Bulls Greats

RIP Chicago Bulls greats, "Stormin' Norman" Norm Van Lier and Johnny "Red" Kerr.
Both, longtime affiliates with the Bulls both passed away yesterday. Norm was often seen on the Bulls pre-post game shows, giving critiques and commentary about the games. He was very knowledgeable, and was known for not pulling any punches and telling it like it was. Red Kerr was a longtime announcer, and one-time coach of the Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan used to play with him before the game, tossing his chalk powder into the air right before tipoff, just in front of Red Kerr...trying to throw him off his game, which rarely happened. It was good to see Kerr get the recognition from the Bulls for his longtime dedication to the team just a few weeks ago, giving Jordan, Pippen and crew the time to talk to Kerr once again.

Steroids - baseball

It has become tiresome to keep hearing of all of baseball's stars admit, or not admit, to steroid use. Gone are the days of the fun game, playing with heart. Today, the game is riddled with manufactured results. It makes it hard to spend hard earned money watching a bunch of cheaters destroy the game we love. I miss those HBO specials..."When it was a Game" kinda says it all.

Go Illini

Illini have been playing up and down ever since they cracked the top 25 in the NCAA.
Big Ten Road games are always tough, but they skunked it at Wisconsin last week. However, they played bigtime ball yesterday at home vs Perdue. It is nice to see the Illini come back after having a couple of down years since they lost in the title game in 2005. The win gave Illinois head coach Bruce Weber his 250th career victory (250-106). The team decided to take their names off the jerseys this year, focusing on the name on the front, the TEAM concept. Looks like it is working. Outside of Champaign, most are not familiar with the teams big named players - Demitri McCamey and Mike Davis.

Congrats Steelers

Congratulations go out to the Pittsburgh Steelers. 6 time world champions in the NFL.
It was a great game. I was rooting for the Cardinals. They looked flat the first half, but turned it on and almost took the lead at halftime. Man, couldn't tackle on that TD interception return! They played well in the 2nd half, drawing the holding call in the endzone resulting in a safety. Nice run after catch by Larry Fitzgerald looking to seal the game for the Cardinals by scoring late in the game. Then, Steelers marched down to win the game. Did the Cardinals have only 9 guys on Defense? They couldn't stop the Steelers when it counted the most. Hats off to Santonio Holmes...spectacular catch and toes down to score the winning TD. Truly spectacular.

My beef with the Cards...why didn't Warner toss the fade to Fitzgerald at the half, instead of trying to hit Boldin on the quick slant? Fitzgerald grabbed the TD in the 2nd half, one just like it at halftime would have won the game for them.

Speaking of halftime...Bruce put on a great show, sounded great...cracked me up when he yelled "Back away from the guacamole. Put the Chicken Fingers down!" then later, sliding into the camera, crotch first into America's HD tv's.....classic. Great song choices, great 12 minutes.

Bears Notes....Boldin to Bears? that would be sweet.