The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

So, I praised college football announcer/analyst Jesse Palmer the other day. Now for the other side of the coin. In the college game, there's Brock Huard. He seems to know his stuff and I have nothing against him as a person or even an analyst, but the guy's voice gets on my nerves sometimes. When he takes normal breaths while speaking, he sounds okay, even though his words sound like they're over-enunciated. However, when he speaks too much without taking those normal breaths, the guy sounds like a goat. "...and he is a great passer, a great leader and just a great quarterback There can be no questioning thaaaaaaaaaat." Another voice which is beginning to get annoying at times is Chris Berman. I've always gotten a kick out of Berman - his enthusiasm, his energy, his one-liners, his nicknames. The guy brings excitement to highlights. However, it seems as if he has trouble taking normal breaths when speaking. It's like the guy wants to set the world recor...

I'm not sure why I'm writing about this, but then again, that's how it is a majority of the time when I blog. I think icing the kicker is fine to a certain extent, but if I have one timeout left, I like to hang on to that final timeout to make the kicker wonder. If I have two or three timeouts at my disposal, I'm all about making the kicker think for a timeout or two, but with that final timeout and the kicker perhaps anticipating that final timeout being used, I like to make him wonder. A lot of times, I think kickers just assume that the timeouts will be utilized to freeze him. This is probably especially the case after a team has used 1-2 timeouts and still has one available. Just my thoughts on the matter...

Yeah, I just complimented him in a blog last night, but in yesterday's Rutgers/Iowa State game, college football announcer/analyst, Jesse Palmer, got on Rutgers defensive coordinator's case for playing prevent defense with the Scarlet Knights up 27-13 midway in the 4th quarter. Like I said yesterday, I'm beginning to think Palmer may be my twin, excluding the hair and money and other things. I've been repeating this very line about the prevent defense for I don't know how long - don't drop back into the prevent when up in the 4th quarter. Go with what's been working throughout the course of the game. I can't tell you how many times a team will be up two scores midway or fairly late in the 4th quarter only to drop back in the prevent, allow an easy score, recover an onside kick and either tie or win the game in the closing seconds. Don't believe me? Look at Tim Tebow this year. The Miami Dolphins were up late in the 4th. What'd they do? Went int...

Did anyone watch that Baylor/Washington game last night? For those looking at the ticker at the bottom of the screen on ESPN, I'm sure many thought they were seeing the score of a college basketball game. No. It was the Alamo Bowl. The final was 67-56 and in regulation. There were no overtimes. The 123 points was an all-time bowl record ending in regulation. The ALL-time record went into overtime, where 125 points were scored. Another record was broken, as there were a combined 1,397 yards racked up from scrimmage. Here are a few other crazy numbers from the game. The teams combined for the following: - 59 first downs - 159 plays - 8.8 yards per play - 733 passing yards - 47-70 passing (67.1%) - 10.5 yards per pass attempt - 664 rushing yards - 7.5 yards per carry - 16-30 on 3rd down (53.3%) - 6-8 on 4th down (75.0%) Yeah, on average, every play went for close to a first down. An average of  a little over 2 points a minute were scored. Over 23 yards per minu...

I got into an interesting (sort of) discussion with someone very close to me last week. Somehow, the discussion transitioned to homosexuality. I guess his wife, due to being a die-hard Christian, still isn't okay with the concept. This guy then said he doesn't necessarily agree it's a sin, but wanted to play devil's advocate and saying that these individuals would be condemned to hell unless they changed their lifestyle, because they'd die sinners. I'm agnostic, so I am rather convinced (unless I can be proven wrong) that it is virtually impossible for a person to either prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a God does or doesn't exist. Given that and having been raised a Christian, I can't understand the before-mentioned logic. According to Christianity, there was a man whom lived a perfect life and died as a sacrifice for man's sins. If people believe him to be the savior and ask forgiveness for their sins, they will live eternally in a paradise...

How I'm so sick of hearing this tired cliche. I just overheard it this past Tuesday when I was out and about with some friends. A buddy of mine and I heard the very sad story about a guy's mother whom died from cancer at 39 years of age. He was only 9 at the time, I believe he said. He was then told, "Everything happens for a reason." That was followed up with a statement that I believe to be true, that if we don't believe that things happen for a reason, that tragic incidents are a result of God's plan, then it may drive us crazy. It's much easier to accept things as are if we believe these very unfortunate events were meant to be. I agree with that latter portion there and due to that, I wish I believed everything happened for a reason. I could stop questioning why certain things happened and just accept things as they occur. However, I can't for the life of me believe that. Rape. What would the reason be behind a person being violently forced to h...

