KFW on OchoUno in Stripes

Big weekend for the Reds. They pulled out 2 of 3 from fellow division leader Atlanta, coming from behind in both wins. A sold out weekend got to see some great baseball. I was down there on Friday and the place was electric. When was the last time we saw standing room only tickets being gobbled up? It brings me back to glory days at Riverfront stadium. Jocketty made no deals at the Deadline but take that as a bode of confidence from the front office in the current product in the lockerroom. We saw yet again this weekend these guys can hang with anybody and are here to stay for the next two months.


Amidst all of the excitement of the Reds being in the playoff hunt this late in the season for the first time is about 10 years, the overshadowing sports headliner for the the city of Cincinnati and the nation has been the Bengals signing of free agent Terrell Owens. From coast to coast, there has been everything from cheers, to boos, to laughter, to tears ("that's my quarterback sniff, sniff, my teammate"), to just mere anticipation for the circus to come to town. The circus aka the freakshow (on and off the field) of Terrell Owens teaming up with friend and fellow attention-whore Chad Ochocinco. The Cincinnati Bengals, now officially the outright NFL franchise of VH-1. Woo. Hoo. Both of those shows are garbage and if you're looking for a breakdown of T.O.s' and Ochocinco's reality dating shows, you've come to the wrong place!

On some real shit though; the main reason for this post. T.O. and what I think his signing means for the impact on this 2010 Cincinnati Bengals football team, the defending AFC North champions:

I think 100% this is a great signing for the Bengals. 1 year, $2 million, chump change nowadays, really. If you're needing a reason to scratch your head, scratch in the name of the Antonio Bryant signing. The man has really only had one good year in his NFL career. To me, that does not merit a 4 year deal worth $28 million. And now here at the end of July, the T.O. signing talk started up again with the Bengals in the forefront of the conversation. Why now? They are iffy on the status of Bryant's knee. WHAT?! Since when? I don't know about you but I was pissed when I heard that about Bryant, not that the Bengals were talking to T.O. again. I'm still baffled about it. All I know is now, ready or not for Bryant, the Bengals look the best they have at the WR position since their days when Carson picked apart NFL defenses like a surgeon with a scalpel. I hope I'm wrong about Bryant and he's a beast and you guys can then all tell me to shut up.


Reason's why I love the T.O. signing? Number one, the guy is arguably one of the top 3 receivers in the last 10 years. He's declining with age, but still if he plays 14-16 games, is a threat to take it to the house every time he touches the ball. We can't say that about Andre Caldwell or Jerome Simpson. Let me ask you who would you prefer? People say T.O. is a cancer and is the worst thing for an already clown-heavy Bengals locker room. The truth is Carson wholeheartedly condoned and has all throughout the spring and the free-agent period up until this point. Palmer speaks his mind when doesn't like something and the fact that he was all in for the T.O. sweepstakes, I'm a firm believer that he knows what he wants and what he's talking about. As for the "cancer" or showboat that he is, what's one more in the locker room? I cannot wait to see Ocho, Owens, and Pacman trying to one up eachother with TD celebrations....let's just hope there are plenty to be had for all. Chad's best competition thus far in his career was Kelly "the Squirrel" Warshington.
Right when I heard confirmation of the signing of T.O., I immediately thought: nobody on the Bengals should be smiling and benefit more from this more than Ced Benson. The man is coming off by far his best season of his career and was the workhorse for a Bengal's team that gained the reputation of a run-heavy offense. Palmer accepted the label and Benson answered the call. Palmer had a horrible season for his standards though and team's plans of stopping the Bengals on offense for this season are going to be to stuff the box and force Palmer to beat them. Benson was going to get his carries without Owens and will get his carries with him in there, but NFL defenses will be much less likely to pull the safety up to stop the run when they have to worry about OchoCinco, Bryant, and now T.O. Personally I love the thought of all three being out there and Benson putting huge numbers yet again. Don't forget about Gresham in the middle too.

Bengals fans, one thing is for certain, whether you're totally stoked about T.O. being in stripes or not, this will make for a much more exciting training camp down in Georgetown. Too bad HBO isn't doing a second season of Hardknocks with the Bengals. That would've priceless cable television. Warm up the popcorn maker for next Sunday night and get ready for the some football: it'll be Cincinnati and the entire nations first chance to see Terrell Owens at work in the annual Hall of Fame game in Canton, OH. Might just have to put the game on mute so I won't have to listen to John Madden's jibberish. Besides, he can't bring the hype that Brad and Lap do.

Gotta love being a Cincy sports fan right now! Really pumped for the next couple months of Reds baseball and Bengals football. Before we know it, Muskie season will be upon us. Until next time, KFW.....gonna beeeeeeeee GONE.

