffey Jr. has injured his hammy.  We’re so hooked on this instant availability of information that our sports outlets have resorted to soothsaying just to keep us hanging.  Real-time info isn’t good enough anymore – we need prophetic visions to keep us satisfied.  

In my latest column, sports provides the foundation of deeper issues that plague this country, even after September 11, 2001.

I used to think Mike and Mike was a good morning radio show. I used to think that despite how obnoxious Mike Greenberg was, Mike Golic would balance it out. I used to think that Bob Picozzi brought actual intelligence to the scene. I also used to watch Barney.

By Ryan McGowan

I tried.  I really tried to give “Fever Pitch” a fair shake.  I tried really hard not to walk into the movie theater with my mind already made up.  I rationalized to myself, “It’s about the Red Sox.” “There’s all these great shots of Boston and Fenway and the Sox players.” “It’s made by the Farrelly Brothers; how could they possibly screw it up?”  It didn’t matter.  At the risk of sounding too blunt, “Fever Pitch” sucks.

Have you ever wanted to do something really bad and not known what to do when the opportunity arose?

Look, I watch ESPN as much as the next guy, but I’m also pretty concerned about the direction that channel is headed. Sure, I liked Playmakers and the occasional poker game is okay, but now we seem to get an abomination of an ESPN movie every month or so, and the amount of advertising they put into these things is just stupid. Someone needs to remind the Disney Corporation that ESPN is, in fact, not the Disney Channel.