Step Mom

Being in education I can understand why the whole step parenting situation can be tough. In fact I think it could be down right brutal. Just wanting to date a child’s dad could be hard enough for children to deal with. Especially if that step mom is your ex boss.

Early last week Dale Earnhardt Jr. showed off his new ride. He will be driving the Number 88 Mountain Dew/ AMP energy drink Chevy for Hendrick Motor Sports. Nobody should expect Dale Jr. to be his father. His father like him or not was a legend, and a great race car driver. For those of you too young to really watch him race he was Tony Stewart before Tony Stewart.
I think the Hendrick Motorsports/ Dale Jr. marketing team is a match made in motor sports heaven. I like the fact that Jr. wants to win races. He could very easily go out there and be another Kyle Petty. Dale Jr. doesn’t have to win races to make money. He just has to show up. To be a millionaire all Dale Jr. would have to do would be to show up at the track make the field drive in circles on Sunday, and sell t-shirts, die cast cars, memorabilia, and whatever else NASCAR fans buy.
The funniest part about this is the reason he had to keep “8” in his number. The reason he felt he had to keep the number 8 in his number wasn’t because of luck, it was because of the fans who got “8 Dale Jr.” tattoos. I am not making fun of rednecks because lets face it I am a redneck, but how short sided is that? I love the Colts, but I know there might be a time when they could move cities. They could change their nicknames, that’s why you never get a sports related tattoo.
Lets talk about the whole drama with Dale Jr, because lets face it, its interesting. I understand why they wanted a split. Theresa Earnhardt wants to become the Petty’s. She wants to put as little actual money into the races as possible, and she wants to sell as much stuff as possible. Basically the races for her are to sell #3 die cast cars of her late husband to the millions of fans who still want to watch him race. It doesn’t matter if her race team wins, losses or ties. She wins in the end. She is a business person, she could care less about wins or losses. Again, let me state my point, or make it more clear. She is in the business of making money. She doesn’t have to win races to make money, so she doesn’t.
Dale Jr. the race car driver does want to win races. He wants to compete and wants to win. Can you see the conflict of interest here? That’s the main reason for the split. Now come the details. The sponsor Budweiser and more important the car number 8.
I really thought Budweiser would go with Dale Jr. See even though the company name is on the car, the real sponsorship is on the driver. You always think of Jeff Gordon with what? The number 24 and the Dupont name. Same with Dale Sr. #3 and Chevrolet. (It is funny though how American Chevrolet is but it is actually a French name. And how associated with NASCAR it is but the Chevrolet brothers actually got their start in Indianapolis.)
Anyway back to the original subject, Theresa Earnhardt should have sold Dale Jr.’s Number 8 to Hendrick Racing. She also should have paid him what he was worth. Her step son makes her millions of dollars every year. A smart business person would have forked over the cash. Dale Jr. as a race car driver has the right to go to a winning team. His time with Hendrick Motorsports will tell if he is a legit NASCAR driver. He has won races in the past, but these next couple of years will tell us if he is a great driver like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson or if he is just another Earnhardt.
If Peyton Manning went to the Cardnails he would have the right to wear the number 18, and it would not matter if the Colts liked it or not. She made her millions off of him, and will continue to do so, but she should have sold the number. "88" is fine. In fact in the long run it will help becuase now everyone who has Dale Jr. jackets and needless excessories will have to turn around and buy 88 Mountain Dew/ Amp energy crap.
I thought that Bud was crazy for not following Jr. Even though they advertise enough i think Dale Jr. was a gold mine beucase you cant put a prise on those Die Cast cars. Think of all the advertising dollar they got out of the man. They should have stayed with Jr.
In the end everyone loses. The good news is we will see how good of a driver Dale Jr. really is. He has the ride to promote himself to a truely elite driver on the circut. But he has to prove it on the track. If he can do that, then maybe he will live up to his hype. If not, we are doomed to another year of yellow flags for debris right after he gets lapped by Jimmie Johnson.

College Football

There are many reasons why I don’t follow college football. The main reason is the national championship system. I don’t like the fact that one loss takes you out of the running for the national championship. Here is why.

I think losses as much as wins make you the champion. I think back to the 2006 Pittsburg Steelers. They lost big time to the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night in front of the whole nation when Marvin Harrison torched them for 80 yards on the first play of the game. You can’t tell me that loss didn’t affect their will to be a champion. The 2006 Indianapolis Colts went 3-4 down the stretch after starting 9-0. Loosing to bottom of the barrel teams (which are improving as we speak) such as Tennessee and Huston made them work harder to become champions.

This is why it is so much more special when teams like the Pittsburg Steelers and the Indianapolis Colts win championships. The Lakers have so much money in the LA market that they can buy Shaq and orchestrate trades for Kobe Bryant. Indianapolis and Pittsburg are communities who live and die with their teams. If the Knicks loose there is always the Mets, Yankees, Jets, Giants, Rangers, and Islanders. This reminds me even more of why I think the Boston Red Sox curse is stupid.

