WiscoSportsTalk

We are officially less than one week away from Super Sunday. I will be making the journey up to the Twin Cities by way of Milwaukee for me and my college cronies’ big game party. I am looking forward to it. Not to mention being able to pour a little more salt in the still fresh wounds of my friends up there who cheer for a group of lesser men, who go out on Sundays to play football dawning the color purple. Speaking of the Super Bowl and the Vikings, as a certain narcissistic big boned 4^th grader from South Park elementary would say, “ha ha ha ha ha ha.” But in all seriousness, did you see the best looking highlight Favre was a part of making during the NFC Championship game? If you guessed it was all those TV shots of his daughter, I would agree. Okay, okay enough about the Vikings, Favre, and their players who are too busy ‘recovering’ through practice (due to partying at Miami night clubs) rather than appearing in their first Pro Bowl game, and on to other notes.

First and foremost, congrats goes out to “Who Dat?” nation. My heart still goes out for the people of the gulf coast region. So as not to take anything away from the great hardships being undertaken currently in Haiti, New Orleans and the gulf coast region still have a long way to go on the road to recovery. Sadly, it is a road they may not see the end of, and I feel as a nation that we have forgotten about them all too quickly. I will say this last bit about the NFC Championship game. As much as I hate to admit it, the better team lost that Sunday. The Saints will have to play much better against the Colts to beat them in the big game, and unless you are from Indiana or U of TN alum, I hope you will be rooting for the Saints come Super Sunday.

Speaking of “Who Dat”, if you haven’t read anything about the NFL attempting to slap a TM on that phrase, then you should. The NFL really has turned itself into a fairly evil money hoarding empire whose ego has gotten too big for my taste thanks in large part to Emperor Goodell. Case in point, the NFL just recently asked for exemption to the antitrust laws and regulations (even though it is a blatant monopoly), which I am happy report the Supreme Court tossed out their request almost immediately. In addition, are you aware that when the NFL files its taxes with the IRS every spring, it categorizes itself as “not for profit” as in a NPO. A NPO, seriously, no joke. There is no reason for any president or CEO of any NPO to make more than $150,000.00 in a year. Yet, when Paul Tagliabue was still the head cheese, he pocketed roughly 80 times that for an annual year of service and it is rumored that Goodell makes upwards of $18,000,000.00 plus bonuses. Think about it, the NFL, a tax exempt organization, that takes in roughly $7billion (with a ‘B’) dollars (not yen) in revenue (and growing) annually doesn’t have to contribute to the same pool you and I do that goes to fund schools, fill pot holes, fight fires, and defeat terrorists.  Yet somehow, when a new stadium goes up, tax-payers tend to shell out a large chunk for the tab. Strange, I know. And don’t even get me started on the whole ‘concussion committee’ the NFL paid to produce less than balanced results for its “in depth research” project to present to the Senate committee, or this NFL in Europe business. Though the later is the least serious of all of the above topics, football is America’s game, and even the mentioning of hosting an over seas Super Bowl one day should be considered high treason, and a lynch mob should be formed. Look, I am a red-blooded American just like you. I eat too much red meat, love my football, love my Lite beer (because real friends won’t let you be a ‘ght’er), and take my women the same way I take my coffee, hot. But the NFL really has gotten out of control.

Threatening legal action against shop owners trying to revive a spirit and a profit in a city that was absolutely decimated 4 years ago by the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history, for selling t-shirts with the phrase “Who Dat” on them?!?! Because the NFL thinks it owns the rights to a phrase the people of the city of New Orleans have used for more than a half century, so it can make a couple extra bucks?!?! That sir or madam is the straw that broke my camel’s back. Two words for you NFL, public domain! To go one step further, forget the No Fun League. They have the nerve to fine Ochocinco $30k every time he does something goofy and fun on the field (I mean, ’cause fans don’t want to be entertained at football games they pay to go to right?), though he has been nothing short of a class act off the field. At least the fine money gets donated to charity. Too bad it’s the NFL who get’s to take the credit and add that to its donation total and not Chad. Welcome to the Not Fair League.