Richard Kimball

When you look at the original B12, it could have been something special, but being run by Commandant Lassard, it didn't happen. The B12 and the PAC were both run by old school guys who thought the money train was fine, and viewed the college football landscape as a lake, and all the conferences were in their own little canoes, and the idea was to keep the lake as smooth as possible, not upsetting anyone else's canoe. The SEC recognized the coming storms and acted accordingly. The PAC12 still lives in a world where they think the Rose Bowl matters. In the PAC, Berkley and Stanford see football as being kind of icky, and view people who like football in the same light as they view people who go to monster truck races. I wouldn't discount UCF. They have a large enrollment and are in a recruiting hotbed.

If Clark Hunt had any vision, he'd do what a REAL owner does, and fire Andy Reid for hogging all the attention and bring in Barry Switzer to start coaching. Course, if Lamar Hunt had any vision, he would have named his son Mike.

Dittos. Random thoughts on Laugh-In. The pace of humor has increased since then. Jokes that seemed rapid fire in 1969 now seem slow. Modern audiences have a shorter attention span and don't need as much time to acclimate themselves to a tv or movie scene. What were quick cuts back then are painfully slow now. It was also a borscht belt burlesque show dressed up with dayglo paint. Put the girls in bikinis instead of showgirl outfits, and they didn't even change a lot of the comedy routines or jokes. The Dick Van Dyke Show used to use a lot of the old borscht belt comedy skits, also.

Yeth?

Tobacco and masturbation...

"Bawled." Spelling is important.

Dude, I've read your posts. You're cooler than Billy D. Williams pitching Colt 45 and Ricardo Montalban pitching rich Corinthian leather put together.

The founding families of the NFL WERE the big money gambling complex. Art Rooney and Tim Mara were bookmakers. Rooney also ran slots, while Mara was involved in horse racing. George Halas and Bill Bidwell (Bears and Cardinals) were financed by the Chicago mob. Carroll Rosenbloom (Colts, later Rams) was casinos, as was the DeBartolo family (49ers,) who also used to own horse racing interests. In the 1990s, Eddie DeBartolo Jr. had to divest from the 49ers after he got caught bribing Louisiana officials $400,000 for a riverboat gambling license.

I've definitely seen that scenario play out in high school and college games. Last week, at a JUCO game, I saw a ref shout at a coach, "You asked for it! You want another one?"

There are comments on the Chiefs-Bengals thread about the officiating. There are also comments on the Conference realignment and left behind threads. I'll throw my thoughts out. I don't think it's rigged to the point that professional wrestling is rigged, but yes, leagues guide the narrative. I've seen numerous references to the NFL being legally an "entertainment" league, and being in the same category as wrestling. If this is true, fixing games isn't illegal, as wrestling matches are usually fixed. I haven't found a definitive source on this, simply references to the law passed in 1961 after the NFL lost a Supreme Court anti-trust case in 1957. I haven't found, except on message boards, the claim that the NFL is entertainment, not sports. The Sports-Media complex has no interest in exposing the darker side of sports. They functionally own the leagues. They protect some players, crucify others, dittos for teams. NBA, definitely. It's a star driven league, and finals ratings are greatly influenced by which teams are playing for the title. My "AHA!" moment in the NBA was watching a Lakers game in the 80s. Magic Johnson had five fouls, two minutes left. He hacked an opposing player. The ref blew the whistle and started to point at Johnson, realized who it was, and swerved to put the foul on another Lakers player who was about eight feet away. There were no traveling calls on Jordan, ever. He could start at half court and drive all the way to the basket without dribbling. NFL, yeah. Tuck rule game, Saints being allowed to murder Vikings QB Brett Favre in the title game when the league wanted the Saints to win the Super Bowl after Katrina, Steelers never having a call go against them in the 1970s, Earl Morrall throwing three interceptions in the first half of Colts-Jets, when the NFL desperately needed an AFL win for the merger to go through. College, yeah, but there are so many entities that it's not a unified narrative like the NBA and NFL. Conferences will put their thumb on the scale for a team that has a chance for the playoffs, cause the conference gets a share of the playoff money. Right now, Texas and Oklahoma won't get a break because the B12 doesn't want them winning the conference on the way out the door. Anyway, your thoughts? True fixing, or just losing team sour grapes? We know there are SOME sour grapes, but is there a basis for some of those claims? Remember Tim Donaghy.

Pouring's good.

Kezar Stadium is where Dirty Harry shot Scorpio in the leg.

Nothing is over until @GreenspointTexas says it is.

