At Section 123 – 02/21/2015

Hey all,

After laughing, er, celebrating what was Hallmark Day last week, I feel refreshed!

I’ve learned a few things over the past few weeks that I could seriously go on a long rant or rebuttal on a variety of subjects, but I’ll use that for a different post and/or blog.  This one is about sports.  Here we go…

– It’s about time Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have agreed to fight.  Shouldn’t you have done this in 2007, though?  Nevertheless, good it’s finally happening and before it being too late where both fighters would walk to the ring in walkers.

– It’s about time I take my favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers, to task a bit.  For the sixth straight year, they are raising ticket prices, yet continuing to leave the fans out of experiences that used to make being around the Stadium area special aside of the game day events.  There is no more Draft Day party, no more Fan Fest, and when Brett Favre gets inducted to the Packers Hall of Fame in July, you had the gall to only sell 1,600 tickets to your corporate sponsors?  You do realize it’s the FANS that make you, and have purchased fake pieces of paper saying they have a stake in the team?  I understand you’re around average for ticket prices in the NFL, but you also need to realize you’re in the smallest market – by far even if you include Milwaukee. There are a lot of blue collar people that like attending the games at Lambeau Field, and if you keep this crap up only elitist types and corporate sponsors will be taking the tickets to the games – and yes, there is chatter in town already regarding this issue.  I think it’s time you take a couple years off of increasing prices!  Build up Lambeauville sooner than later – that should help your year-round revenue.

Kudos to Favre for trying to get his HOF induction in Lambeau, but if what I’ve heard from a couple people working in the stadium district is remotely close to accurate, it will still piss off most of the fans.

Also, continue to have concerts on a yearly basis – and as much as i like country music, you will need to expand acts.  Bring in bands like Dave Matthews, U2, Foo Fighters, and others.

–  The Packers are certainly backing up their accountability talk with the coaching shakeup and the release of players who they felt weren’t performing up to standard.  ILB Brad Jones could have been let go a year prior as there were signs of him being out of place constantly when he was in the game.  TE Brandon Bostick is different.  Had he not got hurt during Training Camp, he would have played a more prominent role in the offense and I think Andrew Quarless was the odd man out.   And yes, I agree with Coach McCarthy when he thought they were the best team in 2014.

– For the free agents.  I think they keep:

• Randall Cobb
• Bryan Bulaga
• Davon House
• Jarrett Bush
• John Kuhn
• Letroy Guion (if fully cleared) or B.J. Raji (not both)
• Sean Richardson
• Don Barclay
• Scott Tolzien
• Sign one or two others from different teams

Walk:

• Tramon Williams
• B.J. Raji or Guion
• Brad Jones (released)
• A.J. Hawk (released)
• Matt Flynn
• DuJuan Harris
• Jarrett Boykin
• Brandon Bostick (released)
• Jamari Lattimore

Expect ILB and TE drafted early in the draft.

– Do we really need THIS much coverage of the NFL Combine?  You must think people are that hurting for football!  Me, personally, I get ready for it once the draft is over.

– Does anyone watch the Westminster Dog Show??  This is as lame as the National Spelling Bee.   Seriously, who gives a flying fuck on how the dogs are groomed or whether they can jump a foot in the air?  It’s not to say I don’t like dogs, I do – but a dog show on National TV is a waste of time and a lot of money.

– Get this fact, here’s why Wisconsin C Frank Kaminsky should be the National Player of the Year.  When he’s in the game, the Badgers outscored opponents by 424 points going into the game at Penn State last Wednesday.  When he was out, Wisconsin only scored 14 more points than their opponents.  This also goes to show how important the big man is to Wisconsins’ success.

Ironically, I would like to see UW lose one game before the tournament so they get pissed off and make a deep run.  That could happen at Maryland, at Ohio State or in the B1G Tournament.

– Bad loss last night for the Green Bay Phoenix.  Cleveland State is a team you should beat, especially at home.  I think GB needed to have the conference tournament at the Resch Center for a chance at the NCAAs, now it’ll be the NIT or the CBI.  To me, that’s a disappointment with the talent that group has.

– Speaking of the Horizon League – they should expand.  Add teams like Murray State, Belmont, and either Northern Kentucky or South Dakota State would be good for basketball in the conference.

– Baseball is back!!  I’ll start breaking down a couple previews as we get into March.  My first thought…my over/under for the Milwaukee Brewers this year is 77.  They have the talent to be in the hunt, but it depends on the health of Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez, the resurgence of Jean Segura and how well guys like Adam Lind fit into the lineup.  Jimmy Nelson is now a permanent rotation guy and Mike Fiers will need to be as good as he was at the end of last season.

– For a while, if you’ve read this blog, I’ve taken fans in Florida for a fun ripping fest because I think they are the worst fans in sports.  Worse than Philly fan, worse than Raider fan, worse than Southern Cal bandwagon transplants.  I go as far as i don’t think there should be pro sports in Florida, period.  If you look at most events they have on TV, you’re lucky to see their arenas or stadiums at half full, and the fans that are there are so brain-dead or can’t speak English that the only thing they’re interested in is trying to start a fight with fans from the other team because they feel dissed.  Most of the people that actually follow sports there are either the transplants that moved there for the weather, and the locals are so sun bleached fried in the brain that doing anything aside moving extremely slowly while smoking the chron or drinking on the beach would be a stretch.  It’s too bad because there are actually some good teams there.  The Dolphins and Marlins should be OK this coming season.  I would love to see that loser lawyer in the Marlins jacket attend every Marlins game this year and pay for enough tickets from Duffy’s where more than 50 people show up for a game.  It’ll be fun in 2015 and beyond ripping on Marlins games.

– RIP to Tiger Woods career.  He’s had way too many injuries now to see him being a real threat on the PGA Tour.  The next wave of golfers?  Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth,

– If you don’t know me, I am not a huge NASCAR fan, either.  Mainly because I don’t understand what’s going on most times aside of the ‘turning left’, changing tires and refueling.  But, I’d be wrong to not acknowledge the career of Jeff Gordon who makes his 24th and final start in the Daytona 500.  The guy is a legend in the sport hope he enjoys the ride.

I told some friends that I’d be interested in attending an event, but the one I would consider first would be the August night race in Bristol.  A short track where the cars beat the shit out of each other, and 160,000 people partying it up – that could be fun.

– NCAA Tournament watch:

1 seeds

• Kentucky
• Duke
• Wisconsin
• Arizona

2 seeds

• Gonzaga
• Villanova
• Virginia – I think they fall a couple more times knocking them out of the 1 line.
• Kansas

Now – potential sleepers:

• Oklahoma
• Ohio State
• Northern Iowa
• Arkansas

That’s it for this week – have a great weekend!

-n