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A Year Later, Here's What I Miss Most About Michigan

A year ago a moving van pulled our possessions off our driveway and moved them 550 miles southeast into Maryland. It's been a long, strange journey filled with some heartache, struggles and some incredible experiences, too.

So as I type this, it occurred to me I'm pining a bit nostalgic for my Michigan roots. Football season is ramping up here, but the fervor, anticipation and general excitement isn't the same. For those reasons and a few others, here's the Top 10 things I miss from Michigan.

10. Cool nights. Jesus, as if 80 inches of snow packaged in three storms of 20+ inches wasn't enough, we're already at 45 days above 90 degrees. I've worked two plate games where it was warmer that 105 when I took the lineups, over 95 when the game ended and still above 90 when I got home in the late evening. I had heard the Mid-Atlantic was hot; I didn't realize that was merely code for living in the doorway of a blast furnace.

9. Sports Town Tradition. Look, Baltimore and D.C. are great cities with their own distinct energy and passion, but like Chicago, New York and L.A., they pale in comparison to the passion that oozes from The D. That's just fact.

8. Nicknames. OK, the Baltimore Dunbar High Poets is cool, but the winningest Maryland basketball school this side of De Matha High is the overwhelming exception. We're overloaded by Cougars, Falcons, Lions, Tigers, Eagles and Patriots in Maryland. By comparison, Detroit's got Doughboys, Tars, Tractors, Thunderbirds, Maples and River Rats. We lost the Oaks and Chiefs but you can still find Shamrocks, Saddelites and Pilots, too.

7. Opinion. The local Baltimore sports media probably wouldn't look very dignified in cheerleader outfits, but if it sounds like a cheerleader and squeals like a cheerleader, why not just finish the look? I think this town is still scared to say anything that will make the owner pack up this toys and go elsewhere. The Tigers had 12 losings seasons in a row and there were songs and shirts chiding the team, and I think the Matt Millen era of Detroit Lions football -- if that's what you call that regular season scrimmage schedule-- speaks for itself. Try saying something negative about the Ravens here, and it's the media, not the fans, who shoot your argument down.

6. Driving Seven Over The Speed Limit. Note to everyone from Maryland: Driving 45 mph in the far left lane is pathetic. So is entering the freeway at 25 mph, scared to death of pushing your way into a moving lane of traffic. Slowing down to a crawl on the freeway for no absolute reason is also a swell Blue Crab state tradition. Jesus, people, we drive 45 mph in our Michigan neighborhoods, just not the nice ones, right? Get moving!

5. Football Fever. Before I chide the Navy gameday experience, I need to omit the games the Mids play Notre Dame, Air Force and Army. Those are exceptional spectacles, but your garden-variety Navy football game looks great from afar, but when you actually go to a game, you realize it's a lot of retired brass sitting on their hands awash in the three scotch n' sodas they put down in the parking lot. The 3,800 Midshipmen in the stands are into it for sure, but it's no Spartan Stadium or Big House, where each school's band thunders into the stadium and the rest of the day just gets crazier from there.

The University of Maryland? Yeah, fear the turtle...if you're trying to stay awake.

4. The Big Ten. If I had a dollar for every transposed Big 10 fan I've met from Michigan, Ohio or Penn State who is secretly rooting for Maryland to be the surprise addition to the Big 10 so they can see their favorite school once a year, I wouldn't have to look for work. If you ask the Maryland fans, they oppose joining the Big 10, but a lot of Big Ten'rs think this is fear. They know the Terrapins would struggle mightily in football and they know it; can you say Indiana East? 

Marylanders also point to the ACC and their rivalry with Duke or North Carolina on the hardwood. Well, it's only a big deal when they play Duke or UNC to Maryland, because the rest of the country doesn't care. Being a Big 10 school hasn't hurt Tom Izzo's Spartans from getting to six Final Fours in 12 years either.

3. Fight Songs. Anchors Aweigh is a stirring march to be sure, but fight songs like the Buckeye Battle Cry, On Wisconsin and The Victors, not to mention Falcone Fight (Michigan State), and Hail! Purdue are just amazing. A handful of the Big 10 fight songs are derived from Civil War hymns. How cool is that?

