First takes
After enduring the exhibition season, it was nice to sit down last night to watch an NFL game that actually meant something. The added bonus was the Steelers pulling out an overtime victory over the Titans. Here are a few thoughts I had while watching the game. Feel free to chip in with yours.
– Maybe it's just me, but I found it offensive that Nike is selling equipment touted as "Pro Combat." Combat? Really?
– The General Electric ads with the singing factory workers were great.
– Cris Collinsworth did a pretty fair job in his debut next to Al Michaels.
– Michaels remains solid, as always, but he's beginning to look like the picture of Dorian Gray.
– The Titans have a tough defense, but the Steelers’ offensive line had a heckuva time opening any holes, and the running backs didn't do much with the ones they did open.
– The Brett Favre Sears ad showed that Favre has a sense of humor and the ability to mock himself.
– Mewelde Moore was a solid contributor, but the formerly "Fast" Willie Parker looks as if he's slowing down, and Rashard Mendenhall is making me have unwelcome flashbacks to Greg Hawthorne and Tim Worley.
– Am I the only one who deliberately avoids all the pre-game hoopla and turns on the TV just in time for kickoff?
– It's tough to lose Troy Polamalu with an injury, but it's better than losing Ben Roethlisberger.
– Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning might post more impressive raw passing numbers, but if the chips are down, I'd rather have Roethlisberger under center.
Labels: Entertainment, Sports
posted by Brant at
1:33 PM
33 Comments:
Farves gray stubbly face added to the humor, for me.
Wards fumble, was it live or was it photoshop?
I, too, thoroughly enjoyed Brett Favre's Sears commercial!
When I "watch" a game, usually I'm glancing through a magazine at the same time and just look up if something sounds exciting. But, I never fail to watch the last two minutes of each half. With Ben, especially yesterday, that's all you really need. (I did see Troy's one-handed snag the first time though.)
A football game was on? Really? The Pirates are just 25 or so games back in the wild-card race! They're doing an excellent job of keeping the Washington Nationals at bay...
--Brad Hundt
I, too, liked the GE commercial. But I'm wondering if the average person will be driven to buy a train locomotive?
I found it disheartening that the Steelers couldn't run the ball at all and downright embarrassing when Rashard Fumblestheball ran into Big Ben during the hand off. Apparently the new definition of Steelers Football is make a half-hearted attempt to run the ball for three quarters and then go no-huddle as Ben leads us to another come-from-behind victory.
That said, there are a lot of good things to be taken from Thursday night, especially the special teams.
– The General Electric ads with the singing factory workers were great.
DUH, really? NO WAY! NOT YOU!? LOL
If GE is such a HUGE financial contributor to Brant's opulent lifestyle... to the extent that Jeff Immelt made Brant relocate his blog and moderate comments...
Where the hell are all the GE ads?
That's like PNC buying naming rights to a stadium and then calling Pittsburgh Pirate Ballpark.
You can hear the sucking sound from this logic vacuum from the moon.
MADDENS CURSE STRIKES AGAIN!
EA sports and Madden could offer me 5 million for my face on the cover next year, I would have to refuse! If I had the skills.
We all miss the BUS. Don't worry fans, we will get to see a real running back soon... when we play the Vikings. I spent many nights in Norman, Oklahoma watching A.P run.
I think they should try to get Rocky Bleier back till we can find someone with two damn good legs that can keep up with him. Heck, what do I know, it's only the first game, and our biggest threat is Bears till we meet the Vikings!
Anonymous One, could you explain to me your fascination with General Electric?
Pretty much goes like this...
Jeff Immelt has and I think is still doing business with Iran, you know the country that supports killing our troops in the middle east. Wait, that is ok cause Obama is about to hold talks with Iran also. Jeff has dodge the question about 5 different times now.
Since Jeff Immelt has been the head of GE. The stock is almost worthless. Yet GE funded Obama's campaign. Obama used NBC (who is owend by GE) as a personal speaking soap box for free. WAIT FOR IT.... here comes the payoff.
Obama wins, he pushes CRAP and Trade. What? Who is going to make billions on Crap and Tax? GE.
This could go on for an hour or so, but do what I do. I listen to both sides. That way you hear the left right game, and know what they want you to hear and see, then try to look at the other hand before it hides. What most of you missed was Sunstein. I have a bad feeling about him.
