Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Pitch-perfect from the very start! Mike Klingaman in the Baltimore Sun on one of Baltimore's most-beloved icons: "Art Donovan played pro football for 12 years. The rest of his life, he spent telling everyone about it."; For the people of Baltimore, he was a true Hall-of-Famer in every way that really counts in life; Excellent ‏@thomloverro piece on Donovan family tradition of service in U.S. military in The Telegraph!



So very much I could say here.
Stories I could share that made me laugh over the years no matter how many times I'd heard them before. That is when you really know you like someone -you laugh at the jokes and anecdotes they tell just as hard as the first time you heard them, decades ago.

Here's the thing you need to know and appreciate: in a country of over 312 million people with different opinions and views on every subject under the sun, there's only a handful of living former athletes in this country who were or are as important, as closely-identified and as genuinely beloved in their cities or regions as Art Donovan was to the Baltimore area.




Baltimore Sun
Art Donovan, vocal ex-Colts defensive tackle, dies at 89
By Mike Klingaman The Baltimore Sun
9:52 p.m. EDT, August 4, 2013
Art Donovan played pro football for 12 years. The rest of his life, he spent telling everyone about it.
Donovan, 89, who died Sunday of a respiratory ailment at Stella Maris Hospice, played and talked a great game. He was a Hall of Fame defensive tackle for the Baltimore Colts and an engaging raconteur at banquets and on TV talk shows. His cherublike face, adenoidal voice and side-splitting tales of yore captivated generations of viewers who never saw Donovan collar a quarterback or take down a runner.
"Artie made a career out of telling people everything that he'd done right — and wrong — in football," said Ordell Braase, his teammate on the field and in the broadcast studio. "The diversity of his appeal was amazing. Everyone wanted to hug 'Fatso,' from young girls to little old ladies."
Read the rest of the article and see the great photo gallery at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-donovan-advanceobit-20130804,0,2235243.story

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Mike Webb YouTube Channel video: Art Donovan on NBC-TV's "Tonight Show" with host Johnny Carson, circa 1987. Uploaded August 15, 2010. http://youtu.be/7HDRLnoAY9E




 WMAR-TV 2, Baltimore
Hall of Fame Colt Art Donovan a friend to all
By Jeff Hager
August 5, 2013

 BALTIMORE -
He first met Art Donovan as a rookie safety out of the state of Alabama, and the towering tackle took Andy Nelson under his wing in what became a lifetime friendship that only came up short when it came to tasting his former teammate's barbecue.

"He likes Spam and he like hotdogs and pizza, but he wasn't a big pit beef man, pork man," recalled Nelson.

Over the years, Nelson says he did know enough about the gentle giant to keep a Schlitz beer on hand to help that pit beef go down.
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/baltimore_city/hall-of-fame-colt-a-friend-to-all

 http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bal-artdonovan,0,280730.storygallery

 http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/08/looking-back-at-art-donovans-best-late-night-appearances/
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Thursday, April 25, 2013

2013 NFL Draft: Another Draft day with Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland squandering opportunities left and right; Give me more playmakers! The best defense is a big lead!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, @BuckyBrooks


pmanis09 YouTube Channel: ABC's Monday Night Football, opening (1973), with Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith. Uploaded on October 16, 2008. http://youtu.be/m8fkMkE2Yjg
and over at NBC, largely featuring Dolphins guard Bob Kuechenberg, and with other Dolphins appearing, including Larry Little, Vern Den Herder, Larry Csonka, Bob Griese and at 0:57, the late Jim Mandich, who sadly died almost-two years ago tomorrow...


beaverstuffers YouTube Channel: NFL on NBC, opening (1973). 
Uploaded August 20, 2009. http://youtu.be/nv-datkQYUU

Yes, 1973, the last year the Dolphins really WERE the best team.
2013 NFL Draft: Another Draft day with Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland squandering opportunities left and right; Give me more playmakers! The best defense is a big lead!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, @BuckyBrooks
Another Draft day that Dolphin fans hope will be decisive in changing around the fortunes of a once-proud football franchise that has been plagued for too many years with bad management, uninspiring coaching and mediocre personnel that lacks playmakers and a killer instinct. But look who's in charge?
Since we're all friends here on the blog for the most part, I'm going to fill you in on something
you won't be reading elsewhere today on one of the most-magical albeit-unofficial American holidays of the year -the first day of the NFL Draft.

 Last night after the watching the Miami-area 11 O'clock news, I had to run some errands and hop into the blog's Time Machine, a.k.a. the South Beach Hoosier Time Machine, to finish something I had actually started a few weeks ago, though technically, is actually still in the future many months from now.

