Archive for January, 2007
Continue Reading January 31st, 2007
It turns out people still read Simmons after all. A lot of people. Maybe now more than ever. Exhibit A: one throwaway comment in his latest 3,000-word column sparked loads of ongoing congratulations in my inbox, including one email from a dude who lived on my floor freshman year that I haven’t seen in 10 years. In case you missed it (and, really, how could you?), here’s what the Sports Guy had to say about our interview from the other day …
“Felger’s interview was memorable for the Boston talk and the exceptionally loud headphones, which had my ears ringing for the next three hours, like I had just endured a Limp Bizkit concert. Just as I was slowly regaining my hearing, Jamie Mottram (from Sports Bloggers Live on AOL — I like those guys) roped me in a 20-minute interview about the Super Bowl, the blogosphere and everything else.”
Personally speaking, that’s SBL’s coolest mention since Wizznutzz posted our Agent Zero interview on God’s Mixtape; nothing really beats that. Many thanks to Bill for his time and graciousness, which was also felt by Henry Abbott over at True Hoop.
Continue Reading January 31st, 2007
It turns out people still read Simmons after all. A lot of people. Maybe now more than ever. Exhibit A: one throwaway comment in his latest 3,000-word column sparked loads of ongoing congratulations in my inbox, including one email from a dude who lived on my floor freshman year that I haven’t seen in 10 years. In case you missed it (and, really, how could you?), here’s what the Sports Guy had to say about our interview from the other day …
“Felger’s interview was memorable for the Boston talk and the exceptionally loud headphones, which had my ears ringing for the next three hours, like I had just endured a Limp Bizkit concert. Just as I was slowly regaining my hearing, Jamie Mottram (from Sports Bloggers Live on AOL — I like those guys) roped me in a 20-minute interview about the Super Bowl, the blogosphere and everything else.”
Personally speaking, that’s SBL’s coolest mention since Wizznutzz posted our Agent Zero interview on God’s Mixtape; nothing really beats that. Many thanks to Bill for his time and graciousness, which was also felt by Henry Abbott over at True Hoop.
Continue Reading January 31st, 2007
Talk about the hype and media attention surrounding the seven-foot Ohio State Buckeye named Greg Oden eh?
Yeah sure, Greg Oden wants to immediately be an impact player once he makes his debut in NBA Basketball. Yeah sure, Greg Oden wants to be one of the best athletes in NBA history. And yeah sure, Greg Oden wants to win an NBA Championship title some day.
But right now, Greg Oden is playing with the Ohio State Buckeyes and for now, he wants to win a national championship at Ohio State.
He wants to be confident that he is ready and being ‘’ready'’ for him is to become the most dominant player in NCAA College Basketball history.
‘’I haven’t proven anything yet,'’ said the seven-foot Oden, who didn’t play in the Buckeyes’ first seven games. ‘’Right now it’s really a lot of talk. I mean, I know a couple of guys right now who are really doing something, like Kevin Durant.'’
Kevin Durant of the Texas Longhorns has been playing so good lately that he has single-handedly quited a little Greg Oden hype.
‘’I'm really not that consistent this year and I know a lot of people talk about potential and that’s what it’s all about, but I need to see myself step it up and get consistent and put up numbers,'’ Greg Oden said.
‘’Right now, I’m just doing things to help my…'’
Continue Reading January 31st, 2007
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a constituency of problem gamblers.
Welcome to California, home of Silicon Valley, silicone breast implants, wine makers, and now, gamblers with a big problem.
A recent major study on gambling in the United States reveals an overwhelming majority of Californians are gamblers — especially, pathological gamblers for life.
The Office of Problem Gambling (OPG) this week reported that 83% of adults in California have gambled at some point in their lives. It is a highlight of the most comprehensive study ever conducted thus far on the US gambling problem.
California is the most populous state of the US, with residents estimated at 37,172,015 as of 2006. The OPG study found that some 750,000 to 1.2 million California adults — residents aged 18 and up — are pathological or problem gamblers.
