Re: My Plans for This Sunday

I'm getting the feeling that extreme measures will be required to get Dad to watch this game.

DA BEARS!!!!

Everyone should be getting excited about a certain team from a certain midwestern town who is going to beat the Sea puppiess by a score of 400-0!!!!! But Grossman will be kept under 2,000 yards passing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68x-HFAXV9M&mode=related&search=

My Plans For this Sunday

Hey Boys...I'm not sure where each of you will be this Sunday but as a way to ensure I do not waste the day in front of the TV I'll be in the air heading toward NYC while the Bears toil against the Seahawks. I think this will be the best way to handle the undeniable urge to watch the game. I know I sound like Bill, but I don't think our house is messy enough for me to clean it for the 3.5 hours.

I will TIVO the game and if they win I'll watch it next Friday...if not...I wait until early April to get my hopes shattered once again.

Denis Savard

The Tribune has a mid-season report card up for the Blackhawks.

Am I the only one who didn't know that Savard was the new coach of the 'Hawks?

I know he was one of the great players of his generation, but my only memory is of him picking up a stick in the middle of the "Slapshot-fight" against the Northstars and threatening to brain a guy with it. When, after the game, Daniel and I asked Dad what that was about, he replied with something like, "Savard's a little nuts."

And now he's coach of a mediocre hockey team.

The Results Are In

No Hawk this time. No McGwire either.

These votes always leave me with mixed emotions. I love that the Baseball Hall of Fame is such a tough institution to get into, but the voting process itself can be frustrating.

For instance, why no unanimous selections? Who doesn't vote for Cal Ripkin or Tony Gwynn? These guys were both brilliant players & fantastic ambassadors for the game; what could be any logical objection?

The rules eliminate any players who get less than 5% of the vote. I propose a secondary rule. If, as one of the voters, you vote with a minority of 5% or less, you have to justify the vote. You'll have to present your reasoning to a committee of peers, and, if your justification is deemed insufficient, you'll lose your voting privileges. If you can't adequately justify voting against Cal Ripkin, or, on the flip side, voting for Jose Canseco, you don't deserve to vote at all.

"Jesus, these guys stink."

Perhaps no group understands the attractiveness of atheism more than Chicago sports fans.

I mean, what higher power can provide solace after a season in the bleachers? Can religion help us understand the ineptitude of Dave Wannstedt and Dick Jauron? Can theology convincingly explain phenomena like the Curse of the Billy Goat and the black cat and the two Steves? And what God would make Ron Santo endure the '69 season, keep him out of the Hall of Fame, and then take both his legs? Yes, atheism has it appeal at times.

However, since the playoffs are here--and we're participating--I've been feeling slightly less apocalyptic. But I'm always willing to entertain other people's thoughts on the existence, or lack thereof, of the Big Man. This is one of the best I've read:

As an adolescent, hunched over some book or magazine in the family bathroom, I used to tell myself that God couldn’t possibly exist, because the notion that he might be watching me with disapproval while I masturbated was absurd; even more absurd was the notion that all my dead ancestors might be lined up and watching, too. This wasn’t exactly a strong argument, more a mild yet convincing feeling. And it was, of course, self-interested: the thought of Grandma and Grandpa observing what I was up to would have seriously put me off my stroke.

I'm guessing a few of the Scott boys can relate to this reasoning. Although, I'm also guessing that their idea of a judgmental and vengeful deity looks something like this:

"And the Gary Barnett Award goes to ..."

From Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback:

Nick Saban Memorial Quotes of the Week

Dec. 11: "I'm not going anywhere.''

Dec. 21: "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach.''
-- Dolphins coach Nick Saban.

Jan. 3: "It took us a long time to get out of there, but we're glad to be here.''
-- Terry Saban, wife of Alabama coach Nick Saban, to reporters upon arriving in Tuscaloosa Wednesday.