You know how it is with time travel, some words only cause more confusion, which is why star dates are so useful.

So anyway, one of the errands involved finally seeing the new upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness that opens in May, which I'll be seeing in-person next month when it opens, on DVD this December, when the Dolphins 2013 season has pretty much played itself out.
Star Trek Into Darkness - Official Trailer #3 (HD) Benedict Cumberbatch

 I bought it to watch it again and then send it to my mother, who is a longtime Star Trek fan, but not so crazy about going to theaters anymore, unless she comes down here to see my sister and I, in which case we'll watch it at my sister's at some point on her visit.

My plan, then, is to watch it after the NBC Sunday Night Football game if that game is a good one, or, instead of the game if the game is not so interesting. 
(Like usual, I'm taping Once Upon a Time, The Good Wife and The Mentalist on the other TV's DVR.)
So, I'm watching the pre-game highlights package and listening to Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy and Bob Costas talk and talk about the various games that took place earlier in the day and sort of wondering what led the Time Machine to this scene of me watching myself lying on the couch, with some newspapers and a can of Coke on the table nearby. 
And how is this trip in any way connected to tonight's NFL Draft?

Well, the Dolphins will have the chance tonight to draft and add polish to a dynamic game-breaking player, but because Dolphins well-meaning but misfiring General Manager Jeff Ireland is who he is -there's no changing those spots- he goes the safe route yet again and the player who could be and should be one of the Dolphins biggest stars of the future, will instead drop some more and ply his trade for another team drafting after the Dolphins.

Ah, Jeff Ireland and the Safe Choice!
It almost sounds like the name of a neighborhood band from North Miami Beach circa 1974, a band where the lead singer is the older brother of one of my friends, but his last name really isn't Ireland, but he just likes the way it sounds.
Lots of class!

In the future highlight I see, Dan Patrick prefaces his pithy comment by saying, "Oh, no. Jeff Ireland may want to close his eyes again because Miami passed on this guy."

And there on the TV screen, on TVs of various sizes and shapes all across the country and all across South Florida, the video is showing someone scoring against the Dolphins late in a heretofore close ballgame, and making the big difference in another Dolphin loss.

Because, as always, there are nice dependable players and then there are difference-makers, and the Dolphins have been plagued for the past 15 years by NOT having enough of them on the field on either offense or defense.

It makes me think after watching videos on YouTube of the NFL in the 1970's, the seasons with the games and scores I still remember because I was there in-person at the Orange Bowl for almost every one, that IF Jeff Ireland had been the Steelers GM in 1974, he'd have passed on drafting John Stallworth in the fourth round because, well, after all, they already had drafted a very good one out of USC in the first round named Lynn Swann.
So let's draft another offensive lineman!

But given who's making the choice, that offensive lineman is NOT named future Hall of Famer Mike Webster.
Four of the Steeler's first five draft choices eventually are enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Such is the difference between GMs who are in-the-know and on draft day, literally, in-the-zone, seeing things that others don't see, and then there are nice guys who still have their jobs after doing a consistently mediocre job because the boss doesn't really like to fire people.

What will be written on Ireland's personnel file after his exit interview?
"Dolphins lack of playmakers!"

Here's a hint: offensive linemen aren't playmakers:

Look up the phrase "Dolphins lack of playmakers" on Google Images and tell me whose photo shows up first.
Really,.just try it.
See, it's not just my opinion, it's an algorithm's learned opinion.

I hope that I'm wrong about this prediction about the Dolphins draft today, and that Ireland, like George Costanza once did, does the exact opposite of what he usually does, but if you know anything about me from reading this blog fairly regularly over the years, and my predictions while at IU and in Chicago and in D.C., you know that I have a ridiculous degree of accuracy when I've had some time to analyze the empirical data, accent the positive, eliminate the negative and throw in some intangibles and just noodle everything through.  

 Three teams on December's Dolphins schedule draft after the Dolphins: the Steelers at 17, the Patriots at 29 and the Jets immediately after the Dolphins draft at 12.
Just saying... the best defense is a big lead!
2013 NFL Draft: The perfect strategy for each team to follow
By Bucky Brooks, Analyst, NFL.com and NFL Network
 Published: April 22, 2013 at 03:57 p.m. 
Updated: April 23, 2013 at 05:38 p.m.


