Skins, Fins, & Bears....Oh My!

I know it’s been some time since I posted a blog, so pardon me if anything is out dated but it must be said.

First and foremost allow me to say THANK GOD the Green Bay Packers are Super Bowl Champs! I don’t think the world could handle having the Steelers win #7. Their fans are unbearable right now as it is. I don’t recall all this trash talking when their starting QB was Kordell Stewart and they struggled to beat the Browns in the playoffs. It’s not just the Steelers fans, it’s all fans while their teams are doing well, it’s just irritating. Your team is good, we all know that. Stop talkin trash like the Steelers are the only team to ever win a game. Again, congrats to the Packers. That was a dominant effort. You ran up 21 points early and held on through several key injuries. The way I see it, the Packers destroyed the Steelers, regardless of the 6 pt difference in the final score. To suffer all those injuries and still hold on, that was a DOMINANT effort. Congrats to Aaron Rodgers for doing in only a few years what the “great” Brett Favre only did once in his NEVER ENDING career. Rodgers is a more polished, accurate, well-rounded passer than Favre and I’m glad he has shut down all the nay sayers.

I went back before writing this blog and re-read my angry week 15 rant about how horrible the 49ers are after their week 15 loss to the Chargers. I still stand by those things I said, while a little less hostile, and feel the team has a long way to go. Something in that post sparked a topic I would like to start with.

Fans of good/great teams using the excuse that their team is good/great and your team sucks as evidence you know nothing about sports. So I knew everything about sports while the 49ers were racking up 5 Super Bowl rings but magically now that they suck I know nothing. When the Cubs won 96 games only a few seasons ago and ESPN was picking them to go all the way and face the Angels, I was knowledgeable, but now that they’re the “same old Cubs” I’m an idiot.

Colts fans, please answer me this. Who is Terrall Rushing?

Figure it out yet? No googling it.

The answer is T.J. Rushing, the non-starter depth CB that played for the Colts when they beat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. Rushing was signed by the Detroit Lions in 2010 and was released one month later. Rushing is currently signed by no NFL team.

We will limit it to that one question so as not to get carried away. The point I am trying to illustrate is that I guarantee you if you were to ask 100 Colts fans maybe 5 could answer the question. Just because you know who Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and Dwight Freeney are doesn’t mean you know more about football than I do. Just because your team has a Super Bowl ring in the last decade doesn’t mean you know more about sports than me. The “average” NFL fan that claims losing teams fans don’t know football couldn’t tell you who Donald Driver is, even though he is the most CONSISTENT receiver on the Packers, because he isn’t a house hold name.

Me staying Niners fan through all the crap seasons we have had the last decade doesn’t make me an unknowledgeable fan, it makes me loyal. I know you struggle with loyalty because you’re a Colts fan, but if they get knocked out of the playoffs you’re a Patriots fan and if they get knocked out you’re a Steelers fan. You’re as loyal to a team as Tiger Woods is to his wife.

Moving on, we all know that there are teams and players in sports that refs tend to favor slightly. The Yankees, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, the Steelers are just a few. What irritates me is when I try to talk serious, legitimate sports with their fans. It doesn’t bother me when they try to pretend they don’t see the favoritism, that’s fine. My problem is when they have the nerve to turn it around and claim the refs are trying to screw their team. I won’t mention names, but there is a certain Yankees fan I know, who isn’t a baseball fan til October, that SWEARS the umpires are out to get the Yankees. They are ALWAYS calling strikes against the Yankees while they are calling balls for other teams. After I stop vomiting from the initial shock of the idiotic statement, I try to explain the short comings of their argument only to be met with a barrage of NO’s, NO WAY’s and SHUT UP’s. Really the only way to prove something like that is to watch a game with them, which in its own right is unbearable, and show them what I’m talking about.

So I turn on a Yankees/Orioles game thinking, NO baseball fan in their right mind could claim the refs are favoring the ORIOLES. Man was I wrong. Pettit is pitching. Andy throws a BEAUTIFUL curveball that was questionable and the Ump calls it a ball. My Yanks fan erupts in anger screaming it should have been called a strike. No argument from me, I probably would have called that a strike. After a few more well called pitches the count is 3-2. Andy RIFLES a pitch with a BEAUTIFUL curve on it, the ball goes wide never coming CLOSE to the strike zone and the batter never swings. The Ump calls strike and the batter is struck out looking. My jaw drops, my eyes grow wide and I look to the Yanks fan to find him sitting their calm as can be. I have to ask the thoughts on that particular call. The response? “What? Good call.” Just then, the announcers begin to question the call. Our Yanks fan begins to scream about how ML B is always out to get the Yankees. ESPN then plays the pitch in a slow motion replay, with the white strike zone shown on screen with a colored trail on the ball to show the trajectory of the ball. The fans response? “See…that was totally a strike!” My jaw dropped further as I wondered how everyone in world except him could see that was a ball.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against Yankee fans. I have several, intelligent, Yanks friends who admit, at least to a small degree there is a NY bias in baseball. They deserve it, they earned it. Peyton Manning has EARNED the bias as have Kobe and Brady…just don’t try to act like the sports world is out to get them.

The non-inclusion of LeBron James as having earned the bias leads me to my next point. I can’t stand LeBron fans. I am not a hater of LeBron. LeBron is a very good, top tier player. Is he the best ever? Has he won anything to earn his bias? Is he even the best in the league right now? Is he even the best player on the Heat? Last I checked, Miami was Wade’s team, not LBJ’s. Last I checked, even at his age Kobe was the King of the NBA. How many championships did LBJ bring to Cleveland? As many Super Bowl rings as the Browns have. Is he the best ever? Last I checked, a man who memorialized the #23 and took a short detour with the #45, was the best ever. Anyone who thinks LBJ is a better player than Jordan needs their head checked, starting with Scottie Pippen.

Pippen has the nerve to say that Lebron is better than Michael. That douche was handed his fame because he played with Jordan. Don’t get me wrong, Pippen and many of the players Jordan played with were good, but Jordan elevated their game. Jordan MADE them better with his greatness. How many Cavs players did James make better en route to a championship? I’m pretty sure James left his nothing team and attempted to overload another team with “superstars” in order to win something. Did Jordan say, “Man, I’m never gonna win with these Bulls losers. Let me go to the Pistons so we can stack the roster and own the NBA.” No. Jordan said, “I AM the F’IN MAN…and I’m gonna prove it!” The rest is history. News flash LeBron, you can’t be better than Jordan if you’re not the best in the league, let alone the best on your team fool! Heat fans that are on the LeBron wagon, you didn’t think he was the man when he was in Cleveland. Now he’s the King now that he’s on your team. If LeBron wins a title in Miami, it’s not because he is the man, it’s because he surrounded himself with other players that consider themselves “the man.”

On to the NFL lockout. Can we be done with this already please? Seriously. We honestly can’t decide how to split up $9 billion? I don’t like to take sides because both sides are nothing more that rich fools taking my money and complaining they want more…but I’m going to side, only slightly, with the owners on this one. After everything, including player salaries, are all accounted for there is $9 billion left over. The players already get approximately 45% of it. HA! If an assembly line worker went to Ford and demanded some of the excess money or he would walk, they would tell him don’t let the door hit you. The players need to realize they are not entitled to the money, period and get over it. Move on.