A Shot Glass Half Full

Random Sports Trivia: Who has recorded the highest vertical in NFL Combine history? (Answer at the end of the post.)


Draft weekend, I can't get enough of it. Except for Mel Kiper Jr., I can get enough of him, and I did. I love the draft because everyone gets their hopes up for next year, or they curse their management and coaches for making terrible selections. Anyways, I'm no analyst, although I most likely have more football experience and more knowledge of how the game is actually played than Kiper, so I'm not going to sit here and give grades and stuff. But I will say a few things I liked, laughed at, and scratched my head about this past weekend.

First, I think the battle for lowest IQ in pro sports is between two very contrasting people, Al Davis and Ron Artest. I don't mean to offend any Oakland Raiders fans out there (thats a joke you see, because hardly anyone reads this, and because even less people, who can read, are still fans of the Raiders after Davis passed up Crabtree for Heyward-Bay). Also, a Rockets' fan actually told me he thinks Artest might be slightly retarded, so I absolve myself of defaming the Rockets' forward, and of offending any mentally disabled people who don't want to be associated with Artest.

Graham Harrell didn't get drafted. This makes me feel good. Actually, it makes me feel good on many levels (not sexually). Let it be known, I despise Harrell. Okay, despise is a strong word, but still I'm the anti-Graham Harrell fan, so much so that I even let his brother know it once. (True story, his brother became an assistant coach where I played high school ball after I graduated, and while visiting and talking with my old coaches (and Graham's brother, although I didn't know it was him yet) I said "I dislike Graham Harrell with a passion," with his brother about five feet away. Granted, I didn't know it was his brother when I said it, but I didn't apologize after I found out, and he wasn't even mad, and my coaches thought it was hilarious.) I played against him in high school three times, two of which we lost; however, those two were regular season games, and the game we won was a semi-final game in Texas Stadium, which also happened to be one of the greatest comebacks in ALL of football history. If you don't believe me, I'll try to get the video on here sometime, but otherwise just imagine this: Down 14-3 with roughly 4:30 left in the game and its 4th and 24 on our 12, a few answered hail marys and an amazing one-handed onside kick recovery later and we pull it out. Here's why I can't stand the guy. After the game and during the post game hand shakes, Graham grabs our defensive coordinator by the collar of his shirt and starts yelling (and cursing) at him and telling him that he knows who should have won the game and that we got lucky. Need I mention our head coach had to tell his head coach (and DAD) to get his son off of our coach. This is just one of the many classless things he has done in the times I have played against him or watched him play. Other things include untying and retying his shows on our bench after running out of bounds while and flipping the crowd off at Tech after getting booed. Believe me, my angst doesn't stem from jealousy, I've played against the likes of Matthew Stafford and Kevin Kolb, just to name a couple, and I geniunely hope those guys are succesful in the NFL. But I can't say the same for a guy who, in my personal opinion, is classless when he wins and loses.

Random draft stuff:

-When I first saw this, I really thought he said International Football League (fast forward to 7:00 mark to his interview with Erin Andrews):




-Herman Johnson OG (Denton High, LSU) was drafted in the 5th round by the Arizona Cardinals. Which makes 4 players from my home town of Denton, TX to currently be in the NFL. The other three, Jarvis Moss DE (Denton Ryan, University of Florida, Denver Broncos), Derek Lokey NT (Denton Ryan, University of Texas, Kansas City Chiefs), and Anthony Aldridge (Denton High, University of Houston, Denver Broncos).

-I was really hoping Michael Tauiliili (ILB Duke) would get drafted, more so, that he gets on the field so I can see see the sawesomeness that is the end of his last name printed on a jersey.
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So I said I wouldn't talk about draft grades or analyze the picks, but I do feel compelled to talk about my Cowboys just a little bit, and moreover, to my compadre Cowboys fans. I can't honestly say anyone should be as excited as they were after last years draft. No big name players, no first day players, and what seemed to be like a lot of reaches for picks. Anyways, here are a few tidbits and pieces of advice to help see the silver (and blue) lining in the Cowboys draft cloud:

-Disregard all draft grades, especially those by Mel Kiper Jr.

-Just because Parcells had a great draft ('05) and good draft ('03) doesn't mean the Cowboys can't draft without him. He had an average ('04) and very subpar ('07) draft as well. Not to mention, the Cowboys had a great draft last year without him. Parcells' drafts.