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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Once again, Jimmy Kimmel Live Show adroitly skewers puffery, smugness and pomposity, this time, average people talking about having watched the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl Game that's still days from being played; #nfl, #superbowl47, @nfl, @superbowl47


The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Lie Witness News - Did You Watch the Super Bowl, JimmyKimmelLive. Uploaded January 30, 2013. http://youtu.be/zR9NV7D4FVY
Once again, Jimmy Kimmel Live Show adroitly skewers puffery, smugness and pomposity, this time, average people talking about having watched the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl Game that's still days from being played; #nfl, #superbowl47
This humorous effort of Jimmy and his writers to really skewer average people's pomposity, with humorous results, actually reminds me most of the uninformed comments I've heard stated the past nine years on Miami-area TV newscasts as elected officials pontificated about things after-the-fact that they were clearly only dimly familiar with after having actually voted.
Or, just like attending and carefully watching a Hallandale Beach City Commission.

Everyone's afraid to say that they didn't know, don't know or are unfamiliar with a topic, so they try to "wing it."

Hallandale Beach looks the way that it does and is run as poorly as it is because too many highly-paid people in responsible positions have been "winging it" for years.
But Hallandale Beach is not alone on that score in South Florida, just where I happen to live and a place that I'm most highly observant of.

In the new year, you will hear more on this blog about other cities and agencies that have been run similarly, with little concern for actually delivering a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of taxes, and a refusal to face reality when presented with the true facts by citizens and activists.
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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Florida's regionalism, identity politics and political and social cleavages were displayed rather accurately, curiously enough, in a map re NFL game telecasts I saw at Deadspin.com

The things you find when you're not looking: a near picture perfect example of the identity politics/political cleavages that exist in Florida displayed -curiously enough- in a map re NFL game telecasts that I saw at Deadspin.com.

The map below is from www.deadspin.com and The 506's Week 17 preview of NFL game broadcasts a week ago, and specifically, revealed what fans in the U.S. were getting most screwed-over by the TV networks by getting a lousy ballgame when they ought to be getting  something better.

Look below at the state of Florida, such as it is.
There was nothing but a series of meaningless 1 o'clock kickoffs on Fox-TV Sunday, that rare day when both CBS and Fox had double-headers throughout most of the country because the Cowboys at Redskins game was 'flexed' and moved to NBC's nationally-televised game, where it set all sorts of viewing records.

One of those 1 p.m. kickoffs was the Tampa Bay Bucs at Atlanta Falcons game.

But the map clearly shows that even when all the games are unimportant and in many cases, probably almost un-watchable, in the view of local CBS station general managers, SE Florida STILL has more in common identity-wise with the Northeastern U.S. than it does with another part of Florida just a few hours away, in this case, Tampa Bay, as Fox TV stations voted with their wallets in mind, not state unity: Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants. 

NFL on FOX: Week 17 Early Game - December 30, 2012

(Unless the Bucs are very good and might go to the Super Bowl! 
Then, of course, everyone's on the bandwagon!) 

That is, unless that sort of de facto regionalism and identity-politics doesn't lead to money or more money:

So let me lay the groundwork for bringing up the map. 

Based on my own experiences and those of friends, and especially my 15 years living and working in the Washington, D.C. area, I can tell you that it's often the case for well-informed and politically-aware Floridians that when you're outside of the state, regardless of where you are or even whether it's a formal occasion, that upon finding out where you're from -and that you really are on top of things- that people will start making a beeline towards you, even if somewhat slowly at first.

Eventually, someone will start randomly asking you to try to explain something they heard or read about that happened in Florida that they can't make sense of, or ask you how and why Florida is the confusing, peculiar and exasperating way that it is.

If you're anything like me, your response probably starts out with the most obvious -geography.

In such a large state, one that actually includes two different time zones, and cursed with a state capital that is not only NOT located in a large city, but located in a city that is NOT in any way shape and form centrally-located to the majority of the state's population, a lack of a common frame of reference for residents and voters is often the biggest problem when it comes to identity and knowledge of individual issues and personalities.

All of this is made worse by the generally poor coverage of local and state politics at most TV stations compared to even twenty years ago.
Institutional knowledge, what's that?

Yes, the people who actually knew the personalities involved, their pet projects and longstanding grudge and the general ins-and-outs for how things work, to say nothing of where the bodies were buried have come and gone.
They've been replaced by younger reporters who, in many cases, couldn't legally vote in the 1980's and who actually know very little.
Very, very little -and you know it.

And who had no connection to Florida before being hired.

The reality of Florida having so many different TV markets is that many well-qualified candidates running for statewide office, people who could plausibly be elected in many other states, simply can't compete here because of the prohibitive media costs involved, even if most voters agree with them on the issues.

