Quick Thoughts from Cowboys and Redskins Game

• Strange that everyone is shocked that Alex Barron struggled against one of the better pass rushers in the league…there’s a reason a team like the Rams got rid of him
• Larry Johnson you can’t go out of bounds in that situation…dive on the ground
• Joey Galloway…starting WR…

And the worst play of the game for the Dallas Cowboys?  This will shock you but it was the throw by Tony Romo with about 30 seconds left in the game with the cowboys at around the 40 yard line.  Romo drops back and throws a horrible pass right to Carlos Rogers and 3 other Redskin defenders who end up dropping the interception to ice the game.  It was a horrible decision by Romo that should have cost the cowboys the game and resulted in every cowboys fan talking about what a bad decision Romo made but because Rogers dropped the easy interception everyone focuses on the below average Alex Barron.

Alex Barron is not the starting right tackle for the Dallas Cowboys so that can be corrected but Tony Romo is the starting QB and throws like that will be what costs the Dallas Cowboys.  Why did Romo make that throw?

Why Hasn’t the NBA Suspended the Ref Who Threw a Ball at a Fan?

Have you noticed the absolute silence on this issue?  Nothing from the NBA.  Nothing from the sports writers.  Nothing from the players association.

Silence.

If you aren’t familiar with what happened here it is:

So we have an NBA official, Mr. Joe Derosa throwing a basketball at a fan who throws it back at him.  You can say ‘throw’, ‘toss’, whatever you want to call it but it doesn’t change the fact that an NBA ref initiated this exchange with a fan walking by.

Could you imagine an umpire in MLB doing this?   An NFL official?  Or even an NBA player?

And you can’t say this was a joke because Derosa then tried to get the fan thrown out by calling over security.

Derosa should have been immediately suspended from the rest of the playoffs and the NBA should have said we don’t condone this behavior.  Exactly what they would have done if a player had done this.  And why hasn’t the players association come out against this?

Maybe he’ll get suspended today but you can’t find any sports writers clamoring for his suspension or calling out the NBA once again with their officiating.  One day, the NBA will wake up and make their officials less player friendly like in baseball and football where you can’t touch them or it’s a penalty or an ejection.  I’ve never understood why the NBA let’s players come over and put their arm around officials.

Why NBA Teams Should Not Sign and Trade

I’ve never understood why so many NBA teams are willing to sign and trade their guys.  The argument for the sign and trade is that you don’t want to lose a player (asset) for nothing.  For instance, Cleveland would rather sign and trade Lebron than lose him for nothing.  But sometimes the sign and trade is not a smart move.

The most important thing to consider is what you are getting in return for signing and trading your player.  Are you getting a superstar or a has been or just filler that looks good on paper?  Let’s just say that Cleveland chose to sign and trade Lebron to the Mavericks for Caron Butler, Eric Dampier’s expiring contract, Roddy B, and a #1 pick.   It looks ok on paper for Cleveland as they get an all star in Caron and a young player with a big upside in Roddy B. but when you look closer it makes little sense.  Caron only has one year left on his deal and that #1 pick is worthless as is Damp’s contract.  (I chose this scenario off the top of my head so if the money doesn’t work out just ignore…trying to make a point here).

Cleveland should tell Lebron if he doesn’t want to play for them then fine go ahead and sign for much less money somewhere else.  Call his bluff or watch him take less money.  Yes you lose that player for nothing on the surface but you force another team to use their cap space on a free agent therefore they have very limited resources to sign anyone else.   This makes the market for the rest of the free agents out there decline as there is one less place to go.   And if a few teams refuse to sign and trade then all the teams with lots of cap space use it all up…forcing the rest of the free agents to look for smaller deals.

Why help a player leave your team?  Unless you are getting a superstar back in the deal. A good player will not make your team better.  It also makes it more difficult for very good teams to get even better.  Most very good teams are over the cap and can only use the mid level on free agents.  Why help them get stronger?

So Atlanta if Joe Johnson doesn’t want to resign with you then make him walk without a sign and trade.

