Tino's Deli

RANDY MOSS'D

2010-10-10T15:23:00.003-05:00

Vikings just acquired Randy Moss -- not good for the Cowboys because he is the most NOTORIOUS Cowboys killer of all-time. Not only does he have a chip on his shoulder about that organization but also how he left the Patriots.
Why do I lead with this? Because right now, I am watching the Titans-Cowboys game and just witnessed a drive that lasted 6 plays, 3 of which were pass interference on deep balls. The touchdown was scored on a a hail-mary prayer thrown by Vince Young and Nate Washington, yes, Nate Washington just owning our secondary making a play for the score.
Randy Moss is licking his chops right now because if the Titans, who have mediocre skill position players at best can torch the Cowboys secondary, imagine what Moss and Favre are going to do to us.

Return

2009-10-16T11:38:00.001-05:00

We apologize for the delay the past week or so.
Who here likes diagrams? I do. Here is a detailed diagram on How to be Notre Dame fan. This is hilarious. It makes sense, I know some friends who fit into this diagram too. It is amazing.

http://www.bceaglesfootball.com/ndfan.htm

BDF (The Brian Dawkins Factor)

2009-10-05T16:37:00.003-05:00

How did we overlook the BDF? As soon as Fox showed Brian Dawkins doing his Spiderman thing - I knew it was over. The look in his eyes. This man plays with so much heart and DESIRE. To sum it up, last year before the final game of the season before the Cowboys, Dawkins is quoted as saying, " I will do whatever it takes to win this ball-game" This mentality proved to be so true as the Eagles embarrassed the Cowboys, is that even accurate? probably an understatement. Dawkins was everywhere, flying to every ball and hustling all over the field. Him and Troy Palomalu are very similar. Dawkins wears his emotions on his sleeves and does not hold anything back. A notorious Cowboys killer. According to the DMN, he is all the time leading tackler against the Cowboys.
On another note, I would like to introduce to you our first guest contributor to Tinos Deli. Please give it up for my cousin, who hails from Ridgefield,CT--Stephen Coulter. He attends DU and is a writer for the school paper. The guy has some mad insight and is an outstanding writer - smart and great prose. Huge Denver Broncos fan-try watching a game with him, you would think his life is on the line!! But seriously, we love him and are excited and honored that he has taken the time to write an op/ed piece for the blog.
I present, Stephen Coulter:

This past week was the roughest week of my life.

It wasn’t the reality of having an abundant amount of college homework. It wasn’t getting less than 15 hours of sleep in a span of three days. It wasn’t getting bounced from a club for just getting some air. It wasn’t even spending a dreadful night in the hospital.

What made this past week so unbearable was all the neigh Sayers.

All the analysts, the skeptics, the fans that think they know everything, the commentators, my friends back home, girls who can’t throw a football, some ten year old at Q'doba, and even my fellow fans who had doubt in their hearts instead of hope.

Now finally that last week is over I can say with a bright big smile on my face that every hater out there was wrong.

Because the Broncos are for real.

At 4-0, the Broncos are one of two teams in the AFC with a perfect record. Sunday’s outstanding win over Dallas, 17-10, fortified what I had believed in all off season, that my favorite team, the Broncos, were ready to compete just like any other team.

“No Coulter your totally wrong they are going to suck,” I was told time and time again.

In fact, even after their 3-0 start I was told “they [the Broncos] were one of the worst teams in the NFL” and that “they hadn’t beaten a legitimate team.”

All week long I had to listen to every single commentator on ESPN, or on CBS, pick the Cowboys and say the Broncos were the weakest of the 3-0 teams and were bound to lose in week 4, because they were such a fluke team.

To the analysts, it didn’t matter that the Broncos were playing at home with a quarterback who is now a lifetime 17-2 when playing on his home field.

It didn’t matter that they had beaten the Cowboys the previous three times the teams had met.

And it certainly didn’t matter that they had the best defense in football.

They were a pretender, not a contender.

Hey do you know what happened?

The Broncos didn’t lose. They won.

They played hard, fought back, made the plays when it mattered, and instead of breaking in the games final moments like they have done so many times in the past, they prevailed to victory over an opponent everyone was so sure they were going to lose to.

What that tells me is what I have believed in all of my life.

And that is that any professional football team is a competitive, hard working football team. Saying otherwise is just offensive to all the players and coaches who put their souls everyday into making a franchise better. Every team wants to win and every team will compete to do so.

Never ride a team off before the first snap of the season. Never. I don’t care if they are the 0-16 Lions. Anything can happen on a football field, that’s the beauty of the game. It’s why true fans watch every week.

At the beginning of the season I didn’t think that the Broncos defense, that was a catastrophically abysmal at the end of last season surrendering 112 points in the final three games, would have only allowed 26 total points through the first quarter of the season.

I didn’t think they were going to be this outstanding, but I certainly believed they could and would improve.

But somebody didn’t. The so-called “experts.”

They thought that nothing could bolster a defense that was so horrendous last year. Not new players, not a new scheme, not a new defensive coach.

The end result is simple. The experts were totally and 100% wrong.

Let me say this loud and clear the “experts,” such as ESPN’s John Clayton, don’t know a thing.

Clayton predicted the Broncos would finish 3-13 and be picking second in next years NFL draft. Nice prediction man. Seriously keep doing what your doing.

How about you mow my lawn instead of telling me how my team is going to do.

Clayton’s colleagues, as well as other NFL analysts for other media outlets, didn’t predict the Broncos to do so well either.

Pro Football Weekly said the Broncos defense was going to finish in the bottom five and the offense would be in the bottom ten.

At week’s end the Broncos defense is number one in points allowed and their offense is just on the outside of the top ten in total yards per game.

Some of the members of the audience still aren’t convinced.

“But their schedule has been weak.”

Maybe so, but their opponents have more wins (6) than that of the Giants (4) or the Colts (4), but that is not really relevant.

So far all the Broncos have done is show up and play the team that was on their schedule.

Yea they’ve had a few lucky plays here and there, but all NFL teams do. Its called unpredictability, it’s the same rule that on any given Sunday ANY team can beat another team.

As a fan, I plead to you don't judge a team, or say their season is over, just because a bunch of fatheaded experts said the team was going to be a bottom dweller before the season even began.

Ask last years Dolphins team. What the analysts say is irrelevant come Sunday.

What ignorant fans don’t take into account is that the experts in fact aren’t experts at all.

The fact that the analysts thought the Cowboy offense would tear apart what has been proven to be a stingy Denver defense just proves my point.

The analysts labeled the Broncos defensive ability based on the past instead of looking at what the have in the present.

The Broncos have played outstanding defense this season led by the best free agent acquisition in the NFL, safety Brian Dawkins. Also leading the defense is the early candidate for defensive player of the year and the leagues sack leader, Elvis Dumervil.

But the individual performances isn’t what I find impressive.

What I love most about this group of men is that they have found something they haven’t had since 2005—confidence.

“I think [the change] is that we are so prepared and so confident,” Champ Bailey said after Sunday’s game. “We’re ready for anything.

They have found a pass rush, something that was never present in the past three years. They have learned how to stop the run (limiting a great Cowboy rushing attack to just 74 yards on the ground on Sunday) with an inexperienced, but extremely motivated and talented front three.

Most importantly, though, is the Broncos have learned to force the other team into making mistakes, ten of them to be correct. Ten in four games compared to thirteen all of last season.

That statistic, turnovers, isn’t made possible by one players effort, it’s made by many. The defense is not individual stars making plays; it is a cohesive unit working together to frustrate opposing players, which is the cause of more and more mistakes.

However, the Broncos do have a shining star on their defense that is reaping the benefits of a newly stout defense. And that is Bailey.

