With my team of the last 24 years playing the team of my 1st 11 today I consider it fitting to explain that fateful day that forever changed the course of my fandom and gets me asked a specific question quite often. Plus I now have follower that's a guy so it is time to talk sports. But back to that question. It's why or how did you get to be an Eagles fan in the middle of Iowa where all we get on TV are the Bears, Vikings, Chiefs or Packers....well I added the last bit but as illustration as to just how odd it is to be a fan of any team but those here in the Midwest.
Unlike my kids who were born into the Eagles family I didn't grow up in a sports of any sorts following family. So I chose one of those afore mentioned teams based on a few things. 1. They had my 2 favorite coaches of all time Ditka and Buddy Ryan. These two guys absolutely hated each other and to this day they are the only 2 coaches to be carried off the field by their team at the same time after winning the Super Bowl. Even if you don't know football you know the Saturday Night Live skit....Da Bears with all the guys wearing the orange & blue sweaters. And Buddy Ryan was the innovator of the 46 defense which was perfected by the 85 Bears. This was the team I loved. They had everything. On offense they had the cool quarterback that always wore shades (though he's more odd than cool these days) that threw the ball to an Olympic sprinter, had a line as good as they get, a fullback whose name sounded like you were calling a pig that blocked for "Sweetness" the best running back to ever lace up his cleats on a Sunday...and an occasional Monday, Thursday and Saturday. But it was their Defense..those Monsters of the Midway that people still talk about today as being the best ever. Their linebackers were scary good with Singletary in the middle, some not so household names in the defensive backfield (1 is now a head coach that spent time on the staff of the Eagles) and the meanest bunch of D-lineman with names like Danimal, Mongo and the Fridge. And who could forget about the Super Bowl shuffle...which many people saw the reprise this past February during a Super Bowl commercial.
So you see I was emotionally invested in the Bears which is why to this day after Super Bowl XX I vowed to never cheer for them again. You see Walter Payton aka Sweetness was my favorite player. What kid didn't want to wear the wrist and head bands and be #34. He had a style like no one else....he ran smooth but punished people who tried tackling him. He also refused to celebrate touchdowns which is why Barry Sanders also would just hand the ball to the refs which I still have a ton of respect for any player that does that today. And it was because of my adoration for #34 and what the Bears did to him during that 85 season's playoffs but mainly what didn't happen that fateful day in February during the Super Bowl. The Bears had rode Payton's back the entire season and then in the playoffs it all became the Jimmy Mac show. But what sealed it was the Super Bowl. Jim McMahon had 2 rushing touchdowns and then on the Bears final scoring opportunity they gave it to the rookie....the 400 pound rookie. William Perry aka The Fridge was given the glory and the future Hall of Fame running back who for the past 10 years was the Bears was pushed aside.
It was at that moment I unknowingly made myself a free agent swearing off the Bears. And I decided to follow my coach Buddy Ryan to the Eagles who had just drafted my now 2nd favorite player of all time...Randall Cunningham. I actually wore #12 because of him. He was the ultimate weapon...Michael Vick before there was Michael Vick and even has a 91 yard punt in his stats. Most people forgot he was an all conference punter in college. Buddy had some amazingly talented teams with future Hall of Famers but he was a little unorthodox (cutting Chris Carter and putting bounties on players) and could never get those Gang Green Defensive teams led by Reggie White, Jerome Brown, Clyde Simmons and Eric Allen very far in the playoffs. Then all good things came to an end.....no I didn't go back to being a Bears fan. Randall's Eagles career was ended by a local from Scranton Iowa during the 1st game in 91 and I decided to stick it out being an Eagles fan through the Rick Kotite and Ray Rhodes years before Andy Reid. Now people assume I'm a bandwagon jumper after the 4 straight NFC Championship games and Super Bowl appearance the Eagles made being led by Donovan McNabb...my 3rd favorite player. So while I still have fond memories of those 85 Bears now you know why I like kelly green and know the words to "Fly Eagles Fly" and risk my life going to Arrowhead or the Metrodome when the Eagles are in town even though I should either be wearing a cheese head or vikings helmet or possibly the stylish blue & orange sweater vest. Sorry Chiefs fans you really don't have anything (you stole the tomahawk chop from Florida St) and the only thing I could think of for you was the Snickers commercial from a few years ago....great googly moogly.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
80's on the 18th
I had really planned on having another blog post posted prior to today so I wouldn't have back-to-back retro reflection but life happened and I can't skip today so here goes.
