Tag Archives: kansas city chiefs

The Mainstream Media Strikes Again. Mike Judge was Right, it IS an Idiocracy.

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 2 Comments

LAKE BUENA VISTA,  Fla. – There was a wonderfully funny Mike Judge movie called Idiocracy released in 2007 starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. It was about an average guy who awakes from a 500-year sleep/coma only to find that the United States had been dumbed-down to such an extent that he was now, clearly, the most intelligent person on the planet.

If our North American mainstream media continues to dumb us all down the way it has in recent years, Idiocracy won’t be a far-fetched cult-comedy. Soon, it will be North America.

Let’s take a look at another week in the wonderful world of mainstream media lies, lunacy and lethargy.

1) Isn’t it great when the media runs a guy out of town? Just ask Winnipeg football fans who allowed their own local mainstream media knuckleheads to run Bomber quarterback Kevin Glenn out of town, only to listen to that listen to that same media mob lament Glenn’s departure when he came back to beat the Bombers in the final game of the 2009 season.

In Kansas City, the local media didn’t like Larry Johnson, didn’t like what he (allegedly) said to them and they certainly didn’t want him around. So they joined forces, created a media mob and convinced everyone in the Chiefs organization that Johnson called them all an offensive name and demanded that the Chiefs release him.

The Chiefs did, of course, bowing to the same local media pressure that has helped make the Winnipeg Blue Bombers a team that has had four coaches and hundreds of players (many of them quarterbacks) in just six years.

So what did Johnson do last Sunday? He rushed for 107 yards for the playoff bound Cincinnati Bengals. If the Chiefs never make the playoffs again, it will be too soon. When the media — people who have never played a down of actual real football — runs your team, you’re finished.

2) The mainstream media in Winnipeg has found a new method to help the board of directors of the football club make a decision to fire head coach Mike Kelly. The latest is to suggest that corporate sponsors will cancel their financial commitments to the club if Kelly is back as head coach next season.

As a person who works seven days a week in the corporate sponsorship field, I can assure the board and the local mainstream media story tellers that no corporate sponsor is leaving the football club because Kelly is or isn’t the head coach.

A sponsor might leave because there is a recession and money is tight. He might leave because he doesn’t feel a sponsorship with the club will give him the advertising bang he requires. He might not even want his brand associated with a dumpy stadium and a football club that hasn’t won a title in 19 years. But there is not one sponsor who, honestly, will pull his support because of the coach.

I’ve asked countess corporate sponsors if they plan to pull their financial support from the football club because Kelly is the head coach and not one has said anything of the sort. I’ve also asked more than one board member which sponsors might be leaving and they have no idea.

So let’s bury another mainstream media myth (lie?). There might be reasons why some corporate sponsors would pull their support from the Winnipeg Football Club, but it is NOT because Mike Kelly is or isn’t the head coach.

3) Why would any sports fan spend a dollar on a newspaper? By the time a newspaper gets a story, it’s not just 24 hours old, it’s often multiple-weeks old.

Friday’s official re-signing of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith by the Chicago Blackhawks was first announced in Winnipeg on 92-CITI-FM 18 days ago — on the same day the pending deals were announced by a couple of Chicago-area sports blogs. The Chicago Tribune had the rumours the next morning.

The pending contract signings were discovered as a response to a Sun Media “report,” out of Ottawa that claimed Toews, Kane and Keith were all on the trade block in Chicago because the Hawks had “salary cap issues.” As usual, that newspaper report turned out to be false.

Thursday at 92-CITI, we had the story on the contracts’ details and Saturday, the stories finally reached the local newspapers after the Hawks officially announced the deals (Toews and Kane each agreed to five-year. $31.5 million deals while Duncan Keith signed a cap-busting 13-year, $72 million contract).

And people actually pay money for old news? A lot of people are dumber than we thought.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Blog, CFL, NFL, NHL

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Another Week of Craziness. The Business Just Gets Nuttier

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It would be insane to suggest that anything at all is surprising anymore.

You have the owners of the Toronto Argonauts (a franchise that looked pretty good when they bought it) telling people they might be interested in acquiring the Phoenix Coyotes. Man, how many teams can you kill at once?

You have Kansas City Chiefs runningback Larry Johnson using “a gay slur” to describe newspaper reporters. No wonder gay people are upset.

