The World According To.....Me

Greg Schiano to the Buccaneers

2012-01-26T14:14:00.000-05:00

The first thing I saw when I woke up today was this tweet. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out what was going on.

I have to say that I was surprised when reports surfaced today that Rutgers Football Coach Greg Schiano was talking to the Tampa Buccaneers about their coaching vacancy. For a few years I had thought that if Schiano was to leave Rutgers it would be to follow Joe Paterno at Penn State. When the whole Penn State scandal broke I figured Schiano would stay especially in light of the strong recruiting class they were putting together. In retrospect though you have to wonder if the way things ended up going at Penn State with Paterno served as a reminder to him that no one stays in one place forever anymore.

I don't entirely blame Schiano here. How do you say no to the NFL? There has been a lot of negativity towards the program here in New Jersey from people who aren't football fans given his stature as the highest paid public employee in the state. The Big East mess had to play a big factor here but him leaving this close to signing day will leave a little bit of a sour taste. He has built this program up well but he has done a disservice to the Rutgers Family (or Scarlet Nation as they are beginning to call themselves) and the "State of Rutgers". Sports are a business and you have to expect things like this but there is unfinished business here. I wonder where the school goes from here? Would offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti be able to hold the recruiting class together? Or do they turn to someone like Greg Toal who has built at a dynasty at Don Bosco Prep? Keith Sargeant, who is one of the Rutgers beat writers put together this possible short list.

What kind of a contract did Schiano end up getting? I read somewhere that he got a five year deal but the money will be interesting too. He was making north of $2.3 million at Rutgers. I was surprised to hear Adam Schefter mention that Schiano was a finalist for the Rams job too.

Rutgers fans will be angry for a while but Schiano does need to be praised for the work he did while he was here. No, we never did get that BCS game but he did leave the program in a better place then the situation that he inherited and you don't always get that. Rutgers won't go back into obscurity. The program has come far enough in the past decade to ensure of that. J.A Adande mentioned on ESPN's Around the Horn today that Rutgers has 21 players in the NFL right now. Alabama has five. That is a truly remarkable stat given where this program was not that long ago. People will say that he took the easy way out or even make this about money but if Schiano was really chasing that wouldn't he have taken the jobs at Michigan and Miami when they came his way? An NFL coaching job doesn't give him anywhere close to the security he had at Rutgers where he could easily have stayed for the next 25 years. I really can't fault him for wanting a NFL gig. As Atheltic Director Tim Pernetti told the media today, there are only 32 such jobs in the world. If you are a football guy how do you say no to that? You can read a transcript of Pernetti's comments to the press here.

Just yesterday the program had posted this video online for season ticket renewals. I'll have my seats again next year. I do want to see where this program goes from here. Hopefully the program continues to build using the building blocks Greg Schiano left here.
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VIDEO: Ray Lewis postgame speech

2012-01-25T20:17:00.001-05:00

Adam Schefter of ESPN linked to this earlier. Great stuff. As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

2011 San Francisco 49ers

2012-01-22T23:28:00.000-05:00

What a great day of football.

Hats off to the San Francisco 49ers. The team definitely surprised me this year. When the season got under way I wasn't expecting anything close to this. I thought that there was a good chance that the team would be in the mix for Andrew Luck next year. Jim Harbaugh deserves a lot of credit for the work he did with this team this year. It was great to see the 49ers back in the playoffs and hopefully next year will be another bright one.

How much money will David Tyree end up making in the next couple of weeks? He'll be everywhere in the lead up to the Super Bowl. How many times do you think you'll see a clip of his catch in the next two weeks?

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NFL Conference Championship Predictions

2012-01-22T13:09:00.001-05:00

Didn't get a chance to do detailed picks this week but just wanted to pop in to say I'm taking the Ravens and the 49ers to win.

Colbert Super PAC: Vote for Cain!

2012-01-17T20:30:00.000-05:00

Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow a.k.a The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC has released a new ad urging people to vote for ~~Stephen Colbert~~ Herman Cain. Colbert urged people to do the same on last night's show.

