YouTube Thursday: Don Meyer at the ESPYs

Most award shows are stupid or irrelevant and the ESPY's on ESPN are no less so. An awards show for athletes? Seriously? Like winning championships and making stupid money for playing games not an award enough? Well, honestly the best thing about the ESPY's is the awarding of the Jimmy V award to a deserving sports figure for overcoming adversity and this year's award went to current Northern State and former Lipscomb University coach Don Meyer. It's a long video, approaching 10 minutes, but it very good and well worth the watch.

YouTube Thursday: Favorite McNair Play Ever

With no commentary on his off-the-field issues at this point, this is how I remember Steve McNair.



(And no, I couldn't find one in English)

Caption This Picture

As a Red Sox fan, I'm legally and morally obligated to take advantage of the A-Rod steroid scandal (conveniently ignoring the fact that A-Rod almost came to the Sox in 04).

So, caption this picture and be funny, but when you do, please don't use humor enhancers.

Soccer Pictures

Pretend for a moment that you're looking at pictures of Kinsey playing soccer.

See? She just kicked the ball.


Now look, she's running behind the play and trying to get into it...


Oh man, look at the smile on that girl's face.

That's what you'll see if you come back later tonight...

YouTube Thursday (Fun Version): Best Game Ever

You might have seen videos from Improv Everywhere. Frozen Grand Central Station, Shirtless Abercrombie & Fitch, Cell Phone Symphony, Fake U2, etc.

However, my favorite one has to be this one where they made a little league game into the best game ever (with the help of NBC Sports).

Soccer Time

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook (or even here from a couple of weeks back), you know that Kinsey started soccer a couple of weeks ago and on Saturday, she had her first game. I've got pictures, but haven't had a chance to upload them. I'm honestly not sure if her team, the Pink Polar Bears won, but Kinsey did score a goal that I'm pretty sure was accidental, but she was still very excited by it.

Soccer still makes Tuesdays very busy days, but playing on Saturday was a ton of fun.

YouTube Thursday: Thanks, Mac

My absolute favorite Titans player ever, Steve McNair, retired from football today. I always thought he got the short shrift from some of the fans here. Whether that was racist or not, I'd like to think it wasn't. (Oh, btw, he never went to Baltimore, no matter what reality says.) I hate to use the term "warrior" to describe him, not because of any non-violent tendencies I might have, but because football is a game. He was tough, and resilient and competitive. And I hope he doesn't have any lasting damage from his time entertaining us on the field and gets to enjoy it with his family.

Nonetheless, my thoughts about McNair will always be a tough, great player and someone who, despite his failings, was the supreme competitor. And my favorite memory of him is in this video, about 2 minutes in. The end of the game sucked, but not because McNair didn't do his best to get the ball to the end zone.

Superior Bowl

Wow, wow, wow. What an amazing game. I will admit that I was rooting for the Patriots because I wanted to see history made. However, even with that, I was extremely entertained by the entire game and the play that Eli Manning made was just insane. It was very reminiscent of the play Steve McNair made in Super Bowl XXXIV (sigh) just before the final play.

We had a bunch of people at our house for the game: most of our small group and a few extra people too, which made it a ton of fun. Kids were running around and playing, we were yelling at the plays, and there was even clapping for commercials. My personal favorite was the Macy's balloon one where Charlie Brown finally succeeded in gaining something. But I still enjoyed the Night at the Roxbury's "Baby Don't Hurt Me" Pepsi commercial, the Dorito's Mouse commercial, and the Tide talking stain was pretty entertaining as well.

However, my favorite moment of the night was a simple one. Connor decided that he wanted to come downstairs with me at one point and when I tried to put him down on the ground, he wanted to stay with me, so I got to sit in a big comfy chair with my son in my arms watching the Super Bowl. He would cheer and clap when we did and even decided to dance during the halftime show, which (sorry, Tiffany) didn't match up to Prince last year or U2 from 2002.

Great time and a great game.

Student & Athlete

Kinsey got her second report card yesterday and is doing very well at school. She's reading on a 2nd grade level which is great and doing equally well in Math. We're very proud of her.

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Connor got a basketball goal for Christmas. He's played with one like it at church before and has taken to it like he's been doing it forever. The following video is for when the scouts come, they can see that he's been doing it for a while.



Our joke is that it'll be funny if he's a great shot, but can't dribble at all.

An Almost Perfect Sports Weekend and a great NYTimes article

Vandy won!

Titans won!

Red Sox won!

UT won... Oh well, I guess you can't have it all.