And you have newspaper people wetting themselves over Mark McGwire’s return to baseball when every, single poll suggests that 65-80 per cent of baseball fans (depending on the poll) don’t care what he may or may not have done in 1997.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. This was another crazy week

1) The Ottawa Sun is at it again. The newspaper that creates more trade rumours than a handful of drunks at a sports bar now has the following on its plate: Brian Burke is actively pursuing a goaltender (who knew?), the Florida Panthers are trying to trade Nathan Horton (the GM has denied it), the Philadelphia Flyers are interested in signing Brendan Shanahan (should be easy, he’s an unemployed free agent) and the Carolina Hurricanes are ready to trade anyone and everyone (really?).

As I’ve always said, “If it’s in a newspaper, believe whatever it is you want to believe.”

2) The officiating in last Sunday’s Minnesota-Pittsburgh game was a complete embarrassment to the NFL. So embarrassing in fact, that it looked like a fix. I wonder which NFL officials had money on that game?

Sadly, all officiating everywhere at every level is awful. We’ve watched the horrible baseball umpiring this fall (how about that non-catch-turned-doubleplay by Ryan Howard on Thursday night?) and we’ve watched CFL, NFL, NBA and NHL officials look either lost or phony.

The biggest problem with sport these days isn’t steroids, it’s lousy officiating.

3) I love how even some Bomber players were sheepish about last Saturday afternoon’s 41-24 win over the Montreal Alouettes. Anthony Calvillo didn’t play and therefore, it wasn’t really a big win.

Baloney. If Calvillo had played last Saturday, the Bombers would have won by 30, not 17. Calvillo can’t run out of trouble like Adrian McPherson did.

Calvillo would have been killed last Saturday. Frankly, I think the Bombers are very, very pleased that Calvillo is playing this Sunday. I’m sure Phillip Hunt and Odell Willis are salivating at the thought of taking that rush to Montreal’s old man.

4) The publishing company that was going to back a book by former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has pulled the plug on the book, stating:  “After a close legal review of the final manuscript of ‘Blowing the Whistle’ by Tim Donaghy, and our independent evaluation of some of the author’s sources and statements, Triumph Books and Random House have decided not to go forward with the book’s publication. Our decision is wholly our own and was made without consultation with any outside parties or individuals.”

Yeah, right. That just smells like bullshit.

Donaghy was about to tell the truth and a lot of influential people in the United States want no part of the truth. Excerpts I’ve seen include a number of different accusations regarding wagering between officials that are actually handling the NBA games they’re gambling on (not in the least bit surprised), favoritism toward star players (that’s freakin’ obvious), and a desire on the league’s part to make sure playoff series went as long as possible (and that surprises people?).

Donaghy is painted as a rogue and a bad guy by the NBA. He is. But he’s also trying to get the truth off his back. And the truth is ugly. There is no game on the planet that looks as phony as the NBA. Like, whatever happened to travelling? Since when could stars take nine steps to the hoop? The NBA looks more like European team handball than basketball.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Blog, general sports

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Favre Does Everything Childress Wanted in Debut.

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — It was the two hits.

That was what made Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress smile. It wasn’t so much his team’s  17-13 victory over the visiting Kansas City Chiefs that made him happy as much as it was watching his new quarterback’s ability to take a hit. That’s what gave Childress reason to declare Brett Favre was ready to make some noise in purple this season.

Most coaches wouldn’t want anyone near the team’s prized quarterback, especially in a pre-season game, but on Friday night at the Metrodome, the head coach of the Vikings had no problem with it at all. In fact, when Chiefs linebacker Corey Mays picked up Favre and bodyslammed him to the Metrodome turf in the first quarter, it removed all the concerns that a 39-year-old quarterback could no longer take the physical brutality of the NFL anymore.

“He did tell me nobody’s tackled him off his tractor (at home in Mississippi) so it was good to get hit, knocked on his rear end .. to experience that,” said Childress, during the post-game news conference. “Would I rather have him upright? Yeah, I’d rather have him upright. He’s going to get hit, it’s football. But he’s put together well and he takes good care of himself. He’s strong. He’s built pretty well, he’s not a guy who spent the off-season sitting on the couch eating chocolates.

“Getting hit is part of the game.”

Friday night at the Metrodome, 62,782 fans showed up, cameras a’ flashing, to watch the debut of Brett Favre, the long-hated quarterback of the Green Bay Packers who this week, showed up in Minnesota, signed a two-year, $25 million contract and was on the practice field by 1:30 Tuesday afternoon.

