Thoughts on WrestleMania.

April 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

The Last Outlaw vs. The Cerebral Assassin.

I don’t really have some big huge blog post planned. Mainly because it’s 12:30am and today has been long and exhausting. I won’t give one big review since Holt will probably do that over at SC when he gets back, but instead, I’ll go bullet point style and just talk about some highlights.

  • Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio was the first match? Holy hell, what a way to start WrestleMania 27. Edge retained in a shocker (I was like 110% sure they’d give the strap to Del Rio, as he’s been getting a huge push lately). I love Edge, and I feel like a lot of the internet community thinks his act is old. Maybe it’s because I’ve been away from wrestling for so long that he’s still fresh to me, but I’d be pushing him as one of my main guys. Being on SmackDown kind of feels like it’s the same as Junior Varsity. Put Edge back on Raw, have him feud with someone like CM Punk for the WWE Title, and we’ll be good to go.
  • Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan for the US Title got bumped to a Dark Match before the show started. Then it changed to a lumberjack battle royal with no title on the line. Um… what? How did you bump this, and not the shitty Corre 8 man tag match that lasted 90 seconds? They are absolutely misusing Sheamus.
  • Cody Rhodes actually has a pretty decent gimmick right now. He’s obsessed with his now “grotesque” face, and he sort of has this Mankind vibe to him. Holt brought this up, and I’m totally plagiarizing him, but it’s ok since we’re all BFFs anyway. Rhodes should be in line for a nice upper-mid card push. Perhaps for the IC Title? This feud with Rey isn’t great. It doesn’t suck, but it’s not really all that special.
  • Speaking of Rhodes, it’s always weird when a wrestler wears the trunks with no knee pads. Just trunks and boots. It looks like he’s out picking up the newspaper in his slippers and underwear. Dude, get some knee pads or get long pants.
  • CM Punk vs. Randy Orton turned out to be one of the better matches of the night (probably the 2nd best match all night, to be honest). How CM Punk is not headlining every show from here on out is a mystery to me. He is a genius on the mic, knows how to work the crowd, and his style is completely unique to the WWE. Orton caught Punk in a mid-air RKO that made me yell out “HOLY SHIT” as it happened. Orton is a scary, scary individual. When they hold the draft, I kind of want Orton on SmackDown so he can just own everyone and be the World Heavyweight Champion over there.
  • Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Michael Cole was about as awful as you’d expect. It went on way too long, and the decision by the Anonymous Raw GM to reverse the decision was dumb. They hinted at revealing who it was more than once, but didn’t. This “Anonymous GM” angle hasn’t been properly thought out, and it feels like they used it because they couldn’t think of anything else. Hey, at least Stone Cold was there to stun everyone. Not sure why Booker T got stunned, but hey, why not?
  • Hearing JR and King back together to announce at WrestleMania makes 13 year old me absolutely ecstatic. Love Jim Ross.
  • Snooki got booed hardcore. Then she hit some wildly athletic back handspring elbow and the Georgia Dome erupted in a universal, “Um… what? How… ?” followed by a confused applause for Trish Stratus’ giant boobs. Side note: John Morrison’s gimmick sucks, and they need a new one for him. He is being terribly misused. Same goes for Dolph Ziggler.
  • Triple H vs. the Undertaker was legitimately one of the best matches I’ve ever seen. I claimed it was the best right after I saw it, but I was also on the tail end of a 42 ounce Amp energy drink. I was pretty excited. It’s still up there for me in terms of “Holy shit, did this really happen?” For those wondering, a normal submission finisher is applied for roughly 15-20 seconds before someone submits. In a big match, like a title match or a PPV match, it can go for 30-45 seconds. In historic PPV matches at WrestleMania, it can go on for over a minute. Undertaker had HHH in the Hell’s Gate submission hold for 1:49 seconds before he tapped out. That’s an eternity.
