Random Thoughts

I have a laptop adapter! I have a laptop adapter!

I've been virtually computer-less for over a month now. It feels good to be back.

I don't really have like a major topic to cover, but wanted to celebrate my return to the internet nonetheless. So I'll just comment on a few things. Feel free to ignore me, curse me out, or have your company's spambot post a generic statement of praise followed by a sweet hidden link to your site.

As a Cubs fan, I must start with this: Zambrano to the bullpen! I really support this move. Our starters have been solid enough. Putting Zambrano in the 8th inning takes this bullpen from pretty awful to kind of scary (in a good way). When Marshall's on, I like our chances of Marshall-Zambrano-Marmol for the 7th-8th-9th. And with Marshall and Zambrano both being former starters, they could easily be extended to 2 innings or more when needed. Bold move, but I think Piniella had to do it.

Speaking of the Cubs, I had to watch the Mets broadcast crew do the Cubs/Mets game last night. These guys are the worst! I didn't even pay attention to who it was, but I think Keith Hernandez was one of them. Although I don't think he was one of the guys I hated. Maybe Ron Darling was one? I need to find out, because I was almost embarrassed by how bad they were. One of them actually said: "The Cubs are just awful." Both teams are 6-9! Huh?? In another discussion, one guy said Ryne Sandberg was overrated and he'd take Craig Biggio any day. At another point, one said he couldn't stand the Cubs' road uniforms! I mean, look, I don't really care if these guys like my team or whatever. Who cares. But shouldn't they be professionals while on TV? It was so obvious they were just trashing the opposing team.

How about Big Ben? My opinion is simple: I hope the suspension stands at the full 6 games and I hope he gets traded. And I was a HUGE fan of his before this offseason. But at some point we have to do what's right for kids who are paying attention. I am not at all saying the "victim" is innocent here. I don't know what happened, and I don't care. But you can't tell me that was an isolated incident and no team really needs that trouble regardless of how talented the athlete is. Except maybe the Raiders?

Dear EA Sports: do you think we could put Roethlisberger on the Madden cover and get Brees off now? Thanks, guys.

Don't get me wrong... I'm proud for my city's team and I enjoy watching people get pumped up about the Predators. But really. Who wants to be inside watching a game being played on ice right now? This weekend, I was at the park celebrating Earth Day. It was 75 degrees, we were flying kites, it was great. Who decided this was still hockey season??

Oh, and do we REALLY need to keep talking about the biggest draft busts and steals of all time every single year? Wait what? Ryan Leaf was picked high and didn't pan out? How'd I miss that? Tom Brady was passed up by every team multiple times? Whoah! I bet those teams feel stupid, huh? I hadn't realized that until this year! Thanks, every sports media source.

Did you know Tebow was a virgin and likes Jesus? That's what we offer here. Breaking news.

You know what I did last week? I cut off my cable service. I just realized the impact this will have on Blogathon '11. Dammit. How do we petition to get that race online again?

Don't worry, the Wii is still going strong. I'm ready for Mario Kart whenever anyone else is.

I guess we will have a pretty cool announcement to make here pretty soon. Besides the fact that I'm back online, of course. Stay tuned...

IndyCar's Mid-Week Memos

Dear Alex Lloyd,

This is to serve as your official secondary secret probationary warning as an IndyCar Series driver for complaining on twitter that Danica ran into you during the race at Barber Motorsports Park. While I realize you may be confused as in the past you have seen penalties given to drivers for “avoidable contact” such as Marco hitting Scott Dixon last year, or the entire Indy Lights roster in St. Petersburg in 2008. However, what you need to recognize, is that there are secret additional pages to the rulebook that qualify driver’s penalties directly proportional to their popularity and/or team budget. I don’t think I need to tell you where Danica lies on that chart, so just forget about the fact that she T-boned you at high speed and just drove away.

Failure to forget about the on-track issue could result in more warnings and I could even go so far as to have flag people wave the dreaded “please maybe think about moving over” blue flag at you.

Sincerely,

Brian Barnhart

Dear Marco,

We just wanted to let you know, we loved everything we saw last weekend and want more of it! No whining; just humbleness, aggressiveness, and taking the race lead into your own hands… Just awesome! We saw glimpses of this before when you dueled with Dixon at Homestead and later contended at Texas, we saw it at the beginning of St. Pete this year as well.

Best of all, you’ve never mentioned the acronym NASCAR without it being in anything but humor or satire; all the things IndyCar fans love; we just need more of it, and I promise you a large fan-base and cheering section will follow; just find that consistency.

