hilarious episode--i think they are trying to swing the jim-pam pendulum and were a bit lacking in subtlety was all.
Long time no talkie(not a football fan, actually)
5. At first I wasn't too enthused with this trade idea, I'll admit. I thought about it a little more and actually I'm quite enthused by the idea of Helton in the lineup. His patience at the plate is just as good as Youkilis' and that's saying something. In the Rockies' terms, however, it was *expletive delted* ridiculous. I hope they get it done, just save the youngins. BTW, I think Manny Delcarmen will have a Timlin '05-esque season in the setup role. *marks those words*
6. Ahhh yes Schilling. Great pitcher? Sure. Big heart? Yes. Smart and eloquent? When he wants to be. Despite that, he's a bit of a blowhard and wayyyy too cocky for his own good.
10. Just so you know....between you harping on the show endlessly and a few of my friends talkign about it crazily, I have snapped and decided to start watching. I'm very glad I did because darn it is a good show. As for what the heck Pam is doing, I'm not quite sure. I think she kinda had a bit of a slip to Karen and keeps trying to cover for herself or somethign and failing miserably. It's like a junior high student around someone they like.
If you are going to start watching The Office now do yourself a favor and get ahold of last season's DVD's. I don't think they had a bad episode in the bunch and some like Booze Cruise, Conflict Resolution and the Christmas party are some of the best 20 minutes ever recorded.
As for Pam's performance last night, it appears a flip from last year when Jim was looking on as Roy and Pam got engaged... and I think the actress was seriously fighting the flu during the filming of that episdoe.
I just don't see the Helton deal getting done. While the idea of helton batting in front of ortiz, manny and drew may seem sexy to some, it won't happen because it is too costly on numerous fronts.
Woohoo! My first "in column" shout out!
While I agree that in principle the Rox will get rid of Helton, if the Sox stick to their guns about the trade Helton may very well end up on one of the New York teams, or maybe a darkhorse team needing a bat will step and take the $45 mil. Granted, this is all speculation on my part, but if the Sox continue only offering dreck and expensive 1-year contracts, some other team might get involved.
I took Pam's whole REM thing as her attempt to keep Jim and Karen from having those long talks that could salvage their relationship, sinisterly saying he should sleep instead of discussing things - while also uncomfortably flirting. She did seem to be fighting the flu or something, but if her awkwardness was the show's way of showing that the pretty girl who everyone always hit on is now in a desperately lonely situation she's never faced before, well, that's just another stroke of subtle brilliance.
My question Thursday was, Where's Andy? Was his wall-holing meltdown the last we've seen of him?
Re: Ted Johnson, Andre Waters, et al... Boxing is routinely criticized (and has been marginalized on the American sports scene) because of its short- and long-term health consequences. There is abundant evidence that football is significantly worse. It's always been a violent game, but it's become more violent because the players are bigger and faster, and the protective equipment is better. As has been pointed out by others, better protective gear means the players are more fearless -- but the best helmet in the world doesn't protect your brain from being shaken around and injured with each impact.
Even if Belichick did not force Ted Johnson to suit up prematurely, he's nonetheless a willing part of a sport that makes its players' lives shorter and much more painful. The NFL has had a Teflon coating on this issue, but sooner or later the League will have to face it directly and come up with ways to make the game safer. Otherwise, it risks acquiring the same stigma as bullfighting -- except in football, the "bulls" are human beings. (The NFL and players' union also need to do something about the ridiculous pension plan. Given the health consequences of the game, football should have the BEST pension plan of any sport, not the stingiest.)
After all this pontificating, yes, I am a football fan, and yes, I will watch the Super Bowl. Am I a hypocrite? To some degree, yes. While a boxing match makes me uncomfortable, I can watch a football game without feeling any sense of ethical conflict. Why? It's all that protective gear. I can't see the pain, I can't see the bumps and bruises -- and in a very fundamental sense, I can't see the humanity of the participants. Boxers are exposed; football players are concealed.
Okay, you may now resume your discussion of "The Office."
Yeah, my problem with the villification of Belichick in all of this is that every single coach in the NFL has done something similar, many times and probably very recently. It's the price of playing the game. That a-hole Ditka is all over Belichick for this. You're telling me Jim McMahon never played with a concussion? Or Walter Payton? Gimme a break. Hell, Ditka still seems like he's suffering the aftereffects of a head injury.
As for the Office . . . Andy is in anger management counseling. He called it "management training." It was the tag at the end of the producer's cut during the episode in which he flipped out.
