Categories
General Sports

Feb 8 2007 episode of Poor Man’s PTI

Welcome to another episode of Poor Man’s PTI.

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 33 mins) or subscribe to the feed.  

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This week’s topics include:

  • Wrapping up the Super Bowl
  • Super Bowl commercials
  • John Amaechi comes out of the closet
  • College Hoops
  • The Celtics’ futility

Hope you guys enjoy the podcast.  If you did enjoy it, please give us a good rating below so we can rise up in the rankings. If you didn’t, send us an email ([email protected]) and give us some suggestions. Thanks for listening.

Categories
College Football

Replay official gets the boot

The Pac-10 replay official who blew one of the most obvious calls in college history has been relieved of his duties. Gordon Reise ruled that the Ducks had recovered an onside kick even though the replay clearly shows #23 of the Sooners walking away with the ball. We can understand how an official on the field would miss it but how can a replay official be so stupid? Well, finally some accountability for a ref as Reise gets the axe. This doesn’t help the Sooners get back that 34-33 loss but at least the NCAA is willing to admit a mistake.

On another note, the Super Bowl this year was controversy free. (Well, except for the ridiculous controversy about Prince’s guitar. Gee.. the guitar is like a huge penis? really?) The refs did their job and we aren’t debating days afterward on whether a correct call was made. As far as we know, every single call in the Super Bowl was correct.

Links:
[Fox 23]: Official in booth for Oregon-Oklahoma loses replay booth job

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Revenge of the Purple Dinosaurs


1. O Canada!
So what if the Atlantic Division is horrible, at least a team has finally risen to the top of the heap. And as unbelievable as it sounds, that team is the Toronto Raptors. With a 3 ½ game cushion over their competition, the Raptors are enjoying their first taste of success since a young Vince Carter took the franchise to the postseason. Quietly, the Raps have ripped off a streak of 12 wins in their last 16 games, but next up is a big time showdown between two of the leagues most promising young studs as Chris Bosh locks up with Orlando’s Dwight Howard tonight in Toronto. When these two get together its reminiscent of the budding rivalry between Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan in the late 90’s.

2. Irish Green or Soylent Green?
Can things get any worse for the Boston Celtics? First, their slide continues as they have now lost a franchise record 15 consecutive games after falling to the Pistons last night. There’s been Tony Allen’s self destruction; and then there’s Paul Pierce. Pierce has been out of action since December 20 after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left foot and on Tuesday he was sent home from Detroit with a swollen left elbow and a fever. Throw in the comments by Pierce that he would rather have a veteran on the team than Greg Oden or Kevin Durant and you have all the ingredients for a dysfunctional meltdown of classic proportions. By the way, Paul, you are the veteran on the team.

3. D’oh!
One day after saying that he was only going to Las Vegas because he was “into the free money,” Chicago’s Tyrus Thomas was fined $10,000 by the NBA powers that be. But as badly as Thomas simply wanted to “get my check,” it looks like he will now have to put forth a bit of effort. Third and fourth place in the slam dunk contest only pull down $16,125; second place gets $22,500. So, if the rookie really wants to be stuntin’ after he pays his penalty then he’s going to have to fly like an eagle and pull down the $35,000 first prize.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Pau Gasol vs. Houston 41 min, 30 pts (FG: 13-28, 3FG: 0-1, FT: 4-6), 13 reb, 5 ast, 5 blk

Wednesday’s Game to Watch: San Antonio (32-16) @Washington (28-19) The Spurs are back on the road after getting five full days off since losing back to back games to Utah and Phoenix. Tonight starts the second half of an eight game road trip for San Antonio who is 16-8 away from home this season. Washington is 19-5 at home where Gilbert Arenas scored 37 against the Lakers and Caron Butler put up a career-high 38 against the Sonics in their last two home games. It’s a classic battle between offense and defense with lots of All-Star power on the court among Butler, Arenas, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.

