Aww quit yer bellyachin' Dwight you will go somewhere and get paid!

Greetings from the Hoodwood, where some of the locals do know why they call it the Super Bowl…

The preview of the Super Bowl is here plus the first bare bones Spec Sheet. But first I have to start this weeks musings with real musings.

Your humble scribe spent the weekend in Columbus, where the lovely Lady Bandit lives and was mildly amused by the so-called protest from the Columbus Blue Jackets fans who seem to be rather fed up with the direction or lack of their team. As a Red Wing fan, I entertained myself by wearing the colors proudly on Saturday and relished the dirty looks I got from the jealous fans. I heard a fan say that the Jackets were the laughingstock of the league. I would dare surmise that the Jackets are one of the most ignored teams in the league. Most of the hardcore fans don’t think much of the potential of this team or franchise. Having been in the NHL since the 2000 season, the Jackets have made the playoffs all of one time and got a quick gate from the Red Wings in four games. The Jackets and their expansion cousins, the Minnesota Wild came into the NHL in 2000 but the Wild have been way more successful and have made deeper playoff runs. I have heard more than a few rumors that the owners of the Jackets are looking to other venues Kansas City and Houston have new state of the art arenas with big better scoreboards and more revenue. But with the new casinos going up the west metro, the runoff could make them stay. The Lady Bandit was very succinct in her assessment. “Folks in Columbus have no tolerance for losers.” The hiring of Urb Meyer at THE Ohio State University to shore up a fallen program backs that theory up.

How to be loyal to a team that you aren’t close to

I grew up in Cincinnati and for a time, I was a Bengals fan. I lived and died with the stripes. Keep in mind, that this was the days of Forrest Gregg and Sam Wyche coaching. Kenny Anderson & Boomer Esiason at quarterback, Pete Johnson, James Brooks and Ickey Woods running the ball; And Issac Curtis, Eddie Brown Tim McGee and Cris Collinsworth making catches. I soured on the Bengals not long after the 1991 season. It was the first season of the dark ages for the Bengals. They went 3-13 and were just horrible. My favorite player (James Brooks) got released and Sam Wyche was unceremoniously dumped. The Bengals then started on their path of stupid draft picks, picking wunderkind David Klingler. Nevermind that they still had a very serviceable quarterback in Esiason and hiring David Shula as coach. Klingler was pressed into service and was simply put not ready for the pro game. But then again, neither was David Shula. For reasons that only Mike Brown knows, Shula was allowed to coach 4 ½ seasons before being fired in 1996. I gave up on the Bengals not long after the Shula era began. I began to search for a new team to root for. My homeboy Guido was a Bills fan and talked about going to Buffalo to catch a game and in 1993 we did. This was the Jim Kelly-Thurman Thomas-Bruce Smith era. The Bills were everything the Bengals weren’t and I enjoyed the trip, though the Bills lost the game I had a great time and a had a new team to root for. Ironically the last of my four trips to Buffalo the Bills stomped the Bengals not too long after they had fired Dave Shula.

I had a small problem not too long after I moved from Cincinnati to Minnesota in 1997, the Bills were now much further away than an 8 eight hour drive that me and Guido made and add to boot the Bills got stomped on opening day of 1997 by the Vikings. I had to sit glumly in a suburban Twin Cities sports bar and listen to Vikings fans go bonkers as Robert Smith ran hog wild on the Bills. I tried to resist the people telling me that I needed to back the local team, but the Vikings looked like a team that was always in contention. I decided to change my allegiance and follow the Vikings, it didn’t hurt that Bills were slowly coming apart and that they had acquired a player I wasn’t too fond of. I would be damned if I was going to be a Flutie fanatic. So after four years and two painful NFC title game losses. I moved back to the Hoodwood in 2000, but did I switch to the home team??? Are you kidding? The Bengals were still adrift in loser land. I kept my Vikings gear on and watched the Bengals flounder and my loyalties deepened. Even though, I got to see the Vikings live on the rare occasion that they got close enough. Detroit and Chicago are makeable 5 hour roadies but both are quite hostile to the opposition. I went to see my first Bengals game since 1998 and as usual I was rooting for the visitor the problem, was the home Bengals were much improved and laid a 37-8 woodshed whooping on my beloved Vikings, Carson Palmer found Chad Johnson on a go route 2 plays into the game and I spent the better part of 3 hours listening to the taunts of a giddy crowd. But the question still begs itself, how do you live in one area and your favorite team is not only in another state, area and time zone but the other conference? The answer, you learn to find watering holes that have Sunday ticket. Now I got lucky for the most part the last three years. The Vikings and their chapter in the Favre saga made them prime TV so they were on often. This year with the home stnading Bengals rarely on TV when they were home, I got to see plenty of Vikings games. The problem was now, they suck. A 3-13 season was tough to take. But unlike other season and teams I followed when I was younger, I will stick with my teams. Its funny, other than the minor league hockey team I root for no pro teams in the area. I long turned away from the Reds, going only because I love baseball. My loyalty is with the Twins. I have no favorite pro basketball team having long since grown disillusioned with the Timberwolves and if you think Ive ever been a Wild fan in hockey you’re sadly mistaken. Im a Red Wings fan which as previously mentioned, is a fun way to irritate the locals when the Lady Bandit and I are out on the town in Columbus.