I don't think Pam's problem is that she's the pretty girl who's not getting any attention. Remember, she was kind of an art dork in high school who never had a boyfriend other than Roy. I think it's more of a case of her being in the situation Jim was in last year and not knowing how to handle it. Plus, as someone said, Jenna Fischer mentioned on her blog that she was near death from the flu during filming. Made it all the weirder.
Chad,
You have to look at who wrote the episode to see the inconsistency. Mindy Kaling wrote last week's episode, and I'm not quite sure she captured the "spirit" of Pam. Too chatty, and some of the dialogue was not in line with how she's normally played.
Keep an eye on the lead writer each week.
Maybe it's the economist in my, but I think that the players are well compensated for the physical toll taken on their bodies (at least implicitly). Just as coal miners recieve a "risk adjustment" in their wage, NFL players are compensated extremely well because they provide a very specialized skill (world class football ability) and there is a physical toll that is tied into the wage. I might have a bit more sympathy if your average waitress earning $2.55 an hour was subjected to multiple concussion from high speed collisions with massive men, but it is hard for me to feel bad for people who agree to participate in a sport that has very good upfront compensation for a set of fairly well understood risk using the best equipment available medically to protect them.
I don't mean to sound cold, but serious injury is a risk that each player implicity agrees to when they sign their contract, and they are compensated for it. It sucks, but at the same time they did have the option to take a job making sheet metal or coallating data for a living. That is the way it works. Just because they did not understand the extent to which their lives might be disrupted by injury doesn't mean they were somehow exploited. It sucks that Johnson's life is essentially ruined because he chose to play football, but this situation was a reasonably understood risk. If that risk were unacceptable, he never should have inked his first contract.
I realize that sounds cold, but it isn't as if the league was doing something sinister and underhanded without his permission.
Mark,
I actually had those same thoughts. I happen to be taking a class called Wage and Salary Administration this semester, and we've spent a lot of time talking about how you have to take risk into account. Most football players (i.e. not undrafted backups or practice squad, though the amount of risk they end up with is minimal comparatively) are compensated pretty fairly in regards to risk, skill level, etc.
I will say that the Ted Johnson situation is a bit muddied. Was he forced/strongly encouraged to play when he shouldn't have due to head injuries? It's one thing taking into account risk factors when a player hasn't been injured yet. It's another when you know they are injured, seriously, and further play could result in serious career/life-threatening injury. On the other hand, my guess is that Johnson wasn't exactly fighting his coaches at the time as far as PT goes.
All coaches have/do this to some extent, I think. Doesn't make it right. Makes it worse, possibly. Just like with Shawn Merriman (He simply wasn't smart enough to not get caught, IMO, he certainly can't be the only one), this could turn into a mini-scandal where we'll never know the truth.
Still doesn't remove the league from culpability.
And the NFL's "wins" againts labor in '82 and '87 doesn't free them morally from their obligations, especially for the players who played prior to those labor stoppages.
Mark & Allen raise good points. I partly agree, but I think there are some other factors to consider. In no particular order:
-- No doubt, pro football players are better compensated than, say, Iraq War vets. But what price, exactly, do you put on early death or long-term disability? What is fair compensation for a lifetime of pain, or an early death?
-- Players are given the best medical treatment while they are playing, but not after they retire. This is when the truly pernicious problems emerge.
-- The players are generally well paid, but the really big money goes to the owners (and the networks et al). Some of that cash, as I said before, ought to be going into a gold-plated pension/health plan for retired players.
-- The players of today are well-paid, but the players of the past were not. Football was a part-time endeavor, and players had to work in the offseason. Again, the NFL pension plan is scandalously inadequate.
-- There is an assumption in free-market economics that the two parties in a contract are essentially equal, and that all parties make rational decisions. In real life, this is frequently not the case. In football, you're talking about young men making decisions that are very beneficial in the short run, and can be extremely harmful in the long run. Most 22-year-olds are incapable of looking far into their own futures.
-- From a legal point of view, the NFL is not absolved of liability because the risks of football are well-known. Tobacco companies have suffered big losses in civil court, even though the risks of smoking are well-known.
If pro football wants to avoid going the way of boxing and bullfighting, it needs to do everything it can to minimize the long-term harm the sport can do. This means the best possible protective gear; it may mean rule changes to prohibit certain kinds of impacts. Automatic payroll deduction for retirement is a very good idea. And, not to be a broken record, the League and NFLPA have a moral obligation to take care of the financial and medical needs of retired players.
Some of this is already being done, but the NFL needs to be as proactive as possible on all fronts.
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