First Gift and Other Ramblings

We received our first baby gift tonight from my Aunt Cheryl, a lovely baby blanket. Thanks! It's quite soft, and looks pretty warm. I'm thinking about testing it out in the deer blind tomorrow morning.

You know how you sometimes hear of refs making "make-up" calls? It's when a referee completely blows a call, realizes it, but by then it's too late to reverse it so he calls a cheap foul/penalty on the opposing team to "make-up" for it. Happens in high school basketball at least 47 times a quarter. Well, am I out of line by saying that the recent O.J. sentencing was the ultimate make-up call?

The Big XII Commissioner made an interesting point tonight that I've never really thought of concerning the whole playoffs vs bowls controversy. He said something to the effect that the players enjoy the bowl experience much more than a playoff experience (he apparently was commissioner of one of the sub bowl divisions that uses a playoff system). That got me thinking. Let's say you're the 80th player on Utah's football's team. With the bowl system in place you get to spend two weeks in Miami during December "preparing" for the Orange Bowl. You receive all kinds of gifts, including extra dough to spend on your vacation, I mean road game. (Believe me they have ways around the system, i.e. the school buys the players first class tickets, they trade them in for coach and keep the change). Anyways, you have a wonderful experience that you will never forget and your team has absolutely nothing to lose. A win is great, but a loss is no big deal. They aren't even in a major conference. Now, let's compare that to a playoff experience. A first round road game at OU, Florida, or Texas. One and done, no gifts, no fun. I'm not saying that this alone justifies that a playoff system is bad, but score one for the BCS.

Can I be the first to make the claim that the head of NFL scheduling has got to be some deranged, neurotic former Buffalo Bill that has never gotten over four straight Super Bowl loses, the last two at the hands of our Cowboys? Perhaps Scott Norwood went absolutely crazy after "wide right," joined the NFL scheduling committee and is doing everything he can to take it out on the single team that could of made everyone forget about that infamous kick. (I picture this happening just like Ray Finkle joining the Miami Police Department as Lt. Einhorn to ultimately sabotage Dan Marino for his "laces in" hold in the first Ace Venture movie). Anyways, does Schedule Chairman Norwood not realize how many days its been since the Cowboys have won a playoff game? (Click on Bob's Blog to get the updated running count). Does he not know that it's always December that kills us? Just when the Boys have seemingly pulled it all together and are poised for a prolific playoff run, ol "Wide Right" gives us this December schedule: @ Pittsbugh, NY Giants, Baltimore, @ The Dreaded and Feared (Philly). Good grief. Just give us the 19th pick of the draft now and let's get it over with.