P.O.V.

Today, I want to talk about two of my favorite success stories, President Barack Obama and QB Michael Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles. If you think about it, it's not much of a stretch to talk about both in the same blog. The Prez is a for real sports fan (including football) and Vick, who was just selected to start for the NFC in this year's Pro Bowl, has become a MVP candidate while leading his team to the NFC East crown. The thing is that this blog is not really about sports.

President Obama called the owner of the Eagles, Jeffery Lurie, to talk about how he was going to use alternative energy sources to power his stadium. During this conversation, he praised Lurie for taking the risk to sign Vick to play for his team. Vick had just completed a nineteen month prison term for his role in running a dog fighting ring. He was vilified for his role in the ring, which included the killing of pit bulls by drowning, electrocution and hanging. Obama said that 'It's never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail.' Lurie said that Obama was happy that "we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall."

Some critics, who apparently had a slow hate day, criticized the President for his remarks. They said that we should not be so quick to "so enthusiastically embrace him less than two years after he left prison". Who are these haters? They could hate because they hate the Eagles. Could be because they are dog lovers. Could be because they hate felons. Could be because of race. It could be all of the above.

Let me get this straight: There are people that hate a guy who, after fully paying his debt to society, (a lawyer friend I spoke with last night said that Joseph Blow off the street would have not gotten much time - if any - for the same offense) has come out and has become a positive contributor to society. Even the animal rights group PITA, has said that Vick has done (and said) all the right things since his release. OK.

Personally, I love stories like Vick's. I believe in second chances. I believe in redemption. A guy who has been shown the error of his ways is taking advantage of a opportunity to show that he can do the right thing. Kinda like that Ashford and Simpson song titled, "I Like Happy Endings." While this book has a way to go, it's a good read so far.

When I started this blog in July, inspired by a couple of instructors from a workshop I attended, I initially asked myself why. I was fine just talkin the talk with my crew about sporting events. But, as I told you guys in the past, apparently I was not. It really didn't hit me until I recently looked at my information regarding my blog. People as far as Alaska have read my blog. Wow. Now while I don't expect ESPN or Comcast Sportsnet to come calling, I do enjoy this. One of my new year's resolutions for this past year was to develop the communication side of my life. I guess this qualifies. As always, thank you for reading my blog and I hope you continue to read it in the coming year. Be safe and God Bless.

Here is the last Friday Freeze Jukebox for the year (on a Wed.):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knaGIOJNxTc

The Game is the Game

I'm not sure is this a rant. I'll let you be the judge.


Five Ohio State football players, including starting QB Terrelle Pryor, leading rusher Daniel "Boom" Herron, No. 2 wide receiver DeVier Posey, All-Big Ten offensive tackle Mike Adams and backup defensive end Solomon Thomas have been suspended for the first five games of next year's schedule for violating NCAA rules. Their violation? Selling their own property that they earned (i.e., jerseys, championship rings, awards won) in exchange for, among other things, tattoos from two years ago. Not only do they have to sit out the games next year, they also must donate $1,000 to $2,500 - the value of the things they sold or the discounts they received - to charity. Despite their heinous act, they all will be able to play for their team's next game, the Sugar Bowl against Arkansas next week. Can't dilute the product; like Tony Soprano said, "We're runnin a business here". Again, pimpin ain't easy.

You know exactly where I'm going with this. While Ohio State will make a couple of million for their appearance next week, the student athletes will have to scrape on what their pimp (oh, sorry) school will provide for them. I'll say it again: It's time to pay student athletes a rate in accordance with what they make for their schools. Or at the least, let them make a legitimate living by doing legal transactions such as the bartering system. If not, they can always do the new hustle in the college game for student athletes.

What Cam Newton, well not him but his father did, was flip the script. Cam's father insists that his son has nothing to do with what the NCAA is trying to accuse him of. Basically, the father basically is accused of straight asking teams for cash for his son's services. It seems to be legit because he is not his son's agent and Cam didn't ask for nothing and isn't getting nothing (wink, wink). What the O State players should have done was to give their stuff to family members to sell. After all, when it is all said and done, at the end of the day all you have is family.

