Greetings and salutations everyone.
We are here this week discussing the hottest topics in sports just for you. But first I’d like to talk about something very near and dear to me and that would be the wonderful world of the boy wizard, Harry Potter.
Fear not for I am not going to spoil it for you like Eric S. did. I just want to say that I think JK Rowling did a fantastic job on this last book and I shall truly miss her work and especially the story of Harry Potter and his friends at Hogwarts. Sure not everything worked out as I had thought or somewhat wanted to, but we all had our ideas. None the less, I still ended up happy about it all. If you have never read any of the books in the series, I highly recommend picking them all up and going through them. Will be time well spent.
Moving on shall we?
The S is for super, the U is for unique, the P is for perfection…and you know that we are freaks. The E is for exotic and the R is for rap…so tell the nosey people just to…
1.) Michael Vick – Discuss
Paulie: Michael, Mike, can I call you dumbass? OK. I’m not rich. I’m not famous. I don’t buy houses for family members. I can’t. I’m middle middle class. But I can say that if I had bought a house and I let a family member live there while the house and property were still in MY name, I’d keep pretty good tabs on what was going on in the house and on my property. If you honestly had no clue that they were fighting dogs on your property, then you’re a dumbass. If you DID have a clue that they were fighting dogs on your property and didn’t do anything to get them to stop, then you’re a dumbass. If you had a clue they were fighting dogs on your property AND you bankrolled and participated, then you are a douche-nozzle dumbass. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. We do have the whole concept of innocent until proven guilty and with me being from Durham, NC and still living in the area have seen firsthand what an overzealous community and prosecutors can do to someone. But this isn’t some Podunk Virginia local investigation. It’s not even a state investigation. This is the feds. The feds don’t just hand out indictments willy nilly. If they did, they’d have Barry Bonds already and not have to spend ANOTHER 6 months getting dirt on him for the Grand Jury. Chances are, Mike, they’re going to pin something on you. At the very least, your poor choice of association has but a knock on your credibility that you will never live down and may well cost you your career. At worst, they’ll find you were heavily involved and go to… well… probably Club Fed for a few years. But if they find you guilty, you WILL be used as an example. You WILL be the face of what can happen, even to a famous football star, if you piss in the face of the federal government. They probably don’t even really care about the dogs. The dogs are what they’re throwing to the public to get the hearts bleeding. You screwed with their money and commerce, and for that, they will nail you to the wall. You are a warning and a wakeup call to anyone else with fat contracts that think they can get away with anything. Like Emmitt Smith said, poorly, “When you’re in the public eye, and you’ve got a lot of money, you CAN’T be stupid in the things that you decide to do and you have to be VERY careful who you surround yourself with. Because they will take you down with them.†In other words, Mike, PacMan, Chris Henry, Ron Artest, Kobe… STOP BEING DUMBASSES.
Charles Joseph: I think Kobe has been doing better in the dumbass department. I read an article on ESPN that said the NFL will get over this because its no worse than the Rae Carruth fiasco, and the Ray Lewis incident. The league definitely get over it, but I think this incident is different that the other incidents. Both of the Carruth/Lewis incidents were shootings, this was dog fighting. You can’t go 3 days without hearing about a shooting, Danny can’t go 3 hours without hearing a gun shot. But dog fighting isn’t something you hear about everyday. You read the book white fang in middle school and that’s all you ever think or know about dog fighting. So the details that come out seem so utterly gruesome to us it seems five times worse. Paulie made a good point that Vick should have known what was going on at his property. What I’d like to know, Is Vick’s cousin who was taking advantage one of the people Indicted? If Vick’s cousin isn’t one of the indicted, I think that a big negative for Vick, because that’ll mean the Feds have tons of stuff on Vick.
Danny: This does not look good for Michael and ya know what? Good! This is just incredibly stupid and as has been said by my compadres, the dumb ass should have known what was going on at his property even if he was “never there.†I mean even if somehow he gets off scott-free of ever being there, being involved, or doing anything…dude, you still don’t let your name get dragged through the mud by letting this shit go on at a place YOU own. Say what you want, but it is your damn property.