Cleveland..don’t take back Luol Deng for Lebron?  That doesn’t help you at all.

Make Wade, Bosh, Lebron, Joe Johnson, Amare all take smaller deals than what their own team can give them.  Those 5 players would suck all the cap space from certain teams and make it much cheaper to sign the 2nd tier guys.

Suns vs Lakers Game 1 Thoughts

A few random thoughts on Game 1 last night:

• Why can’t Channing Frye shoot on the road?   He’s such an asset at home but a waste of space on the road
• Amare you had 3 rebounds in 35 mins.  No way the Suns can win with that performance.
• Robin Lopez looked a little awkward running last night and I wonder if his back holds up for the entire series or if it is just a trust factor
• Lamar Odom is really good sometimes
• Lakers had 4 guys with 5 assists or more..that’s how basketball should be played
• The Lakers shot 47% from 3pt range while the Suns only shot 23%..who would have thought that?

I don’t think we learned a whole lot from last nights game.  Kobe, Odom, Gasol, and Artest all had great shooting games which is why the Lakers won.  The Suns shoot much better at home so I don’t anticipate them losing at home but for the same reason it’s tough to see them winning in LA.

It’s gotta be tough to officiate this series with so many floppers out there in Fisher, Nash, Gasol, etc.   At the same time, you have guys like Kobe, Dudley, Artest, Amare, etc who like to use their hands on both offense and defense so a few calls either way could have a big impact.  Think about what happened to Grant Hill in the 3rd quarter.  Something to keep your eye on.

Alvin Gentry should be paid very well.

NFL Combine Changes

Why doesn’t the NFL make a few changes to their combine?

1. Make players wear helmets
2. Make players wear shoulder pads
3. Make players wear football pants
4. Hold film study sessions with a written test at the end to see if players pay attention and understand tendencies

I think these would be huge changes to the combine and they just make sense.  Players should be wearing what they play in when they run their 40 times and go through their drills.  I’d extend it to Pro Days as well.  I was watching Tim Tebow throw and it’s completely different throwing with a helmet and shoulder pads on than without.  Let’s see if he’s still accurate with that throwing motion.

I know that agents and current college players would be against this for the most part because all the 40 times would decrease but the NFL runs the thing so they can set the rules.  Why should the NFL care?  The closer they can get to simulating real game situations the better their scouting and evaluation should be and that means theoretically the owners will save money by drafting more efficiently.  That should be enough to both motivate and convince the owners and the NFL to make these changes.

Instead of arguing over overtime rule changes, why don’t they fix the combine?

Season 8 of 24 Still Sucks

Wow…what a piece of *(%#E)987 last night.

Is this what watching a soap opera is like?  It has to be..the over acting, bad camera work, stupid plot twists…this show blows now.  I mean really really blows.  It’s not even watchable anymore, the only reason I kept watching last night was so that I could do this blog post.  How sad is that?

Two good things about last night:  no president taylor and no renee.

Bad Things about last night:

• Marco’s acting.  God that was awful.  I felt bad for everyone involved in that scene.  What casting director could possibly pick him to play a role?
• Dana Walsh’s existence…kill her off now.  Toss Cole with her.  No one cares about either of these crappy characters and their whole subplot
• President Hassan sucks too.  And what was up with that hug with his wife?  Is this an after school special?
• Tarin and Kayla Hassan.  Fits the soap opera perfectly.  Hey let’s show them having sex for no other reason then that we need a sex scene.   And what a surprise?  The guy you have been showing closeups on is actually the twist in the plot!  He is a bad guy!  Why does 24 have to tip us off on every plot twist.  I’m actually expecting Tarin to be working under cover as a double agent.

Oh yeah one more thing…hey genius Marco…if Jack takes your mom to the nuke site…which would be impossible anyways as they won’t be letting people just walk there…he would die also.  Weak Weak Weak writing.

Let me also tell you who sucks behind the scenes:

Brad Turner who has been directing episodes since 2004.  Milan Cheylov who has directed episodes since 2007.

