The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

Consider this a very public cry for help...


Ummm....

How do I say this?

OK, fine, just out with it...like ripping off a Band-Aid....

Ahem....

My name is Scott...and I have been watching a LOT of soccer lately.

There...it's out there.

And I don't mean just the World Cup...heck, everybody is watching at least SOME of that. (Right? What do you mean, NO?) ANYway....I have even been watching some of the stuff from overseas that comes on the Fox Soccer Channel. You know, the stuff that comes on in the middle of the day. Which means...I have been setting my DVR to record soccer every day and then watching it when I get home from work.

Yeah...it's like THAT.

All of this can only mean one thing...I am REALLY ready for football season to get here. The REAL football.

Luckily, today marks only FIFTY NINE days to kickoff. I know I have fallen WAY behind on the countdown, but yesterday was Clint Boling Day. I celebrated by being consistently excellent at everything I did, only to receive minimal recognition for my efforts.

Couple other "newsy" items that have happened while I was off watching Arsenal vs. Liverpool in an English Premier League match from last October:

- Nothing much left to be said about the Damon Evans situation. The saddest and most frustrating part of this story to me is this...if you had asked me a week ago what the ceiling was on Damon Evans' career, I would have struggled to come up with one.

SEC commissioner? NCAA President? Governor? Senator?

Seriously...all of that was on the table. This was a guy who was handed the AD job at one of the most prestigious athletic departments in the country at 34 years old, and has done a fantastic job with it in the six years he's had it. He was the Golden Child. Not only one of the most respected AD's in the country, but a flag bearer as the first black AD in the SEC.

Now? I don't think his career is "over" per se...he's too talented. He'll get another job, and if he keeps his nose clean for a few years he may even resurface as an AD at another (probably much smaller) school. But all of those other opportunities listed above? Gone. Completely off the table.

And, to me, even that knowledge pales in comparison to what he is putting his wife and children (11 years old and 8 years old) through, and the fact that he has probably lost his family.

And for what? A few drinks and a 28 year old "Asset Manager".

Wow.

Let this be a lesson, kids...what takes a lifetime to create only takes a few hours and a couple of bad decisions to destroy.

- The Jordan Love situation really ticks me off.

The situation as I've heard it (mostly from UGASports.com), for those who may not be aware (Hi, Mom!):

A bunch of students (including football players Jordan Love and Shawn Williams) are hanging out in a common area outside East Campus Village shooting off fireworks and lighting sparklers. A neighbor calls the police to complain (which...come on, seriously? It's 4th of July, you communist!). The neighbor then informs the group that the police have been called, and the group breaks up. Jordan and Shawn stick around to talk to the police, which I assume was because they didn't want it to look like they were "running" from them. Police show up, question the players, and ask for their name. Jordan gives his first and last name, but when asked for his middle name he initially says he doesn't know it, then says he DOES know it, but isn't sure of the legal spelling. For this egregious offense, Campus Police slap handcuffs on him and arrest him for obstruction of justice, and initial reports are that he was "uncooperative" with the police and "refused to give his name". He was released two hours later on $5000 bond.

The "rest of the story"...Jordan's middle name comes from his birth father, who he has no contact with. It's not listed on his driver's license. Jordan's mother, who is an FBI agent, has reportedly instructed Jordan that, when asked, to give his first and last name and then to invoke his right to remain silent if questioned further.

Campus Police Chief comes out the next day and says it was a "breakdown in communication" and plans on asking the Judge in the case to drop the charges.

Let's look a little deeper...

First of all, the arrest happened at 11:35 PM, which means that it couldn't have been any later than 11 when the fireworks were being shot. So the neighbor really is a dillhole.

Second, Jordan CHOSE to remain behind and talk to the police voluntarily, when he was well within his rights to leave the premises before the police arrived. So..."uncooperative"? I don't think so.

Third, even if the "rest of the story" wasn't what it turned out to be...THAT'S what you're going to arrest somebody for? Not spelling their middle name? So, because of that, he has an arrest on his record, had to go to jail for two hours, had his name plastered all over the papers, has to appear in court...ridiculous.

Way to go, Deputy Fife. That's some high quality police work right there.

Those of you who know me know that I am not one to play the race card at all...but I wonder if the player had been, say, Kris Durham, would it have gone down the same way?

Or, for that matter...what if it wasn't a football player at all? Think things would have been handled differently?

Whatever...I hear the Loves have acquired an attorney and plan on suing the University police. I say more power to them.

PLEASE...can we PLEASE just get the season started? I'm sick of talking about crap like this, plus I think I'm becoming a Euro pantywaist soccer fan.

