Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Childhood
Growing up my favorite hobby an pass time was waitin for my dad to get home from work and take me fishin on the "mighty weeb" as my father always called it. Most would know it as the weber river. He taught me everything i know today about life with the things he took me to do when i was a child. Some kids are not givin these opportunities to experience things and grow up and learn, you can not learn all the things you need to know about life in a class room or sitting in front of the tv. I am thankful for all the activities my dad took me to experience with him as i was growing up fishing, camping, hunting, hiking, riding, snowboarding/ski. These are all the things that make life worth living, this is what you work mon-fri for the rest of your life for. Its made me want to be as good of man as my father was an opened my eyes to the important things in life, its made me wanna be a dad some day an show my son all i have seen. I feel sorry for the kids that grow up on gears of war and halo, family guy and the simpsons. Its sad when cartoons have more influence on your kids life than you do. Its sad when they learn half their life lessons from bart simpson. Why's your daughter gotta be growin up to be like Paris Hilton, why is your son growing up to work in an office an then go home to more computer time? Is that really the way we wanna be? Is that new freeway really worth destroying more land? When is it ever going to be enough? Take you kid to the top of a mountain where he can see nothin but green mountains as far as the eyes can see. Show him where the big fish are an where to pitch his worm. Show him how the clutch works an how to shift his dirt bike. How to change his brakes and oil.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Titans
The Tennessee Titans aren't merely defying the odds -- they're downright insulting them. Before the opening kickoff of the 2008 season, the Titans were about 40-to-1 underdogs to win the Super Bowl. If you liked their chances, you should have grabbed a piece of the action back then; midway through the season, the odds of the team at least playing football in February are now closer to 2-to-1. In a conference that was ruled last year by the Patriots, Colts and Chargers, they are currently the odds-on favorites to win the AFC title.
Albert Haynesworth of the Tennessee Titans celebrates after a defensive stop against the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 2. The Titans won their eighth straight game this season.
At 8-0, Tennessee is the only unbeaten team in the NFL. According to Mike Seaton of the betting-information Web site TheSpread.com, in the preseason you could have gotten odds as high as 250-to-1 against that happening. What odds, then, could a ridiculously optimistic Titans fan have gotten before the first game that the Titans, like last year's Patriots, will go 16-0? "I honestly don't know," says Mr. Seaton. "No one asked us about that."
Going unbeaten, though, is irrelevant to the Titans: The only game they care about winning is the one where you go home with the Lombardi Trophy.
That the Titans have accomplished so much while attracting so little publicity is due in part to the fact that the team has produced no recognizable superstar names. The 2006 Titans had two: defensive back Adam "Pacman" Jones and quarterback Vince Young, who led the University of Texas to its 2005 national championship. But Mr. Jones's repeated brushes with the law got him traded to the Dallas Cowboys, and the fabulously talented Mr. Young has been hobbled by injuries and his inability to read pro pass defenses.
Another reason the Titans have garnered so little ink may be that they're not winning the right way, or at least not the way that NFL powerhouses are supposed to win. For instance, last season's New England Patriots stormed through the league averaging 36.8 points a game on offense (a record for the 16-game era); this year's Titans are comparative welterweights, averaging just 24.9 points a game, only ninth best in the league.
As defensive as a Republican guest on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," Tennessee is getting it done on the other side of the ball. The Titans have the stingiest D of any team in the league, allowing 12.9 points per game. In comparison, the defending champion New York Giants, regarded by many as having the NFL's best defense, are fourth, allowing 16.1.
The Titans had better get it done on defense, because their offense is punchless. Quarterback Kerry Collins has thrown the absurdly low total of just three interceptions; unfortunately, he's also thrown the absurdly low total of three touchdown passes. Mr. Collins isn't the worst passer in the league, but he's just a bad game or so from being there, ranked 27th in the NFL passer rating system (72.9) and 29th in the critical statistic of yards per throw (5.97). Last Sunday's 19-16 overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers marked the third consecutive game in which Mr. Collins threw neither an interception nor a touchdown pass. So far, his primary contribution to his team is that he hasn't fumbled any snaps from center.
Tennessee's running has been much more effective, producing 149.1 yards per game (third in the league), but no one, least of all the Titans themselves, has been fooled into thinking the team can win on the ground. "We know," says head coach Jeff Fisher, "that we're getting so many chances to run the ball because our defense is getting it back for us in a hurry."
And often, they've been getting it back through the air. The strength of most great defenses is their front four, and the Titans have a fine one, anchored by defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, thought by many to be the best at his position. But their backbone may well be their defensive backfield -- safeties Chris Hope (a veteran of the Pittsburgh Steelers' 2005 championship team) and Michael Griffin and cornerbacks Nick Harper (who earned a Super Bowl ring with the 2006 Colts) and Cortland Finnegan, a steal for the Titans in the seventh round of the 2006 draft. Those four have so far intercepted 13 passes, tied with the Packers for the league's best.
"They might be the best all-around defensive backfield in football," says the Nashville Tennessean's Gary Estwick. "They can all play man-to-man against the league's best receivers, and they have great instincts for playing zone coverage. They can cover, and they can hit. They play the run as well as the pass. And when they bring [safety] Vince Fuller in as the fifth back in long yardage pass situations, they're the most complete package in the game."
