Chew-Dat

Big ups to my man Carl Gunhouse for kindly forwarding these to me. Although I lived in the Gulf Coast region for a time, and all of my family is from South Mississippi, I was unaware of any specifically regional junk food when it came to NOLA. Judging by the ingredients on the Hubig's pie wrapper, this would be a tasty, albeit toxic snack. And yes, I too am wondering just how "heavenly" the Hash in question is...but I like the marketing.
On a sort-of side note...While Saints fans are insanely loyal, I'm talkin on a primordial/lupine level, I do wonder how little love Garrett Hartley is gettin this Monday in the Crescent City. I mean, last year was last year, but don't forget that this whipper snapper got the Saints to the Super Bowl to begin with, not to mention he kept them in the game through the whole first half of Big 44. I know kickers don't normally get a lot of love, but they are what keeps the "foot" in football. And sometimes, they win multiple Super Bowls.

What if he had body slammed Peyton??

From NFL.com....



The NFL fined Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison $5,000 for slamming Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young to the turf while sacking him during Sunday's game.

Harrison wasn't penalized on the play, but Titans coach Jeff Fisher questioned Monday why the former All-Pro linebacker wasn't called for unnecessary roughness.

"That should have been called," Fisher, also a member of the NFL competition committee, said Wednesday on NFL Network. "That is roughing the passer. That is textbook. You cannot lift and drive a quarterback into the ground. Now why that was not called? I cannot answer that. I don't know. But that should have been called."

Harrison was chosen as the AFC defensive player of the week after having two sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, a tackle for a loss and 11 tackles as the Steelers won 19-11.

First of all, while I strongly disagree with Fish-man's decision to bench Vince Young in favor of an up and coming Music Row tunesmith , I do wonder about how a roughing the passer call could have turned this game around for the Titans. If James Harrison had upended one of America's golden boys: Brady, Manning, or apparently, Carson Palmer, I think the on the field call would have been very very different.

Life Ever Laughter Part 2

Please allow me to nullify much of my September 12th post...

Robbie Caldwell and the Bad News Bears (ie the Vanderbilt Commodores) were able to do something remarkable last Saturday. They went down to Oxford, where the speed limit is still limited to the number on the back of two generations' worth of Manning jerseys, and put a serious beat down on the Rebels.


Was Ole Miss that bad or was Vanderbilt that good? It's a glass half empty/half full dialectic that I won't spend much time on. Point is, the scrappy Vanderbilt defense made Jeremiah Masoli look foolish, and some strange combination of Ole Miss ineptitude and Vanderbilt muscle allowed an anemic offense from the Commodores to completely dismantle the Rebels at home. Larry Smith ain't Jay Cutler, but Warren Norman is a lot closer to Mark Ingram than anyone is willing to admit. And more importantly, Vanderbilt played with an enviable chip on its shoulder. When you are the best financially endowed school in the SEC and also the worst football program it engenders a bizarre identity crisis, but I loved how the Commodores responded on this given Saturday.

In today's Tennessean, David Climer opines about Robbie Caldwell's chances at retaining his head coaching position, and to be honest I don't see why the job isn't his to lose. Who else is going to come into a football program with an epic record of seasonal losses and maintain the same kind of self effacing humor as Caldwell? Please, give me a break. I love this guy and he makes the Commodores that much more fun to root for.




Say this much for Robbie Caldwell: He's trying to make this a tough call for Vanderbilt.

By winning at Ole Miss last Saturday, and looking good in the process, the Commodores presented Caldwell with his first victory as a head coach.

Are there more where that came from? If so, Caldwell will build a case that he should be more than just a one-season fill-in for the Commodores.

Let's face it: The odds are against Caldwell's keeping the job beyond this season. He was elevated to the spot only because the school had limited options when Bobby Johnson announced his retirement shortly before the start of training camp. After 30-plus years as a position coach, it's hard to make a case that Caldwell is the answer as head coach over the long haul.

But victories have a way of changing perception. Suppose the Commodores win another couple of SEC games. Considering the level of expectation entering the season, you could argue that Caldwell's team was overachieving.

I still expect Vanderbilt to be searching for a new head coach at the conclusion of the season. But with nine games left and a surge of confidence after the win at Ole Miss, who knows?

Mel Tillis has strong feelings about burgers....

