Dont Turn To Rex For Player Mistakes

First it was HBO’s “Hard Nocks”, and then a Mexican female reporter, now Braylon Edwards has put the spotlight on the New York Jets.  Who is responsible for this out of control team?  Rex Ryan of course.  I just don’t see it that way.  The buzz in N.Y. is how Ryan’s passive attitude with his team has created a fraternity atmosphere with the players.  So let me get this straight, the actions of grown men fall back on a guy that does the X’s and O’s.  People need someone to blame and reporters here and around the nation have turned to Ryan. 

            Rex is their NFL coach; he’s not there High School coach mentoring teens on the sport and good morals.  These are grown men making grown decisions.  Don’t tear down the organization for a few mistakes on good social standards.  The fact that Ryan had to apologize and get fined for a finger gesture in Florida still boggles me.  This man got spit on and barraged with slurs that would make Andrew Dice Clay blush, and he flipped the “bird” to the guy, as the panel from ESPN “Countdown” would say, “Come on Man!”  The fact is, Rex has one of the best personalities in football.  Tom Coughlin rules with an iron fist, that didn’t stop Plaxico Burress from a decision that cost him a great career.  In interviews with Plax after the incident, he didn’t pick up the phone and call Coughlin or the GM Reese, he called his High school coach and confided in him.  What ever happened to the guy who mad poor judgment along side Burress, Antonio pierce?  He played another season of sleep walking through the middle of the Giants defense and damns Edward for his decision while commentating on ESPN.  These are isolated incidents and those coaches aren’t at fault.  Rex created this loose atmosphere where players don’t care, WHAT?  Rex isn’t a bad guy, because he swears and believes his team is good and super bowl worthy.  Good for him for having the confidence and not bowing down to other “human” coaches like Belichick and Dungy.

            Belichick is an admitted cheater and he is still regarded as a saint of the NFL.  You can’t talk bad about Dungy, that’s like slandering the pope.  Dungy is a holy man who coached with love, and didn’t have to yell at players and curse.  Just because Ryan isn’t bible thumping his way onto Oprah and NBC football Night in America doesn’t make him the anti-Christ.  I knew of a Colt named Marvin Harrison being linked with a shooting in Philadelphia. That’s not Dungy’s fault.  He made a grown up decision to hang out with old friends who influenced him. 

            The point is, just because players ate burgers on the sideline in training camp, used construction men antics in the locker room and got a DWI; don’t go to the coach and say, what the hell?  These are grown men making grown decision, and a lot of readers out there have made the same “choice” as Edward, by drinking and thinking you were o.k. to drive.  Don’t start judging someone on a mistake.  He will learn from it, and if he doesn’t, don’t ring Rex’s phone and say, what the hell?

Daily Media

It wasn’t until my junior year,1992, that my parents broke down and finally ordered cable.  For the younger generation this is hard to believe, but there was life before technology streamed though cable lines into television sets in America.  Looking back, I feel privileged to know how to turn a dial on a TV, lick an actual postage stamp to send mail, and how utilize a card catalogue in the library.  In a time when micro phish was king of information for reports, not Wikipedia, life seemed right.  If someone was to mention Apples iphone, I would have expected to see a phone in the shape of an apple, or pulled a “Forrest Gump” and asked what fruit companies are doing in the phone business.  Days have turned into years, and now my media consumption has pushed forward to the finger-tapping excitement of that very iphone.  I have always been a reader of newspapers and watched the news, regional and national, because that was what was on the TV(and getting a slipper thrown at the back of your head by grandma for reaching for the dial, wasn’t fun).  Taking a deep look and actually seeing what media I now consume in a day, I notice the drastic change in how I receive my news/information and the amount I download to that same slipper-bruised head.