Jan. 4: "What I realized in the last two years is that we love college coaching.''
-- Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Jan. 4: "You know what he was as Dolphin coach? A failure. A loser. A gasbag. The tombstone on his Dolphin career reads, 'Talked like a warrior, acted like a weasel.' ... He will be remember in these parts as a quitter and a liar.''
-- Miami Herald columnist Dan LeBatard.

Monday Morning Smile

Just a little video appetizer of one of the Cubs' happier moments in recent years.

Hey-that is my shot

Will Mackenzie had a chip on number 12 at Kapalua that reminded me of my short game. After a 378 yard drive on a 398 yard hole. He proceeded to skull the next shot over the green. He made bogie. Also Fred Funk said the hardest shot in golf is the one after a shank. Ask Bill about that.

Can it possibly end worse than this?

As one of the few Scotts living in Texas, I had the unique opportunity to witness what happens when an entire city gets the wind knocked out of it. I felt a huge wave of relief late Saturday Night as I realized that no matter what transpires this coming weekend, it is going to be pretty difficult to beat the meltdown done by "America's Team."

Grossman still might have a few tricks up his sleeve.

"Hey, Adam...

...you're gay!!!!!"

Filling the Vacancies

From the Trib:

As the interview blitz of head-coaching candidates winds to a close, Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera will meet Sunday with Steelers executives regarding the vacancy created by the resignation of Bill Cowher.

Rivera has interviewed over the previous week with the Cardinals, the Falcons and the Dolphins. League rules allow interviews only through this weekend with candidates whose teams are still alive in the playoffs, and Rivera could not be offered a job until the Bears' season is over. In addition, Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner will interview with the Dolphins. On Friday, former Bear and Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary reportedly met with Falcons personnel.

I've never been fully satisfied by the way this works. It feels like candidates like Rivera are punished for their success, being asked to either divide their loyalties and attention at the most important time of the year or sit out the interviews during the playoffs.

In any case, however the Bears playoff run works out, I really don't Rivera to leave.

But the Steelers is a plush gig. Couldn't blame him taking it if it were offered.

Hawk in the Hall???

Interesting article at the Chicago Tribune. Each of the writers on the paper's staff who has a HoF ballot shares his picks and explains his reasoning.

I'd love the Hawk to go, but I'm doubting it happens on this ballot with Ripken & Gwynn, not to mention the inevitable McGwire controversy.

Let's remember the good old days...

These guys were fun; you knew they were going to win.

This is what we will likely see next weekend.

New Year's Wish

All I am hoping for in 2007 is for the Bears to reach the NFC Championship. Why am I so nervous about their chances? Just look at their possible first round opponents:

New York Giants (Bears Defeated Giants 38-20 during regular season)
Seattle Seahawks (Bears Defeated Seahawks 37-6 during regular season)
Dallas Cowboys (Cowboys lost 3 of their last 4 regular season games)

Who wouldn't be worried?

Welcome Scott Boys!!!!

Its about time for a public forum for others to enjoy the endless grousing, whining, pleading, begging, bitching, and angst that an average email chain of the Scott boys can provide.

This is it.

Is this a possibility next weekend?

Substitute "Bears" for "Jets"

In this week's New Yorker (though, unfortunately, not posted online), Adam Gopnik writes about the trouble with watching football on TV and the more general malaise that surrounds the game these days. He references several recent books written about football, including Michael Lewis' The Blind Side, and concludes on, what struck me as, a familiar note.

What makes the bald rooting interest forgivable, maybe, is the near-certainty that the ideal game is never, or almost never, going to happen. The essential experience of watching sports is experiencing loss; anyone who has ever consoled a twelve-year-old after a Jets loss, or been a twelve-year-old in need of consolation, knows this. Since loss and disappointment are the only fixed points in life, maybe the best we can say is that pro football, like anything else we like to watch, gives us a chance to organize those emotions into a pattern, a season, while occasionally giving us the hope of something more. The Jets don't always lose--just nearly always. When they do better, we feel better. That's the margin, or sideline, on which we live.

Familiar? Anyone?