Random Thoughts

The quest for #17 begins tonight. The way we're racking up championships right now we're going to have rent space in New York for our parades. If you are watching the game tonight feel free to click on the chat feature above and talk to other Stoolies.

Also here is El Presidente's mortal lock of the night. Take the over 204 and thank me by buying a shirt tomorrow.

With the Most Important Regular Season Game in the History of Professional Sports upon us, the Patriots probably don't need the incentive, but there's no reason for that to stop us from throwing some chum in the water:

The team of grown men you just outplayed thinks you're mean for not letting them call your plays:
"They could run the ball. That's what most teams do when they get ahead like that in the fourth quarter. They run the ball to knock the time off the clock. It's better to kick the field goal. I would be satisfied more if you kicked the field goal rather than throw the ball or go for it on fourth down. You've already got a giant lead and you still want to go for it on fourth down, to me, that's running up the score, no matter how you look at it." - Redskins Philip Daniels

All the classy coaches would have:
"I said something to (Belichick) after the game. I told him, 'You need to show some respect for the game.' You just don't do that. I don't care how bad it is. You're up 35 points and you're still throwing deep? That's no respect....You gotta show some class, show some respect. Joe Gibbs? We wouldn't have done that. Bill Walsh? You wouldn't see those types of guys doing that stuff. I've never seen nothing like that. Most teams, you get up like that you sit on the ball and try to run the time out. They're up 30-some points and they're throwing deep. That was blatant disrespect...You don't see Joe Gibbs doing that. You can't even imagine that kind of stuff coming from him. Joe Gibbs. Bill Walsh. Bill Parcells. This isn't like college going for power rankings. This is the pros you show some respect, show some class." -Randall Godfrey

The Colts QB is an impossible-not-to-love everyman. Yours is an a-hole:
"As Brady has racked up championships and magazine covers, Manning seems to have won something that eludes Brady: The rest of the country. [Manning is] a bit of a nerd, a guy who can make fun of himself. And his off-field popularity contest with Brady tells a story about America: We like winners. But we also like to relate to our winners, for them to be the kind of people in whom, despite their fame and the wealth, we can see a little of ourselves. Amazingly, Tom Brady's biggest media fracas from this past winter - leaving his pregnant model girlfriend for a more globally famous model - started as a moral hurricane ( Will Tom do the right thing? ) and then just blew over, seeming to recalibrate his stardom in the process" - Wesley Morris, boston.com

Same with the coaches:
"But in all other matters -- ethos, values, temperament -- these coaches seem antithetical. Actually, if you think about it, this is shaping up as a contest between the coaches....won't need a program to tell the heroes from the villains, the babyface from the heel. Their personas will be inevitably exaggerated, rendered as caricatures. By kickoff time, Tony Dungy versus Bill Belichick will be shorthand for Good versus Evil." - Mark Kriegel, Fox Sports.com

"Sunday's New England-Indianapolis game is a collision of wills, philosophies and, when it comes to coaches, each man's brand of ethics. Perhaps Tony Dungy can spare some for Bill Belichick because this is a matchup pitting class vs. crass. It's about gamesmanship, which all good coaches like Dungy deploy, vs. blatant cheating." - Jon Saraceno, USA Today

That's why all decent, God-fearing, right-thinking people hate you:
"...The Pats at Colts game Nov. 4 so clearly represents Good vs. Evil. The Colts stand for everything the NFL, and sports enthusiasts, should be proud of. The Colts stand for a positive future for the NFL. The Patriots stand for -- well, wouldn't it be nice if the Patriots would explain to us what they stand for. When Good meets Evil, I know who I'll be rooting for." -Gregg Easterbrook, espn.com

Your Evil QB deserves to have a contract taken out on him:
"I was on the opposing team, I'd hit Tom Brady with everything I had as late as I could and take the penalty and join the fight that would surely follow. Football is a violent game and there's got to be somebody out there sharpening his fans for the Patriots Golden Boy in the 4th quarter one of these weeks." - Michael Wilbon

Your coach has inspired hatred among pencil-necked columnists:
"On Sunday, Belichick kicked a Hall of Fame coach while he was down, running up the score on Joe Gibbs... What seemed cute three weeks when Kyle Eckel scored late on a 1-yard run during the Pats' 48-27 win in Dallas has turned ugly. "- John Clayton