-You can argue the Cowboys didn't address their needs, and ask why take a project in McGee in the Fourth round or a kicker in the fifth round. And honestly I still don't agree with those two picks, but hopefully McGee proves me wrong and at least with K David Buehler the 'boys won't have these god awful kickoff stats anymore. If you're too lazy to check out that link, Cowboys were last in touchbacks with a whopping zero, 2nd to last in kickoff distance, and 1st in kickoffs out of bounce. Also, we needed depth at a lot of positions and better special teams play. You can still say that a lot of the guys were supposed to go a little later than we selected them, but if they can end up providing solid depth and better special teams play, I'm happy.

-By the way, check out the beast that is David Buehler.

-Also, you have to include Roy Williams in this years draft, and surely he is better than any receiver we could have drafted with the 20th pick. I know he had a rough year last year, but hopefully this will give you some hope, (he might not have T.O. speed, but he did run a 4.42 in the combine, and he has better hands, lets just see if he can put it together this year):




I hope you're now seeing the Cowboys draft and upcoming season as a glass half full, even if it's just a shot glass. (Fill the shot glass with tequila if you're still pessimistic.) Also check out bloggingtheboys.com for some solid Cowboys coverage.


Random Sports Trivia Answer: Gerald Sensabaugh, Cowboys newly acquired Safety. 46 inches!

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Song of the Post

(In honor of Austin City Limits Festival 2009!)

Corduroy - Pearl Jam

I'm Seeing Red (Ranger Red)

***(I started this blog entry last friday before the Rangers loss against the Tiger started. But considering they went 0-3 wearing their blue, I stand by wanting to see the Rangers wear more red.)

I'm all about the people (in this case, person) and since my one registered blog follower, Sean Brown, wants an entry about baseball I'm gonna give it to him. And what better time to do it than right after a sweep by the Rangers to start off the season. Side note, when it comes to colors in general, and on uniforms, I prefer blue. But, with the Rangers' 3 - 0 start while wearing Ranger Red, I'm thinking I could get used to red. I know it's just three games, and it was just the Indians, but the Rangers did knock out last year's Cy Young winner in 5 innings (7 earned runs), get a gem of a start from "ace" Kevin Millwood, and saw some new faces make nice contributions (Elvis Andrus, Andruw Jones, Omar Vizquel). It's tough being a Rangers fan, that goes without question, but they have been fun to watch, sometimes even for other teams fans:

The Rangers style reminds me of another team, the 06-07 Phoenix Suns. I know it's a different sport and year, but just check out these analogies before you go cursing me for comparing them to a basketball team, not to mention a Western Conference rival of the Mavs. Part of this is prediction, part of this is based on what they've already done, and all of this is admittedly a stretch, but just think about it.

Ballpark in Arlington :: Mike D'antoni

Playing at the Ballpark in Arlington is like playing for Mike D'antoni. You can count on the high-scoring games with little defense (pitching).

Ian Kinsler :: Steve Nash

Everything gets started with the lead-off man just like it does with the point guard. Steve Nash had MVP numbers and Kinsler has put up and will put MVP potential numbers this year too.

Josh Hamilton :: Amare Stoudamire

The heavy hitters of their respective teams. Hamilton drives in runs like Amare finishes.

Michael Young :: Shawn Marion

Just like Shawn Marion could do a little bit of everything for the Suns, Michael Young can do a little bit of everything for the Rangers, and they're both all-star caliber players.

Nelson Cruz :: Leandro Barbosa

Just like Leandro finally came around the '06-'07 season to put up his best numbers, so will Nelson Cruz this year.

Elvis Andrus :: Raja Bell
Even though Andrus has been given a spot in the starting lineup mainly for his defense, he is going to be quite the offensive surprise, just like Bell was for the Suns.

Chris Davis :: Boris Diaw
Although their numbers won't be and were not as good as Josh Hamilton and Amare Stoudamire (respectively), Chris Davis is capable of being a quality clean-up hitter just like Boris had his best year when asked to step up in place of an injured Stoudamire.
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Suggestion Box

If you've been following you know I rarely talk much about music, and even though I'm not a musician and don't know have any qualifications to talk about it, I like it, a lot. I really like hearing about new bands and songs and I've been lucky enough to get some recent suggestions, which I'll include now. I'm not going to do a Song of the Post since I'm already embedding these songs. Enjoy. (For any suggestions email nonechance@gmail.com)

Animal Collective - My Girls
-Thanks to Keith H. in Seattle, WA

Red Sea, Black Sea - Shearwater
-Thanks to Leslie L. in Austin, TX

Bon Iver - Skinny Love
-Thanks to Evan C. in Denton, TX


Phoenix - 1901
-Thanks to Heath R. in Austin, TX (Suggestion #2 for Heath, the current leader)

This last one wasn't actually a suggestion by a reader. Instead, it's a suggestion by me to check out my friend and ex-classmate (who I mention in my profile) Molly's blog, Cheers & Rock 'n' Roll, as it always has solid suggestions for new music to check out. My personal opinion is that the blog is aimed a little more at the female gender, not that mine isn't aimed more towards the Y chromosome carriers out there. However, it's still a great blog to check out, so I suggest you do, if for anything else because she posts videos like this: (Regardless if you like the music, you have to agree the video is sawesome.)

