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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
Everyone can agree there were some blown calls. But really, it's a football game between Oregon and Oklahoma that was decided by sloppy defense rather than a blown call.
Why is football so appealing when there is clearly so much wrong with the game? In no other game are officials this griped about, and in no other game do they have this much power. Except maybe in World Cup soccer when a single ref can simply expel half a soccer team for commiting only two fouls each.
Other stupid points on football: If the ball had gone to OU they would have run out the clock and won, and we all know how exciting running out the clock is on a game. What other sport can be won simply by NOT PLAYING IT? Which is why I think basketball should get rid of the shot clock. We need more sports that can be won by not playing the game at hand.
If OU could kick a freaking feild goal, or have their defense show up more than every 4th time out on the field, maybe they wouldn't have failed so miserably. Of course, we know how King feels about kicking in football (it shouldn't be there)...which is a good point that only furhter shows how stupid a game football is.
I'm consistently disgusted by football, its irregularities, and its extended periods of absolutely nothing happening. Or how about college football's lack of a playoff, which, as has already been mentioned, only exacerbates the problems in the game by giving them that much more import.
Ugh, count me out. Cyclists may use drugs, but at least you know who won at the end of the day. Baseball has its moments in bad umping, but there are so many other opportunities to win the game, who cares. Basketball is at least consistently exciting and offers the chance to come back from a significant deficit, and the ref can't change how well you shoot a ball. Only football, week in and week out, is consistently boring to watch EXCEPT when refs make mistakes, I guess. And in the 5% of games each week that are competitive. What a great sport.
And seriously, I'm not just some guy who had a bad football coach experience or who got beat up by football players in high school or who wants to make silly comments about how silly those outfits are or whatever. I really feel that football lacks merit as a competitive sporting event.
Only this level of self-righteousness, displayed outrage, self-inflicted victimhood and desire for retribution could come from a bonafide Republican.
I hope the Pac-10 doesn't cave to OK. They are big babies.
Nice op/ed piece.
In the journalism racket, that's called a serial comma. Salon, like most daily newspapers and, of course, the AP, uses something called AP Style, which omits the serial comma. Chicago Style, which is used by most magazines and in book publishing and academic writing, uses the serial comma.
When Salon was in its infancy, there were many long and exciting debates about style. Even after it was decided -- at my suggestion as Salon's first copy chief, I might add -- to use AP style, there was a faction
(coughGaryKamiyacough)
vainly trying to argue for retention of the "elegant" serial comma. That faction was defeated.
'05 Superbowl game Seahawks v. Steelers
that officiating beyond sucked. I don't recall this level of outrage by any of the classy Seahawks. Do you think OK just has an entitlement syndrome?
OK is acting nuts, which makes sense, because it's OK. They're so fucking football nuts that this is an error they will never forgive.
The ONLY reason instant replay was ever called for, and then instated, was because television viewers got to see replays a dozen times over, in slow motion, and from every conceivable angle. Show a game on TV in real time with no replays, and barely a peep would be heard from anyone.
So the media has altered the game it's supposed to cover objectively. No news here, but officiating-by-replay is an interesting case study.
You can't root for a college team, and you especially can't make death threats on said team's behalf, unless you
A) Attended the school for at least one semester
B) Have a child who attends the school and/or plays on the team
Otherwise, pick a pro team in your city to waste your life obsessing over.
"I would like to thank my parents, the Pope and Mother Theresa for this wonderful honor."
Yeah, who needs that pesky comma.
Bad ideas (instant replay) lead to more bad ideas, so I have a proposal to combine bad ideas: instead of bungled instant replays leading to death threats against officials, why not have INSTANT DEATH PENALTIES for offending replay officials? That's right, just kill'em, straight out, right then and there. Maybe have the official's chair wired so they can RIDE THE LIGHTNING into the next world if they screw up a call. If this had been in place this weekend, OU would still have lost that game to Oregon, but fans would have the satisfaction of knowing that the particular replay official would never screw up the alcohol buzzes of so many loyal fans again. Thus, it would have a DETERRENT EFFECT for that particular official and future potential offenders. Who makes the call, you might ask; simple, elected officials, drunk or sober, in attendance. Not bad, eh?
To DZ:
You wrote:
Anyone who sends a death threat based on anything to do with any sporting event should be hung in public. Sick, sick, sick
Um, I guess we string you up first for proposing death (a death threat) in an online thread relating to a sporting event. Nice. Death threats are bad. Including yours.
To Elmore:
Someone who wrote the sentence example you gave would simply put a comma after 'Theresa' if those two were in fact their parents. No comma there makes it clear that the pope and M.T. are not the writer's parents.
To OK football fans:
HAHAHAHAHA. Your turn to get screwed. Happens in sports to everyone's team at one point or another. Keep it in perspective.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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