Fall: The Return of Man

Today is the day I have been waiting over 7 months for, the Kick-Off of the 2012 NFL Season.  Leaving us are the days of summer, pointless baseball games, family vacations.  The kids are back in school (if you have any), baseball playoffs are knocking on the door, and fall is here.  I always tell my girlfriend that spring and summer are her times of year, I have no plans (besides NFL draft night and NBA playoffs), so we do all the things she wants to do from april-august.  That's a long, long 5 months.  To make things worse, my 2 month withdrawal period that is march madness was underwhelming this year.  Finally, the NFL has come back to me.

This next paragraph is delegated to the ladies that read my blog. Men play fantasy football, we don't expect you to understand it, just humor us in our discussions on topics such as: Why do I continue to draft Ryan Matthews when all he does is burn me? I need Player X to score 2 TD's, but I don't want them to beat my team.  I don't care if the Patriots are 13-2 and already clinched home field, I need Brady to play week 17, it's the championship in my fantasy league!

Yes ladies, these are real thoughts men have surrounding fantasy football, don't judge us.

Back to the NFL. 

I truly believe this is going to be a great NFL season.  There's so many storylines, Peyton Manning's return, the craziness that is Tebow and the Jets, will the Texans take the jump, are the Eagles worth the hype, how good are the Giants, 5 rookie QB's starting.  Amazing.  Even better, those blessed with the NFL network will not only be able to watch games on Sunday and Monday, but Thursday night as well EVERY week.  It's a good thing I dedicated the majority of the last 5 months to my girlfriend because I'll only be available to her Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday (Saturday is dedicated to college football and setting my fantasy football line up).

My NFL Predicitions:

AFC East - Patriots
AFC North - Ravens
AFC South - Texans
AFC West - Chiefs
Wildcard - Bengals
Wildcard - Broncos

NFC East - Eagles
NFC North - Packers
NFC South - Falcons
NFC West - 49ers
Wildcard - Bears
Wildcard - Cowboys (fanboy pick?)

That's all I'm going with. It's been awhile since I've posted (like 5 months), but now Man Season is back, so you can expect a lot from me until I go back into hibernation in April.

Long, Live, Sports

Please don't call me "African-American"

I am not an "African-American." In fact, I hate the term "African-American".

Somehow that became the acceptable term for black people in America because the words nigger and negro just wouldn't do.  Wikipedia defines an African American as "citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub Saharan Africa".  Why does America find it necessary to define only one set of people's ancestry? That definition says nothing about color, but if you are American, and from South Africa, but happen to have white skin, what does America call you? Not African-American.

Caucasians are just called white, not German American, English American, Scottish American, Italian American, etc.  Typically, only 1st generation descendants will go by those terms, yet I can go back my family ancestry for six generations and find nobody from Africa yet. In fact my great-great-great grandfather was a white man, does that mean anything? No. Why? Because as much as America likes to try to deny it, people are placed in these ethnic groups due to the color of their skin.  I would love to see the census for every "white" person of African descent and see what boxes they check.

If I was truly an African American, I or my parents would have been born in Africa. I know plenty of true African Americans, what do people call them? African. Are they not Americans? It's a travesty that this takes place.  I have never been to Africa, neither has anyone in my immediate family. I would love to go, but how am I supposed to claim something that I have never seen? It's a slap in the face of true African Americans.

America, since we love color so much, let me put it simply. If white/Caucasian Americans of German, English, Scottish, Italian, etc. descent are referred as simply American or White American, then black Americans of African descent should be referred to as simply American or Black Americans. 

Why does this happen only in America?  You know what people call black English people? English. Black french people? French. But black Americans are ??? African-American? Nationalities and ethnicity's are not the same thing...unless you live in America. Why do people not realize this? America! It's OK to call me black.  If everyone in America was referred to where their family came from prior to America or where the family was in the 1800s, we'd have a lot more "Inset Here - Americans".

Somehow we found it ok to just to pinpoint one ethnicity and separate them from the rest. How is that ok America? I cannot claim being an African America, because I am not one. I am an American, and if color is a requisite, a Black American.

SportsTown USA? Can you say MIA?

New York? Boston? LA? No. No. No.

Sports Town USA is officially... Miami.

You heard me, Miami. The city of sun, south beach, the art-deco design, the funky peach/orange, teal colors, Little Havana, the home of the Hurricanes, Heat, Marlins, and Dolphins is officially Sports Town USA.

