Farve Fever

I don’t know if it’s as contagious as H1N1, but the sports media have a serious case of Farve Fever.  They were nearly beside themselves with excitement with the just-days-away-from-40 QB took on his former team on Monday Night Football. 

In some ways, it’s understandable.  Brett is good, and he’s been showing just how good the last couple weeks.  He still looks weird in purple, but he’s playing his heart out and having a blast.  And that’s fun to watch.  But I’m not sure it’s worth the high temperatures he’s inspiring in the talking heads.  After all, his replacement in Green Bay is pretty darn talented, too.

But media aside, I’m still torn on Brett.  I’m irritated by the need he seems to have to prove himself, but I appreciate his talent and ability, even though he’s ancient in football years.  I have issues with abandoning the team that made him who he is, but I can’t help but laugh at the Sears commercial.  And I appreciate his willingness to make fun of himself.  That alone makes it easier for me to still cheer for him.

I will say that last Monday night I watched to see if the game would live up to the hype.  It pretty much did.  I couldn’t really cheer for the Vikings, but I did manage to cheer against the Packers and appreciate the skill of both QBs.  If these two teams just spend some quality time beating up on each other, Jay Cutler’s Bears might just take the division…

MNF

I would pick college football over pro football most any day.

But I like having a good football game to watch on Monday night.  And 2 weeks into the NFL season, that’s what we’re getting.  Good games, plenty of hype and a nice distraction after a long day.

I also like the MNF commercials on ESPN.  The WorldWide Leader does a great job of self-promotion. 

But TheWittyOne was telling me about some random live promotion for MNF in downtown Chicago.  Is that really necessary?  As she pointed out, the Monday night game is in it’s 40th season.  I think most people know there’s a football game on Monday nights during football season.

I figure people fall into one of the following categories: 1) Love football and will be watching the game, whoever is playing, no matter what; 2) Football? What’s that?  Should I care? and 3) I have a life, so I’m busy Monday night and won’t be able to catch the game.  If my team is playing, I’ll catch the highlights on the DVR.

And I don’t think people move easily between those categories.  Just my opinion.

A few random comments…I’m impressed with how quickly Peyton put his team back up in the 4th quarter.  I’m not impressed with the Colts defense.  And I wish I would have been counting the number of times the commentators said “wildcat.”  But I like that Pat White is getting so much attention.  I liked him before his 1st coach ditched WVU for Big Blue.  (Yes, it all comes back to the college game for me.)  I find the 2-minute drill in close games fascinating to watch.

Good stuff.

Heartland Heartache

High school.  Stirs many memories, both wonderful and painful.

Small towns.  Where everyone knows everyone, for better or worse, usually both.

Football.  An American classic from pee-wee through pros and backyards to domes.

Combine those factors, and you get something magical.  High school football has been accused of being a religion in some small towns, but it’s really about community and growth.  It’s the place to catch up with friends, neighbors and those people you have to put up with because they live in town.  It’s the place to watch boys grow up, challenge themselves, prove themselves.  Learn to win.  Learn to lose.  It’s the place to be on Friday night.  Partly because there’s nothing else to do and partly  because it’s fun to be a part of what happens there.

Countless stories – from the inspiring to the heartbreaking — come out of these small towns.  Local stories.  But one small Iowa town has received national headlines for the inspiration and heartbreak they’ve endured in just a few short years.

Parkersburg, Iowa, was devestated by a nasty tornado in late May, 2008.  The town was decimated, the high school in shambles, and the football field unrecognizable.  Help came to the town from miles around.  And so very slowly, the town tried to put themselves back together again.

As so often happens in small towns, high school football brings everyone together, and long-time head coach Ed Thomas committed to getting the football field in shape for the 2008 season.  Rival teams came to help pick up debris on the field, while team members helped their families, teammates and coach. 

And Coach T kept his promise.  The Falcons had a field.

Inspiring.

Although it takes years to recover from the kind of devestation Parkersburg saw, a football season brought a measure of healing to the town.

And summer 2009 rolled around with life feeling normal again.

But then, one summer morning, a former football player, the son of a former player, walked into the high school’s weight room in the midst of summer workouts.  And fatally shot Coach Ed Thomas.