Eagerly Anticipating,

IndyCar Fans

Dear Mr. Barber

I’m not saying your call to start engines sucked... I’m just saying you might want to realize that “Start your engines” is right up there akin to the 7^th inning stretch, or “play ball” or “Lets get ready to rumble”… it’s something that should get people pumped…you know… its not like "hey can you hand me that pen" or "no officer Shaq I don't know why you pulled me over" just sayin…

Toweringly, 

Shaquille O'Neal

Dear Versus,

Here’s an idea for you. Let’s call it the Athlete Exchange Program. All you have to do is take a few of the athletes from each of the sports you have rights to: WEC/UFC, PBR, IndyCar, Cycling and even one of your fisherman like Wade Middleton… and have them all try out each others’ sports. Have Ryan Hunter-Reay and Urijah Faber go fishing with Wade; get Lance Armstrong and Graham Rahal try and stay on a mild mannered bull for 5 seconds, have E.J. Viso and Kody Lostroh work out with Mike Brown; and get Donald Cerrone, Mark Cavendish and Austin Meier jump into an IndyCar 2-seater, and if they’re willing, let them try out the Indy Racing Experience 1-seater as well if they’re willing. Video the whole thing and then you have tons of photage all the applicable sports can use for their guys to help get exposure, plus humanize some of these guys and make them more personable. Plenty more where this comes from…

Your friend,

Wedge

Dear Davey Hamilton,

Thanks for the “rap artist” comment. Gold.

Keep em coming,

Every IndyCar fan who was listening

Dear Every IndyCar driver,

Can you guys and gals stop going all PC on the issue of NASCAR? Seriously, we know they’re slower, we know they didn’t invent the SAFER barrier… hell, we can count on one hand how recent it was they finally went to unleaded fuel… Why then are you all willing to let the big bully push you down, and tell the girls you have cooties, when you know you don’t? You know the only reason they try to say bad things about you publicly is because they are scared of you, right?

We don’t want much... just say things that are true… say they’re slower, or they have power steering, or some of their drivers look like they couldn’t even fit in an IndyCar… better yet, tell them all that they don’t have the balls to try an IndyCar, say that they are scared; Heck we’ll all together offer up a $10 bounty to the first driver that says anything publicly about Darrell Waltrip. We’ll up it to $50 if you do it outside of the confines of the Media room to some kind of press… $100 if you do it on TV. What are they going to do, seriously?

What have you got to lose?

IndyCar fans

Dear George Barber,

We think your track is awesome and beautiful, and amazing to look at. The only problem is that it could use 1 or 2 more passing zones. We’re not asking you to destroy the great motorcycle track that exists; simply lay down a little more asphalt forward then 90degree turn making turns 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f become one simply 90 degree right turn #7. Then after IndyCar and Grand am goes home, remove the rumble strips. Then just lay down a little extra asphalt off the back straight to make Turn 11 a little more straight but then it goes into a more 90 degree turn 12. Again, you don’t have to rip anything up, just lay down a little extra asphalt and rumble strips for IndyCar/Grand-Am, then take the rumble strips up for the bikes.

Your track is known as the Augusta of race-tracks, but I think we all know people watch the Masters to see the competition, not to look at the trees. So keep your trees, grass, and foliage, but add a little more competition; it’ll be good for the track.

Anxiously awaiting some more passing,

Beautiful People

Dear E.J. Viso,

Dude whatever, all that trash talk is a lot of fun to see… Seriously, what IndyCar so desperately needs is a good trash talking rivalry…but what you’re doing is right up there with bragging to a 10 year old that you dunked on him. I’ll be back in the series soon enough to throw gloves at you; but in the meantime how about you take a shot at someone who can tap you on the track? 

Plus I heard Kanaan said something about your mom…

Tomas Scheckter

Dear Randy Bernard,

I know you are hearing a lot of things from a LOT of different people; it’s a ton of things to take in. But if you could take anything from the Furious Wedge, we’d love it to be this. What makes IndyCar the best is that it makes drivers prove their skills against other drivers from as many backgrounds as possible on as many different types of tracks as possible. Why then does the schedule segregate the tracks suddenly in recent years? I simply ask, can you please put Homestead back at the beginning of the schedule (since it’s the only warm weather oval we have) and start the season with Brazil, then Homestead, then St. Pete and let the fans taste all of what the series has to offer right out of the gate.

Who then closes the season? Well you could put Chicago back there, or better yet, you could nab Vegas again. We all know New Hampshire was begging to be added to the schedule last year when the series dumbfoundingly turned them down. So how’s about you tell SMI that New Hampshire can have their race, but you want Vegas too. Then… season finale party in Vegas!!! You kidding, how is that not a good idea!? The northeast gets an oval back since Richmond is gone, we get an oval at the beginning and end of the season in great locations and diversity of skill is flaunted throughout.

Trust us,

Wedge

While We Were Away, Awesome had Begun

SO as you've no doubt seen, a whole lot of nothing on Furious Wedge for a good while, it seems as though both myself and Ron have been taken down by a little something called "day jobs." No need for details, but lets just say we've both been real busy. Luckily if you follow me on Twitter you've noticed I'm very much alive and chatting about racing, Olympics and more.