Yes, I know St. Louis is the home of the world series champs, New York is home of the super bowl champs, and Dallas is home to the NBA champs. St. Louis has nothing else, good luck getting the Rams to win another championship. New York always has the Yankees, but it also has the Mets... Dallas has the Rangers and the Cowboys, the Rangers have a shot at a championship, but the Cowboys? I'm a fan and I know that they don't have a chance anytime soon.

So why Miami? It's the hottest place in sports right now. The Heat will be odds on favorites to win NBA championships the next 3 years, The Dolphins, well, if they get Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne (I think they will), they become super bowl contenders. Manning a QB, Reggie Bush/Daniel Thomas back field, Jake Long and a solid O-line, Cameron Wake and a solid D, Brandon Marshall and Reggie Wayne? That's a more talented team than Peyton EVER had in Indianapolis and he led them to two super bowls, one win.  The Miami Marlins just picked up Jose Reyes and Marke Buerhle, have some young prospects in Mike Stanton, they still have Hanley Ramirez. That's a promising team.

The challenger to Miami's reign? New York of course, the Knicks stand a genuine shot of being a legit contender if Amare can turn back into 2006 Amare and Melo and Lin can get along.  The Yankees are always among the best teams in baseball and can win a World Series any year. The Giants can sneak up and win one when no one expects it.

The wild card to Miami's reign? Detroit. Yes, Detroit. Home of the Red Wings (NHL's best), the Tigers have potentially the most dangerous line up in baseball (Carbrera, Fielder, Martinez) and have the games most dangerous pitcher (Verlander), the Lions are a nice up and coming team and even in college you have Michigan football on the rise and both UM and MSU basketball teams are highly rated. The problem? It's a Detroit, nobody cares.

Current SportsTown USA rankings:

1. Miami
2. New York
3. Boston

Future SportsTown USA rankings

1. Miami
2. New York
3. Detroit

Of course, if Peyton Manning signs with the Jets, New York automatically shoots to the top of the list. Even if the Dolphins don't land Manning, if they can get a good QB (Matt Flynn in free agency or Ryan Tannehill in the draft) their futures ranking will stay high.  The key is the Heat, if they win a title this season or next, it will trump all because of all the fanfare that comes with LeBron.  Despite the Giants just winning the super bowl, the Yankees have not won a championship in 3 years (a long time for them), the Mets stink, and the Jets are in turmoil, and thus Miami without a championship in forever still ranks above them. 

Am I giving the Heat too much credit? probably, but it's my blog and I can do what I want to.

Tell me how you feel!

Observations from NBA All-Star Weekend

So I haven't been writing as much as I thought I was going to because I haven't been getting as much feedback and conversation as I hoped. Nonetheless, it is not going to stop me from speaking on the topics of love, life, and sports. It seems my sports topics tend to get the most love. I have disabled the need to log in to leave a message in hopes of getting more people to comment. For all those reading and not replying, thanks, I guess I need to write about better topics.

On to tonight's topic.

• Dwight Howard put forth the most pathetic all-star performance I have ever seen, and on his home court no less.
• The dunk contest was the worst I had ever seen. I KNOW sports, and even I have never heard of the guy that won.
• LeBron was LeBron, just great enough to fail. He showed why he has the greatest skill set ever in bringing the east back and still showed he doesn't have the "it" factor with his last minute failings.
• Loved the foul by Wade on Kobe, broke his nose and gave him a mild concussion.
• Kevin Love just might be the best power forward in the NBA, think about that for a second.
• OKC - Miami would be a dream matchup in the NBA finals.
• John Wall will never be as good as Kyrie Irving, though he is a much better athlete.
• Kevin Hart is hilarious, a bit over the top, but hilarious nonetheless.
• Arne Duncan can ball, and he's pushing 50, easily the best player on the court at the celebrity game.
• Never watch the first half of the all-star game, it's about as bad as an And 1 mixtape (remember those?). The last 10 minutes were amazing though.

That's all ya'll. Feel free to tell me what you learned if you watched All-Star Weekend!

Fallen Stars - The Rise of Player Hating

I've been a sports fan my whole life. Some of my favorite sports teams are among the most hated in their sports (Cowboys, Bulls, Heat).  Teams have always been hated. For everyone that loves the Cowboys, there are two people that hate them, same for the Yankees in baseball, Lakers/Celtics basketball (more recently the Heat), and Red Wings in hockey.  That's fine, it's a team game and when teams win and they have passionate fans, those fans are hard to deal with.  I don't hate the yankees because of what the yankees do, I hate the yankees for what their fans do.  Sports teams have been loved/hated since the beginning of sports, but in recent years, months even, things have begun to change.  People still have love/hate relationships with their teams, but now that has subsided and it is the player that is loved or hated more than the team.  How did this happen?