2. High School Football Scores. I so miss ripping open the paper or going online and pouring over the scores. Of course, before they closed, my first glance pointed to Royal Oak. Did Kimball win? How did Dondero do? The upsets. Walled Lake Western got beat by who? Farmington Hills Harrison. Dearborn Fordson. The PSL. King, Southeastern, Pershing and Denby. The trio of schools in Livonia and Plymouth. The Catholic League. Who did CC play? Did the Cubs win? Where is Brother Rice today?

By comparison, here in Anne Arundel County, which is about the size and population of Oakland County, we have 12 public schools and six private schools, and the JV plays at 4:00 on Friday before the varsity game at 6:30. Hardly the stuff of Friday Night Lights, let alone Ampipe High in All The Right Moves. Tell Bosco I'll be seeing him around!

1. Coney Dogs, Apple Cider, Sweet Corn & Driving Down The Lodge Listening To "It's The Same Old Song". Don't get wrong, Maryland Blue Crabs and cold beer is a beautiful thing, but every time I'm back in The D, I hit a coney and grab two with everything. Greek salads, too. It's just part of Detroit that I've never seen replicated. Washington D.C. has Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street (a must-see when you're in The District, btw), but it's not a true Detroit coney. And good luck finding a cider mill or a sweet corn stand on the side of the road. That truly is Pure Michigan.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries and writes sports for The Capital-Gazette newspaper in Annapolis.

Helen Thomas, Meet Woody Hayes...

Only in America, right? It's the popular and unflattering refrain to justify the never-ending stream of bizzaro this country of produces seamlessly.

Helen Thomas opened her mouth and subsequently kicked open the back door to her illustrious career. Thomas's legacy will be stained forever for this unforgettable interview posted at Reason.com. I'll bet you never thought of Helen Thomas and Woody Hayes in the same context, but the comments quickly trumped any of the copy, including my favorite in regards to the still shot of Thomas from the embedded YouTube video:

"She looks like she stepped out of the grave to take a piss." -- sage

If you look up "stay classy" on Wikipedia, you ought to be able to read this quote again.

Found a great article on the double-digit failings of president Obama to keep his word.  Chuck Green puts the pedal down and burns rubber on Obama's carpet of false hope today in the Aurora Sentinel.

Great fodder for sure, but the best part of the article was the first posted comment underneath it.

"We are all Obama's baby-mamas. He promised us a universe, got us pregnant on his ideas of change, now after a year he has nothing to show for and he is trying to blame it somebody else (Bush)." -- kolosochek

We are all Obama's baby-mamas? Priceless.

Of course, all the kooks from the wood work are coming froward from the proverbial nook and crannies, wherever all of those places actually are, to put forth their own vile brand of wit and wisdom, and that's just the mainstream media.

We can't justify making anything in this country anymore (MADE IN CHINA) but we make more of this crap than anywhere else on the planet, and most of it you couldn't make up if you tried.

Regards...

~T.C. Cameron is suffering from Information Overload Unintended (IOU) and is waiting for some random pharmaceutical company to copyright this phrase and the drug to sure it, too

Kwame Kilpatrick, Nelson Mandela & High School Sports Officiating?

One of the outstanding byproducts of being a member of the writing and refereeing community is the inordinate amount of bombastic quotes you're exposed to.

Today we were gifted a gem, courtesy of Mr. Fix-It, Mike Paul.

The self-appointed "reputation doctor" who hails from a tony office on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Paul compared the prison sentence handed down to disgraced and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick this morning in this afternoon's edition of The Detroit News to "South Africa during the days of apartheid."

I could hardly keep my breath I was laughing so hard. And yet, almost instantaneously, it reminded me of the Officiating Summit held in Cleveland, Ohio, in the summer of 2008.

Two years ago in Ohio, I was seated at the keynote speaker's address held during a luncheon at the Renaissance Hotel just a few blocks from Progressive Field on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. The officiating summit is hosted every year by the National Association of Sports Officials and Referee Magazine. Like many national trade or business conclaves, the annual summit has become a bit of a power broker's meeting for Who's Who in officiating circles.

