Top 5 Eagle-gasms

Yesterday, DeSean Jackson made babies with his game winning punt return against the Giants.  It was the highest quality of Eagles porn, and instantly one of the best plays in the team's history, if not the best.  In a nod to my other site, Top 5 List, here's my Top 5 Eagles Plays.  Not moments, but plays.  (Andy Reid's list would be nothing but screen passes.)

He's going for distance, he's going for speed.

Hockey 0/0

I love hockey.  Well, more accurately I love the Flyers and everything else in the sport is a distant second.  Which is the way it is for most fans.  And like most fans, I'm pretty much sick and tired of the NHL's golden boys Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin being rammed down our throats on NBC and to a lesser extent Versus, and by the NHL's own PR machine.  Don't get me wrong, they're Hall of Fame players, with Ovechkin being the single most exciting player in the league.  Crosby, well, being a Flyers fan I simply can't stand him, but I can't deny his talents.  So you'll excuse me if I don't care for HBO's "Hockey 24/7" series about the run up to the Winter Classic between the Penguins and the Capitals.  I'm sure it's a good show, because HBO does everything great.  I'm sure there's some interesting stuff, because they're granted unique and exclusive access.

But so what.  It's the Caps and the Pens, and frankly I've had enough of both.  If it were any other teams, even if just one of the teams was different I'd be much more inclined to watch.  And really, it should be any two teams but the Pens and Caps.  Those teams are TV draws anyway, and the Winter Classic is it's own draw.  So put some good but under the mainstream radar teams or teams that struggle to draw out there instead.  Give me the Sabres or Canucks hosting the event and the Predators or Thrashers as the visiting team.  Penguins vs Capitals is going to get ratings on a Tuesday.  Those teams aren't.

Cam Do

Later today Auburn's boy wonder Cam Newton will deservedly win the Heisman Trophy.  A few years from now, he may have it stripped.  If he does, it will be undeservedly.

Most people don't realize that is not John Heisman but Ed Smith.

Newton, or more specifically, his dad, is under investigation for attempting to solicit money in exchange for his son's commitment to play.  So far as you no doubt know by now, the only allegation is that Cecil Newton approached former Miss St. player Kenny Rodgers and said it would take $180,000 to get Cam to sign for the Bulldogs.  And that that price was a 10% discount over what was shopped to other schools.  No other school has been named, and there has been no connection to Auburn.  Yet.  And maybe there won't be.  But everyone and their mother has every reason to believe (Cam's mother though, one way or another she knows) that in the near future the truth will come out and Cam Newton will be found to have been ineligible.  Meaning that Auburn's 2010 dream season will be thrown out, and that he'll be asked to return the Heisman like Reggie Bush did.  Bush's violations highlights how much the NCAA turns a blind eye to star college players at major programs running amok and breaking the rules.  Reggie Bush was essentially paid to play, wow, quite the revelation there.  It's only been going on for decades. Player payments were a huge reason for the disbanding of the Southwest Conference in the 80s, most notably highlighted by SMU's "death penalty."  Earlier this year Sports Illustrated ran a great piece on agents paying players.  So color me shocked that a high profile recruit, or at least his dad, shopped his wares.  We half expect it.  We expect the high profile players to drive cars they shouldn't own and buy things they shouldn't be able to buy.  Except for the gifts that the bowls they participate in give them.  But no, that's not paying players.

Anyways, Newton won't deserve to lose the Heisman. The NCAA and SEC have confirmed that Cecil Newton tried to get money, which on its own should have made Newton ineligible.  But instead they decided that Cam Newton is eligible for the time being, changing the enforcement of their rules.  So if the NCAA isn't going to care that Newton wins the Heisman today, then it shouldn't care that he should have to give it back years later.

So accept that trophy with pride Cam.  You deserved it for what you did on the field, and the powers that be don't deserve to have the right to tell you to give it back down the road.  Also, make sure to thank your dad in your acceptance speech.

30 For 30: Songs From The Big Chair

Like many people, “music is my aeroplane.” I don't watch much television, and movies are great, but music is a whole different media. It's portable, so you can take with you in your car on your way to work, maybe if you're lucky you can listen to it at work, you can take it with you running, you can use it at a party, you can have it in the background. It can take you back in time, it can serve as the title of a chapter of your life, it can pick you up when you most need it to. The music you love is a literal soundtrack to your life. My 30 For 30 looks at some of those things.

Tears for Fears - Songs From The Big Chair

This probably the coolest Tears For Fears have ever looked.  And even then, the headless bass doesn't help any.

Hinterland

Let’s go downtown and watch the modern kids
Let’s go downtown and talk to the modern kids
They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don’t understand
-Arcade Fire - Rococo

In Roger Ebert's review of The Human Centipede, he said:

“I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine.”

This is similar, minus the stars not shining. I'm still not really sure how to describe Saturday night. But I certainly will try. I don't know if it was good or awful, boring or entertaining. It was something, but what exactly I do not know.

Thanksgiving

It's that time of year, time to say thanks.

