Rimshots: Jan 12

A No Tebow/No Butch Rimshots. 

Penn State Hires “a John Bunting”
...... I’m sure Bill O’Brian is a fine fellow who knows football.  I’m sure Bill can analyze film, diagram plays, blow a whistle and knows the fundamentals of blocking, tackling and the cover 2 defense... but the man stepping into the minefield of Penn State football has zip, zero Head Coach experience.  (yes, John had at least a modicum.)
   A Head Coach at a major school is first-foremost a CEO managing managers.  “Managing managers” is different from breaking down film and orchestrating grass drills on a practice field.  The mess at Penn State is 50X more so.
   Bill O’Brian will fail.  The people who hired him are either incompetent or intend for him to fail.

Tough Mudders
...... a friend told me about ToughMudder – the latest fitness adventure series.  It is a 10-12 mile boot camp obstacle course.  An evolution of Triathalons that tests tenacity more so than a high degree of cardio endurance.  ToughMudder events are being scheduled around the country.   Participants must sign “a death waiver”!  Oh to be 40 again.  Check it out – www.toughmudder.com

Did Ray Nitschke ever
..... Football is football but clichés change over time.  Did Ray Nitschke ever have “a high ankle sprain”?  Could Dick “Night Train” Lane “tackle in space”.  How would Otto Graham attack “a cover 2”?   Do you give the ball to Alan “The Horse” Ameche in “the red zone”?  Did Vince Lombardi put a play sheet over his mouth when he talked to his coordinator in the press box?
    On that last one - Lombardi did not have a laminated play sheet, a head set, or a coordinator in the press box.


Seasonal records fallacy
..... The fallacy of most wins ever and any seasonal records not based on a per game average.  Simply playing more games/season discounts all those aka The Roger Maris Asterisk.   60 HRs in 162 games is not 60 in 154 games.
    THE best running back in NFL history is Jim Brown PERIOD.   He set all the seasonal standards in a NINE GAME season.  Gaining 1,000 yards in one season means something in 9 games.  It means much less in 16 games.  
   These schools celebrating “so many wins in a season” are doing so by playing 12-13-14 game seasons.  In “the old days” teams played, at most, 11 games.  Big difference.

In A Post BCS beatdown world
...... Now will the extent of rampant thuggery within the LSU FB program percolate to the surface?   Baton Rogue authorities are notorious for their laissez faire approach to LSU Tiger miscreancy.  The pre-season gangsta crap involving the QB being a classic example.  Thugs are “just boys being boys” when times are good; but thugs are thugs when times are not so good.

Another Tide Devastates Nawlins
..... The last "tide" to so devastate Nawlins was caused by Katrina.  Ergo, the Obamic White House is claiming George Bush was coaching the LSU offensive line.  And BP officials were somehow involved too.  The AFL-CIO and NAACP are sending "occupiers" to the Superdome.  Sean Penn and Brad Pitt are enroute.

Do Loonies Attract Loonies?
..... I have a goodly number of friends who are avid NC State fans.  Not a one of them is anywhere close to obnoxious.  I’m sure there are some; but not in the social and professional orbits that I move in.  
    My Wuff-pals are longtime season ticket holders well steeped in Brickyard lore; hardly casual fans.  They have passionate opinions about coaches, players and admins and they much prefer winning to any alternative.  They “care” but are not paranoid knucklehead lunatic goobers about it.
    I read over-the-top absurd posts on media comment boards that play to the stereotype of the partisan lunatic goggle-eyed goobers; but I don’t personally “know anyone” like these knuckleheads.   I roll my eyes asking rhetorically “who ARE those people?”  Not the sort of folks I encounter in my daily comings and goings.
   When I get reports of “that kind of fan” I wonder if those encountering “those people” are themselves the obnoxious UNC fans that I hear about.   Are knucklehead fans magnets for other knuckleheads?   The “birds of a feather” theory that obnoxious jackass fans attract one another.  I have encountered some UNC fans that certainly play to their obnoxious stereotype, but I selectively avoid that ilk.  Knucklehead fans universally "hate Caulton Tudor".  I don't hate Toots.
   Unless one is mired in a Living Hell of a workplace or cul-de-sac it is relatively easy to avoid jackass knuckleheads simply by not being a jackass knucklehead yourself.   Works for me.   I apply this same theory re: politics but THAT requires somewhat more finesse.

Can You Name 3
..... Quick, can you name 3 current San Francisco 49ers?  This weekend you will watch them play Drew's Saints.   Under Jim Harbaugh the 49ers are the Cinderella team of this season, but due to geographical restraints I bet you can't name 3 current 49er players.  If you can, we will move on to San Diego Padres, Sacramento Kings and, in the championship round - The Minnesota Wild.  Do you even know there IS a Minnesota Wild?

