Dazed and Confused, the new NFL overtime rules

The NFL owners passed new overtime rules this week, and I get it.  Why have the outcomes of a multi-billion a year business decided by a coin flip.  But if you are going to change something shouldn’t you change it for the better.

Let me run this past you.  The old NFL overtime was sudden death and the ball was first given to the team that won a coin toss.  In the new system whoever wins the coin flip can still receive the ball and if they score a touchdown they still win as if it was sudden death.  If team 1 kicks a field goal, then they get the points but still have to kick off to team 2 to see if they can score a touchdown.  If 2 scores a touchdown after 1 scores a field goal then 2 wins.  If 2 kicks a field goal after 1 has a field goal then 2 kicks off to 1 and 1 can win with any score.  If 1 doesn’t score on its first possession then 2 can win with any score. Safety is an automatic win.  After a turn over or a successful onside kick rules return to normal sudden death.  Oh yeah, if you aren’t confused enough already, the new rule only applies to the playoffs not the regular season.

 Say What????

So in summary, 2 points = win, 6 points = win, 3 points = it depends.

Here is the deal, if a guy who has been a football fan for two decades can’t understand this rule without a legal team reading it….. then chances are you don’t get it either.  NFL, you had been doing a good job, but lately I am really confused. New rookie salary caps, possibility of an uncapped year, players union and owners disagreements, there are even rumors flying around about a potential lock out, and this seems like a good time to change the overtime rules????? Not only rework them, but require a PHD to comprehend them. Hello?  If you want me to keep watching the NFL on Sundays (you know a weekend, family time), I need to be able to explain the rules to my wife.  If she doesn’t want to watch it….. well….. lets just say chances of it being on at my house go way down.  I am not trying to be over the top, or say that the NFL is moving down my sports priority list.  But the NFL is not entitled to my fan hood.  Last year the Brady rule (no hitting the QB below the waist, during a forward throwing motion) this year the Favre rule (new overtime), what is next????  The Cutler rule(after you throw 5 pics your 6th interception will be counted in the next available game in which the player does not throw at least 5 pics)

NFL, you have a good product; don’t screw this up by over thinking everything.  If you want to make changes keep them simple.  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Thanks for the read.

Tigers and Tournies

The NCAA tournament was full of exciting? can't miss action? this week end..... right???? Well, to be honest I haven't watched a single game.  I didn't even fill out a bracket for the first time in 10 yrs, and, well...... I don't even really care.  Seriously, the whole thing is full of mediocre and boring teams.  In what other sport do you have teams from 20 years ago better than the teams or today?

I mean it, look at Duke or Kansas, yes they are talented but would they even get within 25 points of Patrick Ewing's Hoyas or Houston's Phi Slamma Jamma?  I don't think so, and if you honestly do, well...... I'm sorry but I deal in reality.

People are wanting this thing to go from 64 to 96 teams.  Yeah, that will fix things, more average and under-achieving teams that I will want to watch even less.  Seriously, I would rather read the instructions on the back of an airline sick bag. Who do you have in the southern-mid-western-Ohio bracket??? Boll Weevil Tech as a 19 seed???? Open bag..... insert mouth..... barf freely.

Tiger Woods gave a couple of 5 minute interviews last night that to me were more compelling then anything in the NCAA tourny.

 I have to be honest and say, Tiger did a really good job yesterday.  The media is piling on and whining "he is being guarded", "he's not giving us the whole story."  I really don't care, he gave me enough, he was honest, and he did the most important thing..... he is winning me back.  I judge something like this based on the emotions I feel in the moment.  I don't try to take it apart and over analyze it.  When he said he hoped some one would clap for him and that he hoped they were clapping for birdies, I smiled.  When he talked about having to tell the truth to his mother and wife, I felt a pull at my stomach.  When asked as to why he even got married, I started willing out his answer like I was hoping a putt would go in.  When it was over, I wanted more, but felt that he gave me what was promised.

I want to be clear that in no way do I agree with anything he has done, the lies, the affairs, the transgressions.  He messed up in every way.  But, Tiger didn't let me down...... he let his wife and family down.  Tiger is a golfer, his job is to be entertaining.  He doesn't need my forgiveness or my pity, but he does need my eyeballs on the tube in April when he plays in the master's.  And as long as he stays on his current track he will have them.

