The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Well, I really need to get going, start packing, and try to get some decent shut-eye to hopefully beat this cold before heading out of town tomorrow for the extended holiday weekend. I hope all of my readers have a great extended holiday weekend, that you're able to enjoy a lot of good food, good company, good drinks, that you're able to refrain from getting into heated debates with crazy conspiracy theory-oriented uncles, manage to have a great time, and arrive back home safely!

Remember what vaulted Mississippi State to the top of the rankings? It was their three week run in games 4, 5, and 6 of the season, where they defeated three consecutive top 10 teams in LSU, Texas A&M, and Auburn. Sure, those wins looked mighty impressive when they occurred, however, in hindsight, they don't look nearly as impressive as they did at the time. The only one of those three teams that remains ranked is Auburn, and they've dropped to #15. The three teams are now a combined 10-11 in conference play. Mississippi State's non-conference schedule consisted of games against Southern Mississippi (3-8), UAB (5-6), South Alabama (6-5), and UT-Martin (FCS, 6-6). In other words, the only current top 25 they've defeated is Auburn. The only game left on their schedule is against Ole Miss, who at one time was ranked in the top 5, has dropped to #19, and could be out of the top 25 if they lose to their in-state rival. TCU is ranked 5th in the poll. The Horned Frogs ha

Well, I'll be heading out of town tomorrow to be with family for Thanksgiving weekend, so I won't be able to include long reasons why I ranked teams where I did due to that. I still have plenty to do before the trip, including pack, so I'll have to slack off a bit with the rankings this week, unfortunately. 1. New England Patriots (9-2) 2. Arizona Cardinals (9-2) 3. Denver Broncos (8-3) 4. Green Bay Packers (8-3) 5. Philadelphia Eagles (8-3) 6. Dallas Cowboys (8-3) 7. Cincinnati Bengals (7-3-1) 8. Seattle Seahawks (7-4) 9. San Francisco 49ers (7-4) 10. Kansas City Chiefs (7-4) 11. Indianapolis Colts (7-4) 12. Baltimore Ravens (7-4) 13. Detroit Lions (7-4) 14. Pittsburgh Steelers (7-4) 15. San Diego Chargers (7-4) 16. Miami Dolphins (6-5) 17. Buffalo Bills (6-5) 18. Cleveland Browns (7-4) 19. Houston Texans (5-6) 20. St. Louis Rams (4-7) 21. New Orleans Saints (4-7) 22. Chicago Bears (5-6) 23. Minnesota Vikings (4-7) 24. Atlant

Most people I know, so long as they're not driving under the influence, are rather harmless when they drink. Yes, many will get to be a bit louder and perhaps more social with complete strangers. Some will garner something known as "liquid courage" and either sing karaoke or ask a person for their phone number. There are even others that will get quiet and have a goofy smile on their faces. Even though it's a depressant, alcohol does affect people's personalities differently. However, for as harmless as the before-mentioned alterations are to someone's personality, there are other people whom suffer far more detrimental and potentially dangerous effects. Unfortunately, it seems that more times than not, these individuals don't see how alcohol negatively affects them and continue drinking. When it comes to me drinking, I've been told I can get slightly more social and animated. However, there have been times when people have walked up to me and said,

If you're a football fan, chances are you saw the incredible catch New York Giants rookie wideout Odell Beckham, Jr. made on Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys. If not, you can watch it here (again and again and again): http://www.businessinsider.com/odell-beckham-jr-giants-greatest-catch-ever-2014-11 Right after the catch took place, NBC announcer and former NFL wide receiver Chris Collinsworth said, "That may be the greatest catch I've ever seen." So, of course, over the past 36 hours, ESPN talking heads have debated, "Is it the greatest catch ever?" and some, including Mike Greenberg, appear to be off in their analysis. Co-host of Mike & Mike , Mike Greenberg, said the Beckham catch didn't even belong in the top 5 of best catches ever. His top 5 were comprised of big catches in Super Bowls. There's a difference between greatest catch and biggest catch. Odell Beckham, Jr.'s three-fingered catch can never be classified as one

Here's the URL to my Facebook business page. I update it fairly regularly, but still haven't put forth a great deal of effort yet in researching matters and attempting to make the most out of it. In any case, it can be perused here: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCraigRozniecki?ref=hl Up next is my Twitter page. I'm still not 100% certain what I'm doing on there yet, but feel I'm gradually getting the hang of it and am up to 13,907 followers. I update it daily with many of my own tweets, but also by retweeting some others'. It can be found here: https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki Lastly, here's my Tumblr page, which I've neglected quite a bit recently, but if you're at all curious, you can find it at the following link: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/rozzy81