During the luncheon, Bob Kanaby, then president of the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS), opined: "We're so lucky to have great leaders in this country like Justice (Sam) Alito, Nelson Mandela and Barry Mano..."

Almost immediately, the entire room began to buzz over the awkward comparison. Crooked smiles flashed and eyes rolled simultaneously in all four corners of the large, opulent room. I was seated next to a highly-respected official from one of the four major sports leagues. He nearly spit his drink out in laughter at the mere thought of comparing Mano, the publisher of Referee Magazine, to one of the most reliable, conservative United States Supreme Court justices sitting on the bench and the man who single-handedly fought his wrongful imprisonment while succeeding in his dream to abolish  apartheid in South Africa. 

Today was no different.

Kilpatrick was sentenced to between 18 and 60 months in a Michigan state correction facility. The 'Playa-Maya', as he was known in Washington, D.C. during his rocky tenure as Motown's mayor, went to great lengths to obscure, hinder and avoid paying restitution of a previously agreed-upon plea bargain. And like so many high-profile criminals who cannot wrestle themselves into the idea of responsibility for their decisions, actions and criminal activities, Kilpatrick has played the victim card from the jump, to which you can add race-baiting not long after.

Predictably, city reaction was mixed along racial lines, but Paul's comment is priceless. Comparing Kilpatrick's transgressions to those of a former government entrenched in the mission to disallow the representation under the law. Seriously? Really? Look, to try and say there isn't a large divide between black and white America would be equally as disingenuous, but apartheid? C'mon, just who are you fooling with this comment, Mr. Paul?

I attended Nelson Mandela's speech at the now-demolished Tiger Stadium. I listened to Reverend Jesse Jackson -- long after he eulogized Jackie Robinson -- speak at Eastern Michigan University in 1992. I met the Dalai Lama at the University of Michigan a year later. I've even penned back and forth a bit with Ford Motor Company's Bill Ford.

I've been able to come away with two prevailing thoughts. These are powerful, well-respected men. Using them to further a selfish opinion would be as foolish as comparing me, my plight or anyone else's situation to the moments which have defined their lives.

Sometimes the stuff you hear is material you couldn't pawn off as fiction if you tried.

Regards...

T.C. Cameron will be covering the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association track & field championships at Morgan State University this Saturday for The Capital-Gazette newspaper in Annapolis.

A Great State Hat Trick For Michigan & Team USA!

 If you're at least as old as me, you remember the moment. Team USA stunned the mighty Soviet Union 30 years ago today.

Today, my kids have a moment to remember, too. Team USA 5, Team Canada 3. 

Yeah, it was that big. Too bad a lot of the country didn't see it. Thanks to the people that brought you the debacle known as The Tonight Show, NBC showed ice dancing -- whatever the hell that is -- and relegated the biggest win for an American team in Olympic competition in two generations to cable offspring MSNBC. The irony is the network put Bode Miller's gold-winning effort in skiing on tape-delay to show the Czech Republic - Russia hockey game live, then pushed the American hockey team to cable television for ice dancing.

Jeff Zucker, shame on you. How you have such a great job when so many Americans do not is unfathomable.

Even I didn't realize it had been 50 years since the stars and stripes had draped atop the maple leaf. Our inspired American boys, wearing replica sweaters from Team USA's 1960 Olympic championship team, struck a blow for our country in our rival's Vancouver backyard. Make no mistake, last night's win does not eclipse 1980's 'Miracle on Ice' in Lake Placid, New York, but it's close. The Canadians own hockey. It's their game, their tradition, their heritage. The Russians were our hated military rival and one of the most formidable hockey machines in the game's history, but Canada always was and always will be America's chief hockey rival.

It's just a game, but winning inspires pride. And Michigan hasn't felt this kind of pride in a long while.

There's a slim relevance to yesterday's win and that epic 1980 victory that lifted the spirits of an entire country. Today, our boys are the ones walking tall and standing proud, and a beleaguered state certainly feels a a little bit better about itself. Much like the country in 1980, Michigan is a shell of its former self. Unemployment remains beyond explanation, the brain-drain that is the mass exodus from Michigan continues and there hasn't been a lot to feel proud about in Michigan for a long time. 