Thanks for the read

"The weather is here, wish you were beautiful"

Greetings, from the beautiful cayman islands

Not going to say a lot today. Just wanted to post a few quick things and let everyone know that I will be back on the blog train next week when we are back in the states.

First, let me just say that the wife and I are having a wonderful time, check her blog for a few more pics.

Here is a pic of Stephanie the Stingray and I getting a little fresh

We had an underwater camera with tons of great snorkeling pics from the coral gardens.  Sadly, it fell off my wife's wrist on our swim back to the ship.  Hopefully some of the fam's pics will turn out.  Lots of pics to come when we get back.  We have had our fair share of pina coladas and a little too much sun, but everything has been great.

Just a quick shout out to St. Patty's day yesterday

I know that we have all seen this video like 500 times, but it is the national leprechaun holiday so you really should give it another watch.

That's all for now, I'll try and get a few posts out on Sunday.

Thanks for the read.

Toy Woe Ta

Toyota Motors is facing some serious problems.  Let's be clear about this, there is definitely something wrong with some of their cars, Toyota probably knew this could be an issue, they built the cars any way, and now that people are dying from these problems Toyota is scrambling like mad to figure out a way to save face.

 Toyota CEO before Congress (who wouldn't want to save that face?)

There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of these cars on the road in the US.  Even if just a small fraction of these cars have sudden acceleration issues, that still leaves hundreds of cars with problems.

I don't really blame Toyota, I blame the Government...... right???? It's all their fault! Right???  That's all I am hearing.  So what are our political superheros saying???? how are they making our lives better????? well, let me enlighten you.

This is FLOW the FAULT FINDER(insert political talking head here)

she finds the Government at fault for everything

(The next section is much better if you use a cheesy super hero voice when text is italicized)

Last month, Flow blamed the government for raising fuel standards a few years back, which forced Toyota to use electronic gas pedals in order to save weight.  Those horrible senators! How dare they want us to burn less fossil fuels! Go! Flow! Go! tell us more about this! Yes, the politicians raised mpg standards, because some of them want to try and prevent global warming, didn't they see all the snow last month? Global warming is a lie!  This same big government policy is going to be taking over your health care soon!!!!!  I wish I was making all this stuff up :(  Really? I mean Really??? So you are saying its the Gov's fault all this is happening because they got involved in the car business? So no Gov involvement is Flow's policy right?

Not so fast evil doer! Last week Flow blamed the Gov for not doing enough to prevent this. Say what?  Yes it seems that Toyota has a lobbying firm that has made contributions to politicians in order to let them do their thing.  You know like every other large company in the world that pays off DC.  Flow may have a valid point here.  Since several of the members of congress which will conduct the hearing of Toyota actually received campaign contributions from Toyota.  But alas Flow could not stay on target, soon she was on to attacking certain politicians and then it bled into labor unions and then, well, the usual, and these are the people that are going to be running our health care!!!  This should have been a good example as to why companies should be limited in their campaign contributions.  So Gov should be involved more??? or less??? not sure on this. Sounds like they took their pay off and turned a blind eye.  So essentially the Gov did nothing, isn't that what Flow wants???? Less regulation????

But the Eeeeeevil Plot Thickens

This week Flow has a found a new fault.  The Gov is now piling on and taking advantage of Toyota.  How dare they! Those foul creatures, are they even human!?!  Now that Big Gov has taken over GM and Chrysler they are using this to their advantage.  And wasting tax payer money going after what should be a private matter between consumer and producer.  Not only that, but Gov's evil side kick the Press is now in on the act.  Reporting on all the different stories of peoples cars suddenly accelerating.  Surely these are all frauds. If I was driving a car and it started to speed up, I would just step on the brakes. These must be sick people the Press has paid off, since some of them are willing to put their lives at risk for their 15 min of fame!  .....and these people want to take over our heath care!  

I really think Flow took this too far.  Hey, I don't care what you would do if your car started speeding up and you were prepared for it.  These people had about 30 seconds to asses the situation and make a decision.  They didn't have hours to plan the perfect way to stop a run away car.  So quit telling me they are faking it.  I would have stepped on the brakes with both feet, and pulled the emergency brake, and put the car in neutral, and turned the car off!  Just, stop it!  13 people have died from this just in the last month.  Let me repeat that.... 13 people..... with families and lives...... just since the recall was announced.  So let's stop using them as political ammunition to take shots at the Gov.

