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Bill Simmons has a great column on Page 2 of ESPN.com where he talks about the current state of sports fans around this country. He is mainly relating it to the Patriots and how their success has turned them from "underdog to root for" into "favorite to hate" in a mere six years. This paragraph sums up my feelings on the matter perfectly:

Now we're on six years of football euphoria. And I get the part where the
outside world is ready for another team, because that's the way our society
works now: We embrace something new, digest it, beat it into the ground and move
on to something else. One minute, "Borat" is the greatest comedy of all-time;
the next minute, it's overrated. One minute, everyone loves "Lost"; the next
minute, we're wondering if it jumped the shark. One minute, everyone loves The
Killers; the next minute, they're self-important sellouts. It's the Everything
Sucks Era. We spend an inordinate amount of time bitching about everyone else.
Nobody's good, nobody's worthwhile and everybody needs to go away. That's the
prevailing theme.

It's a way of thinking that I just can't get behind nor can I understand it. But it's the same way I can never understand how anyone can hate Peyton Manning. I've never seen the need to vilify an opposing team or player. It just isn't necessary.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a true believer in rivalries and want nothing more than to destroy Oklahoma and Texas A&M whenever Texas plays them. But I think throwing hate around for no good reason is counter-productive and a little stupid. Anyway, the entore column is great and made me laugh out loud more than a few times. And don't forget to read his wife's sidebar, either.

As for my picks in the two championship games, I see both road teams winning, which makes it easy to take the points in both games.

Saints (+2.5) over Bears
Patriots (+3) over Colts

I did pretty good this weekend, going 4-0 straight up and 3-1 against the spread (I thought for sure the Saints would cover). Two intriguing matchups set for next week. The unquestioned top two teams in the NFC and the Pats and Colts in the AFC.

It's games like the ones we had this weekend - three 3-point wins and one by 9 - that prove how much better the NFL is than college football. Teams with plenty to play for and games that come right down to the wire. Until college gets a valid playoff system, it will always be this way. Sure, Boise State's win was exciting, but two months from now nobody will care since it was merely an exhibition game.

I'm predicting a Saints-Patriots Super Bowl. Might as well stick with what I thought from the beginning of the playoffs. One final thought from today: I would have liked to have seen Marty get to the Super Bowl. I hate having to see a successful guy get crucified for things beyond his control (The Drive and Earnest Byner's fumble were not results of anything Marty did). But he cost the Chargers today. The idiotic challenge on the fumble that had no chance of being overturned and the timeout coming right after an injury timeout. Those two timeouts would have certainly helped San Diego set up a better field goal opportunity than the 54-yarder Kaeding had to attempt. Now he'll probably get fired and have that hanging around his neck forever. Oh well, he had his shot.

I know I said I'm not a betting man, but I thought I would provide a service to those that read this who are.

Colts (+4) over Ravens
Saints (-5) over Eagles
Seahawks (+8.5) over Bears
Patriots (+5) over Chargers

I'm really looking forward to all these games this weekend. Especially now that I can watch them in glorious high definition. I bought an HD antenna a couple weeks ago with some Christmas money just for the playoffs and the Super Bowl, among other things (at least to get the okay from Mercedes). I can't watch sports in anything else anymore.

After the surprising box office take last weekend and the near unanimous critic approval, I decided to see Children of Men tonight. It's not too often futuristic thrillers are met with this kind of acclaim. But while it is a serviceable film, it certainly does not live up to the expectations.

The film takes place in London in 2027 and begins with the news of the assassination of the world's youngest person, 18-year-old Diego something. The government is exiling all illegal immigrants, there are various factions of people fighting for some cause or another, and there's Theo (Clive Owen), our hero, who must safely transport a pregnant woman, Kee, to a safe haven known as The Human Project.

Kee eventually gives birth while Theo leads them past one dangerous episode after another. So while this post-apocalyptic nativity scene is playing out at the end of the movie, we're still left wondering why and for what.

A lot of critics are falling all over themselves, but they are admittedly overlooking serious flaws in order to praise director Alfonso Cuaron's vision. It's all style over substance. There are no questions answered, no thoughts provoked, and just the occasional wink at the current state of world affairs ("Homeland Security" deporting all illegal immigrants).

I agree - I think it is a great vision of a harrowing future, where technology is advanced more for entertainment and death (a suicide drug called Quietus) than anything truly important. But if that's all that we as moviegoers are going to be able to take away from this film - then it's a massive waste and missed on some wonderful opportunities to present a compelling story.

