So, I am a big Scottie fan, so that has most to do with this: But mid-round Friday, Scottie was down at like #10. He was 6-7 shots off the lead, but he was playing well, so I dropped $10 on him to win it all, to win $50.... That came to fruition yesterday, as Scottie did what Scottie does. That was a tough course and he absolutely but belt to ass on the back nine. He ended up hitting 18 with a 3 stroke lead, meaning that the next guy had to hole in one the par 4 18th.... Classic end to a great year in golf. Got the player of the year. Won the FedEX cup. Ended up #1 in over 20 statistical categories in the PGA. He won over $30 million this year alone. Yesterday, he passed Tiger Woods as the all time PGA earnings leader. Granted, Tiger is the reason for that happening, but either way... It's crazy. He has made like $150 million in the last 3.5 years. 

Scottie got his first win in 2022, and since has won 20+ tournaments, like 5 majors... It is nice to see him back in form and keeping things going. He is a hard dude not to like, and he is a fucking pimp with a golf club... Crazy shit....

Great year, all in all, in golf. 

And man, did you see Rose DUNK that hole in one on the long par 3? It played 270 on Saturday, and 208 yesterday. I was watching the shot tracker on the shot and when it was in the air, I thought, That is right at it. I mean, I have never seen a shot tracker line up in the air that was taking dead aim at the flag. And in real time, you couldn't even see the shot. You could hear it slam the cup and dissapear. It took about 5-7 seconds for myself or the announcers to realize it went in. Crazy good shot... And on the next hole, his playing partner dunked his approach from like 160 out, eagling that.... It was a pretty sick 10 minutes of golf. 

NFL preseason in the books. Ravens won 41-3. It was an absolute beat down on the skins. Our defense ate them alive. Only major issue were the two misses by Tyler Loop in the kicking game. And after our season ended last year off a missed FG from 45, from Loop, I am not all warm and fuzzy about our special teams. Where is Justin Tucker when you need him.... Make sure he washed his hands a lot and get him back in the purple and black, haha....

Anyway, great pre-season. Our only major question/concern is at center, and at kicker. But I think Loop is our only option at this point....

Ready for real football to begin. 

The Ravens allowed a combined 13 points in all 3 games, while scoring 78 points. Wowzers... I like those numbers quite a bit.... 

Haha, Zach.  The stands were empty AF at the USC game.  I remember wonderin WTF was up with THAT?  Vast areas of nobody.  Maybe it's a hundred dollars for a water.

Lotta folks down this aways are startin with the Arch Manning goes into Heisman mode and Lambos win it all.  Cooper gets to brag and shit.  

Yeah, don't let them BS you. It's a "SoCal" thing. It's the same reason that San Diego lost the Chargers. San Diego is the 7th largest city in America, and in the decade that I lived there, they failed to sell out the majority of their home games. 3 million people all at beach bars and shit, rather than attending the game. Traffic sucks. The weather is perfect. The only reason that LA can host two NFL teams is because of the visiting teams. LA is a top 2 market in the US, so just the road teams alone fill those stadiums. You can ad Vegas to this list, but they say in LA, there is no home field advantage, at all..... 

So, it's the same with college sports. USC fans show up when it's a big game, against a big opponent, then they slip back into the shadows. Same with UCLA. The Dodgers have a small stadium and they are a national brand, so they are okay. But there is a reason that the Raiders went from Oakland, to LA, to Oakland and now to Vegas. People in CA don't show up in person. Never have. Never will. 

I was in San Diego in 2004 when the opened Petco Park downtown for the Padres. By the second year, they had $2 hot dogs, $3 beers or a $5 combo. $5 seats. They had to GIVE AWAY the house just to get fans to go. And even then, the stadium was EMPTY. Unless it was the redsox or the Yankees in town. Then it's packed out, and it's no longer a home game. 

That is why it's cool to see Petco now. The Padres have been good for a few years now, so towards the end of the year, the stadium is packed. Fans are out... It's also because they lost their football team, so the Padres are the only thing in town, and that city learned their lesson: You better show up. You better get your ass in a seat, otherwise, you will have to start cheering for the Portland Padres next year. 

Oh, ok.  Zach, the first thing that hit me as the camera panned across them empty stands...  It felt like watchin practice.  It's exactly what it looked like.  

That's just how they do it around there, I reckon.  

Now I got Frank Zappa Valley Girl stuck in my head.  Moon was so on the money.  TOE-ta-LEE. American Classic. 