"Let's get this straight: Belichick would have been uncomfortable with a lead of only 41 points with 11 minutes to play? Please."- Mike Florio, Sporting News

"We get it Bill. You're mad the league ratted you out over Videogate. Youre out for revenge. You want blood...You are raising you middle finger to the entire football establishment....We get it." - Mike Freeman, CBS Sportsline

Again with the middle finger:
"[Belichick] is raising his middle finger to the rest of the NFL, to the sporting media, even to the NFL fans who made his wealth and celebrity possible. If he were a misunderstood man who regrets an honest mistake, wouldn't he be candid and open in public because making his life an open book would convince us he's sorry for what he did? ....Creepy people who think they can get away with something act belligerent and show poor sportsmanship, which is what Belichick is doing right now." - Easterbrook

Let's go, Evil...

Looks like Lou Holtz is finally back from his 3 week bye, and let me just say I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about. Something about a kid swimming across the river and almost drowning while Little Lou looked on. It's like a cross between Huck Finn and Chappaquiddick. The other strange thing is the pep talk is for Navy who's playing his old team, Notre Dame. Everybody knows Navy's lost 43 straight to ND (-3) and it just seems like desperation time here for Lou, not to mention a conflict of interest.

Anyway time to rate this week's Lou Holtz pep talk, 6.5 is still the number to beat.

The title of this week's speech is "Men, I'm not a very smart individual."

Now that the Patriots have become public enemy #1 across America, Pats fans (above) have been on their heels of late, trying to defend their team from allegations of “running up the score”.   The Patriots themselves don’t care, however the fans here in New England are clearly bothered by the anti-Pats sentiment across the country.  

Here's the thing, people wouldn’t have a problem with a 52-7 win, the Colts and many other teams have won by 6-7 touchdowns, the problem is the way the Pats are winning by 6-7 touchdowns, i.e. throwing the ball too often in garbage time.  Which is fine, you can do that, but you have to be willing to accept the criticism that comes with it.  99% of teams up 45-0 with 8 minutes left would run the ball 3 times up the middle, and if their 3rd string running back happens to break one 40 yards, so be it.  The Pats were running plays out of a SHOTGUN in this same situation on Sunday.  Even the biggest of Pats homers have to think that’s at least a little strange.  

Why not just run the ball?  The only explanations I can come up with are that Belichick is A., just running their offense, or B., actually running up the score.  To be honest I have no problem with either answer.  I used to win 9, 10-0 in NHL '94 all the time. But the bottom line is that if the Pats want to continue throwing the ball in garbage time then sure, Pats fans will be able to celebrate 52-7 wins on a regular basis, but at the same time they have to be willing to accept the criticism that comes with it. As the saying goes, you can’t have your humble pie and eat it too.

Sunday's pick: still Pats -6

Philly Eagles' coach Andy Reid's two sons are on their way to jail, and the judge is saying it's all dad's fault.

Britt had a painkiller-fueled road rage case. Garrett cracked up his car while on heroin. But according to Judge Steven O'Neill, the fact that these guys are 22 & 24 years old doesn't mean we shouldn't treat them like Willis and Arnold and lay the blame on Mr. Drummond, and wondered in open court if they should be return to the Reid home when they get out of jail:

"This is a family in crisis. There isn't any structure there that this court can depend upon. These are highly addictive medications that are just around the house with two addicts in it. It sounds more or less like a drug emporium ... ."

I agree with His Honor on one thing: Li'l Britt and Li'l Garrett shouldn't be return to this horrible environment. They should move the frig out and go get an apartment someplace. How about scaring up one of those things we call " a job" and running your own life, is that too much to ask? Here's what Judge Thornton would like to say for the record:

"Andy Reid is an NFL head coach, which is just about the most grueling, demanding and important jobs ever devised by man. He also has a family. In other words, Andy Reid has enormous responsibilites in his life. And where ever there's a conflict in between the two, he should always do the right thing and focus his attention where it belongs: on his team.

