SuperBUST

How anticlimactic was SuperBowl XLV?
(I don't think it's any coincidence that it says 'Cope' and 'terrible' on a towel for the Super Bowl.)

So much so that people were willing to pay $200 to stand outside the stadium in 40 degree Dallas weather and watch the game being projected on a white tarp. If that’s not good, wholesome family-fun then I don’t know what is.

The game itself was in hand from the get-go. The early Ben Roethlisberger pick-6 sealed the deal, and an insignificant late run by the Steelers was hardly enough to make it a game. The Green Bay Packers were the better team, the best team all year, and showed it with their talent, depth and precision. It just didn’t have the feel of smash-mouth game that should have resulted from such good defenses coming together.

The commercials were also weaker than a Circus strongman. Way too much money, and way too much research went into them. They outdid themselves, and by ‘outdid’ I mean couldn’t put a memorable or funny ad together for the life of them.

The NFL Championship game doesn’t have to be Super to be called a SuperBowl… this year proved that.

[They didn't even say I'm going to Disneyland.... tradition?]

CU Signing Day

Pens were clicked, papers were scrawled on and recruits signed away their lives to numerous schools for the next 4 or 5 years of their lives. And that is about it.

National Letter of Intent Day came and went like a ship passing in the night.

I was in attendance for the first recruiting class under recently anointed head coach, Jon Embree. And other than the mouth watering chocolate macadamia nut cookies there was little to report on. He went down the list, name after name, talking about how special this kid could be and how good this kid might end up.

It was a press conference to have a press conference.

Lambeau Leap... of Faith

Fairy tale stories usually don’t start with a light cover of ice.

But as the Dallas/Fort Worth area shut down on account of freezing temperatures (Did I mention it’s -8 degrees here in Boulder now, and I still have to go to school?) this seems to be what it happening.

The Packers are the Darlings of the Midwest. Aaron Rodgers will step out of Brett Favre’s shadow and and Bart Starr will gladly make a spot in Lambeau lore for #12. Mike McCarthy will bring in the ghost of The Minister of Sack, Reggie White, to give the pregame sermon to put the Cheeseheads in the right mindset. And the Black Eyed Peas will sing a 12-minute ode to Clay Matthew’s hair at half time.

I was getting sick, so I had to stop.

Green Bay thinks it’s their destiny to win this game, and they are wrong. Showing up, and, evening playing well does not guarantee them a victory.

Clay Matthews looks more like Wendy Peffercorn than an All-Pro linebacker. (Yet, both pack a punch.) Aaron Rodgers waited in the green room on Draft Day, he waited behind Brett Favre for his turn, and now it’s his chance to kick back, grab a magazine and relax because the Football Gods are not ready to see him yet.

And fairy tales rarely end the way most people see fit. Just saying.

All-Star SCRAP

I hate All-Star games. Hate ‘em, don’t want anything to do with ‘em.

If you reluctantly turned on your television this weekend you could not escape the grasp of any and, perhaps, all the All-Star festivities.

The NHL, NFL and college football were all trying to make people watch, and care.

But they’re not fooling me. The NHL game had a combined 21 goals, and the NFL had 96 points… and not to mention DB DeAngelo Hall won the MVP. They are games where the league is trying to promote the skills of individuals, and yet they try to give the allusion of teamwork and camaraderie.

These guy are good, don’t get me wrong. They are the best of the best in their trades. And at time the skills challenges can be really entertaining, and a good showcase. But these games are absolutely garbage.

Time to take out the trash; scrap the idea and move on.

SportsMag's on FCS

In the very first show as associate producer of CUSportsmag.... I anchored, interviewed Tad Boyle and wrote the best damn reader from a galaxy far, far away.









Well check it out and be as harsh on the criticism as you'd like.

Mind-Boggling

What is going on?

The NFL sounds more like a reality radio show… if there ever was one. (Not a bad idea, right? Jersey Shore mixed with Don Imus… could turn out to be some good radio.)

Last week it was, “Who could have the biggest grudge, talk the most smack?” media week. Jets and Pats were throwing, and sometimes landing, soundbite after soundbite. Steelers and Ravens had nothing good to say to each other, obviously they ran out of compliments because they said them during their 2 regular season matchups.

This week it’s the role reversal, “They are real good, I don’t know how we are going to compete.” They are playing the ultimate underdog, just like Dean Smith did with his Tar Heel squad. Ben Roethlisberger can’t seem *says he is in awe of the Jets defense. And Charles Tillman, Bears CB, *thinks the Packers wide receivers are THE best in the league.

I’m excited. This is going to make for one heck of a quote happy, drama stirring, crazy fun Super Bowl week. Yea I said it, I’m not really that excited for the big game… only the pregame festivities that involve athletes, mind games and microphones.

Take Me To The Looney Bin

Last evening we had the privilege of Doug Looney, former senior writer for Sports Illustrated, come talk to our class the other night.

What an experience… both ways on the spectrum.

I could literally listen to the man talk all night. He told stories about the sports world in the prime of the magazine and in the prime of the sporting world. There was no greater time to be a fan than from the 60’s-90’s, and he got to travel to any event he wanted and meet all the athletes. Just livin’ the life, and he’s the first one to tell you that.

To quote Shakespeare (this is a historic first, and most likely last time this happens), “Can one desire too much of a good thing?”

This world I hope to one day be entrenched seems too good to be true. I hate to be pessimistic, but he lived and worked in a different time in this industry and in the arena of sport we once knew, it no longer exists. It’s not all sugar plums and chocolate rabbits, it’s hard work, even more so than in the past. And, man, that can scary me sometimes.

But there is still light on the end of the tunnel, it just isn’t the same way that it used to be.