One of the great things about kids; especially boys considering I was one though my wife would say I still am is that you get to share all these great things with them from when you were a kid that you thought were great and cool. I could have used "rad" here for a little slang from back in the day but I was never a user of the rad. Now the problem that arises is that after 20 years your memory is not always reality and it backfires and now your kids think you are a bigger dork than they already did. Or in the case of movies you forgot about certain questionable scenes and you cringe when they come on as you remember them and it's too late to hit the skip button. But also I've come to realize PG in the 80's is not the same as PG these days. I came to this realization watching Big. Did you know Tom Hanks was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance of a big goofy kid...hard to believe Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford were up for Tom Hanks part but thankfully Tom worked it out and made one of the greatest movies of all time. I know everyone's favorite scene and one of the most memorable ones of our generation is when "big" Josh (Tom Hanks) plays chopsticks on the roll out on the floor keyboard. But actually one of my favorites is the silly string out the nose gag....you know you've done it too. I did some reading and found out they filmed the entire movie using young Josh so that way Tom Hanks would know how a 13yr old would act in those situations. But now that I'm a parent the scene that pops into my head (after seeing it with my kids) is when Josh has "grown up" and is taking his job seriously and is under a deadline and tells his buddy Billy to go away and this is what ensues....
Josh: Will you please leave? I got a deadline to meet. God.
Billy: Who the f**k do you think you are?
Josh: HEY!
Billy: You're Josh Baskin, remember? You broke your arm on my roof! You hid in MY basement when Robert Dyson was about to rip your head off!
Josh: You don't get it, do you? This is important!
Billy: I'm your best friend. What's more important than that, huh?
[Turns to leave]
Billy: And I'm three months older than you are, A**HOLE!
I remember looking at my wife with that whoops didn't remember that part look on my face....which I think she had that same one too. But regardless it's one of those classic movies that everyone should see over and over again and if you time your sneeze just right and make it distracting enough your kids will never notice the F bomb that was dropped. My one last suggestion though is to make sure the Zoltar machine is plugged in before plunking in your quarter. Best to error on the side of caution other wise you may just get what's coming to you instead of what you wished for.....or just be really really specific.
One of the great things about kids; especially boys considering I was one though my wife would say I still am is that you get to share all these great things with them from when you were a kid that you thought were great and cool. I could have used "rad" here for a little slang from back in the day but I was never a user of the rad. Now the problem that arises is that after 20 years your memory is not always reality and it backfires and now your kids think you are a bigger dork than they already did. Or in the case of movies you forgot about certain questionable scenes and you cringe when they come on as you remember them and it's too late to hit the skip button. But also I've come to realize PG in the 80's is not the same as PG these days. I came to this realization watching Big. Did you know Tom Hanks was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance of a big goofy kid...hard to believe Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford were up for Tom Hanks part but thankfully Tom worked it out and made one of the greatest movies of all time. I know everyone's favorite scene and one of the most memorable ones of our generation is when "big" Josh (Tom Hanks) plays chopsticks on the roll out on the floor keyboard. But actually one of my favorites is the silly string out the nose gag....you know you've done it too. I did some reading and found out they filmed the entire movie using young Josh so that way Tom Hanks would know how a 13yr old would act in those situations. But now that I'm a parent the scene that pops into my head (after seeing it with my kids) is when Josh has "grown up" and is taking his job seriously and is under a deadline and tells his buddy Billy to go away and this is what ensues....
Josh: Will you please leave? I got a deadline to meet. God.
Billy: Who the f**k do you think you are?
Josh: HEY!