Buzzer Beater: If there can be anything comforting about a 15-game losing streak, this little tidbit is it. In this decade, every team that has experienced a similar span of futility (15 straight defeats) has ended up with the number one pick in the draft. Paul Pierce might want to rethink his idea that teams don’t grow through the draft because those top picks turned into Yao Ming, LeBron James and Dwight Howard. Ask the coaches, players, GMs and fans of Houston, Cleveland and Orlando if they’d like to go back in time and trade those kids away.

Categories
NBA General

So which former NBA player is gay?


Update: Speculation here and here is that the player in question is John Amaechi.

Buried in a Chicago Tribune column was this little tidbit:


Publicist Howard Bragman, from a Los Angeles-based company called Fifteen Minutes, was spreading the word at the Leigh Steinberg Super Bowl party Saturday that a former NBA player he represents will be announcing publicly that he is gay on Valentine’s Day. Bragman would say only that the player has been retired for about three years and was not a member of the Bulls or the Nets. He added that the player was not a prominent name in the NBA. The player also has a book that will be released in conjunction with his public disclosure.

So basically it’s a nobody trying to sell some books. Yawwwwwwn. It’s appropriate that the PR company representing him is called Fifteen Minutes because that’s about how long this is going to be on the radar. It’s not that the nation doesn’t care about gays in the NBA, it’s just that the nation doesn’t care about bench warmers. You know the guy at the end of the bench who is always the loudest cheerleader? If he came out and told the world he was actually the Dalai Lama, nobody would care. On the other hand, Michael Jordan could be caught buying Crab-B-Gone and it’d be in the blogosphere for days. Sorry Mr. Gay Nobody, if you didn’t average at least double digits in points a game, no one cares. Well, except maybe the homophobes at Snickers.

Links:
[ChicagoSports.com]: Manning’s dad: Don’t give up on Grossman

Categories
General Sports

Vote for February’s Woman We Love

Here are the nominations for February’s Woman We Love.

– Poppy Montgomery from Without a Trace
– Carrie Underwood
– Sienna Miller
– Kate Hudson

– Cheryl Tweedy
– Jenn Sterger

– Minka Kelly from Friday Night Lights

Vote Now

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Jordan Judges and Kobe Critiques


1. Dunking Royalty
Finally, the league has brought together the best of the best for the slam dunk competition. Too bad they’re only there to repeatedly hold up placards with the number 10 on them. Michael Jordan, Jul ius Erving, Dominique Wilkins, Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter make up the list of superstar judges who will grade an all new group of mediocre dunkers. But this year, the league has decided to spice things up by throwing in a couple of big fellas into the competition as Dwight Howard and Tyrus Thomas join Nate Robinson and Gerald Green. And thanks to Robinson’s time consuming performance last year that lulled the audience to sleep after 14 attempts, there is a two minute time limit placed on each player.

2. Money Hungry
Most players will tell you they simply love playing the game, it’s their childhood passion and it’s a privilege to make a career out of a game. Then there are the players that will tell you the truth, like Chicago’s Tyrus Thomas. When asked how it felt to be a part of the All-Star experience, Thomas replied, “I’m just going to go out there, get my check and call it a day.” He was then asked if it’s beneficial for a rookie to take part in such an event. “I’m just into the free money,” said Thomas. At least he’s honest.

3. All-Star Performance?
Carmelo Anthony did something last night that most people would assume he had done numerous times before. While everyone is aware of Melo’s scoring abilities, last night was the first time he ever displayed his complete array of talents by racking up his first triple-double. Could this performance help convince David Stern to put Melo on the All-Star team?

Melo’s triple dip marks the 17th time someone has gotten a triple-double this season. Only Jason Kidd with eight and Andre Igoudala (two) have pulled off the feat more than once. The other players on this season’s list include LeBron James, Boris Diaw, Ryan Gomes, Andre Miller, Chris Paul and John Salmons.

