If you read only one blog full of ranting and raving about sports (local and otherwise), movies, TV shows, miscellaneous pop culture, life and other assorted flotsam and jetsam, make it this one!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Things I'm Not Buying

Two categories here...

Things I'm Not Buying...Yet...

1) The explanation that Manti Te'o is the victim of a hoax. There are too many inconsistencies -- the reports that flat-out said he met this girlfriend of his, who supposedly died of leukemia but as it turns out never actually existed, in person; varying reports saying she died just before the death of his grandmother, while others said she died after the grandmother died; and lots of other things in the Deadspin report. Also, the fact that Notre Dame hired an outside firm to conduct an investigation but isn't releasing the name of the outfit that they hired to conduct it, or the firm's report itself, seems a bit questionable. It'll be interesting to hear what Te'o himself says, and if the media does some digging of its own -- especially the "mainstream" media (such as ESPN), who ought to be angry that their outlets once again got scooped by a website.

2) Chip Kelly as Eagles' head coach. Sure, he ran up tremendous offensive numbers at Oregon and had a 46-7 record there. And sure, some of his offense's tactics are being adapted by NFL teams such as the New England Patriots. But can Kelly's offense in full work in the NFL? There are much better defenses in the NFL than in the Pac-8, or 10,  or 12, or whatever number they are now. And Nick Foles may not be ideally suited to such an offense. Will Kelly water it down immediately or will he try it in full at first, then dumb it down if it doesn't work? And even if he can get the offense in gear, the Eagles' defense is a huge mess. Kelly and the guy who ends up becoming defensive coordinator have a lot of work to do. Lots of WIP callers are, as usual, overreacting, saying the hiring of Kelly is a disaster. I'm not willing to go that far. But I am skeptical. And it bothers me (whether it should or not) that he initially decided not to take the job, and then changed his mind. According to one report I saw a mutual friend of Kelly and Eagles' GM Howie Roseman supposedly told Roseman that Kelly's mind could be changed.

3) The return of the NHL. I don't know if it's the recent lessening of my intense level of interest in sports in general or because the NHL was a joke for being shut down by a union-management bitchfest to begin with, but I'm not overly excited about the return of the Flyers. Maybe seeing a game will help in that regard. I don't know.

Things I'm Not Buying...At All...

The likelihood that extensive reform of gun laws will actually occur. Even if Democrats unite, it won't pass Congress without Republicans, and they are enslaved by the NRA and the Tea Party maniacs. I still believe everything I said here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Lance Armstrong! He's been knocked out of the headlines by an athlete involved in a fake girlfriend hoax!

Anonymous said...

Did the investigators try to track down Lennay Kekua's supposed cell phone number? The one she used to talk to him for hours and hours? (And who was the person he was talking to?) And did she ever give Te'o her address? Surely he would have sent his girlfriend a gift at some point in the relationship (birthday, Valentine's Day, Christmas)? Did anyone track down the address? And didn't he send white flowers to her funeral? What funeral home? Didn't the funeral home (or florist) tell him there was no funeral for anyone named Lennay Kekua? So many questions...

Anonymous said...

Gun stocks are up. "Gun control" has been the best thing for the gun industry.

canmark said...

Either this is the most incredible hoax ever or Manti Te'o is a pathological liar.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130117/manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax-quotes/?sct=hp_t11_a2&eref=sihp

canmark said...

Malcom Gladwell's (The Tipping Point) take on why the public bought into the girlfriend story in the first place: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8854036/malcolm-gladwell-chuck-klosterman-manti-teo