Bronco fans, myself included, sometimes rag on Bailey for being over-hyped or disappearing in some games, but the truth of the matter is he is the leagues best corner back when it matters.

And by “when it matters” I mean in the red zone.

In 2006 he had a league high ten picks, eight of which were in the red zone.

In 2005, he made the best play of his career on the goal line of INVESCO field where he intercepted Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, which led to a Broncos touchdown and victory, also Brady’s first post season loss.

On Sunday against the Cowboys he proved again why he is held on the pedestal of one of the NFL’s elite players. Two pass deflections in the final seconds of the game to give the Broncos the victory on the goal line.

The win puts the Broncos at 4-0, a record they haven’t had since 2003. It doesn’t mean post season, but it should mean a little bit of respect.

“Whether people believe in us or not, we believe in ourselves,” Broncos wide receiver Jabar Gaffney said after Sunday’s win.

No one needs to believe in the Broncos; in fact they don’t want the love now.
Why would they? So far all the hate has gotten them is to 4-0.

Anybody want a hamburger?

2009-09-24T09:02:00.003-05:00

What a special treat! Last Wednesday night my brother and I had the priviledge of watching Juice. This Wednesday, I turn the TV on and sure enough we are treated with an even better movie (same genre) Menace II Society.
I have seen this movie about 15-20 times. It gets better every time. The first time I saw this movie was in the 9th grade. The movie is a violent, gritty protrayal of a youth stuck in the Watts section of Compton. Further, the movie has powerful underlying messages. Menace II Society follows the lives of two characters. Caine and O-Dawg.
Caine, is played by Tyrin Turner. You might remember him from Michael Jordan's Playground. Yes, that is right. He is the same kid that was cut from his high-school basketball team and on the eve of the following years tryouts he befriends Michael Jordan and learns some valuable skillsets from his Airness. Next, we see him trying out for the team again but the video ends after the tryout so we, the viewers are left not knowing whether our boy made the squad. One can make the assumption that he was cut and has now wound up stuck in the Watts section of Compton turned certified gangster.
Caine, is not your typical gangster. His parents were drug dealers and in the movie we see him being raised by his grandparents. His grandfather is always talking the Bible to Caine, asking him to repent for his sins and to change his ways. Caine, does in fact graduate from high-school but is caught up selling dope to help take care of a friend of his, Ronnie, whose husband is in jail serving a life-time sentence without parole. Caine's grandfather asks Caine repeatedly throughout the movie whether he cared if he lived or died. We see at the end of the movie, the truth. Caine, narrates the story for us and throughout the movie we hear his struggle to do the right thing and we do see there is some goodness in Caine, despite his gangster ways.
O-Dawg. One of the most raw, real characters ever played in a movie. He has been referenced in many songs after this movie. O-Dawg is played by Larenz Tate. You might remember him from Dead Presidents and Crash, superb actor.
O-Dawg has the attitude of "I don't give a F". He has no fear and does not care about anyone or anything. He is crazy, literally. I would love to see a battle royale between O-Dawg and Bishop (Tupac) from Juice.
The movie not only portrays gangster violence in the world of drugs/poverty but also the emotions that go along with struggling to survive in such a violent filled atmosphere. There is police brutality, injustice and deep down in the thick of all of F-bombs and violence, there is some good in the hood. Caines grandparents, Ronnie, Shareef and Mr. Butler. All are positive influences in the movie and are all 'trying to get out' and even better, they are trying to help Caine get out so he can live. There are some real classic scenes in the this movie. I highly recommend viewing this movie, it is quite powerful and will leave you sad and more conscientious of what goes on outside your bubble.

Week 2

2009-09-23T09:50:00.004-05:00

1-1. You are what your record says. The wheels have not fallen off yet.
I have heard the last two days people saying, 'yea, the Cowboys should have won by double digits if Romo did not blow his load'. True but flip the coin, the Giants, could have destroyed us had they not kicked field goals everytime in the redzone. Let's face it people, our defense is in trouble. Newman, lockdown corner...seriously? How were those two ever in the same sentence?
I have found it hard to completely blame Romo for Sundays loss - sure the three interceptions hurt but our pass defense was atrocious. We are in trouble against pass happy teams like Philly and New Orleans. It is week 2, no need to hit the panic button yet.
Is Steve Smith not one of the best possession receivers in the L? Seriously. That guy makes more third down receptions, especially against Dallas than anyone. He killed us in that playoff game in 2008. Manningham was literally running circles around Newman.
My cousin went to the Cowboys game and he had some hilarious re-enactments of the experience there. There were secret service guys guarding the STAR at midfield for 5 hours.. unbelievable. His experience sounded as bad as when Nelly hooked up with Tim McGraw to make a song.

Here is what Brandon Jacobs had to say:
Last week, running back Brandon Jacobs told me that the Cowboys should have scheduled the Lions instead of the Giants for the stadium opener. And Sunday, he tried to explain to me where his hatred for the Cowboys comes from.

"I hate the Cowboys straight up," Jacobs told me. "It's beginning to be a personal thing. And it's been like that since I was a kid. I've been wishing bad things on them for a long time. I was a hateful little kid. Everyone loves them, so I had to hate them."

Asked what he thought about the new stadium, Jacobs said: "It's a beautiful place. It was nice of Jerry to invite us down here. But he better be careful what he asks for next time. Last year, [Jones] said he wanted to play us on Broadway, and then he got his ass beat. They got whooped 35-14 on Broadway."

Geeeeeeeez. The Cowboys ..... you love them or hate them.

Funny note from the weekend - my brothers friend sent him a text message with a brilliant nickname for Mark Sanchez..

SANCHIZE! I love it.

Panthers come to town next Monday - they are 0-2 and are probably due for a win.

PLAY OF THE WEEKEND: Goes out to our boy Ray-Ray from.......THE U.
Monster play on 4th and 2 to seal up the W. He met Sproles and laid him out with extreme prejudice.

this is in HD too. Your welcome! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldY2pInMyR4

Not U again!!!

2009-09-21T13:20:00.000-05:00

I found a common denominator in the loss that closed out Texas Stadium and the loss that opened up Cowboys Stadium. It's easy to say the defense, or Tony Romo, but I was looking for something a little deeper. I found it and I am quite embarassed I didn't realize this earlier.....

THE U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How did we not see this? Flashback to the Ravens game. Tony Romo throws two interceptions to Ed Reed. Ed Reed's alma mater = The U. The Cowboys give up a devastating mile-long touchdown run to Willis McGahee with 3 minutes to go in the game. Willis McGahee's alma mater = The U. Now, move on to last night's game. Romo's first touchdown pass at Cowboys Stadium goes to Bruce Johnson, who happens to play for the Giants and conveniently took his interception to the house. Bruce Johnson was an undrafted free agent, which means we passed over him seven times in the draft - he couldn't have been happy. In case you were wondering, Bruce Johnson's alma mater = The U. Romo's second pick six (though it was not ruled a touchdown because the ref made a huge mistake blowing his whistle) was courtesy of Kenny Phillips. Mr. Phillips also intercepted another Romo pass later in the game when the Cowboys were driving, giving him two for the game - both at very inopportune times for the Cowboys. I almost forgot to mention that Kenny Phillips' alma mater = The U. It seems like these Hurricanes conspire to beat us every time. The U alumni on the Ravens were not happy to be scheduled as the last game at Texas Stadium, and clearly, The U alumni on the Giants were not happy about opening up Cowboys Stadium. They both took part in posting 33 points on the Cowboys in each game. If I could offer you some sort of advice to take from this, it would be the following ... When scheduling your homecoming games, whether it is High School, College, or Pro, it is best to make sure that your opponents (including coaches, assistant coaches, players, trainers, water boys, and even relatives of players) have no ties to The U.

