Glory Days!

RU: Ready to Rumble!

1. Congratulations to my friend and colleague KELLY WHITESIDE (!) of USA Today. I've known Kelly at least 14 years, and in all that time she has been a fiercely proud and yet never obnoxious (like me) supporter of her alma mater, which happens to be Rutgers. It must have been a huge thrill for her last night to cover the game, to see it in person, and then write the game story that appears on page 1C of the nation's newspaper. Hello, newspaper framery, I think you've got a story to laminate.

2. Until age 12 I grew up in Monmouth County, N.J., just 20 or so miles south of Rutgers (though in that part of the country you multiply mileage by about four to obtain the true degree of difficulty in getting anywhere). Anyway, I'd say that before this year New ranked a distant second to Replica in terms of Jerseys that played a vital role in college football. No more. Also, for the record, I'd like to say that Ray Rice is a fantastic runner, but that the best running back I ever saw in New Jersey was Middletown Pop Warner Pee Wee stud Mike Pontecorvo back in 1977. I played on the Jr. Pee Wee team and we'd watch their game because they played before us on Sundays at Middletown North High School, and I swear that kid never ever went down on the first hit. Not once. It's 29 years later and I still remember that--and that name--vividly.
Michael Pontecorvo! Now that's Jersey.

3. Can a guy win "Most Improved Player" in the course of one game? And which Rutgers player would win? Would it be kicker Jeremy Ito, whose "Ole!" tackle attempt on JaJuan Spillman was one of the most feckless attempts at a tackle a kicker has ever made...and that's a sub-genre of tackling that has oodles of examples of comically bad technique. But then did you see the tackle he made on Spillman on the game's penultimate play? Got his helmet and shoulder pads right into Spillman's numbers. Here come the Judge!
Second nominee is Kenny Britt, who had alligator arms the entire first half after getting nailed going over the middle early in the first quarter. Britt made a terrific catch and run for 67 yards down to the Louisville 4 in the third quarter, the play that first made you feel as if Rutgers could actually win this game. Yes, he had the ball stripped at the end of the run, but Britt recovered.

3. Poor William Gay. Called offsides on the Ito field goal attempt that was hooked wide left, he's also the dude who stripped Britt of the football but was unable to recover it. Tough weekend for him.

4. Thanks for the Dickie V. phone call, ESPN (I was worried he was becoming underexposed). Hey, I like Dickie V. a lot, and I've been lucky enough to hang with him a few times, but did we really need to know that he had the hots for Greg Schiano's mom back in the day? Ick.
And then the shameless proselytizing about why college hoops is better than college football? Dickie V., you don't get it. On the last two Thursdays we've seen students at previously backwater gridiron campuses rush the field after the biggest wins in their schools' histories. Why? Because these regular season games MEAN SOMETHING. Dickie V. tried to argue that the regular season of college hoops is entertaining because teams are "compiling their resumes". What is this, an interview with Goldman Sachs?
Hey, Dickie V., I'd rather my football "playoff" take place in ways you cannot foresee at the start of the season, creating magic like we had last night, than at some sterile NFL stadium in late-December or mid-January. I've said it before and I'll say it again: You cannot replicate the magic of a game like last night if you have a postseason playoff.
Dickie V. might be a better-looking guy if he had a full head of hair, but I imagine his personality would not be anywhere near as engaging. I don't know if that's a good metaphor for college football, but I'm going with it: because I have hair and a bad personality.

5. Is Jeff Brohm still yelling at his little brother? They reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite and Uncle Rico out there.

6. I'm one of the writers who mocked the "It's R Time" billboard on the Jersey Turnpike when I spotted it last summer. I was wrong. Wow, was I wrong.

7. On the other hand, I did predict a mutually-assured destruction shootout a la the climactic scene in "Reservoir Dogs" for the trio of Big East unbeatens, and right now it seems as if it's going to happen. Rutgers at West Virginia on Dec. 2? I like the Mountaineers. And, if that happens, all thre Big East powers will have knocked one another out.

