I suspect many of us who witnessed it will agree with John Madden's statement that Darrell Reid's hit during the late game kick return on Chris Henry was maybe the most vicious hit we've ever seen.

THE ULTIMATE BONECRUSHING HIT

At the moment of impact, I thought we'd witnessed another severe injury - not expecting to see the kick returner get up. Fortunately, not only did he get up - he got up rather quickly and trotted off (yes, ... to the correct sideline).

However, we dodged another bullet with this hit. And it was preventable. At the last moment, immediately before the impending impact, the 288 pound defensive lineman running at fult tilt towards the oncoming kick returner lowered his head and drove it into the returners helmet. Henry's head, and entire body, immediately and quite forcefully changed direction - slamming backwards into the turf with Reid continuing through and over him as he sprawled out.

Awesome and frightening at the same time. Yet no penalty. Further, Reid - on the Pro Bowl roster as a special teams squad player - seemed to celebrate the fact he'd clobbered the guy with the top of his head by prancing around and pointing to the top of his helmet.

I'm a passionate Colts fan. But this hit was deserving of a league fine. And we all should be glad we're not dealing with a severe neurological or spinal injury-related tragedy this morning. Serious injuries can happen during normal plays in the NFL. But plays like this are preventable - and should be punished heavily as a disincentive to any and all who might consider lowering their head in such a manner again.

Credits:  YouTube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srUo2MDngJE 

It happens all the time.  A great blog is published - someone is in a really creative frame of mind and whips out a piece that gets you to thinking in some new way, opens you to new perspectives, or simply amuses you or touches your heart.  It may be about a topic-of-the-day, or something seemingly completely out of thin air - but you find it refreshing, illustrative, humorous, emotional, ... whatever - you take notice.

After re-reading and pondering, you decide to comment.  You scroll down, and there it is ...

Try as you might, you simply can't resist noticing that some cantaloupe has spammed the blog with 3, 4, 5, maybe more inane comments and all of the sudden you're out-of-the-moment.  The wave of enthusiasm you felt towards the piece is drained away from you not by ANYTHING the original writer said or did, but by the sheer inane mass of that black hole in the blogosphere:  the Blog Killer.

Sometimes it's predictable - you know who you are ... well, ... no, ... you likely don't.  But we do. 

Sometimes it's not.  The Blog Killer may well be a very good blogger who simply temporarily morphed into an energy sapping dullard - it's happened to most of us, I'd hazard to guess.

Regardless, the blog simply dies.  Sure, it may be read by many people.  But the rich discussion that should ensue - or the well-deserved kudos that should come the way of the original writer - simply remain untyped in the heads of the now-drained, confused, or simply not-so-passionate reader.  And it slips into the ether ........ farewell, good blog.

Blog Killers.  They lurk out there, ... just waiting, ... waiting ...!

 

Well, it' s good to be back here in Gasoline Alley with the auto racing fans.  The as yet unexplained multi-week forced hiatus has ended. 

While Robby got to experience a certain devious joy in doing his dualing victory donuts in Montreal after receiving the terminal black flag for his interaction with Mr. Ambrose, I've had to just sit and wonder "WTF?" after mine.

Regardless, it's good to have my old account back.  I'll likely change to "Dave in Seattle" whenever we make the move out there - probably in about two months.  Nonetheless, I feel whole again, if not slightly bemused by whatever it was that prompted somebody to feel the need to gag me (and so many others over the past couple of weeks).

All laps after the flag now ...

- NOT SPORTS/RACING RELATED -

 

I'm sitting in Philly's airport, waiting for my thrice delayed flight home to Indy, typing very awkwardly on my clunky Treo, to relay my utter horror at what I'm witnessing on CNN. Veteran financial anchor turned "talking curmudgeon/anchor" and real life incarnation of Howard Beale - Lou Dobbs - HAS BEEN GIVEN A PRIME TIME "NEWS SHOW" on CNN.