After two and a half days of practice, Favre started Friday night’s pre-season game against the Chiefs and while he didn’t set the world on fire in the two series he played — he went one-for-four for four yards and was drilled twice — he did start to get a feel for Minnesota’s offence.

And, to be fair, that’s all Childress expected.

“Small victories there,” Childress said. “The centre-quarterback exchange and handing the ball off. We sat out (Bernard) Berrian, my decision, so he didn’t have a full complement of receivers.

“He’s practised two and a half days. Based on my experience, for a guy to get comfortable with his receivers, comfortable with our terminology, comfortable with the entire offence, it takes about two weeks. He’s pretty good with those kinds of things. Still, it’s something you have to build toward.”

For Favre, Friday night’s pre-season debut was a relief. Even though Mays and Tamba Hall, hit him pretty hard, he came out of the game none the worse for wear. In fact, he was actually pleased with everything that took place, from the buzz in the crowd, to the buzz in his belly, to his contact with the turf.

“In the meetings, and before the game, I started having butterflies,” Favre said. “I was really nervous. Somebody said to me, it’s good for a quarterback who is nearly 40 to get nervous.

“I’m trying to purge myself of [the pressure],” Favre said. “Because with all of the attention it is kind of hard not to feel like you have to live up to all this hype. Not that I don’t want to do that, but the most important thing is to lead this team to victory, somehow, someway. I didn’t want to get off to the wrong start by fumbling snaps. I wanted to call the plays right, get in and out of the huddle and be as smooth as possible. Based on the facts — two and a half days — I consider that to be a small victory tonight.”

Favre said that he expects to play at least a half of the Vikings’ next preseason game, a Monday nighter on Aug. 31, at Houston. Childress said Favre will have all of his receivers this time and will be given every opportunity to get his timing “and his legs underneath him.”

Favre, meanwhile, just wants to play.

“Getting this over with tonight is a good thing,” Favre said. “Preseason is tough anyways, but this week has obviously been a little bit hectic.

“It was nice tonight to play with live bullets. I know that after Brad saw me get hit the first time he really didn’t want me to go back in, but that’s part of the game. I need to get hit. It’s football. I’m back to business as usual. Now I just want to make sure I help this team win.”

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Blog, NFL

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

A Standing Ovation For Favre

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — E.J. Henderson recovered a Jamaal Charles fumble about three minutes into tonight’s football game and it was time for Minnesota Vikings fans to go nuts.

The Vikes refused to introduce a starting offence or defence tonight. Instead, Vikings head coach Brad Childress waited until the Vikes got control of the football to trot out the team’s new messiah. In fact, the entire offence ran out onto the field, before Brett Favre came out all by himself.

With that, about 60,000 people rose to their feet in what seemed to be a creepy sort of Scandinavian adulation. After 16 years in the wilderness (I love that), Brett was finally one of them.

On his first series, he completed one of two passes for four yards and then Adrian Peterson was stopped short of a first donw on fourth-and-one.

There was already grumbling.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Blog

Tagged , , , ,

Fans Love Him. Vikes Faithful Cheer Favre’s Entrance For Warm-Up

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — When Brett Favre entered the Metrodome for the Minnesota Vikings final warm-up about 10 minutes ago, the 30,000 or so fans who were waiting in the seats went nuts. Never in the history of the pre-season has one group of primarily blonde people been so smitten by a football player. By the time the ball is kicked off, there will be 65,000 people in the Dome — to watch, essentially, a practice.

Of course, this is Brett Favre we’re talking about. This is the man who is going to lead the long-suffering Vikings fans to the promised land. Or, at least to the second round of the playoffs.

As the Vikings prepared for tonight’s game with the Kansas City Chiefs, Favre looked quite comfortable in his new purple, gold and white outfit. Indeed, purple seems to be the new green.

Out on the concourse, there were more Favre jerseys than anyone could imagine. Suddenly that No. 28 Adrian Peterson jersey was being overshadowed by the shirt belonging to a 39-year-old quarterback who was once hated by everyone who worships the purple.

The Brett Favre Era in Minnesota, as short as that era may be, begins in about 25 minutes.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Blog, NFL

Tagged , , ,

Crowd Aflutter All Day. Waiting for “Their” Brett.

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Brett Favre will wear No. 4 for the Minnesota Vikings tonight when the Vikes meet the Kansas City Chiefs at the Metrodome.

The myth that “most” Vikings fans don’t want Favre to be their favourite team’s quarterback appears to be just that: a big, giant, stupid myth.