Last year the Detroit Red Wings heartbreakingly dropped Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals in their old, noisy barn and the Detroit Tigers lost the division on the last day of the season. The Pistons have been broken and snapped and the Lions are the worst team in pro football history.

I haven't lived there in almost a year but I can promise you, at the Senate Coney Island or Mason's Lounge in Livonia, the talk isn't about a failing economy, closing schools or military cutbacks at the old 70th Division headquarters on Schoolcraft Road. Native son Ryan Kesler's clinching goal into the empty net last night is the big news.

You can be assured Ryan Miller's stalwart performance between the pipes is being lauded by Michigan Wolverines all across the mitten. And while Miller represents the first family of Michigan State hockey, Spartans are surely singing the praises of Ann Arbor's Jack Johnson. The former Wolverine buzzed all night in a performance he prepped for wearing the maize n' blue in iconic Yost Ice Arena.

Finally, had Molson Canadian handed out three stars as they do in National Hockey League games, the game's No. 1 star might have been announced like this:

"From Dearborn, Michigan, representing the Detroit Red Wings, No. 28, defencemen Brian Rafalski!"

Two goals, an assist on the winner and an amazing poke check late in the third period that defined his defensive presence all night. Michigan might have claimed all three stars last night. A great state hat trick to remember one of America's greatest Olympic victories by, huh?

An amazing performance by a team few have mentioned in the same sentence with the word contender, much less favorite, for the Gold Medal. Stand proud, Michigan. From Maryland to Montana, New Hampshire to Nevada, your country thanks you.

Regards...

~T.C. Cameron would have been cheering in the arena press box last night. Awesome job, boys!

A Day Later, I'm Still Not Feeling It

It seems everyone this side of everywhere has an opinion about the statement Tiger Woods offered to the world yesterday. Hell, even my Aunt Mary offered her quick hit on my commentary, and it wasn't complimentary (grin).

Let me be clear about this: Tiger Woods owes an apology to no one except those he sees fit to offer one to. But Tiger Woods decided to offer his words to the world, so shame on Woods and anyone else if the response it generated isn't what they think it ought to be. The media, me, my Aunt Mary and anyone else is granted the right to offer opinion after Woods pushed his message worldwide.

Second, Woods scolding the media was and is pathetic. I actually tempered my criticism yesterday, but after a night's rest, it's nothing short of laughable. The media helped build Tiger Woods and he gladly accepted the perks. Sponsors lined up around for miles to offer him millions. Why? Woods was the most recognizable athlete in the world, a status the media helped him attain. The media plastered his image, sound bytes and video everywhere. Rarely was the coverage negative. In the past handful of years Post-Fluff, Woods's surly temper and foul mouth went largely unreported.

But when his affairs coincided with his ultra-private mission, and he refused to address the issue, the media did what everyone this side of six feet under knew they would do. They hounded him. Perhaps if he had given just one moment of thought to the scrutiny his wife and kids would endure if his indiscretions became public fodder.

Last, does anyone really believe Tiger when he says the 'only' day he could have hosted this mea culpa concert was the Friday of the tournament Accenture sponsors every year? Oh yes, you have to stay on your therapy schedule. Shame on Woods and shame on PGA commissioner Tim Finchem for allowing this sym-phony of regret to take place on his association's headquarters with such little regard to the sponsor's investment. If I were Accenture, this would be my last day in the sun with the PGA.

Remember, Accenture was the first major sponsor to dump Woods. Woods didn't want to stick this to his former partners? Woods is well-known to be one of the most vengeful golfers ever to play. When provoked, his fierce drive and tremendous talent have proven to be a combination no golfer before or since has been able to match.

I wasn't buying yesterday. I'm not buying today, either. Let it rip from the heart, Tiger, or spare us the blather.

Regards...

~T.C. Cameron speaks from the heart within this space 25 hours a day & eight days a week but despises the Beatles in favor of just about any track from Led Zeppelin...

Tiger, I'm Wondering If You Really Get It?

Before Tiger Woods spoke a single word this morning, ABC News correspondent John Berman reported the security measures preceding Tiger Woods's 11am press conference is beyond oppressive and approaching presidential status. ESPN's SportsCenter reported there will be no questions allowed. Several media members who expected to be allowed into this event were being turned away.