THE U

2009-09-17T10:03:00.002-05:00

My main man here at the office just showed me some gold coming to our television sets!
He used to kick for the Miami Hurricanes in the late 1990's and has really turned me on to this team. His stories from the locker-room are priceless. He has a team photo in his office and in that picture you see about half the roster is currently in the NFL.

Just watching this teaser, if the show is anything like this, I expect some hilarious things to come from this show. As you know, we at Tino's Deli are huge supporters of The U and have posted our thoughts/comments to the success of NFL players coming from The U! Reference last years game Baltimore vs Dallas. Before the game, U alums, Ed Reed, Ray Lewis and Willis McGahee were seen huddled, amping each other up to spoil the final home game ever at Texas Stadium. Guess what? They did.

I present, THE U!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1zTpPEXNGQ

You got the juice now

2009-09-17T09:28:00.003-05:00

JUICE.
Great movie. Throwback to 1992!!!! Soundtrack is jammin!!
If you have not had a chance to see this movie, I highly recommend watching this. My brother and I had the unique opportunity to watch this movie last on The Fuse Channel. Rocked with an All-Star Line up, Omar Epps, Tupac, Samuel L., Queen Latifah.

As I am watching this movie here were some thoughts that were going through my head.

How real is Tupac? The guy is so intense in the movie it is almost scary. Once he gets the idea to hold up the bodega, Tupac does a complete 180 and goes on a rampage. Instilling fear into all of his friends. It is very obvious he does not give two licks about anything. He gets trigger happy and blows away Quiles (store owner) then for no reason, he flips out and shoots his best friend (Rahim) and then blows away rival Puerto Rican gang leader (Radames), classic scene! Tupac did not act in this movie - he was REAL. Just watch the scene when he confronts Quincy (Omar Epps)in school and goes on his rant, so raw!

I think he is one of the most under-rated movie villains of all time.

And like Samuel L. Jackson said, "Just 'cause you pour syrup on something doesn't make it pancakes!"

Jackpot????

2009-09-17T09:02:00.003-05:00

I'm sure that you have seen the Pizza Hut commercial with Jim Breuer in it. The one where he repeatedly says"Jackpot" while promoting a new pan pizza with a ring of cheese inside the crust. I couldn't help but ask myself how he could have possibly been persuaded to do this ad. Growing up, I loved Goat Boy. I thought that was one of the funniest SNL skits ever and it makes me laugh every time I hear that goat boy sound. Surely Jim had better things to do than just scream jackpot over and over again. Here is the commercial, if you have not seen it yet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzqFcE0lY1o.

However, the more that I tried to analyze this and come up with some sort of rationale behind his decision, I am pretty sure that I figured it out from Pizza Hut's perspective. It is your classic distraction. Smoke and mirrors. Whatever you want to call it. It is working on me. I have spent more time trying to figure out why Jim Breuer is in a commercial for Pizza Hut than acknowledging exactly what Pizza Hut is trying to sell me. Think about the commercial for a second. The opening line..."Pan Pizza is great, but put a ring of cheese around the crust and JACKPOT!" Put a ring of cheese around the crust???????????? What does that even mean? When you watch the commercial and they demonstrate a ring of cheese being placed around the crust, it makes you say to yourself - how do you get cheese to look like that and why is it being placed not in my crust (stuffed crust) but in between the crust and the pie itself? Besides the crust, a normal pizza contains cheese and sauce. Stuffed crust pizza was a phenomenon (and also quite disgusting) because it made eating the crust exciting and gave it some added flavor. However, putting a ring of cheese in between crust and rest of pizza makes absolutely no sense. If a person has just finished eating the pizza and only has crust left, then they have just finished eating PLENTY OF CHEESE. Why put a disgusting rubber tire looking concoction made out of cheese after this? All it really does is prolong the process of getting to the crust. Why not just make extend the diameter of every pizza by one centimeter? Not to mention, this is on pan pizza, a pizza that traditionally draws interest in people who like crust and bread. One could hardly call this a 'jackpot.' Oh how my ancestors in Italy must be sick to their stomachs. What has pizza come to? Then again, this is being sold to a society that cannot distinguish Pizza Hut pasta dishes from an Italian restaurant in Rome.

So, as much as I feel bad for Jim Breuer, I can't help but think, this is quite a distraction thrown at us by Pizza Hut. Just for the record, here is a video of Jim getting his revenge on Pizza Hut for making him the poster child of an awful product promotion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lay-exKYFIo

Jerseys and pH levels

2009-09-17T07:48:00.002-05:00

To check if a substance is an acid or base, you simply apply some of the substance to a piece of litmus paper and then check your color scale. If you start with blue litmus paper and it turns red, you are dealing with an acid. If you started with red litmus paper and it turns blue, then what you have is a base. If it is neutral, it will probably turn a shade of purple. These colors correspond to a color chart, where each one is given a numeric value (0-14). A strong acid, such as battery acid has a numeric value of 0. Furthermore, a strong base, such as bleach has a pH level of about 13, and then your neutral solution (pH 7) would be distilled water. When looking at a solution, it can be difficult to know if it is acidic or alkaline, so science has provided us with a way to test the pH level in a completely safe manner.

Similar to this, we look at situations sometimes and cannot figure out how to judge them. We contemplate whether the situation is good, bad, crazy, or simply customary. After week 1 of the NFL season, it is easy to immediately think that this year is going to be crazy because of how wild the first week was. However, when you look at the numbers at the end of the day, the Patriots are still 1-0, the Bills are 0-1, and the Lions still are searching for a win. Forget that Brandon Stokley’s game winning touchdown was one of the craziest plays ever - the Bengals are 0-1, which is what everyone expected, unless you reside in zip code 45202. From the perspective of looking at results after only one week of football, it appears the league is in good shape and who knows if chaos will follow?

Fortunately, for those that must know the internal state of the league, the NFL has subtly been releasing its own version of litmus paper so that fans can predict if the season will be crazy and then plan accordingly. This litmus paper that I speak of is the top selling jerseys list. Before the 2008 season, there were a couple of surprises on that list. How Tom Brady and Randy Moss were not 1 and 2 boggles my mind and how players such as Chris Cooley and the retired Michael Strahan made it on there are equally puzzling. The Strahan jersey just tells you how many fans disregarded him until he finally won a Super Bowl, and then they would wear their Strahan jersey all around town and act like they have been his biggest fan ever. The number one jersey sale before the 2008 season was Brett Favre’s New York Jets jersey. The second jersey was Tony Romo and then third was the Super Bowl MVP - Eli Manning. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Cowboys, but I think it is pretty funny that a guy who left his team to go to Cabo beat out (in jersey sales) the quarterback who beat him in a playoff game. The Favre jersey going on top of the list should have been a major indicator that we were in for something special last season. However, for the most part, the rest of the top 25 sales seems to be pretty rational. The Steelers winning the Super Bowl was not out of left field, but that Favre jersey should have been a sign to be on the lookout for the CARDINALS making it to the big game.

Time to look at the litmus test for the 2009 season. If last years wrinkles in the top jerseys list caused the Cardinals to go to the Super Bowl, then there is a chance that the Lions could win it all this year. This piece of litmus paper is reading anything but purple. For the record, I am throwing out the notion that people buy jerseys for fashion reasons, such as matching colors with their hat and shoes. I will provide the list below and put my analysis of each selection.

20. Michael Crabtree - Ironically, he does collect some royalties off of jersey sales. So, if he decides to sit out the entire season, and garners enough attention, he may get enough guaranteed money to look like he made the right choice. On a real note, how is this any different than me being a top jersey sale for the Cowboys? I don’t play for them, and he doesn’t play for the 49ers, so I don’t know why I am not in the top 20.