Lofty and abstract ideas of democratic participation and outreach quickly fall by the wayside when your reality is that that unless you raise X millions of dollars, just for TV commercials, you are dead in the water.

Despite the Digital Revolution and the growing importance and influence of blogs, websites and Social Media to political campaigns, the sort of "free media" that exists in many other states that allows high-minded and well-informed candidates to remain a part of the larger conversation simply DOESN'T exist in Florida.
I wish it did but it doesn't.

This is made worse by the fact that despite the influx of new residents from other states, many from states with such a tradition, Florida DOESN'T have a tradition of voting "Independent," despite how many people in this state claim to be "independent."

So, those are just a few of the more obvious barriers to getting the sort of high-caliber candidates that other states often have and which keeps Florida a Confederacy of Dunces.

Once you've mentioned this to your interlocutor, you usually mention the influence of Latin America, blah, blah...
Then you mention the five/six nations of Florida, which is itself, a metaphorical subdivision of Joel Garreau's “The Nine Nations of North America.”

When I was a kid growing-up in South Florida during the 1970's, what was frequently remarked upon by almost everyone, especially during the holidays, was the low number of actual Florida-born natives we knew, since when I was in Jr. High and High School in North Miami Beach, despite being someone who knew almost everyone, I knew only a handful of people who were actually born in Florida, which made them outliers.
The kids who'd never seen snow!

Most of them were either Hispanic or African-American, and for whatever reason, almost always boys.
For some reason, girls were almost always from somewhere else, somewhere where they wore nice sweaters purchased at upscale Northeastern or Midwestern stores.

Which is why when I was growing-up in NMB, January and February existed at Jr. High as fashion season for girls, the one time they could wear something that was identical to what every other girl was wearing.

Boys wore boring windbreakers of 4-5 primary colors, unless, like me, they were sporting a teal-colored Dolphins windbreaker, back when they were, to use a word, relevant.
Those were the days!
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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Why Lovie Smith got fired by the Chicago Bears -GRIM facts & trends that were increasingly hard to swallow for loyal Bears fans: the Bears have made the watered-down NFL playoffs only ONCE in the past 6 years despite much talent on the team, including failing 3 seasons in a row AFTER making the Super Bowl. If anything, it was an overdue decision; Bears should strongly consider hiring Brian Billick as head coach and REALLY helping Jay Cutler's progress


ESPN YouTube Channel video: ESPN correspondent Ed Werder on the Chicago Bears firing of head coach Lovie Smith on Monday, and what he may do. Uploaded January 1, 2013. http://youtu.be/mUOnaPIMPD4

While there clearly are a lot of people who like Lovie Smith's personality and experience, including some current players, consider how the players have actually played for HIM, since it seems to be something that ESPN and a lot of social media types keep ignoring.

 The Bears have made the watered-down NFL playoffs only ONCE in the past 6 years despite the talent on that team, including failing 3 seasons in a row AFTER making the Super Bowl. 

 That's more than embarrassing and is NOT something that fans of an NFL team in the third-largest city in the country are going to be satisfied with. 
Nor should they be.
View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8938166&pid=null

 The one year the Bears made the playoffs in the past six seasons, 2010, they promptly lost the NFC Championship game -at home- in large part because they were so grossly unprepared for an injury to QB Jay Cutler.
Whose responsibility is it to ensure that you have competent back-ups if not the head coach?

 As has been noted here many times before, I lived in Chicago in the mid-1980's and that coincided with their 1985-86 Super Bowl run and win, and I still usually root for the Bears.
But these CHRONIC weaknesses with the Bears, like not being able to assemble a good staff or a competent offensive line to keep Cutler upright, can be laid squarely upon Lovie Smith as head coach.

 In the end, the facts didn't lie -one playoff appearance in the past six years is NOT satisfactory.
If anything, his firing was an overdue decision for fans of the team.

 Just like the one the Eagles and Chargers made to finally be rid of Andy Reid and Norv Turner.
Both need to stay away from the NFL for a year for their own good -and ours.
We can't stand the utter predictability of their problems every year and their chronic inability to adequately resolve them. 

 If the Bears were smart, and that's not a given, obviously, they'd hire former Ravens head coach  and Vikings OC Brian Billick, someone who knows something about offense when he has some talent to work with, like he did with those Vikings teams of the late '90's when they were one of the most-exciting teams of the past 25 years.
Give Jay Cutler some help from someone who knows what they're talking about.
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Sunday, December 30, 2012

NFL's East Coast/Cowboys Bias may be crushed Sunday night, which would be sweet justice for NFL fans! If Redskins beat Cowboys, strong chance no team from 5 of U.S.'s Top 6 TV markets will make NFL playoffs: No NY, no LA (not even Chargers!), no Chicago, no Philly, no Dallas. Plus, we'll finally be free of analysis of Romo & Roethlisberger's angst! Hooray!!!