But in that time something important has happened for IndyCar racing; for me it started with seeing the new Versus promos for the season. For you who don't understand just how awesome it is; all you need to do is think about previous promos during the latter ABC years... (before, not now, because currently they're letting IZOD help them make good promos). ABC used to give the series 15 second promos that went "Danica, Danica Danica.. oh and Danica this Saturday on ESPN the Ocho"



Versus puts some serious quality and effort into their spots, not only is this new IndyCar one full of good footage, but the music behind it is great, just like in Versus overall channel piece from the previous year. Neither of those pieces will annoy anyone, there's nothing trendy about it, its just good, informative and visually and audibly grabbing. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, check the videos above and below.



So you take that plus the other commercials IZOD is throwing around, and if you ignore the crazy people on the messageboards (and Robin Miller) who only try to find things to complain and whine about; you realize.. holy crap its racing season. Sure blogathon usually is the overall racing season kickoff, but personally it goes dull between then and the start of IndyCar for obvious reasons of boredom that come out other racing.

Then Brazil turns out to be one of the most entertaining race weekends in a long time, and surely one of the best track premieres. While I've been twittering like crazy about all of this (follow me, link on right) if you haven't already, search you tube and the internets and you can find all kinds of great videos from fans who never left the stands, cheered mightily for Vitor... and gave a golf clap for winner Will Power. The only thing the race was missing was half naked women dancing in the streets (which it may very well have had, but just never made it to TV).

We had the most diverse set of teams and drivers in our Top 10 for not only qualifications, but race results as well. Sure Penske won the race, but if you can't find a way to be happy about Will Power winning who just months ago broke his back, you may have problems.Vitor made the podium, there was tons of passing, Simona de Silvestro led legitimately and kept it during some green flag laps, we got rain, we got dust, we got hail, we got slipping and sliding, and we got all kinds of good strategy, none of which involved a fuel knob...

To make matters better, Indycar.com's Race Control actually worked for the majority of us. I could flawlessly see in-car shots of many drivers, and track cams, and see it right next to timing and scoring... last year I said they should copy or steal from A1GP; and while they didn't do it directly, they definitely seemed to take a cue from how well A1GP's stuff worked. Sure there's some kinks to work out, but at this point, it definitely looks like kinks, not system wide failure that was had in the past 2 years.

So now the season is officially underway, IZOD is putting giant banners in Times Square, we're seeing TV commercials everywhere from IZOD, ABC and VERSUS all, the ratings are going up, the on-track action is great, and DirecTV and Versus have made up... seriously people, if you aren't happy about racing season... you're probably a communist.

A Lesson in Social Media

(100% not doctored)

Column A	Column B
scottdixon9 "During the 2nd practice today, Scott ran 42 laps with a top speed of 116.796 mph on lap 23."	JustinWilson22 "Well testing went really well. The team are great but I just screwed up and bent the car. Ego took a big hit!"
AJFoytRacing (--crickets--)	RyanBriscoe6 "The Will Power and I just had a killer workout at the shop. I think our trainer thoroughly enjoys seeing us hurt!" "Is playing Wii Golf going to help my real game? I hope so!!"
vitormeira ....	EJVISO "Did u know that. If a driver seats 1.5 inches to the back. The % on the weight distribuition may vary up to a 1%. That's priceless !"
scottdixon9 "Scott took part in the Daytona 5K this morning and placed 3rd in the (30-34) age group, and 24th overall in field of 1,000."	tomasscheckter "Went for good run....sun is out was not that cold at all....I was wearing my fireproof underwear though"  "Ok my cycle lasted about 2 miles before I lost feeling in my face, came back, now on indoor bike...."
danicaracing Versus (Indycar partner) is a big supporter of Danica in NASCAR http://twitpic.com/14x5d2 www.versus.com/indycar - what a joke.	EJVISO "Will donate a Helmet for an auction. For Haiti!! Please support this needed people."
paultracy3 "open wheel fans have been foolishly loyal over the last 15 years , as both series have dragged open wheel to the bottom of the ocean ." "Bia figueiredo , in a 3rd car at drier and reinbold . It's so great to see guys from north america get a chance in the izod indycar series"	tomasscheckter "This week is big week. Hope I have some good news for you guys. Been working my butt off." "was in some good meetings today. i am not gonna stop working and been positive."
danwheldon "@lancearmstrong Dude, freakin awesome win at Daytona, it is so nice to see great things happen to a good person, you deserve it!!!"	danwheldon "@jamiemcmurray Dude, freakin awesome win at Daytona, it is so nice to see great things happen to a good person, you deserve it!!!"

Dear Column A,

...

You're doing it wrong.