About the same time the Colts were kickin ass and takin names, Tony Dungy’s son was going through a rough time. Every in American and around the world knows the outcome. But I believe this loss shaped the 2006 Indianapolis Colts, as the Monday night game did the ’06 Steelers.

The other thing I dislike about the College Football system is this. To win a championship you have to be lucky. I honestly feel had this tragedy not happened to the Colts family that 2005 playoff game could have turned out different. In fact I was out in Indianapolis the night before the game, and I was talking to very nice Steelers fans. In fact even though I dislike the Steelers eminsly I have never met a jerk Steelers fan. Anyway the Steelers didn’t think they had a shot against the mighty Colts. The squeked in to the playoffs, then in the first play of the Cincinnatti game a defensive lineman rolls up on Pro Bowl Quarterback Carson Palmer’s leg tearing his ACL and putting him on the sideline for the game. They come to Indianapolis and the Colts play their worst game since the days of Jeff George and Gary Hogaboom. I don’t remember much after that except they went on to win it all. I didn’t watch the Denver game or pay much attention to the Super Bowl, but you have to be lucky as well as good.

In college football the team that usually wins the national championship game is the best team that plays the easiest schedule. I don’t feel like Miami play the same top opponents every week that down big 10 does. Ohio State and Michigan who are usually national championship contenders play top tear teams such as Purdue, Iowa, and Michigan State every single week. The same is true with Flordia, LSU, and other SEC teams. How many top 25 teams does USC always play? Not as many as a Big 10 school.

Everyone who has half a brain knows what needs to be done. There has to be a playoff system similar to March Madness. The only problem is that somewhere money changes hands and someone who makes a lot of it refuses to do it. The BCS was a great idea, but it is extremely flawed. It is less flawed than having the Associated Press pick a winner because all know how much sports writers really know.

The wonderful thing is that you could combine the best of both worlds. Have a playoff system, that uses the bowl format. In fact I took the time this weekend to create and elaborate system of bowls.

32 teams playing for one title, 5 games, winner take all. As for the bowl money I suggest one of two options. The first option and the one I would use would be for the losing team to get the money. The farther you go into the tournament the more money for the school. (Except for the final game of course) So if you lose in the first round you make X amount of dollars, second round more third round more and so on.

			West Bracket		Bowl	Location
	At Large #2				1.Humanitarian	Boise
					2. Emerald	SF
	1 Humanitarian				3. San Diego	San Diego
					4. Las Vegas	Las Vegas
	Pac 10 Champ				5. Holiday	San Diego
					6. Hawaii	Honolulu
		5. Holiday			7. Sun Bowl	El Paso
	MNT West #2
	2. Emerald
	WAC #2
			7. Sun Bowl
	WAC Champ
	3. San Diego
	Pac 10- #2
		6. Hawaii
	MNT West #1
	4. Las Vegas
	At Large #1

			South Bracket			Bowl Game	Location
	At Large #2					1. Outback	Tampa
						2. Insite	Tucson
	1. Outback					3. GMAC	Mobile
						4. Armed Forces	Fort Worth
	SEC Champs					5. Alamo	San Antonio
						6. Independence	Shrieveport
		5. Alamo				7. Outback	Tampa
	Conf USA #2
	2. Tucson
	ACC #2
			7. Outback
	Conf USA #1
	3. GMAC
	SEC #2
		6. Independence
	ACC Champ
	4.Armed Forces
	At Large #1		G

			MidWest		Bowl	Game Site
	At Large 2				Motor City	Detroit
					Papajohns.com	Birmingham
	1. Detroit				New Mexico	Albuquerque
	Big 10 Champ				Gator	Jacksonville
					Liberty	Memphis
		5. Gator
					Cotton	Dallas
	Sun Belt #2
	2. Papa Johns
	Big 12 #2
			7. Cotton
	Sun Belt Champ
	3. New Mexico
	Big 12 #2
		6. Liberty
	At Large #7
	4. Music City
	Big 12 Champ

			East Bracket			Bowl Game	Game Site
	At Large					1. Champs	Orlando
						2. International	Toronto
	1.					3. Meineke	Charlotte
						4. New Orleans	New Orleans
	Big East Champ
						5. Peach	Atlanta
		5				6. Capitol 1	Orlando
	Independent #2					7. Orange	Miami
	2
	MAC #2
			7
	Independent #1
	3
	Big East #2
		6
	At Large
	4
	MAC Champ

	MW Champ
	1. Fiest Bowl
	Tempe
	East Champ
		3. National
		Championship
		Rose Bowl
	South Champ
	2. Sugar Bowl
	New Orleans
	West Champ