Two headlines today that I felt were appropriate to blab...errr...blog about. The first is the signing of Joe Horn to the Atlanta Falcons. I think he's a little bitter. Look Joe, really, don't make an ass of yourself trying to do the whole, "I'll show them stance" because what happens when you are over the hill and you try to hard, you end up getting hurt. Glad somebody felt that you are worth picking up, you were a hell of a player in your hayday but I'm putting the over/under on games played by you at 7. And I'll take the under for 2000 on that one Alex. Groin and hamstring injuries will plague you for the rest of your career bro, Good Luck.

A little local flavor. The state of Texas is working on legislation to pass a law to do random drug screenings on all high school athletes. This is when you start to see the wheels of corruption start to churn away. Call me old fashioned but I think this is a no brainer. Sign the bill and test the kids. There are people out there saying that these random drug test are infringing on the CHILDREN'S civil rights. What?! I had civil rights when I lived with my parents? No I didn't. You did what you were told and it was there way or the highway. And why would people be against drug testing of their children? Maybe there kid might not get into the school of their choice? The coach might not win a state championship every year? The problem lives in the fact that some of todays parents don't teach their children the consequences of doing right and wrong. For instance: A teacher catches a student cheating on his exam and instead of the parent disciplining the student, he or she ridicules the teacher for singling out their son or daughter. People not being held accountable for there actions is what has caused these problems.

Way back when I was a lad in high school I would have done just about anything to start on the football team. If someone would have offered performance enhancing drugs back then, without a doubt in my mind, I would have taken them. But always, in the back of my mind I would have known that I was a cheater, and growing up knowing that there were consequences for cheating (i.e.letting my parents down, getting arrested...etc.) would have plagued me for the rest of my life. How do you feel parents and bloggers alike? Do you think our children's "civil rights" are more important than there health? Would you like to know if your son or daughter is taking illegal substances? Not just steroids but any drug?

That is a more fitting title for the UFC pay-per-view event from last Saturday. What was puzzling to me was the lopsidedness of the fights on the card.(Is that a word?) Here is an overview each fight as they occured.

Jason Lambert vs. Renato Sobral: This fight was not surprising considering that Babalu's chin is about as breakable as the antique's in grandmas living room. Sobral being a great grappler needs to work on his standup skills. He's been worked over by Lidell and now Lambert and in mixed martial arts if your are not good in all three disciplines (especially defending against strikes) you'll get worked. Sobral never put Lambert in a bind and when he went for a knee strike he forgot one thing, protect your face. They showed the replay several times in slow motion and I could feel the punch myself. Props to Sobral for having one of the best tattoos though in the UFC, no not Lamberts glove mark on his face but the tribal sleeve that goes up his neck. At least you look tough dude.

Matt Hughes vs Chris Lytle: This was about as fun to watch as watching the grass grow. Most of the match was spent grappling and wrestling with a big cornfed sun of a gun like Hughes doesn't bode well for anyone. This match seemed to be a powder puff match for Hughes which kind of reminds me of why I quit watching boxing.

Rich Franklin vs. Jason MacDonald: Jason, bro I thought your name was the athelete? I watched Jason's last fight with Chris Leben and he did very well making easy work out of Leben. Then he steps in the ring against Rich Franklin and forgets how to fight. True Rich Franklin is a tremendous fighter but I thought Jason was way better than what he showed. Jason never answered any of Rich's strikes and it just seemed like he was way out of Franklin's league. They stopped the fight at the end of the second but it probably should have been stopped in the first becasue he was getting dominated from the start.

Drew McFendries vs. Martin Kampmann: This was the second best fight of the night. Drew came into the octagon and just started pounding on Kampmann. It seemed to be another lopsided match and McFendries was easily stealing the first round but Kampmann got McFendries to the ground and went to work. When he went from side control to the side choke the best part was that he had the all knowing Joe Rogan baffled at why he didn't take the mount. I shouldn't make fun of Rogan he does a way better job than Jim Brown back in the day. The side choke is one of the rarest submissions I've seen in the UFC because you have to be a pretty strong guy to perform it and to get the type of dominant position to employ the choke against these highly skilled fighters is next to impossible. Props to the Hitman on his submission hell even McFendries was surprised by the submission.

Tim Sylvia vs. Randy Couture: Was I right or was I right? If you read my previous post titled I'm Back you'll see that I predicted this outcome. Randy came out of his corner and decked Tim by fainting with a lead kick and then throwing the overhand right knocking Sylvia to the mat immediately. From that point on it was all Randy. Sylvia would make feeble attempts at throwing the jab but Couture's quickness and head movement kept him from being touched. Later in the fight Couture started in with the double leg takedowns and throwing the 263lb. man like a rag doll. What impressed me the most is that he was strong enough to even get Sylvia down like that. By the end of the 5th round Sylvia had been hit so many times that his left eye looked like it had a green golf ball under his eyelid and it was swollen shut. At the end of the fight Sylvia said that he was hurt prior to the fight which I think is the biggest weiner thing you can do after taking the ass whoopin he did. Even if it's true you just bow your head and say I'll get him next time. What a crappy loser. My advice to Randy is to enjoy the title while he has it beacuse he as two dangerous heavyweights in his class with Cro Cop and Alovski.

