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the musings of greatness
Apr. 28th, 2008
08:35 pm - please, someone do something
Its been one year to the day since my last posting and fortunately I've been driven to post by something so horrible I can no longer remain silent...VS's coverage of the NHL. It is horrible and if you feel the same way please let them know it.
To: feedback@versus.com
The reason your ratings for NHL games are so horrible, isn't because its the NHL or because no one gets your station. The reason no one watches is because watching the NHL becomes painful when forced to listen to Mike 'Doc' Emrick, Jack Edwards, Joe Beninati, and the rest of your crew. Just because someone is a veteran it doesn't mean they are good, and in some cases it becomes painfully obvious that they should retire...immediately! I know you can't do it because of contractual issues but if you were to stream CBC's feed I guarantee more people would watch. However, if your announcers didn't always sound like uninformed homers who just rolled out of bed or the bar, and instead sounded like they put anytime in preparing for the game, I think you would be surprised by the ratings you receive. I consider myself part of the core audience the NHL and VS is seeking, male, 23, and college educated however unless my team, the Avalanche are on, I find myself changing the channel when I find a game on VS (even during the Stanley Cup Playoffs), because I'd rather watch anything else, from a movie I've seen multiple times before to 1989's word strong man competition (which I assure you I have NO interest in), and then see the 10 seconds of highlights ESPN may or may not devote to the game during sportscenter, than listen to the irritating stupidity that comes with watching the NHL on VS. I beg of you to find new announcers before next year, because as it currently stands all you are doing is driving down the price ESPN will have to pay to reacquire the rites to the NHL when your current contract expires. I consider myself one of the few people that was happy when you got the contract, the small guy had finally got one, maybe you guys would finally give the NHL the status that I think it deserves, however, I have been nothing but disappointed by VS and your coverage of the NHL. PLEASE DO SOMETHING FOR THE SAKE OF ME AND EVERY OTHER NHL FAN!
Sincerely,
Alex Flynn-Padick
Apr. 29th, 2007
08:53 pm - updates
I know that you guys have come to expect my large and rapid updates however for the next several weeks I will be working at a Russian Orthodox monastery south of Moscow and won't have internet so when you don't hear from me don't worry, I'm with God and ok. I'll be back to normal by the end of May.
Mar. 10th, 2007
02:43 pm
sorry its not linked I'm down to my last minute of internet but i thought it was pretty good, especially with bertuzzi back in the news
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/stor
Feb. 24th, 2007
02:40 am - fingers are so tired...
a possibly long awaited and at least long over due update..
I just finished up a whirlwind tour of South Central Eastern Europe: I started off in Toronto, Canada(I know its not even in Europe but its where I started)I stayed with a friend I made in St. Petes in 2005. The only goal I had in Toronto was to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame and see if not touch the Stanley Cup. I'm glad to say that I succeeded. I wasn't actually able to touch the Cup, call it a spiritual thing but I haven't earned the right but I didn get close enough to feel the electricity coming from it. It was amazing. The next day I did possibly the scariest thing I've ever done, I stood in the CN tower, the worlds tallest building and looked down through the glass floor from over 1100 feet up. And the whole time, the lady whose job it was to try and get you to buy the souvenir picture found it insanely funny to come up from behind and jump on the glass panel that you happen to slowly work your way onto, although since I took my time I was able to out smart her and came in from the back corner slowly working my way out onto the glass taking my picture and then quickly returning to the at least psychologically safer cement floor. From Toronto I flew onto London, England where the guy I was supposed to stay with let me know he got kicked out of his flat and that I needed to find a new place to stay about 24 hours before my flight. Luckily my friend in Toronto had several friends studying at the London School of Economics who graciously allowed me to stay there even after I had to call them at 6:00am SUNDAY morning for directions when I landed. London was alright, but I was too stunned by how expensive it was to fully take in everything. The pound is about 2 to 1 against the dollar but the prices are on a 1 to 1 scale, so even McDonalds was over $10USD for a meal, luckily instead of giving in on my own personal quest to go McDonalds free fro as long as possible, I had a good deal of bread and nutella and fish and chips. From London it was onto Eastern Europe. Where I spent most of my time in Prague, where I had to wait to get my Russian visa since I didn't have a chance to apply through SIT before I left. Although Prague is a beautiful city that is fun to visit I don't think its the "best city ever" like is seems so many people proclaim, its just too filled with tourists, which being a tourist myself isn't the biggest of problems, but it does get annoying after a while, when every bar, club, and restaurant you go to has a "tourist" menu in poor english and higher prices.