In small towns, guys like Coach T are the pillars a community stands on.  As a coach for over a generation, he was the kind of tie that bonds fathers and sons and brothers as they grow from pee-wee to NFL pros (yes, Coach T had a couple of those).  And after helping the town recover from the twister, his loss was the kind of sucker punch that can knock you out.

The team and community was devestated once again.  To watch your town blow away.  To watch your coach die.  What do you do with that?  Especially as a high school student?

Heartache.

Sports Illustrated covered this story.  And last night, the first-ever Iowa high school football game was nationally televised.  The Aplington-Parkersburg Falcons defeated Dike-New Hartford in their season opener.  The second season on their revived field.  The first season without their coach.  

The Falcons have traditionally been an Iowa powerhouse in their division, thanks primarily to Coach T.  They have a shot at state again this year.  And winning does help healing. 

The alleged shooter’s younger brother is a senior lineman, a member of one of the most tightly knit groups to play on what is now Ed Thomas Field.  His parents were in the stands.  The family is grieving with the rest of the community, even as the community is reaching out to them.

And all this goes beyond both inspiring and heartbreaking.  The best and the worst of life, all played out on a football field in a small town in the middle of nowhere, Heartland, U.S.A.

In Training

It’s August.  The Chicagoland heat index is finally pushing 100 degrees.  Talk of x games up or back is starting to matter on both the North and South sides. 

It’s time to focus on what really matters here.  Football.

The Bears are in training camp just down the road, and fans are deliriously excited.  By most accounts coming from Bourbonnais, Jay Cutler looks to be all he was billed to be.  Jay is excited about his recievers.  He and Brian are joking about alleged “wimp” comments. 

The Bears coaching staff is confident that their young, fairly unknown recievers will provide Jay the targets he needs for the Bears to throw first, and control the clock with the run once they get the ball.  Yes, I’m talking about the Bears.  Haven’t seen any flying pigs, but as cool as this Chicago summer has been, there may be signs of frost in hell. 

There are promising rumblings about rookies in the defensive secondary.  And excitement over former Lions head coach Rod Marinelli as the new D-line coach is also feverish.

All this to say that though they are still training, Chicago fans legitimately have more to look forward to this fall than they’ve had in recent memory.

Welcome to Chicago, Jay.  Please don’t break our hearts.  (We aren’t very forgiving if you do.)

They Keep Going and Going and Going…

I caught a reasonable amount of Cubs games in the past week.  So what’s up with the extra innings?  Most of the time, extras come after the bullpen gives up a thin lead.

But Sunday…that was a long, long game.  I give the Cubs credit for hanging in there for the 5 plus hours it took to finally break the game open.  Despite my frustration that they shouldn’t have been in that place to start with. 

Oh well.  I’m looking for positives, and given the season so far, I think an Engerizer Bunny impersonation qualifies.  Maybe…

Discrimination

In this age of equality, we know that some prejudices still exist.  And while progress is being made in many areas, others lag behind. 

For example, a group of people can sit around and discuss what they watch on television.  Men and women can comment on and dissect multiple aspects of a wide range of reality TV.  Yet if a guy knows a bit too much about “So You Think You Can Dance,” he gets an odd look. 

And if a girl makes a comment about how she doesn’t watch much besides ESPN, she gets blank stares.  Or a helpful comment about how her team beat somebody that day.  And then, when she explains that she watched the game and already wrote a post about it, she gets more blank stares.

Even some of those who have known me for years still seem surprised when reminded that I am a sports fan.  A female sports fan.  Yes, I know that my team won.  I probably also know who the high scorer was, whose play was critical to the flow of the game, who played great defense, where the assists came from and what areas need improvement.  It’s not a big deal if a guy talks about this stuff, even if the people he’s talking to aren’t fans.  But a girl — that’s beyond comprehension.  And a bit frustrating at times.

I’m fortunate to have many female friends that know and love sports and their teams.  Because otherwise I’m not sure I could take the discrimination.

Something Else to Watch

So I have been less than impressed with the Big Ten Network, but I finally have a big plus for it.  Thanks to the BTN, I was able to watch collegiate women’s volleyball.  And it was fun to watch.  I caught Purdue at Illinois — a match-up between top 20 teams.  And the digs, kills and passes impressed.  These ladies put on a show.  I will admit it wasn’t quite international-level competition, but I am going to have to remember to watch the standings during the NCAA women’s tournament.

