Johnny Damon has lost his damn mind. I thought the bearded, long haired, book signing version of Damon that was floating around this time last year was setting himself up for failure. That was nothing compared to what he is doing now.Johnny, in preparation for his first meeting with new boss George Steinbrenner had this to say. "We're just going to talk, kick back and crack some jokes...It's great to be on his side so now we can talk about the Yankee way."
Has Steinbrenner mellowed in his old age or is Johnny just that clueless? Does he really think that Steinbrenner is interested in cracking jokes and relaxing with his retard centerfielder?
I would love to be in the room for the first five minutes when Johnny saunters in petting his newly shortened coiffe and says, "Hey! Georgie! Did you hear the one about the priest, the rabbi, and the goat that walk into a bar?"
"No Johnny I didn't. Sit the fuck down and tell me that you're going to hit .300 for the next four years and that you won't choke against Boston."
"But...dude...I thought we were gonna kick back...talk about the Yankee way."
"You want to talk about the Yankee way, here you go, I hate you as a person. I think you're a moron, I brought you in half to make our team better half to stick it to Boston. You are a little weasel with an overblown ego that better perform here or I will make more public comments about your sexual orientation than Mike Piazza could dream about. Capiche?"
"So...we're not cracking jokes?"
Damon's comments about his impending "chill session" with Steinbrenner came on the heels of this gem a few days earlier. "Everything feels right about being a Yankee, about the tradition, about my new teammates. It feels pretty special."
What the hell does he know about Yankee tradition? He has literally not even played catch as a member of the organization and he's talking about the magic of pinstripes. I wonder what he'll think about the tradition of booing overpriced free-agents that start the year slowly. He is just such a moron that it hurts my brain. He has no idea that by invoking Yankee tradition and playing buddy-buddy with Steinbrenner before he ever makes a single play in New York that he is setting himself up for failure. If he doesn't play well, even for the first few weeks, all of this melodramatic, up-yours Boston, Yankee tradition is the only tradition crap is on the record. Everytime he strikes out some greasy New Yorker will point to this and say, "Hey oh! Johhhnny dat's not da Yankee tradition you mada-fuck!"
I actually think that Johnny is going to play well in New York but with all his moronic talk he is setting himself up to take a much harder fall than necessary should he start slowly or slump at some point. Maybe in hindsight I'm glad we don't have to deal with this garbage from him anymore.
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***********Speaking of people that probably should have kept their mouths shut, Donovan McNabb stole the Super Bowl week spotlight earlier this week with his comments about Terrell Owens and the collapse of the Eagles reign as the class of the NFC. Prior to this little explosion I thought that McNabb had handled the T.O. saga well. He essentially kept his mouth shut and let Owens make enough trouble that the problem eventually took care of itself when the Eagles shelved him for the year. Now this?
I don't understand two things about this. 1. Why now? Where was this 4 months ago, when two teams were not rightfully in the spotlight heading into the game of their lives? Don't make waves during Super Bowl week just because you aren't there this time. Allow the Steelers and Seahawks their time, then if you must make noise after the season when we'll all be fiending for football related stories. 2. What's the point? T.O. is gone, you won. The organization stood behind you and eliminated the problem. You didn't look bad coming out of this because you were quieter than T.O. you looked good because you had the class to keep your mouth shut and try to do your talking on the field. Sure that didn't work out so well, partly because of your injury, but now you have basically pulled a T.O. by firing back at him seemingly unprovoked. All that respect that people had for you for the way you handled the situation takes a step back now because you lowered yourself to his level.
Finally, and most importantly anytime an athlete injects race into a discussion regardless of the context that becomes the overriding factor in the resulting debate. By calling his issues with Owens and Mondshire (NAACP guy) "black on black crime" McNabb basically erased the validity and limited the publicity of the rest of his comments. All anyone heard is the race card being dropped from on high. His problem may have been a respect issue, an issue of leadership, or any one of a dozen other issues, but by phrasing it that way it has become just one thing, a race issue. Now it's become more difficult for white people to talk about because we don't want to look racist by being insensitive to something we don't understand and it's equally hard for black members of the media to discuss because they don't want to seem like they are pulling a similar race card. While I agrew with much of what he said he limited the effectiveness of his argument with this statement.
Bad timing, bad phrasing, little to gain. Way to think it through Donovan.
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***********************************************************************Since it is Super Bowl week, and this will probably be my last post before the game, I guess I should talk a little bit about the game. A big part of me wants to say that there is no way Seattle can stop an apparent team of destiny like the Steelers. The 1,2, and 3 seeds in the AFC couldn't stop them, nor could the quasi-corrupt referees in Indy. Why should a team that padded it's win total in the worst division of the NFL's minor league be able to do so? At the same time the numbers look good for Seattle. They have won 13 of their last 14 games and put a pretty good hurt on everyone's trendy NFC pick Carolina (although they were playing a 4th string running back). Their defense is ranked in the top 10 in scoring in the league (a requisite for winning Super Bowls statistically) and their offense has been efficient if not explosive.
In the end I'm going with Pittsburgh. They are battle tested, having come out of a tougher division in a tougher conference, not to mention they survived 3 road playoff games with minimal difficulty (most of their difficulty was caused by lousy officiating against the Colts). I think they can hammer the quick but lightly built Seattle defense over the course of 60 minutes and I think Roethlisberger can make more plays and fewer mistakes than Hasselbeck. The running game will be a wash with Alexander and Parker hardly affecting the game until an official makes a bonehead P.I. call in the end zone giving someone the ball on the 1. And in terms of playmakers you have to give the edge to Pittsburgh with Ward and Randle-El over Jackson and a backup QB.
The only thing that worries me about picking Pittsburgh is that Skip Bayless has been picking them all week and launching an attack on Seattle. It is an undeniable fact in B-Slant land that Skip Bayless is the worst sports writer and commentator in the media today so to pick with him pains me deeply. He's probably only villifying himself in Seattle to create a stir, but his potential to jinx may yet be unfulfilled. I know that if the Pats were in this game and Skippy was blasting Seattle all over town I would be screaming for him to shut the (bleep) up.
That being said I don't think that even Bayless can ruin this for the Steelers, sometimes if picking a team seems too obvious there is a very good reason. Don't forget, this is going to be basically a home game for the Steelers. Detroit is only about 5 hours away by car, and these are the same fans that have showed up in droves at much further locales like Denver. They won't just show up either, they will be manical freaks with towels and mullets.
I just want to game to get here already, I can't listen to Joey Porter try to force a feud (and himself into the spotlight) with Jerramy Stevens anymore. There's nothing there.
"Yeah, then the towel boy for the Seahawks said, 'Good luck Joey' and I was like mother-f'er you talked out of turn. You'll learn not to do that on Sunday when you end up on your back, punk! You don't see enough towel laundry time to talk smack to me boy! Yeah that's right run back to your mom, yeah that's right go back to middle school, bitch!"
Oh, hold the phone. I didn't know Jerome Bettis was from Detroit...well that changes everything...
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