Monday’s Player of the Day: Carmelo Anthony vs. Phoenix 40 min, 31 pts (FG: 12-27, 3FG: 0-2, FT: 7-8), 10 reb, 10 ast

Tuesday’s Game to Watch: Phoenix (38-10) @ Portland (20-29) Phoenix is always just one win away from ripping off another massive win streak, and chances are tonight will be one of those wins. The Suns won their last game against Denver, so a win tonight would officially begin another streak. Amare Stoudemire has an interesting matchup with Zach Randolph who is looking to sneak onto the Western Conference All-Star team. A big performance against one of the league’s best teams could go a long way in helping David Stern come to a conclusion.

Buzzer Beater: Caron Butler did a lot to quiet his critics last night when he dropped a career-high 38 points on the Sonics. The young journeyman is en route to his first All-Star Game, where he will join up with the Wizard’s main man, Gilbert Arenas. And while he is having a solid season, if you want to get picky about it, he’s the most questionable Eastern Conference All-Star. But when the coaches are forced to choose between Joe Johnson on a pathetic Atlanta squad or Butler who plays for one of the conference’s best squads; unfortunately, they’re gonna automatically take the winner every time.

Overtime Buzzer Beater: Read yesterday’s Buzzer Beater and simply replace the words “three” with “four,” “Sunday’s” with “Monday’s” and “Hawks” with “76ers” in the next to last sentence.

Categories
NFL General

About that "anti-gay" Snickers ad

An immediate outcry yesterday about the “homophobic ad” above has promoted Snickers to pull the whole campaign. You can’t find any trace of it on the website that was promoted at the end of the spot – it just redirects you to the Snickers site. A website called Americablog.com breaks down the whole campaign and explains why it “promotes violence against gays and lesbians.” A pretty compelling argument from those guys — but not so fast — a column from Outsports.com asserts that everyone is just overreacting.


All of the endings point to a rather sophisticated message. The two men in the “Love Boat” ending don’t protest or even react to the third man’s solicitation. And in the other three endings, the two men try to do something “manly” to make up for their kiss. Instead, they end up doing things – drinking motor oil and hitting each other with metal objects – that are just harmful and stupid, or they do something – ripping off chest hair – that could be considered “gay.”

The sophisticated message seemed to be that the overreaction of “straight” men to homosexual contact is completely irrational, and, in the case of the proposed threesome, maybe that contact is not entirely shunned.
…

This ad is not remotely gay-bashing. The point of the reaction of the men was so ridiculous that it made the reaction of straight men to homosexual contact the butt of the joke, not the kiss itself.

Plausible. But the problem with this argument is that it assumes any of the gay-bashing morons out there would be sophisticated enough to understand the satire of the commercial — if that was indeed the way Snickers/Mars intended it. The author is right though, Snickers got more advertising out of the controversy than they did from the $2.6M spot itself and their bottom line won’t be hurt one bit: “And if I were Mars Inc., which produces Snickers, I wouldn’t worry too much about the boycott that Aravosis is threatening: Containing a high fat content and more calories than you could burn running a 5k, Snickers bars don’t get eaten by gay men anyway.”

Categories
NBA General

Charles Barkley still doesn’t have a gambling problem


Hey, it’s only a problem if you lose! Barkley said he won about $700,000 in Las Vegas this weekend from blackjack and betting on the Super Bowl. But he also said he lost $2.5M in a six hour period last year. But Barkley still denies he has a problem.


It’s a stupid, bad habit. I have a problem. But the problem is when you can’t afford it. I can afford to gamble. I didn’t kill myself when I lost two and half million dollars… I like to gamble and I’m not going to quit.

Barkley is one of our favorite athletes. He always gives great quotes and isn’t afraid to make fun of himself. So let’s hope that someone he actually respects sits him down and tells him to cut it out. Just because you can afford to lose $2.5M doesn’t mean you should. Perhaps Ron Jaworski should tell him the sad tale of Leonard Tose.

Links:
[SI]: Charles Barkley says he won about $700,000 gambling in Las Vegas
[SC]: Charles Barkley is a big black whale

Categories
NFL General

Best and Worst of the Super Bowl Ads

We don’t know what was more boring, the end of Super Bowl XLI or the Super Bowl ads that companies paid $2.6M for. Very few ads stood out last night but we still have our picks for best and worst ad. (All the Super Bowl ads can be found at ifilm.com.