Between 296,500 and 490,000 California adults are classified as lifetime pathological gamblers, the OPG study discovered further. Between 450,000 and 713,400 adult Californians have significant gambling problems, but which do not meet the study’s criteria for pathological gambling.
California’s gambling problem is due in large part to people’s tendency to aspire for material wealth. This had taken root in as early as 1848, with the California Gold Rush. It triggered an economic boom that comfortably evolved to Hollywood and entertainment, tourism, aerospace, oil, computers and information technology. Since 1848, California has never really stopped feeling wealthy.
The OPG study, conducted between…
Continue Reading January 31st, 2007
And the Oscar goes to… All over again…
The road to the 2007 Oscar Awards is so straight and narrow it might as well lead to heaven. Which it likely will for at least four people everyone’s expecting to win: Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Eddie Murphy, and Jennifer Hudson.
Not only do we suspect they’ll win, we can practically see how they’ll take it. But if Oscar predictability is bad news for film buffs, it is good news for proposition betting. There is almost no losing money on the dead foreseeable turn-out of the 79th Academy Awards, to be held on February 25th, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.
Below, find some Oscar predictables, er, Oscar predictions on who and what we ought to be ready for.
If Forest Whitaker wins Oscar Best Actor, prepare for Jamie Foxx meets the Rainman. His thank-you’s will be 50% fanatical thanking in stutters and broken sentences, 
50% gasping for air in disbelief. “Wow… wow…” How many wins does Forest need to start believing his luck?
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role has Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland with 2/13 odds to win at Bodog film betting online. Peter O’Toole for Venus has odds of 4/1, a record 44 years apart from the last time he earned any Oscar nomination.
Will Smith for The Pursuit of Happyness has 9/1 odds to win, and will simply have to try harder by cutting his romantic comedies down to half. Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond has 14/1 odds, but who knows how much harder he can try after multiple nominations at the 2007 Golden Globes? Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson has 20/1, which is okay as he had won MTV Movie Awards‘ Best Kiss already.
If Helen Mirren wins Oscar Best Actress, prepare to shout, ‘Long Live the Queen!’, regardless of which queen you mean. But you’d be ill-advised to refer to 2007 Razzie queen Sharon Stone, who can take the cue from Helen, Judi, Cate, and Jeremy Irons: If you want…
Continue Reading January 31st, 2007
Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Sports, Video
Today’s most-watched YouTube game video shows a violent — and possibly deadly — end of a Wii Sports boxing match. (Who are we kidding? Nintendo made sure to show the loser standing up in the far corner after each bout, so surely no Miis get too hurt.)
After the break, watch a fierce KO-punch that results in a near-somersault by the opposing player. Then watch it again in slow motion.
Continue reading Today’s hottest game video: Wii Boxing beat-down
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SPONSORED BY: Age of Empires III - Real-Time Strategy Game Control a European power on a quest to colonize and conquer the New World. AOE3 introduces new gameplay elements, as well as new civilizations, units, and technologies. http://www.ageofempires3.com/
Continue Reading January 31st, 2007
Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Sports, Video
Today’s most-watched YouTube game video shows a violent — and possibly deadly — end of a Wii Sports boxing match. (Who are we kidding? Nintendo made sure to show the loser standing up in the far corner after each bout, so surely no Miis get too hurt.)
After the break, watch a fierce KO-punch that results in a near-somersault by the opposing player. Then watch it again in slow motion.
[Update 1: We send a big nod (and the wish to never meet in a Wii Boxing ring) to The1Qwerty who created the video. Sorry we missed mentioning you when first linking the video from YouTube.]
Continue reading Today’s hottest game video: Wii Boxing beat-down [update 1]
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SPONSORED BY: Age of Empires III - Real-Time Strategy Game Control a European power on a quest to colonize and conquer the New World. AOE3 introduces new gameplay elements, as well as new civilizations, units, and technologies. http://www.ageofempires3.com/
Continue Reading January 31st, 2007
Way back in August, we asked various writers to preview their favorite NFL teams as the season approached. (We think the most famous was James Frey’s “preview” of the Cleveland Browns.)