If you want to learn a little more, watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDn1S-DwGm4
What I'm interested in knowing is how you believe GE has some influence on the O-R. In an earlier post, regarding comment moderation on the blog, you commented, "GE is the OR's biggest sponsor, and they told you it was time to take down unwanted free speech that makes our DICTATOR OBAMA LOOK BAD." What's the foundation for that? Just wondering.
Brant if you say there is no validation, why ask?
I'm just curious to know what support there is for that claim. You know, facts.
Are you saying there is validation, and wonder how I found out?
Because I'm not some watchdog group, I still have questions that I ask with boldness. I like to look at the facts...
How bad off is the OR? How is your sales over there Brant?
How does the OR afford to keep it's website free?
ect...
I'm hardly saying there is validation. I can assure you that General Electric has no hand in controlling the O-R. In fact, I'm pretty sure that no one from GE even knows the O-R exists. As for sales, as pretty much everyone knows, this is a tough time for the newspaper industry. Some papers - even big ones like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News - are shutting down coast to coast. Advertising revenue, in this economy, is harder to come by. But it's not as easy as you might think to monetize the Web. Virtually no newspaper secures enough Web advertising to run its news-gathering operations. The hard-copy paper still provides that money. At the same time, people have become accustomed to getting information for free via the Internet, so finding a significant number of people willing to fork over even a modest monthly fee for your product is next to impossible. When the Rocky Mountain News went under, some of its people announced plans for a Web-based paper and said they needed 50,000 subscribers to make it work. The fee was relatively minimal, yet they got only about 3,000 people to sign on. People want free Internet content, and they'll go where they can get it. I hope I've answered your questions, and that you can now rest easy knowing there's been no GE takeover at the local paper. ;-)
The Post-Gazette recently added a "members only" online area called PG+. I became a member out of curiosity (my company consults with TV stations on how to sell advertising more effectively... so we kind of have more than a passing interest in the state of the newspaper industry)... Despite a weeks-long ad campaign in their print paper, in the first week, there were fewer than 1,000 subscribers. Eventually, the mechanism that allowed for members to see how many members there were was removed. When I asked why, they said that there was a back-end coding problem and the member-tracking function couldn't be restored (which is BS... it's super simple to restore).
After two weeks... content is not bad (but not as good as what you can get at any number of free sites)... member interaction and social networking is non-existent... and I have to FORCE myself to check it twice a week, as there is no compelling reason to go there for anything.
On a side note... up until a month ago, I was a shareholder in GE... Their current business initiatives have been in the works since well before anyone knew who Barack Obama was... banking the financial future of a 155 billion dollar company on something as fickle and unpredictable as an election, political pulse of a nation at any given time, or expectations as to how an administration will govern is reckless and illogical.
Besides, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of companies that would (and already are) benefiting from the "green" economy that is emerging. Some just have faster turnaround times on product lines than others do.
banking the financial future of a 155 billion dollar company on something as fickle and unpredictable as an election, political pulse of a nation at any given time, or expectations as to how an administration will govern is reckless and illogical.
Ellipses... well that would explain Jeff Immelt. You say that like an election has never been bought. Are you living in a cave? Did big oil not buy Bush's election? I don't say they don't hedge the bet, I'm saying big corps. play to win.
I don't care how you try to explain away the relationship between Berry and Jeff, it is still there. For Berry to even hint on making a huge turn around for GE on a Crap and Tax bill, you would have to still question the love affair NBC had/has with Berry.
Brant, when the Federal Govt starts bailing out the newspapers, is the OR going to print only what the Govt wants to hear? Is the OR going to be strong enough not to take Feds money? What if they took GE's money? Here is a long shot that might not be so far away after all. A huge company like GE spends a million in advertising with the OR, then the OR wakes up one day and starts running the VAN Jones stories, and the Acorn stories... and GE calls up the OR and says stop or we will pull our ads, do you think the OR would have pressure to stop? Happens everyday!
O BY THE WAY... the new Troy commercial is funny!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=troy+polamalu+head+and+shoulders&search_type=&aq=f
GET WELL SOON TROY!
Businesses contribute to campaigns of candidates they think are most beneficial to them... Of COURSE "big oil" would contribute to Bush's campaign... just like of COURSE First Solar would contribute to Obama's (I don't know if they did or not, just picking an obvious one)...