So, here is a crazy one. Maybe you buoys heard this one, but there is a dude from Los Angeles, that for the past 4 years has been posing online as a "49ers Wide Receiver".... He posts videos of his workouts. Videos of him in his helmet and jersey. They would pay to go walk through mansions that weren't his and film videos of him in his "house". He would meet chicks online on dating sites, convince them that he was a player, and then talk them into investing in his MFL businesses and shit. Anyway, he stole a few million bucks from these women over the years. He went so far as to have AI and google produce fake profiles and search results that made him appear to be a player...

This is the wildest catfishing or scam I have ever seen. I mean, the fact that none of these women ever saw him on the field. He lives in LA and not SF. I mean, the flags are all there. Dude went DEEP down the rabbit hole. 

He got arrested and charged with wire fraud. Yes, it's a scummy thing to do, but for some reason, I don't feel bad for these stupid women at all. Meeting some dude online with a fake profile. Believing he is an NFL player, when some simple vetting could prove that wrong. Then you are giving him hundreds of thousands of dollars? Wild.

I ain't interested in tryna pull off somethin like that, but damn.  I'd have my stories so twisted up, I'd bust my own self the first week.  Wouldn't be able to keep track.  

So, this is some "homer" or "home team" shit for me... But talk about the play of the day. Bottom of the 9th. 2 outs. Orioles are up 2-1. Man on second. First base open. Don't fuck this up. Anyway, dude hits what is basically a home run, and our center fielder, Colton Cowser runs all the way through the warning track, up and over the wall and absolutely STEALS the homerun. Game over. Look at everyone's reaction. Ball game. Walk off.... That is one of the craziest HR robberies ever, and this was a walk off game ended. 

AND, for the first time in like 4 months, that took the orioles back to .500 and we are 1/2 game out of the wild card spot, just a 1/2 game behind Cleveland. So even after we traded our best player to Boston. Even after we waved the white flag and brought up our farm teamers. Even after everyone dismissed the O's for the year, they are still fighting, and they have a month to make up a 1/2 game deficit. 

Orioles Magic is alive and well, and hope is not dead just yet. 

Week 1 of College Foosball starts today. 🏈 Dang USC is gonna be on my antenna TV again.  Probably gonna check that out, at least for the stadium seats shots.  

Haha.  Toledo.  Different team, but Go, Mud Hens.  

Ah, look at that. Your typical college football kickoff night, with spread of 41, 35, 24, 21 and 10.... I mean, at least we have a game that is "almost" a single digit spread.... Fucking pussies. 

I mean, USC vs Fresno is a perfect test to see if USC is any good, and if their fans will show up.... 

Last night's GTech vs Colorado game was a good start. Def was bummed last week NC State didn't put up a fight against Varginia. This wknd's football slate isn't great compared to last year, but there are worthy night games at least

So, last night had two games also: Utah 66, Idaho 14. Mizzu 54, AR-Pine Bluff (Haha, real school I guess) 14.... So yeah, two real barn burners, with an average margin of victory at a cool 48 points... Gotta love college football.....

So, here is a breakdown of matchups with our top 25 school for week one. Let's see how this looks on paper:

#6 Indiana Va North Texas (Indiana -41)
#13 Bama vs East Carolina (Bama - 28)
#23 Houston vs Oregon St (Houston -21)
#1 Ohio State vs Ball State (OSU -51)
#3 UGA vs Tenn ST (UGA - 47)
#2 Oregon vs Boise St (Oregon -25)
#5 Texas vs Texas St (Texas - 30)
#18 Penn St vs Marshall (PSU - 24)
#20 Tenn vs Furnman (Tenn -48)
#22 Iowa vs N Illinois (Iowa -32)
#8 Texas A&M vs Missouri State (A&M -41)
#12 Texas Tech vs Abilene Christian (TT -43)
#11 LSU vs Clemson (LSU -11)
#16 Michigan vs W Michigan (UM -28)
#14 BYU vs Utah Tech (BYU -52)
#17 Washington vs Washington St (Washington -24)
#4 Notre Dame vs Wisconsin (ND -21)
#9 Ole Miss vs #24 Louisville (Ole Miss -7)
#19 SMU @ Florida State (SMU-3)

Haha. You can't make this shit up.... So, it looks like the only decent games are SMU vs FL ST, LSU Clemson and Ole Miss Louisville. Not sure how a #19 team can go to FSU and only be a 3 point favorite on the road. Seems to me like that isn't a ranked team if the spread is like this....

But, other than those 3 outliers, which have nothing but luck to do with the matchups, the average point spread in week 1 is in the 30s and pretty much every decent teams is a 30-55 point favorite....

And once again I remind you gentlemen, that college football is a fucking joke, and will continue to be a joke as long as we are presented with slates of games like this. I don't care if it's week 1 or week 12. This is a fucking joke.... 

I mean, Ohio State, I don't care if you built this schedule back during covid. You are opening as a 52 point favorite against "Ball State"? I mean, you guys are a top team every year, and you are kicking things off against Ball State? Fuck you guys. Straight up. 

