Midweek Thoughts - American Idol Must be Stopped

Sorry for the delay, but things are getting crazy at work. I"m not worrying about it, because quite frankly not a lot is going on. Here's what I got for today:

* Please..for the love of God...somebody has to stop this American Idol shit until we slip into the fiery Abyss forever. What started out as a cute little contest show, has turned into the most mega-hyped time waste fest since M*A*S*H. (Which I still contest is tied with Barney Miller as the all-time worst show in the history of television, but that's another story.) Perhaps I'm only noticing the extra hype because of the football playoffs on Fox. Perhaps the news services are getting tired bashing the war, so they are latching onto pure diarrhea for stories? (Now that Brittney has gone into semi seclusion.)

Fact of the matter is, and I really don't want to be sexist...but somebody needs to get women away from the Neilson box, so crap like American Idol, Desperate Housewives and Dancing with the Stars will stop finding it's way on my TV. What's that? Impossible? How bout this...STOP PIMPING THESE SHOWS DURING SPORTING EVENTS!!! I realize women watch football, and I think it's great. But how many women like both? How many women will keep their TV's on ABC after the BCS title game so they can tune into Emmet Smith twirling around like Liberace in a tutu?

So sick of it.

* Speaking of things on TV that I'm sick of, can we please stop with the "Red Carpet" shows? WHO WATCHES THIS SHIT?!?!?! So Terri Hatcher wore a blue dress with blue shoes instead of a red dress with black shoes. THIS IS WHY we're 33rd in the world in mathematics. This is why 99% of children between the ages of 1 and 5 recognize Ronald McDonald quicker than one or both of their parents. And I don't care if there are 9000 channels of programming on now a days. You cannot tell me that what kind of tux George Clooney was wearing last night is more interesting viewing than Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD...which I might add is an outstanding program. (That consists of nothing but HD pictures of oceans, mountains and animals)

Maybe the Jihadists are right? Maybe we are all going to hell? Hard to top them with Melissa Rivers walking around.

* Perhaps it's the Chiefs fan in me..but I thought it was funny as hell to watch the Chargers choke their way out of the playoffs last week. (Even more funny to watch Tom Shatel cry over it in the paper all week) Bad enough they have an ungrateful prick of a starting running back, as well as a confirmed cheater to lead their defense...but now they are bashing on the Patriots as "classless"???

YOU'RE IN THE NFL....EVERYBODY is classless. Everybody does sack dances. Everybody choreographs their end-zone celebration. Everybody pounds their chest after a simple tackle. And the Chargers have the Gaul to complain that somebody crossed the line by mocking them? This is just another example of the deterioration of reality in American sports among young players. How many times are we going to see that a group of individuals can not beat a less-talented, but better coached/disciplined team? (Husker fan, are you listening to this?) Why is it so hard to take that somebody with fewer athletes on the field beat you because they are smarter?

This ties exactly in with why the Huskers will never win 10 games again. The NFL mentality of Bill Callahan only works in certain rare situations. For every Pete Carroll....there is a Bill Walsh. There is a reason the college ranks aren't flooded with ex-NFL coaches. You would think you would have this figured out by now. Apparently not.

* Fire Mike Kemp. Last night was a perfect example of complete and total lack of preparation and motivation. I'm not sure why this is so difficult for UNO fans to understand. It's been 10 years, and there are still the same problems. Even when the talent goes up...there are still the same problems. UNO fans have convinced themselves that it's a long and slow road to the top. That's not true. The only problem is...you'll never drive down that road if the guy driving is only going 30mph and stopping at every single rest area to take pictures of waterfowl. Do you see my point yet?

It would be nice to live in a perfect world...where winning doesn't matter. That world simply doesn't exist however. UNO hockey is a nice niche sports, with nice facilities, nice fans and a nice little history. Nice is simply unacceptable for a team who has absolutely zero competition within 5 hours of their campus. It's completely unacceptable when Creighton is drawing 17,000 fans a night to watch shitty basketball against shitty opponents like Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

It's completely cliché to talk about "accepting mediocrity", but it's true in this case. It's like a bad marriage that over time has not grown at all. Sure, you still have the feelings there, and yes you have an emotional attachment. However, every day that goes by, you know the future you envisioned is never going to happen, and you'll be working at the car dealership forever. You don't wish any harm to that person...you just know deep down that you have no chance to better yourself with them around.

It's tough...it's emotional and messy, but over time it has become abundantly clear. UNO hockey will never ever get past mediocrity with Mike Kemp at the helm. That's not to say he's not a nice guy or an OK coach...it just means the team should be winning hockey games instead of taking pictures of Canadian geese on the side of the road.

AJ

PS - The more you bitch about UNO hockey posts..the more I'm going to do it.