Friday, January 26, 2007

Friday's "Off-The Wall" Blog: NFC Champion Chicago Bears Edition!

First of all, Happy Friday! Now, to the blog. Call me a homer, call me what you'd like, but when your team wins their first championship in your life time when all of your other friends teams win championships then you can post a blog in dedication to your team. And yes, I'll stick with the whole "four topics" and of course the well-reviewed "Friday Five" songs will be there. Actually, since there's been so much newsworthy material this week, I'm tempted to do a part two on sometime next week with news not concerning the NFC Champs. But be warned, next Friday's OTW blog will be a Super Bowl XLI preview. So let's get to crackin', shall we?
  • I'll start off with this story from ESPN and their "experts," all of whom chose the New Orleans Saints to beat the Bears. All of them, each and every "expert" analyst chose against the team with the best record in the NFC, home field advantage, the advantage of playing a domed team outdoors in poor weather conditions. Shame on all of them. Specifically, Sean Salisbury who does a radio show on ESPN-1000 in Chicago who has no basis to stand on to be an expert at anything. Salisbury makes John Kerry look like he never flip flopped. Salisbury's "teams to beat in the NFC" included (but weren't limited to) Carolina, Seattle, the New York Giants, Dallas, New Orleans and Philadelphia. Never the Bears, despite the fact that they beat Seattle and New York. The Bears have played the underdog card very well, hope they play it to a Super Bowl win against the Colts who are an early 7 point favorite in Las Vegas.
  • Of all of the "experts" only Gene W. (I don't feel like spelling his last name) who came out with his own "mea culpa" admitting he was wrong and on top of that he was called out by Lovie Smith at the post game press conference who knew that Gene W. was one of the many who picked against his Bears. The article's pretty well written, a must read for Bears fans.
  • Even though "America's Team II," the New Orleans Saints are out of the picture, CBS still has several really good story lines for the Super Bowl. I'm sure they wanted a Colts-Saints match up pitting Manning versus Daddy's Team. But it's not like the Bears didn't have any available story lines. A Bears-Patriots game would've given a rematch of this years thriller in Foxboro and a rematch of Super Bowl XX. A Saints-Pats game would've given a whole "American Pride" storyline out there with America's Team II against the team America rallied around after 9/11.
  • When playing a game of Madden earlier this semester, my rooommate noticed that I (playing as the Bears) had put up 100 points against the Packers and asked why I was punishing the Pack like that? Well, besides me taking out my frustrations on Brett Favre (and eventually Aaron Rodgers) I have my own video game theory. Somewhere out there is a fan of another team pounding the crap out of the Bears in Madden. Might as well have my own payback and even the score, right? Well folks, Super Bowl XLI has already been played, check out this article from the Chicago Sun-Times.
THE FRIDAY FIVE. Five songs in heavy rotation in my I-Pod this week.
  1. You (Remix)** by Lloyd featuring Andre 3000 (of Outkast) and Nas
  2. Promise by Ciara
  3. Love and Memories by O.A.R.
  4. Heaven (Remix) by John Legend featuring Pusha T (of Clipse)
  5. Diamonds In My Damn Chain by Fabolous featuring Lil' Wayne
  6. Super Bowl Shuffle*
  7. Bear Down Chicago Bears*
THE FRIDAY FIVE. Old School Edition.
  1. Set Adrift on Memory Bliss** by PM Dawn
  2. Party All The Time by Eddie Murphy
  3. Lovefool by The Cardigans
  4. Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley
  5. Children's Story by Slick Rick
*Denotes bonus tracks. GO BEARS!
**Denotes a sample. Last week, I mentioned that Jibbs and Melody Thornton (of PCD) sampled Janet Jackson's 80s abstinence theme Let's Wait Awhile in Jibbs' track Go To Far. This week, the remix of Lloyd's You featuring hot verses from Nas and a resurgent Andre 3000 of Outkast samples the early '90s hit Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by PM Dawn, who sampled Spandau Ballet's True which is a song you hear in every 80s teen movie! Just thought I'd drop a bit of musical insight!

Have a Happy Friday everyone!

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