Holy Cow: I like the Cubs AND the SOX

As the snow pours down here in Nashville, I am nonetheless getting excited about the upcoming baseball season! March Madness is great, but it really only serves as a distraction to get me through Spring Training and into the next Cubs season.

The past few years, around this time, I've started listening to 670AM ("The Score") out of Chicago to catch up on the latest Cubs info. Of course, I get to hear a lot about the Bulls and DePaul and, obviously, the White Sox. Having a brother who is a huge Sox fan, I've always kept up with the team anyway. And last night, I admitted that the inevitable has finally happened: I'm actually excited about the upcoming White Sox season as well. At this point, I'd say they're probably my #2 team and my AL favorite.

This is definitely rare and, if you listen to Chicago sports radio, pretty much non-existent in their city. And that makes me feel bad for the people in Chicago.

After just living through the greatest season ever accomplished by a professional sports team in New Orleans, it's really sad to know that Chicago residents will never really witness this. If and when the Cubs ever actually do win another World Series, the city's residents will never know the same kind of joy felt by the people of New Orleans this year. The city of Chicago is too divided. The callers I hear on the radio each night can't stand to even think about the other team having success.

I don't get it at all. They're in two different leagues! Why not look at it as having TWO chances at a title every year? Then during interleague play (or if by some miracle, you get a Windy City World Series!) you can pull for your team, knowing that either way, your city will come out on top.

I guess when it comes to this, my values are rooted in the DIY music scenes that Wedge and I have been a part of for the past 12+ years. In these situations, we're all about seeing each other succeed. And I know sports are not really set-up that way, but I don't see why it can't be. I never felt envy towards my brother when the Sox had success and the Cubs had another miserable season.

I know I'm in the minority here. But think about it. I'd be a pretty miserable sports fan if I only cared about the success of the Cubs and the Saints. While the Saints were always my team, I've enjoyed watching the Colts and Packers and a few other teams as well. It doesn't mean I don't like the Saints.

So why can't fans in Chicago accept both teams? Whenever we play with bands from Chicago there is definitely a class issue. DIY musicians (like me) are almost always Sox guys; the Cubs are for the rich kids who have never had to work and wouldn't know how to tour in a van for a month if they had to. Supposedly. But whatever, I don't buy that.

This year, I will support both teams from my second-favorite city. And I'm just glad New Orleans isn't big enough for more than one football team... because Chicago will never know what it was like to experience what we just went through, as a city.

Heading to New Orleans

Wedge and I have both been super busy. He's been doing his best to work through those snow storms and I've been trying to get as much work done as I could before heading to New Orleans tomorrow morning.

Just wanted to say it was a GREAT Super Bowl and our hometown team finally won something. The Mardi Gras celebrations I am about to witness will certainly be extra insane this year. This three-weekend stretch of Blogathon-Super Bowl-Mardi Gras is absolutely amazing.

I'll likely be out of the FW loop for the next week. NCAA Basketball is getting exciting, so I'll be talking a lot about that when I return. (Kentucky looks pretty great right now, huh?) And baseball is coming! Could my Cubs win in the same year the Saints finally did??

See you soon...

New Orleans Saints - Super Bowl Coverage

This is a list of articles we have posted about the New Orleans Saints and this year's Super Bowl:

What One Victory Means to the City of New Orleans
Five Funny Saints Memories - (1) We Got Ricky
Five Funny Saints Memories - (2) Heath Shuler, Our Savior!
Five Funny Saints Memories - (3) Gleason's Groin Punch
Five Funny Saints Memories - (4) Turley Throws Robinson's Helmet
Five Funny Saints Memories - (5) Horn Phones A Friend
Super Bowl XLIV : The Tecmo Super Bowl Prediction
Ideas for New Saints Shirts
What I Want to See During Super Bowl... That Has No Chance of Happening
New Orleans Has Been Here Before

New Orleans has been here before...

You think Indianapolis has the advantage today because of experience? You think this is our first rodeo? Well, I'm here to remind you that New Orleans has been on the big stage before. While Super Bowl XLIV represents the first time the New Orleans Saints will play for the NFL Championship, the city's sports fans are in familiar territory... thanks to the 1968 New Orleans Bucs.

The New Orleans Bucs played in the American Basketball Association's first championship series in 1968. Led by stars Doug Moe, Red Robbins, Jimmy Jones, and a guy you may have heard of named Larry Brown, the Bucs finished first in the Western Division. They beat the Denver Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. If "Denver Rockets" doesn't sound funny enough to you, the other Western Division playoff match-up saw the Houston Mavericks lose to the Dallas Chaparrals, who New Orleans knocked off next.

While it was a hard-fought series lasting seven games, the Bucs were finally defeated by the Pitsburgh Pipers in the Championship Series.

It took 42 years, but now we're back to build upon that experience and finally bring a championship home to New Orleans. The Colts may have experience, but our city has been in this position before. Now it's time to win it all.