From Prague I went southwest to Vienna, about a 5 hour train bus ride, where I spent a couple of days(because of the Euro I don't think I could have lasted any longer), before picking up my eurail pass and taking the night train to Belgrade, Serbia. Belgrade was an amazing experience, starting with border crossing, where the problems of having a US passport first became evident, first because the Serbs just don't like America at the moment(we did bomb there country to shreds) and second the fact that they're good for 10 years, because apparently I look nothing like the 16yr old kid on my passport except for the always rosy red cheeks. Once in Belgrade the people couldn't have been nicer in general, however that changed for some once they found out I was American. The destruction from the war is still evident everywhere. Some buildings, even in the center, are still in ruins, and the red roofing tiles and sloppily mortered grey cinder blocks of reconstruction are visible everywhere, from downtown Belgrade to the smallest border town. My host there invited me to what is called a cafana, a cross between a cafe and a bar, that one of her friends owned. It was a scene straight out of an absurdist movie. When we get there it is her, a self styled bohemian and her good friend, who looks like he could have played linebacker for the broncos if only he had a neck, and his friend who couldn't have weighed more than 130lbs soaking wet. I remember thinking that her friend looked like a bodyguard, which it turned out he was, go figure...We sat around the only small table upstairs as the music and voices coming from downstairs mixed with the smoke from the never ending supply of cigarettes from upstairs to make the scene almost unbearable except that it was so much fun. Once the owner appeared and with him the "General," a bottle of scotch whiskey, things got really interesting, if like magic every time they yelled downstairs the music got turned down, at least for a little while, and the lone bartender/waiter appeared to empty the ashtrays and bring more ice.
Although tired when I got there, the night eventually continued on and without even realizing it the sun was rising as we headed home, luckily it was only across a communist era apartment complex, where I settled down on the guest bed for an hours worth of sleep before getting up and hopping that the owner who was passed out downstairs would forgive me for waking him up to let me out, because you needed the key for the bottom door to open. After just catching my train out of Belgrade I settled in for a nice relaxing day of sleep on the way to Sofia, Bulgaria.
When I first planned my trip to Sofia I was planning on staying with a contact I had made through a wonderful website called couchsurfing.com, however, my text messages kept failing to send, I didn't want to call him until I got there and could use a local payphone because of roaming charges. I had figured that it was my problem because I still hadn't figured out all the tricks of texting internationally(I don't know if I ever will but it is becoming easier) but when I arrived at the station, and bought a local phone card and still it wasn't working, and a computerized female bulgarian voice answered telling what i can only guess and then disconnecting me I started to get worried, because it was getting late, around 10pm or so. I finally found a local who spoke english and was willing to translate the message for me, however as of course happens when they called the guy answered. He had been out playing soccer and didn't realize his battery had died. I finally got to his place a little after 11:30 and was dead tired but had to sleep on an old uncomfortable couch, but it was better than a train and more importantly it was free. The next day couchsurfer arrived from Buchuresti, and together we explored the city on our own, while our hosts were at school. She's an aspiring photographer so we had to stop every 30 seconds or so for her to get the perfect picture, but I'm used to that sort of thing because my dad used to be the same way. Later that night we met the hosts who took us to a club where they were meeting a friend who had just arrived from Greece, who it turned out was staying with an American who was having his birthday party that night at the club. It was a pretty funny scene, all the men, including a bunch of middle aged Americans and myself, were standing at the bar drinking the jim beam that the guys wife was paying for, and all the local girls who don't drink when they go clubbing because it interferes with there dancing. The next day and supposedly my last was the first day of snow I had had in my approximately 2 and half weeks in Eastern Europe during what was supposed to be the middle of winter. Anyway we decided to go ice skating at it was a magical moment because as we're skating one the biggest of the outdoor rinks set up around the city, the mountains, that are only about 5-10 miles away , gradually disappeared into the snow and mist. I left the group early because I had to run home and grab my backpack in order to catch the night train to Bucharesti, where I was to meet a friend of the girl I met in Sofia, but when I got back to the house and did my predeparture checklist I realized I couldn't find my credit card, and ended up tearing apart my bag looking for it. As it turns out it was stuck in the folds of the city map that I had borrowed and left on the coffee table, and thus right in front of me. Needless to say I missed my train and not having anyway to contact the group, because my host had left his cellphone at home, and out of money, and not wanting to go to the atm to take more out because of the associated fees and the fact that it was only for one night, I ended up sitting at home by myself for the better part of 4 hours while the rest of the group headed out to a preSuper Bowl party. Anyway I ended up catching the morning train to Buchuresti, the girl caught the morning bus, which left after me and arrived before me...