What fucking ratings-whore bastard of an executive gave the go-ahead to this? Has there been a worse broadcast personnel decision in the past five years? O.K., except for Nancy Grace.

A harbinger of The End Times? A statement of the slumping will/intelligence of the people? Or just one more abomination foisted on this country by my generation, "The Suckiest Generation"?

My flight has now been delayed a fourth time, and Lou has said "incredibly outrageous" and made that "I just snorted Mr. Hankey" face at least ten times.

I'm sure as hell mad and I'm taking it just fine. ... no, ... Hell! I'm mad, and I'm gonna suck it up plenty more! Nahh, ... I'm madly taking it up the tailpipe and sure as hell won't , uh, won't be happy about it. ... that's not it, ... I'm in hell and I can't get up. ... whatever, ... I'm sticking my head out the window and raging about SOMETHING. Won't you join me?

U.S. Coach Gary Ryan has kicked star goalkeeper Hope Solo off the team, citing her critical comments regarding his starting of Briana Scurry in the Brazil semi-final game of the Womens' World Cup in China. In comments published just this morning, Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly have spoken out in favor of Ryan's decision. Both indicated it was the right move in their minds to restore some semblance of good chemistry on the team.

_____

They may be right. It was indelicate of Solo to publicly criticize the decision to bench her (despite her incredible performance to that date in the WWC and the highly questionable nature of Coach Ryan's decision). In the emotion of such a heart-wrenching loss, I'm sure the team struggled to keep it together in the 24 to 48 hours after the match. Whether Wambach's and Lilly's comments were simply their best efforts to make good of a troubling decision, or revealed a deep seated need for conformity, I certainly don't know. Personally, I think it's a classic sign of the "Stockholm Syndrome". Both are great performers, and they seem to be rallying around their coach, despite his boneheaded decision to bench Solo for the Brazil game (come on, there can be no denying it was at the very least a highly risky move - the comment made by another blogger comparing it to leaving Pedro Martinez in game seven after he was clearly spent was spot-on, and to have sprung it on the team hours before the match - ... stupifyingly stupid).

So out of a game characterized by at least two glaring instances of incompetence, the person suffering the greatest (only?) penalty is the indelicate and spurned US goalkeeper. The fact that FIFA had once again placed grotesquely incompetent Swiss referee Petignat in one more high profile tournament game skates by without any real penalty. And, at least so far, Coach Ryan's decision to bench Solo only has contributed to the outcome of a US loss to Brazil and the dismissal from the team and humiliation of their best goalkeeper, he has not yet been held accountable for his poor performance as coach of the team for this game.

_____

Indisputably incompetent referee Petignat is free to continue to ruin every match she touches (which FIFA exec is she sleeping with? she has ruined nearly every match she has refereed in the last World Cup, the last Olympics, and now this World Cup - yet she continues to draw top assignments - how does this continue to happen? - there is simply NO excuse for such continued blindness to her inability to properly adjudicate big matches). And Coach Ryan is left to continue to coach the women's team (will he pull Scurry this Sunday and place Michelle Akers in goal?). Maybe it was the right decision, in the context of preparing his team for the upcoming consolation match, to remove Solo from the team. But it also has the appearance of making her the sacrificial lamb. What a waste.

Life don't make sense some times.

p.s. - Brazil's play in the WC pretty much solidifies the ruination of the game. Although highly skilled, they are bringing that most disgusting of soccer antics to top levels of the women's game: DIVING. The Brazilians took a number of dives in this match, with the Boxx red-card incident the most costly (as incompetent as she is, Petignat actually caught a penalty area dive early in the first half, although let Cristiane skate by motioning her to get up - NOT giving her a YC). Although not unknown in the women's game, it has not become the plague that has tainted men's world soccer until now. If this indeed marks a sea change in women's soccer, it's a sad day - they will have lost their primary redeeming quality - the relatively pure nature of their game, the focus on the display of skills vs. the panty-waisted theatrics/cheating so common in the men's game).