Then Tiger emerged from blue curtains and laid down a neat, preppy apology, save for a few seconds of repressed anger directed at the media. It was the most surreal 13 minutes of television I've seen in some time.

Thanks, Tiger. I'm not convinced.

An apology from the heart? Maybe. It sounded great. ESPN's Rick Reilly said he thought Woods wrote most of his prepared statement. Are you kidding? If you listen to the great majority of the statement, no one I know speaks from the heart, person-to-person, in this manner. Maybe Woods wrote the majority or entirety of the statement, but there's no doubt some PR proofreading went into finalizing Tiger's fan-friendly concert. 

Here's why I'm not buying. I covered the pre-professional Tiger for the defunct Great Lakes Golf magazine and, like everyone else, have watched him evolve into Mr. Big Time. In June of 1996, Tiger Woods played the U.S. Open at Birmingham, Michigan's Oakland Hills. It would be the last time Woods would play a major as an amateur. Trust me when I say you wouldn't recognize the Tiger Woods I saw that day. He was playful and engaging with fellow players, course marshals and yes, fans bound behind ropes and signs. He was the fresh face, a refreshing change from the stale air golf had become clouded by. 

If you remember, the PGA Senior tour was outdrawing the PGA in person and in television ratings. The image of Chi-Chi Rodriguez swash-buckling about the greens with his putter remains an enduring image.

It was a far cry from the Woods we see on courses of recent memory. Woods is recanted as surly, intimidating and uninterested in engaging the millions who adore him. Hardly the stuff of 'Arnie's Army'.

Today Woods scolded the media for trying to ply the truth from the events of Thanksgiving, 2009. The tone and volume of his voice hit the familiar crescendo we have come to witness on the course when angered over camera or noise distractions as he spoke about the media hounding his wife and kids.

He thanked his fellow players, most of whom have thrown him under the bus privately, and some very publicly. He invoked the Buddhist religion and asked people to keep him and his struggles in their heart, a mea culpa for our prayers.

I just don't know, but my heart tells me it isn't truly in the heart yet from Woods.

Previously, he cried foul when the message wasn't what he wanted from the media. He pouted when the media machine that created a billion-dollar lifestyle for him wanted more. He earned the perks of a life most alpha-born males can only dream of and  pissed it down the drain by playing the role of hustler, running back and forth between his day job and pancake servers, porn stars and party planners. 

Now you want to complain when the media becomes overly-aggressive?

Tiger, perhaps this fear should have crossed your mind while you were tapping the backside of every loose-lipped home-wrecker you could get your hands on. Coming forward sooner than three months after the facts emerged might have cut that chase off before it began.

Perhaps he's still evolving from the former Tiger into a new Tiger and I shouldn't be so critical. That's valid. It took 13 years for Tiger to evolve into the person he apologized for becoming today, and it'll take some time to change the person he says he ruined with his reckless behavior.

But based on what I saw today, excuse me if I'm not on board yet.

Regards...

SNOWMAGEDDON!

Call it a hat trick for Mother Nature here in the Beltway-Baltimore-Annapolis footprint.

Perhaps for the first time since the NHL was playing all games on outside rinks, or at least since 1883 when Baltimore started keeping official weather statistics, never before has this region received two storms of at least 20" of snow in the same season. We're on course today to make it three. 

Blizzard warnings are going up in about an hour and should stay in effect for eight to 10 hours. While I've railed a bit about how little resolve people in this region have to co-exist with nature's winter wrath, I have to admit these are big storms, even for a Michigander-turned-Marylander.

Maryland, as a state, averages about 20" of snow each year. We're almost past 70 and on pace to get to 80 inches in 2009-10. Today the NOAA and several local weather forecasters warned of a cell forming for next Monday that could produce...wait for it... another significant snowfall.

In a word? Awesome! Can we get to 100 inches for the season? If we're to set records, let's set 'em big!

PEDESTRIAN RED WINGS: As I've watched the Red Wings fumble from afar through a miserable season, I've noticed two things. 

