The NFL's Head Protection Program

I talked about this idea before in my Andre Johnson not-getting-suspended-bullshit post. This is the more angry version of that.

Background: The NFL has started a huge stance against helmet-to-helmet hits. The aim is to protect the players, who are all suffering from concussions, and we're starting to see players who played the game having their bodies decline rapidly. Our bodies aren't made for this abuse, yet these players are glorified, "role models", and paid obnoxious amounts of money.

So the NFL's policy is to penalize the players who try to hit a player using their head. There's a 15-yard penalty and almost always a serious fine. For these players, the fine is insignificant because they make more money in one game than I make in one year.

Here's my problem with this: The game is SO fast and really uncontrollable. The player with the ball can move/lower his head/etc and that puts himself in a position to be hit by the defender's helmet. It happens in a split second. There's not enough time for the defender to change his positioning. Yet he is penalized for something out of his control.

In a similar vein, how exactly are you taught to tackle someone in football? It's my understanding that you tackle by squaring your shoulders with the ground, which leaves your head (obviously) bulging out from your shoulders. Naturally, your head is going to be most likely the first think that hits your target. The defender can't account for the offensive player lowering his head bracing for impact.

So my point is the defender gets the shaft here. He can't do his job. Instead, he has to play "safe", which can result in broken tackles and not being able to do his job to the best of his ability.

I understand trying to protect the players. The brutal reality, and everyone says this, is that football is an extremely violent game. It's made that way. There is intended contact on every single play. Someone is going to be dragged down or hit by another player(s). So while we're trying to protect the players, it's like a fruitless enterprise. How can you protect the players by allowing them to play a violent game? Unfortunately the violence won't go away. That's why this penalty is unfair.

The criticism we hear from talking heads is that the NFL preaches this "protecting the players" crap while working on creating an 18 game schedule. I totally agree. I think the NFL is a sham. They talk and say the right things, but how can you claim that and then suggest to put your players at risk for another 2 games? This game is brutal. By game 16, players are really feeling it. We'll never understand because we don't play it and we don't see it. These players go through extreme lengths, treatment, and other things to be out there on game day. They typically don't think long term. They're thinking about now. We can't pass up this opportunity because my leg hurts; this could be our chance; I need the contract. Then later down the line of life they're incapable of walking without feeling the pain.

When you watch an NFL game, they talk about trying to "rough the quarterback." I was watching a game a few weeks ago where the color commentator (I think it was Troy Aikman) said: "try to hit the quarterback, make his head hit the ground, give him a headache". WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIS HEAD HITTING THE GROUND AND HITTING SOMEONE'S HELMET? The level of damage is the same - in fact, it's arguable that the ground is harder than a helmet. This game is violent. It's socially acceptable to say "RIP HIS HEAD OFF" and get away with it. Ripping his head off is like a concussion, right?

So while the NFL acts like it's trying to protect the players, it is really after the money. That's what America is about; making as much money as you can on off something. But don't act like you really care about the players. Instead, it's cheapened the way the game is played. These players know and accept the consequences, and are paid *decently* enough to compensate for their occupation. I don't mean to crack a smile at this, I mean to be honest; the game is violent, the players know it, they've accepted it, so let's not have Big Brother (Roger Goodell) come in and try to act like it's a safe game. It's far from it.

In the meantime, can we stop ruining games over 15 year penalties? Those type of penalties make or break a game, so let's stop the front and play some real football.

1 Year of Blogging - Thank You

I haven't been sure how to write this, but I thought I should. It's going to be a mess.

I started this blog as a pre-cursor to a class I was taking at BU. Call it getting a head start. Whatever. I didn't really know what it would be or where it would go. I still don't really. It really started from my close friend Jens who said he was starting a blog. He didn't. I'm 99% sure he doesn't read this. He's a good friend I swear. Jens, if you read this, you're going down in fantasy this week.