Once in Buchuresti, one of her friends picked me up at the train station and brought me back to his place, a literal one room apartment, if you can call it that, it was probably about 7ft by 12ft. including the kitchenette. the toilet and only sink were down the hall. I thought I would be sleeping there and it humbled me to think that someone living in a place like that would let me, the rich american, stay with him. Once there, the girl showed up and ended up taking me back to her place, she rented a room from another family near downtown. I thought I'd be sleeping on the floor, which was at least carpeted, so it could have been worse, but then she told me that I could use her bed and she was going to sleep at a friends house.
The hospitality of the Romanian people that I met blew me away. Whether it was there willingness to let me stay in their bed while they went to a friends or plying me with even more food than I could eat, they were always bending over to make sure I was comfortable, and didn't expect anything in return. In fact they told me to stop saying thank you so much.
From Buchuresti it was on to Budapest, Hungary, which despite 2 big negatives in my book, neither of which were its fault, was still an amazing city. The first of the negatives was that it was the only city in which I had to pay for and stay in a hostel, this meant that I was bleeding money(approx. $18USD per night) and out an insiders view of the city. The 2nd was that it was the only place where I felt completely lost when it came to language. In most of Eastern Europe I was able to get by with speaking in Russian, because most of the older generations that grew up behind the Iron Curtain at least understand Russian if they don't speak it because of the Slavic roots of both languages, while Romanian is a Romance language, so it doesn't have any similarities to Russian it does to Spanish which I studied for 5 years in middle and high school. Magyar, the language and the people native to Hungary has more similarities to the Scandanavian languages;Finnish, Swedish, Norweigen, and Danish than anything else, how it got put in the heart of Eastern Europe I have no idea. Despite all this I still had a fantastic time in Budapest although I finally gave in to McDonalds, before heading on to Bratislava, Slovakia.
In Bratislava, I stayed with a nice couple who happened to come through Denver over the summer, even though I didn't have a chance to meet them then, we did email a little. The guy is a huge Colorado Avalanche hockey fan, as am I so we had a lot to talk about, and they even had an Avs vs. Stars hockey game on local TV. Even though the Avs lost, at least they fought back and made it close in the end. Bratislava is an interesting town, even though it is the capital of Slovakia it still has a very small town feeling. I think that is because its only about 40 miles from Vienna, so that it is still a small town in comparison and anyone who wants a big town feeling goes there instead. Anyway the main day that I set aside to visit downtown, Sunday, was a mistake because everything was closed on Sunday. So I had a long day of walking around and seeing everything from the outside but not from within. I really liked how Bratislava mixed the old with the new. In cities like Prague and Budapest with famous castles and other older buildings, there is a distinct difference between the old and the new and it can be almost painful at times to look at, while in Bratislava that difference is there it is much more minimized by the fact that they purposefully try to seam everything together. Old and new building next to each other will share a paint scheme or designs of a new building will compliment and older one.
