SI

I just read an article in Sports Illustrated from last week (the one with Brady and Moss on the cover) Called “Worlds Collide” by Tim Layden , in which the abstract (I assume sports columns features have the same words that APA writing does) read like this “The NFL’s 2010 season will be a conflict between button-down traditionalism and media-amplified showmanship-a culture clash embodied in the opening week matchup between the staid (or maybe he meant stained) Patriots and the brash Bengals. Round 1 goes to the old guard. “


Layden talks mostly in the first few paragraphs about the world’s greatest and second most handsomest football player (Wes Welker) and his heroic Wolverine healing power-like come back from an ACL tear to play a full NFL game in only seven month. In contrast it took the pedestrian looking Bengals QB Carson Palmer almost two years to fully recover from the ACL tear he suffered in 2006 at the hands of the unapathetic Steelers, who that season would go on to literally steal the Superbowl champions (with help from the Refs) from the Seattle Seahawks. I know what you’re think right now, “Quinn, Carson Palmer is a nobody…you should be embarrassed to have used his recovery from a torn ACL as an example of how Wes Welker’s recovery was so quick and so great.” And to that I say you’re right. So how about if I use the NFL’s most handsome man’s recovery time from an ACL, MCL, PCL, DCL, FCL and the dreaded GCL tear as a better example. In 2008 Tom Brady tore all those and more when he was cheaply hit by Bernard Polland of the Kansas City Cheats…I mean Chiefs. Anyway, it took Tom Brady a full year to recover from all those injuries and he doesn’t even have to run all around the field like Wes Welker does. But all this gushing is getting away from why I am writing a blog about this article.

After Welker’s amazing game, he went to the interview podium (after Randy Moss’s 15 minute-scary as hell to all Pats fans diatribe about how is unhappy with his lack of a new contract.) Welker took the stage and answered question about how it was to play again after coming back from such a gruesome injury Welker called it “a cool thing.” And then quickly resented that and called it “just another game.” Layden then compared Welker and all his humility in his awe-inspiring comeback to that of the other locker room, where the Bengals receivers (Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens) would soon be tweeting to their fans about their loss.

What got me about this article is when Layden used the good vs. evil metaphor comparing the two side, with the “let the work on the field do the talking” work of Welker being the good and the we are going to talk: before, during, and after the game of the Ocho and Owens being the bad, however I disagree with him, (although, I think this might be the first article I’ve read since 2004 that included good vs. evil as a metaphor and Bill Belichick, in which Belichick was on the side of good).

This might be an example of the different era’s me and the writer grew up in, but I enjoy that now, more than ever, athletes are able to talk to the media and interact with their fanbase.

When I was a kid, wearing an Oakland A’s hat in the yard and pretending to be a World Series hero, more than 25 percent of my imagination went into my interviews and my abilities to connect with the fans not just through my World Series winning RBI single (I wasn’t so brash as to believe I would hit the world series home run…which at that point had only been done twice). But by talking about myself, my life growing up with depression, my self-effacing sense of humor, and I always imagined I would make as many if not more fans doing that than I would with my ten gold gloves at second base and 8 silver sluggers (damn that Carlos Baega for beating me out in 2007 by .003, in the last season in his hall of fame career). My point is this, I wanted to talk, I had a story and people were gonna listen to me until no one was around to hear me talk. I wasn’t going to be mean, I was gonna be funny like an actor talking to Conan O’Brien on late night TV, which would be one of my venues to do it.

I think in an era in which blogging (hello reader),talk radio, tweeting and youtube are such easy vehicles to get in touch with fans, that its more self-fish not to use these venues, people don’t just care about what people do on the field, it’s how they handle themselves off the field that matters, and some people approach this with a less is more attitude, I tend to believe that more is more…talking to fans and using media does not make you a bad person. Constantly throwing your quarterback under the bus, makes you a bad teammate, and while there is no doubt that TO would be much more admired for his on the field actions if he had played in the 80’s when the NFL stars did cocaine with such a reckless abandonment, that if a reporter was told about it, he would just shrug it off because it was a nonstory. And weren’t interview too much unless they were a coach, quarterback, or larger than life persona.

