Jets lose their MNF home opener to the Ravens ~ Football with my cousin, Nick

I had had tickets to the New York Jets home opener for a while, and just wasn't sure who I wanted to take to the Monday Night Football game.  Problem solved when I pinged my cousin, Chris, and told him that I wanted to take one of my cousins with me.  Sure enough (i.e. in less than 24 hours) my cousin, Nick, sent me a text.  I love my cousin, Nick.  He's my buddy.  When he was in college, I once flew him from Jersey to Houston to come with me to see the Rockets in the Playoffs.  I'd do anything for family and Nick's great so I knew we'd have a fun time.

I took the train to Secaucus and then to the New Meadowlands Stadium.  It was easy, but you need to be aggressive when getting on the train or you'll be left in the dust.  The train drops you right off, next to the stadium.  Incidentally, on the train I met a man who was taking his son to the game.  The son was home from boarding school and wearing a Jets jersey, but his father is part of the ownership group that bought into the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise.  He showed me his Super Bowl ring.  I asked the kid if he was a Steelers fan and he just shrugged his shoulders.  Yeah, I guess "money" can't change "heart".

I was looking forward to the hype surrounding the Jets.  I wanted to see what Darrelle Revis could do.  I wanted to see LaDainian Tomlinson prove to the Chargers that they were wrong to let him go.  I couldn't wait to see Jason Taylor on the field in football pants.  I was curious to see if Mark Sanchez could win.  Granted I'm writing this piece late in an effort to catch up, but all I can say about the whole thing based on what I remember is that Jason Taylor is still fantastic to look at, "No" the Jets cannot win with Mark Sanchez as a quarterback.

I watched an episode and a half of Hard Knocks.  To be honest, that's a generous estimate since I may have seen the same episode twice. Regardless, I saw a scene in the show where Sanchez was at a table and more or less berating himself.  I don't think he can win and it appears that he doesn't believe he can either.  Awesome.  That must just be Fan-tas-tic for Jets fans.  During the game, the guys behind me were yelling for Mark Brunell...  Yep, it was like that.

On another note, I was curious to see how the stadium staff would transform the venue from Giants to Jets in a day.  Seems like plenty of work - but they got it done.

Did I mention that Green Day performed at half-time?

Jason Taylor still looks good!

Incidentally before the game, Nick gave me a black Power Balance bracelet.  He said that Mark Sanchez wears one too...  Ugh, I wonder if I'm going to start delivering lack-luster performances and disappointing people now, also.  Man...  I hope not.

Great night, but a Jets victory would have made it better.

Jets fans waiting for the train to leave the stadium

Get your Power Balance bracelet here, and see if it improves your performance.

THE WIRK

Quick thoughts for the day: Hockey, Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Sports Nation

Thoughts for the day:

Olympics

• Hockey will have my attention tonight.  Canada v Russia at 7:30...  I'm not leaving my house until this game is over.

Football

• I saw Ladainian Tomlinson crying (tears running down his face) on TV today ~ his reaction to being let go by the Chargers.  In a world where "Big girls don't cry", I was taken aback to see LT visibly upset
• I don't want to type Ladai..'s name out AGAIN, but let's face it ~ the nickname, "LT" should only be used for Lawrence Taylor .
• On Monday I noticed that LT had been released, and I made the mistake of mentioning it to my friend who used to live in San Diego.  "Can he not play well anymore?" was what I said, and she vehemently came to his defense.  Wow.  If only his many fans had a say in the matter....
• So the NFL wants HGH testing, but the NFL Players Association is against it.  Is anyone really surprised?
• The combine would be more interesting if they'd add events such as arm wrestling, tug of war, etc. then maybe I'd be curious and watch...  Remember the obstacle courses on Nickelodeon's "Double Dare" or the game show "Wipe Out"?  Wouldn't you buy tickets to see the guys perform those types of events ~  and see the speed, strength, and agility that they do/don't have?  I would.  Man...  That'd be great!!!
• I tried to look this up because I distinctly remember watching some show when I was younger where Kevin Willis (i.e. the former NBA basketball player, that I'll always associate with the Atlanta Hawks) had won.  I think the competition was sponsored by Jeep, and was held on the beach and had events like weight-lifting etc.  It was great entertainmet and it was fun to see different athletes compete in different events.

Basketball

• Wizards are playing the Grizzlies tonight.  I thought about going ~ to see OJ Mayo play, but then decided I didn't care enough to spend the money. 
• If anything, if forced to hit a Wiz game this week ~ I choose Friday's match-up v the Knicks.
• The Trailblazers' Marcus Camby sprained his ankle last night...  That means that there's yet ANOTHER injury that needs to be circled on that image of a body during the games...  You know what I'm talking about, right?  Every game I see that has the Trailblazers playing has one of the announcers circling every team injury on that picture.  The poor image looks like the character from the game "Operation"...  Every limb seems to have something circled...  Terrible.  Does Portland even have enough people left to play tonight against the Raptors?  Ok ~ I just checked and it looks like some of the guys are better now, but seriously... 
• Someone in the front office needs to think about changing the uniforms to hospital gowns... 
• According to Michael Lee, the Wizards Insider, the Wizards (i.e. and I) are waiting for Zydrunas to sign the papers for his buyout.  He's expected to pay back between $1 million and $1.5 million of his $11.5 million contract.  He received a trade kicker worth about $600,000 for being part of the trade that brought him to DC.  According to Lee, the "official word" should come out tomorrow but it looks like Zydrunas can re-sign with the Cavs, on March 18. 
• If that's what happens, he'll make his home debut (i.e. at the Q) on Sunday, March 21st against the Pistons.

Baseball

• Can we please stop talking about Mark McGwire? I don't care.  I will not buy the book.  Enough.

Sports Nation

• As bad as I think this show is, today I caught part of again.  Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, today there were guest hosts...  Wow.  Who made the decision to put this show on TV?  Does anyone have/know that person's contact information?  Sports Nation is a discount version of PTI (i.e. Pardon the Interruption), the news segment on Saturday Night Live, and a game show.  It's very strange...

That's all I have.


THE WIRK