On my last night there I went shopping for snacks for the bus ride the next day at the local supermarket and there saw yet one more surreal scene. Lying on the floor in front of the deli was a woman who appeared to be unconscience with a bloody nose and 3-4 men standing around her, the butcher behind the counter was just standing there sharpening her knife and no one else seemed to be paying any attention. However since no one else seemed worried about it I went on with my shopping and as I was in line at the check out the paramedics arrived and took the woman out to the waiting ambulance. In what was becoming a too often occurrence, I ended up on the wrong local bus and ended up missing my bus back to Prague, luckily they ran every couple of hours so it wasn't too bad.
During my first week or so in Prague I had stayed with a friend I had made from CU during my summer in St. Petes. She was taking a year off to teach english, and I had been planning on staying with her when I looped back through Prague to finally apply for my Russian visa, as all the material(aids test and invitation letter) had finally arrived, however a couple of days before she sent me an email telling me that one of her roommates parents and brother were in from Germany and that since I was the low man on the totem poll I needed to find another place to stay. I ended staying with 4 English medical students studying in Prague and an Alaskan who had only arrived a couple of days before to begin training for TEFL certification so he could teach english. I ended up working out great because they had a futon to crash on and had a much better location than my friend. While back in Prague for the second time I ended up going to my second Hockey Club(HC) Sparta (they also have a football and basketball team) game, they had lost the first but this one they took an early lead and were able to hold on for a frantic last minute push by the visitor, and after the game madness ensued. Instead of quickly leaving and jumping on the tram like the after the first game, I stuck around and watched the players of both teams shake hands and then skate around and thank all the fans(of both teams) for coming, then the Sparta players formed a big ring in the center and started jumping up and down and throwing their hands in the air before diving outwards to make a bigger circle that looked like one of the sun faces you see for sale at the hispanic souvenir stands. After leaving the stadium I followed the mob of fans, for there is no better word than mob, as they went down the middle of the street , to the despair of the local police, signing the team song. after about 10 minutes to my excitement and horror I saw the police dressed in riot gear heading towards McDonalds, however behind the McDonalds was the entrance to the Metro, which was where the mob if not the police where really heading. As I decended down the escalator into the abyss that was the subway platform I was greeted by a crowd the looked like it was at an 80's rock concert, with barely room to stand. Once I was able to squeeze onto a train, as you should know squeezing in anywhere is quite the task for me, I was in for a ride I hope never to forget. From the instant the car started moving forward the people started moving up and down, shaking the car back and forth. Now more shouting than singing the team song louder than before in a call and response fashion while jumping up and down I really felt like I was in the front row of a concert, I can only imagine the scene after a soccer game, the number one sport in the Czech Republic like most of Europe. As we reached the next several stops you could tell people were horrified by what they saw, until they realize what we were, a crazed hockey mob...
After finally receiving my Russian visa and with time now running short, under a week, until the program start date it was time to move on to Warsaw, Poland. After the first of what would become several fitful days and nights of trying to sleep on the long bus ride I arrived in the boonies of Warsaw at 11:30 at night. The directions I had to the place I was staying started with get on the subway(which on a side note both Warsaw and Sofia only have one subway line that is not yet completed) which I gathered from the bemused looks I got when I said the word was nowhere near where I was. After finding a kid who looked to be maybe 16 who was on his way back from a long night of partying, but who at least spoke english, I was able to catch the only bus that took me anywhere near a metro stop. However by the time the bus finally arrived I had missed the last subway of the night and ended up taking the most expensive taxi ride of my life, although it only amounted to about $7USD to my hosts house. I spent most of the next day recouperating from the long bus ride and trying to figure out how I was going to get to Russia without going through Belarus for which I didn't have the necessary visa. I ended up buying a ticket for the bus the next night that left at 11pm. This gave me plenty of time to expore the city on my last day there. The first and most glaring thing that you notice when you read about Warsaw is how big and ugly the soviet palace of culture and science is. It was a gift from Stalin to the Polish people after WWII, they weren't his biggest fans nor was he theirs. But the first thing I said when I actually saw it was, thats a nice building, I wonder where the Palace of culture and science is. It wasn't until I looped all the way around that I saw the name. I looks like it belongs in a Soviet built town which since during WWII, something about 90% of Warsaw was destroyed it is(I know that Poland wasn't technically Soviet but a lot of the money and engineers that rebuilt the city were). Even the old town, Castle and all was rebuilt from scratch after WWII. I ended up meeting up with a friend from my summer job, a Polish guy who comes to Denver to work for a moving company to make money for the rest of the year. He took me to a local beer where I tried the local specialty "Warm Beer", when he told me i thought he meant it was the special because it wasn't refrigerated but because I'm on a budget I figured why not, but when it was brought out it was hot, served almost like tea except in a big beer glass, it was hot beer mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices. I was decent, just really really different.