For new readers (and regular ones, I suppose), here's some information pertaining to my books. All twelve of my books can be purchased in paperback form at the following site (and others): http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=&keyWords=craig+rozniecki&x=7&y=5&sitesearch=lulu.com&q= The ten books I've written and released in the past 3 years (yes, I've been on a roll) can be purchased for much cheaper in Kindle form at the following link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_22?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=craig%20rozniecki%20kindle&sprefix=craig+rozniecki+kindle%2Caps%2C228&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acraig%20rozniecki%20kindle

Thursday Game: Chicago at Detroit Pick: Detroit - Detroit has gone two whole games without scoring a touchdown, being outscored by their opponents 48-15 in that span. What's the best recipe for a struggling offense? Playing at home against the Chicago Bears defense in a shortened week. I look for the Lions to win at home on Thanksgiving by 4. Result: Detroit 34 Chicago 17 Record: 1-0 Game: Philadelphia at Dallas Pick: Philadelphia - This was an extremely difficult game for me to pick. While Philadelphia doesn't have the greatest defense in the league, I think I give the Eagles the slight edge in this game because I feel their offense is much more difficult to prepare for in a shortened week than the Cowboys offense. While I remain tentative, I'll go with the Eagles by a field goal. Result: Philadelphia 33 Dallas 10 Record: 2-0 Game: Seattle at San Francisco Pick: Seattle - If either team wants to have a legitimate shot at the NFC West title, they'

In Week 12 of the NFL season, I learned that... - ...while the Kansas City Chiefs have beaten the defending Super Bowl champs, the Seattle Seahawks, two of their four losses have come against Tennessee and Oakland, whom have a combined record of 3-19. When head coach Andy Reid was asked who he'd prefer to play if his team makes the playoffs, he said, "So long as they have a winning record, I think we'll be okay." - ...after throwing his first pick in the 3rd quarter against the Buffalo Bills and getting pulled, New York Jets quarterback Michael Vick looked at coach Rex Ryan and said, "What the hell, man? You pulled Geno in our last game against them after throwing three picks in our first three drives! Come on, man!" - ..., with their 34-9 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday, Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford is now 0-17 against teams on the road that finished the season above .500. When asked about this incredible stat, Stafford said,

In a poll released last week by ORC International for the Change The Mascot campaign and goodness Mfg., there were some interesting, ironically humorous results with regard to the public's perception on the Washington Redskins nickname. When asked whether they'd ever call a Native American a "redskin" to their face, 82% of respondents said no. Even so, just 39% found the name offensive and 25% said the name should be changed. So, how does that logic work? Over 4 in 5 people find the term offensive enough that they'd never refer to a Native American as such, yet less than 2 in 5 claim to find it offensive, and just 1 in 4 think the name should be changed. I can just imagine such an individual engaging in the following conversation with an actual Native American: Native American: "Do you think the Washington Redskins should change their nickname?" Joe Schmo: "No" Native American: "Do you find the term 'redskin' to be at a

After the latest playoff committee top 25 rankings were announced on Tuesday night and having seen that Ohio State was ranked 6th in the latest poll, ESPN's David M. Hale decided to write an article, entitled, "Ohio State deserves to be in top four." Immediately after I read this article, I felt the need to respond. First off, let me highlight a few of Hale's "points": - "The cases for both Oregon and Ohio State are similar. Both teams have Heisman candidates at quarterback. Both have prolific offenses. Both are en route to a conference title. The signature win for both teams came against Michigan State. And both have a glaring loss on their record that came, in large part, because of injuries." - (Comparing the two teams losses) "Arizona is 8-2 and ranked 15th in the committee's latest poll. Virginia Tech is 5-5 and narrowly kept its bowl chances alive with a win over Duke last week. Look a little deeper, though, and the differenc

Yes, the Republican Party is talking about another government shutdown (since it worked so well that last time...), and yes, even though House Republicans prompted the first shutdown and the GOP is talking about it being a possibility yet again, they claim, like the first go-round, it will be President Obama's fault. Let's review the first shutdown, shall we? Step 1: President Obama got elected as President of the United States Step 2: The Affordable Care Act got passed by both the House and the Senate Step 3: The president signed the bill Step 4: The bill gradually got implemented Step 5: The Supreme Court ruled that the bill was Constitutional Step 6: House Republicans threatened a government shutdown if the Affordable Care Act wasn't repealed Step 7: The Affordable Care Act wasn't repealed Step 8: The government shutdown began Yes, through a democratic process, a president was elected, a bill passed, was signed, got implemented, and even survived t