            I decided that, for me, the ideal day to monitor myself was Monday.  It is the day after the opening day of football and when my conscious is filled with thoughts of stats and injury reports.  My morning started immediately with a quick 15 minute logon to Facebook to see if any of my friends made idiotic post for me to rag on, no such luck;  Then another 15 minutes on my John Jay e-mail to see if any classes were cancelled, again no such luck.  I did one hour of reading the Daily News--- it’s not the Times, but I need my fix---and one hour of reading short stories from my literature textbook on the subway for my journey to school.  I have three classes back to back, and I am a firm believer in turning of my phone for those classes, so knowledge from my professors was my media thirst quencher.  I did catch myself eyeballing two minutes worth of NY1 on the flat screen t.v. outside of class though.

 After school another hour on the train was consumed by Billy Joel and Jack Johnson, mainly to drown out my fellow New Yorkers across from me engaged in a conversation about whose neighborhood was tougher.  It’s when I got home for the day that the majority of my media was consumed.  Mondays are great for sports talk and from 5-6 pm I got it from ESPN’s “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption.”  I switched over for another 30 minutes of local news from channel 7, followed by Diane Sawyer with the national news.  Monday Night Football took another 3 hours and some change, which included rapid texting back and forth to friends about the dismal Jets offense.  While watching the game I switched back and forth to the Mets game, again with texts going to a friend in Pittsburg about the dismal offenses of both teams.  The total text in that three hour span was fifty one.  Before bed I mapped out my day with no media.  What would I do? How could I make it?  I had to think back to my youth with no cell phones and internet and I had a plan.  So one last login to my e-mail for 5 minutes, then 15 minutes on Tigerwoods.com---I have a man crush, sorry.  My last logon was to secure a tee time for Tuesday: five minutes that would help me escape my media frenzy

            Tuesday was a great day from the start. No classes, because of the Friday schedule, made ample time for some golf.  Escaping the media wasn’t as easy as I thought.  I had to drive my wife to the train station and when she turned on the radio I had to quickly turn it off.  When I told her it would be better to have it off so we can talk, she knew something was up.  “It’s for my class, that’s why I’m golfing today too.” She just gave me a half hearted laugh and shrugged it off.  As she got out of the car she reminded me to read another chapter of What to Expect When Your Expecting, and the grimace I received when I smiled and said, “Cant…the class” was somewhat unnerving. Two rounds of golf would now consume my day.  My phone was cut off, the sun was tickling the back of my neck on the first tee box, and I was not at the mercy of media.  At the turn, I went in to grab a Gatorade and Bagel and tuned out, as best I could, “ESPN Sportscenter” blaring in club house.  Eight hours were down, and it felt pretty good.  It was time to go home, and face the media demons.  What happened today?  I kept asking it in my head.  My apartment holds media temptation all over, magazines everywhere, textbooks---my TV even seemed to give me a look of disappointment when I didn’t turn it on.  My laptop crept closer and closer, and my ipad was glaring in disgust.  I had to get out of the house again.  I put on my sneakers and decided to go for a run.  It never dawned on me how crappy it is to run with no ipod.  It was 6pm and I was struggling.  My wife came home and we decided to go out to eat; the temptation was too great in the apartment.  The Italian restaurant stopped me in my tracks.  They had to play Sinatra and Dino Martin over their speakers.  It was over, and then my wife said that Reggie Bush forfeited his Heisman, and I was awe struck, I broke down and pulled the iphone out of my pocket.  So almost twelve hours, and the neurons were flowing and the dopamine was back, my media rush was present in the bloodstream and I was feeling good again.

            After reading the articles on the Pew study, I can place myself into the integrator category.  I consume most of my news from traditional sources and some from internet sources.  When I do turn to the internet it’s with WebPages of traditional news media, associated press, New York Times, etc.  I’m not a blogger, and have never really read a blog site.  I trust the news papers and big news channels for my news.  I have always read the daily papers, from the Houston Chronicle (Houston) to the North County Times (California), and when I get on a flight I always grab a USA Today.  I love newspapers but I also like the fact that with the apps on phones and ipads, I can tune into what I want, but it will never stop the old man in me from tuning into 1010 WINS when I’m in my car, or scooping up a Daily News to read Mike Lupica shoot from the lip.