I'm thankful for having a wonderful family.  For having a great Dad, a great Mom and my brother, well, he's okay.  I kid.  Love you bro.  I miss you guys.

A heartfelt thank you for the love and support from my friends.  2010 has been an up and down year for me for a number of reasons, and your support has been incredibly touching.  I am grateful to all those who gave me incredible support through the most difficult time of my life.  In particular some of you had no obligation whatsoever to be there for me, and yet you were.  I don't have the words to properly express how much that means to me.

And of course, once again thank you for the well wishes from my brain surgery.

Speaking of things we don't have an obligation to do or say, I'm thankful for having a good job with great people.  I've previously been in a work environment that was the corporate equivalent of a sweat shop.  My peers were great, but the superiors there were just plain awful.  Here, while things are changing at the upper levels to the dismay of some, the people I work with directly all rock. I'm also thankful for having some great housemates and their awesome dogs.

Okay, now it's time for football.

Next week 30 for 30 begins.

The Spectrum, and Big E

Yesterday the Spectrum was razed. Besides being the home of the Flyers and Sixers, it was the scene of many a memorable night: Christian Laettner's infamous buzzer beater for Duke, Bobby Knight won two Final Fours there and the Flyers' infamous victory over the Red Army among other things. Dr. J slammed epic dunks, Bobby Clarke skated wild, Eric Lindros dominated, Allen Iverson wooed, Bernie Parent, Pelle Lindberg and Ron Hextall played god and one time the roof came off. It was great.

My earliest memory is going to a Flyers game in I think 1987, it may have been later than that. I remember they played the Penguins, and I remember that I loved it. Despite the name, the arena was pretty bland. The original idea was for the seats to be a spectrum of colors, but that was too expensive so they went with plain old maroon. The outside of the building wasn't much better. By the 90s it stank of smoke, beer and sweat and the concrete floor was sticky... just like an arena should be.

Ah, memories. My grandparents had season tickets along the goal line, I always loved going to a game on a school night as a little kid and then getting to gloat about it to my classmates. My immediate family, we used to go to Phantoms games all the time. My brother and I would chant “we want Frank” as boisterous as anyone other Phantoms fan clamoring for head coach and Flyers legend Bill Barber to unleash Frank “The Animal” Bialowas on the other team for a quality round of fisticuffs. He would usually acquiesce and some poor sap would get his ass beat. I loved the seats we would occasionally get that were on the metal awning above an entrance. You could really get a good booming sound by stomping it when they played “We Will Rock You.” They had soft pretzels in the shape of the Flyers logo, why they didn't sell those all over the place year round I'll never know. I'd certainly buy them. There was one game against the hated Hershey Bears where at the end of the game, everyone on the ice fought, except the goalies. There were 5 separate fights and Phantoms goalie Neil Little skated out to center ice to try to get the other goalie to fight him, but the Bears netminder refused. He just stood there, elbows propped up on the crossbar, relaxing and waiting for it all to be over. Pretty funny. Then of course there was The Big E.

Eric Lindros was an absolute beast. After giving up half the franchise to get him, expectations were sky high. He didn't disappoint. The first thing you noticed about Lindros was that he was huge. At age 19, he was already in the 99^th percentile of NHL players in terms of size, he was a man-child.  The league would eventually catch up, but for the first few years he was quite simply the biggest player on the ice at anytime. There was no physically intimidating Lindros, rather, he physically intimidated you. He would routinely bowl over defensemen like they were wooden pins, and then just when you thought that poor defender was ready for him the next time Lindros came barreling down the ice, he'd put the puck between the defenseman's legs and skate around him. Routinely, players would line up to hit him and they'd find their ass on the ice because Lindros had turned the table on them. Or he'd simply knock them over on a faceoff. Then he'd go out and duke the shit out of a goalie to score a beautiful goal. Early in his career he was tested routinely with fights. He more than held his own, and against the toughest of tough guys like Tony Twist, Bob Probert, and Joey Kocur. The man could literally do it all.

After trading away five guys from the active roster of a non-playoff team to land Lindros, the Flyers were thin on talent. They gave Lindros (#88) the outstanding Mark Recchi (#8) and the career journeyman Brent Fedyk (#18) for wingers and his line was dubbed “The Crazy Eights.” That worked enough to allow the Flyers to focus on improving the rest of the roster for a little while, but eventually Recchi was dealt for stud defenseman Eric Desjardins and the underachieving John LeClair. LeClair had promise but had failed to capitalize on it, the Flyers figured at worst he could be a solid third liner, at best he could pot 20 goals on Lindros' line while creating some space with his size. In 37 games for the Flyers in the strike shortened 94-95 season, and playing alongside Lindros, LeClair scored 25 goals. Over the next 5 seasons he would score, at worst, 40 goals, including 3 straight years of at least 50 goals, establishing himself as one of the few truly elite goal scorers in the league. The talented but not that talented Mikael Renberg provided speed and agility to a line dubbed “The Legion of Doom.” It dominated the league so much that in the 96-97 season, despite the team essentially consisting of The Legion of Doom, Rod Brind'Amour, Eric Desjardins and not much else, the Flyers made it to the Stanely Cup Finals, and were favored. They got swept, because Detroit was better and because Paul Coffey played the worst hockey of his life and the Flyers haven't had a true #1 goalie since Hextall was in his prime in the late 80s. But that was the power of Lindros: he single handedly turned a franchise around. Actually, two franchises. The players and draft picks that the-then Quebec Nordiques acquired were a major part in turning that franchise from the worst team into the league to multiple Cup winners when they moved to Colorado. Oops. Too bad all the personal issues lead to a meltdown and the injuries piled up. But man, was he ever fun to watch. Also he had a bit of a mullet. If like me you were a kid growing up a Flyers fan in the 90s, you had an Eric Lindros poster hanging in your room. I'm not sure that without him I would not be the huge Flyers fan I am today.