Requiem for a fallen Bearcat

The flags are at half-staff for a fallen Bearcat. Greg Cook passed away late last week of pneumonia at the age of 65 was simply put a Bearcat football legend. His passing helped the Bearcats lead the nation in total offense in 1968 and his 554 yards passing against Ohio U was a national record at the time remains a Bearcat single game record. Cook was the Bengals top draft choice in the 1969 AFL/NFL draft and was so talented and prepared that he earned the starting job in training camp and was the Bengals opening day starter. The Bengals steamed out to a 3-0 start in 1969, equaling their win total of their inaugural season. But Cook was sacked in 2^nd quarter in their game against the Chiefs, he left the game after throwing one more pass and then sat out all or parts of the next four games before returning against the then unbeaten Raiders. Cook played well and the Bengals beat the Raiders 31-17, this was no mean feat. The John Madden coached Raiders went  12-1-1 in 1969 and wouldn’t lose again until they lost the penultimate AFL title game to the Chiefs. Cook, however would not play again in that or any season. He had what was later diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff, which in effect ended his career; this was before Tommy John surgery. Drew Brees had a similar injury but with modern surgery was able to recover and has had a pretty decent run since.  Cook returned in 1970 but didn’t play and was on the Bengals roster till 1973 but never played again. The Bengals drafted Kenny Anderson in 1971 and he was the franchise QB for the next 14 years. Cook never threw another pass as a pro again. Many old time Bengals fans lament at what could have been with the strong armed Cook piloting the Bengals in the 1970s. Likened to the arm strength of Terry Bradshaw and the offensive mind of a Joe Montana, Cook might have been one of the best that never was.

College Champeenship

Two weeks ago I whittled a 16 team field down to two. Alabama and Oregon. I loaded the teams into the NCAA simulator on the PS3 and came up with this final...

Alabama 41 Oregon 23

Bama’s offense while not spectacular, wore down the Ducks with a methodical meat and potatoes offense. Almost Big Ten like. Keeping Oregons high speed offense on the sidelines for much the game. The Crimson Tide pounded the ball relentlessly and forced the Ducks into three turnovers into which was cashed into 17 points. The game really wasnt that close it was 34-10 at the start of the 4th. The Ducks had four straight series in which they went 3 and out and barely used a minute on the clock cause their quarterback kept missing passes or was getting climbed by the relentless Tide pass rush. The Tide was never headed as they jumped out to a 14-0 1st quarter lead and rolled the "National Championship" in an almost boring game.

Okay, you're saying So what Bandit, I got the same national champ as the real world. But the fact remains that a tournament would be a smashing way to end a season and would be a great opening act to the Super Bowl. .

Phat Dap/Head Slap

Phat Dap

Dap to Novak Djokovic who outlasted Rafael Nadal in a greuling five set Aussie Open Final. Five hours and fifty six minutes.  5:56! I could drive to Chicago from Cincy in that amount of time and be in the hotel in that time. Djokovic fought off a game rally by Rafa to win the longest final in the Open era. A match that will grow in legend like the Born-McEnroe Wimbeldon epic in 1980 or the Nadal-Feder marathon in that same historic venue in 2008. Nadal seems to like these long match and Djokovic does too, that win comes a day after he outslugged Andy Murray in a five set semifinal epic. Djokovic is the best in the game right now and won two thrillers to prove it.

Head Slap

Head Slap to the Orlando Magic who in the span of three days got housed by the Boston Celtics in Boston 87-56 last Monday. The Magic then played the Celtics the following Thursday and raced out to 58-37 halftime lead and lost that one too and it wasnt even close. The Magic scored all of 25 points in the fucking second half! The Celtics blew past the Magic and won by 8 91-83. The Magic look like a team that has just faded away after a fast start and are getting worn down by the where Dwight going chatter (More on that in a bit). Ive never been a fan of Stan Van Gundy, his whining over the top hysterics have always annoyed me and just the fact that hes the older brother of Jeff Van Gundy (someone I like as an analyst but never as a coach) is just that much more are reason. A small slap goes to Dwight Howard who continues to spin the rumor mill of teams he’s“ interested“ in. Now its the Bulls, I think Howard is a good player but he’s getting like some of these other players that want to team up with a bunch of others to win a title. Not good enough to do it on his own, so he will whore himself out to the highest bidder or the team that he thinks may be the closest to a title.

Super Bowl Preview and Spec Sheets...delayed.

You want the dope on who the Bandit thinks leaves Indy with the Super Bowl Trophy? Im still writing it...Check back on the NFL page on Friday for the Super Bowl preview that will be chock full of info stats and history.

The dribbling sound you hear in the distance is the spec sheet coming as February starts so will the return of the now legendary almost mythical spec sheet. Started in 2005 as a way of speculating to coworkers who would make the NCAA tournament that year, the Spec sheet grew to must read status after posting on a once well read blog. It comes back to Yougabsports and the Hoodwood starting Friday and will be part of the Musings every week until Selection Sunday.

Until Next Post Fellow Sports Fans!