A New State Motto for Alabama ?
....... With three consecutive BCS titles – Alabama can lay claim to a new state motto – The Home of Football Champions.  That replaces the previous one: 
Alabama: We Keep Georgia from touching Mississippi

Posted: 1/11/2012 5:00:33 PM by BobLee | with 10 comments


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Comments
Dr Wire
Penn State is lost in their own self-centeredness. JoePa's reported salary was meager @ $1.2 million so they had no concept of market economics. With their windfall from football ticket revenue surely they could found them a Grobe like coach. Your comparison of O'Brien to Bunting is spot on, but the quiet, protective culture in State College PA is gone forever similar to post BD Chapel Hill.... Concerning knuckleheads, I totally agree with your recipe of not being one keeps from attracting one. Unfortunately, their is no fan base (pro or college or high school or middle school or pee wee), culture, country, race, religion or family without it's share of knuckleheads who inadvertently make the world subject to ever more repressive political correctness in response to their knuckleheadedness as if that would prevent it. ........................................ ............................................ ............................................ ..... BL: I view knucklehead fans like Orkin views cockroaches. I want to get rid of'em; but not ALL of'em cause I need them to write about. ... ................................. ............................................ ...........................
1/12/2012 12:55:05 AM
JDanWuff
I hear tell there has been quite a traffic tie up on I-10 between Nawlins and Baton Rouge. It seems someone painted a 50 yard line across the road and the LSU fans can't figure out how to get past it with out rolling back to the other side. Roll Tide ........................................... ........................................... .............. BL: A "rimshot" on Rimshots from a "not a loonie" Wuff!!! ............. .................................... ...........................................
1/12/2012 8:04:28 AM
hsaheels
Georgia still keeps Alabama's original slogan alive...but they are not happy about Georgia touching Alabama either. .......... .................................. ..... BL: Why doesn't Alabama fall off into The Gulf? ... Because Tennessee sucks! ......... .................................. .........................
1/12/2012 8:05:25 AM
UNC86
I am with you 100% re the seasonal record fallacies that are so rampant (drives me crazy), but Jim Brown did play his career during 12 and 14 games seasons. Having said that, he is no doubt the greatest ever - AVERAGED over 100 yards per game and over five yards per carry for his career (too bad he seems like such a surly, bitter guy - remember how he acted when Franco Harris was about to break his lifetime rushing record?). Best line of the day is the question about whether Lombardi covered his mouth with a play sheet over his mouth - I crack up every time I see coaches doing that. ..................................... ........................................... ........................................... .... BL: Was Vince worried that Paul Brown or George Halas could read lips? I doubt it. ...................................... .......................................
1/12/2012 9:12:58 AM
ink-stained scribe
BL, not only did Lombardi NOT have a laminated play sheet or a coordinator in the booth. He also did not signal every play call to Bart Starr from the sidelines. Bart called his own. Tom Landry started us down this path of removing the QB from the process, and aside from Peyton Manning (and perhaps occasionally Brady and Brees), nobody calls their own plays anymore. .......... ......................................... ........................................ ..... BL: You mean Johnny Unitas did not have a play cheat sheet cuff on his arm ??? ..................................... ................
1/12/2012 10:49:07 AM
ink-stained scribe
Johnny U. did not. But wasn't Tom Matte the first guy to do that when Johnny U. and his backup got hurt in the playoffs? (I have way too much useless information filed away in my skull, I know.) ......... ......................................... ............ BL: YES YES YES .... EXCELLENT Trivia Question... but was itr Unitas or Earl Morrall that was injured causing Matte to be used as QB? ............................................
1/12/2012 12:04:14 PM
BK
BobLee, I tackle all internet knuckleheads head-on. Does that make me a knucklehead too?................ .................................................... ........... BL: When one wrestles with a pig in mud, it quickly becomes impossible to tell which one is the pig. .................................... ............................................
1/12/2012 2:48:38 PM
PF in Big D
Amen to the records being broken now--------playing twice as many games. Somehow not fair. And you made me laugh out loud on the ‘previous Alabama motto’!!!! ................................ ................................................... ............ BL: PF, you being from Tennessee, laughing at a slam at Alabama comes easy for you !!! ................................................... ..........................
1/12/2012 3:27:35 PM
Paul T Lambeth II
Just a slight correction, Jim Brown played in 12 game seasons for the first half of his career, 14 games in the 2nd half. However with that being said he is still the best that ever was. He is still the only man who AVERAGED 100 yards a game, and he left when he was still in his prime. Imagine how many more yards he could have piled up if Art Modell had not been such a Richard in his dealings with Brown during the filming of "The Dirty Dozen". Tom Matte was the first to have a cheat sheet on his arm, but it was Paul Brown who first called his QB's plays, using messenger gaurds. One of those was a chap named Chuck Noll, turned out to be a pretty decent head coach. Then again Paul Brown ultimately lost the job of coaching the team he founded because he was too controlling. .......................... ........................................... ................... BL: Why did 9 stick in my mind? BECAUSE Brown only played 9 years to accumulate his career totals. .... ........................................... ...............
1/12/2012 3:41:58 PM
CNR
BL, often told you that your readers and commentators are prime. Matte replaced Gary Cuozzo (UVa) who had replaced Unitas during the playoff game with the Packers for the division championship following a tie for first during the regular 1965 season. Colts were defeated by Packers in close game. The makeshift wrist band is on display at the HOF near the McKinley High campus and stadium in Canton. ..... .................................. .................................. .... BL: You are THE BEST CNR! .... .................................. ...............................
1/12/2012 4:41:09 PM
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