Catching Up

I first and foremost want to apologize for leaving all of you (however few "you" actually represents) a week and a half without a post. I can assure you that posting on this blog is still a top priority (I'm still GF-less, still job-less); however, I would eventually like to get a girlfriend and a job, thus, I took valuable blog-posting time and used it to study for the GMAT (A standardized test necessary for graduate business school acceptance). If you don't see the cause-and-effect I've implied, here it is in Lehman's terms. More studying leads to better GMAT score, better GMAT score leads to better MBA program, better MBA program leads to better job, better job leads to girlfriend (assuming I can't get one before the end of this equation). Anyways, I took the GMAT on this past Thursday and had been studying way harder than I generally would have liked to since my last post on the Wednesday before. If you're wondering how I did (the scores are given right away) I won't tell you my exact score but lets just say my performance was similar to Frank the Tank's performance in the debate versus James Carville in Old School. Basically, I'm admitting that any stroke of genius that I'm miraculously capable of showing can only be explained by me blacking out. By the way, the real reason I made the analogy was so that I could embed the clip from the movie, but much to my chagrin (love that word) it wasn't on YouTube.

A few things have happened since we last talked, or since I last blogged and you may or may not have read it. So lets catch up:

OU's women's basketball team lost in the Final Four of the women's tourney, and normally I wouldn't care just as much as the next guy. On top of that, the rivalry between OU and UT has nothing to do with why I'm glad they lost; I'm just glad to see someone go down who put their scholarship on the line if their team didn't win the national title. It's ridiculous for anyone to think Oklahoma would rescind her scholarship and take the money back (which they already said the won't do). There's nothing wrong with guaranteeing victory, especially if you're Rasheed Wallace and you can "Guaransheed victory", but to put something on the line as valuable as a college scholarship (in the words of Jim Rome) "burns" me.

Michael Jordan, David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan, and C. Vivian Stringer were all inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. You most likely already know this, and if you don't, you can go to ESPN to get real journalistic work on it, but I do have a couple things to share about some of these players/coaches. First and foremost, is John Stockton the last White-American (emphasis on American) superstar to play in NBA? Is the globalization of basketball to blame? I personally say yes to both, but hope I'm wrong on the first. Also, MJ was, is, and will always be the greatest as far as I'm concerned, and I could sit and watch his highlights all day. However, this following highlight urks me a little (yes, i said urks):

It's not that the play isn't amazing or that it could only be done by very few, I just think it is slightly over-hyped relative to other MJ highlights in his seemingly never-ending reel of highlights. He states in this video that he switched hands because he thought his dunk might get blocked by Sam Perkins, but if you watch it closely, it wasn't close to being blocked. I see it similarly to an amazing dunk on a fast break, jaw-dropping and rare, but also an two points made more difficult.

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Meory #2

(incase you don't recall, or are new to my humble excuse for a blog, a "meory" is a theory backed up only by me, no scientific research or solid evidence here.)

There is a strong correlation between a person's amount of athleticism relative to professional athletes and their ability to celebrate with style (and without injury). Prime example of this is when old Bill Gramatica tore his ACL celebrating after a made field goal. Compared to the average professional athlete I'd have to say its hard to argue that he was below the average athletic ability threshold. Moreover, when's the last time you have seen a top player of any sport make a fool of themselves celebrating? I can't say I remember, but I'm open to suggestions. Without further ado, here are some YouTube clips of some of my favorite celebrations gone awry, and a few with a little more style/creativity.

Celebrations by sub-par professional athletes:

gus frerotte head-butt/concussion (it has been taken off of youtube, but if you scroll down at look at one of the user pictures you'll see a little mini-video of it.

Some CFL QB, no wonder he couldn't celebrate at real pro level.

Celebrations by top athletes:

Marshawn Lynch (although this is a post-game celebration and he was in college, this is just too sawesome not to show)

I personally feel the majority of football and basketball players make up the best pro athletes (biased opinion), but I definitely agree that soccer players, especially the following ones, help make the upper-echelon of athletic ability amongst pro athletes.

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Song of the Post

Please Visit Your National Parks (Album) - Oxford Collapse