Former Florida Gators quarterback and subject of the "reality" television show "The Bachelor," Jesse Palmer has been in the booth the last couple years announcing college football games. I really didn't want to like the guy. The fact he was on "The Bachelor" made me a bit squeamish. He's pretty good looking, has perfect hair. Yeah, he's the kind of guy other guys love to hate. Unfortunately, I have to give the guy props. He's a very solid announcer. The guy does his research. He rolls numbers off his tongue like Charlie Sheen rolls doobies. He reminds me of myself, well, minus the hair and the money and, well, I'll stop there. With all the homer announcers whom utilize emotion over statistics and logic, constantly illustrating bias toward a certain team (their alma mater perhaps) or a conference, Palmer just seems to call it like he sees it without the before-mentioned biases and that's very refreshing. With Craig James having slept...

While I feel it's too early to completely write off a young quarterback like Tim Tebow, it seems as if I've been one of the only people not completely convinced that the Denver Broncos' starting quarterback was the main reason for the Broncos recent winning ways and that he's going to be a long-term success in the NFL. From the start, I've said that the defense's improved play, the strong running game, big plays by the special teams and the lack of turning the ball over were the main reasons for the Broncos recent surge. Tebow die-hards, along with a growing number of "respected" football analysts began singing the quarterback's praises and for any naysayer whom was critical of the quarterback, they'd just point to his record. For the second consecutive week, Tebow and the Broncos lost and are now in a fight for survival in the AFC West. Let's get something straight here - going into the game, Buffalo had lost 7 straight. They were 5-2 at...

The Philadelphia Eagles won their third consecutive game on Saturday, defeating then division leader Dallas by the final score of 20-7. This upped their record to 7-8 and with a win next week against the Redskins, would close the season at an even .500 record of 8-8, winning their final four games. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the New York Jets fell to the Giants, which eliminated Philly from playoff contention. Back to this game, for the second consecutive week, Michael Vick was extremely sharp, throwing for 293 yards (9.2 per attempt) and two scores for a rating of 107.9. He held a rating of 107.0 the week before against the Jets. Philly didn't get much of a running game going, but did finish over 100 yards. Vick completed passes to 8 different receivers, with his two standout receivers, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin catching a total of 10 passes for 162 yards and a score. But, while the offense was fairly efficient, the defense was the main factor for the Eagles' v...

Well, I'll be out of town for a few days, so I won't be able to blog during that time. At the place where I'll be staying, my uncle's, his computer is slower than a tranquilized sloth. I'll be lucky if I can check my e-mail once every couple days. In any case, I hope everyone has a great holiday. Have fun, stay safe and have an experience so crazy and memorable that when you wake up the next morning, you remember nothing.

Here's the idea... The nice setting, romantic music, friends and family surrounding the couple...I will keep all of those elements in tact. I'll then have the man give his girlfriend or wife a $30 waterfall money clip ( http://www.jared.com/categoryProductsAll%7C10451%7C10001%7C-1%7C19074%7C0%7C1%7CCategory%7C19074%7C19074%7C19074 ). The woman will act ecstatic and then an enthused, high-pitched voice will be heard in the background, saying, "He SO went to Jared's."

Republican presidential candidate and second-coming of Joseph Smith, Newt Gingrich, held an event in Oskaloosa, Iowa recently and when asked by a gay man, Scott Arnold, how he would represent the gay community, Gingrich responded with, "Vote for Obama." Yeah... If you don't believe me, the article can be read here-  http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/20/gingrich-to-gay-iowan-vote-for-obama/ Really? That's it? He won't spend ANY time attempting to lure the gay community over to his side, even a minority of it? Granted, the majority of the gay community would vote for Obama regardless, however, not 100% of it. Gingrich is completely alienating a certain demographic, saying that their votes don't matter to him. To me, that's pretty selfish, arrogant and ignorant. Gingrich has stated that he supports adding an amendment to the Constitution which bans gay marriage. I find this to be mildly amusing since The Newt has been married three times, two ...

I don't mind it sometimes when a person makes a statement, another either misunderstands or rebuts said statement, so the initial speaker says, "Well, I'm just saying that..." and then he or she goes on to elaborate on what they had said to hopefully garner a better understanding. However, it seems as if this "'just sayin'" trend is getting out of control, where a person may be met with a rebuttal of some kind and then he or she will then state, "I'm just sayin'." This can also be the case when they're responding to another's comment and finishing their statement with, "Just sayin'." When taken literally, this is true. They were just saying what they just said. Given that, it's fairly pointless to say "just sayin'." It's not like if someone approaches me while I take my dog out, I respond with, "I'm just walkin'" or when my special lady friend (if I had one) walked in...

