Thursday, February 22, 2007

Dom's Dish - Chargers and Indians edition

Dom's Dish - Thursday, February 22, 2007


In an unpredictable move, Norv Turner has been named the San Diego Chargers head coach. Between Norv and the defensive coordinator Ted Catrell, they will pretty much be running similar offensive and defensive systems next year. I'll even go to 10-6 for my prediction, I mean they do have to play Oakland twice. Then waking up this morning who do I see? Marty Schottenheimer on "Mike and Mike in the morning" alongside the Mikes, obviously being asked about his situation in leaving the Chargers. It sounds like he will head to broadcasting as he has ties to ESPN in the past. Perhaps the show this morning was a tryout, don't be surprised if you hear that in the next month or even few days. Then after that, maybe another coaching gig, his heart is in it. Best of luck, you deserve another shot Marty ball.

Peyton Manning's "new contract" is all smoke and mirrors. I'm glad he did it, since this means the Colts can make some small moves in the offseason and be back to beat the Pats next year. For those that don't get it, it's salary cap magic that the good teams use to keep, draft and sign great players while staying under the cap by taking future lump-sum bonus payments and stretching it out on the books over years. For those who took accounting, they in a way "depreciate" the "equipment" (in this case maybe like Peyton Manning, maybe).

So, yeah, that Daytona 500 was pretty interesting, eh? Right readers? I know you all were watching it eagerly awaiting the outcome of big name Kevin Harvick winning the 200 lap race. Honestly though, I did tune in for maybe 15 laps, only about 8 of which I actually saw since there was a commercial every 5 laps. Honestly. I didn't pay attention to the commercials, I mean it IS the Super Bowl of racing...if that's even a fair analogy since this was the first race of the season...never mind. And funny now that Chevy cars have won the Daytona 5 years in a row but their line of vehicles is somewhat suspect. Unfortunately "wrecks" sometimes cause death when travelling that fast, but if I remember correctly there weren't many cautions in the race. The one thing I like (aside from Miller High Life Light) is that Kevin Harvick is going to race three races this weekend - truck, Busch series and NASCAR. Now that's what I call a hungry athlete!

I was fortunate in seeing two Matthew McConaughey movies last night. First, I caught Two for the Money with Al Pacino and Rene Russo, filmed in 2005, and now A Time to Kill from 1996 (great Grisham Book) with Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, the Sutherlands and Sandra Bullock. Nearly ten years between those movies, and the man didn't age, and his time in the gym definitely helped out. Both some high quality movies that he was in. And although he is Keanu Reaves-esque in that most of his characters are the same, he doesn't do a bad job. Two for the Money was a good movie though dealing with the issues of sports gambling in the US. Though not a fact-based movie, it does get you thinking about the millions of dollars that are made and lost each week. I had a boss once whose mood on Monday was definitely affected by his progress over the weekend. Needless to say, he is not one of my favorite all-time bosses. McConaughey, not bad for a guy whose first appearance on the tube was a weird show back in 1992: "Unsolved Mysteries". (I did look that one up)

(The Verizon wireless guy - talk about a highly recognizable character...for years now he has entered our homes, made us chuckle and of course followed us around everywhere. Really, dude I like you and all, but you're freakin me out! Can't you at least wait outside the door when I'm in the men's room? But he really might have the most recognizable face on TV now. I just hope I don't bump into him on a plane without his glasses then realize it was him...)

Chief Illiniwek is now gone. (Pronounced eh-LIE-nah-wick hey-dere ho-dere) After years and years of controversy at the University of Illinois in Champagne, the school's mascot is now gone. He performed his traditional dance at halftime of last night Mens' basketball game and actually went out for an encore. Now I have mixed feelings on this myself, and not being a student or alum of the U of I, like many others perhaps I don't understand it. First off, Dan Maloney was a graduate student who was the mascot. Nothing like an Irishman acting as a Native American. But on the other hand, we can push the Indians onto small reservations from Massachusetts to California, but not honor them by having a mascot in honor of them? It's not like these mascots (FSU, Illinois, Redskins, etc) are going around shooting bows and arrows at people in the stands, right? Again, I don't know much about it, but thought it newsworthy.


Around the balls:
Giant-orange- Dwayne Wade somehow separated his shoulder after Shane Battier ran into him last night in Houston. A crazy freak play that caused him obvious pain and some speculate may keep him out the rest of the season. But come on, being taken off on a wheelchair? Martin Riggs was able to just bang his arm up against something hard then get back in the fight. Oh Riggs, you're still much better than your off-screen name : Mel Gibson. But seriously D-Wade, hopefully it's not severe structural damage that could keep you out 4 months...stretching into USA Basketball season. Base- Curt Schilling is filing for Free Agency at the end of 2007. So maybe he'll be back to the Phils.
Rubber-non- Does anyone else realize that hockey is actually going on? Geez, between the NBA All Star game getting record low ratings on TNT and Hockey relegated to the Versus network, both on cable.
Brown-oblong- Dominic Rhodes, the Colts RB and free agent to be was arrested for DWI. Come on man, you're less than 2 weeks away from free agency or signing with the Colts and you make that mistake?
Little-white- Tiger's back. Now if I can just figure out what the heck "3 and 2" means.


Program Alert:
The NFL combine started today. For those with NFL network, it's worth a few minutes (or in my case hours) of some viewing time. It's fun trying to "play GM" and predict how the players will fare in the NFL off of the game film NFL network shows you and drills such as the 40 and how high they jump. My fav is still the body fat percentage bubble.


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For those new to "the dish", I once dreamed of being a sports-caster having my own column. Let me know if you don't like it, and/or want to be discontinued from the list. If you have another email address to send it to, send that to me also. For older issues of the dish, email me. domsdish@gmail.com or go to http://domsdish.blogspot.com

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