M1EK's Bake-Sale of Bile

Funniest thing I've read in quite some time

From Black Heart Gold Pants:

How Joe Paterno met Fergie, parts 1, 2, and 3.

Open letter to Tim Curley

(AD of Penn State)

I bleed blue and white, but I will never have any interest in seeing games against FIU, Buffalo, Temple, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Illinois, and their ilk. Of course, if that wasn't enough, you scheduled a 1-AA team to fill out the slate (Coastal Carolina). Even if I wanted to watch those games, I live in Texas, and I will never have the Big Ten Network, nor will most of the country, where a heck of a lot of your alumni live.

If I don't watch games, I get less enthusiastic about buying PSU stuff.

If I don't watch games, I get less enthusiastic about donating money. It would be hard for me to get less enthusiastic about donating money, but you at least remove the possibility of a head-injury-induced bout of giving later in life.

Sooner or later, when nobody watches these games, ESPN stops putting the bigger games on TV too. Then, even more people buy even less PSU stuff and donate even less money.

This year, and possibly in earlier years, playing games like these, against teams we knew would suck, did nothing to prepare us for the games against teams we thought wouldn't suck. And as a result, we got pantsed. TWICE! Plus, the one out-of-conference game which we thought was against a team which didn't suck ended up being a laugher too. Which argues that scheduling only one game against a team that might not suck is probably not going to help us either, not that you're committing to even _that_ going forward, since our 'marquee' opponent in the next couple years is Syracuse. Yes, Syracuse. And by the next couple of years going forward, I don't mean next year, in which we have three of those cupcakes listed above plus a TBA slot to fill with Temple's name on it. Syracuse is our big opponent to look forward to in 2009 and 2010. Yay!

You often claim that economics dictates these decisions. It's my considered economic opinion that you are quite possibly the dumbest motherfucker in the history of college sports, if you don't think that there will be a negative long-term economic impact to scheduling these kinds of games.

I would much rather watch PSU play a one-and-done away game somewhere like Florida than ever see this type of schedule again. If Joe Paterno is really calling the shots and forcing you to schedule this sort of stuff against your will, as is sometimes alleged, then you owe it to the world to resign immediately. Continuing to assist in the perpetuation of this kind of scheduling is just plain evil.

Your pal,
M1EK

Desperate hope for tomorrow

I hope the game ends up like this:

(image from Autumn Thunder, ironically, a Michigan blog, created in their AppyState aftermath).

If it doesn't, expect me to be even more bilious for the next year. Oh, yes, it's possible.

My Stupid School

There are 119 schools in Division 1-A. ESPN has ranked them (well, they've only done the bottom 19 so far). Among the 4 non-conference opponents for my school this year? #117, #118, and #119.

THIS IS NOT HOW YOU WON THE TITLE IN 1982 AND 1986, DAMMIT.

I didn't think this could be any worse than last year. I was rong.

Thanks to RUTS for the find. FUH GUH BUH.

This is what is SUPPOSED to happen

From the Centre Daily Times in relation to the fight the homers are trying to pretend didn't mean anything

Sloane said prosecutors had no evidence that King's entry into the West College Avenue apartment was malicious and no evidence that he hurt anyone or damaged anything.

"As a matter of fact, we have evidence to the contrary," Sloane said.

He said King was seen trying to pull people out of the apartment. After the melee ended, Sloane said, King stayed at the scene and tried to apologize to the apartment residents.

A lot of homer idiots keep bringing up the Rashard Casey affair to prove that we shouldn't expect Paterno or the administration to impose any sports-related sanctions on the posse that broke in and beat down. After all, they say, Casey was proven innocent of criminal charges. I draw a very different conclusion here: Casey stood by while his friend beat an off-duty cop into the hospital. He did nothing to stop him; he didn't leave; he just didn't throw any of the punches.

Justin King did what he was supposed to do. This is what Rashard Casey didn't do when his friend beat the living daylights out of an off-duty cop. Promote this kid to captain, pronto.

Stupid Homers

My idiotic fellow alumni are spewing trash like this all over message boards in response to these indictments claiming that it's all being blown out of proportion because they're football players.

Bullshit.

When I was in college, some guy had sucker-punched me and I had gone after him right away, and the cops caught us fighting, all concerned would indeed have probably just gotten a slap on the wrist.

If, on the other hand, I assembled a posse of a bunch of my friends quite a bit later, went to the guy's dorm room, broke in, and we all started beating people up, many of whom may not even have been involved in the earlier altercation, I'd expect to get thrown out of school for at least a year.

And that's what should happen here. Period. Even if we weren't Penn State, but especially because We Are. Or maybe Just Were.

Definition of 'disgrace'

My alma mater is playing a 1-AA team this weekend. I'll be rooting against them. There's never ever ever any excuse for a major 1-A program to schedule 1-AA. A road game (with no return) at Pitt would be better than this. In fact, pick any 1-A team in a part of the country we haven't been to in a while, and schedule a visit. The money's not worth the stain on our record, you retards. And this stuff about needing seven home games to support the other programs is a sham. We'd make more money in the long-run due to the recruiting benefit of playing an away game in one of the parts of the country we don't visit very often. And some year down the road, some other 1-A school would return the favor.

Or, the NCAA could grow a pair and just outlaw 1-A vs. 1-AA games. What's the point of having divisions, otherwise? Should the Astros get to play a real (non-exhibition) game against the Round Rock Express, too?

Simply, absolutely, pathetic.

Oh, the humanity

My school's football game isn't going to be on TV. Not even at the sports bar we'd have to drive all the way out to Lakeway for, although we wouldn't have, for such a crappy opponent.

This is the first time in many years that you haven't been able to see a Penn State game, at least on pay-per-view. Sign that the end is nigh? Methinks so.

Ricky and Two Weeks Notice

So Mark Hasty wants people to Lay Off Ricky and he makes a lot of very good points. I'm a Dolphins fan if I'm anything (and I'm barely that), and I think the right way to look at it is this:

If you're a professional, the implied contract between you and your employer (and in Texas, especially, it's just implied) is that you'll each give each other a minimum of two weeks notice before changing your employment arrangement.

IE: Your obligation to your employer is to give two weeks notice, and your employers' obligation to you is to pay you for two weeks if and when you are either announcing your departure or getting fired/laid off.

My previous employer does not qualify, by the way; most of the last few people to give any notice were immediately fired! I myself gave a full two weeks' notice and was retained by my boss (VP), and I continued to work, for a week, until the CEO got back into town, and then was told on Monday that the preceding Friday had been my last day. At IBM, when I quit, I was paid for two weeks but was escorted out (true for something like 50-90% of people there). IBM satisfied their implied obligation to me, while my last employer did not.

So I think an analogy could be made to Ricky. Had he given two weeks' notice (from today, let's say), the Dolphins would have had some time to go try to get another running back. I don't think he's wrong for quitting - I think he's wrong for leaving his coworkers in the lurch, just as I would have been wrong for quitting on 0 days notice. (However, the people who quit after me who wised up and gave no notice were correct to do so given the precedent set against myself and others who did give notice after me).

I doubt the Dolphins would have been able to cut him immediately without paying some 'severance'.

There, a non-political non-transportation post. The enb.