So, for whatever reason, I decided to do some research on what the people thought about holiday jewelry commercials, in particular, Kay and Jared's. On one Yahoo board, the question was, "Aren't the Jared's commercials awful?" One person responded with, "You remember them, so obviously not." Eh, just because a person remembers something doesn't mean it's quality. It can be the direct opposite actually. If something is seemingly stuck inside one's noggin, there's a decent chance that it's either very well done or so awful it won't go away. I'll never forget the films "Date Movie," "Gone Fishin'" or "Dude, Where's My Car?" This isn't because I felt these were quality movies. I felt the direct opposite. In my humble opinion, they were the three worst films I've ever seen. When it comes to moments in my life, I'll likely remember the very best and worst moments more than an...

Yeah, so we heard and don't really care. These commercials are quite annoying. I can just hear the exaggerative giddy and high-pitched voices if a man were to buy a gift from somewhere else: "He went to Spencer's!" "He went to Hot Topic!" "He went to Lowe's!" "He went to Wal-Mart!" "He went to the Dollar Store!"

An online retailer, Piperlime, which is owned by GAP, released an ad which reads, " Every time you wear sweatpants in public, a single guy leaves New York." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emma-gray/piperlime-ad-sweatpants_b_1161459.html The author of this article written by Emma Gray, said she took an unofficial poll on if the ad were in any way accurate. She asked many males about women in sweatpants and she said the majority of responses went something like this -  "Um ... I'm pretty sure I find girls in sweatpants attractive" and "Is that for real?" Don't worry about it ladies. This isn't true. We guys aren't too picky. To us, if you look good, you look good. We could really care less if you're wearing a skirt, dress, tank top and jeans, scrubs, sweatpants or astronaut costume. Typically, it seems as if women get all dressed up not so much to impress guys (because we typically don't care), but in a competition with other wom...

I just read an article regarding Tim Tebow and asking the hypothetical, "What if he were a Muslim? Would American still love him?" The article brought up an interesting question at the start, but the substance of it was lacking. In any case, it prompted many comments from members of the site. Many talked about how the United States, while extra sensitive toward Muslims, is not at all sensitive toward Christians and that it was the same case with regard to ethnicities other than Caucasians. First off, tv shows and comedy skits typically portray Muslims as terrorists. If that's not insensitive, I'm not sure what is. Often times, blacks are portrayed as lazy and "gangster," Hispanics portrayed as illegals or working a hard-working, low-paying kind of job. However, most of the skits or comedy bits center around Christianity and whites. Why is this? The majority of people in this country whom practice religion are Christians and the majority of people in th...

Even with his approval ratings right around 45%, I'm growing more and more confident that Barack Obama will be re-elected in the 2012 election and I'm going to call it right now - Obama wins the 2012 election. There are a few reasons why my confidence on this matter is growing. First off, history gives Obama a very good chance. In a majority of cases, incumbent presidents win their re-election bid. There are exceptions, of course (Carter, H.W., etc.), but those exceptions are definitely in the minority. Secondly, for as awful as things have looked at times in this country, especially on the economic/jobs front, Obama's approval has been fairly steady, in the 43-50% range. He hasn't dropped below 40%, which means while a good majority of the country isn't happy with how things are going right now, they're not assessing all or even most of the blame to Obama and are willing to give him some more time to right the ship, so to speak. With the unemployment rate d...

Televangelist Pat Robertson has recently criticized Saturday Night Live for their Tim Tebow skit this past weekend. He referred to it as "anti-Christian bigotry that's just disgusting." He added, "If this had been a Muslim country and they had done that, and had Muhammad doing that stuff, you would have found bombs being thrown off, and bodies on the street. We need more religious faith in our society, we're losing our moral compass in our nation." USA Today columnist Bob Beckel also got into the act, as he told Fox News the following - "First of all, it's despicable to display Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, like that on Saturday Night Live and they should be ashamed of themselves. And the fact that this keeps drawing attention to Tebow and Christianity and faith and Jesus and they make it into some sort of commercial operation...there's nothing funny about that." The full article along with video clips of Robertson's tirade a...

I've written about this before, but it's been on my mind quite a bit recently and I would like to sort out my thoughts on the matter. On Friday night, I posted a status on Facebook which read, "Craig Rozniecki has got this always-a-friend-never-a-boyfriend thing down to a science. He may have to start teaching classes on it." I received a response from a guy which said something like, "You've got to kind of be a dickhead. Sadly, it works." I talked to a distant cousin of mine, an older lady, about this and the aspect of a "challenge" and she said that sadly, yes, young people in particular seem to be attracted to that. Looking at the past two women I pursued and two whom kind of pursued me, they all have something in common - they have a history of dating, for lack of a better word, dickheads. They've admitted this. When they haven't and have described to me the men they were dating, how they treated and spoke to them, I could d...

