Bad Boys What Ya Gonna Do?

I'd like to take this opportunity to personally express my disgust for Sandy Policemen. I was walking to my wife's school to see a concert and a power hungry policeman pulled me over and was going to give me a ticket for "walking on the wrong side of the road". When I asked him why he was doing that he replied he was just enforcing the laws. He ended up just writing my name down and giving me a warning. What a doofus! I would say more but I don't want to go overboard.

Only One Hundred Days to Go!

That's right there's only 100 days to go until the NFL Season opener. The Redskins will go up to Giants Stadium on Thursday night by virtue of the Giants defeat of the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

No coincidence Pats can't solve Broncos

Guarantee you that no one in the Denver media is surprised the New England Patriots have done a poor job of cracking the Broncos' signals.

Is it possible for a team to guard its practices and game plans more than Mike Shanahan's Broncos? This organization may have laid off eight front-office and stadium employees two months ago, but those strong men with dark sunglasses and crossed arms continue to peer beyond the stone wall that surrounds the Dove Valley practice fields.

In the latest revelation of Spygate, evidence is overwhelming the Patriots had been illegally videotaping opposing coaches' signals from the 2000 season until the first game of 2007, when the New York Jets finally snitched.

Many teams were identified as victims, but not the Broncos. The Pats are 1-5 against the Broncos since the start of the 2001 season.

The Broncos' secretive nature, and their success against the Pats, can't be a coincidence.

Indiana Jones Review

What a huge disappointment!!!!!

If they would have substituted Nicholas Cage for Harrison Ford and called it National Treasure 3 that would be fine. But to take the good name of Indiana Jones and attach it to this movie is shameful. I really wish I hadn't seen this movie. It's so bad currently it makes me think less of the first 3 Indiana Jones. It's similar to the worse Bond movie of all time with Halle Berry. This movie loses all the charm of the original 3 by taking the nostalgia of the originals and replacing it with Teflon coated 21st century movie making.

It felt like the opening weekend crowd couldn't get into it either right up to the ending. You'll know when you hear "I vant to know! I vant to know!..." to "the space in between space". Harrison Ford is also a shadow of his former self. It was difficult to see him struggle to even run.

I miss the old world charm of the originals where the bad guys bodies melt away and Indiana Jones just rides off into the sunset.

Salt Lake Cyling Destination

Dolcetti Gelato

That's correct what you read! It's a cycling destination. Meaning you shouldn't hop in your car and just drive down there. It's like on the show Lost. You have to go there by bicycle just like you can only reach the island by traveling on a certain bearing, otherwise there could be dire consequences. So get there by bicycle on a warm summer day and enjoy the authentic gelato goodness.

Dolcetti Gelato is located on 1751 South and 1100 East.They are open M-Th 11:30-9 F-Sa 11:30-11:00. Only 3.92 miles from my perch in the Avenues. It's a quaint store that you can roll your bicycle up to and just chill out with the Italian goodness. The atmosphere is fun. From the server who has Harry Potter glasses that are 3 times too big for her face and the mesmerizing table of wonder. The table of wonder is a see through table that has basically a lot of little clutter. Small items like the weapons from Clue, those tiny plastic airplanes that I had hundreds of as a tike, to old matchboxes. The fun part is that the owner places a new piece in the table each week and if you can correctly identify the new piece you get a free serving of Italian Gelato.

I had some delicious fruit flavors. That's what Gelato is famous for. They use real fruit not artificial flavors. Next ride I'll enjoy a chocolate flavored surprise. I don't like to mix my fruits with my chocolates. They also serve up some paninis. I'm looking forward to trying them out. Remember to cycle there or better yet race someone there on a bicycle that why you get there sooner.
Yummy Panini!!!


















Girl with crimson nail's swinging to the music
Swinging to the music

Winners and Losers from the 2008 NFL Draft

It feels like the 2008 NFL Draft was a long time ago. If only training camp were coming up, then pre-season followed by the regular season where the Broncos will go 11-5 and get into the playoffs as a wildcard. Why the optimism for the playoffs after two straight seasons without making a trip to the playoffs? Because the Broncos had a great draft. They got exactly the players they needed to fill in at weak spots. In today's NFL first day picks need to come in be able to start for their team to be successful. Unless a QB is drafted there is no more time to groom a future player.

Not all 32 teams will be graded as a "winner" or "loser". Only time will really tell but there are some teams who stand out already.

