Happy Holidays, everyone!

The good news for the Jets’ organization and their fan base, is that Giants’ fans aren’t feeling so charitable anymore.   The Jets have become flat out annoying.  Have they taken over the market yet?  No, not really.  After all, they still last won a Super Bowl over 40 years ago.  But, the Jets are drawing notice.  Due to a combination of their participation in HBO’s Hard Knocks, Rex Ryan’s take no prisoners persona and their on the field achievements, things are looking up for the Jets.

Unfortunately, they’re also the NFL’s biggest fraud.

It’s absolutely amazing to me how many people think they’re Super Bowl bound.  Please write this down so you remember you read it here.  THE JETS ARE NOT MAKING THE SUPER BOWL.

For those “experts” who disagree, let’s point out a few problems with the idea of the Jets being good enough to win the whole thing this year.  First, they barely even made the playoffs last year.  If not for a few playoff clinched teams laying down to avoid injuries, the Jets probably wouldn’t have made last year’s post season.  Now, granted, they did a nice job when they got there, but not enough to have me over-value their Super Bowl potential this year.

Why?  We’ll that’s reason number two.  Mark Sanchez.   Does anyone remember that he wasn’t super last year?  Does anyone believe he’ll be that much better in year two?   With rare exceptions, quarterbacks struggle during their development.  Sanchez will be no different.

I hear some of you out there now.  You’re thinking (yes, I can read your minds) that the Super Bowl Champ doesn’t need a quarterback to be much more than a good game manager if he’s got a great supporting cast around him.  After all, Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl.

True, but don’t forget that Dilfer tasted victory about 30 years ago (ok, if just feels that way, but it’s still a long time ago).  Take a look at who’s QB-ed Super Bowl Champs over the last decade.  There’s an awful lot of great quarterbacks up there.  Not too many stiffs.  Wherever Sanchez ends up on the quarterback scale, it’s a lot of pressure to put on a second year player.

So, if the quarterback is suspect, then at least they’ll be able to run the ball right?  Well, not so fast there.  They let Thomas Jones leave and have gotten some critism for it, but I think that will ultimately be proven to be the right call.  Jones had a nice Jets career, but he’s a senior citizen in running back terms and was coming off of heavy usage these last few years.  Frankly, he was already showing signs of retirement being not so far away by the end of last season.

So, the Super Bowl Bound Jets are now depending on Shonn Greene to be the kind of consistent runner Thomas Jones was.  Maybe he’ll be just that, but there’s a very small body of evidence to go off of, so that’s no given.

Should Greene falter who do you depend on?  LaDainian Tomlinson?  Maybe five years ago.  I’m an LT fan despite feeling that there’s only one true LT (Lawrence Taylor, of course, even with his current legal troubles!).  Tomlinson seems like a decent guy who’s come in with the right attitude.  So, personally, I’m hoping he has a nice bounce back year.  That’s the emotional side of my fandom coming out, but the reality is that Tomlinson like Jones is pretty old for a running back  and also come with the damage that a whole lot of NFL carries will do to a man.  He’s simply not going to be the season long answer at running back.

So, give the Jets credit for upping their profile and for putting together a terrific defense.  These days though, offense has a lot to say about who wins the Super Bowl.  When your quarterback and running backs are question marks, there’s a lot that needs to go right for you to win a Lombardi Trophy.

THE JETS WILL NOT BEAT THOSE ODDS.  Again, please write it down and remember you read it here first.

PS – Didn’t even mention they play in a seriously tough division.  That’s not going to help the march to glory.

PPS – I’d like bonus points for not going with the very tempting but ultimately lame argument that “after all they’re still the Jets”.

That said, there are clearly a few words that are mostly better left unsaid.  Two of them are in the title of this post.

Read a great column from Alfred Doblin today where he takes on a certain former vice presidential candidates’ hypocrisy related to both words. 

Here it is:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/doblin_082010.html

Call me naive, but could Sarah Palin just be playing politics? 

Say it ain’t so, mama grizzly!

I particularly enjoy the idiot towards the end who decides to try to remove the bull by pulling on his tail.  Looks like no one got seriously hurt, but leaving aside the issue of how cruel the “sport” of bullfighting is, at the very least, the tail puller deserved whatever he got!

