Football

Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster sent home from NFL combine

March 4, 2017 by Rick R. Leave a Comment

Former Alabama inside linebacker Reuben Foster, viewed by most experts to be a top-10 pick in the upcoming NFL draft, was sent home from the combine.

From ESPN:

Foster had been waiting for an extended period for what the NFL calls his “pre-exam”, when he grew increasingly impatient and began questioning a hospital worker.

The hospital worker did not take kindly to Foster’s words and eventually the two were face to face, in a heated exchange.

The hospital worker did not take kindly to Foster’s words? Whatever said hospital worker’s duties are, I’m fairly confident they don’t include getting face to face with a patient.

I don’t know why players, especially those who are highly rated, even go to the NFL combine. Reuben Foster played four years at Alabama. He was a unanimous All-American last year and was awarded the Butkus Award as the top college linebacker in the country. No team in the NFL, even the ones run by incompetent morons, need to see Reuben Foster at the combine to learn any more information about him that they don’t already have.

If your team needs an inside linebacker and you’re burning calories trying to decide if you should draft Reuben Foster, you’re doing it wrong.

Washington Redskins fire yet another defensive coordinator

January 6, 2017 by Rick R. Leave a Comment

The Washington Redskins season officially ended Sunday with a loss to the New York Giants. They celebrated the start of the off-season by firing defensive coordinator Joe Barry. This is the third defensive coordinator to be fired by the Redskins in four years.

When I first heard this news, I was surprised that the Redskins even had a defensive coordinator. Who knew?

Not only did the Skins fire Barry, they fired defensive line coach Robb Akey, defensive backs coach Perry Fewell and strength coach Mike Clark.

Washington Redskins fire yet another defensive coordinator - Bent Corner — Former Washington Redskins strength coach Mike Clark blows a special whistle to make players stronger.

Why fire Clark? Did the Skins have a bad season because their players weren’t strong? The guys who are NFL strength coaches crack me up. They never look all that strong. They tend to look like guys who have to ask for help opening a pickle jar. I’m not saying Clark can’t open a pickle jar, but a lot of his peers look like they can’t.

The Redskins defense did suck a lot this past season. One way of solving that issue would have been to try to keep the defense off the field. They should have run the ball a lot more than they did. In 2016, the Redskins threw the ball 607 times and ran the ball 379 times. That’s ridiculous. Running the ball takes time off the clock. That’s not the case with passing the ball. The clock stops with every incomplete pass or any time the receiver steps out-of-bounds.

A lot of the defensive problems the Redskins had this season were caused by poor play calling on offense. Was Joe Kelly responsible for that? Nope. Plus, he looks like the type of guy who’s always ready to open a jar of pickles.

Is there any wonder why NFL viewership is down?

December 16, 2016 by Rick R. Leave a Comment

Last night’s Thursday Night Football game featured the Los Angeles Rams (4-9) versus the Seattle Seahawks (8-4-1). The Seahawks, of course, won, 24-3. The Rams are so bad they shouldn’t even be in the NFL.

When the Rams returned to Los Angeles, people described it as the second largest city in the United States having an NFL team again. I don’t think that’s even technically accurate. The Rams are a lot of things, an NFL caliber team they are not.

Los Angeles is a terrible sports town. It’s even worse when it comes to the NFL. The area once had two teams, the Rams, and the Raiders. Both teams left LA for greener pastures. That’s if think of either St. Louis or Oakland as greener pastures.

The fact that the NFL chose a Rams-Seahawks game as something worthy of prime-time national viewership shows just how out of touch they are with reality. To sweeten the pot, to make last night’s game even more unwatchable, they had both teams wear special alternate uniforms. This is the same NFL that won’t allow the Rams to return to their original Los Angeles colors and logos until 2019. Instead, they have to wear the colors and logos they used in St. Louis.

