COMPUTERS...*#@&!!! CUSHING IS DEFIANT & BOISE STATE SCHEDULES ANOTHER TOUGHIE
Once again, I'm having PC problems. We've had two monster storms the last 2 nights, the one last night caused a power outage of almost 40 minutes. Other than having to reset virtually every clock in the house, everything else is fine.......except my PC. It will not come on, I have screwed with it for an hour, unplugging, plugging, checking everything else on the surge protector(they all work fine) etc. If anyone has some reasonable advice(throwing it in the Lake is not reasonable OK?) that might aid me in my time of need, I'd appreciate it.
Suspended Texan linebacker, Brian Cushing, held a news conference this morning & the one word I would use to describe his demeanor wouldn't be contrite, remorseful or apologetic. It would be defiant, his attitude was shocking considering what he has done to his teammates & the fans of the Houston Texans. He said he thought he had a tumor after he tested positive for hCG last September & worried all season the tumor would kill him. Really Brian? Were the fears of a tumor ending your life conveyed to team doctors who could have relieved you with a simple MRI? Does an imagined tumor cause a positive test for hCG? Actually, an advanced malignant tumor can produce hCG naturally in the body, but a simple MRI can rule out the existence of such a tumor. He says his body produces the hCG, which can also be true & what if it continues? The body doesn't stop producing hCG, so if you test positive for it once, you should continue to test positive for it. Will he be disciplined by the league again? What Cushing failed to point out in his rant was he was tested 4 additional times after the positive sampling in September. Not one was positive, so his fear of being betrayed by his body can be put to rest. Nearly everyone who has ever been caught using hCG has used it at the end of a brief regimen of steroids to flush out their system & provide a clean sample plus the elimination of the "shrinkage" I spoke about in my last post. There were a lot of college coaches who wouldn't go near Cushing for these exact fears, he was on the juice. Some of his USC teammates have said when he came back from New Jersey, "he was like a different guy, both physically & personality-wise. The same for some pro teams, they thought he was artificially pumped up & couldn't be trusted. So Brian can be as angry & defiant as he wants to be, it won't change a thing, he's still suspended for the first 4 games.
The Associated Press had a re-vote for the defensive rookie of the year yesterday. Cushing won the award in January but many of the 50 members of the voting panel wanted another ballot in hopes of stripping him of the award. Five voters refused to vote again, thought it would damage the "process." Howie Long was one of the five. So was ESPN's Chris Mortensen who said the who thing left such a bad taste in his mouth he might resign from the panel altogether. Anyway, after the vote, Cushing still won, tho he lost 19 votes. Those nineteen votes were spread out over 4 players, Buffalo's Jarius Byrd receiving the 2nd most votes with 13. Cushing said in the news conference he was "still very honored" with the award. Lets me ask this question, would the 19 people who voted for Cushing still vote for him back in January if he had been suspended during the season instead of after the vote was taken? Why does it take 8 months to get the job done? There's an extensive appeals process that requires re-testing & legally the league has to get all of it's ducks in a row to avoid a clash with the NFLPA or civil litigation. It's my contention as well as many others, if he had been suspended last season, there's not a way in the world he would have won the defensive rookie of the year.
Speaking of litigation, Gaoffrey Santini, the former director of security for the New Orleans Saints, has withdrawn his civil suit. The Saints exercised a claus in Santini's contract that can effectively shut down all the negative press in the "coaches for Vicodin" case. They submitted his claim to an arbitrator & now both parties can no longer speak publically about Santini's claims once he agreed to arbitration. He is required to withdraw his lawsuit if they go the arbitration route. It also will allow the Saints to payoff Santini whatever the abitrator deems in private, not in a public courtroom where Sean Payton would certainly be grilled about his use of the prescription pain killer. The Saints don't want that, assistant coach Joe Vitt didn't really matter to Saint management, but Payton is one of the faces of the franchise. New Orleans seems to be a little more brave now, since the facts in the case can't be discussed in public, they can act tough, all the while negotiating a settlement thru arbitration. One little chink in the Saints plan for putting this story behind closed doors, the Drug Enforcement Agency just might stick their noses into this deal since a Class-3 narcotic was involved along with orders to fabricate records that document where & to whom these pills were given or stolen. Had the Saints had the forethought to take this step two weeks ago when they were served in the suit, they could have avoided any of this getting out in the press. The damage Santini's suit has done to the Saints will be tough to repair even tho everything is behind closed doors now. Maybe that's what the Saints wanted all along, just not quick enough on the trigger.
Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, said today the club still had "over 10,000 personal seat licenses to sell" in their new stadium. Sources from the team have told The New York Post, the number of unsold PSL's is closer to 17,000. Prospective season ticket holders must first buy a PSL, which gives them the 'right' to buy a season ticket. The franchise keeps the PSL money in escrow as long as you continue to renew your season tickets, if you give them up, your PSL money is returned. Of course the team keeps all the interest accrued by the PSL deposit. The PSL are normally on the most desirable seats, all the downstairs seats, plus any club level purchases. Think being a Jet or Giant season ticket holder isn't costly? The PSL fees for the club level are anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000 & for the seats downstairs in the first level, $4,000 to $20,000. Come mid-June, the team will have to sell these seats on a game-by-game basis to avoid blackouts. Can't have a brand new stadium blacked out now can we? Ask Clark Hunt what he intends to do now that the Chiefs season ticket base has fallen below 42,000 & K.C. doesn't even have PSL's. Yikes!
Even if you hate the smurf blue field at Boise State, like my wife, you have to respect the direction the Boise State football program has taken since Chris Peterson took the head coaching job in 2006. Athletic Director Gene Balymaier has used the Rodney Dangerfield "no respect at all" bit to goad teams into playing Boise State. The Broncos, tired of being treated as 2nd class citizens by the BCS & their powerhouse schools, decided to take matters into their own hands. They beat Oklahoma in possibly the most thrilling bowl game ever, the 2006 Fiesta Bowl & returned to Tempe to win again last January, beating previously unbeaten TCU. The other way Boise State can push it's way into the national spotlight is by scheduling. They beat Oregon the past two seasons in a home & home series. This season they face Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in Washington D.C. & then two weeks later they face off with the Beavers from Oregon State. It was announced this morning they will open the 2011 season in Oxford Mississippi against the Ole Miss Rebels. They also play Utah next year. In 2012, their non-conference games include Utah, BYU & Oregon State. In fact, they will play BYU 4 straight season & Utah from 2011 to 2013. They aren't ducking anyone, in fact I'd say kudos to the teams that have shown the balls to play them, there's not a lot of upside right now beating Boise State but a whole bunch of downside losing to them, especially in your own stadium. Scheduling so many teams that are often ranked in the top-25 can only boost Boise's national visibility with pollsters, recruits & fans. The hard part is winning these games, especially with the bulk of them on the road. This is a team that returns 20 starters from an undefeated season. They should begin the season ranked in the top-5, the highest ranking for a BCS-buster since the stupid bowl championship series was established.
Suspended Texan linebacker, Brian Cushing, held a news conference this morning & the one word I would use to describe his demeanor wouldn't be contrite, remorseful or apologetic. It would be defiant, his attitude was shocking considering what he has done to his teammates & the fans of the Houston Texans. He said he thought he had a tumor after he tested positive for hCG last September & worried all season the tumor would kill him. Really Brian? Were the fears of a tumor ending your life conveyed to team doctors who could have relieved you with a simple MRI? Does an imagined tumor cause a positive test for hCG? Actually, an advanced malignant tumor can produce hCG naturally in the body, but a simple MRI can rule out the existence of such a tumor. He says his body produces the hCG, which can also be true & what if it continues? The body doesn't stop producing hCG, so if you test positive for it once, you should continue to test positive for it. Will he be disciplined by the league again? What Cushing failed to point out in his rant was he was tested 4 additional times after the positive sampling in September. Not one was positive, so his fear of being betrayed by his body can be put to rest. Nearly everyone who has ever been caught using hCG has used it at the end of a brief regimen of steroids to flush out their system & provide a clean sample plus the elimination of the "shrinkage" I spoke about in my last post. There were a lot of college coaches who wouldn't go near Cushing for these exact fears, he was on the juice. Some of his USC teammates have said when he came back from New Jersey, "he was like a different guy, both physically & personality-wise. The same for some pro teams, they thought he was artificially pumped up & couldn't be trusted. So Brian can be as angry & defiant as he wants to be, it won't change a thing, he's still suspended for the first 4 games.
