Scott Norwood

Scott Norwood
Wide Right started it all.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Podcast Info

It's going to debut this Sunday night, Sep. 1 at 10P Central.  Here's the show page:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/inmuchlessdetail

That first show will be our NFC preview, and then Tuesday night Sep. 3 at 10P Central will be our AFC preview.  We'll also reveal our Super Bowl picks on that show unless we slip and reveal them during the NFC show.  Yeah, we've never done this before, so who knows what we're going to say or when.

To answer the obvious questions:  That late at night because Blog Talk Radio blocks off "prime time" between 6P and 10P for its premium members, and we're not paying $39 per month to be a premium member.  We're doing this for shits and giggles, not for profit.  Also, being a free member means each podcast can last a half-hour at its longest, thus splitting up our season preview by conference.  So why go with Blog Talk Radio?  It was my choice because I'm a lazy bastard and I was instantly persuaded by the ease of the site.  We're not buying any new equipment at all.  We're calling in and doing it live by phone.  And I've done several test runs, and the sound is just fine considering it's a free site.  Jason hasn't joined me for these test runs, so it will be a mystery how he sounds.  But we're full speed ahead.  The plan is to do the picks regularly live Saturday nights at 10P Central.  There are buttons to push to make each episode into an iTunes feed after it ends, allowing anyone to download the show and listen at their leisure.  But I'm the furthest thing from a computer nerd, so we'll see how that works out.

Deep breaths, everyone.  Thanks for your views on the blog thus far, even though none of you cowards have ever commented (lol), and patience through the train wreck that will be our first attempts at a radio show.  But we'll be having fun, we promise, and hopefully that makes it fun to listen.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

2013 Hall of Fame/Hall of Infamy Inductions

It's that time of year again. Football is just around the corner, the leaves will be falling, murder trials will start and secret racism will be revealed. I love the NFL!

Fifteen inductees have already made their way into the hallowed halls of the IMLD Halls of Fame/Halls of Infamy. Five more lucky (or unlucky) entrants will join the club this year. Dre and I alternate years, so this year falls on me to unveil my final selections.