(For more info on the ABA, definitely check out this site.)

Five Funny Saints Memories - (5) Horn Phones A Friend

Every day this week, I will post one event that has taken place in recent New Orleans Saints history that the casual football fan may have forgotten about. We, the Saints fans, have not forgotten. Now that we've reached the Super Bowl, however, we can laugh about it.

On December 14, 2003, WR Joe Horn had nine catches for 119 yards and four touchdowns in a win over the Giants. While the four touchdowns is a team record (later tied by Reggie Bush), most fans only remember Horn's celebration after his second score when he grabbed a cell phone from the goal post padding and made a phone call.

In these years when our team seemed to constantly finish somewhere between 9-7 and 7-9 every year, most of the fans loved the excitement of shenanigans like these. Let's face it: an average team with some excitement and controversy is much better than the boring, terrible teams we were supporting 20 years before this.

Of course, many purists, including the announcers in this video, disagreed:

Taking After IndyCar, NFL to Remove Passing, Computers Mandate Linux and Tecmo Bowl Now Only Football Video Game Allowed

The Art of Disappointment is not just an album by The Benjamins… It’s a practice that is hard to pull off. But before I get to the heart of what I’m talking about, let me preface this by saying I am a huge fan of the IRL, its racing and most of all its diversity in tracks and drivers. I like Randy Bernard as a CEO selection, I like the addition of Brazil; and I like that new chassis are being revealed by Dallara this week, and that the Delta Wing and Swift chassis are coming next week; and regardless of which one is chosen I’m going to continue to watch IndyCar racing.

Personally of the three Dallara chassis, I like #3 the best. It’s not only the most evolutionary, I like that it covers the wheels from the front and back which could hopefully minimize the possibility of cars climbing each other’s wheels, which is the exact thing that cause Ryan Briscoe and Pablo Perez’s horrific crashes. I also like #2 as well, I mean I would love to see both on the track, #1 has the crappy failed F1 shark fin and is too much like the current Dallara.


All that said, here is the important question? Why are they showing all of these to us? If my reading serves me correctly, We’re getting 3 designs from Dallara, 1 from Swift, 1 from Lola and 1 from Delta Wing. That is at least 6 different chassis for fans to get to know, form opinions on, and most importantly FORM OPINIONS ON!

That is not a bad thing at all; in fact diversity is what makes competition great; just look at the debate you get from fans based on driver backgrounds and track styles. Look at how fans identify with football teams based on their offense: shotgun spread throwing, strong formation pounding the ball with running; look at how much we value seeing a knuckleballer vs. a fastball heater vs. a guy who throws junk in baseball.

We’ve all got opinions, and the fact is, none of them are right; we simply have options we like better than others… and now we’re going to give IndyCar fans months to identify with the cars they like; some people hate the one I like and vice versa, and we’ll all have different favorites and then WHAM… too bad what you think, we’re only going to allow one of them to compete.

With 6 different chassis, what are the chances that even a majority of the fan base likes the one that is chosen as their favorite? So hey I have a good idea, lets split the fan base up and then piss the majority of them off by not choosing their favorite chassis. Why take the shot of choosing a chassis people hate?

So let’s talk economics, because that’s the most logical argument for mandating only 1 chassis. Competition drives up costs? Yeah let me know how that’s working in the auto, personal computer, cable, cell phone and hrmmmm how about every other free market in the universe.

Yes I realize very much that the reason theory for costs going up in IndyCar is because chassis designers would have to raise prices to meet their goal revenue. But that theory is slightly flawed, because the more important fact here… Delta Wing is run by team owners! They can keep their price low which would force other chassis designers to keep their prices low!

Then what happens when prices stay low? More teams can participate, Hemelgarn, Conquest, 3G, Rubicon and Sarah Fisher can suddenly purchase more chassis than previously meaning they can race for less, people with smaller budgets previously priced out of racing altogether can suddenly afford an entry. In all it means more chassis will be bought than are bought in a season right now.

What if one chassis outperforms the other? Then let the teams make the decision of budget vs. speed… PLUS you could mandate things on the faster chassis to even it out. But what I don’t get here… wasn’t that a large part of the beauty of Al Unser’s final Indy win? The car was old, and came out of a hotel lobby days before the race... instant underdog for people like me who want to see underdogs.

And all of this is ignoring one simple fact, it worked for 30+ years before!

But MOST important of everything here is that Brian Barnhart himself stated that one of the primary goals of a new chassis is to push technological development. That’s a great idea, but you know what happens once you sign an exclusivity contract with a chassis company? See: Dallara, IndyCar, 2005-2011.

Are all these designs going to be very different? Yes, and that’s why I think that they could pick the designs most likely to hold close with each other… Mandate a formula, base that formula off one of these chassis, mandate they have to be made in USA, mandate the fuel, but don’t mandate who is allowed to participate.