I have not been easy on Mr. Tim Tebow, the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos. I gave him kudos for his performance against the Minnesota Vikings a couple weeks ago and have given him praise every now and again for his play, but overall, have not been very impressed with the quarterback's play and have been rather pessimistic of his long-term value for a team. Given that, I've also said it's too early to conclude on the matter. Just as I've been saying with Carolina Panthers' rookie starting quarterback, Cam Newton, I need to see more from the guy before concluding on if I believe he will be a long-term success in the NFL. It's going to take more than a season to persuade me. I see more room for optimism thus far with Newton than I do with Tebow, but again, I'm not going to conclude on the matter, with either quarterback, just yet. I just read an article written by one Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports. That article can be read here - http://sports.yahoo...

So, I just read an article that Justin Bieber's mother told him from the start about the myth of Santa Claus and her reasoning was so the dishonesty of lying about Santa Claus didn't come back to potentially bite her when she tried telling him that while she lied about Santa, she wasn't lying about the existence of God. I'm not going to debate the existence of God. That's another matter entirely. However, I have always wondered what the pros and cons are of allowing children to believe the fairy tale known as Santa Claus. I'm not a parent yet, but I'm honestly uncertain of how I will approach the subject when I do have kids. I suppose I will have to speak with my wife about it and hopefully through discussion, we'll be able to come to a complete agreement, if not a decent compromise on the matter. I remember my brother was devastated when he found out the truth about Santa Claus and I know many other people whom were similarly affected after they bec...

After hearing his name mentioned 133 times on Sunday NFL Countdown today, I decided to file a complaint to ESPN. The show was ridiculous in their single focus today and as a lover of NFL football, I want to see more than a single player covered for the majority of a 3-hour program which is supposed to preview the gameS (that's plural) for that day. If you feel similarly, please go to the following site and let ESPN know that their Tebow shtick is getting old. I did and I hope many others do as well. Where to write ESPN: http://espn.go.com/espn/contact Source verifying Tebow's name being mentioned 133 times on Countdown: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/rapid-reports/post/16503231

I'm not going to write much about this game, because frankly, I'm getting a little tired of writing, hearing, reading the name Tim Tebow. In any case, like I mentioned earlier in the day, Tebow and the Broncos offense have greatly benefited during their recent winning streak from their defense, whom had allowed an average of just 14.2 points a game in 6 of Tebow's previous 8 starts. That wasn't the case in this game, as the Patriots threw for 310 yards and ran for another 141 en route to a 41-23 victory over the Broncos. To his credit, Tebow played better than he has been, outside of the Minnesota game, which is his best of the season to this point. He wasn't stellar throwing the ball, as he completed just 11 of 22 passes but for 194 yards (a good average of 8.8 per attempt) and an average quarterback rating of 80.5. He was void of any touchdown passes or interceptions. He ran the ball very well, as he ended with 12 carries for 93 yards (7.8 avg.) and two scores. ...

This was a strange game to watch. We saw the best and worst of the Eagles in this game. As  has been the trend when Michael Vick has been healthy, the Eagles' offense was very efficient moving the football. They garnered 260 yards through the air and 160 more on the ground, averaged 11.8 yards per pass and 4.8 yards per rush. On the flip side of that, the Eagles turned the ball over 4 times, which has been their achilles heel this year, leading the entire NFL in turnovers. The Eagles also got out to a big lead early in the game and at one point led 28-0. This hasn't been strange for Philly this year, but they did about everything in their power to allow the Jets back in the game, turning the ball over three times in the 2nd quarter, which led to 13 Jets' points. Lucky for them, the Eagles' defense was in charge for most of the game and limited the Jets to a touchdown and a couple field goals on those turnovers, which occurred in Philly territory. Michael Vick had a ve...

In 8 of 13 games today, teams with a combined record of 34-70 (.327) defeated teams with a record of 67-37 (.644) by the score of 244 to 120 (average of 30.5 - 15.0): I'll start with the least-surprising upset and finish with the most: Miami Dolphins (4-9) 30 Buffalo Bills 23 (5-8) Seattle Seahawks (6-7) 38 Chicago Bears (7-6) 14 Philadelphia Eagles (5-8) 45 New York Jets (8-5) 19 Washington Redskins (4-9) 23 New York Giants (7-6) 10 San Diego Chargers (6-7) 34 Baltimore Ravens 14 (10-3) Carolina Panthers (4-9) 28 Houston Texans (10-3) 13 Indianapolis Colts (0-13) 27 Tennessee Titans (7-6) 13 Kansas City Chiefs (5-8) 19 Green Bay Packers (13-0) 14 In the 14th game of the season, the lone unbeaten (Packers) lost to a 5-win Kansas City team and the lone winless team (Colts) defeated a 7-win Tennessee club. Yeah, I predicted that...