  • Kim Etheredge - Publicist - Famous for: 24,999,999 more reasons that most others on this list will ever need. On September 24, 2006, Terrell Owens did something. What exactly, we might never know. What we do know was that it involved, whether voluntarily or accidentally, taking too many pills. News media reports immediately called it a suicide attempt. Etheredge, Owens' publicist (who phoned in the 911 call by the way), answered media questions about Owens possible suicide attempt, rebuffed that Owens wouldn't commit suicide because he had "25 million reasons why he should be alive." Those reasons, of course, were dollars. The insinuation being that people of money can't be miserable enough to commit suicide. So the rest of us po' folk, feel free to eat a bullet, cause we may only have a few thousand reasons to be alive. Owens unceremoniously fired Etheredge early in 2007, which made many wonder: what took the fuck so long?
  • Kevin Dyson - Wide Receiver - Tennessee Titans - Famous for: The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat. So Dre still fumes over the Music City Miracle, and my first round of entrants into the HOF/HOI was none other than Phil Luckett, the head ref who declared the Miracle was a lateral thrown from Frank Wycheck to 2013 Entrant Kevin Dyson. Dyson streaked toward victory in the most unlikely of fashions, making Dre use whiteout on a pick for the first time ever (back in the pen & paper days). That should be enough to be considered for the Halls, but Dyson upped himself that same postseason, in the Super Bowl no less. After the Titans defense shit the bed and allowed Kurt Warner to put the Rams up 7 late with a long TD pass to Isaac Bruce, the Titans drove the ball on a ferocious drive to attempt to tie the game. Note I said attempt, because this wouldn't be as much fun if they made it. With no time left, Steve McNair hit Dyson wide open over the middle short of the goal line and it looked like Dyson would walk into the end zone. Somehow, Rams linebacker Mike Jones invented teleportation and appeared from literally nowhere to tackle Dyson a half yard short of the tying touchdown. No matter how hard Dyson stretched, seemingly frozen in time, he would never reach the goal. The miracles were all used up. Certainly, the first of our entrants to feel the full thrill of victory and soul-crushing defeat all in one postseason.
  • Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder - Prognosticator - Famous for: Picking games and secret racism. I grew up in the 80s, so when I discovered the NFL, I of course had to be planted in front of my TV to watch The NFL Today every Sunday. A segment on the show featured oddsmaker Jimmy the Greek, who would pick the scores of the games without giving away the line, a veiled nod to those trying to make money on the games. Jimmys segment was reasonably successful, until he went full out Secret Racist and dropped this doozy about "the black":
    • "The black is a better athlete to begin with because he's been bred to be that way, because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back, and they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs and he's bred to be the better athlete because this goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trade … the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid" Yikes! Pioneering the way for Rush Limbaugh (2011 entrant into the HOF/HOI) and current day Secret Racists like Riley Cooper, Jimmy laid bare some pretty ugly things in a world long before Twitter and Facebook and whatever the hell will be the next social media craze. He also pioneered the ridiculously stupid pick segments that all the pregame shows employ now (wisely taped ahead of time, so all the juicy racism can be edited out). Sadly, picking the games against the spread means he also pioneered this blog.
  • Charles Martin - Defensive End - Green Bay Packers - Famous for: Kicking a heated rivalry into OVERDRIVE!!!! People may think there are better rivalries, but for my money (enough to not kill myself anyways) there is none better than Bears/Packers. In the 80s, the Monsters of the Midway Bears dominated the rivalry. The '85 Bears, my vote as best Super Bowl team ever, went into the '86 season as (of course) heavy favorites to repeat. All looked well until a late November tilt against the Packers. Before the game, Martin was wearing a towel that had the numbers of Bears players he wanted to take out, one of them being Bears Punky QB Jim McMahon. After McMahon threw a pick with Martin in the vicinity, Martin decided to take matters into his own hands. Or in this case, his arms. Martin bearhugged McMahon from behind and picked him up and threw him down on the Soldier Field turf WAY after the interception, and long before the rules were changed to prevent defenders from taking a free cheap shot on QBs after a pick. McMahon wrecked his shoulder once he bounced off the turf, and his season was done for. The Bears made the playoffs, but their dynasty dreams were over, but they continued to dominate the Packers until the Brett Favre era began at Lambeau.
  • Darryl Stingley - Wide Receiver - New England Patriots - Famous for: The unfortunate, Original "Jacked Up!" There is a long list of players famous for nothing more than getting injured, and I wont spoil it for you who they are since they will probably make their way into the Halls someday. No list would be complete, or could even be started, without the original, and the saddest: Darryl Stingley. Stingley was a productive receiver over 4 years with the Pats from 1973-1976, back in a day when receivers didn't compile staggering numbers in the Tecmo Bowl offenses of the current era. Before the '77 season, Stingley was set to become one of the highest paid players at his position in the league. Until Jack Tatum came along. Tatum was of the era of headhunting defensive backs. Back in the day, if you went over the middle, you got crushed. He preceded the crushers of the 80s like Ronnie Lott, Gary Fencik, Chuck Cecil, etc. After catching a pass against Tatum's Raiders in the '77 preseason, Stingley found himself in the air and vulnerable to a flying Tatum, so Stingley did the instinctive thing: he lowered his head. His head hit a mid-launch Tatum in the shoulder, breaking Stingleys neck, paralyzing him for life. Tatum, the headhunter, never apologized, but both men remained torturted by their collision for the rest of their lives. It puts the rules of today governing head safety into perspective: how to play a dangerous game with as little impact on the bodies and brains of it's players as possible. Stingley, sadly, paved the way by paying for it with his body, career, and life.
  • Phil Luckett gets an add-on to his original entry into the Hall by being the NFL overseer of the replay officials involved in the Seahawks/Packers "Immaculate Interception" game. How unlucky can one guy be? At this point, it might not be luck. He might be Football Satan.
There you have it, now its back to Dre for the 2014 inductees. See you soon with our Preseason predictions, and we're trying to figure out how to podcast. Someday we will figure it out, we promise!