No you say… well fine then; while we’re cutting costs, we’re eliminating passing from football because it’ll save money so teams won’t need quarterbacks, wide receivers or offensive coordinators, for now on only Natty Light will be allowed to brew beer because they make some of the cheapest stuff and they can make it even cheaper if they get exclusive rights, but most importantly… E. Honda is now the only character allowed to be used in Street Fighter… suck it Ryu and Ken users.

Five Funny Saints Memories - (4) Turley Throws Robinson's Helmet

Every day this week, I will post one event that has taken place in recent New Orleans Saints history that the casual football fan may have forgotten about. We, the Saints fans, have not forgotten. Now that we've reached the Super Bowl, however, we can laugh about it.

Today was a very busy day, but this one is quick and easy. The summary on Kyle Turley's wikipedia is good enough:

"Turley is widely remembered for what occurred on November 4, 2001 in the Louisiana Superdome. The Saints were trailing the New York Jets 16-9 late in the fourth quarter, but were driving deep into opposition territory. After a scramble, quarterback Aaron Brooks was tackled at the six yard line where Jets defender Damien Robinson viciously grabbed his facemask and started to bend Brooks backwards. Turley proceeded to grab Robinson's hand's and forced him to let go of Brooks, before picking him up by the facemask and tackling him to the ground as referees and players from both teams tried to separate them. Turley emerged from the ensuing scrum with Robinson's helmet and proceeded to fling it across the field before giving an obscene gesture. Robinson and Turley received off-setting personal fouls for the initial incident, but Turley was ejected from the game and assessed an additional personal foul penalty for the obscene gesture, costing the Saints any chance at tying the game. Saints head coach Jim Haslett said he considered cutting Turley following the game but later rescinded his statement after discussing the incident with him and reviewing the game tape. Turley was ultimately fined $25,000 by the Saints Organization for conduct detrimental to the team while Robinson was fined $20,000 by the NFL. Turley said in his defense that he thought Robinson was about to break his quarterback's neck."

Five Funny Saints Memories - (3) Gleason's Groin Punch

Every day this week, I will post one event that has taken place in recent New Orleans Saints history that the casual football fan may have forgotten about. We, the Saints fans, have not forgotten. Now that we've reached the Super Bowl, however, we can laugh about it.



In December 2004, the Saints entered a game against Carolina with a disappointing record of 4-7. However, a season of frustration came to a peak just before halftime when special teams captain Steve Gleason punched a Panthers player in the groin.

There was really no reason, no explanation, and no benefit to the team. But sometimes in life, you just want to punch another man's groin. At that point in time, all Saints fans everywhere would've loved to punch someone's groin. Steve Gleason represented all of us, and with one strong jab, he did what we all wished we could do.

While we lost that game, the groin punch did inspire the team to end the season on a great 4-game win streak. We missed the playoffs at 8-8, but it at least gave us hope heading into the next season. (That hope was wiped out by Katrina, of course, as Jim Haslett's last Saints team finished 3-13 in 2005.)

But we know this: only a Category 5 Hurricane could kill the momentum of the punch heard around the Dome.

Five Funny Saints Memories - (2) Heath Shuler, Our Savior!

Every day this week, I will post one event that has taken place in recent New Orleans Saints history that the casual football fan may have forgotten about. We, the Saints fans, have not forgotten. Now that we've reached the Super Bowl, however, we can laugh about it.

ESPN has named Heath Shuler both one of the biggest "flops" in recent history and one of the largest NFL Draft "busts" of all time. Of course his story includes a stop in New Orleans.

In 1997 we were led to believe that Shuler was going to help the Saints return to our winning ways of the early-90s. (Realize that for the second day in a row, my funny Saints memory involves a Mike Ditka acquisition.) Like always, we had faith in our team.

In 10 games Shuler managed two touchdowns and fourteen interceptions before a foot injury ended his season and career, as he never played in another NFL game. The 3rd overall pick in the 1994 Draft finished his career with 15 TDs and 33 INTs and the Saints ended the season 6-10.

The good news is that Shuler was 4th on the team in rushing (38 yards) and we got good looks at Billy Joe Hobert and Danny Wuerffel. OK, none of that is good news. It was a terrible start for a terrible Ditka era. But it's pretty funny now.

And it seems Shuler is actually good at real estate and politics.

Five Funny Saints Memories - (1) We Got Ricky

Every day this week, I will post one event that has taken place in recent New Orleans Saints history that the casual football fan may have forgotten about. We, the Saints fans, have not forgotten. Now that we've reached the Super Bowl, however, we can laugh about it.

I was in my dorm room, watching the 1999 NFL Draft with so much hope. Like most fans, I had planned to spend the entire weekend watching the events unfold, hoping my team would use the next two days to mold the roster for the future.