As of now the Falcons wanted to suspend him four games and the Commish has told him to stay out of training camp. This is not good for Michael Vick. And as things begin to circulate around the league and sportswriters, I am going to go on record and say that unless Vick is totally cleared of ALL charges by the September 1, then his time in Atlanta has come to an end. There is a new coach and he has no way of getting accustomed to any of the new things being brought in by Petrino and he can’t possibly adjust in mid-season. Harrington and Shockley are on the roster and there have been rumors of Culpepper and Mark Brunell coming in. And you thought it was coincidence when Petrino had wanted the Falcons to draft Amobi Okoye?? Wait til next year when your new Falcons’ starting QB is Brian Brohm out of where?
[b]Louisville![/b]
Someone will likely pick up Vick if he gets cut, but my God dude…you are currently staring at a $350,000 fine and 6 years. And that is the maximum. You could get off on a few charges and still get two years in the pen. And notice something folks…ya don’t hear too much about Pacman Jones or steroids or the entire Bengals’ team right now. Vick is at the fore front, going before a federal grand jury, and a very strict judge. You made your bed moron…now lie in it. As a Saints’ fan and moral human being, you will get no sympathy from me.
And yes…gunshots are a regular sound for me. Sad.
2.) Barry Bonds Chasing A Record, Only At Home?
Charles Joseph: I’d actually like to see this. Only because it would completely mess with his timing and he might never reach the record. But since he’s going to get it any way, to have him sit out would be idiocy. Steve Phillips on ESPN is the biggest proponent of Bud Selig “forcing†Bonds to sit on the road. He claims that because of how often the clip will be replayed over the years, he needs to be at home so the clip will have people cheering instead of on the road where he’ll be booed and worst case scenario people running onto the field and causing him bodily harm. Now, I’m not saying people should run onto the field at all, but the booing should be encouraged. It is his fault that people hate him, so if he happens to break it on the road, in Dodger Stadium, the dodger fans should be given the chance to verbally tear into Bonds. He’s not a child; he’s been dealing with this for years, once more won’t kill him.
Danny: It is just stupid. He is going to break the record and that is that, but where he does it is of no consequence. This isn’t about the clips that will be shown for years to come or about how the fans will react to something; it is about the record being broken. I mean no matter what sport you attend, if you go to an opposing team’s stadium, you’re going to boo and jeer. That is as huge a part of sports as the players themselves. No matter if you break the homerun record or hit your twentieth single; if you do it at an opposing ballpark…you’re going to be booed. Do we really need to “control†it so we can show future generations that people cheered for it? Complete and total lunacy. If Selig even attempts to force Bond to sit out road games, then he is as stupid as anyone I’ve ever seen…sack his ass.
Paulie:I could see it. I mean. You wouldn’t want to inconvenience Barry by making him have to do things like travel and stuff. I mean, for all we know he could pull a Kevin Nash walking to 1st base! We don’t wanna take too many chances with this. I do, honestly though, think it’s more for the people of San Francisco more than Bonds or posterity. The Giants fans are pretty much the only people who still can muster up the will to feel happy for Barry Bonds. And asterisk or not, the Giants fans deserve to be the ones to see the record breaking ball go over the fence.
3.) NBA Refs Gone Wild
Paulie: Da mob is paying off NBA refs to make sure the point spread goes their way? YOU DON’T SAY! This has, undoubtedly, been going on for ages. They just finally found a ref who was stupid about it. You don’t bet on the games you’re calling. You take da mob money and be happy with it. Dumbass. Oh… wait… umm… BAD REF! YOU COST PHOENIX CHAMPIONSHIP! YOU ONLY BAD REF IN GAME!
No, I can’t do that. Hell, they could extend this investigation to every referee in every sport in every country and they’d probably bust at least 30-40% of game officials. Not saying that its right, but when you’ve got gambling lines on something then someone, somewhere is trying to fix it in their favor. This is not the shock and surprise that it’s being made out to be. Finding out GOLFERS are juicing on the roids, THAT’S shocking and surprising. Does it need to be curtailed? Yes. Does it hurt the integrity of competition? Yes. Have sports in North America had integrity to hurt in the last 40 years? Not much of it. But one ref was so obvious about it for once that he got busted and he’s going to take everyone down with him. Bad Tim Donaghy. You bet on basketball and fixed games. No ref Hall of Fame for you.