  • Match quasi-recap: Triple H hits Undertaker with THREE Pedigrees. THREE. ‘Taker kicks out of all three. Then HHH says “fuck it” and hits ‘Taker with the Tombstone. ‘TAKER KICKS OUT! Triple H retreats to the other side of the ring with a look of sheer terror on his face like, “what the hell do I have to do…” Triple H kicks out of a choke slam, followed by the Last Ride and a Tombstone back to back. ‘Taker is pissed and wondering what HE has to do. After ‘Taker gets absolutely owned with a steel chair (this is what probably legit hurt him, as I’ve never seen ‘Taker this groggy and falling, but old age certainly doesn’t help, either), HHH goes and grabs a sledgehammer. Somehow, ‘Taker springs up and wraps his legs around Triple H’s throat and locks in Hell’s Gate. Triple H looks like he’s going to pass out. He grabs the sledgehammer with his last ounce of strength, hoping to break the hold. He can’t hold it anymore, drops the sledgehammer, and finally taps out on ‘Takers’ thigh. The match went over 30 minutes, and absolutely stole the show.
  • Taker looked legit hurt, and they had to drive him out on a cart. Nice move, WWE. The LayCool/Ziggler match was next. Michelle McCool (the “Cool” part of ‘LayCool’) is married to Undertaker in real life. So, she’s supposed to go work a match after seeing her husband carted past her in the back, straight to the emergency room? Yikes.
  • John Cena is absolutely terrible. What the hell is with bringing out a 50 person all black choir? Then a prayer from DMX. Then John Cena’s entrance music. I was legitimately baffled. I can usually figure out even the lamest attempts to win a crowd, but this? Um, what the hell? Was he playing to the large portion of black people that live in Atlanta? I guess…
  • The Miz, however, had one of the best promos I’ve seen in years. He’s watching multiple monitors in what looks like a control room, hitting buttons. It’s videos of past champions (Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Stone Cold, Rock, Ric Flair) and then it’s intertwined with his time on The Real World and how he created “The Miz” alter ego. Then it shows clips of him training on WWE’s reality show Tough Enough. Then BOOM, cue “Hate Me Now” by Nas and P. Diddy. Cut to audio of Miz saying “I’d rather you all hate me for what I am, than love me for something I’m not.” The words HATE ME NOW up on the monitors. Absolutely brilliant. Push Miz as a big time heel that doesn’t need the approval of everyone, and have him start to legit win matches instead of interference or cheating. They owned his past on MTV, and he basically said, “So fucking what? You don’t like me? I’m the WWE Champion, bitch. You don’t have to like me.” I loved every single second of this promo, and they absolutely need to pay Nas whatever he wants for the rights to that song so Miz can come out to it from now on.
  • The WWE Title match ends in a double count out. Um… yeah. Way to handle your main event, guys. Then Rock comes out and says “start the match again, no DQ, no count outs” blah blah blah. Ten seconds later, he nails Cena with a Rock Bottom. Miz retains.
  • The worst part about the main event is you made your Champion, someone you should be aggressively pushing, look like a giant pussy. He was an afterthought the entire time, as the WWE Title match was the backdrop for a budding feud between The Rock and John Cena. So, um… the guy who holds your biggest and best title is an afterthought in the main event of your biggest PPV of the year? Way to go, WWE. Way to go.
  • Overall, WrestleMania was pretty good, but I was a little disappointed. It didn’t suck, because I would have paid $65 for ‘Taker/HHH alone, but the dropping of the US Title match and their blatant mishandling of their own champion is cause for concern. Monday Night Raw should certainly be interesting.

