Monday, 15-Oct-2001
Spurious
thoughts and idle musings from the sports week just past ...
Ain't it
nice to know that the Oakland Raiders' long and proud tradition of colorful
rogue characters is still going strong after all these years ??? Exhibit A, Your Honor ... Sebastian
"The Big" Janikowski, Oakland's hefty Polish-born kicker, who after
last Sunday's win over the hapless Pokes, allegedly fell and cracked his
alleged head open while in full tilt boogie at a Frisco nightclub. A follow-up story hinted that Sebby mighta
been zonked on GHB, the date rape drug.
But that can't be true cause he wouldn't screw that up and take it
himself unless he was from ... Oh, never mind.
Houston,
you have a problem. You have a major
league baseball franchise that simply can not win a post-season series. The Stros took yet another gaspipe against
the Tomaflops to make it seven straight series without so much as one champagne
cork popped. Meanwhile, the M's are in
danger of seeing their 116 win season get scalped by the Injuns, the A's still
can't quite figure out to kill Phineas T's Bombers and the Snakes Alive are
just that as Curt Schilling killed the bonehead Cardinals twice.
From our
"Deja Vu All Over Again" department, the cover of this week's Sports
Illustrated has a quarterback named Simms getting his ass kicked. Sure is nice to know some things haven't
changed.
Just when
you think things can't get any weirder ... Terry Bradshaw got his own star on
Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Yep, the
former Steelers catspeller recently got the star treatment for his broadcasting
work in the FOX NFL studio. Coulda been
for his acting skills though ... I mean, Terry's cameo performances back in
"Cannonball Run", "Hooper" and especially "Smokey and
the Bandit II" showed a true master thespian at the very top of his game.
You might
wanna hit your local bookstore early next month when a new book about Isiah
Thomas hits the shelves ... "The Fundamentals: 8 Plays for Winning the
Games of Business and Life". Play
No. 1: How To Coach The Defending Eastern Conference Champion Indiana Pacers To
An Eighth-Place Finish". Play No.
2: How To Drive An Entire Basketball Minor League Straight Into The Ground.
Class,
today's word is "schadenfreude".
It's a German noun pronounced "scha-den-freu-de". Interestingly enough, class, there is no
direct translation of schadenfreude to an English word but in German it means
"intense pleasure derived from the misfortune of others". Would anyone care to use this word in a
sentence ??? Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me
... Tonight's MNF game is the Washington Redskins (0-4) at the Dallas Cowboys
(0-4) and I can't possibly get any more schadenfreude outta this game, teach.
NFL Week
5 notes ... The Tites finally got their first dubya, the scary Rams got a
little scare from the Jints, Da Bears are downright jiggy while my Panthers
keep inventing new ways of tearing my heart out and stomping it to death. This time it was 0:01 left when Mrs Ditka
went wide left to win one for the Saints Be Praised. Over in Detroit, Marty Whateverweg looks like he might ride the
Charlie Batch horse at least until he's seen enough to make him wanna put Ty
Detmer back in. And all Trent Dilfer
does is win football games. It ain't
astrophysics, folks.
Boy, last
weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway here in Charlotte sure was one for the books
... First, there was an epic spat between track boss Humpy "Yes, That Is
His Name" Wheeler and the Peacock suits.
Seems that NBC refused to say the track's official name on the air since
Lowe's hadn't bought any advertising air time.
Which tickled Humpy so much that he threatened to tow their trucks and
cut their cables. Fortunately, cooler
heads prevailed after Lowe's did indeed forklift over some coin.
Not so
cool though was the fast food Bojangles chicken mascot who was waving to race
fans outside the track's nearby restaurant when an unidentified chicken head
thief tore off said chicken head and sped off to do whatever I suppose one does
with stolen chicken mascot heads. No
truth to the rumor that the poor mascot ran around like ... a chicken with his
head cut off. Oh, come on, you knew I
couldn't resist that one.
Anyone
else have any other examples of schadenfreude ??? Yes, you sir, go ahead.
The Cowboys signed Ryan Leaf to be their third-string quarterback. Good one.
An excellent example. Fine work,
young man. Auburn flushed Steve
Spurrier's Gator champeenship hopes.
Another good one, you're on a roll, sir. Perhaps you're enjoying this a little too much.
Rest in
peace, Eddie Futch.
See ya
nexted week ...
Robert E Hunt Jr
Copyright ã 2001 by Robert E Hunt Jr. All rights reserved.