Billy: You're Josh Baskin, remember? You broke your arm on my roof! You hid in MY basement when Robert Dyson was about to rip your head off!
Josh: You don't get it, do you? This is important!
Billy: I'm your best friend. What's more important than that, huh?
[Turns to leave]
Billy: And I'm three months older than you are, A**HOLE!
I remember looking at my wife with that whoops didn't remember that part look on my face....which I think she had that same one too. But regardless it's one of those classic movies that everyone should see over and over again and if you time your sneeze just right and make it distracting enough your kids will never notice the F bomb that was dropped. My one last suggestion though is to make sure the Zoltar machine is plugged in before plunking in your quarter. Best to error on the side of caution other wise you may just get what's coming to you instead of what you wished for.....or just be really really specific.
Monday, November 8, 2010
80's on the 8th
As promised in my last post here's the announcement of a permanent feature of my blog.
I decided (with a little help from Sirius Satellite Radio) to go with 80's on the 8th...so on the 8th, 18th & 28th each month I'm going to reminisce a bit on some of my favorite things about growing up in the 80's. It could be anything from fashion (not that I had any style sense), music, movies, TV shows, sports, video games to some of my personal memories. Now that the 80's are cool again and I technically fit back in I figure this could be a fun little journey down memory lane for all of us. With the advent of Netflix, Hulu, Retro TV, 80's on 8 (satellite radio) and every other movie, TV show, cartoon and toy getting remade for today's kids or us grown up kids for that matter it's all relevant again.
Now where to start? Do I take us down music row to the 80's hair bands we all know & love like; Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison & Motley Crue and the great guitar lycs that a new generation are learning from Guitar Hero? Or how about the beginnings of the West Coast rap which would grow into a rivalry with the East Coasters a little bit later down the road....but considering a lot of those guys are now TV stars I'll stay away from them for now. Or how about the obscure 1 hit wonders?? You know you have a few of them on your iPod. And no I'm talking about "Ice Ice Baby"....though it was recorded in 1989 it was not released until 1990. So Vanilla Ice will have to wait.
After much debate I decided to go the movie route. And what was one of my favorite movies growing up is now one of my kids' favorites too and considering it just celebrated it's 25th anniversary I went with The Goonies. Seriously to this day I'm always looking for ORVs with bullet holes, watching out for booty traps (that's what I said booby traps), hoping to one day find One Eyed Willie's treasure map and I can't look at a Baby Ruth candy bar without thinking to myself "Baby Ruth; Sloth like chocolate". And who didn't wish they had the pincers of peril or slick shoes or the boxing glove. Oh and if I want my kids to start laughing and giggling uncontrollably with the possibility of something shooting out their nose I do the truffle shuffle. You know you've done it. There are so many great lines in this movie too and I could practically quote them scene by scene as the movie goes. Plus throw in some Cyndi Lauper and you have an instant 80's classic. So I'll leave you with a "Hey You Guys" and hopefully you'll want to go watch this great movie again or maybe you've lived a sheltered life and need to see it for the 1st time. Either way Goonies never say die.
I decided (with a little help from Sirius Satellite Radio) to go with 80's on the 8th...so on the 8th, 18th & 28th each month I'm going to reminisce a bit on some of my favorite things about growing up in the 80's. It could be anything from fashion (not that I had any style sense), music, movies, TV shows, sports, video games to some of my personal memories. Now that the 80's are cool again and I technically fit back in I figure this could be a fun little journey down memory lane for all of us. With the advent of Netflix, Hulu, Retro TV, 80's on 8 (satellite radio) and every other movie, TV show, cartoon and toy getting remade for today's kids or us grown up kids for that matter it's all relevant again.
Now where to start? Do I take us down music row to the 80's hair bands we all know & love like; Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison & Motley Crue and the great guitar lycs that a new generation are learning from Guitar Hero? Or how about the beginnings of the West Coast rap which would grow into a rivalry with the East Coasters a little bit later down the road....but considering a lot of those guys are now TV stars I'll stay away from them for now. Or how about the obscure 1 hit wonders?? You know you have a few of them on your iPod. And no I'm talking about "Ice Ice Baby"....though it was recorded in 1989 it was not released until 1990. So Vanilla Ice will have to wait.
