Oh, I Think So

Let us agree right now:  something is seriously wrong with LeBron James.  I am going to get to this reasoning the hard way. I used to work in a place where a woman who was neither young nor "all there" also worked.  The rumor is that she came with the place when the company moved into that location but the truth was that her family was friends with the man who owned the company.  He asked them to find her something to do and she passed out the mail and ran errands among other minor jobs.  Of course, she was who she was and you could not change her.  If she didn't like someone, she would walk into their office, fart, and leave, or casually stop and cut the cheese and then continue on her way.  She would get very upset if things did not go her way; they weren't huge things but she liked things the way she liked them.  The best example of this is that she liked using the handicapped stall in the restroom.  She had no physical disability, she j...

I know a fellow who has three kids (two boys and a girl) and they are really great kids and he is a good dad.  The boys love basketball and last year, while he was still on the Cavaliers, one of them was a great fan of LeBron James.  When the Cavs came to town at the end of the 2009-2010 season, this fellow, at no small expense, got tickets for the three men to go to the game.  The fan of LeBron was so excited because he'd finally get his idol's autograph on his Official NBA LeBron James jersey.  So what happened?  LeBron James dusted the fans who waited for his autograph, totally dissing every single person in the crowd.  It was Chicago and it was probably a pretty chilly night.  He didn't care; he went home.  His fans went home too but they were disappointed.  Still, the kid who was a fan of LeBron James got over it and forgave his fave because he so admired his talent. It's been a busy year but this past Friday, I finally asked this fell...

Photo courtesy of www.troy43.com If you have read this blog offering with regularity, you will recall that it pisses me off to no end that NFL athletes have often come out of college with nothing to show for it but the chance to play in the NFL.  They might attend very good schools but when their NFL careers are over, if they weren't careful with their money they might struggle to get on with their lives with some sort of dignity and equal success.  Many are drafted before they graduate and don't ever bother going back to finish their degrees and prove to themselves that they have the brains to do it.  I am very pleased to say that Troy Polamalu, Safety of the Pittsburgh Steelers, isn't one of them.  During this lockout when the owners are probably thinking about making more money and the players are thinking about staying in great physical condition so they can get right back to it when the lockout ends, Troy Polamalu finished up his coursework for a Bachelor's ...

This week, the Boston University School of Medicine Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy announced that Bears great Dave Duerson's brain showed moderately advanced chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a/k/a Punch Drunk Syndrome, a/k/a Dementia pugilistica.  Duerson's ex-wife and all four of their children were in Boston when the announcement was made.  Tregg Duerson said this gave the family some measure of closure and that his greatest hope was his father's death was not in vain and that through the research of the center, his legacy would live on and others would not have to suffer as Duerson and his family had. Yes, I read it and teared up.  Even now as I think of it, I tear up.  Read about it yourself: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/02/nfl.player.suicide/?hpt=Sbin Everything I've read about Dave Duerson, every TV interview I saw over the years, showed a really smart, eloquent man.  In high school he was given the chance to play with the 1979...

I was pleased to win tickets for Bears Expo 2011 and since not a single person with whom I am friendly expressed the wish to join me, I went alone and had a great time.  For sale:  Tight end on a stick Bears Expo is an annual lovefest for Bears fans, young and old.  There are activities for the kids and wish-they-were-still kids -- kicking a ball over the goal post (or trying to), running and catching a ball (mostly succeeding).  A family (or a middle-aged single woman) could have their picture taken on the field.  I ended up walking around inside Soldier Field at least twice; I got a tour of the locker room which exited through the inflatable Bear, just like the Bears do on game day; got to sit in on a four-person Q&A session with former Bears greats Steve McMichael, Reggie Phillips, Neal Anderson, and Tom Thayer; play Bears Bingo -- a huge fan favorite featuring free crap with Bears logos, Bears signatures, and a portable grill, and a lot of Bears fan...