Like I said, I had no real plan for this blog. Still don't really. It's honestly just my soap box for me to talk about whatever I want. It's been one of the most cathartic things I think I can do for myself. Just write and write about what's on my mind. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. Either way, it's on my mind, and it's healthy to write it out/express all your feelings/thoughts/emotions. Clearly there's still some things about me that may not make it here - too much opening up for everyone to see, but I still enjoy this.

What has surprised me the most is the outpouring of people who have told me how good they think it is and love my blog etc etc. It's surprising and awesome at the same time. I cannot thank you enough. This isn't meant to be mean, but the randomness of the people I hear from is amazing. People I haven't talked to in the longest time or at all. Or through a friend of a friend. Every now and then I'll get a FB msg or IM that is like "I really love your blog" or "that post you wrote on X was so good. " It's always great to hear support for something you do.

I think every writer (not that I really consider myself a writer, but I do write) is cursed to hate his/her work. Maybe it's the self-pessimist in them. Looking back, there aren't many posts that I'm like "wow, I really kicked ass on that one." Yet the one's I don't like are the one's I've gotten the most reception to - which is great. I truly do appreciate that you guys find me entertaining enough to read on a consistant basis. Since usually these posts are just for me to express myself and for me to write my thoughts down.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this part, but I'm going to anyway: People have asked me how I think of ideas to write. Since I started the blog I've tried to think of an idea every day - no matter how bad it was - and to just start writing. Given that it's been a year and I've only written 100 some posts, only about 30% see the light of day. Some I really hate and can't post it. Some I can't finish in time and lose their mojo because I take too long (I was going to write a post about how Twitter broke the Cliff Lee story, but by the time I finished it was already Saturday). Some just really suck. There's really no other way I can write it. I'll try and think and get writer's block and it doesn't stand a chance. Some day's don't get an idea - as you can tell I went through a summer where the last thing on my mind was this blog.

There's some posts that are easy slam dunks - TV is always easy to write about. Lost always seemed to be easy to write about. Know what's funny about that? I haven't even thought about that damn island since I watched Season 6. Yet if you read these post you'd think I had nightmares about Ben Linus killing me in my sleep.

But there are those posts where I come up with ideas as I write and find it's usually the best idea I've had in a while - which isn't saying a lot. I really liked my "Our country was founded on religious toleration yet the religions we tolerate can't tolerate the ideals of our nation." sentence. I do have moments of brilliance that even astonish me.

Okay, I'm starting to turn this into the Pat Awards Show. That wasn't my goal. This post is just a thank you to all the supporters, I can't really put into words how much it means to me. And to that one "anonymous" hater who commented that I'm a *insert homophobic slur here* and should move out of my mom's basement, I'll have you know I'm moving out next week. Thank you to you specifically for your motivation. I couldn't of done it without you. I only hope you'll leave your name next time. Where's the fun in being an asshole online when you're anonymous? Have some balls kid.

PS that remark was serious, someone did say that. I did delete it. Sorry, I didn't feel like having trash on here. I hope we can still be friends.

What Happened to AIM?

Remember the original days of the Internet, when everyone HAD to use AOL to connect to the internet using their 28-56K modem on dial-up? Sure, the Internet was slower than a caterpillar, no speedy browsing, but it was also a much simpler Internet.

AOL started the fad of instant messaging. AOL Instant Messager. AIM. When I was young and in grade school it was cool to talk to everyone you could online, just for the sake of being able to. When we were kids we'd make a new screen name every week of our favorite sport or celebrity with a random set of numbers and thought it was cool. Part of it was being young, part of it was the development of the technology. The ability to communicate with someone instantly over this abstract world-wide-web.

I guess that was what, 12+ some odd years ago, and now everything has changed. There's plenty of different options that have serious advantages and disadvantages than their competitors. Just a quick sampling of some of the IM platforms I know: AIM, GChat, ICQ, Skype, MSN, Yahoo.

I can't honestly say I know anyone that uses MSN or Yahoo. I never did. I don't know if that's ever seen any success. I'm not sure why Skype isn't more successful, considering its popular for video chat and international calling. GChat is successful because of Google and it's incorporation with Gmail. ICQ I don't know much about either.