The best ad was the careerbuilder.com jungle warfare spot. Granted, this would only make sense to anyone who has ever had a corporate job but that’s probably most of you.

The absolute worst ad in the history of Super Bowl advertising goes to Salegenie.com. Most people agree that this spot was a complete waste of money… and they showed it twice! Will the Salesgenie people convince themselves that the fact that everyone is talking about how bad the commercial was makes it a successful commercial? Someone over there should be shot for wasting $5M.

And finally, a tip of the hat to the NFL Network, not for that putrid fan generated commercial but for the Chad Johnson Super Bowl Party spot. Patriots fan to David Beckham: “So you’re a professional football player. For Los Angeles. I dunno if it’s gonna fly at this party but I like it. Good angle.”

However, ads aren’t necessarily targeted to everyone so we took a sampling of Super Bowl ad critiques out there on the internet today. Here are some of them:

[Yahoo]: Dan Wetzel’s Super Bowl ads review: “Later, GMC gave us a robot contemplating suicide after getting laid off (it turned out to be a dream). This was particularly hilarious, we’re sure, to all of the recently laid off General Motors factory workers.”

[SuperAdFreak.com]: BLOGGING THE 2007 SUPER BOWL AD: “Doritos user-generated spot: I hope this commercial finally dispels the myth of user- generated content, and most importantly as a submission-based campaign. It doesn’t work. These spots aren’t good, or funny, and there is a reason people get paid to make ads for a living.”

[Salon.com]: King Kaufman’s Sports Daily: “This year’s commercials were the usual warmed-over stew, a few mildly amusing spots, a few semicreative ones and a whole bunch of obvious big budgets used to no great effect.”

[Ad Age] Bob Garfield’s Super Bowl Ad Review Text Column: “Two auto mechanics are so famished they eat one Snickers bar from opposite ends, culminating in something suspiciously “Brokeback Mountain.” This freaks them out. Viewers can go to Snickers.com to choose their favorite ending. The vote should have come at the beginning, and it should have been ‘No.'”

And if that wasn’t enough, here are some more opinions on the Super Bowl ads:

[Neurosciencemarketing.com]: Super Bowl Ads: Brain Dead

[The Opionated Marketer]: Super Bowl Ads – Play by Play

[USA Today]: How all the ads ranked in USA TODAY’s Super Bowl Ad Meter

[Know More Media]: Top 10 2007 Super Bowl Ads

Categories
Soccer

Italian Soccer rioting leaves one policeman dead

Soccer in Italy has gotten completly out of control. Just two weeks ago, a team official from a 4th division (think AAA ball) was killed during a brawl when someone kicked him in the head. Now in Serie A, a policeman was killed when rioting broke out between fans after a game between Catania and Palermo. 40-year-old Fillipo Raciti was killed either by a blow to the stomach or being hit in the face with a small explosive. The autopsy is pending.

First of all, a small explosive? Who the hell brings a small explosive to a soccer match? (Yes, a fan once shot a flare gun at Veterans Stadium but into some empty seats.) Second, what the hell is going on with Italian soccer fans? It’s like they’re determined to take hooliganism to the next level. Italian officials have suspended soccer matches indefinitely until they can figure out what to do about the insanity. You know it’s bad when the Pope has to come out and remind Catholics that violence in soccer is… bad.

One possible reason for the tremendous amounts of violence in Italian soccer are the traveling fans according to EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini.


In Italy the clubs guarantee great bonuses to fans who travel to follow their teams in away games: free travel, discounted tickets. Abroad fans have to pay for their own tickets, while here [in Italy] they are offered by the clubs

We actually like soccer around here at Sportscolumn but the next time someone puts down American football and talks about how great of a game soccer is, we’ll remind them that at least we don’t riot to kill people (a new plasma TV will do) and blatant racism isn’t tolerated in NFL stadiums.

Links:
[Toronto Star]: Thousands mourn officer killed in Italy soccer riot

[Catholic Online]: Pope condemns violence ‘disfiguring’ soccer world