1
Aug
2011
Well, here we are again…
August is here and, against all odds, so is training camp. (Source: Pitt. Post-Gazette)
So, the NFL lockout is over, and we’re assured of labor peace for the next decade. That means we don’t need to focus on the Norris-LaGuardia Act until at least 2021.
The NFL has returned. Training camp is underway, and just as the players and coaches are shaking off the rust, we bloggers are doing the same.
This frenzied week of free-agency and rookie signings, meshed with the start of 32 NFL training camps — well, it’s wonderful … but where does one begin?
Now swimming in a flood of NFL news, the April promises of some fan groups to bypass this season, to show the NFL that the fans matter more than owners or players — laughable.
The cries of the sports-offended were silenced and blotted out the minute the labor deal was done. Nobody’s talking about boycotting a damn thing tonight.
The game is bigger than the fans, for better or worse. Nobody who loved the game in January is fashioning plans, circulating petitions and organizing rallies to skip the season.
Everyone’s fallen in line.
And maybe it doesn’t even matter. The game is back. Two weekends from now, we’ll see our 20- and 30-something millionaire heroes back on the field, throwing a ball around before hundreds of thousands of fans who paid a pretty penny to enter billion-dollar stadiums from San Diego to East Rutherford — and Dallas to Minneapolis.
There is no proper starting point this time around.
We’re just here. Football is back.
For better or worse, our game is back.
12
Aug
2010
HBO Hard Knocks: New York Jets, Episode 1
(Photo: Photo: Al Pereira/Getty Images via NYMag.com
Last night, HBO premiered the first episode of this season’s edition of Hard Knocks featuring Rex Ryan and the New York Jets. I took the time to jot down my thoughts during the episode, which I’ve distilled below.
Essentially, this episode was about two things: Rex and Revis. Rex Ryan took center stage as expected and did not disappoint (especially in the cursing department), and Darrelle Revis was the central focus of the episode, despite (or more correctly, because of) his absence from camp.
The fine folks at JetTwit did a much better job breaking down last night’s episode than I ever could, but here are my running thoughts, in case anyone cares:
- If this show were about my favorite team, this intro would get me seriously physically aroused. I think I’m ready for football to start
- Cortland, NY is an awful town … as an alumnus of their rival Ithaca Bombers, I had the displeasure of visiting this beacon of crapitude several times during my college career, and this is not a place you want to spend your summers. But HBO managed to make it look better in 2 minutes of b-roll footage than it ever did during my time there. But I may be biased.
- It’s obvious that the Revis holdout will be big storyline. It must be maddening to have everyone asking about one player when you’re trying to lead a group of 60+ other guys who are all there to do their job
- Rex Ryan doesn’t look to have started shedding much weight yet from the lap band surgery.
- Here’s video of Rex’s opening speech to his players. His goals for the team – all 3 units – is to lead the league in wins. Radical strategy, there. But he’s definitely someone you’d want to play for. Rex is so oddly charismatic, but boy, he sure does say “fuck” a lot (and I mean a LOT – video NSFW for language):
- Rex wears black Chuck Taylors on the first day of camp … apparently this is his thing. And it elicits the “sexy Rexy” chant from a few male Jets fans, and he likes it. Read the rest of this entry »