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Muhammad Ali turns 70

2012-01-17T20:19:00.000-05:00

A Happy 70th Birthday to the Greatest of All-Time Muhammad Ali.

He truly was one of a kind in his prime. There wasn't anyone like him before and there hasn't been anyone after. He was way ahead of his time. Imagine how much bigger he could have been in the Cable and social media era? That's not to take away from the impact he did have in his prime. He was a big part of the civil rights movement as well as the anti-war movement.
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Colbert Super PAC runs anti-Romney ad in South Carolina

2012-01-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow a.k.a The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC released an anti-Romney ad overnight. It is part of a heavy ad buy that the Super PAC got in South Carolina.

“Mitt Romney claims to be pro-corporations,” said Jon Stewart, President of The Definitely Not Coordinated With Stephen Colbert Super PAC. “But would you let him date your daughter’s corporation? Americans have been clamoring for a comprehensive study of this crucial issue, so we splurged for the full sixty-second commercial. We think South Carolinians will agree – they deserve a leader who shares their state’s values, and perhaps even their state’s initials.”

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Colbert appeared on "This week with George Stephanopoulos" this morning.

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NFL Divisional Round Predictions

2012-01-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

Lets try this again, shall we? I was brutal with my picks last week going just 1-3 against the spread and 2-2 overall. Last year I went 8-3 against the spread in the playoffs.

The 49ers and the Saints get us underway today. Being a 49ers fan I obviously hope the team can get me a nice birthday gift and deliver a win. I have to say I am more optimistic today of the 49ers chances then I was all season as everyone began to project the playoff matchups. Take a look at this screen grab from ESPN earlier today.

The Saints are a different team outside of the Superdome. The 49ers have almost no shot getting to 40 points but Alex Smith can get them to the mid 20s. Can the defense and the running game slow down Brees? The 49ers have done a great job protecting the ball all season. They had a +28 turnover ratio compared to a -3 for the Saints. If Gore and Smith can protect the ball I think we are headed for an upset here. The Saints have NEVER won a road playoff game. I am going to take the 49ers +4 to win outright. Nothing against Brees or the Saints, they've had an amazing year but this 49ers team will pull off one more surprise today.

I feel dirty rooting for a Patriots win but you have to believe Brady and Belichick got sick and tired of listening to Tebow talk this week. Give it to Tebow though, that throw in OT was impressive despite the terrible defensive play call from the Steelers. A couple of big Tebow plays and this weak Patriots defense does scare me somewhat but I don't think this run has to end at some point so why not today? I have to give Bill Belichick enough credit as a defensive mind that he won't let Tebow have his way. Heck, maybe they just got Josh McDaniels to tape a Broncos practice now that he is back on the payroll! The Broncos will cover the 14 point spread but the Patriots will host the AFC Championship game next week.

Hats off to the Texans. Big win for them last week and given all the injuries they've had this year it has been one very good season for them on the field. Do they have one more win in them? T. J Yates will try to become just the 3rd QB to win two playoff games as a rookie (Mark Sanchez and Joe Flacco are the others). Speaking of Flacco, I didn't like his media session on Wednesday. He came across as a guy who is far too concerned with what others think about him. I think the game will be close to I'll take the Texans +9 but Ravens will win a field goal game.

A lot of people have been comparing this Giants team to the one that won a Super Bowl four years ago. A playoff game in Lambeau brought even more of that talk this week. I just don't see things working out the same for the Giants though. Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers are just playing at a really high level and as good as the Giants defense has been I don't think they will be able to slow down the Packers. I'll take the Packers -9 to win by double digits.
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Jon Stewart takes over the Colbert SuperPAC

2012-01-13T00:17:00.000-05:00

Great work from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in continuing to point out how absurd the political system is. You can find the video online. You can read the statement from the PAC on the website.
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Stephen Colbert is running for President.....sort of.

2012-01-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

If you watched The Colbert Report last night you saw Stephen Colbert hint at a possible "run for President". Well, tonight he will announce the formation of an exploratory committee.

On his show tonight he will hand over control of his Super PAC to Jon Stewart (who will make an appearance!). He most likely won't be able to run though. Turns out that South Carolina doesn't allow write-in ballots in primaries.