I would bet that "big oil" probably made some contributions to McCain... Why wouldn't they when the VP Candidate was leading crowds in chants of "Drill baby drill?"
But you can only "buy" so much... In the end, you have to get a bunch of people to vote for you...
You put forth the love affair that NBC has with Obama as proof of some conspiracy... So, by that logic, what's up with the severe case of the smoochies that Fox has for Palin? Networks look for a segment that they can own and they go full-bore at that segment. It's smart business when it works :-)
May I bring the conversation back to watching the football games?
I haven't seen the Troy commercial, but I heard it's good. I'll be looking for it.
I love the Brett Favre commercial where he can't make up his mind.
I'm with Brant on wanting Ben over the other names he mentioned when it's clutch time.
I think Peyton should be earning Eli's salary.
Jason Campbell is a class act for the way he handled the QB nonsense in the offseason, but it's painful to watch him play.
I try to avoid watching games called by Daryl Johnston. To him, everyone does a good job, nice job, good call, smart play, nice work, good eye, blah blah blah. Just once I'd like to hear him say, "That was the dumbest play I've ever seen! Get that jerk off the field!"
Ellipses, there is so much oil in this nation it would make your head swim if you knew.
Just like diamonds. Diamonds are semi precious stones. Do your homework.
If you don't create the demand, your supply isn't worth a crap.
PRI GUY, I didn't mean to take it off topic, but I was asked. On the new Troy commercial, I posted it.
Do my homework on what? I didn't say that we DIDN'T have a lot of oil, nor did I say anything about diamonds.
This isn't a supply/demand question... it was a question about GE + Obama and Oil Companies + Bush... you are trying to construct a big, elaborate conspiracy theory where there is no need for one.
Companies that view one candidate's platform as more favorable to their business than another will normally support that candidate. It's really not much more complicated than that.
Ellipses, you know what I have not thought about... your age. You just don't have enough history in you. It's like telling a playground child, the swing will pinch you if you're not careful.. and the child tells you, never happen yet. It's not your fault, you just haven't lived long enough.
Control NEWS AT 6, you could control the free world. Don't report on Van Jones, don't report on acorn... don't report on this and that.. you could almost make it look like Obama is a champ.
In the real world Obama is on record to be the worst president ever. EVER! LOL. Add in all the tax dodgers.. all the big bankers... ect.. Obama will be known as the worse President ever.
I'm old enough to be E's father, and I agree with everything he said. And to suggest that Obama is going to be the worst president is so premature as to be laughable. It's been eight months. Let's see how his accomplishments, or lack thereof, look a couple of YEARS down the road. Let's also remember that George Bush looked like a pretty good president early in his tenure, and that didn't work out so well. Age has nothing to do with intelligent thought. Some of the smartest people I know are teens or twenty-somethings, and some of the dumbest people I know are 50 and older.
And in the football world, the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers are on pace to be the greatest football team ever. EVER!
I'm old enough to remember when the History Channel showed programming that didn't have anything to do with UFO's, Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster...
You are hyper-inflating the role of 1 broadcast network under the umbrella of a conglomerate that up until recently did business in appliances, electrical generation, aerospace, finance, plastics, water purification, insurance, media, medical devices, and household products... among others (including oil exploration and development).
To say that the fact that NBC didn't swallow their tongue in ecstasy over Van Jones is proof that they are trying to control the world is ridiculous.
Why is it ridiculous?
First, it's a good night at NBC when they fetch 9 million viewers. How many is 9 million? That's less than 1/3 of the audience that listens to Limbaugh.
It's only 8 times as many people that watch Chris Angel: Mindfreak
It's only twice as many people watch Monday Night Raw
It's 40% of the number of people that watched the last season finale of American Idol (the lowest rated AI Finale)...
In short, you are 2.2 times more likely to be able to control the world if you are Adam Lambert than if you are Brian Williams.
And the fact that their stock price is off 50% from when I bought it, initially? Considering a humongous chunk of their business is in aircraft engines, finance, plastics (no longer a darling of wall st.), and traditional media (broadcast), ie, some of the most depressed industries in our economy over the past 8 years, it stands to reason that they wouldn't be flying at a 30-1 multiple.
