Chelsea 2 Swansea 0
I honestly meant to get this done over the weekend, and here it is Wednesday already. So I’d better get at whatever it was (or is) I was (or am) trying to get at, besides the usual dull tedious shite, of course. I always aspire to write something profound and memorable, full of wit and insight. But whatever that wit and insight was, your guess will most likely by now be as good as mine. You might as well ask the goddamn Batman, or the focking Godzilla we he thinks about who the new Chelsea coach will be; about Bayern Muchen’s trompage of Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate after today’s 0-3 away win at Camp Nou; about That Cannibal Luis Suarez and his 10 match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic; about about about….
Come to think of it, fock Batman and just go ask Godzilla. After all, Godzilla had some things to say to God…so maybe he’ll have some things to say to you.
Meanwhile, Ill be bunkered down, waiting on tomorrow’s home Europa League tilt with Basel at The Bridge, which will be final no doubt by the time you’re reading this. Based on Chelsea’s run of play of late, I think they’ll win this handily (or on the trot,and the English would say). In fact, I’ll go so far as to say they’ll win everything else this season as well.
With the 232nd pick in the NFL draft, the Green Bay Packers select….
It’s not very often that I talk about NFL football here, but for those of you absorbed in baseball and F1, the NFL draft was last weekend and I will admit that I watched ALL of the first round on Thursday night….enduring an endless parade of uncomfortable bro-hugs with Commissioner Roger Goodell just to watch the Packers select Datone Jones, defensive end from UCLA with the 26th pick; and to see how miserably the Bears and the Vike-Queens fucked up their draft. The NFL Draft generates almost as much excitement and interest as the Super Bowl…maybe even more so since it’s tailor made for fantasy football roto-geeks with their mock drafts and all that dross. (Hold that thought.)
I’m very pleased that the Packers drafted Eddie Lacy in the 2nd round. I know a lot of us from Wisconsin would rather have gotten Monte Ball instead of Lacy. But I think Lacy will be a better fit for the style of blocking schemes that we run. And getting Johnathan Franklin in the 4th round was frosting on the cake. We’ll finally have a total offense next season with reliable and tough running backs who can extend drives and keep the opposing offense off the field. Also, the addition of David Bahktiari and J.C. Tretter on the offensive line will give us more depth and will help keep Aaron Rodgers off the floor.
For those of you who felt we should have drafted more defensive players, I say this only one more time: our defense sucked last season due to injuries and unnecessary over-work. Keeping the defense off the field will keep them fresher and more effective…thus we draft solid running backs offensive linemen. Also, the less time Aaron Rodgers spends on the floor keeps drives going by giving him those few precious extra seconds to throw. Makes sense, Godzilla, and so?
Now as for roto-geeks and their mock drafts, I must confess that I WAS one of those a few years back. I had a fantasy football team on ESPN and I won my league two years in a row. And I did it all without Godzilla’s help.
Matt Kenseth wins at Kansas! NASCAR inspects car! PELANTY!!!!
Do any of you know what 3 grams would feel like if you held it in the palm of your hand? Would you even notice it?
I didn’t think so either.
The “s” from an iPhone 4S weighs 3 grams.
So we’re not talking a lot of heft in a connecting rod that weighs 525 grams. That’s what Matt Kenseth, and Joe Gibbs Racing and Matt’s crew chief are being penalized for. When NASCAR tore down the engine of Matt’s winning #20 Dollar General Toyota after the Kansas race, NASCAR found that one of the connecting rods in the engine weighed in at 522 grams. Piddly shit, right? Doesn’t give them any competitive advantage whatsoever. But NASCAR rule 20-5.5.3 (E) states: Only magnetic steel connecting rods with a minimum weight of 525.0 grams will be permitted. So…in the worlds of soccer pundit and former Chelsea assistant coach Ray Wilkins, “PELANTY!!”
Severe penalties. Matt loses 50 driver points. The win doesn’t count for the wild card or seeding for the Chase. The poll qualifying doesn’t count for next years Shootout. Gibbs loses 50 owner points. Matt’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff is suspended for 6 races and fined $200,000.
NASCAR takes this sort of stuff very seriously. And if Gibbs built their own engines then it would be entirely on them.
The mitigating factor here is that their engines are all factory built by Toyota Racing Development. Basically they get the engines direct from Toyota, put ’em in the car, and off to the races they go. ((I know it’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get my point)). None of this is in any way the fault of anyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. The knee-jerk reaction was that Kenseth and the gang were cheating to win at Kansas. But the truth is, they had no idea that one of the connecting rods was 3 grams light, and even if it was 3 grams over the weight, it wouldn’t have made any difference in the outcome of the race.
But the rule is the rule. So while Joe Gibbs Racing accepts the violation, they do not accept the severity of the penalty. Their appeal hearing is set for May 8th.
Wonder what Godzilla will have to say about that!?
insert comment here (picture not related)
Enough about Godzilla, Soccer, NASCAR for now. I’m going to end with this:
R.I.P George Jones 1931-2013