A recent poll in South Carolina shows Colbert polling ahead of Jon Huntsman.

Have you seen any of the commercials the PAC has made?

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"Please shut off your phone"

2012-01-12T21:22:00.000-05:00

What is it with people not shutting off the volume on their phones in public places?

It is a widespread problem. There is always that one person who forgets to do it when going to a Mosque (I'm sure Churches and and Synagogues have the same problem), NBC Nightly News had a fun story about this tonight.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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"HEY RODGERS, DISCOUNT DOUBLE CHECK"

2012-01-07T17:59:00.000-05:00

State Farm and Aaron Rodgers should have quit while they were ahead. This second one is terrible compared to the first one. As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

NFL Playoff Predictions

2012-01-07T15:37:00.000-05:00

With the games getting underway shortly I wanted to take a moment to post my playoff predictions. Looking back at my preseason predictions I ended up getting 8 out of the 12 playoff teams. If it wasn't for the disappointing years from the Chargers and Jets they would look a lot better. I'm a 49ers fan and I didn't pick them for the playoffs so I'm glad I was wrong on that one as well.

I am going to take the Bengals +4 to win outright against the Texans. Hats off to Marvin Lewis for the great job he has done with this team. The whole Carson Palmer situation should have been a big distraction for the team but not only did they pull off a great trade with the Raiders they still got to the playoffs with a rookie quarterback in Andy Dalton. Once Peyton Manning went down this really should have been the year of the Texans in the AFC. They should have locked up a bye but ended up being caught up in injuries themselves. They've done well to get to this point but I think their season ends today.

The Lions finishing 10-6 and making it to the playoffs is a great sports story given where that franchise and more importantly where that city has been but in a way even with the Green Bay Packers being in that division they almost seems like an underachieving team given the way they started the year. If Ndamukong Suh can keep head on straight this should be a start of great things to come for the Detroit Lions in the coming years. I think the Lions will cover the 11 point spread but the Saints will pull out the win. What a year Drew Brees had. I think Aaron Rodgers slowing down late in the season will help Brees pull out the MVP. The Saints probably are the one team in the NFC who can stop the Packers from repeating.

Even with a four game losing streak (and two additional losses to the Washington Redskins) the Giants somehow managed to make the playoffs and save Tom Coughlin's job. For whatever reason people like to knock Eli Manning but he took a big step forward this year. With the game on the line there are very few quarterbacks in the league who you'd want guiding that two minute drill. He is one of those quarterbacks. The Falcons should be a lot better at this point with Matt Ryan. I understand that being in the same division as the Saints doesn't help but this team doesn't excite me one bit. They do have a sour taste from last year's playoffs but I believe they lose again this weekend. I'll take the Giants -3.

"Tebow Time" is finished. I made a post earlier in the season saying Tebow would no longer be a starter by the middle of next season but a loss today could very well push that up to the start of next season. The Broncos offense continues to look awful. I think if they lose big today the Broncos will bring someone else at least compete with Tebow for the job next year. Given how banged up the Steelers are right now things are laid out pretty good with Broncos, the Steelers could very well lose this week......but I just don't think the Broncos have it in them. I'll take the Steelers -9.

For the heck of it here are my picks for the rest of the playoffs at this moment.

Divisional Round

Packers over Giants
Saints over 49ers
Patriots over Bengals
Ravens over Steelers

Conference Championship

Packers over Saints
Ravens over Patriots

Super Bowl XLVI
Packers over Ravens
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"Tebow Time"

2011-12-04T12:01:00.001-05:00

I've been saying it on Twitter but wanted to post it here as well just so a year from now I could say "I told you so!" By November 17th 2012 Tim Tebow WILL NOT be a starting Quarterback in the NFL. Write it down.

I know he's great for the league as far as selling merchandise is concerned but he just can't play the position at this level. Yes, I am aware that the Broncos are 5-1 in their last six games but I credit that mostly to that defense. They've held their opposition to 15 points or less in four of those games. If you do that on a regular basis you will win a lot of games in this league. People have gone way overboard trying to credit Tebow for this run (no pun intended). We've even had people like Greg Doyle of CBS suggest he is an MVP candidate. If I had a MVP vote this year I would cast it for Peyton Manning long before I would do it for Tim Tebow.