Tony Romo, Tim Tebow, Tom Brady, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony/Jeremy Lin?

I have never seen a QB more hated than Tony Romo, I don't know if fans that hate the Cowboys hate Romo or if "Cowboy fans" hate him more. 

Tim Tebow, do I even need to address it? Nobody in the history of sports has been both universally loved and hated at the same time.

Tom Brady. Once the golden child has now become hated and then not hated as people loathed the perfect Brady and then stopped hating him when he became human and started losing.

LeBron James. Post-decision LeBron is as hated as I have ever seen an NBA player. He makes poor decisions off the court but has never done anything truly wrong.  Donte Stallworth killed a guy while driving drunk, as did Leonard Little, Ray Lewis was charged with murder but never convicted. Yet, most people don't even know who Stallworth and Little are and Ray Lewis is some sort of hero. LeBron spurned his home team, ran to greener pastures for what he thought was a better chance of winning a championship and he becomes the most hated man in basketball? 

Carmelo Anthony and Jeremy Lin.  My how fast times change. A year ago this time Melo was the savior of NY, now people want him traded so Lin can run the show. Melo was the star, what LeBron could've been had he gone to NY, then he gets hurt, Lin plays out of his mind for two weeks and now Melo joins LeBron has the 2 top targets from a 2 years ago who teams don't want and it has nothing to do with what THEY do on the basketball court. LeBron is balling, Melo's been hurt and had a developmental league roster. Lin comes along and now Melo is disposable. 

Let's put the brakes on all of this for a while. Jeremy Lin may or may not be a star or a bust this time next year. Tim Tebow may never make the playoffs again or could win multiple super bowls.  LeBron may go back to Cleveland, may never win a ring, or could win multiple.  Tom Brady is human. Tony Romo is not Tom Brady, he's also not Matt Cassel, for you Cowboys fans who hate Romo, who are you going to replace him with? I don't know about you guys but I would take Romo over Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson, Clint Stoerner, Ryan Leaf, Vinny Testeverde, Drew Bledsoe, and Drew Henson. Do you guys remember them? They still give me nightmares.

The media has made everything big, bigger, and has made everything small, big. Before you jump on a bandwagon or hater train, remember this old saying: Don't hate the player, hate the game. The players don't interview themselves, the players don't film themselves, the players don't show their highlights on ESPN every hour.  The players play, hate it or love it, they play a game. We make them stars, we make them hated.

Valentine's Day?

Tomorrow marks the second worst holiday that man has created (Halloween is the worst).  Tomorrow is the day when every man in a relationship is expected to "show his love" and every woman is expected to be blown away by his gestures.  The funny thing with this is most women on a normal basis would hate it if someone had to tell their man to do something for them.  However, all seems to be forgotten on Valentine's Day when us men gladly take orders from the calender and our women gladly reap the rewards.  Now, I am not against people in love showing how much they care about each other. I am against doing so because the date is February 14th.  I get myself in trouble sometimes because I voice my opinion on things of this nature.  I feel the best gifts and moments are the "just because" gifts.  The ones where you wake up on a wednesday and "just because" you buy your woman flowers, or it's april 12th and "just because" you take your lady out unexpectedly.  For those that don't know me, I also am a victim of tomorrow, I fall in line because it is whats expected.  I am not necessarily against tomorrow, as I enjoy any opportunity to show the one I love a good time but I hate being forced to.  Does that make me a bad guy?  Help me out guys/ladies, what does valentine's day mean and why is it so important to you ladies?

And don't worry guys, if you're looking for a sports post, it's coming, had to get this off my chest first.

Hibernation Over!

Well, it's been over a month since I've posted to the blog and I would like to apologize for that. Busy work schedule, mixed with computer virus = no blogging.  I tried to write this blog from my cell phone one time... It didn't work.

I will be updating the blog after the superbowl about the game and then will be out of town until friday so I may be unable to update it.

On a side note, after recaping the superbowl, what sort of topics would you like to see addressed?

- Valentine's Day
- Tax Returns
- Football Offseason

I write for those who read, tell me what you want!

Thanks.