NFL's East Coast/Cowboys Bias may be crushed Sunday night, which would be sweet justice for NFL fans! If Redskins beat Cowboys, strong chance no team from 5 of U.S.'s Top 6 TV markets will make NFL playoffs: No NY, no LA (not even Chargers!), no Chicago, no Philly, no Dallas. Plus, we'll finally be free of analysis of Romo & Roethlisberger's angst! Hooray!!!

 It's all up to the Redskins to make this reality come true Sunday night when they host the Cowboys in a battle for the NFC Eastern Division title that I believe may well be a Redskin rout by the middle of the third quarter, a result that should lead to the Cowboys making major changes that are long overdue, including a change at head coach.

 If the Redskins win Sunday night, the only team from a Top 6 U.S. TV market will be the San Francisco 49ers, at number six.
http://www.stationindex.com/tv/tv-markets

 That will mean that what seems like the majority of the teams that the NFL and Madison Avenue have foisted upon us this past season via nationally-televised Sunday Night, Monday Night and Thursday Night football ballgames will be completely absent from the playoffs: Cowboys, Giants and Jets. Buh-bye!

 For the Cowboys, this absence will mean that the following is now true: the Cowboys have won one playoff game in the past 16 years.

 Now say it over to yourself and ask yourself whether this self-evident fact will prevent the NFL and Madison Avenue from force-feeding the Cowboys down America's throat next year on the tube?
No, more likely, they will front-load many of those Cowboys games at the beginning of the season and cross their fingers to get some games at the end of the season on the flex schedule.

 As I've written here before, one of the few conspiracy theories in America that is actually TRUE is that the NFL props-up the Cowboys in ways that it doesn't seem to for any other team.

 At one point in this past season I had figured out that over half of the Cowboy 16 regular season games had been on national TV broadcasts, and with the flex schedule going into effect for Sunday night's Redskins, I believe that makes either 8 or 9 Cowboys games out of 16 that will have been nationally-televised.
Why so much pushing for such a mediocre team?

A few years ago, ESPN commentator and NFL Hall of Fame QB Steve Young succinctly tore into the Dolphins and the Vikings organizations as THE most over-rated NFL teams of the past 10 -or 15?- years.
To that he could have added the Jerry Jones Cowboys of the 21st Century.

 No, contrary to what is said perpetually on ESPN, especially by Jon Gruden, the Cowboys are NOT one of the most-talented teams in the league, they are one of the most under-performing.

As a matter of fact, as far as most NFL fans are concerned, the Cowboys and Giants don't need to always have one of their two games be a nationally-televised game, or even rate a 4:15 p.m. Sunday kickoff.
It's not the 1990's anymore, capisce?

 An exciting team on the rise like the Seattle Seahawks needs to be on national TV more and I don't mean 1 p.m. Eastern kickoffs against the Dolphins, either.

 But don't kid yourself.
The Cowboys will be on more national TV broadcasts next year than the Seahawks even if Seattle gets to the Super Bowl. Even if they win it.
Rest assured, the powers-that-be at NFL HQ will see to it.

 NFL Odds & Ends

 When he was still head coach at Texas Tech, I used to wonder what a brilliant mind like offensive-minded coach Mike Leach would do if given the keys to the Cowboys, the Chargers, Jets, Bucs or the Ravens, five perpetually under-performing NFL teams, none of whom have made the Super Bowl despite having had numerous opportunities before collapsing. 

I still wonder about that now that Leach is at Washington State, but only re the Ravens.

 My January 6, 2009 post on Leach going to the Bucs was titled, 
So THAT'S why newspapers are dying? BORING!; Jon Gruden must go!

As someone with a few Ravens t-shirts and jackets in my bedroom closet and who's rooted for the Ravens since they moved to Baltimore -and who came this close to becoming a Ravens season ticket holder that first year when I lived in Arlington County, VA- while it might be heresy for some to hear, while I think he's a good coach, I believe John Harbaugh's era at Baltimore could and should come to an end if they lose in the playoffs against either the Colts or the Bengals. 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/ravens-insider/bal-updated-ravens-nfl-playoff-scenarios-20121224,0,345461.story
At home. 
Mercifully.