The Associated Press had a re-vote for the defensive rookie of the year yesterday. Cushing won the award in January but many of the 50 members of the voting panel wanted another ballot in hopes of stripping him of the award. Five voters refused to vote again, thought it would damage the "process." Howie Long was one of the five. So was ESPN's Chris Mortensen who said the who thing left such a bad taste in his mouth he might resign from the panel altogether. Anyway, after the vote, Cushing still won, tho he lost 19 votes. Those nineteen votes were spread out over 4 players, Buffalo's Jarius Byrd receiving the 2nd most votes with 13. Cushing said in the news conference he was "still very honored" with the award. Lets me ask this question, would the 19 people who voted for Cushing still vote for him back in January if he had been suspended during the season instead of after the vote was taken? Why does it take 8 months to get the job done? There's an extensive appeals process that requires re-testing & legally the league has to get all of it's ducks in a row to avoid a clash with the NFLPA or civil litigation. It's my contention as well as many others, if he had been suspended last season, there's not a way in the world he would have won the defensive rookie of the year.
Speaking of litigation, Gaoffrey Santini, the former director of security for the New Orleans Saints, has withdrawn his civil suit. The Saints exercised a claus in Santini's contract that can effectively shut down all the negative press in the "coaches for Vicodin" case. They submitted his claim to an arbitrator & now both parties can no longer speak publically about Santini's claims once he agreed to arbitration. He is required to withdraw his lawsuit if they go the arbitration route. It also will allow the Saints to payoff Santini whatever the abitrator deems in private, not in a public courtroom where Sean Payton would certainly be grilled about his use of the prescription pain killer. The Saints don't want that, assistant coach Joe Vitt didn't really matter to Saint management, but Payton is one of the faces of the franchise. New Orleans seems to be a little more brave now, since the facts in the case can't be discussed in public, they can act tough, all the while negotiating a settlement thru arbitration. One little chink in the Saints plan for putting this story behind closed doors, the Drug Enforcement Agency just might stick their noses into this deal since a Class-3 narcotic was involved along with orders to fabricate records that document where & to whom these pills were given or stolen. Had the Saints had the forethought to take this step two weeks ago when they were served in the suit, they could have avoided any of this getting out in the press. The damage Santini's suit has done to the Saints will be tough to repair even tho everything is behind closed doors now. Maybe that's what the Saints wanted all along, just not quick enough on the trigger.
Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, said today the club still had "over 10,000 personal seat licenses to sell" in their new stadium. Sources from the team have told The New York Post, the number of unsold PSL's is closer to 17,000. Prospective season ticket holders must first buy a PSL, which gives them the 'right' to buy a season ticket. The franchise keeps the PSL money in escrow as long as you continue to renew your season tickets, if you give them up, your PSL money is returned. Of course the team keeps all the interest accrued by the PSL deposit. The PSL are normally on the most desirable seats, all the downstairs seats, plus any club level purchases. Think being a Jet or Giant season ticket holder isn't costly? The PSL fees for the club level are anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000 & for the seats downstairs in the first level, $4,000 to $20,000. Come mid-June, the team will have to sell these seats on a game-by-game basis to avoid blackouts. Can't have a brand new stadium blacked out now can we? Ask Clark Hunt what he intends to do now that the Chiefs season ticket base has fallen below 42,000 & K.C. doesn't even have PSL's. Yikes!
Even if you hate the smurf blue field at Boise State, like my wife, you have to respect the direction the Boise State football program has taken since Chris Peterson took the head coaching job in 2006. Athletic Director Gene Balymaier has used the Rodney Dangerfield "no respect at all" bit to goad teams into playing Boise State. The Broncos, tired of being treated as 2nd class citizens by the BCS & their powerhouse schools, decided to take matters into their own hands. They beat Oklahoma in possibly the most thrilling bowl game ever, the 2006 Fiesta Bowl & returned to Tempe to win again last January, beating previously unbeaten TCU. The other way Boise State can push it's way into the national spotlight is by scheduling. They beat Oregon the past two seasons in a home & home series. This season they face Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in Washington D.C. & then two weeks later they face off with the Beavers from Oregon State. It was announced this morning they will open the 2011 season in Oxford Mississippi against the Ole Miss Rebels. They also play Utah next year. In 2012, their non-conference games include Utah, BYU & Oregon State. In fact, they will play BYU 4 straight season & Utah from 2011 to 2013. They aren't ducking anyone, in fact I'd say kudos to the teams that have shown the balls to play them, there's not a lot of upside right now beating Boise State but a whole bunch of downside losing to them, especially in your own stadium. Scheduling so many teams that are often ranked in the top-25 can only boost Boise's national visibility with pollsters, recruits & fans. The hard part is winning these games, especially with the bulk of them on the road. This is a team that returns 20 starters from an undefeated season. They should begin the season ranked in the top-5, the highest ranking for a BCS-buster since the stupid bowl championship series was established.
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