He's sold me....

fuss-ball follies

I know that the Vanderbilt Commodores are the Bad News Bears of the SEC. And Robbie Caldwell is by far the most lovable coach in the league, most certainly Walter Matthau to Nick Saban's Ben Gazzara ( i realize i am the only person who has ever made that comparison). Still, at some point, these guys have to win a game. More importantly, they need to win against a conference opponent, something they haven't been able to do in two years.
Last night's at home loss to LSU was a route, not a game. While Vanderbilt's defense made a commendable effort in the first half, and did manage to silence LSU's supposedly muscular offense for a time, Vanderbilt QB Larry Smith showed he still lacks the basic confidence to lead a team down the field, even with one of the more outstanding running backs in the SEC, Warren Norman, in his backfield.
Vandy fans are used to losing. They are also used to not caring. A lot of them are used to practicing law or medicine. So needless to say, being the perennial underdogs of the toughest football league in the NCAA has given birth to a lot of apathy and even some outside sympathy. But at some point, Vanderbilt has to learn how to compete with the big boys, even if it means an unorthodox approach to offense (running the wild cat etc), especially in situations where the deck is woefully stacked against them.
Yes,a 27-3 loss is the kind of inter-conference score Vanderbilt fans are more than used to at this point. But if things don't turn around this coming weekend against Ole Miss, it's going to be mighty tough to keep Vandy fans caring about what happens on the field every Saturday this season.

Finally, a union that a bunch of wealthy Republicans like....

As the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints took the field last night, the players on both teams held up a finger in a show of solidarity with the Players' Association. It wasn't a middle finger for sure, but it was a clear sign to team owners and Roger Goodell that around the league, players are unfazed by threats of a lockout in 2011, and they want a new collective bargaining agreement before any football gets played next season.
Now, there was a time when guys like Johnny Unitas had to work second jobs during football season. And while I am certainly in favor of guys getting paid, especially when the bodily toll is as great as it is in professional football, I feel like the timing of this threatened strike couldn't be worse. And greed is at the root of all of it.
I would say no one in this country, Democrat, Republican, tea drinker or Tea Bagger, would have much time or sympathy for the plight of NFL team owners. They do nothing and reap all the rewards, most of the time at taxpayers' expense. But at the same time, I have very little crying time for the players, seeing as how in our decimated economy, every time someone like Manning or Brady wants a precedent shattering new contract, the price of beer and hot dogs goes up at the stadiums.
What we need is a Fans' Union. Maybe Fireman Ed can be the chairman. The Cleveland Browns' Dawg Pound can be our picket line.
And honestly, the thought of a lockout in 2011 doesn't scare me. Maybe Chris Berman can once again offer excited commentary on matchups between the Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And who can forget that it was a certain Spare Bear named Sean Payton (pictured above) who got his only shot at being under center in the NFL during the strike shortened 1987 season.

The Geography Of Fandom

Click on the above photo for a close up...

Well, kickoff for the 2010 season is just a few days away, and I thought I would celebrate by tracking down a fan census map for NFL teams, outdated though this one may be. (It seems to have a lot of Green Bay Packers fans in Mississippi, which would hint that it was pre "retirement" era Favre.)
Not surprisingly, the bedrock of Titans fans are located in Tennessee, northern Alabama, and southern Kentucky, which at the risk of getting too Toynbee, I would dub a "culture area". Interesting to see that there is a firm pocket of Saints fans in mid-Mississippi, particularly in the Jackson area, which has always looked to the Gulf Coast for its culture. North of Jackson, they look towards Memphis, and thus you have seafood in Jackson, bbq in Oxford. But I digress into culinary flotsam...

Another Year Till More Inconsequential Baseball

Hope you didn't draft him...

From NFL .com....


The Arizona Cardinals announced Saturday that they have released former first-round draft pick Matt Leinart, who lost the starting quarterback competition with Derek Anderson.

Anderson, an offseason free-agent acquisition, started two consecutive preseason games for the Cardinals, and Leinart was upset the former Cleveland Browns starter apparently had passed him on the depth chart.
Leinert met with Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt on Friday to discuss the situation, and Whisenhunt told his disgruntled quarterback that the team wasn't yet prepared to take any action regarding his future.

The team took action Saturday, choosing to start the 2010 season with Anderson at the helm.

Leinart, the 10th overall draft pick in 2006, was expected to claim the starting job following Kurt Warner's retirement, but he lacked chemistry with the offense during training camp and the preseason.

With the release of Leinart, the Cardinals are left with Max Hall and John Skelton -- two rookies -- as backups for Anderson.

NFL teams must trim their rosters to 53 players by 6 p.m. ET Saturday.