Random thoughts - Dawgs, Braves, a goodbye to one of the best in the business, other stuff...

TOLD you posting would be more sporadic now that I am back from vacation. Work has been kicking my butt pretty hard since I got back, plus some Father's Day traveling...so, yeah.

Some random thoughts that have been building up over the past week or so...

- First things first...The Dawg Nation is facing a big loss in the next month or so, as the magnificent David Hale is moving on to...um....well, let's just say different pastures, rather than greener ones.

Hale has produced a steady output of the kind of material that I wish ALL of the online "journalists" would aspire to...informative, entertaining, insightful, must-read articles, sometimes multiple times a day.

The two aspects that made him the best: First of all, he always seemed to ask the questions that we as fans would ask if given the opportunity, rather than just the typical cliches. I think that's harder to do than a lot of people think.

Secondly, his accuracy and integrity were never in question. Among all of us Dawg Tweeps, Bloggers, and 'Venters, there was one thing we knew for sure: no matter the situation (coaching change, position change, player suspensions, etc), it wasn't for SURE true unless David Hale had reported it.

Hale never attended UGA, but it's safe to say he is a DGD and will be missed by the Dawg Nation.

- My biggest regret about falling behind on my countdown to kickoff? I missed my opportunity last Saturday to post THIS:



Yep...Saturday was 77 days until kickoff, so we honor Trinton Sturdivant and his groovy dance stylings.

The other thing that means is that this week we are only TEN WEEKS from GAME WEEK! I can smell the ribs already! And the bourbon...and the VIOLENCE.

The more I think about this 2010 Dawgs team, the more excited I am. Only 73 days to go!!

- If there are any of you still reading this who were loyal readers of my American Idol recaps, I appreciate it...and you can rest knowing that you may have been witnesses to history. If this little news release turns out the way I am afraid it will, I will likely no longer even be WATCHING, must less recapping, so THIS was likely my last American Idol recap ever. With three daughters in the house, I hear plenty of 15-year-old marginally talented "singers" already...no need to expose myself to any more, thank you very much.

- U-S-A!!! U-S-A!!!




That concludes the soccer portion of our blog.

(Even if you're not a soccer fan, check out the second video)

- Braves continue to play good baseball...but one of my favorite stories of the season so far is Stephen Strasburg. Between him and J-Hey, I feel like we are watching the first green shoots of two guys who may go down as some of the best ever.

Check out some of these numbers, courtesy of Buster Olney's blog on ESPN.com (daily reading for baseball fans, by the way):

"After opposing hitters have reached a count of no balls and two strikes against Stephen Strasburg, they are 0-for-20 with 16 strikeouts. That's not much worse than what happens after they fall behind in the count of 0-1: Opponents are 4-for-36 with 22 strikeouts after the first pitch goes for strike one."

"How unusual is Stephen Strasburg's efficiency? Well, consider this note generated by the Washington Nationals' staff: In 2010, only three pitchers have struck out 10-plus in a game but required less than 100 pitches to do so. Strasburg has two of these zero-walk, 10-plus K tallies. On April 6, Dallas Braden struck out 10 over seven innings against the Mariners, while throwing 91 pitches. On May 15, James Shields struck out 10 with 93 pitches against the Mariners. Then, in his debut, Strasburg threw 94 pitches against the Pirates and struck out 14 -- before striking out 10 with 85 pitches against the White Sox Friday."

Pretty amazing stuff...in fact, if J-Hey doesn't find a way out of this slump he is in, Strasburg might steal his Rookie of the Year award.

One thing I don't like about the guy...he's a Scott Boras client. And, even though Strasburg signed the largest contract in draft history, he was "undervalued", according to Boras.

Whenever the first contract negotiation between the Nats and Strasburg happens, I think Boras' end of the conversation may sound something like this:

"Our demands are these: $350 GAZILLION dollars. And a unicorn... Wait, not a unicorn...what's the one with the wings? Oh, right, a Pegasus. We want $350 GAZILLION dollars and a personal Pegasus. What do you mean, how many zeroes are in a gazillion? I don't know...that's for YOU to figure out!"

OK, that's about it for now...how about I leave you with this, just for fun?


GO DAWGS!!!

Weekend thoughts

Random thoughts from the last week or so....

- Checked out the Ron Moore (Creator/Producer of BSG) pilot/TV movie Virtuality on Friday night. This was originally meant to be a pilot, but then it didn't get picked up. So Fox decided to run it as a movie, even though there was no hope of any kind of storyline resolution (since it was intended as a PILOT), and then not promote it at all. Geniuses. It's a shame, too, because it was pretty good, as pilots go. Very interesting and thought provoking concept, which is why it obviously doesn't belong on American network TV. Hey, when does "More To Love" start?

