Today is Saturday, time to pump the brakes a bit
I feel like it is time that we all just take a step back and let the week's events wash over us like a warm, soft wave of crystal clear blue water...just take it all in. The smelly lady on the train, plane, bus or carpool (did not know that it was a compound word) that you may be involved in is behind you. That really and I mean really awful lunch that you had to settle for on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday because you were tied up with something (but really you were just being lazy, I mean really, really lazy) that gave you that pinching feeling in your lower intestines...it happened, no one wants to rehash it, we are moving on.
Enough about the week, for the weekend (as the girl's sock so tastefully stated) has arrived!! Except for those who work on weekends, which I assume you probably have 1 day or hopefully 2 days off a week, so pretend that that day is today! Let's dive into today's LET'S PUMP THE BRAKES part of the post!
LET'S PUMP THE BRAKES, just a bit
Have you ever seen the movie Devil's Advocate? It's a story about a lawyer who rises up through the ranks, makes it big, moves to the big city and eventually finds out that he is kinda sorta the spawn of Satan (played by Al Pacino). Sorry for the spoiler alert if you haven't seen it, but really...it's been out since 1997. If you haven't seen it by now, you probably won't and that's on you, not me. Anyway, not that point. So in the movie basically this lawyer (played by Keanu Reeves) rises to the top thinking that he is an awesome Southern lawyer who has made it big and then gets tempted by the Devil. It gets pretty ugly in the end and all the devil tells him is that he believes in free will, giving people options and lets them make the decision (as opposed to some sort of divine destiny set out by God where you have no choice (according to Al Pacino)). Well now you know what this one was more or less all about.
SO, I am in no way about to call the good ol' folks at Nike the devil by any means but I felt like the reference to Devil Advocate was worth it when you read this article about how they kinda sorta got testy when a 9 year-old boy wore an Under Armour hoodie instead of one of their swoosh hoodies - http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11296754/nike-official-emails-florida-state-seminoles-armour-sweatshirt-worn-jimbo-fisher-son Basically the summary goes like this - Florida State University's (FSU) football team is sponsored by Nike. The goes for basically anyone on the sideline, coaches, players, water boys, those grad students they have on the side making sure that the TV wires are perfectly coiled so that no trips and falls over them...essentially everyone. FSU wins a game and are walking off of the field where the coach is mobbed by on-field reporters...his son who is 9, presumably was around the sidelines and runs over to join him as they head for the locker room. The TV cameras are following his every dirty, disgusting contract breaching move. This kid thinks...oh, hey look at me I am only 9, I can wear whatever I want. I'm in fourth grade and I'm THE BOSS! Wrong! Nike sent an email to Coach Jimbo Fisher asking/demanding that his son find something else to wear...something a little more Nike and less UA. Then of course they did a sleazy little - "hey, it was just a joke, we were only kidding". Were you Nike? Were you? I rest my case! (See how I did that there, tied it back into the Devil's Advocate? The movie I just mentioned before...yes, I just told you about it) Anyway, Nike - pump your brakes a bit and let the kid wear some Under Armour, their stuff is pretty sweet. Editor's note: This event occurred during the 2013 season but is just making headlines now due to whatever reason, making more scandalous. And a big thanks to the people at themetapicture.com for that cool Nike logo you see above.
Moving right along to the Pump Your Brakes piece, we have Jerry Jones and his Dallas Cowboys "America's Team". Are they trying to imply that if you hate the Cowboys, that you hate America? 'Cause if they are...they better watch their big, ugly mouths. So it seems like ol' Jer' is up to something on the PR front this pre-season. He so annoyingly sent his season ticket holders their tickets for the season recently and in that envelope there was also a ticket sheet with tickets for playoffs games including the NFC Championship game. Oh Jerry, why did you do this? Cool souvenir for the season ticket holders (not a terrible one right now, but in January when they finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs, will it be cool?) or maybe it was your way of "motivating" your star QB and WR Tony Romo and Dez Bryant respectively? I honestly do not know, nor will most of us every really know what's going on in the cabeza of yours. I will give him credit for sticking with Romo through these years, but at the same time...at the key moments he is always the goat...and not like the acronym Greatest Of All Time. But Jerry at least you have that, I don't know why you have that since you have run through head coaches like you're getting paid by the hire (you are not a placement firm, that's not how it works). Hey at least you passed on Sean Payton saving him the trouble of having to stick around through mediocre seasons with a mediocre (by comparison) quaterback. Nah, he went to New Orleans, get set up with Drew "Easy Breezy" Brees and the rest is history - Super Bowl wins, making the playoffs like every year, passing records...blah blah blah. But as they say in Mets Land Jerry, there is always next year. I could be completely wrong in my assessment of this one, but if history has taught us anything...it tends to repeat itself.
So there you have it folks! (Haven't typed out folks in a long time) Those are the stories in sports that have people talking. All of this writing about football has left me amped up for September! For the record, I am a Jets fan so any of my opinions from this point forward must be reviewed from the standpoint that rationality is not my strong suit.
Enjoy your Saturday and as always...
Happy Watching!!