I understand and appreciate the idea of competition, but I'm going to argue that AIM is still the best, and I can't understand why it's not nearly as popular as it should be. AIM had such a huge head start on their competitors and lost a significant portion of it's market share.

I use AIM everyday, but it's clear to me that most of my friends don't. They've settled for other alternatives. The main culprit is: Facebook chat.

I personally detest Facebook chat. Mainly because of how we use Facebook. You "friend" people you vaguely know or may of met randomly, or someone's relative/sibling/whatever, that shouldn't entitle us to be able to communicate instantly. If we really had some kind of a connection, we'd find ways to communicate without it. That's not the way I see it used. I see it used more for people to "creep" on each other - from behind the screen. Even less real social interaction than we weren't accomplishing previously.

I know other people that love Facebook chat - makes perfect sense to them. Some of them qualify as the "creeps" and others qualify as just normal people who like everything all on one page to make it simple. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I think it's terrible. It's so crude and has so many bugs. Sometimes your message doesn't go through. Sometimes it says the other person is offline when they're online. I'll switch the page I'm viewing and forget I was in the middle of a conversation. It just doesn't feel well put together, and the randomness of people who will IM is creepy/bizarre/annoying/not worth it.

Now this is where you should be asking "so why do you use it?" Quite simple - I would if I didn't have to, but it's the only way I can communicate with one of my best friends in military school, as his phone's been taken away. This isn't a sob story - it is what it is. I want to keep in touch and it's great to hear from him. It's worth getting the random "hey what's up" from the girl-you-ignore-but-doesn't-seem-to-get-the-hint or the kid-from-class-who-thinks-he-is-friends-with-everyone-but-he-really-was-a-loser - those are the times when I quickly "log-off" to avoid conversations I didn't want to have in the first place. And don't you dare judge me, because you know you damn well do the same thing. And if you don't, you're too nice.

Let's not get it twisted though - there's been some positive experiences from Facebook chat - people who are really outgoing and reach out and that's how some friendships start because they don't know how else to contact you. That's not creepy - just friendly. They are just in the real minority - I feel anyway. I've seen too many of my friends creeping on girls to feel like it's really a good idea for me to talk to anyone, so I generally don't even pay attention to who's on. If someone IMs me, they do, but I don't pay attetnion

Anyways, my point is that I still think AIM is the best platform for instant messaging. GChat is a very close second, and their AIM integration makes it virtually the same thing. I don't have many friends on GChat (or AIM anymore for that matter) to really utilize it, but I still prefer AIM. Call it old habits. They die hard.

Somebody want to IM me? I'm bored.

The TV 'Hook'

I've been posting my TV thoughts over the past couple weeks and talking with my friends about shows etc and I keep talking about the "hook" and nobody seems to understand what I'm talking about. I think I know a bit more on shows than my friends - maybe I have too much time on my hands or I'm a loser, either/or I'm okay with. I am who I am.

When I talk about the "hook" it's really simple - it's something to get you really invested into the whole show. When you watch a new show you're really "eh" on it until something happens that really makes you want to come back next week. The problem is we typically don't have the patience for it to develop - or the patience to watch. As critically acclaimed as The Wire is, they were on the verge of being canceled almost every season because it didn't see any success at the time with the limited viewership. Arrested Development was recognized as the best comedy on TV, but couldn't stay alive because of ratings. That new show - Lone Star - was heralded as one of the best new shows of the fall, but it couldn't make it past two episodes.

My point is - the best shows don't always make it because they don't have a hook - they can't keep people's attention. I wouldn't necessarily say it has to be some cliff-hanger or truly "shocking" event, just something that says "I really want to keep watching." And when it's a new show fighting to survive it needs it in the pilot or it's going to need a network with enough faith in it to see a few more episodes.

Easy examples of "the hook":
Dexter: Dexter was able to do it in the first episode - establish Dexter the character and the antagonist of the Ice Truck Killer in the opening 60 minutes. The end of the episode where Dexter says "Yes, I want to play." actually got me really excited to watch more.