Also, Mike Cope linked to this article from the NYTimes that is really good and interesting about the changing face of evangelicals in politics. A quote from it

For the conservative Christian leadership, what is most worrisome about the evangelical disappointment with President Bush is that it coincides with a widening philosophical rift. Ever since they broke with the mainline Protestant churches nearly 100 years ago, the hallmark of evangelicals theology has been a vision of modern society as a sinking ship, sliding toward depravity and sin. For evangelicals, the altar call was the only life raft — a chance to accept Jesus Christ, rebirth and salvation. Falwell, Dobson and their generation saw their political activism as essentially defensive, fighting to keep traditional moral codes in place so their children could have a chance at the raft.

But many younger evangelicals — and some old-timers — take a less fatalistic view. For them, the born-again experience of accepting Jesus is just the beginning. What follows is a long-term process of “spiritual formation” that involves applying his teachings in the here and now. They do not see society as a moribund vessel. They talk more about a biblical imperative to fix up the ship by contributing to the betterment of their communities and the world. They support traditional charities but also public policies that address health care, race, poverty and the environment.

It's long, but it's a very, very good read.

And here's an interesting article that includes a response to it from GetReligion.org.

Football Post

If you haven't heard, the NFL is changing its logo.


Anybody wonder how long before it gets to this?

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Did you see the Michigan-Applachian State game, where the Division 1-AA team beat a top 5 ranked team at the ranked team's stadium? Of course not. You probably don't have the Big Ten Network. See many of the NFL preseason games this year? Or Thursday night games last year? Probably not, because you probably don't have the NFL Network.

In the ever increasing pursuit to monetize Americans obsession with sports, both the Big Ten and the NFL have started airing games on their private networks, rather than on the networks whether cable like ESPN or broadcast networks. Any one else think this is extremely shortsighted? The NFL became as popular as it did because all the games were available. To hide games from viewers, which is what this does, is just dumb. And it can only serve to alienate fans, who are responsible for the monetary success and popularity of the sports, which will cause a deterioration in monetary success and popularity.

In my humble opinion.

Fantasy Football Round 2

Well, after coming in third in the Blogger Bowl Fantasy Football last year, I'm giving it another shot. I drafted 10th out of 10, but I think I ended up doing pretty well.

QB: Peyton Manning, Indianapolis
Wide Receivers: Lee Evans, Buffalo; Hines Ward, Pittsburgh; Devin Hester, Chicago
Running Backs: Laurence Mauroney, New England; Lendale White, Tennessee
Tight End: Antonio Gates, San Diego
W/R (Wide receiver or running back): Michael Turner, San Diego
W/T (Wide Receiver or tight end): Matt Jones, Jacksonville
Defense: Chicago
K: Jason Elam, Denver

I have a bench of course, but I won't go through all of that. I don't think I did too bad over all. I'm hoping that Peyton throws 40 or so TDs and that pretty much takes care of everything.

Priorities

The front page of CNN.com's International site at 3:50 PM yesterday afternoon.


And the front page of CNN's main/US site.

The difference is very curious to me.

And, while I hate to add to the noise surrounding Michael Vick, I have found two very interesting items I'd like to share.

This is a piece from ESPN.com written by Wright Thompson before the Vick plea deal about why so many African-Americans in Atlanta support Vick and distrust the FBI.

And this from the Daily Show last night...

Why the NFL is the most popular sport in the US

Seriously, there has been no NFL since the first part of February and so it's no surprise that the draft gets a ton of coverage. Probably a disproportionate amount from what it really is which is basically a guess on which player will fit in with each team. It makes sense that the draft is popular. As popular as college football is in the country, it's a way to immediately follow your favorite player from your favorite team and watch them develop (yes, Tennessee fans, I know how many players were taken from there on the first day, especially compared to Vandy).

What's amazing to me is how much the NFL has surpassed Major League Baseball so much within the last 15-20 years. When I was a kid, it was baseball hands down. Now, baseball is more of a tradition and football is THE sport.

There are a couple of reasons I think for this...

• Salaries. $250 million for ten years. Really? Now that's not to say that the money that NFL players make for playing a game isn't ridiculous as well, but it's not "stupid" money.
  
  
• The length of the season. Yes, it's true that the NFL is now a year long sport. But so much of that is anticipation of the season. You get 7 months to build up your hopes and dreams for your team.
  
  
• Your team actually has a chance. The Titans in 99 are the perfect example of this. 8-8 the previous three seasons. A team of wanderers from Houston to Memphis to Vanderbilt and finally to the (then) Adelphia Coliseum. And they go 13-3 and come within a whisker of tying St. Louis in the Superbowl.
  