EDIT: Whoops. I originally said I didn’t have time for a big blog post. Um, 1500 words later, I guess I was wrong.

Filed under Sports. Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WRESTLEMANIA 27.

March 31, 2011 by Leave a comment

It's gonna be a slobberknocker.

I had this big, long post written in my head about what I wanted to say about this Sunday. I had storylines figured out, I had plot twists, I had interference, I had superstar introductions, even how many finishers it would take to win a certain match.

Then Bryan Holt wrote everything I was thinking before I had a chance to. So, just go read his, because he just saved me a long ass time. Also read my ridiculously long comment at the bottom, as I add-on to what was a great post.

WrestleMania 27 is this Sunday, and it is going to be absolutely epic.

Filed under Sports. Tagged with ,

A Blog Post About Wrestling.

March 14, 2011 by Leave a comment

It's real to me, dammit.

Yes, I know. You think wrestling is fake. You think wrestling is dumb. You think anyone who closely follows men in speedos pretending to beat each other up must be gay.

Well if The Rock has taught me anything… IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK.

I don’t know if these will be regular posts, but there’s a fair chance it happens. Wrestling buddy Bryan Holt of the world-renowned Sports Casualties is to thank for these. Make sure to send your hate-mail to him.

Since I’m not going to run down the entire show (Brian Christopher was never a headliner for a reason), I’ll go bullet point style from here on out.

  • The Rock opened the show by absolutely owning John Cena. He is a genius. He then turned his attention to The Miz. I’m not sure which Rock I prefer; funny, comical Rock, or angry, serious Rock. Both are awesome.
  • For some unknown reason, Drew Carey is being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. See guys, this is why no one takes you seriously.
  • I get that they want to make Michael Cole a villain, but holy shit is he insufferable. The Miz is a heel, but he’s entertaining and knows how to play off of the crowd. Michael Cole is not charismatic, not athletic, and the guy is an announcer for a reason. Don’t make him a wrestler. Don’t make him important. Don’t give him a storyline. He’s absolutely unwatchable. I use his segments to get up and take a piss, because I know I’m not missing anything at all.
  • Snooki made an appearance and is apparently going to wrestle in a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania. Again, this is why no one takes you seriously, WWE.
  • Randy Orton defeated the final member of the Nexus, guaranteeing he will face CM Punk one on one at WM. This match might actually be the second best match on the card (with HHH vs. Undertaker being the best). Orton has the ability to be a headliner, but I feel he’s more suited as a guy who is either competing for the old WCW title or a secondary title, like the Intercontinental title. His feud with CM Punk is really good, but would be elevated to “great” status if there were some title on the line.
  • Sheamus beat Daniel Bryan for the United States title. This is what I predicted, and perhaps the WWE reads SC and is listening to me. Daniel Bryan doesn’t scream secondary champion to me, and I’d push him in some sort of group or for a lower tier title (think European title). Sheamus should hold the title for the foreseeable future. Perhaps a feud with someone like Jack Swagger (or someone else among the second tier). I know the “America sucks” routine has been done before, but usually the people are from Canada or England. Those two patsy countries don’t do anything other than make me laugh and think, “That’s cute, they think they’re people”. Now, Ireland on the other hand… that’s a country I fear. Gingers are scary and drunk.
  • I really enjoy this vicious streak The Miz has been on. For basically his entire career up to this point, he’s been a running joke. He thinks he’s awesome, everyone else thinks he sucks, and he relied mainly on cheating to win. They made him champion to make the people hate him more. Instead of continuing on this path, he began showing that he actually has ability. The past four weeks, he’s ended Raw by destroying John Cena. I’m not sure how the Rock factors in to all of this, but I look for Miz to legitimately beat Cena at WrestleMania, cementing him as champion.

Until next time. Remember, what they’re doing is totally real and not at all fake.

Filed under Sports. Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

I Love Brian Wilson.

February 10, 2011 by 5 Comments

Fear the Beard.

 

WHY DOES HE NOT HAVE HIS OWN SHOW ALREADY?

 

Filed under Sports.

At What Point Do We Get Over It Already?

February 7, 2011 by 22 Comments

DON'T CALL ME BIG BEN

 

Look, I hate that we lost to the Steelers in Super Bowl XL as much as you guys.  At what point, however, are we just going to get over it already?  Sure I rooted for the Packers last night, but had the Steelers won, I wouldn’t have lost any sleep.  Everyone’s hatred for Pittsburgh — and Ben Roethlisberger, specifically — is getting kind of old.

The truth of the matter is, we don’t know what happened between Roethlisberger and a few different females.  Calling him “Rapelisberger” was funny the first few times, but now it just seems stale.  He was never charged with anything, so we all need to let that one go.