I must say the highlight of Warsaw was the recently opened museum of the Warsaw Uprising, which lasted 68 days according to their count and was Polands attempt to declare independence and take control of Poland as the Nazis retreated before the Soviets could take control. It failed miserably but did produce some Polish heroes.
From Warsaw it was a night bus to Vilnius, Lithuania where I arrived at 8:30 in the morning and checked my bags at the train station, right across the street from the bus station before heading out to check out the old town before catching the night train to St. Petersburg. Luckily old town Vilnius is fairly small and I was able to see a good part of it in one, extremely cold day, if I had to guess I'd say it never got above 20-25 degrees F. The only thing that I wanted to see and didn't is the worlds first and still one of only 2 statues of Frank Zappa, but since I'm not a big Zappa fan, I'll survive.
And that brings me to today, the first thing I thought as I got off the train was Vilnius doesn't have a thing on Russia, followed shortly by I can't feel my friggin' fingers which is probably a good thing because if i could they'd be cold very cold.
Feb. 10th, 2007
07:39 pm - oie oie oie-is it bad to be hungry in hungary???
where to start...well I now have officially 2 weeks until I need to be in Russia and I still don't have my visa. The plan is to apply for it on monday at the russian embassy in prague, where there are concievably several minor problems; first I don't know where the embassy is, I'm sure i could probably google it but that sounds like way too much work at the moment, second is that all of my stuff, application/cover letter/aids test is in english, not czech or russian, and i'm having a bit of a problem finding a certified translation service, maybe the embassy will be able to point me in the right direction after i find it, third is that I'll then be in a foreign country sans passport for however long the russians decide to keep it, which hopefully since i'll be doing same/next day processing will be less than a week.
in other news some revelations that have come to me in the past couple of weeks:
-the Stanley Cup, not the original one, but the one that they actually use is electric, you can feel the charge coming from it, the real cup may be electric too(to paraphrase oasis) but you can't get close enough to tell since its heavily guarded in an old bank vault
-the serbs, really do hate americans, although to be fair we did drop a shit load of bombs on them, so they aren't without reason, although they really did deserve to be bombed.
-magyar, the official language of hungary is quite possibly the stupidest language in europe, i say this because it is the one language that has no resemblence to any language i can even partially understand, i'm told its most similar to swedish.
-the american foods that i miss most are pepperoni and cheddar, extra sharp cheddar, you can get a decent pizza over here but the pepperoni really does suck, and the cheese here for everything just doesnt come close to cheddar.
-just because american passports are good for 10 years doesn't mean that they should be.
-on the same note, I've come to the conclusion that besides my always rosy red cheeks i look nothing like the 16 year old who is on my passport
-i'm not sure if its because of their romance? blood (as in romance language:Italian, French, spanish) but the Romanians are some of the nicest people as a whole I've ever met. sure they may not say please or thank you, but they'll offer you their last bit of homecooked food and vodka and be truly happy to give it to you and be offended if you don't take it.
-on the same note, americans say please and thank you and sorry way too often, we should just shut up and deal with it.
-the superbowl, yes the superbowl, isn't that big an event outside of the US and maybe canada, I was hardpressed to find anyone who wasn't american or dating an american who know what it was let alone when it was.