"The Eagles are off to a bad start. But even at 3-4, the season is not lost. They can still right the ship and make a run for the playoffs. But they're not going to get there if the head coach starts cutting his work load down to 14 hour days so he can spend more time reading Dr. Seuss to his rotten, priviledged little brats and searching their rooms for pill bottles.

"You know who this court finds to be at fault in all this? Harry Chapin. Two generations have now grown up since 'Cats in the Cradle,' and now every father in the world is guilted into thinking that every time you're too busy to play catch with your kid, he'll grow up to eat painkillers like they were M&Ms and start throwdowns with other motorists and it will be all your fault. F-you, Harry. Now coach? Get back to work. People are counting on you."

So yesterday morning we posted the above video from the parade of Manny Ramirez inviting everybody back to his house for drinks.    Some dude Patrick sent it to us and we thanked him after we posted it.  Well last night I was checking out With Leather to steal shit from them and wouldn’t you know I saw the same video posted on their site later in the afternoon complete with a thank you letter to Patrick. 

Withleather.com - "A typically subdued crowd of Boston Red Sox fans enjoyed the team's victory parade, and this video sent in by burly Irishman Patrick shows Manny Ramirez confirming his desire to stay in Boston, followed by this declaration: "Hey, everyone's invited to my house tonight for free drinks!"

So what gives Patrick?  Did you fuck them with same dick you fucked us?   Listen there is nothing I love more than when our readers send us cool shit.    It’s the life blood of the Stool.   But you’re either with us or against us.   There is no in-between.   None of this sending us shit and not mentioning the fact that you are also sending it to every Tom Dick and Harry on the Planet.   We got some principles over here at the Stool.  I mean what do you think we’re a bunch of sluts?  We don’t just bang everybody with a pretty face.  I felt like I needed to take a cold shower after this.

"Exhibit B", courtesy of thesmokinggun.com.

Foxsports.com -- In TV commercials for her sponsor Canon, Maria Sharapova encourages viewers to "make every shot a power shot." This probably isn't what she meant.   The head of a Japanese ad agency secretly snapped crotch shots of the tennis icon as she posed for a Canon ad in 2005, according to a federal lawsuit, the New York Daily News reported on its Web site Toyo Shigeta, CEO of Dentsu Holdings, snapped the pictures to satisfy his obsession with photographing women's private parts, according to the suit filed by Dentsu's fired former creative director, Steve Biegel.   

"Taking closeup crotch shots of women is a personal obsession of defendant Shigeta," Biegel claims in his suit.

Biegel, 44, said the company fired him after he complained about Shigeta's propensity for pornographic picture-taking.

Biegel also alleges that he was forced to go to a bathhouse and a Prague brothel, where Shigeta urged the married Biegel to have sex with a prostitute.

First of all, what does going to a bathhouse and a Prague brothel have to do with anything?  “Your honor that’s argumentative…”  Sure it’s strange behavior but it’s certainly not a crime.  Right?  And how to you “urge” someone to have sex with a prostitute?  I don’t think “Come on dude” counts as urging.   And as far as the lawsuit, I don’t even get why he’s suing.  What’s the big deal?  Some people collect coins, some people collect baseball cards, some people collect crotch shots of hot looking chicks.  Hey, everybody needs a hobby.

PS - Here are some of Maria's more memorable photos so far...

Click Here For the MPEG

Vote 1 for never to do this again and 10 for keep this shit going.. And yes I know I said the Pats won the World Series. Shit happens on live radio. I didn't script this rant. I just pressed tape and and whatever happened happened. It obviously wasn't a well thought out masterpiece. Just shooting from the hip per usual.

Lots of good little nuggets in these photos. First of all you got to love Youk sleeping on the floor. Is there any doubt that gold digger wife of his told him to get on the floor so she could give Beckett a hand job or something. Just kidding Youk. We love you. Also, I love the contrast between what Varitek is wearing and pretty much everybody else on the plane. I mean Lowell looks like he's ready to run for President and Tek looks like he's still in the locker room. By the way do you think Lowell sat with the MVP trophy in his lap the whole plane ride home? He was probably afraid Lucchino would steal it and put it on Ebay if he left it unattended. Finally at least 3 female Stoolies just masturbated to that picture of Ellsbury.

- Thanks to Brian Rose's Left Nut for sending these photos