Lost: This one is too easy. Watch "The Pilot" and there's so much you want to know - what happened? Where are they? What is that noise? What's everyone's background? And can I marry Evangeline Lilly?

24: Mmmm, how about every episode? When I was younger and first started watching it every week and was innocent and thought that Jack might actually could die, I thought to myself "Ohmygod what's going to happen?"

Sometimes though, the hook doesn't really come in the pilot, and it takes the whole first season to really get into it. Surprisingly, these shows turn out being some of my favorites.

The Wire: I'll be completely honest, when I first started watching it I didn't like it. Too slow, too boring, not enough actually happening it was all talk. I think a few things - I was spoiled by Lost and 24 where every episode you'd go "what the hell" and think about it all week until the next episode. The Wire kept building and building and building. It's real 'wow' (read: I was hooked) moment came when Kima got shot and they ended the episode with Foxtrot and police everywhere. It was gripping and real, and I was addicted ever since.

Mad Men - I'm in the middle of re-watching the whole series - the first time since I've first watched it and didn't know what was going on. The hook here didn't really come till around the 5th episode, "5G", when we find out that Don's not really Don. The entire show then becomes, who the hell is Don? It takes some turns and doesn't just stick to Don, but let's not kid ourselves - Don Draper is the focal point here. His past, his present, his free-fall, and the unknown of where he'll end up, all encompassed in the 1960s.

Boardwalk Empire - I really should watch this again before I can fairly say when it is, but I'm going to commit anyway. The pilot was great, but I didn't think the show was great until about halfway through, when the FBI came and arrested some of Nucky's Irish 'brothers' for illegal possession of alcohol. It was the first real confrontation - and outside of the pilot it's felt like the only action in the whole season. There was a lot of talking and everyone literally looked the same - too much abstract talk to follow everything.

Sometimes though, shows need a game-changing moment to recapture people's attention after waning interest - a few years on air. The moment leaving you staring at your TV with your jaw open and the only thing you can say is either "what just happened" or "holy shit." (Queue Fred Ward's "Pardon My French". What a classic line.)

The perfect example of this is:

Lost. In season 3 when everyone's going "they're just spining their wheels, they don't know what they're doing, they ran out of stuff" they drop the "WE HAVE TO GO BACK" bomb that literally shocked everyone. That was when I went nuts for the show. Even I was losing interest in season 3, as they had such bogus episodes that felt like wastes of time. Of course, the Season 4 island-disappearing act was just as game-changing. That's part of what made Lost Lost. It's why there were endless discussions on sites like Lostpedia and other outlets to discuss and try to theorize what in the world was going on.

Other "game changing" examples:

24 - Two things, all happened in the same episode of season 6. Come season 6, we sort of know a few things, mainly that Jack won't die and that he'll always protect the country. But then they actually detonate a nuclear device. The post-bomb chaos was uncharted territory that showed more than we ever wanted to see. It wasn't the worst terrorist attack ever, but it was devastating. Then, Jack shoots Curtis. I never thought he was actually going to do it. But that is why Jack Bauer is Jack Bauer. Didn't hesitate, didn't miss. It upset him - the most upset we've seen him since Teri was murdered - and that was part of what made it so important and qualifies as game changing

Entourage - I know it seems random that I included this in here, but I really believed that the end of season six - Ari's Terinator scene, E dropping the "will you marry me" bomb, really got the "feel-good nature" of the show back and gave me renewed interest.

You see other shows pulling some kind of a stunt at the end of the season to make the next season seem interesting - Nip/Tuck moving from Miami to LA, Weeds moving from the rich white suburbs to Mexico, the ever-evolving name of where Don Draper works, Jack Bauer moving from LA after 6 years to DC then New York, when Heroes introduced Villains. It's all kind of a cheap way to renew interest.

Anyways, I'm starting to ramble, but I've gotten my point across. I'm not sure why I really felt the urge to post this, and realize I probably watch way more TV than most of my friends.

Do you guys still want to be my friend?