Winners:

Kansas City Chiefs
They had better be a winner in the draft because their veteran talent pool is almost non-existent. The team fell apart after the left side of their offensive line retired and in came the rebuilders. The Chiefs just flat out tanked the season and as a result ended up with the 5th overall pick. They ended up with arguably the best player in the draft, drafting Glenn Dorsey. What really made them winners was what they did later by picking up a quality offensive linemen by trading up in the first round and getting Branden Albert. This guy will be a plow for Kansas City for years. They also got good value with Brandon Flowers and Jamaal Charles to spell LJ.

Pittsburgh Steelers
They didn't have to do anything and Rashard Mendenhall fell right to them. He'll be a Steeler running back for years to come, running over linebackers. They also got their "big" WR for Big Ben in getting Limas Sweed. As long as the offensive line fills in for Alan Fanaca the Steelers should have a really good offense.

Miami Dolphins
How can Parcells ever have a bad draft? He is a proven rebuilder. He got his kind of guy in Jake Long a "big" player and got two more Parcell's guys in the second round. Phillip Merling has first round talent but dropped because of an injury. He'll work great in Parcell's 3-4 defense and lastly they got their "big" QB in Chad Henne. Huh another Michigan guy. Should you be surprised? The new part owner of the Dolphins is a Michigan grad who is a big Wolverine booster.

LOSERS:

Oakland Raiders
Dear Al thanks for messing up another draft -Denver Broncos Fan. The Raiders run game was just fine. Top 10 in the NFL. Their run defense however was horrible. Lets see two really good defensive tackles available or take a running back who has problems with fumbling. Real good choice Al. You had no more picks in the second or third round so your whole draft revolves around one guy. All your eggs in one basket.

Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals are just stupid and stubborn. Two first round picks for a player who doesn't want to be on your team? You didn't take that? Very few players are worth more than two first rounders. They are usually franchise QBs. Chad Johnson doesn't want to be there and you know he has a mouth to tell everyone that. Plus after all these years of drafting bad character guys they did it again drafting Anthony Collins, a guy with character issues. All this and they whiffed on getting a good defensive tackle they so wanted. The Saints just wanted one more.

Atlanta Falcons
I'm going to go out on a little bit of a limb and say their draft will not be successful. The Falcons had a ton of picks like the Chiefs but I don't think they'll get the value that the Chiefs got. #3 is too high for Matt Ryan. He's a slightly better version of their piano playing vet. The only thing that will get him through is his smarts because if you've ever seen him without pads he has no meat on him. The Falcons also made a bad gamble trading up to get back into the first round and take an offensive tackle. Sorry Atlanta you're too late the last quality one was taken by the Chiefs. Atlanta won't get first round value out of Sam Baker. In fact if you look back at USC offensive players taken in the past few years they're all disappointments (their big WRs, Reggie Bush, Matt "biggest man on campus" Leinhart, etc) Curtis Lofton is a quality linebacker from Oklahoma who's a sure tackler but the Falcons will need more than that.


Its no secret that the stars are falling from the sky

I won my first unofficial bike race

Yes I won my first unofficial race. I was commuting home from work headed north into the Avenues. I was stopped at 2100 south waiting for the light to change green when I noticed an aggressive bike rider in front of me. He got about a 20 second head start. He was the first real competion I'd ever seen making my commute and I wanted to beat him badly. His 20 second head start wasn't enough. I blew past him about 45 seconds later. It was like those car racing movies you see when one car hits the nitrous gas and race over. This was the point the race became official between us two.

Now I must admit he was at a competitive disadvantage. While I was riding a road race bike he was riding a mountain bike and had a backpack on. But let me tell you I rode like the wind. I actually reached a speed over the speed limit. I didn't want this guy catching me but the bicycle gods wanted to make this interesting. I finally reached a red light at 9th south and I stopped and looked back. The other guy was a whole block behind me. This is where he started cheating. He just went right through the red lights so I had to start chasing him. I'd get slowed down by having to re-click my bike cleat and he'd be off. My heart prevailed in the end. The last stretch was the hill going up from 1st south to South Temple. I zoomed past him and that was it. Game Set Match. I headed up into the avenues a champion but all that racing made me pay going up those steep avenue hills. When I reached home I was spent but it was well worth it.Anyone who goes cycling around the valley knows there is a certain pecking order in cycling. The really hard core guys are just heighty-tighty, too cool for school. I remember those guys from my past cycling with my mountain bike on roads. Those sons of guns would pass me and give me that stare and I couldn't catch up to them because of their advantage. Now I'm looking for some payback this summer. The Summer of Dunk and Payback. The cool cyclist will wave to you and don't take themselves too serious. I will admit that I look like a heighty-tighty with my skin tight outfit but I'm in it for the payback.

