Football

I am the father of an absolutely football-crazed 8 year-old. That being the case, I watched all four NFL playoff games last weekend. I told the boy that if the Steelers won it would be because of some bullshit penalty that gives Pittsburgh a second chance toward the end of the game. Sure enough, on 4th and goal and down 28-23 with 3-some minutes left, Hines Ward is seen clearly dragging his defender by the facemask, yet the defender was called for pass interference. At worst, it should have been offsetting penalties. Not even Michaels and Madden up in the booth could explain away Ward’s blatant penalty.

And, of course, Pittsburgh got the call and 1st and goal at like the 1-inch line and punched it in for the lead. The crowd was going absolutely nuts and even my 8 year-old lost his faith in humanity (he’s conditioned to hate any team in the AFC North not from Baltimore).

The crowd stayed nuts until David Garrard ran 32 yards on 4th and 2 to put his team at around the Pittsburgh 11 yard line with about a minute left. After that the crowd got so quiet so fast it was amazing. It was also the most beautiful thing I heard on an NFL telecast this year. Then Jacksonville kicked a field goal to re-take the lead, Bunglesburger choked up the ball when the Steelers got it back with 30 seconds left and that was that. Squealer nation was silenced and my kid’s faith in humanity was restored. Thank you Jacksonville Jaguars.

(Steelers fans have been whining that holding wasn’t called on Jax on that 4th and 2 scramble. To them I say screw you… you shouldn’t have gotten that new set of downs to take the lead when Ward dragged his man down the field by his facemask to begin with.)

Baseball

So the Mitchell Report came out and painted Roger Clemens as the villian. It is shockingly unsurprising to me that he was accused as PED user. He was pretty much finished when he left Boston, then went on to become the greatest pitcher who ever lived. In his 40s.

What’s worse has been his reaction. First it was deny, deny, deny. Then it was an explanation that he was shot up with an anesthetic and B12. Then it was a softball interview on 60 Minutes. Then it was a defamation suit against the guy who fingered him, where he’s trying to convince the world that guy told the truth about everyone else but him.

My problem with all this is that when the story first broke, Clemens clammed up, huddled up with lawyers, agents and advisers and came up with a calculated plan to influence the public (and the media) his way. Unfortunately, the world knows that influencing the public doesn’t mean telling the truth, and Clemens looks every bit as bad as Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and every other suspected juicer whose only real defense is that there are no positive drug tests to prove their guilt.

Too bad that it seems to him that he has to prove his innocence, but he made the decisions he made in life to be a big-time, big-money athlete and he has to live with the spotlight when the glare is hot as much as he does when it bathes him with glory. Dick.