Won the first and lost the second flag football game today. We beat ourselves and I'm (obviously) not too thrilled, so please pardon any harshness in my tone.

All of these bad things that are going on today - thoughtless killings and ridiculous violence-related crimes - do you think that's a product of today's culture or is it just that it has always been that way and we're just now old enough to realize it's going on? I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but I just read an article on CNN that convicted a 22-year-old guy of stabbing a Harry Potter actor (no - not that the Harry Potter guy himself) five times; the fatal stab in some important artery or something like that. That's crazy! The stabber had apparently had some knife-related incidents before and I guess it was never severe enough for them to do anything about it? Then again, it's a knife. Who doesn't own a knife? There is no way that authorities could ever prevent people from buying knives (for cooking, hopefully), let alone carry it around. The only feasible thing I can think of at the moment is to have random cops walk around and metal detect people - but that's impossible! Besides the fact that people don't really walk anymore, or at least not everywhere or nearly as much as in Europe, you never know where it could happen. People are stupid - and I guess there have been stupid people on this earth since the beginning of time. *shrug*

On the football front, Nate Washington was recently signed by the Tennessee Titans. I guess that's one loss for one of my teams (the Steelers) and a gain for my other team (the Titans). I think it's a win-win situation for both teams. Not that the Steelers traded him away or anything (I believe he was a FA), but they already have so many other offensive weapons, in addition to hopefully adding Limas Sweed (yes - he was wide open and he still dropped it), that Nate Washington was a nice third option - and very reliable, too. In email discussions with Daniel a week ago regarding this, I don't know that Washington could be a #1 receiver, but honestly, the Titans' two WRs from last year I believe also went into the FA and Washington is an upgrade from both. Justin McCareins is getting old and I can't remember the name of the other guy at the moment, but the Titans didn't really utilize them, either. Then again, can you really blame them when you have good runningbacks and a reliable tight end? And of course, the opposing defenses knew that and didn't focus too much on the Titans WR because they just didn't have to. Now, if we could get Kerry Collins to actually score in the red zone, and get decent or at least respected receivers to spread the defense just a little bit, THEN we'd be in business. In the meantime, I really don't see the Titans making a run in this upcoming season like they did last season.

Which brings me to... a $100 million contract to Albert Haynesworth, who signed with the Washington Redskins last week. $100 million contract. ARE WE NOT IN A RECESSION?! Ok - economics aside, I understand it's over a seven-year period and only $34 million or whatever is guaranteed (only?!) but sheesh! He's had a great past couple of seasons, but has yet to become the defensive player of the year. The whole stomping on whoever it was that he did a few seasons back was also not classy. I would assume that he's learned since and there had to be something to provoke that, since I didn't see any indication of that type of behavior before, but I can't imagine him being a respected leader when you do something like that. Maybe he's changed/matured significantly since and he has been berated for it non-stop, but that was disgusting.

Ideally, I would also like to discuss the new stimulus package, but then that'd get into politics and I think that'd be a bit too hairy, so.. I'm not going to start. I will say, however, that I watched some post-coverage of the conservative conference last week and Rush Limbaugh is a good speaker. I'm not saying that what he said was right (I'm not saying it was wrong, either), but he got the crowd fired up and I think that's what the party needs right now. And of course, he's not public enemy #1 of the democrats. I guess that's what you get for years of experience in the radio business.

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UPDATE! They just released TO? (Yes, this is worthy of an update) All I can say is HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Seriously. He disrespected you when he played against you. You really think he's going to change heart all of a sudden and BECOME one of you? The only way that would ever work is if you were actually winning Super Bowls. It's easy to say now that he's out of there to say that I saw this all along, but I totally saw it all along. I'm sure he's a nice guy, blah blah blah but a) I'm not a fan of drama queens, ESPECIALLY in football and b) I'm not a fan of me, me, me players. The reason I switched my attention to football in lieu of basketball was because I enjoyed the team sport and team mentality. The NBA really just became full of one-man teams, although the past few champions have gotten there as a team (see a theme?!). I can see TO being his old self (relatively, I guess you can only be so much of your old self when that was 5 years ago) under a coach that knows how to talk to him and can, I don't want to say control what he says and does, but almost?

And while I'm here, I'm going to restate that I HATE their celebration rule.

OH and I heard from a co-worker that sports ticket prices are going down as a result of the recession. If you think that you're in good financial shape and love sports, I say you should jump on those tickets! (the Texas football schedule has tenatively been released - and for the next few years, while NFL schedules won't be released until some time in the summer) Apparently, season ticket holders are looking to offload their tickets from their books and are offering them at low prices, so something like stubhub.com or ticketnation.com? Stubhub.com was surprising to me, since they're usually pretty expensive, but I guess you never know and it doesn't hurt to look?

My account is still here! So when Xanga had everyone change their passwords into more difficult ones that had to include numbers and symbols, I obediently complied and subsequently forgot the password. Me being the genius that I am decided not to write it down, and definitely paid for it, as I did not have access to my account for two years. When I had emailed Xanga last year about it, they told me that they could only send the password to the email address associated with this account, which I believe was my utexas.edu email address. Needless to say, they have changed their policy and I am now able to post on Xanga as I did... seven years ago HOLY MOLY.

I see not many people are on this anymore - well the usual gang that used to be on here at least, but I'll use this to rant about football to hopefully make the offseason go by faster.

In my email conversations with Danielsan today, we were discussing the celebration rule, what the Vikings and Titans/Steelers should be doing in the offseason, and if Fitz reached his peak this year.

With regard to the first: the celebration rule. Now, I understand the tact-lessness of taunting the other team after scoring, but sheesh. You can't throw the ball in the air or use it as a prop? You have to be kidding me. Where is the fun in that? Why would you want to ban celebrating doing something good? It's not like you're using the ball to chunk it at the other team! Remember the days when Ocho Cinco used to come up with random stuff for his touchdown celebrations, and everyone looked forward to them because they were usually hilarious (the jacket one - not so much). As much as I dislike TO, I wouldn't even ban celebrating on the star. Not that I condone it, either. I totally think it was disrespectful of him. At the same time, things like that are what brings out the passion in fans. For example, everyone in Dallas hated TO after that - and some still do despite the fact that he's on their team now (how ironic is that). Either way, they need to take most of that rule away. It's just ridiculous. Don't they have other concerns?

I'm not going to start on the needs of the Vikings and Steelers/Titans because it would take too long. I will say, though, that the Combine was supposed to be on my NFL Network today and I did not find it. That is pretty frustrating.

Ok - Larry Fitzgerald. First of all, let me say that I have never been that scared of an opponent in my life ever before. Fitz is ridiculous! I mean - just chunk the ball within five yards of him and no one would be surprised if he caught it in double coverage. IT'S INSANE! Lil Wayne commented that he thinks Fitz is the third-best receiver in the league behind Steve Smith and TO. I dare to disagree. TO cries too much and Steve Smith - I mean, he's good - no doubt, but... HAVE YOU SEEN FITZ PLAY? So the question becomes of whether Fitz can get better - post up bigger numbers. Danielsan argues that Warner doesn't hand the ball off well and he's still got the arm to throw it all day to both Fitz and Boldin and Breaston. The question is, could he do better with a Brady or Peyton Manning? I think so!!!

So let's see who's still here! Check in please!