Well, according to Facebook statuses I see, there are hundreds of people whom qualify as the best boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife EVER! That's great that these people are allegedly happy (sometimes, I wonder if it's all for show), but really? I have to say, I get a little tired of the, "OMG! He/She is the greatest ever! I'm so lucky! God has blessed me with such a wonderful (fill-in-the-blank)! Thank you, Jesus! I feel like I've won the lottery, I'm so lucky! Who's kidding who? It's better than the lottery! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! He/She is the best! Without question! The very best! Thank you, honey!" Yeah, yeah, yeah... We get it. Well, I suppose I should be going. I'm going to write a Facebook status which exaggerates just how great single life is. Ciao.

No, that's not a typo. Watch a replay of Countdown somewhere and scroll forward to the final 2-3 minutes when they made this announcement. It was incredible to watch the show today. The show airs from 10 am to 1 pm. I'd say about half the show was dedicated to Tebow. I'm not exaggerating. Again, watch a replay of the program. Hell, it felt like more than half the show was dedicated to the guy. Fricking ridiculous. Does ESPN realize what they're doing? It's like a hit single on the radio. People may love it at first, but if it gets played too frequently, people are going to grow tired of it...and fast... That's kind of where I am. My dad and I were watching the show and we couldn't believe it. Chris Berman, Mike Ditka, Keyshawn Johnson, Cris Carter, Tom Jackson, Merrill Hoge, Suzy Kolber, Trent Dilfer, etc., etc., etc. were talking about Tebow. We heard Tebow speak to an ESPN reporter. We were placed inside the huddle with guess who? Tebow. We were given a ...

Seriously? Tom Brady has 3 Super Bowl rings. John Elway has 2 of his own. Tim Tebow became the Broncos' starter just a few games ago. Sadly, the last time I checked, Tebow had 19% of the vote, only 12% behind John Elway, with Brady leading the way by quite a significant margin. Can we please stop with this silly talk? I know Tebow is a hot name right now. I know he's being talked about a lot, probably many of his jerseys are being sold, he seems like a very nice man and who knows, maybe one day he will become a great NFL quarterback, but can we PLEASE stop this? At this point in his career, Tebow cannot be compared to the likes of Tom Brady, John Elway or even Aaron Rodgers, whom hasn't been a starter for too long. This question is stupid for so many reasons, the biggest of which is the fact that Tom Brady and John Elway proved time and time again they could put up points for four quarters. If they were to come back late in the 4th quarter, it wouldn't be a 10-3 def...

It's that time of year again - bowl season. I've finalized my fill-in sheet and am ready to spread my knowledge or lack there of what I see happening in the 35 bowl games. I'll list the games according to confidence level, starting up top with my most confident pick - 35 - and moving way down to my least confident pick - 1. 35 - TCU (over Louisiana Tech in the Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 21st) TCU is one of the hotter teams in the country and won't have much of a layoff between their final regular season game and the Poinsettia Bowl. They were seen as a disappointment until they defeated then unbeaten Boise State en route to a top 20 ranking at season's end. My only worry with this game is the fact it's my most confident pick, so it would not be a good thing (for me at least) to lose this one. Result: TCU 31 Louisiana Tech 24 (1-0 for 35 pts.) 34 - Boise State (over Arizona State in the Last Vegas Bowl on Dec. 22nd) This will be Boise quarterback Kellen M...

In previous blogs, I've gone into detail about how Tim Tebow should NOT be the person being praised and heralded for the Denver Broncos' recent winning ways. The defense has come up big, allowing just 14.2 points per game in 6 of Tebow's 8 starts, which would rank them 2nd behind only San Francisco (14.0). In 6 of his 8 starts, the Broncos have averaged only 15.2 points per game, which would rank them 27th (of 32) in the league. The offensive line has also been extraordinary in their run-blocking. The running backs keep coming up large. The special teams have done their job in either scoring points themselves or setting the offense up in good scoring position.  What makes me laugh about all of this is the fact Tebow has played dreadfully in most of his starts for approximately three quarters, before turning things around in the 4th. It's the ol' recency effect - people remember the last thing in a series of events more so than any other. It's what's freshes...