USC vs. Oregon State and Other Thoughts

After a somewhat promising start at the ROOMOFZEN I disappeared off the face of the map for a while. And though I’ve been attempting to jump back into the mix I’ve had trouble with 2 aspects:

1. A serious case of writer’s block.

2. I just don’t watch as much football – college or NFL – as the regular contributors. Yes, I watch the Patriots. But beyond that I feel like a fish out of water.

So to get back in the swing of things I'm going with a bunch of random observations instead of a coherent post.

- I’ve read a lot of different arguments and viewpoints about the 2008 New England Patriots. All I’ll say is this: it’s important for New England fans to keep watching no matter what happens from this point forward. I’d hate to see us associated with other famous bandwagon collapses. The post Jordan Bulls ban base comes to mind.

- Recently I started exercising again, mainly because 4 years after the end of my football career it did not make a lot of sense to walk around weighing like an offensive lineman. Now I’m not as well versed as Babcock and LaRocque when it comes to music. In fact my knowledge and views of the subject are amateur at best, embarrassing at worst. Still I feel confident saying that James Brown is awesome. He can definitely kick start a workout. Thankfully Jim Brown went by “Jim” and not “James”. That would have made an incredibly difficult debate over who was the alpha James Brown. Granted I would have gone with the ridiculous running back/lacrosse player. But the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business” deserves your respect. And yes I realize he's dead. I'm less clear on whether or not this is actually him:

- We’re closing in on two months since the Manny Ramirez trade and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the Manny Ramirez era. This Curt Schilling stuff didn’t help. Granted Schilling is a loud mouth and a non-factor at this point. But that doesn’t mean I can discount everything he says. More importantly Terry Francona, of all people, took some thinly veiled shots at Ramirez following the deal. Does Francona ever do that? Ultimately I can deal with the disagreements with ownership, the jogging on the base paths, and the lax defense. But the phantom injury claims might just be too much.

- The coverage of sports is so overwhelming that I’ve completely given up on watching sports on TV, outside of the games themselves. When pregame shows, post game shows, SportsCenter, etc. actually made me start to dislike sports a bit, I had to step away from the ledge. Remember when Baseball Tonight was one of the best shows on television, SportsCenter was about highlights, instead of talking heads and human interest stories, and in general networks seemed to understand the less is more concept a bit? Thankfully blogs and podcasts are filling the void. And of course the following happened.

- I’ll preface this by saying I don’t like USC. So that’s out there. Meanwhile, I stayed up late to watch the Trojans play Oregon State and was rewarded big time. The Beavers took it to a team that is loaded with talent and USC came off as a bunch of front runners. Jacquizz Rodgers ran 37 times for 186 yards, was thrown around stonewalled at points, and refused to back down. Factor in the Beavers TD at the end of the half and the late Trojan rally and it was an instant classic. One final point. Heading into the game I didn’t know anything about the Beavers, outside of the fact that Penn State thrashed them. I assumed they’d have to play with a spread offense and try to outscore the Trojans. Not the case. Oregon State used some trick plays and ran plenty of screens. But the offensive line fired off the line and played smash mouth football. Just an awesome, awesome game.