I can’t imagine how terrible it must have been to watch last night’s suckfest. The Seahawks uniforms are the worst uniforms I’ve ever seen. And I’m a fan of ugly uniforms. These Seahawks uniforms are beyond ugly. They look like they could induce seizures or even eyeball cancer.

Christmas Satanic symbol causes outrage

December 9, 2016 by Rick R. Leave a Comment

The city of Boca Raton is allowing religious groups to erect displays promoting their chosen religion at Sanborn Square, an area owned by the city. Included in the displays is a Satanic symbol. It honors Satan, former angel and enemy number one in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. It turns out, some people in Boca Raton have a problem with the Satanic symbol displayed near a Christmas nativity scene.

The pentagram display was put up by Preston Smith. He obtained a permit to erect the display. The pentagram display is located near a nativity scene, depicting the birth of Jesus Christ. Along with the pentagram is a banner provided by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The banner reads:

At this season of the Winter Solstice, we celebrate the Birth of the Unconquered Sun — the TRUE reason for the season. As Americans, let us also honor the birth of our Bill of Rights, which reminds us there can be no freedom OF religion, without freedom FROM religion in government.

Christmas Satanic symbol causes outrage - Bent Corner — Merry Christmas!

The first night the pentagram and accompanying banner were erected in Sanborn Square, someone armed with spray paint vandalized them. How surprising that someone or someones in Florida spray painted over a banner that promoted the Bill of Rights, one of our most treasured documents. I wonder, what offended them more: the Satanic symbol or the Bill of Rights?

The mayor of Boca Raton and area clergy are pretty upset over the Satanic display. Pastor Andrew Sherman with the Boca Raton Interfaith Clergy Association said:

They’re using a religious symbol and an inflammatory one at that, a Satanic symbol, to make their point. And we felt it was hypocritical and shameful.

Hypocritical and shameful? How so?

When asked about the vandalism, Pastor Sherman had this to say:

This was deliberately provocative and I’m not surprised it provoked a reaction even though I completely reject that reaction.

Sure. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if the good Pastor Sherman had spray paint stains on his index fingers.

Preston Smith believes the act of vandalism is a hate crime. He issued the following statement:

I have filed a police report with BRPD for this hate crime, which only proves that religion and government don’t mix. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is offering a monetary reward for info leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator(s). FFRF is also sending replacement banners via overnight delivery. Freethinkers have been targeted for thousands of years by religious folks, although counter-viewpoints are becoming more visible as this nation’s demographics shift away from organized religion. We will not be silenced by the those who fear freedom of speech in America. We will not be persecuted by religious zealots intolerant of diverse viewpoints. We are not going away, but are instead ready to make this an annual tradition. The Constitution protects the minority from the tyranny of the majority. The mayor and city council should immediately take notice — public parks must be free from all ancient myths and superstitions in order to preserve the well-being of the community at large.

I agree with Preston Smith. It was a hate crime.

Our Founding Fathers might have been slave-owning assholes, but they were correct when it came to the First Amendment. I love a good nativity scene, but it has no place on taxpayer-funded property. If you’re going to allow religious displays on public land, you’re going to have to allow all religious displays.

The NFL doesn’t care about gay people

November 23, 2016 by Rick R. Leave a Comment

The Oakland Raiders traveled down to Mexico City to play a home game against the Houston Texans Monday night. The Raiders beat the Texans 27-20, but the real loser that night was the NFL.

To schedule a game in the cesspool of a stadium known as Estadio Azteca is to embrace the homophobic chants from Mexican fans. In soccer, Mexico fans chant “puto” at opposing goalkeepers. The word is a derogatory slur for a gay man, specifically, one that has sex with other gay men for money.

FIFA, the corrupt organization that governs international soccer, has fined the Mexican football federation five times in the past 11 months for the chants. Their fans still do it. They do it at soccer games, and they do it at American football games. They did it Monday night, and they will surely do it the next time the NFL plays a game in Mexico City.

