Views from the Nosebleeds: Super Bowl LI Recap

For the first three quarters of Super Bowl LI, it seemed like the most entertaining aspect was Lady Gaga's halftime performance--and even that received mixed reviews.  On top of the Super Bowl commercials rivaling the bust statuses of Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell sans three or four, it was looking like the high-flying Falcons were well on their way to a third consecutive postseason blowout victory and the first Super Bowl in franchise history.  As a football fan, I was deflated at returning to the 80s and 90s when playoff and Super Bowl beatdowns were par for the course because I enjoy competition.  However, leave it to Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots to help save the day...

It's Okay...You Can Say It...Tom Brady Is the G.O.A.T.

I'm not here to talk about Tom Brady and "Deflategate", especially when my favorite quarterback of all time admitted his offensive line sprayed silicone on their jerseys and my favorite receiver said he used stickum to catch the ball better.  I'm not here for his Make America Great Again hat, his association with President Donald Trump, his "immigrant wife", him knocking up two women at the same time or any of his other White male privilege faux pas, not when the great Michael Jordan cheated on his wife, was a notoriously stingy tipper and orchestrated some of the greatest shade ever known (i.e., the Isiah Thomas snub from the Dream Team).  I am here to discuss football and why we can now set ourselves free of the long-debated quarterback G.O.A.T. debate, which has usually included Dan Marino, Peyton Manning in this generation and the consensus favorite in Joe Montana.  While it could be considered being a prisoner of the moment, even people who want to see a box of those Make America Great Again hats dropped on Brady's head from ten stories high have conceded: TB12 is the G.O.A.T. and here's why I won't argue with anyone about it...

Views from the Nosebleeds Special Edition: Super Bowl LI Prediction

Everyone will salivate over the seventh Super Bowl appearance in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era ad nauseam.  Heck, folks are also already crowning Brady the best quarterback of all time over Joe Montana--although I'll wait until he wins to have that conversation.  However, here's a fun fact few people will mention: the NFC South is the only division where all four teams have been to a Super Bowl in the past 20 years and two of those teams have reigned victorious.  While the Patriots have dominated their division over the past 15 years, the Falcons have clawed their way through one of the toughest divisions in football to break an 18-year hiatus, looking to win the first championship in their 50-year history.  So of course, you've come here because you're expecting a prediction, right?!?!  Patience, my friends...analysis first, prediction last...

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: Super Bowl Edition

Although I'll give the nod to the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season being the most wonderful time of the year, Super Bowl Week has to be in the conversation for the most entertaining second fiddle.  I mean, what other major North American sporting event draws as much fanfare and drama as the Super Bowl before the 6:18-ish Sunday kickoff?  Maybe NBA All-Star Weekend in its heyday, but it still ain't the Super Bowl.  While it's rare for me to ever tell my readers to overlook any of my posts, please treat my earlier post about Super Bowl duds like a quarterback who threw an interception on his last drive.  Let's get to five Big Game Sunday Studs, i.e., my top five Super Bowls of all time...

1350 Okie Doke Street: The Super Bowl Brick Quintet

When someone or something doesn't live up to the hype, it goes without saying how disappointing it can be--especially when it involves who or what you love at least 85 percent more than anyone or anything else in  the world.  As an avid football who has been alive for 38 of the 50 Super Bowls, I have seen some memorable games which either met or exceeded expectations--which I'll get into in our last post of the day.  However, because the Super Bowl has become one of several American pastimes as well as the premier sporting event, the scuttlebutt and endless discussions leading up to the big game has also meant a few duds have occurred.  So in true "1350 Okie Doke Street" fashion--and because I haven't done one of these since November--one of the best ways to celebrate Super Bowl Week with New Problem Tuesdays is to share five of the most disappointing Super Bowls I've ever seen.  Let's relive some of that trash talk which fell flat, bets which didn't work in your favor, pizza and beer from 2002 you're still trying to work off and those four hours of your life you wish you could get back--or more if you watched every pregame special like the bonafide fanatic you are...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 8