Anyway, if you want to check it out (and all you BSG fans have to...you owe it to Moore and Taylor), you can check it out on Hulu....HERE.




- Just like a lot of people, I got caught up in the USA soccer hype over the weekend. I'm a little different than most in that I actually do watch the occasional soccer match, even when it's NOT the World Cup.

The 3-0 defeat of Egypt, the subsequent win over Spain (ranked #1 in the world), and the first half against Brazil were all good things for US soccer. They got a lot of attention and hype, in large part because these successes happened at a time when there is NOTHING going on in the sports world.

But, please...don't start with the whole "Now soccer will finally be a big deal in the United States" meme. We've heard it before:'94 World Cup, '96 Olympics, '02 World Cup...all of these were supposed to be some sort of "tipping point" when it came to the US sports fan embracing soccer. Not going to happen.

I've heard lots of reasons for this, including some really, really stupid ones...I actually heard somebody on the radio yesterday say that he couldn't get into it because the clock counts up instead of down. Seriously? Are you retarded? Why should that take more than about three seconds to adjust to?

Anyway, people point to the lack of scoring, or the somewhat nebulous and confusing rules, and I can buy that as to why it's never going to be football, baseball, or basketball. But I think it could be at the level of hockey if that were the only problem. But it's not.

The reason we at least sort of embrace hockey despite the lack of offense and confusing rules is that it is a sport played by MEN who behave like MEN. We admire hockey players for their toughness, and that helps sell the sport. Soccer players, especially the international ones, flop around like a bunch of pansies every time someone touches them, and the referees actually reward that behavior.

It's one of the main reasons the US will never be an international soccer power...we refuse to flop. It's 100% against our athletic DNA to actually ACT like we're hurt when we're not. In fact, we go in the complete opposite direction...NEVER let your opponent know you're hurt. And if you do get hurt, rub some dirt on that broken bone, walk that torn ligament off and get your butt back in the game. I hope we never change that mindset, but as long as we don't we are at a distinct disadvantage in international play.

I'll give Spain and Brazil credit, though...they are two of the very few international teams who don't do a lot of diving and flopping. Their mindset is to keep their feet, run through tackles and make plays, which is why the US/Spain and US/Brazil matches were so much more entertaining than watching, say, Italy. I hate those freaking pansies. Their entire strategy appears to be based on diving and flopping and drawing as many penalties as they can.

By the way, if the NBA doesn't get their referees under control, the international style of flopping and play-acting is going to ruin that sport as well.

OK, I promise...no more soccer talk until at LEAST the World Cup.

- Some quick Braves thoughts

• This is the worst hitting team we have had in at LEAST twenty years, especially with Chipper in his huge slump and Escobar on the bench with a sprained brain. There is absolutely no power in this lineup (Chipper leads the team with 9 HR, good for 38th in the NL).
• On the other hand, you can't ask for more out of the pitching staff than we are getting right now. Jurrjens and Vazquez both have ERA hovering around 3.00 and losing records, Kawakami hasn't allowed more than three runs in his last ten starts, and Tommy Hanson is the TRUTH (you heard it here first...or first-ish). He's 4-0 and hasn't allowed an earned run in 20 innings, including two starts against some pretty potent opposition (Yankees and Red Sox).
• Maybe it's time for Bobby to step aside...I think baseball managers in general are overvalued, but this is several years in a row now of diminishing performance. Time for a new voice, I think, and that means someone other than Terry Pendleton. Replacing Bobby with TP would just be a continuation of the same mindset.

- Dawg news:

• Dawgs now have 11 committments for the 2010 signing class. I have to admit, I've been a little concerned when I look at the star rankings and offer list from some of these early committments. From all reports, this is probably going to be another small recruiting class (probably closer to 20 rather than the norm of 25). Out of the 11, there are about 5-6 that are either not ranked or are ranked pretty low. I know, I know, trust the coaching staff. Believe me, I'm trying.
• We did get a committment from the Rivals.com #1 safety in the country, Alec Ogletree. Many analysts compare him to a taller Thomas Davis. I'll take it. Here's some footage, with h/t to Georgia Sports Blog...

• Also, another good article on Joe Cox at UGASports.com, with more references to his leadership ability. I am excited about his leadership, but I'm looking forward to when we can start talking about his play ON the field.
• Bubba 'n' Earl continue to do a great job counting down to kickoff...some very fun and creative stuff as they count down by the numbers.

- And, finally (cue wild applause), if you want a good way to lose several hours out of your day check out Flickchart.com. Discover your favorite movies, one agonizing decision at a time. My list is here, if you want to check it out.