FIVE MO' THINGS, 1/3/13
1) Las Vegas. Heading there today. Certain things seemed to make slightly more sense back when the hometown NFL team was 3-5. Now with them heading into the playoffs, the decision seems a little dubious. Nonetheless, there are worse things than spending one of sports best weekends in sports (the first two weekends of the NFL playoffs are the best two weekends of football on the calendar) in the sports gambling mecca. The simultaneous UC hoops/Bengals games on Saturday afternoon hold the potential to be either painful and profitable.
2) Mike Zimmer. There are few common denominators in the Bengals four-year stretch of three playoff appearances. Marvin Lewis is one. A handful of players like Whitworth, Hall, and Maualuga are others. And then there's Mike Zimmer. Zimmer's defenses have been the backbones of these three teams, often thriving despite injury, defection, and the team's understandable decision to use their higher draft picks since 2009 on offense.
The Bengals fan in me wants Mike to be the D-Coordinator for the next 92 years. The human being in me, who likes to see people get chances to realize their dreams, wants him to be a head coach somewhere in 2013.
He's not a sexy name. Andy Reid is, though I'm not sure anyone has ever used the words "sexy" and "Andy Reid" consecutively. Andy Reid looks like a guy who needs to take some time working on his health, not working on fixing crappy football teams. There are others, Chip Kelly (there's another guy named Kelly BTW whom NFL teams should consider) is one. Mike Holmgren may be another. Lovie Smith and his crappy offenses too. And while these teams chase big names, headlines, and championship press conferences, a damn good football coach waits for his chance.
I hope he finally gets it.
3) The Xavier Musketeers. They're simply not very good, and I'm hardly breaking any news by typing that sentence. The problem is how alarmingly bad some of these players are. None were expected to give XU what either Mark Lyons or Dez Wells did, but Chris Mack has a bunch of guys that are barely worth putting into the game.
And that's a problem.
Dee Davis and Justin Martin aren't logging starter's minutes on a good team, but those two wouldn't log scrubs minutes on a good team with the way they're playing. Isaiah Philmore has an awesome name, but no game. It's not that these guys are not capable of being thrust into roles they likely didn't envision filling this season. It's that many of these guys look incapable of filling the roles they'd be in if the the circumstances for the Muskies were better.
4) Louisville. Credit where it's due. I didn't think any big bowl game this year looked like a bigger mismatch. Turns out I was right. Outside of showing an interest in fighting after their questionable onside kick to begin the second half, the Gators looked disinterested. Teddy Bridgewater was fantastic, and the Cardinals look like they could be scary good next season, though not as scary as whatever these tools were wearing.
5) Ray Lewis. Legendary linebacker. Intensely driven motivator. Incredible leader. And a man who played a central role in a murder case. That he's changed his life, devoted himself to his faith, become a positive figure and phenomenal figure doesn't strike that from the record. Let's stop pretending that it does.
But wait, there's more....
-Like new batting practice hats for the Reds, as discussed here. The red ones, I like. The black ones with the red bill, not so much.
-I work in an industry filled with psychopaths. This has been confirmed by The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success by Kevin Dutton.
If. They. Only. Knew.
Today, Jeff Piecoro fills in on the radio show. Tomorrow, I blog from Vegas and finally settle on whom I'm picking Saturday. I'm off to Vegas. Let's make fun of Apple....