 They no longer have the number and caliber of defensive playmakers to mask his bad coaching decisions:

Ravens Have Underperformed During John Harbaugh’s Tenure
By Zach Wilt
ttp://baltimoresportsreport.com/ravens-overvalue-john-harbaugh-35505.html


Bloomberg News
Oakland Pays $17 Million for NFL Raiders as Cops Fired
By Darrell Preston & Aaron Kuriloff - Dec 20, 2012 5:58 PM ET

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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Forty-years ago, Miami Dolphins football in December had genuine significance and gave South Florida a real sense of identity, excitement and togetherness that it had never before enjoyed. I know -I was there. But now...

TIME Magazine, December 11, 1972

Building For The Super Bowl - Miami Coach Don Shula
Forty-years ago, Miami Dolphins football in December had genuine significance and gave South Florida a real sense of identity, excitement and togetherness that it had never before enjoyed. 
I know -I was there.
But now...

Some, including many who should know better, foolishly say that South Florida has become "a basketball town."
That's NOT true, of course, since real basketball towns support both professional AND college basketball with equal affection.
I ought to know, because I've lived in two of them: Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Miami is nothing like them.

 Still, given the anemic showing the Dolphins have made on the field the past 15 years, and the equally amateurish, dog-chasing-its-tail sense of ineptitude and stupidity shown by the two most-recent ownership groups off-the-field, it's not easy to rebut those foolish claims with a straight face, especially when the Miami Heat have won two NBA championships in the past 6 years.

 What's happened is that the Dolphins have slowly bled the heart and evaporated the soul out of many of their most loyal fans and sent them into hiding underground.
They watch the games on TV, but going to see them in-person, with the current crew in charge, is too painful.

 When you know what real professionals look like and act like, because you've seen them with your own eyes, and in fact, have grown up with them, it's very hard to accept second-rate and lackluster effort.
Accept such a consistent lack of fundamentals in basic aspects of the game, or the lack of knowledge of the rules, or lack of personal accountability on the field.
And then to be asked to applaud that?
I know I can't, and I'm far from alone.
nitroradio99 YouTube Channel: Highlights of Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins. December 20, 1970. Uploaded April 27, 2011. http://youtu.be/3wtp94Ffg3w
This 1970 game was the first Dolphins game I ever attended in-person at the Orange Bowl, with my Dad. I was nine-years old, the Dolphins but five.

Jean0987654321YouTube Channel: Intro of 1973 AFC Championship: Oakland Raiders at Miami Dolphins, December 30, 1973. Uploaded May 26, 2012.
http://youtu.be/Z-PjSiKm1-M
monteroed YouTube Channel. Uploaded October 27, 2010
http://youtu.be/ErvySdmZqWY

sluggotv YouTube Channel: Chicago Bears at Miami Dolphins. December 2, 1985. Uploaded May 22, 2011. http://youtu.be/_m0SzNtY9WI

The day of this game I was wearing the same trademark aqua-colored Dolphins cap I'd worn all week around Evanston in predicting that Don Shula was not going to allow the undefeated Bears to come into the Orange Bowl and emerge unscathed.
It was weird how confident I was, but having seen all the '72 Perfect Season home games in- person, perhaps it was the the fight-or-flight kicking in!
And my intuition has always been my strongest trait.


 I watched the Dolphins-Bears game from the Norris Student Union at Northwestern University in Evanston, where I had moved that summer, and planted myself at a table underneath one of the large TVs they had on the side of the columns. 

 I'd often watch the network evening newscasts there and grab a bite to eat while waiting to meet my friend, ace lifeguard, boater, guitarist and very talented singer Susan Smentek, who worked in the art gallery there, and whom I even watched sing a few times in their bar.
Susan was also my creative arts/film friend muse with whom I finally saw "Back to the Future" with when it premiered back then! 

Susan was the sort of wonderfully kind and well-grounded friend you always hope you have on your side when you need to sort your head out and make some difficult choices.
For me, at that time, Susan was the friend and confidant whose opinion I cared about so much that I'd rather have disappointed my own parents and sisters than her, because she's the one who actually listened intensely, and the one person who helped me and cheered me up more than anyone else did the two years I lived in the Chicago area.

 Frankly, much as I'd like to write otherwise, those two years along the shores of Lake Michigan were not the happiest of times for me, as I had to deal with a lot more personal anguish and professional disappointment in a short period of time than I'd ever had on my plate at one time before, despite what I thought at the time had been more than enough planning and preparation on my part before heading up to Chicago.
I leaned on Susan a lot, and though I tried not to over-do it, I know that sometimes it was too much, so those times when I knew I'd really disappointed her, I was really racked by intense pangs of guilt. 