The NFL just doesn’t care. What are a few homophobic chants compared to the billions of dollars the league wants to make internationally? The NFL isn’t content with the billions it makes here in the United States. It wants to increase its already bloated revenue streams by marketing the game internationally.

The NFL plays games in London so that the games will air in China during primetime. Why settle for only selling overpriced replica jerseys in America when you can also sell them to football fans in China? Personally, I think this is why NFL jerseys are now made in Honduras and not China. It’s a lot harder to make quality fakes in China if the actual product is not also made there. If you’ve seen any of the fake NFL jerseys coming out of China lately, you know what I mean.

They’re really bad.

We know the NFL cares about fighting breast cancer because they sell pink colored merchandise with a portion of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. We know the NFL cares about honoring US service members because they make military-inspired merchandise with a portion of the proceeds going to various military non-profits. We know the NFL doesn’t care about gay people because they play games in Mexico City.

I have become disillusioned with using an iMac

October 31, 2016 by Rick R. 4 Comments

Last summer, when it was time to upgrade my PC, I decided to buy an iMac. Ever since buying a Windows 3.1 PC at a Radio Shack in Tullahoma, Tennessee back in 1994, I’ve used only Microsoft Windows computers.

I wouldn’t describe myself as ever really being a fan of Microsoft products. In fact, ever since Windows 95, I felt that Microsoft was just trying to fix it’s operating system with each and every new operating system, fixes that it was making consumers pay for. I used a Windows PC because that it always made more sense. Macs are expensive. Inexpensive PCs are never hard to mind. Windows PCs always seemed more practical because of the amount of software that’s available for the PC compared to the Mac.

My thinking began to change with the release of Windows 8.

I hated Windows 8. I hated the interface. It was as though Windows 8 thought I had a tablet for a PC and wanted me to swipe left and right to access content. It knew I didn’t have this type of computer, the kind that you could swipe the screen to make it do things.

It was then I began giving Apple a second look.

I was at the point that even if a Mac cost more than a comparable PC, I didn’t care as long as it was easier to use. I was a fan of the iPad. I figured using a Mac would be similar to using an iPad.

Wrong.

I bought my iMac in July of 2015 and at the time, I loved it. It came with the Yosemite operating system and when it was using that, it was great. Apple then updated the OS to El Capitan. I held off on upgrading. A lot of people were complaining about how El Capitan was awful. I figured as long as it wasn’t requiring me to upgrade, I’d let Apple get all the bugs out before inflicting it on my iMac. Plus, like it says in the Bible if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

If only I had adhered to the word of God.

After a couple of months of being nagged at to update the OS, I finally relented and upgraded to El Capitan. What a mess. Everything was slower. It seemed like the spinning beach ball, Apple’s retarded version of the hourglass icon, was constantly on the screen.

It was as though I suddenly didn’t have enough memory. When I purchased my iMac, I ordered it with 8GB of memory. It should have been enough. It was enough until I upgraded the OS to El Capitan. After the upgrade, it seemed like I needed more memory.

Some programs just wouldn’t work anymore. TextWrangler, a free code editor for the iMac, would continuously crash. I finally had to switch to Sublime for code editing.

I looked into it, and I had the option of upgrading the memory to 16GB, but it wasn’t as simple as opening a panel and replacing the RAM. No, it was a lot more complicated than that. I would need a special kit to open the computer and remove the glass display that’s held in place with an adhesive.

That seemed ridiculous. I’ve been upgrading hardware on computers for years, both in my personal life and in my professional life. I’d never had to deal with adhesive, especially to remove and replace memory. Upgrading memory is a regular thing to do when you own a computer. Not so when that computer is an iMac.

I’ve since upgraded the OS to Sierra. It too seems to crave more memory that I have. Other programs I used with Yosemite and even El Capitan stopped working when I upgraded to Sierra. They would crash, some almost as soon as I would start them up.

If I had it to do over again, I would not have bought an iMac. I would have bought a PC, even if it was running Windows 8.

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