All right folks take care


My love throws me like a rubber ball
Oh oh oh the Sweetest Thing

Spygate Conclusion Anticlimatic

The Spygate saga is over and there was nothing more juicy to report like Bill Belichick was a vampire or something. It's not very often though that a man is called out in public as a liar but that's what Commissioner Goodell said. Although the Patriots were sightly vindicated. The Boston Herald ran a fake story about the Patriots filming the Rams walk through the day before the Super Bowl. Did it hurt the Patriots? Who knows but they were on the wrong side of a 3 point victory. Meanwhile only two lesser infractions came to light. 1. the Patriots allowed a player to practice who was on IR a no no. 2. The players scalped Super Bowl tickets also a no no. But in all fairness every time does that stuff. Just that now the Patriots legacy will always be tarnished. After all their accomplishments there will be a big "yeah, but..."

Besides Coach Hoody the players will also have a "yeah, but" attached to them. Brady would have been called the greatest QB had they won the last Super Bowl but now in the court of public opinion he'll be looked at differently even if he had nothing to do with Spygate. Tom came out swinging for the Patriots calling out the media in particular ESPN but really ESPN was very objective in this whole deal. I think most at ESPN are even glad this story is finally put to bed.

The big thing now is to see if there is any erosion in the Patriots play. Obviously they played a perfect regular season last year but how much did any of it have to do with the residual knowledge they gained? Only time will tell.Besides Bill has other things to spy on now.

D-Day for Belichick

Tomorrow is the final chapter of the now infamous Spygate. The saga that hit the headlines in week one last year but has been going on for the entire run of Patriots success. Basically after several memos from the NFL the "genius" that is Bill Belichick says he misunderstood the rule. The same Belichick, who we all thought was re-writing how an NFL team should play defense and runs an organization had problems interpreting a simple memo that said, "Videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent's offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches' booth, in the locker room or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game.'' Yeah that memo would take a Mensa genius to understand.

This is a time line of the events leading up to Spygate:

September 9, 2007: Camera and videotape seized from a Patriots employee who was stationed on the New England sideline and suspected of filming New York defensive coaches who were relaying signals during the Patriots' 38-14 victory at Giants Stadium.

December 18, 2006: CBS analyst Charley Casserly alleges that Patriots were warned by League to stop using a camera to steal opposing signals.

November 19, 2006: Packers catch Patriots employee Matt Estrella with a camera on the sidelines and tell him to leave the sideline. Packers later catch Estrella filming from a tunnel and remove him from the stadium completely.

February 2005: Patriots defeat Eagles in Super Bowl. Players on the Eagles now say they were amazed at the Patriots' ability to know which defensive calls were coming.

January 27, 2002: Patriots defeat Steelers in AFC Championship Game. Steelers WR Hines Ward now says the Patriots "knew a lot of our calls."

What does this all mean? It means the Patriots cheated, but it is a common opinion that every team looks for any edge any way it can. To what extent other teams do this is not widely known. The Patriots were simply caught. Which leads to the question why were they caught?

It is a head scratcher that after several close calls of almost being exposed the Patriots still continued videotaping. But why would they videotape a former coach, who knew exactly what to look for? Did Belichick's pride so blind him that he would risk being exposed by his former protege? What is clear is that the Patriot's success increased against the teams they videotaped. Too bad they didn't tape the Broncos because they could have used any help they could have gotten.

Finally tomorrow Matt Walsh, the former Belichick dirty deeder, will meet with Commissioner Goodell. Walsh has already sent in 8 videotapes of what most people have said is consistent with what the NFL punished the Patriots for. However one new detail was revealed: the videotaping also contained opposing teams offensive signals not just defensive signals as was previously reported.

What more can Matt Walsh do to the situation? Probably not much. The Patriots have already distanced themselves from him and will just deny everything he claims to be new relevant information. It remains to be seen whether Matt Walsh sheds more light on the subject such as saying all the Patriots staff met in a dark smoke filled room and laughed about how they thought they were getting away with videotaping. Goodell will most likely try and bury this, but Sen. Spector will most likely not allow this to just simply go away like any good Eagles fan who feels wronged by losing to the Patriots in the Super Bowl would do.