There’s an old adage that I think I have seen attributed to Abe Lincoln “It’s better to be quiet and thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” And I think it is great these days the many athletes that for better or worse don’t buy into that. As a kid that grew up a Patriots fan, I can honestly say it annoys me to no end the lack of media time the Belichick and his team give us. I often think athletes forget that at the heart of it all are entertainers, and are getting paid as much to entertain people as they are for their ability to throw a ball around, They are playing the same game that 8 or 9 year old children do. I think because most of the people who play sports professionally grew up playing the sport and know no other way of life. They often feel like they are at a job just the same as someone who works at a desk from 9-5, they don’t know and don’t care how blessed they are. That 90 percent of the rest of the world would trade spots with them in a heartbeat. And because they think the only job they are being paid for is the work between the lines. That talking to the media without any extra money, is just like a guy who gets paid to work a 9-5 office job going to an apple orchad and picking apples without getting paid for it. And because of this way of thinking, they hate talking to the media.

To get back to the article though, later on, while trying to show that the new school athletes that talk all the time are somehow the bad guy. The writer writes about how the first time T.O. and Ochocinco’s names were announced as attended receivers, the New England crowd Booed loudly while other Bengals were just ignored. But the reality is that they were booed loudly because of their jersey more than anything, had one of them had a flying Elvis (the pats logo) on their helmet they would have been cheered the most loudly. I think the fans love these guys much more than they dislike them, (especially Ochocinco, who was never called a “clubhouse Cancer” like T.O. has been.) And I think fans appreciate players more that show real personality to their fans then they do players don’t show any personality or even worse have a “Kellen Winslow Jr.” like personality. One thing Charles Barkley proved is that if you are funny and have charm you can be beloved, I would say that Charles Barkley, a guy who once spat on a fan, is currently the second most beloved player of his generation, and that’s only because Michael Jordan is untouchably beloved. I am pretty sure people could find Nazi paraphernalia in his house, and more fans would believe it is not his or chose to look the other way then they would be to vilify him, he is just that much beloved.

Anyway, I am just gonna wrap this up and say that I am a much bigger fan of athletes that show personality and interact with the media and fans than the ones that don’t. and think that media interaction is the good of the two sides.

MTV music video awards

As a child, teen, and even sometimes as an adult, I have spent many, many hours watching MTV. If I had spent 1/3 of the time I spent watching MTV, studying instead…while I would have spent a shit ton of hours studying. The hallmark of MTV has always been the Music video awards (I will now make required “they play Music videos on MTV?” joke.) (sorry) Anyway, last year was the first year in a long time that I didn’t watch it and the whole Kanye West thing happened. So this year, with a host in Chelsea Handler, that I really liked and the possibility of something crazy and funny happening, I decided to DVR, then I wound up still watching it live with my sister. Here are a bunch of my random thoughts on what is really the most important night in popular music.


First, I’ll talk about Chelsea Handler, I watch and love Chelsea lately, I think it is really funny and she is really funny on it, but I have also read two of her books and seen an episode of women behaving badly (or whatever it is called) and I must say based on those three things before watching last night’s MTV music video awards, I definitely thought she was a one trick pony, that one trick being commenting on pop culture, after last night’s show I can safely say I still think she is a one trick pony. I thought she fell flat in front of all those celebrity eyes on her, I thought all her opening dialogue was stupid and besides getting in the hot tub with four members of the Jersey shore and being in some pretaped back stage segments with the best new artist (which all were bad, and include an autotune joke) she pretty much disappeared the rest of the show. In other words, I really wasn’t impressed with it. Next year, bring on Daniel Tosh (that’s who it should’ve been this year anyway)

P.S. I was definitely wrong about Ke$ha, she will never come close to being more entertaining, funny, or important in the music world than Lady Gaga (I made those comments earlier in the year while, having just listened to a couple Ke$ha songs on youtube and reading an article about her in entertainment weekly)…I have more thoughts on GAGA but more pressing issues.