For some unknown reason, one of the referees of Super Bowl XL came out and admitted he blew calls.  This, of course, made the city of Seattle even more outraged.  Do I think we got hosed on more than a few calls?  Absolutely.  But there was no conspiracy, people.  Bad calls happen.  Until we get those super accurate new robot referees and umpires, the human element will always be a factor.  Get over it already.

I’m fine with not wanting the Steelers to win, but text messages, Facebook status’, and twitter were full of a ridiculous amount of hate yesterday.  Seriously everyone, just breathe.  Calm down.  Are you even sure you hate the Steelers?  Or have you bought in to what everyone else is saying, and you sort of think you hate the Steelers by association?  Move on.

I’m glad the Packers won, not because I loathe the Steelers, but because I love Aaron Rodgers.  Specifically, I love Aaron Rodgers’ WWF Championship Belt taunt.  That thing is amazing.  So when I was rooting for the Pack last night, it honestly had nothing to do with a false and perceived hatred for a team that beat us 5 years ago.

It seems to me that the same people who “hate” the Steelers, hate the Yankees, hate Duke basketball, and hate SEC football.  They win, guys.  That’s not hated.  It’s jealousy.

Rooting for someone else’s demise doesn’t do anything to help our team.  At some point, you have to get over it.

Filed under Sports. Tagged with , , , ,

BREAKING NEWS: Someone Finally Realizes How Awesome I Am.

February 6, 2011 by 5 Comments

CougCenter.com -- No Pants Required.

I’ve linked to CougCenter.com from the very first day of this blog.  As a Coug, it was the only Washington State related blog that I frequented.  Sure there are other blogs that have information, but none to the level and professionalism that CougCenter brought.  A part of the fantastic SB Nation, CougCenter aimed for intelligent, rational discourse.  So, yeah, less boobs and video games, but basically, right up my alley.

Last week, as you may know, was National Letter of Intent Day.  Football teams across the nation could begin to officially sign High School players to a binding agreement.  As someone who is basically obsessed with recruiting, I offered my services.  As I had been keeping a very close eye on WSU’s incoming class, and the 4 moderators all have actual jobs, they asked me to step in on Signing Day and answer questions from the masses.  What transpired can only be explained as an unmitigated success.  We made sure everyone was up to date on every letter that was faxed in, we kept the banter light and humorous, and we broke down the players on an individual basis.

After, I received word from head honcho Jeff Nusser that this year’s Signing Day Chat had produced the 2nd most hits in the history of the blog.  He then asked to speak with me on the bat-phone, offering me a position as the official CougCenter Recruiting Coordinator/Expert/Guru.  He told me I could think about it, so I paused for roughly 1.3 seconds and responded with, “Yes yes yes yes yes.”

While it just became official (as in, within the past 20 minutes), the introductory post won’t happen until tomorrow morning.  Still, I’m more excited about this than I have been about anything in a long, long time.  I understand that I’m still not getting paid to write about stuff that interests me, but a lot of these guys have journalism degrees and have worked/still do work as professional journalists.  I, on the other hand, once blogged about an Axe Body Wash commercial.  So you can see how I’m excited to just be around these guys.  Also intimidated, but still, excited too.

Also, I’m going on record now and letting you know, the content of this blog may not slow down, but it’s going to change.  I don’t want to completely censor myself, because damn the man, but I will have to go all Hilson and stop swearing.  You know, responsibility and all.  Plus, future employers.

So screw the Super Bowl today.  When you are drinking, raise your glasses to one man:  Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.  Because seriously, he’s the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment.  Also, if you still have some drink left, toast to me.  Because I have worked extremely hard to get this opportunity.  Finally, a big shout out to Jeff, Brian, Grady, and Craig for making this all possible.  They took a shot on a guy whose claim to fame was a FanPost about the many awkward faces of Paul Wulff.

To Kyle Rancourt:  cheers.  And Go Cougs.

Filed under Sports. Tagged with , , ,

I Love Beating UW.