The Friday Freeze Jukebox makes an exception this week to extend a RIP to Crooner Teena Marie, who passed away yesterday. Was down with her way back in my freshman year in college. She was a classic crooner --especally with the ballads. Yes indeed, she will be missed. While the voice is gone, it's really not  with all of the great music she provided us. While I said that Portuguese Love was my favorite, I actually think that this is my favorite. Enjoy:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOd6fUWzxJo&feature=fvsr

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdezgJE903M

Bloglock....

I think I got a case of "bloggers cramp". I just didn't know what to talk about yesterday. There was a lot that happened the past couple of days in my sports world, I just couldn't pick out one. I was actually going to use my space to write a open letter to my home team, the Skins, putting them on notice that they were going to lose one of their loyal fans if they didn't get their act together. This comes out of my frustration from the treatment of QB Donovan McNabb. It's hard to continually defend a team when they continue to show tinges of continual poor treatment of some of their prominent players of color (I hear you JF). They got until next year to show improvement or I become a Ravens fan, pure and simple. Graduating from a Baltimore area school, living there for a few years and developing lasting friendships there would not make it a different decision. While my boyz show me love by letting me ride on the Ravens bandwagon every year (yes, they make the playoffs more often than not), i'm ready to upgrade my seat to a more comfortable ride.


Now for my corny side. For years, I kept my nose to the grindstone, concentrating on my work and personal business through holiday seasons. In recent years, I have learned to slow down and enjoy my friends and family more this time of year. I encourage you to do the same. Fully enjoy this holiday season and, wait for it, take time to stop and smell the roses.

Season's Greetings !!!

The Friday Freeze jukebox this week is a classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVju8BeUQWQ&playnext=1&list=PL0A14CB529A565532&index=45

He Cheatin...

It's never the crime that's bad...it's the cover up. You'll see what I'm talkin about.


I'm talkin about the controversy regarding the New York Jets strength & conditioning coach Sal Alosi, who's end of the season suspension for tripping a player during a football game has been changed to an indefinite suspension. This comes after a further acknowledgement by him that he in fact engineered a plan to get a couple of inactive players to create a wall to affect special teams play. In fact, if you look at the tape of the play in question, it actually becomes quite obvious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h32GjasxOvU

Could this have come from the top of the coaching food chain? It is hard to believe that a low level coach could have done this with out at least a wink and a nod from higher ups. What's making it more believable is the intensity that management is suddenly discovering this "new" information about the scope of this. "As we continued our investigation, we discovered some new information," Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said in a conference call from the NFL owners meetings in Dallas, "and the players at the Miami game were instructed by Sal to stand where they were to force the gunner in the game to run around them." Talk about throwing a guy under the bus with the sword pointed at his chest.

This comes from a locker room which has had to have sexual harassment training (my blog dated 9/15, Looks) and players with DWI issues (my blog dated 9/22, All you do is dial i.e. Braylon Edwards). To say the least, Rex Ryan is a players coach. The way that this is snowballing, it's lucky that this is not the Sopranos family or Alosi would be sleeping with the fishes.

Here is the Friday Freeze jukebox on a Thursday (I know, but I won't be here tomorrow) kinda of out there for me, but I like the cut:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apc_g_ZSZEE

Have a great weekend!!!

What's in a name?, Pt. 2

I was at a Ravens party a couple of weeks ago, and one of my boys was sayin that he never sees me wear any paraphernalia of my favorite football team, the Washington Redskins. Remember, the Ravens are my favorite AFC team who I have had a bandwagon ticket with the last couple of years.


The main reason that I don't wear Skins stuff comes out of respect for the group (the Indians). They have said many times in the past that the term is offensive to them. Some Native Americans say that the term promotes an image of "legacy of racism, oppression and genocide". A group recently lost a federal lawsuit because the Supreme Court said that they filed the lawsuit too late.

Now, while I could use the teams recent lack of success as cover for not wearing anything, I am proud of all of my home teams. With my group having a history of being beat down and oppressed (no sympathy, please), I can relate. Now, I admit it's kinda sideways with this point of view in part because I still root for the team in spite of their name and dysfunction. I admit it's the best I can do given my love for sports in general. Now if they changed their name to the Washington N--, now that's a totally different scenario altogether. I probably would rush to get a Jonathan Ogden Raven football jacket to rock in time for the playoffs.

Fantasy

How ya doin sports fans? This is Greg Jackson, owner and editor of the BreezyG Sports page, with the latest updates in my fantasy world. This report is brought to you by GAJ Consultants: It's never too late to shop for XMAS.