Instead, our draft came to an abrupt ending quite early when it was announced that Mike Ditka and the New Orleans Saints drafted Ricky Williams. Before I could open a bag of chips, we had traded our entire 1999 draft and our 1st and 3rd picks for the next year. To get one player.

Sure this was not exactly a "bust." Williams had some good years for us and the fans instantly loved him. (My brother had one of those "We Got Ricky" shirts mentioned in that article and wore it with pride.) At least we didn't trade all of that to Cleveland for Tim Couch!

We went 3-13 that season. After winning the first game, we lost the next seven, including a 21-16 loss to Couch's Browns in Week 8 when he completed a Hail Mary at the end of the game for his team's first win.

It's not that Williams was bad, but the team felt the impact of that move well past that first year. A team that played a combination of Billy Joe and Billy Joe at QB could've drafted Daunte Culpepper. Or they could've drafted Champ Bailey and waited until the 4th round to get Aaron Brooks, who they eventually ended up with anyway. (But then we might not have played Danny Wuerffel at all that year and his playing alone could also make my Top 5 Funny Saints Memories.)

The rest of the 1999 draft could've netted names like Kevin Faulk, Joey Porter, Mike McKenzie and many others. The 3-13 record in '99 would've given us a high enough 2000 pick to grab Lavar Arrington, Jamal Lewis, Plaxico Burress, or Brian Urlacher.

But no. Ditka got to play golf for two days. We got Ricky.

Saturday Night Live Sports All-Stars

Like I did for the Charles Barkley Saturday Night Live, I'm going to rate each of these skits out of 5. No Charles Barkley heads.

Maya Rudolph National Anthem (4/5) - Dinosaur Boy was rolling on the ground laughing. It was pretty funny and not so far-fetched actually. Some of these Star Spangled performances get out of hand.

Derek Jeter Monologue (2/5) - I don't usually like the monologues. Except Taylor Swift's was awesome.

Schmit's Gay (2/5) - The 2/5 is only because it was great to see Sandler and Farley. How was this "sports"? Either way, it wasn't really funny.

Peyton Manning | United Way (5/5) - I love Manning. This is funny. Spend time with your kids so Peyton Manning doesn't.

Lebron James | Read to Achieve (3/5) - Lebron isn't half bad here. It's not a great skit.

Yankee Stadium Stories (1/5) - The bread and meatballs was funny.

Mike Tyson | What Up With That (3/5) - Tyson's acting is terrible, his dancing is brilliant.

Michael Jordan | Stuart Smalley (3/5) - It's a classic and all, but I don't know. Maybe we've seen it too much.

Ray Romano | Sportscenter (5/5) - Excellent. I want to watch a full-hour Sportscenter like this.

Peyton Manning | Team Captain (5/5) - Most of the best recent male cast members plus Peyton. A little bit of pee came out.

Derek Jeter's Taco Hole (4/5) - Great Beach Boys parody. Need more Will Ferrell.

Stevie Wonder | Kannon Camera (1/5) - Pretty awful.

Shaquille O'Neal | Spanking (3/5) - Kind of funny, and not dragged out. I pretty much appreciate everything Shaq does.

Charles Barkley | Racist Macgruber (1/5) - Ugh.

Tiger Woods | The Situation Room (1/5) - Not funny.

Harry Caray | World Series (1/5) - I love Harry. I never found these skits funny. Why would I ever want to hear Harry talk about the Braves and Yankees? I'd rather hear the stories he's talking about. That's why we love Harry. His tangents aren't funny, they're awesome.

Game Time with Dave and Greg (5/5) - It's like Starman on crack. I liked this whole episode for the most part.

Hulk Hogan and Mr. T (3/5) - It's a shame that this is only decent because they are so awful at not laughing.

Tom Brady | Carnival (3/5) - You can see him aiming right below the hole.

Chris Farley and Nancy Kerrigan (4/5) - Farley is great.

Synchronized Swimming (2/5) - My wife loves this. I think it's OK for like a minute. But it goes on forever. It's like an entire mockumentary. In my sleep-deprived post-Blogathon state, this is ridiculously long.

ESPN Classic Bowling (3/5) - The guys are funny enough, but the bowling characters are definitely not. Two more strikes and she is out.

Tom Brady | Sexual Harassment and You (1/5) - TV (un)Funhouse.

Michael Phelps | The Charles Barkley Show (3/5) - Keenan Thompson is funny. Michael Phelps didn't do so well.

John Belushi | Donuts (2/5) - I thought we were ending with Barkley's Scared Straight and we got this instead.

Blogathon Bonus! I'm back for the NFL Pro Bowl...

10:02 - So, in reference to our podcast discussion, Favre's not even here but McNabb and Romo are. These rosters are not even close to the originals.