Oh No You Di'int

I’m assuming most have checked or heard about through the grapevine at the very least that the Atlantic 10 Regular Season Awards were announced Sunday. The one award the Xavier Musketeers could control was the conference regular season title and they took care of that (for the fourth time in a row to be exact) by going 14-2 and becoming Co-Champs with the Temple Owls. Congrats to Chris Mack (www.twitter.com/coachchrismack) and the squad on their great achievement. Cutting down the nets on Senior day at Cintas is kind of becoming an annual ritual (followed by massive boozing/celebrating at the Gardens).

Now to the flaming sack of dog shit (“don’t put it out with your boots Ted” style) that is the Atlantic 10 awards-voting. I don’t know if the rest of the Atlantic 10 conference (coaches, athletic directors, media) have against the poster-child team of the conference. Face it, Xavier fan or not, without the Muskies, the A10 is NOTHING! They have damn near dominated this conference from their inaugural year back in 1995 (or 1996…not 100% sure). Regardless though, year in and year out they rep the A10 proudly throughout the regular season knocking off BCS school after BCS school and then by going to the NCAA on an annual basis (many times being 1 of only 2 or 3 teams that gets in). Don’t get me wrong, I am not bashing the A10 conference THIS year…this is arguably the best year for the A10 ever (Note: 2004 they had 2 teams mere points away from the Final 4 in St. Joes and none other than Xavier). What I am so very fumed about though is seriously, how the hell did # 55 Mr. Jordan Crawford not come away with the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year. I mean I’m just gonna let out a MNF Countdown “C’MONNNNNNNNNN MANN!”

I was at the Richmond game a week or so back at Cintas. I was surprisingly impressed by the grit and toughness as well as the ability to execute in crucial times by the Spiders, but in no way shape or form did they possess the BEST player in the conference. Kevin Anderson wasn’t even the best player on his team! (in my opinion) I’m not going to bore you with a plethora of stats and compare and contrast. All you need to know is this: @JCraw55 (www.twitter.com/@jcraw55) posted far better stats (more points, rebounds, assists, and steals per game….all while averaging 5 less minutes a game!) Nuff Said. A10 coaches are just bitter and to be quite blunt about it, are not going to be pleased by the bomb that is going to be dropped on Atlantic City this weekend by the Xavier Musketeers.

I haven’t even mentioned my further displeasure with the voting that included Jason Love (www.twitter.com/lovej31) making the third team! (name 2 centers who were more dominant and were more valuable to their teams success this year than J Boogie), Holloway not even getting some kind of mention, Lyons (www.twitter.com/Str8_Mula) not making the all rookie team (that MF’er is going to be sick by the time he’s out of XU, and sooner rather than later if Crawford jumps to league this summer), and last but not least, first year head coach of the Co-Champion team in the league @coachchrismack. I can see why Temple’s dude Duffy got votes but I think people are not giving Mack and his staff the credit they deserve. I don’t want to repeat my post from last week (and as a Bomber and Muskie guy I am biased) but I think Mack, like Miller, is one of the best young, fresh coaches in all of college basketball and he should be receiving some serious accolades this year for what he has done. As for now, he’ll keep hanging banners and putting in orders for that bling-bling. Maybe he’ll actually stick around Cincy unlike the last four guys who have “done work” at Xavier (RIP SKIP). We can only hope!

Enjoy Championship Week blogowers. It really is the best time of the year. Hopefully the men in stripes (ironic certainly) can get a playmaker at the wideout position’s Herbie Hancock this week. Most crucial to keep up with the Ravens signing of Boldin. Marshall in my opinion is top 3 in the league currently (behind Andre the Giant and Larry Fitz) but give him a year or two and he could be THE premier guy in the No Fun League at his position.

This post also would not be complete if I didn’t give the Xavier women’s bball squad a shoutout. These girls can play! Amber Harris has the handles of a guard, the silky, smooth touch of a swingman, and the size of a center (and she rebounds like a dude). T’Shia Phillips is an absolute animal as well. She grabbed like 18 boards yesterday against Temple in A10 finals…and swatted the absolute snot out of some Temple chicks shot in the first half. Possible Streak Stoppers (of UConn) in the Final Four?! Best of luck to Coach Kevin McGuff and the Lady (although not so lady-like) Musketeers in the NCAA tourney and make sure to follow them. They play their first two tourney games at home at Cintas. I’ll be there….

I will leave on this note (and the following link) Chapman was throwing 102 mph’ers in a live game. In his first outing. Of spring training. IN MARCH! HOLY SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEET…this dudes gonna be sick as long as Dusty’s don’t do “his thing” with him. Also this article has forced me to tuck north:

http://deadspin.com/5486157/cincinnati-reds-the-looming-towerGood