After much debate I decided to go the movie route. And what was one of my favorite movies growing up is now one of my kids' favorites too and considering it just celebrated it's 25th anniversary I went with The Goonies. Seriously to this day I'm always looking for ORVs with bullet holes, watching out for booty traps (that's what I said booby traps), hoping to one day find One Eyed Willie's treasure map and I can't look at a Baby Ruth candy bar without thinking to myself "Baby Ruth; Sloth like chocolate". And who didn't wish they had the pincers of peril or slick shoes or the boxing glove. Oh and if I want my kids to start laughing and giggling uncontrollably with the possibility of something shooting out their nose I do the truffle shuffle. You know you've done it. There are so many great lines in this movie too and I could practically quote them scene by scene as the movie goes. Plus throw in some Cyndi Lauper and you have an instant 80's classic. So I'll leave you with a "Hey You Guys" and hopefully you'll want to go watch this great movie again or maybe you've lived a sheltered life and need to see it for the 1st time. Either way Goonies never say die.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Now that November 3rd is upon us
What does it mean for you and me?
Well part of me wants to focus on that it's the day we find out where Randy Moss is going to end up after being cut by Brad Childress I mean the Vikings. But considering my 4 followers are women I figured I better stay away from the sports since that has kind of been the focus of my previous posts.
Historically speaking there has really been nothing cool that has happened on this date. Bob Feller a fellow Iowan that is in the baseball hall of fame was born on this day but there again we leaning towards the sports theme. So how about this....on this date in 1913 the United States government through the 16th amendment to the US Constitution made an income tax a permanent part of the U.S taxation system. Which made me think of this episode of School House Rock that I remember watching as a kid. Which will tie into my next blog post on the 8th so just a heads up and put it on your calendar so you don't forget.
But in all actuality and in relation to politics; what myself and most people across the country are most excited for today is that there will be no political adds on TV tonight or for quite some time. Does all the money spent on them really work? For me I don't vote for someone because of the ads they show; I end up voting against them for their ads because they all become so negative especially the closer it gets to election day. Does the $3.3 billion dollars spent this year alone help anyone other than the TV stations & national networks that receive the majority of the money and the politicians and their campaigns or the political interest groups that spend the money directly or indirectly on them? And yes I understand that "some" of that money goes to employees who spend money locally and so on and so forth.....I'm just saying in my eyes there's better ways to use those funds. Oh well at least we're back to our standard Viagra, Bud Light and Tampax commercials.
Well part of me wants to focus on that it's the day we find out where Randy Moss is going to end up after being cut by Brad Childress I mean the Vikings. But considering my 4 followers are women I figured I better stay away from the sports since that has kind of been the focus of my previous posts.
Historically speaking there has really been nothing cool that has happened on this date. Bob Feller a fellow Iowan that is in the baseball hall of fame was born on this day but there again we leaning towards the sports theme. So how about this....on this date in 1913 the United States government through the 16th amendment to the US Constitution made an income tax a permanent part of the U.S taxation system. Which made me think of this episode of School House Rock that I remember watching as a kid. Which will tie into my next blog post on the 8th so just a heads up and put it on your calendar so you don't forget.
But in all actuality and in relation to politics; what myself and most people across the country are most excited for today is that there will be no political adds on TV tonight or for quite some time. Does all the money spent on them really work? For me I don't vote for someone because of the ads they show; I end up voting against them for their ads because they all become so negative especially the closer it gets to election day. Does the $3.3 billion dollars spent this year alone help anyone other than the TV stations & national networks that receive the majority of the money and the politicians and their campaigns or the political interest groups that spend the money directly or indirectly on them? And yes I understand that "some" of that money goes to employees who spend money locally and so on and so forth.....I'm just saying in my eyes there's better ways to use those funds. Oh well at least we're back to our standard Viagra, Bud Light and Tampax commercials.
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