The Red Wings are a tired, slow team. Longtime grinders like Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby, and perhaps even certain Hall-Of-Fame defenseman Nick Lidstrom seem to be well past their best years, at times even appearing out of gas. Last night Lidstrom got beat badly on a stretch pass, hasn't scored much all season and is starting to make turnovers he's never made in his career.

Second, the European style that has been the team's benchmark over the years seems to limit the Wings of late. For years the Wings have been the most-skilled puck possession team this side of the Soviet Union Juggernaut of the 1970s. If there was a face-off to be won, the Wings won it. Wins in regulation became the norm and many times, overtime and shootout situations showcased the Wings' special teams dominance.

This season the Wings have been remarkably inefficient on the power play, haven't been able to bury sure chances and the unrelenting chances the Red Wings used to pepper opposing netminders with have become benign. As a result, Detroit has shown a penchant for turning potential wins into overtime and shootouts into losses. 

I've noted commentators who seem to delight in calling games in which the Red Wings remain competitive but fold late in defeat. In part, that's because the Red Wings have been the most consistently competitive team in the NHL over the past 20 years, but some of the glee taken in Detroit's not-close-enough efforts over the past 20-25 games has been over the top for sure.

Perhaps Father Time has caught the Red Wings from behind. For the first time in General Manager Ken Holland's career with the Wings, the time to rebuild rather than re-load may be knocking at his doorstep.

Regards...

~T.C. Cameron hasn't officiated or written much for the past week as snow blankets the Mid-Atlantic, burying all writing and refereeing opportunities. Buy his 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, at online retailers everywhere.

Politicos Walkin', Criminals Talkin' & Referees Keepin' It Real!

Today Sheila Dixon finally becomes the former Mayor of Baltimore. Her undoing was a series of forceful extortions made onto building developers in and around Charm City -- made under the guise of helping the poor -- but really about securing gift cards from major retailers to feed her need to shop.

Great ed-op in today's Baltimore Sun about Dixon's bold-face lies and her lack of accountability. She accepted a plea deal after she was convicted by a jury of her peers, but continues to squawk like a victim. Which she is...of her own doing.

In Detroit, another one of Kwame Kilpatrick's appointees has turned state's evidence. DeDan Milton, one of the dozens of Kilpatrick flunkies who have fumbled their ethical duties to not be a liar, thief and crook as a servant of the people, will now cooperate with federal authorities. 

Kilpatrick, who is still remembered in D.C. as the 'Playa Maya', is now at the mercy of the city he created. What's really funny? In Detroit, perhaps more than any other city, the phrase 'Only bitches become snitches' is a mantra in just about every neighborhood. But as Kilpatrick lives the life of luxury 1000 miles from Detroit, it would seem his former friends would prefer to throw him under the bus.

SIGNING DAY SLEEPER: Tip of the cap to MaxPreps' Steven Spiewak, who propped me in a sleeper article about Meade High School (Ft. Meade, MD) gridder/grappler Mwanza Wamulumba. 

An defending state wrestling champion in the 4A/3A class of Maryland public schools, Wamulumba signed with Miami University (see Cradle of Coaches) of the Mid-American Conference. He's a genuinely nice kid and a physical freak of nature, which often is one of the key components of earning a Division-I scholarship.

FRANK FACTS ON FACEBOOK: Props to Ray Kelser, Eric Lee, Harold Bettie and Mike Lombard for chiming in on my FB post regarding the job performance to date of President Barack Obama. The officials I still call friends offered some strong talking points; don't tell me America doesn't care.

Yeah, I still have some love for Detroit...always will, too.

Regards...

~T.C. Cameron authored two prep sports rivalries books for Arcadia Publishing and now writes prep and collegiate sports for The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, America's oldest, continuously-printed newspaper.

Who Makes Up Your Mt. Rushmore Of NFL Coaches?

Why do some drivers feel the need to veer left into the lane to complete a right-hand turn? Stay in your lane.

This and other things are on my mind today.

Let's go to Farm Lane Road. Have you seen Michigan State's new Spartan logo? I will admit my first reaction was not a positive one, but the more I've studied it, I'm starting to buy in. I wish the connector between the plume and the helmet would be fragmented like in the current logo, but a guy can hope, right? I do admit the helmet is a fierce upgrade.