The opening skit of the show included Chelsea getting her ass slapped many times by big black guys (not funny, but hey, it kills some time I guess) But then while turning a corner she runs into Lindsay Lohan, who gives her a speech about how she is drinking to much…This was about as funny as it would have been if Mel Gibson were there and told Chelsea she was hating too much on the Jews (Chelsea is half Jewish, and like most of us Jews, makes jokes at our expense.) My point here is that Lindsay Lohan has a pretty big drug and alcohol problem, and MTV should know better than to have in that skit (it wasn’t even funny). I am pretty sure Linday should still be in jail, and she should definitely be in rehab. Her parents are bat shit insane and shouldn’t be allowed to be around her or her two younger siblings, and Lindsay’s Hollywood ending is looking much more like Marilyn Monroe’s than Drew Barrymore right now. What MTV is allowing her to do right now having seen what happened to Anna Nicole Smith would be like if people who lived through the whole John Belushi thing, than not done anything when they saw Chris Farely go down that same slippery slope (oh, wait…)

I am not trying to hate on Justin Bieber, but in 5 years he is going to be a cross between Brothers Nick and Aaron Carter (and by that I mean the current Nick and Aaron Carter, not Nick Carter in the backstreet boys era)

In a one minute clip in which she introduced young Aaron Carter…I mean, Justin Bieber. Kim Kardashian proved to me that she has 0 comic timing, very little charm, and no charisma. I would almost rather rewatch Paris Hilton host SNL for the entire hour and a half (yes, I saw it once)than rewatch Kim’s one minute introduction of Justin Bieber.

Katy Perry is really good looking and she is almost as funny as her fiancé Russell Brand (the second part of that statement is not a compliment.)

It was nice of Usher to wear that wireless mic and at least pretend to sing for the crowd.

Thank god N.E.R.D. and less talented but still living Aliayah…I mean Ciara did a song together, and it was great that it wasn’t just an add for Chevy either.

If you had told before the show started that my favorite performance of the night would be by Taylor Swift and that the song was probably called Ode to what Kayne West did to me last year at the VMA’s. I would have taken a sip of water after you said it just so I could comedicly spit the water out at such an audacious statement, then I would have gone on a ten minute tirade about how I really dislike her and don’t get why people think she is good looking, much less a good artist. And then I would have bet you my life savings against that and not even thought twice about it, but if I had made such a bet and you had taken it, I would have owed you two thousand dollars and a beat up 1997 Subaru Outback Empreza. The song was really good, the performance was really good, and I didn’t complain about her, at least not after the performance.

This is where I write an open letter to Emma Stone,

Dear Emma Stone,

I like you, I think you could be a solid actress and even be a marquee name in as a lead female comedic actress. I know you are currently on a grueling tour to promote your new movie Easy A and a major promo tour can be really stressful and some people don’t eat when they are really stressed. But please, for the sake of everyone and everything eat something and then eat something else. For one thing your head is too big for you to be good looking when you are rail thin, but you also shouldn’t be rail thin anyway. You appear to be a smart, talented girl who is choosing good roles for your career and you have a bright future ahead of you (but I would have said the same thing about Lindsay Lohan in 2004 right when mean girls came out). If being in Hollywood is causing to make these choices than please drop everything you are doing and leave Hollywood and don’t ever look back, you currently are set to be the next big female comedy star, but it’s not worth starving yourself, move to any city that doesn’t glorify the “twiggy” look, never work with a director that tells you, you need to lose weight to get this part (as long as you don’t end up in Kristie Alley territory). Eat healthy, work out, stay a safe distance from cocaine, heroin and amphetamines (I am not saying you can’t dabble in cocaine, just don’t make it a daily or even a weekly habbit and don’t use it as a protein, fat, and carbohydrate substitute) continue making good film choices and you could be the next Reese Witherspoon, or stay super skinny, do drugs, drink all the time, make bad movie choices and become really dislikable and you could be the next Lindsay Lohan. Ultimately the choice is yours.

Good Luck kid,

Quinn

I wasn’t a fan of Kaye’s new song, and I have a feeling I am going to like it less and less when it becomes the most popular song of 2010.

When will the Jersey shores fifteen mintues of fame be over? It’s really getting out of hand.

Last night definitely belonged to Lady Gaga, but I think the most impressive thing she did was cause Cher to make “I can’t believe what you are wearing, that is so tacky” face. Although, I didn’t realize with all that botox in her face, that Cher could make any facial expressions at all.