Foil in the Oven

Welcome to the first Foil in the Oven of 2008. We've all got our own New Year's Resolutions here at room of zen. For me, it is to work on making Foil in the Oven a little more concise and quick-hitting, as was my original intent when we began this series. So, let's give it a try.

-Saturday night's loss was very tough for me to swallow, but in the end I think that it was a positive step for the Giants. During the week leading up to the game, I was hoping that the G-men would rest any starters that were banged up. In my mind, we hadn't played well since the Detroit game, and it made no sense to deny our starters healing time so that New England could blow us out and give us even less momentum than we already had heading into the playoffs. However, Old Red Face (in a signature stubborn and traditional move) made the right call. The Giants played a great game. They gave New England everything that they could handle, and I really think that this team's momentum and confidence are at an all-time high heading into this weekend's contest in Tampa Bay. In fact, if Vince Wilfork had been thrown out of the game for poking Brandon Jacobs in the eye (which he should have been, that's a classless move and very dangerous), the Giants might have been able to control the ball on the ground well enough to win the game. But I'm not bitter.....really.

-There is only one thing that I will remember from Sunday's day of football, and here it is:

John Madden said that this was one of the biggest hits that he has seen in his life. Now, John has seemed a little more senile over the past few years, and he may have had a hard time seeing because rumor has it that Vince Wilfork poked him in the eye right before this play, but I believe him. It's amazing that Chris Henry got up as fast as he did. It's also amazing that the Browns lost to the Bengals last week and the Titans were even in this position. This should not be a playoff team. They barely beat the Colts (who rested their starters in the second half).

- Keeping with this game, it never really occured to me until Sunday night just how great of a job Jim Sorgi has. Obviously anyone that backs up Peyton Manning gets paid a lot of money for not doing very much work. But, because the Colts only carry two quarterbacks , it is in the other team's best interest to go easy on Sorgi when he's in. Tennessee took him down hard a few times, and I couldn't help wondering if Jeff Fisher was advising his team not to hit Sorgi too hard. An angry Peyton Manning, annoyed by the fact that his rest was interrupted, could have ended the Titans' playoff hopes very quickly I imagine.

- On my drive back to Boston, a radio station was counting down the best songs of the year and kept saying "2007 was such a great year for music". I've heard a lot of ridiculous things in my life, but that might top them all. 2007 was not a good year for music. 2006 was also not a good year for music. 2005 was not a good year for music. Look, I have a lot of relatives that are in junior high and high school, and they need help. They don't have the independence yet to find good music where it is hiding in 2008 (for example, I could not have taken any of them with me to see Baroness because they are too young), and frankly I'm worried that they will never know what good music is. When I was a kid, I had John Sencio on Rude Awakening spoon feeding me great music. I'd like to think that made an impression, but where do our young kids get that today? They never see sick music videos for great songs (see below):



2007 was not a good year for music, and I don't have very high hopes for 2008.

-The Celtics road trip could not have gone better. They ended the four game trip in impressive fashion by pulling out a tough Saturday night win against the Jazz (I'm going to be honest with you, I saw very little of this game because I was watching the Giants and I forgot to DVR it. Even if I tried to watch it on Saturday night, I would have had a hard time seeing because Vince Wilfork poked me in the eye right before halftime) and dominating the Lakers on Sunday night.

-Now, it is important that we talk about this game against the Lakers on Sunday night. I am all for retro jersey nights in the NBA. I'm really all for it in any sport. I think seeing any team in their old uniforms is really cool. And, I can even understand how the IDEA of a retro shorts night could be good. However, in practice this looks horrible:



Needless to say, I'm glad that we have moved on from this era of basketball. It was so bad that the Lakers even changed into their normal shorts at halftime. I was glad that the Celtics never wore those high shorts in this game, and hopefully this is the last that we'll see of this.




2007 was not a good year for music.

- The NHL Winter Classic seems to have been a great success. I can't help but wonder what went wrong with pro hockey. This is a sport that was very popular in the 80's and early 90's. And yet, the game is so much better now than it was then. Video of today's players makes the games games from the 80s seem like they were shot at a men's league game at a town rink somewhere in the Mid-West. The NHL needs ESPN to start carrying Wednesday or Thursday night hockey again. We always used to watch this in college. Every game was always between two of a group of about 8 exciting teams, and it was great. If people could watch some of today's young NHL stars on ESPN once a week, I really think it would make a huge difference. I probably shouldn't care about how the NHL does, but I do. I was one of the biggest NHL fans out there until my favorite team was taken from me (this is something that I will write a post about in April. Until then, it's too difficult).

Perhaps no league has seen its level of play improve over the past twenty years as much as the NHL. If you have ever been a hockey fan, you should check it out. There are a lot of exciting things happening. For example, check out this highlight video of Alexander Ovechkin (again, you'll have to pardon the music):