I’m pleased that
Auburn has won a couple of critical road games. I’m disappointed that the gang failed to realize how precious each game is earlier in the season. There’s plenty of football left with large games looming against LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia, and Alabama but you can’t help but wonder in this “crazy” season what could have been already.
The “crazy” season. Ah yes, anytime USC loses a football game, it’s a crazy season. The media darlings have been dropping like rocks. Now the sharks will turn their attention to the “One-ders” or those Cinderella stories that make people watch TV, read newspapers, visit web blogs, and talk at the water cooler. And enter the new world of making money on college sports, viral marketing, where the goal of big media is to get enough people talking about their agenda offline to effect ratings and readership online (and my use of online refers to traditional TV and print as much as Internet).
All signs point to Oklahoma and USC, again. We’ve been there and done that, but the media will have us all there again if both teams win out. LSU even with last night’s loss at Kentucky is still very much alive. Actually there aren’t too many teams with one loss within the top 15 that aren’t out of it. We may come down to the end of this season with many of the BCS teams having two losses. Wow, that will cause a panic among media writers.
Of course I’m loving it. The media exalts teams to the top tier of the college football world each year even before one game is played. They did it this year and proclaimed that Appalachian State’s win at Michigan was the biggest upset ever only to watch Michigan get waxed the following week. Oh maybe it wasn’t the biggest upset ever after all. Next week there’s a bigger upset on the horizon, guaranteed.
I hope… I hope that all these kids out there are starting to believe in themselves rather than the media pundants. With as many teams playing well these days that has to be the explanation for the parity in college football this season. Of course us SEC fans are used to that year after year.
On to another rant… DirecTV. I have it. Only for football. They hate me because I’m grandfathered in to the NFL only. These days they won’t let you order just NFL without a base $40 a month package with a contract. But I have it and when I can watch it, I love it. When I can’t I get pissed.
So for the last several weeks of the NFL season I’ve been fighting the new equipment DirecTV said I had to have. All I wanted was for those guys to come install my old gear but they had me with the move and found another way to get $100 out of me. I had to have the new dish and new receiver. The St. Louis Screw continues.
Out they came and of course the contractor left crap all over the place, had to drill an extra hole in the wall – generally did a sloppy install. The first week of football for me was week 2 and I spent about two hours troubleshooting the new receiver.
Week 3 I had no picture and spent nearly three hours troubleshooting to no avail. I had to watch the Rams on local broadcast.
Week 4 I was hopeful because a service visit apparently fixed everything. But alas I discovered the tech got the signal out of the box with a analog video cable, not the HDMI or component cables I desired. I spent about two hours troubleshooting again before settling on the analog cable.
Here we are two weeks later. I thought I would get a one hour jump on the troubleshooting so I flicked on the receiver. A new error code was displayed on the screen. Thirty minutes later I have everything working with the assistance of a reasonably intelligent service rep via the phone. But now DirecTV tells me my TV may not be compatible with the receiver’s HDMI signal?
I don’t buy it. For one it worked in the beginning. For two I have a new TV and a new receiver. For three if it don’t work the way it’s designed then it’s crap. I guess it’s a big deal to me because if you spend money on the gear it should work. My old DirecTV receiver did.And by the way, we discovered today that the tech didn’t do the setup correctly on the type of dish I have which seems to be the source of my problems. We’ll see next week.
Fantasy football for me this season seems to be status quo. I have some decent players but am lacking consistency. It’s better than last year, but not the kind of performance I have enjoyed previously in the league. I thought I had escaped the injury bug, but that bit me last week. Now most of my players are on a bye week. How bad is it? This morning I added Leon Washington, RB, NY Jets.
Well, I shouldn’t jinx myself. Washington is scoring touchdowns each week returning punts and kick-offs. Thomas Jones isn’t all that the Jets thought he would be. So there’s some reason to adding Washington. Considering all the other RB free agents available to me today, Washington seemed like the best pick.
I’m watching the Green Bay/Washington game today here at the hacienda. I’m thrilled to see Jason Campbell doing well. Carlos Rodgers had an INT returned for a TD last week. Ronnie Brown seems to be coming along this season. It’s a shame that Cadillac injured his knee. I hope he can come back strong. This was to be a critical year for him. Of course there’s tons of other Auburn Alumni in the NFL that I enjoy. Case in point with the Redskins, Marcus Washington who since leaving Indy is really making a mark in the NFC. I wish Takeo Spikes well in Philly.
Lots more pigskin to go… We’ll fire up the grill later on today. Not sure what to make yet. I’m craving burgers. Umm… burgers.
