Thursday, September 9, 2010

Watching the first game of the NFL season ...

I'm watching a TV commercial for Coors Light. It features something they call a "re-sealable cap." For those people who can't finish an entire Coors Light beer and have to put the cap back on to finish it tomorrow. Amazing. Just drink water. It costs less and you get the same buzz.
Later, there was another ad (Bud Light?) featuring a guy who had replaced the gas tank of his vehicle with a beer tap and filled the trunk with ice and cold beer. This, in spite of continued messages discouraging driving while intoxicated. I suppose it's OK as long as you're trying to sell beer. The ads are always followed with that small print "remember to drink responsibly" caveat, as though we're thinking about that while we're pouring beer down in our faces. Shouldn't it be one or the other? Either we don't want people drinking and driving or we do. Make up your mind.
I see a lot of junk food with notes on the label that says "0 grams Trans Fat." I'm guessing that foods didn't have a lot of trans fat in them to begin with. I'm also guessing that most people don't know what a gram is or what a trans fat is. But marketing tells us that "Zero Percent" of something that is supposed to be bad for us is good. We'll buy crap in a can if there is zero trans fat. Meanwhile, it's full of sugar, sodium and real fat, but it's the trans fat that is killing us.
I'm watching the NFL Kickoff Show from New Orleans. Harry Connick came out and sang "When the Saints Go Marching In," which is oddly appropriate, since the Saints are playing in New Orleans. I'd guess that native New Orleans residents are as sick of hearing "When the Saints Go Marching In" as we are of hearing "The City of Brotherly Love" being used to describe Philadelphia. It's the easy way, and why bother trying to come up with something different?
Al Michaels is interviewing Brett Favre as though he just came back from Iraq. He's a football player, but they approached the interview with all the seriousness of some actual life and death scenario. Put Favre in a bunker with a rifle and a real helmet and see how he reacts. I'm guessing he woudln't take $25 million to go back to Iraq like he did to go back to Minnesota this year. There are a lot fewer people shooting at him in Minneapolis.
During the player introductions, the starting lineups are featured and players get to say their name and their school. Most use their college (Jeremy Shockey, University of Miami) but some say the name of their high school, as if to disregard the college that gave them a scholarship and provided their pathway to the pros. Nothing like being disrespectful.
I'm tired of hearing people refer to their stadium as a "house." There's a self-aggrandizing TV commercial where Cowboys owner Jerry Jones calls that palace in Dallas his "house." If he lives there, then call it a house. Otherwise, it's a stadium and a monument to excessive wealth.
They're taking the Heisman Trophy away from Reggie Bush (University of Southern California) because he took money while he was playing for the school. Meanwhile, O.J. Simpson gets to keep his even though he was convicted in a civil trial over the murder of two people. That makes good nonsense, and shows where the NCAA places its values. God forbid you give a kid a few bucks or buy him a suit. They should know that the NCAA are the only people allowed to earn money off them. Don't they teach them that in college?

1 comment:

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

I was just happy that New Orleans won and that Brett Favre lost. I'm so tired of that drama queen. I have family down in N.O. and I'm sure they're tired of that song too.

As for Reggie Bush, let him keep it. I think college players should be allowed to be paid anyway. It would keep the shenanigans at a low level if it's all out in the open.

College kids can work while they go to school so why not play football and earn some $$$?