-american hockey fans are bums by north eastern european standards, they don't even have seats in the lower level "fan club" sections
-if you think the "Blues girls"(sorry i don't remember their official name and couldn't find the link on the blues homepage) who collect the ice during breaks in games are bad you haven't seen the worst of it, commercialism is at its finest over hear, where there's hardly a patch of white left on the ice, and the jerseys of players and refs are covered in ads, i'll eventually upload the pics
-although adult life may have been crap under the commies, I have yet to find a person who preferred childhood under capitalism to that under socialism, it may have only been because they couldn't afford a nintendo or tv for that matter, but everyone I've talked to from GDR to Poland to Serbia and Romania and places inbetween says that their childhoods were far more entertaining and enriching because they had to playoutside with their friends, however these same people also are very glad that they get to spend their adult lifes in a capitalistic democracy, go figure.
I'm sure I've left some out so this is a list that I will be continually adding to, if you have any questions or want anything specific let me know
I've also been asked a very "important" question that i realized i had no idea what the answer was and promised that I would ask some friends, so without further adu
after buying an aide for self gratification what is the appropriate response of the sales person?
a-go fuck yourself
b-have a nice day
c-please come again
d-thanks for shopping at ____
e-silence
f-silence with an inappropriate look
mellowDec. 18th, 2006
10:16 pm - I am an American Badass...several generations removed
so i always knew that my great grandfather on my dads side was a bathtub bootlegger during prohibition, and I knew that my moms side of the family had vague connections with the Italian mob in chicago at the same time, and I had been told by my mom who was passing on a kind of family rumor that my great grandfather on her side was shot dead on a pool table during the 20's...well my aunt just sent us a couple of articles that show that he wasn't shot dead playing pool but was a big time bootlegger, leading his own gang and was about to be indicted on federal charges against him and 6 others for bootlegging and related charges. He was "taken for a ride" and shot and killed and then dumped from a moving car near his 2 1000 gallon distilleries, the largest found up to that point and i dont know about since. screw finals I should get into the family business.
hopefulNov. 16th, 2006
07:33 pm - best hockey family ever
Okay so today I moved possibly the best hockey family ever, you tell me. Growing up in Montreal all you really want is a hockey player, what do you get...3 girls, too bad right, maybe not. One ends up marrying Pierre Lacroix, the former GM and current President of the COLORADO AVALANCHE-whose son goes on to play for the Avs. One marries the daughter of Hockey Hall of Famer Maurice Richard, the first person to score 50 goals in a season, the last daughter, the one I moved, marries a multi-millionare itallian contractor, whose son by the way has the best chance to be a stud in the NHL, according to Mr. Lacroix, is on the Avs affaliat this year the Arizona Sundogs, look for him next year, Karl Sellan.
and oh she told me that I looked like Scott Parker, how cool is that?
tiredNov. 5th, 2006
09:02 am - fuck, am i a stalker?
It has just come to my attention that I may be a stalker. If I am it was unintentional and I apologize. I thought I was just being a good acquaintance, I would like to use the word friend here but I fear that our relationship has faded from that point and is on its way to becoming that person that I used to know. It all started last week when my acquaintance posted on her aim away message that they were hoping to break their losing streak of attending Avs games, I believe it was at 2 or 3 games at that point, at the Avs Capitals game that we would both be attending seperatley. Later that night after the Avs lost the game, we started "talking" on aim. They told me that they were going to go to the game last night against the Canucks using tickets another acquaintance was getting through a school discount. So last night I sent them a text wishing them "good luck tonight." Apparently they had forgotten our conversation because we then had to have the following text "converstion."
them-"what?"
me-"arent you at the avs game?"
them-"how do you know?"
me-"look 5 rows back and to ur right"
me-"im a genius or you told me i dont remember-u said "3rd party" go a "school" discount"
them-"Jokes on you, were in the last row"
me-"damn"
I'm sorry for being so tedious in putting this all up but i want to make this as neutral as possible.
The Avs then went on to win the game 3-2 in the 3rd period.
I then recieved the text "Whose bad luck now?" and I expected that to be the end of the "conversation" for the evening, the next time they were online I would probably have congratulated them on breaking the streak and talked some hockey, however later that night, I didnt get it till the next morning, I recieved a text from the 3rd party that wasn't very polite and accused me of stalking the other person.
I just want to say I DID NOT NOR DO I HAVE ANY INTENTION OF STALKING ANYBODY but the girl who sits behind me and to my right in my history of Eastern Europe class.