Charles Joseph: I don’t think 30-40% would get busted, Paulie. I’m sure there are more than just Donaghy. But its not that high of a percentage. If this investigation has been going on for two years, and I heard Stern say he knew about the investigation before the playoffs this year, they should have had enough information on him and be able to not have him ref on of the biggest games of the year. I hope for the sake of the NBA that there are no more refs involved in this. The NBA is already dangerously low on quality refs, and if more than just Donaghy get in trouble, there aren’t going to be any good refs left in the league. Bavetta and Barkley are going to have to ref every game. And the Playoffs will take even longer. It’ll be like basketball but longer.
Danny: The way things are going now, it doesn’t seem as if there is any truth to Stern’s accusation that Donaghy’s little gambling problem was an isolated incident. Considering Donaghy is willing to rat out others so he can get a lighter sentence, this is going to get a lot uglier before it starts to get any better. And that Suns/Spurs game 3?? Well anyone who watched that just had to consider it the worst officiated game in sports’ history. So this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise either since this is a veteran ref who was obviously and blatantly shanking calls. As CJ said, this is bad because there are so few quality refs in the NBA and now we can’t even trust the long-time vets.
4.) Sergio Garcia Still Can’t Finish
Charles Joseph: Wow. He’s worse than Phil was. Phil just quietly slid to the back when he was choking away majors. Sergio makes noise on his way down. I was watching Sunday morning with my Uncle and we were both just in awe of all of his terrible putts and Iron play. And after almost off of his shots my uncle would laugh and say he was choking away the tournament. And Sergio proved him right. Even after Harrington DOUBLE BOGEYED the last hole, Sergio still couldn’t win. Blame the grounds crew all you want Sergio, professional golfers with a one stroke lead on the last hole in the middle of the fairway should win. He didn’t. He should have his tour card revoked.
Danny: CJ already beat me to the main point. I mean come on man…do you really want to top Phil as the biggest choke-artist of all golfdom? I mean sure this most recent collapse wasn’t as bad as some of the things I’ve seen Phil do, but I mean…not being able to capitalize on the double bogey just astounded me. I was sitting there watching and when Harrington screwed up, it hit me that Sergio can finally pull it together and go through. Then he…well, he acted like himself. Let him continue to screw up, I shall continue to enjoy it.
Paulie: Isn’t this the kid that was supposed to give Tigger a run for his money? Then why is he on the B team on Yahoo fantasy golf? I actually watched bits and pieces of the Open this past weekend cause I was at work and had nothing better to do. I don’t see how a professional golfer misses a 5 foot putt in any situation, much less when glory is just that 5 feet away. Me? I’d blow it by a mile, but that’s just cause I can’t putt for crap. My irons are worse. But I can hit a driver like there’s no tomorrow. But Sergio… dude… Greg Norman called, he happily passes the choking torch on to you.
Like movies but aren’t sure what to watch when they leave theatres? Then head over to The DVD Lounge where there are a lot of good people watching a lot of crap so you don’t have to. And for a person who has over 1300 DVDs and watches every movie imaginable, Travis really finds some things that even I have never heard of.
Popcorn Junkies is a place you really need to go check out as well because there are great people like Caroline, Ping, Michaelangelo, Kubryk, and more bringing you news and movie reviews at all hours of the night and day.
Enjoy the RabbleCast, it’s enjoyable.
Reality Dish has more Big Brother coverage then you can shake an Evil Dick at!
We are outta here. It was fun, but we will be back next week with more eye-popping…err catching action…err reading!
E-mail us, go here in the forums, send us letters, call us, or show up on Paulie’s doorstep and tell him to cook for you as you sit on his deck and enjoy the view.
Have a good weekend everyone…and if someone asks you to go to a party, take a ride at 6 in the morning, enjoy some crack cocaine, and follow people around…you tell Lindsay Lohan NO!
