Life as Sport

Fans are constantly reminded that the NBA, or NFL, or whatever league is a copycat league.  In the mid 1970's, Tom Landry brings back the shotgun formation to the NFL.  Soon every team in the league is using the formation.  Jerry Glanville used a maximum pressure defense with his "Grits Blitz" philosophy in Atlanta.  Soon Mike Ditka's Bears are dominating the league with their pressure 46 defense.  In baseball, teams have tried with varying degrees of success to copy Billy Beane's "Moneyball" style of management to build teams on a budget.

Pat Riley won three championships with the Lakers before moving on to the New York Knicks.  His New York team did not have the talent Riley was accustomed to coaching, so he moved to a defensive philosophy.  His Knick teams were built around an aggressive, very physical defense.  Their philosophy boiled down to "foul them on every possession.  The referees, not only won't call every foul, but they will soon call fewer fouls as they become accustomed to the physical play.  It was a variation of the Overton Window theory I wrote about a couple of months ago.  Riley's Knicks were successful, at least until they ran into either Jordan's Bulls or Olajuwon's Rockets in the playoffs.

A few years later, Bill Belichick used the same tactic to beat the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl.  The Rams used their high powered passing offense, known as the "Greatest Show on Turf," to win a Super Bowl and were favored to beat Belichick's Patriots.  Belichick knew his defensive backs were no match for the Ram's speed receivers, so his defensive backs held the Ram's receivers on virtually every play.  After a couple of calls, the referees stopped calling the violation.  The Ram receivers were frustrated and the Patriots won a close game.

Our president is an admitted sports fan.  He learned the lessons of Belichick and Riley.  Just keep hitting the public with outrageous tax after outrageous policy after outrageous decision and soon we will stop calling him on it.  Remember the outrage when the stimulus package was passed with no Republican support?  Followed by an outright takeover of the largest automaker in the nation?  Followed by "the police acted stupidly" comment?  Followed by an "apology tour" of the middle east?  Followed by the health care takeover?  Followed by public condemnation of Arizona's "misguided" immigration law (that neither he nor his attorney general had yet read)?  Followed by a lack of interest in helping the Louisiana governor prepare for the arrival of oil from the worst environmental accident in U.S. history?  Followed by a drilling moratorium that will cost the same regions affected by the spill thousands of jobs and millions of dollars?  Now, about to be followed by a cap and trade, energy independence, clean energy, whatever they are calling it today, legislation that will effectively take over the energy industry in the country.   Rumored to soon be followed by turning against Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorist neighbors. 

We are the referees.  We can't let this administration keep getting away with the violations of our rights and principles.  We've got to keep blowing the whistle until they stop.

Where's My Hovercraft?

When I was in college, I subscribed to both the Dallas Morning News and Dallas Times Herald newspapers.  I read both every morning before going to my 8 am class.  Guess I've always been a morning person.  My main reason for getting both papers was the sports sections.  The Morning News had Randy Galloway and David Casstevens as columnists.  The Times Herald had Skip Bayless and Blackie Sherrod.  All were very good writers and seemed to have changed papers a couple of times before the Times Herald finally went under.  I always looked forward to Blackie Sherrod's Sunday column titled Scattershooting.  Each column began with the phrase - "Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to..." and was just a collection of random thoughts and observations.

So, with respect to Mr. Sherrod:

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Blackie Sherrod.

Scattershooting refers to shotguns for those non-western readers.

Remember when Popular Science said that "the internet is the pet rock of the 90's?"


Popular Mechanics predicted that helicopters would become so cheap and easy to fly that they would replace cars by the year 2000.


Alvin Toffler's Future Shock predicted the computer would reduce the average American's work week to 30 hours or less.  With unemployment at 10% and rising, we may be close.  Doesn't take too many zero hour work weeks to offset those 60 hour ones.


Why is it always 75 year old fry cooks who win the lottery?  And why do they always say they will still go to work on Monday?  Shouldn't a psychic win at least once?


Why would anyone making more than $250,000 a year vote for Obama?  A better question, how could anyone that stupid make $250,000 or more a year?  If you want to help the unfortunate, give to the cause you believe in.  Does anyone, anyone with a brain anyway, believe that giving your money to the federal government to help others, actually helps others?  Well, if you count government employees and bureaucrats, I guess it does help others.  Is that what you intended?

Colin Powell, how is endorsing Obama for president just because he "looks like you" not a racist act.  Or have you been lying about your beliefs for the past 20 years?  Especially over a member of your own political party and FELLOW SOLDIER!!  Liar or racist, tough choice.

Remember when kids played basketball, baseball, and football without adult supervision and always kept score?  And learned more from losing than winning.  Mainly that it was much more fun to win!  And don't taunt your opponents or do a dance after a score.  Like Tom Landry told Drew Pearson, "act like you've been there before."

I miss Tom Landry. And Bear Bryant.  I hope Joe Paterno and Mack Brown never retire.  Remember when a reporter asked Paterno if he was interested in an NFL job?  He answered, "and leave college football to people like Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer?  Never."

Air powered hovercrafts have been advertised in the back pages of comics since the 60's, or maybe even longer.  They should work.  Why hasn't someone perfected them yet?  Probably George Bush's fault.


Thanks Blackie.