Thursday, November 27, 2008

Things for Which I am Thankful

I suppose it's cliche to do a thankfulness piece on Thanksgiving day, but seriously, I do this for free so you don't get to complain about a lack of creativity. I am immensely grateful for the myriad of true blessings I have received in my life, and will dedicate the rest of this day those. But for the purposes of a football blog, I am thankful that:

Bart Peterson wanted to keep the Colts in Indy, and we got the new stadium built before the economic roof caved in.

Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in football.

We don't need Bob Sanders for at least a month.

Jeff Saturday has played hurt all year.

Dwight Freeney has picked up right where he left off.

Norv Turner is such a terrible coach.

For the sack/strip.

Tony Dungy didn't retire last January.

Anthony Gonzalez is such a hard worker that he visibly improves every week.

That Charlie Johnson isn't our left tackle anymore. He's played really well at guard.

For Cleveland, Detroit and Cincinnati.

For the right leg of Adam Vinatieri.

For winning in Pittsburgh in my lifetime.

For not losing to the Texans at home in my lifetime.

For Bill Polian. And consequently, that my team is not run by Ted Thompson.

That Jack Del Rio signed a 3 year extension in the offseason, and is all but impossible to fire.

For at least a few more weeks of watching 88 in blue and white. I hope that isn't all we have.

For tiebreakers breaking our way.

For one of the great seasons in Indianapolis history, despite all odds and logic.

Links:
There is so much unintentional comedy in Vic Ketchman's Happy Birthday Jags column, that I laughed out loud three times. There wasn't a joke in the piece...except for the Jags themselves.

Whitlock KILLS ESPN. Wow. There's some real hatred there.

How great would a Manning bowl be? Mostly freaking awesome, except that I don't think the Colts would have a prayer of stopping the Giants run game. Still. . . we can dream.

Demond Sanders: Vic's article sounds more like a farewell than a happy birthday. Maybe he's caught wind of something. The Whitlock article is awesome on so many levels. He's dead on about ESPN. Also, I watched the CMU game he refers to and it was the most biased, poorly called game I've heard in a long time.

2 comments:

shake'n'bake said...

Ray Bentley is awful. I listen to him call an Iowa game this year. Here are the quotes from that game that got posted on Awful Announcing.

"He needs a little more seasoning; a little more salt and pepper." - Ray Bentley on an Iowa player.

"Pitt in the all blue." - Pam Ward
"Iowa's looking like the Pittsburgh Steelers." - Ray Bentley
"And Pitt like the Seahawks." - Pam Ward

"He tried to slam it in there but he was a little bit behind."

"They need to saddle up that horse and ride him." - Ray Bentley, on Iowa RB Shonn Greene

(after a 33 yard run on 2nd and 19)
"The D was in pass mode there. The LBs dropped in to coverage at the snap and ignored their run keys." - Ray Bentley
(Replay shows both LBs come forward at the snap and are blocked).
"...." - Bentley

"He can throw those darts, the hard throws. It's the ones that go in the air he has trouble with." - Ray Bentley on Iowa's Jake Christensen


"I like that, you should go for it anytime you are in your opponent's territory." (Pitt at the Iowa 40)
"I don't like that, if you are inside your opponent's 40 you can do that, but I don't like it here." (Iowa on 4th at the Pitt 49)
"I don't like that, you have points on the board with the FG." (Iowa at the Pitt 20)

Anonymous said...

BSPN is filled with idiots and know nothing morons who wouldn't know what real sport journalism was if it punched them in the face.

Sometimes, I just want to stab myself in the ears hearing them spew the same old "run de foosball, stop de run mantra" every goddamn year. And then talk about how important QB play is and it's so crucial, but the only way to know who will win is if they can "run de foosball and stop de run".