 I deeply regret that I fell out of touch with Susan not long after after she visited the Washington, D.C. area around 1994 while touring in support of her CD, Siren Song, and I got a chance to see perform yet again, that magnetic voice of hers as strong and impressive as ever.
Which made Siren Song such a perfect name for her!

 And how's this for irony, she now lives in Elmhurst, the very town that I was originally slated to live in when I first moved-up there in 1985.
But if I had, I'd never have met Susan, which proves the wisdom of the saying, "Friends Are God’s Way of Taking Care of Us"
Dziękuję, Susan!

That table at Norris where I watched the Dolphins beat the Bears was the same exact table where seven weeks later, I watched the Space Shuttle Challenger launch and subsequent explosion as it happened, which not that many people there were watching a mere five minutes beforehand.
Yet within 15 minutes, seemed to have half of the Northwestern campus there, much of it consumed in tears and sobs, the rest in varying looks of astonishment and bewilderment.
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

NFL Films and The Travel Channel combine for new series premiering tonight: NFL Road Tested: The Cleveland Browns on The Travel Channel @ 10 p.m. Eastern/9 Central on DirecTV Channel 277; @NFLFilms




"See what it takes to travel with an entire professional football team from city to city and game to game during the regular season with our unprecedented access."
Tonight's episode is "NY Giants and Ravens"
http://www.travelchannel.com/video/let-the-games-begin

 NFL Road Tested airs every Tuesday at 10 pm. Eastern/9 Central.

 More information at:
http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/nfl-road-tested-the-cleveland-browns

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

As imperfect as they are, the NFL "replacement" officials are still performing their job much-better than the following people or groups in Florida are performing their's...


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As imperfect as they are, the NFL "replacement" officials are still performing their job much-better than the following people or groups in Florida are performing their's...
Broward County Legislative Delegation 
Time to end 'free ride' for the Broward Legislative Delegation on Broward taxpayers' back; they should pay ALL costs of an office few citizens know of
Broward County School Board, esp. ethically-challenged Chair Ann Murray, who legally represents Hallandale Beach on the Board, and yet has continually demonstrated that she's afraid of meeting with well-informed Hallandale Beach parents and taxpayers in public and the city. Murray also refuses to answer longstanding questions in public about her very questionable judgment and decisions.
Ann Murray -she's a phony, a bigot and a no-show. Consistently. That's what voters have seen of her tenure on Broward School Board so far -she needs to go!; update on projects at Hallandale High School
Video of Bob Norman's news report at Channel 10: School board: Bus drivers wanted
http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/School-board-Bus-drivers-wanted/-/3223354/16502446/-/6i1o4q/-/index.html

Broward schools paid $800,000 for GPS, but rarely used it

Substitute teachers in Miami-Dade and Broward County -As true today as it was over thirty years ago... 

Florida Dept. of Transportation, District 4 
Inattention to detail costs lives, risks lives, and costs money, yet they are chronically tone-deaf to criticism that is not only self-evident to folks paying attention to longstanding problems. 

 When was the last time that District 4 Secretary James A. Wolfe subjected himself to intense questioning and follow-up about the dept.'s efforts and policies from the public -in public- instead of merely to industry professionals at closed and often paid events? Or even to reporters who cover transportation? 
Whose name, phone number and email address doesn't appear on District 4's webpage?
http://www.d4fdot.com/index.asp
Why it's the very person in charge -James A. Wolfe. 
It's also not searchable!

 Office of Broward State's Attorney Michael Satz
Not enough space on page to delineate the full scope of the problems, suffice to say that 36 years for one person to be in charge of such a responsible position is too much, esp. for someone who has produced such paltry results in the State of Florida's most corrupt county -the worst of 67!

Broward County Democratic Executive Committee and disconnected Chair Mitch Caeser. Lots of people are quoted as having said variations of that as long as nobody cares who gets the credit, a lot of positive things can be accomplished. The problem in Broward County is that Caesar and his cronies DO care who's in charge and who gets the credit. Desperately, desperately care! But what do they have to show for it? He and his pals are the head party boss and cabal of a one-party county that long been the most-corrupt in the state. Which means that he apparently writes a lot of letters requesting clemency for his friends, many of whom he also lobbied while they were elected municipal officials before they were arrested and frog-marched out in handcuffs. 

Florida Democratic Party Alex Sink, Nan Rich and Charlie Crist? The Three Stooges.


Miami Herald's management and editorial staff, esp. those responsible for local news and schools coverage. 

