Awesome Hair in Sports & Redskins Nickname Debate

Hi Everybody!! Happy Hump Day!

Watching as much sports as I do, I come across a lot of wacky things!  Crazy plays, weird characters, horribly blown calls and one of my favorites...Insane Hairdos!  The most popular non-traditional hair cut these days is the Mohawk.  Some guys have it pretty short but some keep it a little longer and ends up looking like a greasy rat's nest.  You probably saw a ton of these during last month's World Cup.

Very, very big in the Latin and South American leagues…But there are a bunch out there that look at the traditional hair cuts, laughs in their faces and flips them the bird - and here are some of them!

Here is your classic dreadlock/braids type thing...not for me but Johnny Cueto has been en fuego this season and deserves some recognition!  The best thing about this look is that with the hair and do rag his hat is barely on his head...just great.

I am going to mix in a throwback here and there to act as a short history lesson for ya'll...Here my friends is Oscar Gamble.  Gambling with that hair is 100% accurate!  Insane, but in my opinion  a fail.  Hair can't be the only thing you're remembered for in your career.

Next up we have USA Mens National Team superstar Kyle "hair a little too dirty for my tastes" Beckerman.  Most who watched the 2014 WC saw him for the duration of the USA stay and wondered why?  The answer?  Not sure, for sure!  All I can think of is what is really going on in that mess?

THROWBACK Time!!!  One of my personal faves for professional basketball and just in sports in general is the crazy stuff Dennis Rodman came out with, both on and off of the court. Remember that time he wore that wedding dress to promote his book in 1996??  Here he is in all of his splendor!  LOVE IT or HATE IT, he don't care

                     

And last but not least, here's another one from the World Cup!  It's David Luiz! Or is it Weird Al....or is it Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons?  It's anyone's best guess at this point.

And there you have it!  If you have any other cool hair cuts to contribute, the more the merrier!  Reply with the link and I will get them up for all to see.

From Jenn Rasmussen with a classic rat tail pic...obviously soccer...no one in baseball is rocking this! Or are they?

Moving right along into this whole Redskins should change their name thing because it is offensive!  (Not the Redskins shown below but part of their cheer leading corps.  Better than a pic of RG III at training camp, what kind of blog do you think this is?

Dan Snyder (the oft criticized owner of the Washington Redskins) has recently come under public scrutiny for refusing to change the football team's name from Redskins to anything not Redskins.  A number of public interest groups are sharpening their, dare I say tomahawks with a good mind to run Snyder into the long arms of the PC police.  Look, I get it…some people find the name degrading.  I am not of Native American heritage (and I am not referring to the Pilgrims or the Pennsylvania Dutch or the sire of John Smith and Pocahontas), but I mean how bad is it?  If the they changed the name to the Washington Wasps (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) or the Chesapeake Crackers I wouldn't be offended.  Heck, think of the cross promotions with Nabisco and Cracker Barrel…it's a no-brainer in my opinion!  I would find it kind of funny, but maybe it's not the same thing…again not Native American.  This would be a cool logo for a fantasy football team if you lived in DC or Maryland.

HOWEVER, just a few things to think about (which I did not know, until I read and heard about it) - The team was originally named after a Native American who was the franchises first head coach William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz.  Also, Walter "Blackie" Wetzel, a former president of the National Congress of American Indians and chairman of the Blackfeet Nation worked with the committee who designed the original team logo.  Does this make everything cool?  Nah, it's kinda like bringing in a few tokens and just making past the minority laws for hiring.  ESPN.com has a quick poll on their website which out of 49,000 or so votes, 71% said that they shouldn't change their name.  Even NFL Mafioso leader Roger Goodell has stayed away from it and said that he sees no reason to make a name change…Our fearless leader President Barak Obama went so far as to say…."he would think about it".  What do you think?  Does anyone care?  Any cool names out there that make sense?  At worst, if you find the name offensive…don't buy the jersey.  It would be really funny if they changed the name to something incredibly racist.  Hey, they never offered any suggestions they just said change it.

Here we go from Jennifer Rasmussen - Potatoes!  Love it! Makes perfect sense!

Ok kiddies, that's it for today!

Happy Watching!

Retirements, The DL & Suspensions Just Another Monday

For a slow day in sports, there was a lot of bad news!

Hey everybody!  It's Tuesday and am I ready for a full slate of baseball games and maybe something else to show up in the world of sports because MAN, was yesterday D-pressing.  Let's get down to business - 

The dude pictured above is the former runningback for the New York Giants David Wilson.  He abruptly announced his retirement yesterday at the age of 23.  Wilson re-aggravated a neck injury that he suffered last season which left him with no option but to undergo neck surgery in 2013.  His limited time on the field showed that he had the talent (unfortunately he was a fumbler) to play in and and excel at the NFL level.  There are not many people who will ever be able to say that and what more amazing about this story is that he valued being able to literally walk away from the game. In a recent NYT article he stated that he told his dad at 8 years old that he wanted to play in the NFL and he did amassing 1925 all purpose yards (6th all time in Giants history) in his rookie season just 2 years ago.  I applaud his decision to save his body for the rest of his life and not risk losing part of it for a game.  Good luck Mr. Wilson, the Giants will miss you.