Brandon Braga who has been writing episodes since 2009.  Alex Gansa who also has been writing episodes since 2009.  Patrick Harbinson who has written 3 episodes in 2010.

Many Coto and David Fury who have produced episodes since 2005.  Ditto Brad Turner.  Brannon Braga and Alex Gansa have been co-executive producers the last two years when this show has gone in the tank.  Blame those idiots.

And Series Casting…which is absolutely horrible:  Debi Manwiller and Peggy Kennedy…Please quit your jobs today.   There was a specialty casting person who worked from 2002 – 2007..bring them back:  Patricia Homan Davila.

Why do they have all these Indian actors playing Iranians?   Is there anyone out there who is enjoying this season?

Lakers vs Magic on Sunday

So I actually watched most of an NBA game yesterday…well ok…maybe most of the 2nd half.  That was an accomplishment as I was more interested in Michigan State vs Michigan.

That horrible call by Bennett Salvatore almost swung the game to the Lakers…horrible call at the end of the game when he said that the alley-oop on the out of bounds play was in the cylinder.  That is the type of call that sets off NBA fans and the horrible officiating that takes place.  That entire game was called poorly for both teams…all the touch fouls, etc.  But that idiot made a game changing call taking away two points from the Magic in a critical moment.  Why would any official make that call?  He should be suspended a game for that.

Kobe…why haven’t you learned to play in an offense?  Yes, you can make a few passes here and there but you have no idea how to operate in an offense.  Lots of horrible shots by you down the stretch…sure some went in but they weren’t good shots.  And my favorite is after he hits the long 2 which he thinks is a 3..he starts celebrating to the camera and to the crowd but not with his teammates.  Hey how about thanking the guy who set that screen?  and then it gets called a two and he looks like an idiot.  love it.

Did I enjoy the game on Sunday?  Let’s just say that I wish someone had a replay of the Michigan St/Michigan game instead.  See you in the playoffs NBA.

Kiefer Sutherland’s 24 Season 8 Sucks

If you thought season 7 of the TV show 24 was bad…season 8 is even worse.  It starts with the cast and the horrible acting on that show.

Freddie Prinz Jr?  Great NY accent!…I mean you really nailed that down.  You would think they could find a really good actor to play opposite Kiefer for all the action scenes.  But we are stuck with this piece of crap

Annie Wersching?  You brought her back?  One face?  You can’t bring back one face…you just can’t do it.  That Renee Walker character is not interesting at all and I’m sure everyone was hoping the Russian was going to just end her appearances on the show.  Unless, they Tony’d her which would be even worse.  Her showing up on this season just proves that everyone has mailed it in this season.

Cherry Jones as the president.  Please Please let’s see the Vice President so there is hope that she falls into a coma or something.  I can’t take her fake accent anymore!  I am to the point of fast forwarding through her scenes.

Hey I have an idea!  Let’s get a guy from India to play the president of Iran!  I know they don’t call it Iran but everyone knows that’s what they mean.

Jurgen Prochnow – the bad guy from Beer Fest!  I can’t take anything he says seriously and they actually call him “pa pa” in this show and in Beer Fest they called him “grandpa pa”.  You can’t make stuff like this up.

Alright I can’t think about this cast anymore so let’s move on to the creative plot that we have this year.

Who cares what happens to Dana Walsh?  These idiot writers introduced her story way way too early before any of the viewers had any attachment to her.  You introduce a side story like this after she has done something to build loyalty.  Right now..does anyone care if she gets fired?  She doesn’t do anything special.  I don’t care.  It reminds me of the time they had Jack’s daughter afraid of wolves or coyotes while there was a nuclear threat going on….

Peace Talks – does it really matter if we suspend the peace talks for a few days or a week?  I’m not buying the urgency here at all.  And the president keeps referring to the “region” when talking about this peace deal but it’s only with one country.  I guess you could make the case that the US occupies the rest of the countries in the region.  And does anyone really believe the president would urge another head of state to come back to the peace talks after he was almost killed?