And finally... the notion of "banking on green" as being some kind of motivation for "installing" a surrogate in Barack Obama as president of the US... The whole ecomagination and environmental aspect of GE's business portfolio grew out of their absolutely atrocious environmental record (which they have been spanked for, financially, a couple times). It's primarily a marketing campaign, but they do have some profitability in their water purification systems and there is a lot of prospective growth in some of their other divisions. The point is that GE is so big and diverse in its revenue streams that they are going to make a ton of money or lose a ton of money independent of who is president.
But to think that NBC is influencing the way of the world with only 4x the eyeballs as Iron Chef is seeing tempests in teapots, mountains in molehills, and relevance in broadcast news.
i couldn't get thru a 1/3 of your bs..
guess i don't care.
see how it all works...?
I was bored from duh....
after you started mixing apples and nuts.. I was nuts..
look, if you can't see the media (cbs,nbc,abc) is in bed with Obama, I can't help you.
I try like hell to open eyes, yet there is people that want to be blind. TADA you!
They hide more than van jones, acorn, ect. If you don't look... you will always be stuck on stupid.
I don't care anymore.. I know what I know. I will point out more when I see more. Other then that.. drink the kool aid
So what you do, Anonymous One, is self-censor by not reading or listening to anything that doesn't agree with your preconceived vision of the world, the president, etc. I see how it all works on your end. But you're not going to admit that. EVER.
Anonymous... seriously, I am trying to help your side out here...
You COULD have a good, solid argument on any number of issues, but you guys tend to take it to the extreme and end up in crazy town.
Is NBC left-leaning? Sure.
Are they trying to control the world through generating false-support for the president so they can capitalize on his environmental policies while the US falls into abject poverty and communism? Nope... crazy town.
Are their shortcomings in the public options of other countries that should be addressed? Sure.
Are there going to be death panels that kill old people and people dying of heart attacks while all the doctors are tied up with abortions performed on illegal aliens? Nope... crazy town.
EVERY issue does NOT have to be an end-of-the-world issue. When you extrapolate every single issue into proof that Obama is going to destroy America and we are all going to die... then even the legitimate pieces to your puzzle of crazy gets discarded...
If someone comes up to me on the street and says "Obama was born in Kenya, the public options will lead to eugenics, and it's going to rain on thursday... "
I'm going to dismiss everything that this crazy person has to say... even if he has a point about the rain on thursday.
Stick with the stuff that is actually real and leave the enormously complex conspiracies to the fiction writers...
Are there going to be death panels ?
Is there death panels in Canada or the UK? YES OR NO? COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?
DO PEOPLE IN IN CANADA AND THE UK WAIT MTHS FOR TREATMENT FOR CANCER? YES OR NO?
Brant do I want to read about mind freak when I can't stand people that play tricks?
Do people in Canada and the UK wait longer for treatment for cancer then they do in the US? Yes or no?
If someone comes up to me on the street and says "Obama was born in Kenya, the public options will lead to eugenics, and it's going to rain on thursday... "
Sorry I made another double post...
Really?
Are you so fricking blind you can't see the tree's cause the forrest is in the way again?
Do your homework. I done gave you the names.
BY THE FRICKING WAY, I SHOULD BE LISTED AS #1 Contributor. The rest should listed as slap backs.
Sorry, it's a little too long to post as a comment. Here you go:
http://ellipticalpress.blogspot.com/2009/09/iconoclast.html
To sum it up, the GE commercial has been playing for a few months now and it is still funny to me, the Scears commercial with Brett is funny and I am glad he can poke fun at himself. The offensive line is disappointing, once again, the running game will never be what is was because our backs are too small to make their own holes like the Bus used to and Ben really needs to do a better job of not holding on to the ball. If the play isn't there and no one is open, either run the damn thing yourself and get a few yards or THROW IT AWAY. I am completely disgusted with the loss of Polamalu for a few weeks because the defense is going to struggle without him that was obvious against the Titans. Basically the whole team needs to step it up and shake off the cobwebs and I hope the season gets better as it progresses because I want a repeat. Good luck Steelers on your bid for Seven!
The Steelers do face some challenges, as you note, but the one thing that works in their favor is what looks to be a pretty easy schedule. The Browns and Bengals are still hapless, and the Ravens sure looked vulnerable against the Chiefs. The Steelers also get to play the AFC West teams, which for the most part are horrendous. Barring a monumental collapse, or an injury to Roethlisberger, you can start printing playoff tickets.
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