If you're an avid sports fan, then this was your week.  Beginning of the World Series between the two franchises with the longest World Series championship droughts in the Cubs and Indians.  Beginning of the 2016-17 NBA regular season, which saw a loaded Warriors squad get their lunch money taken by the Tim Duncan-less Spurs to the tune of 129-100.  While very few people I know are checking for NHL action this early in the season, football nearly took a back seat in the midst of a smorgasbord of intriguing sports options until a Saturday night thriller in Tallahassee with No. 3 Clemson outlasting (now) No. 19 Florida State, 37-34.  Not to mention Fox being the beneficiary of a quadruple-header on Sunday between three back-to-back NFL contests and a do-or-die Game 5 of the World Series for the Cubs.  So during a weekend which featured eight games decided by eight points or less, three overtime games and the first consecutive weeks of back-to-back ties since Weeks 12 and 13 of the 1997 season, there was a lot to love and hate about Week 8...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 7

As evidenced from last week's edition of "Views from the Nosebleeds", the "meantime in between time" leading into Week 6 had more compelling storylines.  However, coming into Week 7, the most interesting story was Stephen A. Smith's diatribe of Washington's NFL team.  Although the fellow Libra has been on my nerves for the past year or so for a plethora of reasons, I agreed wholeheartedly with him laying into the pride of Landover for being so arrogant in somehow thinking they arrived because they beat the Eagles for a fourth straight time, especially since they had a road trip date to face a quarterback who they've never beaten.  Outside of that, all was quiet on the Western front and I initially had to reach for this week's "Plus/Minus Take of the Week", which was originally about all of the key injuries piling up around the league.  However, once an unexpected development occurred in South Florida yesterday, it completely changed the tide.  Sometimes, you have to be patient and wait for the story, even if it's last minute.  Let's waste no more time, folks...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 5

Whoever scheduled Game 2 of the NLDS matchup between the Dodgers and my hometown  Nationals for a 1:08 p.m. pitch was trying it.  First and foremost, didn't they know it's football season?  Second, and more important, didn't they know the Battle of the Beltway between Washington's NFL team and the Ravens was also kicking off at 1 o'clock?  Third, why would they torture a hardcore football fan like me by forcing me to flip between FOX, NFL RedZone and FS1?!?!  It's bad enough when I have to estimate how long commercials breaks last when I'm flipping back and forth between FOX and NFL RedZone, but throwing a third channel in the mix is overkill.  Thank God the NFL games were all at halftime when catcher Jose Lobaton hit a three-run homer to give the Nats their first lead of the series.  Bottom line, although the sports fan in me loves the smorgasbord, I like my helpings to be more balanced.  Do better, MLB...do better.  Now that my bellyaching is out of the way and after needing a bye week for personal reasons, let's get to my long-awaited takes...

"Love Is a Commitment, Not a Feeling"...Says Who???

Much like my last "RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!!", another one of those "deep" relationship memes floating around Facebook has struck a nerve with me.  In a picture grid in the particular meme in question, a man is massaging his woman's feet on the left side of the grid and a woman is returning the favor on the right side.  The caption above the grid reads, "Choose to love each other, even in those moments when you struggle to like each other."  To this point, I'm wholeheartedly with this sentiment because whether it's your significant other, your friends or those one or two or five family members you want to choke slam from time to time, you must willingly decide to love that person regardless.  However, here's where they lost me: "Love is a commitment, not a feeling".  Let me be clear: I strongly agree with the former part of the quote, but I'm utterly annoyed when people echo the latter because it belittles and dismisses human emotions.  So here are my questions: how do you get to the commitment of loving without the feeling that makes you want to love and commit, and doesn't love encompass both feelings and commitments?  Well, let's try to answer these burning inquiries from several perspectives, shall we...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 2

I came into Week 2 of NFL regular season action on a high from a solid Saturday in NCAA football.  Although all three of my favorite teams won big--including Michigan storming back from being down 14 points in the first quarter at home to beat Colorado 45-28--my favorite game of the day was between two unranked teams, Maryland vs. Central Florida.  After UCF QB McKenzie Milton lost his third fumble of the game in the second overtime in a tie game at 24, Maryland freshman QB Tyrrell Pigrome had the daunting task of filling in for the injured Perry Hills.  However, there are few plays better in someone's first snap than to get a 24-yard TD run to win the game 30-24 in double OT and push your team under your first-year head coach DJ Durkin to 3-0.  Yeah...seeing another one of my favorite college football teams win in dramatic fashion definitely got me ready for football on Sunday.  So enough about the kids and let's talk about the grown man's game...

RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!! (Vol. 1, No. 7)

I know...this series should be renamed "The WMATA Chronicles" instead of "RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!!" as often as I refer to D.C. Metro, but bear with me for a moment as I elevate my geekdom a smidge.  Although I have been fascinated with Metro since 1985, I have never really been as obsessed over Metrorail as I have been with Metrobus...until now.  Between the AM General buses of the 1970s and the New Flyer XDE40 (aka the "sexy boosas"), Metrorail's shiny new rolling stock manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries is proof that you must have swagger to be part of any WMATA 7000 series.  One day when taking a drive, I saw an eight-car configuration leaving Takoma in the direction of Silver Spring and was actually mad that I was in my car.  (As abysmal as Metrorail has been as of late, that shouldn't ever be the case.)  Lo and behold, my wish was granted a few days later when I was on my way to work and this thing of beauty came rolling into Silver Spring.  So what does the resident H.M.G.I.C. (Head Metro Geek In Charge) like me do when this happens?  Why, snap a 15-second video and convert it into a GIF, of course!  What else would you expect from your ninth favorite blogger?!?!  Come on, the trains just sound like an intergalactic spaceship of epic proportions, slim...and the rest of y'all D.C. folks know y'all feel the same way, too; I'm just dorky enough to admit it.  Now that I've cemented my nerdiness and perhaps put some of you to sleep, I have four more pinches...

Why I Don't Care About Any Other Sport When the Summer Olympics Are On

Ever since the NBA Playoffs were nearing their end and people realized that they would have to suffer through a summer with just baseball, my timeline has been flooded with "wake me up when it's football season" posts.  Now that NFL training camps are open and preseason is here, everybody's posting all of this news about how this receiver is torching that high-profile cornerback or how some former No. 2 overall draft pick is back in impressive form...in practice.  Although football has been my favorite sport since taking the reins from basketball in the late 90s and hasn't been unseated by any other sport since, I won't be as interested in football as I am with the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio until the Olympics are over.  Are you looking at your computer screen or smart phone with heat in your eyes and bewilderment in your brain?  Good...now allow me to explain...

Scribbler's Predictions: 2015 NFL Wild Card Weekend

Kinda quick recap...or as quick as I am known to attempt, but usually unsuccessful at doing...the Indianapolis Colts and their 0.000000001% chance of winning the AFC South and remaining in playoff contention have been settled.  The New York Jets not only blew their shot at the last playoff spot, but their collapse fittingly came courtesy of Rex Ryan--the same man who was relieved of his duties there the year before.  (Apparently, Ryan also made NFL history by doing so because no head coach in professional football had ever eliminated his former team from playoff contention on the final weekend of the regular season after being fired the previous season. One word: salty.)  So much for the pretenders.  As for the contenders, the defending champion New England Patriots had already secured a first-round bye and were playing for home-field advantage, but wet the bed against the Meh-ami Dolphins as their future first-ballot HOF QB injured his ankle and gave up the #1 seed to the Denver Broncos. Finally, the Arizona Cardinals needed to win against the Seattle Seahawks and the Carolina Panthers to lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but DangeRuss & The Legion of Boom had a blowout as a late Christmas present in mind while the soon-to-be MVP Cam Newton convincingly got his Sir Dab-a-Lot on in Charlotte.  Now that I've covered what you already knew by now unless you follow my blog more than the NFL--which is flattering if you do--it's time to preview the beginning of the most bittersweet time of the year: NFL Wild Card Weekend, which features three rematches from the regular season this year, and the official road to knocking off the guys above.