The sports media cracks me up sometimes (not literally, thank goodness). Often times it seems that many members of the sports media are about as fickle as politicians during election season when it comes to how coaches and players interact with them. When players and coaches read directly from the book, entitled, "Sports Cliches 101," media personalities seem to yawn and not talk about these seemingly over-rehearsed comments. Then when some sports personalities, like San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich gets rather blunt with his responses, many in the media will almost say in unison, "It's nice to finally talk to someone who just tells it like it is." However, there are still other tell-it-like-it-is comments which seem to receive a great deal of backlash, where these same media talking heads simultaneously utter, "Whoa! He did not just say that! Can you believe that?" The latest such case revolves around Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Grif

1. Arizona Cardinals (9-1): So long as Arizona is the only one-loss team in football, they'll remain atop my rankings. They may not win pretty often times, but so long as they're winning, that's all that matters. Through 10 games, the Coach of the Year award has already been decided - Bruce Arians. 2. New England Patriots (8-2): Since starting the year a disappointing 2-2, the Patriots have won six straight, and as of now, are the favorites to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. Also, who's this Jonas Gray character again? The only ones that seem to know play on the Indianapolis Colts defense... 3. Denver Broncos (7-3): Even after their disappointing loss to St. Louis over the weekend, I still think, as of this moment, Denver is the best amongst the 3-loss teams. Two possible areas of concern moving forward, however, will be the injury situation at receiver and finding a consistent ground attack, which they've lacked all year. 4. Green Bay Packers (7-3): L

Here's the URL to my Facebook business page. I update it fairly regularly, but still haven't put forth a great deal of effort yet in researching matters and attempting to make the most out of it. In any case, it can be perused here: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCraigRozniecki?ref=hl Up next is my Twitter page. I'm still not 100% certain what I'm doing on there yet, but feel I'm gradually getting the hang of it and am up to 13.7 K followers. I update it daily with many of my own tweets, but also by retweeting some others'. It can be found here: https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki Lastly, here's my Tumblr page, which I've neglected quite a bit recently, but if you're at all curious, you can find it at the following link: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/rozzy81

For new readers (and regular ones, I suppose), here's some information pertaining to my books. All twelve of my books can be purchased in paperback form at the following site (and others): http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=&keyWords=craig+rozniecki&x=7&y=5&sitesearch=lulu.com&q= The ten books I've written and released in the past 3 years (yes, I've been on a roll) can be purchased for much cheaper in Kindle form at the following link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_22?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=craig%20rozniecki%20kindle&sprefix=craig+rozniecki+kindle%2Caps%2C228&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acraig%20rozniecki%20kindle

Thursday Game: Kansas City at Oakland Pick: Kansas City - Oakland's 0-10. That's all. I'll take the hot Kansas Chiefs by 10. Result: Oakland 24 Kansas City 20 Record: 0-1 Sunday Game: Cleveland at Atlanta Pick: Atlanta - Sadly, even at 4-6, Atlanta is fighting for an NFC South title. Cleveland, at 6-4, is a very difficult team to figure out. They've beaten 6-4 Pittsburgh 31-10. They've lost to 1-win Jacksonville. They got dominated by 5-5 Houston this past weekend. Like every AFC North team, they can't seem to make up their minds on who they are and how good they are. They will be getting wideout Josh Gordon this week, which should help down the stretch. In his first game back, however, there will likely be some rust between he and quarterback Brian Hoyer. Atlanta, meanwhile, has won two straight road games and Matt Ryan and company have always played much better at home than on the road. I'd call this game a toss-up, but will give the home tea

In Week 11 of the NFL season, I learned that... - ...if Peyton Manning ever plays a sub-par game, most analysts feel Armageddon may soon be upon us. - ..., as everyone expected in the pre-season, Tampa Bay would be 2-8 and still in playoff contention at this point in the season. - ...Oakland upper management is likely inquiring commissioner Roger Goodell if they can be rewarded with the first five picks in the draft if they finish the year 0-16. - ...if I played quarterback for Arizona, we'd probably still find ways to win, in spite of my poor play. - ...I would never order a Roethlisberger or a Mettenberger if I saw them on a menu. - ...Dennis Green would never say, "They are who we thought they were!" when referring to any team in the AFC North. - ...Aaron Rodgers may start playing blindfolded to give himself a bit of a challenge. Even with the blindfold on, however, he'll still complete 60% of his passes and have a 2 : 1 touchdown to interception rati

While I don't follow any religion, the concept of it has always fascinated me. It's always amazed me how so many have such strong faith in the unknowable. It's almost inspiring in a way. However, at the same time, my mind just doesn't function like that, so I can't be certain about the unknowable one way or the other, which is why, if I had to, I'd label myself as a humanist or agnostic.  Also, while I personally have nothing against religion, so long as people don't harm themselves or others in the name of it, I find it interesting yet humorous to hear extremely bright people fervently believe in the unproven stories religions present. When juxtaposing their typically astute and factually accurate commentary with that of their religious beliefs, it makes them come across as a tad off kilter, so to speak... It reminds me of the following dialogue I'm about to pull out of my rear (figuratively speaking, of course): George Curious (son): "Dad,