Anyway, we went back to the writers of the two teams who ultimately reached the Super Bowl and asked them to do something else for us. Essentially, tell us their thoughts of how the season turned out, what they think about the big game and what it means, historically, to be here, now. And so they did, which we thought was nice, since we’re not paying them.
Today, the Chicago Bears, initially previewed on August 31. Your writer is Mike Cetera. Mike Cetera is an associate editor with The Beacon News in Aurora, Ill. And his words are after the jump.
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The Bears are who I thought they were.
I can prove it, too. Just look back to what I wrote five months ago when Will graciously asked me to contribute a season preview: “So what am I, and the rest of this team’s fans, supposed to make of the 2006 Chicago Bears? They are going to shuffle all the way to the Super Bowl. And win, of course.”
See, that’s prognosticating. Take that, Peter King.
Never mind that I spent the first 701 words decrying the city of Chicago, the fans, the media and failed former Bears QBs like friend-of-Will-Leitch Kordell Stewart. There was plenty to criticize - and there still is.
But somehow this team overcame the lynch mob seeking the head of Rex Grossman, the inconsistent defensive play, the injuries to key players, Tank Johnson’s gun play, Lovie Smith’s contract status, Muhsin Muhammad’s alligator arms, Cedric Benson’s big mouth and Kyle Orton’s facial hair to make it thisclose to winning a world championship.
I was 10 when the Bears won Super Bowl XX. And maybe my memory is skewed, but I recall Chicago being up for grabs back then. Every kid on the block had a Walter Payton jersey and a Black and Blues Brothers poster courtesy of the local Chevy dealer hung above the bed. Some of us dressed up for Halloween as Jim McMahon, wearing a white head band with the word “Rozelle” scrawled across it in black magic marker. Some of us may even have gotten in trouble for mooning our friends like No. 9 famously did to a passing TV helicopter. We entered school talent shows and performed “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” which cracked and skipped on the record player because it had been played so many times. We were cocky because the Bears were cocky. We knew they were going to win.
And what’s happening now? Everyone seems to be going through the motions, using the 1985 playbook as reference. There are the inevitable recreations of the “Shuffle,” the stories of die-hards pleading for tickets and the pointless comparisons to the last Super Bears. But the kids aren’t going crazy this time around.
Maybe it’s because Chicago isn’t as much of a Bears town as it was back then. Maybe it’s because we all know deep down this team doesn’t deserve to be here. At the beginning of the season Rex couldn’t go wrong, and the defense stubbornly refused to allow anyone to score. But something happened - and it happened beginning Week 6 against the Buzzsaw, despite the improbable win - that made these Bears look ordinary for much of the remainder of the season.
Even in what amounted to a blowout victory, the Bears managed to not look particularly good getting there. In the NFC Championship, Grossman passed for just 144 yards - including a 33-yard touchdown toss that had little to do with Grossman and lots to do with the acrobatics of Bernard Berrian — while the defense allowed Drew Brees to move up and down the field for 354 yards. The Bears beat the Saints by the deceptive score of 39-14.
Yet if the Bears catch the breaks they caught - and indeed created - during the Saints game, they can beat the Colts. While we should expect Peyton Manning’s stats to mirror Brees’, Manning isn’t who the Bears have to worry about. If the Bears can hold Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes to something like the 37 yards rushing they held Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush to, and create turnovers like they did against the Saints (4) and their special teams wins the field position battle — punter Brad Maynard was just sick, dropping five kicks inside the 20, including a 51-yarder to the New Orleans 5 that led to the game-changing safety of Brees — and Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson combine for another 180-yard-plus game and return man Devin Hester takes advantage of the Colts’ questionable special teams coverage … they have a chance to make the game close.
I’m not terribly optimistic. The Colts are the better team. But what do you want me to do, crown their asses?
Bears 27, Colts 24.
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