19. Aaron Rodgers - I have no problem with this selection. I just wish he would change his number to 4 to show the same respect to Favre that Favre has shown to the Packers organization.

18. Matt Ryan - Again, no problem here. He went into a touch situation last season and performed very well.

17. Joe Flacco - I like Flacco but it is a little strange to see the Ravens represented by a quarterback and not a defensive player or at least someone who went to the U.

16. Larry Fitzgerald - He should definitely be a top jersey, but wait till you see some of the receivers ahead of him.

15. Jason Witten - He is a great player and should be on the list.

14. LaDanian Tomlinson - For the self proclaimed best running back in the game, you would think he would be a little higher on the list. I wonder where Peterson is on here?????

13. Hines Ward - He’s a good all around receiver, and two time Super Bowl Champ. However, I think it is a little odd to see him above Larry Fitzgerald.

12. Peyton Manning - Definitely should be on the list, but wait till you see some of the quarterbacks ahead of him.

11. Terrell Owens - My goodness! Here is a quick tutorial on short term vs. Long term investment. Long term investment - buying a Larry Fitzgerald jersey, short term investment - buying a TO jersey. This will be good for at most two seasons before he completely causes chaos on your team and then joins another. Trust me, I know from experience.

10. Eli Manning - Ahead of the big brother??? Knowing how competitive Peyton is (based on those DSRL commercials), I can’t imagine this going over well with him. I can just imagine Peyton has this list and his brother’s name highlighted on it posted on the wall inside the weight room or film room. Bottomline - Eli should be on here, but I am skeptical of it being ahead of Peyton.

9. Adrian Peterson - This is interesting. Not a bad spot for a running back who can’t play on third downs, or catch the ball, according to LT. People must really believe that Peterson is the better back. You may be thinking, this is just jersey sales it doesn’t mean anything. I disagree. I know that I said I wasn’t going to bring fashion into this argument, but if you think about it - the only way you will get someone to pick purple over ‘the best uniforms in football’ (Chargers powder blue) is if that player is great, which Adrian Peterson is.

8. Tom Brady - No question he should be top 10, but even after missing all of last season, you will be surprised at who is ahead of him. Get ready.

7. Mark Sanchez - AHEAD OF TOM BRADY?????? That GQ cover must have really boosted street cred for Mark. Now you can see that the litmus paper is starting to change its color.

6. Tony Romo - AHEAD OF TOM BRADY PART II?????? Don’t get me wrong, I love the Cowboys, but work with me here. I have two quarterbacks, one of them has a 14-3 playoff record with 3 Super Bowl Wins. The other is 0-2 in the playoffs with a bobbled hold during a last minute field goal attempt and a costly interception. Which quarterback do I think is better???

5. Ben Roethlisberger - It is hard to argue after that game winning drive in the Super Bowl last season. I still would put Brady ahead though.

4. Michael Vick - pH level is no longer neutral. This is actually a little bit disturbing. I wish I could look up the jersey sales of OJ after his 1994 trial. How about the drop in Kobe Bryant jerseys after his incident in Colorado. The fact that a man who killed dogs, lied about it, went to prison for two years, and has just been reinstated to the league is now a top 4 jersey being purchased in the US is borderline crazy. Not to mention he is the backup quarterback on the Eagles (I wonder what McNabb thinks of this). That would be like John Kitna being ahead of Tony Romo on this list.

3. Troy Polamalu - Agree 100% He is an outstanding player.

2. Jay Cutler - AHEAD OF TOM BRADY PART III????????? This is going to be a new category of insanity. It will be called ATB (Ahead of Tom Brady). How is a guy that cries and complains his way off of a team number two on his list. I wonder how many of these were purchased by Broncos fans and have been used to replace handkerchiefs. Not a bad spot for a guy who hasn’t had a winning record since high school.

1. Brett Favre - If you weren’t convinced that this is going to be a crazy season, rest assured, here is your number one indicator. Once again, Brett Favre leads the league in jersey sales - this time in a very fashionable purple. I bet a great way to sell even more Favre jerseys is to offer some sort of deal where the purchaser gets a free pair of Wranglers if they buy a jersey. Who knows, this could already be happening. I just cannot believe that there are that many people who would spend $80 on a Favre jersey. Similar to the Cutler situation, I wonder how many of those have been purchased by Green Bay fans in order to create a fire big enough to roast marshmallow and keep warm the day of the Green Bay - Minnesota game.

So, if Brett Favre being number one last year, along with a few other wrinkles could cause something so bizarre, such as the Cardinals making it to the Super Bowl, then this year should be fun to watch. You never know, maybe the Cowboys will win that playoff game. Maybe the Lions will win a single game? Whatever the case, according to our litmus paper, it should be anything but a normal season.

Shaq Vs.

2009-09-16T15:22:00.002-05:00

My brother and I were watching TV last night. We were flipping through the channels and landed on what we have deemed 'probably the greatest show ever created'.
Shaq Vs.
If you have not had a chance to see this show, it is histerical. Personally, I have never really liked Shaq. His off-the court antics with Kobe, his D.Howard slight and Kareem, sometimes I wish he would shut his mouth but after last night, I want more! The light trash talk he and Michael Phelps had was so funny. As big as Shaq is, he was actually a pretty decent swimmer. He looked so funny!! Futher, Phelps is pretty freaking hilarious too. He was very cool with his trash talk, humble and funny.

enjoy some of the highlights!

http://www.cleveland.com/ohio-sports-blog/index.ssf/2009/09/shaq_vs_swimmer_michael_phelps.html

Lebron to Dallas

2009-09-14T11:12:00.003-05:00

Wow. When I first heard of this my initial reaction was 'sell everyone'. Then, thanks to the website www.nycforLebron.com I came up with my own clever way to perhaps lure the King to Dallas.
In order to pay this guy a monstrous salary we will need to figure out a way to raise some capital. On www.nycforLebron.com they ask for donations. We, at Tino's Deli will be taking a different route.
Our proposal is this. Set up a tollbooth on I-635 otherwise knowns as LBJ Freeway. Coincidence? I think not, LBJ which stand for Lyndon B. Johnson, former President of the United States has the same initials as LeBron James. We have a highway named after Lebron James already. How awesome is that? I want a road named after me! better yet, a highway in one of the most populated cities in the state. However, the only change that will occur (besides your change in the toll) is that changing 635 to Highway 23. The toll will work two-fold. Not to neglect the Department of Transportation and the great workers that sweat for the city. 40% of all tolls will go to a fund, that will be deposited into a safe, interest bearing account to accumulate a nice 'incentive' pot to distribute to King James at the end of this season. Remember Blue Chips? When Ricky (cannot remember his last name, but the white boy from Indiana opened a couple of duffle bags with a bout 30 boxes of ziti (30k)?
Similar situation.
Here is to the new LBJ freeway and Dallas' campaign for Lebron.

Week 1

2009-09-14T10:37:00.003-05:00

Lots of things to discuss today. Week 1 of the NFL and things we are taking away from it.

1. Very critical of Romo in the first half - lots of missed opportunites and plenty of Romo Bashing going on. Got to love that! My brother and I rewinded the beginning of the telecast three or four times just to watch Romo 'fire up' the team. This is that new leadership we are coming to expect in 2009. It was good to see Romo and RoyE get off to a good start. That chemistry and 'Romo-Friendly offense' looks to be clicking. As critical of Romo as we were in the first half, he must have heard us through the television because 2nd half he came out on fire. His three td passes accumulated for a little more than 50% of his total pass yards. Here is the Cowboys report card for week 1.
Passing: A-
A few missed opportunites in the first half (over throw of Miles Austin, followed by shit-eating grin & the terrible alley-oop to MartyB. Other than that Romo was error free and looked good.
Running Backs: No Grade
Not sure where any running back was yesterday. Did we run the ball? I know Barber had some carries but where was Felix or Tashard?
Defense: B-
Secondary is suspect. Cadillac Williams looked STRONG in the first half. Did not get to the Quarterback until 4th quarter. No turnovers.. picking up right where we left off last year.
Special Teams: A+
McBriar - win. 'Kin'Folk - win. Defense, blocked FG and our place kicker, is a BEAST.