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9:35 - That was good. ESPN was interviewing Maurice Jones-Drew and he was supposed to be out on the field for a kick-off. He put on his helmet and ran to the field, but it was too late. Back to the bench.

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8:58 - It's the first half and we're already seeing David Garrard?? OK, unless Rodgers and Shaub come back in, I think it's time for me to switch over and check out the Saturday Night Live Sports Special on NBC.

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8:30 - Young just threw it abut three yards short on a quick 10-yard pass. Although it could have to do with the fact that the coach in his helmet sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher.

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8:28 - No offense, but since Vince Young came into this game, the NFC has taken over. Also, I could listen to Ray Lewis on the field all day. I'm hoping he becomes a head coach someday.

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8:00 - I like the audio in the huddle, but would like it more if I could hear Brees and Manning. TD -- Rodgers to Steve Smith.

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7:52 - Wow. While I'd still like to see the NFC double-team Andre Johnson to make Shaub a little less comfortable, it probably doesn't really matter. Shaub looks pretty good. This also makes you wonder how good Brandon Marshall would be with Shaub throwing to him regularly.

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7:45 - No one touches the Shaqtus.

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7:40 - You would think the NFC would make sure to guard the one guy who Matt Shaub is used to throwing to!

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7:25 - So the big debate of course is should this game have been moved. Wedge and I discussed this a bit in our first podcast. I really don't think the time or location matters. I love the MLB All-Star Game. I do my best to watch the NBA All-Star Game because I think it's fun. I also watch all of the pre-game festivities and contests for both the MLB and NBA games.

On the other hand, I rarely watch the entire Pro Bowl. Many years I haven't even turned it on. And I think it says a lot that Wedge and I were not the slightest bit worried that we'd be asleep long before this game kicked off.

So I don't think it matters. Before the Super Bowl or after it. In Hawaii or wherever. Doesn't make a difference to me.

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7:15 - So yeah, I found out work is canceled tomorrow and I'm still pretty much snowed in. I haven't been to sleep yet because I'm crazy. I figure I might as well stay up and watch the Pro Bowl at this point. If I have any interesting thoughts, I'll post them here.


I still have lots of Blogathon supplies leftover. Party.

Checkered Flag!

Congrats to the new Porsch-ish Action Express team on their Overall Daytona 24 Hours win; Terry Borcheller, Mike Rockenfeller, Joao Barbosa and Ryan Dalziel! It surely wasn't the fastest car on the track, but as we all know, in order to finish first; first you must finish. Also a very big congrats to the Mazda Speedsource team of Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, Jonathan Bomarito and David Haskell. Huge wins for both very deserving teams and drivers.

Its a shame that it looks like Ganassi's loss is going to be pinned on Justin Wilson; we may never really know what he was feeling in the car, we'll only know what happened as a result of that garage visit.

And as the race festivities start their closing, I just wanted to take this time to thank everyone who joined us for our 2nd Annual 24-1/2 Hour Blogathon. In a way it just seems almost ridiculous to me that one year ago we had "Hey lets try and live-blog the race for all 24 hours" and in one year turned it into a full-on community of people blogging, commenting, chatting, and playing Mario Kart; from learning Cricket and watching tennis with Shane, to having Lindy Thackston and Vision's Pat Caporelli drop in on the roundtable; it was just so much fun.

Most of all... I really just can not believe that for 2 years in a row we actually covered sports, all-encompassing, for 24 and a half straight hours. And as the same way we closed things last year, I can repeat the same in earnest... thanks again everyone for joining us in whatever way you did... hopefully you come back throughout the year for everything else we do... but as for now... I need to get some sleep...

Congrats to us all, racing season has begun!

almost there!

Well, here we go. I'm sure Wedge will have a race wrap-up for us. I'm going to clean my house and hang out for as long as I can before I crash. Work should be fun in the morning.

Thanks to everyone for following along, playing Mario, live-chatting, everything.

More Super Bowl coverage coming this week.

Have fun!

Paul Page Back on ESPN again

For those of you who may not be watching Daytona; I'd recommend heading over to Snocross on ESPN/Winter X-Games, not just for Paul Pahge, but its also some great racing; with plenty of action. If you haven't heard, this year they added a ridiculously high banked curve and are calling it "Talladega" thats probably about all you need to know about that.

Holy crap just as I type that Levi Lavalle goes over the top of Talladega!

Back in Daytona though, we're under the 20 minute mark and it really looks like the Action "Porsche" is going to go to victory lane in its first ever race, which is simply remarkable if you know anything about the troubles they've had trying to get going. Also interesting to see that the Ganassi team is already putting the onus on Justin Wilson for the garage drive-thru.

a final Blogathon limerick - #3

These 24 hours were fun
And soon we will know who has won
But I just keep hopin'
I keep my eyes open
And don't fall asleep 'til it's done