Yesterday, I was shocked to see a television commercial starring former Dallas Cowboys football coach Jimmy Johnson. He was pitching a “male enhancement” product that I will not name — I have blurred the product title in this commentary — because I believe Jimmy is pitching a snake oil in sheep’s clothing lie. Here’s visual proof of the established relationship between Jimmy and his member pimping.
The midlands are all a twitter over the impending news that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is leaving the Big 12 athletic conference today to join the Big Ten. Now, the clever thing about that move is that the Big Ten currently has eleven member schools in the conference — can you see the “11” hidden in the Big Ten logo below? — and by adding Nebraska, the Big Ten suddenly becomes the new Big 12!
University of Florida football quarterback, and Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Tebow is the worst kind of Christian: Self-promoting, crass, entitled, fragile, haughty, and invoking the sacred right of Crybabyism when God doesn’t answer his prayers. During every football game, Tebow advertises his public love of God in quaint Bible verses printed on homemade eyeblack patches. Each week his his mommy sends him a list of quotes to use.
Continue reading → Tim Tebow: Non-Aborted Fetus, but Crybaby Christian
Today’s modern sporting events reflect the most seductive part of live performance: Creating Dramatic Tension — and the buildup to the annual Super Bowl celebration is one of the finest examples of spectacle in performance wrapped in football pads and held tight with crossed fingers. The countdown clocks on NFL.com today directly inherit, and reflect, the innate sense of doom and pending explosion that so many modern dramas lack on the live stage.
Ndamukong Suh — “Mr. Suh” to you and me — is a 6’4″, 300 pound, defensive tackle on the University of Nebraska football team and possible Heisman Trophy candidate. A couple of days ago, Mr. Suh crashed his 2003 Land Rover into two parked cars at 2:20am.
He was not driving drunk.
I was looking at Google Trends the other day and something strange stood out to me: A rather unfamiliar name appeared three times in the top ten search result with two different spellings. I knew immediately that I had to do some kind of investigation to find out who this man was and why everyone was searching for information about him and the faux-celebrity known as Tila Tequila.
Super Bowl 43 was played last night and the Steelers beat the Cardinals 27-23 in a barnburner for the centuries. The problem with the NBC broadcast was not the game, but rather the massive, and unnecessary 10-foot frame of spectacle, commercialism and crass self-promotion that overpowered the delicate watercolor of a beautifully executed game of football.
Continue reading → A Ten Foot Frame for a Five Inch Watercolor
It looks like Michael Vick might just be back on a football field sooner than we thought and slower than we hoped:
Michael Vick said he was remorseful for his past actions involving his dogfighting activities as he entered a guilty plea to state charges Tuesday at the Sussex County Courthouse. In a plea deal that was agreed upon before he travelled from Leavenworth, Kansas to the Hopewell Regional Jail in Virginia, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback pleaded guilty to charges of attending, sponsoring and promoting dogfighting.
Vick, who didn’t plead guilty to animal cruelty, received a three-year suspended jail term and four years of probation. The prison term is suspended provided Vick can display good behavior for four years.
“Remorse” is not enough. Vick should serve our his full prison punishment and rightfully confess to animal cruelty — even if he didn’t plead to it — and then completely reveal his moral and financial role in the killing of dogs for betting profit.
I was raised in Nebraska where American college football rules Saturday afternoons for three months a year.
Continue reading → Texas High School Football: The Wrongful Elevation of Childhood Ego
Double murderer O.J. Simpson is back in the news making an unwelcome return to using his parsing of words to point the blame, not at himself, but rather at others he feels unduly influence him.
It is fascinating to watch Simpson skate and dance and prevaricate his way out of a mess while he celebrates his return to the public eye.
I fear we will never be without O.J.’s influence because he knows how to take advantage of shared semiotics and the duality of semantic communication to better only his selfish ends in life and, I believe, his self-enrichment will continue to strangle us beyond his death and into our graves.
O.J. Simpson has marked us all in the eye and ear for all of eternity and we are all the worse for his wearing.
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