If you think what i did constituted stalking let me know so that I can change and no longer stalk people who I have no intentions of stalking, thanks
Apparently the only person who thought I was stalking anybody was the afformentioned 3rd party and even that may have been a joke, although im not really sure. either way the Stalkee doesnt consider me a stalker so I guess were all good.
a little worriedOct. 21st, 2006
03:30 pm - frozen four
I'm not sure if anyone already knew this or not but
"The 2008 NCAA Frozen-Four is coming to the Pepsi Center! It's your chance to watch some of the greatest college hockey teams in the country as they battle for the national championship! Also, the 2007 NCAA Men's Hockey West Regional is coming to the Pepsi Center next March!"
I'm excited.
Oct. 8th, 2006
02:35 pm - bowl-less
It's official, CU is now officially out of bowl contention, even if they win out and then win the Big XII championship which isn't likely but it possible we would have to forfeit our automatic BCS bid because we don;t have enough wins...This wouldn't be the case if Gary Barnett was still coach. I was never a fan of his firing and I think he got screwed for telling the truth about someone who asked for something, got it and then decided she didn't want it and a sports writer who went for the "good" story rather than the truth.
It all started back when Rick Neuhisel gave Katie Knida a scholarship to be a kicker for CU, he gave her a scholarship not because she was good but because he was trying to "diversify" CU. When she arrived at CU Katie told the team that she didnt want any special treatment and wanted to be treated like "one of the guys." And what did the team do, they treated her like one of the guys: they played practical jokes on her, told crude jokes when she was around, slapped her on the ass, threw footballs at her during practice (like they do to all bench warmers). But what does she do? She quits the team and then goes to Rick Reilly and complains about it, she doesn't go to her coach like any regualar player would do. And in the name of getting a good story he doesn't check with anyone else he just goes with her story, and when Barnett the coach who didn't give her an underserved scholarship is asked about her, he tells the truth that she wasn't good. She could barely make an extra point letalone a field goal.
I'm not going to go into the football recruit scandal which was going on well before Barnett took over and is going on at every major program in America.
Since the "Hawk" has taken over all he has done is lead our team to an 0-6 record. He took our best looking quarterback from last year and spring ball, Jason White, who he named first string before the season, and right before the first game make him the 3rd string, the 3rd string, not the second string which i could have accepted since James Cox is the senior this year and has waited for his turn, but 3rd sting behind a converted kick returner. Jason White has since left the team, and I can't say i wouldn't have done the same.
So now every game goes exactly the same: Jackson takes the snap and hands off to Charles or Holliday who gets a couple of yards, Jackson takes the snap bootlegs left(or right) and throws the ball into the stands, Jackson takes the snap stands in the pocket or rolls and forces the throw which is intercepted, or Jackson takes the snap stands in the pocket waits too long, makes a spectacular move to avoid the sack and runs for a couple of yards. Because of Jackson's newness to the quarterback position(and yes i know he played qb in high school) coach "Hawk" has had to simplify his playbook so much that I could run it and wouldn't have a worse record. I hate to say it because its my school and I love it but you have to sleep in the bed you made, and that goes for "Hawk" as well as everyone who called for Barnetts firing at CU. So far we have only had 3 games televised and our next game against Texas Tech wasn't picked up and the only other game that has been picked up is the friday after thanksgiving game at nebraska. And all this means that besides the $3.5 million payday that we had to give to Barnett for firing him, we're losing all that TV revenue and with it national exposure that leads to more merchendise sold and more out of state tuition money, not to mention the 6+ figure payday a bowl game would have brought in. And what does all this mean? less money that the university has to pay for EVERY other athletic team at CU, thats right the money football generates pays for everything from mens and womens basketball to to the fencing team to cross country skiing. The extra merchendise and out of state tuition money lost doesn't even go to the athletic department, it goes to the rest of UCB, thats right it pays for the renovation of the building, like our law school which would have lost its acreditation without the new building, it also goes towards highering the extra teachers needed to lower the classroom sizes that the same academics who complained about the problems with the CU football team complain about.
As much as I hate to see all this happen to my school, especially while I go here, I do feel slightly vindicated for standing up for Gary Barnett.
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