Oregon Duck Football
The saddest part of college athletics is the amount of people who get an opportunity to play sports and have their college tuition completely paid for, who absolutely do not deserve it. Tonight the Ducks lost the first game of the season, no big deal, but sadly after the game the price of producing a consistent college football winner reared its ugly head.
LeGarrette Blount got sort of a shove to the shoulder pad on his way off the field at the end of the game Thursday night when he decided to take the gesture as a cue to lose his mind. As the other player's attention is pulled away by a disciplining coach he is sucker punched in the jaw by Blount. Blount is then corralled off the field only to initiate another altercation with heckling fans in the crowd. At this point four security guards two players and an assistant coach take turns putting Blount into various wrestling moves in an effort to get him off the field before embarrassing himself and the team further.
To me, this is a reality the Ducks have to face. To win every year in college football a program must continue to recruit talent at any cost. For an emerging school like Oregon the path to national power will be littered with junior college transfers who have off the field problems which sometimes become on the field problems. While USC can recruit anyone in the nation, the ducks proved tonight that they might be limited to athletes that major schools just aren't willing to take a chance because of their character.

To LeGarrette Blount,
I hope you went to class during your free ride at Oregon, and maybe if the Ducks are smart and kick you out, you will get a chance to play for another school whose recruiting the athletes that even Oregon can't tolerate.

Official Blog Endorsement #1
In the blogging world the idea is that what you care about translates said noun (person, place, thing or idea) to being important enough to make people read your thoughts about it.

When celebrities get paid enough to use their image to promote an something whose maker has a large advertising budget it is referred to endorsing.

So I am making my first official blog endorsement, The Oregon Zoo. Don't think of them as a bunch of wild animals locked in boxes and cages slowly going insane. Think of the opportunity you have to witness majestic creatures of the wild in their realistic, albeit miniature, habitats. Maybe most importantly in todays cash-strapped times, admission to the zoo is $10.50, and $9.00 if you ride MAX and show your ticket. Beautiful walk, fun environment, & a cheap price is the reason I officially blog endorse The Oregon Zoo.

Tonight I was holding Patrick when he grabbed my finger and slowly pulled it into his mouth where he began teething it. If his knowledge of the world keeps growing at this pace he will be smarter than me by the age of three.

Went on the perfect run Wednesday. Not enough running lately and too much of it on a track when I can lead to a beautiful morning through the neighborhoods of Parkrose in a slightly coastal drizzle. More time should be spent at such peace with the world.

How cute is this kid?Paddy is getting huge. He can head butt, spit bubbles, and laugh, at his father of course, as his mother is not quite as funny.

I golfed today
It was hot, I played okay, but I never hit my bag or buried a club head in the ground. See Tiger, it can be done, even as I shot a ninety from the white tees.

Are we over Tiger?
First of all, I am not. I think he is the story every week in a sport that needs a dominate story to be relevant beyond hard core golfers and old people. Well this week Tiger did not make the cut in a major for only the second time in his career and that was okay because The Open had Tom Watson. The 59 year old golfer had the Claret Jug snatched from his grasp at the last moment by Stewart Cink in a four hole playoff. Cink seemed to have mixed emotions about winning his first major at the cost of Watson losing a tournament that he was in contention for from day one. After it was decided and the trophy presentation was readying columnist Rick Reilly gave a video retrospect of the four day event. In which he stated that Tom Watson plays the game the way it should be played, like a gentleman, then cutting to a shot of Tiger slamming a club into his bag he references how we may have forgotten that golf is a gentleman's game. This seemed like a dig on the temperamental face of the sport. I thought to myself how impressive it is that Tiger has been golf's greatest ambassador without backlash for over a decade now. Lots of people respected but hated Joe Montana and Michael Jordan, Tom Brady is in now in that boat of champions, but Tiger has remained dominate and unconditionally loved from moment one. That is until he missed a cut at a major championship. The main story this weekend over at Yahoo Sports was how relieved one writer was that if Tiger wasn't in contention that it was better that he miss the cut. This sentiment seems to acknowledge that Tiger is the main story whether he is winning or losing, and that the only time he is not the main attraction seems to be when he is not there. I find it interesting that there seemed to be a sigh of relief that Tiger was not there on Sunday. We are accustomed to his constant presence that people seemed to be welcoming the opportunity for it not to inevitable. Something that seemed impossible even one year ago. Tom Watson was the story this week and Tiger seemed to be getting out of the way. Sharing the spotlight has not been something he has done much of in his professional life.