Week One
The Vikings-Packers week 1 game will be on KSTP locally (Access Vikings). Here's what I hate: if the Vikings play Monday night at the regular time (7:30) I could make it hope to watch them. But when they play the early week 1 game, I can't get home until the second half. And this is the second time in three years they've played that slot!
By the way, are you aware that since 1986, the Packers will have opened the season on the road just three times? For reasons I don't even understand, it infuriates me that the Packers have played week one at home for 20 of the previous 23 seasons.
For Viking Blogger coverage of the NFL draft
Check out The Ragnarok for videos, stats, and commentary on a lot of the players the Vikings could be targeting.
I'm looking forward to the NBA playoffs so much it's silly.
Hopefully here's a chance to see some teams that aren't televised much, like New Orleans and Orlando. Here's a chance to see really good teams, and really good players, squaring off against each other every night in big important games. In the West, I feel like every single game is going to have championship implications.
Baseball?
I did a fantasy baseball draft this weekend, and I fully suspect this will destroy my life. This is the first season I'm paying attention to baseball since the '94 strike (yeah, it's taken me awhile to come back, I'd say), and I'm just learning a lot of the players because I'm buying baseball cards now. I tried to draft a lot of Cubs because they're on WGN all the time so I can watch them.
Links
Tommy Craggs at Slate has an interesting column on portrayals and perceptions of Kevin Love.
Meet Thomas Tapeh (Pioneer Press). Sounds like an interesting fellow.
Sorry, Stephanie Stradley, I actually think the Houston Texans have the worst nickname in the NFL. It's a bland, dull name: they may as well just be called the Houston People. And the color scheme and jerseys are pretty ugly to. But you know, about tastes there is no disputing.
Cold, Hard Football Facts looks at the top 25 passing seasons.
The Dallas Mavericks could miss the playoffs, or they could be a serious title contender. Shoals says "If anyone tries to feed me a Cinderella narrative for Dallas, I'll puke all over them. That 'anyone,' not the team."
An excerpt from David Nylund's book Beer, Babes, and Balls: Masculinity and Sports Talk Radio is at Outsports, and it's rather interesting. I'd like to see the same scrutiny turned to blogs, too. For example, why exactly do many sports blogs arbitrarily include pictures of attractive scantily clad women? What is the effect of doing so?
Signal to Noise asks which high profile college freshmen should rightly bolt for the NBA.
Ronald Tillery on Rudy Gay's sophomore NBA season (via TrueHoop). I got to see Gay live this year, and he was fun to watch: he and Mike Miller were flying around all over the place.
Dave Zirin on Roberto Clemente's reaction to Martin Luther King's death.
PV,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. As for the name "Texans", if you aren't one, I am guessing it is hard to understand the pride people in this part of the world take in their state. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That's_Right_(You're_Not_from_Texas).
My question to you is to ask whether you watched the video and the link at the bottom of the entry that contained the reasons for thinking the Titan name is just plain wrong? Yeah, the old Chronicle article makes it a matter of taste, but it is my belief that it is truly questionable to name a team after incestuous, inbred, child-eating Greek gods.
That in the modern era, in something as profitable as the NFL, that the best they could do is Titans?
And well, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post semi-literary trash talk with that video.
As for the logo/colors, you are correct that is a matter of taste. Mine tends to run towards traditionalism. I like the old logos/unis (I must admit I like the Vikings when they were more purple than blue-ish and the helmets matched the unis better)
For the new teams, I like simple logos with non trendy colors. No teal for example. The Titan logo to me has too much stuff going on, but as you note, it is a matter of taste.
I know that the Texans-Vikings game this year is in MN, but if you ever make it to the Houston part of the world for a game, please say something. Texans pride themselves in their hospitality as well, and our tailgating is top notch. (something that was not allowed in the Bud Adams era).
I enjoy reading your blog on a regular basis. (I think a lot of MN fans were overly dismissive of Rosenfels before the trade talk died, but that's okay with me because I hope that the Texans end up keeping him and not doing a trade).
Be well,
Steph