And Oregon, my #1 Fugazi team of the year... Look at you clowns. You are in the Big10 for the second year, yet you are still scheduled to be playing leftover Mountain West and Big12 teams week one? You phonies. You liars. You clowns.... This is your third year in the big10, so act like it and don't play fucking Boise State. You are pussies. You are scared. You are clowns....

Carry on. I really hope to see some upsets to shake things up. These rankings are trash and the schedules are laughable. As usual. 

So, our top teams in the country are playing games against: 

Abilene Christian, Ball State, Texas St, East Carolina, Furman, Tenn St and Mizzu State... Yikes.... Yawn. 

Haha, Zach.  I know there's always a few cake games.  I don't mind.  I don't think every week HAS to be against a team so good, half your team takes all week to recover from the carnage.

I took a quick look at a few teams.  Ohio State, Texas, and Georgia.  Just lookin at how many rank #s I saw, and how little they were.  You can throw in home or away too.  I already knew Ga had an easier year than normal.  Ohio State looks like maybe they got a few more in there.  Texas looks like a pretty consistent run of maybe real teams.  Lambos are gonna have to earn it if Arch Manning pulls this off.

My Dawgs...

Ohio State...

I didn't look at Oregon.  I ain't interested. 

Hey... people get to play the Cleveland Browns in NFL.  Kinda the same as Sisters of the Poor Academy in college. 

So, the most interesting part of the weekend is LSU.... I will give a brief rundown, as well as today's update just to keep you in the loop if you are interested.

Cleveland Browns draft a TE out of Ole' Miss. He doesn't get a good offer from the Browns, so he returns to college football, but not to Ole Miss, but to LSU, where Kiffen plays, and Kiffen recruited the kid... So, at that point, there was no law AGAINST this, but it has really never happened. 

So, LSU signs the kid, on top of a few other kids that they already have on their team that did the same thing. Quit college, went to the NFL, then came back. 

The day after this happened, Kiffen said "I don't think that this is something that we should be able to do, but as long as we are able to, we are going to, because if we don't sign the kid, someone else will and we will be at a disadvantage. 

That same day, the Big10 came out and said "No one that has ever played, signed with, or been drafted by a pro team can ever come back to college"... The day after that, the SEC said the same... No one can do it...

So, the problem was, this ALREADY happened, so the proposed penalties only count in the future. 

And in court, it has been made clear that the SEC and the Big10 do not have the authority to prevent this anyway. It doesn't matter what they say, and here is why:

This went to court in Louisiana. As I said before, the Governor runs the LSU program, so as I speculated, the state sided with the Student and said that there is nothing the state can do to prevent this player form playing at LSU. There are no laws against it, so the judge grants the injunction, upholding the fact that the kid can play...

Now, the SEC says "Well, we are still going to penalize LSU for this"...

The SEC sued LSU, the state and Lane Kiffen as a coach. 

Judge says "You can't. You don't have the authority. The state of LA supersedes anything you say. Case dismissed. You can't touch the school, the state or the coach. Period"

So then, the SEC says fine, we will penalize LSU as a school for doing it, and not the student.....

Then, the player's lawyers came BACK into court and got another injunction stating that the SEC, Big10 and NCAA can not use the threat of retaliation against the school, coach or player. 

So, here is where we are:

The state of LA says that LSU HAS to suit these players up now. The state also says that the SEC can do NOTHING about it.... And then the player's lawyers affirm to LSU: You, as a school, can not impede these players in anyway. You have to play them if they are starters. You have to suit them up. You cannot threat any retaliation at all...

So after all this shit. Everyone suing each other....

Not only are the players going to player. Now the players HAVE to play.... What a fucking shit show....

So, people need to be careful what they wish for. Everything the NCAA, SEC and Big10 has done so far, has already blown up in their faces. Then they are like "We are going to sue each other, settle this in court"... Well, the courts just fucked ALL of you over. Because you are retarded. You asked for it, you got it... You just challenged the most corrupt state in college sports to a court battle over players. They SMOKED YOU, as we all thought they would, and then, they took it one step further, ensuring that you all are completely fucked and cannot do ANYTHING about it. The only thing that can happen, would be a student deciding not to play on their own. If LSU tries to coerse them in anyway, they will have to pay out 10s of millions of dollars for it. 

Well done you fucking morons.... You guys just took a bad situation and made it worse. This will take YEARS to fix. 

Oh dang, Unfurled.  I probably won't bet on Toledo.  It's just toasted permanent crispy in my brain.  Anytime I hear Toledo.  Max Klinger and his beloved Mud Hens.  Jamie Farr probably did more to put Toledo on the map than anyone.