Thanksgiving Weekend Leftovers

Now that the food coma has settled down from the weekend, I realized that there were tons of things that happened that I didn’t get a chance to reflect on. Now that it’s back to the grind, I can collect some thoughts on the weekend that was Thanksgiving, and give you some of my leftover thoughts.

Leslie Neilsen

It was sad to hear this morning that Leslie Neilsen died last night from pneumonia at the tender age of 84. “The Naked Gun” series was easily one of my favorites growing up, and fell slightly behind “Back to the Future” in the times watched category. In my eyes, Leslie started the spoof/making fun of movies that were already made game, and set the bar way too high for the Waynes Brothers to duplicate with one possible exception “Don’t be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Juice in the Hood”. It’s amazing how times have changed, and even though he’s gone now, Frank Drebbin, errr, I mean, Enrique Palazzo will always be the best hometown umpire we’ve ever seen to call a game (too bad it benefitted the Angels). Thanks for the laughs Leslie, you will always be remembered.

The WolfPack Takes Down Boise State

I had mixed emotions about this game. I’m friends with a ton of UNR graduates, so I was happy for them that Nevada won. At the same time, I was also rooting for Boise to have a shot at the title game, but they didn’t come through. I’ve never pretended to understand the BCS rankings, but doesn’t it seem like Nevada should be ranked higher than Boise since they just beat them?!? I guess not… It was a great game if you didn’t see it, it was shocking that the WolfPack came back from such a large deficit. I really felt bad for the Boise State’s kicker, who missed two field goals at the end of the game. He killed off two years, and 24 straight wins of hard work to get that program to the point where they had a shot at being in the National Championship in a span of a mere twenty minutes. It might have been the least forgivable performance since Andres Escobar scored his own goal in the 1994 World Cup, but fortunately for Kyle Brotzman (the Boise kicker), he lives in America instead of Columbia, and I doubt will be killed for it. He might have to do a Bartman type relocation, but in the end, that’s not that bad. Hopefully he doesn’t turn out like Finkle and kidnap Kellen Moore just before their bowl game next year.

Spygate Part Deux

Both the college and pro Broncos were losers over Thanksgiving weekend, but one wasn’t losing just on the field. I’m always a fan of seeing a divisional foe get caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and the Broncos were fined $100K for it. I thought it was laughable that the McDaniels says he didn’t know that the “cheating/filming” was taking place. The way he was making horrible decisions on trades (Hillis) and draft picks (Tebow) the past two seasons, it seems pretty obvious to me that he would do anything to get an edge. Especially if that’s what he learned from Bellichick. I actually don’t care that much about the cheating since the 49ers even said that they didn’t really care, but it did re-open the Patriots Spygate discussion again, and for that, I’m thankful. I guess I assumed at the time the Pats were caught in the original scandal that the Pats cheated for multiple games in that one season, but hearing that the NFL knew about them cheating for years before they handed down any punishment as being the reason that the Broncos received a lighter punishment is ridiculous. Is the league all about keeping a golden boy Brady and Bellichick on the good side of the news feed more important than the integrity of its league as a whole? Baseball seemed to think steroids was bigger than the game, so maybe the NFL wanted to protect its special little cheaters. Were the Pats cheating during the tuck game that I will never get over as a fan? Hopefully not, but if I have to question it, that’s a bad thing in general. It just makes me sad that I follow my teams with Bambi like adoration, and the hierarchy’s that control the sport are making me question the team of this past decade (the Patriots) accomplishments.  If some more of Bellicheat’s disciples get caught for similar cheating offenses, I would like to see them ban Bellichick from football. Much like the way that Pete Rose was banned from baseball. Why hasn’t this even entered into any conversations anywhere?

Spolstra vs. the Heat

Is it just me or did the campaign of us (Lebron, Wade, and Bosh) vs. the world turn into us vs. Spolstra? I honestly feel bad for Spolstra. He has no command of the team, and with an ego like Pat Riley waiting in the wings he had no chance before the season even started unless they were challenging the 70 win season record, which the Spurs are presently doing a pretty good job of. When Riley assembled this team, a man with endless basketball knowledge, did he truly think this would work? He sat smiling while watching them count championship rings before they played an exhibition game. Riley had to have known that Spolstra couldn’t take on these egos. Bosh has requested more “chill” time. Lebron is complaining he’s too tired from playing too many minutes, and like Bosh also wants more chill time to be himself and have fun. Truly great teams take on the attitude of their coach, and Spolstra’s personality is seemingly the polar opposite of Lebron and Bosh. He’s simply not a joking kind of guy, and based on what’s being said about him from “inside” sources, he’s supposedly being too detail oriented. Really, that’s the best you guys can come up with? I thought the little details is what wins games for you! If the players really want to know what it’s like to not have fun at work, they can step in for me for a day, and I’ll run with their team no questions asked.

I guess this trio is a product of our generation. I’m thinking we should call this the instant gratification generation. I think maybe MJ did set the bar too high, and made everyone forget how hard he worked for everything. I think the worst part about this whole debacle is that Riley isn’t stepping in to help his young coach. Wouldn’t it be nice to see Riley help by telling Lebron and Bosh to grow up, and man up publically? It’s rare that a superstar needs a kick in the butt, but that’s what it looks like they need right now, and Riley waffling on whether he wants to return to the sidelines is making it impossible for Spolstra to keep anyone’s attention in the locker room. All in all, I think these egos would fit much better with a coach that has the ego to match. Riley, just take over this team already, you might be the only one with a bigger ego than Lebron. I can’t help but think, was this the plan all along? Put together a hodgepodge of crap players together that you know won’t truly work to see how these guys do, then when Riley knows all of the teams weaknesses, address them, and take them to the next level. Sounds like a foolproof legacy building plan to me…