Mikey D

What a long week. School kicked my fucking ass all over the place. Apparently in Maryland they give out mid-quarter progress reports. Basically students get to see their grades and have a list of all the assignments that they've done with each individual grade and percent. And basically that means a lot of extra work for me preparing them for all the little kiddies. Bleah. I think my favorite part of handing out the progress reports is the questions I get from the kids. "Why did I get a 3/12 on this assignment???" Well, because you got 3 right out of the 12 problems. What do you want me to say??? "How come I don't have a grade for this homework???" Because you didn't do it. Duh. You turn it in, you get a grade. Simple. I'm scared for the youth of the future.

~I just realized that the Redskins play the Lions next week, which means I get the game! I'm so excited! (How excited are you?) I'm SO excited that I plan on watching the game even if my penis is lit on fire and there are deadly parasites going up inside my pee-hole. It will almost feel like an old football Sunday. Not my penis being on fire, watching the Lions.

~So Stephen A. Smith and Mike Tirico took over Dan Patrick's old radio time slot on ESPN Radio. When I get out of school, I get treated to the Stephen A. portion. I listen to him because I love sports talk, but I find myself flipping to other local sports talk radio stations (and these are terrible, let me tell you) because he's so fucking annoying. Also, I don't mind debating topics and giving opinions and arguing and all, but Stephen A. loves to gives his opinion, but he will not listen to what others have to say. I believe in a good argument or debate you have to respond to what the other person says, you just can't keep repeating your opinion over and over.

For example, Stephen A. tried to defend Michael Vick being busted with marijuana. He said that although he doesn't agree with pot smoking, he understands why he did it. He said what's the big deal if he's going to prison for years? What's pot smoking have to do with dog fighting charges? Why would he have to take a drug test if he was up on dog fighting charges? Stephen A. felt that the courts were just piling on Vick, and that they should just leave Vick alone.

Smith's co-host merely pointed out that as a condition of Vick's bail, he was not to do drugs, and that he'd be tested. If that's the case, how can you sit here and defend Michael Vick's actions? Doesn't that tell you right then and there that Michael Vick is the biggest fucking idiot on the planet?

But Smith continued to repeat his opinion...over and over...and with each valid and logical counter argument ("he broke the law"..."he violated the terms of his bail"...things that are not debatable!) he had nothing. I suppose it'd be one thing if he argued whether drug testing should be a part of the bail process, but he didn't argue that! He argued that Vick should be left alone, and his pot smoking was not a big deal because he was going to jail for something more serious anyway.

As you can see, it annoyed me to no end. Hey Stephen A., what if I was going to jail soon for murder? Is it okay for me to rape a woman since I won't have the chance to have sex for a long time, and not get in trouble? I mean, I'm going to jail for something more serious anyway. Seems like it follows your line of thinking...

Tool.

~As evidence that I don't understand soccer still, the U.S. benched my favorite player, Hope Solo, for no reason. Literally no reason. It's like benching your star quarterback that's led you to the playoffs for the backup that beat the team you'll be playing three years ago. It's like sitting the ace of your staff for the old veteran who once did well against a team ages ago. It just doesn't add up in my head how you can possibly do that. Solo was 3-0-1 in World Cup play. She had 300 minutes of scoreless play. What more could you want?

And did you hear Solo's comments afterwards? Everybody is ripping her for being a terrible teammate and the such, but I COMPLETELY AGREE with her and she is now my favorite soccer player of all-time. Everything she said was practically spot-on and was everything that we were thinking. We were all thinking what she said. Admit it. Even as you watched the highlights of the game, and you watched some weak goals go past Scurry, you probably said, "Man, she should have had that one..." Could Solo have stopped them all? Probably not. Brazil was definitely the better team (Marta's goal was freakin' amazing). But I have ZERO problem with what she said and am glad she did.

I really hate it when we rip on athletes when they give us honest answers. We all complain when athletes give us the generic sports interview, and then we rip them for being honest. Hope said what everybody was going to write and say in the paper the next day. Give her a break. And don't think practically everyone on that team isn't behind her (okay, maybe not Scurry), because I guarantee they were all thinking it too. Props to you Hope Solo.

~Good article on ESPN.com about the Tigers. Interesting quotes from Jim Leyland. I like the part where Leyland was asked about why he didn't ride his team more (get on them) like he did last year when they played poorly. He said, and I paraphrase, that there wasn't anything he could say to the team. What could he possibly say to Granderson, Guillen, Ordonez? Play better when they all had career years? Polanco? Shef before the DL? I liked how Jimmy Leyland says he was happy with his teams performance. After looking at this year, and seeing how we were decimated by pitching injuries, pitching inconsistencies, rookies being thrown into the mix, and under performing players (Monroe, Inge, 2nd half Pudge, Casey), we are still 15-20 games above .500. Not too bad, especially with everyone in the league gunning for you. I think it'll be good for the Tigers to get the rest this offseason and come back fresh, prepared, and with a vengeance. I expect it.

~Who's the front-runner for the Heisman? I'll tell you who in my eyes. It's not John David-Booty. Not Colt Brennan. Not Darren McFadden. It's actually a freshman...from Texas Tech. That's right, a freshman from Texas Tech. His name is Michael Crabtree and he is going to obliterate receiving records this year- as a freshman. Take a look at his stats through 4 games:
52 Receptions
775 Yards
14.9 Yards per Catch
0 Fumbles
11 Touchdowns

Michael Crabtree has more touchdown catches than all but 10 quarterbacks in Division I football. He is projected (and yes, it is hard to think he'll keep this up) to have 156 receptions, 2,325 yards, and 33 TDs. Insane.

Front runner for the Heisman? Michael "Fucking" Crabtree.

~Hoping to get the State game this weekend. I've been happy because I've gotten every U of M game down here, and 3 out of 4 of State's games. It's been nice.

~NFL Upset Pick: Arizona over Pittsburgh.

Alrighty, I'm out.

~Mikey D