More NFL notes.
Urlacher is out for the year. Cutler was awful (Makes Josh McDaniels look like a prophet Week 1).
Adrian Peterson is awesome (understatement). That Nike commercial has it right with AD's skin looking like a reptile.
Sanchez looks solid.
Jake the Mistake Delhomme - 9 interceptions in last 2 starts = fail. Oh and he signed a 5year extension this summer! congrats!

I love this game!

2009-09-11T11:45:00.002-05:00

Please read this article. This guy basically sums up an argument that you and most of your friends have probably had before. College basketball vs. NBA.

Also, please note one of the middle paragraphs that discusses the athleticism of basketball players. I could not have said that any better myself.

http://20thcenturymotors.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/college-basketball-far-inferior-to-the-nba/

LenDale White

2009-09-08T13:49:00.001-05:00

This is what LenDale White had to say about stomping on the Steeler's towel last season and if he would do it again. One other note about him, which I just thought about. Do you think that they couldn't decide between Lenny and Dale so they just combined the two? Anyways, here is this gem of a quote:

"If it happens to be there, I'm going to stomp all over that [pause], man," the running back told reporters after practice Sunday. "If there's a towel in the stands, I will stomp on it. I don't care who gets mad. ... If they throw a towel at me, I'm going to kick it and stomp all over it. If they don't want their towel stomped on, keep it out my face."

I love the [pause] for two reasons. Number one, obviously, he wanted to say shit and it is so blatantly clear, so he should have just gone ahead and said it. Number two, if he had the 'common sense' to not say the word shit, why didn't he [pause] before making this entire statement. If I could write out this statement in bracket form, it would look like this ...

[ABSOLUTELY NO PAUSE], [pause], [No Pause] ... [NO PAUSE]

You don't come to The U....

2009-08-31T16:09:00.001-05:00

With a little research, I figured out why the Cowboys don't have the same swagger that they did when Jimmy was here. For the 5 drafts that Jimmy was in Dallas for, he selected 7 guys from THE U:

1. Kevin Williams (93)
2. Darrin Smith (93)
3. Russell Maryland (94)
4. Mike Sullivan (94)
5. Jimmie Jones (90)
6. Rod Carter (89)
7. Randy Shannon (89)

Now, four of these guys did not contribute to our Super Bowls, but the simple fact of the matter is that we were getting guys from a notorious "Cowboys Killer" university. It is also important to remember that Jimmy was the coach of this school prior to his time in Dallas and that Tom Landry also drafted Michael Irvin the year before Jimmy came to Dallas. Here is the WILD part, since Jimmy left in 1994 the Cowboys HAVE NOT DRAFTED A SINGLE PLAYER FROM THE U! No wonder the school takes it out on us everytime we play a notable player from there. Another interesting fact - Jimmy 'resigned' from the Cowboys in mid March (about a month before the draft). Had we kept Jimmy, we could have avoided blunders such as these:

1. In 2002, needing a safety, the Cowboys drafted Roy Williams. Comment: Ed Reed was the safety from THE U, and also the obvious choice.
2. Prior to the 2000 season, the Cowboys needed a wide receiver replacement for Michael Irvin, so they traded their next two first round choices for Joey Galloway. With two straight 5-11 seasons, the Cowboys would have been picking top 10 in the draft. In the 2001 draft, thanks to our trade, we missed out on two notable 'Cowboys Killers' in the first round - Reggie Wayne and Santana Moss.
3. 2002 could also be known as the 'Cowboys Killer' Draft. With the Cowboys passing up opportunities such as Reed (mentioned above), Jeremy Shockey, and then drafting Andre Gurode (a good player, but replaceable) instead of Clinton Portis, when Emmitt was going into his last year with the team.

I can't believe I never realized this earlier. Jimmy would have kept doing his thing and drafting products from the U, but since he left we have drafted ZERO players from there. It is nice to know that they worked together to get the final victory at Texas Stadium. These former U players could have very well been Cowboys but we passed on them. Ray Lewis, Willis Mcgahee, and Ed Reed were huge contributors to the grand finale at Texas Stadium and they were victorious. Just think, they could have been Cowboys.

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I coached his Dad in Detroit

2009-08-31T09:31:00.001-05:00

With a little research, I figured out that Jerry Glanville was an assistant coach in Detroit from 1974 -1976. While there, a one Bob Kowalkowski played on the offensive line. Bob Kowalkowski had a son named Scott, who was drafted by Philadelphia in 1991 and played with them through the 1993 season. After that year, Scott followed in his Bob's footsteps and joined the Detroit Lions.

NFL Extreme is mostly based on the 1993-1994 season, meaning that Scott Kowalkowski still was playing for the Eagles.... or was he? There could be a significant mistake in either www.pro-football-reference.com or www.wikipedia.com. Let me explain....

Upon further research, I discovered that Jerry Glanville coached the Atlanta Falcons from 1990-1993. In 1990, his Falcons played the Eagles, but Kowalkowski had not been drafted yet. In 1991, 1992, and 1993, the Falcons do not ever play the Eagles (not even in a playoff game), and it was during these three seasons that Scott Kowalkowski supposedly played for the Eagles before leaving for Detroit. In 1994, Atlanta plays both Detroit and Philadelphia, but as we know, Glanville is not coaching the Falcons anymore. So, during what game did Jerry Glanville reveal to his player that he coached "[Kowalkowski's] Dad in Detroit?"

Conspirators have made many assumptions in regards to the validity of this classic quote:

1. It could have been a preseason game
2. It could have been a postseason game
3. He could have been talking about the player randomly - afterall, Scott Kowalkowski was a standout player at Notre Dame and maybe Jerry had interest in drafting him.
4. He may have joined the Lions in the 1993 season. The Falcons played Detroit in the opener of that season and it is a possibility that his stats are incorrect. According to his statistics, he played in zero games for Philadelphia in the 1993 season, so maybe he was traded before week 1.

Regardless of when Jerry made this comment, at least we know he wasn't completely bonkers and he was referring to actual people.

The Top 10

2009-08-25T16:45:00.004-05:00

Last week, my cousin and I embarked on a long drive up to New York. The purpose was to move me into my apartment, which is now my new home. The great part about the internet is I still have the ability to contribute to this blog even when I am about 1600 miles away from Dallas. I went to school up here for four years, so I kind of knew the craziness that I was getting myself into. After finally getting settled into my closet (even though the lease says apartment), I now have had the chance to do what I love to do in New York ... sit back and observe!

As I constantly tell my brother, I hate ESPN in the summer because of the garbage that they label as Top 10 material. It consists primarily of baseball 'highlights' and recently it has included Little League World Series plays. So, since we have been robbed of Top 10 plays the past week, I am going to go ahead and provide my own Top 10.

The Top 10 (in no particular order) New York observations from the last 24 hours - and yes, this all happened within a 24 hour time span. I have provided commentary in parentheses...

1. I have browsed in 4 different health food stores and every single one has a pet cat that roams around. (Either this is a crazy coincidence, or the cat has recently replaced video cameras as a security device)

2. One of the big trends in this city is going 'green.' This is understandable. There is a Green Kitchen Diner that IRONICALLY has stacks of take out menus right by the entrance (doesn't sound very green to me).

3. I saw a store that was advertising soy pillows. (Soy pillows?????? I don't even know how to respond to this. My initial thoughts were - this must be the vegan alternative to people who like to eat their pillows. However, even if this was the case, are there really that many people who make up that market?)