Michael Caine in a supporting role as a friend of Theo's is fantastic, and there is a nice homage to the album cover for Pink Floyd's Animals. But neither of these things can save Children of Men from being merely average.

It's a disappointment from a director who did a great job with the Harry Potter franchise and directed one of my favorite movies of the decade, Y tu mama tambien.

Wild Card Weekend:

• How is Herm Edwards still an NFL coach? That had to be the worst offensive gameplan in the playoffs I have ever seen. The Colts defense is awful against the run and Larry Johnson is one of the best backs in the league. Everybody knows the Chiefs can run the ball effectively. So they decide to come right out and run it up the middle into the teeth of a defense prepared to just stop the run. Then when forced into obvious passing situations, they couldn't do anything either. Just awful.
• Tony Romo dropped the snap. Big deal. The Cowboys weren't going to win the Super Bowl this year anyway. And for the record, I hope Terrell Owens comes back. This year had to be a little humbling for him. At least, enough to want to come back strong with something to prove next year.
• I'm calling for a New England upset of San Diego next week.
• While I'm at it, Indianapolis will beat Baltimore and Peyton Manning will have a home game against his nemesis for the right to go to the Super Bowl.

My new favorite show this TV season is Heroes. I just started watching all the episodes I had Tivoed and I am officially hooked. It's spooky, well written, well acted, suspenseful, and everything that Lost hasn't been this year. The surprises are more jarring and you have a sense that this show knows where it is actually going as opposed to the afore-mentioned Lost. I've always said it is never too late to jump in on a show in its first or second season, and I highly recommend this one. If you choose one new show to start watching right now, forget that overblown crapfest 24 and start watching Heroes.

It has been over three weeks since my last post, and I can only say one thing -- man are the holidays a busy time. Between decorating the house, christmas shopping, throwing a party, out-of-town trips, etc., there is hardly any time to sit down and catch your breath. I love it, though. The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is always my favorite. January is not so bad either, though. You get to play with all your new toys you got for Christmas, you get the house back in order (and a little cleaner), and you have the NFL playoffs to look forward to every weekend. Add in the cold, rainy weather and it just doesn't get any better than this.

I hope I still have some readers left after the long sabbatical, and for those few still with me, I am working on a site redesign. I am just in the beginning stages, but I am trying to come up with a way to streamline everything on one page - all centered around the blog. My vast array of content will also be streamlined and everything will be centrally located on the journal. It simply became a case of too much for me to try to keep up with.

Don't worry, I'm still obsessed with lists and will be constantly making them, as well as other things that are probably only interesting to me. And everything will show up here, rather than on other pages of the website. It might be a slow process, but you'll know when everything is up and running the way I want it. As for now, stay with this page, because the journal will be the only thing being updated for awhile.

thanks,
jason

I know this is my second straight post on the subject, but when's the last time you were watching a football game and 100% certain that a rookie quarterback would a) take his team down the field for the go-ahead score, and b) lead his team to victory in overtime. Maybe it's something that only Texas fans can know or appreciate, but to see Vince be Vince and never get rattled as a rookie in the NFL, where so many thought he would fail, is nothing short of amazing. And he's only going to get better.

The intangibles he brings to the table as a leader and a winner can never be measured, and as I've watched the Titans over the course of the season, it is clear that he has taken that team and put them on his shoulders and he has everyone believing in him from the rookies to the veterans.

I know I've posted recently on the NFL, but I felt it deserved another visit. This has been one of the more memorable seasons in recent history. First of all, it's nice that the Cowboys are playing at a level that causes excitement. It has been a while. Secondly, while everyone else is crying about parity and complaining about a "watered down" league, I'm enjoying competitive games every week and wondering what they are missing. The wealth of young quarterbacks in the league is incredible and the wild card races are going to be interesting right up until the end.

However, the best thing about this season has been the opportunity to watch the week-by-week growth of my favorite football player. Being able to watch the maturation of Vince Young as he becomes a better and better quarterback has been an absolute joy. Two consecutive fourth quarter comebacks against the Giants and Colts. 5-2 over his last seven starts, including a 1-point heartbreaker to division-leading Baltimore. He's limiting his mistakes, throwing the ball downfield, spreading the ball around (10 different receivers last week), and making plays running with the ball.

The improvement has been amazing, which makes it hard to believe that you still have someone like Merrill Hoge, who wouldn't have taken Vince on the first day and absolutely ripped him in the preseason, trying his hardest to bring him down (the personal vendetta is almost frightening), as if a rookie quarterback should be leading the league in all the major passing categories. All Vince does is put a team on his back and carry them to wins. He did it his whole career at Texas and he's doing it now with the Titans. I'm just glad I get to watch.