Fall TV Thoughts

1) Walking Dead

I'll be honest, I didn't hear anything about this until right around the day of the show's premiere. And I originally wasn't hearing how great it was, just that it was super scary. It wasn't. It was however, instantly compelling because of the way the story was told - and the aftermath. It's kind of Lost-like, in that we have to pick up the pieces after something catastrophic - like Oceanic 815 crashing or a virus turns everyone into the undead, hungry for more flesh - and the story is about how the survivors have to 'live together or die alone'. Man I really miss Lost.

I caught on late, but really like the overall concept. It's not just blood/guts/gore/death, it's really about the human connections made in times of panic. It's weak that the first season was so short and ended on such a rather open-ended note. There's alot of things that leave me scratching my head (how the doctor was going to let everyone die, how they didn't save Merle but went back to try to find him, etc).

With all that said though it is easily my favorite new show, and I have huge expectations for season two now that it's a a 'real' show and has been picked up.


2) Boardwalk Empire

I've said it before how I really want to like this show, but I just need a hook. Something to get me saying "wow." I realized I was treating it more like a Entourage when it's like The Wire in that the story is best appreciated after the last chapter is told. I couldn't agree more - they finally tied up some of the loose ends that started 12 episodes ago, with a really well-shot murder/press conference montage of Nucky.

I'm still not sold with Steve Buscemi. I said it before, I'm still not. I talked before how I think sometimes the people on Mad Men act too proper, and Boardwalk they act even more proper. That's our perception of how things were, we'll never know if it actually was. Maybe I just cannot fathom being in that time period and speaking in that manner. In the future they won't believe how we speak I suppose.

The end of the season set things up for an amazing second season with Darmady and Nucky's brother trying to truly "take back" AC. It was finally worth the long three months of the show.

3) Dexter

This season is really great. I originally thought that the first few episodes were so weak that this season was going to be such a drag. It picked up very, very quickly and getting Jordan Chase has become this huge priority. I still don't think it's better than the Trinity Killer of season 4, but it is interesting. I'm also guessing Lumen dies or takes the fall or something. It wouldn't be Dexter without him losing something.

Also, real quick - that might be the worst promotional poster I've ever seen. Just looks dumb.

4) Treme

Okay, so this isn't a new fall show, but it's been on my list since the summer and for some reason I didn't get around to it. I finally am getting around to it on round two of my "funemployment" experience.

I knew Treme as David Simon's latest creative show since the end of The Wire. Clearly, I'm a huge Wire guy and still believe it is the best show ever created on so many levels. That's what originally draw me to Treme. I heard about Treme as "Serious Glee." I've never seen Glee, but from what I've heard it doesn't sound like the type of thing I would be into. Except if they do a Bruce Springsteen episode, and even that might be brutal. Anyways, the Glee comparison scared me a little bit, but I gave it a shot because of The Wire connection.

I believe Treme is actually excellent. It looks at something that we as a country never really wanted to acknowledge - the aftermath of New Oreleans following Katrina. We were too worried about how we failed - on so many different levels - to worry about what the people still there were doing, and how this devastating event actually changed them and their way of life. I really don't think we can ever comprehend. Our country is so East Coast Bias with regards to the Northeast that we tend to ignore things going on elsewhere. It's a big country.

I personally didn't know much about the New Orleans musical history, or Indian heritage, and found it all to be fascinating and captivating all at the same time, mainly because it really happened. We can waste all the time we want talking about Lost, Dexter, Walking Dead etc, but none of them actually happened. Treme actually happened. Maybe not the exact way it's portrayed, but similar types or stories did occur all over the area.

I realized what makes David Simon so great is his authenticity. The Wire felt real. Treme feels real, as if you're watching a real reality show. Or reading a graphic novel. Other shows dumb things down to appease the viewer. This doesn't. The thing that's interesting is there hasn't been a hook - something that really captures my attention, but for some reason it has. Nothing really happens, there is no resolution to even the smaller plot lines. And I love it. Really looking forward to season two.

Is it time for Jersey Shore Season 3 yet?????