Just what I needed – something else to watch. 

Ouch

I think I am now able to write about the week.  I went to Wrigley Thursday night for a baseball game (a playoff game, for those a bit behind).  The weather was beautiful for early October.  The company was fabulous.  The seats — the second row of the left field bleachers — provided an incredible view.  And, I didn’t have to watch instant replay.  I had a great time.  As long as I don’t think too much about the game.

Not having to watch the errors over and over and over again was perhaps the best part of being there.  I only had to watch them once, and that was painful enough, thank you very much.  The crowd did our best to improve on the Wrigley crowd from Game 1, and most commentators said we did well.  We kept cheering through the second inning…but I must admit that it was hard to find things to cheer by the 7th.  For those of us who watched the beginning of a potential rally (that may have been enough to win the game had there not been 5 unearned runs) at the bottom of the 9th did cheer loud.  Those of you who left early — shame on you.  Yes, it was late, but real fans can handle that for their team.

But really, the game itself hurt.  The Cubs haven’t played like that all year.  The ball doesn’t fall out of or bounce off of everyone’s glove.  Z pitched well.  Good enough to win, had DeRo been able to turn the double play, or had Lee managed that ball hit right too him…  The blame doesn’t fall on individuals so much as the fact that the team couldn’t overcome a mistake.  Mistakes happen.  Complete meltdowns are aparently part of being a Cub in October. 

The Cubs are living life on the edge now, and while anything is possible, the most comforting thing to me at the moment is that the Illini are up 24 to 14 on Michigan with about 9 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter.  Plenty of time for the Wolverines to come back, but I’m sure the Illini watch a bit of the Wisconsin tape from last week and know what to do to avoid a Big Blue comeback.

Spring

I’m so ready for warmer temperatures, rain instead of snow, and the more-than-occasional rays of sunshine.  With the college basketball season behind us, I can now focus on baseball.

The Cubs are looking good, as the offense has shown up to welcome Dusty back to town.  21 runs in two games — nice stats this early in the season.  Derek Lee, according to TheWittyOne and the talking heads, has returned to pre-broken-wrist form, and has more home runs in about 3 weeks than he did in about two months last year.  With bats this hot, Soriano will hardly be missed while he’s on the DL.  I’ll let TheSassyOne or TheWittyOne address Matt Murton getting overlooked to fill the outfield in favor of Eric Patterson.  But I know TheSassyOne especially won’t approve of that move.  The bullpen has held up to lots of pressure quite well so far, although it’s early.  And it’s fun to watch a team hit the ball a lot.

But there’s more to look forward to this time of year…one of my Illini is projected to go in the first round of the NFL draft — a big step up for a program that won just 2 games 2 years ago.  Plus, a couple of my favorite former Illini will face each other in the first round of the NBA playoffs.  I don’t really enjoy the NBA, but I do like seeing familiar faces during SportsCenter highlights.

So spring has a lot to offer this year…and I do love the change of seasons. 

Rock, Chalk…

I grudgingly must congratulate the Jayhawks on a good game.  After a good week of lame college games, we finally got a good one.  Memphis and Kansas went from running the court to grinding it out to running to overtime.  Fun to watch.  Intense.  Good stuff.

And although it will be hard to watch Bill cut down the nets, I take a tiny bit of comfort in the fact that Kansas didn’t win as much as Memphis lost.  Ahh, the free throw under pressure.  As an Illini fan, I can fully appreciate the agony of the brick, clank or off spin from the stripe.  Disappointing that Memphis lost it, but I’m glad that we had a competitive championship game.

Lest we overlook it though, one of the best parts of the broadcast was the Bobby Knight car commercial.  I don’t remember what kind of car it was, and I’m not a Knight fan, but it was hilarious.  Bobby ended the conversation by throwing his chair and throwing out the comment “I may not be retired!”  Kudos to Knight for participating, making fun of himself, and leaving us all wondering…  At least we know he won’t be headed back to Bloomington, Ind.  Coach Tom Crean will have his hands full untangling the mess Sampson left, but I’ll take him over Bobby on the sidelines any day.