On Baltimore's sports talker, the self-anointed 105.7 The Fan, Ed Norris & Co. debated the NFL's Mt. Rushmore of Coaches. The usual suspects were well-represented. Lombardi, Shula, Landry, Walsh, Parcells, etc. Hell, I half expected Bill Belichick to be thrown on the rock, too. He's a grad of nearby Annapolis High, after all.

Here's what immediately struck me: No George Halas. Nary a mention of Paul Brown, either. Now I despise everything about Chicago and Cleveland as much as the next God-fearing fan, but how do you omit Halas and Brown -- in the same sentence, no less -- and call yourself a fan of pro football?

I would have a hard time putting Landry or Shula up there for pure championship merit, but what of staying power, ideals and overall contributions to the craft of coaching and the evolution of the NFL as we know it today? Start carving.

For the record, I can omit Lombardi for Halas, Landry (in the hat), Brown (also hatted) and Shula, pre-glasses. Lombardi is more lore than legend. He didn't coach for an incredibly long time and while I wouldn't dare say he wasn't a worthy coach, he simply didn't put in enough time to earn a spot of just four.

Speaking of locals and fans, you hear the local mediaites here in Charm City often declare Baltimore 'over' the loss of the Colts 25 years ago. Not so fast, my friend. If you were watching, listening, breathing or just basically alive, you would have witnessed about 90% of this region rooting for the New York Jets this past Sunday. Yeah, Baltimore's over the Colts like I'm over Western Michigan University cheating us out of the 1993 Mid-American Conference outdoor track & field championship. Yeah, the photo finish just 'happened' the only time in three days on the 4x200 that you didn't hand the sticks out correctly. 

For the record, that would have been five cross country, indoor and outdoor titles in a row. Bob Parks, I've got your back.

Remember Syracuse losing to LeMoyne College's Dolphins back in November? I'm not surprised Jim Boeheim is 5-0 versus the Top 20 and has earned yet another 20-win season. Outside of the ACC, there's no tougher league in major college basketball than the Big East. When does Boeheim finally get his due?

How about the Mt. Rushmore of Running Backs? Would you have O.J. Simpson up there?

Michigan State by 10 tonight in the 'House That Cazzie Built'.

Regards...

~ Buy Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries at national online retailers nationwide.

Air America Fell On Deaf Ears

I confess I should post more than I do, but there's an honest answer for my tardiness. I work and the hours are sometimes longer than I'd like. It's good to have skills in demand, something to be thankful for, too.

Air America fell off the dial for good yesterday. The ultra-lib, conservative-hating firestarters fell by the curb for one reason. No one was listening, at least not enough to keep advertisers and investors to keep buying. The syndicate had run through a litany of buyers and investors and staved off bankruptcy in 2006. A six-year run of live programming ended abruptly last night when Air America started playing rerun programming and announced it would formally sign off Monday.

The New York Times quoted Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers Magazine, a talk media pub: "It would be a shame if the world sees the failure of Air America as representing the failure of progressive talk radio."

I ask how could you not see it as a failure of the platform? Air America is dead because America stopped listening.

Look, I didn't think George Bush was a very good president and I watched him ignore Michigan for eight years while the state's overwhelming majority democratic leadership sat idle and twiddled thumbs, presumably whistling Dixie with all the other out-of-work, transplanted southerners. The tired, played-out political process both parties engage in forced my family and I to move to Maryland, a state better-suited to confront an ever-changing economic climate. 

Does Bush deserve all the blame for that, too?

The lesson here is obvious, and it's rooted in Air America's crash: Bashing Bush, Republicans, conservatives and FOX News might make for good radio for a few fleeting moments, especially when fire-filled passions are stoked high, but in the end, Air America was a lot like the movie Groundhog's Day, replaying the same blather, every day, over and over and over. There's an oft-retold children's story about this platform of crying wolf repeatedly, but Air America refused to heed it.

Say what you want about Rush Limbaugh and FOX News, but they are franchise models of staying power. Lib talkers Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Al Franken and Randi Rhodes won't admit it, but as Barack Obama and his agenda of change becomes more and more mired in the politics he promised to leave behind, America is tuning out.

Regards...