And now she doesn’t want him to round up the people who tried to kill him?  Umm…ok.  “You guys almost got me…come and give me a hug”

Russian Bad Guys – they really had the Russian guy drinking vodka…they did do that!  I saw it.  Then they had the Russian whores, the tatoos…I smell a Russian roulette scene coming up very soon.

How come the Russian sons don’t have Russian accents?  And is there anyone alive who didn’t know the older son was going to drive straight to the doctor?

CTU – does anyone know what it is that they do now?  It looks like they have a boss, some computer people, Freddie Prinz, and tactical teams.  Oh and some drones that fly over NY airspace (sure).  I can’t figure out exactly who actually does anything over there…so far they have had two people walk in off the street and they are the one’s running the most important mission right now.  Don’t you think they would have field op’s that do this sort of thing all the time and would be pissed off that two people that don’t even work there are in charge on the ground?

Jack Following the car with Renee in it?  Two problems here:  one Jack shouldn’t be that stupid to follow the car immediately without thinking it could be a trick.  Two, if the Russians did set that up then don’t you think they would have been looking out the window to see if someone fell for the trick?  It was a dark alley…I think they could tell as soon as headlights came on.  All Russians should be upset at this portrayal of stupidity.

And why would the Russians smuggle uranium into the US of all places?  and how are they going to get it out?

Please make this the last season…end it already

Impact of Concussions on the NFL

I believe that the new policies on concussions will have a huge impact on the NFL and the upcoming labor agreement.

Specifically:

1. Rosters will have to increase – there have been grumblings about this anyway
2. Game Day Rosters will have to increase
3. Injured Reserve may have to change and allow players to come back after 4 or 6 weeks
4. A combination of the above will have to take place at some level

Remember the NFL is also looking to increase the number of games per year.  There is no way NFL teams can run under the current roster limits if players are held out longer for concussions and games are increased.  More players in the NFL means that the current dollar splits won’t suffice either.  Could make an already complicated labor agreement even moreso.

Changing Your Facebook Privacy Settings to Max Protect

Note:  This is part 7 in the series “The Dangers of Facebook”

Part 7 Changing Your Facebook Privacy Settings = To Max Protect

Just like with internet browsers, there are settings you need to change on Facebook to protect yourself.  If you’ve read parts 1-6 then you know the dangers and what to protect, now I’ll walk you through how to do this.

Log in to Facebook

Go ahead, log in if you aren’t already.  Try not to get distracted by all the new stuff people have posted…OMG Kim went to McDonalds for lunch today!  And she had two orders of fries!  Awesome!  My life is now complete!  Wait, back on topic.  Look up at the right hand corner of the page in between your name and the logout button.  Scroll over  the Setting link up there and click on account settings.   Let’s start with your Name.   Remove your middle name or initial if it is on there.   I’ve touched on the email so go ahead and click ‘manage’ on the privacy section.

Managing your Privacy

Try to stay with me here..Facebook doesn’t make this all that easy.  You have to jump through a few hoops to change everything.  Click on profile and restrict everything to ‘Only Friends’.   You can also customize these if you want to block certain people from seeing things.  Click Save when you are done.   On that same page click on the link called “edit photo albums privacy settings”…it’s under the ‘Photos tagged of You’.    Change all of those to ‘Only Friends’.   Then click save settings at the bottom of the page.   Now go back to the main privacy page and again click on profile..for some reason Facebook doesn’t take you right back to where you were.  But get back to the page where you clicked to change your photo album privacy settings.

Click on the tab at the top that says ‘Contact Information’, it’s right text to a tab called ‘Basic’ which is where you were.   Now you can restrict any personal information you might have listed in your account.  I would change the settings on these so that ‘No one’ could view any of it except for maybe your website if you have one for your business.  But your friends should already know your phone number (which shouldn’t be on there), your address (they can call and get this), and your email.  So don’t make it visible.  Again, click save changes at the bottom when you are done.

Now on this same page click on the ‘Visit applications page in order to change settings for applications’.  It’s in blue at the top in a sentence.   Go through all of those and also restrict to ‘Friends Only’.