Here is where I land on this.

1. Toyota built the cars, they are the ones to blame, they should do every thing to make this right.

2. The Gov should do everything it can legally do to make sure this gets fixed.

3. We should use this to make cars safer and people better educated as to what to do in an emergency.

4. Flow needs to hang up her cape for while.

Thanks for the read.

Do you health care?

Can we have an open and honest conversation about this without one of us being labeled a socialist and the other being called uncaring?  This is my biggest issue with what both political extremes are doing.  They are making it a "all or nothing" "for or against" "life or death" line in the Alamo sand. You aren't allowed to ask questions or try to be reasonable and no one is putting it in a context that makes it easy for us "normal" people to understand.
Yes, a small % of yahoos thrive on political jargon.

I'm not one of them.
And chances are you aren't either.

All I know is that we are going to have to change and we can do better.

But,  "America has the best health care system in the world" this is probably true, but so what? How do you prove or disprove best?  Don't look at me like I'm crazy when I say we could do better. "What country has better health care? oh yeah? well why don't you just move there?"  Come on be reasonable.  So we have the best health care, and blockbuster used to be the best way to rent movies.

We used to get in the car, drive to the buster, wander the rows trying to find what we want, take it home, forget to take the movie back the next day, and end up paying late fees.  Now we either get DVD's from a redbox, use on-demand, or watch movies online.

GM used to be the biggest and "best" car company.

  

Then they failed to be innovate and change with the times.  Then Toyota became the latest greatest and everything was great for them....... till their cars started accelerating on their own.

Let me list some things and see if they sound right:

*Health care expenses are one of the leading causes for American's to go bankrupt.

*Medical malpractice is the third leading cause for death in the US

*American spends 18% of its GDP on health care costs, Canada and UK around 12%

*Billions and billions are wasted every year on coverage litigation.

So what do we do?  Well..... we have to be open minded, and we have to listen, and we have to come up with a solution that is going to make things better.  I don't want the government intricately involved in what I eat or how I live my life.  But I also realize that there is a place for government to be there for people who need public help. Since neither extreme is going to be reasonable or come down from their soap boxes, its time for the 90% of us in the middle to start talking to one another.

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think.  If I get enough responses I'll send them to our officials.

Thanks for the read.

The older I get, the less...... the more...... Sports

This is part 1 of ? more to come on other topics

The older I get the more my priorities seem to change. I don't know if its caring less or if it takes more to get my attention.... or impress me..... or matter to me. Before you roll your eyes too far, don't take this post as being filled with some deep, long sought-for concept. I'm just saying.....

I haven't watched ESPN in at least 2 weeks, and lately I have been trimming down my sports tree. My priority list for sports(don't hate on me just cause I'm honest) in order of how much I care.

1. Texas Football(big games are at 1, Texas vs UTEP is about 3.5)

2. Super Bowl (as long as the story line is good, if not this is about 6)

3.Winter and Summer Olympics

4. Golf Major with Tiger (no Tiger no way)

5. NFL game with VY or the Cowboys (I really tried to like the Texans, and I do, but the Boys are always such a show, Jerry roaming the side lines and calling plays, Marshmallow looking for his reading glasses....... they are on your head Mr Magoo)

6. Tennis Major with Roddick (no Andy no way)

7. Tour de France with Lance (no Lance no way)

8. NBA finals (if they have Lebron, Kobe or the Spurs(local team))

9. World Cup

10. Odd ball sports: wood chopping, dog shows, Notre Dame Football w/ Weis,.....

If it doesn't make this list well..... I'm not watching.

What about the World Series??? Well if you are talking about the world series of poker then throw that in with the odd ball sports, I actually watched about 45 mins of that last year. If you are talking baseball then sorry you have barked up the wrong tree. I watched 5 innings, game 3, of the 08 world series. I turned it on cause I thought "this is the world series, this is the right thing to do, it's America's past time, like apple pie and muscle cars" then my wife got home and was like "don't we have any gossip girl on the DVR?"

"yes honey we do, but this is the world series","so, how much of this are you going to watch?" well.... about 1 more catchers walk out to the mound, and a camera shot at both managers, and a 15 second camera shot at the guys SITTING in the bull pen, and the pitcher going to the rosin bag, all this so he could try a pic off move at 1st. So, what do you think we watched????

