ramblings of the mc

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We may all need to start coming to terms with the possibility that Brett Favre is the dumbest man in America. Heck of a quarterback, but dumb. Check this out:

It’s not as poetically idiotic as Chris Henry getting arrested while wearing his own jersey, but this one’s in the same neighborhood.

Remember those tampering charges that the Packers filed against the Vikings? And remember how I thought it would be difficult for the Packers to prove that Favre had made inappropriate contact with the Vikings?

Well, that assumed that Brett Favre wasn’t using a Packers-issued cell phone to make those calls to the Vikings. As it turns out, Favre may have done exactly that.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

…Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an interesting bit of information in a piece he wrote about the quarterback today.

McGinn writes that a source said Favre had continued to use a Packers-issued cell phone and that when the team checked the phone records it found “repeated calls to coach Brad Childress and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell.”

The possibility of Favre having used a phone issued by the Packers had been speculated on last week after the Associated Press reported that Green Bay informed the NFL it felt “an investigation of the phone records would show more than ‘normal contact’ between the Vikings and Favre, even before he formally asked for his release to play for another team.”

In fairness to Favre, it should be mentioned that any phone calls he made to the Vikings were made in a gunslinging fashion, and through the entire conversation, he looked like a kid out there, just having fun.

Say this turns out to be true, and tampering by the Vikings can be proved. And say that the Packers do what they’re expected to do, and block Favre from playing for the Vikings. Favre could end up costing the Vikings draft picks and fines while never playing a down for them, while also putting the Packers in this miserable position.

Give him a couple more weeks, and he might just find a way to tear down the entire NFC North.

Alright, I gotta admit… I’ve been slow to come around to the whole idea of Kobe Bryant being amazing. Despite his other-worldly abilities and his seemingly endless supply of scoring options, I have until this point in time, refused to acknowledge his greatness. I think the reasons have mainly been twofold:

1. My obsession with Michael Jordan forces me into the belief that no one can ever be half the player he was.
2. Kobe played with Shaq, therefore I must despise him.

After tonight, I’m prepared to go ahead and say that Kobe may very well be the second best player to ever pick up a basketball, second only to Jordan, of course.

If Kobe leads the Lakers to the title, and he looks very likely to do so at this point, it will be the greatest accomplishment in modern basketball history. With the exception of Pau Gasol, the Lakers are comprised entirely of role players, underachievers, and folks who would ride the bench with most organizations. To do with this team what Kobe has done is a feat which not even Jordan could do.

Jordan had Pippen. Pippen was a hall of famer. Granted, once Jordan left Pippen became a shell of the player that he once was, but in his prime Pippen was a defensive machine and was capable of taking over a game all on his own. This is nowhere close to the case with Gasol. Some will want to say thta Lamar Odom is a major contributor, but Odom is simply a great third option. His is to Kobe what BJ Armstrong was to Jordan.

The current dismantling of the San Antonio Spurs is nothing short of awesome. I’m constantly impressed by the way that Kobe’s presence forces everyone around him to play. Players like Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar become important when teams collapse three people onto Kobe. These guys could never play anywhere else.

If I’m the only one, I’ll shut up. But I think Kobe has done more than enough to solidify his position among the greatest to ever play the game.

Okay, for those of you who don’t know, I’m a huge Chicago Bulls fan. But it’s been quite a while since I had anything to get excited about. I mean, we don’t even have a coach right now, for poop’s sake.

But in an amazing turn of events, the Bulls have won the draft lottery and will have the first overall pick in the next NBA draft.

Who should they take, though? For my money, there are really only 2 options:

1. Michael Beasley out of Kansas State.
2. Derrick Rose out of Memphis.

For the Bulls, I think the obvious choice is Beasley. Chicago already has two great guards in Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich. Going after Derrick Rose would give them a guard surplus, with one of them riding the bench. Not a good situation.

But the Bulls could really use Beasley. They have Luol Deng at small forward, and he does a good job. Beasley might make a good power forward, though. And in the Eastern Conference, they are no great power forwards, so Beasley could shine quickly in the East.

More good thoughts on the situation here.

Either way, things are looking up for Chicago. Maybe not this year, but soon…

If you haven’t been keeping up with the whole “Spygate” controversy surrounding the NFL’s New England Patriot’s, consider yourself lucky. But here’s a quick summary:

1. The Patriots were caught illegally taping other teams.

2. They were punished.

3. Now Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter wants a special investigation done by the government because he doesn’t believe the punishments were harsh enough.

Does anyone else think that maybe U.S. Senators have better things to do than worry about NFL teams taping each other? Perhaps he could be concerned with the major “brain drain” that is plaguing his state right now. Or maybe he should launch an investigation on price-gouging in the oil industry. Anybody with me here? Don’t these matters, or any matters, seem much more pressing than whether or not the Patriots cheated?

Specter is yet another case of a politician who has absolutely no interest in the actual well-being of the people he was elected to serve. The fact that most politicians are concerned with things that nobody cares about is even more proof that our political system is flawed beyond repair.