January 31, 2011 by 8 Comments

Pumpkins know.

Last night’s win over the Washington Huskies was fantastic.  A few bullet points on the win:

  • As far as UW fans getting super pissed and calling Wazzu fans “classless” for chanting “No Means No” at Venoy Overton, get off your god damned high horse.  If a player on our team was thought to be the player in an ongoing rape investigation, the UW fanbase would do the exact same thing.  Husky fandom 101 says bitch about classlessness and how much we overreact when we beat you.  Also, act like the loss is no big deal, and then cite the ’91 “National Championship”.
  • Also, if you don’t want us to razz your player about a rape charge, then DON’T HAVE PLAYERS THAT RAPE PEOPLE.
  • Everyone everywhere was pissed about Wazzu rushing the court.  Geoff was over here, pissed, and said, “When you rush the court, it means you’re a bad team.”  Well, when we rush the court, it means we beat you.  PWNED!
  • In all seriousness, I have absolutely no problem with the fans rushing the court.  The Huskies are our bitter, bitter rivals, and the #17 team in the nation.  Fans don’t sit there thinking, “well, we just won.  Wait, should we rush?  Nah, they’re #17, not #5.  Let’s high five each other and then go home”.  Rushing the court is an emotional high and not necessarily a decision you consciously make.  If I were in the crowd (god I wish I had been) and people all around me start rushing the court, no way I’m sitting still.  We’re running on that god damn court and getting super drunk.  If you don’t want us to rush the court, beat us.
  • The one problem I have is the students chanting “overrated”.  While it’s certainly funny to degrade our rivals, you guys, calling them overrated when we’re about to beat them is actually diminishing our achievement.  Think about it.
  • Sunday night games against UW are terrible for Monday morning classes.  I woke up at close to 1pm today, and I was up until almost 4am talking to my Coug buddies about how great the win was.  Pullman may have run out of beer last night.
  • Isaiah Thomas is a really good player, and if he wants to talk shit, he can.  He had an absolutely terrible night from the field and still almost willed his team to victory.  Matthew Bryan-Amaning, on the other hand…  Shut up, douche. You suck.
  • That whole “Klay Thompson disappears in big games” meme died in a giant fire last night.
  • As much as I love Klay (and I think he’ll be the best Cougar of all time if he stays for his Senior year), last night’s player of the game was one Reggie Moore.  Dude is only a Sophomore.  I love him so so so so much.

COUGS!

Eat it, Huskies.

 

Filed under Sports. Tagged with , , , , , ,

ESPN’s 30 for 30 is Amazing.

January 26, 2011 by 2 Comments

I just purchased the 30 for 30 films in a box set with the first 15 movies in the series.  15 movies, $45.  I feel like I just committed some kind of robbery.  Thanks, Amazon.  It was worth the 2 week wait.

I haven’t seen all 15 of these films yet, so I think I’ll wait until we’re completely done to give a full review.  We’ve seen 3 thus far, and every one has been fantastic.  It all started when, on our 2 year anniversary no less, we watched the not-included film about the rise and fall of Southern Methodist University, “Pony Excess”.  If a documentary about college football can make my girlfriend tell me to stop talking and turn up the TV, in a $200 a night hotel in downtown Seattle, on our anniversary, then yeah, it’s probably pretty good.

The three we’ve watched so far have been “Without Bias”, focusing on the life and death of former college basketball star Len Bias; “Run Ricky Run”, about Miami Dolphins RB Ricky Williams (which I had already seen, but wanted to watch again); and finally, “The 16th Man”, about the Springboks rugby team.  For those who didn’t like Invictus (ehem, Hilson), The 16th Man is a more condensed, better version.

Again, I’ll refrain from going into detail on all of them until we finish the set.  That blog post is going to be huge, but totally worth it.  I figure I’ll recap each one in a few paragraphs, instead of 1,000 words like I usually do.  So be forewarned; a huge giant post is upcoming, and it’s going to be freaking fantastic.

