And Down the Stretch They Come!

I just think it sounds cool when announcers yell that during a horse race, that's all. And yes, I do watch horse racing three times a year for the Triple Crown races, and I find the races themselves pretty exciting. The all day prerace coverage designed to help me understand the horses mindset I do not enjoy. It's a horse, it doesn't have a mindset, it has instincts, that's all. And that whole Barbaro thing enrages me beyond belief. It was very sad that the horse died, I can understand that, but people saying this horse changed or touched their lives? Seriously, it's a freaking horse, a very fast horse yes (now just very fast glue actually, oh whoops, too soon?), but still just a horse. Care this much about other people you idiots. Anyway moving on to today's topics, we have tragedy in college football, and Kobe Bryant should probably talk less. Let's go.


Terry Hoeppner Loses His Battle

College football suffered a loss greater than any team faces on Saturday's in the fall. Terry Hoeppner, the 59 year old head coach at the University of Indiana, lost his battle with brain cancer. I am sure there's a thousand stories about how Hoeppner was a great second father to countless football players, I know Ben Roethlisberger has made a statement saying as much, but what gets forgotten in this is that aside from being a football coach, Terry Hoeppner was also a husband and a father and no one in the world of college football can hold a candle to how much his wife and three children will miss their husband and father. I know that a lot of people die everyday who leave behind families, but they're not famous so I don't hear about them specifically, so I can't really speak much about those people here. All I can say is that if you're the type who is inclined to pray in these type of situations, asking for comfort for Hoeppner's family, than that's great, but while you're at it, go ahead and toss in a word or two for people's lost loved ones that don't make headlines on SportsCenter. My condolences to Terry Hoeppner's wife and three children.


The World to Kobe Bryant: Shhhhhhh!

OK Black Mamba, we get it, you don't want to play for the Lakers anymore. Now shut-up. For the love of everything good and holy, shut-up. All of the whining in the world won't force LA to trade you. In fact it might make the process counterproductive. If you would have just went to the team, asked for a trade and then kept your mouth shut there's a chance you would have been easier to move. Now any team that is even willing to consider taking on Kobe and his big bag of crazy isn't going to be willing to give up nearly as much for him as they would be if they were considering simply the fact that they were trading for the 2-time defending NBA scoring champ.

Here is what I don't get. Kobe is still a guy that is supposed to be trying to rebuild his image. Remember the whole Colorado thing? For his image's purposes it doesn't matter if he actually did it, or that the charges were dropped, because the minute the story broke his reputation as the league's poster boy good guy was instantly sent into a bigger rebuilding project than the Celtics have been in since Larry Legend left town. My question is, how is looking like a big whining prima dona good for his image? It's not. Doesn't he have a PR lady that proof reads the stuff he posts on his website before he comes off like a guy that just won't shut up about how much it sucks to be the best player in the game on a team that isn't trying hard enough to win? And how on earth did Kobe not realize he was being videotaped when he went off on Andrew Bynum and Mitch Kupchak? I don't care if it was a cell phone camera or whatever it was, isn't it pretty easy to tell when someone has a cell phone fixed in your direction when you're talking to them? Do us all a favor Kobe, just duct tape your mouth closed, and sit on your hands so you don't say or type anything else that makes us want to hate you.

That's all for today folks, hope you enjoyed the double dose.