Former Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron may have officially lost it. Whether he had "it" to begin with is highly questionable. The former actor and atheist found religion (Jesus) when he was 17 and has been a fundamentalist ever since. His latest venture to spread the word of the Bible as he sees it is through his limited-release film Saving Christmas . He recently made the following comments about the film to the Christian Post : - "I'm making 'Saving Christmas' because I love Christmas, I love everything about it. I'm a sucker for all of it, and of course the nativity, and there's a lot of people who really want to put a big wet blanket on the celebration." - "It starts this time of year. You have people who want to pull down nativity scenes, you have lawsuits showing up in schools that can't have Christmas performances. It has to be winter break or holiday break or sparkle season ... they want to take that out of Christmas so the

I earlier wrote about how, based on the public's rather moderate to liberal standing on many specific issues, it made absolutely no sense to vote for these issues alongside ultra-conservative candidates on election day. I then wondered aloud if the Mike Judge film "Idiocracy" was actually coming to fruition. Well, based on some other recent polls, that off-the-wall theory of mine appears to be garnering even more traction. Just prior to the election, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that, next to the economy, the most important issue for voters was ending the partisan gridlock in Washington. So, let's think about that for just a second here. Congressional Republicans have often times been referred to as the party of no under President Obama. Let's not forget what they said when he initially got elected - they wanted to make him a one-term president. But, let's look at the specific issues... Healthcare reform? No. Immigration reform? No. Equal p

Congressional Republicans can say all they want that the voters gave them a mandate. The fact of the matter is, though, that's simply not true. It'd be one thing if the public approved of Congressional Republicans over President Obama and 50-60%+ of voters actually voted (even that number is sad). However, when just 37% of voters voted, and of those voters, President Obama held a 44% approval rating while Congress held an approval rating of just 16%, I'm sorry, but voters didn't give the GOP a mandate. The public was largely angry and/or indifferent, so those that were angry tended to vote for the party that wasn't in control, so some semblance of change could occur (or the illusion of it), and since Democrats held the majority in the Senate, voters decided it was time to give the Republicans a turn at the Senate wheel. Delving deeper into the numbers, even if I generously give Republicans 60% of the overall vote on election day, that's 60% of the 37% of p

I read an ESPN article this morning, entitled, "Kobe Bryant sets mark for misses." When first reading the headline, I thought to myself, "Wow, did Kobe have the worst game of his career or something? Here I thought things couldn't get any worse for the Lakers." But, no, that wasn't the case. In the Lakers 107-102 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Bryant scored 28 points, collected 7 rebounds, had 6 assists, and 4 steals. No, the headline was with regard to Bryant's career. In his 10-26 shooting night, Kobe Bryant eclipsed John Havlicek atop the leaderboard for most missed shots over a career, which is now at 13,421. Since this is Bryant's 19th season, he's collected: Five championship rings, one MVP award, two Finals MVP awards, he's been a member of the All-NBA team 15 times (1st, 2nd, or 3rd team), has been a member of the All-Defensive team 11 times (1st or 2nd team), has been named Player of the Week on 33 occasions and Player of the Month

On November 7th, the Detroit Free Press  published a letter-to-the-editor which has since gone viral. It was written by Richard Brunt of Victoria, British Columbia, and entitled, "You Don't Know How Good You Have It With Obama." Here's the letter: "Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections. Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record highs, the country’s adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The dollar is at its strongest levels in years, the stock market is near record highs, gasoline prices are falling, there’s no inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, the deficit is rapidly declining, and the wealthy are still making astonishing amounts of money. America is leading the world once agai

If the GOP and majority of talking heads in the media (especially of the cable-news variety) could have earned a degree in taking-quotes-out-of-context, they would have passed with flying colors. Arguably the two worst such occasions over the past couple of years were the following: 1) GOP's version of a Barack Obama quote: "If you've got a business - you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." The full quote: "There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me - because they want to give something back. They know they didn't - look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. Thee area a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something - there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gav

A YouTube clip was just released of a speech Lincoln University (PA) President Robert R. Jennings gave at the university's annual women-only convocation a month ago, which is causing quite the stir. During this controversial speech, Jennings made the following comments: - "We will use you up, if you allow us to use you up (referring to women). Well, guess what? When it comes time for us to make that final decision, we're going to go down the hall and marry that girl with the long dress on. That's one we're going to take home to mama." - "You know I'm right about it (about women making false rape accusations)." - "We have, we had, on this campus last semester three cases of young women who after having done whatever they did with the young men, and then it didn't turn out the way they wanted it to turn out -- guess what they did? They went to [the university's Department of] Public Safety and said, 'He raped me.'"