"Tebow Time" to me is just like the wildcat offense. It won't work long term at this level. Defenses in the NFL are too fast and smart for it.
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Obama's Turkey Pardon

2011-11-24T17:19:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Barack Obama continued a White House tradition by pardoning a turkey.

I'm not much of a Turkey person at all. To me this day is just about football and more football but I did want to take this opportunity to share a couple of classic scenes from The West Wing.

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This date in sports history

2011-10-25T20:59:00.001-04:00

On this date 25 years ago Bill Buckner had a crucial error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. He eventually did forgive the city of Boston for the brutal reaction the city and the media had to the error but it remains one of the most memorable moments in American sports history.
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A year later Eric LeGrand continues to inspire

2011-10-16T22:04:00.000-04:00

I haven't had the chance to post much lately but wanted to take a couple of minutes for this one.

Over the course of the past year I have had a few posts about Eric LeGrand and on the one year anniversary of his injury I wanted to remind everyone about donating to the "Eric LeGrand Believe Fund".

He told his story to Sports Illustrated this week. You can go read it here. It is hard not to be inspired. Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger also had a really well written story on LeGrand this week.

Make sure you follow him on twitter as well. He tweets pretty regularly.
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Dan Wheldon killed at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway

2011-10-16T18:23:00.000-04:00

People who know me know that I am a big fan of open wheel car racing.

I grew up a fan of Formula One but having lived in the US and Canada I have watched IRL/CART/Indy Racing. Earlier today Dan Wheldon died from injuries he suffered at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I will not embed the video out of courtesy for those who don't want to watch but you can find it on ESPN's website.

Huge loss to the sport. Unfortunately things like this happen in the sport. I remember Ayrton Senna being killed in a Formula One Race. I remember Greg Moore being killed on the CART circuit. Sports fans in the US obviously remember Dale Earnhardt's death at NASCAR'S Daytona 500.
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VIDEO: Troy Polamalu scaring people at a Wax Museum

2011-10-06T22:16:00.000-04:00

This is courtesy of Head & Shoulder's YouTube page and is absolutely fantastic.

I have to say that would scare me big time as well.
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Ceremonial First Pitch at Texas Rangers game

2011-10-01T00:10:00.000-04:00

The 2011 MLB playoffs got under way on Friday and there was already a great moment prior to any games having started.

The Texas Rangers invited 6-year-old fan Cooper Stone to throw out the Ceremonial First Pitch to his favorite player, Josh Hamilton. If you aren't aware Cooper's father Shannon Stone fell to his death at the Ballpark in Arlington earlier this summer.

Great work from the Texas Rangers here. Also kudos to the crowd.
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"Security" issues land woman in handcuffs and jail

2011-09-13T17:01:00.000-04:00

9/11 flight: Housewife handcuffed, strip-searched - US news - Security - msnbc.com

Yet another victim of bigotry and racism. From the looks of it someone on board the plane reported a "security scare" because of the skin color of her and two other passengers. The three passengers had never even met each other. I saw this story earlier today when Mike Madden of the Washington City Paper linked directly to her blog. You can read her full account on her blog. You can follow her on twitter on as well.

I haven't checked to see if the story has received TV coverage as of yet but it is good to see it spreading. Kudos to Shoshana Hebshi for getting her story out. More people need to do the same.

People seriously think she is a bigger security scare then this guy?
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Lion King in 3D

2011-09-13T12:56:00.000-04:00

Lion King is back in theaters for two weeks.

Anyone out there planning on going? It is one of my favorite movies from my childhood so I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up going at some point over the next two weeks. They brought it back for two weeks in 3D to promote their Blu-ray release. They even have bloopers!

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Serena Williams is pathetic

2011-09-11T18:26:00.000-04:00

Serena Williams is pathetic.

It is just beyond shameful at this point. It is the same old "look at me!" attitude but people continue to give her a pass just like they did for Tiger Woods all those years. I don't understand why people feel the need to apologize for her. She was wrong. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. She broke a rule and got penalized for it. She then went on to threaten the chair umpire. It was a repeat of the disgrace from two years ago.