 Fact checking the Miami Herald's dubious claims on Education: Over the weekend, I unexpectedly found myself forced to 'school' the Herald's Executive Editor after she bragged about the Herald's coverage of Education. I had to bring up some inconvenient facts rebutting that claim
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/fact-checking-miami-heralds-dubious.html

So when are the Miami Herald and the South Sun-Sentinel going to note the elephant in the room in Hallandale Beach? The ethics of and the complete lack of candor from Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders & his wife Jessica; Mayor Cooper and Comm. Sanders screw with public's access to HB budget meetings; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/so-when-are-miami-herald-and-south-sun.html

Is there anyone in South Florida media with lower visibility than Miami Herald publisher David Landsberg? What are his specific plans for transforming the newspaper so it doesn't remain
irrelevant to what goes on in South Florida, seemingly always the last to know something or report something?

 What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there...
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/whats-going-on-at-miami-herald-more.html

For another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County, more lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza -Part 1
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-another-consistently-lousy-year-of.html

South Florida Sun-Sentinel's management and editorial staff, particularly those directly responsible for unsatisfactory local news and school coverage, esp. the editors, reporters and columnists who have shown over the years that they are nothing more than lapdogs for Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
OMG! Really, another interview with predictable Debbie Wasserman-Schultz on Channel 10's TWISF tomorrow? Why? Will there be any mention of the Sun-Sentinel STILL ignoring the Glenn Thrush book's depiction of DWS's unpopularity at Obama HQ in Chicago?; Sun-Sentinel has completely morphed into the Snooze-Sentinel! It's now more of an idea of a newspaper, and a bad one at that, rather than a newspaper you actually look forward to reading
And did I mention that their Broward Politics blog hasn't added anything to their YouTube Channel in over 16 months? http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardPolitics/
Way to stay current!

 Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, President Mike Dee and General Manager Jeff Ireland 
In other parts of the country, though not here, it's not unusual to hear people say "To whom much is given, much is expected."
With respect to the Dolphins, not so much. #EpicFail
Above,  501 N.W. 1st Avenue, which in Hallandale Beach polite society and public policy circles is considered THE most egregious example of dozens of exasperating and highly-questionable examples of dubious government spending and crony capitalism that've taken place on Mayor Joy Cooper's watch, and one of the most dubious of any in Broward County, which is REALLY saying something. It's the infamous former property owned by HB Comm. Anthony A. Sanders that has seen so many tens of thousands of Hallandale Beach taxpayer dollars and CRA dollars poured into it. For what, THIS? photo by South Beach Hoosier © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Myopic and inattentive City of Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper and the three members of her Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew on the City Commission, who thru their continued negligence and actual unwillingness to perform basic oversight functions and be strictly accountable to, and honest with, taxpayers, have made what should be one of the nicest parts of Broward County into something that is NOT.
See numerous stories proving this at  http://www.browardbulldog.org/?s=hallandale

 The city's budget has nearly doubled the past 6 years and what is there to show for it? What is the tangible thing that taxpayers can look at or feel? And the same is true with the money that the city has wasted from the CRA thru grants and loans to their pals thru crony capitalism.
Karma has big plans for them!

Myopic City of Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Fluornoy and his top-heavy dept. with enough psychological and relationship problems to keep Freud and Jung busy for a year. That they also are guilty of speeding in inappropriate places around town and are routinely inattentive to basic self-evident safety problems all around the city, esp. on the city's main three roads, makes it all the worse. 
Some Cops Given A Pass If Caught By Red Light Cameras
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/04/22/some-cops-given-a-pass-if-caught-by-red-light-cameras/

 Their complete abdication to Mayor Cooper on the red-light camera issue was proof positive to many people who formerly gave them the benefit of the doubt that the Police Dept. is now hopelessly and morally compromised. The next police chief needs to come from outside of the Dept., preferably, from far away! 
There are still far too too many mediocre cops in this city with chippy attitudes.

Pampered City of Hallandale Beach Fire Dept. Daniel Sullivan and the dept. that regularly uses a fire truck to buy groceries at Publix and seems a little too chippy. 
Oh, and they also don't cite businesses for violations of fire safety regs that are pro-City Hall or give money to PAL.

City of Hallandale Beach DPW Director Hector Castro and his lazy and unprofessional staff, who for years have made this city a mess for the eye to behold and given new meaning to the word underwhelming, especially with their horrific care of the city's public beaches.
That's why, if you didn't already know, why embarrassed HB residents refuse to take visiting family and friends to HB's beach on holidays and go instead up to nearby Hollywood Beach,  which is why that beach is SO crowded then.
Hundreds and hundreds of embarrassed Hallandale Beach residents and their guests, spending money there instead of their own city.
Another Joy Cooper success story.
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