Flyers '08: Blocking Out The Sun

I guess Suns would be more accurate. As many of you are aware, the NHL is in an overall slump as far as its popularity goes (guess it's time for Mighty Ducks 4!). What the NHL feels it needs it star power baby! We need Gretzky and Lemieux 2! The NHL thinks they have that in Sidney "Sid The Kid" Crosby and Alexander "The Great" Ovechkin. Both of these players are certainly large on talent and have the stats to back it up. The NHL wants them for marketing and they're all you'll hear about on ESPN (for the 5 minutes they devote to hockey each day...NBA loving bastards...). Naturally, my beloved Flyers get to play in the same damn division as Crosby and have to see him playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins 8 times a year and they get to play Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs!

The announcers focus on Crosby or Ovechkin is sickening. God forbid a Flyer touch a precious hair on either head of these rising stars! "The Flyers are bullies!" they scream. "The Flyers are little more than thugs!" Okay, I'll give you Steve Downie and Riley Cote but that's it! We have some real talent on this team. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter in particular. These guys don't put up the numbers of our young superstars, but they're both extremely talented and Richards is more than twice the leader that either Crosby or Ovechkin will ever be. Philadelphia will love these guys for their tough, solid play, but tough and solid isn't Sportscenter material. Flash and pomp are, and Ovechkin and Crosby (this is directed more towards Crosby) certainly have that.

Don't believe the overhype? Try watching Sportscenter and see how many times they mention the actual teams as opposed to Crosby and Ovechkin. It's an absurd discrepancy. Ovechkin did nothing for 3/4 of Friday night's game, but he gets one nice game winning goal and he is the Hero of the frickin Universe. Ovechkin was completely shut down on Sunday's game, yet he was the announcers could talk about. I guess I should thank them for talking about Mike Richards for two minutes today (who didn't score but had an amazing game as he was all over the ice and was a force to be reckoned with). Ovechkin's goal on Friday was one of the first things shown on Sportscenter on Friday night. Sunday's 2-0 Flyers shutout? Not even mentioned until the end of the hour long show.

The other problem is that the NHL watches the Flyers so much more closely than any other team in the league. Most of that is their historic reputation as a big, bruising team. It's the true that the Flyers have always been tough, and the current team certainly is too, but they don't need to be called for EVERY LITTLE THING THEY DO AGAINST THE PENGUINS AND CAPITALS. This is especially the case for Pittsburgh where Crosby takes more dives than a mob sponsored boxer. But hey, he's got a cool nickname as Sid the Kid and he can score, why should the Flyers, with one of the largest and most loyal fanbases in the NHL, get in the way of that?

It ain't easy bein' Orange and Black.

Rocky IV Curse

Having not won a major sports championship since 1983, many Philadelphians wonder if perhaps we are cursed. Many believe that when we built a building taller than the William Penn statue on City Hall, we were forever destined to be losers. Many of my generation, those being born in 1984 or around then, wonder if perhaps we are cursed.

I think Rocky IV is the curse.

Sure, Rocky avenges his friend's death AND ends the Cold War, but at what cost? Rocky's at his most articulate, and also at his most ridiculous, beating a gigantic Russian that could have possibly swallowed him whole if he so chose. Has Rocky's final true victory in the ring cursed the four major teams?

The only way to know for sure is to make a true sequel to Rocky IV. Rocky V is garbage, and Rocky Balboa actually is pretty good. Rocky IV was over the top and had that stupid inexplicable robot. We need to jump the Rocky shark one last time. Only this time Rocky doesn't end the Cold War, but rather the War on Terror.

That's right, Rocky Vs. Osama bin Laden.

We pull out all the stops. Absurd training sequence in the mountains of Afghanistan. Paulie tumbling over while complaining. That damn robot! Cheesy 80s soundtrack and gay montage of Rocky and Apollo training on the beach!

Dammit, I just want one of the 4 major teams to win a championship!

It's up to you Rock, it's as that awful song from Rocky IV's driving montage says, "There's no easy way out!"

Introductionary Comentation

Hey there and welcome to Robin Williams' Beard, a blog that has nothing to do with the look of the once popular comedian when he's depressed and/or in a serious film. It also happens to be my expression for someone being depressed.

Which brings me to what this blog is about. I'm from Philadelphia, and am a lifelong sports fan. So I'm depressed because we lose or come up just short. A lot. Getting used to disappointment is like drinking when your a Philly sports fan, the more it happens, the more you get used to it. Thusly, we expect and have a great tolerance for disappointment. So you'll be reading lots of rants. I mean, I just saw the Eagles lose to the freakin Redskins and the Phillies nearly blow an 11 run lead!!! What the hell man, what the hell!?!?!?!? ARGH!!!!

Um, yeah, I also read comic books, watch a good amount of tv and movies, and pay attention to the world at large. So I really don't know what to expect here. I guess pot luck would have been a better title.