I saw a ton of people calling anyone who criticized her (including me) a racist. Really? Why is there a need to play the race card there? The cause of African-American athletes would go a lot further if people didn't become apologists over stupid stuff like this. There was no conspiracy against Serena. She was at fault. She is the one who acted like a little baby. Blindly defending someone because of their race is almost as bad as criticizing someone because of their race. The broadcast crew gave her a total pass with the exception of Mary Carillo briefly mentioning that Serena did break a rule.

Watch for yourself.

Her answers at the press conference afterwards were pretty weak too. Here's a transcript.
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Why Bush Didn’t Mention Canada After 9/11 | FrumForum

2011-09-10T20:39:00.000-04:00

Why Bush Didn’t Mention Canada After 9/11 | FrumForum

In the days after 9/11 George W. Bush gave a speech where he thanked a wide range of countries from Israel to Iran but Dubya made no mention of Canada which had taken 30,000 American travelers when all of the American airspace had been emptied. Why was there no mention of Canada? I'll let former Dubya adviser David Frum explain. Read the entire passage.

[Bush Speech writer Michael] Gerson shuffled in embarrassment. “We just … forgot.”
We have to fix this, I pleaded.
It’s too late, he answered. The president has signed off on the text. Evidently the president had forgotten too.
Let’s reopen the text, I urged. Futile. Bush was adamant in his demand for an orderly and conclusive speech process, unlike the endless rewrites of the Clinton White House. Once a speech was deemed closed — it was closed.
I returned home that night depressed and demoralized. As my wife and I prepared to watch the speech, I gloomily predicted to her that the Canadian reaction would be savage — and that I’d get the blame.
She countered: “If that happens, why not just tell them truth?”
To this day, she quotes the reply I gave her all those years ago: “Is the truth really better?”

You really can't make this stuff up.
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Remember when New York used to hate Novak Djokovic?

2011-09-10T17:28:00.000-04:00

It seems like it was so long ago but remember when the New York crowd used to hate Novak Djokovic? What a match between Federer and Djokovic today. Djokovic was down two sets and two match points but came back to win 6-7,4-6,6-3,6-2 and 7-5 to beat Federer in the semi finals for the second straight year here. Federer had two match points last year as well. As tennis fans we have to soak matches like these while we can. When again will we see three guys like Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic dominate the sport again? These have been the top 3 guys in the sport for a long time now. Just wanted to share this video again because I don't think I've seen an athlete turn a crowd in his favor for good like he did that night. As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

Links for 2011-01-11 [Digg]

2011-01-12T00:00:00-08:00

From My Perspective: Please Help A Friend

Links for 2010-12-13 [Digg]

2010-12-14T00:00:00-08:00

Links for 2010-12-07 [Digg]

2010-12-08T00:00:00-08:00

From My Perspective: Elizabeth Edwards

Links for 2010-12-05 [Digg]

2010-12-06T00:00:00-08:00

From My Perspective: Facebook: Cartoon Default Photo

Links for 2010-07-25 [Digg]

2010-07-26T00:00:00-07:00

The War Logs
An archive of classified military documents offers an unvarnished view of the war in Afghanistan

Links for 2010-07-13 [Digg]

2010-07-14T00:00:00-07:00

George Steinbrenner III dead at the age of 80
Some thoughts and some nice on the life of George Steinbrenner.
New York Yankees unveiled Steinbrenner, Bob Sheppard patches
The New York Yankees have unveiled the uniform patches they will wear to honor George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard.
MLB All-Star Game
Some thoughts about tonights' All-Star Game.

Links for 2010-07-12 [Digg]

2010-07-13T00:00:00-07:00

Paul the Octopus retires from the oracle business
Paul, the octopus who became a pop culture sensation by correctly predicting the outcome of as many World Cup matches as he has legs, is going to retire.
Consumer Reports won't recommend iPhone 4
Consumer Reports said Monday it cannot recommend the iPhone 4 after testing by its engineers. What do those of you who already have one think?