“I’m going to watch Brett throw seven or eight touchdown passes against the Packers this season and wallow in it,” said Doug Spooner, who has been tailgating outside the Metrodome since 7 a.m. “I hated him in Green Bay, but he’s not in Green Bay anymore. Professional football is a business. It’s kind of like marriages. He had 15 or 16 years married to the Packers and good for him. But he’s divorced from the Packers now and after a brief fling with the Jets, he’s married to us. We love him. And to Packers fans I say, ‘Enjoy Aaron Rodgers.’ This isn’t personal, it’s a business.”

Or a marriage. Or whatever.

Tonight, Favre will make his debut in Minnesota and fans are hoping for two things to happen (a) that he starts and (b) that head coach Brad Childress introduces the offence before the game so the fans can cheer their lungs out for their new hero.

It was suggested earlier today, by an older fan tailgating in front of the Dome, that he would have liked to see Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels get a chance to be the team’s WB, but when it was presented to him that the Vikings don’t have a chance to go to the Super Bowl with Rosenfels or Jackson at the helm and at least they have some chance with Favre, he relented.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “this could be a really good team.”

In Minnesota this year, with the signing of Brett Favre, it’s already being billed as “Mission: Miami.”

That’s because, with Favre, alongside Chester Taylor, Adrian Peterson, Bobby Wade, Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin, Sidney Rice, Visanthe Shiancoe and that monster defence led by Jared Allen and Antoine Winfield, the Vikings have a legitimate chance to get to the Super Bowl.

And it all starts tonight.

We’ll have reports throughout the evening.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Blog, NFL

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Could the Vikings be the best team in the NFC? Probably not, but they should be around in January.

Posted on August 20, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

When your quarterback is Tarvaris Jackson and you’re thin at half-a-dozen important positions, it’s unlikely you’ll be the team to beat in any league. Even if you happen to reside in the less-than-frightening NFC North.

 

However, all things being equal, the Minnesota Vikings should make some noise this coming National Football League season. After all…

 

The Vikings made an outstanding off-season acquisition by getting defensive end Jared Allen, the league’s sack king, from the Kansas City Chiefs for a couple of first-round picks. It was a good deal for the Vikings, a team that believes it can win right now. First round picks are obviously important, but if a team can acquire a player who can help it win right now, it’s a deal that has to be done. As most NFL coaches know, there might not be a next year, at least if you don’t win now.

 

The Vikings also acquired unrestricted free agents Bernard Berrian from the Chicago Bears and  unrestricted free agent Madieu Williams from the Cincinnati Bengals. Throw Berrian into the mix with Sidney Rice and Bobby Wade and the Vikings receiving corps is solid. Toss in Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson at runningback and there might not be enough footballs in the Twin Cities to make everyone happy. 

 

The offensive line of Jim Kleinsasser or Visanthe Shiancoe at tight end, Ryan Cook at right tackle, Anthony Herrera at right guard, Matt Birk at centre, Steve Hutchinson at left guard and Bryant McKinnie at left tackle is well above average and the kick and punt return teams are passable.

 

On defence, the front seven is very good with Jared Allen at left end, Pat Williams at left tackle, Kevin Williams at right tackle, and Ray Edwards at right end. The linebackers are Ben Leber at WILL, E.J. Henderson at MAC and Chad Greenway at SAM. However, lose one starter and the whole thing could come apart. The Vikings defensive front seven — healthy — is very, very good. It’s so thin and unproven, however, that injuries could rip it apart 

 

The defensive secondary is led by Darren Sharper at strong safety, with Madieu Williams at free safety and Antoine Winfield and Cedric Griffin on the corners. Marcus McCauley will see a lot of time in nickel and dime packages.

 

On the surface, and on paper, this team is pretty good. The key to the Vikings’ 2008 season, however, is health. If Tarvaris Jackson is healthy (he was 8-4 when he started last year), if Adrian Peterson stays healthy and if the defence stays healthy, the Vikings will challenge the Giants, Bucs, Seahawks and Redskins in the NFC.

 

If injuries strike down the important players on this team, the Vikings will find themselves battling Detroit for .500 and a trip to Giants Stadium to get smoked in the opening round of the playoffs.

 

Thousands of Winnipeggers head to the Twin Cities for Vikings football every year and I must admit, it’s been a few years since I liked my regional team at the start of a season.  

 

But I do like a healthy Minnesota Vikings team. In fact, I like them to challenge in the NFC.

 

Injuries? Well, then it could get ugly.

 

Comments Off

Posted in Blog, NFL

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,