 

(Also, a side note to increase hits, I have updated the “About Me” section of this blog to sound more awesome.  That’s my gift to you, the reader.  Enjoy.)

Filed under Sports., Talking Pictures.

Someone Else’s Blog is Better Than No Blog.

January 20, 2011 by 4 Comments

2nd Best Non Porn Site on the Internet.

I haven’t been able to sit down and actually allow words to flow for quite some time now.  The calendar of blog posts to the right is more scarce than Antonio Cromartie at a Parent Teacher Conference.  As my battle with the page continues, I look to others for inspiration.  Since I’ve spent the past 5 days worried more about unpacking and getting settled into our new apartment than school work, I’ve fallen behind.  This leads to me putting aside blogging as it is less important (well, from a GPA standpoint, anyway).  I hate doing this because one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone thinks they’re cool because they have a blog… and then they never update it.  Ever.

I don’t want to fall into the habit of posting once-per-week, but such is life.  So instead of attempting to drone on about something that I don’t care about writing right now, I’ll post a link to someone much better at this whole “written word” thing.

As an aspiring sociologist, I pride myself on being more rational and logical than just about anyone.  I can look at a situation and tell you why it is the way it is, and why people are stupid for judging someone else (which is a judgment in and of itself, but hey, I’m Kyle Rancourt, and you’re not).  It’s a funny coincidence, then, that my half-brother, Robbie, penned this mission statement of epic proportions not 20 minutes after I saw the commercial he is referring to.  In it, I chuckled because it was dumb, not because it was funny, and then chuckled some more because I thought, “Hah, Robbie wears those.  Gay.”

Understanding that the ridiculous nature of American machismo, and the fear of anything resembling feminine qualities, I can laugh at these stupid commercials because, hey, they’re beer commercials.  However, I think the word “manly” is the stupidest word in the English language.  I believe anyone afraid of being seen as feminine is ridiculous, but that’s sort of another topic for another day.

What I really wanted to do was re-direct you to the piece Robbie wrote concerning light beer, skinny jeans, hot emo girls, and hot lesbian orgies.  One of those topics didn’t make it in to the blog post, but to find out which one it was, you’ll have to go check it out.

Bad Beer and Tight Jeans: An Analytical Deconstruction of Two Competing Paradigms

Also, because he’s a part of this family, too, go read Bryan’s article about Santa Claus’ homeless brother.  If Hilson is my half-brother, Holt must be the 2nd cousin, twice removed.

KyleRancourt.com and SportsCasualties:  coexisting better than Chinese Food & Chocolate Pudding since 2010.

Shake & Bake.

 

Filed under Random., Sports.

I Just Don’t Get It.

December 31, 2010 by 2 Comments

MILF?

First off, let me tip my cap to the Huskies.  Last night, they played a team with superior talent at almost every single position and won in convincing fashion.  The Huskies dominated the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense, and it’s no surprise they won because of it.

Having said all of that, oh my God I hate bandwagon Husky fans.  You know who you are.  You root for the team when they’re good, post status updates with “woof! woof! woof!” in them after a big win, but don’t say anything if they lose a close game, and chances are, you didn’t even go to UW.

I know there are people who didn’t go to UW who are die-hard fans.  I have no problem with people like my buddy Mike, who didn’t actually attend the university, but have several ties to it (I believe his mother went to Homecoming with a Husky athlete?) and can name most of the recruiting class off the top of his head.  Nor do I blame people like my buddy John, whose father taught at UW, and is considered a booster for how much he donates.  No, my quarry is not with these people, and I apologize if I offended you by unintentionally lumping you in with other people on the Montlake bandwagon.

Watching last night’s victory, a few things stood out:

  1. Jake Locker is loved by every person who even remotely considers themselves a Husky fan.
  2. Chris Polk is the most talented player on the team.
  3. Nick Holt may actually know what he’s doing.
  4. Steve Sarkisian is one helluva coach.
  5. Nebraska never seemed like they wanted to be there, and the Huskies played like this was their National Title game.
  6. Taylor Martinez: awesome runner, terrible thrower.
  7. ESPN’s Jake Locker apology machine was in full force.
  8. ESPN’s Jake Locker love-fest was also in full force.
  9. Mark May is just awful.
  10. Lou Holtz is even worse.