Search Privacy Settings

Alright now I need you to go and scroll over ‘Settings’ at the very top of Facebook and click on ‘Privacy Settings’.  It should take you to a page Called ‘Privacy’ that lists Profile, Search, News Feed and Wall, and Applications.  Click on Search to start.

You have some choices to make here.  Do you want to be visible to everyone?  It’s your decision and really it matters if you are interested in connecting with people from your past that may only find you this way.  Unless you are really paranoid then making yourself visible to everyone is okay.

Now you want to limit the ‘search result content’.  I would uncheck the ‘pages I am a fan of’ and ‘my friend list’.  And you can uncheck that profile pic if you are uncomfortable with that.  Another way you can really protect yourself is to uncheck the ‘a link to add me as a friend’.  This forces someone to actually send you a message before they can be your friend.   If they really want to be your friend then they should send you a message…if that’s too hard for them then why be friends with them?  Finally decide whether you want to have a ‘public search listing’…is there any reason you want your Facebook profile to show up when your name is searched for on Google or another search engine?    When you are done click ‘Save Changes’ and click on ‘Privacy’ at the top.

News Feed and Wall

Once you are back to ‘Privacy’…I told you this wasn’t the easiest thing to do.  Click on News Feed and wall.  Here you need to decide if you want all of your friends to know when you post something to another friends page?  I uncheck all of this.  It’s up to you but if I post something to someone else’s page then it’s for them..not everyone.

Next click on ‘Facebook Ads’ at the top of that News Feed and Wall page.  It’s a tab at the top next to ‘Actions within Facebook’.   Change the ‘Allow ads on platform pages to show my information to’ No one.  Make sure this is set to ‘No one’.   Also set the ‘show my social actions in Facebok Ads to’ No one.  Once both of these are set to No one then click save changes at the bottom and click back to the main privacy link on that page.

Now click on the ‘Applications’ Section of the privacy page.  There are two tabs on that page…the overview and the settings.  Read the overview if you like but click on settings to make the changes.  I’m guessing 99.9% of you can’t click on the ‘do not share any information about be through Facebook API’ because you have some type of application installed on your account.  Now I would uncheck everything on that list. There is no reason that I can think of to have this information available in multiple places.  It’s just another way to protect yourself.   Click on Save Changes at the bottom of the page…DO Not Forget to do this on these pages.  Facebook has put these on the bottom of the pages only and usually below your initial screen.  Go back to the main Privacy Page.

Blocking People

Ok this should be a no brainer but if you know anyone from your past that you don’t trust, don’t want to talk to, or has harmed you then block them.  Take some time and think about anyone that would fit into this category…it may be someone who has harmed someone you know.  Do you have a crackhead in the family?

Changing Your Profile Information

Now it’s time to make some changes to your profile.  Go to your profile page and click ‘edit my profile’.  This link is found underneath your photo on the left.

Basic Information

Remove everything you can.  Your friends already know if you are a guy or a girl.  They know where you live and they know your sexual preference.  None of this information is needed for your friends.  It’s great for voyeurs and people that don’t know you.  Do not use your real bday and do not list your hometown.

Personal Information

If you have filled this out…go through everything and make sure you are not giving away any passwords to anything.  Make sure there isn’t anything on there that could be used against you by your employer or a co-worker.  Do your friends already know all of this?  Who is this information really for?

Contact Information

I recommend using an email address that you do not use for any logins for your bank, insurance, or credit cards.  Remove multiple emails.  There is no reason to have your phone number on there and you sure as hell don’t want your address listed.

Education and Work

This is really up to you.  You have to decide how much of this information you want visible and how much of it you feel needs to be hidden.

Summary

I’ve called this “Max Protect” and that’s just what it is.  Most people are probably going to opt for something in the middle…choosing to leave some of this information visible but take the time to go through it all and make a choice instead of blindly setting up your account.  That way if something should happen, at least you made a choice and live with the consequences.

Again, two things to ask yourself when trying to decide what to remove and/or make private:

1. Don’t my real friends already know this information?
2. If this isn’t there for my real friends then who is this information really there for?