Gotta love that “ooh, take the roof off baby!” goal against the Devils. And of course, the emotion on display when accepting the MVP trophy.
The music is shitty, but the highlights are simply amazing:

Who Let The Dogs Out

Yeah, I went there.  Sue me.

I hated Michael Vick.  Hated him.  Hated that he was a piece of crap as a human being and the hype of him, since he was a totally overrated football player.  He started off as an incredibly exciting and promising player, but he never got better, the media fawned all over him and then he had a series of incidents that showed he was a despicable person.  There are two professional sports teams I truly care about, the Philadelphia Flyers and Eagles.  When the Eagles signed Vick last year, I was floored, I was pissed, I was angry.  At the time it didn't make any sense from a football perspective or a personal perspective.  In the time since it's become clear that Andy Reid's personal life, in which his sons were incarcerated for being drug dealers, played a huge role in him bringing Vick in.  In that respect, it's a bit touching.  From a football standpoint, it didn't add up.  Donovan McNabb was the best player the Eagles had since Chuck Bednarik.  Behind him was starting QB in waiting Kevin Kolb.  So where exactly Vick fit in was murky at best.  He was a luxury last year and didn't look particularly good save for three or four plays.

But dear lord, what a transformation this season.  He's playing out of his mind.  Before coming to the Eagles, his turnover to games played ratio was pretty much 1:1.  This year, in 6 games, he's hasn't turned the ball over once.  He's doing things he never did in Atlanta, like progressing through reads and staying in the pocket.  He's finally a complete QB now.  There's a couple of factors involved in that: he has a real coach in Andy Reid instead of Jim Mora, and certainly going to prison can change a man.  Also it helps to have real talent around you.  But then the last two weeks happened.  First he out duels Peyton Manning.  If that wasn't enough, he leads the Eagles to a 59-28 embarrassment of the Redskins on Monday Night Football.  He hasn't played an elite defense yet, but I'm in.  I'm in on that the new and improved Michael Vick is unstoppable, that the problems with the Eagles offensive line are severely minimized with him behind center, that the inconsistent and mediocre defense can be enough with #7 at the helm.  A Super Bowl team?  Maybe.  I'm just going to enjoy the ride though, where ever it may lead.

Speaking of dogs...

Midseason All 22

We're at around the halfway point of the season so I wanted to put out my own “All Pro” team. I'll call it The All 22, since it'll only be 22 players (sort of) and “all 22” is another name for coach's tape.  You won't necessarily see the most talented guys chosen, and some of them aren't the first or second choice I'd take in real life, but they're the most deserving based on the season they've had.

Six Flags Over Watergate

So I was watching Frost/Nixon the other day and in walks Swifty Lazar, who was Nixon's agent. Played by British actor Toby Jones, they nailed the look of the real Swifty Lazar:

But are you seeing what I'm seeing? Yeah, it's him.

The fucking Six Flags guy.

Les Miles Just Wants To Be Adored

I don't need to sell my soul,
He's already in me.
I wanna be adored.
-The Stone Roses

Les Miles has won 70% of the games he's coached.  He turned around a struggling Oklahoma State program, then took over for Nick Saban at LSU and kept the ball rolling.  He won a National Championship in 2007--with JaMarcus Russell as his quarterback.  And no one loves him, except for his wife and kids.

30 For 30

I recently turned 30. You say to yourself that the first day of being 30 is no different than the last day of being 29, and that's pretty much true. You tell yourself that you're not going to have some big introspective moment where you look back on your life and wonder where you are, but you wind up doing it. When the odometer rolls over from 2 to 3, you can't help but reflect.

Last year ESPN turned 30 and to celebrate that they have an ongoing series of documentaries of sports stories that have happened since ESPN started. Called 30 For 30, ESPN of course did more than 30, because they can't help themselves. They are usually pretty good, in part because they're done by people who don't work for ESPN. I thought the basic premise would be a good idea for a general theme to this blog, so here it is. 30 things of sentimental value or importance to me, whatever they may be: music, books, movies, places, events, whatever they may be.  I hope you like it.

Oh, and when I tell stories I promise I'll try to have better nicknames for people.