  
• Very little fatigue with the sport. Is it possible to get overwhelmed with all of the information that's out there? Sure, but the greatest thing to me about the season is that you have basically a full week between games, as opposed to baseball which plays 162 games, and basketball which plays 84. I think NASCAR has done this well also. You get the whole week to get your expectations up and analyze what went wrong the previous week. And with just a 17-week season, it's sometimes feels like it's over before it began.

It's a great sport and while the draft is interesting, I'll wait until 3 years go by before passing any judgment on how the team has done.

Family Time

Spending some time with family, so not much time to blog today or tomorrow. Just suffice to say that I'm pleasantly surprised that Vandy actually did make it to the Sweet 16 and bitterly disappointed that Tennessee is looking so good, as well as the fact that the other UT, Texas, got bounced so unceremoniously. Oh well, glad I didn't join a pool outside of the family this year. Back to regular posting on Wednesday.

March Madness - Kinsey's Picks

Kinsey

First Round Picks
Midwest

• Florida
• Arkansas
• Old Dominion
• Maryland
• Winthrop
• Miami-OH
• Georgia Tech
• Texas A&M-CC

West

• Niagara
• Kentucky
• Virginia Tech
• Holy Cross
• Duke
• Wright State
• Indiana
• Weber State

East

• Eastern Kentucky
• Marquette
• Arkansas
• Texas
• Vanderbilt
• Washington State
• Texas Tech
• Belmont

South

• Ohio State
• Xavier
• Tennessee
• Virginia
• Stanford
• Texas A&M
• Nevada
• North Texas

Second Round Winners
Midwest

• Florida
• Maryland
• Miami-OH
• Texas A&M-CC

West

• Niagara
• Holy Cross
• Duke
• Indiana

East

• Eastern Kentucky
• Texas
• Vanderbilt
• Texas Tech

South

• Ohio State
• Tennessee
• Texas A&M
• North Texas

Sweet Sixteen Winners
Midwest

• Florida
• Texas A&M

West

• Holy Cross
• Duke

East

• Texas
• Vanderbilt

South

• Texas
• North Texas

Elite Eight Winners

• Florida
• Holy Cross
• Texas
• North Texas

Final Four Winners

• Florida
• Texas

Champion

• Florida

March Madness - Sheryl's Picks

Sheryl

First Round Winners

Midwest

• Florida
• Arizona
• Butler
• Maryland
• Notre Dame
• Oregon
• UNLV
• Wisconsin

West

• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Virginia Tech
• Southern Illinois
• Duke
• Pittsburgh
• Indiana
• UCLA

East

• UNC
• Michigan State
• USC
• Texas
• Vanderbilt
• Washington State
• Texas Tech
• Georgetown

South

• Ohio State
• Xavier
• Tennessee
• Virginia
• Louisville
• Texas A&M
• Nevada
• Memphis

Second Round Winners
Midwest

• Florida
• Arizona
• Oregon
• Wisconsin

West

• Kansas
• Southern Illinois
• Pittsburgh
• UCLA

East

• UNC
• Texas
• Washington State
• Georgetown

South

• Ohio State
• Tennessee
• Louisville
• Memphis

Sweet Sixteen Winners
Midwest

• Florida
• Wisconsin

West

• Kansas
• UCLA

East

• UNC
• Washington State

South

• Ohio State
• Memphis

Elite Eight Winners

• Florida
• Kansas
• UNC
• Ohio State

Final Four Winners

• Kansas
• Ohio State

Champion

• Ohio State

March Madness - Phil's Picks

Well, it's NCAA tournament time again and Sheryl and I have made our picks. I of course pick based on previous experience in the tournament, players, coaches, record within conference and the occasional gut call. Sheryl picks on female intuition, as well as team's record and seed. This year, we've added Kinsey to the equation. And she picks based on... well, I'm not sure how she picks. I read them to her and she tells me who she thinks is going to win.

So here you go. The full field rundown of the Wilson family picks for the Final Four Tournament. I'll put them in separate posts to keep it from being too long.