Chris Polk is an absolute star, and I hope he declares for the NFL Draft.  If he comes back, a 2,000 yard season is a legitimate goal with a young QB behind center (be it either Nick Montana or Keith Price).  For the sake of beating UW next year, I hope we don’t have to deal with the Polk-Jesse Callier duo.

I think the thing that bothers me most about Locker is all the credit he gets for things he doesn’t deserve, and how he is absolved from blame for stupid, ridiculous reasons.  Locker reminds me of how the media treats Peyton Manning (or, did, up until a year or two ago).  Manning can throw 3 picks, yet none of them would be his fault, as the offensive line didn’t block well enough, a WR ran the wrong route, or the DB gambled and got lucky.  Locker over-threw his WRs last night by 10 yards, and when it happened, instead of blaming Locker, announcers and ESPN “experts” said “can’t blame Locker on that one, his WRs need to run better routes and get open underneath.”  WHAT?!  Are you watching the same game, Lou Holtz?  Are you watching the same game, Mark May?  Are you watching the same game, random douchebag on Facebook?  Locker’s receivers had their share of dropped passes and gaffs, but to completely absolve Locker from blame is not only irresponsible, but it’s down right delusional.

I was going to get a few screen grabs of people’s Facebook status updates, but then I realized, I don’t want to call any one person out specifically.  So I’ll just paraphrase a few that really bothered me (and ultimately led to this rant):

  • “Bow Down to Jake! Suck it, Nebraska!”
  • “WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! SO HAPPY! Locker deserves this”
  • “So proud of Locker! Go Dawgs!”
  • “Locker gettin’ it done! Go Dawgs!”
  • “What a great day to be a Dawg! Great job, Jake!”
  • “Thanks for all the great memories, Jake! BOW DOWN!”
  • “Woof! Love the Win! Love Jake! Locker Stalker!”

If I were to see a status update that read, “Man, our offensive line killed it tonight” or “Chris Polk is amazing”, then I’d have been fine.  Yet 100% of the updates included some shout out to The Overrated One himself.  I really, really don’t get it.  I understand that he was a big time recruit, but how does he get so much love when the highlight of his entire 5 year career is going 7-6 and winning the Holiday Bowl?

I’ve been told he has “a little Joey Cora in him”.  Ok, ok.  If that’s the case, then I at least get it.  I have a huge-giant-mega-man-crush on both Jeff Tuel and Marquess Wilson, so I get it.  I also loved Devard Darling more than any other Coug for mainly reasons beyond football.  So I can at least understand irrational love for a player.  What I don’t get is the exemption from blame, and the credit for undue success.

I don’t expect people to openly praise the offensive and defensive lines.  I do, however, expect people to be intelligent fans (or semi-intelligent, anyway) and see that one person was responsible for winning the game, and the other wasn’t.  One person ran for 177 yards and a TD, the other was 5/16 passing for a whopping 56 yards (to be fair, Locker did have 83 yards rushing and 1 TD).  I realize stats aren’t the end all, be all, but people saying Locker has no offensive line and no help on offense are retarded.  How in the hell does Polk run for almost 1,500 yards with no offensive line?  How does Jermaine Kearse top 1,000 yards receiving with 12 TDs if Locker has no weapons?  The Locker apologist make me want to shoot myself.

I realize that this blog post has been a rant and been all over the god damn place.  I really don’t care.  I’m glad Locker is gone if for no other reason than people will stop talking about him.  He seems like a good kid and I wish him no ill will.  I don’t think he’ll make it as a pro, but that’s another discussion for another day.  I wish Jake and his family nothing but the best.  I’ve never heard his name linked to anything remotely resembling trouble, and by all accounts, he deserves the benefit of the doubt in life.  The benefit of the doubt he receives in football, however, is something that I don’t understand.  I probably never will.

Filed under Sports. Tagged with , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 618 other followers