Stephen A Smith was suspended yesterday by ESPN (kinda sorta the new dark overlords of cable television (Thanks Disney...jerks)) for comments he made on air about Ray Rice's recent suspension for knocking out his fiancee in an Atlantic City casino elevator. He got a 2 game suspension for it from the NFL and people are taking all kinds of angles on this one.  Stephen A Smith asked basically, do we know what happened before Ray Rice knocked her out?  I do not believe that Smith was advocating for violence against women.  He actually does bring up a semi-interesting question.  What did happen?  Was there any inquiry into, does anyone care?  I mean I would at least like to know if maybe he found her stealing 20 from his pocket while he wasn't watching or maybe he found out that she was sleeping around with old friends from summer camps.  The thing is we just don't know.  While I really, really find Stephen A Smith completely unwatchable the question he asked was what writers and talking heads should be asking.  Most of the time I think he has it wrong but this time I think he is getting punished unfairly for asking a god question, bringing up a good nugget to the discussion. He nor anyone else involved in this situation is saying, "Oh yeah man, that chick had it coming!!"  Well at least I would like to think they don't think that.  Maybe she made fun of her future mother-in-laws teeth or something...can't be messing with momma's teff!

MLB DL Round Up

Two of baseball's bigger super stars are now on the DL and could potentially miss the rest of the seaon.  Paul Goldschmidt (left) and Andrew McCutheon (right) are beast in both real and fantasy baseball.  If you have them on you fave real team, it's over.  If you have them on your fantasy team...it's really over.

Ok kiddies, time to go to work... (Mets stink)
Here's to a better sports day today!

Happy Watching!!

Weekend Wrap Up - Monday is Upon Us! (It'll Be Fine, Maybe)

And here we are!  Sunday afternoon, so let's dance!

Not that sorta David Bowie "Let's Dance" type of thing...more of a let's recap the weekend, move in the general direction of Sunday night and make it a happy Monday morning (if there ever was one).  For those of you unaware of the image pasted above, that my friends is Heisenberg.  If you do not know who he is, you should...and if you do not care to know, you have been warned.  It's your call really, I don't care because I already know.  It's that simple.  My wife has been using this as her fantasy football team name for the past few seasons, and I must say it is well played.  The mild mannered Mr. Walter White becomes the take no prisoners, Heisenberg.  Embracing the IJDGAF (inquire within) attitude of Heisenberg with the mild mannered high school science teacher.  

I am still taking requests for fantasy baseball/football team names...don't be shy!

Anyway, let's dance!  Have you ever watched a professional baseball game where one pitcher hits a player on the other team with a pitch and then the next inning or the inning after that the opposing pitcher hits the best player on the other team with a slow curve ball in the back?  It's kind of one of those "unwritten" rules. It happens all of the time.  The umpire warns everyone, players get semi-testy and it kinda dies down after the second guy get hit with an errant pitch in the back.  Yes, it is 100% dumb...100% (I repeat) dumb! I get it if the first guy is trying to hurt the other team but generally an Arizona Diamondbacks-Pittsburgh Pirates game doesn't quite warrant that level of stupidity.  Which leads me to quote one of my favorite movies Snatch - "You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity" - Bullet Tooth Tony.  Essentially what I am getting at is this - http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11303611/paul-goldschmidt-arizona-diamondbacks-likely-rest-season

Paul Goldschmidt (All Star first baseman) gets hit in the hand with an errant pitch in Friday night's game against the Pirates (where the Bucs are leading 9-4) and his season is over...broken hand out around 8 weeks...that's October.  Sucky but it happens.  I really, really do not think that Ernesto Frieri meant to do it...at all.  It would make zero point zero sense for him to purposely hit him at all.  BUT Arizona pitcher Randall Delgado felt it was required of him to hit the other team's best player at some point...randomly in the next game...in the ninth inning...in the middle of the back with a 95 MPH heater...makes sense.  Randall Delgado, you are a certified jerk bag.  There it has been said.  This makes no sense, it's just stupid...but as Bullet Tooth Tony mentioned earlier, "You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity" because this is what baseball is all about.  Pitcher A pitches inside, Pitcher B pitches inside, Pitcher A (or B) is the first one to hit someone, Pitcher (the other one) must drill a guy in the middle of the back where that whole spine/nerve center thing is or let down his team.  Dumb, very dumb.  Do pitchers initiate this action sometimes, of course...but when they don't I really think it's insane for it to fall to a guy playing CF when the whole thing went down.  Just my opinion.

And this guy wants to buy the Buffalo Bills - 

You are from New Jersey, you're wearing a Patriots hat and you want to buy the Bills....who are you?  Really, who are you?  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend or your Monday morning!!

Happy Watching!

It's Saturday!! Let's Slow Things Down A Bit (insert weekend here)

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.

Oh and the story - http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/11295007/dallas-cowboys-include-playoff-tickets-package-season-ticket-holders

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!!