01/26/2001

The All Sports Entry

Just how cool is Samuel L. Jackson? Sure this is billed as the "All Sports Entry", but can I just say how cool my man Samuel L. is? And, believe it or not it is sports related. I was watching ESPN tonight (more on that later) and there was a commercial for the ESPY awards. The ESPY awards are a cheesey award show for the sports world, a show whose past hosts have included the lovely and talented Tony Danza. But this year, the host is Samuel L. Jackson. The commercial has him in a white suit standing in front of a old fashioned microphone while various sports highlight of the past year play behind him. He is spouting some poetic garbage that some hack writer put together - one line is "I am the springtime of your sport". But this guy can make it sound cool. Maybe its the bald head and dark glasses or maybe its just his voice, but the man just oozes cool.

So I was watching ESPN for a reason. I was watching the womans finals of the Austrailian Open. It pitted Martina Hingis (ranked 1st) against Jennifer Capriati (ranked 12th and never been in a finals match ever). And wouldn't ya know it, Capriati won the thing. I've always pulled for her even since she came on the tennis scene. Its nice to see that she can rise above all the troubles she's had in the past to climb back up into the upper levels of her sport. I hope she can keep it up in the French Open.

Superbowl day is coming. I always enjoy the Superbowl. I start a videotape recording (SLP - approx 6 hours) about an hour before the game. It usually catches all the good commercials plus whatever good plays happen to occur during the game. And for some reason I usually spend the Superbowl with my college roommate Peter. The odd thing about this is that Peter hates football. He's originally from Belgium and has never really grasped the concept behind any American sport and therefore follows none of them. I guess the reason that I always spend the Superbowl with him is his lack of interest usually guarantees that he'll be free that day.

So it comes down to the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants. Since I am a Jet fan, it pains me to see the Giants in the Superbowl. Especially after the ugly collapse that the Jets had late in season. Now that my son Jake is 4 years old now, I have started him down the road of Jets fandom (read - brainwashing). Therefore, in our house the Giants are known as "the stinky Giants". But I will root for the New York (New Jersey) team. And by the way, even though I live in New Jersey, I don't buy into that whole stupid argument that they should be the "New Jersey Giants" or "New Jersey Jets".

Last sports news: Terry Shea, the guy that coached the Rutgers football team to an 11-44 record over 5 years was hired by Dick Vermiel to be the quarterbacks coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. Guess the Chiefs won't be winning any games next year.