4. I went to a fish market yesterday that had tilapia for $10/pound and offered Chilean Sea Bass at $35/pound. (Obviously, they have never heard the term 'recession')

5. I saw a man wearing a TUCKED IN shirt that read "Don't let my enormous d*** scare you away." (I'm glad he had his shirt tucked into his pants just in case he decides to go eat at a nice restaurant).

6. People in this city do not like to be told "God Bless You" after they sneeze. A man in front of me in line at the store sneezed and I received a dirty look from him after saying "Bless You." (No comment)

7. There is a grocery store up the block from me that always has about ten guys out front with flyers and signs, telling people to boycott this store and to never shop there. Two doors down there is a Jehovah's Witness stand handing out literature. (This corner reminds me of the game Monopoly. When your opponent owns two Monopolies on one side of the board, and you just hope you land on Community Chest and Chance when you get in that area - that is how I feel when I walk down this block. I just want to hop from the corner of the street to the exact middle then to the other corner to avoid these two groups of people).

8. The Grilled Chicken Sale! I saw in the grocery store today a sign that said "Sale: Grilled Chicken 6.99 1/2 lb." Now, it is obviously hilarious that 6.99 for a half of a pound is even considered a sale, but let me add two more important pieces of info. First, the '1/2' was written extremely small to fool customers I guess. Second, the price of the grilled chicken the day before was 12.99 per pound. (So, not only is this 'sale' price still expensive, but it is really not on sale at all - it is marked up. I'm just trying to figure out the logic - if you order half of what you normally get, you will pay 58.3% of the normal price??? Somebody please explain this to me).

9. I ordered a pound of turkey at the grocery store today. Now, this store makes a great in-house turkey and I like to get a thick slice so that I can cut it up and use it for salads, etc. I asked the man for a thick slice that will be around a pound of meat and he said, "No problem, I will get it as close as possible." Well, his close as possible was a 1.75 lb. piece of turkey. He then apologized and wrapped it up for me. (I'm confused about a couple of things with this one. First, he could have cut a piece off of that to give me CLOSER to a pound because after all, if he gives too much it is possible to remove some, but if he gave me .75 lbs or turkey, he cannot glue on another quarter pound. Second, if this was 'as close as he could get,' does that mean if I ordered ten pounds of turkey he would give me 17.5 pounds???)

10. This one is a classic. It is about 8 AM, traffic is starting to pick up and the light is red for cars travelling West. All of a sudden, I hear sirens and I see an ambulance moving that direction and he is not slowing down for this intersection - it must be an emergency. Well, fortunately, everyone at the intersection stops for him as he drives by. I happen to notice something bizarre though - he is driving with one hand on the wheel ... because his other hand is stuffing some sort of breakfast sandwich in his mouth. (He must have really left in a rush. However, I am just trying to understand how he unwrapped this, and had the confidence to eat a sandwich while driving through red lights)

I hope you enjoyed my top ten. Have a nice evening.

end of summer

2009-08-25T13:21:00.001-05:00

By the way, we thought the summer was awful because of baseball robbing the top ten every day. Well, I completely forgot how 'captivated' the nation becomes in late August with the Little League World Series. I mean, you can't even get USA vs Mexico world cup qualifying soccer on ESPN, but we are somehow able to have the pleasure of watching an entire workday of a step above tee ball. They couldn't even get the Cowboys last game at Texas Stadium on ESPN! Bottom line - unless it involves Brett Favre, everything takes a back seat to baseball in the summer.

Air Bacon? Seriously..

2009-08-25T11:59:00.001-05:00

My brother sent this to me in a text message yesterday:
First, here at Tino's Deli, we are huge Robert Horry supporters and are helping campaign for his election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. However, he made some comments yesterday that were quite bizzarre..

original text message:

J: Robert Horry said the one guy he would not want to see with the ball down one when he is playing against them is.....wait for it.......MITCH RICHMOND!!!!!!
He has to be high right now.

A: Mitchell has mad game, he had his own shoe, the Air Bacons

J: Yeah I'm sure he was sweet back in the day but let's not kid ourselves -- Horry played against Kobe, Lebron, DWade, Duncan, Billups, etc..NOW HE JUST SAID OTIS THORPE WAS THE BEST LEADER HE PLAYED WITH. kenny Smith must be flipping out. He also says that Devean George reminds him of himself.....Hmmm I do not think Mr. George has made any buzzer beaters, unless you count his last second nix of the Kidd trade.

Sunshine and Pretty Boy Troy

2009-08-25T11:56:00.001-05:00

i was listening to Colin Cowherd today and he had the funniest thing to say about NFL QB's. He has a theory as to why the quarterback is the best looking guy on the team, here it is in a nutshell ....

The reason why the quarterback is the best looking guy on the team is because when you go back to age 10, playing your first year of organized football, the coach is splitting up teams and the quarterback is always the most popular kid - who happens to have all the girls like him, because he is also the best looking. this sticks through high school and college - and this is why the quarterback always leaves the party with the best looking women.

He was saying this because he was talking about Sanchez winning the starting quarterback job. He was saying that last night Sanchez and Clemens had the same stats - each with one interception but the difference is self esteem. Sanchez has tons of self esteem because he is better looking so the interception doesn't bother him nearly as much as Clemens.

Pretty funny stuff, but also interesting...

PRE-SEASON

2009-08-19T09:34:00.000-05:00

I completely forgot that we put in our backups against the Eagles last year in the 4th quarter during that meltdown. I had some time to reflect on that whole situation today and this is my analysis... Putting in your backups during a blowout loss to a division rival at the end of the season that keeps you from getting into the playoffs is the ultimate sign that your team is SOFT. I'm going to list a couple of reasons why someone would support the decision and why it is not a legitimate reason will be in the parentheses...

If we were in the playoffs regardless of the outcome, why risk injury? (We were playing TO GET INTO the playoffs)

Why risk someone getting injured and not being ready for training camp/preseason/start of season, etc? (They have an entire offseason to heal, people hold out of training camp all of the time, and if they miss a few games at the beginning of the season, it will FORCE us to play better ball in December)

We weren't going to come back. (This was evident at the coin flip, but the first team started the game anyways. Also, did Wade really think up until the minute mark of the 4th quarter that maybe we couldn't put together some magic? Instead of leaving in your starters to just punish the Eagles the last quarter of the game and beat them up a little before their playoff game, we instead did everything but bring over a bottle of champagne in between snaps. This is why the Eagles have a psychological advantage over us. Example: In 2007, we were beating the Eagles by 20+ in the 4th quarter and Jason Garrett sends Witten on a crossing pattern in the Dawkins zone. One of the Eagles hits him so hard that his helmet popped off and his nose bled. So my point is, even in a blowout, the Eagles were still just waiting for one of the Hard Knock actors to go across the middle)

So, this clearly shows how soft the Cowboys were last season. Hopefully, it will change this season, but only time will tell. I just think that if they were still out on the field, that maybe it could have provided a little more humility and anger and that could carry over into this season.

Have a good day at the office.

Tim Donaghy

2009-06-11T13:04:00.003-05:00

How often do we turn to our friends while watching a game and say something to the tune of "how much did they pay the refs for that call?" Well, the answer is very often. Even when we play on teams as kids (I say kids because most of us, like myself, peaked about that age) we would constantly bicker after a loss and say to our buddies on the team - "They must have paid those refs!" Unfortunately, no matter how convincingly we said that, it really didn't happen......... or did it???