Good for you, bull!

This guy has 20 years and MANY many dance moves on me!

Senator Robert Byrd wasn’t a rapper or a rocker.  While he may have been influential, he certainly didn’t die too young.  He was 92 and by all accounts lived a full life.  Still, the senator does share music in common with Shakur and Cobain.   In Byrd’s case, he played traditional bluegrass. 

I didn’t know this till he passed, but in 1978, Byrd actually released a bluegrass album.  So, I think you can see where this is going.  Like with the death’s of Shakur and Cobain, record company executives saw the chance to make money and they’re not hesitating.

Byrd’s 1978 album is being reissued and so is following in the footsteps of Shakur and Cobain, the senator will soon have an album out despite the inconvenience of no longer being alive.

After all, life and music must go on!

Seems like cruel and unusual punishment that the translators don’t get burgers or even fries!

If you love awkward moments not involving you as much as I do, then do I have a great heads up for you!  

Here it is.  If you ever and I mean EVER get a chance to watch or listen to 60′s dance craze icon Chubby Checker do an interview, do it!  Stop whatever you’re doing and just pay attention to everyone Chubby says.  The man is verifiably delusional and bitter as lemons in winter time.

Last night, I had nothing to do and nothing was on and I stumbled across Chubby doing a TV interview on some random local cable channel. 

Here are the highlights:

Chubby is angry at Dick Clark.  People say Dick Clark discovered Chubby.  He sees it the other way around.  His point is that Bandstand became a huge hit once Chubby started performing his massive hit on it.  I think he has a point.  But, he also thinks Dick Clark should always have him at any event he produces – any event!  Bottom line is that Chubby expected Dick Clark to keep having him on Bandstand in the 70s and 80s and on despite musical tastes changing.  I value loyalty too, but just not realistic here…

Chubby is pissed at Muhammad Ali and is willing to go there even though the man is struggling with Parkinson’s.  Gutsy move, Chubby!  Chubby claims that in the early 60s a young Ali, still know as Cassius Clay then, came to see Chubby for advice.  Chubby says he encouraged Ali to make predictions about what round he’d knock people out in AND to brag that he was the greatest of all time to get more attention.  Ali did both and the rest is history.  Of course, Chubby got no credit as Ali, according to Chubby, never gave him any.  Somehow I’m not believing Ali needed that much of a push to be outspoken and outrageous.

Chubby’s hair.  It’s what he SHOULD be bitter about.  It’s either (A) he’s still styling his hair with the same products from back in the early 60s OR (B) it’s the worst wig known to mankind.  Either way, it’s fascinating!

Chubby has put the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on notice.  If they don’t elect him soon, he’s not making it to the induction ceremony if he feels he’s too old.  Actually, I’m with him on this one.  He should be in.  The Twist was the biggest dance craze ever and only song to chart #1 twice in two different years, plus he had several other hits that went on to be dance sensations too, like The Pony.  Remember that one?

Speaking of dancing… When the host asked Chubby to tell him what he thought were the differences between his music and today’s.  He told him NONE.  Chubby said that when he see’s people dancing to Lady Gaga and the rest he sees them dancing to Chubby.  Basically, he feels that he invented modern dance.  Nice!  Now I know who to blame.  I thought it was Michael Jackson.

Chubby can’t get any respect from DJs.  He doesn’t understand why Top 40 stations won’t play him.  I do.  He’s almost 70 and kids are listening!

Other cool Chubby facts.  He’s been married to a former Miss World for over 40 years.  Somewhere in there, he fathered a daughter out of another relationship who now plays in the WNBA and HE managed to STAY married.   That’s a talent!

He had  a #1 hit on the Billboard Dance Chart in 2008.  Who knew?

And he’s launched a chocolate bar, The Checker Bar, in Europe.  Of course, he’s bitter that no one in the US will distribute it yet.  You knew there had to be a twist!

Somehow I’m feeling that this video isn’t that far off…

Shocking that he wouldn’t know the difference between Vinatieri and Varitek since both probably did a lot of work in the community.  And more shocking that he doesn’t know the difference between “iconic” and “ionic”.

We get what we vote for…