Now if you'll excuse me I think I should start getting some work done around here...wait have I checked my fantasy teams?  

Matt Carpenter thinks that Joe Horn was great in his time with the Saints organization. Matt Carpenter thinks that Joe is getting a little long in the tooth and should have excepted the restructured deal that Mickey Loomis offered him. Matt Carpenter thinks that Joe Horn won't get what he wants and may retire or go into the broadcast booth.

Look the bottom line is that Joe Horn is 35, he's plagued by injury, and the Saints have a young and relatively inexpensive receiving corp. Yeah Joe did a lot for the organization and the community but this is buisness. In construction I deal with the same thing, some guys get up there in age and can't produce what they are making so we either "restructure" there deal or they have to be put out to pasture. Sounds harsh but that's life.

Gotta go. The weigh in is getting ready to start and Matt Carpenter loves him some UFC.

After a short vacation from the Foxblogs I just felt like it was time to return. I can only imagine the Anna Nicole blasts and of course the Paris Hilton money shots that were taken in my absence.

Yankees.com is reporting that Donnie Baseball is the likely successor to Joe Torre as manger of the Yankees. I wonder if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Don Mattingly is my favorite Yankee of all time and one of the greatest players never to win a ring but I wonder how he would handle the delicate balance of a locker room full of all-stars. Speaking of that how bout we (and when I say we I mean the Yankees organization) nut up and shut A-Rod up. I mean really, every news outlet is talking about the relationship between Jeter and Gay-Rod. Is this baseball or Days of Our Lives. What happened to men being men? The Pussification of America is so rampant I'm scared to have children.

Luckily their is that little thing called MMA or mixed martial arts to the lay person. This weekend Randy Cotoure is coming out of retirement to fight Tim Sylvia. Just watching Tim's last fight I think he is very lethargic in the octagon, that might be because he is 6'8" and 250lbs but he is slow and deliberate. I think if Randy uses quick strikes to weaken Tim's defense and get him tired he might be able to grapple with him. Tim outweighs Randy by almost 30lbs so grappling will be tough. If there are any MMA fans out there can you explain the craze over Josh Koscheck? Joe Rogan talks about Koscheck like he wants to mother his children, yeah I said mother because Rogan is a Mo. Koshcheck is a decent grappler but if he gets in the ring with a good striker he is toast because he leaves himself open everytime he shoots for his opponent. I think if you have funny colored hair youget promoted quicker, see Chris Leben. Leben is a scrub but he does fight with a lot of heart and he has a decent chin. I am stoked this weekend becasue this will be the first fight that I will get to watch on my 65" screen since I bought it. Fellas if you don't have a 65" flat screen TV it is worth every penny. My wife already feels threatened by it. "Don't be jealous honey it's just a TV...a beautiful, large, clear, wonderful, magnificent, sexy,...ohh ohhh!" Sorry I got a little carried away there. Well let me go clean this up.

Until next time keep the beer cold and the nipples hard.

Well after agonizing all day yesterday and drinking myself into a mild coma I can tell you,"They are who I knew they were." Everyone was so sure of the Saints going into Soldier Field and running it up on the Bears and constantly my reply was, "Do you remember the Washington game?" I don't think I would have been so mad or violently ill (not sure if it was the game or the beer that casued the latter) if it wasn't for two things...playcalling and turnovers. Can someone explain to me why the Saints, after coming off of a 200 yard rushing game, run the ball only 12 freaking times. That was less than 25% of the play calls. If you don't have balance you ain't going to win squat and you can make book on that. Everydody is saying that the Saints run defense was atrocious, ya think. The Bears ran the ball 46 times. The defense was on the field the entire freaking game. There were some bad calls but not enough to turn the tides. Hell coming into the 3rd quarter they were only down 2. Why in the hell did Payton panic and throw on every down at that point. They ran play action passes with no threat of run. I really and honestly think that the outcome of the game would have been much different if they established the run. If anything it would have given the defense a little break. I think I'm going to be sick again. Credit to the Bears O-line for putting on a run blocking clinic on the Saints D-Line. I don't think you can draw up blocking better than that. Kreutz made Hollis Thomas wish he'd have actually taken the steroids. Fred Thomas was again the weak link in the secondary but we knew that going into the game. It should have never been a deciding factor.

All in all they had a great run. I'm proud as hell of all that they accomplished this season. I think the Saints future is only going to get better with leaders like Sean Payton, Drew Brees, Mike McKenzie, and Deuce McCallister. I hope that they look at this game film and learn lessons from it. Not to beat a dead horse but throwing the ball 80% of the time in nasty snowy conditions. Even Mike Martz thinks that's jacked up. Okay enough said. Baseball Spring Training can't get here fast enough to take my mind off of this debacle.

P.S. I don't know if PSing is boggically correct but I have to add this. Note to uninformed Saints fan...The refs did not turn the ball over 5 times and they did not commit a safety and they did not give up on the running game. Yes the offensive pass interference was a no call. There were some questionable holding calls on the Bears OL that never came to fruition but the Saints got worked over like Shamrock v. Ortiz. So please for the love of God quit blogging about how the refs cost you the game. Pass protection was horrible because you ran one screen and two swing passes all game. You never ran the ball against a D that was missing it's anchor and it's SS. Again, watch that atrocity, become a little more informed and then bitch.