Yesterday I reached an important milestone in my life. One that I will be able to look back on with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Granted, for most people, this feat might seem small or insignificant. But for me, it was an undertaking I went into with a little trepidation and uneasiness.

Yesterday, around 12:45 in the afternoon, I changed a flat tire.

I certainly didn't set any speed records, and I won't be submitting my resume for an Indy pit crew anytime soon. But I was successful. And that's all that matters. To me, anyway. I will say that I'm not entirely sure how they expect you to get the wheel bolts off with the puny little tool provided in the trunk of the car. Maybe it's about time I invest in a more heavy-duty lug wrench to make the task a little easier. But I'm not sure if I can picture myself walking into an auto parts store and purchasing anything. I guess I'll stick to Best Buy and Williams-Sonoma. Those stores are more my style.

We lost to the Aggies. Fine. Aggies showed their true colors today with two classless cheap shots on McCoy at the end of the game. And I'm not about to give them the satisfaction of a "job well done" after they pull that crap. They get gifts from the refs all day (including an amazing no-call on that last hit on McCoy) and they get the win. Whatever.

At the end of the day, I'm still a Longhorn and they have to go back to their trailer-park existence, beating their wives and struggling to add 3+2. And someone tell Fran to stop crying - this is football.

Can someone please turn down the incessant buzz that is every sports talking head in America pontificating on the latest BCS numbers and possible future permutations? Is there anything more pointless or useless? It's one prime example of why the NFL is a far superior product to its amateur counterpart.

Granted, Texas is my favorite sports team, and any Longhorns game takes precedence over anything else. But that's about it for me when it comes to college. For example, while most of the sports-viewing public was glued to their sets for the Ohio State-Michigan game, I was watching a movie (Stranger Than Fiction, by the way, which is very good). But that goes for all the other "big" college football games this year. It doesn't interest me, because they ultimately don't matter.

Bear with me here, but all those people that say because of the BCS, the regular season means more are full of crap. Look at the NFL, out of 32 teams, only 12 will make the playoffs. From week 1 on, every game has huge ramifications and heartbreaking losses will come back to haunt many teams. Additionally, by having 12 spots, it gives a team that gets off to a rough start the chance to regroup and end the season strongly enough to make a serious Super Bowl run (last year's Steelers). Teams get better and worse as the season progresses and they play the same teams as everyone else.

This is what makes the college system so perplexing. Once a team loses, their national title hopes are pretty much done and the rest of the season means little. Plus, as computers decide who should play, the stark reality of the fact that these teams have all played different opponents seems to be lost on the people making the decisions. It's such a preposterous system, that the fact that it is even utilized and accepted is hard to fathom.

Anyway, add it all up, and it's just one of the many reasons the NFL is far superior. I can watch practically any NFL game, and often do. I can barely pay attention to a college game that doesn't involve the Horns. The games are more competitive, more meaningful, the talent is better, and the playoffs are always exciting (there actually are playoff games where the eventual champion must beat everyone else). And I don't have to listen to a bunch of "experts" talk about what might happen if USC wins or loses this week. Ridiculous. Really, does anyone not a fan of one of those four or five teams really care?

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt (May 7, 1918)

I am a big fan of the Dixie Chicks. My wife is an even bigger fan. A couple of days ago we saw the new documentary about them, Shut Up and Sing. It follows their Top of the World Tour in 2003 and the songwriting and recording progress of their new album two years later. Since filming began before the tour started, it seems fortunate for the filmmakers that one of the biggest controversies in the country kicked off with an innocuous statement made by lead singer Natalie Maines at their first show in London about being ashamed the President was from Texas.

What soon followed was a hailstorm of media and fan backlash not really seen since the Beatles were disparaged after John Lennon's misunderstood "bigger than Jesus" remark. I never understood the amount of hatred created by Maines' comment, and I still don't today.

The film is very well done as it alternates between the 2003 tour and its aftermath and the way the Dixie Chicks deal with and address the ordeal on their next album. It shows the comment and the ensuing frenzy from country DJs and fans, it shows the protests and the talkshow pundits' grandstanding, and it shows the band's resolve and response to the growing criticism.

But all those things were to be expected from the movie. The biggest and most welcome surprise is seeing these three women as ordinary women balancing marriages, children, and careers in light of their world crashing down around them. The friendship and sisterhood of Maines and sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire is an incredibly strong bond that pulls them through the rough times. The audience is treated to Emily's pregnancy with twins and the realization that getting pregnant was a tough hurdle for both sisters leading to the song "So Hard" on the new album.

