DL511: Turn Into The Skid (Oh, Plus, SOTU, Bleacher Report Reboot & Andy Gray)

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Nick and I talk about the State of the Union, Bleacher Report hiring King Kaufman to unsully their name (note: not a word, don’t care) and a brief rant on Andy Gray and Richard Keys being dumb enough to say how they feel in front of microphones.

On a day like today, this is certainly a ‘steer into the skid’ kind of show.

We talk more about the nature of the State of the Union than anything Obama actually said. How different is the instant connection to the people than in year’s past? Heck, we’re pretty sure Biden was even reading tweets (or, as someone said on Twitter, playing Angry Birds) during the speech.

The State of the Union, ultimately, means nothing. It’s an annual pep rally, but with the change in how our politics are covered, is the President on TV so much (read: every single day) that the State of the Union has totally lost it’s luster?

Great speech, expertly read, but what does it mean?

Well, for starters it means that whoever had to followREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Barack Obama Thinks Science > Super Bowl

Man, Barack Obama sure is pissed off at Jay Cutler.

Okay, the actual quote from President Obama’s State of the Union speech last night was, “we need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.”

Technically, he didn’t say the winner of the Super Bowl isn’t important, just that it’s not the only thing that should be important to our kids. But come on, this comment is on the heels of deciding he’s not going to the game this year and, lest we forget, the President did appear on an episode of Myth Busters this season.

Clearly Science > Super Bowl.

Maybe it’s more than that. Maybe, to the President, Science > Sports. Listen to the second half of that clip, where he explained the plan to replace No Child Left Behind (one of the worst programs in the history of our government) with Race To The Top. Race? It’s not an actual (be it on foot or, heck, even bike). Rather, thisREAD MORE

Who’s Calling What, Tonight: January 25th

[ED NOTE: This is a new post idea we're planning to have every night to help you with your sports-viewing schedule. This entry is courtesy of newbie Shep Hayes]

Normally, we’ll lead off here with the game of the night. Tonight, however, is a special night, so sports will come second.

For those of you who aren’t familiar at all with the American political scene, the State of the Union Address is tonight at 9 p.m. on every major network. Which ever way you lean, the SOTU is always a big occasion. The President will essentially lay out his governing strategy for next year.

The SOTU is one of the highlights of the month for me. I always enjoy watching it, and finding out what the men who lead our country are thinking. It is always important to be informed, folks. Remember, 9 p.m., ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and every cable news channel.

If politics really isn’t your thing at all, we still have a game of the night for you. The undefeated #1 Ohio State Buckeyes are hostingREAD MORE

DL508: A Show About Nothing, Or Everything, But Probably Nothing

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How is your week going? If you read today’s Call of the Day you can get a sense that my day yesterday was awful, though not as bad as it was for my son. We talk about that, and life, and parenting and being selfish at a time when you need to be selfless.

That spins perfectly into a conversation about sports and life and politics and perspective and Arizona and speeches and a whole lot more.

I got this email today:

This is Floyd from El Paso. I’m your biggest non media fan. I’m the retired Soldier guy originally from New Orleans (as a Saints fan I feel your Eagle pain). Having said all of that. There is two things I would love for you and Nick to chew on.

1. Please expound on “blood libel” comment by half term Gov

2. Recoil and turn the channel when you see or hear from Matt Millen. He was on NFL live and he was commenting on one of his million first round WR picks MikeREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Sports, Politics, Silliness, Perspective

My brother told me a long time ago that we, as people, need to go into every conversation with the understanding that you don’t know what’s going on in the lives of the others involved. You don’t know what yesterday and this morning was like for me and I don’t know what that same time period was like for you. Yet our actions, and our reactions to events acted upon us — by other people or nature or God or an other worldly force — shape not just our own daily lives, but the lives of those around us.

In an odd way, that lesson relates to sports. Life is why sports are great. To most folks, sports isn’t real life. Sports is an irrational hatred of Tom Brady because you like a team that wears green not blue. Sports is the distraction from life. It’s the distraction from having to drive in rush-hour traffic or fight with your kids about bedtime or shovel six inches of snow. Without sports (or celebrity gossip or cooking showsREAD MORE

DL415: HOF, Rice, Emmitt, Leavy, Jeter, No-Hitters, Obama, LeBron

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The headline basically says it all.

We talk about the Hall of Fame. We talk about Bill Leavy’s admission to the Seahawks that he may have had a few bad calls in the Super Bowl FIVE YEARS AGO.

TALKING BASEBALL

We talk about Derek Jeter’s hits and how despite being the most prolific Yankee of all time, he’s still 39th in MLB history and doesn’t yet have 2,900 hits, let alone the magic 3,000. What does this latest “record” mean for baseball? Nothing, other than the Yankees had great teams in their history, but never a player who had 3,000 hits. That’s about it.

We also talk about Brandon Morrow’s near no-hitter to go back to our conversation from a few weeks ago asking if you root for the no-hitter or for it to be broken up. Evan Longoria did just that with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, taking a no-no away from the Blue Jays hurler. It would have been the THIRD time the Rays were no-hit THIS YEAR (add in the one Matt Garza threwREAD MORE

DL354: Holmes on Holmes, Obama on HORSE & Enrico from The700Level on joining Comcast

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We plug the baby pool again — folks, I’m telling you, SKEW EARLY. Like, the countdown is on now.

Next, Nick and I talk about the Santonio Holmes situation in the context of trying to figure out how the media is supposed to talk about the Santonio Holmes situation. Can’t anyone sue anyone for anything? If Nick and I file a lawsuit against Donovan McNabb for pain and suffering, it’ll be news. But is it fair? And our kneejerk reaction is always to assume the worst of the athletes, yet sometimes when there is smoke it’s just smoke, not fire. People can’t have an opinion on this, right? It’s more just ‘um…here’s news that may or may  not be true.’ The lawsuit, in this case, is the news. The accusations, in Ben Roethlisberger’s case, is the news. But only a few people know what actually happened. So are we covering the news, or covering the news that there’s news?

You know who can fix this?  Holmes. Not Santonio Holmes. Mike Holmes. That dudeREAD MORE