8. How, exactly, did Louisville's loss "throw a wrench" in the BCS' plans? If Louisville had won out there'd have been no end to the bitching that Cal or Texas or Florida were better teams, even with one loss, who had faced tougher opponents. So now Louisville loses and (unless Rutgers beats West Virginia) and there'll be only one unbeaten major conference team at season's end (apologies to Northwestern and Indiana). So how is this a problem? Let the dust settle on December 3rd. See who still has only one loss. Cal? USC? Texas? Florida? Arkansas?
Let's not whine about what we didn't get for Christmas after opening just one present.

9. Lord, I know I sound old, but can we PLEASE stop with the Gatorade showers. Two of Schiano's players nearly brained him when theyh hit him in the back of the head with the orange bucket last night. I've seen Paulie Walnuts go softer on guys than that.

10. And, finally, I like Mike Tranghese. I don't know him, but I like him. He's got class. Remember class?

Wings versus...

Loyal reader Sean Sullivan notes that the erstwhile sitcom "Wings", while "not being a great show" (I disagree!), spawned a ton of talent currently blooming all over the place. There was Thomas Haden Church's Oscar nomination in "Sideways" two years ago. Tony Shalhoub won a Best Actor in a Comedy Emmy last August for "Monk". Timothy Daly is currently starring in "The Nine" while Stephen Weber is his usual excellent (though not as goofy) self on "Studio 60".

I'll admit, Sean, that's a tough crop to beat, but last night I flipped over to "Platoon" and I believe we may at least have a draw. The 1986 Best Picture Oscar winner's cast includes John C. McGinley (currently Dr. Perry Cox on "Scrubs"), Kevin Dillon (Johnny Drama on "Entourage"), Forest Whitaker ("The Last King of Scotland"), Charlie Sheen (Mr. Highest Paid Actor on Television thanks to "Two and a Half Men") and some yokel named Johnny Depp.

I'm looking for other nominees. Anyone else have a suggestion?

Beware of Bloggers Knowing You Read Them

There's a pretty goofy subplot on an old episode of "The West Wing" in which Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) begins taking an unhealthy interest in a blog devoted to him entitled "LemonLyman.com" (genius again, Mr. Sorkin). Anyway, despite the insistence of both White House press secretary C.J. and of his assistant, Donna (or as I used to call her, the Next Mrs. Walters), that he not engage them with emails, Josh does. He feels unfairly abused, but that's not the point. You cannot win as a a member of the establishment against guerilla tactics (see, we're back to talking about "Platoon again).

I bring this up because a blogger on another sports site recently made such an error. I won't out the writer, but by the end of the email exchange he'd written that he would "fellate my left fist" if such an event transpired as one of the e-mailers predicted.

Step away from the keyboard. Inhale. Exhale. There you go. Much better.

Moment In My Life

So I'm shopping for a sweatshirt at the Notre Dame Bookstore the other day and a nice customer service lady comes over to assist me. "Can I help you find something in your style?" she asks.

"Sure," I say. "Do you have something in bitter?"

And Finally...

This just occurred to me yesterday. Whose brilliant idea was it to install the "bcc" (blind carbon copy) option on emails? First--and perhaps least--isn't it insulting to blind people? I mean, how come you can use the term blind so freely (blind-sided?) and yet our P.C. police haven't picked up on its insensitivity yet? As you may already know, I'm all for insensitivity as long as its true.
Anyway, back to the blind cc. Who was the wiz kid who said, "You know what would be cool? If you could email people so that they know what you're saying to a third party without that third party realizing it? Wouldn't that be great?"
Now, sure, this is a wonderfull tool if, say, you're a woman afraid to break up with your boyfriend in person. With bcc you can email him that you dumped him and bcc his wife at the same time as a courtesy. But aside from that? It's just plain sneaky.
I like to think of the bcc as the "weasel option". or the "I'm still in 7th grade" tool. If you're bcc'ing someone, aren't you just being a sneak?