The teenage drama of course. Why??? because I want to be entertained (keeping the wife happy doesn't hurt either). And that's the thing about most sports. There are too many of them on TV and I honestly don't care about that many of them.

I don't hate baseball, seriously, my brother and I played spring and fall baseball every year till high school. And I love going to the ball park, as long as I can get a cheap ticket, and its $2 draft night, and I can leave by the 7th. The same thing goes for the other sports that didn't make the list. I think live hockey is incredible.... but its not the same on TV.

It's a simple economic equation: the more you put it on TV and the more games that you have in your season the less I care.... the less I have to care. It's supply and demand. So NHL, MLB, NBA, NCAA Basketball if you want me to watch, put it on TV less not more. With the exception of Texas football, almost everything else in the list is a once a year or once every few years event.

Think about it this way, and smelllllllelllellll what the rock is cooking. Watching sports is like going out to eat. The types of food that you can get at any street corner.... think burgers or fried chicken..... how much are you willing to pay for that.

When you want to go some place nice, something you look forward to, you go to a nice resturant where a proffesional chef prepares your meal.

My life has a lot going on, I get fewer and fewer chances to just sit and watch sports on TV. The less time you have to give to sports, the more valuable your time becomes. It's like going out to eat when you are in college, you do it all the time so who cares if you go to Burger King. But, if you only have dinner out a few times a month, I doubt you say to your date, "hey let's have a special evening, with a spicy chicken sandwich, curly fries, a cheese cake, and a jack head."

Alllllll Aboard

So it's finally March, which means 3 things: spring is right around the corner, its time to fill out our NCAA brackets, and once again Austin will be announcing the official grand opening of its new light rail service from Leander to downtown.

What???? the first two things happen every year, wouldn't a grand opening only happen once? Well, yes in an ideal world, yes. But this month will be the third and (fingers crossed) final grand opening. The project was slated to be finished in March 2008, and then March 09, and now after going over budget by around 50% and changing contractors (legal suits pending), March 2010 is when its really going to happen, no really, really sure about this, I think.

Let me be upfront with my opinion. I love the idea of a light rail system. I think, if done correctly, rail could really help traffic and make seeing all parts of the city affordable and fun. But..... these things aren't going to be accomplished.... yet. There is a new rail line that is up before the city voters that would link downtown to the airport via south Austin. This is the rail that should have been built first.

Ok, I have to stop a minute and say, anytime you discuss this type of topic there are 2 different things to talk about. The things that could/should have been (not all that helpful to hope to change the past, but valuable for future lessons) and the things that could/should be (much more benifical as long as someone looks at past mistakes as to not repeat them). So, both of these have to be included or else I am wasting my.... breath??? wasting ink??? wasting digital space???? I guess just wasting my time.

So back to the Downtown to Airport line. This is the one Austinites should support. It accomplishes what a light rail system should, to rapidly and cheaply move steady streams of people across the city. From the airport to the state capital, or from South Congress to UT.... you know the major hubs of people in this city. But, cap metro is going to have some issues getting us on board. Why??? because in life you only get one chance at a first impression. A decade ago when light rail was put before us, we went for it. With stories in the Statesman about high speed trains in Asia and talk around town about Austin making its leap to metropolis status, we all bought into this idea. Now, a decade and a dollar later(100 mil but hey whose counting?) we stand at the great unvailing and...... and........ and......... well (insert let down music, or the sound of Texas fans after Colt was injured, or Mario falling down a hole). Really, after all the build up its like getting the first 5 of 6 numbers right in the state powerball. Yes! you won $500 bucks but if that stupid ping pong had been one digit more you would be cashing a check with 4 more zero's on the end.

So lets be honest with ourselves, we already put this thing in at 3.3 mil a mile. We already bought the trains and built the stations. Yes, I know, the stations could be in better places. You're right we don't have a train going to UT. That's true we don't have a line going to the Gtown-RR-Pville burbs where 200k+ peeps live and Dell is located. But, we do have a Leander to Downtown line that while not perfect, it is built. So we really have only 2 choices, we can complain and gripe and blame cap metro for an imperfect system. Or, we can ride this sucker like a mechanical bull at the old coupland dance hall.

Nick channeling his urban cowboy.

We've already paid for the light rail. So, lets get a return on our investment and find a way to make this thing successful. So when you have the chance to ride the train..... cowboy up and jump on it.

Thanks for the read.