From the 1960s through 95, the Cowboys were the most prominent team because every great team either was the Cowboys, or their defining moment was beating the Cowboys. The 60s Packers defining game was the Ice Bowl. The 70s Steelers were defined by their two Super Bowls against the Cowboys. The 80s 49ers were defined by Dwight Clark and "The Catch." The Cowboys WERE the team of the 90s, and except for Jerry fucking everything, they would have had at least one more Super Bowl, and maybe two. Since 1995, they've been "just another team," but the love and hatred of the Cowboys around the NFL was because win or lose, they were there in almost every significant game, and they broke a lot of other team's hearts.

It's trewly disappointing.

Brady led the NFC in passing yards with 4,694 yards, 67% completion rate and 25 TDs to 9 interceptions. I wouldn't put him in a rocking chair just yet.

Monkey taverns.

I've probably posted this before, but... Belichick without Brady in nine seasons: Three total playoff games, one win. Brady without Belichick in two seasons: Six total playoff games, five wins, one Super Bowl championship. That does not include this year.

Watched it with the family again on New Year's Eve, and realized I'm tired of CGI. This had me excited, cause they were real planes and real people flying. With CGI, you know they're going to make it, so Captain America doing a back flip off a motorcycle onto the back of a fighter jet is kind of a yawner, as there's no real risk. Cruise may be the last standing movie star right now.

Holy Shit. NFL posted this on December 29, 2022. Tom Brady has been in the NFL longer than he wasn't in the NFL. Today, he threw for 392 yards, 3 TDs and no interceptions. All three of his TD passes were absolute dimes to Mike Evans. Tom Brady is unfucking unbelievable. This guy hasn't hung on and held a clipboard on the sidelines for the last ten years to still be on a roster. This is not a good Tampa Bay team, and he just put them on his shoulders to make the playoffs again. Yeah, yeah, weak division, got it. The only time he's missed the playoffs since 2000 (he didn't play as a rookie) was 2008 with a knee injury. His first playoff game this year will be his 48th playoff game. Guy has played three full seasons of playoff games.

Kind of you not to mention Route 66. New rule: anyone who mentions UCLA football has to post one of their cheerleaders. Nobody has hotter cheerleaders than UCLA.

Yeppirs. During an interview a while back, I asked an SID about something our readers were asking about(btw, it was kinda stoopid.) He said, "Why do people have such an irrational interest in this?" I told him, "If people didn't have an irrational interest in the program, your coach wouldn't make $5 million a year." By the way, the TL;DR on this whole overlong post is "They're a bunch of homogenized control freaks who see the press as advertisers they don't have to pay." Colleges are circling the wagons. Ten years ago, getting a one on one interview with a coach or player was easy. B12 Media Days, they'd have five teams each day, and a coach and five players from each team. In the afternoon, they'd have a three hour session, and you could go to thirty different tables and ask questions unsupervised by the college corporate mouthpiece. Sometimes there'd be five or six reporters around a table, but you could frequently get one on ones with guys like linebackers or safeties and have some actual conversations and get real answers and viewpoints. Today, nah. Fewer players, and all the interviews are one at a time with the corporate handler. Strict fifteen minutes, twenty or so journalists. You might get one question in and lotsa fuckin luck getting a follow up if they dodged the first one. They're so wholly coached on what to say that you know you're going to get the same answer from every one of them. There are two paid dicksuckers to ask softball questions that were probably pre-arranged, cause the answers are way too scripted to be off the cuff. IF you see one on one interviews today, know that just about every question and answer is as scripted as an episode of Property Brothers. @UncleBuck, they control the shit out of access. During spring ball and fall camp, you get fifteen minutes to do "B-roll" at the start of practice. WOW! Fifteen whole minutes of watching wind sprints and jumping jacks. First whistle, when they actually start practicing, everybody out except for the "in house" reporters, who clear everything before they write anything. They will never give out any injury information except in response to a direct question. The two deep they give out is usually worthless. Sometimes they don't even change them. I had one where a guy that missed the last ten games of the season with a concussion was listed as the starter every week. The reason they have so many interviews with coaches is because they need the content. It's a 24 hour media cycle. There are 8,760 hours in a year. A college team playing fourteen games at roughly four hours a game is 56 hours. Actual snap to whistle in a game is about eleven to fifteen minutes of action per game. That's a little less than three hours of actual game footage per team per year. They have to have something to fill that content, and interviews with losing coaches are some of the most entertaining dramedy to come out of sports.

The program happens around Aranda.