If the Tennessee Titans are, as some of their critics have maintained, doing it with mirrors, then the man manipulating those mirrors is Mr. Fisher, who, in the judgment of Pro Football Prospectus's Aaron Schatz, is "one of the most underrated coaches in sports. With 123 wins, he's fifth among active NFL coaches, and if Seattle's Mike Holmgren and the Colts' Tony Dungy retire at the end of the season, then Fisher will be No. 3." And that's third behind only the Patriots' Bill Belichick and the Broncos' Mike Shanahan, who have won five Super Bowls between them.
In fact, all four active coaches currently ahead of Mr. Fisher in victories, including Messrs. Holmgren and Dungy, have Super Bowl rings. Mr. Fisher's 1999 AFC champs lost the Super Bowl to the St. Louis Rams, 23-16. Those Titans were 6-2 after their first eight games, so this year it looks the odds are in Mr. Fisher's favor.
Albert Haynesworth of the Tennessee Titans celebrates after a defensive stop against the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 2. The Titans won their eighth straight game this season.
At 8-0, Tennessee is the only unbeaten team in the NFL. According to Mike Seaton of the betting-information Web site TheSpread.com, in the preseason you could have gotten odds as high as 250-to-1 against that happening. What odds, then, could a ridiculously optimistic Titans fan have gotten before the first game that the Titans, like last year's Patriots, will go 16-0? "I honestly don't know," says Mr. Seaton. "No one asked us about that."
Going unbeaten, though, is irrelevant to the Titans: The only game they care about winning is the one where you go home with the Lombardi Trophy.
That the Titans have accomplished so much while attracting so little publicity is due in part to the fact that the team has produced no recognizable superstar names. The 2006 Titans had two: defensive back Adam "Pacman" Jones and quarterback Vince Young, who led the University of Texas to its 2005 national championship. But Mr. Jones's repeated brushes with the law got him traded to the Dallas Cowboys, and the fabulously talented Mr. Young has been hobbled by injuries and his inability to read pro pass defenses.
Another reason the Titans have garnered so little ink may be that they're not winning the right way, or at least not the way that NFL powerhouses are supposed to win. For instance, last season's New England Patriots stormed through the league averaging 36.8 points a game on offense (a record for the 16-game era); this year's Titans are comparative welterweights, averaging just 24.9 points a game, only ninth best in the league.
As defensive as a Republican guest on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," Tennessee is getting it done on the other side of the ball. The Titans have the stingiest D of any team in the league, allowing 12.9 points per game. In comparison, the defending champion New York Giants, regarded by many as having the NFL's best defense, are fourth, allowing 16.1.
The Titans had better get it done on defense, because their offense is punchless. Quarterback Kerry Collins has thrown the absurdly low total of just three interceptions; unfortunately, he's also thrown the absurdly low total of three touchdown passes. Mr. Collins isn't the worst passer in the league, but he's just a bad game or so from being there, ranked 27th in the NFL passer rating system (72.9) and 29th in the critical statistic of yards per throw (5.97). Last Sunday's 19-16 overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers marked the third consecutive game in which Mr. Collins threw neither an interception nor a touchdown pass. So far, his primary contribution to his team is that he hasn't fumbled any snaps from center.
Tennessee's running has been much more effective, producing 149.1 yards per game (third in the league), but no one, least of all the Titans themselves, has been fooled into thinking the team can win on the ground. "We know," says head coach Jeff Fisher, "that we're getting so many chances to run the ball because our defense is getting it back for us in a hurry."
And often, they've been getting it back through the air. The strength of most great defenses is their front four, and the Titans have a fine one, anchored by defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, thought by many to be the best at his position. But their backbone may well be their defensive backfield -- safeties Chris Hope (a veteran of the Pittsburgh Steelers' 2005 championship team) and Michael Griffin and cornerbacks Nick Harper (who earned a Super Bowl ring with the 2006 Colts) and Cortland Finnegan, a steal for the Titans in the seventh round of the 2006 draft. Those four have so far intercepted 13 passes, tied with the Packers for the league's best.
"They might be the best all-around defensive backfield in football," says the Nashville Tennessean's Gary Estwick. "They can all play man-to-man against the league's best receivers, and they have great instincts for playing zone coverage. They can cover, and they can hit. They play the run as well as the pass. And when they bring [safety] Vince Fuller in as the fifth back in long yardage pass situations, they're the most complete package in the game."
If the Tennessee Titans are, as some of their critics have maintained, doing it with mirrors, then the man manipulating those mirrors is Mr. Fisher, who, in the judgment of Pro Football Prospectus's Aaron Schatz, is "one of the most underrated coaches in sports. With 123 wins, he's fifth among active NFL coaches, and if Seattle's Mike Holmgren and the Colts' Tony Dungy retire at the end of the season, then Fisher will be No. 3." And that's third behind only the Patriots' Bill Belichick and the Broncos' Mike Shanahan, who have won five Super Bowls between them.
In fact, all four active coaches currently ahead of Mr. Fisher in victories, including Messrs. Holmgren and Dungy, have Super Bowl rings. Mr. Fisher's 1999 AFC champs lost the Super Bowl to the St. Louis Rams, 23-16. Those Titans were 6-2 after their first eight games, so this year it looks the odds are in Mr. Fisher's favor.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Me
Um, snowboarding is the shit haha im excited. I hope i get a job at powder mountain this year cause that would be pretty coo! Paintballing in the snow this year is gonna be crazy. Titans are doin crazy good, 8-0 you dont see that to often so im really enjoying every minute of it! Anyway i dont really know what im supposed to write so there ya go
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