In other words, this isn't a film just about the differences between red and blue. Part of the strength of Shut Up and Sing is the fact that it makes no value judgments on the remark or the controversy. The film gradually builds up to just how serious everything got for the Chicks with a death threat in Dallas. These scenes are where the film excels, posing the steps they have to take to ensure safety along with their most powerful song on the new album "Not Ready to Make Nice." I've heard people say they should have avoided confronting the issue three years later in order to get fans back. But the level of contempt from people shown in this film ensure that that was never going to be an option for the band. We don't expect battered wives to go back to their husbands, why should this situation be any different?

As someone who grew up with country music, the film is a serious indictment on the culture within the industry and a large percentage of its fan base. As their manager says at 0ne point, it's okay for a country star to beat his wife but its not okay for the Chicks to speak out against the war and the president. It's an interesting parallel and one that you could argue speaks to the inherent sexism in the industry as well. Would the biggest male star at the time receive this kind of treatment? Is it really better to know who your "fan base" is and to placate them with statements you don't believe or by remaining silent?

It's impossible to come away from this film not liking and not respecting these three women. I've always been a big fan of the Dixie Chicks, but that's mainly because they make great music. Seeing them fully exposed in this documentary only strengthens my feelings about them.

Oh, where to even begin. You had this feeling that our secondary was going to really let us down at some point. It just happened to be the same day that Colt gets knocked out of the game, and instead of the rest of the team stepping up and filling the void, they do everything in their power to give the game away...and they did. Two crucial fumbles by Charles and Young in the second half. A blocked punt. I can't even remember the last blocked punt. Two consecutive halfback passes that worked. And a secondary that couldn't cover anyone (let's end the Aaron Ross Thorpe Award campaign).

Before the season, I had no thoughts of a repeat national championship. But with the emergence of McCoy and the number of teams losing in the last two weeks, it seemed more and more possible, which makes this loss even more disheartening. But now, Texas needs to get ready for the Aggies and, with a win, the Big 12 Championship game. A conference championship and Fiesta Bowl bid are still within this team's grasp and are still laudable achievements.

Go Horns

There has been one show this year that has been head-and-shoulders above the rest...How I Met Your Mother. The cast has really jelled and, if you consist on comparisons, this show has the look of the one that will replace Friends. It has been consistently funny and it never hits any lulls as it moves between characters for different episodes. Monday's episode "Swarley" was the funniest thing I've seen on TV in over a year, and Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris deserve all the praise and awards you could give them.

It's been better than My Name is Earl (in a big slump, by the way), Lost, The Office, and even Veronica Mars (although Veronica is really starting to find its footing after an uneven start).

If I had to just make one recommendation for the show you need to start watching right now, How I Met Your Mother would be it. Monday nights on CBS. Set your Tivo.

Election Day 2006. Imagine that previous statement in my best movie-preview voice. It was an interesting night around the country as the House made a huge swing to become controlled by the Democrats. Of course, here in Texas, the races had all the excitement of watching paint dry. While the rest of the country moves towards the center, Texas stays redder than ever.

This brings me to the subject of my post. There were four main candidates in the Texas governor's race. Rick Perry - the predetermined winner who felt no need to campaign and wound up winning with less than 40%; Chris Bell - this election's sacrificial lamb from the Democrats; Carole Keeton Strayhorn - the tough grandma determined to "shake up Austin," whatever that was supposed to mean; and Kinky Friedman - the true independent who was always in over his head and never had a chance.

So who did I vote for? The only candidate I could in good conscience vote for - James Werner. It's unfortunate that the Libertarian Party won't ever get more credibility and/or support. Oh well.

I had thought about voting for Kinky (I figured he at least had more of a chance than Werner). But when I checked the Star-Telegram's voting guide to read about the propositions on the ballot, I checked out the gubernatorial candidates' points of emphasis for their campaign. Kinky had two that I could never get behind - he wanted to send 10,000 National Guard Troops to the border to punish those that hire illegal immigrants and he wanted to legalize casino gambling in Texas. No thank you.

Anyway, am I really throwing my vote away if I vote for the candidate I agree with the most despite the fact that I know that person won't win? Some people would say yes, but I obviously disagree.

One final note...the best speech of the night goes to Harold Ford, Jr., for his stirring concession speech. I'm not sure what his main platform is, but it seems like for the first time in a long time, the Democrats actually have some potential future stars. He would be one to keep an eye on, although I would be surprised if he could seriously challenge Lamar Alexander for the other Tennessee Senate seat.