Bend Dont Break

           It’s been a tough week for the New York Giants.  In the last few days, when the headlines have swayed to the Jets, the Giants have squished themselves into the back-pages too.  What happened Sunday night in Indianapolis was truly deplorable, but let’s not circles Coughlin’s wagon just yet.  The fans are panicking because of a loss on the home turf of the defending AFC champion Colts.  The questions are back?  Has Coughlin lost the team?  Where’s the leadership?  Is Perry Fewell the answer for the defense?  Giant’s fans take a deep breath and stop riding the Giants emotional roller coaster.  Its week three, and even I needed to take a step back from my emotions (My facebook post following the Giants game), and rely on trans fats and cholesterol to give me my heart attack, not a football team.  My immediate panicking became more of an Alphred E. Newman, “What, me worry?” attitude after thinking of the past.

            These questions have always been answered on good terms.  The early eighties, the early nineties and just as recently as three years ago we asked similar questions.  The answer was always YES.  Yes, hiring from within the organization is good: Bill Parcells.  Yes, Hostetler can be successful in the playoffs with Simms hurt.  Yes, Coughlin and Spagnuolo can turn around a 0-2 start.  The defense and the offensive line looked like they missed the preseason in Indy, but don’t forget who they were playing.  The fans were pumped up to see the disgraceful 2009 Giants defense turn it around against Carolina in week one.  Folks, it was Carolina with Matt Moore at the helm, not Payton coming off a loss and opening up Lucas Oil Field.  The “bend don’t break” Fewell defense will get back on its feet.  The Giants have too much talent on that side of the ball not to.  It was Indy’s home opener and it didn’t matter how early the Giants got to the stadium, Antrel Rolle, the result was not going to be good. 

            2007 turned out to be a pretty good year if I’m remembering correctly.  How did we start?  0-2, giving up an average of 40 points to Dallas and Green Bay.  They had two pretty good quarterbacks too, guys named Romo and Farve.  Hmmm I think we also lost to Dallas twice that season, only to beat them and the Packers on the way to hoisting up a Lombardi trophy.  After losing the first two that year, the Giants got healthy and aggressive under new defensive coordinator Spagnuolo and ripped off six wins in a row.  They gave up an average of 13 points a game in those wins.  The Giants are still not full strength health wise on both sides of the ball.  This week the Giants have to stop one person to get a win, Chris Johnson, the only legitimate threat on the Titans.  Vince Young is no Payton Manning. 

            Eli went down 4 times against freaks Mathis and Freeney.  The offensive line is the same great line they have always been, just a bit banged.  Don’t forget that Boss was a critical scratch against Indy and will play this week.  He’s important because he could have helped a lot more in blocking schemes to give Eli time last week.  Travis Beckum is a route first tight end.  The run game will also return this week.  Brandon Jacobs has since apologized for his irrational mistake on the sideline, and finally got an explanation about his spot on the depth chart. (Why he needed one, I don’t know)He will return to North and South running.  The Antrel Rolle distraction was not even that.  He’s new people, and has not adjusted to the Giants style of football.  Tuck will talk to him. 

            Bottom line fans is, just like Perry Fewell's defensive strategy “Bend Don’t break” when the Giants take one on the chin, the season is not over.  Ups and downs are going to happen. Are the Giants a Super Bowl bound team right now? Who knows, it’s week three.  Let’s play 16 games and see what happens

To Start Off

I'm starting this little gem to start expressing my opinion on the everyday life events.  Politics to sport, my golf game to my exploits as a middle aged college student.  I figure I can persuade and entertain the masses into my way of thinking(not in a David Koresh way)and maybe open a few minds.  Enjoy and feel free to disagree.