JUST SPORTS POST... OR AT LEAST AS 'JUST SPORTS' AS I CAN GET

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS
In the first televised bout between Charles Hatley (the prospect) and Chris Chatman ( a fight scored accurately a draw) they did a cut away between rounds three and four to former Chicago Bear and quarterback of the Bears Super Bowl team, Jim McMahon and a disabled vet from he brought from Wisconsin for Super Bowl weekend. During the brief interview, my esteem of the former Bear quarterback grew as he ceded the spotlight to the vet from Wisconsin, not bothered by his guest’s allegiance to the Packers.


Also evident in the brief interview was the humility and graciousness of the soldier. It is sort of hard for me not to project traits unto a guy like that especially since I think I have a lot of those qualities in me as well. I think that those who have been following me along, particularly the past year or so, it may be hard to believe.

The comments that I leave in journals prolly do a better job of reflecting the kind of person that I am inside. I had not thought of myself as chaotic and pitiful before now… but instead of squaring up and going back after ‘it’ (sometimes it is nefarious how ambiguous ‘it’ can be at times, but I am still in hot pursuit of ‘it’!) once again.


Reading over my posts after I arrived in Omaha and before I was struck by a car, I see a sharp difference in my thoughts and outlook. As time has begun to pass, I am angry not at the cat who hit me (cause he didn’t mean it… honestly, I ain’t mad at him), as I am that the incident happened. Eventually I will be completely over it, and soon, I believe. I never could stay angry about anything for long. That is why I use pictures like the ones of Johnny Cash and Sonny Liston to remind me to have an attitude and to ‘behave like a fighter’ as I face the different challenges I am facing in my life.

IT’S A COIN FLIP…

… between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. I am leaning towards the Packers, the one true ‘little guy’ in professional sports. The Packer fans are all shareholders in the team and the connection between the fans and the players are apparent in such a small community. The Steelers are a family owned team and that is a very cozy arrangement as well.

As far as any personal connection with either team… I like Aaron Rodgers but I wonder if he isn’t an ‘Easter egg’ in the mold of a Tom Brady. I used to like the Patriot quarterback when he played at Michigan and from his brashness in telling the owner of the team that he would make the owner proud of the team’s choice or something to that effect. Anywho, I think that he also is in contradiction of his image and that allowing such misrepresentations persists is an indication of a lack of character. But that is me.

The Steelers quarterback Ben Rothlisberger has been about as unrepentenant a jerk as someone could be. If he was a brother, with two sex crimes and a long history of being a d*ckhead of a teammate that goes back into his college days, he would not survive the flogging he'd get in the media. The NFL cat I compare him to most directly is Mike Vick of the Eagles, because just as there are some people who will never forgive ‘The Dog Murderer’, I won’t ever forget that Ben Rothlisberger shows the same kind of lack of respect towards human beings. A crappy teammate AND a serial rapist… hey, I know for some people that being inhumane to an animal is the worst thing a person could do. But the disrespect for another human being that the Steeler quarterback has been caught showing (I qualify what we know was ‘alleged’ about him… I wonder if there are 
other women who did not come forward with a story that may be out there ...) towards women is kind of a 1 – 1a situation. And with ‘Big Ben’, there may be more stuff that sticks to his character as well.

During Super Bowl week, Commissioner Paul Taglibue was quoted for a story by sports writer Peter King of Sports Illustrated. Instead of parsing it out, I will post the quote and what I took from it

Regarding Roethlisberger, Goodell said when he was investigating what to do with the quarterback, he talked to "I bet two dozen [Steeler] players ... Not one, not a single player, went to his defense. It wasn't personal in a sense, but all kinds of stories like, 'He won't sign my jersey.'

Later the comment was amended slightly to mean that people in the Steeler organization and not teammates felt put off by the troubled (again, if he was black causing this havoc, he would be described as ‘troubled’) by Ben. Thinking back to another story where people who were a part of the organization of a professional sports team, where the one-time Detroit Piston head coach Rick Carlisle is alleged to have been rude to a long-time organization employee and that was what got him fired, I have to say I am a little surprised that the Rooney’s were talked into giving Rothlisberger another chance after his second alleged transgression. I am of the mind to think that if he is still like this to non-football players that he is still a jerk, an unrepentant one at that. I have some trouble with cheering for a guy like that… just as I have NO doubt that folks have trouble cheering for a guy like me. Eh, whaddya going to do? Need to get some conditioner for all those split hairs… and that is what it comes down to for me regarding the Super Bowl.

I guess I want Green Bay to win the game. I think it would be a nice way for the franchise to step out of the shadow that Brett Farve has cast over it in recent years. So I am going to hope that the Packers win, though ‘nothing really matters and no one ever tells me, so what am I to know’?