Shut up, Dwight
After today, I hit my breaking point. Call it a milestone moment, maybe even me growing up, but I officially hate Dwight Howard more than LeBron James. Yeah, I said it and I don't care who doesn't like it.
I've never claimed to be a basketball expert and quite frankly don't want to be, but I'm sorry, Dwight is overrated. I mean that in terms of the people he is spoken about with when it comes to these "super teams" and the current group of NBA divas. Dwight is no D-Wade, Carmello, Chris Paul or Kevin Durant. And he's sure as hell no Kobe Bryant or LeBron James. I don't get it with Howard, never have. All I know is sports talk radio and television would be a lot better if he'd shut his horse face up and play basketball. His act is old.
When you make a guy who loves Cleveland to his soul start looking at LeBron James and saying "At least he isn't Dwight Howard", and you're Dwight Howard, time to reconsider your media persona.
Stormy night in Columbus
If you're a follower on twitter or a regular reader of this blog, you know I have my favorites and defend them to the death but still will call a spade a spade when it comes right down to it. As Jim Rome used to say, "Sometimes we have to smack our own." And that's true in the case of Storm Klein.
Saturday night as everyone settled in for NASCAR, UFC, Kelly Pavlik or bellied up to a bar, Urban Meyer relieved Storm Klein (senior linebacker) of his opportunity to be an Ohio State Buckeye football player. Why? Klein was arrested for domestic violence.
So what happened? Allegedly Klein's mother of his child arrived at his apartment to discuss some things with him. What the tone of the the conversation was, only two people know. Klein's attorney then openly admits that Storm "forced the woman out of the apartment and locked the door, and somehow in the process, she got a pronounced welt on her forehead." Somehow? His girlfriends statement claims that Klein "violently and purposely grabbed” her by the forearms and slammed her into the front door, causing an abrasion and swelling to the left side of her forehead and scrapes on both of her forearms."
Just unreal.
You have the opportunity that so many people would die to have. The chance that so many dream of and are never ever in their wildest imagination going to athletically meet the demands and expectations to be an Ohio State Buckeye football player. And this is how you behave? Forget tattoos or championship rings or payments for touchdowns, that's all nothing compared to putting your hands on a woman. Storm, I hope this all blows over and for your sake it's a big misunderstanding etc., but the reality of the situation is likely to make that statement not true. Your own attorney has admitted you bruised this girl up. And this girl,who is she? Not that if she wasn't it makes it alright, but that's the mother of your child!
What is wrong with people today? Well, luckily Urban Meyer decided there's not going to be a trial in his locker room. Meyer booted Storm almost immediately, citing his actions to "violate the core values of the Ohio State Football Program." I would hope so...
PSU pile on?
The short answer is, no. I'm not going to pile on PSU after the emails were released showing in intrinsic details on just how involved everyone was and to what degree one of the biggest names in the history of college football protected his buddy and turned a blind eye to what was happening in State College.
This whole story is disgusting. Start to finish, everyone involved, it and they all absolutely stink. And they're covered in it from head to toe. It's not professional or whatever you may want to call it, and I've never said this and meant it before, but if you have any support for Jerry Sandusky, or you in even the most remote way may have or do defend him, do the world a favor and find another solar system to inhabit.
I said I wasn't going to pile on PSU and I'm not. Some great journalist's have done outstanding work in making the masses realize just much scum in the water at "Happy Valley." Instead, I want a piece of the "you don't know the whole story" and "poor Joe" crowd. As a matter of fact, I don't want a piece, I want the whole thing!
The whole story? I don't need nor want to hear it. All I needed to hear was "guilty" on 45 of 48 counts.That's 45 of 48! That's 45 times it could be proven. At minimum, what can you guess, even is Sandusky went unnoticed the first 3-4 times, likely 40 times that someone could have stood up and done the right thing and kicked his fu...
And Joe, poor Joe. Turning his head and acting like he knew nothing. Hoping it would all just blow over and go away. It isn't nice to speak ill of the dead, so I'll stop here.
Oh, and Mike McQueary: You're not a man.
Quit complaining, lighten up!
Ok, I'm off my own soapbox now. I'll just finish those last two rants with this: I'm not perfect and have faults like anyone, but I've never hit a woman or touched a child. So take that finger you may be pointing at me with your objective "you're not perfect" tone and stick it in your... nose.
FOOTBALL
Is anyone else ridiculously ready for football to start? I literally smiled the biggest smile I had all day when I read "Browns training camp opens to the public July 28th." I shouted to myself "That's in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS! HOORAY!!!"
There's so much drama surrounding our Ohio teams, too. The Browns have the Brandon Weeden/Colt McCoy debate. The nation will be watching to see how Urban Meyer fares on the home sidelines of Ohio Stadium. The Bengals will continue internal discussions whether to just admit they're Kentucky's team... I kid my Cincy friends... maybe.
It's all finally right around the corner. It's getting so close, yet still so tantalizingly far. We can almost touch it, but then it gets pulled back, like when our older uncles used to hold out the ball and then pull it away at the last second when you were a kid. Then he'd have you "pick a winner" by your gut instinct and use it as a decider on who to put the money on with the bookies that night. Ah, the good ol' days!
Wrap it up!
So we didn't really get too into the "x's and o's", but we did get back on the sports track. And I promise as we get closer and closer to football, and obviously once it starts, we'll get back to our usual hot topics of the week and breaking down games like we always do. Until then, I hope you all took a few minutes to read my last post on my trip to Orion Music and More. It's truly a weekend I'll never forget. Before shutting down the house, I wanted to share this photo I was emailed of the last few standing at the Atlantic City Hard Rock Cafe in the Taj Mahal on Friday night that I wrote about.
I'm on the left behind the dude in red (his name is Alex) with both arms in the air like an idiot. My dude Jeremiah is in blue to my right. Notice the dude in the kilt towards the front. Told you so.
So how should we finish this? The only way we know how...
Metallica track of the week...
Independence Day was last week, so what better than the ultimate Independence Day song, "Don't Tread On Me"! From the opening lyrics of "Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail, once you provoke her, rattling of her tail" to James Hetfield perfect description of the snake on the flag as an "emblem of vigilance" the song is red, white and blue to the core! And it crushes! From Orion (night two when I was in the snake pit, right at Hetfield's feet!) here is "Don't Tread On Me"
And as a bonus, here is video I took with my Iphone of the end of "Through The Never" and the beginning of "Don't Tread On Me"
Good night now!