First Round Winners
Phil

Midwest Region

• Florida
• Arizona
• Old Dominion
• Maryland
• Notre Dame
• Oregon
• Georgia Tech
• Wisconsin

West

• Kansas
• Villanova
• Virgina Tech
• Holy Cross
• VCU
• Pittsburgh
• Gonzaga
• UCLA

East

• UNC
• Marquette
• USC
• Texas
• Vanderbilt
• Washington State
• Boston College
• Georgetown

South

• Ohio State
• Xavier
• Long Beach State
• Virginia
• Louisville
• Texas A&M
• Creighton
• Memphis

Second Round Winners
Midwest

• Florida
• Old Dominion
• Oregon
• Wisconsin

West

• Villanova
• Virginia Tech
• Pittsburgh
• Georgetown

East

• UNC
• Texas
• Vanderbilt
• Georgetown

South

• Ohio State
• Virginia
• Louisville
• Memphis

Sweet Sixteen Winners
Midwest

• Florida
• Wisconsin

West

• Villanova
• Pittsburgh

East

• Texas
• Georgetown

South

• Ohio State
• Louisville

Elite Eight Winners

• Florida
• Pittsburgh
• Texas
• Ohio State

Final Four Winners

• Florida
• Ohio State

Champion

• Ohio State

Dancing Queen and a Healthy Fantasy Life

Kinsey started dance class last Friday, no pics on it yet, but soon. This was a big thing for us to try and do. Kinsey isn't really an athletic type. I'm not sure how she'd do in a group athletic situation, although she hits a wiffleball really well and we might try some softball with her. But she loves to dance.

Her current favorite movie is Annie (1982) and she loves singing the songs and dancing with the music. She's got most of the words down really well and just really enjoys it. Sheryl found a school close to us that Kinsey could go to and so after buying a unitard and skirt and tights and ballet shoes and tap shoes (!), Kinsey started.

I called Sheryl during the middle of it and asked how she was doing and she said, "She's sitting to the side, by herself." Immediate thought: "Oh no. She hates it. Great, what now?" I've really got to fight against those thoughts. I keep forgetting that Kinsey is just 5 and she's just getting into things and that she really, really has to get used to something or someone, before she feels comfortable with it. I also learned later that she sat to the side during tap time, because the music hurt her ears. But when the ballet time started up, she jumped up, ran over to the teacher and the other girls and just got so into it. She came home and didn't want to take any of her dancing clothes off and spent the rest of the evening leaping and prancing.

I love my little girl.

__________________________________________________________

I had my very first fantasy football draft last night. I've been inaugurated. Here's who I have.

Jake Delhomme QB - Car (Seemed like a safe QB pick)
Marvin Harrison WR - Indy (Didn't get Peyton, but I got the recipient of most of the receptions)
T.J. Houshmandzadeh WR - Cincy (Looked like a good pick, before I knew he'd bruised his heel in the game last night)
Derrick Mason WR - Balt (Hated picking a Raven, but I know he and McNair have great chemistry together. I expect him to get a lot of catches.)
Willie Parker RB - Pitts (Big surprise last year, and with Bettis gone now, I expect him to get more goal line carries too. My first pick in the draft - I was #9 out 10)
Julius Jones RB - Dallas (Parcells is a big running coach. I expect a lot out of Jones)
Todd Heap TE - Balt (So freaking hard to pick two (!) Ravens and no Titans, but I know how McNair likes to work. Heap was good without McNair. He'll be better with him)
Vernon Davis TE - SF (Huge upside and Alex Smith will need an outlet. Drafted as W/T)
Brandon Stokely WR - Indy (Might as well have another Peyton target in the holster. Drafted as W/R)
Antwaan Randle-El WR - Wash Bench (Huge clutch guy in Pittsburgh last year. Don't know how he'll do in Washington, so he starts on the bench.)
Marc Bulger QB - Stl Bench (Actually the first QB I drafted for some reason, but I'm not sure how he'll really do, so to the bench he goes.)
Jerious Norwood RB - Atl Bench (The TJ Duckett trade to Washington opens up some good possibilities for him, but I'm not completely sold on him yet. He looked really good against the Titans, but so did Damien Nash for Denver. I did want him on my team, so to the bench he goes for now.)
Duce Staley RB - Pitt Bench (I'm sure this was a wasted pick. I'm just sure it was.)
Christian Fauria TE - Wash Bench (No idea who this really is, but I think I picked him because my two TE both have the same bye week.)

Jason Elam K - Denver (Mile High air. Big leg. Really didn't think about any other kicker)
Carolina Defense D - Caro (Chicago and Carolina looked good. Someone else got Chicago)
Baltimore Defense D - Balt Bench (I hate Baltimore so much; why did I pick their defense? Well, they're not the defense from 5 years ago, but they're still strong.)

So anyway, there's my team, the Nonviolent Resistors. I predict finishing in the middle of the pack, but I'm looking forward to it.

And by the way, Adam Ellis and Matt Wilson are in Nashville for graduate school and staying at my house. So far, no Xbox has been played yet. That's my only disappointment. At least the conversation is good.