We start in the Yahoo league, the Cheeba V league, where it comes down a weekend showdown for the last playoff spot in the twelve team league. In the basement for most of the season, BreezyG House has won it's last three games and plays against Run N Gun, led by rookie QB Sam Bradford and probable All-Pro Greg Jennings. BrezzyG's House is paced by Aaron Rodgers and WR Reggie Wayne, who comes into the matchup with a bum knee.

We move to the NFL.com leagues, where in the Funk Mob League, they are just playing for respectability. With only four teams qualifying for the playoffs, the House is on the outside looking in at 6-7 with two to play, three games behind FULL TIME (9-4) for the last spot. Go figure with a team that had Rodgers, fantasy stud Payton Hillis and Colts receivers Wayne and TE Jacob Tamme. "Just the way the fantasy world goes." said head coach Greg Jackson. In the other league, Back in the Day, it's a different story altogether. After losing their first three games, the House has won their last ten in a row to earn a division title, #1 seed and a first round bye. The House has been carried by the Michael Vick experience, Greg Jennings and fantasy favorite stud Maurice Jones-Drew. They play the winner of the BABY SINISTER/Thyrl's Thugs matchup.

Now we come to the money league from the perennial Workforce Football League, completing it's 15th year of existence. No OJ, no straw. No playoffs in this league: 17 weeks, team with the best record after the dust settles wins. Period. Top four slots cash. Going into this week, The Urban City Marauders (love that name) are a half game out of the money, three games out of first place with four games to play. Me and the best player personell guy in the league, KG, have won four titles in this league and this weekend go up against Species XC18769 (it's a Star Trek thing), the team who has won this league the last two years. Will he play Payton tonight or rock Matty Ice?

That's the latest from my fantasy football world...We'll return you to reality on Monday. Have a great weekend!!! This is Greg Jackson reporting for the BreezyG Sports Page.

No More Drama

Finally, the Albert Hanesworth experience is over. Redskins management finally caught the vapors like Biz Markie and told him to go home. Like Keyshawn Johnson, like T.O., just get out. And just what the Skins get for their two year, $35 million investment? 77 tackles and 6 1/2 sacks.


Regular readers of my blog know that this outcome was no surprise (August 4th and 25th). It was a battle of wills from the OTA's, when Big Al wanted to train his way, practice his way and basically play his way. The immovable object met the immoveable force in new coach Mike Shanahan, who was the new sheriff in town and wasn't having it. I must mention at this point that the battle between the coach and, as Jimmy The Greek would have said, the 'big black athlete" had a Roots like tinge to it. This included his "conditioning tests" that he had to pass. In either case, it just never got better.

It culminated this past week when Hanesworth practiced poorly. Some media outlets reported that he was out partying a bit too much the previous night. While he did admit going out, he denied being hung over. The final straw was when he said he didn't even want to talk to the coach about it.

Now, while Skins management was just hoping their investment would work out, let's not forget big Al. He reminds me of a guy who was making $35,000 a year in his dead end job and was doing just enough to keep his job. He didn't like being there and let everybody know it. He really didn't care.

Now, just like civil court, comes the messy divorce. The Skins, by suspending him for the remaining four games of the year, are saving $847,000. Of course, Hanyesworth will be appealing. After all, how is a guy expected to get by on just 35 million dollars in two years?

Quoth the Raven...Do you need more?

Today I am speaking to Raven Nation. They lost a very tough contest last night, 13-10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers, to lose their grip on first place in the AFC North. As a member of the Raven bandwagon (with the Skins bounced out the playoff picture by the Giants), I have to ask this question: Can the Ravens win the Super Bowl with Joe Flacco as your QB?


Stat wise he was decent (17/33, 266 yds, 1 TD), but as I said in Friday's blog, he could not tremble. Reading some of my texts, Ravens fans thought differently. I got texts that said that he reminded one of my boys of Phil Simms. Others agreed while one of my boys said that he plainly choked. Now let me be clear: Even though Chris Collingsworth said that the Polamalu blitz that caused the fumble was his fault, I'm not even concentrating on that. I'm talking about his overall demeanor. While the Steeler defence could upset most quarterback's demeanor, I was not feelin Flacco's confidence. He can not run the offence so matter-of-factly and expect to win. The last straw was bouncing that 4th down pass at the end of the game to seal it for the Steelers.