Enter the Tim Donaghy scandal. Even though we are over a year removed from this being breaking news, it still is one of the most fascinating stories ever. I mean, in a way this gives a little bit of credibility to all of those excuses we had when we lost games in the past or when a favorite team of ours lost in the past. If at this point in time I were to blame the Mavericks 2006 NBA finals loss on the refs (which I did back in '06 because Dwyane Wade almost reached the century mark on free throws attempted) people could not laugh it off and tell me to stop making excuses. I mean, doesn't the Tim Donaghy scandal validate the 'blame the refs' adage? Anyways, I am writing this post because Tim Donaghy was recently in the news.

In a nutshell, Tim Donaghy was roughed up in prison by a guy with a paint-rolling stick. The result - a torn lateral meniscus. I am not trying to write about how he deserved this or laugh that he is hurt, but rather to share some of the thoughts that have been going on in my head. I have listed the questions that I have been pondering along with my own personal opinions.

1. If the basketball leagues in prison needed refs, would they let Donaghy do it?
He has been trained to do this at the highest level. The games would be officiated well. The answer is no and this is NOT because of the fear that he would start gambling and making the games crooked - I don't think he would risk that with a bunch of prisoners because if he screwed one of them over or made one of them mad - it wouldn't get reported to David Stern. The reason that I say no is just the simple principle of the situation. Let me explain using another criminal - Ted Kaczynski. If Ted Kaczynski was put to work in the mail room in prison, how would you feel???? I think that is all I need to make my point.

2. Is it possible that the man who assaulted him lost a bet because of one of the crooked games officiated by Donaghy?
This would really be something. I'm sure so many people were affected by those games - think about how many people bet on sports games - that maybe this prison has a couple of those guys in it. Now, this man could have been screwed either outside of prison or inside of prison. I guess the point of my second question is motive.

3. When a guard yells at Donaghy or they blow a whistle because he is doing something wrong, does he complain?
I kind of think of this as the "waiter dining-out effect" or the WDOE. The WDOE is simply an explanation for when you go out to eat with a group of friends, and one of them happens to also be a waiter or has been in the past, and when you get the bill they always encourage you to tip a lot because they really 'know how it feels to not get a good tip.' Or the explanation for why they give you a look when you complain about your meal or change up your order with the waiter/waitress. Anyways, when a guard gets on his case to fix his bed better or maybe if he steps into a restricted area and they yell at him, I wonder if he is very calm and listens well. He knows how much it stinks to have people yell and talk back to you. I wonder if he gives that WDOE look to fellow inmates when they refuse to follow orders from the guards. Unfortunately for him, if he does give the guards attitude, they probably would slap him with something other than a technical foul.

Let's Make it Happen (if you are not into the whole brevity thing)

2009-05-31T12:58:00.001-05:00

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

- Teddy Roosevelt, from The Man in the Arena

Happy Birthday

2009-05-31T09:44:00.002-05:00

Today is my brother's birthday. A little background on Anthony - he is the creator of this blog, and he loves to do crossfit. So, I figured that I would give him a little birthday post using some crossfit jargon. One of the ways that they perform exercises at crossfit is by using something called tabata. It consists of eight sets of 20 seconds on (where you are performing the exercise) and 10 seconds off (where you rest). I was thinking today, this concept can be applied to many different actions and ideas. For example tabata chores. This would be for all of you who cannot stand when you are asked to vacuum the floor or collect the garbage. Apply tabata principles to this and vacuum for 20 seconds, then don't vacuum for 10 seconds. Do this eight times, and then continue until you finish. You can use those 10 seconds off to marvel at your work or maybe do a few jumping jacks. Anyways, the idea that I would like to highlight today is applying tabata to some of the actions of professional athletes. Now, there are so many to choose from, but since the NBA Finals are around the corner, I thought I would provide some examples using NBA players in which the 20 seconds on represents them being promising basketball players and the ten seconds off representing them losing their minds. Here are the eight rounds broken up into three categories ...

Latrell Sprewell:
20 seconds ON (He is one of the most dynamic young players in the league, making the all-star game 3 out of his first 4 years)
10 seconds OFF (After being criticized at practice by his coach, he decided to choke him and he was suspended 68 games)
20 seconds ON (Sprewell resurrects his career with the Timberwolves, averaging about 20 a game)
10 seconds OFF (Sprewell rejects a 21 million dollar extension because he has "a family to feed")

Josh Howard:
20 seconds ON (He averages a career high 20 ppg in 2007-2008)
10 seconds OFF (During the playoffs, he admits to smoking pot and then after a loss he hands out b-day party invitations)
20 seconds ON (He is relatively quiet in the offseason, working hard to make people forget about his playoff failures)
10 seconds ON (He allows someone videotape him saying that he refuses to sing the national anthem because he's black)

Former Sacramento Kings:
20 seconds ON (Chris Webber leads Michigan to the championship as a part of the Fab 5)
10 seconds OFF (He forgets his team is out of timeouts, and he calls one. This was a technical and cost his team the game)
20 seconds ON (Vlade Divac disrupts Shaq's layup attempt with time ticking down in game 4 when the Kings lead 2-1)
10 seconds OFF (Instead of rebounding, Vlade tips it out to Robert Horry - a Laker - and he hits a three to tie the series)
20 seconds ON (Hedo Turkoglu hits a shot with one second left to give the Magic a two point lead over LeBron)
10 seconds OFF (Hedo attempts to guard LeBron on the next play and gets a game winning 3 pointer hit in his face)
20 seconds ON (Ron Artest is on the verge of a breakout year in 2004, averaging 25 ppg through the first seven games)
10 seconds OFF (In game 8, he goes up into the stands and starts throwing his fists around resulting in a 75 game suspension)

As you can see, there are many possibilities to run with. I could do an entire eight sets on Ron Artest probably. I may do that later. I just wanted to serve a little appetizer of how versatile this tabata concept is. Happy Birthday Ant.

Math, Numbers, etc

2009-05-30T19:15:00.002-05:00

My Mom was tutoring some students from the JCP earlier today, and all of that math in the air got me thinking about a couple of topics that involve numbers . . .

1. Professional athletes that lie about their age:

Who cares. Honestly, this is one of the most ridiculous things in sports. In baseball, when Alfonso Soriano got traded to the Rangers from the Yankees, it was all of a sudden revealed that he was 28 years old, not 26. OH MY GOSH!!!!! HE IS SO OVERRATED IF HE IS THAT OLD!!! Now don't get me wrong, that kid Danny Almonte from the Little League World Series was a straight up cheater. When these guys lie about their age, they are cheating people up until a certain age. However, I think once they get to 17, and 18 years old, it should not make a difference if they are 20 playing against 18 year olds. Think about it, in High School you can have a freshman phenom at 15 playing against an 18 year old senior, but that is just the way it goes. It is one thing if you are 15 playing against 12 year olds, but the older you get, the less that gap really matters. So, my point is that if you don't find out until the guy is '30' that he is actually '33,' don't lose sleep over it - it will just make you look older.

Shifting gears to another sport. The other thing that makes me laugh is when people say things such as LeBron is really 40 or Greg Oden is a 50 year old rookie. Okay, I know this is an exaggeration, but lets take it from another angle. Say LeBron is really 35 years old and Oden is really 40 years old - then those are two of the most unbelievable athletes ever at that age. How many 35 year old NBA players average a triple double in the playoffs or dunk from the free throw line? Minus the exaggeration, if LeBron was really 21 at the time people thought he was 18, would you really pass on him to be on your team. That would mean this season he would be 27 not 24. That would mean he won an MVP at 27 and is playing out of his mind at 27 instead of 24. I personally don't care, and I would still want the locomotive that is LeBron James driving through the lane, dunking, and taking prom pictures before tip off on my team.