So I ask again Raven Nation: Can you win the Super Bowl with Joe Flacco as your starting QB?

Old Skool Football

While the "real" crucial game for me this weekend is the Skins trying to keep their playoff hopes alive against the Giants, the other big game for me this weekend is the slobberknocker between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens in B-More. To use a Baltimore baseball vernacular, ain't the beer cold.


On the offensive side of the ball, I give the nod to the Steelers. They are a top ten unit in both rushing (126 yds./gm) and in time of possession with more than 33 minutes per game. While they have a decent reciever corps, the guy who makes them go is QB Ben Roethlisberger, who has a top five QB rating. He'll be coming into this weekend's matchup with a bad foot. The Ravens, on the other hand, have a better passing game and better receiver crew, led by great pickup Anquan Boldin, who has 51 catches to date this year. They run just enough (114 yds./gm) to make you respect the pass. Flacco can not tremble this weekend.

The game will be won on the defensive side of the ball. Pittsburgh is 5th in overall defense, the Ravens 8th. The Ravens have given up 18 TD's this year, the Steelers 17. The points difference given up between the two per game is less than a point (16.5 vs. 17.1). Both teams play smashmouth defence. Now do you see why I call this game a slobberknocker? I can not talk about this game defensively without the wild card on both sides, probable (that's right, I said it) HOF Ed Reed. What's gets me is that other teams still throw the ball his way a lot.

While there are so many angles to look at this from, I pick the Ravens for two main reasons. The Ravens are undefeated at home this year (Pittsburgh also comes off a terrible showing last week against Buffalo) and I have to make sure that I have my seat on the Raven bandwagon for the playoffs this year when the Skins are eliminated. C'mon, I'm not crazy.

By the way, who you got and why? Have a great weekend!!!

Also, the Friday Freeze Jukebox want to hip you to Chicago Afro Punk Rapper Nikki Lynette, who is not to be confused with rapper Nikki Minaj. If you get a chance, listen and tell me what you think:

http://www.theroot.com/views/root-interview-chicago-afro-punk-rapper-nikki-lynette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rIPM76wCjw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuW92AJY-3w&feature=related

Telling the story...

When I sit down to watch a sporting event, I also hope to sit down with a announcer who will help me enjoy the game better with decent analysis, effective research and real emotion from the heart. There are not that many guys in the business that bring that type of quality on a regular basis. Today I give you a couple of guys who did it (or are doing it) game in and game out, Michael Jordan style. These are not my top three, but they are in the conversation. It would take much longer to really review other broadcasters on a broader basis. For now...

• Al Michaels. For me, the Bentley of commentators. Has come a long way from choosing women to appear on The Dating Game. Arguably part of the best announcing pair in sports history, teaming with John Madden. His signiture emotion line comes from the miracle on ice from the 1980 Olympics (Do you believe in miracles...Yes!!!) The only sportscaster to to be a play-by-play voice or host for the Olympics, plus the championships of the four major American pro sports, having called the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals. In something totally irrelevant, he even recited a couple of songs from rapper 50 cent, who sat next to Michaels while on the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

• Gus Johnson. This guy seems to come from the roots up. Had a cup of coffee in the DC area with Channell 5 before branching out into play-by-play. Mostly known for his work with March Madness with his signature lines that include, "Oh my goodness!", "Rise and fire... Count it!", "From the parking lot!", "Pure!", and "BAM!". He has also done football with CBS Sports and will be the voice of the upcoming video game EA Sports, Madden 11. His latest "real" line for me comes from a recent physical boxing match (yep, he's doing Showtime boxing too) in which he said that they were "throwing bowls in the ring!!!". Now that's real.

• Pat Summerall. This was an incredibly difficult pick for me. This could have easily been Brent Muntsberger, Vin Scully or for my money, Verne Lundquist. What got him the nod was his large body of work, which included working with John Madden (another all-time best combo) for 22 years and his other partner Tom Brookshier. Did 16 Super Bowls in his career, as well as US Open and Master's golf work. Has one of the all time broadcasting voices in history--never needed no special voice inflection or style. His voice alone could tell the story.

I know what your'e thinking: How can John Madden be left off the list if he has worked with two of your three? I'm speaking of play-by-play commentators. Guys who told the story while you were watching it. Now color commentators are an entirely different blog altogether.

Who are your favorites?