2. Thirds
A couple of weeks ago I had an apple that I was going to split with two other friends. When I got out the corer and cut it into 8 pieces, it caused quite a stir. We all started discussing - how come nothing was created to slice round objects into thirds? The corers come in the 4 slice and 8 slice variety, but what about multiples of three??? This got me thinking - I bet companies have a hard time deciding whether or not to offer products in packages that have an even number of the product or a multiple of three. For example, Let's take gum. The Wrigley's company obviously could not decide what to do so they offer some packs (Five, Extra) in multiples of three (15 sticks) and then they offer Orbit in even numbers (14). Now, Let's look at a company that used their math skills and remembered that some multiples of three are also even numbers (6, 12, 18, 24, etc) --- Trident. I would love to see the Wrigley's crew move to an 18 pack of gum.

If I think of anything else with numbers, I will post it. I am going to watch a little of the Cleveland LeBrons vs. Orlando Panic - game 6.

Got Rings?

2009-05-28T20:55:00.006-05:00

The man has 7 rings, count them 7 rings.
2 with the Houston Rockets
3 with the LA Lakers
2 with the San Antonio Spurs.
Big Shot Bob has been hitting big time clutch shots in the playoffs his whole career. You can youtube you his top 10 playoff clutch moments. Goosebumps.
When I was in college, my friends and I were in constant heated debates about whether or not Robert Horry is a hall of fame player. All of my friends said "Horry is garbage, he is not good" , "You are so dumb, Horry is not a hall of famer" -- hmmmm really?!?! The man has won 7 championships. How many other current players can say that? How many current NBA players have won more than 4? Besides Tim Duncan?

On each one of those teams, Horry was obviously not the best player or the go to guy. By the time he was in San Antonio, he was not even logging many minutes, yet he would come in late in the fourth quarter and hit big time shots. Imagine having a designated hitter in baseball that gets three at bats per game, but somehow gets a game winning hit in every world series he plays in. Robert also contributed in ways that did not include making jump shots. Sometimes your team needs you to contribute in the strangest of ways...enter the Phoenix Suns controversy. With Amare Stoudemire killing the Spurs a few years back in the playoffs, Horry strategically cross checked Steve Nash out of bounds near the Suns bench. Because Amare was currently out of the game, if he ran onto the court to react to the foul, it would be an automatic suspension. Let's just say that Big Shot Bob's plan worked to perfection. Stoudemire was suspended and the Spurs went on to win that series.

Cleveland LeBrons

2009-05-28T20:05:00.003-05:00

I think if Cleveland wants to keep LeBron James, he should demand that they change from the Cavaliers to the LeBrons. Afterall, that is more accurate when describing the team. Continuing with this theme of the city of Cleveland being in love with LeBron, I find it so entertaining to watch Mike Brown during these games. I don't doubt that he is a good coach - he seems to focus on defense and he learned from Popovich - but he just seems to be too big a fan of LeBron to be his coach. Another example of this could be if Ahmad Rashad coached Michael Jordan, or if any sports anchor from ESPN decided to coach Brett Favre. Bottomline is there is a fine line between being a coach who likes his players and being a straight up fan, but I think Mike Brown's mannerisms and some of his reactions put him awfully close to crossing that line. Because I do think that Mike Brown is too much of a fan, I am officially setting an over/under of 3.5 for the amount of amazing plays made by LeBron James before Mike Brown runs out on the court and does one of those NFL chest bump numbers with Lebron. I am even beginning to think if Mike Brown requested that his team use actual cameras for their pregame ritual just so that he could get copies of the LeBron and co. pictures. I can just imagine him grabbing LeBron before the tip saying, "hey buddy, do you mind taking one with my camera next time?" To which LeBron would have to break the news to him - "sorry coach, we were just goofing around, we weren't actually taking pictures!"

Sport?

2009-05-21T23:46:00.003-05:00

One of the biggest debates that one can get into with his friends is whether or not NASCAR or other forms of race car driving should be considered a 'sport.' Well, one person who was pro NASCAR being a sport told me - if it is on ESPN, then obviously it is some form of a sport. I don't want to get into that entire debate and if I agree or disagree with him, but I have to say that I do not agree with his reason. Think of his statement as a thesis statement that has good evidence, but this evidence has a glaring exception. My case and point for the ESPN claim is the airing of the Spelling Bee. Don't get me wrong - the hours spent studying and practicing probably does make you break a sweat, but I would hardly call this a sport. I used to think that when ESPN showed this it was more of an issue of ABC wanting to put it on cable, so they passed it on to their cable partner - ESPN. However, as I am watching this year, I am beginning to think that in a year or two we will start having a show called Spelling Bee Live or Spelling Bee 2nite. We may even have a Game Day pregame show brought to us by Webster's.

A couple of observations as to why I think ESPN is taking this to another level. First, we now have little segments that highlight the contestants where they talk about their hobbies and what they do. This would be perfectly fine if they didn't have to play that goofy music from NFL primetime in the background in an attempt to make it more like the NFL draft player profiles. Another observation - they have too many advertisements for sporting events. I think they told us that the Nuggets and Lakers were playing tomorrow night on ESPN more times than the contestants repeat the words for the judge - which they do a lot. If people are watching this spelling bee, especially the contestants families, do you think that they care about the Lakers and Nuggets game? Absolutely not. They would rather know dates for Math tournaments, or even advertisements from prestigious prep schools that could use this time for a way to recruit the next 'Spelling Bee Champion.' The last problem that I have with this event is the use of commentators. Do we really need a color commentator for this event. Especially when it comes down to the later rounds - there is nothing more that they can say about the contestants. Sometimes the commentators will suggest that they know what part is tricking the kid, when in reality that is probably not the case. Just because the commentator doesn't know 'i' comes before 'e' except after 'c' does not mean that the contestant is stumped on this too. The kid is busy asking about the origin or etymology of the word to know if it ends in 'ilia' or 'iglia.' Then they comment by saying things like - "she needs to go with her first instinct" or gems such as "the vowel must be what is tripping her up." What does that even mean? Finally, the one thing that the drives me crazy about the announcers is that they make these comparisons to events that happened in sports. One kid just spelled a tough word right and made it to the next round, and the commentator said something along the lines of Carmelo should take notes on that clutch performance for his game 6. Call me crazy, but I think that these are two completely different situations. I could go on and on. I probably will have to add to this later, but that is just a start for now.

Rant of the Day

2009-05-20T09:01:00.004-05:00

This Rant is brought to you by Soul Glo:

as great as the playoffs are, the nba playoffs are waaaaaaay to long and i cannot stand tnt or abc's coverage. so first we have to put up with '40 games in 40 nights' of charles, ernie, kenny, and (substitute in some random former nba player) then we have to deal with the likes of stuart scott for the finals. the funny thing is that when the postseason finally comes to a close and we can say to our friends "that seemed like the longest playoffs ever" (something we end up saying every year), we don't realize that the old saying 'careful what you wish for' is about to come smack us in the face. what i mean by this is, we should appreciate the nba playoffs because as soon as they finish its ...... BASEBALL TIME!!!!!

YES! baseball time lasts the entire summer and makes sportscenter incredibly boring. it floods every play on the top 10 (and i say TOP very loosely). i just laugh when a home run in the middle of the 5th inning is a top ten play - that is like a 3 pointer with 6 minutes to go in the second quarter and 15 seconds on the shot clock making the top 10.

anyways, i guess the point of my rant is that we should appreciate the shenanigans of tnt for 40 nights and then the nba finals, because once they are over - we can all enjoy routine pop flys and steroid induced home runs being considered 'top ten'.

Tino's Deli _ Inaugural Post

2009-05-19T11:44:00.005-05:00

Giving a shout out to the famous Tino's Deli on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx. If you happen to be around there I highly suggest you go in and order some Balsamic Chicken. It will get you right and it is full of win. While you are at it buy yourself a T-Shirt too. They come in Black and Red.

"We satisfy even the most ferocious appetites"